Sinister Calamity

During the break at the back of the classroom, Qin Zheng and Lu Chenzhou looked out the window in the distance.

"Did the teacher scold you?"

Lu Chenzhou said:

"No... I remember you practice boxing at the Flying Swallow Martial Hall, right?"

Qin Zheng nodded:

"I heard you looked for a coach at a combat gym. As someone who's been there, I advise you to sign up directly with a martial hall and get it all done in one go. Combat gyms are a mixed bag."

"I didn't renew my classes. I'm planning to go to the Flying Swallow Martial Hall this weekend too."

"Oh? Martial halls aren't cheap."

Qin Zheng was a bit surprised, as he knew Lu Chenzhou's family background was ordinary.

Lu Chenzhou said:

"I'm not signing up for much, just thirty classes. If I can't master even a little bit of skill, I probably won't sign up for any subsequent ones and will just slowly study at home on my own."

Qin Zheng patted Lu Chenzhou's shoulder and said:

"I heard you've achieved major accomplishment in your Basic Fist Art, which shows your comprehension is quite good. I have a private family tutor and I also signed up for a martial hall, and I only achieved major accomplishment in the third year of junior high. I wasn't much faster than you. Our Martial Arts Society is truly brimming with talent!"

He had acted on a whim to establish a Martial Arts Society. He originally thought there would be many people, but in the end only two showed up to support it—one was Lu Chenzhou, and the other was Li Linling. The latter was a senior high school martial sister. The martial sister had a heavy academic workload, and everyone had only met her once.

During the break, Qin Zheng chatted idly with Lu Chenzhou and learned that Lu Chenzhou planned to go to the Inner-City Martial Arts Youth Palace to test his blood-qi. He said, "Just go straight to the martial hall."

Lu Chenzhou hesitated and said:

"I heard that only annual card members are allowed to use it."

Qin Zheng smiled and said:

"It's fine. My dad has a good relationship with the master of the hall. Since you're getting a card anyway, having them test you for free won't be a problem. We can just head over together after school."

"Then many thanks."

The Youth Palace was very far away, and Lu Chenzhou also wanted to save a bit of time.

"Also, tell your mom not to cook for you tonight. The martial hall also has member meals, and the nutritional balance is much more reasonable than ordinary home-cooked food."

"I can eat there too?"

"Just follow me."

Having a relatively familiar sparring partner made Qin Zheng happy too.

He couldn't help but send a message in the three-person group chat of the Martial Arts Society.

Martial sister, I'm going to the Flying Swallow Martial Hall to practice boxing with Chenzhou tonight. Are you coming?

Lu Chenzhou sent a smiling emoji.

He wasn't familiar with this martial sister; they had only met at the dinner when the Martial Arts Society was founded. It was said that her family background was also quite good, and she looked like she had also signed up for the Flying Swallow Martial Hall.

No wonder she was already at the second stage. It must be great to have money.

Qin Zheng complained:

"Lu Chenzhou, how come your emoji style is just like my dad's?"

Lu Chenzhou didn't say anything; he rarely chatted with people.

His cell phone was simply a tool for him to look up martial arts and study materials.

Li Linling: Wow, Junior Lu signed up for the Flying Swallow Martial Hall too?

Qin Zheng: How about it, are you coming? It'll just be a small gathering for the Martial Arts Society.

Li Linling: I'm going. See you tonight.

Lu Chenzhou looked at Qin Zheng, who was silly-smiling in front of his phone screen.

He felt that the president's goal in learning martial arts didn't seem very pure.

Of course, these things had nothing to do with him. He only wanted to practice martial arts.

The setting sun cast its glow as evening fell at the school gate.

"Mom, don't wait up for me tonight. I'm eating at the martial hall."

"The martial hall provides meals? Is the food good?"

"Qin Zheng is taking me, and everything we eat are martial artist meals. Rest assured."

"Classmate Qin Zheng is a good kid."

Before hanging up the phone, Lu Chenzhou said, "Mom, have Dad work less overtime. Take some time to bring him to the hospital for a physical checkup and test his blood-qi by the way."

Li Xianghua on the other end of the line was silent for a moment before saying:

"You don't need to worry about it. I'll take him this weekend. Practice martial arts well—you've always made me proud since you were little, but make sure you don't get hurt. Safety first!"

Hanging up the phone, Lu Chenzhou touched the Flying Swallow card inside his jacket.

