Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 40: Unconventional Gifts

Seven people were fleeing, all wearing black nighttime outfits. One of them, the tallest, held a goose-quill saber¹ and frequently clashed against the quicker enemies catching up behind him to cover for his companions’ escape.

“Dang dang dang!”

The tall man spun around while jumping and blocked three darts. The strike of the blade and the iron darts sent a string of sparks into the night. Using the momentum from the darts, he jumped towards a tree, extended his legs, and kicked off, speeding up and away once more.

There were more than a dozen pursuers, all of whom were very dexterous. They had locked onto the man in black in front of them and refused to let him go. From time to time they launched darts and even bits of gravel picked up from the mountainside towards the front, though most of them were blocked by the man in black at the back.

“Xiang Feng, hand over the Sword Intent Inscription,² and we’ll leave your corpses intact!”

As the pursuer in the white shirt shouted these words, he leaped off a tree with all his strength and rushed ahead. His nine-sectioned chain whip³ undulated like a poisonous snake and shot forwards.

“F**k you!” [T/n: expand to see original crude language]

“F**k you! In the future, I’ll play with your wives and daughters then kill them all!”

“Dang!”

The black-clothed man blocked his strike, borrowing strength from his leverage on a tree nearby, but the man in white struck out with the whip in his left hand. The swaying steel that had been deflected snapped around like a snake and chased the man in black again.

“You’re looking for death!”

“Bang!”

The steel whip directly blasted a piece of the tree trunk. Sawdust flew, disturbing the line of sight. The two pursuers behind them simultaneously shot out their right hands like arrows from bows, charged with force.

Whoosh…

“Dang!”

“Pffsshh…”

One dart was hastily deflected, and another exploded in a flower of blood. The strong man in black was finally injured by a dart that hit his left shoulder.

But the steel whip was still sweeping back and forth in front of him, sometimes like a long stick and sometimes like a snake, causing the man in black to break out into a cold sweat.

“Hah!”⁴

The black-clothed man gathered enough energy to madly swing his saber.

“Pah pah pah pah!”

The black-clothed man named Xiang Feng chopped off a large number of branches. He stretched out his legs and kicked the branches behind him. He didn’t dare delay any longer, and tried his best to escape forward.

The man in black originally thought that stealing the Sword Intent Inscription would be easy, but he didn’t expect that that damned old man from the Fan family was still alive and kicking. In order to deal with that old man, of the thirteen men of their Yan Province in their heist group, they had to sacrifice two!⁵

The remaining eleven thieves fled after retrieving the Sword Intent Inscription. Seeing that their old man had been killed by the bandits, the Fan family went crazy and issued a notice to the entire Dingyuan Prefecture: whoever killed the Thirteen Thieves would not only receive the Sword Intent Inscription as a gift, but the Fan family would also share their insights that were painstakingly gained over the years.

For a time, the martial arts world of Dingyuan Prefecture was turbulent as masters from all walks of life gathered to hunt down the Thirteen Thieves that hailed from Yan.

The “Sword Intent Inscription” was left by Mad Disciple Zuo,⁶ a peerless master who was known as the Sword Immortal in the past, when he was on his deathbed. The text contained some of Mad Disciple Zuo’s swordsmanship practice and sword intent, and directly pointed to the location of his burial place, as determined and noted down before his death. There was a rumor in the martial arts world: if you could understand the Sword Intent Inscription, you could find the tomb of Mad Disciple Zuo and obtain the secrets to his peerless martial arts, and even his spiritual sword, Qingying.⁷

No one expected that the “Sword Intention Inscription” that once caused a bloody storm in the martial arts world would be hidden in the Fan family in Dingyuan Prefecture, let alone that the Fan family would publicize that news to take revenge.

At this moment, all of the pursuing fighters were rushing to the front. The two groups had already fought several times after they had tracked down the remaining 11 thieves, and had reduced them to 7 people. They intended to take the Sword Intent Inscription before masters from other states came to join in on the fun.

For the sake of what the Fan family had promised, the Thirteen Thieves of the Yan State must die!

. . .

The man in black grew increasingly more anxious as he fled. He had originally planned to use the mountains and forests to escape his pursuers, but none of dozen people behind him were unskilled. The pursuit was too tight, giving him no leeway at all.

