"Who on earth did your Black Tiger Gang provoke this time? How did you cause such a commotion?"
Zhao Hu, the chief constable of the Chaoyang City yamen, curiously questioned Yu Wu, one of the Black Tiger Gang's three deputy gang leaders, who stood beside him. The commotion this time really was enormous.
Leaving aside the flames lighting up the sky over the Black Tiger Gang's headquarters, the number of men the gang had mobilized was frightening enough on its own. They had brought out nearly everyone they had.
A commotion this large had naturally alerted the city yamen, and Zhao Hu had been sent to ask about it.
"Nothing much. Just a petty thief!"
Deputy Gang Leader Yu Wu gave a curt reply. Of course he would not reveal the truth. After all, to a certain extent, the Black Tiger Gang and the yamen were enemies.
"A petty thief could stir up all this?"
With a disdainful sneer, Chief Constable Zhao Hu looked at the flames illuminating the sky and said mockingly, "For them to burn like that in such heavy rain, were your Black Tiger Gang's buildings coated in oil? And from the look of it, not ordinary oil, either."
This time Yu Wu said nothing, though his expression grew several degrees colder.
He knew this incident would be difficult to handle. If it drew the imperial court's attention, every one of them would die. Even the big shot behind them would not be able to save their lives.
But thanks to the heavy rain, the water would wash away and conceal all traces. Without evidence, the people from the capital could do nothing to them. After all, they had people in high places too.
Even so, they had to catch and kill that thief. The man had most likely been sent from the capital specifically to investigate the fierce fire oil, and they could not let him escape.
"Rumble..."
Just then, a series of muffled sounds came from the distance. Even the ground began to tremble slightly, as though ten thousand horses were galloping toward them. Then a sheet of fire came rushing down the street.
"What is that?"
Zhao Hu and Yu Wu looked puzzled, but when they saw what it was, their expressions changed at once.
It was a long line of ox carts, every one of them blazing fiercely. Maddened by the flames and heat, the normally docile oxen galloped wildly, an utterly terrifying sight.
A fire ox formation!
The battlefield tactic flashed through both men's minds at once. As they realized what it was, both were nearly in tears, especially Yu Wu, who almost wanted to curse the man's mother.
We're all people of the jianghu. Jianghu methods should have been enough, but you bastard set fire to our headquarters first, and now you've brought out a fire ox formation! This isn't a military campaign. You don't have to be this ruthless!
"Chief Constable, what should we do now? Do we keep guarding the gate?"
A constable hurried over behind Zhao Hu and asked in a low voice.
Smack!
"Have you got any brains? Is someone this ruthless the kind of person we can afford to provoke? Tell the brothers to withdraw, quickly!"
Zhao Hu slapped the constable on the head with the back of his hand and cursed him. Then he used his lightness skill to hurry away from the city gate.
There was nothing else to do. That was a formation of maddened fire oxen, and they were pulling carts like chariots. Anyone struck by them would face certain death, even a Super-First-Rate expert.
Naturally, he would not stay and take them head-on!
In any case, the Black Tiger Gang had brought this mess on themselves. It had nothing much to do with him. Even if every member of the gang died, he would not mind. He would even clap and cheer, then lead his men to swallow up the gang's territory.
More importantly, anyone could tell at a glance that this was a military tactic. The other party was very likely from the military, in the Great Ming Imperial Court
"Shut the city gate tight! Spread out and surround him. We must not let that brat escape."
Yu Wu gave the order with a livid expression.
Zhao Hu could retreat, but he could not. The brat already knew the secret of the fierce fire oil, and Yu Wu could not let him escape and leak the news, or there would be serious trouble.
The Black Tiger Gang members dared not slack off. They hurried to either side of the main road to avoid being struck by the ox carts.
But just then, a large jar on the foremost cart suddenly shattered, spilling out a great quantity of tung oil. The flames on the cart ignited it, forming a vast line of fire down the middle of the road.
