Today’s update begins the second chapter of The Silver Sword Grudge by Huang Ying. See previous posts for the earlier parts. This is the final chapter of this short work, but it’s a bit longer than the first chapter. Probably three or four posts before it’s finished. On my side I split the chapter into 11 parts to make it more manageable to work with. Today’s post is the first 3 of those parts.
Chapter 2
Upstairs an Aggrieved Wife,
A Killer Looses a Thunderclap
Yu Qian wasn’t disappointed.
It was just as Sun Yu had said, Xiang Zulou was waiting at the bridge.
A dead man naturally isn’t going to leave.
Xiang Zulou’s eyes were wide open, the spitting image of the eyes of a dead fish, staring straight ahead unchanging without any emotion.
A dead man’s eyes naturally wouldn’t change or have feeling.
Yu Qian and Cui Qun unconsciously knelt down to the left and right and sat Xiang Zulou up.
They didn’t speak.
What would they say?
And they had no tears.
A real man was said to shed blood not tears.
They were completely steeped in the pale yellow lanternlight, but their faces were still unmistakably pale, even more so than a dead man’s face.
Some time later, Yu Qian slowly raised his head, eyes somewhat glistening with tears.
“Sun Yu!” He gnashed his teeth hatefully. “One fatal sword stroke, if not Sun Yu then who else?”
“It was Sun Yu who killed Big Bro?” Cui Qun’s head shot up. “Impossible, Big Bro’s martial arts…”
“After Sun Yu left? We left right after, even if Big Bro’s martial arts were lacking, he wouldn’t be that bad, of course it’s impossible. But the blood on his throat has coagulated. Big Bro has obviously been dead for some time, and clearly before Sun Yu appeared at the Xiang manor Big Bro was already dead by his hand.”
“That Sun Yu!” Cui Qun bellowed.
The others standing by were surprised and a voice rang out, “Third Brother Cui, when you say Sun Yu, do he mean the Silver Sword Assassin Sun Yu?”
That voice was particularly loud and clear and came from none other than the one earlier who had said “even if our lives were on the line and we were hacked with knives don’t even think of leaving us out”.
“Yes, him!” Cui Qun said hatefully.
“Namely, the black-clad masked man from earlier?” the man asked. He was standing some ways off back then and had not seen or heard clearly.
“Yes, him!”
The man involuntarily shrank back. “I was holding a projectile and was about to throw it, good thing I didn’t…”
“What did you say?” Cui Qun turned around suddenly.
The man came back to his senses quick after being shouted at and knew he had misspoke, his face and neck reddening. “Nothing, nothing…” And he took a few steps back.
Everyone knew what Third Master Cui’s temper was like. Everyone thought something was going to happen, but Cui Qun just shouted but nothing else. He frowned, thinking. He wasn’t one accustomed to using his brains, and when he did it kept him busy, so he had no time to pay attention to anything else. He thought and suddenly asked, “Didn’t that guy Sun say that Big Bro hired him, why…”
“Don’t ask me, I don’t know either. If we want to get to the bottom of this, only thing we can do is…” Yu Qian paused. “Find Sun Yu!”
“Find him where?”
“I don’t know, but wherever it is, we have to find him no matter what The only one who could tell us is dead, who else aside from Sun Yu can tell us what really happened?”
“When do we leave?”
“The sooner the better!”
“Big Bro’s body…”
“Put him in the icehouse in the rear courtyard for now. As long as this remains unsolved, as long as this grudge is nor avenged, if we bury him then Big Bro will not be able to rest content!”
Cui Qun nodded and picked up Xiang Zulou’s body.
Yu Qian stood up as well and looked up. The thick haze on the horizon has dissipated and scattered stars dimly twinkled.
“Sun Yu moves about secretively, but his range must be somewhere within the Jiangning area. If we want to find him we should start from Jiangning!” Muttering to himself, Yu Qian looked to the group of assembled heroes. “What do you all think?”
