e when I was 7, I stared at that ’18 Scholar’ Camelia plant from dawn to dusk, even sneaking up in the middle of the night to stare at it. All I did was think about it, even while eating and learning. When the flower wilts, I cried for several days straight. Later, when I started to learn Go, it was the same, constantly forgetting about eat and sleep. All day everyday, all I did was think about how to play the game. This time dad told me to learn kungfu, just so happens I am interested in the ‘Book of Changes’. Even when I’m eating, I would wonder whether the chopsticks I’m using are ‘Big Haves’ or ‘Colleague’. I don’t want to learn kungfu, was it really because I don’t want to learn how to beat and kill people? Or could it possibly because I don’t want to put down ‘Book of Changes’? Dad said I was ‘unreasonable’, maybe I really was being very unreasonable. Mom knows how I am the best, so she said to dad: ‘One day when this kid gets interested in kungfu, you can’t even force him to stop for a minute to eat. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. If he doesn’t want to learn there is nothing you can do to make him.’ Ah! It is almost impossible to make me aspire to do something. Hopefully one day I’ll become obsessed with kungfu, that would make my mom, dad, and uncle all very happy. I just won’t beat or kill anyone once I learn it, that’s all. It’s not like you have to kill to learn kungfu. My uncle’s kungfu is so powerful, but he is so benevolent and merciful that I don’t think he killed a single person in his life. Even if he wants to kill someone, it’s not like he has to do it himself.”

Sitting there by the lake, deep in thought, he lost all track of time. Suddenly, he noticed faint rainbow colors reflecting off of the smooth rock by his side. Looking at it closer, he saw an image of a sword underneath the “Duan” he carved on the rock. The image of the sword was unusually clear for a reflection, he can clearly make out the handle, hand guard, and sword point. The sword is pointing downwards, the reflection also emits a rainbowlike aura, moving and flashing around.

He wondered: “Why is there extra colors in the reflection?” He looked up to look for the moon but can’t see it. Turns out that the moon has dipped below the clff on the westside. That cliff face has a hole in it, the moonlight is shining through the hole. Inside the cave itself there were some colorful likes emitting out. Suddenly, he understood: “I get it! There’s a sword hanging inside of the cave, on the sword there are many precious stones and gems. The moonlight shines on the sword and the gems making the jade reflect their image. No wonder it is so amazingly spectacular and colorful.”

He thought some more: “One has to hollow out the sword body to inlay it with gems, only then can the moonlight shine through the gems and create such an image. If the sword is not hollowed out, then the moonlight can’t shine through the gems. Obviously, creating this sword took alot of work.” The hole that the sword is in is about 20 meters above the ground, no way for him to go and get a closer look. Looking at it from the bottom, only the varied colored lights from the gems can be seen. But the reflection on the stone looked like a scene from a beautiful dream, as if something stolen from the gods.

Soon, the moon moved. The colors got lighter and lighter until it disappeared completely and the rock turned back to a gray color. Duan Yu thought: “That sword was probably placed there by that pair or masters. Such a steep and deep cliff, nobody in No Measure Sword would even dare to climb down to inspect the place. But if you stand on the top of the cliff, there is no way that you can see this hole and the sword. Even if No Measure Sword stood up there and stared at the cliff for another hundred years, they probably still won’t know about this. Yet, even if you can get the sword, what’s the big deal about that?” Aftre thinking about it a bit more, he fell asleep.

In the middle of a dream, he suddenly jumped up: “To place a sword at that place, how much effort and work would it take? Even if you are a kungfu master, it would still be alot of trouble. To go through so much work, there must be something behind it. Maybe there are some secrets in that hole on the cliff, maybe some secret kungfu manual is hidden there.” Once his thoughts went on to kungfu, some excitement went out of his sails: “Those kind of kungfu manuals, No Measure Sword treats them like treasures, but if you put them in front of me, I wouldn’t even open them up to read.”

The next day, he slowly walked around the lake and enjoyed the view. This is his 3rd day inside this canyon. He figured in 4 more days the “Intestine Fragmenter” would take effect, by then there really is no point in looking for a way out anymore.

