Chapter 122: Smack! Listen, that's a slap in the face
S City Airport.
Two flight attendants, dressed in uniform and with flawless makeup, were pulling their small black suitcases, looking a bit weary. They had just finished an international flight, and both were exhausted, eager to get home and rest.
"Hey, say something, or I'm going to fall asleep while walking," said the short-haired air hostess to her companion.
"What's there to say? It's just the usual stuff," replied the long-haired air hostess.
"Wasn't this your first time serving first class? Are first-class passengers any different?" asked the short-haired air hostess.
"They've all got two eyes, one nose, and a mouth," the long-haired stewardess hesitated a bit, "But… there were two passengers who were quite odd."
The short-haired flight attendant perked up at once, as if her exhaustion from the long flight had suddenly vanished: "Tell me about it!"
The long-haired flight attendant gave her companion, whose eyes were now gleaming with gossip, an exasperated look: "Actually, those two passengers were young and very handsome, but there was just this indescribable feeling about them."
"Oh, really? Hehehe." The short-haired flight attendant flashed a knowing grin.
"What are you thinking?" The long-haired flight attendant rolled her eyes. "You know the situation in T Country. I suspect those two might be big shots from some faction over there…"
She lowered her voice as she said this last sentence.
"No way, people like that wouldn't even be allowed entry," dismissed the short-haired flight attendant with a wave of her hand.
"My intuition has always been keen. I'm serious. The taller guy was alright, just a bit indifferent-looking. But the slightly shorter one… he had this heavy aura of blood around him, like he'd just walked out of a scene of carnage…"
At this moment, the two "faction big shots" were sitting side-by-side in the back seat of a taxi.
The ride from the airport to home would take about an hour. Martial Artists had excellent physical fitness, so Lu Heng felt no fatigue even after a long-haul flight.
He did, however, notice something odd about the taxi driver's behavior. The driver seemed jumpy, pressing the brakes and accelerator abruptly and driving with a joltiness that made Lu Heng uncomfortable, especially given his heightened senses as a Martial Artist.
"Mister…" Lu Heng started to say that they weren't in a hurry, so there was no need to drive so aggressively.
Suddenly, the screeching sound of tires scraping the road rang out as the taxi driver slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to a sudden stop in the middle of the road.
"S-Sorry… what do you want me to do?" The driver asked, trembling with fear. He ignored the blaring horn from the car behind that almost rear-ended him, nervously checking Lu Heng's expression in the rearview mirror.
"..." Noticing the driver's neck soaked with sweat, Lu Heng helplessly pulled on a reassuring smile. "It's fine; we're not in a rush. Just take it easy. No need to be nervous."
As the car started moving again, Lu Heng caught the driver's hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that the veins on his hands bulged.
"What's wrong with him?" Lu Heng whispered in Gu Lingjun's ear.
Gu Lingjun's ears flushed slightly pink, but his face remained unchanged. Leaning close, he whispered back, "You haven't restrained your murderous aura, which has some impact on ordinary people, and those with keen intuition can't help but fear you."
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Lu Heng, not too familiar with this world's martial arts system, hadn't realized that his aura had drastically changed after training in the "Land of Extreme Evil."
"It's good," said Gu Lingjun.
Lu Heng glanced at Gu Lingjun, understanding clearly now—his aura was so ferocious that most people wouldn't dare to look at him twice. And Gu Lingjun seemed to be rather pleased with this effect.
Vinegar sea, Lu Heng mocked inwardly. He closed his eyes and began to focus on circulating his energy, withdrawing his intimidating aura back into himself. Only then did the driver's trembling hands gradually steady, and the vehicle finally began to move smoothly again.
With things finally calming down, Lu Heng took out his phone. Living in that godforsaken jungle had felt like stepping back into the Stone Age, with no access to the Internet for weeks. Eager to catch up, he opened his Weibo account.
As soon as he did, his phone crashed.
What's going on? Although his phone wasn't the latest model, it was still a decent one—freezing like this was unexpected. Frustrated, Lu Heng had to force restart it. On his second attempt to open Weibo, the app opened, albeit slowly.
