The yellow-faced old monk suddenly let out a clear whistle and said, "Zhang Jiaozhu, Lao Na's Buddhist name is Du E [lit. crossing distress]. This white-faced Shidi [younger martial brother] is Du Jie [lit. crossing calamity]. This black-faced Shidi is Du Nan [lit. crossing difficulty]. Since Yang Dingtian [his given name means 'top of the sky'] has died, our three people's deep hatred and great resentment must fall into the current Jiaozhu. Our martial nephews, Kong Jian and Kong Xing have died under your honorable Cult's hands. Since you dare to come over here, you must be a fearless man. As for the dozens of years gratitude and grudges, let our martial art skills be the judge."
Zhang Wuji said, "Junior [wan3 bei4] does not have any enmity against your precious Sect. I come here to rescue Yifu, Jin Mao Shi Wang Xie Daxia. Although Kong Jian Shen Seng [divine monk] accidentally perished under my Yifu's hands, the background story is rather complicated. As for Kong Xing Shen Seng's death, it has nothing to do with my humble Cult. The three of you cannot listen only to one side of the story. You must be able to discern right from wrong."
The white-faced old monk, Du Jie, said, "So according to you, who harmed Kong Xing?"
Zhang Wuji frowned and said, "According to Junior's understanding, Kong Xing Shen Seng died under the imperial family's Ruyang Palace's warrior."
"Who is the leader of the Ruyang Palace's warriors?" Du Jie asked.
"The daughter of the Ruyang Prince," Zhang Wuji replied, "Her Han name is Zhao Min."
"I heard from Yuan Zhen," Du Jie continued, "That this girl has joined hands with your honorable Cult. She has abandoned her royalty, abandoned her father, and defected to the Ming Cult. Is it true?" He was aggressively pressing on step by step.
Zhang Wuji did not have any choice but said, "That's right, she ... right now, she ... she has crossed from darkness to light."
In a loud voice Du Jie said, "The killer of Kong Jian is the Ming Cult's Jin Mao Shi Wang Xie Xun. The killer of Kong Xing is the Ming Cult's Zhao Min. This same Zhao Min has also broken into the Shaolin Temple, captured our Temple's disciples. The worst of it all, she went as far as engraving insulting words on our revered sixteen Luohan idols. If we add my Shixiong's [older martial brother] eyeball to those offenses, the three of us bear a hundred years of grievance. Zhang Jiaozhu, if we do not settle this debt with you, then with whom?"
Zhang Wuji heaved a deep sigh, thinking that since he had decided to shelter Zhao Min, her previous excessively wicked deeds could only be heaped on his head. In that blink of an eye, he suddenly understood his father's feelings when he committed suicide when confronted with his beloved wife's former crimes. He thought that as the settlement of Yang Jiaozhu and Yifu's enmity from the past until today, "Du Jie is right: If I do not undertake it, who would?" He stood straight up, sending his strength to his foot, and the bobbing tree branch he was standing up suddenly stayed still. In a loud voice he said, "Since the three honorable masters say so, Wanbei cannot run away from this responsibility. Then only Wanbei, one person, can accept all offenses. But as Yifu harming Kong Jian Shen Seng, there were innumerable difficulties surrounding that event. I am asking three honorable masters not to hold him accountable."
Du E said, "What do you depend on that you dare to plead for Xie Xun? Do you think we, three martial brothers, will not kill you?"
Zhang Wuji thought that as things had come this far, he must fight to the end; he said, "With one against three, Wanbei is definitely not your match. Which one of the three honorable masters will grant instruction to me?"
Du Jie said, "Fighting one to one, we cannot defeat you. This is about an enmity as deep as the sea, we don't have to follow Jianghu custom. Good devil head, come to receive your death. Amitabha Buddha!"
As he invoked the name of Buddha, Du E and Du Nan spoke in chorus, "May Buddha shows mercy!" Three black ropes flew in a flash to coil around his body.
Zhang Wuji dropped down to evade the ropes, but before his feet touch the ground, he flipped midair and charged toward Du Nan. Du Nan raised his left palm; with an abrupt turn of his palm, a strong gust of wind attacked Zhang Wuji's lower abdomen. Zhang Wuji turned sideways to evade; using the Qian Kun Da Nuo Yi on his palm he ward off the attack. In the meantime, Du E and Du Jie's pair of black ropes curled down on him. Zhang Wuji smoothly skated half a circle. Du Jie waved his left palm and launched a noiseless attack.