The oxen behind instinctively scattered to either side to avoid it, charging straight into the Black Tiger Gang members who had withdrawn to the edges. Miserable screams rang out as more than half their number were caught in the stampede.
Yu Wu watched the scene with a livid face. He had brought two hundred men, and with the two hundred already stationed there, he had only four hundred in all.
Yet in that instant, he had lost more than two hundred. The hundred or so who remained had been scattered, and for the time being they could not form a fighting force worth mentioning.
Just then, an unusually burly figure emerged from beneath the foremost ox cart and raced straight for the closed city gate.
Who else could it be but Wang Hao?
Wang Hao charged into the gateway and leaped, bringing his sword down to sever the gate bar. It was as thick as a bowl and forged from hundred-refined fine iron. Then he unleashed a thousand jin of force and kicked the gate open a crack.
Just as he was about to push it farther open, his expression sharpened. He used Besieged on All Sides, a defensive move from the Ten Stances of Bloody Battle, to block a sword thrusting swiftly at him from behind. Immediately afterward, he backhanded a Sweep Away a Thousand Troops, forcing his opponent back.
"You use a sword?"
Turning around to look at the middle-aged man who had just ambushed him, Wang Hao shifted his gaze to the longsword in the man's hand.
Clearly, this was a swordsman!
And he was the first swordsman Wang Hao had faced since entering the jianghu.
He also guessed who the man was. Before he came, Wu Tai had explained everything clearly: the man leading the forces here was a Black Tiger Gang deputy leader named Yu Wu, a skilled swordsman whose strength was no less than Wang Heihu's.
In single combat, he was even harder to deal with than Wang Heihu.
"You're quite good. Pity you had to provoke our Black Tiger Gang!"
Longsword in hand, Yu Wu stared coldly at Wang Hao, a chilling light flickering in his eyes. Clearly, he was determined to kill him.
"Tch! You make it sound like I wanted to provoke your Black Tiger Gang. If Wang Heihu hadn't come looking for trouble with me, I couldn't have been bothered with you!"
Wang Hao curled his lip in disdain and retorted without giving an inch.
Yu Wu was taken aback. He knew only that someone had come to provoke the Black Tiger Gang; he did not know exactly what had happened, and had merely guessed that the man was most likely after the fierce fire oil.
But from those words, it seemed Gang Leader Wang Heihu had started the trouble. Once he understood, Yu Wu immediately cursed Wang Heihu half to death in his heart.
Of all the people you could have provoked, you had to pick a jinx who acts without restraint. Now look what's happened: even our Black Tiger Gang's headquarters is gone.
And we've lost both our gang leader and a deputy. Whether we can keep the Black Tiger Gang together afterward is another question!
"Whatever the case, you die today!"
Murderous intent surged in Yu Wu's heart once more. Wasting no more words, he attacked Wang Hao with his sword.
He was utterly confident he could kill the man. Of the Black Tiger Gang's leader and three deputy leaders, he was the strongest in single combat, not to mention that he had a trump card.
Even if the brat had used some unknown means to kill Gang Leader Wang Heihu and Deputy Leader Wang Zihong, he would surely die by Yu Wu's sword today.
"Two Armies Facing Off!"
Wang Hao refused to be outdone. He used Two Armies Facing Off, the stance with the strongest explosive power from a stationary position, sweeping his hundred-jin greatsword upward to meet Yu Wu's longsword.
Yu Wu, however, truly was a master swordsman. He was at least considerably stronger than Li Qingfeng, the master of the Qingfeng Martial Arts Hall, and brought the lightness and agility of swordsmanship to their peak.
His sword flashed, never once touching Wang Hao's greatsword. Instead, he used exquisite moves to attack Wang Hao directly, every thrust aimed at a vital point.
That was not all. The ten trusted deathsworn following close behind Yu Wu finally caught up and joined the assault on Wang Hao. All of them wielded longswords, and they even knew some combined attack techniques.
