Chapter 2: Bringing a Ball to a Fight

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Bringing a Ball to a Fight

Time Travelers crossing over faced two nightmare scenarios. First, arriving in a barren wasteland or the middle of an ocean. Second, appearing directly in a densely populated area.

Unfortunately, Li Ye’s debut fell right into the second category. He had crossed over directly into the middle of some gathering. The ground beneath his feet felt squishy; if his senses were correct, he was standing on a person.

He cursed inwardly, "Damn it! How did I end up with such a disastrous start? With this kind of rotten luck, it’s no wonder Time Travelers have such a high mortality rate..."

Li Ye surveyed his surroundings. He was in a spacious cave, its walls lined with blazing torches that illuminated the cavern as bright as day. Opposite him stood a beggar in tattered clothes, leaning on a Dog-Beating Stick and staring in dumbfounded shock. A crowd of Martial World figures, armed with swords and sabers, stood frozen as if struck by a paralyzing spell. Every single pair of eyes was fixed on him.

GULP!

Li Ye’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. He noted the bad news: he had crossed over into a suspected Martial Hero world and was immediately surrounded by the locals. The good news was that these locals seemed stunned by his sudden appearance, buying him a little time to think of a countermeasure. The final bad news was that this time was extremely short. Swiftly, the window for Li Ye to think vanished entirely.

The beggar suddenly snapped out of his daze. Pointing his Dog-Beating Stick at Li Ye, he shouted, "Who are you?"

"An Immortal," Li Ye replied, feigning composure as he discreetly checked his remaining inventory. He still had a tactical dagger, an ingot of Gold, and a demonic object that was guaranteed never to drop—a football club’s Team Emblem. The rest of his gear had been lost in the turbulent currents of time and space.

To ensure their safety, every Time Traveler carried a massive supply of resources when crossing over, such as firearms, glow sticks, emergency rations, and medical kits. However, Demon Qi only protected the Time Traveler themselves, not their belongings. Consequently, the loss rate of items during transit was absurdly high. No matter how much gear one brought, retaining even two or three items was a stroke of immense luck. What remained was entirely up to fate. Simply put, if his submachine gun were still with him, Li Ye wouldn’t be panicking in the current situation at all.

"An Immortal?" The beggar seemed genuinely intimidated by Li Ye’s grand entrance. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes, and he instinctively began to lower his Dog-Beating Stick.

Before he could fully withdraw his weapon, a voice abruptly rang out. "Bullshit Immortal! His aura is unstable, his gaze is shifty, and even the long hair on his head is fake. He’s nothing but a swindling charlatan who used some Illusion Technique to sneak into our midst!"

The cavern erupted in an uproar at those words. In an instant, the stunned crowd drew their weapons, their initial bewilderment twisting into fury.

"Hu, take him down!"

"He might be from the Red Flame Sect! Old Zhang has already been crushed to death by him."

"We can’t let him escape, or all our planning will be for nothing..."

Li Ye cursed inwardly, "Motherfucker! I’d like to run, but could I even get away?" Overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, he glanced at the mob blocking his path and the distant, unreachable cave exit.

So far, his understanding of this world was a complete blank. The only useful information he had gleaned was the mention of the Red Flame Sect and the fact that this group was gathered here plotting some secret conspiracy. Beyond that, he knew absolutely nothing.

One thing he could confirm was that the people here spoke a language similar to the Jiangnan dialect, meaning communication wouldn’t be an issue. Language had always been the greatest barrier for any crossover. The Demon Hunting Bureau had synthesized all the intel brought back by Time Travelers and concluded that the universes they visited shared a faint, inexplicable connection with Earth. This was most evident in their language and racial makeup, which were remarkably similar to Earth’s. Otherwise, the Cultivation Techniques brought back from the Otherworld wouldn’t be viable back on Earth.

It was a highly anomalous phenomenon. Therefore, Time Travelers carried a hidden objective: to investigate the connection between these alternate universes and Earth.

As for Li Ye’s ancient costume, it was the culmination of experience gathered by countless Time Travelers. Wearing ancient garb allowed one to seamlessly blend into Martial Hero worlds and the like. Even if they arrived in a modern, technologically advanced civilization, they could simply remove their fake wigs to look like everyday citizens, or at worst, pass off as cosplayers. He just hadn’t expected that the optimal disguise formulated by seasoned Time Travelers would be seen through at a single glance.

Watching the increasingly agitated crowd, Li Ye tightened his grip on the football club’s Team Emblem in his palm. Surviving this immediate crisis would likely depend entirely on this demonic object.

Before his departure, the Demon Hunting Bureau’s professional team had analyzed the potential development paths for this specific emblem. They had outlined four core concepts for him: unity, perseverance, progress, and glory. Embodying these concepts would theoretically activate the skills bestowed upon the Demon Hunter by the demonic object.

In his current situation, aside from perseverance, the other three concepts seemed completely inapplicable. Yet, surrounded by enemies on all sides, even perseverance felt futile. Even if his opponents weren’t Martial Arts World experts and were just a group of ordinary armed thugs, he still couldn’t beat them in a straight fight!

"Gentlemen..." Li Ye opened his mouth to explain, but they clearly had no intention of giving him a chance. Having realized he wasn’t an Immortal, the beggar swung his stick violently toward Li Ye’s head.

The Dog-Beating Stick whistled through the air, fierce and incredibly fast. From behind, a burly man lunged forward, throwing a heavy punch aimed directly at Li Ye’s back. Both strikes were ruthless and lethal, leaving him absolutely no room for survival. Simultaneously, several others shifted their positions, raising their weapons to seal off any possible escape routes.

