HSDS 1st Edition (translated into English from the Indonesian translation by BBT/OKT)

[Kirara]

post #64

CHAPTER 7
(This is the last chapter posted here.
For Chapter 8 onwards, you can read at http://www.zhaomin.org)


"Oh no!" CuiShan thought, and quickly he swang the silver hook in his left hand to hook the edge of the iceberg and using the force to spring back onto the iceberg. He thought that by now SuSu must have been caught again by Xie Xun, but to his surprise, he saw him covering his eyes with both his hands instead, moaning loudly in pain. SuSu herself was still lying on the iceberg.

Hurriedly CuiShan came to her side to help her up. Putting her arms around his neck, SuSu whispered: "I...I managed to hit his eyes..." but before she could finish her sentence, Xie Xun had sprung up on them while roaring loudly like a wild animal. Luckily CuiShan still managed to grab SuSu by her waist and rolled several times away as far as possible from Xie Xun. Suddenly they heard the loud sound of "Crack! Crack!"; Xie Xun had jammed his ten fingers deep into the iceberg. Then when he straightened up, he was seen holding a big chunk of ice in his hands. Leaning his head to one side, he listened attentively for any sound that would tell him where CuiShan and SuSu were, then he hurled the big chunk of ice towards them.

SuSu was going to jump to evade the ice, but CuiShan pulled her back down and the two then hid themselves inside a crevice on the iceberg, holding their breath. After throwing the ice, Xie Xun stood silently unmoving, as if using his ears to find out where the two young people were hiding. CuiShan saw that both of his eyes were bleeding, and understood that SuSu must have thrown her gold needles when she was in great danger, and that her needles had blinded Xie Xun's eyes.

But though he was blind now, Xie Xun had very sharp ears, so should they make even the slightest sound, he would sure spring up on them and attack them viciously in his anger. Luckily, at sea, the sound of the waves, the strong wind, and the ting-a-lings of floating ice hitting each other covered up the sound of their breathings.

Xie Xun listened for a rather long time, but still unable to figure out where CuiShan and SuSu were hiding. He just could see pit darkness, while his eyes felt very painful. In his anger, pain, and fear, Xie Xun lost his mind again. In rage, he yelled loudly while hitting the ice around him like mad, then he picked up the broken chunks of ice and wildly threw them one after another to all directions. The chunks of ice flew around dangerously like a terrible hailstorm.

With those chunks of ice flying over their heads, CuiShan and SuSu hugged each other in their hiding place with their faces looking very pale from fear. They knew that just one piece of ice was enough to kill them instantly.

Xie Xun kept throwing chunks of ice madly for about a half hour, which for CuiShan and SuSu felt like a lot of years already. Because he realized that it was useless to throw those ice, Xie Xun suddenly stopped and then said: "Mister Zhang, Miss Yin, I am sorry that I have lost my good sense and have acted as if a mad man. I hope I have not made you very angry. Please forgive me." He said those words in a friendly manner, it seemed that he had returned to his usual polite and friendly self. After saying that, he sat down on an ice rock, waiting for a reply.

Although Zhang CuiShan was upright and honest, he was also very smart and clever, so it was not easy to trick him. As for Yin SuSu, she was also clever as well as being tricky herself. So of course in this very dangerous situaton, they did not reply to Xie Xun, and they kept breathing as softly as they could.
After repeating what he said several times but still he got no response, suddenly Xie Xun stood up, and after taking a deep sigh, he said: "Well, if you won't forgive me, what else can I do." Then he took a very deep breath.

CuiShan was startled when he saw Xie Xun taking a deep breath. He remembered that before he yelled deafeningly at WangPan Island and caused everybody falling and writhing in pain, he also took such a deep breath like now. Though he was blind now, he could still harm people using his yell. Since it was too late now to tear a piece of cloth to stuff their ears, without much thought CuiShan pulled SuSu and both of them slipped off into the sea.

SuSu was puzzled but before long she could hear Xie Xun's thunderous yell. Hurriedly CuiShan pulled SuSu deeper still into the sea so that their heads including their ears were completely immersed in the icy water. With his left hand, CuiShan used his silver hook to hook the edge of the iceberg, while his right hand was holding SuSu's waist. Other than a part of his left hand, all parts of their bodies were immersed in water. However, they still could faintly hear Xie Xun's shout, which was extremely loud that it carried a heavy pressure in the air.

That iceberg was still drifting northward, so they were as if being carried along by it under the sea. CuiShan felt thankful that it was his iron Judge's brush that Xie Xun threw into the sea. Had it been his silver hook he lost, they would have drowned be now because the iceberg would have left them behind as it floated onward.

After a while, CuiShan and SuSu raised their mouths over the surface of water to inhale, being careful not to make their ears raise above water level. After doing this for several times, finally Xie Xun stopped his yell. And because the yell had taken up a lot of his Internal Strength, he felt tired and without bothering whether the two young people were alive or not, he sat down on a piece of ice rock to arrange his breathing and regain his energy.

CuiShan signaled to SuSu softly, and then very quietly they crawled up back onto the iceberg and tore a few pieces of seal skin to stuff their ears. With this, they could avoid the main danger, but only temporarily, because as long as they stayed together with this enemy on the same iceberg, they couldn't make any sound or they would be instantly killed. Therefore, they could only look at each other sadly, while sometimes looking to the western sky, where the red burning sun still had not set yet. They didn't know that after nearing the North Pole, there was a big difference between night and day from the other parts of the earth. On that freezing part of the earth, for half a year it would be daylight all the time; while for the rest of the year, when the North Pole tilted away from the sun, it would be dark all the time. They just felt that things were very strange, as if they had reached the end of the world.

Her clothes being soaked with icy water, SuSu couldn't withstand the cold and began to shiver. And because her teeth were chattering against each other, they made some sound that Xie Xun's sharp ears could catch. Suddenly he roared again, and hit towards CuiShan and SuSu using his Wolf Teeth Staff. But CuiShan and SuSu were already prepared, and hurriedly they jumped aside to evade the staff. With a very loud "Ting!" the staff smashed the iceberg until it cracked and causing seven or eight huge chunks of ice flew around before falling into the sea. It seemed that being very enraged, Xie Xun's had used at least more than 1000 kilograms of force.

CuiShan and SuSu looked at each other, feeling shocked seeing such an amazing force. Meanwhile, Xie Xun already rotated his staff and again attacked very viciously forward. The staff was already about 3 meters long, and being rotated like that, it generated a force reaching for at least 20 meters long. CuiShan and SuSu could not jump to evade it anymore, and so they just retreated backward until finally they reached the edge of the iceberg.

"Oh no!" exclaimed SuSu when she could not retreat anymore.
Hurriedly CuiShan signaled to her not to make any sound, then pulling her by the hand, he leapt to the middle of the sea. But while their bodies were still in the air, suddenly they heard "Ting! Tang!", followed by some pieces of ice hitting their backs that they felt their backs suddenly very painful. When CuiShan jumped to the sea, he had aimed on a nearby piece of floating ice as big as a table, so when his body plunged into the sea, his hand immediately stretched out to hook onto that piece of ice with his silver hook.

Hearing the sound of their body splashing into the sea, Xie Xun used his staff to break a chunk of ice from the iceberg and then threw it towards the sound of the splash. But because he could not see anymore, and because that piece of ice had drifted away carrying CuiShan and SuSu, he missed them. If the first throw missed the target, the subsequent throw would also be useless, so Xie Xun stopped throwing.

The iceberg they left was in fact just the tip of a much bigger ice under the sea. While on the other hand, the piece of ice they were holding on now was just a broken piece from the iceberg after Xie Xun smashed it previously. Naturally, it traveled much faster than Xie Xun's iceberg. Before long, they had left Xie Xun's iceberg far behind. As it became dark, Xie Xun's body looked as if a black speck of dust, while the iceberg looked like a small piece of glittering light in the far distance.

The piece of floating ice was too small for them both to ride on, so they had to stay in the water while holding on to it. But of course this could not go on, because the sea water was really so cold. Fortunately, after floating more northward, they saw another big iceberg. Hurriedly they used their hands as paddles and rowed towards the iceberg, and then crawled onto it.

"Ha! People say that Heaven will always give a way out, but why do we have to suffer this much first? Are you okay, SuSu?" asked CuiShan.
"Too bad that we couldn't bring a bit of seal meat. Eh, did you lose your silver hook too?" said SuSu.
They had forgotten to take out the seal skin stuffing their ears, so they had spoken incoherently to each other. After looking at each other in astonishment, they laughed and took out the seal skin from their ears. It seemed that in their urgency to save their lives, they had not realized that their ears were still stuffed with seal skin.

After having escaped together from various close encounters with death, the two loved each other even more. "SuSu, although we are going to die on this iceberg, let us never part," said CuiShan.
"Fifth Brother, I'd like to ask you something, please don't lie to me," replied SuSu. "Suppose we were safe and sound on the mainland, and never had gone through all of these, and if I also love you with all my heart like now, will you accept me?"
CuiShan was taken aback, and he couldn't reply soon. After a while, he replied: "I think we won't be falling in love this fast, and moreover....moreover, we would face a lot of hindrances. We come from two very different Clans."
"Yes, I think the same way," said SuSu, sighing. "That's why when you were fighting with Xie Xun on the boat using your palms, I thought of attacking him with my needles, but I never did."

"Eh? Right! But why was that?" asked CuiShan, feeling perplexed. "I've always thought you didn't do it because you were worried your needles would hit me instead, because it was dark."
"No, that's not the reason," whispered SuSu softly. "Because if I had injured him, we would have returned to the mainland and you wouldn't have wanted to be with me anymore."
Instantly CuiShan's chest felt burning. "SuSu!" he yelled.

"Yes, perhaps you will resent me for that," said SuSu. "But at that moment, I just wanted to be with you, to go to a deserted island so that we could be together forever. Xie Xun forced us to accompany him, but actually that is according to my own wish."
Zgang CuiShan never thought that her love for him was this deep. His heart felt very touched to hear this, and so he said gently: "No, SuSu, I will never resent you for that."

Full of love, SuSu leaned on CuiShan's chest, and then looked up to her sweetheart's face. She said: "Heaven sent me to an icy Hell like this, but I never regret it even a bit. Instead, I feel very fortunate and happy. I just hope that this iceberg will never drift southward. Emm...if one day we could return to the mainland, your Teacher will surely hate me, and...maybe my father might kill you...."
"Your father?" asked CuiShan.
"Yes, my father, The White Eyebrowed Eagle King Yin TianZheng, is the Sect Leader of The White Eyebrows Sect," said SuSu.
"Ah, so that's it," said CuiShan. "But don't worry, SuSu; I already said that I will always be with you. Even if your father is very fierce, would he kill his own son-in-law?"
Suddenly the girl's eyes lighted up with hope, and her face turned red. "Do you say it sincerely?" she asked.
"SuSu, let's get married now," said CuiShan determinedly.

The two of them then got on their knees on the iceberg. In a loud voice Zhang CuiShan made a vow: "Heaven above as my Witness, today I, Zhang CuiShan, marry Yin SuSu and we become husband and wife. We will share both sadness and happiness together, and we will always love each other and never part forever and ever."
SuSu then vowed sincerely too: "Oh Heaven, please bless us husband and wife, please always make us husband and wife in our subsequent reincarnations." She paused for a short moment, then continued: "And if we can return to the mainland in the future, I will leave my evil behavior behind, I will atone for all my past evil deeds, and I will only do good deeds following my husband. I will not kill people anymore like in the past. If I broke this vow, let both Heaven and men sent me to Hell to stay there forever."

How happy CuiShan was to hear this! He never expected that without being asked, SuSu would vow on her own accord to change her ways and to be a righteous person. After exchanging these marriage vows, they sat side by side holding each other happily. Their clothes were drenched with icy water, and their bodies felt terribly cold, but in their hearts, they felt nicely warm, as warm as the spring breeze that bring them happiness as it blowed.

After some time, they realized that they had not eaten nor drunk anything for the whole day and night. Both of CuiShans's weapons had been lost to the sea, but SuSu still had a sword she always carried around on her waist. CuiShan bent its tip so it became like a hook, and used it to hook some fish when they came near their iceberg. The fish near the North Pole were fatty because they need to withstand the cold. Though it made them more smelly because they had to be eaten raw, but it also helped CuiShan and SuSu regain their energy.

