Hi all,
I trying to restart the translation of Xia ke xing(Ode to Gallantry). I have no knowledge of chinese (like Shi Potian) and am entirely relying on google and Babelfish and to some extent a bit of guessing, Please bear with the quality(or rather the lack of it) for the time being...still early days for me hopefully I will improve.So without much ado...lets start.
Chapter 10 …continued
Shi Potian complied and went into the wood to look for another branch, after looking around for a while; he saw a rusted saber used for cutting firewood under a tree. He quickly bent down to pick it up to find out that the hilt had already decayed and the saber had many chips. It seemed to pretty old and a bit heavy too. Holding the saber, he told himself; "This black saber is rusty, but it's still better than those tree branches." He pulled out what's left of the old handle, picked up a tree branch nearby, squeezed it into the hilt to get a makeshift grip and walked back in high spirit.
Grandma Shi and A’Xiu saw this rusted handle and rotten hatchet and were unable to restrain their laugh.
A’Xiu smiled and said: "Grandma, this expensive saber has cut the big mountain and now this treasured saber will be used to teach senior disciple martial arts…quite an irony.
Grandma Shi said: “what’s the irony? Our golden phoenix school will reign over all the wulin, it will rule the realm of river and lakes and by this handle….this handle of the treasured sword...Ha!” As she spoke the word “Treasured sword”, she herself can’t stop from smiling. All the three people started laughing.
Granny Shi smiled and said: “Well remember, the first move of Golden phoenix skill is called ‘to ask for trouble’ ”. She picked up a short branch, slowly took a posture and said “I cannot move my hands and feet quickly but you actually have to move them fast, the faster the better”.
Shi Potian looked at the hatchet and moved it accordingly adjusting to its model very quickly and making loud sound of the wind out of saber.
Grandma Shi nods and said: “very good, so familiar, but you have to do it again and quicker.
This mode of ‘to ask for trouble’ is used to restraint the snow mountain sect’s move of `green pines to receive a guest '. They are hypocritical in receiving a guest; we while on the other hand we are direct and even welcome the thief, will probably bow to salute an opposite party salute, when actually in heart think of them as bandits and thieves.
The second move `Snow Blossom meets the summer ' is to restrain ` Snow Blossom to struggle the spring ' move. To tackle this snowy mountain sword technique ‘the plum blossom five petals’, or also called ‘snowflake six’, we can use ‘Snow Blossom meets the summer’.
Now what power and prestige does the plum blossom, Snowflake have against summer?”
This move of swordsmanship `Snow Blossom struggles the spring ' is really complicated, Shi Potian has seen this move from Bai Wanjian, the sword’s luminance ,its big power and influence, however he had not learnt it in the temple of the village god. The moves of saber skill 'Snow Blossom meets the summer’ lies in three saber thrusts, then next three saber swipe downwards, then three saber strokes on left and right, including chops in succession, here one pays no attention to opposite party sword however it changes, and subdues it by an overwhelming power, ruthless strength and dispels the complicated sword move of the opposite party, exactly like a hot summer day does to snowflake on its arrival.
That third move is called the ‘thousand honored pressure camels’, it restrains the snowy mountain sect’s move ‘camel next to west'; The fourth move of `sea sinks the sand ' is to restrain the `sandstorm to be luxuriant '; The fifth move of `scorching red date ' restrains the `moonlight pale yellow ', next move is to win darkly by the light; Seventh move of `falls in with bad company' restrains the `dark fragrant sparse shade '.
Each move of saber skill has a strange name, is in sharp opposition all with a snowy mountain sword’s move name and although the name were strange, saber skills actually was very fine and wonderful.
Shi Potian was illiterate, doesn’t knew a character, all these name of saber skill moves were mostly from the book of idioms, he naturally didn’t not understand, also cannot remember , he only tried to memorize the saber stances, their positions and the hand signal attentively. Granny Shi spoke but hand movements were really slow, Shi Potian couldn’t grasp it clearly so he stopped and adjusted. Although he has seen the sword skill in temple of village god, here the difficulty was of course at entirely different level.
After Grandma Shi had given 18 strokes, she had a sense of fatigue and rested immediately, turning a blind eye and let Shi Potian to practice. After some time she passed 18 more strokes. By evening she had passed all the 72 moves meanwhile she also taught the rest of the 9 moves he forgot (of Snow Mountain Sect).
Grandma Shi said: “the Snow Mountain sect’s sword skill has 72 moves, as soon as my Golden Phoenix School will send its martial-arts everywhere to win we will have actually 73 moves. Our 73 moves will break their 72 moves; this is the last move, look carefully to understand. She said and took a branch unhurriedly held it vertically from top as well as bottom and hacked it in two in parts and said “When you use this move, you must do it without fail and jump in the air and divide it straight with your body”. She taught him how to jump vertically, how to transport force and how to block opposite party to run away and escape.
Shi Potian meditates for half of the day, in accordance with the move taught, jumped, brandished a sword from the midair and divided straight down and shouted, the saber pointing towards the ground, it stopped after it gets about a third of meter inside the earth, dust and sand flies upwards, the withered grass and fallen leaf is stirred up all round by the saber wind and started dancing round and round it with surprising power.
As soon as Shi Potian completed the move and managed to stand, he saw Grandma Shi, she had a look of deathly pale, and he turned the head to look at A’Xiu, and actually saw a pair of big drop of tears in her eyes, obviously looking very sad. Shi Potian lip’s stammered: “my this move …Is this not correct”?
Grandma Shi did not spoke for the moment, beckons with her hand said: “Right”,
Stayed for a while, and then said: “this move is very formidable and may not be used lightly in order to avoid accidental injuries to the good people.”
Shi Potian said: “yes, yes! Good people should not be injured.”
That entire night he (Shi Potian) in between his sleep tossed and turned gesticulating the 73 moves of saber skills in the heart, actually preparing for the powerful enemy who were searching him outside. Fortunately this Azure Mist island although is not that big area wise, is actually surrounded by numerous overgrown trees, and the mountain trails were very many, so Bai Wanjian didn’t found them and left near 1’oclock.