The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 15 – Part 9

Zhang Wuji was considerably puzzled. He knew that Wei Bi's shifu¹ was named Wu Lie, Wu Qingying's father, yet from Uncle Zhu's² tone it seemed that Wu Lie, his daughter and Wei Bi were all bound for Ice Fire Island.³ Why had he said nothing of it beforehand? The more people who knew of such a matter, the harder it was to keep the wind from blowing. He only hoped his sworn father would not be drawn into trouble.

He brooded for a long while, when suddenly a phrase of Uncle Zhu’s came back to him: Don’t let the labour of a lifetime be undone, or let him spot the flaw. A flaw, a flaw. What flaw?

At the word flaw, a vague doubt that had long been turning at the back of his mind sprang into sharp and sudden clarity. In that painting, Zhang Cuishan’s Debt of Gratitude, every face was rendered with exacting likeness, yet why had his father’s long, rectangular face been painted as a narrow, pointed one? His father’s brows and eyes had been well caught. That was true enough, for father and son had resembled each other in those features, but his father’s face had been rectangular, nothing like Zhang Wuji’s own melon-seed countenance.

Uncle Zhu had said he painted the picture himself over ten years before. Even if his skill with brush and ink was imperfect, he should not have distorted his great benefactor’s features beyond all recognition. The Zhang Cuishan in the painting looked more like a grown-up Zhang Wuji. Ah, there is something else. Father’s iron brush has always been straight-shafted with a pointed tip, shaped like a writing brush. When he first returned to the Central Plains,⁴ he bought a judge’s brush from a weaponsmith’s shop, and said the weight and length were serviceable enough, only the iron hand-form on the grip looked rather unsightly. Mother said that once they were settled, she would have a new one cast for him. Yet in the painting the weapon Father wields is an ordinary judge’s brush, an iron hand clutching an iron stylus. Uncle Zhu is a master of the judge’s brush himself. Anything else he might have got wrong, but how could he have erred on the weapon his father wielded?

The thought brought a cold creeping dread. He already had the answer inside him, yet it was so terrible that he dared not face it plainly. He told himself instead, Stop wandering into dark fancies. Uncle Zhu has treated me so well. How can I harbour such suspicions? I shall go back to bed at once. If they catch me abroad in the middle of the night, my life may be in danger.

At the words life in danger his whole body shook violently, and he could not have said why so sudden and groundless a terror had seized him.

He stood frozen for a moment, then found his feet carrying him of their own will towards the quarter where Uncle Zhu and his daughter had gone. A spark of firelight showed through the trees, and other buildings were hidden among them. His heart hammered. He softened his steps and crept towards the glow, circling round to the back of the cottage. He steadied himself, then peered through a crack in the window.

Zhu Changling, Zhu Jiuzhen and Wei Bi sat facing the window, speaking with someone. Two figures had their backs to Zhang Wuji, so that he could not see their faces, but one of them, a young woman, was plainly Wu Qingying, one of the Twin Beauties of the Snowy Ridge.⁵ The other man was tall and broad-shouldered, and listened intently while Zhu Changling recounted how they had posed as merchants and travelled to the Shandong coast to take ship. He said not a word himself, but nodded again and again.

Zhang Wuji thought, Am I not making mountains out of molehills? That one must be Manor Master⁶ Wu Lie himself. Uncle Zhu is on close terms with him, and it is only natural he should invite him along to Ice Fire Island. Why should I take fright at nothing?

Wu Qingying’s voice came to him: Father, what if we fail to find the little island in the vastness of the sea, and cannot find our way back either? What then?

So that is Manor Master Wu after all, Zhang Wuji thought.

Wu Lie answered, If you are afraid, then do not come. Nothing under heaven is won without hardship, and no man comes to ease and comfort by an easy road.

Wu Qingying pouted prettily. I only asked a question, and you must lecture me for it.

