Book 24 Chapter 4 - Persian Maiden
After four consecutive sonic booms, Hou Xibai's outer robe disintegrated. 'Bang!' his raised hand blocking above his head met the last lotus power pressing down on him head-on. Exposing his inner blue-green tight-fitting warrior outfit, Hou Xibai followed the shattered roof tiles to fall down into the house's rear courtyard. Were it not for the occupants inside the house were all outside on the street enjoying the Lantern Festival in the city, the noise and the disturbance would definitely wake them up from their beautiful dreams.
From An Long's perspective, however, not even in his dream did he ever imagine that this kid from the younger generation could borrow the roof tiles disintegrating and the robes infused full of true qi to break his must-kill 'Lotus Ring at the Center of the Sky'. Only now did he understand that 'using solid in place of empty' mean putting back the secretly amassed true qi inside the fan into the body, to make the robe swelling full of qi power, and use it to ingeniously block An Long's ultimate move.
But regret at this moment was already too late; after executing five rings in succession he was very much nearing his limit. If he failed again, he would have to find a place to hide and would not dare to come out to see people until he was fully recovered. Upon self-examination, under present circumstances, would he dare to take the risk?
One somersault, An Long's fat body, in an ingenious, relaxed posture, which would make people stare in dumbstruck, landed on the grassy area in the courtyard. Both of his hands moved, sometimes in a punch, sometimes in a chop, suddenly changed into a claw, suddenly became palm strike, he unfolded a set of ingenious and exquisite technique to attack Hou Xibai, who, upon landing on the ground, was staggering slightly - like a gale sweeping the dead leaves off the ground, combined with his fat body staggering and tumbling indeterminately - sometimes heavy, another time light, in ever-changing movements. Just for this set of skill, he deserved to be ranked among the 'Eight Major Martial Art Masters of the Demonic Way'.
This time, he wanted to kill Hou Xibai with his heart and soul; each move was an attack, completely opposite to his previously defensive strategy. Immediately showing off the other side of his prowess, he heavily enveloped Hou Xibai inside the wind generated by his fist and palm, while also continuously narrowing the limit of Hou Xibai's movements. The moment Hou Xibai found it difficult to move would be the moment he killed the enemy.
Hou Xibai was beginning to sweat profusely in dealing with An Long's killer attacks, simply because it was the first time he ran into this kind of set of techniques. Flustered, he was unable to use the Eight Moves to Break The Lotus to its fullest potential; inwardly he knew that An Long developed this set of techniques in recent years as his secret skill, hence even Shi Zhixuan was unaware of it. In critical time, he used his life-saving move, the 'zhe hua bai shi' [a hundred styles of snapping flower]. Folding the fan and withdrawing it, he took a defensive position, while actually hiding a killer move within.
An Long's murderous intent flared up; laughing aloud, he said, "Although Xianzhi can block Long Shu's 'Lotus Ring at the Center of the Sky', inevitably your meridians will sustain injuries. If Long Shu is willing to let you regulate your breathing for a little while, it will not be this bad."
Both his hands had the fingers put together like a saber chop; while breathing and speaking, fast as lightning, he continuously stabbed forward six times, fierce to the extreme point.
Qi power filled the atmosphere, not a single one was not a sinister move meant to take the opponent's life.
Although Hou Xibai was caught in a completely passive position where he simply had to take the beating and painstakingly defend himself, yet the Fan of Beauty, whether it was closed or open, whether it was blocking up or intercepting down - was always able to perfectly parried An Long's toppling-the-mountains-and-overturning-the-seas palm chop, each one attacking from unexpected angle. However, each time he blocked, he had to take half a step back. By the time the sixth strike arrived, his back was already against the house's external wall.
The Fan of Beauty suddenly slowed down.
Seeing this opportunity, An Long simply had to take it. Both palms pushing out, qi power rolled over toward the enemy, while from below his leg flew out, ferociously kicking Hou Xibai's genital area.
Hou Xibai laughed aloud and said, "Long Shu has fallen into a trap!"
The folding fan opened, it cut down on An Long's kicking fat leg, while his left hand, filled to the brim with stored up energy, punched out.
'Boom!'
Qi power collided.
As An Long's two palms met Hou Xibai's left fist, he only felt empty sweep without any strength behind it; while he was crying 'Not good!' inwardly, the wall behind Hou Xibai cracked open. Just as An Long was thinking about retreating, Hou Xibai's fist turned solid. Letting out a miserable grunt, An Long flew about a zhang or so backwards, his fat face alternated between red and white indeterminately, obviously his qi was in extreme suffering.
Hou Xibai was feeling uncomfortable as well; while panting continuously, he thought that unless he could obtain the 'Immortal Print Scroll', he could forget about killing An Long, ever.
An Long suddenly broke into a big smile; raising his thumb up, he praised, "Xianzhi is indeed outstanding. Shi Dage painstaking effort in training you was not in vain; you have really mastered the Hua Jian Pai's secret skill of xushi xiangsheng [what is true and what is false engender one another]. If we stopped at this point tonight, I wonder where would Xianzhi go to admire the full moon?"
