by Jin Yong
"There are turncoats in this cave, traitors who need to be killed," Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Even if you forgive Linghu Chong, there's nowhere he can go to!"
A short time later, clashing of weapons and shouting erupted. Linghu Chong squatted on the ground. After a short while, still no one attacked him. He strained to listen to Yingying's voice while pondering, "Yingying is far more careful and cleverer than me. In the middle of this ambush, she'd definitely not play her qin. I only hope no sword is being thrust at her." He heard the fighting between the crowd and those blind men was really fierce, they were fighting fiercely while also hurling curses. The curse 'scram your granny' was even heard. This 'scram your granny' was really grating to the ears. When common people uses this swear words, they always say 'go to your mum', or 'hold your granny', sometimes people also use 'scram your mother bastard', but it was rare to hear someone uses 'scram your granny'. Linghu Chong pondered, "Is this a swear word special to their provinces?" After listening for a while, he found that this swear word 'scram your granny' was used quite often by a few people. Once this swear word was uttered by both people fighting, the fighting would stop immediately. But if only one person uttered this swear word, then the fighting between them would continue. He immediately understood, "So this is the code for those blind men to distinguish each other." In that darkness, randomly slashing and killing, it was hard to determine friends or foes. Those blind men had determined a code beforehand and when they started fighting they would first called out this swear word 'scram your granny'. When two people cursed the same swear word, they were friends. Otherwise, they would kill their opponents. No one uses this swear word, so this code word was something that the enemy wouldn't use to curse someone with.
Once he understood this, he immediately stood up and put his sword in front of his chest. The swearing of 'scram your granny' was getting more frequent, while the clashing of weapons and the shouting were gradually dying. It seemed the people from Taishan, Hengshan, and Songshan Schools had been massacred. Linghu Chong had not heard of Yingying's voice. He was worried that Yingying had been killed earlier, but he was also happy that she didn't suffer under the hands of these blind men. He also thought, "The disciples of Songshan must've found out the cave in Huashan contained their own school's wonderful sword art so they quickly came here to take a look. This behaviour is quite common in people. But they didn't have time to report, so Zuo Lengchan just decided to kill them all and doesn't hold back at all. He must be thinking of killing me, but since he can't distinguish anyone, he even killed all his disciples who had only done a little bit of wrong." After some time, the sound of fighting ceased.
"Everyone," Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Go around the cave and give them another chop."
The blind men acknowledged his order, then the sound of sword slashing was heard going here and there. Two swords were chopping down in front of Linghu Chong, and he lifted his sword to block. Two hoarse voices shouting 'scram your granny' were heard and unexpectedly nobody realised what had happened. After some time, besides those blind men cursing and the clashing of weapons, there was no other noise. But Linghu Chong was still worried and he nearly cried, wanting to cry out, "Yingying, Yingying, where are you?"
"Stop!" Zuo Lengchan commanded.
Those blind men sheathed their swords and stood still. Zuo Lengchan laughed happily and said, "Those traitors have all been eliminated. These shameless people, just because they wanted to learn some sword moves, they actually swore loyalty to that bastard Yue Buqun. That little bastard Linghu Chong must've died under your swords! Haha! Haha! Linghu Chong, Linghu Chong, are you dead yet?" Linghu Chong held his breath and didn't reply.
"Pingzhi," Zuo Lengchan said. "Today, you've killed the person you hate the most. You must be satisfied."
"The whole battle was thought of by Brother Zuo," Lin Pingzhi replied. "It was wonderfully set up."
Linghu Chong thought, "Zuo Lengchan and him are praising each other. In order to get his Evil Resisting Sword Art, Zuo Lengchan is being very polite to him."
"If you didn't know of another secret path into this tunnel," Zuo Lengchan said. "It would've been hard for us to get our revenge."
"But it's a pity," Lin Pingzhi. "In all that confusion I didn't get the chance to kill that little bastard Linghu Chong myself."
Linghu Chong thought, "I've never offended him before. Why does he detest me so much?"
"It doesn't matter who killed him, it's all the same," Zuo Lengchan replied in whisper. "Let's go out quickly. I think Yue Buqun should be guarding outside of the cave now. We should take advantage of the darkness to rush out."
