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They stood in attention to salute Kou Zhong first, their eyes emitted reverence and admiration expression, then one of them stepped forward and saluted, he said, “Er Xiaojie [second miss; I thought it was ‘Third Miss’ in the past?] is waiting for Shaoshuai inside the hall. Shuxia [subordinate] Song Bang, paying his respect to Shaoshuai!”

Kou Zhong’s heart has already flown into the hall; really wishing that he could take three steps in one, he was rushing toward the door, yet he could not simply ignore Song Bang. He grabbed both of Song Bang’s hands and said with a smile, “I am sorry to trouble gentlemen brothers a lot!”

The crowd responded in chorus, “Being able to work for Er Xiaojie and Shaoshuai, it is indeed our honor and glory.”

Kou Zhong was startled by their orderly and uniformed response, as if they already knew beforehand that he was going to say that and already prepared a proper answer.

Song Bang spoke in low voice, “Shaoshuai, please come in to see Er Xiaojie.”

Suddenly Kou Zhong’s heart was thumping inside his chest; leaving Song Bang, he walked over toward the entrance, the Song Family troops split to both sides to let him pass.

Crossing over the threshold, the reflection of Song Yuzhi’s elegant and noble beautiful image entered his eyes and heart. This beautiful woman was standing in front of the window, with her back to him, gazing at the delicate scenery of the garden outside the window. She was wearing green flowery head covering wrapped around her hair, tied with a crimson embroidered belt. On her body was powder green turndown collared gown, and milky white tight-fitting-sleeved upper outer garment, and dark blue, white and gold, tri-colored striped underpants, black leather boots, heroic beauty and bold girdle ornaments, yet did not lose her female charm.

Kou Zhong’s feeling was like a wanderer leaving his home village and departing his well, making his way outside in the world for a long time, walking everywhere over the ten thousand crags and torrents, after suffering and withstanding all kinds of temptations, finally returning to the already-separated-for-a-long-time tender wife’s side, although at best Song Yuzhi could only be considered his betrothed.

With fear and trepidation, Kou Zhong lightly stepped behind Song Yuzhi’s fragrant body, overcome with intense urge to wrap her inside his bosom, or at least to grab her touching fragrant shoulders, which looked like they were carved with a knife, but in the end, he was afraid to offend her, to displease her; without any better option, he spoke softly, “Zhizhi! I am here!”

Her tone tranquil, Song Yuzhi said, “Kou Zhong! Ay! Kou Zhong, do you know how much grief has your running amok caused me?”

Kou Zhong’s tiger-body shook severely, in the end he could not resist reaching out to put his hand on her fragrant shoulder, brimming with abundant youthfulness, energy and elasticity, the touching fragrance from her hair, her body, assailed his nostrils, he could no longer speak; originally he really wanted to tell her how much he missed her, but he had ten thousand speeches, a thousand words without any way of expressing it.

Song Yuzhi struggled lightly to get free, as if she wanted to break away from his palm, but naturally it was of no use. The fact was that she did not really want to break free. She only spoke indifferently, “Do you know where I was coming from?”

This moment, other than Song Yuzhi, there was nothing else in Kou Zhong’s heart. His heart bewitched, his body intoxicated, he said, “Didn’t you come from Lingnan?”

Song Yuzhi lightly said, “Yuzhi is not married to you yet, you can’t be rude to me.”

Kou Zhong acted as if he was awakened from a beautiful dream, hastily he let go of both hands, and said with apologetic smile, “Yuzhi, please don’t be angry, it’s just that meeting again after a long period of separation that I was unable to restrain my emotions!”

Song Yuzhi spoke indifferently, “Move a bit away for me!”

Although what she said was impolite, but the tone of her voice was gentle and soft, clearly it was not because she was angry in her heart, therefore, Kou Zhong’s feeling was not hurt, he even felt that being able to touch her fragrant shoulder without suffering severe responsibility, the distance between him and the beautiful woman before his eyes has been greatly pulled closer. Hastily he took two steps back and spoke cheerfully, “I am moving a bit away. Where has Zhizhi actually come from?”

Song Yuzhi slowly turned her tender body around to face this man, with whom love and hate were difficult to differentiate. Her lucid and elegant jade countenance was as quiet as still water, she said, “I came from Hainan.”

Shaken, Kou Zhong blurted out, “What?”

