Hua Hua You Long - Volume 1 - Chapter 5.1

Chapter 5.1- Heroes of the World
         The summer wind blew past softly. In the lily pond of Tong’an’s Imperial Palace, the rootless, green water lilies swayed and unfolded along with the breeze, filling the entire palace with the mysterious, light fragrance that fluttered and aroused one’s heart, intoxicating all those who lived in this heavenly city[1] on earth, and also added few strokes of divinity to the sleeves of the people on the pavilion built amidst the water.
         On the elaborately-woven divan lounged a man in white, his black hair cascading against suet jade[2] skin and his stunning eyes so otherworldly they were like stars in the cold, night sky. He leaned carelessly on the divan. To his side, the attendants carefully waved the long, broad fans for him. A poise of idle, carefree summer. This beautiful man was none other than the highest aristocrat of the Datong regime: Emperor Jing Zong, Xuan Yuan Jing.
         “Zhen Ye,” he called to the attendant standing behind him.
         “What is Your Majesty’s command?”
         “Send for Duke Tongxin.” Tongxin was his younger twin brother, and was also a publicly-acknowledged iron hand of the empire.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The attendant respectfully received his task.
Jing rose to his feet as well, and walked to the edge of the pond. Taking the fish feed the maids handed him, he tossed it nonchalantly into the water. His eyes focused on the school of koi as it ate, but his thoughts flashed to somewhere far away.
A few months ago, Jing tricked and scared the mountain bandit king Lu Cang with whom he had had a chance meeting[3] into coming to Tong’an.
In the past few months, he had continuously bedded Lu Cang to obtain the wicked and cruel fulfilment of sadistic love-making he didn’t want others to know of. But after he brutally tortured Lu Cang last time at Tonghua House, every time Jing went to that little house by Yue Long Bridge, Lu Cang always cried loudly and threw tantrums, using death as a threat and not allowing himself to touch him no matter what.
He’d tried forcibly taking Lu Cang, but Lu Cang’s body had been injured very severely from last time, and combined with mental resistance, it was impossible to smoothly enter him. Even if there was a chance of success if Jing used all his strength, he feared that at the same time, Lu Cang would lose his life as well. Jing was still unwilling to have his beloved toy destroyed just like this, so he could only forcibly endure his discontented desire for the past ten days.
He’d also tried abducting other jianghu[4] men into bed, but those men either kicked the bucket after he only messed around with them a little or were so loose and laid-back he couldn’t get interested. Whatever the case, there was always something that was not to his liking, which made him miss that fierce, reputation-loving, yet physically arousing little mountain bandit Lu Cang even more.
This time, his calling Tongxin in was also because he thought of an idea to turn the tables on everything, and to relieve himself of his unspeakable restlessness.
“Your Majesty, His Highness Duke Tongxin is here.” Following the attendant’s well-mannered report, Zheng stepped onto the golden bricks of the pavilion.
“Big Brother.” Zheng gave the due course of respectable greeting[5], watched Jing wave away the attendants, and then sprang off the ground, leaning straight into his brother’s arms.
The two brothers had always been close. Zheng even harboured feelings beyond brotherly love towards Jing, but that was something the two brothers never discussed. Instead, the two maintained their intimate relationship as brothers.
“Alright, alright, Zheng, quickly get down, I have serious business to discuss.” Jing patted the brother who was about the same height as himself, reminding him not to overstep his boundaries.
Zheng left his brother’s embrace very reluctantly and went to sit on the divan beside them. “What is your command, Big Brother?”
Though Zheng took every opportunity to be overly-affectionate with his brother, he always handled his work cleanly and smartly, which won Jing’s trust.
“I need you to plan and prepare an Assembly of Heroes[6] as soon as possible.”
Zheng’s eyebrows knitted together in a frown. “Assembly of Heroes?” Datong Dynasty had always favoured cultivated, literary education over physical combat or military[7] skills. Holding an Assembly of Heroes was absolutely unheard of.
“That’s right. I need you to gather the heroes of the world for me, and decide on a world leader of wulin right here in Tong’an City.
Zheng was a bit puzzled[8]. He had always recognised Jing’s exceeding ability with logic and reasoning: there was no way Jing would decide on something without a goal in mind. But to tell the truth, he couldn’t fathom even half the intention of this Assembly of Heroes.
