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Li Shimin smiled and said, “What a coincidence, I also have something to ask.”

At this time, all the Heavenly Policy Mansion’s officers and soldiers had left the honored guest bedroom where Xu Ziling was supposedly recuperating from his injury, to make preparation for tomorrow’s decisive battle, only Li Shimin alone stayed behind to talk with him.

Inside and outside the honored guest building, the security was tight, there were both covert and undercover officers keeping watch everywhere to guard against the enemy from invading their territory, to make Xu Ziling’s ‘injury’ appeared to be more serious.

Xu Ziling cheerfully said, “Shimin Xiong, please speak forthrightly.”

Li Shimin’s eyes fell on the palace lantern hanging on the opposite wall, its soft light and gentle color illuminated the tranquil bedroom, he said, “Just now, Ziling’s pair of eyes shot a rather wounded-feeling expression, I wonder what is the load on your mind?”

Xu Ziling did not expect him to ask such a question; slightly startled, he sighed lightly and said, “At first I thought that I would not be able to meet the appointment with Shigong at the zi hour [11pm – am] tonight, I wondered whether he, the Senior would be unhappy, and then I remembered the scene of seeing him last night, the reason why he didn’t make his move was because to such an extent, we evoked his longing for Niang, hence he used life and death as the subject of our talk, and also mentioned Chenxiang [agarwood]. Ay! The fragrance [xiang] is originally not sinking [chen], but Niang has already been fragrantly [xiang] buried in the loess, which made me recall the scenery of the past, when we met Niang, momentarily the feeling was difficult to stop, causing Shimin Xiong to spend too much effort in thinking about it.”

Li Shimin revealed an apologetic expression, he said, “I’m sorry!”

Xu Ziling’s pair of eyes was brimming with emotional look, he said, “Not a problem.”

Li Shimin spoke in low voice, “It’s Ziling’s turn to ask me!”

Xu Ziling showed a strange expression, he said, “This is the first time in my life that I really scrutinize what is true and what is false of the enemy’s method. When I, from my memories and thoughts, returned to reality, my mind couldn’t stop comparing the relationship and the strong or weak between the enemy and us, and thus a series of questions arise.”

Smiling wryly, Li Shimin said, “You finally have a taste of what Kou Zhong and I feel, dealing with the enemy, that kind of being on guard day and night, cannot rest or eat in peace – feeling. All right! Go ahead! I’m listening with respectful attention.”

Muttering to himself irresolutely for half a day, Xu Ziling said, “If you don’t take into account the 3,000-man combined forces of the Shao Shuai and the Song Family elite troops under Ma Chang’s command, one day you confront the enemy head-on, and the opponents are the combined forces of the Changlin Army and the Tujue, plus Chang He is standing on Taizi’s side, how much would Shimin’s odds of success be?”

Li Shimin pondered over in earnestness, after a moment, he smiled and said, “It will depend on whether we are completely unprepared, and then after encountering the ambush at the Xuanwu Gate, how many men can break through the siege and escape back to Yeting Palace. At our peak condition, I, Li Shimin, practically do not consider Changlin Army worthy in my eyes. This is precisely the reason why Wang Xiong [brother king] has never dared to act blindly without thinking. Since everybody knows that all the Tian Ce Fu’s generals and scholars are serving me with their life, as long as we hold fast to the Yeting Palace, before the food runs out, I can guarantee that no one will be able to attack into the palace even for half a step.”

Xu Ziling nodded and said, “That is exactly the situation that Lingzun does not wish to see the most, therefore, the enemy will, by fair means or foul, strike tonight to weaken our strength, to avoid a situation that will rattle the whole city and will be out of hand tomorrow. That is something that the current City of Chang’an cannot afford.”

Knitting his brows, Li Shimin said, “Tonight should be safe and sound, because any action by the enemy would surely arouse our vigilance and would generate the counterproductive effect of beating the grass to scare the snake.”

Xu Ziling spoke indifferently, “What about using poison?”

Stunned, Li Shimin said, “Poison?”

Xu Ziling said, “I thought of this possibility from Liexia. Judging by the fact that Taizi was able to put a large number of firearms inside the Yeting Palace with the gods did not know the ghosts did not perceive, using poison should be easy! They only need to have their mole inside your ranks. Liexia is skillful in using poison, as long as the poison takes effect tomorrow morning, it can paralyze our ability to fight back. This aspect, we cannot not guard against.”

