Cheung 3 Fung could have debunked those Heaven Sword/Dragon Sabre legends.

[Ken Cheng]

One of the reasons that the Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre were given such legendary status by wulin during HEAVEN SWORD AND DRAGON SABRE was that most of wulin did not know the two weapons' true origins, nor did they know their true value. They only knew of a legend that whoever possessed the Dragon Sabre would rule the world, and the only one who could challenge the sabre's owner would be the owner of the Heaven Sword. The assumption must have been that the weapons were very, very old...predating the lifetime of anyone then living.

Cheung 3 Fung, however, was old enough to remember a time when the Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre did not exist. He was already 26 years old by the time Gwok Jing and Wong Yung created the weapons, and it must have taken some years before the weapons' legend began to spread around wulin (when Cheung 3 Fung was middle aged, most likely). That being the case, couldn't Cheung 3 Fung have dismissed all those legends about the Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre?

[CC]

Did he really know their secrets? After all, he was living in the cave from his teenage years until after GJ/HR died. He might not even have heard of them until much later.

Anyway, those stubborn wulin fellas might not have taken his word for it.

[Ken Cheng]

Did he really know their secrets? After all, he was living in the cave from his teenage years until after GJ/HR died. He might not even have heard of them until much later.

Only the Ngor Mei Sect leaders knew of the weapons' true secrets, but Cheung 3 Fung was old enough to know that there had been no legend of the Heaven Sword or Dragon Sabre until he was middle aged. He must have thought it very strange that this legend came out of nowhere when he was middle aged to capture the imagination of wulin for several generations.

Anyway, those stubborn wulin fellas might not have taken his word for it.

Maybe. I think they had faith in his honesty, however.

[Dennis Chen]

Just because he knew of their existence, doesn't mean he knew about their secrets.

[Ken Cheng]

Just because he knew of their existence, doesn't mean he knew about their secrets.

He absolutely didn't. That's not the issue here. What's at issue here is that Cheung 3 Fung knew that there had been a time (within his own lifetime) when there had been no "legendary" weapons...and no mythology surrounding them. As the ultimate wulin veteran of his age, Cheung 3 Fung must have thought it *very* strange that these weapons and their attendent legend emerged from nowhere to engross the entire wulin. People were talking about the two weapons and their legend as if they had been around for centuries, but Cheung 3 Fung knew that no such things existed eighty or ninety years earlier.

[CC]

Zhang JunBao didn't know anything about the wulin world before he went into that cave. To him, those rumours about the weapons could easily have been around for centuries but he wouldn't have known about it.

[dgfds01]

Zhang JunBao didn't know anything about the wulin world before he went into that cave. To him, those rumours about the weapons could easily have been around for centuries but he wouldn't have known about it.

I think he told his disciples early in the story that the legends were new and di not exist in his youth. So yeah, he knew.

[Dennis Chen]

He absolutely didn't. That's not the issue here. What's at issue here is that Cheung 3 Fung knew that there had been a time (within his own lifetime) when there had been no "legendary" weapons...and no mythology surrounding them. As the ultimate wulin veteran of his age, Cheung 3 Fung must have thought it *very* strange that these weapons and their attendent legend emerged from nowhere to engross the entire wulin. People were talking about the two weapons and their legend as if they had been around for centuries, but Cheung 3 Fung knew that no such things existed eighty or ninety years earlier.

Yang Guo roamed Jiang Hu for 16 years and didn't know there was no Sea Nun. In order for Zhang Sanfeng to debunk the legend of the HS and DS, he would have had to solve the mystery. Just telling people that it didn't exist when he was young doesn't answer the mystery (or disprove it), it doesn't invalidate the legend born from the existence of the 2 weapons.

[tape]

And even if they were new, he could not prove that the claims were false. Somebody could have created them and really imbued such power in them somehow, and if he didn't know the secret to them, he really has no say in the matter.

[slchan0]

or they could actually be from another land which ZSF have no knowledge of. So even if the legend was new without knowing its origins, ZSF may not have concrete claim that they were false.

[Bai Qi44]

I don't get the 26 year old thing cause Cheung Kwun Bo was just 16 when he met Gwok Xiang at Shaolin again and it wasn't specified when the HS and DS was created. The Gwok couple died within like 3 or 5 years of Gwok Seung going to Shaolin and like CC said, Cheung Kwun Bo went to live in a cave for many years right after that incident so how would he even know anything going on on the outside world.

[Ken Cheng]

I don't get the 26 year old thing cause Cheung Kwun Bo was just 16 when he met Gwok Xiang at Shaolin again and it wasn't specified when the HS and DS was created. The Gwok couple died within like 3 or 5 years of Gwok Seung going to Shaolin.

ROCH ended when Gwok Seung was sixteen and Cheung Gwun Bo was thirteen.

Three years later, they met again at Shaolin. Gwok Seung was nineteen and Cheung Gwun Bo was sixteen.

It was said that Seung Yeung Fortress finally fell and Gwok Jing and Wong Yung perished thirteen years after the end of ROCH and thus, ten years after Gwok Seung and Cheung Gwun Bo's encounter at Shaolin.

Thus, Cheung Gwun Bo was twenty-six years old when Seung Yeung Fortress fell and the Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre first emerged.

[Phoenix_Aquaris]

Did the legends mentioned that the weapons are very 'old'?

I was under the impression that the legends merely said that these weapons are extremely mighty. It doesn't mean only ancient swords are mighty, right?

[Naruto-kun]

Yes, I supposed they don't call it an 'ancient' sword/saber. But they were old enough to be called 'old'.

Z3F stated there were no such rumor existed when he was young. But think about it, many pugilists were hungry for its 'power' they won't listen to Z3F and he did not have any proof either to call it a 'fake' old-legend. If someone came up and mentioned about one Wudang's discipline wounded because of the Dragon Saber matter, the other pugilists would say Wudang only wanted to claim the saber for themselves.

However I think Z3F didn't know about the secret inside those weapons.

[Extremer88]

I think ZSF is more concerned about his own Taoist cultivation and martial arts training. He seldom cared about the outside world. If not, he would have tried sweeping out the Mongolian threat since he was so patriotic. LOL.