Yue the Third

Yue the Third, the South Sea Divine Alligator, is one of the Four Evils, a formidable but volatile martial artist whose pride repeatedly outlasts his judgment. At the lakeside, he throws himself into a confrontation involving Duan Zhengchun and Duan Yanqing, only to be effortlessly cast into the water by Xiao Feng. His persistence after defeat, and his readiness to take A'Zi's joke for a genuine technique, make him the scene's comic counterpoint to the danger posed by Duan Yanqing.

Identity and Introduction

Yue the Third appears among three figures approaching along the path beside the lake. He is the disheveled, short-clothed man on the left, identified by the epithet South Sea Divine Alligator. With him are Ye Erniang, carrying a child, and Duan Yanqing, the leader of the Four Evils. Their arrival brings a new and dangerous set of opponents into the encounter already gathering around Duan Zhengchun.

Yue's position among the Four Evils does not make him the group's most dangerous member. Duan Zhengchun recognizes that Duan Yanqing's command of both orthodox and unorthodox martial arts makes him an exceptional threat; the other two, Ye Erniang and Yue the Third, are powerful but, by comparison, less difficult to handle. The distinction establishes a hierarchy within the group: Yue is dangerous, yet the confrontation's greatest strategic concern is Duan Yanqing.

Conflict at the Lakeside

Yue's grievance is personal. He says that Duan Zhengchun has a son who refuses to accept him as a master, and declares his intention to cut Duan Zhengchun down. He draws his Alligator-Mouthed Scissors and charges, converting resentment over the son's refusal into an attack on the father.

Fan Hua responds by ordering Hua Hegen and Zhu Danchen to attack Yue together. They initially feel that two against one lacks dignity, and Hua Hegen considers his own martial skill sufficient to face Yue. But Fan Hua's broader calculation is that the party cannot afford to preserve the appearance of a fair contest while Duan Yanqing remains a more formidable opponent. He urges them to deal with the other attackers quickly so that everyone can turn to the leader. Hua Hegen, wielding a steel shovel, and Zhu Danchen, carrying iron brushes, therefore close on Yue from opposite sides.

This collective response places Yue within a wider crisis rather than a self-contained duel. The Dali party is outnumbered and faces danger to its lord and companions. Fan Hua's tactics treat Yue as an immediate threat to contain, while preserving strength for the confrontation with Duan Yanqing. Yue's charge is thus both an expression of his own grievance and one part of a larger struggle over survival and protection.

Xiao Feng's Intervention

The scene changes sharply when Xiao Feng acts. After Duan Yanqing writes seventeen words on a flagstone, Xiao Feng erases them with sweeps of his foot. Duan Yanqing reads the gesture as a display of skill and a signal that their past antagonism need not be pursued; recognizing that he is no match for Xiao Feng, he chooses to leave. Yue, by contrast, does not withdraw. He insults Xiao Feng, and Xiao Feng immediately throws him into the lake while still carrying Duan Zhengchun with one hand.

The contrast is pointed: Duan Yanqing recognizes Xiao Feng's superiority and departs, while Yue remains openly defiant even after being outmatched. Yue's swimming ability lets him rise repeatedly from the lake, where he demands to know how Xiao Feng threw him and complains that he was attacked by surprise. He returns to shore still intent on finding out the method, treating the unfamiliar maneuver as a matter of professional curiosity as well as wounded pride.

The Turtle Throwing Skill

A'Zi turns Yue's demand into a joke by solemnly naming Xiao Feng's maneuver the “Turtle Throwing Skill.” Yue accepts the false name at face value. He says that, now he knows what the skill is called, he can ask someone to teach it to him and train so that he will not be caught at the same disadvantage again. He then leaves at a brisk pace, while Ye Erniang and Yun Zhonghe have already gone ahead.

The episode gives Yue a comic ending without erasing his martial standing or his temper. He is capable enough to survive the lake and return to confront Xiao Feng, but his insistence on learning a technique whose name A'Zi has just invented exposes the gap between his bluster and his discernment. His departure turns humiliation into a new training objective, while the false name preserves the scene's joke beyond the immediate encounter.

Characterization and Narrative Role

Yue is defined here by forceful impulse: he attacks Duan Zhengchun over the son's refusal to become his disciple, responds angrily when challenged, and cannot let an unexplained defeat pass without asking how it happened. Yet the same determination that sustains his bravado also makes him receptive to the promise of mastery. He accepts the “Turtle Throwing Skill” not as mockery but as a practical lesson he hopes to acquire.

His role in the sequence is secondary but structurally useful. The threat of Duan Yanqing gives the confrontation its serious stakes; Yue's charge helps show how the Dali party is pressed by multiple opponents, and his subsequent exchange with Xiao Feng releases tension through humor. A'Zi's invented technique supplies the closing reversal: Yue leaves not with an answer about Xiao Feng's real method, but with a name he believes will guide his training.