, they had been making a lot of noise and whenever any pedestrian saw them, they immediately went to one side of the road letting them pass. But these three people turned a blind eye to them and just kept on coming towards the group.

Peachtree Root Fairy scolded, “What are you doing?” as he pushed the donkey with his hand. The donkey neighed once before dropping down as its leg was broken. The old person riding the donkey was thrown to the ground and stayed down huffing and puffing. Linghu Chong felt sorry as he stooped down to help the old man get up. “I’m really sorry. Elder, are you hurt?”

That old man was still huffing and puffing, “What… what… what’s going on? I’m a poor man…” The two farmers put their loads down and stood in the middle of the road. They put both their hands on their waist and were looking angry.

The person carrying the vegetable pantingly said, “This is the foot of Mount Wudang. Who are you people to daringly hit people around here?”

“The foot of Mount Wudang, what kind of place is that?” Peachtree Root Fairy asked.

That man said, “Everyone at the foot of Mount Wudang knows martial art. You’re strangers here. Why do you act recklessly here in the fields at the foot of Mount Wudang and ask for trouble?”

The people in the group saw that these people had yellow faces and were very thin. They were around fifty years old. When that person carrying the vegetable spoke, his breath wasn’t strong but he claimed to be capable in martial art so the people in group were laughing loudly at them.

“You also know martial art?” Peachtree Flower Fairy teased.

That man replied, “At the foot of mount Wudang, even a three year old can do shadowboxing, a five year old can already use a sword. What’s so rare about that?”

Peachtree Flower Fairy pointed to the person carrying firewood and laughed, “How about him? He also knows martial art?”

The person carrying firewood replied, “I… I… when I was small, I learned martial art for a few months. But I haven’t practised it for several years now. This martial art… sigh, they’ve become rusted now.”

“Wudang School’s martial art is number one in the world. It only needs to be studied for a few months and you won’t be our match,” the vegetable-person said.

Peachtree Leaf Fairy laughed, “Why don’t you do a few movements to give us a look?”

“Show what? You won’t be able to understand it anyway,” the firewood-person said.

The crowd erupted in laughter and they all said, “We may not understand but we can still look.”

The firewood-person said, “Ai, in that case, I’ll show you a few moves then. Don’t know if I still remember all of them… Lend me a sword.” A person came out from the crowd and handed him a sword. The firewood man then went out to the middle of the hardened rice field and started to thrust to the east and slash to the west. After about three or four moves, he suddenly forgot what the next move was. He scratched his head thinking for a little bit then showed a few more moves. Everyone saw that his sword movements were not methodical and his body and hand movements were extremely clumsy. They all clutched their stomachs laughing loudly at him.

“What’s so funny? Let me show you a few moves. Give me a sword,” The vegetable-person said. He then started to thrust and slash the sword very rapidly in a disorderly fashion as if he was insane. This made the crowd laughed even harder. In the beginning, Linghu Chong also laughed but after seeing more than ten moves, he was astounded. These two people’s sword art, one being sluggish and the other one being very fast, actually had very little flaws. Their moves looked very ugly but the sword moves actually had many variations. It seemed that they had only displayed a fraction of the sword move’s power and didn’t reveal the remaining potential power of the sword moves.

Linghu Chong immediately stepped forward and bowed towards them. He said heartily, “Today, I paid my respect to two seniors and observed your high sword arts. I feel really honoured.” The two men put their swords away.

The firewood-person stared at him, “Little kid, you understood our sword art?”

“I don’t dare to say that I understand. Both of you have profound sword arts, how would I dare to say that I understand them? Wudang School’s sword art is very famous throughout the world. It really makes one praises to the heavens,” Linghu Chong replied.

The vegetable-person asked, “Little kid, what’s your name?”

Linghu Chong had not answered yet when a few people from the crowd called out, “What little kid?” “He’s our Chief, Master Linghu.” “Country bumpkins, speak more politely!”

The firewood-person said, “Linghu Melon? Not A Mao or A Gou, but some kind of melon seed. Your name’s really ugly.”

Linghu Chong cupped his fist, “Today, Linghu Chong is able to see Wudang’s divine sword art. It’s really admirable. I will go up the mountain to meet Priest Chongxu another day. I sincerely admire him. Can two seniors please reveal your honourable surnames and given names?”

