Chapter 1
A Courtesan’s Orphan Seeks Vengeance at a Martial Arts Academy
Are women weak or not?
For a long time, most people have believed so.
Until Nangong Xue’s legendary rise, then people realized that notion was wrong.
Women are definitely not weak.
An petite, curvaceous, lithe, enchanting body, a head of shiny shoulder-length black hair, a round, delicate fairskinned face, a pair of little eyes thin as curved moons, and a compact little nose with a small cherry mouth slightly arching up at the corners—that was Nangong Xue.
She wasn’t a very beautiful woman but had a “delicately lovely” and “wild” air about her.
This kind of woman easily catches people’s attention. The gate guard standing watch at “Awesome Might Martial Arts Academy” couldn’t help but check her out. “Miss, may I help you?”
“Looking for someone.”
“Who?”
“Xiong Batian.”
“Who are you? Directly using our academy’s headmaster’s great name?”
Nangong Xue sneered but said nothing.
The big man couldn’t help but hesitate. There weren’t many in the martial world these days who would dare to mention Xiong Batian by name. What was this girl’s relationship with Xiong Batian?
“Who are you?” The man asked again.
Nangong Xue slightly arched her fine, willowleaf brow. “What do you keep going on about?”
The man was taken aback. “Miss needs to give me a name so I can go in and notify him.”
Nangong Xue hmphed softly. “No need for all that trouble, I have legs, I can go in myself.”
With that, she set off with her little lotus steps and crossed the threshold…
“Wait.” The swarthy-faced man pulled a long face and stepped in front of her and said coldly, “If you just go in like that, then what am I?”
Nangong Xue forced a smile and looked at him. “You tell me? Do you think you’re somebody?”
The swarthy face suddenly got angry. The big man glared at her. “Are you looking for trouble?”
Nangong Xue ignored him and suddenly darted to the side and entered like a gust of wind.
Swarthyface was struck dumb by such quick movement. He didn’t even see her move, and by the time he turned around, there was no trace of Nangong Xue.
He promptly entered and took down the bronze gong hanging on the wall and beat on it relentlessly.
Dong…
X X X
Xiong Batian wasn’t an early riser. Even though the sun was already three poles high, late morning, he was still in dreamland. Especially since he drank so much last night, he planned to sleep till noon. Staying up late drinking and getting up late the next day had been his custom for many years.
However, now he had to get up.
When he stood up he was like a mountain, nearly eight spans tall, and his Thirteen Grand Guardians hard qigong conditioning made his muscles as hard as if made from diamond; particularly his big black and curly beard made him look a bit like a bear (xiong) and gave him a malevolent look like he’d swallow anyone up whole.
He threw on a glittering golden gown and stared with eyes big as bronze bells at the shamefaced Long Ming who stood with his hands at his sides. He said angrily in a rough voice, “I really don’t understand where all those years of martial arts training has gone? Can’t even stop a woman. Good thing you’re my best disciple.”
Long Ming hung his head and didn’t dare say anything. He wasn’t bad looking. Nice facial features, magnificent clothes, and a distinguished, free and easy air about him.
But he looked pretty unsightly now, his face a mix of pale and purple, hair in disarray, a frustrated look on his face, like a defeated rooster.
“Who is this woman?” Xiong Batian said as he buttoned up his gown in the mirror.
Long Ming stammered, “Your disciple doesn’t know, she refused to say.”
Arching his bushy black eyebrows, Xiong Batian restrained his fury. “At least you should have gotten an idea of her martial arts?”
Head hanging even lower, Long Ming spoke as soft as a mosquito, “Your, Your disciple couldn’t tell…”
“Useless rice bucket!” Xiong Batian glared ferociously, boiling with rage. “Today I finally realize you’re nothing more than a rice bucket from head to toe. Got beaten and don’t even know by who! What are you still standing there for? If I were you I would have slammed my head into the wall and died already.”
Long Ming was as silent as a cicada in cold weather.
Xiong Batian stormed out of the room in a tower of rage.
As soon as he stepped outside of the main hall, he stopped in his tracks.
