Book 23 Chapter 6 – Contending for Supremacy on the Sky Bridge

Xu Ziling finally set foot on the Great Mount Ba, which was overflowing with danger, famous for its plank walkway all the way since ancient time thru today.

This kind of dangerous man-made pathway, constructed around the mountain in a roundabout route, was mainly built by cutting holes on the sheer cliffs and precipitous rock faces and then inserting beams into the holes, which served as the skeleton for the wooden planks laid out on top of them.

As people were walking on it, on one side was the uneven surface of the rock cliff, while the other side was thousand-ren [unit of length, my dictionary did not have the definition, baike.baidu only says 8 or 7 feet] steep cliff. When the mountain breeze was blowing, the feeling was that the entire walkway was swaying, the foothold was unsteady. Those who are bold would still feel fright at every step, while those who are timid would be unable to move a single step.

At first Xu Ziling was overwhelmed with marvel, but suddenly his mind opened and cleared up. The unpleasant mood stirred up by s.h.i.+ Feixuan was washed away clean. Along the way more and more marvelous scenery emerged; it was extremely pleasing to the eyes.

Maintaining a touring-the-mountain, visiting-scenic-spots frame of mind, he thoroughly enjoyed the covered-by-trees-and-underbrush deep mountains, high ridges, marvelous peaks and amazing rocks.

Cloud fir [spruce], cold fir, red fir, iron fir [tsuga chinensis], all kinds of fir [Cunninghamia lanceolate] trees, mixed together with ginkgo tree, fragrant fruit tree, paulownia tree, formed the ever-changing natural ecology. It was not only a paradise for birds, but golden sub-nosed monkeys [Rhinopithecus Roxellana], macaque, wildebeests, and hairy crowned deer were roaming around freely, so full of life. When he rounded a bend, the scenery changed again.

The first to catch his eyes was the roaring of the waterfall, while the walkway was continuously widening. Burst of water droplets. .h.i.t him on the face, while the mist pervaded the air on the opposite mountain. A waterfall appeared like a jiao dragon [legendary (horned) dragon with ability to control rain and floods] coming out of a hole in the mountain, cascading down along the cliff, straight to the bottom of the cliff into a boiling torrent, and then rus.h.i.+ng out following the terrain with strong momentum.

Seeing all these, Xu Ziling’s mind was intoxicated. He stopped to enjoy the view with his hands behind his back, feeling the essence, qi, and spirit in his entire body soared without any bound, and ten thousand changes converged into one.

In this moment of clarity, there was no distinction between internal and external.

The man was the nature, and the nature was the man.

Before this natural wonder, all struggles, enmity and killing have become irrelevant.

Right this moment, suddenly a familiar voice entered his ears, saying, “We must be especially bound together by fate; unexpectedly I come across Xu Xiong here.”

Xu Ziling was still staring fixedly on the mountain flow down below, formed by the water flying out of the cliff above. It converged first into more than a dozen of layer upon layer of pools, big and small, then flowed around the colorful rocks filling the bottom of the waterfall. Under the bright sun the rippling waves sparkled magnificently. Smiling, he said, “Naturally we are especially bound together by fate. But I wonder if Hou Xiong is leaving Sichuan, or is entering Sichuan?”

Hou Xibai walked slowly along the walkway toward Xu Ziling, while waving the Fan of Beauty in his hand lightly, in such an unspeakably elegant and graceful demeanor, confident and at ease above the crowd.

Xu Ziling sighed inwardly; if they fought in this place, both sides would have no way out. This matter could only be resolved by one of them defeated and perished. At the same time, he was also blaming himself for being careless. Ever since leaving Yangzhou, he has been neglecting this young martial art master of Hua Jian Pai, while Hou Xibai has been lurking on the side, waiting for an opportunity like the present.

Was it because s.h.i.+ Feixuan knew that he was nearby that she was unwilling to enter Sichuan together with Xu Ziling? Listening to the tone of s.h.i.+ Feixuan’s voice, she only had good impression toward Hou Xibai, without any bad feeling at all.

Hou Xibai stopped when he was about a zhang or so from him; he spoke smoothly, “During the reign of Xian w.a.n.g of the Zhou dynasty, Qinhui w.a.n.g wanted to destroy Shu [i.e. Sichuan], but no matter how hard he tried, he could not force entrance into it; thereupon he issued an order to make a stone ox with five heads, and daubed the ox tail with gold dust, claiming that the ox could produce gold excrement, and have the ox delivered to King of Shu. Greatly delighted, King of Su ordered his men to construct the plank walkway to welcome the golden ox. Eventually the Qin army forced entrance into Su along the Golden Ox Walkway and wiped out the Su State. Won’t you say that things like this are actually the main cause of disaster for the people of Sichuan?”

Looking back at the plank walkway that he had just walked through, Xu Ziling spoke indifferently, “Later on, Zhuge Liang’s ‘Six Campaigns from Mount Qi’, Jiang Wei’s ‘Nine Campaigns on the Central Plains’ [both are from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms], were also transporting troops along this path. Therefore, the fault is not on this Golden Ox Walkway, but on the people; don’t Hou Xiong think so?”

‘Swis.h.!.+’

Hou Xibai opened his fan fully, and then waved it back and forth; the speed was irregular, but it seemed to follow some kind of law-within-no-law rhythm, like it was very easy to fathom, yet was impossible to grasp. It was such an extremely weird feeling.

“I never thought Xu Xiong would be this familiar with the history of Sichuan,” he spoke in astonishment, “Evidently the walkway we are standing on has been through many different reconstructions. The most ancient Golden Ox Walkway started in Mei County of Shaanxi, pa.s.sing through the Xie valley, winding around the Bao Valley, and into Hanzhong. To the west it goes out to Mian County, through Yang Ping mountain pa.s.s, and into Sichuan, pa.s.sing through Qingchuan, JianGe, Zitong, Mianyang, and arrives at Chengdu. Currently the Hanzhong to Sichuan section has changed into Ningqiang, surpa.s.sing seven mountain pa.s.ses. This is precisely the section that Xu Xiong stopped to admire, as if you wanted to become an immortal and go directly into danger.”

Hou Xibai took a step forward, closing the distance between the two men to approximately eight chi, while the Fan of Beauty continued to wave, one after another, producing ‘Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+’ noise. The side of the fan facing Xu Ziling had only one painting of Wanwan’s amazing image, putting her faintly discernible, unfathomable innate character, touching portrait in full display. One corner also had the ten-thousand-kinds-of-grace, another implicit-charm-in-rhyme, image of the famous courtesan Shang Xiufang.

Xu Ziling was still standing with his hands behind his back; noticing Hou Xibai did not respond, he went on, “It seems that Hou Xiong did not wish to answer. Xiaodi suddenly has a weird thought; supposing one of us suddenly ascend the heavens to become an immortal, I guarantee that no one in Jianghu would find out.”

Blurting out laughing, Hou Xibai said, “Xu Xiong’s idea is very interesting. Regrettably, the world of the immortals has no doors, so n.o.body could open it as he wishes. Perhaps Xu Xiong wants to turn a good dream into nothingness!”

