The People's Plight

Zhang Manqian is very skilled at street brawls.

It may seem like just fighting a bunch of thugs, but street brawls require extremely high levels of skill.

When fighting in the street, no one knows when the opponent will attack, what weapon they are using, whether there is broken glass on the ground, or whether the opponent will attack one person or several people at a time.

"Actually, regardless of whether you're in a dominant or subordinate position, the most effective way to fight in the street is to run!"

Zhang Manqian's summary was very simple.

run.

If you are surrounded and blocked from both sides, you must run out as fast as you can, even if it means taking a beating.

The strong reap kills as they run, while for the weak, running away is the most effective defense.

This includes both physical fitness and mental fitness.

Zhang Xuezhou was a weakling at the time, and Zhang Manqian's teachings were also based on the perspective of a weakling. Consequently, Zhang Xuezhou ran away particularly happily after nearly a hundred villagers flooded into the ancestral hall.

"Well!"

Seeing Zhang Xuezhou, a True Spirit Realm cultivator, running around aimlessly, Dong Zhongshu couldn't help but sigh.

But after being kicked, he quickly managed to pull himself together.

Without using his sword or Technique Method to kill, the only way he could subdue the villagers was to throw wild punches and fight them off.

Moreover, he also had to dodge sudden attacks from woodcutters or bamboo arrows shot from who-knows-where.

Dong Zhongshu fought with great frustration, but he knew very well that suffering minor injuries was not a problem.

As long as Zhang Xuezhou is unharmed, his injuries will heal quickly.

"Accountant Du, run! Run and fight!"

Zhang Xuezhou's shouts came from afar. Dong Zhongshu took two steps, threw a villager to the ground with a shoulder throw, and was unexpectedly hit on the back of the knife.

He exhaled a breath of cold air.

If he didn't use swordsmanship to injure these villagers, it would indeed be extremely difficult for him to disarm them.

Among the group, only the guest elder Zhang Debiao fought reliably. This guest elder had followed Master Zhao for many years and learned some Iron Body Techniques, making him unafraid of being slashed by ordinary knives in many parts of his body.

More than ten people were piled up around Zhang Debiao, making it difficult for them to get up for a while. However, Zhang Debiao was also bound by feet and held by arms. Some people even jumped on Zhang Debiao and bit him. Under such many restrictions, it was extremely difficult for him to make any further contributions.

As for Xu Ji, the cultivator from the farming family, let's not even talk about him.

This guy actually tried to reason with these villagers, but someone punched him in the wound from the arrow wound he had previously sustained, and he passed out from the pain after only a couple of jumps.

Xu Ji's grandson, Xu Yuan, kept up with Zhang Xuezhou, beating people as he ran, knocking down three in a row.

As for the rest of the merchant group, they had not yet been revived by Xu Ji and were all lying on the ground like corpses.

Dong Zhongshu unleashed a flurry of punches, which sent him leaping two meters away. He then used his right hand to brace himself against the incense burner and jumped over it.

Several quick-witted villagers rushed over with knives, but as soon as they reached the incense burner, Dong Zhongshu kicked one of them away and punched the other to the ground.

"It's definitely easier to hit someone while running!"

A sound like wind rushing behind him came, but Dong Zhongshu didn't turn around at all and leaped forward.

The sound of a woodcutter's axe striking the ground rang out, and Dong Zhongshu barely brushed past him.

"Zhang Debiao, run and beat them up!"

Nowadays, battles are all face-to-face, and it's rare to see situations where you fight while running, but Dong Zhongshu thought that fighting on the run wasn't bad.

He found it convenient after trying it out for the first time, and recommended it to his guest advisor Zhang Debiao.

"These barbarians are unkillable, and even beating them severely won't work. Accountant Du, you're putting me in a difficult position. Now you expect me to run around and beat them up?"

Zhang Debiao shouted.

The pain from the teeth biting his neck made him want to slap the other person, but he was afraid that the surge of his Qi and Blood and energy would blow their head off.

However, without using the power of his internal Qi and Blood, it was indeed difficult to pry open the other person's head while his arm was being held tightly and he was carrying the weight of a person.

Iron Body Technique protects against slashes but not needles, and it is still painful.

With teeth biting into his neck, Zhang Debiao could not bear the pain and could only lead five or six villagers back and forth in a haphazard manner.

A chaotic battle broke out in the ancestral hall, with the scene in complete disarray.

But what Dong Zhongshu feared most was that he had not yet discovered the tiger demon's location.

He possesses immense strength at the Divine Ability Realm, but this does not mean that Dong Zhongshu can crush opponents of the same cultivation level in any situation.

Anything can happen in a chaotic battle; even a lowly soldier on the battlefield could kill a powerful cultivator. It wouldn't be surprising if he were injured or killed by the tiger demon.

Dong Zhongshu exhaled, using the momentum to leap and forcefully stomp over a villager's head. Before the villager could react, he pushed off with his foot and leaped again, directly out of the ancestral hall.

"Quickly, catch the most dangerous one! He's escaped!"

An old woman raised a fire poker and pointed it at Dong Zhongshu Dong Zhongshu stared back at her.

