Battle with the Lightning Mink

A-Zi's long sword had long since snapped, leaving her bare-handed and resorting to the Star Palace's "Red Refining Soundless Palms." Both of her hands formed the characteristic "Eight-Character Palm" posture—
The so-called Eight-Character Palm meant that the middle, ring, and little fingers were gently curled inward, while the thumb and index finger naturally flared outward, resembling the shape of the Chinese character for "eight." The palms were slightly hollowed, and the heels of the palms pushed outward.
This palm technique appeared direct, but actually traveled in an inconspicuous arc, striking and retracting with lightning speed, without producing the slightest sound of wind.
What made it truly formidable was not the palm heel or edge, but rather the crucial moment when the wrist flicked and the thumb and index finger suddenly pinched together like a striking venomous snake. Though ostensibly a palm technique, its foundation lay in grappling and claw techniques—truly ingenious in design and extraordinary in power.
In comparison, the boxing style employed by the round-faced girl appeared somewhat ordinary.
Jiang Mingzhe had very little exposure to martial arts and naturally could not recognize which school or sect her techniques belonged to. Judging by her shifting moves, however, they were vastly inferior to such peerless Star Palace arts as the Red Refining Soundless Palms and the Three-Yin Centipede Claws.
Nevertheless, the round-faced girl had practiced quite proficiently; her strikes whistled with fierce wind, and her kicks and punches were quite ferocious.
Presumably seeing that her opponent was also a young maiden not much older than herself, A-Zi's competitive spirit was aroused, and she refrained from channeling her venomous palm techniques, relying purely on martial forms to trade blows.
The two of them exchanged over twenty rounds amid shouts and cries, but in the end, A-Zi's Soundless Palms proved superior. Her left and right palms struck in continuous succession, growing faster and faster. Noticing that her opponent was preoccupied with guarding her upper body, A-Zi suddenly twisted and crouched, striking a reverse palm against the girl's thigh.
The girl let out a muffled grunt and hurriedly tried to retreat, but A-Zi leaned forward and extended her arm, her wrist flicking as she pursued like a striking viper. Pinching the flesh of the thigh tightly between her thumb and index finger, she gave it a vicious twist. The round-faced girl shrieked in pain, staggered backward, and sat down hard on the ground, clutching the pinched spot as two streams of tears gushed down her face.
A-Zi sprang to her feet and burst into hearty laughter: "Stinking brat, do you know how formidable this deity is yet? Let me tell you, I haven't even used my true skills! If you know what's good for you, hand over a thousand venomous snakes..."
Before her voice had even faded, the round-faced girl wept, "You want snakes? Take them, then!"
She had two leather pouches hanging from her waist. Reaching into the right pouch, she grabbed a handful and scattered them outward. Seven or eight foot-long small snakes came flying directly at A-Zi's face.
A-Zi retreated swiftly, letting the small snakes land on the ground. Their colors were either green or patterned, and their heads were triangular—clearly all venomous snakes.
The moment they were free, the snakes prepared to slither away in full flight. Unwilling to let them go, A-Zi immediately donned her gloves. With a swift pinch of two fingers per snake, she transferred them to her left hand, clamping them tightly in the tiger's mouth of her hand. Snatching and retracting with blinding speed, she rounded up every single one of them in the blink of an eye, holding them in her left hand like a large bundle of colorful ribbons.
She even raised her hand to wave them at the round-faced girl: "Here are eight. You just need to give me another nine hundred and ninety-three venomous snakes to make up the count."

Upon hearing this, the round-faced girl hurriedly lowered her head to count on her fingers. Lifting her head, she glared furiously and said, "Can't you even count? That's clearly still short by nine hundred and ninety-four!"
A-Zi said haughtily, "Stinking brat, however many this deity says there are, that's how many there are! Short even one, and I'll poison you to death!"
Struggling to her feet, the round-faced girl pointed at A-Zi and retorted, "You're the stinking brat! If you kowtow and apologize to me right now, this magnanimous lady will spare you. Otherwise, if I unleash my ultimate move, your little life will be forfeit."
A-Zi laughed out loud: "You're useless at fighting, but you sure know how to brag. Come on then, let's see how you take my life."
Gritting her teeth, the round-faced girl said, "Fine, fine, fine! You asked for this."
With that, she pulled a furry object from her left pouch and hurled it at A-Zi, shouting, "Flash Mink, go scratch her face to pieces!"
That ball of fur expanded mid-air, revealing its head, claws, and tail. It was none other than a small, gray-white mink whose eyes shone like twin rubies. With razor-sharp claws and teeth, it lunged straight for A-Zi's face.
The moment the mink appeared, Jiang Mingzhe instantly recognized the round-faced girl's identity. She was none other than Zhong Ling, the secondary illegitimate daughter of the Prince of Zhennan of Dali, Duan Zhengchun, and the daughter of the "Dashing Rakshasa" Gan Baobao!
A-Zi never expected Zhong Ling to have this trick up her sleeve. Terrified into a shrill scream, she leaped desperately to the side.
Her evasion could not be called slow, but who could have foreseen that the Flash Mink would flick its tail sharply and alter its trajectory mid-air? At this point, A-Zi could no longer dodge. Seeing the mink's sharp claws slashing toward her, she hurriedly covered her face with both hands. A sharp pain pierced the back of her hands; had she not been wearing fish-skin gloves, her flesh would surely have been torn to shreds.
Screaming incessantly, A-Zi struck out with a palm while keeping her eyes tightly shut. The mink scurried up onto her shoulder in a flash. A-Zi swung her palm to swat at it, but the mink instantly darted to her back. A-Zi thrashed wildly with both hands, swatting and striking at random. The mink zipped across her body like a streak of lightning, and several times, unable to check her force, A-Zi ended up landing heavy blows upon herself.
Zhong Ling burst into laughter at the sight: "I'll let you beat yourself up first, and then I'll have the mink bite you to death!"
A-Zi cried out in alarm, "Big Ginger, save me!"
Zhong Ling was momentarily stunned. When Jiang Mingzhe crawled out of the shack, she and A-Zi had already engaged in combat, and she hadn't noticed anyone else present.
She hurriedly turned her head to search and saw Jiang Mingzhe charging toward her with long strides.
Although Zhong Ling was a year or two older than A-Zi, she was only slightly taller, and in front of Jiang Mingzhe, she still appeared tiny.

