Half Prince ½ Prince Vol 8 Chapter 4

Chapter 04: Cold Fox’s Terrifying Special Training – translated by bleachpanda

“Thank you, Prince. Thank you for letting me understand what love is.”

I suddenly woke up, only to find my face covered in tears and that phrase resounding incessantly in my mind…

Dictator of Life….

After the day I saw the Dictator of Life, we also encountered Fairsky and the rest. Suns.h.i.+ne and Kens.h.i.+n had really come back, proving that the things that had happened that day weren’t the result of becoming muddleheaded from oversleeping and dreaming everything! They were real! The Dictator of Life really had come to say his farewells.

After Lolidragon heard the news that Long Dian had an incurable disease and needed to combine with the Dictator of Life in order to live, she was stupefied and had no idea what to do.

Everyone told me that not doing anything and letting them combine would be the best method… But I just couldn’t forget the content smile the Dictator of Life had shown just because of a few words of mine.

Is sacrificing the Dictator of Life… really the best way to do this? If the Dictator of Life were an actual human being, perhaps everyone wouldn’t have made such a decision… However, to me, he was a real human being. It was similar to how Fairsky felt that Suns.h.i.+ne was definitely not an NPC.

“Sis! You overslept again! What about my breakfast…” Yang Ming kicked open the door, only to freeze upon seeing the scene before him. He paused for a long time before finally saying, “Sis… Even if you haven’t slept enough, you don’t need to cry like that, right? I can always help you tell Gui that you don’t want to get out of bed to go to cla.s.s. I bet he wouldn’t dare flunk you anyway…”

Shut up! I immediately used all my strength to throw my pillow at him. As I heard his cry of agony, I felt immensely pleased. Twitching my mouth, I said, “I’m sad. Sad! Do you understand?”

“Sad about what?” Yang Ming replied as he lazily remained on the floor, not bothering to get back up.

I hesitatingly asked Yang Ming, “Do you think… the Dictator of Life should really be sacrificed?”

“There is no one in this world who should be sacrificed!” Yang Ming said in all seriousness.

“But, if we don’t sacrifice the Dictator of Life, we will need to sacrifice Long Dian.” I stared at Yang Ming. “And you know that Long Dian is really important family to Lolidragon. If Long Dian were to die, Lolidragon would definitely be really heartbroken.”

“I know!” Yang Ming sighed, “But no one should be sacrificed. If Long Dian died, my future wife Lolidragon would be deeply hurt. However, if the Dictator of Life died, my sis would feel remorse and regret toward him for the rest of her life.”

Yang Ming exaggeratedly held his head in indecision. “This is horrible! It really is hard to choose between family and love.”

What and what? What has this got to do with family and love… My bro’s ability to speak irresponsibly at any time had really grown day-by-day. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him exaggeratedly.

“Sis, I think you still have a week to think about it properly,” said Yang Ming, suddenly raising his head.

“One week?” I don’t understand, why one week?

Yang Ming softly uttered, “The government has agreed to Long Dian’s conditions. They have handed over the people he wants and the equipment he needs. According to their estimations, making an artificial body might only take two weeks. The fusion plan will probably start after that.”

“I need to go save him!” I stood up abruptly.

Hearing this, Yang Ming nearly fell to the floor again. He rubbed his nose and said, “You sure decided quickly when you were so indecisive just now.”

“That was then. Right now, there isn’t any time for hesitation!” I desperately shouted.

“Even if you’ve decided to try, you still won’t be able to save him. Even the government can’t handle Long Dian, so what could you possibly do?” Yang Ming coldly broke my confidence apart.

“Regardless, I have to go save him! Otherwise, I will regret it for the rest of my life!” I said with no doubt in my mind. I definitely couldn’t wait here blindly. If I did, I would definitely be tortured for the rest of my life by my conscience.

Yang Ming guffawed, “You really are my sis. I knew you would definitely go to save him.

“Follow me.” Once again, Yang Ming revealed an enigmatic smile, muddling my mind and making me unable to guess his intentions. Where does he want me to follow him to?

“However!” Yang Ming spun the keys to the hover bike around his finger, “I’m driving this time.”

