Qin Chuan calmly said, "I just want to ask Song Xiong, what is the meaning of life?”
Song Shidao was stunned for half a day. Finally a pained smile appeared on the corner of his mouth; with forlorn expression he replied, "Before tonight, the meaning of life lay in whether one could spread out his aspiration to the greatest extend, to accomplish something that is profitable to mankind. But now I feel like life is but a dream, death is also a dream; in fact the whole life is just a big dream. All of us are living as if being drunk, and dying as if in a dream, drifting along in the sea of bitterness [Buddhist term], hard to extricate ourselves.”
Listening to this, Xu Ziling and the others could only shake their heads; they all thought that it would be strange indeed if Shi Feixuan would select Song Shidao.
Outside the door, Qin Chuan was silent for half a day, before letting out a light sigh and said, "Song Xiong's words are indeed thought-provoking. But human came to this mortal life, if not for doing something on his own, then he must be doing something because he is required to. Which one is Song Xiong and why?”
Even Ba Fenghan showed admiration on his face.
Qin Chuan's pointed question was incomparably remarkable.
Smiling ruefully, Song Shidao said, "Right now I just want to drink two cups of wine. How about Qin Xiong come in and have a toast with me?”
Qin Chuan replied indifferently, "I understand. Xiaodi's taking my leave!”
With a leap Kou Zhong rushed toward the door and pulled it open. Sticking his head out, Qin Chuan's shadow has already vanished. Quickly grabbing a pretty maid who happened to pass by and asked, "The man who had just stood outside the door, what did he look like?”
The pretty maid laughed tenderly and replied, "What man are you talking about?” Taking a glance at the other three men inside, her beautiful eyes immediately lit up. Trying to ingratiate herself, she said, "Would four Daye like to have maids serving you?”
Kou Zhong was not in the mood to flirt around with her; he smiled and said, "We are in the middle of secret meeting, no need!”
Ignoring her disappointed look, he simply closed the door. At a loss, he said, "How could it happen again?”
Frowning, Ba Fenghan said, "This might be some kind of brilliant transmitting-sound technique, using martial art skill to control the voice, bringing about the someone-outside-the-door effect. But she must be somewhere nearby too.”
Looking at Xu Ziling, Kou Zhong asked, "Ling Shao, did you feel anything?”
Thinking deeply, Xu Ziling said, "I did not have the slightest feeling.”
Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong were shaken, "In that case …” they blurted out almost simultaneously, but also shut up immediately.
Puzzled, Song Shidao asked, "In that case what?”
Kou Zhong giggled and said, "Nothing! In that case it goes to show how formidable that Qin Chuan is, hence Xiao Ling did not feel anything.”
Xu Ziling naturally understood that Ba Fenghan and Kou Zhong were thinking that the Jade Annulus of the He Clan must not be on Shi Feixuan; otherwise he would have felt its presence. This fact was extremely important; it also indirectly confirmed that Wang Shichong had not lied.
Such an important treasure, yet she did not carry it with her; there must be a very unusual reason.
‘Qin Chuan' has evoked the load in Song Shidao's mind; after drinking two more cups of wine, he stood up and said, "Wang Bo won't be here until xu hour [between 7-9 pm], we still have more than half a sichen before the banquet is officially begun. Do you guys want to call a few gorgeous hostesses to accompany you to while the time away?”
Kou Zhong and the others knew he was leaving, so they also stood up to send him off.
Xu Ziling said, "We just want to quietly drink our wine.”
Walking toward the door, Song Shidao nodded and said, "That would be good too. I am going next door to chat a little bit, and then I'll come back to discuss with you our rescue plan.”
Ba Fenghan said, "Ol' Ba has something I'd like to ask for guidance. Wang Bo is far away at Changbai, why did he suddenly come to Luoyang to hold a banquet here, and made arrangement for a duel between Fu Qian and Qu Ao, and even invited the tremendously popular Shang Xiufang to perform here?”
Frowning, Song Shidao said, "I am afraid nobody is too clear on this. Only after declaring his intention to give up striving for the world about half a year ago Wang Bo's prestige in Jianghu rose rather than fell. Therefore, this time he issued hero invitation for the friends to come to Luoyang to watch the duel, to coincide with the Jade Annulus of He Clan's matter. Hence no one wanted to miss this opportunity.”
And then he smiled and said, "I will drop in to say hello to Shangguan Long and snoop out the enemy. I will be back to report to three gentlemen.”
Turning to Kou Zhong, he said, "Just now it was San Mei who guessed correctly that the name ‘Renzhong' was the ‘Zhong' character; otherwise, in such a short period of time I would not have guessed that it was you.” [Translator's note: the character Zhong仲 from Kou Zhong's name is actually the character zhong中 (middle/center) with ren 人 radical.]
After Song Shidao left, the three sat down again.
Frowning, Ba Fenghan said, "This is very strange. Could it be that tonight is Yin Gui Pai's plot? Because Qu Ao has always been in collusion with Yin Gui Pai, and moreover, this Man Qing Yuan belongs to Shangguan Long.”
