Book 43 - Chapter 6 – Each One Displaying Strange Scheme
Funantuo’s Tianzhu Mo Gong was brilliant and strange, greatly beyond Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s expectation. Moreover, his tactics and strategy were even more targeted at the two boys’ injury, engaging the two in such a way that even if they had the strength, it was difficult to use it, so that they were overcome with the useless feeling of exerting their strength in vain, in order to weaken the two boys’ intention to go all out and risk their lives, as well as their will to fight for their life’s sake.
When martial art masters were fighting each other, especially martial art masters of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling’s level, they must pay particular attention to the feeling of qi clashing against each other and the confrontation of the momentum, in trying to lock the opponent with all their heart and their entire body, from which they fight for the initiative and strived to gain the upper hand, to decide who’s going to win and be called the king, and who’s going to lose and be called the bandit.
But because their power was greatly reduced, the injured Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were unable to accomplish this point.
Funantuo’s formidability lay in the fact that he was able to see through the brotherly love between the two that they were unafraid to sacrifice their life for the other; moreover, he understood how well these two work together, hence he adopted this war of attrition technique, leading the two boys by the nose, until they exhausted their strength and were unable to endure.
Kou Zhong’s current task was that as Xu Ziling injected the true qi to support him, he must reverse the situation that would make them undoubtedly lose.
When Funantuo’s two sleeves were about to make contact with Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well, Funantuo once again executed a weird move, his body seemed to be separated into two sections, upper and lower. The upper portion bent to the left, while two withered and black hands slipped out from the inside. Just like two vipers that could go around a curve seeking for a gap, his ten fingers closed together into eagle beak shape, curving from the outside to strike on Kou Zhong’s left hand, which did not hold the saber, and his left flank. From the lower section his left foot kicked out, swiftly taking the tip of the Moon in the Well’s blade.
These strange movements were not something that human body could accomplish, yet miraculously he seemed to be able to do it effortlessly.
The wound on Kou Zhong’s chest began to crack and bleed. The pain from this heaviest wound made the pain from the other wounds seemed to be insignificant. With not so much blood could flow, it was like he was facing two enemies at the same time; any attack from either one would be able to take his life.
Kou Zhong cast everything out of his mind, he entered the Moon in the Well realm; no alarm no fear, he even laughed aloud and retreated suddenly. Unexpectedly he launched the move ‘No Attack’.
Previously, when he launched this move, it was always at the beginning of the battle, using this move to test the enemy, to lure the enemy. But using it when the battle was already in full swing, this was the first time. His Moon in the Well seemed to be attacking but was not really attacking; it seemed to be defending but was not exactly defending. Yet there was no gap could be found, he was completely without any flaw.
The changes were exquisite, wonderful and mysterious, everything was just right, so that Xu Ziling, who was watching from the sidelines, could not help gasping in amazement. Naturally Xu Ziling was not idle either; he was continuously amassing his power, ready to replace Kou Zhong any moment, prepared to fight war of attrition with war of attrition, because neither he nor Kou Zhong at this time had neither the qualifications nor the capability to engage a prolonged battle.
In Funantuo’s eyes, when Kou Zhong was lightly bumped by Xu Ziling’s shoulder, he immediately shed his mortal body and exchanged his bones, and turned into another person; his saber qi flourished dramatically, immediately enveloping him in a tight seal, forcing him and leaving him without any option but to meet the attack head-on with all his strength. But this was also what he wanted. He could be considered to be the first- or second-best grandmaster of martial art study in Tianzhu, and was proficient in the Brahma and I not two yoga spiritual marvelous skill. Not only he understood clearly that Xu Ziling was injecting his true qi into Kou Zhong’s body, he also knew that his previous brilliant strategy of not engaging the opponent in all-out battle already succeeded in substantially weakening the two boys’ fighting spirit and confidence. Therefore, as long as he watched for the opportunity to defeat Kou Zhong’s offensive, and then taking advantage of the time before Xu Ziling was able to completely amass his power, he could inflict heavy losses on Kou Zhong. Afterwards he could still grasp the chance to win.
Too bad Xu Ziling’s shout ‘Lower abdomen!’ destroyed his strategic plan.
First of all, Funantuo had a terrible feeling that Xu Ziling was able to see through him; secondly, he thought that Kou Zhong might use his lower abdomen as the target of his attack, hence his move was in response to this development. Who would have thought that it was a completely different matter? As a result, he repeatedly made unwise move and was falling into disadvantageous position instead.
Marvelous changes happened repeatedly. Even with his ability, Funantuo could not help hesitating in his heart.
Should he change move to attack again, or pull back to steady his footing first?
