A Scroll of Infinite Glory

Along the route from the intersection guarded by Black Hawk Hu Dali and his men to the city wall, there is a small river flowing from northwest to southeast.

According to the information the coach had gathered beforehand, the deepest part of this section of the river was only knee-deep, but under the moonlight, it appeared to be a mixture of light and shadow, with some sections shimmering and others dark and indistinct.

Just as Guan Luoyang and the instructor were about to reach the river, they encountered a second group of enemies.

Gunshots, knife flashes, and the clanging of chains cutting through the air rang out one after another.

This group was led by Xiong Li, and consisted mainly of assassins from the Imperial Household Department's Sticky Rod Office. They had fewer muskets and fewer men than the previous fifty Qing soldiers, but they were far more troublesome than those fifty Guangzhou soldiers.

The blade of the dagger and the hooks on the chain gleamed with an unusual luster, indicating they were poisoned.

It's not difficult to poison ironware, but it's not so easy to make every single weapon in a batch carry a fast-acting, lethal poison.

Because many potent toxins are volatile, if they are applied to weapons and then exposed to air, they may lose their toxicity if left unused for half a day. If some toxic minerals are directly embedded in them, it can easily affect their hardness.

The cost of forging and maintaining this batch of cold weapons would be more than the cost of an equivalent number of firearms and ammunition, making them specifically designed to target skilled martial artists.

Even Guan Luoyang, having witnessed Wang Xiongjie's tragic state that day, was unwilling to risk his own skin to test those highly poisonous iron hooks.

The act required caution, as well as careful avoidance of the tangled chains, which inevitably slowed down the killing process.

After a two-minute fight, only about twenty of the thirty-odd assassins were crippled or knocked down. While the instructor was dealing with the others, Guan Luoyang caught up with Xiong Li.

Xiong Li, nicknamed "Dog Bear," was actually only of medium build, even appearing somewhat thin. Surprisingly, he wielded a pair of Midnight Chicken Claw Mandarin Duck Axes.

This weapon is like two crescent-shaped iron plates, one large and one small, overlapping each other, with a narrow, elongated gap in the middle like a third eye. It has four sharp points, each with a blade, and only one point where you can grip it. It can be used for scraping, cutting, picking, hooking, and chopping.

This weapon is said to have been created by Dong Haichuan, the founder of Baguazhang. His eldest disciple, Yin De'an, founded the Dongcheng Baguazhang lineage and taught the Guangxu Emperor boxing in the palace. Many of the palace eunuchs and guards also practiced with him.

Xiong Li originally learned fan skills, which were flashy but not sharp enough. Eight or nine years ago, he heard that Yin De'an was teaching boxing in the palace, so he pretended to be a guard and took the opportunity to learn the techniques of Baguazhang from him.

Guan Luoyang's waist knife had just severed a person's limb, and the blood groove on the blade was still wet with blood, exuding a fierce aura. When he encountered the opponent's Bagua You Shen Step, combined with the Zi Wu Yuan Yang Yue, he chased after him for six steps and thirteen strikes, but all of them were blocked and dodged.

Instead, Xiong Li saw an opportunity, and with a sideways, dragon-like arc step, he locked the mandarin duck halberds in his hands and snapped his forearm.

That Qing soldier's waist knife couldn't withstand such damage; it snapped off right there with the hilt and guard.

The moment the long sword broke, the situation changed drastically in the blink of an eye.

Xiong Li took a step forward and leaned down, and the Mandarin Duck Axe swiftly hooked forward, the left blade tip cleaving open Xiong Li's belly, while the right blade hooked Xiong Li's lower body.

Guan Luoyang suddenly pulled back and took a high step, his whole body shrinking backward except for his shoulders and back arching, and his left hand swung out a palm strike high into the air.

His palm strike was a delayed attack, and besides, his longsword was broken and his left hand was unarmed. By the time Xiong Li's Mandarin Duck Axe cleaved his chest, his palm strike would at most have just passed by Xiong Li in a feint.

But in the blink of an eye, Guan Luoyang's right arm retracted, and his entire body's strength tilted to the left, like an old ape reaching out to touch a deer's antlers. His left hand suddenly swung out about ten centimeters longer, like a large stick made of cowhide wrapped around a jujube wood pole.

With a loud thud, it struck Xiong Li's forehead first.

This is a technique from Tongbei (a traditional Chinese medicine school) that loosens joints, relaxes muscles and tendons, and allows for long arm swings. For an ordinary person to practice until they can swing their arm two inches longer is already extremely difficult.

When Guan Luoyang first started practicing this skill, he was constantly thrown, pulled, and tugged by Tian Gongyu for over a year, and rubbed with medicinal wine until his arms were burning hot. Every day he suspected that all the joints in his arms were broken. Only after he had mastered the skin-strengthening technique could he develop the skill of extending his arms by three inches.

Three inches is a life.

Xiong Li was struck by the blow. His neck shrank back, and he fell to his knees with a thud. The two Mandarin Duck Axes were embedded in the ground, and blood flowed from his seven orifices. He died instantly.

Guan Luoyang's tense face flushed slightly. He slowly let out a breath, clenched his left hand, and slowly pulled his arm back to its original length.

The coach suddenly shouted from behind.

"Be careful!"

Guan Luoyang instinctively dodged to the left, then glanced back to the right, just in time to catch sight of the figure radiating a powerful aura, suddenly closing in on him.

