"Humph," Wu Qingying said, "Does this kind of kid deserve me put forth my own hand to deal with? Zhen Jie, you belittle me too much."
Zhang Wuji was not able to stop from shouting, "Miss Wu, I also have a father and a mother; am I not a human? What do you think you are? Bodhisattva? A princess?"
Wu Qingying did not even look at him. "Shige," she turned toward Wei Bi, "You let me receive the insult this little servant hurled at me without helping me?"
Seeing her loveable and hurt expression, Wei Bi's heart had melted early on. Although he was impartial toward the 'Xue Ling Shuang Shu', he knew perfectly well that his Shifu's martial art skill was incomprehensively deep. The skill he would expect to learn from him would be at most ten or twenty percent. If he wanted to master the peerless skill, there was no other way but to win his Shimei's favor. Thereupon he said to Zhu Jiuzhen, "Biaomei, this little servant's martial art skill is not bad, is it? Would you let me test him?"
Zhu Jiuzhen understood he was trying to help his martial sister, but she had another thought, "I don't know the origin of this servant kid surnamed Zhang. Perhaps it is not such a bad idea to let Biaoge compel him to reveal his foundation." Thereupon she said, "Alright. Let him receive instruction from the Wu family unique skill. Nothing could be better than that. This man, even I do not know which school's disciple he is."
Wei Be was surprised. "This servant kid's martial art skill did not come from your family?" he asked.
Toward Zhang Wuji Zhu Jiuzhen said, "Why don't you tell Shaoye [young master] who your Shifu is, and which school he belongs to?"
"You despise me too much," Zhang Wuji thought, "How can I mention my parents' schools, and thus dishonor Taishifu and my departed parents? Besides, I have never seriously practiced Wudang Pai's martial art." Thereupon he said, "My parents passed away when I was a child, I wandered the Jianghu in destitute. I do not know any martial art, I only received a little bit of instructions from my father when I was little."
"What was your father's name? Which school did he belong to?" Zhu Jiuzhen asked.
Zhang Wuji shook his head. "I can't tell you," he said.
Wei Bi laughed. "With the three of us looking, can't we find it out ourselves?" he said. Slowly he walked to the center of the courtyard. "Kid," he said with a laugh, "Why don't you try taking three stances of mine?" While saying that, he turned toward Wu Qingying and gave her a wink. His meaning was clear, "Shimei, no need to get angry. I am going to beat this kid really bad to vent your anger."
For someone in love, each word and each action, a frown or a smile of the beloved's would not escape attention. Zhu Jiuzhen was no different. She understood clearly the meaning of Wei Bi's wink. Seeing Zhang Wuji was unwilling to concede, she beckoned to him, calling him to come over and then in a low voice whispered in his ear, "My Biaoge's martial art skill is very strong. You don't need to defeat him. As long as you can resist his three stances, you are giving me a lot of face." Finished speaking, she patted his shoulder to show her encouragement.
Zhang Wuji knew he was not Wei Bi's match. If he conceded, he would unavoidably invite trouble and humiliation on himself, and brought nothing more than delight in these people's hearts. But standing in front of Zhu Jiuzhen, his mind was chaotic. Hearing her soft voice and gentle words urging him, and smelling her perfume, how could he think clearly? His only thought was, "Miss orders me to fight. Even for a more difficult and dangerous task, I would risk my life to do it; what's the harm in receiving a few punches and kicks?" He absentmindedly walked toward Wei Bi and stood in front of him with a blank expression.
Wei Bi said with a laugh, "Kid, take this!" 'Slap! Slap!' he struck Zhang Wuji twice on his face.
These two slaps came so fast that when Zhang Wuji was about to lift his hand to block, his face had already struck. His cheeks swelled with red palm marks on them.
Wei Bi knew Zhang Wuji did not receive any martial art instructions from the Zhu family, so he knew he had nothing to fear in term of causing Zhu Jiuzhen, as well as his uncle and aunt lose face. His strikes were without any reservation, only he did not use any internal energy; otherwise, Zhang Wuji's teeth would have fallen and his cheekbones broken, he would have fainted.
"Wuji, fight!" Zhu Jiuzhen called out.
As soon as he heard his Miss call, Zhang Wuji's spirit was aroused. With a grunt he punched straight forward. Wei Bi evaded sideways and praised him. "Good kid, you know what you are doing!" he said. Moving sideways, he jumped toward Zhang Wuji's back. Zhang Wuji hastily turned around, but like a lightning Wei Bi's hand reached out and grabbed his collar. Lifting his arm high, he laughed and said, "Go eat the dog's dung!" and threw Zhang Wuji hard to the ground.
Zhang Wuji learned martial arts from Xie Xun for several years, but first, he was still too young; second, Xie Xun only told him to memorize the theory and the stances, without giving him any real combat experience. Meeting a disciple from a prestigious family like We Bi, his hands and feet were bound and he was unable to launch any stance. As he was being thrown, he wanted to stretch out his hand to break the fall, but it was too late. 'Bang!' his forehead and nose heavily hit the ground and blood spread all over his face.
Wu Qingying clapped and cheered. Giggling sweetly she said, "Zhen Jie, is our Wu family martial art good enough for you?"
Zhu Jiuzhen was ashamed and angered at the same time. If she said the Wu family martial art was not good, she would unavoidably offend Wei Bi; but if she said it was good, she was unbearably angry toward Wu Qingying and did not give her any satisfaction. Without any better option, her face turned cold and she did not say anything.
Zhang Wuji crawled up and looked gingerly at Zhu Jiuzhen. Seeing her knitted eyebrows, he said in his heart, "Even if I have to die, I must not make Miss lose her face."
Wei Bei laughed and said, "This kid does not even know three-legged cat martial art, why do we have to talk about his school or sect?"
Zhang Wuji suddenly lunged forward, his leg flew toward Wei Bi's lower abdomen. "Aiyo!" Wei Bi called out with laughter. By moving slightly backward, he evaded this kick, right after, his left hand reached out and grabbed Zhang Wuji's right foot, which was still in the air, and flung it sideways. He was only using 30% of his power, but Zhang Wuji flew toward the walllike an arrow leaving its bow. In desperation Zhang Wuji kicked the ground to make his back face the wall. Although his skull escaped the disaster of shattering down, his back hurt so much that he felt as if all the bones in his body had been broken. He slid down along the wall and sat on the ground like a pile of mud; unable to crawl back up.
Although he was in severe pain, he was still concerned over Zhu Jiuzhen losing face; while he was still in dazed, he heard that she was saying, "This servant kid is totally useless. Let us go to the garden to play!" Obviously she was very angry.
Without knowing where the strength came from, Zhang Wuji turned around, propping himself on the ground and pounced with a palm strike toward Wei Bi.