THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Vengeance Part 5

"Actually, it's not strange," Lin Pingzhi said. "Do you know what my great grandfather Yuantu originally was?"

"I don't know."

"He was originally a monk."

"So he was a Buddhist. Some heroes of Wulin do a lot of outrageous things in Jianghu, but when they got older, they got quite worn out from all the things happening in the world, so they become Buddhists. This can happen," Yue Lingshan said.

"No. My great grandfather didn't become a Buddhist when he got old. He was a monk first before returning to secular life again."

"There were also heroes who were monks when they're young. Our founding ancestor of the Ming, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, he was a monk before he became the emperor."

Yingying thought, "Miss Yue knows her husband is narrow-minded. Not only does she not dare to offend him, she keeps trying to reassure him."

She then heard Yue Lingshan went on, "Father-in-law must've told you that your great grandfather Yuantu was a monk when he was young."

"My father never talked about it, I don't think he knew about it. My house at the Xiangyang Lane has a Buddhist hall in it; we went in there together on that night."

"Yes."

"Why was this 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' recorded on a Buddhist robe? It was because he was originally a monk, and when he saw the sword manual, he quickly wrote it down on his Buddhist robe and got out. Once he returned to secular life, he built a Buddhist hall at home and didn't dare to forget about Buddha."

"Your guess is very reasonable," Yue Lingshan agreed. "But, it's also possible that the sword manual was given to Grandfather Yuantu by an eminent reverend, and that the sword manual was originally written on the Buddhist robe. So Grandfather Yuantu may have obtained this sword manual frankly and uprightly."

"It's not like that."

"Your conjecture isn't necessarily right."

"It's not my conjecture; it's what Grandfather Yuantu wrote on the Buddhist robe."

"Ah, so that's how it is."

"He wrote this at the end of the sword manual. He was originally a monk, but because of an especially lucky chance, he heard of this sword manual from other people's mouth and wrote it down on the Buddhist robe. He warned that this sword art is too cruel and sinister, and once you learned it, you'll die without an heir. It's already unsuitable for even nuns or monks to learn as it violates the compassion of the Buddha, so for secular people, they shouldn't learn this even more."

"But he had already learned it himself."

"At that time, I also thought the same thing as you. This sword art is said to be cruel and sinister, and inadvisable to be practised, but after Grandfather Yuantu studied it, didn't he still manage to take a wife and get an heir?"

"That's right. But it could be that he took a wife and got an heir first before studying this sword art."

"It can't be," Lin Pingzhi said. "Everyone who studies martial art in this world, no matter how heroic you are, or how powerful your martial art already is, once you see this sword manual, you couldn't possibly not practice it because you want to see how the first move goes. Once you've tried the first move, you'll definitely try the second move. Once you've tried the second move, you cannot not try the third move. Even if you haven't seen a sword manual before, once you've seen it then you'll definitely go crazy about it and it's very difficult to free yourself from it, and you'll practice it from top to bottom. Even if you know there's an enormous disaster tied to practising it, you still won't care about it."

Yingying heard till here when her thoughts turned to her father. "Daddy once said, this 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' actually has the same root as our sect's 'Sunflower Manual' and they have the same fundamental principle. It's no wonder Yue Buqun's and Lin Pingzhi's sword art actually looks very similar to Dongfang Bubai's." She also thought, "Daddy said, there's something harmful in the martial art contained in the 'Sunflower Manual'. He knows that once a person who studies martial art sees the content of this martial art secret, he would definitely fall under its trap and would find it hard to free himself from it even if he knows it'd be disastrous to study it. So he simply refused to look at the Manual, which was the most sensible thing to do." A thought suddenly flashed in her mind, "Then why did he give it to Dongfang Bubai?" She thought till this point, and she automatically deduced, "So at that time Daddy already saw Dongfang Bubai harbouring an ill intention, so he gave him the Manual to harm him. But Uncle Xiang didn't know anything about this, and Dongfang Bubai was also ignorant of this and was still blissfully unworried. Actually, my father is such an astute and formidable person. How could he have been muddled headed for so long? It's just that a person's thought isn't as good as the thought of heaven. Dongfang Bubai unexpectedly struck first, captured daddy, and imprisoned him under the West Lake. But his heart wasn't especially bad. If at that time, he were to have killed daddy, or may have given an order not to give him food and drink, how could Daddy have the opportunity to take his revenge? Actually, it was a really lucky thing that we were able to kill Dongfang Bubai. If not for Chong-lang's help, Daddy, Uncle Xiang, Shangguan Yun and me, the four of us would've been killed by Dongfang Bubai at that time. Also, if it weren't for Yang Lianting messing with his heart, Dongfang Bubai would still be undefeated." She thought till here, and she couldn't help feeling that Dongfang Bubai was somewhat pitiful.

