Book 11 Chapter 5 – The First Defeat
Under the thunderstorm, the city of Jingling looked like a ghost domain. Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, the two boys, followed batch after batch Jingling officers hurriedly leaving the city from the north gate with their eyes.
The last group of soldiers to retreat had Feng Han and Feng Qing in it, they all seemed to be reluctant to part.
Hardening his heart, Kou Zhong shouted, “Just go! If you tarry, it might be too late!”
Feng Han was unclear whether the water on his face was raindrops or his own tears. “Let us leave together!” he called out sadly.
Xu Ziling firmly shook his head, “Only the two of us can lure Du Fuwei to pursue us. You, go quickly!”
Feng Han called out loudly, “In the future, as soon as we hear the news that two Masters are raising righteousness, as long as I, Feng Han, am still breathing, I will definitely come to throw my lot with two gentlemen.”
Finished speaking, he urged his horse to run after the tail of the procession, and in the blink of an eye vanished in the vast darkness of the rain interspersed with thunders.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling rode side by side slowly, letting the wind and the rain fell on both their bodies and their horses.
Every now and then the lightning flashed, making the shops and building on both sides of the long street looked transparent; it was such an indescribably strange atmosphere.
Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “It had never occurred to me that the first time I was in a real battle and I already suffered a big defeat, and thus lost the entire city of Jingling. Ha! Really funny! Right now my entire body feels numb. Have you seen so many people died in front of you?”
Xu Ziling looked up to let the heavy rain pour down on his face, as if he wanted to have the rainwater wash away his bloodstained clothes and the more than a dozen, big and small, bloody wounds from the battle. Blowing out a mouthful of air from his lungs, he said, “Success or failure, how could you let it bother you so much? You and I have tried our utmost, we have done our part the best we can! If today you seized total victory, you would think that success would come easy, perhaps it would cause you even greater defeat in the future. Ha! Therefore, this time we suffered a good defeat.”
Kou Zhong roared in laughter, which affected the wound all over his body that his laughter turned into a miserable groan. Gasping for breath, he said, “Toward success or failure, I can’t ever be like you, Ling Shao, who look at it so free and at ease. Perhaps because by nature I am a layperson! His mother! Huh?”
The two boys suddenly reined their horses.
On the long street ahead, which was shrouded in the heavy curtain of the wind and the rain, and under occasional lightning splitting the sky overhead, which washed the heaven and the earth a deathly white, suddenly appeared a tall and slender figure.
Even if this person has turned into ashes, the two boys would recognize Du Fuwei from his tall hat.
He has finally come!
※ ※ ※
Du Fuwei let out an ear splitting wild laughter, brimming with murderous intention. Suddenly he stopped laughing and said with a cold snort, “They say that even cruel tiger would not eat its own cub, but tonight I, Du Fuwei, in this stormy night, must personally put away the two of you, unworthy children. As fate has it, nothing can surpass this.”
After paying his respect, ‘Ring!’ Kou Zhong pulled his Moon in the Well, lifted it high above his head, and laughed heartily, “In order to vie over the world, father and son destroy each other, brothers and martial brothers against each other, is a common thing. Why would you, Ol’ Die mind it too much?”
A faint gust of wind came from behind.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling exchanged glances; they both knew that martial art masters from Du Fuwei’s side have arrived.
Merely Du Fuwei, one person, would be difficult for them to deal with; if they fell into Jianghuai Army martial art masters’ siege, how could they escape alive?
Xu Ziling smiled and said, “Ol’ Die, please forgive your child for being rude!”
Suddenly he pressed his horse’s belly to charge toward Du Fuwei.
Kou Zhong also urged his horse to charge forward. The Moon in the Well turned into sharp rays splitting the wind and the rain, hacking down on Du Fuwei.
Spiraling energy rose up, the wind and the rain was intensified by the saber power as well that it turned into a tornado that attacked first even before the saber arrived; the momentum was extremely astonishing.
Xu Ziling was faster than Kou Zhong by half a horse’s length. By the time he was only about a zhang away from Du Fuwei, he sent out a punch with all his might, raising another wave of rain water surging toward this hegemon who ran amuck around the Jianghuai region.
Du Fuwei has never imagined that the two boys had made tremendous progress, plus it was the first time that he encountered a spiraling energy. However, he was a veteran of a hundred battles. With a spin of his body he neutralized the strange power of the surging rain raised by Xu Ziling bombarding his body, while at the same time he soared to the air and brandished both sleeves.
The sleeves carried the power he amassed throughout his life, hence it was not a small matter at all.
‘Crash! Boom!’
A streak of lightning struck not too far away. Along with the rumbling of the thunder, the street was as bright as day.
