Chapter 57: White Ape Strikes the Bear!

Crack!

A streak of lightning seemed to tear across the long sky, followed by rumbling thunder; a downpour was coming.

Li Yuan dropped from the roof of a house, paused not at all, borrowed the momentum to rush forward several steps across the main street, and with one burst of strength had grabbed the eaves of the second floor,

then flipped over and landed steadily on the rooftop.

Li Yuan crouched low, pressed his ear to the tiles, and faintly caught the subtle sounds of movement inside the house.

The White Ape Stance had the effect of sharpening the ears and eyes; his hearing was far stronger than an ordinary person's.

"No one on the second floor, they're all on the first?"

As the patter of raindrops fell, Li Yuan very carefully sensed the Soldier Register; on the gray stone platform there were as many as nine weapons, both graded and ungraded.

Training hammer, sickle, jade-green saber, Six Harmonies boots…

Whoosh~

Borrowing the cover of thunder and rain, he nimbly flipped down from the second floor, landed steadily outside the door, then pressed his ear again and heard the breathing and conversation on the first floor.

"Sis, I—I'm so tired, I don't want to practice martial arts anymore, brother-in-law is going to force me to death…"

The first thing he heard was a voice thick with sobs.

That's… Niu Gui?

Li Yuan's heart stirred slightly; he tilted his head and listened. A woman's voice responded, gentle and soft:

"Your brother-in-law only wants what's best for you. Just these past few months, he's spent over thirty taels of silver on medicine for you—would anyone else be so willing?"

The brother and sister talked inside; mostly the woman was comforting Niu Gui.

"Bear with it a little longer. Once you can enter the Divine Weapon Valley, your sister can share in your good fortune and won't have to keep grinding away like this…"

"Huh? Brother-in-law, he…"

Li Yuan heard clearly that there was no third person's breathing inside: "Qin Xiong isn't here? Wasn't he here just a few days ago? What bad luck?"

After preparing for so long, finally mustering the courage to come out once, and it turned out to be for nothing?

Li Yuan felt a little disappointed. Just as he was wondering where Qin Xiong might have gone, he suddenly heard his own name.

"Sis, I really can't compete! That Zhao Zhao Xiaoming is Commander Zhao's youngest daughter, Wang Gong is the third Shopkeeper's son, Yue Yue Yunjin and Wu Ming have already achieved Great Accomplishment in Qi and Blood,

and that Li Yuan—only four months learning martial arts and he's already Minor Accomplishment in hammer technique—his talent is far better than mine…"

Niu Gui's voice was thick with sobs, his heart bitter and uneasy.

At first, when he learned about the Divine Weapon Valley, he had been very excited, looking forward to the days after entering a great sect.

But after that it became a complete nightmare; his brother-in-law was practically driving him to death.

"Those few, there's nothing to be done about them, but that Li Yuan—that woman's brother-in-law?"

The gentle woman's voice paused slightly. After tightly shutting the doors and windows, she said softly: "Your brother-in-law said it himself—he has no chance to compete with you, he…"

"Huh?"

Niu Gui's voice was full of confusion.

What kind of person has absolutely no chance to compete?

Li Yuan lifted his head slightly. Lightning flashed through the night rain; he took advantage of it to drop down, riding the wind and rain, and slammed open the solid wood front door on the first floor in one rush.

"Who?!"

Niu Gui screamed in terror. He only felt wind and rain slap his face, his clothes flapping loudly, and before he could even react, darkness swam before his eyes—

with a 'thud' he collapsed to the ground.

"Ah!"

The wind and rain rushing in blew out the candle flame. The woman inside was scared out of her wits, her face drained of color; she flailed her arms wildly a few times before Li Yuan clamped a hand on the back of her head, exerted a little force, and she went down.

"Sure enough, strike first and gain the upper hand. If I hadn't been on guard, I really might have been caught off guard and killed…"

In the pitch-black room, Li Yuan's heart was cold. He turned and walked into the inner room.

The place where Qin Xiong hid things was extremely well concealed; he went around once and couldn't find it, but on the second floor he did see a very familiar portrait.

"This is Second Sister-in-law? He's that hung up on someone else's wife?"

Li Yuan stepped closer, just about to tear the painting down, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a flash of white light behind it.

"There's a hidden compartment behind the painting?"

He took out the jade-green saber, stabbed it into the wall, and sliced; behind it was a finely crafted small wooden box. The moment Li Yuan took it in hand, his eyelid couldn't help but twitch.

【White Ape Cloak Hammer Technique Fundamental Diagram (First Grade)】

What a coincidence?!

Li Yuan's expression was one of disbelief. He hadn't expected that something he'd been longing for so long would fall into his hands so easily.

"Hasn't Niu Gui even achieved Minor Accomplishment in Qi and Blood yet? And Qin Xiong already got the Fundamental Diagram? What little brother-in-law—he's more like a real son, right?"