He woke up at midnight that night and waited for the moon to dip west. After 3 or 4 hours, the moonlight start coming through the hole in the cliff, once again displaying all the beautiful colors upon the little smooth rock. The image of the sword on the rock is tilted toward the north, pointing at another big rock. Duan Yu’s mind lit up: “Maybe there’s something about this rock.” He walked over to the rock and pushed. The moss on the rock felt wet and soft, yet that rock seemed to have moved a little when he pushed. He pushed even harder, now it is obvious that the rock is rocking. This rock is chest high and weigh at least a ton if not 2. Logically he can never be able to move it. He felt around the bottom of the rock. Turns out this giant rock was sitting on top of a small piece of rock, but unsure whether this situation man-made or natural. His heart skipped a beat: “Something fishy is going on here!”

He placed his hands on the right side of the rock and pushed. The rock swayed out of place but then returned to its original position. There were some sounds of vines snapping coming out from underneath the rock as if the 2 rocks were tied together by some vines. By now there was not enough moonlight to see clearly, so he thought: “Wait until day comes, then I’ll come and figure it all out.”

So he laid down beside the rock and took a little nap and when he woke up, the sun had come out. He stood up and inspected around the rock. Then he laid down and got rid of all the vines and tiny stones between the 2 rocks. Once again he pushed, this time the big rock slowly rotated like a door. After a quarter turn, a meter high cave appeared behind it.

In his excitement, he did not even check whether or not there are dangers inside the cave before lowering his head and entering. After more than 10 steps, there is no longer any light in the cave. He held both of his hands out and felt around before every step. But the ground felt flat and smooth, as if he was walking on a stone path. It was as if the path was designed and made by human, he could not help but get even more excited about this. Only thing is that the path continued to head downwards, obviously he was going lower and lower. Suddenly, his hands came in contact with some cold, ring-like object. As soon as he touched it, the object let out a loud and clear “Dang!” He touched it once more, turned out the object was a door ring.

Where there’s a door ring, there must be a door. His hands felt around, finding several door nails. In surprise and excitement he thought: “If there is someone living behind this door, wouldn’t that be weird?” He found the door ring again and knocked 3 times. After waiting for a while, nobody came. He knocked the door ring 3 times more, still nobody. So he pushed the door. The door seemed to be made of iron and copper, heavy as can be, but it wasn’t locked. So when he pushed, it slowly opened. He spoke up: “I am Duan Yu, please forgive me for showing up and barging in uninvited.” No sound came from inside, so he stepped in.

No matter how hard he stared, he still could not see anything. The smell of mildew surrounded him, seemed like nobody has been living here for a very long time. He continued to walk forward. “Bang”! His head suddenly bumped into something. Luckily he was walking very slowly, so it didn’t hurt much. He felt around with his hand, turns out it was another door. He slowly pushed this door open and some light hit his eyes.

He shut his eyes as his heart raced like crazy. Only after a bit did he slowly open his eyes and saw a round shaped room. The light was coming from the left, but it was too dim and hazy to be sunlight.

He walked toward the window that was the source of light. Suddenly a shrimp swam by outside of the window. Surprised and curious, he took several more steps towards it and saw a colorful carp casually swim by the window as well. He looked at the window closely and saw it actually is a huge piece of crystal that was imbedded into the wall. The crystal is about size of a tray and the light was coming through it.

He put his head up against the crystal and looked out. Fishes and shrimps swam about without any bounds being seen. He suddenly figured out where he was, actually below the lake now. It must have taken a lot of effort and work to build this room so that the light from outside would come in, not to mention this tray-size crystal. After calming down some, he immediately started to worry: “Crap! I’m below the bottom of the lake now! I couldn’t see a thing the entire way down, don’t know how many twists and turns I took to end up here. How am I suppose to get out now?”

Turning around, he noticed that there is a stone table in the middle of the room with a stool by it. On top of the table was a copper mirror, beside the mirror were some combs and earring type of things. It looked as if this was a beautiful woman’s living place. The mirror is green with rust and the table is covered in inches of dust. Don’t know how long it has been since someone been here.

