The Smiling, Proud Wanderer 15 Chapter Eight: Meditation Part 2

Seeing the knife hand swis.h.i.+ng down toward her head, Yue Lingshan slashed her sword upwards. That was exactly the move Linghu Chong had expected. He reached out his left hand in a flash and flicked out with his middle finger. "Ring," his finger knocked on the blade of the long sword. Yue Lingshan only felt a burning pain in her palm and could no longer hold on to the sword. The sword flew out of her grip and fell straight down the bottomless abyss.

Her face as pale as a white sheet, Yue Lingshan stared silently at Linghu Chong in disbelief and astonishment, biting her lower lip hard with her upper teeth. "Oops!" Linghu Chong cried, and immediately rushed by the edge of the cliff, but the sword has disappeared in the bottomless valley and could no longer be seen. Suddenly, a green shadow flashed by the side of the cliff. It seemed to have been a piece of a robe. But when Linghu Chong looked more carefully, it was already gone. His heart thumped hard as he thought aloud, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? I've practiced and sparred with little apprentice sister thousands of times before. Every time I would give ground to her and had never acted so mercilessly like today. I am really being ridiculous!"

Yue Lingshan cast a sideway look down the valley as she cried out loud, "The sword! The sword!"

Linghu Chong was stunned when he suddenly remembered that little apprentice sister's long sward was an exceptional sword that could cut steel. It was called "Sword of the Green Pool," and was acquired by Master in Dragon-Spring, Zhejiang Province[2] three years ago. Ever since little apprentice sister laid eyes on it, she could not keep her mind off it. She had begged for it from Master many times and Master never agreed until her eighteenth birthday this year when Master gave the sword to her as her birthday present. Now the sword had fallen into the bottomless valley, there would be no way to retrieve it back.

"What a terrible mistake have I made?" Linghu Chong regretted full heartedly.

Tears rolling in her eyes, Yue Lingshan stomped her left foot in frustration and then turned around to leave.

"Little apprentice sister!" Linghu Chong called out, but Yue Lingshan ignored him and started heading off the cliff. Linghu Chong chased her to the side of the cliff and reached out for her arm, but as soon as his fingers touched Yue Lingshan's sleeve, he drew his arm back and watched her leave without ever looking back.

Feeling very depressed, Linghu Chong thought aloud, "Normally I would have put up with her and give in to her, but why did I flick away her sword today? Am I envying her because Master-Wife taught her the Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword? No, no way. It can't be! The Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword were meant for female apprentices, and wouldn't I be happier that little apprentice sister is learning more Kung Fu? Ah, probably it's because I have been alone on the cliff for too long and have become ill tempered. I only wish she would come up the cliff again tomorrow so I can apologize to her sincerely."

That night Linghu Chong could not sleep. He sat cross-legged on a rock and tried to work on his breathing exercise, but he simply could not stay focus, and he dared not to continue. Moonlight shone through the opening of the cave and lit the rock wall. Noticing the words "Feng Qingyang" carved on the rock wall again, Linghu Chong reached out and started writing following the strokes carved on the rock wall. Suddenly, the wall darkened as a shadow was cast upon the rock wall. In astonishment, Linghu Chong picked up the sword by his side, with no time to unsheathe the sword, he just thrust it toward his back. When it was half way out, he suddenly retracted his strength and turned around as he called out in joy, "Little apprentice sister!" But it wasn't his little apprentice sister.

A thin and tall man stood about a dozen feet away from the cave. Dressed in a green robe, he stood with his back toward the moonlight; a piece of green cloth covered his face, leaving only his eyes showing. Linghu Chong didn't recall ever seeing this man before, so he yelled, "Who are you?" and jumped out of the cave with his sword drawn. The man didn't answer, but raised his right hand and chopped twice toward his front-right, which turned out to be two moves out of the Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword Yue Lingshan had used in the day. Linghu Chong was greatly surprised, although by now he had dropped most of his animosity toward the man.

"Are you a senior in our sword school?" he asked, when suddenly a strong wind of energy came upon his face. With no time to think, Linghu Chong slashed out with his sword, but at the meantime, a slight pain came from his left shoulder. It had been hit by the man's hand. It seemed that the man did not use any inner energy when he struck with his hand. In great fear and astonishment, Linghu Chong hurriedly slid a couple of steps toward his left. The man did not follow up, and simply used his hand as a sword, and within moments of time, he had shown the dozens of moves included in those six stances of the Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword smoothly with no interruptions. The dozens of moves were executed as if they were all part of one big move. The speed he had shown was simply unthinkable. Under the moonlight, Linghu Chong could see clearly that every move had been used by Yue Lingshan during the day. But how could he have executed all those dozens of moves as if it was just one big move? Linghu Chong's jaw dropped and his body seemed to have frozen. The man flicked his long sleeves and walked off around the back of the cliff.

It was already a good while later when Linghu Chong was finally able to regain himself. "Senior Master! Senior Master!" he called out loud, but by the time he ran to the backside of the cliff, all he found was the sliverish moonlight reflected by the ground. There was no one to be found.

"Who is he?" Linghu Chong gasped and thought aloud. "When he showed the Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword, I would stand no chance flicking away his sword, and every move from him could have chopped my hand off. No, it's not only my hand. He could have stabbed me anywhere he wants or cut me anywhere he wishes. With those six stances of the Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword, I would be like a piece of meat on somebody's chopping block – totally be at his mercy. It turned out that this sword form is actually so powerful." He pondered upon it a bit more and then thought, "Apparently the power didn't come from the sword moves but the way he used his sword. With such a method, I wouldn't be able to defend myself no matter what kind of ordinary moves he uses. Who is this man? Why is he on top of Mount Huashan?"

He pondered upon the question for a long time but still had no clue. Finally he gave up, thinking that Master and Master-Wife must know about this man, and when little apprentice sister comes up the cliff again tomorrow, he could ask her to inquire about it from Master and Master-Wife.

But Yue Lingshan didn't come up the next day, nor did she come the third day or the forth day. Only after a total of eighteen days, she finally came up the cliff together with Lu Dayou. Having longed for Yue Lingshan for eighteen days and nights, Linghu Chong had a stomach full of words to tell her, but with Lu Dayou by the side, he simply could not spill them out.

After dinner, knowing Linghu Chong's feelings, Lu Dayou suggested, "Big apprentice brother, little apprentice sister, since you two haven't seen each other for many days, why don't you two have a good chat here. I'll take the basket down first."

"Monkey Six, are you trying to run away from me? We came together, so we'll leave together too," Yue Lingshan said with a grin as she stood up.

"Little apprentice sister, I have something to talk to you about," Linghu Chong said.

"Sure. Monkey Six, stop right there. Big apprentice brother has some advice for us," Yue Lingshan said to Lu Dayou.

"It's not about advice." Linghu Chong shook his head. "That 'Sword of the Green Pool' of yours…."

Yue Lingshan cut him short quickly. "I've told Mom that I was being too careless and the sword slipped out of my hand down the valley when I was practicing the Nineteen Stances of Jade Maiden Sword. It's nowhere to be found now. I had a good weep. Mom not only didn't yell at me, but she also comforted me and promised to get me another good blade next time. This really is history now. There's no need to mention it again." She shrugged with a smile on her face.

The more easily she acted, the more disturbed Linghu Chong felt. "After I fulfill my punishment so I can get down the cliff again, I'll find a good blade to repay you." Linghu Chong promised.

