Smiling Proud Wanderer Vol 04

by Jin Yong

  "From Lin Pingzhi's own mouth. You stole Lin Pingzhi's Evil Resisting Sword Manual, you think he doesn't know? When you threw that Buddhist robe down the canyon, Lin Pingzhi was hiding outside your window. He took that robe. That's why he... he also learned the Evil Resisting Sword Art. If not for this, how would he be able to kill Mu Gaofeng and Yu Canghai? With regards to how he finished learning the Evil Resisting Sword Art, of course, you know how this is done as well. Brother Chong, listen to Yue Buqun's voice. It's just like a girl. He... he and Dongfang Bubai are the same, they lost their normal sex a long time ago."

  She heard the conversation between Lin Pingzhi and Yue Lingshan inside the carriage, but Linghu Chong did not. She knew Linghu Chong respected and loved his Master. She also didn't want to add to his sadness, and this topic was very inconvenient to speak of, so she had not mentioned it in the last few months. But at this time, it was very urgent so she was forced to reveal this to make Linghu Chong understand, to make him see that the person in front of him wasn't a great headmaster in Wulin. But he was merely a freak who had lost his sex, and that he was also an insane person who could not be spoken to with reason.

  The murderous look on Yue Buqun's eyes became fiercer. He loathingly said, "Young lady Ren, I wanted to spare you your life. But after this nonsense you spouted, I can't allow you to live anymore. You courted your own death, don't blame me for this."

  Yingying shouted, "Brother Chong, quickly go, quickly go!"

  Linghu Chong knew his master's hand was extremely fast, and with just a tremble of his sword, Yingying would immediately lose her life. When he saw Yue Buqun had lifted his sword, looking like he was going to thrust out, he shouted, "If you want to kill someone, then kill me, don't harm her."

  Yue Buqun turned his head around and laughed coldly. "You've just learned a little bit of a three-legged sword art and you think you can run amuck in Jianghu? Pick up the sword. I'll kill you to make you believe."

  "I wouldn't dare... wouldn't dare to fight against mas... fight against you," Linghu Chong stammered out.

  "Even today, what are you putting on air for?" Yue Buqun shouted. "That day on the boat on the Yellow River and the Five Tyrant Ridge, you allied yourself with the people from the unorthodox path, and deliberately made me lose face. I've already decided to kill you back then, but it's very good for you that I've been putting up with you so far. At Fuzhou, you fell into my hand. If it wasn't for my wife blocking me, I would've sent you to the King of Hell back then. I made a mistake back then, and now you've instead taken my daughter's life."

  Linghu Chong hastily called out, "I didn't... I didn't... "

  "Pick up the sword!" Yue Buqun angrily shouted. "You only have to win against this sword in my hand and then you can kill me straight away. Otherwise, I also won't spare you. This Devil Sect's witch likes to speak nonsense, let me cripple her first!" When he finished speaking, he slashed his sword to behead Yingying.

  Linghu Chong's left hand was still holding the big piece of rock. Originally, he wanted to use it to help Yue Buqun by stopping him from falling down the trap. At this point, with no time to think, he quickly tossed the rock at Yue Buqun's chest. Yue Buqun leaned his

  body to one side to dodge it. Linghu Chong rolled on the ground, picked up the long sword Yingying had dropped on the ground, and stabbed it at Yue Buqun's left leg. If Yue Buqun had slashed his sword toward Linghu Chong initially, Linghu Chong would've stood still and was prepared to get stabbed. But after hearing Yingying revealing his secret, Yue Buqun was so startled and angry that he actually chopped at Yingying first. Linghu Chong couldn't do anything else but help. Yue Buqun blocked three attacks and retreated for two steps. He was secretly amazed. He just blocked three times, but his whole arm was shaken and felt numb. When they fought at the Shaolin Temple, they fought for more than a thousand moves, but Linghu Chong didn't use his true internal energy with his sword. But at this time, he did not give way in his three attacks.

  Linghu Chong forced Yue Buqun to step back, while he extended his hand backwards to release Yingying's sealed acupoints. Yingying called out, "Don't worry about me, watch out!"

  White light flashed as Yue Buqun's long sword thrust forward. Linghu Chong had seen Dongfang Bubai, Yue Buqun, and Lin Pingzhi's martial arts, so he knew his opponent's movements were unbelievably quick like a ghost or a demon. If he waited till he saw a flaw in the oncoming attack, he would've gotten stabbed. So he counterattacked by

  slashing at Yue Buqun's lower abdomen with his long sword.

