Gliding Faint Light

Ring-ring-ring-ring-ring!

The urgent ringing blared like a death knell. A few seconds later, a trembling hand slapped the alarm silent. Fresh out of bed, Ji Huaishu was bleary-eyed, her hair a complete mess, and she climbed down with the sluggishness of a golden-haired zombie freshly dug from the grave.

Dragging herself along with the gait of someone brought back from the dead, she made her way to the washroom and splashed a great handful of cold water over her face to wake herself up. As she tied up her ponytail, she glanced at her watch. It was exactly seven thirty-five.

Wow, sleeping in this late was such a luxury... This was the first time this month she had gotten up after five-thirty!

Hugos's downfall yesterday counted as one of the rare bits of good news lately. The number of tasks on their list had nearly been cut in half, allowing her to indulge in a leisurely lie-in. She gave a huge yawn and changed and washed up in an exceptionally good mood. Once she was done, Ji Huaishu looked out the window. Her room was one floor higher than a certain newcomer's across the way; with a little force, she could jump straight onto the rooftop opposite.

The window to Chu Hengkong's room was open, and the morning breeze brushed over the empty bed.

"...Where did that guy run off to?"

Chu Hengkong was on the dormitory roof. He stood sideways with the right half of his body facing forward, his lower body in a horse stance. His right arm was bent at the elbow and braced forward, while his left tentacle was slightly contracted, held at his waist as though he were drawing back a fist.

This awkward-looking posture at first glance was the Two Forms Stance of Bajiquan. Even veteran martial artists who had trained their whole lives found it extremely difficult to hold it for forty minutes, yet Chu Hengkong had already been standing for an hour. He usually liked to relax his body and mind this way, but the longer he stood now, the more conflicted he became.

"Slacking off while stance-training, huh? Your left hand won't stop moving."

The voice arrived before its owner, a crisp laugh ringing out from behind him. Along with it came a kick from a tricky angle, the visitor's toe hooking directly toward Chu Hengkong's ankle. He did not dodge, taking the sweep head-on without his stance shifting in the slightest.

He turned to the girl behind him. "Not bad force. How many times did Mr. Ji kick you before?"

Anyone who had practiced martial arts would probably have laughed at the sight. The first lesson in most traditional martial arts was stance-training. Strict schools made their students balance bowls of water or apples, while even the least demanding ones had them stand bitterly beneath the blazing sun. As disciples' legs trembled, their masters would stroll nearby with their hands behind their backs, their eyes as sharp as eagles'. The stricter ones would hook anyone who dared move right away; no matter how tall or powerfully built you were, down you went with a slap.

Ji Huaishu had clearly suffered through something similar. Her words carried the air of memories too painful to revisit.

"Don't remind me... It took me two years just to get this stance right. Even my dad, who taught without discrimination, had to admit I wasn't cut out for boxing." She sighed. "But why are you, a genuine old hand, making such a basic mistake?"

When Chu Hengkong had been stance-training earlier, his tentacle had kept moving—sometimes making tiny positional adjustments, sometimes changing length. That was what had prompted Ji Huaishu's joke. He withdrew his stance and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

"I'm not used to the new arm. I'm adjusting my center of gravity."

The tentacle weighed slightly less than Chu Hengkong's original left arm, and when it extended or contracted to different lengths, his body's center of gravity shifted subtly as well. Such minor changes could gradually be adapted to through adjustments while stance-training. The truly serious problem was the difference in "shape" and "hardness."

The greatest difference between a tentacle and a human arm was that it had no fingers, bones, or joints. Without five fingers, it could not perform moves like poking or grabbing; without arm bones, it was difficult to use it to raise a guard; and losing the elbow joint was even more fatal. It meant that devastating killing moves such as elbow strikes and smashing elbows were entirely out of reach for his left arm.

The failed Iron Mountain Lean last night had sounded an alarm for Chu Hengkong. The freely extending tentacle was a sharp weapon at mid-to-long range, but in close-quarters combat it became a burden instead. If he could not resolve the shortcomings of his new arm soon, sooner or later he would stumble because of it. Yet a new fighting style could not be developed overnight. What he needed now was an emergency measure... such as a handy weapon or concealed weapon...

"I tried so hard to persuade you to cut off your arm last night, but you wouldn't listen. Regretting it now?" Ji Huaishu looked delighted by his misfortune. "Come on, come on! Let's deal with breakfast quickly and get moving."

"Alright, Captain. Who are we chopping up today?" Chu Hengkong responded eagerly.

"Please, have some self-awareness as a law enforcement officer. Don't act like some hired thug... Though I know that's exactly what you were, an elite hired thug." Ji Huaishu pressed a hand to her forehead. "We're not working on your first day. I'm taking you to the workshop to collect the Relic you care about most."

Ji Huaishu headed toward the stairwell to one side. Chu Hengkong lingered where he was for a moment, quietly flexing his ankle.

He had acted normal during their conversation, but inwardly, he had been startled. Ji Huaishu's hook had carried far more force than it seemed on the surface. For an instant, he had almost thought demonized Hugos had swept his feet out from under him. Such monstrous strength, utterly disproportionate to her build, could not be explained by common sense—unless she had been born extraordinarily gifted.