So night and day, the iceberg kept floating to the North. They knew that their chance of ever returning to China was almost nil, so they had stopped worrying and their hearts felt peaceful instead. The days were very long, and the nights were very short and they got used to it. It was hard to count the days now, and they did not remember anymore how many times the sun had risen and how many times it had set, but they didn't bother either.

One day, suddenly they saw a pillar of smoke rising high up to the sky in the distance. SuSu, who saw it first, pointed at it with her finger, and yelled as her face turning pale: "Fifth Brother!"
CuiShan was startled and happy at the same time. "Eh, are there people living there?"
But although they could see the pillar of smoke, actually it was still very far in the distance. It was after one more day passing, that they could see it more clearly. As they came nearer, the pillar looked higher and bigger, and they could see sparks of fire in the smoke.

"Strange, what's that?" asked SuSu.
But CuiShan just shook his head and did not reply.
"Fifth Brother, this is the end of us! That is the gates of Hell!" SuSu said in a trembling voice.
CuiShan was worried too, but he quickly comforted her: "Maybe someone's making a fire to burn the forest."
"But if it's a forest burning, how can the fire be so high?" asked SuSu.
"SuSu, after we arrived here, there's nothing we can do but just leaving it up to Heaven," he said while sighing deeply. "If Heaven doesn't wish us to die of cold but die of heat instead, then so be it."

[Tazzy1972]

keep it up

[Kirara]

post #65

http://zhaomin.org/zhaomin/images/031.gif

Oddly enough, the iceberg drifted towards the that pillar of smoke. CuiShan and SuSu were puzzled and did not understand what that was and why, but being unable to do anything about it, they just regarded whatever would happen, good or bad, as the will of Heaven.

What they saw was in fact an active volcano which was erupting. From this volcanic eruption, lava, burning ash and hot gas shot high into the sky and formed what looked like a pillar of smoke mixed with fire. Because of the heat of the fire, the sea water around the volcano rose in temperature, and this warm water flowed southward. Naturally, the cold icy water flowed northward. This difference between cold and heat in the air and water is the factor that affects the sea current and the wind. This was why the cold water carrying the iceberg was being pulled by the warm water around the volcano.

After drifting for another day and night, finally the iceberg arrived at the foot of the volcano. It turned out that the volcano was residing on a big island with some green vegetation. They did not know that the eruptions from the volcano had formed the island. On the western part of the island, they could see several hills with rocky tops in various strange shapes. Although CuiShan had seen quite a number of hills or mountains in China before, he had never seen ones having such strange tops like those. He stared at them with his eyes open wide, and his joy was indescribable, as if if he lost his mind for a moment.

Those weird-looking rocky tops were in fact a heap of dried lava, which after thousands of years formed hills with lava rocks on top. At the eastern side of the island, there was a large plain. This plain was also formed by the eruptions of the volcano. The ash that was ejected by the explosion fell into the sea, and after thousand of years, they piled up and emerged above the sea level to form a plain.

Although the place was near the North Pole, the burning magma inside the volcano had not died out yet, therefore the weather surrounding the volcano was not cold, but just cool, resembling the weather on Tiang-pek-san (Mount Long White) in the Hek-liong-kang (Black Dragon River) region.
On top of the highest hills, they could see some snow; but on the lower plains, they saw some green trees like pine and cypress trees, and some other trees they never saw in China.

After staring for a while without blinking, suddenly SuSu jumped and put her arms around his neck. "Fifth Brother! We have arrived at the Celestial Island!" She said hoarsely.
CuiShan was being so enthralled himself, that he was unable to utter any word and could only embraced his wife back.

They embraced each other for a long time, while watching a herd of reindeer grazing the grass on the plain. Except for that pillar of fire and smoke, the island looked quiet and peaceful, there was nothing else that looked scary or dangerous.

But as the iceberg came near the island, the warmer water pushed the iceberg away, so it began to drift away from the island.
SuSu yelled: "Oh no! We can't land on the Celestial Island now!"
CuiShan was also startled to see this. He thought if they couldn't land on that island and if the iceberg kept drifting to the North, when would it stop and where would it end up at? Hurriedly he used both his hands to hit the iceberg to cut a plank of ice and then threw it into the sea. Almost at the same time, CuiShan and SuSu jumped into the sea to hold onto that plank of ice, and paddled their way towards the island, using their hands. After reaching the island, they crawled up onto the island.

When they saw the two people, the herd of reindeer stared at them as if they felt puzzled; but they didn't run away nor looked scared. SuSu approached one of them and patted its back, saying: "Ha! If there are some cranes here too, then maybe this island is where Lam-kek-sian-ong (God of South Pole) lives!" After saying this, suddenly the earth trembled and she fell to the ground. CuiShan was startled and exclaimed: "SuSu!", and was going to help her up, but suddenly he also staggered and fell to the ground. Soon they could hear a loud gurgling sound, the ground shook more, and the volcano ejected some lava to the sky. It seemed that after spending so many days swaying on the sea, their legs had lost some of their muscle tone, so that the tremble of the earth had easily thrown them out of balance.

At first they were shocked by the eruption, but after seeing that there was nothing to be feared of, they laughed and crawled up slowly. They were really exhausted, so they lied down on the grass and soon fell asleep. They slept for a long time, and when they woke up, they saw that the sun had not set yet.

"Let's go exploring this island, to see if there are some inhabitants on this island, or if there are some wild beasts," said CuiShan.
"Looking at how tame those reindeer are, this island must be quite safe and peaceful." said suSu.
"I hope so," replied CuiShan. "But still, we must go pay our respect to its God!"

Even while she was still on the iceberg, SuSu always paid careful attention to her appearance, so now that she was on an island, she cared more about how she looked. She tidied her clothes and her hair first, and then she helped combing CuiShan's hair. After the two looked neat and tidy, they began to walk farther into the island to explore it.

http://zhaomin.org/zhaomin/images/032.gif

SuSu carried her sword, which tip was previously bent by CuiShan to resemble a hook, while CuiShan quickly took a long tree branch to use as a staff just in case of emergency. Then they used their lightness kung fu to run toward the northern part of the island. They ran for aboout 10 kilometeres, feeling very happy to be able to move freely in such a big place, after being confined for such a long time on the sea. Along the way, besides the hills and the trees, they could also see some strange flowers and green grasses. Sometimes, out of the bushes, some birds and small animals they had never seen before would dart or fly away because they were startled by the appearace of the two people.

After going through a big forest, they saw a cave on the side of a rocky hill on the northwestern part of the island. "Wow! What a beautiful place!" yelled SuSu, and then she ran towards the cave.
"Be careful!" yelled CuiShan.
He had not closed his mouth when suddenly they heard a loud "Grrr...grrrrr!", followed by the flash of something big and white coming out from inside that cave; it was a big polar bear.

That polar bear had long white fur and was so huge that it looked like a huge bull. Feeling shocked, SuSu jumped back, but the bear stood up and hit SuSu's head using one of his paws. Quickly SuSu turned her sword over and tried to pierce the bear's shoulder. But since her sword was now shorter and bent, and in her haste she had forgotten this fact, she missed the target. And when she was going to attack again for the second time, the bear had come forward and knocked it off her hand.

"SuSu, get back!" yelled CuiShan, feeling worried. Then he leapt forward and accurately hit the polar bear's left knee with his wooden staff. "Crack! Crack!" his wooden staff was broken into two, but the bear's left knee was broken too. Because of the injury, the bear howled in pain so loudly that the ground seemed to tremble. He became mad and came pounding on CuiShan fiercely.

In the meantime, SuSu had picked up her bent sword again and was going to come forward to help, but suddenly CuiShan yelled: "Throw your sword to the air!". SuSu was puzzled for a while, but she did as he asked and threw her sword up into the air. CuiShan then leapt up for about 3 meters high using his "Cloud Stair Leap" and caught the sword in midair. In his hands, now he had two weapons that resembled his original lost weapons, one was the bent sword to replace his silver hook, and the other was the broken wooden branch to replace his iron Judge's brush. Quickly he used his right hand to slice downward with the last stroke of the character "Hong" (compete) and accurately pierced the bear's head from above. This was accompanied by the use of a very strong Internal Strength that the wooden staff went into the bear's head for at least 10 cm deep. The bear screamed loudly and fell dead to the ground.

"What a beautiful Lightness kung fu!" SuSu clapped her hands. "What a great calligraphy technique!"
But suddenly CuiShan yelled: "Watch out! Quick, jump over here!"
Hearing the alarmed tone in CuiShan's voice, without asking first, immediately SuSu jumped into CuiShan's arms. When she turned her head around, she couldn't help but exclaim in shock.

(Starting from below, it was cut off from the First Edition. In the Second Edition, there are only 2 bears which CuiShan could kill easily one after another, and there was no monkey ever existed either.)
[color=purple]
Behind her, she saw a row of seven polar bears, and all of them were already in the standing position with their paws swinging, ready to pounce on them. They must have come after hearing the howlings of the previous bear.

CuiShan knew that though he could kill one polar bear, to handle so many huge bears at the same time would be impossible for them both. He quickly yelled: "Hurry! Run!"
Then pulling SuSu's hand, they used their Lightness kung fu to return to where they came from. Although those huge polar bears could also run real fast, of course they couldn't beat CuiShan's and SuSu's Lightness kung fu. So before long, they were left far behind. But even so, those bears wouldn't give up, and they kept running after them. Though CuiShan and SuSu had turned left and right and left and right, they kept trailing behind them.

"We have no choice but to return to the sea side, and maybe we even need to jump into the sea again," said CuiShan while running.
"Can polar bears swim?" asked SuSu.
"I have no idea," replied CuiShan shaking his head. "But I hope they can't!"
As they talked, they ran even faster.
"Oh no!" suddenly SuSu exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" asked CuiShan.
"Do you know what do polar bears usually eat?" asked SuSu. "Once I heard from a fisherman that polar bears loved to eat honey and fish."
"They eat fish?" asked CuiShan and he stopped running. He thought: "If they eat fish, they must be able to swim, so it is useless to go to the sea."

While they were at a lost as to what to do, suddenly SuSu exclaimed in shock and amazement: "Hey! How come are they running in front of us now?"
When CuiShan looked in front of him, true, he saw 6 polar bears running towards them.
"No, they are not the same bears," said CuiShan. "We are surrounded by bears now from behind and from the front!"

CuiShan saw that there was a big cypress tree at the side of a mound, so he hurriedly leapt up onto one of its branches. Then using his two feet to hook securely on a branch, he hang upside down and used both of his hands to pull SuSu up onto the tree with him. Then they climbed up further in the tree.
"I hope those polar bears cannot climb up a tree," said SuSu.
"Even if they can climb up this tree, that won't be any problem. Each time one climbs up, we just kill it. As long as we don't have to deal with all of them simultaneously, we can finish them off easily one by one." replied CuiShan.

Soon, the six polar bears from the front and the seven polar bears from behind had arrived and surrounded the tree. They made a total of thirteen bears and they looked up at CuiShan and SuSu, growling furiously. CuiShan broke a small piece of twig, and using it as if a hidden weapon, he threw it below, aiming at the right eye of one of the bears down there. The twig pierced that bear's right eye accurately. Of course the bear howled in pain, and using his paw, he pulled the twig out of his eye, and then in his fury and pain, he banged his head against the tree as hard as he could.

When again CuiShan broke a small twig to hit the eyes of the other bears, they already got wisened up about what he was going to do, and so to avoid CuiShan's attack, they did not look up anymore, but instead, they clawed and bit the tree trunk off. That way, CuiShan's twigs could only hit their backs, and as they had thick and long white fur, the twigs could not injure them.

After a while, the tree trunk had been chomped off or clawed off as deep as a few centimeters around. If they kept doing it, and then if they simultaneously hit the tree trunk together, without doubt it would finally break and fell to the ground.

http://zhaomin.org/zhaomin/images/033.gif

"I never expect that we, husband and wife, instead of being buried in the sea, will be buried inside some bears' stomachs; and that is after all those hardship we went through too," sighed CuiShan.
SuSu herself was very scared to see how ferocious all the thirteen bears below were.

"Fifth Brother," she said, after noticing another big tree about 25 meters away. "Using your Lightness kung fu, please jump down, and once your feet touch the ground, with one bounce you can perch yourself up on that tree over there."
In fact CuiShan had thought about this possibility even before SuSu suggested it. If he were alone, it would be easy for him to escape from that tree by himself. But carrying SuSu to leap onto that other tree, which was rather far, it would be impossible; he was sure that the bears would have stopped him before he could reach that tree. So he shook his head and said: "No, I can't. I won't be able to reach it."

