70 Chapter Thirty-Nine: No Treaty(2/4)
"What is he relying on barking orders here?" that granny angrily said. "I'm not going to see him. I want to see how this Ren is going to kill me."
Linghu Chong knew she was very stubborn and was hard to persuade. If she were to meet Ren Woxing, her speech would most likely offend him and things would turn out really bad. He immediately took his leave from Monk No Commandment and his wife, then went to the east peak with Yingying.
"The three highest peaks in Huashan are the east peak, south peak, and west peak. The east and west peaks are particularly tall," Linghu Chong said. "The real name of the east peak is the Peak of Morning Sun. Your father chose this peak to meet with the disciples of the Five Mountains Sword School to make it look like that we are coming to pay respect to an imperial court. Your father said all the people of the Five Mountains Sword School to go to the Peak of Morning Sun. Could it be that all the people from all the schools are at Huashan?"
"In the five mountains sword schools, Mr. Yue, Zuo Lengchan, and Mr. Mo Da have all passed away today. I don't know who Taishan School has appointed as their headmaster. In this alliance of five big sword schools, you're the only headmaster left," Yingying said.
"Besides Heng-Shan School, most of the heroes from the five schools have all died inside the cave on that Cliff of Contemplation. Besides, the disciples of Heng-Shan Schools have all been captured and are in distress, I'm afraid.."
"You're afraid my father will take advantage of this to eliminate the five mountains sword schools?"
Linghu Chong nodded his head and let out a sigh. "Actually, he doesn't need to do anything. There's not many people left in the five mountains sword schools."
Yingying also let out a sigh. "Mr. Yue deceived the masters from the five mountains sword schools. He enticed them to look at the sword moves engraved at Huashan with the intention of wiping out all the warriors with good martial art. That way his position as the headmaster of the Five Mountains School would be safe and no one from each of the schools would be able to go against him. This move was originally very clever, but Zuo Lengchan unexpectedly got a whiff of this and took those blind men to kill him inside that dark cave."
"You're saying Zuo Lengchan wanted to kill my master?" Linghu Chong queried. "He wasn't trying to kill me?"
"He didn't know you were going to come," Yingying answered. "Your swordplay is brilliant and you already knew of the moves engraved on the cave wall a long time ago, so you wouldn't have gone inside to take a look at those sword moves. When we went in there, it was just a coincidence."
"What you said is right," Linghu Chong agreed. "Actually, Zuo Lengchan and I had no enmity. Both of his eyes were blinded by my master, and the headmaster position of the Five Mountains School was also snatched by him. Those things would be really cutting to him."
"Zuo Lengchan probably had a strategy prepared," Yingying said. "He'd tempt Mr. Yue to go inside the cave and then take advantage of the darkness to kill him. I don't know how, but this plan was discovered by Mr. Yue and instead of going in, he guarded the cave's entrance and captured people using the fish net. This is really the mantis seizing the cicada not knowing the oriole was just behind. Now, Zuo Lengchan and your master have both died while the reason for all these would never be known."
Linghu Chong mournfully nodded his head.
"Mr. Yue deceived the masters of the five mountains sword schools to come here," Yingying continued. "There must've been a foreshadowing of this matter a long time ago. That day at Songshan during the fight for the leadership, your little martial sister used Taishan, Hengshan, Songshan, and Heng-Shan brilliant sword moves. The masters from all four schools witnessed all these and their hearts would itch in getting to know them. Only the disciples from Heng-Shan School had been taught the sword moves from the cave wall by you, so they wouldn't find them extraordinary. While the disciples from Taishan, Hengshan, and Songshan Schools would of course be asking where Miss Yue got these sword moves from. Mr. Yue secretly spread the rumour and decided on a date that the cave would be open to them. The masters from these three schools, wouldn't they rush to be here?"
"For people who study martial art like us," Linghu Chong said. "Once we hear of a place to learn some brilliant martial art, then we'd definitely brave danger and death to go there. Especially when those martial arts are from our own school, we wouldn't rest until we've seen them. That's why people like martial uncle Mo Da and other master-hands all died inside that cave."
