Because the whole world was in chaos, thieves and robbers sprang up everywhere, everybody felt insecure; the first to prosper was naturally the dozen or so martial art schools and Taoist monasteries in the city. [Translator's note: in this book, the term tian xia - ‘land under heavens' or ‘the whole world' refers to China.]
Speaking about prestige, the one regarded as the foremost was Shi Long Martial Arena [actually literal translation would be ‘field'], which was personally founded by Yangzhou's number one martial expert, the ‘Mountain-Pushing Hand' Shi Long. For the last ten years or so Shi Long rarely managed the affair of the training field, everything was taken care of by his disciples. But since the martial school still bore his name, people were still coming in unending stream from far and near, attracted by the school's reputation.
Both in internal and external skills, Shi Long had already reached first-class master level; otherwise, how could his famous reputation not see decline for the last several decades? This man had a good character, did not marry, and lived alone in a small village courtyard at the outskirt of the city. Without having to set a foot outside, his disciples regularly delivered daily necessities. All day long he spent his time racking his brain to decipher the Taoist's book of treasured wisdom, ‘The Secret to Long Life'.
According to the ancient legend passed on orally from one generation to the next, this book originated from Huangdi's [Yellow Emperor, mythological emperor of China, c. 2697-2597BC] master, Guang Chengzi; it was written in oracle bone script, very deep and difficult to understand. Among former sages who have reviewed the book, although there was no lack of talents who understood the heavens, yet no one has ever able to master the subject or decipher the secret.
There were a total of 7,400 characters in the book, but only about 3,000 or so characters could be considered understandable. The book was densely packed with annotations made by the people who have reviewed it, but more often than not, these notes were even more confusing than the original text.
Fortunately, there were seven diagrams of human figure, all with different postures, and all were annotated with symbols, for example, red dots, arrows, et cetera. These symbols seemed to be telling some kind of Taoist cultivation method; but without understanding it, one must not practice it. If one hastened to circulate his inner qi [chi, vital energy] according to some of these symbols, immediately his qi and blood would boil, followed by fire deviation. It was extremely dangerous.
Shi Long has been sitting in front of this book day and night for three full years, but he gained nothing still; just like having a treasure chest in front of him, but there was no key to open the door.
This particular day he was meditating, when suddenly warning signal was flaring out in his mind. No matter what he could not focus his attention to the book. While he was deep in thought, a dry cough was heard from the main hall outside his room.
Shi Long hurriedly put the treasured book in his bosom, while myriads of thought flashed through his mind. He sighed and then said, "Noble guest honors me with your presence, please come in and drink a cup of hot tea!”
But the other party did not respond until he arrived just outside the door. It was only then did Shi Long realize that the visitor was also a first class martial art master.
By this time Jiao Xie has arrived at a forest just due north of the city; accompanied by his men, they jumped down their mounts and unleashing their martial art skills they entered the forest. Going over a small hill, they saw a broken-down temple down below.
Two of his men appeared, one of them came near and whispered in Jiao Xie's ear, "The target tarried in the temple the whole night, he did not even step out of the temple gate; apparently he is waiting for someone else.”
Jiao Xie thought for a moment, and then he gave his orders. His men spread out to surround the temple. Only then did Jiao Xie fly down. Reaching the gate, he said in a loud voice, "Life-Snatching Saber Jiao Xie, serving under the Sky King's banner, received the Sky King's order to ask Miss for guidance.”
‘Bang!' The already dilapidated temple gate suddenly shattered into pieces that flew everywhere, while at the same time a woman's figure appeared at the door.
Jiao Xie did not expect the opposite party's response was both swift and fierce; his heart was shaken. His hand immediately reached the hilt of his ‘life-snatching saber', which has helped him kill the enemy and gain victory over and over again.
The woman was wearing snow-white warrior outfit. With her outstanding good looks she stood with a sword in her hand. There was a bamboo rain hat on her head, tied under her chin with a strip of cotton cloth, covering her charming face above her fragrant lips, yet from the exposed part of her lower jaw, people could tell that she was indeed a rare beauty.
This woman was rather tall, with some a-crane-among-a-flock-of-chicken kind of proud and arrogant attitude. The exquisiteness and well-proportioned features, and the beauty of her physique were almost indescribable.
Especially impressive was a small mole, like a speck of paint, on the corner of her mouth, making her beauty even more mysterious.
Jiao Xie was dumbstruck for half a day before regaining his composure. He was about to speak when a voice more beautiful than the immortal's lai [musical pipe with three reeds] came out of that woman's cherry lips, "You are finally here.”
Jiao Xie jumped in fright; for a moment he forgot about Duke Yang's treasure. "Miss is waiting for us?” he asked in astonishment.
An incomparably touching smile floated out of the corner of the woman in white's mouth. In a gentle voice she said, "I am waiting for anybody to come to try my sword!”
‘Ring!' The woman's blade left its sheathe. A thick cold sword aura engulfed Jiao Xie.
