Book 3, Chapter 63 - Compete

Love Code at the End of the World

Harry, Raffles and I exchanged glances. Raffles suddenly smiled with his head hung low. Then, I smiled too. Harry patted He Lei’s shoulders and let out a burst of hearty laughter. “Hahaha.”

He Lei was stunned as he looked at us. Then, he let go of my arm.

“I’m fine, He Lei.” I imitated Harry and patted He Lei’s shoulder like a guy. Only He Lei was taller than me so I had to extend my arm further. “We were just training together.”

He Lei continued to watch me with concern. “Are you really okay?” He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at me, pressing his hand on my shoulder. “We are all good brothers, it makes me worried to see you behaving like that.”

Harry retracted his hand and crossed his arms. Then, he stole a glance at Raffles but Raffles looked away. Harry reined back his smile and looked down. He looked like he had something on his mind.

He Lei watched me with concern as I frowned. I tried to look for an answer in my head; I had to behave like a man.

I knitted my eyebrows. “That was considered my first time killing someone. It’s still…” I looked at my hands.

“I understand.” He Lei accepted that answer as expected. He looked down, as though my reply had made him recall a far-away memory that was painful for him. His grip on my shoulder tightened, the strength so great that it hurt my shoulder.

“Psst!”

When I gasped in pain, He Lei came back to reality. At the same time, Harry immediately pulled He Lei’s hand off me. “Brother, he is fragile. His bones can’t survive from your grip!” Harry said, draping his hand over my shoulders to occupy them so that no one could press on them again.

He Lei’s gaze turned apologetic. “Sorry, I…” He paused and smiled at me. “It’s great that you’re fine now. What were you doing just now?” He looked at Harry and me curiously.

“We were exchanging blows to learn from one another.” Harry then executed a few moves to show him. Then, he knocked He Lei with his arm and winked. “I’m telling you, Luo Bing is very amazing in close combat. I reckon you are not his match either.”

He Lei immediately gave him a look of disbelief. “I don’t believe this.” Then, he turned to me. “Luo Bing, let me fight against you.” He extended his hand and took a fighting stance.

I glanced at He Lei’s hand, stunned. “Are you serious?”

“Luo Bing! Show him what you got!” Harry cheered. He hugged Raffles’ shoulders and said, “Raffles, you should cheer for Luo Bing too.”

Raffles couldn’t be bothered. He looked away. “You just don’t want to be the only one disgraced, so you’re trying to drag someone else down with you.”

“Is that so?” He Lei glanced at Harry. “I might disappoint you. I’ve never lost before.”

“Not necessarily.” Raffles told He Lei. “You will regret challenging Luo Bing. Luo Bing, He Lei is belittling you.” Raffles teased me, his manner just like a small kid reporting to the school teacher.

He Lei smiled and put his hands behind his back as he shook his head.

He was truly looking down on me.

I extended my hand. “He Lei, let’s compete.”

He Lei looked at me and smiled. “Fine, I’ll only use one hand.” Glancing at my figure that was much smaller than his, he looked at Harry suspiciously. His expression seemed to be questioning if Harry had been letting me win on purpose.

Harry smirked and looked at him. “It’s close combat. So, you can’t use superpower yeah?”

He Lei smiled. “Of course I know that.” Then, he looked at me. “Come on.” He extended one hand.

He held one of his hands before him like a pole and kept his other hand. This way, he basically had no protection at all. It was no doubt a huge handicap.

He Lei was obviously very confident. Maybe he’d never lost when he had been fighting against other people. But he didn’t know that I wasn’t from this world. I was from a world with an extremely vast variety of fighting techniques and wushu categories.

In my own world, every nation had its own wushu and grappling skills. Among these nations, there was no doubt that China had been the strongest of all. Our wushu culture had gone through an evolution of five thousand years but what I had learned had only been one drop in the bucket.

Even the taichi skills that I usually used had been learned from my dad, but he had yet to master those completely, let alone me. However, even armed with merely one drop in the bucket, I was now unbeatable in Noah City. Clearly, Chinese wushu was awesome.

I studied He Lei’s posture as I thought. I’d already thought of my moves. I started to breathe and calm myself down, to remove the distracting thoughts. Then, I pulled He Lei’s arm at my fastest speed!

However, I wasn’t intending to execute a shoulder throw. Maybe He Lei had thought I was going to shoulder throw him, hence he lowered his center of gravity. I’d made a move in the blink of an eye and he’d responded in an instant as well. However, within that instant, I leaped up using his strong arm as a lever and stepped on him. Taking advantage of my light build and his lowered center of gravity, I moved swiftly to his neck, spun my body and straddled on his neck. Riding on my momentum, I slapped a palm on his temple.

“Ah!” He immediately let out a groan in pain and fell forward; he must have been suffering from tinnitus.

Just as he fell forward, I jumped off his neck and landed on my feet before him, seizing the opportunity to lightly grab him by his arm. Putting my free hand behind my back, I smiled at him. “If I’d used all my strength, you would have been dead.”

He stared at me in a trance and I smiled. He should be very dizzy now.

“It seems like you were quite gentle to me…” Harry furrowed his eyebrows as he watched He Lei in pain.

“The position that Luo Bing hit should have been his temple, which is the weakest point on the head…” Raffles started muttering to himself in shock. “There are a lot of blood vessels underneath the skin in that spot. If it’s a light hit, he would suffer a concussion but if it’s a forceful one…”

“You moved so fast…” He Lei finally felt better. He stood up and gazed at me in astonishment. “I understand why Harry would lose to you now.”

“Yeah, he always beats me up!” Harry seemed to be complaining.

I glared at him coldly and he went tense. Blinking, he faced forward. “It’s time to repair the spaceship. Raffles, let’s go!” Then, he walked past me stiffly, dragging Raffles with him to show that he really was heading back to repair the spaceship.

Raffles rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“Heh…” He Lei chuckled and looked at me. “What was that earlier? That was impressive.”

I chuckled. “That move is not suitable for you because of your build… You’re not light enough.” Then, I patted his tall body and left, smug with success.

Chinese Wushu was extensive and profound. It was particular about what moves you could learn, based on your body build.

“Luo Bing.” He Lei caught up with me and took a glance at me. He hesitated as he asked, “You… what’s your superpower exactly?”

I stopped and looked at him. Under the sunlight, his features looked more mature than Harry and the other guys. His skin was colored with a healthy tan too.

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