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

Old Gratitude, Past Grievances Part 5

Everyone looked at him and saw a withered old man with a bent back. He was no one other than the Elder of Merit Propagation. His martial arts were very good. He usually did not like to talk much, but when the important symbol of the Society had been in danger he had protected it bravely. A moment ago, in just one move, the big-nosed man had already been dismounted and his horsewhip had also been broken. It could be said that the big-nosed man had lost.

Even though this big-nosed man had just suffered a small defeat, he did not bat an eyelid and said: 'You beggars really are too stingy, hating to give away even a bamboo stick.'

Elder Xu said: 'Brave men of Western Xia, why did you and our poor Society decide to meet?'

That man said: 'Our General has heard that the Beggar Society of the Central Plains has two great techniques, one being the Cat Beating Stick, the other being the Snake Subduing Eighteen Palms, so he wanna widen his knowledge a bit.'

As soon as the beggars heard that, they all flew into a rage. This man deliberately called the Dog Beating Stick technique the Cat Beating Stick technique and called the Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms technique the Snake Subduing Eighteen Palms technique, his intention of insulting was extremely obvious. It seemed in the meeting today a fierce battle of life or death was already unavoidable.

While the beggar crowd was cursing, the people such as Elder Xu, the Elder of Merit Propagation, and the Elder of Rule Enforcement secretly felt anxious: 'All along, only the Chief of our Society is able to use the Dog Beating Stick technique and the Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms. The enemies already knew about the reputation of these two great techniques yet they still brashly come to challenge, perhaps they're not easy to deal with.' Elder Xu said: 'You want to see our Society's Cat Beating Stick technique and Snake Subduing Eighteen Palms to widen your knowledge, there's not the slightest problem. As long as there are cowardly cats and snakes with scabies showing up here, we beggars will have our way of dealing with them. You mimic cats or mimic snakes?' Elder Wu ha-ha laughed and said: 'If the opponents are dragons, we will subdue dragons, if they're snake, then we beggars can't be better at catching snakes.'

The big-nosed man was again defeated in arguing. While he was thinking about what to say, there was a deep gruff voice from behind him: 'Cat Beating is also fine, Snake Subduing is also fine, come, come, come, who's gonna have a fight with me first?' As that man finished saying he walked out from the crowd and stood with his arms akimbo.

The beggars could see that this man looked ugly and ferocious. All of a sudden Duan Yu loudly said: 'Hey, my disciple, you came here as well? Why haven't you kowtowed after seeing master?' The ferocious-looking man turned out to be none other than South Sea Divine Alligator Yue Laosan (T/Note: this is prolly not Yue's real name, it literally means Yue, the third man).

He was astonished when he saw Duan Yu and immediately looked very awkward. He said: 'You... You...' Duan Yu said: 'Good disciple, the Beggar Society's Chief is my sworn big brother so these people are your apprentice uncles, you mustn't disrespect them. Go home quickly!' South Sea Divine Alligator let out a roar making the leaves of the apricot trees around rustle and cursed: 'Turtle egg! Bastard!' (T/Note: turtle egg - 王八蛋 – basically an equivalent of 'son of a b!tch')

Duan Yu said: 'Who did you curse as turtle egg and bastard?' South Sea Divine Alligator was extremely vicious, however when he himself said something he never broke his words. He had already recognized Duan Yu as his master, but he did not deny that and said: 'I like cursing. How can you control me? I didn't curse you.' Duan Yu said: 'Hum, you already saw master, why haven't you kowtowed to pay respects to me?' South Sea Divine Alligator repressed his anger, went forwards, kowtowed and said: 'Master, are you all right?' The more he thought about this the angrier he got. Suddenly he leaped to his feet and ran away while howling furiously.

Everyone found that howl sounded like retreating tidewater, burst after burst rushing away yet big waves still surging up fiercely. Just hearing this howl they knew that this man's martial arts were not something to disregard. Probably in the Beggar Society only several people like Elder Xu and the Elder of Merit Propagation could rival him. It was extremely strange that Duan Yu, a gentle and weak student, was unexpectedly his master. Wang Yuyan, A'Zhu and A'Bi knew that Duan Yu did not know martial arts so they were much more surprised.

Suddenly a man leaped out from the group of the Western Xia warriors. Despite being tall like a bamboo pole, his movements were exceptionally fast. Each of his hands was holding a strange weapon whose handle was about three chi (T/Note: 1 chi ~ 33.33 cm) long and one head was a steel claw with five fingers. Duan Yu recognized him as the fourth member of 'The Four Evils under Heaven' 'Extreme Ferocity Utmost Evil' Yun Zhonghe, he thought: 'Could it be that these four evildoers have all joined Western Xia?' He looked carefully at the Western Xia people and saw 'Not to Stop at Any Crime' Ye Erniang standing there embracing a child and smiling. But he did not see the leader 'Be Guilty of the Worst Crimes' Duan Yanqing. Duan Yu thought: 'As long as Prince Yanqing is not here the Beggar Society can handle the second evil and the fourth evil.'

It turned out after being defeated in Dali 'The Four Evils under Heaven' had fled northwards and run into envoys of Western Xia's First-class Hall who had been out to recruit high-level martial arts users. Unwilling to be by themselves, they had all offered their service immediately. These four people had so excellent martial arts that after showing their skills a little they had been recruited right away. This time going eastwards to Bianliang, He Lian Tie Shu brought all of them with him and regarded them quite highly. Thinking that he himself had a high status, even though Duan Yanqing was dependent on First-class Hall he acted freely. He did not accept any restrictive order and go with the others.