Although I didn’t know what Yang Ming was trying to do, I still climbed onto the back seat of the bike. As we sped off, I became more and more confused. “Where are we going? Don’t we need to go to cla.s.s?”

“Gui helped us take leave,” Yang Ming replied without turning his head.

What? Take leave? I furrowed my brows. In addition, the route that Yang Ming was driving through was a route that I was extremely familiar with. After all, I had speeded on this very road last time in order to arrive at the transmission station to go to Lolidragon’s. Could it be that we’re going to Second Life’s main headquarters right now?

Not long after, my speculations were confirmed. Yang Ming rode into the transmission station and drove all the way to Second Life’s main headquarters. After he parked, Yang Ming led me into the company silently, not explaining a single thing.

After going through many twists and turns, we finally made it to a steel door.

At that moment, Yang Ming gestured for me to open the door and enter.

I was completely and utterly baffled about the entire situation, but I still put my hands on the door’s handle. I put in some strength and pushed open the door…

“Ah, you finally came. I thought you had changed and decided to be an obedient and compliant girl,” said Lolidragon, who was wearing a set of light armor, as she smiled at me.

It’s not just Lolidragon, everyone else….

I called out everyone’s names, dumbfounded, “Wolf-dàgē, Yulian-dàsăo, Doll, Gui and Wicked, Nan Gong Zui, Phoenix, Fairsky and also Cold Fox?”

“Why do you always like putting my name along with this guy’s?” muttered Gui, dissatisfied. Wicked also revealed a look of disdain toward Gui.

“What is…everyone doing here?” My mind was filled with confusion. What exactly is going on here? Is it possible that everyone has gathered together for a Second Life get-together?

“Waiting for you,” everyone said in unison.

“Waiting for me?” This reply made me even more confused. I guarantee that my eyes right then definitely looked exactly like Meat-bunbun’s whenever he says, “Mama, Meat-bunbun doesn’t understand.”

“Even if we don’t use our brains and merely use a bone in our spines to think about it, we would know that it’s impossible for you to simply sacrifice the Dictator of Life.” Lolidragon revealed an expression that said “I saw through you ages ago.”

“If we were to leave you to do everything yourself, we wouldn’t know what accidents you would get into. Therefore, we thought, why don’t we try to make well-made, foolproof preparations and greatly increase the success rate instead?” Yang Ming light-heartedly smiled.

“But… Everyone said that it would be better to just leave it,” I replied a bit guiltily. How come everyone understands me so well? The past few days, even I myself still doubted whether I should go or not, but everyone already knew that I would definitely go.

“It’s true that if we don’t do anything, it would probably bring about the best results since only the Dictator of Life would be sacrificed… However, I understand and know that things are not that simple.” Lolidragon’s eyes revealed her determination. “Long Dian… he just hasn’t figured it out yet. He wants to stay beside Dad and me but he has forgotten that if he were to combine with the Dictator of Life, he would be immortal. Whereas, the two of us would only have a life expectancy of, at most, two hundred years.”

Lolidragon stopped for a moment. Then, she slowly said, “At that time, how would he cope with his eternal life and endless solitude?”

“Actually, it wouldn’t take that long,” Yang Ming dimly said. “A life bought with the sacrifice of others would definitely bring sorrow. And Long Dian has already sacrificed the lives of over a thousand people. He has already stepped onto a path of no return on which he will never be able to obtain happiness.”

“That’s why we’re all here,” said Wolf-dàgē as his hearty laughter broke the dark and gloomy atmosphere. “It’s to save the Dictator of Life and Long Dian as well!”

I finally understood everything. Earlier, although everyone said that allowing Long Dian to merge with the Dictator of Life would be the best outcome, in reality, everyone doubted like me and thought, “Is this really for the best?”

And right now, with the support of my teammates, I could finally freely scream, “No it isn’t! That definitely isn’t the best outcome!”

“Everyone…is willing to go stop Long Dian and save the Dictator of Life?” I asked with a smile on my face.

“Everyone here agrees to that,” Lolidragon lightly smiled. “After all, they came to this conclusion much faster than you.”

