Chapter 139: Yin and Yang
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
When Kang Wenhui suggested that the competition of Internal Strength would take place using Gu Shenwei's body, the latter was still considering his personal gains, but Lianhua had already made up his mind. "Young benefactor, you must keep your promise and worship me as your master."
These words indicated that he agreed to the competition and was confident that his junior brother would win.
Lianye, who was anxious from all the waiting, immediately jumped up and exclaimed, "Who goes first?"
"We shall go at the same time. Surely you can recognize your own Internal Strength?" Kang Wenhui walked up to him and replied.
"Wait." Gu Shenwei knew he had to be careful with his body set to become a battlefield. "Both of you are experts in Internal Strength and much stronger than me. But what if one of you blunder and accidentally kill me?"
"You're right, I hadn't considered that. Maybe we shouldn't compete." Monk Lianhua changed his tone immediately.
"A true expert wouldn't blunder. Whoever kills you will be considered to have lost."
As soon as she spoke, she reached a palm out toward the youth. Lianye, who was no longer able to resist the temptation, pretended that he did not hear his senior brother's words, and grabbed Gu Shenwei's wrist with his left hand to transmit his Internal Strength while tapping with his right hand to guide the flow.
Gu Shenwei found himself in a precarious and inextricable position. Nobody would be able to make either of the two stop before a winner was decided.
The talk of purging the Peripheral Force was a complete lie. The two Internal Strength masters simply wanted to get the better of the other. Although Kang Wenhui did not say it directly, Monk Lianye knew it as well. Only Monk Lianhua truly believed that this was a life-saving competition which had no risk of death.
Two streams of vital force, one hot and the other cold, entered Gu Shenwei's body. He knew instantly that this was not about saving a life, but complete torture instead.
The hot stream was Kang Wenhui's. It excited the latent forces in the Baihui and Xuanji acupoints, and thus became a coalition of three forces which attacked in the direction of the cold stream transmitted by Lianye. Although the latter was only a singular force, it was certainly not weak. The level of the monk's Internal Strength had exceeded his opponent's imagination, and he was not at a disadvantage despite it being a one versus three showdown.
The only person who was not enjoying this was Gu Shenwei. The battle between the hot and cold forces, with each occupying one side of his body, was akin to the Chu-Han Contention where thousands of horses and soldiers swept in different directions across the territorial boundaries. The pitiful amount of Internal Strength in his dantian was only sufficient to protect the beating of his heart and keep him intact. His meridians would break if either side became aggressive, let alone if there was a mass brawl.
The two experts continuously tapped on and patted Gu Shenwei's body. Like a puppet being pulled, or a small boat traveling in raging waves, he had absolutely no autonomy over himself. If he was able to speak, the first thing he would do would be to beg Monk Lianhua to call off the competition.
But the monk could not see that the youth was suffering, and thought that the latter's expression was simply that of tiredness. Thus, he began to recite Breaking Obsession .
Although a recitation of Breaking Obsession was supposed to weaken killing desire, it had no effect on the listeners. Both Kang Wenhui and Lianye, who were facing a formidable enemy in each other, spared no effort in their fight and were not distracted at all. Only Gu Shenwei, who was unable to speak but considerably more sharp-eared than usual, mentally absorbed every word of Monk Lianhua's recitation and was compelled to recite it in his head.
"Stop chanting!" Gu Shenwei yelled internally, but his mouth remained unable to make even the slightest noise. What he needed to do at present was to put all effort into keeping himself alive - the weakening of his killing desire instead made him dithery.
Unfortunately, the things one most wants to forget are often remembered best. The thousand-plus-word-long Death Scripture and the four-thousand-plus-word-long Breaking Obsession flickered in front of his eyes like swarms of flies which were impossible to chase away, and their intense buzzing almost caused his head to explode.
It was unclear whose, but one of the vital forces suddenly went the wrong direction and charged straight at Gu Shenwei's dantian. However, with his head drowning in words, he was completely unaware of it. The little bit of Internal Strength in his body served like a disorderly mob trying to defend against troops sent from Heaven, and was wiped out in a flash.
