The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 16 – Part 8

Wu Lie swept his left palm towards the village girl. She twisted aside to evade it, and a clash of metal rang out as her jian met Wei Bi's. At that very instant Wu Lie's right forefinger trembled and struck two acupoints on the outer side of her left leg, Futu¹ and Fengshi.² The village girl gave a soft cry and lost her footing. She toppled against Zhang Wuji, her body suffused with a warm numbness that left her without strength to stir, so that even to lift a single finger seemed as heavy as a thousand jin.³

Wu Qingying raised her jian and said with hatred, “Ugly wretch, I will not let you die quickly. I will cut off both your hands and both your feet, and leave you here to feed the wolves.” She swung her jian down towards the girl’s right arm.

Wu Lie said, “Hold!” He reached out and brushed his daughter’s wrist, deflecting the strike. Then he turned to the village girl and said, “Tell us who sent you, and I will give you a quick death. Otherwise—” He gave a cold snort. “I dare say having your limbs hacked off and rolling about in the snow will not be altogether pleasant.”

The village girl smiled and said, “Since you insist I tell you, I cannot keep it hidden any longer. Miss Zhu Jiuzhen wished to marry a certain man, and another beautiful girl also wished to marry that same man. The beautiful girl gave me five hundred liang⁴ of silver and told me to go and kill Zhu Jiuzhen. This was a secret I was meant to keep strictly…” She was about to continue, but Wu Qingying was already ashen with rage. Her wrist shot forward and she thrust her jian straight at the girl’s heart.

The village girl had read her expression and long since guessed the awkward entanglement between Wu Qingying, Wei Bi and Zhu Jiuzhen. She had goaded Wu Qingying precisely to provoke a clean sword-thrust through her heart. But the blue gleam flashed and the jian was already at her breast.

Suddenly something flew towards them, silent and without warning, and struck the jian. With a whoosh the weapon was torn from Wu Qingying’s grip and sent spinning through the air, not coming to rest until it had flown well over a hundred feet. In the darkness not one of them had seen clearly how the weapon left her hand. Yet for the jian to be flung with such force, even if Wu Qingying herself had hurled it with all her strength, she could never have cast it so far. Plainly the village girl had received powerful aid.

The six of them started back several paces and turned to look. The ground on every side was open and flat, with no rocks or thickets in which anyone could hide. A single glance showed not a soul in sight. They stared at one another in bewilderment and alarm. Wu Lie asked in a low voice, “Qing’er, what happened?”

Wu Qingying said, “It seems some exceedingly powerful hidden weapon shook my jian from my hand.”

Wu Lie cast his gaze about in every direction. Seeing no sign of anyone, he snorted and said, “It was the girl’s trickery.” Yet inwardly he was puzzled. She was clearly struck by my One Yang Finger.⁵ How can she still have the strength to shake Qing’er’s jian from her grasp? This girl’s martial arts are truly uncanny. He stepped forward and raised his palm towards the girl’s left shoulder. This strike he channelled with fierce force, meaning to shatter her shoulder-bone and render her martial arts useless, so that his daughter might deal with her at leisure.

The village girl’s shoulder-bone seemed on the point of being smashed to powder when suddenly her left palm flipped up from below. The two palms met, and Wu Lie felt a searing heat surge through his chest. The girl’s palm-force crashed into him like a howling gale and a tidal bore, utterly irresistible. He gave a great cry and his body flew backwards, crashing to the ground with a thunderous impact. Fortunately his martial arts were formidable: no sooner had his back struck the earth than he sprang up again. But his chest and belly churned with blood and qi, his head swam and his vision blurred, and just as he straightened and tried to steady his breath, his legs gave way and he fell forward once more.

Wei Bi and Wu Qingying were horrified and rushed to help him up. Suddenly He Taichong spoke. “Let him lie a while longer.”

Wu Qingying turned and snapped, “What did you say?” She was thinking, My father has been struck by the enemy’s trickery, and you gloat and mock him.

He Taichong said, “When blood and qi are churning, lie still and let them settle.”

Wei Bi understood at once. “Yes!” He lowered his shifu gently back to the ground.

