by Jin Yong
“You wanted to get nephew apprentice Yilin to leave; the intention was good, but why can’t you say something else instead of such harmful words? It was all because you are used to being frivolous in normal days. By now, everybody in the Five Mountains Sword Alliance has heard about this incident. Others must be saying behind our backs that you are not a true gentleman, and blame me for not disciplining you properly,” Yue Buqun reproached.
“Yes, Master. I was wrong,” Linghu Chong admitted.
Yue Buqun continued. “When you were recovering in the ‘Jade House,’ we understand that you had no other options. But when you hid nephew apprentice Yilin and that little demon girl of the Demon Cult under the quilt, and claimed that it was a prostitute in the town of Hengshan, weren’t you risking too much? If they had actually found out about the truth, losing face and hurting the reputation of our Huashan Sword School would be secondary; wouldn’t you do a disservice to the entire Heng-Shan Sword School by ruining their hundreds of years of reputation?”
Cold sweat broke out on Linghu Chong’s back. “Later when I thought more about it, I was also breathless with anxiety. So Master, you have already known about it,” he said with a trembling voice.
“I only heard about how Qu Yang of Demon Cult sent you to the ‘Jade House’ to recover later,” Yue Buqun said, “but when you told those two girls to hide under the quilt, I was already outside of the window.”
“Fortunately, Master, you know that I am not a reckless loafer,” Linghu Chong said.
“If you had actually been sleeping with the prostitutes, I’d have chopped off the head on your neck a long time ago. How could I still let you live ‘til now?” Yue Buqun said in a chilling tone.
“Yes, Master!” Linghu Chong answered.
Yue Buqun’s face turned more and more serious. After quite a while he spoke again. “You already knew that the Qu-named girl was a member of the Demon Cult, why didn’t you kill her with a single sword blow? Although her grandfather had saved your life, it was obviously an evil plot the Demon Cult had put together using favor as bait to foment discord among our Five Mountains Sword Alliance. You are not stupid. You had to have figured that part out. There was actually a bigger conspiracy, and saving your life was only a small part of it. Even Liu Zhengfeng, such a smart and experienced senior master, fell into their trap, and ended up ruining his reputation and getting his entire family killed. You have seen such vicious and evil acts of the Demon Cult with your own eyes. But on our way from Hunan back to Mount Huashan, I didn’t hear a single word of condemnation to the Demon Cult out from your mouth. Chong, I think after he saved your life, you are getting really confused about the distinction between good and evil, honesty and treachery. This matter is the key matter that will affect the rest of your entire life. There’s no middle ground for you to muddle with.”
Linghu Chong couldn’t help but remember the night in the remote valley when he listened to the zither and flute music played by Qu Yang and Liu Zhengfeng. It didn’t seem like that Qu Yang had any evil thoughts and intentionally harmed Liu Zhengfeng at all.
Seeing the hesitation on Linghu Chong’s face, obviously suspicious about his words, Yue Buqun said, “Chong, this matter is related to the future of our Huashan Sword School. It is also related to your future success or failure of your entire life. You cannot hide anything from me. Let me ask you: when you meet a member of the Demon Cult later, are you going to be treating evil as your enemy and slay evil with no hesitation?”
Linghu Chong stared at his Master blankly; a thought kept flashing around in his mind: “Later when I meet with a member of the Demon Cult, should I simply draw my sword and kill him without checking if it’s right or wrong?” He really couldn’t decide for himself, so he didn’t know how to answer the Master’s question.
Yue Buqun stared at Linghu Chong for a long while but still did not get an answer out from him. He heaved a deep sigh.
“It would be useless to force an answer out of you. When you left Mount Huashan this time, you greatly damaged the reputation of our sword school. I hereby punish you to meditate facing the wall for an entire year, so you can think the matter through thoroughly.”
“Yes, Master! I accept my punishment.” Linghu Chong bowed down.
“Meditating facing a wall for an entire year? Then throughout the year, how many total hours does he have to meditate?” Yue Lingshan asked.