Song Yuzhi rolled her eyes at him. Her eyes clearly said, ‘It’s all because of what you did’, these reproaching words, yet the tone of her voice remained tranquil. She still spoke without emotion, “After you left Lingnan, Die set out to execute the plan that has been drawn up for a long time. First, he forced Lin Shihong to retreat and defend Junyang Lake. In this aspect, he had Zhi Shu [uncle] to be in charge, by forming alliance with Xiao Xian to deal with Lin Shihong, using all kinds of techniques to strike and weaken Lin Shihong’s military power and production capability.”

Kou Zhong stretched out his big hand and said, “How about we sit down and talk about it?”

Song Yuzhi faintly fixed her gaze on him a bit, and then she shook her head and said, “I am happy to stand here and talk. Once I am done, I want to leave immediately.”

Kou Zhong pulled back his hand and spoke in astonishment, “You want to leave immediately? Why come and go in such a hurry? How could I be willing to part with you and let you go?”

The color of rose-tinted clouds at sunset rose up on Song Yuzhi’s jade cheeks; with a bit of determination in her voice she spoke after a short pause, “I go when I want to go, dog’s mouth will not grow ivory.”

What Kou Zhong felt, however, was the delight of unmarried husband and wife playing tricks on each other; he smiled and said, “Don’t scare me, all right? Why did Zhizhi go to Hainan Island? Aren’t Huang Gongcuo and your Song Family the two cannot exist together? This time I went to Chang’an, I did not see him; I was wondering if he went back to Hainan Island?”

Song Yuzhi spoke in displeasure, “We came invited.”

Severely shaken, Kou Zhong said, “What?”

Song Yuzhi sighed and said, “When you went to see Die that year, you ought to think about the consequences. Nanhai Pai and our Song Family’s strength are widely different. Die was willing to tolerate Huang Gongcuo, it was simply because he refrained from shooting the rat for fear of breaking the vases. But now that Die has decided to help you contending for hegemony over the world, he no longer has any misgivings. In the open, he was mobilizing his troops to the north, but in the dark, he deployed his troops with thunderbolt-failed-to-reach-the-ears technique to attack and occupy Hainan. When our fleet entered Zhuya [lit. Pearl Cliff, historic name for Hainan Island], Huang Gongcuo and the others were still in a dream, we attacked them that they had no time to deal with it and fled in panic. Now Hainan and the neighboring coastal counties are all under our control, in direct threat to Shen Faxing and Li Zitong. Our fleet is less than ten days voyage from here. But this will only make the situation even more tense, forcing Li Shimin to launch blitzkrieg strategy against Luoyang, plus he will try to pull you up by the roots before we go up north.”

Hearing that, Kou Zhong was both alarmed and delighted, his scalp went numb, for the first time he deeply felt and understood that the Li Clan’s fear toward Song Que was absolutely not shooting without aiming, or a baseless imagination. Song Que was certainly an expert in strategy and military law, his technique in confusing the enemy had reached perfection even more, he tricked everybody into thinking that he was still assembling military forces and mobilizing the troops in preparation to go up north, while without the slightest warning he launched special attack toward the Hainan Island, driving away the Nanhai Pai controlling Hainan.

Hainan Island fell into Song Que’s hands, it was tantamount to he acquired the power to control the sea south of the Yangtze River. Whether it was Li Zitong or Shen Faxing’s navy, it would be difficult to forcefully shake the continuously-preserving-and-nurture-their-spirit, preserving-their-strength Song Family’s fleet. Moreover, Song Que could come and go as he wished; it was only the moment that the Song Family’s fleet was at the door that the enemy woke up with a start. In term of overall strategy, occupying the Hainan Island was a brilliant-beyond-compare marvelous move.

The pros and cons of this matter to his plan were hard to distinguished. Li Zitong might be scared that he would hole up and refuse to come out, or he might seize the golden opportunity while Song Que had not steadied his disposition of troops in Hainan to take a risk out of desperation, by going up north to attack his Shao Shuai Army, so that together with Li Shimin’s main forces, they could withstand Song Que.

Song Yuzhi spoke softly, “At present Die is planning on dispatching the troops to deal with Shen Faxing, this time Yuzhi received his order to come here, to urge you, whatever the case, to defend Pengliang, to wait for him. After defeating Shen Faxing, he would coordinate with you to attack Jiangdu, separately from the north and south via the water and land, two routes. According to our estimate, at most, Shen Faxing can only hold out up to half a year, by the warm-spring, blooming-flower next year, I wish that we can meet again in Jiangdu!”

