Lin Zhennan let out a wry smile and then closed his eyes. After a few moments, he spoke again in a low voice, "Little brother Linghu, I…I…I am not going to make it. I am overjoyed to know that Pingzhi was taken into the Huashan Sword School. Will you…you please help take care…care of him?"

"Uncle, please don"t worry. Apprentice brother Lin will be studying together with us, and we will be like brothers in a family. I will put in extra effort to take good care of him," Linghu Chong a.s.sured him.

"Thanks to your great kindness, we will be remembering it even after we head to the underworld," Mrs. Lin cut in.

"Please, don"t talk much. Concentrate on your breathing and you will feel better," Linghu Chong suggested.

Lin Zhennan appeared to be short of breath. Disjointedly, he said, "Will you…will you please tell my son? The thing in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the old Lin House in the Xiang-Yang Alley of Fuzhou has…has been handed down in the family from generation to generation. He must…he must take good care of it. But…but his great grandfather Sir Yuantu had said in his last words: "for all my descendents, you shall never read it, or great misfortune will fall upon you." Please tell…tell him to remember that well."

Linghu Chong nodded. "All right! I will take the message to him," he promised.

Lin Zhennan murmured, "Many…many…many…." The word "thanks" never made it out of his mouth before he fell dead.

Wishing to see his son one last time and tell him these important words himself, Lin Zhennan had been struggling to hold out. Now after Linghu Chong gave his word that he would take the message, and knowing his son had found such a good home, in great joy, he had no regrets left. As soon as he gave up on the struggle, he departed with the living world.

"Young hero Linghu," Mrs. Lin said, "I hope you will tell my son never to forget seeking revenge for his parents." She threw herself toward the stone steps under the columns of the temple and b.u.mped her head hard onto one of the steps. With her previous fatal injuries, the b.u.mp killed her instantly.

Linghu Chong heaved a deep sigh, and couldn"t help thinking aloud, "Yu Canghai and Mu Gaofeng both tried to force the whereabouts of the "Evil-Resisting Sword Ma.n.u.script" out from Lin Zhennan, but he would rather die than speak out the secret. Only when he knew he was going to die right away, he had no choice but to ask me to take a message. But he still feared that I would go take out the sword art ma.n.u.script of his Lin family, so he said something like "you shall never read it, or great misfortune will fall upon you." Humph, what kind of person did you think Linghu Chong was? Did you actually think I would covet the sword art ma.n.u.script of your Lin family? You were really worrying yourself for nothing…?"

By then he was totally exhausted, so he sat down leaning against a column and rested with his eyes shut.

A good while pa.s.sed when Yue Buqun"s voice finally rose outside the temple, "Let"s check out this temple."

"Master, Master!" Linghu Chong shouted out loud.

"Is that Chong?" Yue Buqun asked in delight.

"Yes, it"s me!" Linghu Chong answered. He propped himself up slowly against the column.

It was already near dawn, so when Yue Buqun entered the temple, he easily spotted the bodies of the Lin Couple. "Are they Chief Master Lin and his wife?" he asked with a frown.

"Yes." Linghu Chong answered and then went ahead and told everything: how Mu Gaofeng had compelled the Lin couple, and how he scared Mu Gaofeng off but the Lin couple still died because of the injuries. He also told his Master the last words of Lin Zhennan.

"Ah, Yu Canghai had really committed some terrible sins this time, yet he got nothing," Yue Buqun muttered to himself.

"Master, did that dwarf Yu asked you for mercy?" Linghu Chong asked in an excited tone.

"Master Yu has very fast legs. I chased him for quite some time, yet was only getting further and further behind him. The Qing-Gong of the Qingcheng Sword School is, I guess, somewhat better than ours of the Huashan Sword School," Yue Buqun replied.

"The Qingcheng Sword School"s "b.u.m b.u.m back fleeing" Kung Fu is definitely better than other schools." Linghu Chong burst into laughter.

Yue Buqun pulled a long face and reproached, "Chong, you"ve really gotten a glib tongue with no decency. How would you be a role model for all your apprentice brothers and sisters if you keep acting like this?"

Linghu Chong turned his head aside, stuck his tongue out and made a face. "Yes, Master!" he answered

"If you agree, then agree. Why did you stick your tongue out when you answered? You are not being honest," Yue Buqun criticized.

"Yes, Master!" Linghu Chong replied.

Yue Buqun had brought him up since he was little. To him, Yue Buqun was almost like a father figure. Although he revered the Master, he never reserved himself much in front of the Master.

"Master, how did you know that I stuck my tongue out?" he asked with a grin.

Yu Buqun snorted. "The muscles under your ear were retracting, so of course you were sticking your tongue out. You always like to run wild. See, you"ve come to a good grief this time! Are your wounds better now?"

"Yes, they are much better now," Linghu Chong answered. He then added, "Well, the more grief this time, the smarter next time!"

Yue Buqun scolded, "Don"t you think you are too smart already?"

He took a signal flare out from his pocket and walked into the courtyard. Lighting the fuse with a match, he threw the flare up into the air. The flare rocketed high into the sky, and with a loud "Bang," it exploded in the air, leaving a trail of silver light in the shape of a long sword, hanging in the sky for a long while. Then the sword shaped light trail descended slowly for a couple hundred feet before finally bursting into hundreds of glitters. That was the type of signal flare used by the Head Master of the Huashan Sword School to call on all school members.

Soon footsteps from a distance rose as someone ran toward the tiny temple.

"Master, are you here?" Gao Gengming"s voice shouted from outside.

"Yes, I am in the temple," Yue Buqun answered.

Gao Gengming came into the temple and bowed to Yue Buqun. "Master!" Seeing that Linghu Chong was standing next to the Master, he said cheerfully, "Big apprentice brother! Are you alright? We became really worried when we heard that you were severely wounded."

