Black Pearl Chapter 30

"You challenge me? Fine, who fears your ganging up on me? Come on, I want to see what kind of skill the Cap-ji-liong possess."

Kwi Lan, who knew no fear, naturally could not refuse this challenge, which was phrased with the words "if she dared."

She was a teenage girl who had just entered the bustling world, completely inexperienced, relying only on her extraordinary skill and courage. If she had been experienced, she would certainly have been suspicious as to why the Cap-ji-liong challenged her while choosing this specific location.

"Excellent,"

Ma Kiu exclaimed.

"Let us go to the lian-bu-thia (martial arts room). Let the esteemed guests be witnesses that you accept the Cap-ji-liong's challenge to fight in the lian-bu-thia."

Puffing out her chest, not the least bit intimidated, Kwi Lan walked, following Ma Kiu to the back room where there was a spacious, circular martial arts hall. Eleven of Ma Kiu's martial brothers walked behind her, followed by the throngs of guests who wished to witness the match, flooding the martial arts hall as well.

Now they faced each other. Kwi Lan observed them. Ma Kiu, who was the leader, stood in the center, while the other eleven stood to his left and right. They looked imposing and cool, and judging by their movements, it could indeed be imagined that the Cap-ji-liong generally possessed high skill. Their ages and clothing also varied. Some were old, some were still very young. Some were dressed like a tosu, some were bald like a hwesio, and some were dressed like scholars. Strangely, they now wore a cord tied around their heads, a cord fitted with a yellow gemstone placed above their foreheads. Ma Kiu also wore such a cord now. She did not know that this was the distinctive mark of the Thian-liong-pang figures, and the yellow stone was named the dragon pearl (mustika naga).

"Come forward,"

Kwi Lan challenged, her attitude nonchalant. A sound of "set-set-set" was heard, regular, as the feet of the twelve men began to shift quickly, arranging a surrounding formation. They did not step, nor lift their feet, but rather slid, causing their shoes to make a sound on the floor.

The atmosphere became silent and tense. All the guests looked towards Kwi Lan, who was the center of attention because this young lady was now trapped in the middle. The twelve men continued to move, shifting their feet so that their bodies circled Kwi Lan. The sound of their sliding feet now followed one after another like the hiss of a snake. Kwi Lan still stood motionless, only her pupils moving, glancing and following their movements in front. Her ears carefully monitored the movements behind her; every nerve in her body was taut, ready, yet her face remained calm with a mocking smile.

Suddenly, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived. With a sharp shout, a young, tall, thin Cap-ji-liong member with a rat-like face lunged at Kwi Lan from behind. Apparently, this young man was attracted by Kwi Lan's facial beauty and the grace of her figure, so his attack was not a strike, but an embrace towards her waist with both arms. However, this movement generated a fierce wind and should not be taken lightly. In the next second, another member, a tosu, extended a hand from the left to grip her shoulder, followed by attacks from his brothers from the front, right, and then the twelve men moved simultaneously, following one another in excellent order.

Their organized movement was more like a formation movement, and simultaneously they had closed all escape routes for Kwi Lan. It seemed Ma Kiu and his junior brothers did not want to waste time, and once they made their move, they were not playing around anymore. Kwi Lan's sharp hearing substituted for her eyes. She knew the first attacker came from behind. She easily swayed her body to evade, then suddenly her right foot kicked towards the hand of the tosu gripping her left shoulder, followed by a leap upward, and seeing how her assailants were taking turns attacking, her body, which had leaped into the air, suddenly performed a rapid spinning motion. This girl's movement was incredibly powerful, fast, and strange.

Because of this spinning movement in the air, it was difficult to follow the movements of her hands and feet, yet suddenly she had parried all the opponents' attacks with her hands or feet, and even managed to distribute blows and kicks that struck four of her opponents. They groaned and cried out in surprise, not expecting that besides being able to move so quickly, the impact of the girl's hands or feet was extremely heavy upon their shoulders and chests. For a moment, the formation was chaotic, but Ma Kiu shouted loudly, and the formation quickly reformed just as the girl lowered her body and stood in the center of the enclosure. She smiled because in this first exchange, she had successfully demonstrated her prowess.

Now the guests became very noisy. They were amazed and greatly shocked. When the twelve men attacked repeatedly earlier, and every attack was a fierce blow and grip, they secretly suspected that this girl was courting death. But who would have thought that the girl could move as fast as lightning, and it was almost unbelievable how she could not only parry all the attacks but also strike and kick four of her assailants, even if it was done quickly and hastily so the hits were not perfectly accurate. This first movement opened Ma Kiu's eyes. He realized that even though in terms of raw strength, none of them would lose to the opponent, in terms of speed of movement and extraordinary martial arts, this girl was truly a formidable foe.

