9 Peculiarity

The Wang family was not a native family at Yellow Wood City.

It is said that the family was originally doing business in Yu Yang County which was under the jurisdiction of Yellow Wood City. When their business expanded, they bought a mansion in the city and moved over there.

Three months had passed. They had barely stabilized their lives there.

Most of the credit went to the Wang family's eldest daughter, Wang Qingqing. Most of the affairs were handled by her suitors instead of the Wang family themselves. 

Wang Qingqing's boudoir was located at the innermost part of the Wang family's mansion.

Outside her room was a huge flower bed planted with bright red flowers, blossoming and blooming beautifully.

Just then, a middle-aged man in his fifties stood at the front door of her room. He was the head of the Wang family. He was often known as Minister Wang, full name Wang Tong.

He was Wang Qingqing's father.

But the head of the family was incredibly humble and submissive. He lowered his head, stood outside the door, and reported to her respectfully, "Ms. Qingqing, I've assigned someone to deliver the jade box secretly over there." 

"Good."

Her reply sounded cold and indifferent. Yet, a very pleasant female voice drifted out from the room. 

She simply replied with a word and no more. There was entirely no sign of respect as one would expect from a daughter to her father. 

But Wang Tong was not the least offended at all. Instead, he looked happy and even thrilled. He trembled with excitement and said in a trembling voice, "You finally spoke to me. You've said a word to me. That's marvelous!"

"Get lost." The indifferent female voice came from the room again. 

"Alright. I'll get lost now. Right now. Hehe!" 

Wang Tong left with his eyes dazzled and filled with joy. He thought to himself, 'Ms. Qingqing asked me to get lost, which means she actually cares for me and has boundless love for me. That's great!'

Early the next morning, the competition for the selection of temporary guards for the Wang family was held before Wang Mansion. A ring that was ten feet tall and one hundred feet wide was set up. 

There were no restrictions for the competition. Weapons, fists and kicks were allowed.

If one fell out of the ring or was unable to rise from the ground or lost the ability to resist, it was counted as a loss.

Of course, if one surrendered, that was also counted as a loss.

Initially, not many people had paid much attention to that competition.

After all, it was merely the private affairs of the Wang family.

But ever since the spread of yesterday's exaggerated rumors, the competition had turned into the center of attraction.

Early that morning, there were already five to six thousand people gathered around.

The front door of Wang Mansion was already crowded with people.

The streets, high platforms, walls, trees and even the rooftops of outlets were crowded with people.

Although the competition had not yet begun, people were already standing in their positions, lest they could not watch the fights in the ring clearly.

"Hey, look! It's the Wang family's eldest daughter and Minister Wang!"

"She's out! She's coming out!"

"What the heck! She's so beautiful! I think I've fallen in love!"

"Wow! She's very beautiful! I'm in love! I'm really in love!"

"No wonder she has that many suitors…"

Suddenly, the crowd resounded with a gasp. 

Minister Wang brought the Wang family's eldest daughter out and stood on a special high platform next to the ring so that they could see the entire situation of the ring clearly. 

Of course, their presence could be seen by the crowd too.

Her outstanding, exquisite beauty, tall and slim figure instantly captured the eyeballs of the crowd.

Wang Qingqing looked like she was eighteen. Her eyebrows were picturesque, her skin was as fair as marble and flushed with some redness which added to her charm. She had very smooth and exquisite features. She looked like a creation of heaven. She was very beautiful indeed. 

She was dressed in a simple and elegant plain white dress. That dress outlined her curves perfectly. Her slender waist had a jade belt tied around it, making her almost look divine. 

The fact was, curiosity was no longer worth mentioning in the presence of beauty.

Initially, the people were here to see for themselves if Zhou Heng was indeed as strong as the rumors said. However, seeing Wang Qingqing alone was worth the entire trip.

She was way too beautiful!

Not only did the onlookers marvel at her, even Zhou Heng could not help but gape among the crowd when he looked at Wang Qingqing.

She was simply too beautiful to be a human!