She thought, "After he captured my dad, he treated me generously and gave me a lot of gifts. When I was in the Divine Sun Moon Sect, I was no different from a princess. Today, when my own dad is the Chief, I instead, didn't have the authority I used to have. Ai, now that I already have Chong-lang, why do I still need that authority for?" As her thoughts wandered to the past, she thought her father's scheming was very deep and she couldn't help be frightened. "Even now, Dad still hasn't told Chong-lang the method of dispersing the internal energy. Chong-lang had already amassed several different qi from other people, and they still haven't been dispersed yet. This disaster will get bigger and bigger as days go by. Sooner or later, he will definitely be in trouble. Daddy said he must join our sect and once he did, not only will he be imparted with this technique, he will immediately be sworn in as the heir to the Chief. But Chong-lang isn't willing to submit and he will be in a great deal of trouble later." She was half happy and half worried. As she quietly stood in the cluster of tall sorghum, her thoughts wildly went from here to there, but no matter what she thought about, it always returned to Linghu Chong.

At this time, Lin Pingzhi and Yue Lingshan were also quiet. After a long time, Lin Pingzhi said, "After Grandfather Yuantu saw this sword manual, he of course practised it straight away."

"If there's really a big trouble associated with this set of sword art, it wouldn't just come out straight away," Yue Lingshan reasoned. "It's always after practising for ten years or so that the harm would come. Grandfather Yuantu must've taken a wife and gotten an heir before this trouble manifested itself."

"That's. Not. It." Lin Pingzhi stressed each word without any hesitation. After a pause, he went on, "In the beginning, I also thought the same thing as you did. But after a few days, I found out it wasn't so. My grandfather simply couldn't be Grandfather Yuantu's son. He's most likely adopted by Grandfather Yuantu. Grandfather Yuantu took a wife and got an heir merely to fool everyone."

Yue Lingshan gasped in surprise and said in a trembling voice, "Fool everyone? But... why?"

Lin Pingzhi snorted but didn't answer her. After some time, he said, "When I first saw the sword manual, I was already very close to you. Several times, I thought I should wait till we get married and become a real husband and wife before I start studying the sword art. But it's impossible for a martial art person to resist not studying what's written in that sword manual. I finally... I finally... castrated myself to practice the sword..."

Yue Lingshan absentmindedly replied, "You... You... castrated yourself to practice sword?"

"That's right," Lin Pingzhi gloomily said. "The first sentence in the Evil Resisting Sword Manual is: 'To dominate Wulin, swipe your sword and castrate yourself'."

"Why... why?"

"To practise this Evil Resisting Sword Art, you must start with the internal energy first. If you don't castrate yourself, once you practise it, you'll immediately feel like you're on fire, fire deviate, and die."

"That's how it is." Her voice was like a mosquito and very hard to hear.

Yingying was also thinking, "So that's why!" Now, she understood everything clearly why Dongfang Bubai, who was such a masculine man with the number one martial art of the world, was wearing woman's clothes, embroidering, and was so crazy about Yang Lianting. So in order to practise this demonical martial art, he had become not a man and not a woman.

She then heard Yue Lingshan sobbed lightly and said, "Back then, Grandfather Yuantu pretended to take a wife and get an heir to fool everyone, you... you're also..."

"That's right, after I castrated myself, I still married you to fool people. But it's only to fool your father."

Yue Lingshan wept sorrowfully upon hearing this.

"I've told you everything now," Lin Pingzhi said. "You must hate me to the bone now. Why don't you go away?"

"I don't hate you," Yue Lingshan sobbed. "You were forced by circumstances and had no other alternatives. I only hate... only hate whoever wrote that 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual' back then. Why... why did he want to harm other people like that?"

Lin Pingzhi giggled. "This senior was a eunuch."

Yue Lingshan groaned. "So... so my father... is also... is also like you..."

