69 Chapter Thirty-Eight: Annihilation Part 2(2/3)
Linghu Chong could only hear the weapons splitting the wind all around him. Even though his sword art was high, there was no way for him to use it properly as he could be hit from any direction at any moment. He was feeling really worried so he immediately swiped his long sword to protect his upper body. Step by step, he moved towards the cave wall. Once he reached the wall, he could lean on it while walking and avoid a lot of dangers, just like that person resembling Yingying leaning on the wall while sitting down. With that method of walking, he would be able to meet her soon. From where he was standing, he was still dozens of feet away from the cave wall. But the blades were like the forest and the swords were like the rain, every inch was fraud by danger and every step was fraud with death.
Linghu Chong thought, "If I die under the hand of a master then it would be sweet. But in this situation, I can just get killed anytime by something mysterious. And the one who killed me is probably some idiot who knows a bit of martial art only. Even if Hero Dugu lived again and met with this kind of situation, I'm afraid he probably also can't find a way out." As he thought of Dugu Qiubai, he was enlightened, "That's right, in today's situation, if I don't kill someone mysteriously then I'll be the one killed mysteriously. When I kill one, that'll be one less person to kill me." His long sword trembled out using the 'Arrow Breaking Stance' of the 'Dugu Nine Sword', his sword stabbed out to the front, back, left, and right. Once he used the sword stance, a few people around him cried out miserably and dropped to the ground. He felt his sword entered the flesh of someone and he heard that person cried out lightly. It was the voice of a girl. Linghu Chong was greatly startled and his hand became weak and he nearly dropped his long sword. His heart was thumping, "Was that Yingying? Did I just kill Yingying!" He shouted desperately, "Yingying, Yingying, is that you?"
But there was no sound coming from that girl. He was very familiar with Yingying's voice and that light cry was not actually from her and very easily distinguishable. But with many voices mixed inside the cave, the lightness of this girl's cry, his worried heart, and his chaotic mind, he felt that it was Yingying but at the same time also felt that it wasn't her. He called out again for a few times but there was still no answer so he stooped down to feel around the ground. Suddenly, a kick came flying in and kicked him squarely on his butt. Linghu Chong flew up and while his body was in mid air, his left leg hurt as someone gave it a whip. He quickly used his left hand to cover his head, and with a 'bang', his arm along with his head had hit the top of the cave. As he was dropping back down, he felt his head, his arm, legs, and butt were all covered in pain, like his whole body was about to be shattered into pieces. He calmed himself down and called out "Yingying" again for a couple more times. Hearing his own voice, he sounded hoarse like he was crying. His heart was feeling miserable and desperate as he shouted, "I've killed Yingying, I've killed Yingying!" With his long sword slashing left and right, he rushed forward and killed a few people.
In this clamour, he suddenly heard two 'zheng, zheng' sound. This was the sound of a yaoqin. Even though the sound of this qin was light, in Linghu Chong's ears they were just like thunder startling him. He was rapt and quickly called out, "Yingying, Yingying!"
Right at this time, he wanted to go to where the sound of that qin was coming from. But as he thought about it, the sound of that qin came from some distance away. This one hundred feet distance was a hundred times more dangerous when compared to walking in Jianghu for a hundred thousand li. To be able to walk this one hundred feet distance without dying was actually very difficult. This sound of qin was of course from Yingying and since she's alright, then he mustn't just throw his life away. If the two of them couldn't die together hand in hand then they would suffer endless regret in the nine fountain. He retreated back for a couple of steps and leaned his back on the cave wall. He thought, "This is much safer." Suddenly he felt a strong wind of someone slashing his weapon rushing at him. Linghu Chong thrust his sword out, but just as he moved his long sword, he immediately knew things were far from good.
