Ferocity

"...because I'll be coming at you to kill!"

Yang Ge lunged forward, swinging his leg like an axe.

The gray-clad man nimbly sidestepped. Yang Ge's kick cleaved empty air and smashed the stone steps.

The gray-clad man swept his leg forward, its edge hammering straight toward Yang Ge's left knee.

Yang Ge leaped up, twisted in midair, and snapped a kick toward the gray-clad man's throat.

The gray-clad man ducked with the motion, turning his forward sweep into a low sweeping kick.

One high, one low, they passed each other amid two gusts of force.

With sharp eyes and a swift leg, Yang Ge turned his snapping kick into a stomp as he fell, driving his foot toward the gray-clad man's waist.

Hearing the wind behind him, the gray-clad man thrust his supporting leg backward and propelled himself forward.

Bang!

Yang Ge's foot brushed the hem of the gray-clad man's clothes and slammed into a stone slab, cracking a broad web across its surface and sending dust flying.

He slowly raised his head, his savage gaze fixed on the gray-clad man rising some ten feet away. He chuckled. "Quick reflexes!"

The gray-clad man stared back at Yang Ge, a trace of gravity and shock entering his fierce eyes. "Your fundamentals aren't bad either!"

And that was the truth. In his eyes, Yang Ge's fundamentals were merely decent.

The problem was that Yang Ge changed moves too quickly-and the power of his attacks seemed not to diminish at all when he did!

How on earth did he do it?

How could his meridians withstand such violent bursts of inner qi?

Hadn't he only refined his force into qi today?

"Finished warming up?"

Yang Ge rolled his neck, the savagery in his eyes growing ever fiercer. "Ready to get serious?"

The gray-clad man slowly stepped back and tensed his body, but said, "You talk too much!"

"Courtesy before combat!"

Yang Ge smiled, then likewise stepped back. "Here I come!"

Before his words had faded, he leaped up, his legs becoming a blur of afterimages that enveloped the gray-clad man.

The gray-clad man also leaped up, his legs turning into a blur of afterimages as he met Yang Ge.

Bang, bang, bang...

Powerful sonic bursts rattled out as densely as drumbeats. Treading the wind in midair, the two fought speed with speed, their figures continually crossing and dodging. Countless leg afterimages whirled high and low like a wind sweeping through a hundred leaves, while blasts of force carried raging winds down like machine-gun fire. An ordinary person could scarcely tell which figure was Yang Ge and which was the gray-clad man.

The surrounding Embroidered Uniform Guard men were forced back again and again by the surging winds, staring at the pair until their eyes ached!

"Why does it look like they learned from the same master?"

"Yeah, neither can break through the other's moves!"

Several guards murmured among themselves.

Fang Ke turned and glared at the men who had spoken. "Shut up!"

But when he turned back to the two figures still crossing incessantly in midair, his own eyes were filled with shock.

He had taken part in the Embroidered Uniform Guard's investigation into Yang Ge's identity and background, and knew something of his circumstances.

And precisely because he knew something, he was shocked!

Before, he had never understood why someone as important as Thousand-Household Commander Shen valued Yang Ge so highly, even lowering himself to befriend him.

Now he understood...

For a moment, he brimmed with confidence in his financial prospects!

"Keep your eyes peeled!"

Once again, he shouted with no regard for martial honor, "If our Banner Commander is in the slightest danger, shoot that bastard dead!"

"Someone go summon everyone from the county office and the county garrison... I mean everyone!"

"Someone go tell the gate officers to keep their eyes wide open tonight! If so much as a mosquito flies past them, they'd better tell me whether it's male or female! If the villain escapes, they'll all die!"

"Someone get the messenger pigeons ready immediately! If anything happens to the Banner Commander, report it to the Northern Pacification Office at once..."

His blustering shouts echoed along the empty street.

But not a single person found them funny.

Several guards cupped their fists and hurried away, casting a shadow like dark clouds over the entire street!

Only the two locked in fierce combat remained utterly focused.

In their eyes and hearts, there was only their opponent!

