The dust in the martial arts arena had settled.
But the entire dojo was filled with an atmosphere of existential doubt.
Lin Chaoyu looked at Fifth Junior Sister Cheng Lingshuang, who was sitting on the ground with no regard for her image, hugging Kiana's thigh.
She was studying the muscle groups responsible for leg movement, seemingly trying to figure out how Kiana had performed those dazzling movements earlier.
Then Lin Chaoyu looked at the little grandmaster standing obediently beside Su Yu, narrowing her eyes like a cat because she had gotten to drink iced cola.
Her worldview cracked.
If Kiana had simply been strong, that could still be explained as extraordinary talent.
But that sequence of counters and evasions she had just performed, although the moves looked a little wild, had clearly shown the way she used "qi," that effortless conversion of force and momentum. It was unmistakably the sign of someone who had practiced Taixu Sword Qi into her very bones.
That could not be faked.
What was even more outrageous was—
"Su Yu, how much longer do we need to record? I want that…"
Kiana tugged at Su Yu's sleeve and pointed at the trendy mille-crêpe cake on the nearby table, which Fu Hua had specially queued up to buy.
"Be good. Two more minutes until the data finishes uploading."
Su Yu did not even raise his head. He casually took a White Rabbit milk candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and stuffed it into her mouth. His movements were so practiced that he looked like he had fed a cat hundreds of times before.
"Mmph… fine."
The humanoid tyrannosaurus who had just used Fifth Senior Sister as a punching bag was instantly soothed by a single candy. She obediently crouched to the side and chewed.
Hiss—
A neat round of gasps sounded around them.
Lin Chaoyu and the younger disciples exchanged glances, each seeing deep horror in the others' eyes.
To make such a peerless expert behave as obediently as a pet…
What kind of monster was this always-smiling outer-sect eldest senior brother, who claimed he "didn't know martial arts"?
Could it be like those wuxia novels, where true experts returned to simplicity and looked completely ordinary?
Could he even… be stronger than the little grandmaster?
Then they looked at the metal spheres hovering in the air, glowing with a faint blue light, and at the black box in Su Yu's hand filled with incomprehensible code and models.
This style… no matter how they looked at it, it did not seem like martial arts.
It looked more like cultivation from the next studio over.
"Was our Taixu Sword Sect… actually some hidden cultivation sect in the past?"
Lin Chaoyu could not help muttering softly.
Her voice was quiet, but in the deathly silent hall, it was especially clear.
Fu Hua's body visibly stiffened. Then she silently straightened her back, and the expression on her face grew even more profound.
As expected of Little Martial Uncle and Senior Brother Su. They even use magical artifacts… It seems my cultivation is still insufficient. I cannot even see through this level.
Behind a vermilion pillar in the hall, a buzzcut head sneakily peeked out.
Ma Feima had used "fixing the toilet" as an excuse to stand outside in the cold wind for ten minutes. Finally, he had managed to dry off his cold sweat.
He crept back in slowly, only to see Su Mei leaning against the pillar, looking at him with a half-smile.
"Yo, Sixth Junior Brother. Toilet fixed?"
"Ahem… Second Senior Sister, don't mock me."
Ma Feima's old face flushed. He lowered his voice and glanced toward Su Yu.
"That… that kid—no, that Mr. Su. What exactly is his background? From the way he carries himself, he doesn't look ordinary."
Su Mei raised an eyebrow, took a file from her bag, and casually slapped it against Ma Feima's chest.
"Ordinary? Heh."
She lowered her voice and spoke in the tone of "I'm only telling you this because we're close."
"Do you know Dr. MEI?"
"MEI… that scientist? The top scholar even the state has to support?" Ma Feima's eyes widened.
In this world, MEI's name was indeed famous, a person standing at the pinnacle of human intellect.
"Correct."
Su Mei pointed at Kiana in the distance.
"Our little grandmaster here, aside from being a Taixu successor, is also a special ancient martial arts research consultant personally hired by Dr. MEI. And that Mr. Su… is a collaborator who can speak directly with Dr. MEI."
"Hiss—"
Ma Feima sucked in a cold breath. Even his gums hurt.
No wonder!
No wonder those two had such an indescribable confidence about them! So there was that level of big shot standing behind them!