The essence of 'Dugu Nine Sword' was at looking at the flaw of the opponent's movements and attacking that point. Thrust later but arriving first, one move to take victory. But in this dark cave, he couldn't even see his enemy or his enemy's movement, so how could he see the flaw in the movement? At this situation, 'Dugu Nine Sword' was completely useless. The long sword in Linghu Chong's hand had only thrust out for a foot when he hastily dodged to the left. Then he heard a breaking sound followed by a crashing sound and lastly a miserable cry. He guessed that person's weapon must have first struck against the wall and broke, and the broken weapon then had stabbed his own body.
Linghu Chong heard that person had gone quiet and guessed he must have died. He pondered, "Although my sword art is high, it is just like any other ordinary person in this dark cave. I just have to bear with it patiently and wait for a chance to meet up with Yingying." But he heard the sound of fighting and the shouting had lessened because at this time many people had been injured or killed. He quickly brandished his long sword in front of his body to form a sword net in case someone suddenly attacked him. The sound of the yaoqin was intermittent like the string was plucked one by one, and it was not making up any tune. Linghu Chong was again worried, "Is Yingying injured? Or maybe she's not the one playing the qin? But if it's not her, how can there be another person who also has a qin?" After a long time, the shouting finally stopped. There were many people moaning and groaning on the ground. Occasionally, there was a sound of weapon clashing coming from around the wall. Linghu Chong thought, "The people who aren't dead are around the wall. These people must be masters in Wulin and their thoughts are sharp." He shouted repeatedly, "Yingying, where are you?" The qin sounded a few times as if answering him.
Linghu Chong flew forward. When his left foot landed, he felt something soft. He had landed on someone's body and at the same time he felt the wind whistling as a weapon was slashing upwards. Because his internal energy was abundant, even though he couldn't see the enemy's weapon coming, he was still aware of it. He quickly used strength on his left foot and leapt back to the cave wall. He pondered, "The ground is full of people lying down and some are injured. I can't go across." Then he heard the wind whistling caused by the people leaning their backs on the cave wall slashing their weapons about to protect themselves; in this moment of time, a few more people were either injured or killed.
Suddenly, an elder spoke, "Friends, we've fallen into Yue Buqun's trap. We must work together to get out of here. We can't just swing our weapons around and kill one another."
"That's right, that's right!" many people replied together.
When Linghu Chong heard their voices, he gathered there were around sixty to seventy of them. All these people had their backs to the wall and they were standing motionless. One was because they had calmed down. Secondly, because temporarily they weren't worried about their lives so they were able to calmly think things through.
That elder said, "I'm Taishan School's Yuzhongzi. Everyone, please sheathe your weapon. Everyone is in the dark, so when you bump into someone, you mustn't hurt anyone. Friends, do you agree?"
"That should be the way," those people boomed their replies and the sound of weapons slashing lessened. Some people who were still brandishing their weapons also stopped after a while.
"I'd also like everyone to swear an oath. If anyone here hurt anyone else, then he'll be buried here and won't get to see the sky again. I, Taishan's Yuzhongzi, swear to this oath first," Yuzhongzi said.
The rest of the people swore this oath while thinking in their hearts, "This Priest Yuzhongzi is very experienced. If we all work together, there's still a chance that we'd get out of here. Otherwise, we'll be randomly chopping each other just like before."
"Very good! Please say your name," Yuzhongzi requested.
At that time, people started saying, "I'm Hengshan's so and so." "I'm Taishan's so and so." I'm Songshan's so and so." But Mr. Mo Da's name was never heard.
After these people had finished speaking, Linghu Chong announced himself, "I'm Heng-Shan School's Linghu Chong." The crowd gasped in surprised and they said, "Heng-Shan's Headmaster, Hero Linghu, is here. That's very good." Their tone of voice was happy.
Linghu Chong thought, "I'm just a waste, what's so good about me?" He of course understood. These people knew his martial art was very high. So with him around, their hope of escaping had gone up by many notches.
"I'd like to ask Headmaster Linghu something. Why did your honourable school only send headmaster here all by yourself?" Yuzhongzi queried. This person was experienced and very careful so he was suspicious that Linghu Chong was hiding something that might be harmful towards them. When Linghu Chong came out of Huashan, he did so as Yue Buqun's disciple. Everyone knew about this. But as they were trapped inside this mountain cave, from amongst the hundreds of disciples from Huashan and Heng-Shan, he was the only person there who belonged to either. It was unavoidable that people would suspect him.
