Chapter 101: Trapped City
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Black Three Lady was a nickname. His real name was Hei Sanliang. A decade ago, he became an outlaw in Black Shakou, gathering a gang of men and being renowned for his remarkable feats and forthright personhood. His origin was unknown. What was known in Jianghu was that he was proficient in using whips and was the ever-victorious one during the several fights he had with the bandits near Black Shakou.
Although being a bandit, Black Three Lady kept a low profile in Black Shakou and rarely showed up. Therefore, few people knew that he was actually a bruiser.
Moreover, another bandit called Beard Ma was also settled in Black Shakou, no wonder Junior Leopard and Jin Nanqing mistook Black Three Lady for Beard Ma at the beginning.
Not a bit of femininity was seen from him, though he was called Black Three Lady. His whipping skills had reached the apex of perfection.
Junior Leopard raised himself up and fought with Black Three Lady. He learned that Black Three Lady’s whipping was airtight, which enabled the shadow of the withy whip to form an exquisite wall in front of him that his silver hammer couldn’t penetrate.
“Just like a woman?! Even the weapon is for the female!” Junior Leopard scoffed. He brandished his silver hammer faster and faster and one hand was. .h.i.tting the horse and another was. .h.i.tting people.
Despite having a good command of martial arts, Black Three Lady was unable to stand up to Junior Leopard’s attack. He let out a yell, rose from the horse and fought with Junior Leopard.
The two of them were locked in a fierce struggle while a cloud of black shadow from the whip was wrapping around the two streaks of silver light, attempting to suppress them. However, unable to restrain the inconsistent silver light, the dark cloud was ripped, showing a tide of dispersion.
The fissions and fusions of the dark cloud were interwoven with the flickering twin hammers.
Junior Leopard had given a full display of his Wild Hammering Skill. The hammers in his hands were like two lanterns in a gra.s.s cage without any weighs. However, Black Three Lady was in the tense, on the defense.
Although his whipping method was superb, he followed a way of overcoming firmness by gentleness. In the meanwhile, encountering a strongman was fatal to him.
Though strong and st.u.r.dy, Black Three Lady’s strength was not much stronger than that of Junior Leopard. Junior Leopard, younger than Black Three Lady, had achieved the same level as the latter. The practice of the Moon-evil Painted Skin Punching Skill had strengthened his body and lifted his strength level. What’s more, Wild Hammering Skill was gleaned from an insight in forging iron, which highlighted strength. The two hammers in Junior Leopard’s hands were not that big but were heavy enough. Given all these factors, Junior Leopard was superior to Black Three Lady.
Black Three Lady was down on his luck. Being a Level Three master, he was supposed to be a man of rank in Black Shakou or the Sect of Flame, but was banished to Black Shakou to be a bandit for offending the elders along with his lack of strong backing.
Being a troublemaker here and now, the Sect of Flame must be scheming something that was unknowable for Black Three Lady, who spearheaded the scheme. He pined for doing a deed of merit to return to the Sect of Flame, thus taking aim at the Wu Family upon arrival at the city.
During his stay in Zhonghe Prefecture for a decade, he had gotten a clear picture of both the underworld and the White Force, knowing where to reap some profit and where to render a merit.
The Wu’s branch in Zhonghe Prefecture was under the charge of Wu Yuntian, who must have reaped much profit. But this made no sense to Black Three Lady. He knew there was a secret warehouse within the Wu Family, storing a batch of admirable weapons that were acc.u.mulated by Wu Yuntian during his charge of the city.
More importantly, all these weapons were embezzled by Wu Yuntian. In other words, the Wu Family would not say a word if the weapons were looted. As for the a.r.s.enal in the Wu’s Ironware Shop, even placed in front of his eyes, Black Three Lady dared not to covet them. Otherwise, if the Wu’s were infuriated and suspended the trade contracts, myriad deaths were not enough for him.
The Sect of Flame was badly in need of weapons. Weapons for 3,000 people were all robbed from Wu family.
Only by robbing the Wu’s weapons could everyone get a knife or a sword. In the past, they merely had sticks, hoes, and sickles as their weapons, thus lowering their fighting capacity.
It had been a meritorious deed to unmarkedly loot the Wu’s cart and grab weapons for 3,000 people. Now, Wu Yuntian’s private-collection of weapons were enough to equip thousands of people. That would promote him to be a Hall Chief, which would be much better than being a bandit and living on air in Black Shakou.
Moreover, he had heard a little about the Wu’s strength. Only Wu Yuntian was a Level Three master that could contend with him, the rest were not worth mentioning.