"Fifth Brother, don't mind me, what's the use of the two of us dying together?" SuSu insisted, knowing what he had in mind.
"No!" replied CuiShan firmly. "We have vowed that in Heaven or in Hell, on earth or under the sea, we will never part. How can I leave you and let you face danger by yourself?"

How touched SuSu was to hear what CuiShan said, that her tears were brimming in her eyes and almost flowed down her cheeks. She still wanted to say something to persuade him so that he would leave her in order to save himself, but her throat felt so choked that she was incapable of saying anything.

At that moment, they could feel the tree slightly swayed. They found out that the bears had started to hit and bump the tree trunk after gnawing and chomping at it. It seemed that the tree would very soon break and fall down. Feeling terrified, SuSu screamed loudly.[/color]

[Tazzy1972]

yeah some more some more...

[Kirara]

yeah some more some more...

I thought you already read some more, as WuJi is already born in my website

[Kirara]

I don't know what happened, when I was translating right on my site, suddenly the web hosting lost its internet connection, and when it went up again after about 5 minutes or so, my site was all messed up, it cannot even be opened.
I tried to revive if with no good result yet, though my data base is intact, the site just returned data base error.

Fortunately I have two sites on HSDS, so if you want to read the continuation, temporarily please access this other site, though using Hokkienese names:
http://zhaomin.org/tiobeng/
I am at Chapter 7 Part 5 (Xie WuJi, The Child That Brought Peace)

Meanwhile I will see if I can do something about the usual site

Sorry for the inconvenience. And it is so stupid of me that I have not backed it up.
I am glad it happened early, now I know that Drupal is not safe or buggy?

Umm, yes, looks like I am not the only one, I saw the same problem after doing a Google Search. I hope I can find the solution soon.

PS: I think Drupal is safe, not buggy, sorry Mr.Drupal!
Maybe what happened was: when my web hosting lost its connection, I happened to save something on my site and thus changing the database, and this made one of the tables did not close properly so it just crashed. I managed to repair the DB so it is up again now!

[Kirara]

IT'S BACK!!! IT'S BACK!! WHEW!!!

Sorry for all the troubles! It gave me a good lesson: that is: Back up! And have your own copy of your own translations!!

[Tazzy1972]

and now Wuji has been named Xie WuJi in ur webby

[Kirara]

and now Wuji has been named Xie WuJi in ur webby

Yes, when he was born until just before he left the island, his surname was Xie after Xie Xun his adoptive father, and not Zhang

[Tazzy1972]

and Zhang-Xie WuJi is old enough to learn kung fu from XX

[Kirara]

post #66

[color=purple]Unexpectedly, before her scream ended, suddenly from a distance, another sharp scream followed. The scream itself was not too loud, but it sounded particularly very strange, as if the hoot of an owl, the rattle of a musical rattle, the sound of two metals being banged against each other, all mixed into one. It was just impossible to describe it.

Hearing this sharp scream, suddenly all the bears trembled as if they had just heard the most fearful sound on earth. Each of them acted as if it suddenly lost all of its energy and layed limply on the ground. CuiShan and SuSu looked at each other in amazement. Suddenly SuSu yelled as loudly as she could: "Help! Help! These bears are going to devour us!"

And again before she finished yelling, that sharp scream was heard once again. Judging from how the scream was getting louder and louder, it was obvious that it was coming incredibly fast toward them, perhaps even faster that a bird flying. Suddenly, as fast as lighning, a red shadow flashed. It had flown from a tree over there to the tree where CuiShan and SuSu were.

Now they could see clearly what it was. The red shadow turned out to be a monkey whose fur was bright red, and its height was about 85-90 cm. Although its long fur was red, its face was as white as snow, and his eyes were glistening brightly. His behaviour was quite interesting and delightful too.

Actually when SuSu first heard its scream from afar, and saw how scared all those polar bears were with that scream, she felt both sad and happy. Sad because she thought it must be a scary beast even fiercer than the bears; and happy because she saw that all those bears were so scared of it. Since she thought that she would die either way anyway, she might as well tried her luck by calling the new animal to come over and drive away all the bears. But when she saw that this new animal was not at all a scary beast but just a pleasant-looking white-faced monkey, she became overjoyed. Smiling friendlily, she reached out with her hand to touch that monkey.

This monkey was very intelligent. Living in this island, he had never seen any human being before. Now that he saw CuiShan and SuSu having handsome and beautiful faces, he thought they must be of the same kind as himself. He understood that SuSu wanted to be friends with him, so he also reached out with his hand and touched SuSu's hand.

"Those bears below want to kill us. Can you help us and shoo them all away?" asked SuSu while pointing to the bears lying motionless on the ground.

That monkey seemed to be really smart; though he did not understand the meaning of the words, he could guess what SuSu was saying by looking at her hand gesture. Suddenly he whistled out loud, and jumped down very lightly to the ground. He went to one of the bears and reached out with his hand to the bear's head. With just one pull, he took something out of it. The bear's brain! Then carrying it with him, he jumped back into the tree again and offered it to SuSu, as if he was entertaining a guest with some delicious food.

Seeing the monkey could crack the bear's skull so easily, CuiShan and SuSu were shocked. It showed that the monkey did not only have sharp claws, but he also had a tremendous strength. They had never seen an animal as powerful as this monkey. Of course SuSu did not want to eat that raw bear's brain, but she did not dare ro refuse it, in case she would make the monkey angry. So she received the brain, and then taking a tiny piece with her fingers, she swallowed it while closing her eyes and holding her breath. Then she passed the brain to CuiShan.

But as soon as the small piece of brain entered her mouth, she found out that it was surprisingly very delicious and tasty, soft and sweet, even much tastier than the usual edible animal brains like sheep's brain. Suddenly she took some piece of brain from CuiShan's hand and ate some more. Then while laughing, she thanked the monkey: "Thank you!"

Quickly the monkey jumped down again from the tree and took two more brains from two bears for himself to eat. And very oddly, none of the bears tried to flee, as if they already knew it would be useless to do so and just let themselves be killed like that.

"Please kill all those bears. Had you not come and saved us, perhaps we would have been in their stomachs by now," said SuSu again, laughing. The monkey yelled once as if indicating that he understood what SuSu wanted, and very quickly he killed all the remaining 10 bears one by one. After that, CuiShan and SuSu jumped down from the tree. Seeing all the 13 polar bears lying dead, CuiShan felt pity towards them, and said: "In fact by just killing one bear would have been enough to scare the others away. There was no need to kill them all."

Hearing what CuiShan said, SuSu, who was holding hands with the monkey, became startled. In her heart she thought: "Ah, so Fifth Brother doesn't like it if I act cruelly. Hm, I really need to seriously change my cruel character from now on." - Though she felt a bit remorse, she didn't say it. Instead, she she said: "Why do you have to feel pity towards them? If this little brother the monkey had not come to save us, do you think these bears would feel pity towards us?"

"Yes, that's true. But if we also act the same way as animals, what difference would we be from them?" said CuiShan.
"Eehh, not all animals are bad, they can be good too," said SuSu, laughingly. "Look at our little brother the monkey, his skill is better than yours, and he is even more handsome than you."
CuiShan laughed and said: "Aiya! Aren't you afraid you'll make me jealous?"

http://zhaomin.org/zhaomin/images/034.gif

Having escaped from grave danger, now they felt even happier, and they joked waith each other playfully. Whereas the monkey was jumping back and forth between the two, looking real happy too as he had been living by himself for too long on this island. Now he felt as if suddenly he had two good friends.
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(End of the big chop being cut off. From here, Jin Yong started again with his Second Edition, except that he deleted any mentioning of, or reference to, the monkey, whose name was "Kauw Ji", and who later would be little WuJi's best friend)

"Oh, I wonder if the bears have cubs in the cave, let's go into the cave to check," said CuiShan.
So SuSu held the monkey's hand and went inside the cave; she felt safer that way. The cave turned out to be quite wide, and it was about 25 meters deep. In the middle of the cave, sunlight came through from an opening above, making it a natural window. Only too bad the cave was quite dirty with all kinds of things, including dead fishes and bears' droppings, so making it terribly smelly.

"This place is good actually, but too bad it is so smelly," said SuSu while puuting her hand over her nose.
"If we clean it and wash it with water everyday, within 7-10 days the smell will disappear," responded CuiShan.
SuSu looked at CuiShan, thinking that from now on she would always be together with her beloved forever, to enjoy countless months and years until they became old die. She felt both happy and sad at the same time.

Then CuiShan walked out of the cave to find some twigs, which he tied together to make a broom. With this broom, he swept out all the dirts from inside the cave. SuSu also busied herself helping him clean the cave. On the other hand, though the monkey was very intelligent, he was still a monkey nevertheless. He pushed here and pulled there, doing all kinds of things he thought would help them, but in fact he was messing things up instead. But CuiShan and SuSu felt very grateful to the monkey for saving them from the polar bears, so they just let him do whatever he liked. After they cleaned up the place, they found out that it was still very smelly.

SuSu said: "If there were a river near here, we could have used the water to wash off the smell. There was the sea allright, but too bad we have nothing to carry the sea water here with."
"Wait, I have an idea!" yelled CuiShan suddenly.
Quickly he went to the colder part of the island where there were some blocks of ice covering place. Taking some blocks with him, he returned to the cave and put them on the higher part of the cave.
"What a great idea!" SuSu yelled while clapping her hands.
Then the blocks of ice slowly melted and the water flowed down through the cave and out of it. That way, the cave was like being cleaned with water, only too bad that it did it very slowly.

As CuiShan was washing the cave this way, SuSu went out and used her bent sword to cut bear meat. He cut them into smaller pieces and piled them up high. Though there was a volcano on the island, it was near the North Pole, so the weather was still very cold. With some blocks of ice to top the pile of meat, it would sure last for months without rotting.

SuSu sighed, and then said: "Humans never feel satisfied. After they got what they want, they will still want more. If we had a fire flint, we could grill the bears' paws, they must be incredibly tasty."
(Note by Gan K.L: bear' paws are regarded as an incomparable delicacy for some Chinese).
CuiShan looked at the fire coming out from the volcano, and said: "There's enough fire here, just it's way too big. We will think slowly how to get just enough of it for us to use."

That night, they just ate bear brain, and then slept on a tree. In their sleep, they dreamed as if they were still on the iceberg on the sea, being swayed by the waves. In fact it was the tree branch swaying by the wind.

The next morning, even before SuSu opened her eyes, suddenly she said: "Oh wow, so fragrant! Very fragrant!" She quickly jumped off the tree, and found out that the fragrant smell came out from inside the cave. When she and CuiShan entered the cave, they were surprised to see a lot of flowers and petals, which names they didn't know, were scattered around in the cave. The red monkey was jumping around throwing flowers and petals, which he had brought in for them. SuSu had always loved flowers, so she became very happy and clapped her hands while watching the funny behavior of the monkey.

"SuSu," said CuiShan suddenly. "Please don't be so happy yet; there is something that I need to discuss with you."
Seeing how serious CuiShan's face was when he said this, SuSu's heart skipped a beat, and she hurriedly asked: "What is it?"
"I have found a way to get fire," replied CuiShan.
"Augh! You're so mean! I thought you were going to bring me some bad news!" SuSu grumbled, while laughing. "How to get fire? Good! Now tell me quick, how are you going to do it?"

"It is extremely hot near the mouth of the volcano, so it would be impossible for us to come close to it. Maybe even at a distance of more than 100 meters away, we will burn to death," explained CuiShan. "So let's make a long rope from tree barks, and after it becomes dry enough...."
"Good idea! Good idea!" yelled SuSu praising his idea. "Then we tie a piece of rock at the end of the rope, and throw it into the mouth of the volcano. That way the fire will burn the rope, all the way down to us."

They had been eating raw things for too long now, that they became eager to get fire to cook. Without delaying anymore, they started to make the rope from tree barks. After two whole days, they managed to make a rope over 330 meters long. After drying it in the sun for another day, they set out to the mouth of the volcano on the fourth day.

The volcano didn't look too far, but when they went there, they still had to walk for about 20 kilometers. The closer they got to it, the hotter they felt. First they took off their seal skin jackets, then their outer robe, until finally they felt it was still too hot eventhough they just wore a single layer of clothes. After walking a few more kilometers, they felt their mouths very dry, and sweated all over. They saw that it was a barren dry land around them, there was no vegetation at all. They could only see yellowish burnt rocks abound.

