THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Sword Fight Part 3

Yuqingzi, Yuyinzi, and Yujizi were in cahoots in harming Priest Tianmen to get on Zuo Lengchan's good side, so Linghu Chong already felt resentful towards these two priests. When Lin Pingzhi insulted them, he felt quite happy.

Yuyinzi said, "If you say I haven't grasped the slightest bit of Taishan School's martial art, does that mean you've grasped it all? Then please use Taishan School's martial art and let our eyes be opened." He said the words 'Taishan School' especially loudly. His meaning was, "You're a Huashan School's disciple, but even if you have strong martial art, it would still be Huashan School's and you couldn't possibly use my Taishan School's martial art".

Lin Pingzhi gave a cold sneer and said, "Taishan School's martial art is deep and profound. How can traitors like you who harmed your own school member be able to understand..."

"Ping'er," Yue Buqun shouted. "Priest Yuyinzi is still your elder, don't be rude!"

"Yes!" Lin Pingzhi responded.

Yuyinzi indignantly said, "Mr. Yue, what a good disciple and son-in-law you have! He can even speak nonsense about Taishan School's martial art."

Suddenly, a female voice said, "How do you know for sure he was speaking nonsense?"

A good looking young woman stepped out. Her skirt was brushing the ground, her belts were floating in the wind, and a red flower was inserted into her hair. It was Yue Lingshan. She was carrying a long sword on her back and her raised right hand held the sword handle. She said, "I'll use Taishan School's sword art and ask for your advice."

Yuyinzi knew she was Yue Buqun's daughter. He was thinking that since Yue Buqun had approved the merger of the five schools earlier, at the moment Zuo Lengchan would be on friendly terms with him, so he didn't dare to offend her. He smiled slightly and said, "Congratulations Miss Yue. Are you angry because I didn't come to your wedding and drank your celebratory wine? I admired your noble school's wonderful sword art. But this is the first time I've heard of Huashan School's disciples being able to use Taishan School's sword art."

Yue Lingshan raised her eyebrows and said, "My father wants to be the headmaster of the Five Mountains School. So, naturally, he has researched the sword arts of each of the five schools. Otherwise, even if my father wins against the other four schools' headmasters, if he used only Huashan School's swordsmanship, he can't become the Five Mountains School's headmaster."

When these words were said, it created a sensation through the crowd. A person queried, "Mr. Yue wants to become the Five Mountains School's headmaster?" Another person shouted, "Mr. Yue also knows how to use Taishan, Hengshan, Songshan, and Heng-Shan Schools' martial arts?"

Yue Buqun said in a clear voice, "My daughter talks irresponsibly. Don't worry about what my little kid said."

But Yue Lingshan continued, "Martial Uncle Zuo, if you can use Taishan, Hengshan, Huashan, and Heng-Shan Schools' sword arts to defeat the masters of each school, then we'll naturally submit and accept you as the Five Mountains School's headmaster. Otherwise, although your Songshan School's sword art is very formidable in the world, it's still only the Songshan School's sword art which is good, and has nothing to do with the other four schools at all."

The crowd all thought these words were right. If someone was proficient with the sword arts of each school, then he should become the Five Mountains School's headmaster and this would be very fitting. But each school's sword arts had undergone countless of refinements for hundreds of years by many masters. Even if someone was taught by a master of each school, and had undergone dozens of years of practice, he might not necessarily be able to fully learn all of the sword arts from the five schools let alone the secret skills of each school that wasn't usually passed down to ordinary disciples. The possibility of someone actually grasping the essence of all the sword arts from all five schools at the same time was quite remote.

But Zuo Lengchan thought, "Why did Yue Buqun's daughter say this? She must have an intention for saying this. Has Yue Buqun become muddled? Does he really want to fight me for the Five Mountains School's leadership?"

Yuyinzi said, "So Mr. Yue is already proficient in the five schools' sword arts. This has never happened in the history of the five mountains sword schools before. I'd like to ask for Miss Yue's advice on Taishan School's swordsmanship."

"Very well!" Yue Lingshan shouted.

With a 'shua' sound, she drew the long sword she was carrying at her back. Yuyinzi was livid. "I'll compete with your father! A little girl like you dare to draw your sword against me!" He reasoned Yue Buqun would surely stop this. In his heart, he believed that the Yue couple was the only two people in Huashan School who would be able to fight him. How would he know Yue Buqun would only shake his head, sigh, and say, "My little kid doesn't know how high the heaven is. Senior Yuyin and Yuqing are Taishan School's number one masters, and you actually want to use Taishan School's sword art to fight against them. Isn't that asking for trouble?"

