Soaring Swallows Startle Dragons

Menghuan slowly lowered, sizing up the gully as he went. It was like the bottom of a pot, shrinking the deeper it went. After 200 staves it was merely two staves in circumference, the water flowing down from the stream hitting the stone wall and spraying into millions of soybean-sized drops of water, spraying out in all directions so that Yang Menghuan’s clothes and shoes were soon soaking wet.

At approximately 250 or so staves down he finally reached the bottom and examined it carefully. It was around a stave long and eight spans wide, sloping down to the right, the stream water following the slope and discharging through a crevice in a large rock. Along the sleek and slippery stone wall on the east side was a stone door as tall as a person. It was half-open, half-closed. Yang Menghuan sidled through the door and found a twisting passageway before him. I twas very narrow, only big enough for one person to fit through at once, and it was black as lacquer. Menghuan focused his eyes and pressed against the wall and entered. He walked for a while and then the passageway opened up. There was a faint green light and it did not seem as dark as when he had first entered through the stone door.

He walked some more and the scenery became more unusually beautiful, the walls on either side the color of jadeite, glittering and translucent, dazzling green light, like he were in a world of colored glass!

Yang Menghuan couldn’t help but sigh inwardly at such a sight. The world was so big, there truly was nothing unusual that it didn’t contain. No one could have imagined that a couple hundred staves down a deep ravine there would be a world like this. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes and only heard about it from someone else, he wouldn’t believe it.

Suddenly a sigh came from far off down the corridor. Yang Menghuan could tell it was Shifu’s voice. This was no small surprise and he quickened his steps, running ahead, taking two corners and the passageway ended, the landscape opened up and a patch of grass about the size as a plot of land was before him, teeming with blossoming trees of all colors. Master One Yang sat with his legs crossed among them, looking upward, concentrating on something. Menghuan was only about two staves away but, Master One Yang didn’t notice him at all.

Yang Menghuan knew something was off and he took a sudden stride forward and leapt over to the edge of the ornamental tree grove and was about to enter when he suddenly had a thought and stopped in his tracks. He thought, By the looks of it, Shifu seems to be trapped in this grove, unable to get out. He knew that Shifu’s martial arts was not only highly advanced, but he was proficient in the eight trigrams and the principles of the Book of Changes, the five agents, and divination. Even if the grove was set up according to eight trigram principles, it would be difficult to trap Shifu.

Yang Menghuan was suspicious and didn’t dare rashly charge in but closely examined the layout of the blossoming trees. It was messy with no order to it, but it also didn’t seem like an eight-trigram formation. He was becoming even more perplexed. Yang Menghuan was exceptionally gifted. He had been with Master One Yang for twelve years, not only learning all of Master One Yang’s martial arts, but also learning Master One Yang’s literary attainments and eight-trigram principles, Five Agents, and divination skills.

Now he could not see what was unusual about the grove. He was thinking to step inside it when he suddenly saw Master One Yang leap straight up and begin pacing back and forth, thinking. Menghuan stood outside the grove and watched Shifu pace steps according to the five agents and divination principles, left seven, right eight, turning this way and that, but all along walking within a one-stave area. At times he would approach the edge of the grove, only a few steps and he would be out, but Master One Yang would instead suddenly turn around and walk back the way he’d come. Anxious, Menghuan shouted, “Shifu, just take two more steps.” Though he spoke loudly, Master One Yang was unaware of him and didn’t even turn his head to look.

Master One Yang walked for a while, then sat back down in his original spot, looking up and sighing. This sigh Yang Menghuan heard quite clearly.

Right now Yang Menghuan was so on edge he was about to lose it, seeing Master One Yang trapped in the grove unable to walk out and knowing he could do nothing to help. He thought for a moment and came up with a clumsy idea. He counted all the ornamental trees, 81 in total. Master One Yang was trapped in the grove. If he cut down the trees on one side, the formation’s effectiveness would be lost, and wouldn’t Shifu be able to get out then? But those 81 trees were so dazzling and resplendent, it would be a shame to cut them down. But right now saving him was more important. He took in all the difficulties and made up his mind and drew his sword. He stooped down and extended his arm and chopped with his sword and a tree fell down.

