The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 15 – Part 7

They had spent half a day in the cellar, and as the heat abated they spread out their blankets and were about to lie down when a rapid clatter of hooves came from far away. In moments the riders were directly overhead. A rough voice bellowed, “That old villain Zhu Changling has certainly gone off to protect Xie Xun. After him! After him!” Though they were underground, every word above reached them clearly, for an iron pipe ran from the cellar to the surface and carried the voices down. The mingled hoofbeats grew fainter as the pursuers galloped away.

Throughout that night five separate parties of pursuers passed overhead in succession, some from the Kunlun School, some from the Kongtong School, some from the Jujing Guild, and two whose allegiance they could not make out. Each party numbered at least seven or eight riders, some a dozen or more. Their weapons clanked, their chargers neighed, and their threats carried down through the iron pipe. Zhang Wuji thought to himself, Were my sworn father not blind and grievously wounded, would he spare so much as a thought for the likes of you?

When the fifth party had ridden past, Yao Qingquan took the wooden plug and stopped up the mouth of the iron pipe so that their voices below might not reach any chance passer above. Even so, he kept his own words to a whisper. “Let me go and have a look at Xie daxia’s wounds.”

Zhu Changling nodded. Yao Qingquan reached for the mechanism beside the door, and the iron gate swung slowly open. He took up an oil lamp and stepped through.

Zhang Wuji could contain himself no longer. He rose to his feet and peered over Yao Qingquan’s shoulder. A tall man lay with his back to the wall, facing inward. The moment Zhang Wuji saw his sworn father’s broad back, hot tears flooded his eyes.

Yao Qingquan murmured, “Xie daxia, are you feeling any better? Would you like some water?”

Without warning a gust of fierce wind burst out and the oil lamp in Yao Qingquan’s hand was snuffed clean. A thunderous crack followed, and Yao Qingquan flew backwards through the iron gate, struck full in the chest by a palm strike, and crashed heavily to the ground. From within came Xie Xun’s roaring voice, “You dogs of the Shaolin Order, the Kunlun School, the Kongtong School, come then! Come! Do you think your Golden Haired Lion King Xie Xun is afraid of you?”

Zhu Changling cried, “This is bad. Xie daxia’s mind is wandering.” He went to the entrance and called, “Xie daxia, we are your friends. We are not your enemies.”

Xie Xun sneered, “Friends? Do you think fine words will fool me?” He strode out through the iron gate with long steps and drove a palm at Zhu Changling’s chest. The strike carried ferocious neili,¹ and the flame of the oil lamp inside the chamber flickered and danced with the force of it. Zhu Changling dared not block but spun aside to dodge. Xie Xun’s left fist shot straight at his face. With no room to evade, Zhu Changling was forced to raise his arm and deflect the blow. He staggered back two paces.

Zhang Wuji watched the sudden violence in bewildered alarm. Then he saw that this man who called himself Xie Xun was not his sworn father at all. His sworn father’s eyes had long been blind, yet this man’s gaze burned sharp and clear.

Xie Xun’s fists and palms came fast as wind, merciless in their ferocity. Zhu Changling dared not meet them and gave ground without pause. One palm missed Zhu Changling and struck the stone wall instead. Chips of rock flew in all directions. Had that blow landed on a man’s body, what then? Xie Xun’s long hair hung loose about his shoulders, his eyes blazed, his face was smeared with stains of blood, and from his throat came a low, continuous growl as his palm strikes grew ever more savage. Madam Zhu and Zhu Jiuzhen shrank into a corner in terror. Seeing the fists and palms closing in, Zhu Changling had no choice but to shove the wooden table beside him in the way. Xie Xun smashed it to splinters with two blows.

Zhang Wuji stood rooted, his mouth agape, staring in stupefaction. Yet the man before him was plainly not Xie Xun the Golden Haired Lion King. His sworn father’s eyes were long since blinded, but this man’s stare was keen and bright.

The tall man drove a straight palm at Zhu Changling, who had his back against the stone wall with nowhere left to retreat. Yet he made no move to block. “Xie daxia, I am not your enemy. I will not strike back!”

