A Liang Fights Tie Mu One-on-One

"A Liang? Why does that name sound kind of familiar?"

Li Yuan muttered to himself inwardly, his expression giving nothing away as his gaze settled once more on the man with a foxtail grass stem in his mouth.

"What is your purpose in coming here?"

A Liang slowly spat out the grass stem in his mouth, swapped in a fresh one, and drawled in a casual, unhurried voice, "I heard you were recruiting here. The terms sounded pretty good—food and lodging included, cultivation resources included. So I figured I'd come give it a try."

His voice was the slightly hoarse tone of a young uncle type, and it actually had a certain charm to it.

Li Yuan nodded. "Those are indeed the terms. But since you've come, you should know our requirements aren't low. Show me your martial soul and rank."

A Liang pushed his bamboo hat up, revealing a sharply defined face with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Then you'd better watch closely."

Two rings of light appeared beneath his feet, one white and one yellow. A ten-year soul ring paired with a hundred-year soul ring looked especially shabby beneath the sunlight.

He raised his right hand, and something appeared out of thin air in his palm—a bamboo pole.

Fresh and green, about the thickness of a thumb, roughly three feet long.

"I am A Liang, a rank twenty-nine Grand Soul Master. Martial soul, Green Bamboo Sword."

The entire place went quiet for a moment.

Then it erupted into roaring laughter.

"Hahaha—this is it?"

A tower-like burly man stepped out from the crowd, laughing so hard the flesh on his face quivered. He pointed at the bamboo pole in A Liang's hand, nearly laughing tears out. "I thought it was something incredible! Green Bamboo Sword? Isn't that just a bamboo pole? And those soul rings—a ten-year soul ring? Ten years! Hahaha—I don't know where you got the guts to come here and make a fool of yourself!"

The people around him joined in, jeering as buzzing murmurs filled the air.

"A ten-year soul ring and he still dares sign up? Isn't this just a joke?"

"I bet he's just here for the free meals. Food and lodging included—who wouldn't want to come?"

Li Yuan frowned slightly as he looked at the utterly genuine bamboo pole in A Liang's hand. For a moment, he genuinely couldn't tell whether this man was serious or joking.

Green Bamboo Sword—at least it was a weapon martial soul, so why did it look like this?

Once the tower-like burly man had laughed enough, he took a step forward and cupped his hands toward Li Yuan in a deep, muffled voice. "My lord, my name is Tie Mu. Rank forty-one Battle Soul Ancestor. Martial soul, Iron-Armored Black Water Turtle."

Four soul rings emerged from beneath his feet, two yellow and two purple, their light dazzling.

The shadow of a massive giant turtle slowly solidified behind him. Its entire body was dark green, its back shell covered in black patterns, its limbs thick as pillars, and it exuded a steady, weighty aura.

The watching villagers and soul masters all retreated several steps, sucking in cold breaths.

"A rank forty-one Soul Ancestor! And a defense type!"

"That martial soul looks tough to deal with. Iron-Armored Black Water Turtle... that should rank pretty high among defensive martial souls, right?"

Listening to the surrounding discussion, the smugness on Tie Mu's face grew even stronger, and he puffed his chest out a little higher.

He looked at Li Yuan and spoke with complete confidence. "What do you think, my lord? Am I qualified?"

Li Yuan sized him up for a few moments and did not rush to state his position.

Long Yuan's voice transmission sounded by his ear. "My lord, although this man is somewhat arrogant, the Iron-Armored Black Water Turtle can be considered upper-middle among defense-type martial souls. From what I see, he is only in his early thirties. With a little training, he truly is a decent seedling."

Li Yuan gave a slight nod.

The fact that Long Yuan was willing to voice approval meant this Tie Mu did indeed have potential.

He was just about to speak.

"A rank forty-one Soul Ancestor? Is that impressive?"

A Liang's lazy voice drifted over from the side, mild and indifferent.

The laughter around them came to an abrupt halt, and everyone turned to look at him in unison.

After a brief silence, the laughter exploded even louder.

"Is this guy an idiot? A rank twenty-nine Grand Soul Master saying a rank forty-one Soul Ancestor isn't impressive?"