Zhang Wuji moved from tree to tree, sending attack after attack. Suddenly his palm hacked down, several hundred raindrops, as big as soybeans, flew toward Du E, carrying a strong gale of wind. Du E leaned his head sideways to evade, but dozens of raindrops still hit his face so he felt pain nonetheless. "Good kid!" he shouted. The black rope shook. It made two circles in the air and struck down toward the top of Zhang Wuji's head. Zhang Wuji flew like an arrow to avoid the circle of rope and attack Du Jie at the same time.
The more he fought, the more alarmed he became, as he felt his body was surrounded by the airstream from the three black ropes and the gust of wind generated by the three palms, which gradually tightened around him like glue. Ever since he started teaching himself martial art, he had never met such superior opponents like these three monks. Not only their stances very complicated, the abundance of their internal energy was matchless.
At first, Zhang Wuji was still able to use 70% of his strength in defense and 30% for offense. More than 200 stances, however, he started to feel that his pure and clear internal energy gradually turned muddy that in order to survive he could only defend and not attack at all. His Jiu Yang Shen Gong was actually unlimited; the more he used it, the stronger he was. But right now, every move he made consumed enormous internal energy that little by little he felt his stamina decrease. Actually, it was also because he had never had this kind of experience ever since he trained the Shen Gong [divine skill/strength].
After several dozens more stances, Zhang Wuji thought, "If I keep fighting, I will only deliver my life in vain. I'd better escape today, and come back with Grandfather [orig. wai4 gong1 – maternal grandfather], Yang Zuo Shi [left emissary], Fan You Shi [right emissary], and Wei Fu Wang [bat king]. With five of us joining forces, I am sure we will defeat these three monks. At that time we will be able to rescue Yifu."
Immediately he sent three stances attack toward Du E in his attempt to break out of the encirclement. Unexpectedly, the circle of three long black ropes was as tight as copper wall or iron rampart. Several times he attacked, each time he was pushed back and was unable to get out. He was greatly shocked. "Turns out these three monks collaborate as one individual," he thought, "Can anyone in the world really achieve this kind of interlinked minds?"
He did not know that Du E, Du Jie and Du Nan, three monks had spent more than thirty years sitting in meditation together. Their biggest skill was in using the 'interlinked minds'. As one person moved, the other two understood his intention immediately. This 'telepathic' skill sounded mysterious, but these three men had been together in one room for more than thirty years; concentrating in interaction with each other in training, so it was not surprising that their minds could react as one person.
Zhang Wuji further thought, "If that is the case, then although Grandfather and the others come together, we might still be unable to breakthrough these three men's interlinked minds. Could it be that in the end my Yifu is beyond deliverance? That I will lose my life today?"
As he was anxious, his focus was slightly dispersed, his shoulder was swept by Du Jie's five fingers, and the pain entered the bones and marrows. He mused, "My own death is nothing to be regretted, but Yifu's injustice must be washed clean. Yifu has always been a proud man. Since he has fallen into others' hands, he will not utter half a word to defend himself." Thereupon, in a clear voice he said, "Three Old Honorable Masters, since Wanbei has stranded over here today, my life is difficult to protect. A real man is not afraid of death. What else can I say? There is one matter I need to clarify, though ..."
'Whoosh! Whoosh!' two black ropes came from left and right. Zhang Wuji pushed to the left and pull to the right, warding off the incoming force away, while continuing, "That Yuan Zhen's real civilian name was Cheng Kun, his title was Hun Yuan Pi Li Shou [Lightning Hands of the Originating Formation]. He was my Yifu, Xie Xun's master ..."
The three Shaolin eminent monks noticed how he warded off their forces while spitting out words at the same time. It was a kind of internal energy cultivation they themselves were not able to master. They could not help but feel more alarmed. The three monks recognized the Ming Cult was the 'stop-at-no-evil' Devil Cult. The higher the Jiaozhu's martial art skill, the higher their capacity to harm others would be. Seeing that currently he fell into the tight encirclement and unable to escape, they decided to seize the opportunity. Only, their endeavor would need unlimited efforts. Therefore, without saying anything, they intensified the black ropes and their palms attacks.
