by San Bei Jiu
I left the Kuans’ (Yan Ching’s account)
After recovering the Jade Statue for Mister Kuan (Please refer to the previous story), I decided to leave the Kuan family. I could no longer accept the family’s history; I could not accept their ill-gotten wealth. But at the same time, I was also conscious of the fact that this sin was committed three generations ago, should I be judging them? I did not have a good answer, so I left.
I hope that Mister Kuan would make good the promises he made to the Yang family, if not, all the gold in the world would not be able to protect him and his family. I knew I was no match for Cheng Ting if he came back for revenge. The only way Mister Kuan could safeguard his family was by carrying out the reforms he had promised. Should he decide otherwise, I had no intention to fight on his side.
After one month’s notice to tie up the loose ends, I left Luoyang. I had not decided what I wanted to do next; I had plenty of time on my side. Mister Kuan despite being unhappy about me leaving had rewarded me handsomely for my success in resolving the Jade Statue crisis. I have enough gold pieces to last me for a long time.
Right after resolving the Jade Statue crisis, my two friends (Night Owl and River Ghost) and I had spent days catching up on old times, we spent three days and three nights in the finest restaurant in Luoyang utterly drunk. During that time, we made plans to take a break from our work and travel to the west to visit some old comrades of ours.
The choice of west was very simple, the beautiful mountains and open plains in the west was far away from all this hatred and bitterness so common in the city. The encounter with the Yang family and their tragic history had provoked our self-examination, we did not want to follow the footsteps of Old Granny Yang. We did not want to wake up one morning eighty years later to find that we had wasted our lives on some meaningless chase. We felt that we needed a break from it all, we went west.
We chose the region of Shu, where the Central Plains culture was not strong, and the mountainous landscape was renowned. This region was originally the home of non-Han tribes, but it was later conquered by the Han dynasty (about a thousand years back). Ever since then many people from the Middle Kingdom had slowly came to settle here, this region had eventually became one of the richest region in the empire.
We will visit our old friend Xiao Miao who was of the Miao tribe; he was one of us during our younger day when we roamed the Central Plains looking for adventure. He had since gone back to his homeland in the Shu Mountains. Xiao Miao was his nickname, but none of us knew his real name. Xiao Miao literally meant the small Miao boy.
Xiao Miao (Yan Ching narrates)
We took a leisure route to the Shu region, passing many beautiful scenic landscapes along the way. As we travelled deeper into the region, the people we met on the way became less and less Sinicized, the culture and language were very different from the Central Plains’.
Finally we reach the mountain village of Xiao Miao, it was situated high up in the mountains, and the scenery was breath-taking. The village survived on subsistent farming, they grew rice and vegetables and kept many live stocks. The mountain range they were on stretched for hundreds of miles around, I was indeed far from the noises of the city.
We were delighted to see our old friend again; Xiao Miao was still the same care free person he was years ago. He brought us around the region visiting many interesting place, after spending many days sightseeing, we were worn out and decided to find a nice place to rest for a few days.
Sunrise Inn (Yan Ching narrates)
We settled on a little inn built along the mountain path, the inn must have been there to service the travelers along the route deeper into the mountains, as the season was approaching winter there was very little traffic. We took a room each telling the innkeeper that we will be staying for four days, the innkeeper was happy to have us for this low season. The inn was called Sunrise Inn.
The innkeeper told us that he had another few guests staying there at the moment and he warned us that we must leave the other guests alone as they did not like to mix around. Even though it was a strange request, we did not think too much about it as we had no intention to bother anybody. We spent the day minding our own business, exploring the area nearby, drinking the surprisingly fine wine and eating the excellent cuisine served from the kitchen.
We were pleasantly surprised by the level of food and wine available at this small little inn, normally such small establishment would not be able to provide exquisite cuisines of such quality. Such small inns were usually meant for travelers who were just passing through; they were not expected to come up with exceptional cuisines. But they did. So with my gold pieces from Mister Kuan I was able to buy the best wine and best food for all my friends.
It was on the second night we were there that we got our first glimpse of our fellow guests at the inn. We were having our dinner when the first of them walked in. He was an old man with flowing white hair and beard and he was dressed in a farmer’s outfit. He did not look at us at all and went straight to a table and sat down. He quietly ordered his food and sat down to read a book totally absorbed in his own world.
Next came another old man carrying a few fishes in a basket, he sat down at another table and ordered the servers to cook the fishes for him. He told the server that he had caught the fishes at the nearby stream and to cook it delicately as they were very fresh. He too took out a book and started reading.
Soon two men came in, they looks like travelers passing through, they were carrying a heavy box and the way they were carrying it indicated that it was something precious. They were nervously eyeing everybody as they sat down; they chose a table at the far corner of the dining hall to be away from all of us. They were obviously very wary of all of us as they must be carrying something valuable.
