Book 1 Chapter 23 - Elder Brother Murdering His Younger Brother
Even after he exhausted all his strength, he still failed to pull the big man down. The tip of the whip was nearly embedded in this beast-like big man's neck, and his beast-like eyes nearly popped out of his eye sockets.
Yet unexpectedly he was still standing there, motionless. He neither reached out to grab the long whip, nor tried to walk toward Hei Zhenzhu. Hissing noise came out of his throat, as he giggled and said, "Tiny kid, you can't pull me down!"
Hei Zhenzhu had never seen such a strong man, but he had never seen such idiot either; in his horror and bewilderment, he suddenly shouted, "But can you pull me down?"
The big man broke into a big grin; unexpectedly he really tried to pull the long whip using his neck. Both sides were pulling with all their strength, 'Crack!' the long whip snapped.
Hei Zhenzhu's body flew and crashed against the wall. In great shock he immediately leaped onto the beam. He saw the iron-tower like body of the big man collapsing slowly; his face was turning black and purple, his tongue was sticking out, his eyeballs were popping outside the eye sockets, and the eyes appeared to be staring at Hei Zhenzhu still.
Hei Zhenzhu could not help shuddering in fear; he smiled wryly and said, "Why is it that those whose four limbs are well-developed always have such a simple brains?"
Looking down from the beam, he saw Yitian Hong and NanGong Ling were like two wooden men; they stood there, facing each other, yet until now they had not even budged.
NanGong Ling's eyes were fixed at the sword in Yitian Hong's hand; he did not dare to look at anything else. However, everything that happened next to him, naturally he could very well imagine without having to look at it.
Cold sweats were starting to form on his forehead; he suddenly shouted, "Yitian Hong, I heard that you are only willing to kill when there's money involved, is that right?"
Yitian Hong's grey, dead-fish like eyes were staring at him; he did not speak at all.
NanGong Ling spoke hoarsely, "If you help me killing Chu Liuxiang, I'll give you a hundred thousand taels."
The corner of Yitian Hong's mouth moved into a grin; he said, "A hundred thousand taels? Unexpectedly Chu Liuxiang worth that much?"
NanGong Ling said, "If you kill me, no one is going to give you a hundred thousand taels, am I right?"
Yitian Hong coldly said, "That's right, because really, you, this man, are not even worth one wen."
"Since that's the case," NanGong Ling replied, "You shouldn't kill me even more."
A hint of cold, sharp smile appeared on the corner of Yitian Hong's mouth, he spoke slowly, "You need to know, even a prostitute, if she encounters the right customer, she might give him a freebie once … My killing this one time is also a freebie."
Finished speaking, the sword already moved.
Although Hei Zhenzhu's face was flushed, he could not help laughing; he said, "This analogy is vulgar and dirty, but it is indeed extremely wonderful."
He saw that in that split second, Yitian Hong already stabbed his sword seven times. His swordsmanship was still penetrating and unique. His arm above the elbow was absolutely still, but the sword light scattered around like rain.
NanGong Ling was forced to retreat seven steps in succession. With a hissing mad laughter, he said, "Yitian Hong, do you think I am afraid of you?"
Yitian Hong coldly replied, "I don't want you to be afraid of me at all, I just want you dead!"
NanGong Ling shouted, "I am afraid you are the one who is going to die!"
His left hand stretched out and grabbed a chair, he threw it straight out; his right hand reached toward his waist and pulled a Burmish saber. The blade was as bright as snow. 'Swish! Swish! Swish!' he launched three saber chops.
There was nothing fancy in his saber technique, but it was swift, vicious, and extremely practical.
Yitian Hong had fought countless people in his lifetime; naturally he knew this kind of martial art skill was the most terrifying. If you think that the saber technique was not pleasing to the eye, then you are doomed to your death already.
Perhaps this kind of saber technique did not have any strong point, perhaps it even did not have any other use; its only purpose was to kill. Not only that, it would kill very effectively.
Yitian Hong's eyes lit up, he laughed heartily and said, "I never thought that today I would meet such an opponent as you. My trip this time has not been made in vain."
Saber light and sword qi were pressing on Hei Zhenzhu that he felt his whole body turned cold. Although he had seen not a few hand-to-hand fighting, he had never seen anything like the battle between these two men.
These two practically did not seem to be in fight; they looked more like two wolves wrestling each other. Each move was meant to take the opponent's life; there was absolutely no other meaning.
Saber light, sword shadow, were flashing back and forth like lightning. Although there was no sound of blades clashing against each other, the chilling cold murderous aura was suffocating, so that even Hei Zhenzhu was unable to stay on the beam.
He leaped horizontally for three zhang before landing on the ground. He saw Chu Liuxiang was just massaging Su Rongrong until the color of blood gradually appeared on Su Rongrong's pale face.
Hei Zhenzhu could not help walking over and patted Chu Liuxiang's shoulder, while speaking coldly, "Do you know that someone was staking his life for you?"
"I do!" Chu Liuxiang replied.
"But do you care?" Hei Zhenzhu asked.