In fact, many of the men in black in the front were injured. Now that their leader Xiang Feng had also been hit by a dart, the situation became even more critical.

“Brother, we can’t go on like this. We can’t defeat them!”

“Damn it, that damn Fan Tong, you’re still causing trouble for us after your death! If this isn’t working, we’ll just fight them head on!”

The leading man in black fiercely clenched the scroll in his arms. He leaped atop a relatively open boulder in front of him, raising the scroll in his hand high.

The other men in black fell behind him and gasped for breath.

“You mad dogs, don’t you just want the Sword Intent Inscription? If you push us too far, I’ll tear up these damn words!”

As he spoke, Xiang Feng opened the copybook scroll.

Behind them, the masters chasing them landed nearby, one after the other, separated from the men in black by barely two meters.

The man in the white shirt sneered.

“Struggle all you want before you die, you can even destroy the calligraphy treasure left by Sword Immortal Zuo.⁸ As long as we gain the experience that the generals of the Fan family have comprehended over the years, the result of our enlightenment will be the same!”

“Hahaha, Jiang Chongli, you might think this way, but will the people around you agree? If the Fan family’s insight were so useful, wouldn’t they have already gone to find the Mad Disciple Zuo’s peerless swordsmanship and spiritual weapons by themselves?”

The black man taunted. There was a brief silence between the two parties.

At his point, Xiang Feng really didn’t want to take the Sword Intent Inscription away. He just wanted to escape. Just as he was about to say something else, the mountain wind suddenly picked up.

Whoooo… woooo…

The strong wind whipped up dust and leaves, making the night darker. Xiang Feng’s hand suddenly loosened, and the copybook was blown into the air.

“No!”

“The Sword Intent Inscription!”

“Grab it!”

The pursuers immediately took to the air en masse, using Qinggong to jump up and try to grab the Sword Intent Inscription.

As soon as Xiang Feng’s secret regret rose into the sky,⁹ he suddenly realized that this was an opportunity. He quietly jumped back along with the group of black-clothed bandits, taking advantage of the strong wind and the chaos of the masters chasing after the Sword Intent Inscription.

In the glade, many experts jumped up to snatch it. Some even began attacking others in the air in an attempt to grab the Sword Intent Inscription first.

Unfortunately, the gusts of wind were very strange. Just as the man in white was about to reach out and touch the Sword Intent Inscription, it was directly propelled up into the sky.

Whoooo… woooo…

Fallen leaves, dead branches, dust, and all of the pursuers were swept away, and as they reached the limit of their Qinggong jumps, they all fell back down to the ground. When they looked up into the air once more, the copybook had disappeared into the night, and all traces of the remaining bandits had vanished.

“Damn it! It’s terrible!!”

“Oh, what a failure!”

“This wind is too evil!”

“Should we still chase?”

“Hmph, let’s find the Sword Intent Inscription first!”

For the sake of safety, the group of visiting masters of Jianghu¹⁰ were divided into two groups, and spread out to search in two directions.

. . .

On an unnamed peak in Niu Kui Mountain, Lu Shan Jun lay lazily at the entrance of a cave. There was a copybook scroll in the tiger’s palm, relatively small compared to the size of his paw. It was the copybook of the Sword Intent Inscription that he had picked up when he had been passing by somewhere in the mountains.

Sharp fingernails gently pushed the copybook to unroll it. The slightly yellowed paper scroll was revealed to contain hundreds of characters, all strong, unshakeable strokes and and silver hooks.¹¹

“The words are not bad! Unfortunately, it’s not too extraordinary.”

Although the words were sharp and had a deep meaning, it had no spiritual aura. It was indeed left by the so-called “Sword Immortal” compared to ordinary warriors. However, the tiger who had opened his mouth and was about to swallow it suddenly stopped.

‘These really are good words!’

At this thought, the huge tiger slowly got up and rushed into the forest alongside the breeze.

More than an hour later, he had reached a mountain col¹² near Ning’an County.

The tail of a red fox was suddenly caught under a huge tiger claw that was almost as big as its body.

“Wuuuuu…”

The red fox’s body was stiff and shivering. He didn’t dare struggle too much. Instead, he turned around carefully and placed his two front paws together, as if pleading a prayer to the tiger.

