The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 1 – Part 3

Lu Liding knew his own daughter was crafty, mischievous, and full of tricks, but Cheng Ying never lied. “What happened?” he demanded.

Lu Wushuang chattered away, recounting everything that had just occurred.

Lu Liding sensed grave danger. Without waiting for her to finish, he snatched his saber from the wall and rushed towards his brother and sister-in-law’s graves. When he reached the burial site, he found not only the graves broken open but the two coffins pried apart as well. Though he had half-expected something of the sort when his daughter mentioned the grave-digging, the sight still set his heart pounding. The bodies inside the coffins had vanished without a trace, and the lime, paper padding, and cotton bedding within were in complete disarray.

He steadied himself and examined the coffin lids, which bore many marks left by iron tools, evidence of hacking and prying. Grief and fury, shock and suspicion welled up within him. He had not questioned his daughter carefully enough. He had no idea what deep grudge this grave-robbing villain bore against his brother and sister-in-law, that he would desecrate their corpses even after death to vent his hatred. Gripping his saber, he gave chase.

All of Lu Liding’s martial arts had been passed down from his elder brother, Lu Zhanyuan. By nature, he was a man of quiet temperament, and with a comfortable family fortune, he had lived a life of ease and plenty, never venturing into the jianghu.¹ He could be said to have no experience whatsoever, and he lacked the resourcefulness to adapt to changing circumstances. He had no idea how to track a corpse thief, and after circling around, he found himself back at the graves with no clue what to do. He stood there in a daze for a long while, then had no choice but to return home.

He walked into the main hall, sat down heavily in a chair, propped his saber beside him, and stared blankly at the nine bloody palm prints on the wall. His mind churned with a single thought, Before my brother died, he told me he had an enemy, a Daoist priestess named Li Mochou,² known as the Scarlet Serpent Immortal.³ Her martial arts were formidable, and her methods were ruthless and merciless. He predicted that ten years after his wedding, she would come seeking revenge against him and his wife. At the time, he said, “This illness will be the end of me. As for that grudge, the Scarlet Serpent Immortal will never have her revenge. In three more years, it will be time for her to come. Whatever you do, you must persuade your sister-in-law to flee far away.” I promised him through my tears. I never imagined that on the very night my brother died, my sister-in-law would take her own life to follow him in death. My brother has been gone three years now. By my reckoning, this is exactly when that priestess would come for her revenge. But since my brother and sister-in-law are both dead, surely all grudges are wiped clean. What is that priestess doing here?

My brother also said that before that priestess kills, she often prints bloody palm prints on the walls or doors of the victim’s home, one handprint for each life she intends to take. Our household, including the hired hands and serving maids, numbers only seven in total. Why has she printed nine handprints? Ah, I see. She printed the handprints first, then learned that my brother and sister-in-law were dead, so she sent someone to dig up the graves and steal the bodies? This… this demon woman is truly vicious… I was home all day today. When were these nine bloody handprints put up? To do this so secretly, without anyone noticing… this person… this person…

At this thought, he could not suppress a shudder.

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Behind him came the soft patter of footsteps, and a pair of small, soft hands covered his eyes. His daughter’s voice said, “Daddy, guess who I am?”

This was a game Lu Wushuang had played with her father since she was small. When she was three, she had covered his eyes with her hands and said, “Daddy, guess who I am?” This sent both parents into gales of laughter. Ever since, whenever her father was downcast, she would use this trick to cheer him up. Even in the depths of fury, Lu Liding’s anger would always melt away when his beloved daughter teased him like this.

But today, he had no heart for playing with her. He brushed her hands aside. “Daddy’s busy. Go play inside.”

Lu Wushuang was stunned. She had been doted on by her parents since birth and had rarely seen him ignore her like this. Her little mouth pursed, and she was about to throw a tantrum when the manservant Agen hurried in. With his hands at his sides, he reported, “Young Master, there are guests outside.”

Lu Liding waved his hand. “Tell them I’m not home.”

Agen said, “Young Master, the lady isn’t asking to see you. She’s a traveller looking to stay the night.”

Lu Liding started. “What? A woman?”

Agen said, “Yes, the lady has two children with her, both quite handsome-looking.”

Hearing that the female guest had two children with her, Lu Liding relaxed slightly. “She’s not a Daoist priestess?”

Agen shook his head. “No. She’s dressed neatly, like a respectable lady from a good family.”

Lu Liding said, “Very well. Show her to the guest quarters and serve her a meal.”

