Legend of Great Tang’s Twin Dragons

Book 10 Chapter 5 – The Actual Life and Death Situation

Xu Ziling pushed the ground with his toes; he soared to the sky to evade the arrows raining down on him. Makin a somersault in the air, he was aiming at the Four Big Bandits, when one of the four bandits, the ‘scorched earth for a thousand li’ Mao Zao roared and leaped into the air in an angle, like an artillery shell he shot toward Xu Ziling with both palms extended out.

Xu Ziling cheered inwardly, because this attack saved him from receiving the second round of arrows. At the same time he felt the air around him became as cols as ice and snow. His qi spiraled violently, boosting his already strong will to fight. Seizing this opportunity, both his legs shot out, the tip of his toes happened to hit the hollow of the opponent’s palms.

Mao Zao’s tall and thin body was shaken violently for a moment; not only his powerful palm strength was dispersed out of the palms, part of it even burst back into his body and scattered inside his channels, which caused him unbearable pain.

What happened was that Xu Ziling’s kicks were imbued with extremely strange power, one light the other heavy. The light one was so soft that not only Mao Zao’s right palm was unable to send out his qi, like gossamer the opponent’s true qi bored into the hollow of his palm, and dashed through into his inner organs. The heavy one was solid and violent beyond comprehension, like an unceasingly spinning drill boring into the hollow of his palm, so that his palm suddenly felt burning, and his true qi was like a rock splashing into the water and dissipated in all directions.

In all his life, Mao Zao has killed people like scything flax, and gone through countless battles, big and small, but he had never met such a strange and formidable true qi before. Letting out a muffled groan he applied the ‘thousand-catty fall’ and dropped down to the ground.

Seeing Mao Zao suffered a big defeat, the ‘chicken and dogs won’t remain’, Fang Jianding was afraid Xu Ziling might followed up the victory and pressed home the attack, he drew the pair of wolf-teeth clubs, each weighed more than a hundred catties, from his back. His huge figure rolled diagonally, he quickly came above Xu Ziling. His wolf-teeth clubs danced to create layers upon layers of clubs’ shadows, swift and fierce beyond compare shooting down toward Xu Ziling.

The ‘not even a blade of grass grows’ Shang Batian’s short and stout body dashed out from below to take Mao Zao’s position. His two steel-tooth ring flew around at an angle from left and right, their target was Xu Ziling’s flanks, who was still about a zhang away from the ground. During their flight, the steel rings created a strange high-pitch noise, carrying with it a threatening force.

Other than Cao Yinglong, who stood motionlessly with his head raised high, the rest of the bandits were also closing in toward the three people in fierce battle, forming layers upon layers of heavy siege.

As he followed Mao Zao closely as he dropped suddenly to the ground, Xu Ziling took a sudden breath of true qi, and then turning his body around, and kicked with both legs to the middle of Fang Jianding’s clubs’ shadows. Without missing a single hairsbreadth he kicked right at the wolf-teeth clubs, while at the same time his palms pushed down on an empty air, sending out two streams of spiraling-wildly qi, to attack Mai Zhao’s thin back.

Cao Yinglong, who was about a zhang away, was shocked. Anxiously he leaped up; with his palms faced down, he swept across in cutting movement. The two sweeps of sharp qi did not attack Xu Ziling, but cutting at Xu Ziling’s palm force attacking Mao Zao.

‘Tchok! Tchok!’

Xu Ziling’s toes hit the wolf-teeth clubs. The vortex of qi burst via the clubs and pushed Fang Jianding’s true qi back into his body. Not only Fang Jianding could not continue on to the next change of his attack, his footwork was greatly disturbed as well, forcing him to borrow the momentum to fly backward to evade. He could not help but was horrified and greatly shaken; how could such a powerful martial art master suddenly appear like this?

