The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre Chapter 4 Part 4

Yuanyin¹ cried, “You… you killed him too?”

The change had come so suddenly that Yuanyin and Yuanye² alike were filled with shock and rage. Zhang Cuishan³ too was utterly astonished. He spun around at once. Behind him, the nearby thicket rustled ever so slightly. Zhang Cuishan called out, “Wait!”

He leapt into the air. He knew full well that someone lurked within the undergrowth, and that diving in would be perilous. Yet circumstances forced his hand. If he did not seize the hidden assassin, he could not clear his name.

But while still in mid-air, he heard two gusts of wind behind him. Two bronze staffs struck at him simultaneously, one at his ribs, one at his skull. Both monks shouted, “Villain, halt!”

Zhang Cuishan swept his brush and hook downward, executing a backhanded Word of Dāo.⁴ His silver hook latched onto the head of Yuanye’s staff; his Judge’s Brush’s single stroke slashed down upon Yuanyin’s staff. Borrowing their momentum, his body soared upward and landed upon the wall’s crest. He fixed his gaze on the thicket. The treetops still swayed faintly, but whoever had hidden there had vanished without a trace. Yuanye roared in fury, swinging his staff to leap onto the wall.

Yuanyin said, “Zhang Cuishan, we do not ask you to pay with your life today. Cast down your weapons and come with us to Shaolin Monastery.”

Zhang Cuishan retorted angrily, “You two block and hinder, letting the true culprit escape, and still you pester me with this nonsense. Why would I go to Shaolin Monastery?”

Yuanyin said, “To be judged by our temple’s abbot. You have murdered three of our people. Such a grave matter is not for us to decide.”

Zhang Cuishan sneered, “A pity you call yourselves masters of the Shaolin Order’s Yuan generation, yet a killer escapes right under your noses and you notice nothing.”

Yuanyin said, “Amitabha.⁵ You harm innocents. We cannot let you escape.”

Zhang Cuishan heard him insisting over and over that he was the murderer, and his anger mounted. Even as he traded words, he exchanged blows with Yuanye. “If the two masters of Shaolin have the skill, then capture me and take me!”

Yuanye drove his staff into the ground, borrowed the force to leap upward. Zhang Cuishan leapt with him. His qinggong⁶ far surpassed Yuanye’s; descending from above, he struck swiftly as wind. Yuanye raised his staff to block, but Zhang Cuishan’s tiger-head hook turned, and with a tearing sound, it caught Yuanye’s shoulder. Blood flowed freely as Yuanye roared in pain and tumbled to earth. This blow Zhang Cuishan had tempered with mercy. Had the hook’s point shifted, it would have caught Yuanye’s throat, ending his life on the spot.

Yuanyin cried, “Yuanye shidi, is the wound grave?”

Yuanye roared back, “Nothing serious! Why don’t you strike? What are you dawdling for?”

Yuanyin coughed once and swept his staff upward. Yuanye, fierce and dauntless, paid no heed to his shoulder wound, whirling his staff like wind, attacking together.

Zhang Cuishan saw that these two monks possessed formidable arm strength and wielded extraordinarily heavy weapons. If they gained the wall, fighting one against two, victory would not come easily. He therefore guarded his position vigilantly, striking from above, preventing the monks from climbing up. The three monks of the Hui generation were far weaker in martial skill. Seeing their two shibo struggle without success, they wished to join the fray but found no opening.

Zhang Cuishan thought, My only course now is to find the true culprit. I cannot waste time tangling with them.

His brush and hook crossed, sealing the enemy’s strikes. A clear whistle rang out, and he prepared to leap, when suddenly from within the wall came a thunderous roar. A powerful force struck his back.

Zhang Cuishan floated down from the wall. A powerfully built monk had vaulted over, reaching out with both hands to seize his weapons by force. In the darkness, his features were indistinct, but his ten fingers curved like hooks in a hard-clawing, hard-seizing manner, unmistakably the formidable Tiger Claw Skill⁷ of the Shaolin Order. Yuanye shouted, “Yuanxin shixiong,⁸ don’t let this villain escape!”

