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Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong lay down in a sparse forest on the slope of a hill at the foot of the Shaoshi Mountain southeast of Luoyang. On a distance down below was the Ying River tributary, which was flowing at great speed.

This was the place where they agreed to rendezvous with Ba Fenghan; about a li away, they had four short bamboo sticks arranged in certain position, which only the three of them understood, pointing to the exact location where the two boys were hiding.

But Ba Fenghan has not showed up.

Looking up to the vast sky full of stars, Kou Zhong sighed and said, “Under different circumstances, the entire heaven and earth is different. Normally we did not have time to wholeheartedly look up to the sky. The more I look, the more I realized that the way I looked at the sky previously was so careless.”

Xu Ziling pointed to a cluster of brilliant rays on the horizon and said, “That is the Pleiades, a constellation made up of seven bright stars; it is also known as the Seven Sisters.”

Amazed, Kou Zhong asked, “How do you know such a profound name?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Xu Ziling said, “Everything is from Mr. Lu’s books. Don’t you think that recognizing a couple more stars would be very interesting?”

“Is it possible for you to teach me a thing or two?” Kou Zhong asked, “Next time we are looking at the sky, I can show off a bit in front of other people!”

“One life time two brothers,” Xu Ziling replied, “What do I have that I cannot teach you?”

Kou Zhong was delighted, “I was always the one who said that; this is the first time that it came out from your mouth.”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, “Whether I say it out or not, what’s the difference? The fact is we are closer than brothers. Back to the topic, if you want to recognize the stars, you must understand the dividing line between distinct realms of three walls and twenty-eight constellations. Three walls are Zi Wei, Tai Wei and Tian Fu [sorry, I have no idea what these are: zi – purple, tai – grand, wei – micro or abstruse, tian – sky, fu – kneepad]; the twenty-eight constellations are the seven constellations on each direction: east, south, west and north, added together to make the twenty-eight constellations!”

Kou Zhong gave a hollow laugh, “Hey!” he said, “I have enough for now. Next lesson I’ll learn the position and name of the twenty-eight constellation.”

Changing the subject, he said, “When we fought female demon Wan the other day, the victory and defeat only differed by a hairsbreadth. Slight miscalculation and the one who was injured and escaped would be us and not female demon Wan. It was really dangerous.”

Xu Ziling said, “If skills can be measured by scaled, female demon Wan can’t possibly surpass the three of us put together. Yet obviously she was able to exploit all kinds of situations. On top of that, more and more demonic skill emerged, that she was able to toy with us in the palm of her hand. Were it not for her underestimating me, Ol’ Ba’s sword may not necessarily be able to injure her.”

Kou Zhong nodded in agreement. “But Ol’ Ba’s sword was definitely our of the ordinary,” he commented, “Even when it was plain as day that female demon Wan was able to block, she still suffer injury. Ay! It’s going to be dawn soon, why hasn’t Ol’ Ba arrived?”

Finished speaking, he sat up.

Xu Ziling still had his mind on the sky; he seemed to be extremely fascinated.

Kou Zhong looked around. Suddenly his whole body shook as he pointed in the direction of the upper reaches of the Ying River.

Xu Ziling was awakened from his dream. By the time he sat up, Kou Zhong already sprang up and soared like a shooting star toward the Ying River.

When Xu Ziling arrived at the shore, Kou Zhong, with Ba Fenghan, whose right hand was still gripping the Beheading Mystery Sword, whose face was as pale as a dead person, in his bosom, was leaping up from the water.

When Xu Ziling took the sword from his hand, Ba Fenghan groaned, “Quickly go! Qu Ao is coming!”

The two boys were shocked. Carrying Ba Fenghan, they ran to the wilderness.

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling took turn carrying Ba Fenghan on their back as they covered more than thirty li distance. They ran in and out of the depth of the jungle. On one hand it was to evade the people’s eyes and ears, on the other hand it was because there were many streams in the jungle, in which they could wade along, so that it would be difficult for the enemy to follow their track.

By that afternoon, they really could not move a single more step, hence they looked for a cave to rest and to transfer their qi to help Ba Fenghan treating his injury.

The innate true qi from the ‘Secret to Long Life’ was indeed extraordinary; not even half a sichen later, blood was coming back to Ba Fenghan’s face. After throwing up two mouthful of clotted blood, his breathing was starting to flow freely. He sighed and said, “This time I was really lucky; if you guys did not pull me out of the river in time, I am afraid I would have drowned.”

“How are you feeling right now?” Xu Ziling asked in concern.

Ba Fenghan let out a cold snort and said, “Although Qu Ao’s Ning Zhen Jiu Bian [lit. condensed true nine changes] is formidable, it still failed to take my life. I only need three more sichen, plus with your help, I will be able to recover fully.”

