The Tale Never Ends

Chapter 95 Blood Spilled Red
The Tenth Apostle seemed awfully sure that his Twelfth counterpart would emerge victorious. They knew enough about us to know that Yuan Chongxi is the weakest in both combat and magic of us three, hence they intend to first defeat him to gain the momentum.

I looked back into the ring. The Twelfth Apostle was clad in a buttoned traditional Chinese garb and bell-bottom styled pants with Chinese slip-ons. He was even wearing a pair of wristbands that fully completed the set! He wielded a rope which has a steel dart attached to one of its end, a weapon commonly known as a rope-dart. Most rope-darts these days, including those used during wushu performances, were required by law to have no sharp tips. Sharp-tipped rope darts that could be dangerous were viewed as controlled items that require the permission of the police to be used. It was clear that the Twelfth Apostle was using his illegally; he wanted only to kill his opponent! Unlike Lin Feng’s darts which were throwing weapons, rope-darts were weapons used openly in a fight.

But Yuan Chongxi merely approached his opponent slowly, hardly unfazed or terrified by his opponent’s deadly weapon. Moreover, he planned to fight without one!

The Twelfth Apostle began waving his rope-dart like a lasso, filled with confidence and malice! It was common knowledge within the circles of martial arts practitioners that rope-darts were one of the hardest weapons to master. Practitioners with sub-par competency in using the rope-dart could only use it for performances; only those who truly skilled enough to wield one would use it in an actual battle!

But instead, Yuan Chongxi was overjoyed to watch his opponent displaying his skills. “Neat skills!” He teased loudly, clapping his hands. But the Twelfth, incensed by Chongxi’s taunting, did not allow him to finish. He let loose the rope-dart, sending it at Yuan Chongxi with the speed of a bullet. The rope-dart snapped at Yuan Chongxi’s heels and coiled around his ankles so quickly like a snake. With a powerful tug, Yuan Chongxi tumbled to the ground, looking very dastardly embarrassing. The Twelfth Apostle shook his weapon free, making the rope shake like waves on water and pulled again. The rope-dart dislodged from Yuan Chongxi’s ankles and returned to him. “Superb!” His fellow Apostles cheered loudly!

The Twelfth Apostle returned to waving his rope-dart smugly, extremely please with toying his opponent. He kicked forward and flailed his rope-dart at the same time, his foot kicking the rope-dart, sending it charging dangerously towards Yuan Chongxi. Lin Feng and I yelled in alarm; the dart was aiming straight for his heart! But suddenly, with another spurt of speed, the dart zipped even faster towards its mark! Lin Feng and I could only swallow hard; our voices trapped in our throats. Even the Tenth and Eleventh Apostles were surprised! They did not expect their fellow Apostle to have such a hidden ace that would even surprise the greatest of experts in combat skills and were proud of him!

The dart struck at Yuan Chongxi’s chest with a deafening clang! But everyone, including Lin Feng and I, was surprised by what happened next! Instead of piercing into his flesh, the dart turned abruptly in mid-air when it was close to Yuan Chongxi’s chest and stuck on his chest perpendicularly! How is this possible! Is this a trick that he had long kept secret from us?

But I was the first among everyone there to realize the truth: the spot where the dart had remained hanging on Yuan Chongxi’s chest, was where he was wearing the peachwood luopan that his teacher had passed on to him! I even remembered him caressing the luopan while mumbling softly, “May the blessing of our Founder be with us always!” when we were leaving the Center just now! The luopan has a very strong magnet seated in its center and it has a strong pull towards metal objects.

The three Apostles were utterly flabbergasted, failing to comprehend what had happened. Yuan Chongxi’s hand moved slowly towards his chest. This made the Twelfth Apostle thought that he was reaching for the dart of his rope-dart. Out of anxiety, he pulled hard at his rope, trying to withdraw his weapon. But this action instead pulled Yuan Chongxi up from his sitting position on the ground up to his feet! Such was the strength of the luopan’s magnet! But in the confusion, the dart fell free from the magnetic force of the luopan, although the Apostle himself staggered forward. Yuan Chongxi’s hand grasped the luopan hidden in his clothing and he turned it 180 degrees! This changed the magnetic force from pulling to pushing! The dart was propelling in the air back towards the Apostle when the sudden change in the magnetic field added a burst to the dart’s movement! Stumbling to the front, the Twelfth Apostle could not evade the dart that now shot back at him like a bullet! Without any protection on his chest like Yuan Chongxi’s luopan, the dart gnashed into his chest and punctured his heart!

