Essence loss is inseparably related to a martial artist, always acting like a gravitational force pulling him in.

–Alain1

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“You bastard…! What did you do to my meridians…?!”

“Even if you know, it’s not a move you can block, so give up.”

“That’s nonsense!”

The Phantom Fist immediately leaped into the air, unfolded Silk Reeling with his whole body, broke free from my grasp, and quickly pushed through the hotel’s main entrance, escaping to the middle of the garden.

“To pilfer another man’s internal energy like some common pickpocket—have you no regard for the pride of a gentleman?!”

“Is that something a guy who learned the Demonic arts should utter?”

Judging by how he was trying to paint me as a rogue without pride, he must have been quite afraid of Gravitation.

Still, seeing as he immediately noticed that his energy would be stolen the moment he got close and kept his distance, his reflexes and judgment are, at the very least, not entirely lacking.

For now, please don’t interfere. There seems to be a mastermind behind this case. We must capture him alive.

Sending a brief sound transmission to Watson and Lestrade, they both nodded.

There was no need to talk to Sir Fawcett, as he didn’t seem inclined to help anyway.

“Well then, what now?”

I asked the two to standby because I was worried that a stray bullet or move might hit Timothy Young’s vital points.

If the Phantom Fist dies, I can’t get the necessary information.

Whether by destroying his elixir field or sealing his internal energy by other means, to keep him alive and take him back, I needed to beat him more delicately than usual when dealing with criminals.

“If you let a demon live, the priests of the Zion Clan won’t stand still.”

To subdue someone who has mastered Demonic arts without killing them, you first need to exhaust their energy.

One reason for my choosing Gravitation as the first move was precisely this.

“I’m sorry, but with your level of skill, you won’t be able to get out of here alive.”

I deliberately maintained an intimidating demeanor as I leisurely walked toward the garden.

In both palms, internal energy was still circulating through the meridians following the mnemonic of Gravitation.

It was all to stoke his anxiety.

“Ugh…”

From the beginning, the possibility of the Phantom Fist escaping did not exist.

The greatest lightness skill master, Henry Fawcett, the great hero, was paying attention to the match between me and the Phantom Fist.

Seeing him executing Warming Up, the Phantom Fist also seemed to think it would be easier to kill everyone here and escape rather than evade Sir Fawcett’s pursuit.

“Cowardly bastard. You keep using wicked tricks―”

“Oh-ho. Even though it’s Orthodox Kung-Fu.”

Judging by the incredulous expression, he truly didn’t know the origin of this Kung-Fu.

“If I tell him that this Kung-Fu subdued a demon, the teacher would be pleased.”

“Teacher…?”

What? This fellow.

“You graduated from university but are unfamiliar with Sir Newton?”

“Sir Newton? Then perhaps this move is―”

Rather than answering, I gave a rather light nod.

The Star Absorption Technique, Gravitation, was one of the signature moves of the outstanding alchemist and great Kung-Fu scholar, Sir Isaac Newton, who served as the director of the Royal Mint and the second chair professor of Cambridge University.

Sir Isaac Newton, more familiarly known by the nickname the White-Browed Hermit, purchased a large amount of stock from the South Sea Company, operated by the South Sea Clan, approximately 160 years ago with the aim of stock appreciation and dividend income.

As a result, Sir Newton lost his entire fortune, and this incident, known as the South Sea Bubble, left a significant scar in the economic history of the British Empire.2

It was during that time that Sir Newton, having overcome Papiyas3, devised a peerless Kung-Fu—one that embodied the very essence of Universal Gravitation, drawing lesser internal energy toward greater ones. This was Gravitation.

It is said that after creating the Absorption Technique, the master roamed around Europe for a while, hunting, or rather, guiding martial artists who had learned Demonic arts, much like an inquisitor of the Zion Clan.

“Do you wish to pay respects to a great man who passed away 150 years ago? Then you must die by my hand!”

“You really don’t seem to know anything.”

Judging by the fact that the teacher had also visited the Debutante Ball, it seemed that he was enjoying thrice the longevity due to having absorbed a large amount of internal energy at the time.

There was hardly any need to regale a soon-to-be convict with tales of Sir Newton, who, even after his Golden Retirement, continues to enjoy his twilight years in unbroken splendor well into his nineties.

If even a single rumor spreads, it’s obvious that martial artists, sensitive to favors and grudges, would form a Street Market in front of The Royal Combat Society.

“Do you know about Universal Gravitation, Sir Timothy Young? There is an invisible force that attracts everything to each other, binding everything to its rightful place in the universe. Internal energy is no exception.”

Mass exists in internal energy as well, and greater mass is accompanied by greater gravitational force.

And the greater the mass, the stronger the gravitational force becomes the closer two objects are.

The principle of the Gravitation lies in nullifying and absorbing the opponent’s power by using a force greater than the energy put into their move, based on the logic that greater internal energy attracts lesser internal energy.

In other words, unless the Phantom Fist executes a move containing a significant amount of his internal energy, he cannot harm me.

“I never imagined I’d witness the Gravitation I had only heard of in rumors.”

Meanwhile, Timothy Young was grinning fiercely, seemingly pleased to have finally identified the move.

“But now that I know your trick is Gravitation, you stand no chance of winning. You’ve been using Kung-Fu with established countermeasures while arrogantly behaving like Pride And Prejudice. How dare you take me as a fool!”

He began gathering his Essence again with a triumphant expression.