The falling down Mao Zao also felt the vortex of qi pressing down on him; realizing the situation was bad, he struggled hard to press down the surging qi inside his own meridians, as well as spurting out a mouthful of blood to lessen the pressure. His right palm pressed down toward the ground, his real qi spat out, he borrowed the reaction force to roll his body in the air, with the hope that he could evade these two palms that were about to take his little life.

‘Bang! Bang!’ Like muffled explosion Xu Ziling’s palm power met Cao Yinglong’s palm wind, which although started last, but arrived first. And thus his momentum was greatly reduced, while his entire body flew backward. It was then did he know the reason Cao Yinglong was able to be the head of the Four Big Bandits; his power indeed far surpassed the other three Big Bandits.

Cao Yinglong himself was not any better; his entire body was severely shaken, he staggered back two steps, and cried inwardly, ‘how formidable!’

Because Xiang Batian’s soul-snatching tooth-rings were linked with a fine thread, he was able to control the rings by transmitting his true qi via the thread. The two rings changed direction, like shadows following the shapes the rings followed Xu Ziling.

Xu Ziling let out a long whistle and fast as lightning he dropped straight to the ground to evade the flying rings.

Lances, spears, sabers and axes immediately swarmed in from all directions.

Xu Ziling knew that if he did not seize this opportunity, taking advantage while Mao Zao has not recovered his qi and joined the fight, he would not have the second opportunity tonight. The image of Kou Zhong’s big head suddenly flashed in his mind, wishing that he were here with him.

Having that thought, Xu Ziling threw himself crouching on the grass in the courtyard, both legs sweeping wildly to four directions like a wheel, while the ‘flying divine escape’ noiselessly shot out like lightning through the gap between the enemies’ legs. ‘The gods was not aware, the ghosts did not perceive’, the claw shot toward Mao Zao’s right ankle, who at this time was just about to bounce up after he landed on the ground.

Seeing Xu Ziling was surrounded by a dozen or so martial art masters of their side, Xiang Batian and Fang Jianding thought that exhausting the enemy’s strength first might not be a bad idea; thereupon they waited outside the formation, while catching up their breath and restoring their energy.

On the other side, Cao Yinglong slowly approached the battle arena, holding a spear in each hand. With every step he took he created an indentation on the ground about three cun deep, indicating that he was continuously amassing his energy.

By the time Mao Zao was leaping up, his strength had already been more or less recovered; the murderous intent in his heart was flaring. He was thinking of taking revenge and erasing the humiliation when suddenly a severe pain shot up from his right ankle, straight toward his heart and spleen. In his shock he looked down, only to see an exquisitely made steel claw, as if it was a living devil hand, was embedding its five fingers deep into his flesh. Not only that, it also carried a powerful pulling force.

Mao Zao was so scared that his three immortal souls and seven mortal forms [a Taoism concept] have gone for the most part. Hastily he lowered himself in a horse stance and sent his strength to his right leg to resist the pull.

On that side, Xu Ziling had just kicked two bandits on the pit of their stomachs. Seeing Mao Zhao fell into his trap, he sent his strength to pull. And then taking advantage of Mao Zao’s own reaction force, his entire body shot like an arrow toward Mao Zao, who was still about three zhang away, sticking close to the ground between the crowd of thieves’ legs. Not only those who were bumped by him had their bones broken and their flesh rent, the weapons coming down at him were hitting an empty space as well.

Such strange move ought to be the first since the history of the martial art world.

While Cao Yinglong, Shang Batian, Fang Jianding and the crowd of bandits were still at a loss of this shocking move, Xu Ziling consecutively knocked down seven, eight men. Like an artillery shell he shot until he was about half a zhang in front of Mao Zao.

Mao Zao knew it was a critical moment. Although all around him were the brothers from his side, he felt as if he was standing alone between the heaven and the earth, and could only rely on himself in everything.

The horsetail whisk on his back, with which he ran amuck in the world, suddenly appeared in his hand. He was just about to sweep away when the steel claw on his ankle suddenly produced five streams of spiraling energy attacking his heart and his veins.

