Book 8 Chapter 3 - Turning Defeat Into Victory
It did not matter how many people were standing by Ren Shaoming's side, he would be easily recognized at a glance.
This was not only because of the baring-its-fangs-and-brandishing-its-claws green dragon about half a hand palm size tattoo on his forehead, but because of his very particular shape and sharp and harsh expression.
Ren Shaoming's skin was shiny like burnished bronze, his entire body looked as if it was made of cast metal. His height exceeded Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong. Wearing black tight warrior outfit with white cloak, the contrast was quite intense, giving out the impression that he was extraordinarily powerful.
His wide face was covered with pockmarks, his eye sockets were deep, his eyebrows were prominent on the ridge of his skull above his eyes, dark and thick like two strokes of dense ink. His long and narrow eyes were flashing with sharp cruelty that incited fear and hatred in the hearts of other people as he coldly stared at Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong.
His bigger-than-average hands were hanging loosely on either side, each hand was carrying a meteor hammer forged of hardened steel, about as big as a human skull.
Standing on his left was the ‘Amorous Nun' Chang Zhen, whose gaudiness radiated all around; on his right was a tall and slim scholar; with his tapered face and the moustache above his lips, he looked a bit like a goat. But his eyes were bright and cool.
By the time the Evil Monk came to Chang Zhen's side, the tall and slim scholar spoke up with a laugh, "Zaixia Cui Jixiu. It's nice to see Xu Xiong, Kou Xiong.”
Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong exchanged glances, both felt fear in their hearts.
This Cui Jixiu was the number one strategic adviser under Lin Shihong's command, he was bestowed the title Guoshi [teacher/master of the state] by Lin Shihong, the new Emperor of Chu. He was widely known as a top strategist of the present age. It was very likely that the trap tonight was planned by his brilliant mind.
Sure enough, Cui Jixiu laughed and said, "It is said that new-born calf has no fear of the tiger; therefore, while everybody else thought that two gentlemen had sounded out the difficulties and retreated to avoid defeat, Zaixia was quite sure that the two gentlemen would move the troops into danger. By lucky coincidence Zaixia's guess is correct.”
The ‘Amorous Nun' Chang Zhen let out a silvery bell tender laughter, her beautiful eyes were rippling with bright light as she swept her gaze over the two boys several times before saying, "Two brothers' skill is out of the ordinary; if you are willing to switch your allegiance to Huizhu [society master/leader, similar to Bangzhu for gang leader], Huizhu can't possibly treat two gentlemen with meager hospitality.”
Ren Shaoming let out a cold snort before speaking unhurriedly, "If you want to switch your allegiance, you must do so in good faith. You don't need me to teach you how to do it!”
Kou Zhong said, "Is it possible for us, two brothers, to discuss it first?”
Ren Shaoming nodded, "As you wish!” he said.
Wrapping his arm around Xu Ziling's shoulder, Kou Zhong put his lips next to Xu Ziling's ear and said softly, "If we don't surrender this time, we'll lose our lives for sure.”
While his mouth said so, his hand lightly squeezed Xu Ziling's shoulder, indicating that he was lying.
Noticing Ren Shaoming was watching them with rapt attention, Xu Ziling caught on. At the same time, he felt Kou Zhong was writing ‘fight' and ‘fishing line', three characters on his shoulder. He whispered hurriedly, "Unless he can personally defeat us, how can we surrender without any fight?”
Kou Zhong nodded. Stepping away from Xu Ziling, he laughed aloud and said, "If Huizhu wants us to surrender to you, you must defeat us first, and then we, two brothers, will immediately present the ‘Duke Yang Treasure' as our meeting gift.”
Unexpectedly the several hundred people in there grew quiet, only the crackling noise of the torches was heard.
A faint smile of disdain appeared on the corners to Ren Shaoming's mouth. He looked like he was about to respond when Cui Jixiu spoke up, "What if Huizhu defeats you separately? Will that count?”
Kou Zhong really wished he could punch this man's face a couple times. Pretending to be proud but astounded he said, "We, the two kids, are only lowly juniors of younger generation, plus right now we are already injured and are weary. If we are fighting one-on-one against Huizhu, won't we show too much disrespect to him, the Senior?”
The ‘Evil Monk' Fa Nan raised the gigantic a zhang and a half long staff in his hand a little bit, and then he stomped heavily it against the floor. Not only it created a loud dull thud, it also seemed to make the earth shook. He laughed wildly and said, "Just let Pinseng [impoverished monk, a humble term used by Buddhist monk of himself] serve two brothers then! Why must we inconvenience Huizhu?”
Xu Ziling said indifferently, "If Dashi [great master, a term of respect to address a Buddhist monk] loses, will that be the same as if Huizhu himself loses?”
Fa Nan was taken aback. The ominous glint in his eyes reappeared.
Ren Shaoming let out a cold snort again and said, "If I don't fight personally, it will be difficult to make the two of you submit wholeheartedly. Come!” Finished speaking he took a large stride forward.