"Mr. Yue anticipated that your Heng-Shan School wouldn't come, so he prepared another plan," Yingying said. "He used the confusion poison to knock everyone out and took them up to Huashan."
"I don't understand why master would spend such a big effort to bring my disciples up to Huashan?" Linghu Chong questioned. "This matter would be easily discovered since they have to go through such a long journey. Why didn't he just kill all of them at Heng-Shan? Wouldn't this be easier?" He stopped for a tick then continued, "Ah, I understand. If he killed all the Heng-Shan disciples then there'll be one less mountain from the Five Mountains School. Master wants to be the headmaster of the Five Mountains School, but without Heng-Shan School, he couldn't be the headmaster of the Five Mountains School. The name simply wouldn't be right."
"That's one reason," Yingying said. "But I think, there's still one more reason."
"What's that?"
"The best thing would of course be to capture you," Yingying explained. "Then he'd trade with something of mine."
Linghu Chong was enlightened and he excitedly hit his thigh. "That's right. My master wanted the medicine for the Three Corpse Brain Pill."
"After Mr. Yue was forced to take this pill, he would've been restless day and night wanting to get a medicine for it," Yingying said. "One day he wouldn't accept it and the next he'd be worried to death. He knew that he could only get the medicine by getting you."
"Of course, I'm your darling," Linghu Chong agreed. "Only by using me that he can exchange the medicine from you."
Yingying pursed her lip. "If he was going to use you to trade for the medicine then I wouldn't trade. The materials for the medicine are so hard to get and making them isn't easy either. So they're priceless treasure. How could I trade them so easily?"
"The common saying goes: It's easy to find priceless treasure, hard to find a lover."
Yingying's whole cheeks turned bright red immediately. In a whisper, she said, "Like a mouse getting on a scale, scaling and praising himself. Know no shame."
As they talked, they arrived at a narrow path. This mountain path was perfectly straight as it went up and it was also very steep. They couldn't walk side by side through this path.
"You go first," Yingying said.
"You go first," Linghu Chong said. "If you fall down then I'll grab you."
"No, you go first, but you're not allowed to turn your head back to look at me. You must listen to what granny tells you to do." She laughed when she finished talking.
"Fine, I go first," Linghu Chong relented. "If I fall down, you can grab me."
"That won't do, that won't do!" Yingying hastily replied. She was afraid he would pretend to misstep to play around with her. So she quickly went up the mountain path first.
Even though Yingying saw him making a joke, his expression was still melancholic. After he laughed, he turned mournful again. She knew it was difficult for him to forget about Yue Buqun's death. Along the way she'd tried to make him say some jokes to make him forget about his worries. After a few turns, they arrived at the top of the Jade Maiden Peak. Linghu Chong pointed out to her which one was the Jade Maiden's face washing basin and which one was the Jade Maiden's dressing table. Yingying knew this Jade Maiden Peak was the place he used to play around with Yue Lingshan back then, and she was afraid that he might get even more upset, so she just took a quick glance without asking anything.
After going down a slope, they went up a little path towards the Peak of Morning Sun. They saw guards everywhere around the mountain. The Sun Moon Sect's men were dressed in seven different gown colour and they were very discipline in following the flag going back and forth. Compared to the last time he visited the Dark Wood Cliff, there was a different feeling of dread.
Linghu Chong secretly praised, "Chief Ren is a very learned man. That day when I led thousands of men to attack Shaolin Temple, it was a mess, everything was chaotic. How can it be compared to the Sun Moon Sect's army which resembles a body using its arms, like when an arm wants to point at something, with thousands of people resembling one person? Dongfang Bubai is also one great person. It was only later that he made a mistake and gave the handling of sect's matter to Yang Lianting. That's when the Dark Wood Cliff withered and its power diminished."
The people of Sun Moon Sect respectfully bowed their bodies when they saw Yingying. They were also very respectful towards Linghu Chong. The bannermen roared one by one from the bottom of the peak all the way to the peak, announcing to Ren Woxing their arrivals. Linghu Chong saw all the important places between the bottom of the peak to the peak were all packed with people from the sect. There were at least two thousands guards around those places. It seemed that this time the Sun Moon Sect had gathered many warriors from the unorthodox path to help them in carrying out this massive operation. If all the headmasters from the five mountains sword schools were still alive, and all the master-hands from the five schools were at Huashan, and they had also been deployed before hand to meet this attack, it was still likely that they would lose. At this time with the number of talented fighter close to zero, it was impossible for them to fight back.
