"Bang !", without even a flinch, Jim pulled the trigger.

Mingliang could feel his energy absorbed by the runes. The force of the bullet was far above his expectation, but his Xuan Wu body held strong. Lucky for him, since he trained near the hole between two worlds, he had ample energy. He used the chance to see how much it took to hold against a shot. From the amount of energy, he probably would be able to stop about 30 rounds shot from Jim's gun.

He had little knowledge of guns, so he couldn't figure out how much energy he would need to defend against other types.

While he made a note of this new experience, Jim and Anton were staring in awe, and Somad was jumping excitedly.

And Mingliang's phone rang. He picked it up and accepted the call, "Hey."

"Oh, you're already in front. Just wait there, I'll be there in a second."

"Yeah, we're inside. I'm on my way.", Mingliang threw the bullet to Somad, who deftly caught it, before walked away, leaving Anton and Jim staring at him.

A several minutes later, Mingliang brought Sari in. He carried two big plastic bags of chickens, fried fries, rice, and soda. He found Anton and Jim were still looking at the bullet. Mingliang shook his head, "Hey..., that's enough.

He placed all the food in the table then introduced Sari to them So this is Sari, Sari, this is Detective Jim and Detective Anton."

As soon as they greeted each other, Jim turned to Mingliang, "Can you show me that power once more?"

"What power?", Sari looked around and saw Jim's and Anton's expression, tensed and excited. She turned to look at Somad grinning wide.

"What have you done?", Sari turned to Mingliang, with her hand on her hips.

Mingliang exchanged a look with Somad before grinned and replied, "Just a little demonstration."

He then turned to Jim and held out his hand, "Be my guess."

This time even Jim couldn't keep his cool, he took his gun and pointed at Mingliang's hand, "Ready?"

"What are you doing?", Sari wanted to stop them, but Mingliang quickly grabbed her hand. She turned to look at their faces. There was a mix of excitement, nervousness, and anticipation, but no sign of hostility or anger.

She didn't stop them, but it was easy to see her trepidation. Her eyes kept moving between the gun, Mingliang, and Jim.

"Hey, cover your ears.", Anton reminded her.

Sari turned, she saw Anton and Somad already covering their ears. She followed their example, but her attention quickly returned to the gun and Mingliang.

Jim focused his attention on Mingliang's hand. He wondered if there was a trick to it. He couldn't think of any, but if there was, he determined to find it.

"Bang!", Jim pulled the trigger. He stared at Mingliang's hand. He could see the bullet stopped for a split of second before it fell to the floor. His eyes followed it rolled on the floor.

"Once more!", Jim frowned, he clenched his jaw and aimed once more.

"Do it.", Mingliang calmly replied.

"Bang!", Jim didn't dare to blink, afraid of miss anything. Once more, the bullet stopped and then fell to the floor.

All eyes looked at the bullet rolling on the floor. Sari watched in disbelief, her fist still clenched hard.

"Don't show off.", to release the tension in her heart, she punched Mingliang's arm.

"Hey, hey, be careful.", Mingliang worried she would get hurt, as the runes automatically activated.

"Oh, good, so you're a tough guy now, huh?", Sari pretended to be angry, but it was easy to see that she felt proud over Mingliang's new toughness.

Jim bent down and pushed the bullet around with his finger as if he wanted to make sure that it was the one he had shot before. With his finger, he could feel the heat of the bullet. He stood up and coughed, to get Mingliang's attention.

"This... is this what we're going to face six months from now on?", Jim tried to put orders on all the questions inside your head.

Mingliang was playfully roughing up Somad, who previously teased him and Sari. But Jim got his attention. Mingliang lifted his head and found Jim was looking at him with this grim expression on his face. While he, Sari and Somad were joking around, Jim and Anton couldn't keep calm, thinking they would face enemies who had no fear to a gun.

"That's what I'm afraid of.", Mingliang nodded his head, he no longer joked around.

