Chapter 22: This King has Something to Ask You
Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
The rookie training began officially on July 1, yet it was already July 4, 10:30am. Doing the calculations, Shi Xiaobai had played truant for three days, and was late for two-and-a-half hours on the fourth day. Riko had specially mentioned in her message not to be late, much less play truant. It was unexpected that Shi Xiaobai’s single deep meditative state made him guilty of both.
The most important thing he should do was of course to rush to the training grounds, and explain the reason why he had violated the rules to the seemingly-peculiar instructor. However, Shi Xiaobai was in no hurry. He slowly found a small haversack in the house, and constantly stuffed food and drinks into it. He even began carefully selecting which foods to bring.
“Being late for a minute is late, while being late for a few hours is also late, so why should This King worry?”
With this thought in mind, Shi Xiaobai left the residence slowly, and soon was on the road. Shi Xiaobai remembered Riko mentioning him several times in her introduction to Steel City that the rookie training ground were south of the [Annihilation]’s jurisdiction zone. It was the southern end of Steel City.
However, which direction was south?
Shi Xiaobai looked at the crossroads in front of him and automatically stopped. Shi Xiaobai stood at the crossroads for very long before he managed to encounter a passer-by. He immediately stopped the person and after asking which direction south was, he began walking along the roads that were paved with black steel. However, every time he encountered an intersection, Shi Xiaobai would patiently stop and wait for a passer-by and ask for directions before he continued on.
Throughout his journey, he constantly walked and stopped, but he finally arrived at the southern end of Steel City, where a gigantic iron gate was.
“This is the Gaia South Gate that leads to the Demon World!”
Shi Xiaobai awed as he looked at the steel gates, before turning to face a surprised gate-keeping guard. He was planning on asking for the location of the rookie training grounds.
The rookie training grounds were already located rather close to the South Gate, so the guard pointed out a specific route for Shi Xiaobai in a friendly manner. Shi Xiaobai nodded and thanked him before heading out according to his directions.
However, after three corners…
“Eh, did Uncle Demon World Gatekeeper say to turn left or right at the fourth intersection?”
Shi Xiaobai thought in silence for three seconds, and decided to abandon the painful thinking process. He stopped at the crossroads and began waiting.
It was already noon, and the sun was shining brightly. After standing there for a minute, Shi Xiaobai could no longer stand it. As he looked around, he saw a short warehouse-like steel building. Shi Xiaobai immediately headed towards the iron building’s shadow.
As he walked, he suddenly heard a thump, as if something had collided into steel. However, as it was slightly farther away, it didn’t sound very loud, in fact, it was nearly inaudible.
Shi Xiaobai pricked up his ears as he could vaguely hear the colliding sounds coming from the other side of the steel building. As he headed towards it, the sounds became clearer. When he reached the side of the steel building, the colliding sounds was nearly deafening..
“Peng! Peng! Peng!”
Shi Xiaobai took step after step towards the back of the steel building, from the colliding sound, it did not seem like it was produced by using a hammer to strike the steel walls. Soon, he reached the corner and began faintly hearing violent grunting.
“Puff! Puff! Puff!”
The breathing sounds seemed like a violent wind that blew out of a hole in the mountains, with a force that seemed to be able to tear. Shi Xiaobai involuntarily slowed down his footsteps as the breathing slowed down too.
He was getting closer and closer. Shi Xiaobai had finally reached the corner of the steel building. Standing still for a few seconds, he slowly took a step forward, leaning his body slightly and turned his head. Immediately, he could see everything behind the steel building.
At the boundary of sunlight and the shadows stood a man. The man’s back was exposed under the sunlight, filled with jaw-dropping muscles. And hidden in the shadows, was his front that seemed to contain explosive power. At this moment, this man was punching the steel buildings wall with his fists while spewing beast-like breathing from his nostrils.
And what was most shocking was that although it seemed like his fists were slamming onto the steel walls to produce the deafening sounds, Shi Xiaobai was able to see clearly that every time the fist came to 10 cm in front of the wall, it would stop. It did not make contact with the wall at all!
Looking closely, wherever the fist passed, there were ripples of white light that flashes out from the fist, like a vertical ripple was emanating from the wall. When these white ripple fluctuations hit the wall, it would produce a deafening sound, as well as cause a visible sag into the steel wall.
“This…”
Shi Xiaobai gulped down his saliva. His eyes were shimmering with burning flames as he began observing intently. The scene of the muscular man punching out with his fist was imprinted in his mind. His body involuntarily began to imitate the muscular man’s actions, despite him looking extremely clumsy and ridiculous.
The muscular man punched out dozens of times, and similarly, Shi Xiaobai punched out dozens of times. The contrast was extremely disparate. One was like a ferocious beast, causing the wall to tremble with each fist, while the other looked extremely weak. While punching out, he did not even stir a weak wind from his fists.
“Phew!”
Finally, the muscular man seemed to feel tired and pulled back his fist to stand straight. After taking a few deep breaths, he turned to look at Shi Xiaobai. At the same time, Shi Xiaobai pulled back his fists, and turned to look at the muscular man.
Reflected in Shi Xiaobai’s pupils was a face that wasn’t too much to be described as ‘extremely vicious’. A patch of hair that circled the remaining black hair had been trimmed away, and in the middle of his head was yellow hair that stood up like a rooster’s crown. At this moment, his eyes were filled with intense flames, while a hideous scar went from his forehead down past his right eye. His mustache was a messy scrawl, and a prominent double chin brought out the terrifying weirdness of his face.
The top of Shi Xiaobai’s head only reached the muscular man’s chest, and as the they faced each other, Shi Xiaobai was like a tiny tree sapling that had been shrouded by a large mountain.
“You have a problem?”
A coarse and rich voice, interspersed with a tinge of gasping, blared out from the muscular man. It sounded like the low growl of a beast, filled with an irrepressible hint of brutality.
Immediately an undeniable idea came to Shi Xiaobai—This man could beat him down in one punch, or even kill him in one punch!
This was what Riko said, to definitely not mess with others! If he dared to call himself “This King”, or say any shameless words, then the man would mercilessly use his fist that could even cause tremors into the steel walls at his head!
Shi Xiaobai immediately knew the best choice for him now was—keeping a low profile, keeping a low profile, and keeping a low profile.
“This King has something to ask you.”
However, his high-spiritedness, and even arrogant sounding words, still came out of Shi Xiaobai. He said it without any trembling or moments of hesitation.
However, the moment he said this, even the sound of wind fell silent. The shadow at the back of the steel building immediately seem to fall into dead silence.
The muscular man crinkled his eyebrows, as if pondering over Shi Xiaobai’s words, or pondering whether he should wave his fists.
Shi Xiaobai held his chest straight out, and looked up to face the muscular man directly. There was no haughtiness or fear in his eyes, not even the slightest emotions.
There was only calmness and naturalness. It was as if he had done something normal like wave hello.
“This King has something to ask you.” Shi Xiaobai repeated himself again.
Against this “ferocious” muscular man, Shi Xiaobai did not choose to keep a low profile, not because he wanted to flaunt himself, just because—This was him, this was Shi Xiaobai. You ask why he did that? Because there is no why!
Regardless of the reason, there was already no way to reverse the impending disaster, because the muscular man had already slowly raised his extremely firm fists.