The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 30 – Part 5

Xie Xun paused in deliberation, then said, "I have three conditions. If your side agrees to them, we shall see your Head Temple brethren safely ashore." The man asked, "What conditions?" Xie Xun said, "First, henceforth the Head Temple and the Ming Order of the Central Plains shall regard each other with goodwill and not interfere in each other's affairs." The man said, "Hmm! And the second?" Xie Xun said, "You shall let Daiqisi[^daiqisi] board this vessel and absolve her of the sin of losing her chastity, never again to pursue the matter." The man said angrily, "That is utterly impossible. Daiqisi has broken a grave law of the Head Temple and deserves the punishment of burning. What has that to do with your Central Plains Ming Order? What is the third?"

Xie Xun said, “You cannot agree to the second, so why trouble with the third?” The man said, “Very well! Suppose the second is granted. You may as well tell us the third.”

Xie Xun said, “This third is easily done. Send a small boat to follow behind our vessel. Once you have sailed fifty li,¹ if we see you do not pursue with a great ship, we shall place the captives in the small boat for you to take away.”

The man flew into a rage and cried, “Nine times nonsense! Nine times nonsense!”² Xie Xun and the rest were taken aback, not understanding what he meant.

Zhao Min laughed, “This man has learned to speak Chinese, but he has learned it poorly. He thinks that by adding one more to ‘Eight Pieces of Nonsense’ it becomes all the more absurd.” Xie Xun and Zhang Wuji considered this and found it amusing. Despite the peril of their situation, they could not help but laugh aloud.

The man who had added a ninth to “Eight Pieces of Nonsense” was none other than the Transparent Guardian King,³ who sat last among the Twelve Guardian Kings. Hearing Xie Xun and the others laugh, he grew still more enraged. With a sharp whistle he and the Unity Guardian King,⁴ who ranked eleventh, leapt aboard the vessel together.

Zhang Wuji rushed forward and thrust his left palm towards the Unity Guardian King’s chest. The Unity Guardian King made no move to block. Instead he reached out with his left hand and clawed down towards Zhang Wuji’s crown. Zhang Wuji saw that his own strike would land first, but the Transparent Guardian King attacked from an oblique angle with a double palm, absorbing the blow, whilst the Unity Guardian King’s fingers came straight down. Zhang Wuji lurched forward a step to avoid them and only then realised that the two attacked and defended in concert, as though they were a single man with four arms and four legs. The three of them exchanged seven or eight moves swift as thunder and lightning.

Zhang Wuji was secretly alarmed. These two were somewhat inferior to the Wind-Cloud Three Envoys, yet their martial arts were no less bizarre. The methods bore a striking resemblance to the principles of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth,⁵ yet whenever they put them into practice the result was greatly distorted and wholly impossible to predict. In the sharpness and ingenuity of their techniques, however, they fell far short of the true Great Shift. It was as though both men were madmen who had stumbled upon fragments of the Shift’s methods without truly mastering them, and in their befuddled state struck out wildly. An ordinary foe would have found their irregular assaults hard indeed to withstand. Yet the tightness of their coordination matched that of the Three Envoys precisely. Zhang Wuji strained to hold them off and could manage no more than a stalemate. He reckoned that after another twenty or thirty exchanges he might gain the upper hand.

At that moment the Wind-Cloud Three Envoys raised a concerted whistle and attacked the ship again, all three converging on the Equality Guardian King in the hope of snatching him back to atone for their error in striking him with their Tablet. Xie Xun hoisted the Equality Guardian King and swung him to and fro, tracing enormous circles in the air. How dared the Three Envoys charge in recklessly this time? They darted left and right, seeking a gap through which to press their attack.

Suddenly the Transparent Guardian King gave a muffled grunt and fell. Zhang Wuji bent to seize him, but the Drifting Cloud Messenger and the Bright Moon Messenger struck together with their Tablets, whilst the Mysterious Wind Messenger had already leapt back to her own ship with the Transparent Guardian King in her arms. By then the Unity Guardian King and the Cloud-Moon two Envoys had joined forces, but their coordination was not as seamless as that of the Three Envoys. After several further exchanges they saw that victory was beyond them. With a series of whistles the three leapt back aboard their vessel.

Zhang Wuji steadied himself and said, “These people seem to have learned something of the Shift of Heaven and Earth, yet they have learned it imperfectly. It is truly hard to contend against them.” Xie Xun said, “Our Order’s Great Shift of Heaven and Earth originated in Persia. But several centuries after it was brought to the Central Plains, the art was lost in Persia itself. What they retain, according to Daiqisi, is nothing but a shallow and muddled smattering. That is why they sent her to Bright Peak⁶ to steal the methods back.” Zhang Wuji said, “Their foundation in the art is indeed shallow, mere surface knowledge. Yet the manner in which they apply it is most ingenious. Plainly there is some great key at the heart of it that I have failed to grasp. Now, among the seven layers of the Great Shift there are certain stages I have not completed. Could that be the cause?” So saying, he sat down upon the deck, clasped his head and thought hard. Xie Xun and the rest fell silent, not wishing to disturb his train of thought.

