Heavenly Sword Dragon Slaying Saber Book 4 Read online

  Yi Tian Tu Long Ji

  (Heavenly Sword Dragon Slaying Saber)

  by Jin Yong

  Translators:

  Athena,

  Meh,

  Faerie Queen, Huang Yushi, SmokeyTheBear, Qiu Shuyi,

  Efflix,

  Hugh (aka IcyFox), Huang Rong,

  Frans Soetomo

  Editors:

  Han Solo Elif Kaya

  Disclaimer

  This work is an unofficial fan translation of Jin Yong's Yi Tian Tu Long Ji. The Copyright owner is Jin Yong and the publisher of his original Chinese text. The copyright owner of the English translations posted here is the respective translator(s). No part of this translation may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright owner(s) nor be otherwise circulated for commercial purpose. This translation is from the 2nd Edition.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 31 - Saber and Sword Lost, People Perish (Translated by Foxs, Edited by Eliza Bennet)

  Song Qingshu turned around and asked Zhang Bang Lo

  Chapter 32 - Ignorant Grievance, Vain Anxiety, Conceited Desire

  End of Chapter 32.

  End of Chapter 33.

  Wang Baobao still believed that his sister was und

  Chapter 35 - Casualties of the Lion-slaying Assembly (Translated by Foxs, Edited by Eliza Bennet)

  A few more days passed; it was the middle of the f

  Chapter 36 - The Three Withered Pine-trees Sprouting Green Leaves

  As he saw a big break in his opponent’s line of de

  Chapter 37 - No Hero Under the Heavens Able to Withstand

  Watching this extremely disturbing demonstration,

  Chapter 38 - A Gentleman is Vulnerable to Deceit (Translated by Foxs, Edited by Eliza Bennet)

  Raising his voice, Kong Zhi called out, "Three Shi

  Chapter 39 - The Hidden Military Strategy Manual (Translated by Foxs, Edited by Eliza Bennet)

  He Biweng’s pair of pens rolled in. Zhang Wuji swe

  Chapter 40 - Didn’t Know This Zhang Fellow was The Mr. Zhang

  Zhang Wuji laughed and said, "We are all brothers,

  Chapter 31 - Saber and Sword Lost, People Perish (Translated by Foxs, Edited by Eliza Bennet)

  Zhou Zhiruo said, “What if I wrong you or offend you, will you hit me, scold me, kill me?” Zhang Wuji kissed her left cheek gently while saying, “You are such a gentle and cultured lady, a dignified, worthy, warm and virtuous wife; how can you make a mistake?”

  Even after the Persian medication was applied, Yin Li’s high fever did not subside; she kept talking in her sleep incessantly. During these past several days on the sea, she had been exposed to cold weather on top of her sickness. The medication was only for external wound, it was not effective to treat internal injury, or even a common cold. Zhang Wuji was very anxious. Toward the afternoon of the third day, he saw a small island in the distant to their east. He instructed the sailor to take them to that island.

  Once they were ashore, their spirits lifted up. The island’s circumference was no more than several ‘li’s; and it was covered with shrubs and short trees. Zhang Wuji asked Zhou Zhiruo to look after Yin Li and Zhao Min, while he went around looking for some medicinal herbs. However, the flora on that island was greatly different from the one in the Central Earth that Zhang Wuji did not recognize most of them. He walked farther and farther away without any result until the sky gradually turned dark, he had no choice but to return to their original position. He mashed whatever herbs he could find and fed them to Yin Li.

  Six people gathered around the fire, eating and drinking. The air was heavy with the fragrance of the flowers and the freshness of the grass and the forest. It was quite different surroundings from the cramped cabin.

  Yin Li was also in good spirits. "Ah Niu Gege,” she said, "Why don’t we spend the night here, and not return to the ship?” They discussed her proposal and decided that it was a wonderful idea.

  They saw the water on that small island was warm and clear, also, there were no wild beasts around; everyone went to sleep peacefully.

  As Zhang Wuji woke up early the next morning, he got up and took a step, but he staggered and almost fell down. He felt his legs were weak, which was quite unusual. He rubbed his eyes and saw the Persian ship was gone. His heart skipped a beat. Rushing to the shore he looked around without seeing any trace of the ship. This time he was really shocked.

