by Jin Yong
Now, hearing the Yue father and daughter speaking so boastfully, he thought, "I don't know how you did it, but you've studied the lost unique skills of the five mountains sword schools, and now got yourself deluded over this. If you, Yue Buqun, were fighting me, and suddenly use these moves, you would've intimidated me. But it was the wrong move to let your daughter use them first. Now I'm already prepared for these moves, so what's the use of using them again?" He also thought, "This person is very calculating and careful, if I can beat him up good and proper in front of all the heroes here then he won't be cocky anymore. Otherwise, he'll remain in my Five Mountains School and be a big trouble the future." So he said, "Brother Yue, all the world heroes have already asked you to go up and show your skill, how can you not give them face?"
"Since Brother Zuo said it, I'll have to respectfully obey your order," Yue Buqun replied, and then step by step he walked up the place of worship.
Thinking there was a good show to be seen, the crowd cheered happily.
Yue Buqun folded his hands in salute and said, "Brother Zuo, we're now under the same school. So we'll just stop at skin-deep when comparing our skills. What do you think?"
"Brother, you must definitely be careful. I'll do my best not injure Brother Yue," Zuo Lengchan replied.
The people from the Songshan School called out, "You haven't fought yet but you are already asking for mercy! It's better not to fight then." "The blade isn't born with eyes. Once it moves, who can guarantee you won't be harmed or killed?" "If you're afraid, then be clever and accept defeat and descend from the fight courtyard. It's not too late."
Yue Buqun smiled and said clearly, "The blade isn't born with eyes. Once it moves, it's difficult to avoid death or injuries. These words are right." He then turned his head toward Huashan School's disciples and said, "Disciples of Huashan, listen to me: Martial Brother Zuo and I are going to compare skills. There's no enmity in this. If Martial Brother Zuo slips and kills me, or heavily injures me, that's just because the battle is too fierce and it's not easy to stop an inch away. No one must hate Martial Uncle Zuo for this, and you must also not seek revenge on the people from Songshan School, so that you don't ruin the loyalty within our Five Mountains School." Yue Lingshan and everyone else acknowledged him loudly. Zuo Lengchan didn't expect him to talk like this so he said, "Brother Yue understands about righteousness very deeply. The loyalty within our school is most important. That's very good."
Yue Buqun smiled and said, "The merger of our five schools into one was the most difficult thing to do. If the peace of the Five Mountains School is harmed because of the two of us comparing our sword techniques and inner fighting between martial brothers in the Five Mountains School occurred, then that'll be counter to the original meaning of merging the schools."
"Right!" Zuo Lengchan agreed, while he thought, "This person is very timid. I should take advantage of this and subdue him now." When masters fight, internal strength and movements were very important, but winning and losing was often decided by the strength of will. Zuo Lengchan secretly felt happy that Yue Buqun was showing a weakness. With a ringing sound, he drew his long sword out. When the long sword cleared the scabbard, the sound unexpectedly reverberated throughout the whole valley. Zuo Lengchan had moved his inner energy in a unique way so that the edge of the sword struck the inner wall of the sheath continuously as it comes out of its sheath and emitted a thunderous ringing sound. The people who didn't know the reason for this were astonished greatly. The people from Songshan School again cheered loudly.
On the other hand, Yue Buqun pulled out his long sword along with its scabbard from his waist. Then he freed the sword from its sheath, and slowly and silently pulled it out. Judging from the way these two people pulled their swords out, it could be said that this sword fight was between a master and a novice. It looked as if the outcome was already certain that there was no need for a fight.
