THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Secret Meeting Part 2

Fang Zheng answered, "That wasn't the case. That would be wrongly blaming the two of them. Looking at a person like me who's been practicing martial art for my whole lifetime, if one day I had the chance to take a peek at a deep and profound martial art's secret, how could I not be willing to study it? Old monk has cultivated my study
in Buddhism for tens of years, but if one day I managed to get my hands on the Manual, I would definitely still read it. Priest Chongxu laughed at this earlier. So how can a secular martial art master refuse it? Unexpectedly, this was exactly what happened to Reverend Duyuan when he went up to see them."

Linghu Chong asked, "Could it be that the two Huashan brothers had ill intentions toward Reverend Duyuan when he tried to coerce them into giving up the Manual?"

Fangzheng shook his head. "That wasn't the case. They were actually very courteous to Reverend Duyuan and admitted that they had actually looked at the 'Sunflower Manual'. On the one hand, they apologized and one the other hand, they asked for Duyuan's advice on the writings of the Manual. But they never expected that even though Reverend Duyuan was Reverend Hongxie's precious disciple, he had never once before heard or encountered the Manual at all. Because Hongxie himself never
really understood the writings of the Manual so he couldn't teach it to his disciple. But the two brothers, Yue and Cai, were certain that Reverand Duyuan was proficient in the martial arts study of the Manual, so they wanted to get his opinion on it. At the time, Duyuan didn't really understand the verses from the Manual that they recited to him either. He just casually explained the writings as they recited, and couldn't help but secretly memorize what they recited. Reverend Duyuan was also an exceptional martial arts master as well as an extremely wise and intelligent person. Through his logical deductions of what the two brothers recited, the explanations he gave actually fit and made sense."

Linghu Chong said, "So it turns out that Reverend Duyuan was learning the script of the Manual from two brothers as they recited it."

Fang Zheng nodded his head. "Correct. But originally, what the two brothers recited was not very much. But after hearing how the explanations Reverend Duyuan gave them made sense, they couldn't resist the temptation and invited him to stay at Huashan for 8 more days. But after this visit, Duyuan never returned to the Shaolin
temple."

Linghu Chong was surprised, "Never returned? Where did he go afterwards?"

Fang Zheng replied, "At that time, no one knew. But not long afterwards, Reverend Hongxie received a letter from Reverend Duyuan stating that his attachments to the world were too great that he decided to leave the Buddhist realm and renounce his monkhood. He was also very ashamed and couldn't face his master anymore." Linghu Chong felt that this was very strange and that there must be another reason for this.

Fangzheng continued, "After that incident, there was much suspicion and distrust between Shaolin and Huashan. The news that Huashan disciples had secretly studied the Sunflower Manual leaked to the public and soon after, the ten elders of the Devil Sect attacked Huashan." Just then, Linghu Chong remembered the bones and skulls inside the cave behind the Cliff of Contemplation. He also recalled the engravings of the various sword arts on the cave wall and couldn't help from uttering an 'ah' in acknowledging his comprehension.

"What is it?" Fangzheng asked.

Linghu Chong's face turned red and said, "I've interrupted Abbot's story, please forgive me."

Fangzheng nodded his head and continued, "This incident happened before your master was even born. The Elders of the Devil Sect attacked Huashan with the intention of stealing the Sunflower Manual. It was because of this incident that Taishan, Songshan, Huashan, Hengshan and Hengshan formed an alliance. After receiving word, the other four schools came to Huashan's aid. A bloody battle occurred on Huashan, and all ten of the Devil Sect Elders were badly wounded. Yue and Cai also lost their lives in this battle and as a result, the version of the Manual that they penned was snatched away by the Devil Sect. That's why it's hard to say who had actually won this battle. Five years later, the Devil Sect returned to attack, but this time the ten elders came prepared. They had managed to understand the sword arts of the five mountains sword schools comprehensively and thought up counter moves to break all the sword arts of the five mountains sword schools. Priest Chongxu and old monk believe that even though the martial arts of the Ten Elders were great already, to be able to comprehend and counter all the sword arts of the five mountains sword schools, the Sunflower Manual must have played some role in giving them such insights into martial arts theories. At this second battle, the five mountains schools actually suffered great losses. Many great masters lost their lives and since that day many of the intricate and complex sword arts of those schools were lost as well. However, those ten Devil Sect elders were also unable to escape Huashan. Thinking of the fighting that happened at that time, it must've been ferocious and bloody."

Linghu Chong said, "Junior saw the remains of these ten Devil Sect's elders inside a cave in Huashan's Cliff of Contemplation, and I also saw a number of inscriptions engraved on the stone wall."

"Did you? What was written on the wall?" Chongxu asked.

