Under the fist

Chapter 43 Entering the Fortress, Various Factions of the Martial World

……

"call!"

After shaking off his pursuers, Lian Youming leaned against a tree to catch his breath.

But as he panted, his left hand, which was supporting the girl's waist and abdomen, was subtly exerting force, as if he intended to kill her on the spot.

"Ugh, it hurts!"

Unexpectedly, the girl's face turned pale, and she trembled in pain, her body instinctively curling up.

Upon seeing this, Lian Youming frowned slightly, as if he were completely bewildered.

its not right?
This person really is just an ordinary person.

Such a move had put him in a passive position, yet he showed no reaction whatsoever. He didn't exhale, his muscles didn't move—it was as ordinary as could be.

Did you guess wrong?
Lian Youming hesitated for a moment, then carefully put the girl down as if facing a formidable enemy.

Surprisingly, the girl obediently rolled down, her eyes filled with tears as she stared at Lian Youming with a hint of reproach, but her hands were still clutching his sleeves, as if she were very afraid of being abandoned in this deep mountain forest.

Who can stand this.

Lian Youming originally wanted to test her further, but considering they were still in danger and seeing the girl's tearful eyes, he sighed, "I'm sorry... I thought you..."

Before he could finish speaking, wild beasts appeared running through the woods behind him, as if they had been disturbed.

"Why are they chasing so closely?"

Lian Youming assumed that the pursuers were approaching again, but the next second...

"Roar!"

A deafening roar suddenly erupted from the forest, shaking the mountains into silence and startling all the birds into flight.

An invisible, overwhelming, malevolent aura swept across all directions, making Lian Youming's scalp tingle and his body hair stand on end uncontrollably. A cold wind swept by, and his back was instantly soaked with sweat.

Lian Youming stood frozen for a few seconds, then suddenly shuddered, "There's a tiger on this mountain?"

But after asking, he realized it was a pointless question.

What's so strange about having tigers on Changbai Mountain?

The girl was also terrified and turned pale.

Lian Youming's face turned grim. "Damn it, the White Lotus Sect's beast-driving technique... how are we supposed to get down here?"

He took a deep breath and noticed a faint, strange fishy smell in the mountain breeze.

The girl looked miserable. "What do we do then?"

"Cold salad!"

Lian Youming put the girl on his back and ran into the twilight, not caring what Li Da would do next; saving his own life was the priority.

With just that one tiger's roar, the wild beasts in the forest went berserk, scattering in all directions like a tidal wave.

Fortunately, the tiger didn't seem to be coming for them.

Lian Youming quickly scanned the area and faintly heard a few exclamations from afar. It seemed that, just as Li Da had predicted, quite a few people had come. He wondered whether they were friend or foe, good or bad.

This situation is not simple.

For no apparent reason, Lian Youming sensed an immense danger.

Before it got completely dark, he ran a little further and checked his surroundings.

Just then, the girl, perched on Lian Youming's back, pointed to a spot and said, "We're almost at Black Wind Pass. The wind is very strong."

Unbeknownst to them, they had already climbed the north slope.

Feeling the strong mountain wind, Lian Youming's doubts deepened. Since the girl knew the way, she might really be a villager who went up the mountain to gather herbs.

"Hold on."

He gave them a few words of advice and then climbed straight up the mountain path.

Lian Youming did not go to Black Wind Pass. He was completely unaware of the common names of the various places on the mountain and could only find similar locations by looking at the markings on the map.

"Do you know a place around here called Birch Forest?" The girl quickly pointed up the mountain, "There!"

Lian Youming followed the direction and looked at the dense, dark forest. He strode over there.

As darkness completely fell, a cold moon hung in the sky.

The forest was pitch black, but the bright moonlight shone through the short, sparse leaves onto their faces.

Lian Youming held his breath and carried the girl forward little by little.

But it was like stirring up a hornet's nest; many wild animals were lurking in the forest, probably hiding there to escape the mosquitoes and horseflies below. Wild boars and deer would immediately leap out from the east and west when they saw living people wandering in, causing quite a commotion.