A sliver of without-any-care-in-the-world smile escaped from the corner of Xu Ziling’s mouth; remaining tranquil and calm, he said, “Whether the world of the immortals has a door or has no door, so much so that whether there is the world of the immortals or afterlife, Xiaodi practically has never had any imagination nor any desire to look forward to, hence I have no good dream to be turned into nothingness. Even toward life and death, Ol’ Xu has a very indifferent view. I wonder if Hou Xiong would be interested in giving it a try?”

Finally Hou Xibai’s countenance changed. His eyes shone with sharp, peculiar light, the rhythm of his fan became more erratic, but it was not in confusion at all. If the listener was not Xu Ziling but another first-cla.s.s martial art master, perhaps he could not stop rus.h.i.+ng out and making his move.

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong lay on his back on the bed, but was unable to sleep. With eyes opened wide he stared at the ceiling of the cabin, with myriads thought surging in his mind.

He was thinking of his relations.h.i.+p with Du Fuwei.

It could be said that Du Fuwei was the first person ever to show respect on him, to consider Kou Zhong to be qualified to inherit his burning incense stick and his undertaking. Yet due to all kinds of reason, Kou Zhong declined his good intention.

In the past he was willing to let Kou Zhong left Liyang, demonstrating his breath of mind and positive outlook, which surpa.s.s others, and revealing his sincere affection, which was inconsistent with his style.

But in return, Kou Zhong bitterly defended Jingling for ten days and ten nights, so that Du Fuwei could only gain tragic victory.

Today he was going to destroy Du Fuwei’s grand plan of attacking Jiangdu. Thinking about this, he felt depressed and helpless.

That trusted lieutenant of his called Chen Sheng was a total stranger to Kou Zhong. There was no grievance in the past, there was no animosity in the present, yet tonight, using thousand ways and hundred plans, Kou Zhong was going to make him meet his death, just to incite Du Fuwei’s anger, all in the name of contention over the world. Therefore, he had to proceed by hook or by crook, not stopping at anything. Contention over the world is just like that.

Ay!

Yet if he could go back to the past, he would still decline Du Fuwei’s good intention and proposal.

The real reason was that Du Fuwei did not enjoy popular support too much. Plus Kou Zhong did not wish to get things done by relying on others.

Thinking to this point, Kou Zhong jumped out of bed and ordered his men serving outside the door to summon Chen Changlin, Bu Tianzhi, and so on for a discussion.

※ ※ ※

Finally Xu Ziling reacted; suddenly he turned his tiger-body around, so that he was directly facing Hou Xibai, who was standing at an oblique angle about eight chi away on the walkway.

Two pair of eyes met, both men stared unyieldingly toward each other.

Hou Xibai stopped waving his fan and put it away on his back. Nodding his head, he said, “Xu Xiong’s brilliance is indeed beyond Zaixia’s expectation.”

Xu Ziling smiled and replied, “We are no better or worse than each other!”

The two men were not simply uttering polite words.

In fact, ever since Hou Xibai raised his voice to speak, the two have been on a head-on confrontation. Xu Ziling was bit lucky, because as he was enjoying the beautiful scenery of the waterfall on the opposite mountain, his state of mind converged seamlessly with the ten-thousand changes outside, entering the ‘no-man, no-me’ [non-self, anatta], forgetting inside, forgetting outside, state, in deep union with the purpose of the ‘Secret to Long Life’. Although he had not raised his qi or applied his power, all the orifices within his body were full of life; naturally the innate true qi circulated freely, from head to toe, there was not the slightest flaw.

The reason Hou Xibai chose this place to make his appearance was originally to borrow the waterfall’s surging momentum and its loud rumbling noise to conceal the vibration, as well as any noise, generated on the walkway as he was stepping on it, while actively calculating how to launch one strike, with a ten-thousand-catty-thunder momentum, to successfully getting rid of this formidable opponent, who, in so many aspects, was able to rival him.

From his footwork of standing at an oblique angle, pressing down on the plank walkway going around the mountain, to the rhythm of his opening and waving his fan, not one did not imply the profound-mystery law and logic. As soon as Xu Ziling was somewhat influence by it or was a bit distracted, he would make his move with all his strength. Staking everything, disregarding injury or death, he simply must strike to kill this opponent, in such a no-retreat, no-escape battlefield.

Who would have thought that not only Xu Ziling was not influenced by him the slightest bit, he remained in the profound mystery state, which Hou Xibai found to be amazing and inexplicable, which Xu Ziling suggested earlier that he had no regard of life and death. Consequently, Hou Xibai felt that if he forcefully made his move, both of them would only end up peris.h.i.+ng together.

And that was the reason he praised Xu Ziling wholeheartedly.

From Xu Ziling’s point of view, Hou Xibai did not give him the slightest gap that he could exploit, hence the reason he did not dare to turn around earlier, afraid that his concentration would fail him.

The rhythm of Hou Xibai’s fan was some kind of gongfa [skill/power law/method; this is another ‘one of those’ that I don’t know how to translate succinctly (the other being shenfa and xinfa)] a.n.a.logous to the Tian Mo Yin [demonic sound] that Zhu Yuyan employed. One slight mistake, he wound incite the opponent’s terrifying attack. He waited until Hou Xibai’s heart appeared to be shaken. He chose the exact time when the opponent was in the middle of two shakes of his fan to turn around; the exact moment when the Fan of Beauty was at its limit of movement.

This kind of subtlety accurately grasped the rhythm of the opponent’s fan, which appeared like random, without any order, movements; in a way, it was tantamount to thoroughly break the brilliant skill of waving the fan.

From this, it could be said that Hou Xibai has been hiding his real strength all along, hence the ‘no better or worse than each other’ comment.

Xu Ziling still had his hands behind his back, while standing upright and unafraid. His eyes stared fixedly on the opponent, his stored-up imposing manner expanding unceasingly, a.s.suming the unyielding att.i.tude of going-all-out, staking-everything, fight-might-happen-any-moment.

Hou Xibai was still maintaining his confident and at ease, unconstrained appearance, but the fact was that he was standing straight like a mountain, exuding a biting cold vortex of qi, restraining the opponent from a distance, abundant with sweeping-away-the-world spirit.

A glimmer of smile escaped from the corner of Xu Ziling’s mouth as he spoke indifferently, “Did Hou Xiongaccidentally run into me entering Sichuan, or did you already know that I am entering Sichuan?”

While continuously looking for any gap in the opponent’s line of defense, Hou Xibai replied, “This matter is unusually complicated, but it is closely related to Qingxuan. Xu Xiong, what do you think?”

Inwardly, Xu Ziling cried, ‘Formidable!’

It should be noted that fighting on the plank walkway, any shenfa or footwork would not be effective. The only way was to fight force against force.

Even though there was indeed relative superiority between the two men’s martial art skill level, but the difference was not far. Therefore, they must resort to various means to weaken the opponent’s fighting spirit, to divide his attention, in order to succeed in one strike.

Hou Xibai’s choice of words was precisely to achieve that objective.

If Xu Ziling was distracted by the two words ‘unusually complicated’ and pondered upon it deeply, also by Hou Xibai intimately calling her by her first name ‘Qingxuan’, which would make Xu Ziling think that his relations.h.i.+p with s.h.i.+ Qingxuan was quite complex, then Xu Ziling would fall into the trap.

