Chapter - 16 Pines And Cypresses Grow On the Mount Wudang Peak (4)

Suddenly one of the old monks of the Meditation Hall spoke sharply and coldly: "Who taught this disciple martial arts?" Everyone felt uncomfortable after hearing this old monk talk.

Abbot Tianming, WuSe and WuXiang were all thinking about this too. They all looked at Jueyuan and Zhang Junbao. Jueyuan and Zhang just stood there not knowing what was going on now.

Tianming spoke: "Jueyuan's internal strength is powerful but he never learnt any other forms of martial arts. Who taught this boy martial arts?"

The disciples of the DaMo and LuoHan Hall were all thinking, luckily today there was a young cleaner who come forward and warded off ShaoLin's disaster. The old abbot will surely reward him and the master who taught him martial arts.

The old monk of the Meditation Hall stood still and his eyebrows were raised. He looked like he was ready to kill someone. The old monk sharply asked Zhang Junbao again: "I'm going to ask you again. Who taught you this LuoHan fist style?"

Zhang Junbao took out the little iron Arhats Guo Xiang gave to him and said: "I just learnt a few stances from these little statues. No one taught me any martial arts."

The old monk stepped forward and slowly said in a threatening way: "Tell me one more time: Your LuoHan fist was NOT imparted by any master of the monastery. You learnt it by yourself."

Zhang Junbao was a bit startled but he also believed he didn't do anything wrong. Even though this old monk looked very stern, he wasn't afraid and said clearly: "I'm just responsible for keeping the library clean and tidy. I'm here to look after and help Master Jueyuan. No other reverend in the monastery has taught me martial arts. I learnt this LuoHan fist by myself, I think I might have made a few mistakes in the stances. I hope old Master can give me some pointers."

The old monk's eyes looked like spitting fire and fiercely stared at Zhang Junbao for a ver long time and not moving.

Jueyuan knew that this old monk was a senior of the monastery. He was one of the martial arts uncles of abbot Tianming. Tianming, himself, stood a generation higher than Jueyuan, WuSe and WuXiang.

Jueyuan didn't understand why this old monk was so angry and he saw that the old monk's eyes were filled with hate. Suddenly he realised something, he once read in a codex something that happened more than seventy years ago in the ShaoLin Monastery.

*More than seventy years ago, the abbot of the ShaoLin Monastery was reverend KuCheng. This abbot KuCheng stood two generations above abbot Tianming.

One year in Autumn, during a yearly contest held in the DaMo Hall, something disastrous happened. It was a tradition of ShaoLin to examine and evaluate the disciples' martial arts every year. This was done in the DaMo Hall, the abbot and the two elders of the DaMo and LuoHan Hall would be the one to evaluate the disciples to see whether they had improved this year.

That year, the judge was the elder of the DaMo Hall reverend Kuzhi and all the disciples were displaying their martial arts.

Suddenly a "TouTuo" entered and yelled out: "KuWei is full of nonsense and doesn't know the real essence of martial arts. He shouldn't even be the head of the DaMo Hall, this old monk is a complete disgrace!"

All the monks were surprised and saw that this "TouTuo" was a mere monk in charge of cooking meals for the ShaoLin disciples. All the monks scolded him and started telling him to be quiet.

This "HuoGong TouTuo" yelled: "The master is full of crap, the pupils are even more incompetent."

So he went to centre of the hall, and challenged all the ShaoLin disciples one after the other. They were all defeated easily within three, four stances. It was the rule in the DaMo Hall to be lenient in the battles. But this "HuoGong TouTuo" was very vicious, he defeated the nine Head disciples of the DaMo Hall, all nine of those pupils were heavily injured by him.

The elder Kuzhi was angry and shocked and saw that this "HuoGong TouTuo" used ShaoLin martial arts, so it wasn't an expert from a different school who came here creating havoc. Kuzhi asked him who taught him martial arts.

That "HuoGong TouTuo" said: "No one taught me, I learned it myself."

It seems that the monk who was in charge of the kitchen was a very bad-tempered monk. This monk would often beat up other monks and this monk learned some martial arts so he often hit them very hard.

"HuoGong TouTuo" was beaten up so severely in three years that he coughed up blood three times. In a fury, he started to secretly study martial arts. All the ShaoLin monks knew martial arts and it was easy for him to secretly observe and learn it. He made extraordinary, painstaking efforts and plus, he was very intelligent so in these twenty years he learned superior martial arts. However, he kept a low profile and performed his duties and even if the head of the kitchen would beat him up he didn't feel a thing anymore with his high internal energy. This "HuoGong TouTuo" also had a sinister and violent personality, he waited till he felt confident no one in the monastery was his match and wanted to show off his abilities in the annual contest. All these years of being beaten up made him hate all the monks in the monastery. So when he fought those monks, he didn't show any mercy.

When reverend Kuzhi knew what he did, he scoffed and said: "Taking such trouble is worthy of my respect."

Kuzhi stood up and challenged "HuoGong TouTuo" to a fight. Reverend Kuzhi was a top martial arts expert from ShaoLin but he was already very old and HuoGong TouTuo was just middle-aged. Secondly, Kuzhi was being lenient with his techniques and "HuoGong TouTuo" only used ferocious stances. So they were able to fight each other till five hundred stances. At this point, Master Kuzhi was gaining the upperhand and both used the same stance, namely "The Grand Intertwining Silk". four hands were entangled with each other. However, Kuzhi's hands were placed on the death acupoints of HuoGong TouTuo' chest. If Kuzhi was to release his energy, "HuoGong TouTuo" was surely to die. But reverend Kuzhi admired and respected his ability to learn such powerful martial arts with no one teaching him, so he wanted to spare him. So Kuzhi pushed his two hands forward and called out: "Turn back now!"

Unfortunately, "HuoGong TouTuo" misinterpreted and thought Kuzhi used a technique called: "Eight Strikes of the Divine Palm." One of the special skills of ShaoLin that "HuoGong TouTuo" saw the disciples of the DaMo Hall using was this stance before using both hands to strike out and breaking a wooden beam. The energy released is formidable. Although the martial arts of "HuoGong TouTuo" was high, he never received any pointers from any experts and the martial arts of ShaoLin are deep and profound. He only secretly saw and observed some skills but he could never learn everything completely. The stance Kuzhi used was "The Resolve Stance." But "HuoGong TouTuo" thought it was the sixth technique of the "Eighth Strikes of the Divine Palm" namely the "Heart Splitting Palm." He thought: "You want to take me life, don't you? Well, it's not going to be that easy." So flew towards Kuzhi and his two fists were aiming for Kuzhi's body.

The energy of the fists was incredibly powerful and violent, Kuzhi was shocked and quickly raised his palms to block, but it was too late. Everyone heard a cracking sound, the arm of Kuzhi was broken, as well as four of his ribs. All the disciples rushed forward to help and they saw Kuzhi looking deadly pale and couldn't talk anymore. His internal organs were all severely injured. When they looked up, "HuoGong TouTuo" was gone in the confusion. That same night, reverend Kuzhi passed away, the entire monastery was mourning. Little did they expect that "HuoGong TouTuo" sneaked back in ShaoLin and killed the head of the kitchen and five other monks who used to bully him.