by Jin Yong
Zhang Wuji thought that since her position was above his (maternal) grandfather, his Yifu and Wei Fu Wang, her martial art skill must be very high; he could not help but secretly feel anxious for Xie Xun.
The wind was howling, the sound of the waves of the sea were faintly heard; adding some chill in the air to this already suspenseful situation. Two people stood less than a ‘zhang’ away facing each other, but neither one was willing to make the first move.
After a long time, Xie Xun suddenly said, "Mrs. Han, today you are forcing me to fight you, breaching the oath we made as the Four Protector Kings of the olden days, Xie Xun is really in pain.”
"Xie San Ge,” Jin Hua Popo said, "You are always soft-hearted; I can’t believe those countless famous Wulin’s heroes and warriors were killed single-handedly by you.”
Xie Xun sighed, "I bore the enmity of my father, mother, wife and child; hence I disregarded everything,” he said, "The one thing I regretted most was with thirteen strokes of ‘qi shang quan’ [seven injuries fist (technique)] I killed Shaolin Pai’s Kong Jian Shen Seng [Divine Monk Kong Jian].”
Jin Hua Popo was awestruck. "Kong Jian Shen Seng really died under your hands?” she asked, "When did you learn that kind of fierce martial art skill?” At first she was confident her hands and feet would be able to deal with Xie Xun, but now she started to feel fear.
"Don’t be afraid,” Xie Xun said, "Kong Jian Shen Seng took the beating without retaliating. He wanted to use the vast and boundless Dharma to help me cross over from my evil way.”
"Hmm,” Jin Hua Popo said, "That sounds better. Lao Po Zi can’t be compared to Kong Jian Shen Seng. If you used thirteen punches to kill him, you would only need nine, ten punches to handle Lao Po Zi.”
Xie Xun took a step backwards, his tone suddenly turned gentle, he said, "Mrs. Han, at the Brightness Peak you treated me well. As your big brother I was sick, while my wife was weak from giving birth and could not get up. You took care of me with full attention for more than a month. I will always appreciate that.” Patting the grey cotton robe he was wearing he said, "I was overseas wearing beast’s leather as clothes, you sewed me this outfit, which fits me well inside and outside, showing me that your brotherly love at the Brightness Peak has not changed. Please leave! From now on we are not going to see each other anymore. I only ask you to find information on that child Wuji’s whereabouts and then bring him here to me; I will always be indebted to you.”
Jin Hua Popo laughed bitterly and said, "You still remember this friendship from the past. Let me be frank to you; ever since Yin Ye Da Ge [big brother Silver Leaf] died, my heart had died with him. It’s just that I still have some unresolved gratitude and grudges, so I cannot die just like that, and join Yin Ye Da Ge underground. Xie San Ge, although the people of the Brightness Peak are martial art experts and brilliant strategist, in your ‘mei zi’s [younger sister - term of endearment] eyes they are nothing. Only you, Xie San Ge, are special in my eyes. Do you know the reason?”
Xie Xun raised up his head and was silent for half a day before he finally shook his head and said, "Xie Xun has always been ordinary and mediocre, he certainly is not worthy of ‘xian mei’s [worthy (younger) sister] regard.”
Jin Hua Popo walked over several steps toward a piece of boulder, and then she slowly sat down. "At the Brightness Peak in those days,” she said, "Only Yang Jiaozhu and you, Xie San Ge, are special in my eyes. When I married Yin Ye Xiansheng, only the two of you did not resent my decision.”
Xie Xun also sat down and said, "Although Han Da Ge [big brother Han] was not a member of our Cult, he was a hero. Our brothers dissented to your marriage, they were rather a bit narrowminded. Ay, they are under siege of the Six Major Sects, I wonder how they are doing?”
"Xie San Ge,” Jin Hua Popo said, "You are overseas, but your heart is still in Zhong Tu [central earth]; you have never forgotten your brethren of old. A man’s life is only a few decades, which will pass in a flash, why should you always think of others?”
By this time the two of them were only a few feet apart; hence they were able to hear each other’s breathing. Xie Xun noticed that Jin Hua Popo would cough every other sentences; he asked, "You suffered lung injury from the frostbite at the ‘bi shui han tan’ [jade-green water, frozen pool]; from that day until now, you are not completely healed?”