Shaken, Li Shimin said, “Ziling’s worry is very reasonable. There are altogether twenty-four wells in the Yeting Palace, all the water being used come from these wells. If they secretly put poison the wells, the destructive power will be extremely terrifying!”

Rising to his full height, he said, “Maybe we can use the enemy’s poisonous tactics in reverse to make the other side misestimate our strength. Let me have someone to investigate clearly the situation of the well water first, I will listen to Ziling’s remaining questions when I come back.”

Kou Zhong’s mind was empty, alert and penetrating, he moved slightly sideways, remembering the exquisite and brilliant scene where Ning Daoqi, with his back facing Song Que, broke Song Que’s Heavenly Saber with his thumb; he turned his body sideways and sent his palm backhandedly to chop at the long sword coming to attack. The moment just before his palm hit the edge of the opponent’s sword, the palm momentum changed again, from the straight chop it was changed to the palm and the fingers sweeping in a pushing motion. Although his back was still facing the opponent, it was like he saw with his own eyes. Watching this, everyone on Ge Suwen’s side was dumbstruck, they all felt it was greatly hard to believe.

‘Ding!’

Kou Zhong laughed aloud, he launched the Bu Si Yin Fa’s method of deflecting energy that he had just comprehended from the Bu Si Yin Fa. The opponent’s astonishing power and true qi, which had been accumulated to the brim, were entirely absorbed into his palm, the death qi and the murderous qi were turned into life qi. While he himself was safe without any harm, the other side was deflected and thrown straight toward Ge Suwen.

Dugu Feng’s [Phoenix] fragrant body brushed passed Kou Zhong, Kou Zhong spun around and stepped back, while pulling out the Moon in the Well in passing. Not only her sneak attack failed, but even worse, the moment Kou Zhong swept the sword’s edge, Dugu Feng’s entire energy disappeared without a trace like throwing a stone and seeing it sink without trace in the sea, her body felt empty and fluttering, it was extremely unbearable. What made her lost fer face the most was that her long sword unexpectedly refused to obey her control, it stabbed towards Ge Suwen.

The treasured saber in Ge Suwen’s hand returned to his back, his left hand swiftly, without any preparation, stretched forward, the hollow of his palm pressed onto Dugu Feng’s sword blade, which was only three chi away from reaching his chest. Unleashing a profound technique, the pressing down movement changed into pushing upward, immediately Dugu Feng, both her sword and her person, rose up into the air, above everybody’s heads, just like a polo ball in a polo game.

Kou Zhong secretly praised Ge Suwen’s deflecting-force method, it was both not going to hurt Dugu Feng in the slightest, while also prevent her from getting caught into an embarrassing predicament, which actually gave him an opportunity that he could exploit. Thereupon he laughed aloud again and said, “En Garde!”

The Moon in the Well hacked the empty air.

Ge Suwen’s treasured saber moved forward, it pointed at Kou Zhong from a distance. The saber blade was gleaming with golden light, unexpectedly it was a short saber, only a chi and a half long, with polished gold ring at the head. The flickering golden light was coming from the flowing lines of polished gold in swirling pattern and flowing clouds design on the body of the saber, straight to the spine and straight to the edge of the blade, both the head and the end of the hilt were in an oblong shape, neither the hilt nor the blade had any shield to protect the hand like common saber and sword, making people able to imagine the fierce, vicious, dangerous and ruthless tense situation that it could display in close combat.

The Moon in the Well stopped three chi off the ground, the vortex of qi power, with the tip of the blade as the core, formed a violent and wild-blowing energy, rolling out to four directions; it was precisely Kou Zhong-style spiraling force field.

At this moment, Dugu Feng finally regained her breath, she flipped two somersaults in the air, and landed far away at the rear. The qi field was everywhere, Han Chao’an, Jin Zhengzong, and so on retreated one after another, leaving only Ge Suwen, with his clothes fluttering wildly, his ring-headed saber pointing straight ahead, facing Kou Zhong.

Letting out a loud shout, Ge Suwen transformed his ring-headed saber into dots of golden light, protecting his whole body. His feet moving in strange footwork, neither slow nor hurried, he chased toward Kou Zhong. He appeared to be grasping the momentum of the initiative, but actually both sides knew that he was not able to figure out the changes in Kou Zhong’s moves, hence he used defensive blended into the offensive, trying to gather what is true and what is false.

Kou Zhong chanted, “The saber is the way, it strikes with chopping and cutting down.”

