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The dozen or so riders, who were now galloping straight toward him, immediately pulled their reins.

Although Tiele people were experts in fighting on horseback, but in front of a martial art master like Ba Fenghan, who had been waiting with stored momentum, nobody dared to fright with him from the horseback.

As one after another they spread out, Ba Fenghan’s imposing manner soared even higher. With a low shout he strode forward.

The incoming riders were a group of Tiele elite fighters headed by Qu Ao, including his three disciples: Changshu Mou, Hua Lingzi and Genggehu’er.

Ba Fenghan blocking their way was totally beyond their expectation.

In fact, Ba Fenghan’s narrow escape in a situation where escaping was more difficult than ascending the heavens just now has dealt a severe blow to Qu Ao’s confidence; hence the reason he had to find a quiet place to meditate for a moment before he had the courage to meet his appointment with Fu Qian.

Yet Ba Fenghan unexpectedly chose this moment to intercept him, alone. Anybody would be amazed and baffled, completely failed to understand, Ba Fenghan’s self-confidence and valiant action.

Merely in term of imposing manner alone Ba Fenghan had already seized the initiative.

One after another the horses withdrew about a hundred paces or so, while the riders dismounted, filling the street with their whinnying sound.

Qu Ao really wish he could look around to see any trace of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, to guard against these two boys launching sneak attack from the side, but he really could not take his eyes off of the enemy pressing down on him, for fear that any distraction would result in total defeat.

Whether he was willing to admit or not, Ba Fenghan has become an adversary that was on par with him.

Qu Ao flew down from his mount, and shouted in low voice, “Take the horse away! Hold your troops!”

Changshu Mou, who was standing behind him, asked in consternation, “Why would Shizun [venerable master] pay attention to him? Just let us take care of him!”

This moment Ba Fenghan was only about fifty paces away, his momentum was increasing without letup, his burning eyes were fixed on Qu Ao.

Qu Ao sighed inwardly. Although Changshu Mou has received his authentic teaching and had risen to the rank of first class martial art masters, but all along he could not match Ba Fenghan, Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong, these young martial art masters with overflowing talent; hence he failed to see the subtleties of this matter.

If Qu Ao refused to fight, an impossible-to-get-rid-of shadow would appear in his heart, thus would hamper his confidence in the upcoming duel against Fu Qian. The most difficult to endure was that the opponent was blocking his way alone. This kind overbearing, domineering prowess would even bring about an indelible impression in his heart. The next time they met, psychologically he has already lost one step.

Especially worrisome was that as his mind was churning back and forth, if he retreated and the other party advanced, Changshu Mou and the others may not necessarily be able to stop him, and if he decided to make his move then, he would already be in passive position.

There was also a deeper level of concern, i.e. if he retreated without a fight, he would appear too cowardice and would lose his poise. It would show clearly that only under the circumstances like on the Tianjin Bridge just now, where he clearly held the superiority, would he dare to fight against him.

After considering this matter over and over in his mind, Qu Ao was well aware that he had been forced by Ba Fenghan into a dangerous position where his only option was to take up the challenge.

But he was a figure of grand master level, who has encountered any conceivable situation; thereupon he shouted coldly, “No need to talk too much! Just watch me slaughter this kid.”

Finished speaking, he threw away all distracting thoughts, focused his attention, and marched toward the enemy.

Changshu Mou and the others exchanged glances; they were all able to see the frustration in the others’ heart.

Ba Fenghan was definitely a terrifying character able to strike fear and admiration in the opponent’s heart.

※ ※ ※

When the two martial art masters were about twenty paces apart from each other, they both stopped and stood still.

Ba Fenghan’s countenance became extremely cold. Throwing his head back, he let out a long laugh and said, “Qu Ao, you are not worthy to be recognized as the Tiele people’s great master of martial art, since you can only deal with us under the-many-oppressing-the-few situation. With this kind of conduct and scheming, aren’t you afraid the people all over the world would sneer at you?”

