Chapter - 17 Pines And Cypresses Grow On the Mount Wudang Peak (5)

The entire ShaoLin Monastery was shocked and sent out various martial arts experts to track him down, but in vain.

After this incident, the senior elders of the monastery had an intense argument. And in a fury, the elder of the LuoHan Hall Master KuWei left the Northern ShaoLin Monastery and went to the Western Regions to founded a Western ShaoLin Monastery.

Pan Tiangeng, Fang Tianlao and Wei Tianwang are his descendants.

Also because of this, the ShaoLin Monastery was in a down period. The abbot set a new rule: no one was allowed to learn ShaoLin martial arts without a master teaching him. If not, in the worst case, this person will be put to death, and in lighter cases, the muscles and veins of his arms and legs will be snapped and this person will be come disabled for the rest of his life.

But in all these years no one ever learned anything without permission so this rule was forgotten by most monks.

This old monk of the Meditation Hall was the youngest disciple of Master Kuzhi and the image of the death of his teacher is still vividly in his memory. So this incident with Zhang Junbao stirred up his anger and hate.

Jueyuan practically read all the manuscripts in the library and remembered these event. So Jueyuan broke into cold sweat now and pleaded to the Tianming: "Old abbot, this cannot be blamed on Junbao….."

At this time, the elder of the DaMo Hall reverend WuXiang called: "All the disciples of the DaMo Hall go forward and seize that boy!" The eighteen DaMo disciples surrounded Zhang Junbao, Jueyuan, and even Guo Xiang. That old monk of the Meditation Hall sternly yelled: "Why don't the disciples of the LuoHan Hall go forward and seize that boy!"

All the one hundred and eight disciples said: "Yes!" and surrounded Zhang Junbao, Jueyuan and Guo Xiang. There were three circles of disciples around them.

Note: This incident of ShaoLin with "HuoGong TouTuo" happened around the same time of the First Battle at Mount Hua. That's why there were no experts from ShaoLin in the five Great Experts. – The main reason, and also the most important reason, was of course none of the ShaoLin experts of that time came close to the levels the Huang YaoShi, OuYang Feng, Duang ZhiXing/ Master YiDeng, Hong QiGong and Wang ChongYang. And of course Qiu QianRen and Zhou BoTong. -Second reason, ShaoLin was starting to fall in the realm of martial arts, plus the incident with "HuoGong TouTuo" led to two fractions in the monastery resulting from reverend KuWei leaving with his followers. -ShaoLin couldn't even protect their own martial arts from being secretly mastered by someone else. I don't think the abbot would have the face to try and to get the "Jiu Yin Zhen Jing." Arrogant people like OuYang Feng and Huang YaoShi would surely scoff and say something like: "ShaoLin can't even protect their own manuscripts and now they want to get their hands on Jiu Yin Zhen Jing. Such audacity!"-The last reason should be why should ShaoLin try to get hold of Jiu Yin Zhen Jing. The martial arts of ShaoLin is deep and profound already. Why be greedy while many special ShaoLin skills are waiting to be mastered?

Zhang Junbao was in a frantic state, he believed that by defeating He ZuDao he broke the rules of the monastery.

Jueyuan loved Zhang Junbao like a son and he also knew that if Zhang was captured, he will certainly be punished severely.

At this time, he heard WuXiang call out: "What are you waiting for, seize him!"

The eighteen disciples of the DaMo Hall stepped forward to seize Zhang Junbao. Jueyuan didn't think anymore and turned a circle and the two iron buckets were rotating, causing the monks to back off. Jueyuan threw the remaining water out of the buckets and placed Guo Xiang and Zhang Junbao in the buckets. He whirled the buckets round and round like a pair of comet hammers. All the disciples of the DaMo Hall quickly moved away.

Jueyuan swiftly leapt away and carried the two buckets with Guo Xiang and Zhang Junbao away. The monks gave chase, and after awhile they lost track of them. The rules are very strict of ShaoLin and the head of the DaMo Hall gave an order to seize Zhang Junbao, so even if the monks couldn't catch up they must still pursue them. After awhile, the monks with a level in the art of levitation were still chasing while the others were falling behind. In the end, only five monks were still running about, and they knew even if they caught up with them, they wouldn't be a match for Jueyuan and Zhang Junbao.

So they didn't have an option but to return to ShaoLin.

Jueyuan ran kilometers away from the monastery and he stopped when they were in the deep end of the forest. Although Jueyuan's internal energy was powerful, this running away took a heavy toll on him. He was too weak now to even put down the buckets. Guo Xiang and Zhang Junbao jumped out and lifted the buckets from his shoulders.

Zhang Junbao said: "Master, rest for awhile I will look for some food."

But he couldn't find anything else but some wild strawberries. The three of them ate some and rested.

Guo Xiang said to Jueyuan: "Reverend Jueyuan, all the monks of the ShaoLin Monastery are very weird. With the exception of you and reverend WuSe."

Jueyuan only murmured something. Guo Xiang continued: "You and your pupil defeated that "three Saints of KunLun" He ZuDao. They should be thanking you and now they want to capture brother Zhang. That's ridiculous!"

Jueyuan sighed: "This cannot be entirely blamed on the old abbot and Buddhist brother WuXiang. ShaoLin has a rule….."

After saying that Jueyuan started coughing and couldn't catch his breath.

Guo Xiang softly padded his back and said: "You're tired, you should rest now. We shall talk about this tomorrow."

Jueyuan sighed: "Yes, I'm very tired."

Zhang Junbao made a small fire to dry his and Guo Xiang's clothes and the three of them slept under a tree.

In the middle of the night, Guo Xiang heard Jueyuan murmuring. It sounded like he was reciting sutras. So she woke up and heard: "The strength of the opponent just reaches my skin and hair, my essence penetrate the opponents bones. Raise your two hands and let your energy flow fluently. The left is heavy, yet empty, the right flows ever away. But the right is heavy yet the left is empty….."

Guo Xiang thought: "This isn't a Buddhist sutra, and that final part was related to martial arts theory."

Jueyuan continued: "Your "qi" is like a wheel, rotating through your entire body, if not your body will be dispersed and converse. This illness is caused by waist and leg……." Guo Xiang knew for sure that he was reciting martial art theories and thought: "Reverend Jueyuan didn't learn martial arts but he read almost every scripture he could find. And three years ago he said that in the handwritten Lankavatara sutra of Master DaMo, there was another codex namely [Jiu Yang Zheng Jing]. He thought it's purpose was to stay healthy and strong and learnt the essence from it. Both he and his pupil didn't have someone to teach them, but somehow he reached the same level as the other top martial arts experts of the realm. I could remember clearly that when Xiao XiangZi struck him, Xiao XiangZi was injured himself. I doubt that even brother Yang and my father can do something like that. And today, they managed to defeat He ZuDao, thanks to [Jiu Yang Zhen Jing]. He must be reciting that [Jiu Yang Zhen Jing] at the moment." She sat up and started paying attention and remained quiet, she was afraid to disturb him. She was memorizing every word Jueyuan said and thought: "If it is [Jiu Yang Zhen Jing], it must be excellent and profound. I will memorize what he says and ask him tomorrow if he can explain it."