  "Yifu,” he called out, "Are you all right?” But Xie Xun did not answer. Hastily Zhang Wuji ran to the place Xie Xun slept and saw he was still asleep peacefully, which took most of his anxiety away.

  The previous night, Zhao Min, Zhou Zhiruo and Yin Li went to sleep behind a large rock some distance away. He rushed to take a look, and saw Zhou Zhiruo and Yin Li were still sleeping side by side; but Zhao Min was nowhere to be seen.

  In a glance he noticed that Yin Li’s face was full of blood. Stooping down to look closer, Zhang Wuji saw there were more than a dozen sharp blade cuts on her face, but she stayed unconscious. Hastily he reached out to check her pulse and was relieved when he felt faint pulses. Turning his attention toward Zhou Zhiruo, he saw that a large clump of her beautiful hair was cut, along with a piece of her left ear. Her blood had not congealed yet, but her face was smiling, as if she was having a happy dream. Under the light of the dawn, she looked like a sleeping hypericum in the spring; extremely tender and beautiful. His heart was painful was he called out, "Miss Zhou, Miss Zhou, wake up!”

  Zhou Zhiruo stirred, but did not wake up. Zhang Wuji gently shook her shoulder and finally Zhou Zhiruo yawned and turned around, but she was still asleep. Zhang Wuji knew she must be drugged. There were too many strange things that happened the previous night; he fell into a deep sleep and this morning he felt weak and tired. He was certain that they were drugged.

  After calling Zhou Zhiruo for a while without any result, he rushed back to Xie Xun and called out, "Yifu, Yifu!”

  Xie Xun sat up in daze, "What is it?” he asked.

  "It’s terrible!” Zhang Wuji said, "We have fallen into a sinister plot.” Briefly he told him about the

  missing Persian ship and the cuts suffered by Yin Li and Zhou Zhiruo.

  "What about Miss Zhao?” Xie Xun asked in alarm.

  "I did not see her,” Zhang Wuji grimly said. Taking a deep breath, he tried to circulate his internal

  energy, but felt that his limbs were devoid of any strength; he could not transmit his energy at all. "Yifu,” he blurted out, "We are poisoned by the ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’ [ten fragrance muscle softener powder].”

  Xie Xun had heard Zhang Wuji’s narration on how the masters of the Six Major Sects were poisoned by Zhao Min with ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’ and how they were held captive in the Wan An Temple. He stood up and felt as if he was floating; as his legs were devoid of any strength.

  Calming himself down, he asked, "Did she take away the Tulong Saber and the Yitian Sword as well?”

  Zhang Wuji looked around and sure enough, he did not see either the Saber or the Sword. He was so enraged that he almost cried. Never would he imagine that Zhao Min was capable of doing this, taking advantage when he was in grave danger and employed such a sinister plot when he was down.

  He was lost in thought for a moment. Then he remembered Yin Li and hastily went back to where Yin and Zhou, two women were sleeping. He pushed Zhou Zhiruo aside, but she was still fast asleep. He thought, "My internal energy is the deepest, hence I was the first to wake up. Yifu was next. Miss Zhou’s internal energy is far below ours. It looks like she won’t wake up for a while y
et.” Immediately he ripped a piece of his clothes to wipe the blood from Yin Li’s oval face. He saw seven horizontal and eight vertical thin cuts crisscrossing her cheeks. Apparently, she was cut by the Yitian Sword.

  Yin Li had lost a lot of blood after being injured by Zi Shan Long Wang Jin Hua Popo. As a result, the poison of the thousand spiders accumulated in her blood was also dispersed along with her blood, causing the swelling on her face to subside considerably. Hence, for these last several days, her face had slightly returned to its former look; the pretty look Yin Li had when she was younger. But right now, with these dozen of cuts, her face looked severely fearsome.

  Zhang Wuji was both grieved and angry. Gnashing his teeth he said, "Zhao Min, oh, Zhao Min, if you fall into my hand and I spare you, then Zhang Wuji has lived in vain.” Calming himself down he went to the hillside to gather some medicinal herbs to stop the bleeding. He chewed the herbs and applied it on Yin Li’s face, also on Zhou Zhiruo’s scalp and ear.

