Ode to gallantry, p.58
Ode to Gallantry, page 58
The other disciples and people from the Guangdong who were observing this fight from the shop cheered in one voice and said: "Gao San Niangzi is really good with her short knives!"
Ding Busi was secretly startled in his heart and thought: "this young lady is quite a killer. If I come out of this fight unscathed then I owe myself a big meal!"
He cried aloud and suddenly spread out the nine soft whips, behind this façade of soft whips he employed the seize technique from his left hand, the soft whips hits far, the left hand attacks close to his body, he tried to use employ his left hand but Lu Zhengping and Fan Yifei advanced towards him and closed him down and didn’t gave him opportunity to strike.
The Guangdong people standing in the crowd cheered in one voice but as soon as their voices faded, there was obvious concern on their faces.
Shi Potian actually looked at this move with delight. Ding Busi taught him these moves once on the long river boat however at that time his knowledge of martial-arts was very limited and he was simply remembering it without understanding it and did not know how to utilize. Recently after learning and practicing martial-arts with his parents, he started to understand the smaller subtleties of the various techniques.
He saw that Ding Busi kept on parrying their attacks but didn’t hurry to use his seizing technique and was waiting for perfect opportunity to catch him unawares. They cancelled a dozen ingenious ruthless attacks between themselves and in fact the others look pleasantly surprised.
He saw the five people fighting at a luxurious pace, suddenly Ding Busi swerved his left arms suddenly, the palm moved towards the shoulder of Lu Zhengping. Lu Zhengping brandished his sword cut his arm. Shi Potian was shocked as he knew Lu Zhengping will be executing the same move and he also knew that Ding Busi to is expecting it but he will use his opportunity to turn over his palm and hit at his face and with his ruthless palm strength, it was pretty difficult to say if Lu Zhengping will be able to survive or not.
Shi Potian was not able to restrain and suddenly shouted: "Watch out, he will hit your face!"
His internal energy was abundant, as soon as he called despite the cacophony of all sorts of weapons, various person can still hear him clearly. Lu Zhengping was adept in martial arts and the moment he heard this shout he too immediately realized the danger and hurriedly let go his sword and lied down and rolled, this all happened in a flash.
Ding Busi exerted tremendous force with this palm attack and didn’t manage to stop his attack and since he didn’t managed to connect Lu Zhengping he himself got carried away.
He was breathing heavily and his own face ached as if he got hit by a sword, after he tumbles out several feet, then only he managed to jump and got steady on his feet. His heart jumping madly and he knew it was really a close call, as if someone has to remind him this was really a matter of life or death.
As soon as Lu Zhengping tumbled out of the fight; he knew that Fan Yifei will be in danger immediately. Lu Zhengping called out: "throw me a sword!" His senior disciple threw a sword towards him immediately, Lu Zhengping stretched out and caught it and in the same motion got ready to attack. However he saw the soft whips of Ding Busi and Feng Liang entwined and unexpectedly he saw the body of Feng Liang coming towards him with great speed towards his own out stretched sword. Lu Zhengping let down his sword anxiously.
Shi Potian called out: "Master Fan be careful, grasps your pharynx and larynx!" As soon as Fan Yifei heard it he didn’t have much time to ponder over it but still he used his pair of judge pen to protect his pharynx and larynx. Ding Busi attacked him at the same moment but was not able to catch him and only managed to scratch him and passed over gently and swiftly nearby his pharynx and larynx making five bloodstains.
Shi Potian had called twice and saved life of two people from their group. The Guandong group felt grateful towards him and everyone turned his head to look towards him but all they saw was a young fellow with his face blackened by dust and coal obviously he was not willing to show his true identity.
Ding Busi shouted abuse towards him: "your paternal grandmother, that dog hybrid is really gossipy? Come out and fight grandpa if you really want to!"
Shi Potian extends his tongue to Dingdang and said: "he ......He recognized me!"
Dingdang said: "You are really gossipy however I don’t thing that dog hybrid part was for you."
By now Lu Zhengping and Fan Yifei had recovered and were again attacking Ding busi from both sides, Gao San Niangzi too launched her short knives at Ding Busi in between to help them. In the meanwhile Feng Liang too had extricated his whips from the entanglement, so now all five people were again in the middle of ferocious fight; however Ding Busi was extremely eager to speak with that person who has twice foiled his attacks by shouting warnings. Shi Potian didn’t want these people from the Guandong to lose their life in such a pointless battle. Whenever any one of these people are in danger he shouted to give them warning and thus in a very short time he rescued Lu Zhengping three times, Fan Yifei four times and Feng Liang three times.
Ding Busi was burning with rage and anger, he suddenly jumped in the air and leapt towards Gao San Niangzi and attacked with his left palm. This move "powerful and unconstrained style" was really unique and the hand movements were really strange.
Shi Potian called out immediately however Gao San Niangzi only managed to slant at one side still her right shoulder got hit by the fingers of Ding Busi. She felt a heavy jolt and her right hand felt really weary. She took out her knives from her left hand and threw at Ding Busi. Ding Busi scoffed at her in a condescending manner and moved his nine soft whips, and in a single swipe entwined the short knives in his soft whips and immediately shot the two knives at Lu Zhengping and Feng Liang simultaneously.
