Mingde, Part Two

Wei He jolted in alarm and, by reflex, slashed backward with his blade.

The blade missed and plunged into the tree trunk with a puff, wedged fast and unable to move.

Wei He decisively let go, then swung a Huishan Fist hook toward the man behind him's temple.

"Your fist technique is mediocre, and the one practicing it is even worse." The man sneered. His right foot lightly tapped the ground, then shot forward like a venomous snake.

As he moved, the blood and qi throughout his body surged. His breathing, heartbeat, and the movement of air in his lungs were all far louder than Wei He's.

Clearly, this man's blood and qi cultivation was above Wei He's.

That kick came silently, viciously aimed straight at Wei He's vital spot below the belt.

Though he had moved later, he had seized the initiative instead, faster and more powerful.

If that kick landed, Wei He would surely be left without descendants.

Puff!

In that instant, Wei He's clenched fist abruptly opened, flinging a handful of white ash straight into the man's face.

The man had not expected Wei He to be so underhanded. This time, the ash struck his eyes dead-on. They burned with searing pain.

Yet the man's resolve was firm. His right leg did not pause in the slightest, continuing to stab forward.

He clearly intended to perish together with Wei He.

But with his eyes blinded, he could not adjust his move. Wei He leaned sharply backward and narrowly dodged the thrust, nearly losing his descendants after all.

"You despicable bastard! If you have any guts, fight me one-on-one!" the man cursed furiously.

His right leg swept and kicked in a chain of attacks, striking the surrounding trees again and again with muffled bangs.

Wei He retreated several steps, took out all the remaining lime powder from his waist pouch, and viciously scattered it toward the man's head from afar.

But the sound he made while throwing it gave him away, and his opponent closed in with a sweeping kick.

Whoosh.

The shadow of a leg lashed toward his right arm. Behind him stood a great tree that would have taken one person to encircle. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Wei He calmed his mind and gathered his blood and qi. Drawing in his right arm, he sent a straight Huishan Fist directly to meet it.

Bang.

Fist and leg collided.

Wei He flipped sideways and rolled five or six times across the ground. He quickly scrambled up, clutching his hand.

The point where his fist had struck the other man's leg was swollen and aching. The bones were fine, but the flesh was likely bruised.

The man showed no reaction at all and continued pursuing him by following the sounds.

Another barrage of axe-like sweeping kicks came crashing down.

Wei He circulated his Huishan Fist, steadied himself, muffled his movements, and retreated.

At times, the man caught up with him, and they exchanged a few blows. The man had been explosively exerting himself for quite a while, and with his eyes injured, he could no longer bring much strength to bear.

He could only use sixty or seventy percent of his power.

Wei He, meanwhile, remained cautious. Taking advantage of the other man's blindness, he occasionally used the chopping blade in his hand like a fist to clash against him and wound him.

After this repeated more than a dozen times, the man finally began to run out of strength. His breathing grew increasingly ragged, his heartbeat accelerated, and sweat seeped profusely from his body, soaking his clothes.

Only then did Wei He begin pressing forward step by step, forcing the man to maintain his previous offensive.

Whenever the man showed even the slightest sign of easing off, Wei He immediately advanced and attacked with the Huishan Fist.

The Huishan Fist had no particular advantage in exchanging and countering moves, but its explosive force had its own strengths.

This fist technique did not throw punches lightly. Once a full sequence erupted, it consumed a great deal of strength. Therefore, Wei He would strike once, then rest for a while.

Keeping his opponent hanging like this, Wei He cautiously maintained a distance that was neither too near nor too far.

He knew well that he had merely taken advantage of striking first. The other man had not been mentally prepared for him, which was why he had succeeded.

But the same trick would not work a second time.

So.

A fierce glint flashed through his eyes as he led the man deeper into the woods.

Before they knew it, the two reached a slope. By then, the man was panting like an ox, drenched in sweat from head to toe.

He too realized that things were going badly. If this continued, he would surely die. Thus, the thought of retreat arose in him.

After all, ninety percent of his strength had already been spent. His heart pounded like a drum, nearly ready to burst. With his eyes still blinded by the ash and wracked by searing pain, he even suspected that they had been ruined for good.

Burdened by all these fears and worries, the man quietly eased his strength and prepared to withdraw.

Just then, Wei He lunged forward, driving a straight punch from the Huishan Fist directly at the man's chest.

Bang.

Hearing the sound, the man kicked upward with his right leg, striking the fist squarely.

Under normal circumstances, that kick would have been enough to break the arm of this kid who had only just entered the blood and qi realm.

But at this moment, his strength had weakened to the extreme. He could only barely knock the punch aside.

"Who exactly are you!? Why did you ambush me!?" he demanded loudly.

Wei He said nothing, unleashing a fierce barrage of Huishan Fist attacks.

This was precisely the time for him to temper himself in real combat. Though this man's stamina had declined, his actual combat experience was indeed rich.

Even in such a dire disadvantage, he could still keep finding a thread of life amid the gaps and flaws in Wei He's moves.

Sometimes Wei He put too much force into a strike, leaving an opening.

Sometimes he struck too late and failed to link up with his previous combination.

At other times, his aim was not precise enough, and he hit empty air.

Using this blind man as a sparring partner, Wei He carefully experienced the offensive and defensive system within the Huishan Fist. This was a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity for training.

But such an opportunity could not last long.

Several dozen breaths later, the man finally could not hold on. A punch struck him in the chest, sending him staggering back several steps before he collapsed onto the ground, unable to draw another breath.

