Book 43 - Chapter 10 –Eight Saber Strikes Agreemen
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Kou Zhong suddenly took a breath, he stopped the charging momentum and converted it into a sideway movement momentum to evade the spear stabbing toward his throat, the Moon in the Well chopped from the side at the extremity of the tip of the spear; if he missed just a hairsbreadth, he would have chopped the empty air in front of the spear. The most amazing thing was that he accurately grasped the power behind the opponent’s spear; due to the stab hitting the empty air, the wielder was anxious to change its move, hence it was the precise moment the momentum reached its peak before the decline. Therefore, although the saber strike only used sixty-, seventy-percent or Kou Zhong’s normal power, the result was no different to if he had used one-hundred-percent of his strength.
It was precisely another style from the ‘Eight Methods of the Well’, the ‘Striking Strange’, using strange/sudden move to control victory [reminder: it could also mean ‘sudden’ or ‘ambushing’ strike].
‘Dang!’
Shen Mohuan’s entire body shook. Although the saber blade hit the tip of the spear, it was supported by the qi and the blood, the meridians and the acupoints in his entire body, just like the spiraling qi turning into a big iron awl boring into the pit of his stomach, so unbearable that he nearly vomited blood and fell down. But he was outstanding and not an ordinary person at all; retreating hastily, the serpentine lance shook and swayed, forming a spear net, doing everything he could to make it difficult for Kou Zhong to follow up a victory and press home the attack.
The side supporting Kou Zhong immediately burst into cheers and applause, while on the other side everyone was as dumb as wooden chicken.
Who would have thought that the injured Kou Zhong’s saber technique could still be as exquisite, fierce and severe like this?
Actually, Kou Zhong was also jolted by Shen Mohuan’s reaction force that his blood and qi were surging; it was not a good feeling at all.
Moreover, this saber strike of his has violated a big taboo of the xinfa that the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que taught him, which was not to have any energy left to spare, because he practically had no strength could be spared.
In the one saber strike just now he already used to the greatest extent the ‘body intention’ method that Song Que was talking about, by purely relying on the transcendent state after the heart and the spirit united, to let the body produce the most profound response.
His heart was still as calm as the water well under the illumination of the moon; no alarm, no fear, getting rid of success and failure, gains and losses.
‘Pow! Pow! Pow!’
Taking three strides in succession, under the multitudes of gaze of the crowd from both sides, seemingly unable to catch up with the speed of swiftly retreating Shen Mohuan, unexpectedly Kou Zhong was able to rush toward the empty space on Shen Mohuan’s spear momentum’s left side; brandishing his saber in swift chop, noiselessly he sliced toward Shen Mohuan’s left flank.
Martial art masters like the Gunatai brothers, Ba Fenghan, Ke Dazhi, and the likes were all able to see that these three steps were extremely calculated. Not only the distance of each step differed, the speed also differed, the most formidable part was that it had the profound-mystery function to shrink the ground into a cun size, so that Shen Mohuan could not strike back in time.
Shen Mohuan shrieked in anger, he twisted his body, the serpentine spear fantastically created strange light vibrating across the air, coming down to envelope Kou Zhong. But everybody knew that he was unable to see through Kou Zhong’s saber momentum, moreover, he could not take advantage of while Kou Zhong’s injury has not healed, to force him to stake everything in meeting the attack head-on.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Old Shen! This is called ‘Using Scheme’; you have fallen into a trap!”
While speaking, he spun his body around, the saber momentum did not change, but the direction changed so that it was chopping the back of Shen Mohuan’s neck, extremely shifting-shape, exchanging-shadow – amazing. From being noiseless, the Moon in the Well produced the whistling noise as it split the air, yellow light flaring greatly. It was only this moment that everybody present knew that just now unexpectedly he was using a feign move, the real power was concentrated in this swiftly chopping saber strike with a spin of his body.
Ba Fenghan and the others, none did not gasp in amazement. It should be noted that if the earlier saber strike was full of power, the latter saber strike definitely could not like right now, fierce and severe, astonishing, sudden change that could only give the enemy the opportunity to use it. In the final analysis, it was still his footwork that did the work, so that an empty move could become a deeply-threatening, must-kill saber strike, leaving Shen Mohuan with no choice but to react with all his strength. Also, it was precisely because the empty had become reality that the opponent was unable to see through, unable to grasp thoroughly.
‘Dang!’
Shen Mohuan gave everything he had, he strived hard to use the tail of the spear to deflect the blade of this must-kill saber strike. But the spiraling power again invaded his body. Shen Mohuan let out a miserable grunt and tumbled forward. Kou Zhong laughed aloud again and darted behind him.
