I’ve decided to take on a new, short translation project: the first novel in Hong Kong wuxia author Huang Ying’s 黃鷹 Shen Shengyi 沈勝衣 wuxia series, which ran from 1974 to around 1984. The series was adapted in 1979 into a TV drama in Hong Kong under the title Shen Shengyi (known in English as The Roving Swordsman). It adapted eight of the Shen Shengyi novels, including the first one, the one I’m going to translate here, The Silver Sword Grudge《銀劍恨》.
It’s a short novel, only two chapters, but they are long chapters. I will post it as I translate it, beginning with the first part below.
Huang Ying (1948-1991) is best known for continuing Gu Long’s Six Tales of Fright series of horror wuxia novels. The first one, Blood Parrot《血鸚鵡》, has a partial translation (see the translation list in the main menu. Only the first three chapters. Gu Long began the novel but only wrote the first four chapters. Huang Ying was selected to take over and continue beginning with chapter 5 and he finished the novel. The other five novels in the series were entirely written by Huang Ying.
Huang Ying was one of the main writers at Wuxia World Magazine《武俠世界》during the 70s and 80s, and along with Long Chengfeng 龍乘風 and Ximen Ding 西門丁, they were known as the Three New Swordsmen. They dominated Wuxia World Magazine during this time period. A number of Huang Ying’s novels were adapted to film and TV. His most famous novel series are Reincarnated《天蠶變》(lit. Silkworm Metamorphosis) and The Legend of Shen Shengyi.
His writing style was heavily influenced by Gu Long. I wrote a bit about Gu Long imitators in the past, but I didn’t give any examples of Huang Ying at the time. Now we can see what his writing is like. In this first part translated below, Huang Ying does a good job setting the mood, something Gu Long was very good at.
I guess I will just make a post for each part that I translate, and then consolidate them properly into a novel page like I did with Heartbroken Arrow, and then delete the posts so they don’t clog up the front page. So the next installments will be simple posts with just the chapter text and none of my blather.
And now here is The Silver Sword Grudge, the beginning of a series wherein an assassin becomes a xia…
Chapter 1
A Rainy Night, Bleak and Chilly Wind,
Awns of Frigid Silver Sword Light
Rain, night rain, bitter rain.
Wind whistling and wailing, rain pittering and pattering, a spring chill in the air.
Cold rain filled the broad river, the air steamy and mizzling, the river hazy and blurry, the silhouettes of trees on both sides of the river hazy and indistinct.
Wind blew on the treetops, rain battered the treetops, blew the leaves, battered the leaves.
The leaves were soaked with water, water soaked the leaves, dripping and dropping. The rim of a bamboo rainhat dripped beads of water.
Not only was the person wearing a bamboo rainhat but also a straw raincloak. The rainhat dripped beads of water, the raincloak also dripped beads of water.
From beginning to end the beads of water dripped on the same spot, and from beginning to end the person stood under a tree, under a willow to the right of the bridge.
The bridge stretched across the river, long and broad, wide enough to fit a large two-horse carriage or for six people to walk side by side. Though it was a wooden bridge, it looked very sturdy.
The bridge here connected to a road, and the end over there naturally also connected to a road.
At the end of the road over there was a town, lanternlight dimly flickering.
The lanternlight was hazy in the rain, and the person’s view was also hazy in the rain.
His gaze shot out from under the rainhat toward the town, cold, stern, and also sharp. From time to time his eyes blinked, but his gaze never changed in the slightest. His face was covered with a black cloth mask, so the change in his expression could not be seen, but he was clearly waiting for something.
On a rainy night, by the river, under a tree, waits a masked man… Such a surreptitious atmosphere!
The rain was stirring, the wind was stirring, the river water was stirring, the tree leaves were stirring… The person was not stirring, made not a sound.
In the distance by the town, a sporadic lanternlight.
The night watchman’s drum was sporadic, carried on the wind, the monotonous tone indicating it was the second watch.
“Second watch…” The person finally spoke, voice pained and downcast, wavering in the wind and rain, then carried off by the blowing wind, washed out by the rain.
The lanternlight also wavered in the wind and rain but didn’t just vanish. It was a moving lanternlight.
The lanternlight emerged from the entrance of the town and gradually moved closer.