"Each time the weather turns cold, my coughing always gets worse,” Jin Hua Popo said, "Hmm, after coughing for dozens of years, I already became accustomed to it. Xie San Ge, I hear your breathing is uneven, is it the injury you suffered from training the ‘qi shang quan’? You must take a good care of yourself.”
"Many thanks for your attention, Xian Mei,” Xie Xun said. Suddenly he raised his head up and called Yin Li, "Ah Li, come over here.”
Yin Li came over and greeted him, "Xie Gong-gong.”
Xie Xun said, "Use your entire strength and pierce me with your finger.”
Yin Li was startled; "I do not dare,” she said.
Xie Xun laughed, "Your ‘qian zhu wan du shou’ won’t be able to hurt me, although you are using your entire strength. I simply want to test your skill,” he said.
Yin Li still said, "Hai’er [lit. child] do not dare.” And then she added, "Xie Gong-gong, since Popo and you are old friends, whatever problem we have right now, why can’t we talk it over? We don’t have to fight over it.”
Xie Xun laughed bitterly, "Just pierce me with your finger,” he said.
Yin Li did not have any choice; she wrapped a handkerchief around her right index finger then stabbed Xie Xun’s shoulder with it. "Aiyo!” suddenly she called out and stumbled backwards; her body flew for more than a ‘zhang’ away. ‘Bang!’ she landed heavily on the ground. She felt as if the bones in her body were broken into pieces.
Jin Hua Popo maintained her composure; "Xie San Ge,” she slowly said, "Your heart is so wicked. You are afraid I might have a helper, hence you get rid of her first.”
Xie Xun was silent for half a day before saying, "This child is kind hearted. She pricked me with only 20, 30% of her strength, and she wrapped her finger with a handkerchief, so that the ‘thousand spiders poison’ did not harm me. Very good, very good. Otherwise, the ‘thousand spiders poison’ would come back and attack her heart; her life would be gone by now.”
Listening to these words, Zhang Wuji’s back broke into cold sweats; he thought his Yifu plainly stated that he was going to test Yin Li’s strength, if she did indeed attack him with all her strength, wouldn’t she die a violent death? The Ming Cult people were indeed cruel; even his kind Yifu was no exception. He did not know Xie Xun and Jin Hua Popo had been friends for a long time; obviously they cared of each other. He thought after talking to each other amiably, they would certainly not hold ill feeling toward each other. But with an extra help for Jin Hua Popo, Xie Xun was greatly disadvantaged; hence he wanted to get rid of her preemptively.
"Ah Li,” Xie Xun asked, "Why are you so kind to me?”
"You ... you are his Yifu,” Yin Li said, "Besides ... besides, you came here for his sake. In this world you and I are the only people who remember him.”
"Ah,” Xie Xun said, "I did not expect you to be this kind to my child Wuji; I nearly took your life. You come over here.”
Yin Li struggled up and slowly walked to him. Xie Xun put his lips on her ear and said, "I am going to pass on to you an internal energy cultivation method, which I developed on the Bing Huo Island. It is the essence of my life-long martial art accomplishment.” Without waiting for Yin Li to reply, he recited the theory from top to bottom one time.
Yin Li could not comprehend it completely; she tried desperately to memorize it. Xie Xun was afraid she could not remember, so he recited it two more times. "Have you memorized it?” he asked.
"I have,” Yin Li replied.
"After you train it in five years, you will reap some benefit,” Xie Xun said. "Do you know why I pass this skill on to you?”
Yin Li suddenly cried and said,
"I ... I know. But ... but I can’t.”
"What do you know? Why can’t you?” Xie Xun asked sternly. His left palm was on her hair, ready to strike if Yin Li’s answer did not satisfy him.
Covering her face with both hands, Yin Li said, "I know you want me to find Wuji and pass this skill on to him. I know that after I master this skill, you want me to protect Wuji, so that he won’t suffer under evil people’s cruel hands, but ... but ...” After saying two ‘buts’ she broke into a loud cry.
Xie Xun stood up and shouted, "But what? Has my child Wuji encountered any mishap?”
Yin Li threw herself on his bosom and wept. "He ... he has died six years ago in the ... in the western region, he fell down a valley and died.”
Xie Xun was trembling. "Are you ... are you ... serious?” he asked.
"I am,” Yin Li was still crying. "Those Wu Lie, father and daughter, saw it with their own eyes.
Seven times did I prick both of them with the ‘qian zhu wan du shou’ and seven times I saved their lives again, until they were suffering in between life and death. They ... they could not tell me a lie.”