“Anyway, just do it. Make the prize money a bit higher...ah, a million silver liang[9] should do.”
“Big Brother, the Prime Minister[10]’s annual salary is only ten thousand liang...” Zheng reminded him of this number’s enormity.
Jing waved his hand somewhat impatiently. “Just do a good job of it. I’ll give you specific orders when the time comes.”
After he finished talking, Jing turned around, signalling his unwillingness to speak further on the subject. Though Zheng had a stomach full of suspicion, he could only say his farewells and leave the inner palace.
Watching the silhouette of his brothers’ back disappear on the small, flowered road, Jing raised his voice and ordered the maids outside the room, “Come help me change.”
In exchange for a casual palace robe of fine, detailed embroidery, he donned a slightly plainer light blue silk robe.
After dismissing the attendants, he abruptly gathered his qi and stepped onto the lily pads in the water. Only a small sway, then he immediately proceeded to lift himself up again. And after a few leaps, he was gone, disappearing outside the high, palace walls.

A month of nonstop rain had passed. Today’s weather was finally a few notches sunnier.
Lu Cang felt as if his body’s pain had lessened a bit, so he got up from the bed he had not parted with for a long period of time and slowly walked into the yard.
It had already been a few months since he arrived in Tong’an from Hangzhou. In these few months, his experiences could only be described as “unbearable to look back on.” Having his body toyed with by a man aside, around ten days ago, he was caught red-handed visiting the brothel, and as a result spent a full ten, twelve hours under Jing as Jing tormented him with varying types of horrific sex tools.
After Jing’s monstrous desires had been fulfilled, Lu Cang was left unable to lift a finger, yet that man deserving of the cruellest death[11] continued to attack him heavily in the mental arena. He wants me to stay by his side—heavens! Lu Cang really began to doubt whether or not he’ll live to see the next year’s spring.
But...
He still had a bit of a lingering fear when he thought of that royal dog Fuqi he stole last time to try out the drug—half a month after being given the green pill, Fuqi suddenly went into an uncontrollable craze, breaking out into insane barking fits everywhere, and in the end stabbed itself through the stomach from its backside with a sharp, long, bamboo stick and died a grotesquely tragic death. It seemed that freakish, deadly man wasn’t completely lying to him after all.
Counting the time, the two of them hadn’t had physical contact for around ten days now. As Lu Cang used his own death as a threat, Jing seemed to withdraw a little. But in two days, it would be the fifteenth. Lu Cang was really a little scared he would meet a similarly tragic end as Fuqi had.
Ah, all this melancholy was like seven feet of black hair[12], unable to be sorted out no matter what.
Meanwhile, the small yard was beautiful as a picture, making Lu Cang’s mood slightly better. Remembering that he hadn’t practiced kung-fu for a long time, he decided to throw down those agitating issues of the heart for now and exercise his bones a bit instead.
So...
When Jing stepped into this secluded side courtyard, he saw a this scene before him: Lu Cang’s hand guided a long blade, sifting and turning back and forth through the rockwork and green leaves, cleaving, lifting, cutting, or striking, his poise just like an elegant dance.  
Lu Cang’s swordsmanship belonged to the family of “light and clever,” and was particular about the coordination between bodily positioning[13] and sword movements. Though to the student of the world’s greatest martial artist, Jing, his moves seemed a little unnecessarily fancy, Lu Cang obviously had already reached a tolerably high skill level—quite enough for dominating jianghu that was.
Lu Cang evidently noticed Jing entering from the corner of his eye. He abruptly pulled up his agile sword, turning swift as lightning, charging straight towards Jing’s direction.
“You hate me this much?” Jing smiled, gracefully leaping as he easily dodged Lu Cang’s attack.
However, Lu Cang wasn’t willing to give up just yet. After one empty strike, he started up his sword again, making a u-turn as he attacked a second time.
This time, Jing didn’t dodge or leap away. He spun speedily and cleverly, his person piercing through the dancing sword shadows. Lu Cang only caught a blur before his eyes, and didn’t know exactly when his sword was robbed from his hand.
Lu Cang heaved a long sigh, his footsteps halting to a stop. He saw Jing standing three steps away, the long sword in his hand, flashing a full smile in his direction.
“My skills are inferior, what more could I say...” He hung his head in defeat and turned around, intending on returning to the house.
