Xu Ziling shouted loudly, "Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling are here. Whoever wants to get the head above our neck may come here to make your move; otherwise, please get out of here, so that we, brothers, won't accidentally hurt bystanders.”
With the crashing sound of the table as it broke into pieces, three persons involved, including Xu Ziling himself, jumped in fright.
Xu Ziling was so shocked because he only wanted to slap the table to vent out the resentment in his heart. Because by doing what she did, not only Shan Wanjing put them in a dangerous spot, the most insufferable thing was that she seemed to wreck their entire assassination plot, while the two boys obviously could not do anything to her to teach her a lesson. Who would have thought that his palm was so formidable that such a hard Chinese cedar wood table would disintegrate into pieces?
Kou Zhong was so shocked, first of all because Xu Ziling's palm strength seemed to increase all of a sudden, secondly, because he had never seen Xu Ziling that angry. Momentarily he threw all kinds of problem arising from the revealing of their identity to the back of his mind; inwardly he was comparing Xu Ziling to Du Fuwei, who shattered a rosewood table with his palm power the other day.
Dongming Princess Shan Wanjing's tender heart was severely shaken; other than she had never thought Xu Ziling's skill has reached such state, she was deeply shocked by Xu Ziling's display of power and his unfriendliness. Besides, having provoked Xu Ziling so that his reaction was that intense, she could not help feeling a bit of regret.
Momentarily the three of them were staring blankly at the wood fragments on the floor. Xu Ziling and Shan Wanjing were still sitting on their chairs, separated by the debris. It was an extremely strange scene.
Most people remaining in the hall were Wulin characters who came from various part of the country. At first some of them were itching to get their hands to capture or kill these two boys, but after Xu Ziling's display of earth-shattering skill, they instantly grew quiet out of fear. One after another those sitting in several tables in the three people's vicinity started to move away in fear.
Kou Zhong was the first one to regain his wits. Pointing to Shan Wanjing, he laughed aloud and said, "Gentlemen! This is a woman who dresses as a man, the Dongming Princess Shan Wanjing. This time she came to Jiujiang to assassinate the ‘Green Dragon' Ren Shaoming.”
Shan Wanjing was furious; pointing her halberd-like finger she said, "What nonsense are you talking about?”
Kou Zhong winked at her and said in low voice, "You can talk nonsense, we can also talk nonsense; it's only fair. Ha! If we don't drag you down to suffer inconvenience together with us, we are idiots!”
When the people in the hall heard the sentence ‘assassinate Ren Shaoming', not a single one of them had his countenance unchanged. Timid merchants and maids and servants were the first to scramble out to escape, followed by the Jianghu people. Nobody knew what would happen next, but either way, nobody wanted to be implicated.
After quite a while, the noisy ‘chicken flew dogs ran away' hall became ‘people left the hall empty'.
Except for one person, who was sitting on the table near the door.
This person's build was as majestic as the mountain, his countenance handsome and grand, he wore a blue-green powerful-looking outer cloak; there was an unspeakable terrifying charm aura around him. It was none other than the young Tujue martial art who recently caused sensation in the Wulin world, Ba Fenghan.
It suddenly dawned on Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling that the other day Fu Junyu and Ba Fenghan were talking about meeting Shan Wanjing, turned out the meeting place was this ups and downs city of Jiujiang.
Ba Fenghan rose up to his full height, laughed aloud, and said, "We are separated for only three days, I already have a whole new level of respect for you; I have never thought Xu Xiong's palm power could be this terrifying. Tonight I am brought by fate to meet with two Xiongtai, the Ol' Ba is indeed very happy.”
‘Qiang!' Kou Zhong pulled the fine-steel saber Yun Yuzhen gave him and pointed the blade toward Ba Fenghan. Heroically and loftily he said, "Mutual desire to meet is better than chance encounter, even more importantly, Ba Xiong is in such a good spirit. Let us, two brothers, send you off on your journey first!”
A strange expression flashed through Shan Wanjing's eyes. With her tender voice she scolded, "Little thief Kou, you think I am nonexistent? Deal with me first and then you can do whatever you want.”
Ba Fenghan's murderous intention was greatly aroused, but his face was still wearing a smile. He spoke indifferently, "Right now Wanjing is not the only one who wants to kill you, even Ol' Ba can't stop my hands from itching. How about Wanjing let Xiaodi beat the ‘head of the [troops] formation'?”
Xu Ziling rose up suddenly. "Princess' business, we will deal with it in a moment,” he said coldly, "But Ba Xiong is just pushing us too far …”
Shan Wanjing sneered and said, "He is pushing you too far, but you take advantage of superior number to gang up with him, one person. What kind of hero is that?”
