The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 18 – Part 2

Zhang Wuji's mind was a tangle. Only now did he understand: *So Zhu'er is Ah Li,¹ the girl who caught hold of me in Butterfly Valley, and the sweetheart she cannot put out of her mind is none other than myself.* He turned his head and looked at her closely. Her cheeks were swollen and puffed. Where now was even half a measure of the prettiness of their first meeting? But her eyes were like autumn water, limpid and clear, and in them she was faintly what she had been in those days.

Miejue Shitai said coldly, “Her master, Golden Flower Granny, is said to have a feud with the demonic cult as well. But Golden Flower Granny is no upright person, and just now we do not wish to make more enemies. We shall hold the girl for the present.” Yin Liting said, “Mm. So that is how it stands. Young sister, you meant nothing but kindness towards my nephew Wuji. It is only a pity that his fortune was thin. A few days ago I met Manor Master Wu Lie of the Zhu-Wu Linked Manor,² and learnt that more than five years since, Wuji missed his footing and fell into a ravine a hundred thousand feet deep. Not a bone of him was left. Ah, his father and I were closer than brothers. Who could have known that August Heaven does not protect good men, and that even this one drop of his blood…”

He had not finished when there came a smack, and Zhu’er toppled over on her back and fainted clean away.

Zhou Zhiruo sprang forward and raised her up, kneading and pressing at her chest for a good while before Zhu’er came round. Zhang Wuji was wretched. He watched Yin Liting and Zhu’er grieving so, and hardened his heart and kept himself out of it. When he lifted his head he found Zhou Zhiruo looking straight at him, her eyes full of question, as though she were asking, “How is it that she does not know you?” Zhang Wuji gave the slightest shake of his head. He knew how greatly his build and his face had altered in these years. Had he not himself first spoken of what passed in the boat on the Han River, Zhou Zhiruo too would never have known him.

Zhu’er set her teeth and asked, “Yin the Sixth Xia, who killed Zhang Wuji?” Yin Liting said, “No one killed him. According to that Wu Lie of the Zhu-Wu Linked Manor, he saw with his own eyes that Wuji missed his footing of himself and fell down the ravine. Wu Lie’s sworn brother, Zhu Changling the Heaven-Startling Brush,³ fell to his death along with him.” Zhu’er let out a long sigh and sat down, all the strength gone out of her.

Yin Liting said, “May I ask the young sister’s honoured name?” Zhu’er shook her head and did not answer. She stared blankly and the tears came down, and then all at once she threw herself face down in the sand and wept aloud. Yin Liting said, to comfort her, “The young sister need not take it so hard. Even had my nephew Wuji not fallen into that valley of snow, the Yin Poison would be breaking out in him about now, and he could hardly have lived. Ah, that he was dashed to pieces may not be altogether without blessing. It is better than the endless, grinding torment of that Yin Poison.”

Miejue Shitai said suddenly, “That spawn Zhang Wuji did well to die early. Otherwise he would surely have grown into a seed of calamity to blight the world.”

Zhu’er flew into a fury and said in a harsh voice, “Old thief of a nun, what nonsense are you talking?” The Emei disciples heard her dare to revile their master to her face, and four or five of them had already drawn their long jian⁴ and levelled the points at her chest and at the middle of her back. Zhu’er showed not a trace of fear and cursed her sternly, “Old thief of a nun, Zhang Wuji’s father was shixiong⁵ to this Yin the Sixth Xia. His Wudang Order’s chivalrous name was spread over all the world. What is wrong with that?” Miejue Shitai gave a cold laugh and did not answer. Jingxuan said, “Keep a clean mouth. Zhang Wuji’s father was indeed a disciple of a great and orthodox school. But what of his mother? A son born of a demonic cult witch: if that is not spawn and a seed of calamity, what is?” Zhu’er asked, “Who was Zhang Wuji’s mother? How could she be a demonic cult witch?”

The Emei disciples burst out laughing with one voice. Only Zhou Zhiruo lowered her head and looked at the ground. Yin Liting’s face was distinctly awkward. Zhang Wuji’s face and ears went scarlet and hot tears stood in his eyes. Had he not resolved to keep his birth hidden, he would have risen to his feet to speak for his mother.

