Chapter - 4 High Cliffs And Faraway Persons (1/2)

After several kilometers, Black Rose found another mountain path. But the mountain path gradually got steeper, causing Black Rose's gallop to get even slower and allowing the cursing and shouting behind them begin to get closer and closer.

”Black Rose, so sorry to make you work so hard today.” Duan Yu shouted. ”But could you please run just a little faster?” After several more kilometers, he could actually see the reflections off the blades of sabres and swords behind them.

”Faster, faster!” Mu WanQing urged Black Rose continuously and Black Rose's speed picked up. Suddenly, a deep, bottomless gorge dozens of meters wide appeared in front of them. Black Rose let out a long neigh and took several steps back.

Seeing that there's no where left to go, Mu WanQing asked: ”I'm going to try and jump this gorge. Do you want to stay here or chance it with me?”

”If there's one less person on the horse, then it would be easier for Black Rose to jump this.” Duan Yu thought. So he replied: ”Why don't miss go first and then pull me over?”

”Not enough time for that!” Mu WanQing replied as the pursuers closed in. Backing up the horse several more steps, she gently patted on its belly a couple of times and shouted: ”Shh! Jump it!”

Black Rose shot forth towards the edge of the gorge. Just inches from the end of the path, she jumped. Duan Yu felt as if he was flying through the air, only carried by the clouds; but his heart beat so fast that it felt as if it was about to jump out of his mouth.

Because of being urged by her master, Black Rose had jumped with all her might and her front hooves landed on the other side. But because the distance between the sides was just too wide and, after running all night and being injured, she was tired, her hindlegs did not reach the other side and she began to fall.

With lightning quick reactions, Mu WanQing immediately grabbed Duan Yu and jumped up off the saddle. Duan Yu landed first and Mu WanQing came crashing down right after, landing neatly into his arms. Fearing that she might be hurt, Duan Yu held onto her as tight as he could. Black Rose's desperate scream could be heard as she fell further down into the gorge.

Overwhelmed with despair, Mu WanQing struggled out of Duan Yu's embrace and ran to the edge of the cliff. But all that could be seen were clouds and fog, not a trace or sign of Black Rose anywhere. She suddenly felt light headed as the whole world began to spin around her. Her legs gave out from under her as she collapsed onto the ground.

Shocked and afraid that she might fall or roll over the edge, Duan Yu scrambled over as fast as he could. Her eyes were close tight, she had obviously fainted from what just happened. He was at a lost about what to do next when he suddenly heard someone shouting.

”Shoot! Shoot! Kill the 2 of them!”

Duan Yu looked up and saw that 7 or 8 men already arrived at the other side of the gorge. So he immediately picked Mu WanQing up and ran in the other direction. ”Soow!” An arrow suddenly whistled by, grazing his ear.

He stumbled around for several more steps before he crouched down to make himself smaller and continued to ran away. ”Soow!” Another arrow flew right over his head, right where it would have been normally. He suddenly caught the sight of a huge rock to his left, so he dove behind it. And just in time it appeared, as an endless cacophony of projectiles hitting the rock arose as soon as he jumped behind the rock. Duan Yu stayed as still as he could, not daring to move a muscle.

”Smash!” A huge rock suddenly sailed over the rock and landed just beside him. The person who tossed the rock must have been incredibly strong as to be able to toss such a huge piece of stone more than 30 meters. Fortunately for Duan Yu, the distance made it almost impossible to aim the throw.

Figuring that this place wasn't safe after all, Duan Yu immediately picked Mu WanQing up again. In one breath, he ran as fast as he could for about another 40 meters or so. Only then did he feel safe from all the projectiles and stop.

He caught his breath and gently laid Mu WanQing down onto the grass. He then jumped behind another rock and stuck his head out to take a peek at the other side of the gorge.

By now the other side was filled with people as every one of them was pointing one way or another as if they were planning something. Once in a while Duan Yu would hear a sentence or 2 of what they said, filled with cursing and rude comments, that was carried over by the wind.

”If they went around the mountain and came up from the other side, then the 2 of us would be completely defenseless.” Duan Yu thought to himself.

So he walked over to the other end of the mountain top, looked down, and scared himself so much that he almost lost his balance. Several hundred meters below the edge of the cliff a huge, jade colored river was roaring by. Turned out they had arrived at the shores of LanCang River. The rapids were furious, no way to get up from this side. But if those guys get to the bottom of the gorge, they could climb up this side and the 2 of them would still be killed. He took a deep breath and sighed, figuring that whatever happens happens and that he'll worry about what to do when the time comes. Suddenly, something he said just a little bit before popped back into his head: ”There's really not much to be gained from dying half a day earlier or later.”

He returned to Mu WanQing's side. Noticing that she still haven't come to, he was trying hard to figure out how to wake her up when he noticed that there was an iron spike sticking out from the back of her left shoulder and the blood from the wound covered most of her shirt. He was busy running for his life earlier and sitting in front of her on the horse before that, so he had no idea that she had suffered such a horrendous wound.

”Is she dead?” was the first thought that popped into his head. So he immediately moved her veil aside and put his finger underneath her nose to check her breathing. He was greatly relieved when he felt a faint breath.

”Got to pull that spike out and stop the bleeding.” He decided. So he grabbed the spike, bit down hard, and pulled. The spike came out rather easily. But he did not know what to expect and had his entire face covered by a spray of blood.

