The pain was so severe that they felt their five viscera [i.e. heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys] were about to burst, their qi and blood surged over, they no longer had any strength left to fight.
Who would have thought that Zhai Rang was actually more shocked than the two boys? He originally thought that with one palm strike he would be able to send them back to the Western Paradise, but to his surprise, as his strike hit the opponents' chests, he felt two jolts of reacting forces, one cold and one hot, coming out of the pit of their stomachs. Not only these forces neutralized most of his own power, the forces also entered his body, sapping his strength that he could not even apply his inner power.
Although Kou Zhong lost the strength in his entire body, he could still open his mouth to shout, "You … what are you doing?”
Zhai Rang's eyes flashed with ominous glint. "Shut up!” he said, "You can only blame yourselves for knowing things that you are not supposed to know.” And he stepped toward the two boys.
Xu Ziling rolled over to embrace Kou Zhong, he said, "If we are to die, let's die together!”
While casting a sidelong glance, Kou Zhong embraced Xu Ziling and whispered in his ear, "Circulate your energy! I'll distract him.”
Meanwhile Zhai Rang has arrived in front of the two boys; suddenly he let out a dry cough, and with a hoarse cold laugh said, "Just let Ol' Zhai fulfill your wish!”
The two boys were crying inwardly, saying goodbye to the world, while Zhai Rang's palms landed on the tianling acupoint on the top of their heads.
A loud crash severely shook their brains, they vision turned black, but immediately they regained their consciousness.
While pondering whether they had arrived at the gate of hell, they found out that they were still sitting on the floor in the main hall. When their mind cleared up, they saw it was Zhai Rang who fell prostrate on top of their bodies; his face blue and his lips black, his entire body, from head to toe, trembled.
The two boys were keen; they immediately realized that Zhai Rang had indeed received serious internal injury, only he suppressed it down, acting as if nothing had happened. Presently, in order to kill the two boys, he rushed his true qi indiscriminately, so that his internal injury flared out, in turn it rendered him useless like this.
Kou Zhong pushed Zhai Rang's body and rolled him over on the floor. Stroking his chest he moaned, "This guy's palm power is really formidable. Xiao Ling, how are you feeling?”
Xu Ziling was still sitting on the floor. Massaging his chest, he said, "Is everybody in the world only know how to bite the hand that feed him? Both father and daughter are just like that.”
Kou Zhong said, "Right now escaping is more important, we must circulate our energy to treat our injury. Oh!” He shuddered.
With a bitter smile Xu Ziling said, "You are cold as hell, but I am unbearably hot. My five viscera and six bowels feel like on fire.”
Suddenly they both were shaken, as if they came to realization together, and looked at each other with great delight.
Kou Zhong pulled himself together, raised both his palms and said, "You send your true qi from your right palm into the hollow of my palm, and I will send my true qi from my right palm into your body. Ha! This is our original creation on how to heal our injury.”
Without slightest hesitation Xu Ziling quickly raised his palm according to Kou Zhong's instruction, circulating his power and transferring his qi. At first it was still extremely painful and very difficult. From time to time they still vomited wisps of blood, but soon cold and hot streams were flowing together; round and round the streams cycled inside their bodies, continuously without any break.
They did not know that this kind of blending of cold and hot stream had actually saved these two boys' little lives.
What happened was that although the two boys unwittingly achieved success in training the qi-circulating technique from one of the diagrams in the ‘Secret to Long Life', their result actually tended to be too cold or too hot. During the initial phase, this matter did not pose any problem. However, as the qi inside their bodies started to build up, they were approaching the critical stage where ‘too much is as bad as not enough'. If this condition continued, inevitably they would suffer fire deviation. In the ‘too cold' situation, their meridian would freeze and congeal, and they die. In the ‘too hot' situation, their yueyong [lit. moon forever] channel would burst and they perish.
Therefore, in critical moment this time the two boys mutually transferring the true qi from his own body to treat the other's injury, because the source of their true qi was identical, it was tantamount to the two boys separately cultivating their internal energy, hence the two streams of qi merged together; not only it has greatly accelerated the progress of their cultivation, it has also brought up the miraculous result of the ‘Secret to Long Life', which most people had never even dreamed about.
If it were someone else, even if that person's talent was better than these two boys', by the time he reached the last two diagrams, he could forget about obtaining any result without spending eight or ten years.
Deviating from the norm, the two boys have always trained separately, plus they did not understand how to blend the cold and the hot; therefore, contrary to expectation, they achieved the very purest result instead. Now that they blended with one another, it was as if individually they gained two-year worth of maturity.
Up to this point, the two boys' success was only a small part of the ‘Secret to Long Life', but now they no longer deviate from the norm.
Nobody knew how much time has passed; the two boys' pain was gone. Although they still felt weak due to the blood loss, their spirit was very much alive; their senses and their mind were much keener than before.
