In the front, we have learned that Lin Lin, who was accompanied by Lie Bok Liong, was hopefully traveling to the king's city. His heart was very happy because he really wanted to meet Suling Emas who was suspected of being the killer of General Kam Si Ek and his wife. Luckily he overheard the conversation between Suma-kongcu and the beggar figures who stated that the golden flute was in the palace library building. We follow their journey again.
They had managed to escape from the Suma family building in An-sui west of the king's city and continued their journey on a moonlit night. They walked around casually, chatting happily.
So happy, so safe as if there was no danger of anything lurking.
Indeed, Lin Lin is a young girl who is happy and still inexperienced, so she enjoys traveling and chatting with Lie Bok Liong. This girl who is still green has absolutely no idea of the danger that threatens her. As for Lie Bok Liong, he is a young warrior who is full of experience, usually very careful, alert and far-sighted, honest and noble-hearted. It will still be that night, his heart is broken, messed up by the juwita beside him. Twice he had smacked himself on the forehead for thinking nonsense about Lin Lin.
The night was too beautiful, the moon was too bright, and the girl beside him was too beautiful. Bok Liong walked beside Lin Lin with a muddled heart and feeling, so he couldn't really be blamed if he himself became careless, lost his vigilance. Beside Lin Lin, the world had become too beautiful for him that he temporarily forgot about the dangers that threatened life from all around.
Even though Suma Boan or Suma-kongcu himself did not give chase because he understood that he would not win alone against these two shrewd young men, of course Suma-kongcu did not let the humiliation take place in his house just like that. He secretly ordered a guard to contact the kai-pang leaders and soon after, the leaders of the beggar association who happened to be there and who could be contacted had already arranged a plan to intercept Lin Lin and Bok Liong. There were three shrewd beggars who happened to be contacted by Suma-kongcu and who immediately brought their friends in pursuit.
The first was the chairman of the Hui-houw-kai-pang (Flying Tiger) beggar association. Hui-houw-pangcu is an old man, about sixty years old, his hair is all white and his weapon is a steel staff. Apart from being very skilled at his wand, he is also very famous for his secret weapon which he calls tiger fur. In fact, this weapon is fine needles that are poisoned, anyone who gets hit will experience itching that spreads throughout the body and ends with a horrible death.
Hui-houw-pangcu went in pursuit with his troop that he was most proud of, namely the Hui-houw-tin (Flying Tiger Corps). This line consisted of thirteen beggar figures who were highly intelligent and specially trained to form the Hui-houw-tin. Hui-houw-pangcu's heart was full of inviting his ranks. Even though he heard from Suma-kongcu that the two young men were shrewd, he was sure that Hui-houw-tin would be able to defeat them and be able to capture them as requested by Suma-kongcu.
Past midnight, Lin Lin and Bok Liong postponed their journey because they felt tired and sleepy. Bok Liong, who had traveled through this area several times, knew that outside the forest there was an ancient temple that was empty and unused. They then headed to the temple and were delighted that Lin Lin could rest in a sheltered place so the weather wasn't too cold. Bok Liong immediately made a bonfire and they sat in the front room which was somewhat clean after the two of them swept the floor with dry leaves.
"You relax and sleep, Lin-moi, let me look after here."
"How can I sleep if someone guarded? Twako, don't think I'm someone who wants to enjoy himself, sleep tight letting you be bitten by mosquitoes and sleepy. No, if you don't sleep, I won't sleep either.”
Bok Liong smiled broadly, deeply grateful that this girl had such a good character. Indeed, when people are making love, everything the person they love does is always good, every movement is pleasant. He understood that if he argued, this stubborn girl would really not want to sleep.
"Okay, I'll sleep here too, you sleep there. Tomorrow morning we will wake up and continue our journey to the city of the king."
"Well, that's just a fair name," said Lin Lin seeing the young man lying on his back by the bonfire. He then lay down on his side, his back to the bonfire that dazzled his eyes, pillowed in thought. Seeing this, Bok Liong threw the bundle of clothes away.
"Here, use it as a pillow, not bad."