Agen acknowledged the order and left. Lu Wushuang said, “I want to go see too.” She ran out after him.

Lu Liding rose to go inside and discuss with his wife how to deal with the enemy, but Lady Lu had already come into the hall. Lu Liding showed her the bloody palm prints and told her about the broken graves and missing bodies. Lady Lu frowned. “Where can we send the two children to hide?”

Lu Liding pointed at the bloody handprints on the wall. “The two children are included in the count. Since this demon has pressed her bloody handprints, I fear they won’t be easy to hide. Ha, the two of us have trained in martial arts all these years for nothing. This person came and went through our home without us sensing a thing. This… this…”

Lady Lu gazed at the white wall, gripping the back of a chair. “Why nine handprints? There are only seven of us in this household.”

As the words left her lips, her limbs went weak. She stared at her husband, on the verge of tears. Lu Liding reached out and supported her by the arm. “My dear, now that it’s come to this, there’s no need to be afraid. The top two handprints are meant for my brother and sister-in-law. The next two are naturally for you and me. The third row of two is for Wushuang and little Ying. The last three are for Agen and the two serving maids. Heh heh, this is what they call blood splattering the entire household.”

Lady Lu said in a trembling voice, “Brother and sister-in-law?”

Lu Liding said, “I don’t know what deep grudge this demon bears against my brother and sister-in-law. Even though they’re dead, she still sent someone to dig up their bodies from the graves to humiliate them.”

Lady Lu said, “You mean that madman was sent by her?”

Lu Liding said, “Of course.”

Lady Lu saw that his face was covered in sweat and dust. Gently she said, “Go back to our room and wash your face, change your clothes, and rest a while before we discuss this further.”

Lu Liding rose and walked back to their room with her. “My dear,” he said, “if the entire Lu family is doomed to die today, let us at least die in a way that does not disgrace the name of my brother and sister-in-law.”

Lady Lu felt a pang of sorrow. “You are right, my husband.”

Both of them reflected that although Lu Liding was unknown and obscure, his elder brother Lu Zhanyuan and sister-in-law He Yuanjun were famed throughout the jianghu for their chivalry, and the name of Lu Manor of Jiaxing had never been taken lightly in the world of martial arts.

As they walked into the rear courtyard, they suddenly heard a click from the eastern wall. Someone was up high. Lu Liding stepped forward to shield his wife and looked up. A boy was sitting on top of the wall, reaching out to pluck a trumpet creeper flower. From the foot of the wall came a voice calling, “Be careful, don’t fall!”

It was Cheng Ying, Lu Wushuang, and a boy, crouched behind the flower trellis at the base of the wall. Lu Liding thought to himself, These two children must belong to the family staying the night. How can they be so mischievous?

The boy on the wall plucked a flower. Lu Wushuang called, “Give it to me! Give it to me!” The boy grinned and tossed it towards Cheng Ying instead. Cheng Ying caught it and handed it to her cousin. Lu Wushuang was annoyed. She took the flower, threw it on the ground, and stamped on it a few times. “As if I care!” she huffed. “I don’t want it.”

Lu Liding and his wife watched the children playing with such enthusiasm, utterly oblivious that a bloody catastrophe was bearing down upon them. They sighed and went into their room together.

Cheng Ying saw Lu Wushuang trample the flower. “Cousin, what are you angry about now?”

Lu Wushuang pouted. “I don’t want his. I’ll pick my own.” With that, she pushed off with her right foot, leapt up, caught hold of a wisteria vine hanging from the trellis, used it to propel herself several more feet upward, and darted towards the branch of a silver osmanthus tree.

The boy on the wall clapped and cheered. “Come over here!”

Lu Wushuang grabbed the osmanthus branch with both hands, swung back and forth in the air a few times, then released the branch and launched herself towards the top of the wall.

Given the meagre qinggong⁴ she had trained in, this leap was far too dangerous. But she was angry that the boy had thrown the flower to her cousin instead of her, and as a young girl determined not to lose face before strangers, she hurled herself through the air without a second thought.

The boy was startled. “Watch out!” he cried, reaching out to catch her. If he had not extended his hands, Lu Wushuang could have grabbed the top of the wall, but seeing him reach for her in midair, she snapped, “Get out of the way!” She twisted aside to avoid his hands. The art of turning one’s body in midair is an extremely advanced qinggong technique. She had once seen her father perform it, but even her mother could not do it. How could a little girl possibly execute it? The turn caused her fingers to miss the wall, and with a cry of alarm, she plummeted straight down.

