The Legend of the Condor Heroes
( SHE DIAO YING XIONG ZHUAN )

Chapter 2: Seven Weirdos of the South

Original novel written by Jin Yong (Louis Cha)

Fan translation by Moinllieon (send email)

Just as Yan Lie walked out of the door, he saw a middle aged scholar walking this way in the hallway, dragging his boots and yawning constantly; he was sort of smiling but not really and kept on giving him curious looks, all the while looking very slack and lazy. He was covered with dirt and oil and his clothings were a mess, obviously haven't took a shower in a long time. He had an old and broken black oil paper fan in hand that he was fanning as he was walking.

Seeing such an obviously refined scholar looking so dirty, Yan Lie frowned and picked up his pace in fear of getting some dirt on himself. Suddenly that scholar began laughing very drily, a laugh that was very harsh to the ear; when walking by him, he naturally reached out with his fan and patted Yan Lie on the shoulder. Even though Yan Lie knew kungfu, he was not able to get out of the way in time, this set him off and he shouted: "What do you think you are doing?"

The scholar laughed drily a bit more as he kept on walking, dragging his boots all through the hallway and said to the manager: "Hey, fellow, even though your old man here is looking really rough, I have lots of money. Some people you have to watch out for though, they trick people with their nice and refined looks. They put up a show to everyone, seducing women, eat free food, live in hotels for free, you know the type, so be on the lookout for them. To be safe, make them pay the bill beforehand." He didn't wait for the manager to respond before walking off, still dragging his boots. Yan Lie got even madder, knowing that that whole talk was aimed at him.

After that little comment from the scholar, the manager turned his sights towards Yan Lie as he couldn't help but get a little suspicious; walking up to Yan Lie, he yawned a little, smiled and said: "Sir, please don't mind too much, it's not that I want to be impolite...." Yan Lie knew what he meant as he humphed and replied: "Put this money on the drawer!" He put his hand into his shirt to take the money out and was shocked. There was at least 40 or 50 taels of silver on him, but nothing was there now that he was looking for it. The manager saw the expression on his face and actually thought that the scholar's words were true, immediately his expression became less polite as he thrusted his chest out and asked: "What? No money?"

Yan Lie replied: "Wait here, I'm going to get some right now." He thought that he had forgot his money while he was in a hurry to leave; but as it turns out when he went back and looked into the bag that he had with him, all the taels of gold was gone as well. As to where this money went off to, he had no idea at all; he thought: "Just a bit ago Madame Bao and I both went to the water closet, but that was only several minutes or so, how could anyone have entered and mess around with the room? The thieves here in JiaXin are really getting good."

The manager stuck his head in through the door and looked around, seeing that he does not have any money, he went off: "Is this woman your wife? If you're doing something indecent, then don't bring it here because it'll bring us trouble as well!" Bao XiRuo was thoroughly embarrassed as her entire face turned burning red. Yan Lie took one quick step towards the door and swung his arm, slapping the manager so hard that his face was covered with blood and lost several teeth. The manager had his face in his hands as he began to scream: "Alright! First you don't pay, now you want to fight!" Yan Lie added another kick on his behind and the manager went rolling out of the room.

In shock, Bao XiRuo suggested: "Let's get out of here, we can't stay here anymore." Yan Lie smiled: "Don't worry, if we don't have any money then we'll just ask them for some." He grabbed a chair and sat down by the door. Not long afterwards, the manager came back with 12 or so men, each with clubs and sticks in hand as they charged into the yard. Yan Lie let out a big laugh and shouted: "So you guys want a fight?" He suddenly jumped out and conveniently grabbed a stick from one of the men; faking left and hitting right, in a blink of an eye he had already knocked 4 or 5 men down. These ruffians usually only get by using intimidation and bullying the weak, but seeing that this time the opponent was actually a match for them, they immediately threw down their weapons and scrambled out of the yard; those who were on the ground were crawling and rolling with all their might in fear of being left behind.

Bao XiRuo, who had been scared out of her mind a long time ago, said in a shaky voice: "Things are getting out of hand, the authorities might catch wind of this." Yan Lie smiled and replied: "I want the authorities to show up." Bao XiRuo could not figure out his plan, so she decided to stay quiet and see.

After not even an hour's time, a ruckus occurred outside as 10 or so government henchmen came bursting in with iron sabres in hand, the rings on the sabres were banging against each other, making all kinds of noise; they shouted up above the cacophony: "Not only kidnapping, but assault as well, how dare he? Where is the perpetrator?" Yan Lie sat there motionless in that chair. Seeing his fancy cloth and his proud arrogance, the henchmen didn't really dare to charge up. The leader of the bunch shouted: "Ay! What's your name? What are you doing here in JiaXin?" Yan Lie shouted back: "Go get Gai YunCong!"

Gai YunCong was the governor of the prefecture of JiaXin, hearing that he dared to speak their boss's name directly, the henchmen were both shocked and furious, the leader shouted: "Are you crazy? How dare you shout the Honorable Governor Gai's name in public!" Yan Lie took out an envelope from inside his shirt and put it down on the table, he looked up at the ceiling and said: "Take this to Gai YunCong and see if he comes or not!" The leader took the envelope, seeing the words on the envelope, he took a step back in shock; not sure if it was real or not, he whispered to the other henchmen: "Look after him, don't let him get away." He then went flying off. Bao XiRuo just sat there in the room nervously, not knowing what will happen next.

Soon another 10 or so government henchmen came running in, along with them walked in 2 men wearing official uniforms who scrambled in front of Yan Lie and kneeled while saying: "Humble Governor Gai YunCong of the city of JiaXin and Administrator Jiang Wen of the county of XiuShui are honored to meet your excellency. Your humble servant did not know that your excellency had arrived, so please forgive us for not welcoming you properly." Yan Lie waved his hand a little and shifted his weight slightly: "I lost a little bit of money in this county and would like to request you 2 genius judges to investigate the matter a little." Gai YunCong immediately nodded: "Yes, of course." He then waved his arm, 2 of the henchmen came walking up with a plate in each of their hands, one of them was glowing yellow because of the gold on it, the other one, needless to say, had silver on it.

Gai YunCong spoke up: "To think that there are such brazen thieves under my jurisdiction, it is my fault as well. Hope your excellency would first accept this as a slight compensation." Yan Lie smiled and nodded. Gai YunCong reverentially held up that envelope and said: "Your humble servant had just cleaned up my humble dwellings and would be honored if your excellency and madame would move in there." Yan Lie replied: "This place isn't too bad, I like the peace and quiet here," his face suddenly darkened, "don't come around disturbing us anymore." Gai YunCong immediately nodded and said: "Yes, yes of course! If your excellency still want anything, then please do not hesitate at all to come and tell your humble servant." Yan Lie did not reply, only shaking his head and waving his arm repeatedly. The 2 men quickly led all the henchmen away.

The manager had long been scared out of his wits as the owner of the place dragged him out, kneeled down, and kowtowed in order to ask for mercy on them both, saying that as long as they are left alive, they are willing to whatever other punishment that might come their way. Yan Lie took out an ingot of silver from the plate, threw it down on the floor, and said smiling: "Take it, it's a reward. Now get out of my sight." The manager couldn't quite believe it all, but the owner saw that Yan Lie had no ill will on his expression, so he immediately picked up the ingot of silver, kowtowed a couple of times, and dragged the manager out of sight in fear that Yan Lie might change his mind.

Bao XiRuo could not quite believe what she just saw either: "What kind of magic does that envelope have? How come when the authorities were scared out of their wits when they saw it?" Yan Lie smiled: "I actually have no power over them really, but these officials are just hopeless. Zhao Kuo only has this kind of people serving him, if he doesn't lose the country, then there is no justice in the world." Bao XiRuo asked: "Zhao Kuo, who is that?" Yan Lie casually replied: "The present Song Emperor Ning Zong." Shocked, Bao XiRuo immediately admonished: "Quiet! How can you say His Majesty's name out loud like that?" Seeing that she cared about his safety, Yan Lie was ecstatic; smiling, he said: "It's no big deal if I say it out loud. Up north, what do we call him if we don't call him Zhao Kuo?" Bao XiRuo was confused: "Up north?" Yan Lie nodded and was about to explain when suddenly hurried hoof beats suddenly come from outside as 10 or so riders came and stopped in front of the door. Some redness had just returned to Bao XiRuo's white face; but upon hearing the hoof beats, events of that night all came back to her, making her face turn white as a sheet again. But Yan Lie was frowning, looking as if he wasn't quite pleased.

Then came sound of boots as another several soldiers in fine clothing came walking in. Upon seeing Yan Lie, their faces immediately broke out into a smile as they simultaneously shouted: "Your Majesty!" All of them kneeled down and saluted. Yan Lie smiled: "You guys are finally here." Hearing that they would call Yan Lie "Your Majesty", Bao XiRuo was both surprised and puzzled. As those men got up off the floor, she noticed that they were all very strong and well built. Yan Lie waved his arm a bit and said: "Go wait outside." The soldiers all answered and ran out. Yan Lie turned to Bao XiRuo: "How do you think my men compare with those Song soldiers?" Bao XiRuo was even more surprised: "They are not Song soldiers?" Yan Lie smiled: "I guess I have to come clean now, they are all Great Jin's elite soldiers!" He could not help but laugh out of pride.

Bao XiRuo suddenly realized: "Then... you... you are..." Yan Lie smiled and answered: "To tell madame the truth, my surname need one more word: 'Wan', and my given name also has one more word: 'Hong'. WanYan HongLie, the 6th Prince of the Great Jin, titled as the Lord Zhao, at your service."

Ever since she was little, Bao XiRuo had heard from her father the devious ways that the Jins took the land of her Great Song, the shame of the capture of the 2 emperors, and the cruelty with which the Jins torture and treat the Han peasants up north. It was the same after she married Yang TieXin, who hated the Jins even more. But to find out that the person that she had spent all this time with these last couple days was actually a prince of the Jins, she was left speechless in shock.

Seeing the expression on her face change, WanYan HongLie smiled and continued: "I have always been fascinated by the south. So last year I asked my father to let me travel down to LinAn as the ambassador of good will for the new years. On a side note, the Emperor of Song still owed a couple hundred thousand taels of silver in annual tribute, so father wanted me to get those on my trip as well." Bao XiRuo interrupted: "Annual tribute?" WanYan HongLie replied: "Yes, the Song emperors, in order to convince us not to invade, pays us a tribute every year in silk and silver. But they always say something in terms of not enough revenue was generated through taxes, so they never just gave us the tribute straightforward. This time I didn't leave any grounds for Han TuoZhuo to back to. I told him that if he didn't get all the money together within the month, I would personally lead an army down to collect it ourselves so he doesn't have to worry about it anymore." Bao XiRuo interrupted again: "What did Chancellor Han say?" WanYan HongLie proudly replied: "What can he say? I haven't even left LinAn, the silk and silver were all north of the river! Haha!" Seeing Bao XiRuo looking downwards and not responding, he went on: "Actually, this tribute stuff doesn't really need me, any plain emissary would have done the job. What I really wanted to do was to see the south, to experience its beauty, to meet its people for myself. Who's to know that I would meet madame, I dare not hope for such good fortune." Bao XiRuo was still at a lost as to what to make of the situation and did not reply. WanYan HongLie offered: "I'm off to buy some clothes for madame now." Bao XiRuo replied with her head down: "No need." WanYan HongLie smiled and said: "The traveling money Chancellor Han gave me under the table wouldn't be gone if I bought a new set of cloth for madame everyday for 1000 years. Madame, don't worry, my soldiers are stationed all around his place, nobody would dare to trouble you." After he finished, he walked off. Bao XiRuo thought about all that has happened since she has met him, a royal prince like him, treating her as politely as he does, what does he plan to do? Then her thoughts drifted to her husband's love and care for her, and yet he was still killed and left her here alone, she really didn't know what she should do or could do. In desperation and confusion, all she could do was clutch her pillow and cry her heart out.

