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From the footsteps alone, it was clear that more than one person was approaching.
But whether Luo Xingyu was among them, he didn't know.
Gao Yuan didn't want to poke his head out to check and risk exposure, but he had been with Luo Xingyu for so long that he could distinguish her footsteps.
Perhaps because there were too many and too confused footsteps, or perhaps because he was too nervous, Gao Yuan was unable to determine if Luo Xingyu's were among them.
The footsteps grew closer and closer.
Gao Yuan gripped the axe in his hands tightly and, as the footsteps neared, he turned and silently appeared, then brought the axe crashing down.
A young man, wearing a thick down jacket and carrying a large pack, Gao Yuan's bob backpack, was looking down and walking, so Gao Yuan didn't see his face, just the top of his head.
With a thud, the square hammer of the axe smashed into the skull.
The person in the lead didn't scream, didn't struggle, didn't even twitch, and just collapsed to the ground like a lump of mud.
"Ah!"
After felling a man with a single axe blow, Gao Yuan let out a loud roar.
The silent attack was for maximum surprise, and the roar after the attack was meant to intimidate the enemy.
Or more precisely, to give the enemy a scare and take them out before they could react.
After Gao Yuan had swung his axe and let out his roar, he finally saw Luo Xingyu.
At the sight of Luo Xingyu, Gao Yuan's unease vanished in an instant.
As long as Luo Xingyu was there, nothing else mattered, not anymore.
Even if the enemy in front of him raised a handgun, it didn't matter.
There were four men in total, the first one was dead, the second was five or six meters away from Gao Yuan, walking three or four meters ahead of Luo Xingyu. He was startled at first, but then, stunned as he was, he subconsciously drew his pistol.
One disadvantage was that the enemy had guns; the second was the great distance between each enemy, giving them ample time to react.
Gao Yuan hadn't expected the enemy to have handguns, but by then it didn't matter if they did or not, as he couldn't retreat anymore, especially after seeing Luo Xingyu.
Gao Yuan rapidly closed the distance between him and the enemy, and then instinctually swung his arm, throwing the axe he was holding.
The axe flew out. Gao Yuan was precise and swift when throwing stones, so his axe throw was just as fast and accurate. But throwing an axe is different from a stone since the axe has a handle, and making sure the axe head struck the target instead of the handle requires a certain technique.
And the problem was that Gao Yuan was fast and accurate.
The axe was aimed at the enemy's face, but because it was too accurate, the gun-wielding man instinctively turned his head, and the axe flew past his ear.
Though the enemy dodged the axe head, the rotating handle struck his neck, and at the same time, his gun went off.
Gao Yuan didn't stop, nor could he afford to slow down.
Just because you have a gun doesn't mean you're invincible.
It's not like that at all.
Do you know the closest distance for police shooting practice? One meter, just one meter.
Do you know that many people miss a five-meter moving target when firing under strict combat conditions?
So it's not surprising that the enemy's first shot missed; as he fired, he instinctively turned his head to dodge, and the movement of his head affected his arm, which in turn moved the gun. So when he pulled the trigger, the barrel was no longer aimed properly.
Gao Yuan was now right in front of the enemy, only four or five meters away, a blink of an eye's distance.
At that moment, the enemy moved the muzzle again, trying to aim at Gao Yuan's head, but to accurately aim at a person's head during rapid motion—responsibly speaking—over ninety percent of police officers couldn't do it.
So the enemy lowered the muzzle, aiming for Gao Yuan's chest, but by then Gao Yuan was already upon him.
Gao Yuan trained in the Thirteen Techniques, which is a form of stick-fighting, and he was holding a knife, not a stick, but it didn't matter—master one, master all.
He lifted with his left hand, raising it towards the sky, and in Gao Yuan's left hand was a knife held in a reverse grip.
As Gao Yuan had thrown the axe, he didn't even have time to adjust his grip on the knife, so it was still in a reverse grip.
The knife's blade cut through the enemy's wrist, lifting his hand along with it, and the handgun fired into the sky.
A punch from Gao Yuan's right hand landed on the enemy's throat.
The man, cut in the wrist and punched in the throat, stumbled backward. He tried to scream in agony, but could only utter muffled groans.
Gao Yuan's third strike was a knee to the body.
In pain, the gun-wielding enemy bent over, a natural response to serious injury.
The enemy was armed, but Gao Yuan didn't know how to disarm him. However, he knew how to completely incapacitate him.
Gao Yuan passed by the enemy, bent down to pick up the fallen axe, then spun around, swinging the axe diagonally down, this time with the edge facing the enemy.
It struck the back of the neck precisely.
Ensuring the gun-wielding man was dead.
Gao Yuan pulled out the axe, drawing a string of blood beads, and without the slightest pause, he lunged forward.
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Luo Xingyu was right in front of him, her eyes wide open, a piece of cloth stuffed in her mouth, her hands tied behind her back with a rope, and at the other end of the rope, held by a man wielding a pig-slaughtering knife.
"Don't come any closer!"