"I guess I am plain lucky this time. I am still alive," Linghu Chong said with a smile.

More sounds of footsteps came from the distance. It was Lao Denuo and Lu Dayou this time. As soon as Lu Dayou saw Linghu Chong, spending no time greeting the Master, he rushed straight forth toward Linghu Chong and gave a big hug to him while shouting happy words wildly. Then third apprentice Liang Fa and fourth apprentice Shi Daizi came into the temple one after another. After a few moments, seventh apprentice Tao Jun, eighth apprentice Ying Luobai, Yue Buqun"s daughter Yue Lingshan, and the new apprentice Lin Pingzhi came all at once.

Seeing his parents" bodies, Lin Pingzhi threw himself onto them and began crying bitterly. All the fellow apprentices felt real sorry for him.

Yue Lingshan was gleefully surprised when she saw that Linghu Chong was all right. But seeing Lin Pingzhi"s bitter grief, she knew it wouldn"t be appropriate to express her cheerfulness out loud at this moment, so she walked by Linghu Chong and slightly pinched his right hand.

"Are…are you all right?" she whispered.

"I am fine!" Linghu Chong answered.

For the last couple of days, Yue Lingshan had been worried to death about her big apprentice brother, and now when she finally b.u.mped into him all of a sudden, she could no longer control the excitement that had been growing inside her these days. She grabbed onto Linghu Chong"s sleeve and burst out crying.

Linghu Chong gently padded her on the shoulder. "Little apprentice sister, why? Did someone pick on you? I"ll go whoop his a.s.s for you!" he whispered.

Yue Lingshan did not answer and went on weeping. After shedding some more tears, she finally felt better. Wiping off the tears with Linghu Chong"s sleeve, she murmured, "You are not dead. You are not dead!"

"I am not!" Linghu Chong shook his head.

"I heard that you took a palm strike from that Yu Canghai of the Qingcheng Sword School," Yue Lingshan whispered. "That man"s "Heart Crushing Palm" can kill without spilling blood. I"ve seen him kill many people with my own eyes. I was so scared that…that…." Remembering all the agonizing suffering and torturing she had to go through in the last couple of days, she could not help but start weeping again.

"I was really lucky that his palm strike missed me narrowly. It was such a cool scene earlier when the Master was fighting Yu Canghai and scared him so much that he ran away so fast. Too bad you missed that one," Linghu Chong said with a smile.

"Let"s not mention this to any outsiders," Yue Buqun ordered. Linghu Chong and the rest of the apprentices all complied in unison.

Yue Lingshan stared at Linghu Chong through her tearful eyes. Linghu Chong looked so wan and sallow. There was little color in his cheeks. Feeling very pitiful for him, she sniveled, "Big apprentice brother, this time…this time you are so badly wounded. You should have some good rest and recovery once we get back to Mount Huashan."

Seeing that Lin Pingzhi was still sobbing bitterly by his parents" bodies, Yue Buqun said, "Pingzhi, cry no more. We should make arrangements for the funeral now."

"Yes, Master!" Lin Pingzhi stood up and answered. But seeing blood all over his mother"s face and forehead, he could not help but shed more tears. "When Mom and Dad pa.s.sed away, they couldn"t even see me one last time. They must…they must have wanted to give me some last words of advice," he murmured, sobbing.

"Apprentice brother Lin," Linghu Chong said, "I was here when your parents pa.s.sed away. The two of them wanted me to take care of you. That"s something I should be doing anyway, there"s not much to talk about that. Your father had some other words that he wanted me to pa.s.s on to you."

"Big apprentice brother, at the time…when my mom and dad pa.s.sed away, fortunately they had you as accompany. Otherwise, they would have had no one around them when they left this world. I…I am truly grateful!" Lin Pingzhi bowed.

"The rascals of the Qingcheng Sword School tortured your parents cruelly in order to force the whereabouts of the "Evil-Resisting Sword Ma.n.u.script" out of them, but they never gave in. The torturing busted their heart arteries. Later that Mu Gaofeng also tried to force information out. Mu Gaofeng is a mean villain; doing what he did was not something out of his character. But Yu Canghai, as the Master of a big school, had acted in such a despicable way. Everybody will hold him in contempt for sure," Linghu Chong said.

"If I cannot seek my revenge, I will be no better than a pig!" Lin Pingzhi vowed with his teeth gnashed. He punched hard on the column. Although his Kung Fu skills were ordinary, yet because of the great hatred, the punch carried much strength and even the dirt atop the cross beam in the temple started to fall down.

"Junior brother Lin," Yue Lingshan said, "this matter really started because of me. When you settle your score later, as your senior apprentice sister, I definitely won"t just stand by with folded arms."

"Many thanks, senior apprentice sister!" Lin Pingzhi bowed.

"The tenet of our Huashan Sword School has always been "if others don"t offend us, we won"t offend them"." Yue Buqun sighed. "Other than our deadly enemy the Demon Cult, there"s no grudge between any of the schools or clans in the Martial World and us. But starting from now on, the Qingcheng Sword School…the Qingcheng Sword School…Well, as a part of the Martial World, not offending anyone is so much easier said than done."

"Little apprentice sister and junior brother Lin," Lau Denuo said, "this misfortune wasn"t really caused by junior brother Lin, because he killed the wicked son of Yu Canghai to defend justice. It was really because Yu Canghai coveted the "Evil-Resisting Sword Ma.n.u.script" of the Lin family. Many years ago, when the Head Master of Qingcheng, Evergreen, lost to junior brother Lin"s great grandfather"s "Evil-Resisting Sword Art," the root of the trouble was already planted."

"That"s right," Yue Buqun said. "Most martial people tend to scramble for supremacy and victory. So as soon as they hear about some kind of secret ma.n.u.scripts of Kung Fu, not even bothering to check if it"s real or not, they would all try to secure it by force or by trickery, by hook or by crook. People like Master Yu or Hunchback of the North, who already have elite skills and fames, really have no need to covet the sword art ma.n.u.script of your Lin family."

