Book 11 Chapter 10 – Enlightenment By The Deep Pool In The Wilderness
Qian Duguan shouted his order. Immediately more than twenty men in warrior outfit rushed forward. Sabers, spears, swords and halberds entangled the two boys in endless hard fighting. It was clearly a ‘sea of people’ tactic to exhaust the two boys’ strength.
Zheng Shuming shouted tenderly, from among the martial art masters of the Great River Alliance, a dozen of men came out to join the battle.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling stood back-to-back, gnashing their teeth and met the wave after wave of violent attack that came like tidal torrent.
Xu Ziling sent out a punch and a palm strike at the same time, while fast as lightning his two legs flew in chain kicks; three men instantly hit and were thrown away, and died on the spot.
Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well waved to the left and dance to the right. The saber did not miss at all; everywhere the yellow light arrived, someone was hit and fell to the ground. It was an extremely bitter battle.
Xu Ziling had just hacked down his palm over an empty air and seized a spear; in a fluid motion he swept a man, along with his sword, and knocked him down that he was unable to crawl back up. And then he called out, “Zhong Shao, a move without any movement.”
Letting out a wild roar, Kou Zhong sidestepped; not only to evade a chopping down ax, he cut off two spears as well, and kicked another enemy and sent him flying.
Xu Ziling followed him moving sideways, his left palm hacked down on empty air, sending out a burst of vortex of qi. The man he hit was whirled and thrown some distance away. With another strike of the spear he swept a thousand-army [i.e. total annihilation]; his move was unpredictable. Three enemies that did not have time to evade were hit on their chest and abdomen; blood splashed, the enemies fell down to the ground.
Because of this move, the entire siege was thrown into confusion, unlike previously where they were organized in tight formation.
Feeling the pressure was greatly diminished, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling did not hesitate; immediately they exploited the gap and let their hands and feet had free reins.
Kou Zhong’s saber moved like the wind; it was faster than flashing lightning as it danced and leaped unhindered among the crowd. Wherever the Moon in the Well flashed, an enemy would scream miserably and was thrown away, leaving a mess of dead bodies scattered everywhere.
Xu Ziling’s vortex of energy shot out from the spear in his hand, penetrating an enemy’s wooden shield and through the pit of his stomach, while like a fantasy both of his hands turned into myriad of palm shadows, attacking the enemies that they fell face up, and their hearts and guts turned cold.
Qian Duguan and the others actually already held a high regard on these two boys, yet they never expected they could be this overbearing; momentarily they were reluctant to personally join the fight. They only ordered their men to continuously enter the arena to exhaust the two boys’ strength.
In a moment like this, where they had their lives at stake, Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong were having the result of their ten-plus days of hard training in full display. In terms of internal energy and external strength, hands, eyes, ears, and footwork, everything worked seamlessly together.
The most shocking thing to the enemies watching around the arena was that oftentimes their moves seemed to fall into empty space, but it was plain as day that the enemies seemed to be drawn into that very spot and had their attacks directed to this ‘empty move’, without having the power to counter at all.
Those with superior insight naturally could see that the boys were one step ahead of the enemy’s attack path. Yet they had to ask themselves whether in the midst of such an intense battle they would be able to see through the opponent’s move, and even if they could, it would still be difficult to do as the boys did, that in such time and position they were able to grasp the enemy’s movement so accurately, so that even though realizing they were about to throw away their life, there was not enough time to change their move.
In the blink of an eye, there were approximately thirty dead and wounded scattered on the ground. Clearly the battle was very intense.
The Evil Monk Fa Nan and Amorous Nun Chang Zhen’s demonic character was aroused by the scene unfolding before their eyes; they rushed forward to enter the arena, and thus increasing the intensity of the attack.
By this time it was inevitable that the two boys’ body was covered in wounds, it’s just that in this critical juncture, they relied heavily on their subtle movements and the qi protecting their bodies that they avoided serious injury, and minimized the lethality of the enemy’s weapon reaching their body.
