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Several hundred houses were scattered around within the city, connected to each other by more than a dozen neat and tidy bluestone-paved big streets. The most distinctive feature was that the houses were built in layers following the topography of the mountain. Each layer was connected to the next by stone steps and ramp to provide convenient access for the residents, as well as the vehicles and horses.

Trees, flowers and shrubberies were planted on the sides of the road. There was also irrigation system by diverting streams from the mountain springs. Interspersed among the gardens and residences, the streams became small bridges and running water, with endless ponds and pavilions, creating beautiful scenery. The open space was spacious but cozy, a garden design very specific to Jiangnan landscape. Standing in it, one would feel like he was in a big garden on the mountain.

The main building complex was situated on the very top, the ninth layer, on a flat plain about two li wide. The buildings were lofty and steep, the construction elegant, the main materials were wood and stone. From the ornamented eaves to the decorative windows, not a single one was not meticulously crafted. The design was brimming with some kind of vigorous, imposing style of southern cultural feel, giving other people the stronger feeling of the Song Clan’s influential position in the south.

Kou Zhong followed behind Song Lu and Song Zhi, two men, weaving around the pavilions and gazebos, and garden of flowers and trees, until they reached the courtyard gate of the Mo Dao Tang [grinding saber hall], at the end of the mountain city.

Song Zhi stopped and said, “Shall the two of us accompany Shao Shuai to see Da Xiong?”

Song Lu heaved a sigh and said, “Listening to the tone of your voice, Da Xiong ought to have instructed you that he wants to see Xiao Zhong alone.”

Song Zhi nodded with a wry smile.

Staring blankly, Kou Zhong said, “Lu Shu and Zhi Shu are afraid that Fazhu would want to test his saber on me?”

Worried over Kou Zhong’s safety, Song Zhi said, “He will definitely test your saber technique; question is: will he kill you? Usually the person whose name he engraved on the whetstone ended up losing his life under his saber.”

Puzzled, Kou Zhong asked, “Why would he suddenly want to kill me? What benefit would killing me bring to him, the Senior?”

Song Zhi replied, “Da Xiong conducts are always difficult to measure. He secretly went out of the mountain city for a while, and when he returned, he engraved your name on the grindstone. I tried sounding him out many times, but he refused to disclose even the slightest hint. Therefore, in this matter we can only bet on your luck. If Shao Shuai decided to leave the city immediately, we will definitely not blame you.”

Laughing aloud, Kou Zhong said, “How can I, Kou Zhong, be someone who shrink back as the time for battle approaches? I am even more confident that I am going to get out alive and will look for two gentlemen for a drink.”

Xu Ziling laughed indifferently and said, “Laolao, please do not misunderstand; I just want to see if I could borrow a saber.”

Everybody was greatly astonished. To do a good job, an artisan needs the best tools [idiom]. Even sabers forged by the same blacksmith would differ in weight, sharpness and speed. That was the reason why martial art practitioners attached great importance to the weapon they carried on them. Because without spending a long period of time to master the characteristics of the weapon, one might be encumbered by it and would not be able to unleash their moves and skill to the highest realm.

Like Xu Ziling, for example; he wanted to defeat ‘Mei Ji’ Sina in three strokes, but whether or not he could unleash the weapon’s characteristic would be the key influencing the outcome. Moreover, he urgently borrowed a weapon that his hand had not had a chance to adjust at the last moment, the biggest possibility was that before he had grasped clearly the weapon characteristic, and the three strokes would already be over.

Lin Lang untied the saber hanging on his waist and handed it over to Xu Ziling, saying, “Gong Ye, please take a look if this can be used.”

Huo Jitong snorted coldly; apparently he was unhappy with Lin Lang’s action.