"We are apprentice brothers and sisters. Don't worry about the sword. And it did fall into the deep valley because I couldn't hold on to it. It's all because I didn't really master my Kung Fu skills. Who else is there to blame? Let's just 'gi'ton wit.i.t'n falla ya'n distini'." Yue Lingshan started giggling.

"What did you say?" Linghu Chong was lost.

"Oh, yeah, you don't know. Little Lin always liked to say 'get on with it and follow your own destiny,' but he's got a heavy accent, so I imitate him to make fun of him. Hha! 'Gi'ton wit.i.t'n falla ya'n distini'!"

Linghu Chong squeezed out a dry smile. He suddenly remembered something. "That day when little apprentice sister used the Nineteen Stances of the Jade Maiden Sword, why did I pick the Pine-Wind Sword Art of the Qingcheng Sword School as the counter? In my subconscious, did I actually want to counter apprentice brother Lin's Evil-Resisting Sword Art? His entire family and the Fortune Prestige Escort House of his Lin family were completely ruined by the Qingcheng Sword School. Was I intentionally being sarcastic? Why was I so harsh and mean?" Then he thought some more about it. "The other day, in the Jade House of Hengshan Town, I almost got killed from Yu Canghai's palm strike. It was all because of apprentice brother Lin's yelling of 'A senior bullies a junior, how shameless' with disregard of his own safety, Yu Canghai held back the strike. I really owe apprentice brother Lin the big favor of life and death." At that thought, he felt very ashamed of himself as he heaved a long breath out.

"Apprentice brother Lin is very bright and he also works hard. After the last couple of months of training by little apprentice sister, he probably has progressed very rapidly. It's a pity that within the year of my punishment, I can't leave the cliff. Otherwise, because of the favor I owe him, I really should have helped him with his sword training myself." Linghu Chong sighed.

"How did Little Lin do you a favor? How come I have never heard anything about it from him?" Yue Lingshan raised her eyebrows.

"Of course he won't be bragging about it himself." Linghu Chong explained and then told the story about that day at the Jade House.

Yue Lingshan seemed to have lost in her thought for a moment. "No wonder Dad said that he had the character of the chivalry kind, and that's why Dad saved him from the 'Hunchback of the North.' He is so muddle-headed. So he actually came out boldly for you, too, with that loud yell of his." At these words, she couldn't help and giggled some more. "With his little Kung Fu skills, he actually saved the big apprentice brother of Huashan Sword School, and also came forward for the sake of Huashan Head Master's daughter and whacked the beloved son of the Head Master of the Qingcheng Sword School. Just with those two achievements, he could have gained a lot of fame in the Martial World. But n.o.body would have guessed that such a big hero, who likes to defend people against an injustice, hha, Big Hero Lin Pingzhi, has such terrible Kung Fu skills?"

"One can learn Kung Fu skills, but the character of the chivalry type comes when one gets born. And that's what differentiate people's moral standings," Linghu Chong said.

"Dad and Mom said the same thing about Little Lin." Yue Lingshan smiled. "Big apprentice brother, other than the character of chivalry, there's one more thing that both of you have."

"What other thing? Bad temper?" Linghu Chong asked.

"It's the feeling of pride. Both of you are quite proud of yourself," Yue Lingshan answered.

Lu Dayou suddenly cut in the conversation. "Big apprentice brother is the leader of all the apprentice brothers and sisters, it's natural for him to feel the pride. Who the heck does that chap Lin think he is? What makes him think he is worthy to show his pride in the Huashan Sword School?" A tone of hostility toward Lin Pingzhi was clearly shown.

"Monkey Six, when did apprentice brother Lin offend you?" Linghu Chong asked in shock.

"He never offended me. It's just that we apprentice brothers don't like his att.i.tude," Lu Dayou said irritably.

"Sixth apprentice brother, what's the matter with you? Why are you always so hard on Little Lin? He is your junior apprentice brother. As a senior, you should treat him nice and not pick on his mistakes," Yue Lingshan said.

"If he knows his place and behaves himself, I'd have no problem with him, otherwise, I would be the first one to jump on to him." Lu Dayou grunted.

"How did he not know his place and behave himself?" Yue Lingshan challenged.

"He…he…he…," Lu Dayou answered but stopped short.

"What are you trying to say? Why are you hesitating?" Yue Lingshan charged.

"I hope I got it wrong and thought of it in the wrong way," Lu Dayou croaked.

Yue Lingshan blushed slightly and stopped asking. Lu Dayou said that he wanted to go back now, and Yue Lingshan left the cliff together with him.

Seized with gloominess, Linghu Chong stood by the edge of the cliff and gazed at their receding figures until they turned around the shoulder of the pa.s.s. Soon, Yue Lingshan's loud and clear singing wafted up the cliff from behind the mountain shoulder. It was a lively and smooth tune. Linghu Chong grew up together with Yue Lingshan and had listened to her singing for many times, but he had never heard of this tune before. Yue Lingshan had always been singing Shanxi[3] folk songs – the kind that had a long ending sound that would be echoing around the valleys. But this one sounded more like water drops dripping down a fountain and each word was short and clear. Linghu Chong tried to listen to the lyrics, but could only hear something like "sisters, let's go uphill to pick tea." She had some odd p.r.o.nunciations; Linghu Chong could hear the words, but he could only recognize probably the meaning of one out of ten words. He thought, "When did little apprentice sister learn this new song? It is a very pleasant song. I'll have to ask her to sing this one again from the beginning next time when she comes up the cliff."

Suddenly, he almost felt like a hammer had just smashed his chest as he realized, "This is a Fujian[4] folk song. Apprentice brother Lin must have taught her this one!"

That night, Linghu Chong couldn't sleep. Disquieting thoughts surged in his mind. It seemed as if Yue Lingshan's lively but hard to understand singing still echoed around his ears. "Linghu Chong! You've always been so unrestrained and carefree before, but today you can't even put aside your worry just because of a song. How can you still call yourself a true man?" he kept blaming himself.

Knowing very clearly that he shouldn't be still thinking about it, but the Fujian folk song sang by Yue Lingshan kept wafting around his ears. Linghu Chong felt great pain in his heart. In frustration, he picked up his sword and chopped and slashed toward the rock wall like a mad man. Feeling a stream of inner energy rising from his abdomen, he thrust the sword out, the posture and the way he used his energy happened to be just like the move taught by Madam Yue – Unrivaled and Unmatched, The Thrust of Ning. With a piercing sound, the sword surprisingly went into the rock wall all the way to the sword handle.

Linghu Chong was astounded. He knew too well that no matter how quickly he had advanced his Kung Fu skills in the last several months, it would still be impossible for him to jab his sword into the rock wall all the way to the handle. That would require putting superb inner energy onto the sword blade so that the blade could be jabbed into a rock as if the rock was a rotten piece of wood. Even Master or Master-Wife wouldn't have such magical skills. He stood there as if he was in a trance, then he pulled at the sword handle and drew the blade out when he suddenly realized from the feel with his hand: the rock wall was only a very thin layer of rock. It was empty after about two or three inches deep – there was a cave on the other side of the rock wall.

Linghu Chong's mind was now filled with curiosity. He lifted his sword and thrust again. "Clank!" This time the long sword broke in half. It turned out that because he didn't use enough inner energy, the sword couldn't even penetrate a two or three inches thick layer of rock. He spilled out a couple swears and then picked up a big rock from outside the cave. This time he used all his might and threw the rock at the rock wall, which smashed the rock wall hard and produced some vague echoes from behind the rock wall – apparently there was quite some s.p.a.cious room behind it. He smashed the rock against the rock wall once again, and this time with a loud bang, the rock went through the rock wall and landed on the floor in the other side. Loud bangs kept rising from the other end as the rock rolled on the floor.

