The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 26 – Part 8

The two of them walked to the door of the refined lodge. The southern room was He Biweng's quarters, and Lu Zhangke¹ occupied the northern room. The door to the northern room was bolted fast from within. He Biweng² called out, “Shige, are you at home?” Lu Zhangke's voice answered from inside. He Biweng reached for the door, but it was secured on the latch. He called, “Shige, open the door at once. There is urgent matter!” Lu Zhangke said, “What urgent matter? I am cultivating my arts. Can you not leave me in peace?”

He Biweng’s martial arts were taught by the same master as Lu Zhangke’s, and the two had once been evenly matched. But Lu Zhangke was the senior disciple, and his wit was far the keener, so He Biweng had always held him in deference. Hearing the ill humour in his tone, he did not dare call again.

Fan Yao³ thought that no more delay could be spared. If the numbing drug’s power wore off, the whole pretence would unravel at once. Without a moment’s hesitation he drove his right shoulder into the door. The latch snapped, and the panel flew open. A woman’s voice shrieked from within.

Lu Zhangke was standing beside the bed. At the crash of the breaking door he spun around, his face a mask of panic and embarrassment. Fan Yao saw a woman lying upon the bed, her whole body wrapped in a thin quilt, her head alone exposed. Ropes bound the quilt about her like a bundle of bedding. Her long hair spilled beyond the cloth, her skin white and smooth, her features striking. He recognised her at once as Lady Han,⁴ the Prince of Ruyang’s newest concubine, and thought to himself, “Bat King Wei truly has skill. Alone he entered and left the Prince’s household, and took Lady Han as though she were a thing waiting to be picked up.”

In truth, though the Prince of Ruyang’s household was heavily guarded, the armed men were posted only about the Prince, the Heir, and the Princess. The Prince kept a great many concubines, and no one had imagined that anyone would dare abduct one of them. Wei Yixiao⁵ came and went like lightning, quick-witted and resourceful, and had slipped into the household unseen and carried Lady Han away. The harder part had been placing her in Lu Zhangke’s room. He had waited a long while, until at last Lu Zhangke left his chamber to use the privy, and then he had darted inside, laid Lady Han upon the bed, and vanished without a sound.

When Lu Zhangke returned and found a woman lying in his bed, he had leapt at once onto the roof and scanned the grounds in every direction. By then Wei Yixiao was long gone. Save for the sound of carousing from Sun and Li’s room, nothing stirred. Lu Zhangke knew at once that something was amiss, but composed himself and returned to his chamber. When he looked at the woman more closely, he was dumbstruck. On the day the Prince had taken Lady Han as his concubine, he had hosted a private banquet for a handful of honoured guests among his martial betters. Lady Han had moved among them offering wine, and with a single smiling bow had quite undone him. Lu Zhangke was old in years, yet even he had felt his soul drawn from him. He was a man of lustful appetites, and the number of respectable women he had ruined in his time was past counting. After seeing Lady Han’s beauty that day, he had gone home sighing deeply: why had he not encountered such a woman sooner? Had she crossed his path before the Prince took her, she would never have escaped his grasp. He had thought of her a few times more, but soon another novelty had supplanted her, and she had faded from his mind. Now, of all things, here she was, fallen from the sky and lying in his very bed.

Joy and astonishment assailed him together. After a moment’s thought he guessed that his chief disciple Wu Wang Apu⁶ had divined his master’s desire and stolen Lady Han away in secret. He saw her swathed in the thin quilt, the skin of her neck as white as snow, a bare shoulder glimpsed beneath the cloth as though she wore nothing at all. His heart stirred. He leaned close and whispered, asking how she had come here. He asked again and again, but Lady Han did not answer. Only then did Lu Zhangke recall that she must have been struck by an acupoint seal. He reached out to release it, but at that moment He Biweng arrived at the door, and then Bitter Dhūta⁷ smashed the door open behind him.

The turn of events caught Lu Zhangke utterly off guard, and he was hard-pressed to cover himself. His mind raced. He concluded that the Prince must have discovered his concubine was missing, and had sent Bitter Dhūta to seize him. The game was up. Flight was the only course. His right hand drew his deer-antler staff. His left arm swept Lady Han into his embrace, and he was about to crash through the window and flee.

He Biweng cried in alarm, “Shige, give us the antidote first!” Lu Zhangke said, “What?” He Biweng said, “Brother Ku and I, we do not know how, but we have been poisoned by Ten-Spice Softening Powder.”⁸ Lu Zhangke said, “What did you say?” He Biweng repeated himself. Lu Zhangke said in surprise, “Is Ten-Spice Softening Powder not in your keeping?” He Biweng said, “I cannot make sense of it either. The four of us were drinking and eating in good order when suddenly, all at once, we were poisoned. Lu shige, please give us the antidote at once.”

