by Jin Yong
“Nice sword move!” Tian Boguang praised as he blocked it with his knife and took a step back.
“That’s one!” Linghu Chong shouted out and immediately followed with another attack – Green Pines Welcoming Guest.
“Another nice one!” Tian Boguang praised again.
He knew that there must be numerous additional techniques hidden in the move, so he dared not to fend it off with his knife and simply dodged to the side in a slide. The dodge shouldn’t really be counted as a move, but Linghu Chong immediately shouted.
“That’s two!”
Before the words even faded, he had already started another attacking move. Soon, Linghu Chong had already launched five attacking moves continuously. Tian Boguang either blocked them or dodged them, never starting his counter-attack, yet Linghu Chong had already counted up to number five. When Linghu Chong started his sixth move by thrusting his sword upward from a lower angle, Tian Boguang gave a loud roar and brought his knife swishing down through the air. The knife and the sword clashed in the midair and Linghu Chong’s long sword was knocked down instantly.
“Sixth move, seventh move, eighth move, ninth move, tenth move!” Tian Boguang yelled out.
Every time when he counted one, he would throw a chop at the same time. He counted five moves, and he chopped five times. Every chop swished straight down through the air; he didn’t even change his move at all. Each chop landed heavier than the previous one. When the sixth chop came down, Linghu Chong felt that his entire body had been trapped in the energy stream from the blade slicing down and he couldn’t even breathe, but he gathered all the strength he could and blocked upwards anyway. With a loud clank, the knife and the sword smashed into each other. Linghu Chong’s arm instantly went numb and the long sword fell from his hand and landed on the ground. Tian Boguang threw another chop. Linghu Chong simply closed his eyes and ignored it.
“How many moves now?” Tian Boguang asked, laughing loudly.
Linghu Chong opened his eyes and answered, “Not only your knife skills are better than mine, your arm strength and inner energy are also way better than mine. Linghu Chong is no match for you.”
“Then let’s go!” Tian Boguang smiled in triumph.
“Nope. I am not going!” Linghu Chong shook his head again.
“Brother Linghu, I consider you a true man who keeps his own promises. You have lost within thirty moves. Why are you going back on your words?” Tian Boguang pulled a long face.
“At first, I didn’t believe that you can beat me within thirty moves. Sure, I have lost, but I never said that I would go with you if I lose to you, did I?” Linghu Chong argued.
Tian Boguang thought that it was really he himself who had said that and Linghu Chong surely never said anything close, so he placed his knife across in front of him and said with a sneer, “There’s a character ‘Hu’ in your name and the name sure fits the person.60 Ok, you didn’t say it, so what?”
“When I lost to you earlier, it was only because you had more strength than me. I am not giving in yet. Let me take a rest, then we can try it again,” Linghu Chong said.
“Fine. I’ll wait till you admit your loss, yourself.” Tian Boguang sat on a rock with his hands on his hips and looked at Linghu Chong with a big smile.
Linghu Chong thought to himself, “This villain is insisting on having me leave Mount Huashan. I wonder what kind of evil plan he has. The real reason must have nothing to do with paying a visit to apprentice sister Yilin. He isn’t a real student of apprentice sister Yilin, and apprentice sister Yilin would be scared out of her wit as soon as she sees him, how could she ever maintain contacts with him? But he keeps pestering me at the moment. How can I get out of it?”
He remembered the six chops from Tian Boguang just a minute ago. Those chops had no special techniques to go with them yet the power of the chops was tremendous, and he really had no idea how to fend them off. He suddenly got an idea.
“That night when Great Mr. Mo killed Great Songyang Palm Fei Bin in the remote valley, Great Mr. Mo used the flashy and unpredictable Hengshan style sword art. If I use that to fight Tian Boguang, I am sure I won’t lose. There are many deadly moves amount the Hengshan style sword art drawn on the rock wall in the back cave. If I go back there and learn some thirty or forty moves, I should be able to put up a decent fight with Tian Boguang.” But then he thought, “Hengshan style sword art is a fine and ingenious sword art. How can I master it in such a short time? Alas, that was just my wishful thinking.”
