DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS Book 1 of 5 (Adventures of The Youth) by Jin Yong

The Jade Cliff Under The Moonlight Part 3

He was spellbound for a long time. With a deep bow, he said: "Dear Goddess, Duan Yu was fortunate enough to see your beauty today, I can die without no regrets now. Goddess, you have separated yourself from the world to live here by yourself, hope it wasn't too lonely." The colors from the statue's eyes changed, as if she heard what he said and was truly touched.

By now Duan Yu was completely spellbound. It's almost as if he was possessed, as if he can't ever take his eyes off the statue again. He muttered: "Don't know how I should address dear Goddess." He thought: "I should look around to see if she left her name around here."

Looking around, he saw a lot of writings on the wall to the east but he didn't really pay attention to them and immediately went back to staring at the statue. This time he noticed that the hair on the statue is actually real human hair, curled up in a bun. The hair around her temples were like a fog. By her temple was a jade hairpin. On the hairpin was 2 pinky sized crystals, shiny and colorful. The walls of the room were full of gems and crystals as well. On the wall on the west side, 6 large crystals were embedded into the walls. Beyond the crystals was the faint glow of water, making this room several times brighter than the previous room.

He stared blankly at the statue for a long time again before turning away. He noticed that the east wall has been smoothed out and several lines of words has been carved onto it. The lines were all taken from ZhuangZi (Toaist philosopher, contemporary of Mencius, a favorite of Oscar Wilde), mostly from the books of "Carefree Travels", "Principles of Nuturing", "Autumn Waters", and "Epitome of Happiness". The calligraphy was elegant and refined. The words seemed to be carved with a really sharp tool for every stroke is about half-an-inch deep. At the end was another line: "Dedicated to Dear QiuShui (Autumn Waters) from Carefree Man. No sun and moon in this cave, truly the Epitome of Happiness in the mortal world."

Duan Yu stared at these words for a while, thinking: "This 'Carefree Man' and 'Dear QiuShui' are probably the 2 masters that were practicing swords decades ago. And this statue is probably that 'Dear QiuShui' as well. Carefree Man was able to live with her here in this serene cave, that really is the epitome of happiness in the mortal world. Actually, who says it's merely epitome of happiness in the mortal world, does heaven have such joys?"

His eyes moved onto the other lines on the wall: "Small and insignificant mountain, immortals dwell within, skin like ice and snow, graceful virgin, no need for foods, and shows joy in breeze." He turned to the statue and thought: ."Using these words by ZhuangZi to describe Dear Goddess could not be anymore appropriate." He walked to in front of the statue and stared. Seeing her ice-like skin, he did not dare to even lift a finger and touch her. It was as if his heart was possessed. He even faintly smelled some musk like incense fragrance. From love was born respect, from respect came obsession. {ZhuangZi needs to learn to write coherently, that's what I say. Hopefully my translation was not just out there.}

After who knows how long, he suddenly blurted out: "Dear Goddess, if you are willing to say even one word to me. Then I would happily and without regret die 1000, no, 10000 times." Suddenly he kneeled.

When he kneeled, he noticed that there were 2 mats in front of the statue, seemingly placed for people to kowtow to the statue. His knees were resting on the bigger mat while there is a much smaller one just in front of the statue, seeming made for people to kowtow. So he did. Suddenly he noticed that there seemed to be words sewn onto the inside portion of the statue's shoes. He looked harder and recognized that on the right shoe was sewn: "Kowtow one thousand times, then obey my orders", and the left shoes read: "Whoso follows my instructions, will never have regrets".

These 16 words were literally smaller than the head of a fly. The shoes were green like the lake, and the 16 words were sewn using a thin green line, only slightly darker than the shoes. Add in the hazy and confusing lighting of the room, there is no way these words can be seen without first kowtowing followed by a careful look. Duan Yu felt that kowtowing 1000 times was actually very natural of a thing, adding on top that he would be get a chance to obey the statue, he really couldn't ask for anything more. As for following her instructions, he wouldn't mind jumping in boiling oil or burning seas, of course he would not regret it. So without a bit of hesitation, with his mind not all there, he started to really honestly kowtowing to the statue. All the while he counted out loud: "5, 10, 15, 20...."