The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 29 – Part 2

Zhang Wuji seizes a Holy Fire Tablet but finds the Persian envoys' fighting arts beyond anything he has encountered. As the battle intensifies, Xie Xun lends him the Dragon-Slaying Dao, but even the treasured blade cannot easily break the three envoys' uncanny formation.

Zhang Wuji’s leap to seize the tablet was swift beyond measure and skilful beyond compare. The Drifting Cloud Messenger¹ and the Bright Moon Messenger,² startled and enraged, attacked from both flanks. Zhang Wuji turned to dodge, but with an unexpected crack the back of his chest was struck by the Bright Moon Messenger’s swinging tablet. The substance of the Holy Fire Tablets³ was uncanny and exceedingly hard. The blow darkened Zhang Wuji’s vision and nearly sent him into a faint. Fortunately his protective neigong⁴ flared at once, and he steadied his spirit, surging forward three steps. The three Persian envoys closed around him at once.

Zhang Wuji feinted with the tablet in his right hand at the Drifting Cloud Messenger, then his left hand shot out and seized the Holy Fire Tablet in the Bright Moon Messenger’s left grip. But she suddenly released it. The tail of the tablet sprang upward with a crack and struck Zhang Wuji squarely on the wrist. His five left-hand fingers went numb, and he was forced to drop the tablet he had just captured. The Bright Moon Messenger’s slender hand darted out and reclaimed it.

Ever since Zhang Wuji had mastered the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth⁵ and received Zhang Sanfeng’s instruction in the subtleties of Taiji Fist, he had roamed the realm with no rival. He never expected that at this moment a single woman, the Bright Moon Messenger, would strike him blow after blow. Had his protective neigong not instinctively deflected the force the second time, his wrist would have been shattered. In his alarm he dared not attack for the moment but stood still, watching, meaning to read the pattern of her techniques.

The three Persian envoys saw him struck twice yet seemingly unharmed, and were greatly surprised. The Mysterious Wind Messenger⁶ suddenly dipped his head and charged at Zhang Wuji with a headbutt. Such a move was a grave error in martial arts, sending one’s most vital part towards the enemy. Zhang Wuji stood firm, knowing the move was clumsy in appearance but cunning in truth and must conceal a deadly follow-up. Only when the man’s skull was within a foot of his body did he step back. Suddenly the Drifting Cloud Messenger leapt into the air and sat down towards the crown of his head. This move was even more bizarre, attacking with one’s backside. Of all the martial arts under heaven, no school employed so useless and clumsy a technique. Zhang Wuji showed no change of expression and stepped aside again, but felt a sharp pain in his chest, the Mysterious Wind Messenger’s elbow having found him. Yet the Mysterious Wind Messenger was rebounded by the Nine Yang Divine Skill⁷ and immediately stumbled back three steps, then three more, and just as he was about to steady himself, three more.

The three Persian envoys’ expressions shifted in astonishment. The Bright Moon Messenger swung her two Holy Fire Tablets in a fierce horizontal sweep. The Drifting Cloud Messenger leapt high and turned three consecutive somersaults in mid-air. Zhang Wuji did not know his purpose but thought it best to avoid him. He had just stepped to the left when a dark flash appeared, and his right shoulder was heavily struck by the Drifting Cloud Messenger’s Holy Fire Tablet. This move was more bizarre than anything. Not a hint of warning had preceded it, and the Drifting Cloud Messenger had clearly been tumbling in mid-air. How could he suddenly thrust his tablet out to strike Zhang Wuji’s shoulder? In his alarm Zhang Wuji dared not linger in combat. The blow on his shoulder carried considerable force, and though the Nine Yang Divine Skill had deflected it, the pain pierced to the bone. But he knew that if he retreated even once, his sworn father’s life was forfeit. He drew a deep breath, clenched his teeth, and launched himself forward, palm reaching for the Drifting Cloud Messenger’s chest.

The Drifting Cloud Messenger surged forward at the same moment. His two Holy Fire Tablets struck together with a moaning sound. Zhang Wuji’s mind reeled, and his body plummeted from mid-air. He felt a searing agony in his waist and ribs. The Mysterious Wind Messenger had kicked him hard. With a crash the Mysterious Wind Messenger was hurled backwards, but the Bright Moon Messenger’s tablet had found Zhang Wuji’s right arm.

