The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 19 – Part 2

Leng Qian hummed acknowledgement and did not answer. He knew the Monk Peng¹ would want every detail, and he might as well spare himself the effort. Sure enough, the monk's questions came tumbling out in a volley, while Zhou Dian² insisted on telling the tale in his own muddled fashion. By the time he had finished, Cannot Tell³ and Iron Crown Adept⁴ had completed their breathing exercises as well. The Monk Peng and Leng Qian⁵ stirred their neili⁶ and set to work driving the cold poison from the bodies of Wei Yixiao⁷ and Zhou Dian.

Once the two had recovered some strength, the Monk Peng spoke. “I came from the northeast. Word has reached me that Kongwen,⁸ zhangmen⁹ of the Shaolin Order, has set out in person with his shidi¹⁰ Kongzhi and Kongxing, and over a hundred disciples besides. They are marching on Bright Peak¹¹ to join the siege against our Order.”

Leng Qian said, “Due east: the five Wudang xia.” Six words. He would not waste half a one more, though you killed him for it. He meant: from the east, the five Wudang xia are coming to attack. As for who they were, everyone knew: Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, Zhang Songxi, Yin Liting and Mo Shenggu. No need to labour the point.

The Monk Peng said, “The six factions are advancing in coordinated strikes, closing the ring by degrees. The Five Elements Flags¹² have fought several engagements and the situation is dire. Our only course now is to go up to Bright Peak first.”

Zhou Dian flared up. “Bullshit! That brat Yang Xiao¹³ doesn’t come begging us, and the Five Unbound Adepts¹⁴ are meant to come crawling to his door?”

The Monk Peng said, “Zhou Dian, if the six factions breach Bright Peak and destroy the Sacred Flame,¹⁵ will we still be able to hold our heads up? Yang Xiao wronged the Five Unbound Adepts, and that was wrong of him. But we go to defend Bright Peak not for Yang Xiao’s sake, but for the Ming Order.¹⁶”

Cannot Tell said, “The Monk Peng speaks well. Yang Xiao may have been rude, but defending the Order is the great matter. A private grudge is small.”

Zhou Dian cursed, “Bullshit, bullshit! Two bald-headed donkeys farting at once, and the stink is too much to bear. Iron Crown Adept, Yang Xiao shattered your left shoulder that year. Do you still remember?”

Iron Crown Adept was silent for a long moment, then said, “Defending the Order against the enemy is a great matter. Yang Xiao’s debt can wait until the outside enemies are driven back. Then the five of us will join forces, and I daresay that brat will have to bow his head.”

Zhou Dian snorted. “Leng Qian, what say you?”

Leng Qian said, “We all go.”

Zhou Dian said, “You’re bending to Yang Xiao too? We swore an oath, didn’t we: from this day forward, the Five Unbound Adepts would have nothing more to do with the Ming Order’s affairs. Were all the words we spoke that day just so much wind?”

Leng Qian said, “They were all wind.”

Zhou Dian leapt to his feet. “You’re all farting wind. I’m the only one speaking plain sense.”

Iron Crown Adept said, “We must not delay. Let us go up to Bright Peak at once.”

The Monk Peng reasoned with him: “Brother Dian, years ago we fell out over the question of who should be Order Leader, and became enemies. Yang Xiao is narrow-minded, certainly. But thinking on it plainly, we Five Unbound Adepts were not without fault either…”

Zhou Dian snapped, “Nonsense! None of us Five Unbound Adepts wanted to be Order Leader. What fault could we possibly have?”

Cannot Tell said, “The rights and wrongs of our Order’s past, even if we argued them for another year or more, we could not sort them out. Zhou Dian, let me ask you: are you a disciple of the Bright Lord’s¹⁷ Sacred Flame, or are you not?”

Zhou Dian said, “What kind of question is that? Of course I am.”

Cannot Tell said, “Today our Order faces a catastrophe. If we fold our arms and do nothing, we shall have no face before the Bright Lord and Cult Leader Yang¹⁸ when we are dead. If you are afraid of the six factions, then do not come. The rest of us will die fighting on Bright Peak in defence of the Order. You can gather our bones afterwards.”

