Chen felt a force striking towards his chest and raised his hands to counter it. Their palms met and Chen was forced to make use of his full strength to keep from falling backwards. The shock of the impact caused a dull ache to grow in his left arm.
"Now the second move!" Heavenly Mirror called. Chen did not dare to counter his hand directly again. He leant to one side, then hit out at the monk"s elbow. Heavenly Mirror should have responded by withdrawing his arm, but instead he swept it across in attack, and Chen only just managed to parry it. A bell close to the hall began to chime, and as it resounded, Chen had an idea. He switched to the kung fu style he had learned in the White Jade Peak, synchronising his movements to the sound of the bell. Heavenly Mirror gasped in surprise and fought back carefully.
When the bell ceased, Chen withdrew his hands. "I cannot continue," he said.
"All right. We have already exchanged more than forty moves. Your kung fu is very good. Please pass."
Chen stood up, and was about to walk off when he suddenly swayed and stumbled and hurriedly leant against the wall for support. Heavenly Mirror helped him to sit down again.
"Rest here for a moment and catch your breath," he said. "It won"t affect matters."
Chen close his eyes and did as the monk said.
"Where did you learn that style of kung fu?" Heavenly Mirror asked. Chen told him.
"I never guessed that the standard of kung fu would be so high in the western border regions. If you had used that style from the start you would not have hurt your arm."
"Seeing as I am hurt, I am sure I will not be able to make it through the last hall," Chen said. "What does Your Reverence suggest I do?"
"If you can"t make it through, turn back."
Chen"s martial training made it impossible for him to accept defeat so easily. He stood up and bowed to Heavenly Mirror, then strode bravely towards the last hall.
He was surprised to find it was in fact only a tiny room in the centre of which sat the abbot of the Shaolin Monastery, Heavenly Rainbow. Chen wondered how he could possibly overcome the best kung fu fighter in the Shaolin Monastery if his junior, Heavenly Mirror, was already so formidable.
The abbot bowed. "Please be seated," he said. A steady stream of sandlewood-scented smoke rose from a small incense stove on a table between them. On the wall opposite Chen, was a painting of two monks which, although executed with only a few brush-strokes, was full of vitality.
Heavenly Rainbow meditated for a moment, then said: "There was once a man who was very successful at goat-herding. He became very rich, but he was by nature very miserly...."
Hearing the abbot begin to tell a story, Chen was greatly puzzled, but he concentrated on what the old man was saying: "An acquaintance of the goatherd knew he was very stupid, and also that he badly wanted to find a wife. So he cheated the goatherd, saying: "I know a girl who is very beautiful. I can arrange for her to marry you." The goatherd was delighted and gave him a large amount of money. A year past, and the man said to him: "Your wife has given birth to your son." The goatherd hadn"t even seen the woman, but hearing he had a son, he was even more pleased and gave the man another large sum of money. Later, the man came to him again and said: "Your son has died!" The goatherd cried uncontrollably, heart-broken in the extreme."
Chen had a fairly good general education, and knew he was quoting from the Hundred Parables Sutra of the Mahayana school of Buddhism.
"In fact all worldly matters are like this," the abbot continued. "Power and riches are like the wife and child of the goatherd: just fantasies. What is the point of wasting effort to obtain them when losing them will only cause sorrow?"