The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 27 – Part 3

Lu Zhangke entered the room and said to Wu Wang Apu,¹ “Stand guard outside. Do not let anyone in.” The moment Wu Wang Apu stepped out, Lu Zhangke shut the door behind him, untied his bundle, and let Han Ji² out. She was pale with fright, her eyes full of entreaty. Lu Zhangke whispered, “Now that you are here, you have nothing to fear. I shall treat you well.” He could not yet free her acupoints, lest she cry out and ruin everything, but his heart itched so he could hardly bear it. He kissed her lightly on the lips first, a small consolation, he thought, for even if things fell through, at least he would have kissed a beauty.

He laid Han Ji on Wu Wang Apu’s bed and drew a quilt over her. He stuffed another quilt into the bundle and set it aside. Where Han Ji was, trouble would follow, and he dared not linger. He hurried out of the room, instructing Wu Wang Apu not to enter and not to let anyone else in either. He knew his senior disciple revered and feared him in equal measure and would never dare disobey. His thoughts ran thus: This matter truly requires Bitter Dhūta³ to keep a strict secret. I must do him a great favour to buy his silence. I had best release his old flame and their illegitimate daughter first. Conveniently, the Ming Order zhangmen caused such a stir last night that the whole affair arose from that young woman surnamed Zhou. I need only say the Ming Order zhangmen spirited away the old nun⁴ and Miss Zhou, and the story will be seamless. The Princess will not harbour the slightest suspicion. With that little demon’s martial skill so formidable, the Princess cannot blame us for failing in our guard.

The Emei Order disciples were all imprisoned on the seventh floor. Miejue Shitai,⁴ as their zhangmen, was held alone in a small chamber. Lu Zhangke ordered the guards to open the door and let him in. He found Miejue Shitai sitting cross-legged on the floor, her eyes closed in meditation. She had refused food for days, and though her face was haggard, it only made her appear more fierce and unyielding.

Lu Zhangke said, “Miejue Shitai, how do you do?” Miejue Shitai opened her eyes slowly and said, “How can one be well in a place like this? What is there to be well about?” Lu Zhangke said, “You are so stubborn that my master sees no use in keeping you alive. He has ordered me to send you to your end.” Miejue Shitai had long since made peace with death. She said, “Excellent. But spare yourself the trouble. Lend me a short jian, and I shall finish it myself. I only ask that you bring my disciple Zhou Zhiruo⁵ to me. I have a few words to entrust to her.” Lu Zhangke turned and left the room, ordering someone to fetch Zhou Zhiruo. He thought, The bond between mother and daughter is indeed peculiar. Why else would she call for this particular disciple, and no other?

Before long, Zhou Zhiruo arrived in her shifu’s chamber. Miejue Shitai said, “Master Lu, please wait outside the room. I need only say a few words.”

Lu Zhangke nodded and stepped out, guarding the door. After a while, curiosity got the better of him. He wondered what secrets mother and daughter could have to say, and so he channelled his neigong⁶ and pressed his ear to the door. He could hear mumbling. One voice was very low, deep and thick, surely Miejue Shitai speaking. He strained to listen, yet not a single word reached him. After a time, he heard Zhou Zhiruo cry out, “Shifu, your disciple is young and has not been in the Order long… You, Senior, will surely escape this ordeal…” Lu Zhangke was puzzled. Why does she call her mother “Shifu” instead of “Mother”? Could it be she does not know she is the old nun’s illegitimate daughter? Then he heard Zhou Zhiruo refusing again and again: “Your disciple truly cannot. Your disciple is not capable. I cannot…” Miejue Shitai’s voice turned stern, “If you do not heed my instructions, you betray your shifu and your ancestors.”

One pleaded inability, the other issued stern commands. Back and forth it went for some time. Lu Zhangke could not make out what Miejue Shitai was asking her daughter to promise, nor what Zhou Zhiruo was refusing. He could only hear Zhou Zhiruo weeping bitterly for quite a while. Lu Zhangke was growing impatient. He knocked on the door and called, “Hey, are you two finished? You have plenty of days for talking ahead. No need to rush it all out now.” Miejue Shitai had a fierce temper. She barked, “What are you fussing about?” Lu Zhangke did not wish to offend mother and daughter and displease Bitter Dhūta besides, so he said, “Very well, very well! I shall not fuss. You two take your time.” Miejue Shitai snapped, “Nonsense! We are shifu and disciple. What do you mean, ‘you two’?”⁷ Lu Zhangke said apologetically, “Yes, yes!” He waited a while longer, but his thoughts kept returning to Han Ji. He could endure it no longer and hurried up to the tenth floor, to the room outside Wu Wang Apu’s quarters.

