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Book 49 Chapter 8 – To Be One Step Ahead of the Opponent

Kou Zhong pulled off his hood and put it inside his bosom, so that it would not affect his spirited senses of sight and hearing. While Shi Zhixuan was speaking, he already grasped his own situation, as well as Shi Zhixuan’s motive.

It’s not that Shi Zhixuan did not want to kill him, in fact, he was intent on killing him here and now. His one excuse was just to give Kou Zhong a sliver opportunity to live, to mistakenly think that it was because Shi Zhixuan wanted to obtain the ‘Han Lin Qing Yuan Tu’ that he let go of the opportunity before his eyes to take Kou Zhong’s little life.

The fact was that he already considered the pros and cons. Killing Kou Zhong was really Shi Zhixuan’s top priority right now, otherwise he would not have taken the risk to follow them into the imperial palace, and made careful considerations to scheme against them.

Up until now, Kou Zhong was certain that Shi Zhixuan did not know that they secretly eavesdropped his dialogue with Yin Zuwen. Even with Shi Zhixuan’s ability, killing Kou Zhong was absolutely not an effortless matter. Plus, if Kou Zhong thought that he would not survive, he might take the risk and make a gamble, for example, to do everything he could to escape into the tunnel, or perhaps break through the skylight and charge out of the palace. If that happened, even if Shi Zhixuan had three heads and six arms, he would not dare to play a game of cat and mouse with Kou Zhong everywhere inside the Great Tang palace, under the imperial guards’ heavy siege.

Shi Zhixuan had extraordinary ability and wisdom, he knew that only by suggesting that he was going to carry Hou Xibai away that Kou Zhong would do everything he could to stop him, hence Shi Zhixuan would not have to worry that before deciding between life and death Kou Zhong would not abandon his friend and run away.

Spiraling energy burst through the saber blade, creating strange hissing noise. Before the saber arrived, the qi power already preceded it, enveloping the ‘Demonic King’ Shi Zhixuan head-on.

This was a way within no way. Shi Zhixuan’s Bu Si Yin and Huan Mo were really unfathomable, it made people doubt whether it was real or just an illusion. And Kou Zhong was utilizing the supernatural characteristic of his Long-Life Qi, just like he and Xu Ziling were able to probe something on the other side of the wall, he was now using the qi power to probe Shi Zhixuan’s what is true and what is false in advance. As long as Shi Zhixuan generated any reaction, he could draw from the qi intention to determine the position, the angle and the strength of the attack accurately.

From outside the palace hall came the continuous sound of the imperial guards going back and forth and moving around, as well as the sound of hoof beats, showing that the imperial guards were conducting large-scale mobilization and troop deployment. The situation was tense and burning hot. However, no one could imagine that two top figures of the Jianghu, one old, the other young, were engaged in life and death decisive battle inside the large palace hall at the heart of the imperial palace.

Shi Zhixuan revealed an indifferent smile, and then he swayed to the left and right again, each sway deflected Kou Zhong’s ‘qi force field’ to the side.

The saber blade, which had become like the third eye for Kou Zhong, immediately generated reaction; it suddenly accelerated, and turned into the ‘Striking Strange’ of the Eight Methods of the Well. Like a thunderbolt or a violent lightning it shot toward Shi Zhixuan, purely based on feeling, displaying the ‘Shen Yi’ method that Song Que passed on to him – to the extreme saturation; not only that, he even brought it one level up.

The saber blade pierced an empty air.

He was sure that it was going to pierce the pit of Shi Zhixuan’s stomach; even if it missed, it should force him to block first before counterattacking. However, at the moment Shi Zhixuan was on his left side, he also sent out a horizontal palm strike toward the Moon in the Well. Based on his power, such palm strike would definitely make Kou Zhong unable to grab hold of his saber.

Kou Zhong understood; not only Bu Si Huan was the fastest shenfa on earth, in term of qi power, it could generate illusion in the opponent’s mind. Were it not for the spirited senses of the tip of Kou Zhong’s saber has reached the level where he could distinguish the real from the illusion, he could forget about ever breaking his Bu Si Huan.

Fortunately, he learned from Song Que that in every saber strike he must retain some amount of energy, so that in this critical juncture, when he was facing an urgent change of move, his body moved back, while his saber’s momentum generate a change, it moved in the opposite direction to poke the hollow of Shi Zhixuan’s palm.

