by Jin Yong
In stern voice Yu Lianzhou said, "Sire did not stop talking about ‘martial art competition’. I presume your martial art study must have reached excellence. My Shifu had received great kindness from your precious sect’s Guo Nuxia in his childhood; thereupon he instructed Wudang disciples not to fight with Emei Pai. I [orig. zai4xia4] must understand clearly, whether Sire is truly Emei disciple or not. What is your name? Real men should be straightforward and upright; why would you conceal
your own identity?”
Brushing away the dust from her clothes, Zhou Zhiruo said, "Yu Er Xia, I don’t have to conceal anything from you. This man is my husband; surname Song, given name Qingshu. He was related to Wudang, but this time he has entered the Emei’s school. If Yu Er Xia has anything to say, you can tell it to me.”
She spoke those words with a clear, but cold voice, as cold as a torrential river and frozen ice. Her manner and movements were as exquisite as a jade, her countenance was clear and beautiful; indeed she looked like an immortal rising from among the dust. There were thousands of heroes around the field, yet nobody made any noise, they all held their breath, trying to listen with full attention.
Song Qingshu reached up to rub his face, peeling the short beard from his chin and taking his hat off; immediately he emerged as a young man as handsome as a jade crown.
As the crowd of heroes saw him, they could not restrain from praising in their hearts, "What a beautiful pair of immortals!”
Remembering Song Qingshu’s offense in killing his Qidi [seventh (younger) brother] Mo Shenggu, anger rose up in Yu Lianzhou’s breast. However, his character had always been calm; in the last few years, the older he got, the deeper was his self-control. Although he was furious, he managed to keep a calm face; only his eyes flickered like lightning, sweeping Song Qingshu’s face.
Song Qingshu hung his head down in shame. Zhou Zhiruo said, "My husband has left Wudang and joined Emei. Hereby I am making it official today in the presence of these world’s heroes. Yu Er Xia, Zhang Zhenren does not allow Wudang disciples to fight our Sect’s disciples for the sake of friendship of the former days. It shows the Senior’s ‘yi qi’ [spirit of loyalty, code of brotherhood]; but it might also show how smart the Senior is in preserving Wudang’s prestige.”
Yin Liting could not hold his patience much longer; leaping forward, he pointed his finger toward Zhou Zhiruo and said, "Miss Zhou, when you faced calamity in your childhood, it was my Shifu who held out his hands to save you, and brought you to the Emei Pai. My Shifu has never wished for you to repay his kindness, yet in what you’ve just said today, you obviously accuse our Wudang Pai of earning false reputation, of being far inferior to the heroines of Emei Pai. This ... you ... aren’t you doing my Shifu wrong?”
Zhou Zhiruo laughed indifferently and said, "Wudang’s heroes have shaken the Jianghu; obviously you have real ability. Song Daxia is my father-in-law. How can I dare to accuse my in-law of earning false reputation? However, Wudang and Emei two schools have their own history, each developed its own martial art; so it is difficult to say who is superior and who is inferior. In the past, our Sect’s Guo Shizu [ancestor, founder] has shown kindness toward Zhang Zhenren, later on, Zhang Zhenren has shown kindness to me. We are even. Nobody owes anybody kindness. Yu Er Xia, Yin Liu Xia, let us hereby discard the custom that says Wudang disciples must not fight Emei disciples.”
All around the field, the crowd of warriors under their wooden shelters talked among themselves in low voices, "This young Zhangmen is very arrogant; listening to her words, it sounded as if Emei Pai has a high confidence in exceeding the Wudang Pai. Yu Er Xia has reached the pinnacle in term of internal and external power. Extremely few people in the world today can be his match. Could it be that Emei Pai relies on the fierce and evil secret projectiles to dominate the Jianghu?”
Yin Liting was very emotional thinking about Qidi Mo Shenggu’s tragic death; tears flowing down
on his face and he cried out, "Qingshu ... Qingshu! You ... why did you kill your ... your Qishu [seventh (younger) martial uncle] ...” As he said the word ‘Qishu’, suddenly he broke into a loud weeping.
The crowd of heroes was surprised; they looked at each other, thinking, "Wudang’s Yin Liu Xia has such a reputation, how can he cry in public?”