The two exchanged position. Unless they could kill the opponent, it would be difficult to return to their own troop disposition.
On the other side, Mu Ling rushed out of the troop disposition while repeatedly shouted in her shrill voice, giving direction to her husband from a distance. Blue veins exploded on her originally gorgeous jade countenance, so that she appeared malevolent and terrifying, but Kou Zhong did not understand her, since she was shouting in Shiwei language.
Shen Mohuan spun around while swinging his spear in blocking stance, trying to counterattack.
“Chess Abundant is coming!” Kou Zhong thundered.
Just like that his saber chopped down on empty space, producing a hurricane of qi power, rolling up a cloud of dust, creating a qi-force field similar to Tianmo Da Fa.
Shen Mohuan was overcome with a terrifying feeling as if he wanted to throw himself forward into the saber. Under Kou Zhong’s fierce and severe saber technique, where the next move was more marvelous than the previous one, the next move was more beyond expectation than the previous one, only a little bit of his originally ample confidence remained.
With a wild roar, the serpentine spear thrust forward, the target was Kou Zhong’s upper torso, which was exposed due to the saber moving down.
Scoffing, Kou Zhong said, “All I said was Chess Abundant, how could you be confused?”
The saber swung upward.
‘Qiang!’
Kou Zhong remained absolutely still, yet Shen Mohuan staggered back.
This was not because even after he was injured, Kou Zhong’s power was still stronger than Shen Mohuan’s, but it was because Kou Zhong was using amazing technique of deflecting force and borrowing strength to defeat strength, how could Shen Mohuan not suffer losses? The most wonderful thing was that Kou Zhong still retained some of the power he borrowed to be used in a killer move later.
So far Kou Zhong had made a total of four saber strikes; from eight saber strikes, he still had four saber strikes left.
Without blinking at all his pair of eyes watched the opponent retreating. When the other side finally stood still, he shouted loudly in Han language, “Not all those who must take are not outstanding, not all total victory are without exchange of troops, the fate of ten thousand deeds ten thousand actions, one battle decides them all.”
Finished speaking, he transformed the complicated into simplicity, one saber slashed out.
Under multitude of wide eyes and open mouths, Kou Zhong’s person followed the saber, like a wisp of light smoke he floated across the distance separating him from the opponent, chopping the enemy’s head and face.
Shen Mohuan was at a loss, not knowing that Kou Zhong had borrowed his qi power; he only knew that after exchanging one move, he felt his qi empty his strength depleted. The worst thing was that since the beginning of the fight, the initiative was completely in the opponent’s hands, which forced him to advance or retreat at the opponent’s will.
This seemingly simple saber strike from Kou Zhong, the saber momentum completely enshrouding him, the qi momentum locking him tightly, so that he could not evade and could only stake out everything to meet it head-on. Previously he forced Kou Zhong without any choice but to stake everything in head-on attack, but this moment, in an absolutely unwilling state of mind he was led by the nose to stake everything to meet the attack head-on.
The spear and the saber clashed.
Shen Mohuan’s imposing body shook severely, he was forced to retreat three more steps back.
‘Pity!’ Kou Zhong cried inwardly. In his normal condition, coupled with borrowed qi power, at the very least he could make Shen Mohuan vomit blood, but this moment he could only jolt the opponent three steps back.
Kou Zhong’s posture in rushing toward Shen Mohuan’s left side carried a deep sense of power. Everybody, Ba Fenghan and the others included, thought that the moment this posture took shape, Kou Zhong was going to re-execute old technique to move to Shen Mohuan’s weak side and launch another group of offensive.
Shen Mohuan had this misconception as well. But he was different from the observers, because his life was at stake, he had to act with urgency, he had to react one step ahead. Immediately he sidestepped and moved his spear, hoping to deliver frontal assault toward Kou Zhong.
Kou Zhong mused that whether he could successfully accomplished his goal would depend on this move. Laughing aloud, he said, “You fell into the trap! After Xiaodi’s ‘Battle Decision’, it ought to be ‘Cheating Troops’!”
His movement changed from sideways to straight ahead, his power passed through the saber blade, it slashed toward the side of Shen Mohuan’s neck.
Across the battlefield, the crow and peacock made no sound.
Anxious and angered, Shen Mohuan changed his move in panic, he lost the steady-as-the-mountain air of a martial art master he was displaying before the battle began.
Kou Zhong suddenly charged forward, as if he was throwing away his life by entering the net of Shen Mohuan’s spear shadow. Yet contrary to expectation, his figure passed through the saber shadow completely unobstructed, without any noise of saber and spear colliding, and arrived behind Shen Mohuan.
