Song Ting froze for a moment, about to make trouble for Xiao Wu, but suddenly turned to the side, his expression turning stern.
Xiao Wu noticed it too: "Who's there?!"
Not far away was a teahouse. A dark shadow flashed by, and as Song Ting took a few steps forward, he lightly leaped up, his voice already echoing from afar before Xiao Wu could give chase:
"You stay where you are and watch over the old woman's body!"
Song Ting honed his lightness skill through countless brushes with death, while the man in black was much clumsy in comparison, and the gap between the two was quickly narrowed.
Song Ting narrowed his eyes, used his toes to push off the eaves, and reached out to grab the man in black in front of him. With a muffled groan, his hand firmly gripped the man's right shoulder.
The man in black spun around and threw a punch at Song Ting, the fist carrying a gust of wind, aimed straight at Song Ting's heart!
The latter dodged, simultaneously raising his leg in a sweeping motion, followed by a series of powerful palm strikes. The man gradually lost his grip and staggered backward.
They were currently on the roof of a small tavern. After taking a blow from Song Ting, the man was sent flying backwards and was about to fall off the eaves.
But Song Ting lifted him up by the arm. When the man in black tried to struggle again, Song Ting had already sealed all the major acupoints on his body, rendering him unable to move.
Only one pair of eyes, exposed above the surface, stared at Song Ting with hatred, wishing they could devour his flesh and drink his blood.
For no apparent reason, Song Ting felt that the eyes in front of him were familiar, especially the scar on his brow bone, which he had seen many times before.
I've also heard Huaixu tell me about the origin of this scar; it was left to save his elder brother, Chu Huaiqing. The location was very close to his eye; he was just an inch away from losing it.
Because of his years of fighting on the battlefield, the man's murderous aura was impossible to hide, and coupled with his overly angular features, he had a fierce appearance.
The princess had introduced him to several young ladies from different families, but he was rejected each time because of his appearance. The reasons given were generally the same: he looked too fierce and they were worried that he wouldn't be kind to people.
Needless to say, once this scar forms, it will be so bad that it could scare children to tears just by walking down the street.
Before Song Ting first met this man who had returned from the border, Huai Xu had specifically told him not to be afraid of him, saying that the man was a good person.
Song Ting was naturally not afraid, but in Huai Xu's eyes at the time, he was just a timid beggar who would inevitably be afraid when he saw the "fierce and evil" person, so he had to reassure him first.
But Huaixu was right about one thing: that person was indeed a good person.
Is it him?
It must be him.
He wouldn't mistake this scar; he'd even touched it.
Song Ting found it hard to describe his feelings at that moment. He hoped he hadn't made a mistake, but he was also somewhat afraid to verify his guess.
He was afraid he would be disappointed.
Perhaps this is how people are: they feel timid when they get close to home, and they can't help but become cowardly.
The man in black continued to stare at him, even the hideous old scar seemed to radiate hatred.
It was him.
Only he could hate him so much.
Song took a breath almost imperceptibly, and finally raised his arm to remove the mask from the other person's face.
Although he already had the answer in his heart, when he actually saw the other person's true face, his pupils still involuntarily trembled: "You..."
Meanwhile, the man had already broken through the pressure points at some point, and taking advantage of Song Ting's momentary lapse in concentration, he quickly broke free from Song Ting's grip and then struck Song Ting's chest with a heavy palm strike.
This palm strike was intended to kill Song Ting. Song Ting could have dodged it, but he didn't. Instead, he took the blow head-on, and his face turned deathly pale on the spot.
The man didn't linger in the fight and tried to run away after breaking free, but Song Ting reacted quickly and subdued him again in a few moves.
“…Brother Zhou…” His voice trembled as he exhaled forcefully.
"Pah!" Zhou Tong glared angrily. "Don't call me brother, I don't deserve it!"
Song Ting seemed not to hear her, and said in a hoarse voice, "Brother Zhou, you're still alive, that's wonderful..."
Zhou Tong is the deputy general of Chu Huaiqing, the heir of Prince Duan. The two have gone through thick and thin together and have a deep bond. They wish they could stick together all the time. If they see one of them, the other is sure to be nearby.
Chu Huaiqing was handsome and had a distinguished military record. Matchmakers came to the Prince Duan's mansion to propose marriage, almost wearing down the threshold of the mansion.
He didn't want any of them, but when pressed, he grabbed Zhou Tong's arm and joked:
"I'm the kind of person who's risking my life. I might die on the battlefield any day now, so I shouldn't hold that girl back. I'm fine with Zhou Tong by my side."
Zhou Tong's fierce appearance not only scared away those who wanted to arrange marriages for him, but also nipped Chu Huaiqing's many suitors in the bud.
With him by Chu Huaiqing's side, no one, male or female, familiar or unfamiliar, could get close to Chu Huaiqing.
Originally, Zhou Tong thought she could really stay like this forever, always by his side, accompanying him to the battlefield, shedding blood and tears with him, guarding the territory with him, growing old with him, until the day she could no longer hold a sword, or dying with him on the battlefield.
But when it really came to the last moment, Chu Huaiqing wouldn't let him stay with her.
He left him alone. He wanted him to live.
So he couldn't die. He could only live.
Anger consumed Zhou Tong's reason. He grabbed Song Ting's arm, intending to jump off the roof with Tong, risking mutual destruction.
Song understood his intention and used his immense arm strength to lift Zhou Tong, who was already suspended in mid-air, up.
"You ungrateful wretch surnamed Song, you deserve to die a horrible death!"
"I will kill you for the general, for the tens of thousands of soldiers who died tragically!"
He had just forcibly broken through his acupoints and suffered severe internal injuries. If they continued to fight, the situation would only get worse. Song Ting didn't want to continue fighting him and didn't dare to press his acupoints again, so she could only rely on brute force to subdue him.
The infamous treason case that year led to the downfall of Prince Duan's mansion. Civil and military officials who were close to Prince Duan were also implicated, some were demoted, some were dismissed, and some even lost their lives. Prince Duan's faction completely disappeared.
Song Ting later secretly went to the battlefield at the border to search. He searched for three days and three nights among countless severed limbs and broken bodies, trying to find Chu Huaiqing and Zhou Tong, and to bring them home for Huaixu.
But that was too difficult. So many people had died there, their faces unrecognizable, and all that could be seen were rotting corpses and mud soaked in countless drops of blood...
Even though Song Ting had to survive by killing since childhood and had countless enemies and comrades on his hands, he still couldn't bear the scene and felt like he was going to vomit.
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