Then he noticed the source of the problem—a massive notification overload. His account had been tagged several million times.
What the hell happened? Browsing through, Lu Heng soon discovered the reason: Zhou Yishu was stirring up trouble.
He clicked on the link to the post that had tagged him the most. It took him to a thread on the National Martial Arts Exchange Conference's official forum. The title read: Summary of the EternalMoon Skinning[1] Incident.
Without bothering to click through all the individual links, Lu Heng skimmed through the timeline of events summarized by the OP. At the very end, the poster had even included a closing statement summing it all up.
"Up to today, EternalMoon has still not issued any statement regarding the matter. While the truth is still up in the air, it's worth noting that, compared to EternalMoon's complete silence, Zhou Yishu—who was unintentionally dragged into this mess—has shown a much more proactive and positive attitude. An official revealed that Zhou Yishu even called the organizing committee to request his voting channel be temporarily closed, saying that the irrational voting by netizens is unfair to the other contestants."
"Heh." Lu Heng finally let out a sneer. Zhou Yishu certainly knew how to play a slippery hand to manipulate public opinion. Playing both the wh*re and the saint[2], he had gained all the benefits while putting on a show of reluctance.
A mere mutated snake and a spot in the Newcomer Popularity Rankings had provoked Zhou Yishu to resort to such despicable tactics. This man's nature was even worse than Lu Heng had imagined.
With such a narrow-minded, vindictive attitude, it wouldn't be long before Zhou Yishu's cultivation encountered issues.
That's right. Lu Heng had indeed deliberately chosen the mutated snake that Zhou Yishu had failed to kill as his own submission prey. That night, after noticing the flaws in Zhou Yishu's spear skills, he'd already devised this plan.
None of this fallout was outside Lu Heng's expectations.
"What's wrong?" Gu Lingjun, who had been resting with his eyes closed, turned his head at Lu Heng's reaction.
Lu Heng simply handed his phone over: "The clown[3] has begun his performance."
One look, and Gu Lingjun's brows knit tightly together. Ever since he started live streaming, his unapologetic style had attracted its fair share of negative comments, but he'd never cared about the slander from irrelevant people.
But Lu Heng was different. In Gu Lingjun's heart, Ah Heng deserved only the world's most beautiful words. Seeing some of the harsher remarks from the haters, his fingers tightened involuntarily.
Noticing this, Lu Heng hurriedly held Gu Lingjun's hand and rescued his phone: "We'll talk about this later."
With the taxi driver present, it wasn't the right time to say more. The two of them fell into a comfortable silence, though Lu Heng kept his hand over Gu Lingjun's, softly holding his fingers to calm his emotions.
==========
"I'm really angry."
Lu Heng closed the front door of Gu Lingjun's house, walked over to the sofa, and sat down. Just then, he heard Gu Lingjun speak.
"What's wrong?" Lu Heng patted him on the shoulder, noticing the stiffness beneath his hand; Gu Lingjun was clearly holding back his emotions.
"They insulted you."
"Don't you get insulted all the time too? It's no big deal." Lu Heng gently squeezed his shoulders, giving Gu Lingjun a comforting massage.
"It's not the same. They can insult me. But you—not allowed."
Feeling the muscles beneath his hands slowly relaxing, Lu Heng spoke softly, "There's no difference. We're both martial artists."
"Martial Path is mind powered by thought energy, but it is not the purpose of Martial Path. Mixing up priorities like that means you won't get far on this Path. If I let this kind of petty gossip affect my state of mind, how could I ever pursue the peak of Martial Path? How could I brazenly say that I'll stand beside you as an equal?"
"Hmm." Gu Lingjun took Lu Heng's hand from his shoulder and held it in his palm.
The two of them didn't need to pour out their feelings in words. Both were clear-minded and could understand each other without needing to speak.
"Zhou Yishu's tactics have ultimately lost the true spirit of Martial Path. From this point on, the door to the Heaven-tier will forever be closed to him," Lu Heng said with a disdainful smile.
