Book 62: Chapter 6: Coming Back From Death’s Door

Kou Zhong sensed the stone table, the incense burner on the table, the agarwood smoke rising in spirals from inside of the stove, even the entire stone pavilion – completely disappeared the instant Fu Cailin drew his sword.

Naturally these things did not really disappear, it was simply because his spirit and senses were entirely focused on Fu Cailin’s sword, not seeing with the eyes, but encountering with the spirit, hence everything else became no longer exist.

The most subtle thing was that he unexpectedly followed the movement of Fu Cailin’s sword momentum, ‘indirectly visualizing’ again all the objects between the two men, visible and tangible – in his heart after he became one with the heaven and the earth, regaining the stone table, the incense burner, and the stone pavilion.

He finally entered the exquisite-like-a-deity down-to-the-smallest-detail realm. All these were obtained really not by luck at all. In the world, he, Kou Zhong, was the only person who had fought against all the three great grandmasters, although it could be said that he was forced to do that.

The Moon in the Well was pulled out a cun from the sheath, creating a clear dragon-cry, tiger-roar like sound of saber ring. It appeared to be like a magic spell coming from the eighteenth level of h.e.l.l, or like the sounds of nature coming out from the clouds of the ninth heavens. Yellow glow emerged from the body of the saber, like the bright moon, which had not shown its face tonight, suddenly ascended into the empty sky from within.

The Yi Jian [abundant sword] glowed with an unusual deep, clear-water dark green light, drawing a touching line that was beyond the beauty of the mortal world, with the perfection of the heaven and the earth, bypa.s.sing the incense burner, but sticking close to the side of the stove, striking toward him. The agarwood smoke rising from inside the burner was pulled toward the sword like an iron attracted to a magnet, and became like a stream of water flowing to the tip of the Yi Jian. In an instant, it condensed into a ball of smoke, and the blade of the sword turned into a dot of dark green light, like a starlight that refused to be extinguished inside the curling rose-tinted cloud at sunrise, like a shooting star rushing toward the point between his pair of eyes.

This dot of starlight carried the magical power of hooking the [immortal] soul and absorbing the [mortal] soul; as soon as there was a slight gap on the way to his heart, it would definitely suppress his [both immortal and mortal] soul and replace it. Beautiful to the utmost, terrifying to the extreme.

He finally faced the unparalleled-in-the-world Yijian technique, the swordsmanship that has reached the transforming realm of extreme creation of the ascending palm.

Fu Cailin’s Yijian technique was perceptual, its subtlety lay in the blending of the senses of his entire heart and entire spirit with the sword, any other senses outside were void, the senses of his heart and spirit were real. If he could not understand Fu Cailin’s realm, Kou Zhong practically did not have the qualification to sit here in saber-sword abundant [yi] opposition with him.

‘Qiang!’

The Moon in the Well left its sheath, the saber blade drew a perfect small circle, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with mysterious-beyond-measure, yet conforming to the heaven and earth’s principle – taste, a burst of spiraling energy force, splitting the heaven and earth apart, was born inside the circle.

The dot of star disappeared, but the agarwood ball of smoke was still, seemingly slow but was actually fast – floating towards him, yet it happened to be broken and scattered by the spiraling energy.

Kou Zhong’s tiger-body shook violently, his upper body swayed.

Suddenly, dots of stars filling the air appeared above the table, each dot seemed to be attacking him, and each dot seemed to be eternally unmoving, just like the stars in the sky, giving up the impression of unmoving constant within the moving, within all around changes. Kou Zhong immediately knew that he had fallen into a disadvantageous position.

It was only then did he swipe the saber horizontally forward, so that he had both offense and defense, heaven and man became one. Even with Fu Cailin’s ability, it was still difficult to find gaps and flaws, even more difficult to display the using man to play the sword, using sword to play the enemy – immortal method. Thereupon, utilizing the agarwood smoke, he launched the tossing a stone to find out what’s ahead – move. Although Kou Zhong resolved it beautifully, but it has changed from no trace to creating trace, so that he was restrained by Fu Cailin’s sword technique.

Kou Zhong was unable to grasp Fu Cailin’s Yi Jian again, so he hurriedly collected his mind and reached the Moon in the Well realm. Seeing the dots of light from the sword tip before his eyes condensed and dissolved completely like it was not there at all, he knew inwardly and his spirit immediately moved, the scabbard swept across. The lights responded and vanished, the incense burner reappeared before his eyes, the agarwood smoke floated lightly up from inside the stove.