Qu Ao’s expression also turned as cold as ice; he laughed coldly and said, “That day I was alone when I chased to kill the three of you, kids, so who’s many and who’s a few? It was just to prevent you three kids from escaping to the wilderness, like you usually do, that we had to make a bit of arrangement! Kid, if you can’t see that, it would be best if you don’t come out at all, lest you would be a disgrace to yourself.”

Ba Fenghan sneered and said, “It was because previously you have not figured out our real strength. Did Ol’ Ba say something wrong?”

The two combatants conducted a verbal battle simply because in the momentum’s stalemate, they both realized that the opponent had no flaw that they could exploit, hence they used words to attack each other, trying to strike down the opponent’s momentum and confidence.

Qu Ao spoke with disdain, “Why so much nonsense? Since you have made up your mind to throw away your life, let me grant you your wish.”

A smile full of confidence appeared on Ba Fenghan’s face; calmly and indifferently he said, “Qu Ao, you don’t have enough qualification to be Ol’ Ba’s real rival; you can only be a stepping stone for me to challenge Bi Xuan. Go ahead!”

This remark was even more formidable than any sharp sword; not only did it incite scolding and cursing from Changshu Mou and the others, who were standing some distance away, even Qu Ao was unable to stop his countenance from slightly changing.

If Qu Ao had never been defeated by Bi Xuan, he could simply treat this remark as rubbish talk that he need not mind. Too bad the actual fact happened to be the exact opposite; immediately it stirred up the extraordinary shame and humiliation that Qu Ao could never forget as long as he lived. His originally unassailable confidence immediately revealed a hairbreadth gap.

‘Qiang!’

The Beheading Mystery Sword left its sheath. Ba Fenghan had no distraction in his heart; his mind was empty.

To his left and back was the Tingliu Pavilion, from where the faint clamor could still be heard, behind Qu Ao, Changshu Mou and the others were shouting and swearing, but it was as if he did not hear anything, between the heaven and the earth, there was only he and the formidable opponent in front of his eyes.

After his meridians were transformed by the Jade Annulus of He Clan, his true qi soared; compared to before, its speed and the rate of change was several times faster, giving him an inexhaustible fighting strength and confidence.

In Qu Ao’s eyes, Ba Fenghan seemed to suddenly became tall and mighty. Immediately he was shocked; realizing that it was because of his own confidence faltered, while the opponent’s momentum increased rapidly that he had this illusion.

When two martial art masters were in stalemate, due to their mind and spirit was locked by each other, their senses could also be adversely affected.

The sound of the sword being withdrawn was like the echoing beating of the battle drum, reverberating inside his eardrums.

Qu Ao knew his situation was bad, quickly he focused his attention, ‘nine changes of coagulating truths’, in an instant his mind reached its peak condition.

His lifelong cultivation could be summed up in three words, ‘seven’, ‘eight’, and ‘nine’, separately representing the three stages of his accomplishment.

Seven and eight referred to his so-called ‘seven cycles of wild waves’ and the ‘eight segments of violent tides’, two types of innate-generated amazing skill.

Ordinary martial art practitioners who were able to apply qi and send out power at able-to-receive-and-send-as-his-heart-desire level could already be considered martial art master.

But if they wanted to surpass other people, they must look for the variation within in order to subdue the enemy and gain victory.

Yet the way to these changes lies in the cultivation of the acupoints’ activity in the meridians’ hub within the body, which cannot be likened to ordinary qi cultivation. When one is able to use the acupoints to control the transmission of true qi from its source, one would begin to reach the first-class martial art master level.

Qu Ao was a talent in martial art study. By the age of twenty-three he already mastered seven acupoints, which prompted him to create the ‘seven cycles of wild waves’, but it was ten years later that he managed to master one more acupoint, i.e. the ‘eight segments of violent tides’. Hence the difficulty could be easily imagined.