Wu Lie smiled. This venture is an all-or-nothing gamble from the start. If fortune favours us, we reach Ice Fire Island. Xie Xun’s martial arts⁷ may be lofty, but he is one man alone, and blind into the bargain. He cannot hope to stand against us all. We lay hands on the Dragon-Slaying Dao⁸ without lifting a finger, and then, ‘Command the world, and none dare defy.’⁹ You and I, Brother Zhu, shall stand supreme in the wulin.¹⁰ And if Heaven’s reckoning runs contrary to man’s, and we perish in the end upon the sea, then what? Who in this world does not die, after all?

Wei Bi spoke. I have heard that Golden-Maned Lion King¹¹ Xie Xun’s martial prowess is extraordinary. On Wangpan Island¹² he shattered the minds of several dozen skilled fighters of the jianghu¹³ with a single roar and left them witless. In your disciple’s humble opinion, when we reach the island we need not confront him openly. We need only slip poison into his food. Blind though he is, even were his eyes sound and sharp as a falcon’s, he would never suspect his sworn son had brought men to kill him.

Zhu Changling nodded. Bier, that is an excellent stratagem. Only the Zhu and Wu houses have for generations been xia of renowned righteous factions,¹⁴ and have never touched poisons, nor even put venom on their hidden weapons. What drug could we use that he would take without the least suspicion of it? I am wholly ignorant of such matters.

Wei Bi said, Second Uncle Yao¹⁵ has travelled the Central Plains often. He must know. We need only ask him to procure what is required.

Wu Lie turned and patted Zhu Jiuzhen on the shoulder. Zhener… he began, and as he turned his face into the light, Zhang Wuji saw it clearly and received a shock so violent his breath left him. The man was no other than Hu Bao the Stele-Breaking Hand,¹⁶ the very fellow who had impersonated his sworn father. The whole business of Zhu Changling being struck so hard that he spat blood, of Yao Qingquan cutting him down with a single blade-stroke, had been a sham. In a flash he understood: to make the performance convincing, every blow had to tell. When a palm struck a wall, chips of stone flew, and when it smashed a table, stout timber splintered. That was why Wu Lie, a master of formidable martial arts, had been needed for the part.

Wu Lie was saying to Zhu Jiuzhen with a smile, You see, the play has yet to run its course. All the way you must keep up your pretence of affection towards that little wretch, right up to the moment Xie Xun is dead. Do not let a single flaw show.

Zhu Jiuzhen said, Father, you must promise me one thing first.

Zhu Changling asked, What?

You made me wait on the little wretch, and I have suffered no end of misery these past days. It will be a long road yet before we set foot on Ice Fire Island and kill Xie Xun, and Heaven knows what fresh torments I shall endure. Once you have the Dragon-Slaying Dao in your hands, I mean to run that little wretch through myself!

Zhang Wuji heard the vicious hatred in her voice and the world swam before his eyes. He nearly swooned. Half-consciously he caught Zhu Changling’s reply: To take such elaborate pains to deceive him and draw out the Golden-Maned Lion King’s whereabouts is, I confess, somewhat unscrupulous. The boy is not a bad lad either. Once we have killed Xie Xun and taken the Dragon-Slaying Dao, we will content ourselves with putting out the boy’s eyes and leaving him on Ice Fire Island. That will be enough.

Wu Lie praised him, Eldest Brother Zhu has a compassionate heart. You do not depart from the xia traditions of your house.

Zhu Changling sighed. This move of ours, Second Brother Wu, was forced upon us. After we put to sea, your vessel must keep a careful distance astern. Too close, and the boy will grow suspicious. Too far, and we risk losing contact. The skippers and helmsmen must be chosen with the utmost care.

Wu Lie said, Indeed. Eldest Brother, your forethought leaves nothing wanting.

Zhang Wuji’s mind was in tumult. I never breathed a word of who I am. How could they have found out? Ah, it must have been when I fought off Wei Bi and the two Zhu girls with all my strength. I used the heart-methods of the Wudang Order,¹⁷ and Uncle Zhu, a man of vast experience, saw through my lineage at once. He knew my father and mother would sooner die than reveal my sworn father’s whereabouts, and that no force could wring the truth from me. So he fabricated the painting, burned down the great house, and played the bitter-flesh stratagem¹⁸ to move my heart. He never asked me a single question, yet contrived that I should beg him to take me to Ice Fire Island. Zhu Changling, Zhu Changling, your schemes are poisonously cunning indeed.