The Moon in the Well rose up, the spiraling force field disappeared suddenly, as if all the air in the field, including the life qi and the death qi, were stored back into the saber.

Li Shimin returned to the room, he sat down on the edge of the bed and said, “I have asked clearly about the details of the water in the well. Turns out the Yeting Palace has a water officer with specific responsibility in the water supply of the palace. Routine inspections of well water and the stored water are carried out every day at fixed time in the morning, afternoon and evening. The water affairs officer is under Xuanling’s supervision, a small department under him. However, it is not easy to poison the well water, because the fish raised in the well will be poisoned first, which will give us a warning.”

Xu Ziling laughed and said, “Shimin Xiong must have planned in advance in this.”

Li Shimin spoke cheerfully, “Lucky that Ziling reminded me, how could I dare to lightly neglect this aspect? Not only did I instruct Xuanling to closely monitor the well, but also everything that could be eaten and enter our stomach. If the other side really wants to set their hand from this aspect, we could conversely give the other side a surprise instead.”

After a short pause, he continued, “What other instructions does Ziling have?”

Xu Ziling said, “I want to know what kind of person Tang Jian is.”

Due to Tang Jian commanding an army of 15,000 men stationed in the Western Inner City, he became the figure playing the most important role during the uprising tomorrow. If he was allowed to lead the army into the palace to quell the chaos, the situation could be reversed.

Li Shimin’s pair of eyebrows knitted together, he spoke heavily, “This man has wisdom and scheming ability, and he is absolutely loyal to Fuhuang, because Fuhuang once saved his entire family from Yang Guang’s hands, hence there is no way to move him.”

Xu Ziling said calmly, “At least there is still one way, which is to pass on a fake imperial edict, right?”

Li Shimin slapped his forehead, he laughed and said, “Ziling indeed used one sentence to wake me up from a dream, as long as I can obtain the tiger tally[1] from Fuhuang’s hands, plus the imperial edict has Fuhuang’s [ruler] seal and signature, and the one sending out the decree is Chang He, we could definitely deceive Tang Jian. Is Ziling thinking of entering the palace tonight to steal the seal?”

Xu Ziling shook his head and said, “Tonight, it is definitely not suitable to act blindly without thinking, because any slight mistake, tomorrow will be hard to fathom. I can guarantee Shimin Xiong that there will be no shortage of magic weapons that can deceive Tang Jian that he will believe firmly without any doubt.”

Li Shimin spoke in deject, “Do we really have to make our move against Fuhuang?”

Xu Ziling said, “This is the crucial point of our success or failure, we have no other choice. Otherwise, if we allow Lingzun to order the sixteen fire beacon towers of the Taiji Palace to be lit, it would be the beginning of a nightmare. Originally this was impossible to achieve, but fortunately there is a different secret passage leading to the Imperial Study Room and the Imperial Guard House at the southwest corner of the Imperial City, which makes all of these possible.”

Li Shimin was silent for a moment, his pair of eyes emitted a reminiscing look, he smiled wryly and said, “Since encountering Feixuan for the first time in Luoyang, I knew that I am setting foot on the road of no return. Ay! She finally went back!”

The load on his mind being evoked, momentarily Xu Ziling was speechless.

Letting out a pained laughter, Li Shimin said, “I really don’t know how much of these things I am doing for Shi Feixuan? Or for the world? Or for myself? Or perhaps for those who follow me?”

Xu Ziling spoke heavily, “This is not important at all, the most important thing is the final result. As long as the world is peacefully unified, everything else is not important. In the Taiji Palace, under Lingzun, is the person who can give orders in everything Wei Gonggong?”

Rousing his spirit, Li Shimin replied, “Wei Gonggong has always acted in accordance with the imperial order and pass it on in Fuhuang’s behalf, therefore, no one dares not to give him face. However, the official commander of Fuhuang’s personal guards is my tangdi [younger male cousin from father’s side] Li Xiaogong. His conduct is wise and resolute, he has great reputation in the palace, he is more difficult to deal with than Wei Gonggong.”

Xu Ziling said, “Try to notify Lingshu [your esteemed uncle] Li Shentong that I will meet with him tonight, I must use his influence in the palace tomorrow. This matter is crucial.”

