Chapter Eighteen: Solo Duel

  Dazed and confused, I crawled out of bed, opened my eyes to see the dim ceiling lamp above my head. The soft, milky light now seemed as disgusting as a strand of hair in a bowl of rice. Just as I was about to grab the pillow to cover my head, a sharp pain shot through my armpit, not severe but enough to remind me how yesterday's interrogation training had ended.

  Sleepiness suddenly dispersed from my brain, I sat up with a start, checking all over my body. How were the wounds after such severe torture yesterday? I hastily lifted my clothes to take a look.

  The few bruises on my body only left a few black and purple marks, which didn't hurt or itch. The pinch wound in my armpit was actually lighter, with only two small red dots. But these minor injuries brought me such a terrifying experience that I had to resort to the butcher's interrogation methods. No wonder those who fell into his hands couldn't beg for life or death!

  This is not the barracks I saw when I arrived, this is an underground base. The captain once told me that the outside camp was just a cover-up, and it's only where people stay and relax when they have nothing to do. Everyone's actual residence is actually underground, and I guess this is one of them. Looking around the room, it's not very big, only about 10 square meters, with a toilet and bathroom inside. Outside there are two beds, with two cabinets at the head of the bed, an empty table, and two military laptops, with a target hanging on the wall, I don't know who is sleeping in the same room as me.

  Look at the time, it's already 6 o'clock in the evening. It seems I've slept for a long time. I'll take a shower to wash away the lingering effects of the medicine from my brain and perk myself up as I head towards the dining hall.

  Not yet in the dining hall, I heard someone laughing loudly, and from the sound of it, there were both men and women. I pushed open the door and just entered the dining hall, everyone stopped laughing, all staring at me with a look as if they had seen a monster! I stared blankly at the room full of people, what was wrong with these guys? Suddenly, the beauty pouted her mouth, pointed at me and burst out laughing! The others followed suit and laughed wildly! What's more, the young master covered his stomach and slapped the table! Was there something on my face? I took a glance at the large silver plate hanging in the dining hall. Nothing was wrong! Who knew that not looking would be better, but taking a look made everyone laugh even harder! The young master was lying on the table, not laughing, but panting!

  As I watched a group of people going crazy, I felt a bit creeped out and thought to myself that it would be better to go back to sleep. But before I could even turn around, a slender hand grabbed my collar. The beauty pulled me into the crowd, sat me between her and the kitten, and then had the chef bring up another serving of food. A large group of people stared at me as I ate, and I looked at everyone quietly and asked: "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

  "It's nothing, it's nothing, what could we possibly have?" Everyone shook their heads together.

  "That's great! That's great!" I said, picking up my chopsticks and spoon to start eating. Just as I was about to swallow the first mouthful of rice, I heard the little cat next to me say: "Xing Tian, are you still a virgin?"

  "Cough! Cough!... Cough! Cough... Ahh!!" I was choked at once, and the food didn't go down to my stomach smoothly, it stopped at my chest. "Ahh! Ahh!" I patted my chest while pointing at the water cup, the beautiful woman kindly pushed the water cup over to me, and I took several big gulps before I recovered from this bout of coughing.

  "Cough! Cough! What did you say?" I asked the kitten with a glare, coughing: "How did you know that?"

  "That's it!" The kitten slapped the table and burst out laughing: "Heavens! A 20-year-old virgin!"

  Everyone burst out laughing again! Only I stood there stupidly. After a while, I came to my senses and shouted: "Stop laughing! How did you know?"

  "Haha, I'm dead!" The little cat wiped away tears from the corner of her eyes and pulled out a small notebook from her pocket. As soon as I saw it, I knew what was going on - it was the same notebook that Butcher had taken out of my pocket after I was knocked out by the truth serum yesterday. I turned around to see Butcher's face twisted into an "evil" grin, and before I could think of how to react, I heard the little cat's sweet voice coming from behind me.

