Bai Guo was the last to arrive at the scene, and as he shielded his eyes from sand flung about by unexpectedly strong winds, he took up position next to Cui Shen. As he took a guarded look at what had been unfolding further down the road, he couldn't help but ask, "What's going on?"
The Golden Witch and Tao Geming, their hands locked together, were vehemently pushing against each other in a test of strength.
"I think they are competing in internal energy." Cui Shen explained. "Though they definitely picked an unusual way to hold their contest..."
And so fierce was the clash of their inner powers that it could not contain itself to just their bodies, and manifested externally as a miniature whirlwind.
The possibility that the sudden windstorm could be the result of their clash had not even crossed Bai Guo's mind until that moment. "Wait, sir Shen... Are they the ones causing this? Is this even martial arts?!"
The dark Cui Shen held himself with the utmost composure, but even his mask was cracking at what he beheld. "Yes. I felt something similar once before. When I fought Deng Hong."
Bai Guo swallowed heavily. "That man is as powerful as Deng Hong? Could that be Tao Geming?"
The wind picked up in that moment and he never got to hear Cui Shen's reply. But he knew.
As they struggled fiercely against each other, their faces were contorted into masks of fury. The difference between the heights of the two combatants was great, but in this battle, her size advantage brought no relief to the Golden Witch.
No, even more than that, it was the shorter Tao Geming who seemed to have had the better control of the situation, for it was his persistent pressing that made the heels of the Golden Witch draw the longer lines in the dirt.
The Golden Witch cried out and lowered her head, redoubling her efforts. It turned out to be a mistake. Tao Geming took advantage of her awkward posture and thrust his foot into the air. His kick struck the woman hard in the chin, instantly straightening out her back. Their hands separated, and the Golden Witch retaliated with a punch, which Tao Geming took on the cheek in his usual unyielding fashion, and yet failed to receive it with the same grace as every other strike he had taken that day.
He was forced to step back, dazed by the blow. He regained his wits momentarily and fought back, and the two traded a flurry of blows, parrying them all in an uncharacteristically conventional manner before finally retreating to catch their breaths.
Something fell out of Tao Geming's pocket as he had taken his final step, a document that had partially unrolled itself on the way down. The Golden Witch quickly scanned its contents, and even from afar her sharp eyes managed to read that it was a traveling permit to a city called Yiqin, though they were not signed in Tao Geming's name. He threw the piece of paper up with his foot, and it rolled back into a neat cylinder that he grabbed into his hand.
As he put it back into his tunic, he spoke. "Your energy feels unusual. Just what method have you used to cultivate it?"
The Witch's eyes lit up in wonder. "You can feel qi too?"
"What a stupid question. How could I not have felt it during all that?"
"Ah, that's what you meant..." Her interest instantly evaporated.
"What else could I have been talking about?" Tao Geming, on the other hand, grew suspicious.
"It doesn't really matter..." The Golden Witch answered his question with an innocent smile as her yellow eyes evasively wandered all around, towards the forest, the grass, the skies...
Suddenly, her eyes glimpsed at the ring finger of the man's left hand.
"What are you looking at?" Tao Geming asked with a grin of his own. The Golden Witch immediately looked away, clicking her tongue in frustration. He had concentrated his qi there just to draw her attention. "You can tell what I'm doing with my internal energy without even having to come in contact with it- no, without even having to look at me! I've never seen that before. Now the strange way you've been talking makes sense. It must be how you learned the trick to what the plebeians call invincibility just by seeing it once. Hell, with that kind of extrasensory perception, you might be able to learn any of the world's techniques just by seeing them once or twice simply by feeling the flow of qi in someone's body."
The woman rolled her eyes. "Well, even if you figured it out, so what?"
Tao Geming's smile had faded. "True, it is inconsequential. What matters to me more is just how young your internal energy feels."
The Golden Witch met his intense gaze with a sideways glance.
Tao Geming continued. "Your qi feels like it belongs to someone not even half your age. You're cultivating a method that not only slows your aging, but reverses it!" His fist clenched, he stepped forward. "Teach it to me!" He commanded.
Bai Guo instantly turned to Cui Shen. "Could that be true, sir Shen? Does there really exist such a thing?"
"I do not know. I've never heard of it." Cui Shen couldn't answer any of his questions; even a seasoned martial artist such as himself felt no less out of his depth than the young man by his side. He hadn't even dared to make a guess.
The woman quirked a brow. "Am I to take those words to mean that you desire to become my disciple?"
Tao Geming scoffed. "Foolish woman. The only thing that stands above me are the heavens themselves. I'm simply offering you a deal - impart the secrets of your method to reverse aging to me, and this King of Jianghu will spare your life."
"I don't feel like my life is in danger, though." She said, brushing a hand through her long blonde hair. But she began to regard him with far more gravity than before. Something vicious began to set in those golden eyes.
"But you have felt it, haven't you? No, you still feel it even now. The fact is, my internal energy is superior to yours." Tao Geming asserted.
"I must disagree with your assessment. Even with the most generous estimation in regards to yourself, we'd still be far too close for the outcome of a battle to be certain, wouldn't you agree?" She questioned.
But Tao Geming seemed adamant. "Don't make me laugh. Gaps in internal energy are insurmountable."
"What if I have a technique to bridge the gap? You really haven't considered that? You yourself have said that it's a trivial matter for me to learn such things, so shouldn't you be worried?"