Thinking back to his earlier foolish attitude of "I'm number one under heaven," Ma Feima wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground.
This was not merely failing to recognize Mount Tai. This was practically digging soil on the head of the Grand Duke of Tai Sui himself!
"Then… is it still not too late for me to apologize now?"
The man was straightforward. He backed down quickly and admitted fault quickly.
"Go." Su Mei patted his shoulder. "Eldest Senior Brother Su is a reasonable person… probably."
Ma Feima took a deep breath, straightened his clothes, and strode over.
When he reached Su Yu and Kiana, he said nothing else. He immediately bent into a ninety-degree bow, cupped his fists, and spoke in a voice loud enough to make Kiana, who was eating cake beside him, jump.
"Mr. Su! Little Grandmaster!"
"Old Ma here is a rough man. I offended you earlier. I had eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai! Whether you want to beat me or punish me, I won't say a word!"
This sudden grand gesture left Kiana stunned. She even forgot to wipe the cream from the corner of her mouth.
Su Yu, however, had expected this.
He closed his laptop, pushed up his glasses, and wore a gentle, magnanimous smile.
"Sixth Senior Brother, you exaggerate. Those who do not know are not guilty. Besides…"
He pointed at the screen.
"Since you're here, why not take a look at this?"
"This is…?"
Ma Feima scratched his head and awkwardly leaned closer.
On the screen, a 3D figure composed of countless light points was throwing punches.
At first, Ma Feima did not pay much attention.
But after two seconds, his eyes went straight.
It was a slow-motion replay of Kiana's earlier one-inch punch.
But unlike an ordinary video, this model was covered in dense data lines.
Muscle contraction amplitude, skeletal stress points, trajectory of center-of-gravity transfer, even simulated routes of force flowing through the body…
Every detail had been rendered with millimeter precision.
As an expert who had practiced external martial arts for half his life, Ma Feima understood far too well how valuable this thing was.
This was a living, visualized, fully analyzed martial arts manual!
He had tried countless times to teach his own force-generation techniques to disciples, but they were always "understandable by intuition, impossible to explain in words."
But now…
Su Yu had turned that "intuition" into a visible, tangible "form."
"This… this, this, this…"
Ma Feima's fingers trembled. He pointed at the screen, stammering like a child who had just learned to speak.
"Divine! This is truly divine!"
"So the force point is here? No wonder I always felt this move didn't flow smoothly… My center of gravity was off by three inches!"
He suddenly turned around and roared loud enough to shatter glass:
"Master! Senior Sister! Come here!"
"Our Taixu Sect… is about to prosper!"
Ma Feima's roar shook Fu Hua and Lin Chaoyu out of the side hall, where they had been drinking tea to calm themselves.
A group of people surged toward the not particularly large laptop.
"This… this is…"
Fu Hua pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose, her face almost pressing against the screen.
The lenses reflected countless flowing streams of data under the blue light.
On the screen, the virtual figure made of lines and light points repeated Kiana's one-inch punch tirelessly.
But unlike what the naked eye could see, this model seemed to have been stripped of flesh and skin, leaving only the most essential mechanical structure.
Red lines marked the sequence of muscle contractions. Blue points locked onto every tiny adjustment of the center of gravity.
Rows of real-time scrolling parameters even calculated the force, speed, and angle of the strike with precision.
"The essence of one-inch force lies in wholeness."
Fu Hua's voice trembled slightly. Her finger pointed vaguely at the red core on the screen as it generated force.
"In the past, when I taught disciples, I could only have them understand it themselves, feel it themselves. Those with high comprehension, like Fifth Disciple, could learn it after seeing it once. Those with poor comprehension, like… cough, like Sixth Disciple, could break training posts and still fail to grasp the doorway."
Ma Feima, who had been innocently shot while lying down, scratched his head but did not dare refute her, because he too was staring in a daze.
"But this…"
Fu Hua took a deep breath, turned toward Su Yu, and looked at him with shock and gratitude.
"This turns intent into form. As long as someone trains according to this, even a person of ordinary aptitude could avoid ten years of detours!"
As the metal floating spheres slowly descended from the air, the data flow on the screen finally stopped.
Fu Hua stood before the computer, the pupils behind her glasses still not recovered from the shock.
Those moves decomposed into skeletal mechanics models, those force trajectories precise to every frame, were like an opened, living Taixu manual.