Seeing this scene, he became lost in his thoughts: “A girl must have lived here many years ago. Don’t know what happened to her to make her want to leave the world like this. Hmm, most likely she’s the girl whose image was reflected onto the cliff.” Snapping out of his trance, he looked around some more. There were mirrors all over the room and embedded into the wall as well. He did a little count, there were more than 30 mirrors in total. He thought some more: “The girl probably was an unrivaled beauty. Her partner died, so she just lived here all by herself. Only thing to do was to sit and look at herself all day everyday. Such a story, how can one not be sad?”

Walking around in the room, once in a while he would click his tongue, then other times he would let out a long sigh, only thinking about the former master of this room. After a long while, he suddenly had a thought: “Ay! I’m so busy thinking about the sadness of the former owner that I forgot about my problems.” He started to talk to himself: “I, Duan Yu, am a stinking male. If I die in this place, then I could very well offend the beautiful lady. It is best to die outside by the lake. Else if others come here in the future and find my body here and mistake it for the lady’s body, then isn’t that… isn’t that….” Before he thought about what that really is or isn’t, he suddenly noticed that a mirror on the east wall was reflecting the light onto what seemed like a crack on the southwest wall. He immediate ran over and pushed hard on that piece of rock. As expected, it really was a door. As it slowly opened, it revealed an entrance. Looking into the entrance, he saw another flight of stone stairs.

In excitement, he let out a yell and danced around for a while before moving on. After walking another 10 or so steps downward, he faintly saw another door in front of him. He pushed the door open. Light hit his eyes as he let out a scream: “Ai-Yo!”

In front of him was a beautiful girl dressed in formal clothing holding a sword in her hand. The point of the sword pointed right at his chest.

After a long time, the girl did not move at all. He looked at the girl closely, noticing that even though her expression looked real, she does not seem to be alive. Summoning his courage he looked her over closely again. Only now did he see that she is a statue made from white jade. This statue is the same size as an actual human. The light yellow colored silk shirt she has on were lightly moving in the wind. The most interesting feature were her pupils, they are alive with spirit and expression. All Duan Yu could say was: “So sorry, so sorry. It is so rude to stare at miss like I am.” He knew it was rude, but he still could not take his eyes off of her eyes. After staring for who knows how long, he finally figured out that the eyes were made from some kind of black gem. But the more he stared the deeper her pupils seemed to become. The fact that the statue looks so very human-like was mainly because of the spirit and delicacy of its eyes.

The white jade on the statue’s face has a faint sign of redness, making it even more human like. Duan Yu stepped aside to look at the statue, but noticed that her eyes followed him as if she was alive. In shock, he leaned his head to the right, the eyes of the statue still followed him. No matter where he stands, the statue’s eyes are always looking at him. The expression in her eyes were even harder to figure out, seemingly love and happiness but not really, seemingly sincerely in love, yet also seemed silently depressed.

He was spellbound for a long time. With a deep bow, he said: “Dear Goddess, Duan Yu was fortunate enough to see your beauty today, I can die without no regrets now. Goddess, you have separated yourself from the world to live here by yourself, hope it wasn’t too lonely.” The colors from the statue’s eyes changed, as if she heard what he said and was truly touched.

By now Duan Yu was completely spellbound. It’s almost as if he was possessed, as if he can’t ever take his eyes off the statue again. He muttered: “Don’t know how I should address dear Goddess.” He thought: “I should look around to see if she left her name around here.”

Looking around, he saw a lot of writings on the wall to the east but he didn’t really pay attention to them and immediately went back to staring at the statue. This time he noticed that the hair on the statue is actually real human hair, curled up in a bun. The hair around her temples were like a fog. By her temple was a jade hairpin. On the hairpin was 2 pinky sized crystals, shiny and colorful. The walls of the room were full of gems and crystals as well. On the wall on the west side, 6 large crystals were embedded into the walls. Beyond the crystals was the faint glow of water, making this room several times brighter than the previous room.

He stared blankly at the statue for a long time again before turning away. He noticed that the east wall has been smoothed out and several lines of words has been carved onto it. The lines were all taken from ZhuangZi (Toaist philosopher, contemporary of Mencius, a favorite of Oscar Wilde), mostly from the books of “Carefree Travels”, “Principles of Nuturing”, “Autumn Waters”, and “Epitome of Happiness”. The calligraphy was elegant and refined. The words seemed to be carved with a really sharp tool for every stroke is about half-an-inch deep. At the end was another line: “Dedicated to Dear QiuShui (Autumn Waters) from Carefree Man. No sun and moon in this cave, truly the Epitome of Happiness in the mortal world.”

