e Chief Qiao had led us to Jiangnan to avenge Vice-Chief Ma so the Western Xia people only attacked an empty place. But they didn’t give up and chased after us to Jiangnan. Eventually they and Chief Qiao decided to have a meeting.’

Elder Xu thought deeply and whispered: ‘So according to what they have planned, they’ll destroy our Beggar Society first, maybe they’ll attack Shaolin Monastery next, then crush the big martial arts schools and societies of the Central Plains.’ Bai Shijing said: ‘That’s the plan. But can these Western Xia warriors carry it out so easily? What do they have to be this arrogant? Chief Qiao somewhat knows about the truth, but too bad at this urgent moment he…’ Saying to here, feeling inappropriate, he suddenly stopped.

At this moment, the horse hoofbeats had drawn near, all of a sudden three bugle sounds were heard, eight horses split into two rows and burst into the forest. Each of the people riding on the horses was holding a lance. A small flag was tied to the head of each lance. The heads of the lances glinted. It could vaguely be noticed that the four small flags on the left-hand side all were embroidered with two white words ‘Western Xia’ and the four on the right-hand side were embroidered with two white words ‘He Lian’, the flags also had other Western Xia characters embroidered on them. After that, there were eight other horses which split into two rows and ran quickly into the forest. Four of the people riding on these horses were blowing bugles and the other four were beating drums.

Everyone in the beggar crowd scowled: ‘This disposition of troops is totally like a march in a war. Where is the meeting between brave men in jianghu?’

There were eight Western Xia warriors arriving after the buglers and drummers. Seeing the expressions on their faces Elder Xu knew obviously that they all have top-class martial arts, he thought: ‘It seems these are people of First-class Hall.’ Those eight warriors split up and stood on both sides. Then a horse slowly walked into the forest. The man on the horse was wearing a scarlet brocade robe. He was around thirty four or thirty five years old, had an aquiline nose and a splay moustache. Following him closely was a very tall man who shouted as soon as he entered the forest: ‘East Conquering General of Western Xia has arrived; the Chief of the Beggar Society goes forward to pay respects.’ This voice which sounded very unusual belonged to no one other than the man who had talked to the beggar crowd a moment ago.

Elder Xu said: ‘The Chief of our Society is not here. Laoxiu will take care of the Society’s affairs on his behalf. The Beggar Society’s brothers are all normal people in jianghu. If you, as a General of Western Xia, use guest ceremony for meeting, then we won’t dare to make friends with a man of such a high position. Please go have audiences with the princes, dukes or officers of our Great Song; you don’t need to meet us beggars who have to beg for food. But if you use the status of a man in wulin for meeting us, then as you are a guest coming from afar, please get off your horse and behave according to common courtesies for guests and hosts.’ These several sentences showed neither inferiority nor superiority. They did not offend the opponents, but also took into consideration the status of the Beggar Society. The beggar crowd thought: ‘Sure enough, the older ginger is hotter, Elder Xu is awesome.’

The big-nosed man said: ‘If the Chief of your Society is not here our General can’t treat you with courtesies.’ He cast a glance and saw the Dog Beating Stick driven into the ground. Knowing that it was an important object of the Beggar Society, he said: ‘Huh, taking this glossy dark green bamboo stick to make a broom handle is not bad.’ He made a swing with his arm, the horsewhip in his hand shot out to wind around the Dog Beating Stick.

The beggars shouted in unison: ‘Fvck off!’; ‘Fvck you!’; ‘You Tartar dog!’ When the tip of his horsewhip was about to wind around the Dog Beating Stick, suddenly there was a silhouette moving very quickly, a person leapt out at an oblique angle and stood in front of the Dog Beating Stick. He extended his arm, let the horsewhip wind around it then bent it. The big-nosed man could no longer sit steadily on the saddle and had to jump off his horse to stand on the ground. Both of them exerted their strength at the same time. A snap was heard, the horsewhip was broken into two pieces. That person moved his hand backwards and grabbed the Dog Beating Stick. Without saying a word he returned to where he had come from.

Everyone looked at him and saw a withered old man with a bent back. He was no one other than the Elder of Merit Propagation. His martial arts were very good. He usually did not like to talk much, but when the important symbol of the Society had been in danger he had protected it bravely. A moment ago, in just one move, the big-nosed man had already been dismounted and his horsewhip had also been broken. It could be said that the big-nosed man had lost.

Even though this big-nosed man had just suffered a small defeat, he did not bat an eyelid and said: ‘You beggars really are too stingy, hating to give away even a bamboo stick.’