Menghuan was very meticulous, always stooping low when he cut down a tree and waiting till it fell before taking an exploratory step forward. Then, when nothing seemed amiss, he would reach out for the second tree and cut it down, using his sword to knock the fallen tree away.

This clumsy idea of his really worked and in about the time it takes to eat a meal he had cut down 27 trees. Master One Yang was still at a loss as to what to do when it brightened before him and Menghuan was standing beside him. He slowly stood. “This flower formation is widely different from the usual Five Agents method, so abstruse and unfathomable. Fortunately you thought of this idea.”

Menghuan said, “Disciple couldn’t do anything besides come up with this ill-thought-out plan and destroy all these blossoming trees.”

Master One Yang shook his head. “Incredible, incredible. I carelessly ran in here and nearly bungled everything.”

Menghuan said, “Then let’s just cut down the rest of these trees so we won’t fall into its trap again.”

Master One Yang said, “That’s not necessary. Twenty-seven trees have already been cut down, the mysteries of the formation are broken. Let’s go in and take a look.”

Menghuan was still uneasy and kept his sword raised and cleared the path ahead, hacking down any tree he came to with his sword. Master One Yang didn’t stop him. Suddenly Yang Menghuan noticed there were piles of white bones on the grass, every pile no more than a few spans apart from the others, some of them full intact skeletons, either sitting or lying down, each in a different posture. He stopped and looked back at Shifu. “Are these piles of bones people?”

Master One Yang sighed. “Return to the Origin has done much harm. These people were all looking for Return to the Origin when they became trapped in the tree formation and could not get out and starved to death here.”

He thought of how he had just been trapped in the formation himself and all sorts of feelings welled up in his mind.

They cut across the grass and it became narrower. At the end of the passageway they came face to face with a two-leaf stone door set into the wall. Master One Yang concentrated his power, storing up his perfected force, and pushed the doors open without a hitch. Inside was a stone cavern the size of a three-room house. On the left and right of the cavern were too slabs of granite in the shape of a lotus platform, on which were seated cross-legged a nun and a Daoist. A strange fragrance wafted about, straight to one’s core. In the center was a granite table on which was placed a one-span square, five-fingerwidth thick jade box. A stone tripod cauldron sat before the table, filled with white incense ash. The strange fragrance was emanating from the white incense ash.

Master One Yang looked over the nun and the Daoist. They must be the bodies of the rumored Mystic Workings Perfected and Divine Nun Three Tones. He immediately prostrated himself and payed homage. Yang Menghuan saw Shifu kowtowing solemnly and did as well. He furtively raised his head to steal a peek at the bodies on the lotus platforms. They sat cross-legged with their palms together and eyes closed, like they were engaged in zen meditation. This was beyond his comprehension. How could these two have reverted to their true selves, dying hundreds of years ago, yet their bodies still looked lifelike, without a trace of decay. Could these two remarkable elders have mastered the art of the Incorruptible Diamond Body? If they really had, then why did they still pass away while seated? His mind was a maze of puzzles which he could not figure out, but seeing Shifu concentrating so hard, he didn’t ask further.

Master One Yang slowly stood after kowtowing to the remains and went over to the stone table and examined the jade box on it. There were eight large words engraved on it: “Secret Precious Treasure Manual, Cherish and Don’t Damage”.

For hundreds of years this had been the number-one rare treasure rumored throughout the martial world. Now that it was before them, even with Master One Yang’s immense skill and strength, he could not keep from trembling all over. He couldn’t say whether it was from astonishment or glee. He slowly raised his hands and opened the lid. Inside were neatly stacked three thin volumes. The one on the top had Secret Return to the Origin Manual written on the cover in red cinnabar ink.

