Chapter 9: One Move Victory

  Wu Ming rushed through the three-way intersection, and finally saw a dilapidated temple under a large tree more than 100 meters ahead on the right fork. After observing for a moment, he became calm instead.

  Wu Ming clearly saw that the left wheel of the mule cart had slipped into the ditch at the entrance of the broken temple, and the pack horse pulling the cart was still tied up, its whole body steaming with heat, occasionally raising its head to snort.

  In the cold wind and drizzle, a woman's helpless cry for help faintly came from afar. Wu Ming hastily jumped down from the edge of the field, bent his waist and quickly turned to the back of the broken temple. As soon as he stabilized his body, he heard a loud slap amidst rough curses, followed by a weak and mournful cry, and then a dull thud.

  Wu Ming jumped onto the high embankment, using his hands and feet to part the dense weeds, and quickly moved over ten meters to the side of the temple's damaged window. He took a deep breath, slowly crouched up, and poked out half of his head to observe carefully.

  In the narrow temple, a woman's crying and sobbing filled the air as she gasped for breath. The officer known as Fourth Brother was slapped by the woman and became enraged, roughly throwing her onto the dusty altar table, his large hand grasping her neck while the other brutally tore at her clothes.

  Three or four meters away from the table, the little maid who had fainted lay on the ground, her small padded jacket already unbuttoned, her floral undergarment torn open, and her red bellyband pulled down and thrown aside, revealing her pure and tender body in full view.

  The tall and thin soldier with a beard glanced at his fourth brother who was busy, and smiled lazily as he untied the leather belt around his waist.

  Wu Ming left the window and crouched down to the front door, picking up a stone the size of a washbasin along the way. He stood against the wall by the door frame, slowly poking his head in to look at the two soldiers who had undone their pants inside. Suddenly, he rushed in like a madman, swinging the stone and striking the officer's occipital bone with force.

  After the dull sound, blood splattered everywhere, and the officer's brain burst open, directly knocking him onto the woman. Red and white matter splashed all over the woman's face, frightening her to the point where she had no strength left to struggle, and she instantly fainted.

  The tall and thin Han man three meters away had already turned around, Wu Ming, who had successfully launched a sneak attack, flew over and punched with his fist and knee in anger, the huge impact sent the tall and thin Han man flying out three meters away, letting out a miserable cry as he heavily fell to the ground and rolled twice, crushing a large area of broken tiles, stirring up swirling clouds of dirty dust.

  Wu Ming's body fell to the ground again, and he pounced up, hugging the tall and thin man's head, which suddenly broke his neck with a "crack" sound. Wu Ming also fell to the ground due to using too much force, propping himself up and panting heavily, and it wasn't until after a while that he loosened his grip on the twisted head in his arms.

  Dust fell, Wu Ming, who had killed for the first time, was still panting violently, only feeling dry mouth and tongue, whole body softening, stumbling and staggering to get up for a long time, but still unable to take a step.

  The officer was still trembling with the corpse still pressing down on the woman, Wu Ming, who had come back to life, strongly endured the turmoil in his abdomen, pushed away the officer's body, and hastily helped the woman tidy up her clothes.

  After hastily tidying up, Wu Ming stopped his hands, bent down to tear open the clothes on the corpse, and carefully wiped away the bloodstains on the woman's face with a piece of cloth.

  The woman let out a whimper and slowly opened her eyes, suddenly letting out a sharp cry. Wu Ming was startled and took two steps back, waving his hand as he explained: "Don't be afraid, I just happened to be passing by and saw the two officers doing evil deeds, so I followed them. It's okay now, you're safe."

  The woman tried to get up but fell to the ground, Wu Ming hurried forward to support her, the woman struggled a few times, seeing clearly that it was Wu Ming's face she relaxed all over, looking around at the chaotic ground and corpses in horror, unable to help covering her face and bursting into tears.

  Wu Ming didn't know how to comfort Cai Si, and finally could only point at the little maid who had fainted on the ground: "She's fine, she just fainted from fright."

  Wu Ming finished speaking and hurriedly ran to Xiaoyi's side, squatted down, quickly helped her fasten her clothes, shook her a few times, but Xiaoyi still showed no signs of waking up. After thinking for a moment, he picked up Xiaoyi and ran out of the broken temple, quickly putting Xiaoyi into the mule cart, then turned around and ran back to the broken temple again.