Xu Ziling abruptly pulled his rein; the horse reared, it kicked Du Fuwei.
Du Fuwei was slightly stunned.
Xu Ziling already slipped down on the side of the horse’ belly, the tip of his toes kicked on Du Fuwei’s left sleeve. At the same time Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well struck his right sleeve.
In launching this move, Xu Ziling has followed the most esoteric principle.
It should be noted that Du Fuwei’s original thought was to strike Xu Ziling first, and then turned his attention to Kou Zhong. Therefore, his left sleeve was heavy, his right sleeve was light. He wanted to brush Xu Ziling away from the horseback before dealing with Kou Zhong.
When martial art masters fight each other, a good grasp of timing and the moves indeed plays a decisive role. Who would have thought Xu Ziling exploited his warhorse? Not only he was forcing Du Fuwei to alter his angle of attack at the last moment, Du Fuwei had to reduce his speed a hairbreadth as well. Without any choice he had to quickly transfer part of the power from his left sleeve toward his right sleeve to deal with Kou Zhong’s ten-thousand-catty thunderbolt saber strike. Hence he had lost his original ‘seamless heavenly clothes’ [i.e. flawless] meticulously planned tactics.
There were two ‘whooshing’ noise, followed by a clear ‘ding!’
Xu Ziling was jolted as if he was struck by lightning, his entire body, along with his miserably neighing horse, was thrown back and fell to the ground; it was extremely shocking.
Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well hacked down on the arm protector inside Du Fuwei’s ‘universe in the sleeve’. Immediately he was shaken that the wounds on his body split open and bled, while he horse under his crotch was struck by the two men’s impact force that it was knocked down sideways. Kou Zhong quickly soared to the air, the Moon in the Well turned into countless spiraling saber shadows, rolling Du Fuwei, who was taking a step back, inside.
Even with his ability, Du Fuwei had no choice but to let Xu Ziling off; sending his strength to both sleeves, he concentrated all his power to deal with the incomparably brave Kou Zhong who risked his life in this one strike.
Bearing the brunt of nearly all of Du Fuwei’s inner power, just before he and the horse touched the ground, Xu Ziling spewed out a mouthful of blood while circulating his power throughout his body, and thus his strength was restored.
Meanwhile Du Fuwei’s reinforcement was only about thirty zhang away, and was fast approaching.
Knowing that this was the most critical moment, Xu Ziling quickly raised a mouthful of qi while lightly pressing down on the side of the neighing miserably horse’s belly, and then borrowing the reaction force he rolled away swiftly, straight toward Du and Kou, two men in fierce battle.
Sending out his power to his ten fingers, ten streams of qi shot out like arrows toward Du Fuwei’s feet.
Du Fuwei’s second error was that he did not anticipate that Xu Ziling would be this quick to launch a counterattack. Although he was eager to kill Kou Zhong, this moment he had no choice but to protect his old life first. With a sudden shout he leaped up to evade.
How could Kou Zhong, whose momentum was like a rainbow, miss this one-in-a-thousand opportunity? The Moon in the Well sliced across, while letting his face and his entire body exposed, in an apparent all-out, staking-his-life move.
Du Fuwei raised his qi while flipping his body, so that his head was down, his feet up, while his right hand opened up into a claw to grab the tianling acupoint on top of Kou Zhong’s head. His other hand formed a halberd to pierce Xu Ziling’s back.
All these moves happened in a flash, all three combatants were displaying their ingenuity, every one of them executing their amazing tactic, which was quite astonishing to see.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Die has fallen into a trap!”
Suddenly he moved sideways toward Du Fuwei’s lower part; holding the Moon in the Well with both hands, he swiftly chopped upward. His target was Du Fuwei’s throat.
Xu Ziling pushed the ground with both hands; borrowing the reaction force, he slid sideways. Both fists punched together, he created an incomparably strong and violent spiraling qi, interspersing with the wind and the rain, striking toward Du Fuwei, who was attacking the top of Kou Zhong’s head. It was bold and powerful without equal.
This moment the nearest man among Du Fuwei’s subordinates was still about ten zhang away. If Du Fuwei managed to hold on for a bit longer, Kou and Xu, two boys could forget about getting away with their lives.
Even with his shrewdness and brilliance, Du Fuwei could not help feeling remorse. As soon as he received the news that Jingling Army had abandoned the city and ran away, in his eagerness to kill the two boys, he only brought a small number of martial art masters to rush over at full speed, leaving the rest of his men behind. He had never thought that the two boys’ martial art skill has made tremendous improvement; this was his first mistake.
His second mistake was leaping to the air to evade, so that he was unable to use timely force to deal with the two boys’ incomparably strange spiraling energy. Even if he used his entire strength, it would still be difficult to take the two boys’ combined power at the same time, especially since they both went all-out.
