Eagle City, also known as Pingdingshan, lies south of Luoyang and southwest of Xuzhou. The greenwood way was 'teeming with talent,' and here in the heart of the Central Plains there were naturally no shortage of fine men of the way. Among them, a pair of sworn brothers was especially famous. The elder was the chief of the Mei Family Stockade, Mei Chiyang, known as the Five-Ring Blade of Eagle City. The younger had a nickname too—Zhu Chao, the Moving-Mountain Taishui—and was a lone-wolf tomb raider. If you asked how good their martial arts were... they weren't. Mei Chiyang's blade work was passable, but he was no first-rate expert. He certainly could not do something like Shen Youran's 'internal-energy voice transmission'; otherwise he would not have been shouting at the top of his lungs on the road. Zhu Chao was even less worth mentioning. A grave robber had no real need to practice too many martial arts for fighting the living; bone-shrinking art and turtle-breath technique were more practical. Even so, these two had managed to claw their way up to the 'Earth' rank in the land-based greenwood way's 'Heaven-Earth-Dark-Yellow' hierarchy. Clearly, what they relied on was not martial skill, but 'the code.' Do not look down on the greenwood way just because its people are 'thieves.' There is a saying: even thieves have a code. Their rules and refinements were so meticulous that one could write a whole book on them alone. Even in this wuxia world, the greenwood way had its own system outside the 'jianghu.' The 'Thirteen Paths' cant within it has already been mentioned earlier, so I won't repeat it here. Today, let us talk about something else... Let me discuss the personal ranking levels of these 'good men' on the greenwood way. First, many people should have heard of 'The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants,' but most do not know what 'hero' and 'gallant' mean. These titles were actually used to divide levels... roughly into seven ranks. The lowest rank was 'stalwart': big and burly, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with heaven-born strength, able to keep three or five men from getting close easily, but without martial arts. When facing someone who knows martial arts, anyone could beat him. That was a stalwart. The second rank was 'warrior': the difference between a warrior and a stalwart was that a warrior knew martial arts and could wield weapons. Among the eighteen kinds of weapons—swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, forks, staffs, clubs, whips, hammers, and so on—he need not master them all, but had to know at least a few. That was a warrior. Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long, and Zhao Hu in 'The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants' were 'warriors.' The third rank was 'gallant': to put it simply, a warrior who could get onto the roof was a gallant; that is, a gallant had to be stronger than a warrior in internal force and lightness skill. Bai Yutang the 'Brocade-Rat,' and his four sworn elder brothers, were all 'gallants.' The fourth rank was 'knight-errant': a gallant with a treasure weapon became a knight-errant. For example, Zhan Zhao the 'Southern Hero' wielded the Juque Sword, and Ouyang Chun the 'Northern Hero' wielded the Seven-Treasure Blade. Such men were all knight-errants. In terms of actual ability, there might not be much difference between a gallant and a knight-errant; some gallants might even be stronger than knight-errants, but because the knight-errant had a treasure weapon, he could usually gain the upper hand in a direct fight, so he was placed one rank higher. The fifth rank was 'swordsman': swordsmen had no weapons. I won't explain more; think about it yourself. The sixth rank was 'sword demon': sword demons used 'fake weapons'—fans, handkerchiefs, falling leaves, flying petals, embroidery needles, quicklime... uh... no, not lime powder. In any case, they used nothing that could be considered a normal weapon. The highest rank was 'sword immortal': what is a sword immortal? It means utter nonsense. Say whatever you want, the most absurd thing possible: draw a circle on the ground and no one else can get in; pluck three hairs and turn them into three doubles; one somersault carries you a hundred and eight thousand li... that sort of thing was a sword immortal. Yes, according to this setting, Sun Wukong should be a sword immortal. These seven ranks come from pingshu storytelling, which focuses mainly on 'short-play' stories—generally understood as stories without mounted combat—and represent the basic setup for the greenwood way. So for our Da Ming's greenwood way, I think we can also use this system to divide the combat power levels of figures on the way. From now on, when greenwood figures appear, I won't classify them using the jianghu's so-called 'first-rate' and 'second-rate.' Instead, I'll use these seven ranks; it should be more interesting that way. Then where do Mei Chiyang and Zhu Chao fall? Actually, they can both count as 'gallants'—they have a bit of lightness skill and internal force, but no treasure weapon. In daily life, though they did things like robbery, murder, and tomb raiding, when it came to 'the code,' they also flew the banner of robbing the rich to aid the poor and carrying out