Yu Sifeng, who was struggling to hold on, suddenly felt a warm wind behind him, which entangled with the foul wind that was blowing towards him, curling his long hair high.
He turned his head anxiously, but saw Xuanji had closed her eyes and was chanting, making seals with both hands, behind her there were a dozen fire dragons ready to go, with their teeth and claws bared, looked ferocious. He was stunned, thinking that she had learned a lot in the past four years, so he said, “Solve the eastern side first.”
Her right hand turned slightly, and the fire dragons behind her roared out of their nest, and almost instantly, all the Qu Ru gathered on the east side were burnt to ashes.
“North.” He said.
The great fire dragon turned around, roared back and opened its great mouth and swallowed the fleeing Qu Ru in one gulp, leaving no scraps left.
“The west side is yours, too,” he laughed, and threw away his sword, and drew out of his sleeve a few talismans.
The fire dragons swallowed all the Qu Ru to the east, north, and west, but they seemed to be inadequate, and they roared and fled in all directions, chasing the Qu Ru that had fallen. Suddenly, countless ice arrows fell from the sky, each one as thick as a bull’s hair and as long as an index finger, and they shot down all the Qu Ru who had fled to the south.
The south side was his.
The remaining Qu Ru never dared to pounce on them again, but flapped their wings and sank down, gathering together and fleeing to the north. Yu Sifeng withdrew his attack and said, “Go after them! Someone is really controlling them!”
Xuanji was still a bit out of tune and looked around, as if she couldn’t believe that her fire dragon was so powerful that it had burnt those strange birds to ashes in one fell swoop.
Yu Sifeng yelled, but no one agreed. When he looked back, he saw that Ling Long and the others were still fighting each other, while Zhong Minyan and Ruo Yu were busy trying to persuade and pull each other out.
He sighs in his heart, picks up the iron marbles in his sleeve and flicks it hard, breaking the two girls’ entangled sword. Ling Long only felt a strong force hit the sword and a sharp pain in her tiger’s mouth, so she looked up at Yu Sifeng and shouted, “What are you doing? You want to help this bad woman?”
Yu Sifeng said indifferently, “Now is not the time to fight, when this matter is resolved, will let you make trouble.”
Lu Yanran regretted a long time ago that she had provoked Ling Long, and she was sweating just now. Hearing what Yu Sifeng said, she nodded and said aggrieved, “Yes, I have always said that the overall situation is important, but this girl Ling Long…”
“You’re talking!” Ling Long is about to go up again, but Zhong Min Yan holds her back from moving.
“Stop it! Ling Long! Do you remember what you promised Master and Madam when you came down?”
When Ling Long was shouted at by him, she remembered that her father and mother had talked to her before she went down the mountain, and they told her that she was impulsive and had to restrain her temper. She promised to do so seriously, but in the end, she forgot everything.
As soon as she put away her sword, she felt a little remorse, but she was not convinced and said, “Forget it, I won’t argue with you! So this is the kind of people who live in Fu Yu Island, I’ve seen them all today!”
Lu Yanran’s eyebrows were raised and she was about to make a fuss again, but when she thought about the Shaoyang Sect Swordsmanship. She had fought her for a long time and was really good at sword fighting, so remained dull and silent. She flew on her sword towards Yu Sifeng, and saw Xuanji standing on the sword with him, smiled and said, “Why, Xuanji even lost her sword?”
As Xuanji was about to speak, Yu Sifeng said, “There’s no need to talk nonsense anymore. Right now, Qu Ru is fleeing in a different direction, so there must be someone controlling them from behind. If you guys are done, let’s go after them together.”
Lu Yanran pouted, hurt by his indifferent attitude, and turned around to complain to the gentle Ruo Yu.
Xuanji held onto Yu Sifeng’s shoulder and steadily flew forward. Suddenly, she thought of something and asked, “Sifeng, where is Little Yinhua?”
But he didn’t say anything, he only waved his right hand lightly, and Xuanji saw that on her arm there was suddenly a cloud of soft, silvery things that refracted from light. Its silver-white body was softly curled up into a ball, and its inverted triangular head was erected, and looked at Xuanji lazily, letting out a hiss as a greeting.
In the past four years, it has grown a bit. It used to be only the thickness of a little finger, but now is about half the wrist of an adult. The silvery scales on its body were so densely packed that it was very beautiful, and the lump on the arm was quite heavy.
Xuanji raised her hand to touch it, but it dodged it nimbly and on the one hand tilted its head up, hissed at her in confusion.
“It doesn’t recognize me anymore,” Xuanji said softly.
“It did. It’s just that… it’s just that it’s timid.” Yu Sifeng smiled slightly.
She didn’t hear the joke in his tone, but stared at Xiao Yinhua in a daze. It was wrapped on her arm for a while, probably feeling comfortable, then curled up again. It was so cold that it rested its head on her hand.
“Look at it!” She raised her hand in front of him, “You were right, she did recognize me!”
Who would forget a person like you? Yu Sifeng thought silently, taking Xiao Yinhua back into his sleeve. I felt her hands on my shoulders, soft and gentle, and I felt both joy and bitterness in my heart, unable to speak.