He also attacked Gao san Niangzi in the same motion with his nine soft whips. She was already injured so she leapt high in the air to avoid his attack, as soon as she leapt she heard people calling out at her in alarm. Actually when she was in mid-air then only she saw two of her short knives moving towards her with great speed.
Fan Yifei and other too saw this but they were themselves in danger and didn’t have any opportunity to save Gao San Niangzi. They felt really bad as she was saving them from Ding Busi’s continuous attacks by throwing knives but at this time they were too far from her to save her.
Ding Busi was really mad with anger but he changed his strategy at the right time to attack Gao San Niangzi. He threw the short knives lying nearby with great speed. Gao san Niangzi was already in air and she had little time to change her direction or avoid these knives. As the knives came closer a thought passed over mind: "So I at last die with my own short knife by this despicable old bandit, such is the irony of life, a respected lady throughout my life and dying in such a way in front of these many people."
Feng Liang used his soft whips to deflect the short knives moving towards him and Lu Zhengping but was still far away from Gao San Niangzi.
Shi Potian saw with his own eyes the moment Ding Busi threw the knife and he also yelled but he knew it won’t make any difference. He knew that the situation is very critical. Immediately his right hand moved swiftly and he plucked out short knives from the shop’s gate and flung.
He has never practiced the art of throwing projectiles or hidden weapons, so he quickly shot seven-eight knives towards her with incredible agility. As his internal energy was really strong one of the knives hit the knife moving towards the abdomen of Gao San Niangzi and cut it in to two. The other flew close to her neck and cut her hair.
Gao San Niangzi landed vertically from several tens of feet on high spot but she still managed to stand on her feet but she was frightened to her core and all the color of her face drained out.
This time Ding Busi made a bug strange face. He turned around immediately and shouted in Shi Potian’s direction: "Is it my friend who has interfered in this fight gain? If you have guts then come out and fight three hundred round and I won’t blame you."
He was staring at Shi Potian, because on his face Shi Potian has rubbed a lot of coal & dirt so he didn’t recognize him. He listened to Shi Potian calling regularly throughout the fight to help his opponents and breaking his attack as if he was anticipating his each and every move. Even now he saw the short knife this young fellow has throw toward his knife; it simply cut his knife in to two and still moved on like a flash so obviously his internal energy is extremely strong. However at this instance he was really angry and he knew that this young person is really formidable still he couldn’t restrain himself from challenging him.
When Shi Potian was rescuing these people he didn’t care if this act of his is good or bad. As soon as he saw Gao san Niangzi in danger, he was anxious and hurriedly threw the short knives to intercept those pair of knives but unexpectedly when he managed to save her he was pleasantly surprised. One of the knife actually cut his palm and blood start dripping from it and suddenly he felt pain in his hand. For a moment he didn’t acknowledge any thing and blustered out in Ding Busi’s direction: "fourth grandpa, I.....I am......big steamed rice dumpling!"
Ding Busi made a zheng sound and laughed immediately and said with a smile: "ha! So it is you big steamed rice dumpling!" He thought in his mind: "this boy has studied my martial arts, no wonder he can easily anticipate my next moves, obviously at least this bit is not strange."
As soon as this thought came to his mind he again got angry and shouted in his direction: "this thief boy is coming in the way of grandpa every now and then and interfering in other people's business!" He shouted at him and the same moment strikes with his whip towards him.
Shi Potian felt the vigorous rush of air as the nine soft whips moved towards him, he moved backwards to avoid being hit, although he moved quite quickly but this was very clumsy and looked ugly.
Ding Busi raged with more anger and attacked ferociously with a series of three moves, this strategic move was utmost ingenious, Shi Potian dodged them by moving sideways. The internal energy of Shi Potian has already reached the level where he was able to move his body the way he wanted. These moves of Ding Busi were acquired over a long period of time and were very deadly, although Shi Potian didn’t attacked at him but the ease with which he avoided his attack really shocked Ding Busi.
He thought in his heart: "I haven’t taught this whip moves to him still he managed to avoid it easily. How is it so?"
When a nine soft whip moves it glitters too in the sunlight and it held a trance over Shi Potian until it kept moving and he stood in his place waiting for next move. Suddenly Ding Busi remembered how he and Ding Busan both fought with this big steamed rice dumpling and Bai Wanjian on the Azure mist island unexpectedly they had to run away after getting beaten.....No, the third brother actually accepted his ignominious defeat, I however didn’t wanted to hurt people from younger generation that’s why I simply moved away. This young fellow was always frightened of me so he didn’t dare to pursue, but anyway this boy was always a little strange ......"
Other people standing there saw Shi Potian evading the soft whip at him with just side stepping and were truly amazed as this extremely risky ploy and several people just couldn’t believe he was successfully evading his attacks and cold sweat trickled down their neck.
On the other hand Shi Potian actually thought in his heart: "Grandpa Ding Busi is really playing with me. He is simply joking with me that’s why he is intentionally passing his whips gently and swiftly to my side."
He didn’t know that Ding Busi was actually trying his best but is simply not able to hit him.
