Legend of Great Tang’s Twin Dragons

Translator: Foxs' Wuxia

‘Swish!’

An arrow shot out of Kou Zhong’s Piercing the Sun Bow, hitting its target, an iron shield a thousand paces away. Beyond everybody’s expectation, the solid iron shield exploded in spinning manner, the debris flew all over the ground.

The thousand and hundreds of Shao Shuai Army soldiers standing around to watch also exploded in cheers, their mood was running high.

The area inside the mountain stronghold surrounded by the buildings and walls was very spacious, its length and width were over three thousand paces, more than enough to hold a polo match. A two-story building was built in front of the gorge path using thick and solid trees, the entrance and exit of the gorge path were precisely on the lower level. This wooden structure was rectangular in shape, ten zhang deep and fifteen zhang across, very sturdy, even if the enemy forced their way into the stronghold, to enter the gorge path, they must crash their way through this barrier, it played a strategic key role.

Along the stronghold wall, eight arrow towers were still under construction. Dirt, rocks, wood and other construction materials were piled up on the open space; if necessary, it could be used to repair the damage on the walls and the arrow towers. There were also ten wooden camp buildings, each camp could house more than a dozen soldiers to rest and sleep, these buildings could correspond with the huge main building.

Right in the middle of the mountain stronghold, an artificial pool, round in shape, about two zhang in diameter – was dug, the bottom and the walls were lined with clay and rocks. Two lines of water pipe made of long bamboo tubes joined together head and tail supplied the round pool with water.

The mountain stronghold had washed away the dejected spirit of the Shao Shuai Army after being pursued relentlessly and beaten like stray dogs, because not only they were obtaining the opportunity to take a breath, it was also a big defensive structure; more importantly, there was a way to survive behind the mountain stronghold. Advancing they could attack, retreating they could defend.

The lower level of the main building was filled with foodstuff, fodder and fuel. The first floor was for resting, and the large platform on the top could be used to gaze into the distance at the enemy situation outside the camp’s walls. As winter approached, wood construction was not only strategic requirements, but also to provide the soldiers a means to escape and take shelter from the wind and the snow, which was related to the survival of the mountain stronghold.

Inside the gorge path was the place of peace and happiness where the warhorses and the warriors recover, which enabled the fighters, at the very moment the two armies clashed against each other – to take turn to evade the pitiless war.

Kou Zhong received another arrow, made from local resources – from Chen Laomou’s hand; astonished, he said, “What kind of wood it was cut from? It is solid and stiff; such a highest quality arrow material.”

Chen Laomou, in his usual immensely-pleased-with-himself manner, glibly said, “This is a wooden arrow, specially made for Shaoshuai. And only Shaoshuai can shoot this kind of primitive, crude arrow, powerfully and firmly, not inferior to standard arrows. If it were shot using other people’s bow, I am afraid it would be difficult to penetrate the other side soldier’s armor.”

Knitting his brows, Kou Zhong asked, “Do we have enough arrows?”

The Book of Military has a saying, ‘Of the thirty-six military weapons, bow is called the first; of the eighteen weapons of martial art, dart is number one.’ From this, the importance of bow and dart on battle was evident. Even though some cities allowed people to carry weapons in and out of the city, bow and crossbow were strictly prohibited, precisely because bow and crossbow had the threating power to harm people from long distance. In battle, bow and crossbow are essential, if Kou Zhong’s side lacked arrows, even if they had solid wall and high rampart, it would exist in name only [idiom: useless].

Chen Laomou laughed and said, “Shaoshuai, don’t worry, these more than ten days of battle when the enemy pursued us vigorously, we shot not a few arrow darts, but the arrow darts that we regained from the enemy are even more, enough to be used for ten days, day and night, incessantly. The wooden arrows, other than for Shaoshuai’s exclusive use, can also be used as fire arrows to control the enemy. Laofu made fire-resistant sheath according to the diagram in Lu Miaozi’s heavenly book; if we apply pine resin and wrap the sheath around the tip of the wooden arrow, it could stick to the enemy’s ramming vehicle and the arrow-resistant body of the cart like maggot attaches to the bone, burning them to his granny’s heart’s content.”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “Burning them to his granny’s heart’s content! Ha! This time, if we can hold out until Lao Ba arrives to help, Chen Gong, you can claim big credit for yourself, and no one will dare to dispute it.”

