The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 39 – Part 3

Cheng Kun pressed both palms against his eyes and gave a low groan of pain, but made no reply. The assembled heroes exchanged bewildered glances. Who could have imagined that this contest between shifu and disciple would end in such a fashion?

Xie Xun raised his voice and said, “I, Xie Xun, have committed evils beyond counting. I never expected to live until this day. Among the heroes assembled here, if any of you has lost a loved one, shifu, or friend to my hand, then come and take my life. Wuji, you must not intervene, nor may you seek vengeance afterwards. Do not add to your sworn father’s burden of sin.”

Zhang Wuji, tears streaming down his face, agreed.

Many among the crowd bore grievances against him deep as the sea. Yet they had watched him avenge his own family’s murder by doing no more than destroying Cheng Kun’s martial arts, and in the process his own had been shattered too. To step forward now and stab a sword into him or strike him with a fist would be no act of a hero and a brave man.¹

A man suddenly strode from the crowd and said, “Xie Xun, my late father Yanling Feitian² fell to your hand. I have come to avenge him!” With that he walked up to stand before Xie Xun.

Xie Xun said bleakly, “Indeed. Your late father, old hero Qiu, was killed by my hand. In those days we fought face to face, each on equal terms, and neither gained the upper hand. Your father’s courage and honour I have admired to this day. I beg you, Qiu xiong,³ strike.”

The man surnamed Qiu drew his dao⁴ and advanced two steps. Zhang Wuji’s mind was in turmoil. If he did not intervene, his sworn uncle would die beneath this man’s blade. Yet if he drove the man away, he feared he would only add to his sworn uncle’s anguish in whatever years remained. His body trembled, and without willing it he too stepped forward.

Xie Xun barked, “Wuji, if you prevent a man from avenging his father, that is unfilial towards me. My life’s debt of blood is heavy beyond reckoning. Ten deaths would not clear it.”

The man surnamed Qiu raised his dao before his chest. Then suddenly tears fell from his eyes. He spat a mouthful of spittle onto Xie Xun’s face and said, his voice breaking, “My late father was a hero all his life. If his spirit in Heaven sees me cut down a defenceless blind man whose martial arts are gone, he will surely be angered at his unworthy son…” A clang rang out as the single dao hit the ground. He covered his face and ran back into the crowd.

Next a middle-aged woman stepped forward and said, “Xie Xun, I have come to avenge my husband, the Judge of Light and Dark, Qin Dapeng.” She walked up to Xie Xun and likewise spat in his face, then turned away weeping bitterly.

Zhang Wuji watched his sworn uncle endure insult after insult whilst standing motionless, and his heart twisted as though cut by a blade.

The men of the wulin⁵ hold life and death lightly, but they will not endure humiliation. As the saying goes, “A scholar may be killed but not disgraced.”⁶ These two had each spat upon his face, the gravest insult conceivable. That Xie Xun bore it in silence showed his remorse for past crimes was genuine and absolute. One after another came from the crowd. Some slapped Xie Xun across the face. Some kicked him. Some cursed him to his face. Xie Xun kept his head bowed and endured it all, neither flinching nor answering with a harsh word.

More than thirty in succession each had their turn of insulting him. The last to come was a long-bearded Daoist,⁷ who cupped his hands in salute and said, “This poor Daoist is Taixuzi.⁸ My two shixiong³ perished beneath Xie daxia’s⁹ fists. Today, having witnessed Xie daxia’s bearing, I am deeply ashamed. Beneath my jian¹⁰ too have fallen countless heroes of the white path and the black.¹¹ If I were to seek vengeance against you, then another might seek it against me in turn.” With that he drew his jian. His left hand’s fingers quivered and plucked the blade. A ringing note rang out, and the jian snapped in two. He cast the broken halves to the ground, bowed to Xie Xun, and departed.

The heroes murmured among themselves. This Taixuzi was not well known in the jianghu,¹² and none knew what school he belonged to. Yet his martial arts were remarkable, and rarer still was the breadth of his heart, that he could rebuke himself. It seemed no one else would trouble Xie Xun further.