By the age of forty-one, he was able to control all acupoints at will, so he called it ‘nine changes of coagulating truth’. The ‘nine’ was not referring to nine acupoints at all, rather, it was because ‘nine’ was the top number in counting, and it had endless meaning. Only then did his martial art skill reach great success, which gave birth to his intention to challenge Bi Xuan in a duel. [My apology, all the above is beyond me, I translated it as best as I can.]

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’

Ba Fenghan forged ahead three steps in succession. Each step down created a heavy, powerful sound; even the earth seemed to be shaken.

If this battle happened before his defeat at the hands of Bi Xuan, Qu Ao would have allowed the opponent to take the initiative to attack, and then when the opponent’s stored up momentum was at its fullest, the moment his confidence reached the highest peak, with the power of ten-thousand-catty thunder he would make one move to strike the enemy; the opponent would suffer irreparable damage, and forever would not be able to overcome the disheartened feeling to the defeat, and then taking care of the enemy would be as easy as turning his hand.

But this moment was unlike the past.

Qu Ao no longer had this kind of heroic spirit and confidence. Leaping at an angle, he withdrew a dozen of steps away to evade the sword-brandishing, with sweeping-a-thousand-army appearance, young opponent’s attack.

He wanted to use the ‘nine changes of coagulating truth’ and unleashed it to its greatest potential, coupled with flawless ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’, so that before the opponent’s momentum climbed into a new peak, he could strike at full power.

But the instant Qu Ao’s feet left the ground to leap, Ba Fenghan suddenly stopped.

Already in the air, Qu Ao’s countenance changed again. Because unexpectedly Ba Fenghan was able to accurately predict the moment he would leap, and see through his intention and strategy.

It seemed like an impossible thing to do, yet Ba Fenghan was able to accomplish.

It was only this moment that Qu Ao finally understood why at Tianjin Bridge a moment ago, although Wanwan was giving it everything she had, for the given period of time she was unable to do anything to Ba Fenghan. He also realized that he was making a fatal mistake: underestimating the enemy.

The arrow was already on the bow, it had to be released.

If he changed move or retreated, he would be caught in a situation where there was no hope of reprieve.

Qu Ao flew over Ba Fenghan’s head. Transforming complexity into simplicity, his right hand clawed toward Ba Fenghan’s head.

There seemed to be nothing extraordinary about this claw, but the momentum path was concentrated, strong, swift and severe, creating a feeling in his opponent’s heart that it must not be touched. The most frightening thing was that this one claw embodied five different true powers that the fingers could produce: sucking, stabbing, parrying, sealing, and cutting. So unpredictable that it was very difficult to guard against.

Ba Fenghan’s eyes were flashing spiritedly. With a long laugh the Beheading Mystery Sword followed his footwork sideways, and then flashed diagonally up.

Five explosions echoed one after another as the sword met the claw. With the speed that naked eyes could not see, Qu Ao’s five fingers successively pressed down, knocked against, swept, stabbed, and hacked down, in exquisite-and-mysterious-beyond-belief technique, attacking the Beheading Mystery Sword.

Be Fenghan let out a stifled grunt and staggered two steps sideways, while Qu Ao borrowed the reaction force to soar two more zhang upwards. Like an eagle he spiraled in the air, in preparation of the second round of attack.

On the side, seeing how Ba Fenghan’s acute spirit was thwarted and he even fell into disadvantageous position, Changshu Mou and the others immediately burst into cheers.

Only Qu Ao knew the hardship he was in.

He actually started to fear Ba Fenghan’s brilliant eyesight and the unpredictable [orig. gods and demons could not fathom] changes in his strategy. He was intentionally going all-out, hoping to injure the enemy in one fell swoop, so that the remaining question would be: how much longer can the enemy take the beating?