And then he added in distress, “I still don’t understand how he could keep up with me; but it was obvious that in his rush, he had consumed a large amount of true energy, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to use the cliff to add more distance between us, and also to use the water to escape.”

“Let’s talk about it later!” Kou Zhong said, “Right now we can only ask the deities and pray to Buddha that within these three sichen Qu Ao won’t be able to find us here; otherwise we will be in big trouble!”

※ ※ ※

Minute by minute time passed.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling took turns in transmitting their qi into Ba Fenghan to heal his injury and to stand guard outside the cave.

Into the evening, it was Xu Ziling’s turn to keep watch outside. He selected a craggy boulder nearby to sit, from which he could monitor the entire mountain area below, but was rather hidden from sight.

In the beautiful scenery under the setting sun, he enjoyed the steep cliffs and towering peaks, and the Ying River flowing between the two mountains, the lush water plants on the river, and the dark reflection of the dense green vegetation on the surface of the Ying River, in stark contrast to the red mountain and crystal-clear water.

Three sailboats had just entered the periphery of his vision; the flowing water, rapid current, dark-green and bluish-green forest, in this instant the time seemed to stop.

It was an unprecedented feeling.

The ones moving were not the sailboats, but Xu Ziling and the entire perilous peaks spread out over the mountain and fields, while the water seemed to move at different speed.

In his heart, Xu Ziling had no worry no delight; it was just a plain of quietness.

His entire sphere of thought was wide open. The true qi inside his body spiraling and surging. The exhaustion from the rushing journey and from treating Ba Fenghan’s injury was swept away.

No one knows how much time had passed, the sun already disappeared beneath the western hills, a burst of night breeze blew his way, carrying with it the sound of the sleeve brushing against the wind.

Without the slightest trepidation in his heart, Xu Ziling slowly closed his eyes.

The approaching person was getting closer and closer. Just by listening to his speed, Xu Ziling knew that if it was not Qu Ao, then he must be a martial art master of the pinnacle of perfection like Wanwan or her caliber.

With a long, clear whistle Xu Ziling soared into the air and landed among the weeds within the cluster of miscellaneous trees growing on the slope of the hill below, to the shock of the number one martial art master of Tiele, the ‘Flying Eagle’ Qu Ao, who had just stepped his feet on the slope that he stopped suddenly.

Qu Ao was tall and thin, but giving the impression that he was straight as a ramrod and robust. His skin was dark from long exposure to the sun, his face long like a goat’s, but it was well-defined, clear and powerful, like a statue carved with knife, which fit very well with his pair of sharp eagle or falcon-eyes. His overall impression was vigorous, powerful and intimidating.

Only from the flickering expression shown in Qu Ao’s eyes Xu Ziling already knew that he was a vain and selfish, sinister and deceitful person. This kind of person would consider himself as the center of the universe, someone who seems to think that he has received the Heaven’s privilege to wantonly go on the rampage.

Now the two people were separated by a full three-zhang distance, but without any visible posture, a surge of deep and cold murderous aura already assaulted like a tidal wave toward Xu Ziling.

Upright and unafraid Xu Ziling stood calmly, while quietly gathered his energy to contend against the opponent’s irresistible qi power. “Your son, it was me who killed it,” he spoke emotionlessly, “If you want revenge, go ahead!”

Qu Ao’s eyes exploded with sharp light; he said in astonishment, “Kid, you do have the unyielding attitude of viewing death as a return home. How many moves do you think you can stand from me?”

Originally Qu Ao was planning on coming up with ten-thousand-catty thunderbolt to knocked one of the three down and capture him alive, and then leisurely taking care of the other two, and then he would gain total control of all tree, making them hover between life and death, so that he could vent the hatred of his beloved son’s murder.

Who would have thought that Xu Ziling blocked his path before he reached the top with the spirit of a champion and unassailable masculinity?

If they fought under this kind of situation, even with Qu Ao’s ability, he would have no choice but to go all out. If that happened, they would have a life and death battle, where killing might be easy, but he could forget about capturing the opponent alive.

Chapter 6 - Part 2

Qu Ao was a great martial art master of the present age. Finally he decided to crumble the loftiness in Xu Ziling’s heart. As long as the opponent was thinking of how many moves he could survive Qu Ao’s attack, naturally a feeling of unable to withstand the enemy would grow in his heart, and then the loftiness would diminish.