After wandering around twice, Lian Youming stopped in front of a lush forest, where a strangely shaped rock, about half a person's height, stood half-hidden.

Two silly roe deer were lying nearby, too lazy to move, their necks raised and their big eyes staring at the two of them.

"What are you looking at? Once we're free, I'll eat you both up." Lian Youming slapped them both away.

"What are you looking for?" the girl asked, puzzled.

Lian Youming remained silent, his eyes flickering. He gripped his military dagger and began circling the rock, then hacked and chopped at the overgrown birch trees around it. Once he had cleared a space, he forcefully pushed the rock over.

The rocks collapsed, and by the moonlight, a rusty, circular metal plate was suddenly exposed to the air. It was covered in dust and rotten grass, and in the very center was a huge ring, full of rust.

Lian Youming cleaned away the dust, then took a deep breath, grabbed the ring, and pulled it upwards with all his might. Accompanied by a series of hoarse and piercing metallic scraping sounds, a dark and deep circular entrance appeared before the two of them.

On their way here, the forest suddenly fell silent, but then a foul wind arose, and a huge, ghostly figure, with half a blood-dripping body in its mouth, slowly walked out of the darkness into the moonlight.

What a fierce tiger!

Lian Youming's facial features were stiff, his hands and feet were ice-cold, but his gaze fell on the tiger's back, where there was a person standing. He couldn't see the person's face clearly, but he could roughly judge from the figure that the person was a woman.

Besides, there seemed to be people everywhere in the woods.

They were all secretly watching and observing.

Can't run away.

Lian Youming suddenly looked at the girl beside him, narrowed his eyes, and couldn't be sure of her identity.

Li Da's grandson has disappeared somewhere.

At this point, there is no turning back.

Who could have imagined, even Lian Youming himself, that he, a sent-down youth, a student who just a year ago was thinking about how to make a name for himself, would be so unwittingly drawn into such a major event in the martial arts world, without even knowing a single person involved? He had truly done himself into a mess.

"Li Da, I'll fuck your grandpa!" Lian Youming glanced at the dark entrance, took a deep breath without panic, first cursed loudly to the sky, then grabbed the girl's wrist, "I don't care if you're good or evil. If you're good, I'll definitely die before you when we go down. If you're faking it, we'll die together."

Having said that, Lian Youming leaped into the fortress entrance amidst the girl's exclamation.

Not long after the two jumped in, figures began to appear one after another.

However, gazing at the bottomless entrance, the group neither made a move nor took the initiative, as if they were observing, pondering, and in a stalemate.

"You two from Xingyi Sect, why aren't you dealing with your family matters? What are you doing here, getting involved in this mess? Xue Hen is practically going berserk, and you still have the mind to think about other things?"

"Damn it, you still know that's our family matter. If I remember correctly, Xie Tianhong is from your Eagle Claw Sect, right? You have the nerve to criticize us after producing such a traitor."

"So what if there are traitors? The Bagua Sect has traitors too. There are also Chen Family Fist, Mantis Sect, Tai Chi Sect, and even the Natural Sect has people joining the White Lotus Sect... The Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals, which one of them isn't a master from various sects in the martial arts world? Even Shaolin and Wudang are no exception. No one should laugh at anyone else."

……

The crowd was arguing amongst themselves, but a few meters below the entrance, the boy was leaning outwards, listening thoughtfully to the commotion above.

Xie Laosan was originally a member of the Eagle Claw Sect.

Thirty-six Heavenly Generals?

Lian Youming couldn't help but recall Xie Laosan's claim that he was one of the thirty-six retainers of the White Lotus Sect.

Could it be that they've all come for that old medicine?

Extend lifespan?

Lian Youming looked at the girl clinging to him again. She was as panicked as a rabbit, clinging to him tightly and trembling.

Suddenly, he pulled his hands and feet inward, and he slid down the smooth stone wall at high speed.

(End of this chapter)