Yijin arrived home later that evening. The walk back was quiet and peaceful. There had been no one to bother him and he felt Junxia's obsessive gaze disappear after a while. This gave him a sense of relief as he returned to his apartment. It was then that something incredible happened. Something that Yijin would have never expected. Something... ALRIGHT ALREADY! HE GOT EVICTED, OKAY? I'M DONE GOING THROUGH SO MUCH DETAIL FOR NOTHING! IT'S EXCRUCIATING!
Yes, you read those past few sentences correctly. Yijin arrived home that night to find that his apartment had a piece of pink paper on the door. It was official looking and even stamped by a notary public. "The apartment 392 B has not received rent for over a month despite countless messages and letters written to the owner, Yijin Liu. Due to this, Yijin Liu has been evicted and will not be allowed to return to this same apartment. There are no more vacancies left in this building and we hope that the owner, Yijin Liu, is able to find a different lodging facility."
Yijin read this slowly and annoyedly. His face conveyed an expression of pure irritability as he grabbed the paper from the door and ripped it into pieces before kicking the door down and walking out. He had slammed the door with his foot at the exact moment when the security cameras left a blind spot at his room's door. Finally he turned and walked out.
He mumbled under his breath and fired a stream of curses at the establishment and its staff before exiting the building. "And another thing!" He shouted at the end of his monologue. "You can all go straight to Hell because the toilets here haven't flushed in ages. Enjoy cleaning that up!"
Yijin pushed the door open and stared at the staff before walking out. They were completely surprised and watched him fearfully as he exited and walked in the direction of the Sun Martial Arts Academy. It was the weekend, so it was fine for him to leave to see Juanbei so early. He pulled open the door and all was quiet. A traditional flute was playing from the office accompanied by a female voice singing beautifully.
Yijin walked and opened the door only to find Juanbei asleep in an office chair with his head hung back over the rear of the chair and his mouth gaping open. He snored loudly as the music continued. Yijin growled. "What a waste of the poor woman's efforts in singing." Yijin walked and shut off the radio before slamming the door shut. Juanbei lifted his head rapidly as soon as the shutting of the door startled him awake.
"H-ho-what?! Yijin!? What the absolute hell are you doing?!" Juanbei shouted in surprise. He placed a hand over his left pectoral muscle. "You almost gave me a heart attack, you ancient son of a bitch!"
"Ugh! In my day we would never complain about heart attacks! They were like a common cold!" Said Yijin irately.
"Well you're in a good mood today. What happened to you?" Juanbei asked sleepily.
"I got evicted."
"Evicted? How the hell did you let that happen? You know that payments are able to go from your bank account straight to the rent right?"
"Apparently I didn't know, you technological little shitter. Now I'm out of a house and there are no vacancies at the same building."
"Oh well then you could just sleep in here for the time being. Did you even bother grabbing your clothing?"
Yijin stared blankly for a moment and sighed. "Shit."
"So wait, let me get this straight... You left with the clothes on your back?"
"No... I didn't even go in."
Juanbei looked at Yijin and boomed in laughter. "You absolute moron! Were you always like this or has the modern times turned you into an ignorant teenager as well?"
"Hey-" Yijin made a motion with his hand and formed the shape of snake's head with his fingers before speaking again. "Shut it."
Juanbei laughed louder than before and Yijin sat down. "Anyways. What's new with you?" Yijin asked. Juanbei was still laughing obnoxiously before finally calming down and sighing in content. "Sorry? I wasn't listening." Yijin made dagger eyes and spoke. "Listen here, you little shit. You heard me." Juanbei grinned. Making his teenaged grandpa annoyed was probably his life's objective.
Yijin sighed as Juanbei spoke. "Alright, I'll tell you, ok? There is a new martial arts academy in town. They opened up across the street. Did you notice them?"
"Yes I did." Yijin said.
"Great. That saves me a little bit of explanation. It does seem a little weird though because now, all the students who were supposed to come to me are going there. I think they might be trying to run me out of business."
"Like you had a business to start with." Yijin mercilessly roasted.
"Shut up. Alright, I want to ask if you'd be willing to help me out of a jam. I'm not really asking, but rather demanding since I've saved your consciousness more than you have helped me. Go over there, say that you are from my school and defeat their master."
"And why can't you go do that?"
"Couldn't you see I was sleeping?"
"You lazy old fart."
"You young ancient prick."
"Alright fine. I'll go. But after this we're even."
"Yeah, until you lose yourself to the Dark Qi again!" He laughed obnoxiously again as Yijin feigned a punch at him. At that point Juanbei cowered in fear as Yijin rose from the seat and walked out.
"Jeez, what a stupid name for an academy. The Divine Fists of Heaven." Yijin grumbled and walked out. He stretched his arms as he jaywalked across the street at the first opportunity. No one passed by so he was safe.
He walked to the entrance of the rival academy and knocked on the door. A man appeared and opened the door. He was probably in his late twenties. Yijin greeted him and walked in. All of Juanbei's previous students were inside and practicing a completely different form of Martial Arts. One that seemed fake. The students were being taught a completely shaky stance by a man who seemed barely twenty years of age.
