The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 28 – Part 12

Xie Xun said harshly, “What do you know? Why can you not?” His left palm was poised and ready. A single wrong word from Yin Li and he would strike her dead on the spot. Yin Li covered her face with both hands and said, “I know you want me to find Wuji and pass this skill on to him. I know you want me to master a supreme martial art so I can protect him and keep him safe from harm, but... but...” She repeated the word *but* twice, then flung herself to the ground and wept aloud.

Xie Xun rose to his feet and barked, “But what? Has something befallen my Wuji boy?” Yin Li threw herself into his arms, sobbing and choking. “He… he died six years ago, in the Western Regions… he fell into a deep gorge and perished.” Xie Xun staggered. His voice trembled. “Is that… is that true?” Yin Li wept, “It is true. Wu Lie and his daughter saw him die with their own eyes. I struck them both with the Thousand Spider Ten-Thousand Venom Hand¹ seven times, and seven times I saved their lives afterwards. Under that kind of torment, they… they could not have kept up the lie.”

When Yin Li first began to speak of Zhang Wuji’s death, Golden Flower Granny had meant to stop her. But then she thought better of it: once Xie Xun heard his sworn son was dead, his composure would shatter. He would fight with three parts more ferocity but three parts less caution, and all the easier to fall into the net of steel needles she had laid. So she merely smiled coldly to herself and said nothing.

Xie Xun lifted his face to the sky and gave a great cry, tears rolling down both cheeks. Zhang Wuji, seeing his sworn father and his cousin grieve so bitterly on his account, could bear it no longer. He was about to step forward and reveal himself when Golden Flower Granny spoke. “Third Brother Xie, since your sworn son, Young Master Zhang, has perished, what use have you guarding the Dragon-Slaying Dao? You might as well lend it to me.” Xie Xun’s voice was hoarse. “You have deceived me bitterly. If you want the treasured dao, take my life first.” He pushed Yin Li gently aside, seized the front of his long gown, and with a ripping sound tore away the lapel. He flung it at Golden Flower Granny, the gesture called tearing the robe to sever the bond.²

Zhang Wuji thought, I ought to step forward now and tell the truth, before these two wound their bond of loyalty for nothing. Just then, however, he caught the faint sound of breathing from the tall grass far to his left. The distance was great and the breathing barely audible. Had Zhang Wuji’s ears not been preternaturally sharp, he would never have noticed. His mind stirred. So Golden Flower Granny has a helper lurking in hiding after all. I must not show myself rashly. Then came the whistle of a dao through the air: Xie Xun and Golden Flower Granny had engaged.

Xie Xun wielded the treasured dao like a black dragon coiling and circling about her, now swift, now slow, each change beyond reckoning. Golden Flower Granny, wary of the dao’s edge, kept well away, describing wide circles about him. From time to time Xie Xun would leave a deliberate opening. Golden Flower Granny would press straight in without hesitation, and the instant he swung the dao back to hack at her, she would dodge aside with exquisite skill. Each knew the other’s martial arts well. Neither expected to gain the upper hand within a hundred or two hundred moves. Xie Xun relied on the dao’s keenness, while Golden Flower Granny took advantage of his blindness. Each sought to win on the one point where she held the advantage, setting technique and neili³ aside.

Suddenly two whistling sounds: a flash of yellow light as Golden Flower Granny loosed two golden flowers. Xie Xun swept the Dragon-Slaying Dao in a turn, and both golden flowers stuck fast to the blade. The golden flowers were forged of pure steel and plated with gold. The xuannie⁴ that had been used to cast the Dragon-Slaying Dao, however, possessed a powerful magnetic force and drew iron to it the instant they touched. These golden flowers were the hidden weapon upon which Golden Flower Granny’s reputation was built, and unleashed they shifted and changed in endless variety. Even had Xie Xun possessed his sight, he would have needed every ounce of his skill to dodge or deflect them. He had not expected the Dragon-Slaying Dao to prove the bane of every iron weapon. Golden Flower Granny fired eight golden flowers in rapid succession, now left, now right. Each one stuck to the Dragon-Slaying Dao. The moon was dark, the stars were thin, the night a dull wash of shadow, and upon the black blade eight golden flowers clung, and when the dao swung into motion they scurried and danced through the air like a swarm of fireflies.

Suddenly Golden Flower Granny gave a cough and hurled a handful of golden flowers, sixteen or seventeen in all, so that Xie Xun’s single Dragon-Slaying Dao could stick those on the east but not those on the west. Xie Xun swept his sleeve and caught seven or eight in the fabric. Another eight stuck once more to the Dragon-Slaying Dao. He shouted, “Madam Han, you style yourself the Purple-Robed Dragon King, yet your name runs foul of this dao’s. If you press the fight, it will go ill with you.”

Golden Flower Granny shivered. All who practise the martial arts live each day with death on a blade’s edge, and are most particular about auspicious words and taboos. She called herself Dragon King, yet the dao was named Dragon-Slaying. It was a most unlucky omen. She smiled sinisterly. “It may well be that my Lion-Slaying Staff kills the blind lion first.” She swung the staff with a rush. Xie Xun dropped his shoulder to dodge, but his foot caught and he stumbled. A cry of pain: the staff struck his left shoulder. Though he had already shed much of the force, the blow landed hard enough.