Li Yuan was overjoyed, but didn't dare delay. He opened the wooden box, didn't look closely, and stuffed the sheepskin scroll, banknotes, and books helter-skelter into the Six Harmonies boots.

The two tall boots were almost stuffed completely full; another twenty or thirty taels of loose silver could only be tucked into his clothes for now.

"Worth it!"

Li Yuan let out a long breath, went out, leapt up, and was back on the second-floor rooftop.

At this moment, dark clouds rolled, lightning snakes raced across the sky, the rain poured down as if from a bucket, and the night was filled with rising steam, visibility extremely low.

In the heavy rain, Li Yuan crouched low; the feverish excitement from his great haul was washed away by the rain, and he calmed down: "Could it be that Qin Xiong also went looking for me?"

As Li Yuan was guessing, he suddenly sensed something and looked down.

In the distant curtain of rain, a black shadow flashed past.

This time, even through wind and rain, Li Yuan saw quite a bit.

Mainly because that shadow's build was simply too conspicuous—a burly man over two meters tall; in the entire Gao Liu County there was only one such person!

"Qin Xiong?!"

Li Yuan's gaze sharpened. With a flick of his wrist, a hammer appeared in his hand.

Not a forging hammer, not a weapon-hammer either—just an ordinary twelve-jin hammer. Throughout Gao Liu County, it wasn't quite true that every household had one, but there were at least several thousand, even tens of thousands of them…

……

"That little beast is that alert? Or did that brat Liu Qing leak the news?"

Hurrying through the heavy rain, Qin Xiong's face was dark with ill luck. Having made a wasted trip was quite vexing, and seeing the lights in the house extinguished, the fire in his heart flared up at once:

"Bang!"

He kicked open the courtyard gate, and Qin Xiong immediately sensed something was wrong. The lamps inside were out, yet the door was wide open.

"A thief?!"

Qin Xiong's eyelids twitched. Three steps merged into one as he was about to stride into the house, when suddenly a chill shot through his heart and he looked up.

There, in the pouring rain, a grey shadow leapt down from the second-floor roof, both hands crimson-gripped on a twelve-jin black hammer with a wooden handle,

smashing down toward him with tremendous force!

Whoosh!

Qi and blood surged forth, rushing all the way to both arms. Li Yuan felt his arms swelling as if they would burst the sleeves.

With that explosive burst, he had poured out every ounce of his strength.

Great Completion blood qi, a thousand jin of force, weighty and crushing momentum, Perfection-grade hammer technique…carrying the momentum of a plunging leap, both arms swung the hammer down at Qin Xiong.

"Li!"

The piercing shriek of tearing air was sharp and high, like a gibbon's howl.

Before Li Yuan's eyes, there seemed to appear the white ape from the foundational chart—hammer in hand, roaring defiance at the sky.

This was—White Ape Hammer Strike!

And also,

"Six Directions Unified!"

Inner and outer in harmony—where the heart goes, the hammer follows!

"Who?!"

This hammer was too fast, too urgent. Caught utterly off guard, Qin Xiong's eyelids twitched wildly. He could only just manage to channel force into both arms and raise them before him.

Boom!

Li Yuan felt a tremendous rebound force, but this time the great hammer did not slip from his grip. He merely landed, twisted his body, and the second hammer, swung in a full arc, swept up that rebound force,

and smashed down once more at Qin Xiong's face.

"You…"

Pain like his arms were shattering made Qin Xiong's eyes go bloodshot, but before he could even let out a furious roar, he was drowned in a storm of hammer shadows.

"White Ape Hammer Strike!"

The second hammer—Qin Xiong's arms snapped, his furious gaze filled with disbelief.

Who wants to kill me?!

No internal force, yet stronger than me?!

Bang!

Li Yuan spun, and the third hammer smashed down once more.

He didn't have much real-combat experience, but he knew well what it meant to strike while the enemy was down and take his life.

Thud!

With both arms broken and nowhere to retreat, Qin Xiong's guard was wide open. As he leaned back to evade the vital point, the great hammer also crashed into his chest and belly.

"Ah…"

With just that one blow, Qin Xiong felt as if his five viscera and six bowels were about to shatter.

This utterly ordinary twelve-jin hammer was somehow heavier than any heavy hammer he had ever taken. His minor-completion 'Seven Star Horizontal Training Body' couldn't withstand it?!

Not even one blow?!

Qin Xiong's eyes nearly split with rage, his broken arms flailing.

Just block one blow, just block one blow…

Bang!

The fourth hammer fell,

followed by the fifth, sixth, seventh hammer…

"Hah!"

Li Yuan shook his stinging arms; even the steam of his sweat carried the smell of blood.

Before him, that tall figure crashed to the ground with a thunderous thud. Blood dyed the mud red, only to be washed away again by the heavy rain.

Qin Xiong,

dead!

(End of chapter)