Chapter 42: A Crushing Defeat, and a Bountiful Harvest!

White Ape Hammer Strike!

Startled into a violent eruption, Li Yuan had used nearly his full strength, his blood qi surging as he unleashed the killing move of the White Ape Cloak Hammer, further augmented by his Perfection-grade hammer technique and his mastery of long weapons.

"White Ape Hammer Strike?"

Nian Jiu's eyelid twitched slightly. His single outstretched arm suddenly contracted, dodging that fierce hammer blow, then in a flash spun to grab at the hammer's shaft.

Let alone being heavily wounded, even if he weren't, he wouldn't have taken a heavy hammer head-on. Hammer weapons specialized in breaking armor and countering horizontal training.

Whoosh!

The moment the strike landed, Li Yuan felt his whole body flush with heat, his adrenaline and blood qi soaring together. As the hammer missed, he twisted his body and brought another hammer crashing down!

Those few exchanges in the dense forest had emboldened him.

"Hm?!"

At the first hammer, Nian Jiu hadn't felt much; with his heavy wounds, his reactions were bound to be much slower. But this grab had actually missed.

Not only that, he'd been forced back a step, the hammer head sweeping past his face as it fell.

"Hit!"

One hammer missed, then another. Li Yuan erupted as if possessed.

With his Perfection-grade hammer technique at full burst, the thirty-jin heavy hammer was wielded by him so tightly not even water could seep through, truly like a sudden gale rising.

"This kid?"

Nian Jiu's single eye went wide, his face flushing red, as he was actually forced back over a dozen steps!

Great Accomplishment hammer technique?!

"Damn!"

Nian Jiu raged.

Ever since he'd broken through to Internal Energy, relying on his Great Accomplishment horizontal training and lightness skill, he'd even crossed blades with Internal Strength-stage martial artists multiple times without dying.

When had he ever suffered a setback at the hands of a junior whose Internal Energy hadn't even formed?

Even with his heavy wounds, this still sent fury surging through his heart.

Bang!

Hammer after hammer, Li Yuan felt his whole body flow smoothly, the essence of hammer techniques he hadn't understood before seeming to solve themselves at a touch, and the killing move White Ape Hammer Strike came forth in an unbroken torrent.

This was a feeling utterly different from his own bitter practice—far clearer and more lucid than forging iron, and practicing hammers in the rain was far inferior to real blade-and-spear slaughter.

'Perfection plus Great Accomplishment—even an Internal Energy martial artist, I'm not unable to have a go!'

Seeing Nian Jiu retreat again and again, the wariness in Li Yuan's heart was swept away in an instant. His great hammer danced wildly as he actually lunged forward, trying to draw Nian Jiu into his range.

"Seeking death!"

Forced back another step, Nian Jiu's single eye went red. He let out a low roar, his body suddenly shooting forward, his single arm rising horizontally—

Using his elbow as a spear, he thrust straight into the wind-tight curtain of hammer shadows.

Bang!

At the hard clash, Li Yuan seemed to hear the sound of Nian Jiu's sinews and bones shattering, but the Hukou of his hammer-holding hand also split open instantly, as if he'd struck a siege chariot—

The heavy hammer flew from his grip; he couldn't even hold on!

The Cloak Hammer could borrow force to strike back, layering hammer force, but if the force endured in an instant was too great, there was simply no way to dissipate it!

To deflect a thousand jin with four liang, one must first possess a thousand jin of strength oneself.

"You little bastard, having a good time hitting me?!"

His entire forearm nearly crushed to pulp, Nian Jiu roared in pain and fury, whipping his arm. The limp forearm lashed out like a soft whip toward Li Yuan's neck—

At the same time, a headbutt slammed down viciously:

"Come on, hit here!"

Li Yuan was shaken.

A man with a severed arm, a severed leg, one eye blinded and his last hand broken—wounded to such an extent—was still this ferocious?!

He instinctively wanted to retreat explosively, to evade that whip-like severed arm coiling toward him, to dodge first, retrieve his hammer, and then resume the fight—

But seeing that headbutt coming down, his heart suddenly stirred.

"Die!"

As the headbutt crashed down, a savage grin had already spread across Nian Jiu's face. With his horizontal training, this one blow would splatter this kid's brains out.

But in an instant, he felt an indescribable, searing pain.

As if his skull had been smashed open by a hammer!

Bang!

The practice hammer fell heavily, then rose high once more!

Li Yuan seemed to see brains splatter, but he didn't pause for a moment. Tearing off the severed arm that had lashed his shoulder raw with pain, he drew a long-handled practice hammer from the gray space and danced it into afterimages—

Once, twice…

Viciously pounding that face full of disbelief—head and hair together—into the same color as mud.

