by Jin Yong
A wind could be heard sweeping across the top of the cliff and the foliage murmured like an autumnal flood at dusk. All the members of the group were experienced hands who had roamed the world and experienced the vicissitudes of life. But with this impressively high rock structure towering over them, they all trembled with fear. The old monk drew a cylindrical-shaped missile from the front of his coat. He ignited it. Up it soared into the sky, discharging blue smoke which hung in the sky for some time afterwards.
They knew it was the signal used by the outlawry for sending messages. Yet seldom had they seen a missile soar so high and its blue plume of smoke stay as long. They lifted their heads and fixed their gaze upon the top of the summit, watching for any signs of action.
Presently, a black dot materialized high up on the cliff. This was the only sign they could see. The black dot began to roll down instantaneously, growing bigger as it moved closer, and after it had travelled halfway down the steep decline, it could be recognized as an enormous bamboo basket, fastened to a hawser also made of bamboo. This was the vehicle dispatched from the summit to transport the guests up the cliff.
The basket came to a standstill in front of the Company. "This basket will carry three," said the old monk. "Perhaps we should let the two ladies go first? It can seat another male. Who wants to accompany them? This monk does not have dealings with women, so I shall not go this trip. Ha! Ha!"
"This monk may be skilled in martial arts," thought each to himself, "but he talks rubbish!"
Sign helped Third into the basket. "If I go now," pondered Sign, "Curio will take this opportunity to attack Peace. But if I ask Peace to go along with me, I'll feel embarrassed in front of Uncle."
Sign then waved to Curio. "Senior Brother, you come with me."
Curio was overwhelmed by her favour and cast a glance at Peace, complacency written on his face. He immediately stepped inside the basket and seated himself next to Sign. He held the bamboo hawser and gave it a few neat jerks.
The basket swayed at first, and then ascended rapidly towards the summit. The moment they rose from the ground, Curio, Sign and Third felt as if they were travelling in a void, borne along on a cloud by the wind. The suspended state in which they now found themselves was unpleasant. When they were halfway up the cliff, Sign looked down. At the foot of the cliff, the human figures had shrunk to tiny dots. The angry cliffs rose up sheer as a wall, towering into the sky. What a wonderful sight! Her head reeled and she felt dizzy. She closed her eyes, not daring to look a second time.
Soon, the basket reached the top of the summit. Curio stepped out of the bamboo vehicle and helped Sign and Third out. On the side of the summit were three big capstans, intricately connected to one another by a bamboo hawser. The three capstans, manned by ten or so men of robust build, functioned by a neatly interlocking mechanism, synchronizing both the upward and downward movement of the basket. The now empty basket was again dispatched on a downward journey to collect more of the guests. The bamboo vehicle made a few more upward and downward trips before finally bringing the old monk and the others to the summit. Two men clad in grey stood by the side of the capstans. They took no heed of either Curio or his party. When the old monk finally joined the Company at the summit, these two men stepped forward and saluted him, bowing from the waist, with great respect.
"Without notifying the Master," said the old monk with a smile in his voice, "I have brought friends along to take advantage of his hospitality. Ha! Ha!"
"As they are friends of Tree the Great Master," replied a man in his prime, with a long neck and broad shoulders, bowing at the same time, "they will surely be welcome guests of my Master."
"So this old monk goes by the name of Tree," mused everybody.
The man with the long neck then turned around in every direction and bowed to all the assembled company. "My Master has been called away on business," said he, "and is not able to be here to greet our distinguished guests. Please accept his apologies."
At this, they quickly returned their bows. "This man lives up here, high on the top of the snow-covered mountain," they all began to ponder, "and dresses very lightly. Yet he shows no signs of feeling the cold. He must be skilled in endomarts, the martial art of developing strength through breathing and other exercises of his internal organs. The manner and tone in which he talks show that he is no more than a servant or one who runs errands. What kind of man must his Master be?"
Tree showed slight surprise at the Master's absence. "Your Master is not home?" he enquired. "How is it that he is away at this time?"
