Chapter 1 – Unrivaled Lightness Skill
Making a prompt decision, Kou Zhong shouted, “Ling Shao, catch her one more time.”
While saying that, he rose up and shot nearly seven zhang into the air. Immediately he was able to catch the entire cliff, as well as the surrounding mountain ridge filled with various trees and bushes, in his vision. He caught a glimpse of a quick-like-a-light-smoke shadow flashed out of the hillside, sweeping toward Lian Rou.
Letting out a long laugh, Kou Zhong unleashed the ‘Strike Strange’ of the ‘Eight Methods of the Well’. The Moon in the Well turned into a streak of yellow light illuminating the late night sky, striking toward the newcomer.
The tacit understanding between Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong could be considered unparalleled under the heavens. Before the words were even out of Kou Zhong’s mouth, he already ‘swam’ toward Lian Rou. Since he already had experience dealing with Lian Rou, he took this heavy responsibility upon himself. If he was able to put Lian Rou under his control, then they would be able to negotiate with Yun Shuai and the large number of martial art masters under Zhu Can’s command who would eventually follow him here.
Even if the plan did not work, they could at least buy some more time to give Tuli the opportunity to recover. At that time, if they had to meet force with force they would have a bit more capital.
This woman’s qinggong was superior; he has had a taste of it. Even inside the secret room, where it was difficult to unleash the full capability of her skill, she still made him rack his brains. He must take advantage of the fact that she has not seen through his foundation and take a risk and rely on his luck to achieve success.
But currently she was deliberately dodging, while waiting for her father’s esteemed presence, so that the degree of difficulty this time was totally different.
One thing that he and Kou Zhong were extremely close to each other was that they were not afraid of difficulty and challenge. When facing a nearly impossible matter, his spirit would rise to its peak. Only unexpectedly this time he was doing it for the Tujue’s Tuli Khan. If a few days ago someone predicted this would happen, he would definitely scoff at it.
Lian Rou’s eyes shot bright light as she watched attentively at the style with which Xu Ziling was coming at her. Her jet-black eyebrows were tightly knitted; it appeared that she was at a lost.
She saw Xu Ziling was flashing to the left and right; he seemed to be moving in a straight line, but with twists and turns, as well as curves, hidden within it, which were more ingenious than a simple turn. If this kind of movement appeared on the attack path of a weapon, it could be considered reaching great expert level already. But appearing on a shenfa [reminder: pose/movement in martial art], it shocked and horrified Lian Rou, who herself knew exceptional qinggong handed down in her family, so that momentarily she did not know where to evade.
Xu Ziling’s appearing to be slow, but seemed to be fast – movement made her feel that no matter which direction she was dodging, she might fall into the opponent’s calculation. The only way out was perhaps to move back at top speed and flip over to the hillside, and then engage him in desperate battle of leg power and shenfa. But if Xu Ziling did not press on but joined hands with Kou Zhong to deal with Yun Shuai, the turn of events would be extremely bad.
Although she had full confidence in her father’s ability, she was fully aware that no one in the world was able to withstand Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s combined power. The greater temptation for her was that if they, father and daughter, were able to hold off the two boys for half a day to wait for their reinforcements’ arrival, then they could either capture or kill the three men on this dangerous cliff and mountain range [I thought she was unaware of Tuli’s presence, but the text says ‘three’], and then they could do whatever they please.
Therefore, no pen and ink could describe the contradiction and anxiety in her fragrant heart at this moment.
Xu Ziling was precisely observing this situation. He wanted to force Lian Rou to make her move and fight hard, which, to a certain degree, would open up some kind of situation similar to the secret chamber.
In an instant he slid into Lian Rou’s left side, to another big rock separated from her only by about a zhang distance. Both of his hands repeatedly performed the Inner Bound and Outer Bound, two images. Astonishing qi power formed a burst of wild, violent-without-equal force field, the full-forced true qi blowing her clothes fluttering, attacking Lian Rou, who was like a goddess standing against the wind.
At the same time, on the hilltop about ten zhang away on the other side, Kou Zhong’s saber qi was closing in on Yun Shuai, who was rushing up the hill. He had witnessed Yun Shuai’s unrivalled-under-the-heavens shenfa, he knew that compared to Yun Shuai’s qinggong, his was just a joke. The only way was by relying on the subtle qi to draw him into a hard battle that he had a free hand from the start, so that he could not escape.
Perhaps his speed could not match Yun Shuai’s, but he was certain that his saber qi could keep up with whatever change of shenfa he made. Moreover, if Yun Shuai were not so keen to rescue his daughter, Kou Zhong would be unable to create this kind of favorable situation.
