Ultimate Wuxia RPG Story Thread

[PJ]

NOTE: This part of the story (posts 81 - 85) is written in an ambiguous manner to intensify the suspense. AFTER you've read this part, you can get a blow-by-blow explanation of exactly what happened here.

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Breezing through the cold air, a figure sprinted in the dark. If he were to rush by you in open space, his figure would have disappeared into thin air in less than a split second. The speed displayed in his long distance lightness kung fu gives true meaning to the expression lightning fast.

Every town he passed, Black-Faced Buddha was one inch closer to attaining his prize.

The sweet joy!

Wulin Director Yu Lianzhou --> dead.

Blacky --> still alive.

He was more careful this time.

In his mind, he held fragments of thoughts about how useless the orthodox wulin men have conducted themselves.

"Every place I go in every direction I reign supremely!"

Supreme victory is here.

Hold that thought!

Almost here.

But not yet in his reach.

Why!

Because he has stopped sprinting.

Why did he suddenly stop?

Why would the Black-Faced Buddha slow down one notch on this most important day of his life?

What is he up to?!

Has he gone mad?

No.

Has he lost his mind?

No.

Has he had a change of heart?

That question doesn't even deserve to be answered!

But there is no way for him to advance now.

Because someone stood in his path.

What?!

Really?

Who is this death-defying soul?

Who dares to stand in Black-Faced Buddha's way?

Is he a mighty swordsman?

No.

Is he a world-class boxer?

No.

Does it even look like he know martial arts?

No!

Then for God's sake, what could be the reason that he is here ?!?!?!?!?!

[PJ]

NOTE: This part of the story (posts 81 - 85) is written in an ambiguous manner to intensify the suspense. AFTER you've read this part, you can get a blow-by-blow explanation of exactly what happened here.

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But wait!

Wasn't the Black-Faced Buddha pronounced dead moments ago?

Wasn't he?

Yes.

He was.

But...

If he had been pronounced dead, how could he be running after that?

Is it possible for a dead man to be resurrected?

Is it?

No!

Not even the dominator of Central Plains wulin, Zhang Sanfeng, could resurrect himself back to life.

Zhang Real Man lay dead as a brick, in his coffin.

But then...

Why?

How?

Who?

Could it be?

The one person who had come back from the dead...

Him!

Yes!!

He died! 20 years ago!!

But today, he was here!

Taoist Priest 9 Wings!

Zhuang Zheng!

Two names.

One person.

One and the same!

That man...

Zhuang Zheng,

VIGOROUS GOLD BANNER LEADER Zhuang Zheng,

did he really come back from the dead?

If so, how?

Did he have a method for death resurrection?

And if so, did the Black-Face Buddha...

stumble onto it!

[PJ]

NOTE: This part of the story (posts 81 - 85) is written in an ambiguous manner to intensify the suspense. AFTER you've read this part, you can get a blow-by-blow explanation of exactly what happened here.

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Royal Palace. The city of Luoyang.

The news has disturbed the entire palace.

The Black-Faced Buddha --> is no more!

No more!

His name had been synonymous with success.

But now, he's a goner.

Naturally, anyone who had anything to do in the government has joined the gathering to discuss this earth-shaking news.

"How?"

"Why?"

"Who?"

"I don't know."

"Who does?!"

"I do."

Silence.

Stillness.

Everyone turned his head to look at the man who spoke these two words.

The most insightful two words in the entire world!

It had come from the mouth of...

Eunuch Lin!

All eyes on him.

He stepped forward.

All eyes on him.

He walked to the left

All eyes followed him.

He walked to the right.

No eye left him.

He walked to the left

...

By now, a few intelligent people had realized, Eunuch Lin was simply pacing about back and forth.

Pacing back and forth!

Why?

Did it have any special significance?




No.

[PJ]

NOTE: This part of the story (posts 81 - 85) is written in an ambiguous manner to intensify the suspense. AFTER you've read this part, you can get a blow-by-blow explanation of exactly what happened here.

