From Shen Mohuan’s dead body, Kou Zhong fetched the Flying Cloud Bow, which this strung-through-and-filled-with-evil person stole from Jian Dashi; only then did he feel a little comfort.
After arriving at the area beyond the Great Wall, they seemed to be able to proudly move unhindered, their might spread to the eight directions. However, as far as their mission was concerned, it could be said that they have achieved nothing.
Now that Shen Mohuan’s dead body was lying on the ground and his head was gone, he could finally answer Jian Dashi.
Ba Fenghan and Ke Dazhi flew off their mounts and landed by his side. The former laughed and said, “My Perished Moon Bow should be back to its original name, Shooting the Moon. Yours ought to be Piercing the Sun, right? Ha! Good kid! Good Eight Method of the Well.”
Ke Dazhi cheerfully said, “Shaoshuai’s saber technique indeed broadens my horizons, my heart is itching badly. Too bad I cannot see the last two saber strikes.”
Kou Zhong pulled the Flying Cloud Bow open and played with it. He sighed and said, “It’s best that you don’t see it. Ay! If in the future I must stand face to face in battle with you, LaoGe, what do I do?”
Smiling ruefully, Ke Dazhi said, “Let public matter remains public, private matter remains private. Some things are best if we don’t think about them too much.”
After folding the bow, Kou Zhong looked at Ba Fenghan and said, “Where on earth have you been these past few days?”
Ba Fenghan looked into the distance, where the Gunatai brothers were leading their men to pursue and kill the enemy’s scattering-in-all-directions, running-away-defeated army. Sidestepping the question, he said, “If I did not see you sustaining injuries, even if I had to pursue relentlessly for a thousand li, I would behead Mu Ling and her men one by one; I won’t leave even a cun of grass in order to avoid future calamity.”
Patting Kou Zhong’s shoulder, Ke Dazhi said, “Xiaodi must go immediately to see the Great Khan; I hope I can hurry back tomorrow before dusk to have a drink with you.”
Kou Zhong was slightly startled; immediately he realized what happened. He said, “Ke Xiong is indeed a true friend. Great kindness does not need any thanks. Please!”
Ke Dazhi laughed aloud and said, “Tell Gunatai brothers I am borrowing this horse; tomorrow I will return it to its rightful owner.”
Flying to the horse’s back, he swiftly went away.
Ba Fenghan followed this lone-rider with his eyes until it disappeared into the distance; shaking his head, he said, “That is a hard-to-come-by friend, but also an extremely terrifying enemy.”
Kou Zhong nodded his agreement. Ke Dazhi understood and he was being tactful; he knew that Ba Fenghan did not want to reveal his whereabouts these past few days in his presence. Furthermore, he also understood that these men were going to intercept and robbed the batch of arrows and darts that Ma Ji bought from Xieli. Knowing that it would not be appropriate for him to be involved in this matter, he chose to leave immediately. Later on he could tell Xieli that he had no knowledge of this matter, which would be tantamount to doing them a big favor.
Ba Fenghan moved behind Kou Zhong’s back and pressed his hands on his back to transmit his true qi into Kou Zhong’s body to help him treating his injury. He said, “To make a long story short, these past two days I exhausted all my magic weapons, including torture and forced confession, only then I was able to track the bows and arrows’ whereabouts. Who would have thought that Bai Ziting was still able to move one step ahead by sending his men to snatch it away? I was just going to go back to help you, fortunately I came across the Gunatai brothers and we lay out an inescapable net. Who would have thought that the bows and arrows have not arrived, we already encountered you, this fellow whose flood of good fortune fills the heaven? It made me believe more and more in the unseen world of spirits, also that destiny is real.”
Shaken, Kou Zhong said, “Are we going to miss the opportunity to intercept and robbed the batch of bows and arrows?”
Ba Fenghan laughed and said, “You can rest assured. The bows and arrows are heavy; hence the enemy’s caravan transporting the goods is moving slowly. They ought to be still on their way. Just consider Mu Ling lucky, were it not for this important affair, the Gunatai brothers would never let her escape alive. They are back!”
The Gunatai brothers led their men in triumphant return; everyone was in high spirit.
Kou Zhong laughed and spoke in Tujue language, “The bow is mine, the severed head is yours.”
