Shen Xialin said, “My Big Brother Huan is much better than I am, how could you defeat him?”
That one sentence made You Hongfei flare up in anger. He hmphed, “If you insist on fighting for your Senior Brother Yang, then I have no choice but to get a taste of the lady’s martial arts.”
Xialin said, “Nothing could be better. If I’m defeated, my Big Brother Huan will naturally step in and save me.”
With that she turned and grinned at Menghuan, then her white clothes fluttered and her hands shot out, up high striking at his eyes and in the middle striking his chest, palm force whooshing fast as anything. You Hongfei loosed a long laugh and his hands fanned out to catch Xialin’s right wrist, the edge of his right hand cutting at an angle at Xialin’s left arm. The young lady didn’t wait for her moves to connect but spun her graceful body and switched it up, left palm turning over with Leaf Bottom Steals a Peach aimed at the “Pool at the Bend” acupoint on his right elbow while her right wrist quickly dropped down and turned into White Crane Spreads Its Wings in a counter check on his left arm. You Hongfei never guessed that Shen Xialin would change moves so quick and nimbly, his acupoint was nearly struck, enraging him. His palms chopped out in succession, coming on with overwhelming force, wind from his palms blowing, launch eight attacks in a row.
Suddenly faced with You Hongfei’s full power attack, Shen Xialin had no time to switch up her moves at the moment, hands and feet flailing and fumbling, being forced back again and again. After You Hongfei’s eight attacks she regained her composure and fist and foot struck out at once in a full force attack! You Hongfei was secretly shocked to see his eight attacks have no effect on her. He didn’t foresee that this delicate, adorable girl would really have some ability, so he was not about to get careless. His hands opened up and he was locked in combat with Shen Xialin.
Yang Menghuan, watching the fight, was worried when he saw Xialin having trouble under her opponent’s rapid attacks. He was just about to step in and help her when he saw Xialin suddenly counter, sleeves flapping, moving extraordinarily fast and nimble. He knew that Miss Shen had learned Greatmaster Clear Karma’s arts, but he didn’t know just how good she really was. Now he saw her fighting, her fist moves were exquisite, her attacks fast, actually not inferior to him at all, stabbing, cutting, pressing, chopping, seizing, her footwork, all of it was just perfect, her jade-white hands like white butterflies playing in the flowers. Not only was she not losing, her attacks were getting faster and faster, so he just put his hands behind his back and enjoyed the show.
Divine Yangtze Flood Dragon You Hongfei and Shen Xialin traded fifty to sixty moves, but it was still an even match. The young lady was more nimble and quick, her moves marvelous, while You Hongfei was stronger, his moves more solid and steady. For a time fists flew and feet whirled, kicking up flowers and dust for a stave’s length all around.
You Hongfei was thinking while he fought that he had a high position in the Heavenly Dragon Gang, he was the chief helmsman of the Yangtze River region, leading a powerful group Heavenly Dragons on land and water. If he were to lose today to a little girl, how would he be able to face the dragonhead chief? Since it had gotten to this point, he had no choice but to use heavy blows to win victory. With this evil thought, he suddenly switched up his moves, no longer attacking rapidly like before. Instead, his strikes became extraordinarily slow, yet each fist and kick carried immense power. When an internal arts expert unleashed his true power it was no joke. The forcewind of his palm strikes rustled and flapped Miss She’s white top and skirt, Xialin at a disadvantage lacking his strength. Even though she had an edge on moves and footwork, she still gradually fell to an unfavorable position, and dismantling ten of his moves her fair face was sweating.
Yang Menghuan could see things were going wrong. He never imagined Divine Yangtze Flood Dragon would use his decades of internal power, would commit his perfected qi to deal with a young lady, and that made him angry. He was just about to call Xialin back when he saw the young lady’s hand forms change again, saw her palm forms were somewhat like the Eighteen Arhat Palms that Greatmaster Clear Karma had taught him, yet there were also a lot of differences. What Yang Menghuan didn’t know was that Greatmaster Clear Karma had spent ten years of hard work and study to create a new remarkable palm technique out of the original Eighteen Arhat Palms, all for the sake of Xialin’s training, because the Eighteen Arhat Palms were external kungfu, a purely hard and fierce approach, but Miss Shen was tender and weak. Even though she had learned well the Eighteen Arhat Palms, it would be difficult for her to put a lot of power behind it. Martial arts required skill and strength, and a girl’s physique had natural limitations and was not suited to train in hard power emphasizing external kungfu, unless one achieved the realm of being able to turn qi into strength, in which case man or woman didn’t matter. Then, using the depths of one’s skill could decide victory or defeat in one blow, but Greatmaster Clear Karma was good at external kungfu, and the Eighteen Arhats Palms was an extremely advanced external kungfu palm technique that emphasized solid stability and ferocious power to defeat an enemy with strong force. Xialin was delicate and petite, not well suited to practice this palm technique, so Greatmaster Clear Karma blended in dexterity and quickness to form the Drifting Cloud Palm, using dexterity and quickness to augment Xialin’s deficiencies in strength and fierceness.
Once Miss Shen started to use her Drifting Cloud Palm, she was once again even with You Hongfei, the young lady’s body truly like drifting clouds or flowing water, drifting about from place to place, winding round and round You Hongfei with disorderly spins, taking advantage of weak points to pound the gaps, strange moves launching in droves.
Looking on, Yang Menghuan could see the two of them had reached a critical juncture. You Hongfei had been hit by a few of Xialin’s palm strikes, but he was immensely strong, so he could take it, but when he struck, Xialin had to dodge. If a blow to the midsection or up top were to land, she would be seriously injured if not killed.
