Chapter 40: Salted Fish Technique
Nine o'clock in the morning, in the temple on the 31st floor of the headquarters.
The light cast two long shadows, one of which bent forward, then lifted. He was saluting. Ji Qiufeng, accepting the salute, remained calm, folding his paper fan and moving forward.
"Come," he said.
This invitation was like the sound of a gong announcing the opening of the temple, and the atmosphere within it suddenly shifted. A third slender figure emerged from the lamplight, a murderous aura surging over it. Its first move was a silver whip aimed directly at the temple's forehead!
Ji Qiufeng jerked his head, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack by an inch. Approval flashed in his eyes as the man opposite him held his composure and didn't move. He ducked, kneeling, and withdrew his left foot, shifting his weight backwards, executing a clever "spear pull." This technique, common in long-handled weapon combat, allowed the weapon to be quickly withdrawn for intense mid-range engagements. In this instance, it transformed a missed whipping blow into a diagonal lash. A single brush, the swirling force could destabilize the enemy's center of gravity.
This time, Ji Qiufeng didn't dodge. With a slight flick of his wrist, he brought the paper fan down, striking the silver whip squarely in the middle and back. This strike disrupted the whip's momentum, like striking a snake in the vital area, causing immense pain to the whip wielder. This left his right side vulnerable, and Ji Qiufeng stepped forward, his attack just in time for him. The whip wielder also stepped forward, using a light cushion to forcibly retract the whip, then switched to a spinning kick to attack Ji Qiufeng.
This move was executed with impetuous action, and it was masterful. The first kick could be either real or fake, and if it missed, he would use the momentum of the spin to whip out again for a second strike. But against the shrewd Ji Qiufeng, this wasn't enough. He dodged the first blow, and the second barely grazed his hair. He ducked to avoid the whip, and suddenly thrust out his paper fan, like a sword, to strike the whip-wielder's throat. Simultaneously, the whip-wielder's right hand flashed out, slashing at Ji Qiufeng's profile like a scimitar!
His right hand remained still in mid-air, as the paper fan touched his skin first. Ji Qiufeng retracted the paper fan, opened it, and shook it, smiling, saying, "I almost succeeded~"
"I don't know how many decades it's different." Chu Hengkong retracted his fist. "Thank you for your advice."
The whip wielder was, of course, Chu Hengkong, the silver whip his tentacle. His first assignment after the holiday was to learn martial arts techniques. Every morning, he would spar with Ji Qiufeng for fifteen minutes. As long as he touched Ji Qiufeng once, he'd be considered a success. That last fight had been his most effective of the week. It looked like he'd won by just a centimeter... but such a victory was meaningless. He fought with one hand behind his back, holding only a folding fan. That wasn't even letting up; it was simply flooding the air.
"I'm serious. I made a bet with Huaisu before to guess what your trump card was. Huaisu guessed it was a fist, and I guessed it was a gun. I didn't expect it to be a knife." Ji Qiufeng smiled, "It's a pity, Hengkong, you forgot you didn't hold the knife."
Chu Hengkong scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. Ji Qiufeng was right, the last move was the sword technique, but for someone to suddenly use a killing move when they were fighting well was shameful for any faction.
He spoke frankly: "The pressure was too strong and I couldn't control it."
"That's a good thing. Fewer thoughts will make it easier to overcome life-or-death challenges." Ji Qiufeng gestured for him to sit down. "Tell me about your current situation! You've gained full control of your new arm and are no longer bound by a certain combat mentality. You've laid a very good foundation. What do you think your next step should be?"
"Practice moves." Chu Hengkong replied immediately, "I'm missing some moves."
He retracted his tentacles and gestured as he spoke, "I've learned many techniques in my martial arts training, but in this battle, I only have two decisive moves."
"A single, penetrating 'spear.'" He compressed the tentacles, and the tentacles, rising violently, touched the temple wall. "A wide-area strike, a 'thunder whip.'" The swirling tentacles struck the floor, the impact spreading in a circular pattern. Chu Hengkong retracted his attack and sat back down.