Hou Xibai groaned inwardly, all because Xu Ziling has not shown any movement yet; it appeared that the situation was rather bad.
The instant before the pit of Xu Ziling's stomach touched the ground, Cao Yinglong, who was about to slam onto the wall, suddenly changed direction; he suddenly dropped down to the ground, but from under his body, fast like a flash of light, lithe like cotton wadding, a young woman flew out swiftly; the tip of her feet tapped the ground, she made a somersault, and flew across the empty air above Xu Ziling's back. It all happened in one fluid motion, in some kind of seamless, moving clouds and flowing water's grandeur, very pleasing to the eye.
At long last Xu Ziling was able to catch a glimpse of the opponent's looks.
The most dazzling to the eyes was her chestnut-colored beautiful hair and brown eyes, which, as soon as one met her face-to-face, one would be able to tell that she was not a Central Earth woman at all. Her skin-tight nightwalker outfit caressed her beautiful body in such a way that the lines were completely exposed, full of vitality and liveliness, giving out the impression that the blood flowing inside this bewitching flesh must be wild in nature, that she would never yield easily to any man.
The lines on the woman's face were even more prominent. Deeply embedded under a pair of beautifully curved eyebrows was a pair of bright eyes, like two deep pools of fragrant, cold and raw liquor, brimming with astonishing sex appeal, attracting wild and fanciful thoughts. Under her tender, perfectly crafted, bridge of her nose was a pair of warm, soft, and brimming with character, red cherry lips, adding a little mischief on her, like a decoration to something that was already perfect [orig. adding flowers to brocade].
But looking at her left and right, top and bottom, she did not look like a vicious and merciless evil person who would take life on a whim; it's just that the finger currently jabbing toward his back was indeed ruthless.
She finally made a mistake.
As early as before he was falling, relying on the fantastic true qi he obtained from the 'Secret to Long Life' and the 'Jade Annulus of He Clan', Xu Ziling already drove away the strange energy invading his body, and thus he already recovered his strength; falling down was just a tactic to lure the enemy.
Xu Ziling cheered inwardly; when the exotic beauty's jade finger was only about three cun away from his back, suddenly, like a leopard cat twisting its waist, his back bent, the four limbs of his body, as well as his head folded inward, by using his spine he took the initiative to meet the opponent's fingertip. Not only the finger attack missed the vital acupoint on his back, a sharp, fine-tipped vortex of qi shot out and into the opponent's finger with equal harshness, in a swift and severe counterattack.
The beauty's tender body was jolted like she was being struck by lightning; however, while Xu Ziling thought that she was going to be thrown toward the ceiling, she simply made a somersault in the air and escaped in the direction of the exit, while letting out a tender moan, which would move any man's heart.
Although her ability to meet a contingency was beyond Xu Ziling's expectation, his reaction was of a first-class, one-of-a-kind, speed. His two hands pushed the ground, his bent body shot up, perfectly straight, off the ground, and spun midair using both hands as the axis, his bear [animal] waist swung, his two legs swept across the air, and just before she flew outside his range of attack, he swiftly swept the side of her completely-springy-like-cookie-dough buttocks.
The spiraling energy moved from slow to fast, like a swarm of bees it bored into her touching body. Although his choice of target was a bit indecent, in this moment of life and death battle, anybody would find it difficult to argue too much.
The beauty's moan has not finished, a miserable grunt followed. Although she was outstandingly tough, it was still difficult to withstand a succession of offensive; her escaping plan was frustrated, her leg, being hit, changed direction, she was thrown horizontally across toward a corner.
This time around Xu Ziling sprang up, like a shadow following the body, he pursued closely. This woman's martial art was strange; her internal energy was of a different approach even more. No one would dare to guarantee that she would not be able to recover as fast as Xu Ziling did; and if that did happen, who would emerge the victor would be difficult to guess.
'Bang!'
The beauty's back crashed heavily against the wall, immediately crushing three or four memorial tablets.
Xu Ziling suddenly halted his steps and spoke in horror, "What are you doing?"
The woman held a sharp, gleaming short dagger with both hands, the tip of the dagger was pointed at her own throat. She stared fiercely at Xu Ziling, her erect and delicate breasts were heaving up and down continuously, with her seductive voice she spoke Chinese, yet with foreign accent, "You take one step further, nujia will immediately kill myself, your friend will never recover."
Looking at this, Xu Ziling's scalp went numb. Just by seeing the strange move of how this woman, while she was thrown against the wall, was able to promptly pull the dagger, he knew that she was crafty and brutish, and was not easy to provoke.
For most people, this threat of suicide might not worth a sneer, but toward Xu Ziling, it was very effective. He could only smile wryly in response; going down on one knee, he shook his head and said, "Miss and I have no grievance in the past, no enmity in the present, why must we fight each other strenuously? How about we make a deal? You let me save my friend, after Miss take us out, you may recover your freedom."
He was fully aware that she would recover her strength soon, yet he was still at a loss on how to capture her.