Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

The Di soldier with the short axe glanced at the burly man's hand, then at Fu Qing, and said something in the Di language, seemingly somewhat surprised.

The burly man replied, his tone hurried.

The two men flanked from the left and right. The curved blade arrived first, and Fu Qing raised his blade to block. As the curved blade was deflected, the short axe swept across and chopped at Fu Qing's knee.

Fu Qing jumped back half a step, the axe blade grazing his kneecap, cutting a gash in his trouser leg.

Before he could even regain his footing, the scimitar slashed down from the side again. The two men were working together perfectly, one attacking his upper body and the other his lower body. If one slash missed, the other would immediately follow up, giving him no chance to catch his breath.

Fu Qing kept retreating, each step leaving a deep pit in the ground.

The surrounding border troops wanted to come and help, but ordinary soldiers at the third or fourth level of body tempering were forced back by the energy of two seventh-level soldiers as soon as they got close.

A border centurion tried to charge from the side, but a Di soldier with a short axe chopped his sword away and sent him flying several steps.

Xiao Lu was so anxious that he stomped his feet, but he knew that going up there would only mean certain death.

The burly man swung his sword down, and Fu Qing parried, his scalp tingling. The short axe followed closely with a horizontal sweep, and Fu Qing turned to the side and used his shoulder to block the axe blade, which cut an inch into his left shoulder and got stuck.

Fu Qing gritted his teeth and swung his sword back, forcing back the Di soldier wielding a short axe, pulling the axe blade from his wound.

The burly man slung his curved sword over his shoulder, looked down at Fu Qing kneeling on one knee, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"You're really something. You've only just reached the seventh level and you've already fought me for so long. You'd be a real man even if you died."

He finished speaking in broken Yasukuni, then gestured with his chin towards the Di soldiers beside him.

"Watch closely, this is the consequence of opposing the Di Kingdom."

Just then, a crisp notification sound rang in Fu Qing's mind.

[Host detected to be in a difficult battle; the "Battle! Awesome!" attribute is automatically triggered. Current HP loss 22%, stat boost 22%, lasting 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, all temporary buffs disappear, and HP is forcibly retained at 10%.]

Fu Qing felt as if an invisible hand had squeezed his heart and then released it, and his blood and qi were surging through his veins much faster.

He glanced down at his hand holding the knife; the veins on the back of his hand bulged, and a layer of blood was faintly visible beneath his skin.

The burly man who was still standing in the same spot also noticed the changes in Fu Qing.

He yelled, and his scimitar and short axe came crashing down at the same time, holding nothing back, determined to finish the fight quickly.

Fu Qing raised his hand and slashed at the curved sword. With a "clang," the curved sword was knocked out of his hand and flew away, spinning and embedding itself in the grain cart.

The burly man looked down at his empty right hand, his thumb cracked and all five fingers trembling.

He had just raised his head when Fu Qing's second slash pierced his neck, killing the elite leader of the Di Kingdom (seventh level of Body Tempering), gaining +976 plunder points.

The Di soldiers nearby erupted in chaos. Several Di soldiers who were rushing towards this side stopped in their tracks, no longer daring to go forward.

The Di soldier wielding the short axe saw the strong man's corpse lying on the ground and took two steps back in fright.

Fu Qing lunged at him and slashed down with his sword. He raised his short axe to block, but it was cleaved away, the blade flipping twice in the air before embedding itself in the frozen mud.

Di Bing was so shocked that he staggered back three steps, and the tiger's mouths of both hands were completely torn open. Fu Qing's second slash swept across Di Bing's waist, slicing open his leather armor and causing blood to spurt out.

Di Bing grunted and clutched the wound on his side as he backed away, tripping over a corpse and falling backward to the ground.

Fu Qing walked towards him with the knife in his hand, but after taking only two steps, his legs suddenly went weak.

Oh no! Fifteen minutes have passed!