"Combining weapons and hidden weapons is enough to deal with most situations, but there are still fatal loopholes." Chu Hengkong raised two fingers. "First, the defense is too poor. There are too many weapons in the city that are more powerful than bullets. Mind control and poison are also difficult to deal with. If I don't take precautions, I will die in the concentrated fire sooner or later."
Ji Qiufeng smiled and said, "The only difference is the physique?"
Chu Hengkong pressed his brows together, smiled bitterly and admitted, "...I'm too arrogant."
"Yes, that's the real problem on the 'defensive side.'" Ji Qiufeng tapped his shoulder with his fan. "You've developed the mentality of a strong man at such a young age. You're not afraid of death, pain, or the enemy's cunning tactics. This has helped you make rapid progress in martial arts, but it's also cultivated some bad habits. If you truly had considered Adari a formidable foe, would the fight have been so thrilling?"
Chu Hengkong could only smile bitterly: "...No."
"Now let's see, how are you going to fight?" Ji Qiufeng coaxed.
"At least I have to prepare enough medicinal herbs, bring weapons, and use whips to safely kill the pile of torch corpses. Once I force out his true form, I will attack with all my strength and try to kill him with one blow." Chu Hengkong said.
Ji Qiufeng shook his head: "Hengkong, you still don't understand! Why don't you use the Blessed Water Cannon to spray it?"
"……ah?"
Chu Hengkong was stunned. Ji Qiufeng described it vividly, "Since this fire corpse is afraid of Xiao An's medicine, then you should treat it with the right medicine and use specialized weapons! If you're worried about running out of medicine and decide to kill it alone, you can just smear the blessing all over your body and carry two bottles as backup. Then you'll be able to deal with the fire corpse like you're in an empty space. What methods will Adari have to restrain you?"
Chu Hengkong could see that this was a deliberate insult to him, so he quickly raised his tentacles in surrender: "I really learned my lesson... I will definitely use it next time!"
"That's right. We martial artists can be strong, but not arrogant." Ji Qiufeng waved his fan. "And what? What else do you feel you're missing?"
"I don't have any special attack methods." Chu Hengkong said without hesitation, "I can defeat spirits with talismans, and I can defeat firefly corpses by breaking up the mud that possesses them. But if the enemy next time doesn't have this weakness, then I really have no way to deal with it."
"Generally speaking, we don't consider such harsh situations during the Sephira period."
"The enemy won't say they won't kill me just because I'm skilled." Chu Hengkong laughed. "At this stage, what tactics will Longquan Township teach us?"
Having read several appraisal documents on related relics, he already knew that Ji Qiufeng came from a place called "Longquan Township." Longquan Township's trademark was its "Longxiang Fist Method," and with the presence of sect-like forces like Chenjun Palace and Zhengxuan Palace, it seemed likely to have a strong xianxia vibe... and immortals would surely have no shortage of methods for dealing with demons and monsters, right?
"That's a very good question!" Ji Qiufeng said seriously, "Generally speaking, during this time we would teach blacksmithing, architecture, calligraphy and painting, pharmacology, and music!"
"Ah...ah?" Chu Hengkong was stunned.
Ji Qiufeng came up to him with great interest. "How can you only know how to fight? Our Longquan Township has always advocated quality education and encouraged all-round development. To be honest, I'm also quite experienced in painting. Since you, Hengkong, are so interested in learning, why don't we add three hours of painting lessons every day..."
"No! Forget it!"
"You can draw talismans after you learn it." Ji Qiufeng began to tempt him.
Chu Hengkong waved his hands vigorously, memories lingering in him. Back when he was just starting out as a killer, he'd been dragged by the elders in his family into countless classes on art appreciation, mysticism, heraldry, and world history. The professors were so passionate on the podium that he felt like sitting on pins and needles, wishing he could turn into a flying monkey and soar into the sky and escape.
