782 Spectators (1/2)
Having survived decades of running amuck in the north of the Heavenly Mountain, Old Man Mu was pretty experienced, especially in terms of fleeing.
His present kung fu was not as good as Dog Butcher's, and it was far worse than that of the two newly-arrived kung fu experts, but he was still the first one to sense danger. As the ring of torches went out, he quickly turned around, leaped up, and broke into the closest room.
Dog Butcher was only one step slower than him, but he didn't know why they had to run, and neither did he know where the danger was coming from. He had ran purely out of instinct; he had to follow the one who had made the right decision.
In the house, it was completely dark. Old Man Mu broke through the paper window and cautiously peeked into the courtyard. The windowsill was pretty short, so Dog Butcher had to bend at his waist and to try to look out through the hole. Eventually, he knelt down on the ground, sweating heavily out of nervousness.
The moonlight was bright and it was not that dark outside, and yet the torches had gone out so unexpectedly that most people still needed some time for their eyes to adjust. As they held onto their weapons tightly, they were searching for enemies vigilantly.
”Was it the Dragon King?” Dog Butcher asked in a muted voice.
”Stop dreaming. Both White Ghost and Rock Monster are top-notch kung fu experts. No sane person would challenge them, especially White Ghost…”
Dog Butcher was in a daze as he asked, ”Which one's Rock Monster?”
”The one from the Heavenly Mountain Sect, the one who was as strong as a stone plateau.”
Dog Butcher nodded and said, ”White Ghost must be a disciple of the Luo family. He seemed familiar, but I couldn't remember his name.”
”Idiot,” Old Man Mu tersely commented, and then started prayed softly. ”Fight. Hurry up, and fight. The more intensely the better.”
Old Man Mu and Dog Butcher had barely entered the room when the man in white and the tough man readied themselves to chase them, but then they stopped at the same time. They were wary of each other, and since they knew that their targets were trapped in the room, they didn't want to attack recklessly.
Between the two, the man in white was more confident, and also more composed. In a loud voice, he said, ”Everybody stay put. Watch out for sneak attacks.” Then he turned to the tough man who was standing ten steps away. ”I'm Luo Qibai. May I know your name?”
”Luo Qibai.” Dog Butcher gently smacked his hand on the windowsill as he exclaimed, ”That's the name. The seventh generation of the Luo family, the younger brother of Luo Qikang.”
Old Man Mu slightly snorted as if he'd known it for a long time, but he'd actually never heard a single character between the two names.
The tough man outside replied in a terse manner and only uttered three words. ”Li Tongsheng.”
”Are you by any chance the 'Mountain Splitter' Li Tongsheng?”
”You know a lot.” Li Tongsheng braced his whole body, and was clearly ready to attack at any moment. ”The Tianshan Sect's going to take both of the men in the room. I don't think that you would mind, would you?”
Old Man Mu mimicked Dog Butcher and mockingly said, ”Li Tongsheng. That's the name. The fortieth or fiftieth generation of the Li family. The son of Li so-and-so.”
Dog Butcher asked confusedly, ”Is he famous? He's not from the Central Plains, is he? I've never heard of him before.”
”Of course you wouldn't. This guy's the most well-known solitary bandit. No wonder his kung fu's so good.”
Outside, Luo Qibai rejected the tough man's claim to the two old men and smiled before replying, ”How about you tell your companions to come out and we'll have a competition right here in the open?”
Li Tongsheng studied the man opposite him in confusion, ”All of the men of the Heavenly Mountain Sect are right here. I think that it's you Central Plains guys who're hiding, isn't it?”
Luo Qibai was faintly surprised, yet he feigned a face of indifference and said in a loud voice, ”Who's been…”
Before he could finish his sentence, one of the disciples of the Heavenly Mountain Sect yelled out, ”Hidden weapon. So underhanded!” Then he pounced on the Central Plains martial artist next to him.
The man from the Central Plain didn't cower, however. He raised his saber and engaged the opponent, shouting, ”Shameless!”
Another entangled battle started anew in the courtyard. People were fighting every which way they could – engaging in sneak attacks, retaliating, and ganging up on opponents. Li Tongsheng didn't hesitate. He rushed towards his opponent and launched a series of continuous palm attacks. With one move following the next seamlessly, the whooshing sound of the air generated by the fierce palm attacks was so terrifying that no one dared to move closer than seven steps to him.
Luo Qibai was fairly startled and yet his moves were no less ferocious than that of his opponent's. Likewise, he fought back with palm attacks. Although his palm attacks didn't generate whooshing sounds like those of his opponent did, he moved and defended himself in a smooth and confident manner, and when he occasionally struck back, Li Tongsheng always retreated to evade.
Dog Butcher watched on in great admiration as he praised, ”The Blue Wave Palm Technique handles fierce attacks with so little strength, and both its offensive and defensive moves are so ethereal. Luo Qibai's reputation is well-earned.”Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.
Yet Old Man Mu remained unconvinced. ”If I could exert the my former power to its fullest extent, no palm technique would be a match for my Five Hole Punch. And don't underestimate Li Tongsheng either; the renowned bandit from the Western Regions has his own talents.”
The people from the Central Plains were having an intense fight with the Heavenly Mountain Sect, and yet neither side forgot about the two old men. Just at the doorway alone, there were six or seven pairs of men fighting, trying to stop the other side from getting in the room first.
Old Man Mu watched the fight with great interest and had no intention of fleeing at all. He curled his lips and said, ”They're all morons. I mean, clearly it was a third party who put out the torches, yet none of them have realized it.”
”Maybe it's not that they can't realize it, but that they have been on guard against each other for a long time, and they've also already had a fight. So even if they know a third party is trying to play them off each other, they still got taken in easily.” Dog Butcher was a clear-minded bystander. ”Who exactly put out the torches? If it wasn't the Dragon King, then was it a Golden Roc killer?”
Old Man Mu hated it the most when people disagreed with him, so he snorted repeatedly before replying, ”You know what? Your many years of life were experienced in vain; that's why you're still so stupid when you are old. The Dragon King said long ago that those crazy women of the Waning Moon Hall want to mess the whole world up. Who else would have done this except for them?”
Dog Butcher hadn't met many disciples of the Waning Moon Hall, so he thought that the Dragon King's words might have been a bit dramatic. He replied, ”They're just a bunch of women. Would they really go that far? What good will it do them to mess up the whole world?”
Old Man Mu got excited, and he even stopped watching the fight outside. He turned his head and asked, ”Don't you understand? In the eyes of a crazy woman, chaos is order – the messier the world is, the safer they feel, and the more important they become. If the world is at peace, then everybody would want to eliminate these monstrous women. The Waning Moon Hall has been hiding in the desert for decades, and they know this better than anybody else does. If I were them, I would mess it up too. The messier, the better.”