Refined and Easygoing

After settling in, Zhou Kai explained the situation to Lu Yan in a few brief sentences.

This kind of mess was actually harder to bring up with his older sister, Zhou Qing. He had only told her that he'd ended his lease and moved in with Sister Yan Zi to share the rent.

As soon as Lu Yan heard, she started pacing back and forth in a panic, her heels tapping against the floor.

"This is strange. You're usually so low-key, refined, and easygoing. How did you end up in trouble...? Who on earth did this?"

Never mind the refined and easygoing part.

Zhou Kai tugged at the corner of his mouth, a cold smile appearing.

"Be careful when you go out lately, Sis. Try not to go alone. If anything happens, wait for me."

Zhou Kai's voice suddenly turned low.

Since someone had set their sights on him, the people around him had effectively wandered into the hunting grounds.

Sui Die was looking after Zhou Qing. That woman was unfathomable; dealing with a few flies would probably be effortless for her.

But Lu Yan was different.

She spent almost every day with him. She was an obvious target, practically a ready-made weakness.

Using his family as leverage?

The warmth in Zhou Kai's eyes dropped to freezing.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine after a while."

Zhou Kai reassured her softly.

His smile hadn't changed, but the tension at the corners of his eyes and the faintly murderous glint in them...

Once he got rid of the troublesome pests, everything would be fine.

"Mm, all right."

"If anything happens, don't hide it from me. We'll face it together."

Lu Yan nodded, still a little confused, but an indescribable feeling welled up inside her.

She was actually... a little glad this sudden trouble had come along.

Now Zhou Kai had a perfectly good reason to live with her.

By the time he'd finished moving and made it to the boxing gym, he was already late.

It didn't matter much, though, because Chen Ping was late too.

Watching Du Feng instruct students in the members' area, Zhou Kai casually asked, "Where's Senior Brother Chen? I haven't seen him today."

When Du Feng saw Zhou Kai, his lips moved as if he was about to say something, but he swallowed his words. In the end, all he managed was, "You're here."

"Senior Brother Chen has something to take care of at home. He won't be back until tonight."

"Got it."

Zhou Kai nodded and didn't ask any more questions. He found a corner and started warming up on his own.

That afternoon, Fischl called and said she wanted to fit the remaining tutoring sessions for the week into a few consecutive days. They were out having fun at the moment, though, so she asked him to come over after seven that evening.

Zhou Kai had no objection.

He hung up and went back to training.

After practicing for a while, his sweat had soaked through his tank top. Zhou Kai stopped and strolled around the gym, taking a break.

It was also his first time taking a proper look around the place.

Falcon Wing Boxing Gym had four floors, but only the first and second were open to the public. Members and beginners with newly purchased memberships came and went.

As Chen Ping had put it, these people were all still just for show. They were at the stage of toughening their bodies and improving their fundamentals, nowhere near ready to make a name for themselves.

Zhou Kai himself had spent only a little over a week there, yet he was already among the top students.

But something was strange...

"Where are all the disciples who've officially taken a master, the ones like Senior Brother Chen?"

"How come there isn't a single one anywhere in the whole gym?"

It wasn't just the formal disciples. Wu De, the goateed middle-aged man he'd seen that day, hadn't shown his face again either.

This probably had nothing to do with Chen Ping having something come up today.

Zhou Kai thought it over carefully and only then realized that the place had felt quiet ever since his first day there.

The so-called masters took turns managing the gym, but the only one he'd actually met was Wu De, the goateed man.

"There really are pitifully few people here."

Zhou Kai now believed about seventy or eighty percent of the online claims that traditional martial arts were in decline and gradually dying out.

He observed the students' area for a while longer and came to a new conclusion.

"Traditional martial arts are probably declining partly because of this outdated evaluation system."

"Looking at these students, it seems like they all use punching power as their standard, as if a bigger number means you can really fight."

But what good was punching power alone?

Martial artists weren't canned goods coming off a production line. They came in all shapes and sizes, with different constitutions.

