Smiling Proud Wanderer Vol 01

by Jin Yong

  “I just memorized it when you read it just now,” Linghu Chong answered.

  “Hey, this might work!” Feng Qingyang slapped his thigh in excitement. “Although you won’t be able to learn the whole thing, you can simply memorize it. It would be alright if we only learn half of the third move. Now remember these: Gui-Mei tends toward Wu-Wang, Wu-Wang tends toward Tong-Ren, Tong-Ren tends toward Da-You….”

  He went on and on and recited over three hundred words before finally saying, “Give it a try. Recite it.”

  Linghu Chong had been staying very focused trying to memorize the script. After getting the go, he started reciting and only missed ten words or so. Feng Qingyang corrected them. The second time when Linghu Chong recited them, he only missed seven words. By the time he finished reciting the script a third time, he didn’t miss any word at all.

  “Excellent! Excellent!” Feng Qingyang was very pleased. He then taught Linghu Chong another section of the script about three hundred words long. After Linghu Chong memorized those well, he taught the next section of about three hundred words to Linghu Chong.

  The General Index of the Dugu Nine Swords had a total of over three thousand words, besides, the contents of the script weren’t really connected to each other logically, so even though Linghu Chong had extraordinary memorizing abilities, he still couldn’t help but remember parts of it while forgetting other parts of it. It took him over two hours and many reminders from Feng Qingyang to finally memorize the entire script with no errors. Feng Qingyang made him recite the script from the very beginning to the very end another three times and was finally convinced that he had memorized all of them.

  “The General Index is the key and foundation of the Dugu Nine Swords. Even though you have memorized it at the moment, you only did it by ear for the sake of saving time while having no idea about the theories behind. You can forget about it as easily. From now on, you must recite it days and nights.”

  “Yes!” Linghu Chong answered.

  “The first move of the Dugu Nine Swords, General Index Stance, has many variations to implement the General Index Script. Let’s not rush into that one yet. The second move, Sword-breaking Stance, can be used to overcome sword arts from every single school or cult in the world. No need to rush into that one either. The third move, Knife-breaking Stance, can be used to overcome knife moves of Single Knife, Double Knives, Willow-Leaf Cutlass, Ghost-Beheaded Saber, Large Cleaver, Horse-Cutting Blade, and so on. Tian Boguang is using the Fast Knife Chops technique out of the Single Knife moves. Let’s focus on learning the part about how to overcome his knife techniques specifically tonight.”

  Realizing that the second move of the Dugu Nine Swords could overcome all the sword arts from all the schools and clans out there, and the third move of the Dugu Nine Swords could overcome all the knife moves, while feeling stunned, Linghu Chong couldn’t help but show his joy.

  “The nine stances must be very brilliant. I have never heard of it before.” Because of the great excitement, his voice trembled.

  “Your Master probably has never seen the moves of the Dugu Nine Swords, but he sure has heard about the name Dugu Nine Swords before. He just doesn’t want to mention it to you, that’s all,” Feng Qingyang said.

  “Why’s that?” Linghu Chong asked with surprise.

  Feng Qingyang didn’t answer the question and went on explaining the moves. “The third move, Knife-breaking Stance, stresses on using light to resist heavy and using fast to overcome slow. The chap Tian Boguang’s fast knife chops are surely very fast, so you will have to be even faster than him. For a young lad like you, it’s probably ok to try to be faster than him; you might win or you might lose. There’s no guaranteed success. For an old rotten folk like me, if I still wanted to be faster than him, then the only solution would be launching my attack before he even starts his. If you can foresee what kind of a move he will be using and then scramble before him, before the enemy even raised his hand, your sword is already pointing at his vital parts. That way no matter how fast your enemy is, you will still be faster.”

  “Yes, yes! So it teaches about how to anticipate the enemy beforehand.” Linghu Chong nodded again and again.

  “Good, good! You got it!” Feng Qingyang praised as he applauded. “‘Anticipating the enemy beforehand’ is precisely the key to this set of sword techniques. Before anyone executes a move, there will always be many signs that you can catch. If he plans to slash toward your left arm with his next chop, he will certainly cast a glance at your left arm, and if his knife is in the lower right part at the time, then of course he will raise his knife in an arc before swishing his blade down in an angle.”