Linghu Chong's shoulder blade was pierced by the long sword which penetrated all the way to the front and as a result, he suffered a really heavy injury. After witnessing Linghu Chong getting injured, Yingying became really worried and without caring about her disguise, she rushed forward with her long sword raised to protect him. Once the Heng-Shan School's disciples had surrounded him, Yihe took out the 'White Cloud Bear Gallbladder' pill and nervously spilled out five to six pills and put them in Linghu Chong's mouth. Yingying had already sealed the acupoints on his chest and on his back to stop the bleeding quite some time ago. Yiqing and Zheng E separately applied the 'Heavenly Connecting Glue' on his wound. When it was their headmaster who was injured, how could the disciples be stingy in using the medicine? They weren't afraid to apply ample amounts of medicine. In fact, they regarded this priceless medicine like it was just mud as they applied it thickly on his wound. Even though Linghu Chong's injury was serious, he was still clear-headed. When he saw how Yingying and the Heng-Shan School's disciples were deeply concerned for him, he felt apologetic, "Just because I wanted to make little martial sister smile, I made Yingying and martial sisters from Heng-Shan School worried to death." He immediately smiled and said, "I don't know how, I got careless and got... got injured. Don't... don't worry. No need... no need..."
"Don't say anything," Yingying rebuked. Even though she tried her best to sound coarse, it was still very hard to cover up her feminine voice. All the disciples of the Heng-Shan School were stunned to hear this bearded man having a tender and soft voice.
Linghu Chong said, "Let me... have a look... have a look..."
"Yes," Yiqing answered, and pulled her two martial sisters who were in front of his body to the side to let him watch Yue Lingshan's fight with Zuo Lengchan. Linghu Chong saw Yue Lingshan using Songshan sword art; Zuo Lengchan breaking her sword, and finally Zuo Lengchan and Yue Buqun facing each other for a fight on top of the place of worship place. All these he observed vaguely.
With his long sword pointed to the ground, Yue Buqun turned around to face Zuo Lengchan with a smile on his face. At this time, they were around twenty feet away from each other. The crowd was holding their breath and the whole Songshan mountaintop was deathly quiet. But Linghu Chong heard a really faint voice reciting a scripture, "If fierce beasts surrounded you and you were frightened by their sharp teeth and claws, you could call Bodhisattva Guanyin’s name, and all the beasts would quickly leave. When you see venomous serpents and scorpions, you can call Bodhisattva Guanyin’s name and praise her holy power, then they will go back to their lairs. When lightening and thunders strike the ground and hail and heavy rain start pouring down, one can call Bodhisattva Guanyin’s name and praise her holy power so that the bad weather would stop and disappear. For all living creatures, there are so many difficulties, but the holy and wonderful power from Bodhisattva Guanyin will help us get through all of them…." The voice reading this scripture was very sincere and earnest. Linghu Chong knew straight away that it was Yilin who was praying to Guanyin for his well being. Many days ago, in the outskirts of Hengshan city, Yilin had once read this scripture to him. This time he didn't turn his head around to have a look, but he remembered clearly how Yilin looked like on that day long ago when her eyes were full of love and her beautiful face looked soft and warm. A soft and warm feeling bubbled up inside his heart, "Not only Yingying, Martial Sister Yilin also regards me more important than their own lives. Even if my body were grounded to dust and all my bones were broken, it'd still be hard for me to repay their kindness."
Zuo Lengchan saw Yue Buqun's sword was across his chest while his left hand was in a sword-form poised for writing letters. Zuo Lengchan knew this move was a Huashan sword art called 'Poetry Sword to Meet Friends'. It was the stance Huashan School used when having a friendly fight against people from the orthodox path. The meaning behind this move was when cultured men make friends, they combine sentences together to make poems, while when martial men make friends, they compare martial skills. When this move was used, it made it clear that there was no enmity between the opponents
. So the sword fight should only decide the winner and loser, and mustn't take each other's lives. There was a smile on the corner of Zuo Lengchan's mouth as he said, "No need to be polite," while he thought, "Yue Buqun is praised as a gentleman, but I see he's more of a hypocrite. It's not necessarily because of his good heart that he's not showing any kind of hostility towards me. One, he might be afraid. Second, he's trying to make me bold and careless so that he can try to catch me off guard and kill me." Zuo Lengchan pointed his left hand out to the side while his right hand aimed the long sword forward. This move was Songshan School's sword art called 'Opening the Gate to See the Mountain'. He used this sword move to say, if you want to fight then fight, there's no need to be putting on air, and it also implied that his opponent was a hypocrite. Yue Buqun let out a sigh and thrust his long sword forward with the point of the sword continuously trembling. When the sword reached midway, it suddenly turned around and shot up changing into the Huashan sword art 'Concealed Green Mountain'. The sword point was vague, like it was there and wasn't there, as it fluctuated endlessly.
