The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 34 – Part 7

Zhao Min's expression remained composed, as though she had not the slightest regard for the Bright Left Messenger¹ of the Ming Order, a man whose name shook the jianghu.² Lazy and unhurried, she said, “My affair is even more urgent. It cannot be delayed for a moment.” She took several steps forward until she stood before Zhang Wuji, rose on tiptoe, and whispered in his ear, “The second matter is this: you must not go through the wedding ceremony with Miss Zhou today.” Zhang Wuji was stunned. “What?” Zhao Min said, “That is the second matter. As for the third, I shall tell you when it occurs to me.”

Though she had spoken softly, Zhou Zhiruo, Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, and Yin Liting, who stood nearby, together with the eight Emei swordswomen attending the bride, all heard every word. A change came over each of their faces. The eight Emei women clenched their fists inside their sleeves. If this girl uttered another insolent word and slighted the Emei zhangmen,³ they would not let her off so lightly.

Zhang Wuji shook his head. “I cannot agree to that, I’m afraid.” Zhao Min said, “Does your word no longer count?” Zhang Wuji said, “We made our agreement in good faith, bound by the way of xia.⁴ Since Miss Zhou and I are pledged in marriage, to do as you ask would betray that obligation of yi.⁵” Zhao Min smiled coldly. “If you marry her, that is truly unfilial and unrighteous. When we visited the Imperial City in Dadu, did you not see with your own eyes how your sworn father was ambushed?” Zhang Wuji’s anger flared. He cried in a loud voice, “Miss Zhao, today I honour you as my guest and show you consideration. If you speak recklessly again, do not blame me for taking offence.” Zhao Min said, “So you refuse to honour the second matter?”

Zhang Wuji reflected that she, a princess by rank, had not spared herself embarrassment, appearing before all these heroes to beg him not to wed. It stemmed, he knew, from a devotion to him that bordered on infatuation. His heart softened, and he said gently, “Miss Zhao, matters have gone too far now. You must…… you must let this go. I, Zhang Wuji, am a common fellow from the countryside. I am unworthy…… I am unworthy……”

Zhao Min said, “Very well. Look at this.” She opened her right hand and held it before him.

The moment Zhang Wuji saw what lay in her palm, he was seized by a great shock. His whole body trembled, and he stammered, “This…… this is…… I……”

Zhao Min closed her hand swiftly and tucked the object into her robe. “Whether you honour the second matter or not is now entirely your choice.” With that she turned and walked towards the gate.

What she held in her hand, and what it was that had thrown Zhang Wuji into such consternation, no one present could see. Zhou Zhiruo’s eyes were veiled by the red silk, and she had heard only the exchange of words between the two. Not a glimpse of the outside world reached her.

Zhang Wuji called out urgently, “Miss…… Miss Zhao, pray stay a moment.” Zhao Min said, “If you wish to come, follow me. If not, then hurry back and perform the wedding rites with your bride. A man who hesitates will live to regret it for the rest of his days.” She spoke these words in a clear voice, her feet never pausing, walking straight towards the great gate. Zhang Wuji cried, “Miss Zhao, wait! Let us discuss this at leisure!” But she only quickened her pace. He hurried after her, calling, “Very well, I agree. There shall be no wedding today.” Zhao Min halted. “Then come with me.”

Zhang Wuji turned back. Zhou Zhiruo stood upright like a pillar, and a tide of guilt and sorrow surged through him. He opened his mouth to explain, but Zhao Min was already walking away again. The matter was too urgent for deliberation. He set his teeth, and ran after her.

He had barely reached the gate when a flash of red moved at his side. Someone closed in behind Zhao Min. From a crimson sleeve a slender, pale hand darted out, five fingers stabbing down towards Zhao Min’s crown. The strike was swift as a hawk swooping on a hare, beyond anything the eye could follow. It was the bride, Zhou Zhiruo, who had struck.

Zhang Wuji’s thoughts raced, That move is deadly! Where did Zhiruo learn such exquisite kung fu? He saw her palm already hovering over Zhao Min’s head, the fingers about to plunge. It would split her skull in an instant. Without time to think, he lunged forward and seized Zhou Zhiruo’s wrist. Her left elbow shot back and struck him in the chest with a soft thud. The Nine Yang Divine Skill⁶ flared to life within him and absorbed the force of the blow, but he still felt his blood and qi surge, and stumbled half a step.

Fan Yao, seeing the danger, and mindful of his old master, could not bear to let Zhao Min’s skull be shattered. He struck out towards Zhou Zhiruo’s shoulder. She waved her left hand in a light, sweeping gesture, and Fan Yao felt a numb ache run through his wrist. His palm could not go forward.

But that brief check gave Zhao Min the half-step she needed. She lurched forward and escaped the full force at her crown. Pain lanced through her shoulder. Zhou Zhiruo’s right hand had driven five fingers into the flesh beside her neck.

