Volume 1: Storm in the Western Region Chapter 48: The Whetstone
The two bandits watched Zhao Rang change his posture, but there was no reaction. They were still calm.
Zhao Rang noticed something strange. He felt that these people were definitely not ordinary bandits!
In the more than half a year since he left home, Zhao Rang has encountered many mountain kings, including those who robbed people and cut them off.
These bandits all have a common characteristic, that is, they are violent and greedy, and they cannot even control their own emotions. As long as a word is not reached, they will definitely rush towards you with screams and have to fight to the death!
After all, fighting for supremacy is the foundation of this industry. They don't even care about their lives. If they can't risk everything, their jobs will be taken away by others sooner or later.
In comparison, these guys are too calm.
Very unusually calm!
Although they also want money and women, they can control their emotions and greed very well.
Not to mention the leader, the two mace-wielding men on his left and right alone are far superior to some well-known gangsters!
In particular, the stick skills of these two people who advance and retreat in a controlled manner and have decent offense and defense are definitely not wild methods. They must have been taught by formal sects and have been trained for many years.
From the previous trip, Zhao Rang already roughly knew that the martial arts cultivation of these two people should be above the seventh level, barely reaching the edge of the sixth level.
Compared with him, of course, he was still one level behind, but these two people plus the leader formed a cross-shaped formation. No matter who Zhao Rang used his sword at, he had to face the counterattacks of the two at the same time.
In this way, he can basically make up for his lack of cultivation and drag Zhao Rang into the fight.
But no matter what the true identity of these bandits is, now that the sword has been drawn, it is already a dead end.
The so-called deadlock is not a situation that cannot be broken, but one that must die!
No one wants to die.
The same goes for bandits who don't take their lives seriously.
The purpose of doing business without capital is to make more money, and the purpose of making money is to enjoy more, and enjoyment must have life. Otherwise, what will happen if you become a ghost and just guard the gold and silver mountains?
Zhao Rang dwarfed and decided to cut the two men off with his two-handed sword.
Although the mace can be used in the stick method, it is not a stick after all, it is top-heavy!
If they attack with sharp knives, these two people will surely have their flaws slowly exposed due to the constraints of their weapons.
When the two of them saw Zhao Rang showing his hand, they immediately stepped down and raised the mace in their hands, tilting the stick sideways.
"You are frontier troops!"
Seeing this gesture, Zhao Rang blurted out.
Someone from his Zhao family also served as a coach in the Dawei frontier army, and Zhao Rang had seen the couplet in the camp.
At that time, I was playing the role of a sergeant in the Western Region. I started by pressing down on my horse, setting up the weapon, and turning my hands into a yin grip. The vanguard hand pressed down on the tip and began to accumulate strength.
Now seeing that the posture of these two people was exactly the same as what he saw during the couplet, Zhao Rang immediately knew the true identity of these bandits!
After hearing what Zhao Rang said, the leader's expression changed slightly and he spoke to his two subordinates in Western Region dialect.
Zhao Rang estimated that he had exposed their identities, and the leader must have issued a death order. He must have not even spared the woman he was thinking about before, and wanted to eradicate the four of them.
So attack first.
After picking out the knife diagonally, he then cut it vertically.
The sound was great, as if he had used all his strength.
When the two men set up their maces and prepared to block them with the center of the stick, Zhao let his sword tip slide over the stick, like a breeze blowing across his face!
He remembered the sparring session with Ye Sanniang in the courtyard of Wangcheng.
"Be quick first, don't call it fast, only if the knife is accurate can you be considered fast!"
"Seize the opportunity to seize the situation, the last to arrive, the first to arrive!"
Zhao Rang kept these two things in mind, then his shoulders sank, his arms pressed the handle of the knife down, and the tip of the knife lifted up.
The two of them thought that Zhao Rang was going to stab them in the throat from bottom to top.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Rang raised his arms horizontally and slashed at the knees of the two men.
When the two of them came to their senses, the mace was still held flat on their chests, so they had no choice but to raise it up, stab it hard at the ground, and use the tail of the stick to hold back most of Zhao Rang's blow.
However, there was still an unblocked sword movement, which caused a bloody gash under the knees of the two men!
The two of them were in pain and subconsciously looked down at their wounds.
Zhao Rang slashed horizontally and hit the butt of the mace hard.
He did this deliberately just to get the two of them to regain their consciousness and block with the stick.
As expected, these two people were hit by Zhao Rang's previous knife, and they were already a little confused.
He hurriedly resisted, but fell into Zhao Rang's trap!
This is exactly what Ye Sanniang said, "catching a turtle in a urn".
Zhao Rang took advantage of the situation and turned around to slash behind him, with the blade facing the two of them.
After holding the knife in both hands, Zhao Rang's speed and strength have changed a lot. After Ye Sanniang's previous request, he has also changed a lot of knife moves. Now facing the two of them, he has the upper hand and the initiative has become one-sided.
situation.
If Zhao Rang was willing, he could kill the two of them within three or four swords.
But he suddenly felt that it was not easy to meet such two equally matched opponents, so he might as well let them both be his whetstones!
The path of martial arts has been divided into superiors and inferiors since ancient times, as well as life and death.