The discovery of such a secret cave drove all his depression and worries completely out. He picked up another rock and started smas.h.i.+ng again. Soon, a hole big enough for his head to go through appeared on the rock wall. He widened the hole some more and then climbed in with a lit torch. Inside was a narrow corridor kind of pathway. Suddenly, he broke into a cold sweat as he looked down. A skeleton lay still on the ground facing down right next to his feet. This scene was far from what Linghu Chong had expected.

He calmed himself down a bit and thought, "Could this be a tomb? But why would the skeleton lay on the floor facing down instead of lying facing up? And this narrow corridor doesn't look like a tomb corridor either."

He looked down at the skeleton again. The clothing on the skeleton had rotten into dusts. Two huge axes lay on the ground next to the skeleton, s.h.i.+ning as they reflected the light from the torch. He picked one of the axes up. It was very heavy, at least over forty pounds. He raised the axe and chopped it at the rock wall by his side. "Clank!" A big chunk of rock was chopped off. He was stunned.

"This axe is too sharp to be a normal axe. It must have belonged to a senior master in the Martial World as his weapon." The spot where the axe had just chopped by looked very smooth, almost as smooth as a Tofu Cube being cut by a knife, and there were many chop marks on all sides of the corridor. He thought about it for a short moment and was stunned by his conclusion. He walked down the path a bit more with the torch raised high, only finding axe chopping marks all over the cave. He found himself stupefied.

"So the pathway was actually made by chops from this man using his sharp axes. Right, he was taken prisoner in the middle of the mountain, so he tried to use his sharp axes to dig a way out of the mountain. But he fell short of success and died exhausted with only inches from breaking out. Alas, he was certainly very unfortunate."

He walked about another one hundred feet and the pathway still did not end. He thought aloud, "That man dug such a long pathway. Such strong will and determination together with his superb Kung Fu level must have been extraordinary." He couldn't help but feel great respect toward the mysterious man.

Some steps deeper down the path, two more skeletons appeared, one sitting down leaning against the wall, the other one huddled up and lay on the floor. "So there were actually more than one trapped in the middle of the mountain," Linghu Cong figured. "But this is an important site of our Huashan Sword School; outsiders shouldn't be able to have access here. Could all these skeletons be senior masters of our Huashan Sword School who violated school rules and were punished to die here?"

He walked another one hundred feet and followed the pathway when it swerved to the left. Suddenly, a huge cave, s.p.a.cious enough to hold over a thousand people, appeared right in front of his eyes. There were seven more skeletons in the cave, some sitting down, some lying on the floor. All of them had weapons lying next to them. Among those weapons were a pair of iron plates, a pair of Judge-Pens, an iron staff, a copper club, a weapon that looked like a thunderbolt mace, a fanged tri-tip and double-blade halberd, and also some kind of a weapon that looked like a combination of knife and sword that he had never seen before.

"These people with those special weapons and the one using the axes couldn't have been apprentices of our sword school," he told himself.

Not far from where he stood, over a dozen long swords piled on the ground in disorder. He walked by and randomly picked one up. The sword was shorter than average but the blade had double the width of a regular sword; it was also much heavier. He thought, "This is the kind of sword used by the Taishan Sword School." Among the rest of the swords, some were light and very flexible, which was the type of sword used by the Heng-Shan Sword School. Some had crooked blade and were among one of the three types of swords used by the Hengshan Sword School. Some had very blunt edges and a very sharp tip, which was the type of popular weapon used by some senior masters from the Songshan Sword School. There were also three swords that had the same length and weight of a regular Huashan style sword. More and more questions popped out in his head, "Why is there a pile of weapons from the Five Mountains Sword Alliance?"

Linghu Cong raised the torch high and looked around the walls of the cave. There was a big rock sticking out dozens of feet above the ground from the rock wall on the right side. It looked like a platform. Underneath the big rock, some words were carved onto the rock wall in large fonts, saying "THE FIVE MOUNTAINS SWORD ALLIANCE, YOU SHAMELESS AND DESPICABLE BUNCH, CAN'T WIN IN A FAIR FIGHT, DIRTY TRICKS ARE YOUR SPECIALTY." There were a total of four lines of words and each character was about a foot tall. The strokes went inches into the rock. Obviously they were carved in with a very sharp blade. All the words were written in a bold and tense hand, with strokes extending in all directions. Then he noticed many smaller characters carved next to the huge characters with words like "dirty scoundrel", "ignominious cowards", "filthy pigs", and "incompetent chickens" etc. All of them were cursing or swearing words.

The more Linghu Chong read, the angrier he became. "So all those people were prisoners of our Five Mountains Sword Alliance. They were all completely irritated, but had no other way of venting their anger, so had to carve those words onto the rock wall. I'd say what they did was the real shameless and despicable thing. But I wonder who would they be? If they were enemies of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance, then they mustn't be good."

He looked at the rock wall again and saw a line of words that read, "Fan Song and Zhao He defeat Heng-Shan sword art here." Right next to the text, there were many sketches of human forms drawn in pairs, one wielding a sword and the other wielding an axe. After a quick count, Linghu Chong estimated that there were at least five or six hundred of sketch drawings. Apparently the axe wielding one was countering the sword wielding one's sword art forms. By the side of those human form drawings, there was another line of words saying, "Zhang Chengyun and Zhang Chengfeng defeat all Huashan sword art here."

Linghu Chong was furious. "You shameless scoundrels, how wildly presumptuous you are! Huashan style sword art is meticulous and profound. There is very few in the world that can actually block it; who would have dared claiming to be able to not only "defeat", but "defeat all" of the Huashan sword art?" he thought aloud.

He picked up the heavy sword of the Taishan Sword School and smacked it hard against the line of text. With a loud bang and a shower of sparks, he smacked a part of the word "all" off. But from the smacking, he realized that the rock belonged to a very hard type, and even with sharp blades, it would still be very difficult to draw sketches or write on the rock wall.

He looked more closely and saw a drawing by the line of text. The sword wielding man were drawn with only a few simple and crude lines, but from the posture he could tell that it was one of the moves in the basic sword form of the Huashan sword art called Graceful Phoenix. In the move, the sword would be dancing with lithe and graceful movements. The countering human shape was wielding a straight line shaped weapon that could have been either a staff or a spear, with the tip of the weapon pointing directly at the swordsman's sword tip, looking very clumsy.

Linghu Chong sneered. "The Graceful Phoenix move of Huashan has five additional hidden techniques. How could it ever be defeated by such a clumsy move?"

But when he looked at posture of the man in the drawing again, out of the dullness, there seemed to have more continuous flow in it. Although the move Graceful Phoenix had five additional techniques, but the staff move seemed to faintly have six or seven additional techniques, more than enough to counter the various techniques from the Graceful Phoenix move.

His eyes fixing on the quick drawn human sketch, Linghu Chong was dumbfounded. "This Graceful Phoenix move of our sword school looks like an ordinary move, but the additional techniques hold great power. A smart opponent would have simply blocked it and dodged aside. If he had tried to counter it, he would be suffering great losses. But that staff move in the drawing really can defeat the Graceful Phoenix move of ours. That…that…that…." Gradually, his astonishment transformed into admiration. Deep in his heart, he also felt great terror.

