Yingying was a palace maid within the inner precincts. Quietly resolute by nature, she had a streak of gallant…
Yingying was a palace maid within the inner precincts. Quietly resolute by nature, she had a streak of gallantry in her as well.
One night, while making her rounds on watch duty, she heard tiles shifting overhead. In the next instant, a black-clad figure tumbled down before the steps, barely clinging to life. Yingying hid this intruder away in the Forlorn Palace, who turned out to be a famed grandmaster of the age and had risked entering the palace in search of a divine sword.
The grandmaster asked how they might repay her. Yingying asked them to teach her the sword. The grandmaster said, "You are already grown, and your frame has long since set. To train in the martial way is like rowing against the current. I fear you may never reach its heights."
Yingying bowed again and said, "Like Jingwei carrying twigs to fill the sea, so shall I. If one year is not enough, I shall give ten. If even this life is not enough, I shall have no regrets."
As her words fell, the cypresses in the courtyard rustled, as though ringing with the clash of arms. The grandmaster was stirred by her resolve. They clapped in praise and agreed to pass on their art.
From then on, sky and sea lay open before her, free for her to cross at will.
The grandmaster watched her departing figure with a thousand feelings in their heart. Yet Yingying said nothing. She merely turned and walked on alone into the jianghu.
Thus began the tale of how the jianghu came to know her as heroine Yingying.