Then, once again, Lolidragon’s expression turned stern. “However, this time’s operation will be severely dangerous. There is a high possibility that we will encounter even stronger robots than the one we ran into before. Therefore, the only ones who can go to save the Dictator of Life are the ones that can pa.s.s the test.”

Lolidragon walked toward a gigantic machine that had a similar shape to a birdcage. It had a circular pedestal and a clear outer sh.e.l.l wrapped around it. It looked like one of those virtual combat games that I’d seen in electrically controlled amus.e.m.e.nt parks, except this one was much, much larger.

“This is a battle simulator that the military uses to train their soldiers’ combative abilities. Fighting inside here is exactly the same as fighting in the real world and, of course, the degree of pain felt can be manually controlled and adjusted. But all of you should be prepared for more than that. In my case, I will definitely set the pain level at one hundred percent,” Lolidragon said with no leniency.

“All of you will have to become familiar with the equipment we used in the previous battle within two weeks. In addition, you will have to fight using this equipment in the simulator. Only those who achieve level B are allowed to partic.i.p.ate in the actual operation,” Lolidragon strictly said. “Anyone who does not reach level B or higher, even if it is you, Prince, will not be allowed to go.”

Everyone revealed an expression of determination to achieve this no matter what. As for me, it was obvious that I definitely wouldn’t allow myself to fail!

“Everyone, work hard!” Lolidragon said, sighing. “ Level B isn’t something normal people can achieve. However, my dad insisted that unless we reach level B, he won’t allow us to leave this room.”

… I stood, my mouth agape, staring at the simulator. I was positive that the sound had come from the simulator… Who was it? Who is at level A without even going through any training…

“Cold Fox?” said Lolidragon, amazed, as she looked at the shadow inside the simulator. Even more frightening was that Cold Fox was only holding a small knife similar to letter-openers and had no other gear at all!

“A… How could that be possible? Even I could only reach level B. A is a level that only elite military personnel can achieve…” said Nan Gong Zui, dumbstruck as a policeman familiar with the machine.

It seems that the most terrifying terrorist is actually the student wearing a high school uniform!

Cold Fox turned around and scanned everyone with his eyes. Upon seeing his cold eyes, we started to suspect whether Cold Fox’s face had actually appeared on the ten most wanted criminals list before.

“In these two weeks, allow me to train you guys.” As usual, Cold Fox was a man of few words. However, these few words were enough to make our hearts tighten at the thought.

And in reality, although this guy might not actually be on the ten most wanted criminals list, his cold-bloodedness could definitely match up to that of the ten most wanted criminals in the world.

“Wake up at four every day and run fifty laps around the room. The women, run thirty laps.”

What? Run fifty laps around the room? This room isn’t my bedroom man, not to mention, this can’t even be called a room. This is a training ground and considering Second Life’s financial status, how big do you guys think this training ground is? It’s definitely no smaller than a school’s sports field!

Everyone’s faces paled. People these days lack exercise and thus running fifty laps was definitely something outside of our imagination.

Cold Fox coldly shot a glance at me, “Besides Prince. You have to run fifty laps.”

Could he be implying that I don't count as a woman? I suddenly had an urge to strangle the man in front of me to death.

“Afterwards, wear your protective gear and we will do different types of battle training. Then it will be one versus one matches.” After speaking up to this point, Cold Fox once again icily shot a glance at me for some unknown reason. “Your opponent will be me.”

I suddenly felt uneasy. Can it be that I accidentally angered Cold Fox because of being Kens.h.i.+n’s master?

In the following two weeks, I felt that the sweat on my back never ceased to flow. If the training grounds had a bed, I definitely would have crashed on it and then slept for a week without waking up at all.

The fifty laps every morning were already torturous enough. Near the end, my legs would stop responding to me. Every time I wanted to just forget about everything, stop, and shout "I don’t want to do this anymore," the Dictator of Life’s smile and his d.a.m.n "thank you" would appear before me.

“If running can save him, then running one hundred laps or even one thousand laps would be worth it.” It was because of these words that I was able to survive through the fifty laps on the first day.

