In the park square.
A group of elderly men and women practiced Taiji Fist with Master Ma, just as they always did.
As Master Ma went through the movements, his eyes occasionally darted toward the park entrance.
In truth.
He had not wanted to come to the park today, afraid that the young man who had challenged him yesterday would show up again.
But his greatest daily pleasure was basking in the enthusiastic adoration of his pretty elderly female fans.
So, after one final internal struggle, he had come to the park anyway.
Fortunately, that young man had not come today.
That put his mind somewhat at ease.
Whenever he recalled the speed of that young man's kick yesterday.
Master Ma's heart went numb.
It had been so fast it was simply inhuman.
The elderly men and women had assumed their eyesight was failing and that they had seen things, so they had not paid much attention.
But there was nothing wrong with his eyes.
If Little Li had not taken the fall yesterday, he would have been the one lying in the Martial Arts Hall's infirmary.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness that young fellow didn't come to the park today.
Master Ma silently counted his blessings. As he raised his arms into the White Crane Spreads Its Wings pose, he happened to glance toward the park entrance and saw yesterday's young man striding toward him.
His feet froze. Turning to the elderly men and women before him, he lowered his fists and spoke hurriedly.
"That's all for today. I have something to take care of at my Martial Arts Hall. Everyone can go now. Off you go."
With that, Master Ma headed straight toward the park's back exit.
One helpful elderly woman noticed and immediately called out:
"Master Ma, you're going the wrong way! The main entrance is over there. Why are you taking the back exit? Isn't that a much longer walk?"
But Master Ma acted as though he had not heard her and kept heading toward the back exit without looking back. In fact, as she called after him, his feet seemed almost greased, carrying him noticeably faster.
Zeng Shen had spotted Master Ma from a distance and was about to hurry over, only for Master Ma to suddenly scurry off toward the back exit.
Puzzled, he stopped in front of the dispersing elderly group.
One elderly woman recognized Zeng Shen and said, "Oh, aren't you the young fellow who wanted to spar with Master Ma yesterday?"
"That's right. I was passing by today and wanted to ask Master Ma for another lesson," Zeng Shen said.
"Master Ma had something to do and went back to his Martial Arts Hall. If you want a lesson, you can go there. Follow Red Rice Road to the left of the park's main entrance for a little over three hundred meters, then turn left and you'll see it." Seemingly worried that Zeng Shen might get lost, the elderly woman added, "There's a massage parlor next door, too."
"Thank you, ma'am," Zeng Shen said, quickly nodding his thanks.
"You're welcome. Master Ma's business is our business."
Zeng Shen immediately turned and headed toward the location the elderly women had described.
Yesterday's first encounter with Master Ma had netted him two thousand survival points, considerably more than he had earned before.
Zeng Shen had a question on his mind: why had Master Ma and that young livestreamer yielded so many survival points?
He checked the system log. There was a separator between the words "subdue" and "repel."
Could beating them up have triggered the "subdue" effect?
Then both of them ran away, triggering the "repel" effect.
Was that why the first encounter earned me two thousand survival points?
That was why Zeng Shen wanted to spar with Master Ma again.
First, he wanted to confirm whether sparring with Master Ma again would let him earn survival points repeatedly. Second, he wanted to find out whether he could farm points from two different effects in a single encounter.
Red Rice Road bustled with pedestrians. At first, Zeng Shen had thought that stepping onto it would trigger some sort of danger warning from the system.
But no danger warning came at all.
Could this road no longer exist three years from now? Not even a single mutant beast lurking here? Or did none of the people walking nearby survive those three years and become deities, all of them lost to the changing times, leaving me with no danger warnings to trigger?
After briefly speculating, Zeng Shen followed the elderly woman's directions and hurried toward the Martial Arts Hall.
As he reached the end of Red Rice Road and turned left, an urgent warning suddenly rang in his ears.
[Warning, warning. The host is about to enter the territory of a tier three fire deity and their followers. If discovered, the host will be stripped of the divine energy within their body and enslaved, or even burned to ashes in the deity's fury.]
As though to impress upon him the severity of the situation, a warning panel visible only to him, so red it was almost purple, shook repeatedly before his eyes.
Ignoring the system's warning, Zeng Shen looked up and examined the Martial Arts Hall beside the massage parlor.
At first, he had assumed Master Ma ran the sort of tiny Martial Arts Hall where he was the only person around.
But the size of the Martial Arts Hall before him came as a real shock.
It was a large, three-story building with a traditional architectural style.
Zeng Shen walked through the open entrance and found himself looking at a hundred-square-meter front courtyard fitted with numerous punching bags. Seven or eight children, around a meter and a half tall, with youthful faces that made them look as though they had just started middle school, were swinging their small fists at the bags, letting out childish cries of "Ah! Ha!"
One child who looked slightly older than the others noticed the stranger entering, immediately turned toward Zeng Shen, and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
[Warning! The host has been spotted by a tier one fire slave, a follower of the tier three fire deity. With the host's current strength, the host is no match for them. Please flee immediately.]
"I'm looking for Master Ma."
As Zeng Shen spoke, he inwardly rolled his eyes at the system. He was a grown man. How could he be no match for a bunch of children?
The child said, "Master Ma isn't back yet. If you want to wait for him, you can go into the main hall and ask Uncle Li when he'll be back."
"Oh, all right." Zeng Shen nodded and headed toward the Martial Arts Hall's main hall.
The main hall was spacious, with various old-fashioned firearms and numerous certificates of honor hanging on its walls.
On the left side of the hall, a dozen or so young men dressed in white martial arts uniforms were sparring in the training area under a middle-aged man's watchful gaze.
These young men were well trained. Their moves were fierce, powerful, and methodical, and they switched techniques with remarkable speed as they fought.
Despite himself, Zeng Shen saw Master Ma in a new light and gained a little respect for him.
How could someone who looked like a charlatan train such talented young men?
Could he really know his stuff?
If I hadn't cheated yesterday, wouldn't he have wiped the floor with me?
Just as Zeng Shen was thinking this, the middle-aged man walked toward him.
[Danger! The host has been spotted by the tier four Fire Slave Clan chief, a follower of the tier three fire deity. With the host's current strength, the host is no match for him. Please flee immediately.]
"Who are you looking for?" the middle-aged man asked in a gruff voice.
Zeng Shen answered honestly, "I'm looking for Master Ma."
"Oh? What do you want with him?"
"Yesterday, Master Ma asked me to spar with him, and I said we'd do it tomorrow. When I went to the park square just now, he said he was heading back to the Martial Arts Hall, so I came over."
Hearing Zeng Shen's words, the middle-aged man immediately frowned, his voice turning somewhat hostile.
"Master Ma isn't here yet. Young man, if you want to spar, how about trying a few rounds with my students first?"
Zeng Shen heard the shift in the middle-aged man's tone and felt a flicker of confusion. Still, he was delighted by the suggestion. If he could spar with them, wouldn't he be able to farm a hefty sum of survival points?
He immediately nodded without a second thought and said happily:
"Sure, sure!"
Surprised by how quickly Zeng Shen agreed, the middle-aged man probed, "Master Ma is the pride of our hall. Have you trained somewhere before, young man?"
"I haven't trained in any martial arts. I'm just a little faster than most people," Zeng Shen said truthfully.
The middle-aged man: "..."