  Feng Qingyang went on and explained all the variations in the third sword stance that would overcome fast knife chops, one by one in great details. Linghu Chong felt so relaxed and happy as he listened in. He almost felt like that he was a country boy who had just entered the inner circle of the royal palace, and every single thing he saw or heard was new and interesting. The third sword stance had very complicated variations, and within the limited time, Linghu Chong was only able to comprehend about twenty percent of it. He simply worked hard on memorizing the rest.

  The teacher taught enthusiastically and the student studied energetically; both of them lost track of time completely. Suddenly, Tian Boguang shouted outside of the cave.

  “Brother Linghu, it’s daybreak now! Are you awake yet?”

  “Wow, it’s daybreak already,” Linghu Chong uttered.

  “It’s a pity that we had so little time.” Feng Qingyang sighed. “You’ve learned very quickly, way beyond my expectation already. Go ahead and fight him,” he said.

  “Yes.” Linghu Chong answered. He closed his eyes and went through the gist of all the things he had learned during the night in his head. Suddenly he opened his eyes and asked.

  “Grand Uncle-Master, I still have one more question. Why are all the variations attacking techniques with no defending ones at all?”

  “Dugu Nine Swords, once stepping in, never steps back! Every technique is an attacking technique. When you force your enemy to have no other choice but to defend himself, of course there’s no need to defend yourself. Senior master Dugu Seeking-A-Loss, who created this set of sword techniques, had a name ‘Seeking-A-Loss.’ He had been seeking a loss all his life and still couldn’t get one. Once the sword techniques were executed, he would become unmatched anywhere in the world. Why would he have to defend? If anyone could have forced him to draw his sword back and defend himself, the respectful master would have burst with joy and be delighted beyond measure.” Feng Qingyang said.

  “Dugu Seeking-A-Loss, Dugu Seeking-A-Loss,” Linghu Chong muttered as he imagined how the senior master had wandered about the Martial World, unmatched anywhere, with only his sword, and couldn’t even find a single one who was capable of forcing him into a defending stance. That was truly admirable.

  “Hurry up! Come out! Let me give you two more cuts!” Tian Boguang’s voice rose again.

  “I am coming!” Linghu Chong replied.

  “I am very concerned about one thing right now.” Feng Qingyang knitted his eyebrows together. “When you go out to fight him, if he injures your right arm or right wrist as soon as the fight breaks out, then you would be incapable to fight and leave yourself at his mercy. I am quite worried about that.”

  “I’ll do my best, Grand Uncle-Master! You didn’t waste all that time teaching me with all your heart. I won’t let you down no matter what,” Linghu Chong said fearlessly, in high spirits.

  As soon as he stepped out of the cave, he immediately put on a dejected and apathetic face. After a yawn, a stretch, and then some rubbing into his eyes, he finally said to Tian Boguang.

  “Hey, brother Tian, you got up too early. Didn’t you have a good rest last night?”

  In the mean time, he was actually thinking to himself, “All I need is to hold out through this current one. If I get to study several more hours, I would never be a
fraid of him again.”

  “Brother Linghu,” Tian Boguang said as he raised his knife, “I really don’t intend to hurt you, but you are simply too stubborn and won’t go down Mount Huashan with me. If we continue fighting like this, I’ll be forced to add ten or twenty more cuts on you and have you beaten black and blue. Wouldn’t that be too bad for you?”

  Linghu Chong suddenly got an idea. “You don’t even need to add ten or twenty more cuts on me. All you need to do is to cut my right arm off or injure my right hand, so I can’t use a sword. Then wouldn’t I be at your disposal as you wish? Either to kill me or take me prisoner?”

  “I only want you to admit your loss. Why do I want to injure your right arm or right hand?” Tian Boguang shook his head.

  Linghu Chong was overjoyed, yet he put on a very depressed face. “I am afraid that you are just saying it right now. Once you get mad because of your losses, you would spare no effort in using all kinds of cruel and vicious tactics,” he complained.

