Chapter 64: The Duel at Mount Tai

Having joined the so-called "Orthodoxy Restoration Alliance"—an anti-Qingjing faction coalition—Qiu Zhiqing lived a wonderful life of freeloading, occasionally practicing medicine for his supposed allies and offering health and longevity advice.

After half a month of free-riding within the alliance, they were finally joined by their two other leaders: Elder Peng Fei of the Six-Harmony Sect, the master of the Eagle-Strike Martial Arts Hall in Feicheng, the headmaster of the Pine-Wave Sect, and the abbot of the Old-Lord Temple!

To be fair, judging by the preparation time and the sheer number of these martial masters, it sounded thoroughly professional. Even to Qiu Zhiqing, it all sounded formidable and vaguely impressive.

A boisterous crowd of variously attired people marched grandly up Mount Tai! The trails of Mount Tai were indeed difficult to navigate; the group set out at dawn and did not reach the Qingjing Faction's Yuanyun Temple until midday.

Having waited for over a month, their initial fervor and morale had mostly dissipated. Hearing that the ascent was scheduled for today had briefly rekindled some spirit, but the grueling climb drained away whatever energy they had left. By the time they arrived at Yuanyun Temple, they discovered that the opposition had long been fully prepared and waiting for them...

At the forefront stood two third-generation disciples, Zhang Zhixian and Zhang Zhichun. Having entered the sect much later than Qiu Zhiqing, they were only around sixteen years old this year, mere youths when they left Zhongnan Mountain.

Qiu Zhiqing recalled an anime he had once watched, in which a young swordsman asks a sword saint how long it takes to become one of the top martial artists in the world.

The sword saint had replied: "A martial artist's cultivation depends on individual destiny. Some people might practice for a lifetime without significant change; if one possesses innate fortune and high comprehension, it does not take very long. With unremitting diligence, one should achieve something within ten years!"

Note that he said "should achieve something," which certainly did not mean achieving his own level of mastery; hence, the martial arts of these two martial brothers could not possibly be overly profound.

In addition, a considerable number of outer disciples stood behind Zhang Zhixian and Zhang Zhichun—over thirty of them in total. One could only imagine how far this had grown since the mere three or five individuals who had left Chongyang Palace.

As one of the initiators and liaisons, Elder Peng Fei of the Six-Harmony Sect took the initiative to speak first: "Little Daoist priests, you came thousands of miles here to establish a Daoist temple, and we ought to have welcomed you. However, teaching martial arts indiscriminately without formally taking people into your sect—isn't that going a bit too far?"

Qi Songchun, headmaster of the Pine-Wave Sect, also stepped forward and said: "Elder Peng's words are entirely reasonable. Your sect accepts disciples en masse without distinguishing between good and evil, loyal and treacherous, yet fails to restrain their conduct, causing suffering to many farming households across the Qilu region. Therefore, we have been specially invited to uphold justice!"

"That's right! Your rule allowing outer disciples to come and go as they please must be changed. Otherwise, how are they going to spread things haphazardly, and how are the rest of us supposed to take in disciples?" This voice from the crowd immediately drew a chorus of agreement.

Qi Songchun and Peng Fei cursed inwardly: Which brainless idiot just shouted out what they were only thinking?

"Who said that? Talk nonsense not! We are here for the pugilistic order of Qilu, not for taking in disciples!" This was the master of the Kapok Manor stepping forward, though he too had unspoken grievances.

Those outer disciples who had studied martial arts under the Qingjing Faction for a few years had gone down the mountain to practice alongside the villagers. The once submissive, docile peasants now actually dared to negotiate rent rates with him.

His own household guards hadn't even been able to beat them in a fight. Had he not stepped in personally to overawe that mob of unruly peasants, the consequences would have been unimaginable! How many years had it been? If this Qingjing Faction managed to plant its feet firmly, where would the rest of them find a path to survive?

At that moment, the voice rang out again: "We're all outsiders here, what's wrong with speaking one's mind?" As soon as these words fell, another burst of uproarious laughter erupted.

The troublemaker was naturally Qiu Zhiqing. With these people harboring various ulterior motives, it was best to wake them up a bit, lest they be incited by someone later and charge forward en masse.

Brothers Zhang Zhixian and Zhang Zhichun naturally refused to show weakness either, stepping forward to hurl verbal barbs back and forth with them in an increasingly chaotic scene. To put it bluntly, the Quanzhen Sect's methods had squeezed the living space of these smaller sects while also harming the interests of local squires and gentry. Thus, both parties had hit it off instantly—one side providing the funds and the other the manpower—which led to this campaign prepared over the past month or so!

Ultimately, the elderly abbot of the Old-Lord Temple spoke a fair word: "Since you are all people of the martial arts world, why not determine superiority with your hands?" Frankly speaking, he was reluctant to come; after all, they were all fellow practitioners of the Daoist gates, which looked unseemly no matter how it was phrased!

In the end, everyone agreed to a best-of-three contest to decide the outcome. If the Qingjing Faction lost, they would renounce teaching martial arts to the so-called outer disciples, and even the existing outer disciples would be strictly forbidden from passing on their skills.

Of course, if the alliance lost, all talk of the matter would naturally cease!

This left Zhang Zhixian and Zhang Zhichun in a somewhat difficult position. They truly had no confidence in defeating these people, and since their master had gone to Dengzhou and had not yet returned, they were uncertain of victory...

Right at that moment, a shout rang out: "Fine! What harm is there in agreeing to your terms?" Scarcely had the words faded when a figure soared like a wild goose directly across the heads of the crowd. The newcomer was dressed in Daoist robes, holding a long sword, with a pair of sharp, gleaming eyes!

