A Clash of Gods - Chapter 21
Chapter 21 A Tavern
Yang Ning felt churning in his Danzhong acupoint, but the God of Wood gradually got into a state of prostration.
He was superb in kung fu after all, so now he understood something. His pale face wore a shocked expression and his voice was out of tone, “You…you are using…the Skills of Six Directions?” His voice was weak and full of fear.
When Yang Ning fell into the cliff, the God of Wood was really desperate at first, but he was unwilling to leave. Of course, he didn’t care whether Yang Ning was alive or dead, but he didn’t want to lose the Skills of Six Directions which took him massive effort.
The most important thing was that, as Yang Ning had expected, the physical and mental condition of the God of Wood had changed a lot due to his practice of the Skills of Six Directions. Although he had not yet reached the point of getting mad, he was not far from that state.
The God of Wood knew that he could only find the solution in the scroll painting. Although he knew the directions of the meridians of the eleven pictures in the scroll painting, he thought that the scroll painting was never as simple as it looked on the surface and that there might be secrets hidden in it. If he wanted to return to normal, he should find the answer in the scroll painting.
He searched around the cliff day and night without sleep and rest. Although he encountered Yang Ning finally, he was exhausted at this time, and he was even a little muddled in his mind. When his internal power was constantly infused into Yang Ning, the God of Wood didn’t feel strange about it, and wanted to initiate a stronger internal power to kill Yang Ning.
This turned out to be counterproductive.
If the God of Wood had gave up in time before Yang Ning’s meridian became unimpeded, he could have easily prevented Yang Ning from drawing his internal power.
The God of Wood knew that the Skills of Six Directions was truly inspirational, but in fact, like Yang Ning, he did not know the profound mystery of it either.
If he had not coveted Yang Ning’s steps of Easy Travel and had slapped on the side of his head, Yang Ning definitely would have died.
Now he was in a dilemma, and it was caused by himself.
His hand had just happened to rest on Yang Ning’s shoulder which was one of the eleven positions in the Skills of Six Directions.
If he had just put it on his shoulder, it would have been fine. But he had tortured Yang Ning with his internal power to ask for the Easy Travel. Without this internal power, Yang Ning could not have used it to get through his meridian, and the internal power of the God of Wood would not have flowed like a river that broke its bank.
Now he understood that it was due to the Skills of Six Directions, but it was too late.
His left hand was stuck on Yang Ning’s shoulder and could not be pulled away. The God of Wood wanted to raise his right hand to kill Yang Ning at the moment, but he felt that he didn’t have any strength in his whole body, so he could not hold up his right hand at all.
His internal power had been absorbed by Yang Ning along his left hand. He wanted to transfer the remaining internal power in his body to his right hand, but just failed to do it.
Yang Ning certainly did not know the feeling of the God of Wood at this moment. He led the internal power to his Danzhong acupoint just for easing the expansion of the meridian. He only knew that the God of Wood was going to kill him with internal power, but he did not know that he had sucked up the internal power of the God of Wood, so he thought the pain of being burnt in the fire in his Danzhong acupoint was also caused by the God of Wood.
He was dizzy, thinking that he would be killed by the God of Wood. His legs were like jelly, and then he dropped on the ground. The God of Wood also fell to the ground with him.
Yang Ning leaned against the big tree on the side, and felt much better by doing this. The God of Wood’s hand was still stuck on his shoulder, so Yang Ning thought there was no chance to survive. He was in a daze, feeling an unbearable sense of suppression in his chest, and then fainted.
Not knowing how long it had been, Yang Ning finally woke up. It was quite silent all around. The pale moonlight streamed down. Yang Ning thought he was dead, but when he looked around, he found that he was still in the forest. He turned his head around, casting a glance at his side, and then the look on his face suddenly changed.
Behind him, the God of Wood was lying there on his back, but the God of Wood at this time was no longer the one he had known before.
His arm looked like a dead and withered tree branch. His skin had been shriveled before, but it was different now. His arm now was skinny without flesh and blood.
His face was even more terrifying.
His head looked like a skull just covered by the skin. The edges of the skull were clear, and his eyes were deeply sunken which looked like two dark black holes. The whole body of the God of Wood was just like a corpse no matter seen from which angle. If it hadn’t been for that shabby gray robe, Yang Ning wouldn’t have recognized him.
Naturally, his look indicated that he was dead. He was definitely dead.
Yang Ning gulped, trying to calm down. He recalled what had happened, faintly feeling that the reason why the God of Wood had become a corpse had a lot to do with him.
He was smart. Under the great danger, he didn’t think too much. At present, he cooled down and remembered that the God of Wood had shouted “the Skills of Six Directions” before he fell into a faint. So he thought to himself that the death of the God of Wood might be contributed to the Skills of Six Directions.
He remembered that in order to alleviate the pain, he guided that internal power to his Danzhong acupoint. Maybe the God of Wood died for this reason.
Of course, the God of Wood’s kung fu was outstanding and Yang Ning thought that he would die unquestionably. But now, seeing that the God of Wood had turned into a corpse lying on the ground and finding that he was the one who finally survived, he felt like that he was dreaming. The outcome was really out of his expectation.
