Nanya Secondary School
"Wu Shi, are you going to be a female Taoist priest?" Xiao Qingqiu weighed the heavy iron sword in his hand. The cold and rough touch of the sword made him feel uneasy. "Isn't the sword of a cultivator usually a light wooden sword?" He imagined Wu Shi waving the wooden sword, which seemed to be more in line with his imagination of "cultivation".
"Taoist?" Wu Shi walked on without turning, her voice a little cold in the narrow alley. "This is a handy weapon." She had initially worried about where to get a real sword, but she hadn't expected the secondhand trading platform to be so versatile. With enough money, even this "unpopular" need could be met. The Black Dragon Gang... a mysterious organization detached from the world of the script? The name lingered in her mind, stirring a lingering sense of unease.
Suddenly, Wu Shi stopped abruptly, her ears alertly catching the sound behind her—a series of rapid, chaotic, deliberately quiet but incapable of completely concealing footsteps approaching from the direction they came from! This was definitely not an ordinary passerby! "Wait, there's someone behind us!" She shouted softly, instantly going on alert. She grabbed Xiao Qingqiu's wrist and no longer dragged him, but almost roughly pulled him towards a deeper alley with more branches. "Hurry up!"
Xiao Qingqiu was caught off guard, stumbling as she pulled him, his heart nearly leaping out of his throat. He scrambled to keep up, the heavy iron sword an added burden. Every footfall on the slippery stone pavement filled him with trepidation, fearing that if he slowed down a step, he would be swallowed by the unknown danger behind him, or be mercilessly abandoned by Wu Shi. He felt like a worn-out doll, ready to be discarded at any moment.
"System!" Wu Shi was rushing through the maze-like alleys, using corners and debris to deal with the pursuers, while urgently calling out in her mind, "Where is the male protagonist hiding safely? Although he should be fine!" She needed to buy time to observe.
"Host," a cold electronic voice immediately echoed through her consciousness, accompanied by a subtle scanning effect. "Three meters to the right, at the entrance to the abandoned courtyard, there is an upside-down, empty ceramic water tank. The interior is large enough for one person to hide. The outside is obstructed by piles of debris, and the view is blind."
"As expected of a protagonist, he always finds cover at the crucial moment." Wu Shi's thought flashed through her mind, but she acted without hesitation. She yanked Xiao Qingqiu over to the massive water vat, half-hidden behind a broken basket and mat. The vat's mouth was facing downwards, and the broken edge formed a narrow entrance.
"Xiao Qingqiu, get inside! Hide! Don't make a sound!" Wu Shi's tone was firm and unyielding. At the same time, she quickly pulled the tattered straw mat next to her toward the entrance. "If I haven't come to find you in ten minutes..." She stared at Xiao Qingqiu's terrified, dilated pupils and emphasized every word, "Call the police immediately! Do you understand?"
Xiao Qingqiu looked at the dark jar mouth, then at Wu Shi's icy eyes and the increasingly clear footsteps behind him. Fear overwhelmed everything. He almost used his hands and feet, like a frightened rabbit, to dive into the small space that exuded the earthy smell.
Wu Shi quickly returned the mat to its original position, ensuring it would be inconspicuous from outside. She took a deep breath, tightened her grip on the unsharpened, yet heavy, cold iron sword, and cast a sharp glance toward the corner of the alleyway from which she had come. Footsteps were approaching, carrying an undisguised sense of oppression, treading on the cold, wet sewage, gradually approaching the dead end she was in.
Three figures in tight black vests blocked the alley entrance, forming a semi-encirclement, cutting off Wu Shi's escape route. They had short, crew-cut heads, fierce eyes, thick necks, and bulging muscles on their bare arms and calves like tangled tree roots, a typical Muay Thai fighter's stance.
"Girl, let's have a competition." The bald, burly man in the lead grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. His voice was gruff and playful, like a cat and mouse. He moved his shoulders, and the joints made a crisp cracking sound.
Wu Shi leaned against the cold, slippery brick wall, unable to retreat. She held the heavy iron sword in one hand, the tip pointing diagonally toward the ground, a cold, hard gleam in the dim light. Her face was free of panic, only a composure that seeped deep into her bones.
The alley was filled with the damp and moldy smell, the sour stench of rotting garbage and the strong smell of their sweat. The air was so sticky that it was suffocating.
"Together or one by one." Wu Shi's voice was cold, like the impact of broken ice.
Before he finished speaking, a shorter but more sturdy man to the bald man's right could no longer hold back. He roared and rushed forward! His right knee was like a cannonball, carrying a strong wind that tore through the air, and slammed into Wu Shi's soft abdomen! If this hit him hard, it would be enough to make him lose all resistance in an instant.
Just as her knee was about to touch her skirt, Wu Shi's toes twisted on the slippery stone, and her body, like a willow leaf blown by the wind, floated a half-step lightly to the left and back. The movement seemed small, but it perfectly avoided the center of the fatal knee strike. At the same time, with a flick of her wrist, the heavy iron sword seemed to lose its weight, transforming into a blue-black lightning bolt that streaked along the ground. The blade struck flatly, not with a slashing force, but with a heavy "sticking" force, accurately hitting the shin bone of the opponent's supporting leg!