Mu WanQing screamed in pain as it woke her up, but she then immediately fainted again.

Duan Yu pushed down on her wound as much as he could, trying to stop the bleeding. But the blood was almost squirting out and it looked hopeless. At his wit's end, he pulled a handful of grass from the ground, stuffed them into his mouth, chewed them into a pulp, and smeared it over her wound. But the blood just washed the pulp off the wound.

”When she was wounded by those hooks,” he suddenly remembered, ”she used some herbs or medicine from her shirt and the bleeding stopped soon after.”

He gently reached into her shirt and took out the objects one by one. There was one comb made out of yellow poplar, a small mirror, 2 pink handkerchiefs, 3 small wooden boxes, and one porcelain flask. He was taken aback when he saw these female items. Only now did he realize that this was a girl in front of him and realized how inappropriate it was for him to reach into her shirt and feel around. Also, it was very difficult to link these female items with this merciless killer.

He had seen Mu WanQing pour some green powder out of the porcelain flask to SiKong Xuan as the Kid Elder's magical medicine but did not know whether or not it could stop bleeding. So he popped open one of the boxes and was immediately engulfed by a faint fragrance. The box was filled with blush. The second box was half filled with a white powder and the third box had in it a yellow powder. He put both of them up to his nose and sniffed them. The white powder was odorless but the yellow powder was so spicy that it made him sneeze from just one sniff.

”This is either the blood clotter or a deadly poison.” He thought to himself. ”Better be on the cautious side, it would be terrible if I misused it.” So he poked Mu WanQing for a while until she slowly cracked open her eyes.

Ecstatic, he asked: ”Miss Mu, which of these medicines stops bleeding?”

”The red one.” She replied before closing her eyes again.

”The red one?” Duan Yu asked to make sure, but she did not reply. Duan Yu was quite puzzled, that red one was clearly blush, how could it stop bleeding? But since she said so, then might as well try it out; it's can't be any worse than applying poison onto the wound.

So he tore off a bit of the cloth around the wound, scooped up a bit of the blush with his finger and applied it onto the wound. When his fingers touched the wound, Mu WanQing, even though she's half-conscious, twitched from the pain.

”It's ok, it's ok.” Duan Yu comforted. ”Let's stop the bleeding first.”

Strangely, the blush turned out to be incredibly effective. Soon, the bleeding significantly slowed down and stopped. After a while, a yellowish liquid oozed out from the wound.

”Making blood clotters like blush,” Duan Yu thought out loud to himself, ”girls these days are really something.”

Only now did he finally calm down from all that work and he noticed that the other side of the gorge had quieted down.

”Are they really going to come up from the bottom of the gorge?” He wondered. Crawling to the edge of the cliff, he looked down and his heart began beating fast again. As he expected, he saw about a dozen or so men slowly climbing down the cliff facing him towards the bottom of the gorge. Even though the gorge is deep, there's still a bottom, and as soon as they reach it they could climb up this side. From the looks of it, they would arrive in about 5 or 6 hours.

Although the outlook was grim, he couldn't just give in and wait here to die. Looking around again, he realized that they were on the very top of a peak with sheer cliffs on 3 sides and a river on the other. He sighed and dragged Mu WanQing underneath a rock that was jutting out of the ground so she wouldn't catch anything from the cold mountain winds. After that, he started to gather rocks and put them by the very edge of the cliff. Luckily, there were all kinds of rocks all over the place and he was able to quickly gather quite an impressive mound. Satisfied with his own work, he sat down at Mu WanQing's side to rest himself.

As soon as he sat down he felt the sand on the ground rumbling, rather painfully, against his bare skin. His thoughts began to wander as he compared his situation with a particular line of teaching he had read in the Book of Changes. Somehow his thoughts led him to compare himself to a large goat.

{Note: Here Duan Yu's specific thoughts were filled with old Chinese terms that uses characters that aren't even in dictionaries anymore. I'm sorry I could not translate his thoughts word for word, but the gist of it was that he somehow compared himself to a large goat.}

Having not slept at all last night, he was as tired as he could ever remember being. After analyzing a couple more phrases from the Book of Changes, he was just about to fall asleep. However, knowing that enemies were approaching, he did not dare to let himself sleep. As wave after wave of the fragrance from Mu WanQing hit him, he suddenly realized that when he put his fingers underneath her nose to make sure that she was alive he had actually removed her veil and saw her face. But he was too occupied with her well-being at the time to pay attention to what she looked like. And now for no good reason he couldn't bring himself to remove the veil to take another look. Thinking back some more, he seemed to remember that her skin was white and smooth, at least nothing like her claim of having a pot-covered face.

At this time Mu WanQing was still passed out, if he quietly removed her veil again there was no way she would know. He wanted to, but did not dare to. His mind was racing: ”I'm living and dying with her right here, most probably dying actually. If I don't even know what she looked like before I die, then won't my death be a little too much in vain?”

But deep down he was also afraid that she might actually turn out to really have a pot-covered face: ”If she wasn't just incredibly ugly, why would she always have a veil on and not let anyone else see her real face? This particular miss's actions are so rough and rash, she probably has no relation whatsoever with the words 'beautiful and elegant'.”