Someone like her was considered untalented in Mr. Ji's eyes. Just how high were the standards for martial artists in another world? He suppressed his doubts and quickly followed his captain, a faint thrill stirring in his heart.

I need to find a chance to have a proper fight with her.

Their breakfast was goose-meat buns and soy milk. Captain Huaishu, eating as she walked, led him into a remarkable "elevator."

The elevator was deep within the headquarters building, set at the end of a narrow corridor. A faint scent of sandalwood hung inside it. The brown walls around them felt coarse to the touch, patterned with streaks like raw wood grain. It rose at tremendous speed, reminding Chu Hengkong of Dubai's Burj Khalifa. That had once been the tallest building in the world. The oil-rich emirs had used their extravagantly lavish wealth to erect that tower of money, and its elevators had once been the fastest as well, able to reach the top floor in under a minute.

Yet the headquarters elevator was far faster than the Burj Khalifa's. They had already stood inside for over two minutes. Had this been his first trip to the "upper level," Chu Hengkong would have been shocked by the height he calculated in his head. Now, he could only marvel at the unfathomable technology.

This was already his second time here.

The elevator stopped soundlessly, and the panel above their heads opened wide. The howl of whirling weapons swept down from overhead. The sky of water curtains and the Tide of weapons, close enough to touch, appeared before Chu Hengkong once again. He had returned to the place where he had been summoned. The instant he left the elevator, Chu Hengkong flattened himself against the ground. Ji Huaishu ahead of him did exactly the same.

"Is there a normal road here?!" Chu Hengkong shouted. He had to shout; the Tide of weapons was far too loud.

"There used to be one, but the war destroyed them all!" Ji Huaishu shouted back, passing him a small cloth bundle with some weight to it. "Don't run around. Follow me!"

Ji Huaishu knew the "safe route" here well. The two crawled forward for around ten meters, then rose into half-crouches where the Tide was a little higher. After another dozen or so meters, they lowered themselves again. By the time they reached the platform's edge, they were standing fully upright. Ji Huaishu shook open the bundle. Inside was a simple glider that had been rolled up.

"This is a Relic too?" Chu Hengkong efficiently arranged his equipment. The small glider consisted of a triangular piece of cloth painted with a magic array and several wooden sticks. Calling its safety questionable would have been too generous—it looked more like a portable suicide device.

"Standard Resurrection Corps equipment. Grip the triangular frame tightly to activate it." Ji Huaishu gave him a thumbs-up. "Let's go, newbie. If you fall from here, you'll become the biggest joke in the entire corps!"

She stepped back two paces, raised the tiny glider that looked as crude as a toy, and charged out with a cheer. Professional athletes on Earth would probably have been so enraged by the sight that they'd suffer strokes. Chu Hengkong wrapped his tentacle tightly around the frame and leaped into the wind after her.

His vision instantly turned pure white. The violent high-altitude wind nearly robbed him of his hearing. For one fleeting moment, he thought he had jumped into a crack between heaven and earth, where there was nothing but endless loneliness and falling. Then a streak of gold appeared in that white world: the girl's ponytail swaying behind her head. Her delicate face turned toward him through the wind, and in eyes bright as purple jade, Faint Light rippled like water.

"Light," she said.

Light truly appeared. Two rings of faint golden radiance formed transparent spheres, completely enveloping the two people in the air. Chu Hengkong immediately felt lighter. The noise and wind pressure receded as if they did not exist. The magic array on the wing surface glimmered, sending a wondrous thrust and lift through it that allowed him to move steadily through the air.

He made minute adjustments to the wing angle, curving toward the girl. As they drew close, their two spheres of light merged, like two glowing raindrops becoming one in the high sky.

Ji Huaishu waggled her eyebrows at him. "For a professional killer, your first time gliding isn't much to look at."

"I had it under control by the time you made your move." Chu Hengkong kept a stiff face.

"Really?" The female captain drew out the word.

"One second later." He admitted helplessly. "Is this your ability?"

"It's more like a little trick. Now turn around and look behind us. You'll understand this place at a glance."

Chu Hengkong slowly turned his head. A brown wall that seemed to run from heaven to earth crashed forcefully into his vision. From farther away, he realized it was actually a magnificent colossal tower. The place they had been earlier was the tower's highest floor. As his gaze traveled down its body, he saw that more than a hundred thick, solid "branches" extended from its brown surface, which resembled tree bark.

Those branches twisted and entwined with one another, stretching into the far distance. At the end of every cluster of branches rested a patch of land like an island, upon which stood gray workshops and stone-built towers. Dozens of "sky islands" spread outward in rings, like a gray crown of leaves covering a city. No—not "like." They were genuine branches and leaves.

The colossal tower was a giant tree that held up the sky.

"Now it's time for some friendly captain science." Ji Huaishu whistled. "Dragon's Return City is a three-dimensional city, divided into three levels. These sky islands are the uppermost region—the 'workshops' where Relics are salvaged, appraised, and sold. The spoils you care about most are on one of the workshop islands. Once we get there, stay close behind me. Don't run around."

But Chu Hengkong did not take in a word. He had even cast his spoils from his mind. Before such a magnificent, even majestic sight, a mere Relic was like dust.

For the first time in a long while, a boyish joy rose in the killer's heart. Once again, he marveled that he had truly come to another world. He was heading for a workshop on a sky island, with a golden-haired girl who could control light at his side.