Lian Lingzhun was a man known for being difficult to impress. The slavers in the Thousand Link Slavers had no hope of impressing him with combat prowess since Lian Lingzhun was so mighty that he had earned every name he carried. His Body Arts were seen as cheap and third rate in the hands of others, but when used by him both the Dominating Step and the Vein Filling Vigor seemed perfectly named.
Lian Lingzhun managed to subjugate a rebellion by simply stepping his foot down and causing the dozens of rebelling slaves around him to fall on their asses, proving the Dominating Step fit to its name. When ensnared in a marsh by a low level mystical beast called the Mudwhip Snake, he simply filled his body with such vigor that his muscles swelled in size and broke apart the snake ensnaring him, proving the Vein Filling Vigor fit to its name.
He had even used the Fortress Breaker as a nameless weapon up until he decided to raid a Bandit Fortress on a whim and flattened the entire wooden fortress along with all of the bandits, naming the several dozen meter long chain whip the Fortress Breaker after doing so. Among slavers, he was a legend. However, even he could be impressed despite what the slavers thought.
Right now, he was impressed that Huo Lan had no mercy in her eyes despite her young age and small body. He was even more impressed that she was killing many kids with her bare hands. She was simply ripping them apart like paper.
He was also impressed by how restrained Shupi Juren and Yanku Zhimei were acting. They were yet to kill a single kid. Meanwhile, he found the gray haired and black nailed boy to be very subpar compared to the other three. He was struggling to stand against a number of fodder less than half of what the others were each handling.
Well, that was not too surprising. Considering that oddly quiet nameless tall boy that he had picked among the caged slaves was certainly pressuring Tian Mingyun. His hair was long and black, while his eyes were large and red. His entire body was scarred as if he was whipped daily for all over his body. Yet, the most off-putting thing about him was his height and long limbs. He stood nearly 7 Chi tall and seemed to still be in the growing ages. Lian Lingzhun had no intention of letting any of the two die, so he was ready to intervene with his long chain whip if they were to go too far while fighting. Both of them were expensive merchandise after all.
At the same time, a certain odd acting boy that had managed to avoid everyone's eyes so far approached Yanku Zhimei. He looked handsome, yet his eyes were too tight due to his large smile and it ended up making him look utterly evil. That boy had a luster to his skin and short brown hair, he had even groomed his shoddy slave garbs into looking nice and proper, as much as he possibly could with such rags at the very least. When he spoke with his nose nearly pressed against Yanku Zhimei, that was the first moment when she even noticed he was there.
"Trained, haven't you? I can tell." He spoke with surprising calmness, considering he was currently bending two boys by the elbow and using them as human shields to cover himself from the brawl.
Yanku Zhimei easily noticed another Body Arts user. This boy had trained for years, just like her. He was a bit taller than average which meant he had better reach, but what made him scary was that he was using only his thumb index finger for to hold each boy's arm and bend it at just the right place. Yanku Zhimei spoke without hesitating.
"This Junior greets her Senior!" She clasped her hands together and bowed. The boy in front of her looked 16 or 17, so he was not guaranteed to be her senior in age. But she could tell that he was her senior in experience. This was Yanku Zhimei's first ever brawl and she was breathing out and sweating like crazy, yet this boy was simply happy as if he was out drinking with buddies in such chaos.
The brown haired boy with the creepy smile smiled even louder, his pearly white teeth shining vibrantly.
"What good manners! You must have had a fine upbringing! Hahahaha!" His smile suddenly faded after his laugh, his face looking so handsome that it would easily make the hearts of most girls flutter with love, yet that face devoid of the creepy smile looked even scarier. Yanku Zhimei stepped back out of instinct as the boy kept speaking.
"Allow this Senior to exchange some pointers with his Junior. I will not kill or cripple you, so you should not use killing moves either." He spoke matter of factly, ignoring her will. She knew he would attack regardless if she accepted, so she simply nodded and lightly bowed after clasping her fist. He also did the same, letting his human shields go.
