Chapter 22: Ambushed at Home

  The Shanwei County's Qianli Pinghe River nourishes 500,000 people, the Linyang River winds its way south like a jade belt, meandering through the mountains for thousands of miles. Hengshi Town is located on the banks of the Linyang River. When the Linyang River flows into Dangyang County, it converges with many tributaries, and the water volume has become quite abundant, with a river width of over 30 zhang.

  A bluestone over ten zhang long slants into the Liu Yang River from the riverbank, forming a lake of about 7 or 8 mu in size beside the river. The name Hengshi Town comes from this.

  Xiao Ziyang's home in Gaoping Village is located on a riverbank platform upstream of Lianyang River, only 17 or 18 miles away from Hengshi Town.

  Although the sun had set and the sky was gradually darkening, for him, a little night road was just a home-cooked meal.

  Xiao Ziyang walked into Gaoping Village when the night was already deep. In early winter, the weather was cold, and every household in the village closed their doors.

  Xiao's family lived in a secluded house at the back of the village.

  He stretched out his hand to push open the courtyard gate, but suddenly hesitated for a moment, drew out his saber and held it in his hand, carefully pushed open the gate, and under the moonlight, he found a clear footprint on the snowy ground.

  Looking at this string of footprints, Xiao Ziyang's eyebrows slightly furrowed. These were the footprints left by the leather boots commonly worn by people in the jianghu. The footprints disappeared under a window on the east side of the hall.

  Xiao Ziyang slowly walked towards the main gate of the hall. When he arrived at the door, he kicked it open with a swift kick, and the door flew inward violently.

  As the door flew open, he heard a series of footsteps coming from inside, followed by a flash of cold light, and a black figure rushed towards him with a short gun pointing directly at his face.

  Xiao Ziyang flipped his wrist, and the two horse-slaying knives formed a cross in front of him. The short gun poked fiercely at the broad blade of the knife, producing a crisp sound.

  As the crisp sound rang out, Xiao Ziyang's hands suddenly shook violently, almost dropping the long knife. He only felt a scorching hot flow, surging along the blade and fiercely piercing into his palms. This heat was like boiling oil, flowing against the veins on his hands and rushing up, fiercely pouring into his internal organs...

  He only felt his throat itching, opened his mouth and let out a light cough, and fresh blood spurted out of his mouth and nose!

  "Master of the internal school!" People who practice external martial arts are at a great disadvantage when exchanging blows with an internal master, as they have no defense against the internal master's all-pervasive and irresistible inner power.

  He spat out a mouthful of hot blood, Xiao Ziyang let out a cold hum, and forcibly endured the pain in his chest and abdomen like boiling oil being poured on him. He took advantage of the person's unstable footing, and with a fierce kick of his legs, he pushed the man into the house with his twin blades pressed against the gun tip.

  In an instant, the man in black was strongly pushed by Xiao Ziyang for several feet, knocking over countless household items in the room.

  At this time, Xiao Ziyang seemed to have the upper hand, but in fact, under the continuous invasion of that person, his internal organs were seriously injured. That person's martial arts skills were far superior to his, only being disrupted by his fierce and unorthodox fighting style.

  Xiao Ziyang only felt that the force transmitted from his hand was getting stronger and stronger, and his advancing speed was also getting slower and slower.

  He suddenly stomped his feet on the ground, using the throwing knife technique to exert force, and pushed both arms outward with great strength, causing the black-clothed man to stumble backward.

  Xiao Ziyang's feet stomped the ground again, and the double knives in his hands flew towards the retreating black-clothed man like lightning, another knife-throwing technique!

  The man in black watched as the twin blades shot towards him like lightning, his pupils shrinking in shock.

  This man stretched out his hand, and with a single spear thrust, he blocked the path in front of him. At the same time, his right foot lightly tapped the ground. This tap seemed light and airy, but as soon as it touched the ground, a muffled sound was heard, and the brick-paved ground was instantly poked into a deep pit about a foot in diameter, with brick fragments flying everywhere.

  With this kick, the man in black shot to the left like an arrow, barely dodging a sword while his short gun also blocked another slashing saber.

  However, he ended up using too much force and his shoulder crashed through the wall, sending him tumbling into a room on the left side.

  Xiao Ziyang had already rushed towards a window on the back wall of the main house at the same time he threw out his two knives.

  The man in black let out a low, angry roar and rushed out of the wing room with a grey face. The unexpected knife-throwing technique by Xiao Ziyang earlier had not hurt him, but it had indeed scared him into a cold sweat. Being forced to such a sorry state by an outsider who couldn't even be considered second-rate was extremely humiliating for him.

  He burst into the dusty room, and the empty hall made him pause for a moment, but soon he saw the broken window on the back wall, where he still didn't realize that Xiao Ziyang had escaped.

  The man in black didn't even think about it, and with a sudden movement, he pounced out of the small window. In his opinion, this was just a matter of a few breaths, and Xiao Ziyang, an external martial artist who couldn't use lightness skills, could at most escape more than ten zhang, where could he escape from his palm?

  But just as he had slipped out of the window, a scene in front of him shocked him so much that his soul flew away.

  Xiao Ziyang, did not run away at all. At this moment, he was lying on his back under the window, holding a delicate hand crossbow of about one foot in size with both hands, steadily aiming at the front of the window.

  At the moment when the man in black rushed out of the window, he lightly pulled the trigger, and three sharp arrows pierced into the person's chest with a flash of black light.

  But things didn't end there, at the same time three arrows flew out, Xiao Ziyang pulled the trigger again, another three arrows, pierced into the black-clothed man's abdomen, two of which actually protruded from his back!

  This palm-sized hand crossbow is actually a repeating crossbow!

  The black-clad man's dantian was broken, and in an instant his internal energy dissipated. With a loud crash, he fell to the ground like a torn sack, his pure steel short gun also falling to one side.

  Xiao Ziyang made a rolling motion, picked up the short gun with one hand, flipped his wrist, and turned the gun body. The gun tail was pointing forward, fiercely poking at the armpit of the man in black. Suddenly, he saw him tremble violently and then went limp.

  The cave was sealed off, and the black-clad man could no longer muster up any strength.

  The man in black looked incredulously at the crossbow in Xiao Ziyang's hand and said in a low voice, "Flying Dragon in the Palm! How is that possible!"

  Xiao Ziyang saw that the man had finally lost his resistance, and with a thud, he sat down under the window, unable to hold back a fit of coughing, fresh blood continuously spraying out from his mouth and nose.

  Xiao Ziyang was indeed a martial arts prodigy, and the mediocre skills that Lei Gengtiger taught him were somehow practiced to barely reach second-rate level! However, after receiving the first shot from the black-clad man, he knew his proud martial arts couldn't save him. Because this person was absolutely a top-notch internal family expert!

  Xiao Ziyang looked at the exquisite hand crossbow in his hand without a hint of joy.

  This crossbow was one of the three things that Xiao Ziyang found after his parents were killed, which he spent three whole days searching every inch of his house for.

  Although this hand crossbow is exquisite to the extreme, if used head-on, it will absolutely not be able to hurt a top-notch internal martial artist. He can capture that black-clothed man alive with it, and he has every reason to be proud of himself.