Chapter 14 - Soul-Capturing Adaptable Bowl[1]

His countenance changed slightly, Nangong Ling said coldly, "The window curtain rent, it can be sewed up; the boots damaged, they can be fixed. If the man escaped, our Gang's disciples can also catch him back."

His countenance changed, the eight-pouch disciple wondered aloud, "So he really ran away barefooted?"

Nangong Ling asked in heavy voice, "Who's the disciple on guard outside the window?"

"They are brothers from Jinan's Tian Guan Temple," the eight-pouch disciple replied.

Nangong Ling spoke sternly, "Take them to Gongsun Hufa to be disciplined according to our house rules."

The eight-pouch disciple bowed and said, "Order received."

He flew out the window; the sound of angry scolding was immediately heard outside the window.

Nangong Ling turned toward Chu Liuxiang, cupped his fist with forced laughter and said, "Xiaodi has an important matter to attend to, I am afraid I will have to take my leave today."

Chu Liuxiang giggled and said, "You have just aroused the wine worms in my belly, are you trying to avoid a problem by walking away from it?"

Nangong Ling laughed aloud and said, "A wine debt toward Chu Liuxiang, who in the world would want to drop it? Within two days, Xiaodi will come to deliver the invitation, but I do hope Hong Xiong will not decline this time."

Pulling his hands, unexpectedly the two daggers flew up again. Turned out the hilt of the daggers was tied with a thin chain made of black metal.

Nangong Ling left in a hurry. The shouting outside the window grew again, and then the voices gradually went away, a moment later they all left, until no one remained.

Chu Liuxiang sighed lightly and said, "This Nangong Ling is indeed a talent. Under his command, the Beggar Clan is indeed growing more powerful by day … perhaps it is a bit too powerful."

Yitian Hong floated down to the ground. His eyes flas.h.i.+ng, he said, "Did you see if that youngster has really left?"

"Do you think there is only one window in here?" Chu Liuxiang replied.

Suddenly someone responded coldly, "It's a pity that Nangong Ling does not have eyesight like Chu Liuxiang's."

Amidst his voice, the youngster in black appeared from behind another curtain, his snow-white socks were covered in dust.

It was only then did Yitian Hong realize that the kid intentionally revealed the tip of his boots; he must have taken off his boots, slipped out of the window, went across the eaves, and slipped back in from another window, and hid behind the curtain. Although this boy was very young, unexpectedly he knew how to exploit human psychological weaknesses; he predicted accurately that once Nangong Ling thought he already left, he would not search elsewhere in the room.

He saw the youngster in black went over toward Chu Liuxiang, stared at Chu Liuxiang for half a day, and suddenly shouted loudly, "That Nangong Ling and you are friends, while you and I have never met before. You did not help him, but you helped me instead; why did you do that?"

Unexpectedly this youngster suffered from a very chronic illness of suspicions; others were doing a favor to him, instead of grat.i.tude, he suspected that the others must have ulterior motive.

Smiling wryly, Chu Liuxiang replied, "I did not help him, but I helped you instead, simply because he is a beggar, extremely poor, while you are rich. Therefore, I wanted to pat your horse's b.u.t.ts [i.e. flattery]."

The youngster in black stared at him for half a day. Finally, he could not stop a smile from appearing on the corners of his mouth. But he managed to refrain from laughing out loud; coldly, he said, "Although you do me a favor, I absolutely refuse to receive your pity."

Chu Liuxiang also refrained from laughing; he said, "Who did you a favor? Do you even need anybody else's favor? Those insignificant Beggar Clan troops, how could they be worthy to be considered in your eyes?"

The youngster in black angrily said, "You think I am scared of them?"

"Naturally you are not afraid of them," Chu Liuxiang responded, "You hid behind the curtain, you just wanted to play a joke on them."

The youngster was so angry that his face turned completely red. Moving a few steps forward, he spoke sternly, "Don't ever think that just because you do me a favor, you can laugh at me. I …" before he finished speaking, his entire body suddenly jumped.

Turned out because he was not being careful, he stepped on a dead snake. In his shock, he jumped onto the table, almost throwing himself into Chu Liuxiang's bosom.

Chu Liuxiang laughed heartily and said, "We are big hero who fear nothing in Heaven or Earth; turns out we are afraid of snakes."

Now he knew that just now the young man was running away, fl.u.s.tered and exasperated, only because the snakes were chasing after him, really not because he was afraid of the Beggar Clan disciples' martial art. This icy-cold youngster was afraid of snakes; it was indeed beyond anybody's expectation.

The youngster in black's face turned red. Gasping for breath, he said, "I am not afraid, I just feel disgusted … I loathe everything that is soft and slippery. Do you think that's funny?"

Patting his cheek, Chu Liuxiang said, "Not funny. Of course it is not funny at all. Since women can be afraid of snakes, why can't men be afraid? Why must men be less afraid of certain things compared to women?"

As he spoke to this point, unconsciously a smile twinkled in the cold and detached Yitian Hong's eyes, while the youngster in black's face grew even redder.

Right this moment, they heard someone spoke coldly, "Turns out Chu Xiang Shuai, whose name shook the heavens, not only can laugh, he can also tell lies."