Yu Lianzhou stepped forward and pulled Yin Liting’s right arm. With a loud and clear voice he said, "The world’s heroes, please hear this: Wudang is very unfortunate to have a renegade disciple like this Song Qingshu. Our Qidi, Mo Shenggu, was killed by this disciple ...”
Suddenly two ‘whiz! whiz!’ noise split the air. Again, two ‘thunderbolt bullets’ flew toward Yu Lianzhou’s chest.
"Aiyo!” Zhang Wuji called out in alarm and was about to rush forward to save his uncle; but the thunderbolt bullets were simply too fast; while listening to the conversation, he had never expected Emei Pai would to launch this kind of sneak attack, even if he could move faster, he would still be too late.
This attack was actually also beyond Yu Lianzhou’s expectations; his first reaction was to evade, but the bullets would certainly hit the numerous Beggar Clan disciples standing behind him. He surmised that these bullets were meant to deal with him, to close his mouth so that he would not expose publicly Song Qingshu’s crime in offending his superior and rebelling against his own father. If he evaded, unavoidably, some innocents would be killed. In the split seconds this thought was flashing through his mind, the two thunderbolt bullets, one after another, had already arrived in front of his chest.
Yu Lianzhou turned his palms around in the ‘yun shou’ [cloudy hand] stance of the Taiji Fist. With the utmost ‘softness’, as if his palms were pressing empty air, he dissipated the incoming power with which the ‘thunderbolt bullets’ were shot, by lightly catching the bullets in the middle of his palms. He was seen standing with his arms outstretched in front of his chest, palms facing the sky, with the two thunderbolt bullets spinning with unfathomable speed in the middle of his palms. The crowd of heroes stood up at once, several thousand pairs of eyes stared at his hands. It was as if their hearts had stopped beating, extremely anxious to see whether these spinning bullets would explode at any moment.
This Taijiquan’s special skill of incorporating softness was the softest martial art skill in the world; it was called ‘a feather cannot add (to the weight), a fly cannot drop (the weight)’. The main principle was ‘sticking’ and ‘sucking’ [create a vacuum], using ‘bent’ to overcome ‘straight’, the ‘feeble geriatric to defend the crowd’, as well as ‘hero aiming for the invincibility’. [Translator’s note: I do not know Taiji, so the translation might be inaccurate.]
For the past several years, Yu Lianzhou had diligently and painstakingly trained hard in Zhang Sanfeng’s special skill. Seeing Situ Qianzhong and Xia Zhou lose their lives just now, he understood that these bullets would explode as soon as they contacted any hard object; the bullets were very difficult to be dealt with, and in this desperate situation, he had no choice but risking this skill, backed by his entire life’s cultivation of power. Sure enough, the soft was able to overcome the hard; the softness of his palms controlled the two thunderbolt bullets that they were spinning just like a drill trying to bore through a thick object, but did not explode.
Suddenly two other ‘whiz! whiz!’ noises were heard, Emei Pai shot two more thunderbolt bullets toward Yu Lianzhou. Yin Liting was standing next to his Shixiong; immediately both of his palms rose up to meet the thunderbolt bullets in the air. As soon as his palms made contact with the
thunderbolt bullets, he executed the ‘lan qiao we shi’ [‘seizing a bird’s tail’ style] from Taijiquan, by gently catching the thunderbolt bullets, while with the ‘jin ji du li shi’ [‘golden rooster standing’ style], his left foot strongly grounded, his right foot in the air, his entire body spin fast, just like a top.
Yin Liting was very skilled in swordsmanship, but his mastery of Taijiquan was not as deep as his Shixiong’s. He saw that Yu Lianzhou was straini
ng in catching the two thunderbolt bullets; he was completely aware that if there was the slightest bit of ‘hardness’ in the palms, the evil and ruthless secret projectiles would explode immediately. Therefore, he dissipated the shooting force by spinning his body and took the thunderbolt bullets spinning along in his palms.
In terms of martial art skill, Yin Liting’s way of dissipating the incoming force by catching them midair was slightly inferior compared to Yu Lianzhou using his palm power to neutralize the bullets; however, they way he spun his body rapidly was a lot more attractive. After he spun for more than thirty revolutions, all around the field the crowd broke into thunderous applause, while the thunderbolt bullets also failed to explode.