Zhou Dian sprang up and slapped Cannot Tell across the face, crying, “Bullshit!”

A sharp crack rang out. Cannot Tell took the blow full on. Slowly he opened his mouth and spat several loosened teeth into his palm. He said nothing. Half his cheek had gone from white to red, from red to a dark bruise, swelling high.

The others stared in shock. Zhou Dian was more stunned than any. Cannot Tell’s martial skill was no whit below his own, a casual slap like that, he could have blocked it, dodged it, by any means avoided it. How was it that he simply stood there and took it, and been hurt so badly for it?

Zhou Dian felt wretched. “Cannot Tell, hit me back! If you don’t hit me back, you’re less than a man!”

Cannot Tell gave a faint smile. “I would rather keep my strength for the enemy. Why waste it on my own brother?”

Zhou Dian raised his hand and brought it down hard across his own face. A dull smack, and he too spat out several teeth.

The Monk Peng said, “Zhou Dian, what are you at?”

Zhou Dian said, still angry, “I was wrong to strike Cannot Tell. I call it back. But I asked him to hit me back, and he wouldn’t. I had no choice but to do it myself.”

Cannot Tell said, “Zhou Dian, you and I are as close as brothers. The four of us are about to go and die on Bright Peak, and afterwards we will never sit together again. At the parting of life and death, what is a single slap between friends?”

Zhou Dian’s throat tightened. He wept openly. “I’ll go to Bright Peak too. Yang Xiao’s old account, I’ll let it stand for now.”

The Monk Peng was greatly pleased. “Now that’s a brother.”

Zhang Wuji,¹⁹ in the bag, heard every word. He thought, These five men are martial artists of the highest order, that goes without saying. What is rare is that they are bound by deep loyalty. If the Ming Order truly has such men as these, how can they all be demons and outsiders? He was still turning this over when he felt the bag shift. Cannot Tell had slung him across his back again, and they were climbing towards Bright Peak. Knowing Zhu’er was safe lifted a weight from his mind. What troubled him now was the siege of the Ming Order by the six great factions, how would it end? And once they reached Bright Peak, he might meet his childhood friend Yang Buhui. She was all grown up now. Would she still remember him?

The party travelled on for another day and night. From time to time, Cannot Tell loosened a seam of the bag to let Zhang Wuji breathe, then tied the mouth shut once more. By the afternoon of the following day, Zhang Wuji sensed that the bag was dragging along the ground. At first he did not understand why. Then he lifted his head a little and cracked his forehead hard against stone. It smarted. Now he understood: they were walking through a tunnel inside the mountain. The cold in the tunnel was bitter, and the air did not flow freely. After the best part of a shichen²⁰ they emerged from the mountain’s belly and began to climb. But they had not gone far before they entered another tunnel. Five tunnels in all, before Zhou Dian’s voice rang out, “Yang Xiao! The Blood-Sucking Bat and the Five Unbound Adepts have come to find you!”

After a moment, a voice spoke from ahead, measured and polite. “I never expected the Bat King²¹ and the Five Unbound Adepts to honour me with their presence. I, Yang Xiao, have not come out to greet you in person. I hope you will forgive the discourtesy.”

Zhou Dian said, “Save the pretence. You’re cursing us in your heart, aren’t you, ‘The Five Unbound Adepts fart wind, they swore they’d never set foot on Bright Peak again, never meddle in the Ming Order’s business, and today they come crawling to my door of their own accord.’”

Yang Xiao said, “The six factions besiege us on every side. One palm cannot make a clap,²² and I have been hard pressed. Now that the Bat King and the Five Unbound Adepts have looked upon the face of the Bright Lord and come to help in righteousness, it is a blessing to our Order.”

Zhou Dian said, “Good. You know it, then.”

Yang Xiao invited them within. Attendants brought tea, wine and food.

