Interlude: After
~~~
Feng Zhi breathes heavily after the fight, but that is more due to exasperation than any tiredness on his part. Everything was over in thirty seconds, thirty maddening and impressively violent seconds. The state of the training room can attest to it. The ceiling was cracked open sometime after the third second, exposing both of them to the harsh light of day. The walls did not fare any better.
Truthfully, he does not think this can be called a room anymore.
“What exactly did you think this would accomplish?”
His opponent does not answer him. In a fairer world, that would be because he is unconscious. Alas, that is not the case. Though it is easier to count the bones of his that are not broken, and some of his clothes are literally burned into his skin and muscles, his eyes remain wide open. The fool seems to be having a staring contest with the sun, a practice as inane as this whole thing has been.
“Hey,” the fool says at last, “Do you think things could have gone differently?”
An impertinent question like that does not need any consideration.
“I could never lose to the likes of you!”
The fool, Huang Shing, turns to him and scoffs.