Kou Zhong’s qi intention reacted, he pulled the scabbard back, the Moon in the Well moved to the bottom of the stove and picked it up. If he could do that, then the incense, ashes, smoke and fire would splatter toward Fu Cailin. Even with Fu Cailin’s ability, perhaps his head would be covered in ashes, his face would be covered in dust, quite literally.

A hint of smile escaped out of the corner of Fu Cailin’s mouth. The Yi Jian suddenly swung, as if was attacking but also looked to be defending, but across the table, Kou Zhong clearly sensed that the moment he picked the incense burner, the opponent’s sword, released later, arriving first, would definitely hit his wrist. This kind of sense could not be explained by common sense.

Kou Zhong cried, ‘Not good!’ inwardly, only then did he realize that the opponent’s previous move was really the Yijian technique’s version of No Attack. It was intended to lure him to take the initiative to attack, but now that he has been played [yi] by Fu Cailin’s treasured sword, not only from active he changed to pa.s.sive, even his senses were under his control as well. If he could not reverse the disadvantageous situation, he would be defeated and killed within a few moves.

Hou Xibai spoke in deject, “This is impossible.”

Including the secret pa.s.sage leading out of the city, all four secret pa.s.sages were sealed by falling boulders, the entire treasure house was sealed-up, there was no way out.

The stone table’s mechanism lost its usefulness, even the pit that was originally used to store the Demonic Emperor’s Relics could not be restored to its original position and closed.

Ba Fenghan tried to raise the table again, he also tried to push it down, too bad no miracle happened.

Xu Ziling sat still, suddenly he smiled and said, “One time Kou Zhong and I fell into the trap inside the storehouse, Kou Zhong said that Lu Dashi wrote in the book on mechanism that in order not to damage the virtue of heaven, when one is at the dead end, there must be a sliver opportunity to live, therefore, there must be a way to crack it, only we haven’t found it yet, that’s all!”

Hope grew in Ma Chang’s heart, but he spoke in distress, “If the solution is not at this table, where would it be?”

Ba Fenghan nodded and said, “Unless Yang Su wants to turn this storehouse into his sealed tomb, completely sealing it up really does not make any sense. The reason why Yang Su asked Lu Miaozi to design this storehouse was to scheme for Yang Jian’s world, not to dig his own grave.”

Ma Chang said, “Let me make an a.s.sumption. If Yang Su launched a mutiny from the treasure house, he engaged in battle and suffer defeat, he would be forced to flee back to the treasure house, because there were pursuing troops behind him, he had no choice but to seal the treasure house; what would the situation be like?”

Hou Xibai sighed and said, “Naturally like we are now, as long as we can get out, we will be willing to pay any price.”

Ba Fenghan slapped his thigh and said, “This was the intention of sealing up the treasure house. If Yang Jian wanted to kill Yang Su, Yang Su had two choices. One was to quietly leave Chang’an via the secret pa.s.sage, afterwards he would be living incognito; the other was to send out his troops in rebellion, fight until he suffered defeat. Huh? But some things are not right; wounded soldiers and destroyed generals able to flee would already be ten-thousand fortunes in the midst of misfortune, how could they have the power to fight back?”

Xu Ziling said, “The secret pa.s.sage at the bottom of the well in the Xi Qi Yuan was the only entrance to the treasure house before it is opened. After entering the storehouse, three secret pa.s.sages inside and outside the city could be opened, allowing Yang Su’s men to travel from inside or outside the city via the three secret pa.s.sages into the treasure house and gathered here. Afterwards Yang Su closed the exit of the pa.s.sages, after his officers and soldiers a.s.sembled, rested and reorganized, they would open the last secret pa.s.sage. This is the breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats tactics [idiom: cutting off one’s means of retreat], so that the officers and soldiers under his command would risk their lives and follow his orders.”

Ba Fenghan’s spirit greatly aroused, he said, “This secret pa.s.sage must point directly to the heart of the Taiji Palace. This is the principle of to capture the thieves, one must capture their king first.”

Smiling wryly, Hou Xibai said, “Where is the mechanism to open it then?”

Xu Ziling’s eyes fell on the hole on the ground where the Demonic Emperor’s Relics was originally kept, the other three men could not help but to follow his gaze.

Hou Xibai was the first to spring up, he pounced toward the side of the hole, and shouted, “Ziling, come quickly to preside over the overall situation.”