Suddenly, one of the attendants gave a wretched cry. Zhang Wuji, inside the bag, felt his hackles rise. He did not know what had happened. After a long while, Wei Yixiao spoke, “Left Light Envoy Yang,²³ you have lost an attendant to me. I, Wei Yixiao, shall find a way to repay the debt.” His voice was full and vigorous, nothing at all like the dying man he had been moments before. Zhang Wuji’s heart went cold: He has drunk the boy’s blood, and the hot blood has checked the cold poison in his body. He heard Yang Xiao reply in an even tone, “Between us, what need is there to speak of repayment? That the Bat King has come up to Bright Peak is favour enough to me.”

The seven of them were every one a leading master of the Ming Order. Great as the enemy threat was, the meeting of seven such men lifted their spirits. Wine and food finished, they turned to plans for defence. Cannot Tell set the bag at his feet. Zhang Wuji was hungry and thirsty, but he remembered Cannot Tell’s orders and did not dare so much as stir or make a sound.

They debated for some time. The Monk Peng said, “The Right Light Envoy and the Purple-Clad Dragon King are nowhere to be found. The Golden-Maned Lion King’s fate is unknown. Those three need no further discussion. The worst misfortune before us is that the grudge between the Five Elements Flags and the Tianying Order²⁴ runs deeper with every day. Days ago they fought a great battle, and both sides suffered heavy losses. If only they too could come to Bright Peak and stand together against the enemy, let alone six factions, even twelve or eighteen, the Ming Order could face them all.”

Cannot Tell gave the bag at his feet a gentle kick. “The boy in this bag has ties to the Tianying Order, and he has recently done the Five Elements Flags a service. Perhaps this boy may yet heal the rift between them.”

Wei Yixiao said coldly. “So long as the Order Leader’s seat remains unfilled, the Order’s feuds will not end. However great a man’s talent may be, he cannot bridge that gap. Left Light Envoy Yang, let me ask you plain: after the enemy is driven back, whom will you raise as lord?”

Yang Xiao said, coolly, “Whoever holds the Sacred Flame Tablets,²⁵ I will follow as Order Leader. That is the ancient law of our Order, and I obey it.”

Wei Yixiao said, “The Sacred Flame Tablets have been lost for nearly a century. Are we to believe that so long as the Tablets do not resurface, the Ming Order must remain without a leader? The six factions have dared to besiege Bright Peak because they do not take our Order seriously, and that is because they know we lack a single head, that we are split against ourselves.”

Cannot Tell said, “Brother Wei’s words are not wrong. I, Cannot Tell the Cloth-Bag Monk, am neither of the Yin faction nor the Wei faction. Whoever becomes Order Leader is fine by me, just so long as we have an Order Leader. Or a vice-leader would do at a pinch. If our commands cannot be unified, how can we hope to resist outside aggression?”

Iron Crown Adept said, “Cannot Tell speaks my mind.”

Yang Xiao’s expression changed. “You have come up to Bright Peak, are you here to help me fight off the enemy, or to make trouble for me?”

Zhou Dian laughed loudly. “Yang Xiao, you don’t want an Order Leader chosen. Do you think I, Zhou Dian, cannot see your game? Without an Order Leader, you, as Left Light Envoy, rank highest. But though your position is supreme, if others will not take your orders, what good is it? Can you command the Five Elements Flags? Will the four Guardian Dharma Kings²⁶ follow your word? And we Five Unbound Adepts are free as drifting clouds and wild cranes, we have never thought you were anything much.”

Yang Xiao rose abruptly, his voice cold. “Today the enemy attacks, and I have no time for this bickering. If you are content to stand idle while the Ming Order’s fate hangs in the balance, then go down from Bright Peak. So long as I, Yang Xiao, do not die, I shall come calling on each of you in due course.”

The Monk Peng said, “Left Light Envoy Yang, there is no need for anger. The six factions besiege the Ming Order, every disciple of the Order bears the duty of defending it. This is not your burden alone.”

Yang Xiao sneered. “I fear there are those within our Order who would rather see me slaughtered by the six factions, to pluck this thorn from their eye.”

Zhou Dian said, “Who are you talking about?”

“Each person’s heart knows. Why need I say more?”

“You are talking about me?”

Yang Xiao turned his gaze elsewhere and said nothing.

