Smiling Proud Wanderer Vol 02, page 12
A pain came from his heart as he thought to himself, “What a misfortune! This is as if all my martial art skills were taken away from me. At the moment when my school is in trouble, I couldn’t even help it in anyway. I am the Head Apprentice of the Huashan Sword School, yet all I can do is to lie here on the ground and watch my Master and Master-Wife getting harassed and my apprentice brothers and sisters getting slaughtered. What a big loser am I! Fine, I’ll just go die by little apprentice sister’s side.”
He knew that if he even attempted to gather some inner energy, which would trigger the eight streams of energy inside him, he would end up frozen like a dead meat, so he let all inner strength flow back into his central stomach naturally and didn’t try to gather any inner strength, and sure enough, he gained control of his four limbs. He stood up slowly, drew his sword in slow motion, and then moved toward the monastery in small steps.
As soon as he entered the gate, a smell of blood immediately assailed him. Two lanterns sat on the altar and lit the hall. Liang Fa, Shi Daizi, Gao Gengming, and a bunch of other apprentice brothers were still fighting a bloody battle. Several apprentice brothers and sister lay on the ground. It was hard to tell if they were still breathing. Yue Lingshan and Lin Pingzhi were in the middle of a battle abreast against a masked enemy.
Yue Lingshan’s long hair scattered about, and Lin Pingzhi was holding his sword in his left hand; obviously his right hand got injured in the battle. The masked man had a short spear in his hand and demonstrated excellent skills with his spear techniques. Lin Pingzhi had to use the move called Green Pines Welcoming Guests three times in a roll to parry off his fierce attacks. But the sword moves he had learned were too limited. The masked man gave his short spear a sudden shake. The red tassels on the spear spread open and blinded Lin Pingzhi’s view. With a thump, the spear stabbed into Lin Pingzhi’s right shoulder. Yue Lingshan launched two thrusts frantically and forced the enemy to take a step back.
“Little Lin, go wrap up your wound. Hurry!” she shouted.
“It’s no problem!” Lin Pingzhi responded as he lunged with a thrust, but his feet were already tumbling underneath him.
The masked man let out a long laugh when he swung the spear and struck Yue Lingshan in the waist with the spear handle. Yue Lingshan dropped the sword in her right hand and squatted down in pain.
Linghu Chong was shocked. He dashed forward and thrust his sword forward. But the sword only went forward for about one foot before all the energy streams inside him clashed again. Instantly, his right arm gave out and dropped down. The masked man saw the sword coming toward him and had planned to dodge to the side and then return the attack with his spear, but after only one foot into the thrust, the attacker’s arm had dropped down. He was a bit confused. Without thinking much, he swept his left leg and kicked Linghu Chong all the way out of the gate. “Splash!” Linghu Chong fell into a puddle of water outside of the monastery. The rain was still pouring down nonstop. Linghu Chong found himself unable to move with mud inside his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears.
Lao Denuo was just taken down, with his acupoints sealed by the enemy. His two opponents now joined the other six to attack the Yue couple. Moments later, another two enemies ran out of the monastery and joined the group. Yue Buqun was now against seven and Madam Yue against three.
Suddenly, both Madam Yue and one of her opponents cried out. Both had inflicted wounds on their legs. The injured man retreated back. Madam Yue had one less opponent now. But since she had just taken a heavy chop on the leg, with such a severe wound, her strength began to fade away. After exchanging some more blows, she took a hit on the shoulder from the back of the enemy’s knife. That was it. She collapsed to the ground. The two masked men burst into loud laughter as they sealed several acupoints on Madam Yue’s back.
By then, the apprentices inside the monastery had all been wounded and taken down one after another. The enemies obviously had a plot. They only knocked the Huashan apprentices down or sealed their acupoints but didn’t kill any one of them. The fifteen masked men surrounded Yue Buqun in a circle. Eight of them took on eight different directions to attack Yue Buqun simultaneously, and the remaining seven each held a waterproof lantern and aimed the light directly at Yue Buqun’s eyes.