After fending off a round of violent attack from Fa Nan, two more wounds appeared on Kou Zhong’s body. Spinning around, he swept five, six enemies. But then he was hit by Chang Zhen’s ‘ravishing colored clothes’, who attacked him sneakily, and was thrown toward Xu Ziling behind him.
Both boys’ body was blood-soaked from head to toe, but for the most part it was the enemy’s blood that was splashing on them.
‘Peng!’
Xu Ziling’s fist met Chang Zhen’s colored sleeves, who was flying overhead, shaking her so bad that she was thrown outside the arena. Realizing that they could not hold on much longer, he bellowed, “Follow me!” And soared away in the direction of where Chang Zhen was falling.
Kou Zhong drew a circle of yellow light, sweeping the enemies all around that they scurried away like wolves and scampered like rats, that even Fa Nan was forced to back off. And then with a somersault he followed behind Xu Ziling.
High up in the sky, Xu Ziling shot two stands of finger wind toward Chang Zhen’s beautiful eyes, who was pulling her clothes as she floated back, hoping to force a gap from her as she dealt with the attack. But a sword wind shot from the side.
Xu Ziling sighed inwardly; his left hand cut down.
‘Bang!’
The attacker let out a tender grunt and floated away. Turned out it was the beautiful widow Zheng Shuming, who so far has not made her move.
Her sword was extremely swift and fierce, plus Xu Ziling did not use his full strength, hence he was knocked down to the side, and his grand plan of escaping to the back of the roof was shattered. From this, it could clearly be seen how astute this woman was.
Getting a chance to catch her breath, Chang Zhen turned her colorful clothes into a clump of flying clouds, shooting toward Kou Zhong, who was still somersaulting in the air.
Kou Zhong had just blocked two spears that were thrown toward him, he did not have any strength left to deal with Chang Zhen’s full of true qi’s colored clothes. Realizing the critical moment, he dropped down back to the ground, and once again entered the seemingly never-ending battle.
A powerful qi approached from the left, Jin Bo and Ling Feng reentered the besieging crowd, spurring a new round of attack.
By this time both ends of the main street were full of people rallying to boost the enemy’s morale. Were it not for the two boys’ unswerving determination, their spirit would have been deflated early on and their will to fight would have been gone.
But the prospect was clearly not beneficial to their side.
As soon as Xu Ziling landed on the ground, Qian Duguan’s double-edged blade attacked him head on. As the city master of Xiangyang, naturally his skill was extremely strong, plus Xu Ziling was exhausted after fighting with all his might, and he had to deal with the attack of the other martial art masters besieging him. Thereupon he was instantly forced to adopt the defensive position, and could only defend an extremely narrow territory as he passively reacted to violent attack from the enemies on four sides and eight directions.
‘Bang!’
Xu Ziling’s palm cut in an empty space. Even with his ability, Qian Duguan was unable to change his move, one after another his double blades seemed to deliver themselves right to the point where his palm was chopping down.
It was the optimum situation Xu Ziling could hope for after exhausting his thought, exhausting his knowledge; borrowing the reaction force of the impact, he flipped over backward, and swooped toward Kou Zhong. Suddenly he felt searing pain on his calf, yet it was unclear who cut him.
This moment Kou Zhong was besieged by Chang Zhen, Fa Nan, Ling Feng, Jin Bo, Zheng Shuming, and the other martial art masters. He should have returned to the western paradise early on, fortunately each strike of his saber carried a burst of spiraling true energy, plus he was quick-witted and very resourceful, and had mastered the Yijian Technique, so that the enemy was completely at a loss on how to deal with his ‘heavenly steed soaring across the skies’ saber strikes, so that he was able to hold on to this moment.
As soon as Xu Ziling arrived, he forced Chang Zhen to back off with a punch first, and then shouted, “Let’s go!”
Kou Zhong roared. The person and his strength fused into one, he shot straight toward Ling Feng.
