Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates
Chapter 48: Astounding Twist of Event
With a loud thud, Zhong Shan’s double flew away, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The double hit the crystal wall with a heavy thud, Eternal fell on the ground. Though he was sneak attacked, he knew that the fight was over. He had figured that Chujiu would interfere when he decided on mutually killing each other.
Chujiu would have to do something when both of them were wounded.
Indeed, just as they were going to chop each other’s arm off, Chujiu rushed to the middle of them and struck the double with his palm sending him careening into the crystal wall.
After the palm attack, Chujiu immediately supported the young man.
The young man resentfully glanced at Chujiu, but didn’t blame him. Chujiu had no choice but to intervene at that moment.
The young man lightly touched his wound a few times, then he suddenly turned to the double.
“You’re very strong. The strongest I have met so far among people at the same level as I. We’re evenly matched in the fight today. I’ll challenge you in the future, don’t disappoint me then.” The young man sheathed the sword as he spoke..
The double slowly got up, keeping his eyes on the young man. He put his Eternal away and showed a weak smile with blood still on the corner of his mouth, “I won’t!”
“I’m Jianao. I believe that you’ll become famous around the world sooner or later. We’ll fight then.” The young man spoke sincerely. Obviously, the young man rarely told anybody his name so solemnly.
“I bid you farewell.” The double nodded and left through one of the gates.
The double immediately went into another gate after coming out clutching his shoulder all the while. It was quite empty inside the other gate, all the Spirit Stones were gone. That wasn’t a concern to the double, he turned into a shadow, still gripping the wound on his shoulder, and sank into the ground, disappearing entirely.
The double had left, Jianao and Chujiu remained. Jianao did breathing exercises for a while before he slowly opened his eyes, as Chujiu stood guard next to him.
Jianao frowned, looked at Chujiu, and asked, “Chujiu, what sword form was Zhong Shan using?”
“I don’t know. However, his comprehension may have exceeded the scope of the sword form he’s learning. Just like young master, he has blended in his own creation. It’s no longer any one of the sword forms.” Chujiu said after pondering for a while.
“There’s even a sword form that you don’t know about.” The young man seemed concerned.
“Not only that, his body movement was quite bizarre, no, ghostly. I think you should have sensed it more than I did since you fought against him.” Chujiu said with knotted eyebrows.
“It’s true. His ghostly body movement was too……” Jianao couldn’t come up with a proper name for it after thinking for quite a while.
“Young master, do you want me to check his background?” Chujiu asked.
“There’s no need. Such a talented man, he’ll be famous in the future. Today, we had a draw, in the future I’ll challenge him again. We’ll see how much stronger he’ll be by then.” Jianao replied after pondering.
“Yes.” Chujiu nodded.
On top of the mountain, Princess Qianyou looked around. Ah Er hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary yet. But Princess Qianyou sensed something was amiss. After Zhong Shan came out from a gate while holding his shoulder, Princess Qianyou strongly felt that there was something wrong.
She had a strange, uneasy feeling.
Suddenly, Princess Qianyou realized that the three women who went with Zhong Shan had disappeared? Right before they went into the Shang Gate, he purposely held both girls’ hands so they would not get lost. What was going on now then? Zhong Shan had discarded those two girls?
He didn’t discard them, those three women never showed up again after they went into that gate. Disappeared? Why did they disappear? How could they disappear? Why was Zhong Shan the only one reappearing in front of everyone?
Princess Qianyou fell into deep thought before speaking.
“Something’s wrong. Let’s go~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”
Princess Qianyou abruptly called out and flew into the air. Mr. Shuijing, Gu Lin, and the others were surprised by the suddenness, but they all obediently followed her, flying towards the gate in the distance.
“Uncle!” Beiqingsi called with sorrow.
“That’s enough. Hurry, take my token and go to that place, there you’ll have your second piece of evidence. If you’re right about it, that evidence is in danger of disappearing. Go there, hurry. I’m quite satisfied having the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation become my tomb.” Taixuzi said to Beiqingsi.
“En.” Beiqingsi nodded.
Tianling-er, silent, looked at Yinglan together with Zhong Shan.
Yinglan, with her eyes closed, seemed to be in a deep sleep.
