Between the period of 960-1127, Northern Song Dynasty is at war with the Liao dynasty. Three sworn brothers; Xiao Feng, Duan Yu, and Xuzhu join forces to bring what's right and just in the martial world. The three of them each have their own char...
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Duan Yu angrily replied, "There are neither enmities nor grievances between the two of us. Why did you cook up such a poisonous plot to harm me? You are trying to force me to lose all face as a man, and cause my parents and my uncle to suffer shame for the rest of their entire life. I...I would rather die a hundred times than engage in such a shameless, depraved, incestuous act!" The man in green replied, "Although neither enmities nor grievances exist between us, the grievances between your uncle and I are as deep as the oceans of the four seas. Duan Zhengming, Duan Zhengchun. I can imagine nothing better than for those two kids to lose all face and suffer lifelong shame, and be unable to face others in the future. Wonderful. Wonderful! Heh heh, heh heh." His lips could not move, so the sound of laughter emanated from his larynx, sounding all the more hideous and strange.
Duan Yu was about to continue arguing, but, out of the corner of his eye, saw Mu Wanqing's beautiful face, which looked like the slumbering spring or a lovely cherry, and her slender body, which appeared as though it were a blooming hibiscus flower. His heart beat so frantically that even he was almost able to hear it. His brain was once more confused, and he thought to himself, "Little sister Wan and I originally had agreed to wed. If the two of us had not returned to Dali, who would have known that we were siblings? This is a karmic retribution born from the affairs of the heart of the previous generation. What does it have to do with the two of us?"
When his thought process arrived at this point, he shakily rose to his feet, only to see that Mu Wanqing, her hand supporting her against the wall, was also slowly rising to her feet. Suddenly, within his heart a sudden thought flashed by, striking upon it like a ray of sunlight on a flintstone. "Cannot! Cannot! Duan Yu, ah, Duan Yu! This is the critical moment, where your actions will determine if you am a man or a beast. If you make the wrong choice now, not only will you suffer a complete and utter fall from grace, but you will also destroy your uncle and your father as well."
He immediately cried out loudly, "Sister Wan! I am your elder brother, and you are my younger sister! You know that, right? Do you understand the Book of Changes?"
In the midst of her fuzzy-headedness, Mu Wanqing heard him ask such a strange question. "Huh? Book of Changes? I don't know what you're talking about." Duan Yu replied, "Alright, I'll teach you! The study of the Book of Changes is extremely difficult and abstruse. Listen carefully!" Mu Wanqing was confused. She asked, "What good is it going to do me?" Duan Yu replied, "After you learn it, it will benefit you greatly! Maybe the two of us can use it to escape from our current predicament."
He felt that his desires were driving him mad. At the critical juncture between being a man and a beast, a thousand things rested upon this one decision. If Mu Wanqing rushed over to him and tried to seduce him even but a little, his mental walls and willpower would surely crumble. The reason he wanted to teach her the Book of Changes was out of the hope that with one of them teaching, and the other learning, their attention would be focused somewhere else, and they wouldn't think about the affairs between males and females.
He said, "The basics of the Book of Changes rest in the Taiji, the Absolute Ultimate. From Taiji is born Liangyi [two mutually correlated opposites, aka Yin and Yang], and Liangyi gives birth to Sixiang [the four images]. In turn, the Sixiang gives birth to the Bagua [the eight divinatory Trigrams]. Do you know what the Bagua trigram looks like?" Mu Wanqing replied, "No, I don't. This is so annoying! My darling Duan, come over here. I have something I want to tell you."
Duan Yu said, "I'm your brother. Don't call me 'darling Duan'. Call me 'elder brother'. I'll tell you the secret mantra of the Bagua diagram. Concentrate and do your best to remember it. 'Qian' is three links, 'Kun' is six pieces, 'Zhen' stares at the cup, 'Gen' overflows the bowl. Within 'Li' is emptiness, within 'Kan' is fullness. Above 'Dui' is deficiency, below 'Xun' is absoluteness [the eight trigrams of the Bagua are 'Qian', 'Kun', 'Zhen', ''Gen', 'Li', 'Kan', 'Kuang', and 'Gen']."
