Snow in the Spring Courtyard - Chapter 7 - The Yin Eclipse Technique

Chapter 7 – The Yin Eclipse Technique

     “Oh, what a good move.”

     A cold voice suddenly sounded behind her, causing Ye Lique to vigilantly turn around only to see a man wearing a black linen robe standing ten steps away.

     “Although Old Ba was only able to cultivate the ‘Cangming Heart Sutra’ to the fourth level, it’s still absolutely impossible for a little girl of your age to defeat him so easily.” The figure slowly raised his head, and the small bell hanging on his left ear jingled in the snowy wind.

     Among the eight Impermanence Envoys in the Nether Prison, only Impermanence Seven wore a small bell on his left ear.

     Wuchang Qi stepped forward, wanting to see Ye Lique’s face clearly. “You assassins in Wuliang City practice different methods. Even the city lord Ying Guan, at your age, would not have such a deep inner cultivation.”

     Ye Lique secretly used her inner breath to temporarily suppress the coldness that was going against her. She pretended to be relaxed and put away Xue Hong as she smiled at Wuchang Qi with her hands behind her back and said, “As the saying goes, the new wave of the world pushes the old wave. You just haven’t seen it, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in the world.”

     With the faint light of the snow, Wuchang Qi finally saw Ye Lique’s face clearly. She was indeed a girl in her teens, not some disguised master of the world.

     “Indeed, it seems that I’ve seen it today.” Wuchang Qi’s face was purplish blue in the light of the snow, and he looked more like a zombie than Wuchang Ba.

     “This girl has something important to do, so I won’t accompany an old zongzi like you.” [T/N Zhongzi’s are a type of sticky rice dumpling] Ye Lique blinked at Wuchang Qi and turned to leave.

     There was a gust of cold air behind her ears, and Ye Lique quickly dodged it. A cold light just barely cut through Ye Lique’s collar and pierced the tree trunk she was facing.

     The cold light penetrated the tree half an inch, and the sharp blade exposed outside was dark in color, as if it was quenched with poison.

     “You have repeatedly killed my disciples of Cangming Sect. Tonight, you killed Lao Ba. You can’t go anywhere except Huangquan Road!” [TN Road to the underworld] As soon as the voice ceased, Wuchang Qi waved his long sleeves and shook out a long thorn.

     This weapon is called “Chi Wen”.

     “Old Zongzi, wouldn’t it be nice to live a few more years?” Ye Lique provoked while forcing her internal breath to circulate. The cold air that had just been suppressed with great difficulty instantly rushed back to the meridians, instantly wiping out the blood color on her face.

     This battle has to be fought quickly.

     If she can’t take Wuchang Qi’s life, she definitely won’t survive the night.

     “What arrogance!” Wuchang Qi was completely enraged by her. He waved Chi Wen with his hand, mixing it with strong internal energy before stabbing it towards Ye Lique’s face.

     However, Ye Lique’s body was light, and she dodged it with a single flip. She pinched the head of Xue Hong with her right hand and took out Xue Hong as she whipped it towards the back of Wuchang Qi’s head.

     Wuchang Qi stabbed at her with a backhand, and Chi Wen penetrated the hooks of the last two sections of Xue Hong. There are eight levels in the ‘Cangming Heart Sutra’. Every time you break through a level, your internal strength will be increased by a tenfold. Although he’s only at the fifth level, his internal strength was more than ten times that of Wuchang Ba. He just shouted, “Break!” And Chi Wen suddenly trembled, and his internal strength rushed along Xue Hong.

     How could Ye Lique fight him with internal strength?

     She simply let go of Xue Hong, and her body became as agile as a mountain ape. She jumped behind Wuchang Qi and slapped him on the back with a single palm.

     However, Wuchang Qi’s movements were much faster than Ye Lique had anticipated. Chi Wen suddenly became as fast as a meteor. When Ye Lique threw her palm, Chi Wen turned around and stabbed her.

     Ye Lique chuckled, the palm strike was originally a feint. She took a half step back, allowing Chi Wen to pierce her chest as she waited for the right moment before grabbing Wuchang Qi’s wrist with one hand, and shook it hard with her internal energy.