Although Ling Feng had his pair of spears in front of him, but the internal injury he suffered earlier had significantly affect his strength to go all out. Shocked, he hastily sidestepped.
Kou Zhong cried inwardly, ‘Thank heavens and thank the Earth!’ while gathering the little strength he had left to charge through the dozen or so Qian Duguan’s men swarming toward him.
Amidst a series of clashing noises, the men staggered and fell backward and sideways, so that a gap appeared within the enemy’s line of defense.
Qian Duguan, who was soaring in the air to pursue, shouted, “Up!”
From among the crowd lining the street, about a dozen men responded. Spears and sabers rose up to block Kou Zhong’s escape route.
Xu Ziling took a palm strike from Zheng Shuming, but he managed to kick Jin Bo, sending him flying to the side, before flashing behind Kou Zhong. Stretching out both palms, he gave Kou Zhong’s back a push.
Kou Zhong was accustomed to work together with him; reaching back, he grabbed Xu Ziling’s forearm, together the two boys immediately soared at an angle, over the enemies, toward the roof ahead.
‘Swish! Swish!’
The enemies on the roof immediately shot their arrows toward the two boys.
Kou Zhong mustered the little true qi remaining in his body and transferred it into Xu Ziling’s, while using the last ounce of his strength to throw Xu Ziling away.
Xu Ziling knew it was the critical moment between life and death, he quickly gathered the two persons’ true qi together and transported it into Kou Zhong’s body, so that this one throw was full of explosive strength.
Xu Ziling flew with his back first so that he was facing backward, while pulling Kou Zhong along that the two of them were flying far away together.
The arrows flitted across the two boys, missing their body just by a hairsbreadth.
Qian Duguan and the others pursuing behind them had never imagined that the two boys were able to exchange qi mid-air, and that they were able to use such a strange move of changing a fall into a rise up in the air. They rushed at thin air in profusion.
Hand in hand, Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong already left the enemy on the roof far behind, and soon they disappeared without any trace.
Although Qian Duguan and the others still pursued with all their might, inwardly they knew that the chance of catching up with the two boys was next to nothing.
Chapter 10 - Part 2
By the time Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling entered the little valley where they escaped from the enemy with Ba Fenghan, they were very close to collapsing; their footsteps already faltered.
There were two reasons why they came here.
First of all, it was because they had no strength left to run farther.
Secondly, if Ba Fenghan succeeded in evading the pursuing troops, he would come here to rendezvous with them. Even without prior agreement, he should have known this.
One after another the two boys staggered toward the small pool under the waterfall, and dropped down on their butts dejectedly.
Raising his right hand, Kou Zhong said, “Ol’ Ba said that when our strength is exhausted our qi is gone, we must not lie down to sleep; instead, we must use supreme willpower to restore power, forcing ourselves to hold on. This is the key to skill refinement.”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, “If we lost too much blood, must we also doggedly endure that?”
Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “Fengshi Han did not teach us that one trick. Ay! I wonder if that kid has been slaughtered? I thought he would be here sooner than we are.”
Suddenly Xu Ziling stood up shakily. First he took the secret books he got from Lu Miaozi and hid them between the crevice of the rock, and then he leaped into the middle of the pond and said, “When we escaped from Xiangyang a moment ago, we even forgot the moon in the well; it felt like every strand of our nerves was as taut as the bowstring. We’d better take advantage of this moment to copy Fengshi Han by training secret power under the waterfall to become amazing. If it really works, every time we did not die, we’ll train his Niang like this.”
Kou Zhong laughed so hard that he coughed a mouthful of blood. Crawling up, he took out several books given by Lu Miaozi from his bosom, and said with a laugh, “We must not soak these treasures.” And then, like Xu Ziling, he hid the books in the crevices among the rocks.
‘Splash!’
Kou Zhong, along with his saber, plunged into the small pond. Instantly the water turned red.
Xu Ziling roared in laughter, and then he coughed, before finally waded toward the waterfall.