A man was leaning against the door; unexpectedly it was Bai Yumo. There was a flapping white cloth sack in his hand, but n.o.body knew what was inside.

The youngster in black in black could not stop his countenance from changing.

Although on the surface Chu Liuxiang did not utter a word or show any movement, inwardly he could not help jumping in fright. Yet he laughed indifferently and said, "Did I ever say that he was not here? … I simply did not say anything."

Bai Yumo laughed coldly and said, "Our Bangzhu already knew early on that he is still here, it's just that looking at your, Chu Liuxiang's face, he withdrew temporarily. Now that he has shown himself, you …"

The youngster in black suddenly spoke loudly, "No need to look at his face, he and I absolutely have nothing to do with each other."

Bai Yumo said, "Since that's the case, do you want to go out on your own, or do you want to wait for us to come in?"

Without waiting for him to finish, he already flew out of the window, and then, sound of scolding and yelling was heard, as he kept shouting along the way.

Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "You guys have a Bangzhu like Nangong Ling, that is really a great blessing. That youngster offended Nangong Ling, he is really unlucky."

Bai Yumo spoke sternly, "Offending me, Bai Yumo, is not necessarily a good fortune either."

Suddenly he took out a piece of greenish black strange-looking weapon from the gray sack in his hand, and shouted, "Bridge returns to bridge, road returns to road; although you know Nangong Ling, but I, Bai Yumo, don't know you. You offended me, today I want you dead!"

Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "Why do so many people want me dead? When I'm dead, what benefit will it bring you?"

Bai Yumo laughed evilly and said, "There will be a lot of benefit!" His words had not finished, the weapon in his palm already shot out.

Yitian Hong coldly watched from the side. He noticed that this weapon looked like a bowl, but not exactly a bowl, it looked a bit like a claw, but not exactly a claw either. It wrapped around his hand like a bowl protecting his hand, it curved like a crescent moon, and had a greenish black pole, a little like wolf-tooth club, with countless thorns sticking out of its surface, but at the tip was a retractable ghost claw. The claw was black and s.h.i.+ny, obviously it was extremely poisonous.

The Central Plains' One Red Dot was able to move unhindered across Jianghu, he has gone through hundreds, if not thousands, of battles, yet he has never seen such a strange weapon, and he could not figure out what kind of magical use would this strange weapon possess.

When martial art pract.i.tioners see such a new and strange weapon, it would be like a little kid seeing a new toy; he would find it fascinating, as well as arousing his curiosity.

Naturally Yitian Hong was no exception; he also wanted to see any peculiar move this strange weapon could do, more importantly, he wanted to see how Chu Liuxiang would break the strange move.

He heard Chu Liuxiang said with a laugh, "That is a contraption to catch snakes; are you going to use it to deal with people?"

Bai Yumo laughed eerily and said, "My 'zhuo hun ruyi bo' [lit. capturing-soul-according-to-one's-wishes bowl] not only can catch snakes, it can also catch your soul. Today, there is no harm in letting you have a taste of it."

While speaking, he already executed seven or eight moves; his style was indeed bizarre beyond compare. It would suddenly poke lightly, and then turned to sweeping across. Sometimes quick and nimble with myriads changes, soon became harsh, as if he was trying to s.n.a.t.c.h victory using brute force.

In developing this kind of unorthodox weapon of his own innovation, this devil beggar from Gusu has indeed spent painstaking effort. This kind of suddenly-flexible-suddenly-stiff style was really difficult to deal with, but if he did not have full control over the strength of his own hands, there was no way he would be able to execute such moves.

Chu Liuxiang was moving differently as well; he seemed to want to see all the changes this adaptable bowl could do, and momentarily did not want to make his move to break the opponent's attack.

It should be noted that his addiction to martial art was really more intense than anybody else; seeing a novel weapon like this, his interest was higher than Yitian Hong's. In fact, he was ten times more curious than Yitian Hong.

Therefore, concerning the peculiar and odd weapons of unorthodox schools of the whole wide world, he nearly knew the technique to break them. And now suddenly this 'adaptable bowl' appeared; how could he simply let it get away? Before he could fully understand how this 'adaptable bowl' moved and the variations surrounding the moves, he was practically unwilling to let Bai Yumo stop.

However, fighting like this, inevitably he would repeatedly be in distress. Sometimes he even deliberately revealed 'empty-gate' flaw, just to lure the opponent to execute his masterstroke.

Several times the black and s.h.i.+ny, flickering poisonous claw, made contact with his clothes, so that even Yitian Hong had to secretly wipe his cold sweats on behalf of Chu Liuxiang.

Gaining the upper hand, Bai Yumo's spirit was aroused; more and more masterstrokes emerged from the 'adaptable bowl' in his hand, forcing Chu Liuxiang to repeatedly step back.

But suddenly Chu Liuxiang laughed aloud and said, "Turns out your adaptable bowl style is just so-so; to be used to catch snakes it is barely effective, but to catch people, it is still too far away!"

Bai Yumo shouted, "Don't even think you might be able to see all of Laofu's adaptable bowl styles in your lifetime."

This wily old fox of evil beggar seemed to have seen through Chu Liuxiang's mind.

[1] Chapter t.i.tle: Adaptable, ruyi, lit. as one wishes. The bowl here refers to the small earthenware bowl usually used by a monk to ask for alms.