Book 48 Chapter 9 – Ruthless, Unfeeling Hands

Kou Zhong had a big headache, not because he was helpless to deal with the great success of the Tianmo Gong. Admittedly, the formidability of the offensive was greatly beyond his expectation, but he was a man who would grow stronger when he was facing strong opponent, he could not possibly be intimidated and shrink back in fear. The problem that gave him headache was that he did not want to kill Wanwan.

Kou Zhong relied on the Art of War entering the saber technique, and what is the Art of War? It’s precisely the method of striving for victory by fair means or foul in the cruel and unfeeling battlefield, of committing all manner of crimes to put the enemy to death by all means. This was precisely the pure and concise essence and the spirit of the ‘Eight Methods of the Well’; therefore, some of the moves basically cannot be used by Xu Ziling. Only when he wholeheartedly wanted to kill, just like the situation where he was facing Shen Mohuan and Funantuo, his ‘Eight Methods of the Well’ would display its pinnacle of the realm to the fullest. The Art of War was the saber technique, the saber technique was the Art of War. How could there be any place for ‘benevolence’ on the battlefield? But now he felt ‘benevolence’ toward Wanwan in his heart, which was really a big taboo to his saber technique. [Note: the Art of War and saber method/technique, ‘bing fa’ (lit. method to use soldiers) and ‘dao fa’.]

‘Pow!

Qi power flowed across to each other.

Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well was blocked squarely by the intersecting sleeves first, forcefully shaking him that he took three steps back. The latter laughed tenderly and said, “If Shaoshuai’s Eight Methods of the Well is just like this kind of three-legged cat trick, next year tonight will be the anniversary of Shaoshuai’s death.”

Her voice had not dissipated, the sleeves’ shadow exploded in the air, it was difficult to tell which one was real, which one was an illusion. Like howling wind and torrential rain it splashed onto Kou Zhong; each move was indeed a killer move, acting like she would not stop before she took Kou Zhong’s life.

Kou Zhong was still unable to raise the thought of killing her. Her ‘Tianmo Piao’ [I think it should be ‘piao dai’ (floating ribbon)] was indeed formidable, but her ‘Tianmo Lichang’ [force field] was even more formidable. If previously Zhu Yuyan’s ‘force field’ was dead, then Wanwan’s ‘force field’ was definitely alive, with myriad of irregular changes, which could be compared to rolling gale, or could be imagined like an angry wave surging up violently, or like a formless net covering the heaven and capsizing the earth, so that you would be overwhelmed with powerless feeling of being unable to get away from it.

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “After killing me, tooting your horn will not be too late!”

Applying his power to brandish his saber, unexpectedly he launched the Sweeping a Thousand Armies [total annihilation] in a straightforward manner, as if he could not see the sleeve shadow filling the sky, coming directly to attack him head-on.

The heroic scenery of the field outside Cijian, where he battled Li Shimin’s main forces, where dead bodies were lying down on the wilderness everywhere, where blood was flowing like a river – welled up in Kou Zhong’s heart. In the fight within magnificent army with thousands of men and horses, you would not be able to see clearly how many arrows, darts, huge axes, sabers and swords, spears and lances were greeting your body. You could only purely rely on the ‘heart’s intention’ to intuitively react and charge and break through the enemy lines. There was no opportunity to show off fancy move at all, you could only hope that each style would achieve the effectiveness of subduing the enemy, either kill or be killed.

His mind was fully focused on brandishing the saber to sweep across, this one simple movement. The spiraling energy shot out, immediately it generated desperate, solemn and stirring momentum that could only occur on the battlefield. The vortex of qi power followed his saber momentum, it surged violently to four sides, eight directions, finally it made his entire body lighter, he forcefully broke free from the entanglement and the pressure of the Tianmo force field.

Kou Zhong was like a bird breaking free from the cage, recovering his freedom. From sweeping across, the Moon in the Well changed to straight thrust; it turned into a yellow light piercing straight into the sleeve shadows filling the sky.

‘Bang!’

The saber and the sleeve collided, both combatants drew back at the same time.

The Tianmo force field entangled him tightly again, but this time he was not caught in absolute passive situation anymore, rather, he was able to feel the state of the force field Wanwan was releasing, the strong point, the weak point, even the changes and the directions of the increasing power and the decreasing strength.

