CHAPTER 117: CHAPTER 117: PANTHEON

The next morning, Chen Shouyi grabbed a wooden sword and ran all the way to the haunted house, ready to practice sword.

But he discovered a large crowd gathered at the entrance of the haunted house. Upon approaching, Chen Shouyi realized that the originally locked iron door was wide open, the courtyard’s weeds had been cleared, and there were more than a dozen workers inside renovating.

The crowd whispered among themselves, pointing and discussing.

"Truly fearless."

"I heard it only cost twenty million, probably bought it cheap without checking. They must not have done any research when buying," a fat middle-aged man with a large gold chain around his neck sneered.

"Twenty million isn’t cheap at all," an elderly man shook his head, "For a place like this, I wouldn’t even pay two million. It’s ominous."

Chen Shouyi frowned slightly upon hearing this, realizing he couldn’t practice here anymore.

Feeling helpless, he glanced around and decided to head back to his neighborhood.

The environment in his neighborhood was quite nice, with a sizable lakeside park inside.

In the early morning, there were people exercising everywhere, besides the elderly, there were also many young people practicing martial arts.

Although the noise was a bit loud and disruptive, making it difficult to unleash power.

However, today he would just have to make do.

Chen Shouyi found an empty area, got into position, and slowly practiced sword as if he were an elderly person, carefully experiencing the exertion of his body, and his muscles flowed like water, moving slowly yet smoothly.

...

Not far away, two lively young girls practiced sword while chatting.

One girl in a dark blue short-sleeved sports outfit complained, "Now martial arts classes have become large classes. If we fail the martial arts exam in the future, we won’t graduate. Ahhhh, what a ridiculous rule. I’m not even planning to apply to the Martial Arts Academy."

The other girl in a pink sports outfit randomly swung a few swords. Her well-developed chest bounced slightly as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, dejectedly saying, "You’re still better off. You’ve practiced before; I barely have."

The girl in dark blue quickly comforted her, "I’m not much better than you, maybe just a little bit. Did you sign up for any training classes?"

"Of course I did; hardly anyone in our class hasn’t signed up," the pink girl replied.

"Li Siyuan didn’t sign up!" Speaking of Li Siyuan, the dark blue girl’s eyes sparkled.

"He’s already passed the Martial Arts Apprentice exam, so why would he need tutoring? I heard he doesn’t even want the recommendation to the Beijing Martial Arts Academy and is now applying to universities abroad, planning to study overseas."

"If it were me, I would have gone long ago. But the ideas of a genius aren’t understandable to ordinary people," the dark blue girl sighed.

The pink girl paused, took a sip from a nearby bottle of mineral water, glanced around, and suddenly said, "Jingjing, that person’s sword strikes are so precise!"

The dark blue girl named Jingjing stopped and glanced over, dismissively saying:

"What’s so impressive about that? Judging by his slow movements, he’s still a beginner experiencing muscle coordination. I’m telling you, how standard a sword form looks is useless; the key is muscle coordination and the speed of the strike to truly unleash power."

"Oh!" The pink girl listened in a daze, starting to believe it somewhat, but he’s really handsome, with a tall build, rosy lips, and bright teeth, a special demeanor in every move.

She took a few small sips of water, put down the mineral water bottle, and couldn’t help but look at the young man again, only to find his sword form had changed. He was no longer thrusting straight but was performing a bewildering series of moves she didn’t recognize.

She watched, amazed, and quickly added, "Look how many sword forms he knows?"

The dark blue girl continued practicing sword, not even turning her head: "I’ve already told you, it’s all show, useless in reality. Even the park’s old sword dancers practice better than him; it’s probably some stuff he learned online by fumbling around. I’ve seen a lot of people like this."

The pink girl couldn’t argue back.

So frustrating!

She just felt he was so amazing, the moves were beautiful, and the person was handsome, she thought to herself, giving up practicing sword to watch the young man from a distance.

She saw his movements, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Slow like an ox pulling a cart, the sword thrust substantial; fast like a lightweight body gliding over water, like a spider skimming across the water, each sword stroke was expansive, with a strong sense of aesthetic pleasure.

With such good-looking movements, how could he possibly be a beginner as Jingjing suggested?

A few minutes later, the young man stood with his sword, exhaling a breath of white mist.

It was deep autumn, the morning air was chilly, and this white mist shot out like an arrow over five or six meters, lingering in the air without dispersing.

The pink girl widened her eyes slightly, stunned, nearly gasping in surprise.

The young man seemed to sense something, suddenly turned and glanced at her, nodding at her in acknowledgment.

The pink girl flushed with embarrassment, avoiding eye contact and covertly picked up her wooden sword, randomly thrusting a few times, her heart pounding.

After some time, she stopped again, only to find her subject of interest had long left, watching him walk away leisurely with his wooden sword, disappearing into a residential building.

"He lives in building five too?" The pink girl wondered, placing her small hand over her chest, "How come I’ve never seen him before, could he be new?"

...

In a coffee shop.

Melodious music drifts in the restaurant, Chen Shouyi looked at Bai Xiaoling and asked, "You said you have important information to tell me, you can speak now."

"Something major happened, you need to be careful for the next few days," Bai Xiaoling said with a solemn expression.

Chen Shouyi picked up his coffee, took a sip, seemingly indifferent, "Why? What happened?"

"In the past week, five martial artists have disappeared in Hedong City, including one major martial artist," Bai Xiaoling said.

Chen Shouyi was slightly surprised at these words, putting down his coffee cup, "That’s impossible."

A major martial artist disappearing without a trace, unless it’s by a similar martial artist or someone of even greater strength. But aren’t these all official personnel, at least with government status, high-ranking and powerful?

Under the government’s strict constraints, who would foolishly challenge social order?

"The police suspect this is the work of the Pantheon; it’s their style. Hedong has now requested intervention from higher forces," Bai Xiaoling continued, not waiting for Chen Shouyi to ask further, explaining:

"It’s an international terrorist organization, long established, always very mysterious. Since the worlds merged, this organization has existed, initially made up of some financial groups and scientists, later joined secretly by some martial artists. Their ultimate goal is to become gods, for which they conduct crazy human experiments, even willingly cooperating with deities from other worlds.

The organization has been attacked many times but always quickly resurfaces.

I only recently learned about this organization; it’s highly confidential. If I weren’t your liaison officer, I wouldn’t even be entitled to this knowledge."