Shang Xiuxun's countenance changed, "Into the tunnel!” she ordered, while her palm pressed on Big Sister Fu's back, pushing her beloved maid to enter the tunnel first.
The others hurriedly followed.
Grabbing Tao Shusheng's belt, Shang Xiuxun hesitated a moment. And then she turned to Xu Ziling and said, "Friend, get down!”
Xu Ziling smiled slightly and said, "I'll stay to deal with the enemy. Changzhu, don't forget to close the entrance.”
Shang Xiuxun was grabbing Tao Shusheng and jumping into the tunnel; hearing him, she looked at him in shock.
By the time the two sets of eyes met, the door shattered and someone charged in, brandishing his saber.
Xu Ziling shouted loudly and with all his strength concentrated on his fist, he sent out a punch over the empty space.
‘Bang!'
Unexpectedly, the man was unable to withstand at all and was thrown back with his body, along with his saber, spun like a windmill, knocking down five or six bandits who were following behind him; all had their bones broken and their viscera shattered. No survivor. And thus the power of the fist was proven.
Watching this, Shang Xiuxun was dumbstruck. It was not until Xu Ziling urged her again that she went down the tunnel and closed the entrance.
Two windows on the left and right shattered at the same time, two spears shot in like the tongue of a viper.
Xu Ziling waited until he heard the sound of the tunnel door closing, and then his hands spread out to the left and right to grab the two spears; shook and broke them. Brought by their own momentum, the two spear-wielders stumbled toward him.
Xu Ziling pulled his hands back. Using his elbows he struck left and right toward the two men's chests. They spurted fresh blood and fell to the ground.
Without even looking, Xu Ziling proceeded by throwing the two broken spears backwards and hit a man who had just leaping in through the window right on his chest. The man fell onto the window frame without uttering any noise, the upper part of his body was knocked out of the window that he was hanging face up on the window will, he died a horrifying and bizarre death.
Outside the building suddenly fell silent, except for the crackling noise of the torches, and nobody else dared to charge inside.
Suddenly Cao Yinglong thundered from the outside, "Shang Xiuxun, if you have guts, get out and compete real skill with the ol' Cao.” Apparently Xu Ziling's blitzkrieg method has provoked his ferocious character.
A ten-thousand-zhang heroic feeling welled up in Xu Ziling's heart; he laughed aloud as he walked out the door leisurely with his hands behind his back.
Tangled bodies lay outside the building, dead bodies in all odd conditions that were difficult to describe.
Led by Cao Yinglong, the Four Big Bandits were standing in a row, while their men spread out in crescent moon formation behind them, while all kinds of weapons, spears, bows and arrows, sabers, axes, swords and lances, flickering incessantly under the torches' light, with thick murderous aura filling the air, plus more than a hundred pair of eyes, all focused on Xu Ziling.
When the crowd of bandits saw the one walking out was not Shang Xiuxun, they were all stunned.
"Who are you?” the ‘not even a blade of grass grows' Xiang Batian roared.
Xu Ziling calmly replied, "Who I am, you are not even worthy to ask!”
The crowd of bandits roared in anger; more than a dozen arrows were immediately shot toward him.
※ ※ ※
The two groups slowly came toward each other.
Li Xiuning was also a prudent and cautious person; she slowed down and stopped at approximately three zhang from the fake Shang Zhen and the others. Raising her cupped fist, she greeted, "Housekeeper, how are you?”
The fake Shang Zhen took a step forward and led the others to return the courtesy. He said, "These are all my trusted subordinates who have been with me for many years. Princess Ning may set your heart at ease.” This man could even imitate Shang Zhen's voice with seventy, eighty-percent similarity. Added to that, he was speaking in low voice, so that anybody who was not familiar with him would find it hard to tell the difference.
Li Xiuning cast a sidelong glance toward Yuan'er first before saying, "Xiuning apologizes for pulling back Housekeeper from your duty at the eastern gorge. Why didn't you all ride instead of walk?”
The fake Shang Zhen putting an air of sighing and said, "Naturally it's to conceal our movements from the enemy. Ay! Huh?”
Footsteps were heard from behind Li Xiuning's group. Both groups turned to look in astonishment.
They heard someone yelled, "Princess! Sorry, I am done [the word here refers to ‘relieving oneself'] now! It feels good!”
Li Xiuning's delicate body shook severely, because she recognized Kou Zhong's voice.
Under everybody's watchful eyes, a full-bearded man with boorish appearance and a nose like a hawk, appeared from among the trees, rushing over, while rubbing his hand over his tummy, skipping and leaping.