Wanwan’s pair of snow white, slender jade hands stretched out from inside her sleeves, the hollow of her palms were aimed at him from a distance, her expression cold and detached but calm; she spoke softly, “Only my Tianmo Dafa has a chance to entangle Shi Zhixuan and lock him firmly, and then you and Ziling could have a free hand in attack, without giving him any opportunity to take a breather. Therefore, only by full cooperation will we have the chance to break Shi Zhixuan’s Bu Si Yin Fa. There is simply no other way.”

Kou Zhong pointed his saber blade at her from a distance, saber qi burst forth to oppose the entire qi field head-on, while locking it tightly, striving to gain a bit of initiative back. “Didn’t you want to kill me?” he asked in astonishment.

A hint of smile escaped from the corner of Wanwan’s mouth, she said, “How could I be willing to kill you? You and Ziling are men with whom Wanwan will not hesitate to lie down together, but if I did not say that, how could I let you experience the Tianmo Da Fa’s formidable power? I wonder if Shaoshuai is willing to change your mind?”

Kou Zhong felt he was put in a greatly difficult situation. The main reason he refused to work together with Wanwan was because he did not want to provoke Shang Xiuxun’s misunderstanding, but now that he has personally experienced Wanwan’s formidability, he knew that her Tianmo field was indeed the effective magic weapon to deal with Shi Zhixuan, so that their chance to kill Shi Zhixuan was greatly increased.

Giving thought to the general situation, he ought to accept Wanwan’s ‘good intention’. Sighing, he said, “I wonder if you could wait for me and Ziling to discuss this matter before I can answer Dajie’s question?”

Wanwan replied indifferently, “Ziling already promised me! I lack only you, this idiot who loves to show off your heroism. Time is limited, the sooner we deal with Shi Zhixuan, the better our chance is to break his Bu Si Yin Fa. I am giving you one more day. By noon tomorrow, you must give me a definite answer.”

Finished speaking, she floated away like a ghost.

The drizzle finally stopped falling. The moon and the stars reappeared in the sky.

※ ※ ※

By the time Xu Ziling entered the main gate of the courtyard residence, Shi Zhixuan already started his killing action. Using his shoulder, he smashed open the front hall’s main door and flashed into the hall. While Xu Ziling was shocked inwardly, he heard the sound of intense fighting, the shouts and the whistling qi power – from inside the hall. Obviously the people in the residence were already alerted, they rushed out from the inner section into the front hall to intercept and fight back.

Recalling You Niaojuan’s bitter experience, Xu Ziling cried, ‘Bad!’ inwardly. Shi Zhixuan’s Bu Si Yin Fa practically made him unafraid of the enemy’s assault, hence he was able to use danger to fight danger, to take the enemy’s life in face-to-face meeting. If Duan Yucheng was inside the hall, even if he wanted to block, he would already be one step too late.

Not daring to slow down, Xu Ziling rushed up the steps, through the door and into the room, entering the vast dark hall. The fighting had just ended, he caught sight of Shi Zhixuan’s back as he disappeared into the darkness outside the main hall’s back door.

Sweeping his gaze around, Xu Ziling saw dead bodies, two male and one female, lying on the floor, all died from just one strike, he could not see any bruises on the surface, so he was sure that Shi Zhixuan used a ruthless, overbearing technique to shock and shatter their internal organs, so that even if Da Luo Jin Xian graced them with his presence, he would lack the skill to return their soul to their body.

He had no time to be horrified by Shi Zhixuan’s ruthless method. He rolled one of the male corpses over. When he saw clearly that it was not Duan Yucheng, the sound of fighting came from the direction of the inner hall.

Xu Ziling heaved a sigh inwardly, and then he rushed over at full speed.

The inner hall has not only become a desperate battlefield, it has become a terrifying slaughterhouse even more.

By the time Xu Ziling reached the entrance, there were already a number of dead bodies of Da Ming Zun Jiao people, male and female, lying on the floor. Still besieging Shi Zhixuan were more than a dozen people, including the ‘Benevolent Mother’ Sha Fang. The others were Da Ming Zun Jiao’s disciples with comparatively outstanding martial art skill, but he did not see any figures from the Five Bright Sons, neither did he see Duan Yucheng.