Some were as swift as ghosts, while others were as agile as apes.

When they actually fought, victory could turn on the tiniest difference.

If you judged someone's strength based on a single punching-power reading, what the hell could you tell?

Ignoring the looks the surrounding students were giving him, Zhou Kai walked over to the sensor in the students' area that recorded punching power.

Without much of a windup, he twisted his waist, drove his hips forward, and slammed a cannon punch into the padded target.

Thud!

The padded target let out a muffled boom that almost seemed to rip through the air.

A rapid string of electronic beeps followed as Zhou Kai's punch shot straight to the top of the big screen.

[509Kg!]

The boost Chariot Mark gave his physique was far beyond what he'd imagined. Without it, the number would barely have topped four hundred.

"A full-power punch should reach six hundred. If I push Chariot Mark to its limit, it could go even higher..."

He glanced at the second-highest score on the leaderboard. It was 155 kilograms lower than his casual punch, and Zhou Kai immediately understood.

Looks like he was guaranteed to get Chen Ping's special training.

Making him eat from the same big pot as the rest of these people would practically be spiritual torture for them.

Zhou Kai didn't spend another second looking at the number.

He turned and walked away.

The students' expressions quickly shifted from amused curiosity to frozen shock, then to sheer terror, as if they'd seen a ghost.

"Holy shit?"

"Half a ton? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Can a person even hit that hard? The machine's gotta be broken!"

Zhou Kai had already walked far away and didn't care about the commotion behind him.

A little after six that evening, Zhou Kai packed up and got ready to leave.

At that moment, Du Feng stood right in front of him like a post.

He scratched the back of his head, looking a little awkward. "Um... why don't you stay and wait for Senior Brother Chen to come back?"

Zhou Kai's heart stirred. He could tell at a glance that Du Feng had more to say.

He got straight to the point. "Senior Brother Du, just say what you mean. You don't have to beat around the bush."

Du Feng slapped the back of his head. "Aw, you saw right through me."

His eyes darted around. Lowering his voice, he spoke as furtively as a thief. "It's just... do you remember Wang Jinquan, the guy you beat into the hospital a couple of days ago?"

"I heard he's looking for people to deal with you. Maybe you should just stay at the gym for the next couple of days."

"With Senior Brother Chen around, not many people in Xishan City would dare lay a hand on you."

Zhou Kai thought, So that's it. But he put on a curious expression. "Oh? What kind of people do you think Wang Jinquan would hire to come after me?"

He took an energy drink from his bag and handed it to Du Feng.

Zhou Kai smiled innocently. "Have a drink and take your time. I'm genuinely curious."

Du Feng took the drink and said with a bitter expression, "I've got nothing to do with Wang Jinquan, okay? Just so we're clear, I actually can't stand him either..."

Zhou Kai understood Du Feng. He wasn't very brave and didn't like trouble, but he wasn't a bad person.

When it mattered, he knew where he stood.

That was probably why Chen Ping was willing to treat him decently.

"You'd better be really careful."

Du Feng repeated that several times before finally continuing.

Xishan wasn't a port city, but several decades ago, it had been an important hub for canal transport along the great river.

In recent years, however, a series of water projects had been built upstream—dams, power stations, and the like—and the river's flow had plummeted.

The idea of making the river navigable again had become a pipe dream.

But although the canal routes had been cut off, the people who'd made their living from canal transport weren't willing to be buried in history along with them.

The Water Transport Gang had once dominated West Mountain. It had been suppressed again and again, but never eradicated. Even now, it remained hidden in the shadows of Xishan City like a leech.

Using the connections, resources, and manpower they'd accumulated over the years, they opened bars, took over game arcades, ran supermarkets, and built chains of convenience stores.

They were making even more money than they had back when they transported goods by river.

And Wang Jinquan, supposedly, had countless ties to the Water Transport Gang.

"Word on the street is that Wang Jinquan's father is an old hand in the Water Transport Gang. You beat his son into the hospital, so there's a good chance those people will come after you."

Du Feng's face was full of worry.