Suddenly Xiaozhao gave a sharp cry. Zhang Wuji raised his head and saw the Wind-Cloud Three Envoys leading a figure before the eleven Guardian Kings. The figure hunched forward, leaning on a cane. It was Golden Flower Granny.⁷ The Wisdom Guardian King,⁸ who sat in the second chair, barked several questions at her. Golden Flower Granny tilted her head and cried, “What are you saying? I don’t understand.” The Wisdom Guardian King gave a cold laugh, rose to his feet, reached out with his left hand and tore away the white hair from atop her head, revealing a cloud of raven tresses beneath. Golden Flower Granny twisted aside to avoid him, but the Wisdom Guardian King’s right hand shot out with startling speed and peeled a layer of skin from her face.

What Zhang Wuji and the rest saw clearly was that the Wisdom Guardian King had torn away a human-skin mask.⁹ In an instant Golden Flower Granny was transformed into a woman of dazzling beauty, her skin like congealed cream, her eyes almond-bright and her cheeks peach-blossomed. Her radiance outshone all about her, and her loveliness was beyond words.

Daiqisi, her true face laid bare, simply flung aside her cane and laughed coldly without pause. The Wisdom Guardian King spoke several words, and she answered in Persian. The two exchanged questions and answers, and with each exchange the expression of the eleven Guardian Kings grew graver.

Zhao Min asked suddenly, “Miss Xiaozhao, what are they saying?” Xiaozhao, tears streaming down her face, said, “You are very clever. You know everything. Then why didn’t you stop Old Master Xie before he spoke?” Zhao Min asked in surprise, “Stop him from saying what?”

Xiaozhao said, “At first they did not know who Golden Flower Granny was. Later they learned she was the Purple Dress Dragon King, but they could never have guessed that the Purple Dress Dragon King was the Sacred Maiden Daiqisi. The old lady’s painstaking deception was all to keep them fooled. The second condition Old Master Xie laid down demanded they release the Sacred Maiden Daiqisi. Though his heart was in the right place, it could not escape the Wisdom Guardian King’s notice. Had he simply demanded they release Golden Flower Granny, there would have been no trouble. Old Master Xie cannot see, so how should he know how perfectly Golden Flower Granny plays her part, how she could deceive anyone? But you, Miss Zhao, you could see everything plainly. Did the thought not occur to you?”

In truth, after hearing the tale Xie Xun had told at sea, Zhao Min had been so convinced from the outset that Golden Flower Granny was the Persian Ming Order’s Sacred Maiden Daiqisi that it had not occurred to her that in the eyes of the Persians her true identity remained concealed. She would have retorted sharply, but hearing the anguish in Xiaozhao’s voice she divined, obscurely, that there must be some most extraordinary connection between the girl and Golden Flower Granny. She could not bear to add cruel words and said only, “Miss Xiaozhao, I truly did not think of it. If I have harmed Golden Flower Granny knowingly, may I come to a wretched end.”

Xie Xun was consumed with guilt. He said not another word, but steeled his heart to a resolve: even if it cost him his own life, he would save Daiqisi from peril.

Xiaozhao wept, “They are blaming Golden Flower Granny. They say that since she married a man and turned heretic, they mean to… to burn her to death.” Zhang Wuji said, “Xiaozhao, do not distress yourself. The moment I see a chance, I shall charge across and rescue the old lady.” He was accustomed to calling her Granny, though now, seeing the Purple Dress Dragon King’s true face, she appeared no older than middle years, and her beauty was scarcely inferior to Zhao Min or Zhou Zhiruoo. She looked more like Xiaozhao’s elder sister. Xiaozhao said, “No, no! Eleven Guardian Kings and the Wind-Cloud Three Envoys besides. You cannot defeat them. You would only throw your life away. At this moment they are deliberating how to recover the Equality Guardian King.”

Zhao Min said with hatred, “Hmph! Even if that Equality Guardian King goes home alive, with those lines of text branded on his face, he will be ugly enough to frighten children.” Zhang Wuji asked, “What text branded on his face?” Zhao Min said, “That yellow-bearded Envoy’s Holy Fire Tablet¹⁰ struck him full on the left cheek… Ah, Xiaozhao!” She had suddenly remembered something. “Miss Xiaozhao, can you read Persian?” Xiaozhao said, “I can.” Zhao Min said, “Then look quickly. What is written on the Equality Guardian King’s face?”

Xiaozhao lifted the Equality Guardian King’s upper body and turned his head. His left cheek was swollen alarmingly, and three lines of Persian script were pressed deep into the flesh. It happened that each Holy Fire Tablet bore inscription upon it, and when the Mysterious Wind Messenger had struck the Equality Guardian King in error, the characters on the Tablet had been stamped into his skin. The Tablet’s surface was incised in intaglio, so the impression left upon living flesh stood raised in relief. But the face of the Tablet that had touched him was barely two inches wide and three inches long, and the text imprinted was fragmentary and incomplete.