Chapter 5 - Part 2
‘Boom!’
Lightning flashed, followed by a thunder. Du Fuwei was forced to use the skill he stored at the bottom of the chest; his left sleeve swept Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well, while his right sleeve met Xu Ziling’s double punch.
Qi energy clashed.
Du Fuwei spewed a mouthful of blood and was thrown far away.
Xu Ziling fell down to the ground, while also spurting a mouthful of blood.
Kou Zhong pulled Xu Ziling up; both of them flew to the roof of a multi-story building nearby.
Two Jianghuai Army martial art masters arrived; they rushed to pursue, but Kou Zhong swiped his saber backhandedly and viciously forced them to fall back to the ground.
Du Fuwei landed on the other side of the long street and stood still.
By this time Xu Ziling had received the true qi transmitted by Kou Zhong, so that his strength was recovered somewhat. Sending out a punch, he forced another martial art master down to the ground.
‘Bang!’ that man landed on the mud.
‘Boom!’
Heaven and earth was awashed in bright light.
By the time it was dark again, the two boys had already disappeared with any trace.
“Don’t chase!” Du Fuwei shouted loudly.
Taking a deep breath, Du Fuwei shook his head and said with a sigh, “They are worthy to be my good children. Even if you catch up with them, it would be useless.”
※ ※ ※
The two boys rolled down the slope, and fell into a deep pool of muddy swamp, unable to crawl back up.
The heavy rain was still pouring on their heads and spilling down their faces, but the thunder and lightning gradually became sparse.
After leaving Jingling, they had been running in northerly direction for more than thirty li. By now they were like lantern which oil had dried up, they could not even raise their true qi. The big and small wounds on their body unbearably ached.
The two boys lay side-by-side, continuously gasping for breath.
Kou Zhong painfully said, “You still had a chance to rest for a moment, but I have not laid down with everything steady and stable like this for eight consecutive days and nights. Ha! In the end we did not die, even Ol’ Die failed to do anything to us!”
Xu Ziling groaned, “Can’t you not boast and praise yourself too soon? Presently, if we came across a small thief, he could easily take our lives.”
Still gasping for breath, Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Laotianye can’t be that unreasonable. Um, if that female demon Wanwan is also recuperating nearby, it would be really interesting!”
Xu Ziling no longer talked; he simply circulated his qi and regulated his breathing.
As soon as Kou Zhong closed his eyes, he was no longer able to open it; he immediately fell into deep sleep, where the heaven and the man intersected.
※ ※ ※
Heavy rain finally stopped at daybreak. The black clouds gave way to clear sky. The late spring morning sun shone on the two boys.
When the sun reached its zenith, Kou Zhong was the first to wake up. When he opened his eyes, he found out that they were lying down by a stream. Next to the stream, the trees of the forest were dancing. It was such a beautiful scenery.
On the other side of the creek was a small hill, its slope was covered in verdant grass, while its peak was covered in dense forest, with fruits hung heavy on the bough.
Straightening up his waist, Kou Zhong sat up. The pain of last night has already disappeared without a trace; the wounds on his body have healed, leaving only scars. Laughing aloud, he sprang up and stretched his four limbs.
Xu Ziling was aroused from slumber by him. Seeing Kou Zhong’s tattered clothes and face covered in bloodstain and mud, yet looked very happy, he sat up; hugging his knees, he asked in astonishment, “Zhong Shao, why are you so happy?”
Kou Zhong sat cross-legged in front of him; he sighed and said, “I have never felt like I do this moment: that life is precious. When you see so many people died in front of you, you will know that being alive is truly a great miracle. I am not happy, I am just enjoying the pleasure of living. Hey! Do you know what I mean?”
Xu Ziling nodded, “Well said,” he said, “At least we still have a few days to enjoy life.”
Kou Zhong’s tiger-eyes flashed a cold ray; he said, “Although female demon Wanwan is more formidable than the Ol’ Die, killing us is still not going to be easy. What I am most afraid of is that she’d summon Yin Gui Pai’s martial art masters, or even ‘Empress Yin’, Zhu Yuyan. If that happened, our good luck is going to be finished. Do you have any good idea?”
Sneering, Xu Ziling said, “Looking at your demeanor, you already have a card up your sleeve. You’d better tell me quick!”
Kou Zhong smiled and said, “My plan can be divided into two parts. First, we must hide so that that female demon Wanwan cannot find us.”
Xu Ziling had a brainwave, “You mean we are going to wear Mr. Lu’s mask and become different persons?” he asked, “But if we are together, based on female demon Wanwan’s intelligence, she might still recognize our disguise.”
