The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 37 – Part 7

Yu Lianzhou and Yin Liting listened to Song Qingshu's words. The accent grew more familiar with every syllable, yet the man's face was covered in a short beard and he kept saying "my Order, my Order," clearly an Emei male disciple. Suspicion stirred in both their hearts. Yu Lianzhou rose and asked, "Might I ask your honourable name?"

Song Qingshu, cowed beneath the Second Shishu’s¹ imposing presence, could not help but falter. He stalled before replying, “A nameless junior need not trouble Yu the Second Xia to enquire.” Yu Lianzhou said sharply, “You speak unceasingly of ‘contests of martial skill.’ You must have attained some mastery in the martial arts. My shifu was once saved as a child by the great kindness of Guo nüxia² of your Order, and has laid down strict rules that no Wudang disciple shall fight the Emei Order. I must ask plainly: are you truly an Emei disciple, and what is your name? A man of honour acts openly. Why hide?”

Zhou Zhiruo raised her horsetail whisk slightly and said, “Yu the Second Xia, I need not conceal it from you. This man is my husband, surnamed Song, given name Qingshu. He was once of the Wudang Order, but has now entered the Emei Order. Whatever Yu the Second Xia has to say, address it to me.” Her voice rang clear and cold, like water rushing over ice, like wind stirring shattered jade. Coupled with her ethereal beauty, she seemed an immortal descended to earth. The several thousand heroes gathered in the square fell utterly silent, each holding his breath to listen.

Song Qingshu reached up and wiped his face, peeling away the false short beard. He straightened his robes, and at once became a handsome young man with a face like carved jade. The heroes recognised him and murmured their admiration, What a match fit for the immortals!

Yu Lianzhou recalled Song Qingshu’s crime in murdering his seventh shidi, Mo Shenggu,³ and rage filled his breast. Yet he was by nature deeply reserved, and in recent years, as age advanced, his cultivation had grown ever more profound. Though his heart seethed, his face remained calm, only his eyes flashed like lightning as they swept across Song Qingshu’s face. Song Qingshu, ashamed, lowered his head.

Zhou Zhiruo said, “My husband has left the Wudang Order and joined Emei. Today, before all the heroes of the world, I formally make this known. Yu the Second Xia, Zhang the Perfected One,⁴ out of regard for old friendship, forbids Wudang disciples from making enemies of our Order. That is his righteousness, and also his wisdom in preserving Wudang’s renown.”

Yin Liting could contain himself no longer. He sprang forward and pointed at Zhou Zhiruo, “Zhou zhangmen,⁵ when you were young and met with calamity, it was my shifu who rescued you and recommended you to the Emei Order. Though our shifu seeks no repayment for his kindness, yet your words this day plainly suggest that the Wudang Order enjoys an empty reputation, far inferior to Emei’s disciples. This… you… how can you face our shifu?”

Zhou Zhiruo gave a faint smile and said, “The Wudang xias all shake the jianghu with their fame, each possessing true skill and learning. Song daxia is moreover my father-in-law. How would I dare say any of you bear an empty reputation? As for the Wudang and Emei Orders, each has its own traditions, each its own teachings. It is hard to say which stands higher. In years past, our Order’s founder Guo zushi⁶ showed kindness to Zhang the Perfected One, and Zhang the Perfected One later showed kindness to me. The debts are settled, and neither side owes the other. Yu the Second Xia, Yin the Sixth Xia, the rule that Wudang disciples must not fight the Emei Order, let us dispense with it.”

From the wooden sheds around the square, the heroes whispered among themselves, “This young zhangmen has a bold tongue. From her words, it seems the Emei Order is certain it can surpass the Wudang Order. Yu the Second Xia has reached the summit in both neigong⁷ and waigong.⁸ In this age, few can match him. Does the Emei Order intend to dominate the jianghu with nothing but a single vicious hidden weapon?”

Yin Liting, stirred to the quick, thought of how his seventh shidi Mo Shenggu had died so cruelly. Tears spilled down his face and he cried out, “Qingshu… Qingshu! Why… why did you kill your… your seventh shishu…” At the words seventh shishu, he broke into great wracking sobs.

The heroes exchanged glances, puzzled. “Yu the Sixth Xia of Wudang is a man of mighty reputation. Why does he weep so openly before all?”

