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“They destroyed my eyes!” Mei Chaofeng replied with anger while leaning against a tree. “If you let one of them escape, my ‘Bastard’ husband, you will deal with me!”
“No worries, my ‘Shrew’,” Chen Xuanfeng shouted, “Not one will escape alive. You... Are you hurt? Don't move...”
‘Copper Corpse’ slammed down his hand again at the head of Han Xiaoying. Han used the move ‘A Lazy Dunce makes a Somersault’, and she escaped rolling.
“Do you believe you will be able to escape me?” mocked Chen, raising his left hand.
Zhang Ahsheng, severely wounded and confused, saw that his beloved was in danger of being killed. Mobilizing every last bit of strength, he sent a kick toward the enemy's hand. Chen planted his fingers in Zhang’s leg. Zhang, goaded by the pain, straightened up and wrapped his arms around his aggressor. Chen caught him by the neck, wanting to throw him far away, but the ‘Smiling Dhuda’, fearing still that he would hurt Han Xiaoying, stubbornly refused to release him. ‘Copper Corpse’ gave him a violent blow to the head that stunned him. The butcher fainted, and his grip relaxed.
The intervention of Zhang had given the young woman enough time for her to jump to her feet and take the fight to Chen. She didn't dare approach him closely and was content to whirl around the enemy using her lightness technique.
“Fifth brother,” she shouted, “how do you feel?” She had made two whirls round Chen, when the others arrived and joined in. Zhu Cong and Quan Jinfa immediately threw their invisible projectiles.
‘Copper Corpse’ was surprised to see so many enemies of this strength. “We are in the middle of the deserted steppe,” he thought, “where did these expert fighters come from? My ‘Shrew’,” he shouted, “these skilled people, who are they?”
It’s the members of the ‘Bat Soaring Through the Heaven’s’ group. The leader is the brother of
‘Divine Dragon Soaring through the Sky’.
“Good, a group of bastards we've never met. Never mind, we will kill them anyway!”
Fearful of his wife's injury, he shouted, “And you my ‘Shrew’, are you seriously wounded? Tell me at least that it doesn’t threaten your life?”
“Hurry up and slaughter them”, Mei Chaofeng shouted furiously. “I am not dead yet...”
Seeing his wife leaning on the tree and not coming to lend him assistance, Chen understood then that, in spite of her usual stubbornness, she was seriously injured. Worried, he hoped to eliminate the enemy as soon as possible and take care of her. At this moment, five Freaks were surrounding him; only Ke Zhen’E remained aside ready to intervene at any time.
Chen Xuanfeng threw Guo Jing to the ground and sent a punch in the direction of Quan Jinfa. Quan, worried about the child, ducked to avoid the stroke and used this chance to snatch up Guo Jing. A somersault got them out of the enemy’s range. This movement, named ‘The Mischievous Cat Catches the Mouse’, is used to avoid and save at the same time. It had been executed with agility and precision. Even Chen Xuanfeng was in awe of his move.
120
Eagle Shooting Hero
‘Copper Corpse’ was cruel by nature; the stronger his adversaries were, the more he wanted to make them die with atrocious suffering. Because they had injured his beloved wife he wanted it even more. The ‘Twin Killers of the Dark Winds’ had, for a long time, trained in two dangerous techniques; the ‘Nine Yin White Bone Claws’ and the ‘Heart Breaker’ palm. He had now mastered them to eight or nine tenths of their power. With a terrifying howl, he attacked his enemies without worrying about his own safety, attacking with deadly strokes every time.
The five knew that their lives were at stake at this precise moment and didn't take his attacks lightly.
They mobilized all their strength to defend themselves. But they could not approach the enemy too closely since he was so dangerous.
Han Baoju decided to attack, using the technique ‘Whip at the Even Soil’, rolling on the ground and delivering whip strokes from all sides at Chen Xuanfeng’s legs. Chen, troubled by this unexpected attack, received a stroke on the back from Nan Xiren’s stick that made him utter a scream of pain.
He turned around and stretched his claws towards the ‘Wood Chopper’.
Nan didn’t have the time to retract his stick for defense because he sensed the claws coming at him.
