"This is the Xingyi Sect's Monkey Form boxing... and this is Chicken-Step Stomping, mixed with techniques from the Baji Sect..."
Li Da fought as he advanced, his footwork rising and falling with nimble grace, shifting and weaving like a swimming dragon. He could even rattle off each style as though enumerating family treasures, though his words came at a rapid clip.
Watching from the side, Lian Youming was completely dazzled, his eyes unable to take it all in. He was both astonished by the myriad variations among the different sects' fighting styles and amazed by Li Da's unfathomable skill.
Seeing the youth staring wide-eyed and spellbound, Li Da did not forget to give him a pointer: "Don't fret over coveting all this. It's enough to recognize them at a glance. As long as you refine and master your own two genuine arts thoroughly, you won't need any other style to run wild and unhindered under the heavens."
Hearing this, Lian Youming reined in his wandering thoughts at once. He had realized it too: the more he contemplated the Toad Fishing Skill, the deeper its mysteries seemed. The same was true of the silk-reeling force. While it appeared to be merely an unusual manner of force, whether issued outward or drawn inward, it could stick or entangle, turn rigid or soft. Channeled into his hands, it not only enhanced the penetrating power of his punches into hammer strikes, but could also neutralize another person's force with his bare palms. Its practical uses were truly endless.
Knowing that biting off more than he could chew would only ruin his progress, he abandoned all stray thoughts and simply stood by as a spectator.
Some among the crowd wished to seize an opportunity to strike at Lian Youming, but seeing him not only covered in hand grenades from head to toe, but also cradling a light machine gun in his arms, their hair stood on end like startled cats.
"You shameless bastard, Li!" someone couldn't help barking in fury.
With such a rash brat lurking on the sidelines, armed to the teeth and taking aim at any moment, who wouldn't be on edge and secretly guarding against him? In this state of divided attention, how could anyone go all out? They couldn't fight to the death or determine a clear victor at all.
Lian Youming noticed their apprehension as well. Grinning broadly, he cradled the light machine gun, and whenever someone made a fierce leap or bound, he took aim from afar without firing. The opponent's face would instantly drain of color.
Li Da chuckled at the sight. Seeing that his opponents could no longer fight at their best, a look of boredom immediately washed over his face. Raising his arms, his fists rose and fell without intricate flourishes—straight in and straight out, expanding and retracting like the thrusts of a spear. Under the dim lamplight, four or five arms seemed to sprout from his sides in an instant, blurring into dense layers of fist shadows.
Smack!
One man, intimidated when Lian Youming raised his gun, had a momentary lapse in concentration and was struck squarely by Li Da's fist. The impact of the force sounded like the detonation of a firecracker; a burst of blood instantly sprayed from his arm, as if he had truly been impaled by a spear, or as if a firecracker had been stuffed into his flesh and blown apart from the inside.
With another deceptive flicker of fist shadows within the space of inches, Li Da stepped forward in a crouch, blocking fists with fists and deflecting kicks with kicks. As his moves rose and fell, the White Lotus Sect cultists simultaneously broke off their attacks and scrambled backward, their faces either pale or struck with terror.
Lian Youming widened his eyes, secretly comparing this to the methods of the Old Man Who Guards the Mountain.
The Old Man Who Guards the Mountain's punches were like heavy sledgehammers, packing the weight of a thousand jun. Back then, a single punch delivered through a man's chest had blasted a hole clean through the clothes on his back, penetrating the five internal organs with world-shaking power.
Li Da's fists, on the other hand, seemed contained within, condensing his power into a concentrated beam that assaulted his opponents' flesh, blood, and meridians with the piercing momentum of spears and halberds...
As he was pondering this, he heard Li Da clear up his confusion: "This is the method of hidden force."
Lian Youming immediately understood.
Looking back into the arena, the moment Li Da raised his fists, all the White Lotus Sect members turned pale. Driving straight forward with unstoppable momentum, his strikes lunged directly toward Gu Yutong, the black-clad Vice Sect Master of the White Lotus Sect.
