Chance and Inevitability
Of the three battles, Murong Qing finished the fastest, but Si Ming's battle was also nearing its end.
With a flurry of chaotic, unorthodox punches, he utterly routed his opponent's Nine Heavens Stirring Thunder Fist, making it look like he was "pounding your chest with his little fists." The shark-skinned giant, who hadn't even had a chance to give his name, was coughing up blood.
"Your backhand is weak! Your forehand is poor! Your footwork is sloppy! Your reactions are slow! Not a single movement is decent! You think you can learn blind massage? Keep dreaming!"
A perfectly executed Shoryuken struck the shark-skinned giant squarely in the chin, causing him to cough up blood and loosen his jaw, knocking out teeth one by one.
"Eat my Sunflower Triple Strike!"
Si Ming delivered a powerful upward elbow strike with his right hand, hitting his opponent squarely on the left cheek and causing blood to splatter from the nose. He then switched to an upward elbow strike with his left hand, hitting his opponent squarely on the right cheek. Finally, he leaped forward with both knees raised, then pressed his hands down, launching elbow strikes from all four limbs simultaneously, striking his opponent's body.
This three-hit combo was full of openings, especially the last strike, which left the opponent wide open. Even someone who had just started learning martial arts would know where the weakness was, but the sharkskin giant was completely powerless to fight back. He obediently took all the attacks, and his body flew out like a sandbag that had been punctured, crashing onto the edge of the deck. Half of his body hung off the hull, and he lay there motionless, his fate unknown.
The leader of the Tiger and Wolf Death School watched with twitching eyelids. Although the girl's Swordsmanship was superb, after a fight, he could understand her situation and figure out her details. But what exactly was this kid all about?
Despite his mediocre Internal Cultivation and chaotic moves, which were essentially just wild fighting, he managed to defeat his most trusted lieutenant so thoroughly that he was completely powerless to fight back. And it wasn't just a victory in the ordinary sense, but a complete and utter crushing defeat!
Just how tough is his body?
Even an iron man would be shattered by enduring the ultimate move of the Nine Heavens Stirring Thunder Fist, yet he remained completely unharmed. Isn't the most important thing in practicing martial arts the slow and steady process? Even if martial arts skills can be learned quickly, this kind of ability to temper the body is the least likely to be learned quickly.
The leader felt the same way as Jiao Wood Jiao at that moment, wanting to yell, "What did you eat to grow up like this?!"
If the leader had previously harbored even a slight thought of breaking off relations and engaging in mass killings, he had now completely abandoned that idea.
Demanding the High Antiquity artifact from Yaozu Jewelry Store was merely a way to save face for their organization. Moreover, the plan was devised only with absolute confidence. It wasn't that the Tiger and Wolf Death School had discovered any magical effects from this High Antiquity artifact; it might just be an ordinary antique. Losing so many of their men for it would be completely unwise.
Faced with the choice between face and profit, the leader felt that profit was more practical. The strength shown by his opponent alone was enough to wipe out half of his men, not to mention that boy whose strength he couldn't fathom. It was better not to put all his chips on the line, even if he won, there wouldn't be much benefit.
With two out of three rounds, continuing the fight was pointless. Just as the leader was about to order his men to stop, the light on the final battlefield suddenly dimmed, and darkness expanded.
"Demon Blade, Moon Eclipse!"
With his uncanny sword techniques and unpredictable sword paths, He Qichang his two companions both victorious, and unwilling to be outdone, used a sword technique he had just mastered, one that he couldn't even guarantee a 50% success rate with.
The silent, stealthy, and ghostly blade energy darted through the shadows, ignoring all defenses and directly annihilating souls.
He Qichang's opponent's face stiffened, and he abruptly stopped fighting. A moment later, he fell straight down and stopped breathing.
"You!"
The leader clenched his fists, a surge of urge to recklessly order a massacre welling up inside him, but he quickly suppressed it with reason.
"Swords have no eyes; you've brought this upon yourselves. Don't blame us for being ruthless."
Si Ming deliberately brought up what the leader had said before, intentionally mocking and provoking him. His attitude was almost like urging the other party to quickly give the order to turn against him.
The leader's facial muscles twitched, appearing extremely stiff; it was clear he was suppressing his inner impulses with great willpower.
"As I said, Tiger and Wolf Death School are very committed to keeping their promises. Life and death are preordained, wealth and honor are determined by fate. The three of them died because they lacked the ability, and they have no one to blame but themselves... But you three must remember this: don't think this is the end of the matter. There will be plenty of opportunities to meet again in the future!"