Fortunately, Xu Ziling was quite indifferent toward success or failure in men/women relations.h.i.+p; hence he was not too affected by it. Smiling instead, he said, “Hou Xiong clearly knew that before entering Sichuan, Xiaodi had an all night long chat with Miss s.h.i.+.”

This is called playing someone at their own game; moreover, he was hinting that s.h.i.+ Feixuan was nearby.

According to Xu Ziling’s a.n.a.lysis, the reason Hou Xibai was able to select this place to intercept him was that he obtained the information from the Yangtze River Alliance, simply because Yun Yuzhen and Yangtze River Alliance’s Zheng Shuming had secret connection. Furthermore, Hou Xibai’s skill with women definitely raised this possibility.

Sure enough, Hou Xibai was slightly startled.

Naturally Xu Ziling was unwilling to let this built-up-through-painstaking-efforts golden opportunity pa.s.s; stepping forward, he sent out a heavy punch.

Hou Xibai did not take out his fan at all; he simply put his fingers together and used the palm chop with his left hand.

‘Bang!’

Qi power collided.

Both of them tumbled backward as if they were struck by lightning, opening the distance between them a zhang or so.

Hou Xibai’s revealed an extremely grave expression. “Why not spiraling qi power?” he shouted.

Xu Ziling was struggling to suppress his boiling blood and qi, while inwardly he was very shocked. If the opponent had not mistakenly thought that he was going to use spiraling qi power, he would have suffered quite a bit of loss in this exchange.

He had managed to create all sorts of favorable situations, yet still ended up both parties shared the limelight. Evidently Hou Xibai’s true power was at least a notch above his. Not to mention Hou Xibai has not used his fan yet.

Smiling slightly, he said, “How come Hou Xiong did not use the amazing skill of ‘Immortal Printed Scroll’?”

Hou Xibai’s eyes emitted an unprecedentedly fierce expression. “Was it Feixuan who told you?” he spoke in heavy voice.

While resisting his rapidly increasing fierce qi momentum, Xu Ziling sneered and said, “From this, it is clear that Hou Xiong has not had any chance to meet s.h.i.+ Qingxuan, otherwise you might mistakenly guessed that it was she who told me.”

Recovering his calm manner, Hou Xibai blurted out laughing and said, “But it is also possible that I have just visited her fragrant residence, right?”

Letting out a long laughter, Xu Ziling said, “Absolutely correct!”

Both palms struck out at the same time, immediately a violent force rolled straight toward Hou Xibai.

※ ※ ※

While the warriors were working hard, the cabin was serene under the lazy afternoon sun.

After sweeping Bu Tianzhi, Chen Laomou, Luo Qifei, and Chen Changlin, four men, with his eyes, Kou Zhong pondered deeply for half a day before finally speaking slowly, “I have two things that I’d like gentlemen to consider carefully.”

Everybody knew he still had more to say, hence they just waited silently.

Appearing to be very deep in thought, Kou Zhong said, “Tonight we only need to hurt Chen Sheng, but there is no need to kill him. I want to borrow Chen Sheng’s own mouth to tell Du Fuwei who had wounded him.”

“There shouldn’t be any problem,” Bu Tianzhi said, “As long as we manage to burn a few more of his boats, it will be enough to provoke Du Fuwei’s wrath.”

Chen Changlin said, “Chen Sheng ought to know Gu Jun. If there is any flaw, in the future, our achievement will be completely wasted.”

Chen Laomou joined in, “Outside appearance is not a problem. In confusion, it woud be enough to have fifty, sixty-percent resemblance. Could Changlin describe his general appearance that I can use as my reference?”

Chen Changlin nodded to give his consent, but he said, “Gu Jun’s spear technique is very particular; if Chen Sheng sees it, he will definitely be able to tell it apart.”

“Have you seen it?” Bu Tianzhi asked.

Chen Changlin’s eyes emitted deep hatred. Letting out a cold humph, he said, “Not only seen it, I have tasted it.”

Listening to this, everybody knew that he had fought Gu Jun in the past, perhaps he even suffered some losses.

Delighted, Kou Zhong said, “That will do! Imitating ten or twenty-percent will work; Chen Sheng would think that Gu Jun was deliberately concealing his martial art.”

After a short pause, he continued, “The other thing is that in order to avenge Changlin Xiong, we must, by all means, kill Shen Lun. But we also must make Shen Faxing thinks that it is Du Fuwei who kill him. This way, the enmity between them will never be resolved, forever.”

Luo Qifei said, “Changlin and I have repeatedly considered this over; we both think that as long as Du Fuwei believed that Shen Lun attacked him, the moment Shen Lun withdraw his troops, we will ambush him from the side. This way, all accounts will be credited to Du Fuwei. The only difficulty is to determine the suitable time and place.”

Muttering to himself irresolutely, Kou Zhong said, “Supposing when Chen Sheng is injured Du Fuwei did not advance but retreat instead by withdrawing to Qingliu to regroup, then it would be really bad for us. Therefore, we must have a contingency plan. It would be best if we can force Old Du so that he won’t dare to delay.”

Frowning, Bu Tianzhi said, “Is there a way to make Du Fuwei thinks that Shen Lun has sold him to Li Zitong? That way, Old Du would try to smash one of the two in the shortest time possible, or else he would fall into the situation where he is caught up in between.”

Slapping his thigh, Kou Zhong praised, “This is merely the exertion of lifting one’s hand [fig. requiring a very light effort]. Have somebody deliver a letter to Li Zitong at once; have this fellow immediately spread a rumor, saying that Shen Faxing has already made peace with him. If this rumor can enter Old Du’s ears one step ahead of Chen Sheng being attacked, he would be even more convinced.”

And then he rose to his full height, stretched his limbs, and said, “This time I really can sleep a good sleep!”

Book 23 Chapter 7 – s.h.i.+fting the Blame Onto Eastern Wu

Hou Xibai s.h.i.+fted sideways to retrieve the folded fan on his back; in a confident-and-at ease, natural, br.i.m.m.i.n.g-with-a-sense-of-beauty posture, the tip of the fan’s skeleton, rapid-beyond-comprehension, pointed at Xu Ziling’s double palms coming down at him, and then the fan opened, using the side full of portraits of beautiful women he blocked Xu Ziling’s real killer move, while sending out a kick toward his lower abdomen.

Xu Ziling rapidly whirled around, both palms created hundreds of palm shadows like an illusion, while his leg seemed to move, but was not actually moving. Even with Hou Xibai’s ability, he could not advance prematurely, while also did not dare to withdraw backward, afraid that the opponent might s.n.a.t.c.h the key moment, and then he would suffer ‘troops in defeat like a landslide’ [idiom], and lost his life on this no-escape, no-retreat plank walkway.

Hou Xibai resorted to a set of exquisite and abstruse fan technique. His fan opened and closed without showing any gap, as he parried Xu Ziling’s rainstorm-like fingers, palms, and fists attack. The sound of strong wind collided against each other lingered on.

‘Pow!’ hundreds and thousands fan shadows covered everything. The middle finger of Xu Ziling’s left hand made contact with the tip of the fan.

A vortex of qi, which Hou Xibai had been expected all along, burst in via the Fan of Beauty, slow at first, but quickly became faster.

This inner power attack was like fighting at close range with short weapon, there was no room to change move at all. The two combatants staggered backwards at the same time.