Lin Lin didn't argue, gave a grateful smile and then narrowed her eyes. Bok Liong of course didn't want to sleep, knowing that if the two of them fell asleep in that place, it would be very dangerous. The most dangerous are snakes, because there are several types of snakes that are not afraid of fire. Also if the bonfire goes out no one knows. He had just laid down just to warm up Lin Lin's heart so that the lady would go to sleep. Because the girl was lying on her back, she could freely look behind Lin Lin's body and her mind wandered far away, her eyes and lips imagined a passionate and longing heart. This is what keeps him from vigilance. Little did he know that dozens of pairs of eyes were lurking from the dark!
Suddenly, while Bok Liong was daydreaming, small white lights flashed across him. Bok Liong, a young warrior who is trained and has experienced a lot of experience in the world of Kang-ouw, is shocked. It wasn't the white light shining towards him that shocked him, but the light shining towards Lin Lin who was already sound asleep!
Without further thought, solely to protect the girl from death, she threw herself in front of Lin Lin while flapping her sleeves. It was so fast that it sent several fine needles that had been swooping towards it flying past and sticking into the wall. He also managed to save Lin Lin, but the two needles failed to quickly collapse and immediately stuck to the base of his left arm.
“Twako... what's wrong...?” Lin Lin jumped up and as fast as lightning he jumped again ahead of Bok Liong.
As a high martial artist, as soon as he realized from his sleep Lin Lin was already on alert and for a second he thought that Bok Liong had impudently approached him. As he was about to curse while pulling out his sword, he suddenly saw Bok Liong groaning and scratching the base of his left arm. At that time, a white light was also flashing. Lin Lin knew that they were attacked by an opponent with a secret weapon, so quickly he turned his sword, jumped in front of Bok Liong and the yellow light of his sword was a scroll that knocked down the white rays of lightning.
"Don't move, pull out this rubbing needle!" suddenly there was a sound from afar, only the echo could be heard, but suddenly a small object floated and fell near Bok Liong. Turns out it was a small package.
Bok Liong had previously felt uncontrollable itching at the base of his arm so even though he knew that scratching it was a dangerous taboo, he couldn't hold it in. Hearing the sound he was surprised, but also happy to see the package coming. What's more seeing that Lin Lin was not injured, even this girl was now standing up to protect him.
Quickly he tore off his shirt by the sleeves, using the still-hot bonfire's lighting to pluck out two needles that had almost completely sunk into his flesh. He opened the package and found it contained yellow powder. Without hesitation Bok Liong rubbed the yellow powder on the two small wounds at the base of his left arm. Great! Immediately the itching sensation disappeared. With overflowing anger Bok Liong drew his sword, jumped to stand beside Lin Lin and shouted.
“A beast-villain with a cowardly disposition! If you really have the skills, come out and let's fight bravely!"
There was a sound of mocking laughter. "We've been here for a long time, open your eyes carefully, arrogant young man!"
Bok Liong and Lin Lin turned around. Presumably the dark assailant had moved, now behind them. The hair on their necks bristled at the thought of how dangerous they had been. If this dark attacker attacks with fine needles again from behind, isn't it very dangerous?
The needles were so fine that you couldn't hear the snap. Only thanks to the light of the bonfire did the white needles seem to flash so that they could collapse. Presumably there was not just one person there, but fourteen people who were all dressed as beggars. They knew that this matter must have something to do with the three people that Lin Lin knocked down in the Suma-kongcu building.
"Hmmm, I hope you are also experts in secret weapons. I was amazed and admitted defeat in terms of secret weapons. However, we challenge you to face the Flying Tigers (Hui-houw-tin). If you don't dare, it's better for you to surrender to us as captives. If you can win Hui-houw-tin, then I Hui-houw-pangcu admit defeat.”
Bok Liong and Lin Lin were secretly shocked and amazed. How could this old beggar speak so strangely, express admiration and admit defeat in secret weapons? Even though they didn't let go of their weapons at all, even in the face of the attack with the needles earlier, even though Bok Liong managed to collapse and Lin Lin also managed to use a sword to thwart the second attack, Bok Liong was still injured. This of course absolutely could not be assumed that the two of them had won the secret weapon battle!