He saw everyone in the martial arts academy, nearly a hundred people, had all been knocked flat, some lying on the ground, others covering their heads and cowering, others sitting crosslegged, and some although not hurt, were standing off far off in a corner shaking with fear, as if they’d seen a ghost…
Burning with anger, Xiong Batian glared with his bronze bell eyes. “is the one come kicking up a ruckus you?”
Wearing a green top and white skirt, Nangong Xue looked calm and collected. You wouldn’t believe that she had the capacity to fell all these big burly men. She narrowed her little eyes two charming dimples on her fair face. “That’s right, it was me.”
Heart hammering, Xiong Batian after all had been renowned throughout the jianghu for a long time, and even though he was abnormally angry, he was a careful person. He knew that anger would not help him in this situation. His cold, unfeeling experience in the jianghu told him that what was most needed right now was calm.
Only a person who is calm in the face of death can live a long time. Taking a deep breath, Xiong Batian slowly walked down the steps and onto the green-streaked stone courtyard. He regarded Nangong Xue and his voice was also cold. “Who are you? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
Still smiling, Nangong Xue slightly parted her red lips. “I’m just a little ol’ nobody. No one in the jianghu knows me, not just you.”
His big eyes fixed on her like nails and a perplexed look appeared on Xiong Batian’s face. “You have a name at least.”
Nangong Xue said indifferently, “Nangong Xue.”
Xiong Batian was taken aback slightly. “Your from House Nangong?”
Everyone knew that House Nangong was the number one dynastic house in the martial world. Xiong Batian naturally knew as well.
Nangong Xue coldly pursed her lips. “I am me, why do you have to drag House Nangong into it? Do you mean to say that only House Nangong has the power to tear down your Awesome Might Martial Arts Academy’s signboard?”
Xiong Batian sneered, “Of course it’s not only House Nangong that can tear down my Awesome Might Martial Arts Academy’s signboard, I just don’t understand why you came kicking up a row here? Is there some animosity between us?”
Nangong Xue’s smile froze, the look in her eyes as cold as a knife edge. “Animosity, no, it’s just we have an unpleasant old score to settle.”
“Unpleasant old score?” Xiong Batian blinked, puzzled. “Since we don’t know each other, how could we have an unpleasant old score?”
Nangong Xue glared coldly, said slowly, “Do you remember what you did on a mid-autumn Eve twelve years ago?”
“Twelve years ago”” Xiong Batian laughed. “How can I remember something so long ago?”
“Of course you wouldn’t remember it,” Nangong Xue sneered, “A courtesan of course is nothing in the eyes of a big shot like yourself, so how could you remember such a trivial matter as forcing her to drink with you, forcing her to sing and dance all through the night and even giving her a few slaps to the face?”
Xiong Batian shifted his big bronze bell eyes. “Now that you mention it, that did happen…”
He paused, then looked at her in astonishment. “What does this matter have to do with you?”
Nangong Xue was expressionless as she spat out, “Because I am the daughter of that courtesan.”
Xiong Batian was stunned at first, then he threw his head back and laughed sardonically.
When he finished laughing, Nangong Xue said slowly, “You think it’s funny?”
Taking a deep breath, Xiong Batian looked askance at her with a look of disdain. “I thought you were from House Nangong. Turns out you’re just a whore’s daughter. You telling me that’s not funny?”
He walked with slow, measured steps and continued, “That really is an unpleasant memory. A big daddy like me spends money and that whore put on an act that was not to my liking, of course I gave her a few slaps. You trying to tell me I should give her two ingots of gold instead?”
Nangong Xue put on a false smile. “Today, I want you to pay for those slaps to the face.”
“Come on, then” Xiong Batian chuckled. “If you were from House Nangong I might be a bit afraid of you. Too bad you’re a whore’s daughter. What you gonna do to me? Perhaps you want to strip my clothes off and get in bed with me?”
Pretty face full of anger, Nangong Xue’s brows flashed a trace of murderous intent and her delicate, exquisite body suddenly leapt into the air!