Zhang Wuji continued talking, "Three Old Honorable Masters must understand, this Cheng Kun's Shimei [younger martial sister] was the Ming Cult's Jiaozhu Yang Dingtian's wife. Cheng Kun had some feeling toward his Shimei, thus he became jealous and eventually his jealousy turned into deep hatred toward the Ming Cult ..."
Thereupon as his hands were busy fending off the three monks' stances, his mouth did not stop recounting, from the beginning to the end, how Cheng Kun schemed to destroy the Ming Cult, how he made illicit rendezvous with Mrs. Yang, which finally caused Yang Ding Tian's demise, how he faked drunkenness and molested Xie Xun's wife and killed his entire family, how he compelled Xie Xun to randomly massacre Wulin people, how he took Kong Jian Shen Seng as his master and deliberately lured him to take thirteen fists from Xie Xun, but he did not appear and in the end Kong Jian died with unsatisfied regret.
The more Du E, three monks heard, the more troubled their hearts were; the story appeared as it was cooked up by some criminals or barbarians, yet everything was logical and reasonable, everything fitted together perfectly. Du E was the first to relax his black rope.
Zhang Wuji also said, "Wanbei does not know how Yang Jiaozhu became enemies with Du E Dashi, but I am not surprised if there was a third party who incited disharmony between the two of you. Most likely this man was Yuan Zhen. There is no harm in Du E Dashi trying to recall past events. See if what Wanbei has said has some merit in it."
"Hm," Du E stopped his rope altogether. He lowered his head and pondered a moment. "That makes sense," he finally said, "In Lao Na's feud with Yang Dingtian, Cheng Kun did indeed play an important role. Afterwards, he wanted to take Lao Na as his master, but Lao Na had never taken any disciple, so I recommended him to Kong Jian Shizhi to be his disciple. Come to think about it, did he intentionally arrange all this?"
"Not only that," Zhang Wuji said, "Currently, he is coveting over the Shaolin Temple Abbot position, gathering supporters outside the Temple, and cooking up a secret conspiracy to usurp Kong Wen Shen Seng ..."
He had not finished speaking when there was a loud rumbling noise as a giant boulder on the sloping hill toward their left tumbled down toward the three pine trees.
"Who's there?" Du E shouted. The back rope in his hand flew. 'Bang! Bang!' it struck the boulder right on, but it only caused several chips to fly away. From behind the boulder a shadow suddenly pounced toward Zhang Wuji with an exceptional speed. A cold ray flashed as a short blade was thrust into his throat.
This attack was so sudden, and it came when Zhang Wuji was using his full-strength to block Du Jie and Du Nan, two monks' black ropes and palm strikes. He was totally caught off guard against this sneak attack. He only felt a sharp wind in the darkness and the short blade had already reached his throat. In this critical situation he threw himself sideways, and with a 'rip' noise the sharp of the blade made a big cut on his clothes right on his chest. If he was a fraction of a second late, his chest and abdomen would be cut open.
As his attack failed, the attacker broke out of the three monks' black ropes encirclement by rolling behind the giant boulder.
"Close shave!" Zhang Wuji silently cursed. He shouted, "Wicked thief Cheng Kun! Come and deal with me personally if you dare! You want to kill me to close my mouth?"
Actually, he did not see clearly the assassin who attacked him with the blade, but he knew that person's movements were quick, his stance was fierce, his internal energy was strong, and his martial art was somewhat similar to Xie Xun, so he presumed it was none other than Cheng Kun.
Just like three great hands, the three black ropes of the Shaolin three monks reached out toward the boulder. Wrapping and heaving, they lifted the thousand-catty giant boulder and hurled it away. But Cheng Kun had already gone down the mountain far away.
"Was it really Yuan Zhen?" Du E asked.
"Of course that was him," Du Nan said.
Du E said, "If he did not have any guilty conscience, why would he ..."
Suddenly from all directions came repeated shouts, as seven, eight shadows arrived. The first one shouted, "Shaolin monks became Buddha disciples in vain, you have killed too many people. Aren't you afraid the consequences of your sins? Everybody, let's go together."