But Jing’s figure flashed, and was suddenly blocking his way.
“Here.” Jing held up the long sword. Seeing that Lu Cang was reluctant to take it, he stuffed the sword into his hand...then conveniently seized on to his sword hand as well.
Lu Cang’s face flushed red in a split second, and hurriedly tried to fling off Jing’s hand. He made a few attempted, but Jing grabbed on tightly and wouldn’t let go.

“Let me teach you a few moves,” Jing leaned in to whisper in his ear, observing as the small ear lobe abruptly turned red. He reached out his tongue and licked it.
Lu Cang’s face grew redder. Jing was perched right behind him, one hand holding his own, one hand gently resting on his waist, embracing his entire person just as they were. The two’s position was excessively ambiguous, making Lu Cang temporarily forget resistance as he stood there dumbly.
The hand that held on to his suddenly strengthened, and the three feet of blade briskly pierced outward.
Jing guided his sword movements as he recited the verses of form[14] in his ear, “...guard and direct vitality, qi moves unrestrained, the sword pivots three away from upright heavens, ride the wind and scatter the clouds up nine skies...”
Without warning, the sword changed directions. Jing pulled himself off the ground at light speed, his robe sleeves whirling with the flying acceleration. Lu Cang was brought along, springing upwards with little choice. This leap was a full thirty metres off the ground, and just when Lu Cang felt his strength dwindling as he began to slip downwards, Jing gave him a powerful pull. The falling came to an abrupt stop, and up he spun again. The precise second before the momentum was spent, Jing guided Lu Cang’s sword hand, and just like that the two drove the sword, tearing unswervingly through the air. The sword blade pierced almost a metre[15] straight into the large trunk of the tree.
With a slap at his sword hand, Jing purposefully made him release his sword, then seized his hand and leapt straight up to the crown of the mighty tree. Unbalanced for a split second, Lu Cang inclined to one side and fell involuntarily onto Jing.
Just when he remembered to upright himself, Jing pressed him down. “Rest a little before you speak.”
Lu Cang was quite drained, so upon these words, didn’t stubbornly oppose him, and instead quietly leaned on his leg, softly panting. Just like that.
“Why teach me kung-fu?” After his breathing steadied, Lu Cang began slowly. His kung-fu may not have reached the same level as Jing’s, but nevertheless knew his stuff well—he understood that these few verses of form could be considered hushed-up secrets of wulin.
“I’m afraid you’ll get harassed by other men, of course!” Jing answered smilingly.
“Tch! Besides you, who would harass me?” Lu Cang blurted, then discovered too late that this sentence didn’t come out the way he intended. Just as he was about to take it back, Jing broke into a fit of laughter beside him.
“It seems your body has healed quite a lot, and can withstand my harassment—then I won’t hold back.” Picking up Lu Cang with a lift, Jing leapt down the large tree and then sprang towards the bedroom.
“No!! No—” Lu Cang struggled for his life. His bodily injuries had gotten a bit better compared to a few days previous, but it was still not possible for him to take on Jing, whose endurance surpassed the average human being’s.
Jing carried him onto blue brocaded bed sheets, then flung his entire weight down on Lu Cang.
“So heavy...” Lu Cang moaned, but Jing ignored him completely.
Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he had been suppressing his desires for too long. He was obviously more rushed than usual.
Haphazardly tearing at Lu Cang’s clothing, Jing’s hand reached into Lu Cang’s trousers with irrepressible eagerness. He found the soft thing he was searching for and gave it a hard squeeze.
“Ah—” Lu Cang cried involuntarily, “Hurts...”
“Are your injuries from last time still hurting?” There was a thin trace of guilt that was hard to detect in Jing’s tone. He recalled the scene from last time at Tonghua House of himself thrusting with uncontrollable rage into Lu Cang as Lu Cang screamed.
Lu Cang fixed him with a weird look. The Jing in his memory was a demon of desire in the skin of an astounding beauty, but today he was starting to care about him...?
Surely it couldn’t be that there was still something he wanted to get from him?
But instinct acted before rationality. “It’s alright, I guess...” The moment the words left his mouth, Lu Cang had the notion of wanting to bite off his own tongue. Wasn’t this encouraging Jing’s brutality towards himself? 