As the kitchen started serving dinner, a young man walked in, he was dressed in luxurious clothing, and carried an expensive looking sword. He seems to know the innkeeper very well, as he sat down by a big table; the innkeeper was serving him personally. He placed a piece of gold on the table and told the innkeeper to serve him the best available. The innkeeper was bowing to him and promising the best food available while greedily grabbing the piece of gold. Now I understood why this small little inn had such expensive cuisines available, they had very rich customers.
Soon the kitchen was cooking up course after course of elegant dishes for him, freshly steamed fish, roasted whole lamb, fragrance soups, fried deer meat and countless many others. The young man picked a little morsel from every dish and left the rest alone; it was a painful waste of food. The expensive wine he drank was so robust and fragrant that we could smell it from our table. The entire service staff of the place was devoted to serving the young man; the rest of us quietly ate our own humble meals while hungrily eyeing the young man’s leftovers.
I had never seen such extravagance before, even my former employer Mister Kuan who was very rich did not behave this way. There must be a reason behind this behavior.
The young man was giving the impression that he was eating his last meal. He had spent a lot of money on this banquet, but ironically, he did not seem to be able to enjoy the excellent food laid out before him. His mind seemed to have drifted off to somewhere far away; he just sat there staring straight ahead into empty space, eating the food without tasting it.
Before we could finish our dinner, another group of travelers walked in, there were six of them. They were fierce looking and all of them were carrying weapons, sabers, swords and the leader among them carried a heavy saber.
The heavy blade saber was a heavy weapon, it usually weighted sixty to eighty jins (One kilogram =two jins). To use such a weapon, the user must be very strong, especially the wrist. If used effectively, the opponent would have a hard time defending as it was very difficult to block or parry a blow from such a weapon.
I noticed that from the moment they entered the restaurant their eyes were on the two travelers who were carrying the box. These six men totally ignored t
he rest of the people; they were just starring at the two. And I notice that that the two men knew they were in trouble, the moment these six came in the two men had stopped eating their dinner, and both of them had laid their hand on the box beside them in an unconscious effort to protect their precious cargo.
As the six men were served their dinner, a horse drawn carriage drew up to the road outside the inn, but nobody got off the carriage. It just stood there in the dark…
Soon dinner was over, even the young man’s elaborate dishes were cleared away; the two old men were quietly sipping their tea while the rest of us were drinking rice wine. It was a cold winter night; a charcoal brazier was placed in the middle to warm the room. Light snow was beginning to fall outside.
Despite all the wine being consumed, nobody was drunk; the room was quiet as a tomb. The two old men were reading quietly, the young man silently staring in front of him and the group of six was just staring at the two men. Even the four of us who were usually very chirpy were only softly whispering to each other. The atmosphere was very tense; we all knew something was about to explode. The two men carrying the box were looking very nervous.
It was quite obvious that the gang of six was interested in the two men carrying the box; clearly the target would be the precious cargo in the box. As righteous Wuxias’, we could not allow this to happen, but at the same time we had to determine the basis of this conflict. If it was an outright robbery, the solution would be simple; we will defend the weak.
We had no wish for trouble, especially so since we were in unknown territory, and we had no knowledge of the rivalries in this region. Some localized tuft rivalries could be very complicated, some extending for generations. Sometimes such discord lasted so long that the people fighting it no longer remember how it had started in the first place. If this fight was anything to do with such tuft war we had no intention to get involved…such things never end.
But, as outsiders it would be wise to clarify first before we take drastic action…we waited.
Suddenly a voice spoke up, it came from the carriage outside; the voice was clear and powerful, it said, “Tu Gao, do not waste any more time, go take it.”
The leader of the six got up and replied, “Yes master”. Obviously he was Tu Gao.
He walked towards the two nervous men and said, “Please hand over the box; you will not be harmed. Please tell your master that the Ding family of Huang Long city had taken the box from you. If he wishes to pay us a visit we will pay him handsomely for the box, if he wishes to punish us for this act, we will take full responsibility. We will give him a settlement according to the rules of Wulin.”
He continued, “Please tell your master that we humbly apologize for this ill-mannered way of buying his treasure, we had no choice, my young master is very sick. We are willing to bear all the consequences of this impertinence. Please hand it over, please do not make it difficult for me.”
One of the two men said, “You cannot just take things that do not belong to you, my master has the right to sell or not sell to the Ding family. There are laws in this land, how can you threaten me just …..” He was both scared and indignant; however it was quite clear that there was no law in this small little inn that would protect them from these robbers.