Looking at the situation now, it was certain that Ren Woxing had a harmful idea towards the five mountains sword schools. Since things had come to this, there was nothing he could've done and now everything was up to the Heaven's will. He could only take things step by step. If Ren Woxing wanted to annihilate the five mountains sword schools, then he couldn't just stay on the side preserving his own life. He would have to fight to the death and Heng-Shan School's disciples would all be killed on top of this Peak of Morning Sun.
Although he was clever, he wasn't that experienced and didn't have a plan in mind to face this calamity. When he saw all the disciples of Heng-Shan School fell into the trap, he also didn't know how to free them and everything was just left to fate and circumstances. He was also thinking that Yingying and Chief Ren were related by flesh and blood so the most she would do would be not to help both sides. So there was no chance she would help him by thinking of a plan to go against her own father. At this time, facing the sect's disciples at the Peak of Morning Sun with bows drawn and sabres unsheathed, he didn't even look at them and he instead told Yingying some jokes.
But Yingying was already tied in knots in worry, so she couldn't be like Linghu Chong who was unworried. Along the way, she'd been churning her brain thinking on what to do. She pondered, "Chong-lang is a fearless person. Even if the sky collapsed, he'd only notice it when it's right on top of him. I've always thought of a way for him to do." Thinking that her father had led such a big operation here, it couldn't be anything good. When the situation turned dangerous, then all she could do would be to adapt since there was no other good option.
The two of them slowly went up to the peak. When they reached the summit, they were suddenly assaulted with horns blaring followed by sound of music from drums and pipes. This was unexpectedly the welcoming of honoured guests.
Linghu Chong whispered, "Father-in-law is welcoming the son-in-law back home!"
Yingying blankly stared at him and she felt really anxious. She thought, "This person really doesn't worry about anything. At this time, he can still joke around."
Then she heard a person laughed loudly and in a clear voice said, "Young lady, Brother Linghu, Chief's been waiting for you for a long time."
A slim elder wearing a purple gown took a step forward and gripped both of Linghu Chong's hands. His face was full of happiness. He was Xiang Wentian. When Linghu Chong saw him, he was also very happy. "Brother Xiang," Linghu Chong called out. "You're well, I've thought of you often."
"At Dark Wood Cliff, I keep hearing news of your prestige soaring in Wulin," Xiang Wentian laughingly replied. "I drank to you from far away, I've at least drunk more than ten big pots of wine. Quickly go see Chief." Taking his hand, he went towards a stone structure several stories high.
That stone structure was on top of the east peak. It was extremely big and tall, just like it had been naturally formed. To the east of that structure was Peak of the Morning Sun's highest place which was called Deity's Palm. That Deity's Palm had five big pillars rising to the sky with the central pillar being the highest. They saw a big chair placed underneath the central pillar, and a person sat in it. This person was Ren Woxing.
Yingying walked to the front of the palm, looked up and called out, "Daddy!"
Linghu Chong bowed and said, "Junior Linghu Chong pays my respect to Chief."
Ren Woxing laughed aloud. "Little brother, you come at the right time. We're all family, there's no need to be so formal. Today, our sect will meet with the world's heroes so we shall talk business first before talking about family matter. My worthy.. worthy brother, sit beside me."
Linghu Chong heard him paused after saying this word 'worthy' seemingly like he wanted to say 'worthy son-in-law'. But since it had not been decided yet, he corrected himself from calling him 'worthy son-in-law'. It looked like he had already approved of the marriage between Yingying and him. He also said 'We're all family' and 'we shall talk business first before talking about family matter', it was obvious Ren Woxing had regarded him as family. He felt happy and straighten his body up.
Suddenly, a cold energy rushed up from this 'Dantian' region and he felt like he had entered an icehouse. His body trembled and continuously shook. Yingying was started and quickly went up to him. "What's wrong?"