Bielegunatai said, “Only just now I really gained first-hand knowledge of Shaoshuai’s saber technique which name shook the heavens. It was indeed brilliant.”
Bugunatai sighed and said, “Until now I still cannot believe Shen Mohuan was unable to block eight saber strikes.”
“Did Mu Ling escape?” Ba Fenghan asked in heavy voice.
Bielegunatai cast his gaze toward Shen Mohuan’s dead body lying on the ground; he nodded and said, “Our proper business is more important, so what if we let her go? How many days can she pass in peace?”
Kou Zhong remembered Yin Xiahe, whose life and death was still unknown. Sighing inwardly, he said, “You are right, our proper business is more important. We’ll take care of it right away.”
The Color Empty Sword’s yellow light filled the sky, the sword light flashing brightly, more than a dozen consecutive sword strikes, each sword strike left Shi Zhixuan with no choice but to focus his attention to deal with, each sword strike was simple, ancient, and clumsy, yet it carried an effective-rain-emptying-the-mountain, light, graceful and elegant feeling. Each move was aimed at the change in Shi Zhixuan’s figure, as if she could see him through, so that even with Shi Zhixuan’s capability, dealing with it was still extremely strenuous; he could no longer act freely and easily like before.
This was not to say that Shi Feixuan was more brilliant than Zhu Yuyan; rather, she has been watching for accurate timing and opportunity, hence as soon as she entered the battle, she immediately used the sword strike, which she had honed her strength for the big push – to seize the key moment, and thus she was able to control the initiative.
Her elegant, out-of-the-dust jade countenance was still calm and graceful, unlike an average person, who, in a fierce stake-it-all battle, would raise his eyebrow, bulge his eyes, and grit his teeth. After all, a fairy is a fairy.
The pressure on Zhu Yuyan was greatly reduced, she launched another set of ribbon technique. The ribbon appeared to be a thousand jin heavy, she lifted the light as if it was heavy, and looking at Shi Zhixuan’s situation, it appeared that the ribbon posed a significant threat to him.
Sword light and ribbon shadow separately assaulted him from two directions, but unexpectedly Shi Zhixuan was still standing motionless with focused attention, relying purely on the exquisite, marvelous, and abstruse technique to seal and block, without revealing the slightest sign of defeat. Just like raging tide and rapid waves pounding against giant reef in the deep sea, it still stood straight without collapsing, forever.
Qi power filled the atmosphere, it whistled again and again.
Xu Ziling sneaked in from behind Shi Zhixuan. He stopped about three zhang away and stood still, while continuously raising and amassing his power, ready to use the Treasured Vase Image Qi to deal Shi Zhixuan a fatal blow.
Both his person and his spirit entered the Moon in the Well realm, his Lingtai was clear and bright, nothing was missing.
Zhu Yuyan’s Tianmo force field was constantly restrained; it was narrowing and shrinking, enveloping the area of about a zhang in diameter with Shi Zhixuan as the center. From assaulting the opponent from four sides, eight directions, the attack momentum was changing to direct attack. Because Shi Feixuan’s profound sword technique succeeded in sealing off Shi Zhixuan’s retreat path completely, although this demonic man had the Huan Mo Shenfa in his arsenal, he had no way to put it to use.
Zhu Yuyan and Shi Feixuan’s martial art approach was completely different; the flow of qi through their meridians was even more distinct from each other, but as they joined hands, they displayed unique formidable power, which was exactly the correct response to Shi Zhixuan’s Bu Si Yin Fa. Moreover, these two were deeply aware of Bu Si Yin Fa’s formidable power, their qi power was tightly controlled, so that he could neither borrow nor discharge, unless he was willing to take the risk of forcefully shaking either the opponent’s sword or ribbon, which was, of course, a tremendous risk.
However, when all is said and done, Shi Zhixuan was Shi Zhixuan. Under the pincer attack from the two major top martial art masters, he was still able to defend as secure as a city protected by a wall of metal and a moat of boiling water; he was completely unassailable.
The Tianmo force field was narrowed to half a zhang range.
Xu Ziling curbed his qi and pulled back his mind. Step by step, slowly and steadily he moved toward Shi Zhixuan. He was an invisible but a qualitative threat, which generated response from Shi Zhixuan. His two hands opened and closed in move after move, exquisite and brilliant, more and more emerged, in dealing with the influx of attacks from both sides. Yet his feet were like being nailed to the grassy meadow at the bank of Jingpo Lake, going as deep as three cun into the ground.
