Book 26 Chapter 5 – Keep on Fighting Despite Continual Setbacks

His eyes lit up, Lei Jiuzhi spoke in heavy voice, “Not concealing anything from Ziling Xiong, for the last dozen of years or so, it could be said that LaoGe has been gambling in casinos all across the country, big and small. When people say ‘Bei Lei Nan Xiang’ [lit. northern thunder southern fragrance], the ‘northern thunder’ is referring to me, Lei Jiuzhi [reminder: his surname literally means thunder], and the ‘southern fragrance’ is naturally Xiang Gui [his surname literally means, you guess it, fragrance]. Even without this human trafficking affair, I have always wanted to have a showdown on the gambling table against Xiang Gui.”

Puzzled, Xu Ziling asked, “Even if you could defeat him on the gambling table, what does it have to do with his human trafficking business?”

Lei Jiuzhi explained, “Two years ago Xiang Gui publicly performed the washing hand in golden bowl ceremony [i.e. retiring]; he would no longer pay attention to the affairs in Jianghu. He also put on an act of closing many casinos and brothels, which everybody knew to be operating under his banner. But actually he was pulling wool over people’s eyes, so that those who intend to seek him would lose the trail. And now nobody knows where Xiang Gui lives. But if I could lure him out, perhaps we could find clues from him. With such a big business, there must be small-hill-like piles of account books, roster, and so on, recording all settlements and transaction. As long as we can make it public, Xiang Gui’s evil empire will crumble immediately, and he will be a contempt of the world.”

Xu Ziling was still confused, “Since he has washed his hand in golden bowl, how could he eat his own words and come out to have a showdown against Lei Xiong on the gambling table?”

Lei Jiuzhi said, “His washing hand in golden bowl is merely a pretense; the fact is that within the Xiang Family, the one with most ambitions is his son, Xiang Yushan. I hear that recently he left Xiao Xian and turned his effort to expand the family business. As for the real reason, opinions differ. One of those opinions says that he had offended some opponent whom nobody dares to provoke, hence he needs to conceal his track. Ha! If even Xiao Xian is helpless to protect him, the disaster he invited upon himself must not be a small matter.”

“Let’s talk about that later,” Xu Ziling said, “Could Lei Xiong tell me how you are going to lure Xiang Gui, father and son, out of their hiding?”

Lei Jiuzhi thought deeply for half a day before answering, “Only by winning big over Xiang Gui until he loses his cool will he be willing to come out to bet against me.”

Muttering to himself irresolutely, Xu Ziling said, “How would you know that the casino is operated by him?”

Lei Jiuzhi smiled and said, “Every casino has its own many taboos, layout and tricks. As soon as I enter the casino and make a round, I will know which family or which Sect presided over the plan, you can forget about deceiving me. Right now I already win big in Xiang Family’s casinos one by one, and each time I appear in different disguise; I must have already provoked Xiang Gui’s attention, hence I mistakenly thought that Huo Jitong was coming to settle the score with me. I don’t know if it was to deal with you, but in recent years he spends a lot of money to invite and hire martial art experts from various regions in order to increase his strength, but at the same time it also makes my situation very dangerous.”

“Since that’s the case,” Xu Ziling said, how would your plan work? Xiang Gui practically does not need to face Lei Xiong on the gambling table; he only needs to send his martial art masters to use force to deal with you. Perhaps he would even be able to recover all the money that you won from him earlier.”

With a card up his sleeve, Lei Jiuzhi said, “Naturally it won’t be that simple. Currently, I have stirred up the nest enough that the casinos under his banner are jittery [orig. wind sighing and crane calling] and anxious that they are unable to carry on even for a single day. It is critical for him to resolve this situation, and it’s not me who is anxious whether he would come out to bet against me or not. I only need him to openly issue a challenge to me. Of course it has to be handled according to Jianghu rules. But before it happens, I have to be exceptionally careful to preserve my life. Hence the reason I previously invited you to work with me.”

Smiling wryly, Xu Ziling said, “Whether it’s for public or personal interests, both Kou Zhong and I are willing to deal with this matter. How about we wait till we see Kou Zhong before discussing the details?”

