The heavy rain swept across the boundless ocean, while covering the sky and blanketing the earth at the same time, engulfing the entire Longquan Plains. Violent thunder and lightning in the low pressured and heavy black rain clouds roared in anger, in a rocking-the-mountain, shaking-the-peak, splitting-the-earth, and collapsing-the-sky might, showing that only nature itself is the master of the universe.
A lightning ripped through the murky, dark heaven and earth, illuminating the trees shaking violently and swaying randomly, beaten by the storm coming from four sides, eight directions.
‘Boom!’
A streak of lightning struck an especially big and tall tree right in front of Xu Ziling. Immediately, as if it was struck by a whip of fire, its branches snapped, its leaves fell, and it was caught on fire, but was immediately quenched by the torrents of rain, leaving a charred and bald tree trunk.
Xu Ziling was completely drenched as he run wildly with all his strength, but the only thing in his mind was Shi Feixuan.
In the last heavy rain, she was still here. This time it rained, she already went far away, shunning the world and would not reappear.
‘Home is on this mountain, the clouds deeply unaware where to go’.
It was like his suppressed emotion was stirred up by the wind and the rain; it was no longer within his control, intensely attacking his mind and spirit, letting the melancholy of the pain and the sense of loss completely conquering him.
He really wanted to stop and cry his heart out, to wash away the sharp pain in his heart, while also promising himself that after crying this time, he would follow Shi Feixuan’s instruction to see the loss as a gain, to view the nothing as possessing.
Just one good cry.
But he did not cry, for he must immediately find Kou Zhong, to exhaust their men and horses, to take advantage while Ma Ji was still here, to snatch the eighty thousand sheets of sheepskin back.
Suddenly he remembered Shi Qingxuan.
It has been a long time since he was alone and was thinking about her, because she was a wound deep inside his heart that he did not dare to touch. Until this moment, the wound has not healed.
Shi Feixuan was not a wound at all; rather, she was a beautiful memory that made his spirit wounded, his soul broken.
She accompanied him playing a romantic game that was exquisite and brilliant beyond compare, a pure spiritual love, more intoxicating and turning a person upside down than any passionate love, carved in bones and engraved in the heart.
He finally experienced the taste of love, the moving feeling of loving someone and being loved in return.
Everything in the prairie wilderness was wrapped inside the thunderstorm, mixed together into a boundless, hazy mess.
Xu Ziling felt he has been fused together and become one entity with the nature, there was no longer any difference between inside and outside, between you and me.
The storm inside his heart was bound together with the wind outside to become one. Tears were gushing out, but were immediately dissolved by the rain, and spilled onto the big earth.
Before the second streak of lightning, like an arrow, Kou Zhong and the Thousand-Li Dream, man and horse as one – flew out of Longquan’s south city gate. Inside the gateway, he knocked down at least five city guards, before disappearing outside the city where the wind and rain filled the whole sky.
‘Boom!’
Lightning flashed, followed by a thunder.
Like a streak of golden arrow, the swift lightning flashed overhead and disappeared. Howling wind and torrential rain came right at his face, followed by a loud rumble of thunder, completely drowning the people’s shout and the horses’ neigh.
Momentarily he could not hear anything, he could not see anything.
Kou Zhong swept his gaze around. ‘Close call!’ he cried inwardly. If currently he was detained by Gongqi and his men, or perhaps if he charged outside the gate before the sudden downpour of the thunderstorm, he would be trapped in heavy siege and had to fight with all his might until he died.
In the violent rainstorm, which made everything become fuzzy, the heaven and earth become vague and chaotic like in the depth of a nightmare, hundreds of Longquan soldiers, who should have been in intact formation waiting respectfully for his good self to appear, now looked like an utterly defeated army.
The flag was leaning unsteadily from side to side, the riders were struggling to control their scared-stiff-by-thunder-and-lightning, jumping-and-rearing-in-confusion warhorses.
Lightning and thunder came one after another; flashes split the air, then darkness, then explosion. In this kind of nature-went-berserk-while-showing-its-power, human became tiny and insignificant.