“No way can you leave us out!” someone shouted from the crowd, and many echoed his sentiments and became quite lively indeed.
Yu Qian cupped a hand over his fist in salute over and over but said nothing. He and Cui Qun mounted up one after the other and rode back to the Xiang manor.
The group of heroes naturally followed.
Frenzied hoofbeats shook the tranquil night sky.
The thick hazy had dissipated from the sky and twinkling stars came out one after another. The strange thing was the hoofbeats became more and more sparse.
By the time they reached the gates of the Xiang manor, the hoofbeats were even more sparse.
Yu Qian never looked back, as if he hadn’t heard.
Cui Qun didn’t look back either. The whole way he only thought of Xiang Zulou’s death, he didn’t notice anything else.
Now he suddenly noticed and he found it really strange, so he crane his neck back to look. Astonishingly, there were only five riders following them.
The man from before was naturally one of them, along with a few other heroes hadn’t taken off.
Cui Qun’s eyebrows flew up, then swiftly came back down. He looked at the five followers and couldn’t help but heave a long sigh. “Seems only you five are worthy of being called heroes.”
“We aren’t any heroes.” one of them shook his head with a faint smile. “We’re just Big Bro Xiang’s friends.”
“Good, good friends!” Cui Qun threw his head back and laughed, and intense, grieved laugh, straight up to the Han in the empyrean,1 skyful of morning stars for a time seemed like they would being laughed out of the sky. So-called heroes were not necessarily true friends, so why must true friends necessarily be heroes!
Raining gently, pear blossoms in the courtyard, wind light, willow catkins in the pond.
A flute started up. Flute notes drifted over Pear Blossom Courtyard, over Willow Catkin Pond; the flutist also floated over Willow Catkin Pond, over Pear Blossom Courtyard.
White sleeves like fluttering snowflakes, patterned clothes like traversing clouds. A scene pretty as a painting, the flutist also like one out of a painting.
Playing a Jade Tower Spring tune, it was like it was crying, more like accusing. Once it played ten thousand woes, longing layer upon layer, memories tier upon tier.
When the flute was done playing, as the sound lingered, the flutist commenced a slow recitation:
Apathy is not as bitter as passion,
A fingerwidths’ becomes a myriad threads.
Sky’s edge, sea’s horn does have an end,
Only longing is never dead.
The soft chanting had not faded away when from the green willows emerged a cheer, “What a Apathy is not as bitter as passion, A fingerwidths’ becomes a myriad threads. Sky’s edge, sea’s horn does have an end, Only longing is never dead!”
The finely dressed person’s foggy gaze instantly cleared and brightened. A flash, a smile. “Is that Sun Yu?”
The person had already emerged from the green willows, black clothes, black shoes, black cloth mask, and a three-span silver sword. None other than the Silver Sword Assassin Sun Yu. He hadn’t changed his clothes, and he carried himself so nonchalantly. And his speech? Listen:
“Brother Liu has good hearing to know me by my voice alone.” Same as always.
“Ha, Brother Sun, even if you didn’t open your mouth I would know you were Brother Sun from a single glance of your fast-moving figure. And besides Brother Sun, who else could get with in three staves without me, Liu Zhanqin, knowing?”
“Brother Liu, there is always another sky beyond the sky, another person beyond each person.”
“Brother Sun is already the person beyond the last person.”
“Is that a boast of me or Brother Liu yourself?” Sun Yu snorted a laugh.
“Both, is Brother Sun calling me arrogant?”
“To tell the truth, that is what I meant.”
“Even if you’re telling the truth, who aside from Brother Sun is anything in Liu Zhanqin’s eyes!”
“Does that mean I am a sliver in Brother Liu’s eye?”
“That is certainly what it feels like.”
“Truly an annoyance. If I were smart I ought to leave as soon as possible, the farther away the better.” Sun Yu couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
Liu Zhanqin laughed too. Ai! His laugh was really beautiful, just like him. But, he was not even a little bit effeminate. Anyone who looked at him would feel he was a man, a carefree, detached, charming man.