The entire battlefield was so quiet that a falling needle would have been heard.
‘Qiang!’
Kou Zhong returned the saber inside its scabbard. Suddenly his knees went soft, he dropped on his butts on the ground; gasping for breath he said, “Old Ba wins! Only six saber strikes!”
‘Bang!’
Like overturning golden mountain, collapsing jade pillar, Shen Mohuan’s stiffly fell forward onto the ground, raising a cloud of dust, and then blood flowed over.
Kou Zhong’s side exploded in cheers that shook the heavens, more than five hundred riders set off at the same time to charge toward the enemy.
Mu Ling cried out in grief, she was going to charge forward to stake her life, but her men forcefully pulled her back; they scattered in all directions and fled in defeat.
The prairie was covered by the warriors, both fleeing and pursuing – like a swarm of locusts.
The same instant that Zhu Yuyan’s fingertips touched the Demonic Emperor’s Relics, which had lost its strange power, Shi Zhixuan’s left hand, which moved later – lightly patted the crystal ball simultaneously.
‘Pop!
The exotic Holy Relic, famous throughout the demonic school, shattered.
Zhu Yuyan’s tender body trembled. Suddenly she floated away like a specter, her movement appeared to be slow but was actually very fast, suddenly she was standing on the stone table, her pair of legs under her skirt sent out chain-kicks toward Shi Zhixuan’s face, her move was fierce, ruthless, rapid and fast, so that it was impossible to defend effectively.
Xu Ziling’s heart dropped straight down, his entire body turned cold. He had fought hand to hand with Shi Zhixuan several times, hence he knew his power better than anyone else. The Shi Zhixuan in Chang’an, because of the complications of split personality disorder, inevitably there would be a gap that could be exploited. Moreover, during the fight, he appeared to be like a bowstring being pulled tightly, ultimately he lacked martial art master air of Bi Xuan’s caliber. But the Shi Zhixuan before his eyes was like shedding his mortal body and exchanging his bones, becoming another person who face the enemy calmly, his manner relaxed, his movements confident and at ease and perfect. In the face of Zhu Yuyan’s thunderbolt and swift lightning offensives he still maintained a handling-a-butcher’s-cleaver-with-ease posture.
As soon as Zhu Yuyan started, she already fell into the disadvantageous position. Her original idea was to gain the initiative by striking first, by destroying the crystal stone, shattering it into fine powder to attack Shi Zhixuan. The most ideal outcome was naturally to disable his pair of eyes, or at least she could force him to leave the table to dodge, so that she could follow up the victory and press home the attack, to strike him that he had no time to deal with it. Who would have thought that he was able to neutralize it easily? The debris on the table, not even half a piece fell under the table. Evidently Zhu Yuyan’s Tianmo Zhi Jin [finger power] was completely sealed and bound by him. Merely from this skill, it was obvious how formidable Shi Zhixuan now after successfully absorbing the strange power of the Demonic Emperor’s Relics.
Shi Zhixuan was sitting peacefully on the stone stool, his pair of palms flipped and flew, a hint of smile appearing on the corner of his mouth, he countered every move, blocking Zhu Yuyan’s endless-changes kicks.
Letting out a long laughter, Shi Zhixuan said, “Yuyan, is it worth the trouble? Your real enemy is not the Ol’ Shi sitting right here at all, but the tiger and wolf in the middle of the road in the secular world outside. If we all can give up our prejudices, the world will be the thing inside our, your and my, bag.”
Zhu Yuyan rose up and made a somersault, straight to about three zhang altitude, so that her head was down her feet up, her pair of palms pressed down onto the top of Shi Zhixuan’s head, she shouted fiercely and said, “I made the mistake of trusting you once, implicating Shizun [revered master] that she perished in grief; definitely I won’t repeat the errors. Today, if you are not dead, then I perish.”
Shi Zhixuan revealed a laughing involuntarily look; he soared up from the table, his pair of fists met Zhu Yuyan’s double palms head on.
Even the hiding-in-the-dark Xu Ziling and Shi Feixuan could also feel the changes in the qi flow, knowing that Zhu Yuyan was going all-out in unleashing the Tianmo Da Fa, doing everything in her power to rely on the last style, ‘Burning Both Jade and Common Stone’, to perish together with Shi Zhixuan.
Shi Zhixuan, who regarded the martial art masters of the present age as nothing, also had no choice but to go all-out to deal with it.
