Jianghu Tempest
Part 7 (18)
When the enormous crane reached a hundred staves off the ground is spread its wings and coiled around the peak, keeping close to the cliff wall. The strange thing was the crane and the lion were going the same route, both vanishing behind the farthest point on the peak on the right side.
Master Wise Perfected felt it odd and listened carefully. Sure enough, amidst the soughing pines came the mingled tones of a vertical flute.
The flute was not very loud, its hauntingly lingering soft tones yet containing the utmost power. Master Wise Perfected listened for a moment and felt her mind become uneasy, as if it wanted to dance along with the tones of the flute, and she was shocked and quickly pulled her mind back and sank qi into her dantian, gathered her vitality in her spirit terrace, slightly closed her starry eyes, and circulated her qi.
Yang Menghuan and the others were also entranced by the flute, but it was more intense for them owing to their less developed internal skill. Master Wise Perfected was alarmed and was just thinking to reach out and press their acupoints when the flute tones suddenly stopped, the notes lingering and dispersing high into the air.
Once Yang Menghuan came back to his senses, he asked, “Junior Sectuncle, the flute sound was a bit strange, its meter lazing swaying, moving one’s soul. Disciple used his school’s internal skill methods but was still unable to stop from becoming restless and perturbed and going along with the music.”
Master Wise Perfected pondered this for a moment, then said, “That flute sound was an extremely advanced internal skill of the martial world. As far as I know, there are really very few people in the world who possess this skill. Could it be that that demoness, the Jade Flute Transcendent, has also come to Mount Kuocang? If it really is that demoness, then your sectfather is in grave danger.”
Yang Menghuan asked, “Who is the Jade Flute Transcendent? Do you mean to say that she is more formidable than Eight Armed Divine Codger or Li Canglan of the Heavenly Dragon Gang?”
Master Wise Perfected nodded. “No one can say what the Jade Flute Transcendent looks like, as very few have ever seen her, but that gentle, dissolute flute sound often haunts the jianghu. Not a few masterhands of the martial world have been felled by the sounds of her flute. Because the flute sounds exceedingly gentle and graceful, those in the jianghu gave her the nickname Jade Flute Transcendent. Legend has it that the Jade Flute Transcendent is a woman who loves wearing black, even wearing a black gauze mask. She truly is an eccentric who comes and goes unpredictably, but as for what she looks like, no one has ever seen it.”
Just as Master Wise Perfected finished speaking, they heard the cry of a crane and the roar of a lion in the distance. This time the sounds were more chilling and terrible and ear-piercing. Master Wise Perfected had an idea. “Let’s go take a look.” She bounded off the jutting cliff, leading Menghuan and the others around the corner of the left-hand peak.
After a few twists and turns, the scenery suddenly changed. A deep valley wound through the peaks, winding and stretching into the distance, the valley floor a full three or four staves wide and level. A melange of rare flowers bloomed and the mountain breeze blew against their faces, a fragrant scent assailing them. On both sides the mountains were a dense emerald green, the valley floor a carpet of verdant grass. It was like a scene out of a painting, but the lion and the crane were nowhere to be seen.
The four of them used their lightness skill and ran along the valley floor for a while, winding around dozens of peaks. It was getting late. Master Wise Perfection noticed that Menghuan and Xialin were starting to look tired and she stopped and turned to them. “This valley floor is as warm as spring, such beautiful scenery. Let’s rest here for a bit, then continue on!”
The sun was about to set behind the mountains, rosy evening clouds drifting by, reflecting light back on the valley floor, the verdant pine and cypress an even more vivid, vibrant green in the setting sun’s light. Xialin lay on the grass and watched the rosy clouds in the sky drift and change, smiling. Who knows what she was thinking.
Master Wise Perfected, on the other hand, was scanning the area, silently examining their mountain surroundings, frequently using her hand to draw in the grass back and forth. Suddenly she leapt up, went over to the side of a cliff, gathered perfected qi in her dantian, pressed her back to the rock wall, and shot up like a snake up the impossibly tall sheer cliff. The steep cliff was over a hundred staves high but she was at the top in less time than it takes to drink a cup of hot tea.
Yang Menghuan said to Tong Shuzhen in a low voice, “Third Sectuncle’s wall climbing skill is really incredible, one fell swoop and she ascends a hundred staves. I can only go thirty or forty staves.”
Tong Shuzhen said, “Then you’re better than me. I can only climb about twenty or so staves.”
Menghuan was about to respond when Xialin suddenly cried, “Big Brother Huan, someone’s here.” She stood up and Tong Shuzhen and Yang Menghuan and her turned to look and sure enough, there was a young man wearing blue-green walking along to the east. His steps light and easy, and he seemed to be walking slow, but he was actually going shockingly fast, and in the blink of an eye he was behind the three of them. Menghuan couldn’t see his face clearly, he only heard a cold laugh and the blue-clad person passed behind them. The three of them involuntarily looked back to see the back of the blue-clad young man, and in that moment of scrutiny, Yang Menghuan and Tong Shuzhen jumped in shock.
The blue-clad young man’s feet were not touching the ground, only lighting on the verdant grass of the valley floor. The skill of flywalking on the grass was not too difficult, Yang Menghuan was confident he could do it too, but the difficulty here was that this person had covered such a long distance at one go. Because grasswalking relied entirely on a burst of perfected qi from the dantian, one skilled in it could go no more than thirty or fifty staves at once, but this young man had gone at least two or three miles. Even more difficult was that his gait was so free and easy, carrying himself as if he were lightweight, appearing to move slow but actually moving quite fast. Yang Menghuan was a mix of shock and wonder as he watched. He thought, This person’s lightness skill is not only way better than mine, not even Shifu or Junior Sectuncle could would be able to match him. He couldn’t help but watch dumbfounded at the blue-clad man’s back as he went on.