The masked man spotted the lanternlight, and his gaze appeared even sharper. But still didn’t move, just quietly waited.
The lanternlight came closer and closer, though slow, and in the end arrived at the bridge. It was a lantern covered with waxed paper, no wonder it could withstand the wind and rain.
The lantern was solitary, but there were two people.
The one holding the lantern walked on the left, slightly behind, and wore dark blue tightfit clothes, a three-span sabre hanging from his waist, a bamboo rainhat on his head.
The one on the right walking slightly ahead held an umbrella in his right hand, wore richly figured clothes and a sword.
The rays of pale yellow lanternlight were not very bright, and correspondingly, the people’s appearance was also dim and hard to discern.
The finely dressed person was around thirty with upward slanting phoenix eyes, a beard, cutting a mighty, powerful figure, and he carried himself well.
The blue-clad man was also around thirty. He looked quite doughty, though he liked the mighty appearance, and the bearing. With the lantern in tow, he was without a doubt leading the way for the finely dressed man.
It looked like he was surely just an attendant.
They reached the bridge and he instinctively raised the lantern a bit.
The lanternlight twinkled as he did so. On the other side under the three, the masked man’s gaze also twinkled. He suddenly moved and walked out from under the shade of the tree.
He didn’t walk fast but also not slow. By the time the two of them reached the end of the bridge he was there also. Thereupon he stopped.
The finely dressed man across from him stopped at almost the same time.
The blue-clad man still took two more steps before he noticed and then stopped in surprise and stared down the masked man. But the masked man paid no attention, just looked at the finely dressed man.
The finely dressed man also just looked at the masked man, his gaze very sharp, the masked man’s gaze even sharper, just like a sword, a sharp sword! The continuous drizzle seemed to be cut by his swordlike gaze!
The finely dressed man couldn’t help but feel a chill, but his gaze did not avert. Quite the opposite, it became even sharper, also like a sword!
The blue-clad man didn’t look away either, he never came in contact with the masked man’s gaze. He stared for a little while, then suddenly looked at the finely dressed man.
The finely dressed man seemed to have forgotten he was there and ignored him and didn’t make a sound.
If the master was not going to say anything, then he ought to say something! He had a thought, then looked at the masked man and bellowed, “Who’s this!”
The masked man didn’t look at him but said softly, “move aside!”
“Move aside,” the blue-clad man raged, “you’re blocking the road and still say to move aside? Do you know who it is you are blocking?”
“I know!”
The blue-clad man stuck out his chest “Then do you know who I am?”
The masked man hmphed coldly, “Who you are doesn’t matter.”
The blue-clad man’s chest stuck out further. “I…”
The masked man cut him off, “I said move aside, for the second time.”
The finely dressed man to the said suddenly said, “Move aside!”
The blue-clad man suddenly turned to him. “Master, why do what he says, this no good thing, furtively blocking the road in the middle of the night, and here you are with good intentions, let me teach him a lesson so he’ll know in the future to be careful who he’s messing with!”
The corners of the finely dressed man’s mouth arched in a slight grin, but he said nothing.
The blue-clad man turned back and glared at the masked man. “I say, friend, if you know what’s good for you you’ll clear out of here in a hurry, or else don’t just look at me as a little bodyguard, it’s enough for you!”
The masked man didn’t even say a word.
The blue-clad man was getting more and more full of himself and he set the lantern down on the bridge railing, then his free right hand suddenly lowered and gripped the handle of the sabre at his waist and he said loud and clear, “Now, what are you…”
The masked man cut him off, “For the third time, move aside!”
“And if I don’t, then what?” The blue-clad man gripped the sabre tighter.
“Die!” The masked man replied, curt and cold.
The blue-clad man laughed wildly, moved his wrist, drew his sabre! It schwinged out of the scabbard and before his laughter had faded he was charging forward!
The masked man seemed not to notice, still not even looking at him.
It was just a short distance between them, and in a split second he closed in, thundering sabre chopping down toward the masked man’s right shoulder!
The sabre was swift, just as it was about to cut off the masked man’s right shoulder, at lightning speed the masked man leaned to the side, his right hand shooting out from under his raincloak and a silver awn of light flashed toward the flashing sabre!
The blue-clad man’s three-span sabre was flung violently out of his hand with a tching!
At about the same time another silver awn of light flashed! And the blue-clad man’s bamboo rainhat was sent flying.
