Chapter 115: Strategic Planning Determines Victory
Sometimes, things in this world are just so helpless. Heaven often doesn't like to arrange things too smoothly according to human wishes, and it's often the case that the more you fear something will happen, the more likely it is to encounter it. This is heaven's trickery, but people can only sigh and say "it's all fate".
Heaven's arrangement is not yet complete, otherwise it would really feel too cheap for those who are already struggling at the bottom. Heaven usually gives a dramatic choice when people are in adversity, and the most painful ones are not those who wander around and don't know which road to take, but those who clearly know that both roads lead to death, and one leads to a slower death, while the other leads to a faster death. However, driven by human nature, people often still choose the road of survival, and afterwards, all they encounter will be attributed by heaven as "self-inflicted".
At this moment, Huang Tianba is so helpless and so tormented.
But he was afraid of death and had a lucky mind, so he couldn't help but make a painful choice. He knew that if he didn't lean back three points at the moment when his right foot got stuck, he would be cut in half by Shi Jin's knife; he also knew that if he leaned back, it would be equivalent to opening all the gates of his body to Shi Jin in an instant, and whether Huang Tianba lived or died afterwards depended on Shi Jin's next move.
At this moment, Huang Tianba's instinctive reaction had already pointed out the way he should go. He followed Shi Jin's knife edge and swung back half an inch, but his body's center of gravity was also pulled by this half-inch retreat, causing Huang Tianba's entire body to lean backward and fall. Huang Tianba knew that although he could escape with his life for now, whether he would live or die in the next instant was beyond his control.
As expected, Shi Jin saw Huang Tianba fall into his trap and immediately stopped the momentum of his knife. With a burst of force from his right shoulder, he controlled his arm, which in turn brought the knife to a halt. The blade, which had just forced Huang Tianba to stumble backwards, now hovered steadily at his neck the moment he hit the ground.
Huang Tianba's skin on the back of his neck felt the icy blade, and his whole body involuntarily broke out in goosebumps, while his heart was cold and devoid of any warmth. Although Huang Tianba had heard that Shi Jin's kung fu was impressive, as a descendant of a family of martial officials, he couldn't be underestimated either. He had originally wanted to have a good fight with Shi Jin, to learn from Shi Jin's profound skills, and also to take the opportunity to defeat Shi Jin, in order to show off his own status in Huayin County, and to gain fame on the Jianghu. But now it seemed that he would either be a soul under the knife or a prisoner of war, with no chance of winning or losing, having been thoroughly defeated before even engaging in battle. Huang Tianba was unwilling to accept this, but apart from lowering his head, there was nothing else he could do.
"I think you are Huang Tianba." Shi Jin looked at Huang Tianba, and even Shi Jin himself did not expect that the first sentence of their meeting would be such a groundless conjecture.
Because, Shi Jin had not really taken a good look at Huang Tianba before, although he had seen Huang Erlang. Everything just now, although it was only for an instant, but the one who was frightened and trembling was not only Huang Tianba, Shi Jin was also. Shi Jin knew that winning or losing depended on controlling Huang Tianba, but Shi Jin had only roughly guessed who Huang Tianba was through the previous enticement of his roar and distinguishing his footwork from others, with a full heart of bets, before he came up with this set of moves.
At this moment, Shi Jin's treasure is not only accurate but also excellent.
Huang Tianba was also stunned by Shi Jin's question, but Shi Jin's next sentence brought him back to the topic: "You scoundrel, stop immediately! If you dare to move, I will cut off your master's head right away!"
Shi Jin's thunderous rebuke not only stopped the Huang family thugs in their tracks, but also made those hiding in the courtyard glance at each other and poke their heads out.
"Get up!" Shi Jin's blade flashed, and with a swift motion, he pressed it against Huang Tianba's neck and lifted him upwards.
Huang Tianba, for the sake of his life, did not dare to slack off and immediately got up obediently following the knife's indication, standing in front of Shi Jin with a dispirited look.
Shi Jin glanced at Huang Tianba and said with a hint of teasing: "Huang Laoye, I, Shi Jin, have brewed a pot of tea on Yuanbao Street. I'd like to invite you to join me, but I don't know where your younger brother, Huang Erlang, is right now. Why don't we bring him along as well?"
Huang Tianba's first thought was "I won't die now", but his second thought didn't sound so good. As the saying goes, "Waiting for death is more terrifying than facing death", and Huang Tianba was experiencing it firsthand. With a nervous heart, after thinking of the first thought, he kept circling around the second thought, desperately thinking about everything on Yuanbao Street, as if he could find some clues to Shi Jin's tricks from this, and also have a bottom line in his own heart.
But Shi Jin saw him and didn't say a word, but in his heart he knew it was even more subtle. Shi Jin thought that Huang Tianba was not convinced in his heart, so he deliberately pretended to be tough and confronted him. Shi Jin had no choice but to grit his teeth and loudly shouted: "Where is Huang the Second?"
At this moment, the blade sank three points along with Shi Jin's momentum, one of which had already broken through Huang Tianba's shallow skin. Although his shoulder didn't bleed, the pain spread rapidly throughout his body like a burst dam. At this point, Huang Tianba, who was in a state of tension, felt an intense sense of crisis and immediately shouted: "I hid him in the cellar!"
Shi Jin was shocked when he heard this. In a hidden cellar? Wasn't this another trick? However, at this moment, Shi Jin couldn't care about that much. At least he knew the whereabouts of Huang Er Lang, as long as it wasn't to the official army camp and as long as there was no collaboration with the Kong family, everything could be temporarily delayed. Shi Jin ordered his men to check the cellar mentioned by Huang Tian Ba, if Huang Er Lang was really trapped inside, then Shi Jin would understand without asking, and some doubts in his heart would also have an answer. At the same time, Shi Jin had the brothers from Shao Hua Mountain tie up Huang Tian Ba with five flowers, and the family guards were driven away, only then did they bring the person to Yuan Bao Street.
At this moment, Yuanbao Street was already crowded with people from Huayin County, and Shi Yan was in the center of the crowd, busily distributing medicine. Since the day Huayin County was besieged, this originally bustling Yuanbao Street had never been as lively as it was today. Now, Shi Jin and others were suppressing the former tyrant Huang Tianba, who appeared before the people, and Shi Jin suddenly realized that the boiling of the crowd had only just begun.