Tao Geming guffawed. "No matter how many of those you've picked up, it makes no difference. Techniques are meaningless in the face of real power. They're nothing but a clown's tricks!"
"...But isn't it the case that you make use of them? Your title is even based on them."
"That, too, is nothing but chicanery. I amuse myself with it. It terrifies the plebs so much they even titled me after it. Those "techniques" work only on the lowliest of the low, who don't know a single thing about their own meridians and let me do with them as I please. A true expert could never be killed by the little trick I use to turn my lowly foes into pink mist."
Tao Geming's continued gloating had caused the two observers, Bai Guo and Cui Shen, to grow irritated; they could hardly help but take his words as a personal affront to their life-long training. To them, what he was saying seemed simply absurd.
The Golden Witch, on the other hand, seemed to regard his words in earnest.
"There might be some truth to what you say." Her sudden concession had come as a shock to both of her companions. With two experts so far above them arguing against what was essentially their way of life, they had nothing with which to fend themselves against the shame of such brazen ridicule.
Tao Geming, too, seemed almost surprised to hear her say that. "In that case, do you accept my terms?"
The Golden Witch closed her eyes. The road had grown completely silent. Not even the birds dared to make themselves heard before these monsters.
"Let me ask you... Why do you think I've come all this way to face you in this manner?"
Tao Geming readily admitted, "I haven't the faintest idea."
When she once again opened her golden eyes, indescribable cockiness glowed within them.
"Test of skill."
Tao Geming had nearly popped a vein in rage. Just from her attitude alone, he could tell whose skill it was that was being tested here.
The air grew heavy as once again they brought the full extent of their powers to the fore. This time, the phenomena seemed even more intense, and Bai Guo could have sworn that he felt the ground quivering beneath his feet. To his surprise, Cui Shen fell to the earth entirely, pressing his ear against it.
He rose back up just a moment later, calling out to the Golden Witch, "Riders are on their way here. Dozens of them."
The woman's eyes shifted towards Cui Shen, regarding him with the utmost disdain. It was as though she had taken grave offense at the idea that such a trivial matter had been brought to her attention. But when she caught glimpse of the young man beside him, her glare had suddenly softened. Frustration began to beset her features.
Tao Geming impatiently asked, "What is it? Don't tell me you're scared of a few pissants in yellow."
The Golden Witch stared at her opponent, irritated, though it seemed as if her grievance was not directed at him. It took some time for her to tame her emotions, and she looked away while repressing a resigned sigh.
"...Cui Shen, get us out of here." She suddenly ordered.
In that instance, a round, fist-sized projectile flew at Tao Geming's feet. He made no efforts to avoid it, and when it hit the ground, it erupted into a massive cloud of gray smoke. The Golden Witch darted out of it, tossed her disciple over her shoulder, and departed at blinding speed together with Cui Shen.
Tao Geming stepped out on the opposite end of the cloud, heading to wherever it was he intended to go before he had been interrupted. Despite all his fury, he had made up his mind to let them go.
"If she can sense me from afar, then trying to chase her around would be useless. However, she knows where to find me. Though it loathes me to go about it this way, I'm going to have to wait for her to come to me. And not that I believe that it might, but if cowardice does overtake her, I can still find her myself. After all, not only does she practically glow like a lamp post, but that's Deng Hong's killer she's travelling with. There could hardly exist a party that could be easier to find."
His thoughts were soon interrupted as the riders began to draw near. Predictably, they were dressed in the yellow and red uniforms of the Qin Royal Dynasty Sword School, and every last one of them wielded a long spear.
They promptly surrounded him, the stampeding horses kicking up another smokescreen of dust. One of the group, a man with the number four emblazoned on his shoulder, stepped down from his mount and pointed the tip of his spear at Tao Geming.
"Tao Geming! You have been accused of misappropriating the royal title. Come with us posthaste. Unless, of course, you wish to surrender your life without trial, you vagabond!"
"What an interesting manner you've chosen to fetch me a horse." Tao Geming walked right into the pointed spear.
The Royal School member thrust it into his side, but it failed to cut through more than the man's gray tunic. Tao Geming grabbed it and brushed it aside with the same ease that one might use to shift a low-hanging tree branch out of their face, then his body blurred as he crossed the entire length of the weapon in the blink of an eye to punch the spearman squarely in the stomach. The blow was so fierce that the man was lifted off the ground by Tao Geming's fist, and the Invincible Blood Sea readjusted his grip to keep him suspended in the air. Blood flowed freely out of his mouth; the single blow had dealt immense damage to his internal organs.
Though the man weakly struggled in his grasp, he seemed no longer capable of putting up a meaningful resistance.
"Listen well," Tao Geming said, his booming voice overtaking the cacophony of beating hooves. "Next time, if the one to come after me isn't Qin Yan himself, that snot-nosed brat you fools call your king, then I won't be so generous as to leave even one of you with anything left to bury!"
Upon his exclamation, Tao Geming twisted his grip and the spearman's head burst into mist, showering his fellows in gore. The horses were no less terrified than their riders, and they all scattered in every direction, the gruesome scene forever imprinted into their minds.
Tao Geming held back the lone riderless mount, and, after pilfering the headless man's valuables, began to ride the blood-splattered steed to his destination.