e leather wrap, he immediately knew it was related to what he had already memorized.

Zhou Botong lifted his eyes to the distant hill and was deep in thought. He loved martial art; he was obsessed with it. Now he had in his hand the world’s greatest and most profound martial arts manual. In all honesty he wanted very much to train what was in the book; not to build up his own reputation, not to seek vengeance, also not to show off his prowess or to rule the world; he was simply and purely curious to see how profound the martial arts in the book were.

He recalled his martial brother’s story on Huang Shang compiling the 5481 chapters on the Everlasting Life Taoist Canon; then later on he spent forty years painstakingly studied various exquisite martial arts from various schools. It really was not a small matter. The Twin Killers of the Dark Wind only got hold of the second volume; and they only managed to learn two techniques among so many; yet they were able to create havoc in the Jianghu. What if they were able to learn the entire second volume? The result would be inconceivable. But martial brother’s last words could not be disobeyed. Zhou Botong pondered these things in his heart; he heaved a heavy sigh, put the leather inside his pocket, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

After taking a good rest he took a tree branch to dig a hole in which he intended to bury both volumes together. He was digging and sighing at the same time. But suddenly an idea came to his mind, he exploded in laughter and cheers, “That’s right! That’s right! This way I can have both ways!” He was so ecstatic that Guo Jing was startled, “Big Brother, what both ways?” But Zhou Botong merely laughed without saying anything. It looked like he came out with a really great idea.

“Brother Guo is not my Quan Zhen Sect’s disciple. I will teach him and let him train, then I will see the result,” he thought. “This way I can satisfy my curiosity and following martial brother’s dying wish at the same time.” He was going to tell this idea to Guo Jing when suddenly he had another thought, “From the way he speaks I gathered he detests the Nine Yin Manual. He thinks it was an evil martial art; but that was because the Twin Killers of the Dark Wind only looked at the second volume; they did not train the first volume, which would tell them how to cultivate the inner energy and build a foundation for the subsequent techniques. They only took the fiercest martial arts they could find, which resulted in monstrosity of their martial arts. I’d better not tell him anything; I’ll let him practice and let him know afterwards. That time he will have mastered the martial arts; even if he wants to get rid of it he won’t be able to do anything. Won’t that be interesting?”

By nature he was mischievous; others scold him or get mad at him, he did not care; others love him or show favor to him, he did not give it any thought. As long as he could play or make practical jokes and have fun, he would be happy. Now that he had thought this idea he maintained his composure and with a straight face he told Guo Jing, “Xian Die [worthy brother], during my fifteen years inside this cave I have created not only the Vacant Fist and the Mutual Hands Combat techniques, but also some other techniques. Now that we don’t have anything to do, what do you say I teach you some more to pass the time away?”

“There is nothing better,” Guo Jing said, “But Rong’er said she is thinking of a way to get us out of here …”

“Has she found a way out for us?” Zhou Botong asked.

“Not yet,” Guo Jing replied.

“Then what’s wrong with learning new things while waiting for her?” Zhou Botong suggested.

Guo Jing happily complied, “That will work. Big Brother’s martial arts must be marvelous.”

Zhou Botong secretly laughed, “Don’t you be happy yet,” he thought, “You have fallen into my scheme!” So he immediately passed on the essence of the Nine Yin Manual; a little part at a time from his memory. Naturally Guo Jing did not understand it immediately, but Zhou Botong was very patient. He would repeat the lesson as many times as needed. As for the lessons from the second volume on the leather wrap, he would memorize it first when Guo Jing was not looking, and then he would passed it on when he had memorized it.

The Nine Yin Manual contained various martial art techniques which were different from each other. Zhou Botong taught the theory but did not give any example on how to do it. He let Guo Jing to ponder and find out on his own. Afterward he would test the newly learned technique against his Quan Zhen Sect’s martial art.

After several days he started to see the marvelous martial arts of the Nine Yin Manual which Guo Jing gradually mastered; however, Guo Jing was still completely unaware that he had learned the Nine Yin Manual. Zhou Botong was very happy; he would often smile in his sleep.

In the meantime Huang Rong kept preparing food for Guo Jing although she did not show up personally. So Guo Jing’s heart became content and he managed to achieve quicker advancement.

One day Zhou Botong was teaching the ‘jiu yin shen zhua’ [nine yin divine claw]; he instructed Guo Jing to use his ten fingers to practice against the stonewall. Guo Jing had practiced several times when suddenly he realized something. “Big Brother,” he said, “I think Mei Chaofeng also trained this kind of martial art, only she practiced against human. She would insert her five fingers inside somebody’s skull. It was very cruel.”