Carrying the long rope on his back, CuiShan noticed that a few strands of SuSu's hair started to curl from the heat. Love and pity filling his heart, he said: "You wait here, I'll go up by myself."
"Ehm! If you say something like that to me again, I won't speak anymore to you," scolded SuSu. "If we cannot get fire, the worst case is just that we'll have to eat everything raw the rest of our lives. What's the big deal?"
Hearing this, CuiShan just smiled.

After walking for another 500 meters or so, they started to pant from exhaustion. Although CuiShan's Internal Strength is quite good, he hardly could bear it any longer either; his eyes felt blurry, his ears began to ring, and his mind became fuzzy. Finally he said: "Let's throw the rope from here. If we fail to get fire, let us be...be...."
"Let us be a couple of wild forestmen, who eat raw meat and drink blood," continued SuSu, laughing. But suddenly her body swayed, she almost fainted. So hurriedly she reached for CuiShan's shoulder for support.

Quickly CuiShan took a piece of rock and tied it with one end of that long rope. After gathering his energy, then he ran forward for about 15 meters and yelling "Fly!", he threw the rock with all his might.

The rock shot forward like an arrow, and the rope was pulled straightly forward along with it. But although the rope was quite long, the place from where CuiShan threw the rock was still very far from the mouth of the volcano, so it was unclear whether it would succesfully catch fire or not. They waited and waited until a long time, until their eyes felt as if going to burst from the heat, but the rope did not even emit any smoke, moreover caught fire.

Finally CuiShan sighed and said: "People of the ancient time made fire by rubbing woods or stones together. There will surely be another way. Let's return and think of another way, this way of getting fire doesn't work."

(From below, it was chopped off again. In Second Edition, JY just made them notice tons of flint stones on the volcano and made fire by it.)
[color=purple]
SuSu felt disappointed, but she nodded her head and stood up. She was going to hold the monkey's hand again to go home, but she saw the monkey was taking a rock and threw it toward the mouth of the volcano, imitating what CuiShan did. He did it several times while running around happily, looking totally amused by this new game, and didn't look as if he was scared of the heat.

Seeing this, SuSu suddenly thought of something. "Eh, this red monkey must be naturally not scared of fire," she thought. So she called the monkey, and said: "Kauw Ji, can you take the end of that rope up there and lit it up with fire?" As she said it, she also made gestures with her hands. She repeated it three times only, and the smart monkey already got what she meant. He dashed forward to the mouth of the volcano and before long he had picked up the end of the rope and then continued running up real fast, that he looked like a ball of fire rolling up the volcano.

CuiShan and SuSu felt regret that they let the monkey go when they saw he kept going up so fast. They were worried he moved too fast he would be burnt before he could even know it. When SuSu saw that he ran even faster until he was just about 150 meters from the mouth of the volcano, she hurriedly yelled: "Go back, Kauw Ji! Go back, quickly!"

She had just finished saying it, when suddenly they saw some smoke at the end of the rope, it seemed that the rope was already lit up with fire. Then they could see the monkey ran back again with the burning rope, and it took him just about ten minutes back and forth. SuSu became so overjoyed she ran forward to meet the monkey and hugged him.

CuiShan was already prepared with a torch he made from some branches tied together, so he quickly lit his torch up with the fire at the end of the rope. When they looked at the monkey, they found out that he didn't suffer any burns at all, not even his fur. This was definitely a very rare and amazing animal they had never seen nor heard before.

So the three of them went back to the bear cave very happily. CuiShan and SuSu quickly gathered a lot of branches and twigs to be used as firewood, and then they made a simple campfire in the cave. Though most animals on earth were scared of fire, this monkey was not. Instead, he was making some funny noises and playing around the fire cheerfully, even rolling himself a few times over the piles of burning twigs.

Feeling very amazed with the monkey, CuiShan suddenly remembered something and unconsciously exclaimed: "Ah!"
"What's wrong?" asked SuSu.
"I remember Teacher once told us about the existence of a mouse, which is called Fire Mouse. Although this mouse runs into a fire, it won't get burnt. It has long hair, about 2 or 3 centimeters, and people weave this hair to make a kind of cloth that is very strong to heat. It is called fire-resistant cloth," said CuiShan. "When the cloth gets dirty, people do not wash it with water, but they just put it into fire and it will be clean again. Perhaps this monkey is similar to that Fire Mouse."
Su Su laughed and said: "Wow! Then each time Kauw Ji's fur falls off, I will collect them to weave a fireproof robe for you. But you had better live for at least 200 or 300 years, so there would be enough fur to weave into a robe."
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(The cut part ended here)

Now that they had fire, everything was done much more easily, such as melting the blocks of ice to get water, and cooking meat for their meals. Since their boat sank until just now, they had never eaten any cooked food. Moreover, it was their first time ever tasting the delicacy of grilled bear paws, so they became so excited that they almost swallowed their own tongues. On the other hand, the monkey did not eat meat, he just ate bear brain and fruits, so he went out to look for his own food.

That night, in their warm and cozy cave, with the fire flickering and the flower fragrance permeating the air, CuiShan and SuSu happily enjoyed their first wedding night since they became husband and wife.

http://zhaomin.org/zhaomin/images/035.gif

The next morning, CuiShan woke up and walked out of the cave. He looked far into the distance, with his body feeling refreshed and his mind feeling peaceful. Suddenly, he saw a tall and big figure far over there, standing on a rock by the sea.
"Oh no!" CuiShan groaned. This figure was no other than Xie Xun! CuiShan was so shocked! After going through all these dangers and hardships, he had hoped to be able to live happily and peacefully with SuSu. But he had never imagined that this great demon would also appear here on the same island. For a while he froze in shock, and couldn't move at all as if a statue.

Then he saw Xie Xun walked to the land, staggering badly. Since his eyes were blinded, he could not catch fish nor hunt for seals anymore, so he had been starving until now. After walking for a few more steps, suddenly he lost his balance and fell to the ground. He couldn't get up anymore and just layed there motionless.

Hurriedly CuiShan walked back into the cave. Seeing her husband, SuSu said tenderly: "Go Ko, you...." but suddenly she stopped her words when she saw CuiShan's worried expression.
"That person Xie has arrived here too!" said CuiShan.
"Hah! He too?" gasped SuSu in shock. Then she lowered her voice and asked: "Did he see you?". But suddenly she remembered that Xie Xun had become blind, so her fear was greatly decreased. She continued: "Both of us can see, so why would we be unable to beat a blind person? Moreover, now we have a helper, this little Kauw Ji."
CuiShan nodded his head in agreement, and said: "He has fainted now, perhaps from starvation."
"Let's go and take a look," said SuSu.

SuSu tore four pieces of cloth from her clothes and stuffed CuiShan's ears and then her own. Carrying her bent sword in one hand and holding the fire monkey's hand with her other hand, SuSu stepped out of the cave with CuiShan.

They came near Xie Xun until about 25 meters away from him. Then CuiShan yelled loudly: "Elder Xie, do you need to eat some food?"
Suddenly hearing a human voice, Xie Xun's face showed he was surprised and overjoyed. But soon he realized it was CuiShan's voice, so his face soon returned to its gloomy expression again. He did not reply quickly. After a long time, he finally nodded his head hesitatingly.

CuiShan walked back to the cave and took a piece of cooked bear meat. Then he threw the meat from afar and yelled: "Catch this!".
Xie Xun got up to a squatting position by supporting his body with his left hand. Then using "thing-hong-pian-gi" (Listening to the wind to learn which direction the thing goes), he caught the bear meat with his right hand. Then he ate it slowly.

CuiShan felt pity seeing Xie Xun, who was usually very strong and powerful, became so weak because of starvation. But SuSu was thinking something different: "Go-ko is really too nice as a person. Why didn't we just let him die of hunger? That would be better for us. Now that we've saved him, we are just looking for trouble, in the future we might even die in his hands." But she remembered that she had vowed to be a good person and would help people in need. So although she thought like that, she just kept it to herself.

After eating almost half of the bear meat, Xie Xun did not finish it; and lying face down on the ground, he fell asleep. CuiShan took some branches and lit up a fire near him. Firstly, so that Xie Xun wouldn't feel cold, and secondly, so that his clothes would get dry.

Xie Xun slept very soundly until late in the afternoon. After he woke up, he asked: "What place is this?"
CuiShan and SuSu had been keeping watch by his side, so as soon as they saw him sitting up and opening his mouth, they took out the cloth that are stuffing their right ears. But they remained cautious, and kept their hands near their right ears in case he would make some suspicious moves.
"This is an uninhabited island near the North Pole," replied CuiShan.

"Um," said Xie Xun, to show he understood. At the moment, his heart was filled with various mixed feelings. He was lost in thought for a while, and then he said: "So we won't be able to return home then."
"Well, that would be for Heaven to decide," said CuiShan.

Suddenly Xie Xun got furious and started a long torrent of cursings and swearings. "Bullshit! What Heaven? Damn Heaven!" He kept cursing Heaven until a long long time until he became tired by himself. After feeling tired swearing, he stopped, and groping the ground, he found a rock to sit and began to eat the rest of his bear meat.

"Then, what are you going to do with me?" asked Xie Xun.
CuiShan did not reply but looked at SuSu, but SuSu gestured to him that he could decide about it by himself and that she would just follow him.
CuiShan thought deeply for a while, then he said loudly: "Elder Xie, we husband and wife...."
"Oh, so you two had got married," Xie Xun cut in while nodding his head several times.
SuSu's face turned red, but it was clear that she was very happy. She said: "Yes. We can say that you're our co-em-lang (matchmaker), so please accept my gratitude."

Xie Xun said: "Hmph! So what are you two husband and wife going to do with me?"
"We have made your eyes blind, and we regret it, but what has happened has happened so it's meaningless even if we asked for your forgiveness 1000 times." CuiShan said. "Therefore, if we are really fated to live in this island forever and cannot return to our homeland, the only thing we can do for you is to take care of you as long as we live."

Xie Xun sighed, and nodded his head. "Well, yes, I've no other choice than to let you."
"But Elder Xie," said CuiShan again. "We husband and wife love each other very deeply, and we have vowed to live and die together. Therefore, should Elder Xie's mad illness struck again and you kill one of us, the other would surely be unable to live alone in this world."
"So you mean that if you two died, then being blind and alone, I won't be able to survive either on this island?" asked Xie Xun.
"Yes, right." replied CuiShan.
"Then why do you two still need to stuff your other ears?" asked Xie Xun.

CuiShan and SuSu looked at each other and smiled. Then they took out the cloth that stuffed their left ears. In their hearts they were really shocked, and thought: "His eyes are blind now, but his ears are so amazing they almost reached a level of practically replacing his eyes. Hadn't we been on a strange island near the freezing North Pole, he wouldn't have needed us to survive."

After talking for some more, CuiShan asked Xie Xun to give the island a name, considering that he had a vast knowledge and could be considered a very learned man. Xie Xun said: "Because this island for thousands of years have both perpetual ice and everburning fire, let's name it 'Peng Hwe To' (Ice and Fire Island)"

So from that day on, three humans and a monkey inhabited the island, living peacefully together. CuiShan and SuSu burned some mud to make bowls for eating, and burned some soils to make bricks for building a stove, made all sorts of kitchenwares, and other things for daily life. When CuiShan and SuSu had spare time, they would also grow flowers and vegetables near the left side of the bear cave.

As for Xie Xun, de did not talk much. Everyday he just sat lost in thought while holding The Dragon Sabre in his hand. Sometimes CuiShan and SuSu felt pity towards him, and advised him not to think too deeply about the secret behind The Dragon Sabre.
"Yes I know that even if I was able to learn about the secret of this sabre, it would be useless anyway, now that we are stranded on this deserted island," Xie Xun said. "Only that since I have nothing else to do, I might as well think about it to pass the time."
Hearing this sensible reasoning, CuiShan and SuSu did not say anything about it anymore and just let him.

About 250 meters from the bear cave, there was another smaller cave. CuiShan worked hard cleaning it and arranging things in it so that it would be suitable for Xie Xun. After working on it for 10 days, CuiShan managed to change it into a small bedroom for Xie Xun, and then gave it to him.

A few more months passed very quickly without anything bad happening. One day, the husband and wife took a stroll hand in hand towards the northern part of the island. Unexpectedly, though the island was large in the middle, it stretched very far to the north. CuiShan and SuSu walked on for tens of kilometers, but still they had not reached its end. Finally they came to a large and deep forest blocking their way. It looked very dense with big and tall old trees, that it was dark in the forest without light coming from above. CuiShan wanted to enter the forest, but suddenly the fire monkey shook his head while sounding some noises continuously, as if he was scared of something in the forest.