Standing around them, Ba Yegang, Wang Xuanshu, Ma Chang, and Bing Yuanzhen, none did not speak words of praise; Chen Laomou was so happy that he could not close his mouth from smiling.

Kou Zhong turned his head to look up at the entrance to the gorge path behind the main building. Due to the cliff wall of the mountain, looking from outside, even in the close proximity from inside the mountain stronghold, he was still unable to see the passage crossing over the mountain.

Kou Zhong said, “if you are Li Shimin, and your troops are pursuing to here, when you see our stronghold is built with the back against the mountain, what are you going to think?”

Ma Chang said, “I will have my doubts. In this place, where the grain vanished and the grass exhausted, how long can Shaoshuai last?”

His countenance changed, Wang Xuanshu said, “Since there is doubt, naturally he would send his men up the mountain to investigate. Although the cliff wall is very high and steep, it still won’t stop the other side’s experts with superior qinggong.”

Chen Laomou said, “Laofu has climbed to the top of the mountain with Ba Da Jiangjun, all I can see was dangerous cliffs everywhere; dangers stand in great numbers, plus the cliff is full of old trees, locked by the clouds, sealed by the fog, I could not see the gorge path below. Unless they dare to take risk to climb down, they could forget about finding our secret.”

Everybody cast their gaze toward Ba Yegang. This man of steel, who had blood relationship with Hu people, spoke in strong voice, “I didn’t get to the top, because even with superior qinggong, it was still very dangerous. Furthermore, the water vapor on the mountain wall became ice; it is very slippery with no place to get a good footing. One careless move, I would fall with torn body and crushed bones.”

Kou Zhong breathed a sigh of relief and said, “In that case, I can put down the heaviest load in my mind. Ba Da Jiangjun cannot climb up, the enemy shouldn’t be able to climb either. It would be best if we have big snow, then our mountain stronghold won’t have any weak point that enemy can exploit!”

Chen Laomou laughed and said, “Shaoshuai, please go to the Commander Room on the first floor to rest, we want to start building his Niang’s several dozen stone-throwing machines. Although can’t compare to Luoyang’s big trebuchets, it should be enough to make the enemy suffer.”

Kou Zhong roared heartily and said, “Building his Niang’s several dozen stone-throwing machines. Since when did Chen Gong copy my mouthful of vulgar words? Brothers who came with me, the good time to have a his-granny’s-good-sleep has arrived!”

Finished speaking, still laughing, he strode toward the main building. His steps showed great confidence, no longer like an escaping-to-the-east-and-fleeing-to-the-west sorry figure being chased by Li Shimin.

Xu Ziling whispered to Hou Xibai, “Only he, one person, I can sense it.”

Hou Xibai secretly wiped his cold sweat. If not for after his injury, Xu Ziling’s spirited senses grew a lot sharper, they might let Yang Xuyan, who was most adept at secret assassination, come to ambush them, the outcome might be extremely unimaginable.

He could deduce that Yang Xuyan must have followed their track in secret. Fortunately, last night they were the last two persons to enter the city, plus Yang Xuyan did not want beat the grass to scare the snake by climbing over the city wall to enter, hence he waited for the daybreak when the city gate was opened to enter the city. He then made secret inquiry to find out that they were staying in this inn, thereupon he wholeheartedly carried out the shady business that he was most adept in. Who would have thought that Xu Ziling exposed him with one shout, so that this Shadow Assassin, who was best in hiding his shadow and concealing his form – had no way of covering his traces?

Yang Xuyan’s voice was heard from the inner courtyard, “Turns out Xu Xiong’s power has completely recovered; this is greatly beyond Xiaodi’s expectation. However, this time Xiaodi came not for Xu Xiong, but want to settle some gratitude and grudges between our schools.”

Hearing that, Hou Xibai and Xu Ziling you looked at me I gazed at you; naturally they knew that Yang Xuyan did not come for gratitude and grudges of their schools, but to strike and destroy them one by one.

Hou Xibai’s pair of eyes remitted a resolute expression; he was about to respond, Xu Ziling beat him, “Yang Xiong, why not wait a moment, let me talk with Xibai a little bit.”

Letting out a long laughter, Yang Xuyan said, “Why not? Gentlemen, be my guest, I am going to the fishpond to relive boredom by watching the fish.”

The upper room they checked in at the Badong Inn was located at the rear garden; the building was a courtyard house with a fully enclosed courtyard style, the wing on the four sides surrounded the inner courtyard. Due to the high room rate, only two or three other side rooms were occupied. However, even if it was full of people, in this time when the world was in chaos, no one would dare to mind the fight and vendetta of Jianghu.