He just could not make up his mind. In trying to make up his mind, he just got sleepier and sleepier until he actually fell asleep.

After what seemed like forever, a crackling sound suddenly woke him up. Running to the edge of the cliff, he was able to see 5 or 6 men climbing up the cliff. Luckily, the cliff was so steep that their progress slowed to almost a halt. Duan Yu's mind was screaming to himself: ”Wow that was close! Too close!”

He picked up a rock and threw it over the edge. ”Stop! Or else I'm going to let you guys have it!” He shouted.

From his position above them, he could easily hit them with rocks; and because the climbers were still about 100 meters away from him, they could not hit him with their projectiles. When they heard him, they stopped, but only for a second before they resumed climbing, only this time they were zig-zagging and temporarily hiding behind certain rocks. In a flurry, Duan Yu tossed 5 or 6 rocks over the edge in a row. Two screams went up as 2 men were hit and fell to their deaths. Only then did the rest of the climbers realize the predicament they were in and began to scramble down the cliff. One of them was too hasty in his retreat, lost his footing, and also fell to his death.

Duan Yu had studied Buddhism with highly respected monks ever since he was little. He even refused to learn kungfu. So this was the first time he had taken a life, and it scared his face white. He had intended to just scare those climbers away, but ended up killing 2 men and indirectly causing the death of another. Even though he knew that if he didn't do what he did and the climbers made it to the top, both Mu WanQing and him would have been dead, he still could not help feeling terrible.

He just stood there, completely still from the shock, for a long while before he returned to where Mu WanQing was. She had sat up and was leaning up against the rock. Surprised and ecstatic, Duan Yu said: ”Miss Mu, you... you are ok now!”

Mu WanQing did not reply. She just stared at him from behind the mask, there was viciousness in that stare.

”You just sit there and rest for a bit, I'm going to get some water for you.” Duan Yu said in a soft voice.

”Were people trying to climb up to here?” She asked.

Tears rolled out of Duan Yu's eyes. He wiped them off with his sleeve and replied in between his sobs: ”I accidentally killed 2 of them and... and scared... scared another one to fall.”

”So?” Mu WanQing asked, not knowing what to make of his crying.

”The Heavens want us to live, I... I killed for no good reason, I deserve to die.” Duan Yu replied between sobs. ”Those 3 men could have parents, wives, or kids, they would surely be destroyed when they hear the news. How... how could I have done this to them? To their families?”

”You got them too.” Mu WanQing said with a sneer.

”I have parents, but no wives or kids.” Duan Yu replied, not understanding what she was trying to say.

Mu WanQing's eyes suddenly flashed a very peculiar look, but only for a brief instant before turning back to the cold, steely look they had before. ”After they make it up the cliff, are they going to kill you? Are they going to kill me?” She demanded.

”Mostly likely.”

”Hmph! You would prefer being killed over killing others?”

”If it was just me, then I would never kill anyone. But... but I can't let them hurt you.” Duan Yu said after he thought about it for a bit.

”Why?” Mu WanQing fiercely demanded.

”You saved my life before, I have to save yours too.”

”I'm going to ask you a question, and if you don't tell me the whole truth, the arrows in my sleeve are going straight through you throat!” She lifted her right arm slightly off the ground as she said that so it aimed towards Duan Yu.

”So those arrows of yours that killed all those people came from your sleeve.” Duan Yu observed.

”Idiot,” Mu WanQing shouted. ”Are you or are you not going to listen to me?”

”You are not going kill me, why should I listen to you?”

”If you really get on my nerves, I very well could decide to kill you,” Mu WanQing replied viciously. ”Now tell me, did you see my face?”

Duan Yu shook his head: ”No.”

”Really?” Mu WanQing asked. Her voice was getting lower and her forehead was covered in sweat, obviously she was using up all strength to sustain this conversation. Nevertheless, the tone of her voice was still very threatening.

”Why should I lie to you? You can't just not believe everything I say.” Duan Yu replied.

”You could have done it while I was passed out.”

”I was too occupied with that wound on your back, it didn't even cross my mind.”

Angry, Mu WanQing's breathing became labored as she demanded: ”You... saw the skin on my back? You... you applied herbs to my back?”

”Yes,” Duan Yu answered. ”That blush of yours works wonders. I can't believe it's actually a blood-clotter.”

”Could you come here help me sit up a little?” Mu WanQing suddenly asked.

”Alright, you shouldn't talk so much. Just rest until you are alright and then we can try and find a way to escape.” Duan Yu said as he walked over to her side to give her a hand.

His hands was just about to touch her arm when suddenly, ”Smack!” He was slapped so hard on his left cheek that it left felt as if it was on fire. Although Mu WanQing was injured, her moves still packed quite a punch.

Duan Yu, caught totally off guard, was dizzy and got spun in a complete circle. Covering his cheeks with his hands, he angrily shouted: ”Why... why did you hit me?”

”How... how dare you? How dare you... touch my skin? How dare you... look at my back....” Mu WanQing shouted back in equal fury before passing out from both anger and exhaustion.

Shocked, Duan Yu completely forgot about that slap as he scrambled forward and got her to sat back up again. Only then did he notice that blood was once again spilling out of the wound on her back; turned out that she had put too much force into that slap, and the wound that was just beginning to heal ripped open again.