Xu Ziling took the long saber, and slowly pulled it out of its scabbard. Holding the scabbard in his left hand and the saber in his right, his eyes shot fierce lightning light toward Huo Jitong, who was standing next to Xia Miaoying, as he spoke heavily, “No matter how this matter will develop, the affair between me and you has absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with Wu Jiang Bang. If I, Gong Chenchun, suffer defeat and meet a misfortune of being captured, naturally I won’t have any credibility to speak. But in the event that Ol’ Gong is lucky and score a victory, and in the future you, Huo Jitong are giving trouble to Wu Jiang Bang, I, Gong Chenchun hereby vow that no matter the size of the trouble, I will definitely take your life.”

The moment the saber left the scabbard completely, a burst of burning hot saber qi immediately emanated from the core of the long saber, like it was secretly rushing forth to attack the enemy. Combined with his threatening heroic aura and the determination in his voice, it was indeed full of extremely intimidating power.

‘Mei Ji’ Sina, who bore the brunt of this silent attack, has never even dreamed that unexpectedly there was someone who could exploit the momentum of a saber being pulled out so that it exuded such a formidable and fantastic qi power. Immediately, as if her body did not want to follow its master’s will, she recoiled one step back, while brandishing her sword to block the opponent’s invisible, yet so real, enormous saber qi.

Xia Miaoying’s countenance was changed as well.

Huo Jitong has early on felt the chill creeping in his heart just from his gaze. When the saber qi – surging like the tide – arrived, unexpectedly he could not withstand and had to take two steps back; momentarily he did not even dare to say anything to retort.

The other people felt that Xu Ziling’s words were quite fair and reasonable, simply because if in her capacity as the heir of Sichuan’s He Yi Pai, plus her position as one of the four major chiefs of Ba Meng – she was defeated in just three moves, then in the entire Sichuan, quite possibly the ‘Wulin Magistrate’ Xie Hui was the only person with the ability to protect Huo Jitong’s little life; other people could simply forget about it.

Besides, if Huo Jitong disregarded the rules of Jianghu like that and relied on his power to vent his anger on Wu Jiang Bang later on, with Xie Hui’s ordinarily impartial style, he would never interfere or even care about it.

Knowing that he already intimidated Huo Jitong, Xu Ziling turned his gaze toward ‘Mei Ji’ Sina, while pointing the blade of his saber toward her.

Strange thing happened.

The surging, churning scorching saber qi suddenly vanished without any trace. In its place was a yin in nature, an intensely cold, qi.

Finally Xia Miaoying was overwhelmed with shock. “Na’er, back off!” she shouted sternly, while stretching out her whisk.

By this time, everybody knew the strength of ‘Gong Chenchun’s’ martial art skill was far beyond Xia Miaoying’s imagination, which made her completely lost confidence in Sina’s ability to fight desperately in three moves.

By nature, Sina was obstinate, naturally she was unwilling to admit defeat before even fighting for one move. Clenching her teeth, she called out, “Shifu, don’t worry!”

The sword in her hand created layer upon layer of fantastic sword shadows; turning from passive to active [lit. the guest acts as host (idiom)], she suddenly attacked, her sword rained down on Xu Ziling as if it was hiding the sky and covering the earth, while carrying abundant power.

Using the man to play the sword, using the sword to play the enemy.

Every action and every word of Xu Ziling were all in compliance with the law of the Yijian Technique, so finally Sina was forced to take the initiative by attacking first, which would save him not a few of effort.

If she had been on the defensive, quite possibly he would be the loser in this limited-to-three-strokes battle.

Actually, he had pulled a legitimate trick. When he was pulling the saber, he seized the opportunity to release the burning hot qi power from the ‘Secret to Long Life’, which he suddenly turned into a cold qi according to Kou Zhong’s technique from the ‘Secret to Long Life’. Therefore, although he did not move a single stroke, he had actually already made his move.

If Sina suffered defeat in this momentum face-off, then he would go all-out and make his move by drawing on this opportunity of qi advantage and use just one saber strike to seize victory.

