Book 1 - Chapter 1 – Depending on eaChapter other for survival (1/2)
Book 1 Chapter 1 – Depending on each other for survival
Yuwen Huaji stood straight up on the command deck of a warshi+p, his eyes scanned both sides of the canal It was not dawn yet The lantern light of these five huge warshi+p overshadowed theof his Yuwen Clan, the landlords[1] of the South had also lost the glory of their former days
Yuwen Huaji was in his thirties; tall, thin, with long ars, but his face looked old with repressed emotion, looked cold and detached His pair of eyes was i others the impression that he was a very cold and ruthlessair
These five warshi+ps were built under the personal supervision of late Chancellor Yang Su during the founding of the Sui Dynasty; they were called the Five-Fang Battleshi+ps Each shi+p had five decks, with total height reached twelve zhang [unit of length, 1 zhang approx 3ht hundred soldiers
The five lided on the water as fast as runaway horses, heading toward Jiangdu [county level city in Yangzhou, Jiangsu] further downstreaht of the top of the palace towering beyond the treetops lining the bank; it was one ofof Sui [569-618, reigned 604-618], along the river to be his i of Sui ascended the throne, to link the North and the South, he co the canal Whether it was for military or econo the North and the South However, carrying out large-scale construction, building i the river, were ashi+he, his trusted aide, as standing behind him, leaned forward and respectfully said, “We will arrive at Jiangdu before daybreak If in this trip Zongguan [lit chiefLife’ and present it to His Majesty, it would indeed be a great merit”
A mysterious smile escaped from the corner of Yuwen Huaji’s mouth; he said indifferently, “His Holiness is fascinated with immortality technique concocted by the Daoist School[2]; it is indeed ludicrous If there really is this pill of i at fores of the Daoist School, which one did not avoid death? If it were not that this book is woven out of black [or old thread, impervious of water and fire, we can randoh”
Zhang shi+he said with a laugh, “After more than ten years of open enquiries and secret search His Holiness has discovered that this book has fallen into the hand of ‘Mountain-Pushi+ng Hand’ shi+ Long, who is regarded as the nu obtained the book with an extravagant hope that he wouldn’t die, yet he will definitely die It is indeed extremely ironic”
Yuwen Huaji let out a cold snort and ’s name under his breath I
Over the years, due to his high position, he rarely fought hand to hand with anybody Now the opportunity has finally co’ [orig ‘fill the sky’ king] wang Xuba, leading a dozen highly-skilledthe Yangtze River, destroying the tranquility of the river banks wang Xuba was one of the militia leaders ished to topple Sui Emperor from his rule over the land under the heaves [ie the whole China]; he had considerable fa assumed the title ‘Emperor’, because he always strived to achieve extraordinary things, he repeatedly conducted ed in a life of luxury, building nuardens, and went on inspection tour everywhere; hence he indiscriminately levied heavy taxes and made the people endured unspeakable hardshi+p As a result, robbers sprang up everywhere, those with power rose up to declare therandiose of its founding days
In that darkest hour just before dawn, outside the city of Yangzhou, which was established as the capital of Jiangdu County by the Sui Dynasty, lots of shi+ps and boats, big and small, were moored on the dock upstreahts filled the air, carrying with it so atmosphere!
Yet Jiao Xie’s mind was loaded with the antique jade piece in his bosom, a jade piece carved with two characters ‘wan sui’ [lit ten-thousand years, long live!]
It was the well-known treasured jade belonging to the Great General shi+ Wansui of the founding of the Sui Dynasty In those days, because he listened to slanderous report, the first Sui e as the Crown Prince and set up Yang Guang in his stead shi+ Wansui was implicated and died of injustice TheSu
This Yang Su was perhaps the most influential ht, and triumphed in every battle; histhan his Lord, hence he was at the receiving end of considerable suspicion and jealousy of the E Jian]
Actually, Yang Su himself was unlike his contemporaries; he did not take part in conspiracy of rebellion, in a weapons, ar afterwards Yang Su fell ill and died, and Eht, the E Su's treasure-trove
Henceforth there was a ru’s Hidden Treasure’ would be able to unify the world [again, ie China]
And now the treasured jade has appeared, it has beco down the treasure trove
Seven days ago, so [county, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu] As soon as wang Xuba received the news, he sent out his men everywhere to track it down for hundreds of li [1 li is approx 1/2ket
What’s hard to understand was that if the pawnshop did indeed obtain the treasure, where were the other articles? Why was it that only this lightweight and well-known piece of jade et out and thus revealed the secret of the treasure?