The sabre flew through the air, then suddenly banked and fell, the blade lodging into one of the bridge planks with a thud and quivering back and forth.
The bamboo raincloak fell and plunked down other there, a cut split right down the middle nearly cutting the hat in two.
The thud and the plunk, then a splish-splash as a string of blood splattered out.
The blood sprayed out from between the eyes of the blue-clad man. He cried savagely and grasped and clutched at it with his hands, staggering a few steps to the side before his feet touched air and he fell.
A splash under the bridge and a violent spray of water.
Some crows perched nearby became agitated, flapping their wings and cawing, then flap-flapping away.
Hair-raising caws sounded without end, reverberating through the sky. In the night it sounded more and more horrible.
The finely dressed man’s face finally changed, but he was still calm, right hand holding the umbrella as before, left hand still hanging down as before.
The masked man looked as if nothing had happened at all, at some point returning to his original posture, that killer right hand already returned with the silver awn of light back underneath his raincloak.
The cawing finally died out and the crows had disappeared who knows where.
Wind soughed, rain drizzled, flowing water babbled, just as it had before. Next to the railing the pale yellow lanternlight shone as before.
The finely dressed man suddenly exclaimed, “Excellent swordplay!”
“You flatter me,” the masked man’s mouth responded, but his eyes betrayed not a trace of complacence.
The finely dressed man’s gaze slowly slanted to the running water under the bridge and he snorted in contempt. “I don’t like people playing the hero in front of me.”
“I don’t either,” the masked man said flatly.
The finely dressed man’s gaze turned back sharply and in the blink of an eye he was looking hard at the masked man. “I really don’t like people killing my attendants in front of me.”
“Of course, no one would like that sort of thing.”
“You say you know who I am?”
“’Finely Dressed Marquis’ Xiang Zulou.”
The finely dressed man suddenly laughed. “You really do know who I am. Pity you’re too ashamed to show yourself, I would really like to see if I recognize you or not.”
The masked man was indifferent, shook his head. “You wouldn’t recognize me, but you should at least have heard of me.”
Finely Dressed Marquis Xiang Zulou laughed even louder. “Who are you?”
The masked man didn’t answer. He shrugged his shoulders and tossed off his raincloak, revealing black nightwalker clothes underneath and both his hands.”
His nightwalking clothes were buttoned tight, fit tight, and his hands hung down, his left hand holding his sword scabbard, a silver sword scabbard, and the drawn sword was clutched tightly in his right hand.
The sword’s handle, guard, even the blade itself, nowhere was it not silver, the tip of the blade still dripping blood.
The reflection of lanternlight off the sword was even more dazzling. Xiang Zulou’s gaze seemed to be seized by the sword light as he stared at it in a daze. Suddenly he cried out, “Silver Sword Assassin Sun Yu!”
The masked man snorted. “As I expected, you have heard of me.”
Xiang Zulou gave a hollow laugh. “I’ve long heard of you, but I never imagined I’d meet you tonight. This is some coincidence!”
“It’s no coincidence. The night before last…”
“The night before last I took a stroll at night…”
“You had two sworn brothers accompanying you on either side, ‘Miracle Hands’ Yu Qian and ‘Thunder Whip’ Cui Qun, so I could only watch you go out and watch you return home! Last night…” Sun Yu sighed with what sounded like regret. “You were at home playing a card game and there were many people there, so I had to give it up.”
“You’re not willing to try it if you’re not confident of success?”
“That’s right.”
“How cautious, no wonder I’ve never heard of you losing.”
“I can’t but be cautious.”
“Then tonight…”
“Your second uncle threw a banquet and you had to go, but Yu Qian and Cui Qun had a few words with your second uncle and certainly wouldn’t come, and the place was close, so they relaxed, no need to accompany you nearby, and because the place was so close you wouldn’t stay overnight, and when you went home you would have to cross this bridge.”
“So you waited here for me?”
“No better place than here!”
Xiang Zulou nodded repeatedly. Suddenly he burst out laughing. “Looks like you and I really hit it off, here we are talking!”
“Hit it off? Not likely, but in any case, we did talk a bit more than is usual.” Sun Yu suddenly laughed as well. “I got wind that you are just and help the needy and never let down your friends. It’s just a shame I’m not regarded a person, or else I might have befriended you.”
