In the afternoon, one day before the ritual, Dian Ling and Li Bilian arrived at the Kun Yun Peak Manor.
Mo Fei Chen originally thought that Wen Qing Yuan would personally greet them, but even though the couple were already sitting in the hall, Wen Qing Yuan did not come out to greet them and only sent one of his disciples to serve the fragrant tea.
“Both of the honorable guests, please have some tea! Shi Fu has to prepare for tomorrow night’s ritual, so he is unable to come and entertain you. Shi Fu has also said that since both of you have already come to the Manor, please make yourselves at home and no need to be polite.”
Mo Fei Chen and his other fellow male disciples were watching from outside the door. Dian Ling had thick eyebrows and big eyes. He had a scar running from his forehead to his lower lip so he looked extremely fierce. He was wounded by Wen Qianliu’s Flying Waterfall Sword when he escaped from Mu Yun Mountain Manor. If you compare it with the gentle temperament of Wen Ching Yuan, it was as if one was the earth and the other one was heaven. As for his wife, Li Bilian, she was a lovely and charming petite woman with delicate features.
“Thank you so much. Please pass on to Manor Leader Wen that he does not need to be concerned about us. The scenery in Kun Yun Mountain is so nice, we will go to enjoy it.” Li Bilian’s lowered eyebrows were somewhat elegant and mature but that slight curve of her lips made Mo Fei Chen feel a little uncomfortable, feeling as if she always had a hidden agenda.
Forget it! They were not some kind of handsome man and beautiful woman combination anyway. Mo Fei Chen rubbed his nose and left the hall.
That very night, he lay on his bed with his feet up, surrounded by the sound of his fellow senior and junior disciples breathing, although he had been forced to get up early for the past few days but when the night arrived, he was inexplicably unable to sleep at night.
Unfortunately, with the arrival of Dian Ling and his wife at the mountain manor, he could no longer go down to the bottom of the valley to seek for Shi Zu to relieve his boredom. Thinking about this, he resented those male and female thieves even more.
Suddenly, there was a sound of fighting outside the window and Mo Fei Chen sat up immediately.
Could it be that this pair of thieves could not resist stealing something on their first night staying at the mountain Manor?
He lifted the quilt up, and the rest of Shi Xiong and Shi Di in the room just faintly woke up.
He pushed the door open and went out. The sound of the fight seemed to be coming from the cliff path. Mo Fei Chen wanted to go there and take a look, but then he thought that his martial arts were not good, so If he went there, he would become the cannon fodder according to the standard pattern in wuxia novels.
He only hoped that the cheating couple would not accidentally fall from the cliff path. If they found out about the cave and He Yunfeng was in there, then it would definitely be a disaster.
As he thought about it, he heard two Shi Xiong come running from the distance and shout loudly, “Everyone, get up! Dian Ling and his wife are trying to steal the ashes of the previous Manor Leaders! Shi Fu is fighting with them right now!”
So you want us, these young disciples, who can’t even ‘form the sword’ to overwhelm the enemy with our numbers?
Don’t joke around, the Qi from the other party’s invisible sword would have swept us all away!
As they yelled, all the disciples who were resting seemed to wake up, and the whole mountain manor suddenly became brightly lit.
Everyone dressed up quickly and rushed out with their swords in hand, except Mo Fei Chen who was empty-handed.
Just at the moment when they prepared to rush over to the cliff path, one disciple came running through the mountain gate.
“No good! It’s not good! ‘Ling She1[The Spiritual Snake /The Spirit of Snake Gang]‘ Gang has attacked us through the mountain!”
‘Ling She’ Gang? It was a gang that was somewhat unqualified in Jiang Hu whose disciples liked to tame snakes and use them as weapons, because their conduct was very vicious and cruel, it was despised and being held in contempt in martial arts circles.
Mo Fei Chen thought to himself that this couple was probably colluding with Ling She Gang. They were responsible for fighting with Wen Qing Yuan’s Quiet Rain Sword, while ‘Ling She’ Gang was able to subdue the other disciples in the Manor unrestrainedly.
As he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard a disciple shout loudly, “There are snakes——”
At some point, there was a hissing sound in the trees, in the crevices of the ground and even on the eaves and pillars of the house.