The two old men and the young swordsman did not seem to have heard this conversation at all. The old men were deeply engrossed in their books while the young man was staring intently into empty space; the innkeeper had remained behind his counter while his servants were still running around serving tea and wine. Nobody had given them a second look…it was up to the four of us.
As I got up, the remaining five men of the group shot up from their chairs and stood before me with their weapons drawn. I was unarmed as I had left my saber by my table; I walked towards the group and said, “Dear gentlemen, I know I had no right to interfere as I have no idea what is going on. But if you are robbing these two gentlemen right before my eyes, I cannot just stand back and watch.”
I continued, “As a person skilled in martial art it is a shame to use our skills to bully the weak, dear brother, please let them be.”
The leader Tu Gao replied without turning his head, “Dear brother of the Wulin, I respect your chivalry, but I suggest that you step back and do not interfere with this. I am a Wulin practitioner, I am a proud Wuxia. I do not like what I am doing today but I have no choice.”
He continued, “I am Tu Gao, I work for the Ding family in Huang Long City, I do not intend to hide my action. I am responsible for this act; I will bear all consequences for this event. Please let me fulfill my duty tonight, if you want to challenge me in the future, you can come to Huang Long City to look for me. Tonight I must have the box.”
I replied, “No, I cannot let you rob them.”
He turned around and said, “In that case, please allow me to apologize for my subsequent action.”
One of his men brought his heavy saber to him, and he swung it around with ease, the rest of his men moved aside to let him engage me. By now, all my three friends came to my side, I told them, “Please let me entertain Mister Tu Gao alone.” I picked up my saber and moved toward Tu Gao.
I knew I had no choice but to fight Tu Gao to prevent the robbery; I believed we were evenly matched in term of skills; he would have a slight advantage of strength. I had utmost respect for this gentleman as he was clearly reluctant to carry out his duty; I believe he was forced by circumstances to commit this robbery. He had been conducting himself honourably by doing this openly and he did not try to hide his own identity. I was curious to the reasons forcing him to commit this unpalatable act of robbery.
Tu Gao did not hold back his attack; he went straight for the kill. It was unusual that two strangers engaging for the first time would want to commit so fully the fight. Fighters normally use some time to figure out the opponent’s strength and weaknesses before adopting a strategy. Tu Gao did not bother with that, he seemed to be in a hurry.
By doing this he was taking unnecessary risk as he had exposed himself to my counter offensive. He seems to be willingly trading his own life for speed.
As my saber was a much lighter weapon, I could not block his swift strokes of his heavy saber; I could only dodge him by my nimble footwork. Whenever there was an opening I would try to get closer into his space to neutralize the advantage of the heavy weapon.
Having fought numerous engagements in my life, I had learned that when fighting an opponent using a heavy weapon, one must always try to close in to the opponent. At a distance of two to three feet, the heavy weapon is as good as useless. On the other hand at that distance my razor sharp saber would be deadly.
Tu Gao was also aware of what I was doing; he cautiously tightened his strike patterns and movements to push me away. Every time I manage to get into his space, he positioned his heavy saber close to his body with the blunt side of the saber sliding almost next to his body. In that move his huge saber was used like body armour to protect him from my slicing strikes.
Time and again I was push back again by his explosive movements. As I had predicted we were evenly matched, we fought back and fore for a long time without any one gaining an upper hand.
While all this was going on, the two old men and the lone young man were still reading their books and staring into empty space. They were totally uninterested in the fight. The strangest of all was that the innkeeper and the servants were equally clam about the events around them.
The innkeeper was at his counter counting his money on his abacus, and the servants continued serving wine and pouring tea. This was a bizarre situation as any normal innkeeper and his servants would never react so calmly to a fight in their inn. This inn was getting more mysterious by the moment.
After a fruitless long fight, both of us were closed to exhaustion. Suddenly a shadow of a figure burst fore from the darkness of the carriage outside with lightning speed. The figure said, “We have wasted too much time, Tu Gao stand back.”
&nbs
p; At a blink of an eye, a frail old man stood in between me and Tu Gao, he was dressed like a servant of a rich household, similar to my former employer Mister Kuan’s servants…a senior servant, probably the position of a chief servant. At his command, Tu Gao respectful stepped back.
I knew this new arrival was a formidable opponent; the speed that he had moved from the carriage into the dining hall was surreal. He moved like a flash of lightning, had he wanted to ambush me from behind he could have done it easily as my back was to the entrance of the dining hall. The frailty of his looks belied a highly skilled martial art expert; I realized that I was no match for him.
He turned to me and said respectfully, “Dear Wuxia, I respect your brave act of defending the weak, but we are on an urgent task, we have no choice but to resort to this shamefully mean. I am Yang Su; I work for the Ding family of Huang Long City. I do not intend to fight you tonight, but if you insist I will kill you.” His threat was spoken in a casual manner.