In the extreme chaos, Kou Zhong saw Bai Ziting, in full military uniform, and Funantuo, still wearing orange, oversized robe, leading a team of nearly fifty personal guards, charging toward him. Bai Ziting also opened his mouth wide to shout; it appeared that he was ordering his men to surround and intercept Kou Zhong, but his voice was completely drowned by the thunderstorm, so even Kou Zhong could not hear what he was shouting about.
Like a waterfall, the violent rain was ruthlessly whipping and wreaking havoc on the mother earth. Light and darkness alternately engulfed the heaven and earth. When lightning flashed, the bright light blinded the eyes, but when the dark reigned, no one could see the shadow in front of him. Outside the city of Longquan, there were only the deafening and terrifying claps of thunder and the sound of pouring wind and rain.
Kou Zhong cried inwardly, ‘Laotianye bless me!’ He urged his horse to turn left to avoid Bai Ziting’s group and ran away to the prairie.
More than a dozen spear-wielding infantrymen were blocking ahead of him and attacking him.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud. The wind and the rain immediately poured into his mouth. Pulling the bridle, the Thousand-Li Dream, obtaining his power, which was transmitted to its four legs, leaped off the ground, like a deity on celestial horse, it flew across the air so that the enemies blocked empty air.
‘Qiang!’
Kou Zhong pulled out the Moon in the Well, the treasured saber stretched forward and swiftly slashed upward, two more spear-wielders blocking the path were hit, their spear broke, the person fell, and were thrown out to the left and right.
In the vast and obscure wind and rain ahead, he vaguely saw a large group of riders in a straight line formation extending all the way across.
Suddenly a burst of sharp qi power from upper left side, like a formless arrow and dart, came to attack. Without even looking, whatever his heart desire, his body moved accordingly, his saber slashed upward as if it moved casually, while at the same time his legs pressed the horse’ belly. As the Thousand-Li Dream swiftly charged forward, ‘Dang!’ Bai Ziting’s like-the-wind-and-the-rain-filling-the-whole-sky fierce and severe sword attack was blocked head-on, as if it was assisted by a deity. Roaring in laughter, he said, “Da Wang, no need to see me off!”
Vortex of energy shot out. Even with Bai Ziting’s ability, because he had no place to set his foot, he was struck by Kou Zhong’s upward slash and somersaulted backward, and thus he missed the last chance to intercept Kou Zhong.
Kou Zhong’s entire right arm was shaken by the impact force as well that it went numb. ‘Formidable!’ he cried inwardly. A violent force rolled over from behind. Without even needed to look back, Kou Zhong knew that the attacker was Funantuo. He appeared to be attacking the person, but the real target was the horse. Laughing aloud, Kou Zhong deflected the force downward.
The Thousand-Li Dream was already sprinting forward. With the boost from Kou Zhong’s power, it flew into the air.
Kou Zhong moved his saber to his left hand, his body leaned backward, he stabbed violently to the back. The qi power rolled the wind and the rain up, like a tornado striking the pit of Funantuo’s stomach, who was coming over from the air. Laughing aloud, he said, “You think I am still the Kou Zhong of last night?”
How would Funantuo know that he had such a formidable move? Moreover, he miscalculated the horse’s swift movement. In haste, he raised both palms to block.
‘Bang!’
Raindrops splashed out.
Bearing the brunt of the contact with the opponent’s palm strength, Kou Zhong’s entire body was jolted. He simultaneously deflected the force and neutralized the force, so that it was as if Funantuo was sent out by his own palm power, his body accelerated across the nearly eight-zhang distance, and fell inside the enemy’s cavalry formation.
Although Funantuo’s power was a notch above his, he still suffered setback; he fell to the ground and even had to take half a step back.
It was a group of nearly two hundred cavalrymen; if it were under a sunny and cloudless weather, merely their arrows would be enough to prevent Kou Zhong from breaking through the siege. But in the vast and indistinct howling wind and torrential rain, they practically did not know that Kou Zhong had already left the city. Even when Kou Zhong, like an immortal general dropping down from the sky, landed in the middle of their formation, they still have not figured out what’s going on, while Kou Zhong already charged to the left and dashed to the right, his treasured saber flipped over and flew, seeing a man he chopped the man, encountering an enemy he hacked the enemy, forcing his way out of the encirclement.
