Book 5 Chapter 10 – Yuwen Chengdu

The farther north they travelled, the weather was growing colder and colder, the snow on the ground reached knee depth. The six of them forged ahead at full speed on the sea of forest and plains of snow, which extended as far as the eye could see. Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling took turn carrying Susu on their backs.

After their battle against Tuoba Yu, they were more careful, not daring to be as negligence as the previous day.

The snowstorm has stopped, the heaven and earth was a vast expanse of desolation, with occasional howling of the wolves, that as they heard it, their hair was standing on its end.

After hastening for two days, one evening they reached the forest around the southern bank of the Tongji Canal. The deep dark-colored forest looked like a wall or a rampart, layer upon layer, standing up all around, if one was not careful, it would be very easy to get lost.

Even if their bodies were made of iron, after running away for their lives like that for a couple of days, they would be extremely exhausted. It was not clear who started it, but eventually everybody slowed down until finally they walked as slow as marching ants or crawling tortoises, as they looked for a lodging place that could provide shelter from the wind and the snow.

The mountain and the forest were blanketed in complete silence [orig. ten thousand pipes are still], only noise they heard was the rustling of soft snow underneath their own feet.

Occasionally a light wind would blow, shaking the snow on the branches that it rained down to the ground below and filled the air with snowflakes.

Finally they stopped in a clearing in the middle of the forest. Liu Heita said, “Looks like tonight we cannot find an abandoned house or a cave to spend the night, so we’ll have to put up with building a bonfire in here and sit until daybreak before hasting up on our journey tomorrow. According to my estimation, we will reach Yangwu by tomorrow afternoon.”

In the meantime, Susu slipped down from Xu Ziling’s back onto the snowy ground below. Although she was wearing cotton coat, she was still shivering in cold. Without the slightest hesitation Liu Heita took off his sheepskin coat and draped it tenderly over her shoulder, while speaking softly, “When we get the fire going, it won’t be so cold anymore.”

This iron man was showing so much consideration and thoughtful action, it was quite touching, actually.

“Liu Dage is not afraid of cold?” Susu gratefully asked.

Liu Heita laughed and said, “After being in battle for so many years, what kind of hardship I haven’t been through? Su Jie, set your heart at ease!”

Xu Ziling took off his outer robe and spread it over the snowy ground; he said with a laugh, “Now I am really not afraid of cold, unlike the mighty Liu Dage. Su Jie please sit down.”

Susu knew that due to his ‘Secret to Long Life’ internal energy, he really was not afraid of either hot or cold; she gladly sat down.

Kou Zhong reached out and wrapped his arm around Liu Heita’s shoulder; he said with a giggle, “Let me give Liu Dage a bit of warmth! Hey! You, this fellow, are lacking in manners, you just copying us calling her Su Jie; you ought to call her Su Mei [younger sister].”

After many days of close association, they had known each other better. The two boys grew very fond of this brave and cunning young general. Cui Dong did not like to talk, but he was a hot-blooded man. On the other hand, Liu Heita’s sworn brother Zhuge Dewei always gave out the impression that he was a slick and sly man, while his actual character was a gloomy one; he did not seem to like the two boys too much.

Seeing Liu Heita was showing some interest on Susu, Xu Ziling had a mind to play matchmaker, so that Susu might forget Li Jing. Turning to Susu, he said, “Su Jie’s legs had to be bent all day long, right now you must be numb and sore, while we are going to fetch firewood, why don’t Liu Xiong give you a leg rub?”

Susu jumped in fright. “I am all right,” she cried out in fear, “No need to rub!”

Liu Heita’s black face turned red [Translators note: ‘hei’ from Liu Heita’s name means ‘black’], “I’ll go fetch firewood,” he said. And then with Cui Dong and Zhuge Dewei he left without saying anything.

Susu said, “You should also go to help!”

Xu Ziling sat down by her side and shook his head, “If we go, who would protect Jiejie if the hungry wolves are coming?” he said.

Susu shivered, and no longer dared to insist.

Kou Zhong sat down on her other side and muttered to himself, “I wonder if Xiao Ling also has the same feeling; beginning yesterday afternoon, I have a feeling a disaster is looming ahead. Sometimes this feeling was strong, sometimes it was weak, as if someone was hanging on our tail.”

Overwhelmed with shock, Susu said, “What should we do?”

Xu Ziling exposed an astonished look; he blew out a mouthful of breath, which became fog, and said, “I thought I was being paranoid, turns out you are having the same feeling. There must be a martial art master following our trail, seeing that we are of many men with a great force, he is forced to wait for an opportunity to make his move.”

Kou Zhong said, “If his target is the account book in our hands, what he wanted to get hold of at first must be Su Jie, so that he could use her to threaten us. So no matter what happens, we must have at least one person by Su Jie all the time.”

Xu Ziling said, “The enemy is in the dark, we are in the open; the one who will suffer losses will be us. I wonder if there is a way to turn the table around and lure him out to the open!”

Kou Zhong happily said, “What do you have in mind?”