Since mastering his art, Zhang Cuishan had seldom met his match. Twenty days ago, he had learnt the Heaven Reliant Dragon-slaying Technique,⁹ and his martial prowess had risen higher still. Now, seeing this Shaolin monk’s fierce charge, his fighting spirit stirred. He thrust his tiger-head hook and Judge’s Brush into his sash and called out, “Let all three Shaolin monks come at once! I, Zhang Cuishan, am not afraid!”

He saw Yuanxin’s left claw reaching for him. His right palm shot out, fingers curving back to seize, and with a tearing sound, he had already ripped away a strip of the monk’s robe sleeve. Yuanxin’s fingers had nearly touched his shoulder when Zhang Cuishan’s left foot flew up, striking squarely on his kneecap.

Yet Yuanxin’s lower body foundation was rock-solid. Though his kneecap took a heavy kick, his body merely swayed; he did not fall. With a tiger’s roar, his right claw followed. Simultaneously, Yuanyin and Yuanye’s two bronze staffs struck, one at his ribs, one at his skull, arriving together. Yuanyin spoke with a breathless wheeze, as though gravely ill, yet of the three monks, his martial skill was highest. A bronze staff weighing dozens of jin, he wielded as lightly as a common blade, thrusting, striking, lifting, deflecting, agile and free.

Zhang Cuishan, encountering worthy opponents at last, thought, The Wudang and Shaolin Orders have been equals in renown these recent years. Who is superior, who inferior, has never been tested. Today I shall see what these Shaolin masters can do.

He spread his bare palms, weaving through two bronze staffs and one pair of tiger claws, slicing, seizing, pointing, striking, and though he fought one against three, he gradually gained the upper hand.

The martial arts of Shaolin and Wudang each have their strengths and weaknesses. The Wudang Order had produced a peerless genius in Zhang Sanfeng, yet the Shaolin Monastery’s thousand years of accumulated refinement was no trifling matter. The difference was that Zhang Cuishan now ranked among Wudang’s foremost masters, whilst these Yuan-generation monks, though formidable, were but second-tier figures within Shaolin.

As the fight wore on, Zhang Cuishan’s spirit only rose higher. In a flash, his right hand shot out, a single hook from the Word of Lóng.¹⁰ He seized Yuanye’s staff, and with a twist of his wrist, swung it crashing into Yuanyin’s staff. Borrowing strength to strike strength, the collision rang out with a resounding clang that set all ears ringing. Yuanyin and Yuanye, both men of tremendous power, now had Zhang Cuishan’s force added to their own. Their tiger-mouths split and bled. Yuanxin, in alarm, lunged forward to rescue them. Zhang Cuishan hooked his foot around Yuanxin’s ankle and struck his back with a reversed palm, again borrowing force to strike force, using the momentum of Yuanxin’s own forward rush to send him sprawling.

Zhang Cuishan laughed coldly. “To capture me and take me to Shaolin Monastery, I fear you’ll need a few more years of practice.”

He turned to leave. Yuanxin sprang up and cried, “Villain, halt!”

Yuanyin and Yuanye gave chase as well. Zhang Cuishan thought, These three monks are impossible to shake off. Surely I cannot kill them.

Drawing a deep breath, he deployed his qinggong and ran.

Yuanxin and Yuanye bellowed after him. Their qinggong could not match Zhang Cuishan’s, so they shouted, “Catch the murderer! Villain, do not flee!”

They pursued along the edge of West Lake,¹¹ dogging his steps without relent.

Zhang Cuishan smiled to himself. How can you possibly catch me?

Suddenly, from behind, Yuanxin and Yuanye cried out in unison: “Aiyah!”

Yuanyin gave a muffled groan, as though he too had been struck.

Zhang Cuishan whirled around in alarm. All three monks clutched their right eyes, as though struck by hidden weapons. Indeed, he heard Yuanye roar, “Surnamed Zhang! If you’ve got the guts, blind my left eye too!”

