Yanjing City (Part 1)

"When would the bright moon appear? Raising my cup, I asked the blue sky..." Creak, creak...

The strange sounds mingled together. Several elderly men with pitch-black hands, seated on horseback, looked helplessly at the fellow who was shouting and yelping while gnawing on a frozen radish. The Dragon Spring Sword, worth a thousand gold pieces, had been stuck into the floorboards of the carriage by him, while the frozen radish, worth no more than a copper coin, was carefully held in his hand and scraped back and forth against the sharp blade, shaving off its skin to reveal the clean white flesh within. Li Feng muttered, "Wonderful. A sword bought for a thousand taels of silver really is sharp for peeling radishes. Eh, when we roast wild chickens and rabbits outdoors later, I'll have something to skin them with."

Little Li sat beside Li Feng, gritting his teeth as he demanded in a low voice, "Li Feng, you... you... you saw this sword and insisted Master buy it, saying you were an outstanding swordsman. Is this how a swordsman treats his own sword? Using a treasured sword to peel radishes—how could you do such a thing? I, Little Li, refuse to believe you're a swordsman." By the end, Little Li was trembling all over with rage. He was Zhao Xi's personal steward. He could spend eighty thousand taels of silver on a Bright Pearl, but he found it utterly not worth it for Zhao Xi to buy Li Feng a thousand-tael sword.

Li Feng grinned and stuffed the radish in his hand into Little Li's hands. "Here, try it. Try this frozen radish. It's crisp, sweet, and refreshing—not the least bit woody. Guaranteed delicious. Sigh, I wonder whether Yanjing City sells such fine radishes. The north probably has plenty of Chinese cabbage, right? But Chinese cabbage doesn't suit my appetite."

The corners of Little Li's eyes twitched furiously. "Ah, you like radishes and were afraid there would be none to gnaw on once we reached the north, is that it? So you simply bought two thousand jin of radishes to bring along? You... you... two thousand jin of radishes! When we get back to Yanjing, people will think our master deals in radishes! Is that any way to behave? Because of those radishes, we had to hire two more carriages, and the journey has been slowed down considerably. Do you understand that?"

Li Feng curled his lips and said nothing. He pulled out the Dragon Spring Sword, its blade still plastered with radish peel and dripping with juice, then flicked his wrist and spun out a sword flower. Amid soft shh, shh, shh, shh sounds, sword light flowed before Li Feng like water, forming a mountain-like curtain of blades. It was the "Layered Peaks" of the Mount Hua Seven Absolutes. Li Feng's wrist movements were clumsy and sluggish, and his sword forms were crude beyond measure. The elderly men beside him shook their heads with bitter smiles. This counted as an outstanding swordsman? Yet the sword actually produced a blade glow over an inch long, startling the old men so badly that they no longer dared look down on Li Feng.

No matter how poor his sword handling was, this lad's skill in channeling his sword was first-rate. Judging by the blade glow alone, some swordsmen might train for twenty years and still fail to reach Li Feng's level.

Little Li was also someone who knew quality when he saw it. After witnessing Li Feng's utterly crude swordsmanship and incomparably profound internal power, he obediently shut his mouth. He calculated inwardly, Ah, this brat must have stolen those sword techniques, right? Such an excellent sword style, and he uses it like this. But his internal power... perhaps it still cannot compare to those old geezers, but compared to me, Little Li, it's at least ten times greater.

Blinking, Little Li felt a surge of delight. Isn't this perfect? I am Master's steward, and he is the expert Master recruited. Whenever something requires blades and spears in the future, I can simply have Li Feng handle it. If Little Li still has to act personally, wouldn't that lower my status? At that thought, Little Li felt utterly refreshed. The look he gave Li Feng was full of gentle, warm adoration, making Li Feng's skin crawl and causing him to involuntarily shift his backside farther away.

Reeking of alcohol, Zhao Xi lifted the carriage curtain and poked his head out while swaying from side to side. "Ah, have we reached Yanjing?"

Little Li wore a bitter smile. "Master, we have only just left Hangzhou Prefecture. How could we possibly have reached Yanjing already? You drank too much last night. Rest properly now."

