by Jin Yong
Wang Chuyi felt reassured. “If Brother Qiu is here,” he mused, “though the enemy are dominant in numbers, we will be able to at least remain unscathed.”
Some time later, they heard the noise of boots. Through the large door a big old officer of forty years, with a thick beard and dressed in brocade entered with a martial air. Wanyan Kang advanced. “Shifu,” he said respectfully. “This Taoist Elder wishes to see you, and has already asked about you on several occasions.”
Wang felt an upwelling of anger. “Ah, wicked one,” he thought, “you dare to make fun of me? The way this officer moves, he can't have any remarkable skills; he is certainly not the one who taught this rascal his strange techniques.”
“Taoist,” the officer said, “what do you want from me? Normally I hate seeing monks or priests.”
Wang’s anger was so strong that he burst out laughing. “I would like,” he said, “to request alms from Your Excellency, a thousand silver taels.”
The officer was called Tang Zude, captain of Prince Zhao's personal guard. When Wanyan Kang was small, Tang Zude had given him some martial arts lessons; that's why everybody in the household called him ‘Shifu’. Hearing this outrageous request from Wang Chuyi, he was startled. “Rubbish!” he retorted.
“A thousand taels of silver,” Wanyan Kang said, “is nothing, nothing at all. Let someone quickly prepare a thousand silver taels and present it to the venerable Taoist.” Tang Zude remained baffled. He examined Wang Chuyi from tip to toe with his mouth agape, then upwards again, without managing to understand why anyone should show such benevolence.
“Everyone please take a seat,” Wanyan Kang invited. “Taoist Elder Wang, it's the first time you've come to us, the place of honor is reserved for you.”
Wang Chuyi refused modestly, but ended up settling in the place of honor. Three rounds of wine were served. “You are all eminent personalities of the Jianghu realm,” Wang declared then. “You all shall judge how we'll settle the affair of Mr. Mu and his daughter.” All eyes were fixed on Wanyan Kang, waiting to see his reaction.
Wanyan Kang poured wine and raised the wine cup. Respectfully presenting the cup before Wang, he said, “Senior [qianbei], do me the honor and accept this cup first. As for the affair in question, it will be dealt with according to Senior's instructions, your Junior [wanbei] dare not disobey.”
Wang was amazed to hear him giving in so easily. He took the cup and drank the wine in one go. “Very well,” he said. “Let us bring Mr. Mu here and let him speak.”
“Someone must bring him here,” Wanyan Kang said. “Could I charge Brother Guo with the task of bringing Mr. Mu here?” Wang Chuyi nodded.
Guo Jing immediately left the banquet to go to the Prosperity Inn. But Mu Yi’s room was empty; the father and the girl had left, taking all their belongings with them. When asked, the boy at the inn answered that someone had come seeking them, paid for the room and the meals, but he could not say who. Guo Jing hurriedly returned to the residence of Prince Zhao, where Wanyan Kang greeted him with a great smile. “Brother Guo, thank you for your efforts. Where is Mr. Mu?” Guo Jing told him that he had sought him in vain. “Ah, it is my fault,” Wanyan Kang sighed. Turning to one of his servants, he ordered, “Take several men with you and go quickly in all directions. We absolutely must find Mr. Mu!” The servant obeyed and left.
Without the main person of interest, it was impossible to continue. Wang Chuyi could say nothing, but his head was full of suspicions. “To go and seek Mr. Mu,” he said to himself, “one or two servants are enough. This rascal insisted that Guo Jing should go, obviously he wanted Guo Jing himself to discover the departure of Mu, and give testimony of it.”
“It doesn't matter that a mysterious thing happened,” he sneered, “in the end the truth will always triumph.”
“Taoist Elder, you have reason to believe that Mr. Mu did mysterious things?” Wanyan Kang answered laughing, “That is really odd!”
The officer Tang Zude, already furious to see how easily the Taoist had extorted a thousand silver taels, found it intolerable to see him also showing insolence to the Young Prince. He vented his anger, “Taoist, to which temple do you belong? What right do you have to swindle our Master?”
