Chapter Thirty-Eight: Martial Arts Gathering for Marriage

  Dai Lei Qiu waited for half a day, seeing that we were all at a loss and no one was moving, immediately flew into a rage: "What do you mean? How come, am I not good enough for you?" While wiping away tears, "I'll tell my sister, don't think about leaving."

  Lao San whispered on the side, "Damn it, he still has a sister, won't she be like this too? If his sister comes out later, we'll be in even more trouble. No one thinks of leaving now, let's just pretend to fight first and see how things go, maybe he'll let us pass when he's happy." We nodded in agreement.

  Karamay hastily apologized, saying: "This... uh... this beauty, we all wanted to choose you so we had a dispute. Let's have a martial arts competition to win your hand in marriage instead. Whoever wins gets to stay and accompany the young lady."

  Dai Lei suddenly burst into laughter and applauded repeatedly: "Great, great, hurry up and compete!"

  Yang Cangcang took a glance at Lao San and said: "Hey, let's go up first, just to show our presence."

  Lao San nodded, and the two of them walked onto the stone platform. Yang Cangcang assumed a defensive stance, saying: "Hey, General Dai is mine, you're not allowed to steal him."

  Lao San suppressed his laughter and said, "He's mine, don't snatch him away." After that, the two of them exchanged blows on stage for a while. Seeing Lao San coming at her with a kick, she didn't dodge and was directly kicked off the stage. Yang Cangcang cupped her hands: "Dragon Great Hero's martial arts are exquisite, little sister can only admit defeat." Leaving behind Lao San with a face full of black lines on the stone platform, Yang Cangcang held back a mischievous smile below.

  Dai Lei Qiu gently swept us with his eyes and said, "Little girls are not good enough, who's next?" After finishing speaking, his gaze fell on me, I quickly shivered: "I... I'll come!" Then pretended to wrestle with Lao San for a bit, Lao San whispered: "Second brother, help your brother out, let me get down from this round."

  I said with a pained expression: "Old Three, Second Brother owes you an apology." Old Three was taken aback, not understanding what I meant. Just as he threw a left hook, Jiuzhong immediately froze him in place. Seeing the situation, I quickly rolled off the stage. Jiuzhong immediately unfroze Old Three, who hadn't even had time to put on his white frost yet.

  I wailed below: "Dragon Great Hero is really awesome, it seems that Lei Qiu girl is none other than you."

  Lao San was almost in tears on stage: "Second Brother, you can't be so ruthless to your brother."

  Dai Lei Qiu shouted from below: "Long Shuai Ge, you're so cool! Who's down there?"

  Fu Ma took a glance around and walked straight up, Old Three was about to speak when Fu Ma waved his hand: "No way!" Old Three was on the verge of tears, with a stifled mouth he made his first move and got beaten down by Fu Ma. Old Three showed a resentful face saying: "The Eye of Insight isn't used like that." Karamay also pretended to fight for a while before losing to Old Three.

  Dai Lei Qiu jumped up and down, clapping her hands, and blew a flying kiss at Lao San, saying: "Make one more bet, and you'll have the chance to be with me forever."

  Lao San looked at us with a mixture of laughter and tears, while Xiao Lao limped up to say: "Dragon Great Hero, I admit defeat." Lao San shouted loudly: "No way, we must exchange two moves!" Xiao Lao thought for a moment, then said: "Fine, let's do it. Anyway, I'll just pretend to be defeated after the first move."

  Xiao Lao just made a gesture, and Lao San immediately spat out blood and fell onto the stage, mumbling: "The legendary Peony Treasure is indeed not in vain." Then, with a sinister smile, he ran down, leaving Xiao Lao bewildered on the stage.

  Xiao Lao was so angry he had no tears left, and grumbled to us saying: "The world is getting worse by the day, nowadays young people don't know how to respect their elders or care for the young."

  Dai Lei Qiu dug his nose and stared at Xiao Lao on the stage in surprise, saying: "I didn't expect that this little old man is even more formidable than Long Daxia? Indeed, as my sister said, an old ginger is still spicy." He slowly walked up to the stage and said: "Little old man, as long as you can defeat me, your friends can leave. Although you don't look as handsome as Long Daxia, I'm not a person who cares about appearance."

  Xiao Lao Tou shook his head like a rattle drum: "I am absolutely no match for the young lady, I hope the young lady will spare our lives."

  Dai Lei Chuan's face suddenly turned red with rage: "You still look down on me, if you can't beat us then die here!" A dark aura began to emanate from around him.

  I was just about to go up and stop him, so as not to hurt Old Xiao, when Dai Lei Qiu suddenly clutched his stomach, then let out a loud fart with a "boom" sound. The several flies that had been flying around his butt were startled away by the loud fart.

  Lao San wiped his sweaty forehead and said: "Look at the girl, this one butt of flies, must be a sure win (one butt fly)."

  Yang Cangcang said quietly beside him: "This is obviously a must-win crap."

  Karamay whispered in my ear, "Brother Junyang, use the Nine Worms to freeze Dairen Chui first, let him think that Xiao Lao has won, so he'll let us out. After we've passed, we can come back and rescue him."

