The end of Book 2 Chapter 1.
He was just avoiding a cart and was forced to move closer to the side of the road when a hand suddenly appeared from the wooded area, grabbed him, and pulled him inside.
Then his entire body was clasped under someone's arm; immediately he felt weak all over.
He tried to turn his head around, but was still unable to see what kind of person had captured him. Instead, he saw Xu Ziling's big head protruding underneath the person's other arm just like a turtle, repeatedly making eye signals to him, warning him that they were in danger.
‘Bang, bang!' The two boys were tossed on a grassy ground at the edge of the woods; their heads dizzy from falling down headfirst. Humming and hawing they tried to crawl up.
The two boys looked around, but Du Fuwei was nowhere to be seen. With a shout they fled for their lives.
Suddenly ‘thud!' Kou Zhong fell down to the ground. Xu Ziling was already more than ten zhang ahead, but he turned around and ran back. It was not until he wanted to lift Kou Zhong up that he realized that Kou Zhong had fainted.
Dejected, Xu Ziling sat on the ground. Du Fuwei's legs suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Gasping for breath, Xu Ziling asked, "What do you want?”
Du Fuwei said indifferently, "You may leave now!”
Shaken, Xu Ziling looked up. He saw Du Fuwei's icy-cold expression. "Did you just say I can go now?” he asked in disbelief.
Du Fuwei nodded, "That's right!” he said, "You may leave now. But only you, alone.”
Xu Ziling was crestfallen. "I would never sell a friend to seek my own glory,” he said.
Du Fuwei squatted and smiled, "Your Jianghu experience is too shallow,” he said, "Just with one test I can tell the relationship between you and Kou Zhong. Great! Now I am going to ask you a question, and you reply with one answer. You must not hesitate at all; otherwise I will crush your good friend's hands and feet, so that he will be maimed for the rest of his life.”
Xu Ziling was aghast. "What do I am giving you wrong answers have anything to do with him? Don't you think you are being too unfair?”
With a wooden face Du Fuwei said, "There is no such thing as fairness in the world. Otherwise, there won't be emperors, there won't be beggars begging for food. Don't even think of giving me any random answer. I am going wake Kou Zhong up later, and if your answers do not agree with each other, I will know whether you are babbling nonsense or not. One lie, I am going to dig Kou Zhong's eyeball out; two lies, it will be your good friend's hands and feet's turn.”
Listening to him, Xu Ziling's entire body went numb. In term of cruelty and heartlessness, the so-called gangsters and villains he met in Yangzhou became kind and benevolent men.
Du Fuwei speculated inwardly, ‘I want to see now if you, this kid, will be disobedient.'
Actually, he felt it was beneath his dignity to kill those evil thugs who pursued Xu Ziling and wanted to kill him; it was only because Du Fuwei wanted Xu Ziling to believe that he was a cruel man that he hardened his heart and bore the pain to kill them.
The fact that Yuwen Huaji hunted down these two kids, and they were rescued by Gaoli demoness [orig. female Luocha (demon in Buddhism)] Fu Junchuo, has caused sensation in Jianghu; especially since this matter involved the treasure trove of Duke Yang, Du Fuwei was very interested. Therefore, when his subordinate spoke about the boys' appearance, he rushed over personally, just as Xu Ziling and the others, including unconscious Li Jiang, were about to leave town.
Now that he saw Xu Ziling has succumbed under pressure, he was very excited; but outwardly he showed indifference as he asked, "Why did Yuwen Huaji want to catch you?”
After giving Kou Zhong a glance, Xu Ziling dejectedly said, "That must be because of that ghost book!”
Du Fuwei showed off his acting skill; to show that he was not completely ignorant, he carelessly said, "So it's the ‘Secret to Long Life' that the tyrant wanted to obtain. Not only that tyrant is bloody and cruel, he is totally ignorant as well! Immortality! What a devious idea!”
In a roundabout way he asked, "So who taught you true qi cultivation?”
Judging from his questions, it was obvious that Du Fuwei was not a simple man at all. His question did not follow any particular sequence; rather, he adopted a surprise-attack technique so that the opponent did not have time to prepare the answer in advance.
Sure enough, Xu Ziling was dumbstruck. Seeing Du Fuwei's eyes flashed with cold rays, he hurriedly shook his hand and said, "Don't! I'll speak! Niang taught me.”
It was Du Fuwei's turn to be shocked, "Your Niang?”
