Volume 11 Chapter 107 The Oriole Behind the Mantis (Part 5)

Moyan Luohou immediately knew Shadow Lady was the kind who could start her own sect and dominate at first glance. She wasn’t the kind who only knew how to throw hands; she was the kind who had delved deep into martial arts. If he were to fight her one on one at his best, he’d barely beat her.

Abels was below Moyan Luohou’s level, and he had loaned Sea Deer Hunter to Feng Xue. If he were to challenge Shadow Lady, it’d be analogous to an average martial artist challenging a Divine Realm adept; it was a one-way ticket to hell.

Shadow Lady swept her left hand, unleashing a spurt of cold energy. Moyan Luohou and Abels cast their Enlightenment in synchrony. Shadow Lady’s dark-golden energy shattered their energies in addition to flooring both of them at once, hitting them so hard they couldn’t even choke down their blood.

Shadow Lady showed no joy or interest subsequent to her one-shot victory. In her eyes, the outcome should’ve been as so. Relishing her victory wasn’t part of her goal. Her sole goal was to kill them because she understood that there was no such thing as defeating Divine Realm warriors. The only way to stop them was to kill them. Even though they were hurt bad after her attack, they could still fight. Hence, she powered up as she closed in.

When Shadow Lady stopped in her tracks, nobody believed it was because she was feeling merciful. The reason she stopped was because of a man smothered in blood.

“Stop right there. I have something to say.”

Shadow Lady looked over to him to grant him permission to speak.

Hong Jiu spat a mouthful of blood on the ground, then continued, “Eat a dick.”

Hong Jiu’s insult couldn’t trigger a response from Shadow Lady. Instead, she eyed him from head to toe for an explanation. He was her first target as she deemed he was the most dangerous among those who could still fight. Never did she expect him to stand again when she dug her hand in without mercy.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to kill anyone.”

Shadow Lady thrust her palm at the sky, then whipped it back down, sending a chilling breeze upon Hong Jiu. He didn’t budge for he sent the chill straight out the other side of his body using Empty Palms.

“… Sky Palace, huh? That doesn’t look like Sky Palace’s Mirror Flower Water Moon. Looks like Sky Palace’s skills suck bad.”

Shadow Lady propelled herself straight at Hong Jiu to try tagging him again. Hong Jiu defended and countered with both arms, varying between hard blocks and redirects. Unlike when she got the jump on him, she couldn’t seize the advantage over the course of their ten-plus exchanges. From a technical perspective, she couldn’t overtake him.

Nobody present, including Shadow Lady herself, expected Hong Jiu to fare so well. While Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms was a force to be reckoned with, it cost a lot of internal energy, understandably so when the force it hit with was outright too lethal to take head on. After the slaying of Wazi, he was the only one who still had enough energy to help heal Feng Xue, then ate a flush palm attack from Shadow Lady, yet he was able to fight already. Moreover, his fighting spirit seemed to only rise with each passing second.

Shadow Lady saw the tide turning in Hong Jiu’s favour after twenty-odd exchanges, but she wasn’t going to start using a second hand, so brute strength was the only way to compensate for their technical discrepancy. Upon uncorking a frigid palm strike, Hong Jiu hit back with one of his own.

The clash sent Hong Jiu through three big trees. Judging by appearances, he was hurt more than before. Nonetheless, he was able to send Shadow Lady skidding back half a metre. For the first time in years, Shadow Lady tasted astonishment.

“… Yijin Jing?” Shadow Lady’s guess found confirmation when she watched Hong Jiu rise to his feet again.

Shadow Lady’s last attack was half of her full power, yet Hong Jiu still looked revving to go despite starting off tired and hurt.

He must go.

Shadow Lady bridged the gap in a split second, then knife handed his shoulder on an angle faster than Hong Jiu could sense her move. She subsequently dug into his oblique, then knife handed his collarbone, making sure to break his bones upon impact. She was going to punctuate the job with a crippling palm shot to his spine, but she retracted after harnessing the intent to back tuck. She wasn’t going to try challenging an attack that Wazi had no answer for.

As soon as she landed, Shadow Lady converted her downward momentum to forward momentum. A golden spurt of sword qi impelled her to back off again, nevertheless.

“You and I have a score to settle if I’m correct.” Ming Suwen was cognisant of Shadow Lady’s advent; however, she didn’t join the scrap right away.

Hong Jiu didn’t challenge Shadow Lady out of arrogance but to buy Ming Suwen time to recover.

Ming Suwen executed Daluo Void and Moon Weaver Palms with her sword as an extension of her hand to counter Shadow Lady’s straight palm thrust. Once there was enough distance between Hong Jiu and her, Ming Suwen switched her aim to the top right of her left, forcing Shadow Lady three steps back.

Ming Suwen decided to disengage. With the corner of her lips curved up subtly, she asked, “How old are you?” In response to Shadow Lady’s silence - a product of puzzlement - Ming Suwen added, “Hehe, how are we supposed to know how to address each other if we don’t know who’s older? Looks like you’re about two years younger than me. Can I call you ‘Pretty‘? I’m sure you’re pretty, so why do you always cover your face? Why don’t you let me have a peek?”

Not used to the topic or tone Ming Suwen used, Shadow Lady could only stand there in silence.

“We didn’t leave our last match unsettled because I’m scared of you. I’m just afraid my man will take revenge. Since you came knocking on my door, though, I suppose we have to fight.”

Finally given a topic she was familiar with, Shadow Lady questioned, “You want to fight me?”

“Why are you asking the obvious?” Ming Suwen flowered. “You think you can just walk away after you hurt Mount Daluo’s disciple? That being said, I want to set clear three rules. First, we’re fighting one on one. If you can’t win, you can’t ask for someone to sub. I can’t call for help, and neither can you. Deal?”

Shadow Lady cast her gaze to the assassins behind Ming Suwen. “Okay.” In a flash, she was in Ming Suwen’s face, hand already by Ming Suwen’s neck. “I win.”

Glossary

Mirror Flower Water Moon - This is a phrase that just means “a mirage” since you can’t. Before anyone tries to point out that the translation is literal, it’s deliberately translated literally to sound “pretty”. Also, I left out “in the” (Flower in the Mirror, Moon in the Water) because it’s too much of a mouthful. Secondly, it’s common to omit prepositions (even other parts that would be deemed necessary) in archaic Chinese. For your information, they can understand it perfectly unless they’re illiterate.

Disengaging - Had a question about it this term, so here we go: it just means you are moving out of striking range so that nobody can hit nobody.

… how we supposed to know how to address each other if we don’t know who’s older - This… doesn’t translate well to English. Since there are different terms for “elder sister” and “younger sister”, you can address each other by those terms instead of by names. It’s just weird in English if you ask me, which is why I switched it to “Pretty” to maintain the playful version Ming Suwen goes with, especially if you look at what she says after.