For a time, they put Wang Hao in a thoroughly sorry state. Yet instead of alarm, he felt delight, because in this situation he could clearly sense his swordsmanship improving.
Although he had previously used the Dao Comprehension Function to fully comprehend the Ten Stances of Bloody Battle, that was limited to the swordsmanship itself. Anything beyond it was another matter.
The Ten Stances of Bloody Battle was battlefield martial arts to begin with. After Dugu Qiubai improved and modified it, he brought that very characteristic to its peak.
And battlefield martial arts could only be brought to their peak on a battlefield, where one could comprehend the iron-blooded will unique to the field of battle. That was also the True Intention of the Ten Stances of Bloody Battle.
This was also why Dugu Qiubai had said that to truly master the Ten Stances of Bloody Battle, one had to go to the battlefield and temper oneself.
And now, this was a battlefield!
Facing the combined assault of eleven enemies, Wang Hao brought the Ten Stances of Bloody Battle to the limit of what he could currently achieve. With the added power of True Spirit Sword Intent, its might increased further.
Most remarkably, with the emergence of True Spirit Sword Intent, Wang Hao rapidly gained insight into the swordsmanship of Yu Wu and the others. He gradually came to understand its subtleties and, in turn, saw through its flaws.
Guided by True Spirit Sword Intent, Wang Hao gradually redirected his attacks toward those flaws, throwing the rhythm of Yu Wu and the others' assault into disarray. The pressure on him abruptly eased by a large margin.
The ten trusted deathsworn, whose cultivation was only at the peak of the Third-Rate realm, might not have understood what this meant, but Yu Wu, a late-stage Second-rate expert, understood perfectly how frightening it was.
"Certain-Kill Stance!"
Realizing this could not continue, Yu Wu suddenly roared the command. The ten trusted deathsworn were startled at first, but then their expressions hardened, and they thrust their swords as one at the vital points all over Wang Hao's body, abandoning defense entirely.
This was a certain-kill move that sacrificed everything to take the enemy down with them. It advanced without retreat.
At the same time, Yu Wu took half a step back, narrowing his eyes as he watched the besieged Wang Hao closely, waiting for a chance to deliver a killing blow!
"You came at just the right time!"
Facing the ten men's suicidal attack, Wang Hao did not retreat in the slightest. Gripping his greatsword, he unleashed Sweep Away a Thousand Troops.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
"Slash, slash, slash..."
Two strange sounds rang out. The longswords in the ten men's hands all snapped in two, while a mist of blood gushed from each of their necks.
Though a certain-kill move like this was tremendously powerful, it also magnified the user's own openings without limit. Worse still, Wang Hao was already tall and powerfully built, with arms much longer than an ordinary person's, and his greatsword was two feet longer than a typical longsword.
That gave him a full three feet more reach than other people, a major advantage.
Before anyone else could strike him, his blade would kill them first.
Earlier, the ten men had relied on their exquisite, nimble swordsmanship, as well as their movement methods and combined attacks, to avoid clashing with him head-on. For a time, he had been unable to deal with them. But now they dared to abandon their strengths and expose their weaknesses with such a tactic, so he naturally had no need to hold back.
But just then, Yu Wu, who had remained on the outside, made his move. The moment he struck, he launched a certain-kill attack, bearing down on Wang Hao with overwhelming force.
Wang Hao seemed to have expected it. After completing Sweep Away a Thousand Troops, he loosened his grip and flowed into Survival in Desperate Straits, hurling his greatsword at the oncoming Yu Wu.
Yu Wu had not expected Wang Hao to counter his killing blow this way, but once he recovered, a vicious look appeared on his face.
Wang Hao's greatest strength was his swordsmanship, and that greatsword in particular was incomparably sharp and exceptionally heavy. Yu Wu had not dared touch it, which was why the fight had dragged on until now. But the brat had just thrown it away, which was no different from courting death!