The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 28 – Part 10

Yin Li remained silent, plainly unable to answer. Jinhua Popo went on, “Leave aside everyone else. Take only that Emei girl Zhou¹ we captured --- so beautiful that no man who sets eyes on her can keep his heart still. The moment that surnamed Zhang boy saw her, he was certain to be smitten. Then what: would you kill Miss Zhou, or would you kill the boy? Hmm. If you had not practised the Thousand Spiders, Ten Thousand Poisons Hand,² you were a peerless beauty yourself. But now --- well, it is all finished.”

Yin Li said, “He is dead already, and my looks are ruined besides. What more is there to say? But Xie daxia³ is his sworn father, Popo, and we must not harm a single hair on his head. Popo, this is the one thing I beg of you. For everything else, I will do as you say.” With that she dropped to her knees at once.

Zhang Wuji was puzzled. I am the newly appointed Order Leader⁴ of the Ming Order, and the news has long since shaken the wulin.⁵ How can these two know nothing of it? Ah — of course. They travelled far to Ice Fire Island⁶ to fetch my sworn father back, and the journey there and back took a long time. This time they went to Dadu, and returned as soon as they arrived. They have had no dealings with anyone, and so they have never heard my name.

Jinhua Popo pondered for a moment, then said, “Very well, get up!”

Yin Li said joyfully, “Thank you, Popo!”

Jinhua Popo said, “I promise not to harm his life. But that Dragon-Slaying Dao⁷ — I will have it regardless.”

Yin Li said, “But—”

Jinhua Popo cut her short. “No more nagging, or you will make Popo angry.” She flicked her hand, and once more came a metallic ting. Her hands rose in turn as she walked further and further away, the ting-ting of metal on metal never ceasing. Yin Li sat with her head in her hands upon a rock, weeping softly.

Zhang Wuji saw how deeply she cared for him, and his heart was so stirred that tears sprang to his eyes.

After a while, Jinhua Popo called out from a hundred-odd feet away, “Bring them here!” Yin Li had no choice but to pick up the two cloth sacks and walk to Jinhua Popo’s side.

Zhang Wuji stepped forward a few paces and looked down. The shock he received was no small one. Every two or three feet a steel needle seven or eight inches long was driven into the rock, its upward-pointing tip razor-sharp and glittering in the light. The more he thought about it, the more alarmed he grew. Jinhua Popo plainly meant to challenge his sworn father Xie Xun, and feared she was no match for him. Had she launched hidden weapons, Xie Xun could distinguish their flight by sound alone and dodge them easily. But these steel needles planted in the ground made no sound at all. Once she lured him into the needle-field, how could a blind man hope to defend himself? He could not suppress his anger, and reached out to pluck the needles from the rock and expose her plot — then a second thought stayed him. This wicked woman calls my sworn father Third Brother Xie. The two of them must once have been very close. I will wait until she has fallen out with my sworn father first, and only then expose her scheme. If Heaven has brought me, Zhang Wuji, here today, it will not let my sworn father come to harm.

He sat down behind a rock with his arms about his knees, and waited, watching. Suddenly, amidst the mountain wind, came a sound like leaves sweeping the ground — someone with exceptional qinggong⁸ was approaching in silence. He turned his head and saw a figure creeping furtily through the grass. It was Chen Youliang,⁹ the Beggars’ Guild elder, clutching a curved dao wrapped in a cloth sheath to hide the gleam of steel. He thought to himself that Zhao Min had been right: this man was indeed no friend.

Then Jinhua Popo’s voice rang out long and clear, “Third Brother Xie! There is a dog of a thief who is not afraid to die, and he has come looking for you!”

Zhang Wuji started in alarm. Is Jinhua Popo truly so formidable that she has discovered my hiding-place? By rights that should have been impossible. He saw Chen Youliang flatten himself in the long grass, not daring to stir a single muscle. Zhang Wuji leapt forward several times in quick succession, gaining another hundred-odd feet, for he wished to be as close to his sworn father as possible, so that he could intervene should Jinhua Popo attempt some sudden treachery.

Before long, a tall figure emerged from the hut atop the summit. It was Xie Xun.¹⁰ He walked slowly down the mountainside and stopped several dozen feet from Jinhua Popo, not a word uttered.

Jinhua Popo said, “Heh heh, Third Brother Xie, you are on guard against an old friend at every step, yet you trust strangers far too easily. That Chen Youliang you let go this morning — he has come looking for you again.”

Xie Xun said coldly, “An open spear is easy to dodge; a hidden arrow is hard to guard against.¹¹ Xie Xun has spent his whole life being done in by his own people. Why would that Chen Youliang come looking for me again?”