When Yin Li recounted Zhang Wuji’s death, Jin Hua Popo was going to stop her; but then she changed her mind, thinking that as Xie Xun heard his Yizi died, his mind would be troubled. True, in the coming fight he would be fiercer by 30%, but also he would be less cautious by 30%; thus increasing the chance he might fall into her steel spikes trap. Therefore, she only laughed coldly and did not say anything.
Xie Xun lifted up his head and let out a loud whistle, while tears stream down his cheeks. Seeing his Yifu and his cousin loved him this much, Zhang Wuji could not contain himself much longer. He was about to come out and make himself known, but suddenly Jin Hua Popo said, "Xie San Ge, since your Yizi, that Zhang Gongzi has already died, why would you hold on to that Tulong Saber? Please lend it to me.”
Xie Xun hoarsely said, "You hid the truth from me really well. If you want to take the precious saber, you must take my life first.” He gently pushed Yin Li to the side. With a hiss he used the lapel of his robe to wipe his tears, and then tore it and tossed it toward Jin Hua Popo. It was called ‘ge pao duan yi’ [lit. cutting off the robe, breaking friendship].
Zhang Wuji thought, "I’d better come out and tell them the truth, so that these two will not senselessly injure their ‘yi qi’ [friendship, code of brotherhood]” He had just finished thinking when suddenly he heard some light breathing noise from the tall grass toward his far left. The noise came from quite a distant away, plus it was very light; if not due to his extremely keen ears, Zhang Wuji would not be able to hear it. His heart was moved, "Could it be that Jin Hua Popo secretly prepared some helpers? I’d better not rashly come forward.” In the meantime, he heard the gusts of wind from the Saber, as Xie Xun and Jin Hua Popo had started fighting each other.
Xie Xun brandished his precious saber around his body like a black dragon circling around him; sometimes fast, other times slow, with a divine variation. Jin Hua Popo was afraid of the Saber’s sharpness; she kept moving in circles some distant away from him. Sometimes Xie Xun would deliberately open up a hole in his defense, trying to entice Jin Hua Popo to enter, but Jin Hua Popo did not buy his trick; she would wait for him to attack, then with extreme ingenuity she would evade and launch a counterattack.
These two people knew their opponent’s martial art very well; victory or defeat would not be easily determined within one or two hundreds moves. Xie Xun relied on the precious saber, while Jin Hua Popo took advantage of his blindness. Each of them was trying to exploit this slight advantage to gain victory. In a way they were having a contest of wits and not of internal energy.
‘Swish, swish!’ suddenly two yellow rays flashed by; Jin Hua Popo launched two of her ‘jin hua’ [golden flower]. Xie Xun turned the Tulong Saber around; both ‘golden flowers’ stuck to the Saber. Turned out the golden flowers were made of pure steel plated with gold; while the Tulong Saber was cast from some ‘xuan tie’ [black/mysterious iron] with some magnetic property, which attract any ferrous metal.
These golden flowers were the secret projectiles that brought fame to Jin Hua Popo’s name, when released, the variation was endless; even if Xie Xun’s eyes were not blind he would be hard pressed to evade them. Unexpectedly, this Tulong Saber was the bane of these secret projectiles. Jin Hua Popo moved swiftly to the left and to the right, successively launching eight more golden flowers; all of them stuck to the Tulong Saber.
It was a dark night, with neither the moon nor the stars in the sky; the golden flowers on the Saber looked like several hundreds of fireflies dancing around in the air. Suddenly Jin Hua Popo let out a cough and shot sixteen, seventeen golden flowers at once, so that if Xie Xun intercepted the ones on his east, he would not be able to evade the ones on his west. Xie Xun waved his sleeve and rolled in about seven, eight golden flowers; while intercepted the other eight or so golden flowers with his Tulong Saber.
"Mrs. Han,” he shouted, "Your title is ‘zi shan long wang’, which is a big taboo against this saber. If you have a prolonged contact with it, I am afraid it won’t be to your advantage.”
Jin Hua Popo shivered. For martial art practitioners who live their lives on the blades of the weapons; mostly they paid particular attention to taboos like this. She was known as the ‘long wang’ [dragon king], while the saber was named ‘tu long’ [slaughtering the dragon]; so it was a very unlucky combination. She forced a laughter and said, "Perhaps my ‘sha shi zhang’ [killing-the-lion staff] will kill the blind lion first.” Abruptly her staff shot out.
