THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Vengeance Part 2

When he thought till here, he couldn't help shaking his head and mumbled, "Evil resisting, evil resisting! Resist what evil? This martial art is evil itself." Then he thought, "At the present time, the only one who can go up against this sword art is probably only Grand Martial Uncle Feng. After my injury is healed, I must go back up to Huashan and ask for Grand Martial Uncle Feng's advice on how to break this sword art. Grand Martial Uncle Feng said he doesn't want to see people from the Huashan School, but I'm no longer from Huashan School at this time." His thought then continued, "Dongfang Bubai is already dead. Yue Buqun is my master, Lin Pingzhi is my martial brother. The two of them wouldn't use this sword art to go up against me, then why do I need to go research on how to break this sword art?" Suddenly he thought of something and sat up abruptly. As he moved, the mule carriage shook and his wound became really painful that he gasped.

Qin Juan was standing besides the cart and she quickly asked, "Do you want to drink tea?"

"No, little martial sister, please ask young lady Ren to come here." Qin Juan acknowledged his request and went to get Yingying. After a while, Yingying followed Qin Juan back. She asked lightly, "What's the matter?"

"I suddenly thought of something. Your father once said, your sect's 'Sunflower Manual' was given to Dongfang Bubai. So I thought the martial art in 'Sunflower Manual' isn't as good as the divine martial art your father is practising, but..."

"But my father's martial art was shown to be not as good as Dongfang Bubai's, is that right?"

"That's right. I don't understand why."

For people who studied martial art, when they saw a wonderful book of martial art, if they didn't learn it by themselves, they would give it to another person like their father, spouse, martial disciple, brothers, or their lovers, and they would probably study it together. To give up on it was really out of the ordinary.

"I've already asked my dad about this before," Yingying said. "He said: One, the martial art in the Manual can't be learnt; it'll be harmful to learn it. Two, he also didn't know that after learning the martial art written on the Manual, the result would be so powerful."

"Can't be learnt? Why?"

Yingying's face turned red. "Why can't it be learnt? How would I know?" After a pause, she went on, "What's so good about Dongfang Bubai's fate?"

Linghu Chong groaned and inwardly felt that his master was on the way in following Dongfang Bubai's path. He had now defeated Zuo Lengchan and snatched the leadership of the Five Mountains School. Linghu Chong didn't like this situation at all. 'Long Live the Chief, unify the Jianghu', those were the flattering words which were often said on the Dark Wood Cliff. In Linghu Chong's heart, it seemed it would also gradually become Yue Buqun's motto.

"Take care of your injury, don't think too much," Yingying quietly said. "I'm going to sleep."

"Yes." He lifted the curtain on the carriage and saw the moonlight shining down on Yingying's face. Suddenly, he felt apologetic toward her. Yingying slowly turned around to go but suddenly she said, "Your martial brother Lin wears a flowery gown." After she said this, she went toward her own carriage.

Linghu Chong thought it was strange. "She said Martial Brother Lin is wearing a flowery gown. What does she mean? Martial Brother Lin has just become a groom so he's wearing the gown a newly-married groom wears. There's nothing strange about that. This little girl, not paying attention to someone's sword art, but instead paying attention to what someone else is wearing. How interesting."

When he closed his eyes, he could see Lin Pingzhi's sword moves in his mind, but he couldn't remember what kind of flowery gown Lin Pingzhi was wearing. He slept till the middle of the night when he heard horses galloping towards them from somewhere far. Two horses were coming from the west. Linghu Chong sat up and lifted the screen. Out on the street, he saw Heng-Shan disciples and Qingcheng School's people all awake. Heng-Shan disciples had formed groups of seven to form the sword formation and they were standing still by their position. Some Qingcheng people were rushing towards the end of the street while some were leaning their backs to the wall. They were far different from the calm and collected Heng-Shan disciples.

The two horses galloped through the big street. With the moonlight shining brightly, it was easy to see that it was the Lin Pingzhi husband and wife couple coming.

