Smiling Proud Wanderer Vol 01

by Jin Yong

  “Are you saying that they only had these two jars of wine left in the cellar of the Banished Fairy Wine House?” Linghu Chong asked in surprise.

  “After I took these two wine-jars, there were still about two hundred jars left in the cellar. I figured that if all those high officials and noble lords in the town of Chang-An, the ordinary and vulgar ones, could go to the Banished Fairy Wine House to enjoy such wonderful wine as long as they have money in their pockets, then how could the Big Hero Linghu of the Huashan Sword School stand out from all the ordinary? Therefore I banged and whammed, and soon the entire cellar was filled with the wonderful smell of wine as the flood of wine went up almost to my waist,” Tian Boguang explained in amusement.

  “Are you saying that you actually smashed two hundred or so jars of wine into pieces?” Linghu Chong was half stunned and half amused.

  “Wouldn’t it be more valuable if there were only two jars left in the entire world? Ha-ha! Ha-ha!” Tian Boguang burst into loud laughter.

  “Thanks! Many thanks!” Linghu Chong drank another bowl. “It is so troublesome for you to carry these two jars of wine all the way from Chang-An to Mount Huashan, brother Tian. Even if they were filled with pure water, I’d owe you a debt of gratitude, anyhow, not mentioning that they were filled with famous wine.”

  “You are a good man! A real man!” Tian Boguang praised loudly with his thumbs up.

  “Why are you praising me all of a sudden?” Linghu Chong asked.

  “I am an infamous evil rapist who commits all kinds of crimes. I’ve severely wounded you before and have also committed several crimes right by the foot of Mount Huashan. Everyone in the Huashan Sword School wished to kill me. But when I carried the wine here today, brother Linghu drank it with complete ease, without ever worrying that I might plant poison in the wine. Only a true man with such breath of mind is worth enjoying such worldly famous wine.”

  “Brother Tian, you are making fun of me now. I have fought you twice and knew well that even though brother Tian has very bad conducts, you would disdain to stab anyone on the back. Besides, your Kung Fu skills are way higher than mine. If you want to kill me, all you have to do is to draw your knife and chop down. What’s so difficult about that?” Linghu Chong said.

  “Brother Linghu, you said it right!” Tian Boguang laughed some more. “But did you know that I didn’t carry these two jars of wine directly from Chang-An to Mount Huashan? I carried these hundred-pound wine first to Northern Shanxi for two robberies, and then to Eastern Shanxi for another two robberies before I finally came up Mount Huashan.”

  Linghu Chong was stunned. He pondered over it and quickly understood. “So brother Tian continuously committed many crimes just to divert my Master and Master-Wife away, so you can come and see me. You’ve used the strategy of luring the enemy away from the base. Brother Tian, after going through all these trouble, what do you exactly want from me?” he said.

  “Brother Linghu, why don’t you give it a wild guess?” Tian Boguang suggested with a smile.

  “No way!” Linghu Chong rejected. He poured a bowl full of wine and then said, “Brother Tian, you are a guest here at Mount Huashan. I don’t have anything in exchange for your present here on the barren cliff. I am just going to borrow something to make a gift of it. Please enjoy a bowl of number one wine in the world.”

  “Thanks!” Tian Boguang answered and poured the bowl of wine down his throat.

  Linghu Chong also drank a bowl of wine as accompany. After showing each other the empty bottom of the bowls, the two set the bowls down and broke into a laugh at the same time. All of a sudden, Linghu Chong kicked out with his right leg, and with two loud bangs, the two large wine-jars were kicked down the deep valley. Only after a long while, two muffled smashing sounds came back from the bottom.

  “Why did you kick the wine-jars down, brother Linghu?” Tian Boguang asked in shock.

  “Tian Boguang,” Linghu Chong answered, “we don’t belong to the same sides of the society. You have committed numerous crimes and harmed many innocent people. Everyone in the Martial World hates your guts. I drank three bowls of wine with you because I think you are someone upright and not some kind of shameless filthy scoundrel. Our relationship stops right here. You’ve brought me two jars of great wine, but even if you put all the precious jewels and treasures right in front me, do you think you can buy Linghu Chong to be your friend?” He yelled as he drew his long sword, “Tian Boguang, let me try your fast knife chop moves one more time!”

