Two on Two?

Fan Sheng scoffed. "Ambushing me for no reason, and now you babble this nonsense!" With that, he brought his axe down against a wooden pillar. "Get down here and die!" The pillar snapped at the impact, as brittle as straw under his strike. This brute possessed an unnatural strength surpassing even Meng Shan's, and his martial skill and imposing bearing were far greater still. Where on earth had one—no, two such monsters popped up from? And why were they staying in the curse master's room? He Lingchuan let out a sigh. "Are you reinforcements hired by Zhongsun Mou, or are you in league with Cen Boqing?" With all the commotion they were making, the people in the inn weren't deaf or blind. From the errand boys to the lodging guests, heads poked out one after another, only to flee in terror at the sight. Only the innkeeper remained standing by the doorway, grimacing as he bowed repeatedly with clasped hands toward the two men and the bear. "Please, sirs, have mercy! Spare my humble livelihood!" Fan Sheng's answer was another swing of his axe, cleaving through a second pillar. With both pillars severed, the wooden beam could no longer hold and crashed down with a deafening roar. He Lingchuan was remarkably agile; the moment Fan Sheng brandished his axe, he had already slipped back out through the hole in the roof. His target was the very room Fan Sheng had charged out of. The wall had already been smashed open with a massive hole by the colossal bear, allowing He Lingchuan to step inside in a single stride. He produced his mirror and shone it all around. "Find clues, quick!" The room was dim without a single lamp lit, illuminated solely by the ambient light from outside. Apart from the bed, the room held only a square table and two round stools. The tabletop was completely bare, save for a few scattered fragments. Yet such conditions naturally posed no challenge to the soul-snatching mirror. "There are two drops of blood on the chair," the mirror declared as soon as its beam swept over it. "There was some on the table too, but someone wiped it away—hey, not that one, the chair opposite!" "Couldn't you be clearer from the start?!" He Lingchuan snapped back. Just as the words left his mouth, he caught movement in the corner of his eye. Glancing over, he saw Fan Sheng leaping up as well. He Lingchuan had no choice but to snap the chair in two with a sharp crack and toss it into his storage ring. Right at that moment, flames abruptly whooshed up beneath his feet and from all four corners of the room. The fire burned an eerie dark purple, spreading with terrifying speed. It ignited anything it touched, as though doused in an accelerant. In merely two breaths, the entire room was engulfed in roaring flames. Goddammit, he had fallen right into an ambush after all! He Lingchuan cursed under his breath. Just as he turned to make his escape, the mirror shouted again, "And those fragments! Don't leave them behind!" "Can you fucking say everything all at once?!" He grabbed a random leather pouch—the leftover wrapping from the roast chicken he had bought last time—and swept his arm across the tabletop, shoveling all the shattered wood fragments into it. Taking that single extra moment cost him. Fan Sheng arrived just as the fire flared inside, a blast of purple flame erupting in every direction. Sensing the vicious toxicity of the flames, Fan Sheng was unwilling to clash with them head-on. He backed off two steps, only to see He Lingchuan's silhouette darting through the fire without the slightest sign of howling or thrashing in agony. His brow furrowed. He Lingchuan stuffed the leather pouch into his storage ring and burst out from the other side of the room. Fan Sheng pursued like a shadow. While his footwork was not as nimble as He Lingchuan's, his raw speed was undeniably swift. Hurling his left-hand axe, he sent it spinning through the air straight toward the back of He Lingchuan's neck. To the onlookers, it looked like nothing more than a blur. That flying axe had claimed countless heads in its time. Without even looking back, He Lingchuan flung an object behind him. A crisp clang rang out as it struck the axe. The axe was knocked aside, spinning through a loop before returning to its master's grasp. Only then did Fan Sheng see clearly that the object deflecting his axe was a heart-protecting mirror. It wheeled around in midair, reflecting several beams of dazzling white light straight into his eyes. He hastily raised an arm to shield his vision. Right at that instant, a tawny shadow lunged from the ground, followed by an earth-shaking tiger roar that struck terror into the soul. Jiao Yu had arrived. Unable to