Smiling Proud Wanderer Chapter 36-40

[shortsight]

If YBQ slashes the head of RYY, I am never going to forgive LHC!! lol..

hehe, if YBQ slashes her head, it would be Jin Yong's wrongdoing, not LHC.

[Surferket]

I hope the translators do not mind me putting a link for this series of XAJH translation on my new blog which started with XAJH 2001 which also happens to be my fav.

I really like the translations and appreciated the hard work and effort of all who contributed to the translation.

[pokit]

The fight you've been waiting for =)



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Linghu Chong's left hand was still holding the big piece of rock. Originally, he wanted to use it to help Yue Buqun by stopping him from falling down the trap. At this point, with no time to think, he quickly tossed the rock at Yue Buqun's chest. Yue Buqun leaned his body to one side to dodge it. Linghu Chong rolled on the ground, picked up the long sword Yingying had dropped on the ground, and stabbed it at Yue Buqun's left leg. If Yue Buqun had slashed his sword toward Linghu Chong initially, Linghu Chong would've stood still and was prepared to get stabbed. But after hearing Yingying revealing his secret, Yue Buqun was so startled and angry that he actually chopped at Yingying first. Linghu Chong couldn't do anything else but help. Yue Buqun blocked three attacks and retreated for two steps. He was secretly amazed. He just blocked three times, but his whole arm was shaken and felt numb. When they fought at the Shaolin Temple, they fought for more than a thousand moves, but Linghu Chong didn't use his true internal energy with his sword. But at this time, he did not give way in his three attacks.

Linghu Chong forced Yue Buqun to step back, while he extended his hand backwards to release Yingying's sealed acupoints. Yingying called out, "Don't worry about me, watch out!"

White light flashed as Yue Buqun's long sword thrust forward. Linghu Chong had seen Dongfang Bubai, Yue Buqun, and Lin Pingzhi's martial arts, so he knew his opponent's movements were unbelievably quick like a ghost or a demon. If he waited till he saw a flaw in the oncoming attack, he would've gotten stabbed. So he counterattacked by slashing at Yue Buqun's lower abdomen with his long sword.

Yue Buqun quickly leapt back and scolded, "What a fierce small thief!" Actually, even though Yue Buqun had raised Linghu Chong since he was small, he didn't understand him. If he had actually ignored Linghu Chong's counter attack and kept on thrusting his sword, he would've taken Linghu Chong's life. Even though Linghu Chong was using a common ruin method, he would never have continued his attack and pierced his master's lower abdomen. Yue Buqun was judging other people by what he would do himself so he immediately leapt back, missing a good opportunity to injure his opponent.

After several moves, Yue Buqun couldn't stand it anymore so he increased the speed of his sword. Linghu Chong concentrated his mind to keep up. In the beginning, Linghu Chong was thinking that if he were to die under his master's hand, there was no pity in that for him except Yingying would also be killed. Furthermore, Yingying's word had harmed his master so she would definitely be tortured before she die. Thus, he exerted himself in fighting back with all of his heart so as to protect Yingying. After fighting for several dozens moves, Yue Buqun's changes became complicated. Linghu Chong concentrated fully on the fight and he was gradually enlightened. His eyes were now only looking at the point of his opponent's sword.

With Dugu Nine Swords, the stronger the enemy was the more powerful it became. That day below the West Lake inside the prison, he fought with Ren Woxing whose martial art was of one of the highest quality which was very rare in this world. But no matter how Ren Woxing's sword rose, shifted, and changed, Linghu Chong's Dugu Nine Sword adapted reactively against his moves. Whether it was attacking or defending, he countered each move successfully. At present, Linghu Chong had already learned the Art of Essence Absorbing and his internal energy had improved greatly since that time below the West Lake. Even though Yue Buqun's Evil Resisting Sword Art was weird, he had not learnt it for very long and he was not as good as Linghu Chong who had studied his Dugu Nine Sword for quite some time now. Compared to Dongfang Bubai, Yue Buqun was much worse.