Let me ask you, how many men are there like that?
Met with his laugh, Sun Yu’s eyes got lost. If even a man had this reaction, how about a woman?
He laughed and patted his palm with the flute. “Someone of Brother Sun’s ability can only be found by accident, how can one let him go after going through all the trouble to find him, and how could he not treasure him. Don’t say I’d try to drive you away, even if Brother Sun wanted to leave on his own, I wouldn’t let him.”
Sun Yu was silent at that. Though he was masked, his expression indiscernible, he clearly had an unusual look in his eyes.
Liu Zhanqin seemed not to notice and kept on talking. “A treasured sliver in one’s eye sounds like a contradiction, but those who know how I am will not feel it amiss. Yes Brother Sun, that’s right, I’m jealous, I’m envious, but I know people, I know how to handle people, though not as well as Brother Sun. I ought to take pains to think of a way to better myself, hence, with Brother Sun here, I need only worry about Brother Sun. If Brother Sun were not here, then today even if I considered everyone else beneath me, in the future everyone I saw would be my adversary!”
Sun Yu was still silent but gave a faint nod. He understood what Liu Zhanqin meant.
Without competition there could be no improvement.
That’s why a lot of people find it hard to keep going when they reach the apex.
Of course, there really was no such thing as an apex. Often times one thinks there is, but do you think a person who thinks himself better than everyone else will improve?
If you don’t improve but others do, that’s the same as regressing.
And even if you don’t just think you are but actually are the best in the world, without anyone to compete with it’s hard to keep from slacking, and once you slack, sooner or later it will just give those who think of themselves as your competition the drive to catch up.
And of course, there are exceptions. Such a person is really modest, and even if he is the best in the world, he wouldn’t admit it. But, it’s too bad that when once reaches that state, there will always be many by his side flattering him, trying to ensnare him with honeyed words. Therefore, even the most modest of people sooner or later will not be do modest.
After all, there are few who don’t like flattery and or drinking honeyed words.
If you drink too many honeyed words you get sluggish, and if you listen to too much flattery it just presses you down.
Moreover, you can pretty much count the number of modest people there are.
There are way too many narcissists.
Lou Zhanqin understood well narcissists. He elevated Sun Yu to that of best in the world, and in his mind there was only Sun Yu. In other words, he ranked himself as second in the world.
To climb from 99,999th to second was really quite remarkable, but to climb from second to first was as easy as eating cabbage.
Liu Zhanqin most likely thought that.
He earnestly added, “I’m happy to have you as an adversary!”
“I’m not!” Sun Yu’s reply was monotone. “Its’ best if you don’t just have me in your mind.”
“Why?”
“I’ve never thought of myself as being that amazing, I just know there’s always someone better. Therefore, I’m always striving to improve. If you want to surpass me, you need someone who’s already surpassed me, or even an imagined enemy as a goal to compete against, otherwise you will always be behind me…”
“Not necessarily!”
Sun Yu was silent.
“Five years ago, yes, I was defeated under your sword. But there wasn’t that much difference between us then, and five years later, today, the difference is even less.”
Sun Yu was still silent.
“You don’t believe me?”
Sun Yu didn’t answer, didn’t indicate anything.
Liu Zhanqin couldn’t help but feel he was being slighted. He knocked the flute against his pal and suddenly laughed loudly. “Looks like you and I are really going to have to trade pointers once more.”
“There’s no need for that,” Sun Yu finally said.
“There sure is, too bad you didn’t speak up sooner. No matter what, today I have to seek advice from you, or how will I be able to dispel my doubts?”
“Don’t say I, I don’t think you want to see me lose my appetite and sleep uneasily.”
“It’ll be that serious?”
“I believe so. I’m a very self-confident person, but ever since that defeat at your hands five years ago, I couldn’t help but begin to doubt myself. Now five years later I have worked hard to regain my self-confidence, and because your attitude now it’s starting to waver again.”