  "What about the cart driver?" Wu Ming came before the woman with disheveled hair and tears streaming down her face.

  The girl has come around, sniffled a few times, lifted her head and choked out: "He's gone first, probably went back to report."

  "Where is your home?"

  "Front Huangu Town."

  Wu Ming looked around cautiously, knowing they couldn't stay here for long. He resolutely stepped forward and supported the trembling woman, hurrying her away: "I killed two soldiers, the officials and soldiers in the city will definitely not let this go easily. If we don't leave now, I'm afraid I'll be in trouble again, let's hurry!"

  Wu Ming half-supported and half-held the woman, who had gone limp all over, to the edge of the mule cart. He went forward, grabbed the mule's halter, and with a low shout, pulled hard to pull the cart out of the shallow ditch by the side of the road. Bending down, he picked up the reins from the ground and tied them around the cart, urging the woman to get on quickly.

  The woman, still in a state of shock, couldn't even lift her legs. Wu Ming quickly approached her, picked her up and placed her on the driver's seat at the front of the carriage, grabbed the reins and put them into her hands: "Don't panic, just hold onto the reins and let the donkey walk slowly, it will take you back to Huanggu Town. Remember, if anyone asks, tell them you couldn't see my face clearly, I was wearing a mask, got it? Go!"

  The mule cart carried the dazed woman and the unconscious maid forward, Wu Ming turned around and ran quickly to leave this place of trouble. He ran out for dozens of meters, suddenly remembering the weapons on the two soldiers in the temple, immediately turning back to rush into the broken temple, hastily searching everywhere, and indeed found a wooden gun case with a German-made Mauser pistol, an eighty percent new Hanyang rifle, thirty or forty silver dollars, and a canvas cartridge belt filled with bullets.

  Wu Ming hastily slung the rifle over his back, tied a wide leather belt with four leather ammunition pouches around his waist, and hung the canvas ammunition belt and bayonet scabbard of the skinny officer. He carefully moved the rifle on his back to the inner side of the temple gate, looked around and then rushed down the slope, running towards Sanjiaokou in the rain.

  Ran to the three forks, Wu Ming suddenly realized that his whole body was almost soaked, and the raincoat and bamboo hat on his head were gone. He was deeply afraid of leaving any clues behind, so he turned back and searched for them along the way again.

  Night fell, and the sky finally turned completely dark. Wu Ming, wearing a bamboo hat and a raincoat, finally ran to the foot of Taijin Mountain and sat on a wet stone slab, panting heavily, and soon began vomiting violently.

  After a long struggle, Wu Ming recovered some strength and slowly got up to climb the mountain. Before he even stepped onto the bluestone steps, he saw a dark figure looming in front of him.

  "Who?"

  Wu Ming was so frightened that he hastily retreated several steps, his hands and feet busy fumbling towards the gun holster, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open the gun case or pull out the gun.

  "Wu Dage, it's me, I've been waiting for you here." A familiar voice sounded.

  Wu Ming's body suddenly went limp, and he panted heavily as he took a step forward, trying to appear calm: "You scared me half to death... Let's head back."

  Cheng Zong, who was also wearing a bamboo hat and a raincoat, didn't move: "From far away I smelled the strong smell of blood, Brother Wu, what happened?"

  Wu Ming knew he couldn't hide it anymore, so he had to reveal the whole story and apologize sincerely: "I'm really sorry, I'll leave tomorrow and won't cause any more trouble for the Taoist temple."

  Cheng Zong was stunned and it took him a while to react: "Wu Ge, are you sure no one saw you saving people?"

  Wu Ming recalled again, answering very accurately: "No, when I left the city, I met a few people, but after walking far away, I couldn't see anyone. It was such a cold day, and it was raining heavily, besides, the whole process of saving people took less than a minute, there was no one in front or behind, and when I came back, it was already dark."

  "Can you really tell which accent those two officers are from?" Cheng Zong asked again.

