Chapter 7: Po Xue Reappears Part 1

"A-Fei, ghosts and spirits exist beyond the six directions and those who walk in this world are all mortals. Why can't you dare to believe that the dao in your hands can be all-conquering?"

"It's my good-for-nothing son, creating trouble for Da Dang Jia." Wang lao furen sighed shakily, saying, "In March of last year, he said tired of staying in the Stronghold and wanted to go out to find something to do. It just so happened that distinguished guests were about to arrive and needed someone from us Shu to receive them, so he volunteered to go. In June, he sent a letter saying that the guests were received and in October, he sent another letter saying they already reached the Dong Ting area and if they could make it, he could return to celebrate the New Year. There hasn't been any news since then."

"Lao furen, don't mention the word 'trouble' anymore, Chen Fei was already acting on the behalf of us 48 Strongholds." Li Jinrong said. Afterwards, she turned to Li Sheng and Zhou Fei, saying, "The so-called distinguished guests are the family of Zhong Wu (Loyal Military) Jiangjun Wu daren [1]. Zhong Wu Jiangjun was framed by the Bei thieves and his furen [2], along with their son and daughter, escaped south. Last year, someone exposed their place of hiding and with no choice left, they reached out to me for help. We sent thirteen people and they are all masters, but they have still yet to return.

Wang lao furen said in a low voice: "I'm ashamed."

"Bandits run wild in the Dong Ting region and it's already hard to pass through. It could be that bringing General Wu's family slowed the journey, Lao furen need not worry. I think that by now they are likely close by. If you [3] are worried, feel free to take some people and receive them ahead of time." Li Jinrong waved her hand and said to Zhou Fei and Li Sheng, "Originally, you two burdens weren't going to join this journey, but I shamelessly requested Lao furen to take you two along to broaden your horizons. Once outside, don't decide anything by yourself. If you dare to cause trouble, you better worry about your legs when you come back. I won't say anything unnecessary, Lao furen is of old age so when you're on the road, make good judgments and don't wait for someone to tell you what to do—I'm talking about you, Zhou Fei."

Zhou Fei secretly rolled her eyes and mumbled: "Understood."

Li Sheng hurriedly said: "Aunt, do not worry."

Li Jinrong's expression softened a bit and she furrowed her brows in thought. She clearly had lots of things to say but after thinking through each of them, she felt that they were all too trivial to mention. She then said to Li Sheng: "Sheng-er, see Wang lao furen off for me, A-Fei stay here for a bit."

Once Li Sheng received the order and helped Wang lao furen away, Li Jinrong said to Zhou Fei: "Come here."

Zhou Fei was a little anxious and helplessly glanced at the backs of Li Sheng and Wang lao furen. She felt that Da Dang Jia told her to stay back for nothing good—based on past experience, there was definitely cause for her reasoning.

However, Li Jinrong only brought her to the courtyard where she, Li Sheng and Li Yan usually practiced their gongfu. Taking a changdao from the weapon rack, Li Jinrong held it in her hand and looked at it a few times, asking Zhou Fei: "The Ming Feng Sect lives a secluded life. They very rarely engage with others and their gate is closed shut all year round. To my knowledge, they are also very rarely willing to exchange moves with others, not to mention Ming Feng doesn't have a standard dao technique. Where did you learn it?"

Zhou Fei blanked for a second before quickly realizing—indeed, Yu Lao had also said before, she spent all of her days in Qian Ji and as a result, her dao technique even gained a good amount of Ming Feng's slyness and seemed "neither human nor ghost."

"I've never been, don't they not allow anyone in?" Zhou Fei said truthfully, "I learned it all from Qian Ji."

Li Jinrong was a little shocked. Zhou Fei wasn't one of those kids who could memorize things just by looking at it once. Back when she was studying with Zhou Yitang, trying to stuff some knowledge in her brain was like asking one to die. As soon as she learned something, she would forget it the very next day. However, when it came to learning martial arts, she always had a sort of strange gift—though she couldn't necessarily remember all of the moves she saw, she was often able to pick out the most crucial parts, so precise that the true essence could be seen in her moves. She would then guess around and add new understandings to the moves and combine them using her own method.

