Chapter 81: Kicking the Hall? Bizarre Demon Technique

Douqiong Martial Arts Hall looked to be many years old.

The brick walls in the courtyard had turned gray, the marble laid on the ground had mottled cracks, and upon close inspection, one could faintly see some shattered footprints.

As if they had once been stomped in, then stomped cracked by latercomers.

The courtyard was relatively open, with an old tree planted whose age was indiscernible; its branches were gnarled and withered, looking as if it were about to wither and die of old age.

The old tree was surrounded by a hedge, on which hung a hemp rope, from which several air-dried short jackets were draped.

Past the gate courtyard lay the martial hall's dojo, clearly renovated, with fresh paint on the walls and brand-new tatami mats on the floor, inside which were placed various weird plug-in devices and instruments.

In the courtyard and inside the dojo, there seemed to be two mismatched worlds, forcibly spliced together.

One side appeared antique and weathered, while the other overflowed with a cold technological feel, making the whole picture seem both disjointed and contradictory.

Inside the dojo, at the service desk, a woman dozing with her head tilted suddenly woke from her dream; her groggy eyes first glanced at Feng Mu standing in the courtyard, then her gaze swept past him toward outside the courtyard.

The next instant, a piercing whistle that seemed about to lift the roof resounded through the entire martial hall.

"Master, Senior Brother, the signboard has been smashed by someone, someone's come to challenge the hall ahhhhhh—"

Feng Mu watched the petite figure jump from sitting to standing onto the counter in an instant, unable to imagine such a terrifying volume could erupt from her body.

Feng Mu's expression shifted slightly, and his retreating step was quietly withdrawn; if he retreated again now, it would look like a guilty conscience.

Whoosh—

The wind sliced past Feng Mu's temples, the stray hairs at his sideburns tugged at his facial skin making it ache, and he almost reflexively surfaced 【Mask】 defense.

"So fast, even the wind passing by was wrapped into something like knives."

Feng Mu was horrified, his pupils shrinking to needlepoints; half a second later, a muffled sonic boom reached his ears.

He stiffly turned his body, looking toward where the signboard had fallen behind him; a sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked thin short old man was squatting on the ground, both hands caressing the cracked signboard as if caressing a lover, a pair of triangular eyes staring at him like a man-eater.

"Douqiong Martial Arts Hall's signboard of several decades was smashed by you, huh, kid, you've got quite the guts."

Li Bashan looked down at Feng Mu from above, his burly figure of over two meters like a mountain blocking the light, enveloping the latter entirely in shadow.

Feng Mu's heart instantly tightened, feeling as if locked onto by a man-eating giant beast, all the blood in his body roaring and flowing under threat.

"Very strong, extremely strong, more than ten times the oppressive feeling that black-faced one gave me; it feels as long as I move slightly, the next second I'll be torn into pieces by this giant, not a single intact bone left."

Feng Mu was not afraid, having 【Death-Transferring Twins】 as a trump card; he did not fear death.

But the problem was, he had done nothing at all; a pot fell from the sky out of nowhere and nearly smashed him to death—was Heaven unable to look on any longer, wanting to use someone else's hand to take him out?

Several figures of varying heights, all with intimidating auras, walked out, each locking onto Feng Mu with undisguised killing intent.

Feng Mu had killed before, so he could sense the bloody smell in these killing intents; they were not bluffing—these guys all had human blood on their hands, and more than me?!

What, it's just a martial hall; did I take the wrong road, and walked into a den of murderous thieves?

Feng Mu's eyelids twitched; he saw the petite woman who had initially shrieked, hopping and jumping to drive the onlookers in the dojo back to practice, while simultaneously closing the curtains and pulling the doors shut.

Close the door, kill people, bury the corpses... this process I'm familiar with~

Feng Mu glanced sideways at the old tree; he had already figured out where he'd be buried later.