     Wuchang Qi suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold air rushing into his bones, and he couldn’t help but use her internal energy to break free from Ye Lique’s grip.

     ‘Cangming Heart Sutra’ was originally an extremely Yin internal skill. When Wuchang Qi practiced daily, he had already gotten used to the bone-chilling cold air, but he didn’t expect that the cold air that Ye Lique poured into his body was even more chilling than even the ‘Cangming Heart Sutra’.

     Ye Lique kicked up Xue Hong, who was on the ground, with her toes, and picked it up again with a smile: “Old Zongzi, are you cold?”

     Wuchang Qi glared angrily when he found that the girl in front of her had a lot of blue blood vessels on her cheeks. In such a snowy night, she looked like a dark night demon running out of the deep cold abyss.

     “Don’t make noise!” Wuchang Qi was completely angry, and Chi Wen suddenly pierced into his feet as he shouted, “Hah!” His internal force went straight to his feet, through Chi Wen, causing the nearby snow to shake and fly up instantly. All of this, coupled with the shattered stones below, formed a strong Qi force that rolled towards Ye Lique.

     Suddenly, the Qi force was like a huge wave, and the force’s momentum surged in power.

     This is Wuchang Qi’s finisher move that is rarely seen. To be precise, anyone who has seen this ‘Broken Sky Scroll’ has already met the King of Hell.

     He watched as the broken snow and gravel instantly engulfed Ye Lique, as if the four seas roared together, instantly sweeping the Yi Lique into the depths of the abyss.

     A spot of scarlet suddenly bloomed in the Broken Sky Scroll –

     Wu Changqi’s breathing sank, and the hand holding the Chiwen couldn’t help but tremble. He was secretly proud, looking forward to the snow falling and settling down, and seeing a little girl who was shocked by the internal energy and bleeding from all seven orifices.

     However, a flash of surprise flashed in his pupils, “Impossible!”

     He originally thought that the scarlet was the blood spit out by Ye Lique, but when Ye Lique, dressed in red, walked out of the Broken Sky Scroll, he saw that her pupils had completely turned blood red.

     This was not a living person! This was obviously a monster!

     “It’s my turn!”

     She smiled charmingly, and the bulging blood vessels on her face made her more frightening than a ghost.

     Wuchang Qi had to admit that he, like Wuchang Ba, underestimated Ye Lique. He didn’t’ know what kind of weird martial arts this little girl had learned, but she could suddenly increase her internal energy by dozens of times.

     Unfortunately, when martial arts masters fight, once they lose, they often lose their lives.

     Chi Wen barely had time to pull away from his Wuchang Qi’s feet before Ye Lique’s Xue Hong wrapped around his throat as if alive.

     Wuchang Qi subconsciously tried to use his internal energy to break free, but the cold air that had just rushed into his body seemed to be alive, and instantly locked several of his major acupoints, making it impossible for him to use any internal energy.

     Ye Lique’s cold back pressed against his back, and for the frist time in his life, Wuchang Qi could feel the chill of death. His teeth trembled uncontrollably, “You… What martial arts did you practice?!”

     Ye Lique exerted force and pulled Xue Hong, causing Wuchang Qi to almost suffocate.

     “Three years ago, was the bloody case of the Yangwei Escort Sect done by your Cangming Sect?” Ye Lique asked again coldly.

     “Could it be… Could it be…” Wuchang Qi got the answer he wanted, but he couldn’t believe it – ‘The Yin Eclipse Technique’.

     Everyone in the martial arts world has heard of the rumor about the Yin Eclipse Technique. It is said that no one in the world can cultivate the skill, because if you practice this skill to the second level, ordinary living people will be torn apart by the backlash of cold air. However, if there was an extraordinary person who could properly cultivate this skill, so long as they break through the second level, their internal strength would be able to soar to a hundred times that of ordinary people.

     Therefore, the entire martial arts world dream of one day capturing the secret to cultivating the Yin Eclipse Technique, but no one could actually cultivate it.

     The last monk who practiced this technique had tragically died in a temple. At that time, the four great families in the martial arts world wanted to put this secret in an iron box and sink it to the bottom of the sea forever in order to cut off the daydreams and delusions of martial artists across the world. Who knew that Ying Guan, the lord of the Wuliang City, showed up halfway, took the technique, and ran away. However, even if he had high martial arts skills, he could not resist the pursuit of the sons of the four great families, so he entrusted the secret to the Yangwei Escort Sect.

