It was the barely audible sound of secret projectile splitting the air.
In that instant, Kou Zhong had to make a decision; he could only deal with either the attack from behind the door he was about to break through, or with the secret projectile threatening his back. If he evaded the projectiles, these four spears would arrive, and most probably he would lose the only chance of escaping by means of the seventh fishing line.
This moment, not only he had forgotten about his desire to contend for the world, he even forgot his own survival. His only thought was that even if he was struck by the secret projectile and died, before his death he could still cut a bloody path out of a battlefield, so that his good brother would have a path to escape alive.
Letting out a wild roar, Kou Zhong brandished the long saber in his hand to create hundreds and thousands of sharp rays, the saber and the person had fused into one entity, with a sudden increase in speed he shot like an arrow toward the four spear-wielders, who by this time were almost climbing over the steps leading into the hall.
Meanwhile Xu Ziling rolled behind Kou Zhong's back. From his angle of view, he saw the ‘Amorous Nun' Chang Zhen, while bouncing back into the air, while she was still high in the air, was shooting a handful of fine needles the size of cow's hair, which, like a swarm of angry bees, were flying toward the back of Kou Zhong's head.
By this time, the thirteen men who were originally sitting around the table, were also charging toward them and were already less than a zhang away from where he and Kou Zhong were. If he delayed even for an instant, the two of them would immediately be engaged in a hard battle.
Their situation was deteriorating rapidly, and it was about to get worse.
From the windows to their left and right more people were charging in; if they stayed in the hall, they would definitely die without any chance of survival.
This was definitely a carefully laid out trap. The enemy seemed to know their plan like the back of their hands. First they were posing as all kinds of brothel visitors, and went to the other courtyard next to the Chun Yuan. Therefore, although the two boys did not see any ambush around Chun Yuan, there were actually hidden troops everywhere, which, in the end, gave rise to the current situation, where the boys were heavily surrounded.
Xu Ziling sprang up, his palms made a circle in the air as if he was holding a ball, like magic the fine cow's hair needles Chang Zhen shot were caught inside the qi generated by his palms, and then making another circle the needles were whirled out violently.
The cow's hair needles became a rain of sparkling dots, completely shrouding the twelve men charging at the two boys.
Amidst the miserable scream, the men scrambled away in panic. In the flurry five men were hit by the needles.
Xu Ziling himself did not know since when he became this formidable, and this moment he had no time to think. He swiftly backed off until his back was nearly touching Kou Zhong's back, who by this time was starting to fight his way out the door. Lightning fast Xu Ziling's left and right hands reached out to snatch a saber and a sword, which were threatening Kou Zhong's back. Exerting his internal strength, he sent the two attackers flying backwards while spurting blood from their mouths. And then with a backhand swing, he sent the saber and swords in his hands out, each weapon lodged itself into the incoming enemy's chest.
Finally the two boys reached the yard in front of Chun Yuan's main gate. The distance to the seventh fishing line was only about thirteen zhang away.
But it felt like a journey through ten thousand crags and torrents.
From the main gate the enemy flocked out, blocking the two boys' retreat path.
Under the dancing flame of the countless torches, they saw all around them were hundreds of enemies. They were trapped inside layer upon layer of heavy siege. Even to make one step progress they had to exert ‘moving mountain and draining sea' kind of effort.
With every single chop of his saber Kou Zhong exerted enough power that as his saber was drawing a sharp rainbow, either the enemy blocking his saber was thrown back, or the enemy was shaken and was forced to retreat.
Suddenly a spear and a saber attacked together from left and right, both were full of power; obviously these two attackers were outstanding martial art experts among the enemy's ranks.
Not only Kou Zhong already forgot about life and death, his mind was as calm as the moon in the water, which could reflect clearly every trace of change in this battlefield.
He quickly figured out that it was impossible for him to block these two different weapons coming from two different angles of attack before the weapons made contact with his body.
In normal times, he would be able to deal with the attacks by changing his position. But under the circumstances, even moving one step would entail withstanding very heavy pressure from the siege, plus if he evaded, Xu Ziling behind him was bound to suffer a calamity.
