Chapter - 356 Broken Marriage of the Purple Dress King (19)

Jin Hua Popo maintained her composure; "Xie San Ge," she slowly said, "Your heart is so wicked. You are afraid I might have a helper, hence you get rid of her first."

Xie Xun was silent for half a day before saying, "This child is kind hearted. She pricked me with only 20, 30% of her strength, and she wrapped her finger with a handkerchief, so that the 'thousand spiders poison' did not harm me. Very good, very good. Otherwise, the 'thousand spiders poison' would come back and attack her heart; her life would be gone by now."

Listening to these words, Zhang Wuji's back broke into cold sweats; he thought his Yifu plainly stated that he was going to test Yin Li's strength, if she did indeed attack him with all her strength, wouldn't she die a violent death? The Ming Cult people were indeed cruel; even his kind Yifu was no exception. He did not know Xie Xun and Jin Hua Popo had been friends for a long time; obviously they cared of each other. He thought after talking to each other amiably, they would certainly not hold ill feeling toward each other. But with an extra help for Jin Hua Popo, Xie Xun was greatly disadvantaged; hence he wanted to get rid of her preemptively.

"Ah Li," Xie Xun asked, "Why are you so kind to me?"

"You … you are his Yifu," Yin Li said, "Besides … besides, you came here for his sake. In this world you and I are the only people who remember him."

"Ah," Xie Xun said, "I did not expect you to be this kind to my child Wuji; I nearly took your life. You come over here."

Yin Li struggled up and slowly walked to him. Xie Xun put his lips on her ear and said, "I am going to pass on to you an internal energy cultivation method, which I developed on the Bing Huo Island. It is the essence of my life-long martial art accomplishment." Without waiting for Yin Li to reply, he recited the theory from top to bottom one time.

Yin Li could not comprehend it completely; she tried desperately to memorize it. Xie Xun was afraid she could not remember, so he recited it two more times. "Have you memorized it?" he asked.

"I have," Yin Li replied.

"After you train it in five years, you will reap some benefit," Xie Xun said. "Do you know why I pass this skill on to you?"

Yin Li suddenly cried and said, "I … I know. But … but I can't."

"What do you know? Why can't you?" Xie Xun asked sternly. His left palm was on her hair, ready to strike if Yin Li's answer did not satisfy him.

Covering her face with both hands, Yin Li said, "I know you want me to find Wuji and pass this skill on to him. I know that after I master this skill, you want me to protect Wuji, so that he won't suffer under evil people's cruel hands, but … but …" After saying two 'buts' she broke into a loud cry.

Xie Xun stood up and shouted, "But what? Has my child Wuji encountered any mishap?"

Yin Li threw herself on his bosom and wept. "He … he has died six years ago in the … in the western region, he fell down a valley and died."

Xie Xun was trembling. "Are you … are you … serious?" he asked.

"I am," Yin Li was still crying. "Those Wu Lie, father and daughter, saw it with their own eyes. Seven times did I prick both of them with the 'qian zhu wan du shou' and seven times I saved their lives again, until they were suffering in between life and death. They … they could not tell me a lie."

When Yin Li recounted Zhang Wuji's death, Jin Hua Popo was going to stop her; but then she changed her mind, thinking that as Xie Xun heard his Yizi died, his mind would be troubled. True, in the coming fight he would be fiercer by 30%, but also he would be less cautious by 30%; thus increasing the chance he might fall into her steel spikes trap. Therefore, she only laughed coldly and did not say anything.

Xie Xun lifted up his head and let out a loud whistle, while tears stream down his cheeks. Seeing his Yifu and his cousin loved him this much, Zhang Wuji could not contain himself much longer. He was about to come out and make himself known, but suddenly Jin Hua Popo said, "Xie San Ge, since your Yizi, that Zhang Gongzi has already died, why would you hold on to that Tulong Saber? Please lend it to me."

Xie Xun hoarsely said, "You hid the truth from me really well. If you want to take the precious saber, you must take my life first." He gently pushed Yin Li to the side. With a hiss he used the lapel of his robe to wipe his tears, and then tore it and tossed it toward Jin Hua Popo. It was called 'ge pao duan yi' [lit. cutting off the robe, breaking friendship].

Zhang Wuji thought, "I'd better come out and tell them the truth, so that these two will not senselessly injure their 'yi qi' [friendship, code of brotherhood]" He had just finished thinking when suddenly he heard some light breathing noise from the tall grass toward his far left. The noise came from quite a distant away, plus it was very light; if not due to his extremely keen ears, Zhang Wuji would not be able to hear it. His heart was moved, "Could it be that Jin Hua Popo secretly prepared some helpers? I'd better not rashly come forward." In the meantime, he heard the gusts of wind from the Saber, as Xie Xun and Jin Hua Popo had started fighting each other.

Xie Xun brandished his precious saber around his body like a black dragon circling around him; sometimes fast, other times slow, with a divine variation. Jin Hua Popo was afraid of the Saber's sharpness; she kept moving in circles some distant away from him. Sometimes Xie Xun would deliberately open up a hole in his defense, trying to entice Jin Hua Popo to enter, but Jin Hua Popo did not buy his trick; she would wait for him to attack, then with extreme ingenuity she would evade and launch a counterattack.

These two people knew their opponent's martial art very well; victory or defeat would not be easily determined within one or two hundreds moves. Xie Xun relied on the precious saber, while Jin Hua Popo took advantage of his blindness. Each of them was trying to exploit this slight advantage to gain victory. In a way they were having a contest of wits and not of internal energy.

'Swish, swish!' suddenly two yellow rays flashed by; Jin Hua Popo launched two of her 'jin hua' [golden flower]. Xie Xun turned the Tulong Saber around; both 'golden flowers' stuck to the Saber. Turned out the golden flowers were made of pure steel plated with gold; while the Tulong Saber was cast from some 'xuan tie' [black/mysterious iron] with some magnetic property, which attract any ferrous metal.

These golden flowers were the secret projectiles that brought fame to Jin Hua Popo's name, when released, the variation was endless; even if Xie Xun's eyes were not blind he would be hard pressed to evade them. Unexpectedly, this Tulong Saber was the bane of these secret projectiles. Jin Hua Popo moved swiftly to the left and to the right, successively launching eight more golden flowers; all of them stuck to the Tulong Saber.

It was a dark night, with neither the moon nor the stars in the sky; the golden flowers on the Saber looked like several hundreds of fireflies dancing around in the air. Suddenly Jin Hua Popo let out a cough and shot sixteen, seventeen golden flowers at once, so that if Xie Xun intercepted the ones on his east, he would not be able to evade the ones on his west. Xie Xun waved his sleeve and rolled in about seven, eight golden flowers; while intercepted the other eight or so golden flowers with his Tulong Saber.