Chapter 131

Although Lin Chong and Zhang Jie both had many thoughts in their hearts,

on the surface, the two were harmonious, drinking and clinking glasses under Lu Zhishen's hospitality.

After a few more cups of wine, Lu Zhishen was already slightly tipsy.

Under the influence of wine, he opened his monk's robe a little to let the breeze blow through,

feeling a bit of coolness, and looked at Lin Chong with bright eyes, inviting him:

"Lin Jiaotou, how about you and I exchange a few moves?"

Lin Chong, who was also a martial artist, felt his hands itching; he glanced at Zhang Jie, who was sitting upright,

and also intended to show off his skills in front of this new third-place finisher, so he immediately agreed:

"Lin Chong has exactly that intention; I hope you will instruct me, brother!"

"Haha, that's great!"

Lu Zhishen laughed heartily, stood up from his seat, turned around, and returned to the thatched hut in the vegetable garden.

After a while, he came out with two straight wooden sticks, each twelve feet long.

Zhang Jie nodded slightly at this: Lu Zhishen didn't say it, but most of Lin Chong's skills were in spear and staff,

and if he didn't have a weapon, his martial arts would drop by at least five levels, if not more.

"Lin Jiaotou, catch the stick!"

Lu Zhishen raised his hand and threw a wooden stick to Lin Chong.

"Good!"

Lin Chong shouted, leaped up from his seat,

caught the wooden stick in the air with a vigorous backflip, and landed steadily on the open space in the vegetable garden.

"Good stick!"

Lin Chong casually shook a spear flower and felt that the size, length,

and thickness of this stick were all to his liking, obviously specially prepared by Lu Zhishen.

"Haha! As long as it's handy for you, Lin Jiaotou."

Seeing that Lin Chong liked the weapon he had prepared, Lu Zhishen was also overjoyed.

"Master Lu, be careful!"

Lin Chong apologized, grabbed one end of the wooden stick, and shook it,

and the other end of the stick went straight toward Lu Zhishen's vital points like the head of a great spear.

Listening to the whistling wind, one knew how swift and fierce Lin Chong's thrust was;

even without a spearhead, it could easily poke a big hole in a flesh-and-blood body!

"Well come!"

Facing this thrust from Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen not only didn't retreat,

but met it head-on, his already full muscles on his right arm instantly bulging,

and the dragon-elephant strength was transmitted to the wooden stick in his hand, meeting Lin Chong's thrust.

Bang, bang, bang!

The two, one being the spear and staff instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards, the other having fought in the army first,

and then entered the master's sect at Mount Wutai to learn Buddhist martial arts as an angry Vajra,

were truly evenly matched, and for a time, they fought to a standstill.

After dozens of rounds, Zhang Jie, who was watching the battle, concluded:

"Lu Zhishen is going to lose."

Sure enough, after a few more moves, Lin Chong used the stick as a spear, with the tip less than a foot away from Lu Zhishen's vital points.

At this moment, if Lin Chong moved half a step forward, Lu Zhishen would be dead or seriously injured!

Lin Chong immediately withdrew his stick and stood, saying to Lu Zhishen:

"Master Lu, how about we call it a draw today?"

"Haha!

A loss is a loss; I am not the kind of person who can't afford to lose."

Lu Zhishen laughed heroically and frankly admitted he had lost.

Lin Chong, upon hearing this, shook his head, not quite agreeing with Lu Zhishen's admission of defeat:

"That I could win a move or two against you today is not because my martial arts are superior, but because I took advantage of the weapon."

Zhang Jie, sitting steadily on the stool, nodded slightly:

Lin Chong's words were not wrong.

In this contest, Lin Chong used the spear and staff he was most familiar with,

while Lu Zhishen did not use the Zen staff he usually used.

That water-polished Zen staff was made entirely of high-quality iron and weighed a full 62 jin,

and in the hands of the immensely strong Lu Zhishen, it was a case of one force overcoming ten skills.

The wooden stick he used just now, while not bad, made it difficult to exert Lu Zhishen's advantage in strength.

"The two of you, come and drink some wine to cool off."

Zhang Jie poured two cups of wine and said loudly.

"Haha, I am blessed today to be able to drink wine poured by the third-place finisher himself."

Lu Zhishen was broad-minded by nature and didn't take this victory or defeat to heart;

he came to the table in two or three steps, took the wine handed by Zhang Jie, and drank it in one gulp.

"Thank you, third-place finisher."

Lin Chong only took the wine after thanking him quite formally.

"What a good stick!"

Zhang Jie took the wooden stick Lu Zhishen had used from his hand and felt he couldn't put it down.

"If Brother Zhang likes it, I'll give it to you."

Lu Zhishen waved his hand and said generously.

"Then I will not decline."

A brilliant smile appeared on Zhang Jie's face.

Not to mention him, even that great man who saved the Chinese nation could not refuse such a perfect stick.

Men have a love for this kind of wooden stick that can be used as a weapon in their bones.