Taixuzi turned to look at Yinglan and said, “She has just fused with the formation soul. It’ll take some time for her to digest it. In another four hours, she’ll wake up.”
“Thanks a lot, qianbei.” Zhong Shan solemnly said.
“En.” Taixuzi nodded.
Taixuzi then waved his hand and suddenly there appeared another gate right in front of Taixuzi. Through the gate they could see a peaceful forest under the bright moonlight.
“You better go. Through this gate, you’ll directly exit the formation.” Taixuzi told them.
“Much obliged.” Zhong Shan nodded.
Zhong Shan picked up Yinglan and together with Tianling-er, quickly walked towards the gate. Beiqingsi followed behind closely.
It was then that Princess Qianyou rushed in with her group.
Princess Qianyou called out in shock when she stepped inside the gate, “Zhong Shan!”
There were disbelief and strong sense of resentment in her voice.
The others also watched in amazement at the three women and Zhong Shan who were existing through another gate. Their eyes were wide open, how could this happen?
Taixuzi waved his hand again and the gate disappeared into the thin air.
Zhong Shan and the three women disappeared right under their eyes just like that?
Everyone was in a rage, except Mr. Shuijing.
“That Zhong Shan, he’s been tricking us all along?” Gu Lin angrily said.
Mr Shuijing, however, simply waved his feather fan and sighed, “We had said it in the beginning that everyone can look for the formation soul and leave the rest up to their own luck.”
Princess Qianyou was very agitated. She had even thought about recruiting Zhong Shan to work for her and asked Ah Da to take special care of Zhong Shan. Now, this man who seemed weaker than all of them had tricked everyone.
The astounding twist of events now looked like a slap on Princess Qianyou’s face.
“Shuijing pays respect to Taixuzi.” Mr. Shuijing said to Taixuzi.
Taixuzi had taken down all the pictures that showed the formation’s surroundings. They could no longer see the where Zhong Shan’s group had gone.
“Shuijing. Daluo Heavenly Dynasty’s Mr. Shuijing. I have heard a lot about you. However, the formation soul has already been pa.s.sed down. It’s all over now. I’m sorry.” Taixuzi shook his head.
“Old man, how could you give them the formation soul?” Gu Lin spoke with irritation in his voice.
Taixuzi frowned at Gu Lin’s impoliteness, a trace of anger flashed in his eyes.
“Be quiet.” Princess Qianyou immediately stopped Gu Lin.
She had suppressed her anger towards Zhong Shan and stared at Gu Lin. Though they weren’t too concerned about Taixuzi, they were still inside the formation. She didn’t want to be buried together with Taixuzi and the formation.
“Please forgive us, sir. Since the formation soul has already been pa.s.sed along, we won’t bother you any longer.” Princess Qianyou said.
“En.” Taixuzi closed his eyes and nodded.
Turning around, Princess Qianyou led her group quickly out of this gate.
She was very upset, this was the very first time that something had completely slipped out of her hands. Never had anyone dare to let her suffer such a great loss.
Zhong Shan? Zhong Shan?
Mr. Shuijing had finally learned what had happened from the others. He walked while waving his fan.
“Shuijing, you said that Zhong Shan didn’t know the formation better than you. How could he locate Taixuzi in the first try? Isn’t he too lucky?” Gu Lin snapped while walking.
“No, this man has a meticulous mind. He may know about the formation better than I do. But he’s too weak, so he hid it from us. The fact that he showed up at other gate later demonstrates his intelligence. He had even thought about diverting our attention when faced with the temptation of the formation soul………………….,” Mr. Shuijing sighed while shaking his head.
He didn’t finish his sentence because he noticed Princess Qianyou’s unfriendly expression. It was the first time he had seen it.
They walked out of the formation and flew to the top of a mountain. They turned to look at the sandstorm before them and the mountains and rivers under the moonlight.
“Princess, no need to look for them. This man will handle things flawlessly. It’s impossible to locate them now.” Mr. Shuijing shook his head.
“Qianyou, he’s from the Kaiyang School. Let’s go there to ask for him. I’ll chop him into pieces if it’ll mollify your anger.” Gu Lin tried to please Princess Qianyou.
“Shut up. Is Kaiyang School a place you can go in at will? If anything happens, even your father can’t save you. Forget about what had happened. Forget about Zhong Shan.” Princess Qianyou said