Chapter 640: A Man

Beyond that, this place was also the eastern gateway into Xuzhou, and the Xuzhou militia here was the most elite branch. The retainers commanding this militia were from the same cohort as Lu Da, Li Wu, and the others back then. Their ability might not be exceptional, but they were the group Zhao Jin trusted most. He needed to give them a few words of instruction and make arrangements.

Though no one dared to press him to drink, Zhao Jin still had to down a few bowls. The fire of this sorghum liquor was no small thing. On his way back, his steps were slightly unsteady and his mind a little muddled. With guards surrounding him, he had no other worries. In a daze, Zhao Jin remembered promising those distillery craftsmen years ago that after three years working in the winery, they would be allowed to leave and brew on their own. When that time came, the price of Han Well Famous Liquor would probably fall.

But now, such matters were trivial, not even reaching Zhao Jin's level for a decision. Though the immense profits from Han Well Famous Liquor remained, they could no longer compare to the income from other ventures. The only thing that still needed maintaining was Wang Ziyang's monopoly over the grasslands trade. The rest didn't require such close attention.

After walking a stretch of road, the liquor's haze had mostly cleared. As he reached his residence, one of the guards drew closer and reported in a low voice: "Master, that Niu Jinbao was chanting sutras and worshipping Buddha this evening. He looked utterly devout."

Zhao Jin nodded slowly. That guard immediately stepped back to the side, looking as if nothing had been said. The people assigned to observe Niu Jinbao were, of course, not limited to Cheng Dahu's group.

Niu Jinbao had shown no taboos about eating meat and drinking wine along the journey, but this matter of chanting sutras and worshipping Buddha was unexpected. Yet it did explain one thing — how Niu Jinbao could remain so composed. It likely had to do with this faith. And why he had this faith perhaps traced back to his time at Shaolin Temple. It was somewhat laughable, really — a god of slaughter like him actually believing in Buddha…

"…Watch his right hand, careful of the left…"

In the courtyard of an inn outside Suqian County town, a crowd had gathered, shouting and hollering. Those yelling were all jianghu men from the Inner Guard, while the retainers of the cavalry company and personal guard, though quieter, were still watching with eager delight.

After traveling to Suqian and settling in for the evening meal, Zhao Jin had proposed a sparring match over dinner. Niu Jinbao did not decline and agreed outright.

A gauntlet match held little interest. The Inner Guard put forward three men, Cheng Dahu among them. As for the cavalry company and personal guard, they were never skilled in single combat, and Zhao Jin did not permit them to join this contest. But the selection of those three had involved its own bouts, which everyone had enjoyed watching.

Martial contests were a warrior's game. Whether participating or not, everyone loved them dearly. They crowded around in layers three deep. Zhao Jin, naturally, had the best spot in the inner circle.

Sparring among their own men meant real weapons were out of the question. They simply used wooden poles of various lengths in place of blades and swords. But when Niu Jinbao chose his pole, he made a deliberate modification. Carving a wooden pole into a realistic axe would have been too foolish, so he simply tied a short stick crosswise onto the pole meant to represent a hand axe, making a cross shape to serve as his axe.

The first to step into the ring was a man surnamed Lian — the very same instructor who had sparred with Zhao Jin and Chen Sheng back at the Qi Family Estate. He was a good friend of Qi Erkui and an acquaintance from those early days who had long since joined the Inner Guard. His weapon was the podao, and now he held a short stick, using it purely as a blade.

This kind of sparring had no fancy flourishes. It was about determining who was stronger and who was weaker. On a battlefield, it would decide life and death. These men of the Inner Guard traded their skills and their lives for money and status. Who wouldn't want to serve as a guard at Zhao Jin's side? It was a post that brought immense face and limitless benefits. Who wouldn't want it?

Zhao Zhentang was not the only one who had noticed that Zhao Jin lacked a personal bodyguard. Everyone had been holding in a surge of competitive energy, ready to fight for the position. No one expected Niu Jinbao to suddenly appear. This made them all unwilling to accept it. Tonight was the moment to see the truth of it. Defeat Niu Jinbao, and he would likely be too ashamed to take the post.

The first thrust came — a straightforward, upright move. The podao could be used as a short spear, and the key was speed, exploiting Niu Jinbao's bulky, brawny frame and betting he couldn't dodge. As the "blade" thrust in, Niu Jinbao sidestepped to parry. His right-hand "short axe" hooked the "blade" directly. Instructor Lian could not pull his "blade" back in time, and Niu Jinbao took a great stride forward, stabbing him in the chest with his "blade." Victory and defeat were decided in that instant.

Instructor Lian's expression flickered through several changes before he finally clasped his fists and bowed. To the onlookers, it had looked brilliant, but the faces of the other two waiting to fight grew solemn.

Zhao Jin, watching from the side, saw it clearly. Niu Jinbao's movements were fierce and swift, yet the force and measure of that final "blade" thrust into Instructor Lian's chest had been exquisitely controlled. Otherwise, with that momentum, even a wooden rod could have wounded a man — at the very least causing severe pain. Yet Instructor Lian likely felt no force at all.

Appropriate response, force released and withdrawn at will — this was indeed a master. Whether it came from years of brutal combat experience or the sublime martial arts of Shaolin Temple was hard to say.