Seeing this, SuSu became frightened and said: "Look, even Kauw Ji is scared. Let's not go in and look for trouble. Let's go home instead."
CuiShan was puzzled by the change in SuSu's behavior. He thought: "SuSu is usually quite a busybody, and she always wants to know everything. But why does she recently look lethargic, and not enthusiastic in lots of things?"
Thinking about this, his heart felt very worried. Hurriedly he asked: "Eh, SuSu, are you alright? Is there something wrong?"
SuSu's face turned red and she whispered softly: "No, I'm fine."
But CuiShan could see that she was acting strange, so he asked again the same question a few times.
Therefore, while lowering her head, finally SuSu whispered her reply half jokingly: "Heaven must have thought that we are too lonely, so he is sending another person to make our lives more lively."
CuiShan was amazed and froze for a while, but soon he became overjoyed, and yelled: "Hey, so you have...."
"Ssshh!" said SuSu stopping him. "Lower your voice. Someone might hear you." After saying this, she laughed, because she suddenly realized that in this quiet forest, who would be there to hear them? Then they returned home very happily together.

The weather changed very quickly. Now the daytime became shorter gradually, while the night time became longer, until finally the daytime was just 2 or 3 hours only. The rest of the day was all dark, while the temperature was also getting colder and colder. Since SuSu was with child, she always felt fatigued, though she still did the usual daily chores like cooking, sewing and sweeping the floor.

[Kirara]

post #67

That night, SuSu's pregnancy had almost reached its tenth month. The couple lit up a small fire and then they sat leaning on one another while chatting.
"Go Ko, do you think it will be a boy or a girl?" asked SuSu.
"If a girl, she would look like you, and if a boy, he would look like me. So either one would be just fine." replied CuiShan.
"No, I prefer to have a son," SuSu said. "Can you choose a name for him now?"
CuiShan replied: "Eer...." but he didn't continue until a long time.

"Go Ko, what's bothering you these few days? You've been looking troubled about something," said SuSu.
"Ah, it's nothing," replied CuiShan. "Perhaps because I'm too happy that I'll become a father, I became absent-minded."
He said this jokingly, but between his eyes there were still a few lines indicating that he was troubled about something. SuSu was very smart, so she noticed this.
"Go Ko," she said again. "If you don't tell me, it would make me more worried. What is it? Is anything wrong?"

CuiShan sighed and then said: "I hope I'm mistaken, but these past few days I saw that Elder Xie's behavior was not quite normal."
"Ah, I've noticed that too," said SuSu. "His face expression was becoming wilder and wilder, it seems that his mad illness will strike again."
"Yes, maybe he's so frustrated that he cannot solve the mystery behind The Dragon Sabre," said CuiShan.
"Actually, I don't mind fighting him until I die," said SuSu with her eyes brimming with tears. "But...but...."
CuiShan put an arm around her shoulder, and comforted her: "Yes, you're right. Now that we'll have a child, it's impossible for us to fight him until we die. I just hope he won't do anything bad. If he did, we would have to kill him. He is blind now, we don't have to be scared of him anymore."

Oddly enough, since SuSu became pregnant, she became compassionate. In the past, she regarded killing tens of innocent people as something very common. But now, she found it very hard to kill even an animal. Once CuiShan caught a deer, but two little fawns had followed their mother all the way back to the cave. Seeing them, SuSu insisted that he let go of the mother deer and she chose to stay hungry or just ate some fruits, rather than seeing the two fawns lost their mother. So now when she heard CuiShan was going to kill Xie Xun if necessary, her body trembled.
And because SuSu was leaning in CuiShan's arms, he could feel her body trembling, and he said lovingly: "SuSu, as long as he didn't try to harm us, of course we wouldn't harm him either. <B>(From here, it was cut)</B> [color=purple]Eh, what about calling him or her 'Liam Cu' (Remember Compassion)? So that after he grows up, he will remember that his mother was compassionate when having him. Both a boy or a girl can have the name."

SuSu nodded her head, and felt very relieved. She said: "In the past, each time I could kill someone, I felt happy. But now, after I realized the value of human life, I feel that it is much happier to be compassionate than to kill people. Eh, what are you thinking about?"
CuiShan said: "Yes, it is wrong to kill people, but still, we shouldn't be careless with the evil intention of evil people."
SuSu replied: "Right. If his mad illness really strikes again, how are we going to handle it? But we have Kauw Ji now to help us, so we are much stronger than when we were on the iceberg."
"Though Kauw Ji is very smart, we can't be sure if he will always understand what we want him to do. In a critical situation, we can't rely on him. We must think of a way."[/color]<b>(End of cut)</b>

SuSu said again: "What about this: when we serve him his food, we trick him. Let's see if we can find some poison here....ah, no, this can't be. Perhaps he will be fine, and it might be us being too suspicious."
"I got an idea," said CuiShan after a while. "From tomorrow, we move to the inner part of the cave. Then I'll dig a deep hole in front of the cave, and cover it with some mud and twigs."
"That is a good idea, but as you must go out to hunt everyday, I'm worried he would attack you outside," said SuSu.
CuiShan laughed and said: "Don't worry about me. If I see him going to attack me, I can always escape by climbing up the rocky cliffs over there. He's blind, he won't be able to catch up with me."

The next day, CuiShan began to dig a trap hole in front of the cave. Only because he had no spade nor shovel, he had to use a tree branch to scoop the soil. This made his progress quite slow. Fortunately, thanks to his strong Internal Strength, after working hard for a whole week, he managed to dig a hole as deep as 10 meters.

Meanwhile, Xie Xun's behavior was becoming wilder. Often he would aimlessly slice The Dragon Sabre about as if he had lost his mind. Therefore, CuiShan worked harder, as he wanted to dig the hole until about 16-17 meters deep. Then he would stick some sharp wooden spikes at the bottom of the hole. He planned to make the opening rather wide, but it would narrow down as it went deeper to the bottom. If someone walked into the cave, he would fall into the hole and it would be difficult for him to get out because his body would be stuck in the narrow hole.

That day after having his lunch, Xie Xun began to pace back and forth about 10 meters outside the bear cave. CuiShan did not dare to continue his digging because he was worried the sound of the digging would make Xie Xun suspicious. But he didn't dare to leave the cave to hunt either, and he just kept watch near the entrance of the cave, observing Xie Xun's behavior.

Suddenly he heard Xie Xun began his swearings and cursings. He started with cursing Heaven first. Then he cursed The Earth, the Gods, the Celestial Beings, The Lord of Hell, The Buddha, the past Chinese Emperors, the past Chinese Ministers and War Generals, Chinese poets and philosophers, and other ancient famous persons. He inserted some quotations in his cursings, plus some historical facts and fictions, and with his very vast knowledge on history and literature, his torrent of name-callings had made CuiShan felt very amused and interested.

Suddenly he changed his direction and now he began to curse the famous figures in the martial world. He began with cursing The Great Damo the founder of Shaolin Temple, and cursed Yue WuMu (Gak Bu Bok) and other ancient famous martial arts heroes. And what's interesting was that he did not curse them without sensible reasons, as he could find the exact weak points of the skills of each of those heroes and criticized them quite accurately. Then he cursed the heroes of the Tang Dynasty until the Sung Dynasty. When finally he arrived at the the era of the South Sung Dynasty, he began to curse the East Heretic, the West Poison, the South Emperor, the North Beggar, and the Central Theurgist. Going down further in time, he also cursed Guo Jing and Yang Guo, until finally he arrived at the founder of WuDang Clan, Zhang SanFeng, and started to swear and curse him loudly.

CuiShan did not care so much when Xie Xun cursed the other people, but hearing him cursing his beloved Teacher, he couldn't help but lost his temper. He was about to retort back at him, but suddenly Xie Xun growled angrily and yelled: "Zhang SanFeng is a big pile of crap, so his pupil is a bigger pile of crap. Let me strangle his wife till she drops dead first!"

As soon as he said this, Xie Xun jumped passing CuiShan's side, heading towards the cave. CuiShan hurriedly got into the cave too, but suddenly "Crash!", Xie Xun had fallen into the trap hole. But as the spikes had not been put in yet, he was not injured. He was just very startled because it happened so suddenly. Quickly CuiShan grabbed the wooden stick he used to dig the hole with, and used it to hit Xie Xun's head as he was trying to jump out of the hole. But using "thing-hong-pian-gi" (Listen to Wind to know direction of weapon), Xie Xun used his left hand to catch and then pull the wooden stick. CuiShan couldn't keep the stick in his hand anymore so it got jerked off his hand. The pull was using such a strong force that CuiShan's palm was abrased and bled. But because of this pull, Xi Xun's body fell down again into the hole.

At the moment, SuSu had been going into labor for a half day now, but she didn't dare to tell her husband when she saw Xie Xun pacing back and forth in front cave. If Xie Xun heard what she said, he might attack them soon, thinking that it was a good chance to have one less opponent. Now that she saw they were fighting and that CuiShan had lost his only weapon the wooden stick, despite the severe pain she was having, she quickly grabbed her bent sword beside her pillow and threw it to CuiShan.

After catching the sword, CuiShan thought: "This person's martial arts is tens of times better than mine, if I attack him with this sword as he jumps out again, he would surely take it away from me again." In his nervousness, suddenly a thought striked his mind: "Ah! He's blind, and the reason why he could take my weapon away was because he was using 'thing-hong-pian-gi'."

As he realized about it, Xie Xun had jumped up again while laughing loudly. CuiShan quickly held his sword down motionlessly and firmly, aiming the sharp edge at right where Xie Xun's head would be as he jumped up. "Chack!", the sword accurately pierced into Xie Xun's head as deep as a few centimeters. This happened because Xie Xun had jumped up forcefully, while CuiShan was holding the sword motionlessly emitting no sound at all. Therefore, though Xie Xun's martial arts was excellent, he had no way of knowing it because he couldn't see.

But Xie Xun was really something, just when the sword pierced his head, very quickly he threw his head backward while at the same time using "Jian Kin Tui" (Going Down Thousands of Weight), he halted his surge upward by making himself heavy, and and deliberately fell down back into the hole again. Had he been late by even a mere second, his brain would have been pierced and he would have been dead by now. However, his head was heavily wounded now and blood flowed down on his face. He felt pain and headache on his head, and realized that his injury was quite serious.

As soon as he fell back into the hole, he pulled out the sword from his head, and already losing his mind in anger now, he took out The Dragon Sabre which was hanging on his waist. Swirling the sword above his head to protect himself, he tried to jump out again for the third time. CuiShan had no other way than throwing a big rock at him, but Xie Xun could always ward it off using the sabre. CuiShan repeated this several times, but Xie Xun could always ward of each rock with his sabre.

Suddenly a glittering light flashed up and Xie Xun already jumped out of the hole with The Dragon Sabre in his hand. Step by step, CuiShan was forced to retreat further into the cave. In his heart, he felt incredibly sad, very very sad, as he knew that he and SuSu would die together soon, without ever having the chance to see their baby.

Not to let CuiShan and SuSu escape from the cave by going out past him, knowing that once they managed to escape outside it would be very hard for him to find them, Xie Xun used both weapons in his hands. With The Dragon Sabre in right hand and SuSu's sword in his left hand, he attacked forward using wide-ranged movements as wide as 5 meters in diameter, blocking the way out of the cave. Knowing that this time CuiShan and SuSu wouldn't be able to escape from him anymore, Xie Xun felt so happy in his heart.

Just at this very dangerous moment, suddenly "Oowaaaaa...oowaaaaa...oowaaaaa....!" they heard a baby bursting out crying very loudly from the inner part of the cave.

Xie Xun gasped, feeling shocked. He stopped short and froze there unmoving. He could hear the crying of the baby continued without stopping.

On the other hand, knowing that they were going to die soon, CuiShan and SuSu did not pay any attention at all to Xie Xun. Two pair of eyes were being concentrated to stare at the newborn baby, with various mixed feelings that were impossible to describe.

The baby was a baby boy, and he was crying very loudly while thrashing both his arms and his legs.

CuiShan and SuSu knew that as soon as Xie Xun's hand sliced down, they husband wife, plus their newborn baby, would die together. Therefore, they kept silent without saying anything, and they just fixed their eyes on their baby. They felt that the longer they could see the baby, even if just a second longer, the bigger their fortune was. They were grateful to Fate, that they could see their baby at the last moment before they died. At the moment, they felt very content and very peaceful, and did not think about their lives anymore. Of course it would be great if they could protect the baby so that he could live on, but they already knew that it was something beyond their power, so this thought did not cross their mind anymore.