Xu Ziling moved to the side of the hole, he went down on one knee, and reached down to press his hands to the bottom of the cave. After quite half a day, he said in great delight, “Just as expected!” Applying his power to continue pressing, amidst the clacking noise, the mechanism started to move, the crashing sound of flowing water immediately rang out in response.

Ba Fenghan and the others, none was not so nervous that they couldn’t breathe, life or death, success or failure would be decided from this.

Just as Xu Ziling straightened his body and stood up, a rumbling sound came from inside the storehouse where the darts and arrows were kept.

As if agreeing by chance, the four men rushed into the storehouse, a stone door appeared on the east wall, revealing a pitch-black tunnel.

Greatly delighted, Hou Xibai shouted wildly, “This is called Heaven never bars one’s way; we are saved!”

In the course of events in a decisive battle, one must not have the heart about victory or defeat, otherwise one would fall into the inferior position.

Kou Zhong finally deeply realized the meaning of Song Que’s gems of wisdom. Just because he hoped to force Fu Cailin to leave his seat, he had the heart about victory and defeat, and Fu Cailin was able to see through that. For example, in the process of playing against the opponent, his opponent saw through the moves he was going to take with his chess pieces, and thus the opponent moved later to control the person, to take the lead at every step, forcing Kou Zhong to fall into a deadlock, until he lost the whole game of chess and lost his little life.

What shocked him even more was the sword qi from Fu Cailin’s Yi Jian, which locked his Moon in the Well tightly. If he persevered on the original style and did not change, when the saber blade picked the incense burner, Yi Jian would just stab him in the wrist. The only way for him to respond was to accurately grasp the attack point of Fu Cailin’s Yi Jian in the current situation, and try to force Fu Cailin to stake it all in saber-sword head-on clash, so that he could restore the losing momentum. If he withdrew his saber and pulled back, changing from offense to defense, Fu Cailin’s sword momentum would rise dramatically, under the traction of the qi, he would attack by entering every gap, unless Kou Zhong was willing to leave the chair and evade far away, within the narrow range of the table, Kou Zhong definitely would not be able to hold out for long.

Yet Laotianye had pity on him. Kou Zhong, who knew clearly about Yijian Technique better than anybody else, except for Xu Ziling, was even more well aware that this was the only solution to force Fu Cailin to meet the attack head-on. It did not need a rich imagination to know that him being in a deadlock, being played by Fu Cailin’s treasured sword, was completely inside Fu Cailin’s calculation. He also knew that Fu Cailin would not miss this golden opportunity to use the technique of Yi Jian to dominate the decisive battle on the table until he was defeated.

Fu Cailin knew Kou Zhong’s follow-up moves, but Kou Zhong was completely unable to grasp the changes of the opponent’s sword moves at all. In counting the victory or defeat, he must not make any mistake, Fu Cailin was not an ordinary martial art master at all, but a grandmaster-level martial art master of Ning Daoqi’s caliber. He must fight for every cun of land, or he would end up nursing a grievance.

Kou Zhong’s thoughts turned at the speed of light, he laughed aloud, the Moon in the Well left his hand and shot in violent spiraling motion, and stabbed the incense burner.

Losing the Moon in the Well, he still had the Moon in the Well’s scabbard, and Fu Cailin had to pick and throw the Moon in the Well away. If he let a speck of incense ash splashed on his body, with his status and position, it would be difficult to have the face to continue the duel.

Kou Zhong nearly had the heart about victory and defeat by thinking that victory was within his grasp, because he asked himself whether he could predict Fu Cailin’s next move. Fortunately he has been taught a lesson, his heart and spirit was more limpid, bright and clear than at any other time. The heaven, earth and man, the three fused together until there was no distinction between that other person and me.

The scabbard in his left hand pointed forward, he pulled his right hand to his chest.

Ba Fenghan raised the brightly lit fire paper in his hand to illuminate the underground room, which width reached ten zhang, while Xu Ziling, Hou Xibai, and Ma Chang, three men stood behind him. In front of the four men was a long flight of stairs, more than twenty steps, leading up, while on their right was the deep dark entrance to another secret pa.s.sage.

Ma Chang said, “Looking at the approximate distance, the exit above the stone steps must be within the imperial palace area.”

Frowning, Hou Xibai said, “Looking at the width of the stone steps, the exit should be at least one zhang square. If the exit is indeed inside the Taiji Palace, opening such a cover, it would be strange indeed if it does not alarm the imperial guards in the palace.”

