The Smiling, Proud Wanderer 69 Chapter Thirty-Eight: Annihilation Part 2

Yingying nodded her head a few times. After that an old man came out from the east and walked quickly towards Yingying. He bowed before Yingying to pay his respect. "Qin Weibang also pays my respect to Sacred Lady. Chief revives the sacred sect and benefits the common people."

"Elder Qin, you're also here," Yingying said.

"Yes!" Qin Weibang acknowledged. "Your lowly servant received Chief's order to find information in this area. Fragrant Master Sang, what news have you found out?"

"Reporting to Sacred Lady and Elder Qin, early morning today, subordinate was at Linfengyi and I saw sixty to seventy people from Songshan School on their way to Huashan," Sang San Niang reported.

(Translator's note: Linfengyi is some kind of transit depot for exchanging horses)

"Of course they're going to Huashan!" Qin Weibang said.

"Why are Songshan School's people going to Huashan for?" Yingying asked.

"Chief obtained the news that after Huashan School's Yue Buqun became the Five Mountains School's Headmaster, he didn't want to be in a disadvantageous position compared to our sacred sect. So later on he gathered all the disciples of the Five Mountains School to Huashan. It seems like he's going to attack the Dark Wood Cliff," Qin Weibang answered.

"Is this true?" Yingying inquired while she was thinking, "This old traitor Qin Weibang is really sly. The capture of the Heng-Shan School's people is most likely the order he received from dad. He's probably the one in charge but he's distancing himself from this matter. But the words of that Sang San Niang didn't seem to be made up. It seems there's something else going on here." She continued, "Master Linghu is the headmaster of Heng-Shan School. Why didn't he know of this matter? That's really strange."

"Subordinate already checked Taishan and Hengshan School, and they're already moving towards Huashan. Heng-Shan School is the only one which hasn't moved yet. Left Protector Xiang sent us an order. He said Elder Bao Dachu is leading some underlings to go to Heng-Shan's Other Courtyard to investigate their movements. He also ordered me to stay close to liaise with him. Subordinate is still waiting for the message from Elder Bao," Qin Weibang said.

Yingying and Linghu Chong looked at each other and they were both thinking, "Bao Dachu going to Heng-Shan's Other Courtyard is most likely true. This Qin Weibang isn't concealing anything, could it be he's telling the truth?"

Qin Weibang bowed towards Linghu Chong and said, "Your lowly servant is just following orders. I'm asking for Headmaster Linghu's forgiveness."

Linghu Chong cupped his fist returning the propriety. "Young lady Ren and I are going to get married within the next few days…" Yingying gasped in surprise and her whole face turned red, but she didn't deny it. Linghu Chong continued, "Elder Qin received the order from my wife's father, so we as juniors should carry the burden."

Qin Weibang and Sang San Niang turned happy and they happily said, "Congratulations!"

Yingying turned around and walked away.

"Left Protector Xiang urged Elder Bao and I repeatedly not to be rude towards the Heng-Shan School's people. We only have to find the information and we don't have to play rough. Subordinate has followed this order," Qin Weibang said.

Suddenly, there was a girl's voice behind him laughing and saying, "Master Linghu's sword art is matchless in this world. Left Protector Xiang told you not to resort to violence for your own good."

Linghu Chong lifted his head and saw a lady came out from among the trees. She was the Five Poison Sect Chief Blue Phoenix. He laughed and said, "Big sister, you're well."

"Big Brother, you're also well," Blue Phoenix said to Linghu Chong. She then turned her head towards Qin Weibang and said, "If you're saluting me then salute me, why do you need to wrinkle your eyebrows for?"

"I don't dare," Qin Weibang replied. He knew there were poisonous things all over her body and she was not to be trifled with. He rushed forward for a few steps and said to Yingying, "I'd like to ask Sacred Lady for what we should do next."

"Carry on according to Chief's order," Yingying ordered.

Qin Weibang bowed and replied, "Yes." Then Sang San Niang and he gave their proprieties to the three people and left.

Blue Phoenix waited for those two people to walk far before saying, "The nuns from Heng-Shan School have all been captured, you're still not going to rescue them?"

"We just came from Heng-Shan trying to catch up to them, but we haven't seen any sign of them along the way," Linghu Chong replied.

"You're not going towards Huashan, so you're going the wrong way," Blue Phoenix told them.

"Going to Huashan? They've been captured and sent to Huashan? You saw them?" Linghu Chong questioned.

"Early yesterday morning at the Heng-Shan's Other Courtyard, I drank some tea when I tasted something strange but I didn't say anything. Next thing, I saw people falling down one by one so I pretended to be knocked out too," Blue Phoenix said.

"Using drugs against the Five-Sylph Sect's Chief Blue, isn't that just asking for trouble?" said a smiling Linghu Chong.

Blue Phoenix smiled captivatingly. "These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds really don't know what's good or bad."

"You didn't offer them their poison back?" Linghu Chong asked.

"Why be so polite? There were two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who thought I've really been knocked out, so they came over to me and they died on the spot from my poison. The other people were frightened so they didn't dare to come over. They just said that I'm dead and my whole body is very poisonous," After she said this, she giggled and laughed.

"What happened after that?" Linghu Chong queried.

"I wanted to look what they were doing and have been pretending to be unconscious from the beginning. Later on, these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds took many little nuns down from the Xianxing Peak. The one leading these people was none other than your master, Mr. Yue. Big brother, I see your master is very awful. You're the headmaster of Heng-Shan School, but he actually led people to capture your disciples, grand disciples, old nuns, and little nuns. Isn't this deliberately trying to shame you?" Linghu Chong was quiet. Blue Phoenix continued, "I could only look on in anger and was thinking of killing him with poison right there. But I kept thinking and wasn't sure what you would think. If I really wanted to poison and kill him, it would after all only take a moment."

"You took into consideration my feelings, thank you very much," Linghu Chong said.

"That's nothing. I heard them said that they were taking advantage of you not being at Heng-Shan so they quickly moved to avoid giving you time to return there. There were also people who said you were really lucky that you weren't at the mountain, or else they'd have captured you too and wouldn't they have less problems in the future? Hng, hng!" Blue Phoenix narrated.

"With big sister there, if they wanted to capture me, it won't be that easy," Linghu Chong said.

Blue Phoenix looked pleased and she laughingly said, "That's their good luck. If they dared to harm a single hair on your body, I can say my poison would've killed a hundred of them." She turned her head around towards Yingying and said, "Young lady Ren, don't be jealous. I'm just like his family."

Yingying's face turned red and smiled. "Master Linghu has also mentioned you often. He said you treat him well."

Blue Phoenix was happy. "That's excellent! I was afraid he didn't dare to mention my name in front of you."

"You pretended to be unconscious, so how did you get out?" Yingying asked.

"They were afraid there was poison on my body so none of them dared to touch me. Someone said it would be better to chop me to make sure I'm dead. Some said to shoot projectiles at me. But even though they talked big, none dared to make a move. Then they just walked away. I followed them and saw them really going to Huashan. So once I got out, I went to look for big brother to tell you about this news," Blue Phoenix answered.

"We should really thank you for this or else we would've been chasing them to Dark Wood Cliff and found out there's nothing there. Then we would have to turn around and search for them again. Those old nuns, little nuns, not old not small middle aged nuns, all would've suffered a lot. It's not good to delay this matter, let's go to Huashan now," Linghu Chong said.

The three of them turned towards the west and travelled at double speed to catch up, but they unexpectedly didn't see a single clue on their way. Linghu Chong and Yingying were both very worried and they both thought, "With several hundred of people in their party, surely, there must be people who have seen them. There must also be traces of them in the restaurants and inns along the way. Could it be this isn't the road they took?"

