Chapter 6 Nothing More Than This

  At this thought, Liu Xiu suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. As someone who could secretly observe powerful opponents for ten years, he was not an impulsive person by nature. How could he have such emotions? Was it the original body's personality? If so, wasn't he a bit split in spirit?

  Wu Jun looked at Gong Sun Zan with a calm and self-satisfied expression, his eyes inadvertently sweeping over Liu Bei's furrowed brow, who was clearly hesitant, and Liu Xiu's changing complexion. He then returned his gaze to Gong Sun Zan's face and smiled faintly: "How about it? Are you going to fight or should I just take the horse away?"

  "Do you want to hold the reins of my horse?" Gong Sunzhan gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence: "At least let me be convinced first, okay?"

  "He's got blood in him." Wu Jun stretched out a finger and pointed at Gongsun Zan, his tone full of undisguised admiration: "I like men like you, worthy of being from Liaodong indeed."

  "It's not worthy of me." Gong Sun Zan slowly drew out his sword, took a step back, grasped the hilt with both hands, and pointed the blade upwards at an angle, assuming a battle-ready stance. His eyes locked onto Wu Jun Hou as he said in a deep voice, "Please instruct me!"

  Wu Jun Hou held a single-handed knife behind his back, with his feet slightly apart, standing there very casually, nodding at Gong Sun Zan: "Come on!"

  Gongsun Zan gritted his teeth, took a step forward, raised both hands above his head, and was about to strike with all his might when Liu Xiu suddenly shouted: "Wait!"

  Wu Jun saw Gong Sun Zan raise his knife and was about to attack, when Liu Xiu suddenly called out to stop him. The figure that was just about to burst forth again retreated back, looking at Liu Xiu in confusion, furrowing his brow: "What else do you have to say?"

  Gongsun Zan had been holding his breath, preparing to make a desperate last-ditch effort, but was suddenly called off, unable to advance or retreat, his face flushed with embarrassment. After hesitating for a moment, he refused to take advantage of the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Wu's army, and instead withdrew his troops, taking a step back, looking at Liu Xiu with some annoyance.

  "This...” Liu Xiu smiled somewhat awkwardly: “Actually, I don't have anything to say, everyone is just making a bet, no need to take out knives, right? This is the Mao family's estate, and we're all here to study, in the future we'll be running into each other often, and knives are blind, no matter who gets hurt it won't be good. How about... you guys just compare fists and feet, as long as there's a winner that's enough, no need to fight to the death."

  Wu Junhou thought for a moment, turned his head to glance at the Mao family youngster. The Mao family youngster hesitated for a moment, then nodded his head. Wu Junhou chuckled and tossed the knife in his hand to the Mao family servant standing aside, clapping his hands loudly: "I'm empty-handed, you can use your knife without any worries."

  Gongsun Zan didn't hesitate, sheathed his sword and drew it out from his waist along with the scabbard, handing it over to Liu Bei. He curled up his lip and said: "I won't take advantage of you, let's have a hand-to-hand combat instead."

  Liu Xuan's face turned red, and it turned out that they called their fist and footwork "hand-poking". He inadvertently exposed himself again. Before he could reflect on it for a while, Liu Bei held Gong Sunzhan's knife and took a step back, standing beside him, softly praising: "Big brother, this method of yours is good, even if you lose, you'll only get hit a few times, and in the end, it won't hurt your life."

  Liu Xiu glanced at him and thought to himself, "So even a great hero like you is afraid of death? I thought only ordinary people like me were afraid of death." Indeed, he had suggested fist fighting instead of using knives, precisely because he was afraid of causing loss of life. After all, hand-to-hand combat was safer than using knives, and the difference in strength would be more apparent. As the saying goes, "A fierce punch can kill a master," but with knives, it's a completely different story. No matter how strong you are, you can't make up for the gap in knife skills, and if you're not careful, you might even end up cutting yourself.

  As they spoke, Gong Sun Zan and Wu Jun Hou had already started fighting. Gong Sun Zan launched a full-force attack, like a mad tiger, without holding back any strength, while Wu Jun Hou just smiled and became serious, using his hands to defend himself, blocking Gong Sun Zan's attacks at critical moments.

