|
Contact About Us Terms of Use |
|
|
|
Chu Liu Xiang (Chor Lau Heung) Summaries Xue Hai Piao Xiang - Part 1 
Original novel written by Gu Long Fan translation by Athena Summary on 3 Chu LiuXiang novels/adventures. Namely "Xue Hai Piao Xiang", "Da Sa Mo" and "Hua Mei Niao". I shall begin with Xue Hai Piao Xiang. Dramatis Personae: -Chu LiuXiang: the hero of the story, he's handsome, witty, charming and charismatic. Almost every women in the story will find him attractive. -Su RongRong: one of the 3 maids of Chu LiuXiang, she's pretty, considerate and gentle. She is also well-versed in the skill of disguise, furthermore, she has profound knowledge on the art of poison. But most important she has a special place in the heart of Chu. -Li HongXiu: one of the 3 maids of Chu LiuXiang. She has a profound knowledge on the history and current affairs in the WuLin world. -Song TianEr: one of the 3 maids of Chu. She often speaks Cantonese and is well-versed in the art of "secretive weaponry." (Chinese: An Qi; flying darts, daggers, arrows, etc.) -Nan GongLing: the new leader of the Beggar's Association. He's the godson of Ren Ci. He has superb martial arts and is considered to be one of the top young martial arts heroes. He's also a close friend of Chu. -WuHua: aka the exquisite monk. He's a disciple of the Southern ShaoLin Monastery's abbot reverend TianFeng. Not only does he have superb martial arts and profound Buddhist insight, he is also a master in poetry, music, chess, art, and he plays the zither. He too is a close friend of Chu LiuXiang. - ZhongYuan Yi DianHong (the red point of China): he's a professional killer with excellent swordsmanship. He has a cold and indifferent personality and he wants to have a duel with Chu LiuXiang. But beneath that cold face lies a man with integrity. -Hei ZhenZhu (the black pearl): she is the daughter of the King of the Desert and has come to look for her father. She is disguised as a man, although not admitting it, she is in love with Chu LiuXiang. -Qiu LingSu: 20 years ago she was proclaimed to be the most beautiful woman on the world. But 20 years ago she disappeared. -Li Qi: wife of the TianFeng ShiSi Lang, only survivor of the massacre on the Li family of Mount Huang. Mysteriously disappeared after killing her enemies. -TianFeng ShiSi Lang: a Japanese warrior madly in love with Li Qi, but after she left he was heartbroken and found no reason to live anymore and he challenged reverend TianFeng and Ren Ci in a duel to life and death. And died in this kamikaze action. -Ren Ci: former leader of the Beggar's Association and godfather of Nan GongLing. -Reverend TianFeng: the abbot of the southern ShaoLin Monastery one of the top martial arts experts of the world. Some people even say that he is THE BEST martial arts expert of the time. -Zuo Zeng: aka Soul Depraving 7 Star. He was the first corpse they encountered and he was the leader of the Celestial Star Association. -XiMen Qian: aka the murderous scholar. He was the second corpse and he was an elder of the the ZhuSha Zhang School. -Reverend LingYing: he was a Taoist priest and a prominent swordsman of the HaiNan School plus he was the third corpse. (In my earlier post I made a mistake it IS HaiNan School and NOT NanHai school). -Zha MuHe: the King of the Desert aka the shadowless sabre. He was a wealthy merchant he does a lot of trading with small border countries and has acquired a lot money and "henchmen". He was the fourth corpse. -Leng QiuHun: the disciple of XiMen Qian an expert of the ZhuSha Zhang School. He thinks he is an erudite veteran expert but in fact he is very muddle-headed. -Bai Yu Mo (Gai): aka the white-jaded demonic beggar. former disciple of the Beggar's Association, he committed a series of sexual offences many years ago enraging Ren Ci who wanted kill execute him but he managed to get away and more or less Nan GongLing has reinstated his position after all these years. Xue Hai Piao Xiang Summary: Forty-four years ago, the HuaShan School and the Li family at Mount Huang were mortal enemies. The feud between them grew and at a particular year HuaShan School was able to kill almost everyone of the Li family. There was only 1 survivor a young girl named Li Qi. Li Qi managed to escape her pursuers and fell into the ocean and was rescued by a Japanese warrior, TianFeng ShiSi (14) Lang. TianFeng ShiSi Lang fell in love with Li Qi and soon they were married. 