When Su Yu followed the address he'd been given and arrived at Cloud's End, he could not help but sigh in admiration. Ah Hua's second disciple really was, as expected, the most worldly and pleasure-loving of the bunch.
The place was hidden on the top floor of an office building in the middle of a bustling commercial district. The elevator doors opened, and all the noise of the city was instantly cut off by a heavy rosewood door.
A faint scent of agarwood drifted through the air. Somewhere out of sight, a guqin melody flowed softly, relaxing a person to the bone.
When he pushed open the private room door, a woman in a high-end tailored business suit was standing with her back to him, gazing down at the streams of traffic through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
At the sound of the door opening, she turned.
Su Mei.
She looked nothing like the game version of the Second Senior Sister, who wore ancient robes and always carried a calculating smile.
Her signature phoenix eyes were slightly narrowed, holding the slyness of a veteran of the business world, along with a trace of elusive charm.
"Mr. Su Yu?"
She walked toward him in high heels, an impeccable business smile on her face, and extended her right hand.
"I've heard much about you. I'm Su Mei."
"You flatter me, President Su."
Su Yu reached out as well, preparing for an ordinary, polite handshake.
And just as their hands were about to meet—
Something changed.
Su Mei's outstretched palm twisted in an utterly bizarre motion midair. Her fingers curled sharply into a fist. The gentle aura around her exploded in an instant, and a fierce gust of force wrapped around a short, concentrated burst of power as she drove her punch straight at Su Yu's chest.
At this distance, in this defenseless social setting, that punch was enough to drop any normal person on the spot and send them straight to the ER.
If this had been the old Su Yu, he would already be wondering how much compensation he could extort in medical fees.
But now—
That enhancement serum, agonizing enough to feel worse than being burned alive, had not been for nothing.
The instant Su Mei moved, Su Yu's pupils narrowed.
Everything around him seemed to slow down.
He could clearly see the minute tremor in Su Mei's shoulder as she generated force. He could see the trajectory of that punch as it tore through the air.
There was no need to think. His body reacted faster than his mind.
Smack.
A crisp sound rang out.
There was no dramatic crash, no man sent flying, no scream of pain.
Su Yu stood where he was without shifting his feet even half an inch.
His left hand had caught Su Mei's fist steadily, as casually as though he were catching a falling leaf.
The inch-force that could have shattered ribs vanished without a trace against his enhanced bones and muscles, like mud sinking into the sea.
The air froze for three full seconds.
The smile on Su Mei's face stiffened.
She tried to pull her hand back, only to find Su Yu's grip as immovable as iron tongs.
She could even feel the heat of his palm.
It was the calm of absolute physical superiority.
"President Su, that's… quite the unusual greeting."
Su Yu released her hand and stepped back half a pace, smiling.
Damn, that was cool. So this is what it feels like to show off in front of people?
Su Mei withdrew her hand and rubbed her numbed knuckles without changing expression.
The disdain and testing in her eyes vanished instantly, replaced by unprecedented gravity and… a deeply hidden flicker of excitement.
"My apologies. I overstepped."
She cupped her fists in a formal jianghu salute, the aura of a businesswoman switching in an instant to the forthright boldness of a martial artist.
"I merely wished to confirm whether you're truly worthy of being called the Outer Sect's Eldest Senior Brother. These days, there are too many people using the name of the Taixu Sect to bluff and swindle others."
She looked up, gaze burning.
"But now it seems… though you claim you've never learned Taixu's supreme arts, your physical ability and reflexes are likely beyond even Ma Feima's, and he's a genuine practitioner."
"If even the Outer Sect is this strong, then as for that Kiana… I believe it now. The Little Martial Ancestor must be the real thing."
Su Yu shrugged and pulled out a chair to sit down.
"Glad you believe me. Otherwise, my medical fees aren't cheap."
Good lord. So this is the legendary 'Invincible Lady'? One greeting and she turns it into a Hongmen banquet.
"Just call me Su Mei."
Su Mei personally poured him a cup of tea, her movements smooth and flowing. The fragrance rose with the steam.
"Since we're all family within the Taixu inheritance, I won't beat around the bush. Su Yu, I asked you here because I want to cooperate."
She set the teapot down, her tone losing some of its shrewdness and gaining a touch of helplessness.
"You know what my master is like… stubborn as a mule."
"She keeps clinging to that shabby old martial arts hall and that little bit of so-called martial virtue, absolutely unwilling to let Taixu martial arts have even the slightest association with commerce."
"But what era are we living in now? Even the finest wine fears a deep alley. If this continues, Cunjin Martial Arts Hall will close sooner or later, and the Taixu arts… will become dust buried in old paper."
Su Yu took a sip of tea. It entered bitter, then turned sweet and lingering on the tongue.
"But I saw hope in you."
"What kind of hope?"
"The desperate hope of passing on Taixu's arts."
"You mean my game?"
"Exactly."
Su Mei snapped her fingers, eyes shining.
"What Master opposes is cheap performance—selling martial arts like circus tricks."
