Chapter 226: Setting Traps for Each Other

For all his indulgence, Hu Chaohui still had the instincts of a Spirit Resonated Grandmaster. As the fist hurtled toward him, he jerked up his water pipe. Its bowl swung like a heavy hammer to block the darkness-shrouded blow.

At the same time, he slid down the bed from his reclining position and snapped out a kick with his right foot.

Both pipe and foot struck empty air. The fist had seemed close, but it was still over three meters away and advancing.

In that instant, Hu Chaohui had misjudged the distance between them, as though an illusion had deceived him.

Alarmed when his kick missed, he twisted his waist and back, forced himself to roll left across the bed, and flung away the pipe.

The darkness-shrouded fist changed course, hammering down like a drumbeat.

It pursued him without giving him a breath to recover.

Hu Chaohui had barely righted himself when he saw it descend, silent and laden with terrifying force.

He tensed his waist and abdomen and sprang upward, throwing out his right fist as he roared a single word, "Back!"

The qi throughout the room surged into a gale almost solid enough to touch. It swept with Hu Chaohui’s fist toward his attacker, seeking to hurl him backward.

But the savage gale collapsed the moment it met that dark fist. Like a hundred rivers pouring into the sea, it vanished without raising so much as a ripple.

Thud!

Their fists met. Hu Chaohui felt his vast, surging true qi rush into a bottomless pit. No matter how much he poured in, nothing answered him. His qi seemed to become part of the darkness itself.

The true qi within him kept surging out beyond his control, painfully straining his meridians and apertures.

"Returning Abyss!"

Hu Chaohui’s eyes narrowed. He remembered the world-renowned Returning Abyss Divine Art.

He had never faced anyone from the Returning Abyss Order, but this matched almost perfectly what the jianghu said was terrifying about its divine art.

According to those tales, he had to break contact before he was drawn too deep into the Returning Abyss. Otherwise, the art would devour all his true qi and strengthen its wielder, then consume his flesh, spirit, consciousness, and soul as well.

Whoosh! A violent wind struck from the side, toppling the heavy wooden bed and driving Hu Chaohui away. Their fists parted.

As the bed beneath its red gauze canopy collapsed, Hu Chaohui’s favored concubine finally registered the exchange, which had taken only an instant. She screamed in terror.

The Sea-Treading Gang members in the courtyard looked at one another in confusion, then realized what was happening and rushed to help.

Hearing the commotion, Hu Chaohui used the wind to steady himself. He planted his feet in a balanced stance and roared, "Slay!"

Twisting through his waist and shoulders, he drove his right fist at the dark fist pursuing him.

Qi surged throughout the room, rising into waves nearly four meters high. They crashed toward the attacker from every direction, cutting off his escape.

The towering waves would avoid his opponent’s hands and mouth, denying the Returning Abyss the contact it needed.

Then the darkness-shrouded fist spread its fingers.

As the illusory waves drew near, they dissolved silently into the open hand. The darkness deepened, gathering around a figure that grew steadily more distinct.

The darkness swallowed the remaining waves and Hu Chaohui’s true qi, resulting in a figure seemingly merged with heaven and earth. It became sovereign of this realm, exalted and stern as it looked down upon all things.

At the sight, Hu Chaohui’s head filled with a buzz.

He suddenly recalled the cave dwelling he had found in the Southern Sea. A mural inside depicted Buting Huyu, the former sea god, carrying out Heaven’s decrees. A similar apparition had appeared above him.

"The Thearch..." Stunned in mind and spirit, Hu Chaohui failed for a moment to withdraw his fist or dodge.

The darkened palm pressed against his fist, driving it into his chest.

Ribs cracked. Hu Chaohui flew backward into a wall, splitting it and coughing blood.

A low, cold voice sounded beside his ear.

"Stop doing things that harm others."

Bang! The door and windows burst open as Sea-Treading Gang members rushed in to help.

The gray-robed figure before Hu Chaohui did not press the attack. He stepped back and vanished into the shadows.

What Hu Chaohui and the gang members remembered was a mask: a jade-colored face with peach-blossom-red makeup.

A Jade Maiden mask? Hu Chaohui, still reeling from his narrow escape, remembered Altar-Cleansing Dragon King Huo Minglou of the Returning Abyss Order, killed earlier that day.

He too had faced a mysterious figure wearing a Jade Maiden mask.

Why would the Returning Abyss Order want to kill me? And why wear a Jade Maiden mask...? Questions flooded Hu Chaohui’s mind.

......

Before the Grandmaster guarding the Hu residence or the Martial Prohibition Bureau could react, Ding Songyan used Establishing the Six Directions to confuse the gang members’ senses and slipped out of the room. Then he erased his traces with Bringing All Things Into Unity, concealed himself among the plants, and quietly left the estate.

Most of the arts he had used tonight came from the Scripture of Returning to Stillness. It was the first time he had made Bringing All Things Into Unity his primary combat technique, and he had deliberately led Hu Chaohui to mistake it for the Returning Abyss Divine Art.

In fact, when he had opened his fist into a palm, he had had every chance to kill Hu Chaohui. That was less a testament to the Scripture of Returning to Stillness than to the gang leader’s inexplicable loss of focus, as though he had suffered a crushing defeat in a contest of minds.