Zhang Cuishan stood stunned. Could someone have struck his right eye blind? Who could be secretly aiding me?

A thought struck him. “Seventh Brother! Seventh Brother! Where are you?”

Among the Seven Xias of Wudang, Mo Shenggu’s¹² skill with projectiles was unmatched. Zhang Cuishan guessed his seventh shidi must have arrived.

He called several times, but received no answer. Zhang Cuishan hurried around several large willows by the lakeside, yet saw no one.

Yuanye, one eye blinded, was wild with fury and charged forward regardless of his life, intent on grappling Zhang Cuishan to the death. But Yuanyin knew that even with both eyes intact, the three of them were no match for him. He hastily restrained Yuanye. “Yuanye shidi, there will be time enough for vengeance! Do you think you and I would let this matter rest? Would the old abbot and our two shishu let it rest?”

Zhang Cuishan, seeing the three monks no longer pursuing, was full of questions. Whoever struck from the shadows aided me, but who was it?

He dared not linger by the lake and hurried back toward his inn. He had not gone more than ten zhang when the reeds along the lakeside began to sway.

The lake was windless, yet the reeds swayed of themselves. Someone must be hidden there. Zhang Cuishan approached quietly. Just as he was about to call out, a figure burst from the reeds, raising a blade to chop at his head.

“It’s either you or me!” the man shouted.

Zhang Cuishan sidestepped and kicked the man’s right wrist. The blade flew from his grasp; a flash of white light, and the weapon splashed into the lake. The man wore a monk’s robe and had a shaven head, another Shaolin monk. Zhang Cuishan demanded, “What are you doing here?”

He saw three figures lying among the reeds, unsure whether alive or dead. The Shaolin monk’s skill was mediocre, so Zhang Cuishan advanced without caution, taking a few steps closer and bending to look. The three lying there were none other than Du Dajin,¹³ Escort Chief of the Dragon Gate Armed Escort, together with the Zhu and Shi escort captains.¹⁴

Zhang Cuishan gasped in shock. “Escort Chief Du, you… how did you…”

Du Dajin suddenly sprang up, both hands seizing Zhang Cuishan’s lapels in a death-grip. Through clenched teeth, he snarled, “Villain, I only kept back three hundred taels of gold, and you… you struck this blow!”

Zhang Cuishan said, “What are you doing?”

He moved to break free with a grappling technique, but saw blood at the corners of Du Dajin’s eyes and mouth. Though it was dark, standing barely half a foot apart, he could see clearly. “You’re suffering internal injures?”

Du Dajin shouted at the Shaolin monk, “Shidi, look closely! This man is called Zhang Cuishan the Silver Hook and Iron Brush. He is… he is the murderer. Leave quickly, quickly! Don’t let him catch you…”

Suddenly his hands tightened, and he drove his forehead toward Zhang Cuishan’s forehead, meaning to shatter both their skulls and perish together.

Zhang Cuishan swiftly reversed his hands and pushed against Du Dajin’s forearms. With a tearing sound, Du Dajin was flung away, but a great swatch of Zhang Cuishan’s robe had been torn off as well. Though bold, Zhang Cuishan had witnessed strange event after strange event this night, and Du Dajin’s expression was enough to terrify anyone. His heart pounded. Looking down, he saw Du Dajin’s eyes rolled back, already dead. His internal injuries had been severe. Zhang Cuishan’s light push to his arms could never have killed him.

The Shaolin monk cried out in alarm, “You… you’ve killed Du shixiong too…”

He turned and fled in panic, stumbling and falling after only a few steps.

Zhang Cuishan shook his head. He saw that the Zhu and Shi escort captains had their feet soaking in the lake water; they had been dead for some time. Gazing at the three corpses, he could not help but sigh. He had no friendship with Du Dajin, and had harboured resentment ever since the Dragon Gate Armed Escort’s failure to protect Yu Daiyan.¹⁵ Yet seeing him die so suddenly and inexplicably, he felt a pang of sorrow.