Eight people, each with a weapon in their hands, charged toward the three monks. Zhang Wuji was still standing in the middle of the three monks. He saw that among these eight people, three wielded swords, each of the other five wielded either a saber or a whip. Each one of them possessed a high level or martial art skill. Immediately they fought the three monks' black ropes.
After watching for a while, Zhang Wuji recognized the stances of the three people wielding swords were similar to the Qinghai Three Swords, who were killed by the Shaolin monks several days earlier. Only their changes were more subtle and their forces stronger, far above the Qinghai Three Swords. These people must be Qinghai school's senior characters. These three people attacked Du E. The other three people fought Du Nan, and the remaining two joined hands in battling Du Jie.
Although Du Jie only fought two people, these two's martial art skill was a notch higher than the rest of the attackers. After fighting for half a day, Zhang Wuji could tell that Du Jie gradually fell under his enemies' control; while although fighting one against three, Du E seemed to be in control with his abundance internal strength.
About a dozen or so stances later, Du E was aware of the difficulty Du Jie was facing. His black rope shook, and flew toward the two men attacking Du Jie. The two men were tall and powerfully built. Their black beards floating, their movements were extremely agile. One of them held a pair of judge brushes, the other held a short pole to seal acupoints. Du E and Du Jie were several 'zhang's apart, yet Du E could feel the wind generated by these two people's weapons as if they were closed to him, proving that short weapons were inevitably more fierce than the long ones.
On the other front, the power carried by the three swords of Qinghai people was getting weaker, and they slowly fell under Du Nan's control. As it happened, Du Nan was fighting three enemies, while Du E and Du Jie two monks were fighting five enemies. For the time being, both parties were in a stalemate.
Zhang Wuji wondered in his heart, "These eight people are all martial art experts and they are not necessarily inferior to He Taichong, husband and wife. Other than the three Qinghai Pai people, I cannot figure out the school origin of the other five. Truly in this wide world, there are crouching tigers and hidden dragons among the tall grasses and thick weeds. I wonder how many heroes and warriors are hiding quietly, whose names I have never heard of."
After these eleven people fought for more than a hundred moves, the black ropes in the three monks of Shaolin's hands were getting shorter. The shorter ropes required less internal energy to operate, but their agility and attacking power were also reduced several degrees. Several dozens of moves later, the three monks' black ropes were shortened six, seven feet more. The two black-bearded old men fought closer and closer. The power behind their weapons was getting stronger and stronger. As soon as they saw a hole in their enemies' defense, they would do their utmost to advance step-by-step, to be as close as possible to the three monks. But as their black ropes were shorter, the three monks' defense was also tighter. The three ropes were like a circle with infinite elasticity. Each time the two black-bearded old men pressed on, they would be pushed back by the ropes.
By this time the three monks had already joined their 'qi' that the battle turned into three against eight. The three Shaolin monks spared no effort in fighting the enemies, but they were groaning inside. They knew that although the battle with these eight people was prolonged, they would not suffer defeat. If they used the 'Jin Gang Fu Mo Quan' [Buddha's warrior' devil subduing ring/loop], not only eight enemies, even sixteen or thirty-two people would not be able to penetrate their defense. However, inside this ring hides a powerful enemy who would endanger them internally. If Zhang Wuji ever decided to make his move, they would be crushed from inside and outside, then the Shaolin three monks' lives would be gone.
The three monks saw him quietly sit on the ground; apparently he was waiting for a good opportunity to strike. Perhaps he was waiting for the three monks and their enemies to exhaust their strengths, and then gain advantage at their expense. By this time the three monks had used their internal energy to its fullest potential. They were thinking of letting a long whistle down the hill to call for help from the Shaolin Temple, but they could not open their mouths. If they uttered even a single word, the flow of their blood and 'qi' would reverse, and then if they were lucky enough not to die, they would certainly suffer internal injury and would be crippled.
In their hearts, they were scolding themselves for being too proud. If, at the first sign of powerful enemy's arrival they had raised the alarm asking reinforcement from the Temple, their victory would have been assured as soon as several masters of Damo Hall and Luohan Hall came to help.
