Chapter 10: The First One
Translator: Christina Editor: Rundi
This made Meng Qi’s hair stand up. “Did we arrive in a world full of evil spirits and ghosts? I know that Golden Bodies, Dharmakayas, and Taos are all very strong, and can make any evil vanish in less than a second. However, we are still at normal kungfu levels, and can do nothing against ghosts! What should we do?”
While Meng Qi couldn’t move his legs, due to extreme fear, the shine of a bright sword flashed through and pointed directly to the space above the “ghost”.
“What? Did the ghost have the power to confuse people and make their swords difficult to control?”
At this moment, Meng Qi thought that there had been a mistake and the sword wasn’t able to hit the target.
Yet in the next second, the black shadow fell straight to the ground. He waved his arms and legs in an attempt to stand up, but he couldn’t.
Zhang Yuanshan walked towards the shadow, with his right hand as a finger sword [1], and pointed at the shadow’s body. The shadow immediately stopped moving.
“Don’t think that your simple tricks would work so easily on us.” Jiang Zhiwei put away her long sword with a humph.
Now Meng Qi finally realized what had happened. On the stone ceiling there was an inconspicuous guide rail, and from there a rope hanged down. Only half of it was left now.
“Haha.” Meng Qi laughed awkwardly. He felt embarrassed for being confused and frightened by a simple mechanism.
Jian Zhi Wei looked to the group and smiled. “Brother Zhang and I have already opened up our eye Aperture. It is like knowing the basics of Heaven Eye, if we were Buddhists. Although the light here is really dim and the guide rail and rope are both hidden by their surroundings, we were still able to see them.”
Eye Aperture, Heaven Eye… Meng Qi finally understood what “Enlightenment” meant. He asked, “But how do they relate to Kungfu practices?”
What he couldn’t understand was how normal Kungfu could develop into the “Heaven Eye”.
“The eye is an Aperture for the liver. After you accumulate Qi, open up your Qi channels, and attain a basic level of physical strength, your Kungfu build-up will be transferred into your organs and Aperture points.” Zhang Yuanshan pulled out something from the mouth of the man in black. He stood up, while casually explaining to Meng Qi, and looked to everyone around him. “He is still alive; I prevented him from taking poison and committing suicide. Does anyone know a technique that can force him to tell us the detailed layouts and the current situation within Yin Huang Castle?”
His Dimmak was very accurate and timely, so that the man in black couldn’t break the poison pack in his mouth with his teeth.
Meng Qi slightly nodded. He understood the concept of “Enlightenment”, and became more enthusiastic about the Kungfu practice. As for interrogation techniques, although he knew a lot of cruel tortures due to his past interest in novelties, they were either inappropriate under the situation, or could not be performed within a short period. He, therefore, copied Zhang Yuanshan and looked to Jiang Zhiwei, Qi Xia, and the others.
Qi Xia took a step forward and smiled somewhat unwillingly. “Little sister I have a Dimmak technique that I can try. I hope you won’t disdain me for being too cruel.”
She was the young mistress of a rich family and had always lived in affluence. Since she had abruptly landed in this “Samsara Universe”, she still wasn’t able to calm down, and seemed a little absent-minded. Therefore, even though she intended to smile politely, she still looked very worried. Also, the fact that she modestly called herself “little sister” was unfair, since Meng Qi, who was a very young char monk, was also among them.
“Are you going to use the ’13 Soul-plundering Hands’ of Dajiang Gang?” Putting in a little thought, Jiang Zhiwei immediately knew what kungfu Qi Xia was going to use.
Qi Xia gave a wry smile. “Although it’s called Soul-search, it’s just torturing people with Dimmak.”
Zheng Yuan gently nodded and said, “Please go on, Ms. Jiang. Thank you for allowing us to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your talent.”
“Humph, kids pretending to be like a successful master. It’s just like how it’s said in operas: the real villains often appear to be the most loyal…” Yan Wujiang, who was standing beside Meng Qi, mumbled in a very low voice. It seemed that an obscene and chicken-hearted person like him really disliked people like Zhang Yuanshan- people who could always become the leader of a group regardless of the circumstances.
Meng Qi squinted at him and didn’t say anything. “Isn’t this guy afraid that he will be abandoned by the rest of the team?”
Yan Wujiang glanced back at Meng Qi with contempt, and continued to mumble, “They didn’t even open their ear Aperture. No need to fear…”
“Well, it’s always better to be careful.” Meng Qi thought with a smile, and watched Qi Xia walk towards the man in black. She kneeled down with her index and middle finger together in the shape of a finger sword, and adjusted her breath. After that, she quickly pointed on the man seven times.