Xie Xun had been listening from the side and understood that the young man of the Jujing Guild had already suffered several setbacks and was now barely holding on. He cursed his own blindness for preventing him from going to help. His heart burned with anguish. If he were fighting alone, he could distinguish the enemy’s weapons and fists by the sound of the wind alone. But if he went to aid his friend, how could he tell which blows were his friend’s and which were the enemy’s? If his Dragon-Slaying Dao⁸ were to slay a friend with one careless stroke, what greater tragedy could there be? He cried out at once, “Young xia, flee quickly! This is the Ming Order’s affair and has nothing to do with you. You have come to my aid again and again today, and Xie Xun is grateful beyond words.”

Zhang Wuji cried loudly, “I… I… You go quickly! Listen to me, you must go!” The Drifting Cloud Messenger’s tablet was already swinging towards him. Zhang Wuji blocked with the Holy Fire Tablet in his hand. The two tablets collided with a dull, moaning sound, like striking rotten leather or beating a torn quilt, a deep and ugly noise. The Drifting Cloud Messenger’s hand was jarred raw, and his Holy Fire Tablet flew from his grip. Zhang Wuji leapt up to seize it, but suddenly there was a rip. The Bright Moon Messenger had torn a great strip from the back of his robe. Her nails had scratched several claw-marks across his back, faintly stinging. In that instant of delay the Drifting Cloud Messenger recovered his tablet.

After several more exchanges Zhang Wuji understood that each of the three was far inferior to him in raw neili, but their martial arts were stranger than anything he had encountered, their weapons uncanny in the extreme, and most deadly of all was their coordination. Their formation was not quite a formation, their pattern not quite a pattern, devious and sinister beyond belief. If he could but wound one of them, today’s fight would be won. But whenever he struck at one, the other two covered in concert, their fist techniques shifting ceaselessly. He could never break their combined defence and was struck twice more by the Holy Fire Tablets. Fortunately every time the Persian envoys’ blows landed, they suffered the backlash of the Nine Yang Divine Skill and fared worse themselves, until even they dared no longer meet his body with fist or foot.

Xie Xun gave a great shout, held the Dragon-Slaying Dao vertically against his chest, leapt into the melee, and reached Zhang Wuji’s side. “Young xia, use the dao!” He thrust the Dragon-Slaying Dao towards him. Zhang Wuji thought that with the treasured blade’s might he might repel the enemy, and immediately tucked the Holy Fire Tablet into his robe, accepting the blade with both hands.

Xie Xun touched his right foot to the ground and sprang back. In that instant his back was heavily struck by the Mysterious Wind Messenger’s fist. The blow sent his five organs and six viscera seeming to shift their place. This punch had come without a sound, without a whisper of wind. Xie Xun had heard nothing at all.

Zhang Wuji swung the blade at the Drifting Cloud Messenger. The Drifting Cloud Messenger raised his two Holy Fire Tablets, both hands vibrating, and caught them against the Dragon-Slaying Dao. Zhang Wuji felt a violent tremor race through his palms. The Dragon-Slaying Dao nearly flew from his grip. Alarmed, he channelled more neili into the blade. The Drifting Cloud Messenger used the Holy Fire Tablets to disarm opponents, a technique that had never failed in a thousand attempts. That he could not seize this man’s single dao astonished him greatly. The Bright Moon Messenger gave a sharp cry and her two tablets also clamped onto the Dragon-Slaying Dao. Four tablets against one blade, and the pressure surged.

Zhang Wuji had already suffered seven or eight wounds. Though all were slight, his neili was significantly diminished. Half his body felt hot, and his right hand on the blade-hilt trembled without ceasing. He knew this dao was his sworn father’s lifeline. Xie Xun, not knowing his true identity, had still been willing to lend it to him, a gesture of soaring gallantry. If this dao were lost from his hands, what face would he have to stand before his sworn father? He roared aloud, and within him the Nine Yang Divine Skill blazed forth in an unbroken stream. The Drifting Cloud and Bright Moon Messengers’ expressions changed. The Mysterious Wind Messenger, seeing the tide turning, brought a third tablet to bear against the Dragon-Slaying Dao.

