Chapter One: Perplexity

  Huang Yan and Zhou Huan were facing a real opponent for the first time, and they felt quite nervous at the beginning. However, when they saw Gao Huaiyuan's calm demeanor, they felt ashamed, shook off their anxiety, steadied their arms, took aim at one of the opponents, and...

  When the other side started rushing over, with Gao Huaiyuan's order, the three people let go at the same time, and the three arrows made a breaking sound, almost flying out simultaneously.

  Gao Weiyan used a rare two-stone hard bow, and the speed of this arrow was not ordinary. As soon as he let go, it shot straight at the leading big man, who was shocked and shouted loudly, wanting to swing his knife to knock down the sharp arrow flying towards him. However, his mind reacted faster than his hands, and all he heard was a "thud" sound. The big man felt a sudden pain in his thigh and fell out with a loud cry, clutching his leg. When they looked at his thigh again, it had already been pierced by an arrow with a carved tail, almost reaching the end of the arrow shaft, showing the great power of this arrow.

  Gao Huaiyuan hit the target with one arrow, but Huang Yan's archery skills were not as good as his. They aimed at their opponent's thigh, and the moving target kept shaking back and forth. He was a bit nervous, and one arrow missed, shooting through the crotch of an enemy soldier. The soldier was startled and almost fell to the ground, shouting loudly before hastily reaching into his pants to grab something, checking if it was still there, and breaking out in cold sweat, silently praying for Buddha's protection.

  Zhou Huan, because he usually worked harder than Huang Yan, had slightly better archery skills. After shooting an arrow, although it didn't hit the enemy's thigh directly, it grazed past his thigh, leaving a deep gash. The guy fell to the ground with a thud, clutching his wound and crying out in pain.

  "Kill them for me, damn it! My leg... Kill them!" The leader who fell to the ground was holding his own leg and screaming wildly, with a look of horror and madness in his eyes.

  The result of three arrows injuring two people startled the several thieves, and their footsteps involuntarily slowed. Some wanted to turn around and escape, but under the leader's loud shout, the remaining seven people came to their senses. At this time, turning around to escape would be equivalent to offering their backs as living targets. They were just a few kids, what were they afraid of?

  The remaining few people rushed towards Gao Huaiyuan and his two companions, shouting wildly. Gao Huaiyuan immediately dropped the hard bow in his hand, grabbed a long stick on the ground, and shouted to Huang Yan and Zhou Huan, who were somewhat panicked: "Continue shooting arrows, I'll block them first! Don't follow up!"

  As soon as his voice fell, Gao Huairen immediately rushed up with a speed that was astonishing!

  He did this out of desperation, after all, Huang Yan and Zhou Huan were still young, and their strength couldn't compare to those bandits. Moreover, it was their first time taking action, and the two of them would inevitably be afraid. Originally, they had a 100% chance of success, but now they might not even be able to use 30% of their skills. Once they went forward, they might lose their lives. Therefore, Gao Huaiyuan could only resort to this inferior plan: one person would go forward and block the opponent, allowing Huang Yan and Zhou Huan to shoot two more arrows and injure two or three more people. The rest would likely be scared away without a fight.

  Gao Huaiyuan grasped the stick with both hands, pressed his body down, and swung it forward, sweeping away several thieves who were rushing over. With a swift strike, he knocked down a man holding a knife. The thief was frightened by Gao's speed and raised his knife to meet him, but failed to block Gao's swing, leaving the knife suspended in mid-air.

  It turned out that Gao Huaiyuan's move was a fake one, and he didn't use his full strength to strike. Instead, when his opponent raised his knife to block, he suddenly withdrew his hand and changed his move, using the "sweeping knife" technique from the knife method, striking upwards from below.

  The poor guy with the knife, after raising it, used too much force, and his body was already charging forward. He stared blankly as the wooden stick came flying up at him from below, but he didn't have any way to react. All that could be heard was a loud "crack" sound, and this guy didn't even have time to let out a cry before he did a backward somersault. His chin seemed to have been delivered right onto High Hua-Yuan's wooden stick. He was immediately knocked flying back, and after crashing to the ground, his mouth was full of blood as he spat out several teeth. Then, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.

  Gao Huairen only now realized the ferocity of the knife technique that San Shan Sanren had taught him, with its subtle and unpredictable movements making it impossible to defend against! However, he didn't have time to be happy about this right now. With one successful move, he immediately followed up with a horizontal sweep, unleashing a "Sweeping Thousand Armies" attack that forced the two people charging at the front to stop in their tracks and raise their guns to block. The remaining six people were forced to retreat and were stuck in a heap on the road.

  Gao Huaiyuan was now in a state of righteous indignation, and he knew that today he had already offended these thieves to the point where they would not let him off easily. If he didn't take them down, they would never spare his life. With that, he swung his big stick and clashed with these people.

  Huang Yan and Zhou Huan saw Gao Huaiyuan rush out alone, immediately understood his intention, and in their hearts, apart from being moved, only anger remained. Seeing that Gao Huaiyuan had knocked down one person and was immediately intercepted by others, they didn't dare to hesitate for a moment. They quickly drew another arrow, placed it on the bowstring, and this time they didn't aim at anyone's thigh either. The opponent wanted to come and kill them, what politeness was there to speak of?!