WanYan HongLie put the gold and silver into his shirt and walked out onto the street. Seeing the friendly attitude of the people and the place, compounded by the fact that even though most of them were peasants, there were still many refined and educated people, he could not but be impressed. Suddenly, hurried hoof beats came from ahead of him as a horse galloped through the streets towards him. This street wasn't wide to begin with, now it was filled with people and merchants, add that to the fact that people have sent up small vendor booths on both side of the street, how could a horse gallop through it? WanYan HongLie immediately dodged onto the side of the street as in a blink of an eye a yellow horse came bursting out through the crowd of people. This was no ordinary horse, it was tall and fit, with muscles rippling through its body, obviously it was a very rare thoroughbred. WanYan HongLie was just admiring the horse when he looked up at the rider and was surprised yet again. Such a beautiful horse, but the rider was a sorry looking fellow who was both short and fat, he looked like a giant swab of meat riding on that horse. This person's arms and legs were amazingly short, he did not have a neck, yet his head was extraordinarily big, as if his neck was sucked into his shoulders. Seems rather odd really, that horse was galloping through the crowd of people at full speed, yet it did not run into a single person or knock over a single object. His hooves landed on the ground softly and nimbly, jumping over pottery, stepping besides vegetables, every time it seemed to be flashing through some non-existent gap in the crowd, as if this crowded street was a wide open plain to it. WanYan HongLie could no longer contain himself and shouted out loud: "Excellent!"

Hearing that praise, that short chubby fellow turned his head and glanced at him. WanYan HongLie noticed that his entire face was covered with red spots caused by drinking too much wine; his wine nose was big and round as well as equally red, as if there was a red tomato stuck on his face. He thought to himself: "Such an excellent horse, I have to have it, no matter the price." At this moment, 2 kids playing tag ran onto the street just in front of the horse. They came out of nowhere and gave the horse quite a scare as it did not get out of the way. The horse's left foot was just about to land on the kid when the rider lifted up the reins and jumped off of the saddle. Suddenly becoming lighter, the horse's stride became higher and longer, easily flying over the kid's head. That rider then softly and gently landed back onto the saddle.

Shocked, WanYan HongLie's immediately decided that even though there were a great number of skilled riders among the Jins, none were a match for him. If he could get this man to go back with him to train the calvary, then his calvary would be almost invincible, this was something much more important to him than a great horse. This trip south, he made mental notes on where an army could be stationed and where the rivers could be crossed, he even asked around for the skills and names of every administrator in the counties he crossed. Seeing the amazing skill of this short fellow, he couldn't believe how stupid the Song authorities were for letting a talent like this go to waste. So he decided then and there that he was going to somehow convince this man to go back to YianJing with him. Having made the decision, he immediately started running after them, fearing that the horse's speed would lose him. He was just about to shout at them when he saw the horse had ran to the corner of the street and stopped. This was quite unexpected to him as he figured with the speed that the horse was running he would have to be slowly come to a stop, yet this horse was able to stop on a dime. This is something he had never ever seen before, even some great kungfu practitioners wouldn't be able to just come to a complete stop when they are exerting themselves like this. The short, fat fellow jumped off the horse and charged into a building.

WanYan HongLie hurried to in front of the building, inside the building was erected a large wooden sign: "Handed Down from Venus", it was a 2-storied restaurant. Looking up, a huge sign hanging from the roof had the words "Pavilion of Drunken Goddess" written on it, the calligraphy was very elegant; on the side was written, in smaller letters, "By Resident DongPo", turns out that the words were written by Su DongPo. {One of the greatest scholars during the Song dynasty as well as all of Chinese history.} Seeing the grandeur of this restaurant, WanYan HongLie thought: "Since he is here, then I might as well invite him to a great big meal, that way I can become great friends with him and everything after that would be simple." Suddenly, that fellow came running down from upstairs to the horse's side with a wine jug in hand. WanYan HongLie immediately got out of the way.

Now that he is standing on the ground, the fellow looks even more out of proportion. He wasn't over 1.5 meters high, yet he was almost 1.5 meters wide as well. That horse just had to be very tall in stature because of its long legs, his head was barely as high as the stirrup on the horse. He placed the wine jug in front of the horse, gently hit the jug a couple of times, and then casually picked the top half of the jug off, turning the jug into a gigantic bowl with wine in it. The horse stood up on its hindlegs and let out a huge neigh before bending back down and drank from the bowl. From the sweet fragrance in the air, WanYan HongLie could tell that the wine was actually the famed wine "Blushing Daughter" {Nu-Er Hong} from ShaoXing county in ZheJiang province. And from the fragrance it had at least been left sitting for more than 10 years.

The short, fat fellow walked back into the restaurant and tossed a huge silver ingot onto the owner's desk: "Prepare 3 tables of the best food, 2 of them can have meat and wine, the other one can't." The owner smiled and replied: "Right away, Mr. Han. We just received 4 SaiLu Fish from Song River, they are the best when served with wine. Please take the money back Mr. Han, we'll sort out all that later." The short, chubby fellow rolled his eyes and shouted: "What's the matter? Eating and drinking are free? Do you think I'm broke and just bum off of other people?" Still with a smile on his face, the owner argued no further as he turned and shouted: "Men, prepare some really good stuff for Mr. Han!" The cooks and waiters all around the place answered back and went about their jobs.

WanYan HongLie was taking all this in: "Although he's dressed plainly, he spends money like a wealthy man; and judging from how everyone is treating him with such manners, he's probably a powerful men in JiaXing. Looks like convincing him to go up north with me to teach horse riding is going to be quite difficult. Let's see who are all the people he's inviting to lunch before going any further." So he went into the restaurant, sat down at a table by the window, and ordered a couple of small dishes along with a catty of wine.

Pavilion of Drunken Goddess was situated on the shores of the South Lake. The lake surface was covered by a light fog as several small boats were slowly making their way around the lake. Green and smooth looking water caltrop leaves cover about half of the lake. Upon seeing such a sight, he immediately felt relaxed and at peace. JiaXing is a famous city of the ancient state of Yue, the plums grown here were sweet and delicious like the best wines. So during the Spring and Autumn Period this place was called ZuiLi, meaning Drunken Plums. It was also here that the famed Lord of Yue, Gou Jian, had thoroughly defeated the famed Lord of Wu, He Lu, for this place was the point at which travelers and merchants between the 2 states came together. The South Lake here was famous for another thing, the green water caltrops grown in it. Not only are the stalk of the caltrops sweet and smooth, they are also crunchy and refreshing, deservedly proclaimed as the best in the world, causing a lot of caltrop to be grown in the lake. It was right in the middle of Spring, the lake was clean and the leaves were green, as if someone had covered a sheet of jade glass with small pieces of jadeite.

WanYan HongLie was just enjoying the scene when he suddenly noticed a single boat came flying into view. This boat was unusually narrow in width and the head of the boat was extraordinarily high, along the side of the boat there were 2 rows of waterfowls. At first he didn't pay much attention to it, but in a blink of an eye, that boat had overtaken another boat that was far in front of it. The speed at which the boat was going was astounding, soon it had neared, WanYan HongLie saw that there was person sitting in the middle of the boat; another person wearing a straw cape sat at the end steering the boat, surprisingly it was a girl. She had to only lightly flicked the oar in the water and the boat would shoot forward like an arrow. That one flicked had to be at least powerful enough to move an 100 catty object, it was odd enough that a girl would be so strong, but how could she exert such a force through a wooden oar? A few more strokes and the boat had neared the pavilion. The sun shined down onto the oar, turned out the oar was made of copper. The girl tied the boat to one of the wooden posts besides the stone staircase next to the pavilion and nimbly jumped ashore. The man sitting in the middle of the boat put a pole with a load of firewood on each end on his shoulders and followed her ashore. The 2 of them walked up into the pavilion. The girl shouted at the fat, chubby fellow: "Third Brother!" She proceeded to sit down next to him. The fat guy greeted: "Fourth Brother, Little Sister, you 2 showed up early." When WanYan HongLie sized the 2 newcomers up, he noticed that the girl was about 17 or 18 of age with a slender body, big eyes, long eye-lashes, and snow white skin, she was obviously a local girl from south of the Yangtze. She had the copper oar in her left hand and took off her straw hat with her right hand, revealing a head of soft, shining, black hair. WanYan HongLie mused: "Although this girl isn't as beautiful as Madame Bao, she is still very attractive in another way."

The man carrying the firewood was about 30 or so, his clothing was all green colored with a belt made of straw around his waist and straw sandals on his foot. His hands and feet were huge and his face was without emotion. He put down the 2 loads of wood and rested his carrying pole against the table. "Errrrr"! The entire table was pushed several centimeters by the weight of the pole. Shocked, WanYan HongLie inspected the pole closely, but there was nothing out of the ordinary with this pole, it was black and smooth all over with a slight curve in the middle and 2 little covers on either end. For this pole to be that heavy, it had to be made of iron of some other kind of heavy metal. A wooden ax hung around this man's waist, there were some noticeable dents on the blade of the ax.

The 2 of them had just sat down when foot steps came in from the stairs as 2 more men came walking up. The girl shouted: "Fifth, Sixth Brother, did you 2 come together?" The first man was big and tall, at least 130 or 140 kilograms, he wore an apron around his waist. His body was naturally oily and his top of his shirt was open, revealing some of what must be a chest full of hair. His sleeves were all rolled up as well and his arms were covered with black hair that's several centimeters long and around his waist was a foot-long knife. From his appearence he was a butcher. The one behind him was unusually short with a small felt hat on his head and a small scale and bamboo basket in his hands; looking just like a street vendor. WanYan HongLie could not help but wonder: "These 3 people obviously know kungfu, yet they call these 2 average city dwellers brothers?"

Suddenly there came a constant knocking outside on the street, like those made from metal hitting stone. The knocking slowly came up the staircase, and a blind man dressed in ragged clothing followed. He looked around 40 years of age, his lips were sharp and his cheekbones were pronounced. His face looked gray and seemed full of hate and anger. The 5 people sitting at the table all stood up and greeted: "Big Brother!" The girl lightly knocked on the seat of one of the chairs: "Big Brother, you sit here." That blind man replied: "Alright, is Second Brother here yet?" That butcher looking man replied: "Second Brother has arrived in JiaXing, he should be here any time soon." The girl laughed: "Speak of the devil!" The sound of someone dragging his boots as he walked came from the staircase.

Before WanYan HongLie figured it all out, up the stairs came a dirty rotten fan, the fan was flicked a couple of times, only then did a poor, lackadaisical scholar came walking up, the very one that he had met earlier in the hotel. A thought popped in WanYan HongLie's mind: "He must have been the one that took my money...." Just as his anger was coming on, the man shot a smile at him and then stuck his tongue out and made a face; only then did he turn to the others and greet them, turns out that he was second among them. WanYan HongLie speculated: "Looks like everyone of them are kungfu masters, if I can somehow take them under my wings, they would be an enormous amount of help to everything. As for the small matter of the poor scholar taking my money, that could be easily forgiven. Best to see what's going on first." That poor and pedantic scholar downed a cup of wine, then proceeded to, still shaking his head from one side to another, loudly orating: "Dishonorable riches... let it go ... The Jade Emperor {Yu Huang Da Di, the Supreme Diety in Taoism whose kingdom the Monkey King smashed in The Journey West}... will get mad!" As he was reciting these lines, he reached into his shirt and took out one gold or silver ingot after another and neatly lined them up on the table. In total there were 8 ingots of silver and 2 ingots of gold.

From these ingots' color and shape, WanYan HongLie knew that these were his. But he did not get mad; on the contrary, this piqued his interest even more: "Entering my room and stealing the money isn't hard, but he only tapped my shoulder one time with his fan, yet he was able to steal all the money that was inside my shirt without my detection. That magical hand skill of his is indeed something rarely seen in this world."

From the actions of these 7 men, it seemed like they were doing the inviting, inviting 2 tables of men here for a drink. Because guests hadn't arrived yet, the 7 of them were only drinking some light wine and the dishes haven't been brought out either. But on the other 2 tables were only placed one pair of chopsticks each, then that means there were only 2 guests. WanYan HongLie mused: "These 7 weirdos are waiting for guests, wonder what kind of weird guests they would have?" After waiting for about the time it would take to boil a pot of water, a voice came up from downstairs: "Amida Buddha!" The blind man spoke up: "Father Burnt-Wood is here!" He stood up; the other 6 weirdos followed him as they all stood up in preparation to welcome the guest. "Amida Buddha!" The voice said again as a monk that looked every bit like a withered piece of wood came walking up the stairs. This monk was about 40 or so, he was wearing a yellow monk robe and in his hand was a piece of wood with one end burnt black, although it's unclear what it's used for.

