The fight on the third floor started with the Ouyang side, they used the very despicable technique, dropping rocks(or other stuff if there are no rocks to be had) on Ah Qin from high ground. Thankfully, the Lin side responded by sacrificing the unconscious Hong Qigong to disable the very treacherous technique with minimal cost. The older Feng finally saw the younger Feng, and he greatly admired the ease at which the boy manages everything. He praised the boy, and Lin Feng, not wiling to be ungrateful, also responded.
"You seem a decent young child, I hate to kill you."
"You seem a decent old man, I hate to die."
After the pre-battle speech that did'nt include shouting single words or adding exclamation marks for emphasis, the two sides started the fight like normal civilized men lining up for soy sauce on the nearby store, which is rather uncommon for the current era and culture.
"You are using stable mountain formation against us, eh?"
The knowledgeable Ouyang Ke spoke, upon seeing the retainer team adopt a formation that uses the tables and chairs scattered around the room to great effect. No, this is not a secret imperial perk, its just an ordinary advanced military formation of the Han army.
"We thought it fitting, considering the uneven terrain."
Lin Feng replied nonchalantly, not taking Ouyang Ke's measly 200 tactics into account.
"Naturally, you must expect us to attack with mountain breaking tactics."
The Imperial scholar surnamed Gao replied. He is the other scholar to have reached 1st grade martial fighter status among their group of Imperial scholars. They then assaulted the supposedly weakest link of the formation, which, by the way, is defended by Lin Feng unsurprisingly. So their assault just barely made a dent in the retainer team's formation.
"Naturally. But we find that flying fox snowy mountain cancels out mountain breaking tactics, don’t you?"
Lin Feng explained, for with his 360 levels in tactics and the retainer's 260 levels, they can easily change formations on the fly.
"Unless the enemy has studied his roaring avalanche. Which I have!"
Ouyang Ke broke the retainer team's entrenched position with his 200 levels in both scouting and tactics, moving into their most vulnerable spot and forcing the retainer team to temporarily retreat.
"You are wonderful!"
Lin Feng praised Ouyang Ke sarcastically, he admired the amazing growth rate of the person who just went from 200 to 201 in tactics.
"Thank you. We’ve worked hard to become so."
Ouyang Ke jubilantly replied, not forgetting to indirectly praise everybody on his team too, a good bootlicker indeed. Still, Ouyang Ke's breaking the entrenched position of the retainer team was just like forcing themselves to go burn directly in the fire instead of staying in the frying pan, for the retainer team has more comprehensive proficiency levels compared to them. Lin Feng and company easily pushed back the pair of Imperial scholars and Ouyang Feng to the stairs.
"We admit that you are better than we are."
"Then why are you smiling?"
"Because we know something you don’t know."
"And what is that?"
"We are not ordinary fighters."
The two teams traded words and when the scholar group had the stairway directly behind them, they gained a burst of strength and used all their hidden strength (perks) to overpower the opposition. Ouyang Feng was very exceptional compared to the two and Lin Feng can't help but cry out loudly.
"You are AMAZING!
"I ought to be, after 40 years."
Ouyang Feng smugly said as he kept the pressure up, forcibly taking the retainer team's ground, gaining back rapidly as much as they've lost speedily back then.
"There’s something I ought to tell you."
Lin Feng took the time to barely say a few words as he and the team retreated from the crazy assault of the Imperial group. Ouyang Feng was very swollen as he was finally able to release all his pent up aggression and took the liberty in making Lin Feng say his last words.
"Tell us."
"I, am not an ordinary fighter either."
Right after Lin Feng said that, he immediately activated the amazing bonus all martial artist have, this being the grandmaster bonus that weakens the enemy stats depending on the user's specialty and agility. Lin Feng does not usually activate this for it makes him very arrogant and condescending, always belittling the capacity of everybody around him. Not to mention the very harsh side effects he will experience after these periods of "za warudo". Usually, Lin Feng has only one mode always activated permanently, this being "suta purachina", which fills his body with strength and increases his ability to preserve his life, and its only side effect is that it increases metabolism thus making him just hungry more often.
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With both "za warudo" and "suta purachina" combined, Lin Feng easily stopped the Imperial scholars and Ouyang Feng from further pushing them back, even going so far as to chase them all over the place. The -120 debuff to all proficiencies to enemies with less than 340 proficiency levels is very devastating to the other side and they were like mantises in front of a chariot. You have to know, Ouyang Feng with the highest proficiencies has only reached level 300 proficiency at most. The imperial scholar surnamed Gao was soon cornered and in desperation he fled out of the room without hesitation.
"Who are you?"
"No one of consequence."
Seeing Lin Feng use za warudo with great effect, Ouyang Feng was greatly demoralized as he asked the question after he failed to stop Lin Feng repeatedly. He knows his limit and was only able to do it for only three proficiencies (only his 3 proficiencies that are above 260) and yet, still at a lesser extent compared to Lin Feng(the higher agility, the bigger the reduction). (He can't even reduce the proficiencies of Lin Feng's subordinates, for he did'nt know all of them have reached 260 in all proficiencies, and his debuff effect was only to those below 260, lucky bastards!!). He was so depressed that he ignored how Lin Feng just forced his son Ouyang Ke out of the room, making him roll on the stairs.