Su Yu knew the time had come.
"Hua." Su Yu closed the laptop and stood up. "Actually, aside from bringing Little Martial Uncle to meet you today, there's another matter I want to discuss with you."
Fu Hua came back to herself and pushed up her glasses.
"You want to make a game."
It was not a question. It was a statement.
Su Yu froze, not expecting her to be so direct.
"How did you know?"
"You said so during the last livestream." Fu Hua's tone was calm, but her brows had furrowed slightly. "Su Yu, I know your intentions are good. But I have said many times that Taixu Sword Qi is not something to be sold for money. It is a discipline for self-cultivation, not a performance to attract attention."
"Master!"
Su Mei had just started to speak, but Fu Hua pressed her back with one look.
"Sister Mei, don't think I don't know what you're planning."
Fu Hua turned toward her second disciple. Her usually cold face now carried rare helplessness.
"You've tried to convince me to livestream and sell goods, to film short videos as an influencer, to accept commercial endorsements… How many times have you tried all that? I refuse every time. Can't you settle down a little?"
Su Mei looked somewhat awkward after this string of reprimands, but she had weathered major storms before and quickly adjusted.
"Master, this time really is different—"
"What is different?" Fu Hua interrupted her. "What is the essential difference between turning martial arts into a game and filming martial arts as short videos? They are all…"
Su Yu closed the laptop.
Actor mode: activate.
In an instant, his expression switched to one of three parts helplessness, seven parts sincerity, mixed with a faint trace of "I'm doing this for everyone's sake."
Su Yu suddenly spoke, interrupting the tug-of-war between master and disciple.
"Hua, you've misunderstood."
He pointed at Kiana, who was sitting in a recliner with a blissful expression after eating her third piece of osmanthus cake.
"I'm not doing this for money. I'm doing this for her."
Fu Hua paused and followed his finger.
"Little Martial Uncle?"
"Correct."
Su Yu lowered his voice, his tone heavy, as if he had just diagnosed some terminal illness.
"You saw it too. Little Martial Uncle's martial arts are the real thing. But do you know? The true Taixu Sword Sect is actually on the verge of extinction."
"By Kiana's generation, there are barely any talented disciples left."
"What's even more troublesome is that she is the kind of genius who only knows how to learn martial arts, not how to teach them."
"If you ask her to explain why she strikes like that and what the essentials are, she'll only say some alien language like, 'You just go biu and hit it.'"
Kiana's chewing of the osmanthus cake paused.
Although what Su Yu said was true, having her weakness exposed in public still hurt her pride a little, okay?
Su Yu continued his deception without changing expression.
"In the current Taixu Sect, aside from you, who can truly comprehend this supreme art? Even you cannot say you have completely mastered it, can you?"
Fu Hua fell silent.
That was the truth.
"Talent is withering, class monitor."
Su Yu spoke earnestly, every word striking Fu Hua's heart.
"If something happens to Kiana… or say, after a hundred years, won't this supreme art be lost? When that time comes, the Taixu Sword Sect will truly have only an empty shell left."
Extinction.
Those two words struck Fu Hua's weak point.
She guarded this dilapidated dojo, guarded that signboard, all for the sake of the two words "inheritance."
Finally, Su Yu revealed the dagger hidden in the map.
"So I want to use a game to preserve this supreme art in its entirety. It is not merchandise. It is a digitized secret manual."
"As long as the game remains, as long as the servers remain, even a thousand years from now, future generations will be able to see the most orthodox Taixu Sword Qi in the game."
"Even if they only learn a little of the surface and use it to strengthen their bodies, then the Taixu Sword Sect… cannot truly be said to have lost its inheritance."
This speech was logically airtight and emotionally rich. It was practically moral blackmail tailor-made for Fu Hua.
The hall quieted.
Ma Feima opened his mouth as if to say something, but swallowed the words back down.
Even Cheng Lingshuang, unusually, did not lie back in the recliner. Instead, she stood there, looking seriously at Fu Hua with those dead-fish eyes that were always half-open.
Only Su Mei's lips curved in a hidden arc.
Fu Hua did not speak.
She lowered her head. The reflection on her glasses hid her eyes.
Only after a long while did she speak, her voice much softer than before.
"…I understand everything you said."
