Bronze Rank

Creak.

The door opened.

Wang Yiyang stepped out, his eyes ringed with dark circles and his face weary. He saw his grandfather, Wang Xinlong, already standing in the courtyard and practicing.

Wang Xinlong practiced a style of boxing called Moon Sky Fist. His footwork and punches worked together, each movement carrying a powerful, forceful momentum.

Wang Yiyang had watched him many times, and always felt that his grandfather's fists struck from unexpected angles.

No matter how many times he watched, the punches still caught him off guard and seemed impossible to defend against.

After finishing a set, his grandfather let out a long breath of white vapor, took the dry towel a housekeeper handed him, and wiped away his sweat.

"How about it? Want to try a set and loosen up?"

"No, I'm not interested in that." Wang Yiyang smiled and shook his head.

"Pity. A vigorous flow of blood and qi keeps your spirits high and lets you handle anything with ease. In the right setting, it can even overwhelm everyone else and give you the upper hand." Wang Xinlong had a booming voice; when he spoke, it seemed to echo throughout the courtyard.

"Master is right. Vitality and spirit are the foundation of a person. Vitality can be used to physically alter the world around us.

"And the mind can be used to influence others. Each has its own uses." Zhong Can appeared at one side of the courtyard at some point, his expression calm as he spoke slowly.

Wang Yiyang glanced at him, still feeling a little uneasy.

"Brother Zhong Can is right," he agreed with a nod.

Zhong Can's gaze passed over Wang Yiyang, seeming to look into the distance. His eyes looked somewhat vacant.

"Any fight to the death ends with both sides paying a price. No matter how lopsided the battle, you can still suffer injuries. That's why I've always pursued victory without fighting."

"Winning without a fight?" Wang Yiyang mused.

"Exactly. I don't know how to use the grand, righteous momentum of military strategy to crush an opponent and win. That's the use of the forces of nature," Zhong Can said evenly. "Nor is that what I seek."

"Then what do you seek?" Wang Yiyang asked, growing curious.

"What I seek is to defeat my enemies with the mind, make them so afraid that their spirits collapse, and then..." Zhong Can was cut off halfway through by a sharp rebuke from Wang Xinlong.

"That's enough!"

Wang Xinlong's shout reverberated through the courtyard. The housekeeper beside him turned pale and shuddered, nearly dropping the towel she was holding.

"You still haven't given up on that crooked path?!" Wang Xinlong glared at Zhong Can. His strong build resembled that of a giant bear, and an oppressive aura seemed to radiate from him.

Wang Yiyang could tell something was wrong.

Zhong Can's martial path seemed to have put him at odds with his grandfather.

Zhong Can said nothing more. For over ten minutes, he kept his mouth shut and didn't utter a word.

He stopped talking.

Wang Yiyang and his grandfather, who had gradually calmed down, shifted the conversation to other topics. Still, Wang Yiyang kept glancing at Zhong Can from time to time.

What this senior disciple, who had spent so many years with his grandfather, was really thinking was something nobody could know except him.

After the morning practice ended, the other disciples began arriving at the martial arts school.

There were men and women among them, most over thirty. Many had opened training centers of their own elsewhere.

They came back here mostly out of respect for the old master, Wang Xinlong, and because of old habits.

Besides, a gathering of so many senior and junior brothers and sisters was a valuable network in its own right.

Once the crowd grew, Wang Yiyang didn't know most of them, and had fewer chances to talk to his grandfather.

Zhong Can also grew busy, with plenty of people drawing him into conversations about fighting.

They kept him occupied, and he seemed to pay little attention to Wang Yiyang. That made Wang Yiyang feel much more at ease.

Seeing that the place was crowded, he simply went outside the martial arts school and took a walk by the small river on the right.

Ever since he was little, he'd liked coming to the river alone to skip stones.

When he got a little older, he worried people would see him and call skipping stones childish, so he just took walks instead.

As he grew older still, Wang Yiyang began watching the ripples reflected on the river's surface.

Ripples from different directions were like two countries at war: one side stronger, the other weaker.

He'd quietly guess which side would win, then watch to see what happened.

If the side he'd picked lost, he'd get annoyed and kick a few stones into the water, sending bigger ripples into the fray.

"What are you doing out here alone?" a voice suddenly rang out behind Wang Yiyang.

His relaxed body tensed in an instant. He slowly turned around.

Standing behind him was none other than his senior brother, Zhong Can.

Zhong Can carried a faint smell of alcohol. His expression was calm, his hands hanging naturally at his sides. He looked like he'd come out for a walk as well.

Wang Yiyang's thoughts raced, but his expression didn't change.

"I came for a walk after eating. I've liked coming here alone since I was a kid."

"Do you like the quiet?" Zhong Can walked over beside Wang Yiyang and kicked a stone into the water, too.

"I guess so. Sometimes I just want a little peace and quiet." Wang Yiyang did his best to keep his expression natural. But as Zhong Can drew closer, goosebumps gradually rose on his skin.

His gaze had already drifted to Zhong Can's right hand, whose fingers were slowly uncurling.