Yun Shuai suddenly stood still, as still as a deep pool or high mountain.
It should be noted that he was flying up as fast as a shooting star from the hillside toward the edge of the mountain range, and was able to stop as soon as he wanted to stop. Although if he rapidly took a breath Kou Zhong would barely able to do the same, it would be extremely difficult to copy his lifting-heavy-as-if-light, natural-and-unrestrained style.
Just from this point, it was clear that in term of qinggong, he was at least a notch above Kou Zhong, even with the breakthrough he has just obtained.
Yun Shuai waved his right hand, an exotic weapon, shaped like crescent moon, glittering gold, looked like a saber but not exactly a saber, looked like a sword but not exactly a sword – appeared in it. Looking up, he stared at Kou Zhong.
The two men stood face-to-face in the wind.
Yun Shuai was the kind of person who, once you’ve seen him, he would be hard to forget. His build was not tall and sturdy at all, rather, he was tall, straight, confident and at ease. From head to foot, he exuded extraordinary power and grand personality traits. His outward appearance looked like he was Lian Rou’s brother, only a few years older than she was.
But his most attractive feature was his pair of deep, gentle and soft, slightly exuding blue color, eyes. His comparatively erect aquiline nose made a clear-cut contrast with his firm and persistent corners of his mouth, giving the impression of he had both the iron-blooded means and the passionate heart inside.
Kou Zhong’s saber struck down.
‘Ding!’
Yun Shuai’s crescent moon saber changed into a streak of lightning-fast golden ray, hacking at an angle on the Moon in the Well.
Saber qi dissipated immediately.
Immediately Yun Shuai was severely shaken; he swayed backward. Kou Zhong was also jolted by the reaction force; he flew backward.
The outcome of this battle was really beyond both sides’ expectation.
For Kou Zhong, it did not matter how formidable Yun Shuai was, at most he could only neutralize his saber move. And he was going to use the more than a hundred saber strikes of the ‘Battle Decision’ in succession, which would guarantee that he would be able to entangle the opponent to his heart’s content, so that he would not be able to get away. Who would have thought that Yun Shuai’s saber move appeared to meet the attack head-on, but it was actually an extremely brilliant move to deflect the attack? It could borrow strength to counter strength, and could send Kou Zhong toward the back of the hillside.
Frightened, Kou Zhong promptly took a breath and shifted his shadow, and simply raised his qi to pull back; but because of this, all the follow-up moves he planned went down the drain.
Yun Shuai also suffered big loss on what he had already planned. He already had a very high assessment of Kou Zhong’s skill, but he thought that no matter how brilliant Kou Zhong’s martial art was, it would be difficult to block the accumulation of nearly sixty years of his power. Who would have thought that when they met force against force, unexpectedly he did not obtain the slightest bit of advantage? Without any need of explanation, the shock in his heart could be clearly imagined.
Within a period of two breaths, he was eventually able to neutralize Kou Zhong’s qi power invading his body. By this time Kou Zhong also somersaulted onto a horizontal branch of an old pine tree, standing with a stance ready for the next round, making him losing the opportunity to rescue his beloved daughter.
Yun Shuai soared at an angle and made his move with all his strength. Xu Ziling and Lian Rou’s fight also entered the climax [orig. white-hot (referring to fire)].
If Xu Ziling, with heart and soul, wanted to kill Lian Rou, this moment this Persian beauty would either be dead or gravely injured. During the fight in the secret room that day, Xu Ziling could defeat her easily. After learning the Buddhist school’s unfathomable-mystery Incantation Hand Image and defeating the ‘Heavenly Lord’ Xi Ying, the distance between the two has significantly grown apart.
But capturing Lian Rou alive was another matter altogether. Moreover, amazing skills and strange moves were coming out from her one after another, in perfect harmony with the qinggong that Yun Shuai personally taught her, resulting in Xu Ziling could not help feeling big headache.
After evading her howling-wind-and-torrential-rain, never-came-from-the-same-angle-and-position attack, could-be-hard-could-be-soft, flexible sword’s eighteen moves in succession, Xu Ziling was finally able to open-the-cloud-to-see-the-moon, to see the method she had inside her brains, hence by unleashing the ‘using the man to play the sword, using the sword to play the enemy’ move, his palm swept across.
‘Dang!’
In the middle of Lian Rou’s tender shout, the flexible sword was squarely hit; it flew off her hand and fell into the rock crevice.
