by Jin Yong
“Just because a wrong comment, they’d chop people’s heads off? Wow! Aren’t they too overbearing or what?” Yue Lingshan stuck her tongue out in disbelief.
“When I was still a teenager, the fight between the Qi-Branch and the Sword-Branch in our Huashan Sword School hadn’t produced a winner,” Yue Buqun explained. “If you had said that comment in public during that period of time, people from the Qi-Branch would want to kill you, and people from the Sword-Branch would want you dead just the same. You said that inner energy and sword skills were as important as each other and both should be the driving forces. The Qi-Branch would of course interpret that as that you were elevating Sword-Branch’s position above them; the Sword-Branch would think that you mixed up the key line with the meshes and would still blame you for treason and heresy.”
“What’s there to argue about? If they wanted to know who was right and who was wrong, have a contest, then they’d know right away!” Yue Lingshan said.
Yue Buqun heaved a long sigh and said slowly, “Over thirty years ago, our Qi-Branch was the minority. Uncle-Masters in the Sword-Branch were the majority. In addition to that, Sword-Branch Kung Fu skills can be mastered easily and quickly. If everyone trains for ten years, then the Sword-Branch will definitely have the lead. If every one trains for twenty years, then each side would have an equal opportunity to claim victory. Only after twenty years and more training, people trained with Qi-Branch Kung Fu would gradually become better and stronger. After thirty years of training, people trained with Sword-Branch Kung Fu would then be left far behind and never stand a chance to compete again. But that means it takes at least twenty years to actually find out which one is better. You could probably imagine how fierce and intense the fight was during the twenty years or so time period.”
“So at the very end, the Sword-Branch people admitted their mistakes and their failure, didn’t they?” Yue Lingshan asked.
Yue Buqun shook his head silently. After a long while, he finally spoke again.
“They all insisted on their theory stubbornly and never admitted their failure. Even though they suffered a crushing defeat in the big sword contest on the Jade Maiden Peak, most of them …most of them took their own lives with their own swords. The remaining ones all quietly withdrew from society and lived in solitude and never showed themselves in the Martial World again.”
“Ah!” Linghu Chong, Yue Lingshan and the bunch of apprentices all uttered a cry of astonishment.
“They were all apprentice brothers in the same school. It was just a sword contest. What was that big of a deal? Why did they take it so hard?” Yue Lingshan asked.
“It was concerning the foundation of martial arts theories. It wasn’t just a small matter as apprentice brothers sparring each other,” Yue Buqun said seriously. “In that year when the Five Mountains sword schools fought for the hosting right of the Alliance Chief, our school really had the most talented people with the highest Kung Fu skills. But because of the fierce internal fight in our school, over twenty elite senior masters got killed in that big sword contest on top of Jade Maiden Peak. Sure, the Sword-Branch had a crushing defeat, but many elite fighters in the Qi-Branch lost their lives also. That’s how Songshan Sword School took the Alliance Chief title eventually. The fight between the Qi-Branch and the Sword-Branch of the Huashan Sword School was really the root of the trouble.”
Linghu Chong and the rest all nodded again and again.
“It’s all right that our school didn’t get to be the host for Alliance Chief. It’s also all right that the Huashan Sword School’s fame was damaged dramatically. But what was not all right was the fact that apprentice brothers in our own school were killing each other ruthlessly because of the internal dissension. Those apprentice brothers used to be like real brothers to each other, but it turned so cruel and brutal, either you kill me or I’ll kill you. When I think about the scenes on Mount Huashan in those years, how everyone felt they could die at any minute, my heart still flutters with fear.” At those words, he cast a glance at Madam Yue.
Madam Yue’s face slightly twitched. She couldn’t help but feel the terror when she remembered many years ago how the elite fighters in Huashan Sword School had slaughtered each other.
Yue Buqun slowly unbuttoned his clothes and exposed his chest as Yue Lingshan shouted in shock.
“Oh my God! Dad, you…you…!”
