The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 6 – Part 5

That evening, the three of them sat together on the ship's stern, chatting. Yin Susu asked with a smile, “What is the finest creature in the world?” The three of them laughed in unison, “A sea seal!” Just then, they heard a crisp, melodious sound, a ding-dong, ding-dong.

The three froze. Xie Xun’s¹ face changed colour. “Floating ice,” he said. He dipped his wolf-tooth mace into the sea and stirred it about. Sure enough, it struck against hard shards of ice. At once, the hearts of all three grew as cold as the ice around them. They knew the ship sailed north without ceasing, day and night. The further north they went, the colder it grew. Small fragments of ice in the sea now meant that soon the whole expanse would be frozen solid. Once the ship was trapped and could move no more, that would be the hour of their death.

Zhang Cuishan² said, “The Zhuangzi, in the chapter on Roaming Beyond, says: ‘North of the barren lands lies the Dark Sea, a pool of Heaven.’ We must have reached the Celestial Pool.”

Xie Xun replied, “This is no Celestial Pool. It is the Dark Sea. The Dark Sea is the sea of death.”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu³ exchanged a bitter smile. Yet where there was floating ice, there must be fresh water, and that relieved one pressing worry.

That night, they listened to the ding-dong, ding-dong of ice shards knocking against one another, and not one of them slept.

By the next morning, fragments of ice the size of bowl-mouths were thudding against the hull. Xie Xun said with a rueful smile, “I harboured the foolish dream of uncovering the secret hidden within this Dragon-Slaying Dao.⁴ I never imagined I would come to the ice sea and become a man of ice. Truly, aptly so, I have become a matchmaker of ice for you two.” Yin Susu blushed and reached out to clasp Zhang Cuishan’s hand. In the days they had shared the same vessel, sharing peril and facing death together, a bond of fellowship had grown between them. They were no longer the mortal enemies they had been at first.

Xie Xun lifted the Dragon-Slaying Dao and cursed, “Better you sink to the Dragon King’s palace and slay your bloody dragons!” He raised his arm to hurl the blade into the sea. Yet at the very moment it was about to leave his grasp, he heaved a long sigh and placed the treasured dao back in the boat.

Four more days they sailed north. Floating ice covered the sea, some the size of tabletops, others as large as cottages. All three knew there was no hope left, and ceased thinking of life and death altogether. That night, halfway through their sleep, they heard a great booming crash. The ship shuddered violently.

Xie Xun cried, “Excellent! Splendid! We’ve struck an iceberg!”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu looked at each other with a bitter smile, then flung their arms around one another. They felt the icy seawater creeping up their calves. The hull was breached. Xie Xun shouted, “Jump onto the iceberg! Another day alive, another half-day is worth it. Thieving Heaven wants me to die young, but I’ll damn well defy him.”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu leapt to the bow. Before them shimmered a vast iceberg, gleaming with a blue-violet light beneath the moon, marvellous and terrible at once. Xie Xun was already standing on a jagged ledge at the iceberg’s side, extending his wolf-tooth mace. Yin Susu touched the mace lightly and, together with Zhang Cuishan, vaulted onto the ice.

The hole torn in the hull was enormous. In less time than it takes to eat a meal, the ship had sunk without a trace.

Xie Xun laid two sealskins on the iceberg, and the three sat side by side. The iceberg was the size of a small hill on land. A glance showed it stretched two hundred-odd feet across and eighty or ninety feet long, far more spacious than the ship they had left. Xie Xun threw back his head and gave a long, clear whistle. “Cooped up on that boat, I was stifling. Just the place to stretch my bones.” He rose and paced the iceberg with an air of idle ease. The ice was slippery, yet his steps were so steady he might have been walking on level ground.

The iceberg drifted north still, borne on wind and current. Xie Xun laughed, “Thieving Heaven has sent us a grand ship to carry us to meet the Immortal of the North Pole.” Yin Susu seemed content so long as her lover was at her side. Though the sky should fall, she would not trouble her heart. Of the three, only Zhang Cuishan knitted his brows, labouring under the weight of the disaster before them.

