THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

School Merger Part 1

[The peak of Mount Songshan stood alone in the middle, thrusting towards the sky and looking down upon thousands of other peaks. With few clouds in the sky, sunshine shined through the pure and fresh air. Cheng-Gao and Yumen stood to the north; the Yellow River looked like a thin line; the city wall of Luo Yang could be vaguely seen to the west; range upon range of mountains were to the east and south.]

Within a day, Linghu Chong reached Mount Heng-Shan.When the disciples guarding at the bottom of the mountain saw him returning, theyquickly sent a couple of disciples up the mountain to inform their martialsisters, who immediately came down the mountain to welcome him back. Thedisciples residing at Heng-Shan Other Courtyard followed shortly after down themountain to meet him. Linghu Chong inquired about how everything fared at theOther Courtyard. Zu Qianqiu answered, "Reporting to Headmaster. All themale disciples live at the Other Courtyard and no one has dared to go up thepeak. Everyone's been well-behaved."

Linghu Chong happily said, "That's very good."

Yihe laughingly said, "None of them came up the peak. But it's not truethat they've been well-behaved."

Linghu Chong was startled and he quickly asked, "What?"

"All day and all night long, I always hear their clamour at Tong Yuanvalley all the way up from the convent."

Linghu Chong laughed loudly when he heard this. "It's impossible to askthese friends to be quiet."

Linghu Chong then briefly told them that Ren Woxing had managed to snatch backthe chief position of the sect. The group of heroes were really happy to hearthis and their cheering was heard throughout the valley. Everyone thought,"Chief Ren has snatched back his seat then Sacred Lady has naturallygained a lot of power in the sect. From now on, the situation will definitelybe much better for everyone."

When Linghu Chong reached the Xianxing Peak, he first went to the Wuse Conventto kowtow to the three Shi Tai's tablets. Then as there weren't many days leftto the meeting at Mount Songshan on the fifteenth of the third month, heconsulted with Yihe, Yiqing and the rest of the senior disciples on thatmatter. They decided that Heng-Shan School should go to Henan first beforegoing to Mount Songshan. Yihe and the other disciples all said that in order togo against Songshan School, they shouldn't take the group of heroes at TongYuan valley with them to Mount Songshan. Even though taking them admittedlywould make Heng-Shan School look grand, the other schools of Taishan, Hengshan,and Huashan would criticise them for doing so, and it would even give ZuoLengchan excuses that might disadvantage the Heng-Shan School.

Yihe said, "Martial Brother Headmaster's sword art is above Zuo Lengchan,so taking up the headmaster position of the Five Mountains School is guaranteed.But if the heroes from Tong Yuan valley were with us at that time, then they'llsurely give out excuses."

Linghu Chong smiled. "Our aim is to prevent Zuo Lengchan from annexing theother four schools. I'm not even remotely presentable being the headmaster ofHeng-Shan School, so there's no need to talk about me becoming the headmasterof the Five Mountains School. And since everyone already said not to take theTong Yuan valley's brothers to Mount Songshan then we won't take them."

He then went to Tong Yuan valley to talk to Ji Wushi, Zu Qianqiu, and Old Man.They also agreed that not taking the Tong Yuan valley heroes to Mount Songshanwas a good plan. They wanted Linghu Chong to take the female disciples and gofirst while the three of them would explain to the group of heroes to make themunderstand.

That night, Linghu Chong drank with the group of heroes to their hearts'contents. The original plan was to make their way to Songshan on the next day.But when he woke up, it was already past midday and he had not put everythingin order so they had to delay their journey by a day. Early the next morning,Linghu Chong led the female disciples to go to Mount Songshan.

They had been on the road for a few days when they arrived at a city, and restedinside a large ruined temple. Zheng E and six disciples went out to patroloutside to protect the group from any Songshan School's plot. But not longafter, Zheng E and Qin Juan flew back and shouted, "Martial BrotherHeadmaster, quickly come and take a look!"

The two of them were grinning widely and it seemed that they had seen somethingfunny. Yihe hastily asked, "What's the matter?"

Qin Juan giggled. "Martial Sister, you come and have a lookyourself."

Linghu Chong quickly followed the two of them into an inn and went to anoutside guesthouse on the west side of the inn. They immediately saw a fewpeople stacked into a big pile on a brick bed. They were the Peach Valley SixFairies. All six of them had their acupoints sealed and were unable to move.Linghu Chong was greatly astonished. He quickly went into the house and pulledup Peachtree Root Fairy who was at the top of the pile. He saw that there was apiece of peach seed squeezed into his mouth so he helped him take it out.Peachtree Root Fairy was angry and he scolded, "Your granny, your eighteengenerations won't die a good death, your eighteen grandsons will all have nobums, no eyes,... "

Linghu Chong laughed and he interrupted, "Wei, Brother Peachtree RootFairy, I didn't do that to you."