The tall man took no heed and drove a palm into his chest. Zhu Changling’s face contorted with anguish. “Xie daxia, do you believe me now?”

The tall man barked, “You cur! Take another fist!” He struck again. Blood sprayed from Zhu Changling’s mouth as he received the blow. He said in a trembling voice, “You are my benefactor and sworn brother. Even if you beat me to death, I will not raise a hand against you.”

The tall man laughed wildly, “All the better. I’ll kill you then!” He unleashed a flurry of left and right fists, both landing true in the chest and belly. Zhu Changling gave a long, piteous cry and crumpled to the ground.

The tall man showed no mercy and drove another fist down. Zhang Wuji leapt forward and threw up his arms in a desperate block. The force of the incoming blow was so great that the shock nearly drove the breath from him. Heedless of life or death, he shouted, “You are not Xie Xun! You are not…”

The tall man snarled, “What does a brat like you know?” He lashed out with a kick. Zhang Wuji dodged aside, crying, “You are pretending to be the Golden Haired Lion King. You mean us harm. You are a fraud! A fraud…”

Zhu Changling had collapsed on the ground, but at Zhang Wuji’s cry he struggled up, pointed at the tall man and gasped, “You… you are not… you have lied to me…” A great mouthful of blood burst from his lips and splashed across the man’s face. As his body pitched forward he seized the moment and struck two fingers into the man’s Shengfeng acupoint² beneath the right breast. After his grievous wounds Zhu Changling was no match for the man, but by using the spray of blood and his own stumbling fall he had caught his opponent off guard and landed the acupoint strike with his family’s One Yang Finger³ technique. He drove two more fingers into the man’s waist and flank, but even that effort was beyond him, and he fainted where he stood. Zhu Jiuzhen and Zhang Wuji rushed forward and caught him.

After a time Zhu Changling came slowly to. “He… he…” he asked Zhang Wuji.

Zhang Wuji said, “Uncle Zhu, I can keep secrets no longer. The benefactor you spoke of was my father. The Golden Haired Lion King is my sworn father. How could I mistake him?”

Zhu Changling shook his head with a faint, bitter smile. His expression made plain that he did not believe a word of it.

Zhang Wuji said, “My sworn father is blind. This man has full use of his eyes. That is the greatest flaw in his pretence. My sworn father lost his sight abroad, a thing no one beyond that island knows. The man who came to impersonate him did not know of my sworn father’s blindness.”

Zhu Jiuzhen cried happily, “Wuji di, so you truly are our great benefactor’s son? That is wonderful, wonderful indeed.”

Zhu Changling remained unconvinced. Zhang Wuji had no choice but to tell in brief how he had come to the Kunlun Mountains. Yao Qingquan questioned him from every angle, asking about conditions on Mount Wudang, and then about the circumstances of Zhang Cuishan and his wife’s deaths by their own hands. When he found that Zhang Wuji’s account matched every detail without the slightest error, even he was convinced at last. Zhu Changling, however, remained troubled. “Suppose the boy is lying. Then we have grievously offended Xie daxia. What are we to do?”

Yao Qingquan drew his dagger and held it before the tall man’s right eye. “My friend, the Golden Haired Lion King Xie Xun had his eyes destroyed. If you are to impersonate him, you must do it properly. Today I shall put out this pair of yours.⁴ I, Yao, have been taken for a fool, and if it were not for this young brother who saw through you, would my Zhu dage not have lost his life for nothing?” He pushed the dagger forward until the tip pressed against the man’s eyelid. “Now then, who are you really? Why are you impersonating the Golden Haired Lion King?”

The tall man said angrily, “If you have the stomach, kill me outright. I am Hu Bao the Stele-Breaking Hand.⁵ Do you think I can be squeezed for confessions?”

Zhu Changling exclaimed, “Hu Bao the Stele-Breaking Hand! So you are of the Kongtong School?”

Hu Bao said loudly, “Every school and faction in the world knows that Zhu Changling means to avenge Zhang Cuishan. The saying goes: strike first and gain the advantage, strike last and suffer the harm.”