Greatly delighted, Lei Jiuzhi said, “With Ziling and Shao Shuai’s help, the Xiang Family won’t be able to escape this calamity. Let me explain in details the gambling techniques that I learned over the years to Ziling.”

Surprised, Xu Ziling said, “It won’t be me who’s going to gamble, why would you want to teach me?”

Revealing a bit of sly smile, Lei Jiuzhi said, “Since you are my assistant, how could you not understand a word of gambling technique [orig. does not even enter a single aperture of one’s head]?”

When he woke up from his deep meditation, he was unable to see the sun anymore, since it has already dropped behind the courtyard wall. A flock of birds was frolicking and twittering noisily inside the dense shade of the locust tree leaves, producing unending ‘zi zi cha cha’ racket.

Nevertheless, his entire body felt relax and peaceful. After surviving the ocean, this was the second time that he exhausted his true qi, but this time he only needed a little more than two sichen [i.e. 4 hours] to fully recover, and his true qi was surging even faster, more refined and pure; proving that his previous inference was correct.

If his true qi was exhausted, when it recovered, it would grow even more fantastic.

To average people, this kind of situation rarely happened. What usually happened was that when the true qi could no longer continue, for example when one’s strength was exhausted during fierce battle, one would end up dead. Only a few people could recover as fast as he did.

Last time, when he was in the ocean, he exhausted his true qi because he was using inner breathing while diving under water. This time, it was due to Song Que’s world-shaking, continuous saber technique that made his strength exhausted, his spirit weary, but it also made his true qi grew faster after being scattered and recovered.

In the past, even when facing opponent as powerful as Wanwan, he still had gaps to recover his qi; but Song Que’s heavenly saber was just like gigantic waves in the angry ocean, so that even a sliver of time to reconcile his breathing was difficult to seize.

Encountering such an opponent, all he could do was to have desperate contest to see whose qi and meridians would last longer. Yet now, evidently he was far below Song Que.

But this was not possible. He, Kou Zhong, has always been young and vigorous. What he trained was the ‘Secret to Long Life’ plus the Jade Annulus of He Clan, two great mystery-within-a-mystery, wonder-on-top-of-wonder – innate true qi. Even if his maturity level could not surpass Song Que’s, but it was inconceivable that when the opponent still had abundant, with plenty leftovers – true qi, he would fall down first.

There must be some other crucial point.

Thinking to this point, a divine light flashed in his mind.

Song Que’s voice came through, “Shao Shuai, please come in. This time, if you could block eighty saber strikes, Ol’ Song would let you think one more night.”

Kou Zhong cried out for his Niang inwardly. Just now the battle was just around thirty saber strikes, and he was hacked that he rolled out of the Mo Dao Tang. And now he will have to take eighty more saber strikes, chances are he would not even have the luck to roll out the hall.

But things have come this far, what could he say? Springing up, upright and unafraid he entered the Mo Dao Tang, which looked like a whale opening up its mouth ready to swallow him.

Inside the darkening big hall, Song Que was standing erect, his right hand was grabbing the scabbard, while his left hand slowly pull the long saber out of its sheath.

Focusing his power into his eyes, Kou Zhong looked closer, and saw the saber blade was thin like satin, soft and nimble like feather, while exuding some kind of bluish, gleaming luster. If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would not have believed that there was such man-made treasure in the world.

Immediately half of Kou Zhong’s heart turned cold. The ideas he thought earlier of dealing with Song Que was entirely based on how to cope with his thick-backed saber; who would have thought that unexpectedly Song Que exchanged his weapon with an entirely different treasured blade? It was not difficult to infer that this weapon would use different kind of saber technique, so that the countermeasure he had thought up would completely come to nothing, and definitely could not be used anymore.

Song Que caressed the blade of the saber with his eyes. He spoke softly, “This saber is called Shuixian [lit. water immortal; legendary aquatic immortal]. Based on this saber’s characteristic, I created ‘Tian Dao Ba Jue’ [heavenly saber eight secrets (of an art)]. Each secret consists of ten strikes, for a total of eighty saber strikes. The saber is ruthless, Shao Shuai must be careful!”