Who would have thought that Ba Fenghan’s true qi unexpectedly produced five different changes one after another? He did not yield even for one step against Qu Ao’s ‘nine changes of coagulating truth’, and before Qu Ao’s claw made contact with the sword’s blade, he was one step ahead in exploiting the retreating momentum to get away, so that Qu Ao’s follow-up move could not be launched, forcing him to soar halfway into the air, and could not take the advantage of his favorable situation to continue the assault.

This claw was actually the culmination of Qu Ao’s lifelong skill and knowledge. Since he failed to injure Ba Fenghan, the blow to his confidence was difficult to estimate.

He really could not understand why in just a few days’ time, Ba Fenghan’s internal energy and his swordsmanship would advance by leaps and bounds like this.

Underneath, Ba Fenghan stood motionless, while immediately circulating his true qi, which had been improved dramatically by the Jade Annulus of He Clan, to neutralize Qu Ao’s true power invading his body, and quietly waiting for his second round of attacks.

Qu Ao suddenly accelerated; using the male-eagle-seizing-the-rabbit momentum, he glided down from a height of three zhang in the air.

His hands turned into thousands of claw shadows, qi power shot out wildly, enveloping an area of about three zhang in diameter on the ground with Ba Fenghan in the middle. None of the spectators did not know that he was using this incomparably bold and powerful, formidable move to force the opponent into a position where evading was not an option and he could only meet the attack head on.

Although just a moment ago, due to his qigong was boiling Ba Fenghan nearly vomited blood, but because he controlled and transformed it, by this time he had regained his foundation, the true qi within his body climbed into its peak condition again. Thereupon, although he was under the enemy’s waves of attack, his fighting will was not shaken the least bit.

During the Battle of Tianjin Bridge earlier, he was well aware that in term of power, he was still a notch below Qu Ao. Moreover, because the forte of Qu Ao’s ‘Thirteen-Style Eagle Transformation’ was in its move changes, his own sword style could not gain too much advantage. Hence the reason he was using clever verbal attack to weaken the opponent’s momentum and confidence, and raised trepidation in the opponent’s heart.

And now was an extremely good place to start.

If it were someone else, when his bravery diminished a little, he would definitely adopt a defensive position. But Ba Fenghan was not an ordinary person at all. With a cold shout, his feet stepped in profound-mystery footwork, each step was difficult for the opponent to fathom his sword momentum, the Beheading Mystery Sword moved in unimaginable angle, altering between fast and slow indeterminately, he met the claw shadow descending upon him from the sky.

The sound of the claw clashing against the sword sounded like the pitter-patter of the rain, sometimes high in intensity, sometimes scattered.

In the midst of word flashes flaring out, cold light bursting out like lightning, Qu Ao, like a agile, unfathomable eagle, displayed all kinds of posture in the air; sometimes like a spiraling eagle pouncing down, sometimes flying at an angle, as if he was absolutely weightless.

Watching this, Changshu Mou and the others frowned, because they were well aware that Qu Ao has already given everything he had, he even used up the skill he usually kept at the bottom of his chest. However, Ba Fenghan was still as formidable as a deity. Unexpectedly he sealed and blocked every move, using the internal energy which strength was completely outside everybody’s expectation, without yielding a single cun against Qu Ao’s swift and severe offensive, which came down like torrential rain or a gale spraying down from the sky.

Everybody knew that although Ba Fenghan was caught in passive position, he was not defeated at all; instead, he was waiting for an opportunity to strike back. And if he did, it would be the moment Qu Ao was defeated or even perished.

Changshu Mou signaled Genggehu’er and Hua Lingzi with his eyes, and took the lead to approach the two combatants engaged in endless bitter fighting.

Meanwhile Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling had just rushed out the gate; they saw the guards at the door were flocking outside to watch the battle from afar.

Eager to try Changshu Mou, who was mobilizing his troops nearby, Xu Ziling signaled Kou Zhong with his eyes. The latter understood his intention, and cried out in loud voice, “Ba Fenghan and Qu Ao are here in decisive battle, don’t miss this treat for the eyes!”

