The unexpected happened.
Although the miners were terrified by Master Tie's threats and the menacing glares of his desperadoes, not a single one of them moved. Instead, their trembling bodies formed a human wall, silently shielding Zhao Yuan.
Li Qingbo and Pan Ping stood at the forefront of the human wall. "Master Tie," they pleaded, their voices trembling, "the boy is still young. He didn't mean to offend you. You're a bigger man than this, can't you let him go? Please, just this once? As a favor to usâŠ"
Master Tie never imagined this band of miners would dare to ignore his words completely!
He flew into a rage, roaring, "Fuck! Who the hell are you to ask *me* for a favor? When that little bastard was snapping my bones and kicking me in the balls, why didn't any of you stop him then? And now you jump out to plead for him? You're a bunch of fucking traitors! A pack of ungrateful dogs! You want to protect him, is that it? Staging a rebellion, are you? Fine! I'll let you all die right alongside him!"
Master Tie raised his left hand, aiming the dark muzzles of his double-barreled shotgun straight at Li Qingbo. He was about to pull the trigger.
At that critical moment, the White Cat, which had been lying in ambush, shot out like a bolt of lightning. It was on Master Tie before he could react, leaping high and sinking its teeth into the left hand holding the gun.
The White Cat's teeth were incredibly sharp, instantly leaving two rows of bloody puncture wounds on Master Tie's wrist.
"AAAHâ!" Master Tie let out a blood-curdling shriek. The gun's muzzle jerked to the side and with a loud BANG, the bullet went wide, slamming into a pile of coal.
The bones in Master Tie's right hand were shattered, rendering it useless. He could only flail his left arm, desperately trying to shake the White Cat off.
The more he thrashed, the tighter the White Cat bit down. It also raised its four paws and raked its claws viciously down his arm. He howled in pain, helpless, and could only scream to his companions for help. "Quick, get this damn cat off me! Kill it! Hack it to pieces!"
Before his companions could even close in to help, a figure shot out from the crowd of miners with unimaginable speed, appearing right before him.
It was Zhao Yuan, who had just activated a Shrinking Earth Talisman!
Master Tie never expected Zhao Yuan to be so fast. Before he could even react, Zhao Yuan grabbed his left arm, bent it back, and twisted.
The double-barreled shotgun fell to the ground with a CLANG. Zhao Yuan now had Master Tie in his grasp, and the man was powerless to escape.
"Let go of Master Tie!"
A few nearby thugs had been about to help Master Tie with the White Cat, but in the blink of an eye, Zhao Yuan had their boss subdued.
But they recovered quickly, swinging their blades at Zhao Yuan in an attempt to rescue Master Tie.
"Alright, you can have him back."
Zhao Yuan kicked Master Tie squarely in the ass, releasing his grip at the same moment. Master Tie stumbled forward, hurtling toward his own men.
Seeing the gleaming machetes swinging his way, Master Tie's face went pale with fright. "Pull back! Pull them back!" he screamed. "Don't fucking cut me!"
The thugs scrambled to pull back their blades, terrified of hitting him by mistake.
At that moment, empowered by the Shrinking Earth Talisman, Zhao Yuan moved like a phantom. He appeared before them in the blink of an eye, taking advantage of the moment they were pulling back their blades. Like a tiger pouncing on a flock of sheep, he unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks. In an instant, the thugs were on the ground. Some were unconscious, others writhed in agony, clutching broken limbs. They had all been completely neutralized.
Zhao Yuan's arm snaked out, once again pulling Master Tie in to use as a human shield.
Master Tie was about to cry.
'Of course he knew Zhao Yuan was using him as both a shield and a weapon. But what could he do about it? In front of Zhao Yuan, heâa man famous for his fighting skillsâwas as weak as a kitten. He couldn't help but question his entire existenceâŠ'
Seeing what had just happened, the remaining thugs hesitated, unsure of what to do.
While they were at a loss, Zhao Yuan took the offensive. He kicked Master Tie toward the remaining group of thugs again. This time, however, far from trying to catch him, they all scrambled to the sides, afraid it was a trap.
"THUD!"
Master Tie landed face-first on the ground, eating a mouthful of dirt. The rough, uneven surface scraped his face to a bloody pulp. It was a pathetic sight to behold.
Although the thugs managed to dodge Master Tie, they couldn't escape being taken down by Zhao Yuan themselves. Their weapons were useless against him. The guy was simply too fast, his movements too unpredictable. The thugs couldn't track him at allâone moment he'd be right in front of them, but by the time they swung their blades, he would have vanished, only to reappear several meters away, taking down another of their companions.
If it weren't for the bright sun overhead, the thugs would have wondered if they'd run into a ghost. Otherwise, how could a person be so impossibly fast, his movements so eerie and unpredictable?
Once Zhao Yuan had taken care of those thugs, he found himself completely surrounded by the rest.
And these men had more than just blades. They had guns!
Four guns, pointed at Zhao Yuan from different directions.
A scar-faced man holding one of the guns sneered, "Not bad, kid. You can really fight. Never would've guessed you were a trained martial artist. But no matter how fast you are, no matter how good you fight, I refuse to believe you're faster than a bullet."
Despite the perilous situation, Zhao Yuan wasn't the least bit nervous. He looked at the guns pointed at him as if they were nothing more than a few harmless fire pokers.
He smiled. "You're welcome to try."
"Still trying to act tough when you're about to die, you motherfucker!" the scar-faced man cursed, moving to pull the trigger. But before he could, two shots rang out. Two of his gun-toting companions had opened fire first.
The scar-faced man felt a sudden, sharp pain in his stomach. His gun hand jerked, and his shot went wide, accidentally hitting one of his own men.
However, Scarface didn't have time to apologize to his comrade. He looked down at the bloody, gushing hole in his own stomach and roared in disbelief, "Hu Zi, what the fuck are you doing? You shot me!"
Meanwhile, another gunman had been hit, just like Scarface. He was also cursing up a storm. "Dammit, Da Biao! You shot me? Whose side are you on?"
Hu Zi and Da Biao were the two who had fired first. Faced with their comrades' accusations, they sounded panicked and wronged. "I... I don't know what happened! I was aiming right at the kid, I swear! How did I hit you? What the hell is going on? This is just too weird!"
Of course, they had no way of knowing that in the split second before they fired, Zhao Yuan had activated two Enchanting Talismans, clouding their minds and making them shoot their own comrades.
While the thugs were busy pointing fingers, Zhao Yuan became a whirlwind of motion. He didn't just disarm the four gunmenâhe knocked them all to the ground!