"I have another companion.." Linghu Chong replied and he couldn't help calling out again, "Ying.." But he had only managed to call out 'Ying' before a thought flashed in his mind, "Yingying is the Sun Moon Sect's Chief's only daughter and both the righteous and demonical are like fire and water. I mustn't put this thing on top of what's happening already." So he immediately shut his mouth.
"Who has a torch beside him? Please light it up first," Yuzhongzi requested.
The crowd cheered loudly, "Very good, very good!" "We're all so muddle headed, why didn't we think of that?" "Quickly light up the torches!" Actually, in the middle of the chaos before, everyone was only thinking of protecting himself so how could they think of lighting up a torch? Besides, as soon as a torch was lighted, that person would be killed instantly by the person next to him. But now he heard many rattling sound as some people took out their flint and steel to make fire. Soon after, many dots of flames were seen and it felt very bright in the darkness. The people inside the mountain cave started cheering.
Linghu Chong took a glance and saw the surrounding cave wall was full of people. Their bodies and faces were splashed with blood. There were also some who still slowly swiping their swords and sabres in front of their bodies. These people were extremely careful, even though they had heard everyone swearing an oath, they still didn't believe the person next to them. Linghu Chong took a step to go to the opposite wall wanting to find Yingying. Suddenly, from among the cluster of people, someone shouted, "Move!" Seven to eight people came out of the tunnel brandishing their long swords and started killing people.
"Who are you?" the crowd shouted and one by one they drew their own weapons to defend. After some time, the torches had again been extinguished. Linghu Chong shot forward and leapt towards the opposite wall. He felt a weapon hacking from his right hand side and in the darkness he didn't know how to block it. He rushed at the ground and heard a 'dang' sound. A sabre had clashed with the wall. He thought, "This person doesn't necessarily want to kill me. He might just be wanting to defend himself in the darkness." He stayed down on the ground quietly. After that person hacked at empty space for a few more times, he stopped.
Someone shouted, "Kill all these dogs, don't leave any behind!" More than ten people acknowledged this order. This was followed by six to seven people shouting, "It's Zuo Lengchan! Zuo Lengchan!" Then some people shouted, "Master, disciple's here!"
Linghu Chong heard the person barking the order was really Zuo Lengchan, he pondered, "Why is he here? This trap was set up by this bastard, it wasn't my Master after all." Even though Yue Buqun had tried to kill him several times already, the master-disciple and father-son relationship between them had stretched for more than twenty years and they were deep-rooted in his heart. He simply couldn't forget them. Once he thought that the traitor setting this up wasn't Yue Buqun, he couldn't help feeling happy. He was a hundred times happier to die under Zuo Lengchan's hand than to die under his Master's hand.
He only heard Zuo Lengchan gloomily said, "You still have the face to call me master? You didn't report to me before you went to Huashan. This is deceiving your master and betraying your school. How can our school have such despicable disciples like you?"
"Master," A booming voice replied. "Disciple got the message that a cave in the Cliff of Contemplation at Huashan has our own school's wonderful sword art. I was afraid I'd be wasting time going back and forth and telling master about this first, and the sword moves on the wall would be destroyed by someone. So I quickly came here. After I look at the sword art, I'd of course go back to the mountain immediately and tell master all these sword arts."
"You're taking advantage of my blindness," Zuo Lengchan said. "I know you all considered me useless since long ago. Once you learned these wonderful sword art, would you still recognise me as your master? Yue Buqun wanted all of you to pledge your loyalties to him before he'd let you come into this cave to look at the sword moves. Didn't this happen?"
"Yes, dis.. disciple should die," that Songshan disciple answered. "But this is just a temporary measure. Our five mountain sword schools have merged into one and he's the headmaster. So we should.. should also listen to his order. But I never thought this traitor would behave so violently and trapped all of us down here."