Fu Qing felt as if half of his blood had been drained in an instant, and his vital energy was forcibly retained at 10%—his vision went black in waves, and all he could see were flying stars.

He knelt on one knee and used the knife to support himself so that he wouldn't fall.

When the Di soldier with the short axe saw him kneel down, he was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses, looked down at the wound on his side, gritted his teeth, got up from the ground, snatched a curved knife from the corpse next to him, and limped towards Fu Qing.

He walked slowly, each step causing the wound on his side to bleed, but his eyes were filled with killing intent. Two people at the seventh level of Body Tempering had been killed by him, and he had to take back the remaining head.

Fu Qing raised the scimitar above his head and tried to stand up, but his left leg suddenly went weak and he couldn't get up.

As the scimitar came down, he used all his strength to parry it horizontally, but was thrown back three or four feet by the impact and crashed into the wheel of the grain cart.

The curved blade came down again, and he blocked it again. When the third blade came down, Fu Qing almost had no strength left to lift the blade.

Just as the curved blade was less than a foot from Fu Qing's neck, a horizontal blade stabbed into Di Bing's waist from the side.

Di Bing glanced down at the blade protruding from his chest, and the curved sword slipped from his hand.

Han Yue drew his sword, kicked the corpse aside, turned around, and squatted down in front of Fu Qing.

The bandage wrapped around his left arm was soaked with blood, and his face was covered in blood and mud.

"Two sevenfold layers."

Han Yue helped Fu Qing up by putting his arm around his shoulder. "You fucking carried two seventh-level cultivators all by yourself? You think you're some kind of Meridian Opening Realm cultivator?"

Fu Qing leaned on Han Yue's shoulder, coughed, and grinned, "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Han Yue helped him walk back. Xiao Lu rushed out from the crowd and saw that Fu Qing was covered in blood and had a deep, bone-revealing knife wound embedded in his left shoulder. His eyes immediately turned red.

Old Zhao ran up from behind, shoved Xiao Lu aside, took Fu Qing's right arm from Han Yue and draped it over his own shoulder, all the while cursing.

"Damn it, I've been in the border army for twenty years and I'm still this pathetic. You, on the other hand, break through enemy lines like it's water..."

"It's good that you're alive. Your two wives are waiting for you to come home for dinner."

Fu Qing glanced back at the battlefield. The grain carts were surrounded by the corpses of Di soldiers, roughly seventy or eighty in number.

Dozens of soldiers on the border also fell down; some were being helped up and bandaged, while others lay motionless on the ground.

The corpses of two seventh-level leaders lay beside the grain carts. The Di cavalry had begun to retreat. Without their leaders to command, the routed soldiers ran like headless flies toward the grasslands.

The grain convoy drivers crawled out from under the mule carts; some knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the border troops, while others hugged their mules and wept.

An old coachman walked up to Fu Qing, wiped his hands on his sleeves, bowed, and said, "My benefactor."

Han Yue helped Fu Qing sit down next to the grain cart and handed him a water bag. Fu Qing took it and drank two mouthfuls, swallowing the blood mixed with the water in his mouth.

He leaned against the wheel of the grain cart with his eyes closed, his fingers groping for the blood-soaked red rope on his wrist—the safety rope was still there.

When the grain convoy regrouped, the border soldiers slowed their pace and looked at Fu Qing with awe as they passed by.

Everyone knows that if Fu Qing hadn't held off those two level-7 leaders today, at least half of the grain carts would have been lost.

Xiao Lu squatted down next to Fu Qing, watching the military doctor bandage Fu Qing's left shoulder wound, his eyes red.

Fu Qing disliked Xiao Lu for staring at her wound. "Get out of here, what are you looking at me for? You're so effeminate..."

Xiao Lu turned her face away, "Brother Fu, don't push yourself so hard next time. If you die, your wife will be so heartbroken."

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey..."

Fu Qing glanced at him, revealing two rows of bright white teeth, "Children's words are innocent, may they bring you good fortune!"