Chapter Ninety-One - The Shameless Japanese Invaders (Part Two)

The match is about to begin!

Chu Qitong forcibly wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and revealed a mischievous smile, as though she had become once more the proud, domineering little devil she used to be. With a sweep of her pale little hand over the center of the booth, she said, “Mr. Teng, you roll first.”

“Fine! I’ll go first!” Tengda said triumphantly, reaching out his large hand and seizing the dice cup at the center, shaking it vigorously before my eyes. I knew that in a game like this, where the higher total wins, it all came down purely to luck. Chu Qitong’s little trick was far too childish. A pampered girl who had never known hardship simply had no idea how cruel the world could be...

“Huru-huru...” The rattling of the dice, deliberately shaken hard by Tengda, rang in my ears. At that moment, I was already thinking about how I would handle things if I lost. Though I possessed the Purple Sun Divine Art, it was obvious at a glance that the two men behind Tengda were not to be trifled with, and I still had to look after the three girls as well. That was the real difficulty. So I had to strike fast, using thunderous force to bring those two men down first, only then could I truly have nothing to fear.

Bang! The dice cup slammed heavily onto the reinforced-glass tabletop of the booth. Tengda seemed rather pleased with himself as he flicked a glance toward Chu Qitong. “Miss Chu, you may open it.”

Chu Qitong nodded lightly. After glancing at me, she slowly lifted the dice cup with her little hand. I stared intently, tense as I looked, and immediately found myself speechless. Whether Tengda had incredible luck or what, he had actually shaken a five. Damn it—then I would have to roll a six to beat him. I had already sentenced myself to a delayed death, and if that was the case, then there was no blaming me for what came next.

I secretly circulated the Purple Sun true qi within my body, preparing to strike first the instant I lost, before Tengda and his two bodyguards could react. Slowly, I picked up the dice cup and shook it gently.

With each shake, I seemed to recall every little moment between Chu Qitong and me. Perhaps in this life, I had disappointed her. Sighing in quiet emotion, I set the dice cup down on the table and released my hand.

I could clearly feel Chu Qitong’s little hand tremble slightly. At last, she was nervous. I did not know whether she wanted me to win or lose, but I knew that all she was doing was trying to infuriate me. For a willful woman like her, I knew that if I did not indulge her, she would never let it rest.

The dice cup was opened in an instant by Chu Qitong. Tengda and I both stared fixedly at the exposed dice, and very quickly the limbs I had been preparing to launch loosened. Ha, what luck—I had actually rolled a six! Looking at the fire nearly bursting from Tengda’s eyes, I could not have felt more satisfied. I sneered, “Mr. Teng, you concede. Please take your men and that dog and leave here. Do not disturb my friends and me any longer.”

Tengda’s expression was ugly. Perhaps he had not expected me to roll a six. Looking at Chu Qitong’s face, filled with a deliberately embarrassed expression, he suddenly rose from his chair, his features twisting into a grim smile. “I, Tengda Masakazu, actually lost to a Chinese like you. You have shamed my Tengda family! I challenge you to a duel!”

Smack! I slammed the table hard and stood up, raging, “Watch your filthy mouth! What do you mean by Chinese? Do your lowly people even deserve to say that word? Hmph, a race like parasites, thinking themselves so remarkable, when in truth you are nothing but frogs at the bottom of a well. And you still have the nerve to look down on others? A duel? Sorry, someone like you is not worthy of my hand. A bet is a bet—don’t think of pulling any tricks and making me despise you and your people even more, you shameless worm!”

“Baka! How dare you speak to me like that? You’re courting death!” Tengda was truly enraged. He glared at me in fury and lunged as if to seize my collar.

What a joke. With my skills, how could I possibly let him catch me? Instantly, I shifted nimbly aside, and the fellow pounced on empty air. Because he failed to steady his footing, his whole body fell straight onto the tabletop, knocking over several glasses of red wine, which at once stained the white shirt on his body crimson.

“Waaah!” He sprang up from the table in a rage, wiping at his clothes while shouting harshly in his own language to the two bodyguards behind him, “Teach him a lesson! Beat this brat hard!”

“Hai!” The two bodyguards behind him immediately nodded with respect and charged at me like two leopards. I hurriedly retreated. After dodging one man’s sweeping kick, I called out repeatedly to Su Xin, Zhang Jing, and Chu Qitong, who were staring dumbly nearby, “Get out and find Li Dabiao!”

Chu Qitong was the first to react. It was fortunate she had been present the last time we fought the Axe Gang, so she had great faith in my skills and was not as panicked as the other two girls. After I dodged another man’s vicious punch, I saw her already dragging Su Xin and Zhang Jing toward the bar’s entrance. Only then did I feel at ease.

Kicking, dodging, leaping—I counterattacked repeatedly before gradually beginning to probe them in a planned way. These two were highly skilled. Compared with the Axe Gang boss, De Guangqing, their abilities were perhaps on par with his, but they were deeply versed in fighting together. More than that, their techniques were incomparably cold and vicious. For a time, I could not bring them down quickly. Only then did I finally understand just how formidable this Tengda fellow must be. Men of this level were only fit to serve as his bodyguards. It seemed I had really provoked a troublesome person today. But I did not regret it. Whoever he was, just on the basis of the words he had spoken, he deserved a beating. For now, I could only trade blows with them, probe and familiarize myself with their techniques, and then deliver a lethal strike.

The three of us fought swiftly and fiercely. The two bodyguards’ spinning kicks sent many bottles and glasses crashing to the floor, and they even unintentionally kicked over quite a few customers. At once, the entire bar descended into uproar. The moment a fight broke out, customers would usually react with shrill screams, then crowd toward the entrance in frantic attempts to flee.

Soon, with the music gone and the place emptied of its lively atmosphere, the bar grew somewhat quiet. Meanwhile, the two bodyguards before me were gradually growing weary. Their every move aimed straight at the vital points of the human body, using either sneak attacks or underhanded and vicious methods. Gradually, real fury began to burn in me as well, and my strikes became heavier and heavier. Their faces were no longer relaxed as before; both wore grave expressions and fought with full force to resist the powerful blows of my fists and kicks.

Just then, from the corner of my eye, I saw Tengda Masakazu and Huang Qi both wearing shocked expressions, perhaps because they had never imagined my skills would be this good. Before long, a group of men in black suddenly surged in from all around. I knew at once that they must be the gangsters who protected this bar. Seeing these newcomers, Huang Qi immediately broke into a smile and, with somewhat awkward steps, hurried over to the group of black-suited men to say something. It seemed he must know the leader of this crew.

Crack...

At last I seized an opportunity. Taking advantage of the gap when one man’s attack fell away, I used a textbook mantis boxing technique and drove my finger into the man’s armpit, instantly numbing the entire arm. Then I leapt into the air and kicked him squarely in the chest. With a faint cracking sound of bone, the bodyguard did not even manage a scream before he was sent flying by my kick, crashing brutally into a sheet of reinforced glass and collapsing unconscious.

Seeing his comrade sent flying, the other man roared and suddenly shot three streaks of light toward me!

I reacted quickly. As my body landed, I performed a backflip, and the three dark lines skimmed straight past my forehead, all of them smashing into a nearby wall pillar.

“Are you a ninja?”

The words escaped me in shock. Indeed, only the ninjas of that country would possess those deadly star-shaped throwing weapons. Though I had never truly seen a ninja before, I had seen far too many such hidden weapons on television. At once, I could not help feeling even more doubtful about Tengda’s identity. What exactly was a man who traveled abroad with ninja bodyguards doing in a small city like C City? Was it really just an investment trip?