After a time, Miejue Shitai had finished instructing Zhou Zhiruo on the Order’s most vital affairs. She heard someone knocking at the door again. Miejue Shitai thought, There is no time left to transmit my neigong today. She said aloud, “Come in!”

The wooden door opened. It was not Lu Zhangke who entered, but Bitter Dhūta. Miejue Shitai was not surprised. She thought them all birds of a feather, and whoever came would serve the same purpose. She said, “Take this child away.” She did not wish to take her own life before Zhou Zhiruo’s eyes, lest the girl be unable to bear it.

Bitter Dhūta drew close and whispered, “This is the antidote. Take it quickly. When you hear the outcry outside, fight your way out together.” Miejue Shitai said in astonishment, “Who are you, sir, and why do you give me an antidote?” Bitter Dhūta said, “I am Fan Yao,⁸ the Bright Right Messenger of the Ming Order. I have stolen the antidote and come specially to rescue you, Shitai.” Miejue Shitai flared with anger, “You villain of the demonic cult! You still dare mock me even now?” Fan Yao laughed, “Very well! Say I am mocking you. This is a poison upon poison. Do you have the courage to take it? Once it enters your belly, within one shichen⁹ your intestines will rupture inch by inch. The death will be beyond description.” Miejue Shitai did not speak a word. She took the powder from his hand and swallowed it at once.

Zhou Zhiruo cried out, “Shifu… Shifu…” Fan Yao held out his other palm and said sharply, “Be silent. You shall take this poison too.” Zhou Zhiruo started, but Fan Yao had already pinched her cheeks and poured the powder into her mouth. He followed at once with a bottle of water, pouring several mouthfuls down her throat until every last grain of the powder was washed away.

Miejue Shitai was horrified. If Zhou Zhiruo died, all her careful plans would come to nothing. She threw herself at Fan Yao heedless of her own safety, her palm striking towards him. But her neigong had not yet returned, and though the strike was precise in form, what force could it carry? Fan Yao gave her a light push, and she crashed into the wall.

Fan Yao said, “The Shaolin monks and the Wudang xia have all taken my poison. Whether the Ming Order is good or evil, you shall know in a little while.” He laughed loudly, turned, and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

The truth was this: when Fan Yao had escorted Zhao Min to meet Zhang Wuji, his thoughts had dwelt only on seizing the antidote. Zhao Min had ordered him to wait in the outer hall of the small wineshop. He had left the inn at once and raced back to Wan’an Temple,¹⁰ up the high tower and straight to the tenth floor, outside Wu Wang Apu’s quarters.

Wu Wang Apu was standing at the door. Seeing him, he said respectfully, “Master Ku.”

Fan Yao nodded, laughing inwardly. So Lu Zhangke disrespects his own shifu. He hides in the room himself, enjoying himself with the Prince’s consort, and leaves his disciple to stand guard outside. While the old fool is busy with his pleasures, I shall slip in and seize the antidote. He hunched his shoulders and shuffled past Wu Wang Apu. Then, with a sudden backwards flick of his finger, he struck an acupoint on the younger man’s lower abdomen. Wu Wang Apu had not been expecting it in the least, but even had he been on full guard, he could not have dodged that strike. Once the acupoint was sealed, Wu Wang Apu stood frozen, unable to move a limb. He was greatly puzzled, wondering what offence he had given this mute ascetic to earn such treatment. Had his “Master Ku” been insufficiently respectful?

Fan Yao pushed open the door and darted towards the bed swift as lightning. His feet had not yet touched the ground when his palm struck downwards at the figure on the bed. He knew Lu Zhangke’s martial skill well. If this strike did not cripple him, it would become a bitter struggle to the death. He poured his full strength into the blow. There was a sharp crack. The quilt burst and cotton flew in every direction. He pulled back the coverlet and saw Han Ji, her mouth and nose bleeding. He had beaten her to death, shattering her beauty beyond recognition. Of Lu Zhangke, there was no sign.

Fan Yao’s thoughts turned quickly. He stepped back out of the room, dragged Wu Wang Apu inside, and sealed another acupoint to still him, then stuffed him under the bed. He had barely shut the door when he heard Lu Zhangke’s angry voice outside, “Apu! Apu! How dare you leave your post?”

The truth was that Lu Zhangke had grown tired of waiting for the mother and daughter to finish their long-winded conversation. He did not know how much longer they would go on, so he had returned to Wu Wang Apu’s room. To his annoyance, his usually obedient disciple was not standing guard outside. He pushed open the door, relieved to see nothing amiss. Han Ji still lay facing the wall, covered by the quilt.

