The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 33 – Part 3

Chen Youliang turns the Beggars' Guild against Zhang Wuji with cunning rhetoric, accusing the Ming Order of heinous crimes. As the Dog-Beating Formation closes in, Zhang Wuji demonstrates the awesome power of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth and the Holy Fire Tablets' martial arts. Then, from the rooftop, mysterious music drifts down, and a yellow-gowned maiden appears, bearing a green bamboo rod that commands the awe of every beggar present.

Chen Youliang said, “Miss Zhou has been sitting here at her ease all along, drinking and laughing as she pleases. Who says her acupoints were sealed? The Beggars’ Guild and the Emei Order share deep roots and have been on friendly terms for generations. The Emei Order’s founding ancestress, Guo nüxia, was the own daughter of our Guild’s former Guild Chief Huang. Our Guild’s former Guild Chief Yelu was Guo nüxia’s brother-in-law. Anyone in the wulin¹ who is not some ignorant brat still wet behind the ears ought to know these facts. How could we Beggars’ Guild offend the present Emei Order zhangmen?² Order Leader Zhang’s glib falsehoods will make the heroes of the world laugh in scorn!”

Zhang Wuji sneered, “So you are saying Miss Zhou sealed her own acupoints?”

Chen Youliang said, “Not necessarily. Everyone here saw with their own eyes how Order Leader Zhang flew over and forced himself upon Miss Zhou, snatching her into his arms. Miss Zhou struggled and would not submit, so naturally you sealed her acupoints to restrain her. Order Leader Zhang, they say even a hero cannot withstand a beauty’s wiles. But here in broad daylight, before all these eyes, such wanton behaviour on your part is hardly becoming of your station, is it?”

Zhang Wuji had never been a match for Chen Youliang in debate. With this counter-accusation, he found it hard to defend himself amid anger and frustration. His face turned ashen. “So you refuse to tell me where my sworn father is?” he demanded.

Chen Youliang spoke loudly. “Order Leader Zhang, your Order’s Bright Messenger Yang Xiao once raped and murdered Ji Xiaofu nüxia of the Emei Order. Every righteous person in the wulin was outraged. If you think yourself so mighty in martial arts that you will repeat such vile and despicable deeds, I fear you will not escape justice.”

Zhang Wuji turned to Zhou Zhiruo. “Zhiruo, say something. Tell me how they brought you here.”

Zhou Zhiruo stammered, “I… I… I…” She repeated the word three times, then her body swayed and she fainted.

The beggars raised a clamour. “The Ming Order³ demon has killed someone!” “Zhang Wuji tried to force himself on her and failed, and now the Emei Order zhangmen is dead!” “Kill the lecherous thief Zhang Wuji! Remove a scourge from the world!”

Zhang Wuji was furious. He strode forward, charging straight at Shi Huolong, thinking, To catch a band of thieves, first catch their leader. If I seize Shi Huolong, I can force him to tell me where my sworn father is.

The Cudgel Chief and the Law Enforcement Elder both intercepted him. The Cudgel Chief swung his iron rod. The Law Enforcement Elder held a steel hook in his right hand and an iron crutch in his left. Two men, three weapons, all striking at Zhang Wuji at once. Zhang Wuji gave a clear whistle and employed the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth.⁴ With a sharp clang, the Law Enforcement Elder’s steel hook deflected the Cudgel Chief’s iron rod, while his left hand’s single crutch smashed toward Zhang Wuji’s ribs.

Beside them, the Transmission Elder thrust out his long blade and called, “This lad’s martial arts are most unusual. Everyone, be on your guard!” With two whistling slashes full of fierce force, he hacked at Zhang Wuji’s chest and lower abdomen in succession.

Zhang Wuji saw the ferocity of his moves and cried, “Fine bladework!” He twisted aside and pointed his left forefinger at the man’s thigh. The Transmission Elder wheeled his blade in a circle and slashed horizontally at Zhang Wuji’s fingers. The change of move was swift, and the blade’s edge came within a hair’s breadth of its target. That single strike alone was a rare piece of superb skill in the wulin. Zhang Wuji silently praised, “The Beggars’ Guild has been famous throughout the jianghu⁵ for a century without decline. The guild hides tigers and conceals dragons, and truly has outstanding talent.” That day at the Maitreya Temple, he had witnessed the Two Devils of Xuanming fighting the Beggars’ Guild’s experts, but he had been hiding in a tree, not daring to peek out, so his observations had been unreliable. Now, fighting in person, he knew that the Transmission Elder and the Law Enforcement Elder were both worthy of ranking among the foremost masters of the age. The Cudgel Chief’s cultivation was somewhat shallower, yet he lagged only a step behind. He thought too of Fang Dongbai, the Eight-Armed Divine Sword, who had once been a Beggars’ Guild elder himself. The Beggars’ Guild had been established for several hundred years, and its masters were indeed formidable.