Feng Mu also had killing intent boiling in his heart; he silently memorized these faces one by one in his heart, while his face always maintained a dull expression, carrying a bit of panic as he said: "You mustn't wrong me; I didn't touch that signboard—it fell by itself; don't try to extort money from me."

Li Bashan in a muffled voice: "Douqiong Martial Arts Hall's signboard hung fine for decades; you arrive and it falls to the ground—you're trying to fool a fool?"

While speaking, he raised his hand, a large hand like a palm-leaf fan covering down.

"Bashan, he didn't lie." The sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked old man behind suddenly spoke; he sighed: "The signboard fell by itself—divine will, divine will."

Among the crowd, several figures who heard the master speak exchanged glances, all stunned, as if reminded of something, their expressions simultaneously turning ugly; one person's eyes flickered slightly.

The petite woman cried "ah," hurriedly grabbed Li Bashan, carefully looked at Feng Mu, then suddenly her face turned red as she said: "I remember now—you're the new disciple who came to get a membership card not long ago; after getting the card, you seemed never to have come again?"

The life-or-death crisis lifted; Feng Mu coldly laughed in his heart, while his face still seemed not to understand the situation, looking completely unaware that he had just walked through the Ghost Gate.

He took out a membership card from his pocket and asked thick-skinnedly: "Yeah, I've been a bit busy these past two weeks; can I go in now?"

The petite woman was stunned, completely not expecting that after all this, this new disciple still wanted to enter, and still dared to enter the martial hall.

The disciples guarding the door also looked at each other, exchanging glances, seemingly saying: where did this disciple come from—is he a fool?

Only Li Bashan didn't think there was a problem; he was the first to step aside with his burly body, muffledly apologizing: "You didn't lie to me; I wrongly blamed you."

"Don't blame Senior Brother; it's all because I was too careless." The petite woman said softly and hesitantly.

She led Feng Mu toward the martial hall, but was interrupted by the master's voice: "The signboard wasn't smashed by him, but it happened to fall when he arrived—this is an ill omen; the Ancestral Masters don't welcome him. Hong Ya, refund his money and let him leave."

Hong Ya said "oh," hurriedly ran to the front desk to take out a stack of money, thought it over, took a few more bills, then hurriedly ran back and stuffed them into Feng Mu's hands.

Feng Mu frowned, seeming to finally understand that this martial hall didn't welcome him; he coldly took the money, turned around, and left.

After he left, the sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked old man walked into the courtyard with his hands behind his back; the various disciples guarding the door hurriedly bowed and dispersed, while Li Bashan silently grabbed the signboard and followed the master into the inner courtyard.

Entering the room, he placed the signboard flat on the table.

Li Bashan rubbed his palm and brushed off some wood shavings; he was born with great strength that was hard to control, and accidentally pried the crack in the signboard open a bit more.

Since it was already cracked, cracking a bit more didn't matter; anyway, someone would have to be found to repair it.

The sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked old man was named Li Guishe, the master of Douqiong Martial Arts Hall; Li Bashan was his closed-door senior disciple, and also an abandoned infant he had picked up and raised since childhood.

He glanced at the wood shavings Li Bashan was rubbing in his palm; his eyelids twitched, and just as he was about to harshly scold him a couple of times, he suddenly caught sight of something poking out a corner from the crack in the signboard.

"Huh?"

Li Guishe shoved aside the senior disciple; the latter's burly body failed to stand firm, staggered backward, and deeply stomped two footprints into the ground.

"Master, why did you shove me?" Li Bashan said in a muffled voice, his fierce square face showing grievance.

Li Guishe's attention was all on the signboard; he hooked his fingertip along the crack and actually pried out a page corner of a book, the page corner yellowed and dim.

A book hidden inside the signboard?

A secret manual?!

Li Guishe's eyes flashed with a green, oily cold light; he exerted force with his fingertips and tore off the signboard's face, and sure enough, a secret manual was revealed inside, its cover written in dragon-flying-phoenix-dancing calligraphy with four characters—【Bizarre Demon Technique】!

End of Chapter