Chapter 99: The Real-World Variables Brought by Martial Arts

Incidents like a water dragon soaring into the sky or a phantom Buddha appearing in the air occurred seven or eight times in the space of a single month, each time in a different place. Sometimes the gap was less than an hour; at the longest, only three to five days.

From the initial shock to gradual acceptance, these events soon became the subject of heated debate.

Why had such martial arts masters suddenly begun to appear after Earth Home announced the filming of a martial arts drama?

Where had they come from?

Were they the first people to have made contact with Ultraman?

Why had these masters never appeared before, only to emerge so frequently now?

The explanations were countless and contradictory.

In the end, Earth Home gave its answer.

It was Zhang Kai making his big move.

A direct revelation, creating a tremendous uproar.

In the statement, truth and falsehood were interwoven, each half real and half fabricated.

A century ago, Ultraman had already discovered Earth and made contact with it.

However, the Ultraman race never lightly interfered in the development of another species unless it was to guide it correctly or offer aid.

After coming to Earth, they discovered that high-level lifeforms also existed here, and that legends even spoke of beings beyond ordinary lifeforms: an unknown existence known as the Holy Immortals and Buddhas.

This greatly aroused the interest of the Ultraman race. They made contact with the surviving human cultivators and discovered that Earth was now in a sealed state. Nearly all beings said to transcend life had been driven off or sealed away. As for whatever could seal away Holy Immortals and Buddhas, even the Ultraman race treated it with profound reverence and dared not speak of it lightly. Those who wished to know more could explore the matter on their own.

Only later did technology become the dominant force on Earth, eventually becoming mainstream.

But Earth had once given birth to beings beyond life, and traces of cultivators still remained, carrying their traditions forward. Ordinary people could also cultivate, yet Earth lacked the substance known as spiritual qi, making the path of immortality almost impossible.

In order to test whether cultivation methods from other universes could be practiced on Earth, the Ultraman race contacted a group of people and taught them related techniques, though they imposed a restriction: those methods could not be casually revealed, or everything they had learned would be taken back.

Now, however, since they had already cooperated with the people of Earth and conducted experiments proving that cultivation could be taught on a large scale here, the original agreement naturally no longer applied. The people who had gone public were precisely the first group the Ultraman race had contacted on Earth. There were thirty-six of them in all. At present, they were ordinary users of Earth Home, and they were also using their own methods to earn points in exchange for even more advanced cultivation techniques.

The moment this statement was released, the world was in an uproar.

So someone had already gotten there first and, by sheer luck, received the blessings of the Ultraman race.

Looking at the astonishing abilities displayed in those videos, in the West they would have been nothing short of supermen; in the East, they were unquestionably masters who had reached the pinnacle of their art.

To be one step ahead meant leading by a wide margin. These people had been ahead for decades. Good heavens, it was enough to make anyone green with envy.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the Tsuburaya clan had already been detained by the Japanese government and subjected to endless repeated interrogations, with the authorities trying every possible means to wring from them whether their ancestors had left behind any cultivation methods.

After all, the very fact that they had produced Ultraman films proved that the Tsuburaya ancestors had once had contact with Ultraman. Otherwise, where would the Ultraman dramas have come from?

Yet under the government’s torment, the Tsuburaya clan was nearly driven to tears.

We really know nothing.

No matter what they used—pepper spray, whips, candles, anything and everything.

Damn it, for the revival of the great Japanese nation, we would even disembowel ourselves, and you still dare hide your techniques? You are traitors to the nation! Beat them. Beat them to death.

After several videos of masters appeared in the Celestial Empire, how could Japan possibly believe that there were none in their own country?

Earth Home had already announced it: there were thirty-six of them.

However they were divided up, our great Japan should be able to get a few, too. And the most likely place to find such masters was the Tsuburaya clan.

They had been cajoled with every possible kindness and promised endless benefits, yet still they gave no face at all. Hah, so they really thought that once they had a master, the state machine no longer mattered? Damn it, if they refused to show face, then there would be no face to give. Bring out the whips.

It was not only the Japanese government that was paying attention; many other countries were watching Japan as well.

China was not a country anyone could afford to offend.

It was the first to establish diplomatic ties with Ultraman, and the only cooperative partner in the virtual world. The rest of the countries merely took secondhand tasks; they could only curry favor, never provoke.

But Japan was different.

Those little devils had been bullied more than once or twice already. One more time made no difference.

Zhang Kai had been watching the situation the entire time, constantly filling in gaps and correcting oversights.

He had also noticed that the masters all bore Chinese identities, which would inevitably lead to some unnecessary trouble. So he was planning to create a few foreign identities as well.

But if foreigners used martial arts, it would seem strange.

If it were magic, or battle aura, or some other means of cultivation, that would be easier to accept.

Let it bloom everywhere: let China take the lion’s share, and let the other countries drink a little soup and broth, so the gap would not grow too vast and delay his loan plan. Otherwise, it would not be worthwhile.

With that thought, Zhang Kai had the Bone-Refining Dragon prepare, then he himself assumed another appearance and began watching developments overseas, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Two days later.

The opportunity came.

A coastal city in the Americas.

That day, the weather was unusual, and a crisis was rapidly taking shape in the sea.

Within just a few hours, a massive wave surged toward the shore.

The wave was over ten meters high. Though it was not yet a terrifying tsunami, it was more than enough to destroy most coastal cities and bring about a huge disaster.

The tsunami had come suddenly, and with current technology there had been no timely way to detect it. By the time it was discovered, it was already too late.

It happened in the middle of the afternoon, around two or three o’clock. More than a hundred people were on the beach surfing, basking in the sun, playing volleyball, and posing in bikinis, a dazzling sight in the brilliant light.

At last, someone spotted the tsunami and let out a piercing scream.

Then came the panic-driven stampede.

But how could human legs outrun a tsunami? It looked as though those hundred-odd people were about to become food for the sea.

At that moment, an old foreigner appeared: white-haired, white-bearded, yet with an excellent figure and an air of uncommon poise. He was wearing a loud floral shirt and had been flirting with two bikini-clad girls. As the two girls in his arms screamed and ran toward the shore, he merely extended a hand, and a magic wand appeared in it.

He had taken it from Harry Potter.

But what he used was not magic.

After all, magic could never compare with immortal arts.

With a wave of his hand, streaks of blue light began to gather continuously.

At last, the blue radiance formed a wall, stretching for more than ten miles along the coastline and rising a hundred meters high.

By the time the tsunami struck, it was already twenty or thirty meters high.

But before that wall of blue light, it was nothing worth mentioning.

When the two collided, a thunderous crash rang out, creating a breathtaking spectacle.

The seawater was stopped cold and turned into a towering wall of its own, surging and boiling furiously, yet held at bay and unable to advance even an inch.

Some of the people who witnessed the scene were left staring in utter disbelief.

What was that?

Magic?

Then they saw the old man wielding the wand, and in that instant his image rose infinitely in their hearts.

"Calm waters and gentle winds!"

The old man suddenly shouted, sweeping his wand. The magic wall flared with a brilliant blue light, and then, astonishingly, it pushed the seawater back into the ocean.

Amid the roaring sound, the old man turned around, blew a whistle at the stunned crowd, and then with a flourish of his wand conjured a broom. He mounted it and flew off in a whoosh.