Bai Ziting and Funantuo separately rushed over, shouting loudly, “After him! He can’t escape far.”
It was as if the crowd had just been awakened from a dream; they pulled the rein to chase after Kou Zhong disappearing into the depth of the wind and the rain.
Kou Zhong urged the horse to flee for their lives; naturally he was heading toward Gunatai brothers’ hideout, while inwardly he was still pondering why Bai Ziting said that he could not escape far.
In the end, his internal injury has not been healed, just now he exerted himself, using up his remaining energy, plus he was unleashing the man-and-horse-as-one wonderful technique, which was extremely taxing to his true energy, and separately blocking Bai Ziting and Funantuo, two major top martial art masters’ full-strength strike – head on, as well as forcing his way out of the encirclement, so he has reached the qi-exhausted-and-power-depleted situation, he was no longer able to help the Thousand-Li Dream, so he could only rely on his beloved colt’s legs’ power to carry him to escape to the sky.
Kou Zhong also regulated his breathing and circulated his qi at the same time. As long as he could hold out until he could unleash the man-and-horse-as-one technique again, he would be able to cast away the pursuing troops.
Fortunately, the Thousand-Li Dream was an outstanding divine spirited horse, which was not easy to be pursued.
In the midst of the thunderstorm, the sound of hoof beats could faintly be heard from behind. Kou Zhong took a glance back, immediately he was shocked.
The enemy’s several hundred cavalry divided themselves three ways. The group headed by Bai Ziting and Funantuo continued to pursue relentlessly from behind, the other two groups outflanked from left and right, unexpectedly they were chasing closer and closer.
While Kou Zhong was amazed at how Bai Ziting’s horse could run faster than the Thousand-Li Dream, to his shock, he discovered that his beloved colt was straining to show its divine ability; the enemy cavalry was running faster and faster, it was running slower and slower, while its eyes, ears, mouth and nose starting to seep out wisps of blood.
Kou Zhong cursed the enemy for being contemptible; a feeling of hatred, grief and indignation toward a certain person, which he had never had before, welled up in his heart. No longer care about his own safety, he injected the entire remaining strength he barely had into the Thousand-Li Dream, to help the horse repel the poison and stay alive.
It goes without saying that the incomparably despicable Bai Ziting returned the Thousand-Li Dream to him, not only to make him unwilling to escape alone, he also had a follow-up plan, which was administering slow-to-take-effect poison, which finally flared up now.
His biggest regret this moment was that he had bow, but no arrows. Otherwise Kou Zhong would have bestowed Bai Ziting an arrow.
Bai Ziting’s group managed to reduce the distance to about two hundred or so zhang, and was continuously closing in.
Kou Zhong’s Long Life Qi continued to pour from its source into the Thousand-Li Dream’s body, forcing the poison out of its skin and let the rain wash it away. The Thousand-Li Dream’s mouth and nose no longer seeped out the terrifying wisps of blood, its speed was gradually increasing, but naturally it still could not reach its normal speed.
The sound of pursuing hoof beats continuously grew in his eardrums, just like a magic spell pressing him to the death.
Under the illumination of the lightning, the entire prairie was shrouded in boundless rainstorm; rainwater poured down in torrents, forming countless streams, big and small, flowing along the depressions on the grassland. In the thunderstorm wreaking havoc furiously, the sky seemed to be collapsing; it cascaded down completely out of control, ruthlessly lashing the whole open country, human and animal alike.
Kou Zhong cried inwardly, ‘My life thus endeth!’ He fiercely gritted his teeth and somersaulted down the horseback. At the same time he jabbed his finger on the horse’s thigh, while he himself ran out to the side.
Suffering the pain, the Thousand-Li Dream jumped forward.
Kou Zhong said in his heart, ‘We’ll meet again someday.’ Myriads of emotion filled his heart.
The Thousand-Li Dream was a noble horse, it belonged to the nature, but because Kou Zhong was involved in the ugly struggle of the world, and now that Kou Zhong’s little life was difficult to protect, he did not wish for the Thousand-Li Dream to accompany him meeting with misfortune and being slaughtered, hence he had no choice but to let it go alone, while he would lead the enemy away and bear everything himself.