He stared blankly at the two human sketches, lost in thoughts and completely forgot about time. Suddenly, a great pain came from his right hand and woke him. It turned out to be the torch, which had burned almost to the end and the flame caught his hand. He threw it down, thinking, "It's going to be completely dark if the torch burns down." So he rushed to the front cave, took over a dozen of the pine branches that were meant to be firewood for heating purposes, and then returned to the back cave in a dash.

He lit a pine stick from the about to extinguish torch and gazed at those two human shape sketches again, thinking, "If the staff wielding guy has the same level of Kung Fu as the swordsman from our sword school, then the swordsman might incur some serious injury. If the opponent has slightly better Kung Fu, then when the two moves clashes, the swordsman will see his own life peris.h.i.+ng in front of his own eyes within the time of a flash. That Graceful Phoenix move of ours…has truly been defeated by the staff wielding man and has been rendered useless!"

He turned a little and started studying the second group of drawings and soon recognized that the swordsman was using a Huashan move called Green Pines Welcoming Guests. He immediately felt his spirits buoyed up. When he had learned that move in the old days, it had taken him a full month to be able to execute it proficiently. That move had become one of his favorite killer moves. Feeling excited yet slightly frightened, fearing that this move might be defeated again, he looked at the staff wielding man drawing. But to his surprise, he saw five staffs in the man's hand striking toward five different parts of the swordsman's lower body.

"Why does he have five staffs?" he pondered.

After looking at the staff wielding man's posture some more he understood it. "These aren't five staffs. He is striking out five times quickly in one instant to hit five of the opponent's lower body. But if he's fast, I can be fast too. He might not be able to strike out five times fast enough. So this Green Pines Welcoming Guests can't be defeated after all."

Just when he was feeling great, he suddenly realized, "He is not striking out with his staff five times. He could have struck out in any one of the five positions, and how would I dodge that?"

He picked up one of the Huashan style sword and performed the move Green Pines Welcoming Guests. Then he studied the drawings carefully and imagined in his head how the opponent would have struck out with his staff. He figured that since he already knew where the staff would be striking to, he should be able to figure out a counter. But when that staff struck out from any one of the five positions, his sword would have been fully thrust out with no chance of withdrawing it back in time. Unless the thrust could kill the opponent, otherwise his lower body would for sure get hit. And the opponent most likely would be a skilled fighter, how could one expect to kill the opponent with one single thrust? And with the sliding posture and a lowered shoulder in the drawing, the enemy for sure would be able to dodge the thrust in that fraction of time. Once the enemy dodged the sword thrust and struck back, he would have no chance to evade. Thus, the unique Huashan move of Green Pines Welcoming Guests had been defeated as well.

Linghu Chong remembered that he had won three times in various fights using that move of Green Pines Welcoming Guests. If his opponents had seen the drawing on the rock wall before, and knew how to counter attack, then it wouldn't matter whether the opponent had used a staff or a spear, he would have either get wounded or get killed. Probably there wouldn't even be a Linghu Chong left in the world today.

The more he thought about it, the more terrified he became. He murmured to himself as cold sweat streamed down his forehead, "That's impossible! That's impossible! If the move Green Pines Welcoming Guests could be defeated this way, how come Master knows nothing about it? Why didn't he ever warn me about it?" He knows all the key aspect of that move from inside out, so he knew to the full extent how detrimental those five staff strikes were. Although those were just five short lines on the rock wall, he could almost feel every strike smacking heavily onto his ankles and s.h.i.+ns.

Linghu Chong looked on. The sword moves carved onto the rock wall were all unique moves of the Huashan Sword School, and the opponent always had ultrclever and vicious moves that would defeat them. The more moves he checked out, the more he gasped, until a move called Boundless Falling Leaves. The enemy's staff move against this one appeared to be very weak and powerless. The entire counter move had taken the defending initiative. Linghu Chong heaved a long sigh of relieve, thinking, "There's finally one you can't defeat!"

He remembered a scene in January last year. It snowed that day. Countless of snowflakes swirled in the air. Master was in a very good mood. He gathered the apprentices for a sword art lesson. At the end of the lesson, he demonstrated the move Boundless Falling Leaves. His every thrust became even faster than the previous one and every thrust hit a swirling snowflake in the air. Even Master-Wife applauded and cheered, saying, "Apprentice brother, I am convinced from this move that you are qualified to be the Head Master of the Huashan Sword School." Master answered with a smile, "It takes moral integrity, not shear power to lead the Huashan Sword School. It's not necessary that with just one proficient move, someone would become qualified for the post of Head Master." Master-Wife rebuffed in a grin, "Hey, aren't you ashamed? What moral integrity of yours is better than mine?" Master smiled and did not argue. Master-Wife seldom submitted to other's Kung Fu and loved to compete with Master. Even she had to admit her admiration that time, so it was obvious that the move Boundless Falling Leaves was a superior move. Master explained about the move later. The name of the move came from a poem and the poem had a line saying something like "boundless falling leaves". Master had recited it at the time, but Linghu Chong couldn't remember it. It seemed to be describing how leaves from thousands of trees had fallen and swirled in the air in all directions. That was why this sword move needed to cover all directions.

Looking at the staff wielding human sketch, he found a human shape drawing huddled himself up in a rather unsightly posture that looked as if he had no way of avoiding a good beating. Linghu Chong was about to laugh out loud when his smile suddenly froze. He only felt chilling cold on his back and his fine hairs on the back almost all stood up. He gazed at the staff in the man's hand on the sketch without blinking. The more he gazed at it, the more he felt that the staff was at an ingenious position. All the nine thrusts, ten thrusts, eleven thrusts, or twelve thrusts…out of the move Boundless Falling Leaves would inevitably land on the staff. The position of the staff appeared to be dull when one first looked at it, but was actually very clever; the staff move appeared to be very weak, yet it was actually extremely strong. The move really had attained the lofty realm of martial arts that is to "counter motion with standstill and defy cleverness with dullness."

Instantaneously, he had lost all his confidence in the Kung Fu of his own sword school. All he could think of was that even if he could perfect his sword art so it was as good as his Master's, when he encountered the man with the staff, he would still stand no chance of possibly defending himself. In that case, what good would it do for him to continue learning this style of sword art?
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"Is Huashan style sword art really so fragile that it wouldn't even withstand a single blow? Those skeletons must have been decaying in the cave for at least thirty or forty years. How could the Five Mountains Sword Alliance still be dominating the Martial World since then, and no one had ever mentioned that the sword art of any one of the five sword schools could be defeated? Are those drawings just idling theories? Well, it doesn't seem so."

Although he couldn't tell if the sword arts of the Songshan Sword School and the rest members of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance were truly defeated, he knew Huashan style sword art from inside out, and he knew too well that if he had encountered such brilliant moves in a real fight all of a sudden, he would undoubtedly be suffering a crus.h.i.+ng defeat.

He stood still, seized in terror, almost as if someone had sealed his pressure points. Endless of thoughts flashed by his mind, and he totally forgot about time.

Time went by, and finally, someone's voice rose. "Big apprentice brother, big apprentice brother, where are you?"

Stunned, Linghu Chong immediately turned and ran through the narrow pathway until he pa.s.sed through the hole on the rock wall and got back into his own cave compartment. It was Lu Dayou calling out around the cliff. Linghu Chong leapt out of the cave and turned behind a big rock at the back of the cliff. After sitting down cross-legged, he called out, "I am here meditating. Sixth apprentice brother, what's the matter?"

Lu Dayou followed the direction of the sound and came by. "Big apprentice brother! Here you are! I've brought your dinner up for you," he said happily.

