Read Martial Research Master Chapter 104

Chapter 104

104 THE TRAITOR

Tiger Zheng was fighting with Long Tao for quite some time now. The attacks of wither one of them grew stronger as time went by. Long Tao had to appreciate the efforts which Tiger Zheng had put in his art practice. Although he was still in the 3rd level of Qi general, his strength was way beyond his level. Long Tao was facing this difficulty for the first time in his life. Lin Bao was of the same cultivation and so was Li Xuanfa, but this guy was quite skilled in the arts he practices. Long Tao could see that the reason for the strength was not cultivation, but dedication to his weapon. The mastery of his weapon was something Long Tao has never seen before.

“I have to say you are worthy of praise Tiger Zheng. You are the first person to have made me change my weapon in a battle.” Long Tao initially decided that he would finish the job with his halberd only, but after confronting Tiger Zheng’s attack, Long Tao voluntarily drew back his halberd. He unsheathed his sword and saber combo. The opponent deserved this respect as the Practioner of martial art to such a level. “Let’s compare our skills. I hope you won’t disappoint me, Tiger.”

The fight continued and the two-weapon clashed with each other. There were sparks everywhere. The Balk-buck squad took care of the rest of the people. Su Menqi’s decision was to take all the enemies as hostages. The enemies were readily subjugated soon enough. Now there were just a group of people who were tied, those who were injured and the Black-buck squad tending to them, all watching the fight that was going on. One has to admire the skills of either side. Tiger Zheng looked around to be surprised by his subjugated subordinates.

“You shouldn’t get distracted when you are in a fight with me, Tiger. This might lead to your uneventful death.” The fight progressed, after multiple clashes, Long Tao was finally able to match the guy in terms of the skills. Both the people were shaken by each other’s strengths and injured during the fight. Their clothes were torn in multiple locations. Long Tao thought of it as a time to get serious about this stuff. Manifested his dominating sword spirit.

Long Tao managed to create multiple sword manifestations thanks to his cultivation in a large variety of weapon arts. The first was a speed type, then came a dominant, a strength, and an allrounder spirit. Long Tao was currently using the dominating spirit, to attack Tiger Zheng. Just as the spirit was about t crash, a manifestation occurred on the other side also. “As expected, you are at the advanced stage of second-level intent too. This makes it all the more fun. Let’s see how you handle two at the same time.” The saber manifestation was projected out too. Long Tao’s saber intent as the second weapon to reach an advanced level after the sword. It’s all the help from the Heaven Cleaver sect’s trial.

Tiger Zheng was finally starting to get subjugated. He started to feel exhaustion dawning on him as he saw Long Tao’s continuous attacks. He was surprised to see a Qi mater level practitioner to be able to defeat him. This was not mentioned in the reports. Those bastards have tricked him into a one-sided situation, where the enemy was too powerful for him to handle. He was regretting the decision of accepting their offer even when his subordinates were against it. This mistake of his was going to cost them their life. “We should stop here.”

Tiger Zheng was surprised at hearing these words. Long Tao acted on his words just now and backed off. “Your employer is already taken as a hostage. You are not going to get paid. If we are going to proceed, I will be killing you anyway. So, it’s better to lower the heat a bit. What do you say, Tiger?” Tiger Zheng soon saw a group of people walking toward shim. First came the convoy, which was followed by prisoners who were either walking or being pulled harshly on the road. “this is the proof you will need to make the decision.

Tiger Zheng was confused as to what he should choose. He was habituated to live a free life, and so were his underlings. If they gave up now, they would be prosecuted as bandits and attempt to murder of the Jia princess, which would then lead to death or imprisonment at the very least. He couldn’t allow his underlings to die like that. If they were to die, then they would still uphold their pride even in their grave. He was trying to reach his halberd which was nearby. He would try to engage Long Tao to his very best and bet his life onto that.

” I give you three options. One is you surrender yourself and then you would be tried according to the laws of the empire. The charges as you might have already guessed, would be banditry, Treason against the country, and attempt to murder of an important guest of the empire. The resulting verdict would be the death penalty for sure.”

.....

“The second choice is to try something funny at the moment, in which case I will kill you and all your subordinates now. The third is the most promising and alluring one. “Long Tao reaches his hands out.” Join me and become one of my underlings. As a warrior, your pride must be hurt by this loss. If I leave you to die or kill you, you will never get the chance to challenge me again. But if you accept my proposal, I will not only save your life but take care of the resources you would need to get strong. You might get a chance to challenge me, and given you are strong enough, you might be able to reclaim your so-called pride.” Tiger Zheng laid his arms down and said” I accept. But my underling would be allowed to join too.”. Long Tao nodded.

Sometime later-

Soon enough the squad of the royal guards arrived at the spot. When they saw Tiger Zheng, they prepared themselves to attack, but a signal form Long Tao kept them at bay. After getting to know the reason behind the current situation, the captain of royal guards retaliated instantly. “This a bad decision, vice-general Long.” Long Tao looked at him and said with sarcastic “was your opinion asked for captain?” The royal guard didn’t find a retaliation statement. “I thought so.”.

He approached the person who was captured in the hidden site.” would you like to open up, to see if you have a chance at survival, or you are sure about your doom. I will give you ten seconds to think. Choose your words carefully.”. The figure was scared of Long Tao’s cruelty. He was already tortured to a very cruel extent. He wanted to save his skin. But it meant giving up on the other guy. “one, two three, four.”. When the final count was about to be reached, the figure pointed at a direction, which was succeeded by his head being shaved off his body.

Long Tao looked at the direction and was quite delighted with the view he got to see. It was none other than the captain of the royal guards who was accompanying the convoy as the princess’s protector. The only other Qi general in the convoy was also a mole set up by the assassination organization. The princess got her second shock, Even the knight captain was a mole. Long Tao was just giving out huge bits of laughter.

“I have to say, this was unexpected even for me. Before you try to guard your honor, I would tell you why I thought of the convoy having multiple moles. The reason was how precise the attack was. It meant that the attackers were extremely sure, about the target they were supposed to take on. It meant that there needs to someone who knows where the princess would be placed exactly. This is where this guy came in. He tried to deceive the princess by showing one of the lesser pawns, but he forgot that he is confronting someone like me. “. Long Tao looked at the princess “I am a little dissatisfied with your presence of mind princess. ”

The captain was sweating all over. He looked around to see for some escape route he can take or someone who was a potential hostage, but before he could act, a sharp pain occurred in his chest. When he looked up front, he saw Long Tao looking at him with a narrow glance. “your services are no longer required captain.??.The body fell down. He told Su Menqi “Take all his possession. Especially the ring. That contains the evidence. No need to break the seal. It will be broken live. I am getting excited about this trip. Let’s see what awaits us in the capital.”