Chapter 69: Barring the Path
Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Barring the Path
Zhuoyan Village.
The first light of dawn broke.
Shopfronts along the street began taking down their door boards.
Farmers and traveling merchants heading to the early market gathered in twos and threes at roadside stalls, sipping scalding-hot congee or soy milk and gnawing on steamed buns and fried dough sticks from rough porcelain bowls.
"Let’s find a place to rest our feet and get something to eat."
Mu Yuanying’s voice was a bit hoarse, her expression weary as she scanned the somewhat noisy morning market.
Chen Shouheng nodded. He was already starving.
After leaving the Water Bandits’ lair, the two hadn’t dared to stop, racing through the night. Despite their Martial Arts, the long, overnight journey had left them utterly exhausted.
They found a stall that looked relatively clean and sat down, ordering two bowls of hot congee, a few small plates of pickled vegetables, and several coarse-flour steamed buns fresh from the steamer.
The warm congee settled in their stomachs, chasing away the chill and slightly easing their fatigue.
Chen Shouheng wolfed down the steamed buns. Mu Yuanying was more refined, but she ate quickly as well.
They ate in silence, seizing the rare moment of respite.
’Those three saber-wielding men are most likely dead or captured. We have to report the location of the Water Bandits’ lair and the whereabouts of the government grain as soon as possible.’
After filling their stomachs and resting a little longer, the two set out, preparing to hurry back to Jingshan County Town.
Just a few miles outside the market town, the sound of a heated argument reached them from not far ahead.
By the roadside, a man and a woman were arguing, their faces flushed red.
The woman was exceptionally obese and wore a garish silk dress. With her hands on her hips, she pointed a finger at the man across from her, spittle flying as she screamed, "Are your eyeballs about to pop out of your head? Is that little hussy so good-looking? I work myself to the bone running this household, and you? All you can think about is other women! Spit it out! What kind of sordid affair are you two having?"
The man across from her was as tall and thin as a bamboo pole, dressed in worn, gray short clothes. His small eyes were sunken in their sockets, surrounded by heavy, dark circles.
He craned his neck and protested, "I wasn’t looking! Who says I was looking? It’s... it’s nothing! Stop your baseless shouting!"
"Nothing? Your eyes were practically glued to her! Do you take me for a blind woman?"
The fat woman’s voice grew shriller, the flesh on her face trembling with rage. A conspicuous red mole between her eyebrows quivered with her every movement.
Chen Shouheng and Mu Yuanying exchanged a glance. They didn’t want to get involved and only wished to leave as quickly as possible.
They tacitly agreed to detour around them.
However, just as they were about to bypass the arguing couple, the fat woman suddenly stopped cursing, and the skinny man ceased his protests.
Almost in unison, they turned their heads and stared at Chen Shouheng and Mu Yuanying.
"Stop!"
The fat woman shrieked, her obese body moving with surprising agility to block the middle of the road.
The skinny man silently moved to block their path on the other side.
Chen Shouheng frowned, halted, and said in a low voice, "We’re just passing through and have no intention of disturbing you."
Mu Yuanying’s eyes turned cold, her hand quietly resting on the hilt of the longsword at her waist.
The timing of this couple’s appearance and their act of blocking the road felt inexplicably strange.
The fat woman’s eyes, squeezed into mere slits by her fleshy cheeks, darted between Chen Shouheng’s and Mu Yuanying’s faces, a flicker of barely perceptible excitement within them. "Passing through? You’re unfamiliar faces! What... are your names?"
"Never seen them before."
The skinny man lifted his head, his small eyes gleaming with a cold light from deep within their sockets as he also stared intently at them. When his gaze fell upon Mu Yuanying, however, it revealed a lecherous cunning.
’Why would this couple stop us to ask for our names?’
Alarm bells rang in Chen Shouheng’s mind. He took a subtle step to the side. "We are strangers who have met by chance, so there’s no need for names. We’re in a hurry to be on our way. Goodbye."