"In a society ruled by law, we should stop when we reach the limit." Wu Shi still had some sense of propriety in his heart. After all, the rules in different worlds are also different.
"Snap!" A muffled sound, mixed with a groan of pain from the strain on his bones, rang out. The sturdy man felt as if his shin had been struck hard by an iron rod. The excruciating pain, accompanied by an indescribable numbness, instantly rushed to his brain. His forward momentum faltered, and his body stumbled forward involuntarily.
"Waste!" the bald man cursed, and almost simultaneously with his companion on his left, he launched a fierce right elbow sweep, like a steel whip, directly targeting Wu Shi's Taiyang acupoint! The man on his left then launched a low left kick, with a sound of breaking air, fiercely kicking Wu Shi's sword-holding wrist, intending to disarm him! The two attacked from above and below, coordinating tacitly, blocking Wu Shi's space to dodge left and right.
At this critical moment, Wu Shi's eyes flashed with cold energy! The internal energy within her body instantly flowed through her limbs and bones. She bent her knees slightly, her center of gravity suddenly dropping, and she curled up into a ball, narrowly avoiding the bald man's fierce elbow sweep! At the same time, her right wrist, holding the sword, deftly twisted, and the end of the hilt, like a venomous snake spitting out its tongue, pointed upwards with precision, hitting the inner tendon of the ankle that had kicked the man on the left!
"Ugh!" The man on the left felt his ankle go numb, and his strength was immediately lost, so his kick missed.
Wu Shi, using the momentum of her squat and slide, tapped the slippery wall behind her with her toes! That slight force caused her to defy inertia and soar upwards like an arrow from a bow! Her Qinggong skill activated! Her figure practically left a shadow in the dim light as she instantly soared, dodging the bald man's fierce left hook, which he instinctively pursued after his elbow had missed.
Wu Shi's body twisted nimbly in the air, circling like a flying swallow. The heavy iron sword in her hand now displayed a nimbleness that belied its weight! With a flick of her wrist, the sword flashed! No longer a heavy smack, but a swift, wind-like thrust and slash! The tip of the sword transformed into tiny cold stars, precisely piercing the bald man's exposed shoulder sockets, arm joints, and other vulnerable areas! The blade, like a spirited snake, sliced along the outside of the opponent's pursuing arm. Though unbladed, the heavy, cold touch and the power contained in it were enough to make even the muscular Thai boxer feel a piercing chill and threat.
"Puchi!" The tip of the sword hit the bald man's shoulder socket. Although it failed to penetrate due to its lack of a blade, the concentrated force made his entire arm numb instantly, and the subsequent punches came to an abrupt stop!
"Damn it! Slippery loach!" The bald man was shocked and angry, shaking his numb arms and taking a step back. The other two men also regained their composure, their faces no longer showing contempt, but only solemnity and ferocity.
Scarface was hiding in a corner not far away with a camera in hand. Although the distance was not close, he captured every detail of the action. The task assigned by the boss was completed. Scarface changed the walkie-talkie and said, "Don't fight anymore, retreat first."
The bald man's expression changed immediately when he heard the voice coming from the headphones. Seeing that Wu Shi was not the kind of person who would like to fight, he immediately turned around and ran away.
Wu Shi had spotted Scarface's presence the moment she leaped. They were all in the same group, birds of a feather, nothing to fear. She glanced at the sword and finished with a beautiful sword flower. A trembling voice came from the nearby water tank. "Hey, Xiao Qingqiu, come out." Wu Shi's voice was playful, and her eyes swept over his disheveled appearance.
Xiao Qingqiu climbed out of the water tank using his hands and feet, but his eyes were surprisingly bright, glued to the screen of his phone, and his voice was trembling with excitement: "Wu Shi! Wu Shi! You can fly! Look! Look at this video!" He held the phone screen in front of Wu Shi like he was presenting a treasure, "I captured that moment you jumped up! So cool!"
Wu Shi frowned slightly. "You still have the energy to record a video?" She glanced at the screen, and sure enough, it showed the blurry image of herself leaping up. "What's Scarface's background?" Her voice dropped, and she got to the point.
Xiao Qingqiu shrank his neck and lowered his voice: "The thugs in the underground arena, the kind that are ruthless and merciless."
"Underground boxing?" Wu Shi's brows furrowed even more tightly as she scrutinized Xiao Qingqiu. "How did you get involved with them?" She paused, a hint of subtle frustration and eagerness in her tone. "I wanted to fight in the underground boxing arena, but they thought I was too green and wouldn't even let me in."
It seems that the "plot" that Wu Shi is looking forward to is about to happen.
Wu Shi's gaze shifted to Xiao Qingqiu again, with an unmistakable warning: "Also, you are not allowed to secretly visit Yu Mian again. Let her go to school peacefully, do you hear me?" She said in a more serious tone, "Don't disturb her."
When Xiao Qingqiu heard this, he immediately retorted with his neck stiffened like a cat whose tail was stepped on: "Who was it because of me going to the hospital a few days ago? It was because I took the blame for you!" He glared at Wu Shi angrily with an expression that said "You have no conscience!"
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