"Master, my family really do not have any kind of Evil-Resisting Sword Ma.n.u.script," Lin Pingzhi said. "My dad taught me the seventy-two moves of the Evil-Resisting Sword Art personally and orally. He told me to memorize everything in my head. If there was some kind of sword art ma.n.u.script, of course my dad wouldn"t tell outsiders anything about it, but why would he keep it a secret from me? There"s no reason for that."

Yue Buqun nodded in agreement. "I never believed that there was some kind of Evil-Resisting Sword Ma.n.u.script. Otherwise, Yu Canghai would be no match for your father. It"s just so clear and simple."

"Junior brother Lin, your father wanted me to tell you: In the Xiang-Yang Alley of Fuzhou…," Linghu Chong said.

Yue Buqun waved him off. "These are the last words of Pingzhi"s father. You can tell Pingzhi alone. There"s no need for others to hear about it."

"Yes, Master!" Linghu Chong answered.

"Denuo, Gengming, you two go buy two coffins in the town of Hengshan." Yue Buqun instructed.

After putting the Lin couple into the coffins, they hired some porters to carry the coffins to the river wharf. The group hired a big ship and headed north by water.

When they arrived at west Henan Province, they changed into traveling by land. Linghu Chong rested in a wagon through the trip, while his wounds slowly recovered. Days later, they arrived afoot the Jade Maiden Peak of Mount Huashan. The Lin couple"s coffins were temporarily placed in a small temple by the side of the peak, so an appropriate date for burial can be decided on later. Gao Gengming and Lu Dayou went up the peak ahead of everyone else to inform about the return of the group. Soon the rest of the Huashan apprentices that stayed on Mount Huashan, about twenty of them or so, came down to greet the Master. Lao Denuo introduced them to Lin Pingzhi one by one. Some elder ones were well over thirty years of age; some younger ones were only about fifteen or sixteen. Among them were six female apprentices. As soon as they spotted Yue Lingshan, they immediately went into chitchats. The rule of the Huashan Sword School"s apprenticeship was that seniority would be based on the date order when each one became an apprentice, so with even the youngest one Shu Qi, Lin Pingzhi had to call him senior apprentice brother. Yue Lingshan was the only exception. She was the daughter of Yue Buqun, so she couldn"t be ranked using the same ordering system, and had to be called based on age. People older than her called her junior sister. She was really a couple of years younger than Lin Pingzhi, but she firmly insisted on being Lin Pingzhi"s senior apprentice sister. Since Yue Buqun did not object, so Lin Pingzhi called her "senior apprentice sister."

After they all climbed up the peak, Lin Pingzhi followed behind all the senior apprentice brothers. The mountain was very precipitous, yet appeared to be graceful and elegant because of the many ancient trees. Bird tweeting and stream gurgling echoed, making the place a lively environment. Several big houses stood on the side of the hill, some tall, some short, built following the slope of the hill, and all with whitewashed walls.

A middle-aged, pretty lady slowly walked toward them, and as soon as Yue Lingshan caught the sight of her, she dashed into her arms and shouted excitedly.

"Mom, I"ve got a new junior apprentice brother!" She pointed at Lin Pingzhi, smiling.

Lin Pingzhi had heard from his senior apprentice brothers that Madam Yue, Ning Zhongze, or Master-Wife, as how all the apprentices called her, was really a junior apprentice sister of the Master under the same master, and her sword skills were really no less than the Master. So he rushed forward and kowtowed.

"Lin Pingzhi here shows his respect to Master-Wife."

"That"s wonderful! Get up, get up!" Madam Yue said with a bright smile. She turned to Yue Buqun with a grin. "Every time when you go down the mountain, you always seek a couple treasures to satisfy your craving. This time when you headed for the Hengshan Meeting, I figured that you"d be getting at least three or four new apprentices. How come you only came back with one?"

"Didn"t you always say quality is more important than quant.i.ty? What do you think about this one?" Yue Buqun grinned.

"This one is way too handsome. He doesn"t look like the kind of material for Kung Fu training. Why don"t you have him study the Four Books and the Five Cla.s.sics[3] from you, so he will pa.s.s the Xiucai[4] test someday, and maybe become a Zhuangyuan[5] later?" Madam Yue said with a big smile.

Lin Pingzhi blushed. "Master-Wife is not taking me seriously because I look gentle and frail. I"ll have to work extra hard, so I won"t be looked down upon because my performance is inferior to the other senior apprentice brothers," he told himself.

"That"s a wonderful idea. If the Huashan Sword School could actually produce a Zhuangyuan, then we would be creating legends for our descendents," Yue Buqun answered with a grin.

Madam Yue glared at Linghu Chong. "You got into fights with others and got wounded again, didn"t you? How come you don"t look too well right now? Were you severely wounded?" she asked.

"It"s already much better now. If I hadn"t been lucky this time, I probably wouldn"t even make it back to see you again," Linghu Chong replied with a light smile.

Madam Yue gave him another glare. "It"s a good lesson for you to learn that there"s always stronger than the strong. Did you think you lost in a fair fight?"

"I couldn"t fend off the fellow Tian Boguang"s fast knife chops. Master-Wife, will you please give me some pointers?" Linghu Chong requested.

Hearing that it was Tian Boguang who had injured Linghu Chong, Madam Yue nodded, while a big smile blossomed on her face. "So you were fighting the villain Tian Boguang. That"s great! I thought you stirred up dispute and got into trouble again. How were his fast knife chops? Let"s think it over and refine your techniques, so you can fight him again."

