"Ye Erniang?"
At the sight of the woman holding a child, Qin Zheng rose at once.
Ye Erniang swept a glance over everyone in the room and said with a smile, "So I got here first. I thought Yue Lao San and Yun Lao Si would arrive a step ahead of me."
Qin Zheng clicked his tongue. "You've guessed wrong there. The two of them have already gone before."
Ye Erniang froze. "You mean the two of them went ahead to make trouble for Duan Zhengchun? Do they have the nerve for that?"
Qin Zheng was about to speak when someone outside the courtyard shouted, "You, woman! What are you snatching my son for? Give my son back!"
The voice had barely faded when the man shot into the courtyard, his movement remarkably deft.
He was about forty, dressed in an antique-bronze satin robe, a long sword in his hand.
The moment Duan Yu saw him, he called out a warning. "Hero Qin, this man is Zuo Zimu, sect leader of the Wuliang Sword Sect!"
Qin Zheng gave a hum of assent. "Ye Erniang's own child was snatched away, and it drastically changed her temperament. Every morning she seizes an infant to toy with, and by evening she kills it.
"This time she must have taken Zuo Zimu's son, and he has chased her here."
Ye Erniang's head whipped toward Qin Zheng. At some moment unnoticed, her eyes were already webbed with red veins. "How do you know my child was stolen? Was it you who stole my child!"
With that, her figure drifted toward Qin Zheng like a ghost. She thrust out five long fingers like chicken claws and snatched at his face.
"A fine chance!"
Zuo Zimu, following behind her, saw her back left open, and his eyes lit up. He hurried two steps to her back and thrust four times in a row—up, down, left, and right. All four fierce, ruthless strokes drove at her vital points.
As if she had eyes in the back of her head, Ye Erniang flung the child in one hand backward, and the child happened to block the path of Zuo Zimu's sword.
Zuo Zimu was so startled that he yanked his sword back and reached out to catch the child, now flung into midair.
But before he could catch the child, Ye Erniang spun. One palm struck him in the chest and sent him flying, man and sword together.
The child falling through the air was snatched back into Ye Erniang's hands once more.
"Daddy, Daddy..."
Zuo Zimu spat a mouthful of blood. Seeing his son wailing in fright, he spared no thought for his own wounds. He crawled up and begged, "Ye Erniang, please return my son. I'll go and find you three or four other children. I, Zuo, will be grateful for your great kindness all my life!"
Ye Erniang said with a beaming smile, "That will do as well! Go find eight children to trade. They'll last me eight days."
Zuo Zimu hastily agreed and was about to turn and leave.
Listening to the two of them, Qin Zheng could not help a sigh. "Ah, Zhong Ling, that lightning mink of yours still isn't poisonous enough. If it had bitten Zuo Zimu to death in one bite back then, then on the strength of that merit, its next life would at least have been as a young lady in a wealthy family."
Zhong Ling cried out, "Ah! If you hadn't mentioned it, I'd nearly forgotten Diao'er! I don't even know where it's run off to. I have to go find it right away!"
Until this moment, Zuo Zimu had fixed all his attention on his son and Ye Erniang. Only when he looked closely now did he recognize Zhong Ling and Duan Yu, and he flew into a rage. "So the two of you ran here! Hand over the lightning mink antidote at once, or today I'll send both of you to your deaths!"
"What a mouth! In my Wanjie Valley, you dare talk of killing the daughter of me, Horse King God Zhong Wanchou? I'd say you're tired of living!"
Zuo Zimu said coldly, "I'm about to be poisoned to death anyway. What do I care if you're a Horse King God or an Ox King God? If you don't hand over the antidote, I'll kill you too!"
Zhong Wanchou's fury blazed. He seized his great ring-pommel saber and chopped at Zuo Zimu's head.
Zuo Zimu swept his sword up to meet him. The two of them dodged and shifted, trading blow for blow, until saber-light and sword-shadows blurred into one and dazzled every eye.
Watching from the side, Zhong Ling grew anxious. "Hero Qin, please help my father!"
Qin Zheng said, "No need to worry. Your father's martial arts were already better than Zuo Zimu's. Now he is stricken with deadly poison and wounded besides, so he is even less your father's match."
