Chapter 35: Sounds of Wind and Rain
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In Great Buddha’s Hall of the Shaolin Temple—
“Your Abbotship, how serious are your injuries?” a white-browed old monk asked with concern after Meng Qi and the rest had left.
A sudden redness spread over Xin Ji’s pale face and a rain of blood poured from his mouth, dying the cassock on his chest red.
“Your Abbotship!”
“Master!”
All the monks screamed in unison, understanding that His Abbotship had concealed his injuries so he would not expose his debility in front of strangers.
Xin Ji waved his hand and slowly said, “No harm done. I’m fine now, but I can only use less than half of my power.”
The monks were silent. His Abbotship was already so old and frail that he would probably lose in the fight against General Duo Ercha. Now, it was even more hopeless with only half his power available. What was worse, there were only two other beginner Preternatural Master Pros in the temple. They might not be able to beat Duo Ercha’s two subordinates, White-Browed Atrocious Wolf and Cosmos Juggler, let alone General Duo Ercha himself.
The white-browed old monk let out a long sigh. “Your Abbotship, since things have come to this, we’d better focus on protecting the disciples of the temple.”
“Junior Xin Chan, I get what you mean.” Xin Ji gave a little nod and looked back at the Golden Body of the Buddharupa. “Barbarians are fortunate in their timing. Never mind the so-called Royal Advisor or leader of the Turkish people, the Wolf Lord, General Duo Ercha himself, is among the top Kung Fu masters in the world. He lives a life of few failures and manages 300 invincible Wolf Soldiers.
“If we choose to put our lives on the line and put up a defense, we might ward off Duo Ercha. But we can’t defend for so long. And worse still, it seems that we can’t even put up a defense for a short time.
“What I said before doesn’t mean denying the disciples protection. Rather, I’m willing to use my old and frail body to distract Duo Ercha so you all have a chance to escape. After all, if I survive, Duo Ercha will try every means to hunt and kill me. In the process, you may be hurt or killed, and there may be not enough time to put away the Buddhist script and relics.”
Duo Ercha had 300 Wolf Soldiers with infinite power. Allegedly, they sensed no pain and felt no fear after going through arcane training methods.
The monks became silent again. They knew Duo Ercha saw His Abbotship as a thorn in his side. The siege this time was mostly aimed at eliminating all the Peerless Master Pros. The killing would not stop until the goal was achieved. Thus, it would be useless to abandon the temple and run. But if His Abbotship passed away, the other monks might face less of a risk of being hunted and killed. At the very least, General Duo Ercha would not personally do so. At that time, some of them could survive after splitting up and making their escapes separately.
“Master, I’m willing to remain here to guard the Shaolin Temple.” A middle-aged monk prostrated himself with sorrow in front of Xin Ji.
Xin Ji sighed. “Why be so persistent?”
He disagreed with his disciple, but looked around and said, “The temple has a secret passage, only known to the Abbotships. As soon as possible, you all should arrange for disciples to pack the scripts and wait for the chance to escape late at night. As for the ordinary disciples, leave a note for them to go downhill on their own before you leave.”
“What about the donors at the foot of the mountain? Should we tell them to leave?” another monk asked, smiling like Maitreya Buddha.
The white-browed old monk, Xin Chan, calmly said, “Tell them? Who knows how many Barbarian spies are hidden among them, like Hundred Face Bookster earlier. If Duo Ercha finds out in advance, the Shaolin Temple will be in mortal danger!”
“After the ordinary disciples go down the mountain, the donors will learn of our plan and disperse quickly.” Xin Ji was reluctant to risk any information leaking out.
“Master, since Duo Ercha had arranged Hundred Face Bookster to launch a sneak attack, I think he ought to be nearby. We can’t allow any delays and can’t wait until late at night.” The kneeling middle-aged monk stood up. “The donors at the foot of the mountain will leave on their own once they see the oncoming Wolf Soldiers and the closed gate.”