The firewood-person spat on the ground and said, “You have so many people making so much noise here. Beating gongs and drums non-stop. Is this a funeral procession?”

Linghu Chong knew that these two people must be masters from the Wudang School. So he respectfully bowed to them, “We have a friend who is being detained inside the Shaolin temple. We’re going there to beg Abbot Fangzheng’s mercy to release this person.”

The vegetable-person said, “So it’s not a funeral procession! But you’ve hurt my uncle’s donkey, are you going to pay?”

Linghu Chong led three steeds over and said, “These three horses aren’t as good as senior’s donkey. But I’m forced to ask seniors to accept them. We juniors didn’t know that it was senior who was riding. Please forgive us.” After he finished saying this, he led the three horses over to them.

The crowd saw Linghu Chong’s attitude becoming more and more modest and respectful. They saw that he was doing this on purpose and were very surprised to see this.

“You already know our sword art now. Do you want to compare some moves?” The vegetable-person asked.

“Junior is not the match of two seniors,” Linghu Chong said.

The firewood-person said, “You don’t want to fight. But I want to fight.” At the same time he said this, he thrust his sword crookedly towards Linghu Chong.

Linghu Chong saw this sword move was wonderful as it covered nine fatal points on his upper body. “Good sword art!” Linghu Chong called out and at the same time, pulled his long sword out and also thrust his sword. That firewood-person looked as if he just randomly thrust his sword at an empty space and Linghu Chong countered by sweeping his sword in a circle at the same empty space. The two people had used

around seven to eight moves. Each of their thrust was always aimed at an empty space and their swords had not clashed yet, but the firewood-person kept retreating step by step.

The vegetable-person called out, “Melon seed, so you have a bit of skill after all,” as he raised his sword and disorderly started to thrust and slash. In a short moment, he had slashed out around twenty times. Not only was each of his slash towards Linghu Chong didn’t hit him but the tip of his sword was actually still around seven to eight feet away from Linghu Chong’s body. Raising his sword, Linghu Chong sometimes

performed a move towards that firewood-person and sometimes he thrust at an empty space towards that vegetable-person. The tip of his sword was also around seven to eight feet away from their bodies. But when these two people saw Linghu Chong’s move, their expressions revealed their urgency either to jump to avoid his slash or to brandish their swords to block.

The crowd of heroes watching this were all stupefied. The tip of Linghu Chong’s sword was still far away from the two people and there wasn’t the slightest bit of wind when he thrust his sword and they were certain that he wasn’t using any kind of invisible sword energy to attack. But why are these two people looking frightened as if they were too late in avoiding or blocking the sword?

As they observed more closely, the crowd came to understand that these two people must be two martial arts masters. At this time, when these two people were using their moves to attack, one was still attacking sluggishly and one was still attacking like a mad man. But at the same time, they still managed to concentrate fully on defending themselves. When they were avoiding or blocking Linghu Chong’s attack, their movements were light and steady. Now there was no more laughter from the crowd.

Suddenly Linghu Chong heard those two people whistled and changed their sword art completely. The firewood-person slashed his long sword in a large circular path. While the vegetable-person used very fast movements going back and forth creating a starlike reflection with his sword.

Linghu Chong pointed his sword at a slight upward angle and unexpectedly he stopped completely. His two eyes were now sometimes staring at the firewood-person and sometimes casting a sidelong glance at that vegetable-person. As his eyes looked at a certain place, those two people did one of these three things — they quickly changed their sword moves or cried out then retreated or turned their attacks into defence.

Ji Wushi, Old Man, and Zu Qianqiu had good martial arts. They gradually realised that when these two people moved to defend themselves, it was because of Linghu Chong’s stare. He was always staring at their fatal acupoints.

They saw the firewood-person lifted his sword to slash it down and Linghu Chong gazed at his lower abdomen’s Shanggu acupoint. He had not finished his slash when he quickly withdrew it to block his Shanggu acupoint. At this time, the vegetable-person thrust his sword towards Linghu Chong. Linghu Chong responded by looking at the Tianting acupoint which was at the left side of his neck. That person

hastily lowered his head which caused his sword to penetrate deep into the hardened rice field. It was as if Linghu Chong’s two eyes were shooting projectiles and he wouldn’t permit Linghu Chong’s two eyes to take a look at his neck’s Tianting acupoint.

