Stranger Danger

Chapter 310: My Fists Aren’t Just Meant For Strangers

“What else can I mean? My master is merciful, you see. If you worship them, they will accept you. If you refuse, they will accept you nonetheless!”

Wang Luori rose to his feet and leaned forward slightly. “In other words, no one is leaving this room until they’ve worshiped my master!”

“Hmph! It looks like joining a religion hasn’t made you any brighter. You seriously think that you can force me to do anything?” Gu Suitang’s voice dripped with disdain as he took one step forward and abruptly appeared in front of Wang Luori. The Hill Lord crossed his arms defensively as Gu Suitang threw a mighty punch.

Boom!

Sunset Hall shuddered, and Wang Luori dropped an inch lower. His feet hadn’t moved, but the floor he was standing on had caved in a little.

“I’m a Spirit Master now, Gu Suitang. Your—”

“Just shut up and fight!”

A look of disdain flickered across Wang Luori’s face, but before he could finish, Gu Suitang cut him off and slapped him across the face before he could react. The sound resounded throughout the hall as Wang Luori slammed into a pillar and rolled to the floor unceremoniously.

“So what if you’re a Spirit Master now? You’re still a piece of trash I can crush whenever I feel like it.”

Gu Suitang dusted his hands disdainfully before using Earth Contraction. He appeared in front of Wang Luori and brought his foot to crush Wang Luori’s head into bits.

Boom!

A deep pit appeared on the tough limestone floor, and stone scattered everywhere like hidden weapons. The hall’s lamps and furniture were smashed into pieces as a result.

Wang Luori survived, however. It wasn’t because Wang Luori’s head was particularly tough or because Gu Suitang was holding back his strength. It was because a man had interfered at the last moment. The man had conjured what looked like a dragon’s claw from water vapor and pulled Gu Suitang’s foot an inch to the side. That single inch was enough for Wang Luori to escape a gory death.

“Will you become the Pacification Bureau’s enemy as well, Lu Fanjiang?” Gu Suitang glared at the forty years old man wearing a white, swirly robe.

Wang Luori’s rescuer was none other than “Lord of Three Rivers” Lu Fanjiang, the head of the Twelve Land and Water Routes of Jiang Huai. The attack he used to shift Gu Suitang’s foot out of position was his signature martial art, the “Claw That Catches Dragons and Turns Rivers”.

Lu Fanjiang simply smiled at the accusation. “Why resist? It is a blessing for both you and me to be able to worship my master.”

“You’re a worshiper of that whatever the fuck as well!?” Gu Suitang pretended to be surprised. “Anyone with half a brain cell would recognize that it’s pure heresy!”

“Shut your mouth, Gu Suitang. I would sew your mouth if the master doesn’t still have a use for you.” Do Yuanwu’s indifferent expression grew murderous, and his broken saber buzzed ominously.

“You’re all... part of this so-called religion?” Gu Suitang slowly swept his gaze across Bai Xinran, Bai Xinhu, Jiang Huanjian and more. For the first time, he turned grave and solemn.

“My master is omnipotent, Gu Suitang. Please make the right choice while you still can!” Bai Xinran advised.

“Just how many have this Mara Buddha subverted? They’re definitely a heretic scum alright!” Gu Suitang humphed coldly.

Some time ago, he was surprised that the likes of Bai Xinhu and Jiang Huanjian would dare to pressure the Pacification Bureau. At the time, he thought that they were emboldened by Xue Beikun’s audacity. Now, he realized they were probably acting under the Mara Buddha’s orders. The bastard had seen an opportunity to undermine the Pacification Bureau and took it.

What surprised him even more was the size of the Mara Buddha’s forces. At the very least, the entire Bai Clan and the deputy head of Blood Shadow Palace were under their thumb.

Combined with Sunset Hill, nearly half of the major factions in Luo Shui were under his control, and that was before accounting for outside forces such as Lu Fanjiang and Du Yuanwu.

Thank goodness the Mara Buddha had exposed themselves. If not, they could’ve controlled the entire Luo Shui without anyone noticing.