Xu Ziling knew he could not hide anything from this Prince of the Devils; therefore, he sighed and narrated the course of events concerning their encounter with Fu Junchuo. When he reached the part where Fu Junchuo died, his eyes turned red, he nearly cried. He forgot completely that Du Fuwei was not someone with whom he could bare his soul to.
Who would have thought that Du Fuwei stretched out his hand toward Kou Zhong's eyes, shook his head and said, "You are lying!”
Xu Ziling was shocked. Calling out to Heaven for the injustice he said, "If I say one empty word, may I die a horrible death.”
Du Fuwei really did not disbelief him, it's just that he was toying with him to get the most important piece of information. His tone turned gentle as he said, "The true qi within you does not seem to have the least connection with Gaoli's Yi Jian Dashi [see Book 1 Chapter 3] Fu Cailin's Nine Mysteries Qi; how could the Luocha woman teach you?”
Xu Ziling breathed a sigh of relief; assuming the ‘oh, so that's what it is' attitude, he sighed and said, "Niang only taught us the theory of training, but she did not have time to teach us how to train. Without any clue, we had no choice but looking at the ‘Secret to Long Life' and train according to the lines indicated by the diagrams. This is the truth; if you don't believe me, there is nothing I can do.”
Du Fuwei's eyes lit up, but pretending to be discouraged he said, "This is a really fantastic story, turns out the ‘Secret to Long Life' is indeed a martial art manual. But even if I obtain it right now, it's useless. Unless I am willing to disperse my inner power completely. Humph, did the Luocha woman mention anything about the Duke Yang's treasure-trove? Never mind; even if she did not, it's not a big deal, I can always dig her body out. I am sure I will find some ‘spider's thread and horse track'.”
Horrified, Xu Ziling cried out, "How could you do such thing?”
Right this moment, he saw Kou Zhong's hand twitched a little; apparently he was about to wake up.
Du Fuwei had his back facing Kou Zhong, hence he did not see it. He calmly said, "Why don't you tell me then? Ay! Buried and at rest, naturally it would be best if we don't disturb your Niang.”
Xu Ziling hung his head down as he said with a sigh, "I surrender! But you have to let us go. Duke Yang's treasure-trove is inside the Emperor Guan Temple located at the northern part of Yangzhou. If you move the idol away, you will see the tunnel leading to the hidden treasure. Niang was about to take the treasure out when she came across us. If you don't believe me, you can wake Kou Zhong up to see if our story matches. You knocked him out for so long, could there be any problem?”
Du Fuwei stared blankly and said, "Yangzhou city? This is certainly unimaginable to present day people. Ha!” Stretching out his finger, he sent out a strong gust of wind, Xu Ziling immediately passed out.
After nobody knows how long, Xu Ziling finally regained his consciousness. He saw Kou Zhong was sitting dejectedly by his side, while Du Fuwei was looking up to the sky, God knows what he was thinking about.
Kou Zhong sighed. "Xiao Ling! Forgive me,” he said, "For your little life's sake, I had to reveal the secret of the Temple of Emperor Guan.”
"Shut up!” Du Fuwei suddenly snapped, "If I hear three more words from you, I'll kill you.” And then he straightened up and stood up. "Get up!” he said.
The two boys' heart was thumping madly in nervousness, since they were unsure if he was going to kill them to shut their mouth.
Du Fuwei's eyes glittered like frost and snow as he coldly looked at them up and down several times. Only after seeing that the hair on their body stood up did he say gently, "I want you, two little demons, to take me to the ‘Secret to Long Life' first before I can give you your freedom.”
"Didn't you say ‘Secret to Long Life' is useless to you?” Xu Ziling shouted.
Du Fuwei smiled, "There is no harm in looking, is there?” he said, "From now on, I want you two to call me Die [pronounced ‘dee-eh', Dad, the counterpart of Niang]. Whatever I say, you'll do it. Understood? Come! Let me hear you call me Die!”
The two boys looked at each other; they both thought that a wise man submits to circumstances [orig. ‘only an outstanding talent can recognize current trends'], helplessly they lowered their level and called him ‘Dad', while having a feeling of ‘acknowledging a bandit as their father' [idiom, meaning complete betrayal or selling oneself to the enemy].
But Du Fuwei was greatly pleased; he roared in laughter and said, "Good kids, let your Die take you to a wine shop and have you eat your fill before leaving. Look! The day is breaking soon; before sunrise, we ought to be able to cover a hundred li or so.”