The handsome boy leaped forward, grabbing a girl in her teens in the crowded brawl by the wrist and whispering into her ear.
"I don't care if you die trying, make sure nobody disturbs us. Or, I will just kill you myself." His voice did not indicate intimidation or threat, he was simply speaking as if this was a fact of life. The girl quickly screamed and ran into the brawl, doing her best to push others away with a crazed effort, forming a makeshift circle within the crowd as she kept getting beaten and battered by the people she pushed.
The handsome boy then simply started walking towards Yanku Zhimei who was at the other end of this circle. Yanku Zhimei was alert, lowering her hips and preparing her legs for her next move, the muscles within visibly wriggling around like snakes as she kept tensing up.
The handsome boy gently reached out his hand in contrast, his moves carrying no urgency or hostility. There was such a lack of action in his moves that Yanku Zhimei did not even know how to react, her tensed up body suddenly freezing until she felt his touch on her shoulder, and found herself face first on the ground in the next moment.
Lian Lingzhun was delighted. Such a fine batch of kids they had kidnapped this season! He would be rich, perhaps finally even rich enough to establish the sect of his dreams. That handsome boy even managed to avoid his gaze by hiding his presence and intent among the crowd. How had they even captured such a kid?
The handsome boy was holding Yanku Zhimei by the ring finger as he pressed her face onto the floor with his foot. The joint lock he performed by simply bending a finger back was simple, yet effective. Some of the force pressing Yamku Zhimei into the dirt was even coming from her body, as it reflexively diverted its force downwards to avoid injury in her shoulder.
Such a thing was called the 'first exchange', this was common among Body Arts users as they tested each other's prowess. The first exchange would almost always be won by the more experienced one, but it was by no means the end of a fight. Yamku Zhimei felt humiliated with her face in the mud and a foot on the back of her head, but she did not feel defeated. She instead focused on her fingers and grabbed the handsome boy's fingers currently holding her ring finger into her fist.
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She held onto bars and ropes, this was her living. Every common girl could sing and dance, but she could do so atop a crowd, hanging from a mere strand of clothing wire. She could swing her entire body around on a bar and even catch herself after a flip, with a single hand. She may not have trained Huo Lan in it, but she had trained her grasp strength for 9 whole years. She had not skipped a day of practice even when her fingers cramped so hard that she wished they would just fall off of her hand. Now, this handsome boy would experience that same pain.
The handsome boy winced when his lock was defeated with such a brutish method. He lifted his foot off her head and kicked her sharply in the elbow to free his fingers. Yet, his face remained cold even as the two crushed fingers were red like an apple.
Yamku Zhimei knew that the next time she was grabbed, there would be no way out for her. She quickly made up her mind to not hold anything back and allowed her Wire Frame Body Arts to run rampant, her muscles visibly twisting under her skin tight clothing as if it was packed with a hundred snakes.
The handsome boy was on guard, yet the next moment was still like a flash for him. Yamku Zhimei standing still, suddenly launched a crescent kick. His clothes were torn apart as his muscular and scarred physique was revealed, even his eyes hidden under his hair were now visible, they were devoid of any wrinkle, just one large bubble of skin around the earhole.
Yamku Zhimei knew from her mother's words what this was. Those were the ears of a wrestler, it was proof of how many times they experienced being wrestled and thrown around in order to learn their techniques. This boy might be around his age, but he was her senior indeed. He had marks of his abusive level of training all over his body. Even those bruises were likely from being tossed down onto the floor in the pursuit of grappling techniques.
That handsome boy had managed to dodge the kick, but now that his clothes were torn and his chest was exposed, he would rather have gotten kicked instead. However, seeing Yanku Zhimei's expression, he was glad to call her a Junior. She was not disgusted of his body like his mother and aunt had been, she instead looked at the marks left by his training in awe.
