'Wooden fish, wood carved in the shape of a fish, its hollow body, produces sound when knocked upon, ... widely used in the religious songs of Buddhism.' - Wang Mingzhe, 'Sancai Tuhui'.
The man in green too seemed to have heard the sound of the wooden fish. Shen Lian saw a hint of complicated emotions in his eyes.
It was not that Shen Lian tried to read his emotions, but his eyes naturally delivered those complicated emotions.
"You asked me why, and I shall tell you the reason. I'm about to battle to the death with someone, and I didn't want to let what I've spent my entire life learning go to waste. I was going to pass my legacy on to that young lad, but unfortunately, luck was not on his side." The man in green spilled everything in one go, and his tone was fraught with nonchalance.
"The person who was tapping the wooden fish, he's the person you are going to battle with?" Shen Lian asked in confusion.
Wooden fish was mainly used by Buddhists, but it originated from Daoism. That was why Shen Lian could not be sure if the person sounding the wooden fish was a Buddhist or Daoist.
"If you can hear the Soul Calming Melody emaciating from Tai Wei, you indeed are a rare prodigy. A normal person would not be able to hear it." The man in green smiled as he spoke - Shen Lian obviously had exceeded his expectation.
"Ling Chongxiao oh, Ling Chongxiao, it doesn't matter how powerful you are, but could you find another prodigy like Shen Lian?"
After hearing about 'Ling Chongxiao', Shen Lian could not help but be curious. For a man as proud as the man in green to admit that someone was powerful, this was definitely something that did not happen every day.
Who was this Ling Chongxiao person, to be that man whom the man in green could not get his mind off! Could he be the person who inspired hatred out of the man in green?
Even though it was a mere conjecture, Shen Lian knew that there was an eighty percent chance that his suspicion was true.
The clothes that the man in green was wearing started to swell up, as though they were a giant inflated ball, vibrating like the waves. Shen Lian felt the strong wind circling in the cell, which almost knocked him off his feet.
Accompanied by a series of explosive cracklings, the commotion finally subsided after ten minutes.
As this was the deepest part of the prison, no one outside was alerted.
The flame from the oil lamp was dancing to the strong wind. Right before the flame went out, the strong wind stopped blowing. Shen Lian noticed that the iron cuffs on the man in green fell onto the floor, shattered into pieces.
The iron cuffs were made of pure iron, an extremely sturdy material. Yet, the man in green managed to shatter all of them, just like that.
His attainment in martial arts was beyond imagination; that was not something that a normal human could do.
However, the man in green did not shatter the iron hooks on his clavicles, nor did he try to remove them by hands. Two giant iron hooks went under his both of his shoulders, it was an alarming sight, and one could almost feel fear and pain just by looking at it.
The man in green did not seem particularly pleased about his new-found freedom. He was staring ahead icily, sending the frostiness hundreds of feet away.
Shen Lian defended himself out of instinct. There was a white flash, and out of nowhere, a dagger had landed on the man in green's shoulder. The man in green shrugged, and the dagger that was once buried in his blood and flesh was sent flying onto the ground.
"Good lad, in Jianghu, there are not more than three hidden weapons that can hurt me. Your skill with the flying dagger is sufficient for self-defense. I can rest easy knowing that. However, you better pray that I will die in battle today, otherwise, you will have to pay for the injury that you have just inflicted on me." The man in green stopped right in front of Shen Lian and exclaimed in surprise.
He laughed cheerfully after his exclamation; his laughter was roaring and loud, like those of a dragon. With the speed of light, he brought Shen Lian out of the prison after sealing his acupoint.
He had completed his mystical art over the month, and even though he did not become a god or anything along those lines, there were significant changes as compared to the past.
Although in the past, he was considered a powerful martial art expert in Jianghu, he was never a league higher than the likes of Jin Daowang. He only went around Jianghu relying on the impressive power of Deity Vanquishing Sword.
