Chapter - 373 East And West are Forever APart Like Orion And Antares (7)

In his utmost delight Xie Xun stood up, then knelt down on the small boat's deck; "Subordinate Jin Mao Shi Wang Xie Xun pays his respect to Jiaozhu," he said.

Zhang Wuji hastily also knelt down to return his respect. "Yifu," he said, "Please don't be overly courteous. Yang Jiaozhu had left an order for Yifu to take the interim Jiaozhu position. It is very hard for your child to bear this heavy responsibility. With the Heaven's blessing Yifu has returned, safe and sound; it is truly our Cult's good fortune. As soon as we reached the Central Earth, I am going to ask Yifu to take over the Jiaozhu position."

Xie Xun sadly said, "Your Yifu has returned, but his eyes are blind. So you cannot actually say 'safe and sound'. How can a blind man take the leadership of the Ming Cult? Miss Zhao, didn't you say you have two things you do not understand?"

"I want to ask Miss Xiao Zhao," Zhao Min said, "Who taught you the 'qi men ba gua' [strange/wonderful gate, eight trigrams] and 'yin yang wu xing' [yin and yang, five elements] techniques? You are very young, how did you know all those extraordinary skills?"

Xiao Zhao replied, "They are my family heritage. It is not worth Junzhu Niang-niang's [Princess] attention."

"Who is your honorable father?" Zhao Min asked further, "The daughter is this good, your father and mother must be world famous masters."

"My father has buried his name and lives in seclusion," Xiao Zhao replied, "Why did Junzhu bother to ask? Could it be that you are going to cut my fingers to force me to show you my martial art?" She was young, but surprisingly did not show the slightest degree of submission toward Zhao Min. By bringing up the finger cutting affair, it was obvious that she was trying to incite Zhou Zhiruo's anger; pulling her to her side to face a common enemy.

Zhao Min simply smiled; she turned her head toward Zhang Wuji and said, "Zhang Gongzi, that night we met at the small inn in Dadou for the second time, Ku Toutuo Fan Yao came to take his leave from me. When he saw Miss Xiao Zhao, he said two sentences; what were those?"

Zhang Wuji had already forgotten this matter; now that she brought it up, he had to think for a moment before answering, "Ku Dashi [Reverend Ku] seemed to say that Xiao Zhao's appearance looks very much like someone he knew."

"Correct!" Zhao Min said, "Can you guess to whom did Ku Dashi think Miss Xiao Zhao look like?"

"How can I guess?" Zhang Wuji said.

Throughout this discussion, the small boat was approaching the LingSheIsland. They that saw a row of ships were moored on the west of the Island; there was a large red blazing fire painted on each one of their main sails, there was also a black ribbon hanging from each sail. Zhang Wuji wrinkled his eyebrows and said, "The Persian Central Cult dispatches their armada; the number of people coming in must be a lot."

Zhao Min said, "Let us take this boat to the back of the island and land on a secluded place. Don't let them see us yet."

"Yes!" Zhang Wuji nodded his head.

He was only rowing for three, four 'zhang's when suddenly from one of the ships came a bugle sound, 'whoo, whoo …' followed by 'bang, bang' two explosions, as two cannonballs were fired away. One fell to the left of the small boat, the other to its right side, creating two water columns. The small boat was shaken and nearly turned over.

Someone called out from the ship, "Quickly row the boat over here; if you don't obey, we are going to fire again."

Zhang Wuji silently groaned, knowing that with these two salvos the enemy deliberately demonstrated their ability to shoot accurately; if they could hit two sides of the boat, then with the distance so close, they would easily hit the boat. Once the boat capsized, none of the six people onboard would survive. He had no choice but slowly row the boat toward the ship while the three cannons from the big ship slowly turned, following them around.

When the small boat reached the ship, a rope ladder was let down. Zhang Wuji said, "Let us go up and try to seize the ship."

Xie Xun groped around for the ladder and he was the first to go up. Without saying anything Zhou Zhiruo stooped down to pick Yin Li up, and then climbed to the ship, followed Xiao Zhao. Carrying Zhao Min in his arm, Zhang Wuji was the last to go aboard the ship.

They saw the people on the ship were all blonde haired with blue eyes, their statures tall, they were Persian foreigners; but Liuyun Shi and the other two were actually not among them. One of them, who spoke Chinese, asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Zhao Min replied, "We are shipwrecked; and are looking for help."

That Persian was half believing and half doubting; he turned his head around and spoke several sentences in Persian toward someone sitting on a chair on the deck, who seemed to be their leader. That leader mumbled some instructions. Suddenly Xiao Zhao jumped and sent out a palm strike toward that leader. The leader was startled; he dodged sideways, grabbed the chair, and smashed it toward Xiao Zhao.

Zhang Wuji was taken by surprise; not anticipating Xiao Zhao to make her move this soon. He moved three feet sideways and stretched out his fingers to strike the leader's acupoint. The several dozen Persian sailors aboard were immediately thrown into confusion; they unsheathed their weapons and surrounded them. Although these people knew martial art, their skills were far below those of the Cloud and Wind emissaries.

Supporting Yin Li with his right hand, Zhang Wuji's left hand struck to the east and slapped to the west. Xie Xun unsheathed his Tulong Saber; Zhou Zhiruo brandished her sword; together with Xiao Zhao whose movements were quick, in a short period of time they struck down dozens of Persians. More than ten people fell down on the deck, either died or seriously injured by the blades; about seven, eight people fell down to the sea below, while the rest of them were immobilized because their acupoints were sealed.

Instantly the sea was full with people shouting and bugle sounding, as the other Persian ships moved to surround them, with the people on board ready to attack. Zhang Wuji picked up the leader and jumped to the ship's side. "Don't you dare come over, or I'll hack this man to his death," he shouted loud and clear.

The people on the other ships shouted and yelled. Zhang Wuji did not understand what they were saying, but seeing that nobody jumped to their ship, he believed the man he captured must be someone in a high position, so that the enemy hesitated and did not dare to attack rashly. Zhang Wuji jumped back down to the deck.

He barely laid that leader down when he suddenly heard a swishing noise from behind, as a weapon was coming down on his back. Quickly he evaded sideways and kicked back; only to feel that his foot had struck a Sheng Huo Ling, while from the left another Sheng Huo Ling swept horizontally. Zhang Wuji groaned inwardly, resenting the fact that the Wind, Cloud, and Moon Emissaries have arrived this quickly. "Everybody, retreat back to the cabin," he shouted, while lifting up the leader in his hands to parry the Sheng Huo Ling.

Huiyue Shi hastily pulled her attack back, but because of this abrupt movement, her lower body was exposed; Zhang Wuji swept with his leg and almost hit her calf. Liuyun Shi and Miaofeng Shi attacked together from the sides, forcing Zhang Wuji to withdraw his kick.