Lianye staggered a few steps and muttered, "You're playing tricks." His left hand remained clutching the youth's wrist, not because he was using his strength, but because he was unable to let go.
"Are tricks not allowed?" Kang Wenhui laughed grimly. Instead of stopping, she patted ever faster on the youth's body.
With his head lowered, Gu Shenwei resembled a walking corpse. Only the monk's pulling and Kang Wenhui's patting kept him standing up. His legs seemed to be floating, while his body swayed left and right.
Monk Lianhua, deeply focused on his chanting, remained in a state of oblivious serenity and did not even hear his junior brother speak.
The other three Barren Sect disciples drew nearer and their crooked fingers began to turn red; they knew that their master was about to win.
Kang Wenhui had played tricks once again. She never believed in keeping promises or leaving a fight to chance. In her view, only people who were implanted with Peripheral Forces were worth believing. While the three forces she was controlling were fighting neck-to-neck with the monk's force, she unexpectedly sent one of them to attack the youth's dantian. The monk did not understand the former's intent and swiftly followed it. This allowed another hot stream to find an opening into his body, in which it quickly implanted a Peripheral Force.
It was not a particularly strong force, and thus Lianye was more than capable of purging it on his own by adjusting his internal breath. However, during such an intense battle, how could he find room to send his "troops" back into his own body?
By separating his force in order to heal himself, Lianye promptly fell into a disadvantage in the battle taking place in the youth's body.
Gu Shenwei was not sure whether he himself had fainted or not. He could only feel that his body had shredded into many pieces - just like thousands of falling leaves, or a thousand fluttering butterflies. Familiar scenes began to appear in front of his eyes: times of him happily reuniting with his family members, playing with his friends, and locking horns with his enemies.
Subsequently, all of the words he had memorized, as well as their pronunciations, began to jump about in his mind like countless mischievous monkeys. Death Scripture , which had two ways of reading; the abstruse 29 Styles of Swordsmanship ; and Yin and Yang Strength , which he was the only person in the world to memorize... these books split into sentence-less fragments that raced to the front of his mind, only to be pushed away by the fragments chasing from behind and disappear.
After Monk Lianhua had completed a full recitation of Breaking Obsession , he raised his head only to see that the youth's face was red and pale in different spots. His junior brother was holding on desperately with a hateful expression on his face and his eyebrows erect, while the lady in black was the only person who remained poised. Though he did not know anything about kungfu, he could easily see who held the upper hand.
"Amitabha, the result has been decided. May the two of you stop fighting."
Kang Wenhui was still channeling her internal breath to drive the Peripheral Force into the monk's body and was unwilling to stop upon being instructed. On the other hand, Lianye wished to end the fight, but had no control over the situation and could only continue to hold on.
Lianhua, oblivious to the danger, bowed and unexpectedly walked up to pull his junior brother away. The moment his finger made contact with Lianye's sleeve, he felt as if he just crashed into an inflated balloon. With a sharp cry, he was sent flying through the air and fell heavily on the ground. Only now did he realize that the competition was never about saving life, but was a life and death battle instead.
Noticing the dumbstruck expression on Lianhua's face, the three Barren Sect disciples' eyes revealed a sense of amusement.
In the blink of an eye, however, Lianhua became even more bewildered, while the disciples' expressions froze. Nobody could believe what was happening.
The bystanders would not have been shocked if Kang Wenhui secured victory or even if Lianye turned the tide and snatched the win. Instead, the situation completely blew everyone's mind. They could only watch as the lady and the monk flew backward through the air and spewed liters of blood as they hit the ground. Nobody went up to offer assistance.
The only person who remained standing was the youth. His complexion had turned blood red, his clothing had puffed up, and his hair was a disheveled mess. He seemed as though he could spit fire by opening his mouth.
Gu Shenwei's internal breath was surging furiously like the tide of the Qiantang river. At its current pace, it was able to complete a grand circulation in no time at all. Each grand circulation caused a portion of his Internal Strength to enter his dantian, like water silently flowing into a bottomless pit.
That Gu Shenwei was able to protect his life was not because of Death Scripture but instead because of the Yin and Yang Strength that his family had passed down.