Lian Youming hurriedly assisted from the side, aiming his muzzle from one foe to another.
He had already come to understand Li Da's objective on this trip.
This journey was not only for the prescription of the aged medicine, but also to capture such ringleaders.
Many of the White Lotus Sect's top experts routinely disguised their appearances, and their identities were shrouded in mystery. Bringing them to justice was an arduous task, especially with their hidden moles planted deep within various martial sects.
Therefore, Li Da had used himself as bait, combined with the map of the underground fortress, not necessarily to catch them all in one net, but at least to take down this Vice Sect Master.
Just when Lian Youming thought everything was about to be settled, a dark shadow suddenly bounded forward from the depths of the tunnel, striding like a shooting star as it lunged straight toward Li Da.
The strange man.
"Watch out!"
Shocked, Lian Youming swung his muzzle around without hesitation, preparing to fire.
However, the newcomer's movement was astonishingly fast, leaping along the walls. In the blink of an eye, he had already reached the edge of the fray. Furthermore, the space was cramped; Lian Youming feared that unleashing a burst of fire would cause bullets to ricochet in the tunnel and accidentally hit Li Da.
Yet Li Da spoke rapidly, "Don't shoot! Get outside first!"
Even as he spoke, the strange man arrived before Li Da. Standing face-to-face, without a word, both raised their fists and palms at once.
In their very first exchange, the strange man's hands proved soft as though boneless. With a single move and an encircling sweep, he absorbed Li Da's crashing punches with soft force into his palms, parrying and deflecting with neutralizing force with absolute ease.
Li Da stared at his opponent. "Taiji Cloud Hands? So during our two clashes just now, you were deliberately feigning weakness."
"If I hadn't feigned weakness, how would you have become so overconfident?"
The two had actually clashed earlier.
The previously one-sided situation shifted the moment this person intervened.
"Get outside? Do you think you can still leave?" someone sneered repeatedly, all traces of prior panic gone from their face. "This underground fortress was our White Lotus Sect's hideout to begin with. Otherwise, how do you think Xie Laosan got his hands on the underground fortress's map so easily? That old ghost thought he'd obtained a life-saving talisman, heheh..."
Looking closely at the strange man, beneath disheveled hair was a ghastly, bloodless, aged face, emaciated as dry firewood with sunken eyes, looking hardly better than a vile demon.
The two suddenly disengaged at the same time. Li Da knitted his brows and asked, "The prescription is fake?"
The black-clad woman, Gu Yutong, replied coldly, "Of course it's real. When dealing with someone like you, how would you take the bait if we didn't offer something genuine? Too bad you won't be taking it out alive."
Li Da smiled gently and said, "As long as it's real, that's fine."
Gu Yutong praised, "Truly worthy of the Junior Guardian of the State, to still be able to smile at a time like this. You only have your senior martial brother to blame for making too many enemies back then, wounding and killing countless people with his fists. Heh, delusions of breaking into the supreme realm, only to fall short at the final step, suffering a collapse of his vital qi and blood. Wanting aged medicine to prolong his life? Forget about us—just look at these sects of the martial world and tell me which of them would ever agree!"
Someone barked furiously, "Li Da, do you truly think you're the only clever man under heaven? You were laying a trap for us, unaware that we laid a trap for you as well! Today, this place will be your burial ground, and that brat will be dragged down with you!"
Lian Youming's face darkened. So that map really was bait.
Grasping a hand grenade with one hand and cradling the light machine gun with the other, he prepared to fight to the death.
Li Da said in a low voice, "Don't be reckless. There are plenty of bombs and poison gas shells left behind by the Japanese army here. If they leak, everyone on and off the mountain might suffer. Why else do you think I came alone? Trust me, get outside first."
Gu Yutong's eyes were icy cold as she gestured toward a middle-aged man. "Go slaughter that brat."