She raised her head and looked at Su Yu. In those eyes, there was less coldness and more exhaustion, something only old friends from long ago could have seen.
"Actually, over these years, I have also been thinking about this problem. How can I pass down Taixu Sword Qi? How can I prevent Cuntun Dojo from becoming a dusty signboard…"
"Master!"
Seeing that the timing was right, Su Mei immediately followed up.
She stepped forward and thumped her chest in guarantee. "Don't worry! Leave publicity to me! My channels, influencers, and traffic will all give this game the green light! I will let the whole world know what true Shenzhou kung fu is!"
"Me too! Me too!"
Ma Feima also squeezed in, waving his casserole-sized fist.
"Master, that gym of mine has a bunch of dumb brats who train brute force and have nowhere to burn it off. When the time comes, whether it's moving equipment, setting up the venue, or even acting as human sandbags, call us whenever you need! Free of charge!"
Just then, a black shadow shot out with a whoosh.
Su Yu only felt his thigh grow heavy.
He looked down and saw Cheng Lingshuang clinging tightly to his thigh like a koala.
The face that was usually filled with world-weariness now actually brimmed with a certain fanatical desire.
"Eldest Senior Brother! Take me in!"
Cheng Lingshuang lifted her head. Strange light flashed in her dead-fish eyes.
"I'm easy to keep! I only eat one meal a day! Just give me somewhere to sleep! Let me stay by Little Martial Uncle's side! I want to watch her punch! I want to see that… that data!"
Su Yu: "…"
No, Little Cheng, isn't your character collapsing a little too quickly? What happened to the cool sword god?
Fu Hua looked at this scene.
She looked at her shrewd and calculating second disciple, at her reckless and impulsive sixth disciple, and then at her utterly undignified fifth disciple clinging to someone's leg.
Finally, her gaze fell on Su Yu's face.
Helplessness appeared on her face.
"Sister Mei."
Fu Hua suddenly spoke, using an address that stunned everyone.
"You taught Senior Su Yu that entire speech just now, didn't you?"
Awkwardness flashed across Su Mei's face, but she immediately regained her calm.
She was just about to argue, but then she heard Fu Hua continue:
"How many years have Su Yu and I known each other? Do you think I don't know what kind of person he is? Getting him to say a few serious sentences is harder than making him play games for three days and three nights. That entire set of lines just now was clearly taught by someone."
Su Yu: "…"
Although that was true, having it exposed in public still hurt his pride, okay?
Hm? Why did this line feel like someone had said it before?
The atmosphere became extremely awkward for a time.
Su Yu felt as if he were an elementary school student caught cheating by the homeroom teacher.
He coughed awkwardly, his gaze darting around. In the end, he decided confession might earn leniency.
"Hua, cough, actually it wasn't all taught by Sister Mei… Mainly, you usually don't say anything and shoulder everything alone."
He sighed, putting away his deceptive posture. His tone became especially serious.
"Do you remember when your leg was injured last time? You were limping toward the hospital alone. If I hadn't gone downstairs to buy cola and happened to run into you, were you planning to crawl there rather than ask anyone for help?"
Fu Hua did not speak, but her slightly lowered eyelashes exposed her guilty conscience.
"We're all worried about you."
Su Yu pointed at himself, then toward certain people in the Golden Courtyard.
"Not just me. There's also that poker-faced Kevin, and Elysia… That pink fairy lady even asked me last time, 'Has Hua been too tired lately? Should I go tell her a bedtime story?'"
At the mention of Elysia, the corner of Fu Hua's mouth twitched slightly, as if she had remembered certain fears of being dominated by the "pink demon."
"And your disciples too—especially Sister Mei."
Su Yu looked at Fu Hua, his gaze sincere.
"Hua, you can trust the people around you a little more. We… are all here."
Su Mei turned to look at Su Yu in astonishment.
She had not expected this man, who had still been bargaining with her last night and haggling over a few points of profit share, to say something like this for her in front of Master now.
Something seemed to scald her heart, warm and hot.
This guy… really is a hopelessly good person.
Su Mei bit her lower lip and thought to herself: I'll have to watch this fool more carefully in the future. With that personality of his, he could be sold off and still help the other person count the money.
The hall became quiet.
Fu Hua remained silent for a very long time.
