Chapter 150: Fighting the Landlord

Chapter 150: Playing Fight the Landlord

Xiao Si’s real name wasn't actually Xiao Si, but rather Four Fours.
This bizarre name had a lot in common with Wudi’s real name, because Wudi’s actual name was "Royal Flush Wudi."
While Royal Flush was indeed invincible, Four Fours was no small number either—at the very least, it was still a bomb. These two shrimps, from dawn till dusk, besides tailing Miss Lin, spent all their time figuring out how to play Fight the Landlord.

Among modern citizens, it’s genuinely hard to find a few who don’t know how to play Fight the Landlord. In fact, the path of martial arts sometimes shares the exact same principles as all things in the universe. Take Fight the Landlord, for example; it has a lot of common ground with the martial arts of "Dynasty," or at least that’s what Xiao Si believed.

For instance, if you are dealt a pair of Jokers and four Twos, you still have to be careful when playing your cards. Experienced gamblers all know that such a hand has a very high probability of getting beaten to death. This is much like a high-level player at rank four or five becoming careless and letting their guard down when facing a rookie. After a wild, indiscriminate bombing failed to wipe out the opponent, they ended up getting counter-attacked and losing the game.

By the same token, it doesn’t matter if you are dealt a terrible hand; the crucial thing is knowing how to play a bad hand well—that is the real skill. In fact, Zhang He applied this exact skill with great proficiency. Haven’t you noticed? When little classmate Zhang first entered the pugilistic world, "Dynasty" had already been open for three years. He was still a complete newbie while experts were already as numerous as the hairs on an ox, yet little classmate Zhang is still thriving and successful today. That is the skill of playing a bad hand well.

Therefore, if little classmate Zhang were to actually practice Fight the Landlord, President Ma and Fatty would probably have no way to survive.

Xiao Si clearly understood the principles of Fight the Landlord inside out. Given the current situation, could he determine whether his side had the better cards, or if the opponents held a stronger hand? Since the opposing side consisted of two people from the Baili Escort Agency, two from the Emei Sword Sect, and two from the Mount Shu Sword Sect, this was practically equivalent to holding a pair of Tens, a pair of Aces, and a pair of Queens right in their hands.

As for his own side, it could be said that he, Xiao Si, possessed a rank four card, which could be treated as a single Ace. The three strange-sect players from the Wind and Cloud Hall were all at rank three; those three strange-sect players could be viewed as three Jacks, forming a "three-with-one" combination. Baigan and Goudan, being rank three members of the Life and Death Judgment, were certainly not weak, representing at least a pair of Queens.

The sides seemed evenly matched. In situations like this, victory often depends on how you play your very first hand.
Play the right cards, and everything that follows goes smoothly; play the wrong cards, and you get beaten so hard by the opponent that you can't even fight back, getting stun-locked all the way to your death.

Therefore, Xiao Si’s general strategy was very correct. Baigan and Goudan were lying in ambush deep within the bamboo forest; expecting this pair of Queens to completely suppress the enemy was impossible, but they could consume the enemy's intermediate forces.

As for Xiao Si himself, he was keeping watch on the path ahead of the bamboo forest. Once the opponents entered the winding trail, his single Ace could strike first to lure the enemy deeper into the bamboo forest. Then, fighting and retreating alongside Baigan and Goudan, he would draw them into the mechanism-filled grand formation set up by the three strange-sect players, and finally annihilate them in one fell swoop. You must remember, those three Jacks were the biggest cards on his side—this was the only truly large hand to secure victory.

If Zhang He knew about this line of thinking, he would surely sigh in admiration: "Brother, you’ve got talent, Big Brother is deeply gratified."

At this moment, the night was profound and silent, with starlight scattering down. Xiao Si lurked within the dense grass, the starlight draping a strange, eerie blue gauze over his robe. The winding forest path ahead was completely exposed to his field of vision. If anyone passed through here, they would definitely not escape his eyes—he was at least confident in this much observation skill.

