Chapter 192: Local Giant Snake

The speed and reaction of specially trained marksmen are astonishing.

Zhang Kaiye was able to hit five high-speed moving objects in an instant; his marksmanship was superb.

Everyone present had great confidence in his marksmanship. Zhang Kaiye had once single-handedly taken down dozens of armed men who were stealing goods in a city alleyway battle, relying solely on his marksmanship.

Zhang Jia even closed his eyes, waiting for the shot to fire.

But the gun didn’t fire.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A chopstick appeared out of thin air, striking the gun. The immense force, like a battering ram, knocked the gun away at the last second.

Roar!

A gun suddenly appeared in Zhang Kaiye’s other hand.

Dual-wielding.

But just as the gun reached his hand, a chopstick flew through the air like a magic wand, the immense force knocking his gun to the ground again.

He jerked to the ground, rolling as he tried to pick up his gun and fire again.

But another chopstick flew in, striking the back of his head, a region densely packed with nerves.

Buzz…

His vision blurred with stars, his body went numb, and he collapsed like a rag doll, panting heavily on the ground, temporarily in a semi-conscious state. It was like being deeply intoxicated, barely able to perceive his surroundings, but unable to move.

Su Jie slowly stood up, picked up the two pistols from the ground, placed them on the table, and waited for him to regain consciousness.

The back of the brain, the brainstem, is the reflex center regulating vital physiological activities such as cardiovascular movement and respiration. Without the protection of a hard skull, a blow to the back of the head can be life-threatening, which is why striking the back of the head is forbidden in various combat sports.

However, in many killing techniques, the back of the head is a target.

But Su Jie’s control over force had reached a level of precision and microscopic detail; even a small toothpick could pierce skin and embed itself in flesh, let alone a chopstick.

Chopsticks are heavy and far more powerful than toothpicks.

If Su Jie used his strength, these chopsticks could easily pierce a person’s heart.

The scene was deathly silent.

Zhang Jia, Zhang Yun, Kong Guan, and Yuan Hui were all speechless, seemingly stunned.

They all knew martial arts, and were quite skilled, yet they seemed to have seen Su Jie move, yet also seemed not to move, as three chopsticks flew from the table, knocking away two guns and knocking Zhang Kaiye half-conscious with another.

Only Zhang Manman barely saw it clearly: Su Jie wiped his hand across the table and then retrieved it.

In wiping, he used a concealed weapon technique to launch the chopsticks.

The skill of his wiping technique far surpassed that of Gu Yang; it seemed that at the instant he made his move, he breathed life into the chopsticks, turning them into three flying snakes.

“As expected, concealed weapons are much faster than movement techniques. If I were to rush at them with my fists and feet, I’d be too slow,” Su Jie thought to himself.

Even an ordinary person throwing a stone is much faster than the fastest athlete. Moreover, Su Jie’s specialized concealed weapon technique, with its explosive power in an instant, allows him to launch chopsticks that are almost as fast as a crossbow bolt.

The world’s fastest crossbow bolts can reach speeds of over 100 meters per second, ten times the speed of a human running at their maximum potential.

Even with Su Jie’s incredible movement speed, he couldn’t truly be as fast as an arrow.

In real combat, concealed weapons are indeed the most important lethal weapons.

After four or five minutes, Zhang Kaiye finally came to his senses. He looked at Su Jie, then touched the back of his head, noticed the pistol on the table and the chopsticks on the ground, and spoke with difficulty: “Your concealed weapon is faster than my gun?”

His voice was somewhat dry, as if he were chewing on a bitter pill.

“The speed of a bullet is close to the speed of sound. My chopsticks only travel at most 40-50 meters per second; they can’t possibly be faster than your bullet. It’s just that my reaction time is faster than yours,” Su Jie said, picking up the chopsticks, rinsing them under the tap, wiping them clean with a paper towel, and placing them back on the table.

“Cousin, Su Jie could kill you in the blink of an eye. He can kill with anything. At the speed he was moving, even three or five of you with guns could be killed before you could even make a move,” Zhang Manman said. “Are you convinced now?”

“Hidden weapons are one thing, but what about his hand-to-hand combat?” Zhang Kaiye wasn’t entirely convinced.

“We can try,” Su Jie glanced at Zhang Kaiye. “You have a dagger hidden in your sleeve, and another in the seam of your boot. You have five weapons concealed throughout your body. Here’s the deal: you attack me with your daggers. I won’t use any concealed weapons; I’ll fight bare-handed. If you even scratch me, I lose, and Zhang Manman will still support you. How about it?”

“Are you serious?” Zhang Kaiye perked up.

Seeing his expression, Su Jie couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly. “This guy lacks ambition, clings to wishful thinking, and isn’t particularly talented. However, it’s not bad to have Zhang Manman subdue him. Ambitious but incompetent, he can still be a good henchman and vanguard.”

“Of course,” Zhang Manman declared.

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhang Kaiye drew his dagger, grabbed it, and thrust it towards Su Jie.

The angle of the attack was tricky, targeting a blind spot.

Snap!

