Book 9 Chapter 3 – Profiting from a Disaster
Hou Xibai was handsome and tall, his physique perfectly straight and well proportioned. He wore a bamboo rain hat on top his head, but his clothes was Confucian scholar attire, which emphasized his literary talent and style, as well as his intelligence and bravery.
This moment he waved the fan in his hand, making him appeared indescribably elegant above the crowd, so free and easy. His most attractive feature was not only his pair of gentle and soft eyes, yet sharp enough to melt women’s hearts, but also the thick black and elegant moustache above his lips, which seemed to eternally frozen with a hint of proud smile, brimming with masculine charms.
He seemed to be very easy to approach, yet there seemed to be an insurmountable distance that kept others at bay.
All these features combined to form his outstanding and out of the ordinarily touching personality traits.
Just now Dugu Feng said she was leaving and she immediately left. Originally he intended to run after her to see what she looked like. But suddenly he heard something unusual and knew that there were people inside the house; hence he came in to look.
This moment his eyes revealed a shocked look. Without blinking he stared at Wanwan, whose elegance and invulnerable figure was comparable to Shi Feixuan’s, as if he was completely oblivious of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s existence.
Wanwan halted her attempt at coming closer to the two boys. With a faint and gentle sigh she said, “I did not have any enmity against you, but the two of you are too formidable, and I promised someone that I would personally take your lives, hence I was forced to make my move. If you still have any grudges in the Nine Springs [underworld/Hades], you may direct your hatred to me!”
Standing behind her, Hou Xibai said in trembling voice, “Just by listening to Miss’ heavenly music voice, ah …”
Very casually, yet with immortal-like beauty, Wanwan gracefully turned around to meet Hou Xibai face-to-face.
Hou Xibai’s entire body shook; unexpectedly he was rendered speechless. His eyes shot a disbelief, excited look. But any spectator would be able to read from his eyes, ‘Unexpectedly there is such peerless beauty like this in the world’.
Wanwan cast him a serene glance as she moved toward the door.
Immediately Hou Xibai was overcome with a feeling that he did not dare to be disrespectful toward her, and stepped aside to get out of her way.
Wanwan stopped in front of Hou Xibai, turning he gaze toward the wind and the rain outside, she said in a low voice, “Would you bury them for me?”
This moment Hou Xibai was staring blankly at her out-of-the-worldly refined side silhouette, smelling the natural fragrance emitted by her long, beautiful hair.
Because Wanwan was about a cun shorted than him, he could almost whisper in her sparkling and translucent, finer than jade, small ear, “Miss! They …”
Wanwan let out another gentle sigh to interrupt him, and then she spoke softly, “Don’t be negligent and forget it, I will remember you!”
That was the words Dugu Feng said to him just now.
While Hou Xibai was at a loss of how to respond, a shadow flashed, Wanwan floated out the door and into the wind and the rain outside.
Hou Xibai was shocked. He darted to the door but was still one step too late; a flash of lightning struck the mountaintop nearby, the entire village was rocked by the sudden clap of thunder that ensued. Wanwan had already disappeared without any trace.
Hou Xibai slumped to his knees in the storm, he did not care that his feet were covered in rain-soaked mud. Looking up to the sky, he let the arrow-like raindrops shot onto his face as he said with a sigh, “Feixuan, oh, Feixuan! Do you know that someone with appearance and martial art skill well matched to yours really exists in the world? Your worthy match has finally appeared.”
As if suddenly remembering something, he hurried back into the house, totally disregarding Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling crumpled against the wall, he took out his painting tools and drew something right in the middle of his folding fan.
This fan’s other side already had over twenty full body portraits of beautiful women, but this side was completely blank. If Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were not incapable of talking, they would have asked him why there was no portrait of Shi Feixuan on it.
Soon afterwards Wanwan came alive on the fan. Not only it had physical and spiritual resemblance to the real thing, even her ethereal characteristics were captured entirely, not a single one was missing. The lines were concise and strong, sharp like a blade.
Unable to take his eyes off the fan, Hou Xibai played with it for a while. Finally he folded the fan back and absentmindedly stepped out of the door.
The wind and the rain suddenly made him remember Wanwan’s request just now. Going back swiftly, ‘Bang!’ he crashed his back against the wall next to the door.
With his extremely overbearing power, the wall collapsed.
Hou Xibai charged inside the house, consecutively sent out four palm strikes, hitting the four main pillars supporting the building.
By the time the pillars started to crumble, Hou Xibai soared into the air and forcibly knocked against the main beam, and carried the broken beam to break the roof tiles down, while he himself continued to shoot out into the stormy sky above. The house caved in with a loud bank, burying Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling deep under the roof tiles, bricks and wood fragments.
Without looking back, Hou Xibai let out a long whistle and flew far away.
If he were willing to look closely, he would have found out that Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong, two people’s bodies, one was burning hot, the other was cold like ice and snow; totally unlike two corpses without any life in it.
Even Wanwan would not have imagined this change.
The storm continued all day long. Only by dusk the following day the sky returned to normal.
The bright moon behind the eastern mountain revealed its immortal countenance.
