Chapter 146
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Surrounded by a crowd and at the center of the stage, Brother Lin couldn’t hear what the local folks in the audience were shouting due to the distance and the noisy chatter.
He only noticed the voices suddenly getting quieter for a moment, followed by a burst of even louder cheers.
Just a while ago, he eliminated more than ten opponents in a row and didn’t hear such a commotion from the audience. Why was there an outsider on the stage, and why were the locals so excited?
He curiously perked up his ears, carefully trying to distinguish the cheers from the crowd, and barely made out words like “War God,” “Oh my God,” “Brother Lin,” and “Come down quickly.”
The locals had never referred to him as “War God” before, and they never cheered him with such passion to drive the outsider off the stage. This filled him with joy and pride. He didn’t worry about the identity of the opponent on the other side. He gathered his courage, planted his left foot firmly, and with a swift push, he charged towards his opponent like a force of nature.
The opponent’s eyes peered through the holes in the mask, looking at him indifferently as he approached, showing no intention of evading.
Witnessing the opponent’s sluggish reaction, Brother Lin harnessed his inner strength and swiftly closed the gap. With a mighty leap, he directed a punch towards the icy, wolf-like mask.
“Whoosh—”
The fist sliced through the air, causing a fleeting breeze. The wolf mask appeared to effortlessly evade the punch, like a feather carried away by the wind.
To Brother Lin’s astonishment, the opponent adeptly sidestepped the strike at the last possible moment. He had exerted excessive force in the punch, struggling to keep pace with the wolf-masked figure’s lightning-quick movement to his side. While he couldn’t fathom how the opponent had reached that position, the foe had already clutched his wrist and executed a forceful pull.
Attempting to regain his balance with a forward step, Brother Lin found himself outmaneuvered as if the opponent had foreseen his next action. The instant he raised his leg, his knee met a swift counter-kick from his opponent. He tried to take a step forward to steady himself, but it was as if the opponent had predicted his next move.
At the moment he lifted his leg, his knee was kicked back by his opponent’s foot!
The concise and precise movements flowed seamlessly. Brother Lin’s foot, when it hit the ground, couldn’t support his over-tilted body any longer.
With a dull thud, Brother Lin’s face met the ground as he fell on the stage.
“Ahhhh!”
Unexplained cheers erupted from the audience, and some began chanting slogans that were popular among the common folk.
“Majestic Great Chu! Ruling the world!”
“War God Prince Ling! Gazing upon all!”
Covered in dirt, Brother Lin clutched his knee with one hand and struggled to sit up with the other. He looked up in disbelief at the man with the wolf mask.
Upon closer inspection, his anger grew. The young man still stood motionless, not even glancing down at him but turning his head toward a specific direction in the audience.
“This one doesn’t count!” Brother Lin spat out the dirt from his mouth, and climbed up with determination. “I was careless just now, come again!”
The masked man continued to gaze in the direction of the crowd, not answering.
“Can you hear me?”
In the center of the crowd below, Han Jiao was baffled by the sudden eruption of wild cheers around him. So, he sat in his chair, huddled, not joining the others in cheering for the Great Chu’s War God.
Clearly, this response didn’t satisfy Xie Duo.
Finally, Brother Lin saw the wolf mask turn to look at him, and surprisingly, the guy politely made a request.
“Play a few more rounds with me, no surrender allowed.”
Brother Lin: “……”
Surrender? Fat chance!
Brother Lin’s eyes widened, his fists clenching. He shouted loudly, launching an all-out attack against his opponent.
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
“Thud—”
After the fifth time he collided face-first with the ground, the fire burning in Brother Lin’s chest was completely extinguished.
He realized that the guy with the wolf mask wasn’t just agile, but the strength he showed in their few encounters left him powerless.
Perhaps he kept knocking him down with tricks because he was afraid that a real fight might kill him…
Brother Lin, who had guessed the truth, lay on the ground with a shocked expression.
After lying down for a bit too long, the wolf-masked man impatiently urged from above, “Get up quickly.”
Get up, my foot!
Brother Lin propped himself up and sat cross-legged on the ground. “I’m done! Our village doesn’t allow outsiders to participate in the festival celebration. Even if you win, it doesn’t count! The silver bracelet from the deer’s horn still belongs to me!”
Just at the moment when Brother Lin completely gave up, amidst the crowd, Han Jiao finally adapted to the surrounding enthusiasm and began to imitate the villagers, standing up and joining in the chorus of “Invincible War God.”
Behind the mask on the stage, the shallow pupils gleamed with satisfaction. As a result, Brother Lin was let go.
Unaware that the wolf-masked man had already given up the match, Brother Lin continued to angrily complain, “Even if you snatch that bracelet, our village girls won’t agree to marry you!”
Xie Duo stepped closer to him and extended his hand. “Get up. I only wanted to defeat you. I have no interest in the bracelet.”
Brother Lin looked up in confusion. “So, you came up just to have a match with me? You don’t want the bracelet?”
“Yes.”
Brother Lin impatiently brushed his hand away, stood up on his own, and said, “If you don’t care about the precious bracelet, why bother me? I was counting on it to marry a wife!”
Xie Duo tilted his head and asked, “In your village, you only need a silver bracelet to get married?”
Brother Lin, relieved from the crisis, patted his butt and honestly replied, “It’s called a ‘betrothal bracelet.’ It’s not a dowry. If you give it to your beloved, the matchmaker will bless the couple to grow old together.”
Under the wolf mask, those shallow pupils gleamed with a dangerous light. “Is that so?”
“It’s quite effective. For thousands of years, girls in our village who wore this bracelet ended up growing old with their partners.”
The wolf-masked man suddenly turned and walked away.
A moment later, Brother Lin was fuming with anger!
“You said you weren’t interested in the bracelet! Deceiver! Deceiver!”
As the fickle War God leaped from the stage with the silver bracelet, the village girls immediately surrounded him, their shouts drowned out by the crowd, their hands eagerly reaching out.
Han Jiao had also risen to welcome Xie Duo, but in an instant, he found his path blocked by a sea of heads.
“What are they doing?” Han Jiao turned to ask the elderly man beside him.
The old man answered with joy, “His Highness the War God has come to our village to choose a bride! We don’t know which lucky girl will receive that bracelet.”
A fierce gleam flashed in Han Jiao’s normally gentle eyes. “Who’s choosing a bride? Him?” Han Jiao pointed to the wolf-masked man towering a head above the surrounding crowd.
“Aiyo! Aiyo! This can’t be!” The old man hastily grabbed Han Jiao’s hand and pressed it down. “Master, how can you point fingers at the War God? That’s a capital offense!”
“Weren’t they all pointing at him? Why are you singling me out?”
“They are begging for the bracelet, not pointing fingers.”
“Hmph!” Han Jiao turned away stubbornly and grumbled, “Stinky bracelet. I don’t want it even if it’s given to me for free!”
If you enjoy this novel, support the Translator ginevre on her ko-fi account :))
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