“Good!” Shi Zhixuan shouted in low voice. His palm strike turned into a finger jab, it hit the saber blade squarely. A terrifying, as well as highly concentrated burst of inner power struck the tip of the saber, creating a light ‘whoosh!’ noise as the qi power clashed against each other. Kou Zhong was shocked that his blood and qi were surging, he was nearly unable to hold on to the Moon in the Well. Feeling as if he was electrocuted, he relied on the primal momentum to move back swiftly.

The strange light in Shi Zhixuan’s pair of eyes was flaring greatly, as if he was about to attack with all his strength.

Kou Zhong cried ‘Not good!’ inwardly. Hastily he unleashed his reversing-true-qi-within-his-body technique, converting his backward momentum to sliding sideways, while assuming the ‘No Attack’ stance.

He appeared to be attacking but not exactly attacking, he appeared to be defending but not exactly defending.

In the past, when he was in decisive battle against Funantuo, he used ‘No Attack’ during a powerful attack to pressure Funantuo so that he was helpless to make his move. But this moment, during the retreat and defend, he again exercised his former wisdom, the purpose was not to allow Shi Zhixuan to strive for the upper hand advantage.

Sure enough, Shi Zhixuan’s eyes revealed an astonished expression. He nodded and said, “That move was quite not bad.” While saying that, his palm turned into a punch, he sent out a blast of punch over the empty air; violent and ferocious-without-hesitation qi power completely enveloped Kou Zhong.

Kou Zhong cried ‘Not good!’ inwardly; the arteries and veins [i.e. overall context] of Shi Zhixuan’s punch clearly grasped the qi power’s strength or weakness, light or heavy, the angle, the changes, everything, within it. He knew that his intention was not to break his ‘No Attack’ at all, but to use Bu Si Yin Qi to sense Kou Zhong’s situation from a distance, before determining the optimum method of attack; it was akin to Kou Zhong just now using the saber qi to explore the opponent’s foundation. It’s just that Shi Zhixuan’s unique school’s method was able to detect the state of the movement of the true qi within his body.

Kou Zhong had had many private discussions with Xu Ziling to research the ways to break the Bu Si Yin; although they have not found a solution, but from Xu Ziling’s many experiences fighting hand to hand with Shi Zhixuan, they did obtain precious enlightenment, hence the reason he was able to differentiate the purpose behind Shi Zhixuan’s punch.

One wrong move, he would incur the disaster of having himself killed.

Facing death, Kou Zhong did not panic, his mind entered the Moon in the Well realm; he laughed aloud and pulled his saber back to protect his body, while holding his true qi without releasing it. The man and the saber become one entity, with no crack to be exploited, it was a variant of the ‘No Attack’.

‘Bang!’

Like a kite with cut string, Kou Zhong met the punch and was thrown flying backward, and his landing spot was precisely by Hou Xibai’s side, so he kicked lightly, trying to unseal Hou Xibai’s acupoint. Whether he was a dragon or a snake, it would depend on whether his Life-Long Qi was miraculously effective or not.

Shi Zhixuan has never expected that not only Kou Zhong, using the concentrated saber qi as the true qi to protect his body, was able to endure his punch, he was also this cunning; thereupon Shi Zhixuan revealed an angry and bemused look on his face. Fast as lightning, like a shadow attached to the shape, he chased over, his two hands were transformed into palm shadows filling the air, hiding the sky and covering the earth, coming to enshroud Kou Zhong, while it was as if his body has turned into a phantom without any substance, empty and real difficult to tell, so that it was beyond others’ capability to grasp.

Kou Zhong pulled back his right foot that was kicking Hou Xibai, instead, he stepped out to the left and shrank it to become a cun--size strange step. Laughing aloud, he said, “This is called foot cheat! Xie Wang fell into the trap!”

Suddenly he evaded Shi Zhixuan’s frontal assault and shifted to Shi Zhixuan’s right side. Without even looking, he casually swept his saber around. In his heart, he saw the bitter scene of magnificent armies with thousands of men and horses charging against each other on the battlefield, where blood was flowing like a river, where the sun and the moon did not shine their light. Immediately he generated an intensely-cold, ice-freezing saber qi, carrying a sweeping-a-thousand-army overbearing might, disregarding what is true or was just an illusion in Shi Zhixuan, treating Shi Zhixuan just like Wanwan’s Tianmo force field. The Moon in the Well turned into yellow light, swiftly sweeping across.

Shi Zhixuan’s palm shadows filling the air dissipated, he raised his leg to kick sideways at the Moon in the Well. In a very tight space where neither side was able to spin around at all, the two men were exchanging a stake-it-all move.

Kou Zhong, both the person and the saber, was kicked that he staggered sideways, however, he was delighted inwardly. Up to this point of the hand-to-hand fight, this was the first time that he managed to seize the initiative enough to force Shi Zhixuan to be willing to meet his attack head-on.

