Daily life of a teacher in the martial arts department

Nephalem was caught in a dilemma. Meanwhile, Himura Tan's character and Akira had entered the pre-battle verbal sparring phase. It was clear that Akira was no match for Himura Tan's character and could only start the battle with the words, "I hope you are as good as your mouth."

Ying Qin Guan glanced at it a few times, feeling extremely bored. He picked up the sword box beside him and said, "You guys take a look... I'm going back first."

"Aren't you going to watch it?" Nephalem wasn't surprised by Ying Qin Guan's choice and asked, "There are still ten days left."

"If it's your turn to fight, I'll just watch for a bit... No, you should be able to beat everyone else, just those two days with Himura Tanzaku and Kai, those are your two toughest matches, I'll come and see."

"Isn't this all about watching me lose...?"

Ying Qin Guan bid farewell to everyone and left quickly. No one was surprised by his choice, whether they knew his identity or not.

Even disregarding his true identity, Ying Qin Guan was ostensibly one of the top four, alongside the Nephalem, the Ten Commandments, and Athossa, yet he, along with the Ten Commandments, was absent from this grand event. Perhaps it would be strange if he came here to watch the match; who among those who came to watch the match wouldn't want to be on the stage themselves?

..

Ying Qin Guan returned to the Imperial Courtyard and went to his dormitory to store the sword box. For some reason, he recalled the scene of being surrounded and killed by Ye Qu and Mu Nan Dong while eating in the cafeteria that day. It seems that people always recall embarrassing past events.

"Damn it, I should be more careful in the future..."

Ying Qin Guan warned himself to always be vigilant and to be extra careful when speaking to Mu Nan Dong, Ye Qu, and Fu Fei Han in the future. However, this couldn't go on forever; perhaps he should spend some time in the library... but that seemed difficult too.

With this thought in mind, Ying Qin Guan, unusually, did not go to the board game arcade, but decided to go for a stroll outside. He usually had nothing to do, just attending classes, eating, and playing cards. If he didn't do these things, he would just be aimlessly wandering around.

The streets of Qiyao have always been extremely bustling. Ying Qin Guan bought some snacks that were convenient to eat while walking and strolled around. He had done this many times before and was already very familiar with the place.

"Boss, I'd like an order of roasted chestnuts."

"Please give me a serving of roasted chestnuts."

At a mobile stall, Ying Qin Guan was drawn by the aroma of chestnuts. Just as he opened his mouth, he heard a familiar voice beside him, along with a self-reference that probably no one else had ever used. He turned his head to look... a tall and upright figure with deep pupils, indeed Feng Yun Ke.

Ying Qin Guan heard his boss complain about the other person. He had applied for the job as the boss's private chef and passed the interview, but the next day he turned around and left a strange resignation letter and ran away, saying that he had heard the call of nature. It was simply inexplicable.

Unexpectedly, we bumped into each other again at Seven Stars.

"What a coincidence...you're back in Qiyao?"

Ying Qin Guan greeted him; the other party had done him a great favor, otherwise, in that public restroom...

Feng Yunke also met Ying Qin Guan. He was calm and seemed unmoved by anything. When he met Ying Qin Guan by chance, he simply nodded and said, "It can't be considered a return. I'm just a wanderer. Where in the world is my home? I'm just a passerby."

Ying Qin Guan immediately felt an aura of domineering power rushing towards him. If it were Feng Yun Ke, he might be able to rival that Fei Cun Yi Jiao.

With these jumbled thoughts flashing through his mind, Ying Qin Guan didn't delve deeper into the topic. Instead, he said, "Speaking of which, I owe you a lot for what happened last time. I promised to treat you to a meal, but I haven't been able to keep my promise... Are you free now?"

Feng Yunke turned around, keeping his eyes straight ahead, and said, "No."

Ying Qin Guan was slightly taken aback, not expecting the other party to be so disrespectful. Fortunately, he wasn't one to care about such things, and immediately asked, "When are you free?"

Fengyunke took the roasted chestnuts from the stall owner.

"Now we have it."

Chapter Thirty-One: I Don't Know

Ying Qin Guan ultimately chose a street-side restaurant—not too good, not too bad, just average. Since there were only two of them, they didn't ask for a private room and sat in a corner of the main hall.

The two of them are indeed quite destined to meet. Neither of them knows where the other lives, yet they often bump into each other in various places. Their current relationship can be described as a gentleman's friendship that is as light as water.

At such a casual dinner, conversation was naturally expected, so the two chatted casually. Unfortunately, neither of them were particularly good at conversation. Therefore, the conversation mostly ended in awkward silences.

"Where are you from?"

“Cherry blossoms in full bloom”.

“Oboro?” Ying Qin Guan was somewhat surprised and said, “Your name doesn’t sound like Oboro.”

"I changed my name once," Feng Yunke said calmly, "to sever ties with my past life."

Ying Qin Guan did not ask any more questions about this. In the past, how much pain could just two simple words bring to people? Countless. The other person must have his reasons for wandering around at this age without a fixed place to live.