“Self-confidence is self-confidence, you shouldn’t care about other people’s attitude.”
“Others might not care, but you and I must, after all, I was defeated by your sword and can only be defeated by your sword!”
“Can’t you forget about it?”
“How can I forget about it!”
“So you say today…”
“We have to!” Liu Zhanqin was smiling as before, still such a charming, dashing smile.
Sun Yu sighed and said nothing else. He had brought this on himself, what else could he say?
Liu Zhanqin said nothing else either but slowly tucked the flute in his belt, always either in front of his stomach or at the small of his back, never in a location that would impede his movement.
He was after all a very cautious person.
Facing Sun Yu, how could he not be cautious?
Then he moved out three steps, his smile fading with every step, and by the time he stopped there was not the slightest trace of a smile.
Even when he was straightfaced he didn’t look unsightly, it was just another demeanor.
There truly were not many men like him.
Sun Yu didn’t move, but his gaze narrowed, concentrating on Liu Zhanqin. He wasn’t about to get careless either. Liu Zhanqin wasn’t an easy person to deal with, he knew.
In the twinkling of an eye the whole world stopped. Suddenly, it started up again.
It was Lu Zhanqin who moved. he shook his clothes, whisked his sleeves, headcloth dancing in the air, clothes fluttering, and he seemed to be dancing and flying through the air.
Two snaps of his sleeves and his hands got to work, his hands originally pale flushed with pink now pale flushed with green, such a strange green, an intimidating green!
Sun Yu’s vision contracted more, but he still didn’t move, his whole body seemingly congealed in the air.
Liu Zhanqin’s hands opened up and stagnated, but his sleeves kept moving, moving without any wind!
Soon his hands were even greener, his sleeves flapping harder, but they didn’t make any sound, like surging waves or drifting clouds.
“Brother Sun!” he suddenly blurted, “why haven’t you drawn your three-span silver sword?”
At some point his voice had become flat and unfeeling.
But Sun Yu was still the same Sun Yu, even his voice still the same as always. “Before Metal-Breaking Hands, Drifting Cloud Sleeves, I don’t dare but draw my sword.”
Before he finished speaking he drew his sword with a schwing.
When Liu Zhanqin smiled his lips smiled, but his eyes held not a trace of a smile. He smiled again and suddenly took off. In the air he broke and pounced down on Sun Yu’s head, his sleeve arriving before he did, whisking toward the eyes!
Though his sleeve was like a drifting cloud, it came on swift and fierce.
Anyone who had gathered their strength and was in waiting, the first move would always be swift and fierce. At such a time only an idiot would meet force with force.
Sun Yu was not an idiot. Of course he didn’t meet it head on, he backed away even quicker from that lighting-fast drifting cloud sleeve coming for his eyes.
The drifting cloud sleeve naturally missed. Liu Zhanqin at the same time flipped over and came on at an angle toward the spot Sun Yu was retreating to.
Before he touched down his sleeves opened up again.
The second move was even more swift and fierce than the first! Sun Yu retreated even quicker, backing up to the bank of the pond. He couldn’t retreat any further!
Liu Zhanqin didn’t let up but pressed close, sleeves coming in tighter, the blur of palms coming with the blur of sleeves.
The blue of palms and sleeves blocked off Sun Yu’s left and right. Behind was the pond, another dead end!
Sun Yu would soon have to use his sword.
But then, unexpectedly, he soared up into the air!
Liu Zhanqin flew up as well and palms, sleeves, and the crowns of heads burst through the willow branch catkins!
The palms’ force were not reduced, sleeves’ force not exhausted, but like a rain of swords, like a gust of sabres the willow branches were broken and falling, catkins destroyed and descending!
Catkins fluttering, people also fluttering. Before the catkins fell in the pond the people were already at the top of the willow tree.
