Book 25 Chapter 6 – Trying One’s Luck

Seeing Kou Zhong, Cui Jixiu immediately knew that the situation has turned bad for him; thinking that he should strike first and gain the upper hand, he shouted, “Brothers, charge!” while at the same time waving his hand to release the fireworks, which exploded in the night sky, creating a burst of flower of light.

And thus, with this sentence the imminent fierce battle was in full swing.

The two sides facing each other shouted in unison; like a powerful current rolling over the earth, the battle was raging under cover of the thick smoke and the blazing flames. Battle cries shook the heaven. The situation was desperate.

Kou Zhong’s target was Cui Jixiu. If he could capture this man alive, he would be able to gather most valuable intelligence concerning Lin Shihong. He and Xu Ziling had speculated that Lin Shihong might be Yin Gui Pai man; perhaps he could find the answer from Cui Jixiu.

Who could have thought that Cui Jixiu was incomparably cunning? He ordered the martial art masters around him to go all-out in dealing with Kou Zhong, but he himself withdrew backward to evade.

When fast as lightning Kou Zhong swept forward, more than a dozen of the strongest martial art masters of the enemy’s side intercepted him head-on. The first two had a very fast shenfa; the one on the left was using long spear, creating more than a dozen fantastical streaks of spear shadow, stabbing and slashing, full and mighty, toward Kou Zhong’s face. The other man was using a saber, swiftly hacking down, creating a screaming saber wind, cutting diagonally down on the side of Kou Zhong’s neck. Not only his power was deep, his saber technique was vicious.

At the same moment, from the enemy’s ships mooring on the sh.o.r.e came another shaking-the-heaven shout. Just by listening to the sound of the shouts, evidently Cui Jixiu’s side still had a bunch of reinforcement troops lying in ambush. Seeing the rocket flare they immediately charged into the village.

Ouyang Qian’s side was not weak either. Several hundred Li Liao warriors lying in ambush also appeared one after another from the other side of the village to join the fierce battle.

Drawing the Moon in the Well from his back, with thick and cold murderous aura bursting out of him, Kou Zhong seemed to be dodging the spear with ease. ‘Dang!’ he blocked the enemy’s saber. Spinning his body around, he flashed through between the two men with only a hairsbreadth of clearance, and then pulling his body up, he happened to see Cui Jixiu, who, under the protection of more than twenty of his men – was trying to get away from the battle. Surprisingly though, he did not retreat toward the coast.

The enemies intercepting Kou Zhong was shocked at first, but then they were overjoyed at the turn of events.

Shocked, because Kou Zhong’s shenfa was exquisite beyond compare, unexpectedly it was so fast that in that instant they were unable to fathom; he was dodging so swiftly that he put them in the position where they had the power, but no way of unleashing it. Overjoyed, because Kou Zhong pulled back about a zhang away, which made him the easiest and most clear-cut target, and that when they stumbled down, they might still be alive.

Immediately sabers and spears were raised; everybody was storing up their momentum to wait.

The contradiction in Kou Zhong’s heart was aggravating. When he pulled out, he still had power remaining. With his ability to take a breath rapidly to change direction, he was sure that he could overtake the slipping away Cui Jixiu. Yet if he did that, he would let these dozen or so most overbearing of the enemy’s martial art masters to deal with Ouyang Qian’s Li Liao warriors. If that happened, perhaps he could capture Cui Jixiu, but perhaps Ouyang Qian would lose this battle.

It was certainly a case of the fish and the bear’s paw, you can’t have both at the same time [idiom from Mencius].

Kou Zhong thundered while making his decision; he tossed aside the temptation to stop Cui Jixiu.

‘Swish!’

One of the enemies facing him shook out his hand to release more than a dozen iron slingshot pellets, using the ‘flower rain filling the sky’ technique to sprinkle the pellets on him; an extremely insidious trick.

Naturally Kou Zhong was not worried at all. Exchanging the true qi within his body, he simply moved half a zhang across; not only to evade the secret projectiles, but also to make a somersault, his long saber chopped down on the head of one of the enemies blocking him.

That man was outstanding as well. Although the attack happened so suddenly, in critical time he did not panic; he bent his waist backward, while raising the pair of hatchets in his left and right hands upwards to block. It was also a ferocious, exceptionally bold and powerful move.