A two feet long scar lay across his chest from his left shoulder reaching all the way to his right chest. The wound had healed a long time ago, but a pale reddish line still showed clearly. Apparently the wound was so severe that Yue Buqun almost lost his life because of it. Both Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan had grown up by Yue Buqun’s side, but neither of them had known about the scar until now.
Yue Buqun explained as he started to button his clothes. “In that day of the big sword contest atop Jade Maiden Peak, an Uncle-Master in our school hit me with a strong sword slash. I fainted immediately. He probably thought I was already dead and paid no more attention to me. If he had conveniently stabbed me again, hmm!”
“Then undoubtedly that you, Father, wouldn’t be sitting here today, and who knows where I, Yue Lingshan, would be at?” Yue Lingshan grinned.
Yue Buqun let out a slight smile but his face soon turned solemn again. “This is a big secret of our Huashan Sword School. Don’t any of you let it out! Although people from other schools knew that the Huashan Sword School had lost over twenty elite masters in a single day, none of them knew the truth lying behind it. We only claimed to the outside world that a plague suddenly broke out and almost wiped out our entire Huashan Sword School. We should never let others know about this disgraceful event that happened to our school. The reason why I had to tell you all the cause and effect today is because the consequences could be very severe. If Chong followed the current path and went on with his training, then within three years, he would think ‘sword skill is more important than inner energy’ and get trapped in an extremely dangerous state of mind. That will not only destroy you and the ultimately true orthodox Kung Fu of our Huashan Sword School, earned by many senior masters sacrificing their lives, but also our entire Huashan Sword School.”
Cold sweats broke out all over Linghu Chong’s body as he listened in. “I’ve made a terrible mistake. Master and Master-Wife, please punish me heavily,” He bowed his head down in shame.
“Well,” Yue Buqun said with a sigh, “it is really an unintentional mistake you have made. You are really not to blame. But think about the many Uncle-Masters of the Sword-Branch. They all had good intentions to build great fame for our school using extreme Kung Fu, yet once they went on the wrong way and had gone too far down the road, they simply couldn’t extricate themselves any more. If I don’t give you a blow and shout right now, with your intelligence and temper, you could easily end up taking the evil route to try to find shortcuts for quick effects.”
“Yes, Master!” Linghu Chong answered.
“Chong, how did you think of the earlier move that used the sheath to take away my sword?” Madam Yue asked.
“I only wanted to get out from Master-Wife’s extremely powerful attack. Who would have thought…who would have thought…?” Linghu Chong felt so ashamed and embarrassed.
“That’s it. By now you probably understand which one is truly superior between Qi-Branch and Sword-Branch. This move of yours is surely a clever one, but as soon as it met with your Master’s first-class Qi-Gong, despite of how clever it is, it would be rendered useless. When the two branches had the big sword contest on Jade Maiden Peak that year, elite fighters from the Sword-Branch had dazzling magical moves that were ultimately brilliant, but your Grandmaster relied on his Divine Art of Violet Twilight to counter motion with standstill and defy cleverness with dullness. He was able to defeat over ten elite fighters from the Sword-Branch and affirmed the foundation of our school’s orthodox Kung Fu. All of your must take your Master’s advice to your heart and ponder over it again and again. The Kung Fu of our
school uses inner energy as the foundation and sword skills as the implementation; inner energy is the driving force and sword skill is the secondary; inner energy is the key line and sword skill is the mesh. If you can’t succeed with your inner energy development, despite of how strong you are with your sword skills, it is still useless after all.”
Linghu Chong, Shi Daizi, Lu Dayou, and Yue Lingshan all bowed down for the preaching of Madam Yue.
“Chong, I had planned to teach you the entry formula for the Divine Art of Violet Twilight today and then bring you down Mount Huashan to kill the villain Tian Boguang, but we’d better postpone that for now,” Yue Buqun said. “During the next two months, you can practice the breathing exercise for Qi-Gong training I taught you before diligently and forget all about those heterodoxy and weird sword moves. I will check on you again later to see if you have any progress.” At those words, he suddenly put on a stern tone, “But if you obstinately stick to the wrong course and stay on Sword-Branch’s evil route, humph, a harsher punishment would be to take your life, and a lighter punishment would be to destroy all the Kung Fu you have and banish you out of our school once and for all. By then, it would be too late to beg for mercy, and don’t you blame me for not explaining everything clearly to you beforehand!”