Xiong Batian’s rough, ferocious exterior really did make him look like a bear, but his many years of jianghu experience had made his thinking like that of a sly fox. In fact he was already aware that Nangong Xue was not some easy-to-handle oil-saving lamp, otherwise how could she have so easily leveled the entire Awesome Might Martial Arts Academy, so he had absolutely no intention of being arrogant and underestimating his foe. As a matter of fact, he was trying his best to make his foe angry. Experience told him that an enraged foe might strike ruthlessly and heavily, but their wrath would surely make them sloppy.
In any case, an angry person often lost their mind, and when a person loses their mind when fighting, they will reveal a number of flaws and openings.
Nangong Xue right now was lashing our in anger. Naturally she couldn’t resist being provoked by Xiong Batian’s humiliating words. She was like an arrow loosed from the string, swiftly pouncing on Xiong Batian, her fingers fanned out in the air to clutch at Xiong Batian’s face!
Xiong Batian’s expression changed to one of terror. He was a person who knew what was what, he could see that though her move didn’t look like much, it was actually the incomparably sinister “Eighteen Nether Prodding Hands”!
The Eighteen Nether Prodding Hands was an unrivaled kungfu skillset of the underhanded sects, strange with many variations, specializing in poking at a person’s vital acupoints. This kungfu was sinister and vicious and good for attacking, but most martial artists didn’t want to learn it because a skillset from that the despised underhanded sects used.
Unexpectedly, a beautiful woman like Nangong Xue had actually learned this amazing martial art, and by the looks of it, had learned it to a proficient degree. In just the blink of an eye, Xiong Batian’s unusually big noggin was enveloped in a blur of Nangong Xue’s palms…
Xiong Batian took a composed deep breath, and his hand, big as a palmleaf fan, grasped at Nangong Xue’s wrist like lightning. But his move was only half-executed before he hurriedly rushed back.
Because he found that Nangong Xue’s pink, embroidered satin shoe was about to kick him in the groin!
That embroidered shoe was really beautiful, especially pleasing to the eye under the warm shining sunlight, but if it kicked a man in the groin, probably no one would say it was beautiful but would rather make someone’s head explode!
In the jianghu, probably no one didn’t know Xiong Batian, especially his well-trained Thirteen Grand Guardians hard qigong, which had major standing in the martial world. Ordinarily it would not be a big deal for Xiong Batian to take Nangong Xue’s kick. The problem was, he also discovered that her embroidered shoe had a length of a shiny flickering sharp blade sticking out of the sole!
Xiong Batian of course knew that this pointy blade was smeared with a deadly poison. If it touched him anywhere he was dead for sure.
So he had no choice but to back away.
Although he was big and tall, he moved as powerfully as a roving dragon. Suddenly like pulling scallions out of arid ground he shot up like a big pengbird up to the roof of the main hall. As he did so, he swiftly drew the goldplated broadsabre on his hip.
Sabre in hand gave him total confidence. For many years now, Xiong Batian had relied on his goldplated broadsabre to establish his name far and wide and had beaten back who knows how many formidable foes and wrathful enemies.
Regretfully, he didn’t beat back Nangong Xue this time.
He went all out using his famed sabreplay “Heaven-Cleaving, Ground-Splitting Forty-Nine Patterns”, hacking at the oncoming Nangong Xue like a ferocious tiger pouncing on a sheep, but he couldn’t even touch the hem of her clothes.
What astonished him was that Nangong Xue wound around him like a spirit, and he found that her martial arts was a mix, not just martial arts of the underhanded sects. She also was well-versed in the martial world’s most top-notch “Bare Hands Entering Like a Naked Blade”!
He was no longer confident.
Sure enough, he felt his wrist go numb. He couldn’t even see what technique Nangong Xue used to snatch his goldplated broadsabre away!
He was wide-eyed and tongue-tied, standing there mesmerized and dumbfounded on the roof.
Not just him, the academy disciples watching the fight from the courtyard were also struck dumb as wooden chickens, not able to get a single word out.
Nangong Xue brandished the sabre in her hand and clicked her tongue. “This sabre really is a good sabre. It’s just too bad its owner is too useless, not worthy of such a blade.”
