Legend has it that there is a martial arts manuscript Bixie Sword Manual in the house of Lin family, which when learned will give the person god-like speed and power. Thus, whoever manages to master it, will become the conqueror of the martial world...
[Yilin turned around hurriedly and stuck out her hand. Linghu Chong reached over and held on to her hand. Yilin pulled hard upwards, and after several embarrassing stumbles, Linghu Chong finally regained his balance. Several female apprentices behind him simply could not help giggling.]
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Linghu Chong was alarmed to suddenly hear someonecalling his own name on a desolated mountaintop in the middle of the night. Hisfirst thought was, "It's master!" But it was the voice of a femaleand it wasn't master-wife or Yue Lingshan. This outburst was followed by asofter and quieter female's voice, which he could not hear clearly. LinghuChong went towards the hillside and saw the shadows of thirty-four peoplestanding up. His heart turned sour. "Who scolded me? Is it really HuaShanSchool's party? If martial sister heard someone scolded me like that, I wonderhow she would react?"
He lowered his body to hide beside a shrub on the side. He crouched and circledaround the hillside to get closer to the group and hid himself behind a bigtree. He heard a female's voice said, "Martial uncle, Martial brotherLinghu is an upright and heroic... " Hearing this half sentence, thepicture of a delicately pretty face came into his mind. His chest becameslightly constricted as he realised that the person saying this was Yilin, thelittle nun from Heng-shan school. He was disappointed to learn that thesepeople were not from Huashan School. As his mind was somewhere else, he missedthe next two sentences said by Yilin. He only heard the sharp voice of theprevious speaker saying angrily, "You still dare to argue with your elder?Then that letter from Mr. Yue of Huashan School is fake? Mr. Yue sent this letterto the entire realm, telling everyone that Linghu Chong had been expelled fromHuaShan because he's involved with Devil Sect's people. What wrong can we do tohim? When Linghu Chong saved you before, he probably wants to depend on thissmall favour to plot against us..."
"Martial uncle, it wasn't a small favor, Martial brother Linghudisregarded his own life... " answered Yilin.
"You're still calling him martial brother? This person is most probably ashrewd and wicked scheming thief. Putting on airs and deceiving young childrenlike you. In Jiang Hu, there are all sorts of sly and crafty people, swindlingyoung people like you because you have never experienced meeting them,"the elder shouted in reply.
Yilin answered, "How can disciple not listen to martial uncle's order?But.. but.. martial... Linghu ... " and the word "brother" wasn'tsaid. She stiffly stood there enduring the lecture.
That elder asked, "But what?" Yilin appeared to be frightened anddidn't dare to speak anymore.
"This is a message from SongShan's Alliance Chief Zuo. Devil Sect isconducting a large-scale operation in Fujian to rob the Lin family of Fuzhou oftheir Evil Resisting sword art. Alliance Chief Zuo wants the Five MountainsSword Alliance to help in preventing the demon people from having the sword artmanual. When great masters from the Five Mountains Sword Alliance stepped in,it is unavoidable that people will die without being buried. That child fromFuZhou's Lin family has already entered Mr. Yue's school so it seemed thatHuaShan School has obtained the sword art manual but actually they have not. Wefear that the Devil Sect will have many traps. Also, when you add thatex-disciple of Huashan School, Linghu Chong, into the equation, our plightbecomes even more unfavourable because the Devil sect may have insideinformation. Alliance Chief has put the responsibility of handling this matteron my shoulder and ordered me to lead us into Fujian. This matter concerns thefortune of both the orthodox and Devil Sect. We can't allow any careless orindiscreet acts. Thirty li from here is the border between Zhejiang and Fujian.Today, everyone has worked hard and had been hurrying along at night. We'llrest when we get to Nianbapu town. We'll then hurry along so we can be in frontand wait for the Devil Sect people to launch their operation. By then, we wouldhave waited at ease and have the advantage of waiting for an exhausted enemy.But you must still be on your guard," that elder announced. All the femaledisciples (numbering in scores of ten) complied with one voice.
Linghu Chong thought, "This master is in charge of this Heng-Shan Schoolgroup and Yilin also called her martial uncle. I've heard of "Three Dingof Heng-Shan", she must be Dingjing Shi Tai. She received my master'sletter and thought that I'm a bad person. I can't blame her for thinking thisway. She wanted to get ahead but didn't know that Devil Sect people are alreadysetting up an ambush in front. Luckily, I already knew, but how do I tell themabout this?"
(Translator's note: Shi Tai means a nun who is already old but it can also be atitle to a nun who holds a high position in the temple. For lack of a betterword in English, I'm leaving it as Shi Tai.)
He then heard Dingjing Shi Tai said, "Once we enter Fujian's boundary, youmust be on your guard. Everyone around you will be your enemy. Even theservants from the restaurants or the teahouses might be spies from the DevilSect. The walls have ears, just like the bushes might have enemy hiding within.From now on, do not mention anything about the Evil Resisting sword art manual,Mr. Yue, Linghu Chong, and DongFang BiBai." (Translator's note: DongFangBiBai means DongFang is defeated, whereas his original name DongFang BuBaimeans DongFang undefeated.)
The female disciples answered together, "Yes!"
