Nightfall... a season for the host to rest and restore their vital energy.Yet, tidings that a ghostly demon from the opposing side might slink in to slaughter at any moment surely shattered the soldiers' morale.In the deep silence of night, the slightest strange noise caused them to jump in terror, imagining all manner of apparitions; thus, they were denied a full and peaceful sleep.As a result, their combat efficiency in the morn would naturally wane.Should such rumors persist, the host's vital energy and spirit would be eroded to an alarming degree.
Though Chen Shuyuan placed no faith in ghosts, he could not help but harbor a secret apprehension regarding the enemy's stratagems and whether they sought to ambush him covertly.However, the Chief Steward stated with absolute clarity that the Sect Master need not fret over if the entity would come; the correct inquiry was when! The Junshi (Strategic Advisor) calculated that the Khitan's arcane demon would surely visit Master Chen before long.
"We need only wait in readiness," Liang Jingtian declared.The middle-aged Master merely offered a slow, slight nod of his head. He had always placed his absolute trust in the Chief Steward's analysis; that youth surnamed Liang had never made a flawed calculation.Thus, on this occasion, they prepared with iron resolve for a confrontation with this entity that resembled neither ghost nor man.
At the second watch (approximately 01:00–03:00), known as the Chou hour (丑时), the quietest and darkest season of the day, a mass of black mist abruptly manifested before the tent of Sect Master Chen Shuyuan.The torches surrounding the pavilion suddenly flickered and died.Five or six guards on vigil plummeted to the earth, unconscious.The entire area was filled with a nauseating aura, reeking like a carcass in a graveyard.
"Cover your noses! Light the torches!" the voice of Chief Steward Liang Jingtian thundered, shattering the silence.In the space of a blink, dozens of Divine Eagle soldiers, their faces veiled and torches ablaze, pounced forward to surround the pavilion, blades unsheathed.
Beholding this, the mass of black mist began to twist and distort, as if seeking a path of retreat.
"Since you have come as a guest, why do you not wait to meet your host? Is it not a breach of propriety?"The voice of Sect Master Chen Shuyuan rang out icily as he strode from the shadows, revealing that the commander-in-chief's pavilion was but a snare.
The mass of mist faltered for a heartbeat, then began to twist and distort like a cloud of dusky smoke, yet it was devoid of any scent of fire.In that instant, three retainers of the Divine Eagle Sect received the signal to advance, raining down sword strokes upon the mist simultaneously.
Astoundingly, the mist contracted and avoided the armaments with ease!Then came a series of metallic clink-clink sounds, and the three retainers slumped to the earth, their life-breath ceasing instantly.The remaining disciples recoiled in haste as the mist began to move with even greater ferocity once the encirclement loosened.
"Yin Zhang is as lethal as the rumors proclaim," Master Chen snorted.
"Double the torches! Cast the nets!" the Chief Steward thundered.
The retainers of the Divine Eagle Sect immediately doubled their number of torches, illuminating the entire area until it was as bright as day.Furthermore, at a height of three fathoms above, a net woven from steel was cast across the area.These feats were accomplished in a flash upon the command, revealing a meticulously crafted masquerade prepared in advance.
"It is no mist, but a sheet of silk!" Chen Shuyuan shouted.
Indeed, the reason Yin Zhang's frame resembled shifting mist was that he was enveloped in a thin, dusky black sheet of silk; when he moved, it appeared as spectral smoke.Had it manifested in the deep silence of night, it would have been difficult for any soul to discern the silk beneath.Now, under the brilliant radiance of the torches, his illusion was finally laid bare!
Yin Zhang, his secret unmasked, ceased his movement.He whipped the thin silk upwards, winding it into a thick coil at the back of his head, resembling a large queue.When he revealed his countenance beneath the silk, it appeared even more terrifying and soul-shattering than before!
The revealed frame showed that he was, in truth, a man of monumental stature.Even if the Vice-Master of the Left, Sikong Fu, were to stand beside him, he would still be half a head shorter than this giant of a man.Upon his head, he wore a brass mask that rendered his eyes dark and unfathomably deep.The countenance upon the brass was expressionless, yet the more one gazed at it, the more an insidious chill crept into one's soul.He was clad in a perfectly tailored leather suit, overlaid with a shawl of owl feathers across his shoulders.In his hand, he grasped a massive bronze bell attached to a steel chain, with a narrow, sharp iron spearhead installed at the opposing end. From head to toe, not a single inch of human flesh was visible, making him appear terrifyingly mysterious.Furthermore, the nauseating aura of death still permeated the air, adding an arcane mystery to this masked phantom.