All Funantuo’s movements ceased, as if he was nailed to the ground. But his body was swaying constantly, as if he might pounce forward, but also looked like he was about to fall backward; it was weird to the extreme point.
Such move, this was still the first time that the two boys saw; a bizarre, strange, weird feeling grew in their hearts.
Kou Zhong even felt that the opponent has really become the Fantian that he was talking about, the two entities fused to become completely inseparable force; if he continued attacking him, it would be like challenging the totally mysterious, unfathomable Fantian.
‘No Attack’ could no longer continue. Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well swiftly hacked down on an empty air about four chi in front of Funantuo’s body.
Using the person to play the sword, using the sword to play the enemy.
It was a harsh and unreasonable play.
The Moon in the Well brought violent storm, like a billow rolling toward both sides, the vortex of qi power separately rushing forth from the blade of the saber, toward the terrifying enemy in front of his eyes. Laughing aloud, he said, “This move probably should be called Brahma and I as One!”
Compared to the previous various Chess Abundant moves, he brought this one up a level. Not only it could confuse the enemy and control the enemy, control the initiative, it could also, in this particular situation, break the enemy.
As long as he could force Funantuo to dump his remaining momentum backward, his ‘Tianzhu Style’s’ ‘No Attack’ momentum would be broken.
Sure enough, Funantuo stood firm; one palm in vertical position in front of his chest in a greeting posture, he neutralized Kou Zhong’s saber qi, while speaking in a loud and clear voice, “I am Brahma, you are him; you are Brahma, I am him. Brahma is me, I am him, but he is Brahma. Just like spider’s thread, like a small spark jumps out of the fire, like a shadow that comes from me. If two gentlemen can understand the meaning of this, then you will know what the Brahma and I as One is.”
The refined light in Kou Zhong’s pair of eyes flaring greatly, the bloodstain on his chest was starting to penetrate his clothes that it became visible. Laughing aloud, he said, “Sure enough, it’s a weird demonic monk who, on one side is trying to kill people, on the other side is expounding religious teaching to help people crossing over, and both happen in the battlefield. Watch the saber.”
The saber turned into Striking Strange; it streaked across the empty space, curving to strike the opponent’s throat.
If he had a choice, he would never use such a hasty move, the problem was that he did not have the capital to press on, hence he must fight for the initiative to finish it, the faster the better.
At the same time Xu Ziling moved in concert with him; he pounced toward Funantuo’s right side to pin down the opponent, so that while he was distracted, he would have some misgivings and would be difficult to counter Kou Zhong’s attack with all his strength.
Who would have thought that as fast as lightning, Funantuo moved back? He retreated two steps outside the main entrance, so that Xu Ziling’s threat immediately lost its effectiveness, leaving only Kou Zhong’s frontal assault, which pursued him relentlessly and was unwilling to let him off.
All three sides were top-notch martial art masters. In addition to the battle of power and moves, they also had to pit themselves against each other in terms of strategy and in psychological level in exquisite, brilliant way that the eye could not take it all in.
The tip of the Moon in the Well became a dot of refined light, like a shooting star streaking across the sky flashing toward Funantuo’s throat, screaming in the air like sonic boom piercing the ears. The momentum was fierce and severe.
Spiraling true energy pierced through the tip of the blade, the sharp and powerful blade, its momentum flourishing, no one dared to meet its sharpness head-on.
Kou Zhong knew that this saber strike would decide his and Xu Ziling’s life and death; he must succeed and not fail. If he could force Funantuo out of the door, he would be able to have a free hand in full assault. With Xu Ziling added into the equation, they could unleash the joint attack technique, then they would have some hope of victory.
Funantuo was indeed too terrifying.
Just when Xu Ziling was thinking that after retreating Funantuo did not have any way to attack, strange change appeared suddenly. Funantuo’s body was unexpectedly like a piece of withered, dark tree trunk turning over, so that the tianling acupoint on the top of his head was directly facing the tip of Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well stabbing over.
Naturally Kou Zhong knew that Funantuo did not want to borrow his treasured saber to kill himself, rather, he was using the Tianzhu Wonder Skill to transform the weak point on the top of the head into the most powerful attack weapon. But this moment he was unable to make any changes. In fact, he very much wished to take a breather by changing advance into retreat, to see how ridiculous Funantuo would look when he pounced on the ground. If Funantuo still wanted to seize the opportunity to chase after him, then he would let Xu Ziling, who was like a tiger watching from the side, to use his hand image to take a good care of him. But the wound on his body plus the once-released-cannot-go-back saber momentum absolutely did not let him do as he wished.
