Chapter 119: Chapter 108: Making a Move (Part 2)
"M-Martial Scholar Fang, you... weren’t you crippled?! H-How are you all right?"
Before Fang Yue could even speak, Village Chief Chen, standing beside the pedantic Scholar, rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He then pointed a trembling finger at Fang Yue, utterly dumbfounded, and stammered.
This Village Chief Chen had met Fang Yue several times. He had personally witnessed Fang Yue’s Family transform from an ordinary farming household into what they were today.
He had previously thought Fang Yue was finished, his future ruined. That was the only reason he had dared to take the money and come here to back them up.
Now, seeing Fang Yue standing here perfectly fine, all his previous composure and the joy of making money vanished. He was completely overwhelmed by terror.
A moment later, he stumbled backward in fear, lost his footing, and fell flat on his rear.
"Martial Scholar Fang? Which Martial Scholar Fang?"
The pedantic Scholar was stunned for a moment but quickly came to his senses.
He stared at Fang Yue in disbelief and began to stammer as well, "Y-You’re Martial Scholar Fang? How... how is that possible? How are you... how are you not crippled?!"
"Heh. For slandering and insulting a Martial Scholar, the law gives me the right to strike back."
Before the words had even faded, Fang Yue had already grabbed the tall, thin man in front of him. With a slight exertion of force, the man’s body, which weighed barely over a hundred pounds, went flying.
THUD!
In the span of a breath, the pedantic Scholar flew a good seventy or eighty feet before crashing to the ground.
He had just opened his mouth to speak when he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
Shopkeeper Qi’s eyes narrowed when he saw this.
But things had already gone this far. He had thoroughly offended the man. Even if he were willing to stop now, the other party might not let him off. His heart hardened. ’In for a penny, in for a pound.’ He immediately gave a subtle nod to the three men beside him.
The three Bone Forging Martial Artists, who had been hired at a high price, all moved to surround him.
Seeing Fang Yue make no move, Shopkeeper Qi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He sneered inwardly, ’This Fang Yue is still too young. Did he really think I’d come here unprepared?’
’So careless, letting himself get surrounded.’
’It’s three against one, all of us Bone Forging Martial Artists. Since this Martial Scholar Fang isn’t crippled, we’ll just have to cripple him ourselves.’
’Besides, doesn’t everyone already "know" Martial Scholar Fang is a cripple? When the time comes, I won’t even need to make up any more excuses.’
The pedantic Scholar, who was watching from the side, couldn’t speak due to his severe injuries.
But he couldn’t help but admire Shopkeeper Qi’s brilliance. ’The Shopkeeper is truly cunning! He paid a hefty sum to hire three Bone Forging Martial Artists in advance.’
’Three against one, Fang Yue is definitely no match for them.’
’When the soft approach fails, use a hard one. You must be prepared for both contingencies. So brilliant!’
"Martial Scholar Fang, it’s written in black and white! A debt must be repaid. Why are you resorting to violence? Aren’t you afraid of being stripped of your title and reduced to a commoner?!"
"Heh heh, I advise you not to fight back. Just obediently pay back these silver taels. Otherwise, we’ll drag you to the Government Office! Faking an illness at home to deliberately resist the court’s summons—that’s a major crime!"
The more Shopkeeper Qi spoke, the more confident he felt. Since this Fang Yue wasn’t crippled and was perfectly fine...
...then he must have been faking it before! Wasn’t that deliberately resisting the court’s summons?
According to the military orders from the Shanyang Prefecture’s Government Office, he should be stripped of his title and have his Martial Arts crippled.
What was there to be afraid of? This was the perfect opportunity to capture him and hand him over to the Government Office.
"Heh, it seems this won’t end peacefully today."
Fang Yue snorted coldly and looked at the three men surrounding him.
These three were also Martial Artists at the Bone Forging Pass, but they held no official titles. This was because they had only reached the Bone Forging Pass after the age of forty.
People like them had already reached their maximum potential; further breakthroughs were impossible. With their Qi and blood in decline, they would never be able to succeed in Marrow Transformation in their lifetime.
Therefore, although these three were at the Bone Forging stage, they were inferior even to his former self, let alone his current self.
Even with all three attacking at once, they were nothing to him.
Without another word, Fang Yue charged straight at them.
* * *
"PUFF—COUGH—"
"Shopkeeper, you’re a genius! That money was well spent. With these three on the job, catching Fang Yue will be a piece of cake."
Fang Yue hadn’t used a heavy hand just now.
The pedantic Scholar had recovered slightly and even managed to get to his feet. He dragged his aching body over to Shopkeeper Qi’s side and said fawningly.
