Weapons

The woman asked curiously, "What was that sound when you threw that punch just now?"

Lu Ren was in a rare good mood and explained, "It was the sound of my fist breaking through the air."

"What about the white vapor around your arm?"

"That was formed after intense exercise raised my body temperature. The sweat clinging to my arm heated up and evaporated rapidly from friction with the air as I punched at high speed."

"I see. That must require tremendous speed and strength, right?"

Li Shu seemed somewhat disappointed. She had thought it was something like inner force or true qi.

Lu Ren neither confirmed nor denied it, offering no reply to the woman.

This was not the martial arts those online masters bragged about. This was genuine traditional martial arts. Without a powerful body and exceptional physical conditioning to support it, even the most exquisite fist techniques would amount to nothing.

Practice punches but not conditioning, and all your efforts would be wasted by old age.

Your strikes would feel like scratches to your opponent.

That was exactly what it meant.

"My name is Li Shu." Seeing that Lu Ren did not respond, Li Shu introduced herself instead.

Li Shu?

That name sounded familiar!

Lu Ren immediately remembered. She seemed to be the woman he had encountered in the Otherworld Wasteland.

Lu Ren raised a brow. "It was you."

Hmm, but her face had been smeared like a tabby cat's, making it impossible to see clearly. He had only thought her features were decent. No wonder she had seemed familiar.

Li Shu smiled bitterly. "I wasn't that easy to forget, was I?"

Lu Ren no longer had the vigilance he had possessed in that otherworld. Somewhat interested, he said, "I didn't expect you to survive."

No wonder she had said this was a society ruled by law. That had clearly been a veiled jab at the scene of him slaughtering everything in the Otherworld Wasteland. This woman was rather sarcastic too. No wonder she had been so calm in that otherworld; her mental fortitude was fairly strong.

Li Shu sincerely thanked him. "If Mr. Lu hadn't killed those two monsters, there was no way I could have survived."

"How did you survive?"

Li Shu said, "After I got separated from them, I found the basement of an apartment building. I relied on the food and water in my backpack to hold on until the seventh day. When I was on the verge of death, I never expected to return to the real world."

Even now, she still felt lingering fear. If she had been any later, she probably really would have died.

Lu Ren nodded slightly. "You were quite lucky. No Contaminated Creatures bothered you. That basement must have been very well sealed."

"Yes, I nearly suffocated to death in there."

Li Shu still felt shaken. "I never imagined I'd experience something like this in my life."

"You were lucky, and you have a good heart." After thinking for a moment, Lu Ren added, "But sometimes kindness can also be the reason you die."

Li Shu froze. "Can kindness also bring persecution?"

Lu Ren did not explain whether kindness could be destroyed. It was a question without a fixed answer.

He said seriously, "If you encounter something like this again, perhaps during the first few days—or even while food is plentiful—everyone will get along and help one another. But when food becomes scarce and water runs low, people's hearts will gradually change." Li Shu, who had never experienced such brutal hardship, looked dazed. "What will they become?"

Lu Ren glanced at her and answered, "They'll eat people."

Eating people did not only mean that literally. There were countless cases of sacrificing others to save oneself. Even he himself could not truly trust anyone in that otherworld. Who knew whether the other person had been possessed?

After saying that, he ignored Li Shu's expression of disbelief. He returned to his room, showered, and tidied himself up. Then Lu Ren made himself some medicinal cuisine. Only after feeling warmth spread through his entire body did he lie down on the sofa in satisfaction.

Medicinal cuisine was enormously expensive. In this one month alone, Lu Ren had spent nearly three hundred thousand, much of it on costly medicinal ingredients.

He found that difficult to accept. Lu Ren urgently needed to find a new source of income.

As for being a sparring partner at Li Ran Club, honestly, spending so much time on that would be better spent practicing his fist techniques.

A scholar might be poor, but martial arts demanded wealth!!!

Lu Ren let out a long sigh. Nearly three hundred thousand in a single month—at this rate, his ten-million prize money would probably be depleted in just one or two years.

If he kept living off his savings, he would not even be able to afford this villa.

Lu Ren rubbed his hands and glanced at the villa he had acquired.

Hmm... if he ran short on money, he could consider selling this villa. The location was excellent; it was definitely worth more than ten million!

Early the next morning, after finishing his morning training, Lu Ren left home and went straight to a cold weapons shop near Li Ran Combat Club. After he gave Li Cunyi's referral, the shop owner measured him, had Lu Ren test the weight with an iron rod, and then measured the weapon length that felt most natural in his hands.

The owner said somewhat unexpectedly, "Looks like you can handle swords of any size quite comfortably."

Lu Ren chuckled. "I've practiced with all of them for a while."

"Which are you best with: long swords, medium swords, or short swords?"

Lu Ren was somewhat puzzled. "What's the difference between those three?"

The owner explained, "A long sword is roughly one and a half to one point six meters long, depending on your height and arm span. Excluding the hilt, the blade should be around one point four meters. This kind of sword is generally for the battlefield and can even be called a horse-chopping sword, mostly used for fighting in war. Medium swords are around ninety-four or one hundred and one centimeters long. Short swords are somewhat longer than daggers and are mostly used for close-range combat or assassination."

Lu Ren pondered for a while before asking, "Which kind would you recommend?"

The owner looked at Lu Ren's nearly one-meter-eighty-five frame and said, "A medium sword. Long swords are too conspicuous, and I think Martial Daoists like you do more close-range fighting. Long weapons often don't offer much of an advantage. I'll tailor it to your build."

The owner seemed very familiar with people like them. He had clearly customized weapons for many Martial Daoists before. Perhaps he was from a traditional martial arts family himself.

The owner recorded some figures in his notebook, then asked, "Have you practiced any explosive techniques?"

"Explosive techniques?"

"You don't know?" The owner looked surprised. "Among Martial Daoists, don't some Fist Law Schools have what they call the bursting forth of heart and intent? They stimulate their own potential, causing their muscles to swell and their bodies to grow larger in a short time, gaining greater strength and resistance to blows while improving their physical abilities in every respect?"

"Well, I haven't practiced that. You know, I use a sword."

Falcon Fist primarily trained the arms and back muscles, which also benefited sword use from another angle.

As for martial arts that could turn someone into a little giant, Lu Ren wanted to practice them too, but unfortunately, he lacked the resources.

The owner nodded slightly. "Come collect your sword in a week."

Lu Ren said, "I want the best materials available!"

"Then it'll be rather expensive."