Seeing the fast changing expression on Linghu Chong’s face, in one minute being happy, but in the next minute looking totally worried, Tian Boguang grinned.
“Brother Linghu, have you thought of a CUNNING TRICK to defeat my knife moves?”
Hearing that Tian Boguang raising his voice specifically at the words “cunning trick”, Linghu Chong’s anger rose. “There’s no need for any CUNNING TRICKS just to defeat your knife moves. You are being really wordy and annoying here. I can’t think well when you keep distracting me like that. I am going to go inside the cave now to think it through. Don’t you come and disturb me.”
“Fine! You go ahead and think REAL HARD. I won’t disturb you.” Tian Boguang agreed.
Linghu Chong noticed that Tian raised his voice again at the words “real hard.” He cursed in a whisper to himself and entered the cave. He lit a candle and then climbed back into the back cave. Wasting no time, he went straight to the side of the rock wall with drawings of Hengshan style sword art. Seeing all the different forms of magical and profound sword moves with endless variations, he was dumbfounded. If he hadn’t seen them with his own eyes, he would never have believed that such brilliant and fluctuating moves actually existed in the world.
“In such a short time, it’s simply impossible for me to learn the sword art well. I’d better pick several of the most unpredictable and weird variation techniques and memorize them well. When I go out again, I’ll use them with no specific order whatsoever and fight indiscreetly. Who knows? I might be able to make a surprise attack on him,” Linghu Chong thought to himself.
Once decided, he immediately started reading and memorizing. Even though the other figure in the drawings had already defeated every move of the Hengshan sword art, thinking that Tian Boguang would have no chance of knowing any of those techniques, he wasn’t worried at all.
He worked on memorizing all the techniques while trying them out with his hands, and after he had learned about twenty or so moves, an hour had already passed. Tian Boguang’s voice rose from outside the cave.
“Brother Linghu, if you don’t come out, I am going to charge in now.”
Linghu Chong leapt out with his sword in his hand and shouted, “Fine! Let me take another thirty moves of yours!”
“So brother Linghu, what if you lose again this time?” Tian Boguang asked with a beam.
“At least it wouldn’t be the first loss for me. Just one more loss, no big deal!”
Before he even finished talking, he had already launched a storm of attacks with seven continuous moves. All those seven moves were ones he had newly learned from the rock wall in the back cave, and all of them were fluctuating and unpredictable to the extreme.
Tian Boguang had not expected such unpredictable variations from Huashan style sword art. Caught in a surprise, he had to take one step back after another. When it was the tenth move, still being greatly amazed, he roared loudly and waved his knife to start his counter attack. He had great strength with his knife chops, which prevented Linghu Chong from executing many of the variations in his sword moves. At the nineteenth move, the two weapons clashed, and Linghu Chong’s long sword was once again knocked out of his grip.
Linghu Chong leapt two steps to the side and shouted, “Brother Tian, you only have stronger arms than me. You didn’t win with your knife moves. I am still not convinced this time. Let me figure out another thirty sword moves and then I’ll fight you again.”
“Your Master is still a h
undred and fifty miles away at this very moment, searching for traces of me. He probably won’t make it back to Mount Huashan for another ten to fifteen days. This delaying strategy of yours is not gonna work,” Tian Boguang said with a smirk.
“Who said that I have to rely on my Master to take care of you? I just recovered from my illness and am very weak in my strength, that’s how you got the advantage. If we are only comparing our moves, you think I can’t even block thirty moves of yours? I don’t think so!”
“I am not going to fall for you again. Either I win by knife moves or by arm strength, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. What good does it do to find all the excuses?” Tian Boguang disagreed.
“Fine! You wait for me here. Be a true man. Don’t you get scared and decide to run away. But if you do, I won’t be chasing after you!” Linghu Chong said.
Tian Boguang burst into loud laughter. He took two steps back and sat on a big rock.