“Who says you aren’t regarded as a person?”
“I do!”
Xiang Zulou was taken aback. “Then you are…”
“An inhumane professional killer!”
Xiang Zulou said, “Are you warning me?”
“You could say that.”
“You definitely have to kill me tonight?”
“I promised someone that before the third watch I would take your life.”
“When you promise someone…”
“I never go back on it!”
“So then tonight it’s either you die or I perish?” Xiang Zulou said.
“No other choice!”
“Alright!” Xiang Zulou’s smile gradually disappeared. “Rumor has it in the jianghu that you are a killer among killers, over a hundred have died under your three-span silver sword…”
“Not that many!”
“You kill people from all walks of life, but your motive is always nothing more than money.”
“Sometimes there are exceptions.” Sun Yu’s eyes shifted slightly.
The blue-clad man’s blood was still on the bridge planks, only the rain had diluted it, spread it out more.
Xiang Zulou’s gaze followed his eyes and spotted the blood. How could he not know what Sun Yu was getting at. He nodded. “Of course you won’t allow someone to interfere with your business, but in the end that was not your original intention. As for me, I trust I am not an exception!”
“Absolutely not!”
“Then,” Xiang Zulou had not a trace of a smile on his face now, “who paid you to kill me?”
“Sorry, I can’t say,” Sun Yu said decisively.
“There’s no way you don’t know…”
“I know, but I can’t say. Keeping secrets is the most basic condition to being a professional killer, besides,” Sun Yu laughed again, “tonight if I’m the one who dies, you will be careful going forward, and good luck finding someone else who could kill you, and of course you will have enough time to find out who the real culprit is. On the other hand, if you are the one who dies tonight, then even if you know who it was, would good is it?”
“Makes sense. Alright, I won’t ask anymore.” Xiang Zulou muttered to himself for a moment, then slowly said, “Strange, I suddenly had a funny thought.”
“What’s that?”
“You kill people always for money. If I gave you money, could you kill someone for me?”
“There’s someone behind me who takes care of arrangements so I don’t have to worry about that. I never mess with that stuff!”
“You might as well think it over carefully. I will pay 2,000 taels of gold!”
“2,000 taels of gold!” Sun Yu’s eyes suddenly gleamed.
“What? Too little?”
“No, too much!” Sun Yu sounded hurried. “Killing you only cost 50 taels!”
“50 taels? Well that’s not what I expected. Years ago I bought a green parrot that could recite Tang poetry, and you know how much I paid for it all together?”
“How much?”
“Exactly 100 taels of gold!” Xiang Zulou gave a wry smile. “Turns out I’m no better than a green parrot!”
Sun Yu said nothing, and the gleam in his eyes remained.
Xiang Zulou knew what the look in Sun Yu’s eyes meant. “As for money, I’ll give you instructions on how to get it. No one’s ever doubted my word, you shouldn’t either. The problem is…”
He didn’t say anything else, but even though he stopped talking, Sun Yu knew what he wanted to say.
Sun Yu also had nothing to say.
2,000 taels of gold was no doubt an alluring sum. He would certainly have to consider it.
The rain gradually weakened and turned misty. The wind was still strong, and the lantern on the bridge was still shining.
Sun Yu finally spoke. “Who is it you want killed?”
Xiang Zulou heaved a deep sigh and answered at a measured pace, “The person who paid for you to kill me!”
Sun Yu laughed. “That’s what I figured.”
“If it’s more than one person, kill however many it is for me.”
“I can do that, and the money?”
“A businessman friend of mine earlier was short of funds and got 2,000 taels of gold from me. This afternoon he paid me back. I ought to have left it at home, but I forgot…” Xiang Zulou raised his left hand and reached into his robe and pulled two silver drafts. “As you can see, these are two silver drafts, each worth a thousand, 2,000 taels in total. The money was on me this whole time. You could have killed me first and then searched my body and got them with no effort, but you didn’t think of that!”
“when I heard you say 2,000 taels of gold I was utterly captivated, how would I think of anything else?”
Xiang Zulou put the silver drafts back in his robe. “You don’t regret it?”
“I never regret anything!”
“Then I’m relieved.”
“Besides, you’re the one who ought to regret it.”
“How’s that?”
