A week later Leo and his three girls were packing for a tour with numerous countries on their list. Leo had obviously not given up on his pursuit of power, even after hearing all those strange rumors about all the ruined fighters.
On the contrary, he was even more motivated by the danger. After all, the bigger the risk the greater the rewards. Additionally, this was probably the first time he confirmed something unnatural. Not that him bending steel with his bare hands wasn't unnatural according to his past life's viewpoint, but his standards were raised a lot after seeing how far the humans could go in this world.
It was rather difficult for him to acknowledge something as supernatural anymore because he knew that he still hasn't brought out all his body's potential. So, learning of something that broke several martial arts who were close to the peak of human performance he knew that he wouldn't need to search for long anymore.
Even now after becoming a world champion when he was 23 and was hailed as probably the best fighter in his division, he wanted more. After getting such a mysterious invitation, he knew that he must pursue it.
For those that pursue true strength as it was said in the invitation. Did they think of him as weak? Leo couldn't help but wonder. He, who was praised as one of the greatest? Did he not already achieve true strength?
Some friends of his had obviously advised him not to follow such a shady invitation. His mother was concerned and didn't want that anything happened to him, but she was quickly calmed down by John and Rosy.
They said that they were rather worried about the people that would mess with Leo's group. As his little sister, Rosy stated so full of confidence, he would just need to make sure there weren't any witnesses after he was done.
So, without further hesitation he bought tickets to the countries that were listed on the invitation. He would be lying if he said that he didn't think about ignoring the invitation for now and just train, make money, and live his life in peace, but he would never be satisfied to stagnate.
He still had some room for improvement for now, but he would rather have no bottlenecks in the future than to get stuck for some time until he found a solution to improve further. He shook his head at that thought. Was he now living in a cultivation novel? He had asked himself.
He wanted to be prepared for what the future might hold and even if the invitation were a repeat disappointment of seemingly grand secrets only to reveal itself as something he already knew from his past, going on a tour could only benefit him.
Maybe the new sights and impressions would enlighten him somehow like it did for the cultivators, he read about so many years ago. Honestly, he missed reading those kinds of stories. This world heavily lacked in that regard.
Leo had thought about writing about it himself, but he quickly dismissed it as it would put him on the shitlist of a lot of schools and break unspoken rules in the martial world. Considering that meditation was regarded as some sacred texts, he would rather not have assassins hunt his ass down for coming up with something that apparently was content of their secret technique.
As he didn't keep his little trip a secret to his friends and family as they would surely figure it out, he had just invited them to come along. That his girlfriends had 'subtly' threatened the more casual friends for endangering their early honeymoon trip was something that he wisely chose to ignore.
Jack and Bella declined as they finished studying and are now working to save some money to buy a house. Leo wanted to just pay it for them, but they gratefully declined. They didn't want to strain their relationship over a debt that they themselves could pay off by just working for some time.
Leo couldn't help but respect that and only chose to advise them how to make money on the stock market and some easy tips on how to start a business.
Lenny declined as well as he had something to do with whatever it was, he needed to do. Lenny liked to play mysterious since forever, so it wasn't anything new. He used to disappear for a few days randomly in the middle of whatever they were doing at that time.
However, sometimes when he came back, he came back injured, but he always came back stronger. Leo had long given up on finding out what he would do on his mysterious trips. He just imagined that Lenny's behavior was because he was some kind of superhero or cultivator that heard about some herb getting sold on an action.
He would then travel half the world, gaining the herb and thereby pissing off some rich kid only to reveal that he was a powerful and rich cultivator that could curb stomp the kid's entire family.
Daydreaming aside, after confirming that no one wanted to travel with them, which was mostly his girlfriends' credit, they had packed and were ready to leave. Fortunately, it had been a few days since his birthday, so the timing couldn't get any better. He would presumably come back in a year or two.
It reminded him of the time when he wanted to travel for a few years and join a shaolin temple to learn martial arts, but he never actually went through with it because of several excuses he made up in his mind.
Now some organization actively sought him out, even if they liked to play hide and seek with him. He couldn't help but realize how far he had come in his second life. Living a life without regrets was the greatest.
