THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Medicine Part 5

"What's the matter?" Zu Qianqiu asked.

"This!" Branch Fairy answered as he bent his knees and suddenly rammed his shoulder toward Zu Qianqiu's chest with full speed.

This completely caught Zu Qianqiu by surprise. Having no time to dodge away, Zu Qianqiu quickly loaded his inner energy. Within a split second, he had gathered resourceful inner energy in his lower stomach, which made his chest and stomach as hard as a rock. Dozens of cracking and smashing noises exploded all at once. A split second later, Branch Fairy had quickly withdrawn back dozens of feet, bursting into loud laughter.

"Oh no!" Zu Qianqiu uttered a cry as he reached into his chest pocket and took out countless of bits and pieces. Among those were chips of china, jade, bamboo, and wood. The over two dozens of precious wine cups in Zu Qianqiu's chest pocket had all been smashed from the collision, even cups like the Golden Cup, Silver Cup, or the Bronze Jue had all been completely flattened out. Consumed by strong fury and deep regrets, Zu Qianqiu waved his hand and shot the scores of debris toward Branch Fairy like a swarm of darts, but Branch Fairy had expected that and swiftly dodged away.

"Linghu Chong told us to turn adversity into friendship. We must obey his orders. That's why we must become adversaries first before becoming friends," Branch Fairy shouted.

Having lost all the precious wine cups that took him decades to collect by Branch Fairy's one single hit, Zu Qianqiu was infuriated. But hearing Branch Fairy's words just when he was about to launch his full wave of attacks, he immediately pulled his steps back.

"That's right. Turn adversaries into friends. Turn adversaries into friends," he murmured with a wry smile and then walked away together with Old Man and Ji Wushi.

In his muddled mind state, Linghu Chong was still concerned about the safety of Yue Lingshan. "Branch Fairy, will you please ask them to not...not harm my apprentice sister Yue?" he said.

"Certainly!" Branch Fairy answered and then shouted out loudly, "Hey! Old Man, Night Owl, and Zu Qianqiu, listen up! Linghu Chong said that you should not harm his darling apprentice sister."

Ji Wushi and the group of three had walked quite a distance away when they heard Branch Fairy. At the words they all stopped their steps. Old Man turned his head around and shouted his answer.

"If Young Master Linghu says so, we'll certainly comply."

After the three of them discussed this over some whispers, they resumed their steps.

Yue Buqun started telling Madam Yue what he saw and heard over at Old Man's house, but only a few sentences into it, loud shouts and noises from ashore interrupted him. Root Fairy and the rest of the three Fairies had returned.

The four of them certainly kept their mouths busy bragging continuously about how they had caught the man holding the white banner and how they had torn him into four pieces.

Fruit Fairy laughed so hard that he almost lost a few teeth. "Wow! Amazing!! Brothers, you guys are so awesome!" he mocked.

"Ha-ha, so you tore that man into four pieces. Did you know what his name was?" Branch Fairy asked.

"He's dead already. Who cares what his name was? Could you have known his name?" Trunk Fairy answered.

"Of course I do," Branch Fairy replied. "His name is Ji Wushi, and he also has a nick name called 'Night Owl'."

Leaf Fairy applauded. "Hey! What a wonderful name that was! Turned out this guy actually had some insights. He must have known beforehand that one day he would be caught by the Peach Valley's Six Fairies and would be totally out of his wits,[6] having no way of escaping the fate of being torn into four pieces, that's why he gave himself that name."