Another person said, "Master, please lead us to escape from here. We'll then go find that traitor Yue Buqun to settle our debt."
Zuo Lengchan snorted. "What a wishful thinking you have there." He paused for a while then continued, "Linghu Chong, you're also here, what are you doing here?"
"This is my old place, if I want to come then I just come!" Linghu Chong replied. "What are you doing here?"
Zuo Lengchan laughed coldly and replied, "Death is imminent and you're still so rude towards your senior."
"You plotted secretly and caused the harm of the world's heroes," Linghu Chong said. "Everyone wants to punish you for this, and you still consider yourself to be a senior?"
"Pingzhi," Zuo Lengchan said. "Kill him!"
"Yes!" someone answered in the dark. It was Lin Pingzhi's voice.
Linghu Chong was startled and he thought, "So Lin Pingzhi is also here. Both Zuo Lengchan and him are blind, so these days they must be familiar on how to use the sword blind. Using their ears to replace their eyes, their technique on listening to the wind to distinguish attacks must be good now. In this darkness, the situation is turned, it is me who is blind while they're the ones who aren't blind. But why are they the enemy?" But his back was covered in cold sweat.
Then he heard Lin Pingzhi said, "Linghu Chong, you're very glorious and your name is very famous in Jianghu. But today you're going to die under my hands, haha, haha!" His laughter was full of gloom. Step by step he came over.
Just then when Linghu Chong and Zuo Lengchan were talking, Lin Pingzhi had heard him clearly and his position had been given away. The whole cave was quiet and only Lin Pingzhi's footsteps were heard. With each step of his, Linghu Chong knew he was one step closer to the death's door. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Wait! This Linghu Chong blinded my eyes and caused me to be unable to see the daylight from then on. Let me kill this bastard." More than ten people echoed what he said and they quickly walked over. Linghu Chong was startled. He knew they were the fifteen people who he had blinded on that night outside the abandoned temple. That day on his way towards Songshan for the merger of the five schools, he met these people on the way. These people had been blinded for a long time, and their abilities to use their ears to replace their eyes must be high. He already couldn't defend against one Lin Pingzhi, now with the addition of these fifteen people, he was totally outclassed.
He heard their footsteps while he quietly slid for a few steps towards the left. Then he heard a few 'ta, ta, ta' noise as a few longs sword were stabbed at the wall where he was standing at previously. Luckily, these ten or so people attacked at the same time causing the noise to blend with the footsteps sound concealing his footsteps. No one knew where he had gone to. Linghu Chong stooped down and felt a sword on the ground. He tossed it, and with a clanking sound, it hit the wall. Those ten or so blind men rushed over with their weapons raised, and they started fighting with some people. Shouting erupted and in a few moment six to seven people were killed. These people didn't have weak martial arts, but they couldn't see a thing in this darkness, so they weren't the match of these blind men.
Linghu Chong took advantage of this shouting to slide a few more steps to the left. He groped around to feel there was no one around the wall before he quietly crouched down and pondered, "Zuo Lengchan brought Lin Pingzhi and those blind men here to do battle in the dark. They're going to annihilate all of us here. But how does he know there's this kind of cave here?" As soon as he thought about it, he was enlightened, "Yes! That day little martial sister was on top of the place of worship, she fought using the moves engraved on the wall here. She defeated the masters from Taishan and Hengshan. She also used Songshan sword art in front of Zuo Lengchan and used the Heng-Shan sword art to fight against me. Since she came here before, Lin Pingzhi of course knows about it too." As he thought of little martial sister, his heart ached.
He heard Lin Pingzhi shouted, "Linghu Chong, you don't dare to reveal yourself, pulling in your head and tail. What kind of hero is that?"
Linghu Chong was angered and he wanted to get out to fight to the death with him, but he restrained himself. He thought, "A gentleman can bend and straighten. How can I get so irritated over him? I haven't found Yingying yet, I can't die so easily just like that." He also thought, "I once promised little martial sister to tend to Lin Pingzhi. If I come out and fight with him then got killed by him, that would be unworthy. But it's also not right if I kill him."
