Chapter - 523 Secret Manual And Military Treatise are Hidden Within (16)

Venting up his frustration, He Biweng cursed, "Little bastard, you have played trick on me!"

"That's right!" Zhao Min called out, "You don't need to call him 'Shige', just call him 'Little bastard'."

As Zhang Wuji's left palm was pressing Lu Zhangke's palm power, his right hand diverted He Biweng's palm to hit Lu Zhangke's right cheek that his cheek was swollen immediately.

Noticing that Lu Zhangke was fuming; his eyes were red and his palm attacked He Biweng like crazy, Zhang Wuji knew his plan worked. "Mr. He," he shouted, "I'll leave this pervert deer into your hands." His left foot kicked, he flew out of and took Zhao Min to leave. He saw the Xuan Ming Elders were still intensely fighting 'you punch me, I kick you' each other.

"Mr. He," Zhao Min called out, "After you arrest your Shige, you may borrow the secret martial art manual from the Tulong Saber for a month. Quickly set up a great merit; don't miss this good opportunity."

Lu Zhangke was getting angrier; he attacked He Biweng without showing any mercy. These two men were of the same school; there was not much difference in their martial skill level [orig. 'ban jin ba liang' – half a pound is eight ounces]. It was hard to say when this kind of fierce battle would end.

Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min returned to the Shaolin Temple. Examining the top of Zhao Min's head, Zhang Wuji saw that the injury was superficial. Suddenly he remembered something. "Min Mei," he said, "Luckily you bring that bundle of paper; otherwise, Lu Zhangke would not believe."

With a chuckle, Zhao Min took two bundles of thin papers from her bosom. She waved it in front of Zhang Wuji's face and said with a laugh, "Can you guess what this is?"

Zhang Wuji smiled and said, "If you tell me to guess, I will never guess correctly in my lifetime. So, why would I want to take the trouble?"

Zhao Min placed the two bundles of paper in his hand. Zhang Wuji took a candle to examine the paper. He found out that it was not paper, but thin sheets of silk, as thin as cicada's wings. The sheets were densely populated with tiny characters, with each character as small as the head of a fly. The first bundle began with this line of four characters, 'wu mu yi shu' [Wumu Legacy; lit. 'the book (or letter) left behind by Wumu']. It explained the key in deployment of troops in a war, battle formation, and other fine points of military strategy.

Looking at the second bundle, he saw it started with these four characters, 'Jiu Yin Zhen Jing' [Nine Yin Manual; lit. 'nine yin (negative/feminine/moon) true/real scripture']. Inside were all kinds of mystical and strange martial arts. Flipping toward the end of the bundle, he found 'Jiu Yin Bai Gu Zhua' [Nine Yin White Bone Claw] and 'Cui Xin Zhang' [heart destroying palm] among other things.

Zhang Wuji's heart turned cold. "You … did you take all this from Miss Zhou?" he asked.

Zhao Min laughed. "When she was immobile, why can't I take advantage of her [orig. shun shou qian yang' – lead away a goat in passing']?" she said, "This kind of malicious martial art, I don't want to learn, but I do want to destroy it, since left in her hands it might be used to harm others."

Zhang Wuji browsed through the Jiu Yin Zhen Jing. A few pages later, he realized that the lesson inside was very profound and difficult to decipher in a short while. He also knew that the martial art skill toward the end of the book was not malicious, he said, "The martial art in this manual is actually very deep. If trained properly, I believe ten, twenty years later, the result will not be a small matter. But if it is trained rashly, the result will be superficial. Not only it will harm others, but will inflict self injury as well." After pausing for a moment, he continued, "That Jiejie wearing yellow gown's martial art is obviously of the same school, yet her movements were upright without any sign of maliciousness, very pure and honorable. It seems that her skill also came from this Nine Yin Manual."

"She said something like 'Behind the Mount Zhong Nan, the Tomb of the Living Dead, the Divine Eagle and Gallant Knights vanished from the Jianghu', what do these four lines mean?" Zhao Min asked.

Zhang Wuji shook his head. "When we see Tai Shifu in the future, we will ask the Senior. Perhaps he could shed some light on this affair."

They chatted for some time. After making sure that there was no change in troop activity at the bottom of the mountain, they went their separate ways to take a rest.