Kou Zhong groaned inwardly. The only way they could deal with Ba Fenghan was precisely by joining hands. If Shan Wanjing insisted on interfering, not to mention she was herself a first-class martial art master, in dealing with her, they must not harm her or kill her; this was the most annoying thing and would definitely assure their defeat.
Completely calm, Xu Ziling spoke indifferently, "If that's the case, let me and Ba Xiong have a one-on-one combat, let's see who is taking advantage of whom.”
Shan Wanjing was completely helpless to conceal the slight change in her jade countenance. "Do you want to die?” she said angrily.
Since his beautiful dream of assassinating Ren Shaoming was shattered by her, Kou Zhong has been dying to lie her down on his knees and spank her bottom really good. Given this golden opportunity, he pretended to be surprised, "Isn't that what Princess has in your mind all along?” he asked.
And then, turning to Xu Ziling he said, "Xiao Ling! Didn't I tell you that although on the surface Princess hates you, her heart has always been leaning toward you? Ah!”
‘Qiang!'
Shan Wanjing's sword left its sheathe, bypassed Xu Ziling, and turned into dots of cold rays shooting toward Kou Zhong in raging temper.
Seeing her outstandingly exquisite swordsmanship, and her extremely swift and fierce move, Kou Zhong did not dare to be negligence at all; he withdrew abruptly.
Shan Wanjing rounded behind Xu Ziling, forcing Kou Zhong to withdraw to the other side of the hall. She scolded, "Little thief Xu, since you don't know the immensity of heaven and earth, then go to hell for this Princess!”
‘Qiang!'
Ba Fenghan suddenly drew his sword. Immediately a burst of powerful, without equal, sword qi shot toward Xu Ziling, who was standing about two zhang away, enveloping him completely in the sword qi, so that even if the opponent wanted to shrink back, it would be impossible to do so.
However, Xu Ziling's mind was as clear as the moon in the well; there was no anxiety over victory or defeat, there was no distracting thoughts whatsoever. Raising the true qi inside his body to its extreme, he withstood Ba Fenghan's astonishing power.
Two young martial art masters, finally brought together into a life and death situation.
Shan Wanjing bit her lip and tightly clenched her silvery teeth; with great difficulty she resisted the urge to look back. Her only hope was that this matter would be over soon, and henceforth she would try her best to forget it all.
Even she herself did not understand what kind of place Xu Ziling held in her tender heart.
On the other hand, Kou Zhong's mind was churning at the speed of light. He was trying to find a way to take advantage of the long whip around his waist, to gain control over Shan Wanjing in one move, and then together with Xu Ziling, they would have a chance to get rid of Ba Fenghan, this formidable opponent.
Ba Fenghan's mind was focused on Xu Ziling; without the slightest bit of hesitation the sword in his hand unceasingly sending out sword qi, no hole left unpenetrated as he tried to look for Xu Ziling's weak point.
Nonetheless, under this intense pressure, the opponent was still standing as stable as the mountain, who automatically exuding ‘swallowing-river-and-high-mountain'-kind of qi, with the imposing manner that no gap can be penetrated. Unexpectedly Ba Fenghan did not dare to act recklessly.
While he did not dare to make his move, Kou Zhong did not dare even more. Momentarily four people fought separately in two groups.
All of a sudden there was the sound of gushing wind from all directions, a clear sign that a large number of martial art masters was rushing over to this place.
Ba Fenghan was about to take advantage of this window of opportunity to go all-out and take Xu Ziling's little life, but in a strange turn of events Shan Wanjing abandoned Kou Zhong and rushed over to Ba Fenghan, while shouting tenderly, "We have to go!”
Kou Zhong was greatly delighted; he rushed over to Xu Ziling and called out loudly, "We must also leave!”
Ba Fenghan grudgingly withdrew his qi. Since he had the initiative, he was able to send and retract his qi at will.
Shadows of people flashed through the windows and doors, martial art masters from Tieqi Hui have arrived.
The four people, in two separate groups, soared to the air and broke through the roof, and landed on the roof tile outside. They saw torches everywhere, with countless people surrounding the area.
Kou Zhong laughed heartily and said, "Princess and your Ba boyfriend, I'm sure we will meet again someday.”
Winking to Xu Ziling, he traversed the air. The two boys, one after another, flew toward the rear courtyard.
They knew Chun Zai Lou situation like the back of their palm, naturally they were able to escape quite easily.
On the other side, Ba Fenghan and Shan Wanjing knew that if they did not seize the opportunity to escape while the enemy has not yet in position, while their besieging formation was still incomplete, they would have to fight with all their might and might end up dead.
Not daring to be negligent, they ran to the opposite direction and killed their way out, and escaped to the wilderness.
Sound of clashing weapons was ringing continuously, followed by the clamor of people pursuing vigorously. But the noise gradually went far away.