Ode to gallantry, p.47
Ode to Gallantry, page 47
This way antidote acts only to enhance the internal strength but didn’t neutralize the poison otherwise what would have been the use of such a precious medicated wine if one use anti-dote to negate its poison.
The internal energy of these two people was not enough to neutralize the poison but because of anti-dote it didn’t break-out at that time but suddenly now after so much time it broke-out.
In meantime both Zhang San and Li Si had severe pain in their abdominal region, their whole body went numb. These two people knew the situation is very critical, they direct their internal energy towards their pubic region hurriedly trying to bind the medicated wine in that region only and hoped to contain the poison outbreak in that part only and slowly bit by bit neutralize the poison before it reaches other internal organs otherwise they feared that if reaches their heart then its too late to recover.
However by now there life hanged seriously in the hands of other people, even if they can resist the poisoned wine in their stomach, actually it will be very difficult to run away from the main hall of ‘Iron fork sect’.
Two people thought: "So we two people who have roamed the martial-art world freely, today die in here."
Chief Helmsman Yu, that person surnamed Hu and all the other people of the ‘Iron fork sect’ saw Zhang San and Li Si suddenly leaning on the chair, sweating profusely, muscles on their faces twitching, with very painful facial expression, they were amazed greatly. Various people in the martial-art world shake even by the name of these people, although when they saw them in this situation everyone thought that they won’t get a better opportunity to get rid of them in a thousand years, but no one dared to act.
Shi Potian asked: "eldest brother, elder brother, you two have gotten drunk and now suddenly got sick?"
Zhang San and Li Si didn’t answer him. They were partly lying and partly sitting and trying to direct their internal energy to neutralize the abdomen poison, not after much time a faint trace white smoke emitted from the top of their head.
When Yu Desheng saw the white smoke emitting from the top of the head he hurriedly said in a low voice: "Brother Hu, these two people are not injured or suffering from any foul disease and are moving internal energy to neutralize the poison, everybody move quick!"
That person surnamed Hu felt great happiness, actually he didn’t dare to approach, but the moment he heard chief helmsman he moved quickly and threw a iron fork at Zhang San. Zhang San tried to avoid it but only managed to divert it slightly, the iron fork inserted his shoulder and the blood splashed.
Shi Potian called out in great surprise: "you ......you? You dare to injury my eldest brother?"
The various people of the ‘Iron fork sect’ saw this young person looking flustered and acting with helplessness so didn’t pay him any attention. When they saw that the fork of Brother Hu has already stabbed Zhang San and let alone attack, he even didn’t managed to deflect it properly felt happy and got inspired greatly, everyone shouting and whistling, at the same time three more Iron fork flied towards Shi Potian.
Shi Potian moved his left arm and in one horizontal swipe shakes off two iron forks and extended his right hand to meets the third iron fork. He moved sideways to protect both Zhang San and Li Si. Suddenly it was confusion in there, five more iron fork were thrown at him.
Shi Potian moved his hands to deflect the iron forks in a chaotic manner and because of his abundant internal energy it flied back, two iron fork stabbed at some person’s head, another one stuck someone’s abdomen.
Yu Desheng saw that this place is very narrow and too crowded and more of his people with get injured or lose there lives if it continues so he called out: "everybody stop for a moment, let me deal with this young thief first."
As soon as he bent his waist, both his hand moved and by the time he straightened up, in each hand, he already had a shining short steel fork.
The ‘Iron fork sect’ people withdraw in abundance, they stood close to the wall and called with one voice: "Look at chief helmsman, how is he going to tidy up this thief boy."
In that underground secret room, the sound cannot pass on and turned in a melancholy.
Yu Desheng gave bow, and then with exceptional speed attacked Shi Potian suddenly, both short steel forks were up and down, and moved respectively toward his cheeks and his waist.
