The Song Dynasty was the king for thirteen years before he knew that he was Tianlong.

Chapter 424: Playing in the Gym
Is anyone there? This young hero has come to challenge you!
The sound resounded below, echoing endlessly, and the houses surrounding the courtyard square immediately responded.

Lights began to come on in many houses, shadowy figures flickered, and hurried, frantic rustling sounds could be heard.

A hunched-over, elderly watchman with failing eyesight, carrying a lantern, ran out from the moon gate behind the courtyard, mumbling incoherently, "Wh-who is it?"

Zhao Ti stood on the rooftop in front, his hands behind his back. The night wind blew his white shirt, making it flutter. His face was covered by a black veil, making it impossible to see his features.

He declared in a clear voice, "I have heard that Master Lin of the Yuzhou Fuwei Martial Arts School is highly skilled in martial arts. I have come here on this bright and clear night to learn from him."

The old watchman paused for a moment, then suddenly grinned and shouted, "Something's wrong! Someone's trying to break into our place! Someone's trying to break into our place!"

Zhao Ti's lips twitched involuntarily. Hadn't he already called out to him once? Why was he only realizing it now?
At that moment, someone finally came out of the room. It was a thin man in his thirties or forties. He looked quite flustered, and his clothes weren't even properly on. As soon as he stepped out, he said, "Who's challenging us? Who's challenging us?"

The old night watchman pointed to the roof: "Zhang, Deputy Master Zhang, this guy is challenging us..."

The gaunt man looked up and saw a figure in white standing on a rooftop not far away, his face veiled by the light.

He pursed his lips and said loudly, "Are you here to challenge us?"

Zhao Ti said, "It is indeed I, the young hero. I have long heard that Master Lin of Fuwei Martial Arts School is highly skilled and renowned, so I have come here specifically to ask for his guidance."

The gaunt man said indignantly, "My Fuwei Martial Arts School is one of the top martial arts schools in Yuzhou. It's not a place where just anyone can come and go as they please, or spar with anyone they want."

Zhao Ti remained silent, flicking the metal plate on his back with his finger, producing an unpleasant "whooshing" sound. There was nothing he could do; the steel hadn't been forged well, and even the sound was unpleasant.

The skinny man was furious at the sight: "Besides, even if you wanted to challenge us, why come in the middle of the night instead of during the day?"

Zhao Ti blinked: "Only this can prove that I am sincerely seeking a friendly spar and not deliberately ruining someone's business. Besides, how can a martial artist sleep that much? Wouldn't it be better to get up and move around a bit?"

"What kind of twisted logic is this? Martial artists also need rest. What do you mean by getting up and moving around? If you don't sleep, why should others stay up too?" The thin man frowned. "As for your so-called sincere exchange of skills, which is not about doing bad business, what do you mean by that?"

Zhao Ti laughed and said, "Isn't it easy to understand? If I had defeated Master Lin during the day, wouldn't that have given outsiders something to watch? Then the news would spread like wildfire, and everyone would know that your Fuwei Martial Arts School is weak and that even the master was defeated. How would you recruit disciples and collect tuition fees in the future? Wouldn't that ruin your business?"

"How arrogant!" The skinny man was furious upon hearing this. "I can tell from your voice that you are young. How dare you speak so arrogantly and boast that you have defeated my master? You can't even get past me, yet you want to spar with the master. You are simply delusional and ignorant of your own limitations."

"You?" Zhao Ti looked the man up and down a few times, then shook two fingers lightly: "You're no match for me. I advise you not to be ungrateful."

"What?" The skinny man immediately flew into a rage: "You're saying I'm ungrateful? I, Zhang Tao, the Leopard of the River, am a well-known figure in Yuzhou. How dare you say I'm ungrateful?"

“You are no match for me, so you are simply ungrateful,” Zhao Ti said. “I think you’d better not humiliate yourself. If you lose face and ruin your reputation, the outside world will find out, and your nickname ‘Crossing-the-River Leopard’ will probably be changed to ‘Street Rats.’”

"You little rascal, sharp-tongued and quick-witted..." The thin man's face turned as red as a pig's liver with anger, and he trembled all over, unable to speak for a long time.

At this moment, a number of people, about twenty or thirty in total, came out of the four rooms one after another. Among them, a burly man dressed in purple came over and asked, "Junior brother, what's going on?"

The skinny man pointed at Zhao Ti and said, "This kid who came to challenge me is so rude. He said I am no match for him and that I would lose and lose face if I fought him. He even said that if I lost, my nickname 'Crossing the River Leopard' would be changed to 'Street Rat.' It's really infuriating."

