The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 38 – Part 8

Zhou Dian cried out, “Aiya! Aiya! Incredible, simply incredible! If you won't eat dog meat, so be it, but why did you flick my fine dog leg onto the ground and make it all filthy and grimy? I want you to pay for it, I want you to pay!” He waved his arms and stamped his feet, shouting and bellowing. Yet the Three Monks' cultivation ran so deep that not the slightest outer demon could disturb them. Zhou Dian flipped his right hand and drew a short dao from his bosom, crying, “If you won't do me the honour of eating my dog leg, then today I'll stake my life against yours.” With that he drew the dao across his own face, and at once blood streamed down in torrents. Amid the gasps of the assembled heroes, Zhou Dian slashed the short dao across his face again and again until his features were a mass of torn flesh and blood, grotesque and dreadful to behold.

Such a spectacle would have stirred terror in any onlooker, yet the Three Monks of Shaolin kept their minds fixed inward, their eyes and ears and tongue all closed to the world. They neither saw Zhou Dian maiming himself nor sensed his presence before them. Zhou Dian bellowed, “Good monk! If you won’t pay me back for my dog leg, then I’ll die before your eyes!” He raised the short dao and drove it towards his own heart. He saw that his cult leader’s life hung by a thread, and had resolved to take his own life to unsettle the Three Monks’ meditation.

Suddenly a flash of yellow, and the Yellow Dress Maiden flew forward, snatched the short dao from his hand with a twist, flung it to the ground, and kicked an acupoint¹ to render him unable to move. Then she slanted forward, fingers spread wide, and drove them towards the crown of Zhou Zhiruo’s head in precisely the same technique Song Qingshu had used to slay the Beggars’ Guild Elder. Though Zhou Zhiruo’s five fingers were barely a foot from Xie Xun’s crown, the enemy moved too fast. She could only flip her palm upward to block the strike.

Zhang Wuji’s neili² was no weaker than the Three Monks combined, yet his Chan³ mastery of “forgetting both self and world” fell far short. He could not reach the point of seeing yet not seeing, hearing yet not hearing. When he saw Zhou Zhiruo strike and threaten Xie Xun, his composure shattered at once. Then Zhou Dian charged forward in his frenzy and drew his dao to take his own life. Zhang Wuji witnessed every moment of it, and his anguish grew. Just as his breath seethed and he was on the verge of spewing blood and perishing, he saw the Yellow Dress Maiden leap into the circle, snatch the short dao from Zhou Dian’s hand, and attack Zhou Zhiruo to relieve Xie Xun’s peril.

A surge of joy rose in Zhang Wuji’s heart, and his neili swelled at once. He dissolved every thrust of force the Three Monks sent against him, and in an instant the contest became a stalemate. Though Du’e and his brothers kept their senses sealed to the outer world, they discerned with exquisite precision the ebb and flow of neili between the two sides. They sensed at once that the enemy’s neili had surged without turning to attack, and recognised it as the finest moment to defuse the peril on both sides. The Three Monks’ minds were as one, and they eased their neili back by a fraction. Zhang Wuji eased his own force by a fraction in turn, and the Three Monks eased theirs by a fraction more. Thus each yielded a fraction and the other yielded a fraction, until in the space of a breath the force on both sides was withdrawn entirely. All four laughed aloud and rose together. Zhang Wuji bowed low, his hands touching the ground, and Du’e, Dujie and Dunan pressed their palms together in return. They spoke in unison, “Admirable, admirable!”

Zhang Wuji turned his head and saw the Yellow Dress Maiden locked in fierce combat with Zhou Zhiruo. The Yellow Dress Maiden fought bare-handed, whilst Zhou Zhiruo wielded a whip in her right hand and a dao in her left, yet even so she was hard pressed. The Yellow Dress Maiden’s martial arts seemed to follow the same school as Zhou Zhiruo’s, drifting and nimble, shifting beyond prediction, yet in every gesture there was rectitude and no trace of the deviant. If Zhou Zhiruo moved like a spectre, then the Yellow Dress Maiden moved like an immortal.⁴ Zhang Wuji needed only two glances to know the Yellow Dress Maiden would win without defeat, and that his sworn father was in no danger. Yet he noticed that her strikes carried a certain coaxing quality, as though she wished to fathom the full depth of Zhou Zhiruo’s martial arts. Had she truly sought victory, she would have felled her opponent long since.