He continued, “Dear Sir, we do not have the time to explain our situation; it is a matter of life and death. If you let us leave with the box tonight, you can come to Huang Long city another day and I will then provide you with an explanation, by then, if you think our reasons were not sufficient, you can take any of our lives. I promise you, I will not defend myself.”
I replied, “Mister Yang, I am aware that I am no match to you in martial art, but that does not mitigate my responsibility to fight this injustice, I might not be able to match you, but I have three friends here who do not mind getting killed in the pursue of justice. We do not possess much in this world except our honour, if we let this injustice go, we would not be able to justify our own existence anymore.”
Yang Su lowered his head and said, “Yes, I understand. Please pardon my action.” He slowly moved into a stance of attack, he was going to fight me empty handed.
Suddenly a voice spoke up, “Stop! Dear Wuxia, please do not get killed because of us, it is not worth it. I do not know who you are, but we truly appreciate your effort. Thank you. I will hand them the box, and get it over with.” It was spoken by one of the man protecting the box.
Before I could protest he tossed the box to Tu Gao and said, “You should be ashamed of yourselves, this disgraceful act will not go unpunished. Unfortunately we are not trained in martial art; we will leave it up to the heaven to deal with you. My teacher the Apologetic Priest (nickname) had taught us to treasure life, to forgive and to apologize even if our opponents were in the wrong.”
Reluctantly he carried out his teacher’s instruction, he turned to Yang Su and said, “Mister Yang, I apologize for not handing you the box earlier, it had caused you much trouble, and please accept my humble apology.” He bowed respectfully. This unexpected turn of event had caught me off guard; I did not know how to deal with this hilarious situation, the victim of the robbery had suddenly turned around and apologized to the robbers. What was I to do?
I had heard of the Apologetic Priest, he was a Taoist priest living in a monastery high up in Er Mei Mountains; he preaches a strong philosophy of non-violence. He does not teach any form of martial art in his monastery and he taught all his disciples to apologize to everybody under all circumstances, even if the person is in the wrong. He strongly believed that a humble apology would defuse any tension; it was always the quarrelsome nature of human that had created all the troubles in the world.
This strange Priest practiced his own teachings; I heard that whenever he meets someone, his first comment would be, “Please accept my apology for not meeting you earlier...”
When his disciples commits an error, he would say, “Please forgive me for not teaching you the proper way…”
This Apologetic Priest was very well respected in Wulin even though he did not possess any martial art skills; he was often called upon to defuse tension between enemies in the world of Wulin. I had never met him in person, but I had heard many stories of his deeds. And I knew he had many friends in Wulin, the Ding family of Huang Long City would regret crossing a person like the Apologetic Priest. The friends of the Priest would be seeking justice for him even without his consent; the Ding family of Huang Long would be very busy soon.
To cross a person like the Apologetic Priest was like crossing the Emperor, everyone in Wulin would consider you an enemy.
Had Yang Su and Tu Gao been unscrupulous bandits, they would have silenced everyone in the inn to keep this event quiet, but they were not such character. They were upright Wuxia’s who were willing to standing up to their action. Admirable…
With the box in hand, the group prepared to leave to dining hall, but before they could step out two chopsticks flew from the back of the room and hit Tu Gao on the back of his knee. The chopsticks did not pierce him but it hit an acupuncture point that made his legs turned to jelly, he tumbled to the ground.
Yang Su who was walking in front stopped on his tracks but he did not turn around. He said, “I did not know that such a small little inn would have such a highly skilled expert staying here. If it was any other day, I would be happy to make your acquaintance, but tonight I am on an urgent task. Please allow me to go, you can come and find me another day.”
He slowly turned and looked at the first old man, but the old man was still reading his book! My three friends and I were absolutely puzzled; we had no clue as to who had fired the chopsticks. But from the trajectory, we knew it must have come from one of the old man sitting there.
The distance from the old man to Tu Gao was about twenty foot, to fire a light bamboo chopstick and hit someone with sufficient force to trigger an acupuncture point would have required tremendous amount of strength. The accuracy of the hit was also phenomenon. It seems like we were in the presence of an exceptional martial art expert.
Yang Su walked towards to old man and said, “Tu Gao, we must not be delayed, you bring the box back to young Master, I will take care of things here.”
By now Tu Gao had been helped to his feet by his men, they tried to help him out to the carriage. But before they could take another step, the first old man had in a flash move to the doorway of the dining hall, blocking the exit. But he was still sitting on a chair reading his book, except that he was now sitting at the doorway!! How he had moved across the hall, nobody knew. The move was so swift that the eyes did not capture the movement in between. One moment I saw him sitting at the table, but the next moment he was sitting at the doorway.