The second fighter was a companion of Nie Hei, also absorbed into the Inner Guard for his reliability. The elite from the Incense-Smelling Sect's main headquarters followed an entirely different path from local martial artists. Most walked the assassin's road — agile in form, swift in movement, and wielding short weapons. Each of the two short sticks in this man's hands was shorter than Niu Jinbao's short "blade." His usual weapons were slightly longer daggers.

This bout lasted longer than the first, because the man, wielding twin daggers, constantly circled Niu Jinbao in a skirmishing dance, refusing to close in.

Niu Jinbao remained utterly steady, his body slightly crouched, his eyes locked on the man before him as he slowly shifted his steps and changed direction. He was on the inner circle; one small step from him forced the other man to take two large strides to keep up. The two revolved slowly like this, provoking a few impatient onlookers to jeer and urge them on from outside — until a single glance from Zhao Jin silenced them instantly.

The two kept moving and circling without pause. The twin-dagger wielder would occasionally burst forward in a sudden lunge, then retreat just as fast, all to disrupt Niu Jinbao's rhythm. But he never succeeded. Niu Jinbao appeared slow, yet his shifting steps always kept him facing his opponent.

The scene had grown quiet. Some watched with grave expressions; others, seeing nothing of interest, grew impatient and wandered off to attend to their own affairs.

Everyone thought they would just keep circling like this. Then a gust of wind blew through, making the torches lighting the arena flicker. In that instant of shifting light and shadow, Niu Jinbao stumbled a step. There — an opening!

The twin-"dagger" wielder drew his body in and burst forward in a pounce. But at that very moment, Niu Jinbao steadied himself. The short stick serving as his blade flew straight from his hand, striking his opponent square between the eyebrows. The force was light, as if it had landed there by chance. But the charging man halted immediately, staggered a step to steady himself, and then said dejectedly: "I've lost. Thank you for holding back."

"Was that just luck?"

"If you've got no eye for this, don't stand there spouting nonsense and making a fool of yourself!" Cheng Dahu was clearly irritated and raised his voice to rebuke.

Zhao Jin raised a hand, and the scene fell silent at once. Zhao Jin spoke: "Niu Jinbao, you saw the wind blow the torches, used the shift between light and dark to expose an opening, and lured Old Xie into charging. Am I right?"

Niu Jinbao looked at Zhao Jin with surprise, then recovered immediately and nodded respectfully. "Master Jin has keen eyes," he said.

Unlike the impression from the prison, Niu Jinbao was not as brutishly simple as his looks suggested, nor was he the explosive type one might expect. Perhaps such a temperament was something buried deep within.

The reason Zhao Jin could reach this conclusion was simply that he had been watching the duel with rapt attention. He had seen the shift in light and shadow and thought it could be used to bait an opponent. He had not expected Niu Jinbao to actually do so.

"That just now — it wasn't luck, was it?" Though he had angrily told others not to ask, Cheng Dahu still muttered the question to his companion in a low voice.

"No. The force was perfectly measured. It just tapped the forehead, but it landed dead center between the brows, not a hair off." The twin-dagger Inner Guard answered honestly.

Cheng Dahu heard this, glanced at Zhao Jin beside him, and muttered under his breath: "Old Li and Big Li aren't here. I'm afraid I'm going to embarrass myself!"

These words were partly to himself and partly meant for Zhao Jin to hear — a kind of preemptive excuse. Zhao Jin only smiled and paid it little mind. Truth be told, among the most martially skilled men in the Zhao Camp, the strongest few all came from a military background. Li He and Li Dajin were the most outstanding. Zhao Jin and his companions, having trained in military methods since childhood and gained experience in real combat, were also very strong. The jianghu figures, for all their loud reputations and mystique, were not necessarily a match for those of military origin when it came to a real fight.

Cheng Dahu, for that matter, could be considered a scion of a guard family. The Cheng family had deep ties to Pizhou Guard, and Cheng Dahu had learned military methods from a young age. Unfortunately, he had soon gone to work at the yamen, and his real training had come later in the jianghu. His skills were somewhat mixed and impure.

Cheng Dahu also used a podao. He deliberately chose a thicker wooden rod, though the length was the same. As he strode into the ring, a few quick-witted onlookers, seeing his choice of a thicker rod, couldn't help covering their mouths to stifle laughter. It seemed Cheng Dahu was trying to gain an advantage through his weapon — exploiting a loophole, in other words.

This third bout was always meant to be the finale. Cheng Dahu now carried the face of all the Inner Guard men. He would naturally be extremely cautious, even resorting to laughable tricks like exploiting loopholes.

Cheng Dahu was about the same height as Zhao Jin, only slightly stockier, but he was born with immense strength. Against Niu Jinbao, he wasn't at much of a disadvantage, and his movements were simple and swift — pure battlefield techniques from the army.

When the two clashed, Cheng Dahu thrust his wooden rod straight forward, baiting Niu Jinbao into hooking it, then directly smashed away Niu Jinbao's "short blade" with brute force. When Niu Jinbao attacked with his "short axe," Cheng Dahu retreated several quick steps. This fighting style was a bit shameless — exploiting the fact that wooden weapons couldn't wound, he opened his movements wide. If both had been holding sharp steel in a true life-or-death struggle, who would dare advance and retreat so recklessly?

Then, after a few exchanges, Cheng Dahu closed in. Using the opponent's dodge, he chopped down with his hand to grab the other's "short axe." This, too, was a shameless tactic. But the "podao" in his hand came swift and fierce, and Niu Jinbao had no choice but to evade.

Thank you, everyone.