Jingxuan was honest and kindly by nature. She said to Zhu’er, “Zhang the Fifth Xia’s wife was the daughter of Yin Tianzheng, the Order Leader of the Tianying Order. Her name was Yin Susu…” Zhu’er gave a cry of “Ah!” and her whole expression changed. Jingxuan went on, “It was because Zhang the Fifth Xia married that witch that his honour was ruined and his name destroyed, and he cut his own throat on Mount Wudang. Can it be that the young sister truly did not know?” Zhu’er said, “I… I have lived on Spirit Snake Island. Of the affairs of the Central Plains wulin⁶ I have heard nothing at all.” Jingxuan said, “That explains it, then. You have offended my master. Beg her pardon quickly.” But Zhu’er asked, “And Yin Susu? Where is she?” Jingxuan said, “She took her own life together with Zhang the Fifth Xia.”

Zhu’er’s body shuddered again. “She… she is dead too?” Yin Liting said, “If she had not brought about my Fifth Brother’s death, why would every man of our Wudang Order be past all restraint with rage the moment he hears that someone surnamed Yin has come from the Tianying Order? And what is more, my Third Brother Yu was crippled for life because she snatched at the Dragon-Slaying Dao.” Zhu’er murmured, “No wonder that when I came to Mount Wudang to ask after him, they roared me off the mountain in foul voices and would not let me get out one sentence more…”

At that very moment a shaft of blue flame shot into the sky from the northeast. Yin Liting cried, “Aiyo, that is my nephew Qingshu, set upon by the enemy.” He turned and bowed low to Miejue Shitai, clasped his fist⁷ to the rest, and ran towards the blue flame.

Jingxuan waved her hand, and the Emei disciples went after him.

When the party came near, they saw once again three men closing on one. The three wore gauze caps and straight gowns, dressed as household servants every one, and each held a dao.⁸ The onlookers had watched only a few exchanges before they were secretly astonished: for all their servants’ clothes, these three struck with a viciousness that yielded nothing to first-rate masters, and their martial arts stood far above those of the three Daoist priests Yin Liting had killed. The three circled a young scholar, turning and turning as they fought. He was hard pressed on every side and badly beaten down, yet his long jian still held his guard uncommonly tight.

To the left of the four locked together stood six men in yellow robes, each robe embroidered with a red flame: men of the demonic cult, plainly. The six stood well back and took no part in the fight. Seeing Yin Liting and the Emei party come up, a short, fat man among them called out, “Yin brothers, the other side has help coming. Tuck your tails and go. Your daddy here will hold the rear for you.” One of the men in servant’s dress said furiously, “The Thick Earth Banner⁹ crawls slowest of the lot. You there, surnamed Yan, you go first.”

Jingxuan said coldly, “Death is at their door and they are still squabbling among themselves.” Zhou Zhiruo asked, “Shijie,¹⁰ who are these people?” Jingxuan said, “Those three in the servants’ caps and coats are Yin Tianzheng’s bondservants. They are called Yin Wufu, Yin Wulu and Yin Wushou.” Zhou Zhiruo said in astonishment, “Three servants, and they are so… so formidable?” Jingxuan said, “They were great brigands of the black path with names of their own, no ordinary men. Those in the yellow robes are heretics of the demonic cult’s Thick Earth Banner. That short fat one may well be Yan Yuan,¹¹ the Banner Chief of the Thick Earth Banner. My master says that the Banner Chiefs of the demonic cult’s five banners and the Order Leader of the Tianying Order have long contended for the leadership and have never been on good terms…” Just then the young scholar met one perilous stroke after another. A length of his left sleeve was suddenly shorn away by Yin Wushou’s dao, and blood ran from his left arm.

Yin Liting gave a clear whistling cry and sent his long jian out, the point levelled at Yin Wulu. Yin Wulu brought his dao across in a hard block, and dao met jian. Yin Liting’s neili¹² was deep and thick and no small thing. With a crack, Yin Wulu’s dao was shaken into a sudden bend and turned into a carpenter’s square. Yin Wulu started in alarm and sprang three paces aside.

All of a sudden Zhu’er darted in. The forefinger of her right hand shot out and jabbed Yin Wulu in the back of the neck, and at once she leapt back to where she had stood.

Yin Wulu’s martial arts were no common thing, but under the shock of Yin Liting’s neili the qi and blood churned in his chest and he had still not steadied his feet, so that Zhu’er’s one finger found him. He doubled over with the pain, moaning low, his whole body shaking without stop.