Chu Liuxiang chuckled and said, "The Central Plains' One Red Dot already made his move, does anybody else need to care?"
Laughing coldly, Hei Zhenzhu said, "You seem to be very much at ease."
Chu Liuxiang said, "Yitian Hong's swordsmanship, are you saying that you can't be at ease?"
They heard a 'Swish!' as Yitian Hong swept seven chi sideways, the clothes on his shoulder seemed to have been cut by a blade, fresh blood was slowly seeping out.
NanGong Ling laughed heartily and said, "Yitian Hong, you still won't give up?"
'Cui!' Yitian Hong spat a mouthful of saliva on his own shoulder. His long sword was already stabbing again.
Seeing that, Hei Zhenzhu's countenance changed greatly; he spoke sternly, "You still feel at ease now?"
Smiling wryly, Chu Liuxiang said, "When Yitian Hong makes his move, anybody who wants to help will be his enemy. Besides, these two's martial art skill are more or less equal, no one could think about injuring the other."
"Therefore, you might as well don't care, right?" Hei Zhenzhu said.
Chu Liuxiang said, "In less than ten strokes, NanGong Ling will also suffer Yitian Hong's sword. In less than thirty strokes, he himself will definitely want to stop. Before that time, it will be useless even if I want to care."
Laughing coldly, Hei Zhenzhu said, "I am afraid your heart is already on this Miss alone, and you don't care about other people's life or death anymore. I have never imagined that the grand, dignified Chu Liuxiang unexpectedly is just a disciple who pays more attention to a lover than to this friends."
He had not even finished, they heard another 'Swish!' as NanGong Ling staggered backward, the front piece of his robe was cut open, and there seemed to be blood seeping out as well.
Chu Liuxiang turned his head toward Hei Zhenzhu and said with a laugh, "Not even ten strokes, was it?"
Hei Zhenzhu was silent for half a day. His eyes slowly turned toward Su Rongrong's face. There seemed to be some kind of complicated changes deep in his eyes. He spoke slowly, "She is really beautiful."
Chu Liuxiang said with a laugh, "Why stopped at beautiful?"
Hei Zhenzhu coldly said, "But in my opinion, there are still a lot more women more beautiful than she is!"
Chu Liuxiang said, "Perhaps she cannot be considered the most beautiful woman, but certainly the most gentle and soft, and the most considerate, as well as showing the most understanding of other people. As far as I know, perhaps there is no woman on earth that can surpass her."
Hei Zhenzhu's countenance turned even paler; it seemed like he was going to say something, but he bit his lip and held back. Suddenly he turned his head around and no longer looked at them.
They heard NanGong Ling shouted loudly, "Chu Liuxiang! This matter better be resolved by you and I, alone, you said so yourself just now; you still remember it?"
"Of course I do," Chu Liuxiang replied.
NanGong Ling said, "If you still want to know who the mysterious character is, you'd better tell this cold-blooded kid to stop."
Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "Too bad I cannot tell him to make his move, and I cannot tell him to stop either … when Yitian Hong wants to kill someone, nobody can make him stop."
Who would have thought that Yitian Hong suddenly flew about a zhang back and spoke coldly, "I am stopping now; simply because he can't kill me, and I can't kill him either. There is no point in continuing the fight. I'll pass him on to you!"
Chu Liuxiang laughed and said, "Thank you very much."
Yitian Hong opened his eyes wide and stared at him for half a day. He spoke slowly, "You don't need to thank me. Just remember, Yitian Hong is always your friend."
Before he even finished talking, he already made a somersault in the air and flew out of the window, and quickly vanished from sight.
Smiling wryly, Chu Liuxiang said, "How could you come as soon as you say you'd come, and leave as soon as you say you'd leave?"
This moment NanGong Ling had just had his breathing slowly under control; with a cackling voice he said, "Chu Liuxiang, if you want to solve this matter, come with me!"
Chu Liuxiang turned his head to look at Su Rongrong. "Come with you?" he said.
Hei Zhenzhu loudly said, "Chu Liuxiang does not want to go now because of this woman; other things he doesn't want to care."
NanGong Ling rolled his eyeballs and said coldly, "If you don't want to go, don't blame me."
Unexpectedly he turned around and slowly walked out - evidently he did not want to run away at all, because he knew that 'running away' was not an option at all. Otherwise, he would have run away early on.
But Chu Liuxiang could not just watch him walking out helplessly either. Sighing, he said, "Hei Xiong, looks like I have to hand her over to you."
Hei Zhenzhu looked up to the sky and spoke coldly, "You are not worried?"
Smiling wryly, Chu Liuxiang said, "She has her acupoint heavily sealed, but after I massaged [orig. tui na, a form of Chinese manual therapy] her, after a moment, she should be able to wake up. Hei Xiong only needs to tell her to go back quickly on her own; other things you need not bother."
Hei Zhenzhu was silent for half a day. "All right!" he said, "Just go! I will tell her to go, but I still want to wait for you; I have something to ask you."
NanGong Ling waited for Chu Liuxiang to come out before unleashing his shenfa.