Xiaohu, CFT, I was hoping one of them died ... I guess it's too early in the story. Ysabel, HPC, Sky, DongBin, spy, Jaya, you are welcome. Akolaw, Anh, I didn't even realize today was Zhongqiu. Xu Xiong, obviously you did not read too many espionage stories ...

Ba Fenghan felt the cold/hot intertwined spiraling qi were circling back and forth; but this time it was not too cold. Rather, the balance between cold and hot was just right, so that he felt unspeakably comfortable and at ease. Evidently its destructive nature has been greatly reduced.

Originally he had made up his mind to face death, but now that things took turn for the better, his spirit aroused, he took advantage of the incoming momentum by first drawing the qi power toward his dantian, and then let his meridian carried it through into Xu Ziling's body.

Xu Ziling also felt his originally icy-cold meridians turned pleasantly warm somewhat; immediately he also pacified this slight difference to recover his vitality. Quickly he used his thought to control the flow of qi, from the scorching hot yongquan acupoint on his right foot pierced through his body, while returning the cold stream to its rightful owner, back to the Jade Annulus of He Clan, which tightly gripped in his two hands.

Kou Zhong at the back constantly generating cold qi from his tianling acupoint, striving his hardest to reconcile it with the hot stream entering his body.

Strange things happened.

The Jade Annulus of He Clan's brightness was constantly increasing at an alarming rate, until it was as bright as the moon in the sky, its brilliance sparkled brightly; it was strange to the extreme.

The strange thing was that the stream of qi was constantly circulating inside the three men's meridians, from the icy-cold it split apart into the intertwining cold and heat, and it was only upon reaching Kou Zhong's system that it turned into heat energy. Furthermore, it was flowing faster and faster, until finally it went out of the three men's control, as it continued to cycle without any sign that it would stop any time soon.

The yongquan acupoint on Xu Ziling's left foot grew increasingly hot, while Kou Zhong's tianling acupoint grew increasingly cold.

Under normal circ.u.mstances, the two boys would not be able to endure these abrupt changes from hot to cold and vice versa. But this moment they felt that the colder the better, the hotter the more wonderful it was.

All kinds of illusions flitted across their brains; this one rose up the other one disappeared, in an endless string of strange scenes.

Several cycles later, the cold and hot stream in Ba Fenghan system was approaching its equilibrium; the strong and weak locked in a stalemate.

Even with his vast experience and knowledge, after traveling ten thousand li, Ba Fenghan did not understand exactly what happened at the moment.

In a word, from the time Xu Ziling released the cold qi and it entered his body to cause the cold/hot flow, which deviate from cold, and the time Kou Zhong returning the flow, it turned into cold/hot combined flow, which deviate from hot.

What he really wanted to do, and the only thing that he could use, was trying to bring the true qi inside his body to a balance cold/hot flow.

Because the strength or weakness of these cold and hot flow was changing constantly, Ba Fenghan was like a tight-rope walker over a high cliff, unleas.h.i.+ng everything he had just to maintain the equilibrium; otherwise he would lose his footing and fall into the cliff to end up having his body torn and his bones crushed.

By this time Xu Ziling was already able to move his own true qi, although he was still unable to cutoff the incoming huge qi from the Jade Annulus of He Clan, which surging up violently.

Fortunately the meridians are divided into yin and yang. The cold qi from the Jade Annulus of He Clan was coming from the yang meridian, entering via the palm of Ba Fenghan's hand. Coming back from Ba Fenghan, the intertwined cold/hot true energy returning inside the jade annulus was coming from the yin meridians.

Each cycle of the flow of qi had made the three men's meridians to be swelling a little.

After the flow was getting faster and faster, suddenly it slowed down. In this way the fast flow became slow, and the slow flow became fast. It kept cycling like this for no one knows how many times and how much time pa.s.sed. Suddenly all three of them felt sharp pain like the heaven fell and the earth rent, the meridians inside their body seemed to be bursting open, their bodies sprang up at the same time.

Xu Ziling fell forward, while Kou Zhong fell back.

Ba Fenghan's entire body was thrown up halfway into the air, before it fell heavily on the gra.s.sy ground.

Lying down on the ground, the three could only pant, and momentarily they were unable to crawl back up.

But they all knew that some extremely fantastic thing had happened inside their bodies.

Ba Fenghan groaned, and was the first to get up. He found out that his entire body, from head to foot, was drenched in sweat; moreover, the sweat beads were blackish and smelled fishy, but his body felt relaxed and extremely comfortable.

Opening his eyes to look around, the whole world looked different.

The forest of the mountain tops near and far appeared to be a different world. Not only the color gradation and richness appeared to be enhanced many times over, the most emotionally moving was that in just a glance, he seemed to be able to distinguish the difference poses and different expressions of each leaf's movement under the morning light and the gentle breeze.