”Miss Mu got mad at me for touching her skin, but if I don't do anything, she would surely die from blood loss. Oh well, I guess the worse that could happen is getting slapped a couple more times.” Duan Yu decided.

So he ripped off a piece of his shirt and began wiping away the blood around the wound. But with her snow-white and baby smooth skin in his sights coupled with wave after wave of her fragrance, he did not dare to look more than he had to as he hurriedly applied the blush onto the wound again.

This time it didn't take as long for Mu WanQing to come to. As soon as she opened her eyes, she shot a murderous look at Duan Yu, who, scared that she might hit him again, was standing a good distance away.

”You... again....” Mu WanQing said, knowing that Duan Yu re-applied the blush from the coolness she felt around the wound.

”I... I can't just let you die,” Duan Yu argued.

Too exhausted to respond, all Mu WanQing could do was try and bring her labored breathing under control.

Suddenly noticing the sound of water running to his left, Duan Yu walked over and found a small but clean mountain creek. He bent down, washed his hands, and took a good sip of the water. Then he cupped some water in his hands, walked over to Mu WanQing's side, and said: ”Come on, drink some water, you'll feel better.”

Mu WanQing hesitated, but losing all that blood had made her incredibly thirsty, so she pulled back a little corner of her veil, revealing her mouth.

It was high noon at that moment and the sun shone down directly onto her face. Duan Yu noticed that her chin was quite small, her face was white and, just like her back, smooth as silk, with not even a trace of a blemish was to be found. Her cherry-like mouth sat cutely in the middle and, with her lips quite thin, revealed 2 rows of jade-like teeth. He suddenly realized: ”She... she's actually incredibly beautiful!”

Some of the water had leaked through the cracks between his fingers and spilled onto Mu WanQing's face. To Duan Yu, they looked like little dew drops on the morning flowers. Taken by surprise by the whole situation, he did not dare to look anymore and turned his head away.

Mu WanQing finished the water he had brought her and said: ”More, go get me more.”

Duan Yu obeyed her and got her more water. After a total of 3 trips, her thirst was finally quench.

Duan Yu, being extra safe, crawled to the edge of the cliff and looked around. He saw 7 or 8 men standing on the other side of the gorge looking over on this side with bows and arrows in hand. Looking down the face of the cliff, he saw that nobody else was trying to climb up. But knowing that the enemy wouldn't just give up, he figured they would eventually figure out another way to attack.

He shook his head, drank some more water from the creek, then washed off some of Mu WanQing's blood that had spilled onto his face. Then it occurred to him: ”The cure for Intestine Fragmenter! Not that it would really make a difference now, but I guess it couldn't hurt to use it.”

So he took out the little porcelain bottle out from inside his shirt, dumped some of the powder onto his hand, and swallowed it with a mouthful of mountain water. He thought: ”This medicine tastes horrible, but at least it's better than how that Intestine Fragmenter tasted. Ay, who knew Miss Mu is that beautiful. Hopefully this situation is like it's written: 'lose horse', 'worry not for evil'.”

{Again, Duan Yu is quoting from a book that he read, most likely the Book of Changes, which seemed to be his favorite.}

But then he thought: ”There's water here, but no food. Our enemy don't have to get up here, they just have to wait a few days and the 2 of us will die of starvation.”

Depressed and showing it on his face, he returned to Mu WanQing's side and commented: ”Too bad there isn't any fruit on this hill, or else we can at least pick them to combat hunger.”

”Useless talk!” Mu WanQing replied. ”All that talking isn't going to help us is it?”

After a pause, she suddenly asked: ”How did you meet that little girl of the Zhongs?”

Duan Yu told her, as good as he can remember it, how he first met Zhong Ling in Sword Lake Palace, how he was made fun of, and how she came to his rescue, etc., etc.

Mu WanQing did not utter a word during the entire story. After he finished, she snickered: ”You don't know any kungfu, yet you keep on meddling in other people's business in the martial world, are you tired of living or something?”

”I got myself into this mess, so I deserve whatever I have coming, nothing to say about that. But I just don't feel right about dragging miss into this as well.” Duan Yu replied, rather apologetically.

”What are you talking about? These enemies are mine, if you didn't exist they would still gang up on me wouldn't they? If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have to worry about you... I... I would be able to go out in style and die in battle, at least it would be much better than starving to death here.”

Mu WanQing paused after she said ”worry about you” because she felt rather foolish to actually saying that she worried about him and was blushing feverishly. Luckily the veil covered her face and Duan Yu attributed the change in her voice to the fact that she, being exhausted, was finding it difficult to speak. So he tried to comfort her: ”Miss, just rest a couple of days for your back to recover. Then when you try and bust out, they might not be able to stop you.”

Mu WanQing let out a cold laugh and said: ”Easy for you to say, is it possible for this wound of mine to heal in a couple of days? There really is quite a lot of them out there....”

Suddenly, from the other side of the gorge, there came a howl so loud that it shook the entire mountain. Mu WanQing snapped up, grabbed Duan Yu's arm for support, and asked in a shaking voice: ”Who... who is that? How can his inner strength be that strong?”

The howl circled the mountain endlessly, lasting for what seemed like forever. With all the echoes it caused in the mountains, it was literally like an army of ghosts, crying and screaming upon their return to claim their lost souls. Even though it was in the middle of the day, Duan Yu suddenly felt as if the entire sky darkened right in front of him. Only after an eternity did the howls and noises gradually cease.