"I must know."
"Get used to disappointment."
After dealing with Ouyang Ke, the three cornered Ouyang Feng, and Lin Feng mocked Ouyang Feng's curiosity for the last time as they easily threw him out of the balcony. After Lin Feng threw out Ouyang Feng, he almost fell down right after after releasing za warudo. Thankfully, Weilian caught him before he can fall to the ground. For other martial artists, they can permanently activate za warudo and suta purachina at all times, but its not the same for Lin Feng. His attributes are too high, his proficiencies are too many, his skill is too burdensome, his mind is too underdeveloped and his body is too weak, thus he only has enough spirit to activate za warudo for a short time.
We return to Ouyang Feng, who after being thrown from the third floor, was still able to right himself up midflight and landed upright on the street without his legs' shaking. You have to admit, being a martial expert has its perks. He then entered the restaurant again and checked on everybody, especially Ouyang Ke. He find out that his son(ahem, nephew) was okay and he was relieved after knowing that. He was rather stoked after hearing his poor boy rolled on the stairs but also rather proud that he was still okay after that ordeal (hehe, tiger father begets no dog son indeed).
Ouyang Feng remembered his fight with Lin Feng just now. Three versus three, he, with two Imperial scholar allies, one of which is his son (ahem, nephew), Ouyang Ke, against the child Lin Feng with two retainers. He was rather fearful of the child prodigy and he stopped his white camel mountain manor disciples and the imperial scholars from climbing up and getting into further trouble.
After a brief respite, everybody in the restaurant soon noticed the unrest outside. The beggar sect is getting restless due to not receiving further news from Hong Qigong and they want to know more about the old beggar expert's situation. Lin Feng was still grimacing and he now wonders how to get out of this sticky situation but then he heard the ruckus outside. He asked his men about it, after learning it was the beggar clan, he laughed wholeheartedly. He finally had some ingredients to cook with.
He asked Weilian to undress the unconscious Hong Qigong and commanded Saya to wear the clothes. After wearing the beggar's clothes, he made Saya appear in the balcony, bounded with ropes and struggling, like asking for help. After the beggars noticed Saya in Hong Qigong's clothes, they got even more agitated, some even rushing to enter the restaurant but some high ranking beggars stopped them.
The people inside the restaurant noticed the beggars began to get more unruly and they soon saw that the beggars are gathering their forces and were soon ready to attack. The imperial scholars were angry when they knew about it, for it seems even these beggars look down upon them. Ouyang Ke, Ouyang Feng and some other people, including from the beggars, was suspicious about the situation as a whole, but since Ouyang's group don't know what's happening in the top floor, nor the beggars knew about the situation inside the restaurant, everyone soon went back into furthering their own agenda. The beggars want their martial expert, the scholars and white camel mountain manor want revenge and are angry after suffering various defeats, thus they have no scruples in further provoking the beggar clan.
After some time, the beggars besieged the restaurant and the Ouyang's inside, further angering these noble sons and disciples. They responded very aggressively to the beggar clan's tentative attack, thus making the beggars even more crazy. Ouyang Feng and his son (ahem, nephew) was doubtful, but they believed the situation would still become clear after the arrival of the cityguard. So they just stood put, and held their own against the beggars, not minding the people on the top floor, thinking they are just rabbits in the urn, or fishes in the net, and they, the righteous side, would soon get the last laugh in the end.
If you want to catch a rabbit or fish to cook them in the urn, you always have to prepare just in case the fish breaks the net or the rabbit topples the urn. Everybody thought the beggars were so ruthless in surrounding the place, not even sparing dogs or chickens to enter or leave, but they did not know how unscientific Lin Feng is.
In order to surround the restaurant, a high engineering proficiency is needed by the offending side. Not only that, the patrolling scouts need to have high scouting proficiency, and a high steward and leadership proficiency is needed in commanding the multitude of beggars. Lin Feng, a connoiseur of fine cocktails, blended everything that can be taken into account and turned it into a mix of his own solution, unravelling the tight guard of the beggar clan's army like a Lothario undressing his prize for the night. With a heavy heart, Lin Feng once again activated za warudo and the three of them soon went out of the restaurant, leaving the unconscious Hong Qigong under one of the tables, tucked and covered snugly with his clothes as blankets.
Lin Feng and group easily escaped from the siege. The beggars may have good scouting proficiency, but Lin Feng used his own scouting proficiency to reverse engineer the layout of their posts, and everybody in the team used their own roguery proficiency to travel silently without being discovered. The two retainers Saya and Weilian also have to imitate all of Lin Feng's actions to the best of their ability, for it is able to give them some slight effect not unlike that of za warudo and would allow their escape to go more smoothly, tho at the cost of Lin Feng overdrafting himself. Lin Feng finally relaxed once they've reached the warehouse and deactivated za warudo, fainting in the process.
The retainers found each other and they soon put the four unconscious people in an already prepared carriage and travelled to the western gate, where they met the two retainers old Jiao and old Cao, who looked very angry. After being bathed by the scoldings of the two old timers, the team left the city with the carriage, most of the horses, plus all the arms and supplies. While the two old retainers stayed in the city with some of the horses, surely to inform the two highest ranking members of the team about their retainers and nominal leader's exploits.