Plot
The prologue serves as a continuation of Yang Yuncong and Nalan Minghui's story in Saiwai Qixia Zhuan, set in the early Qing Dynasty. Nalan is forced to marry the Manchu prince Dodo even though she loves Yang and has bore Yang a daughter. Yang shows up on the night before Nalan's wedding and seizes their infant daughter from her. He is mortally wounded in a fight against Prince Dodo's henchmen and before his death he entrusts his daughter to the youth Liang Mulang, who was attempting suicide after being mistakenly accused of betraying his comrades. Mulang brings Yang's daughter back to Yang's teacher Reverend Huiming on Mount Heaven.
Mulang spends eighteen years training under Reverend Huiming's tutelage and becomes a formidable swordsman. He returns to the jianghu under a new alias, "Ling Weifeng", and does a series of chivalrous deeds. Yang Yuncong's daughter Yilan Zhu has mastered the Mount Heaven Swordplay, and she swears to kill Prince Dodo and avenge her father. On Mount Wutai, members of the anti-government Heaven and Earth Society and some Southern Ming rebels attempt to assassinate Prince Dodo but their plans are interrupted by Yilan Zhu's untimely appearance. During the ensuing chaos, Yilan Zhu unintentionally causes Zhang Huazhao to be captured by Qing soldiers. She goes to Prince Dodo's residence to rescue Zhang later.
Meanwhile Fu Qingzhu and Mao Wanlian discover that the Shunzhi Emperor is still alive and has become a monk on Mount Wutai. Shunzhi's son, the reigning Kangxi Emperor, secretly murders his father to safeguard his throne. On Ling Weifeng's part, he meets his old crush Liu Yufang, who wrongly accused him of betrayal years ago. Even though Ling's appearance has changed, Liu still notices that he bears some resemblance to Mulang, but he refuses to admit that he is indeed Mulang. Ling Weifeng and Liu Yufang travel to Yunnan later and befriend Li Siyong, a descendant of Li Zicheng. They also encounter Fu Qingzhu and Mao Wanlian, as well as Gui Zhongming, a new companion. Gui falls in love with Mao after she helps him recover from his mental illness.
Gui Zhongming and Mao Wanlian go to Beijing later to find Yilan Zhu and they meet the scholar Nalan Rongruo. In the meantime, Nalan Minghui recognises Yilan Zhu as her daughter and she pleads with Prince Dodo to spare her daughter's life. After much difficulty, Yilan Zhu and Zhang Huazhao escape from danger and they fall in love. Yilan Zhu avenges her father later by assassinating Prince Dodo, but is captured and imprisoned. Nalan Minghui is unable to rescue her daughter and commits suicide in despair. "Flying Red Sash" Hamaya (a former love rival of Nalan) and Ling Weifeng appear in the nick of time and save Yilan Zhu.
Ling Weifeng suddenly experiences a seizure in a fight against Chu Zhaonan, his treacherous senior. Chu turns the tables on Ling and captures and imprisons him in an underground labyrinth in Tibet. Ling attempts to escape but fails and is on the brink of death. He writes a letter to Liu Yufang, admitting that he is indeed Mulang. Liu is heartbroken upon reading Ling's letter. Han Zhibang, who has a secret crush on Liu Yufang, bravely sacrifices himself to save Ling Weifeng and dies at the hands of Chu Zhaonan. Fu Qingzhu and the other heroes break into the labyrinth to rescue Ling. Chu Zhaonan is defeated by Yilan Zhu and commits suicide eventually.
Ling Weifeng, Zhang Huazhao, Gui Zhongming, Yilan Zhu, Mao Wanlian, Wu Qiongyao, and Hamaya form the "Seven Swords of Mount Heaven", with Liu Yufang as a close ally. They leave behind a heroic legacy of upholding justice and helping the poor and oppressed.
Read more about this topic: Qijian Xia Tianshan
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)