Mu Wanqing repeated it after him once, then asked, "What's this 'cup' and 'water' and food bowl stuff all about? What are you talking about?" Duan Yu replied, "This is the shape of the Bagua diagram. You must understand the hidden meaning of the Bagua. All living things in the world, bar none, are encompassed by it. Let's use a family as an example. 'Qian' is the father, 'Kun' is the mother, 'Zhen' is the eldest son, 'Xun' is the eldest daughter. We're siblings, so I would be the 'Zhen' trigram, and you would be the 'Xun' trigram...."
Mu Wanqing lazily said, "No. You are the 'Qian' trigram, and I am the 'Kun' trigram. We'll become husband and wife. Only in the future, when we have children, will the 'Zhen' trigram and the 'Xun' trigram appear." Duan Yu, hearing her speak so sluggishly yet flirtatiously, couldn't help but be moved. He quickly said, "Don't think crazy thoughts! Keep listening to me speak." Mu Wanqing replied, "If you...if you come sit next to me, I'll listen to you speak."
Only to hear the man in green say from outside the room, "Excellent. Excellent! After the two of you become husband and wife and give birth to sons and daughters, I will release you two. Not only will I not kill you, but I will teach you two all the martial arts I possess, and set you two to rampage across all the land under heaven."
Duan Yu angrily replied, "At the last hour, the two of us will kill ourselves by smashing our heads against the stone walls. The scions of Dali's Duan dynasty would rather die than be disgraced! You want to revenge yourself upon my body? Forget it!"
The man in green replied, "You dying is fine. You living is fine. I don't care. If you two choose the path of death instead, I will strip your bodies naked, removing every stitch of clothing. I'll write on your bodies that you two are the nephew and niece of Dali's Duan Zhengming, and Duan Zhengchun's children. I will write that while you two secretly had conjugal relations with each other, you were discovered by others, and that in your shame and anger, you committed suicide. I will preserve your bodies with salt, then hang your bodies up above Dali's main gate for three days. Then I will go to the city of Kaifeng, Luoyang, Lin'an, and Guangzhou and publicly expose your bodies there as well."
Duan Yu was absolutely livid. He loudly roared, "How exactly did my Duan family offend you, for you to retaliate in such a malicious way against us?"
The man in green replied, "Why should I discuss my own affairs with a little kid like you?"
After saying this, he fell silent. Duan Yu realized that every time he spoke with Mu Wanqing, he increased the danger of their situation by another degree. Turning, he sat facing the wall, and began to deeply ponder the secrets behind the 'Graceful Steps on the Waves'."
After pondering the dazzlingly complicated footwork for a long time, he suddenly thought to himself, "The dear Goddess in the stone cavern is ten times more beautiful than sister Wan. If I must marry, only by marrying that dear Goddess will I have not married in vain." In a dazed state, he turned his head, then saw Mu Wanqing's beautiful face slowly turn into that of the stone cavern's jade statue. Duan Yu shouted loudly, "Dearest Goddess! I'm suffering so miserably right now. Please come rescue me!" He knelt down on the spot and embraced Mu Wanqing's calf.
At this moment, a voice came from outside. "Time to eat!" A lit red candle was tossed in. The person laughed. "Quick, catch! It is your first night of spring-like lust in the marital chambers. How can there not be a flower-scented candle?" Startled, Duan Yu rose to his feet. By the glow of the candle, he saw Mu Wanqing's eyelashes ripple, beautiful beyond description. With a single breath he blew the candle out. He shouted back, "There's poison in the food. Take it away! We're not eating!"
That person replied, "You were poisoned long ago, and consumed a sufficiently large dose. There's no need to add more." Then he sent in the rice and the dishes.
Duan Yu accepted the food, placing it on the table. He thought to himself, "After a person dies, all comes to an end. With regards to issues that come up after his death, how can he possibly be concerned?" Then he had a second thought. "Father, mother, and my uncle have loved me so dearly. How can I allow the Duan family to be laughed at by the world?" Suddenly, he heard Mu Wanqing gently say, "My darling Duan, I am going to commit suicide with my poisoned quarrels, so I won't end up harming you." Duan Yu shouted, "Wait! Even after the two of us, brother and sister, die, this evil man will not be done with us. This man is vicious and dangerous. Compared to the baby-murdering Ye Erniang or the heart-ripping Divine Crocodile, he's even more evil! Who can this man possibly be?"
Only to hear that man in a green gown say in a low voice, "Kid, you have some experience after all. This old man is the chief of the Four Great Evils. I am known as 'Evil Beyond Human Capacity!'"
