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Xu Ziling rapidly whirled around, both palms created hundreds of palm shadows like an illusion, while his leg seemed to move, but was not actually moving. Even with Hou Xibai’s ability, he could not advance prematurely, while also did not dare to withdraw backward, afraid that the opponent might snatch the key moment, and then he would suffer ‘troops in defeat like a landslide’ [idiom], and lost his life on this no-escape, no-retreat plank walkway.

Hou Xibai resorted to a set of exquisite and abstruse fan technique. His fan opened and closed without showing any gap, as he parried Xu Ziling’s rainstorm-like fingers, palms, and fists attack. The sound of strong wind collided against each other lingered on.

‘Pow!’ hundreds and thousands fan shadows covered everything. The middle finger of Xu Ziling’s left hand made contact with the tip of the fan.

A vortex of qi, which Hou Xibai had been expected all along, burst in via the Fan of Beauty, slow at first, but quickly became faster.

This inner power attack was like fighting at close range with short weapon, there was no room to change move at all. The two combatants staggered backwards at the same time.

At this moment, the two men began to know the real ability of his opponent.

Hou Xibai only staggered back five steps before he managed to regain his footings; his handsome face alternated between red and green. Only after several rounds of these changes did he recover his usual fair countenance.

Xu Ziling nearly stepped out of the plank walkway. Turned out Hou Xibai’s Fan of Beauty was able to execute ‘four taels to push aside a thousand catty’ technique, simply because it was able to use some extremely weird technique of borrowing force to strike force called ‘You Shan Xie’ [lit. outstanding expertise to unload/to remove], by shifting the opponent’s inner power. And Hou Xibai’s level of mastery has reached perfection, a ‘as the arm moves the finger’, free, unconstrained state.

Nearly every strike, a punch or finger thrust, had a ‘miss-the-target’ feeling, just like trying to catch a loach with empty hand, like clearly it was caught in hand, but he was unable to hold on to it steadily.

It was precisely the ‘prescribing the right medicine for an illness’ best method to deal with the spiraling energy.

However, although he gained the upper hand, it actually entailed strenuous effort.

Fortunately, at the last moment he gained the initiative by utilizing the amazing move of ‘Using the man to play the sword, using the sword to play the enemy’ [see Book 11 Chapter 8] of the ‘Yijian Technique’. Furthermore, he exploited the unique environment of the plank walkway to force Hou Xibai to go full strength by disregarding everything in meeting the attack head-on, so that he avoided the final fate of defeat and perishing.

The skill difference had been decided.

Xu Ziling struggled hard to recover from his own momentum that sent him to the edge of the walkway. And then, using the innate true qi from the combination of ‘Secret to Long Life’ and ‘Jade Annulus of He Clan’, he neutralized most of Hou Xibai’s strange energy invading his body. But he still needed two more steps before he could stand firm.

He nearly vomited blood. Luckily when his meridians were about to burst, his five viscera felt like shattering, he exerted himself to raise the true qi within his body. The internal injury immediately recovered more than half in such a miraculous way. It was as if the true qi in his body could faintly control the opponent’s gongfa.

Hou Xibai’s most formidable aspect was that when Xu Ziling’s spiraling energy burst in, slow at first and then turned fast, Hou Xibai’s internal power became suddenly hard and suddenly soft, using both gentle methods and force, ‘breaking open’ his spiraling energy, and diverted it to both sides, enabling him to force entrance into the true qi in the opponent’s body, so that at most he could only retain fifty or sixty-percent of his original level, and thus greatly diminished the killing power.

Such a demonic power was indeed never seen; no wonder Hua Jian Pai was able to stand side by side with Yin Gui Pai on the demonic way.

From this, it could also be inferred the extent of Shi Zhixuan’s formidability.

‘Swish!’

Hou Xibai opened up his fan and lightly brushed it sideways. With confident laugh he said, “Much obliged for the experience! Xu Xiong is certainly brilliant, but if this is the extent of your skill, Xu Xiong may forget about leaving this golden-ox way alive today.”

Hearing that, Xu Ziling heaved a sigh of relief instead.

If the opponent seized this opportunity to pursue and attack, he would be doomed to death for sure. But now that he spoke to stall for time, it was clear that although his martial art skill was stronger than Xu Ziling’s, and his moves were a notch better than his, plus his injury was slightly lighter than his, yet his speed of recovery must be somewhat slower than Xu Ziling’s.

Taking another mouthful of breath, Xu Ziling let out a long laugh and said, “No better or worse than each other! Hou Xiong, please receive another one of Xiaodi’s punches.”

Right foot stepped forward, left fist sent out a punch.

Obviously Hou Xibai was stunned and was greatly puzzled, and then his expression turned serious, his clothes, from head to foot, fluttered.

Xu Ziling’s punch was extremely slow, but his internal energy was continuously accumulating, so that when his fist was nearly in position, the wind generated by the punch already reached Hou Xibai’s body. The most magical thing was that from nothing at the beginning, the punch power gradually coalesced until finally it became an incomparably forceful qi power following the moving fist, like a formless but natural iron pillar being thrust toward the chest.