Mo Fei Chen grinned and remembered that he didn’t have his sword with him but it didn’t matter if he had a sword or not, he was a very terrible swordsman anyway, so he just stood there and watched the other disciples wielding their swords to kill the poisonous snakes.
However the situation was not good at all since the number of the vipers was increasing. Many of his Shi Di were bitten, spasm and lost their ability to defend themselves. Although Mo Fei Chen was able to dodge the snakes with his ‘Ride the Wind’ footwork, his heart grew anxious as he watched more and more people fall.
The people of Ling She Gang were dressed in a very distinctive way. If it wasn’t for the flute made of wheat on their mouths, Mo Fei Chen would have suspected that they were a group of beggars. Since these men were snake tamers, they must have the antidote for the poisonous snakes on them.
Mo Fei Chen flew through the air and slipped past the disciples of Ling She Gang. In a few moments, he took a few bottles of pills and threw them at the bitten Shi Xiong and Shi Di.
The enemy was approaching them quickly, so some of the leader Shi Xiong could only lead the group to retreat. The sound of breaking rocks became clearer and clearer as they were gradually forced to the cliff path of the mountain valley.
The cold wind blew gloomily, shuttle back and forth through the valley as if it was a woman’s whimper.
Above the thick fog was the graceful figure of Wen Qing Yuan who was drifting around the couple. Dian Ling’s sword Qi was fierce and brutal, while Li Bilian’s was sinister and sneaky. This couple could be regarded as the perfect match. On one hand, Wen Qing Yuan had to block the strong attack of Dian Ling and on the other hand, he had to guard against Li Bilian’s sneak attack. Above the inky fog, the three figures were seen coming and going, flying swiftly. Swords’s Qi whistling and clashing, it seemed that they were ready to knock down the boulders that were standing on the cliff.
Mo Fei Chen stared at them in awe. This was the first time he had seen someone use the invisible sword Qi in a duel. Wen Qing Yuan’s Quiet Rain Sword was not one of the top ten swords in Wu Lin but it was already outstanding. The Flying Waterfall Sword of Wen Qianliu, the current Manor Leader of Mu Yun Mountain Manor was naturally brilliant. Suddenly he understood why Yu Jin was yearning for Jiang Hu.
“What are you standing there for?” One of his Shi Xiong cut off the poisonous snake that had crawled to Mo Fei Chen’s feet.
He shivered in fear in his heart, yet before he could even thank ‘that Shi Xiong’, he heard that Shi Xiong cried out, “Ah——” His left arm was already bitten by the snake.
Mo Fei-Chen quickly reached out to catch him, ripped open his lower hem of his clothes and tightly strangled the area where he had been bitten, and led him away from the snake with his Qing Gong, but unfortunately the antidote he had just brought along had run out and he had to find a way to “borrow” some more from their enemy.
At that moment, a sword Qi swept over the cliff path. It was exactly that boorish fellow, Dian Ling, who cut off the cliff path. Mo Fei Chen was unstable and fell down but before they really fell, the previous Shi Xiong grabbed the fence and Mo Fei Chen grabbed his feet.
Unfortunately, he had no strength after being poisoned, so he was dragged down by Mo Fei Chen.
One of his Shi Di cried out, “Damn it —— Mo Shi Xiong and Li Shi Xiong have fallen!”
“Watch yourself well! Mo Fei Chen didn’t die last time so he also won’t die this time!”
Perhaps because Li Bilian heard this conversation, she seemed to understand something.
As she delayed Wen Qing Yuan’s attack on her devil husband, she also teased him, “You won’t die after you fall? so it’s not a ten thousand zhang2[丈: Zhang (a traditional unit of length, equal to 10 chi (市尺), and equivalent to 3.333 metres or 3.65 yards)] cliff down from here huh!?”
After saying that, she pulled the hemp rope hanging from the altar (where the bone ashes urns in it) with one hand and slid down. Upon seeing this, Wen Qing Yuan tried to stop her, Dian Ling followed his wife’s example and slid down by tugging on another rope.
Wen Qing Yuan had to follow him closely, but the fog was so thick that he could not tell where the enemy position was.
Mo Fei Chen and Li Shi Xiong naturally fell into the water.
Li Shi Xiong fainted and it took Mo Fei Chen all of his strength to bring him up to the shore.
