Zhan Zhao Adventures - Chapter Six (Part IX)

Chapter Six: Crane Rushing to the Sky (Part IX)

The people who detached from the dangerous place already numbered three. Their startled spirits were not yet settled, yet they again heard Zhan Zhao's voice. Within his tone of voice, it already subtly carried a trace of anxiety: "Why are you all still staying right here and not leaving?"
 
When speaking up to the very last character, his voice had already dropped behind his person!
 
His person had already arrived before Mo Dao's face. His two hands gave a division, and the long sword that was originally wrapped by the flag had already separated from the flag!
 
Along with his flying his body and rising up, the flowing of the sword light was already like a flying rainbow and a flash of lightning; the change of the sword stance was moreover ten thousand in a brief instant, not allowing a person to have a single trace of hesitation. The long sword of his right hand, clever in its stance, had already deathly entangled Mo Dao and the imperial guards of the Xiangyang Prince's Mansion. The long flag of his left hand was however taking advantage of the opportunity to poke into the 'Yanmei'er' array time after time!
 
Within Zhong Xiong's eyes, reflecting this crisscrossing sword Qi, there already revealed a trace of excitement.
 
Amidst the flashing and moving of human silhouettes, another old woman flew and dropped to the outside of the array of 'Yanmei'er'; although the sound of landing on the ground was very loud, she did not suffer injury.
 
Only now did Zhong Xiong realize that the child, young married woman, and old fellow by his side had not moved their footsteps to depart.
 
That child and young married woman had just breathed through a mouthful of air, yet they looked at each other and shook their heads. Perhaps within their hearts, they truly just wanted to immediately lean on each other and flee away from this dangerous place. Their eyes, however, stared straightly and hookedly at that old fellow upon the ground.
——That old fellow was thought to have been bumped heavily; giving a struggle, he unexpectedly did not climb up.
 
They were after all too weak, and were already without the strength to drag this injured elder up.
 
They were precisely waiting!
 
Waiting for the time when this old person was able to climb up.
 
Zhong Xiong looked at this raggedly clothed child, and already possessed a trace of a sigh.
 
"If I were you, I would take advantage of the early time to immediately leave here."
 
The child looked at him timorously, for a time unable to distinguish clearly whether the person before his eyes was after all enemy or friend.
——His smile was very gentle and kindly, his appearance was very awe-inspiring, and his voice, although low and deep, was pleasing to the ear.
 
These used to dissolve a child's guard were already sufficient.
 
That child said in a small voice: "I cannot leave."
 
Zhong Xiong said: "Why can you not leave?"
 
Child said: "Because my mother and elder sister have not yet emerged. Grandfather again fell down right here. Our few families have resided generation after generation in this town, and must always be together."
 
These words of his were spoken with a heroism already; this tiny child, having gone through the transitions and changes of this human world, appeared as if he had already grown up.
 
Zhong Xiong said: "Do you unexpectedly not fear that that mother and elder sister of yours will then never emerge again?"
 
Child said: "They will bound to emerge. That black-clad young gentleman will bound to rescue them out!"
 
Within his voice, it was as if it was filled with confidence.
 
Zhong Xiong however shook his head and said: "You do not even recognize who this black-clad young gentleman is, how do you know he will bound to rescue them out?"
 
The child tilted his head, gave it a thought, and said in a serious and earnest manner: "Because he is a good person!"
 
The child's unreserved speech unexpectedly caused Zhong Xiong's chest to feel hot. Beneath his heart, there seemed to be a strand of impulse long since hidden that was about to burst through his rationality and burst through his brain.
 
This flying and flaunting impulse appeared so unfamiliar, yet so familiar, unexpectedly causing him to be unable to speak words out for a time.
 
Only his train of thought did not continue for very long when it was again attracted over by the array battle before his eyes. The moment he saw that sword shadow filling the sky, his rationality once again took the upper hand.
 
By the time the child's side added another two people, with a "chi" sound, the flagpole within Zhan Zhao's hand fractured again!
 
This ordinary flagpole, even if it could block for a block the knives and swords of Mo Dao and the imperial guards of the Xiangyang Prince's Mansion, was however difficult to resist the sandwich-attack of internal power.
 
Zhan Zhao appeared as if he had long since expected that there would be this single fracture; his hand gave a beckoning motion, a strand of powerful wind flashed across, and another flagpole leaped into his hand.
 
The Iron-Blood Guard leader by Zhong Xiong's side looked at Zhan Zhao's silhouette and said in a deep voice: "This is the very last flagpole."
 