At these words Lu Zhangke’s panic eased somewhat. He set Lady Han back upon the bed. He Biweng knew his shige well enough to be familiar with his amorous ways. For a woman to appear in his chambers was so commonplace that he gave it not the slightest notice. Moreover, the Ten-Spice Softening Powder had left him so rattled and bewildered that he had no attention to spare for identifying the woman. Even in ordinary times he would not have recognised her. At the Prince’s banquet, Lady Han had come forth to offer wine, bowed once, and withdrawn. He Biweng had been wholly absorbed in his drinking, and had not spared a glance for the jewelled and be-feathered creature, whether beautiful or plain.

Lu Zhangke said, “I beg Master Ku to wait in He Xiong’s room for a moment. I shall bring the antidote at once.” As he spoke he reached out and gently pushed the two of them towards the door. The push sent He Biweng stumbling, narrowly avoiding a fall. Fan Yao lurched as well, feigning the utter weakness of a man stripped of neili.⁹ But his own neili ran deep, and when an outside force was applied to him, his body reacted of its own accord to resist. The moment Lu Zhangke pushed, he knew at once that his junior brother’s internal strength was truly gone, whilst Bitter Dhūta’s was feigned. Fearing he might be mistaken, he pushed harder. Both He Biweng and Bitter Dhūta staggered outwards, yet though both stumbled, one’s footing was empty and rootless while the other’s was planted firm and solid.

Lu Zhangke betrayed nothing. He smiled and said, “Master Ku, I have truly been discourteous.” He reached out as though to steady him. Where his hand closed, however, it was upon the Huizong and Waiguan acupoints of Bitter Dhūta’s wrist. Fan Yao, feeling the grip, knew the game was up. His left hand flicked out and struck He Biweng’s Hunmen acupoint at the rear of the torso with a heavy technique, rendering him limp and helpless in an instant. Of the two great masters, one was removed. Alone against one, he had no fear of Lu Zhangke. He gave a cold laugh and said, “Do you value your life? You dare steal the Prince’s own concubine?”

The moment he spoke, the Xuanming Elders¹⁰ were frozen with shock. They had known Bitter Dhūta for fifteen, sixteen years, and never once had they heard him utter a word. They had taken him for a mute from birth. Though Lu Zhangke had already suspected him of harbouring ill intent, he had never imagined the man could speak at all. At once it occurred to him that if Bitter Dhūta had maintained so elaborate a deception for so many years, then his own predicament was yet more perilous than he had feared. He said, “So Master Ku is no mute after all. You have concealed your voice for more than ten years. To what end?”

Fan Yao said, “The Prince knew you harboured treacherous designs, and commanded me to play the mute, that I might watch and guard you from close at hand.” The claim was full of holes, but with Lady Han in the bed and guilt heavy upon his conscience, Lu Zhangke could not but believe it. Besides, he knew well enough that the Prince of Ruyang was a master of crafty artifice with those beneath him. Fan Yao’s words settled the matter for him at once. He said, “So the Prince has sent you to take me. Heh, heh. For all your lofty skill, Master Ku, I doubt you can make me, Lu Zhangke, surrender without a fight.” With that he flourished his deer-antler staff and prepared to fight.

Fan Yao smiled. “Master Lu, even if Bitter Dhūta’s martial arts fall short of yours, the difference is not great. To beat me, I fear, will take more than a hundred or two hundred moves. You may best me in three or four strokes, but with Lady Han to guard and your junior brother to save, I doubt Lu Zhangke has the capacity for all three.” Lu Zhangke cast a glance at his junior brother, knowing Bitter Dhūta’s words were no idle boast. The two of them had trained under the same master since childhood. From young men to old, in all those decades they had not spent a day apart. Neither had wife or child. They might be said to have lived by one another’s side, and to abandon his brother now and flee alone was more than his heart could steel itself to do.

Fan Yao, seeing him waver, barked an order for Sun and Li to enter the room, and had He Biweng carried back inside. He shut the door and said, “Master Lu, this matter has not yet been exposed. If you place it in Bitter Dhūta’s hands, I can see it covered over for you.” Lu Zhangke said in surprise, “How can it be covered over?” Fan Yao did not turn his head. Without looking back, he reached behind him and sealed the speech-acupoint and the softening acupoints of Sun and Li both, with such speed and precision that Lu Zhangke could not help admiring the skill inwardly. Then Bitter Dhūta spoke, “You yourself will not breathe a word of this, I daresay. Your junior brother, I trust, would not deliberately make trouble for you either. Bitter Dhūta is a mute, and shall remain a mute. He speaks no words. And as for these two brothers, Bitter Dhūta shall seal their death-acupoints and silence them for good. That settles the matter too.” Sun and Li were stricken with terror. The affair had nothing at all to do with them. Who could have foreseen that eating dog meat would bring down such a catastrophe? They wished to beg for their lives, but could not open their mouths.