With an angry snort his long saber slashed diagonally down, faster than lightning, to pare the enemy's saber. His right shoulder also exerted powerful force, it shrank and immediately pushed out. ‘Qiang!' the saber-wielding enemy splashed blood and tumbled backward. At the same time blood also spattered from Kou Zhong's right shoulder.
The enemy's spear slipped off his shoulder, but when he wanted to follow-up with another thrust, Kou Zhong's shoulder continued on to crash against him that he was thrown back with blood spurting out of his mouth.
The enemy's ranks were immediately thrown into confusion. Wasting no time at all, Kou Zhong's saber and body moved as one, he swiftly charged forward.
Xu Ziling took all attacks behind Kou Zhong, so that Kou Zhong did not need to worry about any trouble in the rear.
The most formidable benefit was that whenever they were shaken by enemy that their qi and blood were churning, or perhaps they were out of strength at the end of a move, as long as Xu Ziling bumped his back against Kou Zhong's, the two boys' qi would complement each other, so that they were able to maintain their power throughout the battle.
Xu Ziling concentrated his true qi on his four limbs. With each clash of his limbs with the enemy's weapon, he transmitted his power via the weapon, shaking the enemy that they were thrown back with depleted strength and fell to the ground.
This moment two spears attacked together from left and right, carrying with it a tornado-like wind, so that their breathing was somewhat restricted. Apparently the attackers were not ordinary warriors.
Xu Ziling stayed calm without the slightest sign of fear. Ignoring the many wounds on his body, his left hand swept backward, his right hand slapped straight on, meeting the opponent's tidal-wave like surging spear rays; his technique was exquisite beyond imagination.
‘Pow!'
His right hand met the tip of the spear. The spear wielder staggered to the left and bumped into another spear wielder.
Xu Ziling had already snatched the man's spear and thrust it to the man's lower abdomen.
By the time the two men screamed miserably and fell to the ground, with the spear in his hand Xu Ziling walked backward behind Kou Zhong, creating millions of spear shadows, forcing the enemies to stagger, exposing a large area of empty space.
The seventh fishing line was still ten zhang away.
‘Dang!'
A crisp sound shook everybody present. At the same time, Xu Ziling felt Kou Zhong was slamming onto his back, and his internal energy penetrating Xu Ziling's body.
Like a tidal wave the enemies surrounding them retreated. ‘On behalf' of Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling used his internal energy to neutralize the enemy's qi entering their bodies. And then turning around, he used the spear in his hand to attack the enemy who forced Kou Zhong back.
‘Dang!'
The enemy used his staff to sweep at the spear, parrying Xu Ziling's attack. The staff's momentum continued exerting heavy pressure on Xu Ziling, forcing both sides to take half a step back.
Both men were shocked. Surprisingly, the terrifying enemy did not seize this opportunity to press on; he withdrew three steps back instead, and then stood up holding his staff horizontally across his chest. Turned out it was a tall, ferocious bald monk wearing red Buddhist robe, with steel hoop around his forehead.
The ‘Evil Monk' Fa Nan.
With him guarding the escape route, there was no way Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling would be able to reach the seventh fishing line.
Meanwhile more than a dozen layers of enemies already surrounded them. They had become the bird in a cage, the fish in the net, completely without any way out.
A cold snort followed by tender laughter came from behind.
And extremely seductive female's voice said, "Fa Nan Bro [orig. ge er - brothers/boys, very informal]! You are glaring like a tiger watching his prey as if you want to swallow these two boys whole, how can they turn their heads around to admire nujia?”
Fa Nan's huge eyes twinkled with laughter. He raised his heavy iron staff and put it on his shoulder. From one side he walked around to the other side, keeping his eyes on Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, sizing them up.
The two boys also slowly turned around, following Fa Nan with their eyes, there was no time to admire the ‘Amorous Nun', until finally they came face to face with the one whose prestige shook the southern part of the country, whose reputation was second only to the ‘Heavenly Saber' Song Que, who was equally famous with Lin Shihong, the ‘Green Dragon' Ren Shaoming, the target of their assassination mission.