Sun Yu fluttered back down, and Liu Zhanqin fluttered back down as well.
Behind them was a tree trunk, Sun Yu’s back to it but seemingly unaware, but Liu Zhanqin could see it clearly and as soon as he hit the ground he scurried forward and suddenly shout his palms out.
Sun Yu seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He didn’t back away but got close to the tree trunk and quickly wound around behind it.
The palms hit the tree trunk! And it smashed with a bang and fell over. Such amazing Metal-Breaking Hands!
Sun Yu was astonishingly seven spans behind the tree. Liu Zhanqin’s face was not the least bit discolored. “I always thought my lightness skill was incredible, who know Brother Sun’s is even better. I’ve seen your lightness skill, as for your swordsmanship, I’m still waiting for Brother Sun to show me…”
As soon as the word “me” was out of his mouth, he stole forward.
Sun Yu didn’t back away anymore.
Liu Zhanqin of course was not going to be polite. The trace of a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth and blurs of palms and sleeves filled the sky.
Sun Yu let out an explosive shout and finally struck with his silver sword.
A ray of dazzling silver light flashed like lightning toward Liu Zhanqin’s throat!
This stroke was aimed at Liu Zhanqin’s opening. Ah, how accurate was this prediction, how amazing!
Liu Zhanqin’s continuous attack was instantly broken apart!
The tip of the sword had not yet arrived, but the sword qi was already pressing.
Wildly screaming, “Good!” Liu Zhanqin abruptly cut off at an angle. Sun Yu’s silver sword kept close to Liu Zhanqin’s changing position, seemingly simultaneously. Liu Zhanqin changed position again and instantly switched to a better position, but was still not able to shake off Sun Yu’s pursuing silver sword attack.
Sun Yu’s silver sword sealed off Liu Zhanqin’s position!
Liu Zhanqin could only retreat.
Sun Yu pressed closer step by step, sword even more relentless, man and sword seemingly merged into one entity, as if the sword had come to life. As soon as his intention activated, the sword also activated.
It wasn’t even like a sword anymore, it was just an extension of his hand!
Liu Zhanqin’s eyes finally revealed a look of fear.
The heart startled, his intention got jumbled up, and he became all topsy-turvy.
Despite his excellent martial arts, his Metal-Breaking Hands truly capable of cutting through iron, his Drifting Cloud Sleeves truly capable of drifting about more swiftly than drifting clouds, but once his intention collapsed, how could he put it to use?
For the moment he knew only retreat, retreat!
Willows green as jadeite, a rain of catkins enveloping like wisps of smoke. This time it was Liu Zhanqin backed up to the bank of Willow Catkin Pond. The difference was there was a willow tree behind him.
He didn’t realize it, and by the time he did his back was up against the trunk of the three, nowhere left for him to go.
With no room left to retreat, where had his carefree dashing charm gone? His eyes were big as a swordfish’s. He grinned, grit his teeth, arms crisscrossing left and right, sleeves dancing like a powdered beauty coming in and out of the flowering shrubs, dancing on the wind, like night-lodging butterflies on the flower stems, but if you looked closely it also didn’t really look like that.
Those two wings, lightly powdered, winding through the myriad flowers. That was a butterfly dance, so leisurely and carefree.
Liu Zhanqin right now was not a bit leisurely or carefree. If you wanted to say what he looked like, it was more like a butterfly caught in a net.
Sun Yu’s silver sword certainly was weaving a net of swords!
If Liu Zhanqin had had an iron umbrella like Xiang Zulou had had, then it would have been much easy to cope with.
Luckily, though he didn’t have an iron umbrella, he had a Drifting Cloud Sleeve, which when it was dancing was really like an iron bucket encircling him. Sun Yu’s continuous sword net was unexpectedly held off.
It was just that, this didn’t seem like a good thing, just like a city wall and moat, even if it was as impregnable as an iron bucket, if you could not counterattack, and if there was no outside help coming, then sooner or later it was going to be stormed and captured.