8 years later Li Qi disappeared mysteriously, by this time she had 2 sons. After returning to China, Li Qi killed 4 of the 7 Swords of HuaShan avenging her family and nothing was heard of her again. After TianFengShiSi Lang heard this information he decided to look for her in China. After a long search he gave up and decided to challenge 2 of China's most prominent fighters, namely the abbot of the Southern ShaoLin Monastery reverend TianFeng (different Chinese character for "Feng") and the leader of the Beggar's Association Ren Ci. He challenged reverend TianFeng first and after an intense battle, reverend TianFeng struck him on the chest. TianFeng ShiSi Lang suffered from heavy internal injuries. He left his eldest son (age 8) in the care of reverend TianFeng and left. Feeling remorseful, reverend TianFeng felt obliged to raise his son. Without healing his heavy injuries TianFeng ShiSi Lang went to challenge Ren Ci who used the dog beating stick to fight TianFeng ShiSi Lang. Within a few stances, TianFeng ShiSi Lang suffered a lethal blow on his back and asked Ren Ci to take care of his other son. Like reverend TianFeng, Ren Ci felt remorseful and aggrieved. With this TianFeng ShiSi Lang died. The story begins with a number of martial arts experts trying to guard a precious item, a white jade statue of Avolokitesara (I forgot the names of these martial arts experts, but I do know some of them are bodyguards of famous bodyguard bureaus). These men knew that Chu LiuXiang was interested in this statue so they tried their best to protect it, but in vain. Chu LiuXiang successfully obtained the statue and left behind a pouch with fragrance. (Again I cannot remember this first chapter clearly, if there are any mistakes please feel free to correct me). Chapter 2 starts with Chu LiuXiang and his maids on his houseboat. Li HongXiu and Song TianEr are on deck joking around when suddenly, one of them discovers a decaying, floating corpse in the water. They fish it out of the water and after examination by Chu and Su they discover that the deceased was a prominent martial arts expert and judging from the wounds he must have been killed by a particular sort of technique by a particular school. Within that school only 2 or 3 persons were able to kill the deceased. However, in a few moments, they saw a second corpse drifting in the ocean, and after fishing it up they examined this corpse too, they find out that he was one of the persons who was able to kill the first victim. The second man died by 2 lethal sword (jian) wounds, originated from NanHai School. Su RongRong deducted the killer must be either the leader of the NanHai School or his martial arts brother. Chu LiuXiang was getting more and more interested in this case. 2 prominent martial arts experts died mysteriously and with this his innate curiosity was awoken, he wanted to get to the bottom of this. But soon they spotted a third body, this time it was the body of a Taoist priest, they believe he was the martial arts brother of the NanHai School leader. In his hand, the Taoist priest held on to his sword but the blade was broken in half. According to Chu LiuXiang, the murderer must be the King of the Desert. The King of the Desert was renowned for his extraordinary usage of a sabre and only he can force this Taoist priest to block his blow instead returning an attack technique. They have 3 bodies on their hands, but unfortunately the 4th one was floating this way. As you may have guessed, the corpse is of course the king of the desert. It seems that the king of the desert was poisoned, but this poison was unlike anything they have seen before. After close examination it turned out to be the Sacred Water (Tian Yi Shen Sui) of the Divine Water Palace. When they heard the name of the Divine Water Palace they were all stunned, the leader of this strange sect, Yin Ji, was called the Matriarch of Water. She was a formidable martial arts expert and everyone in the realm of martial arts feared her. According to Chu all the pieces were still incomplete. But not for long because the last corpse floated by. This time it was a pretty young woman wearing a white robe, her body was halved into 2 parts. The wound was inflicted by a big broad sabre. Chu, Su, Li and Song figured that this young woman must have been a disciple of the the Divine Water Palace and she must have been the one who poisoned the King of the Desert. Chu LiuXiang deducted that with his last breath he killed his poisoner. Is it that simple, or is there more than meets the eye? Because Chu LiuXiang will get a visit from another disciple of the Divine Water Palace. Chu LiuXiang decided to go upstream to investigate. When he returned Su RongRong, Song TianEr and Li HongXiu asked him what he discovered. He replied he saw two important people. One was a monk namely WuHua. Chu asked him to come to his boat but when WuHua heard that there were women on his boat he quickly ran away. Chu and the girls discussed WuHua for a moment. They all agreed that not only was WuHua handsome but also very talented and practically the most outstanding ShaoLin disciple of the younger generation. Unfortunately too outstanding because he was too famous, he knows too many things, he was too intelligent. That's why the abbot of the Northern ShaoLin monastery, reverend TianHu, chose WuXiang as the next leader of the ShaoLin