  “You don’t have to goad me. First, I have no grudges against you; secondly, I respect you as a true man with integrity; thirdly, if I injure you too badly, I am afraid someone might come and give me trouble. Go ahead!” Tian Boguang said.

  “Alright! Brother Tian, please go ahead.” Linghu Chong replied.

  Tian Boguang gave a fake slash and immediately followed it with a tilted chop. His blade flashed in the sunshine with blinding reflections and the chop looked very vicious. Linghu Chong was about to overcome it with one of the variations in the third sword stance out of the Dugu Nine Swords, but Tian Boguang’s knife moves came too fast, by the time he was going to attack, the knife move had already changed. He was just one step too slow.

  “How terrible! How terrible! I can’t even be fast enough to use the newly learned sword techniques. Grand Uncle-Master must be calling me an idiot right now,” Linghu Chong groaned inwardly in great worries.

  After a few more moves, cold sweats started rolling down Linghu Chong’s forehead. But in Tian Boguang’s eyes, his sword techniques looked extremely fierce, and every move seemed as if it was the exact restraint to Tian’s knife moves. Tian Boguang couldn’t help but feel worried.

  “He could have killed me with the last several sword techniques. Why did he slow it down just a little bit intentionally?” he thought to himself. “Oh, I got it. He is being lenient and wants to beat me into a retreat in the face of difficulties. But even though I see the difficulties, I can’t simply retreat. I have to hold out with all my might.”

  Because of these thoughts, with every chop, he dared not to use all his strength and made sure he would always have extra energy left in case of an emergency. The two dreaded each other and both fought in a very cautious manner.

  After a while, Tian Boguang gradually increased his knife chopping speed, and Linghu Chong also became more familiar with the variations of the Dugu Nine Swords third sword stance. While lights of the knife and the sword flashed, the two fought faster and faster.

  Suddenly Tian Boguang let out a loud roar as he threw a kick with his right foot, which struck Linghu Chong in the stomach. Linghu Chong fell down facing up.

  In the split of a second, Linghu Chong thought, “All I need is another day and night. This time tomorrow I am sure I can beat him.” He let go of his sword, shut his eyes tight, held his breath, and pretended to be knocked out cold.

  Seeing that Linghu Chong laid on the ground unconscious, Tian Boguang was stunned. But knowing that Linghu Chong was cunning and crafty, he dared not to bend over to check, afraid that Linghu Chong might jump up and attack all of a sudden to seek a victory from a defeat. So he crossed his blade in front of him and then took a couple of steps closer.

  “Brother Linghu? Are you alright?” he called out.

  He called a few more times and found Linghu Chong finally regaining himself slowly with little breathing.

  “Let’s…let’s fight again.” Linghu Chong said in a trembling voice.

  He struggled to stand up, but half way up, his left leg gave out and he fell on the ground again.

  “You are not going to make it. Why don’t you have a good rest for a day and then follow me down Mount Huashan tomorrow?” Tian Boguang suggested.

  Linghu Chong didn’t express any opinion of his and pushed the ground with one hand, trying to stand up while panting hard.

  With no more doubts, Tian Boguang took a step forward and grabbed onto Linghu Chong’s right arm to prop him up, but when he took the step forward, his foot “happened” to step on top of Linghu Chong’s long sword on the ground, and while guarding himself with the knife in his right hand, his grip also happened to grab onto a acupoint on Linghu Chong’s right arm to make sure Linghu Chong couldn’t play any tricks. Linghu Chong’s entire body weight hung onto Tian Boguang’s left arm and he appeared to be completely weak and frail.

  “Who asked for your help? Damn it!” Linghu Chong swore and then limped back into the cave.

  “Hey, you just gained an entire day and night without any extra effort. Don’t you think it was a bit despicable and shameless?” Feng Qingyang said with a smile.

  “Well, when you are dealing with despicable and shameless people, I suppose a small despicable and shameless trick would be acceptable.” Linghu Chong laughed.

  “What if you are dealing with a gentleman?” Feng Qingyang asked with a serious face.

  “A gentleman?” Linghu Chong was taken by surprise and became speechless.