Shi Potian has not expected the opposite party to go offensive so quickly and unexpectedly, he called out: "Ahh" and yelling this he stepped out forward one step, but at the same time the iron fork connected with his waist and right arm at the same time. When he tried to grab the iron fork, Yu Desheng saw that this person’s martial-arts was not that great so his spirit soared and rest of ‘Iron fork sect’ people too sensed him and shouted repeatedly, he moved like a tornado.
Shi Potian’s right arm was injured lightly, but his waist was got stabbed and it was really aching. He saw that Yu Desheng was again moving with amazing speed and will strike his vest, immediately he leaned his body to get out of the way, turned over his palm to attack the opponent.........
This move was taught to him by Ding Busi. When Yu Desheng who was a expert in hand-to-hand fight saw Shi Potian executing a move although its posture was really ugly, but when he raised his hand he heard a faint sound and recognized the fierce internal energy and inside his heart felt terrified.
He used his life-long experience and immediately changed his move, now both small steel forks moved to stab Shi Potian’s key acupoints.
Zhang San and Li Si were trying to contain the abdomen poison and at the same time were looking at Shi Potian and You Desheng fighting, they knew that today they will live or not will be decided by the victory of Shi Potian. They saw with their own eyes innumerable good opportunities missed, both were feeling pity and anxious, but didn’t dare to lose concentration.
As the fight continued, Shi Potian’s right leg was struck by the short steel fork, he cried out: "Ahhh" and shot out his right palm toward Yu Desheng. Yu Desheng sniffed a thick sweet ice-cold odor, and he felt dizziness in his head and the next moment he fainted. Shi Potian gave a foolish expression and leapt backward.
That person surnamed Hu came up quickly and saw Yu Desheng’s face turning its color and changing to purplish black, obviously he was hit by a violent poison; as soon as he sniffed that odor, he was dead.
He got shocked and angry almost at the same time, the hissing sound came out: "little thief ......this boy, you poisoned our chief, we will get you! Everybody, this boy had killed the chief helmsman."
All the ‘Iron fork sect’ people cried and took out their iron forks and pointed towards Shi Potian and started stamping it creating massive noise.
Shi Potian kept in front of Zhang San and Li Si. As he didn’t dare to leave them and knew the moment he left his place everyone will move towards these two righteous brothers.
Ten iron forks moved towards him, he desperately snatched an iron fork broke off its handle and used it as a saber executing the Golden Phoenix skill, made a horizontal swipe to keep away the attack, his exerted his formidable internal energy on the fork.
The moment iron forks connected everyone experienced an incredible shock and suddenly ten iron forks were flying in the air. One person stood his ground and tried to grasp Shi Potian and attacked him with his body.
Shi Potian saw his aggressive move and moved his left hand to strike him, he connected him above his ten fingers, only heard a ka-ka sound, the his wrist bone broke off , he stopped for a moment and then suddenly fell on the ground, dead on the spot.
All of sudden it was a melee. No one was paying attention to his life and hurriedly seven-eight people attacked Shi Potian, some were using their iron fork, some empty-handed. Shi Potian didn’t dare to move back even one step, saw several people attacking together; he moved his palm to hit. He didn’t know what happened but suddenly the opponents start falling down immediately as if some kind of divine help.
This way in succession he managed to knock out six people, several people yelled: "this boy’s poisonous palm is fierce, everybody be careful."
Also some people called out: "Elder brother Wang San was also killed by this boy’s poisonous palm, this young ......young ......evil heart ......" his words were not even complete and thump, he fell to the ground, an iron fork hit him hard on his face. This person was not hit by the palm of Shi Potian, still he too died.
The ‘Iron fork sect’ people got intimidated, they withdrew step by step, but heard sound of choking, the sound of something being struck or falling to the ground, several sounds of ‘Ahhh….Ohhhh..’ were heard. Several people tried to turn around so they can run away, but after two steps or so fell and died.
In an instant, in the hall hundred people were lying and that place was filled up with dead, only alive person were four highest skilled people, they put out a hand to cover up their nose and mouth and rushed outside but before they reached the hall entrance, four people then pushed a group, and also fell dead.