”This guy's kungfu is so good that there's no possible way for me to beat him.” Mu WanQing said. ”Just... just leave, don't worry about me anymore.”

”Miss Mu, is that how you think of me? I, Duan Yu, might be 'a piece of wood', but I'm not that kind of a person.” Duan Yu answered with a smile.

Mu WanQing stared at him for a long time, stared at him with what actually seemed like care and worry. ”That 'piece of wood' business was just me messing with you, don't worry about it.” She said in a gentle and tender voice. ”Why do you want to die with me? What... what good would it do? Just run away and think of me once in a while, and that would be good enough for me.”

Duan Yu had never heard her talk like this before. Once that howl went up, she seemed to have turned into a different person. It's just that she was so used to talking in that cold, uncaring way that all those nice and sweet things came out rather stiff and awkward for her. He had to smile: ”Miss Mu, why couldn't you talk like this all the time? You were really like a beautiful and elegant lady just then.”

Mu WanQing humphed and, suddenly turning vicious, demanded: ”How do you know whether or not I'm pretty? You saw my face didn't you?”

Her fist tightened like an iron clamp around Duan Yu's arm.

”When I got you water, I saw half of your face.” Duan Yu finally said with a sigh. ”But just that half of your face is enough to make you a rare beauty.”

Despite Mu WanQing's personality, she's still just a girl. So she couldn't help but feel good when he complimented her looks. Besides, she had been wearing that veil for so long that nobody had ever complimented on her looks before, all anybody ever noticed was her kungfu. Feeling warm and fuzzy, she loosened her grip and instructed: ”Go find a cave or something to hide in. No matter what you see, don't come out. He'll be here any minute now.”

Quite taken aback by that revelation, Duan Yu jumped up and shouted: ”I can't let him get up here!”

He ran over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. His eyes suddenly blurred as he saw what looks to be a man in yellow making his way up the face of the cliff at an incredible speed. The cliff was almost a sheer drop, yet this man was moving as if he was on flat ground.

Terrified, Duan Yu shouted down: ”Hey! Stop! Or else I'll start throwing rocks down at you!”

That man let out a huge laugh and actually began to move even faster.

Seeing that he was making his way up the mountain that fast, yet not wanting to kill again, Duan Yu picked up a rock and threw it a couple of meters to the side of the man. The rock wasn't really that big, but after dropping such a long distance, it carried quite a force with it. ”You see that? Had I hit you, you would be dead by now! Turn around!” Duan Yu shouted.

”Stinking bastard! Don't want to live anymore? How dare you greet me so rudely?” That man let out a cold snicker and said.

Seeing him moving even faster, Duan Yu had no other choice. He picked up a couple more rock and aimed it at the man's head. Closing his eyes so he didn't have to watch the man die, he dropped the rocks. All he heard was the sound of the rocks falling through the air and the man's loud laugh. Confused, Duan Yu opened his eyes and saw that the man was still alright and the rocks had already fallen past him. Now Duan Yu was terrified. In a near panic, he grabbed a whole pile of rocks and dumped the entire load onto the man at once.

That man waited until the rocks were almost about to hit his head, and then he reached up with a hand and casually pushed them out of the way. Once in a while he would give a little hop sideways and avoid a potentially troublesome rock. Duan Yu dumped about 30 or so rocks as fast as he could at him, but all he was able to do was slow the man's progress a bit. Not being able to do a thing as he got closer and closer, so close in fact that Duan Yu could just about make out the man's frightening face, Duan Yu scrambled back to Mu WanQing's side and shouted: ”Miss... Miss Mu, that... that man's too strong, let's get out of here!”

”Too late,” Mu WanQing coldly replied.

Duan Yu was just about to reply when a huge force suddenly hit him from behind, sending him flying. He fell into a little group of trees and was almost completely knocked out. Luckily, he had landed into an area that was literally covered with little trees, thus he only suffered minor scratches on his face and not much more. By the time he had gotten up from the fall, that person was already standing at Mu WanQing's side.

Duan Yu scrambled up and positioned himself in front of Mu WanQing, blocking the man's path. ”Who are you? And why are you trying to hurt others?” He asked.

Mu WanQing was caught completely by surprise. ”Ru... Run! Get out of here!” She shouted at him.

That man let out a hearty laugh and said: ”Too late to run away now! Your old man here is the Divine Croc of the South Seas; in terms of kungfu, I rank number... number... hehe I'm sure you 2 kids have heard about me, right?”

Duan Yu's heart was pounding, but he forced himself to not panic and began sizing up the man in front of him. The first thing he noticed was his unusually large head. Two rows of white and menacing teeth can be seen in his huge mouth, yet his eyes were unexpectedly small and round, like 2 peas. Still, the force in his stare was positively menacing as they looked Duan Yu up and down over and over again, causing Duan Yu to shudder involuntarily. He had an average built, but his legs were skinny, almost to the bone. He carried a beard that looked as if it was made out of iron, every single strand was stiff and straight. Despite the beard, it was impossible to tell how old he was. He had on a silk robe which drooped down to his knees. The silk was of a very high quality and expensive, yet the pants he had on was made of very cheap and rough material and was so dirty that it was difficult to make out its original. His fingers were long and pointy, which reminded Duan Yu of chicken paws. At first glance, Duan Yu had thought that this man was just indescribably ugly, but the more he looked at him, the more he felt that it was only because the man's looks, built, and even clothing just simply didn't match.