"I.. I.." Linghu Chong stammered out but he unexpectedly couldn't utter another word.
Even though Ren Woxing was high up there, his eyesight was still sharp. "Did you clash palms with Zuo Lengchan?"
Linghu Chong nodded.
Ren Woxing smiled. "It's nothing. You sucked his polar ice energy, once you scatter it out, it'll be alright. Why isn't Zuo Lengchan coming here?"
"Zuo Lengchan secretly set up a violent plan to kill Big Brother Linghu and me," Yingying told him. "Big Brother Linghu killed him."
"Oh!" Ren Woxing uttered. He was sitting very high up so they couldn't see his face. But in this voice, there was an air of disappointment.
Yingying understood her father's heart. Today, he had come in a grand manner to intimidate the five mountains sword schools and to suppress the people of the five schools. Zuo Lengchan was his big enemy and now he wouldn't be able to see him bend his knee and lower his head in front of him so it was unavoidable that he would feel regret. She extended her left hand to hold Linghu Chong's right hand to help him disperse the cold energy. Linghu Chong's left hand was being held by Xiang Wentian. Together, they moved their energy. Linghu Chong gradually felt the coldness in his body disappeared.
That day, when Ren Woxing and Zuo Lengchan fought at the Shaolin Temple, he absorbed his polar ice energy and turned into snowman in the middle of the snow field along with Linghu Chong, Xiang Wentian, and Yingying. But this time, Linghu Chong had only clashed swords with him and was only exposed to Zuo Lengchan's cold energy for a short time. Moreover, he didn't try to absorb it himself so only a little amount of cold energy was absorbed by him. A short time later, he wasn't trembling anymore.
"I'm alright, thank you!" Linghu Chong said.
"Little brother," Ren Woxing said. "You heard my call and came up the peak to see me. Very good, very good!" He then turned his head towards Xiang Wentian and said, "Why haven't the people from the other four schools arrived yet?"
"Subordinate will call them again!" Xiang Wentian replied. He waved his left hand, and eight old men in yellow gown lined up immediately in front of the peak. They called out together, "Sun Moon Divine Sect's cultured and esteemed martial artist, benefactors of the common people, Chief Ren has an order: Taishan, Hengshan, Huashan, and Songshan Schools, everyone must quickly come to Peak of the Morning Sun for a meeting. Each hall's fragrant master, ask them to come up quickly and not to delay."
These eight old men were all masters with deep internal energies. When they combined their voices together, they went very far and were able to be heard from all the peaks. Then they heard from all four directions, there were people answering, "As ordered. Long live to Chief, unify the Jianghu!" These were the replies from the Sun Moon Sect's fragrant masters.
"Headmaster Linghu, please take a seat beside me," a smiling Ren Woxing said.
Linghu Chong saw five chairs arranged on the west side of the deity's palm. Each chair was draped with a brocade of the colours black, white, blue-green, red, and yellow. While a mountain peak was embroidered on each brocade. North Heng-Shan was black, and on the black satin was Xianxing Peak embroidered with white thread. He saw the embroidering was attractive and with only a layer of it covering the chair, it had shown how meticulous the Sun Moon Sect had arranged this.
In the five mountains schools, Songshan was the leader while north Heng-Shan was last in standing. But in this seat arrangement, the order had been reversed. The seat of Heng-Shan's headmaster was at the head, followed by west mountain Huashan, while Songshan School was last. It was Ren Woxing who had lifted his position to intentionally humiliate Zuo Lengchan. But since Zuo Lengchan, Yue Buqun, Mr. Mo Da, and Priest Tianmen had all passed away, Linghu Chong didn't try to decline. He bowed and said, "I'll take a seat!" and went to sit on the chair with the black satin draped on it.
The people at the Peak of the Morning Sun were silently waiting. After a long time, Xiang Wentian again commanded those eight old men to call out again but they still didn't see anyone coming up.
"These people don't know how to appreciate favours," Xiang Wentian said. "They're so late in meeting Chief. Call our people to come up first!"
The eight yellow gowned old men called out, "Five lakes four oceans, every island, every cave, every clan, every stronghold, every mountain, every hall, Brothers, come up to the Peak of Morning Sun to meet Chief!"
