"Crack!"
With a soft click, Fang Can pushed open the door and stepped inside.
He discreetly surveyed the room. Everything was arranged exactly as it had been when he left, without the slightest change.
But his steadily sharpening intuition was frantically warning him that a ferocious beast was hiding inside—one capable of killing him in an instant.
By now, Fang Can's physical abilities had risen to more than three times those of an ordinary person. The only ones who could make him feel this threatened were the superpowered.
"Ever since I came back, I've been following my usual routine. There's no reason a superpowered person would come looking for me. And this kind of concealment doesn't seem like the authorities' style. Which means..."
Thinking of the pillar of fire that had shot into the sky in the city today, Fang Can understood. Then another thought occurred to him.
"Why would the defeated superpowered person happen to come to my house? In theory, with Extreme Misfortune Brings Prosperity, my luck shouldn't be this bad..."
With Extreme Misfortune Brings Prosperity active, all of Fang Can's hidden attributes were improving, including his luck.
He had spent much of the day in that state. With his luck, that superpowered person shouldn't have come to his home of all places—unless there was something valuable on them...
Recalling that familiar oppressive presence, Fang Can made a guess. Without changing expression, he took three hundred-yuan bills from his pocket.
Looking at the bills, he silently thought:
"Let's test my luck. If they land heads, my guess is right. If they land tails, it's wrong."
As he finished his thought, Fang Can tossed the bills in his hand while the hidden presence watched.
The slips of paper fluttered through the air before landing, all three face up.
Seeing which way they had landed, Fang Can nodded as if the result were only to be expected. Then, too lazy to bend down and pick up the bills, he tossed his backpack aside and began practicing martial arts.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. He had to cherish every moment.
Since the unknown presence watching him had brought out his Genius State, he might as well practice his techniques a few more times while it lasted.
So, despite knowing someone was nearby, Fang Can acted as if he were alone. He assumed the opening stance of the Sixty-Six Tiger Devour Fist Techniques and began practicing without a care.
"Is there something wrong with this guy's head?" In the half-open wardrobe in the shadows, a pair of bright eyes watched the young man practicing.
Just by watching, she could tell that he was a new martial artist who had only just reached the Mortal Shedding Body. Yet every move he made was beyond her expectations.
First, he had suddenly paused at the door, as if he'd noticed something amiss, but had still entered the room.
Then, for no apparent reason, he tossed out three banknotes. After that, he suddenly began practicing martial arts. There was no connection between any of the three things.
"But his movements are quite precise." Watching Fang Can through the wooden wardrobe, Jiang Ning'an silently praised him.
Though he was rather old—already eighteen—and still hadn't shed his mortal body, the care he put into each move was plain to see.
Aside from two or three flaws that showed when he occasionally changed moves, the rest were textbook perfect.
Meanwhile, Fang Can thought to himself:
"I'll deliberately leave a few openings. If the person hiding there is really who I think, they should come out pretending to be an experienced senior and offer me a few pointers."
"Then I can take the opportunity to play along and give them some face. Things will be much easier after that."
With a plan in mind, Fang Can forced his movements—already nearly perfect—to show a few flaws, deliberately giving the person in hiding a chance to play the senior.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished the first set, a cool female voice came from behind him. "Your fist technique has seven flaws. They all come from imperfect transitions between moves. You still need to patiently refine them."
At the voice behind him, Fang Can paused at the end of his routine, then turned around to face his uninvited guest without a hint of surprise.
As soon as he turned, he saw a cool-looking young woman in plain white robes, her hair hanging loose down her back, sitting upright on the sofa and gazing at him from afar.
The woman pressed her lips together and studied the young man before her. With a slight frown, she asked, "Aren't you surprised I'm here?"
Fang Can nodded slightly, setting his mind at ease for the moment. At least, the fact that she was willing to speak meant she wasn't likely to kill him without warning. That meant he could try a few somewhat aggressive probes.
"I noticed someone had been in my house when I got back."
"You were the one who fought those superpowered people today."
"If I'm not mistaken, you also arrived here seven hours ago. Did you come from Great Yan too, or from neighboring Great Zhou?"
Fang Can watched the young woman's expression as he spoke. "Looks like it was Great Yan."
Having her secrets laid bare in just a few sentences, the woman grew wary.
Her pale fingers tightened around her long sword, ready to strike at any moment.
"Don't worry. I'm not with the authorities. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gotten away."
Seeing her expression, Fang Can didn't act like the one at a disadvantage. He raised a hand to reassure her.
"If you don't want the authorities to find you, I suggest you avoid making too much of a fuss. Unless something unexpected happens, we'll have to live together for quite a while."
"We're in this together. You saw the techniques I practiced just now. They're unmistakably from Great Yan. If I'm discovered, I won't escape either, so you can trust that I won't betray you for now."
Jiang Ning'an kept her eyes fixed on Fang Can's expression. After remaining silent and thinking it over for a long while, she finally asked:
"What are those people outside? Where is this place? Why did I come here? What are superpowered people? Those people haven't even reached the Mortal Shedding Body, so how can they control the celestial phenomena?"
"That's too many questions. Can we take them one at a time?" Fang Can frowned slightly. Explaining all this to someone who had never experienced modern society was going to be a hassle.
He also suspected that, like the other martial artists he'd met, she couldn't read. That would make explaining things even more difficult.
"Simply put, you can think of this as another world, separate from Great Yan. This world has no concept of martial arts. It only has superpowered people, born with extraordinary abilities that let them control the elements from birth."
Jiang Ning'an murmured to herself as she recalled the people she'd encountered at noon, then nodded in agreement with Fang Can's explanation.
"As for why you came here, I don't know either. I suddenly arrived in Great Yan seven days ago, and after seven days of practicing martial arts, I..."
"You're lying!" Before Fang Can could finish speaking, the sharp sword in Jiang Ning'an's hand was already pressed against his neck. "With your skill, it's impossible that you only arrived in Great Yan seven days ago. That proves you're lying."
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