The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 25 – Part 3

Sweat beaded on Zhang Wuji's forehead. He knew at last that he had fallen headlong into Zhao Min's wicked trap. What she had kept in the black jade bottle was, it turned out, the Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste¹ after all, and what she had spread upon the wounds of A San² and Bald A Er³ was this selfsame deadly poison. She had been willing to sacrifice the lives of two formidable fighters merely to lure him into her snare. The woman's cruelty passed all belief.

Overwhelmed by remorse, he moved at once like the wind, tearing away the splints and bandages from both men’s limbs and washing off the poisonous ointment with spirits. Yang Buhui saw the grave set of his face and understood that something had gone badly wrong. She put aside her scruples and helped him wash Yin Liting’s limbs with wine, but the black stain had soaked into the very texture of the flesh and would not come out, as though it were dye sunk deep into a dyer’s or lacquerer’s hands, not to be shifted in a day.

Zhang Wuji dared not venture on any remedy of his own. He fetched only certain pills to ease pain and settle the spirits, and gave them to the two injured men. Then he stepped into the outer room, and there, between terror and shame, his strength gave way altogether. His knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground, where he lay and wept. Xiaozhao bent down to comfort him and dried his tears with her handkerchief.

Yang Buhui was stricken. “Wuji gege,⁴ Wuji gege!” she called again and again.

Zhang Wuji sobbed, “It is I who have ruined Third Uncle and Sixth Uncle.” In his heart he thought, There must be more than a hundred ways to compound the Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste.¹ How can I know which seven venomous insects and which seven venomous flowers she used? The only counter is to fight poison with poison. If I misjudge so much as a single insect or a single flower, the slightest error in the antidote will cost Third Uncle and Sixth Uncle their lives at once. All at once he understood, with terrible clarity, what his father must have felt at the moment he took his own life. A great mistake was already made, and there was no road left but to end it all.

He rose slowly to his feet. Yang Buhui asked, “Then there is truly no remedy? Not even one worth attempting?”

Zhang Wuji shook his head.

Yang Buhui said, “Ah!” Her manner was calm, as though she felt no great alarm.

Zhang Wuji’s heart stirred. He remembered the words she had spoken: If he dies, I cannot go on living. He thought, Then it is not two lives I have destroyed, but three.

He stood lost in blank despair when Wu Jingcao appeared at the door and reported, “Order Leader,⁵ that young lady surnamed Zhao is outside the temple, asking to see you.”

At the words, grief and fury rose in Zhang Wuji beyond all control. “I was just going to find her!” he cried. He borrowed a jian from Yang Buhui, took it in his hand, and strode out with great steps.

Xiaozhao plucked the pearl flower⁶ from her hair and held it out to him. “Order Leader, return this to Miss Zhao.”

Zhang Wuji looked at her. You read my mind, he thought. My enmity towards this woman surnamed Zhao runs as deep as the sea. I must not keep a single thing she has given me. “Good sister,” he said. Sword in one hand and pearl flower in the other, he walked out through the gate of the temple.

Zhao Min stood alone in the open ground, a smile on her lips. The setting sun was the colour of blood and slanted across her cheeks, making her so beautiful that no mortal thing could rival her. More than a hundred feet behind her stood the Twin Xuanming Elders.⁷ They held three fine horses by the reins, but their eyes looked elsewhere, as though they had no interest in what passed.

Zhang Wuji’s figure flickered. He closed the distance in a breath, seized her wrist with his left hand, and pressed the point of the jian against her breast with his right. “Give me the antidote. At once!”

Zhao Min smiled. “You coerced me once before. Do you mean to coerce me again? I came to see you of my own accord, and you greet me so ferociously. Is this how you treat a guest?”

“I want the antidote!” Zhang Wuji said. “If you will not give it, then I… I have no wish to go on living. And you need not go on living either.”

A faint flush rose in Zhao Min’s cheeks. She gave a soft contemptuous click of her tongue. “Pfui! Delusions, are we? If you die, what is that to me? Must I die alongside you?”

Zhang Wuji said in earnest, “Who is joking with you? If you do not hand over the antidote, today shall be the day we both perish.”

Zhao Min’s right hand was gripped tight in his. She could feel his whole body trembling with agitation, and she felt too something hard pressed into his palm. “What are you holding?” she asked.

Zhang Wuji said, “Your pearl flower. I am returning it!” He raised his left hand and thrust the flower back into her hair beside her temple, then at once resumed his hold upon her wrist. The two motions, release and seizure, were swift as lightning.

Zhao Min said, “That was a gift from me to you. Why do you not want it?”

Zhang Wuji said through gritted teeth, “You have made a fool of me. I want nothing that belongs to you.”

Zhao Min said, “You want nothing of mine? Is that true or false? Why is the first thing you open your mouth for an antidote?”

In every contest of words with her, Zhang Wuji came off the worse. His tongue faltered now, and when he thought of Yu Daiyan and Yin Liting, soon to be beyond all help, his heart clenched and his eyes stung with tears. He was near to begging, yet when he recalled the many wicked devices of Zhao Min, his pride would not let him show weakness before her.

By now Yang Xiao and the rest had learned the news and crowded out through the gate of the temple. They saw that Zhao Min was held fast in Zhang Wuji’s grasp, while the Twin Xuanming Elders lingered far off, seeming either indifferent or confident of some hidden advantage. The company took up positions to one side and waited in silence to see what would unfold.