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Eunuch Lin paced about back and forth for 5 whole minutes.

Not a sound.

Not a word!

Not a single breath could be heard.

Did everyone hold his breath for 5 whole minutes?

Not unless they have reached the prestigious level of HBFL: Holding Breath For Long.

Has anyone in the room reached the level of HBFL?

Not a fat chance.

So then, why was no breath heard?

The narrator sighed.

Just because it wasn't heard, doesn't mean it didn't happen!

Get me a better assistant next time.

( and not one that asks 100 questions about every trivial detail! )

Anyway, back to the story...

Eunuch Lin paced about back and forth.

It was routine by now.

To the left...

To the right...

To the left...

To the right...

To the...

Wait!

He stopped!

Yes!

Cries of joy!

And then, he projected a sharp look onto the crowd of royalties and officials.

Everyone's veins tightened.

And then, the great eunuch spoke:

"Do you know who he met after the kill?"

Who was he?

Of course, the Black-Faced Buddha.

What was the kill?

Certainly, the death of Wulin Director Yu Lianzhou.

"After the kill, he sprinted to the palace, to acquire his prize."

His prize!

A few had heard of the rumor.

Rumor has it, the prize was an invincible kung fu manual.

To rule the earth!

Was it true?

"But before he reached the palace, he was stopped."

The crowd gasped!

The Black-Faced Buddha was stopped?

Black-Faced Buddha has NEVER been stopped!

Who had the megalithic force to stop him now?

"It was a c*i**l*."

Exclamations!

Wait a minute!

Did you say...

What I think you said?

A cripple?

C-R-I-P-P-L-E?

A cripple who didn't know martial arts!

A few officials present almost died of heart arrest upon hearing this shocking information.

Eunuch Lin continued mildly: "But it was not the cripple that fought Blacky."

"Ooh." The crowd expressed uniformly.

Who was it then?

Who had the power to stop the Black-Faced Buddha?

To answer the question, you have to look at what Eunuch Lin pulled out of his hand.

A fan.

Out of nowhere, a fan, on his hand.

Eunuch Lin opened the fan.

The sound from this movement was so crisp and vibrant, it instantly knocked out several old officials. Their minds went blank as they fell to the floor.

The remaining crowd gasped once more when they saw the writings on the fan.

Two characters.

One entity.

One meaning.

ZHEN WU!

Real Martial!

The symbol,

of...

A real man.

Zhang Real Man!

[PJ]

NOTE: This part of the story (posts 81 - 85) is written in an ambiguous manner to intensify the suspense. AFTER you've read this part, you can get a blow-by-blow explanation of exactly what happened here.

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Zhang Real Man!

Zhang Sanfeng!

He who dominated wulin for the past 50 years.

Surely, he couldn't have returned from the tomb to fight Black-Faced Buddha.

...Could he?

Several officials saw an image of Zhang Real Man overcoming Black-Faced Buddha's death with Taiji circles...

"Who would win?" They wondered.

At this time, Eunuch Lin broke the silence with more information:

"Besides the cripple, there were a total of 5 men who surrounded him."

Only 5?

That's nothing!

Blacky's martial arts are sufficient to tie 10,000 people.

What could 5 people possibly do to him?

"I know what must be on your mind."

"There's no way he could be overcome by 5 men."

"But these are no ordinary 5 men."

"And what they used was no ordinary formation."

A formation?

What kind of formation?

"This formation they used to trap Blacky, doubles its power with each additional person."

Doubles its power with each additional person!

Every person present did the math in their head:

With 2 people, the formation has twice as much power as 1 person.

With 3 people, the formation has the power of 4 people.

With 4 people, the formation has the power of 8 people.

With 5 people, the formation has the power of 16 people.

"Do you know who were the members of this formation?"

"The members of the formation, who confronted Blacky, were the direct disciples of Zhang Sanfeng."

The direct disciples of Zhang Sanfeng!

The 7 Heroes of Wudang!

5 of them!

Yielding the power of ...

16 First Class Fighters!

No wonder!