Sina was already forced to take one step back by his saber qi. She has just steadied her footing and had never expected that the opponent was able to transform heat into cold. Immediately her mind was in great chaos. If she did not counterattack, her only way out was to retreat more; certainly it would be even more detrimental to her.

In this momentum face-off, she had been utterly defeated. Inwardly she clearly knew that she was definitely not Xu Ziling’s match. Her only hope was that she could rely on her swordplay to pass the three moves.

When martial masters were vying against each other, if one’s will was snatched away, one’s confidence would suffer blow, one’s power would naturally be greatly reduced. And Sina had definitely fallen into Xu Ziling’s carefully laid trap.

Whether it was ability, wisdom, or martial art, the gap between the two was simply too far.

Xia Miaoying raised her whisk up, while pursuing closely behind Sina’s back, intending to enter the battle arena, but she was still one step too late.

Xu Ziling took half a step back, the saber in his right hand drew a beautiful arc in the air, moving the heavy saber as if it was light, hacking down on the empty air.

Sina felt as if her sword qi was being sucked dry that not even half a drop remained. Her sword move became empty, like it was only a stance without any substance at all. Furthermore, she felt as if she was drawn toward his saber to receive her death. Her soul flew away and scattered, she no longer cared about the three strokes, and withdrew her sword and retreated in panic.

Xia Miaoying followed Sina advancing and retreating. Brushing past, her whisk, imbued with whistling true power – swept across toward Xu Ziling.

Xu Ziling cried ‘Lucky!’ inwardly. Using his borrowed saber, he emulated the ‘Tian Mo Da Fa’ [demonic great method] to thirty-, forty-percent resemblance, so that without blood on the men’s swords [idiom: effortless victory] he managed to scare this brimming-with-ethnic-bearing Miao beauty that she retreated.

This moment, seeing the arrival of the whisk, without even thinking Xu Ziling executed the ‘Troops without Regular Power’ from Li Jing’s ‘Bloody Battle Ten Styles’, sweeping the strongest point of Xia Miaoying’s ‘escaping one’.

‘Pow!’

Xia Miaoying’s whisk was met head-on by his seemingly random saber sweep. All the exquisite follow-up changes were immediately sealed, while a burst of abundant, unfathomable and irresistible saber qi penetrated her defense via the whisk. Letting out a stifled groan, although inwardly she really did not want to concede, she knew that she was completely unable to parry the hack, let alone to push him back.

Xu Ziling’s saber momentum changed from ‘Troops without Regular Power’ to the tenth style, the ‘Ruler Overlooking the World’ stance, where it embodied both offense and defense, and was able to control the opponent remotely.

Even with Xia Miaoying’s ability, she still felt that if she continued her attack in this disadvantageous position, she would only bring disgrace to herself. Unexpectedly, for a moment she was forced to retreat again, and thus she dispelled any idea of counterattack.

The two sides resumed their initial position of standing face-to-face against each other. Naturally Xu Ziling was unwilling to push others too far; thereupon he cupped his fist and said, “Both in terms of theory and practice, Ol’ Gong basically did not have any confidence to surpass Sina Dangjia in three moves; I was merely utilizing my comprehension of the little plaything of troops deployment to dangerous situation, which I had hidden for many years. Whether we still want to continue, I’ll ask Laolao to decide.”

This remark could be considered giving the other side some face. After exchanging a glance with Sina, Xia Miaoying abruptly stomped her foot and said, “Defeat is defeat; there’s no need for you to flatter us. We’re leaving.”

Behind the door was a long corridor zigzagging across the pond and flowerbed. He continued walking forward along the corridor, turning left and rounding right, while absorbing everything with his eyes. Green garden was everywhere; each step brought him to a different scenery, as well as unusual artistic concept.

At the end of zigzagging corridor was a hexagonal stone pavilion, located just in the dead center of a pond, which was connected to the winding corridor of the surrounding courtyard by a stone bridge.