Da Ming Zun Jiao’s supreme leader Da Zun has never shown his face, he only presided over their affairs in secret; therefore, general Cult business was managed by Sha Fang, together with the Five Bright Sons and Five-kind of Demons, assisted by a large number of blindly loyal disciples. Yuanzi’s identity was mysterious, similar to Da Zun, unknown to the outsiders. The head of the Five Bright Sons was Miao Kong Mingzi [lit. wonderful air/empty bright son, see Book 40 Chapter 7] Liexia. Together with the Five-kind of Demons’ ‘Du Shui’ [Poisonous Water, Book 42 Chapter 7] Xinnaya, they were Da Ming Zun Jiao’s most outstanding figures. According to Zhu Yuyan, the two persons’ martial art skill was not inferior in any aspects to Sha Fang. Too bad neither of them was here tonight; otherwise, perhaps Shi Zhixuan would be unable to go on the rampage without any scruple like this.

The Five-kind of Demons were already broken and in disorder. First, the ‘An Qi’ [Dark Air] Zhou Laofang was murdered by his older brother Zhou Laotan. And then the ‘Xi Huo’ [Extinguished Fire] Kuo Jie lost his life under Ling Longjiao’s hands due to Xu Ziling’s interference. So out of Five Demons, only three left, their strength was greatly reduced.

If this time Shafang was killed by Shi Zhixuan, the blow to Da Ming Zun Jiao will be too heavy to bear, and their advance into the Central Earth would suffer a severe setback.

In the dark inner hall, the ‘Benevolent Mother’ Sha Fang moved her ‘Yu Xiaoyao’ [free and unfettered jade, see Book 41 Chapter 9] with everything she had, staking everything to face most of Shi Zhixuan’s toppling-the-mountains-and-overturning-the-seas assaults. Were it not so, perhaps none of the other disciples would be able to survive until this point.

With his brilliant eyesight, in just one glance Xu Ziling could immediately see that other than Sha Fang, one person, although the rest of the people’s attacks appeared to be fierce and severe, not a single one could pose a threat toward Shi Zhixuan; on the contrary, they were being exploited to deal with Sha Fang, so that from time to time she had to divide her attention to look after them, hence increasing the complications and the pressure that she had to deal with.

On the surface, Sha Fang appeared to be calm and indifferent, but Xu Ziling intuitively felt that there was fear at the bottom of her heart, and that she was contemplating whether she ought to abandon her pathetic followers and just escape alone.

However, how could Shi Zhixuan, who, in terms of intelligence and martial art skill was more than one level higher than her – let her satisfactorily fulfill her wish? Xu Ziling saw Shi Zhixuan was borrowing the true qi of one of the enemies, his finger heavily jabbed the front end of the Yu Xiaoyao. When Sha Fang was jolted and flew back, Shi Zhixuan, ignoring the sword coming to attack him from the side, forcefully charged inside the enemy’s defense line, straight toward his chest, smashing his bones and sending him flying away, crashing against the wall and collapsing to the floor. Shi Zhixuan immediately flashed to the other side, his palm passed through the opponents’ sword net, slapping another enemy’s face. The robust-looking Huihe man was immediately hit by the palm and was thrown away; he already breathed his last even before his body landed on the ground.

Including Sha Fang, there were nine people remaining on the Da Ming Zun Jiao’s side.

Shi Zhixuan dodged the weapons attacking him from four sides, eight directions; moving later but arriving earlier, he darted toward Sha Fang, who was moving toward the back door of the inner hall. His hands created millions of fantastic palm shadows, like a gale coming directly toward Sha Fang.

Sha Fang was fighting and retreating at the same time, she fled toward the back door.

Two disciples, their eyes bloodshot, wildly ran after her. Who would have thought that ‘Bang! Bang!’ somehow, Shi Zhixuan struck them that they fell to the ground backward, and they too, breathed their last breath.

Watching this, Xu Ziling’s scalp went numb. Not knowing what to do, he shouted loudly in Tujue language, “If you want to stay alive, quickly run away!”

The remaining four women and two men acted as if this was the first time that they realized Xu Ziling’s, this outsider’s presence. Stunned, they looked at him.

Behind the door, the sound of qi power against each other rang continuously, indicating that Shi Zhixuan and Sha Fang’s fierce battle was underway like wildfire.

Xu Ziling continued in Tujue language, “You may help, you may hurry, but if you treasure your own life, you will leave immediately; if you are delayed, I am afraid it will be too late.”

Who would have thought that the six people only hesitated a little, unexpectedly they no longer paid him any attention, like a swarm of bees they flocked into the door?

