45 The Street Battle

The woman looked shy, nodding her head twice and walked forward slowly.

A joy appeared in Old Qiao's eyes. When the woman passed by him, he kept himself behind her half a step. After looking around to make sure there was nobody, he suddenly hit the woman's neck.

While the woman ahead was about to be hit, a little more joy was added in his eyes. At that moment, however, the woman suddenly bent down, making her body one foot lower, and just dodged the sneak attack from behind; the woman turned around and raised her sleeve to struck Old Qiao's chest!

Old Qiao seemed to be a quite experienced man who knew a lot about Jianghu filled any time with potential shock and surprise. Once his sneak attack missed, all by instinct, he took a step back fast, and meanwhile kicked the woman's sleeve, in which something just flashed; a short scimitar turned out to be kicked out of her sleeve.

"It's really you! Should I call you 'Watchman?'" the woman made a voice of a boy, raising her head, pulling her long straight hair back, revealing a delicate and tender face.

"Little boy!" Old Qiao asked coldly, "who are you? Dare to spoil my dinner, you wanna die early!?"

He put the girl on his shoulders down while talking, reached into his waist and pulled out a short sword, staring at the boy disguised as a girl.

"Con~gratulations~ Junior brother Wei, your fish bites..." A figure flashed out from behind a house. It was Liu Xingfei.

The "girl" tied his long hair up behind his head. Surely, it was Wei Gaoyuan.

In the afternoon, in the council chamber of the local government, four disciples of the East Mountain Sword Clan met with the Defensive Officer and law enforcement officers, as well as several public officials. They listed several suspects during discussion, including the Watchman Old Qiao .

Old Qiao had lived in Huyang Town for nearly six decades; he'd always followed the rules and kept a low profile; no one saw him show any of Martial Arts. He should not be the suspect. On the contrary, Wei Gaoyuan thought he was the most probable one.

In the teahouse, Wei Gaoyuan had heard many times in the story of Jianghu that there was a unbelievable disguise arts to precisely copy a man's face: it used a sheet of substance, similar to human skin, to cover on the face of a body, and made a mask referring to the copy sheet, called "skin mask," just exactly same as the face of the dead.

If the now-Old Qiao was still the previous-Old Qiao, he was unlikely to be the criminal; but if not, then identity of a Watchman was his best cover: since the curfew began, only the Team of Law Enforcement and the Watchman owned the authority to move freely in the town, and the latter could act alone, obviously more convenient than the former's group-patrol activity.

So they made the plan: two girls of the East Mountain Sword Clan, in two groups, acted as the bait to fish the criminal at night.

Because sister Qiu Mengqin didn't look like a young ordinary girl even if she deliberately concealed most of her powerful Qi. Therefore, fortunately, Wei Gaoyuan was selected as one of the two "girls."

Wei Gaoyuan did not agree at first, but Liu Xingfei insisted that junior brother Wei was thin, and had smooth skin, and had a far more delicate and pretty face than himself…two sisters both kept nodding with a chuckle. So, he finally had to abide by the consensus of the team… and more fortunately, the fish seemed to like him more than the other.

The genuine identity of Old Qiao was revealed whereas he looked little tensed up but sneered, "Two little calves, your mummy didn't teach you never to disturb a tiger eating?"

Without any words, Liu Xingfei drew out his long sword, and pointed to Old Qiao.

Giving a smile, Old Qiao kicked the girl on the ground, who was still in a deep coma and shooting at Liu Xingfei.

"Craven old bastard!" Liu Xingfei cursed in heart, and had to drew back his sword and pick up the girl in his arms.

Old Qiao took the opportunity to rush to Wei Gaoyuan aside, and his short sword stabbed out as a rattlesnake hissed.

As a beautiful bait, Wei Gaoyuan didn't take his sword, the short scimitar kicked off, and he just hated the girl long dress very much. Therefore, he just had to dodge, and dodge, awkwardly.

Old Qiao was an experienced fox, a strong fox, after a few rounds of fox and rabbit game, he gave out a sweep of kick, hitting Wei Gao Yuan's hip, who was bound by the long dress, stumbling and falling with a crash.

Old Qiao darted forward and was going to launch a final hit.

Swish! An arrow struck at him in air from the distance, forcing him to give up Wei Gaoyuan to avoid it.