The stone bridge was pointing at another entrance. Hidden from view was another open space, with an ancient tree towering to the sky, lush, big and sturdy, full of vitality.

Kou Zhong walked pass the stone pavilion, over the bridge and across the corridor, through the second layer of courtyard gate, where wide-open space suddenly appeared before his eyes. At the end was a magnificent five-bay wooden structure, with a locust tree, more than a dozen zhang tall, standing proudly in the middle of the courtyard, creating myriad of ambience, like a gauzed umbrella hiding the structure and the courtyard in its shade. Under the bright sun, the tree shade seemed to blend with the main structure into one entity, mutually enhancing each other’s jagged silhouette to form a brimming-with-poetic-feeling still picture.

Kou Zhong felt a great sense of freedom. He walked slowly around the locust tree to fully enjoy the scenery before slowly climbing the white stone steps of the building, underneath a horizontal board with three characters ‘Mo Dao Tang’ [grinding saber hall] engraved on it.

On the vast open space inside the ‘Mo Dao Tang’, a man was standing in the middle of the hall with his back facing the door. There was no visible weapon on him. His build was straight like a javelin, with dark green and blue long gown draped over his body, high and steep, majestic like a mountain. His jet-black hair was tied into a bun on top of his head with a red ribbon. And he had his hands behind his back. Although Kou Zhong had not seen the outline of his five sense organs, he already felt the consider-oneself-unexcelled-in-the-world, the look-at-the-world-disdainfully-out-of-the-corner-of-his-eyes lofty spirit.

On the walls on either side of him hung more than a dozen treasured sabers in all different shapes and sizes. On the far side wall opposite the door, there was a huge rock, about a person’s height – that looked like a stalagmite, dark and glossy, making the already peculiar atmosphere of the Mo Dao Tang even more hard to describe.

Kou Zhong was a man who did not follow conventions and was extremely daring, yet when he was in the presence of this outstanding personality, who was hailed as the number one saber expert in the world, he could not help trembling a little with fear. He sincerely saluted toward his back, saying, “Houbei [younger/later generation] Kou Zhong paying my respect to Fazhu!”

A gentle and pleasant to hear voice replied, “You are late!”

Stunned, Kou Zhong echoed, “I am late?”

Like a whirlwind Song Que turned around and coldly said, “You are at least one year late.”

Kou Zhong finally came face to face with the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que, whose name shook the heaven, who, since his debut, has never met his rival, the father of Kou Zhong’s beloved.

Lei Jiuzhi pursued behind him into the cabin. Displeased, Xu Ziling said, “Why are you following me?”

Lei Jiuzhi closed the door to cut off other people’s vision. Drawing close to Xu Ziling’s back, he said in low voice, “Naturally I have an important matter I need to discuss with you.”

Letting out a cold snort, Xu Ziling said, “You and I had no relation before, and will never have any in the future. If you are sensible, you would get out of my way; otherwise, don’t blame Ol’ Gong for being rude to you.”

Lei Jiuzhi laughed and said, “Gong Xiong, please do not scare me. You, this person, are cold on the outside, but hot on the inside. Moreover, you are not one who uses your strength to mistreat people. As long as you are willing to listen to a few words of mine, I guarantee that you will revise your point of view toward Xiaodi.”

Xu Ziling turned around to face him. Nodding, he said, “You answer me first; just now, why were you so eager to stick out your head like that?”

Lei Jiuzhi’s pair of eyes flickered with lively light, he spoke in heavy voice, “Because you are wearing the mask that my Enshi [benevolent master] crafted with his own hands.”

Frowning, Xu Ziling said, “Lei Xiong’s eyesight is surely brilliant, but I wonder what’s the honorable surname and great given name of your so-called Enshi?”

Revealing a hint of pained smile, Lei Jiuzhi dejectedly replied, “Although I regard Lu Miaozi Dashi [great master] as my Master, but he was never willing to acknowledge me as his disciple. Yet the reason of my, Lei Jiuzhi, accomplishment today is all thanks to him.”