Realizing his plan had worked, Yuan Chongxi extracted his luopan from his pocket and held it before his chest while pushing forward! Despite his relatively modest girth, he was as stout as a young ferocious bull! He pushed as hard as he could, using the magnetic force of his luopan to drive the dart deeper into the wound on the chest of the Twelfth Apostle! Like a battering ram, the dart plunged deep into the Apostle’s heart until he breathed his last and fell backward, dead for good.

Yuan Chongxi patted off the dust from his behind and stretched himself, mumbling incomprehensibly. I could vaguely hear him saying, “So you think you’re better than me, eh? Take that!” He marched towards us proudly, swinging his arms triumphantly! But when he came to the wall of the pool, he clambered out clumsily before he grinned and said, “I had divined my fate before coming! The signs are good! The Founder has indeed showered his blessings upon me!” I said nothing, so did Lin Feng too as we peered at each other strangely.

The Eleventh Apostle howled loudly with anguish for his deceased fellow Apostle, “Brother!” Burning with vengeful rage, he drew his purplish-gold saber and lunged for Yuan Chongxi. Lin Feng parried the blow with his quarterstaff and retorted angrily, “Hey, hey! You called for a duel to the death! Are you reneging on your own word?!” “You lot caused the death of another one of us! You must pay for this! WAHHHH!” He hissed through gritted teeth before he screamed loudly again! “Come if you will! I am waiting for you! Enough with the screaming!” Lin Feng barked.

In his hands, the Eleventh Apostle was holding a menacing saber, its blade gleaming purplish-gold with the back of the blade patterned in a fish scale motif. Role-playing games these days feature a vast array of humungous sabers and weapons that looked tough, sleek, and intimidating without any logical practicality due to their sizes. Actual sabers used in true battles mostly have long hilts intended for two-handed use while some have shorter hilts. The saber that the Eleventh Apostle was using was the latter kind with a shorter grip for one-handed use, similar to normal swords. In the long bygone antiquities, swords were first used to hack and slash during battle, this rendered the dual edges first designed on swords to be obsolete. Hence to increase the force of a combatant’s swing, swords only have one sharpened edge with its back thickened to increase the weight of the weapon. Hence the Eleventh Apostle’s weapon similar fashion on his saber: a fish-scale motif on the back of the blade to increase weight for the purpose of enhancing his force. The purplish-gold glint on his sword was purely aesthetical without any utility function, but its hilt was long enough for the weapon to be wielded with two hands.

Unlike most quarterstaves seen in movies which were normally hollow to cut down weight, Lin Feng’s iron quarterstaff was the real deal: it was a solid iron rod fashioned from the shaft of a deep-water pump for wells as thick as 32 centimeters. There were a few rings machined to both ends of the quarterstaff for decorative purposes so that it resembled the pole-arm used by the Monkey King. It was a formidable weapon, for its intact core made it a weapon so heavy that most people would have even had trouble waving it around.

Lin Feng kept his eyes fixed upon his opponent. He twirled his quarterstaff with a single hand and held it in a horizontal fashion before his chest. Most wushu practitioners loved holding their staff with one end pointing in a threatening fashion at opponents. But Lin Feng was holding his pole-arm in such a weird way that both his hands were gripping on his staff like how he would if he were holding on to a steel railing.

The Eleventh Apostle was equally puzzled and confused by Lin Feng’s peculiar stance. But he decided to attack nonetheless, swinging his saber down at his opponent! Lin Feng steadied himself and lifted his arms, using one end of his quarterstaff to block the incoming blow. But before the Apostle’s saber hit his weapon, both of Lin Feng’s hands immediately slid to the center of his pole simultaneously! With a loud clang, the saber met one end of Lin Feng’s staff, causing it to sink down due to the saber’s powerful blow. But no one expected what was going to happen: Lin Feng’s hands functioned like a pivot when one end of his staff lowered due when it clashed with the saber, causing the other end to arc upwards and hit the Apostle’s hand! With a painful cry, the Apostle’s saber fell from his grasp! But that was hardly everything! The entire length of Lin Feng’s quarterstaff swiped at the Eleventh Apostle’s cheek, forcing a mouthful of blood out of him! Some of his teeth must have been broken!

Despite being able to wound his opponent in their first exchange, Lin Feng did not stop; he swung his quarterstaff and slammed his weapon into the ears of the Eleventh Apostle. What followed was another flurry of merciless strikes on his opponent, and the Eleventh Apostle tumbled to the ground beside the Twelfth Apostle’s corpse, bloodied and dead! It was a duel that lasted barely seconds with Lin Feng killing his opponent without any difficulty! Lin Feng had used one of the signature combinations of moves created by Uncle Quan’s teacher in his later years, a contrivance devised from his long years of experience fighting against countless opponents. Lin Feng had trained in using these moves to perfection that unleashing this combination of techniques became as natural as his reflexes!