At this moment, the two men began to know the real ability of his opponent.

Hou Xibai only staggered back five steps before he managed to regain his footings; his handsome face alternated between red and green. Only after several rounds of these changes did he recover his usual fair countenance.

Xu Ziling nearly stepped out of the plank walkway. Turned out Hou Xibai’s Fan of Beauty was able to execute ‘four taels to push aside a thousand catty’ technique, simply because it was able to use some extremely weird technique of borrowing force to strike force called ‘You Shan Xie’ [lit. outstanding expertise to unload/to remove], by s.h.i.+fting the opponent’s inner power. And Hou Xibai’s level of mastery has reached perfection, a ‘as the arm moves the finger’, free, unconstrained state.

Nearly every strike, a punch or finger thrust, had a ‘miss-the-target’ feeling, just like trying to catch a loach with empty hand, like clearly it was caught in hand, but he was unable to hold on to it steadily.

It was precisely the ‘prescribing the right medicine for an illness’ best method to deal with the spiraling energy.

However, although he gained the upper hand, it actually entailed strenuous effort.

Fortunately, at the last moment he gained the initiative by utilizing the amazing move of ‘Using the man to play the sword, using the sword to play the enemy’ [see Book 11 Chapter 8] of the ‘Yijian Technique’. Furthermore, he exploited the unique environment of the plank walkway to force Hou Xibai to go full strength by disregarding everything in meeting the attack head-on, so that he avoided the final fate of defeat and peris.h.i.+ng.

The skill difference had been decided.

Xu Ziling struggled hard to recover from his own momentum that sent him to the edge of the walkway. And then, using the innate true qi from the combination of ‘Secret to Long Life’ and ‘Jade Annulus of He Clan’, he neutralized most of Hou Xibai’s strange energy invading his body. But he still needed two more steps before he could stand firm.

He nearly vomited blood. Luckily when his meridians were about to burst, his five viscera felt like shattering, he exerted himself to raise the true qi within his body. The internal injury immediately recovered more than half in such a miraculous way. It was as if the true qi in his body could faintly control the opponent’s gongfa.

Hou Xibai’s most formidable aspect was that when Xu Ziling’s spiraling energy burst in, slow at first and then turned fast, Hou Xibai’s internal power became suddenly hard and suddenly soft, using both gentle methods and force, ‘breaking open’ his spiraling energy, and diverted it to both sides, enabling him to force entrance into the true qi in the opponent’s body, so that at most he could only retain fifty or sixty-percent of his original level, and thus greatly diminished the killing power.

Such a demonic power was indeed never seen; no wonder Hua Jian Pai was able to stand side by side with Yin Gui Pai on the demonic way.

From this, it could also be inferred the extent of s.h.i.+ Zhixuan’s formidability.

‘Swis.h.!.+’

Hou Xibai opened up his fan and lightly brushed it sideways. With confident laugh he said, “Much obliged for the experience! Xu Xiong is certainly brilliant, but if this is the extent of your skill, Xu Xiong may forget about leaving this golden-ox way alive today.”

Hearing that, Xu Ziling heaved a sigh of relief instead.

If the opponent seized this opportunity to pursue and attack, he would be doomed to death for sure. But now that he spoke to stall for time, it was clear that although his martial art skill was stronger than Xu Ziling’s, and his moves were a notch better than his, plus his injury was slightly lighter than his, yet his speed of recovery must be somewhat slower than Xu Ziling’s.

Taking another mouthful of breath, Xu Ziling let out a long laugh and said, “No better or worse than each other! Hou Xiong, please receive another one of Xiaodi’s punches.”

Right foot stepped forward, left fist sent out a punch.

Obviously Hou Xibai was stunned and was greatly puzzled, and then his expression turned serious, his clothes, from head to foot, fluttered.

Xu Ziling’s punch was extremely slow, but his internal energy was continuously acc.u.mulating, so that when his fist was nearly in position, the wind generated by the punch already reached Hou Xibai’s body. The most magical thing was that from nothing at the beginning, the punch power gradually coalesced until finally it became an incomparably forceful qi power following the moving fist, like a formless but natural iron pillar being thrust toward the chest.

Hou Xibai started to regret his decision to intercept Xu Ziling on this plank walkway. If it were an empty and wide land, breaking Xu Ziling’s move would be like handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease [idiom: skillfully and easily]. But on this unique environment, being forced by Xu Ziling’s gradually condensing qipower was like having a thousand kinds of ultimate art, yet was unable to find a solution. The only way out was to meet the attack head-on.

Hou Xibai roared; pulling his Fan of Beauty back, he used his left palm to swiftly chop down to strike the middle of the column of qi.

Spiraling energy flared out.

Xu Ziling has learned from experience that his spiraling energy was focused and did not disperse, like a sharp awl breaking into the opponent’s exploding energy.

‘Bang!’

Both men tumbled backward and spurted blood at the same time. It was injury on top of injury.

This time Hou Xibai could only neutralized twenty-percent of Xu Ziling’s qi power, hence he suffered quite a loss.

If it were on a flat land, he had seventy, eighty-percent confidence to put Xu Ziling to death. But on this plank walkway, Xu Ziling was able to bring out the fantastic qi power he obtained from the ‘Secret to Long Life’, and unleashed its greatest might.

Both sides withdrew five steps back.

Hou Xibai wiped the bloodstain on the corner of his mouth with his sleeve; smiling bitterly, he said, “Please let Zaixia retract my arrogant words. The fact is, this time I was itching: seeing an opportunity that was difficult to come by, I wanted to force Xu Xiong to swap pointers, not really wanted to hurt Xu Xiong. Xu Xiong is honorable and magnanimous, please pardon this offense.”

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Xu Ziling said, “Hou Xiong is so straightforward, Xiaodi admires you extremely. Since that’s the case, is Hou Xiong going to enter Sichuan, or leave Sichuan?”

Hou Xibai laughed aloud and said, “Xu Xiong has quick movements and quick mouth. Naturally Zaixia is moving forwards. Xu Xiong, please do as you wish.”

Xu Ziling smiled slightly, while forcefully pressing down another mouthful of blood that was welling up in his throat, and then leisurely and confidently he walked past Hou Xibai.

Actually, the severity of his injury was far heavier than Hou Xibai thought. Basically he did not even have any strength left to lift up his fist; therefore, he must leave this dangerous place as far away as possible at once.

Hou Xibai hesitated for a moment, and then stepped aside to let Xu Ziling pa.s.s. He even bade him farewell earnestly, with a reluctant-to-part expression.

Xu Ziling traveled for more than ten li in one breath. After making sure that Hou Xibai did not follow, he violently vomited a mouthful of blood and dejectedly sat down on the ground.

※ ※ ※

Seven wars.h.i.+ps slowly sailed out of a hidden tributary, heading for the Great River.

All wars.h.i.+ps were in total blackout, they only rely on the moon and the stars to guide them toward their target.

Chen Sheng’s Jianghuai Navy had left Liuhe at dusk, sailing speedily toward Jiangdu. According to the report, their fleet consisted of a total of more than one hundred and twenty s.h.i.+ps, big and small; thirty of which were wars.h.i.+ps, the rest were cargo s.h.i.+ps carrying supply wagons and army provisions.