This person had just come running from a distance, but even with Guan Luoyang's keen hearing, he didn't hear him approaching amidst the fierce battle.

It struck with the force of thunder, yet landed without a sound.

In that instant when he looked back, Guan Luoyang almost thought he was seeing a live leopard as tall as a man!

Yuan Hai, the eldest leopard among the large and small leopards of the Imperial Household Department.

Are leopards strong? Of course they are. Their calls can be heard five or six miles away, their sprinting speed is the best among all beasts, and they can easily carry prey that is more than their own weight up trees.

But leopards are also weak; when they run, they can hardly perceive changes on either side, and their endurance is vastly inferior to that of humans.

However, a humanoid leopard, and a person who had mastered the leopard-style boxing technique to its very essence, was truly terrifying.

When the instructor was surrounded that day, he protected the roster and fought his way out with only a short stick. More than two hundred soldiers and assassins blocked his way. He only suffered one gunshot wound, but he was hit three times by the powerful leopard fist of Yuan Hai, and the bruise on his dislocated arm that was reattached was left from that time.

At this moment, Yuan Hai, with the momentum of his all-out charge, launched a surprise attack from the side, letting out a strange cry as his fists rained down on Guan Luoyang.

Guan Luoyang hastily responded, retreating repeatedly, but failed to block all of the opponent's punches. He was hit in the shoulder and right chest, letting out a low groan in pain.

In the category of animal-shaped boxing, tiger and leopard belong to the same category, but their fighting styles are very different. The tiger style emphasizes the skeleton and spirit, with an unyielding imposing presence, while the leopard style focuses on training strength.

The tips of a person's ten fingers are the extremities of the tendons. The method of practicing Leopard Fist is to tuck the thumbs inward and clench all the other fingers, with the fingertips close to the base of the fingers and the palms exposed. The purpose of this method is to store the power at the extremities of the tendons.

When you strike someone with this kind of fist technique, the punches become faster and more powerful the more you hit them, and because the power is concentrated at the fingertips, the opponent's arms feel no pain.

Some boxing techniques are not yet advanced enough, but a master of Leopard Fist who has already reached a high level may not realize that his arm is already broken until he has killed the opponent.

This shows how vicious and cruel he was!

However, Guan Luoyang remained calm despite his shock. The pain from the two punches only fueled his ferocity. Although he was still retreating, he was taking very steady steps. He switched to a rapid attack using Crane Fist, meeting attack with attack and speed with speed.

The sound of their fists and arms colliding was like rain pattering on banana leaves, or even more like a string of a hundred firecrackers, with the sounds of explosions and collisions overlapping.

Yuan Hai was filled with hatred. He had been running all the way to the instructor, but Guan Luoyang happened to be blocking his path, so he channeled all his hatred into his fists and punched.

But as he continued fighting, he felt his fist, which was tightly clenched at the base of his fingers, begin to loosen. He immediately knew that his flesh had been damaged, and he was slightly startled.

The experts around the instructor are mostly Green-Faced Ghosts. The people in the Imperial Household Department already know Green-Faced Ghosts' level; he should be a master boxer who has achieved great success in one training session.

Whether it's training muscles and bones or achieving mastery of Qi, in a real fight, even if Yuan Hai isn't a Grand Master, he's not afraid of anyone. But now it seems that the person opposite him is precisely the one who best counters his mastery of skin training.

Against a master of this kind of boxing, the Leopard Fist's rapid and powerful strikes, like a barrage of rain, would block or deflect at least 70-80% of the force, preventing it from penetrating.

Using the powerful force of Leopard Fist against an ordinary person, even if the opponent is wearing leather armor or arm armor, at most you will lose 500 to yourself and injure the enemy by 1000. But against this kind of person, you will lose 1000 to yourself and injure the enemy by 500.

After exchanging over a hundred punches, Yuan Hai had no choice but to change his tactics.

When he threw another punch, his leopard fist turned into a leopard claw. With a flick of his wrist, his fingertips, carrying a cold and sharp force like iron hooks and barbs, tried to seize Guan Luoyang's wrist, intending to use this method to pinch into the opponent's skin and tear off his tendons.

Guan Luoyang pulled his wrist back and flicked his fingers, thus seizing Yuan Hai's wrist in return.

The two sides grappled with each other, and in a sudden clash of strength, Yuan Hai, whose boxing skills were ultimately inferior, was outmatched. His wrist was twisted, his elbow was straightened, and his entire right arm and shoulder were pulled, causing his body to involuntarily tilt to one side.

Guan Luoyang was about to punch him in the right side of his unprotected abdomen with his left fist, intending to shatter his kidney.

Yuan Hai shielded Guan Luoyang with his left hand, but the fist struck the back of Guan Luoyang's hand, the force penetrating his body and causing him to cough up blood. He then stomped and kicked, trying to force Guan Luoyang back.

Guan Luoyang held on with his right hand, changed his footing, pressed his calf down behind Yuan Hai's knee, causing him to lower his body, and was about to punch him in the head with his left hand again.

Suddenly, Guan Luoyang's ears twitched, and he turned his fist into a palm, catching a flying knife that was aimed at his face between his fingers.

This throwing knife actually came from fifty paces away; its force and accuracy were astonishing.

The wind howled and horses neighed; under the moonlight, someone rode galloping towards them.