Kou Zhong raised his barely remaining strength; half-blind, he darted to the northwest, while his ear heard the sound of hoof beats pressing near.
Kou Zhong looked back, he could only shake his head and sighed bitterly. Turned out the Thousand-Li Dream was turning around to chase after its master.
Kou Zhong somersaulted and landed on the horseback. Laughing aloud, he said, “Good horse, we’ll die together then!”
This moment behind him was full of layer upon layer of cavalry shadows, the enemies have closed to distance to within a hundred zhang.
Kou Zhong turned toward the highest terrain nearby, which was a small hill. His spirit entered the Moon in the Well realm, he regulated his breathing with all his strength, while secretly made up his mind to fight to the death. The moment he reached the top of the hill would be the moment he turned around and picked up his saber to meet the challenge head on.
Killing one he would recover his capital, killing two he would make a profit.
‘Qiang!’
Kou Zhong pulled out the Moon in the Well and rushed up the slope of the hill.
Suddenly a large number of soldiers appeared up the slope, riding on horseback with bent bow and arrow at the ready, aiming the arrows in his direction.
Focusing his eyes, Kou Zhong shouted in delight, “Yuekepeng!”
Unexpectedly they were Jushi Kingdom brothers.
Yuekepeng took the lead; his cavalry saber moved forward, lifted high, and chopped down, his mouth shouted the order.
Hundreds of arrows flew up, over Kou Zhong’s head, and penetrated the violently pouring down heavy rain, powerfully and swiftly rained down on Bai Ziting and his men.
It happened so suddenly, Bai Ziting’s side did not have time to pull the shield to protect them from the arrows, coupled with the blurry line of sight, more than thirty riders at the front row were hit by the arrows, one after another they fell to the ground. Momentarily the men collapsing, the horses neighing, the situation was chaotic to the extreme point.
Kou Zhong urged his horse to gallop to the top of the slope. The second round of powerful arrows filled the sky like locust plague, flying toward the enemy ranks, shooting down another dozens of people.
Bai Ziting’s side did not dare to push forward, they retreated in a flurry, leaving dead bodies, both human and horses, to fill the earth.
The blood on the grass was quickly washed away by the rain.
Coming back from the death’s door, panting for breath, Kou Zhong called out, “Left side!”
Without waiting for him to finish, Yuekepeng already shouted his order, his men shot the enemy riders attacking from the left flank.
The situation was still critical, as the other group of the enemy from the right flank already reached the foot of the hill.
Kou Zhong took a deep breath and raised and amassed his power, the Moon in the Well was back into its scabbard. Leaning forward, he grabbed four arrows from Yuekepeng’s quiver, while his other hand pulled his bow. The string of arrows flew out of the Piercing the Sun Bow toward the enemy riders.
The remaining riders did not dare to advance prematurely, they pulled back one after another.
By this moment Bai Ziting regrouped his offensive, he took out the rattan shield to protect himself, as well as his horse. The moment the riders of the left and right wings retreated, he charged up the hill directly from the front.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud. The Piercing the Sun Bow shot another string of arrows. Like a piece of paper, the rattan shields were penetrated and broken, a lot of enemies were hit, falling backward and tumbling down, rolling to the bottom of the slope.
The Jushi Kingdom warriors’ morale was soaring. Hundreds of arrows were shot, forcing Bai Ziting and his men to retreat down the hill.
The sound of hoof beats came from a distance to the left.
Gunatai brothers and a group of Shiwei warriors, more than five hundred riders, braving the rain, charged over.
Bugle horn sounded.
Finally Bai Ziting issued the order to retreat.
Thunder and lightning finally abated, although the heavy rain was still falling endlessly from the sky. Xu Ziling passed through the hazy, dark like nighttime grassy forest, rushing in the direction of Longquan Upper Capital.
His heart calmed down, it became a piece of tranquility.
Two shadows appeared ahead. Xu Ziling focused his power into his pair of eyes and concentrated his attention to look. Immediately he was pleased beyond his expectations, while feeling relieved at the same time.