Under the rubble, Kou Zhong’s big head was resting on the pit of Xu Ziling’s stomach, while his back was pressing against the beam. There were countless crushed bricks and shattered roof tiles around; fortunately the beam protected the two boys from the collapsed wall, so that the two boys’ head and face did not suffer any damage, while still had a bit of breathing space.
Kou Zhong shuddered and spit the sand and mud out of his mouth. He grumbled, “Female demon is formidable, but she also gave us a bit of advantage.”
As he stretched out his limbs, the sand and stones above rained down on him. “His granny’s Niang,” he cursed softly, “My whole body feels like I have shed my mortal body and exchanged my bones. Before, the true qi inside my body was just like countless threads forming a beam of qi force; but now these threads are swirling like vortices traveling along my meridians and acupoints. Not only the speed increasing, it also feels like I suddenly gain several years of cultivated power. It is immensely enjoyable.”
As a matter of fact, the two boys had always been awake the whole time; they merely stopped their breathing from the mouth and nose.
When the vortex of qi turned into spiraling-whirlpool-like beam piercing their meridians, they really thought that this time their lives would be gone, especially with that kind of feeling, where their meridians were about to burst, which was more than they could bear.
But they did not die, simply because the vortex of qi that circulated around more than a hundred times back and forth between the two of them was gradually reverted back into their Jin Xue.
The strangest thing was that each time the spiraling beam entered Kou Zhong’s body, it immediately became incomparably cold, but when it went back to Xu Ziling’s body, this extreme cold turned into extreme heat.
In this way, one cold and one hot cycled back and forth, even the meridians which previously were not linked up or they even aware of, were broken through and became wide open, just like the barren hill in the wilderness was reclaimed as fertile farming field.
The situation was like sending out old qi to welcome the new qi. Not only Wanwan has never thought about it, even if all the Zen and Taoist masters, plus the martial art grandmasters, of the world were gathered together, they would remain puzzled after pondering this never-happened-in-Wulin-world matter a hundred times.
Xu Ziling blew a mouthful of air and said, “When these brick debris and wood fragments were pressing down on us, it felt very comfortable, just like several dozens of people came to give us massage.”
And then, after a short pause he smiled wryly and said, “In the end, did we win against that female demon, or did we lose?”
Kou Zhong breathed the evening breeze blowing through the cracks amidst the broken down bricks; he muttered, “On the surface it does seem like a crushing defeat; at least the siren thought so. But she is very crafty; unexpectedly she knew the ‘capturing interest first’ tactic. First she misled us into thinking that the vortex of qi was going to escape out of the body, and then we were trying to pull back the vortex of qi in panic, she pushed the boat with the current and slammed the vortex of qi into our bodies, hence as easy as blowing off dust she reversed our vortex of qi and used it against us.”
Xu Ziling shuddered in fear, “That was an extremely dangerous moment. Were it not for that idiot Hou Xibai barging in, she would have come to check on us, and then she would know and give us each a palm strike. If that happened, we would have gone to the netherworld to accompany Niang!”
Kou Zhong acted as if he was listening intently. “Don’t move!” he hissed, “Looks like someone’s coming.”
Chapter 3, Part 2
Xu Ziling listened carefully; aghast, he said, “Why does our sense of hearing become this formidable? The hoof beats are at least ten li away, yet we can perceive it. Before, we could hear only at most five or six li, and it had to be under favorable wind direction.”
Kou Zhong was tongue-tied as well. “And don’t forget that right now we are buried under the rubble,” he said, “Hey! The sound must be coming from the underground; I can even feel the vibration.”
Xu Ziling chuckled softly, “You, this kid, love to exaggerate the most,” he said, “Huh? They seem to be in great rush. Eleven, twelve, oh! Seventeen riders, and they are heading this way.”
Kou Zhong squealed excitedly, “Let’s play dead again! Who knows, maybe we’ll gain another unexpected benefit.”
As soon as the riders entered the village, most of them immediately dismounted from their horses to stick torches everywhere, and then started searching from house to house, in a tyrannical, overbearing manner.
Hidden under the rubble, when Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong heard the way they were forcing the doors open, breaking down walls, and basically forcing their way into the houses everywhere, they knew that this bunch of people was not ordinary Jianghu characters; rather, they could be considered martial art masters of the Wulin.
Under normal circumstances, it would not be easy to meet even one of this kind of people, yet now suddenly more than a dozen appeared here and with impressive show of force searched the entire village; naturally the two boys were greatly curious.
Two of the riders did not dismount, evidently their rank was the highest. Urging their horses, they slowly came near the rubble where the two boys were buried.
One of these two was fat, the other thin, but both had unusual look. The fat one’s body type was big and loose, yet surprisingly it still gave other people the impression that he was sturdy, healthy and beautiful. His age was around thirty, his skin was abnormally bright.
He was gifted with a broad face and bulging chin; his eyes were as sharp as a pair of will-o'-the-wisp, with a bit of sinister and terrifying aggressiveness. Fortunately from time to time his thin lips pursed into a thread of smiling expression, and thus greatly diluted the burning murderous aura from his eyes.
