Vol 2 Chapter 16 (1/2)

Chapter Sixteen: Gaining Blood (draft)

Amid the much drivel from the Peach Valley’s Six Fairies, the boat set sail toward the lower reaches of the Yellow River It was alinfinitely into the far distance, free fronificent view for the passengers aboard the boat

Gradually, the olden shi+ne on the boat while reflecting in the river below, creating glistening reflections in the shapes of thousands of snakes A small boat in the distance hoisted its sail and traveled toward the the easterly wind, full force, with the cyan sail, the siant picture of a white foot was painted in the middle of the cyan sail And after the slimpse at the picture, they all concluded that it was obviously the picture of a fe from the fine shape and delicacy it had presented

“Why would someone paint a foot on the sail? How bizarre?” the Huashan apprenticesthemselves

“This boat s to the Bear Duo of the Northern Desert,” Branch Fairy announced “Oops, Madairls had better watch out! It couldn’t have been any clearer – those guys on that boat are fond of eating girl’s feet!”

Yue Lingshan spat at hi inside her

Minutes later, the sers on the big boat soon noticed the faint singing coentle and soft, and the lyric was peculiar – no one could understand a word of it, while the tonality was so utterly intiroaning And then, it changed, now more like the sound of a love ritual, ardent and lascivious to the extre apprentices of the Huashan School all blushed with eust, “What kind of monster is this?”

Suddenly, a girl’s sweet voice floated out frohu of the Huashan Sword School aboard your boat?”

“Chong, pay no attention to her!” Madam Yue whispered

“We’d really like to have a good look at Young Mister Linghu if that’s alright,” the girl asked again, her voice so charical power that could sway one’s heart

While the words still echoed in everyone’s ears, a girl had leapt out from the s She was dressed in a blue skirt hite flower patterns Outside the skirt, an e decorations hung froreen and gold The girl appeared to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of age Her skin had a slightly yellowish tone, and her two eyes were e, the pupils pitch black The pair of large gold earrings dangling from her ears was at least the size of a wine cup The two ends of a multicolored waistband around her waist shot forward fro there barefooted Even though the girl had shown great char her look, it was only natural to think that the charirl s boat By the way she dressed, one can easily tell that she was a irl[1]

The boat carryingdownstream, and it seemed as if it would have collided with the small boat when the small boat suddenly turned around in a swiftthe sail, the s downstrea boat

Yue Buqun suddenly re “Miss, are you a subordinate of Chief Blue from the Five-Sylph Sect in Yunnan?”[2] he asked

“You do have soht I am from the Five-Sylph Sect, indeed But I aled and then replied in a soft tone

Taking a few steps forward until he was at the bow of the boat, Yue Buqun cupped his hands in greeting

“My nah to inforhten me with your purpose in a detoured visit and the advice you will favor me today?”

“I a there What did you say?” The girl grinned

“Miss, what’s your faain

“You already know irl chortled

“I asked because I don’t really know your family name,” Yue Buqun explained

“You are a grown up oatees Obviously you know irl let out a big grin

These words sounded quite disrespectful But she kept srin on her face; her voice did not carry any trace of hostility

“Miss, youwith me,” Yue Buqun replied

“Now Head Master Yue, what’s your faht smile

“Miss, you already know that my family name is Yue Why ask while you know the answer?” Yue Buqun said uncomfortably

Madaue “Don’t pay attention to her,” she whispered to her husband

Yue Buqun put his left hand behind his back and shook it a few ti Madam Yue to stay put

“Why is Mr Yue shaking his hand behind his back?” Root Fairy became excited “Oh, I see Madairl, but after seeing how pretty and coquettish the girl is, he just wouldn’t listen to his wife and would rest at nothing but to pay a lot of attention to her”

“Did you say that I airl said, chuckling “Your Han girls are certainly prettier than us Miao girls” Apparently she didn’t know that the word “coquettish” was actually a derogatory ter about her beauty Then she turned to Yue Buqun “You already know my family name Why do you ask while you know the answer then?”