”Come here,” Mu WanQing instructed. ”Stand beside me.”

”You... you sure he won't harm you?” Duan Yu asked.

Mu WanQing let out a little cold laugh and said: ”With that little bit of stuff you know, what chance do you have of stopping 'the Divine Croc of the South Seas'?”

Despite her tone of voice, Mu WanQing couldn't help but be touched that Duan Yu would actually put himself in danger to protect her.

Duan Yu figured that she was right. If this man wanted to get him out of the way, all he had to do was simply lift his arm. So it was probably best not to anger him yet. Thus he backed up until he was even with Mu WanQing and said: ”Oh, so you are 'The Divine Croc of the South Seas' who's kungfu is ranked number... number... that is... I have much admired your famed and illustrious name. I have humbly been able to meet several brave men and heroes these last couple of days, and I have to say that your amazing kungfu has to be the best among them. Not one of those rocks I tossed down hit! Sir, your kungfu is truly amazing.”

”Even though I'm brown-nosing, his kungfu really is something else, so all this kissing up isn't that bad.” DuanYu reasoned.

Divine Croc of the South Seas was on cloud nine from all the praise that Duan Yu tossed at him. So he let out another, rather stiff, laugh and replied: ”Your kungfu might not be anything to brag about, but at least you know what's good when you see it. I guess I'll let you live just for that. Now get out of my way.”

Ecstatic, Duan Yu suggested: ”Then could you, sir, please let Miss Mu go too?”

Divine Croc's eyes bugged out, reached out with one arm, and gave Duan Yu a shove that pushed him back several steps before he was able to recover his balance. In a heavy and vicious voice, he said: ”Take one more step forward, and your old man here is going to kill you!”

”Men like him is capable of doing anything. I better just stay here for now.” Duan Yu thought to himself.

Divine Croc opened his eyes wide and sized Mu WanQing up several times before asking: ”Did you kill 'Little Devil' Sun SanBa?”

”Yes,” Mu WanQing replied.

”Did you know that he was my beloved disciple?”

Duan Yu was screaming on the inside: ”Oh bad! This is bad! Miss Mu killed his beloved disciple, that's not the kind of thing that you can just make it go away. Even if I kiss up to him ten times as much it would still be of no use.”

”Not when I killed him, but I did find out several days later.” Mu WanQing replied.

”Are of scared of me?” Divine Croc of the South Seas asked.

”No!”

Divine Croc let out a thunderous roar of fury that shook the entire mountain. ”How could you be not scared of me? How... how dare you! Who's protection are you hiding under?” He demanded.

”Yours!” Mu WanQing replied coldly.

Divine Croc was taken aback for a moment by this. ”Damn rubbish! What do you mean you are hiding under my protection?”

”You are one of the '4 Arch-Villains.” How could a man at such a lofty position stoop so low as to attack a severely wounded girl?” Mu WanQing's reply actually seemed to include a bit of praise.

Divine Croc paused a bit in surprise before bursting out laughing heartily: ”That's a pretty good point!”

Upon hearing the words ”4 Arch-Villains,” Duan Yu suddenly realized that this man was actually a friend of Zhong Ling's father, Zhong WanChou. Hoping to get to a better position using Zhong WanChou's name, he cut in right as he heard the man make that last comment.

”Every where in the martial world you hear people say that the Divine Croc of the South Seas is a great hero and a brave man. Not only that, some people say that Divine Croc wouldn't even fight if his opponent was just a single man. The more foes he fights at one time, the happier he is. This, obviously, shows how great of a fighter he really is.”

Divine Croc was smiling so much as he was listening to that that his round eyes became just 2 slits. Nodding profusely, he asked: ”That's another pretty good point, who did you hear that from?”

”No Measure Sword Sect's head of their East Faction Zuo ZiMu, head of their West Faction Xin ShuangQing, the head of the Divine Farmer Clan SiKong Xuan, the master of Thousand-Enmities Valley Zhong WanChou, his wife Gan BaoBao, and then there's Grandma Rui and Grandma Ping from just south of the Yangtze. Hehe, too many, too many. I can't remember all of them.”

Divine Croc nodded and said: ”You, little fella, is quite a character eh? Next time you hear somebody praising me, better remember his name for me, ok?” Turning to Mu WanQing, he inquired: ”I heard that your kungfu is pretty good, how did you get hurt so bad? Who did it?”

Looking weak and wronged, Mu WanQing replied: ”There were 4 of them and they ganged up on me. I'm not like you, the more enemies the better, I can't handle that many of them.”

”Yet another good point. Four fighters ganging up on one girl? Have they got no shame?” Divine Croc replied.

”That's right!” Duan Yu immediately cut in. ”A real hero wouldn't even fight if there was just one foe, where did they get off fighting 4 against 1? It's a shame that you, sir, wasn't there, or else you would grab one in each hand and snap the bones in half.”

”No! No! No!” Divine Croc shook his head vehemently.

Every time he shook his head and said the first ”No!”, Duan Yu's heart skipped a beat, he said 3 straight ”No!” in a row, so Duan Yu's heart skipped 3 straight beats. He could not figure out where exactly he had said something wrong.