After fighting for more than a hundred and fifty six moves, Linghu Chong didn't think deeply anymore when wielding his sword as there was barely any time to think with Yue Buqun's quick swordplay attacking him. Even though the Lin family's Evil Resisting Sword Art was made up of seventy two moves, each move had several dozens changes, and as it went through all the variations, the changes became very complicated. If other people saw this swordplay, even if they didn't become dizzy from looking at it, they would still be bewildered from seeing this complicated swordplay and they wouldn't be able to execute their own sword moves. But the Dugu Nine Swords that Linghu Chong learned had no set moves to speak of, so it was natural for him to follow the movements of his opponent. If the enemy only had one move, then he would only have one move. If the enemy had a thousand moves then he would also have a thousand moves. Thus, in Yue Buqun's eyes, Linghu Chong's swordplay was very complicated and was far better than his own sword art. He was afraid that even if they fought for three days and three nights, Linghu Chong would still come up with more new moves. Yue Buqun thought till here and he couldn't help feeling afraid. He also thought, "This witch from the Ren family has already found out the secret of me learning this sword art. If I can't kill these two people today, this matter will be spread throughout Jianghu. Then how can I still have the face to be the headmaster of the Five Mountains School? All of my planning would've been ruined. But that traitor Lin Pingzhi already told this Ren witch, so what would prevent him from saying this to other people? This... this..." With anxiety in his heart, his swordplay became even fiercer but his mind was agitated and his swordplay was actually hindered. The Evil Resisting Sword Art depended on speed to take victory. If you fought for more than a hundred moves yet was still unable to win, then the fierceness of this sword art would unavoidably be lessened. Also, with his heart separated, the power of his sword art was greatly reduced.

Linghu Chong's mind was moved as he suddenly saw a flaw in his opponent's sword art. The most important aspect of the Dugu Nine Swords was to see the weakness in the opponent's martial art. No matter whether it was bare hand, kicks, sabres, or swords, every move must have a weakness. Once a flaw has been seen, you could take advantage of if by attacking it. That day at the Dark Wood Cliff, he fought with Dongfang Bubai who, only holding a piece of embroidery needle, moved as fast as lightning and was unbelievably quick. So even though there were still weaknesses in the movements of his body and attacks, they were only fleeting. Linghu Chong only managed to see the flaws but they were gone in the next instant which made him unable to attack those flaws. That was the reason why the four masters, Linghu Chong, Ren Woxing, Xiang Wentian, and Yingying, were unable to win against a little embroidery needle. Later on, Linghu Chong saw Yue Buqun and Zuo Lengchan fighting at the place of worship, and Lin Pingzhi fighting with Mu Gaofeng, Yu Canghai, and the Qingcheng disciples. Recently, he had been thinking hard about the flaws in the movements of that sword art, but he had always run into the single difficulty -- the speed of the opponent's swordplay. When a flaw could only be seen fleetingly, it was very hard to attack.

At this time, he had endured fighting against Yue Buqun for close to two hundred moves when he saw Yue Buqun exposing a weakness underneath his right armpit in a slash of his sword. Yue Buqun had used this move earlier. Originally, the changes in his swordplay were very complicated and he didn't repeat any of his moves in the past two hundred moves. But now, he has finally repeated one move. After several more moves, Yue Buqun's long sword slashed out horizontally exposing a weakness on his left waist. He had again repeated another move. Suddenly, a thought flashed in Linghu Chong's mind, "His Evil Resisting Sword Art is extremely quick, and his flaws aren't actual flaws. Even though there's no weakness in his sword moves, I've finally found out a weakness in his swordplay -- his swordplay repeats."

In this world, in whichever sword art, no matter how complicated and how many changes your swordplay had, you would eventually finish using all the sword moves. Once the sword moves were used up and you still weren't able to gain victory, then it would be unavoidable that you would have to reuse the sword moves you had used earlier in the fight. But for masters, their refined sword arts would always have eight or ten groups, and within each group there would be dozens of moves, and each move would have its variations. So it was very unusual for them to fight for more than a thousand moves before the outcome of the fight was decided. Even though Yue Buqun knows a lot of other swordplay he could use, he knew Linghu Chong's sword art was actually too strong and that Linghu Chong was also familiar with the Huashan School's sword art. So besides the Evil Resisting Sword Art, there was no other sword art he could use that could gain victory. By now, Yue Buqun had repeated many moves. Knowing he now had the opportunities to take victory, Linghu Chong felt happy.