"Watch your breath! He has concealed a neurotoxin within the stench," Chief Steward Liang Jingtian warned aloud.Although every soldier of the Divine Eagle Sect was currently wearing a veil dipped in anti-poison herbs, they still dared not be careless.
"Exceedingly clever... How peculiar we mortals are; when we catch the scent of foul rot, we instinctively sniff to find its source, only to fall into a snare and inhale the poison until we lose consciousness!"Sect Master Chen spoke these words as if in praise, but in truth, he was exposing Yin Zhang's stratagem to boost the morale of his retainers.He intended to show that this strange man was merely a common trickster and not a ghostly demon as he manifested himself to be.
Though Yin Zhang was caught in the middle of an encirclement, he remained unruffled, standing with a resolute and unwavering stability.As he stood thus, not a single soul dared to move.
"I will personally test the skills of this demon." Sect Master Chen Shuyuan declared, casting a sidelong glance to signal his retainers to expand the perimeter for the coming duel.
The Celestial Sword Divine Eagle drew his Golden Blade and gripped it firmly; in the space of a blink, he pounced forward with courageous valor.Yin Zhang was also no ordinary opponent; his lightness skill (Ching-gong) was exceptionally swift, gliding and swirling to dodge the blade's hacks.Simultaneously, he flicked and Whirled his metallic bell, using the other end of the chain with its sharp weapon to deliver a piercing thrust towards Master Chen in a counter-strike.
As the two supreme masters clashed, dust and sand billowed into the air, stirred by their rapid stances and the sweeping force of their internal energy.After exchanging several dozen moves, the Golden Blade and the bronze bell on its steel chain became hopelessly entangled, pulling and straining against each other.Suddenly, Chen Shuyuan released his grip on the blade, extending his fingers into a claw to lunge at his adversary's throat.Yet Yin Zhang was no ordinary opponent; he too released his bell and chain, leaning his body low until he was nearly prone against the earth.Evading the claws, he twisted and pivoted his frame back around, pressing both hands together to channel a surge of energy through his extended thumbs, tearing through the void to strike at Chen Shuyuan with relentless intensity.
"The Pang-Kunti Finger! A technique of the Tibetan Lamas!?" Chen Shuyuan snorted, yet he remained unruffled.Instead of evading, he countered offense with offense, kicking out towards Yin Zhang's lower abdomen.This move appeared as though he were willing to perish together with his foe, but Chen Shuyuan possessed iron confidence in his Divine Power Armor (Shenli Jia) and thus harbored no fear of Yin Zhang's finger technique.
Seeing this, the brass-masked man twisted away, slanting his body to the side and flicking his palm in a curve towards the nape of Chen Shuyuan's neck.The Sect Master dodged with a blur, turning his hand over to meet the strike with his claws; claw and palm collided with a resounding smack.Both masters retreated a single pace before darting forward to snatch their fallen weapons from the ground, staring each other down from a distance of some two jangs.
"The masters of the Pang-Kunti Finger who once visited the Middle Kingdom (Zhongguo) were said to be high-ranking lamas of the Serkang Monastery (གསེར་ཁང་: Golden Temple) in Tibet," Chen Shuyuan inquired. "But that was over a century ago; are you perhaps a descendant disciple of that venerable lama?"
The masked figure merely let out a cold snort, offering no reply.Suddenly, he kicked off the ground and pounced forward, Whirling his bronze bell with relentless force at Chen Shuyuan.Without a moment's delay, the Sect Master returned a counter-strike with his blade, but as the steel met the bronze bell, he realized his calculation was flawed!The bell carried almost no destructive power; instead, upon impact, Yin Zhang borrowed the momentum to propel himself backwards out of the encirclement.He pivoted mid-air, wrenching loose his misty silk shroud to envelop his frame once more.
With a sweep of his palm, he whirled the bell and flicked the sharp spear-tip at the surrounding retainers of the Divine Eagle Sect, forcing them to retreat in chaotic haste.Those too slow to dodge were either wounded or slain, and in the end, the masked phantom broke through the siege, his blurred figure weaving through the dark and vanishing with extraordinary speed!
"Do not pursue!" the Chief Steward thundered a prohibition as the retainers made as if to follow the masked figure.Thereafter, he hurried inside to give a detailed report to the Sect Master.
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