The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 25 – Part 2

Yang Buhui said, “I know. I am stubborn by nature, and Sixth Uncle Yin was the first sugar figure¹ I ever loved. I shall never love a second.” She paused, then went on, “Wuji gege, sometimes I sit alone and think about it. You have been so good to me, and you saved my life more than once. I... I ought to serve you for the rest of my days. Yet I cannot help thinking of you as an elder brother. I am devoted to you and I honour you from the bottom of my heart, but for him, what I feel is a tenderness beyond words, a fondness beyond words. He is more than twice my age, and he is my elder besides. Most people would laugh at me, and Father is his sworn enemy. I... I know it cannot be. Yet whatever the outcome, I had to tell you.” When she had finished, she could not bear to meet Zhang Wuji's eyes a moment longer. She rose to her feet and ran away.

Zhang Wuji watched her figure vanish beyond the shoulder of the hill. His heart was heavy with a nameless unease, as though something had been taken from him. He stood a long while in silence before setting off after Yang Xiao and the other two. Cannot Tell and Wei Yixiao, noticing the faint traces of tears still glistening at the corners of his eyes, exchanged a glance towards Yang Xiao and smiled, as though to say, “Congratulations. Soon Left Messenger Yang will be the Order Leader’s father-in-law.”

The four of them descended Mount Wudang. Yang Xiao said, “That young surnamed Zhao travels with an escort before and behind. She would not journey alone. Tracing her movements should present no difficulty. Let us divide and search the four quarters, east, west, south and north. We shall rendezvous at Gucheng² tomorrow at noon. What does the Order Leader advise?”

Zhang Wuji said, “Excellent. Let us do so. I will take the western search.” Gucheng lay to the east of Mount Wudang. By choosing the west he would cover more ground than the others. Yang Xiao added a further instruction: “The Twin Xuanming Elders are formidable opponents. Should any of you encounter them, avoid them if you can. There is no need to fight them alone.” The three assented, exchanged formal bows, and set off at once towards the east, south and north.

The ground to the west was all mountain path. Zhang Wuji employed his qinggong³ and travelled swiftly. In little more than a shichen⁴ he reached the town of Shiyan.⁵ In a noodle-shop he ordered a bowl of noodles and asked the serving boy whether a yellow satin litter had passed through. The boy said, “Yes, indeed! And three gravely ill men in the litter, carried in sedanchairs, heading west towards Huanglong⁶ town. They left not even a shichen ago.” Zhang Wuji was greatly pleased. He thought that their pace would be slow, and there was no need to hurry. Better to wait until nightfall so as not to reveal his movements. He found a secluded spot and slept until the first watch,⁷ then set out for Huanglong town.

When he reached the town, the second drum⁸ had not yet sounded. He concealed himself behind a corner and saw that the streets were quiet and deserted, but from a large inn the light of candles blazed brightly. He leapt onto the roof, crossed several ridges in a succession of bounds, and arrived at the roof of a small building beside the inn. Gazing ahead, he saw a felt tent pitched on open ground beside the river at the edge of town. Figures moved before and behind the tent, standing guard in close formation. He thought, Could this be where the young lady Zhao is lodged? Her looks and speech are no different from a Han person, yet her bearing is arrogant and lavish, with something of the Mongol manner about it. By that time the Yuan had held the Central Plains for many years, and it was not uncommon for Han gentry and wealthy merchants to adopt tent-dwelling and other Mongol customs in emulation of the fashion.

He was still considering how to approach the tent when he heard sounds of groaning from a window of the inn. His thoughts turned sharply. He dropped lightly to the ground, crossed to the window and peered inside.

On three beds within the room lay three men. The faces of the other two were hidden from view, but the man facing the window was none other than A San.⁹ He moaned softly, plainly in great pain. Both his arms and both his legs were bound in white bandages. Zhang Wuji thought at once, I smashed his limbs with my neili. He must be treating them with his own sect’s medicine, the Black Jade Bone-Continuing Ointment.¹⁰ If I do not seize this moment, when will I get another chance? He threw open the window and sprang inside. One of the standing men cried out in alarm and lashed out with a punch. Zhang Wuji caught the fist in his left hand, and with two fingers of his right struck the man’s numbing acupoint. He turned to look and saw that the other two prostrate men were none other than Bald A Er¹¹ and Fang Dongbai the Eight-Armed Divine Swordsman.¹² The man he had just struck senseless wore a dark cloth long gown, and still held two golden needles in his hand. He had evidently been performing acupuncture to ease the three men’s pain. On the table stood a black bottle, and beside it several lumps of moxa.¹³