However, he still overlooked one thing: since this was a game of Fight the Landlord, all the cards should be concentrated together and united. Yet, he hadn't formed a proper team, because even he could tell from the past few days of interaction that the four major factions—the Sun Moon Divine Cult, the Wind and Cloud Hall, the Golden Palace Family, and the Life and Death Judgment—only appeared to be gathered together on the surface. In reality, they were not as sharing-weal-and-woe bound or twisted into a single rope as one might imagine. As for the reason, he couldn't quite articulate it, but he simply had this gut feeling.

If he had to find a reason, it was most likely that when the grand task was eventually accomplished, the spoils of war distributed to each family would not be equal.

In the pugilistic world, many matters cannot be handled with absolute fairness, and he was well aware of this. However, Miss Lin had already made the arrangements; if this battle were completed brilliantly, the Golden Palace Family's speaking weight would undoubtedly be greatly enhanced.

Lost in these hazy thoughts, time slowly crept closer to 9:00 PM. At this moment, a faint sound of footsteps suddenly rang out from the forest ahead. If you didn't listen carefully, you might mistake it for the wind blowing through the grass.

A cold sneer flashed through Xiao Si’s heart. You guys severely underestimate the evil value of underworld figures.
Once the evil value is high, sensory perception increases correspondingly—not only towards people, but also towards monsters. This is an innate advantage that righteous practitioners simply cannot compare to.

Sure enough, six figures appeared at the edge of the forest: two women wearing blue and white Daoist robes, clearly people from Mount Shu; two women in gray Daoist attire, obviously Emei players; and leading the way were two burly men in short blue cloth tunics. With this kind of attire, no wild guessing was needed—the escorts of the Baili Escort Agency were all dressed like this.

If this were normal times, the people of the three major factions would never get tangled up together like this. But tonight, they were traveling in company for no other reason than the fact that all three families shared one common trait—they now had to be on guard against underworld figures at every step of the way.

They had walked for a full day and were already exhausted from travel and hardship, whereas his side had meticulously set up defenses and awaited the weary with rested troops. Therefore, Xiao Si wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid in the slightest. He chose the most direct way to appear: he stood up, right in the middle of the road.

Hua Feihong and Ma Junmei immediately pressed their hands against their sword hilts, and the two Emei female disciples also came to a halt.

"What kind of person is sneaking around and hiding over there?" President Ma’s opening line always left people not knowing whether to laugh or cry. The person was clearly standing right in the middle of the road, yet she insisted on saying they were sneaking around in hiding.

"Are you blind?" Xiao Si replied coldly.

Ma Junmei sneered, "I am not blind. I can see you, but a good dog doesn't block the path."

Xiao Si’s face darkened. "Are you refusing a toast only to drink a forfeiture?"

However, Ma Junmei’s expression softened quite a bit. "I never drink alcohol. If you want to drink, go drink it yourself. Haven't you ever heard that alcohol is a gut-rotting poison? Young man, I advise you to drink less. Last time I had a drinking session in Chengdu City, wow, you have no idea, the four of them drank against just me, and I..."

"Shut up!" Xiao Si was burning with rage. He simply couldn't believe these were disciples of Mount Shu. With so much utter nonsense, what did she think this was? A tea party or a corporate meeting?

"Where did you guys come from?" As soon as these words left his mouth, he realized how ridiculous they sounded. Wasn't that stating the obvious?

Yet Ma Junmei’s reply made him want to vomit blood: "We came down from the mountain."

"Which mountain did you come down from?" Xiao Si desperately wanted to emulate Miss Lin. When Miss Lin interacted with people, she always displayed a high level of conversational skill, technique, and imposing presence.

Unfortunately, even if Miss Lin were here right now, she would be driven to vomit blood by President Ma, who possessed the unique ability to infuriate people to death without paying for it. Ma Junmei also seemed to find it very strange: "Nonsense, didn't you see our Daoist robes? Where else could we have come down from if not Mount Shu? Kid, if you know what's good for you, step aside and don't block Big Sister's path. Last time someone blocked my path in Chengdu, wow, you have no idea, the four of them blocked just me, and I..."