When the word 'Chief' had just been uttered, the mountain peak was drowned by people crying out, "As ordered!" Their cries shook the valley. Linghu Chong couldn't help being startled. Hearing this voice, there were at least two to three hundred of them. These people secretly hid themselves and had guessed Ren Woxing's intention. He had wanted to wait for the people of the five mountains sword schools to arrive first before these thousands of people called out in order to startle and intimidate the five mountains sword schools so they wouldn't dare to resist. All of a sudden, people from all directions came out around the Peak of Morning Sun. Although there were a lot of them, they didn't make any noise at all. Every person stood separately at their places. It seemed that they had practised this before hand.
There were around two to three thousands people who had come up the peak. They were all people from the unorthodox path. The rest of the sect's subordinate were still waiting around the side of the peak.
Linghu Chong swept his eyes and saw Blue Phoenix, Zu Qianqiu, Old Man, and Ji Wushi among them. These people had perhaps been controlled by the Sun Moon Sect, or perhaps they had always been communicating. That day when Linghu Chong led the heroes to attack Shaolin Temple, these people also took part. They looked at Linghu Chong and were all smiling, but none of them called out. Besides the sound of footsteps shuffling, no other sound was heard from these thousands of people on top of this peak. Xiang Wentian raised his right hand and drew a circle in the air. The thousands of people simultaneously kneeled down and simultaneously said, "Jianghu's juniors pay our respect to Sun Moon Sect's cultured and esteemed martial artist, benefactors of the common people, Sacred Chief! Long live to Sacred Chief, unify the Jianghu!"
These people were all warriors with high martial arts and they were using their energy to call out. One person was like ten people's voices. When they said 'Long live to Sacred Chief, unify the Jianghu', all the Sun Moon Sect's people around the mountain also joined in. The sound was really shaking the sky and earth.
Ren Woxing majestically sat without moving. He waited for the cries to finish before he lifted his hand. "Everyone has worked hard. Rise!"
"Thank you, Sacred Chief!" the thousands of people said together and they stood up at the same time.
Linghu Chong thought, "That time when I went up the Dark Wood Cliff, I saw the people in the sect shamelessly flattering Dongfang Bubai that I wanted to vomit just observing them. I never thought when Ren Woxing became chief, the situation becomes even worse. They've now added that 'Sacred' word in front of his title making him Sacred Chief. I don't think even the hundreds of scholars and warrior officials would debase themselves in such a fashion when they go to see the current emperor and praise him with 'Long live to Emperor'. I'm a person who studies martial art. If I acted like this insultingly towards other heroes and people, can I still be called a man, a gentleman?" When he thought till here, his qi suddenly rushed up. Suddenly, he felt pain in his 'Dantian' region, his vision darkened, and he felt dizzy.
Both of his hands gripped the chair's arms tightly. His teeth bit on his lower lip until blood seeped out. He knew that after he learned the 'Art of Essence Absorbing', he had sworn off never to use it. But when he was trapped by Yue Buqun inside that fish net outside the cave, his life was hanging by a thread and he was forced to use this demonical method to absorb Yue Buqun's inner energy. By doing this, he had actually done great harm to himself.
He forcefully restrained himself to not groan aloud. But his body was trembling and his whole face was full of perspiration and distorted. The pain he was in was shown clearly in his expression. Everyone was able to see this clearly. Zu Qianqiu and the others were all looking at him, feeling very concerned.
Yingying walked behind him and whispered, "Brother Chong, I'm here."
Under the watchful eyes of thousands of people, she could only say this before her face turned bright red. Linghu Chong turned his head around to take a look at her, and he felt somewhat better. He immediately thought of the words Ren Woxing said that day at Hangzhou. Ren Woxing said after he had learned this 'Art of Essence Absorbing', he'd get different types of internal energy inside his body and there would come a day when he had to scatter them out. Once he had scattered them, the fierceness would increase by one fold. All those years ago, Ren Woxing gave up his position of chief to Dongfang Bubai also because of these different types of internal energies inside his own body. He always thought on how to solve this problem that he couldn't think of anything else and was taken advantage of by Dongfang Bubai. Ren Woxing was then imprisoned under the West Lake for more than ten years where he finally discovered how to solve this problem. But he wanted Linghu Chong to join the Sun Moon Sect first before he would teach him this method.