The skinny one was a few years younger than the fat one. His build was well proportionately slender, his face was rather handsome, but his bearing looked conceited.
After looking around for quite some time, he finally opened his mouth, “This clay house must have collapsed not too long ago, that’s why the interior has not been eroded by the blowing sand, the furniture still considerably intact, plus the two rear buildings are still standing straight. The collapsing front part is indeed very intriguing.”
His voice was deep and low, and was pleasant to hear, plus he spoke with confidence, giving the impression that he was someone who seldom suffered setbacks.
The fat and sturdy guy laughed aloud and said, “Ling Feng Xiong’s observation is a valid one. Just by looking at the dead bodies scattered all around the village, we know that something happened here not long ago. Also, looking at the way this house collapsed, it is obvious that someone deliberately smashed the beams and pillars, and pushed the four walls down.”
Listening from under the rubble, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were moved by these two men’s power of observation.
The one called Ling Feng smiled and said, “Jin Bo Xiong is well-known for your intelligence; indeed it is not a baseless information. This is very strange; who would spend so much effort to knock the entire building down? Plus this person must be very powerful; I daresay he can be classified as one of the top-ranking experts of the martial art world.”
The fat guy Jin Bo responded indifferently, “As long as we excavate the debris, we will obtain the answer. Is Ling Xiong interested?”
This moment a short, thin old man came to the two men’s presence and said in heavy voice, “There are a total of fourteen dead bodies in the village. Most died from having their vital acupoint sealed with some kind of internal school’s technique. Only three of them died from having their throat cut, but the wound does not look like it was caused by sharp object, such as a saber or a sword.”
“Who are these people?” Ling Feng asked, “Can Old Chen see?”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling felt strange. Listening to the appellation these people used to address each other, it was obvious that they did not belong to the same School or Sect; there was no superior-subordinate relationship between them, yet it was clear from their attitude that they were in this together. What was their objective?
The old man surnamed Chen replied, “All their weapons have the identical markings. If my, Chen Guang’s memory serves me right, they must be Jiangnan’s Qingjiang Pai’s people, whose power is increasing tremendously these recent days.”
“Phew!” Jin Bo said with a sigh, “This is getting more and more interesting! Qingjiang Pai’s Zhangmen [Sect Leader] ‘Variable Wind’ [wu ding feng – no fixed wind] Xiang Qingliu loves to shield his people who break the law and commit crimes, and now unexpectedly someone is daring enough to stroke the tiger’s whisker. I, the ‘Fat Demon’ Jin Bo dare to guarantee that a good drama is about to unfold. It must be lively and good to watch. Ha!”
Listening to his mouthful ‘taking joy in calamity and delight in disaster’ tone, Xu and Kou, two people could not help feeling contempt toward him.
Puzzled, Ling Feng asked, “But this bunch of people did not work under those two kids; who could have done it to them?”
The two boys listening under the rubble were moved. They had a faint feeling that these men were coming for them.
Meanwhile another man came to report that there was no one else in the village.
Jin Bo sighed and said, “Right now we don’t have time to mind other people’s business. The intelligence from Baling was that those two kids are heading north to dig up the ‘Duke Yang Treasure’. This information has spread everywhere, creating quite a sensation. Even the Four Big Bandits are sending their martial art masters to intercept along the way. Even more reason for us not to dilly-dally.”
Chen Guang said, “There has never been anybody in Jianghu with higher price than theirs. Undoubtedly, obtaining the hidden treasure is not insignificant; we can immediately recruit soldiers and buy provision to contend for hegemony over the world, or at least we can become the richest man in the world. Let alone we can bring their heads to see Duke Mi. It will definitely bring honor to our ancestors.”
Immediately Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s countenance changed.
Their northern expedition was a top secret. Only a limited number of Baling Bang and Jukun Bang people were in the know. But now they had just left Baling, and already someone has leaked the news. Not only that, but their route to the north was clearly indicated. Otherwise, how could these people look for them here?
Ling Feng’s voice was heard, “We must leave immediately and hasten on our journey; otherwise the quick-footed will climb up first!”
Jin Bo and the others were too preoccupied to care about what buried under the rubble; in the blink of an eye they already left far away.
‘Bang!’
Gravels shot up midway into the sky. The two boys soared high and landed on a vacant lot in the middle of the village.
Brushing off the sand, pebbles and dust from his clothes, Kou Zhong frowned and said, “Dust and debris are getting into my clothes; it’s really uncomfortable. It would be best if we can find a creek to take a bath before continuing on our journey.”
Xu Ziling nodded, “We’ll look for one along the way. The most important thing right now is going to Jingling to rendezvous with Yucheng, Zhifu, and the others, and then think of a way to deal with this situation.”
Patting the Moon in the Well on his back, Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “It had not occurred to me that our prestige from getting rid of Ren Shaoming is still not enough to intimidate and deter those greedy people. We might as well have a free hand to go all out; let those people know the meaning of the word ‘regret’.”
Xu Ziling smiled faintly and led away.
By this time the bright moon had climbed up to its zenith, bathing the whole earth with its golden light.