  Liu Xiu watched the martial arts competition for the first time and was unwilling to let it go easily. He stared intently at the two people exchanging blows, his arm subconsciously trembling slightly, without even realizing it himself. Liu Bei also didn't notice, he just held his breath and focused on the two figures entwined in the arena, secretly sweating for Gongsun Zan. Although Gongsun Zan had been attacking continuously, his attacks had not been effective. That Wu army candidate may have been defending more often, but once he counterattacked, it would likely be Gongsun Zan's downfall. Despite having just met Gongsun Zan, Liu Xiu found himself involuntarily standing on Gongsun Zan's side.

  Liu Xiu did not have this kind of self-awareness, he was just intently watching the two people's competition, at first he was a bit excited, but after watching for a while, he felt somewhat disappointed. These two were fighting fiercely, but there weren't any exquisite moves appearing, it was all just punching, chopping, and kicking, plus some grabbing and twisting of arms, hugging and throwing each other to the ground, basically no different from children fighting, if you had to say what was different, it was that they used more force when striking, hugged less, and their hand movements were more ferocious and faster.

  Wow, what a master! I can do these too. Liu Xiu muttered to himself as he watched. He suddenly remembered that in his past life, he had seen some martial arts competitions and they were all like this - when it was time to perform, everyone looked like a human or a dog, but when they actually fought, it was just punching and kicking and throwing each other around. The beautiful moves they practiced every day were basically useless, no matter if it was Tai Chi or Wudang or Liuhe, once they got on stage, there was only one style left - the chaotic fighting style.

  Liu Xiu became increasingly bored, originally wanting to watch a high-level match, but ended up watching an uninteresting game that was not much different from a street fight. He was really disappointed. Just as he was thinking this, there was a change in the arena. Wu Junhou, who had been on the defensive against Gong Sunzhan's straight punch, suddenly counterattacked and used his right hand to deflect Gong's fist to the side, then stepped forward.

  "Watch your step!" Liu Xiu blurted out subconsciously. Before the words had even fallen, Wu Junhou had already taken a step forward, his foot inserted behind Gongsun Zan's body, his right hand flipping over Gongsun Zan's arm, his tiger mouth open, heading straight for his neck.

  Gongsun Zan heard Liu Xiu's reminder, but for some reason, he didn't react in time. He raised his left hand to block his neck, just as Wu Junhou's tiger mouth was about to strike. However, his feet didn't lift off the ground in time, and his entire body was swept backward by Wu Junhou's thick arm, losing balance. He flew out a step far, making a "thud" sound as he fell flat on his back onto the ground, stirring up dust that filled the air.

  "You lost." Wu Junhou took a step forward, pinning Gong Sunzhan to the ground with one hand. Gong Sunzhan struggled for a while, his face turning bright red, but he couldn't break free and could only dejectedly relax his body, falling to the ground.

  "I've lost." He paused and then said: "I won't sell you a horse, but I'll lend you one to ride for three days."

  Wu Junhou smiled and stood up, walked to the front of the white horse, led it away, saying that when the Mao family boy rode on it, the horse was very violent, but in Wu Junhou's hands, it was very calm. Wu Junhou led the horse for two steps, turned his head to glance at Liu Xiu, wanted to speak but stopped, helped the Mao family boy onto the horse and entered the valley.

  Liu Bei rushed forward and helped Gong Sun Zan up. As soon as Gong Sun Zan stood up, he broke free from Liu Bei's hand, took the knife and inserted it into his waistband, and walked forward silently. Liu Bei sighed and caught up with the cow cart, following them into the valley. Liu Xiu also didn't make a sound, walking shoulder to shoulder with Liu Bei. The three of them quietly entered Yang Tou Fu, walking along a mountain path about a dozen or so steps long, when suddenly the scene opened up before their eyes, revealing a not-so-small basin-shaped valley. A vast expanse of peach blossoms was in full bloom, with several small cottages scattered among them. Several men wearing Confucian robes were strolling and chatting idly in the peach grove.

  Liu Xiu was stunned by what he saw. There was actually a large peach forest here? Indeed, the mountains have their own unique charm, which is different from the world of humans.