Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 297: Chapter 177: Race Against Time! Nine Heavens Dragon Dance

He reached out, patting his sister’s head, and agreed with a smile, ”Alright.”

”Yay!” Xiaoyu let go of his sleeve and spun around on the spot.

Zhou Xianchuan laughed too, rubbing his hands together as he started planning the evening’s itinerary. ”Okay, so we’ll meet up for dinner first. After we eat, we’ll be just in time for the float parade. We can watch the parade, then wait for the fireworks. Perfect!” ℴ

And so, the plan was set.

The four of them split up at the intersection.

Zhou Xianchuan was heading home for dinner, and Sun Fan went to wait for her ride.

Wan Ze and Xiaoyu started walking back. After a few steps, Xiaoyu suddenly turned and shouted to Sun Fan, ”Sister Fan, see you tonight!”

Sun Fan waved back at her enthusiastically.

When she turned back around.

”Brother, does Sister Fan like you?” Xiaoyu suddenly asked in a low voice.

Wan Ze’s steps faltered for a moment. ”Who told you that?”

”I figured it out myself.” Xiaoyu’s tone was matter-of-fact, as if stating the obvious. ”The way she looks at you is different from the way she looks at Brother Chuan.”

”How is it different?”

”It’s just...” Xiaoyu tilted her head, thinking for a moment to organize her thoughts. ”When she looks at Brother Chuan, she’s just looking at a person. When she looks at you, it’s... it’s just like that feeling you read about in novels.”

Wan Ze wasn’t amused. He poked her little head. ”Those lousy authors don’t know the first thing about romance! Stop reading that nonsense, how old are you?! Careful, or I’ll tell Mom!”

”No, don’t you dare!” Xiaoyu huffed. She didn’t say anything more, just squeezed his hand and skipped ahead.

...

...

「In the blink of an eye, night fell.」

Wan Ze slowly concluded his practice, calming the surging qi and blood within him.

The courtyard had already grown dark.

Faint sounds of laughter and music drifted from the direction of the city center. The murmur of the crowds, carried by the night wind, floated over intermittently.

Standing in the middle of the courtyard and listening to those sounds, Wan Ze felt a strange sensation rise within him. ’It was as if the whole world was drunk, and I alone was sober.’

It was a feeling of detachment.

’While everyone else was celebrating the festivities, cheering for the end of one year and the start of a new one, I’m standing here, my mind completely preoccupied. How many more Pulling Slashes do I have left to practice? How many more repetitions of the Twelve Divine Intentions Fist’s Snake Form will it take to find that ”hardness within softness”? How in the world do I execute the second layer of Stacking Force from the Ten Thousand Waves Secret Martial Arts without injuring myself?’

This sense of solitude, born from immersion in Cultivation, was particularly strong.

It was as if everyone else was walking down a wide, brightly lit main street, while he alone had ducked into a pitch-black alley.

There was nothing in the alley but himself and those endless fist techniques he had to practice.

But it was no exaggeration to say this solitude didn’t bother him.

On the contrary, it made Wan Ze feel grounded.

Because he knew that no matter how many people were on that main street, they would all eventually disperse. But this alley, dark as it was, led to a place they could never reach.

”Ah Ze!”

Zhou Xianchuan’s voice came from the courtyard gate. He knocked first before pushing the gate open and coming in. He had already changed his clothes and was now wearing a track jacket with a scarf around his neck. One end of the scarf was tucked into his jacket while the other hung loose, swinging back and forth as he walked. It was a bit warm for that, but the main point was to be fashionable.

”A lot of people have already gathered at the East Street Corner! Should we go pick up Xiaoyu now?”

Wan Ze glanced at him. ”Didn’t you say you were going to be cultivating hard until ten-thirty tonight?”

”I did, I did!” Zhou Xianchuan puffed out his chest. ”I made sure to get a lot of Cultivation in today, all so I could watch the show tonight.”

Before Wan Ze could say anything else, he brought it up himself. ”Tonight’s going to be a huge event! I heard this afternoon that the chamber of commerce specially hired professional dragon dancers. Not the kind that just wiggle it around a couple of times and call it a day, but a real, honest-to-goodness ’fire dragon,’ just like a True Dragon flying in the sky. There’ll be fire-breathers too—you know, the kind who hold a mouthful of alcohol and—WHOOSH—spit out a fireball. Just thinking about it is exciting!”

Wan Ze couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of him, looking like he wanted to rush over that very second.

He’d spent the entire afternoon racing against the clock with his Cultivation.

He had practiced the Tiger Form of the Twelve Divine Intentions Fist another three hundred times, run through the Cloud-Breaking Fist five hundred times, and dashed back and forth across the courtyard several hundred times using the Wave-Treading Shocking Swan Body Technique.

Of course, drills requiring tens of thousands of repetitions couldn’t be finished in a single afternoon, but he had basically completed a third, maybe even close to half, of them.

’I estimate I’ll be able to reap a fresh batch of attribute values tomorrow.’

”Alright, I’m done too. Wait for me to change.”

”You got it!” Zhou Xianchuan urged him again. ”Better hurry. If we’re late, we won’t even find a place to eat!”

Wan Ze shook his head with a laugh, went inside to change out of his practice clothes, and put on the beige jacket.

He had just bought it a few days ago. Xiaoyu had picked it out for him. The little girl had said, ”Brother, you wear that gray one all the time, you look like an old man,” so she chose this color. It did suit his devastatingly handsome demeanor.

Afterward, Wan Ze and Zhou Xianchuan left the Inner Courtyard together.

The lights in the courtyard were off. The moonlight cast a gray, hazy glow on the ground.

At the entrance to the martial arts hall, Sun Fan was standing under a streetlight, talking on the phone.

She was wearing a long, cream-colored overcoat with a light gray scarf, her hair cascading over her shoulders.

Her voice was very low, making it impossible to hear what she was saying, but her expression was somewhat serious. Her brows were slightly furrowed, as if she were listening to something unpleasant.

When she saw Wan Ze and Zhou Xianchuan come out, she hastily said, ”That’s all for now,” and hung up. She stuffed her communicator into her pocket, and the expression on her face softened considerably.