Zhong Xiong said in deep thought: "If this one fractures again, I truly cannot think out how the people trapped inside the array could be able to escape out. This strategy of Taoist Mo's was originally precisely a good strategy that only wins and does not lose!"
 
The Iron-Blood Guard leader said: "Master's meaning is——"
 
Zhong Xiong said: "The exquisite and wonderful place of this single strategy precisely lies in that it is specially established for the category of people like Zhan Zhao. These people of theirs view the lives of the common people as even more precious than their own. If he wants to pass through this Xiqiao Ferry, he must pass through this 'Yanmei'er' array. The 'Yijianrugu' upon his body will then trigger the poison inside the 'Yanmei'er' array. Of the people trapped inside the array, then not a single one can think of emerging alive. If he retreats and leaves the Xiqiao Ferry, let alone the even more men and horses that will successively arrive from behind, even Taoist Mo can also use the civilians trapped inside the 'Yanmei'er' array to coerce him. This single strategy is indeed a good strategy."
 
The Iron-Blood Guard leader said: "But Taoist Mo however did not expect that Zhan Zhao would use this method to break his 'Yanmei'er' away. Once the people trapped inside the array completely detach from Taoist Mo's grasp, then Zhan Zhao will still borrow the 'Crane Rushing to the Sky' and cross the ferry port away. Arriving at that time, I am afraid it would be no different from releasing the tiger to return to the mountain."
 
Zhong Xiong said slowly: "Most likely Taoist Mo has also already thought up to this point."
 
Inside his eyes, a strange expression had already been revealed, and he said: "Therefore if Zhan Zhao wants to rescue all the people out of the array, this very last flagpole of his can then no longer fracture."
 
His words were suddenly cut off by a childish voice beside him: "Mom, mom, grandfather and the others are going to leave; you also hurry up and follow along. If that black-clad uncle cannot support, that big evil person will very quickly come again."
 
Beside the female child was however a woman; her eyes were still tensely staring intently at the front, responding readily as her mouth allowed: "You follow your grandfather to go first; I am waiting for Xiao Mao to emerge."
 
Zhong Xiong looked as far as his eyes could reach, only then to discover that during the roaming fight, inside the 'Yanmei'er' array, there only remained a single person. A child who was already shocked to the point of being unable to speak words!
 
Zhan Zhao gave a long laugh, the flag flying and flaunting rolled up, the right-hand long sword once again forced back Mo Dao, and his left hand was raised up; he himself moreover borrowed this single raising-up power to soar his body and rise up.
 
The silhouettes crisscrossed!
 
That child's body had already been rolled up by that flag, flying straight toward the outside of the 'Yanmei'er' array.
 
Within this single instant, suddenly gold stars flashed and moved, and the sky-filling magnificent brilliance of the Apricot Flower Rain unexpectedly shot straight toward that child. The child whose body was in the empty air was originally already in a position where there was no way to avoid. His mother could already not cover a single cry of alarm inside her mouth!
 
Right at this hair-hanging-by-a-thousand-jun crucial juncture, that flagpole suddenly shattered! In the turn of an eye, this slender flagpole then changed into several tens of pieces of broken shards of non-uniform lengths. The strength abruptly gave a loss, and that child's body suddenly sank, dropping straight toward the ground; but this abruptly-arising dropping momentum however completely avoided that Apricot Flower Rain that filled the sky.
 
That was the very last flag.
 
He ruined this flag, and what he rescued was this child. This very last flag ultimately rescued the very last person.
 
What remained was only this sword within Zhan Zhao's hand. This autumn-water long sword emitting refined light in all four directions.
 
Only right when he was about to rush up to catch this child's dropping momentum, at a space that did not admit the insertion of a hair, a strand of powerful wind pounced straight at his face!
 
There was not any omen; there was not any foreshadowing.
 
Continuously unbroken was the silver needles like thousands upon thousands of dense rain, the endless and infinite silver needles.
 
Zhan Zhao's long sword agitated and arose, the sword light abruptly blazing up, and the silver needles of thousand threads and ten thousand wisps had already been agitated away and splattered in all directions.
 
But these silver needles unexpectedly appeared as if they were infinite and endless, continuous and unbroken. Weaving like dense rain into a patch of light screen, a patch of light screen that shrouded him.
 
This patch of light screen, in a split second, then rolled away Zhan Zhao's silhouette!
 
Upon Zhong Xiong's face, there already did not possess a single shred of blood color. After a long while, only then did a kind of cold cruelty surge out inside his eyes: "Indeed it is the Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom Needles of the Shura Cult. Also only the Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom Needles can force any single person under heaven to not possess the power to strike back."
 