“Hey, what’s gonna happen when Mr Yue doesn’t listen to his wife?” Branch Fairy muttered

“It’s not gonna be good! Mark rin

“Isn’t Mr Yue’s nick name the ‘Gentleentleman after all He already knehat her na towith the girl”

Yue Buqun was greatly embarrassed by the remarks from the Peach Valley’s Six Fairies These six brothers never watched their ht come out from their holes And what impression would that leave thewhat kind of people the Peach Valley’s Six Fairies were, he simply couldn’t take it seriously So he cupped his hands and spoke again

“Will you please pass along s to Chief Blue Yue Buqun of the Huashan Sword School wishes Elder Blue good health”

That apparently shocked the girl She opened her eyes even wider and rolled her eyes in disbelief

“Why…why are you calling me ‘Elder Blue’? Am I that old already?” she asked

“Miss, you…you are the Chief Blue of the…Five-Sylph Sect?” It was Yue Buqun’s turn to be completely shocked this time He had known that the Five-Sylph Sect was a very sinister and vicious sect, and had always been referred to as the “Five-Veno fellow marital people behind the back When the sect was founded about a hundred years ago, it actually was named the “Five-Venom Sect,” and the founder of the sect and the key members of the sect were all Miao minorities Later when several Han members joined the sect, they were able to convey to the Miao ant naed it to “Five-Sylph,” instead The “Five-Sylph Sect” specialized in using reat fame with the “Hundred-Toxic Faction” – one leads the northern region and the other tops the southern region in their knowledge of poison A the many members of the Five-Sylph Sect,shown by their counterparts in the Hundred-Toxic Faction, but the way they use their poison were so eerie and creepy that they were siinable The rumor in the Martial World said that when the Hundred-Toxic Faction had wanted to poison soainst the attacks, after soation and deduction, one could still understand how the poison worked; on the other hand, when someone was poisoned by the Five-Sylph Sect, even if the executor explained it in details, it would still be totally unbelievable and uniinable The uniqueness and the eeriness siic

“I airl explained with a grin “I told you that I am from the Five-Sylph Sect but not a subordinate of Chief Blue Now other than Blue Phoenix, herself, who else would not be a subordinate of Blue Phoenix within the entire Five-Sylph Sect?” At that word, the girl broke into loud giggles

The Peach Valley’s Six Fairies also broke out into loud laughter “Mr Yue is so slow She prettyaway”

The only thing Yue Buqun had known about the Five-Sylph Sect Chief was the last nairl had just said, he realized that the chief’s full nairl’s colorful and pattern-rich dress did make her look like a phoenix At the tiirl’s maiden name secret The maiden name would only be revealed the day when the prospect in-laws faifts and perforh martial families in the Martial World didn’t quite stick to that tradition to the letter, they still wouldn’t just give it out randoht so easily in front of a large crowd on the river, without showing any trace of bashfulness Though her de of her own name, the tone of her voice became even softer and sweeter

“So it is Chief Blue, herself, who has come personally It is certainly racious presence appropriately May I ask what Chief Blue has to teach ain to salute

“I am completely illiterate What can I teach you? Unless you mean you can teach me See, the way you dressed does look like that of a schoolteacher So you are thinking about teaching me to read, aren’t you? I a I doubt I’d be able to learn all that,” Blue Phoenix replied with a grin

“Is she just acting dus? Judging fro on an act,” Yue Buqun thought to himself So he simply asked, “Chief Blue, why are you here?”

“Is Linghu Chong your apprentice brother or your apprentice?” Blue Phoenix asked

“He is my apprentice,” Yue Buqun answered

“Hood look at him?” Blue Phoenix requested

“But he is in poor health and a state of deliriu out to pay his respects” Yue Buqun wasn’t too fond of the idea

“Pay his respects?” Blue Phoenix uttered in surprise, opening her big round eyes even wider “I don’t need him to pay me respects He is not a subordinate of my Five-Sylph Sect Why would he need to pay ood friend Even if he does want to pay me respects, I don’t deserve it I heard that he drew his own blood to feed Old Man’s daughter in order to save her life Such kind of passionate and affectionate irls adotten to take a look at him”

“Well…well…!” Yue Buqun hesitated

“I know he is badly wounded and have lost a lot of blood You don’t have to call hiested

“We dare not request your gracious presence,” Yue Buqun said hurriedly

“Whatever!” Blue Phoenix chortled, and with a gentle leap, she landed on the big boat carrying the Huashan school members

Yue Buqun noticed the grace and ease she had displayed froested that she had any extraordinary Kung Fu skills Taking two steps back, he blocked the entrance to the cabin, feeling deeply troubled He knew that the Five-Sylph Sect wouldwith such unorthodox sects it would take a lotFu skills to win the battle That was the reason why he had been very polite toward Blue Phoenix fro The two members of the Hundred-Toxic Faction had ht that someone had asked theether Most likely it was the Five-Sylph Sect that had asked them to do so Why would the Five-Sylph Sect be hard on the Huashan School? The Five-Sylph Sect was a large faction in the Martial World When the chief of the sect caically he shouldn’t have blocked the way, but to let a person with all kinds of eerie poisons all over her body into the cabin was the last thing Yue Buqun would want Figuring that Linghu Chong co out to meet Chief Blue probably would be the best solution for now, he held his position steadily and shouted out

“Chong! Chief Blue wants to see you Come out, hurry!”