Zhang Wuji took up the black bottle, drew the stopper and sniffed. A sharp, pungent odour stung his nostrils. A San cried, “Someone! He’s stealing the…” Zhang Wuji’s fingers moved like the wind. He sealed the speechless acupoints of all three prostrate men in rapid succession, then tore open the bandage on A San’s arm. Sure enough, the entire limb was black, thinly coated with a layer of ointment. Fearing that Zhao Min’s schemes were past counting and that she might have placed a false medicine in the black bottle to lure him into a trap, he scraped ointment from the wounds of A San and Bald A Er alike and wrapped it in the bandages. Even if the bottle held a counterfeit, he thought, what he scraped from their wounds could not be false. The guards outside heard the commotion and kicked open the door, pouring into the room. Zhang Wuji did not spare them so much as a glance. He lashed out with his leg, kicking one after another aside. In an instant the inn was a cacophony of shouting and confusion. He kicked six men away in swift succession and had already scraped more than half the ointment from A San’s and Bald A Er’s wounds. He thought that if he lingered any longer and the Twin Xuanming Elders arrived, matters would become perilous indeed. He stuffed the black bottle and the scraped ointment into his robe, then hurled the doctor out of the window.

There came a heavy thud. The doctor took a full palm-strike and crashed to the ground. Just as he had expected, there were expert ambushers waiting beyond the window. Seizing the gap their comrade’s fall afforded them, Zhang Wuji shot out into the night. In the darkness a white gleam flashed as two sharp weapons streaked towards him. His left hand drew one attack aside while his right guided the other, employing the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth¹⁴ in a trifling application. The sword from the left struck the man on the right, and the spear from the right transfixed the man on the left. Amid the clamour, he was already far away.

All the way back he was in high spirits, thinking that though this journey had not uncovered Zhao Min’s true designs, the seizure of the Black Jade Bone-Continuing Ointment was worth more than anything else. He could not wait to travel as far as Gucheng to rejoin Yang Xiao and the rest. Instead he returned directly to Wudang, despatching the Flood Banner¹⁵ to send men to Gucheng with orders for Yang Xiao and the others to return to the mountain. When Zhang Sanfeng and the rest heard that the Black Jade Bone-Continuing Ointment had been obtained, they were delighted beyond measure.

Zhang Wuji examined the ointment scraped from A San’s wounds in detail, then picked a little from the black bottle and compared the two. They were identical in every particular. The black bottle itself was carved from a single great piece of jade, dark as lacquer, warm to the touch, redolent of antiquity. The vessel alone was a treasure of the rarest kind. His last doubts vanished. He ordered Yin Liting carried to Yu Daiyan’s room, and the two beds placed side by side.

Yang Buhui followed them in. She dared not meet Zhang Wuji’s eyes. Her face was suffused with radiance, and her heart overflowed with gratitude. Plainly, all the kindness Zhang Wuji had shown her — escorting her to the Western Regions, drinking the poisoned wine on her behalf in He Taichong’s house — counted for less than the healing of Yin Liting.

Zhang Wuji said, “Third Shibo,¹⁶ your old injuries have long since healed. To treat you now, I must re-break the bones in your hands and feet before realigning them. I ask you to endure a moment’s pain.”

Yu Daiyan did not truly believe that twenty years of cripplehood could be undone, but he thought that the worst that could happen was for the treatment to fail, and in twenty years he had long since ceased to care about anything. He thought, Wuji is giving his utmost to make good his parents’ failure. Otherwise he will never know peace for the rest of his days. A moment’s pain is nothing. He said no more, but gave a faint smile and said, “Do as you see fit.”

Zhang Wuji asked Yang Buhui to leave the room, then stripped Yu Daiyan of his clothes and traced every fractured bone with his fingers. Having located them all, he struck the drowsy acupoint and set the man to sleeping. Then, channelling force through his ten fingers, he worked with swift, precise snaps — a succession of cracking sounds filled the room as he re-broke every bone that had knit together crookedly. Though Yu Daiyan’s acupoints were sealed, the pain was such that he woke regardless. Zhang Wuji’s hands moved like the wind. Each time a bone, great or small, was re-broken, he set it at once in its proper position, applied the Black Jade Bone-Continuing Ointment, bound it with bandages and splints of wood, and then inserted golden needles to dull the pain.

The treatment of Yin Liting was far simpler. The position of his broken bones had already been corrected in the Western Regions. All that remained was to apply the Black Jade Bone-Continuing Ointment. When both were done, Zhang Wuji posted officers of the Five Elements Banners in rotating guard, lest the enemy attempt to disturb them.

That afternoon, Zhang Wuji had finished his midday meal and was dozing in his cloud chamber, hoping to recover from the night’s exertions, when the soft sound of footsteps approaching his door roused him. Xiaozhao stood watch outside and asked in a low voice, “What is it? The Order Leader is asleep.” Yan Yuan,¹⁷ the Banner-Master of the Thick Earth Banner,¹⁸ replied in a whisper, “Yin the Sixth Xia has fainted three times from the pain. I did not know whether the Order Leader…”

Zhang Wuji did not wait for him to finish. He rolled from his bed and ran, arriving at Yu Daiyan’s room in a handful of strides. Yin Liting’s eyes had rolled back, showing only the whites, and he had lost consciousness. Yang Buhui was weeping in desperation, at a loss for what to do. On the other side of the room Yu Daiyan was clenching his teeth so hard they ground together, plainly enduring the pain by sheer force of will. His nature was too stubborn to allow him so much as a single groan.