Smiling slightly, Xu Ziling said, “Old Qu, you are getting on in years, yet still so naïve. Right now I have preserved and nurtured my spirit, plus I have helping hands nearby. While you, Old Qu, have been rushing around for two days, and have risked your life in a strenuous battle. You have become a weary army who cannot afford to make the slightest miscalculation, or else you will implicate the illustrious name you painstakingly established all your life and let it down the drain.”

Qu Ao shivered in fear, because for the first time he saw how formidable Xu Ziling was.

The most puzzling thing was that the opponent seemed to be filled with vitality and ample spirit, without showing the least bit of lack of true qi and the exhaustion of the hard battle earlier and the tiring journey of running away for their lives. It was simply impossible.

Although he wounded Ba Fenghan earlier, his victory was really not easy; plus under Ba Fenghan’s counterattack, he suffered minor internal injury. And then in order to pursue the enemy, he did not have time to recover his energy, and thus like Xu Ziling said, he had become a tired army.

The most formidable aspect from Xu Ziling’s remark was the implication about his age being young and his reputation being far below his, so that losing would not be a great deal to him, while on the other hand, Qu Ao simply could not afford to lose.

Suddenly Qu Ao sensed that Xu Ziling appeared to be unfathomable.

Previously, every time he faced an enemy, he was always able to see through the opponent, but this time was an exception.

Even if Bi Xuan, Ning Daoqi, or the like were in his place, they might also be similarly overcome with anxiety and doubt. Even Xu Ziling himself did not understand it; he seemed to understand the situation he was currently facing, yet he did not seem to recognize it for what it actually was.

All because the ‘Secret to Long Life’ was not a secret that was passed on from generation to generation, it agreed implicitly with the concept of Man and Heaven, that everything was beyond the natural world, from Laozi’s [Lao-tze] own word, the Law of Heaven: ‘Road to road, extraordinary road’, ‘mystery within a mystery, arriving at its wonderful gate’. [From the ‘Book of Changes’. Sorry, it’s beyond me.]

Just now Xu Ziling skillfully obtained the image of the Heavenly Law penetrating the unspeakable, the nonexistent moment, something that ordinary people would not be able to see or could not understand clearly, where the essence and qi of the human body mixed with the essence and qi of the heaven and earth to become one entity, like a moment of enlightenment all of a sudden recovered the consumed true qi to nearing completion, and still have enough strength to forge ahead vigorously. Such a mysterious principle, who could understand? [Definitely not me, I just translated it as is. Sorry ...]

An unspeakable feeling also grew in Qu Ao’s heart. But he has made his name for several decades, his will was as steadfast as a rock, hence he would never let discouragement overwhelm him. With a cold snort, fast as lightning he charged up the sloping hill toward Xu Ziling.

But contrary to Qu Ao’s expectation, Xu Ziling also leaped up to meet Qu Ao in the air.

Qu Ao was thinking that Xu Ziling would stay at the top of the slope to defend his position to the death and not letting Qu Ao to cross the line even half a step, to prevent him from going after Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong, who were in hiding.

But now Xu Ziling was staking everything up by leaving the passage wide open, without any apprehension he attacked with all his might; how could Qu Ao not be surprised?

It’s just that at this moment Qu Ao did not have the luxury to analyze the situation. His ten fingers spread open, he pushed the ground with his toes, and leaped up to meet the attack. His ten fingers generated powerful qi energy, sealing both Xu Ziling’s incoming momentum and his escape route tightly, so that the only way out for Xu Ziling was to fight in total disregard of everything else.

Seeing Qu Ao’s claw was abstruse and unfathomable, extending and retracting indeterminately that it was hard to pin down, and it sealed the opponent’s movement with incomparable tightness, but suddenly changed course midway from offense to defense, Xu Ziling could not help letting out a long laugh, unexpectedly made a somersault in the air to rise half a zhang up, so that he was in a higher position looking down, and sent out a double punches in full strength to invade the shadow of Qu Ao’s claw.

The sound of colliding qi rang out continuously.

In the blink of an eye the two combatants have exchanged more than a dozen moves.

Amidst the dull grunt, Xu Ziling floated back to the top of the slope; he had to stagger one step back before he was able to gain a firm foothold. His left pants leg shattered into small pieces, two visible blood traces appeared, with fresh blood still oozing from them. Trace of blood also appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Qu Ao was standing straight at the middle of the slope, his countenance ashen, his eyes flashing with ominous glint.

Just now he already gave it everything he had; who would have thought that Xu Ziling sent out amazing moves one after another, each move neutralized his killer move? How could he not lose face and his pair of eyes lost its light?

Xu Ziling laughed aloud and said, “I told you Old Qu, you are tired! Yet you insist on showing off. En garde!”

