Since the disciple of the Snow Mountain Sect and the others Meng Qi had asked for help in the inn before were afraid of the Crying Elder clan's tooth for tooth revenge, they weren't willing to be involved in their trouble. Only the chivalrous Childe Gu, Gu Changqing, had a sympathy for him, and followed An Guoxie and Meng Qi to make sure they rested in the temple.
At night, carrying his sword, he quietly bypassed the small lake and got close to the temple, but he did not dare to enter it. After all, there was a great gap as it pertained to skills between An Guoxie and himself since he only achieved Two Apertures. If he rashly came to Meng Qi's aid, there would be nothing except to be killed by An Guoxie.
Besides, his aim here wasn't to save others but to nose for some information to prove the little monk's identity. When he arrived at the next oasis, he could ask several senior top martial artists to join hands to scare An Guoxie away since if fighting individually, maybe they couldn't defeat An Guoxie.
"Zoom, zoom". he climbed up a large tree near the temple, hiding in the crown of the tree and looking as far as he could at the tattered window.
He had opened his Eye Aperture, so his eyesight was outstanding. Through the hole of the broken window, he kind of saw the scene inside the temple. The little monk lay in front of the incense table, with his eyes closed seemingly in a coma and his right hand softly hanging by his side, as if seriously wounded, while the White-headed Vulture was sitting over three meters away with his legs crossed to harmonize Qi-circulation. All seemed normal.
Gu Changqing focused his mind, waiting patiently for the opportunity. As long as An Guoxie was distracted, he would throw the paper filler into the temple, making the little monk see it for their latter contact.
The lake behind him reflected the diminishing lights in the oasis, quiet and desolate.
The stench that went in Meng Qi's nose invaded his brain and made him sober-minded. When he turned his head a little, he saw his dark Red Sun Evil Blade and Ice Portal Sword wrapped with the golden scabbard quietly lying under the incense table. The blade handle faced outward, so it was easy for him to pick it up.
"The Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms is really considerate... " Meng Qi silently praised him and pretended to painfully groan as he moved a little to the incense table to come near to it and lay with his left hand under his body.
An Guoxie opened his eyes and saw the "painful creeping" Meng Qi, sneering, "You can't even tolerate such little pain, ah? Then you stand no chance against the bevy of torture at my disposal."
His tone indicated a sense of regret.
Meng Qi was aroused but he forced himself to endure "the torture". Seeing this, An Guoxie smiled and continued to harmonize Qi-circulation. His injuries were much better. Though he still needed to spend some time on them, it was not necessary for him to make a great effort to deal with them all the time.
After his Energy, Qi, Spirit and Will perfectly united together, Meng Qi adjusted himself to the best state, and then patiently waited for the opportunity.
This time, he had no choice but to defeat An Guoxie!
If he could not slaughter him, An Guoxie would beat him to death, instead.
He could not wait for "the Grieving Wind Softener" to completely come into play, because An Guoxie had opened his Nose Aperture. Therefore, he was very sensitive to mephitis. What was more, he had also opened the Nine Apertures and formed an Inner World. Thus, when an error appeared, he would notice it in no time. So Meng Qi had to act before his Grieving Wind Softener came into force and An Guoxieb was alert to the enemies outside.
Absorbed in his plan to get rid of An Guoxie, Meng Qi was very patient, though the time seemed to move slowly.
While An Guoxie was harmonizing Qi-circulation with his eyes closed, he suddenly felt it difficult to run his inner circulation. He immediately held his breath and placed his spirit to his Nose Aperture, keenly sensing varieties of odors.
An Guoxie felt much more difficult to run his inner circulation and it finally faded away. His Nose Aperture had distinguished where the problem lay. He threw a small stone hidden in his left hand to the place where the odors came with a strong wind.
At the same time, he fully operated his Violent Sand Super Force to resist the inexplicable invasion of the mephitis.
The cracking of the small stone hitting a little porcelain bottle sounded in the quiet temple.
As his left hand touched his body, Meng Qi's inner Energy, Qi, Spirit and Will suddenly broke out together. A blade light that was neither bright nor bloody mysteriously flew to An Guoxie as if it had come from Meng Qi's heart.
