Chapter 29

"Is the jade fish fully charged?" Bai Lang rubbed his head and climbed up. "That's not right, it wasn't like this at all last time." Just as he still hadn't figured out the situation, a voice sounded, "Mission: Cao Yuqing, Hall Master of White Cloud Hall, in order to obtain a divine skill ultimate art to unify the pugilistic world, has sneaked into the Shaolin Sutra Pavilion to steal a secret manual; kill Cao Yuqing to complete the mission. The time limit is twelve hours. Disclosure of this news is prohibited, violators will be purged. Failure to complete the mission—purge. The aforementioned voice holds the final right of interpretation."

Bai Lang was completely dumbfounded, and he always felt something was wrong. "Do you accept complaints? It seems they don't accept them." He straightened his upper body—prior to this, he had been lying on the ground—and looked left and right only to discover that five other people were also lying on the ground just like him, and moreover were groaning as they climbed up.

Three men and two women, plus Bai Lang making four men and two women. However, when Bai Lang looked over, he felt these men and women probably had martial arts skills on par with his own. "Pugilistic beauties? Indeed I worried for nothing; in truth they are all just of mediocre looks." Out of a certain eccentric humor, Bai Lang first sized up the two women.

These two women looked to be only around eighteen or nineteen, twenty at the most, and their appearances were indeed, as he had seen, fairly ordinary. Then he looked toward the other three men; these three were not very old either, and the oldest among them seemed to be only twenty-five or twenty-six. Viewed this way, Bai Lang was probably the youngest one here after all.

Yet judging by their builds and faces, Bai Lang was not the youngest one, but rather belonged to the youngest batch—among these four men and two women, only one person looked to be twenty-five or six, while the others all looked around the same age. Bai Lang could tell that everyone was a complete stranger to one another, yet all wore looks of bewilderment.

They were all martial arts practitioners and basically had a bit of confidence in themselves—they were all martial arts newcomers, and apart from Bai Lang, everyone else probably had a lot of confidence in themselves. "Did everyone hear that voice?" The oldest-looking man spoke up. "I am Ma Rulong, a disciple of the East Sea Wave Watching Pavilion. Everyone, please introduce yourselves as well; after all, judging by that voice, we are going to go kill someone together. I think it's best to just follow along—the place where we are currently located is probably something only those mighty beings could accomplish."

Ma Rulong signaled for everyone to look front and back, left and right, as well as overhead. Although the light was as bright as day, in reality the place they were in was a room built of stone, and the illumination came from white glowing beads embedded in the ceiling and walls. "I merely blacked out for a moment, and afterwards I woke up right here. My sect's martial arts have a secret technique capable of sensing our sect's secret treasure, the Condensing Jade Bead, but now I can no longer sense it—that means we are at least a thousand miles away from the East Sea Wave Watching Pavilion. To be able to accomplish this, even a Heavenly Extreme Master might not necessarily be capable of it."

Bai Lang was already listening with a dazed expression. Prior to this, he only knew of the so-called Xiantian Masters, had vaguely heard of the Heaven Earth Human Rankings, and knew there were gradations in levels above Xiantian Masters. But as a mere muscle-for-hire at a talent agency in a small, rundown town, even if he wanted to find out more information, there was nowhere to ask—nothing else, he was simply a frog at the bottom of a well. Now he was actually hearing about some Heavenly Extreme Master and the East Sea Wave Watching Pavilion.

Everyone else's expressions tightened, although they had looked quite serious to begin with, and it seemed they all knew the situation was by no means ordinary. Then a youth, a bald youth at that, said, "I am Ci En, a novice monk of Shaolin. Are we really going to Shaolin Temple to kill Cao Yuqing, who stole our Shaolin martial arts secret manual? By the way, what is White Cloud Hall? Is this person someone who can just waltz into our Shaolin Sutra Pavilion?" Unexpectedly, this monk-robed youth was quite a chatterbox. "The little master doesn't have incense scars on his head; have you not yet formally entered the sect to become an eminent monk?" Bai Lang laughed instead.

His features were handsome, making him quite a fine-looking man, so the little monk didn't get angry upon hearing this. The crux was that as long as someone talked to him, he was extremely happy. "Yeah, yeah, this humble monk hasn't burned those scars yet, and this humble monk has also been wondering if I should just return to secular life now before burning the scars. By the way, which brother are you?" Bai Lang took the opportunity to introduce himself. "I am Bai Lang, a gang member of the Changle Gang."

Another young man also spoke up. "The Changle Gang? Hmm, is it the Changle Gang of 'Sunset Long River' Mr. Gao Yuan? Your esteemed gang recently produced a Mo Di who is formidable indeed." Bai Lang nodded. "It is precisely the Changle Gang of Gang Leader Gao Yuan of Sunset Long River. By the way, judging by your tone, could there happen to be several Changle Gangs?"

"Hahaha, I am Mu Ronghua, a disciple of the Flower Washing Sword Washing Sect. Surname Mu, the ronghua of longing for glory and splendor, definitely not the compound surname Murong of the pugilistic prominent families, oh. That's right, Brother Bai Lang, there are at least six or seven such Changle Gangs under heaven—who told this name to be so good, auspicious enough." This Mu Ronghua also seemed to be a cheerful and extroverted fellow, yet Bai Lang always felt something about this man's face looked a bit familiar. "These small nose and eyes always make me think of something... Right, a bull terrier! Is this guy really not a time-traveling idol?"

The two women could only give bitter smiles, seemingly feeling quite unreliable about the fact that their four temporary male companions could still laugh and joke in the current situation. To be honest, the situation was already like this, and the reason these few men were acting this way was simply to lighten the atmosphere. Among these four men, Bai Lang was actually the most handsome and upright, Ma Rulong's appearance was refined and carried an extremely scholarly air, while the little monk Ci En had ordinary features, but his eyes were extremely lively. The two women also reported their respective names. "Murong Jiuxiu." The woman glanced somewhat bashfully at Mu Ronghua, while Mu Ronghua was already in a slight daze. This was like meeting a fake when you were the real deal, and just moments earlier he had been talking about some martial arts prominent family surnamed Murong, only to have someone named Murong right before him.

In the pugilistic world, anyone with a compound surname, according to tradition, was not someone to be trifled with and always had some kind of background—it wasn't that no one impersonated them, but mostly the impersonators met with retribution. Bai Lang was completely clueless about this, but both Mu Ronghua and Ma Rulong knew it—who made them disciples of major, prominent sects after all? They knew vastly more than Bai Lang.

The last woman looked extremely shy, and said with a voice barely louder than a mosquito, "Qin Lian'er of Medicine Valley." Aside from Bai Lang, everyone else wore serious expressions. "So she is actually a person from Medicine Valley; this time we won't have to fear injuries." Once again, everyone except Bai Lang revealed relaxed expressions.

Since the introductions were finished, they began discussing this so-called "mission," but Bai Lang was still clueless. "Why aren't these people introducing the martial arts they excel at? It looks like they are all children of prominent families, and as soon as they hear the other's sect, they roughly know what martial arts the other excels at. Only I am a blank slate."

Ma Rulong also walked over. "Brother Bai Lang, for this 'mission', we can only adapt to circumstances. Do you have any thoughts?" Bai Lang could sense the other person glancing at the iron cudgel by his side. "Ah, no thoughts, adapting to circumstances is good. But shouldn't we find a way out first?"