"But what if… we use another method? What if we use the most advanced technology to perfectly recreate the spirit of Taixu sword qi and the essence of Cunjin boxing inside a virtual world?"
She leaned forward, staring directly into Su Yu's eyes.
"In that case, it wouldn't be a product. It would be cultural heritage. A digital monument. And with that justification… Master wouldn't be able to refuse."
Su Yu smiled.
This Second Senior Sister really was a master schemer.
Calling it cultural heritage, a digital monument—it was true enough.
But that did not mean it would stop being a product.
A game was still a game. It was made for people to play. In the end, it was still a commodity.
She was dodging the issue, certainly, but her framing was persuasive enough to make people accept it anyway.
"Not a bad idea," Su Yu said, setting down his cup. "But I'm guessing you hit a technical bottleneck."
That was not hard to infer.
Once he understood that everything Su Mei had done was her way of saving the dojo through a detour, many things became easy to explain.
She must have tried all sorts of methods already. Even packaging Fu Hua as the nation's most beautiful martial heroine was just one of her attempts.
So trying to preserve Taixu's arts through a game was only natural.
"Yes." Su Mei admitted it openly. "We've hired many motion-capture actors. We've even brought in national-level martial arts champions. But what they produce… how should I put it? The form is there, but not the soul."
"What the machines capture is only movement. Not intent."
"And Kiana…"
The moment she mentioned Kiana, unmistakable respect flickered in her eyes.
"That Little Martial Ancestor is the genuine article. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but among us disciples, my talent isn't exactly outstanding. What I do have is a bit of discernment. The way she circulates qi force is undeniably true Taixu Sword Qi cultivation."
Su Yu clicked his tongue inwardly. If he told Su Mei that Kiana's Taixu Sword Qi was only a simplified version Otto had used to train Valkyries, he wondered how she would react.
"Of course, Little Martial Ancestor agreeing to participate is also why I'm optimistic about your game," Su Mei continued. "If even she is willing to do motion capture for it, then that alone is more convincing than anything I could have begged for."
Su Yu nodded. That much was true.
What endorsement could possibly be more persuasive than one from the very idol you believed in?
It was like the Boss pointing at Kobe's plane and telling you not to get on it.
The question was: would you dare board it anyway?
If you did, you were going to learn what see you aging really meant.
Same principle.
Su Yu did not answer right away. His mind was spinning quickly.
Kiana might be a martial prodigy, but she was absolutely not a qualified teacher.
Have her explain cultivation methods verbally, break down movements, or patiently instruct students step by step?
Impossible.
That white-haired airhead fought on instinct. If you asked her why she fought a certain way, she would just blink those big eyes and say, "Because I felt it."
But if her movements could be preserved as data through motion-capture technology, then even an insider like Fu Hua could probably deduce a great deal from them.
With enough technology, they might even be able to reconstruct a large portion of the martial art itself.
What Su Mei was proposing aligned almost perfectly with ideas he himself had already been considering.
The system kept saying that if he gathered all the Taixu disciples as motion-capture actors and collected their data, he could summon Shenlong—
No, not Shenlong. A true grandmaster of Taixu arts.
But the problem was that he had to offer them something convincing first—something that made them willing to work for him. Even selling a dream required having some bread to go with the promise.
So Su Mei's proposal had practically delivered to his doorstep something he would otherwise have needed to spend a lot of effort preparing, without even knowing for sure whether it would succeed.
And if this proposal was backed by a genuine inheritor of Taixu, then that meant Kiana's Taixu Sword Qi really was authentic enough.
Even if it was simplified, it was still Taixu Sword Qi.
Suddenly, Su Yu found the whole situation rather funny.
Fu Hua needed the Little Martial Uncle Kiana to officially vouch for her. Su Mei also needed Kiana to vouch for her.
And Kiana, in turn, needed Fu Hua and Su Mei to vouch for her.
It really was a ridiculous little circle.
Still, before anything else, Su Yu needed to confirm one thing.
It concerned the foundation of this partnership, and whether he could trust the person sitting across from him.
"Su Mei, I have a question."
"Go ahead."
"You've gone to all this trouble, even risking being scolded by Fu Hua. Is it really just for the sake of passing it on? Or to put it more bluntly… if you recognize Kiana's value so clearly, why didn't you mention trying to turn her into a public star? Pushing a peerless master to the front would make far more money than making a game."
Su Mei froze for a moment.
She did not seem to expect the question to be so direct.
She fell silent for a while, then turned to look out the window.
The sun was sinking, draping the steel forest of the city in warm gold.
"The world says I, Su Mei, worship profit above all else. Even Master thinks I reek of money. And to be fair, that's true enough. I like money. I like the feeling of making money."
She gave a soft laugh.
"To be honest, among us disciples… our bond with Master isn't really that deep."
"After all, she's younger than all of us. That master-disciple dynamic has always felt a little strange."
Her smile softened in a rare, almost tender way.
"The one I truly have feelings for, the one who practically raised us… is Eldest Senior Sister."
"Lin Zhaoyu?" Su Yu arched a brow.
"Yes. Lin Zhaoyu."