When Yue Buqun saw the corner of Linghu Chong's mouth smiling, he was secretly startled. Yue Buqun thought, "What's this little thief smiling about? Has he figured out a way to defeat me?" He immediately moved his internal energy, and was suddenly advancing and retreating to go around Linghu Chong in a circle. His sword moves were like a violent storm and they were getting faster and faster. Yingying was still lying down on the ground and from her position, she couldn't see Yue Buqun's body clearly anymore. She felt dizzy looking at him; her chest felt nauseated and she felt like throwing up.

After fighting for thirty more moves, Yue Buqun's left hand stabbed forward while he withdrew his right hand. Linghu Chong knew this was the third time he had used this move. After fighting for so long, Linghu Chong felt tired as his injury was just beginning to heal. He knew the situation was highly dangerous, and under Yue Buqun's lightning fast attack, if he was just slightly careless, he would lose his life and Yingying would be tortured. So seeing Yue Buqun using this move again, he immediately sent his sword out and stabbed it at his opponent's right armpit. The spot that this slanting sword was stabbing at was the weakness of Yue Buqun's next move. This was really anticipating what the enemy was going to do and made Yue Buqun's really anxious. Even though this move by Yue Buqun was extremely quick, Linghu Chong's attack was done earlier. The move from the Evil Resisting Sword Art had not changed yet, but Linghu Chong had already thrust at Yue Buqun's armpit making him unable to block or dodge. Yue Buqun cried out sharply, sounding surprised, angry, and desperate. Linghu Chong's sword had already arrived at his opponent's armpit, but when he heard Yue Buqun's sharp cry, he immediately thought, "I'm going too far, he's my master, how can I injure him?" He quickly pulled his sword back and said, "The winner and loser has been decided. Let's save Master-Wife, then... then we'll go our own ways!"

Yue Buqun's face was pale as he slowly nodded his head. "Alright! I admit defeat."

Linghu Chong tossed his long sword on the ground and turned his head around to look at Yingying. Suddenly, Yue Buqun shouted and his long sword thrust out as fast as lightning and stabbed Linghu Chong's left waist. Greatly astonished, Linghu Chong quickly extended his hand to pick up his sword. But how could he be fast enough? With a 'pu' sound, the point of the sword had entered the back of his waist. Luckily, Linghu Chong's internal energy was abundant. When the sword reached his body, his muscle automatically retracted, making the sword slid to one side so that the sword point pierced his body slantingly and did not injure any fatal points. Yue Buqun was exulted. He pulled out his sword and quickly followed it with a chop. Linghu Chong hastily rolled for a few feet. Yue Buqun rushed forward with his sword slashing ferociously. Linghu Chong rolled again.

'Tang' sounded as Yue Buqun's sword chopped the ground and missed Linghu Chong's head by only a few inches. Yue Buqun lifted his sword, and with a fierce-looking laugh, he lifted his sword high above his head. He rushed forward for a step and chopped his sword down on Linghu Chong's head again. Suddenly, there was nothing underneath his foot, and his body slumped to the ground. He was greatly surprised and nervously sucked in a breath of air and was waiting for his right foot to hit the ground to leap up. But all of a sudden, the sky revolved and the ground turned, and he lost consciousness. With a booming sound, he fell into the trap.

[ChronoReverse]

Grr, stupid LHC still doesn't get how evil his master is. And stupid YBQ doesn't know the meaning of mercy.

Serves him right to fall into the trap.

[CC]

Bah! This BXJF is disappointing.

[Han Solo]

That's why i always thought that KHBB > PXJF

[ChronoReverse]

So you're comparing a BXJF that was practiced for a few months to a KHBD that was practiced for over a decade? Hardly a fair comparison is it?

Besides, we know that YBQ is a slow stooge who's all about performing stances stiffly.

[Bloodflowers]

Not much hope for Yue BuQun now... not that he deserves any pity. I wonder if that poison will do something other than killing him?