The Head Master of the Huashan Sword School had superb inner strength and brilliant sword skills, but the eight attackers were all elite fighters as well. In addition, the seven lanterns pointing directly at him made it very hard for him to look straight ahead. Yue Buqun knew too well that the Huashan Sword School had suffered a crushing defeat, and the entire body of the school would inevitably perish in the monastery, but he still put on a good defense by blocking all his vital parts with a shield of blade. He had resourceful inner energy and effective sword art techniques. When the lanterns were directed at him, he simply looked down. For a good while, the eight attackers made no progress whatsoever.
“Yue Buqun, are you going to surrender or not?” one of the masked men yelled at him.
“I would rather die than submit. Kill me if you want,” Yue Buqun replied.
“If you don’t surrender, I’ll cut off your wife’s right arm to start with!” the man threatened. He raised his large saber high and aimed it at Madam Yue’s shoulder. The saber had a very thick back and a razor sharp blade. Reflecting the light from the lanterns, the blade shined with dark bluish flare.
“How can I just let him cut off junior apprentice sister’s arm?” Yue Buqun hesitated. But then he thought, “If I threw down my sword and surrender, undoubtedly I would suffer humiliation all the same. How can I let the hundreds of years of eminence of the Huashan Sword School get ruined in my hands?”
He took a deep breath, and suddenly his face shined in violet color as he swung his sword at the man on his left. The man raised his knife to parry it, but Yue Buqun had attached his Divine Art of the Violet Twilight with the chop; the sword carried a tremendous amount of power. The knife was knocked back. Both the sword and the knife cut into the man’s right arm simultaneously and chopped two sections off his right arm. Blood splashed everywhere. The man uttered a loud cry and fell to the ground.
Succeeding with the first move Yue Buqun thrust his sword down swiftly. This time the sword penetrated another enemy’s left leg. That man poured out a stream of curses and retreated.
Now there were two less opponents in the battle, but the situation wasn’t any better. A heavy thump broke out as a meteor hammer smashed into Yue Buqun’s back. He had to lunge three quick thrusts to drive the enemies back. Barely catching his breath, he couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood. All the enemies cheered.
“Old folk Yue is wounded. Wear him out!”
The six attackers could almost smell their victory, so they all took a step back and made the circle a bit bigger. Now Yue Buqun didn’t have any chance of a surprise attack.
There are a total of fifteen masked enemies, three of which had been wounded by the Yue couple. Among the three wounded, one had a serious injury – his arm was cut off. The other two only had injuries on their legs, nothing too serious, and each held a waterproof lantern and kept swearing at Yue Buqun wildly.
From their accents, Yue Buqun could tell that they came from different regions. The Kung Fu skills they demonstrated also consisted of many different styles. Obviously they weren’t apprentices from the same school. But during the fight, they had good understanding of each other and attacked with precision and synchronization. It didn’t seem that they had just ganged up together recently. Where on earth were they from? He pondered but couldn’t find an answer. And the most unusual part of this whole thing was that since all fifteen of them had elite fighting skills, as one with a good deal of knowledge of the Martial World, he shouldn’t have failed to recognize at least some of them, yet he had no clue whatsoever. He was sure that none of these enemies had ever engaged in a fight with him before or had grudges against him. Could it be true that they came to give trouble to the Huashan Sword School because they were really after the Evil-Resisting Sword Manuscript?