Linghu Chong went back into the back cave. He figured, “Tian Boguang has fought Priest Tian-Song of the Taishan Sword School before, and also wounded him quite good. He has also fought with apprentice sister Yilin of the Heng-Shan Sword School. And I just fought him using the Hengshan style sword art. He probably doesn’t know anything about the Songshan style sword art.”
He found the drawings of the Songshan Sword School’s sword moves and learned about ten moves or so. “I still have over ten Hengshan style lethal moves that I didn’t have a chance to use earlier,” he thought to himself. “If I mix them up in Songshan style sword art moves and then use several moves of my own sword school all of a sudden, I might be able to really confuse the hell out of him.”
He didn’t even wait for Tian Boguang to call for him, and rushed straight into the fight as soon as he went out of the cave. The sword moves he used would be a minute in Songshan style, the next minute in Hengshan style, with Huashan style deadly moves mixed up in between.
“Weird! This is so weird!” Tian Boguang kept yelling out loud. But on the twenty-second move, he was still able to place the blade of his knife right next to Linghu Chong’s neck and forced him to throw down his sword.
“In the first time, I was only able to take on five moves of yours. But after I thought about it for a little while, I was able to take on eighteen moves of yours. After thinking for another while, I was already able to take on twenty-one moves of yours. Brother Tian, aren’t you a bit scared by now?” Linghu Chong asked.
“Why should I be scared?” Tian Boguang beamed.
“If I keep pondering over it and think a couple more times, I will then be able to take on thirty of your moves. And after thinking some more, I will be able to turn the tide and claim victory. Even if I decide to not kill you, wouldn’t it be terrible for you?” Linghu Chong deduced.
“I have been wandering around the Martial World for many years, and brother Linghu, you are certainly the smartest one out of all the adversaries I ever had. It’s a pity that your Kung Fu is still a good deal far too lower than mine. Say that you can progress really fast, but it would still be impossible for you to defeat me within hours.” Tian Boguang claimed.
“Brother Tian, you are certainly the most reckless one out of all the adversaries I ever had. Seeing that Linghu Chong is getting stronger and stronger in the fights, yet you still decide not to run away. It’s so rare. Brother Tian, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go inside to think a bit more.”
“Help yourself!” Tian Boguang only grinned.
Linghu Chong walked in the cave slowly. Although he had been raving with Tian Boguang as if he had nothing to worry about, in his heart, he was actually getting more and more worried. “This villain must have come to Mount Huashan with evil plans. He knows very well that Master and Master-Wife went after him in the hope to get rid of him, why would he still have leisure time to have the contests with me? After he took me prisoner each time, even if he doesn’t want to kill me, he should at least have sealed my acupoints to restrict me from moving about. Why did he let me go free again and again? What does he want?”
He was determined that Tian Boguang must have come to Mount Huashan with a terrifying evil plot, but he had no clue what the plot might be. “Could it be that he wanted to keep me here so somebody else can take care of all my apprentice brothers and sisters? But why doesn’t he simply kill me right away? Wouldn’t that be a lot easier?” he couldn’t help but ask himself.
He thought for quite a while and finally jumped up onto his feet, thinking, “No matter what, it appears that our Huashan Sword School is in great danger today. Master and Master-Wife are not home, and I am the head of the sword school right now. I’ll have to carry the heavy burden all by myself. Despite whatever Tian Boguang’s purpose is, I must use all my brain to keep pestering him, and if there’s ever an opportunity that I can take advantage of him, I should kill him without hesitation.”
After making up his mind, he went on studying the drawings on the rock wall, but this time he intentionally picked the fiercest and most vicious and fatal moves to memorize. By the time he walked out of the cave, it was daybreak the next day already. Although Linghu Chong had the intent to kill, his face looked very relaxed.
“Brother Tian, you have come to Mount Huashan as a guest, and I am so sorry that I haven’t really fulfilled my duty as a host. After this contest, regardless of who wins and who loses, I’ll invite you to try out some of our local products,” Linghu Chong suggested.
“Thanks a lot!” Tian Boguang smiled.
“But when we meet again down Mount Huashan in the future, we would still be fighting for our lives. Nothing will be like today’s polite contest with counted moves ever again,” Linghu Chong declared.