Hou Xibai started to regret his decision to intercept Xu Ziling on this plank walkway. If it were an empty and wide land, breaking Xu Ziling’s move would be like handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease [idiom: skillfully and easily]. But on this unique environment, being forced by Xu Ziling’s gradually condensing qi power was like having a thousand kinds of ultimate art, yet was unable to find a solution. The only way out was to meet the attack head-on.

Hou Xibai roared; pulling his Fan of Beauty back, he used his left palm to swiftly chop down to strike the middle of the column of qi.

Spiraling energy flared out.

Xu Ziling has learned from experience that his spiraling energy was focused and did not disperse, like a sharp awl breaking into the opponent’s exploding energy.

‘Bang!’

Both men tumbled backward and spurted blood at the same time. It was injury on top of injury.

This time Hou Xibai could only neutralized twenty-percent of Xu Ziling’s qi power, hence he suffered quite a loss.

If it were on a flat land, he had seventy, eighty-percent confidence to put Xu Ziling to death. But on this plank walkway, Xu Ziling was able to bring out the fantastic qi power he obtained from the ‘Secret to Long Life’, and unleashed its greatest might.

Both sides withdrew five steps back.

Hou Xibai wiped the bloodstain on the corner of his mouth with his sleeve; smiling bitterly, he said, “Please let Zaixia retract my arrogant words. The fact is, this time I was itching: seeing an opportunity that was difficult to come by, I wanted to force Xu Xiong to swap pointers, not really wanted to hurt Xu Xiong. Xu Xiong is honorable and magnanimous, please pardon this offense.”

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Xu Ziling said, “Hou Xiong is so straightforward, Xiaodi admires you extremely. Since that’s the case, is Hou Xiong going to enter Sichuan, or leave Sichuan?”

Hou Xibai laughed aloud and said, “Xu Xiong has quick movements and quick mouth. Naturally Zaixia is moving forwards. Xu Xiong, please do as you wish.”

Xu Ziling smiled slightly, while forcefully pressing down another mouthful of blood that was welling up in his throat, and then leisurely and confidently he walked past Hou Xibai.

Actually, the severity of his injury was far heavier than Hou Xibai thought. Basically he did not even have any strength left to lift up his fist; therefore, he must leave this dangerous place as far away as possible at once.

Hou Xibai hesitated for a moment, and then stepped aside to let Xu Ziling pass. He even bade him farewell earnestly, with a reluctant-to-part expression.

Xu Ziling traveled for more than ten li in one breath. After making sure that Hou Xibai did not follow, he violently vomited a mouthful of blood and dejectedly sat down on the ground.

Seven warships slowly sailed out of a hidden tributary, heading for the Great River.

All warships were in total blackout, they only rely on the moon and the stars to guide them toward their target.

Chen Sheng’s Jianghuai Navy had left Liuhe at dusk, sailing speedily toward Jiangdu. According to the report, their fleet consisted of a total of more than one hundred and twenty ships, big and small; thirty of which were warships, the rest were cargo ships carrying supply wagons and army provisions.

If this fleet met with a mishap, not only Du Fuwei’s vanguard unit would lose support, their plan of besieging the city might be delayed as well. Under this ‘nothing else to do’ situation, Du Fuwei, whose rage soared to the heavens, would have to find someone to vent his anger, and the only way for him to vent his anger would be Shen Lun, who would definitely try to redeem himself.

In war, the objective ought to be striving for victory, whether by fair means or foul. Using spies was a normal practice in military strategy, ever since the ancient times.

Kou Zhong, who looked somewhat like the Long Spear Lad Gu Jun, a fierce general under Shen Lun’s command, was standing on the deck. To his left and right were Chen Changlin and Bu Tianzhi, respectively. The atmosphere was a bit tense, everybody was holding his breath, quieting their qi, ready to deal with the imminent raid.

The key to their victory was to catch an enemy off guard with a surprise attack [idiom, from Sunzi’s ‘The Art of War’]; using fast to defeat the slow, while the enemy was caught off guard, to break the formation of their fleet, to use every means to put the enemy into chaos. And then when the enemy was unclear of what was going on, they could use the few to defeat the many.

The seven ships stopped at the dense forest at the mouth of the river, right next to the riverbank.

The rolling Great River ahead was flowing to the east.

Sailing for two more sichen from here, one would reach Jiangdu.

Kou Zhong took a deep breath and looked up to the sky. His heart was full of emotional stirring.

In his heart, he still had nothing but good opinion and respect toward Du Fuwei, but for the sake of even more far-reaching goal, he had to do this to Du Fuwei. Thinking about this, his heart was saddened.

“They should be here by now!” Bu Tianzhi whispered in his ear, “Our timing is very accurate.”

Kou Zhong regained his senses. Casting his eyes toward the confluence of the tributary and the main river, his spirit entered the calm state.

Chen Changlin spoke quietly, “Tonight the southeast wind is blowing. If we follow the enemy’s tail tightly, we can attack by following the current and the wind at our tail. It’s going to be absolutely sure. Problem is, it might turn into a full-scale battle, and then it’s going to be more difficult to defeat Chen Sheng’s command ship first.”