Those two people were still utilising their sword moves and the sweat on their bodies was seeping through their clothes. In a short while, their trousers had also become wet with their sweat. That old man riding the donkey had so far just stayed on the side and not said a thing. He suddenly coughed and said, “Admirable, admirable. The two of you step back.”

The two men replied together, “Yes!” But Linghu Chong’s eyes were still circling around, never leaving their fatal acupoints. The two people waved their swords and retreated at the same time. From the beginning to the end, they didn’t manage to break away from Linghu Chong’s gaze.

That old person said, “Good sword art! Master Linghu, allow this old man to ask for your advice.”

Linghu Chong replied, “You flatter me!” as he turned around and cupped his fist greeting the old man. Only now the two people were finally freed from the restraint of Linghu Chong’s eyes. At the same time, they jumped backwards feeling just like two freed birds as they flew for tens of feet away.

The crowd cheered them. Even though the crowd didn’t understand their sword arts at all, they could see the duo’s high martial arts from the way they jumped, the distance they covered, and the beauty of their movements.

The old man said, “Master Linghu was very forgiving with his sword moves. If he were really fighting, you two would have a thousand holes and a hundred injuries on your bodies. And do you think he would have allowed you to finish your sword moves? Come here quickly to thank him.”

The two men quickly flew over and bowed deeply. The vegetable-person said, “Today I found out that there’s a heaven outside this heaven and there’s another person above me. Master’s high martial art is very rare in this world. Please forgive me for my rudeness before.”

Linghu Chong returned his propriety, “Wudang’s sword art is divine. Your two sword arts, one is Yin and one is Yang. Can they be the Taiji Sword?”

The vegetable-person said, “Master is laughing at us. The sword art we’re using is the “Double Ritual Sword Art”. It is divided into Yin and Yang but we haven’t managed to combine them yet.”

“Before when I was watching on the side, I was having difficulties distinguishing the sword art’s subtlety. If we were actually fighting for real, I would certainly not be able to take advantage of the sword art’s weakness,” Linghu Chong said.

The old man said, “Why must master be so modest? The spots that master was looking at are definitely the Double Ritual Sword Art’s weak points. Ai, this type of sword art… this type of sword art…” He continuously shook his head, “More than fifty years ago, Wudang School had two priests. It was on this road that the Double Ritual Sword Art was developed through their tens of years of hard work. I was aware that the sword art consists of one Yin and one Yang, soft and hard, Ai!”

He let out a long sigh, “I’m also aware that this sword art would not stand against a master swordsman.”

Linghu Chong respectfully said, “These two uncles’ sword arts are already so wonderful. If it were Wudang School’s Priest Chongxu or the other masters, then it would be impossible for me to distinguish the secret of the sword art by myself. Junior and friends here have gone past the bottom of Wudang Mountain, but we currently have a matter we must do. So we have to be impolite and not go up the mountain to pay our respects to Priest Chongxu. Once we’ve finished with this matter, I would go up to the Wudang Monastery and kowtow to the gods and Priest Chongxu.”

At first, Linghu Chong was feeling haughty towards them. But after seeing the hard and soft aspects of their sword arts together and the many miraculous variations of it, he actually felt some admiration in his heart. Thus, although he had discovered the flaws in the sword moves, in his heart, he actually really admired them. After all, in

this world, which sword move didn’t have any flaws?

He was guessing that this old man must be Wudang School’s first-class master. That was why he said these few sentences so sincerely. That old man nodded his head, “You’re still young but you’re not arrogant at all. This is also very rare. Master Linghu, were you taught by Huashan School’s senior Feng Qingyang?”

Linghu Chong was startled and thought, “Wow, his eyesight is so good. I didn’t expect that he would find out about my sword art’s background. Even though I can’t disclose grand martial uncle Feng’s whereabouts, because he already inquired frankly, I couldn’t lie to him.” He said, “Junior was lucky. I once had the opportunity to learn some of grand martial uncle Feng’s sword art at a superficial level.” These words had two meanings and it didn’t reveal that Feng Qingyang had once taught him personally.

