The next day.
The Gui River.
A fishing boat lay across the river.
On its deck, Yang Lian sat at a small table, slowly sipping tea and eating pastries. In her hands were reports delivered by Green Gang disciples, particularly news of developments in Hong Kong.
Extraordinary.
Lian Youming had faced Gan Xuantong head-on and actually won.
Unexpected, yet seemingly reasonable.
Martial artists settled their disputes with fists and feet. Life and death, victory and defeat, could never be decided beforehand.
Lian Youming had aspirations, lived up to them, and possessed both ambition and a fierce fighting spirit. At the brink of death, he had burned his bridges, using external force to break through every barrier and attain Great Completion of Hua Jin. Who but someone of tremendous courage and perseverance would dare such a dangerous gamble?
How could someone like that not win?
Yang Lian drew a deep breath, then exhaled, filled with wonder.
And beside Yang Lian stood someone else.
Lian Youming's double.
Still wearing a hood that concealed his face, he stood on the deck, facing the river wind as he cycled his internal breath.
As his breath squeezed past his throat and tongue, a series of strange, bull-like bellows actually resounded within his chest and abdomen. Driven by his inner strength, his black robe instantly billowed and churned like raging flames, snapping in the wind.
Yang Lian could hardly hide the surprise in her eyes. Unless she was mistaken, what he practiced was Wild Bull Power, a skill as renowned as the Toad-Fishing Skill.
Both were foundational arts of the Wudang Sect.
The Toad-Fishing Skill was the supreme signature art of the Wudang Golden Toad School. Years ago, Taiji Grandmaster Li Ruidong had obtained it from an extraordinary man surnamed Gan and used it to sweep