If this fleet met with a mishap, not only Du Fuwei’s vanguard unit would lose support, their plan of besieging the city might be delayed as well. Under this ‘nothing else to do’ situation, Du Fuwei, whose rage soared to the heavens, would have to find someone to vent his anger, and the only way for him to vent his anger would be Shen Lun, who would definitely try to redeem himself.

In war, the objective ought to be striving for victory, whether by fair means or foul. Using spies was a normal practice in military strategy, ever since the ancient times.

Kou Zhong, who looked somewhat like the Long Spear Lad Gu Jun, a fierce general under Shen Lun’s command, was standing on the deck. To his left and right were Chen Changlin and Bu Tianzhi, respectively. The atmosphere was a bit tense, everybody was holding his breath, quieting their qi, ready to deal with the imminent raid.

The key to their victory was to catch an enemy off guard with a surprise attack [idiom, from Sunzi's ‘The Art of War’]; using fast to defeat the slow, while the enemy was caught off guard, to break the formation of their fleet, to use every means to put the enemy into chaos. And then when the enemy was unclear of what was going on, they could use the few to defeat the many.

The seven s.h.i.+ps stopped at the dense forest at the mouth of the river, right next to the riverbank.

The rolling Great River ahead was flowing to the east.

Sailing for two more sichen from here, one would reach Jiangdu.

Kou Zhong took a deep breath and looked up to the sky. His heart was full of emotional stirring.

In his heart, he still had nothing but good opinion and respect toward Du Fuwei, but for the sake of even more far-reaching goal, he had to do this to Du Fuwei. Thinking about this, his heart was saddened.

“They should be here by now!” Bu Tianzhi whispered in his ear, “Our timing is very accurate.”

Kou Zhong regained his senses. Casting his eyes toward the confluence of the tributary and the main river, his spirit entered the calm state.

Chen Changlin spoke quietly, “Tonight the southeast wind is blowing. If we follow the enemy’s tail tightly, we can attack by following the current and the wind at our tail. It’s going to be absolutely sure. Problem is, it might turn into a full-scale battle, and then it’s going to be more difficult to defeat Chen Sheng’s command s.h.i.+p first.”

Bu Tianzhi sighed and said, “Too bad we do not have any information on Chen Sheng’s natural disposition; otherwise, we could plan our attack focusing on his character. Right now we can only take a risk.”

Kou Zhong nodded and said, “The most dangerous situation would be if his command s.h.i.+p is at the head of the procession, because then we must take the risk of attacking first, and face the danger of the rest of the wars.h.i.+ps counterattacking by following the current.”

Bu Tianzhi spoke heavily, “If we stay close to the Great River’s northern bank, we could release smoke and scatter ashes.”

Kou Zhong resolutely said, “We might as well take a two-p.r.o.nged approach; while we raid the opponent’s command s.h.i.+p, the other six wars.h.i.+ps will separate so that the enemy cannot see our real strength. While confusing the enemy with smoke, we use cross-shaped [orig. ‘ten’ character] arrows to burn the enemy’s sail, use trebuchet to smash the opponent’s hull, to create damage as much as possible. Once it’s done, we can abandon the s.h.i.+p and flee into the water.”

And then he added one sentence, “As long as Chen Sheng is wounded, we have successfully accomplished this mission.”

“They are here!” Chen Changlin cried out in low voice.

Two lightweight battle s.h.i.+ps of Jianghuai Army were pa.s.sing by ahead.

After waiting for half a day, four comparatively larger wars.h.i.+ps and a dozen or so cargo s.h.i.+ps appeared.

And then three multi-deck huge battles.h.i.+ps followed.

Bu Tianzhi was delighted, “The Heaven is helping us; that s.h.i.+p in the middle is the command s.h.i.+p.”

Kou Zhong’s spirit was greatly aroused; his true qi flowing through the meridians in his entire body, he shouted, “Success or failure will be decided by this battle. Brothers, follow me, attack!”

The order issued, the Meng Chong Doujian [see Chapter 5] left its hiding place, the oars came out; following the current, it flew toward the enemy s.h.i.+p at full speed.

※ ※ ※

By the time Xu Ziling opened his eyes, the sky was full or stars, the night sky on the high mountain felt even more enchanting.

He circulated his true qi for two more cycles before standing up to his full height. But his head still felt light and dull, so he could not help but was horrified.

Since practicing the xinfa of the ‘Secret to Long Life’, no matter how serious the injury, he was always able to recover quickly. He had never tried treating his injury close to five sichen like this, yet his meridians still did not flow freely, and the qi circulation was still difficult. From this, it could clearly be seen how formidable Hou Xibai’s Hua Jian Pai demonic skill really was.

If he had to fight right now, at most he could only use forty or fifty-percent of his usual skill. Naturally he could not control his true qi like playing with magic like he usually did.

He was well aware that Hou Xibai would not let him off. The moment he found out that his internal injury was much lighter than Xu Ziling’s would be the moment he would look for him.

Even if he recovered one-hundred-percent of his power, perhaps he would still be not Hou Xibai’s match. Therefore, the only thing Xu Ziling could not right now was to get as far away as possible, so that Hou Xibai would not be able to find him.

He was about to leave when he heard the sound of wind from the plank walkway leading toward Sichuan. While Xu Ziling was crying ‘Bad!’ inwardly, a man, with face like beeswax, emaciated, his forehead and cheeks full of lines of hards.h.i.+p, rapidly flew over toward him.

Evidently the man had never thought he would meet a pa.s.serby in the dark of the night, on this dangerous path deep in the mountains and desolate valley; he halted his steps in shock.

Xu Ziling groaned inwardly.

Surprisingly, it was the utterly vicious, extremely evil, ‘Going Against The Tide’ You Niaojuan, the Sheng Ji Men’s renegade disciple, the one who ranked last in the list of the Eight Major Martial Art Masters of the Demonic Way.

It was indeed ‘enemies on a narrow road’ [idiom].

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong’s boat was very fast. In the blink of an eye it already rushed out of the tributary and swiftly entered the flowing stream of the Great River.

They saw ahead of them, behind, left and right were the enemy’s battles.h.i.+ps and cargo s.h.i.+ps; it was quite frightening.

Bu Tianzhi was at the helm. He steered the battles.h.i.+p toward the northern bank of the Great River.

Fiery arrows were shot, lime were scattered, while at the same time the stern produced heavy smoke, which, because of the tail wind, rapidly enveloping the command s.h.i.+p.

Battle drums were like rolling thunder.

The enemy’s fleet was in chaos.

The boat was rapidly pressing toward the command s.h.i.+p. Momentarily the battle drums and the battle cry resounded across the Great River.

The four light battles.h.i.+ps trailing the command s.h.i.+p were immediately dispersing to strike back ferociously toward Kou Zhong’s s.h.i.+p.

Arrows and rocks rained down on them, the momentum was extremely astonis.h.i.+ng.

Although Bu Tianzhi did everything he could to take the circuitous route, the opponent’s rocks still managed to hit them. The crenelated wall was shattered, holes and cracks were constantly appearing on the hull, wood splinters were flying everywhere.

Fortunately, by this time their own wars.h.i.+ps appeared from the tributary in continuous stream, cutting the enemy’s fleet into several sections, so that their head and tail were separated from each other.

‘Boom!’

