Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 11 Chapter 2 part4

Shang Peng and Shang He were adept at fighting together, individually they were also rare martial art masters, yet as soon as they met her, they could not figure out her technique. One wrong move and they had to pay the full price of having their four hands bound by her exquisite beyond compare technique that they were unable to unleash their power at all, and were beaten to death.

Once this thought entered his mind, Kou Zhong let out a wild roar and spun around to dodge the ribbon winding around his neck. As he called out out, "Xiao Ling!' he chopped three times in succession, but each chop actually struck empty air.

It was a gamble. He was betting that Xu Ziling would arrive in time, so that while he cut Wanwan's movement space Xu Ziling would give her a fatal blow.

Shang Xiuxun saw the tragic death of the two elders, but being an outstanding person herself, she raised a mouthful of true qi to totally put her rage and surging wave of emotion under control, and then fast as lightning she flashed forward.

Right this moment Kou Zhong was executing his third precise, hair-splitting saber chop, so that Wanwan, who changed indefinitely like a ghost, so that others could not grasp her position, suddenly had her path cut-off.

Naturally Shang Xiuxun immediately exploited this opportunity. Her treasured sword disguised ingenuity as clumsiness, it rose up like a poisonous dragon rearing its head, it appeared to cut the ribbon brushing toward Kou Zhong.

This moment Xu Ziling was just flying over Wanwan's head. Without Kou Zhong calling out to remind him, he knew that this was a one in a thousand golden opportunity; he struck down with both palms, while sending out his vortex of energy.

Until now, Wanwan has been able to control the overall situation, by exploiting the strength variation of the opponents, and skillfully strike them one by one. But after Kou Zhong executed the three saber strikes based on his own understanding of the ‘Yi Jian Dashi' Fu Cailin's Yi Jian Technique, for the first time Wanwan realized that she could no longer ‘obtain wind when she wanted wind, obtain rain when she wanted rain', like before.

By this time, the battlefield by the small pavilion was filled with the dead and the injured, or with those who practically were unable to get close to Wanwan. Only three people remained, Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling and Shang Xiuxun, whose martial art skill was the strongest, and who were still able to strike back.

Wanwan was a smart and cunning person, otherwise, how could she become the beloved disciple who received direct instruction from Zhu Yuyan? Intentionally she used her most ruthless technique to kill Fang Zetao, and then with blitzkrieg method she struck the others one by one, so Jingling and Flying Horse Ranch could be subdued hands down.

But Kou Zhong's three saber strikes were completely beyond her expectation, it gave her for the first time the disadvantage feeling of falling into a besiege.

Kou Zhong's first saber strike fell behind her, in the shape of a stream of spiraling strong force, cutting off her retreat route. The second and third separately chopped down in front and at her right side, practically sealing off her escape route from these two directions.

If she fought Kou Zhong one-on-one, if this moment she used the ‘absorbing technique' from Tian Mo Gong, she could have absorbed the three streams of spiraling energy and took it as her own. Taking advantage of the moment Kou Zhong raised his qi, killing him would be as easy as turning her palm down.

If she wanted to withdraw, she could have moved to the left, or perhaps soared up to the air. But now those two directions were sealed by Shang Xiuxun and Xu Ziling, respectively; leaving her the only option of facing the attack head-on, relying on her real skill.

From this it could be seen how brilliant Kou Zhong's eyesight and strategy was.

Wanwan's elegant eyes shot an unusual gleam that has never been seen before. Two short blades suddenly slipped out of her sleeves down to the hollow of her palms; flashing two streaks of fantastic light the blades separately met Shang Xiuxun and Xu Ziling.

Finally, she was forced to use the skill that was buried deep at the bottom of the chest.

This pair of a chi-long short blades was known as ‘Tian Mo Shuang Zhan' [Celestial Devil Twin Slayers], one of the tree treasures of Yin Gui Pai, specializing in breaking the true qi of opponent from internal school. It enhanced Tian Mo Gong's ability that it would be like a tiger that has grown wings, its power was hard to withstand.

This moment the recovery speed of Kou Zhong's true qi was a hairbreadth faster that Wanwan's guess. As soon as the yellow glow flashed, the saber was already chopping down.

With pressure from three sides, if it were someone else, her head would have been separated from her body. Too bad it was Wanwan, who was proficient in the heretical school's supreme skill, ‘Tian Mo Gong'.

In that split second, Tian Mo Gong formed a boundary: with Wanwan in the center, the area about a zhang radius has suddenly sunken to become like a bottomless pit.

On the surface, this change was not apparent; it was purely in the form of qi energy. The yin [negative/feminine or ‘yin and yang'] and cold qi locked the three people inside.

‘Bing!'

Subsequently a series of clear ringing of sword and blade clashing against each other was heard; in term of speed and frequency, it was comparable to the pitter-patter sound of rain of banana leaves.

Shang Xiuxun was the first to cross weapons with Wanwan.

She was using the most formidable sword technique handed down from generation to generation, the unique skill of the Shang family. Each sting of the sword turned into sword pattern, moving swiftly indeterminately. But each move was an all-out attack that was more than Wanwan was able to deal with, with the aim of giving Kou and Xu, two boys, the opportunity to deal fatal blow on Wanwan.

