Book 50 Chapter 7 – Nibbling Away in Reverse
Translator: Foxs' Wuxia
At first glance, everything was going without a hitch.
The thing that they were originally worried the most was, first of all, whether Shi Zhixuan was inside the meditation room or not; secondly, they were afraid that Li Yuan might beat the grass to scare the snake. Neither of these worries had come true.
Just as they expected, Li Yuan indeed deployed the entire martial art masters under his command with enough qualifications to mount sneak attack on Shi Zhixuan. First, they used iron hammer, iron staff, and the like, heavy weaponry to assault a fortified position – to shatter the thick wooden door of the meditation room in one move, and then they used ten-thousand-jun-thunderbolt momentum to attack into the meditation room, with the desire to put Shi Zhixuan to death.
They could imagine the moment Li Yuan’s group of martial art masters were charging into the meditation room, followed closely by the second-rate martial art masters and the archers sealing and heavily surrounding the meditation room to prevent Shi Zhixuan from running away.
They could also hear a burst of stifled groan and the shouts coming from above. The three knew that in addition to Li Yuan and Yuwen Shang, there were also ‘Shenxian Juanshu’ [immortal couple, see Book 49 Chapter 10] Chu Junming, Hua Ying, husband and wife, Li Shentong, Li Yuanji, You Chuhong, Dugu Feng [peak], Dugu Feng [phoenix], Wei Gonggong, Li Nantian, and possibly the ‘Yao Mao’ [demon lance], Yan Pingzhao’s son, Yan Li, Ouyang Xiyi and several other martial art masters that they did not recognize. [Note: here, Hua Ying is Hua Mo, but I suspect it’s a typo, since these two characters look alike.]
With this kind of strength, inside a sealed-up space, there was indeed enough power to kill Shi Zhixuan. However, the three felt something was terribly wrong.
If Shi Zhixuan wanted to score a victory, it would be absolutely impossible; however, if he wanted to escape, there were two paths: one was to charge through the shattered main door, the other was to run away via the secret tunnel. Naturally the former is several times more difficult than the latter.
Li Yuan surely used the strongest personnel to guard the main door. Even if he could get out via the door, he still had to deal with quite possibly hundreds of divine archers with all their crossbows taking aim at the main door. Even if Shi Zhixuan had the ability to know all under heaven [idiom: exceptionally talented], no matter how the Bu Si Yin transcended the god and man transformation, in the end he was still a human made of flesh and blood, it was really difficult to withstand several hundred arrows attacking him at the same time.
But the key issue was still Li Yuan. It was unclear whether it was because of his hatred to Shi Zhixuan for causing Bi Xiuxin’s death, or it was because he underestimated Shi Zhixuan, Li Yuan’s imperial self personally leading the operation was really unwise, because he became the one target that Shi Zhixuan could exploit to control the overall situation. Because no matter how eager the rest of the people were to kill Shi Zhixuan, ultimately, they must not sacrifice Li Yuan to achieve this purpose. So, this became the only flaw in Li Yuan’s side.
Inside the meditation room, the sound of clashing qi power was joined together like a string of pearls, more intense and concentrated than the sound of exploding firecrackers on the New Year’s Eve in the City of Chang’an. The sound of stifled groan and shouts, one subsided the other followed. Wei Gonggong’s peculiar shouts and You Chuhong’s shrill cursing were very easy to distinguish. The three people, their scalp went numb, watched the completely-motionless lid covering the entrance of the tunnel. The lock of the cover was open, as long as Shi Zhixuan applied his power to his foot to move the lid, he could escape via the secret tunnel, then it could be guaranteed that no one would dare to recklessly pursue and attack.
This moment, even after thinking a hundred times, they still failed to understand; unless Shi Zhixuan already guessed that they were lying in wait downstairs, why would he abandon the easy and choose the difficult, and silently engaged the bitter entanglement of the powerful enemy upstairs?
“Fuhuang, be careful!”
The sound of lance splitting the air suddenly rang out; they could imagine that if Shi Zhixuan was, like they expected, concentrating his power to attack Li Yuan, with each move was aimed to die in such a way that the other side also perished, he could make the rest, in order to resolve Li Yuan’s distressing situation, unable to display their attack potential to the fullest.
Wei Gonggong’s weird cry was heard, while Li Yuan was letting out a stifled grunt. Listening to the sound, it appeared that he, more or less, has suffered some internal injuries. The situation was critical to the extreme point.