Jinhua Popo said, “Why bother with a slippery little rogue like that? When you spared his life today, did you notice what stances his hands and feet were shaping? His hands were forming Lion Subduing a Hare, and his feet were coiled with stored force in Demon-Subduing Kicking Dip — hah!” Her voice was crisp and pleasant to hear, but her laughter was like an owl’s cry, all the more desolate for the depth of the night.

Xie Xun started, knowing that Jinhua Popo had not lied. Because he was blind, he had been taken in by Chen Youliang after all. He said coolly, “I, Xie Xun, have been deceived before, and it will not be the last. The jianghu is thick with such petty wretches — a few more or fewer, what difference does it make? Madam Han, you count yourself a good friend of mine. You said nothing at the time, and only tell me now, when the moment has passed. Do you mean to provoke me?” With that he sprang suddenly into the air, swift beyond measure, and landed before Chen Youliang.

Chen Youliang was horrified and swung his dao in a desperate slash. Xie Xun twisted his left hand, seized the curved dao from his grip and flung it casually to the ground. Then slap-slap-slap — three hard blows across the face. His right hand seized Chen Youliang by the nape and lifted him. “If I kill you now, it is like killing a chicken. But Xie Xun gave his word and promised you ten years. If I catch you on this island again, your dog’s life ends on the spot.” With a flick of his arm he hurled him far into the distance.

The place where Chen Youliang was about to land was precisely where the steel needles stood thickest. Once he landed, his body riddled with punctures, Jinhua Popo’s whole night of plotting would be undone. She flew forward and hooked her walking stick under his waist, hurling him several dozen feet further, and called out, “If you dare set foot on my Spirit Snake Island¹² again, I will kill a hundred of your Beggars’ Guild beggars. Jinhua Popo’s words have always been good as gold. Today I give you a golden flower to take away.” Her left hand rose. A flash of yellow light, a dull poof — a golden flower had struck Chen Youliang’s left cheek, hitting the Jiache acupoint¹³ and sealing his speech so that he could not betray her secret.

Chen Youliang clapped his hand to his left cheek and fled down the mountainside. By now Xie Xun stood only a few dozen feet from the needle-field, with Zhang Wuji behind him rather than before. Zhang Wuji’s neili far surpassed Chen Youliang’s: he held his breath, and neither Xie Xun nor Jinhua Popo knew of his presence nearby.

Jinhua Popo turned and said with approval, “Third Brother Xie, you use your ears in place of eyes, and your hearing loses nothing for it. When you have rallied your strength, you can ride the jianghu for another twenty years.”

Xie Xun said, “I cannot distinguish Lion Subduing a Hare from Demon-Subduing Kicking Dip. If only I could learn true news of my Wuji boy, I could die with my eyes at peace. Xie Xun’s debt of blood is a mountain high. However cruel my death, it would be no more than I deserve. What talk of riding the jianghu?”

Jinhua Popo laughed. “A Protective Dharma King of the Ming Order — what is the killing of a few people to him? Third Brother Xie, lend me your Dragon-Slaying Dao, won’t you?”

Xie Xun shook his head and did not answer.

Jinhua Popo went on, “Your hiding-place here is exposed. You cannot stay any longer. I will find another secluded spot and send you there for a few months’ rest. When I have used the Dragon-Slaying Dao to defeat my great foe in the Emei Order, I will devote every effort to tracking down Young Master Zhang for you. With my abilities, bringing Young Master Zhang before you should be no great difficulty.”

Xie Xun shook his head again.

Jinhua Popo said, “Third Brother Xie, do you still remember those eight words — Four Guardian Kings, Purple, White, Gold, Green? In the days when we served under Order Leader Yang,¹⁴ the Eagle King, Second Brother Yin, the Bat King, Fourth Brother Wei, and you and I — we roamed the world, and no one could stand against us. The old tiger’s courage still lives in him. Can you bear to see your little Purple-Dressed Sister bullied without lifting a finger to help?”

Zhang Wuji was shaken. From her words, could she truly be the Purple Dress Dragon King,¹⁵ chief of our Order’s Four Guardian Kings? How could such a thing be? And why does she call Bat King Wei ‘Fourth Brother’ too?

He heard Xie Xun sigh. “Why dredge up old matters? We are old. We are all old.”

Jinhua Popo said, “Third Brother Xie, my old eyes are not yet dim. Do you think I cannot see that your martial arts have greatly advanced in thirty years? Why be modest? We have not much time left in this world, if you ask me. The four Guardian Kings of the Ming Order should join forces while we still draw breath and set the jianghu alight once more with some grand undertaking.”

