Chapter 14 – Silver Needle Technique
“Ah Yu!”
Chu Yao gasped and called out worryingly, “You have to be careful…”
……
In one corner of the guest room…
Tang Xiao Xi was peeking at the yard from a window slit while her smooth bottom perked up in the air. She excitedly commented, “Wow, that alchemist called Lin Mu Yu is gonna fight with Hua Wan. Qu Chu grandpa, who do you think is going to win?”
Qu Chu crossed his arms and didn’t bother to look at all. Although his eyes were shut, he was still monitoring the moments of the people in the yard. Faintly smiling, he said, “Hua Wan is emitting an air of arrogance whereas Lin Mu Yu is showing his unyielding character. Hua Wan’s true strength isn’t low, and in comparison, there is not a single ounce of fighting energy enveloping Lin Mu Yu. If I am to give my prediction, while Lin Mu Yu might have won in terms of his display, but in a real fight, he will definitely lose!”
Tang Xiao Xi stuck out her tongue without saying anything else.
……
“Hyah!”
Hua Wan initiated with a single fierce punch. Scorching-hot flame energy wrapped around his fist as he attacked. The display of power shocked the crowd. If this punch was to land on Lin Mu Yu, then he would be at least disabled if not outright killed by it..
But to everyone’s surprise, the punch struck air as it missed its target. That’s right, although he was a Human realm 3rd stage, Hua Wan’s punch actually failed to hit Lin Mu Yu. Furthermore, no one was able to see how Lin Mu Yu avoided it. All that they saw was a single flash as Lin Mu Yu landing firmly in an adjacent spot as if he was a meteor crashing upon earth.
“Huh?”
Having missed his attack, Hua Wan was momentarily confused at Lin Mu Yu’s movements. Without giving it another thought, he lashed out in anger and gave another punch.
Lin Mu Yu speedily lowered his body and bend backwards into a bridge. Skillfully avoiding the second attack, he made a quick turn followed by a heavy kick at Hua Wan’s ankle.
“Boom!”
Energy reverberated as Hua Wan staggered back yet Lin Mu Yu was the one who felt an excruciating pain coming from his feet. Although the opponent is no match in terms of speed, in a match of physical strength, Lin Mu Yu was far too weak in comparison. The three stages of Human realm are simply direct strengthening of the body. First stage toughens the skin, second the flesh, and third the bones. Having trained to level 29, Hua Wan had arrived at the peak of bone strengthening. His body from the inside and out had already toughened to the likeness of steel. As such, there was no reason for Hua Wan to fear Lin Mu Yu’s attacks.
This was the true display of the disparity in strength. Perhaps in other words, Lin Mu Yu’s attack was not able to break through Hua Wan’s natural defense at all.
“Heh!”
Hua Wan had also arrived at the same conclusion. He suddenly barked, “Are you done playing around?”
Hua Wan’s body shook as energy moved around his body and a large hammer made up of lightning energy materialized into his hand.
“Lightning Hammer!” Chu Feng shouted in shock..
Chu Yao was about to cry as she bawled out, “Hua Wan, you are a shameless person. How can you use your martial spirit on someone that doesn’t have a martial spirit. Stop this!”
Hua Wan did not care the slightest bit about what she said. He couldn’t wait to kill Lin Mu Yu right away because if Lin Mu Yu was to die, there would be no one else in Silver Fir City who could fight for the t.i.tle of the young generation’s number one alchemist.
“Vroom!”
Because Hua Wan had made up his mind to kill Lin Mu Yu, he continued to fight without stopping. Although he was using his bare fist to attack, his martial spirit also shot out at Lin Mu Yu with a fierce electric flow. Lin Mu Yu quickly used Starfall Steps to dodge but was just a bit too slow as the attack grazed his back. Immediately a patch of burning sensation washed over his back as his body was slightly numbed by the electricity. The lightning hammer is definitely something fierce!