‘Dang!’
Supposedly Shi Zhixuan’s clenched fist exploded against Zhu Junming’s steel shield, followed by Zhu Junming’s miserable grunt. There was also the terrifying sound of someone spurting out blood. Without even watching, they knew that Shi Zhixuan was successful in borrowing certain enemy’s true power and used it against Zhu Junming; otherwise, how could he shock him that he received injury and spurted out blood?
The three looked at each other in distress as if they had already lost. They had never thought that the Zhu Shi Dajie [grand plan of punishing Shi], which was like seamless heavenly clothes, would end up tragically like this.
Making prompt decision, Wanwan said, “Maybe it’s not the time for his life to end yet, we have to go quickly; if we are late, I am afraid it won’t be good.”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling understood what she meant; in his rage, although fully aware that it would be useless, Li Yuan might launch a city-wide hunt for Shi Zhixuan. Their secret tunnel would definitely be the first to be exposed.
While Wanwan was reaching out to engage the lock of the lid, one after another Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong entered the secret tunnel, passed through the secret room, and returned from the other section of the underground tunnel to the exit under the study room of Shi Zhixuan’s secret lair.
Removing the cover to reveal the exit, Kou Zhong spoke in low voice, “We go back to the Situ Mansion immediately; after looking clearly at the direction the wind blows and the intensity of the fire, we will leave immediately. I dare say that just now Shi Zhixuan knew that we were waiting for him downstairs. Ay! His granny’s bear!”
Xu Ziling responded in low voice. He leaped toward the pitch-black study room, but at the same time alarm went off in his heart, yet he was still one step too late; he was unable to dodge.
He looked in shock, and saw that in the dark, the demonic light in Shi Zhixuan’s icy-cold, frigid and ruthless, without the slightest bit of ordinary human’s emotion, terrifying eyes was flaring greatly. The fingers of his right hand gathered together into a palm chop, noiselessly, without creating any sound of qi wind, it stabbed toward his chest. If he was stabbed, surely any true qi protecting his body would be useless. It could be guaranteed that Shi Zhixuan’s palm chop would split the chest and break the bones, and his heart and inner organs would be shocked and shattered.
Xu Ziling had never felt Shi Zhixuan’s murderous intent toward him was this determined and steadfast; he cried in his heart, ‘My life thus endeth!’ The only thing he could do was to apply the power of his entire body to withstand this impossible-to-resist palm chop.
Downstairs, not even in his dream would Kou Zhong think that Shi Zhixuan would be this extremely daring and ruthless; he had just escaped the heavy siege, unexpectedly he turned around and wait at the exit of the underground tunnel to ambush them.
Although Kou Zhong could not see Shi Zhixuan, but from the reaction of Xu Ziling’s body, he knew that Shi Zhixuan was mounting a sneak attack. Time did not allow him to think too much, being able to think fast in an emergency, he pushed both palms up to support the sole of Xu Ziling’s feet, in an instant he sent the true qi of his entire body via the meridians in Xu Ziling’s pair of legs, toward the qi ocean under Xu Ziling’s abdomen.
If the person trying to rescues Xu Ziling from below were one of the three grandmasters of the world, either Ning Daoqi, Bi Xuan, or Fu Cailin, he could only sigh helplessly. However, the xinfa of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s inner power was from a common origin yet different, plus after going through many practices they were able to blend it together while maintaining their distinct characteristic. Even facing surprise attack from an enemy as powerful as Shi Zhixuan, they still had the strength to fight.
Kou Zhong’s true qi, which essence was icy-cold, was like Yangtze and Yellow Rivers pouring into Xu Ziling’s qi ocean, together with his burning hot true qi it flowed as a vortex. At the same instant Kou Zhong’s true strength also swiftly flowed up to boost Xu Ziling’s. As long as he could evade the attack to his chest, Xu Ziling could blend the true qi that Kou Zhong injected in with all his strength, and sent it toward the tip of his foot, to meet Shi Zhixuan’s snatching-life palm chop head-on.
But what kind of person Shi Zhixuan was? His other hand feigned a claw toward Xu Ziling, unexpectedly it generated a burst of energy, completely neutralizing Xu Ziling’s rapidly-rising momentum, his palm chop was still moving straight toward Xu Ziling’s chest.
It should be noted that the major acupoint tanzhong on the pit of the stomach was a weak point in human’s body. If it was struck squarely, even though it could not break the chest and open the abdomen, the heart meridian may not able to withstand the impact and may break. If that happens, even Da Luo Jin Xian would not be able to save Xu Ziling.
