CH 1.4

Chapter 1

Shocking Turn in Peach Blossom Spring

Part 4 (4)

Master One Yang smiled. “Mystic Workings Perfected subdued the five schools at the Central Marchmount swordmeet, and dispersed it, but the five schools did not give up their desire to determine the rankings. On the contrary, they threw themselves even deeper into studying the strengths of their school’s arts intensely, and they sent out disciples to sneak into other schools and secretly learn their martial arts, all in preparation for a second swordmeet to strive for fame. And so they became extremely cautious in accepting new disciples. Natural talent and intelligence were naturally important, and their backgrounds were thoroughly checked in order to prevent disciples of other schools from sneaking in and deceitfully learning their martial arts. This open strife and veiled struggle went on like this nonstop for hundreds of years, with the result that the leaders of each school did not dare to pass on their most sublime skills to their students. Each school’s martial arts therefore advanced exponentially, but unfortunately only two or three leaders mastered the essence, and the many disciples they took in only learned a few basics.”

Master One Yang sighed. “Even when it came to selecting the favored disciple to carry the mantle for the next generation, it was a very cautious affair. They selected and selected, choosing only one or two out of a thousand disciples to erect and altar and pay their respects to the founder, then swear a grave oath to forever safeguard the school. Only then would they be taught the superior arts. For hundreds of years it went on like this, generation after generation, each school’s martial arts advancing by leaps and bounds after the swordmeet on Shaoshi Peak, became increasingly accomplished and profound, but the number of people who knew those arts became fewer and fewer.”

Greatmaster Clear Karma put his palms together and declared, “Name and fame do people great harm.”

Master One Yang sighed once again. “Take my Kunlun School as an example! After the swordmeet on Shaoshi Peak, the elders of the senior generation studied intensely with all their heart to create the Split Second Swordplay and the Celestial Dipper Palm, but the Soul Seeking Twelve, the essence of the Split Second Swordplay, was not permitted to be transmitted to students. At present, aside from myself and my junior sectbrother and junior sectsister, the whole martial world just thinks that Kunlun’s Split Second Swordplay only has 96 forms, but actually the whole set is 108 moves. The twelve moves not permitted to be transmitted to students are actually the cream of the entire swordcraft. My sectmates and I agreed that all three of us had to discuss it first and choose a successor to carry the mantle of the school before the Soul Seeking Twelve could be transmitted. But I have changed my mind and decided to violate our agreement and transmit the Soul Seeking Twelve to Menghuan. That child’s natural gifts are the best of the best, but even more hard to come by is that although he is intelligent and resourceful, he also has a pure and honest heart. Over the past twelve years he has learned all I have learned. If he now learns the Soul Seeking Twelve then I will have nothing left to teach him as a sectfather.”

Greatmaster Clear Karma was taken aback by this. “Although your intention is to cherish and take care of him, by privately teaching him the Soul Seeking Twelve, there’s the matter of the agreement between you three Kunlun masters. How will you explain it to your junior sectbrother and junior sectsister?”

Master One Yang laughed loudly, his voice booming like the awe-inspiring roar of a dragon or tiger, shaking the Cinnabar Chamber and causing the candles to flicker and sway. Greatmaster Clear Karma could detect in his old friend’s peculiar laugh extreme grief and solemnity, yet also boundless joy. The old monk frowned at this, but before he could say anything, Master One Yang suddenly stopped laughing and said, “The crux of this matter lies in the treasure map. The five-school sword competition was canceled, but the ranks were not determined, and though they none of them wanted to give it up, after Mystic Workings Perfected subdued the masters of the five schools, he left them with a warning, saying that the myriad streams of martial arts all returned back to the same ancestor, the white roots of the pink lotus are of one family, why bother fighting over name and fame and mutually annihilate each other? Henceforth, should any school harbor thoughts of dueling for fame, he would not stand idly by and watch. His intentions were good, but who could have known that they would incur for him a lot of trouble.”