  The two of them each shot another bandit, taking aim for a brief moment before immediately drawing their bows and firing arrows. The two arrows flew out like lightning under the force of the nine-dou hard bow, covering such a short distance that it was impossible to miss. Instantly, two miserable cries were heard as two more bandits fell to the ground with arrows in them.

  The robbers who were holding guns and stabbing wildly were suddenly stunned, and in an instant, nine of them had been knocked to the ground, five of them. The remaining four people immediately panicked and became even more frenzied, stabbing wildly at Gao Huairen.

  Gao Huaiyuan was once wearing iron sand on his head, being beaten by the old man with a wooden stick every day. He didn't dare to say anything about other martial arts, but now his dodging skills were not to be underestimated. As he swayed his body, he managed to avoid several guns pointing at him. Moreover, when one of them was using an old move, he seized the opportunity and struck a blow on his shoulder with a stick, knocking him down and making him sit on the ground, dropping his long gun and crying out in pain.

  With that, the opponent was left with only three people. Huang Yan and Zhou Huan saw that their opponents were now only three men, so they threw away their bows and arrows, picked up their spears, and joined the battle group, one-on-one, displaying the skills they had learned during this time, and fought together with their opponents.

  When Gao Huaiyuan faced only one opponent, he suddenly felt extremely relaxed. The man's kung fu was really terrible, and his hands were shaking like a sieve due to nervousness. If this guy could still land a hit on Gao Huaiyuan, he would be incredibly lucky. Gao Huaiyuan wouldn't show him any mercy, and with one stick, he sent the man's spear flying. The man was shocked, his palm numb, and he dropped his spear, turning to flee. But before he could escape, Gao Huaiyuan struck him on the back with another stick. The man let out a blood-curdling scream as he fell forward, his face covered in dust and blood, sounding like a pig being slaughtered.

  Gao Huaiyuan put away his club, turned around and looked at Huang Yan and Zhou Huan, saw the two young men just started to fight, still a bit flustered, but after taking down their opponents twice, they calmed down and began to fight steadily with their guns and sticks.

  Actual combat is the best way to hone one's skills, and Gao Huaiyu had intended for the two of them to train a bit. Therefore, he didn't go to support them, instead closely observing their battle situation, making preparations to intervene at any moment.

  Huang Yan and Zhou Hao had not been practicing martial arts for a long time, and their strength was not as great as that of their opponents. However, the two were more agile than their opponents. After exchanging a few blows, they no longer felt afraid. Since they were not as strong as their opponents, they did not engage in a fierce confrontation with them. Instead, they adopted an evasive approach and circled around their opponents, waiting for opportunities to strike back.

  The last two guys were already panicked, how could they still have the heart to fight on? The more anxious they became, the more unlucky they got. Finally, one of them was caught off guard by Zhou Huan and his thigh was pierced by Zhou's long spear. This guy dropped his weapon, covered his leg and screamed as he fell to the ground.

  Now there was only one thief left on Huang Yan's side, and this thief became even more flustered. He pointed his gun at Huang Yan to keep him back, turned around and tried to escape. Huang Yan seized the opportunity, jumped up and struck with a stick. The wooden stick hit the back of the thief's head, and he didn't even make a sound before falling to the ground, knocked out cold.

  Just as the three of them thought the fight was over, a shrill cry suddenly came from the direction of the big cart. Gao Huaiyuan and the other two immediately turned their heads to look, only to see a guy covering his face, with blood all over his head, tumbling down from the cart, rolling onto the ground, and also letting out a mournful howl.

  Under the great shock, Gao Huaiyuan rushed over and lifted up the curtain of the carriage. He saw Liu'er grasping a cleaver in her hand, sitting inside the carriage in a state of panic. As soon as she saw the curtain being lifted, she immediately let out a shrill cry and hacked at Gao Huaiyuan with the cleaver.

  Gao Huaiyuan grasped Liu'er's wrist tightly and shouted loudly: "Liu'er don't be afraid, it's me!"

  Liu'er finally saw clearly that it was Gao Huaiyuan who had arrived, and she burst into tears, dropping the axe in her hand and throwing herself into Gao Huaiyuan's arms, wailing: "Young Master! I...I killed someone..."

  Gao Huaiyuan hastily hugged the frightened Liu'er, gently patting her back while softly comforting her: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid! It's okay, it's all over now! It's all my fault for not taking good care of you! Don't be scared anymore! You just cut off a bad guy's arm, it won't kill him!"

  After being comforted by Gao Huaiyuan for a while, Liu'er finally felt slightly at ease, and with a sob, she looked towards the side of the car, only to see a guy still covering his head and wailing nonstop. This scared her so much that she shrank back into Gao Huaiyuan's arms again, saying she didn't dare look anymore.

  Huang Yan saw that this guy was yelling too miserably and unpleasantly, so he bypassed the big cart, went up and gave him a stick, hitting his head, and the guy who was yelling miserably suddenly let out a "kao" sound, and was knocked unconscious by him, rolling to one side and no longer moving.