Jiao Xie has roamed the Jianghu for more than half of his life, he was extremely experienced; just by looking at how the woman pulled the sword, he knew right away that he had met the most fearful swordsman in his life. Not daring to be negligence, he let out a wild roar while stepping back and pulling his saber, while shouting his order for his men to show themselves.
There was neither hatred nor enmity between them, but as soon as they met they already used fierce and ruthless method to deal with each other. It was the first time he encountered such situation.
The woman's sleeve fluttered, the tip of her sword rose up suddenly and sharply. Biting cold killing aura immediately permeated the air.
Jiao Xie knew he must never let the opponent gain the upper hand. With another wild roar both his body and his saber rushed forward together to become a blur of saber shadow, surging toward the opponent like a tide.
By this time his men had rushed over to cheer him up.
The woman in white let out a tender shout while rushing diagonally and leaped above Jiao Xie's head. Like a lightning the sword struck down.
‘Dang!' Sword and saber collided.
An irresistibly huge force swept pass through the saber, Jiao Xie felt as if a thunder has stricken the pit of his stomach. Unexpectedly he was unable to hold his stance and was forced to tumble back.
Just a brief encounter like that and he had already suffered a big loss, it was also the first time Jiao Xie had ever experienced it. But he could also see that the strength behind the woman in white's sword was indeed overbearing.
The woman in white did a somersault in the air and landed between two men standing at the edge of the battlefield. Her body spun, her sword flew, those two men were thrown out and were no longer able to get up.
These men were used to have blades on their heads and lick blood from their bodies, they were brave and fierce in battle; this situation has roused their vicious spirit instead, hence with no thought of personal safety they charged forward bravely.
The woman in white let out a cold snort, the sword in her hand turned into hundreds and thousands sword shadows, like a ghost or a demon it easily penetrated the men's ferocious attack. Wherever the blade reached, a man would fall down and die. No matter which part of the body was hit by the sword, the victim always dropped dead. As soon as the five viscera [i.e. heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys] were shocked by the sword aura and shattered, the person died.
By the time Jiao Xie managed to regulate his qi back, only four of his men remained, strenuously fighting to defend themselves; he could not refrain his blood from boiling as he threw himself to join the fray.
Finally the last man fell. The tip of the sword rose up again to meet Jiao Xie's Life-Snatching Saber head on.
Jiao Xie gave everything he had. By the time he took the sixth sword strike, unexpectedly the refined steel of his Life-Snatching Saber was cut into two by the opponent's sword.
Jiao Xie was shocked. He threw the remaining saber in his hand toward the opponent as if it was a secret projectile, while at the same time raised his qi to push himself backward.
With a tender laughter the woman spin her body around. Not only she evaded the shooting broken saber, she also threw her sword away.
Jiao Xie could see very clearly the sword was flying toward him, and he still had time to think about different ways he could evade the sword, but by the time the sword passed through his body, he was still unable to come up with any response that might save his life.
The woman in white casually pulled her sword from Jiao Xie's body, as if what had just happened was nothing, and then she simply floated away.
"Those who attain can also aid the country, those who are poor can only support himself; Shi Xiong [brother, generic term] really aims to idealism. This kind of ‘advancing opens the possibility of offense, retreating opens the possibility of defense' thinking will enable one to conduct oneself with clear conscience. I, Yuwen Huaji, am full of admiration.”
Shi Long knew that the opposite party was reading his own inscription hanging on the main hall's wall, and used it to mock him. However, his self-cultivation was profound; hence he did not take any offense. Still sitting calmly in his chair, he said flatly, "Turns out it is the preeminent martial art expert from Yuwen Clan, one of the four powerful clans of the current age. Isn't Yuwen Xiong busy serving His Holiness? How could you have time to leisurely visit an outsider, a rural commoner like me?”
With his hands behind his back Yuwen Huaji strolled into the hall. He swept his gaze around the room first before finally he fixed his eyes on Shi Long's face, who was sitting as steady as a mountain. He sighed and said, "I have Shi Xiong to blame, the trouble you are giving me is not trivial. You obtained the treasured wisdom that can prolong life, which is the envy of every scholar who practice Taoism, yet you did not even offer it to His Holiness, causing his dragon heart to be displeased. I receive official salary as a small pawn to run errands; I came here to see if Shi Xiong is a discreet person who understands the situation.”
Shi Long groaned in his heart that the situation was indeed serious.
It was the first time that he ever dealt with someone from the Yuwen Clan. The master of the Yuwen family was Yuwen Shang, whose reputation was most resounding. Under him were precisely the four martial art masters; one of them was precisely this Yuwen Huaji, who was serving as the Imperial Bodyguard Zongguan of Emperor Yang of Sui, who was also the most well acquainted with Jianghu people. Rumor has it that after Yuwen Shang, he was the first person who mastered the secret family skill, ‘Black [or Mysterious] Ice Energy'. It's just that Shi Long has never expected that he looked this young, he seemed to be no more than thirty.