Book 1 Chapter 17 - One Saber Chop in The Wind

Suddenly he heard the sound of running water from a distance. There was another steep cliff ahead. Under the cliff, there was a stream where the water was flowing rapidly; droplets of water looked like flying pearls and splas.h.i.+ng jade. There was wide-open s.p.a.ce about ten zhang across; both sides of the stream were connected by a stone beam no more than two chi wide.

This moment, there was a man sitting cross-legged on the stone beam. His clothes were fluttering in the mountain breeze. It looked like he might fall any moment, and if he fell, his body would definitely be torn and his bones crushed. Yet his eyes were closed, as if he was asleep.

Chu Liuxiang walked closer, and only then was he able to look at this man clearly. His complexion was waxy yellow, with thick eyebrows and a nose like a hawk. Although his eyes were closed, he could make people feel that there was some kind of sharp murderous aura in them.

He was sitting cross-legged, his bare feet were visible under his clothes, but he had a pair of high-toothed ebony wooden clogs, which he placed in front of him. Next to the wooden clogs, there was unexpectedly a sword inside its peculiarly-styled black sheathe.

The mountain breeze blew his clothes that its sleeves were fluttering, creating rustling noise. Unexpectedly there were eight large wild gra.s.s style characters in flamboyant cursive calligraphy embroidered on his black silk wide robes:

'Sword that must kill, blocking it will not be pardoned.' [bi sha zhi jian, dang zhe wu she]

In the quietness of the empty mountain, in the dreary and fuzzy mist of the dawn, on the steep cliff standing like a wall, unexpectedly sat such a man. It made this ethereal valley suddenly felt like it was full of strange mystery.

Sucking in a mouthful of cold air, Chu Liuxiang turned toward NanGong Ling and spoke quietly, "Who's that?"

NanGong Ling shook his head.

"Madame Ren's abode," Chu Liuxiang asked, "Is it on the opposite cliff?"

NanGong Ling nodded.

Chu Liuxiang walked over, cupped his fist, and said with a laugh, "Friend, would you lend us a way?"

The man still sat upright with closed eyes, without moving at all, as if he had not heard him.

Chu Liuxiang raised his voice, "Friend, is it possible for you to lend a way so that Zaixia could pa.s.s through?"

His voice reverberated across the valley, unending echo came from all sides.

The man remained silent, remained unmoving.

Smiling wryly, Chu Liuxiang turned toward NanGong Ling and said, "What this friend is saying without opening his mouth is: This mountain, I opened it, these trees, I grew them. If henceforth you want to pa.s.s through, just leave money to get the right of pa.s.sage."

He intentionally spoke very loud, as if he wanted to provoke the man.

The man suddenly opened his eyes a slit and gave Chu Liuxiang a glance. Chu Liuxiang felt as if his face was slit across by a blade; unconsciously in his heart he was shocked.

The man slowly said, "The world is so big, instead of going anyplace else, the two gentlemen determined to come here?"

He spoke really slow, enunciating every word clearly, but it sounded unspeakably harsh and ear piercing, like a sc.r.a.ping blade or snapping bamboo pole.

Chu Liuxiang's heart was moved. "Sire, your great name?" he blurted out asking.

The man replied, "Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang." [lit. heavenly maple fourteenth lad/youth]

Chu Liuxiang said, "Could it be that Sire is not Central Earth's figure?"

Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang replied, "This man's coming from Dongying Zhou [east china sea (or j.a.pan) prefecture], Yihe Valley."

Aghast, Chu Liuxiang's countenance changed; he said, "Could it be that Sire is Yihe Ren Xia [hero of 'ren', see 'ren shu', Chapter 8]?"

Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang closed his eyes and stopped talking.

Chu Liuxiang remembered that night, while the secret fog shrouded his vision, the strange, mysterious person disappeared by jumping into the lake; he could not stop a chill from appearing at the bottom of his heart.

"Could it be that he was the man?"

