Chapter 44: Friend, Have You Heard of Glory?

[Important: To those currently reading, if you haven't added this to your collection yet, please do so. Xiao Ye offers his deepest thanks here.]

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Nalan Ying felt deeply ashamed; as the head of the Nalan family's intelligence network, no matter how thoroughly he investigated, he simply could not unearth the background of this little shop called Origin.

Save for its owner, a youth of unremarkable aptitude born into a family of commoner warriors.

Yet this only deepened the enigma—how could such an unremarkable individual have inflicted grievous injuries upon Nalan Ji?

Such investigative findings were simply beyond belief!

Thus, he resolved to personally meet this so-called commoner warrior proprietor!

He had barely arrived before the storefront when he noticed a dark shadow stealthily slipping inside.

"Hmm?" Recognizing something familiar about the shadow, he hastily followed, only to realize, "Is that not Lanyan?"

"Boss!" Lanyan produced six spirit crystals. "Give me two bottles of Sprite!"

"Sprite?" Nalan Ying was thoroughly bewildered. "According to the reports, it is a beverage exclusive to this shop. But what could possibly be so good about something from a common street-side tavern? Could it be... some sort of secret code...?"

"Strictly one bottle per person per day," he then heard Fang Qi reply with an utterly expressionless face.

"It really is a code!" Nalan Ying's eyes narrowed slightly. To refuse to sell a beverage in a roadside shop even for three spirit crystals—only a secret code could explain it. "It seems there are indeed secrets hidden within this establishment that I remain unaware of!"

But in the next moment, he suddenly witnessed Lanyan sitting to one side, blissfully sipping her Sprite, her face a picture of absolute bliss.

After seeming to savor the taste of the Sprite for a good long while, Lanyan took another delicate sip before pleading, "Boss... look, the young mistress is injured. Can't you make an exception and let me bring a bottle back for her?"

Fang Qi rolled his eyes at her. "No. Rules are rules."

"Stingy!" Lanyan shot Fang Qi a disdainful glare.

Nalan Ying watched Lanyan in utter astonishment; her expression showed no trace of pretense.

Yet the questions remained:

Could a beverage from a roadside shop truly taste that divine?

Could the owner of a roadside shop truly be so arrogant?

Since when did members of the Nalan family... ever have to beg others?

And this fellow actually dared to refuse?

Not even a stage play would be written this absurdly!

He felt as though his intelligence had been grievously insulted!

"Oh, right," just then, he heard Lanyan speak up again, "Miss Nalan asked me to inquire: yesterday you mentioned there was a master who could beat Nalan Ji so badly he wouldn't be able to get out of bed. Is there really a master out there who is even more proficient with firearms and artillery than you, Boss?"

Hearing this, Nalan Ying's frame trembled slightly. Pretending to rest on a nearby seat, he strained his ears to listen!

Firearms? Artillery? Master? Every single word pointed to the distinct possibility of obtaining invaluable intelligence!

Right at that moment, beside Nalan Ying, a man clad in tight black martial attire, his entire face concealed beneath a deep hood, appeared out of nowhere.

The man sat down right next to Nalan Ying, seemingly focusing all his attention on the impending conversation as well.

The two exchanged a fleeting glance, each faintly discerning the other's identity, but hearing Fang Qi speak, they both quickly straightened their posture and composed themselves!

"Is there a master even more proficient with guns and cannons than me...?" Fang Qi rubbed his chin. "I suppose there are quite a few."

"Could it be they all know the gunplay techniques you used yesterday, Boss?!" Lanyan stared at Fang Qi with wide, incredulous eyes. Could such a technique really be so easy to practice? If so, wouldn't any random Martial Master who mastered it and possessed a decent firearm be able to contend with a Martial Grandmaster in the future?

Nalan Ying and the black-robed man beside him similarly listened with rapt attention: "To think a martial technique paired with such a unique weapon could allow a Martial Master to bridge such a vast chasm in strength and defeat a Martial Grandmaster?!"

"Are you talking about Gun Delivery?" Fang Qi said. "Not many people actually know that technique..."

