Book 16 Chapter 1 – On The Tianjin Bridge
Wanwan looked like something that appear in a dream or in fantasy; her pair of beautiful eyes, which rippled like the most fragrant, the richest wine, seemed to be completely oblivious of the men, women, young and old, who were falling over each other in all direction to seek refuge from the terrifying atmosphere. Her gaze was fixed at Ba Fenghan, who had just stepped onto the Bridge, at least a hundred paces away from her. Her jade countenance was as calm as still water.
Kou Zhong was falling about ten steps behind Ba Fenghan. He had his eyes on the passers-by, who were running on both sides of the Tianjin Bridge, either toward or away from them. By the time Ba Fenghan, with his fantastic footwork, stopped about twenty paces away from where Wanwan was standing, aside from these two man and woman standing opposite of each other, there was only one person remained on the Tianjin Bridge, Kou Zhong, whom Ba Fenghan asked to hold his troops.
Wanwan nodded slightly at Ba Fenghan. Seemingly with infinite regret, she sighed tenderly and said, “Ba Xiong actually has a chance to advance into the rank of the world’s top grand masters of martial art. It’s a pity you show no understanding of the times, by making a vain attempt of a praying mantis raising its arm to block a horse-drawn carriage, which will result in your demise. You have only yourself to blame, it is not anybody else’s fault.”
Before Ba Fenghan could answer, Kou Zhong, who was sitting leisurely on the bridge’s railing, burst out laughing, “What a joke. From among our many encounters, which one Wan Daxiaojie [big miss/Miss High and Mighty] did not act like you were about to swallow us whole, yet which one you did not toss your armor and abandon your troops to run away to the wilderness? Shame on you for audaciously tooting your horn; isn’t that the biggest joke in the world?”
Wanwan’s jet-black eyebrows were slightly knitted; turning to Kou Zhong, she said, “The most important thing is to know oneself. Maybe Kou Xiong will refuse to believe, but every time nujia made my move against you in the past, I always left some leeway for you. The reason nujia refrained from shooting at the rat for fear of breaking the vases is, quite naturally, for the ‘Duke Yang Treasure’. But now, even if I kill both of you, there is still Xu Ziling who knows the secret, hence I don’t have to show mercy; I will let you experience the consummate skill of ‘Tian Mo Mi’ [demonic/devil secret].”
Both Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan cried inwardly, ‘This female demon is formidable’.
Kou Zhong’s remark was absolutely not a shooting-without-aiming ridicule; he just wanted to remind Wanwan about a number of times she retreated in defeat, with the hope that her confidence would suffer a huge setback.
Who would have thought that in just a few words, the verbal attack vanished, and instead, she made the two men feel that previously she really did not use her full capability, and this time it would be entirely different.
Wanwan continued by smiling sweetly and said, “If you think that just with the two of you, you can pin us, Yin Gui Pai, down in here, to let Xu Ziling transport someone out of town, now that is the biggest joke in the world.”
She was smiling coyly and spoke in a very soft voice, but in the two men’s ears, it was like a thunder from a clear sky.
Ba Fenghan suddenly felt Wanwan’s momentum grew; hastily he took a deep breath to calm his mind, before speaking in heavy voice, “Isn’t Yin Gui Pai being too excessive here? Right now Junyu’s life or death is hard to tell, but you’re still unwilling to let her go. Do you really want her dead before you are satisfied?”
Inwardly, Wanwan was greatly astounded.
Ba Fenghan has always been arrogant and strong-willed; he had never said this kind of words, which sounded a bit like he was pleading for leniency.
Right this moment, Ba Fenghan’s murderous aura surged. Like a flash of lightning the Beheading Mystery Sword dashed forward, followed by his body, in rapid movement, careened sideways while the sword sliced across horizontally.
Originally, Kou Zhong was slightly confused as well, but now that he saw the dramatic increase in Ba Fenghan’s power, plus how he took the initiative to attack, he suddenly understood.
Ba Fenghan grew up among the horse thieves; in all his life he has been challenging all kinds of authority, and Yin Gui Pai was the supreme authority among the heretical sects and demonic schools.
Ba Fenghan’s arguments were to arouse his fighting spirit against Wanwan’s intolerable bullying, also to stir up the righteous indignation in his heart and awaken his aspiration to protect the small and the weak; hence the rainbow-like momentum of his attack carried some ‘hatred’ in it.
Two streams of white ribbon flew out from inside Wanwan wide sleeves, left and right, while simultaneously the big toe of her right foot pushed the ground, acting as the pin on which her entire tender body spun like a gyroscope.