After I finished running, my face was already ghostly pale to the point that both Gui and Wicked furrowed their eyebrows at me. Seeing their expressions, I knew that they really wanted to tell me to give up and stop running, but they also knew that I wouldn’t give up.

However, I deeply believed that Gui’s complexion was much more terrible than mine. As I caught my breath, I couldn’t help but say to Gui, “Gui, if you really can’t do it, then don’t force yourself. Look at your face, it looks so horrible!”

Gui actually revealed a weak smile, “Prince doesn’t look so good either, so why aren’t you giving up?”

“Because I need to save the Dictator of Life…” I suddenly realized that I was doing this in order to save the Dictator of Life and Gui was doing this for me. This determination wasn’t something anyone could break.

Meanwhile, Wicked didn't say anything. Clearly, his physical strength was extremely good. It was possible that running was basically his daily exercise, merely that fifty laps may just be a little more than usual.

I patted Gui’s back, encouraging him. Since I knew that he wouldn’t give up, there was no need to give him the cold shoulder to try and force him to give up. Judging from the past, giving him the cold shoulder would be nothing; even if I were to bash him up, he still wouldn't give up.

I walked to Zhuo-gēgē’s side. Although Zhuo-gēgē didn’t show any expression, I knew that he wasn’t happy and that he was, in fact, extremely unhappy. I couldn’t help but open my mouth and say, “Zhuo-gēgē, keep on going!”

At first, Zhuo-gēgē was shocked, but then he nodded and smiled my way.

I finally felt relieved and began happily humming a song while putting on the gear that Lolidragon had meticulously prepared.

“Sis, you shouldn’t do that!” said Yang Ming as he lazily leaned against a wall, evidently having finished equipping his gear a long time ago. “Don’t give hope to two men at the same time. It could cause dire consequences in the future.”

“I just don’t want to hurt either of them,” I said, feeling a bit guilty.

“Do you remember what I said before? If you try to force a perfect resolution, you will likely lose everything,” Yang Ming said profoundly.

Has Yang Ming recently been able to speak more like a human? I replied a bit miserably, “I know. No matter what, after this, I will give them both an answer.”

Suddenly, Yang Ming put his hand on my shoulder. “Sis, choose Gui!”

I was stunned. “Do you think Gui is better?”

“Yeah.” Yang Ming tightened his fist and pa.s.sionately said, “I really like Zhuo-dàgē as well, but if Professor Min Gui Wen were to be my brother-in-law, it would definitely guarantee that I will be able to graduate from university. For my graduation certificate, for this graduation certificate that will help me find a job, for this job that will allow me marry Lolidragon, and for the children that will carry on the Feng family line, you should choose him, Sis!”

This guy….

Bam! A power glove ruthlessly hit my bro’s precious little thing, also known as my bro’s little w.i.l.l.y.1 Then, as my bro tragically howled, Lolidragon came and dragged him away. Lolidragon continued cynically, “With this, you don’t need to carry on the Feng family line anymore, so just let Prince choose at her own pace!”

“Still have energy to talk?” Suddenly, Cold Fox revealed a smile we had never seen before. However, from that point onwards, no one wanted to see that smile ever again, especially afterwards when he dealt with us so brutally and inhumanly…

“Individually pick a sword or a gun as your weapon,” Cold Fox dictated. “Those who choose swords, go to the test performance machine and practice swinging the sword five thousand times. Only swings with a power above one hundred fifty will count. Those who choose guns, go to the shooting range and practice. You must hit bull’s eye at least five hundred times.”

After his speech, everyone chose their own weapons while Cold Fox once again shot a glance at me. “Come here!”

Sob… Why is this happening again? I want to sue Cold Fox for discriminating against me!

“This is your weapon.” Cold Fox threw a light sword at me… No, this weapon was different from other light swords. The subtle curve of the blade’s shape… a dao’s shape? This is a dao! In addition, it is exactly the same as my Black Dao! (Of course, this had a white l.u.s.ter instead as it was impossible for it to be black.)