school. But someone like WuHua should not be interested in these earthly matters according to Chu and the 3 maids. The second person he saw was NanGong Ling and several elders of the Beggar's Association. They concluded that neither of them could be related to these murders. Chu LiuXiang now has 5 corpses on hand. It seems that these martial arts experts were killed by one after the other. But what kind of feud was there between them that led to this massacre and what was the role of the Divine Water Palace in this? The Divine Water Palace seldom interfered in WuLin matters. These were riddles that were still unsolved. Suddenly a person came aboard their houseboat, this person could avoid being detected by the 4 of them and could avoid the traps set on the houseboat, this person must be a superb martial arts expert. The intruder was a young and beautiful woman. She seem to have an indifferent personality and was not very friendly and wore a white robe. However Chu LiuXiang wouldn't be Chu LiuXiang if he didn't succeed in making this girl trust him. It seems that she is a disciple of the Divine Water Palace and was sent here to kill Chu for stealing their Sacred Water. Chu was flabbergasted by this accusation and asked her why she said that. This young woman said in the entire realm of martial arts only a few people had the martial arts to steal something from the Divine Water Palace and only Chu LiuXiang was a renowned thief amongst these people. Chu LiuXiang was able to convince this girl that he didn't steal from them, he did this with his incredible charm and his handsome appearances. Chu asked her whether they instructed the death of the King of the Desert, this young girl replied no and Chu took her to the corpse of the supposed disciple. She didn't recognize the dead woman and said that this dead girl was not a disciple of their sect. Chu LiuXiang asked the white-robed girl whether there were any suicides in their sect. She was very surprised by this question and asked how did he know there was a suicide. Chu deducted that someone must have seduced a disciple and asked her to steal the Sacred Water for him and smuggled it out for him. Probably her lover did not stick to his promise to elope with her and, feeling betrayed and heartbroken, this young girl committed suicide. Chu asked the white-robed girl whether his deduction was correct and she said Chu must be right, because 3 months ago one of her martial arts sister hanged herself and she was pregnant. In her suicide note she wrote that she was unfair to her unborn baby. The strange thing was that no men were allowed in the Divine Water Palace, so it would be very difficult to find the lover. The white-robed girl wanted to take Chu LiuXiang back to the Divine Water Palace for further questioning, but Chu declined saying that he would do his best to solve this mystery and a month later he would go to the Divine Water Palace with the thief. This white-robed girl was convinced and warned Chu not to play any tricks or else he will pay the ultimate price. Before she left, Chu asked her with a charming smile what her name was and she replied with a lovely smile:"Gong NanYan." It seems no women can resist Chu's charming, charismatic smile. Chu LiuXiang was anxious to solve this mystery, therefore, he decided to go to JiNan province. There lies the foundation of the ZhuSha Zhang School. JiNan was also the nearest place to collect clues. The other places were all too far. He also asked Su RongRong to go to the Divine Water Palace for information, he knew that Su RongRong has an aunt who is a disciple there. He wanted to know how the girl committed suicide and who could be the man that deceived her. 7 days later they would meet in JiNan. Chu also knew that most disciples of the ZhuSha Zhang School were rich people. So he disguised himself as a middle-aged ginseng merchant named Zhang XiaoLin. He set off to the nearest gambling house opened by a disciple of the ZhuSha School. By losing a few times he gained the trust of Leng QiuHun. Leng QiuHun wanted to know what Chu/Zhang wanted. Chu LiuXiang replied that he sought the help of his teacher XiMen Qian. Leng QiuHun said his teacher was not in at the moment but asked Chu/Zhang whether he could be of any assistance. Chu said his affair concerned 3 million taels of silver. By this, Leng QiuHun became very interested and said perhaps his other senior might know where his teacher went. Apparently, XiMen Qian received a letter a few days ago after receiving the letter he swiftly went out only telling his younger martial arts brother, namely The Soul-hunting hand Yang Song, where he went. Leng QiuHun took Chu/Zhang to the home of his "shi su" and teacher. When they entered the house, seemingly no one was in, not even the servants and maids. They saw the candles still burning in the studyroom and when he entered, a drop of liquid landed on