Kou Zhong used up his true qi completely, momentarily he was unable to recover it, moreover, his pair of palms supporting upward was unexpectedly empty and fluttering; it was an extremely unbearable feeling where his strength had nowhere to go. Suddenly he realized that Shi Zhixuan, relying on the Bu Si Yin, which give him the ability to examine the enemy, was able to see them, the two boys, very clearly, hence he was able to use this kind of focused technique to break his helping hands to Xu Ziling. However, it was too late for regret, he lacked the strength to reverse the rotation of the sky.
From behind, swift like a ghost or a demon, Wanwan came over. Holding both of Xu Ziling’s feet, the tip of her bare feet borrowed the force to propel her up, she rushed up out of the exit of the tunnel and soared into the air.
Xu Ziling moved both hands to close in front of her chest, but he still one hairsbreadth too late. When it looked like his soul was about to be cut off by Shi Zhixuan’s palm chop, suddenly his entire body was wrapped inside Wanwan’s Tianmo force field. Just before the palm chop touched his chest, his eyes suddenly rose up half a chi. Not daring to hesitate, he let the vortex of qi that Kou Zhong injected into his body to converge and stay in the ocean of qi at his dantian below his abdomen, as he took Shi Zhixuan’s palm chop head-on.
‘Bang!’
All these things happened in lightning speed, flint-spark instant; from the moment Xu Ziling was ambushed, Kou Zhong rescuing him, to Wanwan grabbing hold of Xu Ziling’s pair of feet, all happened within one blink of the two eyes.
Shi Zhixuan’s palm chop hit below Xu Ziling’s abdomen, where the true qi gathered.
The palm chop was first affected by Wanwan’s Tianmo force field, the true power was weakened by thirty-percent, it slowed down a tad before it hit Xu Ziling, creating the sound of two streams of power clashing head-on against each other.
Xu Ziling felt intense pain as if his five viscera and six bowels were turning over. The pain on the part of his body that was hit by the palm chop was unbearable, as if it was burned by fire. His true qi was shocked that the meridians in his entire body flee in disarray like blind housefly. His vision turned dark, he violently spurted out a mouthful of fresh blood. A violent and ferocious force sent him and Wanwan flying to the other side. ‘Bang!’ they knocked against the bookcase on the wall, the wooden frame shattered, the books scattered and fell, the situation was chaotic to the extreme point.
Shi Zhixuan was jolted by the impact force as well, he staggered backward, and failed to follow up the victory and press home the attack.
Kou Zhong, who was unclear whether Xu Ziling was alive or dead, took advantage of this gap to recover his qi. Disregarding life and death, he leaped up from the exit, the Moon in the Well left his back, he launched a saber strike directly toward Shi Zhixuan.
‘Bang!’
Xu Ziling and Wanwan fell to the ground at the same time and rolled into a pile. It was like the latter was receiving half a palm chop in Xu Ziling’s behalf; opening up her fragrant lips, she spurted out half a mouthful of blood.
Letting out a cold snort, Shi Zhixuan said, “You are courting death!”
One palm chopped at an angle at the blade of Kou Zhong’s full-powered saber strike, while with the other hand he flicked his sleeve to attack Kou Zhong’s face.
Kou Zhong heard the sound of Xu Ziling’s breathing, he was somewhat relieved; in the dark study room he moved in strange footsteps, to evade the brushing sleeve on his face, while dragging the saber down to slash on the side of Shi Zhixuan’s waist. But when it looked like he was about to succeed, unexpectedly Shi Zhixuan flashed out of sight, he shifted to the blind corner on Kou Zhong’s left side where the saber momentum could not reach, putting the mysterious Bu Si Huan in full display.
When Kou Zhong was spinning around in shock, Shi Zhixuan abandoned him and moved to Xu Ziling and Wanwan to kill.
Wanwan pushed the injured Xu Ziling to the side, the two streams of Tianmo Dai [ribbon] shot out from inside her sleeves, from below going up to strike Shi Zhixuan.
‘Bang! Bang!’
Shi Zhixuan released left and right punches to hit the ribbon, which shook Wanwan that she slid backwards and only stopped when she hit the wall.
This moment Kou Zhong came; he launched the ‘Square and Circle’, the most formidable and most abstruse move of the Eight Methods of the Well – toward Shi Zhixuan’s back, in order to stop Shi Zhixuan from launching killer move against Xu Ziling.