He slapped Li Du’s face and shouted, “Li Shi Xiong! Li Shi Xiong! Don’t die! I, Mo Fei Chen, have done a rare good deed to bring you up to the shore!”
At that moment, the Dian couple and Wen Qing Yuan also arrived at the top of the pool. The invisible sword energy (Qi) spilled out again, flowing all over the place. Mo Fei Chen cried out in fear as his head was almost cut off, reaching out to grab his hair tie, only to find that it had broken and his hair was falling down. This was probably what it meant to have your life on the line.
He hurriedly dragged Li Shi Xiong into the cave with him, thinking to himself, “He Yunfeng ah, He Yunfeng ah! Since we all call you Shi Zu, please make your power presence and cover us!
The deeper they went, the more Mo Fei Chen did not dare to light a fire. He only knew that if he made a fire, he would definitely attract that couple of thieves. Now, in the dark they could not see anything in the cave, only then they could be safe.
The cold air was getting heavier and Li Du started to shiver. Mo Fei Chen knew that they were close to He Yunfeng’s ice coffin. Mo Fei Chen was holding Li Du in his arms, hoping that Wen Qing Yuan would hurry up and get rid of Dian Ling and Li Bilian.
Outside, there was the sound of swords cutting through the surface of the water and the sound of rocks being shattered. Mo Fei Chen gritted his teeth and whispered, “Shi Zu, tell me why do you think they haven’t finished yet? Li Shi Xiong can’t hold on any longer.”
The only response he received was Li Du’s increasingly breathing harder and harder sound.
There was another crash noise and a person seemed to be knocked in and fell hard.
“Ah Ling—— it turned out there’s a cave in here!”
Mo Fei Chen was shocked, ‘So it’s actually that bitch Li Bilian.’
What should I do? What should I do?
He quickly dragged Li Du and tried to go around the back of the ice coffin.
It seemed that Wen Qing Yuan was still struggling with Dian Ling. Mo Fei Chen had a bitter look on his face. He thought that when Wen Qing Yuan said he was not interested in the martial arts in the cave, he shouldn’t have praised him for his indifference to fame and fortune. If he had practiced He Yunfeng’s martial arts, perhaps even if there were ten of Dian Ling, it would have already gone to see the Buddha a long time ago!
As if they were not unfortunate enough, Li Bilian had brought a flame stick with her. It was only natural that the couple had already planned to attack by night, so they had to be well prepared.
The flickering light from the flame stick illuminated the cave. The first thing Li Bilian saw was the transparent ice coffin. It was a good thing she didn’t look up or else He Yunfeng’s martial arts books would have been stolen. Wait, wait a minute! The ancient people didn’t seem to be very good at arithmetic so she might not have thought that the pictures were arranged in an equidistant sequence.
Li Bilian swept the flame stick across He Yunfeng’s face, the uncontrollable exclaim of admiration escaping from her throat.
“Isn’t this… the World Detention Sword… He Yunfeng?”
Mo Fei Chen lowered his head and held his breath, not daring to move for fear of being discovered by Li Bilian.
“Oh my God… I can’t believe I can still see He Yunfeng …”
It seems that Shi Zu’s reputation is remarkable! Otherwise, why will everyone who just looks at him, feel as if they were dreaming?
“Bilian! Where are you?”
The voice of Dian Ling snapped Li Bilian out from her surprise, she then came back to her senses.
“Since you have the ice coffin to protect your body, it seems that your sword seed, the World Detention Sword, is still in there! I, Li Bilian will take it!”
Only to see that she lifted her palm, from the centre of her palm, she directed her own strength with full concentration to He Yunfeng’s body; She seemed to be trying to suck something out from He Yunfeng’s body.
Mo Fei Chen was in great alarm. In a flash, he suddenly remembered that Wen Qing Yuan had said that He Yunfeng was lying in this ice coffin because he had the protection from Luo Lianyun’s lifetime inner strength. He Yunfeng also sank in sleep for Luo Lianyun until now. Suddenly he felt warm in his heart. He grabbed a handful of sand and gravel from the ground and threw them at her.
Li Bilian was concentrating on getting He Yunfeng’s sword seeds out, but she was too late to react to the splash of sand and gravel that made her lose her sight.