Yu Lianzhou stepped forward and took Yin Liting’s right arm in his, then spoke in a clear voice, “Heroes of the world, hear me. Wudang has suffered misfortune. Song Qingshu, a rebellious disciple, has emerged among us. My seventh shidi, Mo Shenggu, was killed by this traitor…”

Suddenly two sharp whistling sounds tore through the air. Two Thunder-Fire Bombs⁹ flew straight at Yu Lianzhou’s chest.

Zhang Wuji cried out, “Aiya!” He would have leapt forward to intervene, but the Thunder-Fire Bombs travelled too fast, arriving even as he thought it. He had not for an instant expected the Emei Order to launch a sudden ambush. Swift as his qinggong¹⁰ was, he could not reach Yu Lianzhou in time.

Yu Lianzhou too was caught off guard. Had he dodged aside, the Thunder-Fire Bombs would have flown past and struck down many of the Beggars’ Guild¹¹ disciples. He judged the bombs had been aimed at him to silence him, lest he expose Song Qingshu’s crime of rebellion and patricide before all. If he dodged to save himself, he would endanger the innocent. In that lightning-flash of thought, the two Thunder-Fire Bombs had already arrived. Yu Lianzhou’s palms turned and flipped. He unleashed a Taiji Fist technique called Cloud Hands.¹² His palms grew soft to the utmost degree, empty and insubstantial as void, and dissipated entirely the bombs’ fierce momentum, catching them gently in his palms. His palms faced skyward, held level before his chest. The two Thunder-Fire Bombs spun rapidly in his palms, whirling with dizzying speed.

The heroes all rose to their feet. Thousands of eyes focused on his two palms. Every heart seemed to stop beating, lest those two Thunder-Fire Bombs, alive as living things, detonate at any moment.

The soft force of Taiji Fist is the softest technique in all the martial arts. Truly it may be said, “Not a feather may be added, not a fly may alight.” From adhesion it passes to emptiness, yielding and following, achieving “the form of commanding the many in old age” and thus “the hero’s invincibility.” Yu Lianzhou had in recent years studied and practised diligently, and had thoroughly absorbed Zhang Sanfeng’s true teaching. He had just watched Situ Qianzhong and Xia Zhou perish one after another beneath these very bombs and knew they exploded upon contact, fearsomely lethal. With no recourse, he had been forced to risk all on the supreme skill of his lifetime. Indeed, softness overcame hardness. The two Thunder-Fire Bombs were held fast by the soft force in his palms, as though they had burrowed into some thick, viscous substance, spinning furiously yet unable to detonate.

Then came two more whistling sounds. Two further Thunder-Fire Bombs flew from the Emei ranks towards him.

Yin Liting stood beside his shixiong.¹³ At once he raised his palms and caught at the oncoming bombs. At the moment his palms nearly touched them, he deployed the Taiji Fist technique called Embracing the Sparrow’s Tail¹⁴ and gently drew the bombs in. His feet shifted into Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg,¹⁵ his left foot planted, his right foot raised, and his whole body spun rapidly like a top.

He excelled in jianfa, and in Taiji Fist his attainment fell short of his shixiong’s depth. Seeing that Yu Lianzhou struggled somewhat to contain his two Thunder-Fire Bombs, he knew that if his own palm force were even half a fraction too solid, the vicious hidden weapons would explode at once. Thus he spun rapidly, his palms guiding the bombs in empty air, tracing circle after circle, dissipating the force with which they had been hurled. Yu Lianzhou neutralised the force within his palms. Yin Liting neutralised it in mid-air. In martial skill he was half a step inferior, yet to the eye his rapid spinning was far more elegant to behold. By his thirtieth turn, cheers thundered from every quarter, and the Thunder-Fire Bombs’ momentum was already spent.

Little did he know, two more whistling sounds came, and eight more Thunder-Fire Bombs came hurtling towards them. Yu Lianzhou and Yin Liting both roared and flung the bombs in their hands back out. The Wudang disciples practised a supreme art of catching hidden weapons and hurling them back, able to strike two with one and three with two. The four Thunder-Fire Bombs they threw collided in mid-air with the eight incoming ones. Thunderous explosions shook the square. Black smoke billowed. The stench of saltpetre and sulphur filled every nostril.