Xie Xun shrunk his shoulder to evade, but suddenly his foot stumbled. "Ah!” he cried, as the staff hit his left shoulder. Although the force had been dissipated for the most part, the hit was not light by any means.
Zhang Wuji was delighted, he cheered in his heart. He knew Xie Xun pretended he was not fast enough to dodge and thus took the hit; Zhang Wuji thought, "Yifu only needs to shoot the golden flowers in his sleeve, and then use the Tulong Saber in ‘qian shan wan shui’ [thousand mountains ten thousands rivers] to chop randomly. Jin Hua Popo will not dare to block the blade; she will be forced to move to the left. After two steps she won’t be able to move farther; at that time Yifu will use his internal energy to force the golden flowers on the Tulong Saber to shoot forward. Jin Hua Popo will be powerless to evade; most probably she will be seriously hurt.”
He had just finished thinking when yellow rays streaked out, Xie Xun did indeed broadcast the golden flowers rolled inside his sleeve; forcing Jin Hua Popo to withdraw to the left. Zhang Wuji was watching the fight when suddenly he remembered something. "Aiyo, not good!” he thought,
"Jin Hua Popo also has already calculated her steps.”
By this time Zhang Wuji had acquired a universal knowledge of the martial art. When these two martial art masters attacked and blocked, not a single one of their movements was outside his anticipation. He saw Xie Xun’s ‘qian shan wan shui’ was successful in forcing Jin Hua Popo to withdraw to the left. With a loud shout Xie Xun shot the dozen or so golden flowers on his precious saber; "Aiyo!” Jin Hua Popo cried out and staggered several steps backwards. Xie Xun was a man of his words; after ‘ge pao duan yi’ [breaking the friendship], he showed no mercy whatsoever. He leaped forward to pursue, brandishing his saber to strike Jin Hua Popo.
"Watch out!” suddenly he heard Yin Li shouted loudly, "There are sharp spikes underneath your feet!”
Xie Xun heard the shout, and was shocked; but it was too late for him to stop. Suddenly he heard a series of ‘swish, swish’ noise; more than a dozen golden flowers came his way. Jin Hua Popo was taking advantage as his body was midair and incapable to evade; she wanted to force him to land and thus tread on the sharp spikes.
Xie Xun had no alternative but brandish his saber to block the golden flowers. Suddenly a series of clinking noises were heard; his feet reached the ground, uninjured. He stooped down and groped around. He found out that there were seven, eight in
ches long of steel spikes planted among the rocks on the ground. He could feel the spikes were very sharp; but someone had already shot the four spikes that his feet were supposed to land on, with gravels, sending the spikes fly away from him. From the wind generated by the gravels, Xie Xun could tell that the shooter was the youngster from the Gigantic Whale Clan who shot the seven pebbles to help him that afternoon. This man had been hiding nearby, but Xie Xun had not had the slightest idea; if not because of that man’s help, he would have been seriously injured by now, and then Jin Hua Popo only needed to butcher what was left of him. Thinking about this possibility, he was unable to restrain cold sweat from trickling down his back.
These two people had both laid a trap to harm their opponent; Xie Xun’s shoulder was hit by the staff, Jin Hua Popo was hit by two golden flowers from Xie Xun’s saber. Although the injuries were not life-threatening, considering the strength of their opponents, both of them were nonetheless suffering considerable disadvantages.
Jin Hua Popo was coughing badly several times before turning toward the place Zhang Wuji was hiding, "Ju Jing Bang kid,” she said, "You have repeatedly interfered with Lao Pozi’s business. Quickly give me your name.”
Zhang Wuji had not replied when suddenly he saw a yellow ray flashed by and Yin Li grunted as three golden flowers hit her on the vital points on her chest. Turned out Jin Hua Popo had realized that Zhang Wuji’s martial art was superior, and if she wanted to punish Yin Li, he would try to thwart it; therefore, she faced and spoke to him, and when he was the least expecting it, she backhandedly shot out some golden flowers.
Zhang Wuji was shocked; he flew up and caught two golden flowers midair; and as soon as he landed, he embraced Yin Li in his bosom. Yin Li had not lost her consciousness; seeing a bearded man embracing her, she pushed out and struggled trying to get free, but when she exerted some strength, she threw up some blood. Zhang Wuji realized immediately what was going on; he quickly pulled the fake beard and moustache, and wiped the makeup from his face, revealing his real face.