With a quick side step, Lin Mu Yu soundlessly picked up a dry stick from the ground. It was a cutting of an iron pear flower branch. Although it was drained of all of its medicine cores, the branch was still tough and covered in sharp spikes. One thing was for certain, since the iron skin of the iron pear flower had been peeled off, the branch definitely would not conduct electricity.
“Bam!”
Unable to shift his momentum to dodge the parry, Hua Wan forcefully slammed down his fist onto the iron pear flower branch with murderous intent. The tremendous force of the attack pushed down on Lin Mu Yu. He felt a slight crunch in his chest as blood rushed up his throat. Unwilling to show weakness, he swallowed the mouthful of blood. Shifting his feet, Lin Mu Yu used the Starfall Steps’ rotation technique and magically hover in the air for split second. Turning around, he bashed the iron pear flower branch onto Hua Wan’s face!
“Bang!”
Hua Wan instinctively reached for his cheeks as he felt an intense burning pain coming from his face. The needles on the iron pear flower was so sharp that it actually drew blood from a Human realm’s third stage like Hua Wan. Although it was only a minor scratch, for someone like Hua Wan, that attack was like great humiliation. He became furious as he thought of how a piece of trash damaged his handsome face.
“I’m going to kill you!”
Hua Wan shouted a battle cry and spun in a rotary fashion. Waves of fire spouted out of his martial spirit Lightning Hammer as Hua Wan struck at Lin Mu Yu.
This time, not only did he use a martial spirit, he even used a fighting technique!
“It’s Sweeping Flames!” Luo Kai yelled out in astonishment, “He’s using a fight technique! Watch out!”
……
Hua Wan’s attack pressure was so fierce that not even Starfall Steps could be used to dodge it. But Lin Mu Yu didn’t want to dodge anyways. One cannot win simply by running away, he thought. Putting strength into his feet, he leapt off the ground and used the iron pear branch to parry the opponent’s attack..
A loud blast resounded while his clothes were quickly torn to pieces. The yet-to-heal wounds on his body once again started bleeding wildly. Hua Wan’s martial spirit was able to throw Lin Mu Yu into a tumble with just a single hit..
However, Hua Wan did not have time to congratulate himself when a red hot sensation grazed his left cheek!
“Paaah!”
The moment Lin Mu Yu fell backwards, he took one more swing at Hua Wan. Had he been holding a sword instead of a branch, Hua Wan would have been dead from that counter.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! I’m going to slaughter you!”
Hua Wan furiously charged forward. Holding the lightning hammer high in the air, he was ready and poised to instantly launch an attack.
……
“Stop your hands!”
Right at that moment, Qu Chu walked out and stood in front of Lin Mu Yu.
But what kind of a person was Hua Wan? He had been pampered from a young age, so when would he have suffered this kind of humiliation? At this moment, he did not care who was standing before him, as he was willing to cut anyone down in order to get to Lin Mu Yu.
“Hun!”
A hint of anger appeared in Qu Chu’s eyes. Without moving his body, Qu Chu stood as fierce wind began to rise around him. It was his Winds of Raging Flames. The next moment, a gigantic transparent Flame Cauldron materialized around his body. That was the namesake of his legend as Qu Chu of the Flame Cauldron.
“Peng!”
Sparks flew. Hua Wan’s martial spirit dissipated the second it made contact with the cauldron. The difference in power was too great. His body was thrown back along with his martial spirit like a kite that had been unstrung.
……
Fallen heavily onto the floor, Hua Wan spat out a mouthful of blood as he looked up at Qu Chu, “Elder Qu, why are you helping this brat? What is the meaning of this?”
Qu Chu calmly declared, “Lin Mu Yu is a disciple of my old friend Chu Feng. I can’t stand around as you try to kill him. Young lord, there is a limit to how much one can go. If you really want to kill Lin Mu Yu, then you’ll need to come at me. If… perhaps your father doesn’t want to be the lord of this city any longer, I only need to put in a few words with the emperor. Getting rid of the lord of a tiny Silver Fir City is no different from stomping out an ant.”
