The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 25 – Part 4

Zhang Wuji caught the arrow. The arrowhead was missing, but a letter was tied to the shaft. He untied it and saw the envelope bore the words “For the Ming Order Leader's own eyes.” Opening it, he found several lines of delicate, ornate script on a plain slip of paper:

“The golden box’s secret compartment, the spirit-green jade long concealed. The pearl flower’s hollow centre holds a prescription within. Both were long since placed at your side, my lord. Why labour over them so deeply? Yet I feared such trifles might escape your notice, consigned to maids and servants, abandoned in the dust. Was this what I hoped for?”

Zhang Wuji read the plain slip three times through, feeling equal parts astonishment, delight, and shame. He turned at once to the pearl flower and tested each pearl, twisting them one by one. Sure enough, one would turn. He unscrewed the bead and found the golden stem hollow, containing a tightly rolled white object. From his robe he drew the golden needle he used for striking acupoints and teased the little roll free. It was a thin sheet of paper bearing a prescription: which seven insects comprised the seven venomous creatures, which seven flowers the seven poisonous blooms, and how to treat each poisoning — all written out in full.

In truth, he needed only the names of the seven insects and seven flowers. The method of curing he could have devised himself. But when he found the remedy matched what he had worked out, he knew Zhao Min had played him no false. Overjoyed, he hurried into the inner courtyard and set about compounding the antidote. Within little more than one shichen,¹ the poison in Yu Lianzhou and Yin Liting eased greatly. The numb itching in their bodies subsided, and the coloured haloes before their eyes faded away.

He then retrieved the golden box in which Zhao Min had once sent him the pearl flower and examined it with care. He discovered the secret compartment, stuffed full of black ointment that gave off a cool, fragrant scent. This time he dared take no chances. He found a dog, broke one of its hind legs, and dabbed a little of the ointment on the wound. By the following morning the dog was brisk and lively, showing not the slightest sign of poison, and the injured leg had begun to heal.

Three days passed. The venom in Yu Lianzhou and Yin Liting was driven from their bodies entirely, and only then did Zhang Wuji apply the true Black Jade Bone-Mending Paste² to their limbs.

This time there were no mishaps. The Black Jade Bone-Mending Paste worked as though by magic. In little over two months Yin Liting could move his hands, and it seemed likely that in time he would regain full use of limbs and suffer no lasting diminution of his martial skill. Yu Lianzhou, however, had lain crippled so long that complete restoration lay beyond hope. Yet judging by the progress of his recovery, within half a year he should be able to walk slowly with a crutch under each arm, using the staffs in place of feet. Though still disabled, he would no longer be helpless and immovable.

During Zhang Wuji’s prolonged stay on Mount Wudang, the men of the Five Elements Banners who had been sent abroad returned one after another, bearing news that shocked them all. Not a single fighter from the Emei, Huashan, Kongtong and Kunlun schools who had marched westward to Bright Peak had returned home. Rumours boiled through the jianghu³ that the Ming Order, grown vast and terrible, had annihilated in one stroke all the great fighters of the six schools who had journeyed to the Western Regions, and was now attacking each school in turn. The sudden disappearance of Shaolin Monastery’s monks had already sent a tremour through the wulin.⁴ The banner vice-commanders, it turned out, had been fortunate to carry the Wudang Order’s travel writs, issued by Zhang Sanfeng himself, and had kept their identities hidden. Otherwise they would have been set upon by every faction they encountered. Each vice-commander reported that every school, guild, armed escort, bandit fastness, boatmen’s union and dock-gang in the jianghu was now braced for a great Ming Order assault.

Some days later Yin Tianzheng and Yin Yewang returned to Mount Wudang, reporting that the Tianying Order had been fully reorganised and placed under the Ming Order’s authority. They added that in the south-east, rebel armies were rising everywhere against the Yuan, though the uprisings came and went without coordination. The three most powerful leaders were Han Shantong, Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen. The Yuan armies remained strong, and the rebel factions, each fighting alone without mutual support, were crushed almost as soon as they rose.

That evening Zhang Sanfeng laid out a vegetarian feast in the rear hall in honour of Yin Tianzheng and his son. Over the wine Yin Tianzheng recounted how each uprising had failed. In every rising, disciples of the Ming Order and the Tianying Order had taken part, and all had been taken or killed by Yuan soldiers. Many had died for the cause. The assembled heroes listened, each clenching his wrist in grief and sigh.

Yang Xiao spoke. “The common people’s suffering grows deep by the day. The hearts of the people yearn for change. This is the hour to drive out the Tartars and recover our rivers and mountains. In years past, when Order Leader Yang lived, he thought of nothing night and day but the restoration. But our Order has always been extreme in its ways, and for a hundred years the grudges between us and the schools of the Central Plains have made it impossible to join hands against the foe. By Heaven’s grace, with Order Leader Zhang at the helm and the old quarrels with the schools loosening, we may now unite our strength and resist the barbarians together.”

Zhou Dian said, “Left Messenger Yang, your words sound well enough, I’ll allow. But they’re all nonsense. Near enough to farting.”

Yang Xiao took no offence. “Perhaps Brother Zhou might deign to instruct us.”

