Although he had been chosen, the soldier thought he might as well put on the armor and treat it as a memorable life experience.
As it turned out, he wasn’t wrong – what happened next would be impossible to forget even in death!
“There are 108 vital points in the human body. In battle, you often face multiple opponents. When under group attack, taking enemies down one by one requires too much energy. To conserve strength, aim for the vital points.”
After his serious explanation, Yin Gezhi turned to face the soldier, his eyes devoid of warmth. “On the head and face, watch carefully where I strike.”
The two young masters leaned in to observe closely. They watched as their master’s hands moved like lightning, striking the Baihui Point, Jingming Point, temples, Renzhong Point, Yintang Point, and ear gate… After the series of strikes, the standing soldier’s face turned ashen, his eyes suddenly filled with terror.
“Don’t be nervous, I barely used any force. You won’t die,” seeing the human target trembling, Prince Yin very kindly offered some comfort, “At most, you’ll be in pain for a few days.”
The soldier: “…” Was it too late to leave now?
It was too late. Yin Gezhi paid him no attention and continued, “Next are the points on the body, but the major points are usually protected by armor. To conserve energy, I don’t recommend attacking the torso.”
Despite saying this, his slender hand formed a fist and still struck the soldier’s chest, back, and lower abdomen with force, producing loud “thump” sounds. Even with armor on, the target’s face turned slightly pale. It wasn’t clear if it was from pain or fear.
“The most efficient target is the throat. Next, I’ll teach you several techniques to accurately take a life even in the chaos of battle.” Stepping back a few paces, Yin Gezhi looked at the soldier and beckoned, “Come try to kill me.”
After having his vital points struck like that, even if his body was fine, his mind was traumatized! The soldier’s legs went weak, and he trembled for quite a while before finally charging forward with his sword raised.
“Ya—”
Watching him calmly, Yin Gezhi sidestepped the first strike while picking up a branch from the ground, suddenly bringing it down in a chop. The soldier reacted fairly quickly, raising his sword to block.
At that moment, Yin Gezhi’s left hand suddenly swept across his throat, his eyes instantly blazing with a cold killing intent that struck straight to the heart.
Feeling a chill at his throat, the soldier didn’t dare even breathe, staring blankly at the eyes of the person before him, suddenly feeling as if he had already been killed.
He knew he was foolish, unable to dodge even such a simple feint, but this master’s movements were too fast—he couldn’t keep up… He was just a practice target, what wrong had he committed to deserve such ruthlessness?
His body went limp, and the soldier slowly collapsed. He closed his eyes in resignation.
Xu Huaizu watched with repeated applause: “This technique is excellent, we disciples must practice it well.”
Withdrawing his hand, Yin Gezhi nodded and said while brushing his sleeve, “Fundamentals are always most important, any additional techniques and routines only come after your basics are solid. Continue practicing tomorrow, we’ll end here for today.”
“Yes,” An Shichong and Xu Huaizu responded, watching Yin Gezhi leave first before gathering their things to leave together.
The soldiers watched the departing nobles with reverent gazes. Once they were out of sight, they hurriedly pulled up the soldier lying on the ground: “Li Shannan, playing dead? Wake up quick, it’s almost time for dinner.”
Li Shannan carefully spoke with his eyes still closed: “I’m nearly dead, what dinner!”
Dead? Looking at his perfectly intact throat, everyone rolled their eyes: “Prince Yin didn’t even have a weapon, how could you be dead?”
What? Touching his neck, Li Shannan immediately stood straight, shook his arms and legs, and clutched his chest saying: “It felt like I’d walked through death’s door…”
Prince Yin’s gaze was truly terrifying!
Though, if he could achieve such martial arts mastery in his lifetime, that would be wonderful.
After sighing for a while, the soldiers who had finished their shift change went arm in arm to eat.
With Yin Gezhi absent, Fengyue had only prepared dinner for the two young masters and was waiting for their return. Suddenly, she heard arguing outside.
“My lord,” Duanxian forced a smile while blocking a guest, “You’ve always favored me, why are you requesting someone else’s company this time?”
“That’s right,” Mama Jin chimed in, “Besides, Fengyue is truly unavailable, she’s been reserved by someone.”
The guest with a face full of meat snorted coldly and headed upstairs regardless. Mama Jin couldn’t stop him and glared at Duanxian. Duanxian was also helpless—last time this guest had shown interest in Fengyue, what could she do about it now that he came asking for her?
Hearing the commotion, Fengyue opened her door and came out, seeing someone coming up she smiled: “What’s the matter?”
The guest’s expression softened as soon as he saw her, approaching to say: “Naturally I missed you, beautiful. Last time in the back courtyard, you ran away so quickly.”
Looking at him thoughtfully, Fengyue remembered—the last time when she came back through the dog hole, she happened to run into this guest doing something with Duanxian. His meaty face was somewhat memorable.
