Chapter 27 — Section Twenty-Six: Then Let Us Fight!

Tang Duo's [Empty Wooden Stake] was advancing rapidly. Second-rank [Empty Wooden Stake] consisted mostly of footwork, with only some very basic techniques for raising qi, so it was not especially hard to cultivate; Drifting Palm was much the same.

Tang Tang trained [Empty Wooden Stake] with great care. Footwork was his weak point, and for close combat its importance went without saying.

He did not spend much time on Drifting Palm, cultivating it only so that he could go on to learn the third-rank [Shadow-Shattering Palm].

The time Tang Duo spent in bitter training was devoted entirely to the [Little Crushing Fist]. Stone's [Great Avalanche] had left far too deep an impression on him.

That single punch had been simply overwhelming!

So overwhelming that even now, whenever Tang Tang thought back on it, a deep shudder rose unbidden from the bottom of his heart.

It was the first time Tang Min had ever felt such an intense craving for a martial art. That was power—true, mighty power! If he could learn [Great Avalanche], he would surely look absolutely magnificent!

In every bitter training session before this, he had never once slackened, but mostly it had been a matter of gritting his teeth and enduring. This time, however, it was as though a flame were blazing fiercely inside him.

He trained like a man possessed, spending every hour of bitter training on the Little Crushing Fist.

The Little Crushing Fist was far harder to cultivate than the Flash Fist. To bring it to perfection required four hundred thousand repetitions, twice the number for the Flash Fist. And to cultivate it to the [Great Avalanche], a full million repetitions of the Little Crushing Fist were needed.

Had he not seen the power of the [Great Avalanche] with his own eyes, Tang Tang might well have ignored it altogether. A million repetitions—how long would that take?

But now, Tang Tang felt nothing but drive.

A million repetitions, was that all? A million Little Crushing Fists in exchange for such a devastating killing move—a bargain if ever there was one!

He had seen the golden card on the light gate, and he had seen the wall of mist with a corner blown apart by [Lightning Kill], but right now Tang Tang's head was filled with nothing but the [Great Avalanche]!

A chunk of the mist had been blasted away, exposing a small patch of ground.

So the mist could be blasted away after all.

Tang Tang was astonished for a moment or two, then threw himself back into frenzied training of the [Little Crushing Fist]. Perhaps it held many, many mysteries, but in Tang Tang's eyes at that moment, none of them could compare with the lure of the [Great Avalanche].

Twenty days of training, bitter training included, brought Tang Duo's Little Crushing Fist to eighty thousand repetitions.

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As usual, Han Zhao came to the Emerald Marsh Bamboo Sea. The Star Wind Martial Gathering was drawing near, and she was seizing every moment to train her qinggong. Her specialty was swordsmanship, and her exquisite water-element sword art, the [Rain-Soaked Bells], had made her the foremost expert of the Northern Swallow Academy.

Tianjing Sima Tangshan, Northern Swallow's Han Zhao, and Liang Qiu of the Fierce Beasts—these three stood at the very top of Yaocheng's hundreds of academies, and after Shangguan Qianhui's departure, their standing had become unshakable.

Among them, Northern Swallow was perhaps the most singular academy of all, for it was a women's academy, every one of its students a girl.

Han Zhao was famed as an icy beauty, and countless young men who fancied themselves men of elegance had been given the cold shoulder by her. Her manner was very much like Shangguan Qianhui's of old, so some called her "Little Qianhui," and Han Zhao herself said outright that Shangguan Qianhui was her idol.

Han Zhao went empty-handed, flitting light as a swallow through the bamboo sea, her figure graceful.

Her gaze drifted casually across the ground below. This place was home to dedicated bee hunters, and since she disliked dealing with people, she usually slipped quietly past them.

Suddenly her gaze sharpened.

In the clearing at the edge of the Emerald Marsh Bamboo Sea, a young man was training his qinggong. Han Zhao recognized at a glance that he was practicing the second-rank [Empty Wooden Stake]; his steps were somewhat stiff, and by her judgment his form could only be called clumsy.

She did not leave. She knew this young man.

Tang Tang!

In all of Yaocheng, the only man who could make Miss Qianhui smile. When Shangguan Qianhui was in Yaochuan City, Han Zhao had only just enrolled, and back then she had been filled with reverence for her.

In her heart, Shangguan Qianhui was the embodiment of perfection, and she had not even noticed that in many of her own ways she unconsciously studied and imitated her.

Yet there was one thing Han Zhao still could not understand to this day—and that was Tang Tang.

Han Zhao simply could not fathom why a woman as perfect as Miss Qianhui would take a liking to this good-for-nothing man before her!

A man who could not even manage something as simple as the second-rank [Empty Wooden Stake]—on what grounds did he deserve Miss Qianhui's favor?

Han Zhao stood upon a bamboo branch, lost in thought.

Suddenly the branch beneath her feet trembled, and Han Zhao snapped back to alertness at once. The branch shook without cease, and a faint rumbling carried on the air.

Han Zhao, seasoned as she was, recognized it immediately: a huge beast was approaching.

Yet a flicker of doubt rose in her at once. Great beasts were rare in the Emerald Marsh Bamboo Sea, for this was all marshland. Her gaze calm and steady, she slowly searched the dense bamboo.

Then, all at once, her eyes contracted.

A tiny, panic-stricken figure was darting swiftly among the bamboo. It was a little girl of seven or eight, her hair in a topknot, two tear tracks on her chubby pink cheeks, her face deathly pale, her small mouth clenched tight as she fled for dear life on hands and feet.

Han Zhao knew the girl—she belonged to the local bee-hunter clan, and Han Zhao had spotted her several times during these days of daily qinggong practice in the bamboo sea.

There must be some beast behind her!

Han Zhao bent at the waist, ready to plunge down—when all at once a huge black shape burst out of the bamboo forest.

Rumble, rumble!

The bamboo branch beneath Han Zhao's feet shook wildly, nearly throwing her off balance, and she hastily steadied herself.

An Ink-Armored Iron Rhinoceros!

Han Zhao's expression shifted slightly. How could a beast of such high rank be in the Emerald Marsh Bamboo Sea?

Mid fourth-rank—against strength like that, even at her very best Han Zhao would struggle to win with ease, and worse still, today she had not brought her sword.

Damn it!

The Ink-Armored Iron Rhinoceros was enormous, like a small hill, its whole body covered in dark green scales that swords and blades could scarcely wound, and its temper was savage. For all its bulk, it was not the least bit clumsy, and its charge was all the more terrifying for it. It paid the bamboo no heed at all, simply crushing its way straight through.

The little girl's tears flowed faster still, but she was remarkably sensible and did not cry out; she simply ran with all her might.

Yet the distance between them was closing.

Han Zhao gritted her teeth and plunged downward.

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Tang Tang was practicing the Empty Wooden Stake, bitter-training his Crushing Fist, and honing his qinggong by day. This kind of life was deeply fulfilling.

Suddenly a violent tremor ran through the ground beneath his feet.

Hm?

Tang Tang stopped in some puzzlement, and it was then that he saw a tiny figure burst out of the bamboo sea.

It was a little girl, her face full of terror, and the instant she burst into the open she saw Tang Tang.

"Big brother, run!"