In moments, the three Beggars’ Guild elders had already exchanged over twenty moves with Zhang Wuji. Suddenly, Chen Youliang called out loudly, “Form the Dog-Beating Formation!”⁶ The beggars cheered in chorus. Blades flashed white as snow. Twenty-one Beggars’ Guild experts, each wielding a curved dao, surrounded Zhang Wuji. Some of the twenty-one sang the Lotus Lay,⁷ some groaned as if in pain, some pounded their chests with their fists, and some shouted, “Masters, mistresses, spare us a mouthful of cold rice!” Zhang Wuji was startled at first, but then understood that these strange cries and gestures were meant to unsettle an opponent’s mind. He watched as the beggars’ footwork was irregular, yet their advances and retreats, their approaches and evasions, were all precise and disciplined.

The Cudgel Chief roared, “Everyone, attack!” His iron rod thrust at Zhang Wuji’s chest, while the Law Enforcement Elder’s hook and crutch spun into two whirling circles of steel, sweeping in fiercely. Zhang Wuji feinted left, then darted right. He employed the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth hand technique. Flashes of white light blinked one after another, with a continuous series of thuds. The curved daos in the hands of the Dog-Beating Formation fighters were all wrenched away and hurled upward, each one embedding itself in the main beam of the great hall. Twenty-one curved daos were arrayed in a neat row, each buried roughly a foot deep in the timber.

Suddenly, they heard Chen Youliang call out, “Zhang Wuji, will you not stop?” Zhang Wuji turned his head and saw that Chen Youliang was holding a jian once more, its point aimed at the small of Zhou Zhiruo’s back. Zhou Zhiruo had regained consciousness by now, but was utterly unable to defend herself.

Zhang Wuji sneered, “For a hundred years, the jianghu has said, ‘The Ming Order, the Beggars’ Guild, and the Shaolin Order.’ Among the orders, the Ming Order ranks first, and among the guilds, the Beggars’ Guild stands supreme. With your conduct like this, are you not ashamed before the name of Hong Qigong, the old xia?”

The Transmission Elder said angrily, “Elder Chen, release Miss Zhou. We will fight Order Leader Zhang to the death. The Beggars’ Guild marshals all its strength, yet cannot handle the Ming Order’s leader alone, and we must resort to such a shameful trick? Do we still have the face to call ourselves men?”

Chen Youliang laughed. “A true man would rather match wits than match strength. Zhang Wuji, will you not bind yourself and submit?”

Zhang Wuji laughed aloud. “Very well! Today, let Zhang Wuji witness the might of the Beggars’ Guild.” Suddenly, he stepped back two paces, threw himself backward in a mid-air somersault, and came down astride the shoulders of Beggars’ Guild Chief Shi Huolong. His right palm rested flat on the crown of Shi Huolong’s head, and his left palm seized the acupoints at the nape of the man’s neck. This manoeuvre from the Holy Fire Tablets’ martial arts⁸ was accomplished so easily that even Zhang Wuji himself was somewhat surprised. He had intended to use an unusual move to catch Shi Huolong off guard, and had planned three devastating follow-up moves in his mind, intending to seize the Guild Chief with lightning speed, for he feared Chen Youliang’s ruthlessness and worried he might truly strike Zhou Zhiruo down. Who could have known that not a single one of his three fierce follow-up moves was needed? Shi Huolong was captured without so much as a single defensive move. There he sat on Shi Huolong’s shoulders, like a child riding on a grown man’s back at play.

The beggars saw their Guild Chief taken captive and cried out in alarm. Zhang Wuji pressed his right palm flat against the Baihui acupoint⁹ atop Shi Huolong’s skull. The Baihui acupoint was where the Foot-Taiyang meridian and the Du Meridian intersected, one of the most vital acupoints of the human body. The slightest pulse of palm force would shatter Shi Huolong’s meridians and kill him instantly. None of the beggars dared stir. After the shouts died away, the great hall fell suddenly silent. Everyone stared with wide eyes at Zhang Wuji and Shi Huolong, not knowing what to do.

Just then, they heard from the rooftop the soft notes of zithers and xiao flutes playing in harmony, as if several zithers and several xiao flutes were performing together. The music was ethereal and winding, seeming to exist and not exist at once. Yet everyone heard it clearly. It shifted this way and that, and no one could tell from which direction on the roof it came. Zhang Wuji was greatly puzzled, having no idea what this music might mean. Chen Youliang called out in a clear voice, “Which eminent master honours the Beggars’ Guild with their presence? If you are the demons of the Ming Order, you may as well show yourselves. Why this pretence of ghosts and spirits?”

The zither strings rang out three sharp notes. Suddenly, four white-robed maidens floated down from the east and west eaves into the courtyard, each cradling a zither in her arms. These four zithers were half the length and half the width of an ordinary seven-stringed qin, but all seven strings were present. After the four maidens alighted, they took position at four points in the courtyard. Then four black-robed maidens walked in from the gate, each holding a long black xiao flute. These xiao were half again as long as common xiao flutes. The four black-robed maidens also took position at four corners. Four in white, four in black, they stood in alternating formation. The zithers and xiao flutes in the eight maidens’ hands all appeared to be made of metal, their length and size suitable for use as weapons of attack and defence.