Shi Potian saw these scenes, and got frightened and stared speechlessly. He compared this situation to the one in the corpse ship which he met at the Azure mist island and got panic-stricken even ten times more. At that time he saw the corpses of the ‘flying fish sect’ people and they were already dead but at this moment he was fighting with them and suddenly all of them died themselves. He did not know what happened and which malicious ghost did it.
He remembered these people saying that the poisonous palm was fierce, so he looked at his palm, saw on his both palms some group of dark red spot like a blood red cloud, these red cloud also had innumerable blue color stripes. When he swore brotherhood with these two people he saw a red spot on both his palms surrounded by blue spots but at that time it was really tiny, he did not know how its appearance changed so much suddenly.
He looked at it once again, cannot bear to see and felt disgusting, only thought that these two palms have become similar to belly of a poisonous snake or centipede walking on its hand, he smelt some kind of stench and also felt a thick cold breath.
He turns the head to look towards Zhang San and Li Si, he saw only gentle looks of both people, on top of their head were thick white clouds, an iron fork still sticking out of Zhang San’s shoulder.
He thought: "I should pull out this iron fork from his shoulder."
As soon as he held the fork handle to pull out gently, blood sprouted from Zhang San’s shoulder. Shi Potian hurriedly tore his front tunic and bound his wounds.
He heard Zhang San saying in a low voice: "you .....listen to ...what ...I ......say ......according to ......my words ......make ......" he said one word at a time, the sound and the intonation were both low and slow. In handling poison Zhang San and Li Si were equally matched, but because of his shoulder wound Zhang San has lost a lot of blood and also his wound had got infected so he was feeling really weak.
Shi Potian nods anxiously and said: "yes, yes, eldest brother please instruct."
Zhang San said: "put your ......left hand ......to the.......back of my …heart ......to hold the …Lingtai acu-point ......" then he spoke a few more words, spent a long time, then only he managed to teach Shi Potian how to use his internal energy to force poison out of his body, by the time he was finished Zhang San was already sweating profusely, his complexion was still red like blood.
Shi Potian didn’t dare to neglect, as everything depend on him he started immediately, untied his coat, with his left hand held down his Lingtai acu-point, with his right hand held the Shan-Zhong acu-point, with his left hand forcing the poison and with the left hand attracting it, within a small time a thin thread of smoke rose from his heart as poison start to dissipate.
Shi Potian used all his internal energy to force poison out Zhang San body, suddenly he heard the footsteps sounds, and around ten people rushed inside holding iron forks in their hand. These people followed orders and stayed outside to guard. A long time passed and they didn’t heard any sound so they came to check immediately, even in their worst dreams they couldn’t have expected that chief helmsman and all the brothers were lying on the ground horizontally, all dead.
At first they were panic-stricken, but then they saw Shi Potian, Zhang San and Li Si sitting on the ground, obviously they were seriously injured, various people shouted at once and attacked with their iron forks to stab these three people.
Shi Potian was treating Zhang San, unexpectedly these people rushed in. he turned around to resist them. They have just crossed about ten meter or so then suddenly all of them kind of got paralyzed, went on their knees and died by the time they fell.
Shi Potian was frightened, his heart nearly jumped up his mouth, he started to tremble and said: "big ......Eldest brother, in this room there is a malicious ghost. We should quickly leave......"
Zhang San shook his head, by now he had rested and around half the poison of his body was now neutralized, the abdominal pain was now a lot less fierce and he said: "you ......with this method ......treat ...elder brother Li Si .....also."
Shi Potian said: "Yes...yes!"
So as instructed by Zhang San he again repeated the same process on Li Si. After some time a faint trace of cold air started to come out of him, as the poison in the body of Li Si started to reduce, he felt better and asked Shi Potian to help out Zhang San.
So he started once again on Zhang San, this way he kept on alternating between both Zhang San and Li Si for three more times. Although there was still some poison left inside their body but was now harmless. They wanted to leave some part of poison inside their body so that their body gets used to it and can resist it.