Xu Ziling was not moved emotionally at all; he calmly asked, “When did you see through that I am wearing a mask?”

“I was only guessing,” Lei Jiuzhi replied, “My pair of ears have received special training. Not only they can hear the subtle difference of the dice rolling around inside the bowl, they can even eavesdrop someone else’s word from a distance. When I found out that unexpectedly you did not know that Xia Miaoying was rushing over for you, I then guessed that you are not the real Gong Chenchun. As a matter of fact, you are a hundred times more superior to Gong Chenchun. Therefore, I deliberately walked behind your back to scrutinize the difference in skin tone between your neck and your face. Only then was I certain that you are wearing a mask. Also, only masks that came from Lu Shi’s [master] miraculous hands could be without any flaw like this.”

Xu Ziling sat down on the chair by the window. He spoke indifferently, “Since Mr. Lu had never acknowledged you as his disciple, what is your relationship with Mr. Lu then?”

Lei Jiuzhi sat down on the other chair. His face revealed a reminiscing look, he spoke slowly, “It happened more than thirty years ago. At that time I was only fifteen, I ran errands in one of the casinos in Guanzhong. One day Lu Miaozi came to gamble. Using an incomparable gambling technique he ferociously won a sum of money. When he was leaving, I ran behind him and begged him to teach me his technique to win money. Ay! At that time I thought he was just a gambler whose skill was more superior to others.”

Xu Ziling could imagine Lu Miaozi’s reaction. Smiling, he asked, “What did he say?”

Stroking his cheek, Lei Jiuzhi said, “He bestowed me a slap on my face, and then he roared in laughter and said, ‘Those who seek instant benefit, like cheating and scheming to become rich, will forever be Dulin masters [play of words: Wulin – martial art forest, Dulin – gambling forest]. Since I have slapped you, let me pass on to you a two-word secret [of an art] method!’”

By this time Xu Ziling already believed Lei Jiuzhi at least seventy-, eighty-percent, because it was precisely the arrogant Lu Miaozi’s style of speaking. Greatly interested, he asked, “What two words?”

Lei Jiuzhi sighed and said, “Precisely the ‘quit greed’, two words.”

Xu Ziling burst in laughter. “Mr. Lu is absolutely right,” he said, “What else can you tell me?”

Lei Jiuzhi said, “At that time I was dumbstruck and unable to reply, but Lu Shi continued, ‘Relying on my gambling technique, I could easily win over a casino like this. But I only won fifty taels and left; this is precisely ‘quit greed’. Only those who can completely put their greed under control will have the qualifications to win other people’s money, so it was not a random talk at all.’”

In his mind, Xu Ziling drew the picture of Lu Miaozi’s facial expression and his demeanor when he talked like that; thinking about the distant separation between Man and Heaven, a pang of pain appeared in his heart.

When it happened, Lu Miaozi’s death did not bring him much grief; but afterwards, each time he recalled Lu Miaozi’s voice and features and his smiling face, his grief, admiration, as well as the feeling of missing him, grew with each passing day.

On Susu, he did not even dare to think about her, because it was simply too heavy and painful!

Lei Jiuzhi’s voice entered his ears, “When I thought that Lu Shi was abandoning me and was leaving, suddenly he came back and stroked my head. Muttering to himself, he said, ‘You, this kid, have a very good skull; your are quite spirited as well. Since I am looking for a helper, how about you come with me for a period of time?’ And that’s how it started. Those were the happiest days of my life. He never taught me anything, but he never stopped me from watching and learning from the side. Too bad it was only for a short half-a-year period. Is he, the Senior, well?”

Xu Ziling spoke heavily, “Mr. Lu has become an immortal early on.”

Lei Jiuzhi’s entire body shook severely; tears flowed down his face.