Yang Menghuan knew that if they continued fighting they would both lose, so he crossed his palms and robe fluttering he threw into the fray of palm forcewind and launched his Celestial Dipper Palm move “Part the Waves, Cut the Flow”, his arms spreading out and separating them. “You two have no quarrel with each other, there’s no need to fight to the death. Senior You is immensely strong, if you keep fighting, Junior Sister Shen will lose for sure, let’s just end it here!”
You Hongfei knew that Yang Menghuan was being polite on his behalf. The young lady had been going faster and faster, if they really did go all out, You Hongfei was not sure he would win. Yang Menghuan’s words there made him feel bad and his face reddened slightly. “Kunlun School’s martial arts truly is extraordinary. If your junior sister and I were sparring I would be willing to admit defeat, but today we were not sparring, so it’s hard to say who would be the victor.”
Yang Menghuan smiled. “One has excellent fists, one is very strong, you’ve fought to a draw and are evenly matched. If Senior is willing to show some latitude on this junior’s behalf and stop here, then once I have returned from my trip to the west, I will go with Senior to pay a visit to your gang’s honorable dragonhead chief and clear up this misunderstanding about the treasure map. That way we can avoid spoiling the harmony between both sides. If Senior insists on fighting, this junior will have preserve the prestige of my school. I ask Senior to think thrice on it.”
Divine Yangtze Flood Dragon eyes flashed like lightning, gazing at Yang Menghuan for a long time. He nodded and said, “Little Brother Yang is right, You Hongfei knows he is no match for you, but I’m here on orders, it’s not up to me. I have to beg Little Brother’s pardon.”
Yang Menghuan’s brows arched up. “So you’re saying we have to fight.”
Before You Hongfei could respond, several whistles suddenly sounded. Yang Menghuan turned to look. Four people were tearing along the brook and before long were close to the three of them. Yang Menghuan faintly recognized them, they were the four men on the shuttle skiffs who had blocked their way back on Dongting Lake. Now they wore tightfit clothes and carried weapons and stood barring the way on the side.
Yang Menghuan sized the four men up and turned to You Hongfei. “Senior had this all planned. It looks as if this junior will be forced to submit.”
Divine Yangtze Flood Dragon paid no attention to what Menghuan said and instead asked the four men, “Are those from headquarters all here?”
The lead man on the right bowed. “Red Banner Altarman Qi and Black Banner Altarman Cui have jointly gone to Mystic Metropolis Abbey. Headquarters Overseer Incensemaster Li has arrived at Dongting Lake. She very well might come here.”
You Hongfei frowned. “Why was Chief’s beloved daughter dispatched as well?”
The man bowed again. “According to Incensemaster Li, the chief views this matter as extraordinarily important. He might even come personally.”
You Hongfei said Oh, a faint look of worry showing. He turned to see that Menghuan was cool and composed as if nothing were going on and he sighed inwardly, remembering his debt to Master One Yang for saving his life and he felt immeasurable shame.
Yang Menghuan didn’t want to fight Divine Yangtze Flood Dragon in the first place. He saw him standing there lost in thought. What was he thinking? He whispered to Xialin, “Let’s go!” Miss Shen nodded and followed Menghuan and they strolled back to Watermoon Mountain Villa.
The four men eyes them like tigers and were about to step in and bar their way when they were waved off by You Hongfei, and ten eyes watched the two of them gradually disappear one after the other. Divine Yangtze Flood Dragon said to the four men, “Those two have mastered Kunlun’s arts. If it really came to blows, we would not get the best of it. Wait till our helpers arrive, it won’t be too late to fight. For now we’ll lay in ambush around the perimeter of Watermoon Mountain Villa and keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t slink away.”
The four men were all masterhands under the command of the Heavenly Dragon Gang’s Yangtze chief helmsman. They were not convinced of the chief helmsman’s high estimation of their foe, but the Heavenly Dragon Gang had strict rules, so they didn’t dare contradict him. The second man on the right asked, “Should we ask Incensemaster Li to come earlier?”
You Hongfei nodded in reply and the man immediately turned to the left, bowed, and sped off. Divine Yangtze Flood Dragon and the other three men turned as well and headed for Watermoon Mountain Villa. They had only gone a few steps when they suddenly heard a cold, sinister laugh coming from behind. You Hongfei turned to look and a skinny old man was inexplicably standing over by the tombstone. He was advanced in age with silvery white hair, and he wore a long black redolent plain-weave silk gauze robe. He was dressed as a monk but not a monk, as a Daoist but not a Daoist, and he held a glossy raven-black walking stick, the upper end shaped like a snake’s head. He stood there unmoving. He didn’t have an unsightly appearance, it was just that his dress and the snakehead walking stick he held sent shivers up the spine of anyone who looked at him.
You Hongfei had been in the jianghu a long time and was very experienced. He seemed to have heard of someone who dressed like that man, but for the moment he couldn’t place him. He said in a low voice to his three subordinates, “Don’t bother him, let’s go.”
The four of them turned and headed off. When they looked back, the strange man had gone who knows where. You Hongfei thought, Such fast movement, it looks like not a few people have come looking to Watermoon Mountain Villa. Yang Menghuan no doubt is a formidable foe. We’ll have to bide our time and wait for an opportunity. There’s danger at every step, but if the gang’s plan to take Yang Menghuan hostage is going to come to fruition, it will be met with strong resistance. Looks like this treasure map is indeed a troublemaker. As he worried over these matters, they wound through the bamboo grove and the four of them lay low outside Watermoon Mountain Villa.
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