Just as he expected, with a smile blossoming at the corner of his lips that made beholders gape, Jing took action like a crazed cyclone.
Tearing away the remaining clothing on Lu Cang’s body, Jing’s lips flew across his neck, chest, stomach, straight towards Lu Cang’s vital region.
“Heavens—” Lu Cang immediately went into frenzy. He tried to pry off Jing’s head, but Jing sucked resolutely between his pelvis like a leech, his nimble tongue licking and swirling energetically. Lu Cang was completely unable to control himself as he felt all his blood flood down to gather at that one spot.
Jing had once forced him into giving an oral, but Jing’s contact with him had been limited to malicious penetration of his body. So-called foreplay had been at most boorish rubbing of his lower half until he could no longer stand it and ejaculated. Jing had never gone this far before.
“You’re mad!” Lu Cang powerlessly tried to control himself.
Jing’s superb and practised skill made Lu Cang clutch at the bed almost insanely, and yet when Jing would momentarily raise his head, the lewd colours flowing and whirling in that pair of perfect eyes almost rendered Lu Cang incapable of controlling his own body.
“Quickly...Quickly let go...” Since he couldn’t defend against Jing’s strength, Lu Cang could only choose to resist using words. But his voice was uncooperative, trembling slightly as all its persuasion was lost with the sweat that covered his body and his gradually-hardening lower half.
Jing’s hand slid up to Lu Cang’s waist, caressing back and forth the skin that had turned soft and slippery with sweat, then traced the outline of his waist down to the two raised hills in the back. Jing’s hands steadily closed in towards the centre, attempting to split open that long, narrow crack.
“Hngh...” Feeling Jing’s fingers intimately stroking his tight entrance, Lu Cang was nearly unable to let out a sound.
“You...if you don’t let go now...I’m about to lose control...” he mustered pretty much every ounce of strength in his body to warn Jing. Lu Cang had an acute sensation that he was powerless against the fiery hot surge that was gathering at the small opening between his legs.
Jing didn’t even look up. Instead, he gave Lu Cang’s foreskin a sudden, violent bite. Instantaneously, the hot semen spurted out uncontrollably—the unfortunate thing was, most of it landed in His Majesty Xuan Yuan Jing’s noble mouth.
Although the one who had triggered everything was Jing, he nevertheless wore an incredulous expression, dumbfounded right there and then. Lu Cang’s fluids dripped continuously from the corner of his mouth, turning him into an awkward image of not knowing whether or not to close his mouth.
The air froze at that moment. Lu Cang watched Jing in slight fear. He was truly afraid of what horrifying methods Jing will invent to torment him when in spontaneous anger.
However, after Jing’s initial shock, he flashed a soft smile instead—the intensely brilliant smile bloomed in a fleeting instant like a cereus[16] flower, deeply drawing Lu Cang’s gaze towards itself.

[1] City- in Chinese, 宫城 (literally, “palace city”) is a phrase that refers to the imperial palace. For instance, the Forbidden City is really just the royal palace in Beijing. They call it a city because the palace has its own castle-like walls (though it’s within the capital city’s outer walls). Thus, the “heavenly city” the author refers to is the palace, not the capital.
[2] Suet jade- I’ve seen this name used interchangeably with Hetian jade in some places. It’s one of the finest jades ever, and is a pure and white colour.
[3] Chance meeting-露水之合 is the original text here, which means literally “the meeting of dew.” Alright, so the author manipulated an age-old idiom “露水之缘” (she changed the last word from 缘 to 合), which means “the fate of dew.” The original phase means a meeting of short fate, but there are two takes on the origin of this idiom. The short version is that dew evaporates when the sun comes up, so it’s a meeting of short fate (I’ll put the long version  in the author’s note at the end because it’s really, really long). However, I’m guessing since the author changed the last word to 合, which mean both “meet” and “harmony,” she’s cutting out the meaning that their time together is short-lived (ahem ahem ahem).
[4] Jianghu (江湖)- this will be the LAST TIME I am putting this footnote in. Jianghu is the rough idea of a realm that martial artists (so everyone from Shaolin monks to mountain bandits) reside in. Wulin is usually synonymous, but wulin refers to more the community of people rather than the actual realm...it’s a very vague difference. For more detail, look back at chapter 1.