Seeing the anger flashing in the other person's eyes, Dong Zhongshu was momentarily unable to make a judgment.

He landed lightly, kicking the hunter behind him who was holding a bamboo bow and arrows to the ground. Seeing that the hunter was about to struggle to get up, Dong Zhongshu kicked him again, making it difficult for him to get up.

"You, citizens of the Great Han, have colluded with the tiger demon to wreak havoc on this region! I will report to the governor of Ba County, and you will all be imprisoned. Those guilty of the most serious crimes will be exiled to the army!" Dong Zhongshu shouted.

"Where was the imperial court when we needed it? Who came to our rescue when we were ravaged by the tiger demon? We pay every single tax to Ba County City every year, but when has Ba County City ever protected us?"

Dong Zhongshu's words seemed to have provoked the old woman's anger.

She angrily questioned Dong Zhongshu.

This angry question was mixed with the helplessness of ordinary people, as well as the compromises that the villagers had to make under the coercion of the tiger demon.

This also explains why the villagers were so cooperative.

If anyone escapes and reports to the authorities, their village will inevitably suffer the fate described by Dong Zhongshu.

To survive, the entire village needs to cooperate.

Whether they surrendered voluntarily or were forced to join the tiger demon, the county government would not ask about these things during interrogation. As long as it was confirmed that they had been involved in harming people, the entire village would be punished.

Seeing that Dong Zhongshu had not been drugged by the smoke magic and had escaped from the ancestral hall, the villagers were very anxious.

This gave Dong Zhongshu a sudden idea, and he took off running towards the edge of the village.

"Chase them! Chase them quickly!"

Perhaps because the demon in this village is a tiger demon, which is too domineering over other creatures without intelligence, no hunting dogs are kept in the village.

Dong Zhongshu faced few obstacles when he set out.

"Just wait for the soldiers of Ba County to come and wipe you out!"

Dong Zhongshu cried out.

He ran for several hundred meters, about to step onto the muddy path, when he heard a deafening roar of a tiger.

His guess was right; the villagers couldn't withstand the imperial court's siege, and the tiger demon clearly didn't want to change locations easily.

As Dong Zhongshu regained his footing, a fierce wind swept over him from behind.

Just as the tiger's claws were about to strike his neck, Dong Zhongshu's sword flew out from his waist, and he lunged forward, swinging his longsword back with his right hand.

This was a variation of the "returning spear" technique. Although the sword move executed with the longsword wasn't particularly powerful, it undoubtedly prevented the tiger demon's claws from piercing through the longsword and striking down.

"Duh!"

With a soft shout, Dong Zhongshu took out a Law Treasure fan from his back with his left hand. As he fanned it forcefully, a wind blade quickly condensed within the Law Treasure.

"Damn it, where did a cultivator like you come from?"

The tiger demon, disguised as an old woman, instantly reverted to its original form and roared.

The ability to fight with swords and wield Technique Method is more common among demons than humans.

Humanity has either developed Technique Method or martial arts, both embarking on the path of pursuing perfection.

This specialization in one area has led to a proliferation of human skills.

However, this also gives high-level demons a slight advantage when targeting human cultivators.

Although demons have few Technique Method, they are skilled in both close and long-range combat, and can employ both literary and martial arts. In the initial clash, when their strengths and weaknesses are unknown, demons usually have the upper hand.

The tiger demon was extremely old and had killed at least eighty to a hundred cultivators. He had never fought against an opponent he couldn't defeat with Technique Method or in close combat upon their first meeting.

He cursed, but before he could finish venting, his heart tightened.

A sharp pain shot through my eyes, and a sense of impending death quickly washed over me.

Before the tiger demon could even think, its body exploded.

"This time it won't be so easy to escape!"

Dong Zhongshu gave a soft shout, and the wind blades flashed past under his control.

The tiger demon is not a Bashe (a type of snake), and its body is not as hard as a rock.

Dong Zhongshu's wind blade pierced through like a sharp blade, and then quickly cut.

This time, the tiger demon's use of the smoke escape technique was clearly not as easy as before. With repeated cuts, the tiger demon's body was cleaved into several pieces.

As pieces of his body fell, a tiger's roar was followed by dozens of vengeful spirits baring their fangs and claws as they emerged.

Before Dong Zhongshu could wave his Law Treasure fan again, all the demons were sucked into a red demon core.

But in just a brief moment, the red demon core shattered, and a tiger-headed imp leaped out before disappearing into the darkness.

"Having raised so many accomplices, have you become a ghost yourself?"

Dong Zhongshu was slightly taken aback.

The process from a normal death to becoming a ghost is by no means quick. Ordinary vengeful spirits need to be buried in an auspicious place for three years before they can take human form, while special yin objects often take decades or even hundreds of years to refine.

Seeing the tiger demon transform into a tiger-headed imp in such a short time, Dong Zhongshu was somewhat surprised by how quickly the demon could transform after losing its body.

But just a few seconds later, a loud scream from the pursuing villagers brought Dong Zhongshu back to his senses.

Clearly, there was a price to pay for the tiger demon's rapid transformation into a ghost.