During the trip back home, Linghu Chong had asked several times for advice from his Master about techniques to counter Tian Boguang"s fast knife chops, but Yue Buqun had not said any word in regard, and simply told him to ask his Master-Wife once they were back to Mount Huashan. Sure enough, as soon as Madam Yue heard about it, she got so excited that she almost wished she could get onto it the very moment.

The bunch went into the house Yue Buqun lived in – "House of Integrity," and talked about events that had happened since the two groups separated. The six female apprentices really envied Yue Lingshan when they heard about her adventure in the town of Fuzhou and in the town of Hengshan. Lu Dayou, on the other hand, really bragged about how the big apprentice brother had fought the fierce fights with Tian Boguang and how he had slain Luo Renjie, to the bunch of junior apprentice brothers. He added many inflammatory details to the story, and it sounded as if big apprentice brother had defeated Tian Boguang instead of suffering a crushing defeat. After they had some snacks and tea, Madam Yue asked Linghu Chong to emulate Tian Boguang"s knife moves and also inquired about how he had countered them.

"That chap Tian Boguang"s knife skills are excellent. I was simply dazzled just looking at the chops, having a hard time fending them off. How could I have countered them?" Linghu Chong answered with a grin.

"If you couldn"t fend them off, then you must have used all kinds of tricks in a slick way to cheat your way through," Madam Yue concluded. She had raised Linghu Chong up, so of course, she had a very good idea of Linghu Chong"s character.

Linghu Chong blushed. "When I fought Tian Boguang outside the cave, the apprentice sister of the Heng-Shan Sword School had left, and I no longer had any scruple, so I fought the chap Tian Boguang with all my heart. But not far into the fight, he started using his fast knife chop moves. After fending off only two of those moves, I was already groaning inwardly: "Looks like I am dead meat!" So I started laughing loudly.

"Tian Boguang pulled his knife back. "What"s so funny?" he asked. "Do you think you can fend off my thirteen stances of "Wind Storm" knife chops?"

"I said, "Aha, so the well-known Tian Boguang is actually an expelled apprentice of our Huashan Sword School. I had no idea! Really no idea! I got it. You must have been kicked out of our school because of your dreadful personal character. "

"Tian Boguang said, "Expelled Huashan apprentice? What kind of nonsense is that? My Kung Fu is of its own style. What the h.e.l.l has it got anything to do with your Huashan Sword School?"

"I said, "This set of knife moves has a total of thirteen stances, right? "Wind Storm?" Did you just pick a nice random name for it? I"ve seen my Master and Master-Wife use those during practices before. My Master-Wife created those out of a sudden inspiration when she was embroidering. You must know that we"ve gotten a Jade Maiden Peak in Mount Huashan, don"t you?"

"Tian Boguang answered, "Yeah. Everybody knows there"s a Jade Maiden Peak in Mount Huashan. What about it?"

"I answered, "This set of sword art created by my Master-Wife is called "The Thirteen Stances of Jade Maiden"s Golden Needle." One of them is called "Threading the Needle;" another one is called "Seamless Heavenly Robe;" there"s also another one called "Late Night Embroidering of the Loving Birds. "

"Then I started counting with my fingers as I spoke. I said, "That"s right, the two moves you just used were evolved from the eighth move created by my Master-Wife: "Weaving G.o.ddess Throwing the Shuttles." Why would a valiantly and hefty fellow like you imitate the manners of my affectedly sweet Master-Wife and throw the shuttle with the pretty hands from left to right, then right to left, like how the gorgeous looking Weaving G.o.ddess would have when she is sitting by a weaving loom. Don"t you think that"s just hilarious…?"" Before he even finished, Yue Lingshan and the bunch of female apprentices all started giggling.

"That"s too mischievous!" Yue Buqun scolded, yet could not help but grin.

"Bah," Madam Yue spat at Linghu Chong. "Why couldn"t you use some other materials for your nonsense, and had to get your Master-Wife involved? You really deserve a good beating."

"Master-Wife, you don"t understand." Linghu Chong grinned. "That Tian Boguang is rather conceited. When he heard that I was comparing him to a woman and that my Master-Wife created her own magical knife moves, he had to argue about it and definitely wouldn"t just kill me right away. Sure enough, he started to show me the moves of that set of knife chops one by one slowly. Each time when he was demonstrating one, he would ask, "Did your Master-Wife create this one?"

"I pretended to be very secretive about it and kept my silence while secretly memorizing his knife moves. I waited till he was done demonstrating all thirteen stances and then said, "This set of knife art of yours only has very slight deviations from the one created by my Master-Wife, but the majority of it is still the same. This is really odd? How did you steal it from our Huashan Sword School?"

"Tian Boguang said angrily, "You couldn"t fend off this set of knife art of mine. That"s why you simply made things up to stall time so you can investigate the moves of my knife art. Did you think I am stupid? You said your school has the same set of knife art, then please show them to me and help me broaden my horizon. "

"I said, "First of all, our school uses swords, not knives. Secondly, this set of "Jade Maiden"s Golden Needle Sword" of my Master-Wife is only taught to female apprentices, not male apprentices. If we hefty guys had to use such sissy looking sword art, wouldn"t we become the laughing stocks of the entire Martial World?"

"Tian Boguang became even more angry. He yelled, "Whether I become the laughing stock or not, I am going to make you admit that the Huashan Sword School does not have this set of Kung Fu. Brother, I admire your courage, but you shouldn"t wag your tongue so freely and make fun of me. ""

"Who cares if such a shameless villain admires you or not? He deserves to be made fun of," Yue Lingshan interrupted.

"But in that circ.u.mstance," Linghu Chong said, "if I did not demonstrate this made-up set of "Jade Maiden"s Golden Needle Sword" in front of him, I"d be dead by now. So with no other choices, I had to add some affectedly bashful moves at random based on his knife art and demonstrated the moves."

"Did these affectedly bashful moves of yours look real?" Yue Lingshan giggled.