‘Qiang!’

Kou Zhong pulled the Moon in the Well. Immediately yellow glow flared out. With neither happiness nor anger showing off of his face, he spoke indifferently, “I wonder if these eight secrets have any pleasant-to-hear names; would Fazhu let me know, so that my ears will be opened?”

Song Que’s eyes moved away from the treasured blade Shuixian to look at Kou Zhong, but he laughed involuntarily and said, “What do you mean your ears will be opened? But the way that you don’t follow traditional conventions is precisely your strong point. Since my debut, I, the Heavenly Saber Song Que, have never had anybody dared to cross blades with me, without yielding the least bit, able to meet more than thirty saber strikes head on, with the cost of just a mouthful of blood. It was the reason I made an exception by letting you rest before continuing the battle, not that I changed my mind by sparing your life.”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Surprisingly Heavenly Saber Song Que can speak much superfluous words; when did I ever expect Fazhu’s saber to show any leniency? By saying that, could it be because your intention to kill me is not firm enough that you have to say it out loud to convince yourself?”

Song Que was slightly startled. And then he nodded and said, “Your comment is not without any reason. If I say that Yuzhi has no influence in my determination to kill you, I would be lying to you. I wonder if Shao Shuai would be willing to reconsider Ol’ Song’s advice to you about quitting this vying-for-the-world business?”

Laughing in spite of himself, Kou Zhong said, “Fazhu still cannot figure out what kind of man I, Kou Zhong, am?”

After staring closely at him for half a day, Song Que spoke in astonishment, “If you die in here, what world are you going to strive for? The so-called good death is not as good as ugly living. Even though you are not afraid of death, the fact is that such death is completely meaningless.”

Shrugging his shoulders elegantly, Kou Zhong said, “I can only blame Fazhu for not being good. Since you made the agreement about eighty saber strikes, I am not afraid to tell you that Xiaozi [this kid] practically does not believe that Fazhu can slaughter me within eighty saber strikes. With one more night of consideration, perhaps tomorrow I will be able to walk off without a second thought for those I leave behind!”

Song Que casually tossed the scabbard away, his left hand raised the saber high, he threw his head back in laughter and said, “Very well! Since ancient times, hero came from the youth. The first style of ‘Tian Dao Ba Jue’ is called ‘Tian Feng Huan Pei’ [heavenly wind ring/hoop girdle ornaments]. The artistic conception is a fairy going back and forth high in the clouds, riding the wind. Although we cannot see her, we can hear the clear heavenly music of her resounding hoop girdle ornaments.”

Kou Zhong sighed and said, “Really worthy to be the first style the Heavenly Saber created. Just by hearing the name, I know it is a marvelous move like a divine dragon that we can see the head but not the tail. Fazhu, en garde!”

Having learned a lesson from his previous mistakes, he did not dare to let Song Que gain the initiative by striking first.

Of course, facing such a terrifying enemy, he did not dare to advance rashly either. Presently he raised his saber and pressed forward, but his eyes were fixed on Song Que.

An enormous saber qi immediately burst forth toward Song Que; cold qi permeated the hall.

Astonished expression flashed through Song Que’s eyes. Nodding his head in praise, he said, “No wonder Shao Shuai spoke conceited nonsense. Turns out not only your power has recovered completely, you even made outstanding progress. It is indeed extremely rare.”

Kou Zhong suddenly rushed forward and swept the saber across, turning it into yellow light, swiftly cutting into the pit of Song Que’s stomach; fierce and powerful like lightning flashes.

Standing unmoving like a mountain, Song Que watched until the Moon in the Well was only about a chi away from his chest before swiftly moved backward, while the thin-bladed Water Immortal in his hand turned into thousands of blue gleaming saber light enveloping Kou Zhong, along with his saber, inside. The saber technique was exquisite beyond compare, and was incredibly difficult to believe.

Inwardly Kou Zhong knew that the turn of events was not too encouraging; he also knew that the fast, erratic saber technique was practically unfathomable, and was beyond his ability to understand it well.

