Book 6 Chapter 9 - Full Display of Their Capabilities
Those Haisha Bang members were used to bullying, upon seeing this, those dozen or so men stormed out of the shop, carrying sabers and hatchets, to meet the two boys.
Like a tiger entering a flock of sheep Xu Ziling charged into the enemy ranks, punching and kicking. Very soon those bull-like sturdy men were constantly flying off or falling to the ground, so after a moment no one could even crawl up.
The passers-by on the street fell over each other to run away, the situation was chaotic.
Kou Zhong whined, "Can't you at least leave two for me to play with?” while he hacked and grabbed one of the men, and dragged him inside the shop. Soon afterwards he walked out and took Xu Ziling toward the dock. He said, "Their division headquarter is really at that salt street, adjacent to the warehouse where we stole the salt from. From there it should be a bit more convenient to steal a boat.”
"Did the guy you grab cooperate?” Xu Ziling asked.
Kou Zhong let out a cold humph, "Can he not?” he said.
Xu Ziling laughed aloud, and walked ahead of him out of the city.
About midway, several hundred riders galloped out of the city gate like a whirlwind. Without even looking they knew that these riders must be from Shen Faxing's army.
Kou Zhong jumped in fright, "Looks like they have more people than we can handle!” he said.
Recalling the hard battle in Jiangdu's imperial city, Xu Ziling was rather timid as well; hastily he followed Kou Zhong running into the wilderness.
Xu Ziling lay down on top of a big horizontal branch protruding from a big tree in the jungle by the seaside, enjoying the spectacular scenery of the setting sun in the ocean, feeling that his heart and mind were as broad and infinite as the scenery in front of him, that all the ‘you fight, I snatch' of the secular world has turned into a trivial matter that had no place in the grand scheme of eternity.
Ever since he put on brand new clothes and shaved his beard that day, Kou Zhong also seemed to change into a different man, brimming with fighting spirit. While he was in deep contemplation, occasionally his eyes would shine with unusual gleam, although it was not clear whether he was thinking about the struggle over the world.
Xu Ziling himself was more and more intoxicated with exploring the way of the martial arts; other things no longer had any place in his heart and mind. The only thing that he was unable to put down was Susu. As for Kou Zhong, naturally he did not need to worry.
He also remembered Shen Luoyan and Princess Dong Ming. But they were merely like floating light or fleeting shadow, not something that could move him emotionally.
For him, the most unbearable thing in life was feeling. Every time he thought about Fu Junchuo, he was always overwhelmed with heartbreak and depressing feeling, so that his hatred toward Yuwen Huaji grew deeper.
After killing Yuwen Huaji, he would roam the world, even go beyond the Great Wall, to experience the many colors life has to offer.
As for the great undertaking of unifying the world, it was not something that he dreamed of doing; those were things that people like Kou Zhong or Li Shimin should undertake.
His only goal in life was to explore the wonder this world had to offer, to attain the highest level of the martial art world he could achieve, to see through the mystery of life. But he had never forced himself; he always let everything fell into its place at its own time. Just like when Kou Zhong wanted him to eavesdrop the old teacher's lecture, wanted him to stealthily learn martial art, he simply went to listen, to learn. Until he comprehended the immeasurable mystery of the ‘Secret to Long Life', he finally grasped the meaning of life in his hand, to have his own way of life and his own goals.
Suddenly alarm went off in his heart.
Xu Ziling closed his eyes. Getting rid of ten thousand thoughts in his mind, he instantly sensed someone creeping toward him from the southwest direction. This person could be considered the best among the martial art masters whom he encountered ever since he left Danyang, but it was definitely not Kou Zhong.
If it were Kou Zhong who sneaked in to play trick on him, he would have to enter the ten-zhang range around him before Xu Ziling could detect his presence.
But this person was still thirty zhang away when Xu Ziling started to sense his presence.
Right this moment, he also detected the enemy's presence from other directions; all were about twenty zhang away from him, thus it was clear that these several enemies were a notch above the first one.
In that instant he made up his mind to fight to the end; otherwise, he would lose contact with Kou Zhong, who went out to scout the enemy positions.
Like a ghost Xu Ziling swiftly slid down to the foot of the tree. Because he had a more accurate picture of the enemies' position and their approaching route, with only one or two shenfa [motion in martial arts] he managed to slip through the enemy eyes and through the gaps in their blind side into lush underbrush.
The sky was getting dark, the sunrays gradually disappeared on the horizon on the other side of the ocean, the woods grew so dark that it was getting more and more difficult to see anything.
Suddenly there was the sound of rustling sleeves against the wind, followed by someone exclaimed, "Huh?” Apparently he was startled for not able to find Xu Ziling.
Xu Ziling understood; the opponents must have seen him earlier from a distant height when he was lying down on the tree branch, but by the time they went into hiding in the nearby forest, Xu Ziling was already gone.
