by Jin Yong
also deep footprints on the ground, a sign that the combatants were martial art experts who stake their whole internal energies.
Zhang Wuji said, "Quickly grab that ‘welcoming host’ monk, we need to ask him clearly.”
Wei Yixiao, Shuo Bude and the others quickly dispersed to look, but the ‘receiving guest’ monk had disappeared without any trace. The Five Elements Flags also looked everywhere. A little over an hour later all the Flag leaders came back one after another with their report: nobody was found in the temple, but they saw traces of violent battle everywhere. Many of the halls and rooms had bloodstains in them, along with broken blades and other weapons, but not a single body was to be seen.
"Left Emissary Yang, what do you think?” Zhang Wuji asked.
"This battle happened two, three days ago,” Yang Xiao replied, "Could it be that the entire Shaolin Sect is annihilated and not a single one survived?”
"Wasn’t there a few dozens people went out the temple from the back just now?” Shuo Bude asked.
Yang Xiao replied, "Quite possibly they were the Shaolin Sect’s enemy. They were left behind to take care of things in here; but as they saw our large group arrived they slipped away.”
Peng Yingyu said, "Judging from the turn of events, I think you are right. That ‘welcoming host’ monk must be an impostor; it’s a pity we could not capture him. But among the enemies of the Shaolin Sect, which one is this powerful? Could it be the Beggar Clan?”
Zhou Dian said, "The Beggar Clan is indeed big, and has a lot of martial art experts, but they don’t have the ability to wipe out the entire Shaolin Temple that not a single survivor is left. Only our Ming Cult has this kind of ability; but we clearly did not do it, do we?”
"Zhou Dian, can you not spout nonsense?” Tie Guan Daoren said, "Our Cult obviously did not do it, do you think we don’t know?”
"Reporting to Jiaozhu,” Yan Yuan, the Flag Leader of the Thick Earth came to report, "It looks like the eighteen arhats in the Luohan Hall have been shifted, but there was no footprint around.”
The leaders knew that Yan Yuan and his Thick Earth Flag were experts in building and construction, so his suspicion must not be unfounded. "Let us take a look,” they said.
Upon entering the Luohan Hall, they saw quite a bit of blood splattered on the walls and broken blades and meditation sticks strewn on the floor.
"Yan Xiong,” Zhou Dian said, "What’s unusual about these eighteen arhats?”
"Each Luohan arhat was moved from their original position,” Yan Yuan replied, "At first I thought there was another door somewhere, but after carefully examining the wall, I did not see any secret passageway anywhere.”
Yang Xiao was deep in thought for half an afternoon before he finally said, "Let us push these arhats and take a look.”
Yan Yuan leaped toward the platform and pushed the long-eyebrowed arhat to the side, exposing
the wall behind it, but there was nothing unusual there. Yang Xiao also leaped to the platform to take a closer look at that long-eyebrowed arhat. "Uh,” he suddenly exclaimed, "There is a character on the back of this arhat.” He turned the arhat around. To their astonishment, the crowd saw a ‘mie’ [extinguish] character as big as a human’s head.
The Luohan arhats were inlaid with gold, but by now a large ‘mie’ character was engraved on the glittering golden back with a sharp object. The engraving was about a ‘cun’ [an inch] deep that the clay inside was exposed. The engraving was new, obviously it was done not too long ago.
"What’s the meaning of this ‘mie’ character?” Zhou Dian wondered, "Ah, right! It must be the Emei Sect attacked the Shaolin Temple; Miejue Shitai left this to demonstrate her power.”
The group of heroes thought his idea was too unthinkable; they all shook their heads. While speaking they turned all the arhats around. Other than the Subduing Dragon Arhat on the extreme right and the Crouching Tiger Arhat on the extreme left, a large character was engraved on the back of every arhat. From right to left there were sixteen characters which read: ‘First execute Shaolin then extinguish Wudang, only our Ming Cult is fit to rule the Wulin world!’
Yin Tianzheng, Tie Guan Daoren, Shuo Bude and the others called out together, "This is a treacherous plan to shift the blame!” They realized these sixteen characters were a threat to incite terror; they recalled how the Shaolin Temple’s monks suffered an unexpected calamity, and the blame was put upon the Ming Cult’s head. Everybody was anxious and grieved at the same time.
"Let us quickly scrape off these characters to avoid injustice toward us,” Zhou Dian called out.
Yang Xiao said, "The enemy intention is obviously malicious; scraping off these sixteen characters may not be necessarily useful.”
This time Zhou Dian felt what he said made a good sense, so he did not argue. "What should we do, then?” he asked.