If he had had this stick when he was young before he transmigrated, he would have taught the ten miles of rapeseed flowers to all be headless!

Whoosh, whoosh!

Zhang Jie waved it a few times and inexplicably felt his hands itching.

Speaking of which, although he had shared excellent martial arts from other Zhang Jies,

he had never properly displayed them in the Water Margin World.

Whether it was going to kill Ximen Daguanren, or wiping out the entire Wild Boar Village,

or sending that corrupt official who was in cahoots with Sun Erniang and

Zhang Qing on his way, he had always traveled by starlight and killed all witnesses.

Today, it was rare to see Lu Zhishen and Lin Chong, who could be called the ceiling of personal combat power in the Water Margin World,

and he couldn't help but have the idea of showing off (acting cool) in front of others.

If he wanted to do it, he would do it; Zhang Jie immediately invited:

"Lin Jiaotou, how about you and I exchange a few moves?"

"What?"

Lin Chong, holding his wine cup, thought for a moment that he was too tired after fighting Lu Zhishen and had auditory hallucinations.

What's the situation?

The new third-place finisher wants to fight him, an instructor?

But he only knew spear and staff; as for music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, he could only say he had opened six of the seven orifices—he was completely clueless.

Even Lu Zhishen, who had been acquainted with Zhang Jie for many days, was full of surprise.

He didn't know that Zhang Jie also had accomplishments in martial arts.

"Lin Jiaotou, Master Lu, please watch."

Zhang Jie, knowing he needed to show something, grabbed the wooden stick and casually thrust it into the air.

"What?"

The next instant, Lu Zhishen and Lin Chong were shocked,

for with their keen eyesight, they could see that Zhang Jie hadn't just thrust it casually,

but had clearly killed a fly attracted by the wine and meat with a single thrust.

As the saying goes, one can tell if an expert is real the moment they make a move; Zhang's action had clearly reached the realm of seeing the small as large.

Added to the technique precise enough to hit a fly, Zhang Jie's spear technique was already perfect!

"How is it?"

Zhang Jie put down the wooden stick and asked with a smile.

"Lin Chong asks the third-place finisher to instruct me!"

Suddenly seeing such a master of spear technique, Lin Chong, who had practiced spear and staff since childhood

and had contributed most of his life to spear technique, how could he hold back?

The two immediately came to the open space and stood a few meters apart.

"Please."

Lin Chong, not wanting to bully the young, let Zhang Jie make the first move.

A strange expression appeared on Zhang Jie's face, and he asked somewhat uncertainly:

"Does Lin Jiaotou really want me to make the first move?"

Looking at the smile on Zhang Jie's face, Lin Chong suddenly felt something was wrong,

but he still bit the bullet and said: "Third-place finisher, please go ahead."

"That is also fine."

Zhang Jie nodded slightly.

"Lin Jiaotou, be careful!"

Following convention, Zhang Jie also gave a warning.

Lin Chong, feeling something was wrong, stared fixedly at Zhang Jie's every move.

Swish!

Lin Chong only heard a sound of breaking air, and then he saw the spearhead less than three inches from his throat.

"Too, too fast!"

Lin Chong felt his throat was exceptionally dry at this moment.

Zhang Jie's speed was too fast, so fast that he had controlled his vital points before he could react.

That is to say, if Zhang Jie wanted to kill him, one move would be enough!

Lu Zhishen, who was watching the battle from the side, was also full of shock.

What had he seen?

He actually saw Lin Chong, who had just beaten him by a move, defeated by Zhang Jie in one move.

"Could it be that I drank too much wine and had a hallucination?"

Lu Zhishen looked at the wine in his cup and began to doubt whether the world before him was real.

Zhang Jie withdrew the long stick: "Lin Jiaotou, you let me win."

Lin Chong's expression became relieved, and he cupped his hands in salute:

"The third-place finisher's spear technique is unfathomable; Lin Chong admits defeat."

Looking at the shocked Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen, a hint of a smile flashed in the depths of Zhang Jie's eyes:

For these martial men, fame and the like could make them marvel,

but wanting to make them sincerely convinced and awe-struck from the heart was very simple yet very difficult.

What is simple is that one only needs to have an overwhelming advantage in force.

What is difficult is how to obtain this overwhelming force.

And he, Zhang Jie, is not talented, but with the help of other Zhang Jies,

he happened to have overwhelming force in this Water Margin World that leaned towards film and television.

"Both civil and martial, this is both civil and martial!"

Lu Zhishen and Lin Chong looked at Zhang Jie, who stood holding the stick in the vegetable garden, sighing repeatedly.

The demeanor and posture Zhang Jie was showing now,

the confidence between his brows, the bearing of a mountain,

all undoubtedly revealed the demeanor of a generation of grandmasters.

Civilly, he could rank in the first tier as a third-place finisher in the palace examination; martially, he could lightly defeat the instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards;

if this doesn't count as being both civil and martial, then who else can be considered both civil and martial?