Yu Lianzhou and Yin Liting, having hurled the bombs, immediately leapt backwards more than a hundred feet, lest the Emei Order press its advantage and launch ever more Thunder-Fire Bombs in an unending volley they could not withstand.

The heroes, seeing the Thunder-Fire Bombs’ fearful power, were all appalled. They thought that save for these two Wudang masters, few in the world could withstand them. Even one with superb qinggong might dodge, yet if the thrower used a Sky Full of Flowering Rain technique to send the bombs colliding, even one explosion would make escape impossible, however swift one’s footwork.

From the Huashan School’s wooden shed, a tall figure rose and spoke in a clear voice, “When the Emei Order contests martial skill, is this how you rely on numbers?” This was one of the Two Elders of Huashan, Gao the Elder, who long ago on Bright Peak had joined forces with He Taichong and Ban Shuxian to fight Zhang Wuji.

Jingjia of the Emei Order said, “The way of martial arts is ten thousand transformations and a thousand changes. The strong prevail, the weak fall. We are not hide-bound scholars who must observe propriety and reason in all things. The world has not so much propriety and reason to go around.”

The heroes saw that though most of the Emei Order were women, their shameless audacity far exceeded that of men. Gao the Elder of Huashan dared not approach them to argue his case. He stood within his own shed, calling out from a great distance, lest they hurl their peerless Thunder-Fire Bombs at him. He raised his voice and said, “It seems the Emei Order ought to change its name. Call it the Firecracker Order, crack, bang, pop! Or better still, call it the Order of Heaven’s Great Fart!” The heroes roared with laughter. The Emei disciples were furious, but he stood so far away they could not reach him. Gao the Elder, for the rest of his life, never again dared approach within a hundred feet of the Emei Order.

Zhang Wuji thought, Zhiruo marrying Song shixiong was never her heart’s wish. Think how she and I drifted overseas, dwelling together on a lonely island, how tender we were then? We swore mountain and sea oaths, neither to betray the other. The words still ring in my ears. How can I destroy them in a single day? It is I who wronged her most grievously. On the very day of my wedding, before all the guests, I ran off with Min-mei. Zhiruo is a zhangmen, a woman of precious standing. I bullied and humiliated her so. How could she not gnash her teeth in hatred? Today the Emei Order acts against all reason. The cause was sown by me. His unease grew. He stepped from the wooden shed, walked before the Emei Order, and said to Zhou Zhiruo, “Zhou zhangmen, all this is my fault. Song shixiong killed Mo the Seventh Xia. This matter must be settled. I think it best that Song shixiong return to Wudang with Yu the Second shibo and Yin the Sixth shishu, and surrender himself to Song the Eldest shibo to answer for his crime.”

Footnotes

1. 师叔 – shīshū. Junior lineage uncle. The shidi or shimei of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Shū means father’s younger brother. ↩

2. 女侠 – nǚxiá. A title of respect for a woman of outstanding martial skill and chivalry. ↩

3. 莫声谷 – Mò Shēnggǔ. The seventh of the Seven Xias of Wudang, murdered by Song Qingshu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 真人 – zhēnrén. Lit. Perfected One. An honorific title for a Daoist master of high cultivation. ↩

5. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. Sect leader. ↩

6. 祖师 – zǔshī. Founder of a school or tradition. ↩

7. 内功 – nèigōng. Internal martial cultivation; the training of one’s inner power. Distinct from 内家 (internal cultivation). ↩

8. 外功 – wàigōng. External martial cultivation; the training of physical techniques. Distinct from 外家 (external techniques). ↩

9. 霹雳雷火弹 – Pīlì Léihuǒ Dàn. Thunder-Fire Bomb. A hidden weapon of fierce explosive charge. ↩

10. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Lightness skill. ↩

11. 丐帮 – Gài Bāng. The Beggars’ Guild, the greatest of the martial Guilds. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 云手 – Yún Shǒu. Lit. Cloud Hands. A Taiji Fist technique that uses softness to neutralise incoming force. ↩

13. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior fellow disciple. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. ↩

14. 揽雀尾式 – Lǎn Quèwěi Shì. Lit. Embracing the Sparrow’s Tail posture. A fundamental Taiji Fist technique. ↩

15. 金鸡独立式 – Jīn Jī Dúlì Shì. Lit. Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg posture. A balance and spinning technique. ↩