As the male number one in "Wulin Gaiden", Bai Zhantang once shook the rivers and lakes in the name of "White Jade Soup" and was jointly promoted as a "thief saint". But through the plot, Lao Bai is not only surprisingly cowardly, but also like a mouse seeing a cat, plus his deeds on the rivers and lakes are almost all fake, so more and more viewers feel that Lao Bai is actually difficult to live up to his fame.
It is true that due to some daily performances, it is difficult for Lao Bai to associate him with a master in the traditional sense. But objectively speaking, judging from the many shows of strength and the evaluation of some Jianghu masters after meeting him, I think Lao Bai is a proper first-class master. Looking at all the characters who appeared, he could steadily suppress him, but he couldn't exceed the number of a hand. Even if there is a tie with him, it is rare, so overall, Bai Zhantang is definitely the top ten in the martial arts in the play, which does not match the name of a master.
The reason why the thief is looked down upon
foolishly thinks that Bai Zhantang is questioned by the public for four main reasons:
First of all, as we just mentioned, the legends about the "thief saints" on the rivers and lakes are almost all false! The retreat of the four great thieves in the south of the Yangtze River, the lost Nine Dragons Cup of General Fuyuan, and the sale of the furniture of the concubine of the prefect of Yangzhou are all miraculous, and the brilliant achievements that countless people in the rivers and lakes believe to be true have nothing to do with Bai Zhantang at all. But we need to be clear that whether there are these legends or not, it will not affect the true level of Lao Bai's martial arts. And the reason why these people invariably blame the thief is a disguised recognition. If it weren't for Lao Bai's superior ability and great prestige, how could the earliest misfortune appear? Therefore, the existence of these deeds only sublimated Lao Bai, and it was not by relying on these "mythical stories" to shock the rivers and lakes.
Although Bai Zhantang's real record is not mentioned much in the play, the "King of Thieves Competition" that shook the rivers and lakes is real, and Lao Bai won the championship among many "thieves" with his transcendent strength. In addition, in the big competition that brought together all the light masters on the rivers and lakes, Lao Bai lost to Chu Liuxiang in the case of being barefoot and against the wind, which was enough to show his strength, and even felt that he deliberately won the second place out of courtesy to his predecessors, after all, in Ji Wuming's words, Chu Liuxiang's "business level" was far worse than their brothers.
The second is the misconception. Lao Bai's timidity and cowardice are easy to cause visual misunderstandings, and what he does is really strange, and he is not even a qualified thief, Ji Wuming complained about Lao Bai, saying that he would send people back after stealing things and playing for two days! Lao Bai's explanation for this is even more ridiculous - are you not in a hurry to lose things? Therefore, Lao Bai may be really timid, but the reason why this is so is because of his kind nature, which is the biggest difference between him and Ji Wuming.
But Lao Bai's timidity is divided into situations, not only is he responsible at critical moments, but he also often relies on his extraordinary ability to turn things around, although everyone doesn't say it, but almost all of them acquiesce to his identity as the patron saint of Tongfu Inn.
When the black and white were in a uproar, although Lao Bai was trembling, like everyone else, he seemed to be scared and lost his soul, but he easily dealt with Guo Furong when he had to make a move; Some people say that this is because of Lao Bai's sneak attack, otherwise it wouldn't be so easy, but is this really the case? Yang Huilan's flame knife does have a certain degree of attainment, but when the front is hard, as soon as Lao Bai raises her finger, Yang Huilan hates to accept the trick and does not dare to make a mistake, which shows that she knows the gap between her and Lao Bai.
In fact, the reason why Bai Zhantang often makes a fuss is that it can't be completely called timid, to be precise, it seems more appropriate to say cautious, and at the same time, it is likely that he has been wandering the rivers and lakes for many years, and has been doing the snitch, so he has developed the habit of "pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger". After all, the characteristic of a thief is that he hides in the shadows and suddenly makes trouble, rather than starting a single practice with others at every turn, in this regard, Bai Zhantang is not only qualified but even excellent.
In addition, Lao Bai has the responsibility of a man at the moment of life and death, even if he knows that he is invincible and deeply afraid, he still chooses to advance and retreat with everyone, rather than slipping away by himself, such as when facing the Five Poisons Sect, the Flying Knife Sect, the Heavenly Remnant Sect and the transcendent Gongsun Oolong.
The third is the common cognitive misunderstanding of most people's understanding of martial arts, in their opinion, Lao Bai will only light skills and points, and this is just a trick of the bad street in the martial arts world, in fact, this is due to the influence of modern martial arts novels, such as Mr. Jin Yong's novels, but anyone who walks the rivers and lakes will basically have light skills and points, but the level is different. But these are only auxiliary means that cannot be put on the table, and they are not worth mentioning at all.
In fact, in the pioneering work of martial arts novels "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", the point is an extremely profound martial arts, and throughout the book, only Ouyang Chun, whose strength is far superior to that of the heroes, will be alone. The arrogant brocade rat Bai Yutang was pointed at by Ouyang Chun while talking and laughing, so he wanted to commit suicide in shame, so if "Wulin Gaiden" is modeled on the martial arts system of "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", then the point can naturally be called a miracle. At the same time, judging from the almost invincible situation of Gongsun Oolong, the point point is indeed a superior martial artist in this drama.
