Wang Chong felt a powerful urge to strangle Tie Mingzhu.
With a face that looked torn between tears and despair, Tie Mingzhu only now realized what had happened. When she first met Wang Chong, she had taken him for a lecher and naturally assumed he was the White Chrysanthemum.
Even after learning that Sun Yanqi was "the White Chrysanthemum," she still hadn't shaken the notion, merely shifting from believing Wang Chong was the White Chrysanthemum to believing he must be one of the White Chrysanthemums.
Only at this very moment did she realize she had been entirely mistaken.
Tie Mingzhu hurriedly dropped to her knees and pleaded in a low voice, "I was wrong and misunderstood Young Master Wang. I beg you to be magnanimous and forgive this foolish woman."
Wang Chong looked at this woman, who seemed to think that if he wasn't the White Chrysanthemum, he couldn't possibly be a lecher—completely ignoring that she had once been molested by "him." He was thoroughly speechless. Not wanting to point this out, he decided some questions were best kept to himself; there was no need to waste the brain cells of someone who already lacked them.
"Since it was a misunderstanding..."
"Sigh, forget it."
"In the future, you..."
"Sigh, forget that too. Telling you not to be reckless in the future is something you wouldn't be able to manage anyway."
"After all, with that brain of yours..."
Tie Mingzhu knew full well she was being mocked, yet her heart was filled only with deep shame. She hurriedly said, "In the future, I will surely mend my ways!"
Wang Chong couldn't resist retorting, "In the future will be too late!"
Tie Mingzhu didn't understand the double meaning, nor did she know why Wang Chong wore such an expression of bitter grief, but for reasons unknown to her, her pretty face suddenly flushed crimson, burning hot.
Wang Chong was a gentleman after all, so he said, "Now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up, you had better leave at once, lest word gets out and damages your reputation."
Just as Tie Mingzhu was about to reply, a long whistle suddenly rang out from beyond the garden—desolate, heroic, and filled with boundless killing intent. Wang Chong flicked his sleeves and leaped onto the roof of the tallest pavilion in the garden. He needed to ascertain who had arrived and how many there were.
Wang Chong landed on the pavilion's ridge, his body like catkins floating in the breeze, yet poised and completely steady. Gazing into the distance, he saw four figures approaching unhurriedly from different directions.
Due east was a burly, imposing man dressed in a worn leather robe. His sweeping gaze radiated tremendous majesty, and a scimitar hung at his waist.
Due south was a woman clad in dazzling, colorful finery. Her features were charming, her true age impossible to tell. Her hair hung loose over her shoulders, and she held a large golden cudgel tipped at both ends with black meteoric iron, looking exceedingly heavy.
Due west was a man in his forties wearing a white robe, mounted on a white camel. He had a high-bridged nose and deep-set eyes, with dozens of small snakes coiling and slithering over his body.
Due north was a youth with deep green eyes. When he smiled, it was bright as sunshine, and his entire demeanor was lazy and relaxed, yet an indescribable ferocity lurked beneath.
The four also spotted Wang Chong. The burly man shouted, "Are you the Wang Chong who killed Tie Mole?"
From the voice alone, Wang Chong could tell this was the man who had let out the long whistle earlier; his internal force was incomparably dense. Though surprised at how the four knew he was the one who had killed Tie Mole—after all, the Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance had claimed to the outside world that Lu Zongfeng had killed him—Wang Chong did not shirk responsibility. Instead, he asked in a deep voice, "Do you hail from the great grassland? What business brings you to seek me out?"
The burly man tapped the scimitar at his waist, his voice rolling forward like a surging tide: "Tie Mole was my junior brother. I have come to avenge him. The three of them are here only to ensure you cannot flee; they will certainly not intervene."
Wang Chong's first thought was to flee immediately. But when the burly man said he wanted a duel, a second thought instantly sprang to mind...