No one knew who she got this ability from.

Li Jinrong thought about this internally but didn't show any signs of praise externally. She only shifted her tone and indifferently said: "Po Xue Dao has a total of nine forms. It was personally revised by your [maternal] grandfather and is an extremely fierce dao. You three's natural abilities are all more or less a little lacking, so I never passed on this dao technique—Yu Lao was injured in the past and has gotten older, which means he lacks a little strength, so…"

Pausing here, she suddenly drew out the changdao in her hands. Using both hands as support, she spun around and suddenly used force. The wind from the dao caused a sharp shrill, howling sadly like the most brutal north wind, cold and harsh, surging straight forward—it was the move Zhou Fei had made on the Picking Flower Platform.

Zhou Fei couldn't help but step back half a step. She felt as if all of the blood in her body was frozen.

Only then did Li Jinrong slowly finish the move, saying: "The real 'Po Xue', even if you only have a piece of iron, will not break into pieces, because it is not a gongfu that destroys indiscriminately."

The words left Zhou Fei's mouth: "Then what is it?"

Li Jinrong said calmly: "It's 'all-conquering'."

Zhou Fei widened her eyes.

"When people get old, they always want to leave some leeway. As a result, the dao technique of your Yu tai shishu has a lot of turnaround points. His Po Xue Dao only has shape, but does not have meaning." Li Jinrong glanced at Zhou Fei, continuing, "You, on the other hand, clearly knew that your dao would break but you were emboldened by the knowledge that I wouldn't do anything to you and that as long as you stalled for a bit, you could attain the red window paper-cut. What you used wasn't Po Xue Dao, it was a petty trick."

Although Li Jinrong didn't seem to say anything nice, for once she didn't speak with a reprimanding tone—this was because she always thought that petty tricks were still clever [4]. Either way, as long as the goal was achieved, then that means it is useful: "When you are in a true battle, if you have yet to make a move and you know in your mind that the dao will break, you cannot avoid any wavering—there's no need for debate, everyone is afraid of death. Even the slightest waver is still a waver."

Zhou Fei couldn't understand: "But no matter what I think, the dao will still break."

Even if she soaked inside the Xi Mo River for three more years, she could still never beat Li Jinrong. It was just like how even if an ant learned the most powerful gongfu in the world, it could still never beat an elephant. Regardless of whether you believed it or not, it was simply reality. Zhou Fei thought: Unless Po Xue Dao is a set of dao techniques that teaches one to overrate one's abilities?

Li Jinrong slightly lifted the tip of her eyebrow, as if seeing the doubt in Zhou Fei's mind, and suddenly had a faintly stingy smile. She lightly stuck the tip of the changdao into the ground, saying: "Do you know how many masters there are in this world?"

Zhou Fei didn't know where this question came from and multiple stories about the Jiang Hu that the elders in the Stronghold flashed through her mind. Stories about some "Bei Dou Seven Stars", different grand sects, one after another soul-stirring battles…and their still legendary Da Dang Jia.

And so she answered: "There are a lot."

"Indeed, a lot," Li Jinrong said, "There are tall mountains beyond mountains, there will never be someone who dares to claim to be the best in the world. But you must know, every tall mountain is born from a father and mother, made of flesh and bones, and had once babbled their first words. Everyone's start point begins at how to stand up and walk, no one has any more than do you. The present of gravel, is the past of high mountains. Your present, is our past. A-Fei, ghosts and spirits exist beyond the six directions [5] and those who walk in this world are all mortals. Why can't you dare to believe that the dao in your hands can be all-conquering?"

Zhou Fei blanked [6] once again.

Li Jinrong said: "Look closely, I will only teach once. If you ask again in the future, I don't know when I'll have the spare time."

Three days later, Zhou Fei and Li Sheng packed simple bags and, accompanied by Li Yan's tearful eighteen li* send off, went down the mountain with Wang lao furen. Before leaving, Zhou Fei looked back at the iron gate that had once locked her in. Perhaps it was because she grew taller by a few cun* in recent years, but she always felt that the iron gate didn't seem as tall anymore.