“Officer,” Wang Chuyi retorted. “To which country do you belong? What right do you have to occupy an official position here?” He had noticed that Tang Zude was Chinese, but occupied an officer’s rank in the Jin army. He was benefiting from the oppression of his compatriots, and it was for this reason he made fun of him. The thing that Tang Zude hated most was people mentioning that he is Chinese. He regarded himself to be highly skilled in martial arts, loyal and willing to risk his life for the Jin, yet they still do not allow him to lead an army. He had worked hard for twenty years but was kept in Prince Zhao’s residence for show. Wang Chuyi’s comments had hit his sore point and his face changed as he roared in anger. He stood up, opposite Liang Ziwong and Ouyang Ke and released a fist towards Wang Chuyi’s face.
The later glanced at the fist coming towards him, stretched out two fingers of his left hand to grab Tang Zude’s wrist, laughing, “Even if you are not willing to answer, there is no need to resort to violence is there?”
Tang Zude’s fist was stopped in mid-air and was unable to move. He was surprised but angry, and scolded, “Brilliant witchcraft, you used witchcraft!” He used his strength to release his fist but was unable to. He scowled, feeling very embarrassed.
Liang Ziwong, who was sitting beside him, laughed, “General, do not fret, come and sit down for a cup of wine.” And with that, he stretched out his fingers towards Tang Zude’s left shoulder.
Wang Chuyi was aware that although his two fingers could suppress Tang Zude’s fist, he knew they would be unable to stop Liang Ziwong’s move. He released Tang’s wrist and aimed a finger at Tang Zude’s right shoulder. With this quick change of moves, Liang Ziwong was unable to restrain himself and two fingers pressed both sides of Tang Zude’s shoulder at the same time. It is really an honor for Tang Zude to have two highly skilled fighters ambushing him at the same time. Both his hands uncontrollably punched forward. With the sounds of two crashes, his left hand punched into a plate of left-over fish and his right hand entered a bowl of hot and sour soup. The two dishes broke Eagle Shooting Hero 225 into small pieces. The fish bones and broken fragments of the dishes pierced Tang Zude’s hands, mixing flesh and blood with remains of the soup, causing him to yell in pain.
The crowd laughed loudly and quickly moved aside. Tang Zude, by this time very embarrassed and furious, dashed out of the hall. The servants, suppressing their laughter, moved forward to clean up the mess. Sha Tongtian marveled, “The Quanzhen Sect really lives up to its name! This Brother wants Taoist Wang to enlighten me on something.”
Wang Chuyi replied, “It’s nothing much, please ask, elder Sha.”
Sha Tongtian replied, “The Yellow River Clan and Quanzhen Sect have long been at peace; why does Taoist Wang make things difficult for this brother by going out of his way to support the ‘Seven Freaks of Jiangnan’? The Quanzhen Sect may have many disciples, but this brother is not afraid.”
Wang Chuyi replied, “I think there is some misunderstanding. I have heard of the ‘Seven Freaks of Jiangnan’ but I don’t know any of them. I have a martial brother who made a little bet with them. But I have never planned on helping the ‘Seven Freaks of Jiangnan’ against Yellow River Clan.”
Sha Tongtian exclaimed, “That’s good. Then please hand over this rascal to me.” As he spoke, he reached forward to grab Guo Jing’s throat.
Wang Chuyi knew that Guo Jing would be unable to avoid that grab and would get injured. He stretched out his arm to push Guo Jing’s shoulders gently. Guo Jing fell out of his chair uncontrollably and a “ke cha” sound was heard, as Sha Tongtian’s five fingers changed direction towards the floor and the back of his chair was broken. This ‘Claw Smashing Wood like Bean Curd’ is indeed one of the least seen but powerful moves in the Wulin world.
Sha Tongtian, who failed to grab Guo Jing, furiously asked, “So you are going to protect this rascal?”
Wang Chuyi replied, “I brought this child in, so I will naturally bring him out safely. Why does brother Sha not let him off today and find him on another day?”
Ouyang Ke spoke up, “This young chap offended brother Sha, let’s talk this out shall we?”
Sha Tongtian thought, “This Taoist priest’s skills are definitely not below mine; my martial brother and I, together, may not be able to make that little rascal stay behind. This Ouyang Ke has good skills and I’m not sure of his background; if he joins up with that idiot, then there will be trouble.” He then spoke, “I have four useless disciples who followed Prince Zhao to Mongolia on a big mission. They were about to succeed when this rascal, whose surname is Guo, appeared and spoiled everything, making Prince Zhao extremely furious. Gentlemen, please think, if we cannot even overcome a little rascal, how can we accept the invitation to eat and drink in the residence of Prince Zhao?”
