The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Heavenly Jian Flies, Its Cold Edge Gleaming (Part 1)

A raft adrift upon the boundless Northern Sea.¹

Yin Susu² had heard Xie Xun³ challenge Zhang Cuishan⁴ and watched as Bai Guishou,⁵ Chang Jinpeng,⁶ Yuan Guangbo,⁷ Mai Jing,⁸ Guo Sanquan,⁹ and the rest lay dead where they had fallen. None who had traded moves with him survived. As formidable as Zhang Cuishan’s martial arts were, it was clear he was no match either. She spoke up, “Senior Xie, the Dragon-Slaying Dao¹⁰ is already in your hands, and all here acknowledge the supremacy of your martial arts. What more do you want?”

Xie Xun said, “Concerning this Dragon-Slaying Dao, there are certain words passed down from the elders of old. You must have heard them as well?”

Yin Susu said, “I have heard them spoken of.”

Xie Xun said, “It is said that this dao is the supreme treasure of the wulin,¹¹ and that he who holds it may command all beneath heaven, with none daring to disobey. But what secret does this dao truly contain that could compel the submission of every hero in the realm?”

Yin Susu said, “Senior Xie’s knowledge is without equal. I was hoping you might enlighten me.”

Xie Xun said, “I confess I do not know either. I need to find some quiet place and think it through properly over a good many days.”

Yin Susu said, “Mm, that would be most prudent. With Senior Xie’s extraordinary intellect, if even you cannot fathom the answer, no one else stands a chance.”

Xie Xun said, “Heh heh, this Xie is no arrogant fool. When it comes to martial arts, there are a good many in this world who surpass me. The Shaolin¹² zhangmen,¹³ Reverend Kongwen¹⁴… “ He paused at this, and a fleeting shadow of sorrow crossed his face. “… and Reverends Kongzhi¹⁵ and Kongxing,¹⁶ the Wudang¹⁷ School’s Daoist Priest Zhang Sanfeng,¹⁸ and the zhangmen of the Emei¹⁹ and Kunlun²⁰ Schools, which of them does not possess consummate mastery? The Qinghai School²¹ may be tucked away in the far west, yet their martial arts hold secrets all their own. Then there are the Ming Order’s²² Left and Right Messengers of Brightness, the cult’s Dharma Kings, every last one of them… heh heh, not to be trifled with. And your own Tianying Order’s²³ White-Browed Eagle King,²⁴ Order Leader Yin, he too is a talent the likes of which the world seldom sees. I cannot be certain I could best him.”

Yin Susu rose to her feet and bowed. “I thank Senior for your generous praise.”

Xie Xun said, “I have won this dao, but others will naturally covet it just as fiercely. Not a soul on Wang Panshan Island²⁵ today could stand against me, and in this your Order Leader Yin has miscalculated. He thought Altar Masters Bai and Chang would be more than sufficient to deal with the Haisha School,²⁶ the Jujing Guild,²⁷ and their ilk. He never reckoned that this Xie would come charging in halfway through…”

Yin Susu cut in, “It was no miscalculation on Order Leader Yin’s part. He had other pressing matters and could not attend in person.”

Xie Xun said, “That is precisely my point. Had Order Leader Yin been here himself, for one thing, I reckon my martial arts are at best evenly matched with his. For another, out of respect for an old acquaintance, I could hardly have seized the dao by force. Knowing all this, this Xie would naturally not have come at all. Order Leader Yin has always prided himself on leaving nothing to chance, yet today the dao has fallen into my hands, a blemish, I should think, upon his sterling reputation.”

Yin Susu took heart at his mention of old ties with Order Leader Yin and rambled on from one subject to the next, hoping to draw his mind away and keep him from pressing Zhang Cuishan to fight. She said, “Human affairs are unknowable, and the will of heaven is beyond reckoning. Nothing in this world is ever certain. As the saying goes, man proposes but heaven disposes. Senior Xie’s fortune runs deep, and you have taken this dao with scarcely any effort, whilst others schemed and plotted with all their might yet came away empty-handed.”

Xie Xun said, “Since the day this dao appeared in the world, who knows how many masters have possessed it, and who knows how many have met their deaths on its account. Today I take it and go. Who is to say that some day a mightier man will not kill me and take it in turn?”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu exchanged a glance, both sensing a deeper meaning beneath his words. Zhang Cuishan thought at once of his third shixiong,²⁸ Yu Daiyan,²⁹ who had become entangled with this very dao and whose fate no one knew to this day. He himself had done nothing but lay eyes on the treasured dao, and already his life lay in another man’s hands.

