Words, Fists, and a Tree

Heavy armor met the wind, a long saber dragging in his hand.

Adjutant Zhou charged with a display of raw, masculine power. Every step left a deep footprint, whether he landed on fallen leaves and soil or broken stones, everything sank deep beneath his feet.

The force driving back from beneath his feet sent him diving forward five or six meters at a time, armor and all.

Yet despite those enormous strides, he was not making great leaps, but running flat out in one continuous rush.

It was as though his whole body were gliding at breakneck speed through the howling wind.

But though Zhong Jinqiu had been unable to intercept Commander Xu just now, he could stop Adjutant Zhou.

From diagonally across from him, a narrow blade flashed toward him like wildly thrashing willow branches.

Adjutant Zhou swept his great saber across, its fan-shaped shadow cleaving into that cluster of flashing blade light.

Several rapid collisions in an instant merged into one sustained note.

The tip of Zhong Jinqiu's saber was like a wildflower swaying on a branch in a gale, striking the body of the great saber four or five times in a flash.

Adjutant Zhou felt the force in his hand abruptly checked. He pulled his hand back, then drew his saber back and thrust again.

His great saber was over five feet long, giving him an advantage even in a straight thrust.

Zhong Jinqiu was indeed forced back by the thrust, but a figure shot in from the other side like a venomous snake skimming the ground, the saber in his hand slashing straight at Adjutant Zhou's lower leg.

Adjutant Zhou raised his leg slightly and blocked the cut with his iron boot, then stomped down hard as the great saber in his hand came chopping down as well.

Old Yu rolled away, dodging the blow in utter disarray.

All Adjutant Zhou needed to do was lean forward and swing his long arm, and his second strike would cleave Old Yu in two.

But Zhong Jinqiu flashed over again, the narrow long saber in his hand pointing straight at Adjutant Zhou's eyeball like a bright silver, silent iron spike.

Zhong and Yu were now working together.

Adjutant Zhou could forget about charging forward. He could only fight as he retreated.

But his heavy armor was no ordinary equipment. As long as he turned slightly and kept his opponents from striking the gaps, their two narrow sabers could do nothing but send sparks flying off him.

Zhong and Yu's attacks were so dense, coordinated high and low as they pressed in from both sides, yet they forced him back only three or four steps.

Moreover, the longer they fought, the more they felt as though they were facing a siege crossbow drawing back for a shot.

At some unknown moment, Adjutant Zhou would fully adapt, find an opening, and unleash an earth-shattering blow to break through their encirclement.

All three fought with mounting tension.

Deep in the woods, however, Commander Xu had already stopped.

He had seen the thick needle in the back of the special envoy's head.

"You... are Chu Tianshu?!"

Xu Youjiang's brow ridges rose and his nostrils flared as he drew breath like an ox. He spoke slowly, as though sizing Chu Tianshu up.

"When I was your age, all I did was kill some nameless Boxer rebels and follow my foster father around, confiscating the property of a few petty officials who didn't know what was good for them."

"I can't compare to you!"

The more he spoke, the more smoothly his words flowed, and he actually began to sound reflective.

"At your age, you've already managed to kill a special envoy from the capital. Your future is truly boundless. If I were your age, I'd certainly ask to be your sworn little brother."

Chu Tianshu watched him, rolled his wrist, and smiled. "You even found someone to kill your own foster father. If I became your sworn brother, I'm afraid I'd die even faster. I'm not fortunate enough to accept."

"What a pity. Even if you won't be my brother, you'll still have to die today."

Commander Xu shifted his gaze. "You killed so many ninjas and defeated Meng Daizong, charging forward at full speed and putting your whole strength into every move. The effort you spent killing each person was probably enough to run two li along a mountain road."

"And you still have to protect the Grand Governor behind you!"

Xu Youjiang suddenly raised his voice. "Grand Governor, judging by your complexion, the poison hasn't completely cleared, has it? The flute in your hand looks rather extraordinary."

"You used your tricks to fool so many of my men. Can you still play any other tune on that flute now?"

Cai Shanjun merely smiled at him, a hint of thoughtfulness in his smile.

He looked not as though he were watching a formidable man who had come to kill him, but as though he were examining a flawed stroke in a painting that had taken half his life, considering how to revise it in the future.

The look in his eyes and the expression on his face were truly too vivid.

Even Xu Youjiang, a crude man who knew nothing of calligraphy or painting, could plainly sense the way Cai Shanjun was looking at him as though he were a painting.

A surge of anger immediately swept through him, and his face darkened.

If the other man had said even half a sentence, or merely grunted, he could have kept the exchange going.

But Cai Shanjun said nothing, wearing that expression...

Xu Youjiang's nameless fury shot straight to the top of his skull, and he felt his scalp itching and heating up.

He instantly caught himself and withdrew his sidelong glance, focusing solely on Chu Tianshu again.

That Cai was infuriating!

He had meant to strike at these people and overwhelm them in spirit.

But if he looked at that Cai a few more times, he feared he would be the first to lose his composure.

Chu Tianshu was smiling too, though his smile was not nearly as infuriating.

"How many of your own men did you kill?"

Chu Tianshu raised his right hand and straightened his collar. "Your clothes seem to have a few tears in them too."

"Were they grazed by bullets, or torn by bomb fragments?"

