The man leaned back to once again glimpse the woman past his hat. He scowled at her with reluctance, but, having been caught in his lie, had no room to talk back anymore.


    But an idea had suddenly struck him. "Well, be that as it may, I don''t think you''ll get the fair match you''re looking for. After all, months ago, I traded my Dog-Beating Stick for a few drinks and meals to a fool just like you, a fervent believer in the Beggar''s Sect."


    The Golden Witch''s growing smirk had suddenly sunk like a rock. "Who did you sell it to?"


    The beggar crossed his arms behind his head. "As if I''d tell you. And you can throw as many bowls at my head as you want, lady, or treat me even worse, or even beat on me til I''m dead. But there''s no way I''m putting an innocent man into your sights."


    A man in the crowd interrupted him, shouting, "I know who he gave it to! I know!"


    Everybody turned to the stranger in surprise. "I''ll tell you in exchange for that tael by your feet, miss!" He said.


    The Golden Witch gladly tossed it over. The piece had somehow managed to land softly into the man''s hands despite its great weight, to the continued wonder of the observers.


    He spoke about a clerk who lived down the street.


    "Bai Guo, Cui Shen," The Golden Witch called out. "Would you go get the man''s stick?"


    Bai Guo, after some hesitation, nodded. "Yes, master!"


    "I''m not taking part in this..." Cui Shen staunchly refused.


    "As you wish." The woman replied.


    As Bai Guo ran off to carry out the task, he pondered whether or not he should actually strive to succeed at it. "Maybe if I fail to fetch this stick they talked about, master would let the beggar go. He does not appear to be like Deng Hong, who deserved to be on the receiving end of her skills. He was even willing to put his own well-being on the line to protect this clerk. But I would also hate to disappoint my master, especially since I haven''t been particularly useful to her as a disciple of late. But what she''s asking doesn''t quite sit right with me... Ah, what should I do?"


    The beggar watched the disciple run off to do the errand, a frown on his bearded face. His eyes then glimpsed further down the street, the same street that Tao Geming had unhurriedly walked through after their brief verbal spat. An idea came to his mind.


    One moment, the beggar was lying down; the next, he had sprung into action. His hands and arms were like a second pair of feet and legs, so briskly he crawled along the ground, like a spider, that he may as well had been running upright. Without breaking pace, he had somehow managed to stand up, and broke out into a mad dash for the woman''s disciple.


    The Golden Witch almost immediately set upon the beggar, so close behind him that he was not even a full foot out of her reach. The beggar jabbed at Bai Guo''s back with a finger; the unfortunate youngster had been only just beginning to grasp his peril, and, in the speeds those other two were dealing with, was still half an eternity away from turning around and adequately defending himself.


    The beggar''s sudden attack had forced a momentary flaw in his bizarre gait, permitting Bai Guo''s golden haired master the opportunity to catch up. Her long arm pushed the young disciple out of the path of the man''s attack, and her other hand flew out towards a vital pressure point. The beggar bent his body and spun out of reach, forced to abandon his strike to keep himself out of harm''s way.


    The chase continued. The beggar possessed the uncanny ability to slip through crowds as if they weren''t even there, and knew how to shove every cart, crate, bag, and passerby into the woman''s path to turn them into a dynamically shifting obstacle. The Golden Witch hadn''t had any of his strange skills, or knowledge of how to deal with them, and as such, despite her edge in raw speed, was continuously forced to concede ample space to the man in order to maintain the pursuit. Like a pair of deft swallows drifting perilously close along the earth, they frantically maneuvered back and forth around the many hindrances of the city.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Cui Shen followed after them as well as he could. Bai Guo, after calling out to him and his master, joined the chase. Cui Shen was outmatched by both the beggar and the Witch, and soon had only brief glimpses of her golden shadow to guide his path. Bai Guo fared even worse, and instead of chasing his master, had to chase Cui Shen, who never seemed to remain in his sight for more than a fleeting moment.


    Their race soon carried them beyond the city limits, and the beggar had taken to the outdoors as well as he took to the streets. He leaped and flipped across trees and branches like a monkey, carrying himself on hands and feet, but no matter how many tricks he performed, he couldn''t shake the blonde stranger off his trail.


    But suddenly, her eyes had darted to the side, and she made a sharp turn. As the beggar stopped himself atop a tree, he breathed a sigh of relief.


    "Well, would you look at that! It''s like she really can smell the martial arts on someone." The beggar thought, observing as the mysterious woman got in the way of a short man''s steady trek down the road. "Turned out to be a good thing, too, because I had no idea how I was going to convince her that that''s the man she was looking for. So how about that, Tao Geming! You said karma isn''t real, well, let''s see how you fare now!"


    He lingered on the tree for a moment longer to watch his handiwork. "Though I wish I could watch the entire thing unfold, there''s more trouble waiting for me when they''re done. We''d all be better off if they both killed each other, but I doubt I have that much luck banked up, so I''d better skedaddle while I still have the chance!" With that in mind, the beggar fled the scene.


    The remaining two stared at each other for a while.


    The Golden Witch opened her mouth, but hardly half a word had left her lips when Tao Geming interrupted her.


    "Get out of my way, clown."


    He then continued his stride as though he was intending to walk right through her.


    The Golden Witch swallowed her words back down. She glanced around before picking up a rock.


    "They call you Invincible," she said, "Let''s see what that''s about."


    Her arm cracked through the air like a whip as she threw the boulder at Tao Geming''s head. It hit him dead center in the middle of the forehead. He hadn''t even flinched; it flopped meekly towards the ground, falling gently into the man''s hand.


    The woman''s golden eyes glowed with a sudden realization. "So that''s how you do it!"


    Tao Geming paid no heed to her strange exclamation. "I hope it amused you. Enough for you to die without regrets."


    The rock resounded like a thunderbolt as it was sent flying back at the Golden Witch. The curious look on her face gave way to intense focus.


    She defended herself, if it could even be called as such, in identical fashion, by taking the projectile directly to the head. The rock bounced off and the golden haired woman yelped and recoiled, nearly falling to the ground.


    "Ow! That really hurt..." She nursed her bruised forehead with her sleeves, tears welling up in her eyes.


    Tao Geming was so flabbergasted by the sight that he couldn''t prevent himself from mouthing an incoherent question. "...What?"


    With the strength with which he had thrown that rock he was expecting to uproot a tree, or for the wood to part like water. The thought that it would leave just a tiny bruise on a girl''s forehead could have never crossed his mind even in his wildest fantasies.


    As she observed his reaction, the Golden Witch smiled mischievously. "I still can''t do it quite as quickly as you, but now that I know how, I''ll learn."


    Tao Geming''s perpetual scowl deepened. "Who are you?"


    Her smirk only grew at the question, to which she offered no reply.


    Tao Geming gnashed his teeth. "No, what I really want to know is, how could I have never heard of a martial artist who walks on stilts and colors their hair like a clown?"


    Her amusement faded somewhat. "Stop calling me that."


    "Forget it. It doesn''t matter what hole you crawled out of or what you call yourself. Soon, nobody''s going to refer to you as anything but a smear."


    Tao Geming tensed his posture. The ground shook. A fierce gale broke out. The Golden Witch had experienced something similar once, when Deng Hong mustered up the entirety of his unwieldy internal energy at the climax of their fight. But she was able to experience it on more than just the physical level; the natural phenomena meant little to her compared to the hurricane she could feel raging out of Tao Geming''s dantian.


    And unlike how it turned out in the fight against Deng Hong, she saw no easy solution to this one, no fatal flaw in the foundation to take advantage of.


    ...