The moment the dagger reached Su Jie, Su Jie intervened, blocking it with a move resembling a “rocking wheel,” striking Zhang Kaiye’s wrist.

The dagger was knocked away, embedding itself in the table and wobbling.

Then, without giving Zhang Kaiye a chance to draw another dagger, Su Jie pressed forward, his elbow like a plowshare, striking Zhang Kaiye’s Tanzhong acupoint in the chest.

Zhang Kaiye immediately lost consciousness.

This was a combination of the “rocking wheel” and “plowshare” techniques from the Xin Yi Ba (Heart Intent Boxing) manual.

“Rocking the wheel” is like using a rope to lift a bucket of water from a well, while “plowshare” is like using a plow to till the land—basic farming techniques. But in Su Jie’s hands, they became killing moves.

The basic technique of Xin Yi Ba is called “Hoe Strike,” which can then evolve into techniques such as “rolling the wheel,” “weeding,” “breaking tree branches,” “pushing the plow,” “harvesting wheat,” “turning the millstone,” and “laying the rake.”

These are all incredibly rustic moves, but they represent the highest level of Chinese Kung Fu.

He couldn’t even hold on for a second.

Zhang Kaiye fainted again.

Su Jie pulled him up, rubbed his chest a couple of times, and he coughed up phlegm, finally regaining consciousness.

“Alright,” Zhang Manman said, seeing Zhang Kaiye’s embarrassed expression. “Cousin, he’s a master of my father’s caliber. It’s normal that you’re no match for him. Meeting him was truly a stroke of luck for you, yet you act like this. You’re taking your good fortune for granted.”

“What?” Zhang Kaiye’s eyes widened. “Impossible! He’s at the same level as the Dragon Head? That means… our Zhang family only has one Dragon Head.”

“That’s right. In our Zhang family’s martial arts, if someone can cultivate to that ‘divine enlightenment’ level, they can immediately become the Dragon Head. In our Zhang family, no one has reached that level for sixty years. My father achieved it immediately, and rightfully became the Dragon Head.” Zhang Manman said, “Cousin, you’re a formidable person, which is why you’re ambitious, but in front of such a master, you’re truly no match.”

Su Jie heard the words “divine enlightenment,” which undoubtedly referred to the realm of the Living Dead. The level of this psychological quality is actually difficult to define precisely. Master Ma distinguished between levels like coarse thinking, fine thinking, and neither thinking nor not thinking, but Principal Liu Guanglie went a step further, summarizing it in seven characters.

Clearly, Ming Lun’s seven-character summary is superior to Master Ma’s.

In Su Jie’s estimation, Zhang Manman’s father’s level should be higher than his own, because when Odell attacked him in the war-torn region last time, Zhang Hongqing was injured but escaped successfully.

Even now, if Odell were to pursue him, Su Jie would still find it difficult to escape.

Therefore, Zhang Hongqing is above him, but possibly slightly inferior to Odell.

Of course, these are all just his own guesses; real combat is ever-changing, and no one can say for sure.

“If he truly possesses the level of the Dragon Head, even ten of me attacking him together would only result in certain death,” Zhang Kaiye said. “But I still don’t believe it. How old is he? Even the Dragon Head only reached the Divine Enlightenment realm after the age of thirty. He’s not even twenty yet, and he’s already reached that level. What will he be like in the future?”

“Let’s put that aside. Are you keeping your bet?” Su Jie asked, sitting down.

“What if I don’t?” Zhang Kaiye was tempted to renege on his promise.

“Then I won’t make things difficult for you. I’ll just keep you in bed for a month or two,” Su Jie retorted, using Zhang Kaiye’s words.

“You!” Zhang Kaiye knew the principle of not fighting a losing battle: “I’ll keep my promise and nominate you at the annual meeting.”

With that, he put away his gun and dagger, turned, and left the house. “My cousin is still not entirely convinced,” Zhang Manman shook her head. “What’s the point of always playing these petty tricks? Su Jie, what do you think we should do next?”

“Killing someone is easy, but destroying their spirit is hard,” Su Jie smiled. “Although I may have made your cousin outwardly submit through force, he’s not truly convinced, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Actually, my cousin responds better to force than gentleness. If you were ruthless enough, he would submit. It’s just that you were too soft-hearted. In this world, most people submit to power, not virtue,” Zhang Manman uttered a classic line.

“Indeed.” Su Jie strongly agreed with the saying “submit to power, not virtue.”

“But he is, after all, your cousin, and I think he used to be in cooperation with you. There’s no need to be so ruthless.”

“That’s true. This cousin is alright; we’re all in this together for mutual benefit. The other cousins are really awful.” Zhang Manman said to Zhang Jia, “Zhang Jia, what do you think?”

Zhang Jia then came to her senses and nodded repeatedly, “Yes, yes, yes, Zhang Kaiyu is actually the most cunning. I heard he went back to China and secretly investigated you. They didn’t take you seriously at first, but your business deal with the Xu family abroad went very well, and now they’re all wary. Even my cousin Kaiyu was uncomfortable. I’ll go out and talk to him, and everything will be fine.”