“Yes, Master!” Linghu Chong answered feebly But since he had just lost a lot of blood recently, after hearing the calling froive up trying after failing a few pathetic attempts

“I heard that he was seriously wounded How could he come out?” Blue Phoenix objected “It’s very windy on the river We don’t want hi froo inside to visit him”

Blue Phoenix started walking toward the entrance of the cabin Only after a few steps, she was already within four feet frorance filled Yue Buqun’s nostrils ihtly sideways, hesitantly, Yue Buqun spared enough rooh and watched cautiously as she entered the cabin

The Peach Valley’s Six Fairies occupied thedown cross-legged while Fruit Fairy lying on the bed

“You must be the Peach Valley’s Six Fairies? I am the chief of the Five-Sylph Sect, and you are the Six Fairies of the Peach Valley Sylphs are fairies, too We are one of the sarinned joyously

“Not likely! We are real and you are fake!” Root Fairy challenged ly

“Even if you were real, we have six fairies, one more than what you have,” Trunk Fairy added

“It wouldn’t be that hard to turn that around, you know,” Blue Phoenix beamed

“How are you going to having onethe name of your sect to Seven-Sylph Sect?” Leaf Fairy asked curiously

“We only have five sylphs, not seven But we can reduce the six fairies to only four fairies, then naturally ould have one rin flashed across Blue Phoenix’s face as she spoke

“Reduce the six fairies to only four fairies? Are you saying that you are killing two of us?” Flower Fairy bellowed in fury

“Kill or not, that’s all up to us, isn’t it? But I heard that you are friends of Linghu Chong, I guess we can let that pass But you’ll have to stop boasting yourself and claim that you have one more fairy than my Five-Sylph Sect,” Blue Phoenix let out a triumphant smile

“We love boasting ourselves What’cha gonna do?” Trunk Fairy snapped

All of a sudden, Root Fairy, Trunk Fairy, Leaf Fairy and Flower Fairy all leapt to their feet and each grabbed onto one of her limbs, but before they were able to lift her up, all four of theh following an inaudible co at it in horror Even Yue Buqun felt cold pricks all over his back when he took a quick glie ee spiders that had colorful stripes all over their bodies The bodies of all four veno that even a glance at them could htly, and neither took a bite at the four Fairies If they had bitten with their poisonous fangs, then the dae would have already been done, and they wouldn’t have appeared as frightening Just because they were now all alerted and provoked, and any slight movement could have pros, the Peach Valley’s Four Fairies dare not ht on the spot

Blue Phoenix swung her arm conveniently, and the four venomous pests vanished all of a sudden She , but no one could tell where on her body did she store them She paid no more attention to the Peach Valley’s Six Fairies and walked further into the cabin Having been frightened completely out of their wits, the Peach Valley’s Six Fairies dared not speak another word

Linghu Chong and the bunch of male apprentices of the Huashan School occupied the middle cabin By then, Madam Yue and the many female apprentices had returned to the back cabin, and the clapboard between thea casual glance at the many apprentices in the cabin, Blue Phoenix walked next to Linghu Chong’s bed and called out gently

“Young Mister Linghu! Young Mister Linghu!”

The gentleness and the affection carried in her voice seemed to have reached the extreme As the sweet sound echoed in everyone’s ears, each felt a soul-stirring sensation surging through his entire body, and al hi After these two calls, over half of the male apprentices found thehtly

“Who…who are you?” Linghu Chong opened his eyes slowly and asked in a barely audible voice

“I aood friend, so I am your friend, too,” Blue Phoenix answered tenderly

Linghu Chong acknowledged with a slight groan and then closed his eyes

“Young Mister Linghu, I know you’ve lost a great amount of blood But don’t worry, you won’t die,” Blue Phoenix said But in his daze, Linghu Chong didn’t reply

Reaching under Linghu Chong’s quilt, Blue Phoenix pulled his hand out and started checking his pulse, but soon her eyebrows knitted into a straight line Suddenly, she stuck her head out of the , gave a whistle, and then jabbered out many words, which neither one inside the cabin could comprehend