Yin and Yang Strength consisted of two methods. The first was a step-by-step and time-consuming method of transferring yin and yang strength that would eventually generate the most power. The second was a sped up technique which allowed the forces to merge and greatly increased Internal Strength when the yin and yang strengths had merely reached the third level and above - the downside was that the power was not as strong as the first's.
With the Peripheral Forces implanted in his body, Gu Shenwei's Internal Strength had been paralyzed and he could not even utilize the sped up technique. It was only during the battle between Kang Wenhui and Lianye that his bodily restrictions were removed.
Amidst his horror, Gu Shenwei tried every method he knew to get rid of the pain and managed not only to combine his yin and yang strengths but also seize the two experts' Internal Strength as his own. As luck would have it, the nature of their Internal Strengths was different from each other's while having many similarities with the Gu family's yin and yang strengths. Or else, Gu Shenwei would have found it very difficult to subdue these two giant streams of Internal Breath.
The Way of Internal Strength demanded a continuous input of vital force, and the slightest of interruptions would result in a disaster. While engaged in a life and death battle with each other, the two experts' strengths abruptly disappeared into what seemed like a bottomless ocean, and their Internal Breaths immediately turned back on them. They were not sent flying by the youth, but rather, in order to dissolve their own strengths, they were compelled to leap backward on their own. Unfortunately, they were only able to dissolve a portion of their strengths, resulting in damage to their viscera and the spewing of fresh blood from their mouths.
To the bystanders, everything that just happened seemed highly confusing, and the two experts themselves were ineffably horrified. Only Gu Shenwei roughly understood what had gone on, but because his mind was in a mess, he was not able to reason it out clearly in a short amount of time.
Lianhua ran over to lift his junior brother up. The latter laughed despondently. "I've lost, Senior Brother."
"A good loss it was. Your killing desire was already extinguished, but the desire to win remained. That particular knot in your heart has now been undone. Although you lost the competition, your disposition has triumphed greatly."
In an instant, Lianye felt enlightened. He placed his palms together and chanted, while his facial expressions became calm once again.
Kang Wenhui, on the other hand, was not able to see things so philosophically. She pushed the monk away, who had come forth to assist his brother, then wiped off the blood around her mouth and pointed at the youth standing in the middle of the scene. "Kill him." She knew that things had gone wrong because of him, but did not know that his Internal Strength was presently way above what it used to be.
Just as the three Barren Sect disciples were about to act, Lianhua stepped forth. "Hold it, there's no need to kill. Junior Brother Lianye is the loser of this contest. I shall keep my promise and teach you the correct way of reading Death Scripture ."
" Death Scripture ? I want Wayless Book ," Kang Wenhui stated once more in a manner that suggested she had never heard of the former.
Lianhua was at a loss what to do when Gu Shenwei, who had regained his senses, intervened. "Wait a minute. Though the monk lost, the lady didn't win either. Both of them lost to me. So, Monk Lianhua, I don't have to call you master, and neither do you have to impart any scripture."
This left Lianhua more perplexed than ever. Just then, Kang Wenhui spun and leaped toward the youth. Turning her fingers into claws, she aimed them toward his skull. Though her Internal Strength was impaired, she remained confident in killing him easily.
Gu Shenwei had only learned a few punching skills, and his kungfu with his hands and legs was certainly no match for Kang Wenhui's, but his Internal Strength, which had increased by several times in a short span of time, enabled his movements to be much more agile than before. Rather than avoiding the enemy's claws, he simply met them with a fist of his own.
The fist skill he used was not derived from the teachings of the Gu family nor Mama Xue's kungfu, and instead was an instinctive reaction he had developed over countless close fights with his master Tie Hanfeng. In the past, he often made plans to assassinate Cripple Tie, and each time he failed, he would have to brawl with his master. Like a street rogue, he never paid much attention to the method.
This explained why the skill he used was blunt and styleless. Unexpectedly, Kang Wenhui, who was an accomplished kungfu master, did not evade it and suffered a blow to the nose - immediately becoming bloody.
A further principle of the rogue style of fighting was that once the first move came off smoothly, there was no stopping.