Shi Zhixuan’s upper body slightly swayed, his eyes emitted a murderous intent; he was about to pursue and attack, Kou Zhong already used his reversing true qi technique to bounce back, and shouted coldly, “Watch Laozi’s ‘Square and Circle’!”

Even with Shi Zhixuan’s skill and insight, he still made an error in judgment; he had never thought that Kou Zhong was able to recover this quickly after receiving such a heavy blow. Moreover, he had never expected that midway along his retreat, he could convert reverse into advance. Giving him more headache was that as if it looked like Kou Zhong’s simple, single saber strike was about to arrive, unexpectedly it generated a qi wall, which encompassed a wide area – pressing down on him, so that he did not dare to advance prematurely. The greatest threat was that the saber blade emitted a column of perfectly round qi power, like an iron pillar ramming toward the pit of his stomach.

Shi Zhixuan shouted coldly, “You are asking for death!”

Suddenly he spun swiftly and turned into a man-made violent cyclone to take the saber blade’s ‘square and circle’ qi power head-on, and forcefully shook the spinning qi power coming straight toward him, producing a violent explosion and sharp whistle that pierced through the entire palace hall’s space.

Kou Zhong did not expect the opponent to have this move, plus he was afraid that the other side might absorb his wall of true qi and use it back against him. In the I-am-vanishing-the-other-side-increasing situation, one move could take his little life away.

He had never thought that ‘square and circle’ could be broken by the opponent just like this. Fortunately, as a veteran of a hundred battles, he had deep understanding of when-all-exhausted-change-will come, when-change-happens-it-will-go-through principle. He forcefully pulled the wall of qi back, the square was gone, the circle remained, in highly concentrated level, so that the opponent was unable to absorb and digest the qi power. Under the Moon in the Well’s yellow light flaring greatly, he changed the ‘Square and Circle’ to ‘Rapid Battle’. The saber following the person, it heavily struck the opponent.

Shi Zhixuan, who was turning like a tornado, did not dare to challenge the law by using Bu Si Yin to deflect and neutralize Kou Zhong’s saber qi, he changed his move to a flick of his sleeve to meet the saber blade, producing a muffled ‘Bang!’ while his other hand waved his sleeve to brushed away at Kou Zhong’s face. The spinning movement came to an abrupt end, as if it had never happened.

Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well seemed to come under pressure of a big mountain. No matter how he applied his power, he was unable to move it even a hairsbreadth. The most terrifying thing was that the opponent’s light sleeve brush not only succeeded in shaking and dispersing his qi power, which he thought it would definitely make a kill, but the opponent’s brimming-with-evil, icy-cold true qi even invaded his body along the saber’s blade, attacking his meridians.

In all his military campaigns, big and small, in the past, there has never been anybody who could subdue and control his Moon in the Well, which was as nimble as a deity. Kou Zhong nearly wanted to abandon his saber and run for his life, yet he knew that such an unwise move would only expedite his defeat and disperse. Being able to think fast in an emergency, without giving consideration of any awe-inspiring manner, he simply rolled sideways on the floor to evade the snatching-the-soul sleeve brushing toward his face, using the power of his entire body and his entire spirit to withstand Shi Zhixuan’s other absorbing-the-soul-striking-out-the-spirit sleeve pressing on the blade of his saber.

Spiraling energy, like mountain flash flood breaking out, passed through the saber to strike back.

‘Boom!’

In the end, half of Shi Zhixuan’s power was no match to Kou Zhong’s full-strength counterattack, the sleeve wrapped around the saber loosened, while his body refused to follow its master’s order, it recoiled nearly half a step back, while Kou Zhong, like a windmill, revolved and slid on the ground, away from him.

Shi Zhixuan let out a burst of long laugh, he soared into the air and pounced toward Kou Zhong.

Xu Ziling’s shock was justified, because the one intercepting him was the recovering-from-asthma number-one-martial-art-master-of-the-Dugu-Clan You Chuhong. Strictly speaking, this moment Xu Ziling was able to recognize her only from her skill and her unique school’s weapon, the jasper staff.

Her white hair and her wrinkle-covered-face were replaced with black hair and tender skin; although her shape was still that of an old granny, this moment her appearance was at least thirty, forty years younger than the last time he saw her in Luoyang. Her real age must be close to a hundred years old, but now, looking at her horizontally, looking at her vertically, she looked like an upper-class lady who was only fifty-something years old. This moment her head ornament was a piece of black cloth, she wore white dress and yellow skirt, with cinnabar colored short scarf wrapped around her shoulders, which was fluttering in the wind. Coupled with Xu Ziling’s previous impression on her, the scene was so strange that it made people’s heart tremble.