"Speaking of which, why did you suddenly disappear last time?" Ying Qin Guan asked, recalling the other party's sudden disappearance. "It was a job that was hard to find, and you had only been working there for a day. Why did you suddenly leave? The reason... to be honest, it's a bit hard to accept."

Feng Yunke did not answer Ying Qinguan directly, but gently swirled the liquor in his hand. It was strong liquor, and he had already drunk his second bottle, yet his expression remained unchanged. His alcohol tolerance was unfathomable.

“I regret that I have taken on a job. Even if I have to leave, I should say goodbye in a more dignified way.” Feng Yunke said in a hoarse voice, “But when the giant waves of fate come crashing down and try to capsize the little boat of life, not everyone has time to elegantly straighten their tie.”

Ying Qin Guan only half understood what Feng Yun Ke was saying. It seemed that the other party had encountered an emergency. He was not good at chatting, and Feng Yun Ke's ambiguous attitude made him unsure whether he should ask further. After hesitating for a moment, Ying Qin Guan chose not to ask and instead asked another question.

Are you still wandering around now?

"Wandering" is really not a good word. If it were Nocturne here, she would probably come up with some better words. Fortunately, Fengyunke doesn't seem to care.

“I’ve been wandering all along,” Feng Yunke said. “This kind of life is far from over.”

Ying Qin Guan said, "That sounds very dashing."

"There are many carefree things in this world, but none of them is wandering."

“Is that so…” Ying Qin Guan was silent for a moment, then asked, “If that’s the case, why do you want to wander?”

“I have already answered that.” Feng Yunke glanced at Ying Qin Guan, seemingly wondering why he would ask such a question, but in the end, Feng Yunke chose to answer again.

"Fate always leaves us with no choice."

"destiny.."

These two words silenced Ying Qin Guan, and neither of them spoke for a moment.

After a moment, Ying Qin Guan asked, "Do you believe in fate?"

"do not know."

"Don't know?" Ying Qin Guan was shocked. He thought Feng Yun Ke would give him an answer, whether he believed him or not, it would be an answer. But Feng Yun Ke said he didn't know.

"I don't know," Feng Yunke said in a low voice. "Whether you believe or not, only someone who fully understands themselves can say that. But no one can truly understand themselves. When faced with choices, people hesitate, and hesitation is proof that they don't know themselves. If you truly understand yourself, then you will never need to hesitate. But people always hesitate, saying it's about weighing the pros and cons, but in reality, it's all about finding their own hearts."

"Whether to be a good person or a bad person, whether to prioritize profit or friendship, it's all a choice of the heart. But no one truly understands their own heart, so we must keep searching."

Ying Qin Guan said, "So, you haven't found your own heart either."

"No one wants to truly find their own heart, otherwise..."

He paused slightly and said in a low voice:

"It will be very lonely."

-

After meeting Feng Yunke, the two parted ways without exchanging any contact information. If fate allows, they will meet again.

The final eleven days of the World's Greatest Martial Arts Tournament have reached their third day. Ying Qin Pass is heading to the Grand Arena for a Nephalem match today, with his opponent being Hishimura Tan's Sakura.

Although it has been repeated many times, it must be repeated again at this moment: if you want to win the championship, then at least one of Hiramura Tanzaku, Kai, or Nephalem should win.

Now, he has no choice but to face one of these battles... However, Nephalem doesn't have much confidence. In the battles of the past few days, Himura Tanzaku completely overwhelmed him, making it difficult to see any hope of defeating him. What's even more frightening is that he has never used a weapon from beginning to end.

Fortunately... this time, when facing the Nephalem, Hiramura Danzao still didn't wear a weapon.

Before the registration for the World Martial Arts Tournament closed, Ying Qin Guan, Atoshe, the Nephalem, and the Ten Commandments were considered the favorites to win, far surpassing other top-tier players. However, as the competition progressed, only the Nephalem remained among these four. Ying Qin Guan and the Ten Commandments did not participate, and Atoshe lost to Himura Tan's Sakura in the second round of elimination.

Himura Dan's appearance was a dark horse that suddenly emerged. He fought his way to where he is now with an unstoppable force. In this match, his opponent is a veteran top-tier Nephalem. If he can easily win this match, then perhaps only Kai can fight him. The battle between Himura Dan and Kai will take place on the last day, the eleventh day.

Frankly, this battle order doesn't satisfy Nephalem. There are better options. If Hiramura Tanzaku and Kui had fought first, his chances of winning would have been much higher. You have to understand, his chances of winning were already pitifully low.

However, things don't always go as planned. Even Atos, who aimed for fourth place and a top-three finish, was eliminated in the knockout stage.

"Let's try our best..."

Nephalem took a deep breath and walked towards the contestant's passage. The passage was long and dark. He walked through it step by step. As he entered the Great Arena, countless noises came from all directions, but Nephalem seemed not to hear them. He stared straight at Hisumura Tan's opposite side. Hisumura Tan's opposite side walked out of the passage, dressed in a ronin outfit, looking relaxed and carefree, and still without a weapon.