He Taichong and Ban Shuxian exchanged a glance, deeply astonished. They had both fought the village girl before and found her techniques exquisite, with skill beyond the ordinary. Yet her neili had seemed merely middling. Now, in that single palm-exchange with Wu Lie, she had plainly toppled him with neili rarely matched in the world. It was utterly perplexing.

The village girl herself was no less bewildered. After Wu Lie had struck her acupoints, she had collapsed into Zhang Wuji’s arms unable to move. She had seen Wu Qingying’s jian dart towards her, when suddenly something had flown through the air and knocked the weapon away. Then, all at once, a stream of heat like live charcoal had poured into her thighs and surged towards the Futu and Fengshi acupoints, at once unblocking the sealed meridians. Her whole body had shaken violently. Glancing down, she saw Zhang Wuji’s hands clasped about her ankles, and a ceaseless flow of heat pouring into her body from the Xuanzhong⁶ acupoint. The changes had come so swiftly that she had no time to think before Wu Lie’s palm was already descending. She had raised her hands to defend, bracing to have her wrists broken rather than her shoulder-bone shattered. Yet when the palms met, Wu Lie had been hurled a good ten feet away by her palm-force. In her astonishment she thought, Could this ugly oaf, this country bumpkin, truly be a master of unfathomable skill?

He Taichong, wary and unwilling to test his palm-force against hers, drew his jian and said, “Let me have a taste of the girl’s swordplay.”

The village girl laughed. “I have no jian!”

Wei Bi said, “Very well, I will lend you mine!” He raised his jian, point aimed at the girl’s chest, and hurled it towards her with all his strength.

The village girl reached out and caught it in mid-air. She laughed. “Your martial arts are far too poor. You could not have pierced me even had you tried.”

He Taichong, as zhangmen of a school, would not take advantage against one of the younger generation. He said, “Make your move. I will yield you three strikes before I return them.”

The village girl thrust her jian forward, aiming straight for the centre.

He Taichong gave an angry snort and said under his breath, “The junior is insolent!” He raised his jian to block. But a cracking sound rang out, and both blades shattered at once. His face changed utterly. His body swayed, and he had already retreated five feet.

The village girl thought with regret, A pity, a pity! The truth was that Zhang Wuji had channelled the Nine Yang Divine Skill⁷ into her body, but she did not know how to wield its power. Had she been able to direct that force against her opponent, it would have been his jian alone that broke, while her own remained whole.

Ban Shuxian was greatly puzzled. She asked in a low voice, “What happened?”

He Taichong’s arm was still numb and aching. He gave a bitter smile. “Uncanny.”

Ban Shuxian drew her jian, her face hard. “I will have a turn myself.”

The village girl spread her hands empty, showing she had no weapon.

Ban Shuxian pointed to Wu Qingying’s jian, which had fallen well over a hundred feet away. “Go and fetch it!”

The village girl dared not release her hold on Zhang Wuji. She could only wave the broken half of the jian she still clutched and said with a smile, “Even this broken blade will do.”

Ban Shuxian was furious. The wretched girl is being insufferably arrogant, treating me lightly. She was not like He Taichong, determined to maintain the bearing of a senior master at all times. Her jian wheeled back and she thrust swiftly at the girl’s head and neck.

The village girl raised her broken blade to parry, but Ban Shuxian’s swordplay was extraordinarily light and nimble. Even as the girl blocked, the jian had already shifted to slash at her left shoulder. The village girl hastily flipped her blade to defend. By then Ban Shuxian was already slanting her thrust at her right flank. Eight strokes followed in rapid succession, swift as a gust of wind, never once allowing the village girl’s broken jian to meet her own. She was exploiting the full reach and artistry of her swordplay, giving the girl no chance to unleash her neili.

The village girl was hard-pressed on every side, and danger came in quick succession. Her swordplay was already far inferior to Ban Shuxian’s, and with only half a broken jian in her hand and both feet afraid to move, she could do nothing but defend. After a few more exchanges, Ban Shuxian’s jian-tip darted past her guard with a tearing sound and scored a long cut across the girl’s left arm. The Kunlun School’s swordplay, once it drew blood, allowed the enemy not the slightest respite. Strike followed upon strike, pressing in relentlessly. The village girl cried out as a second jian-wound opened on her shoulder.