I guess all that's left to do is:
1. Tell Madam Yue how her daughter died.
2. Handle Lin and Zuo Lengchan
3. Deal with Ren Woxing and fix Linghu Chong's internal energy problem (or has it been resolved already? I find it odd that hew hasn't had any problems recently. I wonder if he somehow "fixed it" by accident..)
4. Live happily ever after with Ren YingYing as master of 5 Mountains Sword School

[Demonic Swordsman]

man, thats been the best fight ive read in a while...

ah..LHC is too naive...sigh

[shortsight]

great!, thank you pokit and hhaung. and i thought LHC could not defeat YBQ once he learnt PXJF. but i hate the fact that JY always specify that LHC common ruin strategy could fail if his opponent is going to die with him. it makes DG9J less powerful.

I would still believe that JinYong got the DG9J idea indirectly from Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do philosophies, or probably some high level martial arts philosophies. And the interesting thing is, even contemporary computers are using DG9J with SSE, SSE2 and similar insturctions stuff to speed up the processor.

[Bloodflowers]

Wow... I fail to see what the hell does SSE has to do with DG9J.

Man, you're a true geek.

[meujeudom]

I don't Think YBQ is dead. it says "he lost consciousness" LHC will not kill him and YBQ can jump out. In fact that naive LHC may even help him out of the trap.

I think we will see him again later, after he really master BXJF

[CFT]

I think those elders would have made sure that the hole is deep enough so that YBQ cannot get out.

[KChill]

Great fight scene....why must LHC act like a complete idiot?

[Felipe]

Is not that he is an idiot, its just that he loves his master as his own father... if possible, he don't want to kill his "father"... who will blame him?

[viesef]

Thanks pokit and HH

The fight was great but as usual LHC has shown his weakness (his love for his master), well what would we expect but something like this from LHC. but I was glad that LHC is a very lucky person if it weren't for that pit trap the outcome would have been not nice...

[shortsight]

Wow... I fail to see what the hell does SSE has to do with DG9J.

Man, you're a true geek.

opps, sorry. probably i didn't phrase it correctly.
you could probably see more relation if i replace SSE with instruction prefetching

[tianbin]

great!, thank you pokit and hhaung. and i thought LHC could not defeat YBQ once he learnt PXJF. but i hate the fact that JY always specify that LHC common ruin strategy could fail if his opponent is going to die with him. it makes DG9J less powerful.

I would still believe that JinYong got the DG9J idea indirectly from Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do philosophies, or probably some high level martial arts philosophies. And the interesting thing is, even contemporary computers are using DG9J with SSE, SSE2 and similar insturctions stuff to speed up the processor.

On contrary, perhaps Bruce Lee got some of his ideas from JY. Bruce Lee was still very young when SPW was first published. Also, Bruce Lee adopted many martial arts legends in his own movies, like Shaolin and Wudang.

Bruce Lee was smart enough to recognize that some martial art concepts described by JY doesn't work in actual combat, like the lack of physical conditioning. He was true to the martial art philosophies though.

[overjoy71]

I don't think YBQ is out of the picture yet. YBQ is too rigid in his methods, that's why PXJF in his hands may not have the same effect as sunflower in DFBB's hands. Besides the fact that he has a shorter learning time than LHC has.

Shortsight, I think that is one thing LHC may not have understood yet. DG9J depends on the strength of the opponent; the stronger the opponent, better it comes. I agree with Han Solo, I always think that DG9J > PXJF. The point is that if the sword arts has style and techniques, it is bound to have weakness, PXJF is no different, while DG9J depends on the intelligence and liberty of the sword wielder. That is why I think someone like YBQ can never learn DG9J, too rigid.

[shortsight]

On contrary, perhaps Bruce Lee got some of his ideas from JY. Bruce Lee was still very young when SPW was first published. Also, Bruce Lee adopted many martial arts legends in his own movies, like Shaolin and Wudang.

Bruce Lee was smart enough to recognize that some martial art concepts described by JY doesn't work in actual combat, like the lack of physical conditioning. He was true to the martial art philosophies though.

but i doubt bruce lee would have the time to follow a newspaper column for months at the time when JY's brainchild was still not in book print. further more, bruce was in US by 1957 and established JKD in 1965 and XAJH was first published in 1967, when bruce was already a star and relatively, JY was probably well knwon but still just another writer in 1967. in such scenario, i would inclined to believe JY was inspired by bruce lee more than bruce inspired by JY, if ever inspiration was a factor in their works.