"He's got a ten-year soul ring and doesn't even amount to a fraction of the other guy, but his mouth sure is tough!"

Tie Mu laughed too. He planted his hands on his hips and looked down at A Liang, who was more than half a head shorter than him, his face full of mockery. "What? Did I hit a sore spot just now, and now you can't accept it?"

He took a step forward, his enormous body casting a shadow over A Liang, and grinned to reveal two rows of white teeth. "Then how about this? You and I fight. Whoever loses kneels and calls the other dad. How's that?"

He deliberately emphasized the word "dad," drawing another round of laughter from the crowd.

Tie Mu lifted his chin and pretended to be magnanimous. "Of course, I can't have people saying I'm bullying the weak in front of so many witnesses. So I won't use my martial soul. I'll just use this body of mine to play with you. Do you dare?"

A Liang held the foxtail grass in his mouth and lifted his bamboo hat slightly, revealing those lazy eyes.

He tilted his head and glanced at Tie Mu, the curve of his lips slowly deepening.

"Sure. Then let's try."

A Liang shifted the foxtail grass in his mouth to the other side and replied unhurriedly.

Tie Mu grinned so widely the flesh on his face trembled. "But don't blame me for not warning you. If you get hurt later, I'm not paying your medical bills!"

"Hahaha!"

Another burst of laughter broke out around them.

Tie Mu laughed more and more smugly, his gaze sweeping over A Liang twice with undisguised mockery. "You've got quite the hard mouth, kid. I just wonder whether your bones will be that hard once we start fighting."

After he finished speaking, he turned and cupped his hands toward Li Yuan, his voice rough and heavy. "My lord, may I take up a little of your time? Allow me to teach this ignorant brat a lesson."

Li Yuan stood where he was, his gaze shifting from Tie Mu to A Liang's calm, unruffled face.

His bamboo hat was pulled low, a smile hung at the corner of his mouth, and a blade of grass was clenched between his teeth. From head to toe, he practically had the words "couldn't care less" written all over him.

The corner of Li Yuan's mouth lifted slightly.

Interesting.

"Granted."

The crowd pulled back with a rush, clearing out a circle roughly twenty zhang across in the open space before the manor gate.

The villagers watching the spectacle packed in layer upon layer, and even Mu Sheng stopped what he was doing, craning his neck to look this way.

Tie Mu and A Liang each took one side.

Tie Mu crossed his arms over his chest, spread his legs slightly into a horse stance, and the muscles all over his body swelled, making him look like a moving wall of flesh. He sneered. "Kid, make your move. Don't say I didn't give you a chance. I'll let you have one strike."

A Liang tilted his head, and the eyes beneath his bamboo hat curved slightly. "Oh? You'll let me have one strike? Sure."

Before the words had even fallen.

His entire body turned into a green afterimage, so fast that the vast majority of those present failed to see his movement clearly. In the next instant, he was already in front of Tie Mu.

The five or six zhang between them might as well not have existed. The bamboo pole in his hand rose high, then came down toward Tie Mu's face with a whistling rush of wind.

Smack!

A crisp, ringing sound.

Tie Mu staggered back a step, clutching his face, his eyes full of disbelief.

A Liang did not waste a single word. The bamboo pole turned, sweeping upward from below toward Tie Mu's ribs.

Tie Mu hurriedly twisted aside to dodge, but that bamboo pole seemed to have eyes. It curved around and struck the soft flesh at his waist with perfect accuracy.

Smack!

Another sharp crack rang out.

After that, the only things left in the whole arena were the sounds of bamboo striking flesh and A Liang's figure darting, shifting, and weaving.

His movements were nimble, drifting unpredictably around Tie Mu—left one moment, right the next—as the bamboo pole came down from all manner of tricky angles.

Tie Mu retreated again and again, flailing both hands in an attempt to block, yet he could not even touch the corner of A Liang's clothes.

The surrounding villagers gaped one after another, their eyeballs nearly popping out.

"What's going on?"

"A level forty-one Soul Ancestor is being chased and beaten by a Grand Soul Master? He can't even fight back?"