XuanCi

XuanCi is the abbot of Shaolin whose invitation to the Chongyang gathering sets the terms for a coming confrontation with the Murong family. He seeks Murong Fu’s presence at the temple to answer for the reputation of the family technique known as Returning you with your own move, amid suspicions that it is connected to deaths in the martial world.

Identity and Authority

XuanCi leads Shaolin and speaks for the temple in dealings with the wider martial community. The invitation Xu Zhu carries is issued in the abbot’s name, making the proposed gathering an institutional act rather than a private challenge. It calls on heroes to assemble at Shaolin Temple on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, the Chongyang Festival, and publicly challenge the standing of the Murong family’s celebrated technique.

The wording places Shaolin’s reputation at stake as well. XuanCi is not simply asking Murong Fu to appear: by calling a gathering around the technique, he is responding to rumors that have circulated for years and to suspicions within his own monastery. The invitation makes those unresolved doubts a matter for the martial world to witness.

The Invitation to Murong Fu

Xu Zhu explains that XuanCi had long hoped Murong Fu would visit Shaolin, but that Murong Fu had not come. Shaolin had twice sent people to the Murong residence; on both occasions, they learned that the elder Murong had died and Murong Fu had left. The abbot then sent the head monk of the Damo Hall to Suzhou with an invitation, still hoping to reach Murong Fu directly.

Because Murong Fu remained absent, Shaolin circulated the invitation more widely through the martial community. Xu Zhu presents this as a practical effort to ensure that the invitation reached its intended recipient, while asking the Murong household’s retainers to explain the breach of etiquette to their young master. He adds that when Murong Fu visits the following year, XuanCi will personally apologize. The conciliatory offer sits beside the public challenge: Shaolin wants Murong Fu to attend, but it also wants the question surrounding his family’s reputation confronted openly.

Suspicions and the Coming Gathering

The invitation names the issue at the heart of Shaolin’s concern: many people have died in recent years under the supposed power of the Murong family’s Returning you with your own move. Xu Zhu says that the abbot is the exception among Shaolin’s monks; the others suspect that the Murong family may be connected to the death of XuanBei in Dali. The text establishes suspicion, not proof, and the invitation is framed as a means of bringing the matter before Murong Fu rather than as a verdict already reached.

The planned meeting thus joins a formal summons to a reputational trial. Shaolin’s invitation identifies the date and place, appeals to Murong Fu’s presence, and makes its monks’ doubts explicit through Xu Zhu’s explanation. XuanCi’s decision to invite rather than silently condemn preserves a path to direct engagement, while the public nature of the gathering ensures that the dispute cannot remain confined to private rumor.