Xu Ziling said, “In this regard, I’m not worried at all. Lu Dashi’s design must be very ingenious, it won’t be easy to see through. Look! Isn’t that the handle that opens the door?”

Ba Fenghan agreed, “Ziling’s guess can’t be that far off, but this secret pa.s.sage on the left, where does it lead to?”

Hou Xibai lighted up a torch, he laughed and said, “I’m terribly curious as well, wait here, let me go searching the hidden and exploring the victory!”

Ma Chang spoke cheerfully, “How about I accompany Gongzi picking up the route?”

Ba Fenghan said, “Be careful, don’t touch any mechanism, after figuring out clearly the exit that might bear upon tomorrow’s success or failure, we are coming back here to meet you.”

Happy and excited, Hou Xibai and Ma Chang left.

Xu Ziling and Ba Fenghan went up the steps until they reached the end. The latter lightly knocked the slab of stone at the exit; speechless, he said, “At least one chi thick, Duke Yang’s Treasure-house, its name is indeed not in vain. Not only it is supernaturally fine craft [orig. ghost’s hatchet, G.o.d’s work], there are mysterious principles everywhere.”

Grabbing the copper handle of the mechanism, Xu Ziling took a deep breath and said, “Actually, we are taking enormous risks. Lu Dashi designed the treasure house to deal with the situation more than 30 years ago, since then, the Taiji Palace has been rebuilt many times. Xibai’s worry is not entirely unfounded.”

Ba Fenghan sighed and said, “Things are developing too fast. From tonight to tomorrow, it is br.i.m.m.i.n.g with unpredictable variables, a lot of things we don’t have time to think clearly. If it wasn’t for Kou Zhong finding out that Lin Shihong appearing in the flesh in the city, we would still not consider the Yin Mansion might be a deadly pitfall, dangerous ground. Therefore, we cannot not take this risk; only with the help of this newly discovered secret pa.s.sage will we have the chance to mount surprise attack to Li Yuan.”

Xu Ziling said, “We are really careless, ay! I suddenly thought of another flaw that might lead to defeat, ay! What do we do?”

Ba Fenghan felt a chill down his entire spine, drawing a mouthful of cold air, he said, “I’m listening!”

Smiling bitterly, Xu Ziling said, “It’s the relationship between Huanghe Bang and us.”

Shaking his head, Ba Fenghan said, “I still don’t understand.”

Xu Ziling said, “When the news broke that day, I rushed to Luoyang to see Li Shimin, who could have thought that Huanghe Bang’s Laoda [big boss] Tao Guangzu had just made an agreement with Xiang Gui for a big gambling showdown? In a hurry, Kou Zhong had no choice but to persuade Lei Dage to take up the challenge on my behalf, and he won Shang Lin Yuan back. Xiang Yushan is the person who knows our relationship with Lei Dage. These past few days, Huanghe Bang has been active in Chang’an, based on Xiang Yushan’s cunning and much knowledge, it would be strange if he is not suspicious. As long as they catch one of the leaders of Huanghe Bang, relying on Yin Zuwen’s Seven-needle to Control the Mind, they will definitely be able to find out about our 3,000 elite troops infiltrating Chang’an in secret.”

Ba Fenghan’s countenance changed, he said, “No wonder Li Yuan suddenly changed his mind and wanted to killed us wholeheartedly.”

Xu Ziling said, “Fortunately, our 3,000-strong elite squad entering Chang’an is only in the past two days. The other side is not ready yet, furthermore, they are afraid to beat the gra.s.s to scare the snake, and we would slip away, hence they still haven’t made their move. If we cannot reverse this situation, the battle tomorrow will not be optimistic at all.”

Ba Fenghan’s eyes fell on the handle that Xu Ziling grabbed in his hand, he spoke heavily, “Therefore, this risk must be taken even more, pull the handle!”

Secretly Xu Ziling applied a mouthful of qi, focused his power, and slowly pulled the copper handle.

‘Clack! Clack!’ The sound of the mechanism being activated immediately sounded, followed by the stone lid moving aside to reveal the beautiful starry night. There was even a ‘Zi! Zi!’ noise grating the ears of stone grinding another stone, so that the tranquility of the tunnel was damaged beyond repair.

