DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS BOOK 4 OF 5 (SONG OF THE CAVE IMMORTAL) by Jin Yong

Dreaming Of Real Heartfelt Words In A Tangible Fantasy Part 3

Another day pass, Xu Zhu thoroughly memorized the 6 mnemonics of [Plum Breaking Hands Of Heavenly Mountain]. At a wilderness, Child Elder taught him how to utilize the mnemonics. One of her leg broke, she have no choice but to sit on the ground while sparing with Xu Zhu. [Plum Breaking Hands Of Heavenly Mountain], although it only have 6 styles, but it contains the essence of Carefree Sect's martial arts, within the palm styles and grappling styles, there is also sword art, sabre art, whip art, spear art, grabbing art, axe art, etc, all the unique finishing moves of various weapons, the moves fantastic and wonderful, the variations complicated, Xu Zhu can't learn all of them in such a short period of time. Child Elder said: "This [Plum Breaking Hands Of Heavenly Mountain] of mine, it can never be completed, in the future with higher level of internal energy, wider experience and knowledge, you can automatically incorporate any martial art moves into this 6 styles Plum Breaking Hands. Luckily you already mastered the mnemonics, whatever level you attain in the future its entirely dependent on you."

Xu Zhu said: "Junior learn this martial art, its purely to protect senior, when senior regained your internal energy my assignment is complete, junior will go back to Shaolin and try to forget everything that senior taught me, i will learn Shaolin martial arts from scratch again."

Child Elder look at him from left to right, her expression flabbergasted, she appear as if she seen a rare monster, after a long time she finally sigh and said: "This [Plum Breaking Hands Of Heavenly Mountain], how can any of your Shaolin's martial arts be compared with it? You give up a jade and pick a roof tile, impossibly stupid. But its really not easy to ask little monk to forget your roots. Close your eyes and rest, when the sky turn dark we will enter XingZhou city!"

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The time is the second of the five night watch period, Child Elder ordered Xu Zhu to carry her on his back, he ran to outside of XingZhou city, after jumping over the moat he lightly flip over the city wall and landed softly. He saw a group of armoured cavalry lifting their torch, patrolling back and forth, the soldiers well-trained and powerful, the military magnificent and powerful.

Child Elder gave her instructions softly, she ordered him to stick close to the wall and travel north-west, after walking around 3 li, they saw a skyscraper, behind the skyscraper is a building built densely layer upon layer, the structure is grand and magnificent, the roof made of glazed tile, its a dazzling sight. Xu Zhu saw this building is quite similar to Shaolin Temple, but its more splendid and majestic, he said softly: "Buddha is merciful, there is a big temple here." Child Elder cannot help but laugh softly, she said: "Little monk really have no knowledge, this is the imperial palace of Western Xia, but you say its a big temple." Xu Zhu had a huge shock, he said: "This is imperial palace? We come here for what?"

Child Elder said: "To seek protection from the emperor. Li QiuShui can't find our corpse, she knows i am not dead, even if she has to turn over the entire ground she will definitely try to find me. Within 2000 li, there is only one place she won't search, its her own home." Xu Zhu said: "Senior is really smart, we endure for 1 day and senior's internal energy will increase by another 1 year. We will go to your sister's house." Child Elder said: "This is her house....be careful, someone is coming."

Xu Zhu shrink his body and hide in a corner, he saw 4 people moving from east to west, immediately after another 4 people came from the west, these 8 people pass by each other, they clap their palms lightly, and move past. These 8 people are nimble and athletic, clearly their martial art is not weak. Child Elder said: "The front guard patrol has pass, quickly flip over the palace's wall, another group of patrol will come soon after." Xu Zhu saw their influence and power, he became timid and said: "There are so many experts in the palace, we will be in trouble if they see us. We better go to your sister's house." Child Elder said angrily: "I already said it before, this is her house." Xu Zhu said: "But you said this is the imperial palace." Child Elder said: "That **** is the mother of the king of Western Xia, she is the Consort Dowager, the imperial palace is her home."

This sentence is beyond Xu Zhu's expectation, he is dumbfounded, another 4 people move from north to south. When the 4 people move past, Xu Zhu said: "Sen....." he only vocalize half the word as Child Elder stretch out her hands to press his mouth, another 4 people jump out from behind the wall, they made their rounds quietly. These 4 people arrive suddenly, but they never expect that someone is hiding in the dark corner of the wall. When these 4 people move far away, Child Elder slap his back and said: "Go to that small alley."

Xu Zhu saw how the 16 people patrol the palace, he knew he is in a dangerous place, without the guidance of Child Elder, even if he withdraw quickly he will definitely be discovered by the many guards, at once he followed her orders and entered the small alley. Both sides of the alley are high walls, in reality the alley is just a gap between two Palace.

He weave through this narrow passage, he hide for a moment within a peony shrub, when the 8 guards patrol pass he entered a large rock garden. This rock garden is winding and headed north, it stretch long and continuous for 50-60 zhang. For every 10 zhang he take, he will follow Child Elder's instruction and hide himself, its really strange, not long after he hid himself, the guards will definitely show up and patrol, it seems as if Child Elder is the supervisor of the guards, where they patrol, when they patrol, she knows everything by the back of her hands, she predict everything accurately. They evade and dodge for over an hour, the rooms near their vicinity are all simple and crude, the guards no longer appear anymore.

Child Elder pointed at a big stone house to the left and said: "Go there." Xu Zhu saw there is a large vacant land in front of the stone house, the moon light shine on the plot of vacant land, there is no place to hide in surrounding, at once he draw his breath and rush forward. The walls of the stone house seems to be made of 5 chi square rock, its exceptionally thick, the entrance is made of 8 rows of pine tree, the tree is chop in half and nailed together. Child Elder said: "Pull open the door and go in!" Xu Zhu's heart is thumping madly, his voice trembled: "Your...your martial sister...is here?" he remembers Li QiuShui's vicious methods, he don't dare to enter. Chid Elder said: "No. Pull open the door."

