Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A Duel of Cards

Mrs . Nam headed for the bed, and Zhang Hu took her seat in her stead .

Zhang Hu put his hands on the table .

“Let’s begin . ”

Liyuan smiled mockingly . She shuffled the cards as she observed the boy’s face .

This card game, known as the Blade Duel, had 28 cards in the deck . Each player would get a hand of five, and would duel using the combination of these . She served two cards between each other, to begin .

Zhang Hu picked up his cards . Just looking at this made Liyuan snort . The boy looked so amateurish! She’s never seen a novice like this one before . But then again, he’s probably just played around with his friends every once in a while, and nothing more . What more would she expect from him? Liyuan gave the boy two more cards, before getting herself two more .

She peeked at the four cards in her hand .

‘Not bad . ’

She snuck a look at Zhang Hu .

She couldn’t read the boy’s face, but his hand was trembling . He clearly didn’t have a great hand .

Liyuan grinned .

“Don’t you complain even if I hit a bit hard . ”

Zhang Hu didn’t say anything in response . He just put a card on the middle of the table .

Liyuan did the same . These were cards to be thrown away .

Liyuan served two cards to each other . Now, there were five cards in each person’s hand . The duel was to begin .

‘Can this even be called a duel?’

She smiled . It was almost embarrassing, focusing this much to play a game with a farm boy . She could see Zhang Hu’s eyes tremble in nervousness .

‘His hand sucks, huh? Heh . ’

She didn’t even have to look at the cards to know .

“Should we go with five slaps on the wrist?” Zhang Hu initiated .

“What?”

“It’s no fun to go with one slap per game, isn’t it? Especially if we’re deciding this over skill, not luck . ”

Liyuan’s smile instantly turned cold . This kid…

“You… You think you can take it?”

Zhang Hu just smiled .

“You think you can’t?”

Liyuan let out an exaggerated sigh before shaking her head . The heck was this kid doing? He was practically punching a sleeping tiger!

It’d be smart for the boy to kneel and beg for forgiveness right at that moment, but… Of course he wasn’t going to do that . He’s a kid! He’ll have to learn about what he’s done the hard way, then .

Liyuan glared at Zhang Hu from across the table .

“Is five enough for you? How about we go with ten?”

Zhang Hu nodded .

“If you’re going to do ten, why not do twenty? If you’re scared we can just go with one . ”

Liyuan smiled . Trying to pressure her now, was he? She nodded .

“Fine . Twenty slaps . Show me your cards . ”

Zhang Hu’s eyes shook a little right then .

“Are you sure? It’s going to be twenty slaps, or five punches . You can give up now if you want . ” Zhang Hu said .

Liyuan just grinned .

“Show me your cards . ”

“You first . ”

Liyuan flipped her cards one by one . It was a Sword of The General .

The girl pulled up her sleeves .

“Ready for a beating?”

Right then, Zhang Hu let out a snort . He dumped his cards on the table .

It was the Changing Sword . The one combo higher up on the ladder than the General .

Liyuan stiffened .

“Do you want 20 slaps or 5 punches?” Zhang Hu asked .

Liyuan swallowed .

“S-slaps . ”

“Come on, then . ”

Liyuan extended his left hand . Zhang Hu gripped this firmly with his right .

“This will hurt a bit . ”

Liyuan laughed . A slap from a farm boy? Hurting? Kid, I’m a martial artist, you know?

“It’s fine, kiddo . Do your worse . ”

Zhang Hu nodded, and lightly slapped the girl’s wrist with his fingers .

Slap .

It sounded so innocent .

But the pain?

Unreal .

Liyuan felt her head turn completely white . She couldn’t think . It hurt so much that she couldn’t even scream . It almost felt like her wrist got severed just then!

Zhang Hu grinned . Since he was just hitting the nerves, it shouldn’t look like anything on the outside, but the pain should be incredible .

“Now, the second slap . ”

Liyuan struggled to escape . But her arm wouldn’t move no matter what she did .

Slap .

Liyuan almost fainted from the pain .

“Third, now . ”

Slap .

“Fourth . ”

Slap, slap, slap, slap…

“Twenty . ”

Liyuan only managed to gain freedom after almost collapsing . There was nothing wrong with her wrist when she looked at it, though . It was just a little red, if anything .

She could hear Zhang Hu’s voice in the background .

“Should we stop, big sister?”

He’s taunting her, isn’t he?

She wanted to stop, she really did . But her pride wouldn’t allow it .

“No! One more game!”

* * *

It’s always a bit difficult to tell the passage of time when you’re gambling .

Liyuan was no different . She didn’t even realize it’s been four hours since Zhang Hu’s started playing with her .

That is, she had to endure intense pain for almost four hours straight .

“Big sis, why don’t we make this our last game? Winning all the time is getting kind of boring now . ”

Zhang Hu pretended to yawn as he said this . Liyuan’s beautiful face scrunched up into a devilish scowl .

‘To think I’d lose all 35 rounds!’

She couldn’t believe it .

When you ask anyone on the street who was the best at this card came, no one would hesitate to come up with an answer . The thirsty ghost of Jiangbei, Han Sabu, and Han Liyuan of the casino . This Liyuan… lost 35 rounds .

‘This doesn’t even make sense!’

Make this round the last one?

‘I’m going to win!’