The two men were so frightened that their heads turned into a piece of blank s.p.a.ce. Since the exit was in a s.p.a.cious and empty, without cover without screen – place, the sound traveled quickly; it would be strange indeed if the nearby imperial guards were not alerted.

They had not had a chance to speak yet, but just as their scalps went numb, shouts and the sound of gusting wind of troops and sabers were coming from four sides, eight directions outside the exit. The only thing Xu Ziling and Ba Fenghan could think of was the four words, “We are done for!”

Another hint of smile escaped out of the corner of Fu Cailin’s mouth. The moment the Moon in the Well left the hand and shot toward the incense burner, the green light on his hand flashed, the Yi Jian hit the incense burner at the same time, without the slightest bit of error.

The Moon in the Well touched the incense burner, but it did not make the sound it should have, the incense burner was even more absolutely still.

Kou Zhong had never thought that Fu Cailin would have such a wonderful move to meet a contingency, unexpectedly, relying on his exceptional skill, he used the striking-an-ox-across-the-mountain method to neutralize the Moon in the Well’s spiraling energy. While he was crying ‘Not good!’ inwardly, the Moon in the Well, at the same speed, charged toward Kou Zhong.

After breaking Kou Zhong’s strange move, the Yi Jian drew a beautiful arc, it circled to Kou Zhong’s left side first, before circling back, but the point of attack was the empty s.p.a.ce on Kou Zhong’s left; according to reason, it should not pose any threat to Kou Zhong.

Yet Kou Zhong painfully knew; since he was right in the middle of the battle, he sensed the Yi Jian’s deceitful trick.

Since he was sitting on the perimeter of the stone table, he wanted to evade the Moon in the Well striking back at him, he could only dodge sideways. However, the Yi Jian generated a strong suction force, moreover, it continued to increase following the sword’s curving momentum, increasing the pressure and making the scabbard in his left hand picking forward not only lost its accuracy, it was also pulled to the left by the Yi Jian like an iron pulled by a magnet, so that he had no choice but to deal with it with all his strength, how could he have any strength left to dodge his precious Moon in the Well? Such a sword technique, it was indeed horrifying.

At this critical juncture where success or failure would be decided, life and death were hanging on a thread, on Kou Zhong’s left hand, life turned into death, on his right hand, death turned into life.

Suddenly, his left hand clenched the scabbard, which was originally full of true power piercing through it – unexpectedly loosened like a bird escaped from its cage, it was no longer affected by the pulling force of the Yi Jian, proving that Kou Zhong’s conjecture was correct. Fu Cailin used force to pull force, used sword qi to pull his sheath’s force.

‘Pop!’ the Moon in the Well was grabbed back in his hand. He twisted around and slashed, and the scabbard was retrieved at the same time. Fu Cailin revealed a surprised expression, the Yi Jian moved as if it was scribbling rapidly and drawing madly countless lines of gra.s.s script imbued deeply with some kind of hard-to-describe beauty, watching it, Kou Zhong was dazzled, there was no access where he could make his move, he did not know where to chop, suddenly the other side controlled the motion and held the power in his hands again.

Kou Zhong’s saber could not slash any further, the scabbard in his left hand picked up, the true qi protecting his body was transformed into a wall of qi, he chased across the table. As long as he could overturn the incense burner, it could be considered a small achievement, the most ideal would naturally be if the incense burner responded to his force and was knocked toward Fu Cailin. The Moon in the Well moved back and landed on his shoulder – the movement was like moving clouds and flowing water, giving the impression of continuous, unbroken, extending forever into the distance.

The two men have been fighting until now, the Moon in the Well and the Yi Jian have not clashed even for half a time, but the dangerous changes within it were beyond any pen and ink could describe.

Fu Cailin let out a burst of long laughter, the Yi Jian drew a circle above the tabletop and the stove, the center of which was exactly where Kou Zhong picked and attacked. Kou Zhong’s wall of qi, like water met a dry sponge, was sucked that not a single drop remained, he was unable to pose any threat, this move could not continue even more.

Using man to play the sword, using sword to play the enemy. Fu Cailin still held the lead, leading Kou Zhong by the nose. If this situation continued, by the time Kou Zhong exhausted his art, it would definitely be the moment his life was cut short.

However, Kou Zhong remained calm and was not afraid. Laughing aloud, he tossed the scabbard backward freely, the Moon in the Well in his right hand launched his unique skill of square and circle, first slashing and then stabbing, and shot straight at Fu Cailin’s formless but solid sword circle.