Only by relying on her Jian Xin Tong Ming plus Zhu Yuyan’s cooperation did Shi Feixuan succeed in defeating Shi Zhixuan’s Huan Mo Shenfa.
However, Shi Zhixuan seemed to have no-edge-no-border potential and inexhaustible true energy. Were it not for Zhu Yuyan still had the last move of ‘burning both jade and common stone’, there was a good chance that Shi Feixuan and Zhu Yuyan would be muscle-weary, strength-exhausted before they were able to put him to death.
Under current circumstances, they were relying entirely on Shi Feixuan’s supreme intelligence and the xinfa of her out-of-the-ordinary swordsmanship to fight back.
With Zhu Yuyan, one person’s strength, she was really unable to trap and retain Shi Zhixuan up to the point of burning both jade and common stone.
In the world, there was practically no one able to trap Shi Zhixuan that he was unable to escape, that his Huan Mo Shenfa could not have any effect. Even Ning Daoqi and the Four Great Holy Monks failed to successfully accomplish that.
But Zhu Yuyan’s Tianmo force field and Shi Feixuan’s Color Empty Sword were finally able to successfully accomplish that.
Zhu Yuyan and Shi Feixuan’s lightning fast moves violently shook the stable-like-lofty-mountain Shi Zhixuan. Two were moving, one was standing still, the scene was extremely strange.
The Tianmo force field was shrinking continuously.
Xu Ziling approached gradually, he was careful not to invade Zhu Yuyan’s qi field, so as not to evoke unexpected changes and thus weaken the Tianmo force field’s entanglement on Shi Zhixuan.
Due to his internal injury had not healed completely, he only had enough strength for one blow. Therefore, he had to be careful in executing the strike.
Progressively the Treasured Vase qi power accumulated to its peak level, while at the same time he was grasping Shi Zhixuan’s situation; nothing was missed. He wanted to use the concentrated to defeat the scattered, to strike and defeat, as well as to cut down the true qi protecting Shi Zhixuan’s body, to allow Zhu Yuyan the opportunity that she could exploit.
Zhu Yuyan’s eyes emitted strange light, the purple light of the pupil of her eyes flaring out momentarily, the Tianmo Piaodai was getting faster and slower, but the whistling noise created by the ribbon was increasing constantly.
Shi Zhixuan lost the smile hanging at the corner of his mouth, his expression was as cold as ice and frost, yet the moves coming out of his pair of hands were still very much fierce, accurate, exquisite, and marvelous, profoundly malicious.
Shi Feixuan’s flowery countenance was as calm as still water, as she entered the no-man-no-self Brightly Lit realm. The Color Empty Sword came and went without any trace, every single style was wonderful to the very summit of the masterpiece. It seemed casual, but none was not a brilliant sword move that was the best response to the enemy’s move.
Just when the fierce battle reached the forgetting-sentiment stage, Zhu Yuyan suddenly puckered her lips to whistle, producing the shrill Tianmo Yin [sound/noise].
Whether it was the enemy like Shi Zhixuan, or comrade-in-arms like Shi Feixuan and Xu Ziling, everybody’s eardrums were crammed to the brim by her startling-the-heaven-moving-the-earth sharp whistling noise, just like in the long and difficult trek on a barren land, violent sandstorm suddenly arose, roaring and screaming angrily in all directions. In the beginning it came in powerful short bursts, piercing the eardrum. And then the Tianmo Yin became no-gap-not-entered, like sand and stones with real substance, in hiding-the-sky-and-covering-the-earth attack with no beginning, no end, and no essence.
Xu Ziling felt that under the Tianmo Yin’s onslaught, even his line of sight became fuzzy and unclear, the heaven and earth appeared to be spinning, the demonic noise seemed like the gale, the angry billows drowning him.
Even more terrifying was that the Tianmo force field suddenly contracted with Shi Zhixuan at the center, it shrunk and narrowed down into nearly a point, yet there was a potential that it might expand in an explosion. If this situation developed, not only Shi Zhixuan would bear the brunt, even he and Shi Feixuan might be affected as well.
A hint of distressed, helpless smile escaped out of Zhu Yuyan’s jade countenance. Suddenly she raised the Tianmo Yin to its limit.