Kou Zhong roared in laughter. Releasing his spiraling energy, he let out two saber strikes in succession; with all his strength he heavily hacked down the opposite party’s left and right big hatchets.

In all his life, the man had never experienced the unique taste of spiraling energy. Not only the palm of his hands split, his meridians surged, he spurted blood on the spot, splashing blood everywhere until the sky spins, the earth goes round, and he dropped on hit b.u.t.ts on the ground.

These two saber strikes immediately awed the other enemies that the originally rainbow-like momentum immediately went away like scattered clouds disappearing smoke.

When he landed on the ground, Kou Zhoung shouted, “Cui Jixiu is running away! You guys are his scapegoat!”

This shout was imbued with his power; it spread widely all over the battlefield.

The more than a dozen enemy’s martial art masters besieging Kou Zhong looked at each other with doubt on their faces; the attacking power immediately ceased.

Seeing he had no time to lose, the Moon in the Well fantastically created a streak of saber light covering one of the enemies, while he shouted, “Whoever can block my, ‘Shao Shuai’ Kou Zhong’s three saber strikes, I, Kou Zhong, will let him live.”

Suddenly hearing the name ‘Kou Zhong’, none of the enemies did not have his countenance changed.

Worse yet, the enemy who blocked Kou Zhong’s first blade had his guts turned cold, he felt that under the saber qi his entire body was falling into an icehouse; his skin tingling, it felt as if it was about to split open, and it was difficult for him to keep his eyes open. The worst thing was that he could not either advance or retreat, and had nowhere to dodge, no way out, except to brandish his sword to block.

‘Dang!

The overbearing-beyond-human-comprehension saber qi penetrated his sword and burst into his body. This man, along with his sword, was hacked down by Kou Zhong and was thrown to the side. Unexpectedly, while still alive, he was jolted that his seven apertures spurted blood, his breathing ceased and he met a violent death.

Because of their atrocity, which made one’s hair stand up in anger, Kou Zhong did not have the slightest regret; on the contrary, murderous intent filled his breast, his saber light was transformed into long rainbow, rolling over the enemies. At this time, due to Kou Zhong’s psychological tactics, the battlefield has become a one-sided situation.

When the Cui Army saw that Cui Jixiu was gone without any shadow, any trace, as well as heard Kou Zhong’s name, they were scared out of their wits; n.o.body had the heart to zealously continue fighting, they all scattered in all directions to save their own little life.

It was after killing two more enemies that Kou Zhong found that his torrential momentum has scattered the enemies that not a single one remained. Inwardly he thought ‘what a close call!’ because if these dozen or so men cooperated with one heart, if they disregarded life and death and joined hands to stake their lives against him, even if he managed to score a victory, perhaps he would have to pay such a heavy price.

Sweeping his gaze around, he saw that the situation has fallen under the Li Liao beauty, Ouyang Qian’s control. His heart moved, he soared away and flew in the direction where Cui Jixiu was slipping away.

After changing his disguise from Yue Shan to the scar-faced hero, Xu Ziling followed far behind the ‘Mad Scholar of Henan’ Zheng Shiru, who was walking slowly along the main street of the south market, where there was no distinction between night and day.

Although the number of pedestrians on the street was a far cry from the Mid-Autumn Festival night, it was still quite crowded. Probably most of these people were coming from elsewhere to enjoy the festivities, and still have not fully expressed themselves.

Thereupon Xu Ziling had another plot brewing in his heart.

As long as he knew to whom Zheng Shiru was going to report, if he treaded carefully and continued following him, perhaps even before the third watch of the night, he would be able to find the ‘Heavenly Lord’ Xi Ying, so then he would not have to fall into the inferior situation where there were mult.i.tude of enemies, few friends [idiom from Mencius]. If fighting one on one and he still could not subdue Xi Ying, then he would only have himself to blame for his low skill, sluggish fortune. Otherwise, forget about running into Wanwan or perhaps those whatever elder-level martial art masters, with just an additional Bian Bufu, he would be forced to bag his food before finish eating.

Other skills he did not dare to boast, but hiding and following trails, tracking in secret and ways to follow and peek, he had quite a confidence.

At least toward a martial master of head of a school caliber like An Long, his technique was still effective.

