Tai Chi

(Brain storage)

"Holy shit!"

Maybe it was the collective taunting, but that one sentence completely ignited the anger of the people across from them. They strode quickly toward the group.

"Call the police! Stay back and don't come up!"

Lin Yiyi threw out those words, then charged forward with Ei, adding at the same time:

"Don't beat them all to death, or it'll count as excessive self-defense. We'll be in trouble too."

It was easy enough to understand. Having learned from before, Ei knew she could not conjure weapons out of thin air, so she simply fought with her fists and feet, engaging them in close combat.

"What are you doing?! What are you doing?!"

The hotel security guards finally arrived and tried to stop them, but Lin Yiyi and Ei were already fighting the thugs. They could not separate them for the moment.

"Protect those people first!"

At that moment, Lin Yiyi had one person gripped in both hands and another pinned beneath his foot. Taking advantage of the brief breathing room, he hurriedly called out to the guards.

With no other option, the guards had to protect the crowd of onlookers around them first.

Lin Yiyi turned and saw someone coming at him. He decisively let go, rolled across the ground, and sprang back to his feet.

"Whew—"

He took a deep breath, rounded his chest and straightened his back, bent his knees and relaxed his waist, loosened his shoulders and dropped his elbows, sinking his qi into his dantian.

Lin Yiyi's hands traced a huge circle.

"Wow, wow, wow! Look at the boss—he's so cool!"

"Damn, Tai Chi!"

"Boss, beat them up!"

"Ei-baby, get him!"

The young people behind them erupted into cheers.

Since he could not hit too hard and seriously injure them, Lin Yiyi chose the relatively gentle traditional martial art of Tai Chi, intending to use their force against them.

Seeing someone kick at him, Lin Yiyi caught the leg with his left hand and struck the man's lower abdomen without hesitation with his right palm!

In practical Tai Chi, the essence lay in overcoming hardness with softness and winning through skill. When a fist came, one deflected it, like a gentle breeze brushing willow branches; when a kick came, one caught it with a hand, using four ounces to redirect a thousand pounds. Lin Yiyi understood this well. He decisively used Brush Knee and Twist Step, flowing as naturally as drifting clouds and running water, cleverly neutralizing the powerful attack.

After just one exchange, the man was down and unable to rise again.

The youth looked in another direction. One of the thugs leaped high into the air and came crashing toward him with a Superman punch.

Lin Yiyi stepped back, caught the incoming fist, dissipated its force in midair, then redirected the attacking power back at him, slamming him viciously into the ground.

In the blink of an eye, along with the man he had stepped on earlier, Lin Yiyi had taken care of three people.

Looking back, he saw that Ei had also effortlessly knocked down three people in quick succession.

That left only the blue-haired leader.

Lin Yiyi slowly walked toward him.

"Fuck you—"

The leader looked powerful as he immediately kicked at Lin Yiyi.

But instead of using Brush Knee and Twist Step as before, the youth turned sideways and launched a groin kick, striking him squarely between the legs without hesitation.

"AAAAAAAAAH—"

There had not been much force behind that move. For one thing, he did not want to pay medical bills; for another, he did not want to spend a few days in jail for excessive self-defense.

The leader immediately collapsed to the ground from the pain between his legs and began acting like a total know-it-all:

"You're finished! I'll make you pay until you go bankrupt! Then I'll make those women of yours serve me properly! Ow—"

Lin Yiyi could not be bothered to explain anything to him. He then walked over to the crowd and said, "Don't spread too much about what happened today."

"There are already so many witnesses. There's no way this can be kept quiet."

Quite a few people nodded afterward.

"What happened here?"

Before long, a group of righteous people in uniform came in. Seeing people sprawled all over the floor, they were thoroughly surprised.

"Officer, those two ganged up on us! They beat my brothers so badly they can't even get up!"

"The seven of you lost to two people? Are you kidding me?"

"Please come with us to make a statement."

Lin Yiyi nodded, then took Ei by the hand and said to the officers, "We acted in self-defense. More than ten people here saw it."

"The security guards saw it too, and so did the hotel staff. Oh, and those people filming videos—great, now there's evidence for everything."

Lin Yiyi sneered and looked at the blue-haired leader lying on the ground. "Let me tell you this first: you don't have any injuries on you."

"Bullshit! I... it really doesn't hurt anymore?"

"No way! How could this be??!!"

Noticing that all pain had vanished from his body, he could not help but pale in shock.

How was he supposed to make them pay now????

"Get up, get up! Take them all away!"

What shocked him even more was that his subordinates also got to their feet one after another, looking completely unharmed.

"Please cooperate with us."

One of the uniformed officers said this, and Lin Yiyi then told everyone to get back to whatever they had been doing, whether that meant waiting for him or returning to the hotel. They should stop gathering here.

"Thank you both for your cooperation. After verification, both of you acted in self-defense. You may leave."

"Alright, thank you for the trouble."

The youth put on his cowboy hat and left the building with Ei. They were fine, but those who had attempted to hurt people would not have such an easy time.

They took a taxi back to the hotel, where Youyu and the other two, along with some people who had not returned to their rooms, were waiting for them.

Today was Friday, so most of them were around the same age. There were few middle and high school students since they still had classes, though there were not none.

"Boss, boss! You're amazing! Can you teach me a move or two?"

"Ei-chan is so badass too! She took on three people by herself!"

"You're seriously so strong! You can even fight while wearing cosplay!"

Amid the chatter, Lin Yiyi looked awkwardly at little Youyu.

"Um... can you not tell anyone about this...?"

As a blogger with a million followers, she should understand how important it was to manage her words and actions. Otherwise, once bad public opinion came her way, her livelihood could be ruined.

Little Youyu nodded blankly, making it hard for Lin Yiyi not to believe that she really would keep quiet.

Then the fellow anime fans resumed their excited chatter.

"Boss, boss, why don't you spar with Ei-baby and see who's stronger?"

Someone in the crowd suddenly started egging them on.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Lin Yiyi awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "You're joking, right? How could I possibly beat a god...?"

I'm a mage. Why the hell would I go play warrior?

Suddenly, he felt a touch on his shoulder. Lin Yiyi turned around and met a pair of cool, sacred purple eyes.

"It's alright. I'll go easy on you."

"I would also like to see what an otherworldly visitor is capable of."

Ei smiled faintly as she spoke.

Lin Yiyi scratched his head. "Then I'll be relying on your mercy, General."

He also wanted to know what techniques a weapon-wielding god he often saw in games would use barehanded.

Ei stood with one leg forward and one back, lowering her center of gravity slightly. This was the forward-bent ready stance.

Just as Lin Yiyi had expected, even if the official sources had no information on unarmed fighting, he could still guess that the martial art Ei used was karate, which employed both hands and feet.

After some thought, Lin Yiyi still chose Tai Chi. He was unsure of Ei's exact strength, so he intended to be cautious and adapt to whatever came.

His qi sank into his dantian, his chest rounded and back straightened. He began once more with White Crane Spreads Its Wings.

"Wow, wow, wow! So cool, so cool!"

The young people nearby could not tell what schools the two belonged to. They only thought it looked incredibly awesome.

Ei made the first move, feinting twice with her fists before attacking.