Soaring Swallows Startle Dragons

Chapter 1

Shocking Turn in Peach Blossom Spring

Part 2 (2)

As the man spoke he slowed somewhat, and the two old pursuers were on him. Four palms shot out in unison like a tidal wave and the man was knocked seven or eight staves in the air and crashed to the ground with a bang.

Blood spurted from his mouth, and two peach trees with trunks big around as the mouth of a bowl by the side of the path were struck by the force of the old men’s palms and peach blossom petals sprinkled down like a rain of flowers.

The blue-clad young man was shocked by the power of the oldsters’ palm strikes, but he assumed that since the man had called for the abbot of Mystic Metropolis before he was hit, he must have some relationship with Shifu. Moved to come to the rescue, he had no time to think about the consequences but pushed off with his feet and flew up and crossed in front of the oldsters, blocking the way. The oldsters saw the sabre guy had been felled by their Dragon Whisker Needles and their palm strikes and lay sprawled out on the ground, in no danger of getting up and fleeing, so when the blue-clad young man leapt into their way, they halted as well.

The blue-clad young man was called Yang Menghuan, the beloved disciple of the abbot of Mystic Metropolis, Master One Yang, who was one of the three elders of Kunlun and was famous throughout the martial world for his Split Second Swordplay and his Celestial Dipper Palms. Yang Menghuan had been following Master One Yang for twelve years and had already learned most of the Kunlun School’s arts.

Yang Menghuan blocked their way and took a good look at them and was startled. They were both over fifty, and the one on the left had 八-shaped eyebrows, a triangular beard, and an “yin-yang” face, the left side dark, the right side pale, and his disheveled hair was only three fingerwidths or so long. The one on the right, rather, was very pale, without a trace of color to his face, as if he had died years ago and had come back to life. His beard was a single tuft of yellow hair, and they both wore white knee-length hempcloth gowns and were barefoot save their hemp shoes. The more you looked at them, the most sinister and eerie they seemed, enough to make one shiver.

Xialin was worried that Yang Menghuan blocking them all by himself put him at a disadvantage, so she leapt over to him, and when she got a good look at the strange-looking men she yelped in fright and cowered close to Yang Menghuan.

The yin-yang face weirdo sneered, “Are you little kids with Mystic Metropolis? Move aside quick, don’t get in our way!”

Yang Menghuan was sharp and knew that given the mighty power of their palm strikes against those peach trees just now, these ugly freaks were either jianghu bandits of great renown or were reclusive masters. Since he was uncertain of their background it was best not to offend them, plus he figured he was no match for them anyhow. He could only use his words to intervene and stall for time till Shifu arrived. With that thought, he whispered to the girl in white huddled beside him, “Junior Sister Lin, go and get Senior Sectuncle and Shifu.”

Xialin nodded and ran off toward the abbey while Yang Menghuan clasped his hands before him and bowed to the two freaks. “This junior is a disciple of Mystic Metropolis. I’d like to ask you two seniors’ great, honorable names so that this junior can report to my teacher to receive you.”

But the freaks had seen through Yang Menghuan and they clucked their tongues at the same time. The yin-yang freak laughed, then said coldly, “Child, you’re quite crafty, you probably think that Master One Yang’s mighty name can frighten us…”

Before he finished speaking, the deathly pale freak on the right took over, “Boss, what are you prattling on with this child for, let’s get the stuff first.”

With that he flashed over to the man sprawled on the ground. The way things were going, Yang Menghuan was going to have to act. The freak came on fast as an arrowshot, incredibly fast, so Yang Menghuan furtively concentrated his qi and shot his palm out crosswise with his Celestial Dipper palm move River Cuts Across the Dipper and with a bang was knocked back five or six spans. The deathly pale freak also never imagined Yang Menghuan would be so strong and taken by surprise, that blocking palm strike knocked him back three or four steps.

As soon as Yang Menghuan hit the ground he felt a wave of dizziness come over him and his vision dimmed, nearly fainting. He forced himself to focus. The wounded man on the ground was bloody all over and had rolled eight or nine spans away when he fell. His eyes were wide open and blood poured from his nose and mouth. It had all happened in a split second and the freaks pounced over on either side. The yin-yang freak said, “You asked for it, kid, don’t blame your old man Wang for being cruel and merciless.”

Yang Menghuan’s blocking strike was already more than he could take, and now the two of them were on him, even more relentless. If he met them head on again at best he’d be seriously hurt, at worst he’d perish, but he could tell that the wounded man had something important on him, something that was perhaps personally related to his solicitous teacher. Forced to this point, Yang Menghuan couldn’t bother about the threat to his own life any longer. He extended his arms to meet them full force. He’d just started off when he suddenly heard an abrupt shout, “Huan’er, get back, do you want to die?”

Yang Menghuan recognized his sectfather’s voice and hurriedly checked his forward momentum and launched his Yan Qing’s Eighteen Turns lightness skill and abruptly drew perfected qi into his dantian and turned over crosswise in the air. Despite adapting quickly, he was still a step too slow, and he felt a wave of unspeakably powerful hidden force assail his whole body and he flew up uncontrollably like a kite with a broken string, his qi and blood churning for a time, losing his bearings. In the midst of this confusion someone caught him and at the same time a gust of fragrant air brushed against his face. He felt a hand massaging his chest.

At the same time that Yang Menghuan’s body was blasted into the air by the freaks’ internal force, a monk and a Daoist burst through the air from the tops of the peach grove and landed. Their palms struck out in unison, shooting two gusts of powerful internal palm force that connected and furled into one fist of powerful wind, blowing the blossoms and leaves off several peach trees nearby. The monk and Taoist both felt a slight jolt and the two freaks knocked to the ground and pushed back three or four steps before coming to a halt.

