Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

But what did not knowing matter now? He would never get the chance to know. The big man had already felt Yang Juehuan's strength; though he had afterward fallen for Yang Ce's trick and taken a kick, he had not thought much of it.

Yang Ce's kicking power was nothing remarkable, and this was the second kick besides—it should be weaker than the first, and taking it on the body surely could not do any real harm. But he was wrong. Yang Juehuan's kicks might not land him any special blow, but it also depended on where they landed.

He fancied his external conditioning had reached the peak of perfection, never realizing that no matter how formidable the skill, the human body is still made of flesh, and the base of the neck is dense with acupoints.

As Fang Tian's heir, Yang Ce was especially skilled with acupoints, and Yang Cenbin's kick landed squarely on his Yamen point. The Yamen point is one of the thirty-six fatal points of the human body, the meeting point of the Du meridian and the Yangwei meridian; struck, it shocks the medullary center, causing loss of speech, dizziness, and collapse into unconsciousness.

Yang Cenbin's kick was enough to knock him out cold for several hours. Before the big man even understood what had happened, he slumped dizzily to the ground.

Over on the other side, the big man who made his living with his iron fists had assumed the one with the iron bar would be more than enough to deal with Yang Ce. He never imagined Yang Ce would put him on the ground with a single move.

He had no idea how deep Yang Juehuan's skill ran. He took Yang Juehuan's flying kick to be like his own iron fist—refined to the peak of perfection, at the height of mastery—and instantly dared not be careless.

In an instant the situation had turned around, from two against one at the start to one against two now.

"I didn't expect this—you've got an expert at your side." The Iron Fist studied the Iron Bar crumpled on the ground; from the rise and fall of his chest he could tell the man had only been knocked unconscious, with no danger to his life.

Wang Yanqiu had not expected Yang Ce to kick the man with the iron bar unconscious in a single blow either. She was astonished, and all the more suspicious of Yang Juehuan's origins. But at this moment, it seemed, Yang Ce stood on the same side as she did.

Yang Shuoxuan said nothing, only fixed the Iron Fist with a cold stare, turning over in his mind how to bring him down as well. The trick of catching him off guard just now clearly would not work again—the Iron Fist would surely avoid clashing head-on with him.

But now that the man had taken his measure, finishing him off would only be harder.

"Let's spar." The Iron Fist pointed at Yang Ce and spoke coldly. Without waiting for an answer, he swung his iron fist and smashed it toward Yang Ce.

Yang Yongjin was no fool—why would he meet such force head-on? At the critical instant, something suddenly surfaced in his mind, and a faint smile crossed the corner of his mouth.

The Iron Fist moved, and Yang Shuoxuan moved. Yang Ce passed by Wang Yanqiu and gave her a push as he went. "Get to the side first."

The Iron Fist thought Yang Ce meant to fight him one-on-one, and paid it no mind. After all, as things stood, he could not go on to finish Wang Yanqiu until he had dealt with this thorn in his eye, Yang Cenbin.

The Iron Fist swung his fist and smashed it down; Yang Shuoxuan launched himself into the air and kicked out at him. The Iron Fist had already seen the "fearsomeness" of Yang Ce's flying kick and dared not be careless. Wary and guarded, he waited for his moment to throw a punch.

"Pff." A faint muffled sound, and a bloody hole burst open in the Iron Fist's head.

"You—you cheated—" The Iron Fist spat out his last words with his eyes still open in death, and his massive body crashed to the ground.

"Cheated?" Yang Ce let out a long breath. "Only an idiot meets force head-on."

To be continued

843. Flight and Reliance

843. Flight and Reliance

Wang Yanqiu was utterly stunned. Two men who had trained their external martial arts to the utmost had been dealt with by Yang Ce in an instant. True, he had used cleverness, and there was a hint of trickery about it—but as the saying goes, all is fair in war. And a killer deals in cleverness to begin with; this was killing, not a tournament bout.

Yang Ce's final line especially—"Only an idiot meets force head-on"—could not help but make Wang Yanqiu smile. Crude as it was, the reasoning was sound.

"Who exactly are you?" Wang Yanqiu admired Yang Juehuan's skill greatly, but she still did not know whether he was friend or foe, and she was in no mind to let her guard down. This was her first time traveling far from home on a mission, and her experience of the world was plainly still lacking. She had imagined she would carry it off neatly, never expecting things to turn so complicated.

"Who I am doesn't matter. We'll talk when we get back. The priority right now is to get out of here." Yang Ce had come here through proper channels. Though he had changed his appearance, he did not want any complications—this was, after all, the scene of a killing, and the sooner they left, the better.

"But I still have a mission!" Wang Yanqiu glanced toward the villa. At this moment she was not thinking to hide anything from Yang Moyi, because by any measure Yang Ce seemed to be one of her own kind.

Judging by what Yang Ce had just said, he surely knew a good deal of the inside story as well.

"A mission?" Yang Xutang could not help but laugh and cry at once. "You're still thinking about carrying out the mission now? The situation is perfectly clear—this is a trap. Do you think killing that Zheng Shaopeng still means anything?"

Wang Yanqiu gave a startled "Ah," and the crux of the matter came home to her. Just now her mind had been wholly on how to complete the mission as quickly as possible, and she had not thought of it. Now, hearing Yang Puqi, she understood. Yes—as things stood, Zheng Shaopeng's side must have known of the plan to assassinate her, and so they would have made ample preparations.

Sure enough, Yang Yanzhou was right. From somewhere not far off came the sound of a car engine, and from the villa's main gate the Buick Park Avenue shot out and sped away into the distance.

"Zheng Shaopeng's run for it." Wang Yanqiu watched the receding car and sighed.

"Now that you understand, let's go—if the police arrive, we're in trouble." Yang Minlan urged Wang Yanqiu on.

"Ah—right." Wang Yanqiu glanced at the two men on the ground, nodded, and followed Yang Puqi; in a flash they vanished into the night. Had this happened to Yang Juehuan—put another way, had Yang Ce been Wang Yanqiu—he would certainly have taken the big man who was still alive, lying unconscious on the ground, away with him, and found some way to wring information out of him.

But he was not Wang Yanqiu, and there was no need for such extra trouble. What concerned Yang Ce was whether the organization behind Wang Yanqiu had any connection to the Black Widow, and this incident had no direct bearing on Yan.

So Yang Shuoxuan would not poke his nose in and do any of that. All he wanted now was to find out just which organization stood behind Wang Yanqiu.

"Where do you live?" Yang Ce asked, pulling Wang Yanqiu along by the hand as they ran.

Wang Yanqiu was at a loss now. This was the first time she had ever gone so far on her own to take on an assignment, and she had botched it. In the end, whatever hidden identity she might carry, what she showed in this moment was the helpless side of a young girl; when Yang Puqi questioned her, she poured it all out.

Wang Yanqiu was terrified. If not for Yang Ce, she could not imagine what would have become of her today—even if she had not died, she would not have walked away easily. No matter what anyone said, it was Yang Ce who had saved her now, and naturally she came to regard him as someone she could rely on.