When the saber tip was about three cun away from stabbing Funantuo’s tianling acupoint, the legs of Funantuo’s tilting forward body suddenly bent, so that the distance to Kou Zhong’s blade deviates a little, and then both legs turned perfectly straight to meet the blade again.
Precisely this subtle change that made Kou Zhong’s spit-out energy lost its timing and accuracy; a hairsbreadth miss is as good as a thousand li.
‘Bang!’
True power clashed.
Irresistible force, like an invisible iron pillar, shook the saber blade forcefully, and continued along the Moon in the Well directly attacking Kou Zhong’s meridians.
This head blow was the convergence of the power throughout the acupoints in Funantuo’s entire body; it was absolutely not a laughing matter.
The Moon in the Well in Kou Zhong’s hand was buzzing, his entire body was severely shaken, he staggered back in utter defeat, all the wounds on his body, big and small, cracked open, he was in an extremely miserable state.
Funantuo’s entire body was shaken as well, but he pressed both hands in the air against the ground, as if he wanted to take advantage of the situation to pursue and strike Kou Zhong, to take his small life.
Funantuo’s Tianzhu Mo Gong certainly did not differ much from Bi Xuan’s Chi Yan Da Fa [great method of naked flame]; strange moves more and more emerged. Meeting the attack head-on like this clearly showed that even if Kou Zhong was not injured, purely in internal energy duel, he was still a notch inferior to this demonic monk.
However, Xu Ziling knew that although Funantuo successfully added injury on top of injury on Kou Zhong’s body, it was not without considerable price either; his body suffered fierce injury from Kou Zhong’s reaction force.
In this life and death moment, he completely entered the Moon in the Well realm; he could both withdraw from the scene, but also overlook nothing on the scene, ten thousand li brightly lit.
Both feet sprang off the ground, the fully amassed Treasured Vase Qi shot out to intercept Funantuo. The timing and the angle were amazing as if made by heaven, completely invulnerable.
‘Pow!’
‘Boom!’
First, Kou Zhong shattered a small table, and then his back heavily crashed against the wall on the other side. The impact was so intense that the entire lobby seemed to shake, the tapestry hanging on the wall came loose and fell down. The chaos of the situation could be easily imagined.
‘Wah!’
Kou Zhong saw stars, his body hurt all over, his throat tasted sweet; fortunately he vomited a mouthful of fresh blood, so the pressure on the pit of his stomach lessened, he regained his consciousness.
This moment, the only thing in his mind was before Funantuo killed Xu Ziling, he should recover his ability to fight. This time, even if he had to stake it all and lose his life, he wanted to pull this malicious and crafty demonic monk from Tianzhu along to accompany him in burial.
Soaring into the air, Funantuo was sighing inwardly. He calculated that it would be difficult for him to avoid Xu Ziling’s interception, especially against the fist’s accumulated-but-not-yet-released power, which did not give him any other choice but to deal with it with all his strength. Just before hurriedly meeting the contingency, he borrowed strength by pushing the frame of the main entrance door with his foot to change direction to meet Xu Ziling, who was leaping into the air toward him.
Xu Ziling’s heart was as still as the mirror. Although Funantuo’s pair of hands were transformed into claw shadows filling the whole sky that it was difficult to tell what is true and what is false, hiding-the-sky-and-covering-the-earth coming to envelop him, he was able to clearly grasp which one was the opponent’s real killing move.
What gives him the most peace of mind was that because he was able to see Funantuo’s real intention, Funantuo was no longer able to maintain his ‘Brahma and I not two’ spiritual state, so that he was not without any opportunity to be exploited.
‘Bang!’
The two men passed each other in the middle of the hall.
The Treasured Vase Qi shot out, qi power exploded, the claw shadows filling the air shattered.
The hall was thick with murderous aura.
In order to avoid triggering the wound on his right flank, Xu Ziling only relied on his left hand to deal with the pair of claws. Before making contact, using an exquisite hand image change, he completely sealed Funantuo’s light and heavy, swift and slow indeterminately demonic claw, until finally his fist hit Funantuo’s right claw. The highly concentrated Treasured Vase Image Qi suddenly shot out, so that even if Funantuo had the spare time to launch countless successive moves, he did not have the ability to put it into use, because Xu Ziling used the clumsy to break the skillful, he used concentrated power to control the scattering energy, hence he was unable to occupy the slightest bit of advantage.
Were it not for Funantuo had not completely recovered from Kou Zhong’s reaction force, perhaps it would be difficult for Xu Ziling to achieve such an impressive result.