Even the mighty Black-Faced Buddha cannot take on 16 First Class fighters simultaneously.

"Sadly, Blacky was badly injured. He managed to escape. He died, moments after arriving back at the palace."

"It is with great regret that we say goodbye to a comrade who did His Majesty many favors throughout the years. May his soul in Heaven guide us in the right direction."

Adjourned.
.
.
.

[PJ]

East Wing, Governer’s Palace. Luoyang City.

Eunuch Lin's private room.

Where no man has ever gone in before.

Because no one even knows where it is.

The eunuch stared at the fan.

tick, tock.

Time sat still.

He didn't take his eyes off the fan.

tick, tock.

Finally, he gave in:

A blink.

ZHEN WU!

Zhang Sanfeng!

He took the fan into his hands.

And then, words came out calmly:

"Although you have passed, your Zhenwu formation is still alive."

"I will be the one to destroy it."

"To crush your remains."

"Every one of it!"

.

[Tom]

The chilling air of the night blew into the inn and pierced the hearts of everyone in it, destroying the last hopes that they had. Yu Lianzhou is dead! He was their last hope. Abbot Huilin, Abbot Rongku, and now Leader Yu as well...

The heroes of various sects stood around the corpse of Yu Lianzhou. The motionless body is mutated with sword cuts and fractured bones from head to toe. The mere sight of such a hideous figure is enough to stir the emotions of a strong man. And it did. Several people have already started breaking into tears, but not because the Wulin leader has died but because they're afraid that they're going to be next. Only the emotionally strong people like Fang Wudi could handle it. But even he was clueless on what to do next...Wulin has no leader to guide them now...

"Stop crying. It's useless now. Leader Yu is dead!" shouted Fang Wudi in attempt to strengthen their will. "We can only hope for the best now." It didn't help.

"We're going to be next!" shouted a young man as he wiped his wet face.

"No. That man is already dead. He suffered too many internal damage from everyone in this restaurant."

"Black Faced Buddha is dead. But what about that MONSTER the old monk was talking about?" yelled another man.

"There's no man that strong. It's a lie," said Wudi but he knew it was true. All hope has been gone now. He will just have to await his death.

[Allen D]

The doors of Yi Tian Tao Long Inn suddenly flew open and in came a man in his mid twenties. He was dressed in brown and a sword was strapped to his back. Due to the recent events, everyone in the inn was particularly tense and thus readied their weapons as the young man walked in.

The man could feel the eyes staring at him and it made him extremely uncomfortable. Figuring that he had just walked in on a conversation he didn't belong in, he decided it would be best to book a room and quickly escape the crowd.

As the man quickly made his way to the service counter, he heard a voice yell from the west corner of the inn.

"CAREFUL!!! HE MUST BE ONE OF THEM!!"

As he turned his head in the direction of the voice, he saw that one of the men had already leaped. into the air and was brandishing a sword. A sword that was possibly thirsting for blood.

The man reached for the sword on his back.....

[kwekmh]

Yang Fei Yun has great potential in martial arts but previously due to his abnormally weak physique he was not able to fully make use of his potential. However, now that this obstacle has been overcome due to his significant amount of internal energy he was able to make more use of his potential.

Whilst he was cultivating his internal energy, he was ignorant of his surroundings. He did not realise the commotion that has begun in the inn.

One part of the Yang Family Internal Art was connected to 9 Yin—without learning 9 Yin first one would not be able to learn that part. It was one of the more profound parts that Yang Fei Yun has not started to learn yet, as he did not learn 9 Yin previously.

Not long after, he had a new understanding of 9 Yin and Yang Family Internal Art. Whilst he was engrossing in cultivating his internal energy, however, someone silently opened the windows and climbed in.

The person was masked and he started moving towards Yang Fei Yun from the side, his hands aiming towards his clothes. Apparently, he was a burglar and was hoping to take advantage of this chance to steal something.