Her swelling wrist hurt quite a bit . She was scared of the immense pain that followed after each slap as well . But… her pride was at stake here . Her pride as a gambler! Liyuan spoke with a solemn voice .

“Why don’t we raise the stakes even higher, then?”

Zhang Hu nodded lazily .

“Doesn’t really matter for me . Sure . ”

“A hundred hits! How about it?”

Zhang Hu smirked .

Ah… Again with that face . It’s so annoying!

But then again… He’s handsome .

“I’m fine with it, but how about you? Your wrist hurts, doesn it?”

Liyuan snorted .

“Just don’t complain after losing . Now! Let’s get it on!”

Whoosh!

The cards spun in the air as Liyuan shuffled . It almost looked mesmerizing watching her work so fluently .

But Liyuan’s heart was full of nothing but nervousness . That look Zhang Hu had on his face was giving her the chills .

‘Cold . ’

His eyes seemed incredibly cold and calculating .

It was fine, though .

Her hands were faster than the eye could see . There was no turning back now .

‘I’ll have to use that technique . ’

Zhang Hu gets the card from the bottom of the deck .

She gets a card from the top .

He gets one from the bottom again…

But then .

Zhang Hu grabbed hold of Liyuan’s wrist .

“Bottom dealing now, eh?”

“What are you talking about? You got proof?”

“Of course I do . You gave me the Changing Sword for my hand . And you’d have the Five Heavenly Kings on yours . ”

Zhang Hu flipped his cards . It was indeed the Changing Sword, the second best hand that a player could get in the game .

“Fine! I bet a thousand slaps that I don’t actually have the Five Heavenly Kings as my hand! You can back off now if you’re scared, kiddo . ”

Zhang Hu smiled .

“Fine . Mother, if you could act as a witne…”

He found Mrs . Nam sleeping when he turned . After looking at her silently for a second, he opened his mouth softly .

“Let’s stop . ”

He stood up and picked the woman up in his arms . Mrs . Nam flinched a little, but didn’t end up waking up . Zhang Hu carefully lowered her onto a bed . He tried to put a blanket over her, but was interrupted by Liyuan promptly putting herself on the same bed .

“What are you doing?” Zhang Hu scowled .

“What do you think? I’m going to be sleeping with mom . Is it alright if I sleep with you, mom?”

“Who are you calling mo…”

“Mm… Yuan? Mm . Sure . Let’s sleep . ”

Mrs . Nam hugged Liyuan as she returned to sleep . Liyuan poked her tongue at Zhang Hu before going to sleep herself .

Zhang Hu let out a very small sigh as he put a blanket over the both of them . As he turned to leave, he stopped over the table . He lifted Liyuan’s hand and waved it at her to see .

Liyuan peeked with her left eye .

It was the Five Heavenly Kings . Liyuan’s face reddened in embarrassment . Zhang Hu smiled, and turned off the lights .

Zhang Hu found himself letting out a tiny laughter as he headed for his rooms . He stroked his cheek in surprise .

‘I laughed?’

He probably laughed . He couldn’t remember how long it’s been since the last time he’s done that .

‘Was that… fun?’

It was kind of fun, now that he thought about it .

He looked back at the dark room behind him .

“Fine . I’ll let you be till morning . ”

He headed back towards his room .

* * *

Zhang Hu’s door opened moments before dawn . He walked out into the front yard with an expressionless face . There was not a sound coming from the yard, not even those from bugs .

He looked back at Mrs . Nam’s room . After confirming that he couldn’t sense anyone in it, he turned back to the gate in front of him .

Whoosh .

A blue light formed around Zhang Hu’s head, forming a third eye . The eye shot out a beam of light at the gate .

The gate turned translucent, and revealed six experts on the other side .

It was Yanhui and her group of experts . They looked quite tired after being lost in the formation for the entire night .

Zhang Hu crossed his arms .

“Bandits these days are quite something, huh . ”

Yanhui tilted her head in confusion .

“This is very strange . The track just stops here . But the tracker we placed on her is still here, which means that she should be here . But we can’t find her…”

She sighed .

“Did she fly up into the heavens?”, one of the experts asked .

“She might’ve dropped down into the ground . ” Another answered .

It was a ridiculous joke, but Yanhui seemed to have gotten an idea from it .

“Right! She might’ve holed up in the ground somewhere . ”

Several experts in the Martial World, especially assassins and spies, liked to hole up in the ground waiting for their target for days . As the story went, the best assassin of the Martial World, Wan Wuju, holed up for a full month in order to assassinate the Emperor of the Fist, Tie Liba . The man ended up failing, but he did end up making the martial arts community reevaluate the true worth of the technique .

And out of all the organizations in the Martial World, the one organization that was likely to have obscure and nigh-useless techniques like holing up in the ground was… The Xiawu Clan, of which Liyuan was the associate leader of .

“Holing up… That makes sense . ”

The five experts nodded in agreement . Yanhui looked over them with a sharp gaze .

“It’s been a day since she’s disappeared, yes? If she’s holed up here somewhere, she would’ve lasted four days at most . Let’s split up into two groups . I’ll stay here with Mr . Huang and Mr . Jin . The rest of you can keep searching . ”

The five quickly bowed .

“Yes ma’am!”

Yanhui whispered under her breath .

“My senses are telling me…”

Yanhui looked over the area before continuing .

“That bitch is here somewhere . ”