Free Web NovelChapter 9: Chapter 5: Counter-kill 2
"Eggs! Soybeans!"
Fang Rui’s eyes widened with longing. He desperately wanted to buy some to supplement his mother’s and sister’s nutrition, but in the end, he gave up the idea.
After all, this was his first time at the Black Market, and he subconsciously wanted to be more cautious.
Just then, as Fang Rui was walking, a furtive figure suddenly blocked his path. While Fang Rui was secretly on guard, the lanky man pulled a booklet from his robes. "Young man, interested in a Secret Martial Arts Manual?"
"Hah!"
Fang Rui scoffed and turned to leave.
"Hey, hey! If you don’t want a Cultivation Technique, I have Martial Arts too!" the lanky man called out, chasing after him.
Fang Rui walked away even faster.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want a Secret Martial Arts Manual, but that the man’s wares... were all fake.
In this era, the tradition of guarding one’s secrets was much stronger than in his previous life. Even a simple trade—carpentry, blacksmithing, tofu grinding—was a skill to make a living, a guarded secret not to be shared lightly.
If a skill was passed down, it was to a son, not a daughter. If one had no sons, they might take on a personal disciple, but that disciple would have to be "tested" for over a decade, and even then, the master would still hold something back.
—"Teach your apprentice everything, and the master starves to death." This was no laughing matter!
If this was the case for ordinary trades, it was even more so for Secret Martial Arts Manuals.
Even when written down, no one knew how many coded phrases or secret terms they contained. But that wasn’t the worst part. The real scam was that crucial sections were often omitted, passed down only by word of mouth instead of being recorded.
Manuals like that were considered high-quality goods that could fetch a good price. After all, even if one couldn’t practice them, they could still get a general overview, study the underlying philosophy, and find inspiration.
The manuals actively peddled in the Black Market, as Fang Baicao had once said, were the worst of the worst.
Regarding their content, you didn’t need to ask what was fake. You needed to ask if anything was real!
The ones with a genuine opening section were considered the work of a "conscientious" scammer. The truly devious ones had nothing but a real title, while the rest was a mix of truth and lies—that was the real trap.
If some fool actually tried to practice from one of those, they would absolutely end up dead or crippled!
’My panel is very rigid; it can’t even register incomplete or incorrect manuals. So what use do I have for this garbage?’
Fang Rui didn’t even respond, quickening his pace.
His father had warned him: they were all scams. He shouldn’t believe a word, and it was best not to even engage, or he might reveal his rookie status and be targeted.
The lanky man watched Fang Rui leave and shook his head. "Too bad, didn’t hook that one. On to the next!"
After shaking off the lanky man peddling Secret Martial Arts Manuals, Fang Rui didn’t want to linger and worry his mother waiting at home. He quickly compared prices at a few stalls, chose the one with the best value to buy thirty pounds of Sorghum Flour, and left the Black Market.
As he left the Black Market, the heavily bearded man still wore the same dead, expressionless face. "Once you leave the Black Market, we are not responsible for your safety."
’This guy is definitely a ruthless character!’
Fang Rui discreetly glanced at the cloth-wrapped Horizontal Saber at the man’s side, gave a slight nod, and left, carrying the sack of grain.
What he didn’t know was that the moment he left, a short, thin man wearing a Ge Cloth mask, with a scar on his forehead that resembled a third eye, started to trail him.
Not far from the entrance to the Black Market, two vendors saw this and began to talk.
"Hey, Three Eyes has his sights on that last fellow. That guy’s in for it now!"
"You’re right. He looks thin—a perfect lamb for the slaughter. But I only saw him buy some Sorghum Flour. He’s just a poor wretch. When did Three Eyes get so desperate he’d go after anyone?"
"You obviously haven’t heard. Three Eyes lost big at the gambling dens recently. He’s strapped for cash..."
...
’Someone is actually following me!’
Fang Rui glanced back out of the corner of his eye.
Given his cautious nature and profound sense of insecurity, how could he not have been on the lookout for tails after leaving the Black Market?
In fact, Fang Rui had considered stuffing some rags under his clothes to look a bit bigger and less like an easy target.
But after thinking it over, he abandoned the idea.
The reason?
Simply put, he was too poor.
The Fang Family originally had some savings, but more than half a month ago, Fang Baicao spent a hefty sum pulling strings to get Fang Rui out of military conscription, leaving them with little.
Lately, exploitation by the Government Office and local gangs had intensified, and Caozhi Hall was no longer breaking even.
Under these circumstances, for Fang Rui to use what little money the family had left to stockpile grain for a rainy day, he had to take a bit of a risk.
