While Kang Min was straining with all her might to recall whether she had ever slept with a monk, a voice suddenly rang out at the edge of the crowd.
"Who's spouting this nonsense? What a load of crap!"
Everyone looked toward the voice and saw a grimy old man in tattered clothes come walking over. A sparse wisp of goatee hung beneath his chin, and there was something sleazy in his looks. At first glance, one might have taken him for an elder of the Beggar Gang.
Before long, someone in the crowd recognized him and said in a low voice, "Isn't this Zhao Qiansun, one of the Three Uniques of Taihang from years ago? How has he fallen to such a state?"
Bao Butong held his head high, looked at Zhao Qiansun with disdain, and stroked his beard. "Not so, not so! When someone falsely accused our young master of murder, you all took it for truth. How is it that now, when someone says the Shaolin abbot killed a man, it counts as crap?
"The way I see it, you have no wish at all to find out who the real killer is. Clearly you're the ones spewing crap everywhere!"
Zhao Qiansun flew into a rage at once. "Impudent little junior! Today I, Jiang Shen Han Yang, will teach you a lesson on your elders' behalf!"
With that, he reached Bao Butong in a single stride.
Bao Butong's eyes turned sharp, and he shot a grappling hand toward the man's shoulder. But before he could touch Zhao Qiansun's shoulder, Zhao Qiansun himself pitched to the ground, kicked off with his right foot, and drove his head toward Bao Butong's lower abdomen.
Bao Butong turned aside and nimbly dodged the head. Zhao Qiansun suddenly shot between his legs, hooked a foot up backward, and kicked toward the back of his head.
The old man's topsy-turvy moves threw Bao Butong into a frantic muddle. Once he steadied his stance, he found the old man's internal skill formidable indeed, and realized he seemed to be no match.
Seeing him at a disadvantage, Wang Yuyan hurriedly called out a warning. "Third Brother Bao, he's using the Taihang Sect's Sinew-Splitting Bone-Shifting Hand. He's only reversed the moves of the hands and feet.
"The move he's using now is Valiant Man Severs His Wrist. It ought to seize your wrist, but he's changed it to seize your ankle. Use Twin Dragons Snatch the Pearls, and go for his eyes!"
Bao Butong launched Twin Dragons Snatch the Pearls. Zhao Qiansun's move was broken. In his hasty dodge his foot slipped, and he instantly lay flat on the ground. As if he had completely lost his composure, his techniques no longer had their earlier sharpness. He only flailed his hands and feet in a disorderly defense.
Wang Yuyan frowned. "What's going on? How did his martial arts fall off so badly all at once?"
Qin Zheng spoke up. "His nerve broke, that's all. Some people only know how to fight with the wind at their backs. The moment they fall behind, they panic, and the more they fight, the worse they get."
Wang Yuyan suddenly understood. "So that's how it is... Ah! You big villain, how did you end up on our side!"
Halfway through, she abruptly realized that Qin Zheng had come up beside her at some moment she had not noticed. She screamed in fright and hurriedly hid behind Deng Baichuan and the others.
Qin Zheng shot her a displeased look. "This great hero is upright through and through. How did I become a villain? Forget it. A great man should be magnanimous. I won't bicker with you.
"I'm planning to open a coal mine in Africa, and I'm just short of a talent like you. Any interest in going there to work?"
Deng Baichuan's whole body drew taut, and he shouted sternly, "With me, Deng Baichuan, here, don't you dare harm our young lady!"
Duan Yu gave a slight start, frowned, and muttered, "Have the people of their family already accepted that the boy of their house has turned into a girl?"
Qin Zheng looked at Duan Yu in astonishment, and his expression turned exceedingly strange.
This kid still thought Fairy Sister was a eunuch? Was the aftereffect of that Sunflower Manual of mine really this strong...
At the same time, Qiao Feng suddenly struck. He leapt onto the open ground before the two who were fighting.