This moment NanGong Ling bowed and said, "Yihe Ren Xia, invincible divine dragon. More than twenty years ago occasionally his hero track appeared in Min Zhe region [Fujian and Zhejiang]; is it possible that it was Qianbei [senior/older generation]?"

"Exactly," Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang replied.

NanGong Ling said, "Qianbei appears for the second time, now we, who studied later and less advanced skill, can have a glimpse of Yihe secret art, Wanbei [junior/younger generation] really unbearably happy, but I wonder Qianbei crossed the ocean to come again, how long have you been here?"

This was precisely the question Chu Liuxiang wanted to ask, so he could not help paying very close attention.

He heard Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang slowly said, "Ten days ago I abandoned the boat to come ash.o.r.e, five days ago I arrived here."

Chu Liuxiang could not help commenting, "That's strange, Zaixia seemed to see Qianbei by the sh.o.r.e of Daming Lake?"

"You must be blind then," Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang coldly replied.

Chu Liuxiang still wanted to speak, but NanGong Ling signaled him with his eyes to stop him; he said with a laugh, "Wanbei originally wanted to listen more to Qianbei's teaching to increase our knowledge, however, we have an important matter at hand, and hoping that Qianbei would lend a way. When Wanbei return, we will definitely come again to ask for guidance."

Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang suddenly opened his eyes, and spoke in stern voice, "You insist on going this way, is it to look for that Qiu Lingsu?"

Chu Liuxiang's heart jumped. This Yihe Ninja unexpectedly knew the name 'Qiu Lingsu'!

He saw NanGong Ling knitted his brows and said, "Qiu Lingsu …? Did Qianbei mean to say Madame Ren?"

"Humph!" Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang snorted.

"Qianbei also know her?" NanGong Ling asked.

Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang suddenly threw his head back and howled with laughter; a very mournful laughter. It shook the distant pine trees that the needles were rustling down, and the green mountain seemed to lose its color.

Chu Liuxiang and NanGong Ling looked at each other, neither one knew what he was laughing for.

They heard Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang said with a wild laughter, "You asked whether I know her? For her sake I was willing to receive disgrace from Ren Ci, with hatred in my heart I returned to Dongying, vowing that as long as Ren Ci is still alive, I would never return to the Central Earth … For her happiness, I received Ren Ci's palm strike without striking back. For her sake I did not marry until today! And now, you asked me if I knew her?"

Listening to him, Chu Liuxiang was dumbfounded; he had never thought that between this 'Yihe Ninja' and Ren Ci, husband and wife, there was such love and hatred entanglement in the past; even more unexpected was that this strange man, who seemed to be colder than ice, could have such infatuation! In term of silly pa.s.sion, unexpectedly he was not inferior to Zha Muge and the others.

In addition to Zha Muge, Ximen Qian, Zuo Youzheng, Lingjiu Zi, this was the fifth man. All five men were turning upside down for love, willingly subjected themselves to lifelong yearning.

The only difference was that those four men were dead and this man was still alive.

The wild laughter finally ceased. Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang spoke in stern voice, "Now Ren Ci is dead, finally Qiu Lingsu belongs to me completely. Other than me, anybody else can just forget about seeing her, ever."

"But Madame Ren …" NanGong Ling started.

Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang shouted, "She is unwilling to see others either. Just go!"

Knitting his brows, NanGong Ling muttered to himself irresolutely, "In the capacity as Gai Bang disciple, Zaixia ought to honor Madame Ren's wish, but this Chu Xiong …"

He paused and turned to look at Chu Liuxiang.

Chu Liuxiang said, "Whether she is really unwilling to see others, I have to hear it from her own mouth to believe."

In quiet, sad voice NanGong Ling said, "With him guarding on the stone beam, how could you and I pa.s.s through?"

Under the stone beam was a very deep ravine, the two banks were separated by more than ten zhang distance, anyone would find it difficult to fly through. To fly over Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang's head, the chance of success would only be one in a hundred or even one in a thousand.

