Chapter 31: The overturned boat Before he had practiced the potent inner energy, Fan Xian would never have believed that the human body could be harder than rocks. Having left his palm print on the rocks just now, however, he n his mind about this.
Yet, he still refused to believe that anyone who jumped off a cliff of at least ten miles is true extent of mastery the elite fighters of this world have.
……
……
The black cloth that was covering Five-Bamboo’s eyes became a mysterious streak arrow as quick black silk (Yea, it seems like an irrelevant sentence to me as well ~MCM) while his body resembled a quick lightning that was descending towards that boat.
He did not use any Qing Gong ( ~MCM); he simply allowed himself to be pulled downwards by gravity. The descent was close to ten miles and, with the constant acceleration, the speed would have already reached a frightening level when his feet touched the boat. His body cut through the air and was slightly faster than the sound of the wind, creating a chilling drone. The force of his body violently split the singer’s bamboo hat when he reached the boat.The bamboo hat floated in the breeze and dropped far away in the ocean, revealing the singer’s face.
Before the sound of the wind arrived, Five-Bamboo’s feet had already savagely
The singer’s face was average and plain. His eyes were calm as water in autumn but when he gazed at the descending feet from above his head, his pupils contracted and a strange light was lit in them!
A pair of hands as pure as white jade lightly danced from the sleeves. Like fresh buds sprouting from a dried branch, countless streams of inner energy shot out from the singer’s fingertips towards the surging ocean, pulling the small fishing boat back two s.p.a.ces before Five-Bamboo reached the boat. It was exactly these two s.p.a.ces that caused Five-Bamboo to miss. .h.i.tting the singer. Instead, the Five-Bamboo descended from the sky like a falling boulder, viciously destroying the bow of the boat.
stomped the front of the wooden boat. The kinetic force of a descend from such a height was too much for such a small boat to handle. A loud “crack!” echoed.
The entire boat overturned towards the direction of that extremely forceful stomp. With the stern high in the air, the boat rapidly entered the ocean.
The singer flailed his hands in the air as he was sent flying in the air from the force of that blow. It was truly a pathetic sight.
Amidst the splashing of the waves, the boat that was separated by the intense force sunk to the depths of the ocean. A black silhouette broke through the surface of the water and, while surrounded by the splashes of the waves, caught up with the singer who was still in mid-air. In an instant, he stabbed at the singer’s throat with his fingers as if they were a sword.
The singer’s hands blurred and he spread them out in front of him as if they were the pillars of a
building– stable and elegant (A curious a.n.a.logy here, I couldn’t find a better way to translate it. So yeah… ~MCM). He barely managed to seal Five-Bamboo’s killing blow.
Faint rings from clashes could be detected in the air; this was the result of a sudden trading of blows. It was unclear exactly how many techniques were exchanged by the two elite fighters.
A while after, the two silhouettes swiftly split up, each landing on the narrow dry land below the two faces of the cliff.
The wreckage of the boat slowly floated onto the surface of the ocean, resembling the precipitate in a bottle of medicine, leaving the bottom half of the stern still drifting aimlessly. It was a desolate sight.
……
……
“Your a.s.sa.s.sination attempt failed. That’s lthough the distance between Five-Bamboo and him why you have to pay for my boat,” the singer said that with a wry smile while gazing directly at the black cloth masking Five-Bamboo’s eyes. He raised his hand towards Five-Bamboo and beckoned him, signaling for him to pay up. i was around thirty feet, Five-Bamboo’s brow furrowed when the hand was extended. With lightning quick reflexes, he retreated two steps and angled his body away from the line in which the latter has his fingers pointed.
A sudden gush of wind sounded. Where Five-Bamboo once stood, words appeared on the thick sand. It was the poem “The rain hitting the beach can create ten thousand pits.” (I have no idea what it means figuratively ~MCM) Just by waving his hands from thirty feet away, inner energy was directed onto the beach. Even in this world, not many could have achieved such a technique.
“Why are you here?” Five-Bamboo gently tilted his head. Though his face remained emotionless, it was evident that he was more cautious than usual.
“After that fight with you ten years ago, I could no longer find any more worthy opponents,” the singer replied while smiling from cheek to cheek. “Last year, when I took a trip back to the Capital, I couldn’t locate you no matter how much I tried. I almost believed you followed the Mistress to another world and while I drank two urns of wine, the other was poured onto the ground (Typical move seen in Chinese Wuxia and even some melodramatic gangster movies from Hong Kong. Done as a ritual of respect to deceased comrades/family members. ~MCM). I even shed a few tears. This year, I came back again for another holiday. Because I felt an extremely strong inner energy from the other side of the ocean, I came to investigate…… to think it would be you.”
“We’re friends who haven’t met for over ten years. Why do you go for the kill the moment you meet me? You already knew that neither you nor I are capable of killing each other,” the singer sighed and said angrily.
Five-Bamboo tilted his head in thought, as though recognizing this to be true as well.
The singer knew that this blind one was an eccentric person. If the opponent could really kill him, he was actually slightly afraid that he would really do it. “After the Mistress left, I thought you would return to the Temple. Why did you come to Danzhou?” he laughed gently and asked.
“You know why I want to kill you,” Five-Bamboo did not reply him directly. He continued coldly, “In this world, there are only a few that truly know of my existence. And amongst them, you have the biggest mouth.” (He meant that the dude talks the most ~MCM) (Blabbermouth may be a better description~~Freya) (Mmmm, but he’s saying that the dude is the most gossipy of all of them. Blabber mouth doesn’t actually compare the other people with Liu Yun ~MCM)
The singer was embarra.s.sed and did not know how to reply.
“That is why, if killing you could shut you up, I would gladly do it,” Five-Bamboo continued.
The singer laughed bitterly and shook his head. “Your temper is still as frightening as ever. It is rare to see someone like you who would casually spout of killing amongst those who have achieved our level of mastery,” he sighed.
Five-Bamboo shook his head. “I would never stop to consider my methods; I only care about the results.” He suddenly furrowed his brow and said, “Now that you have seen the person you’re interested in, you may leave.” His tone was crisp and direct.
The singer was taken aback, but suddenly burst into laughter and, with his fist towards him, smiled and said, “Actually, I’m not that talkative a person.”
After saying that, he pulled the two short sleeves on his arms backwards and, with a wave of his hands, elegantly floated back towards the intact half of the boat on the ocean’s surface. It was unknown what kind of sorcery allowed that boat to float even though only half of it was left. Standing atop the broken boat, his hands did a rowing motion and comically rowed the wretched wreck of a boat back towards Danzhou City with his inner energy.
Five-Bamboo stared at the direction he left, the black cloth seemed to dim a shade darker.
……
……
“Who was that?” As he just climbed down from the top of the cliff, Fan Xian did not hear the conversation between the two elite fighters from below the cliff. He was still mesmerized by the having viewed the battle between the two elite fighters first hand.
“Liu Yun.”
“Of course……” Fan Xian sighed and followed Five-Bamboo from the back, heading back towards Danzhou.