His legs were prepared to execute steps at any moment if I closed the distance.

He seemed to have decided to fight on his terms, realizing that engaging in close combat would only make him a victim of Gravitation.

“As long as I don’t get too close, I won’t have my internal energy stolen!”

-Wham!!

He fired off several fist blasts as soon as he finished speaking.

It was much harder to discern the shape of the fist blast in the early dawn than in broad daylight.

But I absorbed all the energy carried by the fist blast with a couple of swipes.

“That amount of energy isn’t enough to counter Gravitation.”

It was already confirmed through his killing method that Timothy Young primarily trained in fist blast techniques.

No matter how many fist blasts he sent, as long as they contained less Essence than the internal energy I wielded with Gravitation, they would only serve to bolster my power.

However, despite confirming this, he was still wearing an unpleasant smile.

“Be careful, Holmes! It seems like he’s up to something.”

Watson shouted from behind me.

I noticed it too.

The fact that Timothy Young was continuously looking for an opportunity.

It’s only natural.

After all, the fact that I dropped a hint to make it known that the move I used was Gravitation was an intended situation.

“Gravitation. Yes, it is certainly a dangerous Kung-Fu. Because it can unilaterally neutralize a move without consuming significant energy.”

Soon, a bright red haze began to envelop his body.

The Essence of the fluctuating energy was an even thicker Demonic aura than before.

-Sizzle!!!

The Brain Stopper transformed by Demonic arts.

A red lightning was seen coiling around his right hand like a snake.

He probably doesn’t have the luxury to keep hiding his skills or to do anything as sophisticated as that.

It seemed not only was he converting the mnemonic of Brain Stopper into Demonic arts by reverse operation, but he was also drawing his Innate Essence.

“In that case, I will infuse all my strength into one strike so that you can’t neutralize it with Gravitation.”

“Have you staked your life on this? How foolish.”

Was the fist blast thrown to probe for his last move?

There are times when it is effective, but it’s a thoughtless tactic.

“Here, take this if you can. I will show you the true power of the Telephone Punch, incomparable to something like the 1200 Inch Punch.”

Without any preliminary movement, he stepped towards me and threw a punch.

The motion of twisting his pulled-back hand and pushing it forward.

When the smooth application of Silk Reeling, repeated tens of thousands of times, was combined with a rotational force, the fierce internal energy exploded forward as if it was shot out.

-Boom!

With the sensation of static electricity making every hair on my body stand on end, I saw the Phantom Fist’s fist blast flying straight at me.

The fist blast was flying 5 feet above the ground, but the Demonic Brain Stopper, amplified by the rotational force of Silk Reeling, was scorching the garden’s plants and grass black.

No matter how skilled I am, if I was struck by that, I wouldn’t be able to avoid serious injury.

After confirming that Watson was not in the path of the fist blast, I quickly executed the Lionheart Method to move to the left.

However―

“Do you think I’ll let you dodge?”

To my surprise, the Phantom Fist’s fist blast was skewing its trajectory in mid-air to follow my movements.

I quickly guessed how such a thing was possible.

“Does it possess Magnetism…!”

“If internal energy has attraction, it might also possess Magnetism!”

The Phantom Fist was using Gravitation in reverse.

Through the Lionheart Method, I had excluded all the anomalous properties of the internal energy corrupted into Demonic energy.

But I hadn’t anticipated that the Magnetism contained in his Demonic Brain Stopper would harm me.

Timothy Young noticed this and infused the Demonic Brain Stopper, with the opposite polarity of the Essence I had absorbed, into the fist blast, making my body attract the fist blast like a magnet.

“Ha.”

He had grown somewhat during the brief duration of the battle.

This meant he had the combat talent to fully utilize the insight gained from the technique I’ve executed in the face of crisis.

Of course, this too is nothing more than a minor variable.

“At least your brain works decently.”

I had to revise the evaluation I had made earlier slightly.

He had only a shallow depth of training in Demonic arts, but as a gentleman, he seemed to have achieved a considerable level.

If he hadn’t deviated and become a criminal, he might have become even stronger someday.

However, he learned a bizarre killing move from the mastermind behind this incident, squandering his potential.

And even if he fully realized his potential, he still wouldn’t come close to my level.

‘Still, he reacts to mere taunts.’

No matter how adaptable and talented he is, as long as he abandoned the righteous path and relied on shortcuts, in the end, he is but second-rate.

This is purely a fight for me, an investigative consultant, to punish a gentleman who has fallen onto the path of evil.

And I—

“Thank you for waiting patiently, Ulrich Zuckerberg.”

I do not engage in fair and square life-and-death duels with second-rate people.

“Is it my turn?!”

The next moment, Ulrich, who had been hiding on the hotel rooftop, stood up flamboyantly with a fan.

“Ten Thousand Thunderbolts Strike the Great Tree! The Art of Thunder Arrives from Afar!”

-Swish!

-Thud!

“Metaverse No.16! Wood Qi Lightning Attraction Formation!!”

With a battle cry, the Zuckerberg family’s Civil Engineering4 installed in the garden was activated.

1. TL/N: A possible original quote: He who is dissatisfied with others is always dissatisfied with himself. ️

2. TL/N: Fact check – Documents state that Newton owned nearly £22,000 in South Sea stock in 1722, but it is unknown how much he lost, if any ️

3. TL/N: inner demon ️

4. TL/N: Civil Engineering refers to formation or array ️