And so, this plan to bait a willing fish was born.
Of course.
He was also worried about hooking a shark, so while in the Black Market, he didn’t dare buy anything like eggs, soybeans, or white flour. He wouldn’t even buy a small amount. He even passed on cornmeal, buying only thirty pounds of Sorghum Flour.
To be honest, this coarse Sorghum Flour was rough on the throat; no one with any real status would eat it.
This basically ruled out the possibility of attracting a tough opponent. Even if someone took the bait, it would only be a small fry.
’Bring it on!’
A glint flashed in Fang Rui’s eyes as he pretended to panic and quickened his pace.
"Trying to run?" Behind him, Three Eyes immediately sped up.
As Three Eyes rounded a corner, he was startled to find that Fang Rui had vanished!
He was still trying to figure it out when...
WHOOSH!
A large sack of grain came swinging at him from the side.
—It was Fang Rui!
Three Eyes was an experienced fighter, his reactions to danger honed into instinct. He subconsciously ducked, dodging the sack while simultaneously sticking out his right leg to trip Fang Rui.
However, Fang Rui was one step ahead. He launched a powerful, heavy kick that whistled through the air, aimed straight at Three Eyes’ chest.
"This is bad!"
Three Eyes hastily pulled his leg back, sinking into a horse stance and crossing his arms to block.
BAM!
With a loud thud, Fang Rui staggered but held his ground. Three Eyes, on the other hand, stumbled back several steps to bleed off the force.
’A tough opponent! He’s far more experienced in combat than I am. My ambush barely gave me an advantage... Luckily, just as I predicted, he’s just an ordinary person.’
Fang Rui’s eyes narrowed.
He didn’t know that Three Eyes’s arms were already numb, and his mind was reeling in shock. ’Incredible strength! This isn’t a lamb, this is the fisherman?! But... I can still take him!’
He’d met people stronger than him before. He was confident that with his own ferocity and vast fighting experience, he could finish this guy off.
—Indeed, due to his Innate Body Weakness, the strength Fang Rui gained after reaching Entry Grade was less than that of others. This prevented Three Eyes from realizing that Fang Rui was an Entry Grade Martial Artist.
"Kill!"
Three Eyes didn’t waste time on talk. He lunged like a starving wolf. A pair of open scissors flicked out from his sleeve like a butterfly knife as he closed in on Fang Rui.
"Hah!"
Not to be outdone, Fang Rui tossed the grain sack aside and swung a fist the size of a sandbag at Three Eyes’s temple.
The two closed the distance in an instant—
But then, Three Eyes’s footwork shifted. He dodged Fang Rui’s fist as nimbly as a slippery eel, his right hand gripping the scissors as he viciously slashed at Fang Rui’s stomach with the grace of a swallow skimming water.
RRRIP!
The scissors tore through his linen clothes and scraped against Fang Rui’s skin. An ordinary person would have been disemboweled on the spot.
On Fang Rui, however, the attack produced a grating screech and left only a white line on his skin.
"Skin as tough as leather... an Entry Grade Martial Artist?!"
Three Eyes’s pupils contracted. A mix of shock and fear washed over him, and he immediately wanted to retreat.
’Trying to run now? Too late!’
Fang Rui instantly dropped lower, seizing the close-range opportunity to wrap his arms around Three Eyes’s body and pin his arms. He then viciously kneed his opponent in the groin.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
He kneed Three Eyes until the man’s eyes rolled back in his head.
After repeated heavy blows to a man’s most vulnerable area, the scissors fell from Three Eyes’s hand with a CLATTER. His struggles grew faint.
SLAM!
Fang Rui saw his chance and violently slammed Three Eyes to the ground.
The moment Three Eyes hit the ground, clutching his groin and groaning in agony—
Fang Rui had already snatched up a rock he had prepared nearby and was on him, viciously smashing it against Three Eyes’s head again and again.
His strength had already surpassed an ordinary person’s after he reached Entry Grade. How could Three Eyes possibly withstand such a brutal smashing? frёeωebɳovel.com
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
Fang Rui smashed away relentlessly until Three Eyes’s head was a bloody pulp, his features unrecognizable. Only when the man stopped breathing did he finally stop.
With the battle over, he felt the warm, sticky blood on his hands and was overcome by a wave of nausea, his stomach churning.
But his rational mind told him this was no place to linger. He had to leave, and quickly.
"Retch... *hic*!"
Fang Rui suppressed the urge to vomit, quickly searched Three Eyes’s body, and found a cloth pouch. After ensuring nothing else was hidden on the corpse, he scrambled to his feet and fled.
...