The other multi-deck s.h.i.+p turned around and rammed their s.h.i.+p. This is called the tough wins against the fragile, the big wins against the small. The bow shattered immediately. It spun around twice on the Great River, and finally capsized.

Kou Zhong shouted loudly, “Boys [orig. ‘er lang men’]! Board!” Carrying his long spear, he soared into the sky.

Whether they succeeded or not this time, it would be up to him.

Book 23 Chapter 8 – Initial Estimate Difficult to Accomplish

You Niaojuan swept his gaze around, and then with a loud laughter he walked over toward Xu Ziling; bizarre expression flashed through his eyes as he spoke softly, “This renxiong looks quite handsome!”

Hearing that, the hair on Xu Ziling’s entire body stood on its end; You Niaojuan’s manner and intonation was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with some kind of excitement, cruelty, and perversion, as if he was hinting that since I come across you – this interesting plaything, here, why can’t I gorge myself, and do whatever I please?

Fortunately, Xu Ziling knew how to distinguish condition from hearing voices, so he knew that You Niaojuan’s serious injury was only recovered sixty or seventy-percent; otherwise, Xu Ziling would have no chance at all, even if he staked everything he had. But presently he had at least some chance to attempt escape or even to commit suicide, to avoid falling into this great evil’s hands, in which case living was not better than dying.

Turning around, Xu Ziling’s eyes shot a fierce and stern expression. Not showing any fear at all, he met the opponent’s gaze, blurted out laughing, and said, “Lao Xiong [ol’ bro], what’s your honorable surname and great given name? Since you dare to travel alone on this dangerous path, you must not be any ordinary person, but I wonder a friend of which ‘way’ are you?”

You Niaojuan’s eyes showed a skeptical look; sizing Xu Ziling up and down, he noticed that Xu Ziling was not well. Immensely proud of himself, he said, “Xiao Xiongdi [li’l bro] talks like a seasoned veteran; you seem to understand Jianghu way, your martial art skill must be not bad. How about this: if you can guess my name and my origin, I will make an exception and let you off.”

Pretending to be surprised, Xu Ziling said, “You and I have no past grudge, and currently have no enmity, how could you not let me off? But to guess who you are is not difficult at all. It’s just that I see you are not the kind of a man who speak and keep your promise. Even if I guess correctly, you would still want to fight to dispose of me; why should I rack my brain to guess it?”

Astonished, You Niaojuan looked at him for half a day; finally he shook his head and said with a laugh, “You are indeed a kid who don’t know the immensity of heaven and earth. Just by looking at your eyes, I knew that you have limited weight [i.e. importance]. How about this: you guess who I am, and you block three moves from me. If you could do any one of those two, I guarantee that I will let you off. Ha! Fascinating handsome boy.” Unexpectedly he put an air of a wicked cat playing with a mouse.

Xu Ziling spoke indifferently, “How much does your guarantee worth per catty? Unless you are willing to make a vow according to your school’s incantation, I will not believe you.”

You Niaojuan’s entire body, from head to foot, shook. Taking a step backward, his eyes shone with ominous glint, he spoke sternly, “Who are you?”

His heart moved, Xu Ziling said, “Who am I, it’s not your concern; if you want to fight, let’s fight. This Shaoye [young master] don’t have time to bicker with you endlessly, not to mention I don’t have the mood to do so.”

You Niaojuan laughed grimly; his laughter started soft, but was getting louder, until at last he was howling with laughter. A laughter that was full of insanity and frightening insinuation. Moreover, the wrinkles on his face rippled back and forth, so that he looked extremely ugly.

Suddenly Xu Ziling sent out a palm chop, slicing the air between the two.

You Niaojuan’s laughter vanished; he took a step backward in shock, and stared blankly at Xu Ziling with disbelief in his eyes.

Originally he was about to make his move, but Xu Ziling seemed to have the ability to predict the future; his palm chop happened to be one step ahead in cutting off the path of his intended move, naturally he was gob smacked in amazement.

But Xu Ziling felt his qi and blood were churning inside his body, he nearly vomited blood. He started to realize that his internal injury was more serious than he thought; raising his qi to walk away was not a problem, but if he had to fight You Niaojuan, this vicious demon of the present age, perhaps he would have collapsed in less than three moves.

You Niaojuan was a veteran, immediately he saw the signs. Stunned, he said, “Turns out you are suffering from internal injury. No wonder your move is so brilliant, but your eyes are dim and lifeless; even I failed to see it previously.”

Struggling hard to keep his boiling blood and qi under control, Xu Ziling sneered and said, “No better or worse than each other; just by listening to your voice, I know that you, Lao Xiong, are also suffering from internal injuries. Let us stake everything together until our internal injuries burst forth; let’s see who’d die first.”

You Niaojuan was about to make his move, unexpectedly Xu Ziling laughed aloud, and took half a step sideways toward the edge of the plank walkway.

You Niaojuan could not stop the amazement in his heart. Greatly puzzled, as well as astonished, he said, “What martial art is this?”

Xu Ziling knew that You Niaojuan was starting to be alerted and was having misgivings. This one step move was the limit of what he currently could do. This changing position, plus the temporary upper hand he gained, coupled with one move he previously showed, were all ‘different tunes played with equal skill’, so that the opponent would not dare to take the risk by advancing prematurely.

In somewhat disdainful tone he said, “You Niaojuan, can you still be considered our demonic school man? You have not even seen ‘Immortal Printed Method’?”

For the first time that night You Niaojuan’s eyes showed fear; he stared without blinking at Xu Ziling, and spoke heavily, “Who is s.h.i.+ Zhixuan to you?”

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong soared to about four zhang above the water, while taking the whole scene of the battle on this section of the Great River at once.

His seven wars.h.i.+ps have all entered the river, cutting off Chen Sheng’s fleet into a dozen or so separate sections, of which at least twenty cargo s.h.i.+ps were burning, although with different degree of severity of the disaster. These burning s.h.i.+ps provided a very thick smoke, which was blowing downstream following the direction of the wind.

Other than his own ‘command s.h.i.+p’, which was. .h.i.t and sunk by the enemy’s multi-deck s.h.i.+p, one other s.h.i.+p was also knocked by the enemy’s wars.h.i.+p that it was overturned. The rest of his s.h.i.+ps, under cover of darkness and the thick smoke, weaved left and right while wantonly attacking the enemy’s cargo s.h.i.+ps.

About a dozen of Chen Sheng’s wars.h.i.+ps, including the command s.h.i.+p, which were already ahead, turned around urgently and sailed against the wind and against the current to counterattack, but they were trapped in the smoke in an instant.

By this time Kou Zhong was out of breath; abruptly taking another breath, he traversed sideways about a zhang in the air, and landed on the deck of the huge s.h.i.+p that smashed his s.h.i.+p over.

Immediately sabers, spears, hatchets, swords, and so on, more than a dozen weapons welcomed him.

Kou Zhong pulled back into the air, and leaped toward the deck of the second level. Using the spear technique, with at least twenty-percent resemblance of Gu Jun’s spear moves, he blocked the swarming enemies so that they fell forward and flipped backward, in full display of his prowess.

There was a sudden gust of wind.

Turned out Chen Changlin also followed him on board. With his authentic thick Jiangnan accent, he called loudly, “Gu Jiangjun, over here!”