He stood silently by the lake for a moment, thinking, I told Du Dajin to give all two thousand taels of gold to the disaster relief. It seems he could not bear to part with it and secretly kept three hundred taels. Even if I had known, I would only have laughed it off. How could I harm anyone’s life over such a thing?

He lifted Du Dajin’s travelling bundle. Indeed, it was heavy. Tearing it open, several gold ingots tumbled out, rolling to rest beside Du Dajin’s face. In that instant, Zhang Cuishan felt the impermanence of life. This Escort Chief had toiled his whole existence, travelling a thousand li, risking his neck on the blade’s edge, all for a bit of gold. Now the gold lay right beside him, yet he could never use it again.

The thought turned his mind to himself. Just now, he had battled the three Shaolin monks and won a splendid victory, a hero for the moment. Yet in a hundred years, what would separate him from Du Dajin? At this thought, he could not help but heave a long sigh.

Suddenly, the tinkling notes of a qin¹⁶ drifted from the lake. Zhang Cuishan lifted his head. The young scholar he had seen earlier, outside the agency on the lake, was there in a boat, playing the qin. Zhang Cuishan looked down at the three corpses at his feet. If the pleasure-boat drifted near and that person saw them, word would spread and draw the Mongol patrols. That would be troublesome indeed.

He was about to withdraw when he heard the scholar pluck three soft notes on the strings, then lift his head and say, “Since you have the leisure to wander the lake at midnight, why not come aboard?”

The scholar raised a hand in beckoning. A boatman who had been lying low in the stern sat up and, working his oars, sculled the small craft toward the shore.

Zhang Cuishan thought, This person was on the lake the whole time. Perhaps he witnessed something. I could make enquiries.

He walked to the water’s edge. When the boat drew near, he leapt lightly onto the bow.

The young scholar in the boat rose, offered a faint smile, and cupped his hands in greeting. With his left hand, he gestured toward the seat of honour, inviting his guest to sit. By the light of the gauze-covered lantern, Zhang Cuishan saw that this scholar’s hands were whiter than snow. Looking at his features, delicate cheeks slightly thin, elegant brows and a straight nose, when he smiled, a shallow dimple appeared on his left cheek. From afar, he had seemed a dashing, romantic young gentleman. Now, face to face, it was clear: a young woman in man’s attire.

Though Zhang Cuishan was dashing and unconventional, his shifu’s rules were strict regarding the separation of men and women. All of the Seven Xias of Wudang, when roaming the jianghu, conducted themselves with utmost propriety where women were concerned. Seeing that this was a woman, his face reddened in an instant of surprise. He rose at once, vaulted back to shore, and cupped his fists. “I did not realise the lady was dressed as a man. Please forgive my presumptuousness.”

The young woman made no reply. Suddenly the sound of oars rose again. The small boat glided gently toward the lake’s centre. Zhang Cuishan heard the young woman pluck her qin and sing:

“Tonight’s joy is spent, tomorrow waits long and slow, By the Six Harmonies Pagoda,¹⁷ beneath the willows, a skiff. O noble gentleman, will you not come to roam?”

The boat drifted farther away, the song grew softer. He saw only the rippling reflections on the water, a single lamp like a bean, fading into the mingled lake-light and sky-colour.

After a storm of blades and blood, to suddenly encounter such ethereal, enchanting beauty, Zhang Cuishan stood silently by the lake, his thoughts surging like a tide. Not until more than half a shichen¹⁸ had passed did he return to his inn.

The next day, the great massacre at the Dragon Gate Armed Escort spread through Lin’an¹⁹ like wildfire. Zhang Cuishan’s appearance was refined and scholarly. Naturally, no one suspected him.

Through the morning and afternoon, he wandered the markets and temples, searching for traces of his shixiong Yu Lianzhou²⁰ and his shidi Mo Shenggu, yet after a full day’s searching, he found not a single mark of the Seven Xias of Wudang’ secret signals.

