Down below, two barehanded youths were locked in close quarters combat. One was fat but held a steady composure and possessed herculean strength. This was Han Li’s good friend Wang Dapang. Wang Dapang’s plump body boasted fists of mighty strength and a loud yell to accompany every punch. With every punch, a gust of wind followed. The other fighter was like a rat. He did not bother to block any of the punches thrown at him, and instead evaded them. It appeared that he wanted fight a war of attrition, exhausting Wang Dapang before finishing him off.
Seeing how it was a contest between his close friends, Han Li naturally wanted to watch.
After a while, Wang Dapang still showed no signs of slowing down. Although Han Li did not practice martial arts, his intuition told him that Wang Dapan would not lose.
He looked around in hopes of finding someone who could explain what was happening here.
Han Li saw a person sitting not too far away on a rock. It was a youth constantly gesturing while crying out, “Hit his head, kick his waist, ai ya! Almost! That’s right, kick his butt, use all of your strength…”
This youth was beaming radiantly as he cheered.
It almost felt as if he was standing right next to Wang Dapang, giving words of encouragement as his personal coach.
Han Li concluded that this person had nothing better to do, so he slowly climbed down the tree to get to where he was.
“Senior, do you know the two who are fighting and why they’re fighting?” Han Li asked politely.
“What do you mean ‘do I know’? Is there anything that I, Xiao Suanpan, don’t know? Of course I know everything about the fight! Who are you? How come I’ve never seen you before? Did you just join the sect? No, that’s not right, there’s still over half a year until the next disciple examination, so who are you then?” The person was at first very enthusiastic, but when he realized he had never seen Han Li before, his expression became serious, and even a little suspicious.
“I am Han Li, a friend of Wang Dapang who is fighting there,” Han Li replied simply.
“Wang Dapang’s friend? I know all of his friends, and you’re not one of them!” The person became more and more wary.
“Oh, I’ve been in closed door training for the past few years. Not knowing who I am is not surprising,” Han Li half lied.
“Is that right? I’ve joined the sect as a disciple 4 years ago, but I didn’t think that there’d be a person that I, the jack of all trades, did not recognize.” He looked at Han Li’s clothes and then vigorously nodded to himself at Han Li’s words.
The person and Han Li talked about a few unrelated subjects until finally he answered Han Li’s question.
“Junior Disciple, what you don’t know is that this is all because of a woman. That is…” the self-proclaimed jack of all trades said as he began to carefully explain.
It seemed that there were 2 people involved. One was called Wang Yang, who was Wang Dapang’s cousin, and the other was Boss Zhang, who was Chang Gui’s son. The two were both disciples of the Seven Mysteries Sect, but one was an outer sect disciple while the other was an inner sect disciple.
While these two had grown up in the same town, neither of them had ever spoken with each other. That had changed when a girl came from another town and was betrothed to Wang Yang. But one day, while traveling back home, the head of the Zhang family had caught a glimpse of her and decided to give her to Zhang Chang Gui. Using his money and influence, he had taken both her and her family, ignoring Wang Yang’s engagement. This grievous news had dealt a heavy blow to Wang Yang as he had long since been infatuated with her. Knowing that there was no way he’d be able to oppose the Zhang family, he jumped to his death in the river.
Even though it was a tragedy, nothing had come of his suicide.
However, his close cousin Wang Dapang, learning what had had happened, refused to let him go unavenged. After confronting Zhang Chang Gui, the two vowed to duel, with the loser agreeing to be the other’s slave.
Zhang Chang Gui may have been rash in accepting, but he understood that, in martial arts, he was inferior to Wang Dapang. He requested that he be allowed to bring friends who could help out and join in to fight multiple rounds. Wang Dapang readily agreed. Afterwards, Zhang Chang Gui used his money to look for disciples within the outer set to help him. Although Wang Dapang was poor and had no money, he was a good friend to many disciples within the sect, and so many of them had helped him train.
As a result, many had come to show of their support. The amount of hostility was on the verge of exploding.
Hearing this, Han Li had realized that this conflict had grown too serious to settle without bloodshed.
Unexpectedly, it had blown up into an enormous, popular affair.
“You should help Wang Dapang too. If they don’t abide by the rules, then we will move in and beat them until the young lords wet themselves in fear. Let them know that we peasants are not easy to bully.” The youth spoke without stopping for a single breath.
Han Li gave a bitter smile as he realized that he should not get involved. After all, picking a side would only serve to make enemies, and because of his few years of cultivation, his impulsiveness had long since been whittled away. Plus, Han Li had never learned any martial arts and wouldn’t be able to beat even the weakest disciple. After watching the competition, it would be better for him to return back to the valley.
“Good!” Suddenly, the youth cried out loud.
Upon hearing the youth, Han Li turned his head back to look at the fight. As it turns out, Wang Dapang’s enemy slipped up and was struck in the forehead by a large fist, sending him to the ground.
Immediately a part of the crowd cheered in support while the others had nasty looks on their faces.
Wang Dapang’s face had a look of pride on it as he pumped his fist up. Slapping his butt, he walked back towards his side, smug about his victory.
From Zhang Chang Gui’s side came two people who took the fainted disciple away.
Then, from each side came one person. One was carrying a dagger while the other carried a sword.
Each of them had a fiery look on their faces, but they didn’t say a word. Holding their weapons up, they began to clash with the sound of ringing metal.