  "Xing Tian! Male, 20 years old, from Henan Province, China. Studying computer and engineering control at Yunnan University of Technology. Skilled in English, Chinese, local dialects, and a little Japanese. Family includes parents and an older brother, who is a lieutenant colonel in the Beijing Armed Police Corps. Learned qigong from his brother! Enjoys literature, doesn't smoke or drink. First confessed to a girl at 19 years old, but was rejected. Still a virgin! Favorite color is black, favorite actors are Nicolas Cage and Anthony Hopkins, favorite movie is "The Silence of the Lambs". First had a wet dream... Little cat ran while reciting, I chased after her in this small kitchen with so many people, couldn't catch up to her."

  Watching the little cat jumping around, I deeply felt that people can't be judged by their appearance. Don't look at the little cat like a professional mourner, but its light body skills are really powerful. Just when she was about to say something that would make me lose face, I caught her. I covered her mouth with one hand and snatched the notebook from her, throwing it into the kitchen stove. Before I could catch my breath, the beautiful woman next to me continued: "Your first nocturnal emission was at 10 years old, you're really precocious, Xing Tian! Most of your family members are doctors and teachers..." Seeing the beauty recite my family's genealogy like a memorized essay without looking at the book, I sat there with my head in my hands, listening to the laughter around me. I'm done, my face is completely lost! Let me die!!!

  "Xing Tian, look at this! This is the consequence of being unable to keep a secret! From now on, you must never be muddle-headed again!" The culprit finally couldn't bear it anymore.

  I leapt up from my seat and pointed at the butcher: "I want a duel with you!"

  "Delighted! Just in time for a workout!" The butcher chuckled, rubbed his hands together, and then stood up to head towards the elevator.

  A group of people took the elevator to the third floor gym, right next to the fighting arena. The fighting arena was a large empty room with wooden flooring, and everyone else was standing or sitting around the edges, clearly eager to watch a good show. After stripping off our clothes, my opponent and I stood facing each other, shirtless, eyeing the butcher's intimidating muscles. Although I had been training intensively for two months and my muscles had made significant progress, they still looked scrawny compared to the butcher's.

  My mind kept racing, I knew I couldn't beat him with brute force. The hard qigong I learned from my older brother was just theoretical, and I hadn't practiced it before. The moves I learned didn't know how to use them in a real fight either. My hands and feet felt stiff, what should I do? Looking at his stance, it seemed like he was using boxing techniques, so I couldn't launch a direct attack!

  I made up my mind and started circling around the butcher, who initially followed me with his body, keeping his face towards me. After two circles, he stopped turning around too. I took advantage of him having his back to me and threw a quick punch at the back of his head. The butcher had his back to me, but just as my fist was about to hit his head, he suddenly turned around and threw a straight punch at my face. Originally, I had thrown the first punch, and it was almost hitting his forehead, but he somehow managed to counterattack before I could even land my blow, and the wind from his fist had already brushed against my face. I quickly lowered my head, trying to dodge his punch, but unexpectedly, his fist dropped down and suddenly curved into an uppercut, hitting me right on the shoulder.

  "Bang!" I was knocked to the ground with a punch that followed my crouching momentum. Then, his left fist came at me with an uppercut aimed straight for my face - if this hit, my nose would be gone! I dodged back just in time and let his fist pass by, using both hands to support myself on the ground and pushing off with both legs, kicking him squarely on the instep of his feet. He lost balance and fell to one knee, stretching out his right hand to steady himself. I kicked at his foot again with my right leg, but before I could hit it, he punched me in the chest with his left fist.

  On the upper part of my right calf, it felt like I was hit with an iron hammer and thrown to the ground with great force.

  The two of us knelt on the ground and started rubbing our legs, after rubbing for a while, we stood up again. Although our legs were sore, I felt much better this time because when he caught me in the department store, I shot an arrow at him but he didn't dodge, making me feel terrified of his ability to withstand my attacks from the bottom of my heart. I was afraid that even if I hit him for half a day, he wouldn't react, and then there would be no point in hitting him anymore, all I could do was take a beating. Now it seems that when I hit him, he feels pain too, so I'm not afraid of returning without success. Even if I couldn't beat him, I'd still want to bite off a piece of his flesh.