Stars burst before his eyes. His chest went numb, he could hear nothing in his ears, and he only felt as though every blood vessel in his body were boiling hot and about to explode.

"Ah!!" He let out a stifled roar. He had cultivated his Leg Skill for years, only to fall into the hands of a brat who had barely entered the blood and qi realm!

Bang.

A large rock came smashing down upon his head from behind, and the sound stopped abruptly.

Everything fell silent.

Expressionless, Wei He smashed down more than ten times in succession. Only after confirming the man had stopped breathing did he toss the rock aside.

"Too dangerous. I merely came to look around a temple, and I ran into a highway robber. And even a random highway robber was this formidable. Outside the city really does live up to its reputation."

He sighed from the bottom of his heart.

Looking again at the mangled, bloodied corpse on the ground, he touched the now-flat pouch of quicklime. The trump card he had saved up for so long had been used up in one go.

He would have to buy more later.

Having experienced a corpse once before, Wei He had grown somewhat accustomed to it now.

So, faced with this fellow whose kicking techniques had been quite exceptional, he decided to search the body.

With his mind made up, Wei He moved swiftly. He crouched beside the corpse and used the blade issued by the escort agency to pick open the clothes, turning out a money pouch, a sachet, a bamboo tube, and a letter.

He removed his outer garment and wrapped these items in it, lifting the bundle through the cloth before quickly leaving the scene.

After finding a stream in the forest, he tossed the bundle of clothes directly into the water, soaked and shook it briefly, then lifted it back out.

That way, any drugged incense, poison, or the like inside would be washed about by the stream and diluted away.

Even so, Wei He only took the money pouch. He used the tip of his knife to open the rest and scattered their contents all over the ground.

The sachet was full of finely shredded spices and flower petals.

Inside the bamboo tube was a white flying insect, soaked until it was barely alive. It was as long as an index finger, with four wings on its back, and looked rather frightening.

Most of the envelope had been soaked apart by the water. Only the wax-sealed portion still held the entire letter together.

Wei He carefully picked it open with his knife tip, spread the pale yellow letter paper over a larger pebble, and read it closely by the last faint traces of daylight.

It was a letter explaining how to use the Scent-tracking Bug—simply put, something like an instruction manual.

The letter mentioned that Scent-tracking Bugs were specifically used to track Black-character Bugs.

Black-character Bugs were an extraordinarily peculiar type of insect. When stimulated, they could leave behind a trail of translucent mucus wherever they crawled.

After the mucus dried in the wind, it slowly released a scent that only others of its kind could smell. This scent was extraordinarily persistent and could linger for months without dispersing.

The letter stated that this trait could be used to track the Demon Woman carrying Black-character Bugs.

"Demon Woman?" Wei He narrowed his eyes, an idea forming in his mind.

He picked up the bamboo tube and held it closer to himself. Following the instructions in the letter, he gently brought his nose to the hole at the top and sniffed.

If there were traces left by Black-character Bugs on his body, the Scent-tracking Bug would also emit a fragrance.

If there were none, then naturally there would be no fragrance.

Yet to his surprise, a faint fragrance truly wafted from the bamboo tube.

He had only intended to test it and see how it worked. He had not expected that, at some unknown time, his body had been contaminated with traces of a Black-character Bug.

His expression darkened. Most likely, the Demon Woman had marked him without his knowing.

She had probably used him as a tool to draw away the pursuers' attention.

Whoever you are, this grudge has been forged. I'll remember it for now.

Anyone who was suddenly attacked and nearly beaten to death would mark it down deeply in their heart.

"Time to go." Wei He got to his feet, kicked the things on the ground into the stream, grabbed the pile of broken silver he had found in the money pouch, and hurried down the mountain.

His heart was heavy and dark.

Someone had unknowingly left the scent trace of a Black-character Bug on him, yet he had been completely unaware.

Who was the Demon Woman mentioned in the letter?

What was her identity? Why was she being hunted? When had he been set up?

Wei He's mind was filled with questions.

Halfway down, he suddenly remembered the method mentioned in the letter: Black-character Bugs were social insects, and a single bug generally would not stray too far from its mother.

"In other words, that Demon Woman carrying the bugs may still be nearby?" Wei He's heart jolted.

Judging from the strength of that man with the kicking techniques, the people pursuing her were no weaklings.

At the very least, if he had not blinded his opponent first, Wei He certainly could not have won that battle.

"From the tone of the letter, the Black-character Bugs are raised by that Demon Woman. They must have a purpose in tracking her.

"And they are even silencing everyone else who came into contact with the Black-character Bugs. Clearly, they do not want anyone to know the Demon Woman's whereabouts. They want to delay word from leaking out as long as possible."

The more Wei He analyzed it, the more alarmed he became.

"In other words, these people must be divided into two groups. One group is the main force tracking the Demon Woman, while the other is scattered around silencing witnesses.

"And the group doing the tracking is absolutely stronger than the part doing the silencing."

He was already certain of this deduction.

Though there was not much in the letter, it was enough for him to judge the key details.

"Now that I have killed one of their members, no matter the reason, they will definitely send people to investigate."

Wei He carefully recalled how he had handled things earlier, then suddenly worried that someone might be able to tell from the corpse's wounds how it had died.

He decisively stopped walking, intending to turn back and deal with the body.

But a long, distant wolf howl drifted over from behind him, immediately dispelling the thought.

Clearly, the bloody fight just now had drawn quite a few wild beasts that had caught the scent of blood.

Whether that corpse was even still there by now was another question.

Wei He suppressed the agitation in his heart.