This moment Qian Duguan and his men were also catching up; they were only about a hundred zhang behind them. If these two groups were allowed to pinch them in the middle, the situation would be unimaginable.
Having his little life threatened like that, Kou Zhong no longer had any scruple. The Moon in the Well swept to the left and hacked to the right, he killed indiscriminately.
After ten days training in the mountain, his saber power became even more swift and fierce without equal. The vortex of qi went in and out as he wished. As soon as his saber went down, the person blocking it would be thrown back instantly, the men and their weapons were flying left and right, momentarily no one was able to stop him.
Xu Ziling was following closely behind him, but his back was against Kou Zhong's back, so that the two boys were like two persons with one body. His punch and palm strikes created strong gusts of wind, so that the attacking enemies were tossed to the left and tumbled to the right. Hence Kou Zhong had no fears of trouble in the rear.
It's just that none of the attacking enemies were not skillful, valiant or ferocious, especially Qian Duguan's men, who had undergone rigorous training under powerful master, so that although they were unceasingly knocked down, but as soon as one fell, the other followed. It was indeed more than the two boys could attend to.
Along that long street, other than abandoned carriages, all passer byes had already fled into the alleys or into the shops, hence the situation was greatly disadvantageous for the two boys.
While still retreating, Jin Bo and Ling Feng continued calling their men to join the fray. Qian Duguan was also only about twenty zhang away.
Kou Zhong's murderous intent was aroused. Recalling Ba Fenghan's three sword strikes, the Moon in the Well hacked more than a dozen times in succession, immediately there were seventeen, eighteen men fell to the ground.
‘Dang!'
Jin Bo knew it was time; he turned retreat into advance. Carrying fierce gust of wind, his iron staff blocked, seizing the moment where Kou Zhong's momentum was somewhat exhausted, followed by a sweep across Kou Zhong's lower part.
Even with his ability, Kou Zhong still felt that his advancing momentum was obstructed; halting his steps, he waved his saber to block, jolting the iron staff sideways.
Ling Feng shook the gold spear in his left hand and the silver spear in his right incessantly like a pair of poisonous vipers as he took the position Jin Bo had just vacated, and trust the spears toward Kou Zhong's chest.
While Kou Zhong was groaning over his bad luck inwardly, Xu Ziling's back crashed heavily onto his back, transferring a stream of true qi. Naturally Kou Zhong understood Xu Ziling's intention; seizing the opportunity, he dashed diagonally and hacked his Moon in the Well toward Ling Feng's head.
Ling Feng had never expected Kou Zhong to be able to jump and attack him like that; scared out of his wits, he rolled away on the ground, his gold and silver spears blocked upwards.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud, the Moon in the Well drew a circle of yellow light, cutting off the weapons of several enemies in the vicinity, and only then did it chop down in between Ling Feng's two spears.
Ling Feng was worthy to be called spear expert; his pair of spears formed an ‘X' as he parry the chop.
‘Wham!'
Although Ling Feng managed to block the saber, he was unable to withstand Kou Zhong's spiraling energy; spurting out a mouthful of blood, he rolled away to evade, and along the way he successively knocked down seven, eight men from his side.
Qian Duguan and his men were closing in; they were only about fifty zhang behind. The situation was critical.
Xu Ziling spun around and took his position below Kou Zhong; while with a punch he struck Jin Bo, his left and right legs flew out in rapid succession to kicked two enemies that were charging from the side.
After this round of fight, the more than thirty men on Jin Bo's side had gathered around to cut off their escape route.
‘Bang!'
Jin Bo shot out his left palm to meet Xu Ziling's ‘over-the-empty-air' punch head on. While he was staggering from the jolt, he heard sudden whooshing of the saber above him. The Moon in the Well was coming right into his face. The other men were scattered around from the saber wind.
Jin Bo suddenly found himself alone against Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong's pincher attack, one from below, the other from above. In his shock he threw himself to the ground and rolled away; he looked exactly like a big ball.
With this powerful enemy out of the way, the pressure against the two boys was lessening. Immediately they charged toward the thirty or so enemies, attacking them left and right that they were completely routed.
In an instant the two boys broke through the blockade in front of them.
In this crucial moment, suddenly they heard tender laugh coming from ahead.
As the two boys looked up in terror, they saw Zheng Shuming, the beautiful widow of Jiangba, the alliance master of the Great River Alliance, who had been defeated by Ba Fenghan earlier. She was smiling sweetly as she barred their way about twenty zhang ahead. On both sides of her various martial art masters from various schools and sects under the Alliance appeared continuously.
The two boys' mind travelled at the speed of light; they immediately shot up toward the roof of the building to their left.
Amidst the tender laughter, the Amorous Nun Chang Zhen, whom they have not seen for a long time, appeared from behind the roof. Her sleeves, like a pair of ribbons, flew out to brush them away.