So the baby kept crying loudly, and this sound of crying had suddenly awakened Xie Xun's conscience and his mad illness dissipated suddenly, and his mind and consciousness became clear. This crying had reminded him of the time when his whole family was killed ruthlessly. At that time, his wife had not long given birth to a baby boy as well, but the enemy was so cruel that he even killed the tiny baby too.

The cries of the baby had also made him recall past memories. He recalled the love between himself and his wife, the cruelty of the enemy, his baby boy being smashed into a wall that he died looking like a heap of minced meat; and how though he had gone through a lot of hardships to improve his kung fu, he still had not succeeded to take revenge; how just as he improved his skills, the enemy's skills improved even faster, and now that he had obtained The Dragon Sabre, he had not been able to solve its mystery. Xie Xun stood stiffly there lost in his own thoughts, and his face looking sometimes happy and sometimes furious, gritting his teeth in anger.

Previously, CuiShan, SuSu and Xie Xun were in a critical duel which would decide between life and death, but since the first cry of the baby, the three people's attentions were focused on the newborn baby.

"A boy or a girl?" suddenly Xie Xun asked.
"A boy," replied CuiShan.
"Have you cut his umbilical cord?" asked Xie Xun again.
"Cut his umbilical cord?....Whoops! I forgot!" replied CuiShan.

Xie Xun turned the sword in his hand around, and gave it to CuiShan, who took it and used it to cut the baby's umbilical cord. After that, suddenly his heart jumped out, because he realized that Xie Xun had stood by his side. But he did not attack them. Feeling amazed, CuiShan turned his head to look at him, only to see Xie Xun's facial expression looking curious. Actually, his face even looked as if he was anxious to help out.

"Let me hold him," said SuSu weakly.
CuiShan quickly put the baby into his wife's arms.
"Have you boiled hot water to give him a bath?" asked Xie Xun again.
"Augh! I'm really so forgetful! I didn't prepare anything at all. What a useless father I am," said CuiShan, and laughed at himself. As he was saying this, he was going to hurry out of the cave to boil some water, but suddenly his eyes caught Xie Xun's large and strong figure just next to the baby, and his heart jumped out again in worry.

But suddenly Xie Xun said again: "You stay here to accompany your wife and your baby. I'll do the boiling of water." Then he hang The Dragon Sabre back on his waist and ran out of the cave. When he passed the hole, he just lightly jumped over it.

Not long after that, Xie Xun really did come back with a bowl of warm water. Quickly CuiShan bathed the baby.
Hearing how loud the baby cried, Xie Xun asked: "Does he look like his mother or his father?"
CuiShan smiled and replied: "He looks more like his mother, not too chubby, and his face is oval like the shape of a watermelon seed."

Xie Xun sighed and said: "I hope after he grows up, he won't have bad luck, and can live long and be blessed with a lot of good fortunes, and doesn't have to endure too many hardships."
"Elder Xie, do you mean that the shape of his face indicates bad luck?" asked SuSu worriedly.
"No," replied Xie Xun. "It's just if this baby looks like you, obviously he would be too handsome. I'm just worried that after he grows up, he won't have enough good fortunes. Besides, in society later, he might meet with a lot of troubles."

"Ah, Elder Xie thinks too far into the future," said CuiShan, laughing. "The four of us live here in a desolate island near the North Pole, so naturally this child will also live here until he grows old. How could he be among society?"
"No, no!" quickly SuSu said. "We may not return, but we can't let our child live here alone on this island forever. The three of us will grow old and die eventually, so who will accompany him then? After he grows up, with whom can he marry and have his own children?"
Since she was small, as the daughter of the Sect Leader of The White Eyebrows Sect, Yin SuSu took after her father's behavior of doing evil and cruel things. Growing up in such an environment, she thought that doing bad and cruel things are something normal and common. But after marrying CuiShan, her heart gradually grew gentler and compassionate. And today that she became a mother, automatically her maternal instinct was awakened, and she could only feel motherly love and concern over her baby's future.

Hearing what his wife said, CuiShan just looked at her with a numb feeling. He stroked her hair tenderly, and thought: "The distance between this island an China could be in the thousands of kilometers away, how could we ever return there?" But afraid that he would make his beloved wife sad, he didn't say what he thought and just kept silent.

"Yes, what Mrs. Zhang said is correct," suddenly Xie Xun said. "We can say that the lives of the three of us have ended here, but this child, yes this child, how could we let him grow up and die old on this desolate island? Without ever tasting even a drop of the happiness of real living like a normal person? Yes, Mrs. Zhang, the three of us must make an effort as best as we could, to find a way so that this child can return to the mainland."

How touched SuSu's heart was to hear these firm and sincere words from Xie Xun, that she stood up staggeringly, and tried to take a step forward.
But quickly CuiShan caught her and supported her, saying: "Hey, SuSu! What are you trying to do? Hurry, you'd better lie down again and rest!"
"No, Go Ko !" replied SuSu. "The two of us must bow deeply to Elder Xie to thank him for his kindness."
But Xie Xun shook his hand and said: "No need, no need! Have you given this child a name yet?"

<B>(Jin Yong cut off the naming of Liam Cu. Please note that I made the cut-off parts purple in font color. I will do the same later with the other previous chapters.)</B>

[color=purple]"Without too much thought, I have chosen a name for him, which is 'Liam Cu'," Cuishan replied. "Elder Xie has a very vast knowledge, so maybe you can give him a better name than that."

"Zhang Liam Cu.....Zhang Liam Cu! Ehm, this name is a very good name already, no need to change it," said Xie Xun, after repeating the name several times.[/color]

Suddenly SuSu remembered how Xie Xun had shown much interest and care for the newborn baby, and she thought that if he regarded the baby as if his own child, definitely the child would be safe while living on this island. Even if Xie Xun's mad illness striked again in the future, it was very improbable that he would harm his own child. Therefore hurriedly she said: "Elder Xie, for the sake of this child, I'd love to ask you a favor. I hope you won't refuse."
"What favor?" asked Xie Xun.
"Please take this child as your adopted son!" said SuSu. "So that when he grows up, he can take care of you like his own father. Under your protection, his life will be free from other people's abuse. Go Ko, don't you think it's a good idea?"
"Good, good!" replied CuiShan, "Elder Xie, I hope you won't turn down our sincere request."

Xie Xun in a very sad tone: "My own baby son was smashed into a ball of minced meat after someone threw him against the wall, didn't you two see it?"
Hearing these illogical words, CuiShan and SuSu looked at each other, worrying that Xie Xun's mad illness was back again. But thinking of his ill fate, they couldn't help but feeling pity towards him.
"If my son had not died, he would have been eighteen now," Xie Xun continued. "And if I had taught him all my martial and literary skills, hmph, I think he wouldn't be under you people! The so-called The Seven Heroes of Wudang or The Shaolin Sam-gi!"
The utmost sadness in his words contained the utmost pride, and the utmost pride in his words contained the utmost sadness.

CuiShan and SuSu couldn't help but feeling regret that they had blinded Xie Xun's eyes when they were on the iceberg. Otherwise, how much nicer it could have been, with the four of them living together peacefully on this desolate island.

For quite a long time, the three people stayed silent, and each was lost in his or her own thought. Finally CuiShan broke the silence: "Elder Xie, please accept this child as your adopted son. We will let him take after your surname Xie."
Xie Xun's face flashed a surge of great joy, and he hurriedly said with an unbelieving tone: "You don't mind changing his surname to Xie? [color=purple]Xie Liam Cu, Xie Liam Cu! Ehm, what a good name![/color] But my son's name was Xie WuJi."
"If you wish, we can name him Xie WuJi," said CuiShan.

[Kirara]

post #68

Xie Xun was overjoyed, but he still couldn't believe it, he was worried that CuiShan was just joking or pulling his leg, so he said again to confirm: "You gave your child to me, but what about yourself?"
"No matter his surname is Xie or Zhang, we will still love him the same," replied CuiShan. "In the future, he will be filial to his parents and respect and love his adoptive father. He will love us all equally, wouldn't it be good? What do you think, SuSu?"
SuSu hesitated for a moment, but finally she said: "I leave it all up to you, you know what's best for him. Having one more person to love him, it's like having a bonus good fortune for this child."

Of course Xie Xun became so overjoyed. He quickly bowed and said: "Thank you very much from this person Xie. I completely erase the grudge of your blinding my eyes. Although Xie Xun has lost a son, now he has got another son again. In the future, Xie WuJi's name will be famous all over the world, so that people will know that his father is Zhang CuiShan, his mother is Yin SuSu, and his adoptive father is The Golden-haired Lion King Xie Xun."

The reason why So So hesitated previously was because she remembered that the original Xie WuJi had died being smashed into a wall like a ball of minced meat. Therefore, she felt it was not good to give her own baby the same name as the ill-fated baby. But seeing how happy Xie Xun was, she could guess that Xie Xun would love her baby so much that in the future the baby would benefit greatly from it. Being a mother with pure mother love, SuSu was willing to sacrifice anything, as long as it would benefit her child. So she held her baby in her arms and said to Xie Xun: "Do you want to hold him for a while?"

Hurriedly Xie Xun reached out with both hands and held the baby in his arms. He was so happy that his tears came out and flowed down his cheeks, and his hands were trembling. He stuttered: "You...you hold him back, hurry....Perhaps..perhaps he's terrified seeing this scary look of mine..."
Actually, what would a one-day-old baby know anything about looks? But what he said really showed that he really cared about the baby.
"If you like, you can hold him longer," said SuSu, smiling. "In the future after he grows up a bit, you can take him anywhere you like to play."
"Good, good!..." said Xie Xun. When he heard the baby cried loudly, he added: "He must be hungry. Nurse him. I'll go outside."
In fact, with his eyes already blind, there'd be no problem even if he remained in front of SuSu nursing her baby. [color=purple]In the past, when his mad illness striked, he had tried to do indecent thing to SuSu. [/color] But now he became so polite and acted like a real gentleman.

"Elder Xie...." said CuiShan. But Xie Xun cut him short: "No, we are a family now, so you can't call me 'Elder' anymore as if we are outsiders to each other. In my opinion, it would be better if we become sworn brothers. That would be good for our child too."
CuiShan replied modestly: "You are much older and much more superior in skills than us, husband and wife. So how would we dare to do it."
"Crap! You're a hero from the martial world, why do you also act so crappy?" said Xie Xun. "Fifth Brother! Fifth Sister! So there! I have called you first! Now are you going to call me Big Brother or not?"
SuSu laughed and said: "Okay, let me call you Big Brother first. If he still calls you 'Elder', haha, I'd be his 'Elder' too!"
CuiShan said finally: "In that case, this younger brother will do as what Big Brother wishes."

"Good," said SuSu. "For the time being, it's just an informal agreement; after I feel stronger, we can ceremonially make the formal vow to Heaven to be sworn brother and sister."
"Hahaha, a true man, once he promised something, won't take it back. Why must vow? To Heaven? I've long hated Heaven!"
Then he walked out of the cave, laughing. His laughter was still heard very loudly outside the cave, indicating how extremely happy he was. Since the first time CuiShan and SuSu met him, they had never seen Xie Xun so happy.

From then on, the three of them concentrated all their attentions and thoughts to raise Xie WuJi. Being nicknamed 'The Golden-Haired Lion King', Xie Xun's skill in hunting was unsurpassable. After CuiShan explained and took him to various places on the island, he could remember very well how to get there and back again. Therefore from then on, it was Xie Xun's job to hunt for animals such as deer or bear. [color=purple] Sometimes Kauw Ji also went with him to hunt together, but since it was too easy for the monkey to kill the game animals, Xie Xun felt it was no fun. At first, he still needed the monkey to show him the way, but after he knew all the places by heart, he didn't allow the monkey to accompany him hunting anymore. Instead, he told him to just stay home to play with the child, Xie WuJi....[/color]

Time passed very quickly and a few years have passed. The four of them lived peacefully on the island without anything bad happening. This child turned out to be very healthy and strong. Among his three parents, it seemed that Xie Xun was the most doting on him. Sometimes when he became too naughty and CuiShan and SuSu was going to punish him, Xie Xun would prevent them. That way, in the long run, the child relied on his adoptive father to suppoert him and each time his father and mother got angry at him, he would run behind Xie Xun for protection. Seeing this, CuiShan and SuSu could only shook their heads and smiled. They said that this child was really being spoiled by Big Brother.