As soon as he took the first step, immediately suffocating killing aura filled the air. With his second step, a burst of unmatched powerful aura assaulted Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling. If they were ordinary fighters, they would have been shivering in fear early on, abandoning everything and run for their lives.
It was only this moment that Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling had firsthand experience of the prowess of this overlord of the black way [i.e. criminal world] whose name has been shaking the southern sky.
Involuntarily the Tieqi Hui men who were surrounding Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling took a few steps back, opening up an even larger ring for this decisive battle.
Kou and Xu, two boys fully realized that this man's character was fierce and fiery, hence by the time he took the third step, he would immediately launch a violent offensive. Therefore, pretending that they were intimidated by his powerful aura, they retreated backward. One saber and one spear flashed as they struck a pose, ready to fight.
Naturally the people behind them did not know that the two boys were only about seven zhang away from the fishing line traversing the air above them; afraid that they would bring disaster to the fish in the pond [must be an idiom, but I think the meaning is clear], they backed off even more, opening up three more zhang of space behind the two boys.
Just by moving four more zhang, they would be right below the fishing line.
Right now the two boys were only thinking of slipping away unharmed.
As time passed, Ren Shaoming's imposing manner suddenly soared. With a flick of his wrists, two meteor hammers suddenly turned into millions flickering red dots as they reflected the torches flames, just like swarming bees and dancing butterflies, stunning everyone present.
It was only after looking at Ren Shaoming's skill did Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling finally understand why Song Yuzhi said that they did not know the immensity of heaven and earth. They had never imagined that someone would be able to handle the heavy meteor hammers and made them dance in perfection.
The astonishing pressure did not come only from the direction of Ren Shaoming in front of them, rather, it appeared to come from four sides, eight directions.
The more shocking thing was that Ren Shaoming was able to utilize the reflection of the flame so that he appeared to be vanishing, hiding somewhere in the flickering lights.
The two boys were unable to either advance or retreat; forget about any essence of the Yijian Technique of transcending the chess game board. Furthermore, after the hard battle they had just gone through, they could not even use half of their normal strength.
Suddenly a ball of flashing shadow, carrying with it a strong, severe gust of wind, smashed toward Kou Zhong's left shoulder.
Kou Zhong realized the incoming attack just in time. With a loud shout he raised his saber to block.
A loud ‘dang!' resounded. Kou Zhong staggered sideways toward Xu Ziling.
The flashing shadow scattered, like a ghost Ren Shaoming suddenly appeared. Like flashing thunder the two meteor hammers in his left and right hands pursued Kou Zhong, who by this time was unable to retreat farther.
A violent stream of qi exploded, forcing the several-zhang away spectators to back off even farther away. The miserable plight of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling who bore the full brunt of this explosion need not be mentioned.
Ren Shaoming did not spare any strength, relying on his powerful true qi, he relentlessly pressured the two boys that they were unable to move a single step; employing a blitzkrieg strategy, he wanted to finish these two boys in the shortest time possible, and thus showing off his prowess in front of his subordinates. To his shock however, even after fighting with everything they had, the two boys were still able to fight tenaciously.
And now that he saw Kou Zhong was losing steam, how could he miss this opportunity? Immediately, with the power of a ten-thousand-jun thunder, he was ready to subdue the two boys in one fell swoop.
At first glance, it appeared that his double-hammer chain attack was going to strike the two boys dead. But actually he had hidden softness in the middle of hard, so that he could seal the opponent's acupoints.
Kou Zhong slammed hard onto Xu Ziling. Contrary to everybody's expectation, Ren Shaoming's included, the latter's tiger body suddenly went stiff, so that Kou Zhong's body recoiled and shot toward Ren Shaoming's double hammers.
While Ren Shaoming was greatly stunned, Kou Zhong, taking advantage of Xu Ziling's true qi replenishing his own, so that not only his qi and blood recovered and was able to flow unimpeded, also taking advantage of Ren Shaoming's slight gap due to his shock, brandished his saber and hacked down on the gap, so fast that nobody was able to see clearly.
Ren Shaoming quickly retreated half a step back. Letting out a muffled grunt, his left and right meteor hammers recoiled, and with unbelievable precision clamped down on the blade of Kou Zhong's saber. His reaction was shockingly fast that everybody gasped in amazement.
‘Crack!'
The long saber snapped into two. Holding the broken saber in his hand, Kou Zhong fell back in shock.
The meteor hammers turned into flashes of shadow filling the air, hiding the sky and covering the earth, they continued to enshroud him.
While Kou Zhong was crying out for his Niang in his heart, Xu Ziling's spear suddenly slipped through his flank and shot straight toward the center of the flashing shadows.
The flashing shadows dispersed.
Even with Ren Shaoming's ability, he was still forced to take two steps back by this strange move, which broke his toppling-the-mountains-and-overturning-the-seas attack.
‘Dang!'
The right hand meteor hammer clashed with the spearhead and was jolted sideways, while the spearhead was also jolted away by the impact.