Thinking to this point, even his steps were becoming light and quick. Ahead of him, Zheng Shiru suddenly disappeared. Xu Ziling quickly sped up his steps. ‘San Hua Lou’ [see previous chapter], three characters impressively appeared on the horizontal plaque above the rectangular gate. Looking inside the gate, he saw brilliant lantern lights hidden behind flowers and trees, and Zheng Shiru was politely greeted by the big man at the reception, and then he disappeared into the sumptuous hall, which tastefully chosen façade enhanced the exquisiteness of the stone steps leading up into the hall.

Immediately he recalled Zheng Shiru mentioning this most famous pleasure quarters in Chengdu, which, according to him, was equally famous with the Shi Lin Yuan [lit. scholar/warrior forest park] of Chang’An.

All the robust looking men at the gate were looking at him up and down, making him feel even more uncomfortable.

San Hua Lou was obviously a thriving and prosperous business. Gorgeous carriages came one after another, forcing Xu Ziling to get out of the way, while inwardly he was groaning incessantly.

Every time they visited a pleasure house, they never had anything good coming out of it, while bad things more and more emerged. Even bigger problem was that even if he followed inside, Zheng Shiru could not possibly say that he was his friend. Even if he somehow managed to get in, he would not be so lucky as to have a room adjacent to Zheng Shiru’s. However, to give up halfway like this, his heart was unwilling. Since he did not have anywhere better to go, why not try his luck in this pleasure house?

Thinking about Kou Zhong, he fiercely gnashed his teeth and stepped toward the gate.

One of the big men guarding the door stretched out his arm to block, but his manner was still polite and courteous; he asked, “May I ask if Daye have a reservation?”

Stunned, Xu Ziling replied, “I can’t come in without a reservation?”

Another big man apologetically said, “Daye, please forgive us; the days before and after the holiday are when we have the highest number of honored guests. For the past few days all the rooms here have been fully booked. Sir may try the Zui Xiang Wo [lit. intoxicated-by-the-fragrant nest] on the street west of here. Their ladies are quite good.”

Xu Ziling was greatly embarra.s.sed, thinking that his luck in the pleasure house this time was even worse than the last time; he could not even get through the door.

This moment the big man who received Zheng Shiru into the building happened to come back. Seeing Xu Ziling, unexpectedly a big smile broke across his face as if he had just seen an old friend, as he cordially blurted out, “Isn’t this Daye a friend of Hou Gongzi? On Mid-Autumn night Xiaoren had seen Daye and Hou Gongzi were surrounded by Miss Caiqi’s dancing and drumming troupe!”

Hou Xibai was, most probably, the VIP guest of any pleasure house. Thereupon the other two men immediately became very cordial. One of them even blamed him, saying, “Daye should have mentioned that you are Hou Gongzi’s friend! Hou Gongzi has reserved a room for ten consecutive days, but until now we have not seen him come. Our delicate and pretty ladies are looking forward to see him with their hearts burning!”

The other man asked, “Is Hou Gongzi coming soon?”

Xu Ziling did not know whether he should laugh or cry. Without any better option he thickened his face and said, “Certainly! He is coming soon.”

The man receiving Zheng Shiru said, “Xiaoren Yang Ji; may I ask Daye’s honorable surname and great given name?”

Xu Ziling remembered Hou Xibai mentioned the ‘Daoba Ke’ Gong Chenchun [see Book 24 Chapter 6]; hence he blurted out without thinking, “Zaixia surnamed Gong, with a given name Chenchun.”

Even he himself felt that this name sounded very strange. Yet apparently Yang Ji did not share his feeling; he simply said cheerfully, “Gong Ye, please come with Xiaoren.”

Since they have come, we should make them comfortable [idiom: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em]; brothel luck could also be ‘an apricot brought to the top of Mount Tai’ [Chinese saying from the Book of Changes, meaning when adversity reaches the extreme, it will transform into a good one]. After rea.s.suring himself, Xu Ziling followed him inside.

If Cui Jixiu was escaping alone, there would be very little chance of overtaking him. Fortunately, from the snapping branches and leaves, the footprints on the road, and other vestiges along the way, Kou Zhong could infer that there were at least fifteen to twenty men running away with him. In one breath Kou Zhong was trying to catch him for two li straight, but when he reached a small stream, all the traces he had been following suddenly disappeared.

It made sense.

At first Cui Jixiu and the others must have fled in panic and did not choose their route carefully, because they wanted to get away from danger as quickly as possible. But once they reached a safe place, to avoid the enemy’s following their trails, they would have used their brains to eliminate any traces.