“Add 2,000 more taels of gold and what do you think I would do?”
Xiang Zulou smiled thinly. “We’ll just have to see how skilled you really are!”
“I won’t disappoint you.”
“People say knowing someone by name is not as good as meeting them in person. I’ve heard of you for a long time and now I’ve met you, and I too think you won’t disappoint me.”
“Rest assured!”
“To tell the truth, I think it’s a contradiction to say I don’t think you’ll disappoint me, I’m sure you know what I mean.”
“Throughout the ages no one has been able to escape death, I understand.” Sun Yu’s gaze became colder. “Anything else you’d like to say?”
“Yes! I’d like to know just how much you know about me.”
“You’re fond of women, fond of gambling, fond of drink!”
“Everyone knows that!”
“You like the scent of sandalwood.”
“You’ve observed me carefully, sure enough. What else?”
“That’s it. Is that not enough?”
“Not enough! At the very least there’s one more thing you ought to know.”
“Please tell me.”
“Do you know what weapon I use?”
Sun Yu’s gaze happened to fall to Xu Zulou’s side. “A sword!”
Xiang Zulou’s left hand happened to be stroking the sword hanging from his waist. He smiled, a mysterious smile. “Wrong. Not a sword, an umbrella!”
An umbrella?” Sun Yu was taken aback.
Xiang Zulou’s right hand that was holding the umbrella shook and the open umbrella closed up, the accumulated water on it coming together and streaming off, splattering his fine clothes.
The reflected light off the umbrella’s surface glistened a queer metal grey.
“It’s an iron umbrella!” Sun Yu finally saw it.
“That’s right, an iron umbrella, the weapon secretly passed down to me by my master, but you know that with a person of my status, I can’t always have my umbrella with me. When I come and go in and out of rich estates, I only wear a sword and use the umbrella moves with my sword!”
“Actually, it doesn’t matter if you have a sword or not, it’s just that wearing one makes you look more cultured.”
“Yes, a person of my stature really has no need to fight himself ordinarily, but there are always times one finds oneself alone…”
“And when you’re alone you always carry your umbrella.”
“You really are smart, you guessed right again.”
“In the end you really are not an uncareful person.”
Xiang Zulou smiled, a proud smile. “Do I look like it?”
“No!” Sun Yu’s gaze slowly moved away from the iron umbrella. “Looks like your iron umbrella is more unconventional than the regular unconventional weapons like a folding fan or the nine palace wheel. I’ve never fought anyone who used an iron umbrella before.”
“Then you must experience it!”
“But don’t get too full of yourself, skills are acquired through training. I can’t say for sure that you haven’t trained in a while, but I bet it hasn’t been a lot, and when it comes to experience and adapting to situations, I fear you’re a far cry from me. Don’t forget I’m a professional killer who wields a sword for a living!”
Xiang Zulou seemed to be smiling, but it looked a bit forced. “And don’t you forget that those two silver drafts can’t be used if they’re stained with blood. Even if your sword is more ruthless, you still have to be a bit careful.”
“I haven’t forgotten that you put the silver drafts back in your robe, but you have to remember as well that my sword need not pierce your chest in order to take your life.” Sun Yu’s eyes were even colder. “Have anything else to say?”
Xiang Zulou’s smile was gone. “I have nothing left to say.”
“I too have nothing left to say.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” As soon as he spoke, Xiang Zulou opened up into a horse stance. His left hand still didn’t move, but his right hand raised high, fingers pointing at the sky, the umbrella also pointing at the sky.
Sun Yu’s stance also opened up, his left hand not moving, the sword gripped in his right hand slowly rising, hand level and pointing to the right, sword also level and pointing to the right.
The two of them seemed to have turned to wax, not moving at all.
Their gaze didn’t move either, looking into each other’s eyes, their pupils brimming with a murderous aura.
Xiang Zulou’s stance was ordinary, and Sun Yu’s was too.
Though ordinary, they were also invulnerable.
They had no idea how good the other’s martial arts was. Whoever moved first would have a hard time handling the stored up power of the other’s unexpected counterattack.
Sun Yu never did anything he wasn’t confident of succeeding at.
Xiang Zulou had no need to take a risk.
The two of them could only wait.
To find someone’s weakness, the simplest and most effective way was to calmly observe and wait for a change.
