The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 18 – Part 7

In the midst of that utter silence, Zhang Wuji suddenly recalled a passage from the Nine Yang Manual:[^jiuyangzhenjing] *"He is strong, let him be strong. A clear breeze sweeps the mountain ridges. He is fierce, let him be fierce. The bright moon shines upon the great river."* When he had read these lines in the secluded valley, he had never understood their meaning. Now they came to him of a sudden. For all Miejue Shitai's ferocity and ruthlessness, he was surely no match for her. Yet the Nine Yang Manual's teaching seemed to say that no matter how fierce or how savage the enemy, one might regard him as a clear breeze sweeping the mountain ridges, a bright moon reflected in the great river. Though it might touch one's person, it could inflict no harm. And how was one to ensure no harm? The passage went on: *"He is ruthless, he is wicked. I keep my zhenqi[^zhenqi] full and whole."* At this his mind opened wide. He sat cross-legged and regulated his breathing according to the method the manual described. He felt his dantian[^dantian] grow warm and lively, the zhenqi flowing, and in moments it suffused his limbs and every bone. Only now did the great power of the Nine Yang Divine Skill[^jiuyangshen] reveal itself. His external wounds were grave and he had vomited blood by the sheng,[^sheng] yet his neili[^neili] and zhenqi had suffered little loss.

Miejue Shitai saw him gathering his qi to heal himself and could not help but be privately surprised. This youth truly possessed extraordinary ability. The first palm she had struck him with was a move from the Drifting Snow Piercing Cloud Palm;¹ the second was yet more deadly, the third form of the Nine Styles of Intercepting Hand;² both lay at the very heart of Emei Order palm technique. With the first she had used only three-tenths of her strength. With the second she had raised it to seven. She had expected that even if he were not killed on the spot, at the very least his sinews would snap and his bones break, his body collapse and be unable to stir. Yet here he was, after lying prone for some moments, sitting up again. It was wholly beyond her expectation. By the custom of duels in the wulin,³ Miejue Shitai need not have waited for him to tend his injuries, but she valued her own dignity too highly to take advantage of a junior in such a moment.

Ding Minjun⁴ cried aloud, “You there, surnamed Zeng, if you dare not receive my shifu’s third palm, you had best roll far away at once. Are we to wait here for you while you nurse your wounds for a lifetime?” Zhou Zhiruo⁵ said in a soft voice, “Senior Sister Ding, let him rest a little longer. It does no harm.” Ding Minjun flared, “You… you too are shielding outsiders. I suppose you find this young fellow… “ She had meant to say, You find this young fellow handsome and have taken a fancy to him. But at once she remembered that many renowned masters from the great schools were watching, and such coarse words could not pass her lips. So she stopped half-way through her sentence. Yet her meaning was plain enough to everyone. The unspoken second half carried the same weight as if she had spoken it aloud.

Zhou Zhiruo was at once ashamed and furious, so angry her face went white. She made no retort, but said coolly, “I am only mindful of our own school’s honour and our shifu’s reputation, and wish that no one should have cause for idle gossip.” Ding Minjun said in surprise, “What idle gossip?”

Zhou Zhiruo said, “Our school’s martial arts are famed throughout the world, and our shifu is one of the foremost seniors of this age. She would never stoop to contend with a callow youth like this. She struck him only because he was reckless and presumptuous, and meant to teach him a lesson. She would not truly take his life, would she? Our school’s name for chivalry has stood for a hundred years. Our shifu is compassionate and righteous, generous and broad-minded. Who does not admire her? This young man’s light is that of a firefly or a candle. How can he contend with the sun and moon? Even if he trained for another hundred years, he would be no match for our shifu. What harm is done by letting him rest a little longer?” These words she spoke with composure and conviction, and everyone who heard them nodded silently in approval. Miejue Shitai was all the more pleased. She felt her young disciple understood the larger picture and had brought credit to their school before the masters of the various factions.

Within Zhang Wuji, as his zhenqi began to flow, his spirits rose at once. He heard every word Zhou Zhiruo said and knew she was shielding him with all her strength, tying Miejue Shitai’s hands with her own words so that she would not dare strike a killing blow. He was deeply grateful. He rose to his feet and said, “Shitai, this junior will risk his life to keep a gentleman’s company. I shall receive your third palm.”

