Luo and Hua followed Fu Rah, as they assumed a pace that was not too hurried but was not too leisurely either. Just as they made it to the outskirts, Fu Rah changed directions and circled back to the opposite end of the town. Hua and Luo were puzzled but they did not question it and followed her.
She led them to a nearby dock and then gave them the clothes of common people while she donned such a set of clothes as well. She then assumed a normal pace again and bought 3 tickets to travel down the river , southeast towards the bay of the Yellow sea. Her plan was to go on the ship and then travel north once she reached the bay back to the Ancient Zither abode.
A few hours passed and as they were waiting for the ship to start, they noticed a few people asking around for a lady and two kids, one with a sword and one with a Zither.
"That's a pretty accurate description of us, don't you think master?" Luo turned towards master Fu Rah who wore an irritated look. "Damn, they are persistent. Why can't they just let it be. It was a fair win for us. Hmph"
They disembarked the ship silently at her order and made their way to another ship. Fu Rah approached the captain of the ship and paid him after discussing a few conditions. Luo heard her put on an act as if the three of them were separated from their force and that if anybody asked for them to please direct them to the ship from which she just disembarked .
The captain bought the act and took the 'reward money'.
Fu Rah and the others quietly slipped out from the docks just as the first ship set sail. She saw a few people inquiring near the second ship's captain, the one whom she had just made the request to. She saw from afar that the people who were inquiring after them were directed to the ship that had just left the dock, the first ship.
They scrambled and paid for small rowing boats on the second ship after it had set off for a while. They took the rowing boats on the second ship and set off towards the bank. She smiled smugly as they fell for her trap and were diverted away from them towards a ship on which they were supposedly traveling. Now even if they figured it out and chased the second ship, they were not that either.
They then made their way back to the original trail and resumed their journey. Luo asked master Fu Rah "Master why are we back on the same trail again?"
"Well, I knew that at some point we would have to fight anyway. I just wanted the number of enemies to be manageable before we engaged them. The best case scenario I can think of is that we escape with just a couple of scrapes and don't have to engage in too many fights."
They made their way stealthily moving through the forest looking out for signs of people who already passed the same way. After doing this for a couple of hours they came up on a few trails.
She surmised that there were 3 people traveling this way and nodded to Hua and Luo to prepare for a fight. As they closed up on the others, Fu Rah spotted Pu Kuh, Xiao Wu and someone else in the lower True foundation realm, probably a hired muscle from the town she surmised.
She signaled to them that she would be taking on Pu Kuh and told them to handle the rest of the two. "Even though one of them is in the True Foundation realm, it is still the lower stages so you two should be able to stall them enough until I take care of Pu Kuh. Prepare a surprise attack and all three of us will attack on my count before they are onto us. Move swiftly and assist each other until I come over to you two. No killing attacks either alright? Now on the count of three.."
As she counted down from three, Hua unsheathed his sword and assumed a swift stance for a fast attack. Luo took out his Qi storing stones and poured Yang Qi and Yin Qi in the two of them.
On the count of three, Luo aimed at the True foundation realm cultivator and threw the stones quickly in succession aiming for his torso.
Hua rushed out in a single jump towards Xiao Wu for a slash attack.
Fu Rah used a Qi force push attack just before Hua had launched his attack. The shockwave had encompassed the three cultivators in front of them and except for Pu Kuh who had defended from it in the last moment, Xiao Wu and the other one were propelled some hundred feet away.
Hua improvised and changed his trajectory to rush towards Xiao Wu who was reeling from the impact. Meanwhile, the stones that Luo threw hit together just as the shockwave had hit the True foundation realm cultivator, making them cause a Qi explosion. The combined force and heat released had knocked the weapons away from him and he hit a tree that almost got uprooted from the attack.
Fu Rah began the next technique, a rhythm technique called "Rhythm illusion' that used her spherical bells to make them seem like faceless attackers. She did this because her attack, although for a good reason, was an unprovoked one and she was the initiator. This would have consequences if their faces were recognized.
"Who dares attack this master Pu Kuh and his entourage from the Heavenly Dragon sect? I will bring down the wrath of the sect upon you." By the time he had said this, Hua had already hit his slice attack and it connected with Xiao Wu who almost fell unconscious. He was not hurt seriously because Hua had used a reverse blade technique and master Fu Rah had forbidden them from using any killing techniques.
Pu Kuh could see the three of them but he only perceived them as three faceless people clad in black common robes. He understood that this was an illusion and tried to break through it but he was never good at breaking illusions or arrays and this time as well, he failed.
He was good at attacking however and immediately got into a solid stance. Before he made his move he threw a couple of recovery pills over to Xiao Wu and the mercenary he had hired from the town so that they could support him in the fight.
Xiao Wu and the mercenary took the pill thrown over to them and ingested it. A burst of Qi started flowing in their bodies and they got up from their positions and assumed combat stances as well. Xiao Wu was staggering from the attack from Fu Rah and the reverse blade attack on his upper shoulder from Hua. It took him a couple of moments to recover but he just managed to defend another wave of attack from Hua.
