by Jin Yong
"Yes, yes," Linghu Chong replied. He didn't want to talk about this matter so he changed to another subject, "At the meeting on Songshan today, Martial Uncle Zuo's intention is to merge the five mountains sword schools into one to make the Five Mountains School. What do the two honourables think of this?"
Yue Buqun asked, "What's your intention?"
"Disciple..."
Yue Buqun smiled and hastily interrupted, "This word 'disciple' doesn't need to be mentioned. If you still remembered those past days in Huashan, then... then..." He then deeply hummed looking like it wasn't easy for him to say what he wanted to say. From the day when he was expelled from the Huashan School, Linghu Chong had never seen Yue Buqun looking so pleased at him. Linghu Chong hastily said, "If you have any order, disciple... Junior will obey it."
Yue Buqun nodded his head. "I don't have any order, but the martial art people of my generation are especially sensitive about distinguishing between the orthodox and demonical paths. When that day I didn't allow you to stay on Huashan anymore, it wasn't because your Master-Wife and I were cruel-hearted, or because we didn't want to forgive you for your faults. It's just that you violated Wulin's biggest taboo, so even though I've raised you since you were young and that you're like a son to me, I still couldn't be selfish."
When Linghu Chong heard this, he became tearful. He chokingly said, "Even if my body turned to dust and my bones broken to pieces, it'll still be very hard for me to repay Master’s and Master-Wife's kindness."
Yue Buqun lightly patted his shoulder to comfort him and then said, "That day at Shaolin Temple, we fought for a while. I used a few sword moves with deep meanings behind them, hoping that you would turn around and rejoin my Huashan School. But you were obstinate and made me really sad."
Linghu Chong replied, "That day at Shaolin Temple I committed an evil act, disciple should die for it. It's my biggest wish to again rejoin Master's school."
Yue Buqun smiled. "I'm afraid these words you said are somewhat hypocritical. You're already the headmaster of another school, command a lot of people, and have a lot of responsibility. You're already comfortable in that position now, why would you want to rejoin our school? Also, looking at your martial art now, how can I still be your master?" After he said this, he gave a glance to Madam Yue.
When Linghu Chong heard Yue Buqun's tone was sincere and it seemed that he wanted to take him back as a disciple again, he was extremely happy. He immediately knelt down and said, "Master, Master-Wife, disciple has offended you greatly. From now on, I will rectify my wrongs, obey master's order, and follow Master-Wife's instructions. I hope that Master and Master-Wife would be merciful and accept me back into Huashan School." At this time, he heard people clamouring to come up the mountain road. Those people were accompanying Great Master Fangzheng and Priest Chongxu up the mountain.
Yue Buqun lowered his voice and said, "Get up, we'll slowly talk about this later."
Linghu Chong was exulted and kowtowed a few times. "Thank you Master, Master-Wife!" He then stood up.
Madam Yue was sad and happy at the same time. "Your little martial sister and your martial brother Lin, they got... got married on Huashan last month." Her tone of voice sounded worried. She was afraid that Linghu Chong only wanted to rejoin the Huashan School because of Yue Lingshan, and when he heard that she had already gotten married, he might shout out in grieve and be inconsolable.
Linghu Chong was pained to hear this and he slightly tilted his head to look for Yue Lingshan. He saw her already dressed up in a beautiful gown as a young married woman. However, her appearance did not seem to have changed at all. She didn't have the glowing and healthy look that newly married young ladies have.
Her eyes met Linghu Chong's and suddenly her whole face was red, and she quickly dropped her head down. Linghu Chong felt as if a big hammer had just hit his chest and all of a sudden, he saw stars in his eyes. His body faltered and he couldn't stand straight. Suddenly he heard someone whispered in his ear, "Headmaster Linghu, you came from far away but you arrived here first. Shaolin Temple and the Courtyard of Towering Meditation are only a few feet away but I arrived late." Linghu Chong felt that someone was holding his left arm supporting him. Once he recovered, he saw Great Master Fangzheng smiling besides him. He hastily replied, "Yes, Yes!", paid his respect and stepped aside.