A short while later, four Miao girls entered the cabin All of thee, and all dressed in blue skirts in white flower patterns, with an embroidered waistband around each waist Each of the square box made of bamboo strips

Yue Buqun frowned slightly, thinking that whatever the things in the Five-Sylph Sect ood Just Blue Phoenix, by herself, already had many centipedes and spiders hidden on her Nohen these four Miao girls carried these boxes into the cabin openly, all hell would probably break loose But since they showed no sign of enmity, it would be inappropriate of him to stop them

Walking over by Blue Phoenix’s side, the four Miao girls whispered so a nod back, they opened the boxes People in the cabin found their curiosity growing rapidly, all were eager to find out what kind of queer things ht be stored in the boxes, except Yue Buqun, as the only one who had seen the hairy venomous insects in Peach Valley’s Four Fairies’ palliest thing happened

The four Miao girls rolled their sleeves high, exposing the snohite arh, until they were above their knees[4] The many male apprentices of the Huashan School were stupefied as they gaped at the unusual sight, their hearts pounding madly

“Oh, no!” Yue Buqun thought aloud “These girls from this heretical sect want to perform some kind of evil enchantment and use lust to tempt my apprentices Just the voice of that Blue Phoenix, alone, was already utterly lascivious, if she perforh self-control, the many apprentices would undoubtedly fall for it” He couldn’t help clutching the handle of his sword, determined to put a stop to it if these members of the Five-Sylph Sect were to undress themselves and perform any witchcraft

After the four Miao girls rolled up their sleeves and trouser legs, Blue Phoenix also rolled her trouser legs up unhurriedly Yue Buqun winked at thethem to retreat out of the cabin, so as not to be perplexed by the evil enchantment, but only Lau Denuo and shi+ Daizi followed his co the rest apprentices, some walked a few steps hesitantly toward the outside before returning to the original spot, and some others simply froze there, lost in trance

Yue Buqun gathered his inner energy around his lower abdoht” Soon, a shade of violet color flashed across his face He knew that the Five-Venoion for over two hundred years, and their notoriety did not come by accident Undoubtedly, they knew certain vicious and veno the sorcery, it was no trivial uard his ht have caused hi with his own eyes how these Miao girls exposed the no sense of shame, Yue Buqun beca, but what he feared the most was to lose his clear conscience under the evil spell and bring shame to himself in the presence of everyone If that ever happened, the reputation of the Huashan Sword School and the Gentleman Sould have been completely ruined beyond redeirls each took soled back and forth in their hands Just as he had expected, these had to be soirls placed these venos, and as soon as the worhtly to the skins

Fixing his eyes on the worms, Yue Buqun soon realized that those weren’t veno leeches that were quite common in creeks or lakes of the countryside, except that these leeches were twice the size of a regular one One after another, the Miao girls took out more and more leeches from the boxes Blue Phoenix also took outs some leeches from one of the bas In only a few s were completely covered by leeches; there were at least over two hundred of them in total All the onlookers were due scheme these five were up to

Mada the many cries of surprise uttered by the male apprentices in thethe clapboard open and taking a glimpse, herself, and as soon as her eyes met the bizarre scene, she also let out a cry of surprise

“Don’t be afraid They won’t bite you,” Blue Phoenix comforted her with a smile “Are you…are you Mr Yue’s wo sword skills Is that true?” she asked

Madam Yue squeezed out a smile, but didn’t answer When Blue Phoenix had first asked if she were Mr Yue’s woman, it sounded very crude And then, when she asked about whether Mada, Madam Yue hesitated If it had been someone else who had asked the same question, even if that person were hostile, she would have answered humbly This Blue Phoenix evidently knew very little about conventions of Han Chinese; if Mada sword skills, it would sound very arrogant; if she had answered that no, she didn’t have outstanding sword skills, perhaps this Blue Phoenix would have believed it, and would look down upon her With these thoughts in mind, she decided to simply reply with silence Blue Phoenix didn’t ask any further and simply stood there quietly

In the meantiirls had any unusual action, he was ready to strike To catch bandits first capture the ringleader He would have taken Blue Phoenix down before anything else By then, nobody in the cabin spoke another word; the only sounds were the heavy breathing from the many male apprentices of the Huashan School

After a long while, the bodies of the s started to puff up and soon turned into a faint reddish color Yue Buqun knew that as soon as a leech touched the skin of a person or an ani its sucker disk, and then start sucking blood, not letting go until it was co blood froht itch or numbness When farmers worked in the paddy fields, they would often have leeches clinging to their legs, sucking blood out of them without their notice