As his hands touched Yang Fei Yun, he suddenly felt a strong resistance and he flew out of the door! Yang Fei Yun, whilst cultivating his internal energy, had his “Staining Clothes 18 Falls” activated!

Unlucky for the burglar, he fell in front of someone brandishing a sword, who was about to attack another man. The sword seemed as though it was going to slice the burglar into half…

[druid]

Jun Yan was tired. Who would not be? So much death, injuries and action for the past few days. Such a toil on the human body. And now, the body of Elder Yu. What was happening? His body crying for some relive yet he knew better. He must carry on. The past killings were nothing compared to what he has done, this was much more... this was upsetting the equilibrium that he sort to maintain...

A wind generated by a sword woke him up from his trance... he lifted his rod and parry the strike while simultaneously striking a hard blow to the attacker, a raging man on his chest. He felt backwards, not moving yet still breathing. The crowd was silent for they had not seen Jun Yan in an emotional rage.

" No More Killings!" he spoke in a hiss.

" Have you no respect for the deceased?!"

Silence.

(Flashback)

Jun Yan was studying or rather revisiting the pages of his torn manual, a gift to him by his grandfather and teacher before he left them to roam and wonder around JiangHu. He was surprise that he was able to discover more insights from the manual on skills and techinques despite reading it for three years.

" Such is the shallowness of my knowledge and the profound knowledge of gramps and teacher. If only i could master all...." but he knew better. He could not and perhaps never will.

He reread on the topics of weapons, skipping the section on projectiles and saber and suddenly like a blazing fire in the dread of the night, he saw it. As clear as day! The strokes appeared before him like little figures dancing before his eyes, enticing him with their bizzare movements! He quickly memorized them and before he could to all, they vanish. Just like all other past attempts.

He sighed.

" I am giving you this, a product of my hardwork through my years in JiangHu. As you progress, you will learn and see more... very much like how you can only see the mountain peak from afar and not the lands beyond it. But when you travel to that mountain peak itself, another scene greets your eyes. Work hard and hopefully I may get to teach you some final pointers when you finally cannot rely on the manual. Go."

Last words from his teacher.

Yet all was not lost. For although he knew that the time to see his teacher was not soon, itwas still soon. The manual was still teaching and guilding him along. With new found confidence he began reading the largest part of the manual; Inner Qi and was soon lost in it.

So absorbed in the manual that when The Black-Faced Buddha had arrived at the inn, he did not know. But then again would anyone else have known? He was so stunned for the words in them meant and seemed like nonsense to him, yet he could make up certain pieces of enlightened instructions which he could sworn that he did not notice in the past when reading. He was delighted.

Putting down his book, he closed it and digest the new found information that he had learned. Every type of martial art was meant to attack the seven vital points of the human body. The head, the two arms, the chest, the stomach and the two legs. With any of the above injuried the chances of victory would be high. The difference was the way how one would attack, which body part was the main target for the particular style of attack and the medium for damage.

For example, when employing the usage of finger based attacks, one would concentrated on the acupoints of chest and stomach area, often igorning other acupoints on other parts of the body using Qi based attacks, while the usage of a long weapon say a rod or spear would focus more on the lower body say the legs in an attempt to immoblized the opponent using agility and keeping a safe distance away from the opponent. Sabre attackers would favour more on the usage of sheer strength and to a lesser extend speed as their attacks would more often then not focus on the hands and even heads of the opponent. Such diaversity!

It was then that Jun Yan noticed something was amiss. An aura. It was making him uneasy. He rushed downstairs. He was too late.

The black-faced Buddha had already won. He saw how beated up elder Yu was and that he was only a heart beat left from death. But The black-faced Buddha was not done yet. No.

In a spit second, the cracking sound of many bones breaking simultaneously was heard. He was done. Elder Yu eyes shone pain and angony and then... nothing. He was dead.

Jun Yan was stunned. Yet his body reacted, he leaped towards the killer and unleashed seven attacks with his rod at the seven vital points of the body while he sword aimed straight at the right chest of the Black faced Buddha. It was at this point that the other heros appeared and joined in their own attacks, for that was what perserved Jun Yan life. For soloing the Black Faced Buddha meant instant death for Jun Yan with his current level of skill.