Xu Ziling crouched low in the grass, narrowed his eyes, held his breath and calmed his qi as he looked out. Unless the opposite party searched to this place, based on his fantastic true qi, they would never find him. In the past, when his cultivation was still shallow, even martial art masters like Li Mi and Zhai Rang were not able to detect his presence as he was hiding on the beam; let alone there were not too many people of Li Mi and Zhai Rang's calibers in the world, therefore, he was not worried the least bit that his presence would be detected.
Two men in black appeared under the big tree where he lay down in contemplation earlier, one tall, the other short. But because their backs were facing him, he could not see their faces. It's just that by looking at the ‘deep-pool, towering-peak' way they were standing, the imposing manner and strength they exuded, he knew that these men were not mediocre masters.
Another rustling of the wind, another person appeared under the tree, and Xu Ziling heard, "I have searched everywhere, there's not even half a shadow of ghost around.”
This moment Xu Ziling suddenly sniffed an exotic delicate fragrance, followed by a subtle, almost inaudible noise of something splitting the air. Xu Ziling groaned inwardly, knowing that someone was coming from behind, and it was a woman, whose body's fragrance had already been delivered by the sea breeze into his extremely acute nose.
Xu Ziling hastily crouched down to the ground.
A sword swept past the grass above him, followed by four more; each strike was fast and fierce. If he had been squatting just like a moment ago, he would have been hit by the sword.
The delicate fragrance moved away, obviously the woman had moved someplace else to continue her search.
Xu Ziling snickered inwardly. He sat cross-legged, thinking that Kou Zhong should be back any time soon.
A moment later the three enemies gathered together, two men and one woman; they talked in low voices. Most probably the other person was still searching in the vicinity.
The first to be heard was a man with strong voice, "This is perhaps the best chance to intercept them. Looking at the current situation, it looks like they are going to run away overseas to escape Li Mi's decree to hunt and kill them.”
"Where did that kid go?” another man with coarse voice asked.
The first man replied, "Da Zongguan [big/first manager] and Han Bangzhu [gang leader] have already guessed from their route that they were heading this way. This matter is very important to Da Zongguan, otherwise, why would he toil our Xia Xianzi [goddess/fairy/female immortal] to personally come here?” The speaker was a young man, apparently he was trying to flatter that woman.
A burst of silver-bell like laughter was heard, and then that woman, who was known as Fairy Xie said, "In my opinion, he is trying to slip away. We will lay a trap here. Supposing by lucky coincidence that kid Kou Zhong managed to escape Han Bangzhu's inescapable net, we will take care of him here. As long as we can capture one of them alive, the ‘Duke Yang Treasure Trove' will be in our, Jiangnan Army's bag.”
Xu Ziling was shaken; now he knew why Kou Zhong had not come back yet. Not in the mood to listen further, he quietly backed away.
He had just stepped out of the forest when a shadow flashed in front of him, and he realized he had fallen into a heavy siege. Someone behind him laughed aloud and said, "Kid, you are so naïve, we swindled you a little bit and you fell right into it.”
Another man said, "It was not a complete lie either, the other kid might have been captured already.”
Xu Ziling maintained his composure and did not show the slightest sign of fear at all, under the dim moonlight he coldly sized them up. Other than four people who appeared first, there were two more people. Every single one of them looked highly capable, obviously these were not ordinary warriors.
The one blocking his way was a scholar with a rather confident and casual demeanor, with a long sword in his hand, which he pointed at him from a distance.
On his left was a bald man, thick and solid like a bull, both his left and right hands carried big hatchets, so that even without any explanation anybody could infer that he was an expert in external skill, the brave-general-who-charge-and-break-through-enemy-lines type of person.
On the far right was a white-haired, dreary-looking, big and tall old man. His sword was still hanging on his back, his manner grave. If Xu Ziling's guessed correctly, of the three men, this man's martial art skill must be the highest.
Suddenly he heard the wind behind him, it was the two men and one woman who had just swindled him, flying over from the forest, blocking all of his escape routes.
One of them laughed and said, "Kid, you missed your last chance! If just now you turned around toward the dense jungle, you might be able to slip away.”
These people were saying all these things to attack Xu Ziling's mind; they wanted Xu Ziling to feel foolish and thus disturbed his concentration.
The white-haired old man cupped his fist to salute and said, "Laofu [old man, referring to self] Shen Fazheng, the older brother of Jiangnan Dao Da Zongguan [see last chapter, Book 6 Chapter 8]. If Xu Xiongdi is willing to come back with us, the Ol' Shen guarantees that Xu Xiongdi will be received as our honored guest and will be treated with utmost hospitality.”
Xu Ziling stood up straight in the middle of the siege, there was a deep and immeasurable, unusual gleam his tiger-eyes, but his countenance was still and calm like the surface of water without any ripples, his upright body was like lofty mountain that gave others the impression that he would be hard to shake.