Kou Zhong focused his power into his eyes and carefully scanned the area.

The gurgling brook meandering over the spa.r.s.e wood was flowing from south to north. Without even asking he knew that the enemies must be wading along the water; therefore, they did not leave any traces on the other side. Question is: were they going left on the creek, or right?

This was like the first test of the tracking skill that he learned from Ba Fenghan; if he was successful in pursuing Cui Jixiu, it could be considered that he finished his apprenticeship.

Carefully examining the footprints before they entered the water, most of them appeared to be heading to the left. It was the instinctive reaction of human nature; if the leader turned to the left, the followers would naturally look to the left or even change their direction to the left, so that they would be right behind the one leading the way.

Kou Zhong laughed cheerfully; he was very proud of his deduction ability. He was just about to pursue to the left when suddenly he felt something was not right. Stopping and thinking deeply, his heart was shaken, and cried inwardly, ‘What a close call!’

Upon further examination, he noticed that all the footprints on the sh.o.r.e were on the muddy ground by the water. Not only the footprints were very distinct, they also looked very heavy, as if they were afraid the enemy would not be able to see them.

Kou Zhong tried taking two steps, but he could only leave much lighter footprints.

Up until now he still did not know that this bad ghost scholar Cui Jixiu was so cunning and was an expert in diversion tactics; therefore, he immediately changed direction to the right and pursued swiftly along the water.

Yang Ji took Xu Ziling, the ‘Daoba Ke’ Gong Chenchun, to the main lobby, where he handed him over to the usher. He even warned repeatedly that Xu Ziling was Hou Xibai’s good friend, so that in his embarra.s.sment, Xu Ziling copied Kou Zhong by pretending to be fully loaded, and giving tips liberally.

The middle-aged lady who acted as the usher, Wen Gu [lit. cultured (paternal) aunt] led Xu Ziling through a flower path before reaching the famous main building of the San Hua Lou, which was a three-story wooden structure, grand in scale, with carved beams and painted walls; it was extremely tasteful.

Going up to the third floor, Xu Ziling pretended to ask casually, “Hasn’t Zheng Shiru Xiong just arrived? I wonder if Wen Gu took care of him?”

Wen Gu laughed tenderly and said, “Turns out Gong Ye is also a friend of Mad Scholar Zheng. Although it was not nujia who took him in, but the room Chen Gongzi and Bai Gongzi reserved is the east chamber armor room, which has the best scenery, separated from Hou Gongzi’s east pavilion by only one room. Does Gong Ye want to say h.e.l.lo first? When Hou Gongzi arrives, nujia will come again for Gong Ye.”

Inwardly Xu Ziling thought he had enough luck, somewhat feeling that this trip has not been made in vain, so he randomly thought of an excuse to decline Wen Gu’s good intention.

Wen Gu laughed and said, “No wonder Gong Ye can become Hou Gongzi’s good friend; Hou Gongzi has never come in contact with the other pampered sons of wealthy family, but his kindness to the ladies here need not be mentioned. He even composed music and wrote poems for them. Whenever Hou Gongzi’s honorable self is here, n.o.body did not strive to come to see him and wait on him. These past three days they have been painstakingly waiting for him.”

Startled, Xu Ziling spoke in all seriousness, “I don’t know whether Hou Xiong will be able to meet the appointment or not; before he is here, you must not tell anybody else, or else Hou Xiong’s close lady friends will be happy in vain.”

Wen Gu pushed the door open; a whiff of fragrant of flowers immediately hit him on the face, and he saw fragrant osmanthus flowers spread over the windowsill opposite the door. In the s.p.a.cious room, leaning against the left and right walls were plum blossom enclosure and bamboo lattice full of Chinese wolfberry shrub, Chinese catalpa, and a set of wooden small table and imperial tutor chairs. Not only the engraving was exquisite and fine, the components were joined together seamlessly, as though they were carved out of a single block of wood. The front side of the back of the chair was inlaid with marble, which lines were distinct, mellow and full, elegant and beautiful.

No wonder it could share the same fame with Shi Lin Yuan; merely the furnishings proved that everything was carefully selected for quality.

The corners of the wall were decorated with calligraphy and paintings; there was not the least bit of tackiness.

