Book 6 Chapter 10 - Revealing True Feelings
Xu Ziling ran over a small hill, and saw Kou Zhong at the foot of the hill. That guy only wore pants, he was bare-chested, with a steel saber of unknown origin between his teeth, and was immersing himself in a small creek, washing the bloodstains all over his body.
Under the moonlight, his skin looked shiny and glistening, his perfect physique looked like a leopard that has just reached adulthood, brimming with power from head to toes, and some kind of extraordinary, yet conforming to the law of heaven, beauty.
He looked focused and did not seem to realize Xu Ziling's arrival. But suddenly he looked up at him and broke into wide grin. His smile was as brilliant as the shining sun, and it was full of captivating charms. The saber in his mouth dropped into his hand, with a casually flick of his hand the saber flew and embedded itself on the thick bough of a large tree by the creek.
With several jumps Xu Ziling wend down the hill, and sat on a large rock protruding out of the water in the middle of the creek. He quietly stared at the still trembling saber hilt without saying anything.
Kou Zhong dipped his whole head into the ice-cold water of the creek, drank several mouthfuls of cold water, pulled his head out the water, wiped the water from his face, and said with a sigh, "I killed a lot of people, but also received injuries. The most serious one is a punch on the pit of my stomach, but I beat that guy up that his bones shattered. Humph! They wanted my life, naturally I took enough of theirs.”
A burst of emotion bubbled up in Xu Ziling's heart; for the first time he realized that Kou Zhong and he had become important figures who were able to assume personal responsibilities.
Kou Zhong immersed his entire body into the water. Giggling, he said, "Fortunately, we have miraculous internal energy, any injury will be healed naturally without leaving any scar. Otherwise, it would be awful when we have to take off our clothes; our bodies will be covered with scars, how could we let others see that? Hey, why don't you take a dip in here? The water will clear up your brain a lot.”
Xu Ziling shook his head to decline, "Who attacked you?” he asked.
"It was Haisha Bang people,” Kou Zhong nonchalantly replied, "They were under the leadership of that flirtatious Taoist Priestess, trying to catch me with ropes and nets like I was a wild dog. Several hundred people against me, one man; I really don't know why they committed such a shameless act. Fortunately I was fighting and fleeing at the same time, and in the end I slipped into the water to escape. You Qiuyan [(sic) it was ‘the Mermaid' You Qiufeng in Book 2 Chapter 7] still thought that I was the useless kid of the past, she went underwater to give chase, and fell under Laozi's control. Fortunately I, Kou Zhong, have always had tender, protective feelings for the fairer sex; I only pinched her breasts a couple of times and then I let her go. This time I'm telling you honestly, you, Ling Shao, should not suspect that I am lying to you.”
Xu Ziling sighed and said, "You are such a loose guy; a Taoist Priestess, and an enemy in this matter, you still refused to let her off.”
"This is called ‘confusing the enemy's heart',” Kou Zhong lightly said, "When that s1ut saw me, her eyes lit up; I was merely comforting her while we were at it. Who knows? Perhaps in the future there will be other benefits too.”
Xu Ziling remained silent.
Kou Zhong rose up from the water with a splash, the creek water came to his waist. Stretching, he said, "Oh, my good brother! It seems to me that recently you disagree with my conduct a lot, is that right?”
Xu Ziling sneered and said, "Marrying a woman is every man's dream; as your brother, how could I blame you? It's just that you are basically only teasing them verbally and causing mischief driven by your carnal desire, you view everything only from a utilitarian consideration. That is what made me a little uncomfortable!”
Kou Zhong nodded, "That is precisely the difference between intentionally seeking and without any desire to seek. We are pursuing different goals; hence we appear to have different opinion. This is the effect of training the ‘Secret to Long Life'; you are hot, I am cold. Not only it changed our temperament, it even changed our character. When I kill people, unexpectedly I don't have any stirring or surging emotion. Even now I don't feel like it was a big deal. Otherwise I would have been slaughtered by others by now.”
"What's your plan now?” Xu Ziling suddenly asked.
Kou Zhong sat on the bank of the creek, leisurely watching his feet kicking and playing in the water. He smiled and said, "Didn't we agree to proceed with our salt business? When people no longer dare to mess with us, we will succeed.”
"That's not what I am asking,” Xu Ziling said, "I want to ask you: how are you going to fight for the world?”
Kou Zhong looked at him. There was an unprecedented glint in his eyes. Without answering the question he said, "If I really want to vie over the world, I must ask you to do something for me: to kill someone.”
Xu Ziling was visibly shaken. "That Li kid!” he exclaimed.
Kou Zhong threw his head back and roared in laughter; he looked so heroic and majestic. Slapping his thigh, he praised, "This is called ‘great minds think alike' [orig. heroes usually agree]. Among the people worth our considerations, in terms of bearing and charisma, who could surpass him? Plus his predecessors have been involved in politics and government affairs, he is acutely aware of the way to govern the people, and he is still young, so I say that he is my, Kou Zhong's biggest rival.”
"You are not afraid Xiuning will be grieved?” Xu Ziling asked.
Kou Zhong's eyes flashed coldly; he said, "How can one woman affect my grand plan and great undertaking?”
