A Passerby

"When I was very young, I understood one truth: I cannot die."

"I tried jumping from the tenth floor, only to injure a passerby."

"I tried throwing myself into a river, but someone happened to be diving nearby."

"I tried taking poison, but I ended up buying a fake."

"I tried electrocuting myself, but the circuit breaker tripped."

"I tried slitting my wrists, but my constitution is special and my recovery is astonishing; before I could bleed to death, the wounds had already healed."

"I tried lying on the train tracks... only to be discovered by the duty staff, lectured, and grounded by my parents for a month."

"The nuclear war broke out without warning, and a Nuclear Bomb detonated right above my head. The incandescent light illuminated the heavens and the earth, and I thought I was finally going to be liberated... yet I still didn't die. Instead, I was bizarrely reborn, continuing to live in this world!"

"But this time... I might actually die."

"Not dying in the destruction of the stars, but dying under the fist of a man. That fist was aimed squarely at my skull, its intent shattering my soul, the scent of death rushing toward me. I discovered that, after all... I, too, fear death."

"You little beast, get lost!"

"Wang Gang!"

A roar echoed in his ears, accompanied simultaneously by the sound of a gunshot.

That shot forced the figure who had been lunging toward Baili Qingfeng to twist violently, dodging the bullet. The punch originally aimed at his skull was also transformed from a strike into a sweep, landing instead on his shoulder.

"Bang!"

The next moment, Baili Qingfeng, who was just passing by the entrance of Xizi Alley, felt as if his entire body had been struck by a truck. The sound of bones shattering rang out clearly, and half of his body instantly lost all sensation. His form was involuntarily sent flying by this terrifying force; after flying six meters, he slammed heavily into the ground, rolling twice more due to inertia. His knees and palms were scraped raw, blood flowing freely.

"Hahahaha, Jiang Ziheng, you piece of trash, daring to bring people to intercept and kill me? Why are you running now!?"

Wang Gang, who had sent Baili Qingfeng flying, let out a wild laugh. The force in his feet erupted, causing the tiled floor to crack and shatter under the sheer power of his stance. Using this momentum, he shot forward like a sharp arrow, his speed in seconds...

Exceeding thirty meters!

"Those who block me die!"

In front of Wang Gang, a man under thirty holding a gun was struck head-on. For a moment, the man looked as if he had been hit by a cannonball; Baili Qingfeng could even see the invisible ripples forming in the air as it was blasted apart.

"Bang!"

Blasted apart!

A fist-shaped indentation appeared directly on the man's chest, his ribs snapping in unison. The violent force seemed to pierce through his body, erupting from his back and shredding his clothes, and then...

His form, much like Baili Qingfeng's...

No!

It was even more miserable than Baili Qingfeng's.

Baili Qingfeng had flown six meters, but he, after flying three meters, slammed heavily into a wall, cracking the concrete surface. Blood mixed with viscera sprayed from his mouth...

He wouldn't survive.

This was the first time in the thirty-plus years of his two lives combined that Baili Qingfeng had seen a dead person.

And it was a person who had been beaten to death by a fist right in front of him.

He was a Outstanding Student who loved to study and understood physics; it required one thousand newtons of force to break a person's ribs with a punch, but the injuries on that man clearly could not be explained by force alone.

Is he a monster?

Or is it...

Martial Arts?

Wang Gang disappeared.

The pursuit of Jiang Ziheng gradually faded into the distance.

From another direction, one could still hear the sound of someone making a phone call: "Send an ambulance to save someone immediately. Yes, at the entrance of Xizi Alley, a martial artist vendetta... There's also a passerby who was accidentally injured by Wang Gang; I'm afraid you'll need to prepare for funeral arrangements as well..."

The voice gradually drifted away, and soon, there was no more movement.

Baili Qingfeng lay there for a while. Several bones were broken, and the injury was quite severe. Such a heavy injury...

I'm afraid it will take a day or two to heal.

Go to the hospital?

I won't trouble the hospital; the admission and discharge procedures are too tedious.

And so, Baili Qingfeng—who the person earlier had said would likely need funeral arrangements—stood up shakily. Although his shoulder still ached incessantly, he knew that feeling pain was a good thing; it proved that the injury was healing.

Baili Qingfeng walked up to the middle-aged man who had been beaten to death.

A dead person...

He felt no fear.

One lives a lifetime, and there is life and death.

Besides, he wasn't going to die.

He watched the man size him up.

"A special government department? The Dragon Group? Or perhaps a martial arts expert? A successor to some reclusive sect?"

Baili Qingfeng stared for half a minute, only retracting his gaze when the wail of an alarm bell drifted from the alley entrance.

He chose not to linger any longer and departed.

At the mouth of the alley, he saw several medical personnel rushing in with a stretcher, but as for Baili Qingfeng...

His expression was normal, he could move and walk, so they didn't even spare him a second glance.

Baili Qingfeng's home was just around the corner, located in the Old City District. It was a two-story, dilapidated building; though worn down, whenever the area was slated for demolition, this little house would be his ticket to wealth.