He then looked toward Fang Yue, his eyes filled with venom and glee.
’How unwise of Martial Scholar Fang to dare injure me. Just you wait. You’re definitely going to be crippled in a moment.’
"This is called taking precautions! Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. The Shopkeeper is truly brilliant!" the pedantic Scholar complimented, racking his brain for praises.
"Heh heh, I told you long ago to be prudent and plan before you act. If not for that, today’s situation would have been very difficult to resolve."
Shopkeeper Qi was smug, and this time he wasn’t afraid of being accused of attacking a court-appointed Martial Scholar.
’We’re helping Martial Scholar Fang. Otherwise, if word got out that he was faking being crippled, wouldn’t he be stripped of his title and have his Martial Arts destroyed?’
’Wouldn’t that be a miserable fate?’
’Right now, we’re just helping Martial Scholar Fang return to the righteous path. Taking some of his property as a fee isn’t going too far, is it?’
「Meanwhile.」
By this time, Fang Yue had already clashed with the three Martial Artists from the Bone Forging Pass.
He drove straight forward, attacking the man in the center, completely ignoring the other two.
"Hmph, you dare look down on us? Damn you!"
Seeing this, the other two Bone Forging Martial Artists were secretly delighted and immediately attacked with all their might.
But in the next instant, their fists shot out, only to miss their target completely.
An explosive BANG echoed.
At that moment, a piercing sound struck their ears, and the very air seemed to vibrate. Only then did the two Martial Artists who had missed see what happened.
Their companion had met Fang Yue’s punch head-on. A crisp crack of breaking bone rang out at the same time, and their comrade was sent flying. His arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, and he was breathing out more than in. It was obvious he had been crippled in a single blow.
"Marrow Transformation?"
Seeing this, how could the remaining two dare to advance?
They immediately retreated in a hurry, backing away over a hundred feet in the blink of an eye.
"A misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! Martial Scholar Fang, don’t attack! We admit defeat! We’re willing to compensate you."
After coming to a stop, they saw Fang Yue’s gaze turn toward them and immediately waved their hands, begging for mercy.
How could they dare let Fang Yue attack again? This was a Martial Artist who had achieved Marrow Transformation! His combat power was ferocious, completely beyond what second-rate Bone Forging Martial Artists like them could hope to challenge.
At the same time, they were inwardly cursing Shopkeeper Qi’s family—no, they were cursing eighteen generations of Shopkeeper Qi’s ancestors.
’We were just supposed to come here for a show of force. When we found out we actually had to fight, fine, no problem. It was a good chance to get more money out of Shopkeeper Qi.’
’But the target was clearly just at the Bone Forging stage! How did he suddenly achieve Marrow Transformation? How are we supposed to fight this?!’
They were greedy for money, but they cherished their lives even more.
They wouldn’t do something that could cost them their lives. All they could do was offer a moment of silence in their hearts for their companion with the broken arm.
"We were also deceived by that man. That’s why we made this mistake. We beg for Martial Scholar Fang’s forgiveness."
The two men respectfully took out a silver banknote and looked cautiously at Fang Yue.
"This is a silver banknote for five thousand taels. We two admit our loss and will leave now. We guarantee we will never appear before Martial Scholar Fang again."
"Take one punch from me, and you can leave."
Fang Yue nodded. Although these two had backed down, it was only because his strength surpassed theirs.
If he hadn’t broken through, or if he really had been crippled, would these two have let him off today?
Of course not.
So, even though they had admitted defeat, they still had to pay a price.
With that, he struck out at the two men, attacking with both fists at once.
His fists whistled through the air with the force of a tiger, creating small sonic booms.
"Alright. We ask that Martial Scholar Fang show mercy."
The two men glanced at each other, then gritted their teeth. They couldn’t escape, so they could only bite the bullet and take the punch.
BANG!
In the next instant, two figures were sent flying sideways.
Sure enough, their arms were also twisted and clearly broken.
"Thank you, Martial Scholar Fang, for your mercy."
It took them a long while to stagger back to their feet. Each clutching their injured arm, they departed in a sorry state.
The fact that they could still stand was proof that Fang Yue had already shown them mercy.
Otherwise, they would have ended up half-dead like their companion.
"Hiss—"
In the blink of an eye, of the three Bone Forging Martial Artists he had hired, one was beaten to within an inch of his life, and the other two had retreated with serious injuries.
T-this... Shopkeeper Qi simply couldn’t believe it.
"I-I... I’m with the Wei Family! Don’t kill me!"
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