Li Shimin nodded and said, “There is no problem in this. Ay – I am worried whether Ziling will be able to deal with it? When the time comes, not only Ziling will have to deal with Wei Gonggong, Yuwen Shang, Li Xiaogong, the ‘Immortal Couple’ Chu Junming and Hua Ying, husband and wife, and Yan Li, but there is also You Chuhong. Any slight mistake, the consequences will be hard to foresee. Fuhuang himself, his skill is brilliant, definitely not an easy match.”

Xu Ziling spoke indifferently, “Shimin Xiong please rest assured, our people sneaking into Chang’an this time are the elite troops from the Shao Shuai and Song Family, two armies. The Song Family has Song Bang, Song Shuang, and Song Faliang, whom Song Que personally put his heart and soul to cultivate, the most outstanding young martial art masters of the Song Family’s new generation, none is not equipped with the qualifications and skills to assume personal responsibility. As long as they could catch the enemy off guard with a surprise attack [idiom, from Sunzi’s ‘Art of War’], they can control the overall situation in the blink of an eye. Just as Shimin Xiong often mentioned, we are focused while the enemy’s scattered, even if there is magnificent army with thousands of men and horses in the palace, the remaining allotted share for them is just to bend their head to obey the order.”

And then he smiled and said, “Fortunately, Yang WenGan is now utterly defeated, otherwise we would have to spare our attention to deal with him.”

This moment there was the sound of footsteps outside the door, a personal guard reported from outside the door, “Reporting to Qin Wang, Xingjun Zongguan [the marching troops chief/commander] Li Shiji Furen [madame] Shen Luoyan is asking to see Xu Xiansheng.”

Li Shimin replied, “Please invite her to come in!”

He rose up to his full height and left without saying anything.

Kou Zhong thought to himself that this should be regarded as Ge Suwen’s poor luck. If they were to fight last night, at whose hand would the deer die, wouldn’t it be hard to predict? Nevertheless, right now he was definitely being led by the nose by him, Kou Zhong.

After understanding the essence of the Bu Si Yin Fa, not only his Long-Life Qi was brought up one level and reached perfection, but he also stole from Bi Xuan the principle of using the qi field to control the enemy and subdue the enemy, so that he was able to display the ‘illusion technique’ of the Bu Si Yin Fa to extreme saturation.

At this time, a stunned look appeared on Ge Suwen’s face, as the pressure disappeared, his power automatically increased, the ring-headed saber in his hand had no other choice but to turn into a golden light chopping directly at the opponent.

Kou Zhong already waited with stored-up momentum. With a burst of ear-splitting long laughter, his saber swept horizontally, seemingly an honest and real strike, but the changes within were in the millions. The saber followed the body’s intention, the intention adhered to the saber’s movement, man and saber became one, no person, no saber.

‘Dang!’

The two sabers clashed, sparks flew sharply.

At the moment when the victory or defeat would be immediately decided, Ge Suwen showed his weight as the Gaoli great expert in saber technique. The ring-headed saber seemed to be unable to withstand the Moon in the Well, it was jolted away to the left, but the person actually borrowed the impact force and was brought by the saber to shift away, suddenly he was about a zhang away from Kou Zhong, and then with a swift spin, the ring-headed saber was transformed into golden light again, unexpectedly it was thrust toward Kou Zhong in a wave-like arc; retreating and then advancing, not only he did not fall into the disadvantageous position at all, but he advanced and retreated with no gaps to be sought, amazing as if made by heaven.

Kou Zhong was well aware that the advantage he had seized just now had already vanished under the opponent’s successive strike-brought-by-disappearance style counterattack, but he was still unhurried and calm. Letting out a long laughter, he said, “Good saber technique!”

Just as Han Chao’an, Ma Ji and the others cheered and sighed in praise for Ge Suwen, Kou Zhong’s treasured saber sank down and pointed upwards at an angle, the saber blade vibrated and shook, but the person was like turning into a motionless boulder, as if existed but did not exist, the heaven, earth and man fused together to be one entity.

His heart and spirit were clear and bright, crystal clear, from the saber qi coming to envelope his body, he completely, not-a-single-trace-leaking, grasped the final landing point of the ring-headed saber in Ge Suwen’s hand; he waited in tight formation.

For the second time, Ge Suwen revealed a stunned expression in his eyes. He felt that not only the saber move was odd, but it was like he was dropping by in front of the door to let Kou Zhong punish and teach him; furthermore, he had no idea what Kou Zhong’s follow-up move would be. In his shock, the wave-like advance of the treasured saber immediately became transformed-and-disappearing golden light, he soared into the air at a distance of half a zhang away from Kou Zhong, the saber light turned once again into a golden rain filling the whole sky pouring down on Kou Zhong’s head and noggin.