  “What are you going to do if you are dealing with a gentleman?” Feng Qingyang fixed his piercing eyes on Linghu Chong’s face and asked coldly.

  “Well, even though he is a gentleman, if he wants to kill me, I can’t just let him. When I have to, I guess I will have to use a little bit of the despicable and shameless tricks,” Linghu Chong answered.

  Feng Qingyang was delighted beyond measurement. “Great! Great! If you can say that, then you are not a hypocrite who only pretends to do good,” he said loudly. “A true man does things to his own like, just like floating clouds and flowing water – natural and smooth, come and go freely. Rules of the Martial World or regulations of schools and clans are all complete bull!”

  Linghu Chong let out a slight smile. Every word of Feng Qingyang had struck a chord in his heart and made him feel indescribable joy. But since Master had been repeatedly admonishing him that even if one had to give up his own life, he should never defame the great reputation of the Huashan Sword School by breaking school rules or violating regulations of the Martial World, he really couldn’t echo Grand Uncle-Master’s point publicly; besides, the words “hypocrite who only pretends to do good” seemed to be satirizing his Master’s nickname of “Gentleman Sword,” so he only let out a slight smile and didn’t chime in.

  Feng Qingyang reached out with his wizened fingers and stroked Linghu Chong’s hair gently, a bright smile blossoming on his face.

  “Among Yue Buqun’s apprentices, there are actually good talents like you. That chap does have some taste. He wasn’t a complete loser.” The “chap” he had mentioned of course meant Yue Buqun.

  “Kid, you really suit my taste. Come on, let’s practice some more of Great Hero Dugu’s first sword stance and the third sword stance.” Feng Qingyang patted on Linghu Chong’s shoulder.

  Feng Qingyang went ahead and picked some key issues in the first sword stance of the Dugu Nine Swords to explain to Linghu Chong. After Linghu Chong comprehended them, he then explained in detail the related variations in the third sword stance with both words and gestures. There were some long swords in the back cave, so both of them used Huashan style long swords to demonstrate and perform. Linghu Chong memorized everything with all his heart, and every time when he had a question, he would ask it right away. Because they had plenty of time during the day, the learning process wasn’t as intense as the night before, and each stance and variation could be explained and demonstrated in great details.

  After dinner, Linghu Chong slept for four hours and then cont
inued with the learning. The next morning, Tian Boguang was convinced that Linghu Chong had been injured pretty badly the previous day, so he didn’t even press with his shouts outside this time. Linghu Chong was just happy that he could continue learning sword techniques at the back cave. By the time of about two o’clock in the afternoon, Linghu Chong had learned all the variations in the third sword stance of the Dugu Nine Swords completely.

  “It’s no big deal if you still can’t beat him today. If you get to study for another day and night, I am sure you will win tomorrow no matter what,” Feng Qingyang declared.

  Linghu Chong nodded and then walked out of the cave slowly with the long sword left by a senior grandmaster of the Huashan Sword School in hand. When he saw Tian Boguang looking into the distance from the edge of the cliff, he put on a pretended surprised face.

  “Why, brother Tian? How come you are still here?”

  “I am waiting for you. Sorry about the offense yesterday. Are you feeling better today?”

  “I didn’t see anything getting better. The wound on my leg from your knife chop is still hurting really badly.”

  “Ha-ha, that day when we fought in Hengyang Town, your wounds were a lot more severe than today, yet you never said anything to give the impression of weakness. I know you have a whole bag of tricks. When you strike a pose to show your weakness, you probably are thinking about a surprise attack. I am not going to fall for it,” Tian Boguang said with a smile.

  “You have already fallen for it. Even if you can figure it out right now, it would still be too late!” Linghu Chong’s face split into a big smile. “Brother Tian, look out!”

  At the exact moment of his last word, Linghu Chong thrust his sword at Tian Boguang’s chest. Tian Boguang raised his knife hurriedly to parry it, but his knife hit nothing. Meanwhile, Linghu Chong’s second thrust had arrived.

  “Excellent speed!” Tian Boguang praised as he crossed his knife to block the attack, but Linghu Chong had already launched his third and forth thrusts.

  “I’ve got some even faster ones,” Linghu Chong declared.