Furthermore, though she had practiced martial arts since childhood, she had little experience in actual combat. Seeing Jiang Mingzhe's tall stature and aggressive momentum, she let out a frightened squeak. Unable to muster any thought of resistance, she turned tail and fled, blowing sharp, shrill whistles.
Hearing the sound, the Flash Mink flexibly turned its tiny head. Seeing its master in peril, it squeaked, abandoned A-Zi, and rushed back to save its owner.
A-Zi hurriedly felt her face, discovering that it had not been disfigured, and breathed a small sigh of relief. A mixture of lingering fear and burning anger surged within her as she yelled, "Big Ginger, run! We can't beat this giant rat!"
Having never laid eyes on a mink in her entire life, she assumed it was simply an exceptionally fast rat. Remembering how the beast had just darted all over her body, she still felt a chill of dread. While urging Jiang Mingzhe to flee, she dashed toward the shack, thinking with bitter resentment: *She has a giant rat, and I have a little ginger—I'll have my poisonous monkey poison the stinking brat's stinking rat to death!*
How could Jiang Mingzhe not know the lethality of this mink? In the original tale, relying on the Flash Mink, Zhong Ling was virtually invincible against low-tier opponents.
Even the leader of the Wuliang Sword sect and the master of the Shennong Gang—overlords who ruled their respective regions in the pugilistic world—fared miserably everywhere they turned when encountering this mink, making it a classic representative of the creed that "speed alone is unbreakable."
Moreover, this mink routinely fed on venomous snakes, and its teeth were laden with deadly toxins. A single bite would be enough that even A-Zi might not be able to find a cure.
Therefore, having saved A-Zi through the strategy of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao, Jiang Mingzhe immediately halted his advance. On his own initiative, he unleashed a set of Three-Yin Centipede Claws. The toxic potency fused within his acupuncture points began to steam upward, flowing with his internal energy into his fingertips. Wherever his hands passed, a bluish-black toxic miasma gathered without dispersing, forming a dense cloud around him in moments.
While the mink was unafraid of snake venom, it still harbored apprehension toward centipede poison. Rushing up close, it slammed on the brakes, then began to streak around Jiang Mingzhe in a frantic circle, seeking an opening to lunge through. Yet the toxic energy within Jiang Mingzhe was abundantly full, and the bluish-black venomous shroud enveloped him into a complete sphere, blocking even his silhouette from view—how could there possibly be the slightest gap?
Zhong Ling was left staring in utter bewilderment. *This tall guy is only around twenty years old,* she thought, *so how can his internal energy be this formidable? To project true Qi outward and condense it into a sphere—not even my parents possess such ability! Could it be that he started practicing martial arts from inside his mother's womb?*
How could she possibly know that Jiang Mingzhe's wood-elemental toxicity, having been built on the foundation of the Six-Winged Iron Centipede and further fused with dozens of rare venomous centipedes—not to mention absorbing an epoch-spanning toxic entity like the Sky-Soaring Centipede Emperor just yesterday—was rare indeed, even within the Star Palace.
The internal energy of the Star Palace was never particularly outstanding on its own; its true terror lay in the process of fusing poisons and converting them into martial prowess. It possessed both the devastating might of venom and an enhanced reservoir of internal strength. Although Jiang Mingzhe had cultivated for only a short time, the multitude of top-tier centipede venoms fused within his body rendered him incomparable to ordinary practitioners.
At that moment, A-Zi came running back, hoisting the little monkey high in the air. Seeing Jiang Mingzhe channeling his poison into a sphere to block the Flash Mink, she felt a complex mixture of pride and inferiority. *Big Ginger is extraordinarily gifted,* she thought, *gaining such power in just a few days. I mustn't let him leave me too far behind! Once I catch this stinking brat, I'll force her to hand over ten thousand and ninety-three venomous snakes!*
As for whether Zhong Ling actually possessed that many snakes, A-Zi could not be bothered to consider it right now. Taking a few rapid steps forward, she hurled the toxic monkey forcefully toward Zhong Ling: "Little Ginger, go tear her face apart!"