143. Martial Arts + Technology = Superman?

"Oh, cough, cough, I am Du Ruo. It's my first time being recognized. Hello, are you also a martial arts practitioner?"

It was the first time Du Ruo had ever been looked at with such a gaze, especially since the person was a beauty. To be honest, the feeling was quite good, so he quickly stood up and led the way. Regardless of anything else, just the fact that she was a fan meant he had to be a bit more enthusiastic.

"Come on, I'll take you to look at the house, and by the way, I can introduce you to any kind of cuisine you'd like to know about."

"Well, I do practice martial arts, but what I practice isn't as, well, traditional as Boss Du's."

Long Zhirou smiled. Clearly, seeing Du Ruo made her very happy, and she even took the initiative to reach out and shake hands with him.

"Sister Zhirou is an Elite-class martial arts athlete and has won national championships in Tai Chi fist and Tai Chi sword."

The girl standing beside them looked Du Ruo up and down, seemingly seeing nothing particularly special about him and not understanding why Long Zhirou had the expression of someone meeting her idol, so she added that remark from the side.

"Wow, that's amazing. I am impressed."

Hearing this, Du Ruo couldn't help but look at Long Zhirou again. An Elite-class martial arts athlete—that was truly impressive. The last Elite-class martial arts athlete Du Ruo had seen was the martial arts star Wu Jing.

Moreover, Du Ruo meant no disrespect; his admiration was genuine. Although what she practiced was routines, in the eyes of true martial artists, these Elite-class athletes might not be considered top-tier fighters, but mastering routines to the absolute peak was still an extraordinary achievement.

Furthermore, what she practiced was Tai Chi, a martial art that actually allows one to cultivate internal strength through forms. As long as she continued to research deeply and practiced her basic skills a bit more, she could also become formidable.

No wonder Du Ruo couldn't tell whether she practiced dance or martial arts. For those who practiced only forms, it was indeed hard for people like Du Ruo to distinguish, because their internal force hadn't been fully cultivated yet.

"You flatter me, Boss Du. Boss Du is the true master here."

Long Zhirou smiled and followed Du Ruo toward the detached villa.

She knew her own limitations. Practicing only forms without basic conditioning and combat applications put a huge gap between her and a traditional martial arts grandmaster like Du Ruo. From the spear technique Du Ruo had displayed in the video that morning, she could tell his foundational skills were definitely something she could never hope to match.

"Are you here for a vacation or for filming this time?"

Du Ruo didn't dwell too much on the subject and started asking about other matters.

"A bit of both, I suppose. I'm somewhat of a small-scale streamer and often shoot videos online. This time, I wanted to film around Mount Huang, and take a vacation along the way."

Long Zhirou always kept a smile on her face when she spoke.

"That's wonderful. If you come to our place, besides climbing the mountains, the tavern is definitely a must-visit. There are quite a few medicinal liquors inside, and as for meals, you can eat at the small restaurant across the street. I wouldn't dare say much else, but the hygiene and ingredients are definitely guaranteed."

Du Ruo introduced the place to her, while also mentioning some surrounding scenic spots he recommended she visit.

As Du Ruo was walking and chatting happily with the two women, someone else wasn't feeling quite as pleased.

Xi Yuanyuan walked back from the riverside holding a bamboo pole in one hand and a bucket in the other, with Maomao following closely behind at an unhurried pace, occasionally leaning over to rub against Xi Yuanyuan's ankles.

Inside the bucket was just a single river shrimp and nothing else. After all, she had only put the trap down half an hour ago before Xi Yuanyuan couldn't resist pulling it up.

Just as Xi Yuanyuan returned, from a distance, she happened to see Du Ruo and Long Zhirou walking together toward the detached villa, talking and laughing.

For no reason, a sour feeling welled up in her heart. Right at that moment, Maomao trotted away for a short distance and then came back to rub against her hand again.

"Hmph, you absolute bootlicker!"

Xi Yuanyuan gave Maomao's head a disgruntled slap and muttered under her breath. This wave of jealousy came so inexplicably that it even made her feel a bit flustered.

"?"

Maomao was patted on the head, tilted its head in confusion, but seeing Du Ruo not far away, it happily scurried over.

"Yuanyuan, you're back. Let me introduce you; this is Long Zhirou, a heroine among women and an Elite-class martial arts athlete. She happens to be staying at the guesthouse, so I'm showing her to her room."

Seeing Xi Yuanyuan walk over and remembering that Long Zhirou had said she recognized him from watching Xi Yuanyuan's videos, Du Ruo took the initiative to introduce them.

"And this is Xi Yuanyuan, the tavern proprietress."

"Boss Lady, I'm your fan! You drink so well; I've been following you for a long time, and this time I specifically chose to stay here."

Seeing Xi Yuanyuan, the smile on Long Zhirou's face didn't fade at all, and her words were especially sweet.

"Hello! An Elite-class athlete—how amazing. Come to the tavern for a drink tonight; it's on me."

Xi Yuanyuan's face showed no trace of the earlier jealousy; she looked just like someone who had bumped into a good girlfriend, greeting Long Zhirou cheerfully.

"Cough, cough, Long..."

Du Ruo coughed and just wanted to speak up.

"You can just call me Zhirou."

Long Zhirou took the initiative, sparing Du Ruo from having to wrestle with how to address her.

"Alright, Zhirou. Yuanyuan has some liver damage recently, so she probably shouldn't be drinking."

"Fine, fine, I won't drink alcohol. I'll just treat younger sister Zhirou to some good drinks, and I'll have soda myself."