Zhu Changling and Wu Lie were still deep in consultation over the eastward voyage. Zhang Wuji dared listen no longer. He held his breath, lifted a foot with infinite care and set it down, and did not dare take a second step until he had heard no stir from within the cottage. He knew that Zhu Changling and Wu Lie were masters of extraordinary martial skill, and a single snapped twig under his foot would betray him at once. Those thirty-odd paces he took with a slowness beyond belief, and it was only when the cottage had fallen more than a hundred feet behind him that he dared walk a little faster.¹⁹

He fled at random, plunging deeper and higher into the wooded slopes. The higher he climbed the faster he ran, until at last he was running in earnest, and for over a shichen²⁰ he dared not pause to draw breath. He fled through the dark hours, and when daylight came he found himself in the thickets of a snowy ridge. He turned to look back, to see if Zhu Changling and the rest were pursuing, and at the sight a cry of misery broke from him. Across the endless white snow stretched a long, unbroken line of footprints. The Western Regions were bitter and cold, and though spring had come, the mountain snows had not yet thawed. In his blind panic he had climbed as high and as steeply as he could, never dreaming that he was advertising his own flight.

Even then, faintly, he heard the howl of wolves ahead, a desolate and dreadful sound. He climbed to the edge of a cliff and looked out. On the slope opposite, seven or eight great grey wolves had thrown back their heads and were snarling and snapping at him, plainly hungry enough to make a meal of him, but separated from his perch by a bottomless chasm a hundred thousand feet deep. He looked back again, and his heart gave a violent lurch. Five dark figures were moving slowly up the slope behind. They could only be the party from the Zhu and Wu houses. They were still far off, and seemed to advance at no great pace, but he knew that men of their speed would cover the ground like the wind. In less than a shichen they would be upon him.

Zhang Wuji steeled himself and made up his mind. I would rather be torn to pieces by the wolves and eaten than fall into their hands, to be tortured at the mercy of these villains. He thought of the utter sincerity with which he had honoured Sister Zhen, and that beneath that face of unsurpassable beauty there lurked the heart of a serpent, and shame and grief together drove him stumbling into the thickest part of the wood.

Among the trees the long grass grew waist-high. Snow lay upon it, but footprints showed less plainly here. He ran a while, until exhaustion and anguish together brought a sudden return of the cold poison within him. His legs would bear him no further. He crawled into a thicket of tall grass, picked up a sharp-cornered stone from the ground, and gripped it in his hand. If Zhu Changling and the rest found his hiding-place, he would dash the stone against his own temples and make an end.

He called to mind the past two months at the Zhu family manor, and the more he considered the more bitterly it cut him. The Kongtong School,²¹ the Huashan School,²² the Kunlun School²³ repaying kindness with enmity, I could put aside. But towards Sister Zhen I gave my whole heart, and the truth of it is this. Ah, what were Mother’s last words to me? How could I have let them slip my mind so utterly?

Then the words his mother had spoken at the hour of her death rang in his ears again, as clear as if she stood beside him: My child, when you are grown, beware of women who would deceive you. The handsomer a woman is, the better she lies. Hot tears filled his eyes until all was blurred. Mother spoke those words to me with the dagger already in her breast. She endured the pain of death to charge me so, and I laid her blood-and-tears counsel so lightly to heart. Had I not known how to free my acupoints by myself, had not some strange fortune led me to overhear Zhu Changling’s plot, then for all their careful preparation I would have led them to Ice Fire Island myself, and brought my sworn father to his death.

Now that his resolve was taken his mind was clear, and he saw plainly every implication of what Zhu Changling and his daughter had done. The moment Zhu Changling had suspected he was Zhang Cuishan’s son, he had struck his own daughter and killed the pack of hounds, so that Zhang Wuji must take him for a xia of unimpeachable justice and honour. The burning of the great house, though a heavy loss, was nothing beside the Dragon-Slaying Dao and its promise of supremacy over the wulin. The swift decisiveness of the man was frightening and formidable indeed.

