The five Taoist priests were seated in a circle while looking at the Dragon King who was in the middle, all five of them wearing gloomy expressions, and none of them speaking for a long while.
There was a futon at Gu Shenwei"s feet but he didn"t sit down. Instead, he stood silently, his hand on his saber hilt.
"You"ve got a lot of nerve coming here." One Taoist priest finally spoke out, his voice cold and ethereal as if the G.o.ds were speaking to their humble believers.
"I don"t know what I have to be afraid of," Gu Shenwei said as he stared at Dao Nian who was in front of him.
Dao Nian had finally freed himself from the panic and pain of his broken fingers. He still looked elegant but his scholarly-looking face was shrouded in a layer of frost that might never be dispelled. He kept staring at the Dragon King without saying a word throughout the conversation, hoping to use this as a means to restore his dignity that had been lost in the camp of the Land of Fragrance.
The other four Taoists took turns talking, their tone growing harsher, which made Gu Shenwei recall the old tricks played by the disciples of the Essence Pavilion.
"You"ve kidnapped our elder and injured him. It"s an outrageous sin, and even you dying a hundred times wouldn"t make up for it."
"As cultivators, we stand aloof from the worldly affairs, but the Dragon King is obsessed with evil thoughts and challenges the orthodox sects. To remove the evil spirit, we, the Jade Pure Sect, as a representative of the orthodox sects, regardless of young and old, will consider the Dragon King as the primary enemy of the world."
"The nine famous sects of the martial arts world are of the same breath and branch in the Central Plains and the Jade Pure Sect is one of them. As long as we issue a call for action, all of the sects will set out to slay the dragon."
"We could have made a request to the Khan. As long as we said something, the Dragon King would have died that day and the tens of thousands of the Dragon Army would have been destroyed."
"Do you want me to kneel down and beg for mercy?" Gu Shenwei hadn"t been threatened with such a righteous and strict speech for a long time so he listened until the Taoist priests had nothing more to say.
The five Taoist priests recognized the Dragon King"s sarcasm. "You"ve already lost the chance to repent."
"Exorcising the devil is …"
The Taoists seemed to want to start a long speech again, but Gu Shenwei had grown tired of it. He turned to Dao Nian, who had remained silent this whole time, and asked, "You"ve found the antidote?"
The tent immediately grew quiet.
Dao Nian had been forced to swallow a few pills of the Waning Moon Hall. After he came back, he, together with his junior brothers, had immediately tried to force out the toxins but had made no progress in several hours. Although the Jade Pure Sect was experienced in refining pills, the pharmacology between the Central Plains and the Western Regions was quite different and they couldn"t do anything about it in a short while.
"We can give the Dragon King a chance," said one of Dao Nian"s junior brothers.
Dao Nian still didn"t open his mouth but his facial muscles twitched slightly, apparently trying hard to control his impulses.
"Hand over the antidote, Old Man Mu, and the Grand Enlightenment Sword Sutra, and the Jade Pure Sect can forgive your insolence and even help you meet the Khan."
Even at this stage, they hadn"t forgotten the true purpose of their trip to the Norland.
"I"ll give you a chance too." Gu Shenwei uncrossed his arms and slowly turned around, "Keep your promise and take me to see the Khan, and I can let you return to the Central Plains alive."
The tall Taoist priest laughed first and then the others soon followed. The laughter ceased with Dao Nian, as he finally spoke, "We want to compete with you again. This time we won"t compete in sword or fist techniques. Only in internal energy. The winner takes all."
Well-known for its internal energy, the Jade Pure Sect had actually lost to two insidious kung fu pract.i.tioners of the Western Regions in crooked ways, which was really a great humiliation to them. So much was said that their purpose was still trying to regain their face.
"The Dragon King may invite as many companions as you need. As long as we are going to compete in internal energy, the Jade Pure Sect is not afraid of a numerical disadvantage," added one Taoist priest, whose voice sounded much less callous and ethereal, though a bit urgent.
"Okay, I agree to a rematch but you have to wait for a while. Since the Jade Pure Sect isn"t afraid of being overwhelmed by the number of opponents, I"ll go back and bring those one thousand female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance here."