Before Du Ruo could finish his sentence, Xi Yuanyuan interrupted by shoving the bucket and bamboo pole she was holding into Du Ruo's hands. She even emphasized the words "younger sister Zhirou."

"You two chat then. I still need to go look after the front desk. Yuanyuan, I'll have to trouble you to show her around."

Du Ruo could naturally sense some subtle currents, but he didn't quite understand why Xi Yuanyuan was acting a bit strange—though he recalled she had acted similarly back when he was interacting with Li Qiyao.

Du Ruo had some guesses in his heart, but he didn't dwell on it further. He picked up his things and walked toward the front desk with Maomao, leaving Xi Yuanyuan to show the guest around. On the way, he placed the bucket by the tavern stairs.

...

While a minor incident seemed to be taking place over at Du Ruo's end, on the other side of the globe, someone was also talking about him.

"Oh~ you were hurt pretty badly. Looks like you took a loss."

Inside a car, a burly, full-bearded man was driving while glancing through the rearview mirror at Third-Son Inoue, who was sitting in the back seat wrapped in bandages, letting out a teasing remark.

"Yeah, I didn't expect that Boss Du to not only excel in hand-to-hand combat, but also be that formidable with weapons."

The blonde man sitting in the front passenger seat couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

After finishing their match with Du Ruo the previous day, they had simply gone to the hospital to confirm that their bones weren't fractured and that hospitalization wasn't necessary. After giving Third-Son Inoue some simple bandaging, the two of them bought tickets for the earliest flight back to the Beautiful Country. Right now, they had just emerged from the airport, and the bearded driver was none other than the blonde man's good friend, as well as the owner of the karate dojo where both the blonde man and Third-Son Inoue trained.

"Ah, the mysterious Eastern power."

The bearded owner chuckled under his breath. Then, noticing that both the blonde man and Third-Son Inoue seemed somewhat low-spirited, he offered a word of comfort:

"You two don't need to be too depressed. Times are different now; these days we have guns and technology—there's no need to dwell on momentary gains and losses."

"Well, it's just a bit hard to accept. Given my physique, it should definitely far surpass that Boss Du's. Plus, I'm so much taller than him, and I've practiced karate for so many years. How could I have been defeated so easily?"

As the blonde man spoke, he couldn't help glancing through the rearview mirror at the dejected Third-Son Inoue in the back seat. That look seemed to say, "Is there something wrong with karate itself?"

"There's definitely nothing wrong with karate. It originated from the Tang Dynasty, and after generations of research and refinement—it's not like you've never fought martial arts masters using karate before. Karate is fine; it's just that Boss Du is a bit freakish."

Third-Son Inoue touched the bandages across his chest, wincing slightly in pain. Du Ruo's strike had torn his skin open, and even taking large handfuls of painkillers couldn't completely block out the agony.

"If karate is fine and your training is fine, then what are you agonizing over? If you can't beat someone, you just can't beat them, it's no big deal."

The bearded owner curled his lip. The establishment he ran wasn't actually a martial arts dojo, but rather a fitness gym. He only hired Third-Son Inoue to diversify the gym's classes and satisfy certain clients' preferences, so in his view, winning and losing didn't matter all that much.

However, the blonde man and Third-Son Inoue didn't see it that way at all. The karate they practiced belonged to traditional karate, which included meditation, breath regulation, and basic conditioning practice—otherwise, neither of them could have reached their current level—so they still placed a high value on combat capability.

"Tsk, why don't you guys try some *technology*?"

Seeing the two men looking dejected, the bearded owner suddenly chimed in.

To be honest, he had always thought the two of them were rather foolish for training so hard. What was the use of working out with such grueling effort? He ran a fitness gym, but his primary business was actually selling various pharmaceutical compounds—what he called "technology."

What was the point of training so hard when, in the end, it couldn't compare to his various injections? Be it growth hormone shots, testosterone shots, insulin shots, or cortisol shots—once you injected them and did a tiny bit of exercise, your muscle strength would shoot straight up.

And if that wasn't enough, veterinary drugs used for animals, like steroids or lean-meat powder, weren't entirely impossible to inject into humans either.

He had actually wanted to persuade the blonde man and Third-Son Inoue for a long time. More importantly, he wanted to experiment: what would happen if martial artists injected his "technology"? Could it elevate his technological products to the next level?

Although he hadn't witnessed the two men's match against Du Ruo, in his mind, their failure simply boiled down to a lack of strength and speed. All it would take was a round of technological shots combined with some adrenaline or the like, and they would instantly become superheroes.

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt rather excited. If two men who had practiced martial arts for ten or twenty years were combined with his technological injections, and if a chemical reaction occurred that allowed him to invent some kind of superhero serum... and then he sold it to the military or major financial conglomerates?

"Let's not talk about this for now. When we get back, I'll find a few more girls for you guys to properly relax."

He couldn't calm his excitement down, so without waiting for the two to object, he began to soothe them while secretly plotting how to make the pair willingly become his experimental guinea pigs.

As for the side effects? What did those matter? Weren't they just things like sudden cardiac arrest, shortened lifespan, impaired reproductive function, and turning purple in the face? None of those had anything to do with him as long as he made money.

He was sure that the people coming to buy the drugs wouldn't care about these side effects either.

As he pondered this, a smile crept onto the bearded owner's face, and the gaze he directed at the blonde man and Third-Son Inoue became remarkably gentle.

Previously, he hadn't really pushed the two of them to use technology because he knew they were unwilling. But things were different now; he had spotted a business opportunity, and moreover, the two of them had just suffered a blow—such a prime opportunity definitely must not be missed.