Chapter - 235 Disaster Strikes When the Screen Wall Breaches the Impregnable Fortress (15)

From behind the blanket, Zhang Wuji peeked out and saw two girls; one was wearing light yellow silk robe, her dress and adornment were luxurious. The other was a younger girl, wearing dark green cotton robe; looked like she was the young maid.

"Xiaojie [miss]," the young maid said in a raspy voice, "The night is deep, please have some rest."

The 'miss' turned around and slapped the young maid's face heavily with the back of her hand. The young maid staggered and fallback one step. The body of the 'miss' swayed and she turned around completely. Under the candlelight Zhang Wuji was able to see clearly her big round eyes, with deep black pupils, on a round-shaped face. She was none other than Yang Buhui, whom he escorted for tens of thousands 'li' all the way from the Central Plains to the remote Western Region.

It had been several years; she had grown a lot taller, but her mannerism did not change, particularly the downward curve at the corners of her mouth, which he recognized as her childhood feature, was more pronounced.

He heard she cursed the maid, "You told me to sleep, humph, the Six Major Sects are besieging the Brightness Peak, my Father and his colleagues have been discussing plans to fight the enemy all night and have not finished yet. He [orig. 'lao ren jia' – a polite term for an older person] has not slept, how can I sleep? It would be best if my Father is killed by the enemy, and then you can kill me; you would gain everything your heart desires." The young maid did not dare to defend herself, she simply helped her to sit down.

"Quickly get my sword!" Yang Buhui said.

The young maid walked toward the wall and took off the sword hanging on the wall. Her ankles were shackled with an iron chain, her wrists were also shackled with iron chain. Her left leg was limping, her back was arched like a humpback. When she had the sword in her hands and turned around, Zhang Wuji was even more startled; he saw her right eye was small, the left eye was big, her nose and the corners of her mouth were twisted. In short, her form was extremely unsightly. He thought, "This young lady's appearance is uglier than Zhu'er. But Zhu'er is ugly because the poison in her body had caused the bumps on her face; she can be cure completely. This young miss, however, has an inborn deformity."

Yang Buhui received the sword and said, "The enemy could be here any time, I want to patrol outside."

"I am coming with Miss," the young maid said, "If we meet the enemy, we can look after each other." Her voice was so raspy that it was hard to understand; she sounded more like an uncouth middle-aged man than a young girl.

"Who wants your fake good intention?" Yang Buhui said. Her left hand reached back and grabbed the pulse on the wrist of that young maid's right hand; the young maid was immediately paralyzed.

"Xiaojie," she said in a trembling voice, "You … you …"

"A large number of the enemy is here to besiege us," Yang Buhui said with a cold laugh, "We, father and daughter, are at the point of death. Most likely you, this little maid, were sent by the enemy to the Brightness Peak as a spy, are you not? How can we, father and daughter, let ourselves be tortured by you? Today I will kill you first!" While saying that, she flipped her sword to stab the young maid's neck.

When he saw the young maid was deformed, Zhang Wuji felt compassion toward her; now that he suddenly saw Yang Buhui's sword went straight to stab her, in this critical situation he did not have time to think, immediately he flew out and flicked the body of the sword with his finger. Yang Buhui was not able to hold her sword. 'Clink clank!' the sword fell to the floor. As soon as the sword left her right hand, her two fingers went straight toward Zhang Wuji's two eyes. It was actually a very common, mediocre stance called the 'shuang long qiang zhu' [a pair of dragons fight over a pearl], but since she had been under her father's tutelage for several years, the stance came out rather powerful.

Zhang Wuji leaped backward to evade and blurted, "Buhui Meimei [younger sister], it's me!"

Yang Buhui was accustomed to him calling her 'Buhui Meimei', four characters; she was startled. "Wuji Gege [big brother]?" she asked. She only recognized the intonation of the call 'Buhui Meimei', but she did not recognize Zhang Wuji's appearance.

Immediately Zhang Wuji felt a pang of regret in his heart; but he could not deny again. "It's me!" he had no choice but answered in affirmative. "Buhui Meimei, how have you been these past several years?"

Yang Buhui looked at him intently, but when she saw a man in ragged clothes and filthy face, she was startled and felt uneasy. "You … you … really are Wuji Gege? How … how did you get in here?" she asked.

"It was Shuo Bude who took me up the Brightness Peak," Zhang Wuji replied, "After that Yuan Zhen Heshang entered this room, he disappeared suddenly. Is there any other way out from here?"

"What Yuan Zhen Heshang?" Yang Buhui was confused, "Who entered this room?"

Zhang Wuji was anxious to chase after Yuan Zhen; he did not want to start explaining a long story. He simply said, "Your father is injured in the hall, you'd better take a look quickly."

Yang Buhui was shocked. "I'll go look at Father," she hastily said, but then suddenly with a great force her palm shot down on the top of the young maid's head.

"No, don't!" Zhang Wuji cried out in fear as he reached out to push her arm so that Yang Buhui's palm came down on empty air.

Twice Yang Buhui tried to kill that young maid, but both times Zhang Wuji intervened. "Wuji Gege," she said sternly, "Is this girl your companion?"

Zhang Wuji was baffled. "She is your maidservant," he said, "I met her just now, how can she be my companion?"

"If you do not know the real story, then do not meddle in other people's business," Yang Buhui said, "This maidservant is our family's big enemy. My Father put shackles on her hands and feet exactly to prevent her from harming me. Right now the enemy is coming to attack in large numbers, this maid is going to take this opportunity to strike back."

Zhang Wuji saw that this young maid was tender and pitiful; although her appearance was rather unusual, she did not look like a fiendish person. "Miss," he said, "Do you have any intention to take this opportunity to strike back?"

The young maid shook her head. "Certainly not," she said.

Zhang Wuji said, "Buhui Meimei, did you hear? She said 'Certainly no'. Please spare her!"

"Very well," Yang Buhui said, "Since you ask on her behalf, aiyo …" suddenly her body leaned sideways and swayed, her legs shaky.

Zhang Wuji hastily reached out to support her, but suddenly he felt pain on the 'xuan shu' [hanging hinge/pivot] and 'zhong shu' [hub/center], two acupoints on his lower back, and he tumbled forward.

Turned out Yang Buhui did not like him keep stopping her; she lured him to come near, and then using the iron ring on her middle finger she struck his two major acupoints on his back to overthrow him, followed by her right hand slapped backhandedly toward the young maid's right-hand 'taiyang xue' [sun acupoint, on the temple]. But before the strike hit, Yang Buhui felt her 'dantian' fiery hot while her whole body went numb so that she did not have any choice but release the young maid's wrist in her hand. Her knees buckled and she fell down, sitting on the chair.