6kv 002 Underwater Battle
002 Underwater Battle
"The wine of Zuixianlou, the girls of Chunfenglou—once I get five hundred taels, I'll definitely have my fill!"
Li Dalang stared with his eyes, which were bloodshot and sore from being immersed in the Shadow River for a long time.
While searching for Miss Wang's body, he hypnotized himself to boost his morale.
All I could see was dirty, murky river water, and all I could hear were the "gurgling" sounds of hands and feet splashing in the water.
The whole world seemed to be completely isolated from the outside world.
A feeling of loneliness and desolation began to linger in my heart without me even realizing it.
"If it weren't for my four good brothers with me, I'm afraid... um? Where are they?"
Li Dalang was startled to realize that he hadn't seen his brothers for quite some time!
He quickly turned around and looked back, his limbs paddling through the water as he hovered in the river.
Apart from the lifeless, drifting algae and mosquito larvae, there was nothing behind it!
"grass!!"
Li Dalang's body trembled violently, and the urge to urinate rushed to his vital point. He hurriedly used both hands and feet to escape towards the water.
What are five hundred taels of silver, what are fine wines and beautiful women? None of them are as good as my worthless life!
In the distance, amidst the riverbed reeds, Ning Kui pulled a few feet of reeds and wrapped them tightly around Wang Erhu's neck, whose eyes bulged out, while keeping a close eye on Li Dalang's movements.
"Trying to escape? Too late!"
He started learning to fish as early as he could remember, and his swimming skills were so good that he was known as the "Little River Monster" among the fishermen who made their living in the water.
After drowning four people in succession, although his strength was greatly depleted, he was still confident that he could leave Li Dalang in the river forever.
This is his home turf!
Ning Kui kicked Wang Erhu's head with both feet, using the explosive force to chase after Li Dalang like a torpedo.
Li Dalang, who was rising to the surface, was so frightened that his hands and feet were almost unresponsive.
From the victim's perspective, a human-shaped black shadow darted out from the riverbed weeds, and two upside-down human feet were vaguely visible in the parted weeds!
"Erhu and the others are dead?! Damn it, are there really drowning ghosts coming to claim my life?! I'm doomed!"
Just when he was at his lowest point of despair, the yellowish-brown liquid stuck in his vital point began to spread uncontrollably.
Ning Kui's fierce expression became clearly visible as he drew closer!
"Holy crap? It's that little bastard Ning Kui!"
Li Dalang was initially relieved, but then burst into a raging fury.
Who is Ning Kui? He's just a fishmonger at the fish market!
How dare these ants, whom the brothers would never even give a second glance, ambush him in the Shadow River?
"You damn bastard! After I kill you, I'll definitely have some fun with your little sister to relieve my pent-up desire!"
Li Dalang was furious. He bent his large hands into hooks and lunged at Ning Kui's neck with murderous intent.
As the vicious henchman of the fish market owner and the head of the thugs who controlled the entire East Street fish market, what makes Li Dalang qualified for this position?
It's all thanks to his martial arts realm of achieving minor success in skin refining!
The mortal transformation stage of martial artists is divided into four realms: skin refining, flesh refining, bone refining, and blood refining. Each refining stage is like entering a new realm.
The first level, the Skin Refining Realm, alone is enough to create a huge gap between them and ordinary people.
Once one has achieved a minor level of cultivation, one will possess the strength of an ox and be impervious to damage from ordinary iron!
After mastering the art of skin refining, one becomes impervious to blades and spears; even if an ordinary person stands there and lets him cut them, they won't be able to succeed for a while.
Faced with Li Dalang's outstretched hand that blasted through the water curtain, Ning Kui twisted his body to the side, using the water flow to lift him up and take several steps.
The gentle current beneath his feet moved with effortless grace, allowing him to evade attacks with ghostly agility.
He then drew the fish-killing knife from his waist and viciously stabbed at Li Dalang's wrist.
Two figures passed each other, and a wisp of scarlet blood mist slowly spread out.
"Such tough leather!"
Ning Kui's heart sank slightly; compared to ordinary people, martial artists' physical bodies were truly abnormal.
Li Dalang frowned as he looked at his wrist, which had been cut shallowly, and thought angrily, "Damn it, it's been soaking in the water for too long and the skin is all soft. Even a fish-killing knife can break through my defenses!"
"We can't delay; we need to finish this quickly!"
Li Dalang's murderous intent surged uncontrollably, his chest, filled with stale air, felt as if it were about to explode, and his whole body was filled with a stinging sensation, making him extremely uncomfortable.
He rushed toward Ning Kui, wanting nothing more than to crush the despicable fishmonger.
In contrast, Ning Kui, though equally struggling to breathe, was still able to maintain his ability to think calmly.