"Yes!" Lin Pingzhi acknowledged. The sound of footsteps was heard as their party entered the tunnel. Sound of footsteps gradually got farther away, and after a while, it was all quiet.
"Yingying," Linghu Chong whispered. "Where are you?" His voice sounded like he was weeping.
Suddenly, someone from above his head whispered, "I'm here. Don't make any noise!"
Linghu Chong was happy and both his knees became soft as he sat down on the ground. When those blind men randomly slashed their swords around, the safest place to be was up there. A place where no weapon can reach. This was a very obvious and simple point, but when faced with death, everyone's mind was in chaos and didn't think of this.
Yingying leapt down. Linghu Chong jumped up and tossed his sword away before embracing her tightly. They were both sobbing happily. Linghu Chong lightly kissed her forehead and whispered, "You really frightened me to death just before."
In the darkness, Yingying didn't avoid it and she lightly replied, "You were cursing people 'scram your granny'. Nevertheless, I heard it was your voice."
Linghu Chong couldn't help smiling as he asked, "You're not injured at all?"
"No."
"I heard the qin's sound before and wasn't worried anymore. But then I felt that I've stabbed a girl and the qin's sound became broken, not making up a tune, so I thought I've wounded you. Later on, there was no sound at all and I didn't know what had happened."
Yingying smiled. "I've jumped up there early on. I was afraid someone might find out so I couldn't call out to you. So I had to toss coins down to strike that yaoqin to let you know."
Linghu Chong sighed and said, "That's how it is. I never knew. I deserve to be hit, deserve to be hit!" He took her hand and lightly hit his own cheeks. "You're marrying such a stupid man," Linghu Chong chuckled. "This can be considered to be Young Lady Ren's bad luck. I felt it was really odd. If you were the one playing the yaoqin, why weren't you playing the 'Song of Peace and Serenity' or maybe the 'Smiling Proud Wanderer'?"
Yingying let him hugged her. "If I could toss coins in the darkness to make the yaoqin play out a tune, then I'll be a deity."
Linghu Chong laughingly said, "You are a deity."
When Yingying heard his words were teasing her, she struggled wanting to get away from his embrace. Linghu Chong tightly held on to her and asked, "Later on, why did you stop throwing the coins to strike the qin?"
"I'm poor," Yingying laughingly replied. "I don't have that much money on me. After throwing a few of them, I ran out."
Linghu Chong sighed. "It's a pity there's no money farm in this cave, there's also no store here. Young lady Ren has no money to use and there's no place to borrow money."
Yingying also laughed and said, "After that, I even used my hairpin and earrings. But when those blind men started killing, I didn't dare to throw things anymore because their hearings are very acute."
Suddenly, there was a gloomy cold laugh coming from the tunnel's entrance. Linghu Chong and Yingying gasped in surprise. Linghu Chong's left arm embraced Yingying while his right hand grabbed the long sword on the ground. He shouted, "Who's there?"
That person coldly replied, "Hero Linghu, it's me!" The voice was Lin Pingzhi's. Then they heard footsteps coming from the tunnel, the blind men had returned.
Linghu Chong scolded himself for being so careless. Zuo Lengchan was an o
ld bastard and he was also very cunning, so how could he just go like that? They must've stayed in the tunnel listening to the noises inside the cave. If he was by himself, he would've wasted some time before trying to escape. But with Yingying and him worrying over each other and delighted over their reunion, he didn't think the enemy could've stayed not far from there and was watching them from the outside. Yingying put her hand underneath Linghu Chong's armpit and whispered, "Go up!" The two of them jumped up.
Yingying had earlier rested on the rock jutting out of the wall so she knew where it was. In the darkness, she applied the right amount of force to go up and steadily landed on it. But Linghu Chong missed and he instead landed back down. Yingying grabbed his arm and pulled him back up. This rock only jutted out for around three to four feet. Both of them were crowded and it wasn't easy for them to steadily stand there. Linghu Chong thought, "Yingying thinks very fast. Both of us are on top looking down, so it won't be easy for those blind men to attack us."
