Book 10 Chapter 10 – Strange Move to Suppress The Enemy
Before Ba Fenghan had any chance to reply, Fu Junyu’s voice came from the top of the stairs, “Why is everybody quieted down? What happened here?”
She appeared like an apparition or a demon that come and go without any trace. Although there was no lack of capable people on the upstairs, no one heard any footsteps coming up the stairs.
When things come to a head, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling calmed down instead; they took the stand and were ready to adapt to any circumstances.
Ba Fenghan rose up to his full height; he laughed and said, “Finally Junyu is here; I have been waiting for you for five days!”
While walking over, Fu Junyu swept her gaze around the room.
This Korean beauty was wearing purple-red warrior outfit inside, and purple-red cloak on the outside, in stark contrast with her snow-white skin. Her glamour radiated all around, taking away the limelight from Hua Lingzi.
However, if Shang Xiuxun was willing to reveal her true identity, although Fu Junyu was an outstanding beauty, she would still have to concede to her.
Fu Junyu gaze landed on Hua Lingzi first before moving to Changshu Mou; she said in astonishment, “Unexpectedly it’s Tiele’s Changshu Mou.”
Changshu Mou immediately rose up to salute and said, “Turns out its Yijian Dashi Old Fu’s distinguished disciple Miss Junyu. Changshu Mou is paying his respect.”
With Changshu Mou standing up like this, he was blocking Fu Junyu’s line of sight toward Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling.
Ba Fenghan took this opportunity to signal Kou and Xu, two boys; he made a helpless gesture by spreading out his hands with a bitter smile on his face. Obviously he was saying, ‘I already warned you guys, but you did not leave earlier. Now you cannot blame me.”
Fu Junyu halted her steps to return the greeting and said, “Turns out it’s the ‘White Clothes Golden Shields’ Changshu Mou Xiong. Junyu failed to show her respect.”
The two were so polite and courteous toward each other, so that casual onlookers were unable to make any sense of the tangled and complicated relationship between the two.
Finished with the propriety, Fu Junyu walked over toward Ba Fenghan, who was standing respectively, waiting to receive her. From the corner of her eye she suddenly caught Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong. In shock, she stopped right on her track.
The two boys hastily left their seats and greeted in chorus, “Yu Yi, how are you? Nephews pay you their respect!”
Other than Ba Fenghan, who was still smiling wryly, the others were even more confused.
Fu Junyu’s phoenix eyes shot a deep cold murderous intention. “Who’s your Yu Yi?” she said frostily, “Watch the sword!”
‘Ring!’
The sword left its sheath.
This moment Fu Junyu was standing closest to Xu Xiling, about a zhang away. Once the sword flashed, immediately it turned into a dozen sword shadows.
Just before the sword momentum reached him, Xu Ziling let out a cold shout and took half a step forward. Unexpectedly his palm cut into the empty space separating the two.
It was such a simple chop with the edge of the palm, but to those who watched the process, there was some kind of extremely bizarre, yet flawless feeling.
First of all, Xu Ziling gave up the impression that this palm chop carried the power of his entire being, yet it also gave up the impression of light, powerless chop. The contradiction was very difficult to explain.
Secondly, the observers clearly saw every detail of his movement from start to finish, yet the entire process felt totally natural, without beginning, without an end. Just like the motion of the stars in the blue dome of heaven, which has no beginning and has no end, just like the flight of a bird, or the path of a swimming fish, unconstrained like a heavenly steed soaring across the skies, without leaving any trace.
Thirdly, the moment his palm cut the empty space, Fu Junyu’s suffocating sword qi seemed to be all of a sudden sucked clean by this one palm, leaving only an empty, floating sword shadow, which no longer constitute any killing power.
To experts like Ba Fenghan, Changshu Mou, Shang Xiuxun and others on their caliber, it was even clearer that this one move by Xu Ziling had deadlocked the strongest attack route of Fu Junyu’s sword technique. The timing and the position were like seamless heavenly clothes.
None of the spectators was not emotionally moved.
Letting out a muffled groan, momentarily Fu Junyu was unable to alter her sword momentum that she was forced to retract her sword and even took half a step back. With all blood drained from her pretty face, she said in shock, “Yijian Technique?”
Everybody was even more stupefied.
They all knew that Yijian Technique was the consummate skill of Korean’s Yijian Dashi [reminder: ‘dashi’ – great master, sometimes used to refer to Buddhist monks] Fu Cailing, with which he moved unhindered outside the Central Plains. As Fu Cailin’s direct disciple, naturally Fu Junyu was also an expert of the same skill. Therefore, if it were Xu Ziling who uttered that question, everybody would feel it was proper and to be expected as a matter of course, yet now it was the other way around, naturally the spectators were even more confused.