Shuo Bude said, "This is actually evidence. If we can find the person who hatched this treacherous plan, we can take him here and confront him with these sixteen characters.”
Yang Xiao nodded his agreement.
Peng Yingyu said, "Xiao Seng [little/lowly monk] still have a question, I need the Left Emissary Yang’s enlightenment. The person who carved these sixteen characters obviously wanted to shift the blame to our Cult; placing the responsibility of Shaolin Sect’s destruction on our head, so that the Wulin world’s heroes would rally together to attack us. Then why did he turn these arhats to the wall? Why didn’t they leave these large sixteen characters facing outward? If it wasn’t because of Flag Leader Yan’s attentiveness, nobody would know there are characters on the back of these Luohan arhats.”
Yang Xiao was deep in thought. "Come to think about it,” he said, "There must be someone else who turned these arhats back. Most likely there is someone helping our Cult in secret. We owe him a big debt of gratitude.”
"Who is this person?” the crowd asked almost simultaneously, "How did Left Emissary Yang know?”
Yang Xiao sighed and said, "This is a complicated mystery, I cannot possibly know everything .”
"Ah!” he has not finished his words when suddenly Zhang Wuji loudly exclaimed, "‘First execute Shaolin, then extinguish Wudang,’ I am afraid . I am afraid Wudang is facing a terrible disaster.”
"We must leave immediately to render our help,” Wei Yixiao said, "We might also find out which dog has done it all.”
"We can’t wait much longer,” Yin Tianzheng also said, "We must leave now. These bandits have already left one or two days ago.”
End of Chapter 23.
Chapter 24 - Tai Chi - The Origin of Soft Subduing Hard (Translated by dgfds01)
Zhang Sanfeng picked the wooden sword, his right hand held the sword, his left hand in sword form, both hands made a loop and he slowly raised them. This opening form was followed by 'Encase the Moon with Three Rings', 'Biggest Star in the Big Dipper, 'Swallow Skims the Water', 'Left Block', 'Right Block'... each form smoothly following the other.
Zhang Wuji wondered whether some misfortune had befallen his martial uncles on the way back from the Western Regions. Throughout the whole journey there had been no news of them. If any misfortune had delayed them on their way, the only people left on Wudang Mountain were his grandteacher and the third generation disciples. His third martial uncle Yu Daiyan was paralysed. If a formidable enemy attacked, how could they resist them? Thinking so, he felt anxious. He said clearly: "Elders and brothers, my late father was a Wudang disciple. I am greatly indebted to my grandteacher. Now that Wudang is facing great trouble, the earlier we get there the better. Bat King Wei will accompany me to first to lend aid. The rest of you should arrive in batches. I request that Left Messenger Yang and Grandpa arrange this. ” After saying this, he cupped his hands and left. Wei Yixiao used his lightness kungfu and followed him. Before the crowd could say anything in agreement, the two of them were already outside Shaolin temple. Their lightness kungfu was really amazing, without equal in the world. The two of them did not dare risk even
a short moment’s delay. Without stopping they quickly covered ten li. Though Wei Yixiao did not fall behind, after some time he gradually found it difficult to keep up. Zhang Wuji thought: "Wudang Mountain is a long distance away, we can’t keep this up without rest. Moreover there is a formidable enemy in front. We should save our energy for battle.” He said to Wei Yixiao: "Let’s buy a couple of horses from the next town to conserve our energy.” Wei Yixiao had already considered this but he had brought the matter up. He said: "Sect Leader, buying horses will waste too much time.”
Not long later, they met five or six horses approaching. Wei Yixiao jumped up, lifted up two riders and put them gently on the ground. He called out: "Sect Leader, mount up!” Zhang Wuji stopped in his tracks. In his heart he felt that stealing horses like that was not the right thing to do. Wei Yixiao called out: "When dealing with important matters, don't be held back by trifling affairs. Why worry so much?” He lifted another two riders off their horses. It so happened that those people also knew some martial arts. Cursing, they drew their weapons to attack. While holding on to four horses, Wei Yixiao kicked their weapons out of their hands. One of them shouted: "Who are you robbers? What are your names!” Zhang Wuji felt it would be even worse if they got tangled up any further. So he leapt onto a horse's back and went with Wei Yixiao. Not daring to give chase, the horse owners could only curse. Zhang Wuji said:"Even though we have pressing matters to attend to, others may also have urgent matters. I don't feel comfortable doing this.” Wei Yixiao laughed and said: "Sect Leader, this is small matter not worth mentioning. The way the Ming Cult handled affairs in the past... - now that is truly unscrupulous and illegal.” So saying, he laughed loudly.