Yang Su knew he had been out classed, but he had a duty to his master, without any warning, he charged forward with his palm extended. The old man without looking up from his book countered Yang Su’s attack with a wave of his left hand. I was standing about ten feet away, but I could feel the power of this casual wave of his hand. I felt the shock wave of this strike; it was not the power of physical energy, it was something beyond that. It was an invisible force, it was internal energy. Such power did not come from the muscles of the limbs; it came from the entire body.
Yang Su was tossed by this incredible stream of force; it propelled him several feet back. It took him several stumbling steps to steady himself. His already frail look had turned deadly pale; he brushed aside the helping hands from his men and sat down on the floor. He closed his eyes and rested, I could tell that he had sustained severe internal injuries. Slowly blood began to flow out from the corner of his mouth.
After a while, he opened his eyes and said, “Looks like we would not be able to fulfill our duties to our Master today. Tu Gao, you all do not need to die unnecessarily, return the box and report back to Master what had happened.”
He added, “I would not be able to go with you, rush back, and let Master have the chance to make other plans. I shall die here.”
While all this fighting was going on, the other old man, the young man and the innkeeper were still totally detached from the events around them. But the moment Yang Su spoke about him dying there, the innkeeper looked up and shouted, “No, no, no, you must not die here, it will affect
my business. Nobody ever die here, if you die you must go outside first. Please do not ruin me; I am just a poor man trying to make a living.”
Then he turned to the old man sitting at the doorway, “Look what you have done, this is not our agreement, and you are not supposed to kill anyone inside here. You old fool, you are ruining my business.”
Next he turned to the other old man (the one that brought the fish in) sitting further in and said, “You, what are you waiting for? Do your job.”
The old man looked up from his book and said, “Is the fight over? Do they want to fight some more?”
The innkeeper said, “As far as I am concern it is over, anyone dare to fight in my restaurant again today will have to answer to me.” He looked around angrily at every one of us.
The old man came forward and looked at Yang Su, and he said, “Dear Sir, I am a physician, let me check your injury.”
Yang Su replied, “Dear Sir, I appreciate your help, but I know myself, I am badly injured, I do not believe you can be of any help. No need to waste your time.”
The old man laughed out loudly, and said, “Dear Sir, he had never inflicted an injury that I could not cure.” He was pointing at the other old man sitting at the doorway.
He continued, “Please trust me, I can help you, you might not have heard of us; our names are not important. He and I are the opposite spectrum of this evil world; he likes to inflict injury, and I like to heal his victims.”
He continued, “Even though we were from the same teacher, but we had learned different lessons. That is why we had not sat at the table for the past fifty years; we only talk to each other once a year, which is during the tomb sweeping day when we go to our teacher’s tomb.” While he explained all this, he was smiling; he was an extreme contrast to the other old man who was quiet and indifferent.
He took Yang Su’s hand and felt for the pulse, after a while he said, “Your foundation is strong; I will have no problem saving your life.”
He put his right hand on Yang Su’s head and closed his eyes; soon the colour started flowing back into Yang Su’s face. He checks the pulse again, and started working on Yang Su’s back, before long Yang Su was able to sit up on a chair.
It was miraculous; this old man had brought Yang Su back from the gates of hell. He was using internal energy to heal Yang Su, from the look of it; his power was not below that of the old man at the doorway. But unlike his fellow disciple, his power was used to heal.
The innkeeper turned to the old man sitting at the doorway and said, “Why are you blocking the way? They have agreed to return the box. Let them leave. I do not want anybody to die in my inn, it is bad luck.”
Surprisingly the old man got up and walked away holding his hands behind as if he was taking a casual stroll. He seems to obey every instruction from the innkeeper. With his extraordinary power, he rightfully did not need to heed anyone, but when it comes to the innkeeper, he was behaving like a little boy getting told off by his father.
The old doctor told Yang Su, “You are in no condition to travel yet, send your men to pass the message to your master. Rest here for a couple of days. I will have you back to normal in two days.”
Yang Su thanked the doctor, after some instruction from Yang Su; Tu Gao left the inn to rush back to inform the Ding family of their failure.
The innkeeper said, “Good. Good. Now all go to your room and rest, no more fighting tonight.”
The young man who was silent the whole evening finally spoke up, “How about me? What do you mean no more fighting?” He picked up his sword and was about to draw the weapon out. But before the sword was unsheathed, the innkeeper shot a copper coin through the air and hit him on his wrist. The young man’s hands turned to jelly and with one quick swift movement the innkeeper was standing in front of him and shaft the sword roughly back into the sheath.
Innkeeper said, “Young fool, I said no more fighting. If you draw that sword again I will break it into two.”
