Mount Zhongnan, the Quanzhen Sect.
The foremost Taoist sect of the Southern Song, founded by Wang Chongyang, first of the Five Greats!
At the summit of Mount Zhongnan, a Taoist stood facing the wind, hands clasped behind his back, long hair bound in a topknot, with sword-straight brows and piercing eyes—anyone who saw him would have marveled inwardly: what a handsome Taoist!!!
"Twenty long years, gone in the blink of an eye, and I finally have the strength to protect myself. Guo Jing has long since become a hero renowned across the land, and Yang Kang has been dead for years. Lately there's been talk in the jianghu of a Scarlet Serpent Fairy—that would be Li Mochou, the cast-off disciple of the Ancient Tomb, scourging the jianghu over the single word 'love.' Which means there are still at least ten years before the events of Return of the Condor Heroes truly begin."
The Taoist murmured to himself. This had always been his training ground—sheer ridges and steep peaks, rarely visited—so whenever anything weighed on him, he came here to clear his head.
His name was Yin Zhiping, disciple of Qiu Chuji, Master Changchun of the Quanzhen Sect on Mount Zhongnan.
But he was not of this world. He was a soul from another realm, transmigrated here by a twist of fate—and he had brought along a martial arts proficiency system.
A very simple system. No system sprite, no quest panel, and certainly nothing as grand as inventory space.
Just a bare-bones panel listing the proficiency of every martial art he knew.
Quanzhen Swordplay Proficiency: 100
Quanzhen Inner Art Proficiency: 100
Quanzhen Palm Technique Proficiency: 100
Golden Goose Art Proficiency: 100
Realm: Early Innate
Looking over his panel, Yin Zhiping felt thoroughly satisfied. This was the fruit of twenty years of effort. The Quanzhen Sect might be the foremost Taoist sect of the Southern Song, but it held no peerless divine arts like the Nine Yin or Nine Yang manuals—even Wang Chongyang's Innate Art had never been passed down.
But Taoist arts stressed the dual cultivation of body and spirit; their true qi ran deep and flowed without end.
Taoist martial arts were famously easy to learn and hard to master—slow to build, mighty once accumulated. Apart from those blessed with great fortune or truly exceptional talent, practitioners started out shallow and weak in a fight, but grew ever more formidable the further they went.
None of that mattered to Yin Zhiping and his proficiency panel. As long as he trained an art, its proficiency climbed.
When he first transmigrated, Yin Zhiping had panicked. This was the Southern Song: the court rotting from within, foreign tribes watching hungrily from without—everything pointed to an age of chaos on the horizon.
Worse still, his name was Yin Zhiping, and he lived in Yin Family Village at the foot of Mount Zhongnan.
Then bandits struck. The village was destroyed, his family gone. By sheer luck, Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen Sect had returned to the mountain on some errand and happened to save him. He was taken back to the sect, and, his aptitude being passable, accepted as a disciple.
That was when Yin Zhiping truly panicked. If he hadn't been sure before—if it all might have been coincidence—he was certain now: he had transmigrated into the era of Legend of the Condor Heroes.
True, old Master Jin had later revised Yin Zhiping into Zhen Zhibing, but Yin Zhiping didn't know whether a Zhen Zhibing existed here—nor could he be sure he wouldn't fall for the Xiaolongnü of the Tomb of the Living Dead and end up committing that beastly deed.
All he could do was walk the road one step at a time and see where it led.
After taking him as a disciple, Qiu Chuji left behind a few martial arts manuals and Taoist classics, handed his new disciple over to Wang Chuyi—Master Yuyang—to teach in his stead, and departed for the Great Jin.
Qiu Chuji had only just found Yang Kang—no, he went by Wanyan Kang now—and with his wager against the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan to honor, he had no time to teach Yin Zhiping personally.
Yin Zhiping was a year older than Wanyan Kang, but had entered the sect later, so if they ever met, he'd have to greet him as Senior Brother.
A pity, perhaps, but Yin Zhiping didn't mind—because the moment he first touched the Quanzhen Inner Art manual, the martial proficiency panel had appeared in his mind.
How fast proficiency rose depended on the art's difficulty and the effort put into training it.
Experience told Yin Zhiping that on the path of martial arts, internal energy was paramount—the foundation of everything. So rather than start with swordplay, lightness skills, or anything else, he ground away at the Quanzhen Inner Art alone.
Progress came fast in the beginning: in just two months, the Quanzhen Inner Art reached 50. Then it slowed. A full year passed before it crept to 60.
By then, Yin Zhiping had already reached the third-rate level.
A year of fumbling had taught him the panel's temperament, so he stopped fixating on the Quanzhen Inner Art and took up the Quanzhen Swordplay, Quanzhen Palm Technique, and Golden Goose Art as well.
Of the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, usually only one remained at the sect to manage its affairs; the rest were either in closed-door cultivation or roaming the jianghu righting wrongs.
Put bluntly: their hearts had gone wild, and they were out for a stroll.
So with Qiu Chuji away, and the other martial uncles seeing that Yin Zhiping was pure-hearted, free of ambition, and got along well with his fellow disciples, they stopped keeping close watch. He was left mostly free-range, learning as he pleased.
As long as he passed the sect's assessments, that was enough.
Once Yin Zhiping worked out the current point in the timeline, he settled on one thing: stay out of the Condor Heroes plot and lie low on Mount Zhongnan.
He had a cheat code; sooner or later he would stand at the summit of the jianghu. For now, the Quanzhen Sect was the perfect shelter from the wind and rain.
Besides, with the little strength he'd had then, the smallest swell in the jianghu could have swept him away. Why not cultivate in peace...
A year later, Wang Chuyi brought back a boy named Zhao Zhijing.
Another year after that, Qiu Chuji found time to return, bringing yet another boy—Zhen Zhibing. After testing Yin Zhiping's studies and martial arts, he entrusted Zhen Zhibing to him, to be taught on the master's behalf.
By then, Yin Zhiping's Quanzhen Inner Art, Quanzhen Swordplay, and Golden Goose Art had all reached 60 proficiency—enough to count as a minor second-rate expert in the jianghu.
And while juggling his martial training, he had never neglected the Taoist classics. Perhaps because he had lived two lives, Yin Zhiping was born with a flawless memory, which made study twice as easy.
Seeing such talent in his disciple, Qiu Chuji was beside himself with joy. He himself, after all, was merely at the Acquired realm—only two realms above Yin Zhiping at the time—with the Innate realm nowhere in sight.
He prized Yin Zhiping all the more for it, convinced his disciple had the makings of the Innate realm—the level of his own master.
Then, after staying two days, Qiu Chuji left again...
The moment Yin Zhiping laid eyes on Zhen Zhibing, most of the weight lifted from his heart.
With both Yin Zhiping and Zhen Zhibing in this world, the odds of falling for Xiaolongnü ought to be fifty-fifty, right?
Honestly, Yin Zhiping was curious just how fresh and otherworldly Xiaolongnü's beauty truly was—but he wanted no entanglement with her, and certainly no romantic complications.
In the book and on the screen alike, Xiaolongnü was too much the celestial. Best admired from afar, and never profaned.
TL Notes:
TL Note: In Jin Yong's original Return of the Condor Heroes, the Taoist Yin Zhiping violates the heroine Xiaolongnü—an act so infamous that Chinese readers nicknamed him the "Dragon Knight" (a crude pun on "mounting the Dragon Maiden"); Jin Yong later renamed the character Zhen Zhibing in revised editions. This novel's title and running jokes play on that meme.