Heaven-relying Sword And Dragon-slaying Sabre

Wu Qingying raised her sword and hatefully said, "Ugly girl, I won't let you die a quick and painless death. I am going to cut your arms and legs first and I'll leave you here to feed the wolves." She swung her sword down to chop the peasant girl's right arm.

"Hold it!" Wu Lie said, while reaching out to grab his daughter's wrist and pushing her sword away. To the peasant girl he said, "Tell us who sent you and I'll let you die a quick death. Otherwise, humph, humph! I'll say you won't enjoy rolling around on the snow without your limbs."

With a smile the peasant girl said, "Since you insist, I cannot hide the truth anymore. Miss Zhu Jiuzhen wanted to marry a man. Another pretty woman also wanted to marry this man. This other pretty Miss then gave me five hundred taels of silver, telling me to kill Zhu Jiuzhen. Actually, I should have kept this matter in the strictest confidence …" Before she finished talking, Wu Qingying's pretty face had turned pale from anger; with a flick of her wrist the sword went straight toward the peasant girls' chest.

The peasant girl was good at observing people and evaluating their situations [orig. 'inspect appearance distinguish/recognize look'. Elif, can you think of a better translation?]; early on she had guessed the awkward situation among the three people, Wu Qingying, Wei Bi and Zhu Jiuzhen, correctly. Deliberately enraging Wu Qingying, her intention was precisely that she would stab her to death quickly. She saw a blue ray flashed and the sword had already arrived at her chest. Suddenly, something flew noiselessly and struck the sword. 'Whoosh!' the sword was knocked out and flew more than a dozen 'zhang' away before it fell on the ground.

In the darkness, nobody saw clearly how Wu Qingying's sword left her hand and flew away, but this kind of force, even if she intentionally wanted to throw it away, she might not have the ability to do so. It was obvious that the peasant girl had a powerful helper.

In their shock, the six people took several steps backward. They looked around, but there were only open spaces in all directions; there were no hills, trees or thick bushes in which someone might be hiding. As far as their eyes could see, not even half a shadow of other people was to be seen. The six of them looked at each other in alarm and uncertainty.

"Qing'er," in low voice Wu Lie said, "What happened?"

"Seemed like a very fierce secret projectile," Wu Qingying replied, "It knocked my sword out of my hand."

Wu Lie again looked around, but did not see any other people. "Humph," he said, "Perhaps this slave girl played a trick on you." But in his heart he felt strange, "She was definitely hit by my Yi Yang Zi [Solitary Yang Finger], how could she still have the strength to shake Qing'er's sword away? This girl's martial art is truly demonical." He strode forward and struck the peasant girl's left shoulder with his palm. He was using his entire strength with the intention to crush her shoulder bone, so that she would lose her martial art skill and thus give his daughter the opportunity to do to her as she wished.

It seemed that the peasant girl's shoulder bone would be crushed soon, when suddenly she raised her left arm and met his palm with hers. 'Crash!' Wu Lie felt a burning sensation in his chest; the opponent's palm felt like a raging storm, a torrential flood which was impossible to resist. "Ahh!" he cried out loudly as his body flew backwards, and 'Bang!' it hit the ground, hard. Fortunately his martial art skills were superb that as soon as his back touched the ground, he leaped back up. But blood was bubbling up in his chest and abdomen, his vision blackened and his head spun, so that he had just straightened up his body and regulated his breathing when his body swayed and in the end he tumbled down on the ground again.

Wei Bi and Wu Qingying were greatly shocked. They rushed to prop him up, but suddenly He Taichong said, "Let him lie down for a while longer!"

Wu Qingying turned her head and angrily said, "What did you say?" In her heart she thought, "Father has just fallen under the enemy's attack yet you take delight in his misfortune and ridicule him?"

He Taichong said, "His 'chi' and blood bubbled up, he needs to calm down quietly."

Wei Bi understood immediately. "Yes!" he said, and gently laid his Shifu back to the ground.

He Taichong and Ban Shuxian looked at each other in great surprise. They had fought the peasant girl before, and although her stances and techniques were exquisite and her skill was above average, her internal energy was mediocre. When she exchanged palms with Wu Lie, it was obvious that the internal strength that jolted Wu Lie was extraordinarily strong. This had puzzled them to no end.

In her heart, the peasant girl was even more shocked. When her acupoints were sealed by Wu Lie, she fell into Zhang Wuji's bosom, completely unable to move. Very soon Wu Qingying's sword would have stabbed her, but suddenly something flew and shook the sword, while a stream of charcoal hot energy flowed through her leg, burst into her 'fu tu' and 'feng shi' acupoints and flushed the sealed acupoints open. Her body shook; lowering her head, she saw Zhang Wuji's hands were gripping both of her ankles, the stream of hot energy rushing into her body continuously via the 'xuan zhong' [hanging bell] acupoint.

This turn of events happened so quickly that before she had time to think about it, Wu Lie's palm had already come down. Without thinking she raised her hand up, thinking that broken hand would be better than crushed shoulder bones. Who would have thought that as soon as two palms collided, Wu Lie was jolted more than a 'zhang' backwards by her own palm? She was startled and thought in her heart, "Could this ugly freak bum actually be a martial art master with immeasurably deep skill?"

He Taichong was wary; he did not dare to contend in palm strength with her. Unsheathing his sword, he said, "I want to receive instructions in sword technique from Miss."

The peasant girl laughed. "I don't have any sword!" she said.

"Not a problem," Wei Bi said, "I'll lend you mine!" Raising his sword, he aimed the tip of the sword toward the girl's chest and exerting himself, he threw the sword away.

The peasant girl reached out and caught the sword in her hand. She laughed and said, "Your martial art skill is lacking too much, your thrust did not kill me!"

Being a leader of a Sect, He Taichong did not want to take advantage of a younger generation. "You may start," he said, "I will yield to you for three stances before I will attack!"

The peasant girl thrust her sword toward He Taichong's groin. He Taichong snorted in anger. "A junior is being impolite!" he said in low voice, while lifting his sword to block. But there was a 'Crack!' sound as both swords broke at the same time.

He Taichong's face changed greatly; his shadow swayed and he withdrew half a 'zhang' backwards.

"What a pity! What a pity!" the girl exclaimed inwardly. Turned out Zhang Wuji transmitted his Jiu Yang Shen Gong to her body, but she did not know how to unleash the formidable power of Shen Gong's, which resulted in both swords being broken. If she was able to utilize the power to attack the enemy, only the enemy's sword would be broken, while the sword in her hand would stay intact.

Ban Shuzian was greatly astonished. "What happened?" she asked in a low voice.