Zuo Lengchan announced in a clear voice, "Everyone, there's no need to give too much propriety. Otherwise, with the thousands of people we have here, we still won't finish paying our respect to each other until tomorrow. Please enter the Courtyard of Meditation now."
The top of Mount Songshan used to be called Eji and the Courtyard of Towering Mediation was originally a Buddhist temple. But in the last one hundred years, it had been turned into habitable quarters for the Songshan School's headmaster. Even though Zuo Lengchan's name contains the word 'meditation' in it, he was never a disciple of Buddhism while his martial art was closer to Taoism.
The crowd went into the Courtyard of Meditation. Inside, there was a forest of ancient pines in the middle of the courtyard, with a hall which did not look like a Buddhist hall at all. Even though the hall was extremely large, it still couldn't be compared to the Great Hero Precious Hall at the Shaolin Temple. Not a thousand people had entered the courtyard when it was already full of people and there was no way to fit more people in.
Zuo Lengchan said in a loud voice, "Today's gathering of our five mountains sword schools is blessed by the presence of all the friends from the orthodox path. This is beyond all my expectations so the supply we've provided isn't sufficient and our reception is slow. So please don't blame us for this."
Someone from the crowd shouted, "That's alright. But there are too many people here so there's no more room to stand."
Zuo Lengchan replied, "If we go up two hundred more steps, there's a place where emperors in the ancient times used to worship the heaven and earth. The space up there is wide and would be very convenient for us. But we're only common people, so if the news of us holding a meeting in that place of worship spread out then people will ridicule us for being conceited."
In ancient times, the emperors commended their own achievements by frequently worshipping the heaven and earth in either Mount Taishan or Mount Songshan, and offered sacrifices during these events. This event was usually a grand occasion for the whole country. But from amongst these Jianghu's heroes, who understood about the matter of 'worshipping heaven and earth'? They only felt crowded and stuffy inside that big hall. Let alone sitting, they weren't even able to breathe freely. One by one, they were saying, "We're not rebelling to become the emperor2. Since such a place exist, why don't we go there? The person besides me talk a lot, damn it!" As they were grumbling, there were already people rushing out of the courtyard.
Zuo Lengchan said, "Alright, then let's go and have a look at the worshipping place."
Linghu Chong thought, "Zuo Lengchan is very meticulous in his planning, so how could he have let all these people to be so crowded in here? What's his reason? He himself wants to go to the worshipping place to hold the gathering but he's too embarrassed to say it himself so he’s letting other people instigate it." His thought continued, "What kind of place is this place of worship? He said that it was related to emperors, and now he's leading everyone to go up there. Could it be that he really aspires to be an emperor? Great Master Fangzheng and Priest Chongxu said that he has great ambition and that once he's combined the five mountains sword schools, he would then move to exterminate the Sun Moon Sect. Then he would continue on annexing Shaolin and Wudang. Hey, hey, Dongfang Bubai and he actually have the same goal, 'Long live the Chief, unifies the Jianghu'!"
Linghu Chong followed the people and arrived below the place of worship. He again thought, "Hearing what Master said, it seems that he's willing to forgive my faults and allow me to return to Huashan. Why was Master so severe before but being so nice today? He must've investigated and found out that my conduct in Heng-Shan is very proper and doesn't
besmirch the name of the Heng-Shan School, so he must be really happy. Little martial sister has also gotten married to Martial Brother Lin, so Master and Master-Wife must be feeling sorry for me. Also Master-Wife must've persuaded Master many times till he finally changed his attitude. Today, Zuo Lengchan will try his hardest in annexing the four schools, and since Master is the headmaster of Huashan School, he will resist this with all of his power. He treats me very well so that I may ally with him and together protect the Huashan School. I'll do my best today to not disappoint his hope, and at the same time protect Heng-Shan School."
