The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 20: Together in the Tomb, Supporting Each Other

Pursuing the treacherous monk Yuanzhen into the secret passages beneath Bright Summit, Zhang Wuji is joined by the unassuming maidservant Xiao Zhao. What begins as a chase becomes a journey of discovery, past the bones of a lost Order Leader, a hidden martial arts manual written on sheepskin, and the revelation that the unremarkable girl at his side is far more than she appears.

Zhang Wuji followed her only a few steps before they reached the bed. The maidservant drew back the silken curtains and crawled in, pulling Zhang Wuji’s hand after her without letting go. Zhang Wuji was startled. This girl is both ugly and young, but she is still a woman, he thought. How can I share a bed with her? Besides, the enemy’s escape was the urgent matter. He tried to pull his hand free.

The maidservant whispered, “The passage is inside the bed!”

Hearing those five words, he steadied himself and forgot all thought of propriety between men and women. The maidservant pulled back the brocade quilt and lay across the bed, gripping his hand and pulling him down beside her. He knew not what mechanism she had triggered, but suddenly the bed plank tilted and the two of them tumbled down.

They fell several dozen feet¹ before landing on thick, soft grass below. Not a trace of pain. Above them, they heard a soft click and the bed plank sealed itself shut. Zhang Wuji marvelled inwardly: How brilliantly this mechanism is built! Who would imagine that the entrance to a secret passage lies inside a young lady’s bed? He rose to his feet, took the maidservant’s hand, and strode forward at speed.

They had run several dozen feet when he heard the clinking of iron chains dragging on the ground behind the maidservant’s feet. It suddenly occurred to him: This girl is lame, and her feet are bound in chains. How can she run so fast? He stopped at once. The maidservant divined his thought and laughed, My lameness is pretend. I trick Master and Young Miss.

Zhang Wuji thought to himself, No wonder Mother said all women love to deceive people. Today even Buhui meimei has set a trap for me. But the pursuit of the enemy was paramount. The thought flickered and vanished. They wound through the passage for hundreds of feet until they reached its end. Yet Yuanzhen was nowhere to be seen.

The maidservant said, “I’ve only ever been this far in this passage. I believe there’s a way through ahead, but I can’t find the mechanism to open the door.”

Zhang Wuji stretched out his hands and groped in all directions. Ahead was rough, uneven rock wall. Not a single seam. He pushed and struck at the protrusions with all his strength, but the wall did not budge in the slightest.

The maidservant sighed, “I’ve tried dozens of times and never once found the mechanism. It’s truly strange. I once brought a torch in here and examined every inch, but didn’t discover the faintest suspicious mark. Yet where could that monk have escaped to?”

Zhang Wuji drew a deep breath, channelled force into both arms, and pushed hard against the left side of the rock wall. Nothing. He pushed against the right side and felt the stone shift, ever so slightly. He drew in two more mouthfuls of true zhenqi² and pushed with all his might. The stone wall slowly retreated: an extraordinarily thick, enormous, heavy, solid gate.

It turned out that the secret passages of Bright Summit had been built with exquisite craft. In some places, hidden mechanisms opened doors at a touch. But this great stone gate had no mechanism at all. Without inborn superhuman strength or supreme martial arts, no one could ever have moved it. The maidservant could enter the passage, but her martial arts fell short, so she could only give up halfway. Zhang Wuji, however, had now fully mastered the Nine Yang Divine Skill,³ and the force of his push was tremendous. The gate yielded.

When the wall had shifted three feet, he struck out a palm strike lest Yuanzhen lurk behind the stone in ambush, then pulled the maidservant through in a flash.

Beyond the stone wall, the passage stretched on, sloping steadily downward. They walked on for some five hundred feet before several forked passages appeared ahead. Zhang Wuji tested each one in turn. There were no fewer than seven forks. He was just wondering which way to go when he heard a soft cough from the left, immediately suppressed, but in the stillness of the underground, quite distinct.

Zhang Wuji whispered, “This way!” He dashed down the leftmost fork. The passage rose and fell, the ground rough and uneven. He pressed on bravely, hearing the clatter of iron chains behind him. He called back: “The enemy is ahead and the situation dangerous. You’d best go slowly.” The maidservant replied, “We share the danger together. What is there to fear?”

Zhang Wuji thought, You’re trying to trick me too? The passage wound in a leftward spiral, growing narrower and narrower, until at last it admitted only a single person, like a deep well.

Suddenly he felt a fierce gust of wind pressing down from above. Zhang Wuji spun and wrapped his arms around the maidservant’s waist, leapt downward with all his might, and the instant his left foot touched ground, hurled himself forward. Whether a chasm a hundred thousand feet deep or a solid rock wall awaited him one step ahead, he had no leisure to consider. Fortunately, the space before them was open and ample.