*1 li = 500 meters, 1 cun = 3.33 cm

Will this journey go smoothly? Could they come back in two or three months? What will they encounter…would she be able to hear news about her father? The events of the future seemed to all be uncertain.

Zhou Fei and Li Sheng were both country bumpkins who had never been in a city. That Li Sheng pretended like he was well-mannered, but when no one was paying attention, he was also glancing everywhere. He even had to try his hardest to contain himself to prevent himself from looking like a fool who thought anything and everything was fresh and new. While the villages and towns within a 20 li radius outside of the 48 Strongholds were still in the range of their influence, the scenery was completely different from inside the Stronghold.

Inside the Stronghold, people hurried back and forth as well, but they were extremely strict. There were designated times for all aspects of the disciples' daily life, from sleeping to eating. It wasn't like the life of those living at the base of the mountain where it was jam-packed with all sorts of people, from men and women to children and the elderly. When Zhou Fei and the others arrived, it was the time for market and the crowds were bustling with activity. A mixture of accents could be heard as well as many different types of languages. The vendors cried out loudly and the dirty monkey-like children ran through the the legs of the adults in waves. Even if they bumped into someone, they didn't apologize and would run off in laughter. Haggling prices, arguing and laughing, calling for customers…there were voices everywhere.

As Zhou Fei walked down the road, she didn't know how many times she had heard "excuse me" while she was looking around. The vendors along the street were like frogs, calling at her all at the same time.

"Gu niang, come quickly and look at whether my cloth is brighter than the cloth of others?"

"Gu niang, do you want to buy a bracelet home to wear?"

"Steaming hot brown sugar sesame seed buns, do you want to taste some? It's alright if you won't buy it, break off a piece to try it…"

Zhou Fei: "…"

She didn't know that these vendors were just thoughtlessly calling out and thought that they were talking to her. She felt that it wasn't good to ignore them, but upon seeing tens of mouths open and close, she couldn't heed them all. While she was at a loss as to what to do, thankfully Wang lao furen came to drag her away. Their group stayed at the only pawnshop in town, a secret post of the 48 Strongholds where information was sent and received.

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忠武将军吴大人- Zhong Wu Jiangjun/General Zhong Wu (title) Wu daren (last name + honorific) (see [1])

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[1] 大人 da ren: commonly means adult, but it is also an honorific that is a respectful salutation for one's parents, the elderly, seniors, people of honor, etc. This is just like gongzi, guniang, xiansheng, etc. and is used after the person's last name. In this case, the last name is 吴 Wu, hence Wu daren.

[2] 夫人 fu ren: furen has two uses, one meaning wife (as used here) and one meaning Mrs., Lady, Madam, etc. In the case of Wang lao furen, furen is used as a title. The addition of 老 lao, meaning old, is to convey her age.

[3] To specify, the "you" used here is 您 nin which is the respectful "you": 你 ni vs. 您 nin.

[4] The original term is 小聪明 xiao cong ming which literally means little smarts but would translate to petty tricks. This is why Li Jinrong thinks that "little smarts" are still smart.

[5] 六合 liu he: the six directions, north south east west and up and down. Also is a general reference to the world and the universe. In this case, Li Jinrong is saying that ghosts and spirits don't exist in their world and the only beings in the world are humans.

[6] There's a word in Chinese, 愣 leng, which, to my knowledge, does not have a direct English counterpart. I thought as hard as I could, asked others, looked it up, but still didn't find anything. It's frequently translated as "being dumbfounded" but refers (in this context) to a general pause in thought or motion in response to something. This can be blanking (thought); being dumbfounded, stupefied, shocked, etc.; physically pausing in some way; and more. Anyway, back when Li Jinrong asked where she learned her Ming Feng-style dao technique, the original says Zhou Fei 愣-ed (lol) which I decided to make "blanked" because she needed a second to process what her mom was talking about, something she never thought about herself. However, in the instance where [5] is talking about, her "blanking" isn't the same as earlier where she was trying to figure out why her mom suddenly mentioned Ming Feng. This time, she's blanking (pausing) in response to her mom's words and question because it's something she's never thought about and possibly can't understand/believe (here it gets interpretive so she could also have different thoughts, that's just my take).