DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS Book 2 of 5 (Shrouding Screen In Suzhou) by Jin Yong

Giving Pointers To Gathered Heroes At The Water Pavilion Part 4

The look on Sima Lin's face changed. He thought to himself, "His words are not false. After the passing of my father, the strength of my Qingcheng sect is already diminished. In addition, this traitor, Zhu Baokun, has stolen our secret martial arts techniques. If the Qin family stronghold becomes our enemies as well, then things will become very difficult. As the saying goes, 'he who strikes first becomes the master, he who strikes second suffers disaster'. Goddamnit, the only option we have today is to launch a surprise attack on them." He immediately said lightly, "What do you propose?"

Seeing him fold his hands into his sleeves, Yao Bodang knew that could shoot forth his insidious hidden weapons at any point in time. Instantly, he became all the more cautious. He said, "I am inviting Miss Wang to stay in Yunnan as my guest until young master Murong comes to escort her back home. But you have chosen to meddle in my business and refuse to accept this. Am I right?"

Sima Lin said, "Your home, Yunnan, is too crappy a place for Miss Wang. I want to invite Miss Wang to come to Chengdu to enjoy herself." Yao Bodang said, "Fine. Let us determine victory or defeat through battle. Whoever wins will be Miss Wang's host." Sima Lin said, "Precisely so. After all, even if the losers want to be Miss Wang's host, they can't possibly invite her down to the underworld." The meaning of his words was that this wasn't a competition of martial arts, but a life-and-death struggle which would determine who would live and who would be destroyed. Yao Bodang loudly laughed, then shouted, "The life that I, Yao Bodang have lived, has always been one of lapping blood from the tip of my broadsword. Sect-leader Sima, you want to use the word 'death' to frighten me? I have not taken it to heart in the slightest!" Sima Lin said, "How shall we compete? Shall the two of us duel with each other, or shall everyone just charge at the other side?"

Yao Bodang said, "Why don't you just let this old fellow that I am play with you a bit..." Sima Lin suddenly turned his head towards the left, a look of utmost astonishment on his face, as though something bizarre had just happened. Yao Bodang's gaze had been on him this entire time, fearing that he was planning some sort of trick. But now, he couldn't help but turn his gaze to the left as well. Suddenly, three sneering sounds could be heard. Snapping his attention back, he saw that the hidden weapons were now less than a meter away from his chest. He felt sourness in his heart, knowing that he was in deep trouble....

Just at this critical, lethal moment, somethingflashed by his chest. With a clattering sound, it knocked aside all of thepoisoned nails. The poison nails were shot out extremely quickly, and despiteYao Bodang being focused upon his opponent, he still would have been unable toavoid them. But the object which knocked aside the poison nails was several timesfaster than the nails. It was sent out later, but arrived earlier, knocking thepoisoned nails aside. As to what exactly was tossed out, no one had seenclearly.

Wang Yuyan cried out in a happy voice, "Is it Uncle Bao who's arrived?"

An extremely strange voice replied, "Tis not so, tis not so. It isn't Uncle Baowho's arrived."

Wang Yuyan laughed, "You claim not to be Uncle Bao? Even before you yourselfappear, your 'tis not so, tis not so' comments arrive!" That voice replied,"Tis not so, tis not so! I am not Uncle Bao!" Wang Yuyan laughed. "Tis not so,tis not so? Then who are you?" That voice replied, "The kinsmen of the Murongfamily call me 'third brother', but you addressed me as me 'uncle'. Tis not so,tis not so! You addressed me incorrectly!" Wang Yuyan's body swayed withlaughter as she pressed her hands to her face. "You still aren't coming out?"

The voice did not reply. After a while, Wang Yuyan saw that there wasn't asingle bit of movement, and cried out, "Hey, come out! Come help us shoo outthese random people away!" But still, no sound could be heard. Clearly, theperson surnamed Bao had left long ago. Wang Yuyan felt a bit disappointed, andasked Ah Zhu, "Where did he go?" Ah Zhu smiled. "Third brother Bao always hadthis sort of weird temper. Earlier, miss, you said, 'You still aren't comingout?' Originally, he was planning to come out, but after hearing you say that,he would do the opposite to make things awkward for you. I'm afraid he mightnot come back at all today."