On the third day at a small restaurant, they saw four people from the Hengshan School. At this time, Linghu Chong had changed his appearance and those people had not recognised him yet. Linghu Chong waited to eavesdrop on them and found out they really were going to Huashan. They were looking jubilant, looking like there were gold and treasure on top of the mountain waiting for them. One of them said, "Luckily Martial Brother Huang was friendly enough to tell us the news, and we were also lucky to be in Shanxi so we could come here quickly. I hope we arrive in time. Our martial brothers in Hengshan have really missed a good opportunity."

Another person said, "It's best if we arrive as early as possible. This kind of matter changes with time."

Linghu Chong wanted to know why they were hurrying to go to Mount Huashan, what kind of scheme was afoot, but these four people did not mention anything along the way at all.

"Do you want to poison then interrogate them?" Blue Phoenix asked.

Linghu Chong remembered how Mr. Mo Da treated him so generously so he didn't want to bully these people. "We'll arrive at Huashan soon enough. We'll know when we get there so we mustn't disturb the gra.s.s and startle the snake."

A few days later, at dusk, the three of them arrived at the foot of Mount Huashan. Linghu Chong had grown up at Huashan so he was very familiar with the area. He said, "We'll go up from a small path behind the mountain, we won't meet anyone there."

Between the five mountains, Mount Huashan was the most rugged. The small path behind the mountain was actually a steep cliff and there was no pa.s.sable path. It was good that the three people's martial arts were very high and they were able to go up the rugged cliff. With this method, they arrived at Mount Huashan's mountaintop at around two in the morning. Linghu Chong led the other two towards the Hall of Qi Principle. They saw the place was dark with not a single candle to be seen. They hid underneath a window to listen but there was also no sound to be heard. Then they went to the disciples' residence but there wasn't a single soul to be found there as well. Linghu Chong pushed open a window, went in, and lit a candle to have a look. Inside the house was empty, the top of the table and the floor was all covered with dust. After going to a few other houses, they found all the houses were in the same condition. It was obvious the disciples of Huashan had not returned to the mountain yet.

Blue Phoenix felt something was amiss. "Where are those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who went up the mountain? They said they were coming to Mount Huashan, did they go somewhere else?"

Linghu Chong was surprised and hesitant as he remembered the day when he attacked Shaolin Temple. The temple was also empty and they repeatedly met with dangers afterwards. Could Yue Buqun be using the same tactic again? But at this time, there were only three of them. Even if they were surrounded, it would be easy to get away. He was just afraid that the Heng-Shan's disciples were being imprisoned in a very secretive place and they had been tarrying for the last few days, so they might not be able to find them anymore. The three of them strained their ears to listen but all they heard was the rustling of the pines and the whole mountain was strangely calm.

"Let's split up to look for them. After two hours, we'll meet here again," Blue Phoenix suggested.

"Ok!" Linghu Chong replied. He believed that Blue Phoenix's skill in using poison was very high and there would be no one who would dare to harm her. But he still advised, "You don't need to fear other people. But if you come across my master, his sword is really fast, you must be really careful!"

Blue Phoenix saw him speaking earnestly. Under the yellow flame, his concern was seen on his face. Her heart was moved on seeing this. "Big brother, I'll definitely pay attention to your advice." She then pushed the door to go out.

Linghu Chong took Yingying to investigate everywhere around there. They had even gone to Tianqin Gorge where the Yue Buqun's husband and wife resided in, but they still had not seen anyone yet.

"This is really fishy. During the past, our Huashan School's disciples were all over the mountain, there are always people left behind here to sweep the ground. But why isn't there anyone here right now?" Linghu Chong said.

At the end, they had finally arrived at Yue Lingshan's room. That room was on the side of Tianqin Gorge, and it was situated very close to the Yue Buqun couple's room. As Linghu Chong got to the front of the room, he remembered of the past days when he frequently came here to take his little martial sister to go out and play or to practice sword. But today, there was nothing to see and he couldn't refrain from shedding his tears. He extended his hand to push the door open but the planks were latched, in that moment he hesitated not knowing what to do. Yingying leapt over the wall, unlatched the planks and open the door. They went inside and lit the candle. The bed and table inside were covered by a layer of dust, and there was nothing on the wall. Even the common objects for girls like comb and dresses were not there.

Linghu Chong thought, "After Little martial sister and Martial Brother Lin got married, they must've moved to another new house and don't live here anymore. All her everyday items have all been taken with her." He then opened up the drawers and saw some small bamboo baskets, stone marbles, cloth dolls, little wooden horse and many other toys. Each of these things was not made by Linghu Chong, but they were the items the two of them had played with in the old days. She had neatly kept everything here. Linghu Chong felt sad and he couldn't bear it anymore, tears flowed and dripped down from his cheeks. Yingying quietly went out and slowly closed the door. Linghu Chong was reluctant to leave Yue Lingshan's room for a long time. Finally, he suppressed his feelings and blew the candle off and walked out of the room.

"Brother Chong, there's one place in Mount Huashan which has a great connection to you. Take me there," Yingying said.

"Ah, you're talking about the Cliff of Repentance. Alright, let's go have a look." He was slightly lost in thought, then he said, "But I'm not sure whether grand martial uncle Feng is there or not?"

He then led the way towards the Cliff of Repentance. Linghu Chong was very familiar with the path. Even though the place wasn't close, they got there very quick. On top of the cliff, Linghu Chong said, "I was inside the cave…" Suddenly they heard two noise of weapons clas.h.i.+ng from inside the cave. Both of them were startled and they quickly walked nearer. Someone suddenly cried out, seemingly having been injured. Linghu Chong took out his long sword and rushed forward first. He saw the sealed front entrance to the cave with sword moves engraving had been opened up and there was flickering of flame coming from the inside. Linghu Chong and Yingying entered the cave and their hearts skipped a beat.

There were dozens of torches inside the cave and there were at least two hundred people in there. They were all concentrating on looking at the sword moves engraving on the cave wall. Every single one of them was so absorbed that there wasn't a sound heard. When Linghu Chong and Yingying heard that miserable cry, they were expecting that inside the cave would either be pitch black or there would be fierce fighting with blood spraying all over the place. But how could they have known that the back of the cave would be bright as day and it would also be filled with people. The back of the cave was quite s.p.a.cious, so even though there were two hundred people there, they weren't too crowded. But with so many people being noiseless, just like corpses, they were really surprised to suddenly see this strange scene.

Yingying slightly leaned on Linghu Chong's left shoulder. Linghu Chong turned around and saw her face was snow white and there was fear in her eyes. So he extended his hand to softly embrace her waist. Then he saw each of these people had different clothes. After looking for a while, he realised they were the disciples from Songshan, Taishan, and Hengshan Schools. Among them, there were some middle aged people with grey hair, there were also some old people with long white beards. It was clear that many seniors from those three schools were also here. However, the people from Huashan and Heng-Shan Schools were not seen among them. The people from these three schools gathered in their own groups and did not mix with each other. The Songshan School's people were observing the wall where the Songshan School's sword moves were, while the Taishan and Hengshan Schools' people were also absorbing the part of the walls where their own sword moves were. Linghu Chong remembered that they had met with four Hengshan's disciples along the way. They mentioned they had gotten news and they were hurrying towards Huashan. That it was of the greatest luck. So it was all because they would have the opportunity to see the wonderful sword moves engraved on the wall at this cave. After some time, he saw among the Hengshan School's people was a lonesome person with white hair looking at the stone wall with no expression on his face. This person was Mr. Mo Da. Linghu Chong didn't know what to, whether he should go up to pay his respect to him or not.