”I don't snap their bones in half. I just go 'Crack!' and snap their neck. Snapping their bones doesn't necessarily kill then, no fun in that. But snap their necks and those sons of turtles will die. Don't believe me? Then let me snap your neck and you'll see.” Divine Croc continued.

”I believe! I believe you! No need to prove it to me.” Duan Yu immediately replied. Then he suddenly remembered that one of the servants in the Zhong family was welcoming a ”Yue Number Two” of the 4 Arch-Villains who, because he mistakenly said ”Yue Number Three” and called him a ”great man,” had his neck snapped by the man. So the man in front of him must be Yue Two.

”That's right! You are as evil as evil can get. Some people call you Yue Number Two, I say you should be Yue Number One. When Yue Number One grabs somebody's neck, that man is dead for sure!” Duan Yu praised.

Happy beyond words, Divine Croc grabbed Duan Yu's shoulders and shook him out of joy. ”That's right. That's so right! You are a pretty smart little fella, actually know that I'm as evil as evil can get. Yue Number One is out of the question, Number Two is pretty good anyway.”

Duan Yu felt as if his shoulders were about to be squeezed into little pieces. Nevertheless, he forced a smile on his face and said: ”Says who? I say the words 'Yue Number One' without the slightest of doubts in my heart.”

”Duan Yu, Duan Yu. What won't you do to save Miss Mu? Kissing up like a coward, where are all those morals you got from all those books now?” He thought to himself. ”But if it was just for me, then I would never say anything like this. Scared of death, what kind of a man would I be then? It's only because I'm trying to save Miss Mu do I force myself to stoop down to such a level. It is written in the Book of Changes: 'If going along helps those who are true, then real gentlemen should do it'. That's the real logic behind conquering the hard with a soft touch.” Having reasoned himself to that point, he felt a lot better.

Divine Croc let go of Duan Yu's shoulders and turned to Mu WanQing: ”Yue Number Two is a real man and would never hurt a girl....”

”He still wouldn't claim to the title of Number One. Wonder how evil that Number One guy is.” Duan Yu thought to himself, but afraid of upsetting him, he kept quiet and did not ask.

Divine Croc continued: ”... Come next time when you have got helpers, then I'll kill you. I can't kill you today, but I have to ask you a question. I heard that you said you had always worn the veil so as to not allow anyone to see your face, and if anyone saw your face, then you'll have to either kill him or marry him. Is this true?”

This was a complete shock to Duan Yu, and then he saw Mu WanQing nod, which made this whole matter even more confusing and shocking to him.

”Why the hell did you make up such a messed up rule?” Divine Croc asked.

”That is what I swore in front of my master. If I didn't, my master wouldn't have taught me kungfu.” Mu WanQing replied.

”And who the hell is your master? Talk about messed up! Wow, ridiculous stuff, just ridiculous!” Divine Croc replied.

”Out of respect to your seniority, I have been very polite towards you. But you are wrong to talk about my master in such a rude manner.” Mu WanQing replied with pride.

Divine Croc reached out and struck a huge piece of rock that was sitting right beside him with his palm. Immediately the rock shattered, sending small pieces flying off and hitting Duan Yu, giving him quite a sting. ”How could a person be that good at kungfu? If that had hit a person, there's no way the person would survive.” Duan Yu thought to himself as he turned and looked at Mu WanQing.

But Mu WanQing kept her stare, not showing the slightest hint of fear, not even a blink.

Divine Croc traded stares with her for a long time before finally breaking the standstill: ”Alright, I guess you have point. Who is your master? Who is so... hehe... such... hehe....”

”Master is known as the 'Guest of Secluded Valley'.” Mu WanQing answered.

”'Guest of Secluded Valley'? Never heard of it, must not be anyone important!” Divine Croc mumble to himself while trying to recall where he had heard of the name before.

”My master lives alone in a secluded valley, that's the reason for the name 'Guest of Secluded Valley'. How could that compare with the famous name of yours?”

”Another good point.” Divine Croc nodded before suddenly raising his voice in a shout: ”My disciple Sun SanBa, did he see your face? Is that why you killed him?”

”You know what kind of a person your disciple is,” Mu WanQing replied coldly. ”Had he even learned a tenth of you kungfu, then I wouldn't have been able to kill him.”

”Another good point.” Divine Croc nodded. But his thoughts turned to the fact that his sect had always, by rule and tradition, passed their kungfu down through one disciple and one disciple only. The death of Sun SanBa meant that more than 10 years of hard work in his teaching Sun SanBa had been completely in vain. The more he thought about it, the madder he got until he finally screamed: ”TaMaDe!”

Seeing his complexion suddenly turn into a burnt yellow color and his expression turn animalistic, both Mu WanQing and Duan Yu was scared, and that was before they heard him scream: ”I must avenge my disciple!”

”Second Master Yue, you already said that you wouldn't hurt her.” Duan Yu immediately cut in, bumping him up to a more respectable ”Second Master Yue”. ”Besides, it's probably for the best that your disciple died. He couldn't even learn a tenth of your kungfu, had he lived, he could have lost you a lot of face.”

”Yet another good point. I can't afford to lose any face.” Divine Croc nodded and turned to Mu WanQing. ”Did my disciple see your face?”