Master One Yang only felt his heart pounding and he quickly put the lid back on the jade box. From his robe he removed a square length of yellow tabby silk and carefully wrapped up the jade box. Then, shouldering it, he once again kowtowed to the bodies of Mystic Workings Perfected and Divine Nun Three Tones on their lotus platforms, then withdrew along with Menghuan from the stone chamber. They followed the path out of the cavern, and at the bottom of the gully he looked up and heaved a long breath, shooting qi out from his dantian, the sound like a dragon’s moan, shooting straight from the gully floor into the Han River in the empyrean.

Master Wise Perfected and Greatmaster Clear Karma and the others were waiting anxiously when they heard the howl from the bottom of the gully, and they breathed a sigh of relief. In just a short notch of time later, Yang Menghuan was the first to climb up the vines and out. Shen Xialin had been staring with her big eyes down the hole ever since Menghuan had went down. Her face was full of worry until she saw Menghuan, then she heaved a long sigh and smiled, the look of worry completely gone.

Master One Yang followed closely behind and climbed out as well. Master Wise Perfected asked, “What took so long down there. Is that the Return to the Origin manual on you’re shouldering?”

Master One Yang nodded. “I got trapped in a blossoming tree formation and nearly couldn’t get out, but in the end obtained the precious treasure Return to the Origin. This thousand-mile trek was not in vain.” With that he heaved a sigh filled with boundless emotion and told in detail how he had been trapped and how Yang Menghuan had cleverly broken the tree formation.

Master Wise Perfected looked at Menghuan and said, “He’s not only thoughtful and resourceful, his insight is exceptional. I rejoice that Senior Brother has such a good disciple. Our Kunlun School will have no lack of successors.”

Yang Menghuan received his junior sectuncle’s praise with a blush and some stammering. Master One Yang studied Menghuan, thinking of a very big problem. Now that the Return to the Origin was in hand, the next problem was finding a quiet place and studying the manual abstruse content. He figured that every word of this rare martial world book contained the mystical workings of the universe. This was absolutely not something that could be quickly grasped in half a year’s time, but the waves of the monstrous storms this secret manual would kick up had already to surge. If he could find a spot to cultivate in privacy, the leftover waves would be turned on his beloved student, even implicating the entire Kunlun School. This wasn’t someone’s personal blood feud but a major event that would shake the martial world. Every school and sect and gang and society would be involved in this violent struggle. He thought about this and sighed. This Return to the Origin manual was certainly an unprecedented rare book, an unusual treasure, but it was also the root of violent murder and horrible disaster.

Master Wise Perfected saw that First Brother was not the least bit delighted after obtaining the secret manual but rather distressed and brooding, as if possessed of boundless secret worries. Without giving it much thought she asked, “First Brother, you ought to be happy now that you’ve obtained the secret manual, why are you looking so glum?”

She suddenly thought of the inkscaled ironplated snakeskin and took it out at once. “This trip to Mount Kuocang was not in vain for me either. First Brother obtained the Return to the Origin, and I have obtained a rare treasure of the martial world as well. Do you know what this is?”

Master One Yang took the snakeskin. In the setting sunlight the scales twinkled a glossy raven-black. He examined it for a time and nodded. “This really is a rare treasure of the highest order. Such a large inkscaled ironplated snake is one of a kind. where did you find it?”

Master Wise Perfected said, “It was actually a matter of good luck. I wouldn’t have been able to catch such a large unusual snake had we run into it, yet I managed to get hold of this with no effort at all. Now that our Kunlun School has both the Return to the Origin manual and this inkscaled ironplated snakeskin, we can look boldly on the martial world and contend with every school…”

Before Master Wise Perfected could finish, they suddenly heard a cold, derisive laugh. It wasn’t loud, but they heard it quite clearly.