Yun Zhonghe shouted: 'Our General wants to see the Beggar Society's two great techniques. In the end you beggars have true skills or are just boasting? Quickly come here to fight for real!'

Elder Xi said: 'I'm fighting him.' Elder Xu said: 'Okay! This man's lightness skill is very unusual, brother Xi must be careful.' Elder Xi said: 'Yes!' Carrying his steel pole he walked towards Yun Zhonghe, stood facing him from a distance of more than one zhang (T/Note: 1 zhang ~ 3.333 m), and said: 'The use of our Society's great techniques is dependent on who the opponent is. Why should the Dog Beating Stick technique be used to handle a shrimp like you? Watch out!' He raised the steel pole, creating a whirring sound, and swung it down at Yun Zhonghe's left shoulder at an angle. Elder Xi was stubby but the steel pole in his hands were longer than one zhang, once it was brandished, even if the opponent was very tall like Yun Zhonghe, it was still possible for him to strike down from the air. Yun Zhonghe leaned sideways and dodged. A bang was heard, dirt flew on all sides, the steel pole had hit the ground and its head had gone one chi into the ground. Yun Zhonghe knew that his true abilities were far inferior to Elder Xi's so he applied a hit-and-run tactic using his lightness skill, for a moment he had been in the east, the next moment he already flashed to the west. Elder Xi's steel pole had been brandished into a white sphere but all the while it had not been able to touch Yun Zhonghe's clothes.

While Duan Yu was being absorbed in the fight, suddenly he heard a lovely gentle voice next to him: 'Mr. Duan, who should we help?' Duan Yu leaned his head to one side and saw that it was Wang Yuyan. He could not help feeling elated and hurriedly asked: 'What... who should what help?' Wang Yuyan said: 'This lanky man is your disciple's friend while this stubby beggar is your sworn brother's subordinate. The more these two have been fighting the fiercer they've become, who we should help?' Duan Yu said: 'My disciple is a villain and this lanky guy's character is even worse, don't help him.'

Wang Yuyan muttered: 'Hum, but the whole Beggar Society have driven your sworn brother away and don't let him be the Chief. They've also falsely accused my biaoge, I hate them.' In the heart of a young girl like her, whoever treated her biaoge badly was the worst person under heaven. She continued: 'This stubby geezer is using the twenty four Demon Taming Pole stances of Mt. Wutai, but because he's too short the two stances 'The King of Qin Whips Rock' and 'The Roc Spreads the Wings' can't be executed well. If the right-hand side of his lower body is attacked he won't be able to defend himself. But this lanky man doesn't realize that, he thinks the lower body of short people must be stable but in fact that's not true.'

Even though her voice was very low, all the high-level martial arts users with fine internal energy at the scene had already heard what she said. The majority of these people knew about Elder Xi's martial arts and skills but they might not necessarily realize where his stances were flawed. Once Wang Yuyan pointed out, they immediately felt that she was correct because whenever Elder Xi had used the two stances 'The King of Qin Whips Rock' and 'A Roc Spreads the Wings', his power had really been excessive but his stability had been deficient, his lower body had been rather vulnerable.

Yun Zhonghe cast a sidelong glance at Wang Yuyan and praised: 'You little girl are very beautiful. It's rarer that you have such great insight. Following me and becoming my wife are even more okay.' While saying he used the steel claws in his hands to attack Elder Xi's lower body with three swift stances. Elder Xi was too late to ward off the third stance. A sound of tearing was heard, his thigh had just suffered a long cut by Yun Zhonghe's steel claws and immediately dripped blood.

Hearing Yun Zhonghe praise herself for being beautiful Wang Yuyan was quite happy, therefore she did not think his flirty and frivolous words were offensive. She smiled and said: 'How shameless. What's good about you? I'm not marrying you.' Yun Zhonghe was very pleased, he said: 'Why not? You're already in love with that pretty boy, right? I'll kill your love interest first, to see if you'll marry me?' These sentences had seriously violated Wang Yuyan's taboos. She frowned and no longer paid attention to him.

Yun Zhonghe still wanted to say a few more words to gain advantage but Elder Wu of the Beggar Society leaped out, lifted his demon-headed saber and slashed four times on the left hand side, four times on the right hand side, four times high, four times low, totaling sixteen slashes. The momentum of the saber was extremely fierce. Yun Zhonghe was not familiar with the stances of his saber technique therefore he could only dodge around, jerk his head back and jump up. For the moment he was totally perplexed.

Wang Yuyan smiled and said: 'This Four Forms Six Harmonies Saber technique of Elder Wu contains the generation principles, the restraint principles and the changes of the Eight Diagrams. That lanky man just doesn't know that. I wonder if he can use the 'Crane Snake Eight Attacks'. If he can, the Four Forms Six Harmonies Saber technique will be defeated easily.' (T/Note: Four Forms - 四象 – include Tai Yang, Tai Yin, Shao Yang, Shao Yin; Six Harmonies - 六合 – include East, West, South, North, Up and Down, referring to the universe) Hearing her say those words to help Yun Zhonghe again, the people of the Beggar Society all had an angry expression on their faces. They saw that Yun Zhonghe immediately changed his fighting style, spreading wide his legs and whipping horizontally with the steel claws, looking like a white crane. Wang Yuyan put her mouth close to Duan Yu's ear and whispered: 'This lanky man has walked into my trap. Perhaps his left hand would be chopped off.' Duan Yu was surprised, he asked: 'Really?'