By the time Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling entered the little valley where they escaped from the enemy with Ba Fenghan, they were very close to collapsing; their footsteps already faltered.
There were two reasons why they came here.
First of all, it was because they had no strength left to run farther.
Secondly, if Ba Fenghan succeeded in evading the pursuing troops, he would come here to rendezvous with them. Even without prior agreement, he should have known this.
One after another the two boys staggered toward the small pool under the waterfall, and dropped down on their butts dejectedly.
Raising his right hand, Kou Zhong said, "Ol' Ba said that when our strength is exhausted our qi is gone, we must not lie down to sleep; instead, we must use supreme willpower to restore power, forcing ourselves to hold on. This is the key to skill refinement.”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, "If we lost too much blood, must we also doggedly endure that?”
Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, "Fengshi Han did not teach us that one trick. Ay! I wonder if that kid has been slaughtered? I thought he would be here sooner than we are.”
Suddenly Xu Ziling stood up shakily. First he took the secret books he got from Lu Miaozi and hid them between the crevice of the rock, and then he leaped into the middle of the pond and said, "When we escaped from Xiangyang a moment ago, we even forgot the moon in the well; it felt like every strand of our nerves was as taut as the bowstring. We'd better take advantage of this moment to copy Fengshi Han by training secret power under the waterfall to become amazing. If it really works, every time we did not die, we'll train his Niang like this.”
Kou Zhong laughed so hard that he coughed a mouthful of blood. Crawling up, he took out several books given by Lu Miaozi from his bosom, and said with a laugh, "We must not soak these treasures.” And then, like Xu Ziling, he hid the books in the crevices among the rocks.
‘Splash!'
Kou Zhong, along with his saber, plunged into the small pond. Instantly the water turned red.
Xu Ziling roared in laughter, and then he coughed, before finally waded toward the waterfall.
Like two little kids, the boys ‘you crowd in me, I push on you' under the waterfall, resisting the pain all over their body, withstanding the dizziness that wanted to drag them to lie down, letting the waterfall pounding on their heads.
The bright moon appeared along the top of the eastern ridge of the peak, casting its light into the valley at an angle, creating shadows of the trees on the bottom of the valley. The droplets of water splashing on the two boys' body looked like specks of golden light; it was such an impressive spectacle.
Having been through mortal danger and escaped alive, the two boys were suddenly able to see this wonderful sight, especially the subtle little things that they normally missed, so that momentarily they were dumbstruck, and subconsciously their entire body relaxed, and their mind felt carefree and without worries, their spirit also felt so peaceful. Their back became even more perfectly straight, their spirit bright and clear; other than the physical objects visible in their eyes, there was nothing else.
It was a feeling that they had never experienced before. It was not like the selflessness state they reached when they were sitting in meditation before, but more like the spaces on the outside and the inside were suddenly linked, so that they could percept the unfathomable mystery of the universe, and could grasp some kind of inexpressible power.
True qi converged. The essence of the Heaven and the Earth separately entered Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling's meridians via the tianling [on top of the head], and the yongquan [at the sole of the feet], two acupoints.
The two boys did not dare to speak; with all their might they tried to maintain this too-wonderful-for-words state of mind.
Nobody knows how much time has passed, when the sound of footsteps suddenly woke the two boys up.
Opening their eyes at the same time, they saw a tall shadow from the entrance of the valley swaying and staggering straight toward the pond, before it knelt down dejectedly, and while gasping for breath, casting its eyes toward the two boys under the waterfall. To their astonishment, it was Ba Fenghan, who was covered in blood from head to toe.
While the two boys were looking at each other, Ba Fenghan spat out a mouthful of blood, pointed his finger at them, and said with a laugh, "If I had not turned back to look for you, I would not have encountered that b1tch [poniang, woman] Zheng Shuming, and would not have suffered such a serious injury.”
Before finished speaking, he already rolled down into the pond, and stretched out his limbs in like a ‘大' [da, big] character as he floated on the surface of the water.
Kou Zhong called out to remind him, "Don't sleep!”
Xu Ziling added, "You'd better come here and endure the water for a while!”
Ba Fenghan sighed and said, "Just let me take a couple of breaths first, only a living person can have the advantage of enjoying fresh air! Tuoba Yu, Chunyu Wei, plus those eighteen ‘muddled eggs' trained by Bi Xuan, beat me so bad that even my eggs were nearly popped out. Were it not for the ten days of hard training, how could I, after taking down five , still be able to break my way out of the siege? Ha!”
Kou Zhong roared in laughter. And then, signaling Xu Ziling, the two of them got out from under the waterfall, waded to where Ba Fenghan was floating, grabbed his hands and feet, and dragged him away. Ignoring his protest, they pulled him toward the waterfall, and forced him to stand up straight underneath the falling water.
The two boys had never touched and played with Ba Fenghan without any scruple like this before; the feeling was fresh and interesting.
Ba Fenghan was exhausted and amused at the same time; struggling hard to keep his imposing physique erect, he closed his eyes and circulated his internal energy to treat his injury.
Seeing this display of staunch willpower, the two boys could not help feeling admiration. They also continued circulating their qi to train.
The moon slowly climbed up to its zenith, before slowly descending toward the western wall of the valley.
From time to time they heard faint whinnying horses in the distance, but in this place there was only serenity and peace, like the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss that stood aloof from worldly affairs.
In the darkest hour before the dawn, a human shadow, so ghostlike because whether it was real or simply an illusion was difficult to tell, floated into the valley.
The three men instinctively reacted; they opened their eyes.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling blurted out almost at the same time, "Wanwan!”
Ba Fenghan's heart shivered in fear as well, because with their current condition, this was the worst possible time to come across Wanwan.