"I"ve seen you use your sword many times, so how could they not look real?" Linghu Chong grinned.

"Ah, you are making fun of me saying that I use my sword in an affectedly bashful way. I am not going to talk to you for three days!"

Madam Yue had been quiet for the time being, and finally she spoke out.

"Lingshan, give your sword to big apprentice brother."

Yue Lingshan drew her long sword and handed it to Linghu Chong with the handle first.

"Mom wants to see the wicked look of yours with those affectedly bashful moves," she said with a grin.

"Chong, don"t pay attention to Lingshan. How did you demonstrate the moves at that time?" Madam Yue asked.

Linghu Chong knew that Master-Wife meant to see Tian Boguang"s knife moves. He took the long sword and then bowed to the Master and Master-Wife.

"Master! Master-Wife! May I demonstrate Tian Boguang"s knife moves now?"

Yue Buqun nodded.

"Junior brother Lin," Lu Dayou said to Lin Pingzhi, "this is a rule of our school. Every time before an apprentice performs moves in front of elders, he must first ask for permission."

"I see. Thanks for telling me, sixth apprentice brother," Lin Pingzhi said.

Linghu Chong yawned languidly with a slight smile on his face and then held up his arms sluggishly as if he was going to stretch himself, but suddenly, he snapped his right wrist speedily and chopped three chops continuously. The chops were almost as fast as flashes, and whistles from the sword slashes echoed. All the apprentices were shocked, and a few of the female apprentices uttered a cry of surprise almost in unison. Linghu Chong started to chop, slice, slash and stab the long sword in all directions. The moves appeared as if they were going in all directions randomly and disorderly, but in Yue Buqun and Madam Yue"s eyes, the dozens of moves were clear and distinct; every hack, thrust, slash or chop was vicious yet accurate. Only moments later, Linghu Chong had pulled the sword back and stood still to bow to the Master and Master-Wife.

Yue Lingshan was a bit disappointed. "That fast?" she said.

"It has to be that fast." Madam Yue nodded. "Within those thirteen stances of fast knife chops, each stance has three or four moves of variation. Over forty moves had pa.s.sed within such a short period of time. This is really an exceptional set of fast knife art."

"When the chap Tian Boguang used it, he was way faster than what I"ve just demonstrated," Linghu Chong added.

Madam Yue and Yu Buqun looked at each other, both couldn"t help but feeling some admiration and surprise inwardly.

"Big apprentice brother, how come you didn"t look anything close to affectedly bashful?" Yue Lingshan asked mockingly.

"For the last several weeks, I"ve been thinking about this set of fast knife chops all the time, so of course when I showed them I was able to do it a little bit faster. That day when I was showing them to Tian Boguang in the remote mountain area, I wasn"t doing it as fast. I had to intentionally make those moves similar to his moves yet different, as well as putting on an act with many postures of a lady, therefore it was even slower," Linghu Chong explained with a smile.

"How did you put on the postures of a lady? Show me! Show me!" Yue Lingshan requested, her face split into a big grin.

Madam Yue turned to her side and drew a long sword from one of her female apprentices. "Use the fast knife chops!" She demanded.

"Yes," Linghu Chong answered, and with a loud "Swoosh," his long sword circled around Madam Yue"s body and the blade chopped toward her lower back.

"Mom, look out!" Yue Lingshan cried out in shock.

Madam Yue threw herself forward, completely ignoring Linghu Chong"s chop from her back, and her sword tip went straight toward Linghu Chong"s chest, also extremely fast and swift.

"Big apprentice brother, watch out!" Yue Lingshan uttered another cry.

Linghu Chong didn"t block either. "Master-Wife, he was way faster," he said as he chopped backward with his sword.

Madam Yue attacked with another three thrusts, and Linghu Chong also returned the attacks with three chops. The two both fought with fast attacking moves, and none used any defending moves to block. Within a short moment, the two had exchanged over twenty moves.

Lin Pingzhi was dumbstruck. "Big apprentice brother speaks and acts like a lunatic, but his Kung Fu skills are excellent. I"ll have to train really hard, with no slack anytime whatsoever, so others won"t belittle me," he told himself.

Right at the moment, with a quick thrust, Madam Yue"s sword tip had touched Linghu Chong"s throat. Not able to dodge that, Linghu Chong muttered, "He can block that."

"Fine!" Madam Yue shouted. She waved her sword and a couple of moves later, her sword tip stopped next to Linghu Chong"s heart.

"He can block that," Linghu Chong muttered the second time.

What he meant was that even though he wasn"t able to block it, Tian Boguang would have been able to block those two moves because his knife chops were a lot faster.

The two fought faster and faster, and soon, Linghu Chong didn"t even have any time to spill the words "he can block that." Whenever Madam Yue"s sword tip pointed next to his vital body parts, he simply shook his head to signal that the move would not have worked on Tian Boguang.

Madam Yue was really in the mood now; she was totally carried away. Suddenly with a loud and clear roar, she thrust the sword rapidly around Linghu Chong"s body, the sword tip flashed about as if it was everywhere; the silver reflection circled around and blurred the audiences" eyes. Suddenly she pushed the sword straight toward Linghu Chong"s heart in the speed of light, with the strength of a thunder.

Linghu Chong was dumbfounded. "Master-Wife!" he cried.

By then the sword tip had already penetrated his robe. Madam Yue"s right hand still pushed forward until the hand guard of the long sword touched Linghu Chong"s chest. It seemed as though the sword had went through Linghu Chong"s body all the way till the end of the sword.

"Mom!" Yue Lingshan screamed. Then sounds of clatter and jingle echoed when pieces of inch-long steel fell down to the floor by Linghu Chong"s feet. Madam Yue smiled as she pulled her hand back. In her hand, all there was left of the long sword was only the sword handle.