Sword, rods, finger, palms, they came and found their targets. Yet was victory theirs?


And so they managed to chased him away. Yet in their hearts they had lost.

Elder Yu was gone.

Jun Yan silently cursed himself for not arriving earlier to help elder Yu.

" You did your best. Elder Yu would have been thankful." Spoke Han Fei as he saw Jun Yan clutching his rod and sword tightly till blood flowed down them. He place his fingers around Jun Yan palms yet the latter would not relased the tension.

But at last he did.

" You would have died trying. But i admire your sense of courage as well as righteousness. You have my admiration, stranger." spoke Fang Wudi with Elder Zhuo Jiali nodding in agreement.

Jun Yan exhaled. A long one. His thoughts drifted again...

(end of flashback)

[Tom]

The masked burglar landed on the 1st floor just as the enraged man got knocked down by Ling Jun Yan. He immediately went for his escape towards the front door but was stopped by Fang Tian Nai. The young man already had his sword out because he was prepared to fight against the raging man but luckily someone knocked out that man for him.

"Please spare me!" begged the burglar fearfully. He was sent for this mission by the Organization only because of his superb lightness kungfu. In fact, besides lightness kungfu there was nothing great about him. But still, never did he imagine that he'll have to pay his life for it.

Fang Tian Nai didn't even have time to respond because he didn't have anyone to respond to. The burglar is already dead. A sword pierced through the rooftop and found a place in the burglar's skull.

Several men jumped out of their chairs in alarm. It was them! This is it! We're doomed!

[kwekmh]

Yang Fei Yun was unaware of what he had just caused. He was simply too engrossed till he had reached a stage where he was ‘separated’ from reality.

In this stage, he ran through everything he had learnt and memorised. He was training with his mind; slowly, he started to move in reality as he practised his martial arts in reality subconsciously. Anyone near him could feel an aura emitting from him. Such was the force of his practice.

Finally, he had fully demonstrated the entire set of martial arts he had learnt, with some new martial arts which he learnt only recently from what he had memorised when he was in Ancient Tomb.

He returned to his original posture and gradually woke up from his trance. Only now he then realise what he were doing. He was too engrossed in training till he had entered into a mode of trance.

He felt a little hungry and decided to go down to get something to eat.

[CC]

Governer's Palace. Luoyang City.

Night.

Darkness.

The sound of a zither.

Darkness.

A flicker of light in the dark.

Another flicker glowed.

The shimmering light spread.

Glints of golden light reflected of armour.

The clink of metal on metal.

The sounds of booted feet marching was interspaced with the clink of metal on metal. Light reflected off the golden chain armour as the troops surrounded the East Wing.

Grand General Jiang Fei marched to the head of the assembled troops. Upon confirming the treachery of Eunuch Lin, he had sent a signal and the 200 men of the Elite Emperor's Inner Guard had immediately moved into the palace from their hiding positions outside the city.

Standing on his right was General of the Inner Guard Sima Feiyun and to his left was Imperial Drillmaster Gu Hongwu. These two highly skilled men were specially despatched by the Emperor's orders to assist in this special task. The Emperor was taking no chances in this matter, Jiang, Sima and Gu were the top 3 martial exponents in the Imperial Army and the 200 armoured troops of the Inner Guard were all highly skilled fighters specially drilled in formation fighting against elite martial artists.

"Lin Gong Gong! Surrender yourself! You are surrounded! Give yourself up and the Emperor may be merciful!" shouted Jiang Fei as he unsheathed his Shang Feng Bao Jian.

Zither music continued to fill the night air.

"Lin Gong Gong! Surren....."

The door slid open. Slowly.

A blur.

Jiang Fei felt his right arm go numb as a crushing blow from under his armpit broke his shoulder joint.

Eunuch Lin was back at the door. His left hand held Jiang Fei's Shang Feng Bao Jian.