"But why we never met something like this before? What keep you guys from using this power? How many people have power like you?", Anton flustered and intensely asked questions.

"It's what all these rituals do, isn't it?", Jim quickly grasped the situation.

"Yes, that's what I'm trying to tell you.", Mingliang nodded his head.

Jim sighed and weakly sat on the bench, "Yes. You've told me. More than once and I think you're just delusional."

Jim was losing his mind for some moments. He slowly sat on the bench, Anton sat next to him. Mingliang decided to leave them alone. He turned to Sari to tell her all she missed the last couple of days.

Sari quietly listened, she slowly nodded her head, she believed in his judgment and asked, "What are we going to do now?"

Mingliang without any hesitation replied, "We'll fight."

Somad nodded his head in spirit, "Yeah! We'll fight! Right, Sis?"

Sari smiled to the boy, "Yeah, sure you right."

Then she turned to Mingliang with a frown on her face, "Do you think I can help? I know how to fight physically, but this kind of fight?"

"I've thought about it. We have six months, and I'll teach you something you can use within six months.", Mingliang patted her shoulder.

"How about me, Teacher? Can I be ready in six months?", Somad asked hesitantly. He'd been excited about Mingliang's demonstration and high in spirit. Nut after he heard Sari's question, he was in doubt about his ability to help in the fight.

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"Yes, I've thought about you too. For now, learn the basic in the book I gave you. Once you finish with that, I have something for you.", Mingliang rubbed the boy's head.

"Do you think, that'll be enough to stop them?"

Mingliang turned and found Jim was standing behind him. He shrugged his shoulder, "If it's just the three of us, then the answer is no. But we got you too, right?"

Anton stood from the bench and walked next to Jim, "But our guns are useless against you people."

He wasn't as depressed as Jim. Instead, there was a fire in his eyes, "Mingliang, could you teach me this stuff? Would you take me as your disciple? What should I do, to make you accept me? You will give tests, right? No problem. Somad told me all about it."

Mingliang laughed when he saw his enthusiasm, "No test. I'll teach you a skill or two. I'm glad you ask."

Anton enthusiastically shouted, "Cool, you're my man!"

Somad slapped his back to get his attention. Anton turned to him and asked, "What?"

"Now you have to call me First Big Brother Somad!", the boy grinned mischievously.

Anton rolled his eyes, but then bowed playfully and called, "First Big Brother."

They joked among them, and their laughter infected the other but Jim.

Jim with a grim face put his hand on Mingliang's shoulder. He looked Mingliang straight in his eyes, "That isn't enough. Stop joking around."

His voice was deep and rough. It caught everyone's attention and set the mood to a serious and grim one, "There will be tens or maybe more people who have been practicing for years there. And what we got here?"

"There's you. Young but maybe a master.", he pointed at Mingliang.

"And what? One disciple, barely a teenager. One female fighter, presumably a ferocious one. And one over-excited fanboy.", he pointed at Somad, Sari, and Anton one after another.

"You won't be joining us too?", Mingliang winked his left eyes playfully.

Jim snorted, "You know I will and stop acting like it is just a game."

Mingliang nodded and wiped the grin out of his face, "Sorry. Yes, it is not enough with just the five of us. But we still have a good chance at it."

"You just saw me stood against few shots of your gun and you think I'm invincible against a gun, you're wrong. I'm not. Every time a bullet hit me, to defend against it, consumes my qi. By my calculation, probably I could defend against 20-30 rounds of shot. And after that, I'm just as vulnerable as you."

The knowledge slowly dawned on Jim, "Wait..., okay, good. I get it now."

The information relieved him a bit, "How about those we're going to fight against?"

Mingliang smiled reassuringly, "Most likely, they'll have different skills, techniques, and abilities, but the same principle still works. They need the energy to execute it, and you can exhaust their energy by bombards them with attacks."

