Chapter 134: Prelude

Law enforcement agencies across the country are short-staffed, especially after decades of widespread martial arts education; there will always be people who cannot control themselves and commit crimes relying on their martial skills. Even though martial arts masters already earn well, they cannot compensate for some people's greed, and there are those born with antisocial personalities who just want to do wrong. Such people are fine if they lack skill, but once they attain martial ability, the consequences of their wrongdoing become severe.

The Action Team deals with such people, colloquially called handling 'martial arts maniacs', and likewise those who abuse the status brought by their martial arts to embezzle, take bribes, or commit commercial fraud for profit—when apprehending them, the Action Team is likewise deployed. Generally speaking, those who can reach this point usually have their intellect unable to support further martial arts training, so their martial arts stagnate. On the contrary, some antisocial maniacs can sometimes train their martial arts to a very high level......

Thus, the more masters in the Action Team, the greater its prestige—and the state also supports such master teams; ideally these masters would either join the military or become police, just as the Great Song conscripts vigorous youth prone to rebellion. Consequently, local Action Teams and police bureaus are like a gacha game, loving to collect masters, reaching deep into various sects and university martial arts clubs...... seeking those promising young masters.

Basically, sects already have career paths arranged for their disciples; even if they join the military or police, each has its own channels and factional territories. Trying to lure some young masters over is merely picking up scraps. Bai Lang is currently such a scrap—although the Magic City police ultimately couldn't get him to join, they also definitely won't let him go elsewhere to join another police force—otherwise, where would everyone from top to bottom put their faces? Especially joining the Imperial Capital is absolutely not allowed to happen!

If it were a place like Suzhou-Hangzhou, a mere greeting and warning would suffice; even if they were dragged over there, a superficial review would be fine, after all Southern Jiangsu Northern Zhejiang Magic City is a core part of the Free Shipping Empire, and relations are still decent.

However, the world's two pillars, Magic City is one of them—masters emerge endlessly, and its strength can only be compared to the Imperial Capital—and that is only because the national-level teams are stationed there. Moreover, it has always been somewhat out of place, not really paying attention to the Imperial Capital; isn't that just the Magic City Action Team? As for Five Rams City in the southern sky, that's merely remote from the emperor; judging by sheer strength alone, it still falls short of the two pillars.

The online search results on the phone show that the Magic City Action Team is also claimed to dominate a nation—this is no boast; judging solely by the number of masters and their martial prowess, all the small countries of Southeast Asia combined cannot match a single Magic City. People still like to pad the numbers, and the titles of top ten masters, heavenly kings, etc., still exist; the world-recognized Top Ten Masters of China, Magic City has three of them.

Of course, the ones who love this sort of thing the most are Japan, with its endless stream of heavenly kings and five-gun types, and even their nicknames are enough to make China's Top Ten Masters die of shame.

At this point Bai Lang still had no title, merely a newcomer who had survived the first round of the university league.

Since he joined the individual event of the league, Bai Lang need not attend school this year—professional study really means nothing for an internal force martial artist like him. His next opponent is a sophomore from a certain university in the Imperial Capital, but the venue has been outright moved to the dojo arena in Jinzhou City. 'Not bad luck—this time I can go see my memorial tomb, and even visit my temple; how splendid!'

Back at university, he had only studied the Yangtze Triple Wave technique for two days when the date of the next round approached; Bai Lang once again took the high-speed rail—there was no direct flight, and factoring in flight delays plus the time to transfer to a short-haul high-speed rail, it was no better than riding the high-speed rail straight there. Before departure, he also went to watch the first round of his school's team competition. All the official club members who weren't competing sat downstairs, watching their teammates fight on the stage.

Wang Yali was undoubtedly one of the competitors—after all, she was actually among the weakest. Don't say it, don't look; although they are each the relatively weak martial artists from their own schools, once they fight, quite a few have considerable experience, and the bouts are quite enjoyable to watch. After all, cultivation rank and combat strength don't always correspond exactly; otherwise Boss Xiao would have already knelt. 'Each unleashing their ultimate techniques, the fights are truly exciting to watch.' That was Bai Lang's view, and his school also won.

"If I went up, I could take on three at once and finish in under a minute." Such boastful remarks are better left unsaid, otherwise the principal and teachers would lose face.

After the match, everyone exchanged impressions and critiqued the performers; as masters, they sometimes offered pointers, yet someone objected—different martial arts views, different martial arts wisdom. Among those present 'masters', all who entered the individual tournament had survived the first round, and they had luckily faced opponents from nearby cities. The first round is usually like that, but starting from the second round there will be 'clashes', for the organizing committee's shamelessness guarantees that strong will meet strong.

Speaking of which, this is also normal—the strong fear nothing. It's not that Bai Lang's opponent is from the Imperial Capital; others either bump into Brocade Official City or Five Rams City, and some encounter the Three Towns and the Imperial Capital as well. The unluckiest one drew the Thousand-Year Ancient Capital, whose school is nicknamed the Northwest Heaven-Shaking Wolf. Although the martial artists there are not outstanding in cultivation, each is full of fighting spirit and quite ruthless—fierce to others and to themselves.

Even if that unfortunate soul wins—though the probability isn't small, getting injured is certain, and they might even withdraw in the third round due to old injuries not healing... Bai Lang laughed, saying it's all fate.

This time, two of them faced the Imperial Capital: Bai Lang and one Shi Jian. Bai Lang went to Jinzhou City to fight, while Shi Jian and his opponent actually had to go to Chongqing Mountain City University to compete. 'This basically violates the state's directive to reduce carbon emissions...' Bai Lang muttered, and everyone felt the same—yet to have a chance of being drawn to a city relatively close to both opponents, one must at least reach the national top sixty-four, meaning they must fight through to the fourth round.

Jinzhou City guards the northeastern gateway to the pass; historically it has been a military stronghold—if lost, Shanhai Pass would soon be beyond rescue. Back then, Junior Protector Bai lent his head here, slaughtering the eastern barbarians until they lost their souls and gall, and finally perishing in the heavenly fire that burned half of Jinzhou City. Thus this place has Junior Protector Bai's memorial tomb and temple; over the centuries they have been burned down by war and rebuilt several times, the most recent being in the 1980s—before that it had long been a ruined, collapsed temple, even partly occupied and turned into farmland.

Even Bai Shaobao's memorial tomb behind the temple had been looted, its contents long since completely ransacked. "I guess those tomb robbers probably didn't get anything good... they didn't even take that water‑polished Purple Gold Halberd? By the way, where did this Purple Gold Halberd come from?" Bai Lang got off the high‑speed rail and immediately looked for a vehicle to go to his own memorial tomb and temple.