By the shen hour,²¹ the young woman’s song kept echoing in his mind: “Tonight’s joy is spent, tomorrow waits long and slow, by the Six Harmonies Pagoda, beneath the willows, a skiff. O noble gentleman, will you not come to roam?”

Her image, too, lingered in his thoughts, impossible to brush away. He mused, I need only treat her with propriety. What harm is there in meeting her? Besides Second Brother and Seventh Brother, there is no one else I might ask about last night’s murders.

After supper, he set out toward the Six Harmonies Pagoda by the banks of the Qiantang River.²²

Footnotes

1. 圆音 – Yuányīn. His name meaning “Perfect Sound.” A Shaolin monk of the Yuan generation. ↩

2. 圆业 – Yuányè. His name meaning “Perfect Karma.” A Shaolin monk of the Yuan generation. ↩

3. 张翠山 – Zhāng Cuìshān. His name meaning “Verdant Mountain.” Fifth disciple of Zhang Sanfeng and member of the Seven Xias of Wudang. His epithet is the Silver Hook Iron Brush. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 刀字诀 – Dāo Zì Jué. Literally “dāo” character formula. A martial technique derived from the strokes of the character 刀 (dāo, meaning “knife” or “blade”), part of Zhang Cuishan’s calligraphy-based martial arts. ↩

5. 阿弥陀佛 – Āmítuófó. A common Buddhist invocation, calling upon Amitabha Buddha. Used as an expression of piety or a mild exclamation. See Wikipedia. ↩

6. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Literally lightness skill. The ability to move with superhuman agility and weightlessness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 虎爪功 – Hǔzhuǎ Gōng. Literally Tiger Claw Skill. A powerful Shaolin grasping technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 圆心 – Yuánxīn. His name meaning “Perfect Heart.” A Shaolin monk of the Yuan generation. ↩

9. 倚天屠龙功 – Yǐtiān Túlóng Gōng. Literally Heaven Reliant Dragon-slaying Technique. A martial technique Zhang Cuishan learnt from his shifu Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 龙字诀 – Lóng Zì Jué. Literally “lóng” character formula. A martial technique derived from the strokes of the character 龙 (lóng, meaning “dragon”), part of Zhang Cuishan’s calligraphy-based martial arts. ↩

11. 西湖 – Xīhú. West Lake. Cultural symbol of Southern Song refinement, located in modern day Hangzhou. See Wikipedia. ↩

12. 莫声谷 – Mò Shēnggǔ. His name meaning “Valley of Silence.” Seventh and youngest disciple of Zhang Sanfeng and member of the Seven Xias of Wudang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 都大锦 – Dū Dàjǐn. His name meaning “Great Brocade.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 祝史 – Zhù Shǐ. The escort captains surnamed Zhu and Shi from the Dragon Gate Armed Escort. ↩

15. 俞岱岩 – Yú Dàiyán. His name meaning “Daiyan” references Mount Tai, one of the Five Sacred Mountains. Third disciple of Zhang Sanfeng and member of the Seven Xias of Wudang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 琴 – qín. A seven-stringed zither, one of the four classical arts of Chinese scholars. See Wikipedia. ↩

17. 六和塔 – Liùhé Tǎ. Literally Six Harmonies Pagoda. An octagonal pagoda along the Qiantang River in modern day Hangzhou. See Wikipedia. ↩

18. 时辰 – shíchén. A unit of time in ancient China, equivalent to two hours. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 临安 – Lín’ān. Capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1276). Modern day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

20. 俞莲舟 – Yú Liánzhōu. His name meaning “Lotus Boat.” Second disciple of Zhang Sanfeng and member of the Seven Xias of Wudang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 申时 – shēnshí. The “shen” period (one shichen), corresponding to 3:00–5:00 PM in modern time. ↩

22. 钱塘江 – Qiántáng Jiāng. The Qiantang River, famous for its tidal bore. Flows through modern day Hangzhou. See Wikipedia. ↩