Letting out a long laugh, Xu Ziling lunged forward at lightning speed, and stretched out his finger to jab her left Jianjing acupoint, which was a vital acupoint.
Lian Rou was worthy to receive Yun Shuai’s handed-down teachings. Although the qi and blood in half of her body could not flow freely, so that it was unbearably aching and numb, her tender body could still bend backward with her face up, to evade the finger wind dangerously closely, and then she flew at an angle, passing through the gap between two horizontal branches of an old pine tree behind her, and straight toward the cliff. Her posture was beautiful to the extreme.
But Xu Ziling did not have the mood to admire it. Soaring at an angle, he flitted across from the tip of the old pine tree, pursuing closely, only about a zhang behind the turning-over-without-resting Lian Rou. If he could grab the position she was going to make her move, then he was confident that he could catch her hand within several moves.
In the air, Kou Zhong and Yun Shuai, using fast-beyond-human-comprehension techniques, exchanged three moves, before falling onto a piece of huge rock on the cliff, and continuing their close-ranged combat.
Even with Kou Zhong’s skill level, he was still sweating profusely dealing with Yun Shuai’s demon-like, hard-to-fathom shenfa and moves. If Kou Zhong did not obtain the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que’s enlightenment, which was given with great care, perhaps he would have been defeated and perished early on.
Not only Yun Shuai’s power was deep, the most difficult to deal with was his enigmatic shenfa, combined with his crescent-moon, strange saber, which could produce unexpected changes, so that it was extremely strenuous for him.
The crescent moon saber was like clump after clump of soul-snatching golden clouds, producing rain and gale, which moved left and right, front and back, indeterminately, shaking and attacking Kou Zhong violently, without giving him the slightest bit of opportunity to take a breather.
But Yun Shuai was even more shocked. Although he occupied the upper hand, yet each time, with a hairsbreadth difference, using abstruse, bizarre shenfa, Kou Zhong was able to escape through the cracks between his finger, which he was originally full of confidence that he would succeed.
His eyesight was superior; he judged correctly that Kou Zhong was taking advantage of the ingenious true qi circulation and transformation within his body to create positive and negative, two streams of power, which enabled him to shift shadow and change position at will. However, his knowledge remained only a knowledge; he was completely at a loss on how to deal with it. Hence it would be strange indeed if he was not amazed.
It should be noted that he was a Persian martial art grand master. After entering the Western Tujue, he also developed new martial art skill based on select Tujue martial art, so his skill was not a small matter at all. Who would have thought that upon encountering Kou Zhong, this young kid, even after going all-out, he was still unable to put him under control?
Supposing this situation lasted for a long period of time, it would be a disgrace to him. Thinking of this, his murderous intent flared out.
‘Dang!’
After bending his body backward to dodge his cutting-horizontally saber strike, Kou Zhong suddenly bent his waist and shot out, while sending out a fierce hack onto his head.
Yun Shuai pulled his saber back to block, only to feel Kou Zhong’s power was bursting violently like a breaking out mountain flash flood. Letting out a stifled grunt, he let his saber swing backward to unload the impact force, while spinning his body around at the same time.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “I knew you have this move.”
Yun Shuai only felt that Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well suddenly changed from full-of-qi-power-coursing-through-it, heavier-than-ten-thousand-catties, to become empty and fluttering. Not only there was no force to unload, it also forced him apply his own force incorrectly. Very shocked inwardly, he moved backward abruptly to evade Kou Zhong’s saber strikes, which came one after another. The crescent moon saber in his hand turned into ten thousand rolls of golden light, in mercury-flows-out-swiftly, no-crack-not-entered aggressive violent attack toward Kou Zhong in another round of intense offensive moves.
This set of saber technique was the skill that Yun Shuai stored at the bottom of his chest; it was called ‘Yan Yang Ren Fa’ [colorful yang (or ‘sun’) blade technique], which referred to the saber technique like the sunshine, like the colorful sun in the sky shining its noble light onto the big earth, the sunlight bathing all things under the heavens with its brilliant radiance, nothing can either resist or avoid it. The entire set of blade technique was made up of 1003 styles. Each time he used one move, there would be distinct xinfa, shenfa, and footwork accompanying it. Ever since he created and mastered this technique at the age of forty, he had never met any match.
The most outstanding part was that each time he raised a mouthful of qi, he could launch ten saber strikes in succession before taking another breath. Therefore, the saber technique was swift and winding like the sunshine. Even though the opponent’s power was more profound than his, the opponent would be defeated for sure because his speed could not compare to his speed.