In fact, martial arts is a very broad definition, light skills and acupoints are part of it, there is no reason not to be included in hard power, let alone despise. And although Lao Bai uses a point almost every time he shoots, it doesn't mean that he won't have other martial arts, in partnership with Li Dazui to make money, and plans to open a museum to teach apprentices, he once said to Lao Xing that as long as he helps people learn, then he can teach Lao Xing other martial arts in addition to points. and when Tong Xiangyu pretended to be unconscious, Lao Bai also used a kind of kung fu called "Ninety-Nine Yang Palm".
The last point is very unfavorable to Lao Bai, that is, he once personally said that his martial arts rank second to last among the sunflower faction of hundreds of people, that is to say, aside from Elder Bei and Senior Sister Zhu Wushuang, who don't know martial arts, Lao Bai's skills are the worst (although Elder North doesn't know martial arts, he is the second master of the other three elders, so this so-called penultimate should not be counted as Elder Bei).
While this is true nine times out of ten, the passage of time no longer applies. First of all, Bai Zhantang was only a teenager when he was in the Sunflower Sect, and it is not surprising that his martial arts were not successful, so it was not surprising that he was not good; secondly, in the middle of the plot year, the three heavyweights of Shaolin's Zhiqing Master, Wudang's Chongxu Daochang, and Qi Scholar of the Hanlin Academy were killed, and because they all died of the "Sunflower Point Acuman" and the murderer's finger strength was very strong, so Lao Bai was locked as the number one suspect. Lao Bai was indignant about this, but Bai Sanniang felt that the suspicion of the imperial court was not unreasonable, because although there were many people who knew this kung fu, their finger power was strong enough to point Master Zhiqing and Chongxu Daochang, and there were only their mother and Gongsun Oolong throughout the rivers and lakes. In other words, although there is a big gap with his mother and Gongsun Oolong, Lao Bai has ranked third in the world in terms of attainments in points, and he is no longer the penultimate sunflower faction that was not the original one;
To sum up, at least in terms of the comprehensive performance of the plot year, Bai Zhantang is definitely worthy of the name of "Thief Saint", and he is a well-deserved first-class master in the play.
The "Big Four" that crushed Lao Bai
When it comes to the number one master in the book, the most vocal is undoubtedly Gongsun Oolong, who almost wiped out the Tongfu Inn, and Guo Juxia, who is famous all over the world.
Gongsun Oolong's sunflower point acumen shown in the play is amazing, and its realm has long exceeded the stability, accuracy, and ruthlessness that Lao Bai often says, and countless top masters in the rivers and lakes have broken in his hands. In the face of Bai Sanniang and Bai Zhantang's mother and son, Gongsun Oolong didn't even raise his head to point back on the two, and after practicing the "turtle shell magic skill" of the turtle Taoist in Causeway Bay, he was even more fearless of the points, which made Bai Sanniang helpless, which is equivalent to saying that the only weakness that is not a weakness has disappeared without a trace. There is another point, Ji Wusheng's martial arts level is obvious to all, and his skills are all taught by Gongsun Oolong, but he doesn't know how to point points, which is enough to see that Gongsun Oolong's attainments in other martial arts are also unfathomable.
Guo Juxia is Guo Furong's father, because he is called the hero of the heroes, so he is called "Giant Hero", although there is no martial arts display in the play except for pressing the chopsticks into the table, but in the impression Guo Furong seems to have said that his father's Storm Palm has been practiced to the extreme, and the power is unimaginable. And even if there is no record, I don't think anyone will object to saying that Guo Juxia is a ceiling-level master in the play.
Then there was Shangguan Yundun, the number one master of the Heavenly Remnant Sect and a very gentle name. Shangguan Yundun is one of the few characters who makes Lao Bai restrained, because Bai Zhantang obviously took the initiative and successfully hit Shangguan Yundun, but he didn't want Shangguan Yundun not only not to be affected at all, but to break Lao Bai's fingers. Throughout the play, the only ones who have fought with Lao Bai and are completely unafraid of his sunflower point acumen are Gongsun Oolong, Bai Sanniang and Shangguan Yundun (Xie Budong actually ignored Lao Bai's acupoint, but many friends said that it was because he wore treasure armor).
Finally, Lao Bai's mother, Bai Sanniang, is a heroine among women who do not let her eyebrows, a veritable No. 1 in the world of light skills, and proficient in the legendary "treading snow and looking for plums". It is worth mentioning that many people think that there is an insurmountable gap between Bai Sanniang and Gongsun Oolong, after all, Sanniang was beaten almost all the way in the face of Gongsun Oolong, and the final success was also due to the sneak attack. But everyone may ignore one point, that is, if Gongsun Oolong does not use the turtle shell magic skill, Bai Sanniang's point on him can take effect. In other words, in terms of finger power, Bai Sanniang is not worse than Gongsun Oolong, and the gap between the two is only in the speed and comprehensiveness of the shot (in the same case, Zhu Wushuang can't stop Bai Zhantang).