He had been too courteous earlier, issuing a command to move one by one in turns; who knew that because of his courtesy, four of his junior brothers suffered blows and kicks. Once again, he shouted loudly, and this time the twelve men lunged forward simultaneously. Only five men attacked directly towards Kwi Lan's body, while the other seven struck towards the center, up, down, and around where Kwi Lan stood, thus closing all escape routes. Wherever this girl tried to move, she would be met by a strike executed with the mobilization of Iwee-kang. This was completely unexpected by Kwi Lan. The girl was also surprised, realizing that her situation was dangerous. Only now did she know that the Cap-ji-liong were truly formidable and tough.

Even if she fought them one by one, she was capable of defeating them in a short time, but if they advanced simultaneously, it was extremely difficult to counter. She shouted loudly, not moving from her spot, but using her hands and feet to parry and her fingertips to strike the pressure points towards the wrists of the five men who attacked her consecutively. But suddenly, the five attackers retracted their attacks, and the formation continued to shift, followed by five others who attacked suddenly, assisted by the seven men blocking the escape routes. With every attack, the five men took the ngo-heng position, and whenever they saw that the attack would fail,

The constantly shifting formation retracted the attack only to repeat it with sudden changes that were difficult to predict beforehand. Kwi Lan felt overwhelmed. Her smooth white forehead began to sweat. She was afraid, but also annoyed and frustrated. When, for the umpteenth time, five opponents attacked her and her head began to spin from concentrating and trying to anticipate the changes, she shouted loudly, drew her sword, and spun it around her. Her movement was invisible due to its speed. Suddenly, the twelve men smelled a fragrant scent, and they saw green light rolling like a divine dragon playing in the sky, like an extremely cold aura.

"Watch out... retreat and prepare weapons..."

Ma Kiu shouted loudly. His formation quickly widened, yet there were still two men who were grazed by the tip of the Siang-bhok-kiam sword, causing their upper arms to bleed.

Again, the hits were not perfectly accurate because Kwi Lan was not using full concentration, and this result was only coincidental. How could she focus fully during an attack when her twelve opponents were constantly moving in a confusing manner? Now a sharp sound was heard, and all members of the Cap-ji-liong were holding their respective weapons. Some held a toya, some carried swords, golok, thi-pian (iron whip), siang-kek (paired forked spears), poan-koan-pit (blood-point striking weapon like a brush pen), tiat-kauw (iron hook/grappling hook) spear, and others. Ma Kiu himself was armed with a pair of long swords that looked heavy. The guests grew even more tense. Now that both sides were using weapons, there was no doubt that the girl would surely die with her body dismembered. Every member of the Cap-ji-liong possessed specialized martial arts skills; even before becoming disciples of Sin-seng Losu, they were first-class martial arts experts. Now they advanced together; one could imagine how formidable that was.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha. It's a pity you will be chopped to death... a wild flower like you is hard to find..."

Suddenly, the voice of Sin-seng Losu was heard, who had looked sullen earlier when some of his disciples were injured.

This old man had been nodding off on his chair since earlier, watching the match while half-asleep. He only looked like he was dozing and carelessly sleepy, but in reality, he was watching with a heart full of frustration because, until now, he still could not determine the lineage of this girl's martial arts. This truly made him surprised and astonished. Even though he was too old, so his strength and breath had greatly diminished, and if he were to fight, he himself would not be able to overcome the prowess of the Cap-ji-liong, his knowledge of martial arts was extremely deep. He was familiar with almost all martial arts lineages in this world, but why, this time, after watching the girl fight for dozens of moves, did he not recognize the martial arts lineage being performed at all? He considered the girl's martial arts to be extraordinary.

It resembled the martial arts of the Kun-lun-pai; the sword movements were like the Kong-thong-pai, but when striking pressure points, it was almost the same as the fierce Im-yang-tiam-hoat technique from the Siauw-lim-pai. However, all of these were only similar, and absolutely not the original; sometimes they were even contrary to the original. This was not surprising if one knew where Kwi Lan obtained all these strange skills. Her master was an extraordinary woman who had hidden herself for decades and absorbed all kinds of skills without proper guidance. In the underground palace, there were many martial arts instruction manuals left behind by the late Tok-siauw-kwi Liu Lu Sian, who had stolen those manuals from major sects. Because the mind of Kam Sian Eng, Kwi Lan's master, was indeed unhealthy, or abnormal, when she studied all those arts, she deviated, and the original arts changed, becoming strange and vicious skills.

Kwi Lan also studied those manuals alone, only receiving instructions from her master, and precisely because those few instructions deviated from the original, one can imagine how the resulting skills she mastered were certainly stranger and more divergent from the original.

Let alone Sin-seng Losu, even if the figures from the sects that owned the stolen manuals saw how Kwi Lan fought, they would certainly not be able to recognize their own arts. Sin-seng Losu's mocking remark was not exaggerated. Indeed, Kwi Lan's swordsmanship was powerful and extraordinary. Just her sword, a fragrant wooden sword, already proved that this girl, though still a teenager, had reached the level called "the soft overcomes the hard."