Finding it strange, Ding Songyan had held back. He planned to visit Hu Chaohui in a dream another day and find out what had happened. Twelfth Madam had asked him to teach the man a lesson, after all, not kill him.

With the Celestial Heart state enhancing Bringing All Things Into Unity, I drew the surrounding qi into myself. Did he mistake me for a Supreme Master and freeze in fear? But that shouldn’t have affected him so badly. I hadn’t planted a mental weakness beforehand... Once clear of Yongjin Street, Ding Songyan headed toward Golden Pool, still pondering the question over in his mind.

He took a long detour back to the Cheap Wine Shop and slipped into the main room.

"The job is done." Ding Songyan returned the unused saber to Twelfth Madam Luo.

Twelfth Madam Luo looked up from the calligraphy she was practicing at her desk.

"That went smoothly."

"Wine and women have worn Hu Chaohui down. He has none of his old ambition or courage. I had a chance to kill him, but he behaved strangely, and I’m curious about the Essentials of Heaven’s Decrees. So I let him live for now." Ding Songyan made no attempt to conceal it.

"Curious..." Ding Songyan’s affected explanation made Twelfth Madam Luo laugh.

Since he had not volunteered what was strange about Hu Chaohui’s behavior, she did not ask.

......

At the Martial Prohibition Bureau in the northern city.

Yi Beiwang listened as a subordinate reported, "Deputy Chief, Hu Chaohui of the Sea-Treading Gang was attacked. He nearly died within three moves. The attacker wore a Jade Maiden mask."

"A Jade Maiden mask?" Yi Beiwang’s expression sharpened. "Was it the woman who killed Huo Minglou this afternoon?"

"Hu Chaohui didn’t see clearly, but he thought the attacker seemed more like a man." The Bureau member paused. "He also suspects it to be someone from the Returning Abyss Order. The martial art strongly resembled the Returning Abyss Divine Art."

"The Returning Abyss Order? Retaliation?" Yi Beiwang frowned slightly. "Do they suspect the woman who killed Huo Minglou had ties to the Sea-Treading Gang?"

"We don’t know. Hu Chaohui isn’t sure himself, and he wasn’t lying," the subordinate answered.

Yi Beiwang pressed him.

"What else did Hu Chaohui say?"

"He said the attacker could draw the qi of heaven and earth into himself, like the Celestial Thearch descending. But gang members arrived in time. Fearing his identity would be exposed, the attacker chose to flee, and so failed to kill Hu Chaohui," the Bureau member replied.

Like the Celestial Thearch descending. Possibly a man. Possibly... Yi Beiwang’s eyes suddenly gleamed.

"Did anyone see whether the Golden Boy who killed Sun Feiyang was a man or a woman?"

"A man..." The Bureau member stopped before he could finish.

After a moment’s hesitation, he corrected himself.

"The Golden Boy who broke Ou Luwen’s Immortal Realm of Hidden Truth was definitely a man. But the servants only saw the mask worn by Sun Feiyang’s killer. They couldn’t tell whether that Golden Boy was a man or a woman."

Yi Beiwang was silent for a moment, then said, "This Golden Boy may not be the same as that Golden Boy, just as this Jade Maiden isn’t the same as the other one. The Returning Abyss Order is deliberately hinting at that. Otherwise, given how they operate, they would never abandon a chance to kill Hu Chaohui simply because they feared exposing their identity."

A Returning Abyss Order heretic who passed up such a prize would hardly be true to the name.

"Deputy Chief, do you mean the Golden Boy who killed Sun Feiyang might actually have been a woman?" the Bureau member asked in surprise.

Yi Beiwang nodded slightly.

"It’s possible. It might even have been the woman who killed Huo Minglou, wearing a Golden Boy mask to mislead us.

"The chief suspect is: Nine-Evils Demoness Ji Hanyi."

......

In a couple of days, Ding Songyan planned to put on the Jade Maiden mask and pull another stunt. Once the busybodies realized anyone could follow suit, the waters would be thoroughly muddied.

But then the Golden Boy and Jade Maiden would lose their original meaning. The masks would hardly symbolize anything at all.

Ding Songyan could not help wondering whether that, too, was one of Demoness Ji’s aims.

He bade Twelfth Madam Luo farewell and returned to the prince’s estate with Frostshade in hand. On the way, he made a point of glancing at a nearby watchtower.

To whoever’s on duty in that watchtower, I’ve spent another half the night fooling around at Twelfth Madam’s place...

Somehow, Twelfth Madam has ended up shouldering a scandal rumor too...

And I’m the one doing the most damage to her good name...

I’m only doing it to cover my tracks and learn her art...

Still, if I spend time with a few more women, Little Sister should take me for a born flirt, incapable of falling deeply in love...

I don’t know whether she was only trying to scare me when she threatened to sever my worldly ties or truly meant it, but the thought is frightening enough...

Once inside his room, Ding Songyan looked around by the faint light of night before lighting the oil lamp and washing up.

In the peaceful tranquility of the night, he had just slipped beneath his comfortable quilt when he suddenly caught a delicate, faintly sweet fragrance, like orchid and musk. Some strands seemed to pierce his heart; others drifted into his mind.

Ding Songyan went rigid.

A voice that seemed to hold a smile, yet not quite, sounded beside his ear: "Second Brother, you’ve done something quite remarkable."

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