The saber wind screamed all around him. Kou Zhong fiercely gnashed his teeth. In this critical moment where his life was hanging on a thread, he was relying purely on his intuition to guess where Song Que’s murderous aura was, where the murderous aura was the strongest, and then, turning the complicated into simplicity, his body following his saber, he launched one saber strike.

‘Ding!’

After one clear ring, blue light and yellow light clashed continuously.

Kou Zhong blocked Song Que’s no-trail-could-be-tracked like flying bird or swimming fish, nine consecutive saber strikes, which came one after another, attacking him until he was sweating profusely, and made him nearly abandon his saber and flee.

The two men suddenly separated.

Kou Zhong stood with his saber across his chest, while secretly regulating his breathing, momentarily he was unable to speak.

Song Que calmly stroke his saber and said with a laugh, “Now, does Shao Shuai understand what saber intention is?”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong replied, “Even if I did not want to understand, I can’t. Turns out feeling is so important. But if I am guessing correctly, Fazhu does not really want to kill me. Otherwise, once you unleash his mother’s ‘Tian Dao Ba Jue’, I am afraid I could only try to understand saber intention or whatever on my way to the nether world.”

Heaving a deep sigh, Song Que said, “You are wrong to think so. Just because you don’t know how lonely I am; it’s rare to have such a good opponent like you, hence I don’t want you to quickly return to heaven [i.e. die] that easily.”

Finished regulating his breathing, Kou Zhong’s confidence increased substantially. Smiling, he said, “Be careful; it will be increasingly difficult to kill me. So what’s the second secret called?”

Song Que delightedly said, “The more difficult to kill you the better. The second secret is called ‘Xiaoxiang Shui Yun’ [lit. water and cloud of Xiangjiang (river, in Hunan province)]. Although it has ten saber strikes, it is like the red clouds and curling up fog, hiding within it the water light and the cloud shadow, which continuously on the move, with infinite bearing. En garde!”

“Wait!” Kou Zhong shouted hastily.

Remaining tranquil and calm, Song Que said, “If I find out that Shao Shuai is stalling for time, Shao Shuai will regret it very much.”

Sneering, Kou Zhong said, “I, Kou Zhong, will never have regret over such thing; I am not interested in stalling for time even more. It’s just that Fazhu’s one secret ten strikes reminded me of a set of fierce saber technique, the ‘Ten-Style Bloody Battle’. If Fazhu could defend without attacking, and allow me to fully use the saber technique, I guarantee you will be extremely delighted to enjoy its beauty.”

Song Que laughed aloud and said, “I thought you were going to say that you would cut your own throat to kill yourself. But the name of this ‘Ten-Style Bloody Battle’ could move my heart, so let’s see it. If the name does not correspond to reality, don’t blame me for not having the patience to continue watching until the end.”

Kou Zhong mused inwardly that the most important thing was that you are willing to wait. Letting out a ‘hey, hey!’ laughter, he said, “Fazhu better be careful!”

Immediately he raised his saber and struck a posture. Bending his waist and back, his upper torso slightly leaned forward, his Moon in the Well pointing at Song Que from a distance, his eyes shot fierce and sharp flashes, he stared fixedly at the opponent without blinking at all, while his posture suggested that he was about to pounce forward.

It was such an intimidating imposing manner; if it were some ordinary martial art master, perhaps he would immediately break down without fighting, abandon his weapon and flee for his life. However, Song Que only stood with his saber; nodding his head, he said, “It indeed has a bit of facing-the-enemy-on-the-battlefield, in a blood-soaked-and-hard-fought-struggle impression.”

Kou Zhong shouted with a heavy voice, “This style is called ‘Two Armies Encamped Face-to-face’.”

Before he even finished speaking, the Moon in the Well turned into a yellow light, and shot toward Song Que, who was standing about a zhang and a half away.

Because he was not afraid that Song Que would use attack to respond to his attack, his momentum was fierce and severe, with a strong once-gone-no-turning-back feeling.