“What total hours? Everyday from morning to night, other than eating and sleeping, he will be meditating to go over his mistakes.”
“That’s terrible! Wouldn’t he be bored to death? Will he even be allowed to go to bathroom?” Yue Lingshan said in worry.
“Watch your manners, young lady!” Madam Yue reproved.
“What’s the big deal about meditating for a year?” Yue Buqun said. “Years ago when your grandmaster made some mistakes, he was punished to meditate facing a wall for three years and six months. During that entire period of time, he did not take one single step down the Jade Maiden Peak.”
Yue Lingshan stuck her tongue out in disbelief. “So meditating for an entire year is actually a light punishment? Big apprentice brother said the ‘Once seeing a nun, one loses all bets’ completely out of good intentions. He wasn’t really saying bad words!”
“Just because he had good intentions, I am only punishing him with one year of meditation. If he had any ill intentions, I’d have knocked off all his teeth and cut off his tongue,” Yue Buqun said.
“Lingshan, stop bothering your father,” Madam Yue said. “When your big apprentice brother starts meditating on top of the Jade Maiden Peak, you’d better not go up there to chat with him, otherwise, the good intention of your father would be ruined by you for sure.”
“Big apprentice brother is going to be a prisoner on top of the Jade Maiden Peak, and you still call that a good intention? If you don’t allow me to chat with him, then when big apprentice brother gets lonely, who’s going to cheer him up? And within the entire year, who’s going to practice sword arts with me?” Yue Lingshan whined.
“If you go chatting with him, then how will he be able to meditate and how can he think his mistakes through? All the many apprentice brothers and sisters can practice sword arts with you,” Madam Yue said.
Yue Lingshan leaned her head to the side and thought for a while. “Then what’s big apprentice brother going to eat? If he doesn’t come down the peak for an entire year, isn’t he going to be starved to death?” she asked.
“You don’t have to worry. We will have people bringing food up the mountain for him,” Madam Yue answered.
Chapter 8: Meditation
Out of desperation, Linghu Chong grabbed at her left sleeve. “Let it go!” yelled Yue Lingshan angrily. She pulled hard, and with a loud tearing sound, the whole sleeve was torn off and her entire arm was exposed.
At dusk that night, after bowing to Master and Master-Wife and bidding his farewell to all the apprentice brothers and sisters, Linghu Chong climbed up the steep cliff on the very top of the Jade Maiden Peak, bringing only a long sword with him. There was a cave on top of the cliff. It was the spot used for punishing generations of Huashan Sword School apprentices who had violated school rules. The cliff was completely bare, with neither a single blade of grass, nor any trees. Other than the cave, there was nothing else on the cliff. Mount Huashan has many beautiful locations of scenery and resourceful of trees and grasses, but this steep cliff was an exception. Legend told that the cliff was a pearl studded on the Jade Maiden’s hairpin. The reason why earlier generations of Huashan grandmasters picked this steep cliff as the place for punishing apprentices was mainly because it was such a bare place that even birds or insects didn’t want to live here. Therefore, when the punished apprentice meditated and thought through his mistakes, he wouldn’t be distracted by other things and would be able to stay focused.
Linghu Chong entered the cave, and a big smooth rock on the floor soon caught his eyes.
“For the last sever
al hundred years, many grandmasters of our Huashan Sword School must have sat on this rock before, which really smoothed out the rock surface. I, Linghu Chong, am the number one troublemaker of Huashan Sword School nowadays, so of course I am destined to sit on this rock. Master has been really kind to me. He had waited until today to send me here to sit on this rock,” Linghu Chong thought to himself.
“Hello rock!” He patted on the big rock gently and muttered. “You’ve probably been lonely for many years. But Linghu Chong is here to be your company now.”
Sitting down on the rock, he found his eyes only one foot away from the rock wall. Then something caught his attention. The words “Feng Qingyang” were carved on the left side of the rock wall. Those must have been carved using a sharp blade – the vigorous strokes were almost half-an-inch deep into the rock.
