“Huh?” Ke Dazhi exclaimed and accelerated forward. He stooped down and picked a small, flat and thin object from the ground, which looked like some kind of animal scale.
This thin object was pointy on one end and wide on the other.
Catching up with him, Kou Zhong asked, “What is that?”
Ke Dazhi held the thin piece of scale in front of his eyes and turned it around to show the shiny side reflecting the moonlight from above, flickering brightly. “This is the gadget that I gave that strange fellow Yin Xianhe, to be used outside the city,” he spoke cheerfully, “When it is thrown to the grass, if we climbed to a higher place, we would be able to see its flash even from two, three li away. The pointy side is showing the direction; therefore, it looks like Yin Xianhe has not been harmed. But why did he not put the first piece near the city wall as agreed? Instead, he put it nearly five li outside the city. This is really puzzling.”
Kou Zhong swept the grassland with his eyes. Ahead was a forest. He could hear the faint noise of water stream flowing inside the forest. His countenance turned grave, he said, “I hope it wasn’t the enemy searching and taking it from him and then tossing it to the ground to lure us!”
The murderous aura in Ke Dazhi’s pair of eyes flashing, he said, “It is also possible that Yin kid discovered the enemy was following behind his back, and was only able to throw off the enemy here, hence he had no choice but to drop the first piece in here.”
Kou Zhong drew out a mouthful of cold air, he said, “I am not as optimistic as you are; another possibility is that Yin Xianhe was chased by Shen Mohuan, Han Chao’an, Huyan Jin, and their entire gang until he was out of breath, in his desperation he had no choice but to drop the scale so that we could follow the trail to save him.”
Ke Dazhi was slightly startled, but apparently he thought that Kou Zhong’s remark was not without any reason. Yin Xianhe was precisely that kind of a freak, unless he absolutely had no other way, he would be unwilling to ask for help.
Suddenly he rose up, relying on the strength of his pair of legs he shot vertically up into the air, until reaching an astonishing height of seven, eight zhang before he spun around, and then effortlessly dropped back by Kou Zhong’s side. Excitedly pointing to the northwest, he said, “I found the second piece. Just like we agreed, one piece per li, the pointy end indicating the direction. Looking at it, I am sure that the piece in my hand was dropped by his own hands.”
“Then why do we have to talk more nonsense?” Kou Zhong said, “Let’s go!” Taking the lead, he rushed in the direction of the second piece.
Ke Dazhi let out a shrill whistle and ran behind him.
They no longer need to hide their tracks. Their top priority was to follow the scale pieces to pursue the enemy, to cut their tail and attack them while they had no time to deal with it until they were utterly defeated.
It could be said that this time Xu Ziling made a big gamble, and the stake was his own life. He was betting that Liexia did not have a hundred-percent confidence and thus would not dare to make his move to kill him. It was based on the ‘Brahma and I as One’ that he had just learned from Funantuo.
It was the realm of the unity of man and nature, the boundary of oneness of heaven and humanity. It was also the goal being pursued all Buddhists who practice Zen. It could have different names, such as ‘Brahma and I Not Two’, ‘The Heart of the Sword Brightly Lit’, ‘The Moon in the Well’, and so on, but in the end they are all the same thing, the difference being personal experience, intelligence, and the cultivation to reach such realm.
On the surface, the strategy that Da Ming Zun Jiao adopted toward the two boys seemed to be good in nature, but shady and harmful in the dark, because they did not want others to see through that they were colluding with Bai Ziting in secret. Moreover, if Bai Ziting was defeated, Da Ming Zun Jiao might suffer Tujue’s retaliation, and when that happened, although the prairie was big, there would not be any place where they could set their feet on.
If they were able to kill Xu Ziling, naturally all things would be solved. But one thing went wrong and they let Xu Ziling escaped, Liexia and Da Ming Zun Jiao would have to pack their bag and leave before they finished eating. How could Tuli let go of the foe who killed his brother? It was not a laughing matter at all.