Zhang Wuji thought: "The Ming Cult is considered an evil sect. There is some truth that. However it can be hard to determine what is righteous and what is evil." He was the sect leader and yet he had difficulty making decisions. He was even undecided about a minor issue like the horses. Though his kungfu skills were of a high level, there are many matters in this world that cannot be settled with kungfu alone. He hoped to bring Xie Xun back soon, and pass this heavy burden on to him. Yet he was unwilling to simply take the asy way out. At this moment, he suddenly saw two people with silver rods in their hands blocking the road. Wei Yixiao shouted:"Get out of the way!”
He waved the horse whip. One man blocked the whip with his staff, another man yelled and waved his left hand. Wei Yixiao’s horse was startled and stood up on its hind legs. Four men dressed in black then came out from a grove. They looked like they were able fighters. Wei Yixiao yelled:
"Sect leader go on,let me deal with them.” Zhang Wuji saw that these people are trying to prevent reinforcements from reaching Wudang. Wudang Sect was in a very precarious and dangerous situation. He knew that Wei Yixiao's lightness kungfu and martial arts is amazing, he could handle these people. Even if he couldn't win he would be able to protect himself. Zhang Wuji squeezed both his legs to urge the horse forward. Two men in black used steel staffs to block the way. Zhang Wuji bent down, seized the staffs and threw them forward. The two men screamed as their legs were broken by the steel staffs and they fell to the ground. He saw that the four men fighting Wei Yixiao were not weak. He was worried that after he left more enemies will appear, so he helped Wei Yixiao deal with two of them.
Though Mt. Song and Mt. Wudang are in two different provinces - Henan and Hubei, one is in west Henan and the other in north Hubei. So the distance between them was not that great. After crossing the Ma Mountain, to the south was open country and the horse was able to travel quickly. At noon, he passed a small village. Zhang WuJi felt hungry so he stopped to buy some food. Suddenly he heard a horse scream behind him. He turned around and saw a knife stuck in a horse's stomach. A man quickly tried to hide.
Zhang Wuji jumped up and grabbed that person. Only to see it is another man dressed in black with the front of his clothes splashed with horse blood. Zhang Wuji yelled: "Whose orders are you following? Which sect do you belong to? Has your party reached Wudang Mountain?” That person did not answer despite being questioned a few times. Zhang Wuji did not dare delay any longer, thinking that that once he reached Wudang Mountain he would understand what was going on. He sealed the man's 'Da Tui' pressure point. The sealed pressure point would cause the man to suffer great pain for three days and three nights.
He then got onto his horse and continued his journey. Soon he reached the Three Palaces and crossed the Han River. While on a boat, he stared into the water thinking of the time Zhang Sanfeng and himself met Chang Yuchun and saved Zhou Zhiruo. Her beautiful image surfaced in his mind. After crossing the Han River, he headed south. By now night had already fallen. He continued for another two hours. It was a dark night. The horse was extremely exhausted and could not take it anymore. It collapsed to the ground. Zhang Wuji patted the horse's back saying:"Horsey, you're free to go now!” He utilised his lightness kungfu and was quickly on his way.
After traveling for eight hours, he heard the sound of hoofbeats - there was a group of people ahead. He quicken his pace and overtook them swiftly. Because of his speed and the darkness, no one noticed him. From their direction, they are heading for Wudang Mountain. The twenty or so people did not say a word, so he was unable to determine their intentions. But he could dimly see that each one carried weapons. There is no doubt that they are going to cause trouble for Wudang Sect. He thought: "I've managed to overtake them so Wudang Sect has not yet been attacked.” After continuing for less than an hour, he met another group of people heading for Wudang Mountain. In total he ran into five groups. The biggest group consisted of about thirty people and the smallest about ten. After seeing the fifth group, he was even more anxious, thinkng: "How many other groups have already gone up the mountain? Have they already clashed with people from my sect?” Though he was not a Wudang disciple, because of his father's background he considered Wudang his own sect. So thinking, he increased his speed. Not long later reached the mountain and started climbing. Fortunately he did not run into anymore enemies. Halfway up the mountain, he saw someone hurrying upward. It was a monk and his lightness kungfu was amazing. Zhang Wuji followed him from a distance observing his actions.