Kou Zhong knew inwardly that he was finally able to force Ge Suwen into disadvantageous position again. This move that could shroud the sky and cover the earth was merely a sudden change move of an arrow at the end of its flight – offensive. Unexpectedly, instead of meeting the move, he sprinted forward, and after getting away, he suddenly stood still, and swept backhandedly at the opponent who did not have any choice but must fall back to the ground from the empty air.

Ge Suwen’s pair of feet landed on the ground, Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well swept toward his neck, unexpectedly he did not feel the slightest bit of saber qi; it was so odd that it was hard to believe. Unable to understand Kou Zhong’s what is true and what is false, Ge Suwen swiftly stepped back, but the ring-headed saber continuously chopped in Kou Zhong’s direction, laying down stream by stream of saber qi, doing everything he could so that Kou Zhong was unable to seize the momentum to pursue and attack. He indeed lived up to his reputation as Gaoli’s great expert in saber technique.

Han Chao’an and the others became the crow and peacock make no sound, no one dared to ascertain whether Ge Suwen could regain the upper hand.

Kou Zhong stood still with the saber across his chest, smiling as he watched Ge Suwen stepping back far away, the qi power protecting his body turned into a wall of qi that went away from the body, like a wheel running over pottery and porcelain, smashing the formless saber qi that Ge Suwen sent to attack him into powder. By the time Ge Suwen was standing still at a two-zhang distance, the air between them was empty and fluttering, there was no longer any barrier.

Ge Suwen’s saber momentum changed, he regrouped the foot of his troops disposition, organizing a counterattack. ‘Tap! Tap! Tap!’ Kou Zhong moved three steps, suddenly to the left, suddenly to the right, suddenly forward, suddenly backward, but with every step he broke away from Ge Suwen’s saber qi intended to lock him tight, causing Ge Suwen to change his moves three times, before once again standing still in the optimum way to attack and defend against the enemy, but he was unable to counterattack.

They were two zhang apart, but under the induction of qi power, it was like a close-range combat. Any mistake from one side, the opponent would be able to see the gap and enter in, immediately victory or defeat would be determined. The tense and dangerous situation were not something that pen and ink would be able to describe.

Letting out a long laugh, Kou Zhong said, “Dashuai is indeed brilliant!”

One saber pointing forward, it drew saber flower in yellow light.

Ge Suwen was finally able to steady the foot of his troops disposition, his strong wrist swung, the ring-headed saber pointed forward. He was about to launch an offensive, Kou Zhong’s yellow light disappeared, the Moon in the Well seemed to have moved from another space, it suddenly appeared in Kou Zhong’s hand, creating a chilling feeling of strange reprimand.

For the third time, Ge Suwen revealed a horrified expression. Although the observers were many, he knew for sure that he was the only one feeling the true qi emitted by Kou Zhong’s saber blade, it was precisely the sent-out-later-to-control-the-enemy saber blade to lock tight and lock dead his ring-headed saber’s last position. It was also becoming his only one gap to meet a contingency. If as a result Kou Zhong launched a full-strength attack, his only way out was to stake everything to fight hard; naturally it was not beyond Kou Zhong’s ability to foresee, rather, he would be able to grasp the change of his saber momentum without error.

Ge Suwen’s countenance changed for the fourth time. Kou Zhong’s brilliance was beyond his expectations. Having no alternative, he moved his saber back and put it away, and shifted two steps sideways. Standing still with the saber across his chest, he roared, “What kind of saber technique is that?”

Han Chao’an, Ma Ji, Dugu Feng and the others were unable to make any sense of what Ge Suwen was talking about, how could he ask the enemy while standing face to face with the naked saber blade? But they all knew that Ge Suwen had committed another unwise move and had fallen into the disadvantageous position.

Kou Zhong grasped the saber hilt with the other hand, the saber drooped down, he raised the saber and bowed, and said with a smile, “This is the Yi Jian Technique that Niang passed on to me, I am afraid it will only make Dashuai laugh.”

The refined light in Ge Suwen’s pair of eyes flaring greatly, he stared fixedly at Kou Zhong for quite half a day, and spoke heavily, “Fu Junchuo?”

[1] Tiger tally: a two-piece object made in the shape of a tiger, used in ancient China as proof of authority. One half of a tally could be issued to a military officer and this would be matched with the other half when verification was required.