Well, it wasn't that he was worried about Yu Zao, Tie Mingzhu, Nan Xinlan, Wang Dong, and the others in the garden, or that he felt compelled to protect them. Rather, it was: *Are the four of them enough for me to kill?*
As a modern man and a transmigrator, Wang Chong's mind was utterly free of the thought-stamps that bound martial artists. When ordinary martial artists faced four formidable enemies, most of the thoughts that popped into their heads were: *One against four is certain defeat; take down as many as I can; use the rules of the jianghu—they must want to save face, so I'll sacrifice myself so they spare the innocent...*
Only a very few clever people would think of running away immediately!
What Wang Chong was contemplating was how to pull off an optimal play: *Tie Mole's senior brother wants to fight one-on-one. If I can finish him quickly and kill him, only three major enemies will remain. With my lightness skill, if I adopt hit-and-run tactics, and with an expert like Grand Monk Xuan Gang lying in ambush in the garden...*
Ploy after ploy and strategy after strategy surfaced in his mind, ready for him to adapt to the fight as it unfolded and pick the best course of action. His confidence surged instantly.
Wang Chong tilted his head slightly and asked, "May I know the names of the four of you?"
The burly man bellowed, "I am Nalihai, senior disciple of the Qingshan Sect!"
"The one with the cudgel is Wuzhumuqin, younger sister of Holy Mother Safina of the Eternal Life Holy Church! The one on the camel is Basar, greatest warrior of the White Camel Tribe! And the other is Red Eagle Wen Ducheng, fourth divine general of the eighteen grassland tribes!"
Wang Chong took a deep breath and called out, "Yu Zao, bring my sword."
This was the first trap he set!
With such a commotion, Yu Zao and Nan Xinlan had long been alerted. Both carrying weapons, they rushed toward Wang Chong, and even Wang Dong had found a wooden club to come protect his master.
Hearing Wang Chong ask for a sword, Yu Zao hastily sprang into the air, drew her long sword, and tossed it to her young master.
Wang Chong caught the sword and casually twirled a sword flourish. He intentionally suppressed his swordsmanship, allowing seven or eight flaws to show in the flourish. He refused to believe that Nalihai and the others, having traveled from afar and at most having heard about his martial arts from second-hand reports, could accurately judge his true strength. This flourish was the second trap.
Wang Chong unleashed about sixty percent of his Riding Clouds and Treading Wind lightness skill, strained to put on a fierce scowl, dashed toward Nalihai, and thrust his sword forward with the Wind-Cloud Hundred Styles. This was the third trap.
Nalihai had captured two brothers from the Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance alive and extracted the "truth" under torture.
Well, he had learned the "truth": Wang Chong, Lu Zongfeng, Qin Han, and others had led dozens of people in an ambush to slaughter Tie Mole.
Under torture, the two brothers from the Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance had certainly not lied. The facts were indeed "such": Wang Chong had tied down Tie Mole, Lu Zongfeng had struck the killing blow, and Qin Han and the others had backed them up. It was just that the details were hard to guarantee.
After watching only half a stance, Nalihai felt nothing but contempt for Wang Chong. He thought to himself, *Those Central Plains men were indeed boasting! It was obviously a mob besieging my junior brother, yet they insisted this fellow killed him in a duel! Could a duel possibly consist of one person clashing palms from the front while another stabs from behind with a sword?*
*"This Wang's martial arts are so wretched—how could he possibly have matched palm strikes with my second junior brother? My junior brother had trained the Diamond Prajna Palm to fifty or sixty percent mastery, packing six layers of hidden force into a single strike. This fellow could never have been his match! At such a young age, he is popular and well-connected within the Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance, became a sixth-rank official, and hails from Wudang; he must have some connection to the Heavenly Empress. That must be why Qin Han, who clearly clashed palms with my junior brother himself, was willing to yield the credit..."*
Nalihai was convinced his reasoning was clear as crystal and that he had definitely not been duped...
...Alliance Brother 1: *It was Wang Chong who clashed palms with Tie Mole! Stop the torture, I'm telling the truth! Stop the torture, fine, I'll talk—it was Qin Han...*
...Alliance Brother 2: *I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll say whatever you want me to say...*
...Wang Chong: *Thank you, brothers, for risking your lives to cover for me...*
Chapter 51