Chai Shao and the others knew this guy was formidable, their countenance changed; but as they were about to pull their weapon out, Li Xiuning signaled them to stop. "I said you don't need to come,” she called out in tender voice, "Why didn't you obey me?”
Kou Zhong nodded. Changing his voice, he said, "Princess, don't be angry! Princess, don't be angry!”
On the other side, the fake Shang Zhen, Li Tianfan, Shen Luoyan and the others were watching with knitted eyebrows; they were all confused.
With Li Xiuning's respectable status, how could her subordinate be that rude by saying ‘relieving himself' right in front of her?
Kou Zhong acted as if he did not see Li Xiuning; swaying to the left and swaggering to the right, he walked over under Chai Shao and the others' angry glare toward the space between the two groups. Clearing his throat, he said, "Princess, please forgive me, let Xiaoren do the introduction first, hey!”
Pointing to Li Tianfan, who was standing behind the fake Shang Zhen, he spoke as if he was reciting a poetry, "This is Li Tianfan Gongzi, the Wagang Fort's Duke Mi's only son.”
Li Xiuning and the others' countenance immediately changed greatly.
In a flash Kou Zhong was already standing by Yuan'er; with ‘hee, hee, ha, ha' he said, "And this pretty madam is Housekeeper Zhen's new concubine; her former status, however, was Li Gongzi's wom … Ah!”
Knowing her identity was exposed, Yuan'er could not stay calm anymore; she reached inside her sleeve and pulled out a poisonous dagger, with which she stabbed Kou Zhong and Li Xiuning.
As soon as Kou Zhong exposed Li Tianfan's identity, Li Xiuning was already on guard against Yuan'er. With a tender humph her green-jade sleeve swept across the stabbing tip of the dagger.
Kou Zhong pretended to be horrified and jumped back to evade, while shouting and yelling, "Murder! Murder!” and rushed toward the fake Shang Zhen.
Seeing Kou Zhong was no longer there to stop her, Yuan'er pulled her dagger away from Li Xiuning's sleeve. She was just about to leap back when Chai Shao noiselessly pressed his finger onto her back. Yuan'er immediately slumped down to the ground.
Ignoring the fake Shang Zhen and his men's murderous look, Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "This gentlemen who impersonate the Housekeeper is called Chen Laoshi, as for his great name … humph!”
A young man standing next to Li Tianfan was unable to hold back; he rushed forward while brandishing his saber to hack Kou Zhong's left shoulder. His saber technique was swift and precise.
‘Ring!'
The Moon in the Well left its scabbard.
Everybody was stunned with the yellow glow's sudden appearance; but before they could see clearly what it was, ‘Dang!' the attacker and his saber were flying backward in swirling motion. Even after landing on the ground, he was still rolling away for a zhang or so, and stopped only after crashing against a tree, and died on the spot.
Such an overbearing and fantastic saber power, nobody had ever seen it before. Those in Li Tianfan's side who wanted to make their move immediately changed their mind.
Acting as if he had done nothing unusual, Kou Zhong nonchalantly put the saber back into its scabbard as he stepped over toward Shen Luoyan, who was standing on the other side of the fake Shang Zhen. But before he said anything, Shen Luoyan already spoke coldly, "Stop dressing up as a god, playing the devil. Where is your good Xiongdi?”
Kou Zhong leaned over; with a brazen face he said, "He is afraid of you, hence he is hiding!”
Everybody in Li Tianfan's side was stunned; they had never expected that these two people were old acquaintances. But they could not remember which formidable Wulin figures had appearance like he did.
Shen Luoyan's beautiful eyes exuded a singularly complex expression; she said softly, "Tell him to come out and kill me!”
Kou Zhong backed off and laughed aloud, "Who will have the heart to kill Shen Junshi whose beauty captivating even the birds and beasts?” [Orig. chen (shen) yu luo yan - fish sink, goose alights, an idiom from Zhuangzi, which was a play of words on Shen Luoyan's name.]
‘Qiang!'
The Moon in the Well left its scabbard again.
Kou Zhong straightened up his back; immediately an overbearing aura of total annihilation [sweeping a thousand armies] filled the air. He sternly shouted, "Other than Shen Junshi, nobody will be spared!”
The cold light from his eyes shrouded Li Tianfan. The Moon in the Well slashed out, its power fierce and strong beyond compare, yet it also carried a swift and nimble, fantastic feeling with it.
The spiraling power enveloped the entire battlefield.
Li Xiuning's charming body trembled lightly, knowing deep in her heart that she would never forget Kou Zhong's overbearing and moving spirit in front of her eyes. Stealing a glance toward Chai Shao, who was standing by her side, she saw his frightened look as he fixed his gaze on Kou Zhong. Her fragrant heart could not help feeling slightly guilty.