Zhang Qingyuan finally experienced the joy of playing a champion with mobility.
Yasuo in League of Legends, Han Xin in Honor of Kings.
With enough dashes, no one could catch you.
With enough dashes, you could come and go as you pleased.
This truly was passing through a sea of flowers without a single leaf clinging to you.
Weaving through a crowd of armed men, this truly was death being like the wind-always by his side.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang...
The two were like fluttering butterflies, their arms the butterflies' beating wings.
A few minutes later, no one in the inn's main hall besides the two of them could still stand and speak.
They lay on the floor, clutching their wounds and howling.
This time, Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao had not struck to kill as they had on the previous occasions.
Zhang Qingyuan found the hot-tempered man. He had only suffered internal injuries from a palm strike Zhang Qingyuan had landed on his chest.
Seeing Zhang Qingyuan crouch down, the man endured his injuries without making a sound and glared viciously at him.
"Kill me or carve me up, do as you please!" he snarled, stiffening his neck.
Zhang Qingyuan clapped his hands. "Not bad. A man with backbone. Might I ask your illustrious name, great hero?"
"I never change my name, standing or sitting. I'm Wang Hu of the Broken Saber Sect!"
"Brother Hu, right?"
"What do you want?"
Zhang Qingyuan stood and looked at the fallen crowd. Most were seriously injured, though a few of the squishier ones had died to basic attacks.
"My good heroes." Zhang Qingyuan cupped his fist in salute. "You're all heroes making your way in the martial world. Feeding your families is your job, and taking money to do a job is perfectly natural.
"We brothers are new to the martial world and don't have much experience.
"But I believe that, as people of the martial world, drawing our blades to help when we see injustice is perfectly reasonable, isn't it?"
None of them understood what he was getting at, but they were fish on someone else's chopping block now. They could only listen.
"The Wang family's young master oppressed the common people and killed a family of three over two-tenths of a tael of silver. There's nothing wrong with us brothers punishing evil and rooting out villains, is there?"
They exchanged looks. Before long, a few of the more cowardly ones could no longer hold out and began switching sides.
"Nothing wrong with that."
"We once had chivalrous hearts like yours, Daoist Master. Life simply wore down our edges."
Why seek death when they could live? Besides, there was nothing really wrong with what he said.
Hearing people agree, Zhang Qingyuan smiled. "Exactly. We brothers stamped out tyranny and protected the innocent. Nothing wrong with that.
"Old Master Wang lost his son and wanted revenge for him. Nothing wrong with that either."
"Well..."
The crowd failed to follow.
Wang Hu said, "Neither you nor Wang Baiwan did anything wrong, so we're the ones in the wrong?"
"What do you think?" Zhang Qingyuan gave him a knowing look.
"This is a feud between us brothers and the Wang family, but you insist on sticking your noses in.
"One wave after another, one wave following the next.
"We were both perfectly fine young men, but you came at us shouting about beating and killing us. What could we do?
"We could only fight back.
"We fought back and killed you instead. Then the martial world would call us cruel and give us some sinister nickname like the Jade-Faced Twin Fiends, as though we were some great demon kings. Who could we turn to for justice?" Zhang Qingyuan said plaintively.
So now it's our fault? The martial artists stared at him, utterly speechless.
"So today, we brothers will spare you all. In return, we'd ask you good heroes to spread a message for us in the martial world.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to earn money, but if your martial arts aren't good enough, don't come here to die.
"If so many innocent lives end up being thrown away for nothing, we brothers couldn't bear it either."
"How magnanimous, Daoist Master Zhang! I, Ma San, will certainly spread your message!"
"That's right! As long as you let us go today, Daoist Master, we'll certainly speak up for you!"
"Many thanks, everyone!" Zhang Qingyuan cupped his fist.
"You spineless bastards! He's humiliating you! Can't you hear it?" Wang Hu roared.
Zhang Qingyuan spread his hands. "See? Hero Wang Hu is still unhappy with us."
"Fuck you!"
Wang Hu struggled to his feet, drew his saber, and slashed.
But before his saber could reach Zhang Qingyuan, Zhang Qingyuan killed him with a single Nine Yang Palm strike.
The crowd gasped. So they really had been holding back.
Zhang Qingyuan helplessly spread his hands. "Everyone, don't make things difficult for us. I already said I'd let you go, yet he wouldn't let it rest and forced me to kill him. Now it makes us look like fickle scoundrels."
They turned their heads away. Aren't you?
Who started insulting us, humiliating us, and making sport of us the moment he walked through the door?
Zhang Qingyuan read their looks and thought, As if you wouldn't have attacked us if we hadn't hurled insults.
If we were going to fight anyway, what did it matter whether we insulted you?
The others gave up completely. They did not know how, but somehow the two now seemed to have right on their side.
They could neither beat them in a fight nor win an argument.
"Daoist Masters, we're willing to spread word of your compassion."
"Many thanks!"
With that, Zhang Qingyuan paid them no further attention and gave Zhang Junbao a look.
They called out the waiter, had the staff clean up downstairs and bring the food they had ordered earlier to their room, then stopped concerning themselves with what happened below.
Their restraint had not come from Zhang Qingyuan having a compassionate heart or being unable to bear killing.
That was even less true of Zhang Junbao. Too softhearted to kill?
Who had told you that a hot-tempered old man who had held the martial world down for sixty years possessed such a thing?
The martial world was always about fighting and killing, about either you dying or me. How many softhearted people survived to the end?
They had tacitly refrained from killing because they now had absolute confidence that they could deal with those small fry.
They now had the Blue Butterfly Cloud-Gliding Wandering Body Steps. With a sophisticated movement technique, they only needed to wound their opponents.
Before, they had lacked a movement technique, so they had needed to kill in one blow to keep their opponents from rushing up to fight desperately. Otherwise, they would have to expend effort a second time, wasting not only stamina but internal power as well.
Now they no longer needed to worry. With a movement technique, they did not need to pour in too much internal power and use major moves like the Nine Yang Palm when attacking enemies.
Dashes plus basic attacks were enough to wound them.
Once wounded, they naturally would not dare attack again. Even if they insisted on fighting to the death, they could not catch the two of them. Even if they managed to close in, the two still had plenty of stamina and internal power. How much effort could finishing off a low-health enemy take?
This way, seeing such a movement technique would also intimidate their enemies.
Wounding their opponents with basic attacks rather than their full strength could also demonstrate the two Daoist masters' reverence for life and compassionate hearts. Even if someone could not withstand a basic attack and died by accident, they could hardly be blamed.
Finally, if someone really insisted on fighting desperately, killing him then would put him in the wrong.
We brothers have already spared you once. Why must you still make trouble for us, pressing us relentlessly and coming forward to die? Aren't you being a little unreasonable?
Besides, they could not keep killing people in the martial world.
Killing too many people would make their Qi and blood surge and their tempers grow increasingly violent.
All the martial arts Zhang Junbao had created came from Daoism. A violent temper would hinder his future cultivation.
So they needed appropriate ways to relieve the pressure.
Acting obnoxious and provoking people earlier had been a relatively low-end yet effective means of relief.
Not killing people was an even better way to keep that pressure from growing too great.
Most importantly, if they killed everyone, who would spread their names across the world?
Previously, Zhang Qingyuan had wanted to travel first, then slowly integrate into the martial world.
But now, having encountered something like this...
They might as well enter the martial world ahead of schedule. Making their names known across the world sooner was a good thing too.
As for how to make their names known, and what sort of names to make for themselves, that would depend on exactly how he went about it.