Chapter 113

Chapter 113

As far as Tang Yuanxiao was concerned, the matter of Xie Qingling standing outside the cafeteria to reflect on her wrongdoing in public was not over.

When he first heard someone was holding up a self-criticism outside the cafeteria for fighting, Tang Yuanxiao had eagerly gone to enjoy the spectacle.

When he arrived, he found an old acquaintance.

Worse, that acquaintance’s self-criticism read:

I offer Director Ling Fang my self-criticism for my wrongdoing. I will never beat up a colleague again.

At the same time, with the most sincere remorse, I hereby apologize to Senior Tang Yuanxiao.

Very good. Very good indeed.

Now all of headquarters knew that Tang Yuanxiao had been beaten up by some unknown rookie!

Tang Yuanxiao’s face darkened at once.

There was a limit to anyone’s patience. He would teach that presumptuous rookie Xie Qingling a lesson!

After reflecting bitterly on what had happened, Tang Yuanxiao decided to outwit her rather than confront her with force.

As a Senior, beating up a rookie directly would look bad whether he won or lost. It would not sound good if word spread, either.

So Tang Yuanxiao decided to set some traps Xie Qingling would struggle to escape, making her suffer too and showing her that age brought cunning.

To carry out his plan for revenge, Tang Yuanxiao first secretly observed Xie Qingling’s movements for several days. He established where she usually went and what areas she frequented, marked the intersections and stretches of road where she lingered most often, and devised a complete, watertight revenge operation based on her routine.

Then Tang Yuanxiao spent points at headquarters’ armory on some triggered traps that could be placed in advance.

Animal traps, the Arhat Formation, Earthburst Stars, and the Heaven-and-Earth Net.

The Arhat Formation consisted of a formation disc with eighteen bronze men. Their footwork was unpredictable and ever-changing, and their main function was to force Xie Qingling into the encirclement.

Then Earthburst Stars, a triggered mine formation, would blast a layer of skin off her.

Next, the animal traps would clamp onto her feet and deprive her of mobility.

Finally, the Heaven-and-Earth Net would make Xie Qingling a turtle trapped in a jar, bringing this counterattack to a splendid finish.

With all four methods working together, the plan was meticulous and foolproof. Once Xie Qingling came, she would never get away.

Smiling sinisterly, Tang Yuanxiao set the traps on the stretch of road Xie Qingling would pass after work. All he had to do was wait for the right time, capture her, and avenge his humiliation!

Then he would only need to find a perfect vantage point and enjoy watching her predicament.

He believed that tomorrow, the Medical Department would ring with Xie Qingling’s loud cries of pain as she received treatment.

After setting up a “Road Closed” sign on that stretch, Tang Yuanxiao quietly slipped away.

He checked the time. Xie Qingling was fifteen minutes away from reaching the trapped road.

During those fifteen minutes, Tang Yuanxiao needed to confirm she was heading this way.

He sped across the rooftops, moving about and searching.

But before he found Xie Qingling, an urgent voice from a Patrol Unit member came through his earpiece. “Tang Yuanxiao, someone has spotted signs of the Eleventh Realm at the intersection of Sixth and Seventh Streets in the East District.”

The intersection of Sixth and Seventh Streets – wasn’t that… wasn’t that where Xie Qingling would pass in a moment?

Shit!

Something occurred to Tang Yuanxiao, and his face changed drastically.

He had not found Xie Qingling yet. Surely she had not already gone back?

If she triggered the traps first, then encountered someone from the Eleventh Realm…

Tang Yuanxiao went pale with anxiety and immediately turned back.

Returning to the intersection, he could see the “Road Closed” sign he had just erected. There were no signs of fighting here, nor any blood.

Neither Xie Qingling nor anyone from the Eleventh Realm was there.

No one had come here except…

Him.

Seeing the Eighteen Bronze Men Formation slowly appear, Tang Yuanxiao’s face changed, and he said again, “Shit!”

As he spoke, the leading bronze man immediately threw a punch, striking Tang Yuanxiao hard in the eye.

The other bronze men followed close behind. Their unpredictable footwork and attacks left Tang Yuanxiao struggling badly.

Still, this was not too troublesome for him. He only had to dodge them one by one –

“Earthburst Stars…” Without noticing, Tang Yuanxiao had been forced into the encirclement he had prepared.

Bang, bang, bang! Tang Yuanxiao stepped on several mines in succession, the explosions making his scalp prickle.

“Aah!” Tang Yuanxiao suddenly cried out. A sharp pain in his ankle sent him falling to the ground.

The animal trap.

But it was not over.

Tang Yuanxiao looked up and saw the Heaven-and-Earth Net descending over his head.

Tang Yuanxiao: “…”

Why had he made his traps so meticulous, so foolproof?

For the first time, Tang Yuanxiao hated his own superb skill at setting traps.

–

Elsewhere, Xie Qingling held Bloodsworn and stared darkly at the man blocking her way, with his pointed mouth and narrow, simian face.

She had already asked other headquarters members for help, but reinforcements would take some time to arrive.

Xie Qingling favored aggressive attacks, racing against time to strike and finish quickly. At her fastest, she could end a fight in minutes; even a slow one lasted only a little over ten minutes.