"Junior apprentice sister, your inner energy has really progressed, and you kept it well from me," Yue Buqun said happily.

The two of them had studied under the same Master. They were used to the way they had called each other in their youth, so after they got married, they still called each other apprentice sister and brother.

"Senior apprentice brother is really flattering me. These were just insignificant skills. Nothing to be mentioned about!" Madam Yue said with a smile.

Staring at the pieces of broken sword, Linghu Chong gasped with astonishment. Master-Wife must have thrust the sword out with her whole might, otherwise, without the full strength of her inner energy, the sword thrust would not have had such extraordinary speed. As soon as the sword tip reached the skin, she immediately retracted the vigorous inner energy and changed the direction of the strength from horizontal to vertical, and the great shock from the inner energy strength broke the long sword into inch-long pieces. The superb inner energy manipulation had really reached the level of perfection. In great admiration, he said, "Even if Tian Boguang"s knife chops were faster, he still would not have escaped this thrust of yours, Master-Wife."

Lin Pingzhi stared at the many holes all over Linghu Chong"s robe, which all came from Madam Yue"s sword thrusts, and almost couldn"t believe his own eyes. "There are actually sword arts this fantastic in the world. All I need is a portion of that and I"d have enough skills to avenge my parents." He then thought, "The Qingcheng Sword School and Mu Gaofeng both coveted our family"s "Evil-Resisting Sword Ma.n.u.script," but when comparing our family"s Evil-Resisting Sword Art to the sword art of Master-Wife, they are as far apart as from heaven to earth!"

Madam Yue was quite contended. "Chong, since you say this move can kill Tian Boguang, if you train hard, I"ll teach it to you," she said.

"Thanks to Master-Wife!" Linghu Chong replied.

"Mom, I want to learn it too," Yue Lingshan demanded.

"Your inner energy is not there yet. You won"t be able to learn this move." Madam Yue shook her head.

Very discontented, Yue Lingshan pouted her lips. "Big apprentice brother"s inner energy is not that much better than mine. Why can he learn it, but not me?" she complained.

Madam Yue did not answer and only smiled.

Yue Lingshan grabbed onto her father"s sleeve and begged, "Father, you teach me a Kung Fu that will counter that sword move, in case big apprentice brother picks on me after he learns that sword move."

"This sword move of your mom"s is called "Unrivaled and Unmatched, The Thrust of Ning." Since it"s unrivaled, how could I have anything to counter it?" Yue Buqun shook his head and grinned.

"That"s nonsense. It"s alright that you flatter me, but once the name spreads out, fellow martial people will laugh their teeth off for sure." Madam Yue smiled.

This sword move was really created out of a sudden inspiration of Madam Yue. It contained the Huashan inner energy style, the Huashan sword techniques, plus some of her clever inventions, so it was indeed a devastating move. But since it had just been created, there was no name for it. Yue Buqun had thought of naming it "The Unrivalled Thrust of Madam Yue," but then he thought that his wife had always been valuing her own pride; even after they got married, she still liked when fellow martial people called her "Heroin Ning" instead of "Madam Yue." Calling her "Heroin Ning" would be praising her own skills and behavior, and calling her "Madam Yue" would only make it sound like she was relying on her world-renowned husband.

Although Madam Yue called her husband"s words nonsense, she truly liked the name "Unrivaled and Unmatched, The Thrust of Ning," and praised inwardly that her husband, as a scholar, had really thought of a wonderful name for her new move.

"Father, when are you going to create the "Incomparable and Unparalleled, The Ten Thrusts of Yue," and then teach them to your daughter, so I can challenge big apprentice brother?" Yue Lingshan asked.

"No, I cannot. Dad is not as smart as your mom. I don"t know how to create new moves!" Yue Buqun shook his head.

"It"s not that you don"t know. It"s just that you are afraid of your wife, and dared not to create any," Yue Lingshan whispered at her father"s ear.

Yue Buqun burst into loud laughter. "Total nonsense," he denied as he gave a gentle pinch to Yue Lingshan"s cheek.

"Lingshan, don"t get wild with your father. Denuo, go arrange the ritual so your apprentice brother Lin can pay his respects to the spirits of all the former grandmasters of our sword school," Madam Yue instructed.

"Yes!" Lau Denuo answered and soon had everything ready.

Yue Buqun led the group into the Back Hall. Lin Pingzhi could see a banner board hanging high in the middle of the room, and the words "Inner Energy Drives the Sword" were inscribed onto the board. The hall was decorated in a very serious and solemn manner. Swords after swords hung by the two sidewalls. The sheaths were pitch black and the ta.s.sels all appeared to be ancient. Lin Pingzhi figured that those swords must have been the swords of all those former grandmasters of the Huashan Sword School. He thought to himself, "Huashan Sword School has such a great fame and reputation in the Martial World today. There must be heaps of evil villains who died from these grandmasters" long swords."

Yue Buqun knelt in front of the incense burner table and kowtowed four times.

"Apprentice Yue Buqun is taking Lin Pingzhi of Fuzhou as my apprentice today. All the ancestors" spirits in Heaven, will you please bless Lin Pingzhi and watch out for him, have him study and train hard, preserve his purity, follow the school rules, and never harm the reputation of the Huashan Sword School?" he prayed.

Hearing these words from Yue Buqun, Lin Pingzhi knelt down behind him respectfully.

Yue Buqun stood up. "Lin Pingzhi," he said coldly, "you are taken into our Huashan Sword School today. You must follow the school rules strictly. If you ever violate any of them, you will be punished based on the severity. If the violation were severe, you would be beheaded with no pardon. Our sword school has been in the Martial World for hundreds of years. Although we are capable of striving for supremacy with other schools using our Kung Fu skills, temporary victories are really not worth mentioning. The real important thing is that members of our school all greatly value the reputation of our school. You must remember that well."