But the story goes that the crowd had been chasing after the remnants of Qu Ru for more than half an hour, following them around and over half of the Haiwan Mountain, and hadn’t even reached the end. Finally, Zhong Min Yan found them flying back to where they’d come from.
“What kind of people are manipulating behind? It’s so cunning!” He cursed hatefully.
Yu Sifeng suddenly lowered his sword to the ground, and the others hurriedly followed, and Ruo Yu said, “What? No more chasing?”
He shook his head, “We won’t be able to catch up until dawn. Ruo Yu, did you bring the Judge’s Brush?”
Ruo Yu was taken aback for a while, then he knew it instantly, and smiled. “Which way do you want to use?”
He did not say a word, but undid his belt and took off his blood-stained coat, and Ruo Yu handed him the gourd pinned to his waist. He pulled the plug off and poured it over the wound on his arm. The water that came out of it had a pungent smell of wine, and when it poured over the wound, he shivered with pain.
Ling Long saw them acting strangely, one washing the blood off his body with wine, the other using a judge’s brush to walk in circles on the ground, drawing the figure of the eight trigrams of the heavens[1].
Ruo Yu gently put his finger to his lips in a gesture of silence, “Don’t speak, just watch.”
Yu Sifeng poured out all the liquor from a gourd, threw the gourd back to Ruo Yu, and held his sword in his right hand, facing south. With a brushing sound, his sword went sideways and stepped on the vibrating position.
The crowd is amazed by his strange figure, which seems to be a dance, moving in and out of the Bagua palace in an unconventional manner, sometimes twirling, sometimes swinging his sword, yet his actions are so elegant that they are dumbfounded.
Qian Palace Opens Heavenly Gate[2]
Dui Trigram to Rule the Soldiers
Xun Wind Blows the Three Music
Zhen Moves the Five Thunderbolts
Gen Mountain Blocks the Path of Ghosts
Kun Earth Retains the Gate of People
Kan Water Surging the Waves
Li Palace Sets Up the Fire Wheel
Yu Sifeng spun around in the eight trigrams, trembling three times with one step, his clothes resounding in the air as if he were a dragon. Suddenly, he screamed and said, “Xingtan disciples enter the palace!” In a flash of light, his figure flashed from Kun to Gen[1], and when he looked again, he was already standing in the middle of the eight trigrams.
Stepping on Kyushu, stepping on Kyushu.
Tread on the Yellow River until it flowed backwards![3]
The white shirt behind him was already soaked through, and he suddenly dropped to his knees.
Xuanji and Zhong Minyan rushed forward to support him, but he waved his hand for a long while before saying, “I see the controller hiding behind.”
Everyone was surprised and he pointed to the south, “Over there. In the cave halfway up the hill in front of the sea bowl.”
When he finished speaking, he was too weak to continue, so he lay down on the ground, gasping for breath.
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[1]: Bagua / Eight Trigrams: The Bagua, Pakua or Palgwae are eight symbols used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each line either “broken” or “unbroken”, respectively representing yin or yang, 0 or 1 forming binary numbers 000-111 (0 to 7). Due to their tripartite structure, they are often referred to as Eight Trigrams in English.
[2]: The Author has written this so that the first word at the start of each verse corresponds to one of the eight trigrams. And in each verse the Trigram is connected to/refers to it’s image in nature, (i.e, 乾 /qián to Heaven, 巽/xùn to Wind, 震/zhèn to Thunder, 艮/gèn to Mountain, 坤/kūn to Earth, 坎/kǎn to Water, 離/ lí to Fire) except for the second verse (兌/duì to lake, marsh) which does not make the connection.
The second verse does however connect 兌/duì to its Stage [or State] of Tranquility [Complete Devotion] by referring to it uniting the troops/soldiers. Similarly, in the sixth verse 坎/ kǎn (with ‘Water’ as it’s image in nature) also connects to its Stage/State of ‘in-motion’ , as it causes the waves to ‘surge’.
In the fourth verse 震/zhèn is connected to its Attribute of ‘inciting movement’, as it ‘moves the five thunderbolts’. 艮/gèn in the fifth verse might be referring to its Attribute [resting/stand-still] since it is ‘blocking the path’.
- 乾宮開天門 / Qian gōng kāi tiānmén / Open the Heavenly Gate in the Dry (Qian) Palace
- 兌卦統雄兵 / Duì guà tǒng xióngbīng / The Exchange (Dui) Trigram unites the majestic troops
- 巽風吹三樂 / Xùn fēngchuī sān lè / The Sundown (Xun) Wind Blows the Three Music
- 震動五雷兵 / Zhèn dòng wǔ léi bīng / Zhen moves the Five Thunderbolts
- 艮寅塞鬼路 / Gěn yín sāi guǐ lù / Gen blocking the path of ghosts
- 坤地留人門 / Kūn de liú rén mén / The Kun Earth keeps the door of people
- 坎水涌波濤 / Kǎn shuǐ yǒng bōtāo / Kan water surges the waves
- 離宮架火輪 / Lí gōng jià huǒ lún / Li Palace sets up the Fire Wheel
[3]: 踏九州，踩九州。/ Tà jiǔzhōu, cǎi jiǔzhōu.
踏到黃河水倒流！/ Tà dào huánghé shuǐ dàoliú!
Lazy Cat Translations 
Sifeng and Xuanji are so cute.
Thanks for translating
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