Although Sha Tongtian was very bad-tempered and rash, he was not stupid; with this speech, Guo Jing immediately became the centre of suspicion. With the exception of Wang Chuji and Guo Jing, everyone else here was invited by Prince Zhao. Wanyan Kang is Prince Zhao’s eldest son. After hearing what Sha Tongtian said, he too was a little displeased, so everyone present decided to capture Guo Jing and present him to Prince Zhao.
Wang Chuyi was anxious deep down and tried to think of a plan to escape, but there were so many strong opponents that it was quite impossible to do so. He’d actually thought that, since Wanyan Kang is his martial brother’s disciple and even though he is a Jin, he wouldn’t dare attack his teacher’s martial brother. However, he did not expect Wanyan Kang to be so arrogant and had even planned to trap them with the help of skilled experts. If he had known this would happen, he would not have come so rashly; but even had he known, he wouldn’t have brought Guo Jing along. If he wanted to leave, no one had any reason to stop him; but escaping with Guo Jing would be very difficult. He thought, “In this situation, it’s best to delay things.” Then he said, “Every single one of you is highly skilled and well-known; I have the utmost respect for each of you. To be able to meet you all today is my honor.” Pointing to Guo Jing, “This child is unaware of the serious trouble he has caused all of you by offending elder Sha. If you want him to stay, I am powerless to stop it, but even so, I cannot agree to it. Thus, I daringly request that each of you display your superior skills to Guo Jing so as to let him know that it is not that I don’t want to fight, it’s because I am unable to help him.”
Hou Tonghai had been suppressing his boredom all the while and immediately jumped out of his chair and pulled up his sleeve, “Let me be the first to taste your skills.”
Wang Chuyi replied, “My shallow skills are unworthy to exchange moves with those present. I hope that brother Hou’s superior skills will impress and teach this little rascal a lesson, and allow him to become aware of the existence of many skilled experts so that he won’t dare to be arrogant in the future.” Hou Tonghai had the feeling that there was sarcasm hidden in his words, but didn’t know what it was and was unsure how to answer.
Sha Tongtian thought, “It’s very tough to compete with Taoists from the Quanzhen Sect. It’s also good that I don’t have to do so.” Turning to Hou Tonghai, “Martial brother, why not display the ‘Burying One in the Snow’ skill for elder Wang.”
The snow outside had not stopped. Hou Tonghai rushed to the centre of the courtyard and swept both of his arms up, drawing the snow in until there was a huge pile in front of him. He used his legs to arrange the pile neatly, retreated three steps then flipped upside down and with a ‘pa’ sound, he thrust himself forward and landed in the middle of the snow pile. The snow was not up to his chest. Guo Jing rubbed his head in confusion when he saw this skill because Hou Tonghai’s head was in the snow pile, motionless.
Sha Tongtian turned to Wanyan Kang and the others and said, “Everyone, please kick all the remaining snow onto the pile which my brother Hou’s head is in.” The audience was curious and laughingly kicked the snow, making the pile even deeper. Sha Tongtian and Hou Tonghai frequently practiced in the Yellow River, thus their water skills are excellent. Those who practice water skills focus on controlling their breathing while under water and Hou Tonghai was able to bury his head in the snow without breathing and then use kung fu to fly out after a long while. The audience raised their cups of wine and praised this display of skill; after along while, Hou Tonghai finally use both his palms to sweep his head out of the snow and flipped back to a normal standing position. Guo Jing, being an inexperienced youth, was the first to applaud loudly. However, Hou Tonghai merely returned to his seat and drank a cup of wine, before staring at Guo Jing fiercely.
Guo Jing saw that there were the remains of snow on Hou Tonghai’s head and couldn’t control himself, he said, “Third master Hou; there’s snow on your head.” Hou Tonghai angrily retorted, “I am known as the ‘Three-Headed Dragon’, but I am not third in position, why call me third master?
Even if I am fourth master Hou, is it any of your business? How would I not know if my head has snow on it? I wanted to wipe it away, but now that you mentioned it, I will purposely not do it!” The warm temperature in the room caused the snow on his head to melt and drops of water ran down Hou Tonghai’s head. But he is a stubborn man who keeps to his word, so no matter what, he did not even try to wipe the water off his face.