Li Feng grabbed a wine jar, handed it to Zhao Xi, and said with a grin, "Shopkeeper, take a couple of swigs of sobering wine. Hehe, if you're still suffering from last night's drinking, a few mouthfuls early in the morning can cure the hangover."

Zhao Xi nodded, took the small two-jin jar, tipped back his head, and gulped down two mouthfuls. Shaking his head, he carried the wine jar back into the carriage. Little Li smiled bitterly. "Sigh, Li Feng, let me tell you this: once we return to Yanjing, you and Master cannot drink like this anymore. Be careful that Old Master learns you spend every day drinking and making merry, then has you seized for questioning... Also, seeing as we now serve the same master, I, Little Li, should remind you: forget those phrases you keep saying—'this young master,' 'your father,' 'damn it,' 'your mother's.' Forget them quickly."

Tilting his head, Li Feng casually pulled over a corner of cloth and wiped his treasured sword clean. Amid Little Li's furious curses, he sheathed the sword, released the strip of cloth—Little Li's lapel—and only then asked, "Why? Are those words forbidden?"

Little Li shook his head and snorted. "Use them? Why not? If you were merely a guard in the residence, you could say whatever you pleased in private among the guards. But the people coming and going from Master's residence are all men of status, scholarly honors, and great renown. You cannot speak such coarse street talk before them. And if you say even one wrong word before Old Master, then..." Little Li viciously mimed slitting his throat and stuck out his tongue.

Li Feng swallowed and asked cautiously, "Is your Old Master really that fierce?"

Little Li glanced around and said mysteriously, "That isn't fierceness. That is majesty. Once you see Old Master with your own eyes, you will not ask such a laughable question. Hehe, as for Old Master's father... ah, you will rarely have the chance to meet that venerable gentleman. Hehe... Eh, I, Little Li, was fortunate enough to accompany Master and see him once. Tsk, tsk." Little Li swayed his head as he bragged, yet deliberately refused to say what Old Master's father actually did, wearing the smug expression of someone waiting for Li Feng to beg before revealing the answer.

Li Feng stared eagerly at Little Li for a while, then suddenly jumped down from the carriage. Humming a little tune, he headed for the carriage behind them, muttering, "Ah, I'm starving. I'll go find something to eat. Mm, two thousand jin of radishes, twenty pairs of hams, a hundred pairs of preserved chickens and ducks—enough to eat... Ah, isn't this young master getting the short end of the stick? Eating the things this young master bought all the way to Yanjing means we won't need to stop at inns at all."

Hearing Li Feng's words, Little Li, the five old men with black hands, and the twenty-seven sturdy middle-aged men all went dark in the face. Gnaw their way back to Yanjing on radishes? Did Li Feng take them for rabbits? Little Li in particular felt stifled beyond belief. He had been eagerly waiting for Li Feng to ask him for information, so he could reveal a little about Master and watch Li Feng stand there dumbfounded. Who would have thought Li Feng would simply ignore him? How could he not feel choked up?

The carriage wheels rumbled onward, mixed with Zhao Xi and Li Feng's loud shouting from within. The two of them raised their wine jars again and began drinking wildly. Zhao Xi's folding fan, worth a hundred gold pieces, was gripped in Li Feng's hand like a worthless wooden stick and repeatedly hammered against the carriage window lattice, beating out a pa pa pa pa rhythm. Zhao Xi, meanwhile, threw back his head and sang, "Han Zhong rode a white deer, westward into Mount Hua. A thousand jade maidens followed in the clouds. They saw me impart the secret formula, where utmost sincerity joined with Heaven..."

Amid Zhao Xi's booming song, more than thirty curved sabers shot out from the roadside woods and hacked toward Li Feng's carriage like a swarm of hornets. The curved sabers traced twisting, elusive paths through the air. Under the pale, miserable sun overhead, each saber dragged a tail of light more than a zhang long behind it. Their chill was bone-piercing, as though the entire world had been enveloped by that flickering, icy, bloodthirsty radiance.

