“Bai Yi!”
At the gate of the Np.9 High School in Yuanyang City, Zhang Yun, who was about to go home, suddenly saw a familiar figure in front of him.
It had been almost an hour since school let out. Most students and teachers had already left, leaving the school gate empty.
The sunset had consumed the sky, casting orange-red light and gray shadows on the ground. The intertwining light and shadow fell on the tall, thin silhouette of the young man. He walked forward with his head down, lost in thought.
“Hey, haven’t you gone home yet?”
Zhang Yun quickly ran over, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder.
Just as Zhang Yun’s hand was about to touch his shoulder, the young man suddenly turned around, narrowly avoiding his touch.
The orange-red light fell on that pale face. For a moment, as those eyes with faint dark circles looked back at him under the burning twilight, Zhang Yun had a fleeting impression of something inhuman.
But this illusion vanished instantly. When Zhang Yun focused his gaze, he only saw a hint of surprise in the other’s eyes at being suddenly called out to.
With this perfectly timed surprise, Bai Yi slowly blinked and asked in return, “Zhang Yun? You’re going home now? Were you practicing at school again?”“Yeah! Teacher Tu said I have talent, but since I only started learning martial arts at eighteen and never practiced anything related before, I have no foundation at all. So I need to practice more usually to build a solid foundation as quickly as possible.”
“To be honest, I never thought I’d have talent in martial arts. It’s the first time I’ve experienced being treated as gifted. I’m still not used to it…” He recalled Teacher Tu’s enthusiastic praise and felt a bit uncomfortable.
Zhang Yun rubbed his forehead and grinned, showing a mouthful of white teeth, completely forgetting the question he had just asked Bai Yi.
Although after he finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that his classmate sitting next to him seemed to have been determined as an ordinary person with average martial arts aptitude. In the whole class, he was probably below average. Was his current behavior a bit too boastful?
Especially since this classmate had always been so excellent in the past that others could only look up to him, but ironically, in the new era of spiritual awakening, he had suffered a setback and was determined to be an ordinary person who could never achieve anything in martial arts no matter how hard he tried… Speaking of which, with the arrival of the extraordinary era, the former loser suddenly becoming gifted in the supernatural realm, while the once omnipotent genius turned into an ordinary person in the extraordinary era, being left behind by countless people who used to be inferior to him – such a cliché setting really had the flavor of a young adult novel antagonist. Add an on-the-spot descent into villainy, and it would be even more typical.
Zhang Yun couldn’t help but start his internal theater again.
Bai Yi looked at him with a subtle expression: “…”
…What a strange emotional fluctuation. He felt like this guy was thinking something not very friendly about him?
When Zhang Yun came back to his senses, he was met with a pair of dead fish eyes with dark circles. Did he feel like he was being looked down upon? It wasn’t a contemptuous look with malice, but more like the expression cats naturally show when looking at stupid bipeds.
He gave a dry laugh out of embarrassment.
…It seemed he had unintentionally cast Bai Yi into a weird script again, and it was an antagonist’s script?
Actually, it didn’t fit at all.
— What kind of genius suddenly becomes useless, gets surpassed by people they once left behind, feels all sorts of jealousy and pain, hates their own incompetence, envies others’ luck, and then turns evil and falls from grace — that kind of antagonist script… Once you try to put Bai Yi’s face on this type of antagonist: that lazy expression, the dark circles under his eyes that seem like a born setting that can’t be erased, and those dead fish eyes that often show boredom… Ah! The antagonist character setting instantly collapses!
— “My Deskmate Can’t Be This Kind of Person!”
Zhang Yun put on a serious face: adding quotation marks to show solemnity.
That’s right, no matter what, Bai Yi could never become that kind of person!
…He felt that Bai Yi was more suited for the script of #Although I don’t have supernatural talent but that doesn’t matter I’ll become a super scientist and crush supernatural beings with my super high IQ isn’t that good#.
“Stop!” Zhang Yun’s uncontrollable mental theater was suddenly interrupted. Bai Yi raised his finger and waved it in front of Zhang Yun’s vacant eyes.
“Illusions, illusions, they’re all illusions! Whatever you were just thinking, anyway…” At this point, Bai Yi raised his hand and snapped his fingers, putting on a deep, mysterious expression that would surely be close-up in a manga, and slowly uttered four words, “For-get-it-all!”
!!!
Zhang Yun’s pupils shook, and his expression went blank for a full five seconds.
After five seconds, his shocked gaze moved slightly, and the big “!!!” above his head turned into “???”.
