How Did He Run So Fast?

Lu Mang tasted success and immediately pressed his advantage.

In a flash, he appeared before Chun Xiaobai. His tiger-headed saber stirred up another sweep of bloody light, unleashing another vicious blade ray.

Chun Xiaobai immediately rolled along the ground, taking an utterly ungainly angle whose subtleties ordinary people could not possibly discern, and narrowly avoided the supposedly certain strike.

The blade ray slammed into the hard azure steel stone platform, instantly bursting into dazzling sparks.

"Ah!"

With terror written all over his face, Chun Xiaobai let out another scream like a pig being slaughtered. Abandoning even his saber, he clutched his head, turned, and ran.

Watching from below the platform, Elder Fu looked thoroughly satisfied, even his beard curling upward.

"This brat has decent talent, but his temperament is far too impetuous."

He could tell that Chun Xiaobai possessed superb movement techniques, but failed to put them to proper use, employing them only to flee for his life.

"A lesson will do you good, brat. Otherwise, your head will swell until you forget your own name, and you won't even know what killed you!"

And so they went around the platform, chasing for a lap and striking once, striking twice and chasing for another lap. Back and forth they went, carrying on for nearly half a quarter-hour.

Lu Mang was left panting with exhaustion, cursing inwardly nonstop.

"Damn it, was this fellow born a rabbit? How does he run so fast?"

He could also tell that Chun Xiaobai had decent movement techniques, but the strength in his hands fell far short. His actual cultivation was probably only at the seventh layer of Qi Refining.

If not for those movement techniques, he would have hacked this brat to death long ago.

Meanwhile, Chun Xiaobai was pulling out all the stops to make his fortune.

He looked utterly bedraggled.

His brand-new blue disciple robe had been sliced into strips by the aftershocks of the blade rays. They hung from his body and fluttered in the wind, making him look just like the chief of a beggars' sect.

His miserable appearance drew wave after wave of laughter and cheers from the disciples watching below.

"Haha, this brat's hilarious! All he can do is run!"

"Senior Brother Lu, stop wasting time on him! Use your big move and cripple him!"

"He's not here to challenge anyone! He's clearly putting on a monkey show for us!"

Seeing that he had laid enough groundwork, Chun Xiaobai quietly curled his lips into a grin. With a sliding step, he deliberately backed himself into a corner at the edge of the platform.

It was a right-angled corner. Once he stood there, he had nowhere left to retreat.

Seeing that he had finally cut off the brat's escape route, Lu Mang's face twisted with savage fury.

He had originally thought he could easily deal with this brat in three breaths. He had never expected the fellow to devote every scrap of his ability to running for his life.

Today, he would break both of this fellow's legs. Let him try running after that!

"Run, brat! Go on!"

Lu Mang advanced step by step, the slabs of flesh on his face trembling.

"Let's see where you can run now!"

With his back against the corner, Chun Xiaobai panted heavily and cried out in terror, "Y-you stay back! If you come any closer, I'll jump!"

"Urgh!!!"

Lu Mang stopped abruptly.

If he let the brat jump down on his own, that would count as conceding defeat!

Then how could he break the brat's legs fair and square?

How could he regain the face he had lost from being toyed with?

Want to concede? Too late!

Lu Mang roared inwardly, pulled back his saber, and thrust out a hand as large as a palm-leaf fan, grabbing straight for Chun Xiaobai's neck.

He intended to drag this fellow to the center of the platform first and give him a thorough beating. Everything else could wait until he had had his fill!

This irrational, explosive temper was exactly what Chun Xiaobai wanted.

Seeing that huge hand dart toward him, he immediately activated the third form of Heaven-Treading Steps in secret-Shrinking Land to Inches.

Just as Lu Mang's hand was about to close around Chun Xiaobai's neck, his vision blurred. The brat's figure shifted eerily a foot to the side, leaving him grasping empty air.

Chun Xiaobai let out a strange cry. "I'll fight you to the death!"

Then he sharply turned his wrist, directly employing Heaven-Rending Hand-Sinew-Severing as he passed Lu Mang.

With a swing of his shoulder, his fingers swept across Lu Mang's lower back, giving the core meridian that supported his entire body's strength a light, precisely measured flick.

Lu Mang felt as though something had struck him. His waist suddenly ached, and the spiritual power circulating through his body faltered as if it had caught a stitch. His whole body pitched forward uncontrollably.

Thud!

His massive body flew straight off the platform, landing below in a sprawling heap with all four limbs in the air.

At this dramatic sight, the smiles on the watching disciples' faces instantly froze. Their hands, raised in celebration, hung awkwardly in midair.

"Wh-what happened? Why did Senior Brother Lu fall off on his own?"

"Yeah, everything was fine! How did he just fall off by himself?"

Everyone looked utterly baffled.

From their perspective, Lu Mang had simply bent forward to grab his opponent, only to somehow slip, lose his balance, and tumble off the platform on his own.

Elder Fu's deeply wrinkled face also abruptly stiffened.

However, he had seen more than the disciples below, and more clearly.

Just now, Chun Xiaobai's body had suddenly shifted in a strange way, and his swinging hand had happened to touch Lu Mang's back.

That was the puzzling part...

The movement had been light and effortless, nowhere near enough to knock him off the platform.

Yet the fellow had unmistakably fallen off.

Every gaze instantly focused on Lu Mang, as though hoping to find an answer on his face.

Lu Mang sprang to his feet with a carp's kip-up. He was just about to roar and charge back up when he suddenly realized-he had already fallen off the platform!

"Th-this..."

He froze at first, then completely fell apart, utterly unable to accept what had happened.

Somehow, his lower back had suddenly lost all strength. He had been unable to steady himself, and the momentum of leaning forward had sent him tumbling straight down.

Could it be... could my less-than-restrained lifestyle these past few days have left my kidneys a little weak?

"That didn't count! I just lost my footing!" Lu Mang shouted toward the platform, his face flushed red.

"Huh!"

Everyone around him widened their eyes at those words.

What the hell?

You really did just lose your footing?

You've staked your entire fortune on this, and you're telling us you lost your footing?

Elder Fu's mouth twitched with anger. Inwardly, he wished he could slap this idiot dead.

To think his guess had actually been right. This fellow really had slipped.

He now found this fellow even more detestable than Chun Xiaobai.

Everyone was waiting to watch you pin this arrogant brat to the ground and grind him into the dirt, and now you're telling us you fucking slipped?

"Ah!! Did I win?"

An obnoxiously smug voice broke the silence.

Chun Xiaobai walked to the edge of the platform with a puzzled expression. Looking at the silent crowd below, he asked his question gingerly.

Then, as though something had suddenly occurred to him, he slapped his thigh. "Right, right, right! Leaving the platform counts as losing!!!"

"Hahahaha!"

"I, Chun Xiaobai, won!"