HEAVEN SWORD DRAGON SABRE Book 2 of 2

The Three Withered Pine Trees Sprouting Green Leaves Part 5

However, no matter how many changes Yang Xiao launched, Du Nan's black rope still parry the two people's attack without showing any slackness. Everybody started to see white mist rising on top of Yin Tianzheng's head. They knew he was using his entire internal energy. The white robe he wore slowly ballooned up, and it was soaked with his perspiration. Each step he took left a deep mark on the ground. In an hour, the area around the three pine trees was full of his footprints.

Suddenly, Yin Tianzheng moved the Sheng Huo Ling tablet in his right hand to his left. With this pair of tablets he pushed Du Nan's black rope down; while with 'pi kong zhang' [splitting air palm] his right hand hack down toward Du Nan. Du Nan raised his left hand up with five fingers forming a claw, like a hollow fist, also hacking toward the incoming palm.

"Ah!" Kong Wen, Kong Zhi, and the other Shaolin monks exclaimed together; their voices were full of amazement and admiration. Turned out the technique Du Nan used was one of the seventy-two special skills of Shaolin, which was called the 'xu mi shan zhang' [overflowing mountain palm; 'xu mi shan' also means 'Sumeru Mountain', which is the central 'world mountain' of the Buddhist universe – courtesy of Ren Wo Xing]. Needless to say, this special skill was very difficult to train. But even if someone did master the technique, each time it was launched, the practitioner must assumed the horse stance, and concentrated his 'qi' for a long time; only then would he be able to gather his internal energy in his 'dantian'. Who would have expected that Du Nan had a perfect control and was able to launch the 'xu mi shan zhang' at will?

'Slap!' as his hand blocked Yin Tianzheng's palm, the black rope in his hand shook and struck toward Yang Xiao. But because the 'xu mi shan zhang' consumed a lot of energy, the power behind the black rope was diminished by more than a half. Du Nan quickly covered up his weakness by rolling, fluttering, and coiling the black rope as if it was a spirit snake randomly quivering in the air. Yang Xiao's pair of Sheng Huoling tablets was also making countless changes. The eyes of most of the spectators were watching the battle between these two people.

Yin Tianzheng focused all his strength on his palms, sending strike after strike toward Du Nan. Sometimes he took two steps forward, another time he took two steps back.

On the other front, Zhang Wuji was engaged in a fierce battle against two formidable opponents. These three people's style looked ordinary and bland, because their true battle was internal. This kind of staking-it-all internal energy match was actually a lot more dangerous than Yin Tianzheng's battle of strength and Yang Xiao's battle of style against Du Nan. As soon as one of the parties' internal energy was overcome by the opponent, if he did not die instantly, then suffering fire-deviation, losing his sanity or being crippled was a common occurrence. However, only the combatants knew their own situations. To the spectators, even though their martial art skill was higher, they would never be able to predict the outcome of the battle by observing the three combatants' outward appearance.

Slowly the sun rose from the east, then it was exactly on top of their heads, before gradually moving to the west. By this time, the battle situation was clear for Kong Wen, Kong Zhi, Fan Yao, Wei Yixiao, and the other masters. They saw the mist coming out from the top of Yin Tianzheng's head was getting thicker; on the other hand, the trunk, the branches and the needle-leaves of the big pine tree in which Du Jie was sitting were shaking constantly. From this fact, they knew the difference in level of power of the two monks, Du E and Du Jie. At this stage of the battle, Du Jie's back was leaning against the tree to borrow its strength in blocking Zhang Wuji's Jiu Yang Shen Gong. If Yin Tianzheng fell, the Ming Cult lost; but if Du Jie gave up first, then the Shaolin Pai was defeated.

The six combatants also understood they had reached the crucial point of the battle. Yin Tianzheng was staking it all in sending out his palm attacks toward Du Nan, but after more than thirty stances, he realized he was not Du Nan's match. "Our priority today is saving Xie Xiongdi," he said in his heart, "My own victory or defeat, glory or disgrace, why should I care? Much less I lost under the hand of Shaolin Pai's senior master's hand, so nobody can say that the Bai Mei Ying Wang's prestige is damaged."