That old man smiled slightly, “Superficial knowledge, superficial knowledge! Hey, hey, superficial knowledge of senior Feng’s sword art, is it that easy to acquire?” He took the sword from the firewood-person’s hand and grasped it in his left hand. “Let me receive some lessons from this superficial knowledge of senior Feng’s sword art.”

Linghu Chong said, “How can Junior dare to fight senior?”

That old man just smiled slightly while he slowly turned to the right and raised his left hand upwards till his sword was in front of his chest. The point of his sword started to move circularly as if it was surrounding a ball about the size of two palms. Linghu Chong watched his sword attentively as he understood that this move contained infinite variations. That old man slowly moved forward with his sword still circling. Linghu Chong felt a dense cold air pressing up to him and if he didn’t return his move now then he wouldn’t be able to do it later. He said, “Sorry for offending senior.” He wasn’t able to see the weakness in the sword movement so he just made a false thrust with his sword.

Suddenly, that old man threw his sword into his right hand. With a flash of light, the sword slashed towards Linghu Chong’s neck. This slash was an extremely fast killing movement. The spectators couldn’t help but gasp in worry.

But as the old man exerted himself in this strike, Linghu Chong saw a weak point at the lower part of his body. He thrust his sword towards the old man’s Yuanye acupoint at the lower part of his body. The old man moved his sword to block the thrust and the two swords clashed. Both people retreated a step. Linghu Chong felt that the old man’s

sword was laced with internal energy which made his right hand shook. Linghu Chong could also feel needles and pins on his arm because of the impact. That old man was also surprised and an expression of amazement could be seen on his face.

The old man switched his sword to his left hand again and drew two circles in front of his body. Linghu Chong saw that his sword moved continuously and protected his whole body. It was unexpectedly without any flaws. Linghu Chong was secretly amazed, “I have never seen a sword art without any weakness before. If he attacks like this, how do I break it? Perhaps Senior Ren Woxing’s sword art is more powerful compared to this old mister, but every move of his still has a weakness. How can it be that this old man’s sword art has no weakness at all?” He started to feel afraid and beads of sweat started to form on his forehead.

That old man formed his right fingers into a sword form and his left hand was continuously moving. Suddenly he thrust out, the tip of the sword vibrating; no one could see where the sword was aiming at.

This thrust enveloped seven major acupoints on Linghu Chong’s upper body. But because of this, Linghu Chong was also able to see three weaknesses on his opponent’s upper body. He did not need to attack all these weak points, one would be sufficient to take the old man’s life. He thought, “When he’s defending, he has no weakness at all. But when he starts to attack, there’s still a weakness that can be

attacked.” as he casually pierced his long sword towards the old man’s left eyebrow.

If that old man continued with his thrust then his left forehead would be pierced first. Even though his thrust was earlier than Linghu Chong’s, it was still a step too late.

That old man quickly turned his sword around. Suddenly, Linghu Chong saw a few circles of white light. Big circle, small circle, upright circle, slanting circle, they were all flickering incessantly. As he saw these flowery patterns in his eyes, he quickly turned his sword and slantingly attacked the sword circles. “Tang” as both swords

clashed with each other. Linghu Chong felt his arm tingling from the impact.

That old man continued to move his swords creating more and more flickering circles as they moved. Not long after, his whole body was surrounded in the middle of these rings of light. One circle of light had not yet disappeared when another circle of light was formed. Even though his long sword was extremely fast, there was no sound of the sword’s edge splitting the air at all. It indicated that he had reached the stage of perfection where the sword was soft but yet still strong.

At this time, Linghu Chong couldn’t see any weakness in his sword art and felt as if there were thousands of swords protecting this old man’s whole body. The old man was purely defending at the moment so there was no weakness in his sword art. But this sword front was actually like a moving fort and the thousands of light circles

resembled a tide as it slowly rushed forward. That old man wasn’t attacking using one move at a time anymore. He was now using tens of moves to protect himself while at the same time used this to attack. Linghu Chong was unable to resist this as he retreated to avoid it.

He retreated a step and the circles of light moved forward a step. In a short time, Linghu Chong had retreated seven to eight steps. The crowd saw that their Chief was now in an unfavourable situation and was about to lose. They were holding their breath watching and cold sweat started to wet their hands. Peachtree Root Fairy suddenly said, “What sword art is that? It’s like a child drawing some circles. I can draw too.”