Elder Xu said: ‘Brave men of Western Xia, why did you and our poor Society decide to meet?’

That man said: ‘Our General has heard that the Beggar Society of the Central Plains has two great techniques, one being the Cat Beating Stick, the other being the Snake Subduing Eighteen Palms, so he wanna widen his knowledge a bit.’

As soon as the beggars heard that, they all flew into a rage. This man deliberately called the Dog Beating Stick technique the Cat Beating Stick technique and called the Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms technique the Snake Subduing Eighteen Palms technique, his intention of insulting was extremely obvious. It seemed in the meeting today a fierce battle of life or death was already unavoidable.

While the beggar crowd was cursing, the people such as Elder Xu, the Elder of Merit Propagation, and the Elder of Rule Enforcement secretly felt anxious: ‘All along, only the Chief of our Society is able to use the Dog Beating Stick technique and the Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms. The enemies already knew about the reputation of these two great techniques yet they still brashly come to challenge, perhaps they’re not easy to deal with.’ Elder Xu said: ‘You want to see our Society’s Cat Beating Stick technique and Snake Subduing Eighteen Palms to widen your knowledge, there’s not the slightest problem. As long as there are cowardly cats and snakes with scabies showing up here, we beggars will have our way of dealing with them. You mimic cats or mimic snakes?’ Elder Wu ha-ha laughed and said: ‘If the opponents are dragons, we will subdue dragons, if they’re snake, then we beggars can’t be better at catching snakes.’

The big-nosed man was again defeated in arguing. While he was thinking about what to say, there was a deep gruff voice from behind him: ‘Cat Beating is also fine, Snake Subduing is also fine, come, come, come, who’s gonna have a fight with me first?’ As that man finished saying he walked out from the crowd and stood with his arms akimbo.

The beggars could see that this man looked ugly and ferocious. All of a sudden Duan Yu loudly said: ‘Hey, my disciple, you came here as well? Why haven’t you kowtowed after seeing master?’ The ferocious-looking man turned out to be none other than South Sea Divine Alligator Yue Laosan (T/Note: this is prolly not Yue’s real name, it literally means Yue, the third man).

He was astonished when he saw Duan Yu and immediately looked very awkward. He said: ‘You… You…’ Duan Yu said: ‘Good disciple, the Beggar Society’s Chief is my sworn big brother so these people are your apprentice uncles, you mustn’t disrespect them. Go home quickly!’ South Sea Divine Alligator let out a roar making the leaves of the apricot trees around rustle and cursed: ‘Turtle egg! Bastard!’ (T/Note: turtle egg – 王八蛋 – basically an equivalent of ‘son of a b!tch’)

Duan Yu said: ‘Who did you curse as turtle egg and bastard?’ South Sea Divine Alligator was extremely vicious, however when he himself said something he never broke his words. He had already recognized Duan Yu as his master, but he did not deny that and said: ‘I like cursing. How can you control me? I didn’t curse you.’ Duan Yu said: ‘Hum, you already saw master, why haven’t you kowtowed to pay respects to me?’ South Sea Divine Alligator repressed his anger, went forwards, kowtowed and said: ‘Master, are you all right?’ The more he thought about this the angrier he got. Suddenly he leaped to his feet and ran away while howling furiously.

Everyone found that howl sounded like retreating tidewater, burst after burst rushing away yet big waves still surging up fiercely. Just hearing this howl they knew that this man’s martial arts were not something to disregard. Probably in the Beggar Society only several people like Elder Xu and the Elder of Merit Propagation could rival him. It was extremely strange that Duan Yu, a gentle and weak student, was unexpectedly his master. Wang Yuyan, A’Zhu and A’Bi knew that Duan Yu did not know martial arts so they were much more surprised.

Suddenly a man leaped out from the group of the Western Xia warriors. Despite being tall like a bamboo pole, his movements were exceptionally fast. Each of his hands was holding a strange weapon whose handle was about three chi (T/Note: 1 chi ~ 33.33 cm) long and one head was a steel claw with five fingers. Duan Yu recognized him as the fourth member of ‘The Four Evils under Heaven’ ‘Extreme Ferocity Utmost Evil’ Yun Zhonghe, he thought: ‘Could it be that these four evildoers have all joined Western Xia?’ He looked carefully at the Western Xia people and saw ‘Not to Stop at Any Crime’ Ye Erniang standing there embracing a child and smiling. But he did not see the leader ‘Be Guilty of the Worst Crimes’ Duan Yanqing. Duan Yu thought: ‘As long as Prince Yanqing is not here the Beggar Society can handle the second evil and the fourth evil.’