To this the man replied, "My Master left for Ningguta, Six-Manchu-Ancestors Borough, seven days ago."
"Ningguta? On what business?" asked Tree.
The man cast a glance at Valour and the others, made ill-at-ease by the question.
"Say what you want; don't worry about them," said Tree.
"Master said that the enemy fights fierce and furious," answered the man. "He is afraid that he may not be able to defeat him. So the Master travelled all the way to Ningguta, Six-Manchu-Ancestors Borough, to invite the Gilt-faced Buddha to ascend the mountain to give him support."
They started at the mention of the Gilt-faced Buddha. He had been a veteran fighter in the Martial Brotherhood, known as the Invincible Under the Sky among the outlawry for the last twenty years. Because of this name, he had made many enemies and fought many battles. But then he was so very skilled in the martial arts that no other adept, be he of any School or Branch, was ever his equal. He lived like a hermit and had been little heard of among the outlawry for the last ten years. It was rumoured that he had died of an illness in Turkestan. There were no witnesses, however; it was hearsay. When the assembled company learned that he was still alive and that the Master of this eyrie was on his way to invite him to the mountain, they immediately began to feel uneasy.
Not only was this Gilt-faced Buddha an adept in martial arts; he was also a righteous man who abhorred evil and detested evil-doers. If news of any dishonourable behavior reached the ears of the Gilt-faced Buddha, he would seek out the evil-doer and remonstrate with him. This would cost the evil-doer either an arm or a leg, or his life, depending on the seriousness of his crime. The group now assembled on the mountain top had all of them, at one time or another, dabbled in misdeeds of varying degrees. When the name Gilt-faced Buddha fell suddenly on their ears, they were all seized with panic.
Tree smiled faintly and said, "I see your Master is taking no chances. Even if Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain does fight well, why making such a fuss over him?"
To this the man replied, "With you, the Great Master, having come all this way to assist us, we are already assured of victory. Fox Volant is said to be exceedingly fierce and cunning; my Master is taking great care to solicit extra help so that he won't be able to escape."
They now all began to ponder, "How fierce a fighter can this Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain really be?"
Tree and the man, thus engaged in conversation, were leading the way. After winding their way round several snow-covered pine trees, the group found themselves standing in front of a large, five-chambered, stone building, with shining white snow covering both the front and the back of the house.
The Company passed through the doorway, and walked along a long corridor before coming to the front hall. The hall was enormous. In each corner was planted a huge brazier, with flames blazing above the burning coal. In the centre of the hall hung calligraphic scrolls, each line of verse was inscribed on a separate wooden tablet:
Before Crossing The Manchurian Border,
I Considered Myself Invincible Under the Sky.
After Sojourning in the Northeast,
I Became Aware of Other Heroes in the Universe.
A sentence in small, light print was written in the upper right hand corner reading, "Presented to Senior Brother Wish with due respect, hoping to receive his comments and criticism." And in the lower left hand corner was a sentence in small, light print readin
g, "Scribbled in extreme intoxication by Phoenix Miao, the Abandoned and Incorrigible, now deeply regretting the wild talk of bygone years."
All present were outlaws and rustics. They failed to comprehend the meaning of the inscription on the tablets. They somehow had the impression that Phoenix Miao was ashamed of his own name. Every character was cut deep into the wood; without question the work of sharp knives.
Tree's face paled slightly, and he cried, "So your Master and the Gilt-faced Buddha must be on very intimate terms then?"
"Yes," returned the long-necked fellow boldly. "The Master of this eyrie has known Phoenix the Knight-errant for several decades."
"I see," commented Tree simply.
Hawk's heart was throbbing violently. He thought to himself, "So I have finished up by coming to the dwelling place of the friend of Phoenix. It is likely that I, now old, will lose my life." Soon he felt his palms begin to sweat profusely.
Now that they had all taken their seats, the long-necked fellow ordered tea to be served, and he himself stood humbly to one side.
