Ali, Lzydude, Athlon, like Sky said 'divine silver tongue skill' ... Crazee, I too, am looking forward to more exciting part, i.e. the part the authorized version skipped. Anyway, this is the end of Chapter 19.
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At this moment, the mountain path narrowed, so that Mr. Lu was unable to walk side by side with the Fat Toutuo, he fell about a zhang behind. Fat Toutuo put his mouth next to Wei Xiaobao's ear and said in a low voice, "Where is your copy of 'Forty-two-chapter Sutra'?"
"I don't have it with me," Wei Xiaobao replied.
"Do you have to tell me that?" the Fat Toutuo said, "I have already searched you everywhere. Where is it?"
"The Eighteen Luohan of Shaolin Temple have the sutra, naturally they gave it to their Abbot," Wei Xiaobao replied. He thought that since this thin bamboo pole toutuo was not a match for the Shaolin's Eighteen Luohan, if he heard that the sutra was in the hands of the Abbot of Shaolin Temple, naturally he would not dare to demand the sutra from the Abbot; even if he dared to demand it, he would definitely be expelled by those Shaolin monks.
That day the Fat Toutuo had personally handed the sutra over into Monk Cheng Xin's hand, he did not have the slightest suspicion to Wei Xiaobao's words. He said in a low voice, "When we see Jiaozhu in a moment, you must never mention this matter. Otherwise Jiaozhu might force you to hand over the sutra, and when you cannot give it to him, Jiaozhu will definitely throw you into the vipers' nest."
Wei Xiaobao could hear the fear in his voice, not only that, evidently the Fat Toutuo was afraid Mr. Lu would hear him; thereupon he said, "Clearly it was you who seized the sutra from me, and then you gave it to the Shaolin monks, if Jiaozhu finds out, he would definitely throw you into the vipers' nest. Humph, humph, even if he won't punish you for the time being, he would definitely send you to Shaolin Temple to get the sutra back; that would be enough punishment for you."
The Fat Toutuo shivered without saying anything. Wei Xiaobao said, "The two of us will deal with this matter together. Whatever happens, you take care of me, I will also take care of you. Otherwise, we split up, and we'll perish together."
From behind Mr. Lu suddenly interrupted, "What split up and perish together?"
Wei Xiaobao said, "The three of us will enjoy blessing and endure misfortune together." Thinking that right now they were in a messy situation, he must not lose his wits; if he could implicate these two martial art masters, he would have a slightly better chance of survival.
The Fat Toutuo and Mr. Lu did not say anything. A moment later, they both heaved a deep sigh together.
After walking for the time needed to eat rice, they arrived at the peak. They saw four youngsters in black, hand in hand, came near, each person carried a long sword on his back. The one furthest to the left asked, "Fat Toutuo, what is this little child doing in here?"
The Fat Toutuo let Wei Xiaobao down; he said, "Jiaozhu's order: he is being summoned."
From the west came three young girls in red, laughing and giggling; they also carried long swords on their backs. Seeing the three people, they came over to meet them. A girl said with a laugh, "Fat Toutuo, is he your illegitimate child?" While saying that, she pinched Wei Xiaobao's cheek.
"Miss must be joking," the Fat Toutuo said, "This child is being summoned by Jiaozhu, the Senior, there is an important matter he'd like to ask him."
Another girl with round face pinched Wei Xiaobao's right cheek and said with a laugh, "Looking at this baby's appearance, he must be Fat Toutuo's illegitimate child. You can't deny it."
Wei Xiaobao was angry. "I am your illegitimate child," he shouted, "You and Fat Toutuo are having an illicit intercourse and you gave birth to me."
The girls were startled, and then they burst out in laughter. The round-faced girl's turned deep read. She spat and said, "Little demon, you are asking for death!" She raised her hand to strike. Wei Xiaobao leaned his head sideways to dodge. Right this moment more than a dozen young people, boys and girls, had heard the noise and rushed in to tease the round-faced girl. The girl was ashamed and angry, her left foot flew up, she gave Wei Xiaobao's buttocks a hard kick.
"Ma," Wei Xiaobao called out loudly, "Why did you beat your son?" The youngsters laughed even louder.
'Dang, dang, dang!' suddenly the bell tolled; everybody fell silent immediately. These young boys and girls, about twenty in total, rushed toward the bamboo building. Fat Toutuo said, "Jiaozhu is calling an assembly." To Wei Xiaobao he said, "When you see Jiaozhu, you must not speak any nonsense."
Wei Xiaobao saw his melancholy expression. Those youngsters were rather rude toward him; thinking that his martial art skill was extremely high, why would he be afraid of these teenage babies? He could not help but having a pity on him somewhat; thereupon he nodded his head.
He saw from all directions people were streaming into the bamboo building. The Fat Toutuo and Mr. Lu also took Wei Xiaobao into the building. Crossing a corridor, suddenly a large hall appeared before his eyes. This hall was incomparably huge, it was big enough to hold a thousand people assembly. Wei Xiaobao had lived in the Imperial Palace in Beijing for quite a long time, even an assembly hall bigger than this one would not impress him. But this hall was really gigantic, as soon as he saw it, he could not help but had a feeling of respect.