Kou Zhong’s heart sank straight down to the bottom; could his Shao Shuai Army hold out for up to half a year? Song Yuzhi’s last remark was not only full of friendly regard, it also carried the implication that she was not optimistic about him and therefore had a little bit of taste of being separated in life and death, which made all sorts of feelings welling up in his heart.

Song Yuzhi hung down her small cicada head, she spoke lightly, “I am very tired, you take a good care of yourself, Yuzhi’s leaving!”

Kou Zhong grabbed Song Yuzhi’s fragrant shoulder and anxiously said, “Zhizhi, how could you say you are leaving and just leave like that?”

Song Yuzhi did not struggle, but there was some kind of both mentally and physically exhausted apathetic facial expression; she spoke without any emotion, “Why can’t I?”

Stunned, Kou Zhong replied, “We haven’t seen each other for so long, could it be that other than work-related matters, there is no other things to talk about?”

Song Yuzhi’s beautiful eyes revealed a hint of distressed, exasperated expression, she spoke softly, “You, menfolk’s brain, apart from contending for hegemony and the great undertaking of unifying the world, does it still contain other things? To take a good care of your Shao Shuai Army should be the only thing you are currently thinking of, Yuzhi has nothing more to say to you. Die wants me to marry you, I will marry you according to the conditions Die has agreed with you; do you understand?”

It was as if Kou Zhong was struck by lightning; in his severe shock, he let go of his hands and staggered backward, his countenance turned deathly pale, the helpless feeling of every hope turns to dust welled up in his heart.

Song Yuzhi spoke with a light sigh, “If this were the time of peace and prosperity, we might occasionally meet by chance in Jianghu, Yuzhi might fall head over heel for you. Too bad both the time and the place do not fit; what else can I say to you? Ever since you proposed marriage to Zhi Shu for the first time, what little good opinion Yuzhi had for you was crushed thoroughly. What I detest the most is business-deal-style marriage with conditions, yet it clearly came from the mouth of a man that I admired. Kou Zhong, have you ever tried to understand me? The way of thinking in Yuzhi’s heart, do you have the slightest amount of interest to know? You can’t think of me as an object and a target of conquest, just like Jiangdu or Chang’an, only consider Yuzhi as an accessory to war.”

Hearing that, Kou Zhong was as dumb as a wooden chicken. Upon self-inspection, although he was concerned over her, he showed tenderness to her, but he had never cared about of the way of thinking in her fragrant heart; for instance, why she opposed to the Song Family striving for the world, or things like that. He just took it for granted that she liked him.

Song Yuzhi took two steps forward, reached out with her slender hand and lightly caressed his face, she spoke in gentle voice, “Shaoshuai, please take a good care of yourself, no need to see me off!”

Finished speaking, she smiled sadly and then left without waiting for his response.

The Fire Girl and Water Girl’s dead bodies lay face-down outside the valley, separated by more than ten zhang distance. The intensity of the battle at that time could be easily imagined. Various people of Da Ming Zun Jiao were fighting and running away at the same time; the two girls, in order to protect their Jiao Zun [religious leader] blocked Shi Zhixuan, and under his ruthless hand, mercilessly their jade life fragrantly disappeared.

The two men searched along the way. About half a li later they saw two male corpses; surprisingly they were the Five-kind of Demons’ Jiu Lingzhi and Yang Mo. By each corpse’s side, there was a set of broken and smashed crossbow and arrows. Not only that, there were crossbows and arrows lying around everywhere.

Hou Xibai examined the fatal injuries of the two men, his conclusion was, “Indeed it was Shi Shi’s hands; on the surface, there is no bruise, but their five viscera were completely shattered. Just one fatal blow each.”

Xu Ziling recalled the tragic death of You Niaojuan in Chang’an; nodding his head in agreement, he said, “They must have received Xu Kaishan’s order to prepare an ambush and provide support in here, but they lost their lives in trying to stop Shi Zhixuan. Let’s split up and search separately, we’ll meet again in half a sichen here. Although Da Ming Zun Jiao people commit many and varied evil deeds, but there’s nothing good to argue with dead people, we will let them be buried and at rest in here.”

Kou Zhong collapsed into a chair a corner of the inner hall, his back sank into the pillow at the back of the chair, as he stared blankly at the beam of the room overhead. For the first time he felt deeply remorseful of his past conducts.