Xu Ziling stood proudly with both hands hanging free by his side, and a faint smile on the corners of his mouth, looking absolutely elegant and outstanding, proud and aloof above the crowd. He said respectfully, “I still need to ask Yu Yi’s directions.”
The murderous intent in Fu Junyu’s beautiful eyes grew even stronger.
Kou Zhong knew the situation was about to get worse; being a quick-witted person that he was, he suddenly shouted, “Changshu Mou, watch the saber!”
The Moon in the Well left its scabbard and curved toward Changshu Mou, who was standing by the table.
Yellow glow flashed, saber qi filled the air.
“Ah!’ Shang Xiuxun cried out. She did not expect that in Kou Zhong’s hand, this saber could generate such an unusual glow.
Changshu Mou did not expect Kou Zhong to suddenly make his move to challenge him; the most aggravating thing was that following the opponent’s saber, there was a burst of spiraling saber power, so that other than withdrawing from the table, he basically had no other choice.
Right now he did not have time to examine why Kou Zhong’s power had advanced by leaps and bounds, and was capable of sending out this kind of unheard of qi power, which was even stranger than the Yuwen Clan’s Mysterious Ice Energy.
Letting out a cold shout, the pair of shields moved to his hands, while at the same time he lowered his torso in a horse stance, and in split second concentrated all the power in his body. Right shield moved first, left shield held back, both shield met Kou Zhong’s divine – as if it was made by heaven, saber strike.
His tablemates, Genggehu’er, Hua Lingzi and the seven Tiele martial art masters, were completely shrouded by Kou Zhong’s saber qi. Their response capability was inferior to Changshu Mou, naturally their only way out was to scramble away from the table to evade.
Immediately chairs were overturned, the people scattered, chicken flew and the dogs scampered.
Kou Zhong’s saber strike did achieve what he expected, while at the same time it intimidated Fu Junyu, letting her know that without Ba Fenghan’s assistance, basically she did not have any chance to deal with the two boys alone; naturally she must not act recklessly.
Ba Fenghan’s eyes lit up. Just now Xu Ziling’s palm strike was undoubtedly an amazing move throughout all ages. But the simplicity was in the defensive style. Not only it would not incite the opponent’s desire to win, it was also effective in calming down the opponent’s arrogance; hence it carried the sense of ‘subduing the army without a fight’.
On the contrary, Kou Zhong’s saber strike was completely offensive, a domineering move, a sweeping, insufferably arrogant, something that would not go back unless it sees blood. Immediately this martial art master, who had taken an oath to climb to the summit of martial art study, had his blood boiling.
‘Dang!’
Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well hacked down on Changshu Mou’s right shield. Like a mountain flash flood break out the dam, a powerful vortex of energy, resembling a thousand whirlpools all of a sudden rolled toward the iron shield.
Changshu Mou lowered his body even more, using the amazing skill ‘Concentrating Nine Real Changes’ taught personally by Qu Ao, within a snap of the fingers he turned the innate true qi within his body into nine sequences to withstand Kou Zhong’s invading vortex of energy, also to stop his shield from spinning around like a windmill.
If he was using his former golden shields, due to the exceptionally good metal property, which contained softness in the hardness of the metal, this single clash would not be able to determine victory or defeat. However, this pair of shields had just been forged a few days ago. The pure steel’s property was not suitable for Changshu Mou’s usage. It was meant to be temporary replacement.
All around the room, only he and Kou Zhong were clear of this fact. The moment the shield and the saber impacted, the shield suddenly became the point of power struggle between the two combatants’ true qi.
Kou Zhong’s power was trying to spin the shield and wrestle it from Changshu Mou’s hand, while Changshu Mou’s power was trying to twist it in opposite direction to counteract the opponent’s violent spinning force.
The two streams of true energy collided, the iron shield immediately fell apart.
‘Dang!’
Changshu Mou’s left shield moved up to fend off Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well. Kou Zhong put his saber back into its scabbard and laughed aloud, “You broke another one. The blacksmiths will have new business. Hee!”
Genggehu’er and the others, including the Tiele martial art masters on the other table, immediately stood up in anger; they all drew their weapons.
Shang Xiuxun also issued her order, Flying Horse Ranch people also stood up from their table with weapons withdrawn; the battle could happen at any moment.
When the guests at the seven, eight tables nearby saw how formidable Kou Zhong’s saber was, they were afraid to be the fish in the moat [i.e. collateral damage], and thus scattered everywhere, clearing up the dozen or so tables on this side of the window.
