All of a sudden, there came a noise which sounded like the tune from a qin, but it also sounded like the sounds made by jade. Following that, there was the sound of a clear and smooth flute tune. Everyone was taken by surprise. Ouyang Ke looked up and saw the weird man in green sitting on top of a tall tree, blowing his flute. Ouyang Ke was secretly puzzled. He knew that he had very sharp eyesight and yet, even under such a bright moonlight, he did not notice that that man had gone up the tree. The wind was blowing and the trees were swaying but that man was still able to sit steadily and motionless on top. Ouyang Ke was taught by his uncle since he was young and he knew that even if he trained for another twenty years, he will still be unable to achieve the standard the man has now, is that man a ghost then?
At this time, the tune from the flute flowed continuously and Ouyang Ke lost control of his emotions, smiling unnaturally. He felt his blood pounding and messing up inside him and had to dance crazily in order to feel better. He just stretched out his arm to dance and was immediately shocked. He summoned all his concentration and saw that the snakes were all rushing to the bottom of a tree, sliding about according to the flute tune. The three men and six women in white collapsed under the tree as well dancing around crazily. They tore their clothes and scratched their faces furiously leaving bloody scars on them and laughed stupidly at nothing. It seemed like they had all gone mad and were thus unaware of any pain.
Ouyang Ke was extremely shocked and knew that he had encountered a strong opponent tonight. He took out six poisoned projectiles and flung it towards the man’s head, chest and limbs. The projectiles were about to strike the man when he gently waved the end of his flute and blocked the projectiles. When he used his flute to block the projectiles, his lips continued to blow and did not leave the flute hole for a single moment. The tune coming out from the flute was never interrupted for a single second. Ouyang Ke could not stand it anymore and opened his fan, wanting to dance.
Luckily Ouyang Ke had a somewhat good grasp of his internal energy, as he knew that if he started dancing with his arms, unless his opponent stopped blowing the flute, he would not stop dancing till he dies of exhaustion. Ouyang Ke was all along a clear-minded and sharp man and forced himself to take back his arm with the fan in it. He suddenly thought of a plan, “ Tear some cloth off my robe and stuff the cloth in my ears so as to block the sound. But the flute sound was marvelous; although Ouyang Ke had tore off some cloth the flute tune made him lose control of his actions and he struggled but could not put the cloth into his ears. He was alarmed and frightened and broke out in more cold sweat. He saw Mei Chaofeng sitting on the floor with her head lowered, circulating her internal energy. He guessed that she must have been summoning her internal energy to combat the flute sounds.
At this moment, three of Ouyang Ke’s worse skilled apprentices had fallen onto the ground, ripping and tearing their clothes but twisting and turning uncontrollably on the ground. Mu Nianci had her acupoints sealed and could not move. Thus, even though her emotions and concentration was deeply disturbed and provoked by the flute tune, she did not kick out or dance madly because she could not move and laid silently on the ground.
Ouyang Ke’s cheeks had turned bright red, his head was burning and his throat was dry and uncomfortable. He knew that if he did not stop this now and escape, he would die and thus summoned up all his determination and bit on his tongue. The pain diverted his attention from the flute tune and the sound had less impact on him for a while. He grabbed this opportunity to escape and ran for his life. It was not until he was several miles away from the place when he could not hear the flute sound anymore and was thus relieved. Ouyang Ke was thoroughly exhausted and felt extremely weak, as if he had fallen very sick,
He thought to himself, “ Who is that weird man? Who is that weird man?”
Meanwhile, Huang Rong and Guo Jing returned to their rooms to sleep after they sent Mu Nianci off. They were pleased with their relaxing trip on the lake so far. Guo Jing knew that once Mu Nianci was off, Mei Chaofeng would soon appear. She was vicious and deadly in her attacks. He worried that there will be no one to match her and many people would thus get hurt. Guo Jing decided to consult Huang Rong and asked her, “ I think we better tell Master Lu about Mei Chaofeng and plead with him to let Wanyang Kang off so as to save the people in the manor from any hurt.”
Huang Rong waved her hand and replied, “ That’s not a good idea. Wanyang Kang is an evil brat; let him suffer a few more days. If he is let off so easily, then he will not learn his lesson.”
Actually Huang Rong couldn’t care less about whether Wanyan Kang repents or not. She thought that since he was the disciple of the “two bad eggs” Qiu Chuji and Mei Chaofeng, then he might as well stay a baddie. She thought it fun to make life difficult for Wanyan Kang. But Huang Rong was afraid that if Wanyan Kang does not repent, Mu Nianci would seriously not marry him and if Mu Nianci does not have a husband, the busybodies would once again force Guo Jing to marry her which would be disastrous, therefore, she decided that it would be better for Wanyan kang to repent.
Guo Jing asked, “ What shall we do if Mei Chaofeng arrives?”
Huang Rong smiled, “ Let’s try out what Qigong has taught us on her then!”
Guo Jing knew that it was pointless to argue with Huang Rong and thus returned her smile. But he thought secretly that since Master Lu had taken such good care of them, he would risk his life to protect everyone in the manor no matter what.
Two days later, both of them told Master Lu that they would not leave yet. Master Lu was even nicer to them as he had hoped that they would stay longer. On the third morning, Master Lu was chatting with Huang Rong and Guo Jing in his study when Lu Guanying rushed in with a paled expression. Behind him was one of the housekeepers who carried a wooden tray. There was something on the tray but it was wrapped up with a green cloth.
Lu Guanying said, “ Father, someone sent this just now.” With that, he unwrapped the green cloth to reveal a white skull with five finger holes on top of it; it was indeed Mei Chaofeng’s work.