"Yu Canghai!" Lin Pingzhi called out. "In order to steal my Lin family's Evil Resisting Sword Art, you killed my parents. Now, I'm going to execute the moves one by one to give you a look. Pay close attention!"

He reined in his horse and flew down from his horse. His long sword was still strapped on his back as he rushed towards the Qingcheng School's people. Linghu Chong paid attention to what he was wearing and saw that he was wearing a green jade gown with seams threaded with gold, sleeves embroidered with deep yellow flowers, and a gold belt tied around his waist. With Lin Pingzhi's lightning fast movement, the gown gorgeously glittered under the moonlight. Linghu Chong thought, "Martial Brother Lin was originally very plain. Once he became a groom, he has become very different. It's no wonder youngsters are usually proud of themselves. He's taken such a wife, of course he's very happy and wanted to dress up a bit."

Last night besides the place of worship, Lin Pingzhi made a surprise attack on Yu Canghai with his bare hand. Now, he was doing exactly the same thing. How could Qingcheng School let him do it again? Yu Canghai shouted and four disciples immediately went up to meet him with their swords up. Two swords were aimed at his left and right chest, and the other two swords swept at his left and right legs. Peach Valley Six Fairies were startled and they couldn't help shouting. The three of them shouted, "Little kid, careful!" The other three shouted, "Careful, little kid!"

Lin Pingzhi extended his right hand and with a matchless speed, pressed on the wrists of the two Qingcheng disciples who were attacking his chest to turn their hands around and pushed on the elbows of the two Qingcheng disciples who were chopping at his lower body. Four miserable cries were heard as two of them fell over. These two people were originally attacking Lin Pingzhi's chest, but when their wrists were pressed, their long swords turned around and pierced their own stomachs.

"Evil Resisting Sword Art, stance number two and stance number three! Did you see it clearly?" Lin Pingzhi called out. He then turned around and galloped off on his horse. The Qingcheng people were stunned and none of them gave chase. When they saw the other two disciples, they saw one of them had his long sword slantingly piercing the other's chest from below, and the other person had done the same. These two people had stopped breathing but their right hands were still clutching on their sword handles making their bodies support each other and preventing them from falling down. Linghu Chong saw clearly the way Lin Pingzhi executed his press and push. He was astonished but felt admiration in his heart. He thought, "Brilliant, that's really a sword art and not a hand seizing technique. It's just that there was no sword in his hand."

The moonlight illuminated the ground and showed Yu Canghai's short body standing besides the four corpses lost in his thought. Qingcheng School's people encircled him but gave him a wide berth. No one dared to say anything. After a long time had passed, Linghu Chong gazed outside of his carriage again and saw Yu Canghai was still standing there unmoving as his shadow gradually lengthened. This scene was extremely eerie.

Some of the Qingcheng disciples had walked away, and some had sat down on the ground, while Yu Canghai was still standing stiffly like a corpse. Linghu Chong felt pity for him. This master of Qingcheng School didn't know what to do and was just waiting for death and that made Linghu Chong feel very sorry for him. He gradually became sleepy and finally went to sleep. While dreaming, he suddenly felt his mule carriage moving followed by some shouts. The sky had actually brightened and the people had started on their journey. He took a peek from the side of the carriage and saw they were on a very straight road. Some disciples of the Qingcheng School were riding on horseback and some were walking. Seeing their dejected and withered bodies from the back, Linghu Chong felt an unspeakable misery surrounding them. They looked like a group of cow and sheep walking to the slaughter house. He thought, "All these people know Lin Pingzhi will come again, and they also know they have no way of fighting back. If they scattered to run away, then Qingcheng School will be destroyed. Could it be, when Lin Pingzhi go up Mount Qingcheng, there will be no one to answer him at the Pine Wind Monastery?"

At noon, they arrived at a big town. The people of Qingcheng ate their meals in a wine shop, while the disciples of Heng-Shan School went to the opposite restaurant to eat. The Qingcheng people were eating quickly with big bowls and big cups, while the nuns all ate quietly. Everyone knew these people were only living from dawn to dusk and surviving from meal to meal.