  Tian Boguang didn’t draw his knife. He shook his head with a slight smile on his face. “Brother Linghu, your respectful school’s sword art is brilliant, but you are still too young and haven’t grasped the depth of it. Right now with your sword skills, you are still no match for me.”

  Linghu Chong thought for a second and then nodded in agreement. “What you said is very true. Within the next ten years, Linghu Chong would stand no chance of ever killing you, brother Tian.” With a loud clanking sound, he sent his long sword back into the sheath.

  “Whosoever understands the times is a great man!” Tian Boguang burst into loud laughter.

  “Linghu Chong is only a nobody in the Martial World. I suppose you made nothing of hardships to Mount Huashan not for my head on my neck. We are enemies, not friends. No matter what you want me to do, I won’t do it.” Linghu Chong announced.

  “But you haven’t even given yourself a chance to hear my proposal yet.” Tian Boguang was amused.

  “Precisely!” Linghu Chong said. “No matter what you propose, I won’t agree. Since I can’t beat you in a fight, I’d better lubricate my heels and have the run for it.” Before the word even faded in the air, he had already turned around the corner to the back of the cliff.

  Linghu Chong knew well that Tian Boguang could run very fast. That was how he got his nickname “Ten Thousand Miles Loner.” He had good knife skills, but there were plenty of people in the Martial World who could beat him. He had been committing various crimes for the last ten years or so. Yet because he was always on good alert and had first-class Qing-Gong skills, during the several times when the Chivalry Side gathered a good amount of people to hunt him down, no one was even able to touch him. For this reason when Linghu Chong started running, he ran with all his strength.

  He thought he was fast, but Tian Boguang was even faster. Only after Linghu Chong dashed out some thirty feet, he already found Tian Boguang blocking the way in front of him. He turned around immediately heading toward the front of the cliff, thinking that he might be able to jump down the cliff to the lower slope, but only after about ten steps, Tian Boguang had caught up with him again and blocked in front of him with his arms stretching out, laughing hectically.

  “No chance of running away, I guess we’ll have to pick a fight! Brother Tian, you can’t blame me if I call for help now!” Linghu Chong took three steps back and shouted.

  “Well,” Tian Boguang said with a grin, “if your respectful Master can come, then it would be my turn to lubricate my heels and take the run for it. Too bad Mr. and Madam Yue are in Eastern Shanxi right now, which is at least a hundred and fifty miles away from here, and would have no chance of coming back to save you. You do have some apprentice brothers and sisters, but if they come up the cliff, none of them would make a decent opponent. All the guys would lose their lives for nothing, and all the girls…ha-ha, ha-ha.” The tone of his laughter was filled with ill intentions.

  Linghu Chong gasped. He thought to himself, “The ‘Cliff of Contemplation’ is far away from the Huashan Sword School’s main hall. Even if I shout with all my might, the apprentice brothers and sisters probably still won’t be able to hear a thing. This fellow is an infamous rapist, what if he bumped into little apprentice sister…oops! That was a close call! Luckily I wasn’t able to run away earlier, or else, Tian Boguang would have gone to the main hall of Huashan Sword School to look for me for sure, and then naturally he would bump into little apprentice sister. If the pretty and lov
ely little apprentice sister had fallen into the evil rapist’s hands, I…I’d deserve ten-thousand deaths.” He rolled his eyes and quickly made up his mind. “Right now the best thing to do probably is to muddle with him perfunctorily and to stall him for more time. Hence I can’t take him by force, I’ll have to take him by strategy. As long as I can stall him till Master and Master-Wife make it back to Mount Huashan, then everything would be fine.”

  “Fine! I can’t win in a fight, nor can I run away, nor can I find any help….” Linghu Chong put his hands out and shrugged, signaling that he had given up and Tian Boguang could do anything as he please.

  “Brother Linghu, you must have misunderstood me and thought that I am here to give you trouble. It is actually something that will benefit you in a good deal, and you will definitely thank me sincerely for that later,” Tian Boguang said with a broad smile.