She should have come together with Li Yuan’s group, yet she was able to rush ahead and soared into the sky from down below to pursue and intercept Xu Ziling; it goes to show how brilliant her skill was. No wonder Yuwen Shang held her in higher regard than Song Que. Whether she could surpass the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que, whose mighty power subdued the world, it was still too early to say, but if she had enough power to stake it all against Song Que, and this moment he was being entangled by her, Xu Ziling would surely nurse a grievance in the Tang Palace tonight.

The moment Xu Ziling looked down at her, she had just leaped up from in between two groups of cavalries. Her grasp of the timing and the angle was accurate without equal. Judging from the speed in which both sides were moving, she could just intercept Xu Ziling in the air. Even if she were still suffering from asthma, there was no way Xu Ziling would be able to pass this barrier.

While he was still thinking deeply, You Chuhong, at the speed of lightning, flew at an angle to about ten-zhang altitude in the air, her jasper staff created a subtle, hard-to-describe change, and then swiftly rose up to stab toward him, the staff qi completely locked and enveloped Xu Ziling, so that his shenfa could not help being affected and he slowed down a little.

Xu Ziling’s divine light flashed, he originally wanted to shoot the hook rope, which had been waiting for action after having accumulated energy, toward the roof of the watchtower, but now he changed it to shoot down toward her, imbued with concentrated true qi.

The steel hook rapidly clawed ten zhang down. Because You Chuhong was charging upward at full power, she was unable to dodge, hence she could only use her jasper staff to face the attack.

If Xu Ziling were an ordinary martial art master, based on You Chuhong’s experience and skill, which she had accumulated for nearly a hundred years, she would be able to easily deflect the power and use it to pull Xu Ziling down from the air; but the steel claw, carrying a burning qi power, was attacking her head-on. Any ingenious technique would be useless.

Left without any choice, she thrust the head of her staff up.

‘Pow!’

Qi power clashed.

You Chuhong was jolted hard that she fell back onto the ground, but Xu Ziling was jolted up that he flew even higher into the air. His qi power was surging, he nearly spurted blood; hastily he circulated his true qi, while also borrowing the force and converting it into charging momentum, with which he soared more than forty zhang high, and then he converted the true qi to cross over the watchtower’s wall, and threw himself into the East Palace area.

Even with his ability, falling from such height would certainly injure him, but he had the hook rope in his hand, so that by borrowing a little bit of force he was able to land safely on the ground.

This change, no one among the other side has anticipated beforehand, immediately he put some distance with Li Yuan’s snatching-life, fiendish-star group.

Right this moment, a loud, thunderclap-like shout exploded behind him. Xu Ziling looked back; a like-an-iron-tower, robust-and-sturdy, tall-and-straight, with-horned-dragon-beard, thick-and-heroic big man, who was standing by You Chuhong’s, who had landed back on the ground – side, waved his hand to throw a heavy iron lance, as fast as a shooting star, toward him. [Note: don’t you just love Huang Yi’s style?]

Xu Ziling recognized him as one of the martial art masters who were coming with Li Yuan to pursue and kill him. He appeared to be about thirty-something, so he could not possibly be one of the senior renowned experts that Li Yuan invited to leave the mountain, but the strength of his hand and the power of his body were astonishing. Not daring to be careless, he amassed his spiraling power, his right leg bent and extended, he tapped the tip of the lance. It appeared that he was shaking it head-on, but he was actually using an ingenious application of force.

‘Bang!’

The heavy lance flew at an angle, Xu Ziling’s shenfa sped up, he changed direction. Like a big bird he flew toward the East Palace garden, where the forest tree was the densest. He only needed to release two knockout balls to confused the guards who were standing on top of the wall’s eyes and ears, plus there was no martial art masters blocking his way, then he would be able to escape this terrifying place.

Who would have thought that their visit to the palace, which according to Kou Zhong was for fun, would become the situation before his eyes?

After rolling away from Shi Zhixuan for approximately ten zhang, the Long-Life Qi within Kou Zhong’s body already circulated more than a dozen cycles; not only he neutralized the opponent’s true qi invading his body, his own qi power was recovered as well. His confidence greatly boosted, his fighting spirit exuberant, he knew that if he did not maintain his will to risk his life, his little life would be difficult to protect, because just like Xu Ziling said, in one-on-one decisive battle against Shi Zhixuan, either he or Xu Ziling would only be dead without any chance of living; therefore, he must change this inferior position of fighting with all his might.