At the hour of Wei (1-3pm), they were going along the bank of a river when they heard sound of galloping horses. It was the Lin Pingzhi husband and wife couple riding towards them. Yihe whistled and the disciples of Heng-Shan School stopped immediately. With the orange sun beating down on them, the two horses galloped alongside the river. When they got near, Yue Lingshan reined her horse in first, while Lin Pingzhi continued to come forward. Yu Canghai swept his hand across and his people turned around to rush south along the river.

"Shorty Yu, where are you running off to?" Lin Pingzhi laughed loudly as he rushed forward on his horse. Yu Canghai suddenly turned around with the sword in his hand. The reflection from the sword was like a rainbow as it thrust towards Lin Pingzhi's face. This attack was unexpectedly very fierce and Lin Pingzhi was surprised as he hastily pulled his sword out to block. The disciples of Qingcheng started to encircle him. Yu Canghai attacked faster and faster, slashing high and low. This sixty years old man attacked with youthful agility and all of his stances were offensive. Eight Qingcheng disciples brandished their long swords and surrounded Lin Pingzhi on his horse, but they didn't go forward to slash at the horse.

When Linghu Chong saw the situation, he understood Yu Canghai's intention. The strong point of Lin Pingzhi's sword art was in its immeasurable variations and lightning fast speed. As he was on top of a horse, this strong point was greatly reduced. If he wanted to attack, he would only be able to attack the person in front of him and the horse he was riding wouldn't be able to retreat like a ghost to make people unable to grab him. The eight disciples of Qingcheng formed a sword net as they surrounded his horse to prevent Lin Pingzhi from dismounting.

Linghu Chong thought, "Qingcheng's headmaster is really not someone ordinary. This method is very formidable." Lin Pingzhi's sword art changed irregularly, and it was fantastic. But because he was on his horse, Yu Canghai was able to match him. After looking at a few more moves, Linghu Chong's eyes shot toward Yue Lingshan. Suddenly, greatly surprised, his whole body shook.

Six Qingcheng disciples had already surrounded her and were slowly crowding her towards the edge of the river. They had split open the stomach of her horse and as the horse fell down to the ground with a long neigh, she jumped up from her horse's back. Yue Lingshan leaned to one side to dodge the incoming two attacks and stood firm. The six Qingcheng disciples exerted themselves in attacking as if their lives were at stake. Linghu Chong recognised Hou Renying and Hong Renxiong among these six people. Brandishing a sword in his left hand, Hou Renying's movements were very fierce.

Even though Yue Lingshan had learnt the five schools' sword arts engraved on the cave wall on the Cliff of Contemplation, she had not learnt the sword art of the Qingcheng School. The sword moves engraved on the cave were actually too brilliant, so she actually had not truly comprehended them. It was only her father who had taught her, and she knew the moves only. At the place of worship, she had used Taishan sword art to defeat the masters from the Taishan School, and Hengshan sword art to defeat the headmaster of the Hengshan School. This caused her opponents to be startled and she took advantage when they were intimidated. But she had no way of imitating that method to deal with these Qingcheng disciples. Linghu Chong had seen a few moves exchanged and he knew Yue Lingshan was unable to resist for long and was feeling anxious. Suddenly, he heard a long cry and saw a Qingcheng disciple had his left arm cut off by Yue Lingshan using a Hengshan sword art. Linghu Chong felt happy hoping that these six disciples would retreat in fear. But how could he have known that five of them didn't even retreat half a step, while the one with his left arm cut off crazily charged forward instead. When Yue Lingshan saw his body was soaked in blood and his expression was terrifying, she retreated a few steps in fear. While retreating, her foot stepped on nothing and she fell down on the gravel at the edge of the river.

"Shameless, shameless!" Linghu Chong snorted.

Suddenly he heard Yingying said, "We also used this method to fight Dongfang Bubai."