He was slender and looked frail, but Nephalem knew... he might be about to face the most difficult, the toughest battle of his life.

Unlike last time when we faced Ji Fenming, where all we had to do was stall him, this time... we must take him down!

Chapter Thirty-Two: Nothing More Than a Well-Developed Mind

The two stood about twenty meters apart. With a gunshot, the match began, but neither of them moved first.

Among the twelve participants, Himura Danzai displayed the strongest desire for verbal sparring, and his strength was extremely high. However, his initiative rate was the second lowest, because he was always ambushed by his opponents during conversations, or his opponents would decide to end the conversation first and launch an attack.

—The one with the lowest first-move rate is naturally the champion.

Nephalem wouldn't give up on this characteristic of his opponent. Although it was embarrassing to admit, he had to acknowledge that most of his chances of winning came from his opponent's underestimation of him. But even with his opponent's overconfidence, he didn't have much of a chance of winning.

Every era has multiple top-tier masters, but most eras, even spanning several centuries, lack even a single unparalleled expert.

"It's you..."

Himura Tan's smile seemed to indicate that he hadn't finished reading the schedule provided by the organizers and was unaware that his opponent was a Nephalem. He smiled and said, "I've heard of your reputation for a long time."

“I did become famous much earlier than you,” Nephalem said, though he was considerably older than Himura Tanzaku. However, in terms of the speed of their rise to fame, they were worlds apart. Nephalem had already shone brightly during his time in the Imperial Academy, while Himura Tanzaku might have been strong long before. But in terms of true fame, it was a recent development. Although he had won the Ouma Junior Swordsmanship Tournament, Ouma was merely a small country, and the Junior Swordsmanship Tournament wasn't a particularly significant event.

"But once this matter is over, you will probably become famous throughout the world."

"These are trivial matters, I don't care about them. If I wanted to, I could have done them long ago."

“Since that’s the case…” Nephalem wouldn’t let go of any opportunity and immediately began to influence Hishimura Tanzaku’s fighting spirit, “Then why did you come to participate in this tournament?”

“That’s completely wrong,” Hisumura Tanzaku smiled. “Did everyone come here just to compete for fame and fortune?”

Upon hearing this, Nephalem felt that he had been outmaneuvered. Hisumura Tan's answer was so clever that he felt he had been completely outmatched in terms of purity, and his aura had also been suppressed.

He could find many reasons to refute him, but Nephalem knew it was all self-deception. Hisanura was right; he wasn't there to fight for fame and fortune. Otherwise, with his strength, he would have been world-renowned long ago. Nephalem, on the other hand, was indeed there to win the championship. While it's true that fighting for fame and fortune is acceptable as long as it's done fairly, as a martial artist, for someone to come seeking battle while you pursue fame and fortune is undeniably inferior—a point that cannot be argued.

After a brief exchange, Nephalem realized that he couldn't possibly be a match for Himura Dan's verbal skills. But it wasn't because she was a better debater, but because she stood on universal values. Just like the debate between Shinshin and Hato, was it that Shinshin couldn't win against Hato? Obviously not, but because Hato had an advantage from the start.

It's like a debate where one side argues for gender equality and the other argues for gender inequality. What's the point of debating? Just say goodbye.

The situation was similar now, so the Nephalem cleanly abandoned the pre-battle verbal sparring. Although he was confident that his fighting spirit would not be affected, there was really no need to put his face up for him to hit.

So he chose to take action.

Nephalem rushed forward in a few steps and arrived in front of Himura Tanzaku in a short moment. He formed hammers with both hands, one on the left and one on the right, and broke through the wind like two giant hammers, directly smashing towards Himura Tanzaku's forehead!

With a smile on his face, Himura Tan's Sakura knew that even if Ying Qin Guan used his Consciousness Slash to ambush him from a distance of twenty meters, he could react. Let alone Nephalem. He quickly crouched down, his left foot sliding forward while his right foot remained stationary. His upper body simply lowered without moving forward. This rapid crouching motion caused Nephalem's two punches to miss. Before Nephalem could recover, the composed Himura Tan's Sakura unleashed a flurry of punches, incredibly fast. The punches landed on Nephalem's inner energy barrier, failing to shatter it directly. However, the terrifying force still sent Nephalem flying.

In mid-air, the Nephalem repeatedly channeled his inner energy, attempting to stabilize himself. However, Hishimura Tan's feet moved swiftly, outrunning him even faster than he could fly. In the blink of an eye, she had caught up with the Nephalem, who had nowhere to catch up in mid-air, and viciously hurled a hand chop at him!

"Although they weren't carrying weapons, they were fighting much more seriously..."

Ying Qin Guan had this thought in his mind. Although Hishimura Tan Ying was not carrying a weapon at the moment, he was much more serious than when he was playing around during the elimination rounds.

"However, the Nephalem are not countered by you... nor by my consciousness-slashing technique. Defeating him the way you defeated Athosher is probably impossible."