Two flashes of light

Sima Feiyun and Gu Hongwu felt warm blood inside their tunic. They tried to speak but only the gurgle of blood bubbling from their throats could be heard.

....


The torches lay sputtering on the floor. In the flickering light, two hundred and two corpses laid. Not one of them had more then 1 slash wound.

Jiang Fei stared with his jaw frozen. He couldn't feel the pain from his right shoulder anymore. He couldn't remember how much time had passed since he spoke his last sentence.

"Good sword! Good sword! Ha ha ha!" Thank you for your excellent gift, General Jiang!

The sound of zither music started again.

Two hundred and three corpses laid silently in the night.

[CC]

continued from #91 Bogeyman's post.


The mysterious burglar was dead.

Reverend Huizhu and Huixin were dead.

Beggar Sect Elder Deng was dead.

At least 10 more corpses of the gathered wulin lay dead on the floor of the inn.

Fang Wudi's fist ached from the impact when the Ninja met it head on with his fist.

Elder Zhuo Jiali's arm still tingled from the blow when her rod met the Ninja's sword.

The crowd slowly backed away from the 4 masked ninjas.

Just when everyone thought that the threat of Zhang Wuque and Hua Wuji was their main worry, another group of mysterious but incredibly skilled fighters had stepped into the picture!

The tallest of the four spoke in a strange accent :"What useless dogs!"

Another spoke : "It looks like we wasted our time travelling here!"

A third one continued : "Looks like we only needed to send one man!"

The last one spoke : "Compared to the arts of Yamato, the martial arts of the Central Plains are not worthy."

No one in the crowd answered.

No one in the crowd moved.

A rumbling voice spoke slowly from outside the inn.

A huge man, with large arms and thick legs slowly walked in.

"Who said the Martial Arts of the Central Plains are un-worthy!"

Lu Changfeng!

Chief of the Beggar Sect Lu Changfeng had arrived at last!

[Tom]

Lu Changfeng, Chief of Begger Sect, is a fearsome man at first sight, indeed. He is at least six foot six, making him taller than most of Wulin. He was at least a head taller than the tallest of the invaders. His body was also very well tone and he had ripped muscles everywhere, from chest to arms. No one would have guessed he was already fifty because he certainly didn't look his age. At most people would have thought he was in his thirties because his body and face was very well kept.

"The arts of Central Plains are very diverse and powerful. If it isn't then why would your Japanese sect send you five to China in order to steal all our martial arts?" shouted Lu Changfeng.

"Five?" said someone from Beggar Sect.

"Yes, five! That dead masked man over there is also one of them."

"Oh yeah...they're all wearing the same type of masks...just different colors." The burglar's mask was colored green.

"Worthless fools don't deserve to live," hissed a ninja wearing red mask.

"Disgrace to Yamato. Absolute disgrace," said another sinisterly. This one was wearing blue (to druid, this should be the ninja that attacked you last time).

"He's the weakest out of us so don't base our skills on what he have shown," said the orange-masked ninja.

The last ninja wearing yellow mask remained silent.

"Enough talk. If you want to witness Chinese martial arts then let me show you!" shouted Lu Changfeng. Twisting his arms in a swirling motion, he released one of the styles of Xiang Long 18 Zhang.

A wavering force shot at the ninjas in full force, destroying anything in it's way. The four ninjas jumped sideways but before they knew it, Lu Changfeng was already onto them. He unleashed a series of palms and...

[Allen D]

This was certainly a lot more excitement than Fang had expected to see on his first outing to wulin.

Being that this was his first time in wulin, Fang wanted very much to join in the fighting, but decided that it would be best to just sit back and watch the fight in front of him.

Seeing Lu Changfeng's palm technique, Fang could not help but admit that the technique was very destructive. However, as destructive as it may be, his only complaint was that it almost seemed too slow (at least in the hands on Lu). Fang has yet to fully understand the intricacies of martial arts.

"If these masked men had any substantial speed, this Mr. Lu may find his hands to be full, but that is not the case. If he were battling my master however, Lu would definitely be overwhelmed by his speed," thought Fang as a light grin appeared in his face.