Xie Xun sighed. “Second Brother Yin has grown old, and Fourth Brother Wei carries a cold poison in his body that will not leave him. For all I know, he may be dead already.”

Jinhua Popo laughed. “There you are wrong. Let me tell you plainly: the White-Browed Eagle King and the Green-Winged Bat King are both on Bright Peak¹⁶ at this very moment.”

Xie Xun was startled. “They have gone back to Bright Peak? For what purpose?”

Jinhua Popo said, “A’li saw it with her own eyes. A’li is Second Brother Yin’s own granddaughter, you know. She offended her father, and her father wanted to kill her. The first time it was I who saved her. The second time it was Fourth Brother Wei. Fourth Brother Wei took her up to Bright Peak, but on the way I quietly stole her out again. A’li — tell Elder Xie all about how the six great schools besieged Bright Peak.”

Yin Li then recounted in brief what she had seen in the Western Regions, though she had been carried back by Jinhua Popo before she ever set foot on Bright Peak, and everything that happened there afterwards was entirely unknown to her.

Xie Xun grew more anxious with every word and kept asking, “What happened next? What happened next?” At last he said angrily, “Madam Han, though you fell out with your sworn brothers over your marriage, the Order is in crisis — how could you stand by and watch? Order Leader Yang was your sworn father. Have you forgotten how he treated you? Look — Second Brother Yin and Fourth Brother Wei, the Five Unbound Adepts¹⁷ and the Five Elements Banners,¹⁸ did they not all rush to Bright Peak and fight together?”

Jinhua Popo said coldly, “If I cannot lay hands on the Dragon-Slaying Dao, I will remain a beaten woman under that old nun Miejue¹⁹ of the Emei Order. Even if I went to Bright Peak, I would have no face to fight her again. What would be the point of going?”

Footnotes

1. 周芷若 – Zhōu Zhĭruò. Zhou Zhiruo. A disciple of Emei Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 千蛛万毒手 – Qiān Zhū Wàn Dú Shǒu. Thousand Spiders, Ten Thousand Poisons Hand. A venomous martial art Yin Li practised at the cost of her own beauty, in which each spider’s poison is absorbed into the palms. ↩

3. 大侠 – dàxiá. A title of respect for a renowned martial artist of outstanding virtue. Suffix, lowercase, after the name. ↩

4. 教主 – jiàozhǔ. The leader of a martial or religious Order. Here Zhang Wuji is the Order Leader of the Ming Order. ↩

5. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest. The community of martial artists and their organisations. ↩

6. 冰火岛 – Bīnghuǒ Dǎo. Ice Fire Island. The remote volcanic island where Xie Xun, Zhang Cuishan, and Yin Susu were stranded for ten years. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 屠龙刀 – Túlóng Dāo. The Dragon-Slaying Dao. The other of the two legendary weapons forged from the Heavy Iron Sword, said to contain the secret to overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Lightness skill. The martial art of agility and weightlessness. ↩

9. 陈友谅 – Chén Yǒuliàng. Chen Youliang. A senior elder of the Beggars’ Guild, ambitious and cunning. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 谢逊 – Xiè Xùn. Xie Xun. Sworn father of Zhang Wuji and one of the four chief guardians of the Ming Order, known as the Golden Haired Lion King. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 明枪易躲，暗箭难防 – míng qiāng yì duǒ, àn jiàn nán fáng. “An open spear is easy to dodge; a hidden arrow is hard to guard against.” A proverb meaning that overt threats are easier to deal with than secret ones. ↩

12. 灵蛇岛 – Língshé Dǎo. Spirit Snake Island. The island where much of the action takes place, named for its venomous serpents. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 颊车穴 – Jiá​chē Xué. The Jiache acupoint, situated on the lower jaw at the angle of the cheekbone. A striking point that can temporarily paralyse the muscles of speech. ↩

14. 阳教主 – Yáng Jiàozhǔ. Order Leader Yang. Yang Dingtian, the former leader of the Ming Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 紫衫龙王 – Zǐshān Lóngwáng. The Purple Dress Dragon King. Chief of the Ming Order’s Four Guardian Kings, later known in disguise as Jinhua Popo. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 光明顶 – Guāngmíng Dǐng. Bright Peak. The headquarters of the Ming Order in the Kunlun Mountains. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 五散人 – Wǔ Sǎn Rén. The Five Unbound Adepts. Five eccentric martial artists allied with the Ming Order. ↩

18. 五行旗 – Wǔ Xíng Qí. The Five Elements Banners. The five military divisions of the Ming Order, named for gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. ↩

19. 灭绝师太 – Mièjué Shītài. Miejue Shitai. The late zhangmen of Emei Order, killed on Spirit Snake Island. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