In other words, if things went smoothly enough, Xie Qingling could quickly kill the person from the Eleventh Realm by the time the other headquarters reinforcements arrived.
But this opponent was fast too.

Fast in his movements, fast in his attacks.

He was like an agile monkey, with tricky, unpredictable attacks. He fought in the same vein as Xie Qingling, and she found him somewhat difficult to handle.

She had not yet used the Concealed Presence on Bloodsworn. Xie Qingling kept looking for the right moment.

Concealed Presence had a cooldown. Using it too early would not only lose the element of surprise but expose her to danger.

Xie Qingling valued every advantage she held. She wanted every move to serve a purpose, rather than passively taking blows and responding to them.

While Xie Qingling was thinking, the man charged again.

His arms were longer than an ordinary person’s, like an ape’s. He alternated them nimbly along the metal covers of the streetlights, like an agile monkey swinging through a forest, drawing closer and closer to Xie Qingling.

A figure leaped down from midair, heading straight for her face.

He swung a long arm like an extended whip, driving a fist diagonally upward toward her face.

Xie Qingling leaned backward and dodged.

The man immediately pressed her again. His punches were fast, seemingly without method or pattern. Every blow appeared to follow a whim, every punch flung wildly like a mad dog’s attack.

He even kept slapping his clothes, thighs, and other parts of his body, making sharp popping sounds, like an ape beating its chest and stamping its feet.

The sounds continued without pause. As his attacks grew faster and faster, Xie Qingling found it difficult to cope.

It was hard to imagine: she held two blades, yet a bare-handed man was forcing her back again and again.

Xie Qingling’s expression grew increasingly grim.

She had learned her grappling and combat techniques from Yu Wei. His fighting style used broad, sweeping movements and tremendous ferocity. Though her skill was not as great as his, after training, she could usually kill an ordinary person or a monster that did not understand how to generate force in a single strike, working with Concealed Presence.

This was the first time Xie Qingling had faced an enemy and struggled like a toddler learning to walk.

The popping sounds rang like an incantation, like the man’s war drums. The louder they became, the higher his fighting spirit and the greater his power.

…Linked attacks.

After several exchanges, Xie Qingling confirmed that these were his combinations.

Every sound meant he was releasing force. The uninterrupted sounds meant each move linked into another. Through the connected movement and leverage of his feet, waist, back, hands, elbows, and other joints, he amplified his force, giving each blow tremendous power.

She had to break his combination first.

Xie Qingling abandoned Bloodsworn for the moment and met him bare-handed. Circulating the Spirit inside her, she countered his elbows with her own, slapped his arms aside to block, and risked taking a hit to interrupt his combination with a Heart-Driving Elbow.

Her arm hurt badly. His hands were hard, specifically trained for this.

He was a dedicated practitioner of this art, a genuine martial arts master.

Xie Qingling kept attacking. She stopped thinking about defense and focused on offense.

With her clothes and skirt flying, Flower Hidden Beneath the Leaves came into play.

Xie Qingling lowered her brows, lifted her skirt, and swept it forcefully toward the man’s hands. Then she twisted the skirt into a rope, briefly entangling his swinging hands while kicking hard at his knee.

The man grunted in pain and dropped to one knee.

Xie Qingling used the momentum to flip behind him and drew Bloodsworn, intending to drive a blade into the area of his cerebellum and spine and end his life.

But at that moment, the man’s shadow, stretched long beneath the streetlight, suddenly grew larger and longer, as though something were growing within it.

Alarm surged through Xie Qingling. Her temples throbbed. She abandoned this excellent opening outright, used Concealed Presence to turn invisible, and left the spot where she had stood.

Her instinct was right.

The man’s black shadow transformed into an almost tangible humanoid thing. Clawing wildly, it lunged at Xie Qingling’s position –

And caught nothing.

[The Four Primordial Monkeys. The true and false Wukong. The Six-Eared Macaque, difficult to distinguish.[^macaque-consciousnesses] As the embodiment of the six consciousnesses, the Six-Eared Macaque grants people of the mortal realm the Double-Creation Art. One becomes two: you within me, me within you.]

[Against an opponent who has mastered the mortal realm’s combat arts, and the shadow double he has refined, Spirit Wielder, you must admit that you cannot defeat him alone.]

This time, Xie Qingling thought the voice had a point. So she decided to run.

Concealed Presence lasted five minutes. Before her opponent realized what was happening, she would have plenty of time to escape.

Once the reinforcements arrived, they could gang up on him together.

But before Xie Qingling could put this plan into action, a dazzling blaze appeared in the distant black sky. Someone was speeding toward them.

Looking closely, who else could it be but Tang Yuanxiao riding Bifang?

Tang Yuanxiao roared, “Mars Encroaches on the Stars!”

Before he arrived, the fire dragon reached them.

A huge, brilliant tongue of flame swept along the ground, burning fiercely as it spread toward the person from the Eleventh Realm. The fire dragon was imposing; its flames were scorching hot.

Reinforcements were here.

Xie Qingling drew Bloodsworn again and decided not to run.

No major problem. They could turn the tables and kill him.

[^macaque-consciousnesses]: In Journey to the West, the Six-Eared Macaque impersonates Wukong, making the two difficult to distinguish. The Buddhist six consciousnesses comprise the five sensory consciousnesses and mind consciousness.