Then she stood up as if she was repelled by something, and Meng Qi saw cold sweat appear on her forehead.
Heh, Heh, Heh… The man in black started to make sounds that were like the roars of a beast. It was not long until the sounds turned into bursts of screeches. Even though the sounds were not loud under the control of “13 Soul-plundering Hands”, and only people standing near him could hear them. They were so sad and shrill that Meng Qi had goosebumps all over his body.
“Ah… Stop, I, and I beg you… Ah… I-I will tell everything…” Finally, the man in black couldn’t stand it anymore and screamed for mercy.
Qi Xia heaved a sigh of relief. She kneeled again and pointed five times on the man. “Tell us everything you know. I want to see if what you say matches what we have on hand.”
The man’s clothes were soaked with sweat. In a hoarse voice, he confessed everything he knew about the layout of the castle and its owner.
Zhang Yuanshan began to draw a map on the ground, according to the man’s descriptions. Normally speaking, if the man was lying about something he had not prepared for beforehand, then there must be some visible contradictions on the map. As long as the layout of the castle was not extremely simple, the contradictions should be evident.
“I think he’s right.” Zhang Yuan stared at the completed map and said in a low voice, “This Yin Huang Castle is built in an underground cavern. It is extraordinarily vast and full of trickery and traps. Considering this, we really don’t have much time.”
“So we are not going to save the four masters?” Qing Jing asked immediately. He hesitated a little and continued, “according to this guy, it seems like the owner of Yin Huang Castle has already opened all six Aperture points: eye, ear, nose…”
Without doubt, the man in black didn’t know exactly how strong the owner was. However, the details that he had provided gave Qing Jing and the others a general sense of the owner’s powers. For example, the owner could use a needle to kill mosquitos on a dark night, and when betrayers tried to poison him, he could always figure out their conspiracy.
Meng Qi looked at Qing Jing. “This guy isn’t that opinionated or stubborn after all.”
“Yes, we should be careful. According to the map, the four masters are trapped in the east and west direction respectively. Considering that we also need to break through all kind of traps and tricks, and fight the guards in the castle, we must divide into two teams.” Zhang Yuanshan stood up and said calmly, “Brother Qi, I assume that you have already finished Qi accumulation?”
“I am ashamed. I have finished Qi accumulation five years ago, but I still cannot attain Enlightenment.” The quiet Qi Zhengyan answered with a fist and palm salute.
“Brother Qi, and Brother Qing Jing, please follow me to the east. We will try to save Master Ma Liang Han and Tan Wen Bo as fast as possible,” Zhang Yuanshan stated his opinion. “As for Sister Jiang and Sister Qi, please take care of Brother Zhen Ding and Censer Host Yan. It would be best if you could save the two other masters in the west. However, if it is too difficult, one is enough, and you can come back to the center to meet up with us. According to my estimation, three masters will be enough for us to fight the owner of the castle.”
Originally, he intended to make Jiang Zhiwei, who was the strongest among the rest of the team, go with him. Nevertheless, there would be a very low possibility of success for Qing Jing and Qi Xia to save the masters in the west on their own. It was very likely that they wouldn’t be able to save even one. Therefore, for the sake of safety, Zhang Yuanshan eventually decided that he and Jiang Zhiwei should go to different directions. Of course, since Jiang Zhiwei and Qi Xia would need to take care of the team’s “burden”, he tried to make their mission easier.
“Actually, that is not necessary. We can act together and save two of the masters. There’s no way an ordinary ‘enlightened’ Kungfu masters can compare with those who have inheritance from large Kungfu sects,” Qing Jing said in a slightly haughty tone.
It was common sense that when two people both in the Enlightenment stage fight each other, the one who knew many secret Kungfu of the large sects would beat the other ordinary Kungfu master. This was true even if the ordinary master had opened up two to four more Aperture points.
Even still, many successors of the large sects failed due to lack of experience. For this reason, every sect has special programs to help their successors gain Jianghu experience. For example, according to Xuan Xin, before the best-performing Shaolin disciples leave the mountain and enter Jianghu, they needed to train in the special program for about half a year. During that time, they would face the dangers of being poisoned or sneak attacked at anytime and anywhere. The purpose of this was to help them learn about the importance of judging and reacting to the constantly changing Jianghu environment. Of course, the trainers would be extremely strong Kungfu masters who could control their strength, and antidotes would always be somewhere near the disciples. In other words, the disciples’ lives would not be at risk.