"Those two little ghosts jumped up," Zuo Lengchan said.
"Yes!" Lin Pingzhi acknowledged.
"Linghu Chong," Zuo Lengchan said. "Are you going to hide up there for the rest of your life?"
Linghu Chong didn't reply. He was thinking if he uttered a single noise then his hiding place would be discovered. His right hand held his sword while his left hand was wrapped around Yingying's waist. Yingying's left hand was holding a short sword and her right hand was also wrapped around his waist. They felt comforted to be able to be together, they had no regret even if they had to die right now.
"Who blinded your eyes?" Zuo Lengchan shouted. "Have you forgotten it?"
More than ten blind men roared and jumped up while randomly thrusting. Linghu Chong and Yingying still didn't make any sound, and those blind men stabbed at empty spaces. The second time they leapt up, one of the blind men was only around a foot beyond the jutting rock. Linghu Chong heard the wind around him as he jumped up, he thrust his sword forward and pierced the blind man's chest. That blind man cried out and fell on the ground. With that happened, the others discovered their hiding place. Six to seven people leapt up at the same time slashing and thrusting their swords. Even though Linghu Chong and Yingying couldn't see those blind men, the distance between the jutting rock and the ground was around twenty feet. The people jumping up produced a lot of wind noise so they were easy to distinguish. They thrust their swords out and killed two people. The rest of the blind men looked up and hurled abuses at them. For a while, they didn't dare to leap up and attack.
A short time later, the sound of wind was heard and two people had jumped up from the left and right. Linghu Chong and Yingying lifted their swords to block.
'Zheng, zheng'. Four swords collided.
Linghu Chong's right hand ached and his long sword was nearly knocked out of his hand. He knew the person who had attacked was Zuo Lengchan himself. Yingying cried out in pain as her shoulder was hit by a sword and she swayed. Linghu Chong quickly pulled her in with his left hand. Those two people jumped up again to attack. Linghu Chong thrust his long sword towards the person attacking Yingying. Both swords collided, and that person's long sword changed quickly into a slash. Linghu Chong knew this enemy was Lin Pingzhi. There was no time to block the incoming sword so he quickly lowered his head and stooped his body. He felt the cold wind as Lin Pingzhi slashed at Yingying. His body was in mid air but he unexpectedly was able to do three moves. This Evil Resisting Sword Art was truly formidable.
Linghu Chong was afraid he might injure Yingying so he hugged her and leapt down with her. With his back leaning on the cave wall, he started to slash his sword around. Suddenly he heard Zuo Lengchan's long laugh. A sword attacked and with a clashing sound, both swords had again collided. Linghu Chong was shaken and he felt a little internal energy coming from the sword. His whole body involuntarily shook. Suddenly he remembered of the day when Ren Woxing was at Shaolin Temple using his 'Art of Essence Absorbing' to suck Zuo Lengchan's internal energy. Who could've known that Zuo Lengchan's internal energy would be so formidable that in just a short time, Ren Woxing was frozen. This time he was doing the same strategy again and to avoid falling into his trap, Linghu Chong quickly pushed the internal energy out but suddenly he felt a tremendous energy coming back, and his fingers involuntarily loosened and his sword flew out of his hand. Linghu Chong's whole skill depended on a long sword, so he quickly stooped down and felt around the ground for another sword. More than two hundred people had died inside that cave and the ground was filled with weapons so he could just pick a sabre up and hold up momentarily. Yingying and he had turned blind in this cave while being attacked by these ten or so blind men who had turned not blind. It was no luck that they had survived so far, but no matter what, they were unwilling to just give up their lives so easily. After feeling around for a while, he touched the face of a dead person. It was cold and sticky, he hastily hugged Yingying and retreated for a couple of steps.
'Zheng, zheng!' Yingying brandished her short sword to block the incoming thrust from the two swords. This was followed by a cry as the short sword in Yingying's hand was knocked flying off. Linghu Chong was worried, he stooped down again and found something that felt like a short stick. In this critical situation, he didn't have time to think when he felt a strong wind rushing from his front. Another sword had slashed at him. He immediately put the stick up to block. With a cracking sound, that short stick was cut off by the sword.