In fantastic, graceful and amazing movements her pair of slender lily-white hands waved the ribbons, back and forth and crossing each other, weaving a magical, indeterminately changing, brimming with waves of beauty, perfectly round, white net, with her in the center, which has turned into a blur of white shadow, like a marvelous demonic dance.
Such a demonic skill, certainly it was unheard of, and certainly it has never been seen before.
At first Ba Fenghan still had the intention to advance courageously and risk his life, but in this frightening instant he suddenly had dejected feeling of not knowing where to start.
It should be noted that when martial art masters were fighting each other, advancing to attack or retreating to defend must be done in lightning-fast, flying-sparks moment of the gap in the opponent’s movement, in order to hit the opposite site’s vital part, or perhaps to force the opponent to withdraw the cutting edge of his attack.
But now the ‘circular’ characteristic Wanwan was displaying has already reached great heights, she was weaving an even and uniform net protecting her body, which practically did not have any gap or weak spot to be exploited, making him felt at a loss as for where to attack.
If he attacked presumptuously, he would only drive himself to failure.
Even with Ba Fenghan’s dauntless character, unexpectedly he was forced to jump back to evade.
Kou Zhong could only stare blankly as well.
The ribbon suddenly disappeared back into Wanwan’s gauzed sleeves.
Having fought with Wanwan several times before, even until this moment they still could not grasp Wanwan’s foundation, so much so that they still could not understand which weapon she was an expert in. They only knew that sometimes she was using her delicate hands to resist the enemy, or perhaps brandishing a pair of short blades ‘Tian Mo Shuang Zhan’ [lit. demonic double-beheading], or maybe a single ribbon or double ribbons, or floating fragrant gauzed sleeves; more and more emerged, the variation was limitless, the changes were profoundly orthodox mixed with fantastically demonic, rendering the opponent incapable of drafting a counterstrategy in advance.
In short, anything she conveniently used would be amazing, unconstraint killer move.
This moment, as soon as she wanted to stop, she stopped; the contrast between static and dynamic already made Ba Fenghan, who was standing in the vicinity, as well as Kou Zhong, who was sitting as a spectator, felt the chill creeping in their hearts.
The strangest thing was that all passers-by on the Heavenly Street, extending to the north and to the south, on both ends of the Tianjin Bridge, were completely gone; no one had the courage to stay to watch the action. And there were two big ships, separately moored along the dikes by the Bridge on both sides of River Luo; this moment there was no lantern, no firelight. Both ships were pitch-black, without a single human shadow on them, so that the ships appeared mysterious; definitely not a good sign.
This kind of unusual and bizarre situation could only happen not by coincidence.
Wanwan definitely did not come alone. Someone must have acted on her behalf to ‘clear the surrounding area’, as well as to setup a net around them, with the sole purpose of killing the two men.
Even the waterway traffic from both sides was cut off.
The situation was clearly very disadvantageous for the duo!
With her chilling confidence, Wanwan fixed her gaze on Ba Fenghan, who had retreated from where he originally stood; sighing grimly, she said, “Didn’t you guys always pose as people with outstanding intelligence? How could you not know that no matter what, we will never allow Fu Junyu to return to Gaoli?”
Her remark has confirmed their suspicion.
It was for the ‘Duke Yang Treasure’ that Yin Gui Pai captured Fu Junyu, and used thousand ways, a hundred plans to keep it a secret; precisely the same as they stole the Jade Annulus of He Clan, and categorically denied that they did it, because the consequences would be too serious.
Although Yin Gui Pai ran amuck all over the world without any scruple, they still feel deeply afraid of ‘Yijian Dashi’ Fu Cailin, one of the three top martial art masters of the world. They did not wish to provoke him for inconsequential reason, and thus incurred endless trouble later on.
Now that Kou Zhong and the others plucked Fu Junyu from danger, it was tantamount to someone else had reaped their stolen goods. Under this circumstance, naturally Yin Gui Pai would spare no effort in killing them to shut their mouth, so that Fu Cailin would never know about it.
It was also the reason Wanwan did not allow anybody else to be in the vicinity to ‘sit and listen’; they were taking all kinds of measure to prevent the news from leaking.
Were it not for Shi Feixuan was injured and was returning to Jing Nian Chanyuan to recover, Yin Gui Pai would not dare to run wild like right now.
Only this moment did Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan realize their dire situation.
“It’s bad!” Song Shidao blurted out.
Xu Ziling was frowning deeply, while silently mulling over the contradiction in his heart; it was a difficult decision to make.
Song Shidao said to Ren En, “Would Ren Bangzhu please instruct all members and officers under your command to immediately lay down the flag and still the drum, and cease all operations? Also, it is not advisable for Ren Bangzhu to come and see us anymore; later on, depending on the situation, we will come to you.”