Duan Yu stared at these words for a while, thinking: “This ‘Carefree Man’ and ‘Dear QiuShui’ are probably the 2 masters that were practicing swords decades ago. And this statue is probably that ‘Dear QiuShui’ as well. Carefree Man was able to live with her here in this serene cave, that really is the epitome of happiness in the mortal world. Actually, who says it’s merely epitome of happiness in the mortal world, does heaven have such joys?”

His eyes moved onto the other lines on the wall: “Small and insignificant mountain, immortals dwell within, skin like ice and snow, graceful virgin, no need for foods, and shows joy in breeze.” He turned to the statue and thought: .”Using these words by ZhuangZi to describe Dear Goddess could not be anymore appropriate.” He walked to in front of the statue and stared. Seeing her ice-like skin, he did not dare to even lift a finger and touch her. It was as if his heart was possessed. He even faintly smelled some musk like incense fragrance. From love was born respect, from respect came obsession. {ZhuangZi needs to learn to write coherently, that’s what I say. Hopefully my translation was not just out there.}

After who knows how long, he suddenly blurted out: “Dear Goddess, if you are willing to say even one word to me. Then I would happily and without regret die 1000, no, 10000 times.” Suddenly he kneeled.

When he kneeled, he noticed that there were 2 mats in front of the statue, seemingly placed for people to kowtow to the statue. His knees were resting on the bigger mat while there is a much smaller one just in front of the statue, seeming made for people to kowtow. So he did. Suddenly he noticed that there seemed to be words sewn onto the inside portion of the statue’s shoes. He looked harder and recognized that on the right shoe was sewn: “Kowtow one thousand times, then obey my orders”, and the left shoes read: “Whoso follows my instructions, will never have regrets”.

These 16 words were literally smaller than the head of a fly. The shoes were green like the lake, and the 16 words were sewn using a thin green line, only slightly darker than the shoes. Add in the hazy and confusing lighting of the room, there is no way these words can be seen without first kowtowing followed by a careful look. Duan Yu felt that kowtowing 1000 times was actually very natural of a thing, adding on top that he would be get a chance to obey the statue, he really couldn’t ask for anything more. As for following her instructions, he wouldn’t mind jumping in boiling oil or burning seas, of course he would not regret it. So without a bit of hesitation, with his mind not all there, he started to really honestly kowtowing to the statue. All the while he counted out loud: “5, 10, 15, 20….”

When he got to 500, his waist was sore, his bones hurt, and his forehead felt numb. But he told himself that he would not stop until he gets to 1000 no matter what. Can’t even accomplish the first instructions he got from Dear Goddess, then how does he get off saying “will never have regret”? By the time he got to 800, the smaller mat had been worn through, exposing something underneath. He didn’t bother and still went on kowtowing one after another. When he finished, he stood up. Suddenly he felt his waist give out and fell flat on his back.

He just lied there, resting. Even though he is worn and sore all over, he still felt great in his heart for he has done something that the statue asked of him. Only after a long while did he finally, and slowly, got up. He touched where the smaller mat was worn through. It felt smooth and soft to the touch, turned out there was a silk bundle underneath. He thought: “So Dear Goddess had this planned out a long time ago. If I didn’t kowtow 1000 times, the mat wouldn’t have been worn through, and the treasure that she has rewarded to me wouldn’t have appeared.” He never cared for jade, crystals, or pearls, but since this silk bundle was given to him by Dear Goddess, he would treasure it like no other even if its only a pile of dried up leaves. He grabbed it with his right hand, but immediately put his left hand on it as well, and held it up to his chest.

