“Oh, ho, ho, who is this? Why if it isn’t our old friends from Rusty Creek! None other than Fatty Feng and Jiangshi Cheng!”

Li Feng cringes. He knows that hateful voice, and distinctive hoity-toity tone, only too well: Liu Tong!

Dammit! Now he really wishes he signed Liu Tong’s name back at the Message Dispatch Station even more than before...

Liu Tong isn’t alone of course... Now, that would be tempting... But no, Zhao Wong and Li Hao are laughing loudly along too. The pair are acting so happy it's like Liu Tong’s jumping zombie joke has brought them back from the dead! It makes Li Feng hopping mad, but apparently only makes the calm thug beside him smile.

“Ah, it’s none other than Little Tong and his two dogs. I hear you owe me some spirit stones, not to mention ten or so teeth!”

Li Feng stretches out a long arm and tugs on Jian Cheng’s tunic.

“They’re all tier four,” he whispers, leaning down to get nearer his friend’s ear.

“So what? I’m tier four too. Furthermore, I’d fight them even if I was tier three... Or two...”

“I thought you said we were going to settle this score later,” Li Feng hisses back under his breath.

“ That was earlier, so this is later... Plus, there’s no time like the present!” his friend replies confidently. “I naturally have made a plan, so follow my lead and do what I say.”

Sighing, Li Feng prepares himself mentally... To get a horrendous beating...

“Ready? Quick duck between those bushes over there!” Jian Cheng suddenly commands.

Why? They’d clearly already been spotted. And confronted...

Li Feng follows orders though... Because the order is flee!

If the order were, say “sacrifice yourself, while I escape” it would be a different story... For once though, his friend is being sensible... Finally, acknowledging that discretion is the better part of valour....

Gratefully, he lumbers into motion, ploughing between the two bushes previously indicated, with his friend hot on his heels... All is not well on the other side however.

A hundred chi ahead he can see the dead end of a small clearing, walled in by cliffs and thick underbrush.

Aagh, another one of Brother Cheng’s useless plans has gone awry...

He turns back towards his foolish friend to say “I told you so”, with his eyes at least... But his eyes let him down, choosing to fly wide open instead...

Because, Jian Cheng has emerged from the bushes grinning like a maniac... That’s pretty normal and not what amazes Li Feng at all.

It’s that he also has his hands full, happily clutching two wooden practice swords...

The twin wasters looked eerily familiar as well. He tosses one to Li Feng, who catches it in is favoured left hand. Ahh, no wonder it looks familiar, it is his very own practice sword... The one he’s sure he left back in his cave?!

Did Brother Cheng sprint back to their cave valley while he was in the Message Dispatch Station? Or maybe further back, when he went for breakfast?

He must have... Then he must have snuck off again and stowed them in these few random bushes... Somehow knowing in advance that they would be attacked at this very spot... Halfway to the inner sect? How amazing... It almost accounts for his complacent expression earlier...

Over these last two years, he's apparently gotten a lot better at planning... A whole lot better...

“Aha!” The pursuing Liu Tong and cronies arrive at that very moment.

Seeing the utter confusion in Li Feng’s face and mistaking it for abject fear, Liu Tong begins to crow:

“Ahh, you two clowns-- Aargh, ouch, aaaarrrrgghhhh... Stop it... Help!... Aarrgh! Please....”

Jian Cheng hasn’t waited at all and has instantly begun wailing about Liu Tong’s head with his wooden sword.

Crack! A bone is broken somewhere.

Li Feng is stunned. Though not nearly as stunned as Liu Tong... Nor even as staggered as Li Hao or Zhao Wong, who are both stood off to the side staring in slackjawed shock... Overall then, that would only make Li Feng the fourth most stunned out of the five people. But he is still too stunned to move...

Thwack! Whack! Crack!

“Aargh... Help! Help!”

It was the second “help” that does it... Li Hao awakes from his dismayed trance and dashes into the fray. Followed closely by a flushed Zhao Wong.

The three chums quickly surround Jian Cheng... The three hateful bullies are surrounding his best friend... Li Feng suddenly sees red and finds himself charging forward too. He forgets completely about using the sword, dropping it to the ground, and begins thrashing about with his fists...

Though a lot gets made of it, the difference between one tier and the top of tier immediately below, is not in fact much. Li Feng’s strength is also augmented by his natural size and build, which still counted for a lot in the lower levels of ninqi.

Consequently, he is actually a lot stronger than any of his three foes and in a few seconds it begins to show... The blows he receives in return, he simply shrugs off, not seeming to even notice. Like a berserker, the red mist is upon him, and he won’t feel anything for hours...

It doesn’t take that long though...

A minute later, Li Feng snaps out of his blinding haze to find the three tormentors have long since fled.

A few seconds later, his heart stops throbbing like a war drum and his heaving chest settles somewhat... He wipes the sweat out of his red eyes and looks around... What has he done? What is happening here?

He finds the two swords have disappeared again... And across the clearing, that Cheng fool is grinning at him like a rabid hyena. He holds up a tiny white cube-like thing, clasped delicately between thumb and forefinger.

“What do you suppose this is?” he asks.

“Uh, I don’t know, a tooth?” Li Feng says thickly, already feeling around his own mouth with his tongue.

“Correct, but I prefer to call it a good start!” Jian Cheng says. “Now I just need nine more. I’m thinking of making a necklace...”

He begins to laugh. Hyenas laugh too. “I’ll give it to Little Fen Ling, she’ll like it!”

“No, she won’t,” Li Feng thought. “No way! It would be far too yucky for our little princess. Hell, it’s far to gruesome for me.”

He then sits down to recuperate. He circulates the Karmic Chameleon technique to accelerate his recovery. It really is a marvellous method, not that he’d ever tell that troublemaker as much... Such a warmongering maniac!

Even now, the delusional clown is staring at him with a funny look on his face... It almost looks like pride..