Mountain Shaking Manual

Mountain Shaking?

The black-clothed girl frowned and reached for the ancient book.

To her surprise, Chen Ping'an shifted backward.

In that instant, the black-clothed girl's body stiffened, fury blazing in her chest. It was as though she had never suffered such humiliation before.

She was Ning Yao, after all. Her parents were both Great Sword Immortals above the Twelve Floors, and from the moment she had been born, she had been hailed as one of the finest Sword Immortal Embryos. Even after running away from home for so many years, she had only ever lost in sword fights or contests of magic. Never had anyone so insulted her dignity. For a tattered book, did Ning Yao need to stoop to such means as sneaking a look or taking possession of it?

Ning Yao gripped the hilt of her blade and narrowed those especially striking long, slender eyes.

Fine eyes, crimson lips.

That was likely how one would describe this young woman.

On closer inspection, Ning Yao was breathtakingly beautiful. Yet the clear, valiant spirit permeating her whole being completely overwhelmed any trace of feminine softness.

But the straw-sandaled youth's next words possessed the miraculous power to turn decay into wonder, nearly making the girl suffer an internal injury from holding back her anger.

"Miss Ning, I took this book from Gu Can's house. Though I don't think that counts as stealing, I still have to return it to Gu Can someday. But we're friends now, so no matter what this book says, I hope Miss Ning will keep what she reads to herself."

The girl drew a deep breath, slapped the table, and glared. "What are you looking at? Read it yourself! I don't care for it!"

Chen Ping'an's next sentence left the girl caught between laughter and tears. "Miss Ning, I can't read. Could you teach me?"

The black-clothed girl's thoughts turned, and she sneered. "Aren't you afraid I'll take a huge advantage of you? Think about it. Gu Can is clearly someone who has inherited a tremendous amount of ancestral blessing. Even Liu Xianyang, a natural Sword Embryo, can't compare to him. In this little town, few people over a thousand years could rival him. How bad could a family heirloom he hid away so carefully be? Aren't you afraid that seeing such treasure will stir my greed? That I'll keep this priceless secret manual all for myself?"

Beneath the dim yellow light of the gently flickering oil lamp, the straw-sandaled youth smiled faintly without explaining anything.

The girl snorted, shifted over, and gestured for the straw-sandaled youth to sit beside her. Yet Chen Ping'an across from her did not move for a long while. The girl laughed in exasperation. "With one hand, I could beat a hundred of you..."

As she said this, the girl began laughing to herself. "Don't tell me you're afraid I'll take advantage of you?"

Chen Ping'an sat beside the girl, somewhat uneasy and nervous.

Ning Yao was still immersed in the context of her earlier words, sinking deeper and deeper as she muttered to herself, "Beat a hundred Chen Ping'ans with one hand... Mm, that phrase has a wide range of uses. Whenever I meet so-and-so and defeat them after a spar, I can throw out, 'You've only got the strength of three thousand Chen Ping'ans, and you dare fight me?' That feels pretty good. If I run into some prehistoric fiendish beast or a vicious Flood Dragon in a great marsh, I'll tell myself, 'This beast is worth thirty thousand Chen Ping'ans. Run!' Hahaha, yes, yes..."

Chen Ping'an found it utterly baffling. The black-clothed girl sitting shoulder to shoulder with him had suddenly started giggling foolishly.

The girl laughed so hard that the impoverished youth, whose house had nothing but four bare walls, suddenly felt like a rich man.

Neither the youth nor the girl could have realized at that moment the weight and force the joking phrase "beat a hundred Chen Ping'ans with one hand" would display over the long years to come.

Especially once the straw-sandaled youth was no longer a youth.

The further into the future, the more so it became.

Ning Yao finally came back to her senses. She coughed, straightened her back, picked up the ancient book, swiftly flipped through several pages, then closed it. Tapping the cover twice with one finger, she turned to Chen Ping'an and said calmly, "This is a boxing manual. The boxing art is called Mountain Shaking. By the customs of martial folk, you may call it the Mountain Shaking Manual."

Chen Ping'an's face was full of anticipation. "And then?"

The black-clothed girl fought the urge to roll her eyes. Doing her best to solemnly open a page, she pointed her slender finger, tender as a scallion shoot, at the preface on the title page. As her finger slid downward, she read, "In my hometown, there is a small insect called an ant. All its life, unlike its kind elsewhere, it carries mountain stones into the water."

"My boxing art distinguishes life and death, not victory and defeat; it values spirit and intent, not moves and forms. Once these six forms are trained to perfection, their killing power is immense, and they can easily wound a person's lungs and entrails deeply..."

"Though the Mountain Shaking Manual has never entered the pure stream of high-grade boxing manuals in this age, I have always believed that after surveying all martial arts beneath heaven, this fist art must have its place. I hope whoever is fated to obtain it will carry it forward and make it flourish..."

Ning Yao patiently read the preface to Chen Ping'an sentence by sentence.

The booklet was thin, and the entire boxing manual contained only six forms, yet the preface took up quite a bit of space.

After finishing the preface, Ning Yao pushed the boxing manual to Chen Ping'an's side, patted his shoulder, and said perfunctorily, "Keep it safe. Don't let thieves get it."

Chen Ping'an nodded and carefully extended both hands to support the ancient boxing manual.

