After Zhou You unleashed Martial Force, he spent another two days consolidating it.
Once he had become initially proficient in circulating Martial Force and judged the timing to be about right, he planned to report to Senior Disciple Brother Lu Qiang for his formal assessment.
However, an unexpected incident interrupted his plans.
"Brother Zhou, this is bad! Something happened at your home!"
The messenger was a child from a nearby household, clutching a candied yam in his hand, his face full of panic.
Zhou You's eyelids twitched slightly. "Don't panic. Tell me slowly."
With the martial arts school's Wooden Talisman hanging outside his door, even if gang members dared to block the entrance, they would not dare barge inside.
Otherwise, they would be slapping Jianxiong Martial Arts School across the face and forging a life-or-death enmity.
The child was named Shan Wa. His home was near the street entrance, seven or eight houses away from Zhou You's.
Whenever Zhou You walked home, he often saw Shan Wa playing by the roadside.
Shan Wa's father was miserly, stingy even with his own child, and never willing to buy him snacks.
Zhou You glanced at the candied yam in his hand. How strange—he could afford snacks today?
"A whole bunch of people are gathered outside your door, throwing stones at the door and windows. Your father and mother are so frightened they don't dare come outside."
"Hurry home! Something will happen if you don't!"
Shan Wa spoke anxiously and could not help turning his head to lick the candied yam.
Zhou You rubbed his chin. Here they came again—were they never going to stop?
Tu Laosan was practically a green-headed fly, coming to harass him again and again. It seemed he could no longer be spared.
Perfect. Zhou You had just mastered Martial Force. Even if he could not beat Tu Laosan to death, he would cripple both his legs.
"Go!"
Zhou You grabbed Shan Wa by the collar. "Lead the way."
"Waaah! I'm not going! It's too dangerous!"
Shan Wa's eyes darted twice as he flailed wildly and struggled with all his strength.
"You're going whether you want to or not. You took someone's benefits to trick me. Did you really think that candied yam was free?"
Zhou You's words frightened Shan Wa so badly that his hand shook, and the candied yam dropped straight to the ground.
How did you know?
The greatest lie in the world was that children did not know how to deceive.
Children were innocent; they had no concept of good or evil in their hearts, nor would they be bound by ethics or morality. Thus, for the tiniest bit of profit, they could commit many unimaginably wicked acts.
For example, Shan Wa, who had not eaten snacks for years, would sell out Zhou You for a single candied yam.
"Was it Tu Laosan?"
Zhou You kicked off the ground. The packed yellow earth seemed to quake three times, and in the blink of an eye, he shot five or six meters away.
The rapid leaps and violent jolting terrified Shan Wa so badly that he opened his mouth and vomited.
"Brother Zhou, don't hit me! I was forced into it! It has nothing to do with me!"
Shan Wa begged pitifully.
Zhou You pressed his lips together. "Lead the way."
The other side had lured him away from the martial arts school; they surely had a chain of follow-up moves. Shan Wa was the hook meant to trick him into voluntarily stepping into their trap.
Now, he only wanted to know how many people they had and where they had set the trap.
"It wasn't Tu Laosan. It was several grown-ups with accents from out of town."
"They gave me ten coins and told me to trick you into going home. I don't know anything else."
"I'm just a child! You're not allowed to hit me! I'll have my father report you to your father and mother!"
"Waaah, waaah, waaah!"
An out-of-town accent?
Could they be the companions of those refugees, here for revenge?
Zhou You frowned. A group of refugees driven from their homes had such loyalty and such a fierce spirit of vengeance?
No matter how he looked at it, it was suspicious.
Lu Zhigang was from Su City. He had studied at a famous martial arts school in the city and had already cultivated Martial Force.
If he had not still wanted to charge through the Blood Qi Gate, he could have found a well-paid job after leaving the school.
However, when natural disasters and famine swept through the land, Su City became a city of death.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens became refugees and fled in every direction.
