Wang Chong bowed with clasped hands. He was very grateful to this young Daoist.
Fang Jingru, however, was eyeing the folding fan in Wang Chong's hand with great interest, which made Wang Chong tremble with fear for quite a while. He worried that this man might suddenly cry out, "So you are the lecher White Chrysanthemum!" and then attack him. This man's martial arts were superb, and Wang Chong did not know whether he could be a match.
Fang Jingru's interest in his folding fan stemmed from being a fellow enthusiast. He practiced the Celestial Master Prefecture's Wind-Thunder Dharma Fan divine skill. Having just exchanged one move with Wang Chong, he recognized that the other man was using Wudang's Wind-Cloud Hundred Styles—the second most famous of the three great fan martial arts under heaven. The third was the Eastern Yi Demon Sect's Twelve Petal-Killing Strikes.
Fang Jingru suddenly chuckled and said, "Wudang and the Celestial Master Prefecture are both among the Nine Meridians of the Xuan Gate. You and I should address each other as Daoist brothers. Brother Wang Chong, your martial arts can be described as sublime; those ordinary jianghu heroes are no match for you at all. Why did you also flee in disgrace?"
Wang Chong himself had realized that if he had not fled, at most a dozen moves would have been enough to kill those jianghu fellows to the last man. But he had no experience, did he? He said awkwardly, "I have read books since childhood. Although I am versed in martial arts, I have never exchanged blows with anyone, so I panicked for a moment."
Fang Jingru could not help but laugh heartily. "I see. Brother Wang Chong, do not undervalue yourself. Against such third- and fourth-rate figures, if you merely strike out to overawe them, they will naturally become obedient."
Wang Chong did not dare to say that it was because he had "vomited" that these people looked down on him. After all, that was deeply embarrassing, so he could only bow silently.
Fang Jingru thought he was just shy and easily embarrassed. He shook his folding fan and said, "Brother Wang Chong must have come to hunt the lecher White Chrysanthemum."
"We young martial heroes of the seven southern provinces—sixty-one of us—have formed an alliance called the Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance!"
"We sincerely invite Brother Wang Chong to join, unite our efforts, and eliminate this lecher together."
Wang Chong was hesitant. The Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance did not sound like a proper thing, and besides, what if he himself was White Chrysanthemum?
Fang Jingru shook his folding fan and said with affected mystery, "To let Brother Wang know, this time our Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance is going to meet six of the Eight Beauties of Qingcheng. These six fairies are the most beautiful women in the jianghu today. Don't you want to take a look? Meet them?"
Wang Chong thought, "No! I don't want to look, I don't want to meet, I don't want to see them."
At that moment, suddenly a firework shot into the sky from afar. Even in broad daylight, it was very eye-catching. Fang Jingru quickly closed his folding fan and said, "San Lang and the others have encountered enemies. Brother Wang Chong, let us go quickly to assist them."
Wang Chong truly did not know how to refuse. If he absolutely refused to go at this time, his actions would be even more suspicious. He could only steel himself, employ his lightness skill, and follow Fang Jingru. Fang Jingru wanted to show off his lightness skill and also gauge Wang Chong, this Wudang disciple. He deployed the Celestial Master Prefecture's secret lightness skill to the fullest, running several li. Hearing Wang Chong's breath steady and even, following closely step by step, he could not help but be secretly astonished, thinking: "Just who is this man? A Wudang disciple of the younger generation—I may not know them all, but I have heard all their names. One who has mastered the Wind-Cloud Hundred Styles must have formidable martial arts, and his lightness skill is so excellent that he cannot possibly be an unknown nobody."
"Could he be a secret-door disciple trained by some Wudang elder?"
These days, the Nine Meridians of the Xuan Gate were all divided according to the rules laid down by the ancient Daoist worthy and exalted lord, from lay disciples, entry disciples, inner chamber disciples, true transmission disciples to secret-door disciples, divided into five ranks. Lay disciples are akin to Buddhist lay followers; many paths are open to them, only ordinary martial arts are taught, and there are few restrictions. Entry disciples can access the foundational martial arts of each Daoist school, and their starting point is higher than that of ordinary jianghu people. Inner chamber disciples are already the backbone of each sect, walking the jianghu and able to represent a sect's face.
True transmission disciples are cultivated as orthodox successors and can already obtain the true transmission of a school. But the core of a school is the secret-door disciple. Secret-door disciples differ from all these; often decades pass without one appearing, but once one does, he is recognized by the Nine Meridians of the Xuan Gate as one capable of surveying the martial arts of all sects—a chosen protector of the Dao, safeguarding one lineage of the Daoist gate.
The minimum baseline for a secret-door disciple is that he must be the seed of a future grandmaster. There may be generations of secret-door disciples who stand at the pinnacle under heaven, able to open a layer of protection for the Daoist gate, fearless of wind and rain under heaven.
Today, the secret-door disciple recognized by the Daoist world is none other than the second disciple of Daoist Guanlong of Taiyi Temple. He is also one of the Seven Perfected of Daoism. Although his name is not prominent in the martial world, his reputation in Daoism is extremely weighty.
This thought arose, and Fang Jingru immediately rejected it, silently thinking: "Impossible, absolutely impossible."
"If this man were a secret-door disciple, others might not know, but my master, as one of the Four Celestial Masters, how could he not know?"
Thinking this far, he became increasingly curious.
Both had excellent lightness skills, and soon they reached the place where the firework had been launched. Seven young men of different appearances were exerting their full strength to besiege a tall man.
This man was sturdy, holding a saber in his right hand and a sword in his left, an aura of wild ferocity emanating from his body, like a fierce wolf. Clearly alone, he showed no fear, frequently employing dangerous moves, and instead seemed to have the upper hand.
However, not to mention Fang Jingru, even Wang Chong could see that although this man looked savage, the seven people besieging him each possessed astonishing skills. If they had not all been afraid of injury and adopted a cautious strategy, the scene would not be like this. Even with the current strategy of prioritizing self-protection, if the fight dragged on, the tall man would surely lose.
The tall man saw that the "enemy" had two fresh reinforcements, and saw that Fang Jingru and Wang Chong's lightness skills were superb, their martial arts seemingly above the seven besieging him. Knowing that further delay would harm rather than help him, he lost all desire to fight and suddenly let out a long whistle, unleashing his trump card saber-sword union technique.
In his youth, he had studied under Zhao Feishan, the national preceptor of the Turks, mastering a set of martial arts and creating two schools of saber and swordplay: Ten Thousand Li Mad Sand Swordplay and Wolf God Slaying Method. Relying on these, he roamed the great grassland, rarely meeting an opponent.
Until once, he met a Central Plains youth traveling on the grassland. Seeing that this youth's martial arts were extraordinary, he was eager for a challenge and issued one. In that battle, he fought with great difficulty and suffered a crushing defeat. Afterward, he asked his master for a method to defeat the enemy. Zhao Feishan personally took action, revising his saber and swordplay for his disciple. He expanded Ten Thousand Li Mad Sand Swordplay from twenty-four moves to thirty-six moves and reduced Wolf God Slaying Method from eighteen styles to twelve kills. His martial arts suddenly increased greatly. Relying on the master's revised Ten Thousand Li Mad Sand Swordplay and the Wolf God Twelve Kills, he won consecutive victories against strong opponents and seized the title of the new generation's Wolf God of the Turks!
However, very few people knew that besides revising his disciple's saber and swordplay, Zhao Feishan had also created six forms of saber-sword union technique. He regarded these six forms as his trump card and had used them only twice in his life.
……Qian Luo Yi: Wait for me to show off in the next chapter……"},
Chapter 13