It turned out after being defeated in Dali ‘The Four Evils under Heaven’ had fled northwards and run into envoys of Western Xia’s First-class Hall who had been out to recruit high-level martial arts users. Unwilling to be by themselves, they had all offered their service immediately. These four people had so excellent martial arts that after showing their skills a little they had been recruited right away. This time going eastwards to Bianliang, He Lian Tie Shu brought all of them with him and regarded them quite highly. Thinking that he himself had a high status, even though Duan Yanqing was dependent on First-class Hall he acted freely. He did not accept any restrictive order and go with the others.

Yun Zhonghe shouted: ‘Our General wants to see the Beggar Society’s two great techniques. In the end you beggars have true skills or are just boasting? Quickly come here to fight for real!’

Elder Xi said: ‘I’m fighting him.’ Elder Xu said: ‘Okay! This man’s lightness skill is very unusual, brother Xi must be careful.’ Elder Xi said: ‘Yes!’ Carrying his steel pole he walked towards Yun Zhonghe, stood facing him from a distance of more than one zhang (T/Note: 1 zhang ~ 3.333 m), and said: ‘The use of our Society’s great techniques is dependent on who the opponent is. Why should the Dog Beating Stick technique be used to handle a shrimp like you? Watch out!’ He raised the steel pole, creating a whirring sound, and swung it down at Yun Zhonghe’s left shoulder at an angle. Elder Xi was stubby but the steel pole in his hands were longer than one zhang, once it was brandished, even if the opponent was very tall like Yun Zhonghe, it was still possible for him to strike down from the air. Yun Zhonghe leaned sideways and dodged. A bang was heard, dirt flew on all sides, the steel pole had hit the ground and its head had gone one chi into the ground. Yun Zhonghe knew that his true abilities were far inferior to Elder Xi’s so he applied a hit-and-run tactic using his lightness skill, for a moment he had been in the east, the next moment he already flashed to the west. Elder Xi’s steel pole had been brandished into a white sphere but all the while it had not been able to touch Yun Zhonghe’s clothes.

While Duan Yu was being absorbed in the fight, suddenly he heard a lovely gentle voice next to him: ‘Mr. Duan, who should we help?’ Duan Yu leaned his head to one side and saw that it was Wang Yuyan. He could not help feeling elated and hurriedly asked: ‘What… who should what help?’ Wang Yuyan said: ‘This lanky man is your disciple’s friend while this stubby beggar is your sworn brother’s subordinate. The more these two have been fighting the fiercer they’ve become, who we should help?’ Duan Yu said: ‘My disciple is a villain and this lanky guy’s character is even worse, don’t help him.’

Wang Yuyan muttered: ‘Hum, but the whole Beggar Society have driven your sworn brother away and don’t let him be the Chief. They’ve also falsely accused my biaoge, I hate them.’ In the heart of a young girl like her, whoever treated her biaoge badly was the worst person under heaven. She continued: ‘This stubby geezer is using the twenty four Demon Taming Pole stances of Mt. Wutai, but because he’s too short the two stances ‘The King of Qin Whips Rock’ and ‘The Roc Spreads the Wings’ can’t be executed well. If the right-hand side of his lower body is attacked he won’t be able to defend himself. But this lanky man doesn’t realize that, he thinks the lower body of short people must be stable but in fact that’s not true.’

Even though her voice was very low, all the high-level martial arts users with fine internal energy at the scene had already heard what she said. The majority of these people knew about Elder Xi’s martial arts and skills but they might not necessarily realize where his stances were flawed. Once Wang Yuyan pointed out, they immediately felt that she was correct because whenever Elder Xi had used the two stances ‘The King of Qin Whips Rock’ and ‘A Roc Spreads the Wings’, his power had really been excessive but his stability had been deficient, his lower body had been rather vulnerable.

Yun Zhonghe cast a sidelong glance at Wang Yuyan and praised: ‘You little girl are very beautiful. It’s rarer that you have such great insight. Following me and becoming my wife are even more okay.’ While saying he used the steel claws in his hands to attack Elder Xi’s lower body with three swift stances. Elder Xi was too late to ward off the third stance. A sound of tearing was heard, his thigh had just suffered a long cut by Yun Zhonghe’s steel claws and immediately dripped blood.