  Yue Buqun quickly leapt back and scolded, "What a fierce small thief!" Actually, even though Yue Buqun had raised Linghu Chong since he was small, he didn't understand him. If he had actually ignored Linghu Chong's counter attack and kept on thrusting his sword, he would've taken Linghu Chong's life. Even though Linghu Chong was using a

  common ruin method, he would never have continued his attack and pierced his master's lower abdomen. Yue Buqun was judging other people by what he would do himself so he immediately leapt back, missing a good opportunity to injure his opponent.

  After several moves, Yue Buqun couldn't stand it anymore so he increased the speed of his sword. Linghu Chong concentrated his mind to keep up. In the beginning, Linghu Chong was thinking that if he were to die under his master's hand, there was no pity in that for him except Yingying would also be killed. Furthermore, Yingying's word had

  harmed his master so she would definitely be tortured before she die. Thus, he exerted himself in fighting back with all of his heart so as to protect Yingying. After fighting for several dozens moves, Yue Buqun's changes became complicated. Linghu Chong concentrated fully on the fight and he was gradually enlightened. His eyes were now only looking at the point of his opponent's sword.

  With Dugu Nine Swords, the stronger the enemy was the more powerful it became. That day below the West Lake inside the prison, he fought with Ren Woxing whose martial art was of one of the highest quality which was very rare in this world. But no matter how Ren Woxing's sword rose, shifted, and changed, Linghu Chong's Dugu Nine Sword

  adapted reactively against his moves. Whether it was attacking or defending, he countered each move successfully. At present, Linghu Chong had already learned the Art of Essence Absorbing and his internal energy had improved greatly since that time below the West Lake. Even though Yue Buqun's Evil Resisting Sword Art was weird, he

  had not learnt it for very long and he was not as good as Linghu Chong who had studied his Dugu Nine Sword for quite some time now. Compared to Dongfang Bubai, Yue Buqun was much worse.

  After fighting for more than a hundred and fifty six moves, Linghu Chong didn't think deeply anymore when wielding his sword as there was barely any time to think with Yue Buqun's quick swordplay attacking him. Even though the Lin family's Evil Resisting Sword Art was made up of seventy two moves, each move had several dozens changes, and as it went through all the variations, the changes became very complicated. If other people saw this swordplay, even if they didn't become dizzy from looking at it, they would still be bewildered from seeing this complicated swordplay and they wouldn't be able to execute their own sword moves. But the Dugu Nine Swords that Linghu Chong learned had no set moves to speak of, so it was natural for him to follow the movements of his opponent. If the enemy only had one move, then he would only have one move. If

  the enemy had a thousand moves then he would also have a thousand moves. Thus, in Yue Buqun's eyes, Linghu Chong's swordplay was very complicated and was far better than his own sword art. He was afraid that even if they fought for three days and three nights, Linghu Chong would still come up with more new moves. Yue Buqun thought till here and he couldn't help feeling afraid. He also thought, "This witch from the Ren family has already found out the secret of me learning this sword art. If I can't kill these two people today, this matter will be spread throughout Jianghu. Then how can I still have the face to be the headmaster of the Five Mountains School? All of my planning

  would've been ruined
. But that traitor Lin Pingzhi already told this Ren witch, so what would prevent him from saying this to other people? This... this..." With anxiety in his heart, his swordplay became even fiercer but his mind was agitated and his swordplay was actually hindered. The Evil Resisting Sword Art depended on speed to take

  victory. If you fought for more than a hundred moves yet was still unable to win, then the fierceness of this sword art would unavoidably be lessened. Also, with his heart separated, the power of his sword art was greatly reduced.

  Linghu Chong's mind was moved as he suddenly saw a flaw in his opponent's sword art. The most important aspect of the Dugu Nine Swords was to see the weakness in the opponent's martial art. No matter whether it was bare hand, kicks, sabres, or swords, every move must have a weakness. Once a flaw has been seen, you could take

  advantage of if by attacking it. That day at the Dark Wood Cliff, he fought with Dongfang Bubai who, only holding a piece of embroidery needle, moved as fast as lightning and was unbelievably quick. So even though there were still weaknesses in the movements of his body and attacks, they were only fleeting. Linghu Chong only managed to see the flaws but they were gone in the next instant which made him unable

  to attack those flaws. That was the reason why the four masters, Linghu Chong, Ren Woxing, Xiang Wentian, and Yingying, were unable to win against a little embroidery needle. Later on, Linghu Chong saw Yue Buqun and Zuo Lengchan fighting at the place of worship, and Lin Pingzhi fighting with Mu Gaofeng, Yu Canghai, and the Qingcheng

  disciples. Recently, he had been thinking hard about the flaws in the movements of that sword art, but he had always run into the single difficulty -- the speed of the opponent's swordplay. When a flaw could only be seen fleetingly, it was very hard to attack.