The iceberg drifted north for seven or eight more days. By day, the ice reflected the sunlight and scorched their skin until it blistered. Their eyes grew red, swollen and aching. So during daylight they wrapped themselves in sealskins and slept, rising only at night to catch fish, hunt seals, and chip ice to quench their thirst. Strange to say, the further north they went, the longer the day became. In time, each day held nearly ten shichen⁵ of daylight, whilst the night passed in a flash.

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu were worn in body and haggard in face, but Xie Xun’s demeanour grew stranger by the day. A wild light burned in his eyes, and he would gesture and curse at the sky, the rancour in his breast beyond all containment.

One evening, Zhang Cuishan lay nestled in his sealskin against the ice. In a drowse, he heard Yin Susu cry out loudly, “Let me go! Let me go!” Zhang Cuishan leapt up. In the glimmer of the iceberg, he saw Xie Xun’s hands clamped on Yin Susu’s shoulders, his mouth emitting a sound like a beast’s snarl. In days past, Zhang Cuishan had observed Xie Xun’s strange behaviour and harboured quiet dread, yet he had never imagined the man would assault Yin Susu. Shock and fury surged through him. He sprang forward and shouted, “Let her go!”

Xie Xun snarled, “You treacherous wretch. You killed my wife. Good. Today I shall strangle yours!” His left hand closed about Yin Susu’s throat. Yin Susu gave a cry of terror.

Zhang Cuishan cried, “I am not your enemy. I did not kill your wife. Senior Xie,⁶ come to your senses. I am Zhang Cuishan, Zhang Cuishan of the Wudang Order. I am not your enemy.”

Xie Xun paused. “Who is this woman? Is she your wife?”

Zhang Cuishan saw him gripping Yin Susu tight and his heart lurched. “She is Miss Yin. Senior Xie, she is not your enemy’s wife!”

Xie Xun howled, “I don’t care who she is. My wife was murdered. My mother was murdered. I will kill every woman under heaven!” His left hand tightened, and Yin Susu’s breath grew laboured. She could cry out no more.

Zhang Cuishan saw that Xie Xun had gone utterly mad, past all reason. He gathered his neili⁷ in his right arm and struck hard at Xie Xun’s back with an open palm. Xie Xun’s left palm whipped round and returned the blow. Zhang Cuishan stumbled. The ice was too slippery, and he fell. Xie Xun’s right foot shot out towards his waist. Zhang Cuishan shifted swiftly, bracing his hand and springing up, then thrust his fingers towards the acupoint⁸ at Xie Xun’s knee. Xie Xun drew back his leg before the kick had spent its force and brought his right palm down towards Zhang Cuishan’s crown.

Yin Susu twisted sideways and her left hand darted out, striking at Xie Xun’s head. Xie Xun paid no heed. He drove his palm-force straight at Zhang Cuishan’s brow. Zhang Cuishan’s palms flipped up and met the blow. In that instant, his chest constricted. Yin Susu’s strike had landed on Xie Xun’s nape, but she felt only toughness and hardness. Her hand bounced off, and the edge of her palm throbbed dully. Xie Xun’s eyes were bloodshot, as though fire would burst from them. His great hand lunged again at her throat, and she could not help but scream.

Just then, a brilliant light burst forth. To the north, a radiance strange beyond description spread across the sky, countless marvellous hues, stretching and contracting in the dark. Vast swathes of orange-yellow were threaded with filaments of pale violet. Now the violet deepened and lengthened, and from within it shot streaks of golden light, blue light, green light, red light. Xie Xun started in surprise and cried, “Eh?” He released Yin Susu. Zhang Cuishan felt the pressure on his palms ease at once.

Xie Xun clasped his hands behind his back and walked to the northern edge of the iceberg, gazing intently at the shifting colours. The three of them had drifted with the current until they were near the North Pole. This radiance was the aurora borealis, a marvel of the polar regions, never before seen by any in the Middle Kingdom at that time.

Zhang Cuishan drew Yin Susu close. Both their hearts were pounding.

That night, Xie Xun watched the polar light and gave no further trouble. By morning, the glow had faded, and Xie Xun himself seemed restored. Whether he had forgotten his frenzy of the night before, his speech and manner were gentle and measured once more.

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu each thought, His parents, his wife, all murdered. No wonder he grieves. But who are his enemies? They dared not utter a word, lest they provoke his madness again.

