Wuxia: Starting Off With 60 Years of Inner Strength

Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Pray Hear This Humble Scholar Out

This turn of events caught everyone present by surprise.

First, the chieftains of Feiyun Stronghold had arrived together, trying to intimidate everyone with their bombastic speeches.

Then, the Feiyun Stronghold bandits hidden in the crowd had revealed themselves.

Rong Lie had boosted morale, helping the gathered Jianghu People rally their spirits.

Everyone thought a bloody battle was about to begin, but no one expected Feiyun Stronghold to resort to poison...

In this whole affair, it seemed Feiyun Stronghold was one step ahead at every turn.

’But what the hell... Why are our own brothers from Feiyun Stronghold poisoned too?’

At that moment, the confusion in Zuo Kuangge’s heart was no less than that of the man who had just spoken.

He couldn’t help but glance at Jade Mountain People.

Jade Mountain People gently shook his folding fan and surveyed the surroundings, clearly having no idea what was going on either.

’Did the poisoner... make a mistake?’

Zuo Kuangge muttered to himself.

Everyone from Feiyun Stronghold present today had taken the antidote before they started eating and drinking.

By all rights, it should have been impossible for them to be poisoned.

’Surely the poisoner didn’t use the wrong poison, making our antidote useless, right?’

Rong Lie felt his head grow heavy and his limbs go weak. He had been in a foul mood today and couldn’t help but have a few extra drinks.

Now, seeing the bewildered expressions on Zuo Kuangge and his men, he inexplicably felt the urge to laugh.

"What a bunch you are, Feiyun Stronghold... Truly ruthless. So vicious you won’t even spare your own men...

"I’d wager your chieftains were worried you’d get greedy for the riches of Cangzhou Prefecture.

"They didn’t want to share the spoils, so they decided to poison you all. That way, they could have Cangzhou Prefecture all to themselves!"

As soon as he said this, some of them actually started to believe him.

One man’s eyes bulged as he stared at Zuo Kuangge and the other chieftains:

"Chieftains, we... we’re completely loyal to Feiyun Stronghold.

"You... you can’t do this to us!"

"Bullshit!"

Zuo Kuangge roared in fury:

"Who the hell is behind this?! Show yourself!"

"Hmph. Ridiculous."

A cold voice cut through the air.

Zuo Kuangge’s head snapped toward the sound, and he froze.

"You!?"

Li Tianxin cradled his saber, fixing Zuo Kuangge with an icy stare.

"Where is Li Feiyun?"

"It was you? You’re the one who poisoned us?"

Zuo Kuangge ignored Li Tianxin’s question entirely, nodding grimly.

"You’ve got a lot of nerve!"

The moment the words left his mouth, he moved, appearing before Li Tianxin in an instant.

He shot out a long arm, his fist striking like a dragon.

Li Tianxin, his expression still a frozen mask, pushed off his feet and shot back more than ten feet. At the same time, his saber hummed as he brought it down, unleashing a gleaming arc of energy.

The strike wasn’t backed by immense power, but the technique was sublime and unpredictable, leaving no trace of its origin.

Zuo Kuangge’s heart leaped. Unwilling to meet the blow head-on, he retreated to gather his strength for a counterattack, but to his surprise, Li Tianxin’s blade was already pressing toward his face again.

This saber style was orthodox and majestic, grand and powerful.

The transitions between techniques weren’t fast, but they were seamless, leaving no openings whatsoever.

Zuo Kuangge felt that with that single retreat, he had completely lost control of the engagement.

As the man came at him, one slash after another, he found himself utterly unable to advance even a single step into the Thunder Pool.

He was driven into a frenzy of rage!

This was how most duels in the Jianghu went.

Inner Energy was the foundation, but techniques decided victory or defeat.

In a life-or-death battle, the stronger combatant wasn’t always the victor.

Sometimes opponents were evenly matched, each with their own advantages. There was the immense power of brute force overwhelming ten techniques, but there was also the subtlety of four ounces deflecting a thousand pounds.