Ning Yao nearly burst out laughing at the sight. Could a book sitting on the table grow legs and run away? Or was Chen Ping'an afraid it might fall over?

Chen Ping'an fiercely rubbed his right hand against his lapel before opening the book. He read through the preface word by word. After that came illustrations accompanied by text; in any case, the straw-sandaled youth found it all as bewildering as clouds and mist.

Ning Yao sat sideways, elbow braced on the table, watching the youth's profile. She teased, "Do you feel like you've struck it rich? Will you use a golden axe to chop firewood and a golden bowl to eat?"

Without looking up, the youth carefully studied the illustrations and the text that resembled a Heavenly Book. He said frankly, "Actually, when I saw the look in your eyes just now, I knew this boxing manual couldn't be very good. But that's all right. To me, it's already good enough."

Ning Yao raised a brow and spoke just as directly. "The things I've seen or heard of are indeed very good things. But beyond that, I can only tell good things from bad things. As for how good a good thing is, or how bad a bad thing is, that's hard for me to say."

Chen Ping'an raised his head. "Then this Mountain Shaking Manual belongs to the category of 'good, but not all that good'?"

Ning Yao said irritably, "I don't know how to describe just how terrible this lousy boxing manual is!"

The straw-sandaled youth blinked, a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

He clearly had already known; he was merely teasing the girl.

Ning Yao pushed her blade an inch out of its sheath and threatened, "Want to get chopped?"

Chen Ping'an lowered his head to glance at the long blade in its green sheath at her waist and sincerely praised, "It's very pretty."

Ning Yao accepted the praise without hesitation. "The blades and swords I, Ning Yao, choose personally are naturally no slouches!"

Chen Ping'an looked at her, somewhat envious and admiring of that confidence of hers. Though she was his age and stranded in an unfamiliar land, no matter what, no matter the circumstances, she was like a rising morning sun, climbing ever higher, impossible to stop. Sharp-minded Chen Ping'an could sense as much from the caution Daoist Master Lu showed when dealing with her.

Chen Ping'an could not help saying, "How wonderful it would be if sunlight could be exchanged for copper coins!"

Ning Yao had no idea what he meant and asked in surprise, "Chen Ping'an, have you gone mad from wanting money?"

Chen Ping'an hurriedly changed the subject and turned to the first illustration in the boxing manual. "Miss Ning, could you read me the words beside this picture?"

Ning Yao thought about it and did not refuse. She only asked, "Do you know why I could judge at a glance that this boxing manual wasn't much?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head. "I was wondering about that too."

The girl smiled. She simply turned to face the youth on the bench and sat cross-legged, pointing at the open boxing manual as she patiently explained, "There are generally three ways martial artists record martial arts manuals and cultivators record Qi refining methods. The first is like this Mountain Shaking Manual: ordinary paper pages. How many years they can endure depends on luck. Leaving aside warfare and disasters, after long years of dampness, ant damage, and so on, they will gradually deteriorate and vanish. Right?"

Chen Ping'an suddenly understood and nodded.

The girl continued, "So among methods that use physical objects to bear words, an unwritten rule emerged: the rarity of the material matters. That is, the thing carrying the words should match the value of what is written. Just as you would not make a box from elm wood to hold a Jade Seal that steadies a nation."

Chen Ping'an appeared thoughtful.

After a brief hesitation, Ning Yao still spoke plainly to the youth. "The next kind leaves no words behind and emphasizes oral instruction and personal example. These are mostly a sect or school's Bottom-of-the-box Skill, often kept secret, or bound by cumbersome rules such as being passed to sons but not daughters. Even many so-called Direct Disciples and inner disciples may not receive the true transmission in full. True transmission, true transmission—the truth lies precisely there."

Ning Yao sighed. "As for the last kind, it can only be understood in the heart and cannot be conveyed in words. It cannot even be spoken of; even if spoken of, it cannot be explained. For example, among the two groups that entered this town, Cai Jinjian of Cloud Mist Mountain has something called Cloud Sea Gazing at her mountain. The sea of clouds surges endlessly, and its cloud mist and rosy light are especially peculiar, containing Spiritual Energy. The Qi refiners of your East Treasure Bottle Continent call it 'a heavenly beauty.' Some can transform on their own into Patriarchs of past generations. Those with the right fate can meet and converse with them. As for the dense Sword Qi atop Zhengyang Mountain, it is said that through a strange convergence of cause and circumstance, sword spirits of the Old Ancestors from Zhengyang's various peaks may also appear and demonstrate the sword path. Whether one can see them depends only on the measure of one's blessings, not on status, noble or low, nor on the height of one's cultivation."

Ning Yao concluded, "Of course, these three methods are not absolutely ranked high or low. If words of the first kind are carved onto jade slips, or onto the profoundly mysterious word-washing bamboo produced specifically by Bamboo Sea Blessed Land, one of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands, that is another matter altogether. Beyond that, there are countless strange objects. As long as you travel far enough, you will always encounter surprises. The great thousand worlds hold nothing too strange. In the future, you should go out and see more. Do not even hope to leave East Treasure Bottle Continent or leave this world—at the very least, strive to reach the borders of the Great Li Dynasty's territory."

Chen Ping'an murmured agreement, his thoughts clearly fixed on that boxing manual. He pointed at a character. "Miss Ning, how do you read this one?"

The girl flew into a rage. "Get lost!"