Kou Zhong was able to force him in such a way that he did not hesitate to waste his true power, to use this set of ‘Yan Yang Ren Fa’ in full confidence.
But Kou Zhong had no time to be complacent either; the little bit of advantage that he struggled to regain immediately melted like ice and broke like tiles. Momentarily golden light was everywhere, saber qi assaulted his face. Forget about being able to see clearly the opponent’s moves and technique, even distinguishing between which one was empty and which one was real was already a big problem for him.
It was like Yun Shuai has turned into a wisp of weightless smoke, floating and swaying along the blowing mountain breeze, each time continuously changing position, each time attacking the gaps and targeting his weak points from unexpected angle.
Kou Zhong no longer relied on his eyes; he could only rely on his intuition, unleashing everything with all he had, resisting the hiding-the-sky-and-covering-the-earth attack of his strange blade, and the huge, unmatched, gradually increasing qi power pressing down on his head.
The sound of clashing blades lingered on faintly.
Kou Zhong was like a nail defending a chi-square ground [1 chi is approx. 1 ft or 1/3 m]; he would neither withdraw nor dodge to the death. Deep in his heart he knew that if he competed in shenfa with this dreadful opponent, he would only hasten the moment of his defeat.
The moment Yun Shuai took the fifth mouthful of qi to launch the forty-first style, he suddenly heard his beloved daughter Lian Rou’s tender cry. Yun Shuai had no choice but to fiercely hack down, before abandoning Kou Zhong and soaring into the air, while crying inwardly, ‘What a pity!’
However, even if he were able to kill Kou Zhong, but his daughter’s little life could not be preserved, it would not be worthwhile. All along, he has been able to rely on his brilliant eyesight to quickly see through what was true and what was false on the opponent, and then use strange move to defeat the enemy. Yet up to this moment, it was like Kou Zhong was a deep pool which bottom could not be fathomed; oftentimes he was so sure that his saber move would make a kill, but in the end he still failed to harm even half a strand of the opponent’s hair.
To a conceited man like Yun Shuai, this kind of helpless feeling was really unbearable.
He was occupying the active position; as soon as he wanted to withdraw he simply withdrew, Kou Zhong practically had no way of stopping him.
Xu Ziling had just pursued to the top of the cliff and struck down from high up in the air; who would have thought that realizing she was no match for the opponent, unexpectedly Lian Rou withdrew to the edge of the cliff and cried out tenderly, “Don’t come closer, otherwise nujia will jump down to die for you to see.”
Xu Ziling landed about a zhang in front of her, but before he even had a chance to open his mouth, Lian Rou unexpectedly flew with both palms extended in all-out counterattack. At the same time, there was a blade qi pressing down from the sky onto his back, followed by Kou Zhong’s shout from a distance, “Ling Shao, watch out, Ol’ Yun is coming!”
In an instant, from occupying the upper hand, he sank into the inferior position where his abdomen and back was threatened by the enemy. If it were ordinary martial art master, he might flash sideways to evade this desperately serious [orig. burning one’s eyebrows] situation first. But if he did that, father and daughter might seize the opportunity to join hands to attack him, and that would be extremely difficult to block. Quite possibly before Kou Zhong even arrived to help, he might have breathed his last first.
Furthermore, he was very clear that if he met their, father and daughter’s seamless heavenly clothes pincer attack, Kou Zhong would be able to catch up in time. Therefore, Xu Ziling let out a cold humph and turned around to meet Lian Rou, who was attacking from the cliff edge, with his back, as if he was deliberately sending himself up as a target for her to practice her palm power.
Even with her crafty, loved-to-bluff nature, Lian Rou could not help but was stunned; how could there be such a suicidal style in the world?
Xu Ziling’s pair of tiger-eyes was immediately filled by Yun Shuai’s crescent moon blade’s golden light. This strange golden blade’s movement was following a trajectory, which could bring out the optimum performance of its unique structure. From the top going down, it drew a breaking-the-mountain wind, with the enormous pressure that could destroy and burst the opponent’s meridians, which assaulted him even before Yun Shuai himself arrived.
Xu Ziling could not help crying ‘Lucky!’ inwardly. If he had divided half of his spirit and qi power to deal with this fast-and-abstruse, launched-at-full-strength, saber strike, he would definitely end up dead or at least injured.
Lian Rou’s pair of delicate palms was only about three chi away from his back. If her palms really struck his back, it would be guaranteed that any true qi protecting his body would not work.
‘Duo!’