When both people looked around and saw the corpses, then only remembered how dangerous the situation was just a few moments back, and cannot help but to feel a lingering fear. They thought that Shi Potian has just now neutralized their poison however some time back he himself had somehow forced the poison to his palms.
Actually when they saw his face, it looked as though he is scared, but his manner was as usual, was not feeling any poison. They really believed that this boy had unknowingly taken ‘immortal lingzhi mushroom’ that’s why he has such an internal energy and is quite impervious to such deadly poison but whatever the reason they were both very happy also felt grateful secretly.
Obviously they knew that when the ‘iron fork sect’ people attacked him he utilized his internal energy vigorously and in the process forced out the poison from his palm in the air and poisonous winds, within a few time the entire hall was polluted by this poisonous air and whoever breathed died, such was the potency of the poison.
This was not a easy matter to explain to Shi Potian, when they saw that he hasn’t asked the reason for this carnage, they also didn’t raised the issue.
Zhang San said: "Elder brother, third brother, let’s go!" he walked out followed by Li Si and Shi Potian.
As the three people come out of that tunnel, they saw about a dozen more people outside with iron forks in their hands and looking around.
When they saw them coming out alone, one of them shouted and others started to encircle them. Some people shouted asking questions: "Where is chief helmsman? Why is he not coming out? How are you people coming out alone?"
Zhang San said with a smile: "Your chief helmsman is inside!"
That person asked again: "how did you come out first?"
Zhang San replied with a smile: "I can’t explain it right now, its better that you go inside and find it yourself."
Suddenly both of his hands moved and he held a person by his chest and threw him in the tunnel. The ‘Iron fork sect’ people called out in alarm and numerous iron forks moved to stab them. Zhang San didn’t dodge to evade their attack and fished his hand in air to seize their fork and the next moment two people were thrown backwards.
Shi Potian stood in one side, and saw Zhang San grasping the iron forks of these people conveniently, very easily, no matter what the opposite party did to resist his moves still he was able to get there forks and used it against them. The more he looked the he more he was surprised, thought earlier I saw elder brother’s martial-art and now I am seeing again, it’s really amazing and incomparable, he is truly a expert.
Li Si folded both his hands and stood behind, he didn’t go forward to help Zhang San. In a moment Zhang San has knocked down about ten people. People were lying here and there. The person lying farthest yelled: "run away!"
He tried to rush into to the tunnel, other people too followed him in.
Shi Potian called out: "There is danger inside, do not go in!" but actually no one listened to him and all went in.
Under his heart he had innumerable suspicions: How can the ‘Iron fork people’ just die like that? Why the two elder brothers got poisoned and suddenly have stomach pain? Why did eldest brother catch up with into these many people in the tunnel? He did not know whether he should ask these questions then after a while finally asked: "eldest brother, second elder brother!"
Zhang San said: "well! Who is there on that side?"
As soon as Shi Potian turned his head and looked at that side, he saw no one, not even a shadow, he asked: "what person?"
He didn’t hear any response from Zhang San so he again turned around and whoop!
No one was there…there was no trace of Zhang San or Li Si too. He was shocked and didn’t understand why both elder brothers disappeared suddenly.
Shi Potian shouted: "Eldest brother, two elder brothers! Have you gone in there?"
He called several times but no person came out and he didn’t hear anything so he came out of the tunnel.
He was at loss so he thought about looking in to the houses in the village. He came out of that thatched hut and rushed in to seven-eight houses but didn’t found a single person.
In the meantime he saw the red sun glowing; it was morning now, every place was sunlit but in this big village, he saw no one and it was entirely emptily.
He remembered the situation in the tunnel and in the hall where various people died such a tragic death and cannot help but shivered. He cried loudly and then ran way. He ran for about ten miles and then only slowed down. He suddenly thought about his palms and looked at them, the palm's red cloud and the blue grain has now again reduced to about half of when he saw in the hall, also it didn’t looked that disgusting now, thinking this he tried to console his heart.