He thought further, All the years on the island, I saw my sworn father take that dao in his hands and sit lost in thought. In ten years he never pierced the secret of the blade. My sworn father was clever, but he was a straight man. Zhu Changling’s wit surpasses it, and his schemes run far deeper than my sworn father’s. My sworn father could not fathom it, but if the precious dao fell into Zhu Changling’s hands, he would likely be the man to do so.

One thought crowded upon another, and then he heard the sound of footsteps. Zhu Changling and Wu Lie had entered the thicket in pursuit.

Footnotes

1. 师父 – shīfù. Teacher responsible for technical instruction and moral guidance. Shī means teacher. Fù means father. ↩

2. 伯伯 – bóbo. Father’s elder brother. Here used as a fictive-kinship form of address by Zhang Wuji towards Zhu Changling, whom he believed to be a close friend of his late father. Distinct from shibo (师伯), which denotes a shifu’s senior fellow disciple. ↩

3. 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. ↩

4. 中土 – Zhōngtǔ. The Central Plains; the heartland of Chinese civilisation, as distinct from remote islands and frontier regions. ↩

5. 雪岭双姝 – Xuělǐng Shuāngshū. The Twin Beauties of the Snowy Ridge, an epithet for Zhu Jiuzhen and Wu Qingying. ↩

6. 庄主 – Zhuāngzhǔ. Manor Master; the master of a fortified rural estate or manor. ↩

7. 武功 – wǔgōng. Martial arts; the skills and cultivation of a martial artist. ↩

8. 屠龙刀 – Túlóng Dāo. The Dragon-Slaying Dao. One of the two supreme treasures of the jianghu, forged from the Heavy Iron Sword and said to contain a supreme martial-arts manual. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 号令天下，莫敢不从 – Hàolìng tiānxià, mò gǎn bù cóng. “Command the world, and none dare defy.” Part of the famous couplet inscribed on the Dragon-Slaying Dao: the Dragon-Slaying Dao is revealed, supreme in the wulin, command the world and none dare defy; unless the Heaven-Reliant Sword appears, who shall contest with it? ↩

10. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest; the community of martial artists and their factions. ↩

11. 金毛狮王 – Jīnmáo Shīwáng. Golden-Maned Lion King. Xie Xun’s martial epithet in the Ming Order, ranking among the four Divine Kings. ↩

12. 王盘山 – Wángpán Shān. Wangpan Island, an isle in the Eastern Sea where the jianghu gathered to contest the Dragon-Slaying Dao. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The 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. ↩

14. 名门正派 – Míngmén Zhèngpài. Renowned righteous factions; the prestigious orthodox schools and orders of the wulin. ↩

15. 二叔 – èrshū. Second Uncle. A fictive-kinship address for a close friend of the elder generation, here referring to Yao Qingquan. ↩

16. 开碑手 – Kāibēi Shǒu. Literally Stele-Breaking Hand. Hu Bao’s martial epithet, denoting his power to shatter stone. A spy of the Kongtong School sent to impersonate Xie Xun. ↩

17. 武当派 – Wǔdāng Pài. The Wudang Order, the Daoist martial school founded by Zhang Sanfeng, to which Zhang Cuishan and the Seven Xias of Wudang belonged. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 苦肉计 – Kǔròu Jì. The bitter-flesh stratagem; one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, in which one inflicts suffering upon oneself to gain the enemy’s trust. ↩

19. 丈 – zhàng. A Chinese unit of length, equal to ten chi or approximately 11 feet. ↩

20. 时辰 – shíchén. A traditional Chinese unit of time, equal to two hours. The day was divided into twelve shichen. ↩

21. 崆峒派 – Kōngtóng Pài. The Kongtong School, one of the orthodox martial schools of the wulin, based on Kongtong Mountain in Gansu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 华山派 – Huàshān Pài. The Huashan School, one of the orthodox martial schools of the wulin, based on Mount Hua in Shaanxi. ↩

23. 昆仑派 – Kūnlún Pài. The Kunlun School, one of the orthodox martial schools of the wulin, based in the Western Regions. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