The sight filled Zhang Wuji with alarm. He pressed and worked the acupoints Chengqi, Taiyang and Tanzhong on Yin Liting’s face and chest, rousing him from his faint. Then he asked Yu Daiyan, “Third Shibo, is it the fracture sites that pain you so?” Yu Daiyan said, “The fractures themselves are no more than ordinary pain. It is that everywhere inside, in all my organs, there is an itching and tingling beyond bearing. It is as though… as though there were thousands of tiny worms, gnawing and burrowing about inside me.” Zhang Wuji’s alarm deepened. What Yu Daiyan described was plainly the symptom of a terrible poison. He turned at once to Yin Liting and asked, “Sixth Uncle, how do you feel?” Yin Liting murmured, half delirious, “Red, purple, green, blue, yellow, white, blue… so bright, so vivid. Little coloured balls, swirling about, spinning round and round. So beautiful. Look, look…”

Zhang Wuji gave a great cry of “Ah!” and nearly fainted on the spot. All he could think of was a passage from the Poison Classic¹⁹ left behind by Wang Nangu:²⁰ “The Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste²¹ is made by crushing and boiling together seven species of venomous insect and seven species of venomous flower. The poisoned person first feels an itching within the organs, as though seven insects were gnawing at them. Then before his eyes appear blazing, variegated colours, marvellous and strange, as though seven flowers were scattering. The seven insects and seven flowers used in the paste vary from person to person and differ between north and south. Of all the combinations, those possessing the most potent and uncanny efficacy number forty-nine, with a further sixty-three variations in the formula. Only the one who administered the poison may undo it.”

Footnotes

1. 糖人儿 – tángrénr. A figurine moulded from malt sugar, a children’s sweetmeat sold at country fairs. Here Yang Buhui uses it as a metaphor for the first object of a child’s affection. ↩

2. 谷城 – Gǔchéng. A county in northwestern Hubei, west of Mount Wudang. ↩

3. 轻功 – qīnggōng. The martial art of lightness, enabling a practitioner to move with superhuman speed and agility. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 时辰 – shíchén. A traditional unit of time equal to two hours; the day was divided into twelve shichen. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 十堰 – Shíyàn. A town in northwestern Hubei, in the mountains west of Wudang. ↩

6. 黄龙 – Huánglóng. Lit. Yellow Dragon. A town west of Shiyan in northwestern Hubei. ↩

7. The first watch (初更 – chūgēng), roughly the hours from seven to nine in the evening. ↩

8. 二鼓 – èrgǔ. The second drum-watch of the night, approximately nine to eleven o’clock. ↩

9. 阿三 – Ā Sān. A follower of Zhao Min, originally a disciple of the Vajra School. His limbs had been shattered by Zhang Wuji’s Nine Yang Divine Skill at the confrontation on Mount Wudang. ↩

10. 黑玉断续膏 – Hēi Yù Duàn Xù Gāo. The Black Jade Bone-Continuing Ointment. A priceless medicine of the Vajra School, capable of re-knitting shattered bones. It is stored in a bottle carved from a single piece of dark jade. ↩

11. 阿二 – Ā Èr. Another follower of Zhao Min, known for his bald head. He too was originally of the Vajra School. ↩

12. 方东白 – Fāng Dōngbái. His sobriquet was Eight-Armed Divine Swordsman. A swordsman of great renown, he now served Zhao Min. ↩

13. 艾绒 – àiróng. Moxa, the dried fluff of mugwort leaves, used in traditional medicine for cauterisation and acupuncture therapy. ↩

14. 乾坤大挪移 – Qiánkūn Dà Nuóyí. The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, the supreme secret art of the Ming Order, capable of redirecting force and manipulating the trajectory of attacks. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 洪水旗 – Hóngshuǐ Qí. The Flood Banner, one of the Five Elements Banners of the Ming Order. ↩

16. 师伯 – shībó. Senior lineage uncle; the shixiong of one’s shifu. Here Zhang Wuji addresses Yu Daiyan as his father’s senior fellow disciple. Shī means teacher. Bó means father’s elder brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 颜垣 – Yán Yuán. Banner-Master of the Thick Earth Banner of the Ming Order. ↩

18. 厚土旗 – Hòutǔ Qí. The Thick Earth Banner, one of the Five Elements Banners of the Ming Order. ↩

19. 毒经 – Dú Jīng. The Poison Classic, a treatise on venoms compiled by Wang Nangu, the wife of Hu Qingniu the Omniscient Doctor. ↩

20. 王难姑 – Wáng Nàngū. Wife of Hu Qingniu, the Omniscient Doctor. A master of poisons and the author of the Poison Classic. ↩

21. 七虫七花膏 – Qī Chóng Qī Huā Gāo. The Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste. A deadly poison compounded from seven species of venomous insect and seven species of venomous flower, ground and boiled together. The particular species used vary by victim and by region, yielding forty-nine principal formulae and sixty-three further variations, so that only the poisoner can prepare the antidote. ↩