My three friends and I were watching with our jaws hanging to the floor, we just realized that the humble, calculative and greedy innkeeper was also a martial art expert!!
Now I understand why he was so calm during the fight, the innkeeper had everything under control. All our fighting did not impressed or scared him at all; had he chosen to he could have stop Tu Gao and I and held us by our ears. The two old men and the innkeeper were clearly very highly skilled in martial art experts, but they had carefully hidden their capability. Some martial art experts of such high level did not like to display their skills unnecessarily, they did not want to be known to the world.
I believe the suddenly involvement of the old man had something to do with the mention of the Apologetic Priest; he was probably a friend of the Priest. If not for this he would probably had stayed out and let the robbery went unpunished. To these people, they did not want to be drawn into the world of Wulin; they just want to be left alone. It was only young hotheaded fools like us who insisted on being drawn into the fight.
I was still puzzled by the connection between the two old men, the innkeeper and the young man. But I was in no position to ask any questions, I will try to find out tomorrow.
We helped Yang Su to his room and helped him to his bed; the old doctor followed us to check on Yang Su. As he check Yang Su’s pulse the four of us stood by and watch, once again he used his internal energy on the patient, very soon Yang Su fell into a deep slumber.
He turned around and looked at the four of us and said, “I admire your bravery in defending weak, but I have to say it was foolish, the four of you might not be a match for him. You could have died…young man, I assure you there is nothing more precious than life, all these talk about honour, Wulin values are all nonsense. If you are dead you will not be able to help anyone.”
He ran his fingers through his long white beard and said, “After tonight’s incident, I am sure you all have many questions in your mind. While we watch the patient, I shall tell you the story of the people in this inn.”
The Old Man tells a story
“My name is Liu Ching Feng, my disciple elder brother’s (the other old man) name is Ouyang Hao, we are from the Chang Mountains. Both of us learned our martial art skills from the same teacher, I shall not mention HIS name; I want him to rest in peace. My teacher was very little known in Wulin as he detested the pettiness, jealousy and glory-seeking self centered people there. Even as a highly skilled martial art expert, he did not mix around with them. Had he chosen otherwise, he could have been a very famous personality.
But he chose to hide in the mountains, but at the same time he could not detach himself from martial arts because that was his passion. While in the mountains, he practice and research to refine his skills; by the time he was fifty years old he had already invented his own style of fighting and he had mastered the skill of controlling his internal energy. You saw what my disciple elder brother was capable of; my teacher was ten times that.
The power of internal energy was limitless, but it was not easy to acquire, the skill of controlling it was a secret, my teacher made us promise to be very careful to teach this extreme skill to anybody. The reason was that internal energy could only be controlled by two extreme of this world, extreme evilness or extreme serenity. If this martial art skill falls into the wrong hands it would be disastrous for humanity.”
River ghost shot off his foul mouth, “Does that mean your disciple elder brother is the extreme evilness?”
Liu Ching Feng looked at us and smiled, “Young man, you had been deceived, my disciple elder brother is a very compassionate man, every injury he inflicted was always limited to what I can heal. He had his reasons for doing what he did; he had not killed a single person all his life. The only times we killed people was by not saving them, for example tonight. If it was not for the turn of event, we would not have interfered and the four of you would have been killed by Yang Su. We would have been indirectly responsible for your death.”
Yan Ching asked him, “Why you would not interfered? Was it not the values of the Wulin to defend the weak? Was it not our duty as a Wuxia to uphold the course of justice?” Yan Ching was getting emotional on the issue.
Liu Ching Feng replied, “Yes, that was what we believed many years ago, but we had since learned that there were many things in this world that we did not understand. Tonight was a good example, Yang Su and Tu Gao…do you think they were evil people?”
All of us shook our heads.
Liu Ching Feng continued, “If the four of you decide to fight them, and defeat them, there might be a few deaths…and in the end, what have you accomplished? Other than feeling good for having done a seemingly ‘good deed’ you have accomplished nothing else. When Yang Su wakes up, we might check with him why he was robbing the two priests, and then you may find that you had done something really silly.”
Yan Ching asked, “What made your disciple elder brother change his mind at the last moment.”
Liu Ching Feng replied, “I did not ask him, I believe it was because we suddenly realized that the two priests were disciples of Apologetic Priest. We knew Apologetic Priest very well, we knew him to be a good person. Anyway, we might still be wrong…we are human.”
He continued, “I had drifted off…about my teacher. When my teacher took us in as students, he taught us everything that he knew, that was unusual as very often teachers were wary of their disciples. Most teachers would teach the disciples most of their skills but hold back the most important part, they would only impart these skills on their death bed. Unfortunately that was human nature, suspicion.