So passed several days. The iceberg drifted ceaselessly north. Xie Xun’s curses at Heaven grew fiercer still. At times, a bestial light flickered in his eyes. Though Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu spoke of it not, each was secretly on guard, fearing his madness might burst forth without warning.

One day, the blood-red sun hung above the western sea and long, long while did not set. Xie Xun leapt up suddenly, pointing at the sun and cursing aloud, “Even you, the sun, would bully me? Thieving sun, ghostly sun, if I had a stout bow and a long arrow, I’d shoot you clean through!” He struck the iceberg with his fist and broke off a chunk the size of his head, then hurled it at the sun. The ice flew two hundred-odd feet and fell into the sea. Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu were aghast. The man’s strength is enormous, they thought. I doubt either of us could cast half that distance.

Xie Xun hurled one chunk, then another. He cast over seventy pieces, his force never flagging. Yet no matter how many he threw, the sun remained as distant as ever. He flew into a towering rage, kicking wildly at the iceberg until shards of ice flew in all directions.

Yin Susu said, “Senior Xie, rest a while. Pay no mind to that ghostly sun.”

Xie Xun turned. His eyes were webbed with red, and he stared at her blankly. Yin Susu’s heart quailed, but she forced a faint smile. Xie Xun gave a sudden roar and sprang at her, wrapping her in his arms. “I’ll squeeze you to death! I’ll squeeze you to death! Why did you kill my mother? Why did you kill my child?” Yin Susu felt as though an iron hoop had been clamped about her, and the hoop was tightening still.

Zhang Cuishan rushed to pry open Xie Xun’s arms, but they would not yield a hair’s breadth. He saw Yin Susu’s tongue protruded. She would strangle in moments. He had no choice but to strike with all his force at the Shendao acupoint on Xie Xun’s back. Yet the blow fell as though against stone. Xie Xun growled like a beast, and his arms only tightened.

Zhang Cuishan shouted, “Let her go, or I’ll use a weapon!”

Xie Xun paid no heed. Zhang Cuishan drew his judge’s brushes⁹ and struck hard at the Xiaohai acupoint in the crook of Xie Xun’s arm. Xie Xun’s right hand snapped back with preternatural speed, seized the brush, and hurled it far out to sea.

Yin Susu felt the iron arms about her loosen, and she wriggled free. Xie Xun’s left palm slanted towards Zhang Cuishan’s neck whilst his right hand clawed at Yin Susu’s shoulder. With a tearing sound, his five fingers ripped a chunk from the sealskin wrapped about her.

Zhang Cuishan knew that if he dodged, Yin Susu would be caught again. He used a technique from the Continuous Palm, Free Flowers at Ease, seeking to deflect Xie Xun’s force. Yet the instant his palm brushed Xie Xun’s, he felt an immense, sticky power drawing him in. He could not withdraw. He had no choice but to marshal his neili and resist.

Xie Xun, having pinned Zhang Cuishan with one palm, dragged him bodily towards Yin Susu. She leapt aside, but before her feet had touched the ice again, Xie Xun kicked at the iceberg. Seven or eight small shards of ice shot out and struck her right leg. She cried, “Aiyo!” and fell sideways.

Xie Xun suddenly unleashed his palm-force and flung Zhang Cuishan away. The rebound was so fierce that Zhang Cuishan landed at the iceberg’s very edge. The ice was slippery. His right foot slipped, and with a splash, he fell into the sea.

Footnotes

1. 谢逊 – Xiè Xùn. His name meaning “graciously modest.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 张翠山 – Zhāng Cuìshān. His name meaning “Emerald Mountain.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 殷素素 – Yīn Sùsù. Her name meaning “Plain and unadorned.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 屠龙刀 – Túlóng Dāo. Literally the dragon-slaying dao. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 时辰 – shíchén. A traditional Chinese unit of time, equivalent to two hours. The day was divided into twelve shichen. ↩

6. 前辈 – qiánbèi. A respectful form of address for someone of an elder martial generation. ↩

7. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force, the kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. ↩

8. 穴位 – xuéwèi. Points along the body’s meridians where qi can be accessed or disrupted. ↩

9. 判官笔 – pànguān bǐ. Judge’s Brushes, a pair of short, cylindrical weapons resembling large brush handles. ↩