Zhou Botong was startled, “That’s true,” he thought, “Mei Chaofeng did not know the first volume, so she followed the instruction literally. The second volume only mentioned ‘concentrate the energy on the five fingers, firmly attack the enemy’s head.’ She did not know that ‘the enemy’s head’ means the enemy’s vital point; not literally insert five fingers on the enemy’s skull. No wonder she thought she had to train using real skulls. This Nine Yin Manual contains lessons of spiritual purity, to chase evil spirits away, how could it teach anybody to practice this cruel and ferocious martial art? That old hag had strayed too far from the truth. Brother Guo Jing is already suspicious so I’d better not teach him that kind of martial art.” Thereupon he smiled and said, “Mei Chaofeng practiced demonical type of martial art; how can she be compared with our true orthodox school of martial arts? All right, we won’t train this ‘divine claw’ martial art for the time being, I will teach you some more of our heritage martial art.”

Speaking thus he hatched another good idea, “I will teach him the first volume until he really comprehended everything. Then I will continue with the second volume. He will see the logical connection between the first and the second, so he won’t raise any suspicions anymore.” So he started to recite the theory from the first volume and told Guo Jing to memorize it.

The lessons in the manual were very deep and profound, how could Guo Jing comprehend everything? Zhou Botong realized Guo Jing was slow, so he told him to recite it aloud. After dozens of time Guo Jing was able to memorize almost everything. Some of it he did not understand the meaning, but he memorize it anyway. Several days passed, Zhou Botong had passed most of the book so he told Guo Jing to start practicing his internal energy cultivation.

Guo Jing thought the internal energy cultivation method was similar to the one he learned from Ma Yu, only this one was deeper and more difficult; but he credited that to the fact that Zhou Botong was Ma Yu’s martial uncle, so naturally his way of cultivating internal energy would be more profound than Ma Yu’s. He also recalled when Mei Chaofeng sat on his shoulder battling the enemies in the Zhao palace she asked him some questions about internal energy cultivation which he was able to answer, so he did not suspect anything at all. Although he frequently noticed Zhou Botong’s funny expression, like he was amused by something funny, he thought it was Zhou Botong’s natural disposition that loved to play jokes. Maybe he was thinking of some other amusing things.

The manual contained more than one thousand gibberish characters without any clear meaning. These past several years Zhou Botong had repeatedly pondered about those words in the cave, but he still did not have any clue on what they mean. Nevertheless he passed them on to Guo Jing anyway. And when Guo Jing asked what they mean, Zhou Botong simply said, “This secret can’t be divulged right now, you will understand it when the time comes.”

Memorizing these thousand or so words without understanding what they say was a hundred times more difficult than memorizing a regular book. It may not be too difficult for a sharp person; but although Guo Jing was slow, he had a strong determination. After more than a thousand times reciting he eventually was able to memorize everything.

One early morning Guo Jing woke up and immediately practiced his martial art. When the breakfast came he noticed another unusual steamed bun. Without waiting to finish his meal he took the bun to the forest and immediately crushed the wax pill to get into the letter inside. Once he took a glance he could not help but feeling very anxious. The letter said, ‘Brother Jing, Western Poison had proposed Father to give my hand in marriage to his nephew, and Father answered …” The letter was not finished, indicating that she was writing it in a hurry. Looked like the word after ‘answered’ was ‘yes’.

Guo Jing’s heart was frenetic; he waited impatiently for the old servant to clean up then he hastily showed the letter to Zhou Botong.

“His father gave his consent, that’s good. It’s none of our business,” Zhou Botong said.

“I can’t do that,” Guo Jing said, “Rong’er early on has promised to be with me. She must be insanely anxious right now.”

“If you take a wife, there are some martial arts you cannot practice. It will be too bad,” Zhou Botong said. “I … I feel deep remorse that I didn’t listen to a good advice. Good Brother, listen to my advice: you’d better not to take a wife.”