My teacher was not like that at all, he taught us everything that we could learn, but unfortunately, both me and my disciple elder brother was limited in our talent, we could only absorb a fraction of his knowledge.”
He stopped talking and went over to check on Yang Su, when he was satisfied he continued, “Despite the little we had acquired from our great teacher, we had became very powerful martial art experts. My teacher in his wisdom had warned us about the world of Wulin, he told us that our powerful skills would bring us more trouble than joy…we did not believe him. When he passed away we decided to leave Chang Mountain and we went to the Central Plains to do our Wuxia duties and practice our Wulin values. That was many years ago, you might not have heard of us, we were unbeatable, the Central Plains had never seen such martial art skills and they did not like it.
We were young and innocent; we did not know that by displaying our abilities we were actually upsetting many people. These people were the most respected in the entire Wulin before we came along, now suddenly the limelight was shifted to us, they were very unhappy.
Soon rumours were spread about us being from an evil sect in the Miao Mountains, that we use Black Magic to defeat our enemies. Anyway, soon the entire Wulin turned against us, but even their combined comfort was not enough to defeat us….”
He laughed out at the past, he continued, “But after defeating those people, we were disillusioned, we decided to come back to our Mountains in the west. We went back to Chang Mountains; we devoted our time to learning more of our teacher’s skills and refining them. We no longer want to be involved in the Wulin. As we spent more time in the region, we began to realize that there were many martial art experts in this region, just like us. This group of people had the same experience as us; they too were disillusioned and had decided to come to these mountains.
One of them was the innkeepers that you saw tonight; his skill might not be much below that of my disciple elder brother, but he chose to hide it. Every day he pretended to be a greedy, calculative proprietor and he enjoyed it more than spending his life looking over his shoulders not knowing when you would be betrayed.”
The four young Wuxia nodded their heads as they listen, they knew the pain of having the Wulin community turn against you. (Refer to the Case of the Jade statue) They were able to see the wisdom of hiding your capability from the jealous community; they had experienced the hypocrisy of the ‘Wuxia’s’. But did it mean that the whole concept of doing good in ones community was wrong? Did it mean that they should abandon the values of the Wulin and leave it to the pretenders? By extension abandon the people of the land?
Yan Ching asked the Old Man, “Dear Master Liu, by hiding up here in the mountains, do you think you are failing the people of the land? You have abandoned the values of the Wulin; you are no longer bounded by its rule of helping the weak….” Yan Ching was not able to continue the question as it was getting too personal. It might get too offensive.
Liu Ching Feng was not upset, he said, “Let me finish the question for you, you were probably asking why I bother to learn all this martial art for if we did not want to help anybody with it, if we did not intend to put it to good use. First, my passion for martial art had driven me to greater heights, not my passion to defeat my opponent. We were more interested in the art, not what the art could bring. As to the moral obligation of a martial arts practitioner, I have no answer; you will have to find your own answers.”
River Ghost was bored by the talk about morality and obligations, he decided to move the conversation back to the inn, he asked, “Master Liu, how about the young man? Who was he?”
Liu Ching Feng laughed and said, “That young fool, he was a challenger, he had arranged to challenge my disciple elder brother Ouyang Hao to a fight. The innkeeper arranges such things for us occasionally; it benefits his inn as the challenger was always advised by him to have an expensive last meal before they fight my disciple elder brother. Even though we had left the Wulin long ago, there are still many people looking for us, they all want to test our ability.
The perception was that if you defeat the Two Old Man from Chang Mountain, you will right away become the hero of Wulin. Every year we will select four people out of the hundreds who want to challenge us, the innkeeper will arrange everything. It’s an entertainment for us and good revenue for his rundown inn. We insist that the fight to be in this inn as we do not want these fools to go to Chang Mountain to look for us and disturb our harmony.
The arrangement between me and my disciple elder brother was that he would defeat them, but the injuries must be within my ability to heal. Through the years we had defeated and healed many Wuxia’s from the Central Plains, but we never kill anyone.
This young fool that came today would never stand a chance against my disciple elder brother, I just could not understand why he was chosen; I suspect he might have bought the greedy innkeeper to be allowed into the challenge. That greedy fool!” He chuckled and shook his head at the greediness of the innkeeper; he was more amused than upset.
After a while, he added, “Did you know that the entire inn was full of martial art experts? The servants, the cook and even the old lady serving you tea were highly skilled in martial arts; they had all chosen to work in the inn as they were bored with the fighting and glory-seeking of the so-called Wuxia’s. And it amuses them to see young bucks like the four of you having your adventures; it reminded them of their younger days.”
