Chapter 29: Fiend Blade Forger
Translator: Strivon / Ash Editor: Geoffrey / Lancent
The old fogey who walked over had a thinning head of white hair, ashen white seemingly-cataract eyes, a hunchbacked posture, and a shortness of breath. A gust of wind could practically topple him.
Li Yao remembered that when school started, he and his fellow students had gone to the warehouse to get their uniforms. He had met this old fogey once before at that time.
“Even though he’s only a warehouse manager, I’ve heard that over 70 years ago, this old fogey ‘Sun Biao’ was the school’s Combat Skills Teacher and was a tremendous and extraordinary expert. His foresight for talent was extremely fierce. He found quite a few cultivation geniuses and was the one who discovered Fiend Blade Peng Hai from the slums, recognizing that the boy at the time was out of the ordinary. He was the one who had Peng Hai specially admitted! Even though he's already over 150 years old and is practically retired having quit teaching 10 years ago, he felt too restless at home, so he continues working at this school as he’s done for all his life. This time as the warehouse logistics manager to kill time. At first glance, he looks completely ordinary with his emancipated figure, but his reputation holds great influence in this school. Even Headmaster Baldy Zhao has to show him a bit of face!” Meng Jiang was the school’s king of gossip and rumors, letting out a flood of words to explain to Li Yao.
“The man who unearthed Fiend Blade Peng Hai!” said Li Yao with deep veneration.
“I never thought Old Sun would appear. It seems that things may have changed for the better. Remember, he’s an old man so if you’re a bit clever about it, you may be able to get off scot-free and avert disaster. Go on, hurry!” Meng Jiang pushed Li Yao hard, but suddenly said, “Wait wait!”
“Huh?” Li Yao stood and stopped.
“Little Devil, you said just a moment ago that when facing the threats of opponents, one must first fight to the bloody end. Then one can negotiate and reach compromise. Your words sounded very grand.... But, what if you and your opponent can’t come to peace with each other?” Meng Jiang was pondering over Li Yao’s words all this time. The more he thought, the more he felt the words were cool, awesome, and domineering, but he felt something was a bit off somewhere in those words. And now, he had realized what it was.
“If you can’t make peace, then just run. If you can’t lose them by running, then stall. If you can’t halt by stalling, then you can always just die~!” Li Yao rolled his eyes at his bro for life and walked towards warehouse manager Sun Biao.
He was taller than Sun Biao by a full head. When he stood right in front of Sun Biao, all he could see was the sparse hair on the top of a head. The top of the head was covered in liver spots and looked normal with nothing out of the ordinary.
Actually, Li Yao was at the peak of nervousness with his heart beating wildly... The man who unearthed Fiend Blade Peng Hai was in front of him!
Sun Biao tilted his neck. It seemed that his neck muscles weren’t too good for he used some effort to slant his head. Sun Biao sized up Li Yao carefully and attentively for a long time.
The expression in his eyes was like that of a feverish gourmet eyeing a fresh, tender juicy piece of veal. He stared at Li Yao until Li Yao’s scalp was turning numb and Li Yao’s back had chills before he slowly said, “Not bad, scattering that gym chalk!”
Li Yao was caught off-guard and stared blankly. He couldn’t help but reveal a smile. He also felt that using the gym chalk was a good move; it allowed him to seize the advantage and secure a narrow victory.
Otherwise, in a fair fight against Zhao Liang with his Actualization Quotient of 60%, the outcome of which one of them would be beaten into a pig’s head would not be certain!
“However...” Sun Biao took the conversation for a turn and reached out two dried up fingers of his. “If it was me, I wouldn’t have used gym chalk, but rather the iron shavings in the sandbags. As long as enough strength is applied, if there is a direct collision with the retina, it would cause the opponent to lose his vision completely! Then I would scatter iron nails all over the floor. And since my opponent wouldn’t be able to see, he would step all over them and have his foot be absolutely pierced! Of course, this wouldn’t result in death. But when it comes to these sorts of good darling babies who’ve grown in a sheltered environment, their greatest fear is pain. This would certainly cause them to lose all mobility! With the loss of both vision and mobility, all I would need is two seconds to get rid of him!”