He fell backwards to escape. Then he heard popping sounds coming from the joints of ‘Copper Corpse’, whose arm suddenly stretched out an extra several inches. His hand was against the ‘Wood Chopper’s forehead. In a fight between experts, the murderous strokes were often avoided by one or two inches. Nan Xiren had thought that the extension of his adversary's arm had reached its extreme, yet it had stretched still farther! How would the ‘Wood Chopper’ escape this stroke? He soon felt the tips of Chen’s nails on his forehead...
In panic, he raised his left arm and seized the enemy's wrist with a ‘Catch and Control’ technique, trying to block it. At that moment, Zhu Cong jumped on the back of ‘Copper Corpse’ and jammed his forearm onto the adversary's throat in order to strangle him. By doing that, he fully exposed his own chest, but to save the life of his sworn brother, he didn't worry about breaking the elementary precautionary rules of fighting.
At this moment, when the lives of the fighters were held by a thread, thunder sounded and the clouds covered the moon completely. It was total darkness; a person couldn’t even see the fingers of his own hands and a heavy rain started to fall.
They heard the sound of two crunches and a plunk. Chen Xuanfeng had just broken the left arm of Nan Xiren and, at the same time, had given a stroke from his elbow to Zhu Cong’s chest. Zhu Cong felt a terrible pain that forced him to stop the pressure on his enemy's neck and fall backwards.
‘Copper Corpse’, close to suffocating, stood to one side catching his breath.
“Move back everyone,” Han Baoju shouted in the blackness. “Seventh sister, how do you feel?”
“Silence!” replied Han Xiaoying while moving several steps.
Astonished by the sounds of the movements made by his friends, Ke Zhen’E
asked, “Second brother, what’s happened?”
“The darkness is total,” Quan Jinfa answered, “no one can see anything!”
‘So the Heavens come to help us,” Ke Zhen’E thought, delighted.
Eagle Shooting Hero
121
The Seven Freaks, three of whom were severely injured, were thinking that they had just lost the first part; but now dark clouds had covered the sky and it was raining heavily. Each of them kept their breathing silent and no one dared move. The extremely fine hearing of Ke Zhen’E allowed him to recognize that the breathless man that was standing seven or eight steps away from him, on the left, was not one of his brothers. He immediately threw six poisoned projectiles in that direction.
Chen Xuanfeng sensed the arrival of the invisible projectiles and jumped into air. He was indeed very strong and because of it, he succeeded in avoiding all six while at the same time, determined their source. Without making a sound, he suddenly leapt, all claws extended, toward Ke Zhen’E. Ke heard him, briskly moved to the side, and attacked with a stroke from his staff. For him, there was no difference between day and night. Since Chen Xuanfeng couldn’t see anything, his power was greatly impaired. The two men were now on an equal footing. After about ten exchanges, ‘Copper Corpse’ had the impression that his enemy was attacking from all directions, without knowing for sure if his own strokes were directed in the proper direction. It was like living in a nightmare.
Slowly probing around, Han Baoju, Han Xiaoying and Quan Jinfa were trying to help their injured brothers. The fate of Ke Zhen’E also preoccupied them, but they weren’t able to help him in this darkness. Amid the sound of the rain, they heard the hisses produced by the hands of Chen Xuanfeng and the staff of Ke Zhen’E. The two fighters had hardly exchanged thirty strokes, but, to the other Freaks, it seemed to last for an eternity. Suddenly, they heard two strokes, and ‘Copper Corpse’ started screaming in pain; he had been struck by the staff. The Freaks were delighted just as lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating the summit of the hill.
“Watch out, Older Brother!” Quan Jinfa shouted.
Chen Xuanfeng had benefited from this instant of vision to orient himself. He advanced, concentrating his energy in his left shoulder and suffered, without flinching, the staff’s strokes. He then seized it with his left hand and his right hand grabbed at the blind man's chest. Ke Zhen’E, surprised, released his staff and leaped backwards. ‘Copper Corpse’ wasn’t going to let such a great opportunity pass; the claw that had already torn his adversary's garment, turned suddenly into a fist.
Without a single movement of his body, Chen’s arm stretched and delivered a stroke loaded with internal energy, to the blind man's chest and he was propelled violently backward. At the same time, he threw the blind man’s staff like a javelin. All these gestures were executed with smooth continuity; ‘Copper Corpse’ was very proud of it and issued a long howl of joy, accompanied by thunderous growls.