Shouting his response, Kou Zhong soared and made several somersaults in the air and landed on the bow of the s.h.i.+p. Sweeping his long spear across, an explosive force followed, five or six enemies besieging Chen Changlin suddenly felt the palm of their hands were shaken and split. Immediately their weapons fell off, and they scattered in all directions.

Chen Changlin had just hacked down three enemy soldiers; while signaling Kou Zhong with his eyes, he soared away.

Kou Zhong looked back, and happened to see Chen Sheng’s command s.h.i.+p was only about three zhang to his left. Cheering inwardly, he quickly gave chase.

This could be his only chance to ambush Chen Sheng.

※ ※ ※

Letting out a cold snort, Xu Ziling said, “You don’t have to worry about that.”

The ominous glint in You Niaojuan’s eyes subsided; acting calm and collected, he said, “Even if you are s.h.i.+ Zhixuan’s direct disciple, Ol’ You hasn’t stepped foot in Jianghu for twenty years, my appearance has changed a lot; how did you guess it was me?”

Xu Ziling s.h.i.+vered inwardly, thinking that these martial art masters of the demonic way, indeed not a single one was easy to deal with. Yet on the surface he adopted an apathetic and unmoving manner, as he spoke indifferently, “I don’t need to explain that even more. I just want to know, do you still want to fight?”

You Niaojuan laughed aloud and said, “Since you are ‘Xie w.a.n.g’ s.h.i.+ Zhixuan’s disciple, how could Ol’ You dare to offend? Xiao Xiongdi, please.” With exaggerated movement he step aside as if asking a n.o.bleman to take the lead.

Inwardly Xu Ziling felt something was really wrong; it looked like You Niaojuan could see through that he was a counterfeit article. Immediately coming to his senses, he examined himself and straightaway saw where he made the mistake. If he were a real Hua Jian Pai disciple, like Hou Xibai, for instance, how could he easily expose his own ident.i.ty?

If he could think of the reason, naturally he could also find the solution. Thereupon Xu Ziling deliberately knitted his eyebrows and said, “You shouldn’t flaunt friends.h.i.+p for s.h.i.+ Zhixuan’s sake, because he and I don’t have any relations.h.i.+p at all.”

You Niaojuan was stunned and confused at the same time.

He had intended to stake everything, even at the risk of aggravating his internal injury, to kill this strange young man who knew his ident.i.ty. As long as n.o.body found out, he did not care if his s.h.i.+fu was the King of Heaven himself.

Xu Ziling tried to urge his internal qi again. Unexpectedly he felt a burst of discomfort and irritation. In his shock he was terrified and came to realize that in his eagerness to save himself, he had violated the big taboo of ‘no-action’ of the ‘Secret to Long Life’ by doing ‘action’, the big taboo of ‘ten thousand thoughts are silent’ realm of the Taoist school of thought, hence he started to experience the first stage of fire-deviation. Focusing his attention at once, he looked up to the night sky.

You Niaojuan’s voice entered his ears, “If what you used just now was really ‘Immortal Print’ xinfa, yet you said that you have no relations.h.i.+p whatsoever with s.h.i.+ Zhixuan, then this is really strange. I wonder if Xiao Xiongdi could explain it a bit.”

The sky was densely populated with dots of stars. On this dangerous path on the mountain, the night sky appeared even more clear and penetrating.

Xu Ziling spoke in great surprise, “Why does You Zongzhu [head of a clan/school] suddenly become so polite? I have always been receptive to softness and do not respond well to harshness, so I have no problem in revealing a little for you. But this is a matter of great importance; you must make an oath according to your school’s incantation to ensure that you won’t revealed it to the third party.”

You Niaojuan threw his head back in long laughter. Gasping for breath, he said, “What makes you, this kid whose smell of your mother’s milk has not yet dried, think that you can repeatedly ask me to make an oath? I only need to capture you, and then if I want to, you will call me Die [daddy].”

Xu Ziling laughed aloud and said, “What a joke. You think you can catch me as soon as you wish to do so? On your guard!”

Suddenly he moved forward, both hands opened horizontally, the two thumbs were pressing toward You Niaojuan’s eyes, while the other fingers moved up and down like a wave. The technique was strange beyond comprehension.

Immediately You Niaojuan’s countenance changed.

Although Xu Ziling’s strange move was beyond his depth, it was not the move that shocked him. The reason his countenance changed was because Xu Ziling’s appearance right now practically did not look like someone who suffered internal injury. The only explanation that he could think of was that Xu Ziling was putting on an act; after You Niaojuan lost his guard, Xu Ziling made his move at full strength to deal with him.

This thought led him to guess further that the opponent was deliberately waiting here to block his path and to challenge him, taking advantage while You Niaojuan has not recovered from his internal injury to take care of him. Otherwise, how did he know that he was You Niaojuan? Despite what he said, the other party must have some kind of relations.h.i.+p with s.h.i.+ Zhixuan.

These thoughts flitted across You Niaojuan’s mind like a flint spark, which also led him to select the most proper course of action.

Letting out a strange cry, You Niaojuan flew backward like a ghost, and in an instant disappeared behind the bend on the plank walkway.

Xu Ziling could not hold it anymore; he spurted a small amount of blood, and slumped down to sit cross-legged.

A moment when he looked at the night sky, his mind was just like yesterday, when he was watching the waterfall, where ten-thousand changes joined together without any gap between them, so that he managed to blend together a little bit of true qi, which unexpectedly has scared off You Niaojuan, who had become like a bird startled by the mere tw.a.n.g of a bow. He was really extremely lucky.

He had not sat steadily, a pair of delicate lily-white hands was pressing on his broad shoulders, followed by Wanwan’s tender-and-soft-as-water voice speaking by his ear, “With me protecting you on the side, why must you urge your true qi?”

※ ※ ※

One after another Chen Changlin and Kou Zhong landed on the deck of Chen Sheng’s command s.h.i.+p, and were immediately trapped into a blood soaked and hard-fought struggle.

Chen Changlin was the first to reach the target command s.h.i.+p; he was like a demon falling down from the smoke and killing the archers standing on the bow looking for their target so that they fell to the east and tumbled to the west. He was just thinking of charging toward the bridge deck above when suddenly more than a dozen warriors in light armor surrounded him. Every one of them had unusually outstanding martial art skill. Although Chen Changlin himself was a Jianghu expert, immediately he found himself unable to move a single cun.

Fortunately Kou Zhong rushed over in time. Together they brandished their sword and spear, and only then did they s.n.a.t.c.h back the initiative. Not that they were forced back into the river, but their original plan to quickly look for Chen Sheng as soon as they landed on the s.h.i.+p became just a wishful thinking that came to nothing. More aggravating was that the fire on the burning enemy’s s.h.i.+ps upstream was growing in intensity, wall after wall of thick smoke were blowing over following the tail wind; not only it was difficult to breathe, it was also difficult to see anything. Looking for one person among the disorderly army was easier said than done.

Kou Zhong no longer hid his strength; unleas.h.i.+ng his prowess, he consecutively struck down four enemies. Yet the enemy was still increasing without letup; although the two of them gave it their all, they were still surrounded at the bow of the s.h.i.+p in endlessly hard battle.