  "It's the Nanchang accent, this afternoon at Wenxuan Pavilion in the city, the shopkeeper told me that originally stationed in the city of Nanchang suppression bandit army a regiment at the beginning of the month had left, only leaving behind a company of officers and men to urge the county government to recruit soldiers, I estimate that the two killed by me are part of this group." Wu Ming has completely calmed down and made an accurate analysis.

  Cheng Zong let out a sigh of relief: "If that's the case, then it's no big deal. Let's head back. The rain is getting heavier and we can talk more when we get back."

  After much difficulty, Wu Ming finally returned to the gate of Qizhen Guan, already exhausted and staggering. The considerate Cheng Zong did not lead Wu Ming into the Taoist temple, but instead led him back to his newly completed small wooden hut.

  As soon as they entered the house, Zong ordered Wu Ming to quickly wash up and change his clothes, hiding the weapons on him. He mustn't let Shifu and Chongyang discover anything unusual; whatever it was could be discussed tomorrow.

  After Chengzong left, Wu Mingfei quickly took off all his clothes and threw them into the wooden bucket. He came to the back door with the bucket, gritted his teeth and rushed into the flowing water to scrub his whole body. The cold made his whole body tremble and his face stiffen, his upper and lower teeth chattering "dang dang" in response.

  After cleaning up, Wu Ming tightly wrapped himself in a quilt and lit the wall stove, bustling about for a long time before his body warmed up.

  The fire was burning brightly, and the room was warm as spring. Wu Mingxu lit another candle, climbed onto the bed, wrapped himself in a warm quilt, and pulled out an almost new German-made Mauser pistol from under the bed. He looked at it again and again, then got off the bed to find a cloth strip to carefully wipe it clean. His eyes sparkled brightly in the candlelight.

  The next morning, the fine rain still fell ceaselessly. After finishing his morning lessons, Chengzong held an oil-paper umbrella and carried a food box as he strolled along. Hearing the even snores coming from inside the house, he couldn't help but shake his head. He stepped up onto the wooden porch, closed the umbrella, pushed open the door, and placed the food box on the original wooden table. Then, he walked to the dimly lit fireplace and added firewood to start a fire.

  Wu Ming heard the sound and opened his eyes, slowly sitting up and apologetically asked: "Didn't I disturb your master?"

  "Come on! It can't be that fast? The news wouldn't have reached the mountain until this afternoon at the earliest. Hurry up and get dressed, eat something hot while you can, you must be starving."

  Wu Ming put on his clothes, ran to the back to wash his face and rinse his mouth, and came to Cheng Zong's side wearing a cotton gown. Seeing the hot food on the table, he smiled: "Thanks!"

  Cheng Zong walked to the bedside, picked up the German Mauser pistol that had been polished to a shine from under the pillow, and sat back down to admire it carefully. However, his mouth was full of sarcasm: "You're quite bold! Not only did you kill two officers and soldiers, but you also took their guns back. If I hadn't seen your expression with my own eyes last night, I wouldn't have believed you were so ruthless and cunning. Tsk, tsk!"

  Wu Ming swallowed a big mouthful of rice, and then reluctantly defended himself: "Don't tease me anymore. Now that I think about it, I'm quite regretful.

  Cheng Zong shook his head helplessly, placing the short gun on the table: "Being greedy is not good, many things often go wrong because of this greed. Last night after I returned, based on what you said, I carefully thought it over and found that although your sneak attack was successful, it was very lucky. If one blow didn't hit its mark, the one lying down would probably be you, let alone rescuing anyone. From tonight onwards, you must put aside other things and learn new fist techniques with me. The Green Dragon Festival is approaching soon, after which I will return to Dragon Tiger Mountain, and from then on everything will depend on yourself."

  Wu Ming slowly put down his bowl and gazed silently at Cheng Zong, his heart inexplicably filled with sadness.

  Cheng Zong glared at Wu Ming: "What are you looking at? Don't you dare hand over that long spear for me to take a look?"

  Wu Ming was taken aback for a moment, then couldn't help but burst out laughing: "I said you're a Taoist priest, how can you like these things? But this is normal, haha! On the stool next to the fireplace are two books I bought back yesterday, probably dry and suitable for you."

  "Cut the crap! Where's the rifle?"

  "Alright! Who made me owe you this lifetime..."

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