Therefore, in terms of strength, Gongsun Oolong, Guo Juxia, Shangguan Yundun and Bai Sanniang can be called the "four giants" of this play, which makes Lao Bai unreachable.
Bai Zhantang sighed to himself that he was inferior to the two masters
In addition to the above four masters, there are two people in the play who make Lao Bai sigh to himself, and he doesn't even have the courage to fight. The first is Mrs. Jiang, the mother of Du Zijun, the richest man in Tongling. The old lady showed two places, one was to easily break Guo Furong's arm, and the other was to take her dislocated arm back. In addition, she said that the points were useless to her, and she was quite contemptuous of Bai Sanniang, which made people a little confused.
I think there are three possibilities in this, the first is that Mrs. Jiang is really not afraid of the points, and Bai Sanniang really has to retreat when facing her; secondly, Mrs. Jiang and Bai Sanniang have a holiday, but it is not a deep hatred, so they deliberately step on each other to be angry (to be honest, I personally think this possibility is very likely, when watching this episode, I inexplicably feel that Mrs. Jiang and Bai Sanniang were rivals in love when they were young); No matter what, the weightlifting hard palm of Guo Furong was still unharmed, Lao Bai couldn't do it, and Mrs. Jiang was amazing, so Bai Zhantang didn't dare to make a move. As for the upper limit of her strength, we have no way of knowing because she has shown too little, but there is no suspense that she is stronger than Bai Zhantang.
His martial arts were called "unfathomable" by Lao Bai, and like Mrs. Jiang, Ji Wuming shook Guo Furong out after being hit by it, and told Xiao Guo not to shout it out before making a move next time. And although Lao Bai attacked Ji Wusheng once, when Ji Wusheng was crazy and didn't recognize Lao Bai's head-to-head confrontation, although he didn't give the picture to the audience, Lao Bai spat blood in just an instant, which shows that there is still a certain gap between the two people's martial arts.
and Bai Zhantang's three fierce rivals
There are three of the six masters who are roughly at the same level as Bai Zhantang, and the outcome is not easy to say, especially the first Pinggu is a little red, a hero with unparalleled swordsmanship and supernatural skills, although he does not show much except for cutting flies, but from Lao Bai's attitude towards him, it can be seen that this is an opponent who is extremely feared by the thief saint.
The second is Gong Changzhang, one of the four elders of the Beggar Gang (who claims to be the head of the four elders), who fought with Lao Bai head-on and was hit in the arm by the sunflower point acupoint, making the whole arm unable to move, and left after praising "the afterlife is terrifying". However, Lao Bai didn't bargain, he was hit by the other party's "Kanglong has regrets", and forcibly endured spitting blood in his mouth after he left, but the injury was not serious, and he recovered as usual after a night of breathing. It can be seen that this is a figure who is extremely similar to Bai Zhantang's strength, and his level is almost the same.
The third is Yue Songtao, the head of the Huashan faction, and the head of the three factions of Huashan on the sword power of Songshan, Hengshan and Taishan has a great tendency to merge the five mountains. When they met Lao Bai for the first time in the alley, they sighed at each other's profound skills and feared each other.
However, after Yue Songtao showed a few hands, although Lao Bai recognized the strength of the other party, he also claimed that as long as he did not compete with swordsmanship, he would not lose to Yue Songtao, which was a rare time for Lao Bai not to be intimidated.
In the end, Tongfu Inn designed a whole set of rogue processes for Mo Xiaobei to win, and in the face of Yue Songtao, who might not admit it, Lao Bai directly made it clear that his words were very polite, and he had a big fight if he didn't agree with him. In terms of Bai Zhantang's character, if he is not fully sure, he will not casually argue with others, so I think that although the two of them are generally at the same level, Lao Bai's overall strength is slightly higher than Yue Songtao.
In addition to the six masters mentioned above, Gongsun Oolong, Guo Juxia, Shangguan Yundun, Bai Sanniang, Mrs. Jiang, and Ji Wuming, who are obviously stronger than Bai Zhantang, as well as Pinggu Yihong, Gong Changzhang, and Yue Songtao between the old Bai Bozhong, there is also a suspected master of the "big coffee" - the old man who paints, according to the plot, Hengshan swordsmanship and sunflower point acupoint are all martial arts created by him, and there are also many high-quality martial arts that also come from his hands, so many people think that he is the real first master. However, we do not know whether he is proficient in these techniques or only knows the theory and does not know how to use them.
It can be seen that in the whole book, in addition to the six ironclad stronger than Lao Bai and the three characters who are on par with him, there is only one old man who is difficult to know the depth of painting that may be stronger than Lao Bai, so Bai Zhantang can roughly rank between seventh and tenth among all the characters who appear, and his strength is comparable to that of the head of one party, and he has not lived up to the name of the giant of the "thief saint".