Wang Tianhao
“No worries, your money is good here, come get your weapon in a month.“ Hearing this, the burly fellow promised, without giving it much thought, full of confidence.
“Then I’ll rely on you, Master Ma.“ As he made the promise, a trace of a smile played across his lips. He took a bulging bag of silver from his waist, and threw it in front of the blacksmith without hesitation.
This Master Ma was no ordinary blacksmith; he was the only person who knew the true identity of ‘Fierce Fist’, aside from Feng Li and Gao Yuan. Besides, rumour had it that he was a remote relative of Gao Yuan and was not only skilled at ironworking but also was more skilled at making weapons than most other blacksmiths in Feng city. The silver mask worn by ‘Fierce Fist’ was made by exactly this pair of professional hands; this was the reason why Shi Mu paid his money in advance without any misgivings - he just believed in the blacksmith’s talent. However, now that he had paid such an exorbitant fee, he was out of money.
Speaking of money, Shi Mu had earned a smaller part of it from his well-located ‘Yuan Xiang Restaurant’ [1], whose business surged after he began to bring animals he hunted from the nearby mountain, which in turn provided him with a pure income of at least a hundred silver notes each month. The other half of his income was gained by playing the role of ‘Fierce Fist’. As for the fields under his control, Shi Mu did not expect much from them, for the managing of the manor would cost at least most of the collected rent.
It seemed now that he could only resort to ‘that thing’, which he had been planning for a while. Thanks to his recently enhanced Gale Force Knife Art, he could now produce seven cuts with one movement. Now he could manage - though with much difficulty - to shift the plan to an earlier date. To accomplish this was almost impossible for average practitioners: after all, the blood mutation[A] had not happened to his body again in the past half year; only now had he started to perceive the truth that it was almost impossible for any practitioner to do six cuts in a movement! The proof was his limited progress of doing one more cut in a movement. He had spent a few months and yet he had not made any more progress.
But this was already no ordinary progress; it was enough to dwarf all average practitioners. After all, even Li Canghai the instructor could only do nine with the aid of his real qi. Thinking about his plan, Shi Mu left the blacksmith’s after some time and spent half a day making purchases at some other shops in the city before he at last returned to his temporary residence.
The moment he walked into the room, his expression changed, and he cast a brief glance at the window in a relaxed manner. The next moment, he strode there, fumbled under the half-opened window and found something which turned out to be a paper ball! Shi Mu seemed rather calm and, unfolding the paper dexterously, he laughed delightedly.
“Seems someone’s begging me to take his money.”
After thinking out loud, he stuffed the paper ball into his shirt, climbed into his bed and fell fast asleep.
he slept soundly and was refreshed when he woke at dusk. After taking out a big parcel from underneath the bed, he left his residence again.
One hour later, in the backyard of the fairly well-known Tian Wang Temple[2] in Feng City, Black Fox members were lying all over the ground, nearly covering the whole yard. Every one of them was in agony, moaning and groaning, daring not to take up a single stick or knife from the great many scattered around them. Even Feng Li and Gao Yuan had been downed and were unable to move, one with a bleeding mouth, the other rolling in the dust, both gasping with astonishment at the youth standing before them, spear in hand. Though the two leaders of the Black Fox gang had heard of this opponent’s name as well as his talents, his actual strength far exceeded their expectations, to the extent that he could have handled the two leaders - each quite accomplished in his body tempering - as well as the ten odd guards outside the yard, within a quarter of an hour.
“Wang Tianhao [3], we’d scarcely read your challenge note before you came here to fight, that’s not fair!” Though he had painful aches all over his body, Gao Yuan still could not resist protesting.
“Humph! You seem to complain a lot! Well, you’re good enough at shouting, I’m sorry. I was in a bad mood this afternoon, so I thought, the earlier I come here and meet your ‘Fierce Fist’ the better, isn’t it! What? Do you have a problem?” The youth in white, though he looked rather graceful, answered in a cold, rude manner; lifting his foot he bashed Gao Yuan’s head halfway into the ground in an instant. Gao Yuan fearfully struggled to get up from under his foot, but he was too weak and could only swear loudly.
Hearing the swear, the youth in white gave another heavy stomp without hesitation, which tortured Gao Yuan into a quiet anguish. Angered at his deed, though still terrified, Feng Li tried hard to rise and put up a desperate fight. Before he could stand up, a black shadow whizzed toward the youth at lightning speed.
The youth raised his eyebrows and lazily thrust forward with his spear, which was made of refined iron, only to find the black shadow exploding at the spear’s handle with a thunderous boom, sending various splinters shooting out in all directions. The black shadow, which destroyed the refined iron, was only a stone the size of a bowl! The youth’s arms trembled, and the force of the blow made him step back. Then he tilted his head to the side, narrowly avoiding getting directly hit by another stone, though it left a cut on the side of his head, which oozed blood.
“It’s you, the ‘Fierce Fist’!”
The youth in white showed no concern for his wound at all, on the contrary, he fixed his eyes on the new comer - a black-clothed man with a silver mask - his blood racing with excitement.
“So you are the one that sent me the challenge note?” Shi Mu, who got a full view of the yard through the holes on his mask, asked the white-robed youth in slow voice.
“Can’t you tell who I am?” The white-robed young man was somewhat surprised at Shi Mu’s unawareness.
“Why? Should I know you?” Taking a glance at the challenger’s spear, he strode over to the center of the yard. With a single foot he kicked at an iron knife, making it jump up right into his hand.
“Careful, second brother! This man, Tian Wanghao, is said to be the top practitioner in Feng City, and a son of the Wangs who raise bloodline warriors!” Feng Li tried to shout his warning before anything happened.
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