Once the eight maidens had taken their positions, music rose from the four zithers. Then the xiao flutes joined in ensemble, and the music reached the heights of softness and elegance. Zhang Wuji did not understand music, yet he found the melodies graceful and pleasing. Even in the midst of such a tense situation, he would have been glad to listen a while longer.

Amid the lingering music, a woman in a pale yellow gauze gown walked in at a leisurely pace, her left hand leading a girl of twelve or thirteen. The woman was perhaps twenty-six or twenty-seven, graceful in bearing and stunningly beautiful, save that her face was so pale it held not a trace of colour. The girl, by contrast, was ugly. Her nostrils turned up to the sky, she had a wide mouth with two large front teeth, and her expression was almost fierce. One hand held the beautiful woman’s, while the other gripped a green bamboo rod.

The moment the beggars saw the two women enter, their gazes all turned as one to that green bamboo rod. Zhang Wuji, seeing so many women enter, felt that sitting astride Shi Huolong’s shoulders was rather too childish. But Chen Youliang’s jian point never left the small of Zhou Zhiruo’s back, so he could not simply release the Beggars’ Guild Chief. He noticed that all the beggars stared without blinking at the bamboo rod in the ugly girl’s hand, as if in all the world only that rod was the most important thing. The white-robed maidens, the black-robed maidens, the yellow-gowned beauty, even the ugly girl herself, all of them they treated as though they did not exist. He was privately astonished. Examining the bamboo rod, he saw it was green throughout, smooth and glossy, polished by who knew how many years of who knew how many hands. Beyond that, he saw nothing remarkable about it.

The yellow-gowned beauty’s gaze swept across the hall like two cold bolts of lightning, passing over everyone before finally settling on Zhang Wuji’s face. She said coldly, “Order Leader Zhang, you are not so very young. Instead of attending to serious matters, you are making a fool of yourself here.” These words carried a faint note of reproach, but the tone was rather familiar, like an elder sister scolding a younger brother.

Zhang Wuji flushed and protested, “The Beggars’ Guild’s Elder Chen has used despicable means to hold my… my companion. I had no choice but to seize their Guild Chief.” The beauty smiled faintly and said gently, “Riding someone’s Guild Chief like a horse, is that not going a bit too far? I came from Chang’an, and along the road I heard people say the Ming Order’s leader is a little demon. Meeting him today… tch, tch.” As she spoke, she shook her head slightly, her expression thoroughly disapproving.

Shi Huolong suddenly bellowed, “Zhang Wuji, you little lecherous thief! Get down at once!” He tried to reach back and pull Zhang Wuji’s legs off, but with the acupoints at the nape of his neck seized, he could not muster the slightest strength. Zhang Wuji, hearing himself cursed as a “little lecherous thief” in front of a lady, was both ashamed and furious. A pulse of neili¹⁰ shot from his left palm through the back of Shi Huolong’s neck. Shi Huolong’s whole body went numb and weak beyond endurance, and he could not help crying out, “Aiyo! Aiyo!” in loud moans.

The beggars saw their enemy so insolent while their own Guild Chief proved so feeble. Shame and fury mingled in them all. They felt that for Shi Huolong to moan aloud under an enemy’s hands was a grievous loss of face for a hero and a brave man. He was the chief of the greatest guild in the jianghu, yet even an ordinary Beggars’ Guild disciple ought not show such weakness before a foe.

Chen Youliang said, “Zhang Wuji, release our Guild Chief Shi, and I shall sheathe my jian. Agreed?” Without waiting for an answer, he slid his jian back into its sheath. He had calculated that this move would surely work. Indeed, Zhang Wuji said, “Very well.” In a flicker, he was standing beside Zhou Zhiruo. Seeing her brows drawn together and her face haggard, he could not help but feel tender concern for her. He helped her to a stone drum stool in the courtyard and sat her down.

Footnotes

1. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally martial forest. The community of martial artists and their affairs. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. The leader of a martial arts school or order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 明教 – Míng Jiào. The Ming Order. A secret martial order whose name means Bright. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

5. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 打狗阵 – Dǎgǒu Zhèn. Literally Dog-Beating Formation. A tactical formation employed by the Beggars’ Guild, named after the Dog-Beating Staff Technique. ↩

7. 莲花落 – Liánhuā Làò. A traditional beggar’s song, sung while soliciting alms. ↩

8. 圣火令 – Shènghuǒ Lìng. The Holy Fire Tablets, ancient artefacts of the Ming Order bearing inscriptions that encode supreme martial arts techniques. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 百会穴 – Bǎihuì Xué. The Hundred Meetings acupoint, located at the crown of the head where the Foot-Taiyang meridian and the Du Meridian intersect. One of the most vital acupoints of the human body. ↩

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