The speed was shocking to him but he was somehow managing to defend at the last moment thanks to the core disciple techniques that he was taught personally by the sect master Han Ryu himself. He had made some progress cultivating the "Flood Dragon steps".
Hua knew that he just had to buy more time for master Fu Rah so he kept using his reverse blade techniques that Xiao Wu was desperately defending against. He used some of his Qi intermittently to keep Xiao Wu off balance. Handling him was a piece of cake for Hua.
Meanwhile Luo approached the mercenary and settled into a stance to begin fighting with him. The mercenary's chest was scarred from the explosion from the stones and he was puking out bile. Luo felt a little sorry but he proceeded with the attack again. He readied his poison fist and fell into the stance to use his Iron and Wave steps movement technique.
The mercenary was now using desperate attacks as his breath was out of rhythm and he had not gotten it under control yet. But his Qi was replenishing fast because of the recovery pill that Pu Kuh shared with them. He began his torrent of attacks and it seemed as if he was moving wildly about attacking at random but there was a kind of wild rhythm to it.
"How do you like my Monkey king punch attack huh? You will die in a few moments you f**cking brat", the mercenary wheezed out while attacking Luo.
Luo settled into a smooth rhythm, using his Iron and Wave steps. He was dodging at times and then parrying at times. His physical strength was higher than the mercenary, so he was also able to use overpowering attacks to counter some of the punches from the mercenary as well.
In a moment when the mercenary's guard was down, Luo used his Poison fist to deliver a strong uppercut that put the mercenary out of commission. The poison Qi was seeping into his body and he was now unconscious. Luo had used a very strong attack but since the mercenary was in the True foundation realm and Luo was only in the early stages of the Qi condensation realm, his innate Qi was already resolving the poison Qi.
With the mercenary taken care of, Luo moved to assist Hua with Xiao Wu but as he moved towards Hua, he understood that no help was needed. Hua was practically playing around only using light and swift attacks that were still too much for Xiao Wu. "Why don't you just go ahead and finish it off so that we can go and assist the master?" Luo reprimanded Hua.
Hua got a bit pissed when Luo said that smugly. He then concentrated on his Qi with the image of the two bells clashing together and a swift strike producing an air clap once he was done. He executed it almost to the extent that he imagined it to be. This was the beginnings of the Clap and Thundering slash technique that he had perused through a bit. "Hmph…see that Luo?"
There were hints of Thunder Qi in the technique that Hua had just executed and a huge clap of air resounded the instant he performed the slash. He was not able to limit the clash of bells to just 2 bells, but that would come with practice, Hua thought. Xiao Wu's nose bridge was broken and a blunt slash covered his face diagonally down towards his right shoulder. It was starting to get inflamed and the wound was red, where the skin broke to reveal the upper layers of muscle underneath. "Whoa…if I had not used the back of the blade then this guy would have most probably died. Too powerful…"
All of this happened in a few minutes of fighting after Pu Kuh had thrown the recovery pills towards them. He was busy attacking master Fu Rah, who still just looked like a faceless woman to Pu Kuh.
Everything that they spoke was also garbled for him so he could not make sense of what the assailants' motives were. He was busy attacking Fu Rah , while she was gracefully dodging everything, while keeping an eye on Hua and Luo. originally she wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible and then go help Hua and Luo, but the moment she saw the Qi explosion from what Luo had done at the start of the fight, she knew from the power of the attack that they would be able to take care of themselves and maybe even take care of their end by themselves.
She was keeping an eye out on them so that they could increase their live fighting experience and that is exactly what happened. Now that they had taken care of their quarry, she could move on and defeat Pu Kuh.
She changed her illusion technique slightly and started using a charm technique instead that undermined the opponent's soul and impaired their perception and movement ever so slightly.
All of Pu Kuh's attacks were missing and she was laughing shrilly at his appalling performance.
He started to get angry at her taunts and began using bigger attacks.
Luo and Hua moved away a bit, away from the range of his attacks. Fu Rah still used her new illusion technique and goaded Pu Kuh onto using his ultimate technique, but with him not even aware that his perception and movement were impaired, that would help her in evading all of his attacks.
He used his "Winding Dragon climbs heaven" technique, his ultimate technique. Luo and Hua thought that she would dodge this technique as well and then attack Pu Kuh when he would have exhausted a huge amount of his Qi but they were surprised at what happened next.
She started gathering massive amounts of Qi in her fists and her feet. Just when his attack was about to hit, she instead twisted midair and rotated in a frenzy of palm attacks and kicks to his body. Her technique also amplified the sound that was emitted from the bells that were attached to her feet. Her attacks caused rhythmic music from the bells. When she was done, the Qi from Pu's attack was nullified and he himself was clobbered till his face was a red swollen mess.
"Hua , if not for those bells making the technique look pretty, it's a very violent one isn't it?" Luo turned towards Hua. Hua's mouth was open in shock and he nodded to what Luo asked. "We should not mess with the sect master."