"Yes, Master. I will always keep your advice and instruction in my heart," Lin Pingzhi promised.

"Linghu Chong, recite the school rules to Lin Pingzhi," Yue Buqun ordered.

"Yes, Master!" Linghu Chong answered. "Apprentice brother Lin, listen carefully. Firstly, any deceiving behavior to the Master and any disrespectful behavior to the seniors is prohibited; secondly, bullying the weak and hurting the innocent is prohibited; thirdly, a.s.sailing of women with obscenities is prohibited; fourthly, jealousy and killing between school members are prohibited; fifthly, stealing and forsaking righteousness for the l.u.s.t of gain is prohibited; sixthly, conceited and arrogant att.i.tudes when dealing with fellow martial people are prohibited; seventhly, reckless collaboration with gangsters or evil and wicked is prohibited. These are the seven prohibitions of Huashan. All members of the Huashan Sword School have to follow them."

"Yes. I promise to remember the seven Huashan prohibitions that big apprentice brother just informed me. I will follow all the rules and never dare to violate any of them," Lin Pingzhi promised sincerely.

"Well, that"s it." Yue Buqun smiled. "Our school is not like most other schools that have many rules and regulations. As long as you remember these seven prohibitions well and always remember to uphold humanity and righteousness above everything else, behaving like a true gentleman, you"ll keep the Master and the Master-Wife happy."

"Yes, Master!" Lin Pingzhi answered. He kowtowed to the Master and the Master-Wife, then bowed to and saluted all apprentice brothers and sisters.

"Pingzhi, let"s first bury your parents to let you fulfill your duty as the son, then I will start teaching you the basic drills of our sword school," Yue Buqun said.

Tears instantly filled Lin Pingzhi"s eyes. "Many thanks to Master and Master-Wife," He said, kneeling down on the floor.

Yu Buqun propped him up. "In our school," he said kindly, "everybody is like a member of a big family. When one has a matter to deal with, it becomes a matter for the entire group. You don"t have to be so courteous."

Yue Buqun turned around and looked at Linghu Chong up and down. After quite a while he finally said, "Chong, this time after you left Mount Huashan, how many prohibitions have you violated?"

Linghu Chong"s heart skipped a beat. He knew that in normal days the Master was always kind and loving to all the apprentices, but if anyone violated school rules, he would be punishing the violator severely without any mercy. So he knelt down in front of the incense burner table.

"I have realized my mistake," he said. "I did not listen to the advice from Master and Master-Wife. I violated the sixth prohibition of being conceited and arrogant when dealing with fellow martial people. I killed Luo Renjie of the Qingcheng Sword School on top of the Huiyan Wine House in the town of Hengshan."

Yue Buqun let out a snort with a stern face.

"Father, it was Luo Renjie who had bullied big apprentice brother. At that time big apprentice brother just had a fierce fight with Tian Boguang and was severely injured. Luo Renjie took advantage of big apprentice brother. How could big apprentice brother just let himself get killed like that?" Yue Lingshan argued.

"This matter does not concern you. This really started because Chong kicked the two Qingcheng apprentices earlier. If it weren"t because of the grudge before, why would that Luo Renjie take advantage of Chong when everything is perfectly alright?" Yue Buqun reproved.

"When big apprentice kicked the Qingcheng apprentices, you had already given him thirty sticks of beating as punishment. That matter was over; you cannot count that one in again. Big apprentice brother is so badly injured, he can"t take any more beating now." Yue Lingshan pleaded.

Yue Buqun gave a strict glare at his daughter. "We are talking about school prohibitions right now. You are an apprentice of the Huashan Sword School. Shut up and don"t interrupt me," he yelled sharply.

Yue Lingshan rarely received any harsh words or stern looks from her father; feeling the grievance, her eyes reddened and she almost fell into a cry.

During normal days, even if Yue Buqun ignored his daughter, Madam Yue would have comforted her with kind words, but since Yue Buqun was judging school matters as the Head Master at the moment, it wouldn"t be appropriate for Madam Yue to help her daughter, so she had to pretend that she didn"t see or hear anything.

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Yue Buqun continued with Linghu Chong, "When Luo Renjie took advantage of you and humiliated you, you would rather die than submit. That was something a true man would have done. But why did you offend the Heng-Shan Sword School in your words and said something like "Once seeing a nun, one loses all bets," and that even I was afraid of seeing nuns?"

Yue Lingshan burst into laughter. "Father!" she yelled.

Yue Buqun waved her off, but had dropped his stern look.

Linghu Chong explained, "I only wanted to get the apprentice sister of the Heng-Shan Sword School to leave at that time. I knew I was no match for Tian Boguang in a fight, and would have no way to rescue the apprentice sister of the Heng-Shan Sword School, but she valued the brotherhood of fellow martial people and didn"t want to leave first, so I had to make up some nonsense. That kind of nonsense is truly disrespectful to the Uncle-Masters of the Heng-Shan Sword School."

"You wanted to get nephew apprentice Yilin to leave; the intention was good, but why can"t you say something else instead of such harmful words? It was all because you are used to being frivolous in normal days. By now, everybody in the Five Mountains Sword Alliance has heard about this incident. Others must be saying behind our backs that you are not a true gentleman, and blame me for not disciplining you properly," Yue Buqun reproached.

"Yes, Master. I was wrong," Linghu Chong admitted.

Yue Buqun continued. "When you were recovering in the "Jade House," we understand that you had no other options. But when you hid nephew apprentice Yilin and that little demon girl of the Demon Cult under the quilt, and claimed that it was a prost.i.tute in the town of Hengshan, weren"t you risking too much? If they had actually found out about the truth, losing face and hurting the reputation of our Huashan Sword School would be secondary; wouldn"t you do a disservice to the entire Heng-Shan Sword School by ruining their hundreds of years of reputation?"