Xin Ji solemnly nodded. “That’s reasonable.”
…
At the inn at the foot of the mountain—
“Xiaosang, Xiaosang is coming…” Little Zi acted as if she had encountered an evil ghost, giving Wei Wuji and the other onlooking swordsmen goosebumps and raised hair.
“Who is Xiaosang ? It sounds rather horrifying!”
Stunned, Jiang Zhiwei and Zhang Yuanshan looked at Little Zi. “Xiaosang? Gu Xiaosang?”
“Who is she…?” Meng Qi had heard Little Zi mention Gu Xiaosang before but did not expect that name to be so famous. Even Jiang Zhiwei and Zhang Yuanshan seemed to have known about her for a long time.
“Ah, Gu Xiaosang. She’s here. She’s going to kill me…” Little Zi was close to hysterical tears.
Meng Qi saw that Jiang Zhiwei and Zhang Yuanshan had become cautious and wondered if Gu Xiaosang was a celebrity in the main world. “Otherwise, where would they have heard of this name?
“But we were supposed to be the only ones in this round of reincarnation.
“Does she belong to the reincarnation of the rival team?
“But it doesn’t seem like it, because Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms did not inform us.”
They all exchanged glances. Just as Jiang Zhiwei wanted to be honest and tell Meng Qi who Gu Xiaosang was through Secret Voice-sending, the sound of a horn came from outside that startled everyone.
“Toot!”
The long horn sound was desolate, profound, and carried a hint of intensity. Then, the sound of horses’ hoofs followed quickly, like raging waves pounding on the banks.
“Wolf Soldiers! Wolf Soldiers!” There was a great change in Wei Wuji’s expression and his hands were actually trembling. The arrival of the Wolf Soldiers meant that General Duo Ercha was nearby!
He shouted, “My good heroes, the Wolf Soldiers are coming. We should hurry and retreat to the Shaolin Temple and guard the mountain pass.”
Since the landscape was wide at the foot of the mountain, he concluded that he would be unable to ward off that many Wolf Soldiers.
“What Master Wei said is reasonable!”
“Let’s run towards the Shaolin gate!”
On seeing the vast expanse of smoke and dust rising in the distance, the loyal and chivalrous knights recalled the fierce reputation of the Wolf Soldiers and became fearful without any reason. They all flocked toward the gate.
Meng Qi and the others looked out the inn window and saw the cavalry quickly riding horses amidst the dust that filled the sky. The knights were all wearing dark, full-bodied armor and exposed only their eyes.
“Get down on your knees or be killed!” A majestic, ice-cold sound came from out of the blue. The voice was so loud that they could even hear it from the foot of the mountain.
“Duo Ercha, General Duo Ercha!” Wei Wuji cried out, his face turning pale. He said in a panic to De Guang, who was guarding the Shaolin gate, “Open the door! General Duo Ercha is coming!”
With a similar pale face, De Guang said, “Donor Wei, I can’t open the door without His Abbotship’s permission.”
“Ungrateful, so ungrateful! We risked our lives to come and help, but you think so little of our lives!” Wei Wuji was red with anger.
The knights nearby became agitated, resulting in a chaotic scene.
“Humph. You people have courage in the face of infighting, but become cowardly in front of true battles. The people of the Central Plains are lowlifes.” Duo Ercha’s voice sounded like a rumble of thunder.
His figure appeared in front of the cavalry, looking burly and majestic. He carried a one-legged bronze statue on his palm. Though he was not riding a horse, he was taller than the other Wolf Soldiers.
He paced forward as if the ground had shrunk down to inches. In just a few breaths, he had gone a long distance.
As he approached, the sky darkened, winds blew wildly, dark clouds gathered, and there was a muffled sound of thunder.
Meng Qi could even detect the deep stench of blood and corpses from Duo Ercha, causing endless fear in him.