Shame, self-blame, and regret attacked him together, his determination and ignorance have thoroughly hurt the person he loved!

He was only selfishly thinking about his beliefs, but he never put himself in her shoes and thought about them from her angle and her standpoint.

Outside the window, the pitch-black clouds were hanging low in the sky, as if it was a reflection of his depressed mood! An unnamed sorrow pressed down on his body and mind like ten-thousand-jin heavy boulder. Just to speak a word, or move a finger, or even to ponder about his relationship with Song Yuzhi, which had developed into such plight – would consume the entire strength in his body, as well as everything that he accomplished to this point.

He could perhaps obtain her body, but he could never obtain her fragrant heart. So what if he won all the battles under the heavens? He would lose her forever. These thoughts suffocated him, made him feel extremely lonely. In this moment, nothing could make him feel that it had any meaning, let alone heal the wounds deep inside his heart.

Self-blame, like countless sharp, pointy needles pierced his heart. The seemingly always strong willpower and self-control, all of a sudden disappeared, practically nothing was left, his entire body felt weak without any strength.

Xuan Yong’s voice came from the main door, “Reporting to Shaoshuai, Rongyang fell!”

Kou Zhong repeated the four-character ‘Rongyang fell’ [rong yang shi xian] words in his heart twice; by the time he repeated it for the third time, his mind cleared up, he sat up straight.

Xuan Yong and Luo Qifei came to his presence, they looked at him, deeply worried and sick at heart.

Kou Zhong struggled hard to rouse his spirit, he said, “I am all right. Sit down, let’s talk.”

The two separately sat to his left and right. Luo Qifei said, “The news just arrived. We already guessed that Wei Lu might surrender, but we never thought that he would surrender this quickly. I hear Wang Shichong sent his great general Zhang Zhi to Rongyang to deliver a letter, ordering Wei Lu to dispatch his army to reinforce Hulao, who would have thought that unexpectedly Wei Lu prepared an ambush and captured Zhang Zhi and his men alive, and then he opened the gate to welcome Li Shiji into the city.”

Hearing that, Kou Zhong was a bit more clear-headed, his mind turned back to the grim battlefield. He remembered that Wei Lu was the defending general of Rongyang, and Zhang Zhi was the general qualified to deliver Wang Shichong’s imperial edict for him. Knitting his brows, he said, “Guancheng, Rongyang, one after another they fell without even fighting, potentially Zhangzhou will follow; how is Wang Xuanying going to deal with it?”

Luo Qifei replied, “Wang Xuanying is afraid of being attacked by the enemy on all sides, he retreated without fighting, and returned to Hulao to hide over there.”

Kou Zhong mused inwardly that he must have walked over misfortune way today, all the news entering his ears were bad news. Shaking his head, he sighed and said, “I know Wang Xuanying, this useless fellow very well; he absolutely does not have the courage and determination to defend Hulao to the death. His Niang’s! We’d better carry out our grand plan to march our army to deceive the enemy sooner than planned. Laotianye has always taken care of me, Kou Zhong. I hope he, the Senior, still persevere with it and does not change to this day.”

Suddenly he knew that no matter how broken-hearted and frustrated he was, he could not let his personal mood affect his Shao Shuai Army, because it concerned the hope and the life of the people who cherished, and gave their allegiance to, him.

Oh, how he wished that Xu Ziling was by his side!

The two men washed their stained hands in the creek, their hearts were heavy, not long ago the Fire Girl and the Water Girl’s youthfulness was still shining, yet this moment, together with Jiu Lingzhi and Yang Mo, they lay buried under the loess inside the forest outside of the valley. Although the other side were the enemy, how could their hearts be without emotional stirring?

They searched around the nearly ten li area in the vicinity, but did not find anything anymore. Perhaps Xu Kaishan, Xinnaya, Rong Jiaojiao and Duan Yucheng, four persons had successfully escaped to the wilderness. With their martial art skill, were it not for Xu Kaishan and Duan Yucheng’s internal injury had not been healed, even in frontal confrontation with Shi Zhixuan, they should have the power to stake it all.

More and more Xu Ziling felt how brilliant and terrifying Shi Zhixuan was, no wonder both the orthodox and heretic, two ways, in the world were so afraid of him!