Liu Zhanqin didn’t have any outside help, and he had long lost his ability to counterattack.
He could only defend, but how long could he hold out? And how as this exchanging pointers? This was simply taking a beating.
Having fallen into such dire straits was something he truly never dreamed of. This was a fact. Before they fought he believed he could not be dispatched, but now he couldn’t help but not believe that.
He was utterly heartbroken and was itching to risk his life and burst through the sword net when suddenly he realized all of his courage had vanished.
People are like that. Until they are faced with imminent death it’s hard to muster the determination to risk one’s life.
Moreover, they had agreed to exchange pointers.
Liu Zhanqin initially, yes, had intended to just trade pointers, but now, even if Sun Yu was just trading pointers, it didn’t feel that way to Liu Zhanqin one bit.
Involuntarily, his face turned from green to white and then to red.
Sun Yu was masked, so Liu Zhanqin didn’t know what expression he had on his face, but he felt that behind the mask, Sun Yu’s mouth was opened as big as a duck egg, laughing at him.
He really was flustered and angry
His mouth was open, but he didn’t cry out.
Just then, Sun Yu’s continuous sword net suddenly pulled back and his silver sword was sheathed with a clang and he took seven steps back.
Liu Zhanqin seemed not to realize as his sleeves continued dancing, until the third wave, then he suddenly stopped. A line of cold sweat staggered down his cheek and he seemed to collapse, his body leaning against the tree trunk, standing unsteadily.
Sun Yu watched him calmly, not moving, not making any sound. A smart person ought to know that now was not the time to shut up.
Liu Zhanqin’s gaze gradually unfocused and his lips quivered, muttering to himself over and over, “How can this be real?”
Really though, how could this be real? Five years ago, yes, he had been defeated by Sun Yu, so it was not so strange for him to be defeated again now, but he had truly been beaten badly!
Five years ago there had not been much difference between them, and now, after all the effort he had put in, the gap ought to have been much closer.
So how do you think he was able to believe this was real?
Although he kept muttering the same words over and over, his voice was so feeble he was almost the only one who could hear it clearly.
Sun Yu heard it clearly too and he said something unsympathetic with a cold tone.
“How could it not be real?”
“Why?” Liu Zhanqin suddenly snapped his head up and looked at Sun Yu, eyes brimming with pain and full of uncertainty.
“You ought to know!”
“How should I know that I would be defeated by your sword once again, and defeated so soundly!” Liu Zhanqin’s voice became hoarse, as if he was nearly at the end of his life and his blood and qi had almost run dry.
He had so much self-respect, so much self-confidence, but he could not take defeat at all. The problem was that he had really lost this fight too savagely, no one would be able to imagine how badly his self-respect and self-confidence had been beaten, damaged, how severely, how deeply.
Sun Yu couldn’t imagine either, and he asked once again. “You really don’t know?”
“If I said I don’t know, I don’t know!” Liu Zhanqin shown more irritation than he had ever shown before.
“I thought you would know.” Sun Yu sighed. “Five years ago when you lost to me I really did only barely win. Today I see you have worked really hard on your Metal-Breaking Hands and Drifting Cloud Sleeves. When it comes to martial arts you really have surpassed the previous me from back then, and it’s still really close to the current me, but on the other hand, you not only haven’t improved, on the contrary, you are far away from surpassing me.”
“On the other hand? What other hand?”
“Skill!”
“I didn’t…”
“You didn’t slack off training, rather you trained really hard. On that point I know and admire you, but as far as I know, these past four years you have not actually fought!”
“There’s only you, and then Zeng Sun and Meng Kui, so what need is there for me?”
“From your standpoint, if I were you, I might think the same way. No one’s really willing to risk their life. Because of that, even if you train really hard, you only have wood and stone, that kind of stuff for your opponents. Wood and stone are dead things, so the skills you obtain are also dead, just like theorizing military tactics on paper…”
(to be continued in Part 5…)