Earlier, there was a 99% chance of death for Yao Bodang, if it hadn't been forthe help of the man surnamed Bao. Naturally, he felt indebted to him.Originally, he held no grudges against the Qingcheng sect and felt no enmitytowards them, but now, it was unavoidable that he would want to kill Sima Lin.Brandishing his short-handled broadsword, he shouted, "Shameless scoundrel! Yousecretly shoot out hidden weapons. Do you think you can hurt this old man withthem?" With a sweep of his broadsword, he chopped towards the crown of SimaLin's head. Sima Lin's hands left his sleeves. In his left hand he wielded asteel awl, and in his right hand he wielded a steel mace, and his two weaponsbegan to tussle against Yao Bodang's broadsword.

Yao Bodang possessed great physical strength, and his sabre techniques wereruthless and vicious. By contrast, Sima Lin specialized in using small, quickweapons and clever techniques. This was the first time a member of the Qinfamily stronghold and a member of Qingcheng sect had fought against each other.With each of them being the leader of their respective organization, this wasmore than just a life-and-death battle; this was something which woulddetermine the prestige or downfall of their sects. Both of them were forced tobe very careful, not daring to slacken off in the slightest.

After seventy or so stances had been exchanged, Wang Yuyan suddenly said to AhZhu, "Check it out. It seems as though the Qin family stronghold is missingmore than just five strokes from their 'Five Tigers Shattering the Gate' sabrestyle. Why isn't leader Yao using the techniques 'Carrying the Son Through theRiver' or 'Valuing Integrity, Guarding Righteousness'?" Ah Zhu didn't knowanything about the 'Five Tigers Shattering the Gate' sabre style, and found itdifficult to respond.

In the middle of this fierce battle, these four sentences drifted into YaoBodang's ears. He was greatly shocked. "This little lady's eyesight isincredible. It originally was the case that only fifty nine strokes remained ofthe sixty four strokes of the 'Five Tigers Shattering the Gate' sabre style.But when my master learned this style, he was not intelligent enough to learnthose two stances, 'Carrying the Son Through the River' and 'Valuing Integrity,Guarding Righteousness.' Thus, those two stances were lost, leaving behind onlyfifty seven strokes. In order to save face, I slightly modified the alternateforms of two other strokes, so as to keep the number of stances at fifty nine.She actually saw through it."

As it were, the people of the mountain strongholds were a motley, disorderlyarray. Anyone could mingle together with them, but when Yunnan's Qin family ledraids to loot and plunder, the leaders were always disciples of the 'FiveTigers Shattering the Gate' school. The experts of other sects, knowing thatthe members of the Qin family stockade would not treat them as one of theirown, would not go and try to join forces with them. Yao Bodang's master camefrom the Qin family. He was not only the chief of the Qin family stockade, butalso the leader of the sect-leader of the 'Five Tigers Shattering the Gate'school of martial arts. His own martial arts level, as well as that of his son,Qin Boqi, was very mediocre. Thus, he gave his own rank and station to that ofhis head apprentice, Yao Bodang. Several months ago, while in Shaanxi, Qin Boqiwas killed by a sabre technique which utilized three horizontal chops and avertical chop, known as the "Four Knife-Strokes of the 'Wang' Character" [The'Wang' character, meaning 'King', is written in Chinese with three parallelhorizontal strokes and a vertical stroke which bisects all three]. This was thehardest and most fierce technique within the 'Five Tigers Shattering the Gate'sabre style. Everyone believed that the killer must have been Gusu's Murongfamily. Yao Bodang, remembering his master's benevolence, marshaled the manyexperts of his stronghold and came to Suzhou to seek revenge on behalf of hismartial-brother. Unexpectedly, he almost lost his life to the poison nails ofthe Qingcheng sect before he even had a chance to meet with the master of theplace, and his life was actually rescued by one of Murong Fu's friends.

