Book 8 Chapter 12 – A Thousand Li to Save a Beauty
Duan Yucheng, four men, had rather shallow power, they were the first to be jolted and staggered back, away from the mule cart.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were also aghast, knowing that the incoming person’s martial art skill was at least at Ba Fenghan’s level that he was able to elude Fang Zetao’s men who were guarding all around outside, and only after he dropped from the sky did they realize his presence and thus completely lost the key moment.
Kou Zhong traversed one step sideways, the Moon in the Well left his back and went up to chop the air above him.
Xu Ziling lowered his waist in a horse stance, with both palms raised up.
Feng Zetao was an outstanding martial artist as well, pulling out his sword, he drew six, seven sword patterns in the air, to protect the area above Wanwan.
‘Dang! Bang!’
Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well’s yellow glow grew strong, it hit the enemy’s weapon squarely. But he immediately groaned inwardly.
Turned out the weapons the opponent was wielding was a pair of flickering-with-golden-rays strange shields, each shield was about two chi long, wide on the top and pointy on the bottom, the edges were sharp like saber blade. This kind of never-seen-before strange-shaped weaponry not only could attack and defend, it also seemed to be impenetrable of the enemy’s weapon.
As soon as the saber and the shield collided, a strong, peerlessly violent reaction force immediately shook the Moon in the Well that it bounced back.
Before Kou Zhong had any opportunity to send out the second strike, like a clump of floating cloud the shield’s sharp edge already pared down in an oblique angle. Even though Kou Zhong was dauntless, he was caught off guard and had no choice but to move away.
Xu Ziling’s double palms struck up and hit the center of the left shield. He felt the surface of the shield was covered with sharp spines. Although the spines failed to pierce his true-qi-infused muscle of his palms, he did not dare to go all-out; withdrawing his strength, the opponent’s strength immediately overpowered him and sent him rolling on the ground in such a sorry state.
Fang Zetao wanted to take advantage while the enemy was dealing with Kou and Xu, two people, by thrusting his sword in the gap between the two shields to injure the enemy, who would have thought that in the blink of an eye Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were forced to retreat, and the pair of shield closed up?
‘Bing!’
The sword was rigidly locked down by the pair of shields, which then continued to press down on his head. Having no way out, Fang Zetao dropped down to the bottom of the cart.
A man, wearing snow-white outfit, handsome and slender, looked about thirty, descended on the mule cart like an immortal descended from the heaven, with a lofty quality as if he looked at the world disdainfully out of the corner of his eyes.
His eyes emitted faint blue glint, a hint of gentle and soft smile seemed to be eternally carved on the corners of his mouth. His straight nose and strong jaws, his sharp contrast physique, his broad shoulders, made others felt like he was a lofty mountain that would not be easily knocked down by the enemy.
With a slight smile on his face, he fixed his gaze on Wanwan. Putting the shields back behind his back, he praised, “This stunning beauty is certainly the best in the world.”
This moment Fang Zetao came out from the bottom of the cart on the other side; he was accompanied by twelve of his men, who rushed over in a flurry. On top of that, with Kou Zhong and his company, their strength suddenly increased several folds. However, because they ‘refrained from shooting at the rat for fear of breaking the vase’, afraid that he might harm Wanwan, nobody dared to rush onto the mule cart to attack.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were baffled; the former came closer to the rear of the mule cart and said with a giggle, “Are you that guy, Chang Shumou? Your pair of golden shields is quite interesting.”
On the other hand, Xu Ziling inched closer to the front of the mule cart and calmly stood there. There was not the slightest hint of anxiety or upset because of the setback they suffered on his face. Instead, it was Fang Zetao who lost his cool.
“Chang Shumou,” he said sternly, “If you dare to harm her, don’t even think of leaving this place alive.”
Chang Shumou’s blue eyes cast a disdainful look at Fang Zetao, but he turned toward Kou Zhong and said, “Do you know who Ren Shaoming is?”
Kou Zhong replied nonchalantly, “I heard he was your Shifu’s illegitimate child; is that right?”
Murderous aura flashed briefly in Chang Shumou’s eyes. Throwing his head back and roaring in laughter, he said, “You really have guts. But one day you will regret what you have just said.”
And then, turning to Xu Ziling, he smiled and said, “Your punching and kicking skill is quite exceptional; that Luocha woman would definitely not have such disciple, was it from the ‘Secret to Long Life’?”
Calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos, Xu Ziling replied, “What I learned is just cheap tricks I pieced together from the east and gathered together from the west, how could it worth comparing to Changshu Xiong who received instruction from brilliant master?”
The two boys’ indifference toward him has incited a profound-mystery feeling in Chang Shumou’s heart. Suddenly he had an idea, “How about I kill this woman first, and then we all fight with everything we have?” he said sharply.
His countenance changed, Fang Zetao shouted, “How dare you!”
But Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Good idea!” Jumping up suddenly, he brandished his saber and hacked down on Chang Shumou.
At the same time the mules neighed in a start and jumped forward. Turned out Xu Ziling shot two streams of finger wind in secret, shooting at the butt of the two mules in front of the cart.
Fang Zetao and the others turned pale with fright. They knew that as soon as Chang Shumou kicked with his toes, Wanwan would definitely perish, saints and deities would not be able to save her life back.