"This Gilt-faced Buddha who was bold enough to call himself the Invincible Under the Sky years ago," commented Tree, "was once rather vain and arrogant. From what was written on the scrolls, he lived to regret it."
"No," interrupted the man with the long neck. "The lord of this eyrie said that Phoenix the Knight-errant was being modest. If it had not been such a mouthful, the epithet, 'Since Time Immemorial and Throughout Eternity' would also have been included in the sobriquet of Phoenix the Knight-errant."
"Hm," sneered Tree. "In the Sutras, it is said that the minute the Gautama Buddha was born, these words came to his mind, 'I, As a Human Being, Am the Supreme, from Heaven to Hell.' Do you not think this is a superb match for the 'Invincible Under the Sky, Since Time Immemorial and Throughout Eternity'? They form a nice couplet."
Curio knew he was trying to be sarcastic and laughed aloud. The long-necked fellow stared him in the face and asked, "Will our honourable guest please show others due respect?" Curio was taken aback by his remark.
"And if I won't?" he demanded.
To this the man replied, "If the Gilt-faced Buddha learns that you are mocking him, I am afraid the honourable guest will be in some danger."
"There is no ultimate in martial ability," returned Curio, defending himself. "One must admit that there is a sky beyond the sky, a Master above another Master. The Gilt-faced Buddha is only a human being. No matter how excellent he is, he still cannot be called the Invincible Under the Sky."
"I have not seen much of the world; I am not well-read; my views may be shallow. If my Master considers the name befitting, I think he must deserve it." The man who spoke sounded deferential but his manner was full of insolence.
Anger filled Curio's breast and he was flushed with rage.
"I am Grand Master of an established school," he pondered. "I shall take no nonsense from a low-bred servant like him, used only to be at the beck and call of others."
And he immediately retorted with a sneer, "Are we to assume then that, with the exception of the Gilt-faced Buddha, your respectful Master is the champion under the sun. Ha, ha, ha, how funny!"
To this the man replied, "Not at all."
Reaching out his hand, the man then tapped the backrest of the chair in which Curio was sitting. It vibrated, throwing Curio off his balance. He started up from his chair. Still holding a tea bowl in his hand, Curio was caught off his guard. The bowl immediately slipped from his grasp, and just as it was on the point of shattering to pieces on the ground, the man bent and caught it with a clenched hand.
"Will our honourable guest please take care?" said the man. Curio reddened. He turned his head away, paying no heed to the incident. The man then put the tea bowl down on the teapoy.
Tree behaved as if he had not witnessed what had taken place. He turned to the man with the long neck and asked, "Who else, besides the Gilt-faced Buddha and I, the monk, has your Master invited up here to lend aid?"
"Before the Master departed," answered the man, "he gave this servant instructions to expect Profundity the Taoist Phongie of the Kokonor-Tibetan School, Spirituality the Buddhist Devotee of the Altyn Tagh in Chinese Turkestan, and Jiang the Senior Mentor in Pugilism of the Absolute Lodge south of the Caramoran, to arrive on the mountain within a few days. My Master has also instructed my humble self to tend to them properly. Your Eminence is the first to arrive, and this shows us your great kindness. When my Master learns about it, he will appreciate it greatly."
Tree the Great Master was here at the invitation of the Master of the eyrie. He believed that once he presented himself, all problems, even though they might be extremely taxing, could be easily solved. What he had not realized was that apart from himself, the Master had also invited many other famous personages, most of whom he had never met, although he had already heard much about them. All were first-rate adepts of the Martial Brotherhood. Had he known so many others had already been invited at the express request of the Master, he would not have come at all. As for Phoenix, the Gilt-faced Buddha, Tree had no intention of running into him. The further he could keep himself from Phoenix, the better. What bothered him was that he had come such a long way to help, yet the Master was not home to receive him. He considered this disrespectful, and was extremely unhappy about it.
"This old monk cannot make himself useful: that is an indisputable fact," said Tree self-deprecatingly. "All problems will be solved once the Gilt-faced Buddha gets here. Why take the trouble to invite the others?"