He swore inwardly, "Fuck!"

The Dog-Beating Stick rapidly magnified in Li Ye’s pupils, hurtling swiftly toward his skull. All his words of explanation were forced back down his throat. In that split second, all thoughts of unity, progress, and perseverance were thrown completely out the window. He instinctively dodged backward, only to trip over his own feet, suddenly remembering he was still standing on a person. That poor bastard had likely been killed by the turbulent spatial currents during the crossover.

Li Ye stumbled, his right foot landing squarely on the dead man’s head. In a flash, a rapid succession of images flooded his mind—professional football players expertly dribbling the ball past defenders. Instantly, a surge of warm energy flowed from the Team Emblem into his body. His right foot acted on pure reflex, hooking and dragging backward. With terrifying ease, he snapped the poor bastard’s head clean off his neck. He flicked his right foot outward, nutmegging the severed head right through the beggar’s legs. Simultaneously, he spun around, his body shifting to the left at an unbelievable speed.

WHOOSH!

The beggar’s Dog-Beating Stick tore through the air, grazing past Li Ye’s shoulder and smashing heavily into empty space. The burly man attempting the sneak attack from behind also missed his punch.

The beggar was an expert. He wielded the Dog-Beating Stick with masterful fluidity. Seeing Li Ye evade, he didn’t wait for his momentum to stall; with a flick of his wrist, he immediately reversed the stick’s trajectory, sweeping it horizontally toward Li Ye’s exposed ribs.

Riding the momentum, Li Ye dropped low into a single-legged sliding tackle. His movements were so smooth he seemed possessed by a Martial Monk. His foot ruthlessly slammed into the beggar’s calf.

SNAP!

A crisp, bone-chilling crack echoed out as the beggar’s calf bent at a sickening ninety-degree angle.

THUD. Having lost his center of gravity, the beggar shrieked in agony as he crashed to the floor. He writhed back and forth, clutching his mangled leg and screaming uncontrollably.

Li Ye, meanwhile, had long since righted himself. With practiced and natural ease, he pinned the severed head beneath his foot once more. Looking left and right, he quickly processed his surroundings, effortlessly identifying several gaps he could exploit to break through the encirclement.

He thought, "Is this what it feels like to have Demon Qi enter the body? It feels incredible!"

A few dirty football tackles were quite ordinary in the realm of martial arts, but enhanced by the Demon Qi, Li Ye’s movements were as fast as lightning and as agile as a hare. The connection between a human head and its body was extremely sturdy; even a heavy blade would struggle to sever it completely. Yet, with a simple hook and drag of his foot, Li Ye had cleanly decapitated the corpse. The cut was smoother than a blade’s edge—it was simply unfathomable. The same went for the beggar’s leg. Li Ye felt he had barely exerted any force, yet the man’s calf had snapped like a dry twig.

Li Ye couldn’t help but lick his lips. While using the emblem, the Demon Qi invading his body seemed to continuously replenish his stamina and enhance his physique. Right now, he felt as though he had a limitless reservoir of strength coursing through his veins. No wonder the walls of the Demon Hunting Bureau were plastered with warning signs. The euphoria of using demonic objects was wildly addictive. If left unchecked, one would inevitably succumb to it sooner or later. It was terrifying...

Having tasted the benefits, Li Ye gained a new understanding of demonic objects. He thought to himself, "What is all this nonsense about unity, progress, perseverance, and struggle? The Demon Hunting Bureau’s interpretation of the Team Emblem is far too narrow-minded." There had to be countless ways to activate a demonic object. This football club emblem was absolutely not a purely cooperative-type item as Yang Feng had assumed. If the right method was applied, it could easily function as an offensive demonic object.

"Hu!"

The burly man who had tried to ambush Li Ye from behind seemed to be close friends with the beggar. Seeing his companion severely injured, he cried out in shock before lunging at Li Ye with bloodshot eyes. Throwing a double-fisted strike aimed directly at Li Ye’s temples, he roared, "Die, you rat!"

Simultaneously, a sword-wielding Knight lunged forward, thrusting his blade straight at Li Ye’s chest.

Overexposure to Demon Qi would corrupt a person’s mind and turn them into a puppet of the demonic object, but what did that matter if he ended up dead? Survival was the prerequisite for everything else.

Sensing the wind from the approaching fists, Li Ye reacted as if he had eyes in the back of his head. He flicked his heel backward in a donkey kick, moving second but arriving first. His heel struck the burly man dead center between the legs.

BANG!

With a muffled thud, the burly man was punted half a meter into the air before crashing heavily to the ground. Following through on the motion, Li Ye swung his leg forward in a powerful volley. The human head, now acting as a Demon Qi-enhanced football, rocketed straight toward the face of the charging Knight.

The Knight tilted his head to evade the gruesome projectile, but his vision blurred. In a split second, Li Ye closed the distance, driving a vicious elbow strike directly into his face.

BANG!

Another heavy thud echoed through the cave. The sword-wielding Knight felt as if his head had been struck by a massive sledgehammer. The agonizing, eye-watering sensation of his nose being shattered and driven back into his skull was immediately followed by a wave of intense dizziness, and he face-planted into the dirt.

In mere moments, Li Ye had taken down three men. He once again planted his foot squarely on top of the severed head and spat on the ground. As he scanned the surrounding crowd, his stance was so textbook and fluid it looked as if he had practiced stepping on that skull countless times.