Xu Zhu grip the iron ring on the door, he pull open the door, the door is solid and heavy. Behind the front door is another door, a burst of cold air seep out from behind the door. Currently the weather is hot, although snow still covers the mountain peak but the snow already melted on level ground, the flowers flourish, but there is a thin layer of frost on the door. Child Elder said: "Push the interior door." Xu Zhu stretch out his hands and push, the door open slowly, a narrow slit appear between the door and a gust of cold air gush out. He push open the door and entered, the interior is piled up with cloth-sacks, they stack together and is as high as the ceiling, evidently this place is a granary, there is a narrow passage to the left.

Xu Zhu felt really curious, he whispered: "How come this granary is so cold?" Child Elder laugh and said: "Close the door. We entered the ice storehouse, nothing will happen to us now!" Xu Zhu said curiously: "Ice storehouse? This is not a granary?" while speaking, he close the 2 set of doors. Child Elder is in a very good mood, she laugh and said: "Let's go in and take a look."

Once the 2 set of doors are closed, the interior is dark. Xu Zhu fumbled around and entered from the left side, as he move to the interior the cold air is getting thicker and thicker, he extend his left hand and touch something, its a cold, stiff and damp object, evidently its a big block of solid ice. While being baffled, Child Elder already lit a torch, in an instant a strange sight appear before his eyes, he is surrounded by blocks of square shaped ice chunk, the light from the torch reflect off the ice chunk, the light is suddenly green and suddenly blue, its really a strange sight.

Child Elder said: "Let's descend to the bottom." She lean against the ice chunk, she hop with her right leg and lead the way, she made a few turns around the ice chunks and entered a big hole by the corner of the house. Xu Zhu followed her, he saw a row of stone steps, after walking down the steps its yet another huge house filled with ice chunk. Child Elder said: "Most likely there is another level in this ice storehouse." Sure enough, there is another huge stone room underneath the 2nd level, its also filled with ice chunk.

Child Elder extinguish the torch, she sat down and said: "We penetrate deep into the 3rd level, even though that **** is smart and crafty she will not be able to find us." She exhaled a long breath. For the past few days although she appeared calm and cool, but in her heart she is really anxious and worried, Western Xia is full of experts, they penetrate deep into the interior of the imperial palace and avoided the attention of numerous experts, to achieve that firstly you need to be vigilant and cautious, secondly you have to be familiar with the way things are carried out in the palace and with the guards movement. Only now did she finally feel at ease.

Xu Zhu sigh and said: "Strange! Strange!" Child Elder said: "What so strange?" Xu Zhu said: "Unexpectedly Western Xia store these worthless ice chunks in a cellar, what is the purpose?" Child Elder laugh and said: "These ice chunks are worthless in winter, but during hot summer, these ice are very precious. Think about it, at the main street, at the open field, the sun is like steaming hot charcoal, everyone sweat like sticky paste, if they have two big blocks of ice beside them, or put a few ice cubes inside the lotus seed and mung bean soup, what is the feeling?" Xu Zhu suddenly realize the truth, he said: "Wonderful, wonderful! But to carry so much ice chunks and store them, the effort involved is truly not small, isn't it very troublesome?" Child Elder found it funny, she said: "The emperor has hundreds of attendants at his beck and call, he can get whatever he wants, why would he even bother about troublesome or not? You think the emperor has to personally move these big ice chunks into the storehouse?"

Xu Zhu nod his head and said: "The emperor really leads an extremely comfortable life. But his comfort is really a bit too much, he will exhaust his karmic reward, his next life might not be good. Ayo, the emperor want to use these ice chunks, he will frequently send people here to fetch it, won't they see us?" Child Elder said: "The imperial palace has 'Sky', 'Earth', 'Mysterious', 'Yellow', 'House', 'Time', 'Flood' and 'Desolate', eight ice storehouses, this ice storehouse is 'Desolate'. They have to finish withdrawing the ice from the seven storehouses before coming to this storehouse. They might not come here for 3 months, at that time, no need to worry!" Xu Zhu said: "Senior, you know everything, you been here before? For example, you knew when and where the guards will patrol, how come you know everything?" Child Elder said: "Obviously i came to this imperial palace before. I seek that **** to vent my anger, how can it be only once? The breathing of those guards are thick and heavy, i heard them 10 zhang away, what is so strange about it?" Xu Zhu said: "So it is. Senior is born with divine ears, only extraordinary people can hope to reach your level." Child Elder said: "What born with divine ears? With deep internal energy, you can train this kind of skills, its really easy. I will teach you."

When Xu Zhu heard the phrase 'you can train this kind of skills', he suddenly remember, there is no birds and animals within this ice storehouse, its difficult to obtain warm blood, how is she going to practice her skill? There is a lot of dried food and cereals in the storehouse, but they can't light a fire in the ice storehouse, how to cook the rice and oats for food?

Child Elder saw he is silent for a long time, she ask: "What are you thinking about?" Xu Zhu told her, Child Elder laugh and said: "You think those cloth-sack contains dried food and cereals? There is only cotton, its to prevent external heat from coming in and melting the ice. Hey hey, you want to eat cotton or not?" Xu Zhu said: "Then we have to go outside and look for food?" Child Elder said: "The imperial kitchen have no lack of chicken and duck. But there isn't much essence in the blood of chicken, duck, pig and sheep, its not as good as the sika deer and antelope on snowy mountain. We will go to the imperial garden to catch some red-crowned crane, peacock, mandarin ducks, parrot, etc, i will drink the blood, you eat the meat, we can survive like this."