The back of his left hand highlighted the purple and luxuriant thunderbolt mark with the divine power of the thunder permeated out soon.
Part of An Guoxie's attention was drawn to defend the mephitis to remove its impact, and the other part was paid to the odor direction to avoid someone's diversionary tactics of saving the little bald ass.
But at the very moment, the glittering blade crazily danced in front of his eyes. What a changeable world!
The expressions in An Guoxie's eyes were full of panic, shock and disbelief. He clearly remembered to seal Meng Qi's Dantian and break his arm. How could this little bald ass still surprisingly slash me?
He was not prepared for the surprise attacks by Meng Qi at all. That was why he didn't figure out who was doing so until the bright blade approached.
"What a fool! You even can't clearly distinguish the mephitis with your Nose Aperture opened. You'd better cut your nose off!"
"You are good-for-nothing! You can't even deal with such a little trick. Do you believe I, your Ancestor will block your acupoints and feed you to the wolves?
"Useless fool, do yourself a favor and kill yourself!"
Ancestor's spitting out expletives rushed into An Guoxie's ears, and Ancestor's "Terrible Deterrence" clearly suppressed him. An Guoxie was badly trembling and muttered, "I am wrong, I am really wrong. Do forgive me, my Ancestor..."
The Ancestor was so angry that his deterrence was a lot more horrible than before. In An Guoxie's opinion, this deterrence could compare with the force of the Sky Thunder which he felt when he watched the demons cross disasters. And the force made him trembling all over. How he wished he could kneel down to say sorry to his Ancestor.
With the severe pain hitting him directly, An Guoxie came to his senses and saw a dark red burning blade with dimly flowery stripes coming towards him.
It had split into his forehead and then his cheek.
No!
At this critical moment, the pain stimulated all of An Guoxie's potential abilities to break out. With the pop-pop sounds, his bones all were collapsing.
When Meng Qi's blade just hit An Guoxie, he felt that An Guoxie became a boneless man and retreated with the wind. Therefore, he couldn't exert his strength on this soft An Guoxie.
Though An Guoxie's mid-brows and cheek were half open with blood running, he dizzily seized the opportunity to take a breath and raised his right hand to slap the Red Sun Evil Blade away.
Meng Qi did not panic but was still very calm. Because he knew if he could end a top martial artist with Nine Apertures opened by only one strike, it would really be a wonder.
He lifted his left hand and cast a black iron dart towards An Guoxie, and at the same time, he jumped on his tiptoes and smartly caught the scabbard of his Ice Palace Sword with his left hand.
An Guoxie was about to open his Buddhist Commandment Blade and had no time to take a breath when he saw a black iron dart flying towards him. On this occasion, he had to bite the tip of his tongue broken to put his Violent Sand Super Force to good use. He forced himself to uplift a breath, raised his left palm and leaned himself right side.
F*ck, wherever did he hide his concealed weapons?
"I, Your Father, had searched him from head to foot!" An Guoxie wondered
His eyes suddenly condensed and he saw the black iron dart flying near him and breaking into seven pieces. And then they rushed in seven different directions.
An Guoxie's left hand blocked one piece out of his way and his body bending right escaped another two. Still, the remaining four solidly hit him!
An Guoxie roared loudly with a layer of black gas rising from his face. The "mephitis of eliminating Kung Fu" defended by his Violent Sand Super Forceh before was out of control immediately. As a result, his inner force died away and the toxic became more and more.
"I'm not willing to retreat!" An Guoxie bellowed in his heart. Both of his palms had no force now, and his Violent Sand Super Force desperately retrograded at random.
As An Guoxie's body swelled up with a rush, the mephitis and toxin were excluded out together with the dart also falling down on the ground.
Just then, his pupils reflected the figure of Meng Qi, whose gray frock was dirty and worn. But his face was pretty and dignified. He held a sword in his left hand and struck a pose of sending an invitation.
Next, a pure concentrated sword light glittered with heavily dead atmosphere. The sword straight advanced and swept away all obstacles to An Guoxie's face.
He could wield a sword as well...
Where did he get a sword...
Faced with three consecutive attacks from Meng Qi, An Guoxie's tricks were all played, out of breath. What he could do was force his head to contract as if to hide it in his stomach.