Although Mao Zao managed to sweep his horsetail whisk, since he was using at least eighty-percent of his true qi to deal with the enemy’s power from his leg creeping up toward his body, his own power was greatly diminished.

Xu Ziling’s left palm strike changed direction; it turned upward at an oblique angle. In the eyes of the spectators, who were unable to see clearly, it looked like the two were brushing past each other at high speed.

Mao Zao let out an earth-shattering scream, his entire body was thrown sideways, and his horsetail whisk was flung to the ground.

Until now, Cao Yinglong and the others were still unclear on how Xu Ziling managed to get out of the siege, and how he could overcome Mao Zao that easily. Overwhelmed with shock, they pounced toward Xu Ziling.

When it looked like Xu Ziling was about to fall into another siege, he suddenly changed direction sideways. By using the divine escape, which was still attached to Mao Zao’s dead body, he suddenly traversed sideways along the ground, so that Cao Yinglong, who was extremely powerful, also had to pounce on empty air.

Xu Ziling laughed aloud; adeptly pulling back the divine escape, he leaped onto a thick branch protruding horizontally from a big tree. He knew that if he did not leave now, he would not need to bother to leave at all.

While he was about to shoot the divine escape out, he heard a tender shout.

Looking down in surprise, he saw Shang Xiuxun, alone, was charging out of the small building, attacking the crowd of bandits that they suffered a crushing defeat, with blood splashed everywhere.

Xu Ziling groaned inwardly. After examining the three bleeding wounds on his own body, without the slightest hesitation he shot down toward Shang Xiuxun.

※ ※ ※

One side had imposing manner like a rainbow, the other side had their plot fell through and stood exposed, fearful and timid due to their guilty conscience. This side was growing, that side was declining; it was indeed a comparison of heaven and earth, or cloud and mud.

Added to that was Kou Zhong’s first taste of the vortex of qi’s astonishing power. Too bad that due to the limitation of present circumstances, he could find any worthy opponent to test the full power of his saber. But this moment murderous intent was growing in his heart, and he wanted to kill Li Tianfan, so that the political marriage between the Song Clan and the Wagang Army would die and thus ended all his troubles, while at the same time it would break Li Mi’s heart. One stone to kill three birds. His imposing manner soared; for the time being nothing could match it.

The Moon in the Well swept across the air. Although it was an extremely simple saber strike, coupled with his swimming-fish shenfa, it was like the flight trajectory of a bird, or the swimming path of a fish; there was no trace. Rolling, whirling, surging saber qi followed the saber shooting toward Li Tianfan first.

Li Tianfan has mastered Li Mi’s skill. These past several years he had been following his father in fighting in one place after another all over the world [reminder: tian xia, i.e. China], his real combat experience was incomparably vast, but it was the very first time that he had to deal with such a formidable saber.

By the time he saw yellow glow arriving, the opponent’s long saber was already in front of his head, hidden in it was an overbearing qi that he would not be able to resist. Upon self-inspection, he realized that even if he had several sabers, it would still be very difficult to block. Thereupon, he thundered, “Attack!” while he himself leaped backward to evade.

Chapter 5 - Part 2

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 5 - Part 3

Xu Ziling’s condition was just slightly better than his. Stopping the spin, he had to spurt out the second mouthful of blood; but then he took advantage of the impact force to turn around and leap to Shang Xiuxun’s side. After staggering a few steps he was able to steady his footstep.

Cao Yinglong dropped down on his butt on the ground, rolled about a zhang away, and only then was he able to spring up.

“Idiots!” he roared, “Why haven’t you attack?”

Like having a rude awakening the crowd of bandits swarmed toward Xu Ziling and Shang Xiuxun. Once again the ear-splitting battle cry filled the air.

※ ※ ※

Kou Zhong was sitting on a rock high on the cliff above. Removing his mask, he fixed his eyes on the two figures, which, by this time, had just reached the edge of the mountain.