Shi Feixuan’s pair of eyes emitted a determined look, still with honor-does-not-allow-one-to-glance-back attitude she sent violent attack toward Shi Zhixuan.
Shi Zhixuan started to move by spinning his body, slow at first but growing faster. By the time he was turning to face Xu Ziling, it seemed like he did not see him at all, his pair of hands was still blocking and sealing the two major martial art masters’ Color Empty Sword and the ribbon.
This was the most critical key moment. The moment before the Tianmo force field, using ‘one point’ to burn both jade and common stone, Xu Ziling suddenly came to realize something.
Zhu Yuyan’s motive was indeed very vicious.
The reason she sought Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong’s cooperation to deal with Shi Zhixuan, as well as her willingness to work together with her archenemy’s disciple was not due to her kind intention at all. It was a despicable evil scheme of one stone, several birds.
First, it was to borrow their strength to trap dead Shi Zhixuan, to enable her to fully use the burning both jade and common stone move, to die in such a way that Shi Zhixuan also perished. Furthermore, she could also pull them along on the journey.
If she could eliminate Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, Shi Feixuan, and Shi Zhixuan, even Ba Fenghan, in one move, naturally it would bring great benefit to Wanwan, who was going to lead Yin Gui Pai in the future, which would create a completely different situation from the current situation.
However, even if she calculated a thousand times, counted ten thousand times, she still failed to anticipate that Kou Zhong would be absent, plus due to his injury, Xu Ziling could only make one blow. Therefore, this moment he was still outside the range of the Tianmo force field direct impact.
Xu Ziling knew that he must make immediate decision, between protecting his and Shi Feixuan’s life or killing Shi Zhixuan. Otherwise, he and Shi Feixuan might have to accompany Zhu Yuyan and Shi Zhixuan to be on their way together.
Because all along Shi Feixuan has been trapped inside the Tianmo force field, although she was not directly targeted by the Tianmo force field, it was like falling down into a spider web, she was unable to get out.
Due to Shi Feixuan, as well as Zhu Yuyan locking on him tightly without any letup, Shi Zhixuan could only doggedly withstand Zhu Yuyan’s burning both jade and common stone move.
Xu Ziling suddenly made up his mind. With a long whistle, he suddenly flashed past Shi Zhixuan and pounced toward Shi Feixuan, who was thrusting her sword in straight stab.
He was the only one outside the Tianmo force field influence.
“Too late!” Zhu Yuyan shouted sternly.
Astonishing true power, starting from one point, exploded out; with astonishingly high speed it exploded and expanded across the two-zhang radius space.
Dust and grass splashed all over.
There was not much that Xu Ziling could do, he could only retract the Treasured Vase Qi, and used his broad back to be a wall of qi to block the explosion. The whistling noise of qi power frantically increased in intensity, like he was being attacked by thousands and tens of thousands of flying arrows.
Vaguely he felt that Shi Feixuan pulled the Color Empty Sword so that it turned direction toward him, but he threw himself toward her to embrace Shi Feixuan’s fragrant and soft tender body.
The deadly qi power drowned everything.
‘Boom!’
Zhu Yuyan exploded into extremely fine blood particles filling the whole sky, her body miraculously faded away, it disappeared without any trace.
Xu Ziling no longer had the time to look at how Shi Zhixuan defused and held back Zhu Yuyan’s demonic great method of destroying her own body, he only knew that the moment both he and Shi Feixuan left the ground to soar into the air, a burst of refined blood particles, imbued with thick, concentrated qi power, like an iron hammer blasted the qi wall protecting his back.
He and Shi Feixuan were thrown by the explosion into the distance, like a pair of light, floating and powerless scarecrows blown by the storm, rolling around on the ground, completely losing their orientation.
And then he spurted out blood and passed out.
No one knew how long, but finally Xu Ziling woke up and turned around. He found out that he was not dead yet, and that he was still lying down in Shi Feixuan’s fragrant bosom, his entire body was aching and lacking strength.
The sky was full of stars, the bright moon was falling in the horizon.
He had never tried to be this close to Shi Feixuan, a strong desire to lie down just like this until the end of the universe welled up in his heart.
Looking up from his angle of view, Shi Feixuan’s jade countenance looked like the night sky embedded with magnificent stars; peaceful, serene, quiet and calm. Her pretty eyes emitted deep emotion as deep as the ocean, she tenderly examined him, but the tone of her voice was flat without any ripples, as she spoke softly, “She is gone!”
