Originally Posted by
Athena
In the past, I only intended to raise the possibility that the Trilogy Greats were (almost) as good as the DGSD 4 Elites. Personally, I believe the gap between Condor Trilogy Greats v.s. DGSD 4 elites (young and old Xiao, old Murong and Jiumozhi) is relatively small.
The Trilogy Greats (minus Guo Jing, Yang Guo and Zhang Wuji) reached their top martial arts level only in ROCH but by that time they were also much older than Xiao Yuanshan and Murong Bo (almost 15 till 30 years older than old Xiao and old Murong).
Their martial arts level (of the old Greats) in ROCH might be at same level of Xiao Yuanshan, Murong Bo, etc. (or perhaps even a bit higher). However, their bodies were also old and their vigour was declining. So, that is why I think if they were to fight for instance Xiao Yuanshan against Qiu Qianren, after an intense fight Xiao Yuanshan will win because Qiu's physical body isn't that strong anymore. Xiao Yuanshan is only 60, while Qiu is 90+.
However, when we look at Guo Jing, Yang Guo and Zhang Wuji, things look a bit different. These three were young and at a practically similar level as the DGSD 4 Elites.
However, the original Greats had their own pride and a more admirable martial arts experts conduct. None of them stooped as low to steal other people's manuals (Huang Yaoshi was interested in Jiuyin but in the end he did not study it, the only one who did more or less stooped that low was Ouyang Feng, but that is a different story). Jiumozhi, Xiao Yuanshan and Murong Bo pushed themselves to hard and suffered from all sorts of illnesses. They probably have reached the levels of the post 16 years Greats, Zhang Sanfeng, Wang Chongyang prior to his death, etc. But they did not follow the "right" way.
I do rank the DGSD elites (Xiao Feng, Xiao Yuanshan a bit higher than the old Greats, Zhang Sanfeng, etc. of the Trilogy. However, I do have some reservations to writing Guo Jing, Yang Guo and Zhang Wuji as weaker than the DGSD 4 Elites.
Furthermore, the topic of creating imprints in stone tiles has been addressed so many times.
But not being able to leave imprints in stone tiles was abbot Tianming's opinion. We know that at least two other experts have been able to leave imprints in tiles or scrape away imprints. One is Xiao Feng, one is Xiang Wentian.
Besides, in chapter 23 of HSDS we can read this: [大院子中到處都有激烈戰斗的遺跡,地下青石板上,旁邊樹枝干上、圍牆石壁上,留著不少兵刃砍斬、拳掌劈擊的 印記。到處濺滿了血漬,可見那一場拚斗實是慘烈异常。地下還有許多深淺的腳印,乃是高手比拚內 力時所留下。]
In the main courtyard there were remnants of intense fights. On the stone tiles, trees and stone walls were numerous traces of weapon hacks, fist and palm imprints. There was blood splattered everywhere, it seemed that the battles were most horrific. On the ground there were deep feet imprints left behind by experts who were competing internal energies.
Of course, as someone pointed out before trees cannot grow out of stone tiles and are probably planted into dirt. But everyone can leave deep imprints in dirt, even I can do it. And I don't know any martial arts. Why would the author write something that doesn't wow anyone? Leaving imprints in dirt, if I use enough force even a skinny stick person like me can leave relatively deep imprints in earth.
So, personally I think it is safe to assume that those Shaolin experts and warriors of the Prince of Ruyang left imprints in stone tiles too. And don't tell me that both the experts of Prince Ruyang and those Shaolin monks wore heav iron buckets when they engaged each other in mortal combat.