‘Boom!’
The blade of Kou Zhong’s saber struck the concentrated wall of qi on Shi Zhixuan’s back, the ‘square’ part of his ‘Square and Circle’ method was immediately deflected forcefully to one side, while the ‘circle’ part was parried head-on by Shi Zhixuan’s backhanded finger stab, shocking him that he nearly vomited blood. Even though he was a thousand times unwilling, he had no choice but to retreat.
His shenfa slightly affected, Shi Zhixuan had no choice but to slow down somewhat.
Wanwan retrieved her ribbons, she soared from the ground, the air inside the study room was immediately filled with qi power, the Tianmo force field enveloped Shi Zhixuan, her pair of delicate and beautiful jade hands transformed into millions of palm shadows attacking Shi Zhixuan, straight with toppling-the-mountains-and-overturning-the-seas momentum.
Shi Zhixuan laughed aloud and said, “Turns out the green coming out of the blue; finally you mastered Tianmo Da Fa, no wonder you dare to come to offend Laofu. Ha!”
Unexpectedly he pulled his body and rose up. ‘Bang!’ he crashed through the roof, and even shouted loudly, “Shi Zhixuan is here, Li Yuan, where the hell are you?”
Kou Zhong, Wanwan, and Xu Ziling, who had just regained his consciousness, none did not have their soul fly away and scatter. Among the three of them, two were injured, with Xu Ziling’s injury being the most serious. If Li Yuan and the others were attracted and were rushing here, they would become the sacrificial victims of mistakenly hitting the secondary vehicle.
Kou Zhong and Wanwan stared blankly at the newly-made big hole on the roof, debris and wood fragments were still raining down continuously, the drizzle and the dust sprinkled into the room. Unexpectedly at that moment they were at a loss to which happy place they ought to run away.
Voices and the sound of hoof beats were coming urgently from four sides, eight directions.
Holding his underbelly, Xu Ziling moaned, “The tunnel!”
Hearing him, Kou Zhong and Wanwan were awakened from their dream; Li Yuan and the others were rushing over to this place, the exit to the meditation room was the only safe way to survive.
While Shi Zhixuan was still shouting loudly, “Ol’ Shi is here!” Kou Zhong picked up Xu Ziling and Wanwan, one after another, and brought them into the secret tunnel; along the way the latter locked the cover.
Kou Zhong’s pair of palms left Xu Ziling’s back, a burst of exhaustion washed over his entire body. He nearly wanted to lay his head down and go to sleep, but remembering Ba Fenghan’s warning, he had no choice but to fight hard to stay alert.
Wanwan, who was sitting cross-legged to recuperate, opened her beautiful eyes, and spoke with an extraordinarily gentle and soft voice, “Are you tired? Too bad I am powerless to defend myself, I cannot help you. Besides, my internal energy is harmful without any benefit to Ziling’s injury.”
Kou Zhong sighed and said, “This time it could be said that we are greatly fortunate in the midst of misfortune. Ling Shao’s lower abdomen was nearly impaled by Shi Laomo [old devil], but now it’s only red and swollen on an area as big as a palm; God still bless him. Hou kid is right, we underestimated Shi Zhixuan.”
Still having a lingering fear, Wanwan said, “If I was the one going out first, I would definitely die.”
Dejected, Kou Zhong remained silent.
Wanwan looked around and saw that the underground storehouse was filled with weapons and several hundreds of big chests. She spoke softly, “I really did not expect the Duke Yang’s Treasure not only has storehouse under the storehouse, it also has real and fake treasure houses. Li Yuan and the others are really being kept in the dark by you guys.”
Kou Zhong sighed again; taking Wanwan into the treasure house was because he had no other choice, their survival was more important, not only they had to hide from Shi Zhixuan, they were afraid to be accidentally discovered by Li Yuan’s people.
Kou Zhong looked up to meet Wanwan’s gaze. Under the illumination of the oil lamp, her countenance was a little pale due to her internal injury had not been healed, which brought a different kind of cute and touching charm out of her.
Wanwan cast her gaze toward Xu Ziling’s face, who was sitting quietly with his eyes closed in meditation; she spoke softly, “Perhaps you guys still see me as the enemy, but I really no longer wish to harm you; my only cherished desire is to kill Shi Zhixuan to avenge Shizun.”