Xu Ziling walked over toward the small table by the window, where there was a guzheng lying on it. Looking out the window, he saw under the moonlight and the lanterns outside, the cityscape bathed in silvery light. He saw shrines and Buddhist temples, Taoist monasteries, gates, villages, alleys and the market, multi-story buildings, palace gate watchtowers, shops and houses, gardens, pavilions and ponds, crisscrossing outside the high building. A beautiful image floated in his heart, the scenery at the pleasure house, where a beautiful courtesan was singing and playing the zither by the window, a charming and gentle, touching, as if he was drunk or was entranced.

Inside and outside the building, there was a faint sound of woodwind and string instruments; not only it did not sound noisy, it appeared to be enhancing San Hua Lou’s far-reaching harmonious serenity.

Wen Gu came behind him and spoke in a low voice, “Although Miss Qingxiu cannot spare time tonight, but since Hou Gongzi’s friend is here, nujia will find a way to have her come here to sing a song for Gong Ye. Other time, I’ll have Qiuhong to wait upon Gong Ye!”

Inwardly, Xu Ziling cried out for his Niang; hastily he said, “Wen Gu need not go through all those troubles, zaixia will just wait for Hou Xiong here. Let’s wait until he is here before making those other arrangements. Right now, it would be great if you could serve good wine and fresh fruits for zaixia.”

Wen Gu stared at him in amazement for a while before acknowledging the request and withdrew out of the room, closing the door for him on her way out.

Xu Ziling breathed a sigh of relief, while at the same time focusing his power to his ears to listen to any sign of activity in Zheng Shiru’s room on the other side.

Kou Zhong pursued along the brook for nearly a li before finding another trace of the enemy on the bank of the creek; not only it confirmed that his earlier speculation was correct, it also increased his confidence in overtaking the enemy. Cui Jixiu going upstream this far to the north, his objective must be to deal with Kou Zhong. Even if Kou Zhong pursued in the right direction, but not finding any traces of the enemy on sh.o.r.e after such a long distance, naturally he would doubt whether he made the wrong choice.

However, the enemies were running away wading in the water, naturally their speed could not compare to traveling on dry land. Therefore, Kou Zhong was even more confident that he would be able to catch up with the enemy.

Under the moonlight, he could see the glittering droplets of water that Cui Jixiu and his men were leaving on the stones and leaves. Fortunately there was neither rain nor fog tonight, otherwise he would have lost this only tracking clue, simply because when the enemies were leaping onto the sh.o.r.e, they would not have left these long-lasting traces on the hard surface of the stones.

After finding three more traces of broken twigs where the enemies were going through the woods, Kou Zhong reached an expanse of gra.s.sland, where not far ahead the mountains were undulating, the terrain desolate.

Focusing all his power and mind into his nose, he was immediately able to smell some kind of odor from the perspiration on the clothes remaining on the long gra.s.s, and was greatly delighted, inwardly thinking that when hunting dogs were pursuing their target, they would also do what he did just now.

What’s more odd was that within the remaining scent, there was a hint of fragrance as well; he could not help thinking that Cui Jixiu looked a little bit effeminate, perhaps this bad ghost scholar had a habit of putting some kind of sweet-smelling gra.s.s on his clothes.

Cheering inwardly, without stopping at all his feet moved across the gra.s.sland, toward the foot of a small hill.

Unexpectedly there were two sets of barely discernible footprints appearing on the slope of the hill, extended to the opposite direction of each other.

This place had sandy soil, the earth was soft, and there was no hard stone that could be used as stepping stone. It looked like the enemy was carrying out splitting-to-escape tactic, so that Cui Jixiu’s chance of getting captured by Kou Zhong was reduced by half.

Inwardly, Kou Zhong was amused. Without the slightest hesitation he followed the direction where the fragrance was going. Bypa.s.sing the slope of the hill, he climbed another hill, and faintly saw a mountain road in the distance. Although the gra.s.s and weeds where growing and spreading due to few people trampling on it, the path could still be clearly distinguished.

The scent entering Kou Zhong’s nose was getting stronger; the enemy was obviously pa.s.sing on this road not too long ago.

Kou Zhong was rushing non-stop up the hill. By the time he saw the situation on the other side of the mountain, an abandoned village with no man in sight appeared on the foot of the mountain far ahead, with more than a dozen dilapidated houses hidden inside the forest.

Right this moment, there was a hurried and brief miserable scream coming from the abandoned village; unexpectedly it broke the serenity of the moonlit night.

Stunned, Kou Zhong rushed down at full speed.