his hand. On examination, it was blood. They quickly entered the room and found the body of Yang Song torn into pieces. According to Leng QiuHun, this must be the work of The 5 Blood Goblins. Chu/Zhang calmly replied it could be someone pretending to be the 5 Goblins. At this moment, Leng QiuHun suspects that Chu/Zhang had something to do with this murder. Chu LiuXiang said if so he wouldn't stay around to get caught by him. And he said that there might be some clues in XiMen Qian's room. XiMen Qian's room was simple: there were no special things, except a painting of a woman on the wall. The woman was extremely beautiful and Chu/Zhang couldn't help looking at it for some time. He said to Leng QiuHun:"Your teacher's wife is exceedingly beautiful." However Leng QiuHun replied coldly that his teacher was not married. Chu LiuXiang could not figure out what the relationship was of XiMen Qian and the woman in the painting. When Chu LiuXiang returned to the inn, Leng QiuHun ordered 8 disciples to protect Chu LiuXiang and guarded the inn. Of course Chu LiuXiang knew that Leng QiuHun didn't trust him and ordered those men to spy on him and to make sure that Chu wouldn't go away, along with him the 3 million taels of silver. During the night Chu was suddenly awaken by a soft noise coming from the roof. Apparently someone was up there. Judging from the size, the intruder was a young girl. She had in her hand a small sabre. Chu LiuXiang pretended to be asleep. The intruder wasn't here to kill him or to steal from him but was looking for something and was going through his clothes. Suddenly Chu LiuXiang pretended to be startled and woke up and asked who was in his room. The girl just turned and smiled in and removed the black cloth covering her face. She is pretty young girl and started removing her clothes and told him that she was sent by Leng QiuHun. She wanted to know what Leng QiuHun told Chu LiuXiang and started seducing him by crawling into his bed. All of a sudden the girl couldn't move anymore. The young girl asked him why did he seal her acupoint. She said that she was sent by Leng QiuHun. Chu calmly retorted that if so, she wouldn't have come from the roof. The girl knew her cover was spoiled and said she would say nothing--he might as well kill her. Chu replied that someone might get her talking and loudly shouted: "I caught a spy!" The 8 men came in and saw the young girl, Chu said that she was a spy and they should take her too Leng QiuHun for questioning. They happily obliged. The sabre left by the girl was still in the floor and Chu picked it up and concluded that the girl must be a disciple of the Celestial Star Association. She came from the east, likely there should be other Celestial Star disciples there as well. With his unmatched art of levitation ("Qing Gong") he swiftly moved from roof to roof towards the east and soon he came to a rather big mansion with candles still burning and a lot of people were inside. Chu heard some people talking about why third sister hasn't come back yet, could there be trouble, she's smart enough to escape, don't worry. Suddenly Chu LiuXiang tossed the sabre into the house and said their third sister was already captured by our school. Out of nothing a shadow with a sword leapt out of the house with incredible speed. Chu LiuXiang was startled by this man's martial arts. Even the late leader of the Celestial Star Association Zou YouZeng did not have this level of martial arts. Chu deliberately slowed down to look back. The man's face had no emotions at all and his eyes were sharp and bright. They looked even more dangerous than the sword he was holding. Chu LiuXiang stopped and all of a sudden, 3 sword techniques were attacked upon him. The 3 techniques were fast and ferocious and every attack was meant to kill. His swordsmanship was not at the highest level but his sword skills were fierce, malicious, sinister and diabolic. When Chu looked into his eyes he could only see death and kill, it seems this man's entire existence is to kill. After using 13 techniques he still couldn't touch Chu LiuXiang. The man coldly said that Chu wasn't a disciple of the ZhuSha Zhang School. Chu smiled and asked why. The man said no one in the entire ZhuSha School could avoid his 13 sword techniques. Chu calmly replied the black robed man wasn't a Celestial Star disciple. "Correct!" said the man. And he attacked with another 36 different techniques. Chu LiuXiang smiled and said only the famous ZhongYuan Yi DianHong was capable of this swordsmanship. The man didn't reply and attacked again with another series of 36 sword skills. Chu said it was told that Yi DianHong would kill anyone if that person payed him enough, even his closest friends. Yi DianHong coldly replied he didn't have any friends and launched another series of 36 techniques. Suddenly Yi DianHong laughed and said: "You must be Chu LiuXiang." |