Chapter 61 (1/2)

Ye Jingshan was watching the video recording of Xia Fei and Chen Dong’s fight in his office, and he used a pencil to outline the inconceivable dodging motions that Xia Fei executed on a piece of paper.

There was hardly anyone in this day and age who would use such a primitive tool like pencil and paper. It was much easier to use brain-imaging or computer-assisted drawing than to do it by hand, but Ye Jingshan still maintained this tedious and inefficient habit of hand-drawing. He was convinced that it was the act of manually drawing things that could increase his personal understanding of the moves.

Ye Jingshan’s hand-drawing method was simple yet effective, and a combination of a few lines was all it took for him to very clearly depict the crux of Xia Fei’s movement.

Tapping his pencil on that quarto-sized notepad in his hand, Ye Jingshan fell into deep thought, dense wrinkles gathering on his forehead.

Xia Fei’s movement could be described as strange and weird, completely incomprehensible with common sense. Aside from understanding the subtlety in those moves, Ye Jingshan was still unable to comprehend how the youth had been able to move his center of gravity as he did.

Rising to his feet, he imitated Xia Fei’s movements in the middle of his office, experimenting it many times. Even though he was able to mimic every move made, he was unable to control his center of gravity, and the same move Xia Fei had used to evade Chen Dong’s torrential assault time and again only caused him to haphazardly fall to the ground time and again.

The moves could be split into form and intent, and Crafty Approach, which came from Phantom’s discipleship, belonged to their secret Shadow Kill series; it was not something outsiders could easily grasp.

Ye Jingshan had only come to understand the form of Crafty Approach but was ultimately unable to fathom the intent behind the moves.

Actually, Ye Jingshan was not the only one who wanted to comprehend these moves of Xia Fei. The task of trying to crack these moves was already being vigorously undertaken by the entire Endaro Star Region in secret.

These moves Xia Fei had demonstrated possessed great practical application to actual combat, and there would be a profound impact in major organizations if any succeeded in unraveling it.

Xia Fei was merely an intermediate Star Base Speed Ability user, and after learning Crafty Approach, he was able to fight toe-to-toe with a Star Domain rank Chen Dong who possessed a Nature special ability. Such a level of actual combat efficacy was tempting to others, while of course Xia Fei’s firm resolve also played a crucial role, and either was indispensable to each other.

After experimenting with it a few more times, Ye Jingshan helplessly shook his head and got back to his seat. He flipped through his notepad again but was still unable to gain further insight.

How was he supposed to know that Phantom had so daringly taught Xia Fei Crafty Approach, expecting him to use it so publicly? Evidently, it meant that he had absolute confidence in the secrets to Crafty Approach not being grasped so easily.

Even Xia Fei himself would have a very tough time describing clearly why he had been able to do all the difficult moves he did; Phantom had not taught Crafty Approach in full to Xia Fei, only hinting from the sidelines and not once inculcating the mindset behind it.

That was why Xia Fei could only be considered a practitioner of Crafty Approach and not one who could impart it to someone else. He was even incapable of expressing the profound mystery behind the approach, which just went to show the extent of consideration Phantom had undertaken in order to keep the secret.

The communicator on his desk suddenly rang, and Ye Jingshan reached out for it and tapped on the button to answer. A display appeared, showing an old man in his seventies to him. Indubitably, this was the president of Endaro Star Region’s Adjudicator Union, Robert.

“Chief Ye,” very courteously greeted Robert. Though Ye Jingshan was no longer a deputy department chief in the headquarters, he remained as respectful toward him.

Ye Jingshan furrowed his brows. “President Robert, I’m merely the camp commander of Heaven Execution Training Camp—your subordinate. It’s best if you drop the honorific. Just calling my name will do.”

Robert chuckled. “It’s fine if you don’t want me to call you chief, but you won’t call me president from here onward too, and we can just address each other using names. How does that sound?”

Ye Jingshan impassively nodded. “Is something the matter?’

“It’s like this. I want to send two young men over to your boot camp for further training, and I wish to hear your opinion on this.” Robert spoke, still as polite as ever.

Robert was Ye Jingshan’s superior; all the former needed to do was give an order to the latter regarding any decision he made, and it would be done. There was no need to consult the other, yet he put himself in a position wherein he would immediately rescind the idea if Ye Jingshan disagreed.

“Who are they? Do I know them?”

Robert rubbed his chin and gave a hint. “Not only do you know these two young men, I’m afraid the entire star region knows them, too; they are of course Xia Fei and Chen Dong—the pair who fought for twenty-one days, which ended in a draw.”

“Oh.” Ye Jingshan nodded, his finger tapping his desk lightly a few times. “I’ve watched the match of those two. Were it not for Xia Fei, Chen Dong would most definitely be first in that assessment. It’s such a pity that he ended up getting entangled with Xia Fei and his weird moves, fighting till he fell into a coma but still unable to eke out a win against Xia Fei.”

“So what do you think? Do you think either of them has the qualifications to join Heaven Execution Training Camp?” Robert somewhat excitedly asked.

“They do indeed have the qualifications. Just from the dedication they’ve shown toward achieving victory, it’s enough for them to join the training camp, though Xia Fei will be a little troublesome,” stated Ye Jingshan.

“Oh? What problems does Xia Fei have?” Robert curiously probed.

Ye Jingshan told Robert about the incident in which his three supervisors had fought with one another to get Xia Fei specially enrolled, and he responded with uproarious laughter when Ye Jingshan concluded. “To think it’s because he is too popular… And here I was thinking that Xia Fei failed to make the grade some way or another.”

After a moment of thought, Robert asked, “So how do you intend to deal with this?”

“Getting Xia Fei to join our training camp is a must. Those strange moves he demonstrated have already gotten the attention of the whole star region, and we mustn’t let the Hermit Syndicate poach this talent. I’ve got a few possible solutions up my sleeves, but let me mull on it for a couple of days first to find a more appropriate way to deal with this,” Ye Jingshan suggested.

At the end of the day, he was still an ex-deputy department chief from the headquarters, so there was no reason he would be unable to handle such a small matter, considering he had the experience and aptitude for the role.

Robert very happily mused. “I feel reassured hearing you say that. I’ll be holding a press conference right now, announcing Xia Fei and Chen Dong’s special enrollment to the Heaven Execution Training Camp, awarding them their apprentice adjudicator badge.”

…

Robert terminated his call to Ye Jingshan and poured himself a cup of tea. Only he himself was aware of the great stress he had experienced after that episode with the missing candidates.