Except for the matter of the heart exchange, which he couldn't discuss directly with Gu Lingjun due to rules restriction, Lu Heng had shared all his conflicts with the Zhou family. So regarding this incident, both of them were fully aware of who was orchestrating things behind the scenes.
"Still, we have to resolve this matter. This trap was set for Zhou Yishu in the first place, and since he's walked into it, there's no need for me to hold back," Lu Heng said. "Hand it over."
"What?"
"The videos we recorded this time, of course. I was going to use the older footage, but since you have something more fitting, wouldn't it be even better?"
"This is my private collection," Gu Lingjun said, but he obediently took a USB drive from his pocket and handed it to Lu Heng.
The long-absent EternalMoon finally reappeared.
He only left a message on his contestant homepage: Here's an update on my recent gains.
Immediately following were several videos, all recorded during his disappearance.
The most exciting was the final video.
The video showed a vast jungle, rendered in stark black and white by the high-definition infrared lens. While the colors were muted, every detail and contour was razor-sharp.
As the camera slowly zoomed in, the viewers finally noticed a figure crouching low in the grass. He was dressed in camouflage, his face smeared with thick camouflage paint, blending seamlessly into the surroundings.
Under the high-resolution lens, the tension in his muscles was almost palpable, like a cheetah coiled and ready to spring.
The camera slowly shifted to his face, revealing only his sharp-as-blades eyes beneath the paint. Everyone recognized him instantly by the psychic weapon gripped tightly in his hands: it was EternalMoon.
EternalMoon's image this time was too awful. His hair was wild as if he had just casually hand-combed it, his clothes unbearably dirty, and, on closer inspection, large patches of bloodstains clung to them.
Yet, despite—or perhaps because of—his disheveled appearance, he exuded an overwhelming wild charisma, captivating in a primal, untamed way, like a creature born to this jungle, both beautiful and dangerous.
He stared forward, his expression intensely focused. A moment later, a faint rustle stirred in the grass ahead.
In that instant...
EternalMoon moved. With a powerful kick of his long legs, his body shot out from the grass like a taut bowstring released. When he reappeared, a mutated wildcat collapsed loudly to the ground.
This scene was played in slow motion, allowing viewers to catch every detail of his actions. Mid-air, his hands flipped gracefully, and his foot briefly braced against a nearby tree. The tree trunk bore a shallow footprint, evidence of the immense force, which propelled him forward at even greater speed.
His movement was so fast that the mutated wildcat, known for its lightning reflexes, hadn't even had a chance to react before its heart was pierced clean through.
This breathtaking hunting sequence was even more exciting when seen after the earlier videos, because they showed his struggles: at first, he cut a sorry figure as he chased and killed through the jungle; later, he managed to win hard-fought battles, often ending as battered as his prey; until in this final video, he stood victorious, striking down the mutated wildcat with clean, lethal precision.
Some viewers well-versed in the Martial Arts community recognized the location of the video.
The Land of Extreme Evil—the most dangerous region in the world.
As news of EternalMoon's reappearance spread, those who had come ready to hurl abuse at this opportunistic seeded contestant felt their faces burning.
This was EternalMoon? The one accused in the posts of only knowing how to grab eyeballs and gain popularity by cross-dressing in bizarre costumes?
The same EternalMoon they claimed was lacking in strength and got the seeded contestant spot by stealing another's kill?
The Land of Extreme Evil, the mutated wildcat were like heavy slaps in the faces of these people.
What a joke. What a huge joke.
Footnotes:
[1] 扒皮: to flay; to skin; (fig.) to exploit; to take advantage of.
[2] 又当又立 is part of the phrase 又当又立，网络用语 which means "being a wh*re and pretending to be a saint." It might have originated from the idiom 婊子立牌坊, meaning "to want to be able to do immoral things while maintaining a good name."
[3] 跳樑小丑: a buffoon who performs antics.
Goodness. We love a good return ♡
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