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Thread: Lu Xiaofeng Book 5: Mansion of Spirits

  1. #421
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    Thank you - looking for this with anticipation as we come to the end...

  2. #422
    Senior Member Justin13's Avatar
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    Wow he died just like that?!?! Here comes the God!

  3. #423
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    Thanks foxs

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    Thanks, foxs.

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    Sigh, died too fast!
    Thanks Foxs!

  6. #426
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    Aiya I wanna know who he is......

    hee thks foxs

  7. #427
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    Nah I suspect there is more to this than meets the eye .... thks foxs.

  8. #428
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    Quote Originally Posted by foxs View Post
    It seemed that the only one without anybody dealing with was Wooden Taoist. Was it because he has not paid any attention to Jianghu matters for a long time that Old Sabre Honcho practically did not consider him as a target?

    Lu Xiaofeng did not ponder over this question too far, because right that moment his own target has appeared.
    Pretty certain that Old Sabre Honcho was Wooden Taoist.

    Quote Originally Posted by foxs View Post
    Lu Xiaofeng could not resist peeking out from atop the beam, sneakily looking down. A procession of Taoist priests wearing purple robes and black hats was entering the main hall. The one leading the procession was, unexpectedly, Wooden Taoist.

    He had known Wooden Taoist for many years, but not until now did he realize that this senior Wudang swordsman’s power was actually a lot higher than everybody had always thought.
    From this passage, you can argue that Wooden Taoist was not the same one Lu Xiaofeng knew, which means an imposter posing as Wooden Taoist?

    Lu Xiaofeng must be some god to be able to direct, neutralize, and replace all the high level players. Not bad for a drunk who spends all his time passed-out and surrounded by young, beautiful nieces.

  9. #429
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    but isn't Wooden Taoist a bosom buddy of LXF and a good guy in LuXiaoFeng series?

  10. #430
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    You can only be betrayed by a friend but you know where you stand with your enemies. Wooden taoist has been pretending for several years. His mask is yet to be removed.

  11. #431
    Senior Member szfong's Avatar
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    I remembered Wooden Taoist was willing to stand and die fighting together with LXF and friends at the imperial palace.. It was a hopeless battle and that should prove his loyalty and bravery.... Just like beef soup somehow became a friend.... so confusing... Perhaps each story is self contained... Gu Long ran out of villains while drunk?

  12. #432
    Senior Member kyss of the sword's Avatar
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    Maybe he's not totally bad. He had a lot of good characteristics but due to a mistake he couldn't be wudangs leader and he had to resort to these means.

  13. #433
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    Gu Long woke up one morning and decide to kill off one of his regulars

  14. #434
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    Quote Originally Posted by kyss of the sword View Post
    Maybe he's not totally bad. He had a lot of good characteristics but due to a mistake he couldn't be wudangs leader and he had to resort to these means.
    I thought it was evil to make his very own deciple wear a green hat for him for the rest of his life...

  15. #435
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    Default Chapter 16 - Part 1

    ycb, HPC, Jaya, owl, you are welcome. Justin, Clown, there's more ... I think DongBin already read the story. 9Dragons, Kenshin, kyss, szfong, good discussion, I enjoyed it. Read this part.

    On the side note, my apology for the delay, I've been rather busy lately, but I'll try to catch up this weekend. It's Memorial Day in the US, I get one day extra ...



    Chapter 16 – To be one step ahead of the opponent
    Translated by Foxs


    The last one descending the stone steps was not Ximen Chuixue at all, it was Wooden Taoist. He was the actual person who entered last; obviously Old Sabre Honcho did not expect anybody else behind Shi Yan. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind [idiom from Taoist classic Zhuangzi]; indeed there are many things in the world just like that.

    Lu Xiaofeng did not seem to think that he would come either; he looked at him in shock, and then he turned his gaze toward the Old Sabre Honcho, who was lying in a pool of blood. Suddenly he asked, “Why did you kill him? Why didn’t you leave him alive to get information from him?”

    “We already found out his secret,” Wooden Taoist replied, “Even if we asked again, we won’t get anything more. Although my hand was a bit too heavy, we definitely got rid of future trouble.”

    “But we have not seen his true identity,” Lu Xiaofeng objected.

    Wooden Taoist chuckled and said, “After he died, we can still see his true identity.”

    Lu Xiaofeng was taken aback, and then he laughed, “The past few days I am indeed too tired; my head is also so tired that I cannot even think.”