“Who’s this Feng Qingyang?” Linghu Chong couldn’t help but ask himself. “He is probably a senior master of our school who was once punished to meditate here. Oh, I see. My Grandmaster’s name has a ‘Qing’ in it and he belongs to the ‘Qing’ generation of Huashan masters. This senior master named Feng must be my Grand Uncle-Master then. It takes great strength to carve something like that. His Kung Fu must have been outstanding. How come Master and Master-Wife never mentioned him before? I guess this senior master must have passed away a long time ago.”
He closed his eyes and worked on his breathing exercises for about an hour before standing up again to stretch out. Going back into the cave and sat back down on the rock, he started pondering upon the question, “When I meet people from the Demon Cult, should I simply draw my sword and kill him right away with no questions asked and with no regards? Doesn’t the Demon Cult even have a single good person? But if he were a good person, why would he join the Demon Cult in the first place? Even if he had joined the Demon Cult by mistake, he could have quit immediately. If he didn’t quit, then he must be willing to collaborate with evil and harm innocent people.”
Instantly, many scenes appeared in his mind. Those were all scenes Master, Master-Wife, and other senior masters in the Martial World had told him before, things about the many kinds of murders the Demon Cult members had committed: The entire family of Master Yu in Jiangxi Province, a total of twenty-three, were taken prisoner by the Demon Cult and all were nailed onto tree trunks. Even the three-year-old child was no exception. Two of Master Yu’s sons groaned for three days and three nights before finally passing away. When the Head Master of Dragon-Phoenix Saber in Jinan, Zhao Dengkui, held the wedding ceremony for his son, members of the Demon Cult forced their way into the crowds, beheaded the newly weds and placed their heads on top of the gift table claiming them to be wedding gifts. When old Hero Hao in Hanyang had his seventieth birthday party and invited many friends in the Martial World over, no one had known that the Demon Cult had planted bombs right underneath the room for the ceremony. The sudden explosion killed and wounded countless number of people, including Uncle-Master Ji from the Taishan Sword School, who lost an arm in this tragedy. Uncle-Master Ji had told this story himself, so it had to be true. Then he remembered when he met Uncle-Master Sun of the Songshan Sword School, whose both arms, feet and eyes were cut out. He was screaming nonstop, “The Demon Cult did this. Seek revenge for me! The Demon Cult did this. Seek revenge for me!” At that time the Songshan Sword School had already sent people to help, but with such severe wounds, there was really not much to be done. Remembering the image of two empty holes on Uncle-Master Sun’s face with blood gushing out continuously, Linghu Chong could not help but quiver.
“Demon Cult members really have committed too many cruel crimes,” he thought. “So when Qu Yang and his granddaughter saved me, they must have had ill intentions. When Master asks me again if I will kill with no hesitation when I see members of the Demon Cult, my answer will be: Why should I hesitate? Of course I will draw my sword and attack with no question asked.”
Finally able to think it through, Linghu Chong had an ease of mind. With a long roar, he jumped backwards toward the opening of the cave. Turning his body around while still in mid-air, he opened his eyes again after landing squarely on the ground. Looking down at his feet, he found his feet almost on the edge of the steep cliff, only two feet from the very brink of the cliff. If he had used just a little more strength when he jumped up and had landed two more feet further, he would have fallen into the bottomless abyss and have his body smashed into pieces. He had actually calculated the distance well in his head before he closed his eyes and jumped backwards. Since he had made his mind up to kill the Demon Cult members on first sight and didn’t have any more burdens on his mind, he just wanted to have a little risky fun.
“I am still not brave enough. I should have jumped at least another feet closer to the edge for the real fun,” Linghu Chong thought, when sounds of giggles and clapping suddenly rose from behind.
“Big apprentice brother! That was so cool!” It was the voice of Yue Lingshan.
Linghu Chong was very delighted. He turned around and saw Yue Lingshan carrying a meal basket.
“Big apprentice brother, I’ve brought you your dinner,” Yue Lingshan announced happily. She sat the meal basket on the ground, went into the cave, and sat on the big rock facing the rock wall. “This is a really cool trick of yours! Let me give it a try.”