With that, he signaled to Mu Yuanying, and the two again tried to go around.
"Trying to leave?"
The faint, fake smile on the fat woman’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a savage sneer. "I’m asking you a question! Are you deaf or dumb? Speak! Are you Chen Shouheng and Mu Yuanying?"
At these words, the expressions of both Chen Shouheng and Mu Yuanying changed dramatically!
’In the middle of nowhere, some random couple shows up and actually knows our names?’
’Who are they?’
A thousand thoughts raced through their minds in an instant.
’This couple means trouble. Could it be that after the three saber-wielding men were captured last night, they gave us up?’
"Attack!"
The skinny man let out a low roar, his figure lunging forward like a phantom.
His five fingers formed a claw, their tips glinting with a dark light as he lunged straight for Chen Shouheng’s throat.
His speed was astonishing!
At the same time, the fat woman’s massive body exploded with an agility that defied her size, crashing toward Mu Yuanying like a mountain of flesh.
Her palms were thick and fleshy, yet they contained a terrifying power capable of shattering stone. The Palm Wind howled, cutting off all of Mu Yuanying’s escape routes.
’Qi Realm Perfection!’
Mu Yuanying’s pupils constricted as she instantly assessed her opponent’s strength.
She dared not hesitate. The longsword at her waist flew from its sheath, transforming into a streak of cold light that aimed precisely for the center of the fat woman’s palm, an attempt to counter brute force with finesse.
CLANG!
The collision of sword and palm actually produced the sound of metal striking metal.
Mu Yuanying felt an immense force surge toward her, making her wrist go numb and her blood churn. She couldn’t help but take half a step back.
This fat woman’s power far exceeded that of an ordinary Qi Realm Perfection master.
On the other side, Chen Shouheng was in an even more precarious situation.
Though he was prepared, he instantly unleashed his Tiger Subduing Fist, his fists striking like a tiger descending a mountain to meet the skinny man’s sharp claws.
However, the difference in their Realms was laid bare in that instant.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Fists and claws collided, and Powerful Qi blasted outward.
Chen Shouheng felt the force from his opponent’s claws was insidious and crafty, like maggots burrowing into bone, constantly corroding his own fist’s power.
With every clash, a sliver of cold, sinister Inner Qi drilled into his meridians, causing his own blood and qi to stagnate.
Even though he pushed the ferocity of his Tiger Subduing Fist to its absolute limit—the wind from his punches howling with the faint sound of a tiger’s roar, and even vaguely touching upon Fist Intent—he was still suppressed by his opponent’s Qi Realm Perfection Cultivation. He could only scramble to defend himself, relying on his Body Technique to constantly dodge and block, finding himself completely outmatched.
Meanwhile, Mu Yuanying, relying on her exquisite Swordsmanship, was temporarily fighting the fat woman on even ground.
Her sword flashed like a viper striking—swift and vicious, aimed exclusively at the vital points on her opponent’s body.
But the fat woman’s flesh seemed to possess an incredible defensive quality. The tip of the sword felt like it was sinking into a swamp, most of its force dispersed.
Moreover, her strength was immense. Every palm strike was so heavy and powerful that Mu Yuanying was forced to use deftness to neutralize them, unable to meet them head-on.
In the blink of an eye, the four had exchanged over a hundred blows.
Cold sweat beaded on Chen Shouheng’s forehead. His breathing was ragged, his chest heaving violently.
His blood and qi had been greatly depleted by the constant clashes and the erosion from his opponent’s cold Inner Qi.
The ferocity of the Tiger Subduing Fist required immense blood and qi to sustain, and his was now showing signs of exhaustion.
"Can’t hold on much longer, can you, boy?"
The skinny man let out a sinister laugh.
Seizing the moment Chen Shouheng paused to breathe, the man’s figure abruptly accelerated. He closed the distance like a phantom, pressing a silent palm strike toward Chen Shouheng’s chest.