The burly man in purple snorted coldly upon hearing this, looked up, stared at Zhao Ti for a few moments, and then gave a slight bow: "Greetings, Xu Peng, the 'Mountain Tiger,' Vice Master of Fuwei Martial Arts School. May I ask where you are from and what your esteemed name is?"

Zhao Ti glanced at him: "You're no match for me either, so I won't sign up. You'd better hurry up and call your Master Lin out. Where is he?"

The burly man in purple sneered, "You are far too arrogant, demanding to see the master of the martial arts school right off the bat. Don't you know that in the past, when heroes of the martial arts world and outlaws came to challenge the school, they had to pass through the hands of us two brothers first?"

“They are them, and I am me. What you consider a hero may not be a hero in my eyes,” Zhao Ti said, shaking his head.

This was not because he was arrogant, but because his internal strength was now profound and his vision had also improved. From their every move and the length of their breathing, he could tell that the two people's skills were ordinary and their internal strength was very average, or even weak.

"What do you mean by that?" The burly man in purple glared angrily. "It's one thing for you to look down on me, but do you also look down on so many fellow martial artists?"

Zhao Ti looked at the burly man in purple. He was a rough and rugged man, but he hadn't expected him to use such a scheme to divert trouble. But it was late at night, there were no outsiders around, and he was wearing a veil. What could he possibly attract?
"Master Lin, are you afraid to come out and accept the challenge? If not, don't blame me for taking down your Fuwei Martial Arts School's signboard." Zhao Ti said calmly, having no intention of arguing with the other party any further.

The custom of removing the plaque comes from a storybook. In a fight where a player wins, the winner is expected to remove and break the opponent's signboard to show off their power.

"You, kid, how dare you..." Before Pangolin Xu Biao could speak, Zhang Tao, the Leopard, couldn't stand it any longer and shouted, "Let me see what you're capable of, daring to boast like this and be so arrogant."

As he spoke, he reached out and pulled a steel knife from the waist of the disciple beside him. Then, he gathered his strength and ran to the front of the house. Using the momentum, he leaped up from the ground.

Two creaking sounds were heard. Although he had stood on the roof, he lost his balance and broke two tiles under his feet.

He brandished his steel knife and shouted, "What weapon are you using? Show it to me right now! I see something on your back. Is it a knife or a sword? Aren't you going to take it out?"

Zhao Ti nodded and said, "I have tried to persuade you with kind words several times, but since you don't know what's good for you, then forget it and come and make a move."

As he spoke, he gently raised his arm, took the long cloth bag wrapped with iron plates from behind him into his palm, and then remained still.

"Why don't you unwrap the cloth and take out the weapon?" Zhang Tao asked, puzzled.

"If I were to draw my weapon against someone with your skill, wouldn't that mean I've already lost?" Zhao Ti twirled the cloth bag in his hand into a sword flourish and smiled.

"What an arrogant brat! He's infuriating!" Zhang Tao roared and charged forward, steel knife in hand.

Zhao Ti narrowed his eyes slightly. His inner strength was incredibly powerful, and what seemed like a fast movement of his opponent appeared incredibly slow to him. His opponent's sword moves were full of flaws and were simply no match for him.

With a sharp "snap," before they even exchanged a single blow, and without Zhao Ti revealing any metal plates, Zhang Tao plunged headfirst off the roof.

"Ah..." "Junior brother!"

Xu Biao rushed forward, but before he could catch Zhang Tao, there was a loud crash. Zhang Tao was covered in dirt and had two broken ribs.

"Good lad, let me have a go at you!" Xu Biao was taken aback. He had clearly seen that just as Zhang Tao charged forward with his knife, before he could even begin his attack, the other man somehow dodged to the side and then gently nudged Zhang Tao with a long cloth bag in his hand. Zhang Tao lost his balance and fell off the roof.

Such speed! Although he was shocked, the two had not actually fought before. He thought that if he was on guard against the other's movements, he might not be able to let the other succeed. Then, with his experience, he could probably take down the other in three or five moves.

As he thought this, he darted onto the roof, then with a flick of his wrist, pulled out a strangely shaped weapon.

This weapon was also over three feet long, and its entire body was yellow. It resembled a human figure, with one arm raised above the head and two fingers extended, in a pointing gesture.

"What a strange thing," Zhao Ti glanced at it, pondered for a moment, and remembered what it was. He had seen it in illustrated novels before; it was used by chivalrous heroes in the martial arts world, known as the "Acupuncture Point Copper Man."

The strangeness of this weapon far surpasses that of weapons like the Snowflake Steel Hook. Hooks are, after all, among the eighteen kinds of weapons, but this bronze figure is so rare in the martial arts world that it is impossible to say how far it is ranked. It is even rarer than weapons like the Emei Dagger.

Zhao Ti couldn't help but laugh and said, "I've always heard that the stranger the weapon, the faster one dies. How can such a strange weapon be used?"