The place of worship was entirely constructed out of granite where each big rock there was chiselled until it was completely flat. Imagining the past when the emperor offered sacrifices here, Linghu Chong wondered how many stonemason the emperor employed to construct this place. As he scanned the area, he saw that some of the stones were newly chiselled. Even though there was moss on them already, he could still see that they were new. It was apparent that with the passage of time, this place of worship may have been quite damaged. Zuo Lengchan must have ordered his people to repair the place and had intentionally covered up those repairs so that they would not look obvious. But by doing so, it had instead looked as if he was up to no good.
As soon as the crowd arrived at this peak of Mount Songshan, they all felt invigorated. This summit stood tallest of all the other peaks around it. At that time, the sky was a clear blue without a single cloud to be seen. Linghu Chong gazed to the north and was able to see the high banks of Yumen and the Yellow River looking like a piece of thread. On the west, he could see the imperial city of Luoyang, while on the southeast, he saw layers upon layers of mountains.
He then saw three old men pointing to the south. One of them said, "That is the Big Bear Peak, that is the Small Bear Peak, those two peaks standing close together are the Dual Jade Peak, and the three peaks piercing through the cloud is called Three Outstanding Peaks."
Another old man said, "That mountain peak is the Shaoshi Mountain where the Shaolin Temple is. That day when I was at the Shaolin temple, I felt as if I was so high above, but looking from here, Shaolin temple is actually below Mount Songshan." The three old men laughed at this. Linghu Chong saw from the way these three old men dressed up that they weren't from Songshan School. But judging from their allegory of the mountains, they seem to be embellishing Songshan and belittling Shaolin. Looking at the brightness of these three people's eyes, he deduced that they have powerful internal energies. It seemed that Zuo Lengchan had arranged many helpers for himself today, so if something were to change, they would have to contend with more than just the people from Songshan School.
He then saw Zuo Lengchan inviting Great Master Fangzheng and Priest Chongxu to go up to the place of worship. Fangzheng laughingly said, "The two of us are only two useless outsiders. We've come today just to offer our congratulations and to attend the ceremony, so there's no need for us to go up the stage and disgrace ourselves."
Zuo Lengchan replied, "Great Master Fangzheng is talking like you're an outsider to us."
Chongxu said, "All the visitors have already arrived. Headmaster Zuo, please go ahead with the big event, there's no need keep us two old chaps company."
Zuo Lengchan said, "I'll comply with your request then." He then cupped his fist to the two of them and went up to the place of worship. He'd walked up tens of steps and there was still around ten feet to the top when he stopped and announced in a loud voice, "Friends, please!"
The top of Mount Songshan was really windy and the crowd was scattered all over the place enjoying the scenery. But Zuo Lengchan's words were heard clearly by everyone up there. Everyone turned their heads around and started to gather closer, surrounding the worship place. Zuo Lengchan cupped his fist and said, "I appreciate all the friends here who have come to grace Mount Songshan with your presence. All the friends here must have heard already that today is the good day that my five mountains sword schools will join our efforts together and will become one school."
Hundreds of people on the base of the worship place shouted, "Yes, yes, congratulations, congratulations!"
"Everyone, please take a seat!" Zuo Lengchan said.
Everyone immediately sat on the ground, and the disciples from each school and sect sat together with their headmaster. Zuo Lengchan said, "Our five mountains sword schools have the same root, different branches. We've been allied for more than a hundred years and we're just like a family already. I have been the chief of the five schools for many years already. But in these last few years, many big events have occurred in Wulin. So the seniors from the five mountains sword schools and I consulted each other and we all felt that if we don't merge into one school, then there would be a day when we encounter a big problem that we couldn't handle."
Suddenly, they heard someone who coldly interjected from the base of the worship place, "Which school's seniors did Chief Zuo consulted with? How come I don't know about this matter?" The one who said this was Hengshan School's headmaster Mr. Mo Da. As soon as he said this, it was apparent that Hengshan School disapproved of this merger.