Xie Xun heaved a sigh. “The two of you are accomplished in both letters and arms, fair of face and fine of bearing. To slay you would be like smashing a pair of rare jade vessels, a terrible waste. And yet circumstances compel me, and I have no choice.”

Yin Susu asked in alarm, “Why?”

Xie Xun said, “I mean to take this dao and leave. If I allow anyone on this island to live, within days the entire realm will know the Dragon-Slaying Dao is in my hands. This one will come seeking it, that one will come hunting me, and this Xie is hardly invincible. How could I guarantee against mishap? To say nothing of the rest, the White-Browed Eagle King alone is someone I cannot be certain of defeating. And his Tianying Order commands legions, whilst I am but one man.” He shook his head. “Yin Tianzheng’s³⁰ inner and outer skills are fierce beyond measure. I hold him in the highest regard. In the old days…” He let out a long sigh. “… Ah …” He shook his head once more.

Zhang Cuishan thought, So the Tianying Order’s leader is called White-Browed Eagle King, Yin Tianzheng. He said coldly, “You mean to silence us by killing every last person here.”

Xie Xun said, “Precisely.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “Then why did you bother denouncing the crimes of the Haisha School, the Jujing Guild, the Shenquan School,³¹ and the rest?”

Xie Xun laughed aloud. “So that they might die without grievance, so their hearts would be at ease when the end came.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “How merciful of you.”

Xie Xun said, “All men must die. Whether a few years sooner or a few years later makes little difference. You, Zhang the Fifth Xia, and Miss Yin are in the flower of your youth, and to perish here on Wang Panshan seems a waste. But viewed from a hundred years hence, it is all the same. Had Qin Hui³² not murdered Yue Fei,³³ would Yue Fei have lived until this day? Qin Hui is dead too, is he not? If a man can die with his conscience clear and free of agony, that is enough. For those of us who practise martial arts, to die truly without regret is no easy feat. Therefore I propose we match our skills. Whoever loses, dies. Nothing could be more fair. You are younger, so I shall give you the advantage: weapons, fists, neili,³⁴ hidden weapons, qinggong.³⁵ Whichever you choose, I will oblige.”

Yin Susu said, “Quite the boast, any discipline at all, is it?” She had listened to Xie Xun’s words and knew that the crisis before them could not be escaped. Wang Panshan Island sat alone in the sea, and the Tianying Order, confident that Altar Masters Bai and Chang would brook no failure, would send no reinforcements. Though her words were defiant, her voice trembled faintly.

Xie Xun started, thinking, If she challenges me to a contest of needlework and hair-pinning, what then? He declared, “Martial arts only, naturally. Or would you have me compete at eating and drinking? Though even in eating and drinking, you could not best this wine-sack and rice-bag. Let us settle it in a single bout. If you lose, you take your own lives. Alas, such a handsome pair, I truly cannot bring myself to strike the blow.”

At the words “handsome pair”, both Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu coloured.

Yin Susu’s fine brows knitted slightly. “And if you lose? Will you take your own life as well?”

Xie Xun laughed. “How could I possibly lose?”

Yin Susu said, “Where there is a contest, there must be a winner and a loser. This Zhang the Fifth Xia is the scion of a renowned school. Who is to say he does not possess some skill that might surpass yours?”

Xie Xun laughed again. “At his age, his techniques may be refined enough, but his neili cannot run deep.”

Zhang Cuishan listened to the two of them parrying back and forth, his mind racing: In what discipline might I fight him to a draw? Qinggong? This new palm technique I have learnt? Then, in a flash of inspiration, he said, “Since Senior insists on forcing my hand, I have no choice but to make a fool of myself. Should I fall to Senior’s skill, I shall of course fall upon my jian. But if by some stroke of fortune we fight to a draw, what then?”

Xie Xun shook his head. “There will be no draw. If the first contest is drawn, we shall contest a second, and so on until there is a clear victor.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “Very well. Should I manage to win by even a single move, I would not presume to ask anything of Senior, only that you grant me one request.”

Xie Xun said, “Agreed. Name your terms.”

Yin Susu’s concern was palpable. She whispered, “What will you challenge him to? Are you confident?”

Zhang Cuishan whispered back, “There is nothing for it. I must do my utmost.”

Yin Susu whispered, “If it goes badly, we flee at the first chance. Better than waiting here to die.”

Zhang Cuishan gave a bitter smile but made no reply. The boats have all been destroyed, he thought. On this tiny island, where could we possibly flee? He straightened his sash and drew a judge’s pen³⁶ of refined steel from his waist.