I raised the lightsaber.2 It felt so smooth and light in my hands, exactly like my good partner Black Dao. It felt precisely the same.

“I know you are best at using the dao,” said Cold Fox simply.

“Thanks!” I said from the bottom of my heart. You know, Cold Fox isn't as cold as he appears. On the contrary, he's actually very considerate and attentive.

“Go practice swinging!” ordered Cold Fox simply. However, he stopped for a moment and then continued, “Prince, you have a lot of potential. I could tell from Second Life. That game is one that is real beyond imagination, which is also why I decided to play it.

“Magic and abilities may not be possible in real life; however, if you are capable of exerting your fighting skills in the game, then you are capable of them in reality.” After Cold Fox finished his unprecedented long speech, he reverted back to the silent and wordless him as he quietly supervised everyone’s practice.

“Thank you Cold Fox. Really, thank you,” I softly murmured, completely understanding that under Cold Fox’s cold appearance was an extremely gentle and caring person.

“b.a.s.t.a.r.d Cold Fox, idiot Cold Fox, you have no blood, no tears, no heart and no liver… Huff, huff…” I said while quietly cursing him in my mind and panting for breath. Stupid Cold Fox, treating us like this.

I finally understood what "swing the blade five thousand times with each swing having a power of over one hundred fifty" finally meant. Listening to what I was supposed to do as an idea didn’t sound like very much, but once the phrase became an action, it was really something that could kill me. Especially when the one completing these actions was myself, it really… made my whole body feel like jelly and my spine tingle with pain to the point where I couldn’t even pick up chopsticks anymore… That was my current situation.

“Eyes forward and straighten up your back. Your upper body is slouching and you’re swinging your blade too flimsily. Do you think Long Dian is using a few dogs to obstruct you?” Cold Fox said as he ruthlessly smacked his bamboo sword on my slightly slumped back, making my teeth clench in pain right then and there.

I hurriedly straightened up my back, focused my eyes on the swinging at hand, not even squinting at any possible distraction, and shouted continuously every time I brandished my blade. It was only then that Cold Fox slightly nodded his head in approval and walked over to see how the others were doing.

After much difficulty in completing the five thousand swings, I was as tired as a dog and sprawled across the floor. It felt like only a fleeting moment had pa.s.sed and I hadn’t even rested enough when Cold Fox’s frosty voice sounded once again, “You’ve rested enough! Get up! Spar with me.”

We can finally spar! The moment this word entered into the language center of my brain, I immediately jumped up. My eyes couldn’t help but sparkle and s.h.i.+ne as I looked toward Cold Fox. It didn’t matter whether it was the thought of fighting against the third best player from the game or the fact that I would be sparring against an opponent in real life that possessed the capabilities of an A level soldier in the military simulation machine; both of these ideas rendered me equally excited.

A rare smile surfaced on Cold Fox's face. “As expected of one who loves combat.”

I looked at Cold Fox who was on the opposite side. He still hadn't equipped his armor and his hands merely held a small knife that was akin to a letter opener. However, every strand of hair on my body that was standing up told me that the guy in front of me was serious!

I raised the dao in my hands; my stance was the same as when I was in the game. I single-handedly held the dao and raised it in line with my body at an angle of thirty degrees. This was the best stance that could adjust to changing circ.u.mstances.

Cold Fox’s eyes revealed a hint of admiration. However, he didn’t go easy on me because of that. The speed at which he rushed toward me made me feel terrified. In an instant, he appeared in front of my face. I only managed to dodge his attack clumsily, barely avoiding his attack. However, Cold Fox had already changed the direction of his knife, which meant that my throat was heading right for it. I hurriedly turned my head, allowing the knife to barely sc.r.a.pe by me. Cold Fox, however, only had to lightly push the knife before it rested directly against my neck.

I lost. It was a loss that I can’t even brand as merely a crus.h.i.+ng defeat!

Cold Fox slowly withdrew his knife and said plainly, “Return to your position; we’re doing it again.”

Unsatisfied, I instantly returned to my original position. Once again, I fought against Cold Fox… However, the result was the same as before. I couldn’t retaliate at all. I couldn’t even dodge.