This time even Qu Ao had to respect his heroism and boldness. Just now it could be said that Xu Ziling had gone through mortal danger and escaped alive. Were it not for his quick thinking of evading the attack on the vital part below his groin by blocking Qu Ao’s exquisite claw using his leg, this moment he would have been lying on the ground.

Right now the blood has not stopped flowing, yet he returned in a swirl of dust. Qu Ao could not help viewing him in a new light, but at the same time he also fanned out the murderous intent in Qu Ao’s heart.

Again, without any visible posture, Qu Ao charged toward Xu Ziling. “Let’s try another move!” he said with a laugh.

Xu Ziling saw Qu Ao’s palm hacking down at an angle, his stance and footwork contained limitless changes, all of a sudden a continuous flow of powerful qi completely enveloped him like the undulating wave; he knew that in his anger Qu Ao went all out to attack him. Naturally Xu Ziling did not dare to meet the attack head on. Abruptly he took three steps back, and then subsequently sent out three punches over the distance.

Even with his deep cultivation, Qu Ao was still taken aback.

In an outsider’s eye, this punch was completely senseless, yet it had completely blocked Qu Ao from making any changes to his move.

Supposing Qu Ao kept to his original plan of continuing his palm attack following the original path, before he was able to make any changes, undoubtedly it would meet the opponent’s razor-sharp punch head on.

Such an amazing move, it was the first time in his life that he had ever seen.

Under normal circumstances where his condition was at its peak, even if he did not have enough time to regenerate his power, he had full confidence that he would be able to shake the opponent and to make him spurting blood and falling back. However, right now his body was weary his strength exhausted, he was only able to use sixty, seventy-percent of his normal power; if he forced himself to meet the attack head-on, he could not guarantee the outcome.

Shouting angrily, Qu Ao sidestepped and kicked Xu Ziling’s open right flank.

Seeing his ploy worked, Xu Ziling’s spirit rose up greatly, his confidence boosted, his hands turned into thousands of fantastical palm shadows, raining down on Qu Ao in wild attack.

Seeing this junior, this younger generation actually seized this opportunity to take the initiative in offensive moves, Qu Ao nearly went mad from anger. Promptly he focused his mind to unleash the ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’, which was heavily imbued with his true divine energy.

This ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’ was actually the essence of the martial arts that Qu Ao created. It transformed complicated martial arts into simplicity, merging the incomparably complex palm, finger, claw, and many other styles into these thirteen styles, combining it with soaring, leaping, flashing, shifting and many other shenfa [reminder: motion in martial arts]. The changes were undefined, so that it was difficult to estimate, like flying eagle in the sky swooping down on its prey with profound accuracy.

Xu Ziling has just had a feel of the change before his eyes, Qu Ao already flew upward, while unleashing mercury-like, which flowed swiftly, no-hole-not-penetrated, violent and ferocious attack.

The initiative was back into the opponent’s hands.

Xu Ziling knew that in terms of experience, martial art skill and insight, he was a level below the opponent. Without any better option he clenched his teeth and relied mainly on dodging and evading, with blocking and parrying as secondary mechanism, while using the amazing moves from Yijian Technique to strenuously withstand the opponent’s powerful-like-the-Great-River, pouring-down-in-torrents violent offensive.

Qu Ao sprang up and dropped down again, looking exactly like an eagle sending out wave after wave of attack toward Xu Ziling.

‘Wah!’

Xu Ziling spurted out blood and fell to the ground; with his right foot raised, he met Qu Ao’s piercing fingertips. He was in extremely grave danger.

Qu Ao rose about a zhang up in the air, while shouting loudly, “This date next year will be the anniversary of your death.”

Both palms struck down in full power.

Xu Ziling hurriedly rolled down the slope. The ground where he was immediately sank, two palm prints appeared.

Having used up his true qi, Qu Ao landed on the slope.

Suddenly the sound of saber and sword splitting the air came from behind.

‘Bang!’

Xu Ziling, who had just struggled to stand up, fell down again. This time he could not crawl back up.

In a flash, as quick as a flint spark, Qu Ao already employed his internal energy to examine his own condition, and knew that in his eagerness to kill Xu Ziling, he was presumptuously using the ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’, which was not suitable to be used when his true qi was suffering from the wear and tear of his body.

And now while he had no strength left, he had to deal with Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong’s combined assault.

Making a prompt decision, Qu Ao sidestepped the attack, and disappeared into the darkness of the mountain and fields.

Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong made their awe-inspiring presence known on the top of the sloping hill; they stood majestically as they watched Qu Ao disappeared without any trace, before looking down at Xu Ziling, who was trying to climb back up. And then, looking at each other, they smiled wryly and dropped down on their knees together. Other than panting heavily, they were unable to say anything.