The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 33 – Part 6

Zhang Wuji nodded, then turned to Shi Hongshi and asked, “Little girl, where does this Sister Yang live? Did you know her before?” Shi Hongshi shook her head. “I didn't know her before. After Papa died, Mama and I took Papa's bamboo stick and rode in a cart for several days. Then we stopped riding and went up a mountain. Mama couldn't walk any further, so she rested a while and crawled along the ground for a bit. Later we reached the edge of a wood. Mama called out several times, and a young girl in black came out from among the trees. Then Sister Yang came out and asked Mama many questions. She took the stick away for a long while. After that, Mama fainted. Then Sister Yang brought me, along with eight other young girls dressed in white and black clothes, and we rode here in a cart.” She was too young to give any proper account of it, and when asked for the name of the place or the dates, she knew nothing at all. Not the slightest clue could be drawn from her.

The Transmitting Arts Elder said, “Young Brother Han, the son of your honourable Order’s Elder Han Shantong, is still in our humble Guild’s keeping.” He turned and gave a few instructions. A Beggars’ Guild disciple hurried away, and before long the sound of Han Lin’er cursing violently came from the inner hall. “You stinking beggars, may you die a wretched death! Trying to fool me again! Our Order Leader Zhang is of the most exalted station. How could he possibly visit your stinking beggar den? You’d best kill me now and ask me to surrender. Dream on!” The Beggars’ Guild elders all looked embarrassed at this. Zhang Wuji admired Han Lin’er’s spirit and character. He rose to his feet and strode forward a few paces, for Han Lin’er was already storming out from the rear in a fury, and said, “Brother Han, I am here. You have been made to suffer these past few days.”

Han Lin’er started, then was overcome with joy. He dropped to his knees at once and kowtowed. “Order Leader Zhang, so it truly is you! I have been worried sick. Give your orders at once and have these stinking beggars slaughtered to the last!” Zhang Wuji smiled as he raised him up. “Brother Han, the elders of the Beggars’ Guild were themselves taken in by another’s treachery, which led to this misunderstanding. Everything has been made clear now, and we are all good friends. For my sake, Brother Han, pray think no more of it.” Han Lin’er rose and glared at the Transmitting Arts Elder and the rest. He would have liked to curse them roundly and vent his anger, but since the Order Leader had given his orders, he could only force himself to hold his tongue.

The Enforcing Laws Elder said, “Order Leader Zhang honours us with his presence today. It is truly a great distinction for our humble Guild. Prepare a feast at once! First, to extend our warmest welcome to Order Leader Zhang, second, to offer our apologies to Zhangmen Zhou of the Emei Order, and third, to make amends to Brother Han.” The disciples hastened to acknowledge the orders. Zhang Wuji, anxious for his sworn father’s safety and with many questions to ask Zhou Zhiruo, truly had no appetite. He cupped his fists and said, “I am most grateful for your kind intentions. But I am eager to find my sworn father and must impose upon you another time. Pray do not take it amiss.” The Transmitting Arts Elder and the others pressed him to stay, but Zhang Wuji saw their sincerity and feared that to leave at once would offend the Beggars’ Guild, so he stayed for the feast. During the meal, the Beggars’ Guild’s foremost fighters apologised once more in earnest, and said they had already sent disciples in all directions to search for Xie Xun. The moment they had news, they would despatch a swift rider to inform the Ming Order. Zhang Wuji thanked them, and forged bonds of friendship with the elders and branch masters over the feast before they parted after drinking their fill.

That night Zhang Wuji, Zhou Zhiruo and Han Lin’er lodged at a small inn in Lulong. Zhang Wuji could not sleep. He walked alone to a small hill on the outskirts, leant his back against a great tree, calmed his mind, and considered where his sworn father might have been taken, and how he might rescue him from danger. This was the most pressing matter at hand. He thought, “Before, I had believed Cheng Kun dead, and so did not think to connect many puzzling things to him. Now that I know he still lives, quite a few doubts may have a thread to follow.

“Everyone in the wulin seeks my sworn father, all for the sake of his Dragon-Slaying Dao and its inscription, ‘Supreme in the Wulin’. Fan Yao, right messenger of our Order, once said that he learned of the Prince of Ruyang and Cheng Kun’s long-laid plots to destroy our Order from his shadowing of Cheng Kun. That was more than twenty years ago. A’er and A’san of the Vajra School¹ broke Third Uncle Yu’s limbs with their Vajra Finger power when Papa and Mama had not yet married and I was not yet born. Later He Biweng struck me with a Xuanming Divine Palm, trying to force me to reveal my sworn father’s whereabouts. All of it aimed at seizing the Dragon-Slaying Dao. The Prince of Ruyang commands the imperial armies. He may not know of these jianghu dealings. All these machinations are most likely Cheng Kun’s schemes. If so, then Third Uncle Yu’s crippling, my father and mother’s deaths, the hardship my Grand Shifu and my shibos and shishus endured to save me, and the cruel poison I suffered as a child. All of it is the work of that villain Cheng Kun!

“His evil will not stop there. From then on it was he and Zhao Min working together. The capture of the six great schools’ finest fighters, the poisoning at Green Willow Manor. He must have had a hand in those too. Now he has joined forces with Chen Youliang. Heh, heh, heh. Truly formidable. That villain Cheng Kun has entered the Prince of Ruyang’s service with the aim of destroying our Ming Order. Surely it is not merely for wealth and rank…”

At the thought of Cheng Kun and Chen Youliang’s cunning and ruthlessness, with Zhao Min added to the pair, the three of them the foremost fighters in the world, and with these three opposing the Ming Order, even with Yang Xiao, Fan Yao, his maternal grandfather, Wei Yixiao the Bat King, and other fine fighters on their side, he feared they were still no match. At this thought, beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

The more he thought, the more alarmed he grew. “Sworn Father and Zhiruo parted from me only half a day ago, and he was already captured by the Beggars’ Guild with a stupefying drug. I fear those guarding disciples of the Beggars’ Guild were not killed by my sworn father at all… Ah! Could it have been Cheng Kun’s doing? That figure who leapt from the window that night… I fear it was Cheng Kun, not sworn father. The Ming Order contact signals I saw along the way were written with vigorous, forceful strokes, clearly the work of someone with extraordinarily deep neili. Among Zhao Min’s fighters, the two Xuanming Elders do not know our Order’s signalling methods, but that villain Cheng Kun might. He led me to various places in northern Hebei, most likely having arranged to meet the two Xuanming Elders to surround and attack me. Somehow, though, the three of them failed to join forces. Could it be that Miss Zhao would not allow them to kill me? If sworn father has fallen into Cheng Kun’s hands, that would be dire indeed!

“Cheng Kun and Chen Youliang captured sworn father, presumably not on the Shaolin Order’s orders. The reason they killed Shi Huolong and had someone impersonate the guild chief was to seize control of the Beggars’ Guild, and through it to control the Wudang Order and the Ming Order. If it was not the Prince of Ruyang’s command, then it was Cheng Kun’s own scheme. In which case sworn father is most likely imprisoned in Dadu. I must hurry to Dadu and arrange to contact Yang Xiao, left messenger, and the others, to plan together how to rescue sworn father…”

Footnotes

1. 金刚门 – Jīngāng Mén. Literally Vajra Gate. A school founded by disciples who learnt the Great Strength Vajra Finger from the Western Regions, known for ferocious finger and grappling techniques. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