Cold sweat streamed down Linghu Chong’s forehead. “Yes, Master. I would never dare to do so,” he said.
“Lingshan,” Yue Buqun turned to his daughter, “Dayou and you are both the impetuous type. You two should also remember what I just said to your big apprentice brother.”
“Yes, Master!” Lu Dayou answered immediately.
“Sixth apprentice brother and I are impatient, but we are not as smart as big apprentice brother and won’t be able to create sword moves of our own. Dad, you can relax,” Yue Lingshan argued.
“You won’t be able to create sword moves of your own? Didn’t you create a sword form called Chong-Ling Sword Art with Chong?” Yue Buqun snorted.
Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan both blushed.
“Sorry Master, we were being mischievous.” Linghu Chong asked for forgiveness.
“That was a long, long time ago. I was still a kid by then who didn’t know anything and was just playing with big apprentice brother. How did you hear about it?” Yue Lingshan grinned.
“My apprentices wanted to create sword art of their own and start a new style. If I, the Head Master, still had no clue, wouldn’t I have become a muddle-head?”
“D-a-a-a-d, you are still making fun of me!” Yue Lingshan pulled onto her father’s sleeve and whined.
Linghu Chong, on the other hand, felt a great shock in his heart when he noticed that there was no sign of joking from the Master’s tone of voice or the expression on his face.
Yue Buqun stood up. “When someone advanced into the higher level of our school’s Kung Fu, even a petal of flower or a leaf could be used as a weapon to injure the enemy. Others might think that the Huashan Sword School is only good at its sword skills. They have really belittled us.”
Yue Buqun flicked his left sleeve, and the long sword by Lu Dayou’s waist jumped out of the sheath as the stream of energy reached it. He then followed with a flick from his right sleeve. As soon as the sleeve touched the blade, the sword broke in half with a loud cracking sound.
Linghu Chong and the rest of the apprentices were seized by terror while Madam Yue eyed her husband with tremendous admiration and respect.
“Let’s go!” Yue Buqun said and walked off the cliff together with Madam Yue. Yue Lingshan, Shi Daizi, and Lu Dayou followed behind them.
Staring at the two broken swords laying still on the ground, Linghu Chong was half stunned and half thrilled. He thought, “It turned out that our school’s Kung Fu is really powerful. No one would be able to defeat our sword art regardless of which move Master uses. All those drawings on the rock wall in the back cave claimed that the unique sword moves of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance were defeatable, yet the Five Mountains Sword Alliance is still able to enjoy great fames in the Martial World today. Hence every sword school has advanced Qi-Gong as the foundation, and once the sword move is executed with vigorous inner energy, it would be difficult to defeat. This is actually a very simple principle, but I had forgot about it when my thoughts were on the wrong track and went to a dead end. With the same move of Graceful Phoenix, how could I treat the one executed by apprentice brother Lin and the one executed by Master as the same? The staff wielding man can defeat apprentice brother Lin’s Graceful Phoenix, but he would stand no chance defeating Master’s Graceful Phoenix.”
Finally able to figure out the answer to his puzzled mind, Linghu Chong ridded himself of all shadows of anxiety. Even though Master didn’t teach him the Divine Art of Violet Twilight, nor did he say anything about betrothing Yue Lingshan to marry him, Linghu Chong didn’t feel depressed in any way. On the contrary, he was gratified for gaining back his confidence in the Huashan Sword School’s Kung Fu. But when he remembered how he had had the wildest fantasy thinking that Master and Master-Wife would betroth their daughter to marry him, he blushed in great embarrassment.
At dusk the next day, Lu Dayou brought food up the cliff.
“Big apprentice brother, Master and Master-Wife left for Northern Shanxi early this morning.”
“Northern Shanxi? Why not Chang-An?” Linghu Chong asked with a bit of surprise.
