I wasn't a fool to be fighting a guy that was twice my size, that would be just giving my body another chance to have a new person to transmigrate here , accepting this challenge was nothing short of courting my own death, if i won, then what can stop those guys from still swarming me and stomping me to death .
And if i end up losing, then it might be an even more worse end for me, then the most logical solution was to stall as much time as possible, in hope of someone who had some kind of authority to step in and put a stop to all of this, i got the perfect idea on how to do so, all thanks to the street perfoormers back in my previous life .
I had already found the perfect condition that could give me a way out of this, i cleared my throat and channeled the way that Tian Long spoke before from the memories i have of him and said :
" Lu Jiu, i also want confirm whether that head of yours was impervious to sword strikes as you keep claiming it was, but you want to test me, all i can tell you that you are unworthy of being my opponent .
The moment my voice fell, all the people present were shocked, even the eyebrows of some of the guards were raised at my words, some began to whisper among themselves that i was intentionally humiliating Lu Jiu by bringing this up .
Some were agreeing with my words, saying that i was the most diligent among all my peers during training and that i was even praised by the instructor Lu San, it never hurts to get complimented by others for your hard work, even though they were complimenting me in a sense, they were actually complimenting the original Tian Long, but yesterday i become Tian Long so it didn't matter whoever were those compliments given to, those were very much appreciated .
Fans cheering for me, a scene that i wasn't that much familiar with, in fact this was the very first time people were cheering for me, the only problem with this was the fact that all those cheering were men, but i guess there was no helping it, unless during work or in a special occasions, men were living in a whole different area separate to women .
There were also those who were resentful of me and were cursing at me for being a conceited arrogant person, they were mostly the guys that were encircling me, they were asking Lu Jiu to finish me off already, at least my goal was somewhat achieved, the ruckus caused here, might sooner or later bring some higher-ups here .
Oh and what can i do so that you to consider me worthy of fighting you then ? .
Lu Jiu question question calmed down the audience, the sudden question hadn't caught me off guard due to me already anticipating it, i said with the same domineering tone as before, something that was more outrageous than before, i said waking in the ring with a carefree mind :
" Well, if you want to fight me, then you need to show some sincerity, i don't go around fighting cats and dogs, you see .
The whole audience fell into silent waiting for what kind of response will Lu Jiu give, i saw that he suddenly had a troubled expression on his face and thought that my plan was working, but never would i have expected him to agree to have a betting match with me, one that he won't be able to gain much from, oh so that was what was going on here .
For merely a second or so, i saw Lu Jiu turn his head to look at Lu Jong and the Latter nodded at him and since Lu Jong was involved, then it was most logical to believe that Deacon Lu was involved too as well, if he was not the one who orchestrated all this happening from the start .
Here, i already agreed with paying you if you were to win, can we fight now .
He said and was already beginning to stand in a fighting stance, a quite weird one, he was standing on all four of his limbs, his upper body leaned forward and his lower body leaned down a little, he was imitating a monster i once saw in the zoo, but which one, i can't help but associate him with the gorilla due to his body stature, but that wasn't right,
Anyway, just as he took a fighting stance, whatever that weird stance of his was, i still didn't have any intention of doing the same, i raised my hand as an indication of not agreeing to start the battle just yet .
He didn't stood up and just looked at me still in his weird fighting stance and said aggressively :
Now what ? .
His tone carried a heavy hint of hostility, one that had me wondering if i had ever offended that guy somehow, but that didn't seem to be case or at least i didn't remember doing so, anyway, i already began to feel that things were beginning to develop towards an undesirable way .
The hand i raised suddenly had two fingers pointing to the sky in it, he asked what does my action mean, i said :
What, are you stupid or something, two silver taels, put them in front of me to see then we can start brawling, or else the good dog don't block the path of others, right Dog ?
All the people who heard me saying this gasped in breath, no matter how anyone present tried to look at it, they can tell that what i was asking were to people like them as if taking a limb or stabbing them in the heart, that was what i was asking seemed to most of them, two silver taels weren't by any measure a small amount, most of us servants would think of it as a great fortune .