Suddenly, a person from the Songshan School group angrily shouted, "You're not Songshan's disciple, why are you looking at the drawings?" The one who said this was an old person wearing a dust-yellow gown. He angrily glared at a middle aged person with a tall and strong stature, while the long sword in his hand was pointed at his chest.

That middle aged person snorted and said, "When did I look at the drawings?"

The old person from Songshan School angrily shouted, "You're still thinking of denying it? Which school are you from? If you want to steal Songshan's sword art then I don't care, but what are you doing looking at those moves to break the Songshan's sword art for?" At the same time that he shouted, four to five Songshan's people immediately surrounded that middle aged person and pulled their weapons out.

"I know nothing of your honourable school's sword art, so what's the use of looking at those breaking moves for?" the middle aged person argued.

"You must be harbouring some malicious intentions to be peering at Songshan School's sword moves," the old person from Songshan School replied.

That middle aged person put his hand on his sword handle. He said, "Five Mountains School's headmaster, Mr. Yue, is very kind and he's allowed us to come and have a look at the sword moves on the wall. But he didn't limit us to which moves we can look and which ones we can't."

That old person from Songshan School said, "You're thinking of harming my Songshan School, we won't allow you to."

"Five schools have become one. At this time, there's only Five Mountains School. How can there be Songshan School? If not for five schools becoming one, Mr. Yue would never have permitted you to look at the sword moves in this cave at Huashan," that middle aged person said and that old man was unable to reply back. A disciple of Songshan pushed the back of that middle aged person's shoulder and shouted, "You're very good in turning things over." That middle aged person reached back with his hand and flinged that person's hand away. That Songshan's disciple staggered and fell on the ground.

At this time, a person from the Taishan School suddenly shouted, "Who are you? Wearing our Taishan School's uniform and mixing with us trying to steal the Taishan School's sword art." A youngster wearing the Taishan School's uniform hurriedly rushed out. A person nearest to the exit immediately moved and shouted, "Stop, who are you making trouble here?"

That youngster stabbed out with his sword as he rushed forward. The person blocking the exit sent his left palm out towards his eye. That youngster quickly retreated a step. The person blocking the exit shot his right hand out like the wind, again stabbing at his eye. The youngster's long sword was on the outside so it was difficult for him to block and he was forced to step back again. The person blocking the exit swept his leg, the youngster leapt up to avoid it. Then with a 'peng' sound, his chest had been hit by a palm and he had fallen down on the ground. From behind, two Taishan School's disciples went up to detain him.

At this time, the four Songshan School's people surrounding that middle aged person had attacked with their long swords. That middle aged person swiftly and fiercely fought back, but his sword art didn't belong to the five mountains sword schools. A few Songshan's disciples watching on the side cried out, "This chap isn't from the five mountains sword schools. He's a traitor mixing in with us."

With two fights going on, the quiet mountain cave had turned chaotic. Linghu Chong thought, "My master told these people to come here, it's not because he has a good intention. I'm going to tell Martial uncle Mo and ask him to lead his people out of here. I'll tell him about the Hengshan School's sword art once we got out of the cave." He immediately leaned on the wall to stay in the shadow as he walked near to Mr. Mo Da. He had only gone for a few dozens feet when suddenly a big rumbling sound was heard. It was as if the mountain had cracked.

People were crying out in alarm. Linghu Chong quickly turned around and saw dirt and dust falling around the cave's entrance. He didn't care about finding Mr. Mo Da anymore and was just wis.h.i.+ng to go to Yingying, but with lots of people chaotically running away, swords brandished everywhere, dirt falling down around the cave, he couldn't see where Yingying was. He flew out from the cl.u.s.ter of people towards the cave's entrance while dodging swords slashed at him. He shouted desperately but he saw a ma.s.sive rock which was around tens of thousands of catty heavy dropping on the cave's entrance, firmly shutting the cave in. In panic, he took a glance and it seemed there was no crack to get out.

"Yingying, Yingying!" Linghu Chong shouted. Yingying answered but it sounded like she was somewhere deep inside the cave. But with two hundred people shouting in confusion, he couldn't hear her clearly. He thought, "How come Yingying is inside?" He thought for a while and he understood, "Oh, yes. When that big rock fell down, Yingying was standing on the cave's entrance and she wasn't willing to run by herself, but she was thinking of me. I rushed back to the entrance to look for her, but she was rus.h.i.+ng inside to find me." He immediately turned around to rush inside.

Originally, there were dozens of torches inside the cave. But when the big rock fell down and with the confusion going on, there were some who threw their torches away. Thus, most of the torches had been extinguished. The whole cave was filled with dust and all he could see was fuzzy yellow. He heard people shouting in alarm, "The cave's entrance has been sealed up! The cave's entrance has been sealed up!" There were also people who angrily shouted, "It's that traitor Yue Buqun's plot!" Another person shouted, "That's right. That traitor deceived us to see his ***** sword art…"

Dozens of people tried to push the big rock. But this big rock was just like a small mountain, even though dozens of people were forcefully pus.h.i.+ng it, how could they even move it for an inch? There was also someone who shouted, "Quick, quickly leave from the tunnel." A few people had thought of this earlier. Around twenty of them were pus.h.i.+ng each other crowding the entrance to that tunnel. That tunnel was the one dug by the Devil Sect's elders years ago with hatchets and only one person could go through it at a time. So with twenty people crowding together, how could they manage to go in? With this confusion, ten more torches were extinguished.

Two big men from the crowd used their strength to push the people away as they rushed towards the tunnel's entrance. The tunnel's entrance was very narrow and they hit each other, preventing each other from going in. The person on the right hand side swiped his left hand and the big man on the left cried out, a dagger was sticking out of his chest. The big man on the right hand side pushed him away and entered the tunnel. The rest of the crowd pushed and shoved, all of them wanting to enter. Linghu Chong had not seen Yingying yet and he was feeling very worried. He also thought, "The Devil Sect's ten elders had very high martial arts. But because of this plot, they were all buried in here. Today, I'm not sure if Yingying and I can get out of this difficulty. This would be very dangerous if my master is the one who arranged all this."

He saw the crowd was at the tunnel's entrance pus.h.i.+ng and shoving. They were all anxious and frightened. Suddenly, a murderous intention popped into his head, "These chaps are blocking me, I must kill them all then Yingying and I can escape from here." He lifted his long sword wanting to start killing people. But he saw a youngster crouching on the ground with both his hand clutching his hair and his whole body shuddering. His face was ashen. It was obvious he was scared to death. Linghu Chong took pity on him and he pondered, "He and I are friends in difficulty and we've both fallen in this trap. We should cross the river in a boat together, why should I kill him in anger for?" He pulled back his long sword and put it across in front of his chest.

Then he heard the twenty odd people at the tunnel's entrance shouted, "Quickly go in!" "Why aren't you moving?" "Not crawling in?" "Drag him out!" That big man's two feet were still outside and it seemed the tunnel was blocked, but he wasn't willing to crawl back out. Two people stooped down to grab that big man's feet and pulled him out. Suddenly, dozens of people called out in alarm because they had pulled out a headless corpse. The neck was covered with blood. This big man's head had unexpectedly been cut off by someone in the tunnel.

