Stranger Danger

Dream Master was standing on a small hill and plucking a withered yellow flower from a dead branch. His movement was gentle, and his expression serious.

The next moment, the flower actually regained its vitality and lushness. It was even giving off a sweet floral scent.

Dream Master held the flower to his nose, closed his eyes lightly, and took a small sniff. He looked like he enjoyed the scent very much.

It was at this moment a colorful, phantasmal butterfly flew over from somewhere. It landed right on top of the flower.

“Is it done?”

Dream Master opened his eyes and caressed the butterfly gently. “Well done.”

A dozen or so breaths later, more butterflies flew in from every direction. When they got close, they circled around Dream Master as if dancing.

From a distance, it looked as if Dream Master was surrounded by a whirlwind of flowers.

“Alright.”

Dream Master held out his hand, and the butterflies dropped the Nature’s Shells they were carrying into his palm. After he put them all away, he said smilingly, “Save the games for another time, okay? We have a guest.”

As if they were sentient, the butterflies immediately gathered behind Dream Master until they formed a tidal wave of colors. At the same time, a man approached from a distance.

It didn’t look like the man was moving quickly, but he arrived at the hill Dream Master was standing on in just the blink of an eye.

After arriving at the foot of the hill, the man stopped in his tracks and looked up.

He was Defeated.

The two men stared at each other for a moment. One man had eyes as gentle as a dream, and the other as tough and stubborn as a rock.

“You killed those people.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a declaration of certainty.

“I did.”

Dream Master admitted without fanfare. “Are you here to take revenge for them?”

Defeated countered, “I do not know any of them. Why would I take revenge for them?”

“Are you carrying out the heavens’ will[1] then?” Dream Master asked.

“What does the heavens’ will have anything to do with me?” Defeated countered again.

“Then why are you here?” Dream Master asked.

“I am here for you,” Defeated answered.

“For me? I do not remember offending you in any way!” Dream Master asked. He knew how strong Defeated was. There was no way his Dream Butterflies could kill the man on their own, which was why he hadn’t sent them after him. He had no wish of entering the attention of a powerful enemy he couldn’t kill.

Unfortunately, Defeated came to him anyway.

“You have not!” Defeated shook his head.

“If you’re not looking to enact righteous justice, nor are you here in search of vengeance, then why have you sought me out?” Dream Master asked puzzledly.

Defeated looked at Dream Master and declared with full seriousness, “I wish to challenge you do a duel!”

“A duel?” Dream Master was surprised to hear this, but in hindsight, it made perfect sense.

He had heard of Defeated’s character. He knew that he was obsessed with martial arts and adored dueling against those stronger than him.

“I can tell that you’re stronger than me. You’re at least a top five elite in the Human Champions ranking, but I have never met you before. That is why I wish to challenge you to a duel.”

Defeated clasped his hands together in salute. “I look forward to your teachings!”

“Thank you for your praise,” said Dream Master with a smile, “but I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. I have business to attend to, you see.”

“I look forward to your teachings!” Defeated did not give an inch.

Dream Master remained calm and collected as he said again, “I’m truly sorry, but I really am quite busy today. I’ll happily trade pointers with you on the next opportunity, but not now.”

There was a moment of silence. Then, Defeated saluted Dream Master again and said, “Apologies.”

Like an arrow, Defeated started running up the hill in a straight line. Despite the vertical climb, he kept moving faster and faster like he was running downhill. By the time he was halfway up the hill, the man could no longer be seen at all. All that was left was the howl of the wind.

A mad gale sweeps a ledge, a thought forms a fist.

Bang!

There was a soft bang, and the wind scattered to reveal Defeated and Dream Master. The latter had caught the former’s fist firmly in his palm and prevented it from moving an inch closer.

“The Thoughtful Fist of the Boundless Mountain? Not bad,” Dream Master remarked indifferently.