Seeing the unfavorable turn of events, Lian Youming first flashed a glance at Xiao Li behind him. Catching his meaning, the young girl lay obediently across his back. Casting another look at Li Da surrounded by enemies, Lian Youming hurried around a junction.
Murderous intent followed closely behind. Watching the figure steadily closing in, Lian Youming paused again, calmly curling his lip. "I knew you were an idiot. What, did you think this body full of grenades was just for decoration?"
He spoke of grenades, but his right hand pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Da-da-da-da...
A tongue of flame spat forth as scalding shell casings rained down like hail, clattering with a succession of crisp clinks.
"You're courting death, boy!"
The pursuers recoiled, not daring to press ahead into the gunfire, especially in such a cramped passage. They scrambled back into cover.
Lian Youming had no time to waste. Following the map in his memory, he wove through the tunnels, and before long he spotted a low iron door.
Beyond the iron door came the rushing sound of water; outside was actually a waterfall.
This was the No. 2 entrance Li Da had used to come in.
"We'll be out in a second. Head down the mountain by yourself later, and I'll go back to help him," Lian Youming comforted Xiao Li on his back.
The young girl lay motionless, her face showing not the slightest hint of panic. In remarkably quiet fashion, she simply gave an obedient, sensible hum of agreement.
Just as the exit was within arm's reach and Lian Youming bent low to slip through, a whip-like kick suddenly lashed in like a monstrous python, slamming into his chest.
Lian Youming stumbled backward. The wound on his chest that had closed up burst open again, fresh blood immediately welling out as his face turned pale.
At the entrance, a figure squeezed in, kicking the gun out of his hands and lightning-fast clamping a hand around his throat, hoisting him off the ground.
This person was none other than the rough man who had harbored ill intentions toward Xiao Li back in the wooden hut—shabbily dressed, with scruffy stubble, his eyes darting ceaselessly over Xiao Li with a thievish smirk and lecherous gaze.
"Little runt, playing the hero saving the maiden, are you? In a moment, I'll take care of her right in front of your eyes, and then I'll..."
Lian Youming had little strength left. He had spent the journey fleeing and battling the fierce tiger, already gravely wounded; now, with his throat gripped tight, he didn't even have the power to struggle.
Who could have thought that what was supposed to be a simple treasure hunt would turn into such a life-and-death ordeal?
Indeed, one should never poke one's nose into dangerous excitement; pies never fell from the sky for free.
That swindling bastard Xie Laosan!
Seeing no chance of winning, Lian Youming simply placed his hand on a hand grenade tucked behind his waist. During his flight, he had tossed most of them, leaving only this single one.
"Motherfucker, let's see which of us—huh?"
Lian Youming was about to spit out a parting curse, but bizarrely, the man stopped speaking mid-sentence, his voice cutting off abruptly. His eyes bulged wide, staring straight past Lian Youming as if he had seen something utterly terrifying.
Lian Youming had already resolved to kill, prepared to die together. Seeing his opponent distracted, how could he miss this chance? Channeling what remaining strength he had into his right hand, his eyes practically tearing at the corners, he drove a downward fist smashing viciously into the Tiantu acupoint below the man's throat.
"Fuck you!"
Feeling the grip on his throat lose most of its force, Lian Youming stabilized his body, unhooked the grenade, tossed it at the bloodshot-eyed man, and scrambled outside with Xiao Li on his back.
"You... you are... Sect..."
Clutching his throat, the man collapsed onto his buttocks, mumbling incoherently.
Lian Youming had no patience for nonsense. He scrambled outside, greeted by a waterfall cascading from above, crashing against the rocks in foaming sheets and plumes of mist.
Then, a thunderous boom erupted behind him.
When Lian Youming turned back, he saw that the entrance beneath the waterfall had caved in from the blast.
"Shit, Li Da!"
The sky remained dark, a solitary moon hanging high, though faint light was already visible on the horizon.
Standing before the waterfall, Lian Youming gazed at the collapsed entrance and the immoveable boulders, his expression grim. Why on earth did he have to toss that grenade at the very end?