Right thismind abruptly came back to reality, for just beyond the place where the Great River met the canal, he saw the dark shadow of the sail, as well as the lantern lights of the five large ‘Five-Fang Battleshi+ps’
Jiao Xie’s heart was shaken; i his men to leave the riverbank and entered the forest next to the shore
Just east of Yangzhou city wall, there was a rowth For the most part the structure had already been worn down by years of disrepair Eroded by the wind and the rain, invaded by termites, it was practically ready to collapse Only one small brick room on the corner, under roof tiles full of holes, covered by wooden board, could barely be used for shelter
Fro in pain, followed by the sound of a body rolling against the floor
A voice that sounded like it belonged to a child called out softly, “Xiao Ling! Xiao Ling! [Little Ling] Is it still painful?”
Aftervoice replied, “That da], it’s really awful Ay! Next tirass to do business Not only he is -thief Yan Laoda I just wanted to keep half a word hidden fro”
The speakers were two street urchins who lived at that broken-down house Their parents and fa the war and were killed by robbers, hence they beca boys met by chance and hit if off immediately, henceforth they depended on each other for survival, their relationshi+p was closer than real siblings
The slightly older one, Kou Zhong, turned seventeen that year, the younger one was called Xu Ziling, he was barely sixteen
Kou Zhong crawled over on the wovento co as you are not beaten till your hands and feet are host, he will suffer our wrath Hey, once he drank the water to wash our, two Yangzhou dragons, feet, as soon as we can grab hold of two h travel expenses to renounce the dark and seek the light; we can join thelay down on the floor, while stroking his still burning jaw “Actually, how much more do we need?” he asked, “I really don’t want to see that Yan Laoda’s crafty face any replied, “Hey, we still need two taels [unit weight, approx 50g (modern) or 1/16 of a catty (old)] and a half, a total of twenty-five qian [unit weight, 1/10 of a tael] to go”
Xu Ziling sat up in shock, his voice breaking, “Didn’t you say a tael and a half? How coh Kou Zhong said, “Actually, howdeal, theXiaocai who failed to live up to expectations; only two, three times, and he is already fixed by the authority”
And then he got excited as he grabbed Xu Ziling’s shoulders and said, “But don’t worry, when I went to Chun Feng Lou [Spring Breeze Inn, ‘lou’ refers to two-story building] to steal soht, I heard people say that nowadays the enerals under him are as numerous as the cloud, such as Bai Xin and Qin Chaoho are top experts of the Wulin [martial art] world Recently they subdued another militia army led by Zuo Xiaoyou; their fa evenasked, “Didn’t you say earlier that theGongqing, who once defeated Yang Guang’s ar? Other than he, you alsoDeren, and so on; what roles are they playing?”
Obviously Kou Zhong was unable to answer his question He hummed and hawed, and then with a sheepish smile he said, “In this whole orld we only have each other, brothers; if you don’t believe me, ould you believe? How can I point out a ‘black’ road for you to take? Based on ht, I a ain the whole world, based on our, two boys, vision and co, will become, at least, the Prieneral”
With a bitter s said, “Merely Yan Laoda is able to beat us that we cannot crawl up; how can I have the co his chest, Kou Zhong said, “That’s why I force you to eavesdrop Bai Lao Fuzi’s [old o to peek and steal ’s training field Vision and competence must be fostered; ill definitely be a pinnacle of virtue and ability At least we can go back to becozhou When that ti trouble”
With a deep frowned Xu Ziling said, “Right now I a bird hatching eggs How about early in theabout it for a while, Kou Zhong yielded, “I’ll let you go to ie stearaceful hands”
Xu Ziling groaned and lay back down on theclass, esp during Wei, Jin and North-South dynasties
[2] Fro States Period (475-221BC), based on the teachings of Laozi (c 500BC) and Zhuangzi (369-286BC)
Part 2
Weed, Zlack, Anh, Yan, you are welco pretty well I like your sentences better than uess it's true that oftentimes we are our oorst critic Sirius, eed said Weed, thanks for 'getting it' Dragonsense, I didn't say it was the entire chapter, did I? My plan is to do regular updates, every 2-3 days (or so ), the pace I am comfortable with This is marathon, not a sprint, so I don't want to burn out too early in the gaBin, you said it yourself, it's sensible , so the hard work part is a risk I a to take Here's some more of Chapter 1 Expect another update in 2-3 days