"Enough!" Xiao Si was truly enraged this time. He would rather start a fight immediately than speak another word to this woman; her saliva could drown Sun Wukong and her nagging could annoy Tang Monk to death.

"I'll kill you, you foul-mouthed rotten hag!" Xiao Si threw out both hands simultaneously, and six or seven glittering stars, resembling twinkling stars in the night sky, blanketed towards Ma Junmei.

The martial arts of the Golden Palace Family mainly focused on hidden weapons, lightness skills, and bizarre weaponry. His hidden weapon technique of "scattering flowers and brushing willows" was indeed very pretty. Not only was the execution fast, but the distance was also just right, with the two sides standing only about 35 meters apart.

At such a distance, hidden weapons that weren't extremely lethal lacked overwhelming offensive power; as long as the opponent blocked once, he could close in, and if a close-range strike failed, he could use his lightness skill to retreat.

His wishful thinking was well-calculated, but there was one thing he failed to factor in: he forgot that the Emei Sect’s techniques for catching hidden weapons were no slouch either. One of the female disciples also waved her hand, and a gleaming Emei Piercer flew up into the air. The six or seven cross-darts were like iron meeting a magnet, getting instantly stuck to it. That female disciple then threw out another Emei Piercer, and with a crisp "ding" in mid-air, the two piercers collided, knocking all the cross-darts flying amidst a shower of sparks.

This technique of catching and deflecting hidden weapons could be described as utterly ingenious. Xiao Si immediately abandoned the idea of a surprise attack, because he saw that astonishingly beautiful female disciple of Mount Shu clasping her hands together with her index fingers pointing toward the sky, chanting something while the slaying-demon sword at her waist automatically flew out...

This was either Mount Shu's "Myriad Swords Technique" or "Sword Control Technique," and it was definitely not something he could forcefully withstand. According to the original plan, Xiao Si rapidly retreated.

The Golden Palace Family's lightness skill was not weak either; what he used was actually "Treading the Void Facing the Wind," a lightness skill originating from the Xiaoyao Sect. Now executed by him, his figure could be seen continuously stepping and darting across the trunks of one bamboo tree after another. Not only did he constantly change his position, but his speed was also quite impressive.

The female disciple who had deflected the hidden weapons immediately shouted, "Two senior martial brothers and two junior martial sisters, don't let this person get away! Be careful that he doesn't report the news and summon strong reinforcements."

Did that even need her to say? At that very instant, almost all six of them simultaneously unleashed the "Treading on Grass" lightness skill and chased into the forest.

Everyone knew that "Treading on Grass" was originally a lightness skill for moving in a straight line, and the bamboo in the forest was densely packed. However, Hua Feihong and Ma Junmei used their "Sword Control Technique" to clear the way ahead, their sword lights spinning in successive arrays. The bamboo throughout the forest was chopped away with loud cracking noises, entirely slicing open a flat avenue with their swords.

Although "Treading the Void Facing the Wind" was brilliant, it required stepping on bamboo trunks one by one—left and right—to keep moving forward. How could this "S"-shaped route possibly outpace someone else's straight line? In less than a minute, all six of them had caught up.

"Take this!" The two female disciples threw out all four of their Emei Piercers together, forming a square in mid-air with a massive vertical cutting area. Xiao Si could certainly dodge it, but the moment he dared to dodge, he would inevitably fall into a passive state. Heaven knew whether the enemy's follow-up move would be hidden weapons or the "Myriad Swords Technique" of the two Mount Shu women.

At this critical juncture, Baigan and Goudan, who were hiding at the top of the bamboo forest, could no longer remain calmly motionless. Whether Xiao Si lived or died, they didn't care in the least—when has the Life and Death Judgment ever cared about anyone else's life or death?

However, if Xiao Si really became a drowning dog like this, he probably wouldn't survive. The moment Xiao Si died, the two of them wouldn't live much longer either. They still understood the principle of "when the lips are gone, the teeth feel cold."

Thus, at this very moment, two fine-steel long swords plummeted vertically from the sky, directly targeting the two escorts at the rear—a classic tactic of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao.