What?
Challenge me?
When he heard his own name, Jiang Jingnian still looked somewhat stunned.
He fixed his gaze on the youth in fitted martial clothes standing in the center of the hall. The boy looked about the same age as him, eighteen or nineteen.
But compared to Jiang Jingnian, he was much thinner and shorter.
Jiang Jingnian carefully studied the other's square, broad face and realized he had no impression of him at all.
He did not know him.
"I've only been at the escort agency for a few days. At most, I merely nodded to the others in passing. As for this young man, I don't think I've ever even spoken with him?"
Jiang Jingnian looked bewildered.
Was the world already this chaotic?
They had never exchanged a single word. How could there be any question of offending him?
Whether it was Duan Escort Chief or anyone else,
none of them had mentioned the miscellaneous internal affairs of the escort agency to Jiang Jingnian.
Over the past few days since joining, he had either eaten and slept, practiced martial arts and stance work, or read and wrote every day. He had been wholeheartedly improving himself, utterly focused. Where would he have found the energy to care about outside nonsense?
The Chief Escort sitting above
glanced at the silent Duan Escort Chief beside him, then swept his gaze toward Jiang Jingnian and Qian Shiqi below.
"According to the escort agency's old rules, if a newly promoted escort cannot convince the others, someone may indeed step forward to challenge him."
After pondering for a moment, the Chief Escort slowly looked over the other runners and apprentices present. "Since Qian Shiqi has stepped out, does anyone else share the same objection? You may come up together."
As soon as he finished speaking,
three more young men stepped forward below.
"We have objections too."
They were Qian Xiaofu and his two friends, all from wealthy households.
"Anyone else?"
The Chief Escort remained sprawled sideways in his chair, speaking calmly. "If there are, then step forward now. If not, once this regular meeting is over, no further objections may be raised. Otherwise, you will be dealt with according to the escort agency's regulations."
After a while,
no one else stepped forward.
"Since that is the case! Duan Escort Chief, make the arrangements. Set up the platform and open the arena."
The Chief Escort patted the armrest of his chair, then rose to his feet, the bloated fat on his body jiggling with every movement.
"Alright."
Duan Escort Chief nodded without saying much, then summoned seven or eight servants and had them build a simple arena in the training ground.
Throughout the entire process, he did not so much as glance at Jiang Jingnian.
In less than two incense sticks' time,
the arena in the training ground had already been completed.
Beside the arena stood a square table, upon which rested an unknown local deity statue.
There was an incense burner before the statue.
Holding several incense sticks, the Chief Escort bowed to the deity statue a few times and quietly recited several words of offering before placing the incense in the burner.
"It'll be August soon. The weather really is getting hotter by the day."
He looked at the scorching sunlight overhead, took out a handkerchief from his sleeve, and somewhat laboriously wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.
His body was far too fat.
Thus, he did not tolerate heat well. Once summer came, especially when standing outside, his sweat poured down like rain.
"Qian Shiqi, you boys—are you going up one at a time?"
"If you take turns in a wheel battle, Jiang Jingnian must be given one incense stick's worth of rest after every round. And if his condition is particularly poor, then according to the rules, the next round must be postponed until tomorrow."
The Chief Escort turned around and looked at Qian Shiqi and the others near the arena, asking in a deep voice.
"Chief Escort, I alone will be enough."
Qian Shiqi shook his head and cupped his hands in salute.
"Good. Since that is so, Jiang Jingnian, go up onto the arena."
The Chief Escort looked at Jiang Jingnian, who still seemed somewhat dazed, and said with a smile, "The old rule of our Tongda Escort Agency is that when a newly appointed escort cannot convince the others, those below are allowed one opportunity to challenge him. If you lose, your position as an escort will be stripped away, and you will have to return to being a runner."
He explained it as briefly as possible.
After speaking, he secretly glared at the unruffled Duan Escort Chief beside him.
This old Duan.
It was obvious he had not told the boy anything.
He had brought him in and applied for an escort position on his behalf, yet he had not clearly explained any of the escort agency's internal matters, leaving this country boy to feel his way around alone?