Zhu Yuyan’s seemingly simple palm strike was in reality the culmination of the power that she gathered all her life, without any change hidden within a change, fierce and severe without equal. Xu Ziling could imagine that if it was him at the receiving end of the strike, he would discover that the space in front of him was caving in, being enveloped and bound by the Tianmo force field, so that even if he had the strength, it would be difficult to apply. However, Shi Zhixuan did not seem to be affected, he simply launched the counterstrike targeted at the most fierce and severe point of Zhu Yuyan’s palm momentum.
Shi Feixuan’s sweet voice penetrated his eardrum, saying, “Unless it’s the last juncture, you must, by all means, not make your move.”
‘Bang!’
The fists and the palms collided.
Meeting the fist, Zhu Yuyan soared into the air, before making a somersault at an angle and landed on top of the pavilion.
Shi Zhixuan laughed and said, “Yuyan fell into the trap!”
Beyond Xu Ziling’s expectation, receiving Zhu Yuyan’s palm power, not only Shi Zhixuan did not fall down, on the contrary, he still had enough strength to make a somersault in the air. ‘Whoosh!’ he flew upward at an angle and flitted above Zhu Yuyan, who was standing on top of the pavilion, appearing like she was standing in the void, glowing with health and vigor.
Fast as lightning, Shi Feixuan rushed out. First, she landed on the horizontal branch near the top of a big tree about four zhang away, and then borrowing the reaction force, the person and the sword became one, turning into a streak of light, the Color Empty Sword stabbed toward Shi Zhixuan, who was still midair, going down to strike Zhu Yuyan. The timing, the angle, the speed, everything was exquisite, brilliant beyond compare.
From inside Zhu Yuyan’s sleeves, left and right, the Tianmo Dai [ribbon] shot out. The left ribbon went straight to Shi Zhixuan’s pair of legs, the right ribbon appeared to be rippling as it wound around the side of Shi Zhixuan’s head.
Momentarily the air was filled with the sound of gusting wind; even Xu Ziling, who was some distance away, could also feel the screaming wind piercing through his ears, irresolute like malicious spirit weeping with grief.
Putting himself in Shi Zhixuan’s shoes, Xu Ziling secretly mused that even if he was not injured, under these two major martial art masters’ pincer attack, one old the other young, one demonic the other orthodox, other than escaping or sidestepping, he had no other way.
Although Shi Feixuan was not as familiar with Bu Si Yin Fa as Zhu Yuyan, but Shi Zhixuan has always been her number one enemy, hence she had taken part in the effort to research the Bu Si Yin Scroll, to mull over [orig. to carve and polish jade] ways to attack and defend. Therefore, for Shi Zhixuan to deal with her Color Empty Sword was not an easy matter at all.
At this critical moment, unexpectedly Shi Zhixuan laughed calmly and said, “Xian Zhinu [worthy/virtuous niece] cannot help making your move. How’s Qinghui Zhaizhu these days?”
From about half a zhang away, the Color Empty Sword’s astonishing and highly concentrated sword qi completely enveloped him, yet Shi Zhixuan was still calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos; seemingly casually he floated down, while at the same time the tip of his foot tapped the end of Zhu Yuyan’s ribbon.
‘Not good!’ Xu Ziling cried inwardly. Based on his experience dealing with Wanwan, Tianmo Piaodai could mesh with Tianmo force field like seamless heavenly clothes. The ribbon controlled and bound the enemy, so that the enemy would be unable to break away from the qi field, just like spider web; when the prey is trapped in the web, its allotted share was only to be devoured.
On the surface it appeared that Zhu Yuyan was going to meet and stab the arch of his foot with the ribbon, but actually the intent was to wind around his pair of legs, to make his Bu Si Yin Fa difficult to function, and ultimately the killer move was the brushing-upward ribbon style.
This moment, the ribbon wrapping around his feet has been tapped by him, so that naturally the threat to him has diminished dramatically. However, Xu Ziling still could not think how, under this kind of situation, Shi Zhixuan was going to deal with Shi Feixuan’s sword strike filling the atmosphere.
The answer came immediately.
Suddenly, relying on the reaction force of his foot tapping the end of the ribbon, Shi Zhixuan swiftly spun around like a gyroscope, while slowly rising up. The situation was strange to the extreme point.
‘Pow!
Clearly the Color Empty Sword hit the spinning-like-a-tornado Shi Zhixuan, yet it plainly failed to penetrate his wall of qi. The sword blade slipped and slid outward, Shi Feixuan could only evade by throwing herself in the direction of Jingpo Lake.
Zhu Yuyan’s Tianmo Piaodai attacking the side of his head also failed and returned in vain, being shaken forcefully and deflected outside.
Two major martial art masters’ fierce and severe offensives completely disintegrated.