  At this time, he had endured fighting against Yue Buqun for close to two hundred moves when he saw Yue Buqun exposing a weakness underneath his right armpit in a slash of his sword. Yue Buqun had used this move earlier. Originally, the changes in his swordplay were very complicated and he didn't repeat any of his moves in the past two hundred moves. But now, he has finally repeated one move. After several more moves, Yue Buqun's long sword slashed out horizontally exposing a weakness on his left waist. He had again repeated another move. Suddenly, a thought flashed in Linghu Chong's mind, "His Evil Resisting Sword Art is extremely quick, and his flaws aren't actual flaws. Even though there's no weakness in his sword moves, I've finally found out a weakness in his swordplay -- his swordplay repeats."

  In this world, in whichever sword art, no matter how complicated and how many changes your swordplay had, you would eventually finish using all the sword moves. Once the sword moves were used up and you still weren't able to gain victory, then it would be unavoidable that you would have to reuse the sword moves you had used earlier in the fight. But for masters, their refined sword arts would always have eight or ten groups, and within each group there would be dozens of moves, and each move would have its variations. So it was very unusual for them to fight for more than a thousand moves before the outcome of the fight was decided. Even though Yue Buqun knows a lot of other swordplay he could use, he knew Linghu Chong's sword art was actually too strong and that Linghu Chong was also familiar with the Huashan School's sword art. So besides the Evil Resisting Sword Art, there was no other sword art he could use that could gain victory. By now, Yue Buqun had repeated many moves. Knowing he now had the opportunities to take victory, Linghu Chong felt happy.

  When Yue Buqun saw the corner of Linghu Chong's mouth smiling, he was secretly startled. Yue Buqun thought, "What's this little thief smiling about? Has he figured out a way to defeat me?" He immediately moved his internal energy, and was suddenly advancing and retreating to go around Linghu Chong in a circle. His sword moves were like a violent storm and they were getting faster and faster. Yingying was still lying down on the ground and from her position, she couldn't see Yue Buqun's body clearly anymore. She felt dizzy looking at him; her chest felt nauseated and she felt like throwing up.

  After fighting for thirty more moves, Yue Buqun's left hand stabbed forward while he withdrew his right hand. Linghu Chong knew this was the third time he had used this move. After fighting for so long, Linghu Chong felt tired as his injury was just beginning to heal. He knew the situation was highly dangerous, and under Yue Buqun's lightning fast attack, if he was just slightly careless, he would lose his life and Yingying would be tortured. So seeing Yue Buqun using this move again, he immediately sent his sword out and stabbed it at his opponent's right armpit. The spot that this slanting sword was stabbing at was the weakness of Yue Buqun's next move. This was really anticipating what the enemy was going to do and made Yue Buqun's really anxious. Even though this move by Yue Buqun was extremely quick, Linghu Chong's attack was done earlier. The move from the Evil Resisting Sword Art had not changed yet, but Linghu Chong had already thrust at Yue Buqun's armpit making him unable to block or dodge. Yue Buqun cried out sharply, sounding surprised, angry, and desperate. Linghu Chong's sword had already arrived at his opponent's armpit, but when he heard Yue Buqun's sharp cry, he

  immediately thought, "I'm going too far, he's my master, how can I injure him?" He quickly pulled his sword back and said, "The winner and loser has been decided. Let's save Master-Wife, then... then we'll go our own ways!"

  Yue Buqun's face was pale as he slowly nodded his head. "Alright! I admit defeat."