Cold sweat broke out on Linghu Chong"s back. "Later when I thought more about it, I was also breathless with anxiety. So Master, you have already known about it," he said with a trembling voice.

"I only heard about how Qu Yang of Demon Cult sent you to the "Jade House" to recover later," Yue Buqun said, "but when you told those two girls to hide under the quilt, I was already outside of the window."

"Fortunately, Master, you know that I am not a reckless loafer," Linghu Chong said.

"If you had actually been sleeping with the prost.i.tutes, I"d have chopped off the head on your neck a long time ago. How could I still let you live "til now?" Yue Buqun said in a chilling tone.

"Yes, Master!" Linghu Chong answered.

Yue Buqun"s face turned more and more serious. After quite a while he spoke again. "You already knew that the Qu-named girl was a member of the Demon Cult, why didn"t you kill her with a single sword blow? Although her grandfather had saved your life, it was obviously an evil plot the Demon Cult had put together using favor as bait to foment discord among our Five Mountains Sword Alliance. You are not stupid. You had to have figured that part out. There was actually a bigger conspiracy, and saving your life was only a small part of it. Even Liu Zhengfeng, such a smart and experienced senior master, fell into their trap, and ended up ruining his reputation and getting his entire family killed. You have seen such vicious and evil acts of the Demon Cult with your own eyes. But on our way from Hunan back to Mount Huashan, I didn"t hear a single word of condemnation to the Demon Cult out from your mouth. Chong, I think after he saved your life, you are getting really confused about the distinction between good and evil, honesty and treachery. This matter is the key matter that will affect the rest of your entire life. There"s no middle ground for you to muddle with."

Linghu Chong couldn"t help but remember the night in the remote valley when he listened to the zither and flute music played by Qu Yang and Liu Zhengfeng. It didn"t seem like that Qu Yang had any evil thoughts and intentionally harmed Liu Zhengfeng at all.

Seeing the hesitation on Linghu Chong"s face, obviously suspicious about his words, Yue Buqun said, "Chong, this matter is related to the future of our Huashan Sword School. It is also related to your future success or failure of your entire life. You cannot hide anything from me. Let me ask you: when you meet a member of the Demon Cult later, are you going to be treating evil as your enemy and slay evil with no hesitation?"

Linghu Chong stared at his Master blankly; a thought kept flashing around in his mind: "Later when I meet with a member of the Demon Cult, should I simply draw my sword and kill him without checking if it"s right or wrong?" He really couldn"t decide for himself, so he didn"t know how to answer the Master"s question.

Yue Buqun stared at Linghu Chong for a long while but still did not get an answer out from him. He heaved a deep sigh.

"It would be useless to force an answer out of you. When you left Mount Huashan this time, you greatly damaged the reputation of our sword school. I hereby punish you to meditate facing the wall for an entire year, so you can think the matter through thoroughly."

"Yes, Master! I accept my punishment." Linghu Chong bowed down.

"Meditating facing a wall for an entire year? Then throughout the year, how many total hours does he have to meditate?" Yue Lingshan asked.

"What total hours? Everyday from morning to night, other than eating and sleeping, he will be meditating to go over his mistakes."

"That"s terrible! Wouldn"t he be bored to death? Will he even be allowed to go to bathroom?" Yue Lingshan said in worry.

"Watch your manners, young lady!" Madam Yue reproved.

"What"s the big deal about meditating for a year?" Yue Buqun said. "Years ago when your grandmaster made some mistakes, he was punished to meditate facing a wall for three years and six months. During that entire period of time, he did not take one single step down the Jade Maiden Peak."

Yue Lingshan stuck her tongue out in disbelief. "So meditating for an entire year is actually a light punishment? Big apprentice brother said the "Once seeing a nun, one loses all bets" completely out of good intentions. He wasn"t really saying bad words!"

"Just because he had good intentions, I am only punishing him with one year of meditation. If he had any ill intentions, I"d have knocked off all his teeth and cut off his tongue," Yue Buqun said.

"Lingshan, stop bothering your father," Madam Yue said. "When your big apprentice brother starts meditating on top of the Jade Maiden Peak, you"d better not go up there to chat with him, otherwise, the good intention of your father would be ruined by you for sure."

"Big apprentice brother is going to be a prisoner on top of the Jade Maiden Peak, and you still call that a good intention? If you don"t allow me to chat with him, then when big apprentice brother gets lonely, who"s going to cheer him up? And within the entire year, who"s going to practice sword arts with me?" Yue Lingshan whined.

"If you go chatting with him, then how will he be able to meditate and how can he think his mistakes through? All the many apprentice brothers and sisters can practice sword arts with you," Madam Yue said.

Yue Lingshan leaned her head to the side and thought for a while. "Then what"s big apprentice brother going to eat? If he doesn"t come down the peak for an entire year, isn"t he going to be starved to death?" she asked.

"You don"t have to worry. We will have people bringing food up the mountain for him," Madam Yue answered.

.......

[1] Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi are both famous philosophers in ancient China. Lao Zi started Taoism, and Zhuang Zi is a good scholar in Taoism.

[2] Sima Zhao was an emperor of Jin Dynasty in ancient China.

[3] The Four Books and the Five Cla.s.sics are books from ancient China. They were used as standard textbooks for people to study with.

The Four Books are:

The Great Learning (DXue)

The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong-Yong)

The a.n.a.lects of Confucius (Lun-Yu)

Mencius (Meng-Zi)

The Five Cla.s.sics are:

The book of Songs (Shi-Jing)

The Book of History (Shu-Jing)

The Book of Changes (Yi-Jing)

The Book of Rites (Li-Ji)

The Sprig and Autumn Annals (Chun-Qiu)

[4] Xiucai: one who pa.s.sed the imperial examination at the county level in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

[5] Zhuangyuan: t.i.tle conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial examination.