I am wondering:
How is CLH's finger snap vs HY's Divine Finger Flick?
How is CLH's overall martial arts compared to HYS?
What level might CLH be on WuxiaMaster's Ultimate Rankings?
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I am wondering:
How is CLH's finger snap vs HY's Divine Finger Flick?
How is CLH's overall martial arts compared to HYS?
What level might CLH be on WuxiaMaster's Ultimate Rankings?
The Divine Finger Snap was East Heretic Wong Yerk See's creation, and was known as his ultimate martial art (from a wide array of martial arts he had personally invented). For Chor Lau Heung, the Divine Finger Snap was a skill that he learned, and it was one that he was known for, but it wasn't his go-to technique the same as it was for Wong Yerk See.
For his entire adult life, Wong Yerk See was among the Top 6-10 martial artists in wulin, and often hovered within the Top 5. A few people managed to become slightly better than him during his lifetime, but nobody completely outclassed him. We never saw Wong Yerk See seriously wounded throughout his appearances in LOCH/ROCH (only a minor finger wound when West Poison Au Yeung Fung bit him at the Second Mt. Hua Sword Tournament).
Throughout the time of Chor Lau Heung's adventures, at least two martial artists were his superior: the Stone Guanyin and the Water Matriarch. Their skills outclassed his, and he was able to overcome these enemies only through his great cunning and a bit of good luck. If the TV adaptations can be believed, he did sustain a few serious injuries during his adventures.
Based on this limited information, Wong Yerk See should be overall superior to Chor Lau Heung.
HOWEVER, we followed Wong Yerk See's life/adventures mostly from the time when he was in his fifties to his nineties. He had, for the most part, arrived at his peak levels as a martial artist. Chor Lau Heung's adventures all take place before he is in his mid-thirties, so we do not know to what extent he might have improved later in his life.
During LOCH, he was within the Top 5. Because there was no consensus # 1 during LOCH, it was best to treat him and his rivals as Top 5 martial artists (unranked). He never sat at the pinnacle alone at # 1, but after he turned thirty, he was never out of the Top 10.
To expand upon this, during Wong Yerk See's young adulthood, Central Divinity Wong Chung Yeung and Ancient Tomb Sect Founder Lam Chiu Ying were superior to him.
During Wong Yerk See's prime age, Au Yeung Fung was *slightly* better than him during the Second Mt. Hua Sword Tournament, but this was likely a very short-lived period.
Near the end of ROCH, only Gwok Jing and Yeung Gor were definitively better than Wong Yerk See, and I imagine (but cannot confirm) that both the Golden Wheel Monk and Chow Bak Tung would have been somewhat better too (but not by huge margins).
Zhou Botong was better than him right out of the cave. Huang Yaoshi himself admitted so he's not the type to give out diplomatic praises. Also during the final Huashan meet, Jin Yong confirmed again that ZBT is a bit above all other current Greats and that includes GJ and YG who were also present.
Ou Yangfeng beat him at the 2nd Huashan tournament but that was a freak incident like you said. OYF and HQG later dueled to a dead even result. OYF, HYS, HQG were all equal as intended by the author.
Against other characters, it's inconclusive whether he's better or worse. He never fought GJ, YG, GWM etc. in any serious battles so we'll never find out. YG beat GWM but we all know about GWM's chokability so we can't use GWM as a reliable barometer.
So going strictly by facts that happened in the novels and the author's own word, we can only know for sure that there's roughly 5 tiers and the difference between them is about 2-3 level points at best.
Tier 1: ZBT
Tier 2: HYS, OYF, HQG, GJ, YG
Tier 3: YD
Tier 4: QQR
GWM should be tier 2 but he can choke his way to a defeat easily, especially when he's rattled by the surrounding environment.
My impression was that Chow Bak Tung was slightly behind the other Greats until he mastered the Left/Right Hand Technique and inadvertently began incorporating the 9 Yum Jen Ging into his native martial arts after teaching it Gwok Jing, which happened shortly after Chow's first appearance.
That is true. Up to that point, ZBT was behind the other Greats in internal power but after GJ "enlightened" him, he became superior in technique. Later on, the combination of QZ power cultivation method and subconscious 9Yin training allowed him to catch up in internals and surpassed the original Greats. QZ arts and 9Yin are both Taoist based so they have good synergies. Of all the Greats, only ZBT could toy with QQR to the point where QQR had to run away like a HS kid when he sees his bully. ZBT has to be at least 5-6 levels above QQR.
Return of the Condor Hero chapter 24..
Fawang said, “Hand the banner back to me and then come back later tonight to steal it again while I’ll guard it. No matter what method you use, if you are able to steal it again, I’ll give my respects to you as a great hero.”
Zhou Botong could never resist challenges and the harder it was, the greater the urge to do it. He immediately shot the flag back to Fawang and said, “Catch, I’ll be back for it tonight.”
Fawang stretched out his hand and caught the flag pole only to realize the great force behind the throw, he quickly circulated his internal energy to resist but in the end, he still had to take two steps back before he steadied himself.
I find it incredibly amusing that a thread discussing and comparing Chu Liuxiang and Huang Yaoshi gets hijacked into another discussion of the LOCH/ROCH Greats. All of you never seem to get enough of that, do you? :) I write this with no sarcasm. I'm genuinely amused by it.
Futhermore, there is no way to compare Huang Yaoshi and Chu Liuxiang when it comes to martial arts. That would be comparing Rowling's Dumbledore against Tolkien's Gandalf. Yes, we can discuss characterisation and the roles they play in respective novels, but that is it.
'弹指神通' is an art of Huang Yaoshi. TV script writers gave Chu Liuxiang this art in Chu Liuxiang adaptations. Gu Long never wrote that Chu Liuxiang knew this art; in fact the Buddhist monk Wuhua used '弹指神通' against Chu Liuxiang in their duel in the first novel.
In 1979, TVB did the unthinkable and briefly merged the Jin Yong and Gu Long universes. No Flowers Monk himself stated that the Divine Finger Snap was invented by "Wong Yerk See of the East Island." Well, he didn't call it Peach Blossom Island, but it was nevertheless an epic moment when, very briefly, the Jin Yong and Gu Long universes shared a timeline. :)
I think the title should be Chu Liuxiang vs Huang Yaoshi 😁😁😁😁