After his "Peace Quietude Split" and under the condition of not having the Sacrifice Formula, Meng Qi did not collapse though he also did not have the strength to give An Gouxie another split. He still could present other bladesmanships and his Yama's Invitation.
He put his heart and soul into his sword, and only thought that either An Guoxie or he himself must die!
Meng Qi was severe and overwhelming with his murderous sword. He had exactly cut through An Guoxie's mid-brows just a second before An Gouxie softened all his bones to shrink his head downward.
Now, An Guoxie wore a kind of odd complex look on his face—something like crying or simpering, and something as unbelievable or angry and unwilling. He slightly opened his mouth as if to say something, but only made some ho-ho sounds.
His mid-brows were nailed by a translucent sword with a trace of blood spilling.
Defeated... And it was a little bald ass just reaching Enlightenment who defeated me...
How could this be... How could all his injuries be healed? How could his Kung Fu develop so fast?... And where and how could he acquire a blade, a sword and concealed weapons?...
Even if so, as long as I can have time to take a short rest, I could destroy him...
I am reluctant to die!
With the fall flopping on the ground, he lay face up, his eyes wide open with a bright red and white Ice Palace Sword in his mid-brows. He rolled in his grave forever.
The dead: An Guoxie
Identity: the Crying Elder's grand-disciple; White-headed Vulture; with Nine Apertures opened; ranked among the 36th on the Ranking List of Young Masters.
Cause of death: mid-brows penetrated by sword and virulent attack.
Dead state: softened bones; darkened skin; cut scars on the face; with concealed weapons.
Killer: Shaolin Zhen Ding.
Seeing An Guoxie falling on the ground, Meng Qi dared not ease up. After he had stretched out his Red Sun Evil Blade in his right hand and split his head away from his body, Meng Qi sighed in relief.
At long last, I slaughtered him!
Finally, I am the survivor!
If I had used the Yama's Invitation with a second hesitation, An Guoxie would have shortened his neck and avoided my crucial strike, and then I had to start my Sacrifice Formula and run my Mortal Dust Fall to give him the last blow. By then even if I could put the unprepared An Guoxie to death, I, quite worn out, would have a hard time after this. It is likely that any horse bandit can kill me. After all, it is the second time that I have started my Sacrifice Formula, and the countercharge would've been more severe.
Staring at An Guoxie's face which meant dying with everlasting regret, Meng Qi suddenly thought of the torture he had experienced before and guffawed, "You said you would break my other arm or legs and exert all kinds of excruciations on me, didn't you? Why lie here silently now? "
Meng Qi snorted, "I am so kind-hearted that I won't torment your dead body."
Meng Qi was pleased with himself for quite a while. "No matter how unexpected it was and whether An Guoxie's strength was 50% or 60% then, with the strength of Four Apertures, he beheaded a Nine Apertured Master, which was not only a proud record but also a big surprise."
Moreover, this means that both my bladesmanship and my Inner Qi Force have already reached the level of the top martial arts.
"Since I executed An Guoxie ranked 36th on the Ranking List of Young Masters. Will I replace him on the list? But it is inappropriate because my real strength can't enter the Ranking List of Young Masters. If it had not been out of An Guoxie's expectation, I would have lose another hundred times." Meng Qi was often a divergent thinking lad. It was quite baffling that he thought of the problem with the Ranking List of Young Masters. And he hoped that his name was on the list but he was a little worried about it, because the high rank was worth much more strength than his. That meant he could not handle the challengers arriving in quick succession in the future.
"Well, I'd better not first consider the uncertain thing and it is wise for me to bury An Guoxie's corpse and obliterate all his traces or mislead others by his dead body. In the Immensity Sea, there are a lot of horse bandits, one out of three of whom obey the orders of Ze Luoju who belongs to the Crying Elder's clan. If I was found to wipe An Guoxie out, it is likely that I would be circled by horse bandits before I came out of the oasis." Thinking of this, Meng Qi held his varieties of ideas back and made a decision.
So he vigorously lifted his sword to destroy An Guoxie's wounds, saving others' recognition of his unique skills.
Watching An Guoxie's big opened eyes, Meng Qi abruptly laughed and said to his corpse, "Can I say I have given you an immediate revenge?"