turn easily in midair, Fan Sheng simply swung his axe straight toward the tiger's skull. Yet Jiao Yu's lunge was merely a feint; its hind legs had never left the ground. Twisting its body, it sprang aside and unleashed another furious roar: "The Household General of Baishan is here! State your name, intruder!" Simultaneously, three concealed weapons flew in from the flank, each laced with purple flame. Since this fire could not be smothered, Fan Sheng had no wish to touch it. He raised his axe to parry them away. A flurry of blade shadows flickered before his eyes. Seizing the opening, He Lingchuan executed a leaping strike, Fusheng chopping down toward his head. At last, the initiative was his. With a wave of his left hand, the heart-protecting mirror flew back into his grasp. While his blade astral energy was not as dense and solid as his opponent's, it was now tainted with the purple flame, granting it an added surge of power. He unleashed seven successive killing strikes, filling the air with crisscrossing blade energy and dancing firelight. Fan Sheng blocked three blows. Just as a blade seemed certain to land on him, he expanded his chest and drew in his abdomen, inhaling deeply before blasting the breath outward. His entire body shot backward a full zhang, fast as a batted baseball. What the hell was that? He Lingchuan was momentarily stunned. Toad Kungfu? Now the tables had turned, becoming a two-on-one assault against Fan Sheng by man and tiger. The fierce tiger Jiao Yu even found a moment to ask He Lingchuan, "Why didn't you call me when you went out?" He Lingchuan had vaulted out the inn window earlier. The wooden frame had creaked, ringing out distinctly in the quiet night. Yet this kid had run so absurdly fast, as if fleeing for his life, leaping high and darting low to the point where even the tiger had struggled to catch up. Suddenly, a deafening crash echoed as the inn's front entrance was smashed open. The colossal bear Fan Bao came charging through with a thunderous roar. Ganging up two on one against his brother? Unacceptable! Back to a two on two? He Lingchuan sneered internally. Dream on. The moment the giant bear's silhouette burst through the doorway, He Lingchuan tossed something toward the entrance. It was barely the size of a palm, completely inconspicuous amidst the shower of falling embers from the second floor. Yet the instant it struck the ground, it expanded into a gold-armored bronze automaton over a zhang tall! The door planks knocked flying by the giant bear happened to land right by its feet. Or rather, the gold-armored bronze automaton materialized right beside the door planks. Following He Lingchuan's command, it reached down with one hand, grabbed the two overlapping door planks from the ground, and assumed a golfing stance! Whether the form was proper or not, He Lingchuan had no idea; he had never had the chance to learn before. But the results were undeniable. The thick door planks were crafted from aged zelkova wood, having withstood twenty years of wind and rain here while retaining their solid quality. Swung by the gold-armored bronze automaton, the planks struck squarely against the giant bear's fleshy rump. A resonant thwack rang out, heard with absolute clarity by every spectator around. The monstrous beast weighing well over two thousand jin was batted away like a rolling gourd, tumbling head over heels and crashing beneath the burning room. That section was already charred brittle; subjected to such an impact, it collapsed entirely from top to bottom. The two door planks in the bronze automaton's hands snapped simultaneously, having fulfilled their purpose in this life. "Fan Bao!" Fan Sheng was taken aback. A roar from the bear answered him. This time, the ferocious bear charged out even faster, because its entire body had caught fire. That shocking bludgeon seemed to have done less harm than the purple flames. The fire could not be smothered, and the giant bear's desperate rolling on the ground had proven utterly useless. He Lingchuan, by contrast, had moved freely through the fire earlier as if nothing were amiss; the purple flames seemed entirely uninterested in him. One look told Fan Sheng that this brat possessed a fire-warding magic artifact, and a remarkably high-grade one at that. He Lingchuan would never let such a prime opportunity slip by, rushing forward with a flurry of slashes. The fierce tiger coordinated from the flank. Fan Sheng was truly formidable. Fighting one against two while fretting over the bear's injuries, he did not yield an inch of ground, even finding breath to call out to his companion: "Fan Bao, over here!" After rolling twice and