Soaring Swallows Startle Dragons

Chapter 3

Jianghu Tempest

Part 5 (16)

Xialin nodded with a smile and asked, “Big Brother Huan is the best. Big Sis, do you like him?”

This question made Shuzhen’s fair cheeks blush. But she knew of Xialin’s childish innocence, saying whatever came into her mind and knew she wasn’t teasing her. If she reproached her, Xialin wouldn’t understand why anyway. Shuzhen was stumped for a moment, then smiled and said, “Your Big Brother Huan truly is really good. If he were to get on well with another girl, you wouldn’t feel bad?”

Xialin seemed not to have ever considered this and she was struck dumb, her big round eyes staring blankly at Shuzhen’s face for a long time before she slowly said, “As long as he’s still on good terms with me, I couldn’t feel bad. If he really did fall out with me and didn’t like me anymore, then I wouldn’t want to live anymore.” Tears spilled from her eyes and dripped on her white skirt.

Shuzhen sighed at the sight of her crying over a joke and gently held her and whispered into her ear, “Let’s go to sleep! Your Big Brother Huan is a good person, he wouldn’t fall out with you.”

Shen Xialin wiped her eyes with her sleeve and smiled, “Big Sis, you go on to sleep! I’m gonna go find Big Brother Huan and ask him something.”

Shuzhen’s heart jumped. “Are you going to tell him what i just said?”

Xialin shook her head. “No, I want to ask him if he will ever change his feelings toward me.” She headed to Menghuan’s room.

Yang Menghuan was sitting quietly regulating his breathing when he opened his eyes to see Xialin standing in his doorway, candlelight shining on her lovely, spring blossomy tender face. But her eyes were welled with tears and he hurried over and grabbed her hand and asked, “How come you’re not asleep yet? Why are you crying again?”

Xialin snuggled against his chest and looked up at him. “Tell me, in the future, will you change your feelings about me and not like me anymore?”

Menghuan frowned. “What made you think of something like that?”

Xialin smiled sadly and blinked, and two lines of tears spilled down. “Do you still not know me? When I think of something I ask it.”

This lovely girl was so foolishly attached to him, Yang Menghuan could not bear to hurt her feelings. He gently whispered into her ear, “Go on back to sleep! I won’t change, I’ll always like you.”

Xialin nodded and smiled, satisfied. “Big Brother Huan, you really are good…” She didn’t finish her sentence, but those few words already were better than a million sworn vows. She slowly turned around and strolled out, her white clothes gently fluttering in the night breeze. Yang Menghuan stood there dumbly and watched her enter her room, then looked up and heaved a long sigh, his heart surging with a myriad emotions.

~*~

Early the next morning, the four of them left Xianju County and headed for the Kuocang Mountains. Master Wise Perfected had roamed the jianghu a long time, but now she was like a little boat lost in a vast ocean without a rudder. Mount Kuocang had thousands of peaks and a myriad ridges, secluded valleys and deep ravines, too many to count, just deserted mountains for a thousand miles. It would be easier said than done to find someone here, and Master One Yang hadn’t said where the manual was in these mountains. No matter how incomparably resourceful Master Wise Perfected was, she couldn’t help feeling worried as she gazed at the continuous jutting peaks.

The mountain path became more and more rugged, just a narrow goat path lining around and up. At first they saw a few woodcutters here and there, but gradually the people thinned out until there were not only no people but no meandering goat trail either. Fortunately, the four of them all possessed incredible lightness skill and were sure-footed as they went deeper into the mountain, clambering over and pulling themselves up by the vines, leaping around the perilous peaks and across the precipices.

They surmounted a dozen peaks and ridges and the sun was setting. Master Wise Perfected could still see no one, but Yang Menghuan, Shen Xialin, and Tong Shuzhen were already perspiring and lightly panting.

Master Wise Perfected let the three of them take out food they had brought and they sat by a large boulder and rested and ate. She, however, used her superb lightness skill and went up a peak on the right strewn with cliffs, flying off like a magpie moving to another branch, fast as a falcon taking off, bounding up the steep cliff, and in a flash she had leapt up a hundred staves. Shen Xialin watcher her was full of admiration. “Shifu’s lightness skill is really good, I want to became as good at that as Shifu.”

Menghuan said, “If you want to learn these abilities well, then you can’t be playing around all the time. You have to train diligently, and you’ll naturally succeed one day.”

Tong Shuzhen nodded. “Junior Sister Xialin’s internal and external kungfu already has an excellent foundation, and she’s light and nimble, the best suited for practicing flywalking lightness skill. If she really wanted to learn it, she can learn most of Shifu’s superlative skills within three years. I just don’t know if she’s willing to work hard enough/ I think if Junior Brother Yang is willing to supervise and encourage her, she absolutely won’t disappoint you.”

Tong Shuzhen was teasing, smiling at Junior Brother Yang after she said this. Menghuan’s face just felt hot, and he couldn’t think how to respond. He just blushed and turned away and looked at a deep valley off to the left. Miss Shen didn’t mind it at all, looking up at the white clouds drifting by as happy as could be.

Yang Menghuan was fixed on the deep valley, feeling embarrassed, but as he stared he suddenly exclaimed in surprise. Tong Shuzhen and Xialin looked over at the deep valley at the same time.