[CC]

Slowness to control the fast, soft to control the hard. Yin turns to Yang, Yang turns to Yin.

This was the pinnacle of martial arts!

In the eyes of the shallow knowledged Fang, the 18 Dragon Palms looked slow and full of inertia. This was a stage of martial arts even his Master was yet striving to fully understand!

In the eyes of the 4 Masked Intruders, the 18 Dragon Palms were a suffocating force.

An overwhelming force.

An inescapable force!

[IcyFox]

Elder Zhuo exclaimed, "Excellent 18 Dragon Palms indeed!"

She stuck out her tounge and cupped her fists, "Elder Zhuo pays her respects to Chief Lu! Apologies for not greeting the Chief earlier!"

Chief Lu, who always looked on Jia Li as his adopted daughter, said, "Please dispense on ceremony! Let these filthy scum taste the might of our Beggars' Clan!"

He spoke normally as if he were having a cup of tea even though he was exerting full force of the 18 Dragon Palms!

The spectators were awed with his display of prowess.

[IcyFox]

Shortly after (whatever that had or had not happened), Jia Li discreetly spoke to Chief Lu for a brief moment. He nodded and waved his hand.

Jia Li turned and gestured to 3 of her beggar followers. They left the inn quietly and traveled away by a small path.

Kicking the stones along the path, Elder Zhuo said, "What we've seen in the past few days have really been an eye-opener for us. I thought my skills were good, but a mountain is always shadowed by a higher mountain. Hahaha."

She continued, "With the federal government wanting to exterminate the all of Jianghu, we really must train ourselves up to defend what we stand for. As for me, I personally lack a lot of combat experience, and I'm always making lots of careless moves."

The beggars all admired Jia Li's forthright and frank personality; never afraid to admit her mistakes.

She said, "Now you 3 are the best among my followers. We'll return to our Martial Arts Training Institute to improve our skills so that we can make far better contributions to the cause of righteousness."

The 3 beggars cheered in agreement and the small party faded into the sunset, waiting to return when their training is complete.

[CC]

As two of the ninjas leapt at him with swords extended out, aiming for his throat, Lu Changfeng swept both his palms up in parallel motions and hit the flat side of both swords mid-blade.

Before the sound of the breaking blades registered in the ears of the crowd, Lu had dashed forward with the leading knee bent and brought both palms into the chest of the 2 ninjas.

The cracking sound of bones left no doubt as to the fate of the 2 intruders.

Some of the onlookers gasped in shock! Killing 2 elite opponents at the same time was already an incredible feat but the more discerning ones noticed that even as the tremendous force of the palms shattered the bones and organs of the 2 ninjas with a crunching sound, both bodies did not fly backwards but slumped vertically down.

Not an ounce of force was wasted!

Seeing two of his brethen killed in 1 stance, one of the 2 surviving ninjas dashed towards the exit but Lu casually extended one palm backwards and using the Divine Dragon Sweeps its Tail stance from the 18 Dragon Palms, sent a surging wave which smashed the ninja's spine instantly.

The last remaining ninja stepped backwards in fear. As Lu turned his eyes on him, the ninja quickly brought his sword up and stepped behind an old gentleman sitting on a one of the inn's tables.

With one hand on the old man's shoulder and the sword placed across the old man's throat, he threatened :"Stop! Or this old man dies!"

To the surprise of all present, Lu Changfeng just grinned, sat on the nearest chair and took a swig from his wine gourd :"You can try!".

All eyes turned back to the ninja and the old man being held hostage.

No one was quite sure who he was, in fact no one had noticed him in the gathering.

The old man sighed slowly :"Little Lu! We have not met in 10 years and you wouldn't even lift a finger?"

Lu continued grinning and took another draw from his wine gourd.

The the slightest backwards shrug, the old man slapped his left shoulder back into the chest of the ninja.

The body of the ninja landed at least 2 zhang away. Motionless.