"I did know Igor. I'll never forget him. And you... you really do look like him."
Luka hurriedly asked:
"General, do you know what Igor went through on the Xianzhou?"
"Back home, plenty of people have heard the heroic tales of Igor Haft, but we've never known what happened to him when he traveled beyond the stars. Please, you have to tell me!"
Jing Yuan nodded slightly.
"That was more than seven hundred years ago."
"Back then... I was still young." He picked up the teapot and poured more tea for Yan Huan, Bailu, and Hook, who had brought chairs over to sit beside him.
"I, too, was once a swordsman defending the ring at the Martial Arts Ceremony."
Jing Yuan's expression grew serious.
"Igor, that tall, red-haired boxer, stepped into the ring."
"Every punch he threw seemed to carry the weight of an entire world."
"Well, I'll be damned. So it was your fight with Igor that Hanya watched back then?" Yan Huan asked.
"Perhaps."
Jing Yuan smiled faintly.
"Back then, I was still young... Could one of you close the door to the secret room?"
"Sure." Bailu ran over and shut it.
Jing Yuan continued:
"After each match, he had a strange habit. He refused every prize and gift, then told everyone who had watched him fight about the disaster that had struck his home. He warned them to guard against attacks by the Antimatter Legion."
"He also hoped someone capable would help him."
"And so he fought his way through one opponent after another until he finally stood before me... much as you stood before Yan Qing this time."
"He fought in silence, throwing punch after punch. We were evenly matched."
"But near the end of the fight, he suddenly stopped and left the arena..."
Aboard