Song Que’s eyes emitted strange light. The most formidable point in Kou Zhong’s saber strike was not the saber technique, but the saber intention. From his saber posture to the pouncing-forward violent attack, all the movements were blending together into indivisible entity. Although only the right hand was moving the saber, this saber strike embodied the power of his entire being, so that others would not dare to underestimate it.

But one thing that made Song Que quite mad, while was amused at the same time – the most was that clearly Kou Zhong was able to see that his Water Immortal treasured blade was most suitable in offense but not in defense; thereupon he deliberately use words to trap Song Que to be on defensive, but not in offensive. Song Que could only stare blankly while realizing he had been put into disadvantageous position.

‘Dang!’

Song Que evaded sideways; the Water Immortal in his left hand scooped up at an angle to block the blade of Kou Zhong’s saber.

The saber in Kou Zhong’s hand glowed brighter; he shouted coldly, “Showing off one’s ability!”

Ten million dots of saber rays, like countless flowers among a wave of butterflies rained down on Song Que, with a momentum like the rainbow.

“Good!” Song Que shouted, and then, holding the saber with one hand, ‘Swish! Swish! Swish!’ he flashed three steps in succession, unexpectedly he was able to weave through the saber rays unhindered, until finally he moved the saber to cut diagonally, to hack on the Moon in the Well about three cun away from the blade.

Unexpectedly Kou Zhong’s next move, the ‘Light Cavalry Charging Ahead’, could not continue, so he changed to the fourth style ‘Feeling the Pocket and Taking Something Out’, by swiftly poking into Song Que’s waist and lower abdomen.

Sneering, Song Que said, “Shao Shuai’s skill is poor! Huh?” He saw Kou Zhong’s poking saber had the ‘saber intention’ that was constantly changing, both in terms of speed and angle of attack; therefore, although on the surface it appeared to be simple and direct, but in the eyes of a saber expert like Song Que, it carried an unfathomable characteristic. If he was waiting passively, inevitably he would not be able to parry it.

Even if he could block this move, albeit with difficulty, subsequent offensive could make a brilliant master like Song Que fall into disadvantageous position; after that, to level the score again would not be easy to do.

In Kou Zhong’s eyes, noticing Song Que’s hesitating expression, he was well aware that finally Song Que has fallen into his trap.

From the last clash to this moment, it did not matter how he fought with all his might, he could never seize the upper hand, or even snatch the initiative. It could be said that Song Que had always led him by the nose.

In his desperation, he suddenly had an idea, which was to use the tangible ‘Ten-Style Bloody Battle’ to lure Song Que to underestimate the opponent first, and then using the ‘saber intention’, which he stole from Song Que, in a using-someone’s-spear-to-attack-his-own-shield tactic to force Song Que to change from defense to offense, so that psychologically Song Que felt like he already lost, and thus the imposing manner of his state of mind would be somewhat reduced.

Before his eyes, Song Que was hesitating just before the battle; and this was precisely the conclusive proof that Song Que has fallen into his trap.

Song Que let out a cold laugh; the Water Immortal in his left hand immediately turned into water-light, cloud-shadow-like layer upon later of saber light meeting Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well head-on. Finally he abandoned the original plan of only defending without attacking.

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “I told you it was impossible to defend without attacking at all!

Suddenly traversing across, he brandished the saber to hack down on empty space.

For the first time, he was finally able to understand Song Que’s saber technique, and was able to fully use the Yijian Technique.

By nature, Song Que was arrogant. Kou Zhong’s remark was more difficult to bear than being hacked by his saber. Immediately his murderous intent flared up.

Who would have thought that Kou Zhong suddenly retreated to the position where his saber momentum was the weakest? The saber hacking down was even more like a heavenly steed soaring across the skies; it was marvelous to the highest limit. If he did not change his original style, it would be tantamount to letting his Water Immortal being chopped by Kou Zhong’s saber. Not only that, Kou Zhong’s shenfa had suddenly become strange and hard to fathom, just like the fish in the water; even though it was motionless, as soon as you stir the water nearby, he would rapidly run away.