When WuJi turned four (note: meaning 3-years-old by Western calculation), SuSu began to teach him how to read and write. On his fifth birthday, CuiShan said to Xie Xun: "Big Brother, we can teach our child martial arts now. Would you please teach him?"
"No," replied Xie Xun. "My martial arts is still too difficult for him, he won't be able to understand it now. It would be better if you teach him the basic principles of the WuDang School of martial arts first. Later when he turns eight years old, I will start to teach him my martial arts. Then after teaching him for two years, all of you can return!"

"Return? You said we can return? You mean back to the mainland?" asked SuSu in surprise.
"Yes," replied Xie Xun. "In these past few years, everyday I observed the current of the sea and the direction of the wind. I noticed that every year when the nights are very long, the northern wind would blow for several tens of days continuously without stopping. We can make a raft, put a sail on it, and then we can let it sail following the southern wind to the south. As long as that Damn Heaven doesn't mess things up, you all can reach the mainland."
"We? Do you mean you're not going with us?" asked SuSu.
"Both my eyes are blind now. Why should I return to the mainland?" replied Xie Xun.
"Even if you don't want to go back with us, we are not going to let you stay here alone either," said SuSu. "Besides, our child wouldn't want to go either. Without his Gihu (adoptive father), who else will love him so much?"

Xie Xun sighed, and his face expressed sadness. "If I can take care of him for 10 years, that is enough for me," he said. "That Damn Heaven loves to oppose me and to mess up my life. So if our child stays too long with me, I'm worried that Damn Heaven will get mad at him and mess up his life too."
SuSu shuddered when she heard this, but thinking that Xie Xun was just blabbering the words without much thought, she brushed it off her mind.

So from then on, CuiShan taught his son martial arts, but he just taught him the basic principles of Wudang's Internal Strength to build a strong foundation first in the child. He thought the child was still too young; and besides, in this desolate island, he thought it was enough just to be healthy and strong, as there was no enemy to fight with, anyway. Although that day Xie Xun talked of going home to the mainland, he never mentioned about it anymore. It seemed that he said it in a moment of whim, and not really meaning it seriously.

In the eight year, Xie Xun really did make WuJi start to learn martial arts from himself. When he was teaching WuJi, he never asked CuiShan and SuSu to watch from the side. And the couple also strictly followed the rule of the martial world, they stayed away as far as they could. They also never tried to check on WuJi's progress in learning martial arts, since they trusted Xie Xun completely that whatever he taught WuJi, it must be some amazing martial skills.

Time passed very quickly and without realizing it, another year had passed again.

Since WuJi's birth, Xie Xun had something else to pay his attention to, so he had not bothered anymore with The Dragon Sabre. But one night, when CuiShan went to take a stroll out because he couldn't sleep, he was surprised to see Xie Xun sat cross-legged on a rock under the moonlight, with The Dragon Sabre in his hands, and was deep in thought. Startled, quickly CuiShan wanted to go away from there, but Xie Xun could hear his footsteps, and said suddenly: "Fifth Brother, it seems that the saying 'The Most Venerable in The Martial World, is The Dragon Slaying Sabre' is an empty saying."

CuiShan had no choice but to walk up to him. He replied: "Yes, there are too many empty rumors in the martial world. Considering Big Brother's intelligence, why do you believe such a rumor about this sabre?"
"You don't know that I heard it from a highly respectable monk, the Great Monk Kong Jian of Shaolin Clan," said Xie Xun.
"Great Monk Kong Jian?" shouted CuiShan in surprise. "I heard he was the martial Elder Brother of The Great Abbot Kong Wen, the Head of Shaolin Temple at present. I also heard that he had passed away a long time ago."
"Right, Kong Jian had long passed away. It was me who hit him to his death," said Xie Xun again.

CuiShan became even more surprised. He thought: "In the martial world, there is this famous saying 'Divine Monks of Shaolin: Jian Wen Zhi Sheng', refering to Shaolin Temple's four Elders namely Kong Jian, Kong Wen, Kong Zhi and Kong Sheng. Then we heard from Teacher that Great Monk Kong Jian had passed away after succumbing to a desease. I never thought that in fact it was Big Brother that had killed him."

Meanwhile, Xie Xun had taken a deep sigh, and then said: "Kong Jian was really a fool. He let me hit him 13 times but refused to hit back. After hitting him 13 times, he finally died."

CuiShan was even more shocked. He thought: "In this world, only the few top martial arts experts would be able to stand even one blow by Big Brother without being heavily wounded or died. But that Divine Monk from Shaolin could withstand 13 blows, he must have had a body harder than iron or steel."

Xie Xun's face looked very grim, he seemed to be deeply regretting it. CuiShan guessed there must be something else that was very extraordinary behind the incident. Since they became sworn brothers, for these eight years living together on this lonely island, CuiShan's relationship with Xie Xun was very close and affectionate. However, despite all that, he also felt some fear towards his Big Brother. Therefore, though he felt curious, he did not dare to ask further about things in his past, in case it would make him remember painful things.

But Xie Xun continued: "As long as I live until now, the number of persons whom I admire can be counted with my fingers. Although I have often heard of your Teacher Great Elder Zhang, I have never met him and just knew his name from afar. But this Great Monk Kong Jian, he was truly an amazing monk. Although in terms of martial arts' fame he was not as famous as his two martial younger brothers Kong Zhi and Kong Sheng, in my opinion, Kong Zhi and Kong Sheng cannot par up with Kong Jian in martial skills."

In the past, whenever CuiShan heard Xie Xun mentioned about famous people in the world, it could be said that none of them seemed to be worthy enough in Xie Xun's eyes and he would just dismiss them. If he bothered to curse them, then it must meant that they were already among the few top persons of the world. But never even once Xie Xun ever praised anyone in the world. So it was really very surprising that he had praised Great Monk Kong Jian with so much respect and admiration in his voice.

CuiShan then said: "Maybe he loved to confine himself in the quiet and peaceful monastery, and seldom came out to travel in the martial world. That's why not many people in the martial world know about his skills."

Suddenly Xie Xun raised his head to the sky, and for a long time he was lost in thought. Then he mumbled by himself: "What a pity, really a pity. Such a world-class martial arts expert had let himself be hit 13 times and finally died in my hand. Although his martial arts was unsurpassable, he was too stubborn as a person. Had he been willing to fight me, ha, Xie Xun wouldn't have lived today."
CuiShan asked: "Do you mean that the Great Monk's martial arts was much better than yours, Big Brother?"

"Of course! How could I compare with him?" replied Xie Xun. "Maybe even his pupil's martial arts is better than mine."
When he said this, his facial expression and tone of voice showed a deep regret.
CuiShan felt very amazed. In his heart, he doubted the truth of Xie Xun's words. In his own estimation, his own Teacher - Zhang SanFeng - was already a top-class martial expert with probably no match in the world. However, compared with Xie Xun, perhaps Zhang SanFeng was not that much better either. But if even Kong Jian's pupil was still better than Xie Xun, then by analogy it wouldn't it mean that his Teacher's martial arts was still much below Kong Jian's? But he knew Xie Xun's character already. Though his name contained 'Xun' meaning 'to step back', Xie Xun was a very proud person, and if someone's martial arts was not really surpassing his own by far, he wouldn't be willing to admit defeat. So what he said should be true.

It seemed that Xie Xun could read what CuiShan was thinking, so he said: "Don't you believe me? Okay, please call WuJi to come here, let me tell him a story."

CuiShan hesitated for a moment. He thought it was in the middle of the night and WuJi was already sound asleep, why had to wake him up just to listen to a story. But because it was an order by his Big Brother, he felt uneasy to refuse it. Therefore he walked back to the bear cave to wake his son up.

When Wuji heard that his Gihu (adoptive father) wanted to tell him a story, he exclaimed loudly in excitement, that his yell woke his mother up as well. Therefore the three of then then went outside together and sat quietly beside Xie Xun.

Then Xie Xun said to WuJi: "Son, soon you will return to the mainland...."
"What do you mean by 'return to mainland', Gihu?" asked WuJi cutting in, feeling puzzled.
But Xie Xun shook his hand as a gesture for him to be quiet, then he continued: "If the big raft we build sunk or drifted to another far place in the ocean, it would be another story. But should it safely bring you back to the mainland, then let me tell you about how cruel and devious the people in this world are. Never trust anyone except your own parents, because except your own parents, everyone else in the world might have thoughts of harming you. Too bad that no one told me this when I was young. Aiya! Even if someone did, I wouldn't have believed him anyway."

[Kirara]

post #69

Xie Xun continued: "When I was 10 years olds, because of an unexpected coincidence, I became the disciple of a very famous martial arts expert in the martial world. Seeing that I have a good talent for martial arts, my Teacher was very fond of me and he taught me almost all of his best martial skills. Our relationship was like father and son. It is true, Fifth Brother, that my love for my Teacher was no less that your love for your Teacher. At the age of 23, I finished my learning and left. Not long after, I got married and had a child. My family lived a peaceful and happy life."

"After two more years, my Teacher happened to pass by my hometown so he dropped by my house to stay for a few days. Of course I was very happy and excited, and my whole family treated him very respectfully. In his spare time, Teacher would give me some advice on martial arts. But who would have thought that he, a famous person in the martial world, actually has a heart of a beast. On the 15th of the 7th month, being drunk after drinking too much wine, suddenly he tried to rape my wife...."

CuiShan and SuSu exclaimed simultaneously, feeling shocked. In the martial world, a case where a Teacher would try to rape the wife of his own pupil was never heard of. This was a hideous act nobody could forgive.

Meanwhile, Xie Xun had continued: "Of course, my wife wouldn't let him, and she screamed for help. Hearing her screaming, my father opened the door by force and entered the room. Because getting caught in the act, my Teacher killed my father with one blow, and and my mother too. Then also my son, Xie WuJi...."

"Xie WuJi?" suddenly WuJi asked, feeling puzzled that his name was mentioned by his Gihu.
"Don't interrupt! Listen to Gihu's story!" Cuishan scolded WuJi sternly.

"Yes," said Xie Xun said. "My son had the exact same name as yours, his name was also Xie WuJi. My Teacher had grabbed him and threw him against a wall he became a ball of minced meat..."
Suddenly WuJi asked again: "Gihu, can he...can he still live or not?"
"No, he couldn't....He couldn't live anymore," said Xie Xun in a hoarse voice.
Hurriedly SuSu gestured to WuJi with her hands, telling him not to ask questions.

Xie Xun paused for a while, lost in thought. After a while, he continued again: "Seeing what had happened, I froze from shock, not knowing what to do to my Teacher whom I have loved and respected for most of my life. But suddenly he hit me on my chest and being in shock, I forgot to ward it off, so I fell unconscious. When i regained my consciousness, my Teacher had disappeared from sight, and my whole family had all perished. My house was full with dead bodies: my father, my mother, my wife and son, my younger brothers and my servants, totalling 13 people, all of them had been killed by my Teacher. Perhaps because I immediately fainted, he thought that I have died too, and left without finishing me off."

"I fell seriously ill after that, from extreme grief and anger. After I recovered, I practised my kung fu everyday for five years, and then I began to look for my Teacher for revenge. But even so, my kung fu was still far inferior to him, so instead of being able to take revenge, I got further humiliated. But how could I let him get away without paying his blood debt of 13 souls? I started to wander in the world to look for good martial arts experts to teach me better kung fu. After 10 years, I managed to learn from 3 different martial arts experts. I felt that my kung fu had improved a lot, so again I came to my Teacher's house to take revenge. But who would have thought that his kung fu had also greatly improved? So my intention to take revenge failed again for the second time, and this time, I was severely injured too"

Once again I practised my kung fu day and night, and this time I practised 'Cit-siang-kun' (Seven Damages Fist). I began with learning the Internal Strength needed for the very powerful Cit-siang-kun. After three years, I finally finished the last level of the amazing fist technique, and I thought I could par up with even the most powerful of martial arts experts. Therefore, for the third time I went to his residence. But unexpectedly I found out that he had disappeared along with his whole family. I searched for him far and wide, but still I couldn't find him. I also asked around for his news in the martial world, but I learned nothing of my Teacher's whereabouts. Perhaps he had escaped to a far and secret place to avoid me. In that case, in this vast world, how could I find him?"