"There are turncoats in this cave, traitors who need to be killed," Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Even if you forgive Linghu Chong, there's nowhere he can go to!"
A short time later, clashing of weapons and shouting erupted. Linghu Chong squatted on the ground. After a short while, still no one attacked him. He strained to listen to Yingying's voice while pondering, "Yingying is far more careful and cleverer than me. In the middle of this ambush, she'd definitely not play her qin. I only hope no sword is being thrust at her." He heard the fighting between the crowd and those blind men was really fierce, they were fighting fiercely while also hurling curses. The curse 'scram your granny' was even heard. This 'scram your granny' was really grating to the ears. When common people uses this swear words, they always say 'go to your mum', or 'hold your granny', sometimes people also use 'scram your mother bastard', but it was rare to hear someone uses 'scram your granny'. Linghu Chong pondered, "Is this a swear word special to their provinces?" After listening for a while, he found that this swear word 'scram your granny' was used quite often by a few people. Once this swear word was uttered by both people fighting, the fighting would stop immediately. But if only one person uttered this swear word, then the fighting between them would continue. He immediately understood, "So this is the code for those blind men to distinguish each other." In that darkness, randomly slashing and killing, it was hard to determine friends or foes. Those blind men had determined a code beforehand and when they started fighting they would first called out this swear word 'scram your granny'. When two people cursed the same swear word, they were friends. Otherwise, they would kill their opponents. No one uses this swear word, so this code word was something that the enemy wouldn't use to curse someone with.
Once he understood this, he immediately stood up and put his sword in front of his chest. The swearing of 'scram your granny' was getting more frequent, while the clashing of weapons and the shouting were gradually dying. It seemed the people from Taishan, Hengshan, and Songshan Schools had been massacred. Linghu Chong had not heard of Yingying's voice. He was worried that Yingying had been killed earlier, but he was also happy that she didn't suffer under the hands of these blind men. He also thought, "The disciples of Songshan must've found out the cave in Huashan contained their own school's wonderful sword art so they quickly came here to take a look. This behaviour is quite common in people. But they didn't have time to report, so Zuo Lengchan just decided to kill them all and doesn't hold back at all. He must be thinking of killing me, but since he can't distinguish anyone, he even killed all his disciples who had only done a little bit of wrong." After some time, the sound of fighting ceased.
"Everyone," Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Go around the cave and give them another chop."
The blind men acknowledged his order, then the sound of sword slashing was heard going here and there. Two swords were chopping down in front of Linghu Chong, and he lifted his sword to block. Two hoarse voices shouting 'scram your granny' were heard and unexpectedly nobody realised what had happened. After some time, besides those blind men cursing and the clashing of weapons, there was no other noise. But Linghu Chong was still worried and he nearly cried, wanting to cry out, "Yingying, Yingying, where are you?"
"Stop!" Zuo Lengchan commanded.
Those blind men sheathed their swords and stood still. Zuo Lengchan laughed happily and said, "Those traitors have all been eliminated. These shameless people, just because they wanted to learn some sword moves, they actually swore loyalty to that bastard Yue Buqun. That little bastard Linghu Chong must've died under your swords! Haha! Haha! Linghu Chong, Linghu Chong, are you dead yet?" Linghu Chong held his breath and didn't reply.
"Pingzhi," Zuo Lengchan said. "Today, you've killed the person you hate the most. You must be satisfied."
"The whole battle was thought of by Brother Zuo," Lin Pingzhi replied. "It was wonderfully set up."
Linghu Chong thought, "Zuo Lengchan and him are praising each other. In order to get his Evil Resisting Sword Art, Zuo Lengchan is being very polite to him."
"If you didn't know of another secret path into this tunnel," Zuo Lengchan said. "It would've been hard for us to get our revenge."
"But it's a pity," Lin Pingzhi. "In all that confusion I didn't get the chance to kill that little bastard Linghu Chong myself."
Linghu Chong thought, "I've never offended him before. Why does he detest me so much?"