The inner courtyard was tastefully decorated, there were flowers and trees everywhere, as well as fishpond and rock garden, surrounded by winding corridor on all sides, the scenery was quite beautiful.

Hou Xibai looked at Xu Ziling in astonishment; because he was afraid Yang Xuyan might eavesdrop, he pressed down his voice, “What’s so important that Ziling want to talk now?” he asked.

Xu Ziling calmly said, “I wonder if Xibai already decided to stake everything, determined to fight to death?”

“Is there any other way?” Hou Xibai asked, “As soon as Ziling take two steps, this muddled egg will see through that your internal injuries have not healed.”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, “But has Xibai ever thought that the reason you are determined to fight to the death is because you do not have the confidence to beat back Yang Xuyan?”

Smiling bitterly, Hou Xibai said, “That is the fact, what can we do about it? If I can fight him until both sides suffer, or perhaps we end in mutual destruction, as far as I’m concerned, that will be extremely ideal.”

Xu Ziling spoke candidly, “If you fight a decisive battle against Yang Xuyan with that kind of mentality, you will definitely lose.”

Hou Xibai has always had faith in his wisdom; after muttering to himself irresolutely for half a day, he nodded and said, “I understand what Ziling is saying. I will try to calm down a bit, I won’t become a reckless man who is bold but not very astute [idiom].”

“That is definitely still not enough,” Xu Ziling said, “You must first eliminate your fear of Bu Si Yin Fa! The only way is to recover your usual calm and relaxed state of mind, considering the way of the martial art like the way of the painting. The moment you enter the realm of the Dhyana painting, that will be the moment you reach the perfection of the martial art way realm.”

After a short pause, he said with a smile, “Since Lao Yang thought that I have recovered most of my power, I could rely on this to make him fall head first in a big tumble, and then we can go to have breakfast with ease.”

Hou Xibai opened the Fan of Beauty, with the side of the fan with the beauties facing Xu Ziling, he laughed aloud and said, “Having a discussion with a gentleman surpasses ten years of training. I am going to have fun with Yang Xiong now, Ziling, please hold your troop disposition for Xiaodi.”

Xu Ziling watched as Hou Xibai’s figure was disappearing outside the door, he happily put on his outer garment, passed through the door and came to the hall, to look out through the window. Yang Xuyan was turning around from the edge of the fishpond, his eyes fell on the gradually approaching Hou Xibai first, and then he cast his gaze toward Xu Ziling behind the window. The divine light in his pair of eyes flashing, he smiled and said, “Xu Xiong, you are not going to get involved in the matter between us, two martial brothers, are you?”

Xu Ziling generated a fantastic reaction; he knew that before Yang Xuyan received any threat from Hou Xibai, he might change target and crash through the window to attack Xu Ziling with all his strength. And Yang Xuyan indeed had this thought, hence while talking and laughing, he secretly amassed his power, doing everything he could to put him in danger.

Xu Ziling revealed a smile brimming with profound mystery toward Yang Xuyan, suddenly he took a step forward, pressing close to the outside window, his hands forming a lotus flower image, he spoke calmly and indifferently, “Turns out Yang Xiong is interested to play a round with Xiaodi first. No need to be polite. Please!”

Hou Xibai suddenly moved forward, he pressed on until he was about ten paces away from Yang Xuyan, closed his fan and pointed it to Yang Xuyan from a distant, and laughed aloud and said, “Ziling, don’t try to be the first, he is mine.”

‘Qiang!’

Yang Xuyan pulled the Shadow Sword and took a stance, his eyes still lingered on Xu Ziling, he appeared to be bewildered and suspicious.

If Xu Ziling had really recovered his power, and then when he was in confrontation against Hou Xibai he suddenly mounted a sneak attack from the side, even though he fused the Yu Jin Wan Fa Gen Yuan Zhi Jing and Bu Si Yin Fa’s out of the ordinary demonic power, he would still end up nursing a grievance on the spot! This possibility made him momentarily not daring to advance prematurely.

Hou Xibai wanted to advance but was unable to. The moment the tip of Yang Xuyan’s sword was pointing at him, the circulating air around him suddenly seemed to solidify, turning into a formless ten-thousand-jin boulder pressing down on him that it was difficult for him to budge. If it wasn’t for him applying his power to resist, perhaps he would have vomited blood and sustained internal injury.