If they let Wanwan lived, it would be difficult for them to sleep peacefully in the future.

All along Wanwan has been trying to avoid direct contact with Shang Xiuxun, precisely because she knew how swift and fierce her swordsmanship was, and how good she was in entangling the opponent in a prolonged battle. But since she was unable to avoid it, she could only launch the ‘Sou Xin Jianfa' [soul-searching sword technique] created by Zhu Yuyan herself. Fast beyond human understanding she stabbed the blade a dozen times, each strike stabbed at the dead-center of Shang Xiuxun's sword pattern.

Sword qi collided with each other.

Shang Xiuxun felt that each sword strike of the opponent carried a stream of cold and poisonous true qi, which flowed from the sword and penetrated her channels, which was quite strenuous for her to deal with it.

The most shocking thing was that no matter how she changed her style, Wanwan seemed to clearly understand the key point, which enabled her to anticipate Shang Xiuxun's next move and meet the attack head-on.

By the twelfth sword strike, Wanwan managed to break through the true qi protecting Shang Xiuxun's body, the precise moment when Xu Ziling's pair of palms arrived.

‘Ding, ding! Ding, ding!'

Like fresh flower Xu Ziling's palms bloomed. The five fingers of his right hand moved in an obscure and incomparably strange style, like plucking a string instrument or in sweeping motion, with the total energy focused on fending off Wanwan's Tian Mo blade swiftly stabbing on him.

Meanwhile, his left hand turned into a fist, punching at Wanwan's left arm, which was attacking Shang Xiuxun.

Kou Zhong's Moon in the Well was flawlessly in-sync with Xu Ziling's attack, as it sliced across Wanwan's waist.

In this critical moment, Wanwan's beautiful eyes, the eyes that could hook the soul and break the spirit, suddenly lit up with clear dark blue bizarre light, as she swiftly pulled back the Tian Mo's demonic energy that was attacking Shang Xiuxun.

Actually, Shang Xiuxun was thinking that serious injury was inevitable. Seeing the opponent suddenly ‘beat the gong to recall the troops', she quickly raised the true qi inside her to force the remaining Tian Mo's demonic energy out of her meridians, while at the same time raising her sword that like a gale it rolled toward Wanwan.

Three great martial art masters, while gaining the upper hand they fought with all their might.

Even if it were Ning Daoqi himself came, perhaps it would entail extremely strenuous effort for him to deal with them, as well as a great chance that he would suffer defeat or even die.

Just with these three saber strikes, Kou Zhong managed to reverse the battle situation. Others could only helplessly watched the development of the situation, and were in no position to interfere.

Right this moment, where people were watching with baited breath, Wanwan's entire body seemed to shrink, before bursting open again.

Wanwan folded her limbs first; she curled herself up into a ball to delay the moment the opponent's attack reaching her body slightly. And then, as if filled by her qi, her snow white robe ballooned out to take the three opponents' swift and fierce attack, leaving her only wearing white undergarment, leaving her jade arms and powder-white legs complete exposed to everybody's eyes. Her graceful line and her beauty stopped everybody's breath.

‘Bang! Bang! Bang!'

Shang Xiuxun's treasured sword, Xu Ziling's fist and palm, and Kou Zhong's Moon in the Well, could only strike on her ‘cicada sheds its carapace'-like white robe.

‘Bang!'

Under the three pincer attacks of the qi energy, the ballooning white robe exploded into pieces.

The three people were severely shaken by the enormous Tian Mo Gong energy contained inside the white robe that they were thrown outside and tumbled down.

‘Wah!'

Wanwan spurted a mouthful of blood, her face turned green. Like a clump of cloud she kicked the ground and flew, in the blink of an eye she was already perched on top of the wall.

The bright moon was high up in the sky.

Her flawless half-naked tender body stood beautifully on the wall, she turned her head around and said with a smile, "Seven days later, after qie's [a humble way to say ‘I' for a woman] body recovers, that will be the day Kou Xiong and Xu Xiong lose your lives.”

And then she suddenly disappeared.

Everybody looked at each other, speechless.

This moment a warrior rushed into the garden. Seeing the horrifying scene where the dead and the injured were scattered everywhere, his legs went soft and he dropped down on his knees on the ground.

Feng Ge struggled hard to sit up. "What is it?” he called out hoarsely.

Raising the letter in his hand high, the warrior replied in a trembling voice, "Flying pigeon letter from the Ranch, the Four Big Bandits launch the second round of attack to the Ranch, in coordination with Jianghuai Army's attack to Jingling.”

Everybody turned pale.

Liang Zhi scrambled forward to take the letter and handed it over to Shang Xiuxun.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling looked into each other's eyes, thinking that if the Ranch did not come to Jingling's aid, with Jingling's generals dead and injured, how could they fight this battle?

Finished reading the letter, Shang Xiuxun handed it over to Liang Zhi and said resolutely, "We will return immediately. What's your position?” Naturally the last question was directed to Kou and Xu, two boys.

Kou Zhong's gaze fell upon Shang Peng and Shang He's dead bodies; he sighed and said, "I really don't know. Xiao Ling, what do you think?”

Grieved, Feng Ge said, "You must not go, Jingling's survival depends entirely on you!”

Phew! What a long fight ...

Chapter end