justice on heaven's behalf. When they encountered corrupt officials, greedy clerks, or the rich who were cruel and heartless, they would go rob them. If the target still had some humanity, they would leave them a way out; if the target was especially wicked, they killed them. But women, children, and the like were not killed. They were to be released when possible. No rape, no wanton slaughter. These were all 'rules.' Only by keeping the rules could one earn respect on the way, and climb from Yellow to Dark to Earth to Heaven. Those who did not keep the rules were nothing but ordinary bandits, like that Ma Si mentioned earlier. Such people usually did not last long; any somewhat capable jianghu knight-errant could wipe them out as if farming reputation from a monster. So then, what was the deal with Mei Chiyang seeking out the Twin Xies today? Actually, Huang Donglai had already guessed it... There was nothing to it: Mei Chiyang's sworn brother, Zhu Chao, had been tricked by the fake Sun Yixie and the fake Huang Donglai. About five or six days earlier, the real Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai were still in Luoyang, but their fame and deeds had already spread outward from Luoyang in all directions. The two impostors had also begun operating at that time. Zhu Chao was unlucky. He was the first victim of the two impostors. That day, he had just finished robbing the tomb of a wealthy family. When he came out of the tomb-raiding tunnel, it suddenly began to rain outside. As the saying went, one autumn rain brings one chill. On top of that, he had just spent a long time 'laboring' in a place with thin air, and when he emerged he was tired and exhausted. To make him run back to the city through the wild hills and wilderness in that rain was truly a bit too much. So Zhu Chao wanted to find a place to shelter from the rain first, and while he was at it, he could recount his 'gains' in a well-lit place. In ancient times, what kind of place was there a lot of? Temples, of course. Du Mu wrote: 'Four hundred eighty temples of the Southern Dynasties— / How many towers and pavilions amid mist and rain.' During the Southern Dynasties, Buddhism flourished and temples stood in great numbers. By the Da Ming dynasty, the emperor favored Daoism, so didn't 'broken temples' naturally become more common? Right now, Zhu Chao was heading toward a broken temple. Many tomb raiders had their own peculiar habits, and Zhu Chao had one too—he liked to start work in the morning, finish up around the afternoon, and then get as far away from the tomb he had just robbed as possible before dark. In any case, the tombs he robbed were relatively large 'hidden tombs,' so even if he came during the day, he was not afraid of running into people visiting graves. That morning, when he had carried his tools toward the tomb, he had glimpsed a broken temple along the way. He still remembered it vaguely, so now he used what little strength he had left and hurried toward the place where he remembered that broken temple to be. Gradually, the rain grew heavier, and Zhu Chao finally caught sight of the temple's shadow. I'm sure everyone has had this experience: when you are out and about and suddenly your stomach begins to cramp, and you search in vain for a public toilet... then, suddenly, you see one. In that instant, your spirit will abruptly lift. That lift will rally your last bit of willpower and self-control, pushing your body's limits to a realm you could never have imagined. Zhu Chao felt exactly that way now. When he caught sight of the broken temple in the distance, his previously leaden steps suddenly became a little lighter, and his whole mental state recovered a fair amount. At the thought that he would soon be able to relax, shelter from the rain, and rest, he immediately walked with flying strides. But... when he was only a few dozen meters from the broken temple, he slowed down. Something was wrong. A fragrance was actually drifting through the air, and it was the fragrance of meat. Tomb raiders all had sharp noses. Zhu Chao understood at once: there were already people in the temple, and they were stewing meat. 'Hmm... chicken... wild vegetables, pepper oil, coarse salt...' As Zhu Chao sniffed, he named the ingredients in the dish. As he spoke, his mouth watered, and his feet began to move again. When he reached the temple entrance, Zhu Chao did not show himself. Instead, he quietly craned his head and glanced inside. He saw that someone had already lit a fire in the broken temple and set up a small stove, cooking wild-greens stewed chicken. Zhu Chao looked closely at the two people. Both were in their twenties, of medium build, dressed in tight martial clothes—clearly jianghu types. Beside one of them lay a strange weapon that looked like a dung fork. Zhu Chao looked at the weapon. His mind turned. 