"Master-brother Wang! Greetings, Master-brother Wang!" Zhang Zhixian and Zhang Zhichun hurriedly stepped forward to pay their respects. The newcomer was none other than Wang Chuyi's fourth disciple, Wang Zhitan. They had indeed sent someone to Dengzhou with a message, but unluckily Wang Chuyi and Sun Bu'er had gone out to visit friends, leaving only Wang Zhitan available to come and help.

Now things were settled! Wang Zhitan's martial prowess ranked among the foremost in Chongyang Palace, so dealing with these people should be as easy as picking up an object from the palm of one's hand. Although the two of them lacked formidable martial arts, they only needed to win a single match.

The duel began. The crowd cleared an open space in front of the temple gate for the combatants. In a best-of-three match, apart from pure strength, it naturally involved a strategy akin to Tian Ji's horse racing.

Unfortunately, this was not a video game; there were no level divisions, nor could one ascertain attributes at a glance, so combatants often only discovered who was stronger after exchanging blows. However, at this juncture, one could roughly gauge strength merely by observing their alignment and positioning.

Judging by their stances, Wang Zhitan and his companions deduced that among the opponents, Elder Peng Fei of the Six-Harmony Sect was the strongest, followed by Qi Songchun, headmaster of the Pine-Wave Sect, with Hall Master Liu of the Eagle-Strike Martial Arts Hall coming in third. The rest were essentially there to make up numbers.

Hall Master Liu entered the arena first. Upholding the principle of matching superiority against inferiority, Zhang Zhixian stepped forward first. The two stood facing each other; Zhang Zhixian drew his long sword from its scabbard, while Hall Master Liu held a heavy-backed saber with both hands in a forward bow stance.

A mountain breeze swept past, and the warm sun hung high in the sky. Zhang Zhixian squinted his eyes slightly and suddenly felt a blinding glare strike him, causing him to involuntarily close his eyes. In the next instant, a fierce gale rushed toward his face. Unprepared, Zhang Zhixian hastily retreated while raising his sword to block...

Meanwhile, Hall Master Liu wielded his thick-backed saber, which gleamed brightly. Seeing the wind stir and the young Daoist priest opposite him squint his eyes, he knew his opportunity had arrived. Twisting the blade's flat surface, he reflected a ray of sunlight directly into the young Daoist's eyes while stepping forward with his right leg to charge straight ahead.

To his surprise, his opponent managed to raise his sword in time to parry, but it was to no avail. Liu kicked out with his foot, sending the young Daoist flying a zhang away, and raised his saber to deliver a downward slash meant to finish him off...

"Junior-brother!" / "Senior-brother!" Two simultaneous shouts rang out. Faced with this fatal strike, Zhang Zhixian, lying on the ground, was clearly in grave peril. Suddenly feeling a numbness in his waist, his right foot involuntarily executed a side kick, striking and deflecting his opponent's heavy-backed saber just in time.

Without pausing to think, he performed a carp kipping up from the ground and brandished his long sword. He could have directly placed the blade against his opponent's neck to force a surrender, but instead, Zhang Zhixian retracted his sword edge and used the pommel to strike Hall Master Liu's acupressure point.

Then, with a fierce spinning back kick, he launched him flying straight into the surrounding crowd...

Watching Hall Master Liu hurtling directly toward him, Qiu Zhiqing hurriedly sidestepped while taking care to shove aside any fellow practitioners who might have hoped to catch the man. With a resounding "Bang!", Hall Master Liu took a solid, unmitigated tumble!

The crowd rushed forward in a flurry to help Hall Master Liu up. Seeing that he was paralyzed and unable to move, they cast their gazes toward the leading figures ahead, yet no one stepped forward to intervene...

The "Orthodoxy Restoration Alliance," having anticipated a resounding victory and claiming the first match, found themselves facing such a dramatic outcome instead, leaving them staring at one another in dismay.

Seeing this, Elder Peng Fei of the Six-Harmony Sect could no longer remain calm. He strode out holding a long spear, looked toward the Qingjing Faction side, and demanded: "Which of you will come out to fight me?"

Ordinarily, this match should have fallen to Zhang Zhichun—matching the lower tier against the lower tier! However, Wang Zhitan was growing impatient with waiting. Extending his left hand gripping his sword, he blocked Zhang Zhichun from stepping forward. He could see quite clearly that these people were intent on dealing fatal blows, and he feared Zhang Zhichun might suffer an unfortunate mishap...

The "Six Harmony" in the Six Harmony Sect did not refer to the internal and external trigrams of later Taiji, but rather to the spear thrust moving in a straight line and sweeping across the six cardinal directions!

Exchanging a formal greeting of "Please!", Peng Fei adjusted his spear stance, channeling force directly to the spearhead. A flash of cold light gleamed as he thrust the spear straight forward in a standard middle-level spear strike. Swift and fierce, the red tassel unfurled, obscuring Wang Zhitan's view of his opponent's body movements.

Wang Zhitan parried with his long sword. The spearhead twisted, blooming three pear-flower spear points that stabbed simultaneously toward Wang Zhitan's shoulders and chest. Taken by surprise, Wang Zhitan was initially caught off guard.

In their usual sparring sessions, everyone used long swords, and suddenly encountering an opponent wielding a long spear felt somewhat unfamiliar. However, possessing profound internal energy and formidable martial arts skills, he quickly grasped Peng Fei's patterns and rhythm!

After two quarters of an hour, as Wang Zhitan unfolded the Quanzhen Sword Technique, Peng Fei felt his attacks growing increasingly feeble. The long sword flashed up and down, left and right, making his defensive efforts thoroughly miserable.

The bewildered spectators among his allies were still shouting aloud, cheering and applauding...