He chuckled and looked at us, “Did you know even the old tea lady could easily defeat the four of you? She was an accomplished martial art expert a long time ago, she and her husband were famous sword fighters; the two of them combined were unbeatable. They had their glorious days until their only son was poisoned by an unscrupulous opponent…they were heartbroken, they knew that no matter what revenge they could inflict on the killer, it would never bring the son back. They decided to leave the Wulin world and came here to lead a normal life, but unfortunately, they could not have any more children. The husband worked as the cook and the wife was the serving lady. Nobody could tell that they were the ‘Two Swords from Jiangnan’, that was their nickname.”
River Ghost asked the next question, “How about the Ding family of Huang Long City?”
Liu Ching Feng stroked his beard and replied, “I did not know them personally, but I have heard of them, Huang Long City is abo
ut fifty miles east of here, it is not a big city, but it is rich. The city’s wealth mainly came from the tea trade and the rice trade. The Ding family is the most famous family of the city, maybe the most powerful family for a few hundred miles around.
They were famous not only because of their wealth, but also because they were very well connected, the head of the family was an old grandmother, she had seven sons and five daughters. All the sons were accomplished in martial art and they were either running reputable trading businesses or serving in high ranking position in the Imperial court. All her daughters were married to very established families, and these girls were also taught martial art by the late father.”
He continued, “In this region, nobody dares to cross them, but I understand the Matriarch of the family was an honourable person, she follows the values of the Wulin strictly. The entire Ding family was held to very high moral standards, this act of robbery was very uncharacteristic of them. The entire household was very loyal to the old lady; people like Yang Su and Tu Gao were probably servants of the household. As you can see even the servants are highly skilled and very honourable people. It puzzles me why they were behaving like this….we will have an answer when Yang Su wakes up. I think you four should retire for the night, tomorrow will be interesting.”
We left the old doctor to look after his patient and went to our rooms.
Yan Ching’s reflection on the night
“It was certainly an interesting evening; I had never ever seen such display of high level martial arts. I had never imagined that so many talented martial art experts would be hiding in this tiny little inn. These people must have suffered some traumatic events to give them the resolve to detach themselves from the world. In this little corner of the world, they were insulated from the ugliness of human kind; they no longer have to deal with darkness of the human heart.
Is that a good solution? What about the values of the Wulin? What about helping the weak, standing up for injustice?
Even Liu Ching Feng had no answers…”
The Day After (Yan Ching’s account)
The day started with a mighty crash!
Someone was shouting and screaming; I got up and rushed to the courtyard expecting trouble. It turned out that it was just the young man from the night before; he was all dressed up waving his sword around demanding to see the innkeeper.
He was demanding a fight, he shouted, “I had paid much money to have a duel with the Chang Mountain Old man, where is he, I want to defeat him and show the world what I am made of.”
While he shouted, one of the servants was staring at him blankly; the servant was holding a broom. When he demanded an answer from the servant, the servant just bowed to him and continued sweeping the floor. As more servants came by and went about their chores ignoring the frustrated young man, he got desperate. He grabbed the servant sweeping the floor by the collar and demanded to be shown to the innkeeper’s room.
The servant was an old man, about sixty years of age, he gently gripped the young man’s wrist and twisted it outwards. The young man’s arm was instantly paralyzed, the young man tried to unlock the grip with a swing of the sword he was holding in his other hand. But his sword was brushed aside by a flick of the old servant’s finger; this flick on the sword’s blade was so powerful that the vibration caused his fingers to loosen its grip; the sword fell to the ground.
As the old servant gently let go of the shocked young swordsman, he picked up the sword with the tip of his foot and with one swift movement he took the sword and thrust it into a tree in the courtyard. The tree was about three feet thick; this powerful thrust penetrated the entire body of the tree with the tip of the sword protruding one foot on the other side.
The young man was shocked beyond words; the servant picked up his broom and continued sweeping the floor as though nothing had happened. The entire episode was so fast that the young man being right in the middle of it could not fully comprehend what had happened. All he saw was that his sword fell to the ground and next moment the sword was firmly tucked inside the tree trunk.
The young man quietly went to the tree and tried to pull the sword out from the tree trunk, but the sword was firmly stuck. No matter how hard he tried, the sword would not barge. I was standing at the top of the stairs but I could hear merry laughter coming from the kitchen. This bunch of martial art experts was having some fun at the expense of this young fool. The embarrassed young man quietly retreated to his room; I doubt he would want to challenge anyone to a fight any time soon.
I went to check on Yang Su, and found that Liu Ching Feng was still by the bed looking after him. Yang Su had recovered considerable, and he was able to sit up and was having some light soup for nourishment. After some polite greeting, our conversation drifted to the events last night. He was very apologetic about his action, he begged us to be allowed to explain his reasons.