  Linghu Chong tossed his long sword on the ground and turned his head around to look at Yingying. Suddenly, Yue Buqun shouted and his long sword thrust out as fast as lightning and stabbed Linghu Chong's left waist. Greatly astonished, Linghu Chong quickly extended his hand to pick up his sword. But how could he be fast enough? With a 'pu' sound, the point of the sword had entered the back of his waist. Luckily, Linghu Chong's internal energy was abundant. When the sword reached his body, his muscle automatically retracted, making the sword slid to one side so that the sword point pierced his body slantingly and did not injure any fatal points. Yue Buqun was exulted. He pulled out his sword and quickly followed it with a chop. Linghu Chong hastily rolled for a few feet. Yue Buqun rushed forward with his sword slashing ferociously. Linghu Chong rolled again.

  'Tang' sounded as Yue Buqun's sword chopped the ground and missed Linghu Chong's head by only a few inches. Yue Buqun lifted his sword, and with a fierce-looking laugh, he lifted his sword high above his head. He rushed forward for a step and chopped his sword down on Linghu Chong's head again. Suddenly, there was nothing underneath his

  foot, and his body slumped to the ground. He was greatly surprised and nervously sucked in a breath of air and was waiting for his right foot to hit the ground to leap up. But all of a sudden, the sky revolved and the ground turned, and he lost consciousness. With a booming sound, he fell into the trap.

  Linghu Chong had just escaped from death. Using his left hand, he pressed on the wound on his waist and struggled to sit up. Then he heard several people calling out at the same time from the underbrush, "Young lady! Sacred Lady!" Several people rushed out. They were Bao Dachu, Elder Mo, and the other four Devil Sect people. Bao Dachu was

  the first to arrive on the side of the trap. He held his breath, reversed his sabre, and hit Yue Buqun's head repeatedly. He knew Yue Buqun's internal energy was good so the confusion poison wouldn't affect him for long. These hits would put him out for half a day. Linghu Chong hastily scrambled besides Yingying and asked, "Which... which acupoints did he seal?"

  "You... You... Are you ... Are you alright?" Yingying was frightened. Her voice quivered and she found it hard to control herself. Her teeth were chattering.

  "I won't die, don't... don't be afraid."

  "Behead that bastard!" Yingying shouted.

  "Yes!" Bao Dachu acknowledged.

  "Don't kill him!" Linghu Chong hastily interrupted.

  Yingying saw he was worried, so she said, "Alright, then quickly... quickly capture him."

  She didn't know there was confusion poison in the trap a
lready and she was afraid Yue Buqun would jump up again since no one up on the ground was Yue Buqun's match.

  "As ordered!" Bao Dachu acknowledged. He didn't dare to say that they had dug the trap themselves and that they had been hiding on the side all this time. But when the young lady was captured by Yue Buqun, everyone was afraid of dying so they didn't dare to go out and help. If someone looked into this matter, this would become a big thing, so they had to pretend that they had arrived there by luck and sheer coincidence. Bao Dachu clutched the back of Yue Buqun's neck and lifted him up. Then his hand shot out like the wind and he sealed twelve of Yue Buqun's acupoints. He then took out some rope and tied both of Yue Buqun's hands and legs tightly. Confusion poison, hits on the head, sealed acupoints, and tied ropes -- these were four things that restricted Yue Buqun. Even if Yue Buqun's skill was much higher, it would still be very hard for him to escape.

  Linghu Chong and Yingying were looking at each other like they were in a dream. After a long time, Yingying cried and Linghu Chong hugged her. Having escaped from death just then, they both felt life couldn't be sweeter. After Linghu Chong helped release Yingying's sealed acupoints, he saw his Master-Wife was still lying on the ground.

  "Aiyo!" Linghu Chong called out. He quickly went over to help her up and release her acupoints. "Master-Wife, sorry for the offence."

  Madam Yue had seen everything. She knew Linghu Chong's personality and knew he had a very deep love toward Yue Lingshan. Linghu Chong had treated Yue Lingshan like she was a goddess from heaven, so he would never have dared to offend her at all. He didn't even dare to scold Yue Lingshan and he was even willing to risk his life for her.

  To think that he would torture or kill her, that was just a very ridiculous thing to think of. Moreover, she had seen with her own eyes how well he treated Yingying, so how could his personality be different? Linghu Chong used his sword to stop her husband but he

  stilled his hand from killing him. On the other hand, her husband, the respectable headmaster of the Five Mountains School, had suddenly become violent and unexpectedly used a despicable method that even people from the unorthodox path despised and other people would mock at. Madam Yue felt completely discouraged. She lightly asked, "Chong'er, was Shan'er really killed by Lin Pingzhi?"