Does Ah Fei make sense in terms of wuxia characterization?

[Ken Cheng]

The character Ah Fei from SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN, RUTHLESS SWORD is one of the most fascinating and charismatic characters in wuxia, but I wonder if the character's martial arts abilities make sense in light of what we know about how powerful wulin martial artists develop their skills.

To become a wulin elite, one must be a master in at least one of these areas: inner power, fighting technique, or hing gung. Typically, the best of the best in wulin will be a master in all of these areas.

Ah Fei didn't train in inner power. He had no hing gung or acupuncture sealing/unsealing skills. He didn't really have a sword technique per se. He was just superhumanly fast with his sword. And yet, Ah Fei was clearly among the best fighters in wulin. Only the likes of Seung Gwoon Gum Hung, Lee Chum Foon, and Old Man Sheun were clearly superior to him.

Could Ah Fei really reach that high a level in wulin without inner power, hing gung, an actual sword technique (not just being fast), etc.? His speed was able to make up for the fact that he was missing two or three of the key components for attaining elite levels in martial arts?

[jiang bao]

Gu Long has his own universe, different set of rules than JY. So someone who is just inherently supernaturally fast (a mutant maybe? LOL) has a great advantage. Ah Fei's dad was likely a gifted martial artist from another of GL's works, so the kid's got great genes.

[kidd]

Agree. Cannot use JY universe rule to judge Ah Fei. In Gu Long universe, speed is of the utmost importance.

[kyss of the sword]

ah fei did not know accuipoint sealing, but he may have had strong inner power, he might not have practiced the inner school of internal energy but a form of external style inner power. he lived in a region of snow and ice, so he may have used the cold to train his body. inner power comes from breathing practice, even a rudimentary breathing style can lead to inner power gain if you do it long enough, well enough and other the right conditions. his lightskill may have been trained on snow like wind from storm raiders did. ah fei used precision, not power in his strikes, so external strength may have been enough, like LHC when he lost his inner power against the many fighters.

[Cesare]

As others have written, GL puts a lot of stress on the importance of speed, so Ah Fei's superhuman speed is a *major* advantage.
And it seems to me that Ah Fei's instincts and natural (& naturally developed) talents to a great extent make up for his lack of formal training.
He's raw, unrefined and not particularly sophisticated but efficient.
The fact that he grew up and honed his skills outside wulin might also play to his advantage in certain situations...

[jiang bao]

If my memories are correct, when Dagger Lee first met him, he appeared to have been walking for a while in the snow while not seemingly bothered too much, suggesting at least top physical conditioning.

Again, his dad, though not explicitly said, was (likely) a top fighter from another novel. I don’t recall his name or the book. Mighta been Full Moon Curved Sabre.

[kidd]

There's hint that Ah Fei's dad is Shen Lang.

[FruityPunch]

Sun XiaoHong said that the reason why Ah Fei excelled in the art of sword was because he trained only with his sword and was able to concentrate on perfecting one type of martial arts. His style consisted only of stabbing and no slashing movements, and usually aimed at his opponent's throat, simple and straightforward without fancy stances. Speculation is that his mum never taught him acupuncture sealing because she allowed someone she wanted to kill escape due to her sealing technique failing and herself not noticing until it was too late and allowing the man live on was a torture to her since she felt that he would despise and look down on her and marry someone else.

Ah Fei's skill with his sword seems to be more realistic compared to Linghu Chong's eyeball-stealing swordsplay.

[CC]

I doubt Ah Fei was without inner power. After all, his stick was strong enough to break Lu Xiaojia's sword.

Sure, that was the 'older' Ah Fei, but it makes no sense that he had zero inner power during the Dagger Li story and suddenly learnt inner power techniques after that.

[bliss]

Jin Yong had a character similar to Ah Fei as well. Her name was Ah Qing.

[kyss of the sword]

it was never said ah fei did not have inner power. only that his skills were self taught. old man sun stated that both ah fei and jin wuming do not qualify as martial artists because they only know how to kill and their incapable of anything else. but take the idea that martial arts were once created by someone who did not know martials arts. so overtime, ah fei and jin wuming became real martial arts master.