Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 10 Chapter 5 part2

The one on his left was the Great General under Shen Luoyan's command, Chen Tianyue, who impersonated Shang Zhen, a martial art master from Hua Shan Pai [Mount Hua in Shaanxi]. Hearing the command, together with a young martial art master on Li Tianfan's other side, Xia Xinquan, one sword and one saber, they intercepted from left and right, one slashed upward the other stabbed downward, with the intention of giving Kou Zhong difficulty in dealing with it.

In terms of strategy, they were doing the proper thing, simply because anybody could see that Kou Zhong's saber strike some kind of un-retractable overbearing momentum, so that it was impossible to meet the saber blade head-on.

Everybody at Li Xiuning's side pulled their weapons and thronged forward to prevent the enemy from forming a siege against Kou Zhong. Kou Zhong laughed aloud; like a swimming fish he flashed in between the two enemies, unexpectedly Chen Tianyue and Xia Xinquan's sword and saber fell on an empty space, while their bodies were brushing close to each other. It was precisely this cun or so distance that decided their fate.

Like lightning flashes the yellow glow struck.

Xia Xinquan's power was at least two notches below Chen Tianyue. He was the first to be hit by the saber, so that he spun and staggered back, his blood splashed. Even he himself was not clear which part of his body was hit, due to the speed of the saber.

Chen Tianyue now had to face Kou Zhong alone. By this time, Li Tianfan, Shen Luoyan, and the others were retreating outwards. While he was in shock and was about to dodge out as well, Kou Zhong's saber qi had already enveloped his entire body. The Moon in the Well sometimes appeared another time disappeared in front of his eyes; the changes were indeterminate. Clenching his teeth, he focused all his energy, and slashed out with his sword.

Ever since his debut, this was the first time that he was unable to grasp the changes in the opponent's moves, and was forced to brandish his sword blindly.

‘Dang! Dang! Dang!'

Chen Tianyue continuously changed his direction three times, while also continuously backing off before he was able to neutralize Kou Zhong's one saber strike.

Kou Zhong was cheering inwardly, but his saber was still relentless. The Moon in the Well fantastically filled the air with its yellow light, like howling wind and torrential rain it stormed toward the pasting and gasping Chen Tianyue.

This moment Li Xiuning and the others also arrived. Shen Luoyan and Li Tianfan exchanged glances; they knew that their plot tonight has completely fallen through and stood exposed, plus they were totally under the enemy's control. If they did not seize this opportunity to escape, they could forget about staying alive. Thereupon with a loud shout they quickly flew away.

Chen Tianyue's miserable scream was heard from behind.

When Li Tianfan and Shen Luoyan looked back, they only saw Li Xiuning and the others chasing them like the wind, but Kou Zhong had disappeared.

※ ※ ※

Xu Ziling flew down at an angle like a big bird toward Shang Xiuxun. Xiang Batian and Fang Jianding immediately soared to the sky to intercept.

Cao Yinglong's spear merged with his body into one entity as he charged toward Shang Xiuxun, becoming a blur of spear shadow, with awe-inspiring momentum. His thought was that if he managed to separate the two, and strike them one by one, even though they had lost Mao Zao, it would still worth the price.

This moment Shang Xiuxun was busy facing the three long sabers and two long spears that attacked wildly from all directions, so that momentarily she had to change from offense to defense.

Seeing Cao Yinglong coming to attack, she knew the situation was not good; hurriedly she focused her attention and gave her all. Her left hand unleashing her exquisite and outstanding technique, she grabbed a spear being thrust toward her flank. Exerting a sudden force, ‘thump!' the bandit wielding the spear immediately fell sitting down on the ground, with blood flowed out of his eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Without making any noise he fell face up and gave up his ghost.

Applying a sucking force onto the sword in her right hand, she led the man wielding a saber who was meeting her face-to-face, toward the spear thrusting at her from behind. With a miserable cry the spear pierced his chest and thru his body.

At the same time she flew backward; not only to evade the other two sabers, but also to make the spear wielders behind her to kill their own men. In his confused state of mind, plus he was unable to hold back his spear, a saber wildly struck the vital point on the pit of his stomach. The man was thrown backward.

Shang Xiuxun abruptly charged forward, the sword in her hand turned into thousands of sword shadows, two saber-wielders were nearly hit at the same time, and thus ended the bandits' effort to besiege her.

Meanwhile Cao Yinglong had just flown above her. Seeing her brilliant swordsmanship, he knew that they would not be able to capture her alive, so he put all his strength into his spear to strike.

The violent qi was suffocating that the crowd of bandits had to move back, opening up a large area of open space.

‘Bang! Bang!' continuous clashes rang as Xu Ziling relentlessly exchanged blows with Xiang Batian's pair of rings and Fang Jianding's pair of wolf-teeth clubs.

Although he had the advantage of downward momentum, the force from the two men's combined assault was enough to jolt him that his mouth spurted blood, even a small piece of skin and flesh from his right leg was gashed by the wolf-teeth mace in Fang Jianding's right hand.

However, the two Big Bandits had also suffered quite a setback. Xu Ziling's fantastic technique and his spiraling energy pressed them down that they were unable to unleash their follow-up move, and their bodies were spun sideways and were thrown to the ground, in such a sorry state.

On the other side, Cao Yinglong was striking down from the air, each spear strike was fast beyond human comprehension, yet each one also carried a flash of change, swift and powerful without equal, unceasingly taking advantage of each spear-sword impact force to propel himself halfway back into the air, before using the thousand-catty fall to drop back down; hence he was always occupying advantageous position.

Being the Ranch Master of Flying Horse Ranch, all along Shang Xiuxun was lacking Cao Yinglong's rich real combat experience; it was only now did she realize that she had fallen into his evil schemes. Not only she had to deal Cao Yinglong's full weight, she had also cope with unending volleys of arrows and secret projectiles from four sides, eight directions. As one can well imagine, she was struggling with everything she had, and very soon she already suffered not a few injuries.

While her fragrant sweats were dripping profusely, Xu Ziling arrived.

Cao Yinglong was aghast; he had never expected his hurricane-like offensive still failed to put this delicately pretty beauty in order. While maintaining his attack in disregard of minor injuries he suffered, a strong vortex of qi stormed at him from above.

Cao Yinglong groaned inwardly. Raising a mouthful of true qi, he turned from smart to clumsy, and soared to the air, brandishing his spear to meet Xu Ziling's fist head-on.

A bizarre thing happened: Xu Ziling's own body was unexpectedly spinning faster and faster, so that by the time the fist and the spear met, Xu Ziling's body had turned into a rapidly spinning shadow. Watching this, the hundred or so bandits in the battlefield were flabbergasted.

Cao Yinglong had no choice; the power of his entire body had been concentrated on the tip of his spear, so he might as well shoot it out toward Xu Ziling's fist.

‘Boom!'

Two streams of qi collided, violent explosion spread out everywhere, forcing everybody to back away.

Cao Yinglong did not feel like he was hit by a solid object, rather, it was a huge, unequalled rapid vortex of energy with sharp edges, which rolled around his own true qi and forced it back into his body.

He was an outstanding character after all; throwing his body sideways, he rolled over while spewing a mouthful of fresh blood before he was able to disperse the opponent's extremely strange qi energy.

Chapter end