Chapter - 13 Pines And Cypresses Grow On the Mount Wudang Peak (1) (1/2)
The eighteen disciples of the DaMo Hall stepped forward to seize Zhang Junbao. Jueyuan didn't think anymore and turned a circle and the two iron buckets were rotating, causing the monks to back off. Jueyuan threw the remaining water out of the buckets and placed Guo Xiang and Zhang Junbao in the buckets. He whirled the buckets round and round like a pair of comet hammers. All the disciples of the DaMo Hall quickly moved away.
Guo Xiang and He ZuDao walked towards the ShaoLin Monastery, before long they reached the gates of ShaoLin and didn't see anyone.
He ZuDao said: ”I'm not going in either, I'll just ask that monk to come out and deliver the message.” He raised his voice and said: ”He ZuDao of Mount KunLun pays a visit to the ShaoLin Monastery, I have something to say.”
After he said that, they could hear ten large bells ringing.
The door opened and two rows of grey-robed monks came out. In the left row there were fifty-four monks and on the right side there were also fifty-four monks. There were one hundred and eight monks, these were all disciples of the LuoHan Hall, filling up the positions of the one hundred and eight Arhats. After them, eighteen monks came out wearing yellow kasayas. These monks looked a bit older than the disciples of the LuoHan Hall, they were the senior pupils of the DaMo Hall. After awhile seven old monks came out wearing robes with big squares. These seven monks all had wrinkles, the youngest was seventy odd years the eldest was about ninety years old. These were the seven elders of the Meditation Hall. After them, Abbot Tianming came out, on his left reverend WuXiang head of the DaMo Hall and on the right reverend WuSe of the LuoHan Hall. Pan Tiangeng, Fang Tianlao and Wei Tianwang followed after the three elders.
In the end there were seventy, eighty *common disciples of the ShaoLin Monastery.
(*These pupils are not monks, just ordinary people. For example, pupils like Xiao Feng, Chen YouLiang, etc. belong to this category)
That day He ZuDao sneaked into ShaoLin and left a note in the LuoHan Hall. This incident startled abbot Tianming, WuSe and WuXiang. Days later Pan, Fang and Wei said they would come to ShaoLin and duel, making all the monks very restless and vigilant. The Western ShaoLin was located far away from here and for many years the monks there didn't make any contact with the ShaoLin monks here. But all the monks knew that the patriarch of the Western ShaoLin Master GuWei was a powerful martial arts expert. So his disciples should be extraordinary people too. After hearing that Pan, Fang, and Wei didn't dare to look down upon ”The three Saints of KunLun,” and as the saying goes: ”He who has come is surely strong or he'd never come along”. The entire monastery was very vigilant and the abbot has ordered every disciple within a radius of two hundred and fifty kilometers to return to the monastery and await orders.
In the beginning, everyone thought that ”The three Saints of KunLun” were three people, but after hearing from Pan Tiangeng, Fang Tianlao, and Wei Tianwang they knew it was only one man. But concerning age and appearances, even Pan and the others weren't too sure. They only knew that he was proud of his skills in the zither, chess, and swordsmanship. Playing the zither and chess could slacken and leisure the heart and concentration that does no good to their Buddhist meditation. But martial arts experts who specialize in swordsmanship were very willing to duel with this arrogant man who called himself a ”Saint of Swordsmanship”.
Pan Tiangeng and his two martial arts brothers felt very confident of themselves and thought this entire incident was their doing and hope to travel thousands of miles to finish it here. They wanted to defeat He ZuDao before he could reach the monastery . After that, they would have a duel with the monks of the monastery and the Western ShaoLin will be greater than the Northern ShaoLin Monastery. However, after the battle at the stone pavilion, He ZuDao only used half of his abilities and he could easily overcome Pan, Fang, and Wei.
After abbot Tianming heard of this, he knew that ShaoLin was facing an imminent danger. After careful analysis he realised that he, WuSe, and WuXiang were about the same level as Pan, Fang, and Wei. So he asked the seven elders of the Meditation Hall to help out if necessary. However, no one knew how high the martial arts of the seven elders were, and if they are strong enough to defeat He ZuDao if it really was necessary. These were all speculations of abbot Tianming, reverends WuSe and WuXiang.