The eyes of the five black-handed elders, riding horses barely larger than donkeys, flashed like hawks as they lunged into the woods. The twenty-seven men—some carrying bundles, some pushing wheelbarrows, some mounted with sabers at their waists, some with little monkeys perched on their shoulders—roared as one. They threw aside their belongings, leaped into the air, and struck out with their palms. With a tremendous Whoosh!, the combined palm force of all twenty-seven formed a white wall of qi in the air and collided with the curved sabers.

With sharp shh, shh sounds, those bizarrely shaped curved sabers cleanly sliced through the wall of qi. After tracing a slight arc through the air, they continued hacking toward the carriage carrying Li Feng and Zhao Xi. One of the men cried out, "Netherworld Palace's Blood-Breaking Saber! Damn it, palm force is useless against them!" He drew his saber and chopped downward in midair. With a Clang!, one curved saber was cleaved in two and fell to the ground.

The other men immediately understood. They drew their weapons together and intercepted the curved sabers nearest them, but seven sabers still howled toward the carriage. Little Li screamed, "Ah! Master, watch out!" He wrapped himself tightly around Zhao Xi, pressing him onto the carriage floorboards and shielding Zhao Xi's body with his own.

Li Feng glanced at Little Li and muttered, "Damn it, stealing this young master's business? This young master was planning to curry favor with the shopkeeper like that." Li Feng struck a palm upward, instantly blasting away the carriage walls and roof. His Dragon Spring Sword came out, and he stabbed out seven times seven—forty-nine consecutive strikes. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh! White flashes flickered in succession. It was as though a huge white chrysanthemum had blossomed in Li Feng's hand, his icy Sword Qi shooting more than a zhang away. Its might made the nearby men click their tongues in astonishment.

Unfortunately, Li Feng's swordsmanship was truly awful. He had never used a sword in his life. Though he had secretly learned the Mount Hua Sword Sect's Mount Hua Seven Absolutes Sword Style, even if Li Feng were a genius, he would still need to swing a sword tens of thousands of times before mastering the sword formulas that others had hammered and tempered through endless practice. Thus, Li Feng was seen wildly stabbing his sword at the seven swiftly approaching curved sabers, yet he failed to stop even one of them. The men's hearts skipped a beat as they cried inwardly, We're finished... If something happens to the young master, our whole families will be exterminated.

Li Feng's handsome face twisted. He clenched his teeth, his eyes bulging round as he roared, "Damn it! Your father is a genius! That old bastard Xiao Long... mm, that old ghost said so. A genius—how can I fail to stop these damned things?" A strand of supremely pure Innate True Qi flowed onto Li Feng's sword. Amid a burst of chaotic Crack! Crack! sounds, thunderous noise erupted from his blade, and the sword light he produced abruptly surged another three feet.

In the blink of an eye, Li Feng drew on every ounce of brute strength and hacked out over a hundred strikes using nothing but the single move "Cleave Mount Hua." The crudest saber technique, profound internal power, and a sharp, superior sword—the result was that the seven curved sabers were hacked into countless pieces, becoming scraps of iron that scattered across the ground.

The men stood dumbfounded. They exchanged glances and shook their heads desperately. They prided themselves on being absolutely unable to evade Li Feng's barrage of "Cleave Mount Hua" strikes. This was no longer a matter of techniques. Any one of them could easily disarm Li Feng within three moves, but when it came to internal power, no one present dared claim that he could retreat unscathed beneath Li Feng's frenzied assault. No matter how poor Li Feng's swordsmanship was, his cultivation was there for all to see. His Sword Qi could shoot a full zhang and three feet. That was already the level of a first-rate swordsman in the martial world. Even if he knew nothing but the lowly sword tricks of a street opera troupe, once that Sword Qi emerged, ordinary experts could only clutch their heads and surrender.