This was the thought that went through Liexia’s mind, which Xu Ziling was able to see through. But he also knew that the chance to escape Liexia’s nose was very little, hence he took this dangerous bet.
When Xu Ziling’s feet touched the ground, Liexia sprang out of the forest and landed about two zhang away in front of him, his pair of eyes shooting demonic light, his gaze was blazing as he sized Xu Ziling up and down.
Xu Ziling had one hand behind his back, while the other hand adopted One Finger Zen stance. He smiled calmly and said, “Finally Lie Xiong can’t help but exposing the fox’s tail; presumably you want to take Xiaodi’s life. Let’s talk less nonsense, let me see if you have this ability?”
Liexia’s tiger body trembled, his pair of eyes turned grave, he focused all his attention to assess Xu Ziling’s real condition. Shaking his head, he said, “Ziling Xiong misunderstood. This ignorant person only wanted to catch up to see if there is anything I could do for you; how could there be any intention to bring you harm?”
Xu Ziling’s mind entered the Moon in the Well realm, he felt that he had merged together with the heaven and earth, that there was no longer any existence of self, there was no longer any intention of alarm, of fear; furthermore, he was able to see Liexia’s movements like the back of his hand, knowing that under this kind of circumstances, the other side was totally unable to grasp what is true and what is false in him, unable to see that he really was unable to withstand a single blow.
Suddenly, he felt that the true qi within his meridians was unexpectedly beginning to condense naturally, his physical condition was improving significantly, it blended in harmony; although he still felt dull ache from his wound, it no longer had direct correlation with his desire to rise to a certain level of spiritual consciousness.
He spoke indifferently, “Since that’s the case, Liexia Xiong, please go back immediately, right now I do not need anybody to follow me closely.”
Liexia took two steps forward; pretending to look around, he said, “How come I did not see Shaoshuai traveling together with Ziling Xiong?”
His two steps forward were extremely deliberate; knowing that Xu Ziling was waiting in tight troop disposition, he would automatically generate reaction toward his advance, and thus from the intensity of Xu Ziling’s qi field, he would be able to infer Xu Ziling’s combat ability, which then determine whether he ought to advance or to retreat.
Even though Liexia had both hands hanging by his sides to show that he had no malice, but anybody would know that this literary talent, distinguished and accomplished, outstanding figure of Da Ming Zun Jiao could launch ten-thousand-jun-thunderbolt attack any moment.
Xu Ziling stood still like a mountain. His pair of eyes was flashing with refined light, but the tone of his voice was exceptionally tranquil as he said, “Although I, Xu Ziling, am not a combative person, but I no longer am interested in listening to you babbling nonsense. Make your move!”
Liexia hastily said, “Ay! Ziling Xiong really misunderstood. I really have no intention to make my move. I won’t stop Ziling Xiong then!”
Finished speaking, he flew backward, and an instant later became a black dot on the prairie under the moonlight and disappeared inside a sparse forest on the right side.
Xu Ziling was well aware that Liexia was still hiding in the dark, observing him, because under normal circumstances, anybody who was raising his qi and amassing momentum like that would definitely suffer considerable wear and tear of his true energy, something that no internally-injured person would be able to endure.
Who would have thought that Xu Ziling’s ‘Brahma and I As One’ was just some kind of spiritual realm, which did not need internal energy support, while also brought great benefits to his injury?
If Liexia was using his qi power to confront Xu Ziling, it would be another matter altogether, even if Xu Ziling did not want to reveal the cloven foot, he simply could not. Fortunately, since Liexia was unable to grasp clearly the depth of Xu Ziling’s injury, he did not dare to act blindly without thinking.
Taking advantage of the true qi that he had just gathered, Xu Ziling suddenly flashed and entered the forest. And then he dropped to the ground. Ahead was a small brook winding through the forest. Only this time he displayed his shenfa by darting across for nearly eight zhang, enough to scare Liexia that he did not dare to follow his track anymore.
