Chapter - 464 Graceful Movements of Three Pines In the Lush Green Forest (5)

Zhang Wuji further thought, "If that is the case, then although Grandfather and the others come together, we might still be unable to breakthrough these three men's interlinked minds. Could it be that in the end my Yifu is beyond deliverance? That I will lose my life today?"

As he was anxious, his focus was slightly dispersed, his shoulder was swept by Du Jie's five fingers, and the pain entered the bones and marrows. He mused, "My own death is nothing to be regretted, but Yifu's injustice must be washed clean. Yifu has always been a proud man. Since he has fallen into others' hands, he will not utter half a word to defend himself." Thereupon, in a clear voice he said, "Three Old Honorable Masters, since Wanbei has stranded over here today, my life is difficult to protect. A real man is not afraid of death. What else can I say? There is one matter I need to clarify, though …"

'Whoosh! Whoosh!' two black ropes came from left and right. Zhang Wuji pushed to the left and pull to the right, warding off the incoming force away, while continuing, "That Yuan Zhen's real civilian name was Cheng Kun, his title was Hun Yuan Pi Li Shou [Lightning Hands of the Originating Formation]. He was my Yifu, Xie Xun's master …"

The three Shaolin eminent monks noticed how he warded off their forces while spitting out words at the same time. It was a kind of internal energy cultivation they themselves were not able to master. They could not help but feel more alarmed. The three monks recognized the Ming Cult was the 'stop-at-no-evil' Devil Cult. The higher the Jiaozhu's martial art skill, the higher their capacity to harm others would be. Seeing that currently he fell into the tight encirclement and unable to escape, they decided to seize the opportunity. Only, their endeavor would need unlimited efforts. Therefore, without saying anything, they intensified the black ropes and their palms attacks.

Zhang Wuji continued talking, "Three Old Honorable Masters must understand, this Cheng Kun's Shimei [younger martial sister] was the Ming Cult's Jiaozhu Yang Dingtian's wife. Cheng Kun had some feeling toward his Shimei, thus he became jealous and eventually his jealousy turned into deep hatred toward the Ming Cult …"

Thereupon as his hands were busy fending off the three monks' stances, his mouth did not stop recounting, from the beginning to the end, how Cheng Kun schemed to destroy the Ming Cult, how he made illicit rendezvous with Mrs. Yang, which finally caused Yang Ding Tian's demise, how he faked drunkenness and molested Xie Xun's wife and killed his entire family, how he compelled Xie Xun to randomly massacre Wulin people, how he took Kong Jian Shen Seng as his master and deliberately lured him to take thirteen fists from Xie Xun, but he did not appear and in the end Kong Jian died with unsatisfied regret.

The more Du E, three monks heard, the more troubled their hearts were; the story appeared as it was cooked up by some criminals or barbarians, yet everything was logical and reasonable, everything fitted together perfectly. Du E was the first to relax his black rope.

Zhang Wuji also said, "Wanbei does not know how Yang Jiaozhu became enemies with Du E Dashi, but I am not surprised if there was a third party who incited disharmony between the two of you. Most likely this man was Yuan Zhen. There is no harm in Du E Dashi trying to recall past events. See if what Wanbei has said has some merit in it."

"Hm," Du E stopped his rope altogether. He lowered his head and pondered a moment. "That makes sense," he finally said, "In Lao Na's feud with Yang Dingtian, Cheng Kun did indeed play an important role. Afterwards, he wanted to take Lao Na as his master, but Lao Na had never taken any disciple, so I recommended him to Kong Jian Shizhi to be his disciple. Come to think about it, did he intentionally arrange all this?"

"Not only that," Zhang Wuji said, "Currently, he is coveting over the Shaolin Temple Abbot position, gathering supporters outside the Temple, and cooking up a secret conspiracy to usurp Kong Wen Shen Seng …"

He had not finished speaking when there was a loud rumbling noise as a giant boulder on the sloping hill toward their left tumbled down toward the three pine trees.

"Who's there?" Du E shouted. The back rope in his hand flew. 'Bang! Bang!' it struck the boulder right on, but it only caused several chips to fly away. From behind the boulder a shadow suddenly pounced toward Zhang Wuji with an exceptional speed. A cold ray flashed as a short blade was thrust into his throat.

This attack was so sudden, and it came when Zhang Wuji was using his full-strength to block Du Jie and Du Nan, two monks' black ropes and palm strikes. He was totally caught off guard against this sneak attack. He only felt a sharp wind in the darkness and the short blade had already reached his throat. In this critical situation he threw himself sideways, and with a 'rip' noise the sharp of the blade made a big cut on his clothes right on his chest. If he was a fraction of a second late, his chest and abdomen would be cut open.

As his attack failed, the attacker broke out of the three monks' black ropes encirclement by rolling behind the giant boulder.

"Close shave!" Zhang Wuji silently cursed. He shouted, "Wicked thief Cheng Kun! Come and deal with me personally if you dare! You want to kill me to close my mouth?"

Actually, he did not see clearly the assassin who attacked him with the blade, but he knew that person's movements were quick, his stance was fierce, his internal energy was strong, and his martial art was somewhat similar to Xie Xun, so he presumed it was none other than Cheng Kun.

Just like three great hands, the three black ropes of the Shaolin three monks reached out toward the boulder. Wrapping and heaving, they lifted the thousand-catty giant boulder and hurled it away. But Cheng Kun had already gone down the mountain far away.

"Was it really Yuan Zhen?" Du E asked.

"Of course that was him," Du Nan said.

Du E said, "If he did not have any guilty conscience, why would he …"

Suddenly from all directions came repeated shouts, as seven, eight shadows arrived. The first one shouted, "Shaolin monks became Buddha disciples in vain, you have killed too many people. Aren't you afraid the consequences of your sins? Everybody, let's go together."

Eight people, each with a weapon in their hands, charged toward the three monks. Zhang Wuji was still standing in the middle of the three monks. He saw that among these eight people, three wielded swords, each of the other five wielded either a saber or a whip. Each one of them possessed a high level or martial art skill. Immediately they fought the three monks' black ropes.

After watching for a while, Zhang Wuji recognized the stances of the three people wielding swords were similar to the Qinghai Three Swords, who were killed by the Shaolin monks several days earlier. Only their changes were more subtle and their forces stronger, far above the Qinghai Three Swords. These people must be Qinghai school's senior characters. These three people attacked Du E. The other three people fought Du Nan, and the remaining two joined hands in battling Du Jie.

Although Du Jie only fought two people, these two's martial art skill was a notch higher than the rest of the attackers. After fighting for half a day, Zhang Wuji could tell that Du Jie gradually fell under his enemies' control; while although fighting one against three, Du E seemed to be in control with his abundance internal strength.

About a dozen or so stances later, Du E was aware of the difficulty Du Jie was facing. His black rope shook, and flew toward the two men attacking Du Jie. The two men were tall and powerfully built. Their black beards floating, their movements were extremely agile. One of them held a pair of judge brushes, the other held a short pole to seal acupoints. Du E and Du Jie were several 'zhang's apart, yet Du E could feel the wind generated by these two people's weapons as if they were closed to him, proving that short weapons were inevitably more fierce than the long ones.