Xu Ziling made a somersault and landed on the driver seat of the mule cart, and immediately sent out a punch toward Chang Shumou across empty air.
Chang Shumou laughed aloud, like a pair of wings, his golden shields rose up to the left and right, subsequently blocking one saber and one punch. At the same time his toes kicked forward to provoke the beauty lying down at his feet. But suddenly his ankle tightened. Unexpectedly a whip wrapped itself several times around his ankle, and it was only then did he realize he had fallen into a trap.
A huge force tugged him that he nearly fell facedown. Busily he applied his power to weigh himself down, but his left foot was already shifted four cun before he steadied himself and stood still.
The mules were running faster and faster. Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong attacked simultaneously from front and back. Even with his conceit, Chang Shumou did not dare to deal with the two boys’ violent attack head-on, especially not with his left foot under the enemy’s control. Taking a sharp intake of qi, he leaped halfway into the air, his left foot spun several small circles to free himself from the entanglement of the whip.
By this time the mule cart already rushed out five more zhang ahead.
Fang Zetao, who was running after them from behind, soared into the air, his sword swept in a long arch to take a stab at Chang Shumou’s back.
Still three zhang high in the air, without even looking Chang Shumou swept the golden shield on his right hand backhandedly, parrying Fang Zetao’s attack that both the sword and the person were thrown to the other side, while at the same time he seized this opportunity to send out two streams of powerful qi with his shields, forcing Duan Yucheng and the others to roll sideways to evade.
Meanwhile Chang Shumou borrowed the reaction force and raised his qi to propel himself like a shooting star to catch up with the racing mule cart from above, and launched an attack toward Kou Zhong, who was standing on guard on the tail end of the cart.
Xu Ziling called out loudly, “Fang Zhuangzhu, no need to run after us, we will meet again at Jingling!”
Being frightened, the mules ran wildly forward as fast as they could; by the time Xu Ziling finished shouting, they already covered more than a dozen zhang of distance.
By this time Fang Zetao has just sprang up from the ground, he watched helplessly as the mule cart rushed onto a small hill, and vanished down the slope on the other side of the knoll.
The yellow glow from Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well flashed suddenly, strike after strike the saber kept hacking down, each time the saber struck Chang Shumou’s golden shield, it forced him to fall back about a zhang, so that he had to exert his strength to keep up.
Xu Ziling was in charge of driving the mule cart, and he quite enjoyed it.
Chang Shumou’s heart sank, he was also furious that smoke was spouting through his seven orifices. Yet because Kou Zhong was waiting leisurely for the enemy to exhaust his strength, and he was tightly defending the rear end of the cart, plus his saber technique was swift and fierce beyond compare, even if Chang Shumou had ability that encompassed everything under heaven, all along he was unable to catch up with the mule cart, and thus was unable to unleash his specialty of neutralizing the saber with his pair of shields.
Watching Chang Shumou chasing them from behind like a mad dog, Kou Zhong laughed involuntarily, “Kid, run faster! That’s right! Like that!” he hooted.
Suddenly his saber swept down.
‘Dang!’
Chang Shumou was forced back again.
From the front, Xu Ziling jovially shouted, “Is there any way you can chop and split his shield up? And then we can turn around to give him bad luck.”
Kou Zhong had a brainwave; lowering his voice, he said, “Under the cart! Understand?” And then throwing his head back, he roared in laughter, “What’s so difficult about that?”
Suddenly he let out a roar; as if a scorching thunder emerged from the flat earth, his pair of sharp eyes, as bright as the cold star, exploded with unprecedented dense and biting coldness, his power spiked up abruptly, forceful and ferocious without equal. Kou Zhong’s entire body leaped out of the cart, the Moon in the Well turned into a streak of glittering yellow ray shooting toward Chang Shumou, who, by this time, had managed to get as close as half a zhang away from the cart.
Chang Shumou had never expected Kou Zhong to be this dauntless; even more, he had never anticipated that Kou Zhong would leave the cart to pounce on him. However, although he knew that Kou Zhong’s saber strike would not be easy to block, in full confidence of his superior martial art skill, he was not afraid at all.
His left shield went up to block, his right shield swept across Kou Zhong’s legs. But suddenly he had a feeling that something was not right; instantly his soul flew away and scattered.
What happened was that Xu Ziling unexpectedly dropped himself from the front of the cart to the ground, and let the cart passed above him, so that in a moment he was exactly below Kou Zhong. And then from the ground, he propelled himself up.
Chang Shumou was also an outstanding character, in this critical moment he was not flustered. Changing the direction of the right shield, he cut down instead.
Xu Ziling met the right shield with both palms; a loud clashing sound like a muffled thunder ensued as the two streams of qi power collided.
At the same time, Kou Zhong’s full-powered saber strike violently crashed onto his left shield.
One cold, one hot, two streams of frightening qi power burst into Chang Shumou’s body together.
‘Dang!
The golden shield shattered in pieces.
Like a kite with cut string Chang Shumou flew backward, with fresh blood sprayed out of his mouth.
Flying ten more zhang back, as soon as he touched the ground, he ran into the sparse forest on the left.
By the time Kou Zhong landed on the ground, Xu Ziling has already sprung up from the ground. As they exchanged victory smile, they suddenly realized that the cart carrying the beauty was still pulled along by the mules that were running away like mad. Hence the two boys ran after it in a great rush.