The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 10 – Part 7

Yin Susu whispers a false secret to Kongwen before taking her own life. Zhang Wuji collapses from grief and is found to bear the lethal mark of the Xuanming Divine Palm.

Yin Susu said, “Wuji, promise me one thing.”

Zhang Wuji said, “Mama, what is it?”

Yin Susu said, “Do not be hasty to avenge us. Wait patiently, and do not let a single one of them off.”

Those cold, chilling words sent an involuntary shudder down the spines of all who heard them. Zhang Wuji cried out, “Mama! I don’t want revenge. I want Papa to come back to life!”

Yin Susu said mournfully, “When a person is dead, they do not come back.” Her body trembled slightly. “Child, since your father is dead, we have no choice but to tell them where your sworn father is hiding.”

Zhang Wuji cried in alarm, “No, we mustn’t! They’ll go and kill Sworn Father. Let them beat me to death. I won’t talk. Papa didn’t talk, and I won’t talk either!”

Yin Susu shook her head. “Great Master Kongwen,¹ I have something to tell you and you alone. Please lean close.”

This took everyone by surprise. They stared in astonishment.

Kongwen said, “Good, good! Had you spoken but a moment sooner, Zhang the Fifth Xia need not have lost his life.” He walked to Yin Susu’s side and bent his ear towards her.

Yin Susu’s lips moved for a time, yet not a single sound emerged.

Kongwen asked, “What was that?”

Yin Susu said, “That Gold-Maned Lion King,² Xie Xun,³ he is hiding in…” Below the words ‘hiding in’ her voice grew so indistinct that not a syllable could be made out.

Kongwen asked again, “What?”

Yin Susu said, “Right there. The Dragon-Slaying Dao⁴ is there too. You Shaolin Order⁵ can go and look for it yourselves.”

Kongwen was greatly alarmed. “I didn’t hear a word.” He straightened up, reached back to scratch his head, his face a mask of bewilderment.

Yin Susu said with a cold smile, “I can say no more than that. When you reach the other side, you will see the Gold-Maned Lion King Xie Xun for yourself.”

She held Zhang Wuji close and whispered, “Child, when you grow up, beware of women who deceive you. The prettier the woman, the more she will lie to you.” She brought her mouth close to his ear and said in the faintest whisper, “I didn’t tell the monk anything. We won’t tell anyone. I was lying to him… see how well your mama can lie!” A sad smile crossed her face. Then suddenly her arms went slack, and she toppled sideways. A dagger hilt protruded from her chest. She had stabbed herself whilst holding Zhang Wuji in her arms. The boy’s body had shielded the act from every onlooker.

Zhang Wuji flung himself upon his mother, screaming, “Mama, Mama!” But Yin Susu had pierced herself long before, and had held on through sheer will. Her breath had left her. In the extremity of his grief, Zhang Wuji did not weep. He stared at Kongwen and asked, “You killed my mama, didn’t you? Why did you drive my father to kill himself? Why did you kill my mama?”

Kongwen, confronted with so tragic a turn of events, could not help but recoil, though he was the zhangmen⁶ of the foremost martial Order in the age. At Zhang Wuji’s question he stepped back involuntarily. “No, it was not me. It was she… she took her own life.”

Tears rolled in Zhang Wuji’s eyes, but he fought them back with all his strength. “I won’t cry. I will not cry. I won’t give you wicked people the satisfaction.”

Kongwen gave a soft cough. “Zhang Sanfeng the Perfected One,⁷ these developments… ahem… were entirely beyond our expectation. Since Zhang the Fifth Xia and his wife have both taken their own lives, we shall pursue the matter no further. We take our leave.” He pressed his palms together in farewell.

Zhang Sanfeng returned the salute and said coolly, “I shall not see you off.”

The Shaolin monks rose as one and turned to leave.

Yin Liting⁸ shouted in fury, “You… you drove my Fifth Shixiong⁹ to his death…” But even as the words left his mouth, a thought checked him: Fifth Shixiong took his own life because he could not face Third Shixiong. It has nothing to do with these people. The sentence died half-spoken. He flung himself upon Zhang Cuishan’s body and wept aloud.

A heaviness settled upon every heart. One by one the guests took their leave of Zhang Sanfeng, each thinking the same thought: This feud is deep indeed. The Wudang Order will never let the matter rest. The trouble will be endless. Only Song Yuanqiao,¹⁰ red-eyed, escorted the visitors to the gate of the temple. When he turned back, tears were streaming down his face. In the great hall, the disciples of the Wudang Order gave way to open grief.

The Emei Order¹¹ were the last to rise and take their leave. Ji Xiaofu¹² saw that Yin Liting wept so bitterly, and her own eyes grew red. She drew near and said in a low voice, “Sixth Brother, I am going now. You… take care of yourself.”

