Chapter 182: Master Shen and Mercenary Tao
On the other side, Tien s.h.i.+nhan left the mountain village with Chiaotzu’s support. It was dark when they finally arrived at a building. This building was the base of the Crane School, where its members lives.
“Master!” Tien s.h.i.+nhan called out.
Soon, the door of the building opened, and a blue-haired crane-faced old man dressed in a green martial arts robe came out. He was slightly startled at the sight of his injured student, and his expression immediately became gloomy.
“What happened to Tien s.h.i.+nhan? I had you go look for Inos.h.i.+kaCho, so how did you get so seriously injured?” Master Shen inquired while somewhat angry.
“Master, when we rushed over, Inos.h.i.+kaCho had already been killed by someone. Tien s.h.i.+n wasn’t an opponent of the perpetrators… and was defeated!” Chiaotzu was afraid that Master Shen would get angry, so he hurriedly explained.
“What?!”
Master Shen’s countenance changed greatly, and a terrifying, bloodcurdling aura erupted out from his body.
“Hehehe, who dares to oppose our Crane School? Was it someone from that old turtle’s side? Well…Tien s.h.i.+nhan, tell me everything in detail.” Master Shen’s hands were behind his back, and the veins on his fists twitched—revealing the anger in his heart. But as the master of a huge school, Master Shen didn’t lack patience.
“Yes!” Tien s.h.i.+nhan replied, and then he explained everything that happened when they encountered Xiaya. Especially when he described Myers, it made Master Shen, who was listening, somewhat frightened.
After he had listened to Tien s.h.i.+nhan’s narrative, Master Shen sucked in a breath of cold air and said: “Are you sure that the little girl who defeated you is the same age as you? And, the person who had killed Inos.h.i.+kaCho has an aura more powerful than Master’s?”
“Yes, Master!” Tien s.h.i.+nhan spoke without hesitation.
Regarding the strength of Blonde-haired Launch, Tien s.h.i.+nhan could still make some judgment, but the one who had taken action at the start, Myers, was like a deep cave, and Tien s.h.i.+nhan couldn’t determine her real strength.
In his opinion, even his master’s aura was far from her equal.
“Oh, by the way, Master, that person also mentioned Korin Tower. What does Korin Tower refer to? Is it a Martial Arts School like Orin Temple?”
“Korin Tower ah…”
Master Shen murmured, reminiscing. He seemed to have returned back to the days of his youth, when he followed his teacher, Master Mutaito, to train.
Upon seeing this, Tien s.h.i.+nhan realized that “Korin Tower” must be a mysterious place. He was just about to speak when he saw Master Shen raise his hand, stopping him.
Master Shen shook his head and said: “This Korin Tower is the most sacred place of martial arts on earth. Whether it is me or that old turtle, we had both undergone its challenge when we were young; however, those who could successfully climb the Korin Tower are very few, ah!”
Speaking this, Master Shen muttered to himself: “Since the other person knows the name of Korin Tower, he must not be an ordinary person…”
On Earth, only the famous old schools were privy to the secrets of Korin Tower. Ordinary people only knew of an extremely tall divine tower in the forest of the northern hemisphere, but they don’t know what it represents.
Master Shen was a martial artist who had lived for several hundred years, after all. Although his personality was somewhat sinister, he didn’t lack the wisdom of a martial artist. He muttered to himself for a while and said: “You should first go down and treat your injuries, and wait a few days for your martial uncle Mercenary Tao to come; we’ll talk more about it then!”
“Yes!”
Tien s.h.i.+nhan and Chiaotzu responded and withdrew with belly-full of doubts.
A few days later, they were informed by Master Shen that the number one a.s.sa.s.sin on earth, Mercenary Tao, had arrived at the base.
“What? Tien s.h.i.+nhan was injured by someone! Do you want me to go and kill that person?”The moment Mercenary Tao came in through the door, he was already speaking of “Killing someone”. Regarding his martial nephew Tien s.h.i.+nhan, Mercenary Tao was quite concerned.
“The person who injured Tien s.h.i.+nhan is not ordinary!” Master Shen sat upright on a bench and held a pot of tea in his hand.
“Why do you say that?” Mercenary Tao asked with astonishment.
Naturally, as the earth’s number one a.s.sa.s.sin, Mercenary Tao’s fighting ability was one of the best on earth. In his eyes, there weren’t many people who could go head to head with him, except for his older brother Master Shen, and that old turtle who pursues fame and compliments.
