A big knock against Zhang Wuji is his 'lack of fighting spirit'.
The oft-touted example is his less than glorious showing against the Persian Emissaries.
However, consider that the three of them easily took down Zi Shan Long Wang/Jin Hua Popo, and outclassed Xie Xun even with the Tulong Saber.
Ch 29:
Xie Xun even thought that it would take the combined power of ZWJ and ZSF to defeat the 3 Emissaries. Otherwise, it might take someone who masters Jiu Yin Zhen Jing teaming up with ZWJ to do the task. (Of course, this is just Xie Xun's speculation, but from this passage you can see that beating the 3 Persians was not considered a cake-walk.)In a sudden movement, the three people's shadow swayed, and simultaneously three left hands moved to grab Jin Hua Popo. She brandished her walking stick, sweeping horizontally toward them. It was unclear how these people moved, but somehow their position changed and Jin Hua Popo's stick had struck empty air and three right hands reached out to the back of her neck; her body shook and she was thrown far away.
Based on Jin Hua Popo's martial art level, even if three highest-skilled martial art masters besieged her, they would not necessarily able to throw her out in one move like that. But, not only the footwork of these three people in white robes was very strange, their coordination was also near perfection; they were just like one person with three heads and six arms.
I think ZWJ's 'under-performance' in this occasion is just one of those Jin Yong anomalies, rather than indicative of Zhang Wuji's abilities.Xie Xun's expression showed some disappointment as he said, "...If only Zhang Sanfeng Zhenren were here, then his extensive martial art skill encompassing 'yang gang' and 'yin rou' [negative and soft/flexible] could join hands with Wuji; so yin and yang complement each other, then we can defeat the Persian Three Emissaries." ...
"Laoye Zi," Zhou Zhiruo suddenly asked, "I heard a hundred years ago in the Wulin world there exist some experts who were proficient in the Jiu Yin Zhen Jing [Nine Yin Manual]; is that true?"
On Mount Wudang, Zhang Wuji had heard his Da Shifu mentioned the name Nine Yin Manual; so he knew that the founder of the Emei Pai, Guo Xiang Nuxia's father, Guo Jing, and the "Shen Diao Daxia" Yang Guo, both had mastered the martial arts from the Nine Yin Manual. ...
Xie Xun replied, "People of old did say such thing, but nobody knows the fact. Based on what I heard from the seniors, if we had someone who masters this martial art join hands with Wuji, then they would be able to defeat the Persian Three Emissaries."