A small price to pay to buy back his little life, in the end it was worth it!
Kou Zhong was rushing at top speed behind Ke Dazhi. The strange thing was that not only his injury did not become more serious due to his raising his qi and using his strength, on the contrary, the more he was rushing, the more he felt improvement, his blood and qi were flowing more freely and circulating without any blockage. Just like during the time he first trained the Long Life Qi, where he needed to walk while training.
As early as when they set out, because Kou Zhong single-mindedly wanted to help Yin Xianhe together with Ke Dazhi, he threw out everything from his mind and entered the no-man, no-self realm. If he were alone, or perhaps he was with Xu Ziling, because he wanted to use his brains, his mind would then be distracted, unlike this moment where his heart was focused, his mind was put together. The best thing was that the responsibility to do the tracking lay on Ke Dazhi alone, while all he needed to do was to follow closely behind Ke Dazhi’s back, hence everything was happening in his favor.
Several times did Ke Dazhi turn his head back to look at him, afraid that he could not keep up, who would have thought that Kou Zhong was able to maintain his distance behind him? He could not help showing astonished look, since he could not figure out why Kou Zhong appeared not to be weighed down by the injury at all.
Nevertheless, Kou Zhong was too busy to mind him; he clearly knew that in the Secret to Long Life, Jade Annulus of He Clan, and the Demonic Emperor’s Relics innate true qi, he had made another breakthrough.
Under the life and death threat from Funantuo, for Xu Ziling’s sake, he succeeded in developing the last style of the ‘Eight Methods of the Well’, the ‘Circle and Square’, which made his understanding of his own abilities progress one step further.
In the moment he used the ‘Circle and Square’, in his heart, there was no longer life and death, victory or defeat, or any other distracting thoughts. The man, the saber, and the universe joined together into an indivisible entity. When he was using the saber, the qi essence of the heaven and earth poured onto the top of his head and going down, converting the impossible to become possible.
This was probably the ‘Brahma and I Not Two’ that Funantuo was talking about!
Under his feet, the prairie was flying backward. His pair of legs seemed to be able to absorb the full, cohesive qi of the earth, and his innate refined qi was slowly pouring onto the top of his head and going down. The so-called ‘Seizing the Essence of Heaven and Earth’ that the people of ancient times were talking about could not be more than this.
With only a little bit of true qi, he felt as if he would be able to glide over the grasslands forever, until the end of the universe.
It was like Kou Zhong’s spirit was ascending to the infinite height of the outer space, where he was dancing and singing together with the moon and the stars. There was some kind of indescribable sense of comfort and satisfaction.
The blocked meridians were clearing up one by one. Furthermore, the cracked wounds were healing quickly; it was a miracle that no one could believe.
Ke Dazhi suddenly stopped.
Kou Zhong was like being awakened from a dream and was returning to the real world before his eyes.
Shaken, Ke Dazhi said, “It’s bad! We have fallen into a trap!”
Kou Zhong focused his attention to look. The two were standing on top of a sloping hill, ahead was a mountainous region with undulating hills extending all the way across, covered in dense forests, while the sound of hoof beats shook the heavens, as several hundreds of warriors rushed out of the forest, coming to attack them like tidal wave.
In a long-distance race on the flat grassland, no one could run faster than the horse’s four legs. This time they could not escape, they could not evade.
If among the other side there were any martial art master of Shen Mohuan, Mu Ling’s caliber, they would undoubtedly die.
‘Qiang!’
Ke Dazhi pulled out the Sandstorm Saber, his eyes emitted an undaunted expression, while the tone of his voice was so calm that it was almost heartless; he said, “Even if I have to die, I will have Shen Mohuan to accompany me in burial!”
The enemy riders were constantly getting closer, reducing the distance between them to be less than half a li, straight with rocking-the-mountain-shaking-the-peak astonishing might.