Du’e spoke, “Sadhu, sadhu!⁵ Order Leader Zhang, though you cannot overcome us three, neither can we three overcome you. Benefactor Xie,⁶ pray do as you wish.” He stepped forward and unsealed the acupoints across Xie Xun’s body, saying, “Benefactor Xie, lay down the butcher’s dao and you are Buddha on the spot. Our Buddha’s gate is vast, and in this world there is no soul that cannot be ferried across. You and we have shared this mountain peak for many days. That too is karma.⁷”

Xie Xun rose to his feet and said, “Our Buddha is merciful. I am deeply grateful to the three great masters for showing me the true path.”

A clear, sharp cry rang out from the Yellow Dress Maiden. Her left hand flipped and she had already seized the long whip from Zhou Zhiruo’s grip. Then her elbow struck an acupoint in Zhou Zhiruo’s chest, and her right hand splayed open, five fingers hovering above her head. “Would you like to taste the Nine Yin White Bone Claw⁸ yourself?” Zhou Zhiruo could not move a muscle. She closed her eyes and awaited death.

Though Xie Xun’s blind eyes could see nothing, he heard every detail of what passed about him. He stepped forward and offered a bow. “Miss, you have saved the lives of father and son. We are deeply in your debt. Should Miss Zhou refuse to repent and continue along her unrighteous path, she will meet her reckoning in the end. I beg you, Miss, to spare her for today.”

The Yellow Dress Maiden said, “The Golden Haired Lion King repents remarkably quickly.” She reached into Zhou Zhiruo’s bosom and pulled out a small bundle, weighed it in her hand, then tucked it into her own robe. She turned to Zhou Zhiruo again. “Hand it over.” Zhou Zhiruo said faintly, “Hand over what?”

The Yellow Dress Maiden seized Zhou Zhiruo with her right hand, leapt into the air, and soared a dozen yards away. The onlookers saw her speaking low to Zhou Zhiruo, who shook her head and would not answer. The Yellow Dress Maiden splayed her right hand, fingers brushing the crown of Zhou Zhiruo’s head, seemingly pressing her for some answer. At last Zhou Zhiruo spoke. The two exchanged words, and all the while the Yellow Dress Maiden’s right-hand claw never left the crown of Zhou Zhiruo’s head.

The Yellow Dress Maiden leapt back among the pines and said to Zhang Wuji, “Order Leader Zhang, the Dragon-Slaying Dao and the Heavenly Jian⁹ lie on the small island where you once stayed. Pray send someone to search for them.” Zhang Wuji started. “Could it be…” The Yellow Dress Maiden said, “From now on, the guardianship of this pair of weapons rests with you. To issue commands throughout the world, to drive out the barbarians, to safeguard the common people, that is how this dao and this jian ought to be used.” Her form flickered, and she had already drifted gracefully from the circle of pines.

As Zhang Wuji heard her words, a shadow of understanding stirred within him, as though he had grasped the whole course of events. Yet he still could not bring himself to believe that the theft of the Dragon-Slaying Dao and the Heavenly Jian could have anything to do with Zhou Zhiruo.