At that time, Liu Xingfei had rushed over with his sword after making the girl in her arms settled down. And meanwhile, a woman in white flew fast here from a distance, followed by a girl in a yellow gown and a few Captors.

Faced with several enemies, Old Qiao's pace seemed still steady, not disturbed at all. He parried Liu Xingfei's long sword with his short blade, and gave a palm-strike at Liu Xingfei's chest; so did Liu Xingfe; the two palms collided with a crash!

A figure was blasted off and fell to the ground; it was Liu Xingfei.

"Eighth-level baby~" Old Qiao snorted with contempt.

The woman in white rushing at the front of the group was Qiu Mengqin. Just after a few long-distance leaps she arrived and struck Old Qiao with a sword-stab.

"Come on! Kitty~Kitty~" Old Qiao laughed wickedly, wielding the short sword to hold her long sword, his left hand turning the shape of an eagle claw to grab her throat.

However, he miscalculated the opponent this time. A powerful force came straight though her blade upon the two swords crashing, repulsing him a few steps back; before he could make his pace firm again, Qiu Mengqin's kick-strike had hit his waist; Old Qiao was kicked over, flew over several feet long, and hit the ground with a thud.

"Fifth-level of the Mystery!!" Old Qiao was astonished.

In such a remote little town just appeared such a strong woman. He knew he was definitely no match for her, waving his hand to shoot a Four Point Star at the face of Qiu Mengqin.

Qiu Mengqin rushed to seize Old Qiao as feeling a strong wind suddenly came. She spun aside to avoid it, and Old Qiao took the opportunity to stood up and fled to the entrance of the town.

Liu Xingfei just got up when Old Qiao whistled past him; Wei Gaoyuan had picked up the short scimitar and stopped his only way to escape; Old Qiao, who had a really splendid Gravity Defying Arts, jumped so high over Wei Gaoyuan's head and flew outside of the town.

(Gravity Defying Arts: as one technique in Chinese traditional Martial Arts, it can greatly improve the ability to run, jump, and move, even enable a man to stand or move on non-load-bearing objects, or lift himself higher in the air by stepping on a few small objects.)

Wei Gaoyuan did not hesitate to turn and chase after him, followed the voice of Qiu Mengqin, "Be careful! Junior brother Wei! He's a sixth-level!!"

"Junior brother Wei, take your sword!" the woman in yellow had arrived, one sword hanging around her waist, and the other one in her hand, that was Wei Gaoyuan's sword.

…

Wei Gaoyuan ran after Old Qiao as fast as he could. It would be quite difficult to hunt at night if the old fox slipped into the woods in front of the road outside the town.

Old Qiao didn't dare to stop for a second, fearing that fifth-level woman would chase up.

Wei Gaoyuan and Qiu Mengqin kept chasing, helplessly, slowing down now and again to evade the Four Point Stars Old Qiao shot back, plus his unusual Gravity Defying Arts, Old Qiao turned out to run into the woods…

It was the middle of night after two-hour hunting in the mountains. Although it was not so high and huge as the peaks where their clan located, to chasing the old flying fox in such a complex terrain was certainly not a simple job.

Fortunately, Qiu Mengqin took the lead to run after him as closely as she could, keeping a short distance ahead of the other chasers.

Unexpectedly, in front of the side of a mountain, Old Qiao just vanished.

"Where is it?" looking around and around, Qiu Mengqin showed a blank face while chasing to the foot of the mountain.

After a while, Wei Gaoyuan, Liu Xingfei, the woman in yellow and the five Captors arrived.

"We lost him finally…" standing in front of the mountain, Liu Xingfei said in disappointment.

Qiu Mengqin thought for a moment, and said doubtfully, "I'm afraid not, he just disappeared here all of a sudden, but I find no caves…."

"We better search around for any possible…secret passageway, or hidden entrance," said a middle-aged Captor.

"Good, dig him out~" Qiu Mengqin nodded.

Then the four disciples and five Captors scattered.

Wei Gaoyuan still sported the girl dress, wanting to find a place to change the clothes yet he didn't carry a men's clothes.

I'll kill anyone who asks me to disguised as a girl, anytime!! He swore while searching, and an abrupt cry came from his back.

He got a surprise and quickly turned to look at where the sound came from.

The Captor following him disappeared.