At that time, Linghu Chong was unyielding in his thinking that had been ingrained in his mind since he was small. That the demonical and the orthodox couldn't co-exist and that he could never join the Devil Sect. Later on, he saw Zuo Lengchan who was a big master of the orthodox path being deceitful and violent, and his action not differing too much when compared to the Devil Sect. Thus, the line between the orthodox and demonical wasn't that clear anymore. Sometimes, he also thought that if Ren Woxing was determined to make him join the sect then only if he agreed to marry Yingying off to him would he just join the sect without care. His nature was easygoing and he didn't take anything seriously. It didn't worry him whether he joined the sect or not, it wasn't a big deal for him. But that day on the Dark Wood Cliff, when he saw the heroes being so humble towards Dongfang Bubai and Ren Woxing and with them speaking so flatteringly and insincerely, he couldn't help feeling a strong dislike against the sect instead. He was thinking that if he joined the sect, then he must also spend his days like a slave and he'd become a useless person. Every person has his own fate in living and dying, if he was required to beg to keep his life then Linghu Chong would never do it.
Now, he had further seen Ren Woxing abused his power and arranged everything like he was better than an emperor. He thought of the day when Ren Woxing was back in the dark prison underneath the West Lake, how there was no scenery in there at all. But today, he insulted the world's heroes like they were not people at all. At this time, he suddenly heard someone said in a clear voice, "Reporting to Sacred Chief, Heng-Shan School's disciples have arrived."
Linghu Chong was startled. He saw Yihe, Yiqing, Yilin, and the rest of the Heng-Shan disciples helping each other to go up the peak. Monk No Commandment, his wife, and Tian Boguang were walking behind them.
"Friends," Bao Dachu said in a loud voice. "Please go and see Sacred Chief."
Yiqing and the rest of the disciples saw Linghu Chong sitting on the side. They knew Ren Woxing was his father-in-law, so even though they felt the orthodox and demonical shouldn't be together, on account of their headmaster, they paid their respects as juniors. Walking to the front of the Deity's Palm, they bowed to pay their respect. "Heng-Shan School's junior disciples pay our respects to Chief Ren!"
"Kneel and kowtow!" Bao Dachu ordered.
"We're Buddhist," Yiqing replied in a loud voice. "We worship Buddha, worship Boddhisatva, worship master, we don't worship ordinary people!"
"Sacred Chief isn't an ordinary person," Bao Dachu shouted. "He's a divine deity just like Buddha and Boddhisatva!"
Yiqing turned her head to look at Linghu Chong. Linghu Chong shook his head.
"If you want to kill us then kill us!" Yiqing replied. "Disciples of Heng-Shan do not worship ordinary people!"
"Well said, well said!" Monk No Commandment said as he laughed aloud.
"Which school are you from?" Xiang Wentian indignantly questioned. "Where do you come from?"
He saw Heng-Shan School's disciples weren't willing to kowtow to Ren Woxing and the situation was now at a deadlock. If they troubled the female disciples then it wouldn't be good in front of Linghu Chong. So he immediately turned to Monk No Commandment to divide Ren Woxing's attention and make him forget of the kowtow incident.
"Big temples don't want to take me in, while little temples don't want such a wild monk, so I have no family or school," Monk No Commandment laughingly replied. "I heard there'll be lots of people gathering here so I came here to take a look and join in the revelry."
"Today, the Divine Sun Moon Sect is here to meet the five mountains sword schools," Xiang Wentian said. "Other people aren't allowed to be here. Go down the mountain!"
Xiang Wentian said this politely because he was taking into account Linghu Chong's face. He saw Monk No Commandment had come up together with the Heng-Shan School's female disciples so he expected him to be related to the Heng-Shan School. Thus, he didn't want to make things to difficult for him.
"This Mount Huashan doesn't belong to your Devil Sect," said a smiling No Commandment. "If I want to be here then I'll be here, if I want to go then I'll go. Besides the Hu-->>