“I heard from Tien s.h.i.+nhan that it was a child who injured him. Additionally, the one who attacked earlier than that even possesses skills above us.” Master Shen said in a gloomy voice.
“Ha ha ha, how is that possible…” Mercenary Tao laughed disdainfully, but he recalled something, suddenly, and asked doubtfully: “You are saying that a child injured Tien s.h.i.+nhan?”
“Yes.”
“Boy or girl?”
“Tien s.h.i.+nhan was wounded by a blonde girl amongst those people.”
“What skills can a little girl have… wait, you just said ‘among those people’. Wasn’t the other person alone?” Mercenary Tao asked with a frown.
Master Shen nodded, “There were four people altogether: three females and one male. The man, and one female were slightly older while the other two females were little girls. Tien s.h.i.+nhan said that it was one of the little girls who attacked him.”
“There was a boy!”
Mercenary Tao’s countenance immediately turned gloomy. He recalled his experience in that small town, two years ago. At that time, he was sent flying from just a palm wind by a seemingly very ordinary boy.
This was a thorn in the heart of earth’s number one a.s.sa.s.sin, and the only experience that made him feel fear. According to Tien s.h.i.+nhan, that boy, who was traveling together with the person who had injured Tien s.h.i.+nhan, was probably the one who had sent him flying that day.
“Why? Do you know something?” Perceiving the change in Mercenary Tao’s countenance, Master Shen asked.
“Umm, there is a clue. If it is really that person, I had better not go look for them to take revenge.” Mercenary Tao words were evasive, and then he spoke of his encounter two years ago.
After listening to Mercenary Tao’s recounting, Master Shen eyes widened. He somewhat didn’t dare to believe what he had just heard.
“Where the h.e.l.l did these people come from? That person you spoke of just now defeated you with only a palm wind?” Master Shen asked gloomily. Suddenly, he realized that the martial arts world that he was familiar with had, at some unknown time, become unfamiliar.
If the a.s.sa.s.sin widely known as earth’s number one could be easily defeated by someone, then what would he and Master Shen be counted as in the eyes of others?
“I don’t know; that person is of mysterious origin. I later searched, but there was no such person in the martial arts world.” Mercenary Tao sighed. The most powerful and greatest schools in Earth’s martial arts world were the Turtle School and the Crane School, inherited from Master Mutaito. Many experts could be found in both these schools.
“Sigh, one of them mentioned Korin Tower. Do you think they came from Sacred Land of Korin?” Master Shen asked.
“Is that the tower that guy, Master Ros.h.i.+, climbed? How can there be someone in that place.” Mercenary Tao sneered. The fact that the Sacred Land of Korin was regarded as the sacred land of martial arts wasn’t baseless because many schools have originated from there; however, Mercenary Tao doesn’t believe that Korin Tower is magical.
Only Master Ros.h.i.+, that fool would have climbed Korin Tower. But, Mercenary Tao didn’t know that Master Shen had also attempted the tower’s challenge when he was young but gave up halfway.
A few days later.
“Master, I want to go out with Chiaotzu for a period of time for training.” Tien s.h.i.+nhan bowed to Master Shen.
“Hmm?” Master Shen held a teacup and took a sip of tea. He nodded: “Although it has not been many years since you joined the school, your innate talent is outstanding, so you have learned everything there is to learn. Therefore, it may not be a bad idea to go out and train for a period of time.”
Master Shen was very satisfied with his two students. His older student Tien s.h.i.+nhan had only joined the school for a few years, but he has already learned the Crane School’s secret skill, “Dodon Ray”, which was comparable to Master Ros.h.i.+’s legendary level technique, “Kamehameha”.
It couldn’t be considered training if one doesn’t experiences several decades of hards.h.i.+p.
Therefore, when Tien s.h.i.+nhan proposed to go out on his own, Master Shen readily agreed.
“After you go out, speed up your training, and if you run into someone from the Turtle School, ruthlessly teach them a lesson for me!”
“Yes, Master!”
Tien s.h.i.+nhan nodded vigorously, walked out from the entrance of the building together with Chiaotzu, went down the spiraling mountain road, and quickly disappeared into the hazy mist.
In the early hours of a slightly cold autumn’s day, a cold wind blew. Together with the perplexing gloomy weather, tiny lights flickered in the middle of the mountain.