To throw it all away in a bet was something beyond reckless, at least normally that was the case, but all that the guy still standing on all four of his limbs did was call for his lackeys help in collecting the amount needed for the bet, i can't help but notice that he seemed quite confident of his strength, but whether will his lackeys be able to collect the amount of money needed, then this battle will never happened .
But i was once again reminded of how bad lucky i was, even though most of those guys were able to gather a silver tael with great difficulty and pained expression on all of their faces, they were still short of 1 silver tael, but that wasn't a problem for long, since a guy covering his face and head in cloth kindly decided to donate the last silver taels missing, meeting all requirements for the battle to start .
The guys that were encircling me began to tighten the ring even more around both of us, i once again raised my hand high in the air, once again all the audience went silent and began looking at each other strangely, all thinking the same thing " what now " .
Without waiting for him to ask, i directly played the last card i had in my hand, i said :
" I don't trust that any of you guys will honour their words, won't you be building me a castles in the air, like that .
I had no clue nor an interest in knowing whether they know what the idiom meant or not, all i was currently doing was to stall for as much time as possible, but it seems that there were no need to worry about whether they understood the idiom or didn't, i saw most of them nodding and echoing their approval and agreement with my logic .
Finally, after i said this, i finally saw a shift in all of those guys expressions, they were indeed planning to go back on their words, but that completely suited me, even that guy Lu Jong who was raising his hand just now, his hands began to shook uncontrollably .
I thought that my plan was working just fine, they all seemed to be a bit hesitant of handing the silver to someone else for safekeeping until the competition was over, but that was all that i will be asking, either they hand the silver to one of the unreliable guards for safekeeping or the duel will be called off .
All the crowds were pressuring that gorilla like guy to make up his mind, he for some reason, seemed to be struggling to speak up, he said :
What do you suggest we do then ? .
His mouth was releasing smoke quite literally a long white smoke was coming out from his mouth, i wasn't imagining it, something was terribly wrong here, their was no shred of doubt in me about this .
I told them my proposal, about handing the silver taels out to one of the guards for safekeeping, they all openly expressed their disapproval of this, especially the guy who was holding the silver tael, he began to mention things like comradeship and how they were all brothers in misfortune, so they shouldn't be distrustful like this towards one another, i sneered midway of his talk and still said that i want my silver taels to be in a safe hands, he kept on saying :
You, you, .... .
I was about to continue taunting him, when a sounds so deep that i was beginning to have chills on my back after hearing it, the words that were just in my throat were swallowed back instantly and i looked at that guy and saw that his body was turning red and his hair was turning white, he said two words that made the whole place silent as a tomb, he said :
Do it .
The moment he said those words all the guys that were making a scene, stopped what they were doing and handed the few pieces of silver to one of the guards, Lu Jiu then nodded at me and a ruthless smile appeared on his face, finding that there was no loophole for me to use anymore, trying to get out of this and it was either starting the fight now, or those guys might swarm me directly, i chose the first choice .
Even though i was quite weirded out by what he was doing, with my sword in hand, i believed that i still had a huge advantage over the guy in front of me, but what was perplexing me with actually the strange looks that the guards kept giving Lu Jiu, those looks weren't felt with appreciation, acknowledgment, or anything like that, they were all looking at him with pity, i was wondering what was that about, but now wasn't the time to dwell on such a thing .
I lowered my hand and unsheathed my sword, signalling that i was ready to fight, if not for the encircling, i might have surrended directly or not accepting this fight at all, pity .
Without the need for anyone to give the signal, the fight started with Lu Jiu dashing towards me while his hands were now imitating the shape of animal claws, aiming at me in incomprehensible speed .
I wasn't able to react at all, even after his hand was coming towards me, that is how fast he was, luckily the moment his claws was about to reach my head, my whole body was alarmed of the dangerous that it was about to face, this dire situation unlocked another core memory where Tian Long was practicing Martial Arts and sparring with most of his peers .