At this time, Linghu Chong saw a person sitting in the corner of the cave, and under the dusky flame, he recognised that person to be Yingying. He was jubilant and quickly rushed there. But after only taking two steps, seven to eight people blocked his way. Currently, the cave was in chaos and everyone looked like they had lost their reasoning just like headless flies flying all over the place. There were some who crazily slashed their swords at random, some were beating their chests crying, some were wrestling each other, and there were some who were crawling on the ground going here and there.

Linghu Chong had squeezed out a few steps when he suddenly felt both of his legs being firmly embraced. He powerfully hit the top of that person's head causing that person to cry out but he still didn't let go. Linghu Chong shouted, "If you don't let go, I'll kill you." Suddenly, the top of his calf hurt as he had unexpectedly been bitten. Linghu Chong was angry and surprised. He saw everyone was acting like they were crazy, and the torches inside the cave were getting less and less. Now, only two torches were still burning but they were already fallen on the ground. Linghu Chong called out, "Pick up the torches, pick up the torches."

A fat Taoist laughed and stepped on a torch extinguis.h.i.+ng it. Linghu Chong lifted his long sword and beheaded that person biting on his calf. Suddenly, everything was dark and nothing could be seen. The last torch had been extinguished.

With the torches extinguished, everyone in the cave suddenly became quiet as they were stunned by this change in situation. But after a short moment had pa.s.sed, the mad shouting began again. Linghu Chong thought, "We have no chance of getting out of here alive today. It's lucky that I can die here together with Yingying." Thinking up to this point, he felt happy instead of afraid and started going towards where Yingying was. After walking for a few steps, someone suddenly came towards him and powerfully hit him. This person had high inner energy and the hit was swift and fierce. Linghu Chong staggered back for a couple of steps after being hit and turned around for half a circle. He quickly turned back and slowly continued on his way to where Yingying was sitting at. With his ears straining to listen, he heard crying and shouting and dozens of weapons colliding. In the dark, with so many people frightened, most of them were like half crazy and everyone was afraid so they were slas.h.i.+ng their weapons about to protect themselves. Some of them had a lot of experience or high internal energy, and they originally remained calm, but with the people besides them randomly swiping their weapons and the mountain cave so crowded, also with no place to dodge in the darkness, besides wielding their own weapons, there was no other way. He heard weapons clas.h.i.+ng, people crying out in pain around them, also injured people moaning and cursing.

Linghu Chong could only hear the weapons splitting the wind all around him. Even though his sword art was high, there was no way for him to use it properly as he could be hit from any direction at any moment. He was feeling really worried so he immediately swiped his long sword to protect his upper body. Step by step, he moved towards the cave wall. Once he reached the wall, he could lean on it while walking and avoid a lot of dangers, just like that person resembling Yingying leaning on the wall while sitting down. With that method of walking, he would be able to meet her soon. From where he was standing, he was still dozens of feet away from the cave wall. But the blades were like the forest and the swords were like the rain, every inch was fraud by danger and every step was fraud with death.

Linghu Chong thought, "If I die under the hand of a master then it would be sweet. But in this situation, I can just get killed anytime by something mysterious. And the one who killed me is probably some idiot who knows a bit of martial art only. Even if Hero Dugu lived again and met with this kind of situation, I'm afraid he probably also can't find a way out." As he thought of Dugu Qiubai, he was enlightened, "That's right, in today's situation, if I don't kill someone mysteriously then I'll be the one killed mysteriously. When I kill one, that'll be one less person to kill me." His long sword trembled out using the 'Arrow Breaking Stance' of the 'Dugu Nine Sword', his sword stabbed out to the front, back, left, and right. Once he used the sword stance, a few people around him cried out miserably and dropped to the ground. He felt his sword entered the flesh of someone and he heard that person cried out lightly. It was the voice of a girl. Linghu Chong was greatly startled and his hand became weak and he nearly dropped his long sword. His heart was thumping, "Was that Yingying? Did I just kill Yingying!" He shouted desperately, "Yingying, Yingying, is that you?"

But there was no sound coming from that girl. He was very familiar with Yingying's voice and that light cry was not actually from her and very easily distinguishable. But with many voices mixed inside the cave, the lightness of this girl's cry, his worried heart, and his chaotic mind, he felt that it was Yingying but at the same time also felt that it wasn't her. He called out again for a few times but there was still no answer so he stooped down to feel around the ground. Suddenly, a kick came flying in and kicked him squarely on his b.u.t.t. Linghu Chong flew up and while his body was in mid air, his left leg hurt as someone gave it a whip. He quickly used his left hand to cover his head, and with a 'bang', his arm along with his head had hit the top of the cave. As he was dropping back down, he felt his head, his arm, legs, and b.u.t.t were all covered in pain, like his whole body was about to be shattered into pieces. He calmed himself down and called out "Yingying" again for a couple more times. Hearing his own voice, he sounded hoa.r.s.e like he was crying. His heart was feeling miserable and desperate as he shouted, "I've killed Yingying, I've killed Yingying!" With his long sword slas.h.i.+ng left and right, he rushed forward and killed a few people.

In this clamour, he suddenly heard two 'zheng, zheng' sound. This was the sound of a yaoqin. Even though the sound of this qin was light, in Linghu Chong's ears they were just like thunder startling him. He was rapt and quickly called out, "Yingying, Yingying!"

Right at this time, he wanted to go to where the sound of that qin was coming from. But as he thought about it, the sound of that qin came from some distance away. This one hundred feet distance was a hundred times more dangerous when compared to walking in Jianghu for a hundred thousand li. To be able to walk this one hundred feet distance without dying was actually very difficult. This sound of qin was of course from Yingying and since she's alright, then he mustn't just throw his life away. If the two of them couldn't die together hand in hand then they would suffer endless regret in the nine fountain. He retreated back for a couple of steps and leaned his back on the cave wall. He thought, "This is much safer." Suddenly he felt a strong wind of someone slas.h.i.+ng his weapon rus.h.i.+ng at him. Linghu Chong thrust his sword out, but just as he moved his long sword, he immediately knew things were far from good.

The essence of 'Dugu Nine Sword' was at looking at the flaw of the opponent's movements and attacking that point. Thrust later but arriving first, one move to take victory. But in this dark cave, he couldn't even see his enemy or his enemy's movement, so how could he see the flaw in the movement? At this situation, 'Dugu Nine Sword' was completely useless. The long sword in Linghu Chong's hand had only thrust out for a foot when he hastily dodged to the left. Then he heard a breaking sound followed by a cras.h.i.+ng sound and lastly a miserable cry. He guessed that person's weapon must have first struck against the wall and broke, and the broken weapon then had stabbed his own body.

Linghu Chong heard that person had gone quiet and guessed he must have died. He pondered, "Although my sword art is high, it is just like any other ordinary person in this dark cave. I just have to bear with it patiently and wait for a chance to meet up with Yingying." But he heard the sound of fighting and the shouting had lessened because at this time many people had been injured or killed. He quickly brandished his long sword in front of his body to form a sword net in case someone suddenly attacked him. The sound of the yaoqin was intermittent like the string was plucked one by one, and it was not making up any tune. Linghu Chong was again worried, "Is Yingying injured? Or maybe she's not the one playing the qin? But if it's not her, how can there be another person who also has a qin?" After a long time, the shouting finally stopped. There were many people moaning and groaning on the ground. Occasionally, there was a sound of weapon clas.h.i.+ng coming from around the wall. Linghu Chong thought, "The people who aren't dead are around the wall. These people must be masters in Wulin and their thoughts are sharp." He shouted repeatedly, "Yingying, where are you?" The qin sounded a few times as if answering him.

