Smoke billowed around the courtyard, filling the air with gray and ash. Just outside the radius of explosion, Mu Rong Shu stood, her golden orb still hovering over her shoulder.
Giggling, Mu Rong Shu shook her head. "Are you still alive?"
"Yeah, seems like it." I brushed the soot from my shirt, coughing from all the dust. I couldn't help but grin. "Not bad! Seems like your techniques worked by infusing your qi into your Eight Trigrams palm. Each strike is thus capable of unleashing exponentially powerful blasts that can blow up concrete."
I sighed and shook my head. "For someone who has only just recently got into the Warrior realm, you are pretty powerful!"
Her strength wasn't the only thing that was pretty, but I wasn't going to make inappropriate comments during a fight to the death.
"You are also very strong. Even though I didn't hold back at all, you still survived. I'll admit, I don't know if I can defeat you."
She narrowed her eyes, turning serious.
"When did this city produce a Master realm cultivator like you?"
"You flatter me too much. I'm nowhere near Master realm." I laughed, folding my arms. "Well, is it my turn to attack now?"
"Don't be so impatient, sir." Mu Rong Shu raised her hand, which glowed brightly with potent qi. "This is where it starts to become interesting."
"Oh, really?" I pushed my glasses up my nose.
Mu Rong Shu kicked off the ground and dashed at me. Our collision caused another explosion that hurled debris into the air. From a distance, Du Wang watched, intrigued. He chuckled and clapped his hands.
"Young people these days…as expected, they are so energetic."
Running at me, Mu Rong Shu launched another barrage of strikes, forcing me back with sheer strength. I deflected her palm strike to the side, but she was able to convert her failed attack into an elbow attack, forcing me to catch it before she could break my cheekbone. Simultaneously, she brought her knee up to my solar plexus, but I blocked it with my leg, stopping her lethal attack before she could fully execute it.
"Your Eight Trigrams palm is impressive. Your speed is incredible too."
I couldn't help but praise her, the both of us still locked in combat. Tightening my grip on her elbow, I sighed.
"Unfortunately…it's not strong enough!"
In a single maneuver, I tossed her off, causing her to lose balance. Mu Rong Shu turned pale when she faltered, only for her to fall onto m. I caught her wrist before she could hit me and pulled her up, leaning in closely with a grin.
"Did you know that Eight Trigrams Palm's specialization lays in swift, short strikes? The moment you lose control, you'll end up allowing your opponent to control your whole body."
"Hmph!" Mu Rong Shu's cheeks flushed red when she realized how close in proximity I was to her. She glared at me. "Of course I know that!"
With her free hand, she spun about and struck me with a powerful palm attack, hurling me several paces backward.
"You don't need to remind me about that!"
I landed on the ground and hopped back, trying my best to arrest my momentum. Recomposing myself, I moved my hands in a fluid motion, getting my stance ready.
"Your Eight Trigrams Palm is skillful. But since we're competing in martial arts…"
Sweeping my foot against the ground, I conjured a gigantic yin-yang symbol around me.
"Allow me to demonstrate what I've learned in Tai Ji Fist."
"All right, then I'll ask you for a few pointers!"
Mu Rong Shu launched herself at me. Moving as swiftly as ever, she almost caught me off guard, her fist flying toward my chest with deadly effect. However, I calmly intercepted her attack, using both of my hands to spin her punch away.
"You're really using Tai Ji Fist?!"
"Didn't I say that already? You didn't believe me?" I couldn't help but scoff, the yin-yang symbol glowing while I revolved Mu Rong Shu's strike away. "Countering hard with soft!"
Then in a single, fluid motion, I flung poor Mu Rong Shu back. Volatile energy rushed past me and sent the poor girl flying toward the crumbling concrete wall that fenced the neglected courtyard. I then realized something.
"Whoops! I think I used too much strength in my counterattack!"
Kicking off the ground, I reached the helplessly hurtling Mu Rong Shu in a single bound. Throwing out a hand, I caught her by the waist and stopped her from falling.
"Oh, sorry, ha ha…I didn't realize you were so delicate."
"Damn it!" Mu Rong Shu was shaking uncontrollably from embarrassment and anger. "You…!"
She then pushed me away, causing me to stumble back a few steps. Righting her posture, she assumed her stance once more.
"You should be concerned with yourself, sir!"
"Oh, sorry about that. I meant no disrespect."
"Have you no shame!?"