The Taoist priests were all tongue-tied. What they had said was just a conventional verbal exchange between martial artists in Jianghu. Usually, even if the other side would invite friends to help, it would be no more than five people in total. They didn"t expect that the Dragon King would take their words seriously and really wanted to call a thousand people to join the fight.
"We are Taoist priests, and we do not fight with women." An excellent excuse suddenly occurred to the small, thin Taoist Dao Huo"s mind at the crucial moment.
"Hmm, you don"t compete with women, only practice kung fu with them."
"Evildoers have no right to sit in judgment of our orthodox cultivation method."
"Cut the c.r.a.p. I"m only going to compete with one person. Pick your representative now."
The five Taoist priests exchanged a glance before the tall Taoist priest stood up and said, "Dao Xiu would like to challenge the Dragon King."
The other Taoists also got up and walked to the back of Dao Xiu with their futons to make room for the compet.i.tion.
Gu Shenwei was a bit surprised. During last night"s internal energy compet.i.tion, Dao Xiu had acted recklessly and was obviously not the strongest of the five, so why was he chosen as the representative to fight with him?
A cautious Taoist priest came forward and said, "This is a fair kung fu compet.i.tion, and the loser has to accept the winner"s terms. If Jade Pure Sect loses, we are willing to risk the death penalty to take Dragon King to the Khan but the Dragon King has to hand over the antidote. If the Dragon King loses, you have to hand over the antidote, Old Man Mu, and the Grand Enlightenment Sword Sutra. Do you agree?"
"Just one more thing. I want to see the Khan tonight."
The five Taoist priests looked at each other again, nodded, and agreed in unison.
Dao Xiu formed sword hand-seals with both hands and his lips quivered as he silently chanted. In less than the time it took half an incense stick to burn, he suddenly looked up and roared, "Dragon King, take this!"
Since it was an internal energy compet.i.tion, Dao Xiu pushed his palms out slowly. The sleeves of his robe seemed to have been filled with the wind and bulged like two big drums. He had obviously exerted his full strength.
Although Gu Shenwei had combined three different sources of power into one, the Daoless Divine Power was still the foundation, which also originated from the Daoism though its training method differed from the meditation method used by the Jade Pure Sect. Gu Shenwei waved his fists to receive the blow with his feet slowly moving.
When the fist was about a foot away from the palm, the two felt like they had b.u.mped into a wall. With a momentary pause, their bodies shook at the same time. Dao Xiu didn"t move, but Gu Shenwei took a step back before moving forwards and punching out again.
Their moves were ridiculously simple, bland, and lacked any variations. For five exchanges in a row, the two weren"t able to touch each other. Gu Shenwei retreated every time but when he moved on, the distance between them would shorten.
The five elders of the Jade Pure Sect were very dissatisfied with last night"s defeat. Both the Dragon King and Shangguan Fei were very young, so their internal energy couldn"t be as powerful as that of the Taoist priests even if they had started practicing in their mother"s womb. After all, the Taoists had delicately cultivated their internal energy for several decades and the two had only practiced for no more than twenty years. The only peculiar thing that amazed them was the yin and yang energy combination, which could defeat the strong even when it itself was weak through directing the other side"s internal Qi.
After a long discussion, they found a loophole in the Three-in-One Power and formulated a strategy accordingly before they dared issue a challenge.
The tactic was very simple. They decided to change from attacking continuously with an output of internal Qi to attacking sporadically with a small flash of internal energy. Although it was less powerful this way, they could avoid being controlled by the enemy.
The method worked. Although Gu Shenwei could quickly dissolve a single strand of internal Qi, his technique of using the yin and yang energy to direct the enemy"s internal Qi lost its effect once the other side"s internal Qi disappeared. The fight had turned into a pure compet.i.tion between their internal energy reserves.
If it went on like this, Gu Shenwei would lose for sure.
Compared to other internal energy manuals, the Daoless Divine Power was actually easy to practice and one could achieve notable results in a short time. Gu Shenwei"s progress was even faster because he had unblocked his meridians in the Essence Pavilion. The main problem was that his training time had been too short. He had practiced the Daoless Divine Power for five years and the Three-in-One Power only for several days. So, he was inferior to the elder of the Jade Pure Sect in a pure internal energy compet.i.tion.