Linghu Chong flew forward. When his left foot landed, he felt something soft. He had landed on someone's body and at the same time he felt the wind whistling as a weapon was slas.h.i.+ng upwards. Because his internal energy was abundant, even though he couldn't see the enemy's weapon coming, he was still aware of it. He quickly used strength on his left foot and leapt back to the cave wall. He pondered, "The ground is full of people lying down and some are injured. I can't go across." Then he heard the wind whistling caused by the people leaning their backs on the cave wall slas.h.i.+ng their weapons about to protect themselves; in this moment of time, a few more people were either injured or killed.

Suddenly, an elder spoke, "Friends, we've fallen into Yue Buqun's trap. We must work together to get out of here. We can't just swing our weapons around and kill one another."

"That's right, that's right!" many people replied together.

When Linghu Chong heard their voices, he gathered there were around sixty to seventy of them. All these people had their backs to the wall and they were standing motionless. One was because they had calmed down. Secondly, because temporarily they weren't worried about their lives so they were able to calmly think things through.

That elder said, "I'm Taishan School's Yuzhongzi. Everyone, please sheathe your weapon. Everyone is in the dark, so when you b.u.mp into someone, you mustn't hurt anyone. Friends, do you agree?"

"That should be the way," those people boomed their replies and the sound of weapons slas.h.i.+ng lessened. Some people who were still brandis.h.i.+ng their weapons also stopped after a while.

"I'd also like everyone to swear an oath. If anyone here hurt anyone else, then he'll be buried here and won't get to see the sky again. I, Taishan's Yuzhongzi, swear to this oath first," Yuzhongzi said.

The rest of the people swore this oath while thinking in their hearts, "This Priest Yuzhongzi is very experienced. If we all work together, there's still a chance that we'd get out of here. Otherwise, we'll be randomly chopping each other just like before."

"Very good! Please say your name," Yuzhongzi requested.

At that time, people started saying, "I'm Hengshan's so and so." "I'm Taishan's so and so." I'm Songshan's so and so." But Mr. Mo Da's name was never heard.

After these people had finished speaking, Linghu Chong announced himself, "I'm Heng-Shan School's Linghu Chong." The crowd gasped in surprised and they said, "Heng-Shan's Headmaster, Hero Linghu, is here. That's very good." Their tone of voice was happy.

Linghu Chong thought, "I'm just a waste, what's so good about me?" He of course understood. These people knew his martial art was very high. So with him around, their hope of escaping had gone up by many notches.

"I'd like to ask Headmaster Linghu something. Why did your honourable school only send headmaster here all by yourself?" Yuzhongzi queried. This person was experienced and very careful so he was suspicious that Linghu Chong was hiding something that might be harmful towards them. When Linghu Chong came out of Huashan, he did so as Yue Buqun's disciple. Everyone knew about this. But as they were trapped inside this mountain cave, from amongst the hundreds of disciples from Huashan and Heng-Shan, he was the only person there who belonged to either. It was unavoidable that people would suspect him.

"I have another companion…" Linghu Chong replied and he couldn't help calling out again, "Ying…" But he had only managed to call out 'Ying' before a thought flashed in his mind, "Yingying is the Sun Moon Sect's Chief's only daughter and both the righteous and demonical are like fire and water. I mustn't put this thing on top of what's happening already." So he immediately shut his mouth.

"Who has a torch beside him? Please light it up first," Yuzhongzi requested.

The crowd cheered loudly, "Very good, very good!" "We're all so muddle headed, why didn't we think of that?" "Quickly light up the torches!" Actually, in the middle of the chaos before, everyone was only thinking of protecting himself so how could they think of lighting up a torch? Besides, as soon as a torch was lighted, that person would be killed instantly by the person next to him. But now he heard many rattling sound as some people took out their flint and steel to make fire. Soon after, many dots of flames were seen and it felt very bright in the darkness. The people inside the mountain cave started cheering.

Linghu Chong took a glance and saw the surrounding cave wall was full of people. Their bodies and faces were splashed with blood. There were also some who still slowly swiping their swords and sabres in front of their bodies. These people were extremely careful, even though they had heard everyone swearing an oath, they still didn't believe the person next to them. Linghu Chong took a step to go to the opposite wall wanting to find Yingying. Suddenly, from among the cl.u.s.ter of people, someone shouted, "Move!" Seven to eight people came out of the tunnel brandis.h.i.+ng their long swords and started killing people.

"Who are you?" the crowd shouted and one by one they drew their own weapons to defend. After some time, the torches had again been extinguished. Linghu Chong shot forward and leapt towards the opposite wall. He felt a weapon hacking from his right hand side and in the darkness he didn't know how to block it. He rushed at the ground and heard a 'dang' sound. A sabre had clashed with the wall. He thought, "This person doesn't necessarily want to kill me. He might just be wanting to defend himself in the darkness." He stayed down on the ground quietly. After that person hacked at empty s.p.a.ce for a few more times, he stopped.

Someone shouted, "Kill all these dogs, don't leave any behind!" More than ten people acknowledged this order. This was followed by six to seven people shouting, "It's Zuo Lengchan! Zuo Lengchan!" Then some people shouted, "Master, disciple's here!"

Linghu Chong heard the person barking the order was really Zuo Lengchan, he pondered, "Why is he here? This trap was set up by this b.a.s.t.a.r.d, it wasn't my Master after all." Even though Yue Buqun had tried to kill him several times already, the master-disciple and father-son relations.h.i.+p between them had stretched for more than twenty years and they were deep-rooted in his heart. He simply couldn't forget them. Once he thought that the traitor setting this up wasn't Yue Buqun, he couldn't help feeling happy. He was a hundred times happier to die under Zuo Lengchan's hand than to die under his Master's hand.

He only heard Zuo Lengchan gloomily said, "You still have the face to call me master? You didn't report to me before you went to Huashan. This is deceiving your master and betraying your school. How can our school have such despicable disciples like you?"

"Master," A booming voice replied. "Disciple got the message that a cave in the Cliff of Contemplation at Huashan has our own school's wonderful sword art. I was afraid I'd be wasting time going back and forth and telling master about this first, and the sword moves on the wall would be destroyed by someone. So I quickly came here. After I look at the sword art, I'd of course go back to the mountain immediately and tell master all these sword arts."

"You're taking advantage of my blindness," Zuo Lengchan said. "I know you all considered me useless since long ago. Once you learned these wonderful sword art, would you still recognise me as your master? Yue Buqun wanted all of you to pledge your loyalties to him before he'd let you come into this cave to look at the sword moves. Didn't this happen?"

"Yes, dis… disciple should die," that Songshan disciple answered. "But this is just a temporary measure. Our five mountain sword schools have merged into one and he's the headmaster. So we should… should also listen to his order. But I never thought this traitor would behave so violently and trapped all of us down here."

Another person said, "Master, please lead us to escape from here. We'll then go find that traitor Yue Buqun to settle our debt."

Zuo Lengchan snorted. "What a wishful thinking you have there." He paused for a while then continued, "Linghu Chong, you're also here, what are you doing here?"

"This is my old place, if I want to come then I just come!" Linghu Chong replied. "What are you doing here?"

Zuo Lengchan laughed coldly and replied, "Death is imminent and you're still so rude towards your senior."

"You plotted secretly and caused the harm of the world's heroes," Linghu Chong said. "Everyone wants to punish you for this, and you still consider yourself to be a senior?"

"Pingzhi," Zuo Lengchan said. "Kill him!"

"Yes!" someone answered in the dark. It was Lin Pingzhi's voice.

