Mixed Battle

You!!

Li LiBo's eyes turned bloodshot, and his right foot involuntarily stepped forward.

Chen Jiechang grabbed his fellow townsman. "Hold it in! Senior Brother Xiang and the others aren't here."

Li LiBo suddenly recalled that Xiang ChangSong had left at noon as well. In the entire Martial Arts School, not a single one of Master Yang's direct disciples was present!

"Senior Brother Xiang? Senior Brother Xiang is what you rely on, isn't it? Do you really think Senior Brother Xiang will help you?"

Lu Tingcai's heart skipped a beat. He really was afraid that the two before him would go complain; that would be the end of him. But this was not his first time doing something like this. He already had a routine prepared and bluffed.

"Senior Brother Xiang said a couple of nice words to you, and you think you're somebody now? Would Senior Brother Xiang punish the four of us over three mud-legged peasants?"

"Unless he's willing to kick all of us out for the sake of you three."

Li LiBo and Chen Jiechang's hearts sank as they suddenly remembered their identities.

Fishermen.

Would Senior Brother Xiang really help a few fishermen?

Even if he did, he could not possibly kick Lu Tingcai out directly.

If he did not kick them out, the two had just paid the Autumn Tax and were used to the ways of important people. They immediately believed more than half of it, their expressions turning ugly.

Seeing the reactions on their faces, Lu Tingcai relaxed and struck while the iron was hot. "You two reek of fish so badly that everyone can't focus on practicing martial arts. Isn't it only right that you fork over some money to buy everyone fermented milk?"

"Oh, right. There are three of you, aren't there? Where's the other one? Did he know he was no good and go home early? Sorry, but you'll have to make up his share too!"

Chen Jiechang felt uneasy, but he still snapped, "We stay at least ten paces away from you every time. Even if we smell like fish, there's no way you could smell it!"

"Sorry, didn't you know that practicing martial arts can improve the Senses? Our noses are sharp, so we can smell it. What are you going to do about it?"

"What if we don't pay?"

"Don't pay?"

Lu Tingcai raised a brow, turned around with his body slack, and cupped his fists. "Brother Lu, may I spar with these two junior brothers?"

Li LiBo and Chen Jiechang were horrified.

Lu Tingcai's Qi was as thick as a little finger; he was an old hand on the verge of Breaking Skin Realm. How could he have the nerve? And Lu Shaohui already disliked the two of them. Wouldn't this be exactly what he wanted?

Besides, the Martial Arts School did not prohibit sparring. Minor injuries were commonplace.

Yet Lu Shaohui frowned when he heard this.

He did not like the three fishermen from Yi Xing City, and he disliked their smell even more, but he had never intended to do anything to them.

A Martial Artist who had broken through two realms picking on three fishermen? He did not care about the three at all. In his eyes, the three were worth less than air.

Lu Tingcai had chosen the wrong man to use as a gun.

Lu Shaohui tossed aside his stone lock and strode straight out of the Martial Arts Field as though he had heard nothing.

The scene became rather awkward.

Watching Lu Shaohui's departing back, Lu Tingcai's mouth twitched. Fortunately, he had naturally thick skin and did not care. Everything was still under his control; Lu Shaohui staying out of it was actually a good thing. So he turned around, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to "spar" with the two.

"If you two junior brothers won't behave, then I'll have to act in the elders' stead."

Chen Jiechang faced a formidable enemy, but from the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw Li LiBo dart out, pick something up from the flower bed, and smash it viciously into the back of Lu Tingcai's head.

Bang! A dull sound rang through the entire Martial Arts Field.

Everyone froze.

Lu Tingcai's head spun, and his vision gradually blurred.

He swayed as he turned around. Looking down, he saw the stone in Li LiBo's hand, then reached up to touch the back of his own head. When he held his hand before his eyes, it was covered in bright red blood. He wanted to curse, but his mind would not turn. Staggering, he slumped sideways against the wall.

Xue Dingyi and the others were dumbfounded. Only after standing there stunned for quite some time did they come to their senses and shout, "Get him!"

No, don't!!!

Lu Tingcai, by the wall, was even more dumbfounded. One-on-one was sparring, but a brawl changed the nature of things!

I only wanted to squeeze out some silver, not get kicked out of the Martial Arts School! He opened his mouth to stop Xue Dingyi, but his head throbbed painfully, and he could not shout a single word.

He had never imagined Li LiBo would be so reckless, cracking his skull right from the start.