  “You have done many evil deeds and gained yourself a notorious reputation. Despite how beneficial this thing you speak about is for me, I, Linghu Chong, will preserve my own purity and never wallow in the mire with you.” Linghu Chong waved him off.

  “I am the infamous evil rapist, but brother Linghu is the proud disciple of the number one gentleman in the Martial World – Mr. Yue. Of course you can’t wallow in the mire with me. But if that’s the case today, why not before?” Tian Boguang grinned.

  “What do you mean by ‘if that’s the case today, why not before’?” Linghu Chong asked.

  “In the Huiyan Wine House of Hengyang, brother Linghu, you and I had the companionship of drinking on the same table,” Tian Boguang claimed.

  “Linghu Chong is a big alcoholic. We were just having a couple of drinks together. It was nothing.”

  “In the Jade House of Hengshan, brother Linghu, you and I had the same aesthetic pleasure of visiting prostitutes in the same brothel.”

  “Bah!” Linghu Chong spit to the ground. “At that time I was severely wounded and had been rescued. I was just recovering in the Jade House temporarily. What has that got anything to do with visiting prostitutes?”

  “But in the Jade House, didn’t you have the great pleasure of sleeping with two gorgeous and lovely girls under the same quilt?” Tian Boguang split into a big grin.

  Linghu Chong felt a great shock in his heart. He yelled out loud, “Tian Boguang, you’d better watch you mouth! I have a clean reputation, and those two girls are also as pure as crystal and jade. If you keep spilling out such filthy lies, I won’t be so easy on you.”

  “What good does it do if you don’t go easy on me today? If you want to uphold the clean reputation of the Huashan Sword School, you should have treated those two girls with some respect. Why did you get under the same quilt with those two girls and rubbed up and down in front of all those heroes of the Qingcheng Sword School, Hengshan Sword School, and Heng-Shan Sword School, stopping at nothing? Ha-ha, ha-ha!”

  Infuriated, Linghu Chong threw a fist at him fiercely, which Tian Boguang easily dodged with a big grin.

  “It’s no good trying to deny it! If you hadn’t gotten petty advantages of those two little girls on the bed under the quilt, why would they all get lovesickness for you today?”

  Linghu Chong thought to himself, “This man is a shameless rascal. It is possible that anything would come out of his mouth. If I tangle myself with him in such an inexplicable way, who knows what more garbage is going to come out of his mouth? That day in Huiyan Wine House of Hengyang, he fell for my trick. That was the most galling shame and humiliation he has ever had in his entire life. It’s the only thing I can use to shut him up.” At that thought, instead of getting outraged, he smiled.

  “I was wondering why did brother Tian come such a long distance to Mount Huashan. Who would have thought that your Master, the little nun Yilin, had sent you to bring two jars of great wine to me, thanking me for finding her such a well-behaved apprentice? Ha-ha, ha-ha!”

  Tian Boguang flushed, but soon calmed down. “The two jars of wine are tokens of my own regard. But my coming to Mount Huashan surely is related to Little Sister Yilin,” putting on a serious face, he said.

  “Little Sister? No, no, no! Isn’t she your Master now? What a true man says cannot be unsaid. Are you trying to go back on your own words? Apprentice sister Yilin is an outstanding apprentice from a famous school. It was really your good fortune to have found such a Master. Ha-ha!”

  Tian Boguang was outraged. He grabbed onto his knife handle and almost drew the knife. But he pulled himself together and spoke coldly.

  “Brother Linghu, you don’t have good Kung Fu with your hands, but you surely have outstanding Kung Fu with your tongue.”

  “Since I am no match for you in a fight with sword, knife, punches, or kicks, all I can do is to take some petty advantage from you with my tongue, brother Tian.” Linghu Chong grinned.

  “In the fight with the tongue, I candidly admit my defeat. Brother Linghu, it’s time for you to come with me now,” Tian Boguang demanded.

  “No way! I am not going even if I have to die!” Linghu Chong declared.

  “Do you know where I am asking you to go to?” Tian Boguang asked.

  “I don’t know and I don’t care. Either to go up the heavens or go down to hell, wherever Tian Boguang goes, Linghu Chong won’t go.”

  Tian Boguang shook his head slowly. “Brother Linghu, I am here to invite you to pay a visit to Little Sister Yilin,” he said.