His voice traveled far away; not only it echoed along the street, it also reverberated around the Tingliu Pavilion.

‘Bang!’

Qu Ao gave everything he had, eventually he broke through Ba Fenghan’s tight sword net, looked like he was about to slap the opponent’s face and end the fierce battle. But Ba Fenghan parried the attack with full-powered left hand palm strike.

Ba Fenghan’s body, from head to toe, shook. The flagstone under his feet shattered. And he spurted a bit of blood.

Qu Ao was also jolted by the impact that he rose up halfway into the air. Although his attack managed to injure the opponent, in his heart he did not have the slightest bit of complacency. Ba Fenghan’s most terrifying strength was his seemingly inexhaustible potential. The longer they fought, the more dauntless he was, while a prolonged battle would only bring harm to him without any benefit.

Ba Fenghan’s internal qi cycled on, his internal injury has healed for the most part, and he immediately launched a counterattack.

But Qu Ao was worthy to be regarded as the number one grand master of martial art study among the Tiele people. Under Qu Ao’s seemingly endless fierce offensive, it was only now did Ba Fenghan finally find the opportunity to strike back.

Sword rays suddenly vanished.

Following his sword, Ba Fenghan’s body suddenly turned into a strike of lightning, shooting toward Qu Ao, who was still soaring in the air.

The sound of fluttering sleeves came from the direction of Man Qing Yuan; some were rushing out of the main gate, some were leaping over the wall. The first dozen or so to arrive happened to see Ba Fenghan’s sword strike, which could be rated as seizing-the-heaven-and-the-earth natural skill.

Qu Ao has never imagined that after receiving injury, Ba Fenghan was still able to carry out this alarming-the-heaven-moving-the-earth formidable sword move. Knowing that the turn of events was far from good, he had no choice but to abruptly raise a mouthful of true power, pressing down his surging-endlessly blood and qi, and pounce down with all his strength.

‘Bang!’

The sound of qi power clashing resounded far and near.

Like a kite with cut string, Ba Fenghan flew at an angle and landed on the ground, staggered a bit, and then stood steadily like a mountain.

Qu Ao circled in the air, flew toward his own troops, and slowly landed on the ground.

‘Ring!’

The Beheading Mystery Sword returned to its sheath.

Hearing the sound, Qu Ao’s body shook. His eyes emitted vicious and stern expression as he stared at Ba Fenghan, who was standing five zhang away from him.

The two men looked at each other with defiant expression on their faces.

By this time most people have reached the street. The crow and peacock made no sound, quietly waiting for the outcome.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling dashed toward Ba Fenghan’s left and right.

Qu Ao’s body suddenly shook violently again, the color of blood receded from his face.

Like a ripple of the wave, the spectators gasped in surprise. Now everybody knew that Qu Ao has lost, but nobody knew which part of his body was wounded.

But the answer came instantly, because fresh blood started to seep out of Qu Ao’s left flank.

Qu Ao did not seal his acupoint to stop the bleeding. After casting a glance toward his three disciples and his men, whose faces have become deathly grey, he looked up to heaven and sighed. “Young and strong rising hero, Ol’ Qu admires you very much. Now I will immediately return to Tiele, for the rest of my life I will not set foot on Central Plains anymore.”

This oath was tantamount to announce publicly that he personally withdrew from all the dispute in the Central Plains.

It was a genius maneuver that came out of Qu Ao’s superior experience. This way, those who had deep hatred toward Tiele people like Fu Qian and the others would also be hindered by Jianghu rules; they must not openly pursue and attack them.

Finished speaking, Qu Ao leaped onto his horse, and leading his men, they were gone like a whirlwind.

Ba Fenghan, three men, were about to leave when from among the spectators, someone let out a long laugh and said, “How could Ba Xiong avoid problem by walking away from it like this without the slightest bit of explanation?”