Eagle Shooting Hero 3(30)

“Wait!” Guo Jing said, “That Farmer Uncle is still holding up a big rock on the hillside; he can’t get away by himself. Uncle please help him first.” The scholar was startled and dashed out.

“Now we can open the yellow pouch,” Huang Rong said.

“Ah, if you did not mention it, I would have totally forgotten,” Guo Jing said. Hastily he took out the yellow pouch and tore it open. Inside the pouch was a plain sheet of paper without any characters written on it, only a drawing.

The drawing depicted a man wearing royal attire of the India. The man was cutting his own flesh with a knife; his whole body was a mass of cuts and bruises, dripping with blood. There was a scale Eagle Shooting Hero

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in front of him; on one end of the balance stood a white pigeon, on the other piled his cut flesh. The pigeon looked small, but it was heavier than the pile of flesh on the other end. A fierce looking hawk stood next to the scale.

The pen stroke of the drawing was quite shoddy. Huang Rong thought, “Turned out that Ying Gu has not learned how to draw; her handwriting is not bad, but this drawing is like a child’s scribbling.” She looked at the drawing for half a day, but could not decipher what it meant.

Seeing Huang Rong could not guess what the drawing was about, Guo Jing thought it was useless for him to try. He folded the drawing and held it in his hand.

Not too long after they heard footsteps coming into the hall; the farmer walked in, ablaze in anger, supported by the scholar. He was very weary supporting that big rock for a long time.

About the time needed to drink a cup of tea later a young monk walked in; clasping his hands in front of his chest he said, “Gentleman and lady have come from a far; I wonder what your noble concern was?”

“We are seeking an audience with Emperor Duan,” Guo Jing replied, “We must inconvenient you to announce our visit.”

“Emperor Duan is no longer in this mortal world, your wearisome trip has been in vain,” the young monk clasped his hands again, “Please have some vegetable dish, and then Little Monk will see you down the mountain.”

Guo Jing was very disappointed; he thought of their untold hardship to get to this place, and now they have to go back down the mountain, how could this thing be good? But when Huang Rong saw the temple she was 30% sure, now seeing this young monk, she was 50, 60% sure. She took the drawing from Guo Jing’s hand and said, “Disciples Guo Jing and Huang Rong are here, hoping your respectable master would respect past relationship with the Nine-fingered Divine Beggar and the Peach Blossom Island, and grant us audience. We would appreciate it if you could give this sheet of paper to your master.”

The young monk received the drawing. He did not dare to open it up; he only clasped his hands and turned around to go inside. Before long he came back, lowered his head and clasping his hands he said, “Respectfully invite you to come.” Guo Jing was ecstatic, he helped Huang Rong up and together they followed the young monk went inside.

Although the temple looked small, it was very deep. Three people walked through a small alley covered with green flagstones, passed through a dense and shady small bamboo grove. The place was very quiet and serene, causing whoever went inside to shed their impure thoughts.

There were three stone houses hidden among the bamboo trees. The young monk lightly shoved the door open and stepped aside, bowing his body to let the two to enter in.

Guo Jing had a very good impression toward this polite and courteous monk; he smiled to express his gratitude, then side by side with Huang Rong he walked in.

Inside the room he saw a small table with a sandalwood incense burner on top of it; next to the table two Buddhist monks sat on circular meditation mats. One monk had a dark complexion with high

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nose and deep eyes; apparently he was an Indian monk. The other monk was wearing a robe made of coarse cloth; his white eyebrows so long that they drooped down from the corner of his eyes. His face was gentle; although his eyes showed a trace of sadness, at a glance his overall expression was that of a graceful and majestic person. The scholar and the farmer were standing behind him.

All of Huang Rong’s suspicion vanished; she lightly pulled Guo Jing’s hand and walked to the monk with long eyebrows; she knelt and bowed down to the ground and said, “Disciples Guo Jing and Huang Rong greet Shibo.” [Translator’s note: Shibo – martial uncle, the character ‘bo’ here denotes ‘older than one’s father’ or ‘father’s elder brother’, but since English does not differentiate between ‘older’ and ‘younger’ uncles, the generic word of ‘Uncle’ will be used throughout the chapter.]