Ren En was stunned, “Surely it is not that serious, is it?” he asked.
Sighing, Song Shidao replied, “It is far more serious than you think! By doing that, Xiao Zhong and Ba Xiong practically tell the enemy that we are going to leave the city immediately; the other side will definitely do everything they can to stop us. And Ren Bangzhu must never let the opponent know that you have a part in this affair.”
Ren En was moved, “Er Gongzi is a true friend indeed,” he said, “I will quietly wait for the good news, waiting for further instruction from Er Gongzi.”
After Ren En left, Xu Ziling asked, “How will Yin Gui Pai react?”
Analyzing the situation, Song Shidao said, “Yin Gui Pai is a number one big Sect with nearly a thousand-year history, but the problem they are facing presently is hard for them to swallow. The fact is, they cannot allow anybody, especially Fu Cailin, to know that they have captured Junyu; therefore, unleashing the thousand-catty-thunderbolt momentum, they will try to annihilate Xiao Zhong and Fenghan, two men, while at the same time they will do everything they can to intercept us. Since they already have their main force in Luoyang to deal with Shi Feixuan, dealing with us should be like ‘handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease’.”
Pondering deeply, Xu Ziling said, “We still have at least one advantage, which is the opponent still did not know that we have Er Gongzi here helping us. Therefore, if I appear right now, they must have thought that I had hidden Yu Yi somewhere save first before coming out to stake my life against them. Hence Er Gongzi’s chance to escape will greatly increase.”
Sighing, Song Shidao said, “Perhaps it is going to be just a bit better. Ay! I might as well go with you, and we fight hand-in-hand together with those two! I can hand Junyu over to Lu Shu [uncle]; he will have a way to bring her back to Gaoli.”
Xu Ziling was about to speak when suddenly the alarm went off in his heart.
Song Shidao also felt it somewhat.
A sweet-sounding female voice rang out from outside the cabin, “Xu Ziling! I have something to tell you.”
※ ※ ※
The tip of Ba Fenghan’s sword was pointing down, but his eyes shot incomparably sharp bright light, as he stared at Wanwan and said, “I wonder if there is more to Miss Wan’s pair of flying ribbons than meets the eye.”
The ribbons were only about one cun wide [about an inch], but they seemed to be able to extend and retract like an elastic material. The length could be up to three zhang, and were extremely difficult to guard against.
With pained expression in her beautiful eyes Wanwan gazed deeply into Ba Fenghan’s eyes; she spoke softly, “At first glance, nujia’s ribbon appeared to be a pair, but it is actually only one strip; it is called ‘Bai Yun Piao’ [floating white cloud]. When Ba Xiong arrive at the Yellow Springs [i.e. netherworld], you must not forget.”
Ba Fenghan appeared unconcerned; he casually asked, “I wonder what material was it made of?”
Wanwan smiled and said, “Some things are better to be kept in mystery; why don’t Ba Xiong try to guess?”
Sitting on the side, Kou Zhong felt strange; in this kind of swords-drawn-and-bows-bent, arrows-on-strung-bows-ready-to-be-shot moment, why would Ba Fenghan, who has always been straightforward and decisive, haggle over every ounce of what material the opponent’s weapon was made of?
Naturally Kou Zhong knew that based on Ba Fenghan’s character, he could not possibly shoot without aiming.
Wanwan sighed faintly.
It did not matter which expression Wanwan was showing, each one was able to show her thrilling innermost feeling. Combined with her magnificent beauty and alluring charm, which was unmatched in her generation, she was displaying ten thousand kind of flirtatious expressions, which dazzled and intoxicated men.
Even though Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong were standing in hostility against her, and they were perfectly clear that she was vicious and merciless, able to murder without blinking an eye, they still could not help having some kind of warms-the-heart-and-delight-the-eye feeling.
Her vermillion lips opened slightly as she said, “Perhaps you won’t believe me, but nujia really have a bit of reluctance in destroying you. After you’re gone, Wanwan will be lost and lonely, yet I cannot but making my move against you, hence my heart is extremely contradictory. Ay! En Garde!”
The bluish green sleeves rose up, exposing a pair of flickering short blades, the ‘Demonic Double-Beheading’.
Ba Fenghan’s Beheading Mystery Sword still had a chance to attack, Wanwan already dashed to within eight chi in front of his body.
Like two demonic viper’s tongues the Double-Beheading darted forward, in a style that the opponent was unable to guess it drew a fantastic, mysterious arc in the air, striking toward Ba Fenghan.