A tremendous crash sounded behind them. Earth and stone fragments rained down on their heads.

The maidservant said, “That was close! The bald thief was hiding to the side and pushed a great rock down on us.”

Zhang Wuji had already turned and was walking back up the slope, his right hand raised above his head. After only a few steps, his palm met the rough stone surface above. Yuanzhen’s voice drifted faintly from behind the rock: “Brat! Today you’re buried here, with a girl for company. Consider yourself lucky. Brat, no matter how strong you are, think you can push this rock open? One stone isn’t enough? I’ll add another!” They heard the scrape of an iron tool prying stone, then another mighty crash as a second boulder was levered down and piled atop the first.

The passage admitted barely one person to turn around. Zhang Wuji reached out and felt that although the great rocks did not completely seal the passage, the gaps could admit at most one outstretched hand. His body could never squeeze through. He drew in a breath of true zhenqi and pushed against the boulders with both hands. Sand and earth crumbled from the crevices, but the rocks did not budge. The two boulders, each weighing several thousand jin⁴ and stacked together, would have tested even the strength of nine oxen and two tigers. Though he had mastered the Nine Yang Divine Skill, human strength has its limits. How could he shift these hill-sized stones by even half a foot or an inch?

They heard Yuanzhen panting heavily beyond the boulders. Evidently the effort of prying them down while already gravely wounded had exhausted him. After several gasps, he asked, “Boy… what… is… your… name?” At the word “name,” he had no strength left to continue.

Zhang Wuji thought, Even if he repented now and decided to let us out, he no longer could. No point wasting words on him. Let me see if there’s another way out below. He turned and descended, following the passage onward.

The maidservant said, “I have a fire tinder kit, but no candle or torch. I’m afraid it’ll burn out fast.”

Zhang Wuji said, “No hurry to light it yet.” They walked only a few dozen steps before reaching the end. The two of them groped in all directions. Zhang Wuji’s hands found a wooden barrel. “Got it!” he said, pleased. A single palm strike shattered the barrel, spilling powder. Whether lime or flour, he could not tell. He picked up a wooden splinter and said, “Light the torch!”

The maidservant took out her fire steel, flint, and tinder, struck a spark, and held it to the wood. Suddenly a blinding flare, the splinter burst into violent combustion. Both of them started in alarm. Their nostrils filled with the acrid stench of saltpetre and sulphur.

“It’s gunpowder!” the maidservant said. She held the burning wood high and peered into the barrel. Sure enough, the powder was all black gunpowder. She laughed softly, “If the sparks had scattered just now and the gunpowder exploded, I’m afraid it would have killed that wicked monk outside too.” Seeing Zhang Wuji staring at her in blank astonishment, his expression most peculiar, she smiled faintly and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Zhang Wuji sighed and said, “So you… you’re actually this beautiful!”

The maidservant pressed her lips together and laughed. “I was frightened silly and forgot to keep up my ugly face!” With that, she straightened herself. It turned out she was neither hunchbacked nor lame. Her eyes were bright and spirited, her brows shapely, her nose well-formed, her cheeks dimpled, her skin fair and delicate. She was still young and her figure not yet fully grown. Though her beauty was striking, it could not quite conceal her childishness.

Zhang Wuji said, “Why disguise yourself as a monster?”

The maidservant laughed, “Young Miss hates me. When she sees my ugly face, she’s pleased. If I didn’t make myself look hideous, she’d have killed me long ago!”

Zhang Wuji said, “Why would she kill you?”

The maidservant said, “She always suspects I want to harm her and Master.”

Zhang Wuji shook his head. “How suspicious. Just now you had a longsword in hand and she was helpless, yet you didn’t harm her. From now on, she’ll never suspect you again.”

The maidservant said, “I brought you here. Young Miss will only suspect me more. And who knows if we’ll ever get out. Ah, whether she suspects or not doesn’t matter much now.”

She held the burning wood high and surveyed their surroundings. They appeared to be in a stone chamber piled with bows, arrows, and weapons, most of them crusted with rust. Evidently the Ming Order’s predecessors had stored them here in preparation for defending against enemies. A further search of the walls revealed not a single crack or seam. This was the dead end of this fork. Yuanzhen’s deliberate cough had been meant to lure them into a trap.

Footnotes

1. 丈 – zhàng. Traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.3 metres or 10.8 feet. ↩

2. 真气 – zhēnqì. Literally true qi. The refined neili cultivated through martial arts practice, distinct from ordinary physical strength. ↩

3. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. Literally nine yang divine skill. Legendary internal cultivation method emphasising pure yang energy, capable of granting extraordinary martial prowess. ↩

4. 斤 – jīn. Traditional Chinese unit of weight, approximately 500 grams or 1.1 pounds. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