ELOC Exposition: Miao Tianwang, and his Demon Decapitating Sabre

[Ren Wo Xing]

In lots of Jinyong and Gulong novels, there are fighters who are able to chop down trees with ease; hell, these fighters are a dime a dozen, a la Guo Jing, Ximen Chuixue...even Xie Xiaofeng and Yan 13 chopped down trees. But as far as I know, there is only one person who chopped down an entire monastery hall, via flashes of sabre light from outside the monastery proper, with a sabre that is NINE FEET LONG (literally, this guy popped out of Final Fantasy).

This man is known as Heaven's Monarch, Miao Tianwang, and he wields the nine foot long Demon Decapitating Sabre of Heaven's Monarch.

Fu Hongxue silently stood in front of the statue of Buddha. In his heart, he suddenly felt an extremely strange feeling. He suddenly wanted to kneel down, kneel down before this Buddha, whose gilt skin had already begun to peel off. To beg for peace, peace for Zhuo Yuzhen and her children.

This was the first time in his life he felt so pious. But he did not kneel down, because just at this time, a swishing sound came from outside of the main hall.When he turned his head, he saw a rainbow-colored, lightning-like flash of sabre light flickering outside.

Where the sabre light flashed, those pillars in the courtyard, as strong and erect as a tiger’s spine, were severed. Swishing sounds continually entered the ear, and the mountain-like main hall began to tremble and way.

He inclined his head upwards, and immediately saw that the pillars and beams supporting the ceiling were beginning to slide down.

The words of that crazy monk weren’t just crazy words. After the dancing sabre light flashed across the main hall, this towering, millennia-old monastery truly did collapse!

What type of sabre was that? How could it have such fearsome strength?

Fu Hongxue tightly gripped his sabre!

This sabre of his was a weapon beyond compare, but it definitely didn’t have such a fearsome strength!

With a thundering sound, one corner of the main hall collapsed.

But Fu Hongxue did not collapse. The mountains might burst and the earth might split, but some people will never collapse.

Another corner of the main hall collapsed. Rubble and debris flew about as though propelled by wind. The swallows on the roof beams had long since flown away.

I hereby nominate Miao Tianwang to be the ELOC of 2010!

[kyss of the sword]

he had a strange saber skill but he wasn't above FHX. he threw a saber with a chain attached that he could pull back i think. his specialty was surprise attacks.

[bliss]

What's crazy is this guy was a midget too right?

[CC]

I think the scriptwriters for 'The East is Red' (aka Swordsman II with Lin Ching Hsia) ripped off this guy for the Japanese Warrior Midget.

I mentioned it before in the translation. Miao's sabre makes Duan Yu's sword chi and Jiumozhi's Flaming Blade look tame.

[bliss]

It's pretty interesting that in the Gu Long canon, impressiveness of feats does NOT equate to superiority of martial arts. It's one of the things that makes comparing characters across novels close to impossible when it comes to Gu Long. Yet, we use impressiveness of feats very often when trying to compare Jin Yong characters and their respective levels.

[tape]

Agreed. We can have a guy that can knock down a mountain, but in the next chapter a small little old man can just show up behind him and tap him to death....then proceed to have trouble lifting his heavy corpse.

[Han Solo]

Agreed. We can have a guy that can knock down a mountain, but in the next chapter a small little old man can just show up behind him and tap him to death....then proceed to have trouble lifting his heavy corpse.

He still lose didn't him?

Same as ZBF- loser too.

Why are all ELOCs losers?

Are there any winner ELOCs?

Han Solo

[PJ]

Are there any winner ELOCs?

There are ELOCs who are not known for losing any particular battle, though most are not very interesting (due to lack of details). Off the top of my head:

-Human Chef (ROCH)
-Zhuge Zhong (DGSD)
-NEEDLE GOD Fu Minyi (DGSD)
-Wang Jianming (ROCH)
-Bao Bujing (DGSD)
-Wang Tongzhi (DGSD)

[Han Solo]

There are ELOCs who are not known for losing any particular battle, though most are not very interesting (due to lack of details). Off the top of my head:

-Human Chef (ROCH)
-Zhuge Zhong (DGSD)
-NEEDLE GOD Fu Minyi (DGSD)
-Wang Jianming (ROCH)
-Bao Bujing (DGSD)
-Wang Tongzhi (DGSD)

Tell me about needle god, please.

[Ren Wo Xing]

Just as an additional FYI, the fight against Miao Tianwang appears to have been the toughest Fu Hongxue ever went up against, as it totally exhausted him. It appeared MUCH more difficult than his defeat of Gongzi Yu and Yan Nanfei!

[PJ]

Tell me about needle god, please.

She sows clothes with superhuman speed and quality.

[PJ]

Replying to an old post of interest.

It's pretty interesting that in the Gu Long canon, impressiveness of feats does NOT equate to superiority of martial arts. It's one of the things that makes comparing characters across novels close to impossible when it comes to Gu Long. Yet, we use impressiveness of feats very often when trying to compare Jin Yong characters and their respective levels.

Interestingly, the ultimate badass in JY universe (Sweeper Monk) also had ordinary looking moves. He just finishes Elite fighters with one tap. It isn't described as fast or even impressive in any way. It's kind of surreal how something that looks simple can be so effective.

So perhaps impressive-looking feats are at a very high level, but the highest level becomes more than meets the eye.