He pondered and pondered, yet never slowing down with his hands. He used the Divine Art of the Violet Twilight to its extreme, and the tip of his sword shined dimly. After exchanging over another dozen moves, another enemy got stabbed in the shoulder and had to drop his iron staff. One of the enemies standing outside of the attacking circle sprang forward and took over the attacking position. This man held a knife with a saw shaped blade. The knife looked very heavy, and close to the tip of the knife, the blade curved into the shape of a hook. The man tried again and again to lock Yue’s sword with the hook. But Yue Buqun had plenty of inner strength. It seemed as if the longer the fight lasted, the more energetic he appeared to be. Suddenly he struck a back palm, which landed squarely on one enemy’s chest and broke the man’s two ribs. The steel cane in the man’s hands was also knocked down by the shock. But the man turned out to be extremely ferocious. The great pain from his broken ribs provoked his fury. He dived down and had Yue Buqun’s left leg in his arms. Astounded, Yue Buqun swung his sword and chopped down at the man’s back, but two knifes reached forward simultaneously and blocked the chop. Not able to chop down using his long sword, Yue Buqun kicked toward the enemy’s head with his right foot. That man was an expert in grappling. Reaching out with his right arm, he hooked Yue Buqun’s right leg as well. Then he rolled forward. Although Yue Buqun had excellent Kung Fu skills, he could no longer keep his balance and fell down on the ground. Instantly, knife, short spear, meteor hammer, long sword, and other various weapons all aimed right at his vital parts such as head, face, throat, and chest. Yue Buqun heaved a deep sigh and let go of his sword. Closing his eyes in despair, he waited for the deathblow. Then he felt some heavy blows to his waist, rib cage, throat, and chest. The enemy had sealed several of his acupoints with heavy jabs.
Two masked men propped him up as an old voice spoke out, “Gentleman Sword Mr. Yue certainly has brilliant Kung Fu skills. You have a well-deserved reputation. We ganged up on you, fifteen against one, yet were only able to subdue you after getting four or five of us wounded. Hmm, that is very admirable! If I had to fight you one on one, I am sure I would lose to you. But when you look at it a different way, we have fifteen, but you have over twenty people. Your Huashan Sword School still has more bodies and better odds here. Tonight we won the battle with few against many and completely defeated the Huashan Sword School. I have to say that the victory didn’t come easy. What do you guys think?”
“Most definitely! It wasn’t an easy victory for sure!” The rest of the masked men agreed in unison.
“Mr. Yue,” the old man continued, “we really have no grudge against you. We made bold and offended you only because we want to borrow the Evil-Resisting Sword Manuscript and check it out. This manuscript didn’t belong to your Huashan Sword School before. When you used all your ingenuity and managed to take in Lin Family’s young boy from the Fortune Prestige Escort House as your apprentice, it was obvious that you were really after that sword manuscript. What you did is truly sneaky. When fellow martial friends heard about this, all were quite mad at you. I am giving you a valuable advice here. Why don’t you give it up?”
Yue Buqun was infuriated. “Humph, I am already in your hands. Go ahead and give me a quick end. Why waste your time with rubbish? Everyone in the Martial World knows my reputation. You can easily kill me, but if you want to ruin my reputation, humph! Dream on!”
“What’s so difficult about ruining your reputation?” a man in a mask said with loud laughter. “Your wife, daughter, and those female apprentices do not look bad at all. Why don’t we divide them up and make them our bitches? Ha-ha, Mr. Yue, you are going to be very famous in the Martial World indeed!”
The rest of the masked men all laughed out loud. The laughter was filled with evil. Yue Buqun trembled with rage.
Several men in mask pushed the bunch of male and female apprentices out of the monastery. All of them had their acupoints sealed. Some had blood all over their faces and some fell down immediately after they came out – obviously they had wounds on their legs or feet.
“Mr. Yue,” the old man with a mask spoke again, “you probably have somewhat figured out where we are from. We are no heroes from the righteous schools. There is really no restriction limiting what we can do or cannot do. Some of my buddies here are really fond of women. I am sure it wouldn’t look too good for you if some of them offended your respectful wife and daughter.”
“Fine! Fine! If you don’t believe me, go ahead and search us. See for yourself whether we have the Evil-Resisting Sword Manuscript or not,” Yue Buqun croaked.
“I’d suggest you give it out yourself. Once we start searching one by one and get to your woman and your daughter, it’s not going to be a pleasant scene,” a man behind a mask said with an evil grin.
“All the trouble started because of me, Lin Pingzhi,” Lin Pingzhi barked. “Listen up! Our Lin Family in Fujian didn’t have any Evil-Resisting Sword Manuscript at all! It’s up to you to believe it or not.” He picked up a steel cane from the ground and smacked it toward his own forehead. But since his acupoints on his arms were sealed, the smack was so weak that even though the cane hit his head, it only left a scratch on his skin with no blood coming out of it. But everyone understood his intention. He had intended to sacrifice his own life to prove that there wasn’t any sword manuscript that the Huashan Sword School ever got hold of.