Mingliang quickly added, "But..., there will be many of them. There's a good chance that some of them will be stronger than me. Many will be as strong as me. Some of their technique could easily disable normal people. They can create illusions, psychic attack, or I don't know..."

Slowly an idea was formed in Jim's mind. He stared at Mingliang and spoke to him, word by word, "We should form a special unit, and you will be the leader. Teacher or Master, I don't know how you like to call it."

Everyone watched Mingliang closely. He didn't answer right away. He hesitated and finally shook his head, "Your idea is good, but give me time to think."

Jim raised his shoulder, "What's the problem with that? You said you'll train Anton. You already have one disciple and going to teach Sari too. What the difference between teaching them and teach another group of people?"

Mingliang answered carefully, "I trust Somad and Sari. And despite I only know him for a couple of days, I believe I can trust Anton too."

"But your plan is for me to teach my inheritance to a group of people I barely know. It's different.", Mingliang shrugged his shoulder apologetically.

"I know you'll worry about what they would do with the skills you taught them. That's why you'll be the leader, the commander of this special unit. It can't guarantee there won't be any miss-conduct on their part, but you'll have control over that.", Jim quickly answered.

Mingliang still shook his head, "I don't know. I'm not rejecting your idea, I'll think about it. Can you guarantee that I'll have 100% control over the unit?"

There was a pause before Jim replied, "I'll do my best. I know some people in the upper echelon. I can't guarantee 100%, but I think I can pull it off. And if they don't agree with it, you could always reject the deal."

"I need to choose them personally too. You can send candidates, but I'll have the final decision.", Mingliang added.

"Of course, no problem.", Jim confidently nodded his head.

He quickly added, "Remember, you can't do this alone. You need help. We could try to get help from people like Wisnu, but as you can see already, they're reluctant to fight against these group of murderers. Some even decided to help. I can give you the allies you need to fight them. They'll learn from you, study from you and fight under your lead."

Mingliang still hesitated, he walked back and forth, while the other waited for his decision. Finally, he shook his head, "Give me some time to think..., I'll think about it tonight, tomorrow I'll give you my answer."

Jim didn't seem satisfied, "We can help you without your training, but think how many casualties we're going to sacrifice without proper preparation?"

Mingliang let out a long breath. He stopped and looked straight to Jim, "I know, but even if I accept your proposal, it's impossible to train a large number of people effectively."

"You got six months, how many people you think you can train effectively in six months?", Jim asked back.

Mingliang rubbed the stubble on his chin and carefully answered, "Maybe fifty... a hundred at most. They have to be dedicated and have the talent in it."

Jim shrugged his shoulder, "No problem, so we'll get two hundred maybe. Give them preliminary rounds of training, then get the top one hundred out of them."

Mingliang closed his eyes and slowly massaged his forehead. It never crossed his mind, that he would in less than a week, from a nobody, suddenly got to bear such an opportunity. It was a great opportunity but a heavy responsibility as well.

He looked around, to Sari and Somad, he could see how they were proud of him in their eyes.

He turned to Jim and saw the expectation in his eyes. Mingliang's eyes turned firm, "Tomorrow, I'll give you my answer tomorrow."

Jim saw the determination in his eyes and satisfied with that, "Okay, so... tomorrow?"

Mingliang smiled, "Yeah. Tomorrow I'll give you my answer."

Sari clapped her hands, "Okay, that's enough, enough of talking. Let's have lunch now."

Sari broke their discussion, she already unpacked and arranged the food she bought on the table.

"Yeah, that' right. My stomach already scream for food for hours now.", Anton rubbed his tummy and walked to the bench to sit and waited for the other to gather.

"I get a chicken leg, who get breast? Anyone want to swap with me?", Anton checked his box and looked around.

Somad opened his box and found he got a chicken breast. He raised his hand, "I got one here, swap with me, swap with me."

Now that they had some plan, the atmosphere became less depressing. Jim walked to join them, and Mingliang patted his shoulder, "Tomorrow. I'll give you my answer tomorrow."