finding the flames impossible to extinguish, the giant bear charged straight toward Fan Sheng. The gold-armored bronze automaton moved instantly to intercept. Fighting Fan Sheng demanded He Lingchuan's absolute concentration, where not a single mistake could be afforded; on the other hand, he still had to divide his attention to control the bronze automaton and block the bear's advance. He had grown accustomed to fighting this way in the past, yet today it proved exceptionally grueling. Dealing with Fan Sheng was far more dangerous and mentally taxing. The man was ruthlessly ferocious, and the slowing effect of the ice crystals stirred up by his whirlwind axes was infuriatingly troublesome. He Lingchuan's distraction finally caught up with him, and a kick from Fan Sheng landed square in his abdomen, sending him flying a zhang away. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of He Lingchuan's mouth. The gold-armored bronze automaton's movements instantly showed a lapse. Spotting the opening, the bear skirted around the bronze automaton and pounced toward Fan Sheng's side. The bronze automaton rushed back at once. Recognizing that Fan Sheng intended to help the bear extinguish the flames, He Lingchuan immediately brought every technique he had to bear, tangling with him relentlessly. Unable to free a hand and hearing the bear's agonizing roars, Fan Sheng was consumed by killing intent. Everything before had merely been a warm-up; he had yet to unleash his lethal techniques. This brat was asking for it! A brilliant white light flared from Fan Sheng's body, his pupils tinged with a faint blue. Bringing his twin axes together, he barked, "Bind!" As if answering an imperial decree, the swirling ice crystals rushed fiercely toward He Lingchuan riding the gust of wind. The moment they collided with one another, they fused instantly; what had begun as ordinary snowflake-sized crystals congealed into massive blocks of solid ice upon converging! Formed out of thin air, icy manacles suddenly locked around He Lingchuan's hands and legs. Caught in high-speed motion, his momentum was instantly disrupted, sending him tumbling forward out of control. How could Fan Sheng let such an opportunity slip? Driving forward with his axe, he moved to take the head. The strike came as swift as lightning. Jiao Yu was horrified, but moving to mount an emergency rescue was already too late. The flashing axe blade, glinting with cold light, finally swept across He Lingchuan's neck. The onlookers around the inn cried out in shock. Several women even screamed and turned their heads, unable to bear the sight of He Lingchuan's head rolling to the ground. Yet Fan Sheng inwardly cursed. The strike felt feather-light, entirely devoid of the solid sensation of cutting into flesh and bone, feeling instead as though it had merely sliced through empty air. Something was wrong. Behind him, He Lingchuan's figure suddenly appeared in the palm of the gold-armored bronze automaton. With an expression dark as stagnant water, the youth kicked off the automaton's arm and threw himself with all his might toward the back of Fan Sheng's head. It was a brief, blindingly fast Swallow Strike. His opponent was simply too strong. He had even resorted to his trump card, Sacrifice the Plum to Preserve the Peach, just to secure this hard-won chance. He had to ensure this single strike succeeded! The blade flashed like lightning; this time, it was his turn to sever Fan Sheng's neck. At the hairsbreadth moment, a flaming black shape suddenly lunged behind Fan Sheng. With an accelerating charge, the giant bear wedged itself between the two of them, while a layer of bright yellow armor manifested across its body. This was armor forged from earth essence combined with the bear's innate talent, harder than refined gold and able to be deployed or retracted at will. Its timing was impeccably precise, turning its own body into a shield to take the blow for Fan Sheng. The crowd heard a crisp snap, like a hammer cracking open a walnut. Where Fusheng passed, the armor shattered and flesh parted, sending a spray of blood droplets flying. With an agonized roar, the giant bear jostled Fan Sheng into a stagger. Ignoring its wound, it twisted around and swung its other paw—broader than a winnowing basket—in a savage swipe at He Lingchuan. Upon it were claws over four inches long, gleaming with a faint crimson light, capable of disemboweling anyone they struck. He Lingchuan had no time to retract his blade. Raising his left wrist, he barely managed to interpose the mirror shield before his eyes. With a booming crash, he was blasted over two zhang away, crashing into the burning inn.