The scholar-looking man held the sword with both hands as he saluted and said, "Zaixia Li Changheng from Poyang Pai [Poyang (county in Shangrao, Jiangxi, Sect]. We are very fond of Xu Xiong; if we could exchange weapons of war for gifts of jade and silk, nothing can be better that that.”
And then he introduced the bald man, "Tu Li Xiong is Huangshan Pai's [Mount Huang (in Anhui) Sect] martial art master; he is Da Zongguan's Left Vanguard, while Zaixia is his Right Vanguard General.”
A tender laughter was heard from behind, the beauty, who was called Fairy Xie, said, "Nujia [your (female) servant] is Xie Yujing, you must not forget it!”
The one called Shen Fazheng smiled and said, "The remaining two gentlemen are the Lian Clan's brothers from Qishan Pai's [Mount Qi (in Gansu)] Sect], Fan Xiong and Chu Xiong; both are martial art experts famous in Jianghu for their whip. In Laofu's opinion, before long their ‘Drifting Cloud Whip' will be numbered among the ‘Amazing Skill Ultimate Art'.”
"Are you done?” Xu Ziling spoke indifferently, "If you are, just make your move!”
The six people were greatly surprised.
It should be noted that none of the six of them was not martial art master with resounding name in Jianghu. Any one of them came out, very few people would dare not to give them any face. This time, under Shen Faxing's bidding, all six of them came out of their respective Sect to deal with these two boys; at that time all of them felt that Shen Faxing was making a big fuss over a minor issue. Who would have thought that Xu Ziling had the impertinence to speak such a boastful remark?
Actually, in Xu Ziling's heart, because he was so accustomed to meet martial art masters, other than Du Fuwei, Madame Dongming, Dongming Princess, Ba Fenghan, and several other martial art masters of their rank, he did not have any regard to other people.
Tu Li roared violently, "This fellow is unable to differentiate good from bad!” Before he finished speaking, his shoulders and arms turned around. Two huge hatchets, which were originally held flat on his chest, hacked diagonally down. These two axes swept down one after another like a swiftly turning wheel. Just this one move has demonstrated that he did not simply rely on brute strength, but that he was a martial art expert who was beautiful inside and out.
At the exact same time, a cold qi was piercing toward Xu Ziling's vertebrae from behind.
Seeing the opponents were this formidable, Xu Ziling's spirit was greatly aroused. He knew that these two hatchets were simply to divide his mind, the real threat was the finger wind attacking him from behind.
The opponents spent this much effort, in the end they merely wanted to capture him alive.
Xu Ziling suddenly moved sideways toward Tu Li's right side. Not only he evaded the sneak attack on his back, by a simple shift like that he was also forcing Tu Li to change his move in panic.
Everybody was shaken.
It was called ‘just with one move the expert will know which one was there which one was not'.
Tu Li was about to twist his waist in a horse stance to continue his attack, Shen Fazheng called out loudly, "Hold it there!”
Xu Ziling halted instantly; he did not even dodge or block the huge hatchet hacking down on him, showing no sign of nerves at all.
Tu Li took his hatchet back in horror, remembering Shen Faxing's order to capture the two boys alive.
Watching this, the rest of the people wiped the cold sweats from their foreheads, thinking that there was actually someone who had a full confidence on the enemy like that in the world.
Shen Fazheng spoke politely, "There is one thing Laofu would like to inquire.”
Xu Ziling shrugged his shoulders noncommittally. Whether it was his movement or his expression, everything displayed confidence, poise and elegance.
Everybody was emotionally moved; they all sensed the unique gracefulness of this young, new rising star of Wulin who recently shook the entire Jianghu.
Seeing Xu Ziling did not speak, Shen Fazheng had no choice but to go on, "Xu Xiongdi, don't you want to know what happened to that other Xiongdi?”
Shen Fazheng's nickname was ‘the blade that attack the heart'. As the name implies, this man was an expert in psychological warfare. Before they even came here, they had already decided that killing Xu Ziling was not a difficult task, but capturing him alive was not an easy thing at all. Therefore, Shen Fazheng designed a variety of psychological attacks to be used as appropriate. Previously, Lian Fan, Lian Chu and Xie Yujing, three people's attempt to lure him out was his crafty scheme. Shen Faxing was able to rise to his present position, his older brother's contribution was extremely significant.
However, against everybody's expectation, Xu Ziling did not show the slightest bit of surprise, the corner of his mouth even revealed an extremely touching smile. With that kind of touching, natural expression, nobody would dare to doubt his sincerity.
The three people, who were facing him and watching his demeanor, were suddenly overwhelmed by a very strange feeling, as if they were enraptured by this young martial art master's graceful, elegant and outstanding innate beauty.