You are admiring a ghost?

Hu Ma couldn't help but laugh when he heard the Zhuang mine chief's words. Even Zhou Datong and the others noticed and blinked, suppressing their laughter.

Damn it, this guy hasn't even heard of him!

The mine chief was also clearly stunned. As soon as he saw Hu Ma's move, he knew he was from the Shou Sui Ren (Night Watchers) sect, and that his skills weren't bad. He was probably on par with himself, but what was the other man's age compared to his own?

Logically speaking, whoever trained him must be a true master, likely famous. But no matter how hard he wracked his brain, he couldn't recall who this Master Zhou the Second from Old Yin Mountain was.

Perhaps Gunzhou and Mingzhou were too far apart, or this master was too low-key, and his name hadn't reached them.

In any case, the idea of claiming a master-disciple relationship was no longer feasible. He quickly pondered in his mind.

At the same time, Hu Ma watched coldly. After entering the village, he had already observed the various arrangements and gradually understood.

Regardless of whether there were any Gu worm masters hiding in the mine, if the mine chief dared to attack him, he would capture him first, and then he wouldn't have to worry about others rebelling.

As he was thinking, he exchanged a look with Old Suanpan (Abacus), when he saw that a crude wooden square table had been set up on the other side. The dishes hadn't been served yet, but two jars of wine were already squatting on it.

The Zhuang mine chief also seemed to have thought of something. He slowly stood up, clasped his hands, and said to Hu Ma, "We must discuss serious matters, but there's no rush. Manager Hu is our guest, so why not take a seat and have a couple of drinks first?"

*The dishes haven't been served yet, what wine are we drinking?*

Hu Ma thought to himself, not rushing to ask, but sizing up the Zhuang mine chief's posture and expression. He understood in his heart, "Good heavens, he wants to test my skills?"

So he slowly stood up and walked towards the Zhuang mine chief, smiling. "After you!"

As he spoke, he slowly came to the Zhuang mine chief's side, not rushing to take a seat, but clasping his hands and slightly leaning forward, using half of the Si Gui Yi Men (Four Ghosts Greeting the Door).

A surge of Yin energy surrounded him as his clasped hands gently collided with the Zhuang mine chief's.

The Zhuang mine chief seemed to be inviting Hu Ma to take a seat, but his true intention was to test his skills.

Dasha (Testing skills) was the most common way for Shou Sui Ren to evaluate each other's abilities.

After all, one relied on their skills to make a living in the martial world, but they couldn't always resort to fighting and killing, especially the Shou Sui Ren. If the two sides were evenly matched, wouldn't they have to fight to the death to determine a winner?

No one wanted to make things too awkward over a trivial matter, so they had the custom of testing skills, showing off their abilities and touching each other to understand the other's foundation.

It wouldn't hurt their relationship, but they could still assess each other's strengths. They couldn't argue about their status in the organization or their lineage, so they could only argue about this.

Whoever lost would have to speak with less authority.

This Jianghu (martial world) rule was taught to him by Shopkeeper Wu Hong, but Hu Ma had always directly drawn his knife and slashed at people when he encountered trouble, so he had never played this pretentious game.

But he knew that there were rules to testing skills, so he immediately used his true abilities.

"Chi!"

First, he clasped his hands, leaned slightly forward, and used the special skill of Si Gui Yi Men, with a surge of Yin energy colliding with the Zhuang mine chief's fists. At the same time, he used the skill of Xiong Kou Sui Da Shi (Chest Crushing a Boulder), holding his breath to protect himself.

And in the next instant, as that surge of Yin energy collided with the Zhuang mine chief, his whole body suddenly turned from death to life, turning into Yang energy, with the sounds of his internal organs resonating and a surge of energy bursting out.

His clasped fists also used the skill of Da Shuai Bei Shou (Great Monument Throwing Hand), firmly vibrating and pushing forward.

It looked like just a light touch with clasped fists, but he had already used four special skills in succession, mixing his strength and creating a kind of earth-shattering momentum, rolling towards the Zhuang mine chief.

Instantly, a gust of wind swept through the room, blowing the fire basins placed on both sides of the room, causing the shadows to flicker erratically.

The disciples on both sides retreated, covering their eyes with their sleeves.

"Bang!"

When the Zhuang mine chief clasped his hands to meet Hu Ma, his body was also filled with strength, one wave after another, as if three or four waves of strength were stacked together, making the force of his fists extremely heavy.

This strength collided with Hu Ma's half-executed Si Gui Yi Men and even gained the upper hand.

From this one move, it could be seen that he had real skills and wasn't easy to deal with.

But he never expected that Hu Ma would change so quickly, suddenly turning from the Yin wind to the Yang energy of Wu Lei Jin Chan Hou (Five Thunder Golden Toad Roar).

At the same time, his own strength was dissolved by a vibrating force, and the other party's Da Shuai Bei Shou skill took advantage of the gap, solidly hitting his body, causing him to fly backwards.

"Crash!"

He smashed into the wooden racks and tables behind him, falling in a disheveled manner and spitting out a mouthful of black blood.

"Eh?"

Even Hu Ma was stunned for a moment. He had seen that the Zhuang mine chief's skills weren't bad, so he didn't dare to be careless at all.

He had even kept skills like Zuan Xin Zuan (Heart-Piercing Drill) and Suo Hun Shou (Soul-Snatching Hand) in reserve.