Of course these two people didn't know that in the dark just now, after Lin Lin spun the blade to sweep the needles down, needles were still flying continuously and one after another by moving from various directions, often from towards the back of the two young people. This is the Hui-houw-stimulus that attacks them from the dark places in a mobile manner. However, all the needles that grabbed from the hidden place collapsed all met with small objects flying from all directions and it turned out that what knocked down the needles were leaves, flowers and small fruits that were strangely coming from the opposite direction so Hui-houw-pangcu of course thought that the two young people he had attacked had released the objects!
However, naturally Bok Liong and Lin Lin did not want to express this astonishment. Angrily they then stepped forward to face the line that had been arranged in front of the ancient temple with an open front hall.
Thirteen beggars with steel rods in their hands had assembled the Flying Tigers' March. Three people as the head, two people each as the right and left wings, four people as the four legs and two people as the tail.
Bok Liong and Lin Lin, who had high intelligence, naturally didn't feel daunted. “Back to back to face them, preventing dark attacks from behind,” whispered Bok Liong. Lin Lin was amazed and immediately took this advice because that was indeed the best way for them so that in their mob they could devote all their attention to the front without fear of dark ambushes.
However, this assumption was wrong and it was forced that Bok Liong's plan was impossible to sustain. Presumably the thirteen had not confined them at all as a line usually does when surrounding a few enemies. They immediately lunged forward from the front in an orderly manner like the movements of a flying tiger, so that when they lunged forward only Lin Lin was showered with attacks while Bok Liong faced no opponents.
Lin Lin didn't flinch and quickly spun the Yellow Iron Sword in her hand, but she was very surprised because the opponent's stick weapons made of pure steel came one after another regularly, so she didn't even have time to counterattack because she was busy dealing with the arrival of the staff's shadow. who like rain fell on him from above, right, left and below!
Seeing this way of their attack, of course Bok Liong was worried that Lin Lin might get hurt at the hands of that strange array. What's more, his heart is very bad if the line just lunges at Lin Lin and leaves him idle to just guard Lin Lin's back. He shouted loudly and flipped over and lunged, helping Lin Lin. But he was still on guard, keeping them from being lulled and deceived.
Indeed, Bok Liong has a lot of experience in combat. He was quite familiar with Lin Lin's sword prowess, and he also understood that this girl could become very vicious when she got angry at her opponent. Both of them directly did not have personal animosity with beggars, so he also considered there was no need to lower an iron fist on them.
“Lin-moi, you block their attacks, let me take the revenge!”
"Good!" replied Lin Lin, amazed again because she understood that that was the only way they could attack back, that is, one defended, the other attacked.
Immediately he spun his sword into a coil of sparkling yellow light that wrapped around him. On the other hand, Bok Liong jumped behind Lin Lin, let all the sticks attack the girl, then he lunged at her from the side. The result was very good, there was a scream of pain and one of the three people who was part of the head, collapsed and rolled over injured his thigh by the tip of Bok Liong's sword.
But suddenly at that moment a white light flashed from behind. This is what Bok Liong is worried about. It's good that this young man has been alert since earlier. Seeing the white light flashing, he quickly spun the sword as he jumped behind Lin Lin and all the needles fell down in his sword beam. Bok Liong's heart became worried too.
It's also a shame that this is how they do the beatings. He glanced and saw how Lin Lin's defense was as strong and sturdy as a steel fortress. Even if the girl didn't get a chance to counterattack, but with that kind of defense, even if there were two Hui-houw-tin lines, it might not be certain that she would be able to break through his defenses within an hour or two!
“Lin-moi, hold on, I caught his head!” he whispered back.
Lin Lin already fully believed in her friend's cunning. "Fine," he answered without hesitation.