To this the man replied, "My Master said he would like to take this opportunity to arrange for heroes of different Schools to meet each other. Fan the Ringleader of the Cathay Outlawry will also be here."
Tree shuddered involuntarily and asked, "Fan the Ringleader will also be here? How many hands has Fox invited?"
"It is said that he has not enlisted any help. He will be here alone," answered the man.
Valour, Fortune, Century, and the others were all experienced hands who had roamed the world and faced numerous dangers. When they learned that Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain was going to meet the challenge single-handed and that the Master not only had many pre-eminent fighters waiting for him, but also had enlisted the help of the Gilt-faced Buddha and Fan the Ringleader of the Cathay Outlawry, they considered it pointless to have gone to this amount of trouble. They felt that Tree the monk was such an adept that he alone would probably be able to deal with Fox. Now that they were also up on the mountain, they would most likely lend a hand when the time presented itself. It was simply that it had never occurred to the Master that so many uninvited guests would be there at the same time.
Hawk, among all those present, found himself in a mental flurry of indecision, the reason being that the Outlawry had always been at enmity with the Imperial Court. The adjunct Cathay adopted in compounding the title the Cathay Outlawry, to show the pro-Cathay sentiments of the gang, was, in fact, employed to display their anti-Manchu feelings. A month before, Sai, Commissioner of the Imperial Guardsmen, had personally led eighteen Champions of the Imperial Court to have Fan, the Ringleader of the Cathay Outlawry, captured and locked up in the Imperial Jail. The plan was executed with the utmost secrecy. Hardly any of the outlawry knew anything about it. Hawk himself was one amongst the eighteen picked hands on that mission. Finding himself now in a precariously dangerous place, though how he had ever managed to get there still remained a mystery, Hawk knew he was not going to be lucky.
Seeing Hawk's colour drain from his face when he heard the name Fan the Ringleader, Tree asked him, "Is Master Hawk in any way acquainted with Fan the Ringleader?"
"I know him not," replied Hawk in a hurry. "I have only heard of Fan the Ringleader as a far-famed hero of the Northern School, and I know no more than that. He did, at one time, fight two ferocious tigers, practising the Grappling Claws of the Dragon."
Tree smiled and then left Hawk alone. He turned next to the man with the long neck, asking, "
What man exactly is this Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain? What vendetta is there between him and your Master?"
To these questions the man gave the reply, "As the Master has never mentioned anything, this servant therefore dares not enquire further."
While they were thus engaged in conversation, a young servant offered them food and drink. They were surprised to find gourmet dishes and vintage wines on the hilltop of a snowy mountain. Presently the man with the long neck announced, "The wife of the Master thanks you all for honouring us with your presence. Please help yourselves and make yourselves at home." They gave their thanks in return.
Curio and Peace were glancing at each other during the meal, Prime and Radiant both rubbing their fists, while Century was just waiting to deal Third a blow with his rod. Though they were partaking of their food and drinks together, in their minds they were scheming against each other. Tree alone was revelling in the feast, devouring chunk after chunk of meat and gulping down bowl after bowl of wine, whilst swearing dreadfully. He did not resemble a Buddhist monk in the least.
After several rounds of toasting, a servant brought in a plateful of steaming hot buns. The Company had already tired themselves out for half a day and were starving. They were delighted to help themselves to the buns now but, just as they were about to reach out for some, there suddenly came a whirring sound from high above. They raised their heads and high up a missile went whistling across the sky. Its motion was arrested temporarily on reaching the highest point of its trajectory, then it exploded, scattering rays of light. The firework burst into a kaleidoscope of colours, dispersing gradually to settle into a form, its blurred outline depicting a winged fox.
Thereupon Tree jumped up, crying, "Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain is here."
They all went pale. The man with the long neck paid Tree his respects, saying, "My Master is still away and the enemy has come all too soon. We count on the Great Master to take charge of matters here."