'Hey? Could they be...' Obviously, the deeds of Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had already spread throughout the area around Luoyang. As a good man of the greenwood way, Zhu Chao had naturally heard of them. Seeing that 'trident' and considering the two men's age and appearance, he deduced that these two were Sun and Huang. What a pity... he had run into a pair of impostors. Here the story reveals in secret: these two impostors were named Sun Ling and Huang Jun. They were two petty hoodlums and scoundrels in the county town of Ruyang County. Their families had been doing reasonably well, and as children they had been classmates in the same private school, so they had studied for a few years. However, neither of them was any good, and they were birds of a feather. At fourteen or fifteen, they had skipped school and spent their days hanging around roadside gambling dens. When they were a little older, they dared to steal silver from their homes to visit brothels. Within a few years, the debts they piled up from eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling mounted. Creditors came to their doors and drained both families dry, hounding their parents and family members to death. Their relatives kept their distance from them. The two of them were utterly shameless and showed no sign of repentance. From then on, they simply became full-time rogues, extorting people and cheating at gambling, swindling and pilfering, getting by however they could. When they truly had no options, they went to stay at the yamen for a few days. Not long after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the two were on the street when they heard a storyteller telling the tale of how Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had smashed the Tianqi Gang in Luoyang. Then Sun Ling and Huang Jun thought: same surname Sun, same surname Huang—look at them, and then look at us. We're even a few years older than them. Why do we go hungry one day and full the next, and get treated like rats crossing the street, while they become young heroes? Any bad seed like this simply does not know how to find fault in himself. Let him see someone else doing well, and even without any grievance, he can latch onto them. As Sun Ling and Huang Jun talked, they suddenly had an idea... 'Brother Huang, I think you have quite the thick brows and big eyes.' 'Heh, Brother Sun, I think those small eyes of yours can be called four eyebrows.' The two had come to the same idea—why not simply impersonate them? In those years, there were no photographs or anything like that. A person's appearance was all described in words: 'square face,' 'long face,' 'big eyes'... How could such things be precise? That said, to be fair, Sun Ling and Huang Jun really did somewhat resemble Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai. We could even say... with a little fixing up, their looks and figures might be a bit more handsome than the originals. After the two rogues settled on their plan, they pooled the little silver they had left and put together two outfits that looked like jianghu garb. Then they got themselves a dung fork, heated it red in a fire, hammered it into shape in a crude and careless manner, and produced a bizarre counterfeit 'trident.' Once that was done, their journey of deception began... But they certainly could not deceive people in Ruyang County—everyone there knew them. So they headed west, and their first stop was near Pingdingshan. That day, they happened to be traveling through the wild countryside. Seeing that the weather was about to change, they ran into this broken temple to rest. The chicken they were stewing had been stolen from a farmhouse they passed earlier... The two were quite skilled at this sort of petty theft. As for the wild vegetables, they had picked those in the mountains. Considering that the two often had to 'find food' for themselves, it was normal for them to have such skills. As for oil and salt, they naturally carried them in their luggage. Sun Ling and Huang Jun were eagerly waiting for the chicken to finish cooking when suddenly... 'My respects to you two.' Zhu Chao simply walked in. Sun Ling and Huang Jun were both startled. These two rogues did not know martial arts, while Zhu Chao had lightness skill. On top of that, the rain outside had grown loud, so even when he walked all the way to the temple doorway, he went undiscovered. 'I am Zhu Chao, the Moving-Mountain Taishui. I beg your guidance...' The reason Zhu Chao spoke like that was that he had already prejudged the two before him as Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai. Sun Ling and Huang Jun, seeing the other man's dress, his build, and his way of introducing himself, immediately reacted... 'Heh.' Sun Ling cupped his hands and smiled. 'I am Sun Yixie. Greetings, Brother Zhu.' Huang Jun followed: 'I am Huang Donglai. Greetings, Brother Zhu.' Zhu Chao heard this and was inwardly pleased. He thought: See that? My judgment really didn't fail me. Because he had been the one to make the judgment first, he did not doubt the two men's identities at all... And once he concluded that these two were the Twin Xies, Zhu Chao let down his guard. He thought: I am a greenwood hero, and you two are young heroes. One side is the greenwood way, the other is the orthodox path of the jianghu. We are all people of the way; well water does not invade river water. Besides, I have heard that the Sun and Huang families are both wealthy, so there can't possibly be any 'black eats black' business. And so, carrying the large bundle he had just stolen from the tomb, Zhu Chao walked in, sat down, and, familiar as an old friend, began chatting with the fake Sun and Huang.
Chapter 84