     Unexpectedly, his plan had actually resulted in the annihilation of the Escort Sect.

     The Yin Eclipse Technique also disappeared with the destruction of the Yangwei Escort Agency, and no one knew who it eventually ended up with.

     Ye Lique smiled coldly, “Didn‘t I ask the question first?” She exerted a little force, and the blood-red color embedded into Wuchang Qi’s flesh and blood.

     Wuchang Qi felt extremely painful and spoke with difficulty, “We… didn’t…”

     This was the last sentence Wu Chang Qi said in his life, and it was also the tenth sentence of “no” that Ye Li Que heard.

     She pulled back Xue Hong, and the blood beads dripped to the ground.

     Wu Chang Qi fell to the ground and never woke up again.

     “Cough cough.” Ye Li Que covered her mouth and nose and coughed violently several times. The backlash of the cold air made her feel that she would be torn apart by the cold air at any time. At this moment, she urgently needed something to keep warm, either fire or wine.

     But the only thing here was ice and snow, where was the fire? Where was the wine?

     Ye Lique forced her last bit of warmth to last her enough time to rush under the tree-

     If she could meet some living birds or beasts, she could take a sip of their hot blood to relieve the cold.

     Even if there were no birds or beasts, as long as she could knock down branches in time and light them, as long as she could warm herself up quickly and survive the cold backlash, she would be able to live to see the sunrise.

     She swung Xue Hong, and Xue Hong hooked onto the pine branch. With just a slight pull, the entire branch was pulled down by her.

     “There’s still time… There must be time…”

     Ye Lique anxiously took out the tinder from her arms and blew several times, but the tinder would not light up.

     She sat down dejectedly under the tree, knowing that every breath she exhaled would no longer hold any warmth.

     She would be frozen to death here by the cold air, and then the harsh wind would break her frozen body into pieces.

     To die so ugly…

     “Heh… Heh…” Although Ye Lique was unwilling, she could only accept her fate.

     This time, no fool would be willing to feed her a mouthful of blood and pull her back from the brink of death.

     No… No…

     Ye Lique looked into the distance, her vision gradually blurred by the wind and snow.

     The wind around her was getting louder and louder. She was surrounded by ice and snow, waiting for the cold to completely engulf her.

     Her consciousness began to dissipate, spreading like ripples.

     The little fire in the distance reminded her of the night three years ago.

     “Silly… Stupid… Who asked you to come back?”

     Ye Lique muttered to herself in a daze, and stretched out her hand weakly towards the fire in the distance, “I can’t live anymore… Go… Go quickly…” Her hand was suddenly wrapped by a warm one as she raised her head to looked at the idiot as she did back then.

     The same eyebrows, but a different voice.

     “Ye Lique!”

     Who’s calling her, who is that?

     She was like a little animal that was frozen, fighting for her last breath. Suddenly, she threw herself into the arms of that person, trying to absorb more warmth.

     “Let go… Let go!”

     At first, Shen Yi had thought she was dead, she didn’t expect Ye Lique to suddenly gain a burst of energy. She had actually managed to pounce into her arms before fainting. At first, Shen Yi wanted to push her away, but the cold air radiating from Ye Lique’s body made her shiver several times in succession. Ye Lique was infected with such a severe cold, to the point that Shen Yi wasn’t sure if she could be saved.

     “Ye Lique!”

     Shen Yi called her again and saw that the bulging blood vessels on her cheeks slowly shallowed out. She probed her fingers onto Ye Lique’s neck pulse, and after feeling that there was still movement, she finally allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. She wasn’t dead yet, so there was still a glimmer of hope.

     “You- Stay alive!”

     Shen Yi was glad that she had the courage to follow her out, otherwise she would not have heard what Ye Lique and Wuchang Qi had said-

     “Three years ago, was the bloody case of the Yangwei Escort Agency done by your Cangming Sect?”

     “We… didn’t…”

     If it wasn’t Cangming Sect, who else could it be?

     At this moment, Shen Yi felt confused and muddled, as if things were starting to get complicated.