The misty rain was so hazy. The wind was strong, urgent, misty rain dancing in the wind, reflecting the pale yellow lanternlight. It no longer looked like rain but fog.
The fog that was not quite fog sealed off the lanternlight, but it could not seal off their eyes.
Their gazes became more and more relentless, crossing and cutting and cutting again! The misty rain became more and more dreary and hazy, as if it had been cut into a thousand, ten thousand threads.
In the distance a drumbeat sounded. The second watch was not yet over. The drumbeats fell and gradually died out.
Sun Yu and Xiang Zulou’s feet finally began to move!
Suddenly it looked like there was no before and after, they both seemed to move at once, but in fact Xiang Zulou was the first to move. He couldn’t wait any longer.
Sun Yu also couldn’t wait.
The two of them stepped slowly, but after two steps they sped up.
Steps speeding up and speeding up, swiftly!
Underfoot were wooden planks, yet their steps made no sound.
Sun Yu’s sword scabbard suddenly left his hand and fell to the wooden planks with a clang.
The sound in the night seemed sufficient to shake Xiang Zulou’s heartstrings. Though he didn’t look down at the wooden planks, he was already distracted, and his invulnerable stance unexpectedly revealed a hole!
When a person’s martial arts is not up to snuff it is hard to perceive it, but of course Sun Yu was not at all ordinary!
Moreover, he intentionally threw down his scabbard to make that noise.
He was not at all sure that Xiang Zulou had been distracted by it, he just knew everyone can be curious, and he hoped that Xiang Zulou was no exception, and then he would have a chance.
Even if it was just a slight chance, he had to try it.
A slight chance after all is still a chance.
It was absolutely not a matter of luck that he was able to become a killer among professional killers, that he was able to survive till now. Skill was secondary, most important was that he understood how to create an opportunity and how to grasp that opportunity.
A person who had an opportunity but didn’t know how to grasp it was an idiot, but the most feebleminded was one who waited for an opportunity. There was no need to wait for an opportunity, a smart person’s eyes were filled with opportunities!
No opportunities? Then just make your own.
In manufacturing your own you still had to grab hold of it tightly, like Sun Yu.
He would never let go of even the smallest opportunity.
His level silver sword pointed to the right now shifted to straight ahead, and his left hand shot up and grasped the hilt of the sword, both hands now holding the sword, stabbing swiftly!
The sword exactly, precisely at that hole!
Both hands wielded the sword, and the sword came on with astonishing force.
Before the sword arrived, the sword qi already pressed close. Xiang Zulou, suffused from head to toe in a murderous aura, it was at once destroyed by the sword qi.
He frowned, intimidated, and stopped, right wrist lowering, the iron umbrella falling like a streaming star right at the sword, while he himself moved backward.
The umbrella met the sword with a clang and the umbrella deflected up, but the sword’s momentum was not yet exhausted.
Luckily Xiang Zulou was aware enough to anticipate this and back away.
The sword struck air, but Sun Yu’s feet did not stop but pressed close, sword retracting then shooting out again, retracting and shooting out, stabbing again and again, three strokes.
Pressing cold sword qi smashed through the wind and rain filling the sky. Xiang Zulou’s attention was seized, the initiative lost, his offense and guard collapsing, as soon as his feet planted he was moving back hurriedly.
The sword was fast, but he was quicker than the sword. Sun Yu didn’t let up at all, taking big strides forward, tip forward, left hand letting go of the sword and he wielded it now with just his right.
As a result, the sword became more nimble, whizzing out in a succession of thundering silver arcs, weaving a covering net as he advanced.
Awns of sword light flickered like dancing fireflies, sword light rippling like waves reflecting moonlight, a continuous tight stream of strokes sealing off Xiang Zulou.
Soon he was intercepted by the sword net whether he darted left or evaded right. Sun Yu suddenly stole in with a big stride, giving him no time to retreat.
He didn’t force himself, and neither did he back away, but surprisingly he didn’t dodge left or evade right. His right arm jerked suddenly and the closed iron umbrella opened up explosively with a rush of air, quick as anything.
The circular umbrella met the sword net head on.
The sword net was tight, but it could never keep rain out, and how could a rain net not be able to stop a sword net.
A marvelous umbrella. Clang clang clang a string of metal explosions as sword strokes and rain fell on the umbrella, the sword bouncing off and bouncing off again, the strokes not able to link up their momentum, and the sword net collapsed.