Linghu Chong knew that Devil Sect's Chief DongFang BuBai's kungfu had no matchin the world, which was why he was called undefeated. But when the orthodoxschools talked about him, they frequently referred to him as "Bibai".They did this to nullify the meaning behind the enemy's name and to mock him.After hearing her mentioned his own name, his master's name and DongFangBuBai's on the same level, he couldn't help but laughed bitterly. "I'm justa nameless person while you're a senior from Heng-Shan School. You flatter metoo much to mention my name in the same breath as my master's and DongfangBubai's."
Dingjing Shi Tai continued, "Everyone, let's go!" All the disciplesanswered in one voice and complied with the order. He then saw seven femaledisciples sped away from the hillside followed by another seven soon after.Heng-Shan School's qinggong was famous in the wulin world; the seven people infront and the seven people at the back kept the distance between them constantas they run, resembling a troop formation The sleeves of the fourteen peoplewere floating in the air and they were all synchronous in their running. It wasextremely beautiful to look at. Not too long after that, another seven peoplestarted to go down the hill. In a short time, all of Heng-Shan School's groupshave moved out. Altogether, there were six groups. The last group consisted ofeight people, with the extra person being Dingjing Shi Tai. Some of thesefemales were not nuns, but secular disciples of Heng-Shan.
In the darkness of the night, Linghu Chong wasn't able to recognise which groupYilin was in. He thought, "These disciples from Heng-Shan must each havetheir own unique skill. But when they're climbing that steep slope between thetwo peaks, the Devil Sect people will ambush them. They will definitely sufferheavy injuries and deaths."
He took a handful of green grass, squeezed them and smeared the juices on hisface. Then he dug out some mud and smeared it on his face, hands and thickbeard. Even if it were daytime, Yilin would not be able to recognise him underall the mud. Linghu Chong then circled the hillside to go back to the road andstarted chasing after them. Originally, his qinggong wasn't that good. Butwhether your qinggong was high or low was dependent on the strength of yourinternal energy level. Right now, his internal energy was high, so he couldtake a step as he willed and each step was also very far away. At this speed,he caught up with Heng-Shan School's people in no time at all. He was afraidthat Dingjing Shi Tai might hear his footsteps as he came closer to them so heovertook them by running in a big circle. Once he was ahead of them and wasback on the main road, he ran even faster. When he arrived at the bottom of theslope, the moon was already above his head. He stood there listening to hissurrounding and did not hear a single sound. "If I didn't see the DevilSect people setting up an ambush here, then a disaster would have happened atthis place. A great disaster."
He slowly walked up the steep slope and arrived at the beginning of the roadbetween the two peaks. He was around a li away from the ambush place; he satdown and started thinking, "The Devil Sect people have probably seen mehere. But they're afraid to alert the enemy so they are just letting me sithere." After waiting for some time, he lied down on the ground. Finally,he heard faint steps coming up from the hillside. He thought, "It's bestif I lead the Devil Sect's people to start fighting with me first. Afterfighting for a little bit, then Heng-Shan School will be aware." He thensaid angrily at the people on the top of the slope, " What old man hatesthe most is being stabbed in the back. Then I won't know whether they are real swordsor spears. Stabbing in the back is a very rotten method. You hiding there, getup! Evil ghosts, harming people by ambush! How contemptible anddisgraceful." Although his voice wasn't loud, he had put an abundant of qito deliver it, so it was able to travel far. He was guessing that the DevilSect people had heard what he said. But who would have thought these peoplecould really hold in their anger and unexpectedly did not pay attention to himat all. Not long after, Heng-Shan School's first group of seven diciplesarrived in front of him.
Under the moonlight, the seven diciples could see an officer sleeping on theground with his four limbs extended out. Only one person at a time can go upthe mountain pass as it was flanked by high cliffs on both sides. Therefore, ifthey wanted to go up the slope, they have to step across his body first. Thesedisciples only had to lightly jump to go across his body, but between man andwoman, there must be a separation. In order to jump across, they also have to goover his head. This was just too rude.
A middle-aged nun said with a clear voice, "Excuse me, officer. Pleaselend us a path."
Linghu Chong made two "woo, woo" sounds snoring loudly. That nun'sbuddhist name was Yihe but her temper was not peaceful at all (Translator'snote: play of words on her name). She saw that this officer was sleepingsoundly in the middle of the road snoring so loudly that he must bedeliberately pretending to be asleep. This made her all the more agitated. Sheheld back her anger and said, "If you don't make way, we will jump overyou." Linghu Chong kept up his loud snoring and muttered, " Lots ofdemons and ghosts on this road. Mustn't go through it. Woo... woo... the sea ofbitterness is endless... turn... turn... turn around then you will see thebeach." Yihe was startled when she heard this as his words seemed to carrytwo meanings. Another nun pulled Yihe back by tugging her sleeve and the sevennuns retreated several steps.
One person whispered, "Martial sister, this person is weird."
Another one said, "I'm afraid he might be Devil Sect's spy challengingus."
Another person said, "I don't think Devil Sect's people would go and get agovernment job as a military officer. I think he's disguising himself. Hedidn't dirty his attire when he was disguising himself."
Yihe said, "Don't worry about him! He's not letting us get through sowe'll jump over him."
Before she jumped, she asked again, "If you're really not making way thenwe just have to offend you."
Linghu Chong stretched out lazily and slowly got up. He was still afraid thatYilin might recognise him so he faced the hillside. The back of his body wasfacing the Heng-Shan School disciples. With his right hand leaning on the cliffface, his body swayed from side to side looking like a drunk. He said,"Good wine! good wine!" At this moment, the second group of Heng-ShanSchool disciples arrived.