Yin Liting raised his tear-blurred eyes. His voice broke as he said, “You… you people of the Emei Order… have you come to make trouble for my Fifth Shixiong too?”

Ji Xiaofu said hastily, “No. My shifu only wished to ask Zhang shixiong to reveal Xie Xun’s whereabouts.” She paused. Her teeth bit into her lower lip until the marks drew almost blood, then she released it and said in a trembling voice, “Sixth Brother, I… I am truly sorry. Whatever happens, you must bear it as best you can. I… I can only make it up to you in another life.”

Yin Liting thought she was carrying things too far. “It is nothing to do with you. We do not blame the Emei Order.”

Ji Xiaofu’s face was ashen. “No… it isn’t that…” She dared not speak to him further. She turned to Zhang Wuji and said, “Good child, we… we shall all look after you.” From around her neck she unclasped a golden collar and would have placed it about his. “This is for you…” she said softly.

Zhang Wuji jerked his head back. “I don’t want it!”

Ji Xiaofu was deeply embarrassed. She stood holding the collar, not knowing what to do. The tears that had long brimmed in her eyes now spilled over.

Jingxuan¹³ Shitai¹⁴ frowned. “Shimei,¹⁵ why waste words on a child? Come away.”

Ji Xiaofu covered her face and ran out.

Zhang Wuji had held back for so long that when the door closed behind Jingxuan and Ji Xiaofu, he was about to cry at last. But a spasm seized his chest, and he could not draw breath. With a dull thud he collapsed to the floor.

Yu Lianzhou¹⁶ snatched him up at once. He understood at once that the boy had stifled his weeping so long in his grief that he had fainted. “Child, cry then,” he said, and pressed and kneaded the bones of his chest. But Zhang Wuji’s breath would not return. His whole body turned cold, and his breathing grew faint. Yu Lianzhou channelled neili¹⁷ into the kneading, yet the boy did not stir.

Those who watched saw that he appeared to be dying, and their faces drained of colour.

Zhang Sanfeng laid a hand upon the Lingtai acupoint at the centre of the boy’s back and sent a surge of deep, powerful neili through his robes. By the standard of Zhang Sanfeng’s neigong at that hour, any man not already dead would have rallied the moment his power arrived. But as his neili flowed into Zhang Wuji’s body, the boy’s face turned from white to green, from green to purple, and his body shook without ceasing. Zhang Sanfeng reached to his brow and found it cold as ice. Alarmed, he slid his right hand inside the boy’s robe at the back, and felt one spot upon his spine burning hot as a coal, whilst the skin around it was cold to the bone. Had Zhang Sanfeng’s neigong not reached the peak of perfection, the touch alone might have set him shuddering with cold.

He asked, “Yuanqiao, where is the Tartar soldier who carried the child in? Find him!”

Song Yuanqiao went out at once. Yu Lianzhou had exchanged palms with the Mongol and been wounded. He knew his shixiong was no match for the man either. “I will come too.” The two went out side by side.

By the time Zhang Sanfeng marched the Mongol soldier back into the hall, Zhang Cuishan had killed himself and Yin Susu had followed. In the press of grief no one had watched the soldier, and in the blinking of an eye he had slipped away none knew whither.

Zhang Sanfeng tore open the back of Zhang Wuji’s robe. Upon the pale, tender skin was printed a palm-mark of vivid green, every finger-line distinct. He laid his hand upon it once more and found the marked place burning hot, whilst the skin around it was cold enough to numb the fingers. The touch alone was near-unbearable. What the boy suffered could scarcely be imagined.

Before long Song Yuanqiao and Yu Lianzhou returned at a swift pace. “There is no one else on the mountain.” They saw the strange palm-print upon Zhang Wuji’s back and were greatly alarmed.

Zhang Sanfeng frowned. “I had thought that thirty years ago, when Adept Baizun¹⁸ died, this most vicious of arts, the Xuanming Divine Palm,¹⁹ had been lost to the world. I did not imagine anyone still lived who practised it.”

Song Yuanqiao cried in dismay, “The child has been struck by the Xuanming Divine Palm?” Of all the brothers he was the eldest, and had heard the name. As for Yu Lianzhou and the rest, they had never so much as heard of the art.

Zhang Sanfeng sighed and did not answer. Tears tracked down his weathered face. He held Zhang Wuji in both arms and gazed at Zhang Cuishan’s body. “Cuishan, Cuishan, you took me for your shifu and charged me with your only son as you left this world. Yet I cannot even keep your child safe. What use is it that I have lived a hundred years? What use is it that the Wudang Order’s name rings through the world? I had better be dead!”

The disciples were all aghast. Since the day they had taken him as shifu, they had known him only as serene and carefree. Never had they heard him speak words so heavy with despair.

Yin Liting said, “Shifu, is this child truly… beyond saving?”