Zhao Min smiled. “You are the Order Leader of the Ming Order, your martial arts have shaken the world, and yet at the first little difficulty you fall to wailing like a child. You have already cried, have you not? How very shameless. Let me tell you something. You have taken two palms of my Two Elders’ Xuanming Divine Palms,⁸ and I have come to see how badly you are hurt. Yet no sooner do you set eyes on me than you begin this tiresome business of dying and living together. Are you going to let go or not?”

Zhang Wuji thought, If she means to use this chance to flee, that is out of the question. The moment she stirs her foot I can seize her again. He released her wrist.

Zhao Min raised her hand and touched the pearl flower at her temple. A tender smile crossed her face. “You do not seem injured yourself,” she said.

Zhang Wuji said coldly, “A trifling Xuanming Divine Palm is not so easily going to hurt a man.”

Zhao Min said, “What about the Great Strength Vajra Finger,⁹ then? And the Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste?”

Those two questions struck him like great iron hammers beating upon his chest. He said through his teeth, “It is indeed the Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste.”

Zhao Min’s face grew serious. “Order Leader Zhang, if you want the Black Jade Bone-Continuing Ointment, I can give it you. If you want an antidote to the Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste, I can give you that too. But you must first promise to do three things for me, and then I shall offer them up gladly and willingly. If you try to force me, then killing me is easy, but getting the antidote will be harder by far. If you subject me to cruel torment besides, what I give you will be a false medicine, or a poison.”

Zhang Wuji’s joy was boundless. Tears still stood in his eyes, yet already his face broke into a smile. “Three things? Tell me, tell me quickly!”

Zhao Min said, “Crying and laughing by turns, and you are not ashamed! I told you long ago that I could not think of the three things on the spot. When I have thought of them, I shall let you know. All I need is your word, solemnly given, that you will not break it. I shall not ask you to pluck the moon from the sky, nor bid you do anything against the code of xia,¹⁰ and certainly I shall not bid you die, nor make you serve me as a pig or a dog.”

Zhang Wuji thought, So long as it does not run counter to the way of xia, then however great the difficulty I must bend every effort to fulfil it. He said with solemn resolve, “Miss Zhao, if you will grant your wondrous medicine and heal the injuries of my Third Uncle Yu and Sixth Uncle Yin, then whatever you command, Zhang Wuji will not decline. Through boiling cauldrons and blazing fires, I go at your bidding.”

Zhao Min held out her palm. “Good. Let us strike palms and swear. I give you the antidote, and it heals the wounds of your Third Shibo¹¹ and Sixth Shishu.¹² In days to come I ask you for three things, and so long as they do not violate the code of xia, you must bend every effort to fulfil them and never refuse.”

Zhang Wuji said, “I abide by your words.” He struck his palm gently against hers three times.

Zhao Min took the pearl flower from her hair. “Now you are willing to accept something of mine, are you?”

Zhang Wuji, fearing she might withhold the antidote, dared not cross her. He took the flower.

Zhao Min said with a shy laugh, “But I forbid you to give it to that pretty maidservant again.”

Zhang Wuji said, “Yes!”

Zhao Min stepped back three paces, laughing. “The antidote shall be delivered at once. Order Leader Zhang, farewell!” Her long sleeve brushed the air, and she turned and went. The Twin Xuanming Elders led across the horses and attended her as she mounted. The three of them rode away down the mountain, the clatter of hooves growing faint.

No sooner had Zhao Min’s party vanished round the shoulder of the hill than a figure darted out from behind a great tree on the left. It was Qian Erbai,¹³ one of the Eight Heroes of the Divine Arrow.¹⁴ He bore an iron bow and notched a long arrow, and said in a clear voice, “My mistress sends her respects to the Order Leader, together with this letter, which she begs you to read.” With a whistling twang he let fly. The arrow flew over without force or speed.

Footnotes

1. 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. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩ ↩²

2. 阿三 – Ā Sān. His name meaning “A Third.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 阿二 – Ā Èr. His name meaning “A Second.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 哥哥 – gēge. Elder brother. An affectionate form of address. Yang Buhui uses it for Zhang Wuji in recognition of the closeness between their families. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 教主 – jiàozhǔ. Order Leader. The head of a martial or religious order. Here the title of Zhang Wuji as leader of the Ming Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 珠花 – zhūhuā. A pearl flower, a hair ornament of pearls shaped into a blossom. Here a gift from Zhao Min to Zhang Wuji. ↩

7. 玄冥二老 – Xuánmíng Èr Lǎo. Literally “Xuanming Two Elders.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 玄冥神掌 – Xuánmíng Shén Zhǎng. The Xuanming Divine Palms. A fearsome palm technique whose strike inflicts a deadly cold qi that penetrates the victim’s organs. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 大力金刚指 – Dàlì Jīngāng Zhǐ. Literally Great Strength Vajra Finger. A Shaolin finger technique capable of crushing bones and severing sinews. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 侠 – xiá. A martial hero who upholds justice and protects the weak. The code of xia demands righteousness, courage, and self-sacrifice. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 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. ↩

12. 师叔 – shīshū. Junior lineage uncle; the shidi of one’s shifu. Here Zhang Wuji addresses Yin Liting as his father’s junior fellow disciple. Shī means teacher. Shū means father’s younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 钱二败 – Qián Èrbài. His name meaning “Qian the Second Defeat.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 神箭八雄 – Shén Jiàn Bā Xióng. Literally “Divine Arrow Eight Heroes.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