Because he had trailed Li Tianfan before, he was able to use this ‘shortcut’ to beat him by reaching this place one step ahead and waited for his honorable arrival here.

In his heart, he had neither anxiety nor delight; his feeling was cold and detached that even he himself did not understand. He could not just kill indiscriminately, but he could not turn a blind eye toward the enemy either.

After finding out that Li Tianfan was Li Mi’s son, he already made up his mind not to let him go back alive to see Li Mi. But all along he still had a feeling toward Shen Luoyan; it was hard for him to ruthlessly destroy the flower. Outside Baling County that day, he even let the ‘Mermaid’ You Qiuyan go, much less Shen Luoyan!

Under the moonlight, Li Tianfan and Shen Luoyan were approaching rapidly.

They started with more than ten people and now they became only two people; evidently in order to pursue and attack Li Xiuning, they had paid a bitter price. It was also obvious that Li Tianfan and Shen Luoyan were selfish people, who did not hesitate to sacrifice their subordinates’ lives in exchange of their chance to escape. If they were not solely preoccupied with escaping, it would not be that easy for Li Xiuning, Chai Shao and the others to subdue their men.

The two people eventually detected his presence; they halted in shock.

Raising the Moon in the Well, Kou Zhong leaped down, and stood at the peak of the slope to block their way. “You think it’s that easy to leave?” he said with a cold laugh.

Li Tianfan’s eyes flashed with a deep cold murderous intent; glaring viciously at him, he said, “Where’s your partner?”

Shen Luoyan’s beautiful eyes suddenly exuded a red-hot expression, but it disappeared just as quick.

Kou Zhong sneered and said, “To deal with you, this kid, me, one person, is more than enough. Others are experts in both literature and martial art, but you are an expert in hiding and fleeing, plus very adept in easily abandoning your subordinates. You are really unworthy to be Li Mi’s son.”

Li Tianfan laughed indifferently and said, “Do you want to arouse my anger? It’s not that easy. No need to waste too much words, make your move, let’s see your real skill!”

Kou Zhong saw Shen Luoyan pulled the ‘soul-snatching hairpin’ from her hair, but did not see Li Tianfan producing any weapon. Inwardly he was quite astonished; could it be that just like Xu Ziling, this guy also loved to use his fists and legs?

But this moment he had no time to think. Taking a step forward, he pointed to the two using his Moon in the Well, sending out a powerful saber qi.

Li Tianfan let out a cold laugh. Not allowing Kou Zhong to amass his momentum, he flipped his two hands to reveal a pair of short blades approximately two chi long each. One slashed upward the other stabbed downward, his technique was vicious and harsh to the extreme. Laughing, he said, “The right is called shooting the sun, the left is called moonshine; they can cut gold and pare jade. Kou Xiong better be careful!”

Seeing that even though he verbally abused Li Tianfan, yet he was still able to maintain his elegant demeanor, Kou Zhong’s heart shivered in fear. The Moon in the Well swept swiftly; relying on the weight, length and the sharpness of the weapon, he tried to gain the upper hand first.

Yellow glow suddenly flared out. Its power was definitely unstoppable; the violent saber qi hacked down on Li Tianfan’s clothes fluttering in the breeze.

Li Tianfan did not show the least bit sign of fear; rising to the challenge, he fought a fierce hand-to-hand combat with Kou Zhong.

The sound of weapons clashing was ringing incessantly.

Surprisingly, Shen Luoyan was simply watching with folded arms, as if she had full confidence on Li Tianfan’s ability.

In a flash, Kou Zhong, using the extremely agile swimming fish shenfa, successively sent out a dozen or so swift saber strikes toward Li Tianfan from different angles; a very intense offensive so that from attacking, Li Tianfan was forced to take defensive stance, the all-out attack became dodging and evading.

But Li Tianfan’s shooting the sun and the moonshine, two blades, were moving with elaborate and exquisite changes. On top of that, his footwork was fantastic. Every time Kou Zhong’s saber slacked off a little bit, immediately he adopted counterattack style, forcing Kou Zhong to strenuously maintain his offensive momentum.