Zhang Wuji cried out and thrust his palm towards Zhou Zhiruo.

Zhou Zhiruo had not yet removed the red veil from her head. She read his attack by the wind of it and wheeled her left palm back to slash at his wrist. Zhang Wuji had no wish to fight her, but her moves were so savage, so lethal, that a single strike could have taken Zhao Min’s life. He had no choice but to block and parry, seeking only to hold her back. Zhou Zhiruo kept her body still from the waist up, her feet planted where they stood, and unleashed eight murderous attacks in quick succession. Zhang Wuji called upon the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth⁷, and only then managed to fend them off. Eight attacks, eight defences, all passed in a flash of light. The heroes gathered in the hall held their breath in astonishment, frozen by what they saw.

Zhao Min fell to the ground, her shoulder gravely wounded. Blood gushed from five puncture wounds, and in an instant half her garment was soaked crimson.

Zhou Zhiruo withdrew her hand abruptly. “Zhang Wuji, you are led astray by this heretic, and you would leave me?” Zhang Wuji said, “Zhiruo, I beg you to understand my position. The pledge of marriage between us, I, Zhang Wuji, shall never break. Only give me a few more days……” Zhou Zhiruo said coldly, “Once you go, do not come back. I only hope you will not regret it later.”

Zhao Min bit her lip and rose to her feet. Without a word, she walked towards the gate, drops of blood falling from her shoulder and spattering the floor.

The assembled heroes had seen many strange things in the jianghu, but never this: two women contending for one man, blood spilled across a wedding hall, the bride with her face still veiled in red silk, laying waste to her rival with kung fu of almost supernatural ferocity. Every man among them was struck dumb with shock.

Zhang Wuji stamped his foot. “My sworn father’s debt to me is as heavy as a mountain. Zhiruo, Zhiruo, I beg you to understand.” He turned and ran after Zhao Min.

Yin Tianzheng, Yang Xiao, Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, Yin Liting, and the others, not knowing the cause of any of this, dared not bar the way.

Zhou Zhiruo tore the red veil from her face with a sudden movement and said in a clear voice, “All of you saw with your own eyes. It is he who has wronged me, not I who have wronged him. From this day forward, the bond between Zhou Zhiruo and the man surnamed Zhang is severed forever.” She reached up and plucked the pearl coronet from her head. Her hand closed around a fistful of pearls. She flung the coronet aside, rubbed her palms together, and the pearls ground to powder, sifting through her fingers and falling to the floor. “If I, Zhou Zhiruo, do not avenge today’s shame, may I be as these pearls.” Yin Tianzheng, Song Yuanqiao, Yang Xiao, and the others wished to speak, to urge her to wait for Zhang Wuji’s return and ask the truth of the matter first. But Zhou Zhiruo seized the front of her embroidered crimson robe and tore. The silk ripped with a sharp sound, and the garment, worked all over with golden flowers, fell in two pieces to the floor. She rose into the air, turned lightly, and landed on the roof.

Yang Xiao, Yin Tianzheng, and the others gave chase, but she drifted away like a crimson cloud borne on the wind, heading east. Her qinggong⁸ was so fine it seemed little inferior to the Green-Winged Bat King, Wei Yixiao. Yang Xiao and the rest knew pursuit was futile. After a moment’s stunned silence, they returned to the hall.

A great wedding had been scattered like clouds before the wind by a single woman’s intrusion. The Ming Order had lost face, and the heroes who had come to offer their congratulations felt thoroughly put out. Everyone speculated as to what it was Zhao Min had shown Zhang Wuji, something so urgent that he had abandoned the ceremony on the spot. From his words it seemed to concern Xie Xun in some vital way, but the truth of it no one knew.

The Emei women conferred in low voices, then took their leave in high dudgeon. Yin Tianzheng offered apology after apology, saying he would bring Zhang Wuji to White-Robed Convent in Dinghai to make a solemn amends and only then proceed with the wedding, and that the goodwill between the two orders must not be harmed. The Emei women made no reply one way or the other. They scattered at once in search of Zhou Zhiruo, and in their fury cursed the faithlessness of men.

Footnotes

1. 光明左使 – guāngmíng zuǒshǐ. The Bright Left Messenger, one of the two highest deputies of the Ming Order’s Order Leader. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 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. ↩

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

4. 侠 – xiá. A martial artist who upholds justice and protects the weak through personal courage and moral conviction. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 义 – yì. Righteousness; the obligation of honour and loyalty between companions. One of the cardinal virtues of the jianghu. ↩

6. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. Literally Nine Yang Divine Skill. A legendary internal cultivation method emphasising pure yang energy, capable of granting extraordinary martial prowess. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 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. ↩

8. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Literally lightness skill. The martial art of moving with extraordinary speed and lightness, including running on walls, leaping great distances, and crossing water. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