Linghu Chong was startled and he thought, "So Lin Pingzhi is also here. Both Zuo Lengchan and him are blind, so these days they must be familiar on how to use the sword blind. Using their ears to replace their eyes, their technique on listening to the wind to distinguish attacks must be good now. In this darkness, the situation is turned, it is me who is blind while they're the ones who aren't blind. But why are they the enemy?" But his back was covered in cold sweat.

Then he heard Lin Pingzhi said, "Linghu Chong, you're very glorious and your name is very famous in Jianghu. But today you're going to die under my hands, haha, haha!" His laughter was full of gloom. Step by step he came over.

Just then when Linghu Chong and Zuo Lengchan were talking, Lin Pingzhi had heard him clearly and his position had been given away. The whole cave was quiet and only Lin Pingzhi's footsteps were heard. With each step of his, Linghu Chong knew he was one step closer to the death's door. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Wait! This Linghu Chong blinded my eyes and caused me to be unable to see the daylight from then on. Let me kill this b.a.s.t.a.r.d." More than ten people echoed what he said and they quickly walked over. Linghu Chong was startled. He knew they were the fifteen people who he had blinded on that night outside the abandoned temple. That day on his way towards Songshan for the merger of the five schools, he met these people on the way. These people had been blinded for a long time, and their abilities to use their ears to replace their eyes must be high. He already couldn't defend against one Lin Pingzhi, now with the addition of these fifteen people, he was totally outcla.s.sed.

He heard their footsteps while he quietly slid for a few steps towards the left. Then he heard a few 'ta, ta, ta' noise as a few longs sword were stabbed at the wall where he was standing at previously. Luckily, these ten or so people attacked at the same time causing the noise to blend with the footsteps sound concealing his footsteps. No one knew where he had gone to. Linghu Chong stooped down and felt a sword on the ground. He tossed it, and with a clanking sound, it hit the wall. Those ten or so blind men rushed over with their weapons raised, and they started fighting with some people. Shouting erupted and in a few moment six to seven people were killed. These people didn't have weak martial arts, but they couldn't see a thing in this darkness, so they weren't the match of these blind men.

Linghu Chong took advantage of this shouting to slide a few more steps to the left. He groped around to feel there was no one around the wall before he quietly crouched down and pondered, "Zuo Lengchan brought Lin Pingzhi and those blind men here to do battle in the dark. They're going to annihilate all of us here. But how does he know there's this kind of cave here?" As soon as he thought about it, he was enlightened, "Yes! That day little martial sister was on top of the place of wors.h.i.+p, she fought using the moves engraved on the wall here. She defeated the masters from Taishan and Hengshan. She also used Songshan sword art in front of Zuo Lengchan and used the Heng-Shan sword art to fight against me. Since she came here before, Lin Pingzhi of course knows about it too." As he thought of little martial sister, his heart ached.

He heard Lin Pingzhi shouted, "Linghu Chong, you don't dare to reveal yourself, pulling in your head and tail. What kind of hero is that?"

Linghu Chong was angered and he wanted to get out to fight to the death with him, but he restrained himself. He thought, "A gentleman can bend and straighten. How can I get so irritated over him? I haven't found Yingying yet, I can't die so easily just like that." He also thought, "I once promised little martial sister to tend to Lin Pingzhi. If I come out and fight with him then got killed by him, that would be unworthy. But it's also not right if I kill him."

"There are turncoats in this cave, traitors who need to be killed," Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Even if you forgive Linghu Chong, there's nowhere he can go to!"

A short time later, clas.h.i.+ng of weapons and shouting erupted. Linghu Chong squatted on the ground. After a short while, still no one attacked him. He strained to listen to Yingying's voice while pondering, "Yingying is far more careful and cleverer than me. In the middle of this ambush, she'd definitely not play her qin. I only hope no sword is being thrust at her." He heard the fighting between the crowd and those blind men was really fierce, they were fighting fiercely while also hurling curses. The curse 'scram your granny' was even heard. This 'scram your granny' was really grating to the ears. When common people uses this swear words, they always say 'go to your mum', or 'hold your granny', sometimes people also use 'scram your mother b.a.s.t.a.r.d', but it was rare to hear someone uses 'scram your granny'. Linghu Chong pondered, "Is this a swear word special to their provinces?" After listening for a while, he found that this swear word 'scram your granny' was used quite often by a few people. Once this swear word was uttered by both people fighting, the fighting would stop immediately. But if only one person uttered this swear word, then the fighting between them would continue. He immediately understood, "So this is the code for those blind men to distinguish each other." In that darkness, randomly slas.h.i.+ng and killing, it was hard to determine friends or foes. Those blind men had determined a code beforehand and when they started fighting they would first called out this swear word 'scram your granny'. When two people cursed the same swear word, they were friends. Otherwise, they would kill their opponents. No one uses this swear word, so this code word was something that the enemy wouldn't use to curse someone with.

Once he understood this, he immediately stood up and put his sword in front of his chest. The swearing of 'scram your granny' was getting more frequent, while the clas.h.i.+ng of weapons and the shouting were gradually dying. It seemed the people from Taishan, Hengshan, and Songshan Schools had been ma.s.sacred. Linghu Chong had not heard of Yingying's voice. He was worried that Yingying had been killed earlier, but he was also happy that she didn't suffer under the hands of these blind men. He also thought, "The disciples of Songshan must've found out the cave in Huashan contained their own school's wonderful sword art so they quickly came here to take a look. This behaviour is quite common in people. But they didn't have time to report, so Zuo Lengchan just decided to kill them all and doesn't hold back at all. He must be thinking of killing me, but since he can't distinguish anyone, he even killed all his disciples who had only done a little bit of wrong." After some time, the sound of fighting ceased.

"Everyone," Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Go around the cave and give them another chop."

The blind men acknowledged his order, then the sound of sword slas.h.i.+ng was heard going here and there. Two swords were chopping down in front of Linghu Chong, and he lifted his sword to block. Two hoa.r.s.e voices shouting 'scram your granny' were heard and unexpectedly n.o.body realised what had happened. After some time, besides those blind men cursing and the clas.h.i.+ng of weapons, there was no other noise. But Linghu Chong was still worried and he nearly cried, wanting to cry out, "Yingying, Yingying, where are you?"

"Stop!" Zuo Lengchan commanded.

Those blind men sheathed their swords and stood still. Zuo Lengchan laughed happily and said, "Those traitors have all been eliminated. These shameless people, just because they wanted to learn some sword moves, they actually swore loyalty to that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Yue Buqun. That little b.a.s.t.a.r.d Linghu Chong must've died under your swords! Haha! Haha! Linghu Chong, Linghu Chong, are you dead yet?" Linghu Chong held his breath and didn't reply.

"Pingzhi," Zuo Lengchan said. "Today, you've killed the person you hate the most. You must be satisfied."

"The whole battle was thought of by Brother Zuo," Lin Pingzhi replied. "It was wonderfully set up."

Linghu Chong thought, "Zuo Lengchan and him are praising each other. In order to get his Evil Resisting Sword Art, Zuo Lengchan is being very polite to him."

"If you didn't know of another secret path into this tunnel," Zuo Lengchan said. "It would've been hard for us to get our revenge."

"But it's a pity," Lin Pingzhi. "In all that confusion I didn't get the chance to kill that little b.a.s.t.a.r.d Linghu Chong myself."

Linghu Chong thought, "I've never offended him before. Why does he detest me so much?"

"It doesn't matter who killed him, it's all the same," Zuo Lengchan replied in whisper. "Let's go out quickly. I think Yue Buqun should be guarding outside of the cave now. We should take advantage of the darkness to rush out."