Li Yao was dumbstruck hearing Sun Biao. It took a long time before awakening from his stupor. He couldn’t help debating, “But the circumstances were dire. It’s already not bad of me to be able to sneakingly grab a handful of gym chalk. How can there be time to break open a sand bag to get the iron shavings inside? The iron nails are even more ridiculous. Where in the gymnasium are there great quantities of iron nails for me to scatter?”
Sun Biao laughed two evil “ha ha’s”, saying, “As a fighting expert, one must take every second of the 24 hour day to make preparations for battle. Iron shavings, iron nails, and other miscellaneous oddities should absolutely already be carried on your person. Even if you’re taking a shower, you still need to have an iron nail wedged in your ass. You lack even this most fundamental of preparations, and you still dare to come out and fight with others at this school!?”
Li Yao was speechless for a time. He felt all of a sudden that this old fogey was more despicable and shameful than himself by a hundredfold.
Sun Biao gave a cold snort. He continued by saying, “However nowadays, the number of youngsters who can truly fight are dwindling~ I see that you have some potential I suppose. Walk. Let’s go to my place. Chat and keep this old fogey company!”
After all was said, he turned around. With two hands held behind his back, he walked to the warehouse.
Li Yao hesitated for a moment and followed obediently behind the old fogey.
Then he discovered something strange… Sun Biao looked to be unsteady and wavering, shifting with small steps. A single sneezed seemed to be able to topple him. But his speed was not the least bit slow. And, it seemed that he had eyes on the back of his head, for he adjusted his speed according to Li Yao’s. He maintained a distance of 5 meters in front of Li Yao from beginning to end.
Li Yao could not believe he couldn’t catch up to Sun Biao. He clenched his teeth and directly used the Spirit Serpent Footwork Technique, running into a small sprint.
As always, Sun Biao had his pair of hands clasped behind his back and walked with unsteady steps.
But no matter how much Li Yao increased his speed, even to the point of causing his head to sweat in steam, he was completely incapable of cutting the distance by even a hair!
“Is it a high-level footwork technique? Or is it a kind of spatial warping cultivator technique?” Li Yao was astonished down to his core.
To the side, a few students slowly walked at a snail's pace across them. It was only then did Li Yao suddenly realize. It wasn't that Sun Biao was walking very fast, but rather he was moving extremely slow!
He was clearly using the Spirit Serpent Technique to its peak hurricane like speed, but he hadn't even ran 10 meters after running for a long time. All that time, before the other students crossed paths with him, he did not have the slightest clue that something was wrong.
“Could it be an illusionary mental attack?” Li Yao's scalp turned numb. He finally understood just how unfathomable Sun Biao was. He stopped his technique and followed obediently behind Sun Biao with his tail in between his legs, not daring to act carelessly or rashly.
Something strange happened when he stopped using the footwork technique. The speed of the two had inconceivably sped up. There were over a thousand meters of distance between the ninth gym and the warehouse, but they were able to see the big door of the warehouse after only a minute of walking.
The warehouse was a small building filled and piled with dust. Peeling paint was on quite a few places on the walls, exposing the yellowish brown bricks inside. Overall, the appearance was a bit ugly.
The building did not appear to be big, but a whole universe seemed to be contained inside. At the 7th turn and 8th detour, after passing by piles of goods and items, a shocking sight appeared in front of Li Yao’s eyes — a standard stadium-sized essence Cultivation Field.
Dumbbells, barbells, pec fly machines, squat machines, strength tester machines, crystal clay gel humanoid training dummies… It contained all sorts of cultivation equipment that one could ever need.
However, the majority of the equipment were dozen-year-old models. The finish was coarse, black, and full of rusted spots. They let out a rough and doughty air.
Dust covered every cultivation equipment entirely. It seemed that it had been a long time since they were last used.
They walked to the center of the cultivation field. Sun Biao turned around and did something that Li Yao would have never expected no matter how much he guessed.
This retired old teacher was 150 years old. He unearthed Fiend Blade Peng Hai. He was a person of great reputation and prestige. Yet unexpectedly he faced Li Yao and bowed solemnly. His voice turned incomparably serious as he said, “First and foremost. Student Li Yao, please accept my apologies.”