Kou Zhong laughed and said, "If they could kill everybody who came to this banquet in one fell swoop, it would give Yin Gui Pai a lot of convenience. But this is very not likely, because even Wang Shichong in his own territory would not dare to do such folly.”
Xu Ziling guessed, "Maybe Yin Gui Pai has developed some kind of extremely formidable poison that even the top martial art masters would be taken in, and afterwards they would put all the blame on Wang Bo.”
Kou Zhong shook his head, "There is no such poison in the world,” he said, "In my opinion, Qu Ao came to the Central Plains this time with his grand ambition to use this as a pretext to establish his prestige, while eliminating Fu Qian, this thorn in his side. One move, two gains; what can you have against it?”
Ba Fenghan said, "In terms of name and talent, Qu Ao and Fu Qian, these two are almost the same! But I am not surprised that Zhong Shao made that mistake, because you did not know Fu Qian's formidability. Wang Bo renouncing his plan to vie over the world, quite possibly it has something to do with him.”
Kou Zhong was taken aback. "You mean Fu Qian has a better chance than Qu Ao?” he asked.
"This is really hard to say,” Ba Fenghan replied, "But we have had confrontation with Qu Ao before; don't you think that Qu Ao is not as formidable as we imagined him to be? While I was at the Western Regions, I heard that in recent years Qu Ao has been indulging himself in wine and women. You ought to remember that martial art is like rowing the boat upstream; if you stop moving forward, you fall back. Apparently this saying is not false.”
Exhaling a mouthful of cold air, Xu Ziling said, "He is doing less well than before, yet he is still that formidable. If he was not crazy about wine and women, wouldn't we be finished early on?”
Ba Fenghan smiled and said, "After coming out of our mother's womb, everybody must compete against others. Those who want to stand out among their peers must pay the price. But although it's difficult to begin an undertaking, it is more difficult to preserve the accomplishments of previous generations. Country is like that, martial art is also like that.”
It was as if Kou Zhong did not even hear the exchange between the two; he suddenly spoke up, "If, under the impossibility of tonight's circumstances, we managed to capture Shangguan Long, wouldn't it be grand?”
Xu Ziling nodded and said, "There is nothing impossible in the world. The problem is that other than being an important figure in Yin Gui Pai, Shangguan Long's men must be very strong as well. If we want to catch him alive, once we failed, next time don't even think we will be able to repeat it. Therefore, without seventy, eighty-percent confidence, we should not act blindly without thinking.”
Kou Zhong said, "As long as he is alone, we have a chance; he can't be as strong as Bian Bufu!”
Shaking his head, Ba Fenghan said, "Shangguan Long is a wily old fox, for sure. Otherwise he can't possibly occupy such an important position in Yin Gui Pai. Even if Song Er Gongzi is willing to help us, we can't expect to find him alone before we could make our move.”
Kou Zhong appeared as if he was thinking of something funny. He said gleefully, "When he is going to the latrine, he can't possibly have a whole bunch of people heralding from the front and thronging from the rear, can he?”
The two men had to smile.
Laughing and scolding, Xu Ziling said, "First of all, you have to know when and where he is going. But this valuable intelligence is not easy to get. It could only work if we know his entire schedule. Hey!”
Knowing his superior ability and wisdom, the other two looked expectantly at him, wanting to hear what he thought.
With a bitter smile Xu Ziling and said, "Don't look at me like that, I only grasped something vaguely, but not sure whether it would work.”
Ba Fenghan said, "Since we are unable to find any solution anyway, why don't you tell us what you think?”
Xu Ziling said, "The reason we are targeting Shangguan Long is simply because of his relatively high position within the Yin Gui Pai, and thus he is privy of a lot of Yin Gui Pai's classified information, so if necessary, we can trade him for Yu Yi. But if the problem is only to find out Yu Yi's whereabouts, by catching Shangguan Long's left and right hands man or someone like that, we might also obtain the same information, only it would be much easier.”
Recalling the tragic death of Bao Zhifu, three men, Kou Zhong's eyes shone with strong murderous aura. He said, "As long as we are sure that Yu Yi did not fall into Yin Gui Pai's hands, tonight I will challenge Shangguan Long and take his dog life.”
Ba Fenghan said, "Just hand over Qu Ao to me, will you?”
Knitting his brow, Xu Ziling said, "Making this matter a big deal will actually do us more harm than good. If either female demon Wan or Bian Bufu is disguising themselves as Shangguan Long's subordinate and take up the challenge for him, would Zhong Shao still have such confidence?”
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "With Shi Feixuan, this archenemy spying upon nearby, how could female demon Wan lightly show herself up? As for dealing with Bian Bufu, I, Kou Zhong, am not necessarily without any hope of victory.”
Ba Fenghan nodded and said, "This plan is indeed feasible. Bian Bufu has always been secretive, under this kind of circumstances he would certainly not show up his face.”
Severely shaken, Kou Zhong said, "I have an idea!”
He had just finished speaking, Song Yuzhi's voice rang outside the door, "Kou Zhong, get the hell out of there!”