Greatmaster Clear Karma asked, “With martial arts like his, how could there be any trouble?”

Master One Yang answered, “The world is large, there’s nothing in it too bizarre. Mystic Workings Perfected’s extraordinary martial arts it’s said came from a fist and swordplay manual. Since he was no one’s disciple and no one taught him, no one knew his background, and before the competition between the nine schools on Shaoshi Peak of the Central Marchmount, no one in the jianghu had ever heard of him. But once he subdued the masters of the five schools, his name spread everywhere north and and south of the Great River, and he was esteemed as the Number One Martial Artist in the World. That illustrious title did him in.”

Greatmaster Clear Karma said curiously, “How could the title of Number One Martial Artist in the World do him in?”

Master One Yang shook his head. “For people of the martial world, even if your internal and external martial arts have transcended to the sublime peak of perfection, even if you look at wealth and rank, jewels and treasures and antiques as nothing more than a pile of excrement, even if you have transcended the world and attained a state of selflessness and formlessness and have smashed the barriers of emotion and purified and illuminated your spirit, still name, reputation, are difficult to completely shake off. Mystic Workings Perfected subdued the masters of the five schools with his bare hands, his fame shook the world. Certainly it temporarily quelled the five schools’ desire to strive for fame and averted a deadly massacre and preserved the lives of some vital elites. But to tell the truth, it was all for the sake of winning a name. His illustrious title of Number One Martial Artist in the World stirred the envy of a peerless talent of the age. This person was not only a woman, she was also a Buddhist disciple with the dharma name Three Tones.

Buddhism speaks of a state of selflessness and formlessness, no anger, no false ideas, but she still could not shake off anger and false ideas. On the third year after Mystic Workings Perfected subdued the masters of the five schools, this Divine Nun Three Tones traveled all the way from the far of Altai Mountains to Clouds in the Blue Cliff on Mount Kuocang in southern Zhejiang to have a duel with Mystic Workings Perfected, and on Clouds in the Blue Cliff they began an earth shaking battle that moved the ghosts and gods to tears. They had both truly entered the realm of transcendents, and they went all out for three days and three nights and traded over 5,000 moves with still neither emerging the victor. On the fourth day they set up a contest of internal force until ultimately they destroyed each other. Both of them were gravely wounded and they sat circulating their qi and regulating their breathing. They knew they were not long for this world, and they achieved a great revelation and understanding, and went from enemies to friends. Neither of them had any disciples, so they recorded their sublime martial arts in three books and concealed them in a cave on Mount Kuocang. They called it the Return to the Origin Manual, meaning that all the world’s martial arts, all the myriad streams and styles were traced back to a common ancestor. A thousand variations could not divest them from their ancestor. Once the manual was completed, they painted a treasure map indirectly indicating the hidden location of the manual. It was said that the map was placed in a jade box and buried on Clouds in the Blue Cliff where they had dueled, and these two peerless talents sat and died while meditating on Mount Kuocang.

This event has been handed down for three hundred years or so until today. Every sect and school in the martial world has racked their brains trying to find the Return to the Origin Manual, from aloof independent reclusive xia to great Greenwood bandits of the jianghu, all have spared no effort or intellect in seeking the manual. I heard that the treasure map was found by a great one-legged bandit of the jianghu a hundred years ago, but he met a violent end. There are too many people looking to take a peak at the Return to the Origin Manual. No matter how strong your martial arts are, once word gets around it’s hard to avoid meeting a violent end. This map has been passed around for a hundred years and has harmed who knows how many lives. Till today no one has been heard to have found the Return to the Origin Manual. Who knows where Cai Bangxiong found this map, but the Twin Revenants of the South presumably chased him here to Mystic Metropolis in order to steal the map.”

With this he heaved a long sigh and took on a mournful expression.

Clear Karma asked, “Now that the map has fallen into your hands, what do you plan to do? Do you also want to seek the Return to the Origin Manual?”