Zhang Sanfeng paced the hall with Zhang Wuji cradled in his arms. “Unless… unless Great Master Jueyuan²⁰ were to return to life and teach me the whole of the Nine Yang Manual.²¹”

The disciples’ hearts sank. Their shifu’s words meant the boy’s injury could not be cured.

A long silence fell. At length Yu Lianzhou said, “Shifu, when I exchanged palms with that man that day, his palm-force was indeed vicious beyond anything I had encountered. I was wounded on the spot. Yet by this moment my injury has healed. I channel qi and exert force without the slightest impediment.”

Zhang Sanfeng said, “That is owing to the renown of the Seven Xias of Wudang.²² Whoever meets the Xuanming Divine Palm in a palm-strike, if his opponent’s neili exceeds his own, the force rebounds and the striker suffers grievous harm. Should you ever encounter that man again, be a thousand times more wary.”

Yu Lianzhou answered, “Yes.” Within, his heart was cold. So the man held back for fear my palm-force might surpass his, and did not unleash the full Xuanming Divine Palm from the outset. Otherwise I should most likely have lost my life by now. Should we meet again, he will show no mercy. He thought further, I bore that palm and survived. Yet Wuji is but a child. I fear… I fear…

Song Yuanqiao said, “In the glance I had of him, the man seemed some fifty years of age, high-nosed and deep-set in the eyes, a man from the Western Regions, it appeared.”

Mo Shenggu²³ said, “If he had abducted Wuji, why bring him back up the mountain?”

Zhang Songxi²⁴ said, “He pressed the boy for information and got nothing, so he struck him with the Xuanming Divine Palm. He wanted Fifth Shidi and his wife to see the suffering their son endured, and so be driven to reveal the Gold-Maned Lion King’s hiding-place.”

Mo Shenggu said angrily, “The man has nerve, to come onto Mount Wudang and throw his weight about!”

Zhang Songxi said bleakly, “Those who have come onto Mount Wudang to throw their weight about, were they few today?”

Yu Lianzhou said, “And he holds Wuji in his grip. He counts on us fearing to strike lest we harm the child.”

Footnotes

1. 大师 – dàshī. Great Master. Honorific title for a senior Buddhist monk. ↩

2. 谢逊 – Xiè Xùn. The Gold-Maned Lion King. One of the four great protectors of the Ming Order, known for his ferocity and his golden hair. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 逊 – xùn. The given name of Xie Xun. ↩

4. 屠龙刀 – Tú Lóng Dāo. The Dragon-Slaying Dao. One of the two legendary weapons forged from the Iron of the Divine Meteor, the other being the Heavenly Sword. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 少林派 – Shàolín Pài. The Shaolin Order. One of the most venerable martial Orders in the wulin, based at Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. The head of a martial school or Order. ↩

7. 真人 – zhēnrén. Literally true person. Honorific title for a Daoist master of the highest attainment. ↩

8. 殷梨亭 – Yīn Lítíng. The Sixth Xia of Wudang. Sixth disciple of Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior fellow disciple. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 宋远桥 – Sòng Yuǎnqiáo. The First Xia of Wudang. Eldest disciple of Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 峨嵋派 – Éméi Pài. The Emei Order. A Buddhist martial Order based on Mount Emei. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 纪晓芙 – Jǐ Xiǎofú. A senior disciple of the Emei Order, under Miejue Shitai. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 静玄 – Jìngxuán. A senior disciple of the Emei Order, of the Jing generation. ↩

14. 师太 – shītài. Revered master. Honorific title for a senior Buddhist nun. ↩

15. 师妹 – shīmèi. Female junior fellow disciple. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Mèi means younger sister. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 俞莲舟 – Yú Liánzhōu. The Second Xia of Wudang. Second disciple of Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 百损道人 – Bǎisǔn Dàorén. Daoist Baizun. A vicious martial artist who created the Xuanming Divine Palm; slain by Zhang Sanfeng some thirty years before the present events. ↩

19. 玄冥神掌 – Xuánmíng Shénzhǎng. The Xuanming Divine Palm. A palm technique of surpassing cruelty, created by Adept Baizun. Its yin-energy leaves the victim alternately burning and freezing, and is said to be beyond cure save by the Nine Yang Manual. ↩

20. 觉远 – Juéyuǎn. A Shaolin monk of extraordinary neigong, from whom the Wudang and Emei lineages both trace their internal arts. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 九阳真经 – Jiǔyáng Zhēnjīng. The Nine Yang Manual. A legendary internal-cultivation scripture of supreme yang energy. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 武当七侠 – Wǔdāng Qī Xiá. The Seven Xias of Wudang: Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, Yu Daiyan, Zhang Songxi, Zhang Cuishan, Yin Liting and Mo Shenggu, the seven disciples of Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

23. 莫声谷 – Mò Shēnggǔ. The Seventh Xia of Wudang. Seventh and youngest disciple of Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

24. 张松溪 – Zhāng Sōngxī. The Fourth Xia of Wudang. Fourth disciple of Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