His solution was, therefore, to reach for a yard after taking an inch until he could touch the other side"s palm and force Dao Xiu to continuously revolve his internal Qi so that he could make use of it.
However, the deceptively reachable distance was hard to cross. Gu Shenwei had been stalled in each of his give attempts to take a step forward. The internal Qi of Dao Xiu was becoming more and more powerful which came and went in an instant together with the flaws.
In the next three attacks, Gu Shenwei could no longer shorten the distance by an inch. The other four Taoist priests saw it clearly and were all beaming with joy.
Solemn-faced, Dao Xiu still acted cautiously even when he already held victory in his hands. He didn"t rush to make a move even if he found a great opportunity to attack.
This kung fu compet.i.tion was of great importance. Dao Xiu kept reminding himself to put away his usual recklessness.
Only in one case would he lose his coolness: If he were on the verge of death.
The Dragon King unsheathed his saber, or at least Dao Xiu thought that the Dragon King was going to draw his saber. He saw the Dragon King grip the saber hilt with his right hand, and he knew how fast the cut would come and that he couldn"t stop it no matter how powerful his internal energy was.
"This is against the rules; we agreed to not use a saber or sword."
Dao Xiu wanted to say this but his instincts told him that placing his hopes for survival on a compet.i.tion rule would be a vain attempt. His body also became uncontrollable with his legs trying to move to dodge and his hands intending to fight to the end.
In a moment"s hesitation, the Dragon King"s attack arrived again and he was actually not using his saber but his fist.
Gu Shenwei had played a little trick by pretending to draw his saber but in fact, his finger hadn"t touched the hilt at all.
The fist and the palm finally b.u.mped into each other. In the face of both yin and yang internal Qi, Dao Xiu could no longer use his tactics now.
Gu Shenwei had won a small victory and immediately entangled his internal energy with the opponent"s.
After last night"s compet.i.tion, not only had he enhanced his internal energy but he had also figured out many ways to use it such as to "control" instead of "guide." Gu Shenwei had finally gotten the hang of it. After careful and slow testing, he could not only lead Dao Xiu"s internal Qi to flow in his meridians but could also force it to turn around and attack its master.
Gu Shenwei wasn"t in a hurry. In the Western Regions and the Norland, it was rare for him to meet a master with powerful internal energy to "help" him practice the Three-in-One Power. If possible, he wished he could keep these five old Taoists and use them to practice his kung fu every day.
But before long, Gu Shenwei found that he had also made a mistake. He should have fought a quick battle because long delay always caused new trouble.
All of a sudden, Dao Xiu"s internal Qi surged, not a mere once or twice fold increase, but actually six or seven fold.
With the yin and yang internal energy combination, Gu Shenwei could defeat strong opponents with a relatively weak internal energy pool, but all the skill in the world was useless in front of absolute power.
In just an instant, the powerful internal Qi followed Gu Shenwei"s meridians and rushed towards his Dantian like whirlwind sweeping across the ground.
The result of the kung fu compet.i.tion was no longer victory or defeat but life or death.
Dao Xiu"s face grew red and gradually revealed a grim smile. He didn"t want to kill the Dragon King but rather wanted to render him powerless; a dead man was useless but a powerless man would be at his mercy.
Between the Five Hole Punch and Grand Enlightenment Sword Sutra, the Jade Pure Sect would soon have both the best fist technique and swordsmanship in the world.
Behind him, the other four Taoist priests were frozen like puppets, expressionless and seemingly unaware of the imminent victory of Dao Xiu.
Gu Shenwei finally understood that what he was fighting was not Dao Xiu alone but all five Taoists of the Jade Pure Sect.
And this time they were not fighting in a hurry but were well-prepared to have combined five strands of internal Qi into one. They wanted to sweep the Dragon King"s internal energy with an overwhelming force in one go.
When the pressure went beyond the limit, the frosty Qi that had been dormant in Gu Shenwei was stimulated and began to stir.