Master One Yang nodded. “I’m going to privately teach my disciple the Soul Seeking Twelve in preparation for these old bones being buried on Mount Kuocang. For 300 years every school has temporarily gotten along with each other and kept the peace, but actually it’s all because they’ve been wholeheartedly dedicated to finding Return to the Origin. Regardless of which school possesses it, a martial world massacre will be launched at once. Mount Hua has always had outstanding talents, and ever since Eight Armed Divine Codger Wen Gongtai took over as sectmaster, they’ve have even more outstanding talents emerge and have gradually become big and powerful. They’ve never for a moment forgotten the humiliation incurred at the swordmeet on Shaoshi Peak.

The Heavenly Dragon Gang of northern Guizhou has had an abrupt rise. In just a few short years their power and influence has spread throughout Jiangnan. The chief of the Heavenly Dragons, Sky and Sea Elder Li Canglan and his Red, Yellow, Blue, White, and Black Banner altarmen were all remarkable reclusive talents, but moved by their passions they gave up their decades of cultivation and threw in with the Heavenly Dragons, and they have recruited unaffiliated masterhands throughout the jianghu in a bid to establish a major branch outside the Nine Major Schools of the martial world. Right now the jianghu looks calm and peaceful, when in fact in private swords are drawn and bows are strung. It looks as though the second swordmeet to determine ranks is not far off. This Return to the Origin concerns the fate of the the martial world from henceforth. Should it fall into the wrong hands, you can imagine the tragic aftermath. So because of this I can’t but go up Mount Kuocang and give it all I’ve got. Whether I will succeed or fail is hard to say, but this is not something I can do on my own. I had a mind to arrange a trip with you, but old monk as you are, always thinking yourself to be aloof from worldly matters, I don’t know if you would be willing to risk it. If you’re unwilling to go, I won’t try to force you. Once I transmit the Soul Seeking Twelve to Huan’er I plan to set out. Right now I want to hear from you. Are you in or out?”

Greatmaster Clear Karma lowered his head and muttered to himself for a while, then answered, “This matter concerns the fate of the martial world for years to come, this old monk is hard-pressed to put it off on someone else, plus I’ve lived for over sixty years, life and death are not of much importance. It’s just that that child, Xialin, I’m worried for her. She’s orphaned with no one to rely on, and she shoulders a deep blood debt…”

Master One Yang cut in with a smile, “About Lin’er, I’ve prepared for that. If you are willing to let her throw in with Kunlun, I can write a letter to my junior sectsister Perfected Wisdom recommending her to take Lin’er on as a disciple. The Twin Revenants of the South fled wounded, word of the treasure map is already out. Mystic Metropolis will not be safe for long. Within a month someone is bound to come looking. We have to let these kids leave before we set out.”

Greatmaster Clear Karma laughed. “It would be her good fortune if she could throw in as a Kunlun disciple, and this old monk can be buried on Mount Kuocang with no regrets, but I have to make one thing clear: Xialin is involved in a jianghu revenge feud. When her mother died she left behind a letter written in blood wanting her to grow up and personally kill the prime culprit. I can’t keep this matter from her forever. She will have to be made aware that her parents’ enmity is absolutely irreconcilable. If this causes trouble in the future for your Kunlun School, you mustn’t say this old monk didn’t warn you.”

Master One Yang asked seriously, “is Miss Shen the daughter of the Blue-clad Scholar Shen Shilang?”

The old monk’s face sank. “What, you… know about that?”

Master One Yang sighed. “Word of Shen Shilang and his wife murdered on Covert Mountain fifteen years ago spread through the jianghu long ago. But I advise you not to let her know about her background. The one who murdered Shen Shilang and his wife, Hundred-Step Flying Cymbals Qi Yuantong has already thrown in with the Heavenly Dragons. He’s head of the Red Banner Altar. Revenge is something you have to wait for the right time for. It’s no good to act rashly. If you tell her now, you’ll just be harming her.”