Indeed.

This was what Zhou Heng felt. Wang Qingqing's beauty was too beautiful to be true. 

She looked like those babes in the photos that were photoshopped and beautified endlessly when he was on the Earth in his previous life.

"Hehe! This time you'll have to trust me." Yu He laughed beside Zhou Heng and said, "I told you that Ms. Qingqing is a very beautiful woman. Look at you, you're breath taken as well, right?"

"I'm merely assessing and scrutinizing her beauty." Zhou Heng defended himself.

In fact, he was not wrong. Compared to these people living in a society similar to ancient China, a keyboard warrior like him had a better resistance against beautiful ladies, having experienced various kinds of photoshopped photos in an era where information was overloaded.

As such, after he was shocked in the beginning, Zhou Heng inexplicably felt that the aura on Wang Qingqing was somewhat incongruous. Something felt unnatural, almost as if someone had modified her before.

Could it be that Sora Aoi had escaped to this world after going through plastic surgery?

That was not very likely.

At that moment, the crowd got rowdy.

"Look! He's up on the ring! Sun Zhengpin is up there!"

"So, he's Sun Zhengpin? I must say, he looks fine. He gives off an imposing presence. He should be quite strong too."

"Then, wouldn't Zhou Heng be even more powerful?"

"We'll see later. But shouldn't all the participants for the competition go up the ring together? Why is only Sun Zhengpin there?"

The crowd was chattering.

Zhou Heng lifted his head and looked at the ring. Indeed, there was a dignified young man who looked to be in his twenties standing at the center of the ring, with a longsword in his hand and looking askance.

"Today, I, Sun Zhengpin, am here for no other reasons other than to defeat all the opponents and obtain the qualifications to protect Ms. Qingqing!"

Sun Zhengpin shot a glance in the direction of Wang Qingqing. His gaze softened. Then, he turned his head and looked down at the ring and said aloud, "There are a total of eleven participants, myself included. All of you can come up now!

"I'll take all ten of you!"

Snap!

At that moment, Sun Zhengfeng was sitting at a distant high-rise teahouse loft. As he watched that scene, he immediately grew furious, and his hands trembled. He smashed the teapot placed on the table.

"What a shameless creature! His soul has indeed been taken away by that woman!" 

At the same time, when the people around the ring heard Sun Zhengpin's words, they cheered.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"That's awesome! He's taking on ten people! Could it be that Sun Zhengpin is already a ninth-class?"

"Even if he's already a ninth-class martial artist, he would be at a high risk of facing the surrounding attacks of ten unranked martial artists." 

"A martial artist at the lower three ranks only has human power. They will still have limitations. Sun Zhengpin is careless."

"Good! I like that!"

A majority of the people were delighting in his future misery. After all, they were only here to watch the fun. Naturally, the more exciting the show was, the better it was. 

Zhou Heng was a bit confused. He poked Yu He who was beside him and asked skeptically, "Has Sun Zhengpin always been like this?"

That was too awkward!

He seemed like all he had in his mind was only that woman!

"He wasn't like this before." Yu He was a bit confused too. He thought for a moment and said, "My family and the Sun family used to work together for some business. I've met Sun Zhengpin a few times before, and we used to have meals together."

"He was an intelligent and capable man. He was good with words too. But now, he looks like his brain has been kicked by an ass. Could it be true that he has gone crazy for a woman?" 

"Well… that is highly possible." Zhou Heng looked thoughtful. He shot his gaze at the higher platform beside the ring. He looked at Wang Qingqing who, despite looking slightly unnatural, was extraordinarily beautiful and exquisite.

At that moment, a few people hopped on the ring one after another. There were nine of them. These were the nine participants for the competition excluding Zhou Heng and Sun Zhengpin.

"Sun Zhengpin, don't think you can be this arrogant just because you've got some reputation! We're not afraid of you!"

"You want to fight ten people at the same time? Do you really think you're a ninth-class?" 

"Now that all of us are up here, let's get started. I'd like to see how you are going to fight ten people?!" 