Kou Zhong replied, “There are so many wealthy people on the road running away from the war, we can find and join any group of people to travel together, so we won’t stick out like a sore thumb. Moreover, we can try to find Yucheng and the others at the same time. I hope they have not lost our salt!”
“And what is the second part?” Xu Ziling asked.
The murderous intention in Kou Zhong’s eyes flared up; he spoke hatefully, “If she did not die, then I perished. I will use whatever method to kill everybody from Yin Gui Pai, from top to bottom; or else I will write my name Kou Zhong, two characters, upside down. Do you have any objection?”
Recalling Shang Peng, Shang He and the others’ tragic death, Xu Ziling nodded and said, “Totally agree!”
Kou Zhong leaned forward a bit and lowered his voice, “That female demon Wanwan must have guessed that we are going north to Luoyang, and will try to rendezvous with Yucheng and the others. Therefore … ha! You ought to know … ha!”
Xu Ziling was surprised, “You are not thinking of using Yucheng and the others as a bait to lure Yin Gui Pai people out, are you? By doing that, won’t it mean that you are playing with Yucheng, four people’s lives?”
Shaking his head, Kou Zhong said, “This is called putting out all kinds of death to gain life later. Starting from today, we ought to study the Yijian Technique will all our heart and soul; otherwise, when we meet that female demon Wanwan later, we would only be throwing our lives in vain, and thus provoking her ridicule.”
Xu Ziling laughed aloud. He stood up and said, “How about taking a bath first before starting on our journey?”
※ ※ ※
A drizzle came down from the sky, the road became mud everywhere; wet and slippery and difficult to walk.
The two boys bought two sets of coarse hemp garment from a farmer in a small village about fifty li north of Jingling. After putting on their masks, they changed their shape in a single shake, becoming two gathering herbal medicine peasants, one old and one young, who were on their way back to Xiangyang along the Han River.
Xu Ziling became a fifty-something man with a goatee on his chin, the corners of his eyes, as well as his forehead, were full of wrinkles; an old man with embittered face. When he started to hunch his back, even Kou Zhong found it difficult to recognize him; he felt it odd, yet amusing.
Kou Zhong turned into a thirty-something man with a rough and ugly face, someone who looked like he knew martial art. He wrapped the Moon in the Well in oilcloth so that it would not reveal his background.
They galloped at full speed on the mountain and fields for two days before reaching the intersection of the official road leading to Xiangyang about three li away from the city, where they mingled with the travelers heading toward Xiangyang.
Suddenly they heard a rumble of hooves beat, more than a dozen men were galloping past, scaring the travelers that they scrambled to make way. It was only after the riders sped away that everybody was cursing and swearing.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling returned to the road to continue with their journey. The former said, “Looking at their clothing, that bunch of men must be Qian Duguan’s subordinates. From the way they are hurrying, perhaps they had just obtained the news of Jingling falling into Ol’ Die’s hands, and are rushing off to notify Qian Duguan. I am afraid that guy Old Qian won’t have any good sleep anymore!”
Xu Ziling said, “Isn’t Changshu Mou in collusion with Qian Duguan? Plus Changshu Mou is the Ol’ Die’s secret ally. By stretching this fact a little bit, perhaps Qian Duguan won’t have to be afraid of Ol’ Die?”
Kou Zhong looked up to the heavens to enjoy the comfortable feeling of the drizzle sprinkling down on his face. He said, “I think Qian Duguan simply does not wish to offend Tiele people, hence he gave free rein to Changshu Mou and his barbarians! Otherwise, that time he ought to join hands with Changshu Mou to deal with us. Although right now Ol’ Die has seized Jingling into his hands, but he suffered disastrous casualties, his strength took heavy beating; for the time being he is powerless to go up north. Qian Duguan will still have a few days he could pass merrily.”
Meanwhile the two boys were climbing over a small hill, the city of Xiangyang appeared far away beyond the hazy drizzle; there was some kind of unspeakable dreariness and lonely feeling surrounding it. Especially when they were thinking of the fall of Jingling, they felt that similarly for Xiangyang, a good thing would not last forever.
Kou Zhong laughed and said, “What should be the first thing we do upon entering the city?”
Shrugging his shoulders, Xu Ziling replied, “With the waterway heading south cut off, there must be a lot of people being stuck in Xiangyang; trying to find a place to stay will be extremely difficult. Let’s see if Yucheng and the others left any marks in the city; if they did not, we’ll leave the city immediately, so that we won’t waste valuable time.”
Patting the Moon in the Well on his back, Kou Zhong stretched his waist and said, “I suddenly feel my hands are itchy; I want to cause havoc a little bit.”
“What?” Xu Ziling blurted out.
Kou Zhong smiled, “Nothing,” he said, “Let’s enter the city first, we’ll talk later.”