Through these two battles, Da Ming Zun Jiao’s Benevolent Mother Shan Mu died by violence, the Five-kind of Demons only remained one Xinnaya. The casualties were disastrous, undoubtedly their plan to enter and invade the Central Plains would suffer a big blow, in the short term, it would be difficult to pull themselves together.

Hou Xibai went over to a big rock by the stream to sit down. Looking up at the fascinating deep black starry night above the small valley, he sighed and said, “Shi Shi must have An Long assisting him, otherwise Da Ming Zun Jiao people would not have been defeated that quickly, that tragically.”

Xu Ziling nodded but did not say anything. Taking off his riding boots, he immersed his bare feet into the water, the cool feeling calmed his fluctuating mood down, again he heard the interwoven net of the sound of the autumn birds singing and the insects buzzing inside the valley.

Hou Xibai looked at him, he frowned and wondered aloud, “Where exactly has Qingxuan gone?”

Xu Ziling shook his head indicating that he was unable to guess.

Hou Xibai asked, “That guy whom you call Yucheng, what kind of person is he? He seems to be Ziling’s former acquaintance, his swordsmanship is extremely brilliant.”

Thereupon Xu Ziling explained his relationship with Duan Yucheng, and then in conclusion he said, “Before, even though he left us, we all still have a bit of friendship affection, but after this battle, any remaining feeling should be obliterated completely; only enmity remains. Naturally I can’t possibly hate him, but I am afraid he won’t think that way. The hatred will spread like forest fire until everything is burned to the ground!”

Hou Xibai nodded and said, “He must be a person with extreme ideology, once he has a firm view on something, nobody can change him. For me, religion can only be appreciated but must not be engrossed in. When religious thought become some kind of restriction, people will become slaves to that kind of thought.”

Smiling bitterly, Xu Ziling said, “That thought of yours, you ought to keep it for yourself, you must never, ever, speak it out, otherwise it will cause a storm. For those with conviction, their belief in itself is some kind of freedom from worldly worries [Buddhism], it is self-sufficient, not something false that he is seeking.”

Hou Xibai said with a sneer, “There is only one truth, yet there are so many different beliefs in the world, which one is true? Which one is false? Ay! Thinking about these things will only give us headache.”

Xu Ziling mused inwardly that precisely because everybody believes differently that there were so many disputes in the world.

Hou Xibai sat cross-legged properly, and then he closed his pair of eyes and said, “How many days is Ziling going to wait here?”

Remembering Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling sighed inwardly. He shook his head blankly and said, “I don’t know. If I cannot see Qingxuan, I won’t feel at ease.” Suddenly his heart moved, he turned his eyes toward the forest path.

Hou Xibai also opened his handsome eyes; without blinking at all, he looked in the same direction.

Under the illumination of the moon and the star, Shi Qingxuan – wearing dark green and black hood on her head, cream-colored upper outer garment with tight-fitting sleeves, embroidered flowery tied-together sleeves, her coat was milky yellow short jacket, jade-green shawl, cinnabar-colored long skirt, tied to her waist with blue and white brocade belt, with pointy-end shoes on her feet, disturbingly heroic and graceful, leisurely and calm – was coming back.

She did not cover her jade countenance, neither she changed her appearance. Her gait was light and graceful, as if she was the Lingbo Fairy [lit. approaching the wave/the storm; sorry, the only reference I can find is related to some kind of computer game] descending to the mortal world from the deepest, darkest starry sky. In her hand she was carrying a ‘fine black hair to fasten the basket, fine branches to sew the basket’ mulberry basket [the first two ‘baskets’ are ‘enclosing frame made of bamboo, wire, etc.’ or ‘cage’, the last ‘basket’ is as in basketball]. Following her appearance, the small valley seemed to be immediately enveloped in a burst of strongly-fragrant, sweet-smelling and clean air.

Greatly delighted, the two men stood up to greet her.

Hou Xibai even looked at her with his eyes emitting strange light; were it not for he carried no brush and ink with him, he would have already taken up his brush to record this matchlessly touching moment on his Fan of Beauty.

Shi Qingxuan’s countenance was tranquil, it did not express joy, it did not express displeasure. Her beautiful eyes unenthusiastically swept over these two uninvited guests in front of the door of her house, finally her gaze came to the opposite bank of the stream, her eyes fell onto Xu Ziling’s face, revealing a hint of smile like the moonlight breaking through the layers of clouds, she spoke gently, “It’s been too long! You only found out and came today?”