Ba Fenghan was so moved that his body was shaking violently as he kneeled down, with hot tears welled up uncontrollably in his eye sockets.

As he closed his eyes, the heaven and earth inside and outside immediately ‘water and milk blended into one ent.i.ty'.

The warm suns.h.i.+ne radiated from the east, casting its light on his body. From not having a moment of his own, it was as if presently he felt he has received his existence, the meaning of his life.

Ba Fenghan unleashed the method to look deep into himself, and was immediately gob smacked. There was also a burst ecstasy and a feeling that he no longer needed to search for something to satisfy his need.

As he said earlier, his meridians were thus reinforced many times over. Although it could not be said that his skill had been increased tremendously, but as long as he consistently made intensive effort to cultivate his skill, he certainly could achieve twice the effect with half the work.

It should be noted that human's strength was sometimes limited. For a martial art master of Ba Fenghan's caliber, even a cun advancement could be more difficult than ascending the heaven. But after undergoing such a singular transformation like the course of events just now, he would be like a clear puddle that turned into bottomless deep natural pond. Every single acupoint, every channel, would be like shedding one's mortal body and exchanging one's bones by turning into unlimited storehouse of growth potential. Naturally it had made him so happy that he nearly went mad.

Suddenly Kou Zhong's voice entered his ears, "My Niang! Why am I so smelly?”

Ba Fenghan opened his tiger-eyes.

Xu Ziing and Kou Zhong sat up; with a blank expression they turned their eyes toward the rising sun in the east, and then they vigorously sniffed the sweats on their palms.

In a very comical way Kou Zhong crawled on his hands and feet toward Ba Fenghan and said, "Ol' Ba, how come you suddenly become more handsome? Your whole face is s.h.i.+ning. It looks like the Jade Annulus of He Clan's best feature is to be used as skin moistener.”

Using the sleeve of his clothes, Ba Fenghan wiped the dirt acc.u.mulated on his face from indistinguishable sweats and tears; laughing involuntarily, he said, "Although you are not dead yet, but I think you have turned crazy. You don't have any manners at all.”

The two looked face to face for a moment, and then they roared in laughter together.

However, as why they were laughing, what was so amusing that they laughed, n.o.body knew for sure.

Xu Ziling was still staring blankly at the sun.

Exhaling a mouthful of air, Xu Ziling said, "I am staring directly at the sun, how come I do not feel the glare?”

The two quickly turned their gaze toward the sun; the usually glaring sunlight felt so warm and comfortable. It was definitely different than usual.

With a dreamy sigh Kou Zhong said, "My Niang! Turns out the sun is a big ball of fire; how come usually I could not see it?”

His heart moved, Ba Fenghan asked, "Where is the Jade Annulus of He Clan?”

Smiling ruefully, Xu Ziling opened up both palms, which were covered in fine-powder like substance, interspersed with bits of irregular-shaped pieces of gold, which also looked like their shapes have been changed by some kind of powerful compression.

The two stared at the remnants on his palms. They blurted in disbelief, "Is that the Jade Annulus of He Clan?”

The extraordinary treasure, which fame spread out throughout the ages, has become a pile of dust?

Xu Ziling nodded, "This thing has just burst into dust in my hands. Finished! The Jade Annulus of He Clan is finished!”

Clicking his tongue, Kou Zhong said, "We carefully sc.r.a.pe the dust from Xiao Ling's hands, later on we'll find a way to repair it. Maybe there are people who can work wonders.”

Ba Fenghan and Xu Ziling laughed and swore at him.

Kou Zhong also laughed aloud, sprang up, a.s.suming a grand-ruler-facing-the-world att.i.tude, he shouted, "Who dares to say that I, Kou Zhong, did not receive the Heaven's command to be the Son of Heaven? Even the Jade Annulus of He Clan has become one with me. I am the treasured seal of the Emperor by the grace of Heaven. The treasured ruler seal is me. Anything I sign using either my fingers or my toes will be the imperial seal. Ha!”

Ba Fenghan returned to his calm and composed demeanor. Rising up to his full height, he said, "Do not get carried away. The trouble that we face because we stole the jade annulus is just the beginning. Now we need to look for a stream to wash clean the dirt and bloodstain from our bodies, and then we need to fabricate a decent story to explain where we were last night. We will deny categorically that it was us who stole the Jade Annulus of He Clan; otherwise, before we even become genuine martial art masters, the nuns and monks of Ci Hang Jing Zhai and Jing Nian Chanyuan will brandish their sticks randomly to beat us to the death.”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "No wonder they say that those with riches and honor are beyond the fear of death, unlike the rotten life of the poor. Come! The earlier we return to the city, the more we won't attract other people's suspicion. I still need to make a private appointment to meet and deal with w.a.n.g s.h.i.+chong, that old fox!”

Amidst their laughter, the three left the jungle.