Unexpectedly it was Yin Xianhe, accompanied by Ba Fenghan, coming to meet with him.
Still far away, Ba Fenghan already laughed aloud and sped up to rush over. Reaching out, he grabbed his shoulders in tight embrace and said with a sigh, “Only now do I know what is called ‘like a thing of the previous generation’. This morning I went to town but did not see you. Kou Zhong and I were so worried that we wanted to cry for help.”
Xu Ziling reached out to grab him back; he laughed and said, “You were worried about me, I was worried for you. Where on earth did you go these past couple of days?”
Yin Xianhe came to the two men’s side and spoke in astonishment, “Didn’t Xu Xiong stay at the Little Longquan to watch over Ma Ji?”
Xu Ziling cheerfully said, “I came back because I want to recruit all brothers’ men and horses, on account of Ma Ji is going to transport the sheepskin to Gaoli. And the goods that those three Gaoli merchant ships are bringing, I am sure they are weapons, bows and arrows, and the like; all war essentials.”
Shaken, Ba Fenghan said, “Not good!”
The other two were startled; they looked at him in shock.
Ba Fenghan’s expression became very ugly; he explained, “This morning Kou Zhong went to see Bai Ziting to lay his cards on the table. He wanted to make a deal with him by using the seized bows and arrows in exchange of the sheepskin and the Pingyao merchants’ long-term debt. Now that Bai Ziting has his supplies from Gaoli, naturally he won’t be threatened by Kou Zhong. Just from the fact that you were able to see that Ma Ji is shipping the sheepskin away, I know that he is not going to compromise the deal.”
The murderous aura in Xu Ziling’s pair of eyes flaring greatly, he said, “If Kou Zhong met unexpected misfortune, I definitely won’t let Bai Ziting get away. We are going to Longquan at once.”
The two armies met at the top of the hill.
After Kou Zhong introduced both sides to each other, Yuekepeng explained in Tujue language, “Last night, after Longquan imposed the curfew, Bai Ziting sent out his troops to besiege our guesthouse and confiscate our weapons, bows and arrows. They accused us of harboring malicious intent toward him and expelled us out of the city, telling us that we must return to our home country that very night. Fortunately we already made preparation; we had a batch of bows, arrows, and weapons buried outside the city. Pretending to go far away, we returned in secret, and by chance encountering Shaoshuai being hunted to be killed by Bai Ziting, hence we were able to vent this resentment.”
Bielegunatai did not understand, “Could it be that Bai Ziting does not want his bows and arrows back?” he asked, “Why unexpectedly he wanted to put Shaoshuai to death? Fortunately our spies found out that Bai Ziting prepared troops outside the south gate. Realizing something was amiss, we immediately came to help.”
Kou Zhong looked up to the sky to let the rainwater lashed on his face; he sighed and said, “It was not until I came face to face with Bai Ziting that I really understood how despicable and shameless he is, how he would do anything by fair means or foul to get what he want. Ay! Not only Old Bai wanted to kill me to establish his prestige and announce it publicly, he also detained Shuwen and the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que’s son.”
Bugunatai exploded in anger, “Knowing very well that Shuwen is our man, Shaoshuai is our friend, Bai Ziting still dared to be this presumptuous? F*ck his Niang, we absolutely not going to let this matter drop.”
The lightning light in Bielegunatai’s pair of eyes flashing fiercely, he said coldly, “He is forcing us to stand on the Tujue’s side; I never thought that he would be this stupid.”
Kou Zhong felt big headache; he had patted his chest to make guarantee to Shang Xiufang that he was going to help the innocent people of Longquan Upper Capital to avoid the disaster of war. The problem was that Bai Ziting lit up the fire everywhere, showing clearly that he would not hesitate to sacrifice everything. How could he bring this matter to good conclusion?
Yuekepeng’s lieutenant, Kezhuan suddenly shouted loudly, “Look!”
Everybody turned their eyes following his finger.
In the wind and rain filling the whole sky, three figures were rushing toward them.
Kou Zhong exclaimed in delight. Mad with joy, he rushed down the hill toward the three men.