"World peace, and may everyone be kind."
The USA still strutted around as if "the whole world was out to get us," making its presence known to the world, though it was much more restrained than before. At least, on the surface, it avoided provoking two places: Huaxia and that strange place in the Alps.
India continued its grand project of finding ways to cheat, hoping to pile even more people onto a motorcycle. Perhaps they thought that way it would take flight. The Koreans still insisted the whole world belonged to them, while the Japanese appeared meek on the surface but remained ambitious underneath...
The world kept turning. The existence of any one person could not affect everyone on the planet.
Still, Bai Yang's appearance had thrown the world order somewhat off-kilter. Television, radio, magazines, the internet—even people's conversations—kept bringing up a certain place, aside from whatever major events had occurred.
The Taiji Dojo in the Alps.
To people around the world, and even to every nation, the dojo was somewhere far beyond reach. It truly existed, yet no one could touch it. They wanted to ignore it, but had no choice but to keep an eye on it—a contradiction through and through.
People were forgetful. After some time had passed, they seemed to have forgotten how ostentatiously the dojo had been established, and had instead accepted its existence.
Some diehards gathered outside the Alps, unwilling to leave, like those ascetics, hoping that one day good fortune would fall upon them. There were quite a few of them. So many, in fact, that within a short time, more than a hundred little towns had sprung up outside the Alps, with millions of people gathered in them for long stretches. The once-barren mountains had become lively.
But it was all