Book 13 Chapter 11 - Original Identity Fully Revealed
Although the spectators were numerous, the entire Tingliu Pavilion was quiet.
Kou Zhong also quieted down.
The moment Shangguan Long stomped his staff on the ground just now, he knew that he had made a grave mistake in underestimating the enemy.
His original inference was based on Shangguan Long leading his men surrounding Duan Yucheng, four men, the other day, where they were able to capture only one man alive, and Duan Yucheng managed to break the siege and escape. So his martial art skill could not be too superior.
But by doing the demonstration just now, Shangguan Long has shown that his martial art skill was actually closer to Bian Bufu's level.
And this moment, as the four eyes met, Kou Zhong found out that Shangguan Long's eyes were gleaming with unusual flashes. Obviously the strange internal energy cultivation he practiced from the Devil Cult was absolutely not a mediocre skill.
But Kou Zhong was like riding a tiger, easy to get on, but hard to get off; he must forced Shangguan Long to reveal his demonic skill within ten moves. Otherwise, the fame for his fighting prowess that he had built up painstakingly would be lost tonight.
A peal of stimulating feeling circulated all over his body; he sensed that under this kind of dreadful pressure, his essence, qi and spirit rose up simultaneously to their peak condition.
Shangguan Long's spine and shoulders suddenly straightened up, while holding the staff horizontally across his chest. "Kid, bring it on! [orig. release your horse and come over]” he shouted coldly, "Let me see, you who speak conceited nonsense, what kind of ability you really have.”
Kou Zhong's expression was like an old monk in deep meditation, he did not seem to see Shangguan Long's awe-inspiring prowess.
Nobody knew that at this instant his mind was entirely on the more than a hundred goldfish of every kind, which were swimming freely in the pond, as if they did not have any care of other people's business in the world.
By the time he pushed all distracting thoughts from his mind, he entered the defense realm, where everything in his surrounding did not escape his attention, not even the slightest bit.
When he was fighting Bian Bufu earlier that day, he had already experienced this kind of grasping-the-overall-situation fantastic feeling, where he was able to look at, and had total awareness of, the entire battlefield like looking at a chessboard.
But this moment, the feeling was even clearer.
The thing that captured his attention the most was the fish, carefree and without worries, in the pond.
Each movement of the fishtail, whether the fish were frolicking with each other, or was simply cruising alone, or was hiding in the crevices of the fake mountain rock, was captured in his mind.
It was an unusually strange feeling.
Human and fish occupied two entirely different worlds, which coexist but did not interfere with each other.
But passing through Kou Zhong's heart, these two different worlds connected.
In the pavilion the crow and peacock made no sound, even the breathing noise has stopped.
Not only the silent standoff between Kou Zhong and Shangguan Long has taken their breath away, each spectator had a strange feeling in their heart.
Kou Zhong appeared to blend in with the environment, becoming an integral whole, as if he was part of the nature itself. On the contrary, Shangguan Long seemed to be a hard addition to the garden, destroying the harmony of the entire pond and garden-scape.
It was some kind of indescribable subjective impression.
Shangguan Long shifted his right foot forward, creating a heavy footstep.
Nobody expected that he would grab the initiative to attack first; they all gasped in surprise.
Shangguan Long had his own predicament.
Because of the ten-move agreement, Shangguan Long was thinking of using defense-as-a-means-to-attack frame of mind.
Who would have thought that as they were facing each other, Kou Zhong did not appear to have any intention to make his move? Yet he was continuously amassing his momentum, so that it was expanding continuously at a wild rate.
The most terrifying thing was that Shangguan Long felt that the whole site was constantly increasing the momentum of the coalescing of Kou Zhong with the heaven and earth, so that he had no flaw that Shangguan Long could exploit.
Moreover, Shangguan Long was keenly aware that if this situation continued on, his own momentum would soon be overshadowed by Kou Zhong's; if that happened, he had no confidence that he would not use the demonic skill before the ten moves were over.
Therefore, although he had decided to focus on the offensive, he was still adopting a passive stance.
In the room upstairs, Xu Ziling breathed a sigh of relief, and go back to his chair opposite Ba Fenghan's. "This kid is indeed all right,” he praised.
Ba Fenghan also showed an amazed expression; he said, "This kid could really make people exclaim in admiration.”
By this time Shangguan Long had approached the fishpond, only about three zhang away from Kou Zhong.
He stepped onto the small bridge spanning across the creek nearest the pond. The water under the bridge was trickling slowly.
Kou Zhong held the Moon in the Well lightly in his right hand, the blade was following the approaching Shangguan Long from the distance.
His senses followed the water flowing out of the pond into the creek, passing underneath the small bridge Shangguan Long was standing on.
In no time at all he grasped the environment surrounding him, the subtle relationship between one object and the other, and between one empty space to another.
‘Using the man to play the sword, using the sword to play the enemy'.
Shangguan Long's biggest weakness was that he did not dare to use his demonic skill; as long as Kou Zhong could make him feel that victory or defeat would be decided within two, three moves, and that if he did not make an all-out effort he would lose on the spot, then Kou Zhong would have succeeded.
Shangguan Long stepped down the small bridge onto the embankment on the other side of the fishpond, where he stood straight like a mountain, with his face as cold as ice.
Those with rather superior insight inwardly felt bad for Kou Zhong.
Because this kind of situation was more harmful than good to him.
Whether advancing to attack, or retreating to defend, there was a fishpond between them.
If Shangguan Long was able to exploit the pond, even if his skill was a bit inferior, holding up for more than ten moves should not be a problem.
Under the illumination of the flame, the saber and the staff were facing each other across the pond, each one amassing its power.
Murderous aura permeated the garden.
One side was hastening the release of his true qi, the other side was watching for the enemy to reveal a crack.
The two combatants stared at each other with eyes open wide, as if one blink of an eye would reveal the flaw that the enemy would immediately exploit.
The tension was so thick.
‘Splash! Splash!'
Suddenly the water splashed.
Two fish, which were frolicking with each other, jumped out of the water one after another.
Shangguan Long's robe suddenly fluttered lightly, the dragonhead staff in his hand slowly swayed, immediately generating a burst of even stronger momentum, countering the murderous aura emanating from the blade of Kou Zhong's saber.
The superior martial art masters all knew that in this duel of momentum, Shangguan Long has already lost, hence he had to use this movement to make up for it.
Still, nobody dared to put their money on Kou Zhong yet.
If this time were about life and death combat that went as far as one side would not stop until the other side lose his life, then the great majority of the spectators would bet that Kou Zhong would be the final victor.
But in today's ten-move agreement, Kou Zhong's chance of pouring tea to admit mistake appeared to be ten out of ten.
Kou Zhong was still standing erect holding the saber, as steady as the lofty mountain, his eyes flickered with strange rays.