To everybody’s surprise, a series of ‘whiz! whiz!’ noises were heard again as eight thunderbolt bullets came their way. Yu Lianzhou and Yin Liting shouted together and threw the thunderbolt bullets in their hands. Wudang disciples did not use secret projectiles, but they were trained in striking projectiles with projectiles. After catching the enemy’s secret projectile, they were able to return the projectile, one projectile striking two, two projectiles striking three. As these two shot the four thunderbolt bullets in their hands, the bullets struck the incoming eight enemy’s thunderbolt bullets. ‘Bang! Bang!’ In the field, the explosion was deafening, black smoke filled the air, and burning sulfur smells attacked everybody’s nostrils.
As soon as they shot the thunderbolt bullets, Yu and Yin two people immediately leaped more than ten ‘zhang’s back, to guard against the successive attacks of Emei Pai. If they were shot again and again, they knew that eventually they would not be able to stand.
There wasn’t anyone among the crowd of heroes who was not stunned to see that the thunderbolt bullets were this deadly. They thought that in the present age, other than these two Wudang Pai masters, perhaps not too many people would be able to escape these thunderbolt bullets. Those with superior ‘qing gong’ might be able to evade, but if the bullets were scattered with ‘man tian hua yu’ [blossoming rain filling the sky] technique, several thunderbolt bullets would collide with each other midair, as soon as these bullets exploded, they would not escape alive even if they were able to move faster.
A big and tall man in the Huashan Pai wooden shelter stood up; with a loud voice he said, "Will Emei Pai rely on numbers to achieve victory in this martial art competition?” This man was one of the Huashan Er Lao [two elders], who joined hands with He Taichong, husband and wife, to fight Zhang Wuji at the Brightness Peak.
Jing Jia of Emei Pai replied, "The study martial art has thousands of change and ten thousand of variations. Those who are strong, win. Those who are weak, lose. We are not pedantic intellectuals who always insist that everything should adhere to meticulous principles. Besides, in this world, there are not too many meticulous principles worth talking about.”
The crowd of heroes was astonished that although Emei Pai was dominated by women, they were actually persistently unreasonable; surprisingly more so than the men were. When the old master of Huashan was arguing with the women, he did not dare to walk close to the Emei Pai shelter; he stayed at his own shelter and argued from a distant, for fear that in their unparalleled aggressive spirit, the opposite party would shoot their thunderbolt bullets away.
Zhang Wuji thought, "Zhiruo must have married Song Shige against her heart. Wasn’t she so kind and loving toward me when we were stranded on that desolate island over the sea? The two of us have pledged our undying love and taken an oath not to fail the other. The words are still ringing in our ears, how can we destroy our own oath? It’s all because I have done her wrong. On the day we were about to bow to the Heaven and the Earth, in the presence of guests filling the wedding hall, I fled with Min Mei. Zhiruo is a Zhangmen of a Sect; she is worth a thousand gold, and I have disgraced her that bad. Is it any wonder that she is that angry and full of resentments toward me? Today the Emei Pai is going against the tide, and it is all because of me.”
The more he thought, the more restless he was. Leaving his own wooden shelter, he walked toward the Emei Pai’s shelter. "Zhiruo, in everything, I have done you wrong,” he said to Zhou Zhiruo, "Song Shige has killed Mo Qishu; ultimately we must resolve this matter. I say, let Song Shige return to Wudang with Yu Erbo and Yin Liushu; let Song Dabo decide on how he has to pay for his crime.”
"Zhang Jiaozu,” Zhou Zhiruo coldly laughed, "At first I thought you were a real man, only a little bit muddle-headed; to my surprise, turns out that you are a lowly man. A real man will bear the consequences of what he has done. You have killed Mo Qi Xia; why do you put the blame on my husband’s head?”
Zhang Wuji was shocked. "You ... you said I killed Mo Qishu?” he stammered, "I ... how can there be such thing?”
Zhou Zhiruo said, "The murder of Mo Qi Xia was arranged under the scheming of the imperial household’s Ruyang Junzhu. Why don’t you tell her to come out and confront her directly in front of the world’s heroes?”
Zhang Wuji thought, "Min Mei has offended the Six Major Sects. I am afraid she has more enemies than Yifu. How can I have her make an appearance here? Zhiruo deliberately brought this point up to put Min Mei and me in danger. Ay, a thousand errors, ten thousand blunders, I should have not left her on our wedding day.”
Biting his own lower lip, he turned around and walked away. Suddenly someone from the Emei Pai crowd shouted, "I am surprised that Zhang Jiaozhu of the Ming Cult is such a despicable coward. Seeing the fierceness of our thunderbolt bullet, he ran away with his tail between his legs.”