Dealing with that kind of intense-movement-hidden-within-the-stillness characteristic, even with his keen eyesight, which was able to see through any changes, he still felt big headache.

In that instant, Song Que knew that his slight hesitation just now had given this genius kid traversing sideways the opportunity to seize the initiative and the upper hand.

Unable to continue his ‘Xiaoxiang Shui Yun’, instead of getting angry, Song Que laughed and said, “’Shi Shang Liu Quan’ [rock upstream of the spring]!”

Saber style that appeared like continuous water stream suddenly turned into a streak of bluish green luminous light, like the water from the spring came alive, boring through the rock and gargling over the stones. The Water Immortal’s blade slashed out a streak of blue light, following a certain graceful-surpassing-any-words-can-describe arc – to take on Kou Zhong.

Kou Zhong evaded to the other side, while raising his saber horizontally to block. It appeared to be moving fast, but it actually contained speed within the slow, and turned skillfully into a twist.

‘Bang!’

And then a string of clear noise of weapons clashing against each other lingered on faintly.

Although the momentum of Song Que’s saber was continuously expanding, Kou Zhong has not been put in a completely inferior position where he could only take a beating and suffer humiliation either, or even a helpless, without-any-freedom-to-act-independently situation where if Song Que wanted him to move east than he moved east, or to the west and he moved west. Rather, he attacked and defended properly, and gave Song Que enough headaches by coming up with strange strokes.

The biggest benefit was that Kou Zhong was able to learn how, in the midst of Song Que’s stormy-sea-like saber technique – to circulate his qi, in correlation to the degree of his confidence; defense concealed within the offense, offense contained within the defense.

Each time he attacked or blocked with all his might, he would have a bit of strength left, with which he was able to regulate the true qi within his body, the subtlety within it was not something that could be grasped just before the battle, while in the face of the enemy.

It was a bit like going up the surface of the water to take a breath after diving underwater for a period of time, and not like desperately continuing underwater until the power exhausted, the qi depleted.

Under enormous pressure from Song Que, Kou Zhong gave everything he had, without any reservation at all, unleashing all the saber technique he learned in the past to extreme saturation. He even put the new things he learned from Song Que into practice. The longer he fought, the more he was reaching toward the what-the-heart-wishes-the-hand-accomplishes level; so he was extremely delighted.

Song Que’s saber technique suddenly changed, “’Wu Ye Wu Qiu Feng’ [Wutong tree leaves dancing in autumn breeze]!” he shouted loudly.

His entire body spun around, the Water Immortal seemed to be attacking randomly, there was no saber path that could be traced; on top of that, his shenfa was weird, so that the advantageous situation that Kou Zhong was able to maintain immediately melt like ice and broke like tiles.

‘Dang!’

Although Kou Zhong was ten million times unwilling, he was still thrown into great confusion by Song Que’s move, so that all he could do was to defend passively without any opportunity to recover his qi. The divinely skillful saber technique has pushed him to be at his wits’ end. By the tenth stroke, Song Que’s hack pushed him, along with his saber, staggering back, until finally, ‘thump!’ he landed on his butts, just one step away from repeating his earlier defeat of rolling down the stone steps.

Song Que pursued to the door. Staring down at Kou Zhong, his eyes shone with unusual light.

Nobody knew since when the moon secretly climbed over the courtyard wall, but its light penetrated the dense locust tree and sprayed the courtyard with patches of golden light.

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “I did not have time to count how many saber strikes Fazhu actually used; I just hope it was not seventy-nine!”

Grim expression appeared on Song Que’s face, the murderous intent in his eyes flared out, he spoke in heavy voice, “You are not afraid to die?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Kou Zhong replied, “I would be lying if I said I am not scared. But I am also quite curious; what happen after death? I just have to trouble Fazhu to tell Zhizhi that I was sincere to her.”

A hint of smile appeared on the corner of Song Que’s mouth; immediately the grim expression on his face, as well as the murderous intent in his eyes – dissolved. He spoke indifferently, “Leave those last words for tomorrow!”

Turning around, he went back into the Mo Dao Tang.