“Excellent umbrella!” Sun Yu couldn’t help but exclaim.
Before his words faded, Xiang Zulou raised the umbrella and he swung his left side around, the sword at his waist having somehow ended up in his left hand, sword turning with his body, seizing this fleeting chance to send it stabbing at Sun Yu.
His sword, it turned out, was not entirely just for decoration!
A cold awn of light flashed and the sword was nearly at his chest.
But Sun Yu! Although it came so suddenly he couldn’t guard against it, his ability to adapt was as nimble as could be. The tip of the sword had just cut through his lapel when he dodged out of the way like a ghost.
Xiang Zulou didn’t press but suddenly drew his left arm back and shot it out violently, the sword now being used as a concealed projectile, leaving his hand and flying suddenly toward Sun Yu!
His move was completely unexpected. Suddenly pulling a sword in his left hand and launching a surprise attack was one thing, but to launch it through the air after less than two strokes, who could be expecting that?
Sun Yu couldn’t, but he could adapt deftly. At the first glance of the sword light he dodged out of the way!
The sword brushed past his waist and struck the railing behind him with such force that it embedded two fingerwidths into the wood.
Sun Yu felt the cold of the sword penetrate his muscles as it slid past his midsection and he felt a chill in his heart.
Xiang Zulou was this cunning all on his own, difficult to defend against, if he had to deal with his two sworn brothers “Miracle Hands” Yu Qian and “Thunder Whip” Cui Qun, then it would be even more difficult.
Fortunately Sun Yu was careful and waited till tonight to attack.
Once the sword was thrown, Xiang Zulou’s left hand went to the bottom of the umbrella. He was too fast for Sun Yu to guess what he was up to. His left hand lowered, followed by explosive fallout!
Five or six shiny black objects flew out from his left hand! The burst through the air with a sharp explosive sound.
Sun Yu was ready. He spread apart his feet and stood on his tiptoes and scuttled out of the way to the side like a crab. He moved much quicker than a crab, and though the black streaks were fast, they couldn’t catch him.
The loosed black lights struck the railing one after the other, lodging into the railing in a horizontal line above where the sword was embedded forming a neat line, Turns out they were six umbrella ribs!
Sharpened umbrella ribs were no different from arrows!
“Excellent iron umbrella!” Sun Yu sincerely blurted out in praise once again.
Xiang Zulou exchanged not a word of civility. His left hand reached up and turned back again and three more umbrella ribs shot out!
The air-piercing sound once again, extraordinarily shrill, coming on faster than the first six, and more forcefully.
Sun Yu actually didn’t dodge but raised his left hand and doffed his bamboo rainhat with a swish and received the oncoming umbrella ribs.
Pu pu pu the umbrella ribs embedded into the rainhat.
Sun Yu immediately threw the rainhat at Xiang Zulou and then he leapt into the air, coming at him with his sword.
His approach was powerful and unconstrained. Just as the sword was about to reach its target, he shook with a whizz and stroke after stroke of the sword rained down with awns of cold light!
Xiang Zulou’s reaction was not slow either. His left hand knocked the bamboo rainhat away with the move “Phoenix Spreads a Single Wing” while his right hand raised the iron umbrella to protect his head and block the storm of swords!
A string of tinkles like pearls hitting a jade plate as the rain of swords bounced off one after the other and Sun Yu passed over the top of the umbrella and came down in a torrent on the bridge planks. He paid no heed to the wet planks as he landed solidly and used his shoulders, waist, and knees evenly to launch his ground squatting kungfu, sword light sweeping off in swift rolls toward Xiang Zulou’s lower body.
He not only had very strong martial arts, his mind was sharp, and because his mind was sharp his attacks became more abnormal. If attacking in midair wouldn’t do, he’d just change to a lower body assault. If that didn’t work, he might just jump down and get under the planks and attack up from there!
But he certainly didn’t need to jump off the bridge. The ground squatting kungfu he was using now had already struck at Xiang Zulou’s umbrella’s weak point.
Even the best umbrella can’t block slanting rain from entering!
And that goes the same even if it’s made of iron.
Rain of course couldn’t come out from underfoot. But a sword used with his body close to the ground could!