It was so quiet in the hall that only the occasional birdsong outside the window could be heard, along with the small animal-like purring noise Cheng Lingshuang made while hugging Su Yu's thigh.
Fu Hua looked at these disciples.
She looked at those eager, expectant, even somewhat clumsy gazes.
Finally, she let out a long sigh.
As that sigh left her, it was as though part of the burden she had carried for so long also lightened.
"Understood. I agree. Also—"
Fu Hua looked at Su Mei, her gaze unbelievably gentle.
"I know you have been secretly paying for the dojo. The utilities, the repair fees… all of that came from you."
"I also know that you always wanted to package me because you wanted to make the dojo more famous, so we could recruit a few more students."
"All these years… you have worked hard, Sister Mei."
That "Sister Mei" was as light as a feather, yet it struck Su Mei's heart with tremendous weight.
This strong woman, decisive and ruthless in the business world, capable of facing contracts worth tens of millions without changing expression, trembled all over in that instant.
A tear suddenly slipped from the corner of her eye, where exquisite eyeliner had been drawn, and fell onto the collar of her expensive coat.
"Ah! Second Senior Sister is crying!"
Cheng Lingshuang, as though discovering a new continent, pointed at Su Mei and shouted. She had absolutely no idea what it meant to see through something and not say it aloud.
"No! I'm not!"
Su Mei abruptly turned her back, wiped at her face messily, and spoke with an obvious nasal tone while still trying to uphold her big-sister posture.
"Fifth Junior Sister, what nonsense are you saying? I'm… I'm happy! Yes! Happy! Hahaha!"
She let out a string of dry laughter that sounded worse than crying.
"Since Master has agreed, then hurry up and get to work! Sixth, go move things! Fifth, stop hugging his thigh and clear out the venue! Everyone move! Don't even think about slacking off!"
She directed everyone like a wound-up spinning top, trying to use busyness to cover that instant of lost composure.
Looking at the dojo hall, chaotic yet full of life, Kiana, who had been silent not far away, slowly lowered the cola in her hand.
She looked at Fu Hua, surrounded by her disciples. Although Fu Hua still wore a stern face, her eyes and brows carried a smile.
That warmth was real.
The lights here existed to illuminate those returning home.
Human feelings really were a wondrous thing.
Just standing here, watching these people stand together and smile in this world without Honkai, she actually felt warmth and happiness too.
No—
If it were that idiot Su Yu, he would definitely say, "This warmth and happiness was created by your own hands, Kiana."
Mm.
She should feel warm. She should feel proud.
Because revitalizing Taixu and saving this dojo was one great step Kiana Kaslana had taken in this world.
Kiana studied Fu Hua's expression and smiled.
So… class monitor can make that kind of expression too.
She thought of Fu Hua from her own world.
That class monitor who had always been alone, who had always spoken of "missions," and who had ultimately pointed a gun at her.
If they were counterparts… did the class monitor in that world also long for a scene like this deep in her heart?
Perhaps… she did not truly want to betray anyone.
Perhaps… she also had some reason she had to act, some hardship… that she could not even tell me about.
The girl's gaze gradually deepened.
She looked at this peaceful world before her, at this somewhat clumsy yet gentle Fu Hua, and the knot in her heart that had never been untied seemed to loosen just a little.
"Little Grandmaster! Come here! There's a movement that needs your personal guidance!"
Su Yu's shout interrupted her thoughts.
Kiana returned to herself, the brilliant smile returning to her face.
"Coming!"
She tossed the empty cola can precisely into the trash can and ran toward that group of adorable people.
The light outside the window fell on the plaque bearing the words "Still Water," and also on this noisy group of people who cared for each other.
At that moment, time seemed to stop.
Su Yu quietly opened his phone and sent a message to the contact marked "Pink Little Demon."
Done.
The other side quickly replied with a string of pink heart emojis, followed at the end by one sentence:
I knew you could do it~
Su Yu smiled silently and put his phone back into his pocket.
Pink cat commission: untie Fu Hua's knot.
Complete!
And the Taixu revival plan, step one—
Achieved!
....
Month-End Sale: Get 20% Off This Weekend
My Patreon : patreon/RuneA
If you want to read the novel in advance, you can subscribe for early access. I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in
I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length. If you're following a particular series, please wait your turn a little
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it