"The inscription was written in big letters and it says: 'THE FIVE MOUNTAINS SWORD ALLIANCE, YOU SHAMELESS AND DESPICABLE BUNCH, CAN'T
WIN IN A FAIR FIGHT, DIRTY TRICKS ARE YOUR SPECIALTY'. Besides it were more sentences written in small letters cursing and swearing at the five mountains sword schools, like shameless, etc, etc," Linghu Chong told them.

"How could Huashan School let these slanders remain on the stone wall? This is really strange," Chongxu pondered.

"Junior discovered this stone cave accidentally, and no one else knows of its existence," Linghu Chong explained. He then immediately told them how he discovered this stone cave, and he also told them how someone with an axe had dug several hundred feet through the mountain, but this person had died from exhaustion inches away from breaking through.

Great Master Fangzheng asked, "Using an axe? Could it be that he was 'Divine Strength Demon' Fan Song?"

"He was! There was a sentence on the wall that says: 'Fan Song and Zhao He defeat Heng-Shan sword art here'."

"Zhao He? He's one of the ten elders called 'Divine Flying Demon'. Was he using a thunder mace?" Fangzheng asked.

"Junior doesn't know about this, but on the ground of the cave, there was a thunder mace there. Junior remembered the inscription on the stone wall, the ones who defeated the Huashan School's sword art were called Zhang Chengfeng and Zhang Chengyun."

"It's true then, they are the two brothers 'Divine Golden Monkey Demon' Zhang Chengfeng and 'Divine White Ape Demon' Zhang Chengyun. It was said that their weapons were copper cudgels," Fangzheng said.

"That's right. The pictures on the stone wall showed cudgels defeating my Huashan School's sword art. It was really wonderful and unthinkable."

"That place you saw is apparently the trap that the five mountains sword schools had prepared to capture those ten elders from the Devil Sect. Once they were trapped in that mountain cave, they were locked up and were unable to get out," Fangzheng deduced.

"Junior also has the same thought. That's why those people thought that they had been treated unfairly and wrote those swear words on the stone wall and touted that they had defeated all the sword arts of the five mountains sword schools. They wanted to let people know in the future that they hadn't been defeated in a fight but had been trapped instead. There were also some Huashan School's sword arts engraved on the stone wall, they were extremely wonderful and it seems that even my master and master-wife don't know about them. Junior doesn't know the reason for this but now that I've heard Great Master Abbot relating the past story, it's certain that these high sword arts were lost after most of Huashan School's seniors lost their lives there. Heng-Shan, Taishan, and the other schools seemed to have lost their
high sword arts as well since then."

"That's right," Chongxu affirmed.

"There were also some long swords that belonged to the five mountains sword schools besides the bones of the Devil Sect's ten elders," Linghu Chong added.

Fangzheng let out an unusual expression and said, "I don't know the reason. Maybe the ten elders snatched them from the hands of the five mountains sword schools people. Have you talked to anyone about what you saw in that cave?"

"After Junior discovered that cave, I've been going from one misfortune to the next and haven't had any time to mention this to master and master-wife. But grand martial uncle Feng knows about it already," Linghu Chong said.

Fangzheng nodded his head. "My younger martial brother Fangsheng once had the opportunity to meet senior Feng and received his favour. Martial brother Fangsheng told me that your sword technique was taught by senior Feng. We know that during the time when Huashan split into two branches, senior Feng had already decided to leave Huashan to be on his own."

Chong Xu said, "It was said in Wulin that during the time when Huashan split into two and were fighting amongst themselves, senior Feng was away in Jiangnan getting married. When he heard news of the fighting, he quickly returned to Huashan but the Sword faction had already lost with numerous casualties on their side. Otherwise with his wonderful sword art in the fight, the Qi faction would never have gotten the upper hand. Senior Feng felt immediately that the Jiangnan's family that his wife was supposed to be from might be a hoax. Actually, that guy Yue Zhang had secretly received instruction from the Huashan's Qi faction to hire a prostitute and tell her to pretend to be a lady from an esteemed background looking to be married so that they can restrain Senior Feng in Jiangnan. Senior Feng then went back to Jiangnan to look for that Yue's family he was to marry, but everyone was missing. He realized then that he had been tricked. Rumor has it that Senior Feng was so extremely angry that he cut off his own head."

Fangzheng's expression changed as he looked at Chongxu wanting him to stop talking. But Chongxu pretended not to understand and the last thing he said was, "Headmaster Linghu, poor Taoist respects senior Feng completely and would never dare to talk about his private life. So I told you about this matter today so that you understand that heroes get into trouble because of women. When a gentleman makes a mistake, it's not such a big deal, but they can't keep falling deeper and deeper into that mistake."