Xiang Zulou saw it and he felt a chill in his heart. His left hand was holding two umbrella ribs and he stuck close to Sun Yu’s rolling body, not daring to get the least bit careless.
Sun Yu’s ground squatting footwork was fast for sure. In the blink of an eye he had rolled close and suddenly paused and sword light flew up! Xiang Zulou shouted fiercely and his iron umbrella descended like lightning.
The edge of the umbrella canopy hit the tip of the sword with a clang, using up the sword’s momentum, but the umbrella’s force was not yet exhausted and continued to sink down and press the sword down on the bridge planks.
Xiang Zulou’s heart was racing!
The sword was pinned down, what could Sun Yu do now? Before he had time to celebrate, Sun Yu unexpectedly let go of the sword and stood up.
At some point, a dagger about a span long had appeared in Sun Yu’s left hand! He surged up and his left hand exploded out and flung the dagger!
Xiang Zulou’s umbrella was already lowered, exposing his upper body. He did have two umbrella ribs in his left hand, so he wasn’t unarmed, but it all happened suddenly. There was no way to defend against it unless Sun Yu’s attack was slow.
Sun Yu had already let go of the sword and thrown the dagger, no different from staking everything on one move, so of course he put spared no effort.
At such close range, even Sun Yu couldn’t dodge out of the way, not to mention Xiang Zulou! He cried out in alarm as the dagger sunk into his throat! Cutting off his cry of alarm.
He staggered back half a step, then another half a step, his left hand turned over with some effort and loosed the two umbrella ribs at Sun Yu.
Sun Yu at about the same time flipped the sword up with his foot and caught it in his right hand, which turned over and knocked the umbrella ribs away.
Xiang Zulou was still not willing to give up. He made his final counterattack, and launched a butterfly kick.
Sun Yu snorted and simply couldn’t be bothered to move.
Xiang Zulou’s kick was halfway complete, still far away from Sun Yu, when he fell down on his back.
He struggled to get up but could only lift his head up a bit.
The umbrella had slid out of his right hand. He used his left hand to try to push off from the planks while his empty hand right hand held his chest, close to wear the dagger was lodged in his throat, but he didn’t touch it.
Because he knew if he did he would die immediately!
And just like that, he gave Sun Yu an inquiring look.
Sun Yu could tell what Xiang Zulou was thinking. He held the sword out in front of him crosswise, and his thumb and forefinger pinched the ridge of the blade and slowly worked down toward the tip.
“The silver sword is just a symbol, I rarely use it to kill people, especially when I’m facing a masterhand, then I normally use a second sword. A short sword!”
Xiang Zulou’s eyes suddenly contracted. As if to say, “I didn’t know!”
Sun Yu’s finger suddenly flicked the blade and it reverberated a droning dragon’s moan. “No one knows, those who did are all dead.”
Xiang Zulou’s eyes widened, the inquiry in his eyes more intense.
“Relax.” Sun Yu said evenly, seriously. “What I’ve already agreed to with you I will surely do for you.”
Xiang Zulou’s pupils unfocused and his right hand reached up and suddenly pulled the dagger from his throat.
The dagger out, he forced out one last breath.
He howled, “Thank you!”
And he breathed his last and tilted his head to the side.
Blood spurted from his throat, staining the bridge planks, but not splashing on his chest, so Sun Yu needn’t worry about the two silver drafts.
He didn’t shake his head, didn’t sigh, as if he was completely unmoved.
Calmly and unhurried, he retrieved his scabbard, sheathed his sword. Then he walked over to Xiang Zulou and pried open the fingers of his right hand and took back his dagger, wiped the blood off and carefully put it back in the sheath in his left bootleg.
His eyes were so stern and cold, his bearing so composed.
But by the time he reached in and got the two silver drafts from within Xiang Zulou’s robe his hand was shaking.
At about the same time his eyes began to quiver.
He suddenly gripped the silver drafts tightly, clutching them so tightly the tendons on the back of his hand bulged.
Sun Yu mumbled, “I don’t know if it’s you or I who ought to say thanks…”
He heaved a long sigh and looked up. The drizzly rain had ceased. It was nearly the third watch. He finally stood up and started walking.
The dreary lamplight cast a long shadow of his silhouette.
He stepped on his own shadow and into the deep, dark recesses…
(to be continued in Part 2)