Yuyinzi was startled. He thought, "Yue Buqun told his daughter to use Taishan School's sword art to fight against me." He took a glance and saw that Yue Lingshan's long sword was in her right hand and it was pointing down at an angle. Her left palm was wide open and she started counting with her fingers. At the count of five, her left hand made a fist. Then she again extended her thumb out, her forefinger, and counted to five. Her five fingers were now spread open. She followed this by counting again starting from her thumb. This time, as her middle finger folded, Yuyinzi was greatly alarmed: "How could this baby know the move 'Daizong Way'?"

(Translator's note: Daizong is the old name of Mount Taishan.)

More than thirty years ago, Yuyinzi had heard from his master the essence of the move 'Daizong Way'. This sword art move was regarded as Taishan School's highest and most profound skill. Its essence wasn't at the sword moves on the right hand, but was at the counting with the left hand. The left hand would be continuously counting. It would be counting the enemy's position, the enemy's martial art, his height, dimensions of his weapon, as well as the height of the sun and many other things. The calculations were very complicated, and once the calculations were finished, the sword would immediately attack and it would hit its target. In the past, Yuyinzi had thought of this sword move and felt he didn't have the ability to memorise and count all sorts of numbers in such a short time during a fight. So he didn't learn this skill deeply and only heard of its existence and put it at the back of his mind. His master was also actually not proficient at this technique. He only said, "This 'Daizong Way' technique is very difficult to learn and doesn't seem practical at all; but its power is unmatched. Since you don't have the desire to learn it, you won't be able to learn this sword move, but it doesn't matter. All of your martial brothers aren't as attentive as you, so they also wouldn't be able to learn this move. It's a pity this profound sword art, with no match in this world, will be lost to us from now on." When his master didn't force him to learn this sword move, Yuyinzi felt relieved. Later on, he had never seen anyone in Taishan School practiced this move ever again.

Therefore, it was to his surprise that dozens of years later, he would see Yue Lingshan, who was only a young woman, use this move. All of a sudden, sweat started to form on his forehead. He had never heard his master talk about countering this move. He believed that since he couldn't practice it, other people wouldn't be able to practice this wonderful sword art either; so he never thought of a way to counter this sword move himself. But now the strangest thing had happened and it was completely outside of his expectations. He was feeling really worried and pondered to himself, "If I rapidly change my positions, leap high and crouch low, she naturally would block me."

He immediately shook his long sword and slid three steps to the right using the move 'Clear Moon on a Cloudless Sky'. Then he turned around, lowered his body, and slantingly pierced his long sword. His sword was still five feet away from Yue Lingshan's right shoulder when he turned another circle and followed with the move 'High Mountain Sky' with a fast stab forward and fast pull back of the sword. But Yue Lingshan just stood her ground unmoving. The long sword in her right hand constantly trembled, while the fingers on her left hand unceasingly counted. Yuyinzi launched his sword with his body following it. He turned to the left side and then the right side, and with each turn he became even faster.

This pattern of sword art was called 'Taishan Eighteen Coils', and it was created by someone in the Taishan School a long time ago. That person observed that Taishan School's eighteen coils of the three gates were very complicated. It was really an arduous path with its five steps of revolution and ten steps of circles. As a result, he harmonised the sword art with the lay of the land, and it was now just as wonderful and strange as the Eight Diagrams' 'Eight Diagrams Palm Movement'. Taishan's 'Eighteen Coils' attacked higher with each coil and became more dangerous with each step. These patterns of sword moves also become more violent with each turn. All of Yuyinzi's attack seemed to have pierced through Yue Lingshan's body, but actually, none of his attacks was a genuine killing move. Both of his eyes were fixated on Yue Lingshan's ceaselessly counting left hand. In the years past, his master once said, "This move 'Daizong Way' can be said to be the ancestor of our Taishan School's sword art. It never misses and will never need a second stroke to kill someone. When a sword art reaches this stage, it has surpassed everything and has become godly. Your master actually only knows some basic skills of this skill, and if I actually wanted to learn it, then it might be easier said than done." When he thought of his master's words, cold sweat seeped through his back.

That Taishan's 'Eighteen Coils' was divided into 'Slow Eighteen, Fast Eighteen'. The eighteen coils turned slowly and the other eighteen coils turned quickly. Each step was higher than the next, and it was said 'The person at the back will only see the soles of the shoes of the person in front, while the person at the front will only see the hair of the person at the back'. This pattern of sword art of the Taishan School was created from the steep mountain paths going up Mount Taishan. The movements were suddenly slow and suddenly fast, punctuated by very complicated turnings.