Zhao Xi broke free from Little Li's embrace, straightened his clothes, and sprang up to shout, "Excellent swordsmanship! Excellent swordsmanship indeed... Truly, 'It came like thunder gathering its fury; when it ceased, it was like rivers and seas congealing into clear light.' Little Feng, this shopkeeper simply could not make out how your sword produced such powerful radiance. Truly excellent swordsmanship! Even General Murong, acknowledged as the finest swordsman in Yanjing City, may not be your match... Hahaha! I, Zhu... mm, Zhao Xi, have truly found a fine helper. With swordsmanship like yours, what have I to fear even if I travel the whole world?"

Li Feng's skin was thick—extremely thick. He believed that after eighteen years of training in shamelessness, his face might already rival those southern creatures called elephants. Yet upon hearing Zhao Xi's praise, his face still slowly reddened. He knew very well that if his sword move had to be given a name, it could only be called "Wildly Chopping Mount Hua, Firewood-Chopping Swordsmanship." He had simply been driven into a corner and flailed about.

As for the knowledgeable men and Little Li, their expressions were a marvelous sight. They looked at Li Feng's flushed face, then at Zhao Xi dancing with excitement, and wisely chose silence. Little Li wailed inwardly, Li Feng, if you have any sense, hurry up and practice your swordsmanship... Heavens, what kind of eyes does Master have? With his current swordsmanship, he dares compare blades with General Murong? Does he think our residence has not lost enough face? Master, do not forget that General Murong serves the Second Master. If you return to Yanjing and recklessly boast that Li Feng's swordsmanship is invincible, General Murong will probably come to challenge him himself and deliberately humiliate our household.

After being excited for quite a while, Zhao Xi untied the jade pendant hanging from his waist, carved with a coiling dragon around a black pearl, and tossed it to Li Feng with a smile. "This treasure is your reward." Only after saying that did he glance lightly at Little Li and say softly, "Little Li, you truly are loyal. Mm." With that, he gently patted Little Li's shoulder. Little Li's entire body went numb, as though even his bones had become three liang lighter. He hurriedly bowed and scraped, his mouth spilling flattery without end.

The sounds of palm winds colliding—bang, bang—came from the woods. Seven men were thrown out by the five black-handed elders amid savage laughter. Each man bore a pitch-black claw print on his forehead, and their facial features had been smashed into pulp. They were clearly dead. Three other middle-aged men, dressed somewhat more richly, were driven out in disarray by the foul, bloody palm force of two of the five elders, retreating step by step until they reached the middle of the road.

The men Old Zhao had sent formed a tight circle around Zhao Xi's roofless carriage, while Li Feng walked toward the three middle-aged men still resisting desperately. He swung his sword toward the sky, and the fierce Sword Qi cracked through the air. Li Feng cursed loudly, "You three turtle bastards! Did I, Li Feng, rape your mothers or kill your old ladies? Why are you striking so viciously, determined to kill the shopkeeper this young master just found? If you really kill my shopkeeper, what will I eat? What will I drink? How will I rise to office and make a fortune?"

Li Feng clenched the jade pendant in his hand, then stuffed it into his waistband and shouted, "You still dare resist? Do you want to end up dead here like your underlings?... Honestly confess where you came from and why you attacked us. If you speak truthfully, your father will spare your lives."

Zhao Xi's face instantly turned livid. He snarled, "Once Little Feng has forced those bastards to reveal their origins, have Old Zhao attack with everything he has and kill them all. Under the skies of the Great Ming, on the Great Ming's land, someone actually dares assassinate me? Has all law vanished?" A surge of violent fury rose within him, and he had already begun considering how to pull up the weeds by their roots and slaughter every last one of them.

When the three middle-aged men saw the streak of Sword Qi Li Feng had unleashed, their hearts pounded wildly. They had already been pressed nearly breathless by the two elders' sinister palm force, and the poison within that palm wind had invaded their bodies. Even their True Essence showed signs of dissolving. After exchanging looks, one middle-aged man smiled bitterly. "You have already recognized where we came from. What more do you want? You injured our Third Young Master at Chunyi Tower in Suzhou Prefecture, so he gathered us to take revenge. If you are men of honor, you cannot go back on your word."

PS: Let me advertise for a young friend.

Treasure Sword: www.cmfu./showbook.asp?Bl_id=13265

The book is written quite well, with plenty of flavor. It is also very intense.