“Come, I’ll draw some circles. My circle would definitely be more round than his,” Peachtree Flower Fairy said.

“Brother Linghu, don’t be afraid. If you lose, we’ll tear this old fellow into four pieces to vent your anger,” Peachtree Branch Fairy said.

“What you said was wrong. One, he’s Chief Linghu not brother Linghu. Two, how do you know that he’s afraid?” Peachtree Leaf Fairy said.

“Even though Linghu Chong has become Chief, he’s still younger than me. So once he’s chief, does he then also become big brother Linghu, uncle Linghu, grandpa Linghu, great grandpa Linghu?” Peachtree Branch Fairy said.

At this time, Linghu Chong retreated again and the crowd was feeling very anxious. When they heard the Peach Valley Six Fairies talking nonsense, they now got angry.

Linghu Chong retreated another step and his left foot stepped into a puddle of water. A thought flashed in his mind, “That day grand martial uncle Feng repeatedly told me to keep in my heart that the world’s martial art is ever changing and there are also unusual ones. But no matter how wonderful the opponent’s moves are, they are still

moves. So there must be a weakness. When hero Dugu passed on his sword art, he had no match in this world because he was able to see his enemy’s weakness. Right now, this senior’s sword art is circling around and has no weakness at all. But it must be because I had not been able to see the weakness yet.”

He retreated a few more steps as he gazed at his opponent’s countless circles of light. Suddenly, a thought leapt into his head, “Maybe the centre of the circle is the weakness. But if it’s not a weakness and I thrust in there, he can twist his sword and cut my arm off.”

He also thought, “Luckily, his way of attack can only go forward slowly. If he really wants to kill me, it won’t be that easy. But if I keep retreating, that’s just the same as losing. If I lose this battle, everyone would be discouraged. Then how would we be able to break through Shaolin and save Yingying?”

At the thought of Yingying’s kindness towards him, if he loses an arm because of her, what’s the harm in that? From the depth of his heart, he was really pleased to actually sacrifice an arm for her. He also felt that he owed her a lot and only by suffering a heavy injury would he be able to repay for her kindness. At this thought, he whole-heartedly hoped that his opponent would really cut his arm as he extended his arm to thrust his long sword into the centre of the circle. A “tang” sound resounded as Linghu Chong felt his chest shook and felt blood bubbling forth but his arm was still intact. That old man retreated a couple of steps and put away his sword. The expression on his face was odd. There were also expressions of surprise and shame together with some expression of sympathy towards him. After some time, he said, “Master Linghu’s sword art is brilliant and your courage and wisdom are excellent. Admirable, admirable!”

At this time Linghu Chong just realised, when he took that risk to thrust his sword, he had actually succeeded in finding his opponent’s sword art’s weak point. It was just that this old man’s sword art was really high. The centre of the circle was actually the most dangerous place and he had unexpectedly practised this sword art so that it

would also be the weak point. The thousands of swordsmen in the world, it would be very rare for one to be brave enough to go through this danger and thrust his sword in there. He was pleased with himself and thought, “Lucky, lucky!” as he felt sweat running down his back. He quickly bowed, “Senior’s sword art is divine. I’m really

indebted to your advice. The benefit to Junior isn’t shallow.” His words were not just common talk. This fight had actually benefited his martial art greatly as it made him learn that the enemy’s strongest point could unexpectedly be their weakest point. If he

could break the move at the strongest place then he would be able to break the rest of the weaknesses easily.

When masters competed in swords, one move could decide the outcome. That old man saw Linghu Chong dared to thrust into the middle of his circle of lights so they didn’t need to compete anymore. He gazed at Linghu Chong for a while before saying, “Master Linghu, old man has a few words I want to say to you.”

Linghu Chong replied, “Yes, I’ll listen to senior’s advice.” That old man gave his long sword to the vegetable-person and walked away to the east. Linghu Chong threw his long sword on the ground and followed behind him.