"When are you leaving? I'll see you off," Zhong Can said slowly.

"No need. I can manage on my own." Wang Yiyang smiled. "By the way, you said earlier that you sought victory without fighting. What exactly did you mean? You didn't finish before Grandpa interrupted you. Is there a problem with it?"

He tried to make his smile seem completely natural, as if he hadn't noticed anything.

It wasn't easy, but he had died once before, and death itself didn't frighten him that much.

What scared him was dying without saving his grandfather. And this was an opportunity—a chance to get close and understand Zhong Can.

Why had he decided to strike? Why had he slaughtered the whole family despite all those years of affection? What else was behind him?

Zhong Can exhaled and looked at Wang Yiyang with a hint of surprise.

"You know that living things can freeze in fear?"

"Freeze in fear?"

"Yes. In biology, this is considered one of the survival instincts.

"When a living thing faces an enemy it has absolutely no chance of defeating, it may become completely paralyzed. The powerful enemy might see that it has given up resisting, is motionless, and poses no threat, and abandon the hunt. That way, it survives."

Zhong Can spoke calmly, his voice gentle, as if he really were just chatting with Wang Yiyang.

"What I seek is to make people fear me before the fighting even begins, until they freeze up.

"Unfortunately, Master doesn't approve of my goal. He thinks I've gone astray. But in three consecutive external martial arts tournaments, I achieved far better results than before, and he still refuses to accept it."

Wang Yiyang noticed that Zhong Can's fingers were trembling slightly.

"Why? Isn't it working well?" he asked.

"Because I went a little too far." Zhong Can gave a strange smile. "But that's the only way to create fear. The essence of fighting is to trample the flesh and blood of your own kind and walk the road to the highest evolution!"

"I don't think that's true." Wang Yiyang couldn't help arguing. As soon as the words left his mouth, he saw Zhong Can's hand twitch. The veins on it stood out, and an indescribable oppressive force rose from him.

Wang Yiyang's heart skipped a beat, but he forced down his sense of danger.

He knew Zhong Can could kill him with a single punch at any moment.

But this was the best chance to get a glimpse of Zhong Can's true thoughts. He didn't want to give it up when he was so close to learning the truth.

"Simple violence and bloodshed might create fear, but they only frighten a small number of onlookers. On a large scale, they're still useless.

"So your goal is just a niche path."

Zhong Can had been about to kill Wang Yiyang on the spot, then go back and finish off the old man, settling everything once and for all.

He was about to act when Wang Yiyang unexpectedly came out with that argument.

He'd followed Wang Yiyang here to kill him, but now he'd grown a little interested and wanted to hear what this kid had to say.

"Then tell me, what should I do?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Wang Yiyang's thoughts raced, but his expression stayed calm and natural.

He could feel the threat from Zhong Can fading quickly. It was obvious that he'd temporarily given up on killing him.

"It's simple," he said softly. "If you have enough breadth of spirit, do something ordinary people could never accomplish. Make your name known.

"Victory without fighting doesn't have to come from fear. Any kind of renown can do it."

"It's not the same," Zhong Can said, shaking his head. "Fame can only bring pressure at best."

"You haven't tried it. How do you know it won't work?" Wang Yiyang countered.

Zhong Can fell silent, apparently pondering the answer.

"Think it over. I'm going back to rest." Wang Yiyang's heart was pounding, but he turned toward the martial arts school as if nothing had happened.

He lifted his foot and took one step, then two, then three.

"Why didn't you learn martial arts back then?" Zhong Can's voice suddenly drifted over from behind him.

Wang Yiyang stopped.

"Because times have changed."

He started walking again as if nothing was wrong. This time, Zhong Can didn't call after him.

Step by step, Wang Yiyang slowly walked away. But the cold sweat on his back had nearly soaked through his undershirt.

He didn't feel safe until he reached the martial arts school's side entrance, grabbed a doorpost, and stepped onto the stairs. The solid feeling beneath his foot steadied him.

Looking at the side door, Wang Yiyang was just about to let out a long breath of relief. He reached out and pulled open the wooden door.

Suddenly, his vision blurred slightly.

At the lower right corner of his vision, a line of tiny, perfectly regular text had appeared from nowhere.

The writing wasn't in any language he recognized, yet somehow he could understand it.

"What the hell?! Did I not get enough sleep last night? Am I seeing things?"

Wang Yiyang opened the door as if nothing had happened, went inside, and shut it behind him. Only then did he stand in the shade and carefully examine the text in the lower-right corner of his vision.

This time, he understood what it said.

'...Database missing. Searching for repairs automatically. Please wait.'

Wang Yiyang's heart skipped a beat. Could this be another hallucination? He had a vague sense that something was wrong with him.

Before he could react, the line of text shifted upward. Like a programmer adding lines of code, another line appeared beneath it.

'...Random search complete. Spacetime framework complete. System core restarting.'

Then line after line of text appeared.

'Core startup complete.'

'Registering mark...'

'Registration complete.'

'Image and logic reconstruction initiated.'

'Your rank is -- Bronze. A Bronze Rank identity can now be generated at random.'