…His memory seemed to be intact?
By the way, why did he instinctively believe in such an outlandish thing as his deskmate knowing magic?
Was it because his deskmate’s acting was too convincing, or was it because the quality about him was so unique that now that supernatural powers had appeared, saying he knew magic didn’t seem out of place at all?
Here’s the English translation, maintaining the past tense except for thoughts, and preserving the specified names and terms:
No, no, no, now was not the time to think about this issue. The key point now was — he had socially died!
Click.
With a light sound, the flash of the phone camera illuminated his dumbfounded face. Zhang Yun’s blank gaze slowly moved upward, meeting Bai Yi’s face with a corner of his mouth still rising uncontrollably.
“Oh my, I captured a very interesting expression,” Bai Yi waved his phone, his face wearing a mischievous smile. He found Zhang Yun’s account in the class group chat and casually sent the photo over. “…A precious embarrassing photo of the future great martial arts master, it should be worth a lot in the future, right?”
Although he had heard teachers and others jokingly or seriously refer to him as the “future great martial arts master” more than once, this was the first time he heard Bai Yi say it. While feeling embarrassed, Zhang Yun inexplicably felt like a fan being praised by his idol, and he couldn’t help but grin foolishly.
“Haha, it’s too early to talk about the future, actually I think I…”
“So work hard, future great martial arts master,” Bai Yi patted his shoulder, encouraging him in a light tone. “When you become famous later, I’ll be able to stay at home playing games and make a living by selling your embarrassing history!”
“???” Zhang Yun’s face was instantly covered with question marks.
By the time he reacted, he found that Bai Yi had already disappeared.
Looking at the empty school gate, he could only dumbly utter one word, “…Huh?”
…Oh right, what was he going to ask earlier? It seemed he wanted to ask Bai Yi why he was leaving school so late?
****
“La la la la la la~”
Bai Yi was hopping like an elementary school student on a field trip, stepping precisely on the squares of the stone path on his way home.
He hummed a tune whose lyrics he had forgotten, walking all the way to near his apartment building. When he was only about ten steps away from the staircase entrance, the danger radar in his subconscious suddenly gave a warning!
— There was a sudden attack from above. At his normal walking speed, it would hit him squarely on the head after one more step. With that speed and force, if he were still a mortal flesh and blood, he would surely have his head split open and bleeding instantly, or worse, lose his life.
— And if his head didn’t split open and bleed, it would inevitably expose the secret that he was no longer mortal flesh and blood.
His brain analyzed the possible situations he might face in less than a second, and Bai Yi retracted his raised foot.
In what seemed like a second to ordinary people, it was enough for him to complete the series of actions from “instinctively sensing danger” → “brain analyzing the upcoming situation, judging that just stopping would perfectly avoid the attack” → “body stopping in place according to the brain’s judgment”.
And in the next second after Bai Yi stopped, he heard a shout from behind —
“Watch out!”
As the voice fell, a figure also rushed over quickly.
Like a launched rocket, the rushing figure didn’t pause at all. As it arrived in front of Bai Yi, it leaped high into the air, using its waist as an axis, rotating the lower body half a circle, and kicked out with the momentum!
Bang!
A black shadow flew heavily from above, one step away from Bai Yi, and crashed heavily into the wall of the apartment building. A large amount of soil splattered, accompanied by the sound of ceramic shards shattering on the ground.
— It was a flowerpot full of soil.
Among the broken flowerpot shards and scattered soil clumps, a bunch of deformed flowers lay there, their petals covered in dirt spots.
“Phew…” The person in mid-air landed lightly on the ground. Their face, flushed from the sudden burst of speed and strength just now, still carried undiminished anxiety and concern.
Xia Jiajia exhaled and turned back to look at the person she had protected behind her. “Bai Yi, are you alright…?”
She met a pair of overly calm eyes. Forget about panic or fear, there wasn’t even a hint of surprise or curiosity.
The unfinished words in Xia Jiajia’s mouth suddenly got stuck.
It was Bai Yi who took the initiative to start the conversation, avoiding awkwardness. “Sister Jiajia, are you on holiday?”
It was early February now. They, as high school seniors, still had classes, but university students should be on holiday.
“Mm, I guess you could say I’m on holiday,” Xia Jiajia reacted and answered, “I just finished my last exam yesterday. Once the results are out, it’ll officially be the holiday. Since I’m a local, unlike out-of-town classmates who have to stay at school to wait, I just came back directly. Worst case, I’ll make another trip to school.”