Zuo Lengchan slashed down powerfully in an earth-shaking imposing manner. Many of the spectators gasped and cried out. Originally, this move didn't exist as part of the Songshan sword art. But Zuo Lengchan borrowed a stance from the barehanded martial art, and used his sword like it was his fist. This move 'Split Huashan Open' was very ordinary and was thoroughly understood by everyone who had ever studied barehanded martial art before. The five mountains sword schools had been communicating with each other for several hundred years already. So not only Songshan sword art didn't have this move, even if it existed, with Huashan School's name in its name, they probably wouldn't have used it or maybe they would've changed its form. At this time, Zuo Lengchan had intentionally changed this existing barehanded martial art into a sword move to infuriate Yue Buqun. Songshan sword art always looked grand and when he used this ordinary move 'Split Huashan Open', it still looked like it could split mountain and still unleash the power of Songshan sword art. Yue Buqun leaned to a side to dodge it while thrusting his sword slantingly using the move 'Forest of Ancient Pine'. Zuo Lengchan saw his movement was tight and cautious, like it wasn't seeking for a result but to avoid making a mistake and it was precisely the method to use when having a long fight. It was obvious Yue Buqun wasn't feeling angry from the two movements 'Opening the Gate to See the Mountain' and 'Split Huashan Open' that Zuo Lengchan used. Zuo Lengchan appraised his opponent was a strong enemy and if he kept on fighting him contemptuously, randomly using new moves, then he would've given him too much advantage. So he immediately slashed his long sword from left to right using Songshan School's real sword art 'Jade Dragon Outside of Heaven'.
Songshan's disciples had all learned this move, but who could have used it in such a surging and grand manner? As Zuo Lengchan's long sword traversed through the air, it looked bent and straight, like it was something alive, and the disciples all cheered loudly. From the moment the heroes of the other schools arrived at Mount Songshan, they had been watching the Songshan School's people beating drums, releasing firecrackers, and applauding Zuo Lengchan no matter what he said. So everyone in the crowd felt at least some loathing in their heart. But this time, when they heard Songshan disciples cheering loudly, they felt that it was reasonable, so they also cheered. This move of 'Jade Dragon Outside of Heaven' executed by Zuo Lengchan looked as if a spirit snake or a divine dragon came to life. Regardless of whether they used sword or other weapons, the people in the crowd all sighed in praise. When the old masters of Taishan and Hengshan School saw this move, they all couldn't help rejoicing, "Lucky the one he's fighting up there is Yue Buqun, and not me!"
Zuo Lengchan and Yue Buqun were using their own school's sword art to fight each other. Songshan's sword behaved more like a halberd; its qi was very thick akin to a thousand soldiers and ten thousands horses rushing forth, scattering yellow dust from thousands of li away. Huashan's sword was light and lively, like a pair of swallows flying amongst the willow during the spring time, going high and low, left and right, and flying around. In that moment, even though Yue Buqun didn't look like he was going to lose, the Songshan sword qi from the sword art's mostly offensive moves was slashing everywhere on top of the place of worship that Yue Buqun tried not to clash his long sword with his opponent's sword the entire time. It was evident that even though his sword art was wonderful, it was only relying on 'agility' and therefore not a match for the powerful Songshan sword art.
It seemed the two of them were masters of the martial study, so as they competed swords, there was no fixed path or structure that they followed. Zuo Lengchan used the seventeen sword paths of the Songshan sword art all mixed together. Yue Buqun used fewer sword stances but Huashan sword art had many complicated variations and the moves also came out one after another effortlessly. After trading more than twenty moves, Zuo Lengchan suddenly lifted the long sword in his right hand while his left palm fiercely struck out. This palm enveloped thirty six fatal acupoints on his opponent's upper body, and if Yue Buqun were to dodge it, he would immediately be pierced by the sword. But Yue Buqun's face turned purple as he gathered his qi and shot his left palm out to clash palms with Zuo Lengchan. With a thunderous sound, the two palms clashed. Yue Buqun flew back, but Zuo Lengchan just stood there motionless.