"Without that kind of talent, there's really no hope." Chu Hengkong said firmly, "I'll just learn martial arts!"
"Seeing how you're so biased in your studies, how can you become a martial artist?" Ji Qiufeng sighed pretentiously, "I'll just have to learn some basic moves. Stand in horse stance, retract your tentacles, raise your right arm for defense, and keep your fist facing inward."
Chu Hengkong perked up. This was a stance not mentioned in any of the three thousand exercises. After completing it as instructed, Ji Qiufeng helped him fine-tune it for a while before giving the second instruction: "Tensure all your muscles."
Chu Hengkong channeled his energy, contracting his muscles. The readiness to withstand the blow made his body harder than steel. But Ji Qiufeng suddenly fanned his chest, sending Chu Hengkong plummeting backwards! Then, like a tumbler, he stood up again!
"It was clearly a defensive stance, why did you fall?"
"Too hard." Chu Hengkong pondered, "No room for maneuver."
Ji Qiufeng's answer was unexpected: "Wrong, not hard enough!"
He once again picked up the folding fan and pointed, the fan first hitting Chu Hengkong's biceps: "Tighten, rotate the right arm muscles 15 degrees to the right."
"…………ah?"
Chu Hengkong tried to do it, and the sensation of the muscle rotation was like a cramp that wakes you up in the middle of the night, a horizontal one at that. Ji Qiufeng then pointed at his chest and said, "Rotate the pectoralis major 3 degrees to the side."
“How do I rotate my pectoralis major?”
Ji Qiufeng's face turned serious: "Why are you talking so much nonsense! Turn! Next is the abdominal muscles, and then the thighs!"
“Fuck…”
For five minutes, Ji Qiufeng had been pounding him all over, every muscle in his body tensing and twisting in strange directions. Chu Hengkong felt cramps all over his body, the kind that felt like a rout. He felt like if he kept going like this, his muscles would probably say goodbye and then break out of his body, leaving him to go his separate ways.
But Ji Qiufeng's torture was not over yet. Satisfied, he put away his fan and said, "Very good, stand until you can't stand it anymore."
Chu Hengkong glared at him, but his tongue was tied and he couldn't speak. Ji Qiufeng laughed three times in a heartless manner and walked away.
·
Three hours later.
The little golden head poked out of the door stealthily, and Ji Huaisu tiptoed into the temple.
"Hey~ Sorry to interrupt your passionate practice, I came to remind you that it's almost time for you to switch shifts with me... Chu Hengkong, are you still alive to go to work?"
“………………”
She felt the answer to that question should be "no," because Inspector Chu was sprawled on the ground like a dead fish, as if he had recently challenged himself to a wringing, for sweat had formed a small pool beneath his body. Ji Huaisu squatted beside the dead fish, took out a baton, and prodded it: "Are you still breathing? Are you still breathing?"
The moment the baton touched him, Chu Hengkong, with an extremely bizarre force, bounced up from his prone position! Then, like a cat leaping from a height, he spun around on his own axis! His rotation speed reached an extreme speed, turning nearly a hundred times in the blink of an eye. From the front, he looked like a vortex, sweat pouring in all directions like rain!
Ji Huaisu immediately held up his light shield and let out a strange cry: "What kind of dog bathing magic is this?"
The spinning stopped, and Chu Heng rolled over and lay on the ground, his entire life meaningless, as if he had gone from salted fish to dried salted fish. Ji Huaisu removed his light shield and grinned, "Congratulations on your mastery of the art... Salted Fish Detective..."
"I haven't learned it yet." Chu Hengkong said slurredly, "It's too difficult."
"I didn't expect you could say the word 'difficult'." Ji Huaisu pulled him up. "Alright, let's stop here. I'll take over your afternoon shift. Do you still have the energy to go to the workshop?"
“What…?”
"Admire the new Gachapon machine." She made a Gachapon gesture, "and pick up your new equipment."
(End of this chapter)
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