Zhonghe was the hinterland of Jin and close to Tian Long Mystic Mountain. It was impossible for Wu Family to deploy too much force here.
Therefore, he thought a number of 300 people were enough to usurp the Wu Residence. Then he would restrain Wu Yuntian and the rest of the men would rush in and control everyone else. Wu Yuntian would then bow his head.
He never thought he would run into such a thorn at the Wu’s gate.
He knew that the headquarters of the Wu Family had sent people to investigate this incident, all of whom were young disciples coming to Zhonghe Prefecture to gain experience. Even the most powerful one just had reached Level Two. Actually, he had heard that they annihilated Beard Ma’s men and killed Green Hornet Jin Yubao, but he had no eye for it. He thought that if they really were so powerful, Jin Yubao’s men would not get away. It must be Jin Yubao’s bad luck and underestimation of the enemy that courted death.
However, what he had seen today was beyond his expectation. The boy standing in the doorway was just around 12 or 13 but had a Level Three cultivation, nearly the same as himself. It was enough to surprise him, but what surprised him, even more, was that the teen not only had high cultivation but also had a surprising skill with his hands. A pair of silver hammers in his hands were sublime. If he didin’t have a real skill, he would be hammered to death today.
What’s worse, his men were locked in the battle. Though the number of his men exceeded that of the Wu Residence, all the teens were at Level Two, each of whom was powerful enough to beat 10. Besides, he himself was controlled by this eccentric teen and couldn’t extricate himself. Anxiety was gnawing him while being controlled by the eccentric teen.
Being more and more irritable, his hands and feet lost control. After several rounds, because of distraction, the trace of his whip was frequently torn by Junior Leopard’s twin hammers, even his body was nearly hit by a silver hammer. He was frightened into a cold sweat. He feinted a few movements and retreated. Then came the troubles.
Junior Leopard was not easy to deal with, neither were his hammers. He loved to forge ahead and cause others to retreat, for this could make his hammering skill remarkably smooth. Junior Leopard’s speed was so fast that Black Three Lady failed to escape from the range of his hammer even with all strength. The trace of his whip had been torn as early as his first retreat. In a flash, he was enveloped in the silver light from Junior Leopard.
“Hey, Black Three Lady! How dare you to be a bandit without a real skill? You are courting death!” Junior Leopard jeered at Black Three Lady while fighting.
“Boy, don’t be perky too early!” Black Three Lady was provoked by Junior Leopard’s words and his blood raised and his swarthy complexion turned to blue. He made his whip withstand the twin hammers and gasped a few words, “There is no chance for you to beat me in a short time, even so, what’s the use? Now the entire city has been captured by our sacred sect. Do you think that you can escape unscathed just by relying on your Level Three cultivation? You’d better get out of here. Maybe you want to get stuck in this city?”
“What a good conspiracy!” Junior Leopard scorned. “But what does it do if you capture this town? Do you dare to ma.s.sacre all of the people here? Do you dare to offend the Wu Family? If you do, do you think you, a ragtag group can resist me?!”
“Of course, we have no intention to do that. But boy, do you think you can run amuck in the city by virtue of your Level Three cultivation? The ones that captured the city were masters in the Bone-Forging Realm, including three protectors and the core disciples of the Sect Master. Do you think you can resist them merely with a pair of silver hammers? We don’t want to offend the Wu Family but have to do that. You may not know that the Wu Residence was an underground place hiding a great number of armor, which was acc.u.mulated by Wu Yuntian for a decade. The sacred sect won’t give up on them. Even if you can resist me, how about the protectors?”
“That’s true, a master of the Bone-Forging Realm is not one that we can resist!” Junior Leopard said, his eyes showing some coldness.
Although their voice was low, the words reached the crowd.
Especially Jin Nanqing and others. Their expression changed on hearing the conversation so their movements naturally slowed somewhat.
“Senior, what should we do now?”
Zhou Zhengming fiercely killed two disciples of the Sect of Flame, rushed to Jin Nanqing’s side and said, “This city has already been trapped. Let’s get out of here. Anyway, their goal is the Wu’s rather than the storehouse of the branch. And—”
Hardly was the word spoken before he heard a pounding of hooves ahead. The floating dust showed a large number of people were approaching. Jin Nanqing made several fierce attacks, forced back his opponent, and leaped back saying, “It’s not wise to stay here any longer! Let’s rush out!” After that, he retreated to the Wu Residence, so did the rest along with the family servants.
Junior Leopard made several onslaughts to force back Black Three Lady and laughed. “You’re smart and save a lot of strength, but unfortunately, you can not get the topmost merit!” Junior Leopard said, rising his body and rus.h.i.+ng to the side instead of to the Wu Residence.