Ever since Linghu Chong started studying the moves on the rock wall before dawn, he had totally lost track of time because of his focus on the drawings. It was already in the late afternoon by now. The cave he lived in was specifically used for meditation and contemplation, so Lu Dayou dared not to enter without permission. The cave was a shallow one. Since he didn't see Linghu Chong inside the cave, he started looking around the cliff.

Linghu Chong noticed that Lu Dayou's right cheek was covered with a layer of herbal medicine, with blood still oozing out of the green dressing. Evidently, he was wounded pretty badly. So he asked hurriedly, "Hey, what happened to your face?"

"This morning when I was practicing sword art, I accidentally cut myself. How stupid was I!" Lu Dayou answered.

Seeing more irritation than embarra.s.sment in Lu Dayou's eyes, Linghu Chong figured that there must be something else. "Sixth apprentice brother, how did you really get hurt? Can't I be trusted with the truth?" he asked.

"Big apprentice brother, I don't want to hide the truth from you. I didn't say the truth because I am just afraid that you might get mad," Lu Dayou growled.

"So who cut you?" Linghu Chong inquired. He felt quite surprised. Apprentice brothers in Huashan Sword School had always been getting along comfortably well, and had never got into any fights among each other. Did outside enemies come to Huashan to cause trouble?

Lu Dayou explained. "This morning I sparred with junior apprentice brother Lin. He just learned that move Graceful Phoenix. I wasn't paying enough attention and got a cut on my face."

"It's normal for somebody to make a mistake occasionally when apprentice brothers spar each other. Don't get mad. Apprentice brother Lin probably just learned that move recently and couldn't control the move too well. You can't really blame him. But you probably were a bit too careless. That move Graceful Phoenix is a powerful one. You should have treated it more carefully," Linghu Chong said.

"That's right. But how would I know that…that chap Lin have learned the Graceful Phoenix after only several months of apprentices.h.i.+p? It was after my fifth year in Huashan that Master finally permitted you to teach me that move," Lu Dayou grumbled.

Linghu Chong was slightly surprised. He thought to himself, "Apprentice brother Lin has only been in Huashan Sword School for several months, and now he has already learned the move Graceful Phoenix. He has progressed too fast. If he didn't have the brain of a super smart genius, then he wouldn't have a good foundation. To progress this fast is actually detrimental for his later progress. Why did Master teach him this move so early?"

Lu Dayou continued, "When I saw it all of a sudden, I was shocked, that's how I got cut by him. Little apprentice sister applauded and cheered by the side. She said, 'Monkey Six, you can't even beat my student. How are you going to pose as a hero in front me again?' That chap Lin knew he was wrong and tried to come by and bind up the wound for me, but I kicked him to the ground. Little apprentice sister snapped, 'Monkey Six, he is trying to be nice to bind up your wound. Are you shamed into anger because you can't beat him?' Big apprentice brother, it turned out that little apprentice sister secretly taught him that move."

Instantly, Linghu Chong's heart was filled with strong grief. That Graceful Phoenix move was a very difficult one. The five additional techniques had complicated variations, and on top of that, the pract.i.tioner also needed to memorize a lot of formulas that went with the techniques. In order to help apprentice brother Lin understand that move, little apprentice sister must have racked her brain out and put in a lot of work. So the reason why she didn't come up the cliff all those days is because she spent the entire time with apprentice brother Lin. Yue Lingshan was the impatient type. She always had a hard time staying still and hated tasks that would require meticulous cares. She always wanted to be better than others. That was why she was able to gather enough patience when she was learning sword arts herself. But if she were teaching someone else, she would never have taught carefully. But now she actually taught that complicated move Graceful Phoenix to Lin Pingzhi. It wouldn't be hard to imagine how much she cared about this junior apprentice brother of hers. Only after a while did he finally managed to calm down.

"Why did you go sparring with apprentice brother Lin?" he asked dryly.

"Yesterday when I said those words to you, little apprentice sister wasn't very happy about it and croaked at me all the way down the cliff. Then early this morning, she dragged me to go sparring with apprentice brother Lin. I didn't think too much about it and thought that it was just a practice. But who would have expected that little apprentice sister secretly taught several unique moves to the chap Lin. I was caught totally off guard and became a prey of their plot."

Linghu Chong understood now: When Yue Lingshan and Lin Pingzhi got into an intimate relations.h.i.+p in those past days, since Lu Dayou was very close to me, he couldn't take it anymore, so he must have spilled out many satirical comments. Linghu Chong wouldn't be surprised if Lu Dayou had even made trouble and swore at Lin Pingzhi. So he asked.

"You've swore at apprentice brother Lin several times already, haven't you?"

"That dirty shameless sissy. Of course I'd be swearing at him. He got scared of me. Every time I swore at him, he dared not swear back at me and always turned away immediately to avoid me. But I would never have thought…thought that this chap is so vicious. Humph! He can't get anywhere by himself. If it weren't because little apprentice sister was behind him, how could he have wounded me?" Lu Dayou grunted.

Linghu Chong couldn't help but feel a kind of indescribable bitterness in his heart. He suddenly remember the move drawn on the rock wall in the back cave that was created to defeat the move Graceful Phoenix, so he picked up a branch from the ground and was ready to teach that move to Lu Dayou, but then he thought better of it.

"Sixth apprentice brother hates that chap Lin so much right now, once he uses this move, he would almost certainly wound Lin Pingzhi severely. Then when Master and Master-Wife look into the incident, the two of us would be severely punished for sure! I can't do that!" At that thought, he said, "Well, a fall to the pit, a gain in your wit. Just don't get tricked again next time. We are all apprentice brothers. A small loss in a spar practice is really nothing. Why don't you take it easy?"

"Sure. But big apprentice brother, I can take it easy. Can you…you take it easy, too?" Lu Dayou rebuffed.

Linghu Chong knew that he meant Yue Lingshan. A great pain came from his heart, and even his face twitched because of the pain.

"Sorry, I…I shouldn't have said that." As soon as the words came out, Lu Dayou realized how much damage he has done, so he immediately regretted it.

Linghu Chong held tight Lu Dayou's hands and said slowly, "You said it right. How can I not care? But…but…." After a long pause, he said, "Sixth apprentice brother, let's not talk about this anymore."

"Sure!" Lu Dayou replied. "Big apprentice brother, you have taught me that move Graceful Phoenix before. I just didn't pay enough attention and fell into that chap's trap. I'll practice more dedicatedly with all my heart. I have to let that chap know who's better, the one taught by big apprentice brother or the one taught by little apprentice sister."

Linghu Chong let out a sad smile. "The move Graceful Phoenix, alas, it really is nothing," he said.

Lu Dayou could see the sad expression on Linghu Chong's face. He figured that Linghu Chong only got so disheartened because little apprentice sister started to treat him coldly, so he dared not to say another word. After the two finished the meal, Lu Dayou cleared away the bowls and chopsticks and then left.

After a slight rest, Linghu Chong lit a torch and went back to the back cave to study those sword art drawings on the rock wall again. At the beginning, all he could think of was still how Yue Lingshan taught Lin Pingzhi sword arts, so he simply could not concentrate on the drawings on the rock wall. All the human forms in simple sketches seemed to have transformed into Yue Lingshan and Lin Pingzhi, one teaching, the other learning, in a very affectionate way. And no matter which direction he looked at, he could always see the handsome face of Lin Pingzhi flas.h.i.+ng in front of his eyes again and again. He heaved a long sigh, thinking, "Apprentice brother Lin is ten times more handsome than I am, and he is much younger than me, only one or two years older than little apprentice sister. Of course it is natural for the two to become close."