The silk bundle was about a foot long and on it were written these words: “You have already kowtow 1000 times, meaning that you have admitted as my subject and will listen to my command without regrets. This volume is the essence of our Carefree Sect’s kungfu (Xiao Yao Pai). From this day forth, you shall, from 5am to 7am, 11pm to 1am, and 5pm to 7pm, follow and practice the instructions within. Then you can rightfully read the collection and all the kungfus of every sect in the world will be yours to use. Learn what you can and want, afterwards leave and kill all of the disciples and descendants of the Carefree Sect. If one fall through the holes, even the heavens will curse you.” {Written in very fancy book Chinese, I tried to get the gist of it without breaking out with Shakespearian imitations}

His hands that were holding up the bundle could not shaking violently as the thought ran across his mind: “What does she mean? I don’t want to learn kungfu, as for killing all of the disciples of Carefree Sect, I have even less urge to do that. But how can I not obey Dear Goddess’s instructions? I have already kowtowed to her 1000 times, which means I am now a willing subject of hers. But she wants me to learn kungfu and kill, what should I do?” {As the Chinese would describe Duan Yu: Idiot Scholar!}

His mind was a mess as he thought to himself: “She tells me to learn the kungfu of the Carefree Sect and kill all the disciples of the Carefree Sect, how strange. Hm, probably her martial brothers and sisters did something horrible to her, so she wants revenge. Yet she was not able to before her death, so she wants to have a disciple to finish this wish of hers. Those people did bad things to Dear Goddess, then without a doubt they are the most evil and sinister people in the world. When Confucius said: ‘Revenge with righteousness’, he was talking about this kind of stuff. Dad also said that even if I don’t want to kill bad people, when they meet me they would want to kill me, so if I don’t know any kungfu, then all I can do is wait to be killed. There is a lot of sense in what he said.” When his father was forcing him to learn kungfu, he whipped out all kinds of philosophies and arguments of Confucius and Buddhism to say that it’s not right to learn kungfu. His father’s knowledge in this subject is not on par with him, so he could not argue with him. Yet at this moment, he is obsessed with the statue, so he naturally feels that there are some sense in what his father said.

He thought some more: “Dear Goddess has been gone for several decades now, don’t know if there still is a Carefree Sect in this world. As the saying goes: ‘Evil only begets evil’. Maybe every single one of them have already got what’s coming to them and there is no need for me to kill them anymore. If there are no more disciples of Carefree Sect, then Dear Goddess’s wish has come to fruition and she need not be full of hate up in heaven where she resides.”

Once he thought of this, his heart relaxed and he stopped worrying. He silently prayed: “Dear Goddess, whatever instructions you leave behind, Duan Yu will obey without a question. But hopefully your powers knows no bounds and the disciples of Carefree Sect have already met their ends.” Nervously, he opened up the bundle. Inside was one single roll of silk scroll.

He unrolled the scroll. The first line read: “Divine Skill of the Northern Darkness” (Bei Ming Shen Gong). The handwriting was beautiful and elegant yet powerful, same as the words written on the outside of the silk bundle. After it was written:

“ZhuangZi’s ‘Carefree Travels’ read: ‘Beyond the northern boundaries is the sea of darkness, a sea of heaven. There are fishes within thousands of kilometers long, but no one known really how long.’ Also read: ‘If the accumulated water is not enough, then it is no matter that the boat’s big. If the water from the overturned cup is more than that can be held by the depression, then even cabbage leaves can be a boat; set the cup inside and become as one, then if the water is little then the boat is big.’ In our sect’s kungfu, accumulating inner force is most important. Once inner force is strong, then all of the kungfus of all the sects are ours to use. Just like the northern darkness, able to hold all boats no matter the size, able to contain all fishes big or small. For this reason, inner force is most basic and first, while moves are last. Using the diagrams below and diligently learn inner force training and meditation.”

{Note: the phrase that said “fishes within” in Chinese is “YuYan”, Wang YuYan’s name is a play off of this line. ZhuangZi’s phrases need to make some sense, I tried to go for the literal meaning because they are supposed to be very meaningful quotes with many levels. It would be better if he had not used rare words and weird ways to say the simplest of concepts.}

Duan Yu praised: “Dear Goddess could not have made it any clearer with this passage!” He thought some more: “Since this ‘Divine Skill of the Northern Darkness’ is inner force kungfu, learning it should be no harm to anyone.” So he unrolled some more of the scroll with his left hand. “Ah!” He suddenly screamed as his hearted raced a mile a minute. In an instant he blushed to the roots of his ears and his whole body felt like it was burning up.