"Excuse me." Yijin asked of the man who had opened the door for him. "Is the master of the academy present? I have a matter I wish to discuss with him."
"No, master. The master of the academy is not present currently. He is out on business."
"What a lazy bum." Yijin grumbled upon hearing the sentence.
"He will return later in the week. Until then perhaps we can answer your question." The man curled his arm and placed his hand on his neck. The sleeve of his robe slid upwards towards his shoulder and uncovered a Kanling Gang tattoo. "I was wondering why they would go through all this trouble for nothing." Yijin whispered to himself.
"Well then, tell me. What is your question."
"It wasn't a question. Rather a challenge."
The three headmasters looked at him in surprise. "Really? You want to challenge the Divine Fists of Heaven School?"
"Damn, that's a stupid name. Yeah. Why else would I come here? To study under a bunch of bunko artists?" Yijin smiled and incurred the wrath of these three headmasters of the school. The first one, called "Li", stepped up solely to Yijin.
"Oh no, I think you gentlemen misunderstood me. I want all three of you to attack me at the same time." Their Qi foundation was incredibly poor. Their meridians only emitted a faint pulse of Qi compared to Yijin's. They should have felt that they were up against someone stronger than them.
"That can be arranged then. If you want to be paralyzed so badly why not grant your wish?"
"Confident words from a bunch of fakers." Yijin retorted.
The three of them gritted their teeth and veins bulged in their foreheads as they charged forward.
"You'll eat your words, you little shit."
"You, however my dear friends, shall eat shit." Yijin grinned as he used word play to taunt the assaulters.
Yijin waited for them to approach close enough that they were a hair's breadth away from him before performing a blindingly fast flash step and appearing behind them. "I'm not there!"
The children laughed as the three headmasters crashed into each other and rose again. They charged at Yijin once more and Yijin performed the same move whilst shouting. "Missed me! Keep trying, dumbasses!" The three knew that they were heavily outmatched in terms of speed and decided to make it a contest of strength by beckoning him to them. Yijin grinned.
"That's more like it. I've been waiting to let my anger out on someone like you guys again." He stepped forward and slammed three kicks that made him look like he was walking up the master called Li. He finally leapt upwards, pushing off of the opponent's chest, and slammed his foot into Li's cheek. The man flew through the air twirling before slamming to the ground and groaning in pain.
"A master, my ass!"
"One down!" He chimed in an extra few words. Yijin slammed three fists into the next opponent before slamming his elbow into the second master's knee. It twisted outward as Yijin brought his hand up and flicked the man's forehead. Wind gusted around Yijin's middle finger as it slammed into the man's forehead and sent him flying into the wall. Finally stood the last man, cowering in fear and trembling from the knees. Yijin raised his opened hand and the man whimpered before covering his face.
Yijin smiled and pat the man on his head. "Good dog." The children laughed once more as Yijin suddenly turned his menacing gaze to them. "And now for you, children. You left my master all alone for these bums. What did they do? Kidnap you with the candy bit? Get your asses out of here." He chased after the children in a humorous fashion as they all rushed out after carrying their things and laughing. "And don't forget to apologize to Master Juanbei as well. He is very upset about you guys leaving. You guys were his favorite students!" Yijin shouted after them.
The two injured masters crawled to a corner with the help of the third and they quickly got to talking with Yijin. "Masterful Prodigy? How did you get to be so powerful? You took us out with only a few blows. We are considered good fighters in the underground boxing rings."
"Your techniques are sloppy. Why masters in my day had to train for decades upon decades before they could be regarded as masters. And even then, they weren't strong enough to defeat me a majority of the time. I always got my target killed no matter how much it took from me. In short, you guys are nowhere near close to perfection like a master must be before he can take on disciples. Now then, we have time to discuss some things. Are you all a part of the Kanling Gang?"
"What the-. How did you know about that?" Said the masters almost simultaneously. They had been wondering why Yijin had come to challenge them in the first place. It was an added bonus that they were part of the Kanling Gang when Juanbei sent Yijin here in the first place.
"Because you all have the same tattoo as that Japanese idiot who I sent running home to Lu Gongfen."
"Wait a moment! You're Huanzhi Ren?"
"In this life I am Yijin Liu." Yijin spoke calmly as he answered the question.
"Gods above! He's incredibly strong. No wonder Executive Member Kayegawa couldn't defeat him."
"Now tell me the truth, where is your master? I won't hurt you anymore than I already have if you tell me." Yijin said as he looked upon their pained faces. They looked at him in surprise. "We're not sure. We were told to wait until he gets back here tomorrow."
A sudden baritone voice could be heard as a door swung open from behind Yijin.
"What the hell is all this ruckus? Who the f*** is messing up my martial school?"
A fat, barrel chested, pot-bellied man stepped out of a back room. His head was almost completely shaved and his beard was down to his chest. The man was taller than Yijin by about five inches and had tattoos covering his entire body.
"Who the f*** is this scrawny, little bitch?" Said the owner of the voice in utter annoyance as he looked upon Yijin disdainfully.
"Now it's personal, you fat tub of lard."