Turns out, in that hundred-stave deep ravine there was a big python four or five staves long fighting with an enormous white crane. The python was all black, its scales twinkling and dazzling in the sunlight. The white crane was extraordinarily large, twenty times larger than an ordinary crane, with a flaming red crest. It circled and danced in the air before spinning down and striking, the python coiled up, upper body erect, its head following the chaotic movement of the crane whirling in the air. Every time the enormous crane swooped down to strike, it opened its mouth and spurted out a poisonous fog. The enormous crane seemed quiet afraid of the snake’s poisonous fog and would immediately flap its enormous wings and dart out of the way, then circle around the fog, its long beak opened, frequently emitting a strange cry.

This crane-snake battle went on for a while, the black-scaled python spurting out less and less noxious mist each time. Several times it waited for the enormous crane to inhale the poisonous mist so it could escape, but the enormous crane was unusually clever. As soon as the python raised its upper body it would stop inhaling the noxious fumes, then swiftly swoop down, preventing the python from escaping, so it could only rear up again and meet the enemy.

Yang Menghuan studied the enormous crane intently. It seemed to be toying with the black-scaled python, getting it to spurt out its poisonous fog, then it would circle around the fog, beak opening and closing, slowly inhaling the poisonous mist the python spurted out into its belly.

The python withstood all this for around another notch of time, the fog getting thinner and thinner, but the enormous crane didn’t seem to be finished, frequently swooping down and toying with the python, getting it to spurt out its poisonous mist.

Suddenly the black-scaled python’s whole body burst upward like an arrow at the enormous crane, its large mouth opened, red tongue flicking. The enormous crane put forth its incredible might, its right wing flashing down like lightning, its talons reaching out savagely to grab the “seven-fingerwidth” area where the snake’s heart was, and the two met, fast, the crane and the snake briefly connecting. The black-scaled python then fell out of the air and lay rigid, unmoving, its seven-fingerwidth vitals likely wounded by the enormous crane.

After the enormous crane wounded the python, it freely caught it with both talons and turned it over on its back and cut it with its long beak and ate the snake’s gallbladder, then flapped its wings and let out a long cry, extended its long neck, and shot straight up. In the blink of an eye it soared several staves up and out of the deep ravine, then abruptly turned and circled a stave or more over the three people’s heads, its wings spread out spanning eight or nine spans. Tong Shuzhen had lived on Mount Kunlun a long time and had seen many strange beasts and enormous birds, but this was the first time she had seen and enormous crane like this. With its snow-white feathers, its red crest like a fist, its long beak like steel, its sharp talons like hooks, she feared it would hurt them, and she secretly concentrated her whole body in readiness. But the enormous crane just circled them for a time, then tore through the air flying east.

Shen Xialin watched it until it had disappeared in the sky and sighed inwardly. She thought, That white crane was really big. If it would let me ride it, I could fly high in the sky.”

Menghuan went over the fight between the crane and the snake in his mind and all the moves and stances they had used and occasionally copied them with his hands.

Tong Shuzhen had her head lowered, lost in thought, looking on into the deep ravine at the dead black-scaled python, and she realized that this was a strange snake with a rare poison called the inkscaled ironplated snake. This strange poisonous snake was not large, normally no more than two or three spans long. A specimen of five or more spans was quite rate, but this inkscaled ironplated snake was four or five staves long. It would take no less than a thousand years for it to grow that long. She’d heard Shifu say that the inkscaled ironplated snake’s skin was one of the most valuable treasures, able to ward of bladed weapons. It was seen by people of the martial world as a rare treasure, only this kind of snake was hard to find, and even those one did manage to find were only two or three spans long, not to mention the fact that this strange snake was highly poisonous and quite nimble. Once it bit you, or if you inhaled the noxious fumes it spurted, you would die within a hundred steps, so its scaly skin, although a rare treasure, was rarely obtained, and even if you did somehow manage to kill one of them, because it was too small and had such little skin, it was of no great use. An inkscaled ironplated snake as big as this was one of a kind. The three of them each had something on their minds and were all lost in thought.

Xialin suddenly thought that she should tell Big Brother Huan about her idea to ride that big white crane, and when she turned and saw Menghuan brow pinched, thinking, found it odd and softly asked, “Big Brother Huan, are you thinking about riding that big white crane too?” How could she knows that Menghuan was actually analyzing and breaking down the enormous crane’s method of using its talons to snatch at the snakes seven-fingerwidth, and absorbed in this, he didn’t hear Miss Shen’s question.

Xialin saw Menghuan was ignoring her and was about to call to him again when suddenly she saw his left arm raise up high, right arm held out level, and they struck against each other. She was even more confused by this and reflexively reached her right hand out to tug on Menghuan when a jade wrist suddenly shot out and gently grabbed Miss Shen’s right arm, and a woman’s voice said in her ear, “Don’t disturb him!”

Xialin turned to see Shifu. She couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “Shifu, what is he doing?”

Master Wise Perfected smiled. “He’s training his kungfu. Your senior sectbrother’s insight is very advanced, a really rare extraordinary talent, no wonder your First Sectuncle taught him the Soul Seeker Twelve Swordplay. He alone is worthy of becoming the next generation sectmaster. Whether or not our Kunlun School has a bright future ahead of it rests solely on him.”

Of course Shen Xialin didn’t completely understand Master Wise Perfected’s comment venting her personal feelings, but she knew that Shifu was praising Big Brother Huan and was happy. She leapt up and said, “Shifu, Big Brother Huan is the best, he’s better than me at everything. Anytime I don’t understand something I just ask him.”