Zhang Wuji was overjoyed and cheered silently. He saw that Xie Xun had deliberately feigned a failure to dodge and taken the blow on purpose. He thought, Sworn father need only scatter the golden flowers caught in his left sleeve, then follow with the Dragon-Slaying Dao in the Thousand Mountains and Ten Thousand Waters⁵ Wild-Wind style. Golden Flower Granny will not dare face the treasured dao’s edge and must retreat further left. Two retreats in succession and her neili will falter. Then sworn father can use his neili to force the golden flowers from the Dragon-Slaying Dao and fire them forward. Golden Flower Granny will have no strength to flee far, and she must be gravely wounded.

The thought had barely formed when, sure enough, a flash of yellow light: Xie Xun had scattered the golden flowers caught in his left sleeve, and Golden Flower Granny retreated swiftly to the left. Suddenly Zhang Wuji realised something and cried out in his heart, No, Golden Flower Granny is turning his scheme to her own account! By now his mind held the whole breadth of the martial arts, and not one move of these two great fighters’ attack and defence, advance and retreat, escaped his reckoning. He watched Xie Xun’s Thousand Mountains and Ten Thousand Waters Wild-Wind style sweep down, and Golden Flower Granny retreat further left. Xie Xun gave a great shout, and more than ten golden flowers clinging to the treasured dao shot forward like arrows. Golden Flower Granny gave a cry of alarm, stumbled, and leapt backwards several paces.

Xie Xun was a man of iron resolve. Having torn his robe and severed the bond, he showed no mercy. He sprang into the air and brought the dao down towards Golden Flower Granny. Then Yin Li’s voice rang out, “Look out! There are sharp needles under your feet!”

Xie Xun heard the cry and started, too late to check his descent. A whistling filled the air as more than ten golden flowers shot towards him. Golden Flower Granny meant to pin him in mid-air with no room to shift, so that when he came down his feet must land on the needles. With no other choice, Xie Xun swung the dao to beat the golden flowers aside. Then came a series of metallic clangs beneath his feet: he had landed, and was unharmed. He bent and felt about him. All around were steel needles nine or ten inches long, thrust deep into the rock, sharp beyond measure. But the four needles directly beneath his feet had been knocked away by someone with pebbles. Judging by the force of the throw, it was the Jujing Guild expert who that day had hurled seven stones with a single hand.⁶ The man had been watching from hiding, and Xie Xun had not sensed him in the least. Had he not been saved, the soles of his feet would have been grievously wounded. All that remained would have been to suffer at Golden Flower Granny’s mercy. And if the needles had been poisoned, he would be dead already. The thought sent a cold sweat down his back.

Each of the two had employed a bitter-flesh trick.⁷ Xie Xun had taken a blow to the shoulder. Golden Flower Granny had likewise suffered two golden flowers. Though neither wound was vital, the force behind them was formidable, and the taking of it no small matter. Golden Flower Granny coughed several times, then called towards the place where Zhang Wuji lay hidden, “You thief of the Jujing Guild, you have meddled in this old woman’s affairs not once but twice. Leave your name!”

Before Zhang Wuji could answer, a sudden flash of yellow: Yin Li gave a muffled cry as three golden flowers struck her squarely in the chest. Golden Flower Granny, seeing that Zhang Wuji’s martial arts were formidable, had reasoned that if she moved to punish Yin Li he would certainly intervene. So she had kept her face towards him as she spoke, and the instant his guard was down, she had loosed the golden flowers in a back-handed throw.

Zhang Wuji was aghast. He leapt into the air, caught the two golden flowers Golden Flower Granny had fired at him, and the instant he touched the ground gathered Yin Li in his arms. Yin Li’s mind was not yet lost. Feeling a small, moustached old man holding her, she pushed against him with all her strength. The effort made her spit a mouthful of blood. Zhang Wuji understood at once. He scrubbed hard at his own face, wiping away the false moustache and the disguise, revealing his true features. Yin Li stared. “Brother A Niu,⁸ it’s you?” Zhang Wuji smiled. “It’s me.” Yin Li’s heart eased, and at once she fainted away. Seeing her wounds were grave, Zhang Wuji did not dare remove the golden flowers embedded in her body at once. He sealed the acupoints⁹ of Shenfeng, Lingxu, Bulang and Tonggu to protect her heart-vessel.

Xie Xun’s clear voice rang out. “The noble one has twice extended a rescuing hand. Xie Xun is deeply in your debt.”

Zhang Wuji’s voice broke. “Sworn… sworn… Father, why must you…”

Footnotes

1. 千蛛万毒手 – Qiānzhū Wàndú Shǒu. The Thousand Spider Ten-Thousand Venom Hand. A venomous martial art that draws the toxins of spiders into the practitioner’s fingertips. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 割袍断义 – gē páo duàn yì. Lit. tear the robe, sever the bond. A ritual gesture in the jianghu: tearing away a fold of one’s robe to declare the breaking of a sworn tie. ↩

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

4. 玄铁 – xuántiě. Heavy iron; a dark, dense metal of extraordinary hardness and magnetic force, from which the finest weapons are forged. ↩

5. 千山万水乱披风 – Qiānshān Wànshuǐ Luàn Pīfēng. Lit. thousand mountains and ten thousand waters, wild-wind style. A sweeping, multi-directional dao technique. ↩

6. 巨鲸帮 – Jùjīng Bāng. The Jujing Guild, one of the martial factions on the island. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 苦肉计 – kǔròu jì. The bitter-flesh trick: one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, in which a fighter deliberately takes harm to deceive the enemy. ↩

8. 阿牛 – Ā Niú. Lit. A Niu. Zhang Wuji’s assumed name on the island. ↩

9. 穴位 – xuéwèi. Acupoints. The points along the jingmai through which qi flows; striking or sealing them can disable or kill. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