“Young Master Lin, you are quite heroic.” The old man with a mask grinned. “We are friends of your deceased father. Yue Buqun murdered your father and took possession of your family’s Evil-Resisting Sword Manuscript, that’s why we are here to defend the victim against injustice. Your Master has a mere name of a gentleman, but not the reality of a gentleman. I think it would be better if you submit to me as your Master. I guarantee you that you will learn first-class Kung Fu that will enable you to sweep about in the Martial World at will.”
“My parents were murdered by Yu Canghai from the Qingcheng Sword School and Mu Gaofeng. What does it have anything to do with my Master? I am a proud apprentice of the Huashan Sword School. Did you expect me to incline to life instead of braving death in dangers like this?” Lin Pingzhi snarled.
“That’s right! Our Huashan Sword School….” Liang Fa also snarled.
“What about your Huashan Sword School?” a masked man yelled as he swung his knife forward and chopped Liang Fa’s head off. Blood gushed out like a fountain. Several Huashan apprentices screamed in terror.
Many thoughts tangled in Yue Buqun’s mind, but he still couldn’t figure out where these men had come from. According to what the old man had just said, perhaps they were bandits from the unorthodox side. Or maybe they were key figures of an evil clan. However, even if he didn’t know some of the renowned masters in the region, either on the orthodox side or the unorthodox side, he would have at least heard about them. There was no clan or gang that had so many elite fighters. That man chopped off Liang Fa’s head with no hesitation. The cruelty he put on display was exceptionally rare. When people engage in fights in the Martial World, it was usual that people got hurt or killed. But once one side took the other side prisoner, it was very seldom that one would cut someone’s head off so carelessly.
After killing Liang Fa with a casual chop, the man laughed wildly and walked next to Madam Yue. He chopped the bloodstained knife a couple of times in the air. The blade swished by Madam Yue’s head with a mere half foot.
“Don’t…don’t hurt my mother!” Yue Lingshan screamed before losing her consciousness.
Madam Yue was a brave woman and showed no fear. She actually wished that the man would kill her with a chop, thus avoiding any possible humiliation from them. So she snarled at him, “You damn coward. Go ahead and kill me if you’ve got any guts.”
Sound of hoof beats suddenly rose from the northeast corner. Dozens of horses galloped in their direction.
“Who are they? Go check them out?” the old man in the mask yelled.
“Got it!” two men in masks responded as they jumped on their horsebacks and dashed out
The sound of hoof beats came closer and closer, and then came the sounds of weapons clashing into each other. “Ouch!” someone cried out. Apparently the two masked men had gotten into a battle with the people coming and someone just got wounded.
The Yue Buqun couple and all the Huashan apprentices were overwhelmed in joy, knowing that the cavalry had arrived. In the dim light from the lanterns, they watched the forty or so riders gallop along the main road. Mud splashed high as the group approached them. Moments later, the riders arrived and reined in their horses outside the monastery. A man on horseback shouted.
“Oh, these are friends from the Huashan Sword School. Hey, isn’t that brother Yue?”
Yue Buqun looked following the origin of the voice. When his eyes stopped at the man’s face, he felt greatly embarrassed. The man was none other than the one who took the Five Mountains Command Flag up to Mount Huashan only several days ago, the Third Guardian of Songshan – Crane Hands Lu Bai. The man on his right was tall and chubby. Yue Buqun recognized him: he was the Second Guardian of Songshan – Tower Holding Palm Ding Mian. And the one on his left turned out to be the expelled Sword-Branch apprentice of the Huashan Sword School, Feng Buping. Many of the Taishan and Hengshan masters who had visited Mount Huashan several days ago were also among them only that this time there were even more people than the last time. Under the faint light from the waterproof lanterns, shadows loomed, and in the short time, Yue Buqun had a hard time making out the rest of the people.