Changshu Mou raised his arm to stop his men from making any move. After looking down at the remainder of the iron shield on his right hand, he casually tossed it to the floor, laughed involuntarily, and said, “Kou Zhong, do you understand Jianghu rules? You mounted a sneak attack like that, what kind of hero are you?”
Chapter 10 - Part 2
Greatly surprised, Kou Zhong said, “That day when Fang Zhuangzhu [village master, see Book 8 Chapter 11] and I were chatting, didn’t Changshu Xiong also drop from the sky and mounted a sneak attack? Whatever kind of hero Changshu Xiong is, I am also that kind of hero.”
Although she knew that she was not supposed to laugh at a time like this, Shang Xiuxun could not hold it. “Pfft!” she burst out giggling, and greatly diffusing the ‘swords drawn and bows bent’ intense atmosphere.
Kou Zhong cupped his fist toward Shang Xiuxun and said, “Thank you very much Changzhu for cheering on me.”
Shang Xiuxun glowered at him viciously. But with her pair of fake moustache, she looked absolutely weird.
Obviously Changshu Mou was at a loss. Looking up to the ceiling, he could only say, “All right,” three times, and then his eyes flashed with ominous glint as he coldly said, “I wonder if Zaixia and Ba Xiong’s fight can be momentarily postponed?”
Hearing that last sentence, everybody knew that since the battle was imminent, he wanted to clarify Ba Fenghan’s position first. The situation at hand was clear; whichever side Ba Fenghan and Fu Junyu stood with, that side would have assured victory.
Kou Zhong signaled Xu Ziling with his eyes, hinting that if Ba Fenghan was not tactful, they would join hands and take care of him first. Although this was not an easy matter, they simply must try.
A complicated look flashed through Ba Fenghan’s eyes. Finally he turned his gaze toward Fu Junyu.
Fu Junyu maintained a wooden expression; it was quite a while later that she spoke up, “No matter how Changshu Xiong look at it, you are already lost by half a step. According to Jianghu rules, the gratitude and grudges between Changshu Xiong and these two boys must also be postponed.”
Noticing Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were looking at her, she angrily said, “I am not helping you at all, I just don’t want you to die under anybody else’s hands! Why haven’t you …”
Kou Zhong was afraid she might say the word ‘get lost’. If she did and they really ‘get lost’, they would lose quite a bit of face. Therefore, he cut her off in loud voice, “Yu Yi please take care of yourself, we, two brothers, are showing filial piety toward Niang, the firmament can be our witness.” And then he signaled Liang Zhi with his eyes.
Liang Zhi understood; he bowed toward Shang Xiuxun and said, “This place is unsuitable to stay for an extended period of time, Changzhu, let us continue our journey.”
‘Pow!’
Shang Xiuxun tossed two ingots of gold on the table and said coldly, “Today it’s our Flying Horse Ranch treat!” Finished speaking she walked out leisurely between the two groups of Tiele warriors. Shang Peng, Liang Zhi, and the others followed closely; they swaggered freely under the ominous glint of Changshu Mou and his men’s eyes.
※ ※ ※
Leaving the House of Fragrance, they saw the street was filled with Tiele warriors and the people of Xiangyang; fortunately, after considering the pros and cons, Changshu Mou did not issue any order to attack. However, naturally the enemy was unwilling to let the matter drop just like this.
Shang Xiuxun made the decision to abandon their horses and luggage at the inn, and immediately climb the city wall to leave the city.
Along the way Sang Xiuxun ignored Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong completely, but she did not drive them away either. Seeing Shang Xiuxun like that, other people, including Luo Fang, who has always been in good terms with them, did not dare to talk to the two boys.
Xu Yang had already paid a lot of money to hire a cargo ship. This moment he added three more ingots of gold, ordering the boatman to sail immediately.
It was only after the boat departed the dock and sailed down the River that everybody breathed a sigh of relief for being able to escape with their lives.
The ship was spacious and sturdy; there were seven, eight cabins available for them to use. In a rather awkward atmosphere, Xu Yang assigned the cabin at the aft for Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling. He said in a low voice, “Changzhu is mad at you, the two of you better do something. Ay! I did not expect Er Zhishi to be that astute and able to see far ahead.” After shaking his head with a sigh, he gave the two boys a friendly pat on the shoulders, and then without saying anything he went to the aft to swallow clouds and blow out fog.
Kou Zhong whispered to Xu Ziling, “Guarding against people, that we cannot do without. I’ll go to check the boatman and his three men’s foundation.”
When Kou Zhong went out to talk to the boatman, Luo Fang waited until Shang Xiuxun, Liang Zhi, Shang Peng, Shang He and the others went into their cabins, and then he went out to find Xu Ziling. “Which one of you was that scar-faced Daxia?” he asked.
