THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Invitation Part 3

"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 aloud, "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."