“It would be a real pity to kill the kind of friend like you, brother Linghu. But if I don’t kill you, your Kung Fu would progress too fast and one day when your skills are better than mine, you probably wouldn’t let me, the evil rapist, go easily,” Tian Boguang said.
“Precisely. It is such a rare opportunity for us to swap pointers in Kung Fu like today. Brother Tian, I am going to attack now. Will you please give me some advice?”
“You flatter me! Brother Linghu, please!” Tian Boguang said courteously.
“The more I think about it, the more I feel that I am no match for you, brother Tian,” Linghu Chong said with a big smile.
Before he even finished the sentence, he had already thrust his sword forward. By the time his sword tip was about three feet from Tian Boguang’s body, the sword went toward the left side and then turned into a sudden side stab. Tian Boguang raised his knife and blocked. Not waiting for the sword blade to clash with the knife blade, Linghu Chong suddenly slashed up from Tian’s crouch. This move was both sinister and fierce to the extreme. Tian Boguang was astounded and immediately jumped back. Linghu Chong followed the initiative and thrust out three attacks, each one heading toward Tian Boguang’s vital parts with all his might. Losing the initiative, Tian Boguang found himself in disadvantage and had to block left and right with his knife. A tearing sound rose as Linghu Chong’s long sword penetrated his pants right next to his right leg, leaving a hole in his pants. The fast sword thrust landed only a mere inch from his leg.
Tian Boguang threw a punch with his right fist, which knocked Linghu Chong rolling on the ground. “Every move of yours is aimed at killing me. What kind of swapping pointers is that?” he yelled in rage.
“Well, no matter how hard I try, I still wouldn’t stand a chance even harming a hair of yours. You surely have a lot of strength with your left fist.” Linghu Chong leapt back onto his feet.
“Sorry for that!” Tian Boguang said.
“I think you broke two of my ribs.” Linghu Chong stepped forward with a big smile on his face.
As he got closer, all of a sudden, he passed the sword to his left hand and thrust it out backward in a flash. This unimaginably queer move turned out to be a deadly move of the Heng-Shan Sword School. In immense astonishment, Tian Boguang found the sword
tip only inches from his lower stomach. In a great hurry he rolled onto the ground and was able to barely dodge it. Occupying the commanding position, Linghu Chong continued with four more thrusts, which put Tian Boguang in an extremely awkward position. It almost looked as if within a couple more moves, Linghu Chong would succeed nailing Tian on the ground with his sword. But unexpectedly, Tian Boguang threw a kick with his left foot all of a sudden, which landed on Linghu Chong’s wrist. He then instantly followed with another kick, his right foot striking Linghu Chong’s stomach heavily. Linghu Chong could no longer hold on to his sword. The sword flew out of his grip as he fell down to the ground facing up. Tian Boguang leapt up and rushed forward, placing his blade right on Linghu Chong’s throat.
“Very sinister sword moves indeed! I almost got killed. Are you convinced yet?” Tian Boguang sneered.
“Of course not! We agreed to a contest between my sword moves and your knife chops. Didn’t you just use your fists and legs to throw punches and kicks at me? How should we count the moves now?”
“Even if we count the punches and kicks, it is still less than thirty moves.” Tian Boguang moved his blade away and said with a sneer.
Linghu Chong stood up and said angrily, “You beat me within thirty moves. You have excellent Kung Fu. So what? If you want to kill me, then kill me, why are you laughing at me? If you want to laugh, then laugh. Why are you sneering?”
Tian Boguang took a step back. “Brother Linghu, you have a good accusation. Yes, I am wrong.” He cupped his hands and said, “I apologize sincerely. Will you, brother Linghu, please forgive me?”
Linghu Chong was struck dumb. Tian Boguang just had a brilliant victory, yet he was willing to apologize. That’s far from what Linghu Chong had expected. So he too cupped his hands and saluted back.
“That’s quite alright!” he said as he pondered upon the question, “When someone shows great courtesy to his inferior, he must have his purpose. I wonder why he is treating me with such great respect.”