Wind-Catching Shadow-Seizing, Gale Wind, Sturdy Grass, Raging Winds and Driving Rain...

They hurled their strongest moves at each other as though they cost nothing.

Their inner qi was likewise being consumed at a frantic rate, as though it cost nothing!

Yang Ge's advantage lay in his swift reactions. With his innate gift of having every meridian open, his force could reach wherever his eyes and mind went. With the Wild Wind Leg's ever-accelerating kicks, his assault was like the tide, wave upon wave, each rising higher than the last!

The gray-clad man's advantage lay in his seasoned experience and abundant inner qi. Even when he could not keep pace with Yang Ge's attacks, his wealth of combat experience and deep reserves of inner qi let him stand like a reef against Yang Ge's surging tide, with strength left over to counterattack!

But these were, after all, their ultimate trump cards...

Neither Yang Ge nor the gray-clad man could quite sustain the drain.

Yet both understood this kicking technique's strengths and weaknesses, and both knew to exploit its advantages while avoiding its shortcomings. How could a quick victory be so easy?

If they could not win quickly, and their opponent would not give them a chance to change tactics, what else could they do?

Grit their teeth and drag it out!

The moment their opponent could no longer keep going would be the moment victory was decided!

At least, that was what the gray-clad man thought. He had entered the Qi Sea Realm long ago, and was certain his inner qi was more abundant than that of this young ruffian who had come seeking revenge the instant he entered the Inner Qi Realm. If the fight dragged on, he was sure to win!

And Yang Ge was actually thinking the same thing...

Only what he relied on was somewhat different from the gray-clad man's.

"Wind Sweeps Away the Clouds!"

Just as their kicks, once fast enough to leave afterimages, began to slow, Yang Ge suddenly roared. His spinning body whipped up a tornado-like gale, then turned into a side kick that shot toward the gray-clad man as swiftly as a meteor.

"Huh?"

The instant the gray-clad man heard that roar, his scalp prickled. His cold, cruel face, vicious as a starving wolf's, twisted into a picture of stunned disbelief.

He knew the Wild Wind Leg's six killing moves all too well.

The first three killed the enemy!

The last three staked one's life!

The distinction existed because the first three required neither momentum nor power to be built up. As long as one could withstand the drain, they could be used at will.

But of the last three, one required building momentum, one required gathering power, and one required both. Otherwise, the force would damage the meridians, injuring the user before the enemy.

His fourth elder brother had died beneath Wind Howls Through the Valley, a kick meant to take the enemy down with its user...

Yet he could see perfectly clearly that this bastard had built no momentum whatsoever. He had simply followed Gale Wind, Sturdy Grass with Wind Sweeps Away the Clouds, without the slightest break.

Are your fucking meridians made of iron?

Seeing the whirlwind of force hurtling toward him, the gray-clad man dared not hesitate, nor did he dare force out Wind Sweeps Away the Clouds to clash head-on with Yang Ge. In his haste, he could only abandon his attack altogether, sink heavily to the ground, plant himself in a firm horse stance, and cross his arms as he roared savagely, "Buxian Mountain Stance!"

As his words ended, force surged from his entire body, forming the phantom of a mountain that enveloped him.

Dong.

Amid a deep sonic boom like the tolling of a great bronze bell, the gray-clad man deliberately caught Yang Ge's side kick on the crossing point of his arms.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

The next second, a burst of force erupted beneath the gray-clad man, cracking a broad, fine spiderweb across the stone paving.

Bang.

The clothes on the gray-clad man's back tore apart, and invisible force poured out, throwing up great clouds of dust.

He held his breath, his face so purple it seemed ready to drip blood, yet his eyes grew fiercer still.

His lips curled into a savage grin as he spoke to Yang Ge, stressing every word. "Boy, your martial uncle has caught you!"

"No!"

Yang Ge bared his teeth, his mouth full of blood, yet his grin was even more ferocious than the gray-clad man's. "I've caught you!"

Under the gray-clad man's bewildered gaze, he reached out with his left hand and seized the man's right arm.