Both hands lightly pressed the ground, he changed and revolved his true qi, beyond expectation he sprang up into the air, the Moon in the Well heavily hacked Shi Zhixuan, who was pressing down from above, he laughed and said, “This is called ‘Using Scheme’.”

Shi Zhixuan never expected that he dared to strike back. Both Kou Zhong’s ability to strike back, plus his saber completely sealing off all his advance paths, since Shi Zhixuan was high up in the air, it was difficult for him to carry out the Bu Si Huan Fa, so he snorted angrily and sent out double punches.

‘Bang! Bang!’

One after another, the two punches accurately, without missing at all, hit the Moon in the Well squarely. Even with Shi Zhixuan’s ability, facing Kou Zhong’s full-powered saber strike, which he released after accumulating his energy, he had no choice but was forced to fall to the ground, while Kou Zhong took advantage of the reaction force to fly away, and landed at the place where Hou Xibai was lying down. He even laughed aloud and said, “Thank you for your trouble to send me here!”

Shi Zhixuan knew that it was too late for him to pursue. Revealing the air of a top martial art master, he put both hands behind his back, before speaking slyly, “Ol’ Shi still abide by my original proposal; if by dusk tomorrow you fail to hand over the ‘Han Lin Qing Yuan Tu’. Ol’ Shi will reveal your secret of impersonating Situ Furong to Yin Zuwen. You ought to know what the consequences will be.”

Kou Zhong had just landed by Hou Xibai’s side; he was about to raise his foot to kick, but when he heard that, his tiger-body shook severely. Turning around slowly, he looked at Shi Zhixuan, his countenance could not be even more unsightly, his pair of eyes revealing a look of disbelief.

Shi Zhixuan’s words were like a bucket of cold water being dumped onto his head, so that he had a deep understanding of Hou Xibai’s warning earlier. They had indeed underestimated Shi Zhixuan. One thing went wrong, the whole plate fell down.

Remaining calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos, Shi Zhixuan said, “You really believe you can hide anything from me? Situ Furong came at the right time, plus it has something to do with Song Que, in itself, it was already very suspicious. However, as long you are obedient, Ol’ Shi will definitely not make things difficult for you; even your plan to deal with the Xiang Family, I definitely will not stop it.”

Kou Zhong’s scalp went numb, he said, “That being the case, even if you obtain the painting, what are you going to do with it?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Shi Zhixuan calmly replied, “Ol’ Shi does not have to explain to you!”

Kou Zhong sighed and said, “But the ‘Han Lin Qing Yuan Tu’ is not in our hands at all, another person stole it.”

Shi Zhixuan smiled and said, “That’s not my concern; if by dusk tomorrow you can’t put the painting on the table in Xibai’s little hall, you’ll have no choice but to kill your way out of Chang’an.”

And then he floated to the middle of the palace hall, stood on the tile of the entrance of the underground tunnel, and spoke indifferently, “You may leave via the tunnel, I guarantee that I won’t mount a sneak attack to you, I might even secure the other end of the tunnel for you. This place is not suitable to stay for a long time. Ziling successfully escaped, Li Yuan definitely will come and personally investigate it. You should understand what I am talking about. Such an underground tunnel, sealing it will really be a pity.”

The stone brick slowly moved away, Shi Zhixuan disappeared in a flash.

Dejected, Kou Zhong smiled bitterly; he stooped down to unseal Hou Xibai’s acupoints. Although Shi Zhixuan was using his unique school’s technique, it still did not pose any problem for him, an expert of the Long-Life Qi, who once played the part of a divine doctor.

Hou Xibai suddenly sat up, his eyes wide opened, he blurted out, “Kou Zhong, run away quickly, Shi Shi is coming!”

Kou Zhong’s heart was moved, thinking that Shi Zhixuan’s telling him that Hou Xibai did not lose consciousness was a lie. Putting his arm around Hou Xibai’s shoulders, he said, “Was it something that you wanted to say before your acupoint was sealed?”

Hou Xibai came to his senses. Opening his eyes wide, he looked around and spoke in horror, “Where’s Shi Shi? What happened?”

Unusual noise came from the palace hall’s door, torch light was showing through the cracks on the door.

Kou Zhong sprang up and quickly sealed the entrance to the underground tunnel. Pulling Hou Xibai along, he rushed toward the entrance to the long tunnel, saying, “The good news is that Ziling managed to escape, as for the bad news, I’ll tell you when we get home.”

The two men disappeared into the tunnel. The entrance rapidly closed, it was as if nothing had happened in the vast and empty Taiji Palace Hall.