After their brief exchange, he gained a profound understanding of the insurmountable gap between martial artists and ordinary people.
People like Wang Erhu and Zhu Xiaowu, once they're in the river, are no different from brainstem-removed cripples in his eyes; he can easily kill them.
But Li Dalang is different; he's like an armored chariot with a malfunctioning operating system, and even if he crashes into things recklessly, he might still run himself over.
Seeing that he couldn't gain the upper hand in a direct confrontation, Ning Kui immediately turned and dived underwater.
He's going to torture Li Dalang to death!
"Gurgle!"
Li Dalang couldn't help but exhale a bubble from his mouth and nose, which swirled up floating debris and drifted towards the surface of the water.
I don't know if he was just cursing or if he couldn't hold back his anger.
Ning Kui didn't care at all. He would just run away when Li Dalang chased him, and he would go up and stab the beast twice when Li Dalang ran away.
After repeating this several times, Li Dalang hadn't managed to touch a single hair on Ning Kui's head, but his body already had several small bloody holes.
The red mist blended into the river and drifted away with the waves.
Soon after, large clumps of silt suddenly surged up from the once calm riverbed downstream.
Several enormous black shadows emerged from the mud, and after identifying the source of the bloody smell, they wiggled their eerie tail fins and swam upstream.
The two figures, still locked in combat, rising and falling, were completely unaware that death was imminent.
"I can't take it anymore, I'll suffocate if we keep fighting like this!"
Li Dalang felt his head was heavy and swollen, and his ears were ringing like thunder.
His eyes were bloodshot and crimson, the shadow of death looming over him.
Finally, when fear overwhelmed his anger, Li Dalang suddenly fled frantically towards the water.
Seeing this, Ning Kui hurriedly chased after him, gripped his dagger tightly, and stabbed Li Dalang fiercely.
Li Dalang seemed to feel no pain at all, letting Ning Kui stab one bloody hole after another into his body.
He swam towards the surface with all his might, even if it meant death, just to get one last breath of fresh air.
"Damn it, a martial artist at the Skin Refining Realm has skin as tough as leather armor?"
Ning Kui unleashed his full power, stabbing and thrusting wildly, growing increasingly alarmed with each strike.
How many times did Li Dalang get stabbed? Twenty or thirty times?
Each time, it only manages to puncture a small hole, it's like poking someone with a toothpick, just a superficial wound.
"No! We still have to suffocate him!"
Ning Kui knew that once Li Dalang caught his breath, he would be the one to suffer!
A fierce rage surged within him; let's see who suffocates first!
He threw away the dagger, wrapped his arms around Li Dalang's waist, and swam backwards with all his might towards the bottom of the river.
The two figures suddenly froze in the water, as if still.
Driven mad, Li Dalang was unable to think clearly. Instinctively, he clenched his fist and repeatedly pounded it against Ning Kui's back.
Each strike carries the force of a thousand pounds, comparable to the power of a top boxer in my previous life after accumulating power.
Even with the water flow to mitigate the force, the immense power still caused Ning Kui excruciating pain, causing him to cough up large amounts of bubbles and blood.
Before long, they could no longer restrain Li Dalang, who was as fierce as a bull.
However, just as Li Dalang was about to escape, a huge black shadow suddenly burst out of the murky river and swept past the two of them at lightning speed!
After the intense impact, Ning Kui, who had rolled away, felt all the strength he had been struggling with in his arms disappear.
But he was clearly still holding Li Dalang's body.
Using his swimming skills to forcibly stabilize himself, Ning Kui's pupils were instantly filled with fear the moment he saw the scene before him!
Li Dalang was suddenly bitten in half by some enormous creature.
He held Li Dalang's lower body in his arms, large gushes of blood gushing out from his broken waist.
In the blood-red river, a head rolled and floated to the surface like a pig's bladder, its unseeing eyes staring intently at Ning Kui.
"!!!"
Ning Kui was so frightened that he quickly threw away Li Dalang's mutilated body. "Something dirty has come!"
As if sensing his fear, six enormous, strange fish slowly swam out of the murky, yellowish river.
These strange fish were bluish-black in color, scaleless, and their slimy bodies were covered with white markings that resembled human faces wailing.
The eerie fish tail resembled several human arms, with five pale, fleshy tentacles at the ends grabbing at something haphazardly.
Its enormous body, a full ten feet long, had powerful limbs pressed tightly against its belly, and its gleaming claws were terrifying.
What horrified Ning Kui the most was that a wailing human face was visibly added to one of the strange fish that was chewing on Li Dalang's corpse.
"Could it be... that these white patches represent the number of people who have been cannibalized?"
Ning Kui felt as if he had fallen into an abyss. Even if he were at his peak, let alone now that he was out of oxygen, how could he possibly be a match for these six strange fish?
They're doomed...