But who would have thought that the other party wouldn't even be able to withstand the first move and would directly collapse?

He even spat out blood?

He clearly hadn't intended to hurt anyone just now!

"He dared to hurt someone, kill him!"

At the same moment, seeing the Zhuang mine chief fly out, the people around him were both shocked and angry, especially the two disciples who followed the Zhuang mine chief, who were immediately red-eyed with urgency.

They all raised the tables and benches next to them as weapons and were about to attack Hu Ma, and the miners who were panicking also became somewhat agitated.

"Who dares to move?"

But at the same time, Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu also moved.

Their reactions might not have been fast enough, but they were always vigilant on someone else's territory. As soon as they saw the other party was about to attack, they immediately rushed forward.

Zhou Liang waved his left hand, using the skill of Suo Hun Bian (Soul-Snatching Whip), instantly splitting the table raised by one of the Zhuang mine chief's disciples into two neat halves. At the same time, a surge of Yin energy lashed out, causing the disciple to stagger back several steps.

Zhao Zhu thrust his steel fork, directly piercing through the gap in the tables and chairs and reaching the face of the other disciple.

The fastest to react was Zhou Datong. Seeing that the other party was about to stir up trouble, he had already used the skill of Gui Deng Jie (Ghost Ascending the Stairs), quickly climbing up the wall and walking along it, kicking the two fire basins hanging in mid-air to the doorway.

"Whoosh whoosh"

The two fire basins landed, and the ointment inside spilled out, immediately igniting two balls of fire, forcing the rushing miners back.

The other side, who were eager to try, were immediately forced back, and their momentum faltered slightly, but the crisis hadn't passed.

Hu Ma felt that the situation wasn't right, but he didn't have time to think about it. He was wondering whether he should simply go all the way and capture the Zhuang mine chief first before talking about anything else, when he suddenly heard a shout:

"Don't move!"

""

The surroundings suddenly fell silent, and everyone turned to look at the Zhuang mine chief at the same time.

He was struggling to get up, wiping away the black blood remaining at the corner of his mouth. After shouting, he looked at Hu Ma and said in a deep voice: "I was inferior in skill just now, I lost a move, he didn't intentionally hurt me"

After saying that, he looked at Hu Ma, his face seemingly respectful and somewhat emotional, and said: "I don't know what kind of master this Zhou the Second from Old Yin Mountain is"

"To actually teach such a young Da Shou Sui (Grand Night Watcher), and a few disciples with unique skills!"

""

"Hmm?"

Hearing the other party call him a Da Shou Sui, Hu Ma slowed down his movements.

In the Night Watchers sect, there were levels: Deng Jie Ru Fu (Ascending the Stairs and Entering the Mansion), Shang Qiao Gui Xiang (Crossing the Bridge and Returning Home).

But Deng Jie Ru Fu was a major realm. One wouldn't usually encounter so many high-realm strange and different people. To put it bluntly, everyone was just about the same, making a living together.

But even within the same sect and at the same level, there were always some people who had more unique skills and greater abilities than others, so everyone was convinced and would add the word "Da" (Grand) when addressing them.

For example, Aunt Zhang hadn't entered the mansion, but her skills were greater than other Zou Gui Ren (Ghost Walkers), so they all called her Da Zou Gui (Grand Ghost Walker).

Now that the Zhuang mine chief was calling Hu Ma Da Shou Sui, it meant that he was convinced.

Hearing his words, Hu Ma frowned slightly, turned around and came to the hall. The two fire basins that Zhou Datong had kicked down had stopped the agitated miners outside, but this place was made of wood after all, and with the flammable ointment, the fire could easily spread.

He took a deep breath, his lungs changed to death, and suddenly a mouthful of Yin energy blew forward, extinguishing the raging fire that was two people high.

This skill was even more frightening, and everyone around him was staring at him blankly.

Only then did Hu Ma turn to look at the Zhuang mine chief and said, "Were you injured before this?"

In fact, he had also noticed during the exchange that this mine chief had the ability to refine his internal organs, and he had held back some of his strength, so he shouldn't have been beaten so badly all at once.

"Not injured"

The Zhuang mine chief struggled to get up, and with the help of his disciples, sat down next to the round table. Hearing this, he showed a wry smile: "I was poisoned by Gu!"

As he spoke, his face was somewhat helpless as he glanced out of the valley, sighed softly, and said to Hu Ma: "The outside of this valley should be full of Gu worms, right?"

"I haven't seen the person, but there are indeed a lot of Gu worms."

Hu Ma looked at him and said slowly: "First, someone used Gu dogs to try to harm us, and later they even placed Gu worms on the road. Finally, we relied on that old horse to break through the Gu formation to get to your place."

"Hehe, we thought you were deliberately using this method to block our way because you weren't happy that we were here to audit the accounts."

""

"Block?"

The Zhuang mine chief gave a bitter laugh and said: "These things outside aren't blocking you from coming in, but blocking us from going out."

"The brothers in the mine have been trapped for these days, and everyone is already panicking and helpless"

As he spoke, a look of sincere relief appeared on his pale face. He bowed deeply to Hu Ma and said loudly: "But now it's good, the organization's Da Shou Sui has come down, and my brothers in this mine are finally saved!"

Chapter End