Forcing a smile, Fengyue said: “So the guest has taken a liking to me. Want to request my company?”
“Of course,” the guest said, “I’ve been dreaming of you for days!”
“Unfortunately,” Fengyue said, “I’m entertaining other guests.”
His expression changed as he peered behind her, seeing no movement in the room, he immediately became unhappy: “The people here always play tricks, clearly there’s no guest but you insist you’re busy? Is it just about money? Are you afraid I can’t afford you?”
As he spoke, he pulled out a silver ingot and waved it in front of Fengyue’s face, then flicked it onto the ground with a contemptuous expression.
Usually when encountering such a scene of being humiliated by thrown silver, any courtesan with dignity would immediately slap the person, then step over the silver. Miss Weiyun in the house had done exactly that, earning a reputation for being “too noble to be debased by money.”
However, Fengyue glanced at the silver on the ground and bent down to pick it up. Weighing it in her hand, she rolled her eyes.
“Eight taels of silver, and you dare act so arrogantly requesting my company?” She scoffed, pinching the silver ingot with an expression even more disdainful than the guest’s. Her index finger flicked the ingot backward: “Not enough.”
The guest was stunned, and couldn’t help letting out a “heh” sound, pointing at Mama Jin to ask: “Is she really this precious?”
Mama Jin smiled apologetically: “Our Fengyue has been reserved recently, receiving large silver notes, so naturally…”
“How large could they be?” The guest sneered, feeling he’d lost face, immediately pulled out some silver notes, counted out two, and stuffed them into Fengyue’s belt: “Is this enough?”
Taking out the notes to look at them, Fengyue was secretly startled. She couldn’t help but look at the man before her over again.
Notes worth a hundred taels each—even in this Buyin City full of noble families, few people could produce two of these. Looking at his dress, this man didn’t seem to be a merchant.
That meant he must be an official.
What kind of official could be so generous? Fengyue smiled, tucking the notes into her chest, then cast a flirtatious glance at the man before her: “Well then, please come in, my lord?”
The guest snorted a laugh, and was about to follow her into the room when they heard someone ask from behind: “What’s going on here?”
Everyone turned around. They saw An Shichong and Xu Huaizu, one carrying a sword and one a blade, walking over with righteous bearing.
The plump guest was startled and withdrew his half-extended foot, his eyes darting around before he immediately turned and ran toward the stairs on the other side! Stumbling and flailing, he vanished in an instant.
Fengyue raised an eyebrow.
“Nothing’s wrong, young masters please go in for your meal,” seeing the man had fled, Fengyue smiled and said, “Mama, you should go rest too.”
Mama Jin responded, glancing at the two young masters before immediately pulling Duanxian downstairs.
Duanxian was quite disgruntled: “Fengyue is still a newcomer, but look at how grand her manner has become!”
Mama Jin pursed her lips: “Here we only care about who earns more silver, what does new or old matter? Don’t cause trouble with Fengyue without reason, just focus on serving your guests well.”
Still dissatisfied but unable to say more, Duanxian turned and left.
Entering the room and closing the door, Fengyue looked at the two young masters, thinking that Yin Gezhi knew how to choose a dining location—with them eating here, she truly couldn’t receive any guests.
“Who was that person just now? He looked somewhat familiar,” An Shichong frowned in thought, “Didn’t see his face.”
“Just a guest,” Fengyue smiled, “We never ask about our guests’ identities here.”
“I see.” An Shichong nodded. He sat down honestly to eat, but beside him, Xu Huaizu looked around curiously, picking up a silver ingot from the ground.
“Truly worthy of being called a den of extravagance by scholars, look at all this gold and silver scattered about. And it’s not light either.”
Fengyue smiled: “The guest was generous.”
“Guests who can be this generous are rare,” looking up at Fengyue, Xu Huaizu said, “I feel that the lady’s guests all seem rather distinguished.”
“Just good luck.”
Xu Huaizu nodded, placing the silver on the table with a laugh: “But the most distinguished must be our master. Lady, our master thinks of you often.”
Thinks of her? Fengyue raised an eyebrow, smiling as she asked: “What does he think about me?”
“Today he tricked Master during their fight by having someone call out your name,” An Shichong calmly explained, “Master was distracted.”
Pausing slightly, Fengyue felt confused.
Did Yin Gezhi care about her that much?
“Thanks to that moment of distraction, these fine swords and blades are now ours,” Xu Huaizu said happily, “We really must thank the lady. I’ll have someone pick out some trinkets to send to you later.”
Sword and blade? Fengyue came back to her senses and looked at what they were carrying, only now realizing they held the Buhui sword and Changhen blade.
Letting out a soft laugh, she shook her head: “If those were the stakes, then it has nothing to do with me. Your master must have intended to give them to you from the start and used me as an excuse to go easy on you.”
She thought to herself, how could someone like Yin Gezhi care about someone like her whom he’d only known for a few days?