Suddenly he let out an incantation. It sounded like it came from the Ninth Heaven, but it also sounded like the explosion of a thunder on the plains. Both Yun Shuai and Lian Rou did not have time to guard against it; their eardrums were buzzing, their mind was shaken.
Clearly Lian Rou was affected more significantly than Yun Shuai; her tender body was severely shaken, her shenfa slowed down, her original speed was reduced a fraction of a second before her palms imprinted Xu Ziling’s back.
Xu Ziling unleashed his old skill; first, he copied the Luohan extending all four limbs of his body, distributing more than half of the true qi invading his body out via the fingertips of his four limbs, and then he spun around and like magic he was suddenly behind Lian Rou’s silky back.
Immediately Lian Rou’s soul flew away and scattered. Just now, as the sound was still shaking her ears, both of her palms struck Xu Ziling’s broad back at the same time, and the most difficult thing for her to understand happened.
In the blink of an eye, it looked like Xu Ziling’s outer robe lightly shook three times, but Lian Rou’s sensitive hands clearly felt that this delicate-and-pretty, handsome-and-mighty, intimidating Han young martial art master’s robe actually continuously inflated and deflated more than three times. Each time it shook her palm power and dissipated some of it, so that by the time both of her palms struck his back, the power remaining on her palms was unexpectedly less than fifty-percent of her original power.
In particular, it was a feeling of having enough strength, but fail to produce any result, like trying to grab a loach falling into the mud. The more force is exerted, the faster the loach would slip away from the grasp.
Too late to change her move, she turned her face around, no longer facing Xu Ziling’s back, but her father’s crescent moon saber hacking down on her face like the sun in the sky.
Xu Ziling cried ‘Lucky!’ inwardly. If he did not copy the Great JinGang Chakra image method, as well as borrowed the fantastic true qi within his body to ‘circulate’ the Great JinGang Chakra three times, there was no way he would be able to neutralize Lian Rou’s swift and severe palm power. Taking advantage of the brief pause while Lian Rou was staggering backward, he rapidly circulate the true qi in his body and turned it into the qi power invading Lian Rou’s body. And then by the time he withdrew about five chi away from Lian Rou’s tender body, his true qi already recovered completely.
Naturally he did not want to miss this one-in-a-thousand-years golden opportunity to capture the enemy. Swiftly coming to a stand, he spun around, his right hand reached out, he spread out his fingers into a claw across the empty air toward Lian Rou, who was meeting her father’s saber. All five fingers generated sucking force. As long as Lian Rou reacted instinctively by evading her father’s blade light, he would be able to make his momentum to work by pulling her hand into his claw, and thus accomplishing this extremely possible ‘wonderful thing’ in this near impossible situation.
Reversing defense to become an offense.
Kou Zhong and his saber became one entity. From three zhang high in the air he flew down like a shooting star.
Yun Shuai fell into the difficult situation where he had no time to deal with it; he had never expected that Xu Ziling, who had fallen into a desperate situation, would be able to suddenly turn the completely disadvantageous situation around.
But he was a grand master of martial art study; as he caught a glimpse of Xu Ziling’s attempt to capture his beloved daughter, in the face of danger he remained calm, his outer robe suddenly swelled, unexpectedly at the last moment he changed direction, from flying straight he flew slightly around to avoid his beloved daughter, but the original style was unchanged, as he attacked the young opponent behind his beloved daughter’s back.
Golden light flared out, it rolled straight toward Xu Ziling.
Xu Ziling has considered everything carefully, even more because earlier he had seen his consummate skill as he was flying high up in the sky; hence in his heart he already took precautions against it. Making prompt decision, he changed his claw into a palm strike, while secretly performing the Treasured Bottle [i.e. Aquarius] Image secret art, his qi power suddenly changed, from sucking and pulling in to pushing and crashing out. The Treasured Bottle qi power burst out from his palm, pushing Lian Rou, who was staggering since her footsteps did not follow her command – to rush forward.
Letting out another shout, ‘Duo!’ both hands turned into millions of palm print shadows, finally he exerted the Inner and Outer Lion Image alternately, to meet Yun Shuai’s golden blade head-on.
‘Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!’
In split second Xu Ziling blocked Yun Shuai’s ten saber chops; he resisted this Persian martial art grand master with unrivalled lightness skill without moving a single cun.
Lian Rou’s tender cry was heard.
Borrowing the reaction force of the impact, Yun Shuai shot up into the air, but by the time he landed down, Lian Rou already fell into Kou Zhong’s grasp.
Repeated gusts of wind were heard. More than a dozen shadows appeared from among the trees and the rocks behind the cliff. But they were coming one step too late.