So how many Tse Tsuns equals one Cheung 3 Fung (in martial arts ability)?

[Ken Cheng]

When Cheung Chui San first met Golden-Haired Lion King Tse Tsun, Cheung concluded that Tse's martial arts rivaled those of Cheung's teacher, Cheung 3 Fung. Of course, Chui San's assessment of Tse's martial arts level was way, way off, but it's easy to see how Chui San overrated Tse Tsun so much. Cheung Chui San himself was quite an excellent fighter even at the beginning of HSDS; up until that point, he had not encountered a foe whom he could not defeat fairly easily (all those Sea Sand Sect, Dragon's Gate Courier Agency, Shaolin, and Heavenly Eagle Sect guys he beat so easily in those early parts of the story), but he knew that Tse Tsun was at a much, much higher level than himself.

Tse Tsun did look quite awesome in his first appearance - easily wasting scores of Kunlun Sect, Sea Sand Sect, Great Whale Sect, etc., people, and making even Bak Gwai Sau, Yan So So, and Cheung Chui San look like complete chumps by comparison. Still, we know that Tse was still far, far below Cheung 3 Fung's level.

So how far below? How many Tse Tsuns would it take to equal one Cheung 3 Fung in a martial arts fight?

[BlackRaven]

20 years of training on the Ice-Fire Island improved Xie Xun's inner power tremendously. I did not pay attention to this detail at first, but when I read the fight between Xie Xun and Cheng Kun, it seems that both had comparable inner power.

At the beginning of the novel, before XX was blinded, he was on the same level as Yin TianZheng. After the 20 years of training on Ice-Fire Island, I think XX is still equal to YTZ.
Inner Power: blind XX > YTZ
effectiveness of techniques: YTZ > XX due to his blindness
overall they are still equal

Yin TianZheng teamed up with Yang Xiao and only managed to fight a Du monk to a draw. 3 Du monks are roughly equal to one ZWJ or one ZSF. So let's say one YTZ would equal 1/6 of ZSF, so 6 blind Xie Xun would equal one ZSF.

Cheng Kun has been placed in the same category skill-wise as the 3 Du monks. Cheng Kun was at his prime during his fight with Yang Xiao, Bat King and the 4 division leaders at the Ming HQ, before ZWJ destroyed his Hua Yin Finger permanently. Is Cheng Kun without HYF still equal to the Du monks?

If Cheng Kun is the equal of 1 Du monk, then it would take 3 Cheng Kun to fight ZSF. Since Xie Xun's improved inner power is competitive with CK's, if XX wasn't blind, perhaps 3 XX could tie one ZSF.

Xie Xun's Seven Injuries Fist is the supreme skill of KongTong, one of the 5 top orthodox schools, and he managed to master its power, despite some side-effects. XYS, MRB and JMZ also suffered side-effects, but that didn't weaken the power of their moves. No one managed to master the supreme skill of E Mei (sword?) or Kunlun (also sword?), so Xie Xun accomplished a rare feat.

It would have been interesting to see ZSF fight 3 or 6 Xie Xun. We saw ZWJ use Taiji to redirect the powerful and direct JinGang Finger of Shaolin. But Seven Injuries Fist attacks with 7 different types of energy. So not only will ZSF's Taiji have to redirect XX's powerful physical blows, he also has to redirect the 7 energy types.