What a sin!
"Oh!"
Jiang Jingnian stepped onto the arena, still unable to make sense of the chain of cause and effect.
But after thinking for a moment, he simply stopped dwelling on it.
When soldiers came, he would block them with generals; when water came, he would dam it with earth.
There was no need to waste himself on inner turmoil.
Qian Shiqi, meanwhile, leaped onto the arena with a flying bound, exceedingly graceful. With both hands behind his back, he put on an unfathomable air, as steady as a deep pool and lofty as a mountain.
"This fellow... what was his name again? Shiqi? Husky?"
Jiang Jingnian first cupped his hands in salute, then assumed an opening stance. "Forget it. Not important."
The other party was probably not a martial master.
At any rate, he gave Jiang Jingnian no sense of threat.
"The rules are simple. No weapons may be used; this is purely a contest of fist and foot techniques. You may injure your opponent, but not kill him. Surrendering, falling, or being knocked off the arena all count as defeat."
The Chief Escort announced the arena rules from beside the square table.
This was merely an arena match to resolve internal conflict, not a Deathmatch Arena. Naturally, no lives could be taken.
Still, with him and Duan Escort Chief standing guard nearby, they would intervene at the first sign of trouble. They were not worried that someone would be beaten to death.
Then, at the Chief Escort's command,
the arena challenge officially began.
After several days of watching from the edge of the training ground, Qian Shiqi had long since figured out all the flaws and openings in Jiang Jingnian's boxing technique.
In his eyes, the other's boxing was exceedingly crude, and both his strikes and transitions were very slow. It looked fierce, but so long as one was fast enough, it was simply not worth mentioning.
The youth in fitted martial clothes stepped forward in a bow stance. The blood and vitality throughout his body surged as his legs suddenly exerted force. Like a swallow skimming the water, he launched several savage kicks in succession, all landing directly upon Jiang Jingnian's knee joints.
"Hit!"
Qian Shiqi was overjoyed.
This man's speed truly was slow. Just as his third brother had said, he was a big fool with no actual combat experience whatsoever.
In Qian Shiqi's eyes, Jiang Jingnian's boxing mostly targeted the upper body, while the foundation of his lower-body stance work was terribly weak, and his leg techniques were poor as well. He had clearly never received specialized martial training or guidance.
Even with horizontal training techniques, the joints were far weaker than the areas covered by thick skin and flesh. Those savage kicks had all been delivered with his full strength, sinister and vicious. They would surely have a miraculous effect.
Yet in a martial contest,
one used every possible means.
If not for the arena rules, Qian Shiqi's methods could have been even more vicious. Lime powder and poisonous smoke would both have been fair game.
Only...
"???"
Jiang Jingnian looked at the dusty footprints on his knees and stood motionless in place.
This man.
Had he skipped breakfast this morning?
Such soft, feeble kicks, even after landing several times, were nowhere near as powerful as Escort Yu's palm strike.
His blood and vitality surged, and the skin and flesh on his legs continuously pulsed, directly jolting away Qian Shiqi, whose face had just begun to show a smile.
"The escort agency just issued me these new trousers, and now they've been kicked full of holes. When I go back, I'll have to patch them up again."
Jiang Jingnian thought helplessly.
Qian Shiqi, who had been shaken back, was utterly aghast. "How is that possible? Impossible!"
Those had been several savage kicks with his full strength. Even Escort Yu could not possibly remain completely unharmed after taking them.
Before he could figure out what had gone wrong,
Jiang Jingnian took two steps forward and threw three utterly ordinary punches.
Two punches struck the other's abdomen.
One punch struck the other's chest.
To avoid taking a life, he had already held back some of his strength and avoided the other's head.
Seeing the fists coming, Qian Shiqi instinctively wanted to dodge, but for some reason he could not move at all. He took all three punches head-on.
Then,
before everyone's eyes,
he was struck hard enough to spit out a mouthful of blood, then fainted on the spot.
He lost consciousness.
Before you continue