Thinking of the feeling of being burnt in his Danzhong acupoint before, Yang Ning reached out his hand and touched the acupoint. He didn’t feel any discomfort now, so he was slightly relieved.
The truth that the God of Wood had died was cast in stone. However, Yang Ning was not excited at all. Instead, he felt anxious.
The God of Wood had hurt his strange veins before and he had gotten an attack of it since then. According to the old ghost, if his strange veins could not be treated in time, he would gradually shrivel up until he died.
Now the old ghost was dead, but he did not know how to recover from his wound.
However, he hadn’t been attacked by the wound in the past few days, so Yang Ning doubted that whether the former attack was just a coincidence due to his fatigue, or his wound was not as serious as the God of Wood had said.
The biggest threat had been eliminated, so Yang Ning felt a little relaxed more or less. He had been held up in this mountain for several days, so the escort team should have taken Xiaodie away already.
But Yang Ning would not give up until last second. After all, it was a matter of the fate of a life. As long as there was a ray of hope, Yang Ning would hold on to the last.
Although he was delayed for a while, Xiaodie had left the Huize County seat for less than ten days. According to their routine, they should still be on the halfway. If he walked on foot, there would be no hope to catch up certainly. But if he could find a swift horse, he might still have a chance.
The first thing to do now was to cross the mountain.
Yang Ning knew how to survive in the wild, and he easily made a simple compass to identify the direction. When he was about to head south, he suddenly thought of something. He got back to the corpse of the God of Wood, stretching out his hand to search his garment.
The old guy didn’t bring many things with him. Except for a money bag containing some pieces of silver, there was only an oval bronze medal with exquisite workmanship.
The bronze medal was engraved with the words “Jiutian Tower” on the obverse side. While on the reverse side, it was engraved with a big word “Wood” and there were two words “Imperial Order” in the corner.
Yang Ning remembered that the old ghost had mentioned Jiutian Tower, which was claimed to be under the control of the Emperor of the Northern Han State and full of master-hands.
Now it seemed that the God of Wood did not deceive himself about this matter. This bronze medal proved that this guy indeed was very likely to be the God of Wood in the Jiutian Tower. And the words “Imperial Order” indicated that he really might be related to the imperial court.
However, Yang Ning had no interest in this strange Jiutian Tower, and he even felt that the medal could be a scourge if he took it. So he threw it aside and only took the money bag to leave.
He kept heading south all the way, and at noon of the third day, he finally walked out of the Niutou Mountain. When he just arrived at the foot of the mountain, the wind and cloud changed suddenly, and black clouds gathered overhead. In a minute, it began to rain.
Yang Ning swore inwardly because there was a vast and desolate wilderness in front of him. He was reluctant to get back to the mountain just for shelter, so he could only walk ahead despite of the rain. This rain never stopped even when it was at dusk. After walking for half a day in the drizzle, he was wet all over like a drowned rat.
It was getting darker with a steady fall of drizzling rain. After walking along the side of the official road for a while, he suddenly saw a house in the drizzle ahead. Thinking that he could take shelter in that house, he quickened his paces.
Having approached the house, he found that four or five carriages were parked in front of the house. The carriages seemed to be loaded with goods, and were covered with waterproof cloth. There were also seven or eight horses tied to the hitching post beside the house.
There were small flags planted in the corners of the carriages, but in the drizzle, the flags were wet and drooping, so he couldn’t see clearly what had been written on them.
Yang Ning became nervous suddenly.
He approached one of the carriages and turned his head to look at the house, finding that it was a tavern beside the road. It was much larger than the humble tea shed he saw last time. Many people and carriages came and went on this official road, so there should be plenty of such shops alongside the road.
“Hey, little beggar, get away!” Yang Ning was about to straighten the flag on the carriage to see what was written on it when he heard a coarse voice. “Are you qualified to touch that? If you touched the escort flag, I would cut off your hand. Do you want to have a try?”
Yang Ning shook slightly. He was suspicious at the beginning, but after hearing what the man had said, he now confirmed that this was indeed an escort team.
He felt a little excited, but his spirits were damped instantly.
It was indeed an escort team, but there were many escort teams on this official road. The escort team that took Xiadodie away should be at least three or four days’ journey away from here. He was afraid that this team had nothing to do with the escort team which brought Xiaodie away.
And this escort team didn’t seem to have a backer.
He turned over his head and saw a big and burly man standing in front of the door of the tavern. The man carried a club made of refined copper in his hand, and looked at him coldly.
Yang Ning smiled deliberately, approaching him. When he went under the eaves of the tavern, he asked the man, “Uncle, are you an escort team?”
The burly man looked at Yang Ning with alertness and made a sneer. He didn’t say anything, turning around and entering the tavern. Yang Ning asked for a snub, and then followed the man into the tavern.
Once he entered the tavern, Yang Ning sensed that something was wrong. He felt that several people cast their eyes on him. Yang Ning bowed down deliberately and swept his eyes over the house with a smile, seeing that the five or six tables in the house were full of people, like a dark cloud. And the men at the two tables near the door all stared at him.
It was dark and the lamps in this house were yet to be lit, so he couldn’t see what was going on inside for a while.