Chapter 29 (Part A) – The Battered Jade Book

Confronted with Bi Fan’s frenzied counter attack, the last of his standing opponents seemed completely confused.

Even though the man was much stronger than Bi Fan, the fashion in which Bi Fan had used the divine essence seal had reduced the gap in their effective strengths to a bare minimum, due to the increase in his speed.

Bi Fan’s knowledge of martial arts was superior to most other practitioners, especially techniques like ‘the immortal finger’, ‘rainy-fly sword’ and ‘blood devil’, weren’t common or ordinary, and weren’t exactly known to most people.

Bi Fan’s opponent apparently didn’t have such a diverse arsenal of attacks, and even though he was stronger, his technical knowledge was only mediocre. Bi Fan’s attacks had left him under enormous pressure.

Now, suddenly the situation had completely changed, and Bi Fan was gaining control of the fight.

“Boss! Kill him, attack him. You have to take revenge for your brother’s death.” The man who had sustained injuries earlier shouted out, in a desperate attempt to cheer his companion on.

However, his current state of surprise had left him very unsettled, and the man’s fighting had also taken a back step.

Suddenly with his sword in his right hand, Bi Fan attacked with the ‘rainy-fly sword’ towards the left hand of his opponent and blood sprayed all over.

With another strike, this time the ‘blood devil’ technique’s ‘blood palm’, Bi Fan managed to finish off his opponent. His sinister hit had left the whole ground drenched in the blood of his opponent.

Since Bi Fan had already taken care of two of the men, leaving behind a witness to tell the tale of this encounter would only bring trouble, and he would now have to kill the witness in order to keep this encounter a secret.

In this fight, Bi Fan had used up a lot of his secret tricks, out of desperation, the knowledge of which, if ever reached his enemies, would only cause trouble in the future.

Taken by the surprise, as his opponent had tried to dodge the sword, but failing to do so completely, he had fallen prey to Bi Fan’s palm.

“Arghh…” The man had shouted out loudly, his face deformed under the effect of the pain.

Then with a bursting sound, more like a crackle, he had fallen to the ground.

His body was now drenched in his own blood, leaving him in great pain, so much so that his eye balls seemed like they would pop out, but he was still alive.

The scene was so terrible that Bi Fan was having a difficult time holding back his own vomit.

“Boss! Are you okay? Boss…..” The injured man’s face revealing the fear his mind contained, tried to drag his injured body away, in a vain attempt to escape.

Bi Fan lunged over, and with one strike of his sword, took the man’s life.

As he looked at his blood soaked hands, he decided that he would never use the ‘blood palm’ attack unless it was a matter of life and death. This secret technique was far too sinister to use in any other situation.

The screams of the man were echoing too loud and were beginning to creep Bi Fan out. In order to alleviate the suffering of the man, Bi Fan took mercy on him and ended his life quickly.

The three men didn’t have any Yin Yang pouches or any other things that were of much value, just a few instruments and weapons. Bi Fan threw them inside his Yin Yang pouch and moved on.

As he continued on his way, he didn’t encounter any more trouble, just like a bonny sailor on a voyage.

Soon, Bi Fan had reached the entrance maze to the Ting Feng valley, and since he had memorized the path, he didn’t have any trouble finding his way even without any help from anyone.

Ting Feng valley was as lively as always and the moment he entered, he started hearing the hawkers.

“Quickly come and take a look, Dan pellets, magical weapons, come and take a look!”

“Remarkably rare books going out in exchange of magical weapons, very desirable! Hurry!”

Most of the noise was created by practitioners who due to lack of money couldn’t afford to buy what they needed at were always hoping to make a barter transaction. The loud advertising of their offers subdued the hawkers and shopkeeper’s voices.

Bi Fan would walk over to these people, and see what they had to offer, just in case they had somethings that he needed.

This time, Bi Fan had arrived in the Ting Feng valley, mainly to buy purifier Dan pellets, as it would be helpful in his preparations.

However, since he was in no hurry, he casually strolled around, checking out the stalls.

After his last visit, Bi Fan knew that even if he didn’t purchase anything at these stalls, gathering information always came in handy.

Bi Fan had only even visited the valley once before, so this was a rare visit, and an opportunity.

No matter his interest in the item, Bi Fan would inspect it carefully, and then ask the price, even if he never intended to buy the product.

“How much for this damaged book?” Bi Fan asked, holding golden rimmed book jade colored book, with binding threads hanging out, making it obvious that the book was missing pages at the front.

Even though the title was missing, but Bi Fan was inspecting the book with some interest.

The shopkeeper was an old man, who seemed partially blind in one eye. He looked over at Bi Fan and replied: “This is a very important book; it speaks about refining body strength, it very important to make breakthroughs to different layers. Only three pages are missing at the front. It costs a hundred low grade spars. I always tell the truth to my customers.”

“Well, often the front pages are the most important, as they speak of the basics, with those missing, who would pay a hundred spars for this?” he put the book back in its place and got up to leave.

Out of experience, he knew that if the shopkeeper was interested in selling, then this move would definitely get him to bargain.

He knew that most of the permanent shopkeepers wouldn’t try to fool a customer as it will create trouble from angry customers in the future.

A hundred spars, even if low quality, wasn’t a small amount, and even though the book seemed interesting, Bi Fan wasn’t willing to spend so much on it.

A fragment of the book was missing, and since it was the pages at the front, the book’s value was greatly reduced. So even if the shopkeeper offered a discount, the price would have to come down very steeply for it to be worth the purchase.

“Little friend, don’t go, lets discus the price. How about I give you a 20% discount? That sounds fair. It’s a great bargain!” The old man grinned, pulling Bi Fan back in.

Bi Fan shook his head: “If the first page hadn’t been missing, I would have paid the entire hundred spars, but with the first page gone, I could encounter problems as I might not understand the book properly. I think I’d be better off buying a completely intact book. ”

Bi Fan pretended to walk away again, leaving the shopkeeper anxious: “Little friend, okay, so be it. Just give me twenty spars, and you can have the book, that’s actually my cost price.”

“Ten spars, that’s my final offer. If you are okay with it, then I’ll take the book, otherwise you keep it.” Bi Fan was very straightforward this time.

The old man looked on for a moment, starting at Bi Fan trying to see if he would still be willing to negotiate. But in the end, sighed and gave in: “Ten spars, it is. The book is yours.”

With the deal reached, Bi Fan moved on to another stall.