They had not finished whispering before a middle-aged Buddhist nun¹³ from the Emei Order stepped forth. She walked up to Xie Xun and said, “The debt of a murdered husband, I shall settle it too with a mouthful of spittle!” She opened her mouth and spat towards Xie Xun’s brow. The spit carried a fierce wind within it, its force sharp and cutting, and nested inside it flew a steel nail no larger than a date-pit.

Xie Xun heard the odd whisper of air and gave a faint, bitter smile. He made no move to dodge, thinking only, I die at this moment, and it is already too late.

In a flash of yellow the Yellow Dress Maiden¹⁴ darted forward. Her sleeve stirred, and the date-pit nail was swept into its folds. She cried, “What is this shitai’s¹⁵ dharma-name?”

The nun, seeing her hidden weapon had missed, showed a flicker of alarm. “My name is Jingzhao.”

The Yellow Dress Maiden said, “Jingzhao, Jingzhao. Before you took vows, what was your husband’s name? How did Xie daxia harm him?”

Jingzhao snapped, “What is that to you? Since when do you meddle in other people’s affairs?”

The Yellow Dress Maiden said, “Xie daxia is atoning for his past crimes. If anyone seeks vengeance for a father, brother, shifu, or friend, Xie daxia will gladly submit, even to being cut into a thousand pieces. No one else may interfere. But if someone harbours ill intent, meaning to fish in troubled waters¹⁶ and murder to silence a witness, then that is a matter for all to meddle in.”

Jingzhao said, “I and Xie Xun have no quarrel. Why would I murder to si…” The final syllable, mouth, had not left her lips before she realised her own blunder. She stopped at once, her face gone ashen, and her gaze flickered involuntarily towards Zhou Zhiruo.

The Yellow Dress Maiden said, “Indeed. You and Xie daxia have no quarrel, so why murder to silence? Hmm. Among the twelve nuns of the Jing generation in the Emei Order, Jingxuan, Jingxu, Jingkong, Jinghui, Jingjia, and Jingzhao are all maidens who took vows as virgins. Where, then, comes a husband?”

Jingzhao said not a word. She turned and walked away.

The Yellow Dress Maiden cried, “Leaving so easily?” She closed in two swift steps and clawed towards Jingzhao’s shoulder. Jingzhao twisted her shoulder aside to dodge. The Yellow Dress Maiden’s right index finger stabbed towards her waist, and a flying kick struck the Huantiao acupoint¹⁷ on her leg. Jingzhao fell to the ground.

The Yellow Dress Maiden laughed coldly. “Miss Zhou, this scheme of murdering to silence is not very clever, is it?”

Zhou Zhiruo said icily, “Shijie¹⁸ Jingzhao has come to avenge herself upon Xie Xun. What talk is this of murdering to silence?” She waved her left hand. “Here are gathered countless disciples of the renowned orthodox schools, who do not distinguish between the righteous and the deviant, and choose to mingle with heterodox demons. The Emei Order need not wade into this muddy water. We are leaving.”

The Emei delegation rose as one at her command. Two nuns went to help Jingzhao to her feet. The Yellow Dress Maiden did not stop them. Zhou Zhiruo led her fellow disciples down the peak.

Zhang Wuji walked up to the Yellow Dress Maiden and bowed deeply. “I am indebted to you, Jiejie,¹⁹ for your aid these many times. A debt so great passes what words can repay. I only beg you to reveal your honoured name, so that I, Zhang Wuji, may carry gratitude for you in my heart each day.”

The Yellow Dress Maiden returned his bow with a formal curtsey. From her robe she produced a small parcel and handed it to Zhang Wuji, saying, “The answer to every doubt lies within this.” The parcel was precisely the one she had plucked from Zhou Zhiruo’s robe a short while before. Zhang Wuji took it in his hands, bewildered.

The Yellow Dress Maiden gave a faint smile and said, “Behind Zhongnan Mountain, the Tomb of the Living Dead. The Divine Eagle and his mate. Vanished from the jianghu.”²⁰

She raised her right hand in farewell, gathered the eight young women who had come with her, and glided away on the wind.