    Wooden Taoist laughed and said, “There are times when we all cannot think. What I am afraid of is having no head with which to think.”

    -- When anybody dies, his true identity can still be seen.

    -- What we are afraid of is if the dead man has no face to be seen.

    Lu Xiaofeng turned Old Sabre Honcho over to look at his face. He was stunned again.

    Because what he saw was a head without a face. The black holes where the eyes were carried an indescribeable mockery, as if he was saying, “No one will ever see my face again, never …”

    Everybody was stunned, even Liu Qingqing was stunned.

    Shi Yan let out a long breath; he said, “Although he has no face, I still recognize him.”

    “Of course you recognize him,” Wooden Taoist said, “I recognize him too.”

    He looked up. In that instant, he seemed to be aging a lot, “This man was our School’s renegade, Shi He.”

    “Wrong,” Lu Xiaofeng said, “Not Shi He.”

    His voice was firm and full of confidence; he seemed to be very sure of what he had just said.

    If he was not, he would not say it in front of these people in that room.

    It was an elegant and quiet study room, located in a very secure and secret place.

    Anybody who wished to enter this study room must go through seven tightly guarded doors.

    Nearly every one of the men who guarded the room was a top-ranking Wulin expert, they consisted of the most outstanding disciples of Wudang, Shaolin, Yandang, and Mount Ba schools, plus several most astute, capable and experienced helm-masters of the Yangtze River’s Water Fort and the Twelve-dock Alliance.

    Without these people’s permission, absolutely no one could burst into the room.

    Even the news of their presence in the building was a completely guarded information.

    They called this place ‘the Eagle’s Nest’. The plan to deal with ‘the Mansion of Spirits’ this time was decided just three months ago in this ‘Eagle’s Nest’.

    It was a top secret plan.

    The first step of the plan was to convince Ximen Chuixue to create a conflict and hatred between he and Lu Xiaofeng, so that Jianghu people would think that he simply must kill Lu Xiaofeng.

    It was not an easy task, Ximen Chuixue was not a man who could be easily persuaded.

    Who would have thought that this time Ximen Chuixue did not refuse at all? Obviously he thought that hunting and killing Lu Xiaofeng would be interesting. His only condition was …

    “You must run away for real, because I am going to pursue you for real too. If I overtake you, I might kill you for real.”

    Therefore, when he was running away, Lu Xiaofeng was running in cold sweat all the time.

    The second step of the plan was to arrange Lu Xiaofeng’s escape route; he must ‘unintentionally’ make contact with people from the ‘Mansion of Spirits’, and he must not be suspected at all.

    During his flight, he still had to cope with all difficulties on his own, and must not make any contact with anybody else.

    Whether Lu Xiaofeng could really sneak into the Mansion of Spirits, they did not have any confidence at all.

    But he was willing to take this risk.

    Actually, they had learned about this Mansion of Spirits organization for quite some time, but all along they failed to grab the least bit of clue. Except that from the mouth of a dying stranger they learned that this organization was going to do some earth-shattering thing very soon.

    So they did not have any choice but to start their own operation.

    Because they found out that this dying stranger was the real Gu Feiyun, who was supposed to die under Ximen Chuixue’s sword many years ago.

    He escaped from the Mansion of Spirits, and was forced by Shi He to jump into ten-thousand zhang deep ravine. Although luckily he did not die, both his legs were broken. Relying only on his pair of hands and a strong will, he crawled out of the valley for five days and four nights, before by chance he met a Taoist priest who was out to gather herbs deep in the mountains.

    The Taoist priest happened to be a Wudang disciple. Gu Feiyun managed to live to tell the Mansion of Spirits’ secret. Too bad his knowledge was really limited, plus he was at his last breath.

    Therefore, Lu Xiaofeng had already known from the start that ‘Cousin’ was not Gu Feiyun.

    Actually, Shi Yan of Wudang was the initiator of this plan. The first person he looked for was precisely Lu Xiaofeng.

    -- If there was one person in the world able to accomplish this arduous task, that person was, without a doubt, Lu Xiaofeng.

    But Lu Xiaofeng also realized that relying on his strength alone, he would definitely fail. Hence he insisted on getting a few good men to help him. And he believed that among these few, he simply could not lack Sikong Zhaixing.

    To convince Sikong Zhaixing was more difficult than persuading Ximen Chuixue. Luckily he had a weakness.