Hearing Yun Zhonghe praise herself for being beautiful Wang Yuyan was quite happy, therefore she did not think his flirty and frivolous words were offensive. She smiled and said: ‘How shameless. What’s good about you? I’m not marrying you.’ Yun Zhonghe was very pleased, he said: ‘Why not? You’re already in love with that pretty boy, right? I’ll kill your love interest first, to see if you’ll marry me?’ These sentences had seriously violated Wang Yuyan’s taboos. She frowned and no longer paid attention to him.

Yun Zhonghe still wanted to say a few more words to gain advantage but Elder Wu of the Beggar Society leaped out, lifted his demon-headed saber and slashed four times on the left hand side, four times on the right hand side, four times high, four times low, totaling sixteen slashes. The momentum of the saber was extremely fierce. Yun Zhonghe was not familiar with the stances of his saber technique therefore he could only dodge around, jerk his head back and jump up. For the moment he was totally perplexed.

Wang Yuyan smiled and said: ‘This Four Forms Six Harmonies Saber technique of Elder Wu contains the generation principles, the restraint principles and the changes of the Eight Diagrams. That lanky man just doesn’t know that. I wonder if he can use the ‘Crane Snake Eight Attacks’. If he can, the Four Forms Six Harmonies Saber technique will be defeated easily.’ (T/Note: Four Forms – 四象 – include Tai Yang, Tai Yin, Shao Yang, Shao Yin; Six Harmonies – 六合 – include East, West, South, North, Up and Down, referring to the universe) Hearing her say those words to help Yun Zhonghe again, the people of the Beggar Society all had an angry expression on their faces. They saw that Yun Zhonghe immediately changed his fighting style, spreading wide his legs and whipping horizontally with the steel claws, looking like a white crane. Wang Yuyan put her mouth close to Duan Yu’s ear and whispered: ‘This lanky man has walked into my trap. Perhaps his left hand would be chopped off.’ Duan Yu was surprised, he asked: ‘Really?’

Everyone only saw that the saber technique of Elder Wu was strict and heavy, chopping sidelong and slashing horizontally as if there was no arrangement of stances. He fought more and more slowly, but all of a sudden he swiftly chopped three times. White light flashed. Yun Zhonghe shouted ‘Ah’, the back of his left hand had already been cut by the blade, the steel claw in his left hand could not be hold firmly anymore, a clang was heard, it had already fallen on the ground. However because his lightness skill was very fast, he hurriedly moved backwards and was able to dodge the three later chops of Elder Wu.

Elder Wu walked towards Wang Yuyan, stood in front of her, held his saber in a straight upright position and said: ‘Thanks a lot, Miss!’ Wang Yuyan smiled and said: ‘Elder Wu, your ‘Wonderful Door Three Powers Saber’ is very refined and subtle!’ Elder Wu was surprised, he thought: ‘I didn’t expect you to know this saber technique of mine.’ It turned out Wang Yuyan had deliberately called the saber technique of Elder Wu the ‘Four Forms Six Harmonies Saber’ and judging from the stances of Yun Zhonghe she had anticipated that he would surely use the ‘Crane Snake Eight Attacks’ to make him involuntarily get into a dominated situation. As expected, his left hand had nearly been chopped off. (T/Note: Three Powers – 三才 – Heaven, Earth, Man).

The name of the big-nosed man who had the queer voice and was standing next to He Lian Tie Shu was Nu Erhai. Seeing Wang Yuyan help Yun Zhonghe injure Elder Xi with just several sentences, then enable Elder Wu to injure Yun Zhonghe with a few sentences again, he turned towards He Lian Tie Shu and said: ‘General, this young Han girl is very strange, if we capture and take her back to First-class Hall then force her to tell everything she knows, it’ll prolly be extremely useful.’ He Lian Tie Shu said: ‘Very good, you go capture her.’ Nu Erhai scratched his head and thought: ‘This character of General is certainly not very nice. Whenever I suggested a ploy to him he always said: ‘Very good, you go handle it.’ Making suggestions is easy but handling them is hard. This young girl’s martial arts seem to be fathomless. I don’t wanna make a fool of myself in front of her. Anyway, today is for rounding up and annihilating these beggars, it’d be better to strike first and prevail.’ He made a gesture with his left hand, four of his subordinates immediately walked out.

Nu Erhai took several steps forwards and said: ‘Elder Xu, our General wanna see the Dog Beating Stick technique and the Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms, if you have something interesting then show it, but if you really don’t, we can’t afford to wait any longer, we must go now, farewell.’ Elder Xu sneered and said: ‘High-level martial arts users of your country’s First-class Hall have boasted that you all have topnotch martial arts but it turns out you’re just mediocre, I’m afraid you don’t deserve to see the Dog Beating Stick technique and the Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms.’ Nu Erhai said: ‘How to deserve to see them?’