The scene immediately descended into chaos.

"Watch out!"

Chen Jiechang yanked Li LiBo aside.

Just then, someone pulled a wooden stick from the weapon rack and brought it down hard on the spot where Li LiBo had been standing.

Underwater.

Liang Qu took a deep breath from an inflated pig bladder, tied it off, and fastened it around his waist.

The "rock" remained motionless. As his angle changed, he gained a better understanding of the creature, especially when he saw the two protruding feelers atop the "rock," which were clearly its eye stalks.

A very obvious weakness, Liang Qu thought.

He slowly shifted his feet, using the scattered rocks for cover as he continuously approached. Just as he was about to move closer, the carapace monster that had originally been lying on the ground suddenly moved.

Liang Qu immediately stopped where he was and reduced his presence.

He could not move.

Most crustaceans had an excellent sense of touch. They could feel vibrations in the ground through their small claws and judge whether living creatures were nearby.

Moving now would only expose him.

The once whole "rock" suddenly split into two smaller rocks. The tips of the small rocks split open and became two pairs of pincers. The pincers braced against the ground, slowly raising the entire large rock. Only then did Liang Qu discover that part of the rock had been buried in the silt! Once the rock stood fully upright, it formed a figure-eight structure, slightly larger above and slightly smaller below, standing nearly one meter seventy tall.

Watching from the shadows, Liang Qu somehow found it familiar.

Why does it look so much like Fearless Chariot? The spirit monster before him looked as though a crab's waist had suddenly been stretched out. Its upper body was an inverted triangular torso with two huge pincers, while its lower body had crab legs like Fearless Chariot Urgot's. There was even a ring of crab hair around its middle, resembling a belt.

He had never expected a Crab Monster to grow into such a bizarre shape. Its body shape was even larger than he had imagined. He had thought it was only around a meter tall, but it was actually nearly as tall as he was.

Together with its width of over a meter, it appeared exceptionally brawny.

After rising, the Crab Monster stood silently in place. In a corner more than ten meters away, Liang Qu likewise remained silent and motionless.

The two beasts lay flat on the ground even more firmly, buried in the silt and completely blending into the surroundings—a nearly perfect disguise.

For a moment, the situation beneath the water changed, yet did not change.

Both sides stood still as rocks. Only the aquatic grass drifted slowly with the current.

Liang Qu kept his eyes fixed on the Crab Monster, but suddenly, his vision became clear. His gaze passed unobstructed through the water and into the deep darkness.

!!!

Run!

Liang Qu roared in his mind, swiftly kicking backward. Zhu Po Long and Fat Catfish rolled away at high speed. The next instant, a colossal thing appeared within the range of his senses overhead, plummeting rapidly.

Heavy crab legs stabbed into the silt. The rushing current they stirred up was like wind suddenly sweeping through the water, sending dust swirling up to Liang Qu's waist.

Massive pincers tore through the current with a sound like cloth being ripped apart. Shattered white foam wrapped around the Giant Pincer like fluttering threads as it smashed down toward Liang Qu's head.

The howl of the vicious thing cutting through the water was terrifying.

Liang Qu twisted aside. Amid his alarm, he controlled the current like two hands pushing in opposite directions: one pushed aside the crab pincer, while the other pushed himself away. The two crossed past one another.

The crab pincer struck the scattered rocks, toppling a boulder half a man tall. Under its weight, it forced aside the water and crashed thunderously into the ground.

It was as if the wind had suddenly intensified, and dust swirled to a height greater than a man.

What a ferocious strike! Liang Qu's pupils contracted sharply. Almost the instant he dodged clear, the Giant Pincer pierced through the brown cloud of silt and swept toward him.

The current erupted like a python, churning the entire area of water. Liang Qu raised his pole to block, controlling the current behind him to catch and support him. His entire body was swept flying before slowly descending.

The Crab Monster pulled its jointed legs from the silt. Its lower body curled like a giant shrimp, then erupted, rushing out of the cloud of silt like a launched projectile.

Zhu Po Long and Fat Catfish tried to stop it, but they were simply too late.

Mud and sand had accumulated in the Crab Monster's many joints. Washed by the current, they rapidly scattered and stretched out, turning into countless fine gray little hands that seemed to want to seize it and hold it back, but it was all in vain.

But the next second, those scattered little hands were gathered by an invisible force and spread toward the Crab Monster's eyes, blocking them.