Footnotes

1. 彭和尚 – Péng Héshang. Literally Monk Peng. The honorific given to Peng Yingyu, one of the Five Unbound Adepts of the Ming Order. A Buddhist monk and master of internal cultivation. ↩

2. 周颠 – Zhōu Diān. Literally Zhou the Mad. One of the Five Unbound Adepts, so named for his wild, unpredictable temper. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 说不得 – Shuōbùdé. Literally Cannot Tell. One of the Five Unbound Adepts, known for carrying foes away in his indestructible cloth bag. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 铁冠道人 – Tiěguān Dàorén. Literally the Iron-Crowned Adept. One of the Five Unbound Adepts, so named for the iron crown he wears. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 冷谦 – Lěng Qiān. One of the Five Unbound Adepts, a man of so few words that even his friends find him hard to follow. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi, cultivated through neigong and deployed in martial arts. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 韦一笑 – Wéi Yīxiào. Literally Wei Who Laughs Once. Known as the Bat King, he leads the Ming Order’s giant vampire bats and suffers from a crippling internal cold poison. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 空闻 – Kōngwén. Zhangmen of the Shaolin Order, leading the Shaolin delegation to Bright Peak. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. The head of a martial school or monastic order. Lit. he who holds the gate. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 师弟 – shīdì. A male junior fellow disciple, apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Dì means younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 光明顶 – Guāngmíng Dǐng. Bright Peak. The mountain headquarters of the Ming Order, high in the Kunlun Mountains, approached through a network of tunnels bored through the mountain’s interior. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 五行旗 – Wǔxíng Qí. The Five Elements Flags. The military divisions of the Ming Order, named after the five elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 杨逍 – Yáng Xiāo. The Left Light Envoy of the Ming Order, and its de facto leader in the absence of an Order Leader. Handsome, brilliant, and cold-tempered. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 五散人 – Wǔ Sǎnrén. The Five Unbound Adepts of the Ming Order: Leng Qian, Peng Yingyu, Zhou Dian, Zhang Zhong the Iron Crown Adept, and Cannot Tell. A sanren belongs to no sect, school or post; these five hold no office in the Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 圣火 – shènghuǒ. The Sacred Flame. The eternal fire maintained on Bright Peak, the central symbol of the Ming Order’s faith, lit in honour of the Bright Lord. Its destruction would mean the spiritual end of the Order. ↩

16. 明教 – Míng Jiào. The Ming Order. A secretive martial and religious cult devoted to the coming of the King of Light, whose teachings promise that brightness shall prevail over darkness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 明尊 – Míng Zūn. The Bright Lord. The divine founder of the Ming Order’s faith, the King of Light whom the Order worships and serves. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 阳顶天 – Yáng Dǐngtiān. The late Order Leader of the Ming Order, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances decades ago. His passing left the Order leaderless and divided. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 张无忌 – Zhāng Wújì. Son of Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

21. 蝠王 – Fú Wáng. The Bat King. The title of Wei Yixiao, master of the Ming Order’s giant vampire bats. ↩

22. 孤掌难鸣 – gū zhǎng nán míng. A proverb meaning one palm cannot make a clap: one person alone cannot succeed. ↩

23. 杨左使 – Yáng Zuǒshǐ. Short for 光明左使, the Left Light Envoy. Yang Xiao’s formal title as the senior lieutenant of the Ming Order, second only to the Order Leader. ↩

24. 天鹰教 – Tiānyīng Jiào. The Tianying Order. A martial order founded by Yin Tianzheng, former Guardian Dharma King of the Ming Order. Its name means Heavenly Eagle Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 圣火令 – Shènghuǒ Lìng. The Sacred Flame Tablets. The ancient symbols of authority in the Ming Order. By the Order’s founding law, whoever holds the Tablets is the rightful Order Leader. They have been lost for nearly a century. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

26. 护教法王 – Hùjiào Fǎwáng. The Guardian Dharma Kings. Four supreme enforcers of the Ming Order, ranked above the Left and Right Envoys in ceremonial precedence: the Purple-Clad Dragon King, the Golden-Maned Lion King, the White-Browed Eagle King, and the Azure-Winged Bat King. ↩