The more than a dozen men also launched their secret projectiles toward the two boys.
The two boys cried out inwardly, calling for their Niang, as their good luck seemed to be deteriorating very fast.
From the other side of the roof, the gigantic figure of the Evil Monk, Fa Nan, appeared. Holding his staff across his chest, he roared in wild laughter and said, "Why don't you, two kids, try to break through this side, guarded by pinseng [impoverished monk, referring to self]?”
Just this short delay was enough for Qian Duguan and his men to catch up, hence the two boys were immediately falling into a trap where all four sides were guarded by the enemies.
The crowd backed off to free up a large tract of open space; everybody glowered angrily at the two boys.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling stood back to back; although on the surface they did not show the least bit of fear, deep in their heart they regretted endlessly.
The reason they were caught in such plight was simply because they never expected that the four different powers would join hands to deal with them.
It must be because the enemies could not find any trace of the three of them along the road heading north toward Luoyang, they concluded that the three must be still in the vicinity of Xiangyang, and thus they set up an inescapable net, waiting for them to show up and enter the trap willingly. Also, their mind was occupied with dealing with Yin Gui Pai, so that they were momentarily being negligence about everything else. Moreover, they had never anticipated that Qian Duguan would become their enemy, and thus they committed this blunder.
The Evil Monk Fa Nan was the most aggressive, plus he had an irreconcilable enmity with the two boys. Leaping down onto the street, he held his staff toward the two boys, exuding a deep cold momentum. If it were someone else, he might be either trembling in fear, or abandoning his weapon and fled.
However, knowing that hard fighting was inevitable, Kou Zhong gathered his thought, focusing his heart and mind and raised his Moon in the Well toward Fa Nan.
Fa Nan's pair of huge eyes shot a deep, cold and cruel light; they were fixed on Kou Zhong as he shouted, "I want to take care of you, this kid, with my own hands; nobody is allowed to come up to help.”
Instantly Fa Nan rushed forward, his staff swept across ferociously.
Xu Ziling calmly walked away; he stood proudly, a clear show that he would not interfere.
Kou Zhong's strong wrist flicked, the Moon in the Well swiftly chopped out, unexpectedly he dared to meet Fa Nan's more than a hundred catties steel staff head on.
‘Dang!'
The saber and the staff collided; the noise shook everybody's eardrum.
Against all expectation, not only Kou Zhong's saber did not fly away and the person perished by Fa Nan's overbearing arm's strength, Fa Nan, with a face full of shocked expression, even had to take half a step back.
In the split second when the staff was jarred away, fast as lightning the Moon in the Wall in Kou Zhong's hand swept its second attack. Its speed was indeed hard to believe.
The yellow light split the air and entered in, so fast that no one was able to see clearly.
If it were more than ten days ago, Kou Zhong would not be able to launch such a torrential, overbearingly swift and fierce saber strike. But after ten days of arduously tempering himself against such a powerful opponent like Ba Fenghan, Kou Zhong was able to utilize his spiraling energy to diffuse the unprepared Fa Nan's staff power, and was still able to swiftly launch a counterattack.
While the crowd cried out in shock, the tail of Fa Nan's staff swung back and barely managed to block Kou Zhong's earth-shattering saber strike.
Letting out a stifled grunt, Fa Nan was forced to retreat about a zhang backward by the chop. Returning to the crowd besieging the two boys, his old face turned green from anger; his prestige took a severe beating.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "With such a tree-legged cat's martial art you dared to show off your disgrace? Come on up together!”
Immediately more than a dozen men rushed forward. But Qian Duguan stepped out from among the crowd and shouted, "Back off!”
Apparently his words still carried a lot of weight in everybody's eyes; the rushing men promptly halted their steps and withdrew.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling stepped toward each other again, while groaning in their heart. Their present hope was that the situation would turn as chaotic as possible, because only in such confusion would they be able to find an opportunity to escape. Otherwise, if the opponents were using the tag-team tactic they used to deal with Ba Fenghan, they would be dragged into exhaustion and die.
The enemies backed off some more, making the circle even bigger. On both sides of the street the people crowded the pedestrian paths, with the two boys standing in the middle of the street like a fish in the net.
Zheng Shuming came out from among the crowd some distance away opposite of Qian Duguan's group. On her left and right were Ling Feng and Jin Bo.
Laughing tenderly, Zheng Shuming said, "Two kids who do not know the immensity of heaven and earth, unexpectedly you dare to oppose our Great River Alliance. This time, even if you grow wings it will still be difficult for you to escape.”
Letting out a cold laugh, Kou Zhong said, "Talk is cheap; send your men with real skill out, let's see who will be the first to have a round of all-out battle with the Ol' Kou!”
Suddenly the crowd roared in anger; their voices reverberated along the entire street.