Elder Xu said: ‘First you must beat us good-for-nothing beggars, then the head of the Beggar Society will show up…’ Saying to here, he suddenly coughed loudly then his eyes hurt intensely and could not open, his tears dripped down continuously. Feeling very frightened, he jumped up, held his breath and quickly kicked three times. Nu Erhai had not expected that this old man whose beard was snow-white would attack as soon as he finished saying and that his movements were so fast like this, he hastily dodged but could only avoid getting hit at the crucial points on his chest, the head of his shoulder had still been kicked. He staggered a few steps then made use of the momentum to leap backwards. Elder Xu jumped up the second time, while still being in the air, he felt weary and numb in his arms and legs and fell down heavily.

The people of the Beggar Society shouted in succession: ‘Not good, the Tartars play dirty!’ ‘What’s in my eyes?’ ‘I can’t open my eyes.’ Everyone felt a sharp pain in the eyes. Tears streamed out of their eyes. Wang Yuyan, A’Zhu and A’Bi could not open their eyes similarly.

It turned out that in an instant the Western Xia people had already dispersed the ‘Sad Weak Clear Wind’ in the apricot forest. The ‘Sad Weak Clear Wind’ was a type of colorless odorless poisonous gas. Its liquid form was made from the poisonous animals gathered from Huanxi valley in Mt. Daxue of Western Xia. Most of the time, it was kept in bottles. When it was used, the user had already had the antidote put into their nose. As soon as the stopper of the bottle was removed, the poisonous liquid would evaporate and spread into the air gently like a breeze. Therefore, no matter how careful and precise a person was they would still be unable to detect it. When their eyes hurt sharply, the poison had already entered the brain. After being poisoned the victim’s eyes would drip with tears, hence ‘Sad’, their whole body would be unable to move, hence ‘Weak’, the poisonous gas was colorless and odorless, hence ‘Clear Wind’.

Thuds and ‘A’yo’ sounds could be heard continuously, the people of the Beggar Society fell down one after another.

Duan Yu had eaten the Manggu Cinnabar Frog (T/Note: 莽牯朱蛤 – the cinnabar frog which bellows like a bull) therefore he was immune to poison. Even though he had breathed the ‘Sad Weak Clear Wind’ in, he was neither ‘Sad’ nor ‘Weak’. Seeing that the beggars, Wang Yuyan, A’Zhu and A’Bi all were having a painful expression on their faces he could not understand why and felt very frightened.

Nu Erhai cried out loudly and commanded the warriors to tie the people of the Beggar Society up. He himself went towards Wang Yuyan and stretched out his hand to grab her wrist.

Duan Yu shouted: ‘What are you doing?’ At that urgent moment he quickly extended his right forefinger, a beam of internal energy was shot out from the finger tip creating chi-chi sounds. It was none other than the ‘Six Meridians Divine Swords’ of the Duan clan in Dali. Nu Erhai did not know about its powers therefore he paid no attention to it and kept approaching Wang Yuyan to grab her wrist. Suddenly a crack was heard, the bone of his right arm had unaccountably been broken into two pieces. His arm hung down loosely. Nu Erhai cried out painfully and stopped walking.

Duan Yu bent down, gripped the delicate waist of Wang Yuyan then started to use the ‘Wave Treading Exquisite Steps’. Taking three steps forwards at an oblique angle and two strides over to one side, he rushed out of the crowd.

Ye Erniang made a wave with her right hand. A poisonous needle was fired towards the middle of his back. This poisonous needle was very well-aimed and went with a lot of force. In any case Duan Yu should have many difficulties in dodging it. However, he suddenly moved sideways then suddenly went backwards, therefore when the poisonous needle arrived he had already moved to the right side three chi. Three skilled warriors in the group of Western Xia warriors immediately jumped off their horseback, shouted and chased after him. Duan Yu ran to a horse, put Wang Yuyan lying across the saddle, then jumped onto the horse and spurred it to run away.

Western Xia warriors had already guarded the key posts all around the apricot forest. Suddenly seeing Duan Yu running out on a horse they immediately fired arrows. Trees in the apricot forest covered him, more than ten wolf-toothed arrows all stuck into the trees.

Duan Yu cried out: ‘Good horse ah good horse, the faster you run the better! When we return, I’ll let you eat chicken, eat meat, eat fish, eat goat.’ He forgot that horses did not eat meat or fish.