"I wasn't scolding you! Don't interfere! This dog, when I see him, I'lltear him into eight pieces, sixteen pieces, thirty four pieces..."

"Who're you scolding?" Linghu Chong asked.

"His granny, if I'm not scolding him then who else am I scolding?"

Linghu Chong then pulled up Peachtree Flower Fairy who was now on top of thepile and took out the peach seed. The peach seed was only taken out halfwaywhen Peachtree Flower Fairy started to grumble and mumble. When the seed wastaken out, he immediately said, "Big Brother, you said it wrong. Eightpieces multiplied once becomes sixteen pieces, sixteen pieces multiplied oncebecomes thirty two. How can you say thirty four pieces just then?"

"I like saying thirty four pieces, what's wrong with that? Did I say thatI was multiplying it by two? My heart was multiplying it by two then added twoto it," Peachtree Root Fairy retorted.

Peachtree Flower Fairy argued, "Why do you multiply it then add it by two?There's no reason for that."

The acupoints on their bodies had not been unsealed yet but as soon as theirmouths were free, they immediately argued with each other.

Linghu Chong laughed. "Stop quarrelling. What happened here?"

Peachtree Flower Fairy scolded, "Those two stinky monks, No Commandmentand Cannot Have No Commandment, all eighteen of their ancestors are stinkymonks."

Linghu Chong laughingly said, "Why did you scold Monk NoCommandment?"

Peachtree Root Fairy said, "If I don't scold him then who do I scold? Youjust went without saying goodbye and Zu Qianqiu had to tell us that you havegone. How could the six of us just stayed and not join the festivity inSongshan? Of course we're going to come. We were just about to get in front ofyou when we got here and met that stinky Monk Cannot Have No Commandment. Hepretended to drink wine with us and he also said that he saw six dogs biting aninsect to death to trick us into going outside. Who could've guessed that hisGrand Martial Master No Commandment was hiding around the corner and managed toseal our acupoints. Then he stacked us up into a pile and said that if we weregoing up to Songshan then we would've spoiled Headmaster Linghu's plan. Hisgranny, how could we have spoiled your plan?"

Linghu Chong understood what was going on and he laughingly said, "Thistime the Peach Valley Six Fairies have won, and Great Master No Commandment haslost. When you see Monk No Commandment and his disciple the next time, you maynot mention this matter ever again, and you also can't fight them. Otherwise, whenthe world's heroes ask about this, they would find out that Great Master NoCommandment lost to the Peach Valley Six Fairies and would lose face."

Peachtree Root Fairy and Peachtree Flower Fairy nodded their heads. "Thenext time we meet these two stinky monks, we'll all pretend that nothinghappened so that he and his disciple won't lose face."

Linghu Chong laughed. "The most important thing to do right now is tounseal your brothers' acupoints, you must be suffering by now." He thenunsealed Peachtree Flower Fairy's acupoints and closed the door as he went outso that he wouldn't be able to hear the debate that would soon happen betweenthe six brothers.

Zheng E giggled and asked, "Big Martial Brother, what were theydoing?"

Qin Juan giggled. "They were making a pyramid."

Peachtree Flower Fairy immediately scolded, "Little nun, nonsense! Whosaid we were making a pyramid?"

Qin Juan laughed. "I'm not a little nun."

Peachtree Root Fairy said, "You're together with a little nun, so you'realso little nun."

Qin Juan replied, "Headmaster Linghu is also together with us. Is he alsoa little nun?"

Zheng E giggled. "You're also together with us, then the six of you arelittle nuns then."

Peachtree Root Fairy and Peachtree Flower Fairy didn't know how to argue backso they started to blame each other for turning them into little nuns.

Linghu Chong, Yihe, and the rest of the disciples waited outside the house fora long time, but the Peach Valley Six Fairies still hadn't come out yet. LinghuChong pushed the door to go back inside and saw Peachtree Flower Fairy pacingback and forth with a smile on his face while his five brothers' acupoints werestill sealed. Linghu Chong laughed loudly and quickly unsealed the fivebrothers' acupoints, and hastily went out of the house again. He then heard ahuge clamouring noise from inside the house. Linghu Chong giggled happily as hewalked out of there. After walking for tens of feet and around a few corners,he arrived at a small road besides a farm field. He saw a peach tree with itstop full of flower buds waiting for spring time to arrive. He thought, "Theflower of a peach tree is so beautiful and delicate, but the Peach Valley SixFairies are so disorderly and chaotic. They're really different when comparedto the real peach flower."

He walked leisurely for a while thinking that the six brothers must havefinished fighting by now, and he might as well drink some wine with them.Suddenly, he heard footsteps from behind him and there was a female voicecalling out, "Big Brother Linghu!" Linghu Chong turned around and saw that itwas Yilin who was coming over. She came over and softly said, "Can I ask yousomething?"