Like two little kids, the boys ‘you crowd in me, I push on you’ under the waterfall, resisting the pain all over their body, withstanding the dizziness that wanted to drag them to lie down, letting the waterfall pounding on their heads.
The bright moon appeared along the top of the eastern ridge of the peak, casting its light into the valley at an angle, creating shadows of the trees on the bottom of the valley. The droplets of water splashing on the two boys’ body looked like specks of golden light; it was such an impressive spectacle.
Having been through mortal danger and escaped alive, the two boys were suddenly able to see this wonderful sight, especially the subtle little things that they normally missed, so that momentarily they were dumbstruck, and subconsciously their entire body relaxed, and their mind felt carefree and without worries, their spirit also felt so peaceful. Their back became even more perfectly straight, their spirit bright and clear; other than the physical objects visible in their eyes, there was nothing else.
It was a feeling that they had never experienced before. It was not like the selflessness state they reached when they were sitting in meditation before, but more like the spaces on the outside and the inside were suddenly linked, so that they could percept the unfathomable mystery of the universe, and could grasp some kind of inexpressible power.
True qi converged. The essence of the Heaven and the Earth separately entered Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s meridians via the tianling [on top of the head], and the yongquan [at the sole of the feet], two acupoints.
The two boys did not dare to speak; with all their might they tried to maintain this too-wonderful-for-words state of mind.
Nobody knows how much time has passed, when the sound of footsteps suddenly woke the two boys up.
Opening their eyes at the same time, they saw a tall shadow from the entrance of the valley swaying and staggering straight toward the pond, before it knelt down dejectedly, and while gasping for breath, casting its eyes toward the two boys under the waterfall. To their astonishment, it was Ba Fenghan, who was covered in blood from head to toe.
While the two boys were looking at each other, Ba Fenghan spat out a mouthful of blood, pointed his finger at them, and said with a laugh, “If I had not turned back to look for you, I would not have encountered that b1tch [poniang, woman] Zheng Shuming, and would not have suffered such a serious injury.”
Before finished speaking, he already rolled down into the pond, and stretched out his limbs in like a ‘大’ [da, big] character as he floated on the surface of the water.
Kou Zhong called out to remind him, “Don’t sleep!”
Xu Ziling added, “You’d better come here and endure the water for a while!”
Ba Fenghan sighed and said, “Just let me take a couple of breaths first, only a living person can have the advantage of enjoying fresh air! Tuoba Yu, Chunyu Wei, plus those eighteen ‘muddled eggs’ trained by Bi Xuan, beat me so bad that even my eggs were nearly popped out. Were it not for the ten days of hard training, how could I, after taking down five [email protected], still be able to break my way out of the siege? Ha!”
Kou Zhong roared in laughter. And then, signaling Xu Ziling, the two of them got out from under the waterfall, waded to where Ba Fenghan was floating, grabbed his hands and feet, and dragged him away. Ignoring his protest, they pulled him toward the waterfall, and forced him to stand up straight underneath the falling water.
The two boys had never touched and played with Ba Fenghan without any scruple like this before; the feeling was fresh and interesting.
Ba Fenghan was exhausted and amused at the same time; struggling hard to keep his imposing physique erect, he closed his eyes and circulated his internal energy to treat his injury.
Seeing this display of staunch willpower, the two boys could not help feeling admiration. They also continued circulating their qi to train.
The moon slowly climbed up to its zenith, before slowly descending toward the western wall of the valley.
From time to time they heard faint whinnying horses in the distance, but in this place there was only serenity and peace, like the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss that stood aloof from worldly affairs.
In the darkest hour before the dawn, a human shadow, so ghostlike because whether it was real or simply an illusion was difficult to tell, floated into the valley.
The three men instinctively reacted; they opened their eyes.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling blurted out almost at the same time, “Wanwan!”
Ba Fenghan’s heart shivered in fear as well, because with their current condition, this was the worst possible time to come across Wanwan.