Chapter 43: Grandmaster Tian Zhi
“I-I am Lei... Lei Feng.”
Lei Feng's voice quivered as the words stumbled past his lips. His throat was dry. Each syllable scraped like gravel against flesh. The name he had uttered so many times before now seemed foreign under this man’s gaze—gaze so sharp, so profound, it felt as if it had peeled away his skin and looked directly at his soul.
The man before him gave a quiet chuckle, a ghost of amusement tracing his features. His voice, rich and oddly melodic, followed.
“Lei Feng, huh?” he mused. “Lei means lightning, and Feng… means vanguard. A powerful name.”
That smile... Lei Feng had seen many smiles before—smug ones, cruel ones, even genuine ones. But this was different.
It was the kind of smile a mountain might give to a pebble—timeless, ancient, and impossibly vast.