When Su Mei said the name, her voice became gentle in a way that barely seemed like her.
"She's the general manager of Cunjin Martial Arts Hall. The one who worries about utility bills every day, the one who has to smile and apologize to clients because Master is so stubborn."
"And in temperament, she's somewhat like Master too. Single-minded. She's determined to devote her whole life to the dojo, following behind that little old relic of a master."
Su Mei took a photograph from her bag and pushed it toward Su Yu.
In the photo was a group of young people.
Fu Hua stood in the center, still severe as ever. Beside her stood a graceful woman with a warm, dignified smile.
That was Lin Zhaoyu.
And next to Lin Zhaoyu, the younger Su Mei was clinging affectionately to her arm, smiling without restraint.
"Of everyone besides Master, Eldest Senior Sister is the one who most wants to repair the broken manual and restore Cunjin Martial Arts Hall. It's her obsession. Her heart's greatest affliction."
Su Mei's fingertips gently brushed across Lin Zhaoyu's face in the photo.
"I don't want to watch her work herself to the bone. I don't want to see her waste away defending a sect doomed to decline."
"So… even if I have to use these commercial methods Master despises, I'll still help her keep the dojo standing."
"As for Little Martial Ancestor Kiana…" Su Mei looked up, clarity returning to her eyes. "It's not that I never thought about packaging and promoting her. But I understand now. People like Master, people with pursuits of their own—if you phrase it kindly, they're true to themselves. If you put it less kindly, they're stubborn."
"Someone like Little Martial Ancestor probably wouldn't be any easier to persuade than Master. Bringing it up would only be asking for rejection. Better not to mention it at all."
She's actually way easier to talk to than your master is, Su Yu thought.
If Su Mei were willing to treat her to a month of lavish meals, he was pretty sure Little Martial Ancestor would happily lend a hand.
But he did not say that out loud.
If Kiana wanted to do that someday, he would not stop her.
But that restriction still remained.
Though Kiana could now move freely around the house, if she went outside, she still had to remain within that awkward one-and-a-half-meter range of him.
So it was not possible yet.
He had to make Kiana the heroine of his game first. Only then could she truly gain freedom in this world.
Still—
As Su Yu looked at the woman in front of him, he felt a strange sense of emotion.
In the original Records of Shenzhou's Broken Sword, the seven disciples turning on their master had been an out-and-out tragedy.
But in this peaceful timeline, those bonds—once twisted beyond saving—had transformed into this awkward kind of warmth.
There was no falling into demonic madness, no betrayal by everyone around them.
Only a Second Senior Sister trying, in her own clumsy way, to walk the tightrope between reality and ideals for the sake of her Eldest Senior Sister's dream.
"What a blessing in disguise…" Su Yu murmured softly.
"What was that?" Su Mei had not heard him clearly.
"Nothing."
Su Yu changed the subject. Since Su Mei had laid her cards on the table, it was time for him to show some sincerity as well.
"If I told you I had a special motion-capture method that could completely extract every move Kiana makes and turn it into a stream of data that can be analyzed and learned from… would you call that the perfect finishing move?"
Su Mei's pupils contracted sharply.
As a Taixu disciple, she knew exactly what that meant.
This was no longer just about making a game.
This was practically compiling a living General Outline of Taixu Sword Qi.
"Deal!"
She did not hesitate for even a second. She did not even ask what price Su Yu wanted.
"As long as you can do it, funding, publicity, distribution—every resource in Sky City, I can throw behind you!"
Su Yu looked at this woman willing to spend lavishly without blinking, and smiled.
He stood and extended a hand.
"Pleasure doing business, Su Mei. For the sake of your Eldest Senior Sister's dream, and also… to let Taixu Sword Qi reappear in this world."
Su Mei looked at his hand and froze for an instant. Then she broke into a radiant smile and gripped it firmly.
"Pleasure doing business, Su Yu. Although…"
Her tone shifted, and the sly look returned to her eyes.
"Since we're all Taixu family here, shouldn't we renegotiate the game's profit-sharing ratio?"
Su Yu: "…"
You really couldn't stay serious for more than three seconds.
As he looked at Su Mei—already back to looking like a sharp, calculating businesswoman—another question popped inexplicably into his head.
If the unreliable system really did end up summoning the Herrscher of Sentience as the Taixu grandmaster…
Then even if this world had no Honkai energy, she would still probably only be somewhat restricted.
And if she saw all seven "traitorous disciples" standing right in front of her—
Would she get so excited she unleashed a full set of Cunjin strikes and tore the entire Cunjin Martial Arts Hall apart?
The more he thought about it, the more it felt like he had dug himself yet another enormous pit.
At this point, system, stop pretending already. Just admit it—were you sent by Aha?
All Su Yu could do now was pray that when he gathered the seven Dragon Balls—
No, the seven Taixu disciples—
What he summoned would be an actual divine dragon, not a walking natural disaster.
....
Month-End Sale: Get 20% Off This Weekend
My Patreon : patreon/RuneA
If you want to read the novel in advance, you can subscribe for early access. I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in
I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length. If you're following a particular series, please wait your turn a little
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it