Zhang Wuji fought three against one yet showed no sign of discouragement. Secretly he rejoiced that he had been fortunate to seize one of the Mysterious Wind Messenger’s tablets at the very start. Had all six been deployed against him, resistance would have been impossible. By now all four combatants had reached a contest of pure neili. Zhang Wuji thought, You challenge me to a trial of neili. That is playing to your weakness and to my strength. I am in my element. In an instant all four stood motionless, each pouring neili into the locked blades. Suddenly Zhang Wuji’s chest stung, as though pierced by the finest needle.

The pain was sudden and plunged deep into his heart and lungs. Zhang Wuji’s grip faltered, and the Dragon-Slaying Dao was drawn towards the five Holy Fire Tablets. But the shock left his mind clear. He smoothly drew the Heavenly Jian⁹ from his waist and executed one move of the Taiji Swordplay¹⁰ called “Circular and Unbroken,” slicing an arc that threatened all three Persian envoys’ lower abdomens. As the three sprang back to avoid it, Zhang Wuji had already sheathed the Heavenly Jian and snatched the Dragon-Slaying Dao back. These four movements, losing the dao, drawing the jian, returning the jian, recovering the dao, were executed with the speed of lightning. It was the seventh and highest level of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth.

The three Persian envoys cried out in astonishment. Their neili was far inferior to Zhang Wuji’s, and the moment they opened their mouths, the five Holy Fire Tablets were drawn along with the Dragon-Slaying Dao. The three hastily channelled neili to recover the contest, and once again a stalemate held. Then, once more, Zhang Wuji’s chest was pricked by that needle-thin pain.

This time he was prepared, and the treasured blade did not leave his hand. But these two pricks of pain seemed to have form yet had no substance. A current of cold qi had breached his Nine Yang protective neigong and invaded one of his internal organs. He understood. The three Persian envoys were concentrating a thread of extreme yin neili to a hair’s breadth, channelling it through the Holy Fire Tablets to pierce his defence. Normally, to attack supreme yang with supreme yin need not prevail over the Nine Yang Divine Skill. But his Nine Yang energy was spread across his whole body, while their yin force was concentrated to the fineness of a silk thread, stabbing and probing at a single point. It was as with an elephant. Its strength is immense, yet a woman or child can pierce its hide with a fine embroidery needle. Once the yin force entered his body it dissipated, but that thrust was agony indeed.

The Bright Moon Messenger had deployed the Bone-Piercing Needle¹¹ internal force twice now and saw that the other side seemed to have deflected it with no effort at all. She was greatly alarmed. Though the Mysterious Wind Messenger’s left hand was free, all his body’s strength was concentrated in his right arm. His left was as useless as if paralysed. Zhang Wuji knew that if this deadlock continued, the enemy’s needle-sharp yin force would stab at him again and again until he could hold out no longer. Yet he had no answer. Behind him he could hear Xie Xun’s heavy breathing, drawing step by step closer. He meant to strike at the enemy and aid him. But at this moment all four men’s neili suffused their bodies. Any palm-force Xie Xun struck the enemy with would rebound upon Zhang Wuji no less than upon them. He dared not act.

Zhang Wuji considered the situation. It is perilous indeed. The priority is to get my sworn father to safety first. He spoke loudly, “Xie daxia, these three Persian envoys’ martial arts are strange, but it is no difficult matter for me to withdraw. Pray take shelter first, and when I have finished my business here I shall return the treasured blade to you.” The three Persian envoys heard him speaking at ease, as though in ordinary conversation, even as he poured all his strength into the neili contest, and were still more alarmed.

Xie Xun said, “Young xia, what is your honoured name?” Zhang Wuji thought that under no circumstances could he reveal his identity now. With his sworn father’s love for him, Xie Xun would certainly fight the three envoys to the death to protect him. He said, “My surname is Zeng, and my name is Aniu. If Xie daxia does not leave quickly, is it because you do not trust me and fear I shall abscond with your treasured dao?”

Xie Xun laughed heartily. “Young Xia Zeng, spare me your pretty words. We are as brothers in heart. That Xie Xun, in his declining years, should find such a friend is the joy of a lifetime. Young Xia Zeng, I am about to strike that woman with the Seven Injury Fist.¹² The moment I unleash my force, let go of the Dragon-Slaying Dao.”