Xu Ziling smiled wryly and asked, "But why did you ask me?”
A faint smile escaped from the corner of Kou Zhong's mouth. "I am not afraid of anybody,” he said, "Except you, one person. And I know that you have a very good impression toward that Li kid. As long as you don't stop me, and that Li kid agrees to work for me, there will come a day when he will die under my, Kou Zhong's hands. I am ruthless to anybody; you and Su Jie are the only exception.”
Xu Ziling's razor-sharp gaze was fixed on him as he said, "If one day after you obtain the world you find it necessary to have me eliminated, will you personally make your move?”
Kou Zhong slapped the water surface with his palms, a column of water rose. Turning his head and his eyes to look at the drenched Xu Ziling, he roared in laughter and said, "That's not going to happen. Quickly apologize to me!”
Xu Ziling leaped high into the air and pounced on Kou Zhong, pulling him down into the water. The two boys wrestled and fought just like when they were little kids, totally without any martial art master's style.
When Kou Zhong had Xu Ziling's head locked in the crook of his arm, gasping and laughing he said, "Kid, do you know that there is another decree to hunt and kill us?”
Xu Ziling stared at him blankly, "What kind of ghost decree?” he asked.
"It was that flirty Taoist Priestess who told me,” Kou Zhong replied, "The issuer is that Shan Wanjing, who grew to hate you because of her unrequited love for you. The reward is one thousand taels of gold plus one of Dongming Pai's ‘divine subduing-sect weapons', the Dongming Sword; very attractive. One thousand taels of gold is enough to finance a hundred-strong army for two, three years.”
Xu Ziling smiled bitterly and said, "That stinky Princess is not worth the trouble. It's just a useless account book! Hey, don't put my mouth into the water!”
Kou Zhong raised his head a few cun and said with a giggle, "It's hard to fathom someone's mind; girls' mind is even harder to understand. Ha! Hatred caused by love. Do you surrender now?”
Xu Ziling suddenly lifted up Kou Zhong's entire body and threw him backwards. Without looking at Kou Zhong fell flat on his back into the water, he cursed, "Hatred caused by love my @$$. From beginning to end, the one she looked up to was that Li kid, or perhaps even Ba Fenghan, never the two of us.”
Kou Zhong pretended to be crawling up in such a sorry state; wiping his face, he said, "Since we are already wet anyway, we might as well go steal a boat. I will settle the score with you later.”
The two boys returned to the past where there was no load in their minds. Hee hee ha ha they chased each other toward the sea.
When the two boys had their heads out of the water in the sea, they saw moored at the pier hundreds of ships and boats, big and small, none of them was not brightly lit, and all of them were chained together to each other. Not only there were men on sentry duty on the boats, there were also patrolling boats going back and forth, and a lot of Haisha Bang men equipped with bows and arrows and other long range attack weapons.
Kou Zhong laughed and said, "We created enough disturbances that Haisha Bang people will not have a good sleep tonight! Han Gaitian himself is an arrogant idiot. His subordinates, those ‘Fat Assassin' You Gui, ‘Charging General' Ling Zhigao [see Book 2 Chapter 7], and the others are nothing; this is such a counter-productive deployment. If I were in charge, I would have ordered all boats to steer away from the dock, so that even if we have the power, it would be difficult to carry out.”
"Are all these dozen or so piers belonged to Haisha Bang?” Xu Ziling asked.
"Ought to be so,” Kou Zhong replied, "Because of Yuhang's prime location, plus Han Gaitian tied brotherhood with Shen Faxing, Haisha Bang's navy vessels are concentrated at Kunling and Yuhang, two locations, with the main responsibility to transport army provisions and supplies for the Jiangnan Army. If we burn all these ships, Jiangnan Army will fall into predicament. Let's consider it a payback for their treatment to us. Come on!”
The two boys dove into the bottom of the sea and swam toward the enemy's battleship.
By the time they reappeared on the surface, they were already in the middle of the enemy's ships. Avoiding the patrolling boat, the two boys hid in the dark side of a ship, discussing the next step.
Kou Zhong said, "These ships are at least one zhang apart from each other. Even if we burn one or two of them, it would still be difficult for the fire to spread to other ships.”
"That's easy,” Xu Ziling said, "We only need to scuttle one or two particularly big ships. When the ships sink, because they are chained to each other, the sinking ship will pull the other boats along. Burning them will be a lot easier then.”
Kou Zhong laughed and said, "That is a good plan indeed. I'll go find tinder, you go bore holes on the ships. Remember to use your ‘Jade Cutter', don't dig by hand. Ha!”
Third watch of the night [11pm - 1am]. Haisha Bang piers were suddenly thrown into confusion. The two biggest ships suddenly sank at the same time, pulling the other ships along with them.
Looking at the speed those ships were sinking, those with discerning eyes knew immediately that someone was playing a trick on the bottom of the ships.
You Qiuyan, You Gui and Ling Zhigao, three people led a large quantity of Haisha Bang martial art masters to rush out. The former shouted with her tender voice, "Quickly untie the chain!”
Kou Zhong appeared at the bow of one of the ships. Naked from the waist up, he had a saber in his right hand and lifted high a torch in his left, as he laughed aloud and said, "Too late!”