Xu Youjiang's military uniform did indeed have a few tears, exposing a little of the dark gold beneath.

He was certainly wearing some kind of soft armor next to his skin.

When he had no choice on the battlefield, he had protected the rest of his body and taken the grenade fragments on the parts covered by soft armor.

"In a battlefield like that, how often would a martial artist's danger sense flash? Like a downpour beating against a bronze gong?"

Chu Tianshu looked curious. "Sensing danger at extreme speed and reacting in an instant got you here looking as though you don't have a single injury on your body."

"But have you noticed that your brain is much hotter than usual?"

Xu Youjiang wanted to remain perfectly composed and keep the other man from seeing the slightest opening.

But in truth, the skin at the corner of his eye was twitching uncontrollably.

Because the other man's words had hit the truth.

"You fought your way through a forest of guns and a rain of bullets, then raced all the way here, while I waited at ease for an exhausted enemy. Judging by your age, you're probably twice as old as I am."

Chu Tianshu smiled. "Which of us has really spent more, and which of us will recover faster?"

Commander Xu's fists gradually clenched.

His fingers curled, digging into his palms. Every knuckle swelled as he exerted force, and the spaces between his fingers were squeezed tightly shut.

Blue veins covered them, and thick black hair grew on the backs of his fingers.

His hands no longer looked like fists, but like two dense, heavy lumps of iron.

The main art Xu Youjiang practiced was the Skanda Body-Tempering Striking Art, a hard art with an extraordinary origin.

After a prince of the former Qing led troops to burn down Southern Shaolin, he obtained secret manuals of Southern Shaolin's Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt. Combining them with the medicinal methods for refining strength and fortifying the body passed down from Dorgon and Oboi, he developed this hard art and stored it in the imperial armory.

Although nominally a single martial art, it was divided into two parts, an earlier and a later one.

The earlier part focused on fist techniques; once mastered, it allowed one to reach the realm of Dragon Coils Around the Body.

The later part involved many medicinal baths; once mastered, it allowed one to attain the realm of Guanyin Bone.

Commander Xu had trained diligently without pause in his early years and mastered Dragon Coils Around the Body. In recent years, he had continued practicing every day and sent people far away to purchase expensive medicinal ingredients, bringing his mastery of the later part to sixty or seventy percent.

If he had not spent the past few years recruiting soldiers and building up his power, and had not been unable to restrain himself from taking many wives and concubines, distracting himself, he would probably have mastered the later part completely by now.

Thinking of this now, he suddenly felt a trace of regret.

What was so good about women? They were nothing but bones and flesh, all the same, and not interesting at all.

Why hadn't he been able to restrain himself before?

If he had, he would have mastered the art completely, and his chances of winning today would have been much greater.

"You think you've spent less and will recover faster?"

Xu Youjiang forcibly suppressed the agitation in his heart and smiled again like a crocodile baring its teeth.

"Then you can wait a little longer. Unfortunately, my adjutant is impatient. I wonder if those two companions of yours can hold out until then?"

Chu Tianshu's breathing was quiet, long, and deep. Though the smile had faded from his face, his expression was even more composed.

"After the stone has been thrown, that's when the catapult itself is most vulnerable."

Chu Tianshu was still telling the truth. "That Zhou is looking for a chance to unleash his power, but when he does, will he succeed in breaking the encirclement, or will a sword pierce the opening he leaves?"

Of the two hundred soldiers at the dock, Xu and Zhou had personally slaughtered scores of them, breaking their morale and sending them jumping into the water to flee in every direction.

The ninjas lay dead throughout the woods, and a needle was lodged in the special envoy's head.

At this time, in this place.

Xu Youjiang's only helper was Adjutant Zhou.

If they waited until the fight on Adjutant Zhou's side was decided, and Zhou happened to lose, Xu Youjiang would surely be surrounded and attacked.

Did he have that much trust and confidence in his adjutant?

He did not.

At this point, Xu Youjiang actually smiled.

"All right, then let's wait and see..."

The final word was suddenly drowned out by the rush of wind.

Xu Youjiang shifted more than three meters sideways and slammed a fist into a tree.

The two sides had talked so much to buy themselves time to recover their strength, and because they had sensed the threat the other posed.

If one of them tried to attack first, his movement would surely be larger, making it more likely that the enemy would seize an opening.

Since he had no choice but to attack first, he might as well make the movement as large, as crude, and as fierce as possible!!

His fist, like a great lump of iron, blasted forward. The trunk, as thick as the mouth of a bowl, shifted out of line and snapped on the spot.

The break was full of jagged splinters, the result of moist, tough wood fibers being torn and snapped apart in that instant.

Before the upper half of the tree could begin to fall, Xu Youjiang grabbed its trunk, fully extending his forward arm and pressing it against the wood.

The tree was over four meters long, its crown a chaotic mass of thick branches.

Every branch and leaf in the crown was dragged backward by the air in an instant, and a multitude of leaves were shredded and burst flying.

The shadow of the crown was enough to cover an entire car.

It accelerated sharply and smashed straight toward Chu Tianshu!

What overwhelming force was this? How astonishingly did it obstruct his vision?!

Did the one who struck first have an opening?

As long as the weapon was large and heavy enough, even if there was an opening, it would be suppressed in that instant as though it did not exist!