Unending sound of blood-curdling screech was heard.

Xu Ziling smiled wryly helplessly; he tried his best, yet it was like the crowd of Da Ming Zun Jiao people viewed death as a return home, he was helpless to prevent the massacre from progressing further.

※ ※ ※

A quarter of an hour before the second watch of the night [9-11pm], Hou Xibai came back calmly. Seeing Kou Zhong standing leaning against the window, looking pensive, he came to his side and said, “The rain has stopped! I love this kind of drizzle, it made the streetscape blurred and enshrouded in a mist, bringing about its beauty. Hey, how come Ziling is not back yet?”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “I was worried about him; he should be back before I did.”

Frowning, Hou Xibai said, “What could possibly entangle him?”

Kou Zhong said, “We’ll wait a bit longer; if he has not come back, we will go up to heaven and down the earth to look for him. Ay! It would be better if Chang’an is a bit smaller!”

Hou Xibai said, “I received the latest news; Zhang Zhenzhou led the army and civilians of Shou’An to surrender to the Tang. Wang Shichong is beginning to pull batch after batch of his troops back into Luoyang, a clear sign that he is giving up Cijian.”

Smiling bitterly, Kou Zhong said, “I really don’t want to hear anything about Wang Shichong at the moment.”

Zhang Zhenzhou’s surrender represented one successful step in Li Shimin’s grand plan to isolate Luoyang, and the heart of Wang Shichong’s army was in chaos, one after another various generals of different surnames have surrendered to the Tang, some could even be predicted.

Hou Xibai said, “Something that you can’t do, you have to give up. With Shaoshuai’s talent, you could crisscross the world at will, there is no need to throw your life in for Wang Shichong.”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “As far as I’m concerned the great undertaking of contention for hegemony over the world has just begun. Not concealing anything from you, the more formidable Li Shimin is, the more I, Kou Zhong feel that he is interesting. If Li Shimin is unable to withstand a single blow, where is the fun in it? I know I will suffer for this, but as long as I think that the one ascending the emperor’s throne in the future might be Li Jiancheng or Li Yuanji, and the one in control behind their back is your holy school’s people, or perhaps your honorable master Shi Zhixuan, or the Yaonu [female demon], or Yang Xuyan, I will never give up.”

Hou Xibai said, “If that is your only goal, why not simply helping Li Shimin with all your strength to make him ascend onto the emperor’s throne by all means?”

Kou Zhong said, “Let’s not talk about whether Li Shimin can harden his heart, not only to deal with his flesh and blood brothers, but also to publicly defy Li Yuan, even to depose Li Yuan, the fact is that the government and military system of the House of Tang practically prevents Li Shimin from using the troops to establish his independence. Once he loses his worth and usefulness, when he returns to Chang’an, he will become other people’s fish and meat, leading to a dead end. If we add the Tujue people and your holy school supporting Jiancheng and Yuanji from behind, even with the three of us helping Li Shimin, we will end up suffering losses for nothing.”

Hou Xibai nodded and said, “Shaoshuai’s remarks make sense! Ay! I don’t have any expertise in this aspect. Ha! If we can successfully steal the ‘Han Lin Qing Yuan Tu’ from the palace, what would Li Yuan’s reaction be?”

Blurted out laughing, Kou Zhong said, “You, this kid, in the end you just want to get hold of the treasured painting.”

Hou Xibai calmly said, “Your life’s goal is to win the world, but Xiaodi’s is only to enjoy the world’s famous paintings and beauties to the utmost. You have to help me, no matter what, to convince Ziling.”

This moment, hearing Xu Ziling’s name again, Kou Zhong’s countenance sank, he said, “Let’s wait until we see Ziling before talking about this matter; why haven’t you changed into nightwalker outfit and put on a hood? You think we are going to tour the imperial palace?”

※ ※ ※

Xu Ziling rushed toward the rear court. The fighting has come to an end, Shi Zhixuan’s right hand stretched out straight, he pinched the ‘Benevolent Mother’ Sha Fang’s neck and lifted her up so that her feet were dangling above the floor, squeezing her life away, bit by bit. “Where is the ‘Yu Jin Wan Fa Genyuan Zhi’?” he spoke coldly, “If you want to be happy, then you will tell me immediately.”

