Chapter 18 – When Affection Begins to Thicken, Affection Turns Flimsy (2/2)

The man said, “You seemed to have once said that any sabre technique which can kill is a good sabre technique.”

Fu Hongxue said, “Did I say that?”

The man nodded, then suddenly asked, “Do you know who you just killed?”

Fu Hongxue said, “Did I kill someone just then? Who did I kill?”

The man looked at him, eyes filled with laughter, a laughter which could cause someone to wake up in the middle of the night. “You killed your elder brother-in-law.”

Fu Hongxue wrinkled his forehead, as though trying as hard as he could to remember how he might have an elder brother-in-law.

This man immediately reminded him, “Have you forgotten that you are already a married man? Your wife’s elder brother is your elder brother-in-law.”

Fu Hongxue thought for a long time again, then nodded, then shook his head. He seemed to understand, and yet not understand.

The man suddenly pointed at the person he had come in with. “Do you know who she is?”

It was a woman. She was standing far away at the bar counter, coldly staring at Fu Hongxue.

She was very young and very beautiful, with raven-like hair, and shining eyes. She was the type of daughter which every parent dreamed of having, the type of little sister every man wanted, the type of lover every yong man dreamed of. But when she stared at Fu Hongxue, her eyes were filled with hatred and enmity.

Fu Hongxue finally raised his head to look at her. He seemed to recognize her, and yet not recognize her.

The man laughed. “She’s your younger sister-in-law.”

He was afraid that Fu Hongxue wouldn’t understand, and so explained, “Your younger sister-in-law would be your wife’s younger sister, and your elder brother-in-law’s younger sister.”

Fu Hongxue began to drink again, as though he had become confused by those words, and had to drink a cup of wine before becoming sober.

That man asked again, “Do you know what she wants to do right now?”

Fu Hongxue shook his head.

The man said, “She wants to kill you.”

Fu Hongxue suddenly let out a sigh. He mumbled, “Why does everybody want to kill me?”

The man laughed again. “Your words are totally correct. There are thirteen people in this room. At least seven are here to kill you. They want to make their move after you are drunk.”

Fu Hongxue said, “Want to wait until I am drunk? How can I get drunk? I can drink for another three days and three nights without getting drunk.”

The man smiled. “Since there’s no point in waiting for another three days and three nights, it seems they are about to make their move right now.”

Just at this moment, with a clanging sound, a pot of wine fell to the floor and smashed to smithereens. A man who was originally holding a wine-cup, now held in his hands a ‘mountain-splitting cleaver’, with a thick spine and a narrow blade. When he charged towards Fu Hongxue, a white, silk-tasseled spear, a ‘goose plume’ sabre, a bamboo-linked whip, and a ‘funeral door’ sabre all rushed out as well.

The young man wielding a sword growled out in a low roar, “Gang members are taking vengeance. Friends from the martial world, don’t interfere!”

Just as he finished these words, he froze with shock. His four friends froze as well. The five of them stood there like stone statues, because the weapons in their hands had…disappeared? Their five weapons were all now in the hands of the person sitting in front of Fu Hongxue.

When they started to move, he had moved as well. With his left hand, he had clapped their shoulders. With his right, he wrested away their weapons. The five of them only felt their vision go blurry, only saw a flicker of a shadow, and the weapons in their hands had disappeared.

The man had already returned to his original seat, gently placing the five weapons on his table. Then, smiling, he said, “I’m not a friend from the martial world, so I can interfere.”

The young swordsman angrily said, “Who are you?”

The man said, “I never tell my name to dead people.”

The young man said, “Who are the dead people?”

The man said, “You!”

At first, they had been standing there, perfectly fine. But as soon as the man said that word, their five faces turned ghastly pale, feeling as though all of their blood and flesh had suddenly dried. Five vigorous, strong men had suddenly turned withered and thin. Suddenly, they all collapsed.

But Fu Hongxue didn’t seem to have seen anything at all.

The man let out a sigh. “I killed these people on your behalf. Even if you aren’t grateful towards me, you should at least offer me a few words of praise.”