Astonished, Kou Zhong asked, “Both Ling Shao and I thought for a hundred times yet still failed to understand, why do you suddenly want to give up Yin Gui Pai’s Paizhu [sect master] throne? Isn’t unifying the holy school has always been your Shizun’s wish?”
Wanwan sighed lightly, she spoke in soft voice, “I already lose hope toward the people of the holy school. Lost causes, they have plenty; successful causes, not enough. Just by looking at Yin Gui Pai’s situation, where after Xian Shi [late master] passed away, immediately you fight, I snatch [idiom: fierce rivalry], you will understand what I mean. Precisely because I can see through this point that I take things less seriously and become relaxed; moreover, I can have a free hand in doing things that I want to do. One day, I am going to fulfill Xian Shi’s dream, but not in the way that she imagined it.”
Puzzled, Kou Zhong asked, “What way?”
Obviously Wanwan was unwilling to answer his question, she changed the subject, “Tomorrow, the city defense will definitely be strengthened, I am afraid Ziling would not have recovered from his injury, do you think we need to stay a couple more days here before leaving?”
Kou Zhong replied, “As soon as Ling Shao can walk on his own, we will immediately get the hell out of here. Ay! To be quite honest, there is a secret passage that leads directly outside of the city from here, otherwise, how could I carry the gold and the treasure out? Were it not for I did not have enough manpower, I would have shipped these hundreds of boxes and things out as well.”
Wanwan smiled and said, “Aren’t you afraid that I am going to betray you?”
Smiling bitterly, Kou Zhong replied, “If you want to take these stuffs away, I am powerless to stop you.”
“Don’t worry!” Wanwan spoke gently, “You are willing to trust me, how could I be willing to betray you? Besides, I practically have no use of these things anyway. Just trust me, all right? I will guard the secret for you.”
After a short pause, she asked, “After leaving Chang’an, where are you going?”
Kou Zhong replied, “I am coming back to Pengliang to try my luck with my Shao Shuai Army, Ziling will go to Bashu to see Shi Qingxuan. Am I frank enough?”
“Very frank,” Wanwan cheerfully said, “I am not only touched, I am also grateful. You consider Wan’er as a friend, Wan’er definitely will not fail to live up to your earnest hope.”
Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “Trusting you like this, I really don’t know whether it’s a disaster or a good fortune, I have no choice but to leave it to Laotianye to decide.”
Wanwan laughed in a relaxed manner and said, “Time will prove everything. I want to tell you a few things, you must listen carefully, do not forget.”
His spirit aroused, Kou Zhong asked, “What is it?”
Wanwan spoke with serious expression, “The real mastermind in the Xiang Family is not Xiang Gui, but Yin Zuwen. Xiang Gui is merely Yin Zuwen’s lackey. The shady business of human trafficking is solely Yin Zuwen’s scheme. You must never, ever underestimate Yin Zuwen. This man’s martial art skill, ability and wisdom is a model among the holy school people, his ambition is not below Shi Zhixuan’s.”
Kou Zhong was puzzled, “Didn’t you say that the Xiang Family was working for you?”
Wanwan replied, “Strictly speaking, the Xiang Family is a side branch of the holy school, outside the Two Sects and Six Ways, supporting several factions within the holy school with close relationship with them, but they do not belong directly to any faction.”
Slapping his thigh, Kou Zhong said, “No wonder Shi Zhixuan wants to harm Chi Shengchun; the one he really wants to strike is Yin Zuwen.”
Wanwan said, “Didn’t you ask me who the Da Ming Zun Jiao’s Da Zun is? I can tell you now!”
Kou Zhong spoke heavily, “Is it Xu Kaishan?”
Wanwan nodded and said, “Precisely Xu Kaishan. He is one of the people that various factions of our holy school have restraining fear the most, otherwise Pi Chen would not have borrowed his power to strengthen his own prestige. Xu Kaishan has always been hidden deep without revealing himself; however, it is said that he has mastered the martial art xinfa of the ‘Yu Jin Wan Fa Gen Yuan Zhi Jing’. His accomplishment should be above Shan Mu, Sha Fang’s.”
Kou Zhong spoke in astonishment, “You really don’t care much about various taboos of the holy school anymore.”
Wanwan replied, “When we part this time, I don’t know whether we will see each other again. Just consider it words of advice on parting!”
Xu Ziling exhaled a mouthful of breath, long and slow, and then he opened his eyes.
Greatly delighted, Kou Zhong said, “The time to get the hell out of here has arrived!”