One Crane-Controlling Dragon-Capturing Hand, one man in each hand, and he instantly sucked Bao Butong and Zhao Qiansun in close, seized them by the collars, and lifted them up.
"Our Beggar Gang has important matters to discuss today. If the two of you want to fight, feel free to go somewhere else and continue!"
With that he gave a hard fling, hurled the two of them far away, and slammed them onto the ground.
"Ah!"
Wang Yuyan came to Bao Butong's side and said apologetically, "Third Brother Bao, his martial arts are too strong. There was no sign at all before he struck, and I couldn't read it. I'm truly sorry."
Bao Butong coughed twice, caught his breath, and said with a face full of shame, "Don't blame yourself, Young Lady. My skill was no match for his. I couldn't even take a single move of his.
"Pity the young master isn't here to avenge me. If the young master were here, he would surely take him within thirty to fifty moves!"
Qin Zheng asked, looking utterly baffled, "Are you serious? If Murong Fu can last fifty moves under Qiao Feng, I'll twist my head off and let you kick it for a ball!"
"You..."
Bao Butong still wanted to argue, but Deng Baichuan caught hold of him and said in a low voice, "We've already angered Qiao Feng. Don't go making another powerful enemy."
Duan Yu asked from beside them, "Hero Qin, doesn't the jianghu rank Young Master Murong alongside Big Brother? Is the gap between them really this great?"
Qin Zheng said with certainty, "In all the jianghu, count every last one and there are only six people who can beat Qiao Feng, and that includes his parents and his second uncle. Murong Fu is absolutely not among them."
Duan Yu was left utterly speechless.
Is that any way to count? I asked about the masters of the jianghu. What's the idea of counting Big Brother's parents in there!
Wang Yuyan went on, her brows faintly drawn. "Who are the other three?"
The pressure Qiao Feng brought to bear on her was simply too great. In her heart she thoroughly agreed with what Qin Zheng had said, and even felt he had already left her cousin enough face.
Judging by the skill Qiao Feng had just displayed, if it came to a fight to the death, her cousin absolutely would not last twenty moves...
That was why she wanted to get this clear, lest her cousin later provoke someone he could not afford to offend while traveling the jianghu.
Qin Zheng glanced at her, a little surprised. "There is a secluded old monk at Shaolin Temple, and his strength is unfathomable. If he struck with his full power, Qiao Feng would have almost no chance of victory.
"Your grandmother, Li Qiushui, and her senior martial sister, Tianshan Tonglao, both far surpass Qiao Feng in internal energy, and their fighting experience is abundant as well.
"In all the world, the only ones who can defeat Qiao Feng in martial arts should be the four of us."
Wang Yuyan said in shock, "My grandmother is a master of the martial world too?"
Qin Zheng nodded. "Your grandmother is a Western Xia grand consort. The Western Xia First Rank Hall was founded by her own hand."
Wang Yuyan pressed him. "Then whose martial arts are higher, yours or my grandmother's?"
Qin Zheng shook his head and said with a trace of rue, "Hard to say. In internal energy I am certainly no match for her. But if we truly fought, cultivation methods and techniques would all have to be counted in, and then the variables would be far too many.
"With the flow, a mortal; against it, an immortal. All of it lies in reversal upon reversal. The Xiaoyao Sect's method of reverse circulation of true qi has, in truth, already touched the threshold of immortal cultivation. If she can break through the three barriers, she will have a chance of defeating me."
As he spoke, he drew out a gilded invitation and placed it in Wang Yuyan's hand.
"If you truly want to know, you can go to Leigu Mountain on the fifteenth of the eighth month next year. Your grandmother and I will both be there. I'll be the one holding the challenge platform. In all likelihood, she will step up to challenge me."
Wang Yuyan took the gilded invitation and glanced at it. Her big, innocent eyes instantly went blank.
"My grandmother is going to a bride-seeking martial contest? She, a Western Xia grand consort, no less, is actually going to take part in a bride-seeking martial contest in the jianghu?"
Chapter 20