"Because of that, I became enraged, and in my fury, I ran amock and began to commit various evil deeds everywhere, like [color=purple]robbing, raping,[/color] killing, and burning down houses. And each time I did an evil deed, i would leave my Teacher's name!"

Suddenly CuiShan and SuSu exclaimed again in surprise.
Xie Xun said: "So you know now who my Teacher is, don't you?"
SuSu nodded her head and replied: "Yes, you're a pupil of 'Kun-goan-pi-lik-jiu' (The Lightning Hands) Cheng Kun."

For several years ago, suddenly a series of mysterious killings happenned in the martial world. Beginning from Liautang until Lenglam areas, namely from the northeast part until the southern part of China, there were 30 crimes occuring in just 6 months. A lot of martial arts experts were suddenly found dead, and the killer would always leave a writing with the name of "The Lightning Hands Cheng Kun". The people who got killed would be either the Head of a Clan, or an elderly martial expert with a vast connection to other martial experts. This way, the murders would directly or indirectly involve a lot of people like a chained effect.

As usual, whenever a hideous crime happened in the martial world, an unrest would follow. Therefore, with 30 shocking murders done consecutively like that, the martial world was shaken to the bones. At that time, Zhang SanFeng ordered his 7 students to investigate, but they found nothing about the killer. People just thought that it must be someone trying to frame Cheng Kun. Cheng Kun's reputation in the martial world was very good, and besides, several of the people killed were Cheng Kun's own good friends, so it couldn't be Cheng Kun who had done it. When they tried to find Cheng Kun to find any clues of the real killer, nobody could find him either, as by that time he had no permanent residence and disappeared. So the unrest continued for quite a long time, with the real killer still in the dark. Although the people who tried to seek revenge for those murders were in the hundreds or maybe even in the thousands, they couldn't do anything because they did not know who the killer was. If today Xie Xun had not confessed about it from his own mouth, CuiShan would never have figured it out either.

"The reason why I did those evil deeds was to force Cheng Kun to appear from his hiding place," Xie Xun explained further. "I thought it would be impossible for me to find him if he continued hiding his head like a turtle. The more people looking for him would mean it would be easier for me to trace where he was hiding, than doing it alone."
SuSu said: "Your tactic was very good, but those innocent people who died in your hands were pitiful, and they didn't even know either the reason why they had to die."
"So what about my father and mother, my wife and my son, weren't they also innocent? Weren't they also pitiful?" replied Xie Xun. "Ha, in the past, I saw that you were quite ruthless, but after being Fifth Brother's wife for almost 10 years, it seems that you've taken after his craps?"

SuSu glanced at her husband and smiled. Then she said: "Big Brother, those murders happened in a sudden, and then stopped in a sudden too. So did you finally manage to find Cheng Kun?"
"No, I couldn't find him still," replied Xie Xun. "But finally I met Song YuanQiao in the city of Luo Yang."
"Ha, Song YuanQiao? My First Martial Brother?" asked CuiShan in surprise.
"Yes, right! Song YuanQiao, the Head of The Seven Heroes of WuDang," replied Xie Xun. Because of all the crimes I did, the martial world was under a big unrest, and yet my Teacher The Lightning Hands Cheng Kun...."

"Gihu, he is so evil, why do you keep calling him 'Teacher'?" WuJi asked suddenly.
Xie Xun smiled bitterly and replied: "Yes, because I have been used to calling him so since I was a small. Besides, he taught me most of my kung fu. Although he is a very evil person, I'm not a good person as well. Perhaps he also taught me my viciousness. Learning both good and evil things from him, it is proper if I still call him 'Teacher'".

Hearing this crooked logic, secretly CuiShan thought: "Big Brother had suffered a very pitiful fate in his life, and in his anger and hatred, he did not differentiate anymore between the right and the wrong. If WuJi memorized what he heard from him, it wouldn't be good for himself in the future. After a few days, I will call him aside to explain more clearly and fix things right."

Meanwhile, Xie Xun had continued: "And because I still couldn't find Teacher, I thought I had better make a bigger crime to really shatter the martial world, and thus it would force him to come out. And since in this era the most respected Clans in the martial world are Shaolin and WuDang, I thought that if I killed an important figure in the two Clans, then my effort wouldn't be fruitless. That day I saw Song YuanQiao killing a vicious local oppressor outside the Jing-si-koan Temple in the city of Luo Yang. I saw that his kung fu was quite good, so I decided that I would go to kill him the same night."

Listening until here, unconsciously CuiShan shuddered. Though he knew that in the end Song YuanQiao was not killed, but still, he felt eerie imagining the dangerous situation. He knew that Xie Xun's martial arts was by far more superior than Song YuanQiao's. And with one in the open while the other in the dark, his First Brother wouldn't be able to avoid death, had Xie Xun really attacked him.

SuSu, who knew that Song YuanQiao didn't die, said: "Big Brother, perhaps your compassion was suddenly awakened and you didn't want to kill innocent people anymore? It's good that you didn't kill him, because if you had, this Fifth Brother would have long looked for you to fight you to death, and you wouldn't have been our sworn brother!"

"Hmph, what compassion?" scoffed Xie Xun. "If it were today, considering Fifth Brother, of course I wouldn't create any trouble with WuDang Clan. But at that time, I didn't know Fifth Brother yet, so it didn't have to be Song YuanQiao; even if Fifth Brother himself were there at that time, perhaps I would have killed him too."
"Hey, Gihu! Why would you want to kill father?" WuJi asked suddenly in puzzlement.
Xie Xun smiled and said: "No, that was just 'if', not that Gihu really wanted to kill your father."
"Oh, I see," said Wuji in relief.

While stroking WuJi's head, Xie Xun said again: "Yes, although Damn Heaven is so mean to me, at least he didn't let me kill Song YuanQiao, or else I'd have felt ashamed to your father and wouldn't have become his sworn brother." Here, he paused for a while, and then continued again: "That night, after I ate dinner, I sat meditating in my hotel's room to gather my strength. I knew that as the Head of The Seven Heroes of WuDang, his kung fu must be different than other ordinary kung fu experts. If I failed to kill him, or if he was just wounded but managed to escape, my secret would be known to the world and my tactic in forcing my Teacher to come out would totally be destroyed. Furthermore, if all the heroes in the world started to fight me to take revenge, even if I, Xie Xun, had 3 heads and 6 arms, I would be a dead man before long. It's no big deal if I died, but the blood debt as deep as the ocean would be left unpaid."

(From below, it is cut off by JY in the Second Edition)
[color=purple] "Gihu," said WuJi suddenly. "Your eyes cannot see anymore. Please wait until I grow up. After I have a good kung fu skill, I will take revenge for your sake."

Hearing the child's words, instantly Xie Xun and CuiShan stood up at the same time. With his unshining and dim eyes, Xie Xun 'looked' at WuJi. Then he replied in a heavy and low voice: "WuJi, do you really mean it?"
CuiShan and SuSu became very worried. Although they were now in a desolate island and it was uncertain yet whether they could go back to the mainland or not, but people from the martial world regarded a promise as a very serious matter. Once a person made a promise, it was something that could never be retracted anymore. If WuJi really promised that he would take revenge for his Gihu's sake, it would mean that WuJi's shoulders would be burdened with a task as heavy as hundreds of thousands of kilograms in weight. And if with his amazing kung fu Xie Xun still could not take revenge, wouldn't it mean that WuJi had looked for his own death by these few unthinking words?

But though he was still a child, this matter should be left to WuJi alone to decide, and even his father and mother must not interfere with their own opinions. And as to whether WuJi would remember his own childhood promise or not, it would also depend on WuJi himself in the future. But for CuiShan and SuSu now, although they knew this matter was not absolute yet, they also felt that this might affect WuJi's future life, whether he would live in fortune or misfortune.

But the child had replied:　"Gihu, the person who killed your whole family is Kun-goan-pi-lik-jiu Cheng Kun, WuJi will remember his name very well. In the future I will surely take revenge for you. Just like he has killed your whole family, I will kill his whole family too!"

"WuJi!" thundered CuiShan suddenly in an angry voice. "One person does it, the exact same person takes the responsibility for it! However big his crime is, it is he and he alone must take the responsibility! It should never involve other people who are innocent of the crime!"

"Yes, father," replied WuJi, frightened. He then shut his mouth and didn't dare to utter anymore word.
But Xie Xun thought differently. He said: "If a person dies, he won't know nor feel anything anymore, and that's all about it. But if one loses his whole family, and has to live by himself in the vast world, that is much more painful and unbearable. But at that time, I had not realized this yet, so twice I just looked for my Teacher alone to kill him, and did not trouble his family. In fact I should have killed his whole family, so that he would live alone in the world, so that he would lament everyday with grief over the loss of his wife and son!"

This logic had again made CuiShan shook his head in disagreement, but since Xie Xun was his Big Brother, he did not feel comfortable to debate him openly. Besides, he was worried that the more he brought it up, the more Xie Xun would say nastier thoughts and words which wouldn't be good for WuJi to listen to. [/color]
(End of the part being cut off)

So CuiShan quickly asked: "So what happened next when you met my First Brother? Strange, he never mentioned about it to us."
"Song YuanQiao didn't know anything about it. Perhaps he has never even heard of the 6 words 'Kim-mo-say-ong (Golden-haired Lion King) Xie Xun'. That night I didn't go to kill him." replied Xie Xun.
CuiShan sighed in relief, and said: "Thanks to Heaven and Earth."
SuSu laughed and said: "What did you thank Heaven for? It's more correct if you thank Big Brother Xie in front of you."
Hearing what SuSu said, CuiShan and WuJi laughed too.

End of Chapter 7.

[Kirara]

That was the end of Chapter 7. I have started with Chapter 8 on my website.
Since WuJi, the hero of HSDS, was already born now, I guess I can stop posting here, I am not sure if people are still reading my translations here anyway so maybe I can just continue on my website until the end of the novel.

To people who cannot login, please make sure that you login to the right website. I have two websites on HSDS, one with the Hokkienese names and another with pin yin names. The translations are exactly the same except the namings.
The one in Hokkienese has the word "tiobeng" in the URL. "Tio Beng" is the Hokkienese for "Zhao Min". Please don't mix up the two websites because you won't be able to login to one if you never registered to it before. To help people differentiating the two websites, I have just changed the color. The one with pin yin names is colored blue, while the one using the Hokkienese names is colored all yellow now. As of today, there are 108 and 27 registered users on both sites, thank you, I will need all your supports to continue.

Happy reading! I update daily so you can check my website once a day if you like. Usually I finish a chapter in 3-4 days, and I am expecting to finish the whole HSDS novel in a few months (40 chapters in all)

If anyone wants me to translate some other wuxia novel, please let me know, because I have 25 wuxia stories, though all are the Indonesian translations but they are complete. They consist of Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yu Shen, and I have all the major titles they wrote.

Thanks, everyone, for reading, for all your help, and for all your encouragements.
And last but not least, thank you to SPCnet and to Noodles, for making it possible to post here, and to the three other HSDS translators: Athena, Faerie Queene and Meh, for the pin yin names of chapter 1-10 and 20-22.

See you at my website, ciao!

[Gunner]

Great job Kirara!!! I guess I'll be following the rest from your site now!

[Tazzy1972]

keep it up i like ur website look

[Temujin]

If anyone wants me to translate some other wuxia novel, please let me know, because I have 25 wuxia stories, though all are the Indonesian translations but they are complete. They consist of Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yu Shen, and I have all the major titles they wrote.

Kirara,

Great job !

What other novels do you have ?

[Kirara]

Kirara,

Great job !

What other novels do you have ?

Thanks, Temujin. It's me to say you're doing a great job with your translation.

I am having problems relating the Indonesian titles with the English or Chinese titles, so I can just say I have LOCH and ROCH of course, and DGSD and The Smiling Proud Wanderer by Jin Yong. As to Gu Long, I have a lot, but no idea what they are in English or Chinese titles. With Liang Ie Shen, I have a favorite, which is about a girl who fell in love with the son of her family's big enemy. Her grandad was sent to the Watzu country to be a shepherd for 20 years and she was supposed to take revenge but fell in love with the enemy's son instead. I really like this story too but I have no idea its real title in Chinese, but the Hokkienese names of the main characters are In Lui and Thio Tan Hong. (Yin xxxx and Zhang xxxxFeng? )

I guess it is too soon to talk about this now, I have to make sure I dont get myself into trouble first.

[Kirara]

to Gunner and Tazzy1972, thanks. Hope to hear your comments too there, don't be shy