"Yes!" Lin Pingzhi acknowledged. The sound of footsteps was heard as their party entered the tunnel. Sound of footsteps gradually got farther away, and after a while, it was all quiet.

"Yingying," Linghu Chong whispered. "Where are you?" His voice sounded like he was weeping.

Suddenly, someone from above his head whispered, "I'm here. Don't make any noise!"

Linghu Chong was happy and both his knees became soft as he sat down on the ground. When those blind men randomly slashed their swords around, the safest place to be was up there. A place where no weapon can reach. This was a very obvious and simple point, but when faced with death, everyone's mind was in chaos and didn't think of this.

Yingying leapt down. Linghu Chong jumped up and tossed his sword away before embracing her tightly. They were both sobbing happily. Linghu Chong lightly kissed her forehead and whispered, "You really frightened me to death just before."

In the darkness, Yingying didn't avoid it and she lightly replied, "You were cursing people 'scram your granny'. Nevertheless, I heard it was your voice."

Linghu Chong couldn't help smiling as he asked, "You're not injured at all?"

"No."

"I heard the qin's sound before and wasn't worried anymore. But then I felt that I've stabbed a girl and the qin's sound became broken, not making up a tune, so I thought I've wounded you. Later on, there was no sound at all and I didn't know what had happened."

Yingying smiled. "I've jumped up there early on. I was afraid someone might find out so I couldn't call out to you. So I had to toss coins down to strike that yaoqin to let you know."

Linghu Chong sighed and said, "That's how it is. I never knew. I deserve to be hit, deserve to be hit!" He took her hand and lightly hit his own cheeks. "You're marrying such a stupid man," Linghu Chong chuckled. "This can be considered to be Young Lady Ren's bad luck. I felt it was really odd. If you were the one playing the yaoqin, why weren't you playing the 'Song of Peace and Serenity' or maybe the 'Smiling Proud Wanderer'?"

Yingying let him hugged her. "If I could toss coins in the darkness to make the yaoqin play out a tune, then I'll be a deity."
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Linghu Chong laughingly said, "You are a deity."

When Yingying heard his words were teasing her, she struggled wanting to get away from his embrace. Linghu Chong tightly held on to her and asked, "Later on, why did you stop throwing the coins to strike the qin?"

"I'm poor," Yingying laughingly replied. "I don't have that much money on me. After throwing a few of them, I ran out."

Linghu Chong sighed. "It's a pity there's no money farm in this cave, there's also no store here. Young lady Ren has no money to use and there's no place to borrow money."

Yingying also laughed and said, "After that, I even used my hairpin and earrings. But when those blind men started killing, I didn't dare to throw things anymore because their hearings are very acute."

Suddenly, there was a gloomy cold laugh coming from the tunnel's entrance. Linghu Chong and Yingying gasped in surprise. Linghu Chong's left arm embraced Yingying while his right hand grabbed the long sword on the ground. He shouted, "Who's there?"

That person coldly replied, "Hero Linghu, it's me!" The voice was Lin Pingzhi's. Then they heard footsteps coming from the tunnel, the blind men had returned.

Linghu Chong scolded himself for being so careless. Zuo Lengchan was an old b.a.s.t.a.r.d and he was also very cunning, so how could he just go like that? They must've stayed in the tunnel listening to the noises inside the cave. If he was by himself, he would've wasted some time before trying to escape. But with Yingying and him worrying over each other and delighted over their reunion, he didn't think the enemy could've stayed not far from there and was watching them from the outside. Yingying put her hand underneath Linghu Chong's armpit and whispered, "Go up!" The two of them jumped up.

Yingying had earlier rested on the rock jutting out of the wall so she knew where it was. In the darkness, she applied the right amount of force to go up and steadily landed on it. But Linghu Chong missed and he instead landed back down. Yingying grabbed his arm and pulled him back up. This rock only jutted out for around three to four feet. Both of them were crowded and it wasn't easy for them to steadily stand there. Linghu Chong thought, "Yingying thinks very fast. Both of us are on top looking down, so it won't be easy for those blind men to attack us."

"Those two little ghosts jumped up," Zuo Lengchan said.

"Yes!" Lin Pingzhi acknowledged.

"Linghu Chong," Zuo Lengchan said. "Are you going to hide up there for the rest of your life?"

Linghu Chong didn't reply. He was thinking if he uttered a single noise then his hiding place would be discovered. His right hand held his sword while his left hand was wrapped around Yingying's waist. Yingying's left hand was holding a short sword and her right hand was also wrapped around his waist. They felt comforted to be able to be together, they had no regret even if they had to die right now.

"Who blinded your eyes?" Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Have you forgotten it?"

More than ten blind men roared and jumped up while randomly thrusting. Linghu Chong and Yingying still didn't make any sound, and those blind men stabbed at empty s.p.a.ces. The second time they leapt up, one of the blind men was only around a foot beyond the jutting rock. Linghu Chong heard the wind around him as he jumped up, he thrust his sword forward and pierced the blind man's chest. That blind man cried out and fell on the ground. With that happened, the others discovered their hiding place. Six to seven people leapt up at the same time slas.h.i.+ng and thrusting their swords. Even though Linghu Chong and Yingying couldn't see those blind men, the distance between the jutting rock and the ground was around twenty feet. The people jumping up produced a lot of wind noise so they were easy to distinguish. They thrust their swords out and killed two people. The rest of the blind men looked up and hurled abuses at them. For a while, they didn't dare to leap up and attack.

A short time later, the sound of wind was heard and two people had jumped up from the left and right. Linghu Chong and Yingying lifted their swords to block.

'Zheng, zheng'. Four swords collided.

Linghu Chong's right hand ached and his long sword was nearly knocked out of his hand. He knew the person who had attacked was Zuo Lengchan himself. Yingying cried out in pain as her shoulder was. .h.i.t by a sword and she swayed. Linghu Chong quickly pulled her in with his left hand. Those two people jumped up again to attack. Linghu Chong thrust his long sword towards the person attacking Yingying. Both swords collided, and that person's long sword changed quickly into a slash. Linghu Chong knew this enemy was Lin Pingzhi. There was no time to block the incoming sword so he quickly lowered his head and stooped his body. He felt the cold wind as Lin Pingzhi slashed at Yingying. His body was in mid air but he unexpectedly was able to do three moves. This Evil Resisting Sword Art was truly formidable.

Linghu Chong was afraid he might injure Yingying so he hugged her and leapt down with her. With his back leaning on the cave wall, he started to slash his sword around. Suddenly he heard Zuo Lengchan's long laugh. A sword attacked and with a clas.h.i.+ng sound, both swords had again collided. Linghu Chong was shaken and he felt a little internal energy coming from the sword. His whole body involuntarily shook. Suddenly he remembered of the day when Ren Woxing was at Shaolin Temple using his 'Art of Essence Absorbing' to suck Zuo Lengchan's internal energy. Who could've known that Zuo Lengchan's internal energy would be so formidable that in just a short time, Ren Woxing was frozen. This time he was doing the same strategy again and to avoid falling into his trap, Linghu Chong quickly pushed the internal energy out but suddenly he felt a tremendous energy coming back, and his fingers involuntarily loosened and his sword flew out of his hand. Linghu Chong's whole skill depended on a long sword, so he quickly stooped down and felt around the ground for another sword. More than two hundred people had died inside that cave and the ground was filled with weapons so he could just pick a sabre up and hold up momentarily. Yingying and he had turned blind in this cave while being attacked by these ten or so blind men who had turned not blind. It was no luck that they had survived so far, but no matter what, they were unwilling to just give up their lives so easily. After feeling around for a while, he touched the face of a dead person. It was cold and sticky, he hastily hugged Yingying and retreated for a couple of steps.