Xu Ziling said, “When Dugu Ba plotted against Shen Luoyan the other day, he had himself buried in the snow, and then when she passed through, he seized the opportunity to attack. We can copy his trick.”

Right this moment, there was a howling of the beast from a distance; hearing that, Susu’s hair stood up on its end, and she threw herself on Kou Zhong’s back.

Kou Zhong continued, “This person was able to follow us for a day and a night, and is still undetected, obviously his skill is extremely superior. Besides, he can’t possibly accidentally walk through right above you. Dealing with him will require our cooperation.” And then he added dejectedly, “How are we going to bury ourselves in the snow anyway?”

Xu Ziling triumphantly said, “I had thought about that problem before. Look!” Finished speaking, he moved away a little, lay down on the snow, closed his eyes and applied his internal energy. Soon the snow on which he lay melted, and his whole body sank in, and Xu Ziling disappeared underneath the layer of snow.

Kou Zhong knew that he was using his internal energy to generate heat; while he was inwardly cheered, Liu Heita and Zhuge Dewei came back with large pile of dry branches in their hands. The latter asked in surprise, “Where is Xiao Ling?”

Kou Zhong and Susu laughed; they immensely proud of themselves. Kou Zhong said, “A wolf ate him!”

Liu Heita was displeased; he dumped the dry branches in front of the two people, and said with a laugh, “Quickly call him back to scrape the snow from these sticks. Su … hey … Su Mei might be too cold.”

“Where is Dong Shu [(younger) uncle]?” Susu asked.

Zhuge Dewei replied, “He was afraid dry ration would not help Miss Su resist the cold, so when he heard the sound of wild animal, he went hunting!”

Liu Heita plopped his butt on the snow next to where Xu Ziling buried himself; he was still completely oblivious. “I am best at roasting meat, I guarantee after eating it, Su Mei won’t be cold anymore!”

Kou Zhong remembered something; he sprang up and cried out, “Not good! Quickly call Dong Shu back, don’t let him go alone!”

Before he even finished, there was a violent hiss coming from a distant place in the southeast direction.

Zhuge Dewei’s hands shook that the branches fell off to the ground; his countenance changed. “It’s Dong Shu!” he said.

Liu Heita already leaped up and pulled Kou Zhong, who was about to run, back. “Stay here and protect Su Mei,” he said, “Where is Xiao Ling?”

Kou Zhong did not have time to explain, he cried, “He is all right! Go quickly!”

Liu Heita, two people, felt their hearts were burning, without thinking anything, they shot away like an arrow.

Kou Zhong had a brainwave; he spoke to Xu Ziling under the snow, “Don’t come out no matter what! This must be the ‘luring the tiger away from the mountain’ stratagem.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a dark shadow descended from the sky, with astonishing power the wind from the palm strike pressed down on the top of their heads.

While Kou Zhong was thinking of grabbing Susu and brought her rolling away to the side, the strong wind already arrived. Left with no other options, he raised both fists upward to meet the enemy’s palm head-on.

There was a powerful ‘Bang!’ Kou Zhong felt his arms were about to break, his brain felt as if a lightning has just struck him, and his body was jarred that it flew backward. By this time his combat experience was already very rich; the moment before he fell, the true qi inside his body already circulated several times, neutralizing the enemy’s ‘destroying the heart, splitting the lungs’ force.

By the time he struggled to stand up, Susu already screamed, because she had fallen into the incoming enemy’s hands.

This kind of martial art skill was extremely frightening.

The man had one arm wrapped around Susu, the other hand was pressing on her tianling acupoint [top of the head]; he roared in laughter and said, “Kid, stay where you are, you move half a finger, your Jiejie won’t live.”

Chapter 10, Part 2

Xu Xiong, that, I know. In fact, if you google using the original Chinese characters, you'd get circus or Lima (Peru) circus, hence the reason I thought it was a transliteration of some foreign words. DongBin, Jaya, HPC, Komeng, you are welcome. Laoren, I am so sorry ... Bocah, don't worry about it. Sky, that's what I thought. So, don't hate her too much, OK? End of Chapter 10.

It was only then did Kou Zhong see clearly that the opponent was a middle-aged man that appeared full of confidence, heroic, but also at ease. His nose was especially big, so that his eyes appeared slim, but his eyeballs flickered with very cold rays, that it chilled those who looked at him.

Kou Zhong pulled the iron [see my note in previous chapter] Cui Dong gave him for self-protection. “You dare hurting her?” he angrily roared, while in his heart he was praying that Xu Ziling would not come out of the snow right this moment, otherwise Susu’s life would be in danger. An idea popped out in his head, he called out, “Kid, you must also stay where you are. You should not make any move until I say so.”

How could the man know that he was speaking to Xu Ziling, who was buried in the snow? With a cold laugh he said, “You are so scared that you turn mad. Just stop talking, get the Dongming Pai’s account book out and give it to me. Otherwise this baby girl will lose her life.”

Kou Zhong signaled Susu with his eyes, telling her not to panic.