Suddenly, a drawing on the rock wall caught his attention. The swordsman in the drawing thrust his sword out, and the way he thrust the sword out and the route of the sword greatly resembled the move of Madam Yue's – Unrivaled and Unmatched, The Thrust of Ning. Linghu Chong was astounded. He thought, "This move of Master-Wife clearly was created by her. How come it was carved on the rock wall way ahead of time? How could this have happened?"

He looked at the drawing more closely and then found out that the thrust drawn on the rock wall and the move created by Madam Yue were actually quite different. The sword move on the rock wall was bold and vigorous, simple and unadorned, apparently executed by a man. Once the thrust was out, there was only one thrust, not like how Madam Yue's move had all those extra hidden techniques. But because it was simpler, it was also more swift and fierce. Linghu Chong nodded as he thought aloud, "It's actually not surprising at all. The sword move created by Master-Wife used an idea that matched with earlier people's idea. Since both moves came from the basic theory of the Huashan style sword arts, and the two creators had about the same level of Kung Fu and comprehension, of course the creations would have been alike with only minor differences." Then he realized, "In that case, even Master and Master-Wife didn't know many of the sword moves drawn here. Didn't Master learn the entire set of the advanced sword arts of our Huashan Sword School?" The opponent's staff also thrust out straight with the staff tip aiming right at the sword tip. The staff and the sword made a perfect straight line.

Seeing the straight line made, Linghu Chong cried out loud, "Oh, no!" The torch in his hand fell down to the floor and the cave was instantly covered by complete darkness. He was completely taken by terror and could only murmur, "What do I do? What do I do?"

He could see clearly that since the staff and the sword were in a t.i.t-for-tat fight, and the staff is rigid and solid while the sword being flexible, when the two fighters both thrust out with all their strength, the long sword would have no choice but to break from the middle. In this move, both fighters would have continuous energy flow going together with the thrust, and the staff would be taking the advantage of the situation and keep going forward while the energy on the sword would come right back to haunt the swordsman. There was really no way out of it.

A thought suddenly flashed by his mind, "Is there really no way out of it? I guess not. After the sword breaks in half, and when the opponent's staff jabs by, the swordsman can either drop the broken sword, kneel down with both legs, or he can dive forward to avoid the strike from the staff. But Master and Master-Wife are both well-known sword masters in the Martial World, how could they even consider using such body positions? They would rather die than take on such humiliation. Alas, what a crus.h.i.+ng defeat! What a devastating defeat!"

He stood there silently for a good while, and then finally took out the flint stone and lit the torch again. He continued studying the rock wall and saw that the sword moves were getting more and more exquisite and intriguing, especially the last dozens of moves simply fluctuated unpredictably and appeared to be mysterious and profound. But no matter how brilliant each sword move was the opponent's staff would always have an effective way to counter it. At the end of the Huashan sword move drawings, pictures of the swordsman kneeling on the floor in front of the staff wielding man, heading down, sword being thrown away, were carved on the rock wall. Feelings of anger and rage had slipped away from Linghu Chong's mind long ago. All there was left was the deep feeling of despair. Although the picture was totally arrogant and harsh, there was no doubt that Huashan style sword art had been completely defeated by him, and the swordsman would never be able to compete with him. It was sadly so very true.

That night, he wandered around the back cave back and forth for countless of circles. He had never been hit with such a devastating strike before in his entire life. He kept thinking, "Huashan Sword School is a member of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance. It is a world-renowned big sword school with great fame in the Martial World. But the Kung Fu of our sword school is actually so pathetic. Among those sword moves drawn on the rock wall, there were at least over a hundred moves that even Master and Master-Wife didn't know about. Even if I could master the entire most advanced sword moves of the Huashan Sword School, and become way better than my Master, what difference would it make? As long as the opponent knew about the counter moves, even the best and toughest swordsman of Huashan Sword School would still have to throw down his sword and surrender. If he didn't want to surrender, then the only other choice was to commit suicide."

He paced up and down, feeling deeply vexed and frustrated. The torch had extinguished a while back. He lit the torch again. Staring at the kneeling and surrendering human shape sketch, he felt more and more annoyed. Raising his sword high, he wanted to chop at the picture, but right before the tip of the sword touched the rock wall, he held it back, thinking, "A true man is open and aboveboard. A win stays a win and a loss stays a loss. Our Huashan Sword School truly has inferior Kung Fu skills. We really have no excuses." He threw down his sword with a deep sigh.

He went ahead and looked at some other drawings on the rock wall, and not to his surprise, the sword moves of Songshan, Hengshan, Taishan, and Heng-Shan Sword Schools were also completely defeated, and the swordsman sketch always ended up kneeling down to surrender. Linghu Chong had been in Huashan Sword School for a long time and had a good amount of knowledge about many other sword schools. Although he didn't know the key aspects of the other four member sword schools' sword moves, he had at least heard about the basic ideas behind them. Every one of the sword moves from the other four member sword schools drawn on the rock wall was truly magnificent, but still, the man in the drawing defeated every one of them.

In his heart, other than terror, some unanswered questions also troubled him. "Fan Song, Zhao He, Zhang Chengfeng, Zhang Chengyun. Who are these people? Where did they come from? Why did they work so hard to carve on the rock wall all those moves that can defeat our Five Mountains Sword Alliance's sword arts, yet they themselves were so unknown to the Martial World? And how could our Five Mountains Sword Alliance have still maintained such a great fame today?" He faintly felt that the Five Mountains Sword Alliance had been enjoying a quite undeserved and deceiving fame in the Martial World today, or they were just too fortunate. The thousands of masters and apprentices in the five sword schools were only able to survive in the Martial World because luckily the drawings on the rock wall were unknown to the public.

A thought suddenly popped into his mind, "Why don't I use that sharp axe to chop all those drawings down and leave no trace of it whatsoever, so it would be as if those counter moves had never even existed in the world? Then, for sure, the fame of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance would be saved. I'll just pretend that I've never found this back cave. That's all."

He went in to the narrow pathway, picked up the axe, and came back by the rock wall. But after staring at those exquisite and brilliant moves for a good while, he simply could not raise the axe to chop at the drawings. He stood there and pondered upon the decision back and forth. Finally, he said to himself loudly, "I, Linghu Chong, will never do such shameless and undignified things!"

All of a sudden, he remembered about the masked man in green robe. "That man has such excellent sword skills. He probably had something to do with the drawings in the cave. Who is he? Who is he?"

He stepped back to the front cave and pondered upon the question for half a day, then went back again to the back cave to study the drawings on the rock wall. He went back and forth between the front and the back cave until it was getting late in the day.

Sounds of footsteps came, and it was Yue Lingshan who came with the meal basket in her hand. Linghu Chong was overjoyed. He rushed by the edge of the cliff to greet. "Little apprentice sister!" His voice trembled from joy.

Yue Lingshan didn't answer. She climbed up the cliff and threw the meal basket on to the big rock heavily. Without even looking at Linghu Chong, she turned around and started walking away.

"Little apprentice sister, little apprentice sister, what's the matter?" Linghu Chong called out in despair.

Yue Lingshan gave a snort and then leapt off the cliff onto the path going back. And no matter how Linghu Chong called her again and again, she never answered or even looked back.