'Zheng, zheng!' Yingying brandished her short sword to block the incoming thrust from the two swords. This was followed by a cry as the short sword in Yingying's hand was knocked flying off. Linghu Chong was worried, he stooped down again and found something that felt like a short stick. In this critical situation, he didn't have time to think when he felt a strong wind rus.h.i.+ng from his front. Another sword had slashed at him. He immediately put the stick up to block. With a cracking sound, that short stick was cut off by the sword.

Linghu Chong lowered his head to let the long sword go pa.s.s. Suddenly, he saw some light dots in front of him. These light dots were very weak, but inside this dark cave, they were just like a star coming out of the horizon. The enemies' bodies and their swords could be distinguished faintly. Linghu Chong and Yingying gasped at the same time as they saw Zuo Lengchan thrust his sword again. Linghu Chong lifted his short stick to stab it at Zuo Lengchan's throat, which was exactly the flaw in his sword move. Unexpectedly, even though Zuo Lengchan was blind, his response was still very fast as he used the move 'Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate' to leap back while his mouth was cursing loudly. Yingying stooped down, picked up a long sword, took the short stick from Linghu Chong's hand, and at the same time gave the long sword to him. She brandished the short stick causing glimmering around the cave.

Linghu Chong's spirit was greatly roused. As this was a matter of life and death, he didn't hold back. With a curse 'scram your granny', he killed a blind man. The sword coming out of his hand was much faster than the cursing coming out of his mouth. After swearing six of these 'scram your granny', the twelve blind men in the cave had all been killed. Moreover, some of these blind men were slow witted, so hearing him screaming 'scram your granny', they thought he was one of their own, so why would they need to fight? They had not realised anything when the sword had already pierced their throats and they were on their way to death's door to see their grannies.

Zuo Lengchan and Lin Pingzhi didn't understand what was going on, they both asked, "Is there a torch?" Their voices were frightened.

"That's right!" Linghu Chong shouted as he attacked Zuo Lengchan three times. Zuo Lengchan distinguished the incoming attack from the wind and managed to block the three attacks, but Linghu Chong felt his arm was aching. It was the cold energy coming from the sword again. After a tick, everything was still as he held his sword motionless. Zuo Lengchan couldn't hear the wind from his sword and he was getting anxious. He vigorously slashed his sword to protect the fatal points around his body.

Linghu Chong relied on the faint light coming out of the short stick in Yingying's hand as he slowly sent his sword forward, and slowly aimed it at Lin Pingzhi's right arm. Inch by inch, it crept forward. Lin Pingzhi was straining his ear trying to listen to his sword path, but Linghu Chong's sword was slowly going inch by inch, so how could he hear anything? The point of the sword was now only half a foot away from his right arm. With a jerk, it shot forward and hit Lin Pingzhi's right arm's bone and flesh. Lin Pingzhi cried out and dropped his long sword, while his body flew upwards. Linghu Chong stabbed twice and got both of his legs. Lin Pingzhi fell down on the ground cursing and swearing loudly. Linghu Chong turned around and saw Zuo Lengchan. Under the faint light, he saw him gritting his teeth and his expression terrifying while he was slas.h.i.+ng his long sword around. Even though the sword moves he was using were very wonderful, but under 'Dugu Nine Sword', there was no place that was flawless.

Linghu Chong thought, "This person is the one who incited the disturbance in Wulin. I can't go easy on him!"

With a roar, he brandished his long sword. Zuo Lengchan was stabbed between the eyes, throat, and chest. Linghu Chong leapt back for two steps and pulled Yingying's hand. He saw Zuo Lengchan standing there for a long time before falling on the ground. His long sword turned over and stabbed his own stomach until it penetrated all the way through. Both of them calmed themselves down. They looked at the short stick in Yingying's hand but the light was too dim so they couldn't see it clearly. They had no torch on their bodies and Linghu Chong was afraid Lin Pingzhi might attack them again so he cut off the tendons in his left arm. Then he went to the dead people's body to fish out some flint and steel, after feeling out the second person, that person's bosom was also empty. He thought for a while then shouted, "Scram your granny, of course these blind men aren't bringing any flint and steel." When he felt the fifth person, he finally found flint and steel and light up a paper.

The two of them shouted in surprise.

The stick in Yingying's hand was unexpectedly a bone with one of its ends cut off to a sharp point! Yingying was stupified and she threw that bone on the ground. She then laughingly cursed, "Scram your…" She only uttered these two words when she felt they were not elegant so she immediately pursed her lips up.

Linghu Chong suddenly understood. "Yingying, both our lives were saved by this divine sect's senior."

"Divine sect's senior?" Yingying queried.

"Back then, ten elders from the divine sect attacked Huashan. They were all imprisoned in this cave without any way of escaping, and they all died with unsatisfied regret. All they left behind were ten sets of bones. This thigh bone, I don't know which elder it belonged to. I accidentally picked that one up and Zuo Lengchan luckily cut a section off it. This bone has this phosphorus light that the two of us can use to see," Linghu Chong explained.

Yingying let out a long sigh then bowed towards that bone and said, "So it's our sect's elder, sorry for the offence."

Linghu Chong took a few more paper and lighted them up. Then he found two torches and lighted them up also. "I wonder what happened to Martial Uncle Mo?" Then he shouted, "Martial Uncle Mo, Martial Uncle Mo!" But there was still no sound. Linghu Chong felt in his heart that Martial Uncle Mo cared for him. So he was feeling sad that he had died in this cave today. He glanced around the ground looking at the corpses, but it was very difficult to search for Mr. Mo Da's corpse. He thought, "We haven't escaped from danger yet, we can't linger around here. I'll come back later to look for Martial Uncle Mo's corpse then I'll bury him properly."

Linghu Chong turned around and pulled on Lin Pingzhi's chest as he went towards the tunnel. Yingying knew he had promised Yue Lingshan to tend to Lin Pingzhi. So without saying anything, she picked up that yaoqin which had holes in a few places and followed behind him. They used the narrow tunnel that had been dug by those elders to go out step by step.

Linghu Chong lifted his sword up to be prepared. He was thinking Zuo Lengchan was very calculating and since the cave's entrance had been sealed, then he surely would have dispatched people to guard the narrow tunnel. He had to be careful of the guard trying to stop him inside the cave. But after walking all the way through the tunnel, he still saw no one. Linghu Chong softly opened the stone covering up the entrance, and he felt the light dazzling his eyes. The ferocious fight inside the cave had gone on for so long that he didn't feel how much time had actually pa.s.sed, and the sky had actually turned bright. He saw there was no one outside the cave and he immediately pulled Lin Pingzhi out, and Yingying followed him out. There was a sword in Linghu Chong's hand, enough light for him to see, he was at a s.p.a.cious place, they had really gone out of danger. He sucked in a breath of fresh air and felt unspeakable comfort.

"When your master punished you before, was it at this cave?" Yingying asked.

"That's right. What do you think?" Linghu Chong laughingly replied.

Yingying smiled. "I think you weren't here meditating, but your…" She was thinking of saying 'your little martial sister', but why would she mention Yue Lingshan to make him sad? So she quickly stopped.

"Grand martial uncle Feng lives somewhere nearby. I wonder if he's doing fine. I've always thought of this. He first said, he doesn't want to meet anyone from Huashan School, but I'm no longer in Huashan School," Linghu Chong said.

"Yes. Let's go meet him," Yingying said.

Linghu Chong sheathed his sword and let go of Lin Pingzhi. He pulled on Yingying's hand and went out of the cave.