While they were speaking, Xia Jiajia had enough time to gather her thoughts that had just been in disarray. She frowned at the flower pot in the corner of the wall, then looked up at the building above – this apartment building was adjacent to the one where the two of them lived, reaching eleven stories high. In this old district where buildings were generally not tall, it was quite eye-catching.
On almost every floor’s balcony of the apartment building, flower pots were placed. This made a certain gap in the center of the ninth floor balcony particularly prominent. With Bai Yi’s eyesight, he could clearly see the obvious gap among that row of flowers.
Compared to Bai Yi who got the answer through direct observation afterwards, Xia Jiajia had noticed it the moment she saw the flower pot fall when they went out. Her brow furrowed even deeper as she looked up at the ninth floor balcony without moving.
“The railing seems to be broken and hasn’t been repaired. It’s too careless to just put flower pots there. They could fall with a strong wind. This is no joke if it hits someone. No, it has already hit someone, or would have if I hadn’t bumped into it by chance.”
“This won’t do. We must go up and talk to them about it,” she said, rolling up her sleeves and trying to pull Bai Yi to go upstairs and find the people. “You’re also almost a victim who nearly got hit. Even if nothing happened and we can’t ask for compensation, we should at least remind them to be careful next time…”
But Bai Yi, whom she tried to pull, remained motionless. Xia Jiajia, who had just taken a step, didn’t realize what it meant that she couldn’t move this seemingly frail high school student at all. She turned back in surprise and urged, “Let’s go! We…”
“No need, there’s probably no one home.”
… For several consecutive days, there had been no spiritual pollution from that room on the ninth floor next door, obviously because no one was home.
Of course, he couldn’t say this reason. Bai Yi casually offered an explanation. “I saw them leave a few days ago, and it seems they haven’t come back yet. Let’s remind them when they return.”
“More importantly,” his gaze turned to Xia Jiajia, scanning over the leg that had just kicked the flower pot away, “Sister Jiajia, since when did you have such quick reflexes and strength?”
… She used to be just an ordinary homebody.
Since no one was home, there was nothing they could do. Xia Jiajia also switched topics in an instant, showing a “so you finally noticed” expression, and smiled mysteriously. “After a brief separation, one should look at a person with new eyes. I’m not the same person I used to be.”
“So, has Sister Jiajia also started practicing martial arts?”
The two casually sat down on the steps in front of Xia Jiajia’s door.
“That’s right. It’s not just you high school students who have martial arts classes now. Although our university was a bit later than you, it wasn’t by much,” Xia Jiajia sat on the steps, resting her chin on one hand, and spoke with a smile.
“However, university is different from high school. They didn’t open a specific martial arts course, but instead created a martial arts club. It’s not mandatory for everyone to learn martial arts, only those with talent are recruited as official members. Of course, those who are interested can also learn, but the treatment isn’t the same as official members.”
Bai Yi nodded thoughtfully. “I understand. University students have actually passed the best age for martial arts training. There’s no need for people without much talent to invest too much in practicing martial arts, as it might not be worth it. After all, they’ve already been admitted to university and chosen their majors, so it’s perfectly fine to continue with their original life plans. High school students are different. They’re at a more suitable age for martial arts training, and if they’re not good at studying, it gives them another path to follow. I think the authorities probably made this decision based on such considerations?”
“I guess so too,” Xia Jiajia agreed, and she didn’t have much to complain about. “So, currently, junior high school students receive the most martial arts resources and training, followed by high school students, and then university students. For talented ones like me, learning in the martial arts club comes with certain benefits and free resources. For students without talent but interested, the club teaches basic knowledge for free, but beyond that, they have to pay.”
“… As for working adults in society, I heard that martial arts training classes will be opened to the public later, but it might take some time. After all, there’s not enough manpower right now, and the first batch of martial arts practitioners have basically all been assigned to schools as teachers.”
At this point, she showed a brilliant smile. “So, we’re really lucky. If it had been just a year or two later, we wouldn’t have the same treatment we have now.”
Xia Jiajia solemnly clasped her hands together, even closing her eyes and bowing seriously three times: “Yes, thanks to the Lord of the Heavenly Capital choosing this time to return!”
When she opened her eyes, she saw the young man beside her also smiling, his pure black pupils, more pristine than cat’s eye gems, reflecting the burning light of dusk. He spoke softly.
“Yes, we’re truly fortunate.”
“… However, the Lord of the Heavenly Capital probably wouldn’t like being called ‘old man’.”
Xia Jiajia was stunned for a moment, then waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. The Lord of the Heavenly Capital won’t hear me call him that anyway.”