  Zhou Zhiruo yawned and opened her eyes. Suddenly she saw Zhang Wuji was reaching out and groping her head. Her face turned red from shyness. Reaching up to shove his arm away, she angrily said, "You ... what are you ...” Before finished speaking, she had felt the pain on her ear. Immediately she touched her ear and cried out, "Ah!” and jumped to stand up. "What ...?” she said, but suddenly she felt her knees weaken and she fell into Zhang Wuji’s bosom.

  Zhang Wuji reached out to support her. "Miss Zhou,” he comfortingly said, "Don’t be afraid.”

  Seeing Yin Li’s terrifying face, Zhou Zhiruo hastily lifted up her hand to touch her own face and asked in fear, "I ... Am I also ...?”

  "No!” Zhang Wuji said, "You only suffer some minor wounds.”

  "Did those evil Persians do this? I ... Why didn’t I feel anything?” Zhou Zhiruo asked.

  Zhang Wuji sighed and quietly said, "I am afraid ... I am afraid Miss Zhao did this. She poisoned our food and drink last night.”

  Zhou Zhiruo stared blankly for half a day. She stroked what remained of her ear and broke into tears. Zhang Wuji tried to console her, "You are lucky that the injury is not heavy. Your ear is damaged, but you can always put your hair down to cover it, others won’t be able to see.”

  "Still talking about hair?” Zhou Zhiruo snapped, "My hair is also gone.”

  Zhang Wuji said, "You only lost some on top of your head; if you arrange the hair on both sides of your head .”

  "Why do I want to arrange the hair on both sides of my head?” Zhou Zhiruo angrily said, "Up this moment you are still trying to protect your Miss Zhao.”

  This time Zhang Wuji bumped into a wall; he did not know what to say, so he became defensive, "I am not trying to protect her! She is cruel and merciless, harming Miss Yin this way. I ... I am not going to forgive her.” Looking at Yin Li’s face, he could not hold tears from coming down his eyes.

  Facing this situation Zhang Wuji was at a loss; he sat down and tried to circulate his internal energy, and he realized that the degree of his poisoning was not shallow. Actually, the ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’ could only be neutralized by the antidote from Zhao Min’s faction; but this time he tried to disperse the poison relying on his profound internal strength. Slowly he pushed the poison from his four limbs, condensed it into his ‘dan tian’, and then bit by bit he forced the poison out of his system.

  After working hard for almost two hours, he felt that his effort had brought the desired effect. He was optimistic. Only, this technique required him to have the Jiu Yang Shen Gong foundation, which ruled out the possibility of him teaching it to Xie Xun and Zhou Zhiruo. He was hoping that after the poison in his system was flushed completely, he would be able to help Xie and Zhou two people driving the poison out of their systems.

  This technique sounded simple, yet actually extremely complicated. Toward the afternoon of the seventh day, he only managed to drive out approximately 30% of the poison. Fortunately, this poison only prevent the victim from exerting their internal energy but harmless to their bodies.

  For the first several days Zhou Zhiruo was angry, but afterwards she gradually got used to it. She helped Xie Xun catching fish and shooting birds, boiling water and cooking their meals. At night she slept alone in a cave on the eastern end of the island, far away from where Zhang Wuji and the others lived.

  Zhang Wuji was secretly ashamed, thinking that he was partly responsible for this disaster brought by Zhao Min. This Miss Zhao was obviously a Mongolian princess, an archenemy of his Ming Cult. Countless martial art experts of the Wulin world had fallen under her hands; yet surprisingly he did not guard against her at all. He felt he was so stupid.

  Xie Xun and Zhou Zhiruo did not blame him; they did not even mention this problem to him, but he felt very bad in his heart. Sometimes when Zhou Zhiruo was looking at him, he felt as if she was saying, ‘You are blinded by Miss Zhao’s beauty, resulting in this great calamity.’

  Yin Li’s condition was getting worse. This little island was located on the Southern Sea [nan hai], most of the flora was not found in Hu Qingniu’s medical manual. His medical knowledge might be profound, he did know perfectly well how to treat Yin Li’s condition; but he did not have any medication in his hand. The trees on the island were short and small, barely enough to be used as firewood; otherwise, he would have had built a raft early on and braving the danger he would sail away to the sea. Alternatively, he would not be this anxious if he did not know any medical skill. This time he felt like tens of thousands sharp daggers gouging and cutting his heart day and night.