Wanwan beautiful hair, which was originally draped over her fragrant shoulders, suddenly fluttered in the air; it was both very moving and incomparably weird.
The air surrounding her seemed to be suddenly sucked out, so that it was as if the space about two zhang in diameter around them turned into a bottomless hole.
It was the first time that Ba Fenghan felt the terrifying power of Wanwan’s full-strength attack.
She did not lie.
The previous several times she was definitely leaving some leeway.
In this life and death crisis, Ba Fenghan’s heart was extraordinarily calm instead; there was not a shred of fear of the opponent’s overbearing prowess.
In the blink of an eye, the meridians and true qi inside his body, which was transformed by the Jade Annulus of He Clan, rapidly climbed up to its limit.
His eyes lit up; he clearly grasped every subtle movement of the Demonic Double-Beheading, which in most people’s eyes was just like phantom shadow.
In that moment of life and death duel, a strange feeling rose up in his heart.
He felt that the true qi within Wanwan’s system was changing continuously, it was shifting around incessantly; sometimes it was concentrated on the Demonic Double-Beheading in her right hand, but suddenly it shifted toward her delicate foot, demonstrating her ability to alter her style and killer move of her attack in lightning-speed, sparks-fly speed.
This kind of demonic skill was certainly terrifying to the extreme.
Ba Fenghan suddenly retreating half a zhang backward, before dashing forward to counterattack.
The suffocating swift and fierce sword qi like a bolt of lightning breaking through the dark, dense cloud met the ferocious killer attack coming at him, unleashed by the most outstanding successor among Yin Gui Pai’s new generation’s disciples, head on.
※ ※ ※
Xu Ziling stepped out of the cabin.
In the dim light from the flickering lanterns on the ships and boats moored in the darkness along River Luo’s both banks, a beautiful and graceful figure was standing on the bow, with her back against Xu Ziling. She was wearing tight warrior outfit, with an ancient, ornamented sword hanging on her back.
Xu Ziling was stunned, “Turns out it is really the Princess honoring me with your fragrant self’s presence.”
Dong Ming Princess spoke indifferently, “You did not recognize my voice?”
Xu Ziling walked over toward her and stopped when he was about half a zhang away from her. With his hands behind his back, he said, “How could I not recognize your voice? I just could not believe my ears! May I ask how did Princess know that Zaixia is in here?”
Shan Wanjing answered the question with a question, “Xu Ziling, do you trust me?”
Xu Ziling stared blankly for half a day.
This simple question was actually very hard to answer.
It’s not that he did not trust her reason, but he could not put his absolute trust on her either.
After all, the relationship between them has not been too harmonious.
Displeased, Shan Wanjing said, “A hero and a real man, unexpectedly his mind is this narrow?”
Smiling ruefully, Xu Ziling replied, “Princess, please calm down. I just did not understand what you really mean by that question! Nothing more.”
His smile was free and at ease, and very pleasant. With that kind of smile on his handsome face with slightly melancholy expression, he exuded some kind of extraordinarily touching charm that no one could ever surpass.
Shan Wanjing’s fragrant heart trembled; unexpectedly she was unable to say anything.
Xu Ziling’s eyes emitted an intelligent and clear light. Fixing his gaze at her, he spoke tenderly, “I have never thought that Princess would harm me; would that be enough to prove that I trust you?”
Shan Wanjing was somewhat afraid that his sharp eyes would be able to see the chaos in her fragrant heart; she weakly hung her cicada head down and said softly, “In that case, can you tell me why Yin Gui Pai people are doing everything they can to find you?”
Xu Ziling replied, “Because we succeeded in rescuing Yu Yi back from their hands.”
And then he explained the impossible situation they were facing at the moment.
Finished listening, Shan Wanjing said, “Turns out you have the Song Family’s Er Gongzi helping you in secret. No wonder you managed to accomplish such an impossible thing.”
After pondering silently for half a day, she sighed and said, “Now I am afraid only us will be able to send her out of the city. The reasoning behind this is difficult to explain in a few words; in short, my Niang is one of a few people Zhu Yuyan is afraid of, plus she has deep knowledge of their methods.”
After casting a faint glance at him, she went on, “Originally I wanted you to hand over the Jade Annulus of He Clan in return. But if I took advantage of your precarious position, I knew you would hate me even more. All right! Leave her to me! Quickly go to Tianjin Bridge to fight alongside your two brothers! They are intercepted by Yin Gui Pai and are about to be killed!”
Shocked, Xu Ziling stared blankly at her for half a day.
Song Shidao’s voice came out from the cabin, “Ziling, just go!”
Xu Ziling raised his cupped fist to salute Shan Wanjing, and then leaped ashore and flew away.