The boy at the foot of the wall saw her falling and dashed over, reaching out to catch her. The wall was over a zhang high. Though Lu Wushuang was light, the force of the fall was considerable. The boy caught her around the waist, and the two of them crashed heavily to the ground together. Two sharp cracks rang out. Lu Wushuang’s left leg had snapped, and the boy’s forehead had struck the corner of the flower bed, sending blood spurting.

Cheng Ying and the other boy, seeing the disaster they had caused, rushed over to help. The boy slowly got to his feet, pressing his hand against the wound on his forehead, but Lu Wushuang had already fainted. Cheng Ying held her cousin and cried, “Uncle! Aunt! Come quickly!”

Lu Liding and his wife heard the cries and rushed out of their room. They saw the two injured children, and also saw a middle-aged woman hurrying out from the western wing, presumably the traveller who had asked to stay the night. The woman scooped up Lu Wushuang and the injured boy and carried them into the hall. Rather than stopping the bleeding first, she set about joining the broken bone in Lu Wushuang’s leg. Lady Lu fetched a cloth and bandaged the boy’s head, then went to check on her daughter’s leg.

The woman pressed two acupoints⁵, the “White Sea” point⁶ on the inner side of Lu Wushuang’s broken leg and the “Bending Middle” point⁷ behind the knee, to stop the pain. Then she held both sides of the break, preparing to set the bone. Lu Liding watched her swift, practised movements and her expert acupoint-sealing technique, and suspicion surged within him. “Who are you, madam?” he demanded. “What business brings you to my humble home?”

The woman was wholly focused on setting Lu Wushuang’s bone. She merely murmured a few sounds without answering his question.

At that very moment, a laugh rang out from the rooftop. A woman’s voice called, “I seek only the seven lives of the Lu household. All others, leave at once!”

The woman was in the middle of setting the bone. Startled by the sudden shout from above, her hands involuntarily twisted, crack, and the broken bone was wrenched out of alignment again. Under the excruciating pain, Lu Wushuang screamed and fainted once more.

Everyone looked up. Standing at the edge of the roof was a young Daoist priestess. Moonlight fell upon her face. She appeared to be only fifteen or sixteen years old. A long sword was strapped to her back, and its blood-red tassel fluttered and snapped in the wind.

Lu Liding said in a clear voice, “I am Lu Liding. Are you a disciple of the Immortal Li?”

The young priestess curled her lip. “Since you know, that saves trouble! Kill your wife, your daughter, and your servants at once, then take your own life. Spare me the extra effort.” These words were delivered with casual indifference, without haste or heat, as though she did not consider her opponents worthy of the slightest regard.

Lu Liding trembled with rage. “You… you…” For a moment, he did not know how to respond. He was about to leap up and fight, but his opponent was young and female. It would not be proper to attack her directly. As he hesitated, he sensed someone brush past him. The woman who had asked to stay the night had already leapt onto the roof, sword in hand, and was locked in combat with the young priestess.

The woman wore a grey robe and skirt. The young priestess wore an apricot-yellow Daoist robe. In the moonlight, a grey blur and a yellow blur could be seen wheeling and dancing, interspersed with three streaks of cold light, punctuated by the occasional clash of steel. Though Lu Liding had never faced a real opponent, his martial arts had been personally transmitted by his elder brother, and his eye for technique was not weak. He could make out every move of both combatants’ swordplay with perfect clarity.

He saw the young priestess’s long sword shift from defence to offence, the tide of battle turning in an instant, her swordplay fierce and relentless. The woman concentrated on countering, seizing openings to deliver her own strikes. Suddenly, a sharp clang rang out as the two swords met. The young priestess’s long sword spun into the air. She leapt back hastily, her pretty face flushed, and shouted, “I am here on my shifu’s orders to exterminate the Lu family. Who are you to meddle in other people’s business?”

Footnotes

1. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. Itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 李莫愁 – Lǐ Mòchóu. Her name meaning “do not sorrow”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 赤练仙子 – Chìliàn Xiānzǐ. Literally scarlet chain immortal. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Literally lightness skill. Martial art of body lightness; practitioners leap great heights and move with extraordinary speed. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 穴位 – xuéwèi. … See Wikipedia. ↩

6. 白海穴 – Báihǎi Xué. Literally white sea. Acupoint on the inner thigh; striking it can numb the leg. See Wikipedia. ↩

7. 委中穴 – Wěizhōng Xué. Literally middle of the bend. Acupoint at the back of the knee on the bladder meridian; striking it can numb the leg. See Wikipedia. ↩