Most of the martial artists were hot-tempered and brusque. Moreover, all of them were young. How could they actually withstand Sun Zhengpin's provocation? As such, they were very angry and almost wanted to attack in a flock.

Nonetheless, Sun Zhengpin did not bother looking at them directly. He simply turned his body and shouted at the bottom of the ring, "Zhou Heng, I know you're here. Come up now! Let me see if you're indeed as powerful as the rumors say!"

The moment the crowd heard Zhou Heng's name, there was an uproar. They would not feel sleepy anymore if he talked about Zhou Heng!

After all, they were here all because of this.

As for one fighting nine or ten people, those were merely add-ons.

Once the words came out from Sun Zhengpin, those nine, who were already enraged, immediately burst into rage. One by one, they put up their stances with their fists, feet, sabers, swords, longspears, whips, staffs, or other weapons. 

"You're far too arrogant!"

"How dare you look down on me?! You must be looking forward to an early grave!" 

"Go and die!"

Those nine people raised their voices and cussed. They swarmed toward Sun Zhengpin!

"They're going in all at once!"

"They're fighting!"

The onlookers jumped for joy and cheered happily. They also waved flags and shouted their lungs out as if they were not afraid of creating chaos.

Despite those nine people being unranked martial artists, they were quite strong.

Two to three among them have achieved perfection in one of the ninth-class martial arts skills and were pseudo ninth-class martial artists. If all of them came at once, even a real ninth-class martial artist would find them difficult to handle.

However, Sun Zhengpin remained calm. He turned his wrist, and the tip of his sword was out of its sheath.

Just then, a sword light emerged like a blistering rain. The dazzling sword light was just like dense raindrops, stabbing those nine people at lightning speed.

At the same time, as the sword light surged, a faint whistling sound came from around Sun Zhengpin. It was as if the wind was hissing. Invisible sword energy swirled ten feet around him.

The way Sun Zhengpin executed his sword technique was like a sudden rainfall after autumn. It shone under cold light and sent a frigid cold. Even the cheerful onlookers could not help but feel shivers run down their spines.

So, this was Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords!

When everyone came back to their senses, the sword light had already pierced the bodies of those nine people.

None of them had escaped!

Seven of them were shaken by the force of the sword energy swirling around him and were simply blown away backward. They fell out of the ring.

The remaining two had their weapons knocked out from their hands and were close to defeat.

Still, they did not give up. They rushed to Sun Zhengpin with all their might. One of them swung his fist. The other used his palm to try and hit his back and shoulders.

If they landed hits, Sun Zhengpin may lose his defensive ability.

Bang!

Bang!

Two muffled sounds rose. The fist and palm hit Sun Zhengpin at the same time.

Both of them were thrilled and were about to take advantage of the situation. Just then, they felt a powerful and vast force coming from Sun Zhengpin's back and shoulders!

All they saw was Sun Zhengpin straightening his back and shaking his shoulders gently. Those two were instantly thrown backward. Just like the previous seven, they fell off the ring.

Within a very short period of time, those nine people who had swarmed him all lay defeated!

Thousands of people on the spot had slack jaws. They stared blankly at Sun Zhengpin in the ring and were dumbfounded.

There was a complete silence before Wang Mansion.

On the higher platform next to the ring, there was a hint of a smile from Wang Qingqing's eyebrows and eyes. She seemed very pleased.

At the attic of the teahouse not far away from that, Sun Zhengfeng stood up and stared at Sun Zhengpin in the ring incredulously. He was stunned and said, "The wind force is swirling ten feet around him, and he can summon strength from every part of his body!

"Only a ninth-class martial artist is capable of that. But how did he do that?"

On top of the roof of that loft, a masked woman in white martial arts robes was watching Wang Qingqing who sat on a higher platform.

Her gaze was quiet and thoughtful.

At the same time, Sun Zhengpin looked triumphant. He waved his sword and pointed exactly where Zhou Heng stood.

He stood high up there and shouted sternly, "Get up here!"