Fang Qi began to explain the concept of Gun Delivery to Lanyan.

An hour later...

...

"So that technique of using guns and cannons is called Gun Delivery?"

Within an elegantly adorned courtyard, past the white-parapeted wall with red bricks, a gravel path led into the grounds, flanked by a meticulously manicured green lawn where rows of pear trees stood in orderly fashion.

The pear leaves grew lush and verdant, a clear testament to the meticulous care bestowed upon them by the estate's master.

Looking further inward, voices were drifting from a room situated toward the north.

Nalan Mingxue's complexion remained somewhat pale as she held a bowl of medicinal broth, sipping it languidly; having suffered no small injury the previous day, she had clearly not yet fully recovered.

Consequently, she rarely stayed indoors like today, unable to step outside, leaving her entirely dependent on Lanyan to relay tidings from the outside world: "The boss said even he cannot execute it perfectly. The true power of this technique lies in using the concussive force of firearms to deliver an airborne target to any desired location, which is why it is called Gun Delivery."

"Who else in this world could possibly understand firearms better than Boss Fang?" Nalan Mingxue took a light sip of the broth, her brow furrowing slightly at its bitterness. "Aren't these weapons supposed to exist only within the Resident Evil game?"

"He said there is," Lanyan said, sitting by Nalan Mingxue's bedside with her cheeks resting in her hands. "For instance, a great god named Ye Xiu. He said this entire fighting style was invented by him..."

"Great God Ye Xiu? A master of firearms and artillery?"

"No, the boss said that great god is proficient in all eighteen paths of martial arts—sabers, spears, swords, staffs, and the like. He is hailed as the Battle God and even forged a divine weapon of his own creation called the Thousand Chance Umbrella." A look akin to reverence gleamed within Lanyan's clear, bright eyes.

"Can there truly be someone in this world with such profound attainment in firearms? And to be a master of all eighteen martial arts, a Battle God? Appointed as a deity?" Nalan Mingxue paused, then scoffed as she realized, "It is clearly a fabrication of his own making, yet you actually believed it! Within the borders of the Great Jin Kingdom, from ancient times to the present, no such bizarre weapon has ever appeared."

"Is that so?" Lanyan rolled her eyes, half-doubting. "But the boss even told me a tale about this great god, surely that couldn't be fabricated too..."

"I can tell a fabricated tale the moment I hear it," Nalan Mingxue remarked indifferently as she drank her medicine. "Go ahead and tell it."

"Mm!" Lanyan looked up at the ceiling, recalling what Fang Qi had casually told her, and began to speak in Fang Qi's exact tone, "My friend, have you ever heard of Glory...?"

...

Meanwhile, within the grand hall of the Nalan Family.

"Family Head." Nalan Ying knelt respectfully on one knee.

"Family Head, your subordinate has thoroughly investigated. It is a small gaming shop named Origin, which currently features two games: Resident Evil and Diablo II. The young mistress frequents this shop every day to play."

"Furthermore, your subordinate discovered that the weapon used by the shop owner is called a rocket launcher—highly unusual and immensely powerful. His ability to severely injure Nalan Ji was due to a technique known as 'Gun Delivery'." Nalan Ying reported solemnly, "It is said to be a supreme technique exclusive to this weapon, created by a great god named Ye Xiu."

WTF!?

"Hmm—!?" Nalan Hongwu, who had been resting his eyes, snapped them open, feeling as though his mind had suddenly rusted solid and refused to turn.

What on earth was all this?! Could it be that during his years of living in seclusion, the outside world had suddenly spawned so many strange things?!

"In addition, the shop owner disclosed some information regarding this great god named Ye Xiu, though your subordinate has yet to verify its authenticity."

"What information?" Nalan Hongwu's expression shifted slightly. Names like 'rocket launcher' and 'Gun Delivery' were entirely unheard of, making it difficult to believe they were real, but if there were facts to support them...

"The shop owner put it like this: 'My friend, have you ever heard of Glory...'"

Nalan Ying began to recount the modified version of The King's Avatar that Fang Qi had told Lanyan.

...

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