However, his inner Qi had broken through the entry point. Those who entered the path of Daoism could slowly cease their food consumption, and be isolated from the lay life and worldly needs completely.
This explained why he could survive a month without eating and drinking, and the obvious improvement in terms of his attainment in the martial arts.
Ever since he started cultivating his inner Qi, he had unblocked all of his Eight Extraordinary Meridians, with the toughest two points being the Conception Vessel and Governor Vessel.
When the man in green was ambushed by the army, the Green Bamboo Sect, and Jin Daowang, he was too drained and got caught alive. He did not even manage to protect the young beggar.
When he woke up in the prison after the near-death experience, he managed to break through the blanket of ignorance and attained epiphany in his martial arts studies.
He unblocked the Huiyin point by accident; both of the posterior and anterior Huiyin points were joined into one, the inner Qi was delivered from Huiyin point to Changqiang point.
Although the Huiyin point was near to the Changqiang point, one of them was on the Conception Vessel and the other on Governor Vessel; they were practically unrelated.
However, once they were unblocked and joint, inner Qi could circulate smoothly in an endless loop throughout the body.
If it were not for his pierced clavicles on that day he was captured, causing his inner Qi to be a mess, he would have broken through the shackles and killed his way out.
As for the few batches of Jianghu drifters who caught wind of his whereabouts and had come for his Deity Vanquishing Sword, they should have known better. Of course, they were taken care of by his Deity Vanquishing Sword.
These people did not know that the Deity Vanquishing Sword had nothing to do with inner Qi; they did not even know how and why did they meet their deaths.
Even if they have a chance to be reborn into their next life, they would still be born an idiot.
Due to the disturbance by these intruders, combined with the side effect of the Deity Vanquishing Sword – 'for the damage that you deal with your enemy, eighty percent of it will be inflicted back upon yourself'; his spirit had been considerably impaired. If it was not for Ling Chongxiao's effort to soothe his spirit by playing Tai Wei for the past month, he did not know when he would be able to break out of here.
Tai Wei was the name of Ling Chongxiao's temple block. It was an important instrument treasured by his martial sect and had the effect of calming and soothing one's spirit. This compensated the damage inflicted by Deity Vanquishing Sword.
However, the Deity Vanquishing Sword was a means to attack one's spirit, which was against the natural law. Apprentices from his martial sect were prohibited from cultivating that skill, and even if the skill were to be passed down, the recipient apprentice would have to be someone upright and honest.
Every time that the Deity Vanquishing Sword was unleashed, the user will be inflicting damage on his or her spirit. If used frequently, the user would have to spend months, if not years to recover.
Despite the reputation for using the Deity Vanquishing Sword, the man in green actually had only used it for a couple of times.
He knew what Ling Chongxiao was thinking. When Ling Chongxiao had set his mind on killing someone, he would make sure that his opponent was in his best form; it was not him to strike when his opponent was not fully prepared.
Shen Lian was lifted up by the man in green single-handedly; the wind was breezing past his ears, as though he was flying past smoke and clouds.
The man in green did not stop after getting out of the prison; he marched on. Shen Lian saw a shadow moving on the rooftop up ahead.
He could no longer hear the sound of the temple block. It was replaced by a dense and convoluted passage of words, which had an ancient and intricate ring to it.
The entire passage consisted of a mere hundred and eight words, which was nothing challenging for Shen Lian's memorizing capability. However, the moment he committed the passage to memory, he felt lightheaded and overpowered.
It seemed as though a magical sword was flying at him from the bier, and the sword slashed at him. That left him drenched in cold sweat. His forehead was ice cold.
That was when he realized that the man in green had stopped moving.
An ancient temple stood in the rain, and the entire world had fallen into a shade of grey.
He knew where this was. They were at the highest mountain peak, which was located at the south of the state capital. The prison was at least ten kilometers away.
Shen Lian felt the Qi energy coursing through his body, and estimated that roughly fifteen minutes had passed.
He recognized the ancient temple too; it was the famed Qielan Temple, located on the outskirts of Qing State Capital.