Although sparring with Ye Sanniang was useful, in reality it was all about Ye Sanniang feeding him moves, and the improvement was limited.
Only this kind of real life-and-death battle is the right way for a martial artist to improve!
Your reaction and judgment when facing an enemy, as well as your combined use of moves and body skills, can all improve by leaps and bounds!
If the knife was pushed forward a few inches, it would be able to split the two people's faces. Zhao Rang shrank his hand.
Yuan Ke, who was standing behind him, saw this and said anxiously to Ye Sanniang:
"Sanniang, can you go and help him?"
The two of them talked a lot along the way and became familiar with each other. Although Yuan Kexin's previous wariness towards Ye Sanniang could not be said to be completely gone, at least most of it had dissipated.
At this moment, I saw Zhao Rang fighting one against two. Although there was no crisis yet, it might still be bad in the long run, so I begged Ye Sanniang, hoping that she would take action.
With her level of cultivation as a third-grade grandmaster, she would surely be able to kill these clowns with just a few clicks of her fingers.
But Ye Sanniang shook her head and said:
"If I take action, he will scold me!"
Yuan Kexin asked in confusion:
"How could it be? Brother Zhao is not the kind of person who doesn't know what to do!"
Yuan Kexin thought Ye Sanniang was making excuses and didn't want to take action.
Before she could plead again, she heard Ye Sanniang say:
"Sister, can't you see that your brother Zhao is using the other party as a whetstone?"
Yuan Kexin frowned and looked at it for a while, but still didn't understand what it meant, so she had to look at Ye Sanniang and wait for her to explain to him.
Ye Sanniang said slowly:
"You see, when fighting with weapons such as knives and sticks, the most effective way is to slide the stick up and down to make them let go and disarm."
"If you can hit the opponent's vanguard, you can break the point where he holds the stick, which basically determines the outcome."
Yuan Kexin heard this and interrupted:
"But Brother Zhao didn't use the sword like this, is it because he couldn't find an opportunity?"
Ye Sanniang shook her head and said:
"But there is a drawback to this, that is, if the opponent is experienced in facing enemies, he will completely let go of his hands and then put the mace behind his back to block."
"Have you noticed that every time these two people change their skills, they will change their moves and routines. And what your brother Zhao just said is right, these people are not ordinary bandits, they are indeed border troops!"
As soon as Ye Sanniang finished speaking, the two people changed their grip again.
He moved his hands down, grasped the bottom of the mace, swung it high, and took advantage of the inertia and length to hit Zhao Rang head and face.
The two of them swung the mace to the side almost at the same time and smashed it down on the head at the same time.
Zhao Rang was slightly below the stick and couldn't dodge, so he had to hold the knife with both hands to resist!
The huge force coming from the sword shattered all the energy he had mobilized... His body staggered backward, and the door to his chest suddenly opened wide.
"Brother Jean!"
Ximen Dazhuang took a quick step and was ready to step forward to help.
"do not move!"
But unexpectedly, he was froze by the two words from Ye Sanniang's mouth!
"Is this the legendary way to follow one's words? Where did Brother Jean find such a powerful sister-in-law? Could it be that she is a fairy who has descended to earth?"
Ximen Dazhuang was so strong that no one could match him, but he was suppressed by Ye Sanniang's soft words and couldn't move. Cold sweat broke out on his back.
After thinking about it again, I realized that my worries were unnecessary!
Since there is such a powerful sister-in-law behind the battle, Brother Rang will definitely not be in danger. How can a person who can make a fairy come down to earth to be his wife be a short-lived ghost? He must be blessed with great luck!
As soon as the thought came through in his mind, Ximen Dazhuang felt that his body was free again!
This made him feel even more that Ye Sanniang was a fairy... Otherwise, how could he know what he was thinking?
While admiring Zhao Rang, I have already begun to think about how I must ask Zhao Rang how he found the fairy later, and I must ask him to introduce her to me!
If I could sneak out by myself and bring a fairy back with me, no one would dare to accuse me of being dishonest. Not even my grandma. She believed in fairies the most and would kowtow to her head every day!
Looking at Zhao Rang again, the two men saw that his chest was wide open, and they immediately stabbed him with maces, trying to kill him!
Zhao Rang turned his head to one side and could barely avoid it.
The other person pressed down with the horizontal stick, fully infusing all the energy in his body.
According to what this man thought, Zhao Rang would have to use his knife to block. When the time came, he would suppress the blade of his knife and lose his flexibility. The other person would hit him with a stick, determined to kill him.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Rang's body became as soft as noodles.
Following the pressure of his mace, he lay down on the ground.
Then he rolled, turned over and slashed towards his knees.
The two screamed as the blade passed by.
After fighting for so long, Zhao Rang felt that he had tempered enough, and the last knife was the killing move!
The two men fell down, one on the left and the other on the right, and the mace in their hands fell to the ground.
The muscles, bones, and flesh of both legs below the knees were all cut off. One person screamed twice and fainted from the pain, while the other person grabbed randomly with both hands and dragged himself towards their leader.
Zhao Rang stood up, wiped the dirt on his face, then made two more cuts, and sent the two of them on their way.