"Oh? I thought you might be interested in that. So I had written them down. I had already told you - and your senior sister, about one of those three additional stances. So that leaves us with two more. So here they are."He reached into his sleeve and pulled out two slips of paper, each folded into quarters, and held them out to her. But Xu Yanzhi made no move to receive them from him. Instead, she eyed him, and the papers, warily.
"You are just handing them over? Just like that?"
"I don"t see why I shouldn"t. As you said before, this is something that originated in your Sect. While there are others who have practiced that particular martial art, I think that any new stances should be attributed to your Sect"s original art. So you should have a copy, at the least."
"Our Sect"s "original art"?"
"The White Jade Beauty"s Hand only had four stances in the beginning, or so I discovered. So these three new stances should be considered additions, or further developments, outside of those original four. Don"t you agree?"
Xu Yanzhi did not deign to reply, although her face bore the weight of her frown thereafter. It was obvious that she was considering what he had said very carefully. After all, if these three new stances were treated as Qin Feng had suggested, wouldn"t that mean that they would have to recognize the creator? And no one had any clue as to his or her name. So it would be rather embarra.s.sing, if they were asked that, any time in the future.
Of course, Qin Feng didn"t really care about that. There was a possibility that the Snow Swallow Palace would simply throw a gag order over the whole issue, and keep the new stances a secret for a decade or two. Until some of their disciples, and masters, have attained some accomplishment with the same.
Yet, all of these were just his a.s.sumptions, and he had no idea what Xu Yanzhi was truly considering at the moment. Still, he couldn"t let her delay too long:
So Qin Feng flashed his smile at Xu Yanzhi again, and gestured with the two pieces of paper in his hands. The sheets made a soft fluttering sound even as the young woman"s face twisted in a frown. There was no disguising her curiosity regarding the moves, but it was also clear that she wasn"t willing to bargain with him.
"How do I know that you have not made any alterations to the art? You are the one holding all of the cards here, aren"t you? So you could have made changes to the White Jade Beauty Hands, to cause trouble for my Snow Swallow Palace."
He chuckled as soon as he heard that. And shook his head at her slowly. "Do you really think that I would bother to do that? What sort of enmity do we have between us? And you might say that I am merely following the instructions of my forebear, who had pa.s.sed down his version of your White Jade Hands to me."
Then he paused, and c.o.c.ked his head at her. "Unless you are not interested in this at all? In that case, I might as burn them then. No point in risking the secret Art getting out, is there?"
So saying, he extended the two pieces of paper to the exposed candle flame in front of him, sitting in the middle of the table. For the moment, Qin Feng was pleased that the tavern was too cheap to provide them with proper table lamps, otherwise he would not have had the chance to use such a move on the young woman.
"Wait! I will take them!"
Xu Yanzhi s.n.a.t.c.hed away the papers before Qin Feng could even begin to retract his hand. So he simply chuckled, and make as if he had never intended to do so in the first place. After all, he only needed information from the woman, and wasn"t up to anything nefarious.
But she seemed to have forgotten all about their agreement, and was poring over what was written on the same. With a look of intense concentration on her face.
", , and ? Why are the names of these styles so melancholic?"Qin Feng glanced at Xu Yanzhi again, and shrugged when she turned to face him. "Can you not guess? From what you had discovered, when you researched that move I showed you last time, surely you must have learned that the creator was a paramour of one of your Elders."
"Of my great-grandmother. But you have probably guessed that, since you had read about him. He left more than just those stances behind, didn"t he? You say that he had dedicated these three moves to her?"
"That was what was written in the manual in which they were recorded. Don"t ask me how it ended up at the Heaven Sword School though. I have no idea what happened in between that time when they met and parted, and when the book ended up in my hands."
Xu Yanzhi sniffed when she heard that. Then she sighed, and softly smoothed out the pieces of paper in her hands. "I think he didn"t know that my great-grandmother was bearing his child, when they parted. But I am rather curious why she didn"t pa.s.s down these three stances to the rest of us. Her descendants, I mean. Like me. And not the rest of the Sect."
"Well, I certainly cannot answer that. Like I said, I had only discovered the manual in the Martial Arts Library, back at the Heaven Sword School. If you wish to take a look at the original, you"ll have to pay that place a visit."
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"I might just do that. And trade them something useful for the original ma.n.u.script."
Qin Feng smiled as soon as he heard that. If she really did so, it would be far kinder than what he would expect from the Snow Swallow Palace. If one were to follow the exploits of the Snow Swallow Palace, their style would be to simply s.n.a.t.c.h the manual away, without even bothering to give a reason or an excuse.
But he was no longer a part of the School, so he didn"t really care.
* * *