Chu Liuxiang looked around; smiling slightly, he said, "In any case, good or bad, I still need to try."

The words have just left his mouth, 'Qiang!' there was a flash; from the sleeve of Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang's wide robe something flew out and looped around a tree about the size of the mouth of a bowl thick, which grew by the cliff. At the first glance, it appeared to be a silvery, flas.h.i.+ng flying ring. Chu Liuxiang still wanted to have a closer look, when he heard 'Crack!', the tree broke into two, while the silver ring flew out, whistling back into Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang's sleeve and disappeared.

Within the Central Plain Wulin, there was no lack of extremely superior martial art experts in all kinds and sorts of secret projectiles, more than several hundred different varieties. But Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang's technique was completely different to any of them. This silvery, flas.h.i.+ng flying ring carried some indescribably weird and amazing secret. The ring flying back and forth seemed to be alive.

Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "Yihe technique indeed stands out from the ma.s.ses."

Laughing evilly, Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang said, "This is precisely the 'Si Juan Shu' [lit. dead roll technique], one of the Ren Shu's Nine Big Secret Skills. If I did not start off leniently, what if that tree is your neck? Why haven't you left?"

Chu Liuxiang smiled and said, "Si Juan Shu? The name is really scary, but the tree is dead, while people are alive. Would I stick out my neck waiting for you to loop over it?"

Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang roared angrily, "Do you want to try?"

Amidst the shout, a flash of light already flew toward Chu Liuxiang.

Chu Liuxiang felt the dazzling rays of light, followed by a streak of eagle-bowl-like silvery light like lightning striking over, the momentum was a lot faster than what he previously imagined.

Turning his body around, he moved seven chi away. Who would have thought that the silvery light was indeed alive, it followed him like a shadow, unexpectedly it was still flying toward him.

Chu Liuxiang's body flashed seven times in succession. As far as his eyes could see, the entire sky was full of flas.h.i.+ng silvery light, so that anybody would find it hard to evade.

Suddenly three dots of black stars flew out of Chu Liuxiang's hand. Two dots of black stars flew into the air, but 'Ding!' one dot struck the silvery light.

And then a 'Qiang!' was heard, the silvery light filling the air suddenly disappeared, the eagle-bowl closed in and turned into a ring. It fell to the ground, but quickly shot out again.

His countenance changed, Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang angrily shouted, "Eight-style wild deer [no idea, perhaps cuss word in his native language?], you dare to break my 'Si Juan Shu' … All right, look at my 'Danxin Shu' [lit. loyal heart method]."

Suddenly, like the waves of the sea a cloud of purple mist rolled over. In the midst of the fog, there seemed to be a flickering purple star. Chu Liuxiang quickly flew backward, and suddenly soared into the sky.

'Boom!'

A loud explosion shook the earth, like lightning flashes and sound of thunder. The purple fog gracefully dispersed like a light smoke. Unexpectedly a large tree that was originally behind Chu Liuxiang was split in the middle into two halves. Both halves toppled over, revealing the heart of the tree, which looked black as coal, like it was struck by lightning. A gust of wind blew, the leaves and wooden fragments fluttered in the wind. In the blink of an eye, one vibrant tree suddenly turned into a withered and dead tree, most of the green leaves also turned yellow.

Looking at that, Chu Liuxiang could not help but was shocked, "This ren shu is indeed very demonical."

His shadow suddenly flashed three zhang away, unexpectedly he floated onto the stone beam. The full-of-demonic-spirit, full-of-murderous-intent Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang was only several chi away from him.

NanGong Ling blurted out, "Yihe Ninja possesses great magical power, Chu Xiong, you must be careful."

Chu Liuxiang smiled and said, "Now that I have tasted your ren shu, I want to experience your 'sword that must kill'."

Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang spoke word-by-word, "You want to see my 'Yingfeng Yi Dao Zhan' [One Saber Chop in The Wind, t.i.tle of this chapter]?"