He saw groups of teenagers, boys and girls, wearing five different colors standing on five different locations. The groups wearing blue, white, black, yellow, four colors were all boys, the group wearing red was all girls. Each one carried a long sword on his or her back, each group had approximately a hundred people. On the other end of the big hall there were two bamboo chairs standing side by side, draped in brocade cushion. On both sides of the chair stood several dozen people, men and women; the younger ones were approximately thirty years old, the old ones were about sixty, seventy years old, not one of them carried any weapon. There were about five, six hundred people gathered in the hall, but unexpectedly not the least bit of sound was heard, not even a single cough. Wei Xiaobao cursed in his heart, "Damn it, what an air! You think you are having an audience with the Emperor or what?"
After quite a while, the bells tolled again nine times, there were footsteps from the inner hall. “The ghost Jiaozhu is out,” Wei Xiaobao mused. Who would have thought that ten men came out, all were in their thirties, they wore five different colors clothes, and then they stood on either side of the chairs, five colors on each side.
After another long while, the bells and the drums were struck together loudly, followed by the tinkling of several hundred small silver bells. Everybody in the hall kneeled down together and chorused, “Jiaozhu will enjoy immortal good fortune forever, his long life the same as the heaven’s.”
The Fat Toutuo pulled Wei Xiaobao’s lapel, telling him to kneel down. Wei Xiaobao did not have any choice but kneeling down. He stole a glance and saw a man and a woman came out from the inner hall and sat on the chairs. Another bell stroke, everybody slowly stood up.
The man looked very old, the white hair from his temples drooped down to his chest, his face was full of scars and wrinkles, he looked very ugly; Wei Xiaobao presumed this must be the Cult Leader. The woman, on the other hand, was a good-looking young woman. Looking at her appearance, she was no older than twenty two or twenty three, she was smiling slightly, overflowing with charming attitude, and was incomparably gorgeous. Wei Xiaobao praised in his heart, “She is exceedingly smart-looking! This woman is more beautiful than that Good Jiejie of mine. Even in the Imperial Palace or Lovely Spring Courtyard, there is no woman as pretty as she is.”
A man wearing black clothes on the left took two steps forward; holding a piece of dark green paper with both hands he read loudly, “Respectfully reading Hong Jiaozhu’s treasured teaching, whose compassion and kindness illuminate everything, whose power encompasses four directions: ‘Numerous aspirations work as one will be able to build the city, incomprehensible might shakes the world!’”
The crowd in the hall repeated in chorus, “Numerous aspirations work as one will be able to build the city, incomprehensible might shakes the world!”
Wei Xiaobao was mesmerized with the beautiful woman, the voices of the crowd chanting together had startled him that he jumped in fright.
The man in black clothes continued reading, “Jiaozhu’s immortal good fortune is as high as the sky, illuminating the heads of the devoted cult members. Jiaozhu sails the boat steadily for ten thousand years, riding the wind breaking the waves to show off his heroic bravery! Flying to the sky, the divine dragon looks up at him with hope, Jiaozhu’s prestige covers the eight directions. Everybody lives because Jiaozhu lives, everybody dies because Jiaozhu dies, Jiaozhu’s order is to be followed, Jiaozhu is like the light of the sun and the moon!”
As the man read one sentence, the crowd followed by reciting one sentence. Wei Xiaobao said in his heart, “What Hong Jiaozhu’s teaching? A loud blow of his own horn. Our Tian Di Hui’s secret verse is much more pleasant to hear that this.”
When they finished reciting, everybody shouted in one voice, “With Jiaozhu’s treasured teaching always in our hearts, we can set up meritorious deed and subdue the enemy, nothing is unachievable!” Those young boys and girls were particularly enthusiastic in shouting their creeds. Hong Jiaozhu’s ugly face carried an indifferent expression, while the beautiful woman by his side recited with a smile on her face.
Finished reciting, the hall fell into complete silence.
Book note:
When the powerful troops of Luo Shaowei of the late Tang Dynasty took the towns of Wei prefecture, he commanded his five thousand elite troops to kill everything. Afterwards he felt a deep remorse, realizing that he had committed an enormous mistake; he said, “In the forty-three counties of six prefectures, we cannot make the same mistake.” During the time of Wang Mang [usurped power and reign 9-23 AD, between the former and later Han periods], he cast cooper and iron money into a saber, he then carved characters plated with gold on it, and called the saber ‘Cuo Dao’ [wrong/mistake saber]. Luo Shaowei used the ‘Cuo’ character of the ‘Cuo Dao’ as an analogy of his ‘mistake’, saying that it was such a big mistake that even he amassed all the iron in the forty-three counties of six prefectures, it would be difficult to cast the metal. ‘Nine divisions amass metal to be cast in a row’, the word ‘a row’ is comparable to a big ‘mistake’; the chapter’s title borrows this expression to describe Wei Xiaobao being deceived into coming to the Divine Dragon Island, but without any regret.
During the Warring States period, the Qin State carried out the Shang Yang political reform. Afraid that the people would not obey the reform, they set up a three zhang long wood at the southern gate, claiming that if anybody could move it out of the northern gate, he would be rewarded fifty taels of gold; no one believed it. There was a man who tried to move the wood, and sure enough, Shang Yang rewarded him with the money, thereupon everybody believed. Shang Yang’s legislation was rigorous, the people did not dare to disobey.