The boat slowed down. The old fisherman ordered Xu Ziling to row at the stern, and told Kou Zhong to grab the pole; he said nervously, "After the bend ahead is the ‘Guishi Xia' [ghost rock gorge], the stream is rapid, each time Laohan blast through, I am always very scared and on edge. That's why although I know Qinglong Beach has the most fish, I would not dare to go there without any reason.”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling turned their gaze forward; they saw from here on, the cliffs on both sides of river gradually grew taller and the river narrower, the terrain was indeed very dangerous. At the same time they were thinking that if there were an ambush here, it would be really bad. Hastily they focused their attention to steer the boat, as well as paying close attention to any sound of activity on both shores.
The fishing boat advanced bravely against the current. After turning a sharp bend, they saw the cliff suddenly narrowed, the river flowed faster; close to the shore there were hundreds and thousands of rocks, in all shapes and sizes, protruding above the water, making the water flowed even more like an unbridled horse running freely on the plains: harsh, powerful, rapid, and nasty; dashing against the boat, sending it swaying to the left and rolling to the right. The water surface was white with bubbles, frightening them to the core.
The three people worked together with all their heart. At the stern, Xu Ziling rowed and steered the boat, Kou Zhong used the long pole to push the boat away from the rocks, while the old fisherman controlled the sail to maintain the proper course.
The fishing boat forged ahead with great difficulty.
As they turned another bend, the fishing boat suddenly leaned toward a boulder near the left bank. Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "Look at me!” Leaping to the bow, he pushed the long pole forward forcefully on the rock.
It was not clear whether it was because they were somehow caught in the current, or because Kou Zhong had used too much force, the bow of the boat swayed to the right, so that the boat was horizontally across the river, and then the hull continued to lean sideways to the right.
Water immediately gushed into the cabin, the boat suddenly capsized to the right.
By the time the three people cried out in fear, they were already in the water. Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were not afraid of the ocean, naturally they did not fear this trivial River Si. When they had their heads out of the water, they saw the old fisherman, who seemed to be fainted, bobbing up and down on the surface, carried away by the current heading downstream.
In great shock the two boys swam desperately toward the old fisherman. Exerting their entire strength, soon they were able to catch up with the old fisherman, and grabbed him from left and right and pulled him up from the water.
While they were just breathing a sigh of relief, the old fisherman suddenly opened his eyes wide. The eyes shone with a frighteningly sharp ray. Just when the two boys realized something was wrong and cried out in shock, their bodies went numb, because the old fisherman sealed the acupoints on their flanks.
The old fisherman roared in laughter. Dragging the two boys along as his captives, he swam toward the left bank.
After tossing the two boys to the bushes by the shore, the old fisherman's crooked, hunched back suddenly straightened up as he proudly said, "I am ‘Old Man of the Plains' Mo Cheng, under Miss' order to capture the two Gongzi. Please! This time you only have three sichen to escape.”
Finished speaking, he left with big laugh.
After recovering their strength, the two boys sat up and looked at each other with wry smile.
"It just does not make sense,” Kou Zhong spoke painfully, "How could they track our whereabouts so clearly?”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, "That old fellow's disguise was really perfect.”
Thinking hard, Kou Zhong said, "If we cannot decode their method of tracking us, sooner or later we will get captured again. If that happens, how can we live with our heads lifted high in the future?”
Xu Ziling looked around; he said in a low voice, "I wonder if Qin Shubao is as useless as we are?”
Kou Zhong retorted, "Shen Luoyan's main target is Qin Shubao, naturally she will handle him personally; it would be more difficult for him to escape. Ay! Rack your brains, quick! Look! It's getting dark really soon.”
Xu Ziling stared at the sinking sun on the horizon; he knitted his brow and said, "She must have put some trick on our bodies, so that she can easily catch up with us.”
The two boys were severely shaken; you looked at me, I looked at you, Kou Zhong slapped his thigh and said, "It must be that Lu Miaozi's fishing net.”
And he examined his hand and feet and clothes, and sure enough, they discovered a lot of fine particles like dust all around their bodies. If they did not intentionally look for it, they would not detect it. By now the river has washed away most of the fine particles from their clothes, but a large amount of the particles still remained.
"Stop looking over it!” Xu Ziling warned him, "Maybe someone is still spying on us!”
"What kind of cheap trick is this?” Kou Zhong asked in terror, "I cannot brush it off! It is colorless and odorless. That beautiful woman is really formidable, she has clearly planned ahead to bet that she would capture us, that way she would win us over completely.”
Xu Ziling whispered in his ear, "Our clothes have been infected, we can take it off; but we can't chop our head and limbs. What do we do this time? The enemy might come here soon.”
Kou Zhong used his nose to sniff around for quite a while, and then he said in low voice, "It does not matter whether this kind of powder has any scent or not, otherwise, even if the opponent can follow our trail based on scent, they can only follow our track from behind, unlike earlier, where they already laid up a trap ahead waiting for us.”
"We were really too careless,” Xu Ziling said in distress, "We were blind not to know that others put some kind of trick on our bodies. However, even if they sent people to keep watch on all vantage points around the two hundred li radius, they have to have a special way of seeing this fine powder on us both day and night. But if they want to prepare a trap one step ahead of us, they must have an unusually rapid and effective communication method. At night they can use flashing light, but how did they conceal it from us?”