Even so, Funantuo’s attacking true qi was indeed deep with demonic, strange characteristic; cold but not cold, hot but not hot, appearing to use conservation to push, no gap not entered, extremely yin and damaging, so that it was extremely hard for his meridians, which were still far away from being completely healed – to endure.
The two separately landed on the opposite ends of the hall, while Kou Zhong was still leaning against the wall on the two men’s side, still closing his eyes, regulating his breathing.
Xu Ziling swiftly turned around like a whirlwind, he laughed in tranquil and calm manner, his right hand behind his back, his left hand stretched forward in half-fist shape, his thumb slightly erect, pressing into the air.
One Finger Zen.
The moment he touched the ground, Funantuo also spun around, his palms together, he stared at Xu Ziling’s thumb without blinking. For the first time, he revealed a grave expression.
What shocked him was not Xu Ziling’s One Finger Zen at all, but Xu Ziling’s spiritual realm.
He could no longer sense Xu Ziling’s state.
Since his great achievement in the Brahma Power, this was the first time that he encountered such opponent, forcing him to re-evaluate his assessment on the two boys. Only Xu Ziling, one person, was enough to entangle him for a while; if he let Kou Zhong recover his ability to fight, he would no longer have the confidence to kill both of them.
After a round of bloody battle, the tyrannical Funantuo finally had his confidence shaken.
This moment Kou Zhong has successfully pressed down his surging qi and blood, he was slowly circulating his qi to raise power. The Moon in the Well was raised in difficulty, his eyes opened, exuding a risking-his-life-to-fight-with-all-his-might, advancing-courageously expression.
Inwardly Funantuo was shivering greatly. He would never think that Kou Zhong was able to recover his qi this quickly. But he had already fallen into if-you-ride-a-tiger, it’s-hard-to-get-off situation. Staking it all would cause wear and tear to his true energy, plus he would risk being killed or injured, but he must get rid of these two no matter what; otherwise, after they were completely recovered, his days would be extremely difficult to pass.
Xu Ziling generated an induction; he knew that because Funantuo could no longer find any flaw on him, he might be compelled to take the risk to make his move with all his strength. Therefore, his lingtai was even more clear and bright, he tightened his troop disposition to wait, to use this golden opportunity to inflict heavy losses to the terrifying big enemy before his eyes.
Funantuo’s mouth let out a shrill whistle, the robe on his entire body fluttered, and then both feet sprang off the ground, like a ghost whose feet did not touch the ground, he floated toward Xu Ziling, both hands stretched out in front of him in claw shape.
A storm suddenly arose.
In this frightening moment, the image of Demonic Emperor’s Relics appeared in Xu Ziling’s clear, bright and penetrating frame of mind, followed by rushing-forth Shi Feixuan’s flowery jade countenance. The Moon in the Well realm immediately vanished like smoke in thin air.
Unexpectedly, in this critical moment where a thousand pounds was hanging by a thread, Shi Zhixuan used the Demonic Emperor’s Relics to lure Zhu Yuyan into a decisive battle, tragically right at the moment where Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong were powerless to defend themselves, forget about sparing the time to go and help. Naturally Shi Feixuan, whom they wanted to help, was facing a very grave danger.
This thought immediately made him like someone suddenly threw a rock to the originally-without-any-ripple water in the well, immediately stirring up the ripple that disturbed his mind.
Funantuo immediately sensed this, he increased his speed forward. While his qi was responding, he converted his right-hand claw into a fist, which exploded toward Xu Ziling.
Xu Ziling felt like from the ninth heaven, high in the clouds, he fell into the mundane world. Funantuo’s fist suddenly expanded, it became a punch that choked the heaven and earth. From nothing it came, to nothing it went. He could no longer grasp the follow-up changes.
When martial art masters were in decisive battle, how could they allow the slightest amount of distraction?
Inwardly Xu Ziling knew the situation was very bad, yet he had no choice but to take up the challenge. Striving to calm himself down, the One Finger Zen pressed out.
The fist and the finger collided.
In case Xu Ziling was able to clearly feel all the subtle changes of Funantuo’s punch, because One Finger Zen was even more concentrated than Treasured Vase Image Qi, it specialized in breaking the qi power of an expert in internal energy, hence there was no fear that the opponent’s power was more outstanding than his. However, naturally this time it was another matter altogether. Xu Ziling could only neutralized 70% of the opponent’s true power, the rest, he simply had to bear it.
Letting up a stifled groan, Xu Ziling met the punch and flew backward like a kite with cut string. His old wounds burst open, his mouth spurted a mouthful of fresh blood, he fell heavily at the corner of the room under the window.