Dingdang knew his grand uncle is very fierce in nature and he won’t hold back for anyone, she knew that the way he is attacking Shi Potian, if he manages to connect even a single blow, it will break his bones so she called out immediately: "elder brother Shi, hits back quickly! If you won’t hit back, it will be really bad!"
The people heard these word coming out from a servant’s mouth but the voice was actually of a female and were amazed but this was nothing compared to the way Shi Potian was evading the attacks without getting hurt in that chaotic whirlwind of the soft whips .
Shi Potian thought: "why can this be bad? On that day when I tied up my left arm when fighting with those Taoist priests, they became really angry and thought that I was looking down at them. My mother said that if one starts the fight than most people will despise him however if someone wins and then shows contempt by spoken words or by actions then it is a matter of great shame and henceforth will result in deadly enmity. So If I only fend off the attacks but do not hit back then fourth grandpa will be really angry." He immediately extended both his hands together to grasp the chest of Ding Busi; he used the move eighteen seizing techniques taught to him by Dingdang.
This martial art was originated from the Ding family so how Ding Busi could not know it? He avoided this move immediately but the execution of these seizing techniques used by Shi Potian was accompanied by vigorous internal energy. To hook, to belt, to lock, to take, to poke, to strike, to divide, to poke, to bend… each move was coming with overwhelming power.
Ding Busi was startled, he called out: "you do have tricks boy. You do have!"
When he started the twelfth move, Shi Potian used the fifth variation of the phoenix tail move to grasp the nine soft whips. Ding Busi had enormous strength but unexpectedly he was not able to free the nine soft whips. He gave a loud shout and concentrated the focus of his entire internal strength to get back the nine soft whips. He was very proud person and in front of all these many people he couldn’t allow this young fellow to seize his nine soft whips. The entire joints in his body started to make noises as he displayed the pinnacle of his skills.
Shi Potian thought: "It looks as if grandpa wants me to leave his soft whips."
The moment his fingers loosened, he only heard loud sound of something being struck and then falling to the ground with several loud voices. Actually the moment Ding Busi applied his entire strength to seize back his whips, at the same moment Shi Potian left the whips willingly. Ding Busi was forced backwards and took with himself several people in the crowd and hit the hotel’s wall. The wall collapsed because of the impact and a lot of brick and mud scattered in the shop. Along with people several tables and stools, the dishes, bowls and countless household utensils were crushed.
Shi Potian heard the screams and crying of several people from the shop. At least four Guandong juniors and three idlers were on the floor and blood was gushing out of vest of one person.
When Shi Potian moved towards the collapsed wall he only found the four people coming out of it and several broken bowls, or the bamboo chopsticks but Ding Busi disappeared without a trace. One he knew that Ding Busi has left, he felt a lot better. He turned around to see the injured person and the carnage Ding Busi has left behind in the shop.
In a moment fan Yifei came in and started helping the injured people. He saw that all the people had injuries in their strategic acu-points. He was amazed that despite the fact that Ding Busi was flying backwards still he managed to hit these people with such accuracy.
He also thought that if Shi Potian has not intervened at several critical junctures and fought with him then surely all of fours sect leader would have been dead by this time.
He immediately knelt down before Shi Potian and said: "Young hero, your benevolence is unforgettable, can I ask your esteemed name."
Shi Potian has already learnt about the etiquettes of the martial-art realm from his mother so he too knelt down in front of Fan Yifei and immediately returned the salutation and said: "I don’t dare, I don’t dare! This is just a small matter, it’s not worth mentioning? My surname is Shi and I am given the name Zhong Yu."
Fan Yifei too told him his name and about their sect and also about rest of them. He then noticed Dingdang and asked him about her.
Shi Potian said: "she is called Dingdang, she is my ......my .....my..." he said "my" three times and then blushed and didn’t said anything further. Fan Yifei thought that both these young man and woman are traveling together in the martial-art realm and feel embarrassed about it so its better to leave the awkward matters aside and didn’t talked about that matter.
Dingdang said: "come on, let go!"
Shi Potian said: "yes, yes!"
He cupped his one hand in the other across his chest to make farewell speech with these people.
Fan Yifei felt extreme gratitude towards Shi Potian. He came out of the small town to see them off. Various people wanted to meet Shi Potian and wanted to ask him about his martial arts and his school but when fan Yifei saw that Dingdang was giving meaningful glances to Shi Potian, he understood that she doesn’t want these people to disturb them so directed those people to leave them alone.
He said: "young hero Shi, you have shown great kindness on us people. In this life if you ever face some difficulty or in future if you ever need us, we people of Guandong will to go through water and tread on fire to return your favor but won’t refuse under any condition."
Shi Potian recalled what his mother taught him and replied: "everybody is martial arts world is like family and we all have to pursue righteousness and justice. If we cooperate with each other than all the evil can be terminated. Today we became friend, what more favor can you return. I am extremely happy."
As soon as Fan Yifei heard these words he thought that this young hero has saved our lives still he is so polite, although he is so young still his martial-arts skill are amazing and he is so amiable. He really admired him and was not willing to say good-bye after such a short meeting.
