Last year, during the Double Ninth Festival, Pomegranate and Niu Niu had gone to the southwest to visit some distant uncles and cousins, and to meet Cat Bro in person. It was the first time Pomegranate and Cat Bro had met offline, and they'd had a hand-to-hand match.
Cat Bro lost.
At the time, Pomegranate had told him that, in her family, her martial arts skills barely ranked third. Cat Bro hadn't believed her.
But after fighting A-Lin's father today, he realized Pomegranate hadn't been lying. The middle-aged man before him, who ran a local martial arts school, looked stern and dull, but once they stepped into the ring, Cat Bro learned what it meant for true masters to be found among ordinary people.
His reflexes, strength, and split-second muscle responses were all more than a cut above Pomegranate's.
Once he got in close, Cat Bro felt trapped like a fly in a spider's web, unable to retreat or advance. His wrist had been caught twice, and both times the pain shot through his joints. If this had been a fight to the death, he'd have gone down already.
The Niu family clearly had good reason to put on this "martial arts contest to win a bride."
But he'd come this far. There was no way Cat Bro could back down now. Pomegranate was waiting for him up ahead, and his brothers were cheering him on from behind. Just like on the battlefield during the Black Calamity, he had to give it everything he had if he wanted to survive.
Seeing Uncle Niu launch another attack, Cat Bro gritted his teeth and feinted forward. As his opponent dodged the blade, Cat Bro let go of the weapon in his hand and threw it aside.
He blocked a heavy punch with