Chapter 53: Growth Part 1

After the first battle, Wang Wei had to find a new outfit as his old one was unusable. As such, he had to stitch a new outfit out of the pelt of the animals he hunted. He burned his old one as the blood could attract certain dangerous animals in the forest.

After resting for a day, Wang Wei hunted his breakfast and headed toward his next target. There were three of them at the same time camping further down the river from the previous rich girl.

It was a combination of two boys and one girl. Wang Wei stalked them from a distance based on their Qi Dragon.

Wang Wei pondered his next course of action and came up with the idea of assassinating each of them at night, while they were sleeping. However, he soon gave up this plan as he realized that his purpose in this trial was to experience combat, not just to kill people and reach the number one spot to receive the rewards at the end.

Only by fighting in direct confrontation can he learn something and increase his fighting experience. Although he did a lot of training with Li Jun before he came here, it was not as effective as true experience in life or death battles.

However, there was still a problem. There is one Wang Wei, while the enemy has three people. Wang Wei knew his limits, he was not yet ready to fight more than one person at once.

So, he waited for one of them to be separated from the group. Those three people were very cautious unlike the rich girl. They spent most of the time in a group, and they took turns as watch guard to provide the other two with enough rest to fight when necessary.

Wang Wei was very patient and observed the three of them for more than four days without any rest. Unlike ordinary people, Wang Wei's body was already inhuman. He did not need food everyday to survive.

Due to the fact that he cultivated the [Ten Thousand Things Adapt To One Sutra], Wang Wei only needed a bit of sunlight everyday and his body could function normally for a whole 7 days without problem.

Soon, Wang Wei's patient was rewarded. The female companion complained that she was tired of eating fish from the river for 4 consecutive days and she wanted to go hunting for other animals for food. The other two agreed with her and one of them left with her, while the other stayed and guarded their home base made of cozy tents.

As soon as they were separated, Wang Wei approached the guy left behind. However, things did not go as easy as last time. The other guy was always on guard and immediately noticed someone approaching him.

Wang Wei watched as his opponent took out a knife similar to his. He was not flustered at the fact that his enemy was alerted to his presence. In fact, his objective was never to be subtle.

Wang Wei watched this guy carefully. He was slightly shorter than him, but more robust. He noticed the calluses in his hand signifying that this man was well either trained or used to do hard labor as a living.

The two people stared at each other in order to find the right opening to attack, testing each other's patience. Ordinarily, Wang Wei would be more than happy to wait for the right time to attack. However, time was not in his favor.

He knew that this guy had companions that would eventually return. The longer Wang Wei waits, the less favorable the situation will become for him. As such, he no longer waited and attacked directly.

If there was no opening, then he would make one.

Wang Wei launched toward the guy and stabbed him. This time he went directly for a vital organ, the lung. The other guy dodged the knife by slightly twisting his upper torso, then retaliated by stabbing Wang Wei in his eyes.

Wang Wei moved his whole body to dodge, then followed his first attack with a kick directly in the back of the person's kneecap to stop his opponent from moving. The other guy slightly move legs so that Wang Wei's kick will hit his knee instead.

When Wang Wei noticed this change, he had to lower his kick to hit the guy's shin otherwise the bones on his feet would crack if he directly hit the person's knee.

After this attack failed, Wang Wei did not stop and continued to stab his opponent in different parts of his body: eyes, heart, lungs, and brain.

However, this guy managed to dodge all of his attacks and retaliated against him. They both fought for more than five minutes, each person trying to stab the other without saying a word to one another.

Wang Wei knew that time was of the essence. The longer he fought, the more of a dangerous situation he was in.

As Wang Wei painted in exhaustion and began to plan his exit strategy, he suddenly realized something: his opponent was not fatigued at all by the previous fight.

He was not painting like him, his breath was regular, his foot was steady in the ground. What frightened Wang Wei the most was the fact that his opponent barely moved from his spot the whole fight.

Puzzled and intrigued, Wang Wei began to use his powerful memory brought by his soul to recount every detail of the fight.

It was then that he realized that this guy was actually using a superb dodging method. Every time Wang Wei attacked him, he would use the least amount of movement to dodge the attack. His movements were quick, efficient, and subtle; he did not waste any energy unless necessary.

This was the reason that Wang Wei was tired after the fight, but this guy was not. After reviewing this guy's movement over and over again in just a few seconds, Wang Wei took a deep breath to adjust his state, then he attacked again.

Wang Wei stabbed this guy again with rapid movement, this time he went for the lungs again. The guy repeated the same dodging technique and stabbed Wang Wei in his eyes. Wang Wei slightly bent his head to avoid the knife, then continued to uppercut the guy on his chin with his left hand.

The guy tilted his head slightly to the left to dodge the uppercut, then kicked Wang Wei's waist with his right leg. Right when his leg was about to hit, Wang Wei lifted his left leg and allowed the kick to directly hit his knee.

The guy groaned in pain. The timing was so perfect that he did not have time to redirect his kick. Wang Wei immediately took advantage of his enemy's distraction due to physical pain and stabbed him on his right leg.

The guy tried to pivot his leg to dodge again, unfortunately, his nerve response was decreased due to the pain and a deep cut was left on his leg.

Wang Wei managed to draw his first drop of blood during this fight. Of course, he did not let his guard down. He continued to attack the guy non-stop. The fight continued for another five minutes. They stab and dodge each other's attack using the least movement necessary. 

Suddenly, the guy said, "You copied my dodging technique."

"So what?" responded Wang Wei. "Is there any rule that says you cannot learn from your enemy?"

After saying that, Wang Wei attacked him again, this time heading straight for his eyes. The guy tilted his head to dodge again, however, Wang Wei's attack was actually just a feint. The moment his head moved, Wang Wei changed the upward grip on his knife to a downward one and stabbed the man's shoulder.

The man screamed loudly and involuntarily held his bleeding shoulder with his other hand. Wang Wei took this opportunity to take the knife from the guy's hand and stabbed it directly in his heart, dealing a fatal blow to him.

Afterward, the man dropped to his knees, then said. "The world is truly unfair. I have spent more than 8 years as a gladiator, forced to kill everyday in order to buy my freedom. It took me 8 long and painful years to summarize that dodging method, yet you learned it in less than 5 minutes. I'm not willing."

After saying his last word, the guy fell to the ground. He had no breath left before he even hit the floor.

"Yes, you are right. Fate is the greatest mockery to us all," muttered Wang Wei. Then, he turned the guy over, closed his eyes, and buried him as a way to honor the first true opponent he encountered on his cultivation path.

After doing all of this, Wang Wei left the camp. Unfortunately for him, as soon as he left, he encountered the two people who went out hunting earlier.

As soon as these two noticed the direction that Wang Wei came from, they felt that something was wrong and immediately surrounded him to prevent him from escaping.

Wang Wei--who had just finished a hard fight-- was exhausted both physically and spiritually. He knew that he was in for a hard battle.