Yue Buqun called out, "Is that palm move Songshan's martial art?"
Linghu Chong was deeply concerned when he saw the two of them had clashed palms. He knew Zuo Lengchan's Polar Ice Energy was very formidable. Even Ren Woxing with his deep and abundant internal energy was in a very dangerous situation after being hit by it, and it unexpectedly made the four of them into snowmen. Even though Yue Buqun had been cultivating his qi for a long time, it still wasn't as good as Ren Woxing. So if they were to clash palms a few more times, even if he didn't turn into a frozen corpse, it was certain that he wouldn't be able to endure it.
Zuo Lengchan smilingly said, "This is the palm move I created. I'll pick a disciple from the Five Mountains School and impart this skill to him in the future."
"I have to ask Brother Zuo for some pointers then," Yue Buqun replied.
"Very good," Zuo Lengchan replied while he thought, "His Huashan School's 'Divine Art of Violet Twilight' is also very good. After he received my 'Polar Ice Energy Palm', he could speak without quivering."
Zuo Lengchan immediately wielded his long sword and thrust it towards Yue Buqun. Yue Buqun counterattacked with his sword. After many moves, a crashing sound was heard as they again clashed palms. Yue Buqun's long sword circled and slashed out at Zuo Lengchan's waist. Zuo Lengchan blocked it with a vertical sword move, moved his qi into his left palm and struck out at the back of Yue Buqun's body. This downwards palm strike had a powerful force and was wonderfully positioned. Yue Buqun turned his left palm around and with a light clapping sound, they clashed palms for the third time. Yue Buqun lowered his body to fly out. But Zuo Lengchan felt an aching pain in the middle of his left palm. He lifted his palm to have a look and saw there was a small hole there with black blood seeping out. Half startled and half angry, he scolded, "Crafty thief, shameless!"
He was thinking Yue Buqun must have concealed a poisonous needle in his palm and this had pierced the middle of his palm when they suddenly clashed. The blood seeping out of his palm had already turned black from poison. He never thought this person with the nickname 'Gentleman Sword' would actually have such a contemptible conduct. He inhaled a breath of air, and tapped three acupoints on his left shoulder with his right finger to stop the poison from going up. He thought, "Such a trivial poison needle, how can it stop me? But I must fight him quickly and mustn't let him drag it along." He promptly attacked with his sword like a blast of rain. Yue Buqun wielded his sword to counter attack, his sword moves had also changed into very violent moves. At this time, the evening had just set in, and the fight between these two people on the place of worship couldn't be seen that clearly anymore. But it was still easy to see by everyone g
athered around the place of worship that the fight had turned deadly. Great Master Fangzheng said, "Mercy, mercy! Why did you suddenly turn so violent?"
After more than ten moves, Zuo Lengchan felt the poison on his palm spreading up while his opponent's defence remained very tight so he kept on increasing the force of his sword. Yue Buqun was finding it hard to keep up and seemed like he was unable to keep blocking anymore. Suddenly, Yue Buqun changed his swordplay. Now, his sword was suddenly extending and withdrawing, and the stances looked really strange and weird. The crowd below the place of worship was surprised and one by one whispered to each other, "What sword art is this?" The people being asked were asking back, and every one was just shaking their heads without being able to summon up an answer.
Linghu Chong had been leaning on Yingying. When he suddenly saw his master's swordplay becoming both fast and weird, and very different from the sword art of Huashan School, he was surprised. Then he glanced around and saw that Zuo Lengchan's swordplay had also changed. Now, Zuo Lengchan was using sword moves which were unexpectedly very similar to the ones his master were using. The two of them were attacking and defending very quickly, and the swordplay coordination between the two of them was seamless, as if they were martial brothers who had been practising this set of sword arts together for dozens of years already. In the next twenty moves, Zuo Lengchan kept on advancing with each of his move while Yue Buqun continuously retreated.