If the large sects were not aware of their weaknesses, and did not conduct special training to counter assassination and poisoning, they would have already collapsed a long time ago, and only appear in after dinner conversations.
“Being careful is always the best thing to do,” Zhang Yuanshan deeply thought about it and said. After all, it was their first samsara quest, and there was still so much uncertainty.
Qing Jing curled his lips and didn’t argue further. He looked to Jiang Zhiwei and said, “Don’t make us wait too long, or we will do it ourselves.”
“Do you think you are a hero, when the only thing you can do is flaunt with that mouth of yours? I see that your verbal skills are ‘strong’, but do you dare fight me again with your bare hands?” Jiang Zhiwei asked with a grin. She didn’t mind Qing Jing’s insinuation.
You would never mind the insinuation from an opponent that you had defeated!
Qing Jing’s face turned pale and his lips quivered. “If-if I have opened the eye Aperture too…”
He couldn’t finish the sentence, because even though both he and Jiang Zhiwei were about 16 years old, Jiang Zhiwei had opened the eye Aperture when he hasn’t. From that perspective, he had already lost.
He walked towards the dividing road in front of him and with a deep frown, he said, “Big Brother Zhang, let’s not waste our time anymore.”
Zhang Yuanshan called on Qi Zhengyan, and followed him. On the other hand, Jiang Zhiwei turned to Meng Qi and said, “Little monk, remember to follow me closely. If you are stray away from me, I won’t be able to save you.”
She then gave a beautiful smile that made Meng Qi imagine blooming flowers. “Well, we are not family or anything like that. So if you die here, I won’t feel too sad.”
Meng Qi immediately became speechless. He promptly raised his speed to follow Jiang Zhiwei.
At this moment, a few shadows dashed from the fork road and towards them, and had either a sword, an axe, or a steel fork in their hands.
Along with the sound of a dragon’s cry, Jiang Zhiwei pulled out her sword and drew three men towards her. In a few whizzes, she cut through the throat of one of the men.
Seeing fresh blood burst out and dye red, a large area on the ground and walls, Meng Qi began to feel unreal. It was as if he was watching a movie in the cinema, and none of this was related to him.
Fortunately, since nothing could be more unreal than a time or universe travel, he was able to quickly come back to reality. He then hastily hid behind Jiang Zhiwei, and stayed within the reach of her sword.
Jiang Zhiwei’s sword techniques were like a dance; beautiful and elegant. The other two men in black had to support each other by standing back to back. Meng Qi fixed his eyes on their fight and couldn’t stop thinking, “If it were me, how could I use Abbot Fists to fight them?”
At the same time, Qi Xia’s sword techniques made her look like she was swirling through flowers and passing through trees. She didn’t make a lot of moves, yet her Water-shed Rapier was able to accurately hit the target every time she moved. Along with the clear shine of her sword, the men in black fell to the ground one by one.
Qing Jing’s blade was stern and majestic. Even though there seemed to be nothing special in his moves, the men in front of him were very frightened, as if their hearts were paralyzed. Their movement was slowed, which caused them to be cut immediately.
Zhang Yuanshan didn’t try to show off his techniques, but rather put in all the strength he had. He drew a semicircle in the air with his long sword, which created several invisible yet powerful long blades. He then gave a single push to his sword, and in less than a second, three men simultaneously fell to the ground.
As for Qi Zhengyan, his sword techniques were very precise. Occasionally, he used ingenious moves. So even when he was surrounded by three men, he was still able to wound one of them seriously. If he had more time, he would definitely be able to defeat all of them.
“Isn’t Ms. Jiang the strongest one here? The other three had already killed at least three men in black. Why hasn’t she defeated the other two yet?” The fast-moving swords and blades grabbed all of Meng Qi’s attention, and thus he didn’t feel heavy-hearted towards the men in black’s deaths.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, a scream was heard, and Meng Qi subconsciously turned around. There he saw a long sword extending from a crack on the stone, and stabbing through the heart of a large man. It was the extremely coward Yan Wujiang. Blood gushed out from his body and it was obvious that he would die right away.
“There are hollow spaces behind the stone walls…”
“The first one…”
Witnessing Yan Wujiang fall to the ground, with a distorted face filled with extreme pain and agony, Meng Qi felt an unbearable chill run throughout his body.