Kou Zhong dejectedly lying down on the grass, looking up at the red sunset clouds in the sky; he muttered to himself, "There must be a hiccup in our conjecture somewhere. Remember when Qin Shubao left, we lived high and looked down on him all the time, but did not see the fine powder on his body. Supposing this fine powder can glow in the dark, you and I would be able to see it on each other's body. Not only that, keeping watch on all high points around is both not easy and not practical. If we went into hiding deep in the mountains, this method does not have the least bit of usefulness. If as you just said, we fled to the highest peak, they don't have the skill to monitor us. Therefore, that ‘Pretty Junshi' [see last chapter, Book 3 Chapter 3] must have some other ingenious way, otherwise it won't fit her fame in knowledge and scheming.”
Under pressure from Shen Luoyan, the two boys were forced to bring out their innate ability and wisdom as they vowed to fight to the end.
In fact, ever since they found the ‘Secret to Long Life', their life has been turned upside down, as they constantly dealing with all kinds of challenges. Just like rough jade that is continuously carved and polished, it will gradually reveal its beautiful nature.
Xu Ziling lay next to Kou Zhong; he just saw a small blue bird hovering above, after circling twice, it flew to a nearby forest. He had a brainwave, "Perhaps this fine powder is not meant to be seen by human, but to be recognized by a trained bird, just like falcons can help the hunter hunt their prey. So even if we cover ourselves with cloth, or hiding in a cave, we still cannot hide from the bird's eyes, because it has already identified us clearly.”
Kou Zhong was jolted awake; he sat up, looked around, and said, "You are right, that is the most reasonable explanation. Just now there was a single, strange bird flying back and forth above us. His mother, let me hit it down and eat it to accompany wine.”
Xu Ziling let out a hollow laugh, "I am afraid even if you hit it down now, it would be useless. Based on Shen Luoyan's ability and wisdom, she would guess that we have defeated her trick. Don't forget that that old fellow also touched us; perhaps he did another trick on us. If we, like a fool, exhausted our strength dealing with that double-flat feathered animal, it will only make that beautiful woman broke down in laughter.”
Kou Zhong sized Xu Ziling up with rapt attention, and then scratching his head he said, "Normally, in terms of crafty ideas, even if you, this kid, pat your horse's bottom, you won't be able to catch up with laozi. Who could have thought that under present circumstances, your thought is more meticulous than me, Zhong Shao. Xu Junshi Daren [see Book 1 Chapter 4 on ‘daren'], what are we supposed to do now?”
Xu Ziling also sat up and whispered in his ear, "This time we must not lose against that woman. Speaking about tracking, they must use people or animal, two routes. But no matter how formidable that stinky woman is, or that her subordinates' qinggong is a hundred times better than ours, they still do not know that we can come and go freely underwater without taking a breath.”
Kou Zhong nodded. "If we hide underwater,” he said, "Unless that bird can fly underwater too, we can completely disappear without a trace. Ay! But from here to Pengcheng, there is still about thirty li of waterway; if we have to swim to Pengcheng, we will die of exhaustion.”
Xu Ziling let out a low chuckle and said, "How did you, Zhong Shao, become so stupid? When we hide underwater, as long as there is a boat passing by, we can attach ourselves to the bottom of the boat. This way we can have a boat ride without expending a great deal of effort.”
Kou Zhong slapped his thigh and let out a muffled cheer.
By this time the sky has turned dark, the two boys screamed gleefully as they sprang up, dashed madly along the shore first, and then when they reached a thick wooded area, they dove into the river; and then following the current, they swam quickly downstream, even farther away from Pengcheng.
As expected, the strange bird suddenly appeared from who knows where. After making several circles in the air above the river, it let out a chirp, and soared into the air; soon it disappeared from sight.
At this point three big, five-mast ships appeared from the lower reaches of the river. The two boys were greatly delighted. They swam up and attached themselves to the hull of one of the ships.
Soon after the boys left, three men, including that ‘Old Man of the Plains' Mo Cheng, darted out of the woods. When they got to the place where the two boys disappeared into the water, they scanned the river course with their shining eyes. Naturally they did not know that the two boys could get away in this unimaginable way.
It must be noted that even Wulin experts with superb water skill, although they knew some kind of breathing underwater skill, they could not stay underwater for this long. As for Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, who had innate ability to hold their breath and were able to stay underwater for a long time, they could be compared to first-rate characters of Du Fuwei, Yuwen Huaji, Zhai Rang and the other prominent figures' caliber.
This was the unique trait of ‘Secret to Long Life'; when practiced, one would nearly suffer fire deviation, however, if the practitioner succeeded, it would unleash the most-advanced breathing regimen, which belonged to first-class mysterious skill category, merely using different routes to the same destination.
Therefore, although in terms of martial art and lightness skill their standing was only a tad above average Wulin experts, their mental cultivation[1] was at the grandmaster level; which became a substantial and solid foundation for their growth.
This time Shen Luoyan miscalculated; it really had nothing to do with her ability and wisdom, but because the situation was simply too surreal.
Mo Cheng and the others were searching along the river when they saw the three huge ships sailing upstream; they abruptly halted their steps to watch.
When the ships had passed far away, Mo Cheng's expression turned extremely grave as he spoke to the other two in low voice, "Those three ships bear the flag of the Li Clan. If the Clan Leader, Li Yuan is aboard the ship, something really big is going to happen at Pengcheng. We must return immediately and report this to Miss.”
Finished speaking, the three men disappeared into the darkness of the river bank.
[1] Orig. xin fa, lit. heart/mind method/way. I have difficulty finding a good translation; any ideas?