Because the whole world was in chaos, thieves and robbers sprang up everywhere, everybody felt insecure; the first to prosper was naturally the dozen or so martial art schools and Taoist monasteries in the city [Translator’s note: in this book, the term tian xia - ‘land under heavens’ or ‘the whole world’ refers to China]
Speaking about prestige, the one regarded as the fore Martial Arena [actually literal translation would be ‘field’], which was personally founded by Yangzhou’s nu Hand’ shi+ Long For the last ten years or so shi+ Long rarelywas taken care of by his disciples But since thein unending stream from far and near, attracted by the school’s reputation
Both in internal and external skills, shi+ Long had already reached first-class master level; otherwise, how could his famous reputation not see decline for the last several decades? This ood character, did not e courtyard at the outskirt of the city Without having to set a foot outside, his disciples regularly delivered daily necessities All day long he spent his ti his brain to decipher the Taoist’s book of treasured wisdo to the ancient legend passed on orally frodi’s [Yellow Eical ezi; it ritten in oracle bone script, very deep and difficult to understand Ah there was no lack of talents who understood the heavens, yet no one has ever able to master the subject or decipher the secret
There were a total of 7,400 characters in the book, but only about 3,000 or so characters could be considered understandable The book was densely packed with annotations made by the people who have reviewed it, butthan the original text
Fortunately, there were seven diagraure, all with different postures, and all were annotated with symbols, for example, red dots, arrows, et cetera These sy some kind of Taoist cultivationit, one must not practice it If one hastened to circulate his inner qi [chi, vital energy] according to some of these symbols, immediately his qi and blood would boil, followed by fire deviation It was extre in front of this book day and night for three full years, but he gained nothing still; just like having a treasure chest in front of him, but there was no key to open the door
This particular day he wasout in his mind No matter what he could not focus his attention to the book While he was deep in thought, a dry cough was heard fro hurriedly put the treasured book in his bosohed and then said, “noble guest honors me with your presence, please come in and drink a cup of hot tea!”
But the other party did not respond until he arrived just outside the door It was only then did shi+ Long realize that the visitor was also a first class martial art master
By this time Jiao Xie has arrived at a forest just due north of the city; accompanied by histheirover a small hill, they saw a broken-down temple down below
Two of his men appeared, one of theet tarried in the teate; apparently he is waiting for soht for a ave his orders His men spread out to surround the teate, he said in a loud voice, “Life-snatching Saber Jiao Xie, serving under the Sky King’s banner, received the Sky King’s order to ask Miss for guidance”
‘Bang!’ The already dilapidated teate suddenly shattered into pieces that flew everywhere, while at the saure appeared at the door
Jiao Xie did not expect the opposite party’s response was both swift and fierce; his heart was shaken His hand i saber’, which has helped hiain
The wo snohite warrior outfit With her outstanding good looks she stood with a sword in her hand There was a bamboo rain hat on her head, tied under her chin with a strip of cotton cloth, covering her charrant lips, yet from the exposed part of her lower jaw, people could tell that she was indeed a rare beauty
This wo-a-flock-of-chicken kind of proud and arrogant attitude The exquisiteness and well-proportioned features, and the beauty of her physique were almost indescribable
Especially impressive was a small mole, like a speck of paint, on the corner of herher beauty even more mysterious
Jiao Xie was du his composure He was about to speak when a voice more beautiful than the immortal’s lai [musical pipe with three reeds] came out of that woman’s cherry lips, “You are finally here”
Jiao Xie ju’s treasure “Miss is waiting for us?” he asked in astonish smile floated out of the corner of the woentle voice she said, “I a for anybody to co!’ The woulfed Jiao Xie
Jiao Xie has roahu for more than half of his life, he was extre at how the woht away that he hadto be negligence, he let out a wild roar while stepping back and pulling his saber, while shouting his order for his men to show themselves
There was neither hatred nor enmity between them, but as soon as they met they already used fierce and ruthless method to deal with each other It was the first time he encountered such situation