The Beggars’ Guild’s young Guild Chief²¹ Shi Hongshi²² called out, “Yang Jiejie! Yang Jiejie!”

From the mountainside below came the woman’s voice: “The Beggars’ Guild’s great affairs, I beg Order Leader Zhang to see them through.”

Zhang Wuji answered in a clear voice, “I shall obey your command.”

“Many thanks!” came the reply.

Those three words, carried from afar across the widening distance, remained perfectly distinct. Zhang Wuji could not help a pang of wistfulness.

He stood dazed for a moment, then turned and pulled Zhou Dian over. He thanked him for risking his life to aid him earlier, when the dao had scored his face. Seeing Zhou Dian badly hurt, he at once ordered men to fetch medicine and dress his wounds.

Zhou Dian said, “Old Zhou was ugly to begin with. My heart was full of admiration for how Fan the Right Messenger²³ maimed himself for the Order, so this time I only followed his example.”

Kongzhi strode up to Cheng Kun and barked, “Yuanzhen,²⁴ give the order at once to release the Abbot. If the old Abbot comes to any harm, your sin will be the greater.”

Cheng Kun gave a bitter laugh. “Things have gone too far for that now. We are all bound for ruin together. Even if I wished to release Abbot Kongwen at this moment, it would be too late. You are not blind, are you? Can you not see the flames even now?”

Kongzhi turned and looked down the peak. Sure enough, black smoke and tongues of flame were rising from the monastery. He cried in alarm, “Bodhidharma Hall²⁵ is on fire! Quick, quick, put out the blaze!” The monks fell into a great commotion and began streaming down the peak.

Then from around Bodhidharma Hall, white columns of water like dragons shot forth in unison, pouring into the flames. In an instant the fire was beaten down.

Kongzhi pressed his palms together and chanted a buddha’s name. “Amitabha. Shaolin’s ancient monastery²⁶ has been spared a catastrophe.”

Before long two monks raced up the peak and reported, “We report to you, Grand Shishu.²⁷ Yuanzhen’s rebels set fire to Bodhidharma Hall. Fortunately the heroes of the Ming Order’s Water Banner Faction²⁸ acted with honour and extinguished the blaze.”

Kongzhi walked up to Zhang Wuji, bowed, and pressed his palms together. “Shaolin’s thousand-year-old monastery has been saved from destruction by fire, all through Order Leader Zhang’s boundless kindness and virtue. The entire monastery is in your debt.”

Zhang Wuji returned the courtesy with modest words. “It was no more than my duty. There is no need for such courtesy, Great Master.²⁹”

Kongzhi said, “My shixiong Kongwen was imprisoned in Bodhidharma Hall by that traitor. Though the fire is out, I do not know if my shixiong is safe. Order Leader Zhang and the assembled heroes, pray wait a moment. This old monk must go and see for himself.”

Cheng Kun burst out laughing. “Kongwen had lamp oil and cooking oil poured over him from head to foot. The moment the flames took hold, he was done for. The Water Banner may have saved Bodhidharma Hall, but they could not save the old Abbot.”

Then from the mountainside came another voice: “If the Water Banner cannot save him, what of the Thick Earth Banner?”

It was Fan Yao’s voice. He had barely finished speaking when he came running up the peak together with Yan Yuan,³⁰ the Thick Earth Banner’s Banner Chief,³¹ the two of them supporting an aged monk between them. It was Kongwen, Abbot of Shaolin Monastery.

Kongzhi dashed forward and embraced Kongwen. “Shixiong, are you unharmed? I am worthless, and deserve ten thousand deaths.”

Kongwen smiled faintly. “It is entirely thanks to this Benefactor Fan and Benefactor Yan, who found their way through the tunnel to bring me out. Otherwise, how could we ever have met again?”