  “You rascal, has apprentice sister Yilin fallen into your hands again? How dare you offend your superior and be so disrespectful to your own Master?” Linghu Chong was shocked.

  Tian Boguang yelled angrily, “My Master is someone else. He had passed away many years ago. Don’t you ever mix up Little Sister Yilin in this matter again.” He paused for a moment to calm himself down and then said, “Brother Linghu, Little Sister Yilin misses you very much. She thinks of you days and nights. I consider you a friend, that’s why I will never dare to be disrespectful to her again. You can relax. Shall we go now?”

  “I am not going! How many times do I have to repeat myself, one thousand times, ten thousand times?” Linghu Chong claimed.

  Tian Boguang showed a slight smile but didn’t say a word.

  “What are you smiling about? Because your Kung Fu is better than mine, you think you’ll just force your will upon me and take me down as a prisoner?” Linghu Chong mocked.

  “I have no hostility toward you, brother Linghu, and really don’t want to offend you in anyway. But I surely don’t want to set out in high spirits and return disappointed.”

  “Tian Boguang, you have excellent knife skills, and it would be a piece of cake for you to kill me or wound me. You can kill Linghu Chong, but you won’t succeed in humiliating Linghu Chong. At most, I’ll just let you take away my life, but to take me prisoner so you can take me down Mount Huashan, that’s absolutely impossible!”

  “I am just doing a favor for someone inviting you to pay a visit to Little Sister Yilin. That’s the true and only intention. Why are you so uptight?” Tian Boguang turned his head and eyed Linghu Chong from the corner of his eyes.

  “If it’s something I don’t’ want to do, even my Master, Master-Wife, Five Mountains Sword Alliance Chief, or the Emperor himself won’t be able to force me, not mentioning you. Here’s my final answer: I am not going! Even if I have to say it ten thousand times or one hundred thousand times, the answer is still the same,” Linghu Chong said with determination.

  “You are too stubborn. I am afraid I’ll have to give offense now.” With a loud clank, Tian Boguang drew his knife.

  “You have offended me at the very beginning when you planned to take me prisoner,” Linghu Chong rebuffed angrily. “I guess the ‘Cliff of Contemplation’ on top of Mount Huashan is going to be the place where I depart this life.” He let out a clear roar and also drew his sword.

  Tian Boguang took a step back and slightly frowned. “Brother Linghu, we have neither scores to settle nor grudges between the two of us. Why do
we have to fight in the expense of our lives? Why don’t we have a bet?”

  Linghu Chong secretly felt pleased. He thought to himself, “A bet? That’s perfect! If I lose, I can still argue my way out, even if I have to use some lame excuses.” But instead, he said, “What bet? If I win, I won’t go, and if I lose, I won’t go just the same.”

  “I see,” Tian Boguang said with a smile. “The head apprentice of the Huashan Sword School is so scared of Tian Boguang’s fast knife chops, he doesn’t even have the guts to take on thirty knife moves of mine.”

  “What am I scared of? What’s the worst, me dying under your blade? So what?” Linghu Chong mocked angrily.

  “Brother Linghu, it’s not that I look down upon you or anything, but I am afraid that you won’t be able to fend off even thirty moves of my fast knife chops. As soon as you fend off thirty moves of my fast knife chops, I’ll turn my butt around and get out of here right away. No more babbling. But if I get lucky and beat you within thirty moves, you’ll have to go down Mount Huashan with me and pay a visit to Little Sister Yilin,” Tian Boguang declared.

  In the instant, Linghu Chong had gone through Tian Boguang’s knife moves once in his head. He thought, “After the last two fights with him, I’ve pondered over all the powerful techniques of his fast knife chops many times. And on top of that, I’ve also asked Master and Master-Wife about them. If all I need to do is to guard myself so I don’t lose, couldn’t I even fend off thirty moves of his?”

  “Fine, I’ll see your thirty moves!” Linghu Chong yelled as he thrust his sword toward Tian Boguang. He had used an advanced move of the Huashan sword art called Graceful Phoenix right at the beginning. The blade of his sword vibrated and made a buzzing sound as rays of reflection covered Tian Boguang’s entire upper body.