488 An Exper (1/2)

It had been dozens of years since Shangguan Fei started practicing kung fu at the age of five, but he had never understood the profundity of it.

To him, kung fu was filled with danger, and no matter how skilled one was in it, one could still be killed by someone weaker or even untrained in kung fu due to a moment's carelessness.

He wished that there was a type of kung fu in this world that would allow its practitioner to stop practicing upon mastery. Whether being attacked directly or facing a sneak attack, it would help its practitioner to react immediately, even when he or she was asleep.

It was a pity that there was no such type of kung fu that could accomplish that; the more powerful the kung fu, the more it needed its practitioner to be on all alert.

The manuals given to the killers of the Stone Castle were nearly all similar, but the disparity between the killers themselves became increasingly evident with time. What separated them was not kung fu but their level of vigilance.

Killers had to spend a large portion of their lives at different levels of vigilance and rarely slept soundly. Also, almost all of them had the habit of being afraid of being attacked from behind and would subconsciously turn their heads around frequently, even under broad daylight.

It was this fact that made Shangguan Fei lose all interest in kung fu. His Master Shifu had forced him to learn boxing, palm and machete techniques, while his mother had insisted on him learning Wayless Qigong. As for the 'three-in-one qigong', he practiced it after suffering much torment from the fingers of Maid Lotus.

Therefore when he decided to proactively engage his opponent for the first time in his life, the first thought that came to his mind was what type of kung fu he should use.

He was not carrying a saber, so there was no way for him to use one. He knew a few fist and palm techniques, but he did not seem to recall any that would enable him to block a saber attack.

Long Fanyun leaped forth to engage the killer clad in black, and the other two assailants, who were obviously killers dressed as soldiers, launched a sneak attack toward his back. At this decisive moment, Shangguan Fei was hesitating on what move to make.

There was no kung fu in the world that would lead its practitioner to engage his or her opponent automatically, but constant practice would allow him or her to react instinctively. Shangguan Fei had not made his decision but his limbs began to move on their own accord.

He sidestepped the attacks and struck at one of the assailants with his fist.

He managed to block one of them, but there was still another killer. It was, however, the most he could do at the moment.

Shangguan Fei did not know if his opponent was too weak or his kung fu was better than he thought; he could not help but feel surprised and elated when his fist connected.

To retreat immediately after striking and not be entangled with the opponent was one of the core principles of kung fu from the Golden Roc Fort. Shangguan Fei managed to recall and execute it, but in the wrong direction.

As such, he directly leaped into the other assailant. To observers, he was preparing to strike again.

The reaction of the second assailant was extremely quick and he immediately changed his target from Long Fanyun to Shangguan Fei.

Shangguan Fei was stunned. He seemed to be cornered by the harsh glare of his opponent's saber in all directions and there was no way for him to escape.

Long Fanyun saved his life.

As the chief of Canopy Peak and the Dragon King's captain of the guards, he was always very vigilant and especially so after drawing his weapon. He had already noticed the two assailants attempting a sneak attack, but he did not expect Shangguan Fei to engage them on his own volition.

After exchanging a blow with the killer clad in black, Long Fanyun retreated along with his momentum and gave the second assailant a backhand slash. It was so accurate that it made him seem as though he had eyes growing on the back of his head. It forced his opponent to give up attacking Shangguan Fei.

He then moved forward again to do battle with the assassin in black.

Long Fanyun could be considered as one of the most skilled swordsmen of the Great Snowmountain and he had received considerable insight all this while by following the Dragon King. As such, he was even more familiar with the saber techniques of the killers from the Golden Roc Fort than before.

He did not have many scimitar moves, but he attacked his opponents from different angles with amazing speed and ferocity.

The three killers were cut down within 10 moves. What was perplexing to Long Fanyun was that the first to fall was one of the sneak attackers. After being hit by Shangguan Fei's fist, he did not get up.

The three killers made a fatal mistake of assuming that simple coordination would enable them to kill the swordsman from the Great Snowmountain. It cost them their lives.

Shangguan Fei had only made one move. He spent the rest of the battle making various poses and looking for another opponent to engage with, but in reality, he was drawing further away from the fight. He had exhausted his reserves of bravery and did not wish to engage in risky behavior again.

There were still dozens of soldiers surrounding them, and in theory, if they all came at once, they stood a very high chance of winning, but they were all machetemen and they were more concerned about the fact that Long Fanyun was more skilled than expected and that they would suffer many casualties even if they managed to win.

The precious lives of machetemen were meant to enjoy the pleasures of drink and women. As such, not only did none of them come forward, instead, all of them turned their horses around and fled, not even wishing to collect the assassins' dead bodies.

”Without a killer to supervise them, machetemen are weaker than even an ordinary mob,” lamented Shangguan Fei. He had noticed this fact back when he and Shangguan Ru, his sister, were fighting for dominance over South City. As such, he was not surprised at the performance of his opponents today.

Long Fanyun had wanted to kill all of them to keep their presence a secret, but after consideration, he felt that he did not have the ability to kill dozens of fleeing machetemen by himself and thus only ran over to rein in the two horses left by the dead killers.

”You're hurt,” reminded Long Fanyun after he came back.

Shangguan Fei had not felt any pain up till now. He lowered his head to observe his own body, finally noticing fresh blood coming from the left side of his abdomen.

”I really am,” replied Shangguan Fei, trying to be nonchalant; he even reached out to touch his wound. The next moment, however, he saw the blood stains on his palm and could not pretend any longer. He sat down, feeling weak at the knees. He began to feel the fiery pain from his wound now.

Long Fanyun looked suspiciously at Shangguan Fei. Where he came from, one did not feel afraid even when sustaining more serious wounds; to him, Shangguan Fei's reaction was akin to acting.

It was only until when he saw that the face of Shangguan Fei began to turn pale, as if he could faint at any instant, that he walked over to observe the wound. ”It's just a flesh wound, you'll live,” he said. After which, he quickly bandaged up the young man's wound.

”I won't die?”