Zuo Lengchan replied, "I just said before, many big events have occurred in Wulin which led to the conclusion that the five schools must merge into one. Amongst these big events is the inter-school killings of each other in spite of our alliance. Mr. Mo Da, my Songshan School's disciple, the Great Songyang Palm, Martial Brother Fei lost his life outside the city of Hengshan. There were people who observed this and said that you were the one who did this, is this true?"
Mr. Mo Da was startled and he thought, "When I killed that Fei, there was only Martial Brother Liu, Qu Yang, Linghu Chong, a little nun from Heng-Shan School, and Qu Yang's granddaughter there. Three of these people have already died. Could it be that Linghu Chong accidentally mentioned about it after drinking some wine? Or maybe that little nun isn't too experienced and divulged this secret?" At this time, the thousands of eyes underneath the worship place were all looking at Mr. Mo Da's face. Mr. Mo Da remained calm and composed; he shook his head and said, "This matter did not happen! How could I have killed the Great Songyang Palm with my limited skills?"
Zuo Lengchan coldly laughed. "If the fight was fair and one on one, Mr. Mo Da might not necessarily have been able to kill my martial brother Fei. But if it was an ambush, and you're using your Hengshan School's ever changing phantasmal sword moves, even masters would find it hard to fight against. We looked at the injuries on the corpse of Martial Brother Fei, but someone already ruined it. But the placements of the sword stab couldn't change. Instead of covering up the evidence, isn't this revealing it instead?"
Mr. Mo Da was startled and he shook his head while thinking, "You're guessing foolishly. How can I admit that?" He was thinking that Zuo Lengchan was relying on the sword injuries placements on Fei Bin's corpse to say this and no one had actually divulged this secret. So he decided never to admit this to Zuo Lengchan. But after this, there would always be enmity between Songshan School and Hengshan School. Also, it was hard to say whether they would be able to go down Mount Songshan alive today. Zuo Lengchan continued, "This merger is the biggest matter that has happened to our five mountains sword schools since each of the school's inception. Mr. Mo Da, we're both the headmasters of a school and we both know which matter is important, and our grudge towards each other is very light. If my five schools benefit from it, then everyone's grudges would be forced to be put aside. Brother Mo, you don't have to worry too much about this matter. Martial Brother Fei is my martial brother, but after the five schools are merged, Brother Mo and I will also become martial brothers. The dead is already dead, and why would the living be killing each other?"
His speech was gentle, but the actual meaning behind his words was very threatening. The meaning behind his words was, if Mr. Mo Da agreed to the merging of the schools, then the matter of killing Fei Bin would just be washed away. Otherwise, the matter would have to be settled. Both of his eyes were staring at Mr. Mo Da. He
asked, "South Mountain Hengshan School has no objection to the merging of the schools. Priest Tianmen of the Taishan School on the east mountain, what does your noble school think of this?"
Priest Tianmen stood up and said with a booming voice, "It's been three hundred years since Priest Dongling founded the Taishan School. Poor priest doesn't have the virtue and ability to advance the prestige of the Taishan School. But the school's history of three hundred years, it cannot end at my hand no matter what. This matter of merging the schools, I would never agree to it."
From amongst the Taishan School, a priest with a white beard stood up and said loudly, "Martial Nephew Tianmen, you're wrong. The Taishan School's four generations consist of more than four hundred people. This great benefit to everyone in the school couldn't be thwarted just by your own personal selfishness."
This white-bearded priest with a desiccated face had a loud and strong voice. There were people who recognised him and whispered, "He's Yujizi, he's the martial uncle of Priest Tianmen."
Priest Tianmen's face was originally looking ruddy, but after hearing what Yujizi said, his face turned really red and he said loudly, "Martial Uncle, what do you mean by that? Ever since Martial Nephew became the headmaster of Taishan, which matter have I done which is not in the best interest of the school? I'm opposed to the merger of the five schools in order to preserve the Taishan School. How can it be because I'm selfish?"
Yujizi laughed condescendingly and said, "The merger of the five schools will greatly flourish the five mountains schools. Which disciples in the five mountains schools wouldn't benefit from this merger? Martial Nephew, you can't be the headmaster of our school anymore."