THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

No Treaty Part 3

"I don't understand why master would spend such a big effort to bring my disciples up to Huashan?" Linghu Chong questioned. "This matter would be easily discovered since they have to go through such a long journey. Why didn't he just kill all of them at Heng-Shan? Wouldn't this be easier?" He stopped for a tick then continued, "Ah, I understand. If he killed all the Heng-Shan disciples then there'll be one less mountain from the Five Mountains School. Master wants to be the headmaster of the Five Mountains School, but without Heng-Shan School, he couldn't be the headmaster of the Five Mountains School. The name simply wouldn't be right."

"That's one reason," Yingying said. "But I think, there's still one more reason."

"What's that?"

"The best thing would of course be to capture you," Yingying explained. "Then he'd trade with something of mine."

Linghu Chong was enlightened and he excitedly hit his thigh. "That's right. My master wanted the medicine for the Three Corpse Brain Pill."

"After Mr. Yue was forced to take this pill, he would've been restless day and night wanting to get a medicine for it," Yingying said. "One day he wouldn't accept it and the next he'd be worried to death. He knew that he could only get the medicine by getting you."

"Of course, I'm your darling," Linghu Chong agreed. "Only by using me that he can exchange the medicine from you."

Yingying pursed her lip. "If he was going to use you to trade for the medicine then I wouldn't trade. The materials for the medicine are so hard to get and making them isn't easy either. So they're priceless treasure. How could I trade them so easily?"

"The common saying goes: It's easy to find priceless treasure, hard to find a lover."

Yingying's whole cheeks turned bright red immediately. In a whisper, she said, "Like a mouse getting on a scale, scaling and praising himself. Know no shame."

As they talked, they arrived at a narrow path. This mountain path was perfectly straight as it went up and it was also very steep. They couldn't walk side by side through this path.

"You go first," Yingying said.

"You go first," Linghu Chong said. "If you fall down then I'll grab you."

"No, you go first, but you're not allowed to turn your head back to look at me. You must listen to what granny tells you to do." She laughed when she finished talking.

"Fine, I go first," Linghu Chong relented. "If I fall down, you can grab me."

"That won't do, that won't do!" Yingying hastily replied. She was afraid he would pretend to misstep to play around with her. So she quickly went up the mountain path first.

Even though Yingying saw him making a joke, his expression was still melancholic. After he laughed, he turned mournful again. She knew it was difficult for him to forget about Yue Buqun's death. Along the way she'd tried to make him say some jokes to make him forget about his worries. After a few turns, they arrived at the top of the Jade Maiden Peak. Linghu Chong pointed out to her which one was the Jade Maiden's face washing basin and which one was the Jade Maiden's dressing table. Yingying knew this Jade Maiden Peak was the place he used to play around with Yue Lingshan back then, and she was afraid that he might get even more upset, so she just took a quick glance without asking anything.

After going down a slope, they went up a little path towards the Peak of Morning Sun. They saw guards everywhere around the mountain. The Sun Moon Sect's men were dressed in seven different gown colour and they were very discipline in following the flag going back and forth. Compared to the last time he visited the Dark Wood Cliff, there was a different feeling of dread.

Linghu Chong secretly praised, "Chief Ren is a very learned man. That day when I led thousands of men to attack Shaolin Temple, it was a mess, everything was chaotic. How can it be compared to the Sun Moon Sect's army which resembles a body using its arms, like when an arm wants to point at something, with thousands of people resembling one person? Dongfang Bubai is also one great person. It was only later that he made a mistake and gave the handling of sect's matter to Yang Lianting. That's when the Dark Wood Cliff withered and its power diminished."

The people of Sun Moon Sect respectfully bowed their bodies when they saw Yingying. They were also very respectful towards Linghu Chong. The bannermen roared one by one from the bottom of the peak all the way to the peak, announcing to Ren Woxing their arrivals. Linghu Chong saw all the important places between the bottom of the peak to the peak were all packed with people from the sect. There were at least two thousands guards around those places. It seemed that this time the Sun Moon Sect had gathered many warriors from the unorthodox path to help them in carrying out this massive operation. If all the headmasters from the five mountains sword schools were still alive, and all the master-hands from the five schools were at Huashan, and they had also been deployed before hand to meet this attack, it was still likely that they would lose. At this time with the number of talented fighter close to zero, it was impossible for them to fight back.

