The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 34 – Part 10

He Biweng and the remaining experts shouted loudly as they gave chase. Yet the mountain peak rose several thousand feet high, and a pursuit uphill tests qinggong¹ above all else. The Twin Xuanming Elders possessed tremendous neili,² but their qinggong was not first-rate. Instead, four or five others overtook He Biweng. Zhang Wuji gathered several stones from the mountainside and hurled them in rapid succession. At once one of the pursuers took a stone full in the chest and went tumbling down the slope. The rest were privately alarmed. Though they dared not halt under the Young Prince's watch, they slowed their pace.

Before long, Zhang Wuji, carrying Zhao Min in his arms, climbed ever higher until no pursuit could reach him. Wang Baobao cursed violently, crying, “Loose arrows! Loose arrows!” He nocked an arrow himself and let fly at Zhang Wuji’s back. His bow was powerful, but the distance was too great. The arrowhead was still a good ten feet from Zhang Wuji’s back when the shaft fell away.

Zhao Min clung to Zhang Wuji’s neck. Knowing the pursuers could no longer catch them, her heart at last settled, and she sighed, “Fortunately I had the foresight not to tell you where Xie daxia is hiding. Otherwise, you heartless little demon, would you have exerted yourself to save me?”

Zhang Wuji rounded a spur of the mountain, his pace not slackening in the least, and said, “After you’d paid me my silver, you might have told me where my sworn father was and returned to the mansion to heal. Would that not have served both purposes? Why offend your brother and suffer hardship beside me?”

Zhao Min said, “Once I resolved to follow you through hardship, this brother of mine was bound to be offended sooner or later. After you bowed to Heaven and Earth with Miss Zhou, what was I left as? All I feared was that you would not permit me to follow you. Everything else matters nothing to me.”

Though Zhang Wuji knew she was very kind to him, he had sometimes dismissed it as mere youthful fancy, a passing impulse of the heart. He had not expected her to treat wealth as dirt, to cast aside rank and honour as though they were old shoes, to love him so deeply. He lowered his gaze and saw upon her pale, haggard face a look of tender affection, her eyes flowing with feeling, an indescribable and infinite grace. He could not restrain himself, and bent down to kiss her trembling cherry lips.

At that kiss, Zhao Min’s face flushed crimson. In the surge of emotion, she fainted outright. Zhang Wuji was deeply versed in medicine and knew she would come to no harm, yet in his heart another layer of gratitude took root. Suddenly he thought, How could Zhiruo ever have been as good to me as this?

After a moment Zhao Min recovered consciousness. Seeing him lost in thought, she asked, “What are you thinking of? Surely of Miss Zhou?” Zhang Wuji did not conceal it. He nodded. “I was thinking how badly I have treated her.”

Zhao Min said, “Do you regret it?”

Zhang Wuji said, “When I was about to marry her, the thought of you filled me with sorrow. Now, thinking of her, I am filled with sorrow for her.”

Zhao Min smiled. “Then in your heart you love me more, don’t you?”

Zhang Wuji said, “I will tell you plainly. Towards you I feel both love and hatred. Towards Zhiruo I feel both respect and fear.”

Zhao Min laughed. “Ha! I would rather you loved me and feared me, and respected her and hated her.”

Zhang Wuji laughed. “Now it is different again. Towards you I feel both hatred and fear. I hate you for breaking apart my happy marriage, and I fear you will not make restitution to me.”

Zhao Min said, “Restitution for what?”

Zhang Wuji said, “Today I demand that you offer yourself in exchange, to repay the wedding night that was mine.”

Zhao Min’s face flew crimson. “No, no! That must wait until I have spoken with my father… until I have apologised to my brother and smoothed the way, only then… only then…”

Zhang Wuji said, “What if your father absolutely refuses?”

Zhao Min sighed. “Then I marry the demon and follow the demon. I shall have to follow you, you little fiend, and become a little demoness myself.”

Zhang Wuji stiffened his face and cried, “You bold demoness! Following Zhang Wuji the lecher into rebellion and treason, what crime do you deserve?”

Zhao Min stiffened her face in turn and said gravely, “I sentence you both to live as a happy husband and wife in this world, to grow old together with white hair, and after death to be cast into the Eighteenth Level of Hell, never to be reborn through ten thousand calamities.”

At this, both burst into loud laughter.

Suddenly a clear voice called from ahead, “Princess, I, by order of the Prince, has come to escort the Princess back to the mansion.” From behind the mountain ridge appeared more than twenty Tibetan monks, all clad in red robes. Zhang Wuji recognised their garments. That night beneath the tall pagoda at Wan’an Monastery,³ these same monks had tried to bar his way, and their martial arts were formidable indeed. Fortunately Wei Yixiao had set fire to the Prince of Ruyang’s mansion and drawn them away. Otherwise, rescuing the heroes of the six great factions would have been no easy task.

The foremost Tibetan monk pressed his palms together and bowed. “The Princess bears wounds. The Prince is greatly troubled and has instructed me to escort the Princess in safety.” He raised a white pigeon in his hand. Zhao Min understood: her brother had sent word by pigeon to inform their father, which was why this party of monks had intercepted them ahead.

“Where is my father?” she asked.

The monk replied, “The Prince waits at the foot of the mountain. He is eager to see how the Princess’s wounds fare.”

Zhang Wuji knew further words were useless. He strode forward, crying, “Make way if you value your lives, or do not blame me for showing no mercy!” Two Tibetan monks stepped forward side by side, each thrusting a right palm towards his chest. Zhang Wuji swept out his left palm, drawing and leading, and sent the force of both palms crashing back into the monks. The two cried in unison, “Ami ami hong, ami ami hong!” The words sounded like a chant, yet like curses too. Zhao Min did not understand their incantation and called back, “You’re the ami ami hong!”