Zhou Zhiruo, held fast by the Yellow Dress Maiden, was consumed by shame and fury, and a deep despondency besides. She saw the Three Eminent Monks sat cross-legged to one side, and Xie Xun sat before them with his head bowed and his brows lowered, his palms pressed together, murmuring a sutra. Zhou Zhiruo knew he was reciting the Diamond Sutra.¹⁰ She heard Xie Xun chant softly, “At that time Subhuti, having heard this sutra, penetrated its meaning to the depths and wept in tears of grief. He spoke to the Buddha, saying: ‘How rare, World-Honoured One! The Buddha has spoken so profound a sutra. Since the time I gained the eye of wisdom, never have I heard such a sutra as this. World-Honoured One, if there be one who hears such a sutra as this and his faith is pure, then the true aspect shall arise…’”

When Zhou Zhiruo heard the words “penetrated its meaning to the depths and wept in tears of grief”, she thought that Xie Xun had slain countless souls in his life, yet to see him now, it seemed that the moment he repented and mends his ways, peace and joy would be his at once. She herself had been a boatman’s daughter on the Han River. Through the intercession of Zhang Sanfeng the Perfected One,¹¹ she had entered the Emei Order and studied under her shifu,¹² Miejue Shitai. She had toiled with the utmost care, committing no fault, until in the Western Regions she had met that karmic burden from a former life, Zhang Wuji, and her heart had become bound to that young man ever since.

She had warned herself ceaselessly: “Why not concentrate on seated cultivation? Why have you forgotten your shifu’s teachings and let your mind wander to that irrelevant young man? No, he is not irrelevant. He is the leader of the demonic Order, a little demon who does nothing but evil! On Bright Peak, why did I not run him through with a single thrust of my jian? If I had killed him then, I would have been spared all the suffering that followed. Alas, why do you treat me so? Why are you so tender with that puffy-cheeked girl? Why does she love you so deeply? Why, when I pass by your side, do you gaze at me without blinking? Our first meeting was in a boat on the Han River. I saw you were pitiful, refusing to eat, so I fed you a bowl of food with my own hands. Will I ever be able to feed you again?”

She gazed at Zhang Wuji’s back. He sat behind Xie Xun, who continued to chant the Diamond Sutra. Zhou Zhiruo thought, “Why did shifu force me to do this thing? She told me to tempt that little demon, yet I could not truly be kind to him. She doesn’t know how hard that is! Why does shifu consider him a demon? On that island, he only held me in his arms and kissed me. When was he ever improper?…” A flush rose to her cheeks. She dared not think further of what had passed on the island, and in an instant her thoughts leapt to that day atop the high tower in the Wan’an Monastery in Dadu, when shifu had forced her to swear an oath:

That day I went to shifu’s chamber and threw myself into her arms, weeping aloud. Shifu stroked my hair gently. I knew my time to speak with her was short, so I told her of how that little demon had come to rescue me the night before. Shifu frowned, and after a long moment of silence she said, “Why did he save only you, and no one else? That day on Bright Peak, when you thrust your jian at him, why did he turn and save you instead?” I whispered, “I don’t know.”

Footnotes

1. 穴位 – xuéwèi. Points along the body’s meridian network where qi may be accessed or disrupted. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 禅 – chán. The school of meditation in Buddhism, emphasising direct insight. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 仙 – xiān. An immortal. A human who has refined themselves beyond ordinary mortality. Never “fairy”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 善哉 – shànzāi. “Well spoken” or “Excellent.” A Buddhist expression of approval and praise. ↩

6. 居士 – jūshì. Literally “householder.” A respectful form of address for a lay Buddhist devotee, or more broadly a benefactor. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 缘 – yuán. Karmic affinity or fate. The binding force that draws souls together across lifetimes. ↩

8. 九阴白骨爪 – Jiǔyīn Báigǔ Zhuǎ. Nine Yin White Bone Claw. A fearsome technique from the Nine Yin Manual that channels yin-energy through the fingertips. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 屠龙刀与倚天剑 – Túlóng Dāo yǔ Yǐtiān Jiàn. The Dragon-Slaying Dao and the Heavenly Jian. Twin legendary weapons forged from Yang Guo’s Heavy Iron Sword, said to contain the secrets of supreme martial power. See Wuxia Wiki and Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 金刚经 – Jīngāng Jīng. The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra). A foundational Mahayana Buddhist scripture on the nature of emptiness and non-attachment. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 真人 – zhēnrén. Perfected One. An honorific title for a Daoist sage of the highest attainment. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 师父 – shīfù. Teacher and lineage father. The master to whom one is apprenticed. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