“Is that so?”
“Isn’t that right? Could he really sense the entire world with his divine consciousness like in fantasy novels? Hmm… that can’t be, can it?”
Xia Jiajia suddenly recalled the legends about the Twelve Cities of the Heavenly Capital. They were able to create even the Sword Realm, a blessed land within a cave. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them immortals. Could the Lord of the Heavenly Capital really be capable of such a feat?
She appeared to be strongly shocked.
“I’m going home for dinner first. As for the answer to this question…” Bai Yi slowly got up from the steps and walked towards the stairway. His voice floated softly from the dark corridor.
“Well, who knows?”
****
[Who knows what these guys are thinking? The Yao Country has already publicly announced plans to popularize martial arts throughout the country, with clear plans for all stages from schools to society. Neighboring countries in the east like the Sang Country and the Island Alliance, which share the same cultural sphere as Yao, have also been influenced and implemented policies to spread martial arts, mainly in the form of opening martial arts schools and dojos. But what about our Chenxing Empire? There’s been absolutely no movement!]
[It’s ridiculous, truly ridiculous! Previously, they blocked information about extraordinaries on the internet, and I even tolerated when they pushed news about martial arts as fake rumors spread by Yao Country. But now that the whole world knows the truth, the imperial upper echelons are still burying their heads in the sand, playing deaf and dumb. A month has passed without the slightest movement. That’s enough! Do they really think we’re all so easily fooled and manipulated?]
[No way, right? You people of the Chenxing Empire don’t actually believe that the bigwigs in the imperial upper ranks are necessarily smarter, more rational, and more visionary sages, do you? To be honest, sometimes those sitting in those chairs up there might just be a bunch of apes. All the orders they issue are just to protect their bananas and plunder more bananas from others.]
[…Anyway, many people are now very dissatisfied with the deception from the upper ranks. My friends and I have agreed to join the parade three days later to protest against the empire’s arbitrary policies. We have the right to know the truth, we have the right to obtain the key to the extraordinary. This is a right granted by the empire to every citizen!]
[I don’t think protests will do any good. It’s just another way for the imperial upper ranks to fool people. To hell with the parliament, to hell with the cabinet, to hell with the emperor! I’ve figured them out!]
Due to the influence of the Rhythm of All Things, Bai Yi deliberately waited at school until the crowds thinned before leaving. After being delayed by Zhang Yun and Xia Jiajia, he returned to the second floor of the apartment much later than his usual dinner time.
Too lazy to bother cooking, he simply boiled a pot of water, then flopped onto the sofa. Taking advantage of the time while the water was boiling, he scrolled through his phone. “It’s decided, tonight’s dinner will be plain noodles in clear soup!”
The Extraordinary Forum was particularly lively again today. This forum, which had no confidentiality requirements, had long since become a widely recognized gathering place for extraordinaries as martial arts spread.
There were all sorts of discussions – people exchanging information, searching for clues about the extraordinary, discussing world situations. But of course, most of the discussions were related to Yao Country’s nationwide martial arts training policy.
Naturally, people from Yao Country were discussing enthusiastically. Students who had already started practicing martial arts were posting experience threads, threads about finding masters, and learning exchange threads almost every minute. Countries like the Sang Country that were closely following Yao in promoting martial arts were the same. Those who had devoted themselves to martial arts practice were surprisingly harmonious in their exchanges. There were also many people from other countries frantically praising these countries, seemingly desperate to change their nationality on the spot to receive instruction.
In contrast, the group of stubborn countries led by the Chenxing Empire were being harshly criticized.
Foreigners were better off, their minds focused on practicing martial arts, paying attention to their own progress in martial arts cultivation, at most occasionally gossiping and laughing at the jokes about the Chenxing Empire’s circle. The natives of the Chenxing Empire and its surrounding countries were the main force of critics, especially as they watched the eastern region promoting and popularizing martial arts while their government did nothing, apparently determined to keep playing blind. The public, feeling they were being treated like fools, had almost exploded.
— If it weren’t for the fact that the countries in that circle still followed ancient traditions, not only retaining the noble class but also having most of the country’s military power in the hands of the nobility, leaving ordinary people temporarily without the power to contend with them, it wouldn’t just be arguments on the internet and a few rounds of street parades.
Bubble bubble. Bubble bubble bubble.
The sound of boiling water came from the kitchen. Bai Yi lifted the pot lid and gazed at the bubbling water through the wisps of white steam.
“…It’s starting to boil.”
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