Now turning back Master Wise Perfected, who mounted to the top of the cliff and looked far off into the distance. She saw three high peaks arranged in a 品-shape towering out from the rest to the east. The central peak had a line of silver hanging down, glittering in the radiant evening clouds. Master Wise Perfected looked for a while and suddenly realized that that silver line was quite possibly a waterfall. As far as the eye could see all around the mountains, those three peaks were the most magnificent and distinctive. She looked again at the secluded valley they had stopped at at the foot of the peak, and though it zigged and zagged around, it was stretching off into the distance toward the direction of those three magnificent peaks.
Master Wise Perfected got a good lay of the land and used her wall climbing skill to go down the steep cliff. Yang Menghuan told her about the blue-clad young man they had just seen. This lady xia, renowned throughout the martial world, heard this and her complexion changed. She thought hard about this for a long time without saying anything. Because Yang Menghuan had described the blue-clad young man’s technique as no ordinary grasswalking kungfu but an extremely advanced, amazing midair-crossing internal arts skill. A person with such an ability could pluck a leaf and use it to hurt someone, throw a flower blossom and kill someone, and using the force of a leaf or a blade of grass could cross a hundred miles of river. But this midair-crossing skill was only a martial world legend. Master Wise Perfected had seen and heard a lot in her decades of roaming the jianghu, but she had never heard of anyone in the martial world who possessed such a skill. But her observations of the past month had taught her that Yang Menghuan was a person prudent in speech and careful in his actions. He had mistakenly thought that the blue-clad person has used grasswalking kungfu, but based on his detailed description, it was no lie, and that really shocked Master Wise Perfected to no end.
She thought on this for a while, then feigned calm and asked, “How old would you say that blue-clad person was?”
Yang Menghuan thought about this and answered, “Disciple is really ashamed. That person walked so free and easy, like drifting clouds or running water, he was really incredibly fast. Disciple did pay close attention to him, but I couldn’t get a clear look at his face. He was petite and slim, seemed young. A rare thing for him to be able to train his grasswalking kungfu to such an extraordinary level.”
Master Wise Perfected shook her head. “If what you say is right, that wasn’t grasswalking kungfu. When he passed by you, did he carry a breeze with him?”
That woke Menghuan up. He went blank for a moment, then answered, “If Junior Sectuncle had not asked that, Disciple would not have thought of it. When the blue-clad person passed by, not only did he bring a breeze along with him, his sleeves did not flap, his knees were not bent, and he took short, light, mincing steps, swaying like willow catkins or wisping smoke, a lot different from ordinary grasswalking footwork.”
Master Wise Perfected was even more astounded at this, but she maintained her composure and smiled thinly and said nothing. Yang Menghuan felt she had more to say, but Master Wise Perfected didn’t speak, so he didn’t dare ask.
It was getting dark and a bright moon was slowly rising in the east. Its light was as clear and fresh as water, and the verdant secluded mountain valley was even more tranquil soaking in its moonlight, making it even more beautiful. Master Wise Perfected slowly stood up. She looked up at the moon and strolled on the grass, her expression free and easy, but Tong Shuzhen knew that Shifu was puzzling some difficult problem.
Suddenly a long cry came from far off in the tranquil mountain valley. Yang Menghuan sat upright quickly, Shen Xialin and Tong Shuzhen leaping up after him, but Master Wise Perfected listened silently and attentively. She waited till the cry had completely faded away, then turned to the three of them and said, “A very many martial world masterhands have already come to Mount Kuocang. That cry was within five miles from here. You all get your things, we have to move quick.”
~*~
The four of them used their flywalking footwork and sped along the secluded valley and ran a full two night watch periods, traveling an estimated seventy or eighty miles at least, but the secluded valley seemed endless, the deeper they went the more imposing and magnificent it got.
They went around two large bends and suddenly heard the thunderous boom of a waterfall. Looking up, the three magnificent peaks ringed round them in the moonlight, two in front and one in back to form a 品-shape. On the central peak an enormous waterfall surged down, looking in the moonlight like a bolt of white tabby silk draping down from the summit. At the same time, the secluded valley suddenly opened up, scattered with rare flowers, a fragrant aroma assailing them. At the end of the secluded valley green pines towered, one of them especially tall, just like an open umbrella, the shade it cast covering no less than an a plot of land. Behind the pinewood was a wall of little peaks. Though not large, they were remarkable. A clear stream wound around a large boulder about half a plot of land around under the enormous pine, flowing to the left into a deep gully. Amidst the thundering of the enormous waterfall was the faint gurgling of the stream. Master Wise Perfected led Menghuan and the others close to the deep gully and looked down. The stream fell like a curtain of water, but they couldn’t hear it splash at the bottom. This gully was no more than ten staves long and no more than three staves wide, give or take. Rather than say it was a deep gully, it would be better to say it was a deep cavern suddenly sunken in the vast, flat valley floor, so deep you couldn’t see the bottom. Nature was mysterious, beggaring belief.
Master Wise Perfected studied it, stooping over to get a closer look, but it was abnormally dark in the deep cavern. Although her internal skill was masterful and her vision exceptional, she could only see ten staves or so down it, and she couldn’t make out any features inside.
Abruptly, a white blur flashed within the deep darkness, fast as lightning, and in a split second it was at the mouth of the cavern, white feathers like snow, wings gusting air. It was that remarkably large white crane. As soon as it flew out of the cavern, Shen Xialin clapped her hands and cried, “Ah! So the big white crane lives in this deep cavern.
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