After the monk and the 7 of them went through the formal greetings, the poor scholar led him to one of the empty tables and all of them sat down. The monk rose slightly out of his seat in respect and said: "That person came all the way to our gates, I knew that I was no match for him. Now that the 7 Heroes of the South are willing to lend a hand, I could not be anymore grateful."

The blind man replied: "Father Burnt Wood, you do not need to be so polite. We 7 brothers and sisters have all been dependent upon Father now and then, now that Father is in trouble, how could we not get involved? Besides, that man came and, relying entirely upon his kungfu skills, made trouble for Father for no reason; it is clear that he thinks nothing of all of us here in the martial world around here. Even if Father did not ask us, we would have came had we found out about...."

He hadn't finished what he was going to say when the stairs started to sound like as if it was going to collapse, like a huge, heavy beast, if not an elephant then a huge water buffalo, was walking up the stairs. The owner of the place and the waiters were all screaming downstairs: "Ay! You idiot, you can't take that up there!" "The stairs are going to collapse!" "Quick, quick, stop him, get him back down here!" But the sound of wood bending got louder and louder. "Crack"! One of the pieces of wood snapped. Soon 2 more pieces snapped as well.

For a moment WanYan HongLie wasn't sure what he was seeing, a Taoist monk came walking up the stairs with a huge copper vat in his hands. After taking another look, he was scared out of his wits; the Taoist monk was Son of Eternal Spring Qiu ChuJi.

WanYan HongLie's mission as emissary to the Song Imperial Courts was to coerce some of the officials of the Song court so that when they eventually invade South there would be agents lending a hand from the inside as well. The Song Emissary, Wang DaoKun, that accompanied him down from YanJing (Present Day BeiJing) was greedy and corrupt, he had already secretly sworn allegiance to the Jin dynasty. When they arrived at LinAn, he was the one that did the legwork for WanYan HongLie. But unexpectedly he was suddenly killed by a Taoist monk; even his head, heart, and liver was gone. Shocked, and in fear that someone had found out about his plan, WanYan HongLie decided to lead his bodyguards and, with the best city guards of LinAn leading the way, personally chase down the assassin. When they chased to Ox Village the met up with Qiu ChuJi; but unexpectedly, this Taoist monk was a kungfu master. WanYan HongLie hadn't even made a move before he was shot through the shoulders with an arrow that Qiu ChuJi threw back and the men that came with him were all killed. If WanYan HongLie had not quietly crawled away during the confusion of the battle and was then rescued by Bao XiRuo, the dignified and honorable royal prince of the Jin dynasty would have died there in a farm village without even really knowing how.

WanYan HongLie forced himself to calm down, and noticed that Qiu ChuJi glanced at face for a moment before moving his attention entirely onto Father Burnt Wood and the 7 men; obviously, he had not recognized him. Figuring that this was because he had been shot as soon as he showed up that night so Qiu ChuJi was not able to see his face clearly, only then did he feel a little better. But when his eyes moved onto the copper vat, he was shocked again, so much so that he almost jumped out of his seat.

This kind of vat was common in temples or shrines and was commonly used for burning papers and fake money for the dead. It was more than a meter across and was probably around 200 kilograms or so. From the vat came the sweet smell of wine, obviously it was filled with expensive wine, which without a doubt added a lot more weight to the vat. But he did not seem to be using any strength in his arm at all. Every step he took the floorboards moaned and bent from the weight. Panic engulfed the bottom level as the owner, waiters, cooks, all the patrons, and everyone else scrambled out, fearing that the entire floor would collapse on top of them.

Coldly, Father Burnt-Wood spoke up: "Honored that my Taoist brother would show yourself here, but what's the point in bringing the paper burning vat from our humble little temple? Let me introduce you to the 7 Heroes of the South!" Qiu ChuJi made a respectful gesture with his left hand and said: "Humble Taoist just visited your holy temple when I heard from the other monks there that Father was inviting me for a drink at Pavilion of Drunken Goddess. I figured that Father would have undoubtedly invited some other friend, turns out I was right. I have long admired the 7 Heroes of the South, so fortunate today to meet your acquaintance." Father Burnt-Wood turned to the 7 oddballs and said: "This here is Man of Eternal Spring Qiu ChuJi of QuanZhen Sect, I'm sure everyone has heard of him." Turning around to Qiu ChuJi, he pointed at the blind man and continued: "This is the head of the 7 Heroes, the hero Ke, Flying Bat Ke ZhenE." He followed by introducing the others, all the while WanYan HongLie giving this all his attention and memorizing their names. Number 2 in rank was that poor and downtrodden scholar that stole his money, named Magic Hands Scholar Zhu Cong. The fat, short fellow that arrived first was Horse God Han BaoJu, he ranked 3rd. The peasant that carried the load of firewood was number 4, his name was Wood Chopper of the Southern Mountains Nan XiRen. Ranked number 5 was that huge and butcher looking man, Smiling Dhuda Zhang AhSheng. The little vendor looking fellow's surname was Quan, JinFa was his given name, and his nickname was Hidden Hero of the Bustling City. That fisher girl was called Yue Maiden Sword Han XiaoYing, obviously the youngest of the 7 Heroes.

All the while Father Burnt-Wood was introducing everyone, Qiu ChuJi would always very respectfully bow a little as a sign of respect, but his right hand was still holding up the vat and there was no sign of fatigue at all. A few of the braver ones of the people downstairs saw that there was no immediate danger and actually walked back in to see what's going on.

Ke ZhenE spoke up: "People call us 7 brothers and sisters the 7 Weirdos because we are a rather odd collection of characters; we dare not assume the name '7 Heroes' that Father Burnt-Wood called us. All of us have long admired the famed 7 Disciples of QuanZhen, especially that of Man of Eternal Spring, whose many chivalrous deeds we have all heard of. Father Burnt-Wood is a most warm and friendly man; we can't understand how he could have offended Father. If Father here thinks anything of us, then please let the 7 of us be a mediator for once. Besides, even though Taoism and Buddhism worship different types of deity, you 2 gentlemen are still both monks and members of the martial world. Why don't we forget and forgive so we can just get together and have a nice little drink here?"

Qiu ChuJi replied: "I have never met Father Burnt-Wood before, nor are there any gratitude or revenge between the 2 of us. As long as he hand over 2 people, then I personally will automatically go to China Zen Temple to ask for forgiveness." Ke ZhenE asked: "Which 2 people?" Qiu ChuJi replied: "I have 2 very good friends who was killed by corrupted officials working with the Jins. Their widows are all alone in the world. Hero Ke, do you think that I should step into this matter?" When YanLie heard this, the cup in his hand suddenly shook and some wine was spilled onto the table. Ke ZhenE replied: "It wouldn't even matter if they are widows of Father's good friends, even if none of us have ever met them, we would step in and do the best we can to take care of them if we knew about something like this happening. This is something that just should be done without any hesitation." Qiu ChuJi loudly replied: "That's right! I just want Father Burnt-Wood to hand those 2 widows to me! He is a monk, how could he keep 2 widows in his monastery and not hand them over? The 7 heroes here are reasonable and righteous people, please do the right thing here!"

When he finished saying this, not only was Father Burnt-Wood and the 7 Weirdos shocked, WanYan HongLie was quite surprised as well. He thought: "Is he actually not talking about Madame Yang and Madame Guo but someone else?"

Father Burnt-Wood's face was burnt yellowish to begin with, now it was even more burnt looking. He could not bring himself to reply for a while as he could only stammer: "You... you... are talking nonsense... nonsense...."

Qiu ChuJi was furious: "You are a man of the martial world too, how dare you do such a shameful deed?" He pushed with his right hand and the several hundred kilograms heavy vat with the wine still in it went flying out towards Father Burnt-Wood. Father Burnt-Wood immediately jumped aside.

The people that gathered at the end of the stairs were scared out of their mind as all of them turned around and pushed their way down the stairs in a panic.

Smiling Dhuda Zhang AhSheng figured that although this vat was heavy, he could still be able to handle it with his strength. So he stepped up, moved some inner strength into his arms, and waited until the vat arrived before he, with a shout, grabbed a hold of the vat. The muscles on his back and his shoulders bulged out as he was actually able to control the vat all by himself. As he lifted the vat up over his head, the amount of force exerted under his feet was too great as with one single crack, his left foot went through the floorboards, causing the crowd downstairs to scream. Zhang AhSheng took 2 steps forward, bent his arms slightly, and, with the move "Opening the Windows to View the Moon", he threw the vat back at Qiu ChuJi. Qiu ChuJi caught the vat with his right hand and laughed: "7 Weirdos of the South are just like the rumors say, very deserving of their fame!" Then his expression darkened as he turned to Father Burnt-Wood: "What happened to those 2 widows? You are forcing 2 widows to live in your monastery, what for? If you dare to touch a single strand of their hair, I'll smashes your bones until they are dust and burn down that monastery of yours!" Zhu Cong flicked his fan and said while shaking his head: "Father Burnt-Wood is an honorable and respected monk, how could he do such a shameful thing? Father must have heard of this from someone shameless and despicable. This kind of gossip can't be trusted."

Qiu ChuJi was still furious: "I saw it with my own eyes, how could that be untrue?" The 7 Weirdos were all surprised by this. Father Burnt-Wood finally spoke up: "You want to come here and make a name for yourself here south of the Yangtze, alright. But you don't need to drag my name through the dirt... you... you... go out into JiaXing and ask around, see how many people think I would do such a thing?" Qiu ChuJi snickered: "Alright, you got helpers and want to win by sheer numbers. I am involved in this matter now, so there's no way you can get away from this. You are using the sacred ground of you deity to hide women, that's bad already, but the women's husbands are the descendants of patriots and they were murdered."

Ke ZhenE spoke up: "Father accused Father Burnt-Wood of hiding 2 women, but Father Burnt-Wood denies it. Why don't all of us go to the temple and see who's right and who's not. Although I'm blind, my ears are still working fine." His 6 brothers and sisters immediately agreed with him.

Qiu ChuJi sneered: "Search the temple? I have already searched it inside and out. But apparently 2 women walked in and disappeared. The only possibility is if the monk hands them over." Zhu Cong replied: "So it turns out that these 2 women aren't women." Qiu ChuJi was confused: "What?" Zhu Cong answered with a straight face: "They are fairies and either knows how to turn invisible or become one with the ground!" The other 6 weirdos couldn't help but laugh at that remark.

Qiu ChuJi was furious: "So you guys are mocking me? Alright, it seems like you guys are taking the monk's side, right?"

Ke ZhenE righteously replied: "Although our kungfu might be laughable in the eyes of a master from QuanZhen Sect, but we still have a little bit of a name here south of the Yangtze. Ask around, people will say: 'Seven Weirdos of the South? They may be crazy, but they are not cowards.' We wouldn't dare bully others, but we can't let others bully us either." Qiu ChuJi replied: "I have heard much about the good name of the 7 Heroes of the South. This matter does not concern you so please do not get involved in this sticky matter and let this monk and me settle it among ourselves. Monk, follow me." He reached out towards Father Burnt-Wood's wrist. Father Burnt-Wood dipped his wrist and dodged this move. Seeing that the 2 of them have started to fight, Horse God Han BaoJu shouted: "Father, why are you being so unreasonable?" Qiu ChuJi stepped back and asked: "What do you mean?" Han BaoJu replied: "We trust Father Burnt-Wood, if he says there isn't then there really isn't any women. Which man living in the martial world would lie?" Qiu ChuJi replied: "He isn't lying, then am I causing him trouble for no reason whatsoever? I saw it with my own eyes! If I'm wrong then I'll dig out these 2 eyeballs and give it to you. I am definitely going to see this to the end, seems like the 7 of you are definitely getting involved right?" The 7 Weirdos answered simultaneously: "Right!"

Qiu ChuJi replied: "Alright, I'll toast a shot to all 7 heroes. Let's get started after we are finished toasting." He dipped his right hand and lowered the vat to his mouth. After taking a good shot, he shouted: "If you please!" With one flick of the hand, the vat went flying towards Zhang AhSheng again.