Fan Yao pointed at Lady Han and said, “As for this concubine, I have two proposals. The first is clean and neat. Take her and these two away to some quiet place, cut her throat with a single blade, and report to the Prince that she and Li Sicui, that pretty-faced fellow, had grown hot with illicit passion and run off together, and that Bitter Dhūta, enraged at the sight, slew the adulterer and the adulteress on the spot, and threw in Sun Sanhui’s life for good measure. The second course is that you take her away yourself and hide her well. Whether the secret is ever revealed depends upon your own cunning.”

Lu Zhangke could not help turning his head and casting a glance at Lady Han. Her eyes were full of entreaty, plainly begging him to choose the second course. Lu Zhangke looked upon her natural beauty, and the thought of cutting her throat was more than he could bear. His heart was deeply moved, and he said, “I am obliged to you for considering my position so thoroughly. But what do you ask of me in return?” He knew well enough that Bitter Dhūta must have some demand, or he would never have offered so generous a compromise.

Fan Yao said, “The matter is simplicity itself. Miejue Shitai,¹¹ zhangmen¹² of the Emei Order,¹³ is a close friend of mine. That young woman surnamed Zhou is the bastard daughter I had with the old nun. I ask only that you give us the antidote and release these two men. As for the Princess, I will answer for it entirely. If the matter draws suspicion your way, then may Bitter Dhūta and the old Miejue nun’s entire family turn into thieves and whores, and die unnatural deaths, never to be reborn for all eternity.” He reasoned that Lu Zhangke was a man of carnal appetites, and that a pretext drawn from affairs of the heart would be the more readily believed. He had heard Yang Xiao¹⁴ speak of how many Ming Order¹⁵ brothers had perished beneath Miejue Shitai’s jian, and so he fabricated a tale of a monk and a nun. All his life he had been unorthodox in his ways, and spoke and acted without regard for the conventions of upright men. As for the grievous oath of “thieves and whores” — that he cared not a jot. He himself was a “thief,” so what harm in it? To call the old Miejue nun a “whore” was, if anything, profoundly satisfying.

Footnotes

1. 鹿杖客 – Lù Zhàngkè. Lu Zhangke, the Deer-Staff Guest, elder of the Xuanming Elders. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 鹤笔翁 – Hè Bǐwēng. He Biweng, the Crane-Brush Old Man, junior of the Xuanming Elders. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 范遥 – Fàn Yáo. Fan Yao, the Bright Right Messenger of the Ming Order, at present disguised as the scarred mute Bitter Dhūta. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 韩氏女 – Hán Shìnǚ. Lady Han, the newest concubine of the Prince of Ruyang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 韦一笑 – Wéi Yīxiào. Wei Yixiao, the Green-Winged Bat King, one of the four Dharma Kings of the Ming Order, renowned for his qinggong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 乌旺阿普 – Wū Wàng Āpǔ. Wu Wang Apu, Lu Zhangke’s chief disciple, in the service of the Prince of Ruyang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 苦头陀 – Kǔ Tóutuó. Bitter Dhūta. The disguise Fan Yao adopted: a lay-headed Buddhist ascetic with a hideously scarred face, who had posed as a mute for over a decade in the Prince of Ruyang’s service. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 十香软筋散 – Shíxiāng Ruǎnjīn Sǎn. Ten-Spice Softening Powder. A poison devised by the barbarian monks of the Western Regions, colourless and odourless, which renders the victim’s bones and sinews soft and deprives him of all neili. ↩

9. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi, cultivated through neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 玄冥二老 – Xuánmíng Èr Lǎo. The Xuanming Elders, Lu Zhangke and He Biweng, a pair of fearsome masters in the service of the Prince of Ruyang, practitioners of the Xuanming Divine Palm. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 灭绝师太 – Mièjué Shītài. Miejue Shitai, zhangmen of the Emei Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. The head of a martial School or Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 峨嵋派 – Éméi Pài. The Emei Order, the Buddhist martial order founded by Guo Xiang on Mount Emei. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 杨逍 – Yáng Xiāo. Yang Xiao, the Bright Left Messenger of the Ming Order, Zhang Wuji’s chief adviser. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 明教 – Míng Jiào. The Ming Order, also known as the Ming Cult. A secret martial order whose teachings draw on Manichaeanism. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