Zhang Wuji halted his steps, but did not turn his head. "I don’t need to see who was talking,” he mused, "Whatever insult the Emei Pai people hurl at me, I deserve the punishment.”
The jeering and mocking behind him was getting louder, yet Zhang Wuji ignored them all and walked straight to the Ming Cult’s wooden shelter.
Yang Xiao let out a cold laugh and said, "The thunderbolt bullet is such an insignificant thing; it’s not even worth mentioning. Since it was useless against Wudang’s Second Hero, it is also useless against Wudang’s direct descendant Zhang Jiaozhu. You, Emei Pai people, are boasting on your special apparatus. Let’s see what you can do against our Ming Cult’s special apparatus.”
As soon as he waved his left hand, a boy dressed in white came forward carrying a small wooden tray on his hands. There were more than a dozen small flags of five different colors inserted on the tray. Yang Xiao grabbed a white flag and tossed it to the center of the field. The flag fell down with its pole sticking out of the ground. The crowd of heroes could see that the flagpole was not even two feet long. The Ming Cult’s flaming fire insignia was embroidered on the flag. The crowd wondered what kind of a trick Yang Xiao was playing.
At this moment, someone behind Yang Xiao launched a rocket, which flew fast to the sky, and dispersed white smoke in the air.
Footsteps were heard as a team of Ming Cult disciples, with white cloths wrapped around their heads, rushed to the field. There were altogether five hundred men; they all bent their bows and ‘Swish! Swish!’ Five hundred arrows made a neat circle around the white flag. Then the team arranged themselves in a circle formation. They were the Rui Jin [acute metal] Flag under the command of Wu Jingcao.
The crowd broke into cheers and applause. Each one of the Rui Jin Flag grabbed a javelin from his back. They rushed a dozen of steps forward, and hurled the javelins. Five hundred javelins made a neat fence inside the circle of arrows. Then they rushed another dozen of steps forward, and drew the short hatchets from their waists. The crowd of heroes saw flickering rays of light as five hundred short hatchets whizzed through the air and landed neatly in a circle on the ground. The short hatchets, the javelins and the arrows formed three concentric rings, with no weapon touching another. Even if one’s martial art skills were as high as the sky, under these 1,500 long and short weapons’ converging attack, one would definitely become minced meat.
The Rui Jin Flag suffered an extremely heavy loss when
fought a fierce battle against the Emei Pai in the western region. Even their flag leader, Zhuang Zheng, died under Miejue Shitai’s Yitian Sword. Later, learning from this painful experience, they developed this battle formation to destroy even the enemy’s strongest defense. During the last several years, the Ming Cult’s prestige rapidly rose up; the Five-Element Flags also grew at a tremendous rate. The Rui Jin Flag now had more than twenty thousand men under its banner. This team of five hundred men with javelins, hatchets and arrows was handpicked from among the twenty-thousand members. Their martial art skills were not weak to begin with and after undergoing a rigorous training under the direction of the masters within the Ming Cult, they became a squadron of fighting force, which could be used to support the Ming Cult army in the battlefield or could be deployed as an elite squad in special assignments.
As they watched this demonstration, the crowd of heroes’ faces changed; they thought, ‘Wherever Ming Cult’s Yang Zuoshi tosses the white flag, these one thousand five hundred weapons will also follow. Although Emei Pai’s thunderbolt bullets are fierce, their destroying capability is limited; when they shoot ten bullets, even if each one of them hit the target, they could at most harm only ten people. How can they match the Ming Cult’s Rui Jin Flag?” They also thought, "If the Ming Cult suddenly turned hostile and wanted to destroy us, then what? Although the attendees of this great assembly today are all martial art masters, we are actually no more than a mob; certainly we are no match for the refined formation of Rui Jin Flag who are well-trained for a long time and can move together as one unit.”
Although their hearts were full of disconcerting thoughts, the crowd of heroes could not help but cheer at the amazing display of the Rui Jin Flag’s special skill.
Yang Xiao lifted the white flag in his hand and waved it several times behind his back. The five hundred Rui Jin Flag men pulled out their feathered arrows, javelins and hatchets, walked toward the Ming Cult’s wooden shelter, bowed in respect to Zhang Wuji, and then turned around and left the field.