I sidestepped at the last second before the attack hit me and was barely able to evade the dangerous assault of his on time, but his claws shaped hand was still able to cut a lock of my hair, the place the lock of hair was in, started to bleed directly, the moment i saw blood coming out of my forehead, my whole body and mind tensed, for whole different reasons .
My Mind and Body tensed due to the fact that i still got damaged even though i'm sure that i evaded the attack just now, all that came my way was a weak shockwave of air that was caused by his movements speed just now, but that wasn't the only reason my mind was shocked about .
Just as i was beginning to drift in thoughts, my whole body screamed at me to move, that brought me back to reality, i saw that Lu Jiu now had red eyes, not a strand of black or gray hair was now found in his head, all his hair had turned white and unlike before it elongated and was now fluttering in the air behind him, he still had a ruthless smile on his face, but his face was now completely cold as if he was a predator looking at his prey for today's, what unsettled me the most was the fact that his eyes were now actually red, as if he was being possessed by a demon .
That demon was now swinging his right claw like hand at me aiming for my chest, i retreated back in hurry and luckily was able to evade in time, but i was pushed towards him, by those guys that were forming a ring around us .
Forcing me to come face to face with him who was still standing in all four of his limbs, but this time he bent his upper body even more and suddenly he like an arrow being released from its bow, he came at me faster than even before .
Seeing that there was no time to dodge, i used the fact that he actually jumbed high on the air and i slide from under him in hurry, my eyes widened in shock, due to finally being able to recognize what animal the stance he made before looked to be imitating, he was imitating a tiger, i was able to realize that after seeing his body posture while leaping over me .
I was also able to find a chance to attack him using the sword, i could most likely end this fight in one move, but i hesitated due to the fact that my counterattack could most likely end up killing him, a sword strike in the abdomen, was sure a deadly injury, so i decided against doing so, thinking that there was no need for bloodshed .
The tiger leaping like guy, crashed into the group of people that pushed me back in the ring just one, resulting in them loosening up the tight encirclement that they imposed on us before, completely crumbling the formation they were in, allowing me to have a free of movement .
The guys that were in the formation just now, was all injured but the degree of injuries varried from one another, the one responsible for those injuries, Lu Jiu seem to have completely lose his sanity, he began indiscriminately attacking comrades and enemies alike, like an enraged Monster, forcing the guards to step in to stop him in tracks, i thought that this would put an end to this, but i thought wrong .
The guards actually tossed him back effortlessly at me, evading another claw like attack from the berserking Lu Jiu, i steadied my foot on the ground and decided that since the situation had come to this, it was not suitable for me to be on the defense anymore, but it was also dangerous to just recklessly through myself at him, especially with him in this weird state .
Just looking at the injuries he caused to his comrades, i was able to understand that if even once did he successfully land an attack on me, i might get severely injured or even dead, if i want to play with him, i will need to use my brain in doing so .
As i was thinking of this the guy roaring at me suddenly dashed again, but he seemed to have slowed down a little compared to before, he was putting his hands together like a spear while dashing at me, but it maybe my imagination, but i felt that his momentum was decreasing at an alarming rate, but there was no time to dwell on this at the, unless i wanted to be pierced through .
I tried to recall anything that could allow me to win against my opponent, but other than the fighting experience that helped me in surviving one or two of his attacks, there wasn't any, so i was on my own here .
Just as he reached me, his speed suddenly increased one last time, but due to already having a plan in mind, that didn't matter much to me, my plan was to once again sidestep just when he come to a distance of two steps away from me .
His sudden outburst of strength took me by surprise but i was already away from danger, seeing that he presented a good opportunity by standing in place after his attack failed, i put my sword at his neck and said :
" You lose .
Weirdly enough he didn't respond to me at all, he instead looked to where Lu Jiu was and said in a grave tone as if he was dying :
The Flesh Tempering Pill .
Then he collapsed on the floor, the moment he fell to the floor, the door of the inner gate was suddenly opened and instructor Lu San finally made an appearance in the courtyard, unfortunately he was at this point too late to put a stop to this farce .