Book 24 Chapter 4 – Persian Maiden

After four consecutive sonic booms, Hou Xibai’s outer robe disintegrated. ‘Bang!’ his raised hand blocking above his head met the last lotus power pressing down on him head-on. Exposing his inner blue-green tight-fitting warrior outfit, Hou Xibai followed the shattered roof tiles to fall down into the house’s rear courtyard. Were it not for the occupants inside the house were all outside on the street enjoying the Lantern Festival in the city, the noise and the disturbance would definitely wake them up from their beautiful dreams.

From An Long’s perspective, however, not even in his dream did he ever imagine that this kid from the younger generation could borrow the roof tiles disintegrating and the robes infused full of true qi to break his must-kill ‘Lotus Ring at the Center of the Sky’. Only now did he understand that ‘using solid in place of empty’ mean putting back the secretly amassed true qi inside the fan into the body, to make the robe swelling full of qi power, and use it to ingeniously block An Long’s ultimate move.

But regret at this moment was already too late; after executing five rings in succession he was very much nearing his limit. If he failed again, he would have to find a place to hide and would not dare to come out to see people until he was fully recovered. Upon self-examination, under present circumstances, would he dare to take the risk?

One somersault, An Long’s fat body, in an ingenious, relaxed posture, which would make people stare in dumbstruck, landed on the grassy area in the courtyard. Both of his hands moved, sometimes in a punch, sometimes in a chop, suddenly changed into a claw, suddenly became palm strike, he unfolded a set of ingenious and exquisite technique to attack Hou Xibai, who, upon landing on the ground, was staggering slightly – like a gale sweeping the dead leaves off the ground, combined with his fat body staggering and tumbling indeterminately – sometimes heavy, another time light, in ever-changing movements. Just for this set of skill, he deserved to be ranked among the ‘Eight Major Martial Art Masters of the Demonic Way’.

This time, he wanted to kill Hou Xibai with his heart and soul; each move was an attack, completely opposite to his previously defensive strategy. Immediately showing off the other side of his prowess, he heavily enveloped Hou Xibai inside the wind generated by his fist and palm, while also continuously narrowing the limit of Hou Xibai’s movements. The moment Hou Xibai found it difficult to move would be the moment he killed the enemy.

Hou Xibai was beginning to sweat profusely in dealing with An Long’s killer attacks, simply because it was the first time he ran into this kind of set of techniques. Flustered, he was unable to use the Eight Moves to Break The Lotus to its fullest potential; inwardly he knew that An Long developed this set of techniques in recent years as his secret skill, hence even Shi Zhixuan was unaware of it. In critical time, he used his life-saving move, the ‘zhe hua bai shi’ [a hundred styles of snapping flower]. Folding the fan and withdrawing it, he took a defensive position, while actually hiding a killer move within.

An Long’s murderous intent flared up; laughing aloud, he said, “Although Xianzhi can block Long Shu’s ‘Lotus Ring at the Center of the Sky’, inevitably your meridians will sustain injuries. If Long Shu is willing to let you regulate your breathing for a little while, it will not be this bad.”

Both his hands had the fingers put together like a saber chop; while breathing and speaking, fast as lightning, he continuously stabbed forward six times, fierce to the extreme point.

Qi power filled the atmosphere, not a single one was not a sinister move meant to take the opponent’s life.

Although Hou Xibai was caught in a completely passive position where he simply had to take the beating and painstakingly defend himself, yet the Fan of Beauty, whether it was closed or open, whether it was blocking up or intercepting down – was always able to perfectly parried An Long’s toppling-the-mountains-and-overturning-the-seas palm chop, each one attacking from unexpected angle. However, each time he blocked, he had to take half a step back. By the time the sixth strike arrived, his back was already against the house’s external wall.

The Fan of Beauty suddenly slowed down.

Seeing this opportunity, An Long simply had to take it. Both palms pus