Miejue Shitai saw that with only that brief cross-legged sitting he had at once regained his vigour. She thought, This boy’s neigong⁶ is so profound. Truly uncanny. She said, “You are free to strike back at me. Who told you to take my blows without returning them?” Zhang Wuji said, “My paltry skill could not so much as brush the hem of Shitai’s robe. What talk of striking back?” Miejue Shitai said, “Since you know your own measure, you had best leave at once while you can. A young man with such spirit is rare enough. Under my hand I do not ordinarily spare my enemies. Today I shall make an exception for you.”

Zhang Wuji bowed and said, “Many thanks, Senior. Will you also spare these brothers of the Sharp Gold Banner?” Miejue Shitai’s long brows slanted down and she laughed coldly. “Do you know what my dharma-name is?” Zhang Wuji said, “Your honourable name has ‘Mie’ above and ‘Jue’ below.” Miejue Shitai said, “Now you know. Demons and heretics, I will extinguish them and annihilate them, without mercy. Do you think the name ‘Miejue’ is given in vain?” Zhang Wuji said, “In that case, I beg Senior to deliver the third palm.”

Miejue Shitai looked at him sideways. So stubborn a youth she had truly never seen in all her life. She was cold-hearted by nature, but a thought of惜才 stirred in her. When I strike this third palm, he will die for certain. This man is not truly one of the demons and heretics. It would be a pity for one so young to throw away his life. She considered briefly and resolved to strike the third palm at his dantian acupoint, shaking his dantian with neili so that he would at once hold his breath and faint. Then, after she had finished with the Ming Order’s Sharp Gold Banner cultists, she would rouse him again.

Her left sleeve swung out. The third palm was about to fall, when suddenly a voice cried, “Miejue Shitai, spare him under your palm!” These eight words pierced every person’s ears like a needle, and all found them intensely unpleasant.

From the northwest a man in white robes appeared, a folded fan in his hand, parting the crowd and striding forward. His feet raised no dust as he walked, as though he were floating upon the surface of water. On the left lapel of his white robe a small black eagle was embroidered, its wings spread wide. At one glance everyone knew him for a master of the Tianying Order.⁷ For the Tianying Order’s robes were white like the Ming Order’s, save that the Ming Order’s robes bore a red flame embroidered upon them, while the Tianying Order’s bore a black eagle.

The man halted some thirty feet from Miejue Shitai. He cupped his fists and smiled. “Shitai, greetings. As for this third palm, might I receive it in his stead?” Miejue Shitai said, “Who are you?” The man said, “My surname is Yin, and my courtesy name is Yewang.”

The moment the words Yin Yewang⁸ left his lips, a stir ran through the onlookers. Yin Yewang’s name had been truly formidable in the jianghu⁹ for the past twenty years. Men of the wulin spoke of his martial skill as little short of his father, the White-Browed Eagle King Yin Tianzheng.¹⁰ He was the hall master of the Tianwei Hall of the Tianying Order, second in authority only to the Order Leader himself. For over ten years he had led the Tianying Order’s finest against Shaolin, Kunlun, and Kongtong, a power unto itself, giving no ground. Every man present held him in awe.

Miejue Shitai saw that the man was no more than forty, yet his eyes were like cold lightning, casting sharp beams that overawed all about him. He could not be taken lightly. Moreover, she had heard his name often enough. She said coldly, “What is this boy to you, that you would receive my palm in his stead?”

Zhang Wuji’s heart cried, He is my Uncle, my Uncle! Could he have recognised me?

Yin Yewang laughed aloud. “I do not know him at all. I only see that he is young, yet his bones are hard indeed. He is quite unlike the false gentlemen and fame-seekers one meets in the wulin. This pleases me, and I wish to test Shitai’s skill.” His last words were far from courteous, and his meaning seemed to hold Miejue Shitai in no esteem at all.