He stopped besides a big tree. They were tens of feet away from the crowd, even though they were still able to see the crowd, their voices would not carry that far. The old man sat down under the tree’s shade and pointed to a big rock, “Please sit down.” He waited for Linghu Chong to settle himself before continuing, “Master Linghu, among the younger generations, it’s very rare to find someone with your kind of talent.” Linghu Chong said, “I don’t dare. Junior’s conduct is improper and my reputation is already ruined. My own master can’t even tolerate me. How can I deserve to receive senior’s praise?”

That old man said, “The martial people of my generation, our conduct must be open and aboveboard and have no qualms in our heart. Although your action is sometimes bold and wild, and also not according to the custom, it is still gentlemanly. I secretly sent some people to find out what misdeeds you’ve truly done. It’s not sufficient to just rely on the rumours and slanders going around in Jianghu.”

When Linghu Chong heard him said this, it struck a chord in his heart. He felt gratitude towards this old man. He thought, “This senior must have a high position in Wudang School. Otherwise, how would he be able to send people to investigate about my conduct?”

The old man went on, “It’s common that youngsters like to show off. Mr. Yue’s outward appearance is calm, but he’s easily offended…”

Linghu Chong quickly stood up and said, “Respected master is like a father to me. Junior doesn’t dare to hear about Master.”

That old man smiled slightly, “You didn’t forget your roots, that’s very good. Old man just made an indiscreet remark.” Suddenly, his face turned serious and asked, “How long have you been learning the Art of Essence Absorbing?”

Linghu Chong replied, “Half a year ago, Junior accidentally learned this skill. At that time, I didn’t know that this was the Art of Essence Absorbing.”

That old man nodded, “That’s how it is! Just then we clashed sword three times and with each clash, you absorbed my internal energy. But I was aware that you’re still not good at using this disastrous demonic skill. Old man has an advise to give you but I don’t know whether young hero would listen to it or not?”

Linghu Chong was greatly terrified and quickly bowed, “Junior will certainly obey senior’s precious words.”

The old man replied, “Although this Art of Essence Absorbing has great power, it is also harmful towards the user’s body. As your skill in it gets deeper, it will harm you even more. If young hero could abandon this demonic skill altogether then that will be the best. Otherwise, you can just stop practising it from now on.”

That day in Plum Manor, he had heard Ren Woxing telling him that there would be great danger after practising the Art of Essence Absorbing for sometime. He wanted him to join the Devil Sect before divulging to him the method to meld the internal energies together. When he heard what this old man said, he believed even more what Ren Woxing said was true. “Junior will never forget senior’s teaching. Junior

already knows that this method isn’t right and already decided not to use this method to harm other people. It’s just that my body already learned this method, so even if I didn’t want to use it, it’s not that easy.”

The old man nodded, “That’s what I’ve heard too. I have another matter to raise to young hero. Perhaps this will be difficult for young hero to do. But as a hero, you must do what ordinary people won’t do. In Shaolin temple, they have a skill called “Tendon Altering Sutra”. Young hero must’ve heard of this skill before.”

Linghu Chong said, “I have. I heard that this is Wulin’s most supreme internal energy method. And only the most eminent monks in Shaolin are allowed to learn this skill.”

That old man said, “Young hero is leading so many people to go to Shaolin, I’m afraid nothing good will come out of this. No matter which side is victorious, both sides would lose numerous masters and would bring bad luck to Wulin. Old man has no talent, but I’m willing to go to Shaolin to ask for Abbot’s mercy to give the “Tendon

Altering Sutra” to young hero. Then young hero can disband this large group of people to stop this disaster from happening. What does young hero think of this?”

“How about young lady Ren who is being detained in Shaolin temple?” Linghu Chong asked.

That old man said, “Young lady Ren has killed four disciples of Shaolin School and has also stirred up trouble in Jianghu and caused harm in the world. Great Master Fangzheng put her into seclusion not to take revenge for his own school. It is actually because of his kind heartedness to benefit the Jianghu people. How can young hero

with good conduct mix up with this nameless lady? Why should you associate with this Devil Sect’s witch and ruin your reputation and future?”

“I’ve received her kindness so I must repay her. Junior appreciates senior’s good idea but I don’t dare to follow it,” Linghu Chong said.

That old man let out a long sigh and shook his head, “When young people are drowned in beauty and has been snared by it, it’s hard to free themselves fro