  Fu Ma frowned: "Isn't this pushing Xiao Lao into a desperate situation? I disagree."

  I also hesitated: "Will Xiao Lao blame us afterwards? What if something happens and he's the only one left?"

  Karamay said, "Dai Leichu is determined to find her husband and won't harm Old Xiao. If we don't do this, none of us will be able to leave." Lao San and Yang Cangcang also agreed, and although I still had some doubts in my heart, I could only go along with it for now and apologize to Old Xiao later.

  Dai Lei Chui released a burst of black mist, Xiao Lao was sweating profusely and looked at us with pleading eyes. I quickly told Jiu Chong to freeze Dai Lei Chui, Lao San jumped onto the stage and saw that he was frozen solid, not moving at all. With one kick, he kicked him off the stage. Kalamayi hastily said to Xiao Lao: "Xiao Lao, please bear with it for now, pretend to be deceived by him and stay behind. Once he opens up the thunder array, we'll come rescue you."

  Xiao nodded, and I had Jiu Chong immediately help Dài Léi Qiú thaw out. He lay on the ground with a bewildered expression, unsure of what had just happened: "The old man really has some skills, what was that move you used just now?"

  Xiao Lao was about to speak, when Lao San hastily interrupted: "This is the ultimate move of the Peony Flower Treasure Canon. To practice this skill, one must first castrate oneself. Wait until some day I'll let Xiao Lao teach you."

  Dai Lei Qiu awkwardly covered his face and gently pushed Xiao Lao, saying: "You say what, I am what."

  "Hmph, that... young lady should keep her word, right? I've won now, so you can let my friend go, can't you?"

  Dai Lei nodded and grasped Xiao Lao's hand, "They can all leave, but you can't."

  Xiao Lao cleared his throat and said: "I didn't say I was leaving." He glanced at us with a somewhat guilty conscience.

  "I've been deceived many times, this time I must be smarter. The other day that taciturn ice-faced man also ran away, he was really handsome and had high spiritual power, he defeated me in an instant. Those deep and profound icy eyes, even now I think about them and can't help but feel excited." Dairenqi made a lovesick expression.

  We exchanged a glance at once, "Are you talking about Wu Zihan?" I asked.

  "I don't know what his name is, and I don't know if we'll ever see that handsome guy again. My sister told me not to mess with him, but now he's here. Old man, let's go." Dairenqiu flashed by in a dark cloud and disappeared before our eyes, moving so fast that we didn't have time to react, leaving us stunned. At the same time, a black hole appeared on the stone platform where they were fighting.

  "This should be the exit, let's hurry up." Karamay urged.

  "But Old Xiao..." I looked around and there was nothing but a vast desert.

  Fu Ma patted my shoulder and said, "Xiao Lao should be fine for the time being, let's go first, we'll come back to rescue him after breaking through the other formations." I sighed and reluctantly followed everyone.

  "I don't know if Old Xiao will blame us." I said with some guilt.

  "Xiao Lao has seen things that you and I can't imagine," Karamay said softly. "I believe he can handle it."

  Through the narrow black hole under the stone slab, we came to a foggy swamp, which was completely different from the previous array. There was no desert, but pools of water and wet mud all over the ground. The swamp was sparsely covered with reeds and other plants, surrounded by several dry dead trees. The weather was gloomy and it was impossible to tell whether it was day or night. The sky above was shrouded in fog, and from time to time, a few strange calls of animals could be heard from afar, accompanied by a musty smell that wafted through the air.

  "What kind of place is this? It doesn't look like a desert at all. I'm really not used to it without Old Xiao." Lao San said, rubbing his nose.

  "Let's find the stone tablet first and see what formation it is." Yang Cangcang said, looking around.

  Lao San was walking ahead of us, and the rest of us were searching for stone tablets around him. Suddenly, Lao San shouted loudly: "Save me, come and save me quickly!"

  The fog was too thick, we followed the direction of the sound to find him, Lao San accidentally fell into the swamp, struggling to flail and struggle, but the more he struggled, the deeper he sank, and the mud was about to reach his chest.

  Karamay shouted: "A Long, don't struggle, the more you struggle, the faster you sink." He quickly took out the retractable pole and found a solid piece of land at the edge of the swamp. He stood on it and handed the pole to Old Three, who was already almost submerged up to his neck in the swamp. With great effort, he pulled out his arm and grabbed hold of the pole.

  We were all pulling together on the shore, and Old Three was being pulled up to his waist in the marsh. Victory was within sight, but suddenly we couldn't pull anymore. No matter how hard we tried, he remained stuck in the same position.

  "A Long, what's going on?" Kalamayi asked in surprise.

  Lao San panted for half a day and said: "Good... it seems like something is wrapped around my foot."

  Karamay shouted: "Let's work together, maybe the reeds have tied up Ah Long's feet." After that, we shouted slogans and pulled backwards together, but not only did we fail to pull out Old Three, but also felt that all of us were moving forward.

  Fu Ma exclaimed in surprise: "Is there a reed that can wrap around one's feet and pull them down?"