With thoughts surging through his mind, Linghu Chong didn't know what to do. He opened the meal basket and found one bowl of rice and two bowls of vegetarian dishes, without the small calabash of wine. He stared at them blankly, lost in thought. For several times he had wanted to start eating, but each time after the first bite, he would feel bitterness in his mouth and totally lose his appet.i.te. He finally gave up, thinking, "If little apprentice sister is mad at me, why did she bring the food up for me herself? If she is not mad at me, why didn't she say a word and didn't even cast a glance at me? Is sixth apprentice brother sick so she had to bring food up? But if sixth apprentice brother can't bring food up, fifth, seventh, eighth apprentice brothers or any other person can do it. Why did little apprentice sister come by herself?" He pondered hard upon the question and completely forgot about the sword moves on the rock wall in the back cave.

At dusk the next day, Yue Lingshan brought food up again. As same as the day before, she didn't look at Linghu Chong or say anything to him at all. On her way down the cliff, she even started singing Fujian folk songs loudly. Linghu Chong felt like someone was stabbing him hard in the heart. He thought to himself, "So she came to annoy me intentionally."

At dusk the day after, again, Yue Lingshan threw the meal basket on the big rock and immediately turned around and left. Linghu Chong could not hold it any longer and called out, "Little apprentice sister, please stop. I need to talk to you."

"Speak out, please." Yue Lingshan turned around. Her face looked as if it was covered by a layer of frost. There was no trace of a smile at all.

"You…you…you…." Seeing the expression on Yue Lingshan's face, Linghu Chong stammered.

"What about me?" Yue Lingshan demanded.

"I…I…." On normal days, he was the unrestrained and unconventional type, and would have been clever and fluent, but now he was completely lost in words.

"If you don't have anything to say, I am leaving," Yue Lingshan said as she turned around to leave.

Linghu Chong was greatly worried, thinking that once she had left, she wouldn't be back until dusk the next day, and if he couldn't get an answer out of her today, how could he ever endure the anxiety for another night? And judging from the look on her face, maybe she wouldn't even come the next day, and it wouldn't be surprising that she might not come for an entire month. In the moment of desperation, he reached out and grabbed onto her left sleeve.

"Let go of me!" Yue Lingshan snapped, as she pulled back hard. With a tearing sound, the sleeve was tore off completely and half of her left shoulder was exposed. Greatly nettled and embarra.s.sed, Yue Lingshan didn't even know how to place her exposed shoulder and arm. As a martial arts student, Yue Lingshan didn't bother with small matters as much as an average girl, but when a potion of her shoulder and her arm suddenly became exposed, she found herself in a very awkward position.

"How…how dare you!" she yelled.

"Little apprentice sister, sor…sorry, I…I didn't mean to do that." Linghu Chong explained hurriedly.

Yue Lingshan placed her right sleeve on her left shoulder to cover it up. "What exactly are you trying to say?" she ranted.

"I just don't understand," Linghu Chong said, "why are you treating me like this? If I really somehow offended you, little apprentice sister, you…you…can just draw your sword and stab me a dozen times or something, and I'll die with no grievance."

"You are the big apprentice brother, how dare us to offend you, not mentioning stabbing you a dozen times?" Yue Lingshan sneered. "We are your junior apprentice brother and sister. As long as you don't discipline us with punishment, we'd be thanking Heavens already."

"I've been thinking very hard, but I still can't figure out how I offended my apprentice sister," Linghu Chong said.

"You can't figure it out? Didn't you figure out how to have Monkey Six complain to Dad and Mom?" Yue Lingshan said furiously.

"I had Monkey Six complain to Master and Master-Wife? Complain…complain about you?" Linghu Chong asked in great surprise.

"You knew Dad and Mom love me dearly and it would be useless to complain about me. How clever of you to complain about…complain about…humph! Why are you still pretending? Don't you know what you did?"

It only took Linghu Chong an instant to guess what really happened, but that only brought more bitterness. "Master and Master-Wife found out about Lu Dayou's wound from his sparring with apprentice brother Lin and punished apprentice brother Lin, didn't they?" he asked, but in his heart, he thought, "Because Master and Master-Wife punished apprentice brother Lin, you actually become this mad at me?"

"It was only an accident in a sword spar between apprentice brothers. He didn't do it intentionally. But Dad sided with Monkey Six and gave Little Lin a good scolding, saying that Little Lin didn't have enough skills and shouldn't have learned the kind of moves like Graceful Phoenix. He banned me from teaching him sword skills. Fine, you won! But…but…I…I'll never pay attention to you again! Never ever ever!"

The phrase "never ever ever" was something Yue Lingshan used quite often when she joked with Linghu Chong in normal days. When she had said it before, she would always be casting a sideway glance at him with a big grin on her face. But this time she looked so serious and sincere, and from the way she said it, it seemed as if she really was determined to end her relations.h.i.+p with him.

Linghu Chong took a step forward and said, "Little apprentice sister, I…." He had wanted to say, "I really didn't ask sixth apprentice brother to complain to Master and Master-Wife." But then he thought, "I didn't do it. I have a clear conscience. Why should I beg pity from you?" So after the word "I", he stopped abruptly.

"You what?" Yue Lingshan asked.

"I nothing." Linghu Chong shook his head. "I just thought, even though Master and Master-Wife banned you from teaching apprentice brother Lin sword arts, that's nothing major, why did you get so mad at me?"

Yue Lingshan blushed. "I am mad at you! I am mad at you! You've got ill will in your heart. You figured that since I can't teach apprentice brother Lin sword arts anymore, I would be your company everyday. Humph, I'll never pay attention to you again! Never ever ever!" She stomped her foot on the ground heavily and then stormed off.

This time Linghu Chong dared not to pull her clothes again. With a stomach full of grievance and bitterness, he heard her loud and clear singing the Fujian folk song again. He walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down, only seeing her slim receding figure turning around the shoulder of the peak. Vaguely, he could see her left arm and shoulder still covered by her right sleeve. He became worried.

"I tore her sleeve off. If she runs to Master and Master-Wife to complain, the respectful Master and Master-Wife might think that I was taking liberties with her, then…then…what's going to happen? If this gets spread around, even the bunch of apprentice brothers and sisters would look down on me."

But then he reconsidered, "I wasn't taking liberties with her. What do I care how others would think of it?" But when he thought that she got so mad at him just because she couldn't teach Lin Pingzhi sword skills anymore, he couldn't help but feel great sorrow.

At the beginning, he was still able to comfort himself by thinking, "Little apprentice sister is young and playful. Since I am meditating on the cliff, and there is no one else who would chat with her and play with her, she just wanted apprentice brother Lin, who happened to be about the same age as her, to be her companion. She doesn't have any other thoughts." But then after reconsideration, he thought, "I grew up together with her. That's a much deeper relations.h.i.+p and affection. Apprentice brother Lin has only been on Mount Huashan for several months, but she has treated us so differently, so out of ordinance." At that thought, he felt even more bitterness.

That night, he paced up and down, from the cave to the edge of the cliff, then back from the edge of the cliff to the cave, again and again, for thousands of times, and the same the next day. All he could think of was Yue Lingshan. The drawings on the rock wall in the back cave and that man in the green robe who showed up that night were all completely forgotten from his mind.

At dusk, it was Lu Dayou who brought the food up. He set the food on the rock and filled the bowls with rice. "Big apprentice brother, let's eat," he said.

Linghu Chong merely answered a slight snort as he picked up the bowl and the chopsticks. He placed some food in his mouth but had no appet.i.te whatsoever. After casting a glance down the cliff, he slowly set down his bowl.

"Big apprentice brother, you don't look too good. Are you feeling alright?" Lu Dayou asked.