It was not until the rising sun breached the horizon that Lian Youming rubbed his aching limbs and let out a wistful sigh.
"Wasn't he supposed to be the Junior Guardian of the State? Gone just like that?"
"Rest easy. I won't die even if you do."
Suddenly, a gentle, wry voice drifted into Lian Youming's ears with the morning breeze.
Looking toward the sound, he saw Li Da on the mountain trail not far away, looking as serene and innocent as ever—though slung over his shoulder was a fierce tiger.
Li Da strode forward and tossed the tiger carcass to the ground. After a subtle glance at the sleeping girl beside Lian Youming, he said in a low voice, "I brought this for you. After entering a mountain of treasures, you have to bring something back, don't you?"
Lian Youming chuckled sheepishly and pulled two large gold bars from his breast pocket. "I did take something."
Li Da let out a faint pant. "What the hell good are these? Poor for scholarship, rich for martial arts. Practicing martial arts these days costs a fortune. With what your parents earn, you'd burn through it in the time it takes to draw two breaths."
With that, he reached into his pocket and produced a bright yellow cloth pouch. "Take this."
Curious, Lian Youming opened it to look, his eyes immediately widening. Inside were pearls, each as large as a longan.
"Are these pearls?"
Li Da's face finally registered an expression—he rolled his eyes.
"These are Eastern pearls, treasures reserved for the Qing imperial family. I was in a rush just now and didn't have time to look closely, but I caught sight of a hat covered in these things, so I stripped them off... You'd better hide them well, and don't be stupid enough to hand them over to anyone."
Lian Youming asked curiously, "What about the White Lotus Sect people?"
Li Da murmured, "I killed or wounded three of them. The rest were tougher to deal with, so they retreated into the deep tomb."
Lian Youming felt a surge of excitement—so many people, yet none of them could beat Li Da alone. Still, he felt a twinge of regret: "A lot of things in there are national treasures. The White Lotus Sect won't empty the place out, will they?"
Li Da let out a long exhale. "Don't worry. I made arrangements before coming here. Station entrances and key roads below the mountain are all guarded in secret. How could I not leave a contingency? Concern breeds chaos; if an elder of my sect hadn't suffered the calamity of cultivation dispersal... Never mind, let's not speak of it. In the end, my own state of mind wasn't steady enough... Let's head down the mountain!"
With a one-handed grip on the tiger carcass, Li Da clamped his fingers around its spine, hoisting it as if it weighed nothing at all and running off.
Lian Youming woke Xiao Li and hurried after him.
They ran all the way to the foot of the mountain before arriving at a solitary little courtyard guided by the girl.
A large yellow dog was tethered in the yard, along with a few hens wandering about and pecking at grain.
"Brother Lian, goodbye!"
Xiao Li waved to Lian Youming, offering a rare smile.
She truly was breathtakingly beautiful, her skin as white as frozen jade, so translucent under the sunlight that her veins and sinews were faintly visible.
Lian Youming glanced into the courtyard and noticed there seemed to be no adults around. He cautioned her, "Avoid going up the mountain in the future. Have your parents move somewhere else."
With that, he turned and walked toward Li Da, who was waiting not far away.
"Parents? Heheh, he's so kind, just like our father... Have someone blow up all the fortress entrances. If I can't have it, no one will."
Watching the youth's receding figure, Xiao Li murmured meaningfully. The first half of her sentence still sounded frail and gentle, but in the second half her tone changed abruptly, as if she had become a completely different person—cold, harsh, and somewhat sinister.
The timid, fragile expression on the girl's face began to shift as well. Her frame seemed to grow taller, and the muscles in her cheeks twitched faintly. In a matter of minutes, her entire aura underwent an earth-shaking transformation. Though outwardly little had changed, an eerie malice brimmed between her brows.
Narrowing her fox-like eyes, she took one last look in the direction Lian Youming and Li Da had gone, then turned and headed back up the mountain.
With a single step, she glided across the ground as if shifting through space, covering three or four meters in an instant...
Chapter 48