The village girl called out, “Hey! If you do not help me, are you just going to sit there and watch me get killed?”

Ban Shuxian stepped back two paces, held her jian across her chest, and cast her gaze about. She saw no one. Her jian trembled, and from its tip blossomed clusters of cold plum-blossoms, the Kunlun School’s signature technique, as she attacked the village girl once more.

The village girl whirled her broken blade and blocked three strokes in rapid succession. The enemy’s swordplay came with startling speed, yet she parried with swiftness to match. In that moment her eyes were sharp and her hands faster, each defence narrower than a hair’s breadth.

Ban Shuxian praised, “Wretched girl, your hands are quick enough, I will give you that!”

The village girl, unwilling to lose, shot back, “You old hag, your hands are not slow either!”

Ban Shuxian was a great master of swordsmanship, with decades of cultivation behind her. She spoke as she fought, her blade never idle for an instant. The village girl, after all, was no more than seventeen or eighteen. Though she had encountered a brilliant shifu, how could she have learned Ban Shuxian’s composure at ease? That single exchange of words broke her concentration for a moment. Her wrist stung suddenly, and the broken half of her jian flew from her grasp.

The village girl gave a startled cry. Ban Shuxian’s second jian was already darting towards her flank.

Ding Minjun had been watching from the sidelines all this while. Seeing her chance, she did not even draw her weapon but launched a palm-strike, the move called Pushing Open the Window to Gaze at the Moon, straight at the village girl’s back. At the same instant Wu Qingying leapt into the air, her leg flying towards the girl’s right waist.

The village girl was so terrified her heart all but leapt from her chest. Her whole body burned as though she had fallen into a furnace. She reached out and flicked her finger against Ban Shuxian’s jian—and at that very moment took a palm in the back and a kick at the waist.

But two cries of agony rang out—Aiya! and Aiyoh!—as Ding Minjun and Wu Qingying were both hurled backwards. Ban Shuxian’s hand held nothing but half a broken jian.

The truth was that Zhang Wuji, seeing the situation desperate, had in that instant channelled his entire reserve of zhenqi into the village girl’s body. The Nine Yang Divine Skill he had cultivated was already three or four parts complete, and its power was no small thing. Ban Shuxian’s jian shattered. Ding Minjun’s wrist-bones on both hands snapped. Wu Qingying’s right toe-bones broke. Each had received a different share of that surging force.

He Taichong, Wu Lie and Wei Bi stood dumbfounded, their mouths agape, their eyes fixed. For a long moment they could not move.

Ban Shuxian flung the broken half of her jian to the ground and said with hatred, “Go! Have we not lost face enough already?” She turned and glared at her husband, every ounce of her fury ready to pour out upon him.

He Taichong said, “Yes!” The two of them turned and ran side by side. In moments they had put a great distance between themselves and the others, the Kunlun School’s qinggong being exquisite indeed and ranked among the finest in the wulin. As for how Ban Shuxian made He Taichong pay for his offence when they reached home, whether she made him kneel balanced on a jian or employed some other peculiar Kunlun discipline, that was no concern of outsiders.

Wei Bi supported his shifu with his right hand and his shimei with his left, and the three of them walked slowly away. They were in mortal fear that the village girl would press her advantage and pursue them, yet they could not flee as swiftly as He Taichong and his wife. Every step they took was shadowed by dread.

Ding Minjun, both wrist-bones broken but her legs still sound, clenched her teeth and walked away alone.

Footnotes

1. 伏兔 – fútù. An acupoint on the outer thigh, four cun above the knee. ↩

2. 风市 – fēngshì. An acupoint on the lateral thigh, where the wind-market gathers. ↩

3. 斤 – jīn. A unit of weight in traditional Chinese metrology, approximately 590 grams in the Ming Dynasty. ↩

4. 两 – liǎng. A unit of weight and currency, one-sixteenth of a jin. ↩

5. 一阳指 – Yīyáng Zhǐ. The One Yang Finger, the signature finger technique of the Dali Duan family. ↩

6. 悬钟 – xuánzhōng. An acupoint on the outer ankle, also known as Juegu. ↩

7. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. The Nine Yang Divine Skill, a legendary internal cultivation method emphasising pure yang energy. ↩