  It was late in the evening one day; he chewed some medicinal herbs to be fed into Yin Li’s mouth. This time the herbs entered Yin Li’s throat with difficulty. His heart was broken; tears streaming down his face, dropped onto Yin Li’s face.

  Suddenly Yin Li opened her eyes, smiled faintly and said, "Ah Niu Gege, don’t feel bad. I am going to the underworld to see that heartless, short-lived little rascal Zhang Wuji. I want to tell him that in this world there is an Ah Niu Gege who treats me this well; who is a thousand times, ten thousand times better than Zhang Wuji.”

  Zhang Wuji’s throat choked; in that moment he was contemplating whether he should reveal to her that he was Zhang Wuji.

  Yin Li grabbed his hand and said, "Ah Niu Gege, I have never agreed to marry you, do you hate me? I think you are lying to me because you only want to make me happy. I am ugly, my temperament is strange, why would you want to marry me?”

  "No!” Zhang Wuji said, "I am not lying you. You are a good and kind-hearted girl. I consider myself lucky if I can take you as my wife. Why don’t we wait until you are well, all things are settled, and then we can get married? What do you say?”

  Yin Li reached out and gently caressed his cheek. Shaking her head she said, "Ah Niu Gege, I cannot marry you. I have given my heart early on to that ferocious heartless Zhang Wuji ... Ah Niu Gege, I am a little bit scared; will I meet him when I get to the underworld? Will he still be hateful towards me?”

  Zhang Wuji realized she was speaking clearly, her cheeks were red; he was inwardly alarmed, "This is the symptom of the last ray of light, could it be that she is going to die today?” He was lost I thought that he did not hear what she said. Yin Li grabbed his hand and asked him again. Zhang Wuji tenderly said, "He will forever treat you well, as if you are his precious darling.”

  "Will he treat me half as good as you did?” Yin Li asked.

  "Heaven is my witness,” Zhang Wuji said, "Zhang Wuji eagerly and sincerely loves you with all his heart. He has early on regretted that when he was little he treated you cruelly. He ... his feelings toward you are exactly the same as mine; there is not the least bit distinction.”

  Yin Li sighed; a smile appeared on the corners of her mouth. "Then .” she said, "Then I am happy ...” Her grip on his hand gradually loosened, her eyes slowly closed, finally she stopped breathing.

  Zhang Wuji hugged her body tight, thinking that until the moment she died, she did not know that he was Zhang Wuji. A
ll these times she had been losing her consciousness that he was unable to reveal the truth to her. Just before her death, when her consciousness was very clear, there was not enough time to talk. Actually, things had come this far, it really did not make any difference whether he revealed the truth or not. His heart was so much in pain that he cried without making any sound. He thought, "If Zhao Min did not cut her cheeks, her injury might not necessarily be

  incurable. If Zhao Min did not abandon us on this deserted island, we would have reached the Central Plains [zhong yuan] in a few days; surely I would have found a way to save her life.”

  Bitterly he muttered, "Zhao Min, your heart is like a serpent and scorpion. There will come a day when you will fall into my hand. Zhang Wuji will not spare your life in any way.”

  Suddenly he heard a cold voice behind him, "When you see her beautiful, jade-like face, you won’t have a heart to do anything to her.” Turning around, he saw Zhou Zhiruo was standing in the breeze, her face showed contempt.

  Zhang Wuji was grieved and ashamed at the same time; he said, "I have made a vow by my cousin’s body, if I do not punish that witch, Zhang Wuji won’t have a face to live on this world.”

  "That would be the spirited pledge of a real man,” Zhou Zhiruo said. She rushed a few steps forward and wept bitterly while stroking Yin Li’s body.

  Xie Xun also heard the noise of crying and went over. As he learned about Yin Li’s death, he could not help but feel heartbroken.

  Zhang Wuji went to a small hill to dig Yin Li’s grave. The soil on that island was so shallow that he only dug for about two feet, and had already met hard rocks underneath. He did not have any shovel, so he had no choice but lay Yin Li’s body in that shallow hole. He was about to heap dirt on her when he saw the blood traces on her swollen face; he thought, "Gravel and dirt piled on her face might scratch her.” Thereupon he took some branches and weaved them above her body, then he carefully piled stones and rocks on top of the branches, as if she was still alive and he was afraid the stones might hurt her.