The two monks stumbled back three paces. Behind them, two more monks thrust out their right palms, pressing against their comrades’ backs to push them forward again. Without altering their stance, the two monks struck once more with the Mountain-Ranging Palm.⁴ Zhang Wuji sought to use the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth⁵ to disperse their force, but to his astonishment, the moment his fingers touched the edges of the monks’ palms, they stuck fast. The two monks shouted, “Ami ami hong, ami ami hong!” Zhang Wuji struggled twice but could not break free. He had no choice but to channel the Nine Yang Divine Skill⁶ and strike back.

This time, however, the two monks did not budge. Behind them, twenty-two more monks had formed two ranks, each extending a right palm against the back of the monk before him. Zhang Wuji suddenly remembered, I once heard Grand Shifu say that among the martial arts of Tianzhu there exists a method of linked bodily force. These twenty-four monks are combining their strength against me. However strong my neili, I cannot overcome twenty-four men united. Fearing more pursuers might arrive, he uttered a clear whistle and added three tenths of his power to his hands. Abruptly he thrust diagonally, then darted his body to the left. At this, the twenty-four monks’ combined force could no longer form a single line. The six monks in front could not check their stride and came charging straight at him. Zhang Wuji’s hands moved in rapid succession. Six sharp cracks sounded, and six monks fell to the ground, blood spilling from their mouths. The seventh and eighth monks behind them surged forward, swinging their palms to strike.

Zhang Wuji sent out his right palm to meet the two monks’ palms. He gathered his force for an instant and was about to divert their power sideways when he heard soft footsteps behind him and felt a palm striking towards his back. He sent his left palm backwards to deflect it, but his Great Shift of Heaven and Earth relied wholly on the Nine Yang Divine Skill as its foundation. At this moment he was devoting all his strength to countering the combined force of the eighteen monks before him, and the palm he struck behind him carried barely two tenths of his usual power. A wave of yin-cold qi surged from the palm into his body. In an instant he trembled all over, his form swayed, and he pitched forward to the ground. It was Lu Zhangke who had struck with the Xuanming Divine Palms,⁷ seizing his chance from behind.

Zhao Min screamed, “Mr Lu, stop!” She threw herself over Zhang Wuji’s body, crying, “Whoever dares lay another hand on him!” Lu Zhangke had meant to finish off this lifelong rival with a killing blow, but seeing the Princess shield him so, he was forced to withdraw. He let out a long whistle to signal that he had struck true and to summon his companions. “Princess, the Prince wishes only for the Princess to return to the mansion. He has no other intent. This man is a treasonous rebel. Why must the Princess suffer so for his sake?”

Zhao Min’s heart was bitter with rage. She would have scolded him soundly, but a second thought stayed her: she must not provoke his anger lest he harm Zhang Wuji’s life. She swallowed the words on her lips and helped Zhang Wuji to his feet.

Before long, the sound of tinkling bells came from the mountain path. Three riders galloped towards them: He Biweng, Wang Baobao, and, to Zhang Wuji’s dismay, the Prince of Ruyang himself. The three pulled up nearby and dismounted. The Prince of Ruyang frowned. “Minmin, what has happened to you? Why did you not heed your brother’s words and make trouble here?”

Zhao Min’s tears burst forth. “Father, you have allowed your own daughter to be so humiliated!”

The Prince of Ruyang stepped forward, reaching out to take her hand. Zhao Min flipped her right hand, and a flash of white light showed as she drew a dagger from her robe and pressed it against her own breast. “Father, if you will not grant my wish, your daughter will die before you this very day!”

The Prince of Ruyang recoiled in alarm. “There is no need for this. Speak calmly! What… what is it you want?”

Zhao Min reached up with her left hand and pulled open the collar of her robe on her right shoulder. She tore away the bandage, revealing five finger-marks. The poison had been drawn out by now, but the wound had not yet healed. The flesh was raw and torn, terrible to behold. The Prince of Ruyang, seeing his beloved daughter so grievously hurt, cried in distress, “What has happened? How did you come by such wounds?”

Zhao Min pointed at Lu Zhangke. “This man harboured evil intentions. He sought to… to violate me. I resisted to the death, and he… he… clawed me like this. I beg Father… Father to judge him.”

Lu Zhangke was thunderstruck. “I would never dare! How… how could such a thing be?”

The Prince of Ruyang glared at him, snorting. “What audacity! In the matter of Han Ji, I showed mercy and did not pursue it, and now you dare offend my daughter as well? Seize him!”

By now the Prince’s escort of warriors had arrived. Though they knew Lu Zhangke’s martial arts were formidable, four warriors still pressed close at the Prince’s command. Lu Zhangke was both alarmed and furious. Father and daughter are flesh and blood, he thought. The Princess is angry that I hurt her lover, and now she turns and bites me. As the saying goes, “A stranger must not sow discord between kin.” The Princess is a past mistress of cunning, and how can I contend against her? He swept out a palm to force the four warriors back, then sighed. “Shidi, let us go.”

Footnotes

1. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Lightness skill, the martial art of moving swiftly and lightly through the air. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 内力 – nèilì. Internal power, the kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 万安寺 – Wàn’ān Sì. A monastery in the Yuan capital where the six great factions’ heroes were imprisoned. ↩

4. 排山掌 – Páishān Zhǎng. Literally Mountain-Ranging Palm, a forceful palm technique. ↩

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 and reversing qi flow. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. The Nine Yang Divine Skill, a legendary internal cultivation method emphasising pure yang energy. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 玄冥神掌 – Xuánmíng Shén Zhǎng. The Xuanming Divine Palms, a deadly palm technique infused with yin-cold qi practised by the Twin Xuanming Elders. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