The night was still and quiet. A full moon slipped into the clouds.
The river churned with white foam, wave after wave rolling backward and continuously pounding the moss-covered bridge piers.
On the stone beach west of the bridge opening, beneath a shroud of shadow, a human-shaped silhouette sat on a rock.
He wore a cold, stiff, drab-colored dark trench coat. The hood covered most of his face, though the stubble on his chin could be vaguely seen.
Not far away, an old-fashioned tape recorder rested in the gap between a pile of rocks.
Beneath the crackling, spinning tape, a passionate and stirring Qin opera played with majestic force. Its name was—Chu Wu Guan.
The recorder's volume had already been turned all the way up, yet beneath the sound of passing vehicles and the river, it still seemed subdued.
Feng Yuxiu paid it no mind. His left hand rested on his knee, his rough fingertips tapping rhythmically along with the opera.
His right hand still clutched half a hard, black bun. He tore off a bite with force, then slightly raised his gaze.
That rough, rigid face, honed by ancient martial arts methods and polished with sea salt, emerged partly from the shadows.
A pair of millet-colored eyes filled with murderous intent had already been streaked with several red veins. With a twisted sneer at the corners of his mouth, he stared unrestrainedly into the distant river.
"First fists, then legs, followed by grappling; weapons and internal styles, all five combined."
"It's almost time. Almost. Next, it's time for weapons..."
At a hotel where a film crew was staying.
In the room of Hong Ye, the crew's lead actor and a famous martial arts star.
Very few people in the industry knew that martial arts star Hong Ye possessed genuine martial arts skills.
Moreover, as the former King of Weapons' senior disciple, Hong Ye had already become the undisputed King of Weapons after his master was injured and retired.
At that moment, the figure on the bed in his room seemed to still be sleeping soundly.
Yet in the next instant, he suddenly jolted awake, shooting upright with a whoosh. A fine layer of sweat covered his forehead.
His whole body was slightly hunched, trembling faintly, while unconcealed terror filled his eyes.
"I—I really entered the world of the movie?!"
"The Unity of the Martial Arts!!!"
He lowered his head and stared at his hands.
"Now I've become one of the movie's major supporting characters, Hong Ye the King of Weapons?!"
His name was Song Ren, and his life before this had undoubtedly been lucky, comfortable, and prosperous.
Born into a family that had received compensation after its property was demolished, he had a modest amount of wealth. Once, after being introduced by a friend, he had casually invested some pocket money in cryptocurrency. It wasn't much, so he hadn't paid it much attention.
Several years later, he happened to see some trending news and remembered it. When he went back and sold it, he discovered that it had increased a hundredfold...
Unfortunately, the friend who had recommended that he enter the market had lost everything a year earlier after paying too much attention to the violently shifting trends in cryptocurrency.
Last year, that friend had excitedly rebuilt his fortune and eagerly dragged Song Ren into the newly emerging metaverse market.
Song Ren had followed along halfheartedly for several months and made another small profit. Finding it uninteresting, he withdrew.
Not long afterward, the metaverse suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse. The friend who had originally made a large profit lost it all again...
In short, whether it was luck or something else, Song Ren had rarely had to worry about money.
Because of that, he had more time to spend on his hobbies.
Song Ren's favorite sport was combat.
In his view, the visceral pleasure of blows landing flesh on flesh was a kind of romance born from a man's very bones!
Whether it was unarmed combat or weapon-based combat, he had dabbled in both.
One night before this, Song Ren had fallen asleep and experienced a special dream.
In that dream, his hobbies over the years seemed to have transformed into his true life's pursuit.
It was an exhilarating dream of martial arts.
In the dream, he seemed to have burst forth with unprecedented martial arts talent.
He had become utterly obsessed with martial arts. Not only had he mastered both major mainstream styles, Southern Fist and Northern Legs, but he had also successfully challenged combat and fighting masters from around the world.
Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Sanda, Jujutsu, Krav Maga...
All kinds of combat techniques, each with completely different styles, had left Song Ren deeply enthralled by the dream.
Taizu Fist, Baji Quan, Xingyi, Hung Gar, sanshou, Tan Tui, Chuo Jiao...
There were also those martial arts essences that had once shone brilliantly throughout history. In the dream, Song Ren demonstrated them again and again.
Practicing martial arts was no longer merely about strengthening the body.
Those feeble explanations were nothing more than a wave submerged in an era of peace.
They said there was no first place in literature, but no second place in martial arts.
Martial arts strengthened the body in times of peace and killed people in times of war.
In that adrenaline-fueled dream, Song Ren experienced one life-and-death battle after another.
Those scenes, seemingly carved into his very marrow, made him tremble with excitement even within the dream.
At the final moment of the dream, an intensely seductive voice seemed to pour into his ears.
"A timeless, immortal legacy lies entirely in killing—is this the deepest desire in your heart?"
"Then, do you want to experience the supreme bliss of a life where there is no second place in martial arts?"
"Do you want to experience a world of bloodshed, savagery, kung fu, and even demons and monsters in its ultimate form?"
"Do you want to savor the free-spirited indifference of seeing life and death as trivial, and the defiant arrogance of fighting whenever you refuse to submit?"
In his daze, stimulated by that surge of adrenaline, Song Ren's mind heated up, and he agreed within the dream...
Then the voice seemed to let out a sigh of relief.
"Congratulations! We've finally found a qualified boss. This system is called the Myriad Wish Machine, and it comes from a higher-dimensional universe. I hope you'll take good care of me from now on, boss."
"..."
Song Ren had yet to recover from that ultimate martial arts dream, but the final words in his mind had left him with a small lingering regret.
Where was the 'ding'?
Why hadn't he heard a ding?
And then...
His entire body had already drifted into a muddled sleep.
Upon waking again, Song Ren found that his memories had been infused with a concept resembling an "instruction manual."
The Myriad Wish Machine was the system bound to Song Ren.
It came from a higher-dimensional universe. Its function was to draw out the wish of a certain character from a cinematic world and form a wish line.
As its host, he had to use it to enter that cinematic world and complete the corresponding Wish Mission.
Song Ren had been chosen, unfortunately, and he had agreed...
And this time, the first wish line received by the Myriad Wish Machine came from the world of the movie The Unity of the Martial Arts.
Wish-granter:
Hong Ye the King of Weapons, on the verge of death—
"If I could start over, I'd choose Li—no, if I could start over, I wouldn't lose to a little paper cutter!"
"When that time came, I'd prove to everyone once again who the true King of Weapons was!"
Hong Ye's wish: Please take the place of Hong Ye the King of Weapons, and defeat Feng Yuxiu with weapons.
After sorting out his thoughts, Song Ren gradually calmed down.
He had always been naturally thick-skinned, but even so, he couldn't help pinching the bridge of his nose.
What a trap!
He had now taken on the identity of Hong Ye the King of Weapons from the movie.
In the eyes of outsiders, he looked exactly like Hong Ye.
But this appearance was merely a special protective disguise created by the Wish Machine.
In truth, Song Ren had entered this world in his original body.
In other words, his current physical condition was only at the level of a combat enthusiast.
Not only was that nowhere near the original supporting character Hong Ye the King of Weapons, it was even less comparable to Feng Yuxiu from the original film, who had slit Hong Ye's throat with nothing but a paper cutter.
This—
After experiencing such a passionate, blood-pumping dream, Song Ren couldn't help being struck by reality.
Feng Yuxiu?
Was this some kind of joke?!