He smiled, how could a Body Arts practitioner be concerned about looks? How conceited was he to even try to hide it in the name of good looks? He had already exchanged some fine pointers with her just from that realization, but he also wanted to teach her a few things now. He no longer had to concern himself with the elegant moves in the face of a fellow Martial Artist.
He quickly dove down and approached Yamku Zhimei, who was ready and tried to respond with another kick, yet the wrestler boy simply lowered his body even more and rushed at her with his chest nearly touching the ground while his hands and face were directed at her left leg which was still on the ground.
It took only a moment, a singular moment proved enough for him to lift her body up by one leg, let go for a split second, and then grab her again in an awkward position with her hips pressing against his chest. Her right leg was pointing straight up, while her left leg was pointing straight down. She knew that if he simply slammed her down to the floor like this, she would be crippled for life with a broken hip bone. She raised both of her hands up high, knowing it was pointless to attack his head from her elevated position now that he had already defeated her.
"I surrender, Senior!" She screamed, out of urgency rather than fear.
The handsome wrestler boy put her down after her declaration and smiled.
"You are not too bad, fight without panicking here. This kind of brawl is perfect to improve."
He then stripped one of the injured boys lying around and wore his clothes.
"My name is Hou Yun. I practice the Lead Cloud Boy Arts." He bowed once more with his clothes on, but without making an effort to hide his ears this time. To not hide one's scars did not mean being indecent and walking around half naked.
Yamku Zhimei was a bit breathless compared to the calm Hou Yun, yet she also bowed and spoke with good manners.
"This Junior of yours is named Yanku Zhimei! I have practiced the Wire Frame Body Arts! I pray you may teach my ignorant brothers one day!" This was the most respect one could show to someone who was not their master as a Martial Artist. Hou Yun was satisfied with his first meeting with a junior and could not hide his evil looking smile again.
He walked away, beating up more kids along the way but sparing them the broken bones since he was in such a fine mood.
Yanku Zhimei quickly helped the girls trying to still keep the circle. She had been bloodied way too much from using her small body to try to push so many people away, getting hit by so many stray punches and elbows.
"You can stop! You can stop!" Yanku Zhimei said in a hurry.
The bloodied girl finally sat down, her hands and feet shivering out of fear of Hou Yun rather than the pain of her injuries. She lamented through broken teeth.
"Ahhh... It is not enough these demons capture us by force, separate us from our families and even rape us! They now want us to die fighting one another?! Aaaaaaah!" She was mentally breaking down out of fear, anger, and anxiety now. She was telling through her broken and bloodied teeth, and stomping the ground.
Yanku Zhimei was shocked at how energetic the girl was despite her state, she understood that Hou Yun had not picked out an ordinary girl out of the crowd. She decided to stick closer with the girl.
"Don't worry, I am going to make sure you at least make it out of this, so let's watch each other's back, alright?" Yanku Zhimei tried to be as cheery as possible in such a chaotic place, though her dirt covered face betrayed any hint of beauty or joy at the moment.
The bloodied girl had her hair done in two buns and fixed in place with sticks. She sat up and fixed her hair while her face was still drenched with blood and nodded.
"Yeah! I am not going to just die in a place like this! Let's at least make it to my 18th birthday!" She quickly resumed pushing people around in order to defend herself, though she seemed to be surprisingly fine considering her injuries.
Yanku Zhimei did not question, she would have time for that in the future. For now, she focused on the fight. The two of them steadily fought the other kids, making sure that one another did not get overwhelmed, though Yanku Zhimei was doing most of the job in that regard.
Tian Mingyun was still getting beat up in the meantime. The tide of kids attacking him only kept getting more and more desperate as that tall and creepy approached, they were basically stepping on each other's heads to run away from him, covering Tian Mingyun in bruises with their relentless and desperate assault. In just a few more steps, that creepy tall boy would be at arm's length from Tian Mingyun.