Heaven-relying Sword And Dragon-slaying Sabre

"Excellent sword technique! Excellent sword technique!" Yin Liting called loudly, "Wonderful!"

Song Qingshu watched with rapt attention while holding his breath; inwardly he was frightened. At first he commended Emei sword technique just to flatter Miejue Shitai; who would have thought that as she executed the technique, it was unimaginably subtle and amazing that he could not help but submit to her wholeheartedly. After that, with all sincerity Song Qingshu asked for advice. Whatever he asked, Miejue Shitai would answer without reservation, so that she passed on more knowledge to him than to her own disciples. Song Qingshu's mastery of the martial art was already high, he was also intelligent so he asked all the right questions.

Emei disciples sat around these two people. They watched their Shifu fully demonstrate each one of the sword techniques, every single one was exquisite, strange and subtle, amazing to the extreme. There were some disciples who had been with their Shifu for a dozen of years yet had never seen Shifu demonstrate such divine skill.

Zhang Wuji and Zhu'er stood far outside the circle; they felt it was inappropriate for them to watch Emei's sword technique demonstration without authorization. Suddenly Zhu'er said to Zhang Wuji, "Ahniu Ge, if I can learn 'qing gong' like Qing Yi Fu Wang, I will die satisfied."

"Why would you want to learn that kind of heretical skill?" Zhang Wuji said, "Yin Liu … Yin Liuxia said that each time this Wei Yixiao utilizes his martial art, he must drink human blood. Isn't that demonical?"

"His martial art skill is good," Zhu'er replied, "He managed to kill Emei Pai's disciples. If his 'qing gong' was somewhat lacking, that Old Nun and her companions would have caught him and killed him; only they would not suck his blood. The end result is the same; sucking blood or not, what's the difference? Upright prestigious school or heretical and demonic way, what's different?"

For a moment Zhang Wuji could not find a right answer. Suddenly he saw a bright flash of a sword flying straight up to the sky from amidst the people. Turned out Song Qingshu was sparring with Miejue Shitai. During the fifth stance, 'hei zhao ling hu' [spirit fox of the black marsh], she shook Song Qingshu's sword to the sky. This stance was created by Emei Pai's founder, Guo Xiang to commemorate her adventure with Yang Guo when they went to the black marsh to catch the spirit fox.

As everybody looked up at the sword, they saw a yellow flame shot to the sky on the northeast, about a dozen 'li' away. "Kongtong Pai meets the enemy," Yin Liting called out, "Let's go and help."

In this far away mission to the western region to besiege the Devil Cult this time, in order to conceal their operation, the Six Major Sects adopted a strategy of entering the enemy territory separately and then launch a converging attack from different directions. They had agreed on rockets in six different colors as their means of communicating with each other. Yellow rocket was Kongtong Pai's signal.

Everybody immediately rushed toward the direction of the flame. They heard loud noises of combat, the sound was getting increasingly wretched; often times they would hear one or two people crying out as they met their deaths. When they reached the place, they were greatly shocked, because what they saw was a large scale massacre, an orgy of bloodshed. Both sides had several hundred people in the battle. Under the bright moon, the sabers and swords flicker as the combatants ignore death and overlook live in hard fighting.

As long as he lived, Zhang Wuji had never seen this kind of battle. He saw sabers and swords fly and dance in the air, blood spill and flesh cut open; truly it was a scene too horrible to endure. He did not wish for the Devil Cult to prevail, but also unwilling for Yin Liushu and his company to triumph over their opponent. One side was the Sect where his father came from, the other was his mother's; but both sides were in an impossible-to-coexist kind of fierce battle. Each time he saw somebody was killed, his heart was shaken, a burst of grief rose up.

Yin Liting observed the battle for a moment and then said, "The enemy consists of Rui Jin [acute/sharp metal], Hong Shui [flooding water] and Lie Huo [raging inferno], three Flags. Hmm, Kongtong Pai is here, Huashan Pai has also arrived, and so has Kunlun Pai. Our side's three Sects against the enemy's three Flags. Qingshu, let's go into the battle." He waved his sword to split the air, making a buzzing noise.

"Wait," Song Qingshu said, "Liushu, look on that side. There are still a large number of the enemy waiting for an opportunity to make their move."

Following the direction of his hand, Zhang Wuji saw that there were three groups of riders clumped together in neat formation toward the east, several dozen 'zhang' away from the battlefield. Each group had a hundred men. Currently, the three Sects against three Flags on the battlefield were evenly matched, but if these three companies of the Devil Cult entered the battle, Kongtong, Huashan and Kunlun, three Sects would inadvertently suffer a crushing defeat. However, for an unknown reason, these three companies only held their reins without moving.

Miejue Shitai and Yin Liting were secretly alarmed. "Why don't those people make their move?" Yin Liting asked Song Qingshu.

Song Qingshu shook his head, "I can't think through," he said.

Zhu'er suddenly laughed coldly. "What is it you cannot think through?" she said, "Nothing is clearer than this."

Song Qingshu's face reddened, but he did not say anything. Miejue Shitai wanted to open her mouth to ask, but finally she held her peace. Yin Liting said, "Would Miss please give us directions?"

Zhu'er said, "Those three groups are from the Heavenly Eagle Cult. Although the Heavenly Eagle Cult branched out from the Devil Cult, they have never been in good terms with the Five-Element Flags. If your party managed to wipe out the Five-Element Flags, the Heavenly Eagle Cult will be inwardly joyful. Perhaps Yin Tianzheng then can work his way to the Ming Cult's Jiaozhu position."

Miejue Shitai instantly saw the light. Yin Liting said, "Thank you very much for your insight, Miss."

Miejue Shitai stared at Zhu'er. She nodded her head while thinking, "Jin Hua Popo's martial art skill is not weak. Who could have thought that this young disciple of hers is actually also quite good?"

By this time, the group of Emei disciples arrived one after another; they stood behind Miejue Shitai.

"Song Shaoxia," Jing Xuan said, "Speaking about battle strategy, none of us could surpass your knowledge. Everybody will obey your command. We just want to kill the enemy. Please don't be bashful."

"Liushu, this … this …" Song Qingshu stammered, "How can nephew dare?"

"At a time like this you still pay particular attention to superficial politeness?" Miejue Shitai said, "Just issue your order."

Song Qingshu saw the battle situation was urgent; fighting the Rui Jin Flag, Kunlun Pai seemed to have an upper hand, Huashan and Hong Shui seemed to be evenly matched, while Kongtong Pai seemed not able to hold with the Lie Huo Flag that surrounded them in the middle, slaughtering them left and right.

Song Qingshu said, "Let's form three groups and charge down on Rui Jin Flag from three directions. Shitai with her team attack from the east, Liushu with his team attack from the west, Jing Xuan Shishu, wanbei and our team attack from the south …"

Jing Xuan was perplexed. "Kunlun Pai is not in a dire situation at all," she said, "I think Kongtong Pai's situation is extremely critical."

"Kunlun Pai is already holding the upper hand," Song Qingshu explained, "With our additional great fighting power, we thunder in to kill; we can annihilate the Rui Jin Flag in one stroke. The other two Flags will then be wasted and will scatter into the wind. If we help Kongtong, we will be locked into a harsh battle. The Heavenly Eagle Cult will then reap the benefit just like a fisherman spreading his net. Our effort will then be wasted."