Zhang Wuji knew his sworn father’s Seven Injury Fist well. If he were willing to abandon the Dragon-Slaying Dao to the enemy, a single punch could kill the Bright Moon Messenger. But in that case their own Order would incur the deep enmity of the Persian central temple. The Holy Fire Tablets’ great prohibition strictly forbade members of the same Order from fighting and killing one another. If he were to slaughter the central temple’s envoys without cause today, what sort of Ming Order Leader would he be? He cried, “Wait!” He turned to the Drifting Cloud Messenger. “Let us pause. I have a few words to say to the three of you.”

The Drifting Cloud Messenger nodded. Zhang Wuji said, “I have considerable ties to the Ming Order. Since you bear the Holy Fire Tablets hither, you are my honoured guests. My rudeness just now was a grave offence. Let us withdraw our neili at the same moment and cease fighting. What say you?” The Drifting Cloud Messenger nodded repeatedly. Zhang Wuji was overjoyed and at once released his neili, drawing the Dragon-Slaying Dao back to his chest. He felt the three Persian envoys’ neili withdraw at the same instant. Then, suddenly, a yin force like a blade, like a jian, like a dagger, like a chisel, drove straight into his Yutang¹³ acupoint at the chest.

Though it was a formless, substanceless current of yin-cold qi, where it struck his body it was as keen as steel. In an instant Zhang Wuji’s breath stopped. His whole body went rigid and he collapsed to the ground. In his mind thoughts flashed like lightning. After I die, my sworn father will not escape their clutches either. I never expected the Persian central temple’s envoys to be so utterly without honour. Can Cousin Yin Li survive? What of Miss Zhao and Miss Zhou? Xiaozhao… ah, poor little sister. And the Order’s great work of saving the people and resisting the Yuan. What will become of it? He saw the Drifting Cloud Messenger raise his right-hand Holy Fire Tablet and bring it crashing down towards the crown of his head. Zhang Wuji desperately channelled his neili to batter the Yutang acupoint blocked at his chest, but he was one step too late.

Footnotes

1. 流云使 – Liúyún Shǐ. The Drifting Cloud Messenger, one of the three envoys sent by the Persian Ming Order’s central temple. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 辉月使 – Huīyuè Shǐ. The Bright Moon Messenger, a woman and one of the three Persian envoys. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 圣火令 – Shènghuǒ Lìng. Twelve black tablets of the Ming Order, symbols of authority. To behold the Holy Fire Tablets is to behold the Order Leader himself. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi, cultivated through neigong and deployed in martial arts. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 乾坤大挪移 – Qiánkūn Dà Nuóyí. The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth. The supreme secret art of the Ming Order, capable of redirecting force, reversing qi flow, and manipulating the trajectory of attacks. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 妙风使 – Miàofēng Shǐ. The Mysterious Wind Messenger, one of the three envoys sent by the Persian Ming Order’s central temple. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. The Nine Yang Divine Skill. A legendary internal cultivation method emphasising pure yang energy, capable of granting extraordinary martial prowess and providing a powerful protective barrier. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 屠龙刀 – Túlóng Dāo. The Dragon-Slaying Dao. One of the twin legendary weapons forged from Yang Guo’s Heavy Iron Sword by Guo Jing and Huang Rong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 倚天剑 – Yǐtiān Jiàn. The Heavenly Jian. The other of the twin legendary weapons forged from Yang Guo’s Heavy Iron Sword. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 太极剑 – Tàijí Jiàn. Taiji Swordplay. The Wudang Order’s sword techniques channeling Taiji principles of softness overcoming hardness and circular, continuous motion. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 透骨针 – Tòugǔ Zhēn. Bone-Piercing Needle. A technique of concentrating yin neili to an extreme point of density, channelled through a weapon to breach an opponent’s protective neigong. ↩

12. 七伤拳 – Qīshāng Quán. The Seven Injury Fist. The Kongtong School’s signature technique, devastating but harmful to the user’s own organs if their neili is insufficient. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 玉堂 – Yùtáng. An acupoint on the chest, one of the vital points targeted in martial arts combat. ↩