Bronze Mask (Part 2)
“I am Jiang Chen. Perhaps you have not heard my name before.”
“… How about a self-introduction?”
“I am but a minor figure in the pugilistic world. I’m not worth a mention.”
“’Kay.”
In reality, Ming Feizhen recognised the name. It was hard not to when practically everyone in the pugilistic world recognised the name twenty years ago. The veterans were around to experience history, while Ming Feizhen had been a loyal reader of Black and White Reflection from childhood, after all.
Together with the other Stars, Jiang Chen was responsible for numerous big cases that rocked Water Domain. Even though Emperor Yuansheng had consolidated his power and had the ambition, he didn’t devote much effort to combatting Fiends’ Genesis. First of all, there was the challenge of locating them. Secondly, there were Jiang Chen’s strategies. Even if they had Lai Jingzhen’s assistance, it would still take years to wipe out Fiends’ Genesis.
Among the few disciplines that maintained a practitioner’s youth, ones that bestowed anti-aging attributes were few and far between. In order to master them, apart ensuring there were no cross-disciplinary clashes, the extent of the benefits was predicated on their progress. The most important thing to practitioners of such disciplines wasn’t maintain their appearance but their physical prime for combat.
Jiang Chen never showed himself, so his appearance was shrouded in mystery. At the very least, nobody would expect the Seven Stars’ leader to be such a dashing man. That being said, Ming Feizhen read more into Jiang Chen’s appearance than the average man would. Jiang Chen was already renowned before Fiends’ Genesis was crushed two decades ago, which meant that he was now over sixty, yet he didn’t have a strand of grey hair or wrinkle on his skin. Besides practitioners of advanced daoist disciplines, few humans ever achieved the same state Jiang Chen did.
Daoists, before apotheosising, viewed their bodies as precious entities. That was why many of them continued to look young despite their chronological ages. Buddhists put their bodies through the wringer to prove Bodhi’s methods, so they couldn’t compare to daoists when it came to maintaining their youth. The fact that Jiang Chen’s aura was devoid of any nefarious nature despite not being a daoist proved that he had reached a high level in his internal discipline. The last old monster like him that Ming Feizhen met was Ming Huayu.
“Your shifu is Ming Huayu?”
“Never heard of him… I can take you to him if you want to meet him.”
Jiang Chen shook his head. “I’ve always been interested in you.”
“Don’t be. I don’t swing that way, but if you do, I can introduce you to fellow called Liu Yuan.”
“Stop being a smart aleck!” The antsy man pushed Ming Feizhen’s head with his foot, bouncing it off the wall behind him. For a while, Ming Feizhen’s vision was pitch black.
Jiang Chen’s upwardly curved lips never curled down. “I’m not really in the mood for talking about the past, especially when my child isn’t present.”
“… And who’s your kid?”
“Shitou.”
A man hugging a cudgel entered the room. Until then, Ming Feizhen never heard his presence. Moreover, Ming Feizhen could figure out how Jiang Chen’s internal discipline worked from what he heard, but he couldn’t figure out what the childish-looking grown man’s internal discipline was. If there was anybody Ming Feizhen deemed dangerous in his situation, it was the man in his thirties. More often than not, adepts would have a mysterious aura or cold aura around them. In contrast, Shitou went up to Jiang Chen’s side as though he was a kid still hiding behind his father.
“This is my son,” stated Jiang Chen. “While it’s somewhat related to him, it’s not the same person. By the way, his name is Shitou. He may be a little slow, but he’s a good kid.”
Shitou always stared at one spot similarly to a soulless being and would only react when Jiang Chen spoke.
“Shitou, take a seat.”
Shitou found a corner to sit as he was told.
“If you want to know about Shitou, it’s a story from twenty years ago…”
“If I’m correct, you didn’t wake me to chat.”
“Oh… It seems that you’re smarter than I’ve given you credit for. Ming Huayu has taught you a lot besides martial arts; however, your intellect is still not at the level Ming Shiyue and I desire. Guess our families are the same.”
“You… know my grandmaster?”
Instead of answering the query, Jiang Chen spun around and pushed open the window to peer at the sepia-tinted sky. “Twilight truly is a decent time to act.”
No matter how hard he thought, Ming Feizhen couldn’t figure out how Jiang Chen was linked to his grandmaster. Nothing Jiang Chen said gave any useful information to Ming Feizhen. The one casual remark that Jiang Chen made, however, plunged Ming Feizhen into darkness. Jiang Chen’s attitude toward Ming Feizhen wasn’t that of someone to his captive… at least, not to an important captive.
“What do you want?”
“What did you orthodox sects do to us?” Jiang Chen’s quick speech pace made it difficult to connect his motions to the content he communicated. “We shall take what you took from us. Tiangou, bite him.”
The antsy man drew his blade.
***
Song Lian strolled out of Daren Academy as a red hue dyed the sky, which was earlier than the usual time he clocked off. For some reason, he felt unsettled. He had the feeling someone was monitoring him, a feeling he wasn’t foreign to, yet he couldn’t find anything to prove his speculation. At his level, nothing within a hundred metres could escape his senses. Instead of the unease diminishing, it amplified once he reached a populated area.
Suddenly, Song Lian’s instincts drew his line of sight upwards. He was forced to bow out from the world before he could figure out what happened and how. The last thing he saw was someone wearing a bronze mask standing on the eaves.
Note: I suspect people are going to miss it – why Ming Feizhen linked Jiang Chen to his grandmaster – so I’m going to make it explicit – even though some people still won’t read this. It’s because Hero Shenzhou’s name is revealed in this chapter to be “Ming Shiyue”. For those who forgot, Hero Shenzhou is a title (covered during talks on Ran Feikong’s exploits).
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