Such demonic power certainly not an ordinary mind could think of.

With his hands behind his back, Xu Ziling slowly walked out of the hall, crossed over the doorstep, and came to the spacious outer courtyard, approaching the position behind Hou Xibai and slightly to the side. Still stepping continuously, utilizing his exceeding-ordinary-people’s-expectation spiritual cultivation, he thoroughly forgot his internal injury; coming to the winding corridor by the inner courtyard where the two men were standing opposite to each other, he laughed aloud and said, “Yang Xiong’s remark seems to be lacking consideration. Let’s not mention that you have already been chased out of the school’s wall, there’s no more relationship with Xibai whatsoever, but more importantly, what is happening between us is not an ordinary Jianghu vendetta, any Jianghu rules cannot either restrict or apply to us. May I ask, when you injured me that day, did you ever think about Jianghu rules?”

The murderous intent in Yang Xuyan’s pair of eyes flaring greatly, he shouted harshly, “Since that’s the case, why haven’t you, Xu Ziling, come down here and make your move? Is it because your internal injury has not recovered completely?”

Xu Ziling’s spirit was aroused, knowing that Yang Xuyan totally could not see through what is true and what is false of his condition, on the surface he was vicious-spirited and fiendish, but actually inwardly empty and timid, which greatly weakened his fighting power. He spoke nonchalantly, “In that case Xiaodi will not be polite!”

Yang Xuyan let out a cold snort. His posture unchanged, he sprung back, the blade of his sword turned into dots of bright light, carrying countless bits of spinning qi, not to attack, but to defend himself.

Xu Ziling unleashed his comprehensive mystery-within-a-mystery spiritual induction; what he was detecting was not the distribution of Yang Xuyan’s true qi condition, rather, the strong or weak, as well as the target, of the other side’s spirit, i.e. the escaping one of Yang Xuyan’s demonic power. He understood clearly that by launching this move, not only the confused Yang Xuyan wanted to probe what is true and what is false of Xu Ziling’s condition, he wanted to see whether Xu Ziling had the ability to come down the arena and fight, but also to lay out a trap to lure Hou Xibai to attack. Hidden within the seemingly evenly distributed sword qi field was the black-hand, demonic-power killer move, hoping to inflict heavy injury on Hou Xibai in one move, so that afterwards he could calmly deal with Xu Ziling.

The Shadow Sword was empty, the black-hand, demonic-power was real.

Under the pull of the qi field, Hou Xibai, like a shadow attached to the shape, leaped up, the Fan of Beauty in his hand was like his most-amazing-in-the-world painting brush, it drew an offensive brush stroke in the air, brimming with beautiful lines, seeking the real point from the opponent’s dots of bright light filling the air, stabbing toward the blade of Yang Xuyan’s Shadow Sword, deeply in conformance with the book-way-into-the-martial-art-way’s true essence.

Xu Ziling stretched out his right hand, his halberd-shaped fingers pointed at Yang Xuyan, who was retreating toward the air above the fishpond, purely relying on his spiritual power he locked this terrifying big enemy tightly, while shouting, “Attack his Zhongfu [acupoint]!”

The big acupoint Zhongfu was located on the chest; when the lungs absorb oxygen, the chest expands to this point, it is the intersection of the Hand Taiyin Channel of the Lung and the Foot Taiyin Channel of the Spleen; furthermore, it was the key point where Yang Xuyan’s black-hand, demonic-power operated.

Yang Xuyan flew backward, he pulled back his attack and changed move. Xu Ziling sensed this subtle change, hence he spoke out to guide Hou Xibai.

If the speaker was someone else, facing sword lights, sword qi filling the atmosphere, Hou Xibai would have been hesitating, however, because he has always believed Xu Ziling, moreover, he knew that Xu Ziling’s spiritual response transcended his martial art skill, he let out a long laughter, the Fan of Beauty ‘clack’ opened up, he swept across Yang Xuyan, who was still in the air. This move concealed another change; it appeared to be sweeping across the Shadow Sword, but actually it could stab the opponent’s Zhongfu acupoint at any moment.

Yang Xuyan’s pair of eyes could not concealed a flash of horrified expression, evidently it was because Xu Ziling was able to see what is true and what is false in him.

‘Bang!’

The sword shadows filling the air disappeared, Yang Xuyan has not had any change to change into the pitch-black demonic hand, he already clashed head-on with the Fan of Beauty, which from fully-opened changed into fully folded, creating the sound of qi power striking against each other.

