The Smiling, Proud Wanderer
Louis Cha
 The story's initial development revolves around a coveted martial arts manual known as the Bixie Swordplay Manual. The manual has been passed down as an heirloom in the Lin family, who runs the Fuwei Escort Agency based in Fuzhou. Yu Canghai, leader of the Qingcheng Sect, leads his followers to massacre the Lins and seize the manual for himself but does not find it. Lin Pingzhi, the sole survivor of the Lin family, is rescued by Yue Buqun, head of the Mount Hua Sect, one of the members of the Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance. Yue Buqun accepts Lin Pingzhi as a student and trains him in swordplay. The novel's protagonist is Yue Buqun's eldest disciple Linghu Chong, an orphaned, happy-go-lucky but honourable swordsman who has a penchant for liquor. He befriends the notorious bandit Tian Boguang and saves a nun called Yilin from the (North) Mount Heng Sect from Tian's sexual advances. In the meantime Liu Zhengfeng of the (South) Mount Heng Sect announces his decision to leave the wulin (martial artists' community) and invites fellow pugilists to witness his retirement ceremony. The event turns into a bloodbath when Zuo Lengchan (chief of the Mount Song Sect) and other orthodox sects accuse Liu Zhengfeng of being unfaithful to their code for befriending Qu Yang of the heretical Sun Moon Holy Cult. Liu and Qu are cornered by Zuo and his men and eventually commit suicide. Before dying Liu and Qu pass the score of Xiaoao Jianghu (a piece of music they composed together) to Linghu Chong. Lin Pingzhi's entrance into the Mount Hua Sect causes Linghu Chong to break up with his romantic interest Yue Lingshan (Yue Buqun's daughter) as she starts falling in love with Lin. Linghu Chong's carefree attitude brings him into trouble; his teacher decides to punish him by making him stay alone for a year in a secluded area on Mount Hua to reflect on his actions. He discovers carvings of swordplay techniques in a cave and practises them, unknowingly familiarising himself with not only the skills of the other four sword sects, but the counter moves as well. He also meets the reclusive Feng Qingyang, an elder of the Mount Hua Sect, who teaches him the formidable skill "Nine Swords of Dugu". The self-proclaimed orthodox Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance, though seemingly united, is constantly troubled by politicking among its members. Linghu Chong gets embroiled in the internal conflict and becomes seriously injured while saving several students using his newly mastered swordplay, which Yue Buqun deems unorthodox. Linghu Chong meets the "Six Immortals of the Peach Valley", who attempt to cure his wounds in their weird fashion, but fail and aggravate his injuries instead. He follows his teacher to Luoyang and encounters a guqin-playing "old woman", who turns out to be a young maiden named Ren Yingying in disguise. By then Yue Buqun has already grown tired of Linghu Chong's frequent associations with jianghu lowlifes and strangers, and he abandons the latter. At Shaolin Monastery, Linghu Chong helps Ren Yingying recuperate from an injury after she is assaulted by some orthodox pugilists, while he learns to use the Yijin Jing to cure himself. He also hears from the Shaolin abbot that Yue Buqun has publicly announced that he has expelled Linghu Chong from the Mount Hua Sect. Linghu Chong sinks into despair as he is now an outcast of the wulin. After leaving Shaolin he meets a stranger Xiang Wentian, whom he saves from dozens of enemies. Xiang becomes sworn brothers with Linghu and brings him to a manor in Hangzhou, where Linghu meets Ren Woxing (Ren Yingying's father), the former leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult who was ousted from power by his deputy Dongfang Bubai and imprisoned there. Ren Woxing breaks out of captivity by using Linghu Chong to replace himself, and in return he lets Linghu learn his "Star Sucking Great Skill" and thereafter rescues Linghu from the dungeon. Ren Woxing offers his daughter's hand in marriage to Linghu Chong and tries to persuade Linghu to join his cult but the latter declines. Linghu later helps Ren Woxing defeat Dongfang Bubai and regain control of his cult. Because he once helped the late leaders of the (North) Mount Heng Sect, who were mysteriously murdered, Linghu Chong is appointed head of that sect, whose members are all nuns. He leaves with Ren Yingying later to attend a special assembly of the Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance, called for by its chief Zuo Lengchan. Zuo Lengchan attempts to intimidate the other four sects to completely submit to him, but Yue Buqun uses the Bixie Swordplay to defeat and blind Zuo and become the new leader of the alliance, much to the surprise of everyone present. After leaving the assembly, Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying see Lin Pingzhi brutally slaying members of the Qingcheng Sect to avenge his family, and overhear a conversation between him and his wife Yue Lingshan, in which Lin reveals that he and Yue Buqun have both mastered the Bixie Swordplay. Through this, Linghu learns that his respected teacher is actually a hypocrite who plotted an elaborate scheme against Lin Pingzhi to seize the Bixie Swordplay Manual, and Lin and Yue have both castrated themselves to learn the skill. Yue Buqun tries to kill Lin Pingzhi, who knows his secret and is quietly plotting revenge on him. The finale climaxes with members of the Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance being trapped in the cave with the carvings, owing to Yue Buqun's treachery, where they slaughter each other out of paranoia and distrust. Both Yue Buqun's wife and daughter die for their respective husbands, while Yue Buqun is stabbed to death by the young nun Yilin. Ren Woxing, now intoxicated by power, masters an attack to overcome the scattered and fragmented orthodox sects, and then coerces Linghu Chong to join his cult, but dies at a crucial moment from a stroke triggered by his own megalomania. Ren Yingying is nominated as the new leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult and she seeks a truce between the righteous and unorthodox sides of the martial artists' community. Three years later she passes the leadership to Xiang Wentian and marries Linghu Chong. Disillusioned by all the strife caused by power struggles, Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying retire from the jianghu, living happily after a wedding where the orthodox and unorthodox sects come to a temporary truce.