It was only now did Kou Zhong know that Li Tianfan was indeed not a dog child [from idiom: tiger father would not begot dog child].

Shen Luoyan glaring like a tiger watching its prey on the side also posed a great threat to him.

Kou Zhong remembered Lu Miaozi’s ‘Escaping One’ principle, but in reality he still did not know how to use it. All he could do right now was sending his vortex of qi via his Moon in the Well, which turned into streak after streak of yellow lightning constantly striking Li Tianfan.

From the beginning Li Tianfan did not stop retreating, the saber’s circle was getting narrower and narrower. When it looked like his blood was about to splash under Kou Zhong’s saber, suddenly he abandoned his blade and stretched out his arm to block.

Kou Zhong was greatly surprised; he thought that the opponent should not be so desperate to risk his life like this. Hurriedly he reduced his power by thirty-percent.

It was at this moment that Shen Luoyan made her move. The Soul-snatching Hairpin swiftly lunged toward Kou Zhong’s open right flank. Her shenfa was as quick as a demon.

‘Dang!’

The Moon in the Well struck Li Tianfan’s right arm, creating a loud metal-to-metal clashing noise.

Kou Zhong realized that Li Tianfan must be wearing some kind or magical armor on his arms. He knew he had fallen into disadvantageous position; also, he knew now why Shen Luoyan picked this right moment to launch her attack. Hastily he dodged sideway.

Li Tianfan laughed aloud; his blade’s momentum changed fast. Relying on his arms, which were impervious to the enemy’s sharp weapon, he unleashed a series of violent attacking moves to penetrate the opponent’s defense, entering every crack and loophole in Kou Zhong’s saber momentum.

Shen Luoyan repeatedly let out her tender shouts, as she continuously circled around Kou Zhong, launching surprise attacks each time she saw an opening.

Kou Zhong has lost his advantage. Were it not for the opponents had to spend considerable strength to deal with his vortex of true qi, perhaps he would have been defeated early on.

Realizing the disadvantageous situation, Kou Zhong let out a long laugh, and suddenly retreated toward the top of the slope, while at the same time his saber hacked down an empty air.

This saber strike was actually in accordance with the Yijian Technique.

Li Tianfan and Shen Luoyan realized suddenly that this one saber strike actually sealed up all spaces from which they could launch their attacks, so that any successive move they were planning could not be unleashed.

Overwhelmed with shock, the two people backed off.

Revealing a bright, sunny smile, Kou Zhong put his saber back into its scabbard and spoke amiably as if he was addressing his old friends, “Enough playing today, please say hello to Duke Mi on Xiaodi’s behalf.”

And then after another loud laughter, he winked at Shen Luoyan, and flew away.

After being shaken by Kou Zhong’s ‘like a heavenly steed soaring across the skies’ saber strikes, unexpectedly Li and Shen, two people did not dare to restart the battle.

※ ※ ※

With their backs and hips pressed up against each other, Xu Ziling and Shang Xiuxun dealt with wave after wave of attacks from four sides, eight directions. A strange feeling that they were of the same flesh and blood started to develop in two people’s hearts.

Dead bodies were scattered all around them, the number of cuts and wounds on their bodies was also growing more and more.

Cao Yinglong, Xiang Batian and Fang Jianding, three Big Bandits were standing on the eaves. From their vantage point they directed their subordinates in continuous offensive against the two people under siege below.

Suddenly the sound of battle cry sprang up everywhere from the southeast direction, and rapidly approaching.

Cao Yinglong stomped his feet, his countenance changed. “What kind of trick is this?” he said, “How come we know nothing until they arrived here?”

Fang Jianding roared; he was about to rush down to deal with Xu Ziling, two people, when Cao Yinglong pulled him back and shouted, “Small neglect may breed great mischief, we retreat immediately.”