Kou Zhong took a glance backward, he saw in the distance on the left rear side of the flat land there was a wide expanse of woods; tapping Ke Dazhi’s shoulder, he said, “Follow me! No matter what, we will fight this battle.”
Xu Ziling lay down on the muddy, wet meadow on the shore, circulating his qi and regulating his breathing with all his might.
Suddenly the sound of someone going against the wind rose up again from the distance coming near; needless to say, Liexia must have changed his mind, he was unwilling to miss this golden opportunity bestowed by heaven to get rid of him without the gods and the ghosts knowing.
This time, whatever scaring tactic he used would not work anymore.
Sighing inwardly, Xu Ziling rolled into the ice-cold, bone-chilling river water. Diving down to the riverbed, he swam with the current downstream, at the depth of about eight, nine chi.
Closing the breathing from his mouth and nose, internal breathing took over naturally. Xu Ziling felt his entire body, from head to foot – relaxed, unexpectedly he even momentarily forgot about Liexia and just went with the current.
The enemy riders were coming nearer and nearer, very soon they were entering the arrows’ range, the two were still running for their lives.
The forest, their target destination, was still two li away, but that could be the place that they might never reach.
As soon as they entered the enemy’s arrows’ range, other than turning around to meet the enemy head-on, they practically did not have any other way.
A fierce and full of hatred voice thundered in Tujue language from behind, “You, two gutless ghosts are getting your just deserts; if you have guts, stop right now.”
Urging his qi to flow faster, he said to Ke Dazhi while gasping for breath, “The kid who said that must be as naïve as a child; those were the words I heard most often when I was a kid in Yangzhou.”
Ke Dazhi turned his head back to take a glance, he said with a laugh, “That kid must be Shen Mohuan. Can you still go on?”
‘Zheng! Zheng!’
The twanging of the bow was heard, two powerful arrows split the air and landed about five zhang behind the two men.
Suddenly the two remembered something at the same time; horrified, their countenance changed.
With the Flying Cloud Bow, which range was twice the range of average strong bows, wouldn’t they be a live target?
Xu Ziling slowly swam deep in the water, not daring to make any noise of rippling water.
The superhuman spirited senses enabled him to know that the enemy was chasing after him along the river. To martial art master of Liexia’s caliber, even in the dense forest, as long as he had a little bit of moonlight or starlight, he would surely be able to detect Xu Ziling inside the river.
While groaning inwardly, he suddenly discovered a large rock at the bottom of the river leaning against the river wall, and there seemed to be a gap under the rock. Hastily he swam toward the rock.
Sure enough, the Heaven did not cut short his, Xu Ziling’s wish, the gap under the rock was just big enough for him to fit inside.
He had just hidden himself, the gust of wind was heard and suddenly stopped.
‘Not good!’ Xu Ziling cried out inwardly; could it be that Liexia was so formidable and unexpectedly knew that he was hiding inside the gap under the rock?
The gust of wind was heard again, followed by the sound of someone descending from the air to the grassy meadow by the shore.
“What did you find?” Liexia’s voice was heard.
A female voice, as pleasant to hear as the sound of silver bell, spoke in distress, “Completely without any scent or traces; no wonder each time this kid was hunted down, in the end he could still escape.”
She spoke Han language with very articulate pronunciation and vocalizing, with authentic northern [i.e. north of Yellow River] Han accent. Although this was the first time Xu Ziling heard her voice, he was very sure that she was a Han.
Furthermore, if she was a Huihe, she ought to speak with Liexia using their own language.
Who could she be?
Moreover, he realized that Liexia had left and then came back, it was because he had this helper. Even if he was not affected by his injury, he would still be unable to escape their treacherous assault. From this, it could be inferred that this woman’s martial art skill ought to be very close to Liexia, so much so that it might not be inferior to his.
Could she be the Poisonous Water Xinnaya who had the strongest martial art skill among the Five Kinds of Demons, whom Zhu Yuyan mentioned before?