    He loved to bet. Especially betting against Lu Xiaofeng; he did not care what it was that he was betting, as long as it was against Lu Xiaofeng.

    So Lu Xiaofeng told him, “If I fail, you must dig earthworms for me.”

    By the time Sikong Zhaixing realized it was a trap, it was already too late. Hence, in order not to lose, he simply must help Lu Xiaofeng to succeed with all his might.

    He had always been a man of his word.

    But he also insisted to have another helper that they must not go without; he wanted Lu Xiaofeng to find Hua Manlou for him.

    Nobody could surpass Hua Manlou’s meticulous thought; maybe exactly because he could not see that he spent more time in thought than anyone else.

    The original plan was for the four of them to reach decision in the ‘Eagle’s nest’.

    But four people’s power was naturally still not enough; therefore, they pulled in six more people.

    They were Tie Jian of Shaolin, Wang Shidai of Beggar Clan, Shuishang Fei of Yangtze River, Gao Xingkong of Yandang, Xiao Gu of Mount Ba, and Yingyan Laoqi of the Twelve-dock Alliance.

    Because each one of all these six people had a disciple of their school in the Mansion of Spirits.

    Their territories also happened to be spread out between Mansion of Spirits and Wudang.

    But the most important factor was that they all men who absolutely guarded their mouth like a closed bottle, they would never leak the secret of this operation to anybody.

    From the outside, this building was a very ordinary-looking two-story building in the downtown area. It was bought using the name of a helm master under Yingyan Laoqi’s command. The three storefronts downstairs were used to open a drugstore, a wine shop, and a coffin shop.

    The three shops’ proprietors were naturally the most loyal, as well as capable and experienced, disciples of their schools.

    The number of people who were privy of this plan was only ten. The rest of the people merely took orders from these ten.

    Right now, out of ten people, eight were present.

    Lu Xiaofeng looked at them, and repeated what he just said with a renewed emphasis, “Not Shi He. Definitely not him.”

    Shi Yan was not present, apparently his illness was serious. The only other person who had seen Shi He was Tie Jian.

    That day when Wudang was about to inaugurate a new sect leader, when Shi He destroyed his own face, this senior monk from Shaolin was also present.

    He had seen this ‘face without a face’. Anybody who had seen it once will never forget.

    Therefore, he objected, “I have seen his face, I am absolutely sure that he was Shi He.”

    “The one died under Wooden Taoist’s hand was of course Shi He,” Lu Xiaofeng said, “But Shi He was not Old Sabre Honcho. Absolutely not.”

    “How can you be so sure?” Sikong Zhaixing asked.

    “Because I know who Old Sabre Honcho really is,” Lu Xiaofeng replied.

    “Who?” Sikong Zhaixing asked.

    “Wooden Taoist,” Lu Xiaofeng replied.

    Sikong Zhaixing was shocked, and so was everyone else there.

    After a long time, Tie Jian slowly shook his head and said, “No, it can’t be him.”

    “Why?” Lu Xiaofeng asked.

    Tie Jian replied, “Many years ago he could have become Wudang Sect Leader, but he gave the Sect Leader position to his Shidi [martial (younger) brother] Mei Zhenren. From this, it can be seen that he did not regard fame and profit, power and position as important at all; how could he do such thing?”
    Last edited by foxs; 05-24-14 at 10:43 AM.

  16. #436
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    Thanks foxs

  17. #437
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    Wait a min....... Wooden Taoist was still in the next few books wasn't he? Or was he? Or did I mix up the order of the books?

    Thanks Foxs!

  18. #438
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    Entertaining piece! Now, solving the Mansion of Spirits mystery sounds more plausible with those all-stars on the case. Ha, Ximen Chuixue was just too eager to accept the invitation to hunt Lu Xiaofeng. Dude, they had Hua Manlou?! Obviously they didn't utilize him effectively. Otherwise, it would have been, "Hey Woody." The end.

  19. #439
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    Thanks foxs

  20. #440
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    Thanks!

    Error:
    “But we have not see his true identity,” Lu Xiaofeng objected.
    should be "seen"


    Imagine what would have happened if wooden taoist was one of the ten...


    I read this synopsis a few years ago when I started getting curious about LXF:
    [spoiler ahead]
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu_Xiaofeng
    [under "Youling Shanzhuang"]
    Last edited by ycb5959; 05-22-14 at 09:32 PM.

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