Hua Wan fully understood the meaning beneath Qu Chu’s words. Following that, he then saw the beautiful Tang Xiao Xi appear out of the guest room. Instantly, his face became pale as a ghost and staggered to his feet. Gripping his fist and bowing in respect, he apologized, “I’m sorry Elder Qu. I was too excited in the moment of the fight when I was sparring with Lin Mu Yu. I hope Elder Qu will forgive my blunder.”
Qu Chu smiled as he exclaimed, “Being courageous and lively is a normal thing for youngsters. If young lord really wants to have a showdown with Lin Mu Yu, why not wait three days? At that time, if you really want to kill him, I won’t try to stop you. That is, if you can even kill him!”
Hua Wan turned away bitterly and left with his posse of city guards.
……
Lin Mu Yu awkwardly stood up from the corner and asked, “Elder Qu, when you said to wait three days, what did you mean?”
Qu Chu smiled faintly, “Princess Xi has already trained to the stage of a Level 29 Battle Spirit. I am planning to bring her into the depths of the Seven Star Forest to further her training. Hopefully to find some applicable beast spirits for her to break through level 30. If you don’t mind it, I can bring you along and maybe give you some pointers toward your martial arts training. How does that sound?”
Chu Feng quickly responded in joy, “Ah Yu, why aren’t you immediately nodding your head?”
Thus Lin Mu Yu nodded to Qu Chu, “Thank you Elder Qu!”
Chu Yao looked at the young girl who was standing next to her as she thought to herself: This young girl is 6 years younger than me, at only 19 years old, yet she has already trained to the 29th level. Who knows how much stronger she will be in another 6 years? As if that wasn’t enough, she is also drop-dead gorgeous. She is already so… well endowed at this young age. For a perfect girl like her to exist, life really wants some people to die of self-pity.
Tang Xiao Xi was gleefully looking at Lin Mu Yu while thinking that if this dorky boy was going to join her on the trip into the Seven Star Forest, then at least the journey would not be boring as before. Flame Cauldron Qu Chu was a quiet person who mostly took care of himself. With Lin Mu Yu on the journey together, maybe he could even alchemize a few potions on the way for her to play with. If nothing else, she could even get him to do tricks to entertain her, but this heartless girl would never openly exclaim that outloud.
Qu Chu’s idea was even simpler. Lin Mu Yu looked to have unshaped potential. Both his att.i.tude and his guts were quite appealing to Qu Chu’s taste. Not to mention that this youngster seemingly had his unique outlook on the alchemy of medicines, so for an alchemy “newbie” like Qu Chu, perhaps he might even learn a thing or two from Lin Mu Yu in the next three days.
Lin Mu Yu’s thought process was even simpler than Qu Chu’s. With one attack, Qu Chu was able to overwhelmingly defeat Hua Wan, so this old fellow’s strength is definitely admirable. There were no negatives to following Qu Chu to train. I want to become stronger! Become stronger! Become the strongest person in this world! Only I will have the right to bully others and none will bully me! It will only be days of bullying sc.u.m like Hua Wan from now on. This is the true freedom of life!
……
That night, after finishing dinner, Chu Yao was helping Lin Mu Yu pack his bags. It was quite simple: one set of clothing and a bit of dried food. In addition, she set aside Lin Mu Yu’s steel sword and longbow as the Seven Star Forest wasn’t a walk in the park. It was better to be safe than sorry.
Before leaving, Qu Chu hastily gave some pointers to Chu Yao and gave her a set of silver needles along with two book respectively containing a map of pressure points and an index of medical techniques.
Chu Yao looked at the set of needles with a puzzled face and asked, “Grandpa Qu Chu, are these needles for sewing?”
Qu Chu shook his head, “No, those needles are for stabbing pressure points to save lives. Of course, if you can train the skill of needle technique to the extreme, you can probably use them as a hidden weapon for murderous intentions. I’ll explain the needle throwing technique tonight, so train well and refer to the body chart and medical index. It can save lives, and at the same time, can take them. I’ll leave it to you to figure out how you’ll use it.”
“Thank you, Grandpa!” Chu Yao rejoiced in happiness.