“Half-Step Exterior Scenery, Half-Step Exterior Scenery.” Zhang Yuanshan pulled out his own long sword and brandished it. A sound roared just like that of dragons, awakening Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan out of their states of hallucination. Their illusions of the mountain of corpses disappeared.
Jiang Zhiwei seemed somewhat eager and said, “Duo Ercha does look stronger than Master Xin Ji. Not only has he opened up his Nine Apertures, but he has begun feeling the Exterior World, only a step away from the intersection between the Interior and Exterior World. Even if I use the Anatta Sword, I’m afraid I can’t beat him.”
“Half-Step Exterior Scenery?” the ignorant Meng Qi asked involuntarily.
Jiang Zhiwei raised her head slightly. “Exterior Scenery means achieving the intersection between the Interior World and Exterior World so each action you make changes the world. In the Exterior Realm, every Kung Fu move has great power with implicit mystery. It’s very easy to destroy a mountain peak or a city. Duo Ercha can change the astronomical phenomena. This proves he’s only half a step away.”
“The opponent this time is so strong…” Just from hearing that description, Meng Qi understood that Duo Ercha was many times stronger than the Fort Master of King’s Hiding Castle the last time, nevermind the added strange vision of howling winds and surging clouds, cracking thunder and falling rain. “He’s completely beyond our fighting capabilities!” freew ebnovel.com
Meng Qi guessed that if Jiang Zhiwei used the Anatta Sword, in her current state of four open Apertures (two Eye Apertures and two Ear Apertures), she could kill masters who had opened Eight Apertures, and even a Nine Apertured Master. But such masters who had begun feeling the mystery of heaven and earth could not be defeated by mere Kung Fu tricks. Obviously, the difficulty of this task was beyond imagination!
“That’s not necessarily true. If Xin Ji is safe and Junior Sister Jiang cooperates with him, there’s an opportunity to kill Duo Ercha,” Zhang Yuanshan said helplessly.
He only opened his Eye Apertures. When facing Duo Ercha, he feared he could only block a few strikes and could hardly even fight alongside Jiang Zhiwei. Although he also had tricks up his sleeve, the gap between the two realms was too great.
Meng Qi thought for a moment and said, “Our task this time is upholding the Shaolin Temple until the last moment. It’s not necessary for us to fight Duo Ercha face-to-face.”
“Bang!”
Giant thunder burst in everyone’s ears. The vision of a mountain of corpses and endless evil ghosts appeared even clearer.
All these Jianghu fighters were affected by the changes of the world and the mental pressure that Duo Ercha exerted. They broke down, some escaping toward both sides and some shouting: “These spiteful and ruthless bald-asses! Let’s kill the soldiers to enter the temple!”
“Rumble!”
De Guang and the others guarding the Shaolin gate were startled by the thunder and seemed paralyzed. They wanted to resist the madmen using the terrain’s advantage, but had no energy to do so. They could only watch them smashing the gate and rushing into the temple like demons.
“Donor Wei…” De Guang noticed Wei Wuji’s ferocious face as he slapped his head with his palm.
“Pitter-patter!” Heavy rain finally fell and the ground was covered in blood.
Duo Ercha stood at the gate. Turning his head, he looked coldly at the nearby inn and commanded the Wolf Soldiers behind him. “50 of you stay here to kill these people. The rest, follow me up the mountain.”
He had criss-cross wounds on his face. No one could tell his true appearance at all.
50 soldiers separated from the Wolf Soldiers and ran respectively toward both sides. They were all covered in armor with only a pair of exposed eyes that were as red as blood.
“Go to the Shaolin gate in 10 minutes, or you’ll fail the second main task.” These words appeared on the muddy ground.
“Follow them into the temple, otherwise the main task will fail,” Meng Qi said with clenched teeth after seeing the notification from Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms.
At such a time, they still had to follow the soldiers into the temple. They could be considered exemplary models of high morality.
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