The martial arts school closed. Its master took several trusted disciples to seek refuge with an old friend, abandoning Lu Zhigang and the other apprentices.
His once bright future vanished in an instant, and he became an utterly destitute refugee, drifting all the way to Gongliang City.
He had once only heard the saying, "A man is cheap when he leaves his hometown," in storytelling. Now, he had personally experienced what cheap truly meant.
Lu Zhigang had once been proud and unwilling to steal or rob, still hoping to find an honest job. But the locals rejected outsiders and did not treat them as human at all. He hit walls everywhere.
When he watched several fellow townsmen sell their wives and daughters just to survive, his thinking changed.
"Isn't it all for a full meal? So long as I can stay alive, clean or filthy, white or black, I still have to eat to live."
Thus, he accepted employment from a local gang and brought men to break an enemy's legs.
"The target is an apprentice from a local martial arts school. He hasn't cultivated Martial Force yet and isn't protected by the school."
"As long as you break his legs, these sixty taels are yours."
Sixty taels of silver could buy twenty young maidens starved down to skin and bones.
Moreover, Lu Zhigang had had enough of the exclusion and suppression from the local martial arts schools. In a fit of ruthlessness, he agreed.
Now, all he had to do was wait for the little child to bring the target into the trap they had set.
"He's here."
The moment Zhou You entered that area with Shan Wa in hand, he immediately sensed a powerful presence.
The source of that aura was unmistakably a Martial Arts Apprentice who possessed Martial Force.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He abruptly stopped from his high-speed rush, and Shan Wa, dangling from his hand, flew out under the force of inertia.
"Ow!"
Shan Wa rolled several times after hitting the ground, crying for his parents and wailing that his foot hurt, before coming to a stop at Lu Zhigang's feet.
He had been discovered?
Lu Zhigang had heard that Zhou You had not cultivated Martial Force and had initially underestimated him. But after witnessing his vigilance, he became wary.
The other man was an apprentice supported by a martial arts school, fed until full every day and nourished with secret medicines.
By contrast, Lu Zhigang had fled from Su City as a refugee. He went hungry one meal and full the next; starving for three to five days was commonplace. More than half the foundation he had built had gone to waste, though fortunately, the roots of his Martial Force remained.
To avoid long nights breeding too many dreams, he had to end this quickly.
Lu Zhigang exerted force through his toes, flicking an object up from before him and kicking it toward Zhou You's face.
He did this to catch Zhou You off guard and throw him into disorder.
The tumbling object in the air let out cries and sobs. It turned out Lu Zhigang had kicked Shan Wa, the child who had led him there.
"Getting in the way."
Zhou You's vision was blocked, and he could barely make out the other man's movements.
His feet crossed, tracing a figure-eight path. Using the Square Step, he circled to the side, swung his Imperial Strike Hand, and casually brushed Shan Wa aside.
Thud!
Shan Wa slammed into the corner of a wall. The unlucky child fainted on the spot.
"Zhou You?"
Before making his move, Lu Zhigang confirmed his target's identity. When he saw Zhou You nod, he—
Zhou You saw that the man was unfamiliar and spoke with an out-of-town accent. Frowning, he asked, "Robbery? Revenge? Or are you doing this for money?"
"I took someone's money to break both your legs."
Lu Zhigang took a deep breath. His face reddened, his nostrils flared slightly, and the temperature of his body rapidly began to rise.
This was the sign of circulating Martial Force. As expected, he was a formidable opponent.
Break his legs—this was meant to cripple him. Such vicious intent; if not Tu Laosan, then who else could it be?
Zhou You drew a deep breath and spread his feet apart, intending to use this man to test the power of the Tiger Subduing Spring Fist now that he had entered the threshold of Martial Force.
An opponent who had cultivated Martial Force was not commonly found. It was like a pillow appearing just as he grew sleepy—he had only just cultivated Martial Force when a powerful enemy came knocking.
New Trial Project (Unrated) activated: Life-and-Death Duel, Chapter One.
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