Not too long afterwards many cuts and wounds already appeared on the two men’s bodies. They could only disregard everything in dealing with the perilous situation before their eyes, while at the same time feeling something was really wrong; how could Chen Sheng have this many superior martial art masters under his command?

At this time the number of enemies losing their lives under their sword and spear has reached to at least a dozen, but there were still layer upon layer of martial art masters around them, so that they were stuck in a hard battle.

Suddenly a familiar voice came from the direction of the upper deck of the s.h.i.+p, saying, “Boys, let me take a look who has such guts!”

While Kou Zhong was greatly shaken with horror, the enemies surrounding them followed the order by withdrawing to both sides. Chen Changlin still thought the newcomer was Chen Sheng; he seized the opportunity by rus.h.i.+ng out of the opening.

While Kou Zhong was crying out ‘Bad!’, a fast shadow like a ghost swept over to meet Chen Changlin. At the same time, a thick smoke happened to roll by, swallowing Chen Changlin inside it.

Realizing their situation has turned from bad to worse, Kou Zhong charged through the enemies, who were pouncing back at him from left and right, using the absolute maximum speed he could muster, to fly toward Chen Changlin inside the thick smoke.

‘Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!’

A series of continuous ringing was heard, followed by Chen Changlin’s miserable groan. Kou Zhong ran into the staggering-backward Chen Changlin.

Kou Zhong realized that whether they could survive or not would depend purely on this moment. Moving quickly, he threw himself to crouch on the deck, his long spear shot up from under Chen Changlin’s crotch, and flew at an angle; like a streak of lightning it flew through the thick smoke to meet the terrifying enemy pursuing over, not worrying whether the opponent would be able to see him or not.

If the opponent could see him, he certainly could recognize Kou Zhong immediately, because the newcomer was the ‘Universe in His Sleeve’ Du Fuwei, whose name shook the world.

Who would have thought that he would be on board this s.h.i.+p?

This moment Kou Zhong did not have time to consider any grand plan, and could only think about how to escape with their lives intact.

Even with Du Fuwei’s brilliance, in this kind of thick smoke, he could only rely on his instinct to sense the spear leaving Kou Zhong’s hand in sneak attack; his sleeve swept, ‘Dang!’ he struck down the spear.

Although what Kou Zhong had used was not spiraling energy, the momentum was powerful. When striking down the spear, Du Fuwei felt his entire body shook, and he was forced to sway slightly backward. But this split second delay was enough to give Kou Zhong the golden opportunity to escape.

As soon as the spear left his hand, Kou Zhong grabbed Chen Changlin’s waist, and then, borrowing the momentum as he rolled around, he turned backward, just before the enemies were closing in, to cross over the approximately two-zhang distance. Midway through he soared into the air to evade the enemy’s interception, and then threw themselves into the river.

By the time they fell into the ice-cold water, even Kou Zhong himself was unable to tell whether the operation this time was a success or a failure; he could only surrender everything in Laotianye’s hands.

※ ※ ※

With a rueful smile Xu Ziling said, “How could there be such a coincidence?”

Wanwan’s entire tender body was leaning against his back, her arms snaked around his waist and abdomen like a tight hoop, as she was half kneeling behind him. She spoke softly, “I was chasing after You Niaojuan, and Feixuan is chasing after me. Whom are you chasing after?”

As early as when Wanwan touched his shoulders, Xu Ziling has been opening up his mind. Putting what little true qi he managed to ama.s.s on his dantian, he prepared himself for the worst, trying to see if he could break his own heart meridian to kill himself. As soon as he made up his mind, his heart was free of any obstruction instead. With peaceful heart and tranquil qi he said, “Whomever I chase after is none of your business. Are you willing to let me off?”

Wanwan’s pair of burning hot lily-white hands pressing on his lower abdomen emitted two streams of comfortably warm true qi, squeezing into the ocean of qi under his dantian, giving him a feeling of unspeakable comfort and drowsiness that made him wanting to sleep.

He heard her gentle and soft voice replying, “Of course I am not willing to let you off. Oh, Ziling! Do you know that in this world, you are the only man who can move my heart? Do you know what attracts me the most? Let Wanwan tell you, all right? I love to see your expression of contempt and disdain when you look at me; there has never been any man who looked at me with that kind of expression. Ay! Unexpectedly there is such an icily arrogant man like Xu Lang [term of endearment to address a husband or boyfriend] in the world. Your forehead is high and grand, as if there is infinite wisdom inside. Even when walking on main street and rubbing shoulders with a crowd of people, you are still standoffish, carrying that kind of melancholy and cold and detach nature like you are walking alone in the wilderness. But when you smile, you look so sincere. With this kind of special characters blended together, which woman will be able to resist you?”

When he heard that, on one hand Xu Ziling was dumbstruck, on the other hand he felt her true qipenetrating his lower abdomen was stirring up in him some kind of masculine desire.

Suddenly, his nostrils were a.s.saulted by Wanwan’s captivating body scent; furthermore, he seemed to feel her every fiber, her curvaceous and wonderful, well-developed body, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with boundless seductive power, stirring up in him the strange feeling that was hidden deep within.

The worst was that what little true qi he had also disappeared without any trace, so that he became like a piece of meat on the chopping block, for her to manipulate however she wished.

When it comes to crafty plots and machinations, as well as using trick in a struggle, naturally he was not this Yin Gui Pai’s most outstanding direct disciple after Zhu Yuyan’s match.

Even if he still had all his strength, perhaps he would still fall head first under her hands, let alone he was completely without any power to resist just like right now.

Knitting his sword-shaped eyebrows, Xu Ziling said, “If you, Wanwan, stir up my l.u.s.t using despicable method, I will look down upon you.”

Wanwan pressed her pretty face on his bloodless cheek; while nibbling his earlobe lightly, she spoke slowly, “Xu Lang must not misunderstood. Taoist school emphasizes training the essence and transforming the qi. I just want to examine the secret of your ‘Secret to Long Life’, hence I simply must explore your lower part. Can’t you just endure it for a bit longer?”

Because his qi was bounded, Xu Ziling was unable to do anything about it, hence he had to shut up.

At the same time, in his heart he was thinking about demonic schools’ people, who had no regard for other’s feeling and abandoned righteousness, who, with thousand ways, a hundred plans, prevented themselves to be aroused to pa.s.sion toward anybody. Even when they wanted to bear and raise children, they would select the man they loathed the most to have intercourse; Zhu Yuyan choosing Yue Shan was one example.

Earlier Wanwan confessed to have fallen in love with him, therefore, she wanted to kill him.

Currently Wanwan has progressed from completely fake to be somewhat real, so much so that she poured out her deep feeling toward him, without any misgivings at all; therefore, there was a very high possibility that this was a prelude to her killing him.

Wanwan’s true qi continued to make strange things happen within his body. She said, “After resolving this matter with Xu Lang, Wanwan will run after You Niaojuan, taking advantage of his injury to kill him, and take him back as a sacrifice for Xu Lang’s soul and spirit [of the deceased]!”

While Xu Ziling was crying ‘I’m done for!’ inwardly, Wanwan suddenly exclaimed, “Huh?”, and withdrew her lily-white hands, while hiding behind him.

Stunned, Xu Ziling looked up. To his surprise, You Niaojuan came back.

Boo