During the three-hundred-meter walk, the abrasions on his palms healed, and the split on his knee scabbed over. By the time he reached the bottom of his building, he peeled off the scab to reveal fresh, fair, and tender skin. There wasn't a trace of injury; he looked as if nothing had ever happened.

An astonishing recovery rate—a constitution he had brought with him through his rebirth.

"I'm home."

Baili Qingfeng announced as he stepped through the door.

"You're back. Did the job hunt go well?"

His father, Baili Hong, called out from the kitchen.

"It was a health supplement sales company, selling products without any certifications. It didn't feel reliable."

"If you're truly bored, go sign up for a training course. There's no need for a summer job."

"I'll look around a bit more. If I really can't find anything, I'll study something instead."

Baili Qingfeng replied, changed his shoes, went upstairs to his bedroom, and flopped onto the bed.

His shoulder still throbbed with a stinging pain. His reckless behavior as a child had given him a high tolerance for pain, and since he knew it would recover before long, he couldn't be bothered to dwell on it.

Lying on the bed, Baili Qingfeng stared with wide eyes at the somewhat decrepit ceiling, seriously contemplating a question.

"I was just a student passing by that alley, completely oblivious, yet I was shoved into the path by a middle-aged man named Jiang Ziheng? And Wang Gang, with his explosive temper, threw a punch that was meant to kill me? You could have just told me to move. I would have listened; I would have moved."

There was no answer.

In his mind, he relived the moment that man named Wang Gang threw his punch—the suffocating sensation that reached his very soul, and the instinctive trembling of his life force.

At that moment, he truly thought he was going to die.

To Wang Gang, he was as insignificant as...

An ant.

An ant that could be crushed at will.

That was why he didn't tell him to move, but instead threw a punch. Just as a person wouldn't move an ant out of the way or wait for it to crawl off, but would simply crush it underfoot.

"Death... If that gunshot hadn't interfered, would that punch have killed me if it hit my head? Would I have died?"

This question lingered in Baili Qingfeng's mind, refusing to fade.

Wang Gang was the only man in his life who had made him feel the scent of death. The mental impact was so intense, so deeply rooted in his mind, that it forced him to keep circling back to this question.

Would he have died?

This question...

Only Wang Gang could answer it.

Baili Qingfeng tossed and turned on the bed.

Half an hour, an hour, two hours, three hours...

"This world..."

Baili Qingfeng sat up.

"Reborn into this life, I wanted to quietly be a Outstanding Student—excellent in character, learning, and physical fitness—so as not to let down those who were heartbroken, disappointed, and despairing over me in my past life. But a clash between two parties dragged me, a mere bystander, into the fray. One man used me as a shield without regard for my life, and the other tried to kill me outright. Now, my heart is unsettled and chaotic. This chaos comes from the unknown, from curiosity, and from... death! I once yearned for death because I had no attachments, but a person must learn to cherish life. Since I have returned from the dead, I should cherish being alive, live well... As for those who make me afraid, those who disturb my heart..."

Face them head-on!

With a fearless mindset, face them directly!

Wang Gang, Jiang Ziheng.

"If they want to kill me, I will kill them."

"Practicing martial arts?"

At the dinner table.

His father, Baili Hong, who had finished heating the food, and his sister, Baili Die, who had just returned from work, both looked up at Baili Qingfeng in astonishment.

"You want to practice martial arts?"

"Yes."

Baili Qingfeng nodded: "It's summer vacation, I want to find something to do, so I've decided to practice martial arts."

"That's fine. Practicing martial arts can strengthen the body and keep you healthy, and in a critical moment, it can even protect you. Go to Sanshun Town and find your Second Grandfather. He knows martial arts and has even taught a few disciples; he has quite a reputation in the surrounding areas."

"Alright."

Baili Qingfeng nodded.

"Right, you and your sister should be careful lately. I heard from people at work that a group of fugitives has escaped into our Wuhe City. The authorities have issued a notice: if you see anyone acting strangely, absolutely do not crowd around them or provoke them. It is said these fugitives have lives on their hands and are extremely vicious; we ordinary folks can't afford to mess with them."

His father, Baili Hong, warned.

"The Alarm Bell in Xizi Alley was ringing for quite a while today. Could they have caught that group of fugitives?"

Baili Die asked.

The company she worked at was located right over there.

"Who knows? The world is getting more and more chaotic lately. The Steel Empire and the Lanka Kingdom have already broken out into war, and the friction between our Xia Kingdom and the Aurora Empire in the north is also intensifying. In just this past month, there have been four war protests on the streets, and my workplace is even organizing war donations. I don't know if war will break out, but in any case, just be careful."

Baili Hong said.

Baili Qingfeng did not speak, nor did he tell his father and sister that he had encountered this group of vicious fugitives they spoke of that very afternoon, and had even been struck by them—a palm strike powerful enough to kill an ordinary person.

Although this father and this sister were not his original parents, a year had passed since he was reborn into this world. After a year of living together day and night, he had developed some feelings for them.

Feelings...

They are the most difficult things in this world to understand.

They can warm you, inspire you, hurt you, and destroy you.