Fu Hongxue said, “Praise you for what?”

The man said, “Can’t you tell what type of martial arts I used?”

Fu Hongxue said, “I can’t tell.”

The man said, “This was one of the sole two types of martial arts from the ‘Sorrowful Book of Yin and Yang and of Heaven and Hell Mingling’ which still remain in the world.”

Fu Hongxue said, “Oh?”

The man said, “This is the ‘Great Soul-Searching Hand of Severing Heaven and Shattering Earth.’”

Fu Hongxue said, “Oh?”

That man said, “The other remaining technique, is one you have already learned: the ‘Great Acupoint Changing Technique of Shifting Heaven and Moving Earth.’”

He chuckled, then said, “For you to be able to shift your acupoints by an inch, you must have mastered at least ninety percent of this technique.”

Fu Hongxue said, “And you? Who are you?”

That man said, “I am Duo Qingzi, of the Western Region’s Xingxiuhai sect. I’m even more full of affection than you are.” [As mentioned in a previous chapter, ‘Duo Qingzi’ literally means, ‘man of great tenderness and affection’.]

Fu Hongxue finally lifted up his head. He looked at him, seeming to only just now know who the person seated before him was.

This man’s smile was very warm, very gentle. His eyebrows were delicate and pretty. He really did appear to be a man of great tenderness and affection.

“Even men of great tenderness and affection kill people?”

“When affection begins to thicken, affection turns flimsy. It is precisely because I am so filled with affection that it has become flimsier than paper.”

Smiling, Duo Qingzi continued, “However, I have never killed somebody for no reason at all before either.”

Fu Hongxue said, “Oh?”

Duo Qingzi said, “The only reason I killed these people was because I didn’t want you to die to them.”

Fu Hongxue said, “Why?”

Duo Qingzi said, “Because I want you to die to me.”

Fu Hongxue said, “You really want to?”

Duo Qingzi said, “I want to so much, I would die for it.”

The girl who was standing far away by the counter suddenly said, “Because if he kills you, I will marry him.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Look, I’m already thirty-five years old, but I still haven’t taken a wife. Naturally, I have no children either. There are three ways one can be unfilial; to not produce an heir is the greatest. You can’t expect me to be an unfilial person, can you?”

That young woman interjected, “He won’t.”

Duo Qingzi said, “How do you know?”

The young woman said, “I’ve seen him strike on three separate occasions. His sabre originally really did seem to be possessed by ghosts.”

Duo Qingzi said, “How about now?”

The young woman said, “Now, the ghosts in his sabre have instead entered his heart.”

Duo Qingzi asked intentionally, “Why did they go there?”

The young woman said, “Two things.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Wine and women?”

The young woman nodded. “Because of these two things, he had all but died once in the past as well.”

Duo Qingzi said, “But he didn’t die.”

The young woman said, “Because he has a good friend!”

Duo Qingzi said, “Ye Kai?”

The young woman let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, no one knows where Ye Kai has gone.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Then right now, he’s definitely in a perilous situation?”

The young woman said, “Extremely perilous.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Do you think I can receive his sabre blows?”

The young woman chuckled. “You can even capture real ghosts with your ‘Great Soul-Searching Hand’, much less a sabre which no longer has ghosts in it.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Even if I can catch his sabre, wouldn’t my hand break?”

The young woman said, “It won’t.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Why won’t it?”

The young woman said, “Because your catching techniques are very clever. Your hand won’t even touch the blade of the sabre, and your other hand will have caught his soul.”

Duo Qingzi said, “So what you are saying is, this man is doomed?”

The young woman said, “He still has a little bit of hope.”

Duo Qingzi said, “What hope?”

The young woman said, “So long as he tells us two things, we won’t even touch him.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Which two things?”

The young woman said, “Where is the Peacock Plume? Where is the Sorrowful Book of Yin and Yang and of Heaven and Hell Mingling?”

Duo Qingzi said, “If he had the Peacock Plume, or if he had mastered the arts in the Sorrowful Book, we would be doomed.”