Linghu Chong lowered his head to let the long sword go pass. Suddenly, he saw some light dots in front of him. These light dots were very weak, but inside this dark cave, they were just like a star coming out of the horizon. The enemies' bodies and their swords could be distinguished faintly. Linghu Chong and Yingying gasped at the same time as they saw Zuo Lengchan thrust his sword again. Linghu Chong lifted his short stick to stab it at Zuo Lengchan's throat, which was exactly the flaw in his sword move. Unexpectedly, even though Zuo Lengchan was blind, his response was still very fast as he used the move 'Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate' to leap back while his mouth was cursing loudly. Yingying stooped down, picked up a long sword, took the short stick from Linghu Chong's hand, and at the same time gave the long sword to him. She brandished the short stick causing glimmering around the cave.
Linghu Chong's spirit was greatly roused. As this was a matter of life and death, he didn't hold back. With a curse 'scram your granny', he killed a blind man. The sword coming out of his hand was much faster than the cursing coming out of his mouth. After swearing six of these 'scram your granny', the twelve blind men in the cave had all been killed. Moreover, some of these blind men were slow witted, so hearing him screaming 'scram your granny', they thought he was one of their own, so why would they need to fight? They had not realised anything when the sword had already pierced their throats and they were on their way to death's door to see their grannies.
Zuo Lengchan and Lin Pingzhi didn't understand what was going on, they both asked, "Is there a torch?" Their voices were frightened.
"That's right!" Linghu Chong shouted as he attacked Zuo Lengchan three times. Zuo Lengchan distinguished the incoming attack from the wind and managed to block the three attacks, but Linghu Chong felt his arm was aching. It was the cold energy coming from the sword again. After a tick, everything was still as he held his sword motionless. Zuo Lengchan couldn't hear the wind from his sword and he was getting anxious. He vigorously slashed his sword to protect the fatal points around his body.
Linghu Chong relied on the faint light coming out of the short stick in Yingying's hand as he slowly sent his sword forward, and slowly aimed it at Lin Pingzhi's right arm. Inch by inch, it crept forward. Lin Pingzhi was straining his ear trying to listen to his sword path, but Linghu Chong's sword was slowly going inch by inch, so how could he hear anything? The point of the sword was now only half a foot away from his right arm. With a jerk, it shot forward and hit Lin Pingzhi's right arm's bone and flesh. Lin Pingzhi cried out and dropped his long sword,
while his body flew upwards. Linghu Chong stabbed twice and got both of his legs. Lin Pingzhi fell down on the ground cursing and swearing loudly. Linghu Chong turned around and saw Zuo Lengchan. Under the faint light, he saw him gritting his teeth and his expression terrifying while he was slashing his long sword around. Even though the sword moves he was using were very wonderful, but under 'Dugu Nine Sword', there was no place that was flawless.
Linghu Chong thought, "This person is the one who incited the disturbance in Wulin. I can't go easy on him!"
With a roar, he brandished his long sword. Zuo Lengchan was stabbed between the eyes, throat, and chest. Linghu Chong leapt back for two steps and pulled Yingying's hand. He saw Zuo Lengchan standing there for a long time before falling on the ground. His long sword turned over and stabbed his own stomach until it penetrated all the way through. Both of them calmed themselves down. They looked at the short stick in Yingying's hand but the light was too dim so they couldn't see it clearly. They had no torch on their bodies and Linghu Chong was afraid Lin Pingzhi might attack them again so he cut off the tendons in his left arm. Then he went to the dead people's body to fish out some flint and steel, after feeling out the second person, that person's bosom was also empty. He thought for a while then shouted, "Scram your granny, of course these blind men aren't bringing any flint and steel." When he felt the fifth person, he finally found flint and steel and light up a paper.
The two of them shouted in surprise.
The stick in Yingying's hand was unexpectedly a bone with one of its ends cut off to a sharp point! Yingying was stupified and she threw that bone on the ground. She then laughingly cursed, "Scram your..." She only uttered these two words when she felt they were not elegant so she immediately pursed her lips up.