Zhang AhSheng thought to himself: "If I catch it over my head like I did last time, then it would be impossible for me to drink out of it wouldn't it?" So he took two steps back, held his hands in front of his chest, and waited for the vat. Once it arrived, he threw his arms to the side and let the vat hit him straight on the chest. He was born chubby so his chest was covered with layers upon layers of fat and muscle, which acted like a mattress as the vat hit his chest. He immediately took a deep breath, flexed his chest muscles, brought his arms along the side of the vat with his arms, and caught the vat. He then lowered his head and took a huge chug of the wine. "Excellent Wine!" He praised as he suddenly retracted his arms back to the front of his chest and, before the vat could fall onto the floor, executed the move "Mountain Moving Double Palms", sending the vat flying back towards Qiu ChuJi. This move was powerful, fast, and quick, obviously a move from a master of kungfu moves. WanYan HongLie was secretly shocked by what he had just witnessed.

Qiu ChuJi caught the vat and took another gulp before shouting: "A toast to Big Brother Ke!" And the vat went flying towards Ke ZhenE.

A thought shot across WanYan HongLie's mind: "This man is blind, how is he suppose to catch it?" But it turned out that not only was Ke ZhenE the head of the 7 weirdos, his kungfu was also the best and he could easily tell where the smallest of weapons were from the sound they made, so this huge vat was no problem for him. He just calmly sat there as if he didn't notice anything until the vat was just about to hit his head. Only then did he suddenly raise his right arm and hit the bottom of the vat with his staff. That staff spun endlessly at the top of the staff, just like those plates at the end of an acrobat's stick. Suddenly his iron staff moved a little off-center and the vat began to lean as if it was going to fall onto his head. But for some reason the vat just could not fall over as it just stayed there, tilted. The wine in the vat poured out of it in a neat little line, Ke ZhenE opened his mouth and the wine fell neatly into it. After taking 3 or 4 mouthfuls, his iron staff moved again and was again in the middle of the vat bottom. He pushed his staff upwards and the vat flew straight up; with a swing of the staff, he smacked the vat back towards Qiu ChuJi with a loud "Bang!" The echoes could still be heard when Qiu ChuJi caught it again.

Laughing, Qiu ChuJi commented: "Hero Ke must like to spin plates in his spare time." Ke ZhenE coldly answered: "When I was little, I used to live off of the money I get from that little trick." Qiu ChuJi observed: "Not forgetting where he comes from is the sign of a real man! Fourth Brother Nan, a toast!" I took another gulp from the vat and threw it at him.

Nan XiRen didn't say a word as he waited for the vat to arrive and then lifted his carrying stick to block. "Dang"! The vat was stopped cold in mid-air and began to fall. Nan XiRen cupped his hand, scooped up some wine from the vat, and downed it. He held his carrying stick flat, kneeled down on his right knee with the middle of the carrying stick resting on his left knee. He pushed down on one end of the stick with his right hand and caught the bottom of the vat with the other end, flicking the vat up in the air once again.

He was just about to hit the vat back to Qiu ChuJi when Hidden Hero of the Bustling City Quan JinFa laughed and said: "I make a living selling stuff, so I like taking advantages. So I might as well get a bit of wine without doing anything." He ran up to Nan XiRen's side and, when the vat fell back down again, scooped up a bit of wine and downed it. Suddenly he jumped up and curled his legs so that the bottom of both of his feet were on to the vat as he pushed in midair, causing his body to take off like an arrow and the vat to fly off in the opposite direction towards Qiu ChuJi. His body landed on the side of the wall and lightly scaled down. The fan in Magical Hands Scholar Zhu Cong's hand did not stop flicking as he could not stop commenting: "Beautiful, beautiful!"

Qiu ChuJi caught the vat and took another big gulp before saying: "Beautiful, beautiful! A toast to Brother Zhu!" Zhu Cong shouted in desperation: "Ai-yo! Don't do that! I'm not even strong enough to subdue a chicken, and I can't hold my alcohol at all! I'll surely drink to death if I'm not squashed to death first...." Before he finished, the vat was already heading his way. Zhu Cong was shouting at the top of his lungs: "Someone's going to be smashed to death! Help! Help...." He made a scoop with his fan into the vat and brought it up to his mouth. Then he turned the fan around and hit the bottom of the vat with it and sent it flying off. "Crack!" The floorboards underneath him suddenly collapsed, forming a huge hole in the ground and he fell through it, all the while screaming: "Help! Help!" Everyone present knew that he was just playing around so nobody was really surprised or worried. WanYan HongLie, however, seeing that he was able to flick away a huge vat like that with a force that was no weaker than that which came from Nan XiRen's stick with a small fan like that, was secretly in shock.

Yue Sword Maiden Han XiaoYing shouted: "My turn for a drink!" She hopped off of her right foot as she took off like a bird. Just as she flew over the top of the vat, she lowered her head and took a gulp before nimbly and gently landing on the windowsill on the opposite side of the room. She was skilled at Qing Gong and swordplay and her strength wasn't up to par, so she figured that there was no way she would be able to catch this vat when it comes flying towards her, tossing it back towards Qiu ChuJi was even further out of the question. So she seized the opportunity and took her turn using her Qing Gong.

The vat was still flying out onto the street. With the street crowded like it was, it would be disastrous if the vat landed outside. Qiu ChuJi was a bit worried and was just about to jump out onto the street to catch it when he suddenly a whistle as a person in yellow ran past him. Another whistle and the yellow horse that was downstairs had ran out onto the street.

To the people gathered around, it looked as if the huge ball of meat suddenly hit the vat and fell with it as one. The ball of meat and the vat both landed onto the back of the yellow horse. The yellow horse ran forward a couple of meters before turning around and running back into the pavilion and up the stairs.

Horse God Han BaoJu's body was actually underneath the belly of the horse with his left foot was in the stirrup as his right foot and both of his hands were holding the vat, making it sit neatly in the saddle. The horse was fast and steady, as if the stairs were flat ground to him. Han BaoJu jumped back onto the horse, put his head into the vat and took a huge mouthful before pushing the vat off onto the floor with his left hand. Letting out a hearty laugh, he cracked his whip and the horse jumped out of the window and, like a pegasus, gently landed in the middle of the street. Han BaoJu jumped off his horse and walked back up along with Zhu Cong.

Qiu ChuJi complimented: "7 Heroes of the South are really as good as the rumors say! I am speechless at the display of kungfu I have just seen. Giving the 7 heroes face, I promise not to cause this monk anymore trouble if he hand over the 2 women and will leave at once when he has."

Ke ZhenE replied: "Father Qiu, you are in the wrong here. Father Burnt-Wood has been fasting and clean for several decades now, he is a truly enlightened monk, someone that all of us have admired for a long time. Temple of Oriental Zen is also one of the famous sacred Buddhist landmarks here in the city of JiaXing. How could females, not to mention widows, possibly be hidden inside?" Qiu ChuJi replied: "In this world, there are always those people who are hypocrites and does not deserve their reputations." Trying to control his anger, Han BaoJu shouted back: "So is Father saying that he doesn't believe us?" Qiu ChuJi replied just as loudly: "I much rather believe my very own eyes." Han BaoJu replied: "So what is Father planning to do now?" Even though he was short, he still was quite intimidating and heroic in his own way because of his loud and clear voice.

Qiu ChuJi replied: "This matter originally had nothing to do with you 7, but since you are insisting on jumping into this matter, you are obviously quite confident of your abilities. Forgive me for daring to challenge the 7 heroes, if I lose, then I'll do as everyone here wishes." Ke ZhenE replied: "If Father insists on going through like this, then would Father please choose on how we should settle this."

Qiu ChuJi thought for a moment and said: "We never had any grudges nor have we wronged each other, I have long admired the heroic name and reputation of the 7 Heroes of the South. I don't think any of us want to start fighting with swords or fists. How about this?" He shouted: "Wine keeper! Bring 14 big bowls!"

The wine keeper had been hiding in the floor below, but upon hearing his instructions and noticing that it had been quiet for a while upstairs, he immediately went to brought the bowls up.

Qiu ChuJi instructed him to place the bowls in 2 rows and fill them to the brim with wine. Turning to the 7 Weirdos, he said: "I challenge everyone to a drinking contest. For every bowl you guys drink, I will drink one as well until there is a winner. What do you say?"

Han BaoJu and Zhang AhSheng were both huge drinkers, so they immediately agreed without any hesitation. Ken ZhenE frowned and replied: "This is one against 7, even if we win we didn't win it fairly. Could Father please choose something else?" Qiu ChuJi frowned: "What makes you so sure that you'll beat me?"

Even though Han XiaoYing was a girl, she was still quite macho, so she immediately answered back: "Alright, let's go at it then! This is the first time I have met someone that dares to look down at us so much." As she talked she grabbed a bowl of wine and downed it in one breath. It was obvious she drank it too quickly as her face flushed red immediately.

Qiu ChuJi complimented: "Miss Han really is a man among females! Everyone, please!" The other 6 of the 7 Weirdos each picked up a bowl and drank it. Qiu ChuJi responded by downing 7 bowls of wine in an instant, each with just one gulp, without a single pause for breath in between. The winekeeper immediately shouted praise to everyone and filled up the 14 bowls, which the 8 of them finished off immediately.

By the 3rd round of drinks, Han XiaoYing could only drink half a bowl before having to pause because her hands were shaking. Zhang AhSheng took the bowl out of her hand: "Sister, I'll finish this for you." Han XiaoYing inquired: "Father, is that alright?" Qiu ChuJi replied without hesitation: "Of course, doesn't matter who drinks it as long as it is 7 bowls." Another round and Quan JinFa had to back out as well.

Seeing that even after 28 bowls Qiu ChuJi was still looking sober and normal, the 7 Weirdos were quite shocked. WanYan HongLie thought as he looked on: "Hopefully this Taoist would just get smashed and these 7 Weirdos would finish him off before he could do anything."

Quan JinFa calculated that his side still had 5 men left, each a heavy drinker and could probably drink 3 or 4 more rounds, the opponent could not possibly be able to hold another 20 or so drinks in his belly, or could he? Even if he really could not get drunk, his belly could only hold so much. So, figuring that victory was in hand, he was just feeling pretty good when he accidentally glanced down at the ground and saw that the floorboards under Qiu ChuJi's feet were obviously soaked through. Shocked, he whispered to Zhu Cong: "Second Brother, take a look at his feet." Zhu Cong only looked down for a moment before muttering: "Not good, he's using his inner strength to force the wine out through his feet." Quan JinFa quietly replied: "That's right, didn't think that his inner strength would be so powerful, what do we do?"

Zhu Cong thought to himself: "With this little trick, he could go 100 more bowls without any problem. I have to come up with another contest or something." He took a step back before suddenly falling through the hole in the floorboards that he caused earlier and climbing back up through the hole, all the while shouting: "So drunk, I am so drunk!"

Another round of drinks and now the floor boards under Qiu ChuJi's feet were saturated with wine as a little bit of a fountain shot out from the wood onto the floor. By now Nan XiRen, Han BaoJu, and everyone else all noticed, and everyone was secretly admiring such a powerful display of inner strength.

Han BaoJu put his bowl back onto the table and was just about to admit defeat when Zhu Cong shot him a look and turned Qiu ChuJi: "Father's inner strength is almost god-like and we can't but admire such a display. But it is still 5 against 1, doesn't seem quite fair really." Qiu ChuJi was a bit surprised and asked: "Then what does Second Brother Zhu suggest we should do?" Zhu Cong smiled and said: "I say let the 2 of us battle it out to see who's the best."

All the spectators were rather baffled by this, Zhu Cong was one of the group of 5 that went up against him that was obviously losing, why would he go and lower his odds some more? But the other 8 Weirdos knew that although this brother of theirs doesn't seem to take anything serious, he's full of ideas and tricks and his actions were often genius. Figuring that he must have a plan in mind, the 6 of them didn't object.

Qiu ChuJi let out a little laugh: "The 7 Weirdos of the South really do want to look good no matter what. How about this? If Second Brother Zhu finish the wine left in this vat with me, if nobody is losing, then it'll count as a defeat for me. How about it?"