"Since he's studied this sword art, how can he be different? Your father is the headmaster of a school, if anyone found out he castrated himself and then spread the word out, how can he not become the laughingstock of Jianghu? That's why if he knew that I've learned this sword art, he must definitely kill me. He's already asked several times how I treated you because he wanted to know whether I've castrated myself or not. If at that time you complained even a little bit, then my life would've been gone."

"Now he knows."

"I've killed Yu Canghai, killed Mu Gaofeng," Lin Pingzhi was brimming with pride as he said this. "Within a few days, the word would've spread throughout Wulin and the whole world will know."

"In that case, I'm afraid... I'm afraid my father won't let you go then. Where should we run off to?"

"We? You already know what I am now, you still want to follow me?"

"Of course. Brother Ping, my feeling towards you will always be... always be the same. Your lot in this world is so pitiful..." She had not finished saying this when she suddenly cried out and jumped off the carriage as Lin Pingzhi pushed her out.

"I don't want your pity! Who wants your pity?" Lin Pingzhi angrily retorted. "Lin Pingzhi's swordplay is complete. I'm not scared of anything. Wait until my eyes are better. Lin Pingzhi will then rule the world. Yue Buqun, Linghu Chong, Monk Fangzheng, Priest Chongxu, they are not my match."

Yingying inwardly got angry and she thought, "Wait till your eyes are better? Hng, have your eyes ever been good?" When Lin Pingzhi was injured, she originally felt quite sad for him. But when she saw how uncaring he was towards his wife, how ruthlessly he treated her, and also how conceited he was, she couldn't help despising him.

Yue Lingshan sighed. "You must first look for a place to hide for a while. Wait till your eyes are better before doing anything else."

"I have a method to deal with your father."

"It must be horrible to hear and of course you can't say what it is. Father also doesn't need to worry about you for now."

"Hng, I understand your father way more than you do. Tomorrow, I'm going to tell the first person I see about this."

Yue Lingshan worriedly said, "Is that necessary? Aren't you..."

"Necessary? This is the method to preserve my life. I'm going to tell every person I meet. In no time at all, word would've spread to your father's ear. Then, since Yue Buqun knows it was me who said this, he cannot kill me to shut me up. On the contrary, he must protect my life."

"Your idea is really strange."

"What's so strange about it? Whether your father has castrated himself or not, no one would be able to see it. When his beard falls off, he'll glue them on and there will be people who will believe it and those who won't. But if I suddenly die without any reason, everyone will say Yue Buqun is the one who did it. This is called wishing to cover it up but exposing it more instead." Yue Lingshan sighed and didn't say anything else.

Yingying thought, "This Lin Pingzhi has a very keen mind, and his method really is formidable. Miss Yue is in a very difficult position here, she's trapped in the middle. Her parents' reputation will unavoidably be destroyed, but if she thought of a way to prevent it from happening, then it'll endanger her husband's life."

Lin Pingzhi went on, "Even if both of my eyes can't see a thing from now on, I've avenged my parents and I will never regret it. Linghu Chong told me the last words of my father. He said there's a relic in the old residence at Xiangyang and I should never take a look at it. This was the instruction Great Grandfather left behind. Now, I've taken a look at it. Even though I violated Great Grandfather's instruction, I've taken revenge for my parents. If it weren't like this, other people would've said my Lin family's Evil Resisting Sword Art has an unearned reputation, and that the heads of the Fortune Prestige Escort House had been cheating people."

"Back then, both father and you suspected big martial brother. You were both saying that he took your Lin family's 'Evil Resisting Sword Manual', saying he fabricated Father-in-Law's last words..."

"Just say I blamed him wrongly. What do you want to do?" Lin Pingzhi interrupted. "At that time, didn't you suspect him too?"

Yue Lingshan softly sighed. "Big martial brother and you haven't known each other for a long time, so it's not surprising you suspected him. But father and me, we shouldn't have doubted him. The only person in this world who truly believed him was only mother."

Yingying thought, "Who said only your mother?"

Lin Pingzhi coldly laughed. "Your mother truly adores Linghu Chong. I don't know how many times your parents argued because of this little kid."

Astounded, Yue Lingshan asked, "My father and mother argued over big martial brother? My father and mother never argue, how do you know about this?"

Lin Pingzhi laughed coldly and answered, "Never argue? That's only to put on an appearance in front of other people. For this matter, Yue Buqun put on his hypocrite mask. I heard it all with my own ears, could it be fake?"

"I didn't say fake, but it's really strange. How come I've never heard of it, but you heard of it?"