Simply Trading

"This ... White Jade Hands was something that I picked up at the Heaven Sword School. Well, the Hidden Scriptures Library there, to be exact. Is something wrong?"

The girl in green sniffed, while the one in white merely shook her head at him. "There is no ... major problem with this. There are many cases of martial arts being proliferated due to ... unforeseen circ.u.mstances. I was curious about this because ... It isn"t easy for someone to pick up on White Jade Beauty Hand because it requires a Yin-based zhenqi to activate its potential.

"Hence I was surprised to see you were capable to using it to this extent."

Qin Feng found his face growing a little hot the moment that he heard that. Did she think that he was a woman disguising herself as a man? Or that he was eunuch?

"That is ... ridiculous! And a little insulting! I a.s.sure you that I am a man! A complete man!" he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Then he realized that he was pushing his hips out at her and pointing at his ... groin, to emphasize his point as he was speaking. Which certainly explained the bright red flush on the two girls" faces, and why the one in green looked as if she was about to draw her sword.

That was enough to make him cough, and haul himself back in an embarra.s.sed fashion.

Fortunately, the young woman in white was quick to recover from her agitation, and ask another question. One that was similarly targeted at his White Jade Hand:

"Well ... It is possible that your predecessors may have obtained the art from one of ours. But we shall not know for sure unless we compare the two arts directly. Perhaps you would be willing to tell us the names of the individual stances?"

"Er ... the name of the strokes are ... Sink the Fish, Entice the Geese, Eclipse the Moon, Shame the Flowers, Weeping at Her Own Reflection ..."

"Wait! Wait. Weeping at Her Own Reflection? What is that? Aren"t there only four stances to the White Jade Beauty Hands?"

The woman in green, who interrupted him, was scowling. But it was turned to her companion in the white robe, rather than him. Who had a look of surprise on her face. Clearly, she had not heard about that last stance either. So Qin Feng held his tongue, and simply looked to the latter. The question seemed to be directed at her, after all.

"I have never heard of such a stance either. What is this Weeping at Her Own Reflection?"

"Er ... It is a purely defensive move, that wards off the attacks of the enemy. Although it does allow for one to use their own momentum against them, and open them up to ... Hmmm. Perhaps you saw me use it earlier? When they attacked me?"

The one in white was quick to understand what he was talking about, it seemed.

"That was what you used ... to deflect that attack that they threw at you earlier?" she asked at once, with a certain fire in her eyes that surprised Qin Feng somewhat.

He had not expected such fervor from her, to be honest. From what he had seen, he thought her to the more controlled of the pair. Still, it was an obvious question, so he simply nodded at her, as he began to frame a more elaborate explanation of that particular move.

"Could you show it to me then?"

"You mean ... you wish to spar?"

The white-robed girl giggled as soon as she heard his question. "Yes, of course. What better way to find out if our skills are truly similar than with a spar. Shall we begin then?" she asked, as she handed her sword over to the grinning girl in green.

Then she lifted her palms, and shot him what seemed like a rea.s.suring smile. "And you needn"t be too worried about my inner strength. I shall hold myself down to the Initial Core Formation Realm for this. Otherwise someone might say that I am bullying you with my Profound Realm strength."

Profound Realm? She was already at the Profound Realm? That was two levels higher than Complete Core Formation! How could she had attained the Profound Realm? She was barely a year or two older than he was!

But Qin Feng knew that he didn"t have the opportunity to bother about that. Not when the woman was already initiating her first attack!

"White Jade Beauty Hands: Sink the Fish."

Qin Feng barely caught a glimpse of her pale white palms flashing down at him before he hurried raised his own hands in defense. But he wasn"t about to use Weeping at Her Own Reflection just yet. They were supposed to checking if there was any similarity between their two martial arts, weren"t they?

"White Jade Hands: Entice the Geese."

His flurry of blows met hers in the air above his head, with a crackling sound that echoed through the snow-covered woods. Qin Feng could feel a sting in both his hands as he retreated some ten steps from their clash, while the white-clad young woman"s face held a hint of surprise.

"That is almost identical to my own Entice the Geese. Now try my Shame the Flowers."

She struck at him as soon as she finished speaking. And Qin Feng barely had time to throw out his own Eclipse the Moon to block her attack when it arrived. It was clear that she was far better at the White Jade Hands than he was, judging from the six, seven steps that he had retreated, ever since the two skills clashed in the air before him.

He had to try something different, or he was going to lose miserably!

"White Jade Beauty Hands: Eclipse the Moon."

"White Jade Hands: Weeping at Her Own Reflection!"

That particular stance seemed to work better than his Eclipse the Moon, and the woman in white was thrown a little off-balanced when his hands fended off her attack, and diverted her strength to the side. She recovered quickly, and turned back to face him. But the fact that she had lowered her hands did not escape his eyes.

"That was the defensive stance that you were telling us about? Remarkable! It does feel like it belonged to the White Jade Beauty Hands too! What else can you tell me about this stance?"

Qin Feng smiled, and decided that there was no point in hiding anything. After all, these two had pulled his chestnuts out of the fire earlier, so one could say that he owed them. Besides, this White Jade Hands belonged to the Heaven Sword School, didn"t it? He had no objections to handing it over.

So he recited the text from the manual that he had memorized. And repeated it, when the white-clad young woman requested that he did so. Her lips moved as though she was trying to fix it in her mind, and sighed when she was finally done.

"This is ... very much appreciated, this young gentleman. Xue Ying owes you a favour for this," she said to him with a simple gesture of thanks, in the jianghu fashion.

Of course, that was enough of a surprise to Qin Feng that he found his mind had gone blank. Was that her name then? Xue Ying?

But the pair had already turned and was starting to leave the scene, leaving him gaping as they used their own Lightness-of-Body arts to zip away into the distance. And the strength of the same was enough to leave him gaping as they vanished into the snow-laden landscape.

Then he recovered, and looked around himself again. The bodies of the slain were still lying there, on the ground, with their blood already stopped steaming in the snow. Didn"t that mean that the two girls were leaving everything to him?

Without wasting any more time, he started towards the body that was still wrapped in the black robe. The old codger was the one leading this particular group so if anyone was carrying any items of interest, it would certainly be him!

And didn"t he pull out a sabre from out of nowhere? That was a clear sign that he had a spatial ring, or something similar, on him somewhere! All he had to do was to search the fellow"s body and he should be able to find it!

And Qin Feng was certainly not about to let anything of value slip out of his fingers now!

* * *

[*Author"s Note: Just to clarify: the names used for this particular art are actually 白玉手 and 白玉美人手, the latter meaning White Jade Beauty Hand. Unfortunately, the number of words doesn"t quite match up.]