By now the vat was a little bit less than half full, about upteen bowls, which would mean that only 2 drunken Buddhas with their big bellies could hold all of it. But Zhu Cong didn't seem to mind that as he smiled and said: "Although I am not a very big drinker, I once beat several pretty big drinkers in one of my adventures. A toast!" Waving his fan in his right hand and his left shirt sleeve, he downed a bowl.

So the 2 of them downed one bowl after another, in between drinks, Qiu ChuJi asked: "What kind of big drinkers?" Zhu Cong replied: "Well, once I traveled to Tibet and the Tibetan King dragged out a water buffalo to challenge me in a drinking match. But in the end neither of us won out or lost."

Knowing that Zhu Cong was poking fun at him, so he just snorted in response and downed another bowl. However, he noticed that even though Zhu Cong was waving his hands all over the place while talking nonsense, he was still matching him bowl for bowl. There wasn't any wine spilling out from his hands or feet, obviously not forcing the wine out of his body with inner strength; but there was a huge bulge in his stomach, he figured that Zhu Cong may know how to expand and retract his stomach at will. He was feeling rather puzzled when Zhu Cong spoke up again: "The year before last I went to Siam, ha, now that's even more ridiculous. This time the king of Siam got an elephant to challenge me. That huge thing drank 7 vats! How much do you think I drank?"

Even though Qiu ChuJi knew he was just making stuff up, he could not help but ask: "How much?" Zhu Cong's face suddenly turned dead serious as he lowered his voice and said: "9 vats!" Suddenly he raised his voice again and shouted: "Drink up, drink up!"

So he just went on like this, sort of drunk but not really, kind of crazy but kind of not, and soon the 2 of them had finished off the entire vat. The rest of the weirdos had no idea that he could hold all of that wine as all of them were pleasantly surprised.

Qiu ChuJi gave him a thumbs up: "Brother Zhu really is amazing!"

With a smile, Zhu Cong replied: "To keep the wine out of our bodies, Father used inner force, but I had to resort to merely outer techniques. Here, have a look." With a hearty laugh, he suddenly did a backflip and when he landed there was a wooden bucket in his hand. With a slight wave of his hand, the fragrances of the wine that filled half the bucket came pouring out. All of the people present were kungfu masters and, with the exception of Ke ZhenE, were sharp to pick up any trickery or moves, yet not a single one of saw where the bucket came from. Looking down, Zhu Cong's belly suddenly returned to its normal flat shape; obviously the bucket was originally hidden underneath his robe. The 7 Weirdos of the South all burst out laughing and Qiu ChuJi was shocked.

Turned out that Zhu Cong was best at trickery and illusions, which was where the nickname "Magical Hands Scholar" came from. This little trick that he just pulled has passed down all the way to today. A magician would walk onto the stage with nothing in hand, with one backflip a goldfish bowl would be in his hand, another backflip and a bowl filled with water appears; this would go on until there were enough bowls on stage to hold one goldfish in each bowl, just absolutely astounding when witnessed first hand and has to be seen to be believed. The second time Zhu Cong fell through the hole was when he hid the bucket underneath his robe. All those crazy talk was to distract Qiu ChuJi. When a magician does his trick right, even hundreds upon thousands pairs of eyes could not spot how the trick was done. Not to mention that at that time Qiu ChuJi did not even suspect that he would be pulling this kind of trick and was not able to catch him pour one bowl after another into the bucket underneath his robe.

Qiu ChuJi snorted: "Hmph! You call this drinking?" Zhu Cong laughed: "And what you did was? The wine I drank is in this bucket, the wine that you drank is on the ground, any differences there?"

He paced back and forth as he talked, suddenly he accidentally slipped on the puddle of wine by Qiu ChuJi's feet and fell towards Qiu ChuJi. Qiu ChuJi caught him and let Zhu Cong balance himself. After pacing back and forth once more, he suddenly said in a loud voice: "Wonderful poem! Such wonderful poetry! Mid-Autumn have always... moon most bright, cool winds lead the way... for refreshing night. A day's fortunes... sinks man and silver, the dragons in 4 seas... leap out water...." His voice were slowly dragging out as he began to sing the lines.

Shocked, Qiu ChuJi thought to himself: "That's the poem that I started but didn't finish last Mid-Autumn, so I always have it by my side in case I ever thought of the next 4 lines. Nobody else has seen it, how does he know it?" Reaching into his shirt, he found that the scroll that contained the poem was missing.

With a smile, Zhu Cong unrolled the scroll and laid it out on the table: "Not only is Father's kungfu among the best in the world, his poetry and style is as well. Amazing, truly amazing." He slipped and fell on purpose, enabling him to use those magical skills of his and steal the scroll from Qiu ChuJi.

Qiu ChuJi thought to himself: "I didn't notice it at all when he reached into my shirt and took the scroll out. If he didn't intend to take my poem but was instead trying to stab me, would I still be alive now? Obviously he had my life in his hands and let me live." Now that he thought about that, the anger in him subsided as he said: "Since Hero Zhu has finished this entire vat of wine with me, I will do as I promised and admit defeat. This little match today in Pavilion of Drunken Goddess, Qiu ChuJi lost to the 7 Heroes of the South."

Amid smiles, the 7 Weirdos of the South replied: "No, no, that's ok. This kind of game can't be taken seriously." Zhu Cong added: "Besides, Father's inner strength is miles above all of us."

Qiu ChuJi continued: "Although I have admitted defeat, those 2 widows have to be rescued." He saluted with his hands and lifted up the vat: "I'm heading off to Temple of Oriental Zen to get them." In anger, Ke ZhenE demanded: "You have admitted defeat, why are you still troubling Father Burnt-Wood?" Qiu ChuJi replied: "Lives are at stake, it has nothing to do with win or lose. Honored Hero Ke, if your friend met an unfortunate end and his widow was suffering in the hands of others, would you do all you can to save them?" Suddenly his expression changed as he shouted: "Oh I see how it is, you had more people coming! Even if you get the entire Jin army here I'm still going to see this to the very end, even if it means giving up my life!"

Zhang AhSeng replied: "There's just the 7 of us, no need for more people." But Ke ZhenE had heard several dozens of men running in this direction as well as the clanking of their weapons as well, so he immediately stood up and commanded: "Everyone back off!" Zhang AhSeng and all the others hid their weapons as all of them heard the footsteps by now. Before long, several dozen men came running up the stairs.

These men were Jin soldiers. Qiu ChuJi had respected the 7 Weirdos of the South and figured that they were just kept in the dark by the lies of Father Burnt-Wood, so he always watched what he said so as to not offend them too much. But suddenly seeing dozens of Jin soldiers showing up, he could not control his anger any longer as he shouted: "Monk Burnt-Wood, 7 Weirdos, how dare you guys actually befriend and ask the Jins for help! How can you still call yourself righteous men of the martial world?" Han BaoJu shouted back: "Who's asking the Jins for help?"

These soldiers were actually the personal guards of WanYan HongLie, they felt unsettled because WanYan HongLie had been out for a long time and followed him into town. Upon hearing that there was fighting in the Pavilion of Drunken Goddess and fearing the worst, they came running over.

Qiu ChuJi snorted: "Hmph! Alright, alright! Please forgive me for not staying any longer! This matter between us is not over yet!" He picked up his vat and started to walk toward the stairs.

Ke ZhenE stood back up: "Father Qiu, there's some misunderstanding here." Still walking, Qiu ChuJi replied: "Misunderstanding? You guys are all righteous heroes? Why ask Jin soldiers to help you in a fight?" Ke ZhenE replied: "But we didn't." Qiu ChuJi rebuked: "I can see what's going on in front of me, I'm not blind" What Ke ZhenE hated the most was the fact that he was blind and anything that reminded him of it. So he slammed that iron staff of his onto the ground and demanded: "And what if I am blind?" Qiu ChuJi didn't answer as he lifted up his left hand and struck a Jin soldier on his forehead with his palm. The soldier did not even have a chance to mutter a sound before his head split open. Qiu ChuJi shouted back: "He is a good example!" Tossing his sleeves in the 7 Weirdos' general direction, he walked down the stairs.

Seeing that one of them have died, the Jin solders immediately descended into chaos as several of them charged at Qiu ChuJi with lances pointed at his back. He did not even turn around and, as if there were eyes on the back of his head, knocked each of the lances down one by one. The rest of the soldiers were just about to charge up as well when WanYan HongLie ordered them to stop. Turning to Ke ZhenE, he said: "This Taoist bastard is just intolerable, whey don't all of us sit down and have a nice drink while we discuss how to take care of him?" When he ordered the Jin soldiers to stop, Ke ZhenE had figured out that he was the head of the soldiers, so he shouted back: "TaMaDe! Get out of my face!" WanYan HongLie hadn't even recovered from the shock when Han BaoJu added: "My Big Brother told you to get out of his face!" He bumped WanYan HongLie on his waist with his right shoulder. WanYan HongLie stumbled back several steps as the 7 Weirdos and Father Burnt-Wood all quickly filed out.

Zhu Cong was trailing behind them. As he walked by WanYan HongLie, he gently tapped him on the shoulder with his fan and asked with a smile: "Have you sold off that girl? How about selling her to me? Haha!" He hurried down the steps as he was laughing. Before, although Zhu Cong did not know anything about WanYan HongLie, he could tell from the way that he was treating Bao XiRuo that they were not a couple. Then he overheard him bragging about his wealth, so he had to take a bit of his money, just to cause a little trouble. But now that he found out that he's a leader of Jin soldiers, how could he not take more of his money?

WanYan HongLie reached into his shirt and, as expected, all the money that was in his shirt had, inexplicably, disappeared. Not only was he worried about the fact that all these men were such great kungfu masters, but if they somehow found out that he has Madame Bao with him, what a disaster that would be? Luckily, now that Qiu ChuJi and the 7 Weirdos still haven't worked out their misunderstanding, this was the perfect time for him to get out of town. So he immediately went back to the hotel and headed north with Bao XiRuo that very night, all the way until they arrived back at the capital of the Jin Empire, YanJing. {Modern day Beijing}

As it turned out, after that night in which Qiu ChuJi killed Wang DaoKun, met the 2 men, and killed another group of Jin soldiers, he arrived in HangZhou in great spirit. So he spent several days in a row by the lake. The Ge Peak at the north end of the West Lake, besides being a famous Taoist retreat, was just the place where Ge Hong concocted his medicine pills at that time. So Qiu ChuJi spent his mornings enjoying the land and the people and his afternoons inside the Taoist temple on top of Ge Peak, making medicine and practicing kungfu.

One day, he was walking by a pier at the shore of Qing River when he suddenly saw a group of 10 or so government soldiers walking by in a very sorry state with their armor falling apart and their weapons all broken. Obviously they had just lost a battle. He was rather puzzled: "We aren't at war with the Jins nowadays, and I haven't heard anything about any ruffians or uprisings around here. Where in the world did they lose this battle?" He asked around but nobody knew about it either. His curiosity piqued as he followed the soldiers back to their camp, under Command Post 6.

He waited until after midnight before he snuck into the camp and dragged a soldier out into a small alley to interrogate. That soldier was in the middle of a dream when suddenly, out of nowhere, a sharp blade was put up against his throat. In shock and fear, he did not hide a thing as he spilled all the secrets about going into Ox Village to capture 2 men and all that happened that night. Qiu ChuJi just could not believe it when that soldier told him that Guo XiaoTian had died that night; and Yang TieXin, gravely wounded, was missing, most likely dead as well. The soldier kept on saying that the 2 widows had been captured, but on their way back they had ran into another group of soldiers out of nowhere and, for some weird and stupid reason, they fought and lost. Qiu ChuJi was about to lose his temper when he realized that this man was merely a soldier who was following orders and not truly responsible for what happened. So he demanded: "Who's your superior?" The soldier answered: "The commander's... s... surname is Duan, given name TianDe." Qiu ChuJi let him go and snuck back trying to find Duan TianDe, but to no avail.

The next morning, a pole was erected in front of the command house, a head was dangling off of the top of it, as a warning to other criminals. Qiu ChuJi only took one look and recognized that it belonged to Guo XiaoTian. In sadness and anger, he thought: "Qiu ChuJi, Qiu ChuJi, this man is a descendent of a patriot. Out of kindness, he asked you to have a drink with him, yet you brought upon him such calamities. If you do not bring justice for him, how can you go on pretending to be a man?" In fury, he flicked his arm and shattered the flag pole in front of the command post to pieces.