"It's nothing." Linghu Chong shook his head.

"I picked those mushrooms for you yesterday. Have some and see how they taste?" Lu Dayou suggested.

Not having the heart to go against Lu Dayou's good will, Linghu Chong ate two mushrooms. "Very good," he said. Actually, the mushrooms were quite tasty, but he didn't even notice.

"Big apprentice brother, I've got good news for you!" Lu Dayou said with a grin. "Starting from yesterday, Master and Master-Wife banned Little Lin from learning sword arts with little apprentice sister."

"You couldn't beat apprentice brother Lin in a sword fight, that's why you complained to Master and Master-Wife, didn't you?" Linghu Chong said coldly.

Lu Dayou jumped onto his feet. "Who said that I couldn't beat him? I…I was doing it for…." He suddenly stopped.

Linghu Chong knew very well that even though Lin Pingzhi wounded Lu Dayou with a move of Graceful Phoenix by surprise, Lu Dayou still had been in the school much longer, and Lin Pingzhi would be no match for him. The reason he complained to Master and Master-Wife was really for Linghu Chong's sake. He suddenly came upon a thought, "So all the apprentice brothers and sisters were pitying me in their hearts. They all know that little apprentice sister is breaking up with me. Only because sixth apprentice brother is close to me, he managed to do something about it. Humph, a true man does not need pity from others!"

All of a sudden, he jumped up like a mad man. Picking up the bowls and the plates, he threw them off the cliff one by one, shouting, "Who asked you to poke around? Who asked you to poke around?"

Lu Dayou was shocked. He had always respected and admired the big apprentice brother, and had no idea that Linghu Chong would be provoked into such an outrage. Flurried, he kept stepping back, murmuring, "Big apprentice brother, big…apprentice brother."

After throwing all the bowls and dishes into the deep valley, Linghu Chong didn't feel any better, so he randomly picked up one rock after another and kept throwing them into the deep valley.

"Big apprentice brother, it's my fault. Why…why don't you give me a beating," Lu Dayou said.

Linghu Chong was just about to throw a rock when he heard Lu Dayou's words. He turned around and asked in a stern voice, "Why is it your fault?"

Lu Dayou took another step back in fear and murmured, "I…I…I don't know!"

Linghu Chong heaved a deep sigh. He threw the rock in his hand far away and then grabbed Lu Dayou's hands. "Sixth apprentice brother, I am sorry. I am just depressed myself. It has nothing to do with you."

Lu Dayou let out a breath of relief. "Let me get down and bring up some food again," he suggested.

"No, don't bother. I don't feel like eating." Linghu Chong shook his head.

Seeing the food in yesterday's meal basket still untouched, Lu Dayou became worried. "Big apprentice brother, you didn't eat yesterday either, did you?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it. I just don't have good appet.i.tes these days." Linghu Chong forced out a smile.

Lu Dayou dared not to argue, but the next day when it was still early in the afternoon, he had already brought food up the cliff. He thought, "I've managed to get a big calabash of good wine today together with two delicious dishes. I'll have to get big apprentice brother to eat some more." But after he climbed up the cliff, he found Linghu Chong sleeping on the rock in the cave, looking very wan and sallow.

"Big apprentice brother, see what this is?" Slightly shocked, he said, as he swayed the wine-calabash in front of Linghu Chong. After he opened the lid, the entire cave was soon filled with the wonderful scent of wine.

Linghu Chong took the calabash and drank half of the wine in just one breath. "The wine is not bad!" he praised.

"Let me fill your bowl with rice," Lu Dayou said happily.

"Nah. I don't feel like eating." Linghu Chong objected.

"How about just one bowl?" Lu Dayou suggested, as he filled the bowl full with rice.

Not having the heart to go against Lu Dayou's good will, Linghu Chong had to agree. "Ok, I will eat it after I finish drinking."

But Linghu Chong didn't eat the bowl of rice after all. The next day when Lu Dayou brought food up again, he found the bowl of rice sitting on the rock untouched and Linghu Chong sleeping on the floor. Lu Dayou noticed some redness on Linghu Chong's cheeks, so he reached out and felt Linghu Chong's forehead with his hand. It was burning hot. Linghu Chong must be running a high fever. He became very worried.

"Big apprentice brother, are you feeling sick?" he asked gently.

"Wine, wine! Give me wine!" Linghu Chong mumbled.

Although Lu Dayou brought some wine with him, he didn't give it to him. Instead, he poured a bowl of water and sent it next to Linghu Chong's lips.

Linghu Chong sat up and drank the big bowl of water in one swallow. "Good wine, great wine!" he yelled, and then fell down on his back heavily, still mumbling, "Good wine! Great Wine!"

Knowing that Linghu Chong's illness was quite serious, Lu Dayou was very concerned, but it happened that Master and Master-Wife had some business to take care of and had left Mount Huashan early in the morning. So he ran down the cliff and told Lao Denuo and the other senior apprentice brothers.

Yue Buqun had set up a strict rule that other than the once a day task of bringing food up the cliff, no one would be allowed to go up the cliff to see Linghu Chong. But now since he was seriously ill, to go up the cliff to check on him probably wouldn't be counted as a violation. Yet the bunch of apprentices still dared not to go up the cliff all at once and decided to go up the cliff to check on Linghu Chong in groups and in different days. Lao Denuo and Liang Fa were the first two to go up.

Lu Dayou then went and told Yue Lingshan about it. Yue Lingshan was still quite angry at Linghu Chong, so she said coldly, "Come on, big apprentice brother has excellent inner energy, how could he become ill? You can't fool me."

The illness of Linghu Chong broke with such a tremendous force. For four days and four nights, Linghu Chong stayed in a coma. Lu Dayou begged Yue Lingshan to go up the cliff to pay a visit. He almost knelt down in front of her when she finally realized he was speaking the truth and also got greatly worried. She went up the cliff together with Lu Dayou, only finding a Linghu Chong with deeply sank cheeks and disheveled beard all over his face, nothing even close to the unrestrained and unconventional one he used to be.

With remorse in her heart, Yue Lingshan walked by his side and said gently, "Big apprentice brother, I've come to see you. Don't be mad at me any more, alright?"

Linghu Chong's face looked indifferent. His eyes wide open, he stared at her with a confused look, as if he didn't know who she was at all.

"Big apprentice brother, it's me. Why don't you answer me?" Yue Lingshan said.

Linghu Chong kept staring at her blankly. After a while, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. Till Lu Dayou and Yue Lingshan had left, he still did not wake up.

Only after well over a month, Linghu Chong finally started to recover. During the one month, Yue Lingshan had come to visit him a total of three times. The second time she came, Linghu Chong had already regained his consciousness and was very happy to see her. The third time she came, Linghu Chong had already been able to sit up to eat a couple of the cookies she brought with her. But after that visit, she stopped coming. After Linghu Chong was able to stand up and walk around, he would be waiting by the edge of the cliff most of the day for little apprentice sister's pretty figure to show up, but every time all he could see was either the quiet and empty valley, or the sight of Lu Dayou bending his back to climb up the cliff in a hurry.

.......

[1] A pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves (normally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival).

[2] The town of Dragon-Spring in Zhejiang Province is well known for making quality blades.

[3] Shanxi Province, where Mount Huashan is. It's at the northwest part of China.

[4] Reminder: Fujian province is the Province Lin Pingzhi came from. The Fortune Prestige Escort House Headquarters was located at Fuzhou, which is the capital of Fujian Province.