After calling a cab, Qin Zheng kept his gaze fixed on the crowd coming out of the school gate until a petite girl with a long ponytail walked out. One look told you she was someone who practiced martial arts; she walked with the wind, completely different from the aura of the surrounding students.

Lu Chenzhou recalled Shi Ruyu's words:

A martial arts practitioner must have their own imposing aura, anytime and anywhere!

"Hello, President."

"Just call me Qin Zheng or Junior Brother, martial sister."

Li Linling looked toward Lu Chenzhou.

"You are... Junior Lu?"

Lu Chenzhou nodded.

"Lu Chenzhou. We met when we had dinner before."

"Junior Brother feels like he's gotten a bit stronger."

Li Linling recalled their last dinner.

Qin Zheng chimed in with self-deprecating humor:

"Martial sister, you were busy with your studies and didn't know, but Lu Chenzhou's Basic Fist Art has also reached major accomplishment. Out of the three of us, I'm probably the only one with mediocre comprehension..."

At that moment, the cab called by Qin Zheng arrived.

Lu Chenzhou consciously sat in the front passenger seat.

There was no conversation along the way, and Qin Zheng and the martial sister chatted very happily in the back.

As they passed through a neighborhood block, Lu Chenzhou noticed the entrance to a small alley had been sealed off. A group of heavily armed men wearing special firearms were guarding the side, and an officer whose muscles were bulging out of his uniform was making a call.

He was nearly two meters tall, standing there like an iron tower.

Whether it was an illusion or not, Lu Chenzhou saw that behind the officer, there seemed to be a black-furred giant tiger phantom about a zhang long crouching on his back, lazily slinking like a trapped cat.

It seems this is what Shi Ruyu called momentum...

He withdrew his gaze.

He had a constant feeling that the next moment the giant tiger would look over.

"This is definitely a Martial Artist!"

Su City was a large metropolis with strong individuals as thick as clouds. Lu Chenzhou had seen Martial Artists more than once, but this was the first time one gave him such a soul-stirring sensation.

"He might have broken through the Second Shackles or even stronger..."

Lu Chenzhou became even more firm in his own path.

Qin Zheng and Senior Sister Li in the back obviously also noticed the situation over there.

"Looks like an accident happened here."

"Wait for the reports. There's probably another murder case."

"They've dispatched a Martial Artist. Could it be related to a Void Calamity?"

"It should be. Sigh, go out less during this period."

Lu Chenzhou's mood was somewhat heavy.

There was a reason why his mother wanted to buy a house in the inner city.

With technological progress, most illegal and rebellious methods could be dealt with, but the city was too vast, and the elusive supernatural forces were always impossible to guard against.

The inner city, where Martial Artists gathered, was relatively safer.

On the other side.

The iron-tower-like brute furrowed his brow tightly.

Before him was an old residential building. There were radial cracks permeating the concrete wall, which was forty centimeters thick, and a hole had been gouged right through its center.

Following the opening of the hole, on the gloomy wall, there was a human-shaped, dark-red bloodstained area, and the ground was littered with shattered bones and visceral remains, reeking to high heaven.

A police officer wearing white gloves said with a solemn expression:

"The deceased should have been leaning against this wall before his death. The culprit punched right through the wall and blasted him against it, causing him to burst apart and die. It's still uncertain whether it was a Martial Warrior or a Void Entity."

The iron-tower brute asked:

"Has the surveillance footage been retrieved?"

"Around four in the morning, there should have been some unknown, powerful bio-magnetic field energy interference. The surveillance failed and recorded nothing at all."

The brute said in a deep voice:

"Block off this place and wait for the people from the Void Bureau to come and survey it."

The last Void Calamity in his jurisdiction was two years ago.

Ring-a-ling~

The brute's hand, covered in bulging veins, picked up his phone.

Daddy, aren't you off work yet?

"Darling, Daddy will be back a bit later."

Okay then, hurry back.

"Alright, sweetheart."

Putting away his phone, a nameless fire burned within the brute's heart. No matter what kind of ghost thing is acting up, if it makes me late for my daughter's birthday, I'll definitely exterminate you!

At some unknown moment, the black giant tiger phantom behind the brute also stood up and stretched lazily. Its tiger head was ferocious and hairless, with cyan-green face and tusks, saliva dripping continuously.

Was this even a tiger?

This was clearly a wicked ghost yaksha!

The police officers' bodies instinctively shuddered as if seeing a fierce beast, and they couldn't help but recall the title the brute had before entering the police department: Ghost-Headed Evil Tiger, Lu Fang!