After saying that, he made a gesture, and the members of the Tiger and Wolf Death School immediately carried the three defeated men on their backs and retreated to their own boat.
Si Ming snorted, "At the end, you still couldn't resist throwing out some threats like lackeys. You guys are really pathetic."
Chapter 166 Chance and Inevitability
"What exactly is this High Antiquity artifact?"
Inside the luxurious cabin, Si Ming played with the white six-sided crystal and asked curiously.
"I don't know either. All I know is that this artifact comes from a very ancient era. Even the appraisers in the company couldn't determine its exact age. Later, it was sent to a scientific research institute, where they vaguely deduced that it was probably from 600 million years ago."
"The Phantom Thief Girl, or rather Zu Jiangchun, explained."
Her name was somewhat unusual, simply because her father loved poetry and songs, so he used "Dian Jiang Chun" (点绛唇), a phrase from a classical Chinese poetry form, as her name.
Murong Qing in surprise, "600 million years ago! Isn't that the Proterozoic Eon? Even higher life forms were just beginning to emerge then! I remember the textbook mentioned that the Proterozoic Eon lasted from 2.5 billion years ago to 600 million years ago, a crucial period for the formation of minerals. The last part of it, from 800 million years ago to 600 million years ago, is also known as the Sinian Period. It was only in the Phanerozoic Eon that a large number of higher life forms appeared."
Everyone stared at the smooth, white hexahedron, speechless. The object was clearly man-made, not naturally formed. But if they accepted this, wouldn't it mean that advanced life forms with certain technological capabilities existed 600 million years ago?
Furthermore, how was this thing preserved?
Over 600 million years, even a stone would weather into sand.
Si Ming recalled the many lost civilizations on Earth that were described with great fanfare despite being based on mere rumors, and pondered, "In such a distant era, it wouldn't be surprising if a vanished intelligent civilization existed. They can't possibly come back to life anyway; whether they existed or not, they're just a historical term. By the way, didn't you take it to the Academy of Sciences to analyze its chemical composition?"
"Currently, all we know is that it's a protein polymer. As for its specific structure and composition, that would require a lot of time to determine, so we're too lazy to have it analyzed. Anyway, knowing it wouldn't make much difference."
Zu Jiangchun twirled a strand of hair with her finger and said, "Those of us in the antique and cultural relic business have always advocated 'not seeking thorough understanding.' Knowing which era and which famous person owned this item is enough to raise its value. As for what elements it is actually composed of, it is completely irrelevant. How much difference is there in the chemical composition between a porcelain bowl from three hundred years ago and a porcelain bowl from today? But the former is worth a hundred thousand of the latter."
The collector's archenemy, the forger, is the one who most wants to know the composition of something.
Si Ming joked, "Why don't you hand these cultural relics over to the state? What are you doing bringing them out here?"
"The National Museum has so many things that archaeologists can't even finish exploring them all, so one more won't make a difference. Besides, from the Liu School's perspective, private ownership accelerates the circulation of treasures compared to state ownership. After all, private bankruptcy is much easier than state bankruptcy; you never know when a family might be ruined. Plus, someone happened to want to buy it, and the price they offered was quite reasonable, so we naturally made the move."
Murong Qing asked, "Is the person who bought it also on Thousand Leaves Island?"
She and Si Ming exchanged a glance, feeling that this was probably not a coincidence. Behind every seemingly accidental event lies an inevitability, a conclusion they had drawn after their adventure.
"Of course, why would I need to take this ship if the buyer wasn't on the island?" Zu Jiangchun suddenly sighed. "This is the first time I've led such a large transaction independently, and I didn't expect to run into trouble halfway there. I almost lost the goods, and I'll inevitably be criticized by several elders when I get back."
Si Ming suddenly remembered Xiao Xuan's experience, and then recalled the internal strife in the Yuezheng Lineage. He stroked his chin and said, "For example, I mean, for example, is it possible that someone from your Lineage secretly hired 'Tiger and Wolf Death School' to ambush and kill you on the way?"
He Qichang said, "But didn't the leader say that they wanted to take back what they had stolen? If that was a lie, they would have been exposed on the spot."
Si Ming held up two fingers and said, "First, the robbers' words are not credible. The Tiger and Wolf Death School would actively keep the client's identity confidential; I've seen that before. Second, they may only be telling half the truth. While it's impossible to fabricate a lie about the theft, it's debatable whether their actions were motivated by a desire to save face."