This dire circumstance was also clearly seen by Zhang Wuji. If he wanted to take these three monks' lives at this time, it would be as easy as lifting his finger. But he thought as a real man, he should not take advantage when others were in danger. Let alone the fact that these three monks were the victims of Yuan Zhen's evil plot. Besides, if he killed them, he would still have to deal with the eight powerful enemies, which would not make his job any easier.
Knowing that victory or defeat between the two parties would not be decided for a while, he looked down to see that there was a dungeon in the ground, covered with a very big rock. All he could see was a small gap, supposedly it was the air passage for Xie Xun to breathe, and to deliver food for him. He thought that his time was limited. By the time victory and defeat between the combatants was decided, some people from the Shaolin Temple might have arrived; and then he would lost the opportunity to rescue Yifu. Thereupon he knelt down by the rock and pushed with both hands. He was able to push the giant stone slowly aside by exerting his strength using the Qian Kun Da Nuo Yi technique.
He had not pushed the rock one foot when suddenly a strong wind came from behind, as Du Nan sent a palm strike toward his back. Zhang Wuji used the 'take off force to borrow strength'. 'Bang!' a large part of the clothes on his back tore to pieces. In the fierce wind and rainstorm, the pieces of clothes flutter in the air like butterflies; but actually he transferred Du Nan's palm strength to the giant stone. With a loud rumbling noise the stone slid about a foot. He unloaded the palm strength to the rock so that he was not injured internally, but when he took the force, his own internal energy was focused on the stone in front of him; therefore, he felt severe pain on his back.
As Du Nan launched a palm strike, he revealed a gap in the black ropes defense. One of the black-bearded old man immediately penetrated the loop. The short pole in his right hand struck toward Du Nan's left breast.
The Shaolin Three Monks' flexible rope formation was very effective for a long distance attack, but not for a close combat. Du Nan raised his left palm to ward off the attack threatening the acupoint on his chest. The black-bearded old man stretched out his left-hand index finger to pierce Du Nan's 'shan zhong xue' [lit. 'in the flock (of sheep or goats)' acupoint].
"Not good!" Du Nan cried out inwardly. He did not expect the enemy's 'yi zhi chan' [sacrificing finger] acupoint sealing technique was fiercer than his sealing acupoint pole. In this critical situation, he did not have any choice but to let go the rope in his right hand and sweep it across his chest with a strong gust of wind, and immediately launched a counterattack with his thumb, index finger and middle finger shaped like a fan.
Although he succeeded in warding off the enemy's attack, with the black rope no longer in his hand, the old man wielding judge-pens immediately entered in his line of defense. The Shaolin Three Monks' 'Jin Gang Fu Mo Quan' was broken.
Suddenly, the end of the black rope, which was lying on the ground, rose up just like the head of a viper ready to strike its victim. With a loud scream the rope went toward the acupoint on the face of the old man wielding the judge pens. Even before the rope arrived, the strong wind generated was enough to stop the enemy. The old man hastily raised both of his judge pens to block. As the rope and the pens collided, he was shaken and his arms went numb, the pen in his left hand almost fell off, while the pen in his right hand was diverted to strike the rock underneath. Rock chips flew as sparks splashed everywhere.
The black rope continued toward the Qinghai Pai' three swordsmen, forcing them to withdraw about a 'zhang' backwards. The 'Jin Gang Fu Mo Quan' was not only restored, the power was even greater than the original formation. The Shaolin Three Monks were pleasantly surprised, especially since they saw the other end of the rope was unexpectedly in Zhang Wuji's hand. He had never practiced the 'Jin Gang Fu Mo Quan' with them, so in term of 'interlinked minds' and moving in seamless coordination with the others, he was far inferior to Du Nan. However, his unequalled abundance internal energy was more than enough to generate an earth-shattering force to drive the enemies to withdraw in all directions.
Du E and Du Jie's black ropes also moved that together they drove the remaining seven people to fall back. In the meantime, Du Nan focused his attention to deal with the black-bearded old man, which was a notch inferior to him both in terms of martial art and internal strength. He fought sitting inside the pine tree, and did not stand up at all. His ten fingers slapped, pierced, plucked, hooked, pointed, brushed, captured and seized, so that after several moves, the black-bearded old man repeatedly fell into dangerous situations. Seeing his seven companions were not in a better situation than what he was facing, the old man bellowed and leaped out from the loop.