Miejue Shitai was not angered. She gave Zhang Wuji a fierce look and said, “Boy, if you wish to live a few years longer, leave now. There is still time.” Zhang Wuji said, “I dare not cling to life and forget what is right.” Miejue Shitai nodded. She turned to Yin Yewang and said, “This boy still owes me one palm. Our accounts are kept separate. When the time comes, I shall not disappoint you.” Yin Yewang gave a low laugh. “Miejue Shitai, if you have the skill, kill the boy. But if the boy does not survive, I shall see that not one of you finds a grave.” With that he turned and drifted backwards through the crowd, crying, “Show yourselves!”

Suddenly, countless heads rose from the sand on every side. Before each man a shield was propped, and each held a taut bow, rows upon rows of sharp arrows aimed at the crowd. The Tianying Order’s men had dug tunnels beneath the sand and long since encircled every faction. The assembled masters had been so intent upon watching Miejue Shitai and Zhang Wuji that they had given no thought to defence. Even the more perceptive among them, such as Song Qingshu,¹¹ had looked only for a frontal assault by the Tianying Order. They had not expected that, taking advantage of the soft sand, the enemy had dug tunnels and seized every favourable position about them. Every face changed colour. They saw the arrowheads gleaming with a dark blue sheen in the sunlight, plain sign of deadly poison. At a single order from Yin Yewang, all present save the handful of greatest skill would surely perish. Of the five schools present, Miejue Shitai was foremost in years and standing. All eyes turned to her, awaiting her command.

But Miejue Shitai was the most stubborn woman alive. Though the situation was dire, she was not moved in the slightest. She said to Zhang Wuji, “Boy, you have only yourself to blame for your ill fate.” Suddenly a crackling, popping sound rose from every bone in her body, like beans popping in a pan. Before the sound had ceased, her right palm had already struck at Zhang Wuji’s chest.

This palm was the Emei Order’s supreme technique, called Buddha’s Light Illuminates All.¹² Every palm technique and every sword technique is linked in continuous forms, numbering at most several hundred moves and at the fewest three or five. Yet whether three or five, each move must conceal further changes within it, so that one move counts for several or even a dozen. But this palm, Buddha’s Light Illuminates All, was but a single move, and that single move held no further variation. One palm thrust out, striking the enemy’s chest or back, shoulder or face. The movement was plain and unadorned, without variation. The force it generated lay wholly in the Emei Order’s Nine Yang neigong as its foundation. Once the palm was released, the enemy could neither block nor dodge. In the present-day Emei Order, save for Miejue Shitai alone, not a second person could execute it. She had meant only to strike Zhang Wuji’s dantian and knock him senseless. But after Yin Yewang’s threat, any further mercy on her part would not be generosity but cowardice, a kneeling surrender before the enemy. So she poured her full strength into the move, holding nothing back.

Footnotes

1. 飘雪穿云掌 – Piāoxuě Chuānyún Zhǎng. Literally Drifting Snow Piercing Cloud Palm. An Emei Order palm technique. ↩

2. 截手九式 – Jiéshǒu Jiǔ Shì. Literally Nine Styles of Intercepting Hand. An Emei Order palm technique. ↩

3. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest. The community of martial artists and their factions. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 丁敏君 – Dīng Mǐnjūn. A disciple of the Emei Order. ↩

5. 周芷若 – Zhōu Zhĭruò. A disciple of the Emei Order and later zhangmen. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 内功 – nèigōng. Internal cultivation, the cultivation of neili through meditation and breathing exercises. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 天鹰教 – Tiānyīng Jiào. The Tianying Order, a branch of the Ming Order led by Yin Tianzheng, the White-Browed Eagle King. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 殷野王 – Yīn Yěwáng. Son of Yin Tianzheng, hall master of the Tianwei Hall of the Tianying Order. Uncle of Zhang Wuji. ↩

9. 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. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 殷天正 – Yīn Tiānzhèng. The White-Browed Eagle King, Order Leader of the Tianying Order and grandfather of Zhang Wuji. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 宋青书 – Sòng Qīngshū. Son of Song Yuanqiao and the most promising disciple of the third Wudang generation. Known by the epithet Jade-Faced Mengchang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 佛光普照 – Fóguāng Pǔzhào. Literally Buddha’s Light Illuminates All. The supreme single-move palm technique of the Emei Order, powered by Emei Nine Yang neigong. ↩