Xu Ziling misunderstood her meaning, he asked happily, “Did she put Shi Zhixuan in order?”
Shi Feixuan lightly shook her cicada head, she said, “I was talking about Zhu Yuyan. She harmed others and harmed herself, only then she could inflict heavy losses to Shi Zhixuan. In my opinion, without a year or a half, Shi Zhixuan could forget about recovering.”
“It’s really disappointing,” Xu Ziling spoke bitterly.
Shi Feixuan smiled and said, “There are countless things happening every day in the world, how could everything be completely as we expect it to be? Fortunately, the nature of your Long Life Qi is similar to Zhu Hou’s Tianmo Gong; otherwise you would be killed without a doubt. Come! Sit properly, let Feixuan help you treating your internal injury.”
Xu Ziling sat up with Shi Feixuan’s help, to let Shi Feixuan’s pair of gentle and soft jade palms to press on his back.
True qi pouring into his body, Xu Ziling felt a warm, comfortable feeling. Less than half a day later, he was already able to apply his qi and flow his blood; it was an indescribably comfortable feeling.
Shi Feixuan’s voice rang lightly by his ear, “The day Shi Zhixuan recovers his strength will be the day Shi Qingxuan meet with calamity; Ziling must not forget this.”
Xu Ziling was shaken inwardly, he realized that Shi Feixuan was telling him everything, so that after his injury was healed, she could say goodbye to Jianghu and return to Jingzhai to cultivate the Way of Heaven, hence she reminded him that Shi Qingxuan has become his responsibility.
The ray of dawn appeared on the horizon where the water of Jingpo Lake met the sky.
The long night was finally over.
Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan entered the city soon after the city gate was opened.
It was obvious that Longquan city defense was strengthened, the streets were crowded with people leaving the city. The city guards have received instructions to politely let the two entering the city. Other people who wanted to enter the city had to go through strict interrogation. If they were not city residents, they were forbidden from entering the city.
Aghast, Kou Zhong said, “Not good! Ling Shao must have sensed the Xiedi Sheli and disregarded his injury to rush out to help. Ay! What do we do?”
Ba Fenghan calmly said, “Things have already happened, even if you rush out, you won’t make it. I am going out of town now to look for him, you go see Bai Ziting and act according to plan.”
Remembering his appointment with Shang Xiufang, Kou Zhong sighed and said, “Ling Shao scares me out of my wits; how could Shi Zhixuan be easy to deal with? Recalling the state that Ling Shao was in last night, I am afraid he won’t be able to stand Old Shi’s one finger. My Niang! What do I do?”
“Just don’t think about anything,” Ba Fenghan replied, “Do whatever you need to do with your feet firmly planted on the ground [idiom: realistic without flights of fancy]. You must be a bit more careful as well, because you have not returned to your usual state.”
Kou Zhong circulated his qi one time through, he nodded and said, “If Ling Shao met any unexpected misfortune, the first person Laozi is going to kill is Funantuo. His granny’s bear, were it not for him adding injury on top of injury to Ling Shao, even if he was not at his best, he ought to have enough strength to defend himself.”
Patting his shoulder, Ba Fenghan said, “You’d better stay here to regulate your breathing for a while, wait until your mind is clear before you go see Bai Ziting to lay your cards on the table. I am going ahead of you.”
After Ba Fenghan left, because of his concern over Xu Ziling’s life and death, not only Kou Zhong’s heart failed to calm down, on the contrary, he became heart distracted, thoughts in turmoil [idiom] even more. Heaving a sigh, he left his place.
While passing through the streets and crossing the alleys in daze, unwittingly he cut through the Vermillion Bird Boulevard leading into the main entrance to the Palace City.
The boulevard has become another situation altogether, there were no longer tourists taking advantage of the excitement, everybody was walking in a hurry, as if they wanted to rush somewhere.
On the vehicle and horses lane, there was an endless stream of soldiers escorting covered mule or ox wagons carrying military supplies and grain, traveling in the direction of the Palace City.
It was the tense atmosphere of a big war looming on the horizon.
When the Palace City’s Vermilion Bird Main Gate was in sight, someone called out to him from behind, “Shaoshuai! Shaoshuai! Please wait!”