Taking a deep breath, Mu Rong Shu calmed herself down and caught sight of Du Wang. The old assassin was still watching us, having taken a seat atop one of the walls that fenced in the desolate courtyard. She noticed that something was amiss.
"Seems like I can't drag this out any longer…if I expend too much qi here, I'll also become a target for others…"
"Oh, so you've noticed it too?" I shrugged and adjusted my glasses. "How about we call it quits then?"
"No." Mu Rong Shu gathered her qi and unleashed another technique. "I'll bring shame to my family if I don't succeed in the mission that was assigned to me."
I watched as the arcane energies around Mu Rong Shu coalesced and solidified into humanoid shapes. White mannequin-like figures materialized around Mu Rong Shu, each of them looking almost identical to her, except that they were totally white. A shadow clone technique, except that the clones were all white and almost ghost-like.
And there were eight of them.
"Go!"
The eight clones dashed at me, kicking me from several directions. I managed to block one of their kicks, and then ducked under another. Whirling away from a third, I then jumped when a fourth swung her leg down to carve a crater on the ground. I raised an eyebrow at that.
"There's so many more of you, but your strength is still so…"
Another foot flew toward my face, interrupting me. I sighed and shook my head.
"You're not the only one who can summon reinforcements."
A golden dragon burst forth from my body, incinerating all eight clones in an instant. The backlash from the loss of her clones caused Mu Rong Shu to spit out blood. Even her flying golden orb was disintegrated in the blast, the hovering device melting into drops of sludge. She caught sight of me approaching, and she tried one last-ditch strike, only for her fist to harmlessly slam into the coils of my divine dragon. The sheer fiery aura of my spirit beast blasted her back, sending her crashing to the ground with scorch marks on her arm.
"You…you were playing with me all this while?! Is this your true strength?"
Realizing that she was outmatched, Mu Rong Shu crawled to a sitting position and stared at me, rage and fear mixing in her eyes.
"Just…just who are you?"
"What, didn't you do your homework when you were assigned to kill me?"
"There wasn't much information on you…except rumors that you were the useless trash son of the Zhao family, scheming to usurp your brother and steal his position as heir." Mu Rong Shu shook her head. "Evidently that's false."
She then sighed and raised both of her hands in surrender.
"I've lost fair and square. You can kill me."
"That would be a waste." I approached her to cup her chin and look into her eyes. "Besides, I still have some use for you…"
"Ha ha ha! If you refuse to kill her, then both of you can die together!" Du Wang shouted in delight as he leaped from his perch on the wall to dive toward us. "Not only will I get the reward for killing the trash son of the Zhao family, I'll also monopolize it because the Mu Rong family's assassin failed her mission and got herself killed!"
"Seriously? What kind of assassin gives himself away like that? Shouting so loudly and throwing away all attempts at stealth when trying to assassinate someone? Are you sure you're a real assassin?"
I shook my head in disgust. Mu Rong Shu was right. Du Wang wasn't a professional assassin at all. To be fair, even if he hadn't shouted all that nonsense, I would still have seen him coming. I could tell that he was plotting to attack the both of us at the end.
"No use pretending! The both of you have expended so much qi fighting each other! It'll be easy for me to kill you both together now! The hunter doesn't move until both tigers have wounded each other, or the crane and calm have exhausted each other!"
"Did you really think I wouldn't see through your scheme?" I asked with an exasperated sigh. There was little point, though. Du Wang was almost on us, his dagger swinging downward to stab me in the back. Venomous qi swirled around him, causing the nearby grass to wilt and noxious fumes to billow in the air.
"Careful, he's using poison!" Mu Rong Shu gasped, but was unable to escape.
There was no need to escape.
My divine dragon materialized once more, catching the stunned Du Wang in his jaws before he could swing his dagger down. The poison had no effect on nonliving spirits, so as much as he slashed and executed his poison techniques, my divine dragon remained completely unaffected.
"No! This can't be! Aren't you supposed to be trash!? How do you still have the amount of qi needed to summon your spirit beast again!?"
"What kind of idiot reveals all the cards in his hand at the start?" I asked wearily. I nodded at my divine dragon, who then crushed Du Wang in his jaws and incinerated his body.
Mu Rong Shu watched in dismay as the ashy remains of Du Wang crumbled away into nothingness, cold dread filling her heart. Trembling, she turned to stare at me.
"W…who the hell are you?"
"Me? I'm just the useless trash second son of the Zhao family." I smiled cynically as I dismissed my divine dragon and turned back to her, my eyes twinkling cruelly behind the gleaming lenses of my glasses. "And now you belong to me."