After forcing himself to wait until night fall, he climbed up the pole and took down Guo XiaoTian's head. He dug a hole on the shore of the West Lake and buried the head there. After several kowtows, he wiped the tears away from his face as he silently swore: "I promised to teach the 2 hero's children kungfu. I keep every promise I have ever made, if I could not turn your children into heroes among men, then let me never see my brothers in the afterlife, I no longer deserve such an honor." He calculated that the first thing he needed to do was find that Duan TianDe and get revenge for his 2 dead sworn brothers. After that he would rescue the 2 widows and take them to some place safe, so that the 2 kids could be born and leave a legacy for these 2 heroes.

For 2 straight nights, he searched through Command Post 6, but was not able to find Duan TianDe at all. He became worried that this man, out of greed and corruption so as to not follow military regulations at all, might not spend time with the soldiers under him at all. On the 3rd night, he stepped out in front of the command post and shouted: "Duan TianDe! Come out here this instant!"

Because of the fact that Guo XiaoTian's head had been taken, Duan TianDe was just inside interrogating Li Ping about any other criminal mastermind that her husband might know when suddenly there was chaos outside. He stuck his head out of a window and saw a tall and big Taoist, with incredible ferocity and style, grabbed a soldier in each hand and tossed them out of the way as he made his way through the crowd of soldiers. One of the commanders repeatedly shouted: "Let loose the arrows! Let loose!" In the chaos, some of the soldiers grabbed a bow but couldn't find any arrows while other soldiers gathered some arrows but did not grab any bow.

Furious, Duan TianDe pulled out his sabre and charged up screaming: "Want to rebel?" He swung at Qiu ChuJi's waist. Seeing that he was an officer, Qiu ChuJi did not budge at all. Instead he tossed aside the soldier that was in his hands and, with one simple motion of his left hand, grabbed Duan TianDe's wrist and demanded: "Where's that bastard Duan TianDe?"

Just writhing in pain, Duan TianDe immediately replied: "Is Father looking for Mr. Duan? He... He's drinking on the West Lake, don't know if he's going to make it back today." Believing him, Qiu ChuJi let him go. Duan TianDe turned to 2 soldiers by his side and ordered: "Take Father to the lake shore so that he could find the commander." The 2 soldiers didn't catch on, so he shouted: "What are you standing there for? Hurry! Father will get mad!" The 2 men finally caught on and began walking. Qiu ChuJi followed them off.

Not daring to stay a moment longer, Duan TianDe took several guards and Li Ping and headed straight towards the 8th command post. The commander was his drinking pal and, upon hearing what had happened, immediately offered to dispatch some help to him to catch this Taoist bastard. He was just about to dispatch his troops when his camp suddenly descended into chaos as one of the soldier ran in and reported that a Taoist had came charging into camp. Turned out the soldiers that were with him couldn't take the pressure and told him about the places that Duan TianDe frequently goes to.

Being the alert man he was, Duan TianDe did not hesitate as he grabbed Li Ping and ran. He ran away to the 2nd Command Post outside of the city, figuring that he could lose Qiu ChuJi because of its remote location. After he settled down, the images of that Taoist rampaging through the army haunted him. By this time his wrist began to hurt and swell again. He went to an injury doctor in the camp and it turned out that 2 bones in his wrist had actually snapped. Too scared to go home, he decided to stay in the 2nd Command Post for the night. He slept till midnight when some disturbances outside woke him up, apparently one of the soldiers standing guard had disappeared.

Duan TianDe jumped out of his bed, somehow knowing that the guard must have been kidnapped by that Taoist. Deciding that no matter where he hides in the army camps, the Taoist would eventually find him, he had to find something to do! This Taoist had already met him and was only coming at him and him alone. Even though there were lots of soldiers in the army, he was probably not going to come out unscratched. He was about to break down into a panic when he suddenly remembered that his uncle, who's kungfu was quite good, had retreated to Cloudy Pavilion Temple to become a monk, why not hide there? Figuring that this Taoist's attacks probably had something to do with Guo XiaoTian, he ordered Li Ping to be changed into a soldier's uniform and dragged her to Cloudy Pavilion Temple with him in the middle of the night, thinking that if he really got into trouble he could use her to threaten the monk.

His uncle, given the Buddhist name of Withered-Wood, became a monk a long time ago and had became the Abbot of Cloudy Pavilion Temple. Before he had been an army officer and his kungfu training came as a disciple of XianXia Sect that was prevalent in the province of ZheJiang and JiangSu and could be considered a branch of ShaoLin kungfu. He never approved Duan TianDe's character and kept a distance between them. Seeing him stumbling in to the monastery in such a sorry state in the middle of the night, he was quite annoyed and asked coldly: "What are you doing here?"

Knowing that his uncle hated the Jins to the bone, Duan TianDe knew that if he told the truth his uncle might have killed him on the spot himself, so on the way here he had already thought of a lie. So seeing that his uncle's cold stare at this moment, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed: "Someone is troubling me, please help me uncle!"

Father Withered-Wood replied: "You are an army officer here, it's already a miracle if you don't go troubling others, who would dare to trouble you?" With an innocent look on his face, Duan TianDe replied: "I'm no good, hiding here and there from this Taoist bastard. Hope that uncle would, for sake of late father, save me." Out of pity, Father Withered-Wood asked him: "Why is the Taoist chasing you?"

Duan TianDe knew that the more repentant he sounded the better of he was, so he said: "It's all my fault, my fault! Two days ago I went to the Wah-Zi on the west side of Clear Coolness Bridge...." Father Withered-Wood snorted and his face dropped. "Wah She", or "Wah-Zi", was the slang for brothels back at that time; from that came the saying "Wahs gather when time comes, wahs scatters when time goes", which is used to describe something that comes easily and goes just as fast.

Duan TianDe continued: "There was someone there that I had met on many occassions and she was in the middle of a song when a Taoist suddenly burst in and say that she had to entertain him because her song was so good...." Father Withered-Wood abruptly cut in: "Bull! What is a monk doing in a place like that?" Duan TianDe replied: "That's what I said and then I told him to leave. But it turned out that Taoist was a low-life and cursed me for enjoying myself despite of the fact that I would lose my head in the next couple of days." Father Withered-Wood asked: "What is he talking about?" Duan TianDe replied: "He said that the Jin army was going to cross the river and invade south soon and was going to kill every single one of us Song soldiers."

Furious, Father Withered-Wood demanded: "Did he really say that?" Duan TianDe nodded: "Yes! I guess my temper was not really good either and I got into an argument with him, saying that if the Jins really did invade, we would at least all die fighting and wouldn't necessarily lose." This really rubbed Father Withered-Wood the right way, so much so that he could not help but nod in approval as he thought this was the best thing that this nephew of his ever said. Seeing him nod, Duan TianDe's heart lit up and continued: "We just kept on arguing until we began to fight, but I wasn't a match for the Taoist. He came chasing after me, I had nowhere else to go, so that's why I came here. Uncle, please help me!" Father Withered-Wood replied: "I am a monk, I'm not getting involved in these kind of name-seeking matters that you guys got yourself into." Duan TianDe begged: "Just this one time, uncle, I will never do anything like this again."

Remembering his brother of yesteryears and quite mad at the Taoist for saying what he said, Father Withered-Wood finally relented: "Alright, you can hide here for a couple of days. I don't want any kind of troubles from you." Duan TianDe agreed to everything and anything he demanded. Father Withered-Wood sighed: "An honorable army officer, so useless. If the Jin army really did invade, then what could we do? Ay! Back then, I...."

Scared by threats from Duan TianDe, Li Ping just stood there by his side through all his lies, not daring to say a single word.

The next afternoon, the camerarius ran in and reported to Father Withered-Wood: "There's a Taoist monk out front, shouting all kinds of stuff and creating a havoc, saying something about making Duan.... Commander Duan come out."

{Note: the camerarius is a monk that basically greets everyone that visits the first temple and serves as both an one-man welcoming committee and a guide.}

Father Withered-Wood went and got Duan TianDe and told him. In a panic, Duan TianDe said: "It's him, it's him!" Father Withered-Wood observed: "Which sect does this vicious Taoist belong under?" Duan TianDe replied: "Don't which hole that barbarian crawled out of, but his kungfu doesn't seem that great either, just that his arm strength is enormous. The only reason I lost is because I didn't know any kungfu at all." Father Withered-Wood replied: "Alright, I'm going to go meet him in person." Walking out to the Main Hall, he ran right into a Qiu ChuJi who was trying to bust into the temple. The guard monks were trying their best to slow him down, but they were failing. Father Withered-Wood walked up to him and gently pushed Qiu ChuJi's shoulder, using a bit of inner strength, he figured he would just push Qiu ChuJi out of the Main Hall. But, to his surprise, it felt as if he was pushing down on a pile of cotton, there was nothing there that he could actually push against. Knowing he was in trouble, he immediately tried to pull back. But it was too late as he stumbled back out of control and backed into the offering table. "Crack!" "Boom!" Half of the offering table collapsed and all the offerings on it were scattered or fell onto the floor.

Shocked, a thought ran through his mind: "This Taoist's kungfu is truly amazing, much more than just enormous arm strength, that's for sure." So he immediately held his palm up and saluted: "May I ask why Father has come and visited our humble monastery?" Qiu ChuJi replied: "I'm looking for an evil criminal with the surname of Duan." Knowing that he himself was no match for Qiu ChuJi, Father Withered-Wood replied: "We monks should always be merciful and forgiving, why is Father stooping to the same level as those laymen?"

Ignoring him, Qiu ChuJi walked into the Inner Hall. By now Duan TianDe had already hid himself and Li Ping. Cloudy Pavilion Temple's incense was very popular and it was just the Spring pilgrimage season, so the hall was filled with believers of both genders. Realizing that it was impossible to search thoroughly, Qiu ChuJi snickered a bit and walked out.

When Duan TianDe came out from his hiding place, Father Withered-Wood demanded angrily: "Barbarian? If he wasn't holding back, I would be dead by now!" Duan TianDe replied: "That barbaric Taoist is a spy of the Jins, why else would he make a point to specifically trouble us officers of the Great Song?" The camerarius came back in and reported that the Taoist had left. Father Withered-Wood asked: "Did he say anything as he left?" The camerarius replied: "He said that he would never give up until we turn over that... that officer named Duan."

Father Withered-Wood shot an angry look at Duan TianDe and said: "I can't figure out what you are hiding from what you said. It's just that this Taoist's kungfu is really too strong. You probably wouldn't come out alive if you fall into his hands." After quietly thinking for a while, he continued: "You can't stay here any longer. My younger martial brother Father Burnt-Wood's kungfu is better than mine. He's the only one who has a chance to stop that Taoist, why don't you go and hide with him for a while?" Duan TianDe didn't even dare to utter a single word fearing that he might anger his uncle. After his uncle handed him a letter to give to Father Burnt-Wood explaining the situation, he immediately rented a boat and headed for JiaXing in the middle of the night.

How could Father Burnt-Wood have guessed that the person he dragged in with him was actually a girl? Since he had the letter from his elder martial brother, he naturally allowed Duan TianDe to stay. When Qiu ChuJi found out about this, he came chasing along as well. He even spotted Li Ping in the back gardens of the temple. But by the time he burst into the temple, Duan TianDe had already dragged Li Ping into the underground storage with him. Qiu ChuJi, still thinking that Li Ping was in the temple, demanded her to be handed over. Since he saw her with his own eyes, he did not believe any reasoning that Father Burnt-Wood came up with, and their argument got worse and worse. As soon as Qiu ChuJi revealed a bit of his kungfu, Father Burnt-Wood knew he was no match. Having always been good friends with the 7 Weirdos, he set up a meeting with Qiu ChuJi in the Pavilion of Drunken Goddess. That huge vat that Qiu ChuJi had with him came from that very Temple of Oriental Zen. When he ran into the Jin soldiers in the Pavilion of Drunken Goddess, Qiu ChuJi's misunderstanding got even worse.