Zhou Dian said, “The jianghu says we of the Ming Order slaughtered all the fighters of the six schools. The moment they hear ‘Ming Order,’ men hate us to the bone. ‘Let us unite our strength and resist the barbarians’ — fine words, easy to say. But how are we to do it?”

Yang Xiao replied, “Though this foul name has been laid upon us, the truth will out in time. Zhang Sanfeng the Perfected One⁵ himself can testify.”

Zhou Dian laughed. “Suppose it really was us who killed Song Yuanqiao, Miejue Shitai, He Taichong and the rest. Zhang Sanfeng the Perfected One would still be kept in the dark, wouldn’t he? How could he stand as a witness?”

Iron Crown Adept barked, “Zhou Dian! Stop talking nonsense before Zhang Sanfeng the Perfected One and the Order Leader.”

Zhou Dian stuck out his tongue and said no more.

Peng Yingyu said, “Brother Zhou’s words are not entirely without merit. In my view, we should convene a great assembly of all the Ming Order’s commanders and issue an edict from Order Leader Zhang, declaring our intent to make peace with the schools of the wulin. At the same time, with so many eyes about, we might discover where Song daxia⁶ and the others have gone, and pursue the matter at the gathering itself.”

Zhou Dian said, “If you want to find out where Song daxia and the rest have got to, that’s easy. Not a breath of effort, I tell you.”

Everyone cried, “How? Why didn’t you say so before?”

Zhou Dian, brimming with self-satisfaction, drained a cup of wine and said, “You need only ask the young lady Zhao one question, and you’ll have nine-tenths of the truth. I tell you, those people are either dead at her hands or prisoners.”

Over the past two months, Wei Yixiao, Yang Xiao, Peng Yingyu, Cannot Tell and others had scoured the land in search of news about Zhao Min. But since her appearance before the temple and her palm-oath with Zhang Wuji, she had vanished utterly, and every one of her followers had disappeared without trace. The heroes had much speculated, all concluding she must be connected to the court, but beyond that they had found nothing. Now, hearing Zhou Dian speak, they said, “Now you’re talking nonsense! If we could find this woman surnamed Zhao, do you think we wouldn’t question her ourselves?”

Zhou Dian laughed. “Of course you can’t find her. But the Order Leader won’t need to search. He’ll see her again soon enough. The Order Leader still owes her three tasks, doesn’t he? Do you imagine a young lady so formidable will simply let the matter drop? Heh, heh! The girl is soft and delicate, with a face like flowers and a complexion like the moon. But the very thought of her makes the hairs on my neck stand up. I tremble with fright.” The company roared with laughter, but admitted he spoke no more than the truth.

Zhang Wuji sighed. “I only wish she would name her three tasks swiftly. I will do my utmost to accomplish them and be done with the matter. Otherwise the affair hangs over me day and night, and I cannot guess what strange contrivance she will produce next.”

Zhou Dian laughed again. “Best if she says she wants to marry our Order Leader. You agree at once, and from then on, in the bedchamber, whatever she wants the Order Leader to do, the Order Leader does. Never mind three tasks — three hundred, and no fear!” The hall rang with laughter once more.

Zhang Wuji felt colour rise in his cheeks and hastened to change the subject. “Great Master Peng has just proposed that our Order convene a gathering of all its commanders. The plan seems sound. What do the rest of you think?”

The heroes agreed. “Indeed. Waiting idly on Mount Wudang is no solution in the end.”

Yang Xiao said, “Order Leader, where do you think the gathering should be held?”

Zhang Wuji considered for a moment. “I hold this position in trust, and I have been thinking often of the debts I owe to two figures of our Order. One is Big Brother Chang Yuchun. The other is the Butterfly Valley Physician Immortal, Master Hu Qingniu. The old gentleman perished at the hands of Golden Flower Granny. I propose that this great assembly of our Order be held in Butterfly Valley,⁷ in the Huai River region.”

Zhou Dian clapped his hands. “Excellent, excellent! That ‘Let-Die-Without-Rescuing’ fellow — I quarrelled with him daily in years past. The man was not bad at heart, merely ill-tempered and perverse, much like Left Messenger Yang. He refused to save the dying, and when his own time came, no one saved him. Poetic justice, that. I, Zhou Dian, shall go and kowtow several hearty times at his grave.”

There being no further objection, it was agreed that three months hence, at the Mid-Autumn festival on the fifteenth of the eighth month, all commanders of the Ming Order would assemble at Butterfly Valley in the Huai River region.

Footnotes

1. 时辰 – shíchén. A traditional Chinese unit of time, approximately two hours; the day was divided into twelve shichen. ↩

2. 黑玉断续膏 – Hēi Yù Duànxù Gāo. Literally Black Jade Bone-Mending Paste. A legendary medicine capable of reknitting severed bones and mending shattered limbs. ↩

3. 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. ↩

4. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally “martial forest.” The community of martial artists and their affairs. ↩

5. 真人 – zhēnrén. Literally “true person.” An honorific title for a Daoist sage or immortal. ↩

6. 大侠 – dàxiá. Literally great xia. A title of respect for a renowned martial artist who upholds the code of xia. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 蝴蝶谷 – Húdié Gǔ. Butterfly Valley. The former residence of Hu Qingniu, the Physician Immortal, located in the Huai River region. ↩