Guo Jing was startled, but without thinking he simply followed Huang Rong’s example and bowed to the ground, kowtowing four times.

The monk with long-eyebrows smiled slightly; he stood up and held out his hands to raise the two people up. He said with a smile, “Qi Xiong [Brother Qi] had accepted a fine disciple, and Yao Xiong [Brother Yao] had gotten a fine daughter. I heard them say,” he pointed his finger to the farmer and the scholar, “Your martial arts are far superior to my disciples’. Ha … ha …

congratulations, congratulations!”

Listening to him speaking Guo Jing thought, “This speech obviously belonged to Emperor Duan; fitting his position as an emperor, but how come he turned into a monk? It’s very confusing. Why did they say that he is no longer in this mortal world? How did Rong’er know he is the Emperor Duan?”

He heard the monk said to Huang Rong, “Are your father and Shifu well? When we met during the Sword Meet of Mount Hua your father has not married yet. Unexpectedly it has been twenty years and he got this beautiful daughter. Do you have any brothers or sisters? Which Senior hero is your mother’s father?”

Huang Rong’s eyes turned red, she said, “My mother gave birth to me only; she passed away long time ago. I don’t even know her family.”

“Ah!” the monk exclaimed, lightly patting her shoulder consolingly. “I have been meditating for three days and three nights, and ended just a moment ago,” he said, “Have you been waiting long?”

Huang Rong pondered, “Looking at his face, he is very happy to see us. If that’s the case, then stopping us and not letting us go up the mountain was his disciples’ idea.” Hence, she replied,

“Disciples have just arrived. Fortunately these Uncles did their utmost to make things difficult for us; otherwise we would have arrived much earlier, Duan Shibo would still be in meditation and our visit would be in vain.”

The monk chuckled and said, “They are afraid that I see too many outsiders. But actually how can we consider you as outsiders? Young Miss’ sharp tongue must come from your family. Emperor Duan has early on left this mortal world; I am now called Monk Yideng. [‘yi deng he shang’ –

(Buddhist) monk ‘one lamp’] Your Shifu was present when I followed the three treasures; but I am afraid your father did not know.”

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It was only then did Guo Jing finally understood, “It turned out that Emperor Duan shaved his head and became a monk. He left the life of common man; that’s why his disciples said Emperor Duan has left this mortal world. Shifu witnessed it when he became a monk; if it was him who told us to come here, naturally he would not tell us to find Emperor Duan, but to see Reverend Yideng [yi deng da shi – great master Yideng; ‘da shi’ was a common respectable term to address a Buddhist monk]. Rong’er is really smart; just by looking at him she understood everything.”

He heard Huang Rong say, “My father did not know anything about it; my Shifu also did not tell disciples.”

Yideng smiled, “Certainly. There are more things going into your Shifu’s mouth than things coming out of it. He eats a lot, he speaks a little. He wouldn’t discuss the Old Monk’s business with others.

You have been through a lot of hardships; have you eaten yet? Ah!” Speaking to this point he suddenly startled. He pulled Huang Rong’s hand and took her to the door to look at her face under the bright sunlight. He carefully examined her with a puzzled look on his own face.

Although Guo Jing was slow, he was aware that Reverend Yideng had discovered Huang Rong’s injury. His heart was broken; abruptly he bent his knees and kowtowed several times. Yideng held out his hands underneath Guo Jing’s arms to raise him up. Guo Jing felt a burst of energy lifting his body up. He did not dare to use his strength to resist; riding on the force he slowly stood up and said, “I beg the Reverend to save her life!”

When Yideng raised Guo Jing up, he was not only asking Guo Jing not to have too much ritual, but was also testing Guo Jing’s strength. Yideng was only using 50% of his strength; if he felt that Guo Jing was not able to resist, he would have retracted his force. He did not have any intention to use force against Guo Jing, if Guo Jing stayed motionless he would not add any more strength.

However, in this one encounter he found out Guo Jing’s martial art to be deep. He did not expect Guo Jing to be able to ride on his force and stand up, automatically dispersing his energy. This surprised Yideng more than if Guo Jing only resisted by staying motionless on the ground. Yideng secretly thought, “Qi Xiong had really accepted a very fine disciple; no wonder my own disciples candidly admitted their defeat.”