Cultivation: Starting from a Fighting Cock

Chapter 45 Crazy
"In this cockfight, Master Zhao's golden rooster has won!"

As Gong Lei announced the results, Zhao Yan wept with joy, feeling as if she had survived a catastrophe.

She quickly picked up Ji Cheng, her face full of heartache, and examined his injuries.

Xu Dingsheng was also "overjoyed and wept," and immediately knelt down on the ground and cried.

Master Zhao was startled and quickly asked him what he was doing.

"The Chicken King has lost, and I don't want to live anymore. Please, have mercy and kill me too!"

Xu Dingsheng hugged Zhao Erye's leg and cried loudly.

He was convinced that this was fate, that even the Chicken King and the Exploding Body Pill could lose, and that returning to Zhou Mu would only lead to his death.

"You...you're insane!"

Master Zhao shouted, struggling to shake him off, "Why would I kill you?"
Xu Dingsheng's eyes suddenly turned crazed as he stared at Ji Cheng, who was being held in Zhao Yan's arms, and said, "Why? Why? I'll fight you to the death!"

He lunged at Ji Cheng, thinking that if he could kill this fighting rooster, he wouldn't have lost completely today.

"How brave!"

Gong Lei stepped forward, creating a gust of wind, and swung his palm, sending Xu Dingsheng flying.

"Don't you even know whose territory this is? How dare you cause trouble here?"

This palm strike caused Xu Dingsheng to cough up blood and sent seven or eight burly men flying.

The cross-eyed old master cried out in alarm and rushed forward to help Xu Dingsheng.

Xu Dingsheng was disheveled and covered in blood, but his eyes were incredibly vicious. He scanned the crowd and growled:
"I am the King of Chickens, who dares to fight me? I am the King of Chickens, the invincible King of Chickens, hahaha, Zhao Chongwu, does your fighting cock dare to fight me?"

He grabbed the cross-eyed old man by the neck with both hands and shouted, "Do you dare to fight me? I am the Chicken King, kneel down now! Hahaha, the Chicken King is here! The Chicken King is not dead! I am the Chicken King!"

People were so frightened that they all backed away. He's gone mad! The fourth son of the Xu family has gone mad!

The cross-eyed master was rescued by the crowd, panting heavily, as he had almost been strangled to death by Xu Dingsheng.

Afterwards, people from the Xu family came, tied Xu Dingsheng up with ropes, and carried him back home.

The news of Xu Dingsheng's cockfighting madness quickly spread throughout Wuzhen.

……

“He’s not crazy, he’s clearly faking it to avoid coming to see me.”

Inside the main hall of the Xiangshe Gang, Zhou Mu succinctly pointed out that Xu Dingsheng was indeed a talented individual.

The cross-eyed old master knelt on the ground, drenched in sweat, not daring to comment on whether Xu Dingsheng was truly insane or faking it.

"Tell me, how come the Chicken King, which took the Explosion Pill, couldn't beat an ordinary fighting rooster? Could it be that the fighting rooster became a demon? Or did you not feed the Chicken King the Explosion Pill at all?"

Zhou Mu stared coldly at the cross-eyed old master below.

"Young Master Zhou, you are wise enough to know better. How could we dare disobey your orders? The Chicken King did indeed take the Exploding Body Pill, but Zhao Chongwu's fighting rooster was too lucky and managed to blind the Chicken King's left eye, thus causing the Chicken King's defeat..."

The cross-eyed man recounted everything that had happened.

"Just good luck again?" Zhou Mu frowned. He remembered that last time, both the cross-eyed man and Xu Dingsheng said that Zhao Chongwu's fighting cock was lucky.

He hated that kind of talk; there's no way it could be such a coincidence.

"Get up, this isn't your or Xu Dingsheng's fault." Zhou Mu waved his hand. "Perhaps the Explosion Pill expired and became ineffective."

"Thank you, Young Master Zhou!"

The cross-eyed master was overjoyed, got up, and wiped the sweat from his face and forehead.

"Where are the remaining Explosion Pills?" Zhou Mu suddenly asked.

"Reporting to Young Master Zhou, it's with me."

The old master carefully took out a packet of medicine from his pocket, which contained the remaining nine-tenths of the body-exploding pill powder.

"Take this pill and see if it has expired or become ineffective."

Zhou Mu's words left the old master frozen in place.

"Ok?"