Shi Zhixuan let out a long laughter shaking the heavens, he said, “Yuyan ought to know that working together with Fan Qinghui’s disciple to deal with Ol’ Shi is a deceiving-master-exterminating-ancestor matter.”
While speaking, he whirled to the right to evade, heading toward the open space next to the pavilion.
Shi Feixuan landed by the shore; Zhu Yuyan, as the shadow followed the body, pounced toward Shi Zhixuan from the top of the pavilion. The Tianmo ribbon fantastically created countless ribbon shadow, swiftly rolling toward this Demonic King, with whom her love and hate intertwined.
Dust was rising, grass and trees were snapped.
The ribbon momentum completely enveloped Shi Zhixuan, the sound of qi power colliding with each other fell incessantly on the ear, the two very top figure of the demonic school were finally engaged in life and death battle.
In the midst of ribbon shadow filling the air, just like a ghost, Shi Zhixuan turned into a wisp of light smoke, like rabbit rising and falcon swooping, he flashed to the left and right. His range of movement was severely restricted by Zhu Yuyan’s violent attack, but all along he was always able to steadily defend his approximately half a zhang territory, using fingers, palms, fists and kicks to deal with the Tianmo ribbon attacking from four sides, eight directions.
Zhu Yuyan displayed her brilliant skill as the chief of a demonic school, her true qi seemed to be inexhaustible, she pressed on with the terrifying offensive of swift, snatching-the-soul moves; suddenly moved to the left, suddenly shifted to the right, attacking upward, striking downward, in sly and strange changes, difficult to believe unless one saw it with one’s own eyes.
Shi Feixuan moved aside, outside the battleground; she did not intervene. She practically did not have the capability to intervene; all she could do was to wait in tight troop disposition, guarding against Shi Zhixuan escaping out of the battleground.
It was only this moment that Xu Ziling understood why Zhu Yuyan said that only she could perish together with Shi Zhixuan.
Shi Zhixuan’s Bu Si Yin Fa was really the pinnacle of the fusion of the Buddhist school and demonic way’s martial art study, which had never happened since ancient time until today, ordinary gongfa would not be able to pose any threat to him.
Even facing martial art grandmasters like Ning Daoqi, Four Great Holy Monks, if he could not cope with it, he could always escape unscathed.
Only Zhu Yuyan’s ribbon, combined with the force field of the Tianmo Da Fa could pin him down, all the way until finally both jade and common stone were burned. As the name implies, in her move to make Shi Zhixuan wary, Zhu Yuyan must sacrifice her own life in order to perish together with the enemy. Needless to say, it was beyond even Shi Zhixuan’s capability to estimate its formidable power.
Moreover, the only way Shi Zhixuan could kill Zhu Yuyan was to kill her before she fully used this move. However, by doing that he also risked the aforementioned ‘burning both jade and common stone’ move.
In accordance with the current situation, once the full power of Zhu Yuyan’s Tianmo Piaodai was unleashed, even a powerful master like Shi Zhixuan would only be able to defend tightly without losing, it would be difficult to turn this situation around.
Supposing Shi Zhixuan dared to withstand Zhu Yuyan’s ‘burning both the jade and the common stone’ move and did not die, naturally there would be no doubt that he would rise to be the number one figure of the demonic school of the Central Earth, even more, he might become heretical demon of the outside way that no one could control.
While watching this Xu Ziling was shaken to the core, Shi Zhixuan laughed aloud and said, “Yuyan’s skill is only to this level.”
Suddenly his left and right palms separately chopped down to strike the two ribbons.
Zhu Yuyan tender body was severely shaken, the ribbon shadow slowed down slightly.
Remaining totally silent, Shi Feixuan brandished her sword to attack. The tip of the sword vibrated, appearing to be in a circle but was going to turn square, the momentum was fierce and severe without equal, the person and the sword blended together to become one indivisible entity, resembling the nature itself. It appeared like it was going to stab the empty space behind Shi Zhixuan, yet it forced Shi Zhixuan to do everything he could to deal with it.
Shi Zhixuan’s eyes revealed an astonished look, he shouted, “Good!”
His right hand moved freely to draw a circle in the air, which looped around the blade of the sword, while the other hand formed a fist to strike Zhu Yuyan.
Xu Ziling knew that Shi Feixuan was entering the Heart of the Sword Brightly Lit realm, she could see Shi Zhixuan’s follow up move, hence she was able to move later to control the opponent, breaking Shi Zhixuan’s strike, which would have inflicted heavy losses to Zhu Yuyan, while giving her the opportunity to get away calmly.
Xu Ziling knew the fortunate timing has come. Sliding down to the ground, he raised and gathered his power, and dove into the battleground.