Yang Xuyan’s tiger-body shook severely, obviously he suffered hidden loss, and accelerated his retreat to the open space at the other side of the fishpond.

Hou Xibai was giving everything he had, soaring into the air, he pursued and attack. Not letting the opponent to get another chance to regain the upper hand, he engaged Yang Xuyan in an incomparably intense close hand-to-hand combat. The sword and the fan went back and forth, the clashing noise was unending!

“Beizhong!” “Zhangmen!” “Tianhui!” “Houxi!” “Qian’gu!”

Xu Ziling’s mouth spat out the acupoints one after another. By this time Hou Xibai already had full confidence in him, ignoring the opponent’s sword momentum, he always launched violent attack and fierce assault toward the target according to Xu Ziling’s directives, combined with his own intelligence, and each strike always made Yang Xuyan flustered, so that he was unable to reverse the situation.

Starting from the time Xu Ziling shouted to reveal his track until this moment, Yang Xuyan has always been in the disadvantageous position, he was unable to display his full power. By this moment, Xu Ziling and Hou Xibai, two men, already gained a step further in understanding his black-hand-demonic-power, they knew that he could not launch it at will, rather, there was a sequence in the way he applied his qi and carried out his strength. As long as they could attack the key acupoint position on his body one step ahead, his black-hand-demonic-power then could not be carried out. From this, it could clearly be seen that Yang Xuyan’s black-hand-demonic-power has not reached satisfactory level yet.

Xu Ziling calmly walked toward the other side of the fishpond, where the two combatants were flashing around in fast fight, so fast that ordinary people’s naked eyes could not see clearly. The fact was that because his power was declining, he was no longer able to grasp the two men’s moves; however, his spiritual power could lock Yang Xuyan’s escaping one tightly, the strongest point was precisely the weakest point.

No one knew Yang Xuyan’s Bu Si Yin Fa, which came from Shi Zhixuan, better than he. Compared to Shi Zhixuan, Yang Xuyan was still some distance away, he could only be considered at the elementary stage of the Yin Fa, and has not successfully integrated it into the Shadow Sword Technique, he still needed to rely on the black-hand-demonic-power of the ‘Yu Jin Wan Fa Gen Yuan Zhi Jing’ to supplement it in order to fully use it. However, under Xu Ziling’s guidance, Hou Xibai suppressed him that he was unable to unleash the black-hand-demonic-power, it was akin to suppressing his Bu Si Yin Fa at the same time.

‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’

Three explosions rang out in succession, like plucked string and rapid drumbeats, shaking the air in the vast inner courtyard, ruthless, fierce and severe to the extreme.

Hou Xibai knew that Xu Ziling’s approach posed an incomparable threat to Yang Xuyan, so that he felt timid and started to have the intention to retreat. Not daring to relax, he unleashed all the skill he had, seeing a move he broke the move, doing everything he could to put Yang Xuyan to death.

Although every single move of his fan was meant to kill, on the surface it still looked calm, effortless and elegant. Within the urgency and intensity, there was some kind of outstanding comfort and leisure impression, as if he was painting a beauty using his fan, applying color casually, yet exquisite, brilliant and varied, deeply in accordance with the painting principle. No matter how Yang Xuyan, who was in the disadvantageous position – strike back, his move was always defeated by seemingly casual, fluent and elegant stroke of Hou Xibai’s folding fan.

Xu Ziling struggled hard to raise his qi, he stepped into the two men’s battle’s qi field, exactly at the point where Yang Xuyan’s qi power was the weakest, but also at the position where he could pose the greatest threat to him.

Yang Xuyan was affected by this move; severely shaken, he let out a shrill whistle and then swiftly retreated.

Hou Xibai rushed forward, his fan moved like the wind, he twisted the Shadow Sword and threw it aside, before swiftly stabbing the pit of Yang Xuyan’s stomach.

Unleashing the Huan Mo Shenfa, Yang Xuyan quickly moved aside, using his shoulder to take the fan, and then borrowed the impact force to push him farther back. High in the air, he spurted out mouthful of fresh blood, and shouted loudly, “I’m sure we’ll meet again someday. What happened today, I, Yang Xuyan will never forget!” In the blink of an eye, he disappeared behind the wing of the building.

Hou Xibai landed back on the ground. The two you looked at me I gazed at you, both could see that the other side was crying ‘Lucky!’ inwardly.

Surely the dots of Yang Xuyan’s blood on the grass was not easily won.