Looking at the situation now, it was certain that Ren Woxing had a harmful idea towards the five mountains sword schools. Since things had come to this, there was nothing he could've done and now everything was up to the Heaven's will. He could only take things step by step. If Ren Woxing wanted to annihilate the five mountains sword schools, then he couldn't just stay on the side preserving his own life. He would have to fight to the death and Heng-Shan School's disciples would all be killed on top of this Peak of Morning Sun.

Although he was clever, he wasn't that experienced and didn't have a plan in mind to face this calamity. When he saw all the disciples of Heng-Shan School fell into the trap, he also didn't know how to free them and everything was just left to fate and circumstances. He was also thinking that Yingying and Chief Ren were related by flesh and blood so the most she would do would be not to help both sides. So there was no chance she would help him by thinking of a plan to go against her own father. At this time, facing the sect's disciples at the Peak of Morning Sun with bows drawn and sabres unsheathed, he didn't even look at them and he instead told Yingying some jokes.

But Yingying was already tied in knots in worry, so she couldn't be like Linghu Chong who was unworried. Along the way, she'd been churning her brain thinking on what to do. She pondered, "Chong-lang is a fearless person. Even if the sky collapsed, he'd only notice it when it's right on top of him. I've always thought of a way for him to do." Thinking that her father had led such a big operation here, it couldn't be anything good. When the situation turned dangerous, then all she could do would be to adapt since there was no other good option.

The two of them slowly went up to the peak. When they reached the summit, they were suddenly assaulted with horns blaring followed by sound of music from drums and pipes. This was unexpectedly the welcoming of honoured guests.

Linghu Chong whispered, "Father-in-law is welcoming the son-in-law back home!"

Yingying blankly stared at him and she felt really anxious. She thought, "This person really doesn't worry about anything. At this time, he can still joke around."

Then she heard a person laughed loudly and in a clear voice said, "Young lady, Brother Linghu, Chief's been waiting for you for a long time."

A slim elder wearing a purple gown took a step forward and gripped both of Linghu Chong's hands. His face was full of happiness. He was Xiang Wentian. When Linghu Chong saw him, he was also very happy. "Brother Xiang," Linghu Chong called out. "You're well, I've thought of you often."

"At Dark Wood Cliff, I keep hearing news of your prestige soaring in Wulin," Xiang Wentian laughingly replied. "I drank to you from far away, I've at least drunk more than ten big pots of wine. Quickly go see Chief." Taking his hand, he went towards a stone structure several stories high.

That stone structure was on top of the east peak. It was extremely big and tall, just like it had been naturally formed. To the east of that structure was Peak of the Morning Sun's highest place which was called Deity's Palm. That Deity's Palm had five big pillars rising to the sky with the central pillar being the highest. They saw a big chair placed underneath the central pillar, and a person sat in it. This person was Ren Woxing.

Yingying walked to the front of the palm, looked up and called out, "Daddy!"

Linghu Chong bowed and said, "Junior Linghu Chong pays my respect to Chief."

Ren Woxing laughed aloud. "Little brother, you come at the right time. We're all family, there's no need to be so formal. Today, our sect will meet with the world's heroes so we shall talk business first before talking about family matter. My worthy... worthy brother, sit beside me."

Linghu Chong heard him paused after saying this word 'worthy' seemingly like he wanted to say 'worthy son-in-law'. But since it had not been decided yet, he corrected himself from calling him 'worthy son-in-law'. It looked like he had already approved of the marriage between Yingying and him. He also said 'We're all family' and 'we shall talk business first before talking about family matter', it was obvious Ren Woxing had regarded him as family. He felt happy and straighten his body up.

Suddenly, a cold energy rushed up from this 'Dantian' region and he felt like he had entered an icehouse. His body trembled and continuously shook. Yingying was started and quickly went up to him. "What's wrong?"

"I... I..." Linghu Chong stammered out but he unexpectedly couldn't utter another word.

Even though Ren Woxing was high up there, his eyesight was still sharp. "Did you clash palms with Zuo Lengchan?"

Linghu Chong nodded.

Ren Woxing smiled. "It's nothing. You sucked his polar ice energy, once you scatter it out, it'll be alright. Why isn't Zuo Lengchan coming here?"

"Zuo Lengchan secretly set up a violent plan to kill Big Brother Linghu and me," Yingying told him. "Big Brother Linghu killed him."