Zhou Mu raised an eyebrow. What are you standing there for? Why aren't you doing it?
The old master knelt on the ground with a thud, desperately kowtowing and begging for mercy, but two burly men from the Snake Gang grabbed him from either side and forced the Exploding Body Pill powder into his mouth. In an instant, the old master felt as if all the blood in his body was burning, and endless power was surging out of his body.

His veins bulged all over his body, and his eyes turned bloodshot.

He had never felt so energetic before; even his years-long impotence seemed to have been cured. His desperate eyes suddenly lit up.

"May I ask, Young Master Zhou, how much longer do I have to live?"

"At most one incense stick."

"I implore you, Young Master Zhou, to grant me a woman!"

Inside the hall, several burly men from the Snake Gang were dumbfounded. This old man actually wanted to have some fun before he died?
"You wish! I'll give you a sow instead."

"I'll fuck you!"

The cross-eyed old man flew into a rage, swung his fist, and lunged at Zhou Mu. He was going to die either way, so he was determined to fight Zhou to the death.

But he was no match for Zhou Mu. With a single punch, Zhou Mu, carrying terrifying internal energy, directly shattered his heart meridian.

Blood gushed from its ears, nose, and mouth, and its cross-eyed eyes bulged out; its death was extremely gruesome.

Inside the main hall of the Xiangshe Gang, everyone was silent, as if trembling with fear.

At this moment, a minor leader stepped forward to plead for Xu Dingsheng, who was his brother-in-law. He hoped that Zhou Mu would spare Xu Dingsheng's life.

"can."

Zhou Mu nodded, then suddenly struck the leader in the chest with a palm strike.

The petty leader was quite capable; he managed to withstand the attack, staggering back a few steps with a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of his mouth.

"This palm strike is to convey my message to Xu Dingsheng."

Zhou Mu stood with his hands behind his back, saying that this was a slight punishment for Xu Dingsheng for pretending to be crazy and fooling him.

The underling knelt on one knee and gritted his teeth, saying, "Thank you for showing mercy, Young Master Zhou!"

……

Zhao Mansion.

People were discussing how Zhao Erye's cockfighting with Xu Dingsheng had driven Xu Dingsheng insane.

Zhao Yan held Ji Cheng, patiently cleaning his wounds and applying medicine, gently comforting him from time to time, telling him to be good, not to move, that it didn't hurt, and that the medicine would make it less painful.

The meticulous care he received made Master Zhao a little jealous. He said that when he fell into the rice paddy while drunk, he had never seen Zhao Yan treat him so well.

Zhao Yan said, "Serves you right, why didn't you die from the fall back then!"

"Hey, you little brat, how can you curse your own father like that?"

Master Zhao was so angry that he blew his beard and glared. Then he boasted that he had won eight hundred taels of silver in cockfighting that day. That was a full eight hundred taels! Wasn't that enough to make you look at your father with respect?
It would have been better if this matter hadn't been brought up, because the mere mention of it made Zhao Yan furious. She still felt that Second Master Zhao shouldn't have agreed to gamble one thousand taels with Xu Dingsheng today.

Master Zhao was naturally unconvinced and felt extremely wronged. "So you think I did something wrong after I won a thousand taels of silver?"

"Second Master, Yanmei is right. You should not have accepted today's bet. Xu Dingsheng bet a thousand taels with you, but he was actually plotting against our Zhao family."

Zhao Kun explained to Second Master Zhao, "If you lose, will our Zhao family have to go bankrupt to pay off your debts?"
"We won, didn't we? With the ever-victorious general by my side, how could we lose? You didn't see it, even that chicken king was no match for the ever-victorious general!"

Once Master Zhao calmed down, he understood what Zhao Kun meant: he was just too proud to admit he was wrong.

Master Zhao, knowing his personality, smiled and stepped in to smooth things over: "Alright, thankfully, we won, everyone's happy, what's there to argue about? I'm sure your second master will think twice before acting if he encounters something like this again."

Now that he had a way out, Second Master Zhao became happy and said, "Brother is absolutely right. I have my own considerations when I do things. I've lived most of my life and eaten more salt than you've eaten rice. Do I need you juniors to teach me? Humph!"

Everyone laughed, knowing that this was just his personality, and didn't continue arguing with him.

"Wang!"

Big Yellow also joined in the fun with a shout.

"Hey, it seems like Big Yellow can understand what we're saying?"

Master Zhao smiled and walked over to pat Big Yellow's head.

(End of this chapter)