Without saying a word, Kou Zhong pounced at the speed of lightning. Unleashing the full power of the Moon in the Well, he attacked Funantuo like howling wind and torrential rain.
Funantuo groaned inwardly. He did not expect that Kou Zhong did not lose his cool-headedness due to Xu Ziling suffering heavy losses, plus Xu Ziling’s reaction force aggravated his internal injury. Without any chance to take a breather, momentarily he could only counter every move, and once again he fell into the disadvantageous position.
‘Shua! Shua! Shua!’ Kou Zhong hacked more than a dozen times in succession; yellow light flaring greatly, the saber momentum gradually grew, each saber strike was heavier than the previous one, just like lightning strike, the spiraling qi power suddenly circled to the left, and suddenly spun to the right, the angle and the arc of the saber were all beyond anybody’s expectation, each saber strike was using life to gamble against life, without the slightest regard of his own safety, like mercury flowing out swiftly attacking Funantuo, like raging waves crashing against the shore biting-cold, icy saber qi continuously attacked the enemy.
He put the question of whether Xu Ziling was alive or dead outside the realm of his thought, he only knew how to make an all-out effort to perish together with the enemy.
However, the blood seeping out from his wound slowly dyed his clothes red, the barely remaining true qi was quickly consumed. No matter how resolute his will was, no matter how high his fighting spirit was, he could not break through his physical limitations, gradually he entered the phase where he reached the peak and then declined.
Funantuo’s amazing moves came out one after another, he strived to get back a little initiative, and was rejoicing inwardly, knowing that Kou Zhong was like an arrow at the end of its flight. Immediately he launched a set of strange, indescribable shenfa [pose or motion of one’s body in martial arts] and shoufa [technique], his body performed all kinds of weird movements beyond ordinary human body’s capability, in order to combat Kou Zhong’s gradually declining yet incomparably fierce and severe saber momentum.
Kou Zhong let out a cold snort, the Moon in the Well drew seven, eight circles of various sizes in the air. Each circle generated a vortex of spiraling qi, spreading-over-the-heaven-pressing-down-the-earth surprise attack that completely enveloped the opponent, so that even with Funantuo’s ability, he was coping with it extremely strenuously.
Supposing Xu Ziling was watching from the side, he would be able to guess that this must be the last style of Kou Zhong’s ‘Eight Methods of the Well’, the eighth style, ‘Square and Circle’ [or ‘perimeter’].
In his vortex-of-qi-power-assisted offensive, Kou Zhong appeared to be retreating but not exactly retreating, he seemed to be advancing but not exactly advancing, suddenly his saber stabbed. It appeared to be simple, but there was a flexible qi like a circle within a square, and there was a square within a circle, profound to the extreme point.
Unexpectedly Funantuo did not know how to block or to parry, he retreated in shock.
The saber was stabbing straight, but the spiraling qi power was entirely square and circle, like a solid wall pressing down on the opponent, but the core was still circular vortex of energy. A saber technique that has reached such realm, it was indeed seizing the nature of the heaven and earth to the greatest extend, so how was he supposed to block?
This move ‘Square and Circle’ was created out of necessity. Previously, although Kou Zhong already thought about this possibility, he had not succeeded in testing it, hence he never used it against the enemy. Yet in this critical moment, he finally succeeded.
Kou Zhong spurted a small amount of blood, he was lacking strength to seize the opportunity to pursue and attack. Like moving clouds and flowing water he floated backward, grabbed Xu Ziling in his arm, and broke the window and fled, landed on the side garden between the building and the high wall.
Lightning fast, Funantuo flew out the window to pursue. Roaring in laughter, he said, “Shaoshuai, where do you think you can escape?”
Kou Zhong held Xu Ziling’s waist tightly in his left arm, he felt that there were still movements in his brother’s blood vessels. Quickly he looked up to glance at the night sky and saw the moon and the stars filled the heaven, incredibly enchanting. A spell of exhaustion descended upon him, he mused whether we, two brothers, were going to lose our lives tonight under this crafty scoundrel’s hands.
Right this moment, a streak of saber light flashed down from the top of the wall, striking straight toward Funantuo, who was just attacking Kou Zhong from behind, carrying a fierce and severe saber qi, just like sandstorm brushing through the desert scorching from the drought.
‘Bang!’
The internal injury Funantuo suffered was already not light, plus he never expected this to happen, and the person mounting a sneak attack was martial art master nearing his own level. Caught off guard, he let out a tragic groan, as the impact from the saber momentum sent him back through the window into the room.
His move succeeded, Ke Dazhi did not dare to pursue, he came to Kou Zhong’s side and shouted, “Come with me!”