Ye Erniang fixed Qin Zheng with a sharp glare. "Who are you, really, and what is your relation to the great villain who stole my child?"
Qin Zheng asked in return, "Do you want to know where your child is?"
Ye Erniang's pupils contracted violently. "So you really do know that great villain. Give me back my child!" With that, her right hand launched Venomous Snake Leaves Its Hole and snatched at Qin Zheng's collar.
Qin Zheng flicked his right hand, and a streak of cold light shot from his sleeve.
Ye Erniang cried out in pain and jerked her hand back. A bloody hole had opened in the center of her palm.
At the same time, a small knife nailed itself into the pillar behind her. The blade was still trembling at tremendous speed, humming as it quivered.
Seizing the moment of Ye Erniang's fright, Qin Zheng closed in. His right hand circulated internal energy and drew, and the child in her arms came into his hands. Then he struck three major acupoints on her body in quick succession, locking her where she stood.
On the other side, Zhong Wanchou held the upper hand with ease. The great saber in his hands swept wide and closed again, the wind roaring with the force of the blows. Zuo Zimu parried left and right in a desperate scramble, until the shocks numbed the web between his thumb and forefinger.
After the move Scooping the Moon from the Sea, Zuo Zimu's strength gave out. The long sword in his hand snapped under the blow. The great saber's momentum did not lessen, and with a heavy chop it severed his right arm.
"Ah!"
Zuo Zimu cried out in pain and hastily drew back. Seeing that Zhong Wanchou did not pursue, he yanked off his belt and bound his shoulder in a clumsy wrap.
Once he had temporarily staunched the blood, Qin Zheng stepped forward, returned the child to him, and said, "The poison has already entered your vitals. No medicine can cure it. Go home and settle your affairs."
At Qin Zheng's words, Zuo Zimu shuddered. His already pale face lost every trace of color. He glanced at Ye Erniang, sealed where she stood, then at Zhong Wanchou, who watched him like a tiger, and could not help a wretched smile. "Thank you, sir, for saving my son. I, Zuo, take my leave!"
With that, he staggered out the door with the child in his arms, and his figure gradually vanished into the vast night.
Qin Zheng turned to Ye Erniang, took out a pill, and stuffed it into her mouth. "Heart-Devouring Gu. From this moment on, the instant you use internal energy, your meridians will sear with pain, as if fierce fire were burning them. And every day you will suffer the agony of ten thousand insects devouring your heart, until a year from now your heart's blood is sucked dry and you die."
Right after that, Ye Erniang's face twisted hideously. Beads of sweat as large as beans slid down her cheeks, as if she were enduring pain beyond bearing. But her acupoints were sealed, so her body could not move, and she could not force out even a thread of sound. She could only endure the endless pain in silence.
Just as she was about to faint from the pain, Qin Zheng patted her on the shoulder. Ye Erniang groaned in agony and collapsed into a sitting heap on the ground. The sweat the pain had wrung from her had soaked her clothes through.
"Kill me. Please, kill me..."
Ye Erniang looked at Qin Zheng and begged weakly.
Qin Zheng shook his head. "If I kill you, who will deliver the gilded invitation to Li Qiushui for me? And don't you want to see your son?"
Life kindled in Ye Erniang's eyes again. Shrinking back, she said timidly, "You... you would be merciful enough to let me see my son once?"
Qin Zheng showed a kindly smile. "Of course. After all, this great hero is no devil.
"Deliver this gilded invitation into the hands of Li Qiushui, grand consort of Western Xia. Then go and stay at the home of a farmer named Qiao Sanhuai, at the foot of Mount Shaoshi.
"I have already spoken with him. He will take you in. Before you die, I will bring your son to you."
With that, he took out a gilded invitation to the bride-seeking martial contest and handed it to Ye Erniang.
Ye Erniang smiled miserably. "Is this my retribution? Very well. Then I will endure a year of the pain of ten thousand insects devouring my heart. But if you dare deceive me, I will not spare you even as a ghost!"
Hearing the vicious threat she made, Qin Zheng could not help laughing aloud.
She would turn into a ghost and still not let him go? She ought to look into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
It was only that this world had no spiritual qi. Otherwise his Ten Thousand Souls Banner would long since have been glittering with golden light!
Chapter 6