He had been hoping to fish out the true Mara Buddha, but unfortunately, they were still in hiding.

That was fine though. The dog owner had to show themselves if he murdered every single one of their dogs, right?

Also, the time for acting wasn’t over yet.

Gu Suitang turned around and glared at Xue Beikun with bloodshot eyes. “Xue Beikun, you’re an imperial officer. Will you collude with these heretics as well?”

“Collude? Oh no. I’m just here to watch the show. Don’t mind me,” Xue Beikun replied uncaringly while sipping his wine.

“I knew it! Xue Beikun, the imperial court will have your head for this!” Gu Suitang roared.

Xue Beikun shrugged. “If you make it out of Sunset Hill, sure. You gotta admit that your prospects aren’t looking too good though. Maybe you should consider accepting the compromise? It’s better than dying a dog’s death, right?”

“Hahaha!” Gu Suitang burst out laughing when he heard this. “You seriously think that these pieces of trash can kill me, Gu Suitang? Allow me to show you that my fists aren’t just meant for Strangers!”

Like a drake rolling around in its slumber, Gu Suitang abruptly wheeled around and threw a devastating punch at Bai Xinhu. The second patriarch was trying to ambush him while he was speaking with Xue Beikun, but instead he got a mouthful of bloody spittle instead.

Wang Luori managed to take a few blows from Gu Suitang because he was now a Spirit Master, but Bai Xinhu was just a late-stage Spirit Purifier. He was lucky the punch only took half his life.

“Foolish cur!” Du Yuanwu hmphed coldly and shot toward Gu Suitang like lightning. He unleashed thirty six slashes before he even reached the deputy chief.

The thirty six saber forces abruptly came to a halt and snapped in half like an actual blade. Gu Suitang hadn’t done anything, however. They had snapped in half on their own. Instead, they abruptly turned invisible and attacked the deputy chief’s thirty six major points from various odd angles.

Du Yuanwu was called the One-Armed Sabersman because he only had one arm. His saber was also a broken saber named the Life Cutter. He named the saber art he invented himself the Art of Life Cutting, and it was a fusion of the essences of exactly one hundred tricky and diabolical saber arts. No more, no less.

It was how the storytellers came to describe his technique as such: “When Life Cutter leaves its sheath, a man\'s life is cut short without fail.”

“Hah! You’re trash, and your saber art is no different!:

Gu Suitang paid zero attention to the thirty six invisible saber forces flying toward him, however. He merely barked out in laughter and charged straight toward Bai Xinhu.

Out of his five attackers, Bai Xinhu was the weakest of them all. Naturally, he was going to kill him first. In this world, there was a saying that cutting an arm was better than bruising five fingers.

Dang dang dang!

The thirty six saber forces struck Gu Suitang, but they failed to leave even a ripple. That was how tough the barrier of astral qi he had surrounded himself in.

Bai Xinran was Bai Xinhu’s older brother and the patriarch of the Bai Clan. Naturally, he wasn’t going to allow Gu Suitang to kill Bai Xinhu. While walking like he was tracing the lines of an Eight Trigrams and moving his palms about like he was containing a small world, the silhouette of a dragon abruptly appeared in front of him. The eight forms of the Eight Trigrams: Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Gen, Xun and Dui abruptly manifested into existence and blocked Gu Suitang’s way.

“Eight Trigrams of Roving Dragon”[1]

Bang!

Gu Suitang punched the eight trigrams blocking his way, causing it to flicker erratically. Just when it looked like it would shatter into pieces, the dragon roared and reflected the attack with even greater force.

The attack seemed to catch Gu Suitang completely off guard. A muffled groan escaped his lips as he was flung backward.

The Bai Clan’s “Eight Trigrams of Roving Dragon” was a powerful force neutralizing technique. An adept practitioner could even reflect the attacker’s force right back at them. Clearly, Bai Xinran had successfully reached the adept level of the “Eight Trigrams of Roving Dragon”.