"Hit, and then what?!"

Li Yuan broke out in a great sweat, his blood qi surging upward, yet he felt not the slightest nausea. Looking at the headless corpse that had lost its breath, he felt only the lightness of a great stone finally falling to the ground in his heart.

The bloody case triggered by a broken shoe should come to an end here; those chaotic saber-bearers wouldn't come after him anymore.

"Time to go!"

Coming back to his senses, Li Yuan picked up the hammer that had flown from his grip, did a quick search, and finally stripped off Nian Jiu's pair of Liuhe boots and stuffed them into the Weapon-Holding Space.

"Now that makes a pair!"

Li Yuan turned and left swiftly, but after one turn he slipped back, thoroughly searching the half-dead fake Daoist Priest Zhang Zhang Yuanfang as well.

"Saved your life, taking a few things isn't too much, right?"

Stuffing some of the things into his Six Harmonies boots and storing them in the Soldier Palm space, Li Yuan only then turned and hurried away.

……

This time, without the slightest hesitation, he charged straight out of the dense forest and returned to the spot where he had entered the mountain.

From afar, he spotted Wang Gong feeding the horses, Zhao Zhao Xiaoming, and Yue Yue Yunjin standing to one side looking as if he had lost both parents. Of the six who had entered the mountain,

counting himself, only four remained.

"Li, Li Yuan!"

Seeing Li Yuan covered in dust and drenched in sweat, the usually rather aloof Yue Yue Yunjin suddenly darted over, so excited he nearly pulled him into an embrace.

"It's wonderful that you're all right!"

This sudden warmth struck Li Yuan as rather baffling, but with the man offering a warm face, he wouldn't slap him with a cold backside,

so he could only casually fabricate an excuse to brush it off.

"Junior Brother Qian, Junior Brother Li still hasn't come back. I'm afraid he…"

Yue Yue Yunjin's expression darkened, his heart filled with both hatred and vexation.

He himself didn't know why, the instant he heard the scream in the dense forest, he had lost his head completely and turned into a headless fly,

utterly without the poise of an Inner Court senior brother or a rising star of the Weapon-Forging Shop…

"He probably just got lost. Wait a while, he may come back."

Li Yuan offered a word of comfort, but the look in his eyes as he gazed toward Mount Fajiu Mountain shifted somewhat.

Had these people really come to capture Nian Jiu?

Did a Nian Jiu, nearly crippled into a useless wreck, really warrant such a massive operation?

Besides, he had circled nearly half the forest and still hadn't spotted the leaders of those families, nor a single city guard…

……

Whoosh!

A wind seemed to rise in the mountain forest, the sky gradually darkening.

Halfway up the mountainside, Qiu Long stood leaning on his blade, coldly gazing down at the entire forest. Behind him, a dozen or so elite cavalrymen each rested a hand on their blades.

"My lord, with this bunch of trash, I'm afraid we may not be able to flush out the person behind Nian Jiu."

Hearing the chaotic sounds from within the forest, Vice Commander Liu Junping's expression was cold and stern as he cupped his fist and said:

"Let your subordinate take the brothers in!"

"Trash? If they truly were trash, how much trouble it would save me…"

Qiu Long's eyes flickered, but he nodded:

"Go."

"Yes!"

Liu Junping had long since grown impatient. Answering, he led a group of elites charging into the forest, and soon vanished from sight.

Only Qiu Long remained.

He stood atop the Reclining Ox Rock, watched for a short while, then spoke:

"Since you've come all this way, why not come out?"

"Commander Qiu's mind is sharp as a hair—truly can't be hidden from you!"

From within the dense forest, the grey-clothed man's voice drifted and shifted, as if prowling, probing.

"For a mere great bandit to lie hidden in Gao Liu County for months, without someone's help, it would naturally be impossible."

Qiu Long's fingers rubbed against the blade hilt as he gazed faintly toward a certain spot in the dense forest:

"Still, you've gone to great lengths to lure Qiu Mou out—so what? With you alone, you are no match for my Conglong Blade!"

"One person?"

The grey-clothed man stepped out from the shadows, then another, then several more…

Soon, over ten people stood spaced around the mountainside, all masked and silent.

"Does the whole world truly have a long-standing grudge against me, Qiu Long?"

Qiu Long drew his blade and rose, glancing around at the men:

"Do you truly dare to kill me?"

"He who kills Gao Liu's Qiu Long…"

The leading grey-clothed man shook his blade and rose, the wind-breaking sound like a fierce tiger's roar, echoing through the mountain forest:

"Qianjun Cave—Nian Jiu is I!"

(End of this chapter)