Master One Yang, abbot of Mystic Metropolis, turned to his beloved disciple, who seemed to be hurt bad, and arched his long brows and bellowed at the freaks, “You Twin Revenants of the South and I have always minded our own business with each other. Why have you come here to cause trouble and be so violent as try injure my school’s disciple. This humble Daoist hung up his sword years ago and has nothing to do with jianghu affairs, but are you all acting this way to force me to take out my sword and attack?”

Before the Twin Revenants of the South could reply, the bloody man suddenly sat up straight and pointed at his own chest and yelled, “Shifu, the Return to the Origin Manual…”

Unfortunately, before he finished, the deathly pale freak raised a hand and a throwing knife shot out like lightning. Master One Yang never imagined the Twin Revenants would suddenly attack. He wanted to come to the rescue, but it was too late. The nine-fingerwidth long dual-edged throwing knife penetrated the man’s chest and passed through. The man had already been struck by their Dragon Whisker Needles, then their internal force palm strikes that had injured his internal organs. That was already hard to endure. He had used all the internal power he had built up over dozens of years, as well as the vital energy he had mustered to keep alive his unfinished wish, to endure and stay alive long enough, but how could he take this fatal blow. He cried out and fell to the ground and breathed his last.

Master One Yang looked closely at the dead man and realized it was his first disciple, Cai Bangxiong, whom he had expelled from the school twenty years ago. A wave of sadness washed over him and stirred this eminent man who had moved beyond the mundane world to anger. He laughed coldly, but before he could act, he glimpsed the yin-yang freak flash over like a bird and swoop down from midair and snatched at Cai Bangxiong’s corpse.

Master One Yang now was ready, he wasn’t about to let him get away with it that easy. He shouted and chopped down with Wind and Thunder Strike. Greatmaster Clear Karma was also roused to an indescribable fury at the sight of the Twin Revenants of the South murdering the seriously wounded man like that. His sleeves whisked and Fireflies Dance in the Air was loosed against the deathly pale freak.

Master One Yang was one of the top people in the contemporary martial world. Now, attacking in fury, he loosed his stored up power and the internal force he spit out was no small matter. The yin-yang freak was busy rummaging through Cai Bangxiong’s corpse, so by the time he felt the gust of palm force assail him it was too late to dodge. He could only shoot his right hand back and meet it head on. There was a muffled groan and his right arm snapped off, his body thrown back seven or eight spans away till it smashed into the trunk of a peach tree. Blossoms and leaves scattered down and the trunk was snapped in half.

Greatmaster Clear Karma attacked the deathly pale freak, also using all his strength, using the momentum of his whipping sleeves to shoot out all of his concentrated power. It looked light and easy but was really swift and relentless. The deathly pale freak put his palms out to meet it and immediately felt an enormous force push his own internal force back. He knew this was bad and quickly retreated, but he was too late. It felt like an iron hammer weighing a thousand catties suddenly slammed into his chest, and he fell down sitting on the ground and a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth.

The Twin Revenants of the South, Yin-Yang Judge Wang Xuan and Soul-Snagging Messenger of Death Li Tong, had each taken a move from Master One Yang and Greatmaster Clear Karma, and both had been massively wounded. However, The Twin Revenants’ martial arts was not middling. Though they were seriously injured, it was not yet fatal. They leapt up at once and Yin-Yang Judge Wang Xuan threw his head back, laughing wildly. “Abbot of Mystic Metropolis, Greatmaster Clear Karma, we will remember these two moves you have bestowed on us for the rest of our lives. As long as we brothers have three fingerwidths of breath left, we will have vengeance.”

Saying that, the Twin Revenants each loosed a sharp howl, like ghosts wailing in the wilderness. It was an awful sound, and as their howls lingered they darted off into the peach grove and vanished.

Master One Yang was worried about Yang Menghuan, and Clear Karma didn’t want any more killing, so neither gave chase and just looked on as the Twin Revenants of the South said their piece and awkwardly fled.

Master One Yang looked over and saw the color gradually returning to Yang Menghuan’s face, and he relaxed. He went over to Cai Bangxiong’s corpse, whose face was crossed with wounds and whose body was riddled with hidden weapons. His clothes from top to bottom were soaked through with blood. He thought of their past teacher-disciple relationship and felt an overwhelming sadness. He hung his head and heaved a long sigh, then slowly knelt and felt the man’s chest. The body was already cold. He was just about to stand up when he suddenly remembered what the man had said just before he was struck by the knife and his mind jolted. He reached out and felt around, searching, and found a small, exquisite jade box. It was covered in blood but was undamaged. He opened it. Inside was a square-shaped length of tabby silk one span long, on which was painting a landscape.

Three high peaks, two in the front, one in the back, forming a 品 shape, and a waterfall falling from the top of the central peak. The mountain features were imposing and unique, painted in a profoundly creative style. Master One Yang looked at it for a long while but still couldn’t understand it, so he turned the white silk over and looked at the back, which looked to have been sewn. Suspicious, he rubbed it with his fingers and sure enough, it was two layers of silk sewn together. He gently tore open the stitching and immediately felt a wave of sadness and tears fell.

Master One Yang looked down at Cai Bangxiong’s body, lost in thought. After a long time he heaved a long sigh. “Such a pity, you tried so hard, but it was still difficult to see your wished fulfilled. Though it cost you your life, you still returned to your school, you are still one of Kunlun’s disciples!”

The abbot of Mystic Metropolis’s act here left Greatmaster Clear Karma dumbfounded.