"It doesn't matter who killed him, it's all the same," Zuo Lengchan replied in whisper. "Let's go out quickly. I think Yue Buqun should be guarding outside of the cave now. We should take advantage of the darkness to rush out."
"Yes!" Lin Pingzhi acknowledged. The sound of footsteps was heard as their party entered the tunnel. Sound of footsteps gradually got farther away, and after a while, it was all quiet.
"Yingying," Linghu Chong whispered. "Where are you?" His voice sounded like he was weeping.
Suddenly, someone from above his head whispered, "I'm here. Don't make any noise!"
Linghu Chong was happy and both his knees became soft as he sat down on the ground. When those blind men randomly slashed their swords around, the safest place to be was up there. A place where no weapon can reach. This was a very obvious and simple point, but when faced with death, everyone's mind was in chaos and didn't think of this.
Yingying leapt down. Linghu Chong jumped up and tossed his sword away before embracing her tightly. They were both sobbing happily. Linghu Chong lightly kissed her forehead and whispered, "You really frightened me to death just before."
In the darkness, Yingying didn't avoid it and she lightly replied, "You were cursing people 'scram your granny'. Nevertheless, I heard it was your voice."
Linghu Chong couldn't help smiling as he asked, "You're not injured at all?"
"No."
"I heard the qin's sound before and wasn't worried anymore. But then I felt that I've stabbed a girl and the qin's sound became broken, not making up a tune, so I thought I've wounded you. Later on, there was no sound at all and I didn't know what had happened."
Yingying smiled. "I've jumped up there early on. I was afraid someone might find out so I couldn't call out to you. So I had to toss coins down to strike that yaoqin to let you know."
Linghu Chong sighed and said, "That's how it is. I never knew. I deserve to be hit, deserve to be hit!" He took her hand and lightly hit his own cheeks. "You're marrying such a stupid man," Linghu Chong chuckled. "This can be considered to be Young Lady Ren's bad luck. I felt it was really odd. If you were the one playing the yaoqin, why weren't you playing the 'Song of Peace and Serenity' or maybe the 'Smiling Proud Wanderer'?"
Yingying let him hugged her. "If I could toss coins in the darkness to make the yaoqin play out a tune, then I'll be a deity."
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Linghu Chong laughingly said, "You are a deity."
When Yingying heard his words were teasing her, she struggled wanting to get away from his embrace. Linghu Chong tightly held on to her and asked, "Later on, why did you stop throwing the coins to strike the qin?"
"I'm poor," Yingying laughingly replied. "I don't have that much money on me. After throwing a few of them, I ran out."
Linghu Chong sighed. "It's a pity there's no money farm in this cave, there's also no store here. Young lady Ren has no money to use and there's no place to borrow money."
Yingying also laughed and said, "After that, I even used my hairpin and earrings. But when those blind men started killing, I didn't dare to throw things anymore because their hearings are very acute."
Suddenly, there was a gloomy cold laugh coming from the tunnel's entrance. Linghu Chong and Yingying gasped in surprise. Linghu Chong's left arm embraced Yingying while his right hand grabbed the long sword on the ground. He shouted, "Who's there?"
That person coldly replied, "Hero Linghu, it's me!" The voice was Lin Pingzhi's. Then they heard footsteps coming from the tunnel, the blind men had returned.
Linghu Chong scolded himself for being so careless. Zuo Lengchan was an old bastard and he was also very cunning, so how could he just go like that? They must've stayed in the tunnel listening to the noises inside the cave. If he was by himself, he would've wasted some time before trying to escape. But with Yingying and him worrying over each other and delighted over their reunion, he didn't think the enemy could've stayed not far from there and was watching them from the outside. Yingying put her hand underneath Linghu Chong's armpit and whispered, "Go up!" The two of them jumped up.
Yingying had earlier rested on the rock jutting out of the wall so she knew where it was. In the darkness, she applied the right amount of force to go up and steadily landed on it. But Linghu Chong missed and he instead landed back down. Yingying grabbed his arm-->>