”No!” Mu WanQing said, grinding her teeth together.

”Alright, so that my disciple may rest in peace, I'm going to take a look and see whether or not you look like an ugly monster or a beautiful goddess.”

This gave Mu WanQing the scare of her life. She had sworn in front of her master, if Divine Croc removed her veil by force, there was no way she could kill him, but how could she marry him? Almost panicking, she replied: ”You are a famous man in the martial world, how could you stoop so low to do such an evil thing?”

”I'm as evil as evil can get, the more evil the action the better. I only have one rule in my life, and that's never kill anyone who can't fight back. Other than that, everything goes, nothing is off limits. So why don't you just be a good girl, take off the veil yourself, and save me the trouble.” Divine Croc replied with a sneer.

”You really have to see my face?” Mu WanQing asked, her voice was shaking.

Growing impatient, Divine Croc threatened: ”If you keep on stalling, not only am I going to take off your veil, I'm going to rip off all your clothes too. I said I won't snap your neck, but snapping your arms and legs aren't out of the question is it?”

”I can't kill him, so the only way left is suicide.” Mu WanQing decided.

She turned to Duan Yu and shot him a look, telling him to run. Duan Yu shook his head. With a little quiver of his beard, Divine Croc reached out with those chicken-claw like hand of his, trying to grab Mu WanQing's veil.

Mu WanQing flicked her sleeve. ”Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!” Three small arrows shot out with lightning quickness and hit Divine Croc's belly. But with a pop, each of the arrows fell harmlessly down to the ground, it was as if he had on some kind of armor underneath his shirt. With another twitch, Mu WanQing shot out 3 more poisonous arrows, 2 at his chest and 1 headed toward his face. As if they hit a hard rock, the 2 arrows flying towards his chest fell down onto the ground. The third arrow was just about to hit his face when Divine Croc reached up with his middle finger and, with a gentle flick, the arrow disappeared from sight.

Mu WanQing took out her sword and brought it up to her neck. However, because of her severe wounds, she was not able to move fast enough as Divine Croc, with one swift move, took the sword out of her hand and threw it onto the ground. With a cold laugh, he said: ”My rule is only 'Never kill anyone who can't fight back'. You shot 6 arrows at me, so you made the first move. I'm going to take a look at your face and then kill you. You made the first move, so you can't accuse me for breaking my rule.”

”No! You are wrong!” Duan Yu suddenly shouted.

”What!” Divine Croc turned his head towards Duan Yu.

”You call yourself a real man, how could you bully a severely wounded girl?”

”She just shot 6 poisonous arrows at me, didn't you see that? This is a severely wounded girl bullying a real man, not a real man bullying a severely wounded girl.”

”No, you are still wrong.”

”Bullshit! What do you mean still wrong?” Divine Croc shouted in anger.

”Your rule is 7 words, 'Never kill anyone who can't fight back', right?”

”That's right!” Divine Croc's eyes looked as if they were going to pop out.

”Can those 7 words be changed?”

”My rules, so of course they can't be changed!” Divine Croc answered impatiently.

”Not one word?'

”Not even half a word!”

”If it's changed, then what?”

”Then I'm a tortoise son of a turtle!”

”Ok, very good! You haven't hit Miss Mu, yet Miss Mu tried to hit you with arrows, that's not 'fighting you', that's 'striking first'. If you hit her, in her condition, there is no way that she could fight back. That's why she tried to ambush you, because she can't fight back. If you killed her, then you have changed your rule, and if you change your rule, then you are a tortoise son of a turtle.”

Duan Yu had been reading Confucius and Buddhist books ever since he learned how to read, and had analyzed all those ambiguous saying in those books down to the bone. Sayings such as ”Is isn't, but have not to”, and ”White horse is no horse, hard rock is no rock”, he analyzed and thought about them until there was nothing left to think about anymore. That's why at this crucial moment, he was able to just grab a hold of Divine Croc's rule and run with it.

Divine Croc let out a furious howl and grabbed Duan Yu by the shoulders.

”How dare you call me a tortoise son of a turtle?” He shouted as he was about to bring his palm down on Duan Yu's head.

”If you change your rule, only then are you a tortoise son of a turtle!” Duan Yu shouted back in a hurry. ”If you don't change your rules, then you won't be a tortoise son of a turtle! Whether or not you are a tortoise son of a turtle is completely up to you.”

Seeing that even though his life hung by the thinnest of threads, Duan Yu was still shouting ”tortoise son of a turtle” non-stop. Mu WanQing knew that Divine Croc would undoubtedly explode in anger and break his neck. Suddenly overwhelmed with sadness, tears filled her eyes as she turned away, not wanting to watch any further.

But unexpectedly, those few words stopped Divine Croc in his tracks. ”If I break his neck, then wouldn't that be killing someone who couldn't fight back? Doesn't that make me a tortoise son of a turtle?” He thought to himself.

Staring at Duan Yu with that pair of small eyes of his, he gradually tightened his grip. Soon, Duan Yu's bones were creaking, hurting him so much that he almost fainted. ”Come on! Kill me! I can't fight back!” Duan Yu shouted at the top of his lungs.

”I'm not going to fall for that!” Divine Croc replied. ”You really want me to be a tortoise son of a turtle don't you?”