“Why are these witches using leeches to suck their own blood?” he muttered to himself “Perhaps in order to perform their enchantment, the Five-Sylph Sect members must use their own blood It seeh blood will be the time they execute their enchantment”

Blue Phoenix gently lifted up the quilt covering Linghu Chong’s body Pulling a leech that was about nine tenth full off her ar’s neck next to an artery

“Hey, what are you doing?” afraid that shein anyway, Mada sword, she leapt into the middle cabin

“No hurry! Let’s wait!” Yue Buqun shook his head

Clutching her long sword tightly, Mada As soon as the leech was placed on Linghu Chong’s neck, it bit onto his artery and started sucking again Blue Phoenix took out a sed the lid Using the pointed fingernail of the little finger on her right hand, she picked a little bit of the white powdery substance from the bottle and then sprinkled soirls unbuttoned Linghu Chong’s robe and also rolled his sleeves and trouser legs up, then they started taking thethe’s chest, stos Within a short moment, the over two hundred leeches had all been transferred onto Linghu Chong’s body Blue Phoenix kept on pickinga little bit of it on each and every of the leeches Then, soe happened

While clinging to the five Miao girls, the more those leeches sucked, thelittle by little Yue Buqun suddenly understood Feelingbreath

“Turned out that they are just using the leeches as the ’s arteries,” he thought loud “I wonder what are these white powders ive out blood? How miraculous!”

Having figured it out, he gradually relaxed the grip on the sword handle Madaently as a shtened face

Even though the cabin was still sith silence, it was far froo, when fierce battle could have been triggered at any moment And furthermore, even the Peach Valley’s Six Fairies were utterly a and their mouths wide open Since all six mouths ide open and could not close because of the dropped jaws, naturally, neither of theue about it This had to be a very rare occurrence

After another short while, a light clatter broke the silence as one of the leeches, which had spilled out all the blood in its stoled a few tiirls picked it up and threw it into the river through the cabinSoon, more and more leeches fell dead and were thrown into the river one after another Within thirty minutes, all leeches had been thrown out of the , and the once toast tan face of Linghu Chong noed a slight redness of skin The blood those over two hundred leeches had sucked and transferred into Linghu Chong’s body ah it would not have h to turn the corner for him

Yue Buqun and Mada the Chief of a good-sized sect, this Miao girl didn’t even hesitate to transfer her own blood into Chong’s body Since she had neverbefore, she couldn’t have fallen in love with hiood friend When did Chong make friends with such an important and influential person?”

Blue Phoenix also noticed the i his pulses again and feeling that his pulses had becoer, she was very pleased

“Young Mister Linghu, how do you feel?” she asked in a gentle voice

Although Linghu Chong didn’t quite understand everything, he, at least, had figured out that the girl was healing him, and also felt much improvement in spirit “Thank you, Miss I…I feel much better,” he replied

“Do I look very old? Am I too old already?” Blue Phoenix asked

“Who said that you are old? Of course you are not! If it’s alright with you, I’llreplied

Blue Phoenix was overjoyed; her face split into a big s flower had just blosso

“You are wonderful! No wonder! No wonder the one who didn’t care about any other man in this world cares about you so much That’s why…alas…,” she said with a smile

“If you really think I ahu’?” Linghu Chong grinned

“Big brother Linghu,” Blue Phoenix called out, as a slight blush shot up her face

“My good sister! My wonderful sister!” Linghu Chong called out with a big smile

Linghu Chong had always been the unconventional type, and never bothered about small matters, very different from Yue Buqun, who always posed as a “Gentleained consciousness, he had already known that Blue Phoenix liked to hear others calling her young and beautiful When she had asked hih she was older than hi that since she spared no effort at healing hiive soly, Blue Phoenix’s face lit up at these words

But Yue Buqun and Mada is so frivolous, and there is really no cure for that Didn’t Ping One-Finger say that he only has one hundred days left for this life? Now it’s even less than one hundred days It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that one of his feet has already stepped into the coffin, yet only ained consciousness, he was already teasing such a lascivious woman with nonsense”

“Big brother, do you want to eat soet you sohtly

“I don’t feel like eating pastries But so answered

“That’s easy! We have the ‘Five Jewels Nectar Wine’ that we ive that a try”

Blue Phoenix jabbered out soirls returned to the sht bottles of wine After uncorking one of the bottles, they poured the wine into a bowl, and instantly, the sweet scent of wine and blossom filled the entire cabin

“My good sister, there’s so about your wine The sweet scent of blosso It couess thissaid