Father Burnt-Wood really did not know much about the truth of the entire matter. So on the way back to Temple of Oriental Zen from the Pavilion of Drunken Goddess, he told the 7 Weirdos about the men that his martial brother Abbot Withered-Wood sent to him. He added at the end: "I have heard that all of the 7 Disciples of QuanZhen Sect are masters of kungfu, each receiving the direct teachings of Saint ChongYang. Among them, Son of Eternal Spring was known as the best, and it turns out that he's as good as advertised. Even though he's rather rude, he doesn't seem to be the kind who just doesn't care for reason, and there aren't any enmities between the 2 of us. So there must be some great misunderstanding at work here."

Quan JinFa suggested: "I think the best thing to do is to bring out the 2 men that your martial brother sent to you so we can sort all of this out." Father Burnt-Wood nodded: "Good point, I haven't really interrogated them very well yet." He was just about to sent some people to go get Duan TianDe when Ke ZhenE spoke up: "That Qiu ChuJi's temper is really something, just terrible. He obviously do not even consider us people in the martial world just south of the Yangtze as worthy of respect. His QuanZhen Sect may be able to act like bosses up north, but we can't allow them to act like bosses when they come down south like this. If we can't clear up the misunderstanding, then we have to sort this out with kungfu. If we go up against him one-on-one, none of us are a match for him. But he didn't come with good intentions, and came without any good intentions.'" Zhu Cong added: "Let's gang up on him together!" Han BaoJu commented: "Eight against one? Not very heroic don't you think?" Quan JinFa reasoned: "It's not like we are going to kill him, we are only trying to calm him down so he can listen to Father Burnt-Wood's explanations." Han XiaoYing was rather worried: "If it gets out that Father Burnt-Wood and the 7 Weirdos of the South ganged up on someone, wouldn't that tarnish our name?"

The 8 of them hadn't worked out what to do yet when a thunderous knell came from the Main Hall of the temple followed by a cacophony of metals banging on the floor. Qiu ChuJi was banging the huge bell that hung from the ceiling of the Main Hall with the bronze vat. After several hits, the vat began to crack. The look on his face was filled with fury and anger. The 7 Weirdos didn't know that Qiu ChuJi wasn't always this unreasonable and rash. He had been so frustrated by his own inability to capture Duan TianDe that he was about to blow, add to that his deep-seeded hatred of the Jins and that would be the reason he was behaving this way. The 7 Weirdos all thought that he was trying to just bully them with his reputation, so they decided and were determined to fight it out. The more famous the 7 Disciples of QuanZhen were, the more determined the 7 Weirdos were not to back down and appear to be bullied. If Qiu ChuJi had been some unknown kungfu practitioner, this situation would have, ironically, been much easier to resolve and probably would have already been resolved.

Han BaoJu shouted: "Sister, let's take the lead." He's Han XiaoYing's first cousin on her father's side and had the least amount of patience. In one motion, the golden-dragon whip that was around his waist was now in his hands as he pulled a "Wind Swirling the Crippled Cloud" causing the whip to snap toward Qiu ChuJi's right hand, which was holding up the vat. Han XiaoYing unsheathed her sword as well and thrusted toward the center of Qiu ChuJi's back. Attacked from both fronts, Qiu ChuJi rotated his wrist, causing the whip to hit the vat instead. Then he turned his body slightly sideways and let the sword thrust by his side.

In the last years of the Spring and Autumn era, the states Yue and Wu were mortal enemies. The Lord of Yue Gou Qian, in order to remind himself of the shame of defeat and to motivate himself to excel, tortured himself by sleeping on a straw bed and tasting a gall-bladder that he hung from the ceiling everyday. But nevertheless, the Lord of Wu had a general under him named Wu ZiYi(not sure about the pinyin here, any help?) who, being a disciple of Sun-Tze's school of combat, was a great tactician and trainer. Seeing that his army was still no match for his enemy's, Gou Qian got more and more depressed. One day, a beautiful young girl with amazing sword skills suddenly appeared inside Yue borders. Happy beyond words, Gou Qian immediately asked her to teach his soldiers her skills and was finally able to defeat the Wu army because of it. JiaXing, being the meeting place between the 2 states, was a place where several battles occurred. So it was no surprise that the entire sword techniques was passed down around here. Only problem was that the sword skill was mostly designed to be most effective on the battle-field, meaning that it was mostly used to chop down numerous soldiers and bringing down horses in a crowd and not nimble or agile enough when used against kungfu practitioners in the martial world. It was only until the last days of the Tang dynasty did this sword technique receive a much needed upgrade from a swordplay genius around this area, who made the moves much more complex and speed. Although Han XiaoYing hadn't mastered this entire repertoire that she learned from her master yet, she was still very deadly. Her nickname "Yue Sword Maiden" was a reference to this.

{Note: This entire story regarding this sword technique is covered in another Jin Yong short story, Yue Maiden Sword, or Yue Nu Jian.}

However, only after a few moves, Qiu ChuJi had figured out her repertoire and decided to beat its speed with even more speed. She was fast, Qiu ChuJi was even faster, using his right arm to blocked off Han BaoHu's whip, his left hand came shooting out in an attempt to snatch the sword out of her hand by sheer force. In an instant, Han XiaoYing was forced to retreat to the side of the Buddha statue.

Nan XiRen and Zhang AhSheng both charged up and attacked from both sides. Nan XiRen was just as quiet as can be, letting his carrying stick make all the sounds. But Zhang AhSheng was completely opposite, shouting and screaming all kinds of street talk, all in his south Yangtze accent. Qiu ChuJi didn't understand a thing that he's shouting, so he just pretended he didn't hear it.

In flurry of the fight Qiu ChuJi's left palm suddenly came straight out right at Zhang AhSheng's face. Instinctively, Zhang AhSeng bent himself over backwards to avoid it, but the move turned out to be a fake as Qiu ChuJi's right foot came flying out and hitting Zhang AhSheng's right wrist, knocking his knife loose. But Zhang AhSheng's much better with nothing in his hands, so he did not miss a beat as he balanced himself with his left leg, faked with a right hand, and attacked with his left fist.

Qiu ChuJi let out a shout of approval before dodging out of the way and uttering: "Pity, pity!" Zhang AhSeng had to ask: "What?" Qiu ChuJi replied: "Pity that you, such a kungfu artist, would bring on shame to yourself by befriending evil monks and serving the Jins." Furious by that accusation, Zhang AhSheng shouted back: "Bastard Taoist, you are the one that's serving the Jins!" He took 3 swings at Qiu ChuJi in quick succession during that. Qiu ChuJi dodged out of the way and tilted the vat, causing 2 of Zhang AhSheng's punches to actually land on the vat.

Seeing that they were still losing despite of their 4 to 1 advantage, Zhu Cong made a gesture towards Quan JinFa and the 2 of them charged into the scuffle. Quan JinFa's weapon was a huge hand scale in which he used the scale handle as a bat, the scale hook as a flying hook, and the scale weight as a mace; literally 3 weapons in 1. Zhu Cong, on the other hand, excelled at hitting pressure points. That dirty and broken fan of his was actually made of iron which he used like a extension of his arm, which facilitates hitting pressure points with distractions such as other weapons or enemies flying at him.

Qiu ChuJi spun and tilted the vat in his hand at will, making it a huge shield that guarded his frontside while using his other, left, hand to fight back and attack. Although with such a huge burden in his hand, he could no longer move around as nimbly as he could, it was still quite advantageous for him because he could just use the vat to block all of the attacks coming towards him.

Father Burnt-Wood, seeing the fight quickly getting out of hand, figured that someone could be seriously hurt any moment now. So he tried to get everyone's attention by shouting as loud as he could: "Everyone please stop! Please listen to what I have to say!" But who would actually stop in the middle of a fierce fight?

Qiu ChuJi shouted back: "Pervert! Who wants to hear you talk? Watch this!" Suddenly his left hand turned ferociously towards Zhang AhSheng as it shifted between fist and palm over and over again without a rhyme or reason. This move, called "Flying Mountain Outside the Heavens," was based on weird form and incredible speed, meant to take an opponent by surprise, as it did to Zhang AhSheng. Father Burnt-Wood shouted: "No! Father! Please don't!" But Qiu ChuJi had been fighting for so long and against so many able opponents that he was afraid for the fight to last too long, especially when there were 2 men standing on the sidelines waiting to jump in at any moment, so at that time he was worried very much about his own life. Now that he had found an opening in his opponents, how could he just let that go? Therefore he put all his strength and power behind this move.

Having trained his body specifically to strengthen up his skin in his kungfu training plus the fact that he liked to wrestle with wild bulls and buffaloes for work and hobby, Zhang AhSheng's body was covered with a layer of thick and hard muscles, which sometimes resembles the thick skins of bulls. So even though he knew that this strike packed quite a force, he, figuring that he couldn't get out of the way anyway, immediately gathered his inner strength and prepared himself for a strike on his shoulders and shouted: "Come on!". And hence, he caught the palm full on. "Crack!" Incredibly, his collar bone, despite of all his preparation, snapped in half under the sheer force of the pure inner force of the QuanZhen Sect.

Shocked, Zhu Cong attacked aggressively with his iron fan, aimed right at a pressure point of Qiu ChuJi. As the saying goes, offense is the best defense; Zhu Cong attacked to protect his sworn brother from further harm now that he's injured. But Qiu ChuJi, having just gained the upperhand, immediately began trying to seize some of the weapons that were flying around him. "Ai-Yo!" Quan JingFa shouted as Qiu ChuJi got a hold of his scale. With a jerk, Qiu ChuJi had pulled him a meter closer. Putting between the 2 of them and 2 other attackers, Nan XiRen and Zhu Cong, Qiu ChuJi's left palm came flying down towards the scalp of Quan JingFa.

Han BaoJu and Han XiaoYing both immediately jumped in and lunged their weapons at Qiu ChuJi's head in an attempt to stop him. Qiu ChuJi had no choice but to dodge out of the way and let Quan JingFa escape. Having just escaped death, Quan JingFa was covered in sweat, but he nevertheless still took a kick to his side that made him writhe on the ground in pain, not able to get up at all.

Father Burnt-Wood didn't want to actually come to blows, having hoped that his misunderstanding with Qiu ChuJi would have been peacefully worked out, but seeing that his friends that had came to his aid are going down one by one, he had to join in the scuffle. So he tossed his long sleeve, raised that piece of burnt-wood in his hand, and lunged at Qiu ChuJi. Qiu ChuJi thought: "So it turns out that this monk is a master at hitting pressure points." So he put his guard up against him.

Ke ZhenE figured from all the shouting that his sworn brothers and sisters are hurt, so he grabbed his iron staff and was about to charge into the fight when Quan JingFa shouted: "Big Brother, fire your projectiles! First at 'Jin', then go for 'Xiao Guo'!" Before his voice even died down, 2 projectiles came flying directly towards Qiu ChuJi's forehead and right hip.

Qiu ChuJi was shocked. It's not often that one meets a blind man able to fire projectiles so accurately, even with a person on the side telling him where to fire it at. So he immediately spun the vat in his hand and knocked the 2 projectiles down. These projectiles are used only by Ke ZhenE, with corners on all 4 sides like a diamond, but as sharp anyone could make it. He learned to use this after he was blinded because the projectiles are heavy, making it easy for him to be accurate. After knocking the projectiles down with the vat, Qiu ChuJi actually felt the vat shake! He thought: "Wow, what strength!"

By now all the other weirdos had dodged out of the way. Quan JingFa still kept shouting: "'Zhong Fu', now 'Lie'!.... Good, now the Taoist has moved into ' Ming Yi"...." He had done this with Ke ZhenE so many times with over the years that it's almost as if his eyes were Ke ZhenE's; he's the only one among the other weirdoes that could do this.

Ke ZhenE was firing as if he could see and in an instant he had fired dozens of projectiles. So much so that Qiu ChuJi was now forced to merely fending off the projectiles with no opportunity to fight back whatsoever.

Suddenly a thought came to Ke ZhenE: "He's hearing 6th brother as well, so he's prepared every time, no wonder I can't hit him." Quan JingFa's voice was getting softer and softer with moans sandwiched in between, obviously in great pain. But Ke ZhenE did not hear Zhang AhSeng make a single bit of noise at all as nobody was quite sure whether or not he's alive. Quan JingFa struggled to get out: "Hit... hit... 'Tong Ren'...." But this time Ke ZhenE did not follow his advice, instead he threw up both arms and fired 4 projectiles, one each at the "Jie" and "Sun" positions right of "Tong Ren" and the other 2 heading for the "Feng" and "Lie" position left of "Tong Ren."