  When I realized this, I became much bolder and rushed forward with a loud shout. I dodged his straight punch, wrapped my arms around his waist, lifted him up, and tried to slam him to the ground. Before I could lift him over my shoulder, I felt his fists pounding on my back, sending me crashing to the floor. My hands slid from his waist to his calves, and as he struggled to break free, I quickly wrapped my arms around his legs again, pulling them into a tight lock. With a swift motion, I flipped him onto his back. I straddled his stomach, punching his face twice. The feeling of my fists connecting with his face was exhilarating - damn, it felt amazing! As I raised my fist for the third punch, I took a hit to the ribs, and that one blow sent me clutching my belly, kneeling on the ground, unable to get up.

  "When you get a chance, grasp it firmly. Can't be like fighting with thugs on the battlefield, where one strike can defeat the enemy." The butcher rubbed his face and said.

  I endured the severe pain in my liver, just got up, and as soon as I lifted my head, I was hit on the neck by the butcher's knife. The force wasn't great, but it was enough to make me clutch at my neck, gasping for breath, with a tightness in my chest and dizziness in front of my eyes, and I fell to the ground again!

  "You're dead!" the butcher said, circling around me and kicking one leg into my face. The force was so great that it kicked my head back almost 90 degrees, and I vaguely heard a "crack" sound from my neck before falling to the ground again.

  At this time, my head was dizzy, my face was covered in blood, I couldn't tell the direction, and the strength in my body was gradually lost. Before I could even get up, I was kicked down by the butcher again! After being kicked seven times in a row, I lay motionless on the ground.

  The butcher circled around me a few times, kicked me seven or eight times until I fell to the ground motionless. He walked over to my side, kicked my head with his foot, and when he saw I wasn't reacting, he bent down to see if I had fainted. Just as he lowered his head and before his hand touched mine, I suddenly raised both hands, swung my head back with force, and hit him right in the face, instantly smashing his nose open. I also felt a wet sensation on the back of my head, probably from a wound. Without thinking twice, I took advantage of the moment when he was still clutching his face and hadn't straightened up yet. With all my remaining strength, I grabbed him from behind, wrapped my arms around his neck, and used my shoulder to pin his head against mine, with his head on my right shoulder. My hands clasped together around his throat, pulling downwards with force - a lock technique I learned from wrestling.

  The butcher didn't expect me to play dead, and when I hit him in the face with a headbutt, he knew something was wrong. Before he could even react, I had already locked him up. His neck was resting on my shoulder, his throat was being gripped by me, and his hands were searching for my head behind him but couldn't find it. He was running out of breath in his chest, so he used his elbow to heavily collide with my back.

  I gritted my teeth and held my breath, not daring to relax, because I knew that as soon as I let go of this breath, I wouldn't be able to get up again. The butcher's elbow strikes hit me so hard that my bones felt like they were going to scatter everywhere. His elbow strikes were too powerful, two or three hits and my ribs hurt so much that I couldn't even use my arms, if he came at me with two more, I wouldn't be able to hold him back, if he broke free, just one hit and I would definitely be done for, no way! I absolutely cannot give up like this, even if it kills me, I have to make him shed some skin.

  With the last of my strength, I jumped forward and landed on my butt, I could feel his heavy head thudding onto my shoulder, and it let out a "thud"! All the energy in my body was used up, the pain in my back made me unable to sit up. The butcher's head was right next to my hand, but even lifting my hand again took all my remaining strength.

  Butcher, lying on the ground, hugging his head, lay there for a while, slowly sat up, looked at me, hehe smiled: "Okay! Kid, you can still pretend to be dead! If it wasn't for your poor physical fitness, I would have really been killed by you! It seems that you need more training, let me give you some motivation!" After finishing, he crawled over and punched me unconscious.

  Click to view picture link: KA-BAR 1214 Fighting Knife