Xu Ziling was leaning against the railings, enjoying the night scenery on both sides of the river under the moonlight. Facing the night breeze, he laughed and said, “The scar-faced part was real, but the Daxia part was a fake. We are brothers of the same Ranch, there is no need to speak superfluous words.”
Luo Fang gratefully said, “I owe my little life to Xu Xiong. Hey! Your martial art skill is indeed formidable. Do you really know Yijian Technique? How did that one palm chop into the air force that b1tch [orig. poniang] to draw back?”
Xu Ziling explained, “The logic is actually very simple; it does not matter what style or move, everything uses the good ol’ timing. As long as you can grasp the timing accurately, you can be one step ahead of the opponent in sealing the path of his attack and transfer of energy, and at certain point intercept and destroy, the opponent would find it difficult to make any changes, and becomes like having his hands and feet bound. If he strives to continue the attack, it would be akin to breaking his own strike, and won’t have the power to meet the enemy.”
Luo Fang was speechless. He said, “This principle is easy to grasp but difficult to put into practice. Like that Korean woman’s sword technique that has countless changes, I couldn’t even see it. But even if I could see it clearly, it is still difficult to oppose her swift and fierce sword qi; so that even though I know the theory, it is useless to me.”
“Knowing is always better than not knowing,” Xu Ziling comforted him, “As long as you set this target and train your eyesight and skill hard, one day you will succeed.”
Luo Fang seemed to comprehend this logic. This moment Kou Zhong was back and said cheerfully, “There shouldn’t be any problem. Turns out there is a small cabin at the aft. Since we are pastry chefs, we should be able to make some cakes and present it to Changzhu to make her happy.”
Xu Ziling understood his intention. “Do we have enough ingredients to make some cakes?” he asked.
Kou Zhong whispered in his ear, “The boatman has some lotus fragrance cake leftover. You know what to do! It should be all right as long as there is no poison in it.”
※ ※ ※
‘Knock! Knock! Knock!’
“Who is it?” Shang Xiuxun’s voice came from the inside.
“It’s Xiao Zhong and Xiao Ling delivering some snacks,” Kou Zhong replied.
Shang Xiuxun’s response was tepid, “I am not hungry! Don’t come bothering me!”
Kou Zhong flashed Xu Ziling a ‘there is hope’ expression. He smiled apologetically and said, “Just now Changzhu ate only a little bit of food; it would be best if you’ll let me send you a little bit of cakes, so that it is ready whenever Changzhu wants to eat!”
‘Creak!’
The wooden door opened, revealing Shang Xiuxun’s fairy-like countenance. She stared coldly at the two boys for a moment before turning around and walked in.
By the time the two boys pushed the door and came in, Shang Xiuxun was standing in front of the bed, with her back against them. Although she was still wearing men’s clothing, her beautiful and shiny jet-black hair was cascading down her fragrant back like a sheet of delicate satin, filled with female’s most moving charming beauty.
Kou Zhong put down those several pieces of shameful lotus fragrance cakes on the simple and crude small wooden table, and then with a flair he plopped his buttocks down on the chair, and signaled Xu Ziling to sit down as well.
“Why haven’t you left?” Shang Xiuxun said in soft voice.
Xu Ziling closed the door, and then with a bitter smile he said, “We did not intentionally want to deceive Changzhu; it was just …”
Shang Xiuxun cut him off, “Who killed Mao Zao that night?”
Kou Zhong’s tiger-eyes lit up. “Changzhu, please understand,” he said respectfully, “That man was Xiao Ling.”
Shang Xiuxun slowly turned her delicate body. Stomping her feet, she said angrily, “Really doesn’t make any sense! I plainly tested you, but I could not detect any true qi inside your body.”
Kou Zhong said in great delight, “Changzhu is back to your regular self! The fact is that we were using an extremely simple technique. All we need to do was to hide our true qi in an acupoint that nobody expects.”
Leaning against the window, Shang Xiuxun said with a frown, “True qi is circulating endlessly, it flows continuously among the Eight Extraordinary Channels; how could you conceal it in certain acupoint?”
Grabbing his head, Kou Zhong said, “So that’s how it is? But we can do it, and that demon Wanwan is even more superior.”
“Who’s Wanwan?” Shang Xiuxun asked.
“That’s the reason why we must discuss it in details with Changzhu,” Xu Ziling replied, “This matter is extremely important; it even concerns Jingling’s survival.”
Shang Xiuxun slowly walked toward the table and sat down on a chair that Xu Ziling pulled out for her. “Tell me!” she said solemnly.