Not expect Ke ZhenE to suddenly use trickery, Qiu ChuJi took a big step left and dodged the "Tong Ren" position as 2 people suddenly screamed in pain.

Qiu ChuJi's right shoulder was hit, but the projectile aimed towards the "Sun" position hit Han XiaoYin's back.

Surprised and pleased, Ke ZhenE shouted: "Little sister, come here!"

Knowing that her big brother soaked his projectiles in extreme poison, Han XiaoYin immediately scrambled to his side. Ke ZhenE took out a small, yellow looking pill from his bag, stuffed it in her mouth, and instructed: "Go to the yard outside and sleep, do not move, I'll come and attend to you later." Han XiaoYin immediately got up and ran towards the yard. But Ke ZhenE shouted: "Don't run! Don't run! Walk slowly!" Han XiaoYin immediately understood and cursed at herself for being so stupid. Because blood will circulate faster when she runs and if the poison was carried into the heart then there would be know way she could be saved. So she stopped and slowly walked out.

After being hit, Qiu ChuJi just kind of ignored it because it was not very painful and just kept on fighting against the rest of the crowd. However, in the midst of the fight he suddenly heard Ke ZhenE shout "Don't run!" several times. A chill went through his heart as he suddenly noticed that his arm around the wound felt very numb and he realized that the projectile had poison on it. Not daring to hesitate, he collected his strength and aimed a punch at Nan XiRen's face as hard as he can.

Noticing that the punch was coming his way, Nan XiRen bent his knees, held his iron carrying stick across his chest, and pulled a move called "Iron Chain Across the River" to block the punch. Qiu ChuJi did not pull the punch at all. On the contrary, he actually took a deep breath and put even more force into the punch, hitting the stick squarely in the middle. Nan XiRen's body shook violently and he had to drop his stick as the part of his hand between his thumb and index finger split open and blood began rushing out. Turned out that Qiu ChuJi wasn't leaving anything in reserve in an attempt to bring the fight to a speedy end so he could save his own life. So he pretty much put all he's worth into this punch, causing massive internal injuries to Nan XiRen. Feeling light on his feet and numbness in his mouth as well as seeing stars, Nan XiRen suddenly fell to the ground throwing up blood.

Although he had taken down another foe, the numbness in Qiu ChuJi's shoulder was getting worse and worse, causing him to start having trouble controlling that huge vat in his hand. So with a shout, he swept his left leg, making Han BaoJu leave his feet to dodge the attack. "Where do you think you are going?" Qiu ChuJi yelled as as he pushed the vat off so that it came down on top of Han BaoJu. Because he was in midair, Han BaoJu could not do a thing other than do half of a flip. By then the vat had already covered his head. In an attempt to avoid any serious injuries, he immediately put his hands over his head and curled up into a ball. "Bang!" The vat hit the floor as it conveniently and neatly covered up Han BaoJu.

As soon as he let go of the vat, Qiu ChuJi unsheathed his sword. With a little kick against the ground with his toes, he jumped up and cut the rope that held the huge bell to the ceiling. At the same time, he gave the bell a little push to aim the bell directly at the vat, making it come down right on top of the vat. Now Han BaoJu was truly stuck; however, Qiu ChuJi had really spent a huge amount of energy with these last 2 moves and as a result, all of his extremities were beginning to feel numb and huge drops of sweat were beginning to bead on his forehead.

Ke ZhenE shouted: "Drop your weapons and stop now! If you wait any longer, your life could be in danger!" But Qiu ChuJi figured that since the monk was in bed with both the Jin and the Song soldiers and hid women in his temple, then his friends, the weirdoes, could not be anything better. He would rather die than to submit to these bastards. So he turned around and began to try and fight his way out.

With only Ke ZhenE and Zhu Cong still unharmed and the conditions of others still unknown, how could either one of them let him get away? So Ke ZhenE held up his iron staff and stood in front of the door, blocking his way out. Desperate to fight out any way he could, Qiu ChuJi stuck his sword out right at Ke ZhenE's face. Ke ZhenE's nickname Flying Bat came about for a reason, so he easily heard what's going on and parried away the sword with his staff, almost knocking the sword out of Qiu ChuJi's hand. Shocked, Qiu ChuJi said to himself: "How strong is this blind man's inner strength? Could it possibly be stronger than mine?" So he immediately followed with another thrust, which was parried away again. But Qiu ChuJi had found out that it wasn't because Ke ZhenE's inner strength was stronger, it was because his right arm was wounded and therefore he could not exert his full force through it. So he switched the sword over to his left hand and began using a skill that he never used combat before, "Common Ruin Sword Skill." The sword flashed as one move after another came flying towards the vitals of Ke ZhenE, Zhu Cong, and Father Burnt-Wood; he wasn't defending at all, every single one of his moves was an attack.

The name "Common Ruin Sword Skill" was designed for one to fight for his life against a much more powerful opponent. Every move is designed to attack the enemy in an vital spot with incredible force without the slightest care for one's life. Although this is a highly refined sword skill, it's actually very similiar to those scraps between the ruffians and low-lifes on the streets. Turned out that Quan Zhen Sect has a nemesis that resides in the western regions. This man was much more powerful than the 7 Disciples of Quan Zhen, and he was as ruthless as he was powerful. Back then only the disciples' master could subdue and control this man, but now that the master had passed away, there's a chance that this man could come back to the central plains any time and destroy the entire Quan Zhen Sect. The 7 disciples do have a "Big Dipper Formation" that could contain this man; however, this formation only works with all 7 disciples present, so there was the possibility that they might ran into this man without every present. This "Common Ruin Sword Skill" was meant to be used against this man, especially in single combat, in the hopes that the 2 combatants would both perish and thus preserving the sect. Poisoned and surrounded by 3 kungfu masters, Qiu ChuJi had no choice but to use this skill.

After about a dozen exchanges or so, Ke ZhenE's leg was hit. Father Burnt-Wood shouted: "Big Brother Ke, Brother Zhu, why don't we just let him go on his way?" But because of this little distraction, his right rib was hit, causing him to fall to the ground screaming.

By now, Qiu ChuJi was having trouble keeping his balance as well. His eyes bloodshot, Zhu Chong exchanged several more moves with him, all the while cursing at him nonstop. Ke ZhenE, not being able to see, was completely baffled by the sound created by Qiu ChuJi's sword and was hit again, this time on his right leg, as he fell to the ground.

Zhu Cong cursed: "Dog of a Taoist, bastard Taoist! The poison in your veins have reached your heart now! Why don't you try and make 3 more moves at me?"

Furious, Qiu ChuJi gimply came charging at him, but Zhu Cong's lightness kungfu was very good as he flew around the hall. Knowing that he could not keep this up anymore, Qiu ChuJi stopped and sighed. Suddenly every turned dark in front of him. He tried to shake his mind clear and was just about to go look for a way out when suddenly something smacked his back. It was a shoe that Zhu Cong had taken off.

Even though the shoe was soft, he still carried quite a bit of force with it because of Zhu Cong's inner strength. Qiu ChuJi teetered as he fought hard to maintain consciousness. Suddenly something else hit the back of his head. This time it's a wooden fish that Zhu Cong had found lying in front the Buddha statue. Fortunately, Qiu ChuJi's inner strength was very strong, for a normal person would have undoubtedly died from that hit, but even he almost black out from that hit. So Qiu ChuJi yelled at the top of his lungs: "Forget it, forget it! Son of Eternal Spring shall die today in the hands of these shameless bastards!" Feeling his knees suddenly give away, he collapsed onto the floor.

{Note: the wooden fish is a wooden percussion instrument that Buddhist priests use to keep rhythm while chanting.}

Fearing that he might jump back up again, Zhu Cong reached down to hit the pressure point in the middle of Qiu ChuJi's chest when he suddenly saw Qiu ChuJi's left hand move. Knowing that he was in trouble, Zhu Cong immediately tried to bring his right arm back in front of his chest to block the blow. But a huge force came flying up from underneath his belly and shot him off. He was spitting out blood even before he landed. Even though he could not move, Qiu ChuJi put all the strength left in him into this strike. There was no way in the world that Zhu Cong could take such a force.

Not only does none of the other monks in the temple knew any kungfu, none of them even knew that their master knew kungfu. So the sudden chaos in the main hall had sent them fleeing for their lives a long time ago. Only after thing had quieted down for quite a while did they a couple of the braver monks stuck their heads out to see what had happened. What they saw, blood everywhere, bodies everywhere, sent them screaming and scrambling to Duan TianDe.

Duan TianDe had been hiding in the underground storage the entire time and was ecstatic upon hearing the news that both sides were completely destroyed in the fight. Making sure that Qiu ChuJi was among those fighting, he told the monks to go and check whether or not the Taoist had died. Only when the monks came back with the news that the Taoist was lying on the ground with his eyes shut did he finally feel safe and dragged Li Ping to the main hall.

He gave Qiu ChuJi a kick, causing Qiu ChuJi to let out an almost imperceptible moan. So Duan TianDe pulled out his sabre and shouted: "You have any idea how much suffering you have given me you Taoist bastard? Well now your old man is going to send you on your way to the Western Paradise!"

Even though he was greatly injured, Father Burnt-Wood summoned all his strength and shouted: "Don't... don't harm him!" Duan TianDe inquired: "Why not?" Father Burnt-Wood, still recovering from the shout, got out between breaths: "He's a good man... just a little im... impatient, so there was some misunderstand...." Duan TianDe replied: "A good man? Who cares? Let me kill him first!" Father Burnt-Wood angrily rebuked: "Are you going to listen to me or not? Put... put down your sabre!" Duan TianDe laughed heartily at that remark and shouted back: "Put down my sabre? Then what? Become enlightened on the spot?" He lifted up his sabre and began to swing it down at Qiu ChuJi.

{Note: Duan TianDe's becoming enlightened remark is a reference to a Buddhist saying that one could put down his weapon and become enlightened on the spot.}

Furious, Father Burnt-Wood summoned up all his strength again and tossed the piece of burnt wood in his hand at Duan TianDe as hard as he could. Duan TianDe tried to dodge out of the way, but his kungfu was just not good enough as it caught him on the side of his mouth and knocked out 3 of his teeth. In pain and humiliation, Duan TianDe, ignoring the fact that he owed his life to Father Burnt-Wood, lifted his sabre and tried to chop off Father Burnt-Wood's head. However, a small monk who was right beside him grabbed onto his right arm and held on for his life while another one grabbed his collar. In fury, Duan TianDe swung his sabre back and brought it down upon those 2 monks.

Even though Qiu ChuJi, Father Burnt-Wood, and Weirdoes were all kungfu masters, every single one of them was gravely injured and could not do a thing to stop him.

Li Ping screamed: "Bastard! Stop! Stop!" She had been dragged all over the place by Duan TianDe and was just basically waiting for an opportunity to present itself for her to avenge her husband. But seeing the ground covered in blood and this man about to commit more murders, she could not hold back anymore. She charged up at him and began to fight for all she's worth.

The others had thought she was just an underling of Duan TianDe because of her uniform. So everyone was quite surprised when she suddenly attacked Duan TianDe.

Being blind, Ke ZhenE's hearing was especially sensitive and knew that she was female as soon as he heard her. He turned to Father Burnt-Wood: "Monk Burnt-Wood, we are all going to die because of you. You really did have a girl hidden in your temple!"

After a moment of surprise, Father Burnt-Wood understood what had happened. Thinking that because of one slight oversight on his part, he had not only hurt himself, he had taken his friends down with him as well. In anger and humiliation, he punched the ground with both hands to help him stand up and charged at Duan TianDe with all his might. Seeing him coming with such ferociousness, Duan TianDe immediately dodged out of the way in fear. Not being able to control his own body because of the injury, Father Burnt-Wood's ran smack into one of the columns head first and died on the spot.

Scared out of his wits, Duan TianDe grabbed Li Ping and ran off as fast as he could. Li Ping's shout for help got further and further.

Go back to Top

chapter 3

Go back to Jin Yong Index