“Again. This time, make use of your equipment,” said Cold Fox indifferently.

“I did make good use of my equipment!” I retorted, aggrieved. If I didn't have any equipment, how would it have been possible for an untrained girl like me to be able to spar with Cold Fox, who could possibly be an a.s.sa.s.sin or a terrorist?

Cold Fox snorted, “You don’t understand the capabilities of your gear at all.

“We’ll end it at this today, Prince. You have really disappointed me!” After Cold Fox finished, he turned around and left without batting an eye.

Cold Fox’s words. .h.i.t me really hard. What did I do wrong? I had been trying really hard to cooperate with Cold Fox’s whole training program. As I thought about being wronged, tears started welling up in my eyes.

“Prince, don’t cry.” Gui immediately ran toward me and then turned his head to complain at Cold Fox who was far away, “Cold Fox, aren’t you a bit too strict? Prince is only a girl and this is only the first day of training.”

“Don’t train anymore, Xiao Lan!” Zhuo-gēgē’s distressed expression could clearly be seen. “We will help rescue the Dictator of Life in your stead.”

I jumped up immediately and yelled, “No! I definitely won’t give up!”

Everyone took quite a fright in reaction to my high-decibel shout. Only Cold Fox plainly said, “You finally seem a bit more like Prince.”

I froze. What does Cold Fox mean? He thinks that I’m not like Prince? But I am Prince…

I immediately rushed before Cold Fox and extended my arms and legs widely to block his way.3 However, Cold Fox only raised his eyebrows a little and turned to go around me from the side.

“Wait a moment, Cold Fox,” I hurriedly opened my mouth. “What did you mean by what you just said? Do you doubt the fact that I’m Prince?”

Cold Fox once again shot a cold glance at me. “Which part of you resembles Prince? At least, I have never seen Prince shed tears, and I have also never seen Prince use such sloppy fighting skills.”

“This is real life! It’s not a game!” I couldn’t help but retort. Who compares combative abilities within games with reality?!

“Hmph, Prince is actually held back by these words?” Cold Fox icily said in ridicule.

I… have been held back by these words? Could it be that because I unconsciously thought that it was impossible to do these things in reality, I then couldn’t do them?

I touched the equipment on my body and tried my best to recall all the battles I had fought in Second Life.

The first battle. How could I forget? I changed from being extremely scared of wolves to playfully chopping them like I did fish. At that time, I learned that the most important thing was to look for their weaknesses and use the simplest yet most effective method to attack.

I also remembered the first time I fought against a player. It was against Dark Emperor and my opponent was Wicked. The resounding moment whenever our weapons collided had exhilarated us at every turn.

I closed my eyes. The images of all the battles I had fought flashed across my mind. Unknowingly, I began doing my favorite exercise: dancing with my blade!

One after another, I performed all kinds of horizontal slashes and vertical chops. My movements were smooth and accompanied by firm but flexible s.h.i.+fts. In addition, my body slowly felt lighter and lighter. I am an agility-based warrior; my speed should be extremely fast and light and dodging attacks should be simple for me!

I took a few strides and landed on the wall beside me. Using my speed, I ran up it in one go. At the end, I turned my body and safely dropped down to the ground face-to-face with Cold Fox, less than half a step between us.

“Prince!” Cold Fox once again revealed one of his rare smiles (Although I later realized that those were "dangerous" smiles and not "grinning" smiles!)4

“From tomorrow onwards, besides running, you're dueling with just me.”

“Let’s not wait until tomorrow. Take this, Cold Fox!” I said, smiling and filled with confidence as my chest beamed with pride and delight.

“No problem,” Cold Fox said with a hint of excitement in his eyes.

In an instant, I withdrew a step and in the same moment that I retreated backwards, I slashed horizontally at Cold Fox with my lightsaber. Cold Fox took the tactic of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao.5 He didn’t guard against my lightsaber but instead raised his knife and thrust it toward me. In the moment that would have decided life or death, we both retreated a step, dodging the opponent’s attack.

“Excellent!” Cold Fox bellowed loudly. He took the initiative to go on the offensive and, with his speed, he instantly appeared before my eyes.