Liexia said, “I thought he escaped via the water, but chasing to this place I still have not seen his trace. It appears that his injury is not serious at all. Where is he actually going? Why isn’t that fellow Kou Zhong with him?”
Xu Ziling mused that it looked like Liexia did not now that they had fought Funantuo hand to hand; otherwise, he ought to know that his and Kou Zhong’s injury was getting worse.
The woman spoke heavily, “Let them live one more day then. With Da Zun and Shan Mu personally came to preside over the general situation, how could we allow them to go on the rampage without any scruple? Let’s go!”
The gust of wind left far away.
Xu Ziling emerged from the gap in the rock. Reaching the surface, he flipped over to lie on his back, breathing the fresh scent of the forest, letting the river water carry him downstream. His heart and spirit entered the ten-thousand-transformations-fusing-into-one, he strived hard to use this opportunity to open his heart and apply the healing method, to recover his health at the fastest speed possible.
‘Chi!’
The sound of arrow splitting the air.
Kou Zhong exerted his strength to move sideways to avoid the killer powerful arrow shot from the Flying Cloud Bow. Thereupon his shenfa was slowed down a little bit, immediately he fell about half a zhang behind Ke Dazhi.
At this point the two were less than a li from their target forest, yet it felt like a chasm that they would never be able to cross.
If there were more than a dozen bows that could directly threaten them, coupled with the Flying Cloud Bow, even if they changed their mind to turn around and face the enemy head-on, perhaps it would still be difficult for them to avoid the misfortune of having the arrows piercing their bodies.
Kou Zhong has not recovered his qi, ‘Swish!’ fast as lightning, a Flying Cloud Arrow was shot.
Kou Zhong thought, I am finished today. Before, I shot the enemy dead using the Extinguished Sun Bow, how much of a delight was that? But now Shen Mohuan was paying a tooth for a tooth, yet he had no way to fight back at all.
Ke Dazhi suddenly retreated behind Kou Zhong’s back, the Sandstorm Saber slashed backhandedly.
‘Dang!’
The blade hit the arrowhead, blocking the powerful arrow and sending it flying away.
With one palm pressed against Kou Zhong’s back, Ke Dazhi helped him to speed up, while he himself, like an arrow, caught up with Kou Zhong, and thus increasing the distance with the enemy a little bit.
It was no longer possible for Kou Zhong to run and circulate his qi to treat his injury at the same time. Immediately he felt that he was straining. Hardening his heart, he said, “Ke Xiong, you must avenge me.”
He was going to turn around to meet the enemy, who would have thought that Ke Dazhi pulled his sleeve and carried him leaping up into the air, crossing a nearly seven-zhang distance. “This is not the time to play hero,” he spoke angrily, “If we have to die, we’ll die together.”
Kou Zhong’s heart was extremely touched, he never thought that Ke Dazhi, who on the surface appeared to be callous, a man who handled his affairs by fair means or foul, was actually this affectionate and true?
The forest was only half a li ahead.
But the two had expended a great deal of effort in rushing madly, while also strived hard to dodge and block the Flying Cloud Arrows, they were already like an arrow at the end of its flight.
The enemy gradually caught up. They heard a shrill female voice shouted again and again in Shiwei language; although they did not understand, they knew she was urging their men to overtake them.
Ke Dazhi let out a shrill whistle, he pulled Kou Zhong’s sleeve and exerted his strength to increase their speed.
Kou Zhong groaned inwardly, knowing that Ke Dazhi staked the wear and tear of his true energy to reach the forest. But even so, even if they really could escape into the forest, perhaps even whether they could stand firm would still be a big question, let alone to continue to escape.
The forest was only forty zhang away.
Suddenly from inside the woods the sound of battle cry shook the heavens, a large group of countless warriors rushed out to meet them.
The two men cried inwardly, ‘my life thus endeth.’ They never expected the enemy to be this brilliant by hiding an ambush on this side.