[5] Respectable greeting- Greeting the emperor in Ancient China meant kneeling (ALWAYS). And the greeting is varies in levels of ceremony for different situations. In this case, Jing is just seeing someone he always sees, which calls for standard kneeling, get up. If someone (like a new official, etc) is seeing him for the first time, most likely they’ll have to do some fancy kowtowing. Back in the Han Dynasty, the most formal greetings consisted of the person coming in, kneeling and kowtowing three times, getting back up, walking to a different spot (there’s a pattern in how they walk and where they kneel down in relation to their position in the room), kowtowing again, and then they do this consecutively for however many times in however many places in the room...Yeah, you get the idea.
[6] Assembly of Heroes (英雄大会)- You see this term a lot in jianghu/wulin novels. It’s usually either an actual assembly where martial artists meet to solve a dire jianghu matter at hand or it’s a contest (like in this case) to determine the most powerful “hero” of wulin, who usually becomes the Head of the Wulin Alliance (武林盟主). However, it’s totally unheard of for the government to hold an Assembly of Heroes, since it has nothing to do with jianghu issues or the Wulin Alliance. When I first read this, I laughed very hard. Jing, you creative bastard.
[7] Literary vs. Military (文武)- Unless during times of war, the ancient Chinese governments have always favoured education of the mind (back then, they called it “literature” because it was mostly just literature and history) over military/combat/martial arts. Government offices are traditionally split into two types, 文(wen, literary) and 武 (wu, combat), and the highest military office is always a notch below the highest literary office. In addition, traditional Chinese culture always hold civilised education in higher esteem than brutal skills in fighting.
[8]  Puzzled- original text was 丈二和尚摸不着头脑, literally “one zhang two monk whose head is unreachable.” Read chapter 3 footnote number 13 for specific explanation.
[9] Liang (两)- ancient Chinese measurement for money. See chapter 4 footnote number 6 for details.
[10] Prime Minister (宰相/丞相)- He’s called the PM, but the imperial government was far from parliamentary. But that’s not to say he was powerless. The Prime Minister basically takes care of...everything, in a sense. His power varies from dynasty to dynasty. In some dynasties, the Prime Minister is allowed to make minor decisions without consulting the emperor, while in others (like Ming), everything needs to get the nod from the emperor.
[11] Man deserving of the cruellest death- original text was “杀千刀”, which literally translates to “a thousand killing knives.” It means that one is deserving of a cruel death. The reference comes from  the cruellest form of death sentence in ancient China, 凌迟 (ling chi), which consisted of the victim’s flesh being cut away from his body piece by piece, all the way down to the bone. Supposedly, during this process, they don’t stop until the one thousandth cut. And yes, this is a horrible way to die. Aren’t you glad we don’t do that anymore?
[12] Seven feet of black hair (七尺青丝)- In Chinese, black hair can be (quite frequently) used to describe troubles and anxieties in the field of love, since the wording here 青丝 usually only refers to women’s hair (there’s a plethora of ways this can be used, so I won’t specify). I personally think this simile is funny when used with Lu Cang and Jing xD.
[13] Bodily positioning vs. Sword movements- right here, combining the two might sound like a “no shit, Sherlock,” but in martial arts, 身法 (bodily positioning) and 剑势 (sword movements) are fundamentally different things. Bodily positioning is really a huge umbrella of steps, movement, agility, etc of the body. For instance, air kung-fu is under this umbrella. Meanwhile, sword movements are separate, and consist of jabs, strikes, chops, etc.
[14] Verses of form (口诀)- any organised branch, family, or method of kung-fu has verses to describe its movements (both outer bodily movements and inner qi movements) and how the movements should be performed. Kung-fu verses are impossible to understand unless you know you a.) are a martial artist or b.) really know your martial arts theory. Yeah, so, I tried my best with the verses, but to plebeians like me and probably 99.99% of China, the verses are too abstract to fully understand.
[15] Almost a metre- originally, this was 几尺, literally “a few chi.” Since the measurement of chi varies through each dynasty, I did a rough estimation and a “few”, which I’m taking for three or four, is more or less around a metre long. The modern meaning of “chi”, of course, is a foot.
[16] Night-blooming cereus (昙花)- a type of white, large flower that is sometimes referred to as the “queen of the night.” It is often short-lived and blooms only at night, sometimes only for one night in the entire year.