In the moment Cold Fox started his movement, I had already raised my lightsaber in line with my chest, using the dao’s length to keep the distance between us. After all, my dao’s attack radius was larger than his. Keeping a certain distance between Cold Fox and me was the best way to ensure that I wouldn’t lose.

Right as Cold Fox was about to enter my attack radius, he suddenly switched to a strange stance. His hand that was holding the knife changed into...the throwing knife position. I abruptly realized, It couldn’t be…

“You would have been dead, Prince,” Cold Fox said steadily, “if this were a real battle.”

Like I had feared… Discouraged, I dropped my combative stance. A loss is a loss. I magnanimously admitted, “Yeah, I lost. But that’s all right, there’s still a lot of days left for me to defeat you.”

Cold Fox’s eyes revealed his admiration. However, he only uttered, “The time for dinner pa.s.sed long ago. Let’s go and eat. Then you can go and familiarize yourself with how you should be using the equipment.”

After he finished speaking, Cold Fox’s eyes left me. He used his eyes to inspect everyone and said, “Everyone else, after dinner, I will correct your fighting techniques.” With that, Cold Fox walked to the door and casually took a boxed meal from the ones that were delivered and began eating without a care for the others.

Lolidragon couldn’t stop herself from asking me, “Prince, at that moment, you guys hadn’t even crossed blades yet, so why did you say you lost?”

I matter-of-factly replied, “Didn’t you see Cold Fox’s motion? There was a throwing knife in his hand, and if he were to really throw it at me, I believe that with Cold Fox’s ability, I would have definitely died in one hit.”

“Holy c.r.a.p, a throwing knife?” Although Yang Ming didn’t have a feather fan, he still posed as if he were an elegant and handsome knight-errant. He continued playing his act and bowed with his hands together to Cold Fox, “It couldn’t be that brother, you are the descendant of Xiaoli Feidao?6 Excuse my lack of manners.”

“Chu Liu Xiang,7 you’d better hurry up and think about what errors you are making in combat or else afterwards, we will see a good show where Chu Liu Xiang is miserably taken care of by Xiaoli Feidao,” Lolidragon coldly ridiculed.

Unfortunately, after dinner, Chu Liu Xiang was taken care of by Xiaoli Feidao, and it was an extra tragic kind of "taking care of."

Footnotes

1 "...also known as my bro’s little w.i.l.l.y...": Literally, Lan says, "...also known as my little bro's little bro." In Chinese, "little brother" can be used as a euphemism for the same as w.i.l.l.y.

2 "lightsaber": At first, we were going to call light swords this, but then we decided that a dao is much more like a lightsaber than swords are. Light daos will be called lightsabers in this translation (we just really wanted to use lightsaber somewhere). Whenever Lan's dao is not prefixed by "light," we will still be calling it a dao, but when it is prefixed by light, it will be known as a lightsaber.

3 "...extended my arms and legs widely to block his way...": In the original, Lan describes her stance as extending her arms and legs into the Chinese character "big," which looks like this: 大. She was obstructing Cold Fox with her entire body.

4 "(Although I later realized that those were "dangerous" smiles and not "grinning" smiles!)": This is a pun on the characters for "smile," which can be written as 微笑 (wēixiào), while dangerous smiles is written as 危笑 (wēixiào) with the same p.r.o.nunciation, just different characters.

5 "...besieging Wei to rescue Zhao...": This was a strategy used in the Battle of Guiling where the state of Wei was attacked to direct attention away from the state of Zhao. The strategy is part of the Thirty-Six Stratagems and means avoiding head on battle. Strike at weaknesses elsewhere.

6 "Xiaoli Feidao": Literally, this can be read as "Little Li Flying Dagger," also known as the Romantic Swordsman. The Romantic Swordsman is a wuxia (martial arts) novel series featuring a man whose signature weapon is a flying dagger.

7 "Chu Liu Xiang": Chu Liu Xiang is the protagonist of the wuxia novel series by the same name. He is someone who robs from the rich to help the poor. Yang Ming has been said to imitate his mannerisms in Second Life.