Bok Liong jumped suddenly, his movements were very fast. With only a few jumps he had arrived behind the grove of trees from which the needles had snatched. And... what did he see? He stood dumbfounded looking at Hui-houw-pangcu who had collapsed on his back with a stiff body, both hands still holding the poisoned needles! It turned out that this old beggar had been tapped by his blood vessels which made his body stiff and unable to move for several hours. Who did this? There was no mistake, thought Bok Liong, of course it was he who had helped him by giving him the antidote!
However, he didn't have time to be surprised at this because there Lin Lin was still facing the mob of Hui-houw-tin's line, even though one had fallen, he was still very strong and quite dangerous. His heart was relieved because with the head of Hui-houw-pang who loved playing poison needles down, he no longer had to worry about dark attacks from behind. Quickly he turned and jumped into the battle, and immediately lunged from the side. Overjoyed and relieved to see the dark assailant helpless again, this young man charged vigorously and his sword knocked down two of the mobsters!
However, even though there were three fewer people, the Hui-houw-tin line turned out to be even more furious. This is the specialty of Hui-houw-tin, like a tiger, if it is injured, it will attack more violently. This was because if the line was still complete with thirteen people, their space for attack would be very narrow and limited. The less the number, the more freely they move so that it seems more savage. But unfortunately for them, now what they are ganging up on are students of powerful people who have inherited very high intelligence, far beyond their level.
Now feeling certain that no one would attack him with a secret weapon from behind, Bok Liong happily slaughtered his opponents one by one quickly so that in less than a quarter of an hour, the mobs were left with four more people who quickly threw sticks and knelt down begging for forgiveness! Lin Lin was very excited, his arm moved to slash with his sword, but Bok Liong touched his arm.
“Come on, Lin-moi. They're just carrying out orders. We have no personal enmity with them. Let's go!"
The experience in this battle opened Lin Lin's eyes that her friend was a young man who besides being proficient in martial arts, was also smart and experienced. If only he had faced these beggars alone earlier, it seems that he would have been in great danger. Remembering this, even though his heart was dissatisfied with not being able to kill his mobsters, he didn't argue back and together with Bok Liong they jumped off and ran quickly away from the place. The full moon is tilted to the west, but its light still illuminates the universe. The incident had dispelled sleep and they walked on into the forest.
The night was nearing dawn when the descending moon covered the mountain peaks and its light grew dim. The dark conditions plus the very cold weather forced the two young people to stop again in the forest, choose an open place among the big trees and they crouched in front of the bonfire which brought a comfortable warmth.
“Liok-twako, you left me to catch Hui-houw-pangcu, what was the result? You haven't told me yet."
Bok Liong took a deep breath. Earlier, he had deliberately kept quiet, for fear that this strange girl would insist on finding the helper. A helper who doesn't want to show himself doesn't need to be forced to appear, and usually only powerful people act like that.
"Lin-moi, during the battle just now, the two of us were only able to get out safely thanks to the help of a divine being."
Lin Lin nodded her head. "As expected, I even thought your teacher was throwing drugs at you, Twako."
"Not the temperature, but someone else, I don't know who. His poison-killing medicine is very efficacious, and his intelligence is extraordinary.”
“How did you know, Twako?”
“Don't you remember what Hui-houw-pangcu said that he lost the secret weapon fight with us? Even though we never let go of a secret weapon. How could he admit defeat in an am-gi (dark weapon) fight? It couldn't be other, of course our helper subdued him, maybe by pounding his needles with other very skilled am-gis. And do you know what happened when I left you to beat up that cheating leader Hui-houw-pang? He had collapsed stiffly, who else if not our helpers punched him. In his hands are still full of poisoned needles that he has not had time to give us."
Sure enough, Lin Lin was very interested in his heart. “Who is he Twako? Ah, after he helped us, why were you silent earlier? Why not call out for him to show up? I would love to get to know her, Twako, would like to...”
"What do you want?" Bok Liong himself was surprised to hear that his voice was different from usual, and even more surprised to feel how tight his chest was and how unhappy he felt. Jealous! But he was not aware of this.
"Wanna invite him to compete, test his intelligence!"
This answer made Bok Liong gasp in surprise, he finally laughed. This girl of his heart is totally wacky, funny, sweet and awesome!