Bu Tianzhi sighed and said, “Too bad we do not have any information on Chen Sheng’s natural disposition; otherwise, we could plan our attack focusing on his character. Right now we can only take a risk.”

Kou Zhong nodded and said, “The most dangerous situation would be if his command ship is at the head of the procession, because then we must take the risk of attacking first, and face the danger of the rest of the warships counterattacking by following the current.”

Bu Tianzhi spoke heavily, “If we stay close to the Great River’s northern bank, we could release smoke and scatter ashes.”

Kou Zhong resolutely said, “We might as well take a two-pronged approach; while we raid the opponent’s command ship, the other six warships will separate so that the enemy cannot see our real strength. While confusing the enemy with smoke, we use cross-shaped [orig. ‘ten’ character] arrows to burn the enemy’s sail, use trebuchet to smash the opponent’s hull, to create damage as much as possible. Once it’s done, we can abandon the ship and flee into the water.”

And then he added one sentence, “As long as Chen Sheng is wounded, we have successfully accomplished this mission.”

“They are here!” Chen Changlin cried out in low voice.

Two lightweight battle ships of Jianghuai Army were passing by ahead.

After waiting for half a day, four comparatively larger warships and a dozen or so cargo ships appeared.

And then three multi-deck huge battleships followed.

Bu Tianzhi was delighted, “The Heaven is helping us; that ship in the middle is the command ship.”

Kou Zhong’s spirit was greatly aroused; his true qi flowing through the meridians in his entire body, he shouted, “Success or failure will be decided by this battle. Brothers, follow me, attack!”

The order issued, the Meng Chong Doujian [see Chapter 5] left its hiding place, the oars came out; following the current, it flew toward the enemy ship at full speed.

※ ※ ※

By the time Xu Ziling opened his eyes, the sky was full or stars, the night sky on the high mountain felt even more enchanting.

He circulated his true qi for two more cycles before standing up to his full height. But his head still felt light and dull, so he could not help but was horrified.

Since practicing the xinfa of the ‘Secret to Long Life’, no matter how serious the injury, he was always able to recover quickly. He had never tried treating his injury close to five sichen like this, yet his meridians still did not flow freely, and the qi circulation was still difficult. From this, it could clearly be seen how formidable Hou Xibai’s Hua Jian Pai demonic skill really was.

If he had to fight right now, at most he could only use forty or fifty-percent of his usual skill. Naturally he could not control his true qi like playing with magic like he usually did.

He was well aware that Hou Xibai would not let him off. The moment he found out that his internal injury was much lighter than Xu Ziling’s would be the moment he would look for him.

Even if he recovered one-hundred-percent of his power, perhaps he would still be not Hou Xibai’s match. Therefore, the only thing Xu Ziling could not right now was to get as far away as possible, so that Hou Xibai would not be able to find him.

He was about to leave when he heard the sound of wind from the plank walkway leading toward Sichuan. While Xu Ziling was crying ‘Bad!’ inwardly, a man, with face like beeswax, emaciated, his forehead and cheeks full of lines of hardship, rapidly flew over toward him.

Evidently the man had never thought he would meet a passerby in the dark of the night, on this dangerous path deep in the mountains and desolate valley; he halted his steps in shock.

Xu Ziling groaned inwardly.

Surprisingly, it was the utterly vicious, extremely evil, ‘Going Against The Tide’ You Niaojuan, the Sheng Ji Men’s renegade disciple, the one who ranked last in the list of the Eight Major Martial Art Masters of the Demonic Way.

It was indeed ‘enemies on a narrow road’ [idiom].

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong’s boat was very fast. In the blink of an eye it already rushed out of the tributary and swiftly entered the flowing stream of the Great River.

They saw ahead of them, behind, left and right were the enemy’s battleships and cargo ships; it was quite frightening.

Bu Tianzhi was at the helm. He steered the battleship toward the northern bank of the Great River.

Fiery arrows were shot, lime were scattered, while at the same time the stern produced heavy smoke, which, because of the tail wind, rapidly enveloping the command ship.

Battle drums were like rolling thunder.

The enemy’s fleet was in chaos.

The boat was rapidly pressing toward the command ship. Momentarily the battle drums and the battle cry resounded across the Great River.

The four light battleships trailing the command ship were immediately dispersing to strike back ferociously toward Kou Zhong’s ship.

Arrows and rocks rained down on them, the momentum was extremely astonishing.

Although Bu Tianzhi did everything he could to take the circuitous route, the opponent’s rocks still managed to hit them. The crenelated wall was shattered, holes and cracks were constantly appearing on the hull, wood splinters were flying everywhere.

Fortunately, by this time their own warships appeared from the tributary in continuous stream, cutting the enemy’s fleet into several sections, so that their head and tail were separated from each other.

‘Boom!’

The other multi-deck ship turned around and rammed their ship. This is called the tough wins against the fragile, the big wins against the small. The bow shattered immediately. It spun around twice on the Great River, and finally capsized.

Kou Zhong shouted loudly, “Boys [orig. ‘er lang men’]! Board!” Carrying his long spear, he soared into the sky.

Whether they succeeded or not this time, it would be up to him.