The new villa had a spacious training ground in its courtyard. This had been one of Old Pi's criteria when choosing the house, of course so that Li Congxin would have enough room to continue practicing combat.
But at this moment, two people were in the training ground, engaged in a head-on clash where every punch landed with solid impact!
The sounds of fists and feet colliding rang out without end, yet Li Congxin was fighting Yi Long with tremendous momentum.
Their evenly matched exchange was merely a superficial illusion. In reality, Yi Long was deliberately feeding him openings while constantly pointing out the flaws in Li Congxin's use of various moves.
Like Bucky, Yi Long had undergone genetic modification with the Super Soldier Serum and possessed physical abilities beyond the limits of the human body. On top of that, he was a kung fu master in his own right. His strength was naturally far beyond what Li Congxin could currently hope to match.
After such a long period of persistent training, Li Congxin's physical abilities had now come infinitely close to the limits of an ordinary human body. If he had to find a comparison, his close-combat ability was probably about equal to Black Widow's.
Of course, the close-combat ability mentioned here referred only to physical strength and fighting techniques. It did not include Li Congxin's Ruyi Bang or Black Widow's collection of high-tech equipment.
Simply put, Li Congxin's current strength was about one Widow.
After activating the BGM A Man Should Better Himself, under conditions of absolute calm and an eighty percent increase in combat awareness, Li Congxin could completely defeat Black Widow in a fight. His strength would be around 1.3 Widows. Combined with the equipment provided by Old Pi, he could barely reach about 1.5 Widows.
This was already the limit of what Li Congxin could currently achieve. Against opponents any stronger than that, he genuinely could not win.
As for Yi Long's strength, even a conservative estimate put him on par with Bucky—roughly two Widows!
Li Congxin was fighting Yi Long now to improve his practical combat experience, so naturally he would not activate the cheat-like A Man Should Better Himself. Instead, he had activated Chinese Kung Fu, which increased his martial arts training progress but did not enhance his combat power. With only one Widow's strength, he was facing Yi Long, whose strength was equivalent to two Widows. Naturally, he was being taught a lesson every minute.
Fortunately, Yi Long was an excellent teacher—at least several tiers better than Nalan Qing.
After sparring for the entire morning, Li Congxin felt that his practical combat experience had improved tremendously once again.
"Bang!" After their fists and feet collided once more, Yi Long took the initiative to create some distance. He smiled and said, "Congxin, you have the best martial arts talent of anyone I've ever met. You're countless times better than I was back then. I really wish I could teach you everything I've learned in my life. Unfortunately, due to my sect's strict orders, all I can do is apologize."
Li Congxin gave a dry laugh. "Big Brother Yi Long is willing to personally spar with me, and I'm already deeply touched. How could I dare ask for anything more?"
After a slight pause, he continued, "Big Brother Yi Long only woke up recently and needs plenty of rest. How about we stop today's sparring here?"
Yi Long nodded. "Although I've been asleep for many years, I feel that I don't actually need much rest. However, my daily meditation while listening to Vedic Chant is indispensable. I also want to make a full recovery as soon as possible, then return home for a look."
As he watched Yi Long turn and leave, Li Congxin turned to ask Old Pi, who had been watching the spectacle from the side, "There's something I've always been curious about. How did you know that the music I played had special effects?"
Old Pi gave him an ambiguous smile. "Is it really that hard to guess?"
Li Congxin froze at his words. Most people might have trouble figuring out anything about his BGM cheat, but Old Pi had been in contact with him for quite some time. Given his intelligence, it was hardly surprising that he had noticed some clues.
Li Congxin nodded, accepting Old Pi's explanation, then pointed to his own head. "When will the problem in Big Brother Yi Long's head be fully cured?"
"I feel that he may... possibly already be cured?" Old Pi shook his head and spoke in a thoroughly uncertain tone.
Li Congxin frowned. "Are you worried that his condition is still unstable, so he needs to undergo treatment for a while longer to consolidate the results?"
Old Pi merely answered with another inscrutable smile and said nothing.
Li Congxin could not get a useful answer out of him, so he simply stopped dwelling on it. While stretching his limbs, he said, "Today is Uncle Marcus's birthday. I probably won't be coming back for dinner tonight."
"Have you chosen a gift?"
Li Congxin waved his hand. "I'll go buy one now."
Marcus's home was not in the prime section of Manhattan, but it was still a comfortable two-story Western-style house with its own yard. It was a very suitable place for retirement.
In fact, houses like this were not particularly expensive in New York. In the Spider-Man trilogy, Uncle Ben owned a similar house, and he was hardly a rich man.
Marcus's situation was the same.
After Li Congxin rang the doorbell, the person who opened the door was an extremely cute little blonde girl who looked only eleven or twelve years old.
Li Congxin's first reaction upon seeing the little blonde girl was to wonder whether he had come to the wrong house.
He hurriedly took a step back and checked the house number.
There was no mistake. This was definitely Marcus's home!
Could the little blonde girl in front of him be a child Marcus had recently adopted?
With this question in mind, Li Congxin tentatively asked, "Excuse me, is this the home of Sheriff Marcus Williams?"
As soon as Li Congxin finished speaking, Marcus's voice came from inside the house. "Is that Clark? I'm busy cooking right now. Go chat with Mindy for a while."
The little girl called Mindy led Li Congxin into the living room and had him sit down. Her large eyes could not help but look him up and down curiously. "You're Clark Li, right? Uncle Marcus just mentioned you to me. Your name is really easy to remember, just like Superman's."
Li Congxin gave a dry laugh and humbly replied, "Actually, compared to Superman, I feel that Batman's name suits me better."
Hearing Li Congxin's "humble" remark, the little girl could not help rolling her eyes inwardly. With your surname combined with Batman's name, wouldn't that be...
Heh heh, could you have at least a little shame?
Received 233 Impression Points from Mindy Macready!
The sudden system notification caught Li Congxin completely off guard.
A single person awarding a three-digit amount of Impression Points in one instance—that was the kind of destiny weight possessed only by important supporting characters in the main storyline!
Among the people Li Congxin knew, Old Pi and his daughter, Crossbones, and the Winter Soldier probably all belonged to this tier of existence. Aside from them, there was also the best friend of the original owner of Li Congxin's body, the future Kick-Ass...
Wait!
At the thought of Kick-Ass, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck Li Congxin's mind.
At the same time, a cold glint flashed before his eyes.
The little girl had unexpectedly drawn a butterfly knife without warning and launched a surprise attack at Li Congxin.
The blade pointed straight at his brow!
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