Zhai Rang was still lying on the floor, but he no longer shivered, his countenance looked much better than before.
Kou Zhong withdrew his palms and said in low voice, "Do you want to get rid of this ingratitude [lit. forget favors and violate justice] fellow first?”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, "If we do that, Su Jie will never forgive us. Hey! Your cold true qi felt very comfortable to me. That's strange! Why does my tianling acupoint feel like it opens wide, and a cold stream flowing continuously inside? The tip of my tongue also tastes sweet.”
Kou Zhong laughed and said, "And my yongquan acupoint is steaming hot. Come! Let's go, we must find Su Jie.”
Xu Ziling followed his lead and stood up. After looking cautiously at Zhai Rang on the floor, he whispered, "There are so many people outside; what should we do?”
Kou Zhong said, "It seems like they do not know what happened here yet; we'll change according to the situation.”
Steeling himself, Xu Ziling pushed the door open and walked out.
Wang Ruxin was waiting outside the door. Seeing the two boys came out, his countenance became very strange; his mouth agape and he was speechless.
Looking at his expression, the two boys knew that he was aware that Zhai Rang was going to kill them to shut their mouths. Hence when he saw the two boys strutting outside, alive and well, his face became ridiculously weird.
Kou Zhong beamed in smile; pointing to his own noggin, he said, "After listening to our story, Da Longtou knew there was some misunderstanding. But it has created new anxiety on him, so he told us to leave so that he could think quietly. He said nobody is allowed to come in and thus interrupt his train of thought.”
This was Kou Zhong's brilliance; knowing that Wang Ruxin understood the inside information, he used it against him.
Xu Ziling gently closed the door, and while Wang Ruxin still did not know what to do, he ran after Kou Zhong, swaggering out of that place.
As soon as they were out of the inner courtyard, the two boys rushed toward Zhai Jiao's personal quarter.
Kou Zhong said, "It would be best if we could sneak out with Su Jie and immediately go to Daiqing Yuan to find that Peipei that Yiqi Shan [see Book 3 Chapter 7] was talking about. Otherwise, if we are late by half a step, people might chop us to pieces.”
Xu Ziling was exceptionally cool-headed; he said in a low voice, "I feel that my power has doubled; maybe I can jump over the city wall. But if I have to carry Su Jie, I don't have any confidence. To be honest, until now I am still not sure if Yiqi Shan really has yiqi [reminder: spirit of loyalty, code of brotherhood].”
Kou Zhong said, "Our matter is as urgent as a horse running on the field, we'll borrow Yiqi Shan's bridge first; whether after crossing the bridge we'd pull the plank out or not, we'll think about it later.”
By this time the two boys have arrived at the main gate of Zhai Jiao's courtyard. One of the four guards at the door shouted, "Did Miss summon you?”
With a pained expression Kou Zhong whispered, "Were it not for her order, would you be willing to come see her?”
The guards all smiled knowingly. The two boys swaggered inside. That beautiful maid Chuchu happened to pass by inside the residence. Tugging at her sleeve Kou Zhong said with an embarrassed smile, "Beautiful, how are you? Do you know where Su Jie is?”
Chuchu's powdered face blushed slightly, casting a sidelong glance at him she snapped, "You are not looking for me, how should I know where she is?”
Flinging his hand, she took a few steps forward before turning her head back and with a sweet smile said, "Su Jie is serving Miss! Dummy!” Finished speaking, she covered her laughing mouth with her sleeve, and then gracefully walked away.
Noticing that at a moment like this Kou Zhong was still watching her in daze, he pulled him, hard. Kou Zhong came to his senses and followed Xu Ziling toward the door.
Before they saw the person, Zhai Jiao's unpleasant voice was already heard, as she said angrily, "I don't know what trick Die is playing, I only said a few words and he immediately wanted to see you, these two little demons. Didn't I already tell him everything? He should have let me to be present to listen to you.”
Kou Zhong rolled his eyes. Stepping into the hall, he cupped his fist and respectfully said, "Da Longtou asked Miss to come see him. He also said he has a gift for Miss!”
Even Xu Ziling had to admire Kou Zhong's quick wit.
Zhai Jiao was sitting in a chair inside, while Susu was standing by her side with a blank expression on her face. Hearing Kou Zhong, "Ah!” she exclaimed, and stood up and rushed out, stormed between the two boys, and darted out the door.
The two boys were overjoyed at this unexpected turn of events. They bolted forward to grab the shocked Susu from left and right.
"Don't ask,” Kou Zhong urgently said, "If we don't leave now, I am afraid we won't have the chance forever.”
Susu's countenance suddenly changed; her eyes were fixed at the door. The two boys hurriedly turned their head around, immediately their soul flew away and scattered, while in their heart they were continuously calling for their Niang.