Gao Yuan's series of attacks flowed smoothly, swift and ferocious, and it wasn't until he had already taken down two enemies that someone finally cried out.
In front of Gao Yuan stood Luo Xingyu, with a man behind her raising a pig-slaughtering knife, and behind him, a man holding a pickaxe handle stared at him dumbfounded.
"Get down!"
Gao Yuan also shouted, and Luo Xingyu immediately crouched down, even falling forward onto the ground.
Unlike the cliché in movies, where the villain's knife must be held at the woman's throat, Luo Xingyu's reaction was not so cliché, not insisting on shouting "Go, don't mind me."
Luo Xingyu's action was to fall straight forward, hitting the ground hard, which must have hurt, but it made room for Gao Yuan to attack.
This was the reaction of a normal woman, one with a bit of sense, and Luo Xingyu's response was just smarter and more on point.
With Luo Xingyu down, the man with the pig-slaughtering knife lost his leverage over Gao Yuan, because he would have to crouch to hurt Luo Xingyu.
But how could Gao Yuan possibly give him that chance?
The man with the knife thrust it straight at Gao Yuan.
With a swing of his right hand wielding an axe, he parried the knife away, then thrust the axe forward, hooked the enemy's arm, pressed it down, and his left-hand holding the knife reversed slashed across.
The blade traced across the enemy's chest, and then Gao Yuan bent his arm, plunging the knife directly into the enemy's heart.
One set of movements took him away.
Xiang Weiguo taught Gao Yuan the Thirteen Techniques, but he did not teach him moves or routines.
What Xiang Weiguo taught were the fundamentals, the fighting style, the response to enemies.
Now, Gao Yuan applied what he had learned to its fullest.
The third one down, Gao Yuan did not look back at Luo Xingyu who lay on the ground, but ran toward the last enemy.
The man at the back was holding a pickaxe handle—what is that, you ask? It's the wooden handle of a pickaxe head, over a meter long, thick, sold in all kinds of hardware stores, a must-have item in the trunks of cars owned by gangsters, a divine artifact for group fights.
Gao Yuan would rather face a knife than a pickaxe handle, since it could be considered a heavy weapon, capable of wide range and destructive impact, where a single sweep could break anything it hit.
However, Gao Yuan's swift, flowing attacks successfully terrified the person at the back, who, upon seeing Gao Yuan charging, turned and ran.
Gao Yuan only chased for a few steps before slowing down.
A person fleeing for their life can move incredibly fast, so although Gao Yuan was only four or five meters away from the enemy, catching up would definitely not be an easy task.
Gao Yuan slowed down, bent over to pick up a stone after discarding the axe he held, then with a fluid motion, he hurled the stone.
The stone flew more than ten meters, accurately hitting the back of the fleeing man's head.
There was no sound, but the man hit by the stone fell silently to the ground, then lay motionless.
Gao Yuan stopped in his tracks.
If there were guns, they would surely be kept in the most accessible place, not hidden away, because it was the end of the world, and there was no need to conceal weapons.
Just now, only one person had pulled out a gun; the others carried either knives or clubs, hence Gao Yuan concluded that the last man trying to escape had no gun.
Not fearing a feigned death and a potential gunshot as counter-attack, Gao Yuan still picked up the axe again, walking cautiously to the back of the enemy, crouching slowly in a position beyond the enemy's easy reach, hesitating for a moment before gently prodding with the knife.
Xiang Weiguo had talked about his combat experiences; encountering enemies playing dead was normal, and the simplest method to discern if an enemy was feigning death was straightforward.
A stab with a bayonet would do, making the pretend dead become truly dead, and if the enemy was already dead, then let them die once again.
Gao Yuan stabbed down with the knife, the fallen person twitched slightly but remained lying there without getting up or making any other movement.
It seemed he wasn't dead, but certainly unconscious.
Gao Yuan pulled the pickaxe handle from the enemy's grasp and tossed it over the cliff, then he quickly ran back to Luo Xingyu, grasped her hands, cut the rope with the knife, and only then reached in to take the cloth out of her mouth.
Without a word of comfort to Luo Xingyu, Gao Yuan took the rope and turned to run, leaving Luo Xingyu, who had opened her arms for a hug, lunging at the air.
Gao Yuan securely tied up the unconscious enemy with the rope, and by that time, Luo Xingyu had also come up behind him.
"Brother..."
Luo Xingyu called out with a teary voice, Gao Yuan pulled on the rope firmly, and only then stood up confidently, opening his arms.
Luo Xingyu threw her arms around Gao Yuan without a word, and before she could speak, Gao Yuan held her tightly.
"I was so scared for you! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you scared me to death..."
Luo Xingyu hadn't said anything, it was Gao Yuan who spoke. At that moment, Gao Yuan felt drained, his legs weak as if he was the one who had been taken captive, as if it was Luo Xingyu who had just killed three men instead of him.
"It's okay now, it's all right, brother, I'm fine,t's all over now..."
Luo Xingyu hugged Gao Yuan just as tightly, and then she began to comfort him.
At this moment, the roles of comforter and the comforted had reversed, but this was normal, everything was normal.