Xu Biao was furious upon hearing this: "You little brat, I doubted my junior brother's claim that you were good with words, but you really are a sharp-tongued junior. You'd better surrender now so I can let you go..."

He rushed in front of Zhao Ti at this moment. Instead of dodging aside to make a move as before, Zhao Ti was quite curious about the pressure point bronze figure and wanted to touch it.

Before Xu Biao could finish speaking, the long cloth bag in the other party's hand was already close by, and then it touched the forehead of his bronze statue.

He felt as if a mountain had pressed down on him, his mind went blank, the words he was about to say were abruptly cut off, and then his body was whipped like a giant whip, and he fell involuntarily down the roof.

"oops……"

There was another loud "bang," and this time he fell even harder than Zhang Tao had. Zhang Tao was pushed off the roof, but he was shaken off hard.

"Deputy Curator Xu..." The crowd below was shocked and rushed forward to see what was happening.

Xu Biao reached out, trembling, wiping the blood from his mouth, and said weakly, "Quick, go and invite the master..."

"Yes Yes……"

Several disciples hurriedly turned around, and just then a voice rang out from the moon gate: "No need to look anymore, I'm here!"

"Master?"

"The owner..."

Hearing the call, everyone turned around to look. Zhao Ti, on the rooftop, also looked towards the moon gate and saw a burly man in black with a thick beard walking out of the gate with his hands behind his back.

"Senior brother, senior brother, avenge me and my third junior brother! This kid is really going too far, too far..." Xu Biao shouted on the ground, but as he shouted, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

"You good-for-nothing!" The burly man with a thick beard glanced at Xu Biao: "Carry him inside and give him his medicine."

"Yes, Master!" Two disciples came up and carried Xu Biao into the room.

The burly man with the thick beard then looked at Zhao Ti and said, "Young man, what kind of person would dare to challenge someone in the middle of the night?"

Zhao Ti smiled slightly from the rooftop: "I don't want to disturb others, and I'm also thinking about Master Lin's business. It's just a friendly exchange, wouldn't it be better to do it at night?"

The burly man with a thick beard chuckled twice: "If you're going to challenge someone, then challenge them. What's with this talk of friendly sparring? I, Lin Meng, am not someone who can't accept defeat. I'm not afraid of being seen even if I lose. Wouldn't it be even more infuriating if I won and no one watched?"

Zhao Ti glanced at the burly man with a bushy beard. This Fuwei Martial Arts School master was rumored to be incredibly skilled in martial arts and was known by the people of Yuzhou as the "Iron Pagoda Guardian of the Mountain." It was said that this nickname had a story behind it.

About a hundred miles west of Yuzhou, there is a treacherous mountain where bandits once entrenched themselves. Although they were not a large stronghold or major bandit group, they still numbered several dozen.

The government troops went to suppress them several times, but firstly, the army was too large and the bandits all fled and hid before they could get close, so they had to return empty-handed. Secondly, there were not many of these bandits, and they only engaged in highway robbery and did not hurt many people, so after failing to catch them twice, they stopped paying much attention to them.

But bandits are bandits after all, and they are always a menace to the area. When Lin Meng learned of this, he disguised himself as a woodcutter and hunter, sneaked into the mountains, and infiltrated the bandits' camp. He single-handedly took care of the bandits.

Of those killed, about ten were wounded, and the rest scattered like birds and beasts. From then on, peace was restored, and passing merchants were no longer harmed.

Therefore, Zhao Ti felt that Lin Meng might have some real skills. You know, there are plenty of mediocre people who open schools and teach students, all show and no substance, but useless in actual combat. But Lin Meng should not be that kind of person.

“Master Lin is quite magnanimous,” Zhao Ti said with a smile. “Now that we’re here, we can no longer refuse to come during the day.”

Lin Meng said, "Young man, most people challenge other schools just to make a name for themselves. You seem to be different, but you should at least give your name, right? You know my name, but I don't know yours or which school you belong to."

Zhao Ti said, "I have taught myself all my martial arts. I don't belong to any sect. My surname is Zhao and my given name is Jian."

“Zhao Jian?” Lin Meng nodded: “But martial arts always require guidance; how can one learn it on their own?”

Zhao Ti smiled and said, "There's no time to lose, Master Lin, you should make your move now and stop trying to find out about my background."

"Hahaha..." Lin Meng laughed loudly upon hearing this, and said, "Good, good, good. I never thought that even a junior in Yuzhou could lecture me, Lin Meng of Iron Pagoda Town!"

After he finished speaking, he lightly touched the ground with his toes, and with a "whoosh," he sprang high into the air, landing directly on the rooftop in front of him.

(End of this chapter)