He saw the monk go up the mountain. At the peak, someone shouted:"Which friend comes to Wudang at this time of the night?” As the sound died away, four people appeared, two Taoist priests and two laymen (non-priests). These were Wudang Sect's third and fourth generation disciples. The monk said: "Kong Xiang of Shaolin has an urgent matter to see Wudang's Master Zhang about.” Zhang Wuji though with surprise: "So he is a member of Shaolin's 'Kong' generation, the same generation as Abbot Kong Wen, Kong Zhi and Kong Xing. He actually took the trouble to come personally to Wudang Mountain to bring news.”
One of the Wudang Taoist priests said:"Reverend, you has come from afar. Please come in and have some tea.” And soo saying he lead the way. Kong Xiang gave his saber to a priest, not daring to bring his weapon in. Zhang Wuji saw the priest lead Kong Xiang into the Purple Paradise Hall.
He squatted down outside the window. Only to hear Kong Xiang say loudly: "Please report to Master Zhang immediately. The situation is urgent; there is no time to lose!” The priest replied: "Reverend, you have come at the wrong time. My grandteacher has been meditating in seclusion
for over a year. We haven't seen him in some time.” Kong Xiang said:"In that case, can you please inform Eldest Hero Song.” The priest replied: "My Eldest Martial Uncle, my Master and the other martial uncles have not returned from attacking the Ming Sect.” When Zhang Wuji heard this he was shaken. So Song Yuanqiao and the rest had really run into trouble on the way back.
Kong Xiang sighed and said: "If that is so then Wu Dang and Shaolin are in the same boat. It would be difficult to escape today's disaster.” Not understanding what he meant, the priest said: "Senior Martial Brother Guxu Zi is in charge of our sect's general affairs. I will ask him to come and pay his respects to reverend.” Kong Xiang asked: "Whose disciple is
this Guxu Zi?” The priest answered: "He is Third Uncle Yu's disciple.” Kong Xiang said:"Even though Third Hero Yu's arms and legs have been injured, his mind is still clear. Let me speak to him.” The Taoist said:"Alright.” He turned around and went inside.
Kong Xiang paced back and forth impatiently. From time to time, he tilted his head and listened intently,worrying that the enemy had arrived. Not long later, the priest hurriedly came out. He bowed and said: "Third Uncle Yu invites you in. He requests that the Reverend excuses him for being unable to come out and greet you." The priest's behaviour was now even more respectful than before. This was probably because on hearing that a Shaolin monk of the "Kong” generation,Yu Daiyan ordered him to be very polite. Kong Xiang nodded his head and went along with him to Yu Daiyan's room.
Zhang Wuji pondered: "Third Martial Uncle's four limbs are paralysed buut his eyes and ears are still very sharp. If I listen outside his window, he might detect me.” He walked towards Yu Daiyan's room but stopped outside. A short while later, the Taoist priest hurriedly came out of Yu Daiyan's room. He said in a low voice: "Qing Feng, Ming Yue! Come here.” Two novice priests came up to him and called:"Martial Uncle!” The priest said:"Third Martial Uncle wants to come out. Get the carry chair ready. ” The two novices complied. Zhang Wuji had lived on Wudang Mountain for a few years. That priest was Yu Lianzhou's new disciple so he had never met him. However, he recognized Qing Feng and Ming Yue. He knew that when Yu Daiyan was carried on his chair by novices whenever he left the room. He watched the two go to the wing where the carry chair was kept and silently followed them. He waited till the two entered the room before suddenly calling: "Qing Feng, Ming Yue, do you recognize me?” The two of them jumped in fright. Looking at Zhang Wuji, they thought he seemed vaguely familiar but they failed to recognize him. Zhang Wuji laughed, and said: "Have you forgotten me? I'm Little Martial Uncle Wuji.” The two of them then remembered the past, and were very happy. They said:"Ah, Little Martial Uncle, you've come back! Have you recovered from your illness?” The three of them were around the same age and used to play together. Zhang Wuji said: "Qing Feng, let me pretend to be you and go carry Third Martial Uncle. Let's see whether he notices it's me.” Qing Feng hesitated, saying:"That...that is not a very good idea!” Zhang Wuji said: "When Third Martial Uncle sees that I have recovered from my illness and returned, he'll be very happy. Why would he scold you?” Both of them knew that Zhang Sanfeng and the Wudang Six Heroes all love Zhang Wuji very much. His recovery and return to Wudang was a very happy thing. He only wanted to play a little joke to cheer Yu Daiyan up; there was no harm in it. Ming Yue laughed: "Let's do what Little Martial Uncle says!” While giggling, Qing Feng took off his Taoist robe and shoes, and exchanged them with Zhang Wuji. Ming Yue tied his hair in Taoist fashion. He now looked like a little novice priest.