“The chap Tian Boguang committed several more crimes in the town of Yan-An. It turned out that the villain is no longer in Chang-An,” Lu Dayou explained.
“Oh!” Linghu Chong replied.
He thought that since Master and Master-Wife had attended the matter personally, Tian Boguang would have no chance of surviving, but deep in his mind, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for Tian Boguang.
“For a guy like Tian Boguang, who loves porn and lewd obscenities, and has been committing crimes after crimes against innocent people, even death would not expiate all his sins. He surely has high Kung Fu skills, and in the two fights between the two of us, he acted open and upright and showed the qualities of a true man. What a pity that he chooses to commit evil deeds and thus become a public enemy of the entire Martial World.”
Throughout the next two days, Linghu Chong focused on practicing his Qi-Gong and never went back into the back cave to study the drawings on the rock wall. Whenever thoughts about the drawings came into his mind, he would force them out instantly with no hesitation and tried his best to avoid them. He kept thinking, “Fortunately Master shouted his advice to me in time. Otherwise, I’d be going on the wrong road and become a sinner of our Huashan Sword School. What a close call!”
One day, after dinner, Linghu Chong meditated for a couple of hours when he suddenly heard someone climbing up the cliff. The sounds of footsteps appeared to be swift and agile. It was obvious that the person had great Kung Fu skills. Linghu Chong felt a shock in his heart.
“He’s not someone from our sword school. Why is he coming up the cliff? Could he be the masked man in the green robe?”
He rushed into the back cave and picked up a Huashan sword to hang by his waist before rushing back to the front cave. Only moments later, the person had climbed up the cliff.
“Brother Linghu, your old friend is here to visit you!” the fellow shouted.
The voice sounded very familiar to Linghu Chong and it only took him a short moment before realizing that it was the voice of “Ten Thousand Miles Loner” Tian Boguang.
In astonishment, Linghu Chong thought to himself, “Master and Master-Wife went down Mount Huashan to go after you, yet you are still so bold to come up Mount Huashan yourself. What do you want here?”
He walked out from the cave and greeted with a smile. “Brother Tian, what a big surprise that you have come such a long way to visit me!”
Tian Boguang carried two large bamboo baskets on a shoulder pole. He sat the bamboo baskets on the ground and then took out a large jar from each of the basket, a big smile on his face.
“I
heard that brother Linghu had become a prisoner on top of Mount Huashan, so I figured that he must have been drooling for a good drink of wine, that’s why I took two jars of one hundred and thirty year old mellow wine from the cellar of Chang-An Banished Fairy Wine House, so I can drink my fill together with brother Linghu,” he said.
Linghu Chong took several steps closer. Sure enough, under the moonlight, the trademark in golden characters on red papers “Banished Fairy Wine House” could be clearly seen glued to the two huge wine-jars. The trademark papers and the seals on the wine-jars appeared to be quite aged. It was obvious that those two wine-jars weren’t anything current. He couldn’t help but feel delighted.
“Wow, to carry a hundred pound of wine all the way up Mount Huashan, what a big present! Come! Come! Let’s have a drink!” His face split into a big smile.
Linghu Chong took two big bowls out from inside the cave. As soon as Tian Boguang opened the seal, the wonderful smell of the mellow wine filled the air. Before he even had a chance to taste it, Linghu Chong already felt tipsy.
“Have a taste! What do you think?” Tian Boguang poured a bowl of wine from the wine-jar.
Linghu Chong took the bowl and drank a big swallow. “This is superb!” he praised and then poured the entire bowl of wine down his throat. Raising his thumb up, he said, “Famous wine! It’s really exceptional!”
“I’ve heard that out of all the famous wines, Fen-Wine ranks number one in northern China, and Shao-Wine leads the rest in southern China. Actually the best Fen-Wine is not in Shan-Xi58 Province but in the town of Chang-An. And in the town of Chang-An, the best one would be none other than the ‘Banished Fairy Wine House’ where Li Taiba59 used to get drunk all the time many years ago. And in the entire world, other than these two jars of wine, no one will be able to find a third one left,” Tian Boguang grinned.