In terms of Inner Energy and raw physical strength, Li Tianxin was far inferior to Zuo Kuangge. Judging by the sheer power Zuo Kuangge had displayed when he threw the Cold Iron Double-bladed Spear with one hand, even three men like Li Tianxin might not have been able to withstand the blow directly.

Yet now, the gleam of his saber formed a solid curtain. His techniques flowed one into the next, his blade’s edge like an unending mountain range—rising and falling in continuous, unbroken layers.

Zuo Kuangge, for all his martial prowess, was so suppressed that he couldn’t manage to execute a single one of his own techniques.

After all, Li Tianxin was wielding a saber. Even if Zuo Kuangge wanted to break the stalemate, how could he risk his own flesh and blood against that sharp steel?

The slightest mistake could cost him an arm or a leg, so he had to be extremely cautious.

Watching this, Jiang Ran couldn’t help but feel a flicker of surprise.

The technique Li Tianxin was using now wasn’t the Divine Transformation Saber.

It was a saber art he had never seen before. Yesterday, when he had Li Tianxin spar with him using the Kun’s Thirteen Mad Demon Claws, Li Tianxin hadn’t used this set of techniques.

’Otherwise, based on technique alone, that claw art wouldn’t necessarily have beaten this saber art.’

As he was pondering this, he heard the sound of rushing wind.

He looked up to see Sun Dashan and the others all leaping forward.

Jade Mountain People, however, pulled a signal arrow from his robes and fired it into the sky. With a WHOOSH, a red light instantly flared across the heavens.

Jiang Ran tightened his grip on his saber and was about to step forward when a drunken burp sounded right beside his ear.

When he looked up again, Dao Wuming was already standing in front of the group, a wine flask in hand.

His eyes were glazed and drunken, his face flushed red.

A pair of enormous dark circles hung under his eyes, which were squeezed so shut he could barely open them. It seemed to take all his effort just to squint them into a narrow slit.

"Gentlemen... gentlemen... hold your hands.

"And hear... this humble scholar out!"

Everyone froze.

Jiang Ran’s gaze narrowed slightly as well.

’This Dao Wuming is no simple man,’ Jiang Ran thought. ’What I had Qingyi put in the wine was never an antidote.’

’Even if I had god-like powers, I couldn’t have produced that much of an antidote on such short notice.’

’In reality, it was another kind of stupefying drug, something like Muscle Relaxant Powder.’

’I had already prepared it yesterday.’

’Worried it wouldn’t be enough, I even prepared several vials.’

’Since Qingyi didn’t come to find me today, I was the one who had to sneak into the kitchen and administer the poison.’

’The reason I did this was simply because every other method was too much trouble.’

’Trying to pick out the Feiyun Stronghold bandits and identify them one by one would have been the worst possible plan.’

’Even Li Feiyun himself probably couldn’t recognize all of his own men, so there was no way I could have identified every last one of them, no matter how capable I was.’

’Since I couldn’t tell them apart, it was simpler to just take everyone out in one fell swoop.’

’Of course, this meant the Jianghu People who came to fight Feiyun Stronghold would inevitably get caught in the crossfire... but I have backup, so I wasn’t worried about that.’

’But this Dao Wuming... He’s been drinking nonstop ever since the Wan family started serving the food.’

’He’s been drinking this entire time, yet he shows no sign of collapsing.’

’He’s truly unfathomable.’

Even Sun Dashan and his men hesitated when they saw the scholar, not daring to act rashly.

In the Jianghu, there were always certain types of people one should never provoke.

Women, scholars, and children... if someone like that was wandering the Jianghu, they inevitably had some powerful backing or a hidden ace up their sleeve.

For a moment, they all just looked at each other, deciding to hear what the scholar had to say.

But then they saw the scholar pull that copy of *Golden Cicada’s Love Story* from his robes, raise it high, and shout:

"I really am reading a local gazetteer!

"Everything written in this book is about local customs and culture!"

With that, he fell backward and instantly started snoring...

"...Kill him."

The Sixth Chieftain, Guan Miaomiao, said through gritted teeth.

Jiang Ran almost couldn’t stop himself from siding with the female bandit from Feiyun Stronghold and loudly agreeing with her.