Linghu Chong knew that this trick was indeed a very dangerous one. Even when he tried it earlier, he was ready to give it all up. Yue Lingshan’s Kung Fu skills were much less compared to his, and if she couldn’t calculate her strength right, it would be disastrous. But because she was really in the mood at the moment, he couldn’t hold her back. So he stood right next to the brim of the cliff and waited.
Intending to make sure she could beat the big apprentice brother, Yue Lingshan went over the calculation in her head quickly and then pushed the ground hard with her toes. After her body had left the ground, she also turned her body around in the mid-air. Hoping to land closer to the edge of the cliff than Linghu Chong did, she used a little bit extra strength, but when her body started to fall, fear suddenly overwhelmed her and she had to open her eyes. Seeing the bottomless abyss right in front of her eyes, she screamed in terror.
Linghu Chong reached out and caught her left arm while she was still in the air. When Yue Lingshan landed back onto the ground, she found her feet only one foot away from the very brink of the cliff. It was indeed closer than what Linghu Chong had achieved. Before her heart even had time to fall back into her chest, she was already claiming her victory.
“Big apprentice brother, I landed further than you did!”
Seeing her frightened face as white as a sheet, Linghu Chong patted her gingerly on the back. “Better not try this trick again. If Master or Master-Wife ever hear about this, they would definitely scold me harshly, maybe even punish me for another year of meditation facing the wall here.”
Yue Lingshan felt a little better now. She took two steps back and said with a big grin, “Then I need to be punished too. We can meditate facing the wall here together. Wouldn’t that be fun? We can have a contest everyday to see who can jump further.”
“Us two, meditate here together everyday?” Linghu Chong repeated the words while throwing a glance at the cave, a breeze of happiness swelling in his heart, thinking, “If I get to spend an entire year together with the little apprentice sister, here, without any disruptions, then I’d be as happy as a worry-free fairy. Alas, it will never happen.”
“I am afraid that Master will have you meditate in the ‘House of Integrity’ and ban you from leaving there, then we won’t be able to see each other for an entire year,” he said.
“That’s not fair!” Yue Lingshan immediately complained. “How come you can have fun here, and I have to be a prisoner in the ‘House of Integrity’?” Knowing clearly that her parents would have never allowed her to accompany the big apprentice brother here on the cliff, she changed the subject.
“Big apprentice brother, Mom told Monkey Six to brin
g you food everyday at first. I told Monkey Six, ‘Sixth apprentice brother, I know you are a monkey and all that, but climbing up and down the ‘Cliff of Contemplation’ is no easy task. Why don’t you let me help you and do it for you? So, how are you going to repay me for this favor?’ Monkey Six said, ‘I dare not to loaf on the job given by Master-Wife. Besides, big apprentice brother is the one that treats me the best. I am so glad that I’ll be bringing food to him for an entire year and will be able to see him once everyday. I don’t mind even if it’s no easy task.’ Big apprentice brother, don’t you think Monkey Six is very mean?”
“Well, he was telling the truth.” Linghu Chong smiled.
Yue Lingshan continued. “Monkey Six also said, ‘I’ve always wanted to ask for advice from big apprentice brother about Kung Fu questions. But every time as soon as you show up, you’d be kicking me away, not allowing any more conversation with the big apprentice brother.’ Big apprentice brother, do I ever do things like that? Isn’t Monkey Six talking garbage here? He then said, ‘Hey, for the entire next year, I will be the only one who can go up the ‘Cliff of Contemplation’ to see big apprentice brother. You won’t even have a chance.’ I got mad, but he paid no attention. Later…later….”
“Later you threatened him with your sword?” Linghu Chong guessed.
“No.” Yue Lingshan shook her head. “Later I got real upset and started crying. Monkey Six then came to me and begged me to bring food to you.”
Staring at her cute little face, Linghu Chong could see the slight swelling right next to her eyes. Sure enough, she must have had quite some weeping. Deeply moved, he thought, “She is so good to me. I’d be willing to die a thousand times for her.”