Lu Shan Jun’s tiger mouth raised slightly, revealing terrifying fangs.

“Hehe, I’ve known since a long time ago that you, fox, have already developed intelligence. I also know that you often go down the mountain to Ning’an County to steal farmers’ chickens and ducks. Have you ever seen the blind master who once lived in Mountain Temple on the outskirts of the mountain?”

“Uuuuuu…”

The fox nodded, not daring to resist.

“Good, if you recognize him, do something for me.”

After speaking, a copybook scroll floated out from the tiger’s mouth, with a thin rope of twined tiger hair tied around it. It floated over and hung directly into the back of the fox, hidden under his red fur.

“Go to Narcissus Town and Ning’an County to find Mr. Ji for me. If you can find him, give him this copybook on my behalf. Mr. Ji won’t do anything to you if you have my hair wrapped around your body, but remember not to be reckless, and don’t disturb him rashly. Do you understand?”

Find Mr. Ji’s residence and gave him this copybook on behalf of the tiger. Mr. Ji is blind, but he was an expert in the world. He would recognize him when he saw him.

“Woooooo!”

The red fox only dared to respond weakly.

Lu Shanjun’s fierce eyes narrowed, showing a look of satisfaction, and released the fox from his claws.

“Very good. This is also your good fortune. No matter whether you can find Mr. or not, don’t be sly. Go!”

The red fox walked a few steps forward, trembling, looked back at the fierce tiger in the mountain, then sped up and scurried into the forest.

Lu Shan Jun watched the red fox disappear. He pondered in his heart: sending calligraphy and paintings shouldn’t considered a cliché, right?

1. Type of sword, also known as Yanmaodao. ↩︎
2. 帖 (tiè): rubbing from incised inscription – a method of copying script that has been carved, like charcoal rubbing ↩︎
3. Chain whip ↩︎
4. 喝 (hè): a shout ↩︎
5. Flipping difficult translation. If you’ll remember from back in chapter 34 (or if you’ve been reading the glossary I’ve been making), the City God of Ning’an explained to Ji Yuan that he was currently in the country of Da Zhen, or Great Zhen. They have a neighboring country called Da Zhou, or Great Zhou, which also happens to be a real place in China. Yan was a real-world vassal state (i.e. province) of Zhou, indicating that it’s probably also a province of this fictional Zhou. In conclusion, these bandit people came from the Yan province of the neighboring country Da Zhou to steal the Sword Intent Inscription. ↩︎
6. 左狂徒 (zuǒ kuáng tú) name literally translates to “Zuo mad disciple.” Unclear if it’s a name or a title, but I’ve chosen to translate it as a title. ↩︎
7. 清 (qīng): clear, quiet, pure, still; 影 (yǐng): image, reflection, shadow. This sword’s name roughly translates to either “Still Reflection” or “Quiet Shadow” (leaning towards the former), which are BADASS sword names. ↩︎
8. 左剑仙 Again, unclear if this a name or a title. One of them is a name and the other is a title, but I can’t tell which ↩︎
9. Talking (poetically) about XF’s regret stealing the Sword Intent Inscription, so it’s referring to that. Also the subtext of letting go of his regret/mistake by letting the SII get blown into the air ↩︎
10. 江湖 (jiānghú) could mean: 1) all corners of the country, 2) remote areas to which hermits retreat, 3) a section of society operating independently of mainstream society, out of reach of the law, or 4) (in late imperial times) world of traveling merchants, itinerant doctors, fortune tellers. I left it untranslated in favor of all of this subtext. ↩︎
11. Describing handwriting styles. In this case, the “hook” is referring to the Hook Stroke (or 钩 gōu), which is “a sudden change of Brush direction followed by a swift pointed end.” A lot of importance was attached to silver, so a “silver hook” indicates the best kind of hook (in terms of physical item) and thus the most beautiful kind of Hook Stroke (in terms of metaphor). I recommend looking up Hook Strokes you’re curious! This sentence might also be a reference to Tang Ouyang Xun’s “On the Use of Brushes.” (Thank you WordReference forum :D) ↩︎
12. Col: the lowest point of a ridge between 2 peaks, typically where there’s a pass from one side of a mountain range to the other ↩︎