Lu Zhangke took the door-bolt and slid it into place. He turned and said with a smile, “My beauty, I shall unseal your acupoints now, but you must not make a sound.” So saying, he reached under the covers. The moment his fingers touched Han Ji’s spine, something clamped about his wrist, five fingers like iron pincers, gripping his mai-men¹¹ so tightly that all the strength went out of him at once. The quilt was thrown back, and a long-haired ascetic crawled out. It was Bitter Dhūta.

Fan Yao’s right hand held Lu Zhangke’s mai-men fast. His left hand moved like the wind, sealing nineteen major acupoints across his body in rapid succession. Lu Zhangke collapsed to the floor, utterly paralysed. His eyes blazed as Fan Yao pointed at him and said, “I, Fan Yao, change not my surname nor hide my name. I am the Bright Right Messenger of the Ming Order. Today you have fallen to my scheme. For all your vaunted cunning, you have proved yourself a fool. Were I to kill you now, it would not be the act of a hero. I shall spare your life. If you have the stomach for it, come and seek your revenge on Fan Yao some other day.”

His sport was not yet done. He stripped Lu Zhangke of every garment, leaving him naked, and laid him side by side with Han Ji’s corpse. He drew the quilt over the two, one dead, one alive. Only then did he take up the antler staff, unscrew the antlers, and pour out all the antidote. He went from cell to cell, distributing the medicine to Great Master Kongwen,¹² Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, and the rest. By the time every prisoner had been served, much time had passed, and each required some explanation besides. Last of all, he came to Miejue Shitai’s room. Seeing she did not believe it was an antidote, he decided to frighten her, saying it was poison instead. Fan Yao bore her a grudge for the many brothers of his Order she had maimed, and he took some pleasure in tricking her.

He had just finished distributing the antidote and was feeling rather pleased with himself when he heard a commotion from below the tower. He Biweng’s¹³ voice rang out loudest of all, “That Bitter Dhūta is a spy! Seize him!” Fan Yao inwardly despaired. This is bad. This is very bad. Who has gone and freed the old fool? He peered down from the tower and saw He Biweng leading a great band of armed men, surrounding the tower on all sides. The moment Bitter Dhūta’s head appeared, Sun Sanhui¹⁴ and Li Sicui¹⁵ let fly a pair of arrows, cursing, “You villainous monk, you have caused us great misery!”

Footnotes

1. 乌旺阿普 – Wū Wàng Āpǔ. A disciple of Lu Zhangke who helped guard the six great sects’ prisoners at Wan’an Temple. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 韩姬 – Hán Jī. A consort of the Prince of Ruyang, coveted by Lu Zhangke. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 苦头陀 – Kǔtóutuó. The assumed identity of Fan Yao, the Bright Right Messenger of the Ming Order, who disguises himself as a mute hunchbacked monk to infiltrate the Yuan court. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 灭绝师太 – Mièjué Shītài. Leader of the Emei Order. Mièjué is her dharma name. Shītài is a title of respect for a senior nun. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩ ↩²

5. 周芷若 – Zhōu Zhĭruò. A disciple of the Emei Order, later its leader. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 内功 – nèigōng. Internal cultivation; the cultivation of inner strength through breathing, meditation, and qi circulation. Distinct from external techniques. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 娘儿俩 – niángr liǎ. A colloquial term for “mother and child” or, more loosely, two women close in bond. Miejue Shitai objects because it mischaracterises their relationship as kinship rather than shifu and disciple. ↩

8. 范遥 – Fàn Yáo. The Bright Right Messenger of the Ming Order. He disguised himself as the mute, hunchbacked monk Bitter Dhūta to infiltrate the Yuan court and rescue his Order’s brothers. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 时辰 – shíchén. A traditional Chinese unit of time, equal to two modern hours. The day was divided into twelve shichen. ↩

10. 万安寺 – Wàn’ān Sì. Wan’an Temple in Beijing, where the Yuan court imprisoned the masters of the six great schools. ↩

11. 脉门 – màimén. The pulse-gate; the point at the wrist where the radial artery runs, a vital target for gripping an opponent’s qi flow. ↩

12. 空闻大师 – Kōngwén Dàshī. A senior monk of the Shaolin Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 鹤笔翁 – Hè Bǐwēng. One of the two Xuanming Elders, wielding the Crane-Brush Palm. A senior servant of the Prince of Ruyang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 孙三毁 – Sūn Sānhuǐ. One of the Eight Heroes of the Divine Arrow, in service to the Prince of Ruyang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 李四摧 – Lǐ Sìcuī. One of the Eight Heroes of the Divine Arrow, in service to the Prince of Ruyang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