Sha Tongtian said. “My martial brother’s skills are rough and clumsy, please pardon him.” With that, he stretched his hand into a plate, grabbed some melon seeds, and shot the seeds out in a straight line with a flick of his middle finger. The seeds stuck into the snow pile which Hou Tonghai had earlier made and formed a ‘huang’ [yellow] character. The snow pile was quite a distance from Sha Tongtian’s seat and yet, he was still able to neatly form a word on it using the melon seeds. His eyesight and accuracy was indeed amazing.
Wang Chuyi thought, “No wonder the ‘Dragon King of the Demonic Group’ rules the Yellow River area, his skills are indeed spectacular.” Turning his head, he saw that the snow pile had received another wave of seeds, forming the ‘he’ [river] character and the ‘jiu’ [nine] character; it seemed Sha Tongtian wanted to form four words, reading ‘huang he jiu qu’ [Nine Songs of the Yellow River].
Peng Lianhu laughed, “Brother Sha, I cannot help but admire your remarkable finger skills. Let us make a deal; since elder Wang wants to study our skills, I will borrow Brother Sha’s finger skills to display some of my own.” With that, he threw his body forward and landed near the doorway. By this time, Brother Sha had already shot out the rest of the seeds to form the remaining ‘qu’ [song] character. Peng Lianhu suddenly stretched out both hands to catch the seeds; it looked as if he were picking the seeds from midair. The seeds were very tiny and traveled at amazing speed, but Peng Lianhu did not miss a single one and had them all in his hands.
The audience broke into praise and Peng Lianhu retuned to his seat with a smile. Only then did Sha Tongtian manage to finish forming the ‘qu’ [song] character with the seeds. Peng Lianhu’s sudden display did steal away some of Sha Tongtian’s limelight, but the two were very close and Sha Tongtian did not seem displeased and even smiled a little. He turned to Ouyang Ke and asked, “What does master Ouyang plan on displaying to enlighten us inexperienced people?”
Ouyang Ke heard the sarcasm in Sha Tongtian’s words and knew that he was still sore at him for interrupting his hits earlier. He thought hard about what to display so as to make Sha Tongtian admire him. At that moment, the servants brought in four types of dessert and replaced the used chopsticks with clean ones. Ouyang Ke snatched up the used chopsticks and, with a wave of his hand, twenty chopsticks flew out at the same time, stuck into the snow and neatly formed four flower shapes. To throw a chopstick and stick it into the snow with a wave of the hand is child’s play, but to neatly form the shape of a
flower using twenty chopsticks was more difficult. This skill was deep and complex, so much so that Guo Jing and Wanyan Kang were not able to comprehend it fully; but people such as Wang Chuyi and Sha Tongtian secretly praised him.
Considering the high number of experts, Wang Chuyi thought, “One of them would be quite a handful, yet there are so many gathered together here. Why? Even people like the young Chief of White Camel Mountain, ‘Supreme Virtue’ Ling Zhi and the ‘Ginseng Immortal’, who do not reside on the central plains are here. There must be a dangerous plan here!”
The ‘Ginseng Immortal’, Liang Ziwong laughed as he stood up and acknowledged the group. He reached the centre of the courtyard with light steps. He stretched out his right foot and lightly landed on the chopsticks, which Ouyang Ke had stuck into the snow. Then he started his display of skills , ‘Hugging the Moon’, ‘Two Gentlemen up the Hills’, ‘Pulling the Arrow’, ‘Turning Without Shoes’, and then displayed his ‘Sparrow Light Fists’. His feet looked like he was jumping one moment and flying at the next moment; every step he took would end by landing on a chopstick. After his ‘Giving Way to Step on a Tiger’ and ‘Retreating to Wrap it Up’, Liang Ziwong finished his display with his ‘Sparrow Light Fists’. The amazing thing was that the twenty chopsticks were still neatly in place. With a satisfied smile on his face, Liang Ziwong retreated back to his seat. The hall exploded into applause and even Guo Jing praised him. At this moment, the banquet ended and the servants brought golden bowls of warm water for the guests to wash up a little.
Wang Chuyi thought, “Now, Superior Virtue, Ling Zhi will display his skills before they all attack.” Wang Chuyi glanced his way only to see him still dipping his hands in the water slowly, disregarding everything else. After everyone finished washing, his hands were still in the bowl of water, as if thinking of something. Everyone was feeling a bit curious and after a while, steam began rising from his bowl. The bowl made a noise just before bubbles rose from the bottom of the bowl as if water was boiling. Wang Chuyi was secretly anxious, “His internal energy is powerful! I have to take a chance and attack first.”
