No Signs of Time that had Gone by
Though his gaze was cast in front of him, Li Zizi’s eyes were blank. His yang qi flow switched between normal and in reverse. The only thing worth praising was that his warm qi made their way to his limbs to provide a boost. Typically, it’d take years for someone refining their qi to have their qi flow in the same manner, so it was ridiculous for someone to achieve the feat in less than two months.
Li Zizi was confident his shifu was right. If he couldn’t defeat the five, then he had no right to wield the power. Little did he know that his shifu withheld critical information from him. While the five were unacquainted and didn’t seem to have any strategy to their advance, all of them assumed positions to stop their prey from escaping an encirclement. The one route they left open was dangerous trap for any naïve fool. The five of them weren’t small-time thugs or bums in the martial world.
Tong Chuan, the leader of the group, was a violent criminal in the underworld with a long list of crimes to his name. He used his heavy bronze whip as a disguise for his notoriously violent reputation. The fact that the other four he wasn’t acquainted with were willing to accept him as their leader made a point. Even though he stood right at the rear of the group, his hostility was uncoverable.
The big-bellied man armed with an executioner broadsword was a bandit from the desert in the northwest. Though his skills were limited, he was fearless and possessed incredible brute strength.
Peng Caiji, a broadsword wielder who chose to hang his weapon from his sash, was once a disciple of Liuzhou’s Longcheng Sect until he turned to villainy. Though his amble to the left-hand side was devoid of threat, he never loosened his grip on his weapon. He was the first one among the five to focus on Ming Feizhen instead of Li Zizi.
The bronze-cudgel wielder and the whip user were long-time allies of Tong Chuan.
The fact that the five of them hid their weapons outside of the city meant that they had the confidence to eliminate their target bare handed in the city if it was necessary. Had they approached Li Zizi a month ago, the best he could’ve achieved was fighting the weakest member to a draw, let alone surviving against five of them. Today, he walked over to them.
Tong Chuan and Peng Jicai were wary of Ming Feizhen at first glance, not to mention he also stated he was waiting for them. As a veteran, Tong Chuan let his allies go ahead whilst he monitored from behind and prepared himself to intervene were it needed. He didn’t expect the weak kid to march forward on his own.
Before they knew it, Li Zizi passed by one person, two people… all the way to Tong Chuan. By the time Tong Chuan noticed, it was too late to dodge the punch aimed at his chest. Following an eye-twitching bone break and the scene of a body zooming through the air, the lanky elder smashed into a tree in the distance, becoming fragments of his once complete self.
Li Zizi exhaled as white smoke coiled around his skull. Upon recovering self-awareness, he found himself confused over what transpired. Following a whirlwind of emotions surging up, he haphazardly crouched down to evade a blade swung at his neck. He barely evaded the next eight swings also aimed at his head. Had it been a month ago, he would’ve been caught, yet he managed to speedily evade death by a hair’s breadth every time today.
Peng Caiji’s Marrowglue Broadswordplay was an advanced discipline belonging to Longcheng Sect. The constant barrage of attacks aimed at vitals was where the discipline derived its name from. He timed it right as Tong Chuan fell, never expecting Li Zizi to dodge the first attack, let alone the next eight. Although Peng Jicai didn’t train his eyes through his discipline, the design of the techniques allowed him to stay on his opponent’s head, reducing their room to manoeuvre until their death was inevitable. He exceeded the speed at which he could execute his techniques while maintaining a visual on his target, so he was shocked Li Zizi could still dodge. It was impossible to predict Li Zizi’s next move since the previous movement didn’t give a hint as to what was next. It wasn’t a demonstration of physical prowess but a qi circulation method that was beyond Peng Caiji’s comprehension.
After dodging all the attacks, Li Zizi felt his heart ache as if his heart would explode. The pain reminded him of a warning his shifu gave: “Pure Yang One Qi is not designed for protracted battles.” After the first breath of pure yang qi was depleted, the practitioner would come under attack. Now, he was paying for using that first breath.
Suddenly, Li Zizi suffered vertigo, loss of vision, loss of hearing, and even loss of control over his body. It was his first time experiencing helplessness in the heat of battle. He tried to summon qi and collect pure yang qi, but it only locked up his true qi flow even further, restricting his movements more.
Paraplegia was only one sign of qi deviation and far from the most serious symptoms. Li Zizi expended all his qi in his first punch, and then he emptied out his qi source when he used Pure Yang One Qi’s mobility techniques to evade the strikes. Had he not scared the other four after his surprising victory against Tong Chuan, he’d already be a corpse. Peng Caiji was the only person who was brave enough to jump in first, but even he hesitated once all his attacks were given the slip.
Rather than experience fear after witnessing Tong Chuan’s death, the big man felt even more motivated to fight. He raised his executioner broadsword overhead and swung for Li Zizi’s head.
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