Everyone present had heard of the legendary strength behind Gu Suitang’s fists, if not experienced it themselves. Naturally, Gu Suitang was thrown back as quickly as he came at Bai Xinhu.

In fact, he was thrown back so fast that Jiang Huanjian, the unfortunate guy who happened to be standing in the direct line of collision, just barely managed to jump out of the way.

However, as Gu Suitang was brushing past the deputy head of Blood Shadow Palace, the deputy chief abruptly kicked out his legs and struck him squarely in the solar plexus.

“Serial Heart Piercing Kick”

The “Serial Heart Piercing Kick” was absolutely nothing to write home about. Practically every warrior in the jianghu knew the martial art to a certain extent. Its name wasn’t half-bad, but its techniques were basic and crude. But in Gu Suitang’s hands, Jiang Huanjian found himself unable to dodge or defend against the attack. The reason was very simple. Every kick was as quick as lightning and as heavy as a mountain.

Jiang Huanjian was spitting blood after taking just a single attack. Three kicks later, his heart and lungs were threatening to tear themselves apart.

At this point, Jiang Huanjian realized that the deputy chief wasn’t targeting Bai Xinhu. No, he was targeting him, the second weakest guy of the group.

Weakness really was a sin.

Just when Jiang Huanjian thought he would die, a man riding a tidal wave cut in between the duo and saved his life. It was none other than Lu Fanjiang. He yelled while blocking Gu Suitang’s attacks, “Brother Jiang, attack Fang Xiaoman and that boy with Brother Bai. Leave Gu Suitang to us.”

Jiang Huanjian wasn’t stupid. He understood Lu Fanjiang’s intentions immediately.

He and Bai Xinhu were a little too weak to be of any help against Gu Suitang, but an injured Fang Xiaoman and Ye Qing, an early-stage Spirit Purifier? They were more than enough.

Besides that, capturing the two of them would put Gu Suitang under immense pressure, if not force him to capitulate outright. It was a sound tactic.

“You dare!”

As expected, Gu Suitang let out a furious roar and punched Lu Fanjiang so hard that the man couldn’t help but retreat with every punch.

Lu Fanjiang was a middle-stage Spirit Master who cultivated a cultivation art called “Crossing Rivers and Seas”. Few people possessed a reservoir of astral qi as massive and potent as his. However, Gu Suitang was pummeling him like he was a boat trying to weather the storm.

“Let’s get him together! No need to hold back!” Lu Fanjiang barked out another order as his astral qi condensed into solid waves. At the same time, a river and a blue koi with dragon whiskers appeared in the air. It was none other than his Yin God, the River Crossing Dragon Koi.

A broken saber appeared above Du Yuanwu’s head. It looked exactly the same as the saber he was wielding, but this one was brimming with deadly saber intent.

A swordsman cultivated a “sword heart” to create their “sword soul”. Therefore, most of them had Yin Gods that were shaped like a sword. The sword was all they needed to defeat everything.

Du Yuawu was a saber, so he cultivated a “saber heart” and created a Yin God that was shaped like his saber. With this saber, he could cut through both heaven and earth.

Bai Xinran’s Yin God was a dragon with the eight trigrams engraved to its body. It was a Roving Dragon of Eight Trigrams and a perfect match with his signature martial art.

As Du Yuanwu swung out with his saber, clear qi rose into the sky, and murky qi sank to the bottom. It resembled Pangu creating the universe by splitting the Original Chaos into two distinct energies.

Bai Xinran was far better at defense than offense, so he didn’t bother attacking Gu Suitang. Instead, he had his dragon circle around Gu Suitang and created heaven and earth with Qian and Kun, water and fire with Kan and Li, wind and lightning with Zhen and Gen, and mountains and lakes with Xun and Dui. It was like he had created a pocket world that kept Gu Suitang trapped within.

When a warrior had become a Spirit Master and manifested their Yin God, they could commune with nature and bring any facade of the world into reality.

Art is like reality, and reality is like art.

1. For some reason it was named Eight Trigrams of Roving Tiger in “Wandering Sword” the game. I think someone mistranslated it lol. ?