Defeated frowned and withdrew his right arm. Before the motion was complete, he thrust his left fist forward swifter than the wind and faster than thunder.

Bang bang bang bang…

The sounds of impact could be heard, but not the image. It was because Defeated had thrown over a hundred punches in a single breath. This was the power of the Thoughtful Fist.

Boundless Mountain was just a small, no-name sect, but the Thoughtful Fist was famous throughout the world. Most fist arts claimed their victories through strength, force or intent, but the Thoughtful Fist focused on one and only one aspect: speed. A fist faster than thought was what the Thoughtful Fist preached.

Back when Defeated was still an Astral Refiner, he had challenged the head of the Boundless Mountain, Boundless Ji to a duel. He could still remember how the man had utterly overwhelmed him from the start until the end. While it was partially because Ji Wuliang’s cultivation level was higher than his, it was also because the Thoughtful Fist was faster than his eyes could capture, or his body could react.

Realizing how powerful the Thoughtful Fist was, he memorized the martial art during the duel and later added his own martial insights and understanding into it. As a result, his version of the Thoughtful Fist was even faster and stronger than the original. Today, he dared to say that his Thoughtful Fist was better than Boundless Ji’s.

Because of this, he rarely encountered a peer who could block his Thoughtful Fist. But Dream Master did it with one hand only.

This stunned him as a matter of course, but his shock was mixed with a tinge of expectation and excitement.

After all, Dream Master just proved that he was an opponent who deserved his full strength.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Defeated abruptly took a step back, raised his right foot high into the air, and brought it down like he would cleave Dream Master in half.

Buzz!

Space shuddered, and a massive giant appeared in the sky. It held a giant axe that looked like it could a mountain range in half.

“Mountain Splitting Leg”

If the “Thoughtful Fist” was a speed-based martial art, then the “Mountain Splitting Leg” was based on strength. It was a powerful martial art meant to dismantle all opposition via pure strength.

If speed wasn’t enough to defeat his opponent, then what about power?

BOOM!

There was a terrible boom, and the entire hill was split in half just like that. The man-made chasm was at least sixty meters deep, and the sides looked as smooth as a mirror.

Defeated did not look happy, however. In fact, his eyebrows were knitted together in a frown. It was because his attack had missed its target.

Not only that, he had completely lost track of Dream Master.

Defeated wasn’t worried though. He crossed his arms in front of his chest with one hand clenched into a fist, and the other stretched into a palm. He then drew a square with his fist, and a circle with his palm.

The fist and palm formed a boundary, and the boundary formed a world.

Everything within tens of meters of him plunged into chaos in the blink of an eye. The energies froze solid, and the space within the boundary was locked down completely.

“True Martial Mountain: Square Circle Lock”

The “Square Circle Lock” was a martial art from the Heaven Sealing Peak of the True Martial Mountain. The fist represented the earth, and the palm the heavens. Since he was the one controlling the fist and the palm, it meant that everything was under this control, wasn’t it? Therefore, the “Square Circle Lock” was an offensive-type sealing martial art that locked down an area and prevented one’s opponent from running away.

Defeated had learned this when he challenged the descendant of the Heaven Sealing Peak to a duel. Astounded by his martial talent, his opponent had taught him the martial art after the duel.

Naturally, he could not lock down everything within several kilometers of himself like the descendant of the Heaven Sealing Peak could, but tens of meters was well within his limits.

The reason he locked down the space around him was to find Dream Master, of course.

“Found you.”

Defeated looked at a certain spot in the sky and opened his mouth, and a purple pellet shot toward his target.

Thunder roared, and sword intent filled the sky as the purple pellet shot into the sky. Sword beams sprayed in every direction like a rainstorm while the sword qi narrowed into threads, and the threads transformed into dragons and serpents.

When dragons and serpents rise, the heavens turned, and the earth flipped upside down.

The pellet was no ordinary object. It was a sword pellet.

1. Which usually means enacting justice. ☜

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