For on the scroll there was a drawing of a naked female, not a single strand of clothing on her body, face exactly like that of the statue’s. Duan Yu felt as if one glance would be disrespect and obscene towards Dear Goddess, so he immediately rolled up the scroll. Only after a long while did he think: “Dear Goddess instructed: ‘Using the diagrams below and diligently learn.’ I’m only following her instructions, can’t be counted as disrespect.”

His hands still shaking, he unrolled the scroll again. The face of the female was smiling beautifully and sweetly. The ends of her eyebrows, the corner of her eyes, and her rosy cheeks all exuded a seductive charm. When compared to that serious expression of the jade statue, although their looks are the same, the feeling they give off are completely different. He could almost hear his heart beating heavily as his eyes moved onto the woman’s body and saw a thin green line. The line started on her left shoulders, moved horizontally until below her chin, then slanted downwards to her right breast. When he saw a slight sign of mound of her breast, his heart skipped at least 5 beats and he immediately shut his eyes. After a long wait, he slowly opened his eyes and looked down again. The green line passed underneath the armpits, followed her right arm, passing her wrist and finally came to a stop on her right thumb. The more he followed the line the more relaxed he became, figuring looking at Dear Goddess’s arm and fingers is nothing bad. But even when just looking at her beautiful and shapely arm and legs, his heart could not help but start picking up again.

There was another green line that started at the base of the neck and went downwards, past the chest and stomach all the way until a few inches above the navel. Duan Yu dared not to look at that line very closely and turned his attention back to the green line on the arm. This time he noticed a lot of small words by the line, starting from “Cloudy Gate” all the way to “Less Merchant”. He often listens in on his parents talking about kungfu, although he never really paid much attention to it, he has heard them talk about it too often. So he recognizes these small words as names of pressure points on the body.

He unrolled the scroll a bit further and read: “Divine Skill of the Northern Darkness is about using other’s inner strength as my own. The sea of the Northern Darkness did not create itself. It said: ‘All the rivers empties into the ocean, the ocean is because it can contain the rivers.’ The vast open seas was accumulated. So ‘Scripture of the Lunar Hand and Lungs’ is the first lesson of the Divine Skill of the Northern Darkness” followed by detailed instructions as to how to practice this kungfu.

It concludes the section with: “When others practice inner strength, the path that they take is from Cloudy Gate to Less Merchant. But our Carefree Sect’s kungfu is from Less Merchant to Cloudy Gate, if thumb comes in contact with others, then their inner force will gush into my body and be stored at Cloudy Gate as well as other pressure points. But if the opponent’s inner force is stronger than mine, then the water of the sea will empty into the rivers and will lead to life threatening dangers, you have been forewarned. The other skills of our sect, has not been developed fully and are only able to weaken the opponent’s inner force but cannot make it available for own use. It is as if stealing a fortune yet misplacing it, such a waste of something so precious.”

Duan Yu let out a long sigh as some part of him felt that there is something not quite right with this skill. Using other’s inner strength for your own use, isn’t that just like stealing something precious from others? But then he also thought: “Dear Goddess could not have picked a better metaphor. Rivers empty into the sea because it is the rivers themselves doing the emptying, not because the sea is stealing the river’s waters. My thinking Dear Goddess stealing from others, how disrespectful is that? Punishment is called for. Definitely called for!”

So he lifted his hand up and slapped himself once on both cheeks. The first slap on his left cheek was rather hard and very painful, so naturally he took off a lot of force on the second slap on his right cheek. He thought to himself: “Bad, evil people came to make trouble to Dear Goddess, so Dear Goddess took their inner strength for herself. That’s only taking away bad, evil people’s ability to do bad, evil things. Like grabbing the butcher knife away from the butcher, not killing him. How could a person such as Dear Goddess ever do a single bad thing?”

So he unrolled some more of the scroll. There were many many more drawings of naked females on the scroll, some standing and some sitting, some showing her frontside while others show her back. Although the face remained the same, her expressions changed as well, sometimes happy and sometimes worried, sometimes full of loving tenderness while other ti