The young woman said, “Perhaps his hands are no longer steady enough, and he is no longer able to use the Peacock Plume. Perhaps, despite him learning the ‘Great Acupoint Changing Technique of Shifting Heaven and Moving Earth’, he is not able to learn the other skills.”

Duo Qingzi laughed. “Judging by the look of things, he really doesn’t seem to be capable of learning other martial arts.”

The young woman laughed as well. “Now, the only skill he can train in is drinking.”

Duo Qingzi laughed. “But he seems to have trained this skill quite well.”

The young woman said, “Unfortunately, the only thing this type of martial arts can do is to turn him into an alcoholic, a dead alcoholic.”

Every single word they said was like a needle. They wanted to pierce his heart with every single one of these needles, to make him suffer, to make him weak, to make him collapse. Unfortunately, it seemed as though all of these needles had pierced a stone, because Fu Hongxue didn’t react at all. He was already totally numb.

The distance between being numb and collapsing is not great. The distance between collapsing and death is not great either.

Duo Qingzi let out a sigh. “From the looks of it, it seems he’s made up his mind not to talk.”

The young maiden let out a sigh as well. “Perhaps he is determined to wait until the point of death to speak.”

Duo Qingzi said, “Hasn’t that point arrived yet?”

The young maiden said, “As soon as you strike, it will have arrived.”

Duo Qingzi had already made his move. His hand was both white and delicate, like a woman’s hand. His hand movements were soft and graceful, as though he were plucking a flower, a very fragile and tender flower.

No matter how tough and vigorous the opponent, underneath his hands, they would turn as fragile and as tender as a flower.

It seemed as though his hand didn’t move very quickly. In fact, it was like a very gentle light. By the time you saw it, it was there.

But this time, before his hand arrived, the sabre left the sheath.

When the sabre light flashed, his hands opened just like a flower. It really did seize that sabre. Was his other hand going to seek out Fu Hongxue’s soul? Just like how he had withered the flesh and the blood of those five people earlier!

A flower-petal like hand. A soul-searching hand.

The sabre which no one could catch was actually caught by his hand. Unfortunately, no matter how fearsome the hand, when it came underneath this sabre, it would become as tender and fragile as a flower petal.

Sabre light flashed. Blood sprayed about.

His hand had already been chopped in half. His head had also been chopped in half.

The young woman’s eyes widened, but her pupils contracted.

She didn’t see the sabre at all. The sabre was already sheathed. It was like how lightning flashed across the dark firmament of the sky. No one could see it afterwards. She could only see Fu Hongxue’s deathly pale face.

Fu Hongxue had already stood up and walked over. His gait was still very clumsy and awkward, so clumsy it was terrifying.

He walked very slowly. He was already drunk. So drunk, it was terrifying.

In her eyes, every single place on his body and his every single movement had become unspeakably terrifying. She was so frightened, she felt as though her blood had coagulated. But she suddenly laughed. “Can it be that you no longer recognize me? I am the second young miss of the Ni family, Ni Hui. We are friends.”

Fu Hongxue ignored her.

She watched as he walked past her, her eyes still filled with dread. She definitely couldn’t let this person stay alive. If he were to live, she would die. Die in his hands.

This conclusion wasn’t perhaps correct. Originally, she was an extremely intelligent person, but right now, terror had stolen away her mind. But she hadn’t forgotten her ‘Celestial Maiden Flowers’. Aside from her, it seemed as though there was no one else in the martial world who could use this vile type of hidden projectile.

Once the hidden projectiles left her hand, not only could the flower petals shoot out and wound, there were lethal poisons hidden within the petals as well.

She only carried thirteen ‘Celestial Maiden Flowers’ on her, because she simply didn’t need to carry too many.

She had only used this hidden projectile a total of three times. Each time, she had only used one petal. One petal is enough to take a man’s life.

But right now, she actually shot out all thirteen of the petals, and then her body immediately flew backwards. Even if this strike didn’t land, she could at least retreat with her body intact. She always had a great deal of faith in her lightness kungfu.

But at this moment, the sabre had already left its sheath!