Yin Wufu and Yin Wushou, in their great alarm, gave up all thought of attacking the young scholar and rushed to Yin Wulu’s side to hold him up. His body was twisting and writhing without cease: he was plainly very gravely hurt. The two looked at Zhu’er and suddenly said with one voice, “So it is the young miss!” Zhu’er said, “Hmph. You still know me, then?” Everyone expected the two to come forward and fight Zhu’er to the death. Instead they lifted Yin Wulu up and, without a word, ran off northward. The turn came so suddenly that every one of them stood gaping and could make neither head nor tail of it.

The short fat man in the yellow robe flourished his left hand, and there was a great yellow banner in it. The other five drew out yellow flags together and set them waving, and though there were but six of them, the great banners cracked and snapped in the air with an imposing, martial force as they fell slowly back towards the north.

The Emei people saw how strange that banner formation was and were all struck still. Two of the male disciples raised a shout and set off after them. Yin Liting’s figure flickered. Starting later, he arrived first, turned to bar the way before the two, and pushed them lightly with his outstretched arm. Both fell back three paces despite themselves, their faces flushed crimson. Jingxuan barked, “Come back, shidi.¹³ Yin the Sixth Xia means well. This Thick Earth Banner must not be chased.” Yin Liting said, “The day before yesterday my Seventh Brother Mo and I pursued a Blazing Fire Banner formation and suffered badly for it. Half of Seventh Brother Mo’s hair and eyebrows were burnt away.” As he spoke he drew up his right sleeve, and on his arm were great red patches of scorched and blistered flesh. The two Emei men could not help a secret shiver.

Miejue Shitai’s chill, frosted gaze went over Zhu’er’s face several times. She said coldly, “That is the Thousand Spider Ten Thousand Poison Hand?”¹⁴ Zhu’er said, “I have not mastered it yet.” Miejue Shitai said, “And if you had mastered it, what then? Why did you wound that man?” Zhu’er said, “It is a pity I did not jab him dead.” Miejue Shitai asked, “Why?” Zhu’er said, “That is my own affair. It is no business of yours.”

Miejue Shitai turned her body slightly, and the long jian was already out of Jingxuan’s hand and in her own. There came a ringing clang. Zhu’er sprang back in haste, her face as white as paper. In that one instant Miejue Shitai had cut a stroke at the forefinger of Zhu’er’s right hand, and her hand had moved so strangely fast that not a soul had seen it clearly. But Zhu’er’s broken wrists had not yet healed and there was no strength in that hand, and the Thousand Spider Ten Thousand Poison Hand was not yet mastered either, so before striking she had first fitted a sheath of fine steel over the finger. The jian Miejue Shitai had used was not the Heavenly Jian.¹⁵ The stroke came down on the steel sheath, and for all that, it could not take the finger off.

Footnotes

1. 阿离 – Ā Lí. Young girl, companion to the Golden Flower Granny upon Spirit Snake Island. Prefix 阿 (Ā) marks familiar address. ↩

2. 朱武连环庄 – Zhūwǔ Liánhuán Zhuāng. Literally ‘the Zhu-Wu Linked Manor’. Joint seat of the Zhu and Wu clans, whose two households are bound together like the links of a chain. ↩

3. 惊天一笔 – Jīngtiān Yībǐ. Literally ‘one brushstroke that startles Heaven’. Jianghu¹⁶ nickname of Zhu Changling. ↩

4. 剑 – jiàn. A straight, double-edged sword. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

6. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally martial forest. The community of martial artists and their schools, distinct from the broader jianghu. ↩

7. 抱拳 – bàoquán. The civil salute: left palm placed over right fist. ↩

8. 刀 – dāo. A curved, single-edged blade. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 厚土旗 – Hòutǔ Qí. The Thick Earth Banner, one of the five banners of the Ming Order. Its fighters specialise in earthwork, tunnelling, and excavation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 师姐 – shījiě. Female senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Jiě means older sister. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 颜垣 – Yán Yuán. His name meaning “Wall” or “Rampart.” Banner Chief of the Thick Earth Banner of the Ming Order. ↩

12. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force, the kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 师弟 – shīdì. Male junior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Dì means younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 千蛛万毒手 – Qiānzhū Wàndú Shǒu. Literally ‘thousand spiders, ten thousand poisons hand’. Poison art whose finger and palm strikes carry lethal venom into the body of whoever they touch. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 倚天剑 – Yǐtiān Jiàn. The Heavenly Jian, one of the two legendary weapons forged from the Heavy Iron Sword. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 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. ↩