“Lin-moi, if a sacred person doesn't want to be seen by people, don't expect to be able to meet him. It's obvious that he's helping us by hiding, it just means that he doesn't want us to see him, so the best way is just to let him continue that attitude. Forcing him to appear would be against his will and this is not a very good expression of gratitude.”
Lin Lin doesn't like being arrogant. “Humph, who forced him to help us? I don't need help myself. If indeed he feels so high and so noble that he thinks it is not worth having a meeting with us, why does he help us without us asking? Uh, I can't believe whether he really is a saint, even more can't believe whether he has good intentions with his help.”
“Ssstttt... Lin-moi, why did you say that...?”
Lin Lin jumped to his feet. "Let! I still can't believe he meant well. You may be afraid of him, Liong-twako, but I am not afraid. If he's really a good person, why play secrets? Who wants to play cat and mouse with people we don't know? People like that only display their arrogance and conceit, feeling superior to others!”
Bok Liong had a hard time. Woe, he thought. This girl had a relapse, and he could dive into the feelings of this girl which made him can't help but admire her even more. It was clear that Lin Lin had a strange character, but was innocent, not afraid of anyone, did not like people who were wishy-washy and fakes. But no matter what, his heart felt very bad for his benefactor. What if the helper hears Lin Lin's words?
“Ahhhhh...!”
Bok Liong jumped up, looked left and right.
“Eh, what are you doing, Twako?”
“Lin-moi, didn't you hear just now? It's clear there are people who take a deep breath, very close...”
Lin Lin also looked left and right, astonished. “I didn't hear anything. Ah, Twako, you are like a child hearing a terrible tale so frightened and everywhere you see demons. Hi-hic!”
Bok Liong's face turned red, then he sat back down. "Lin-moi, it hasn't been long since you entered the world of kang-ouw, you don't know much about holy people..."
Before Lin Lin could answer, suddenly there was a loud hiss and Lin Lin screamed, "Snake...!" She was like most women, feeling disgusted and amused at the sight of snakes, however, as a female warrior, of course she was not afraid. Quickly a yellow light flashed and at another moment the snake's body had been maimed into two pieces!
Bok Liong's eyes widened when he looked at the dead snake. “Wow, damn, we seem to have stopped in the fire snake area! This kind of snake is not afraid of fire and is very poisonous. The poison is hot and makes the victim's body scorched as if eaten by fire, so he is called a fire snake. Eh... watch out Lin-moi...!” Bok Liong had already drawn his sword. Twice he flashed his sword and two snakes fell down with their necks cut off. It turned out to be two snakes grabbing Lin Lin from above.
"Wow... the fire snake can't possibly fly, of course someone threw it...! Lin-moi, watch out, it looks like an enemy is attacking…”
"I am not afraid! All cowards are cheating, if you dare to show up, I'll cut off his neck!" Lin Lin shouted angrily because last night there were always people who didn't want to openly attack or help.
The answer to Lin Lin's scream was a sound of laughter followed by the appearance of an old man dressed as a beggar. This beggar grandfather's left leg was stump, instead he held a long stick, a stick that was swollen like a snake's body. His patched clothes were all striped and mottled like snakeskin. When Lin Lin looked at him attentively, to him that person's face even looked like that of a snake!
"Hmmm, I think Sin-coa-kai (Snake Beggar) is playing with us!" said Bok Liong in a mocking voice.
He had heard about this beggar who was the head or leader of a group of beggars who liked to collect snake venom and sell it to drugstores. As an expert at catching venomous snakes, of course this beggar was very shrewd, in fact, his nickname was also the Sacred Snake Beggar! However, he had also heard of the evil practices of this beggar and his entourage, namely selling snake poisons to criminals for heinous purposes. So he looked down and scoffed.
The stupefied beggar chuckled. “Ha-ha-ha, sharp-eyed young man, presumably you know Sin-coa-kai too! Ha-ha, if you already know my name and know my shrewdness, it's better to give up so I'll hand you over to Suma-kongcu. Heh, it's no wonder that Suma-kongcu is trying hard to catch you, I hope there is this angel who looks like this and can..."