The corpses of the six men and women disciples who pursued in were lying everywhere, the way they died was fantastic oddities of every description [idiom], frightening those who saw it. Clearly Shi Zhixuan’s method was ruthless, when he made his move, he never showed mercy.

Blood was oozing from Sha Fang’s seven apertures, the divine light in her pair of eyes was fading away, she spoke with difficulty, “Da Zun will avenge me!”

Severely shaken, with her remaining strength she broke her heart meridian and perished.

Xu Ziling stood with blank expression behind Shi Zhixuan; he wanted to say something but nothing came out.

Shi Zhixuan relinquished his grip to let Sha Fang slumping down to the floor. The tone of his voice returned to gentle and serene, as if completely nothing had happened, or that killing more than a dozen people in cold blood was just a trivial matter – as he spoke unhurriedly, “I wonder if Ziling knows who the Da Ming Zun Jiao’s Yuanzi is?”

A feeling of disgust toward his unfeeling attitude welled up in Xu Ziling’s heart, he replied coldly, “I am listening.”

Shi Zhixuan acted as if he was unwilling to turn his head back to look at Xu Ziling, he spoke in heavy voice, “It’s precisely my darling disciple Yang Xuyan.”

“What?” Xu Ziling blurted out.

“What’s so strange about it?” Shi Zhixuan said, “Da Ming Zun Jiao’s scripture, which is called ‘Suo Bu Luo Qian’ [no idea, maybe a transliteration of some foreign language] contains many volumes, one is the ‘Yao Wang Jing’ [lit. medicine/drug king scripture], which specializes in using poison, and the ‘Guang Ming Jing’ [lit. light/radiance scripture] as the ultimate. The difference is comparable to our holy school’s ‘Tianmo Ce’ [demonic policy/scheme] after all the ten volumes are combined into one. The mystery is unfathomable, hence within the successive generations of Da Ming Zun Jiao people, very rarely did someone succeed in cultivating it. Xuyan has received my handed-down teachings, hence he had the desire to dip his finger into the ‘Yu Jin Wan Fa Genyuan Zhi’, so he was willing to join Da Ming Zun Jiao. I hope that after seeing my warning this time, he could rein in the horse at the edge of the precipice, and go back into my school. Otherwise, next time it will be his turn.”

After a short pause, he went on, “Ziling, you may go! Leave before I change my mind. No matter how many important business you have in here, it will be best if you leave immediately. I don’t know how long am I going to be able to tolerate you.”

Xu Ziling spoke heavily, “Xie Wang wants to kill me, please make your move immediately.”

Finally Shi Zhixuan turned around, his pair of eyes emitting a complex, difficult to understand expression, as he spoke softly, “Just consider it doing me a favor, all right?”

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong and Hou Xibai flew across the roof. By the time their vision adjusted and they were able to see clearly the situation near and far, a dark shadow was fleeting from a distance, coming near.

The two saw clearly that it was Xu Ziling, they rushed to meet him in great delight.

Kou Zhong whined, “Good kid, where did you hang out?”

The three met on top of the roof of another building, they crouched down to speak.

Xu Ziling sighed and said, “Not only did I encounter Old Shi, I also saw him killing Da Ming Zun Jiao people, including ‘Shan Mu’ Sha Fang.

None of the other two was not emotionally moved.

Xu Ziling explained to them what happened.

Aghast, Hou Xibai said, “Unexpectedly Yang Xuyan could become Da Ming Zun Jiao’s Yuanzi. If it were not Shi Shi personally telling you, I would never believe it.”

Puzzled, Kou Zhong said, “But when we were in Longquan, we clearly received the news that both Da Zun and Yuanzi were there, while a few could affirm that at that time, Yang Xuyan was in Chang’an. Could there be two Yuanzi?”

Xu Ziling said, “I hope one day this matter will be as the water recedes, the rocks appear. I have a faint feeling that because Yang Xuyan is Shi Zhixuan’s disciple, he could never receive Da Ming Zun Jiao’s full trust, hence they cultivate another Yuanzi in secret.”

Shaken, Kou Zhong said, “Are you talking about Yucheng?”

“Who’s Yucheng?” Hou Xibai asked in astonishment.

“Don’t think about this too much,” Xu Ziling said, “Are we going to set off to the imperial palace?”

Kou Zhong said, “The correct place should be Yin Zuwen’s old nest. Let’s go!”

The three soared into the air and swiftly flew toward the location of the Yin Mansion.

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