Only in this world he realized how much he missed out on. He regrets not doing things a lot of times that would give him a new outlook on life just because he thought it would have been more trouble than beneficial. He would rather stay in his comfort zone more often than not, especially if the benefits weren't something immediately discernible or guaranteed.
So, after having packed their luggage and saying goodbye to his friends and family, the four went on an airplane towards China as their first stop.
They had already organized their pickup from the airport of Zhengzhou in the Henan Province in South Central China to drive out to the country-level city, Dengfeng. They literally only had the city as an address. Not much to go from there, so they would have to figure out the rest on their own.
Leo knew this would become a source of frustration, so he decided that he would just visit some tourist scenery and enjoy his stay while searching for their real destination in leisure.
The first stop seemed rather obvious, however. Leo just presumed that they needed to go to the Buddhist Shaolin temple of Dengfeng, which was a renowned center for martial arts. At least, that was the first guess of his.
He still couldn't comprehend why Sarah was given an invitation as well. Was it because of him or were they also interested in her?
There was no denying it, he loved Sarah, but she didn't seem to be an obvious choice to be invited. After all, all the fighters that had apparently gone on this journey were exceptional and Sarah wasn't a fighter. Yes, she was smart and bold, but she couldn't kick her enemy through a door.
When they arrived in Zhengzhou, he was kind of blown away by the city. An unknown metropolis was always a flood of stimulation, but it wasn't something that he didn't know, so the novelty of the city vanished rather quickly for him compared to his girlfriends who made it their mission to photograph every building.
It was painfully obvious that they were new to the city and it didn't take long until a few people wanted to sell something to them or just wanted to flirt with them.
After shaking off the flies that had gathered around him and climbing inside their pickup. They then drove for two hours to the suburban from the other city before stopping in front of their inn. It was the one with the greatest reviews and seemed decent enough for the small city they were in.
There was an armed bodyguard at the front door, who nodded at them, apparently aware of their arrival. After checking in and getting their keys, they put their bags in their room and locked away their valuables.
When they arrived at the airport and when they checked in, they had the feeling of being watched, but that was only a given considering that they were tall white foreigners, well except for Shunlei, who attracted others attention just because of her looks. Still, they seemed like easy targets to be exploited to put it in simple terms.
Frankly, out of the four only Shunlei spoke Chinese, so she did the heavy lifting with getting direction, ordering food, etc. Leo had been learning the language for a while now, but his language skills were far from fluent and he would be easily scammed by anyone who tried.
Fortunately, they had someone who knew the language and the culture to a degree, their trip would be a lot worse if that weren't the case.
It was rather late, so after checking in they didn't go out anymore. To prevent themselves from getting a jetlag, they would just buy some snacks and water and lock themselves in their room. It was a bigger room with four beds, after putting all beds together and a short stretch, they slept like logs.
At one point in the night, Leo woke up. He was surrounded by the girls and he was rather uncomfortable. It was just too damn warm, he thought as he wriggled himself out of the bed before going to the bathroom to relief himself.
After doing so, he went out to stretch his legs with a short walk. Just as he stepped outside, he saw someone at the end of the corridor disappearing behind the corner. He locked the door and went down the hallway.
After turning at the same corner as the stranger he only saw door with a sign. The sign indicated that this was the storeroom for the janitor.
'A janitor working so late hours. That must suck.' Leo thought as he then went outside and to get some fresh air. After a few moments he went back to his room.
They woke up early in the morning and got ready to tackle the day. When they walked out of the front door, Sarah directly went to a small store to buy a snack the store presented. Shunlei, of course, was dragged with as Sarah couldn't ask and understand what those snacks were. She would rather know than not.
While those two were conversing with the clerk, Laura and Leo saw two people watching them from across the street a few dozens of meters away. One was an older man with white hair, who was stereotypically stroking his long beard and the other man was a tall buff Chinese with a stern look on his face.
They wore similar clothes with the only real difference being the colors. They both had small sigil on their chest of a phoenix.
Leo and Laura wanted to approach the two, but a car honked at them when Leo tried to step on the road. It distracted the two for a moment, but after they were looking back at the place where the two strangers stood, they found nothing.