She lightly bent it and snapped the goldplated sabre in two.
With the blade goes the man; when the blade dies, so does the man. This was a common truism among martial artists. A martial artist losing his blade was like an old tiger without sharp claws; it’s not even as good as a cat.
Xiong Batian naturally understood this principle. He roared wildly, “Nangong Xue, just kill me!”
Lips pursed tightly in a graceful arc in a sneer, in derision, in a taunt, Nangong Xue coldly side-eyed him. “Xiong Batian you’re already dead, why should I kill you?”
Certainly, as far as Xiong Batian was concerned, given the circumstances, surviving was harder than dying. Up to now he dared not believe that he, who had run roughshod over the jianghu for decades with an air of power and prestige could actually be defeated at the hands of a little-know woman, and be defeated so pathetically.
The price of defeat was usually great; it was certainly a heavy blow to one’s fame, reputation, status, confidence, will, etc. Everyone experienced defeat, and some could raise their heads again, so some said that “defeat is the mother of martial arts”. But for Xiong Batian, defeat meant death!
Because next year he would be fifty years old. Fifty wasn’t old, but for a martial artist, it was a step into the realm of decline. In any case, Xiong Batian would never have the opportunity to rise up again like a twenty-year-old young lad could.
He of course could continue on living. It was just that he had lost a lifetime of honor and had gotten a bitter taste of the dim and dark, lonely and wretched days of the elderly. His wife had passed before him and he had no children. What was left to keep him?
Suddenly, Xiong Batian laughed wildly and pounced on Nangong Xue! She seemed not to expect he would do this and unavoidably dumbstruck and hurriedly raised the broken sabre to chop at Xiong Batian…
Xiong Batian didn’t dodge it. In fact he was charging at the blade that used to belong to him!
He clearly saw the blade cut into his broad, thick chest, and he saw a stream of bright blood spurt into the air.
The blood spurted high, so high, so beautiful, so beautiful.
Xiong Batian was still laughing maniacally. He found that dying was actually not a difficult matter! He suddenly felt his body go light. Actually, dying wasn’t so terrible…
Slender eyes widening enormously, Nangong Xue seemed to be seeing the miserable sight of killing someone for the first time as she stood there at a loss…
Swallowing her saliva, Nangong Xue’s voice trembled. “I, I didn’t want to kill you, why do you want to die?”
Xiong Batian stared with raging big eyes, his huge body covered with dazzling bright red blood, but he still laughed maniacally. “Because I’m a hero. Only a hair doesn’t fear death…”
Was Xiong Batian a hero? Nangong Xue didn’t know. She only knew that he had once humiliated her miserable, ill-fated mother. Today she had come purely to teach him a lesson only. She never imagined she would actually take a life.
She composed herself. “Xiong Batian, since you want to die a hero’s death, don’t blame me, Nangong Xue, for being cruel and ruthless.”
Xiong Batian’s body was swaying. He forcefully coughed a few times and spat out blood. “Nan, Nangong Xue… when I’m dead, you will not have an easy time of it…”
After saying this, his body, mighty as a bear, collapsed like a landslide onto the courtyard…
The disciples in the courtyard were already kneeling on the ground, crying and lamenting. Long Ming looked up at Nangong Xue on the roof and said mournfully and hatefully, “Nangong Xue, Long Ming will never forget my master’s murder for the rest of my life!”
Nangong Xue eyed him indifferently, twisted her waist around and her petite body disappeared in the resplendent sunlight…
Xiong Batian’s death was like that of everyone else in the world who had died, people would quickly forget it. But people would not forget Nangong Xue.
One person trampling flat Awesome Might Martial Arts Academy, famed throughout the martial world, by herself, was no east feat. To put it bluntly, you’d be hard-pressed to find hardly anyone in the world who could do it.
No one could have imagined that the one to do it was an unknown person who had just come out into the jianghu, and a woman at that.
Therefore, in the span of one night Nangong Xue turned into the a popular figure that everyone was talking about.
Nangong Xue in the end learned that fame not an easygoing, comfortable thing, especially for a famous woman.