He didn't know when she had arrived besides him. Linghu Chong thought what she said wasn't wrong. That day on Dark Wood Cliff, their defeat was guaranteed already, but luckily Yingying attacked Yang Lianting and disturbed Dongfang Bubai's concentration and this had enabled them to kill him. At this time, Yu Canghai was actually also using the same strategy. Of course Yu Canghai didn't know how they defeated Dongfang Bubai, but through his wisdom, he had also come to the same idea. Linghu Chong expected Lin Pingzhi to have his concentration divided when he saw his wife in danger and to turn around to save her. But he never expected Lin Pingzhi to keep fighting Yu Canghai with all his strength and unexpectedly didn't pay any attention to his wife being in danger.

After she fell down, Yue Lingshan quickly jumped up with her long sword dancing around. The six Qingcheng disciples knew Qingcheng School's survival and their own lives depended on whether they were able to kill their enemies, so they all disregarded their lives and rushed forward. The one with his arm cut off had already abandoned his long sword, and he was now rolling around on the ground trying to seize Yue Lingshan legs with his right hand. Yue Lingshan was frightened and she called out, "Brother Ping, Brother Ping, come help me!"

"Shorty Yu wants to have a look at the Evil Resisting Sword Art, so I'm letting him have a good look. Let him have a good death!" Lin Pingzhi shouted loudly as he used his wonderful moves to suppress Yu Canghai from taking a breather. Yu Canghai had already researched the stances of Evil Resisting Sword Art and he knew all the moves by heart and decided that there was nothing special about those stances. Suddenly, at this moment, there were so many wonderful variations in the sword art and it was also done as fast as lightning making Yu Canghai roar again and again as he got more and more desperate. Yu Canghai knew his enemy's internal energy was far below his so he kept on aiming his sword towards Lin Pingzhi's long sword, hoping that Lin Pingzhi's sword would be shaken off his hand when both swords clash. But from the beginning of the fight, he had not managed to get the swords to clash yet.

Linghu Chong was angered and shouted, "You... You... You..." In the beginning, he was thinking Lin Pingzhi was being stopped by Yu Canghai from going over to help his wife. But when he heard what Lin Pingzhi said, he realised Lin Pingzhi didn't actually care about the safety of Yue Lingshan and he actually attached more importance to jesting with Yu Canghai.

At this time, the sun was fiercely shining down and Linghu Chong saw Lin Pingzhi sneering, showing his excitement and hatred. It seemed his heart was full of happiness in seeking this revenge. He was like a cat who had captured a mouse and was cruelly playing with it first before biting it to death. But when a cat plays with a mouse, it doesn't have this kind of hatred and malice.

"Brother Ping, Brother Ping, quickly come!" Yue Lingshan called out repeatedly. She shouted till her voice was hoarse as the situation became gravely desperate.

"I'm coming. Hold on for a while. I'm showing the entire set of Evil Resisting Sword Art for him to see. Originally, Shorty Yu didn't have any enmity with us, but he did all the things he did because of the 'Evil Resisting Sword Art'. So I'm going to show him the entire set of sword art and let him see it clearly, don't you think so?" Lin Pingzhi replied leisurely. It was apparent he wasn't actually directing these words to his wife, but was directing them more towards Yu Canghai. He was afraid his enemy wouldn't understand his meaning, so he added, "Shorty Yu, don't you think so?" His body was elegant and he moved his sword gracefully. His movements were like the moves from 'The Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword' that the female disciples of Huashan School learned. But this move Lin Pingzhi was using had a demonical aura around it.

Linghu Chong originally wanted to watch the stances of his Evil Resisting Sword Art. This was a really good opportunity to do just that as Lin Pingzhi was now revealing everything in front of Yu Canghai. But he was concerned about Yue Lingshan's safety. Even if he was certain that in the future Lin Pingzhi would use this sword art to kill him, he still couldn't look further as he heard Yue Lingshan continuously calling out for help. He couldn't take it anymore and called out, "Martial Sister Yihe, Martial Sister Yiqing, quickly go and save Miss Yue. She... she can't hold on any longer."

"We already said we won't help any party, I'm afraid it's inappropriate for us to get involved," Yihe replied.