Martial King's Retired Life

Inside the Golden Shrine – There Will Only be Three Episodes

Hong Jiu’s palm thrust made dust rose and blew as if a sand dragon was spawned. The short man twirled his wrist and thrust back with the ferocity of a violent ocean wave. Upon impact, both men staggered back three steps each, yet nobody heard a sound from the inception to moment of impact.

“Ten Thousand Miles Dragon Rider isn’t so impressive, after all,” sneered the shorter man, initiating this time.

Hong Jiu went to meet his opponent head on, but he felt his force redirected.

After Hero Shenzhou and Ming Huayu, Hong Jiu was the third person to have truly mastered Daluo Empty Palms, and the discipline was the greatest force-redirection discipline. While the short man’s method of redirecting Hong Jiu’s force was not as sophisticated, its internal cultivation could hold a candle to Daluo Empty Palms.

With his competitive spirit now stimulated, Hong Jiu energetically forged forth, neutralising his opponent’s technique with his force. Their hands clashed in silence again, but the colliding forces were erased instead of resulting in a blast wave.

“Empty Palms certainly proved its dominance over the last few decades, but do you think it’s over?”

Hong Jiu spun and ducked onto the ground. He was not one to care for how graceful he looked in combat, so it actually saved him from looking pathetic. A blast of wind rotated backwards, adding more force to the palm strike from the first exchange. The shorter man absorbed the force with both hands as if he could generate a vacuum and then unleashed it as a blast. As a result, he created a dent in the ground as dirt rose.

“Take this!”

Before the shorter man could figure out why there was no movement inside the wall of dust, Hong Jiu had rolled away from the blast using Beggar’s Sect’s “Ninefold Lotus Bloom, Triple Coiled Ground Roll” and then returned fire with “Dragons Battle in the Wild”.

Turning back to block Hong Jiu’s attack would have put him at a disadvantage, but there was no alternative.

“Motherf-”

The shorter man flapped his eyelids as Hong Jiu suddenly vanished again, only to then hear a moment later, “Who’s the motherflipper who dug this hole?” as Hong Jiu crawled out from underground.

Hong Jiu dug it, but he forgot about it as the wall of dust and his own focus on the fight led to him forgetting about it.

As soon as Hong Jiu got to his feet, he sensed cold energy encroach again.

“You’re still alive?!” thundered Hong Jiu, sensing the tall man’s sneak attack from behind.

While his companion stalled Hong Jiu, the shorter man spun around and grinned. “How much longer do you plan on hiding in the shadows for?”

With an effortless wave of his hand, the shorter man generated a mobile tornado. Despite collecting energy into his hands, Tang Ye’s blood and qi still spiralled out of control, leaving him with no other option aside from riding the momentum of the tornado to repel himself. Once he escaped it, though, he heard from behind, “Your finger skills aren’t bad. Your qi is abundant, yet you’re weak. Are you injured or are you suffering qi deviation?”

Tang Ye detected multiple palms readied behind him, all of which were aimed at different vitals. The purpose of the wind spiral was to lure Tang Ye into this particular position. In response, Tang Ye aimed his left thumb to the rear underneath his right armpit in anticipation for an attack at his acupoint. His opponent scoffed at the naïve tactic and thrust both palms forwards, intending to break Tang Ye’s thumb. Never did he expect Tang Ye to drop and roll, then return fire with three kicks.

He had witnessed Tang Ye neutralise his qi tornadoes and fight using finger techniques. Therefore, he thought Tang Ye’s main weapons were his fingers, never expecting Tang Ye to also be a proficient kicker. The only thing he could do was wait for Tang Ye to finish kicking before he could advance his hands again. Instead of using the momentum of his roll to escape, Tang Ye surprisingly kicked off the floor to propel himself back towards his opponent to engage in a hand trapping fight, throwing his opponent into disarray.

The surprising counter was as ironically comical as it was frustrating, but it also made the shorter man stop underestimating Tang Ye. He circled his hands around each other, enhancing his force through rotation. In turn, Tang Ye felt he was being bound, taking away his mobility. As he attempted to break out again, Tang Ye felt two qi tornadoes pull his true qi in different directions. Tang Ye’s moment of bewilderment became the prime opportunity to put him in a lock.

While Tang Ye could not identify the strange discipline that utilised spiral motions to redirect force and secure a lock, he did not lose his composure since Hong Jiu had settled his fight.

“Behave,” shouted Hong Jiu, throwing his towering opponent into the ground with a hard thud. With a hostage now in his grasp, Hong Jiu stated, “You let my guy go, and I’ll let your guy go.”

“Kill him for all I care,” replied the shorter man, grinning. “You thought we were friends?”

Hong Jiu sneered under his breath and then ripped off the tall man’s mask. Although he had very pale skin, compared to the rest of his body, the forty-odd-years-old man’s complexion looked healthy. Hong Jiu could not put a name to his face despite his experience.

“So what if you’ve seen the face of a nobody?”

After he thought it through, Hong Jiu replied, “Release him, and I’ll give you two hours to get away. If you trust me, release him right now.”

“Hahaha, if you can’t be trusted, nobody else in this world can be trusted.”

Hong Jiu lobbied the tall man over to his companion once the shorter man hurled Tang Ye over.

As he unsealed his companion’s acupoints, the smiling short man asked, “I take it that we have developed a grudge?”

Hong Jiu ignored the question.

The short man picked up his companion to leave without a complain, only to hear Hong Jiu suddenly question, “How did Wang Sanping die?”

The short man was caught off guard. Before he could put together a fib, Hong Jiu declared, “We have a grudge.”

When he looked back at Hong Jiu, he could virtually see an inferno in Hong Jiu’s eyes.

“How many people can I possibly find as one man in this vast land? But, every single one counts. Mark my words: you’re going to hate life from now on.”