Footnotes

1. 英雄好汉 – yīngxióng hǎohàn. Heroes and brave men. A fixed doublet: the hero and the stout, physically courageous man, paired for emphasis. ↩

2. 雁翎飞天 – Yànlíng Fēitiān. Lit. “Wild Goose Feather, Flying to Heaven.” The sobriquet of a martial artist whose dao was said to fly as swiftly as a wild goose in flight. ↩

3. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior fellow disciple, or, in broader jianghu usage, a respectful form of address between martial artists. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. ↩ ↩²

4. 刀 – dāo. A single-edged blade, curved and broad, the counterpart to the double-edged jian. ↩

5. 武林 – wǔlín. The martial forest. The community of martial artists and their affairs, distinct from but overlapping with the jianghu. ↩

6. 士可杀而不可辱 – shì kě shā ér bù kě rǔ. A scholar may be killed but not disgraced. A proverb expressing the wulin’s conviction that honour outweighs survival. ↩

7. 道士 – dàoshi. A Daoist priest. ↩

8. 太虚子 – Tàixūzǐ. A Daoist of obscure origin. His two shixiong were killed by Xie Xun in years past. ↩

9. 大侠 – dàxiá. A title of respect for a martial artist of great renown and righteous bearing. Suffix, lowercase after the name. ↩

10. 剑 – jiàn. A straight, double-edged sword, the weapon of the scholar-warrior. ↩

11. 黑白两道 – hēibái liǎng dào. The black path and the white path. The two halves of the jianghu: the outlaw and the righteous, paired as counterparts. ↩

12. 江湖 – jiānghú. Lit. rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them. ↩

13. 女尼 – nǚní. A Buddhist nun. ↩

14. 黄衫女子 – Huángshān Nǚzǐ. The Yellow Dress Maiden. A mysterious woman of extraordinary martial skill, connected to the legacy of the Divine Eagle Couple of Zhongnan Mountain. ↩

15. 师太 – shītài. An honorific for a senior Buddhist nun. Monastic title; capitalised after a dharma-name. ↩

16. 浑水摸鱼 – hún shuǐ mō yú. Lit. to catch fish in muddy water. To exploit confusion for one’s own gain. ↩

17. 环跳穴 – Huántiào Xué. The Huantiao acupoint, located on the outer hip. A strike here disables the leg. ↩

18. 师姐 – shījiě. Female senior fellow disciple. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Jiě means older sister. ↩

19. 姊姊 – jiějie. Elder sister. A respectful form of address. ↩

20. 终南山后，活死人墓，神雕侠侣，绝迹江湖 – Zhōngnán Shān hòu, Huó Sǐrén Mù, Shéndiāo Xiálǚ, Juéjì Jiānghú. Behind Zhongnan Mountain, the Tomb of the Living Dead. The Divine Eagle Couple, vanished from the jianghu. The four-line verse identifies the Yellow Dress Maiden’s lineage as descended from Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü. ↩

21. 帮主 – bāngzhǔ. Guild Chief. The leader of a martial guild. ↩

22. 史红石 – Shǐ Hóngshí. The young Guild Chief of the Beggars’ Guild, daughter of the late Shi Huolong. ↩

23. 右使 – yòushǐ. The Right Messenger. Fan Yao, one of the Ming Order’s two senior messengers. ↩

24. 圆真 – Yuánzhēn. Cheng Kun’s dharma-name after entering Shaolin as a monk. ↩

25. 达摩堂 – Dámó Táng. Bodhidharma Hall. A principal hall of Shaolin Monastery, where the most advanced martial arts are practised. ↩

26. 少林寺 – Shàolín Sì. Shaolin Monastery. The ancient Buddhist monastery on Mount Song, the foremost orthodox school of the wulin. ↩

27. 师叔祖 – shīshūzǔ. Grand Shishu. Two rungs above oneself in the shimen lineage: one’s shifu’s shishu. ↩

28. 洪水旗 – Hóngshuǐ Qí. The Water Banner Faction. One of the five elemental banners of the Ming Order, specialising in projectiles and liquid weapons. ↩

29. 大师 – dàshī. Dharma Master. An honorific for a senior Buddhist monk. ↩

30. 颜垣 – Yán Yuán. The Banner Chief of the Thick Earth Banner Faction, an expert in tunnelling and earthwork. ↩

31. 掌旗使 – zhǎngqíshǐ. Banner Chief. The commander of one of the five elemental banners of the Ming Order. ↩