Guo Jing thought the more Zhou Botong spoke, the more unreasonable he became; that made Guo Jing more concerned than ever. Zhou Botong continued, “If I haven’t lost my virginity and could not practice my martial brother’s fiercest martial arts, how could Old Heretic Huang imprison me in this confounded hole? You see, your thought is focused on your wife, your heart is divided, I am sure today’s martial art practice will not get you anywhere. If you really marry Old Heretic Huang’s girl, ay! That will be too bad! If only I … ay! Never mind that. In short, if you let yourself get entangled in an affair with a woman, you won’t reach the pinnacle of perfection. Moreover, you will offend your friend and disobey your martial brother; yet it is very difficult for you to forget her. Wonder how she is … Anyway, don’t ever see her pretty face, don’t ever caress her beautiful body, and don’t teach her sealing acupoints technique, because then she would feel your body to find those acupoints. Those are great taboos … worse yet, don’t ever ask her to marry you … ”

To Guo Jing Zhou Botong was just mumbling illogically; it was troublesome. “Whether I marry her or not, we’ll sort that out later,” he said, “Big Brother, we have to help her now.”

Zhou Botong laughed, “Western Poison is very evil, his nephew must not be different. Old Heretic Huang’s daughter is pretty, but she must have the same character as Old Heretic Huang: perverted mind. Let Western Poison’s nephew take her to be his wife; let them both suffer, let their martial arts not going anywhere; that way we kill two birds with one stone. No, more precisely: lose two birds with one stone. Nothing good is found in either one of them. Don’t you think this is a good idea?”

Guo Jing sighed and walked to the woods, sat on the ground. His heart was jumbled, “Even if I have to die on the Peach Blossom Island’s pathways, I must find her,” he thought.

Once his mind was set he leaped up to start moving. At that moment he heard two loud calls from the sky, and two white shadows swooping down toward him. They were the white condors Tuolei brought from the desert. Guo Jing was delighted; he extended his arm to let the condors perch. Only then did he see a bamboo tube tied up on the male condor’s foot. Hastily he loosened it and found a letter inside. It was Huang Rong writing to him. She told him the latest development; how the Western Poison would arrive in a few days to arrange the betrothal; how her father had strictly guarded her, not letting her to get out of her quarter even for half a step, including preparing food for Guo Jing. In the end she said that if she could not get away from all these, she would commit suicide to show her love to him. She also told Guo Jing that the pathways on the island were dangerous: they were mysterious and full of booby traps, so she warned Guo Jing not to try to find her.

Guo Jing was dumbstruck. He pulled out his dagger and carved these six characters on the bamboo tube, ‘yi qi huo, yi qi si’ [live together, die together]; then he tied the tube back on the condor’s leg and raised his arm pointing north. The condors circled him several times then they flew north.

Once he made decision his heart was calm. He walked back to Zhou Botong, sat on the ground in front of him and listened to him imparted more lessons in martial arts.

The next ten days passed without any word from Huang Rong. Guo Jing had managed to memorize the first volume in its entirety. Zhou Botong was secretly delighted; he proceeded with reciting the second volume for Guo Jing to memorize. Again, he did not give any example or instruction on how to train them, for fear that Guo Jing would see through his scheme. Guo Jing diligently studied and committed each and every one of them in his memory. Several hundreds times of reciting later he had both the first and second volumes down pat in his mind; including all the gibberish words such as ‘ang li na de’ and ‘ha hu wen bo ying’ [translator’s note: these characters don’t make logical sentences, so I leave them as they are]. He did not miss a single word.

Listening to Guo Jing Zhou Botong’s heart was full of admiration. “This dumb kid can actually memorize the entire dumb martial arts manual. Old Urchin salutes him.”

That night the sky was clear, the sea was calm, reflecting the bright silver moon shining over the island. Zhou Botong just finished checking on Guo Jing’s progress. He found out that Guo Jing had made tremendous advancement in his martial art without even realizing it. He was very happy, thinking that the manual really did contain profound martial arts techniques. He thought that if he were to train with the book, he would eventually surpassed Huang Yaoshi and Hong Qigong.

Two people were sitting on the ground, idly chatting when suddenly they heard rustling noise coming from a distance. Zhou Botong jumped in alarm, “Snake!” he cried. He just closed his mouth when the hissing sound reached their ears. It sounded like there were a flock of snakes coming their way.

Zhou Botong’s face turned pale, he dashed into cave. He was a courageous man, his martial art might be superb, but not when facing snakes. Guo Jing immediately pushed some big rocks and covered the cave entrance.

“Big Brother,” he said, “I’ll go take a look. Don’t come out.”

“Be careful and return quickly,” Zhou Botong answered. “I’ll say you don’t need to take a look. What’s so attractive about vipers? How … how can there be so many snakes in this island? I have lived here for fifteen years and haven’t seen a single snake. Look how bad this island has become! Old Heretic Huang always boasts his vast knowledge and resourcefulness but look how dirty this Peach Blossom Island has become. Sea turtles, vipers, centipedes, and all kind of creepy-crawlies are coming over.”