Xiaozhao had followed Zhang Wuji into the secret passage beneath Bright Peak and memorised several passages of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth’s methods. Though Zhang Wuji had not charged her to practise them, and she had never done so, the art’s principles were fixed firmly in her mind. At the time Zhang Wuji had been cultivating the seventh layer of the art in the secret passage and, meeting with difficulties, had passed over the passages he could not comprehend. Xiaozhao had committed each one to memory. Now, seeing the text upon the Equality Guardian King’s face, she could not help crying aloud, “That too is part of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth’s methods!”

Zhang Wuji asked in astonishment, “You say it is the Great Shift?” Xiaozhao said, “No, no! When I first saw it I thought it was, but it is not. Rendered into Chinese, the meaning runs thus: ‘Where the answer is left, press forward; where the need is right, draw back. Three are false, seven are true. From nothing, something is born…’ and then ‘Heaven square, Earth round…’ but the rest I cannot see.”

These few words, heard of a sudden, struck Zhang Wuji like flashes of lightning in a sky choked with cloud. Though the darkness returned an instant later, those bright flashes had shown him a way out of the dense fog that had enveloped him. His lips moved, murmuring, “Where the answer is left, press forward; where the need is right, draw back…” He strained to fit these formulae into the Great Shift he had already learned. Dimly he seemed to grasp something, but what he grasped was never quite right.

Xiaozhao cried, “Young Master, take care! They have given their orders. The Wind-Cloud Three Envoys are coming to attack you. The Diligence Guardian King, the Demon-Queller Guardian King and the Merit Guardian King are coming to seize back the Equality Guardian King.”

Xie Xun at once hoisted the Equality Guardian King across his chest and flung the Dragon-Slaying Dao¹¹ to Zhang Wuji. “Just hack at them with the dao,” he said. Zhao Min handed the Heavenly Jian¹² to Zhou Zhiruoo. For the present they must pull together and face the enemy side by side.

Zhang Wuji caught the Dragon-Slaying Dao and, half-distracted, tucked it into his waist. His lips were still murmuring, “Three are false, seven are true. From nothing, something is born…” Zhao Min cried in exasperation, “You silly boy! This is no time to be pondering martial arts. Prepare to face the enemy!”

She had scarce finished speaking when the Diligence Guardian King, the Demon-Queller Guardian King and the Merit Guardian King leapt across, their palms striking towards Xie Xun. The three were afraid of injuring the Equality Guardian King and so used no weapons, attacking only with fist and palm. Whichever of them seized the Equality Guardian King’s body might carry him off by force. Zhou Zhiruoo stood guard beside Xie Xun. Whenever the danger grew pressing, she thrust her jian towards the Equality Guardian King’s body. The Diligence Guardian King, the Demon-Queller Guardian King and the rest were obliged to turn their palms aside to parry her, lest her sharp blade find the Equality Guardian King.

On the other side of the deck Zhang Wuji was locked once more in combat with the Wind-Cloud Three Envoys. The four had clashed several times before, and each had tasted the other’s bitter blows. None dared be careless. After several exchanges the Bright Moon Messenger swung her Tablet in a strike that, by its trajectory, must certainly have struck Zhang Wuji’s right shoulder. Yet midway through its arc the Holy Fire Tablet twisted in a most peculiar fashion and, with a sharp crack, struck him full on the back of the neck.

Footnotes

1. 里 – lǐ. A Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 metres or one-third of a mile. ↩

2. 胡说八道 – húshuō bādào. Lit. “talk nonsense eight ways.” A common Chinese idiom meaning to talk rubbish. The Persian speaker’s error of saying “nine” instead of “eight” is the source of the humour. ↩

3. 俱明宝树王 – Jùmíng Bǎoshù Wáng. The Transparent Guardian King, lowest-ranking of the Twelve Guardian Kings of the Persian Ming Order’s Head Temple. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 齐心宝树王 – Qíxīn Bǎoshù Wáng. The Unity Guardian King, eleventh of the Twelve Guardian Kings. 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. 光明顶 – Guāngmíng Dǐng. Bright Peak. The headquarters of the Ming Order in the Kunlun Mountains. ↩

7. 金花婆婆 – Jīnhuā Pópó. Golden Flower Granny. The disguised identity of Daiqisi the Purple Dress Dragon King, who lived on Spirit Snake Island. ↩

8. 智慧宝树王 – Zhìhuì Bǎoshù Wáng. The Wisdom Guardian King, second-ranking of the Twelve Guardian Kings of the Persian Ming Order’s Head Temple. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 人皮面具 – rén pí miànjù. A human-skin mask, a disguise worn over the face in the jianghu. Crafted with extraordinary skill, it can perfectly mimic another person’s features. ↩

10. 圣火令 – Shènghuǒ Lìng. The Holy Fire Tablets. Twelve golden tablets of the Ming Order, symbols of authority inscribed with scripture. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 屠龙刀 – Túlóng Dāo. The Dragon-Slaying Dao. A legendary weapon forged from Yang Guo’s Heavy Iron Sword, containing the secrets to supreme martial power. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 倚天剑 – Yǐtiān Jiàn. The Heavenly Jian. A legendary jian forged from Yang Guo’s Heavy Iron Sword, containing the Book of Wumu hidden within. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