Martial King's Retired Life

The best way to counter a string user was to apply high pressure against the user in close quarters, making sure to disable the opponent’s offensive abilities as quickly as possible so that the string user had no chances of creating distance. As long as they were the superior fighter and followed the sound strategy, they would’ve demolished Teng. Yet, whether it was attributed to his teacher or his natural talent, Teng managed to remain calm enough to not let it snowball into his defeat when all the odds were stacked against him.

Teng’s opponent couldn’t make short work of him. At the same time, he couldn’t afford to let me get too far away. In the end, he elected to sacrifice his advantage. Based on the outcome, it was evident that he underestimated Teng.

His slow reaction demonstrated that he didn’t expect Teng to catch him, and he definitely didn’t think it’d be so hard to close the distance to finish Teng once Teng had his required distance. At the very least, he wouldn’t be able to finish Teng before reinforcements arrived.

It was child’s play for Teng to set up a plethora of traps in the darkness in order to inhibit the guy from catching up for me. Meanwhile, I kept yelling for help as I ran at top velocity.

When “Zero” arrived with Su Qi and company, the assailant had no choice but to call off his plan. Having said that, “Zero” was stunned, while the assailant cursed aloud when they saw Su Qi charge at him as if he was hell-bent on carrying out a vendetta.

When I brought Teng to the dispensary, I noticed just how badly he was hurt based on his complexion. He really fought with everything he had whilst trying to not crumble to his pain.

“Mr. Teng, thank you for saving my life.” I ordered men to go prepare the herbal soup and, only once I confirmed nobody was within earshot, said, “That said, you went too hard; you nearly died back there.”

Teng smirked, the way a scoundrel would when his shady plans went as desired.

Don’t tell me you two are in cahoots!

In a quiet voice, Teng informed, “… My teacher is Fusang’s respected master, Yuan Mu.”

Huh?

“Uh, your shifu’s name is Yuan Mu?”

So?

Teng first frowned, then smirked again.

Help! Murderer!

Teng suddenly switched up the language he spoke in. “This one’s teacher is one of Fusang’s three geniuses – Zhi.”

Zhi? Zhi?!

“Zhi is your grandmaster?”

“Please forgive this one for not showing you due respect, Senior.” Teng bowed his head loudly onto the ground. “This one did not dare to identify himself as you kept a low profile.”

Zhi, was one of the three strongest Fusang warriors by the standards of the Central Plain; they even nicknamed him “Moving Mist Convent”. He was one of the bad friends I made when I was still a naïve kid and the one who inspired Night Net Heavenly Silk.

“Don’t do this. Come on. Get up. Your skills don’t resemble Ol’ Zhi’s.”

Does your grandmaster know you’re so pathetically weak? Your personalities are totally different, as well. Zhi would eat people whole, while you’re honest and earnest. You must’ve been taught something else.

Teng smiled.

That’s the one! You found the feeling, didn’t you?!

“This one’s aptitude is disappointing, so he did not learn everything. That is the reason this one was dispatched to the Central Plains to learn. This one grew up on your legends, so he came to seek your guidance. He never thought he would have the luck of meeting you by chance.”

“You’re around the same age as Zhi, though.”

“Grandmaster is a prodigy without equal in his age bracket. It is embarrassing to admit, but this one only learnt a third of his teachings.”

You’re exaggerating. If you were a third of his level, you wouldn’t have been beaten so soundly.

“Hang on. How did you recognise me in this appearance?”

“Your fingers.”

Oh!

“String disciplines are finger based, so we pay a lot more attention to our opponent’s fingers than others. Grandmaster used your hand as an example once. This one picked up a lot from watching your finger work. To tell the truth, this one noticed you were not Wu Ping the first time he saw you, but he was not sure who you were. With time, this one naturally identified you, but he did not know what you had in mind, so he continued watching in silence to go with your flow.”

Teng surprisingly had a lot to say once he switched to speaking Japanese. Of course, I could only understand 70% of what he said given my limited Japanese. I couldn’t speak Japanese to save my life, so I stuck to Mandarin.

“This one is blessed to meet you here.”

I didn’t expect to meet you here, either. Zero’s lackey’s lackey’s… lackey, Zhi’s disciple’s disciple, a Lang Qing who learnt my broadsword technique from somewhere and the Gu couple, how the hell did I end up under the watch of you lot for so long?! Say something, Zhi’s disciple’s disciple! I thought some mysterious assassin was targeting me this entire time! I know how many times leadership changes in your country when you’re virtually a country of assassins.

I could finally understand why Teng couldn’t befriend anybody on the base – limited language proficiency.

“Is Zhi doing well?”

“Grandmaster has not been too bad, but…” Teng pulled his brows together a tad. “War perpetually plagues our country. The lord Grandmaster supported was assassinated a few months ago, so he is awfully busy. If you have time, perhaps you should pay him a visit. He mentions you a lot. He would be happy to see you.”

Of course. Who doesn’t like me?

I told Teng to recuperate in the dispensary and cautiously went to where I fought Lang Qing on my own. I didn’t just sit there doing nothing since I still had some things to do. Howbeit, it didn’t take long for the person I expected to show up.

“You’ve finally decided to show yourself?”