Chen Xuanfeng

Chen Xuanfeng (simplified: 陈玄风, traditional: 陳玄風, pinyin: Chén Xuánfēng, jyutping: Can4 Jyun4 Fung1), the Copper Corpse (铜尸), was the second disciple of Huang Yaoshi and the husband of his fellow disciple Mei Chaofeng. After stealing the lower volume of the Nine Yin Manual and fleeing Peach Blossom Island with her, he and Mei were feared in the jianghu as the Twin Evils of Dark Wind (黑风双煞).

Biography

Peach Blossom Island

Chen Xuanfeng was Huang Yaoshi’s second disciple, after Qu Lingfeng. He was two years older than Mei Chaofeng and seldom spoke to her, but would silently watch her and leave handfuls of fresh peaches in her room. The two became lovers. One night Qu Lingfeng caught Chen in Mei’s room, fought him and beat him to the ground, but Huang Yaoshi, who had overheard everything, rebuked Qu instead and told the couple to leave.

Chen then proposed stealing Huang Yaoshi’s Nine Yin Manual, mastering its arts and returning it, so that they need fear neither their shifu nor Qu Lingfeng. Mei objected, but he stole it that same night; he got only one volume, the lower. The two then fled the island while Huang Yaoshi was drunk. In his rage Huang Yaoshi broke the legs of his remaining disciples, Qu Lingfeng, Lu Chengfeng, Wu Gangfeng and Feng Mofeng, and drove them from the island.

The Twin Evils of Dark Wind

The lower volume held only the martial methods, without the neigong foundation taught in the upper volume. Chen Xuanfeng wanted to steal the upper volume too, but in the meantime he devised his own method of training, knowing it was wrong, and taught it to Mei. The two trained the Nine Yin White Bone Claw, the Heart-Crushing Palm and the White Python Whip, which could be forced without the neigong, and brought their outer hardening arts to seven or eight parts of perfection. Their cruelty earned them many enemies and the name of the Twin Evils of Dark Wind.

Lu Chengfeng later led dozens of fighters, among them Ke Pixie, against them in a ruined temple. The couple killed seven or eight of them and broke out; Mei could not later remember whether she or Chen had killed Ke Pixie. When the Quanzhen also began to track them, they left the Central Plains for the Mongolian steppe.

Death

In Mongolia the Twin Evils left piles of skulls with five finger holes in each. When the Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan ambushed them on a barren hill, Chen Xuanfeng drove his claw into Zhang Asheng’s back and killed him with a punch to the head, broke Nan Xiren’s arm, and struck down Zhu Cong and Ke Zhen’e in the darkness of a storm. As he rushed to kill Han Baoju, he stumbled over the six-year-old Guo Jing and picked him up, paying no heed to a child who knew no martial arts. Guo Jing stabbed him with his dagger in the navel, the one weak point of his hardened body. With his last breath Chen told Mei to flee, saying that he was loath to leave her and could no longer look after her. Mei carried his body away in the storm; the Eccentrics later found it buried in the sand, where leopards had dug it up.

Personality & traits

Physical appearance

He had thick eyebrows and large eyes and was all sinew and bone. In the flash of lightning before his death, Guo Jing saw a sallow yellow face and eyes glaring with menace.

Character traits

Chen Xuanfeng was taciturn and bold to the point of recklessness: Mei Chaofeng called him “truly reckless” for stealing the manual against her protests. He was devoted to Mei, and his last words were of concern for her.

Martial arts abilities

He had trained in Peach Blossom Island arts, which alone were enough for the couple to defeat many opponents.

Nine Yin arts

From the lower volume of the Nine Yin Manual, trained by a method of his own devising, he learned the Nine Yin White Bone Claw (九阴白骨爪) and the Heart-Crushing Palm (摧心掌).

Hardening arts

He trained outer hardening arts of the Golden Bell Cover and Iron Shirt kind (金钟罩铁布衫). Like every such art, it left a weak point (罩门): his was his navel, which he guarded carefully against any skilled opponent.

Relationships

Huang Yaoshi

Huang Yaoshi was his shifu, whom he betrayed by stealing the manual.

Mei Chaofeng

Mei Chaofeng was his fellow disciple and wife. After his death she spent years searching for his killer.

Qu Lingfeng

Qu Lingfeng, his senior, fought him for his affair with Mei.

Behind the scenes

Revisions

In the 1st edition, Chen Xuanfeng tattooed the secret essentials of the Nine Yin Manual on his chest in needle-pricked script and burnt the original, and Mei Chaofeng cut the skin from his body after his death. The 3rd edition drops this.