The Iron-Blood Guard leader said: "This subordinate heard that after this Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom is launched, there is already not a single person under heaven able to avoid it."
 
Zhong Xiong said: "Correct. Although the Apricot Flower Rain is urgent, yet after you wait for it to launch, you are still able to flash and avoid once again; the Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom Needles, however, can no longer be dodged by a single person."
 
The Iron-Blood Guard leader said: "What this subordinate does not understand is, if the Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom Needles admit no way to avoid, then why was Zhan Zhao however able to avoid? His martial arts are truly to such a degree of reaching the supernatural and transforming into the divine?"
 
Zhong Xiong said: "That was because before this hidden weapon was launched, he already possessed a level of alertness, and Taoist Mo at that time moreover was at a section of distance away from him."
 
The Iron-Blood Guard leader said: "But this subordinate clearly saw that at the juncture when that Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom launched, there did not possess any advanced omen."
 
Within Zhong Xiong's eyes, it was already filled with admiration. He said slowly: "What you spoke is correct. The launching of that Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom indeed does not have an advanced omen, but Zhan Zhao himself has however already seen Taoist Mo's striking out!"
——The first time precisely was inside the Chongxiao Tower.
——The second time was however the Apricot Flower Rain.
 
Zhong Xiong said leisurely: "Precisely these two strikings out, for him, were already sufficient!"
 
Within the sound of his words, it was mixed with a patch of sudden sounds dense as popping beans, and the dragon-howl of the sword Qi.
 
This Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom, not only in power far surpassed the Apricot Flower Rain, but was moreover due to its delicate and ingenious crafting; when the heavily toxic hidden weapon launched, it was not completed in a single instance, but could unexpectedly be continuous and connected without break, shooting out without stopping.
 
The splattering silver needles, at the time of dropping onto the ground, were already gone from sight.
 
The Iron-Blood Guards were already shocked and appalled: "Such a tiny single silver needle could unexpectedly with light ease pierce into the underground; if I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would anyway not believe it."
 
Zhong Xiong said: "Precisely because its speed is fast, the strength is only then incomparably fierce and brutal. Look at how even if what is inside Zhan Zhao's hand is a treasured sword that cuts iron as if it were mud, beneath this Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom, he has also already been unable to snatch the first move."
 
The Iron-Blood Guard leader said: "Could it be that only except for when the silver needles inside this machinery shoot to completion can one then escape from its control?"
 
Zhong Xiong said: "I am afraid at that time, it would already be too late."
 
Upon Zhan Zhao's forehead, sweat water had already seeped out.
 
He had already understood Mo Dao's intention.
 
His subordinates, with hidden weapons emerging in an unending stream, were moreover not hesitating to put into motion the ultimate treasure of the Shura Cult, the Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom Needles, precisely for the sake of entangling him, causing him to be without free time to take care of other people.
 
Beneath the pressure of these Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom Needles, his sword stances could already not take care of other enemies.
——The imperial guards of the Xiangyang Prince's Mansion by this green-clad Taoist's side were already gone from sight.
——Relying upon Mo Dao's Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom, they finally extricated themselves from the scope of his sword stances.
 
The place they went to was precisely the people behind his body. Those people who had just been rescued by him out of the 'Yanmei'er' array!
 
Mo Dao viciously, word by word, said: "Kill!"
 
The knife light abruptly arose, and the blood light splattered and flew.
 
The old fellow closest to those imperial guards who rushed to the close presence groaned, and had already fallen down. The people who were already trembling and screaming at the top of their lungs, having seen the fresh blood, unexpectedly could not even shout out "save life."
 
Zhan Zhao's corners of the mouth were both bitten to the point that blood emerged. Inside his hand, he already did not possess the flags he had consistently borrowed, and did not possess any tool that could allow him to launch hidden weapons and obstruct these slaughters.
 
Everything was already too late.
 
He gave a roar of anger, and his body rapidly retreated. Not turning his head back, the sword inside his hand had already been raised up; the sword Qi rushed to the sky, the brilliant luster dazzling the eyes, so that even the sun in the sky appeared as if it had already lost its color.
 
The very last cluster of Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom was already spent. His movement technique unexpectedly was faster than these Torrential-Rain Pear-Blossom Needles!
 
It was yet again blood light splattering and flying.
 
The sword Qi flowing and moving across the sky suddenly then condensed and tempered into a single strand of sword light; amidst the crisscrossing and flying dance, the imperial guards who were encircling and attacking these townspeople had already one after another fallen down.