Yao Qingquan snapped, “Vile wretch!” He dropped the point of the dagger and thrust for the man’s heart.

Zhu Changling’s left hand shot out and clamped around his wrist. “Second brother, wait. If he truly is Xie daxia, then we two shall not atone for it even with ten thousand deaths.”

Yao Qingquan said, “Zhang xiong has made it plain as day. If you cannot bring yourself to decide, dage, then the disaster before us will be hard to escape.”

Zhu Changling shook his head. “We would rather suffer ten thousand cuts ourselves than harm a single hair of Benefactor Zhang’s sworn brother.”

Zhang Wuji said, “Uncle Zhu, this man is certainly not my sworn father. My sworn father’s epithet is the Golden Haired Lion King. His hair is golden. This man’s hair is black.”

Zhu Changling pondered for a long while, then nodded. He took Zhang Wuji by the hand. “Young friend, come with me.” The two walked out of the stone chamber, then through the stone cave, until they reached a cliff beneath the far side of the slope. They sat side by side on a great boulder.

Zhu Changling said, “Young friend, if this man is not Xie daxia, then of course we must kill him. But before we act, I must be certain beyond a shadow of doubt. Don’t you agree?”

Zhang Wuji said, “Your fear of a mistake is only right. But this man is most certainly not my sworn father. Rest easy, Uncle Zhu.”

Zhu Changling sighed. “Child, when I was young, many a man took me in. Today I refused to strike back and suffered grievous wounds for it, all because I misjudged a man. One cannot afford the same mistake twice. This matter is of the gravest consequence. My own life I do not value, but I must, at all costs, see you and Xie daxia safely through. I ought to have asked Xie daxia plainly where he is, so that I could truly set my mind at rest. But that is a question I could not bring myself to put.”

Zhang Wuji was deeply moved. “Uncle Zhu, for the sake of my father and my sworn father you have destroyed a fortune of a million, and suffered wounds like these besides. How could I still distrust you? Even if you did not ask about my sworn father’s condition, I would tell you of my own accord.”

So he told him everything: how his parents and Xie Xun had drifted to Ice Fire Island,⁶ how they had lived there for ten years, how the three of them had lashed together a raft and returned. Much of what had passed he had learned from his parents’ own mouths, but he set it out with perfect clarity.

Zhu Changling questioned him again and again, probing every detail: how Zhang Wuji had trained in the martial arts on Ice Fire Island, how he had escorted Yang Buhui westward, how he had come to grief at the Three Saints Col⁷ in the Kunlun Mountains. Only when he was satisfied that Zhang Wuji’s account was without a single flaw did he truly believe. He drew a long breath, raised his face to the sky, and said, “Benefactor, benefactor, I pray your spirit looks down upon us now: Zhu Changling shall do all in his power to raise Wuji to manhood. But enemies press in on every side and my own martial skill is feeble. I fear I am not equal to the burden. I beg you, benefactor, to watch over us at every turn.” With that he fell to his knees and kowtowed towards the sky.

Zhang Wuji, torn between grief and gratitude, knelt beside him.

Footnotes

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

2. 神封穴 – Shénfēng Xué. An acupoint on the chest, located below the breast. One of the vital points exploited in dianxue striking. ↩

3. 一阳指 – Yīyáng Zhǐ. Literally One Yang Finger. The Dali Duan family’s signature finger technique combining Buddhist principles with devastating striking power. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 招子 – zhāozi. Jianghu slang for the eyes. ↩

5. 开碑手 – Kāibēi Shǒu. Literally Stele-Breaking Hand. Hu Bao’s martial epithet, denoting his power to shatter stone. ↩

6. 冰火岛 – Bīnghuǒ Dǎo. Literally Ice Fire Island. A remote volcanic island in the far east where Zhang Cuishan, Yin Susu and Xie Xun were stranded for ten years. ↩

7. 昆仑三圣坳 – Kūnlún Sānshèng’ào. The Three Saints Col in the Kunlun Mountains, named after He Zudao the Three Kunlun Sages. A narrow mountain pass where Zhang Wuji fell into a trap set by Zhu Changling and Zhu Jiuzhen. ↩