Yao Bodang hated Sima Lin's vile, treacherous techniques techniques. Now,hearing Wang Yuyan expose the flaws in his martial arts, he felt very ashamed.He wanted to defeat Sima Lin as quickly as possible, so as to maintain his owndignity and prestige within his sect. But this anxiousness to achieve a quickvictory made him rash and impatient. He executed several risky attacks, all ofwhich were dodged by Sima Lin. Letting out a loud roar, Yao Bodang brandishedhis sabre in a mighty downwards chop. Just as Sima Lin leapt to the left, YaoBodang suddenly kicked out with his right leg. Sima Lin's body was in midair,leaving him with no place to dodge. Instead, he delivered a powerful thrusttowards Yao Bodang's foot using the steel awl in his left hand, intending toforce Yao Bodang to retract this kick. Although Yao Bodang indeed did notfollow through with his right kick, his left leg suddenly struck out as well ina tandem strike, attacking the left side of Sima Lin's waist.

Sima Lin struck diagonally with his steel mace. With a clapping sound, bychance it managed to strike Yao Bodang precisely on the bridge of his nose.Blood immediately began to flow from the wound. But at the same time, YaoBodang's left leg struck Sima Lin on his waist.

Unfortunately, since Yao Bodang was struck first, he was startled, causing thepower of this kick to have less than 20% of his normal force. Although Sima Linwas hit, he suffered no ill effects at all, aside from some temporary pain. Andso, in the twinkling of an eye, victory and defeat had been determined. Lettingout a tiger's roar, Yao Bodang charged forward with his sabre. But feeling painso severe that it seemed his head had been split in twain, Yao Bodang'sfootsteps became staggered and his footing became unsure.

Sima Lin's winning of this battle was highly due to luck. He knew that if hespared Yao Bodang's life, Yao Bodang would cause him no end of trouble in thefuture. Immediately, he made up his mind to be ruthless. The mace in his handflashed through the air in an attack. Just as Yao Bodang brandished his knifeto defend, the steel awl in Sima Lin's left hand pierced directly towards YaoBodang's heart.

The deputy-leader of the Qin family stronghold, seeing that things were goingsouth, let out a loud cry then threw his short-hilted broadsword directlytowards Sima Lin. In the blink of an eye, the room was filled with the sound ofwind blowing as over ten short-hilted broadswords flew through the air towardsSima Lin.

As it so happened, within the martial arts of the Qin family stronghold, therewas a consummate technique which involved throwing their broadswords at anopponent. Each broadsword weighed roughly between three and five kilograms.When thrown at an opponent, they carried an extremely powerful force. Now, withover ten broadswords flying towards him, Sima Lin found himself in a hopeless situation,neither able to deflect them nor able to dodge them.

Just when it seemed as though he was about to fall prey to the flyingbroadswords, a shadow of a man appeared in the room, flying towards Sima Lin'sside. Stretching out his hands, the shadow plunged them into the midst of thoseflying broadswords, snatching and grabbing at them until he had seized all ofthem. He clasped them to his chest with his left hand, then let out a longlaugh, seating himself on a chair in the middle of the room. Following this, hehurled all of the broadswords down to his feet with a clanking sound.

Everyone was struck dumb with astonishment. The man seated in the chair wasmiddle-aged, thin and gaunt, extremely tall, and wore a long, grey gown. Therewas a stubborn, perverse look to his features. Having seen his skill in seizingthe broadswords, everyone here was both fearful and awed. Nobody dared to say aword.

Only Duan Yu was laughing. "This brother's movements are really quick! Iimagine your martial arts is at a very high level. Sir, might I ask what yourundoubtedly famous name is?"

Before that man had a chance to reply, Wang Yuyan rushed forward and laughed,"Third brother Bao! I thought you weren't going to come back, and was startingto worry. Wonderful, wonderful!"