The woman walked to the rear of the Mercedes-Benz, opened the trunk, and took out a pair of copper maces. They looked incredibly heavy, each weighing over ten catties. Ten catties for a mace was already formidable. Don't be fooled by the weapons weighing dozens of catties in television dramas; only fools would take such heavy weapons onto the battlefield. By the time you've raised a seventy-six catty Green Dragon Crescent Blade to attack the enemy, you'd have already been stabbed five or six times.
"Lao Sha, let me handle this," the demon named Li Hong stepped forward.
Sha Wuji sized up the enemy's weapon, nodded, and retreated, standing by my side. Perhaps he was worried the enemy would suddenly launch a "surprise attack" at me.
"Are you confident?" I asked quietly, as Li Hong only possessed blue qi.
"Easily done," Sha Wuji whispered.
Li Hong walked to face the woman, cupped his fists, and bowed, "Please guide me."
"What weapon do you use?" the woman asked.
Li Hong slowly crouched down, his palms moving gently, adopting a stance that even I recognized – "White Crane Spreads its Wings," or perhaps "Wild Horse Parts Its Mane"? Anyway, it was taught in university PE classes!
"Tai Chi," Li Hong said softly.
"Heh, why don't you do a Lightning Five-Finger Exploding Dragon Fist! You charlatan! Take this!" The woman didn't take it seriously. She swung her left mace, bringing it down towards Li Hong's head.
Li Hong, unhurried, raised his arm to block. My heart leaped into my throat. To block a copper mace with an bare arm would surely result in it being smashed in two!
However, the moment the copper mace touched Li Hong's arm, I felt a distortion in my vision, as if it had "lagged." After a skipped frame, Li Hong's arm, which had been meeting the enemy's mace perpendicularly, was now parallel and side-by-side. The enemy froze for a moment. Li Hong smiled slightly, slowly rotated his wrist, grabbed the body of the mace, and pulled it towards himself. From my perspective, he intended to disarm her.
The enemy was a purple qi expert, after all, and wouldn't yield easily. She tried to pull the mace back but failed. Immediately, she swung her other mace, aiming for Li Hong's waist. But this time, Li Hong didn't dodge. The enemy didn't actually sweep at the waist; instead, she feinted and changed her move to an upward diagonal strike, aimed at Li Hong's jaw!
In a flash, with my Qi Observation technique active, I understood. The previous waist sweep was a feint; her arm hadn't exerted force. This jaw strike was the real attack, her arm instantly filled with true qi. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
I wanted to warn Li Hong, but it was too late. The enemy's movements were too fast. The copper mace whistled through the air, emitting a low, mournful hum.
Once again, my vision glitched. When it stabilized, I saw that the mace Li Hong's arm was guiding had changed position, now blocking his jaw. With a clang!
The two maces collided. Li Hong swiftly retracted his arm. Now, the enemy held her left mace and slammed it into the mace held in her right hand. The harder she struck, the greater the impact on her own tiger's mouth. Her strength and the resulting damage were directly proportional. Even though this beautiful woman was a purple qi expert, she was shaken, her delicate body trembling. The mace in her left hand clattered to the ground, and she couldn't lift her right arm. She weakly held her mace, swaying back and forth like the pendulum of an old grandfather clock.
Li Hong didn't seize the opportunity to attack. He slowly adopted another stance that looked familiar. This one I definitely recognized – "Single Whip." I had once joked with Cui Xiaohu, asking what kind of couplet would be suitable for "Single Whip." Xiaohu couldn't answer, but Chen Lu, not far away, whispered, "Double eggs."
Even then, I thought Chen Lu was a bit coy, and I had more thoughts about her.
"What kind of sorcery is this!" the woman asked indignantly.
"Didn't I just tell you? Tai Chi," Li Hong smiled.
"Nonsense! You think I don't know martial arts? This is not Tai Chi, this is clearly sorcery! What kind of monster are you!"
Seeing her identity exposed, Li Hong stopped pretending. He dropped the Single Whip stance and shook his hands, "You figured it out. I'm a red-crowned crane, so what? You got a problem?"
After speaking, she turned and suddenly whined at Li Bing, "Brother! Look, she figured it out! Is your Tai Chi not genuine!"
Li Bing's expression was blank. "Impossible! I learned it from a university PE instructor. University knowledge can't be fake!"