Chapter Sixteen: The Abacus

  Among the crowd, two bare-handed young men were competing in a test of strength and agility. One was stout but had a stable lower body, his punches and kicks powerful and precise, revealing himself to be Wang Dapang, an old friend of Han Li's. Despite his chubby appearance, Wang Dapang's movements were not weak, each punch accompanied by a loud shout, whipping up whirlwinds with his fists, majestic and intimidating. The other person was short and agile, darting about like a mouse, not attempting to block Wang Dapang's punches but instead dodging and weaving, seemingly trying to exhaust Wang Dapang's energy before launching a counterattack.

  Seeing his good friend on stage and engaging in a martial arts competition with others, Han Li naturally inclined towards his friend.

  After watching for a while, he saw that Wang Dabao was still maintaining his momentum, and Han Li, although not knowing any martial arts, also knew that he would not lose for the time being, so he put his heart at ease.

  He looked around and wanted to find someone to ask what had happened.

  Seeing a young man not far from the tree, beside a rock, looking and gesturing with his hand, muttering to himself: "Hit his head, kick his waist, ah! Almost! Right, right, kick his butt, use force..."

  The boy was looking at it with flying colors on his eyebrows, while saying something in his mouth.

  Judging from his tone, it seems like he's standing on Wang Baozi's side.

  Han Li thought this person was interesting, so he slowly climbed down from the tree and walked over to his side.

  "Hey, Brother Shifu, do you know these people on the scene? Why are they fighting?" Han Li asked with a honest face.

  "What's there to ask? Does my abacus have people I don't know? Of course, they're here for...... Hmm! Who are you? How come I've never seen you before? You're a newcomer, right? No, it takes at least half a year for new disciples to enter the door. So who exactly are you?" This person was about to answer him in a daze, but suddenly realized he had never seen Han Li before and immediately became sober.

  "In the match below, he is a good friend of Wang Dabao, who fought bravely on the field." Han Li replied seriously.

  "Is Wang Dabao's good friend? I know all his friends, but I don't know you!" The man was still very vigilant.

  "Oh, I've been in seclusion for a few years now, it's been a long time since I last came out, so it's normal that you don't recognize me." Han Li said with a half-truthful and half-joking tone.

  "Is that so, you're also a disciple who entered four years ago? I really didn't expect it, there's actually someone in the mountain that this all-knowing person doesn't recognize." The man glanced at his clothes and seemed to believe Han Li's words.

  This man chatted with Han Li for a few more sentences before he couldn't help but tell Han Li the reason behind this contest.

  "This younger brother, you don't know, all these troubles were caused by the red beauty. It started from..." The little abacus was indeed worthy of its name as "omniscient", telling Han Li everything about the whole incident in great detail.

  It all started with two people, one was Wang Dahu's cousin, Wang Da, and the other was Zhang Changgui, the son of a certain money house owner, both were disciples of the Seven Mysteries Gate, but one was an outer door disciple, and the other was an inner door disciple.

  These two people lived in the same town, but they wouldn't have normally interacted with each other. Everything was triggered by another girl from a different town who had been promised to Wang Yang since childhood. However, some time ago, this girl was seen by Zhang Daguizi while she was out and about, and as a result of Zhang's wealth, the girl and her parents were all won over, and she was promised to Zhang Changgui instead, with Wang Yang's betrothal gifts returned. The girl's family had changed their minds due to greed for wealth, which gave Wang Yang a huge blow, and he had already been infatuated with this girl. Upon hearing the news, he became despondent and eventually took his own life by jumping into a river.

  It should have been the end of a tragic story.

  Ke Wang Da Bao, having been close to his cousin since childhood, upon hearing this, naturally refused to give up and went to find Zhang Changgui, wanting to engage in a duel with him. The loser would have to pour tea for the winner, kowtow, and admit their mistake.

  Zhang Changgui's heart was proud, but he knew his martial arts skills were slightly inferior to Wang Dapang's. He suggested that friends could also participate and have multiple matches to determine the overall winner. Wang Dapang readily agreed. Afterwards, Zhang Changgui relied on his wealth and scattered silver coins everywhere to find good hands among the rich family children of the same school to help him. Although Wang Dapang had no money, he had a wide range of connections within the school and many friends in the middle and lower levels who were willing to help him, including some with decent martial arts skills.

  As a result, many fellow students who heard the news of their competition also came to watch and cheer, forming a fierce and hostile scene with clear divisions between the two sides.

  From the tone of this young man's words, Han Li heard that the contradictions between the rich family disciples and the middle and lower level disciples seemed to have intensified.

  A competition unexpectedly attracted so many people to watch and cheer.

  "You're also helping Wang Dabao, right? If they don't behave, we'll take them on together and beat those young masters until they're crying and shitting their pants. Let them never dare to bully us again." This youngster's mouth had been going non-stop from the start.

  Han Li smiled wryly, what did the conflict between these two have to do with him? It was hard to say who was right or wrong in this matter. He had spent years cultivating his inner energy and sitting in meditation, and his former hot-blooded impulsiveness had long since dissipated. Besides, he had never practiced martial arts or wielded any weapons, and now he couldn't even defeat an ordinary fellow disciple. It would be better to just return to the mountain valley after watching the martial competition.

  "Alright!" Suddenly, the young man's face lit up with joy and he shouted loudly.

  As soon as Han Li heard this, he hastily turned his head to look towards the arena. It turned out that Wang Dabao's opponent had finally not been able to hold on until the end and for a moment was unable to dodge Wang Dabao's massive fist, being punched in the forehead and falling unconscious to the ground.

  At once some people loudly cheered while others looked very displeased.

  Wang Dabao's face was full of pride, he clenched his fists and punched the air in all directions, then swung his big buttocks back and forth as he returned to his own side, completely gone was the fierce look from just now.

  Zhang Changgui's side also walked out two people and dragged their unconscious disciple back to their own side.

  Then, each side sent out one more person, one with a knife and the other with a sword.

  The two of them seemed to have fiery tempers as well and didn't say a word, brandishing the weapons in their hands, they started fighting with a clang.