Xie Xun said, “Throughout the jianghu,³⁷ men praise Zhang Cuishan the Silver Hook and Iron Stroke.³⁸ Today I shall see for myself whether my wolf-fang mace³⁹ is worthy of the challenge. But where is your tarnished silver tiger-head hook? Why do you not bring it forth?”

Zhang Cuishan said, “I do not propose a contest of arms with Senior. I wish only to match him in writing a few characters.” With that, he walked unhurriedly to the face of a great cliff to the left, drew a deep breath, and launched himself upward with a mighty push of both legs. The qinggong of the Wudang Order was the finest of any school or sect, and now, with his very life hanging in the balance, he dared not show the slightest carelessness. His body surged upward over a zhang.⁴⁰ Then came the Ladder Cloud Ascent,⁴¹ his right foot striking the rock face, taking its force, and driving him another two zhang higher. The judge’s pen in his hand found the stone, and with a rapid hiss of steel on rock, he had carved the character 武, “martial”.

The character complete, his body began to fall. His left hand lashed out, silver hook in its grip, and flicked upward in a single deft motion to catch a crevice in the cliff face, bearing his full weight. His right hand carved on without pause: 林, “forest”. Every stroke and every sweep of these two characters had been conceived by Zhang Sanfeng across a long night of tortured meditation, and they held within them yin and yang, hard and soft, spirit and vigour, the pinnacle of Wudang martial arts set down in writing. Though Zhang Cuishan’s neili was still shallow and the strokes did not bite deep into the stone, the two characters soared and danced with a fierce, commanding energy, each line like a swift jian or a thrusting halberd, bristling with power.

With the first two characters done, he carved 至, “supreme”, and then 尊, “exalted”. Faster and faster he wrote, stone chips raining down in a torrent, some strokes coiling like spirit serpents, others towering like fierce beasts, until in the span of a breath all twenty-four characters were complete. This feat of calligraphy upon the cliff was truly as the poet Li Bai⁴² once wrote: Wind and rain come in startling gusts. Falling blossoms and flying snow, how vast, how boundless! Rising to face the wall, the hand does not pause. A line of great characters, each the size of a bushel. Dazzling, as if ghosts and spirits trembled. All one sees are dragons and serpents in flight. Coiling left, surging right, like a thunderclap. A scene of Chu and Han locked in battle.

As Zhang Cuishan reached the final stroke of the character 锋, “edge”, his pen drove downward with the force of a thunderbolt. Iron pen and silver hook braced against the cliff in unison, and he pushed off, somersaulting through the air to land lightly and gracefully at Yin Susu’s side.

Xie Xun stared at the three rows of great characters upon the cliff face. For a very long time he did not speak. At last he let out a sigh and said, “Such calligraphy I could never match. I have lost.”

For one must understand that the twenty-four characters, from “Supreme in the Wulin”⁴³ to “Who Dares Contest the Edge”, had been conceived by Zhang Sanfeng in a flash of divine inspiration, refined and perfected through a full night of painstaking meditation, every horizontal, every vertical, every dot and every flick imbued with the most profound essence of martial arts. Even had Zhang Sanfeng himself stood here, without having undergone that night of agonised contemplation, lacking both the mood and the unhurried concentration of that singular moment, he could not have carved twenty-four characters upon a cliff face and achieved such transcendent mastery. Xie Xun had no inkling of these circumstances. He assumed that Zhang Cuishan, finding himself embroiled in a dispute over the Dragon-Slaying Dao, had simply dashed off the old adage handed down through generations of jianghu lore. In truth, had Zhang Cuishan been asked to write any other characters, the gulf in artistry and force between them would have been immense.

Yin Susu clapped her hands in delight and cried, “You have lost! You cannot go back on your word!”

Chapter 6: The Heavenly Jian Flies, Its Cold Edge Gleaming (Part 2)

Xie Xun turned to Zhang Cuishan and said, “Zhang the Fifth Xia has woven martial arts into the art of calligraphy, forging a path all his own. It opens one’s eyes most wonderfully. I am impressed, truly impressed. Whatever you wish to ask of me, speak quickly.”

Bound by his pledge, he had no choice but to say as much, but inwardly he was bitterly cast down.

Zhang Cuishan said, “I am but an unworthy junior of little learning. That I should possess even a meagre skill is pure good fortune. To receive Senior’s generous praise is more than I deserve. How would I dare speak of ‘asking’ anything? I would merely venture one humble request.”

Xie Xun said, “What request?”

Zhang Cuishan said, “I ask that Senior take the Dragon-Slaying Dao and go, but spare the lives of all those remaining on this island. You need only compel each of them to swear a solemn oath never to reveal the secret.”

Xie Xun said, “I am not so foolish as to trust in other men’s oaths.”

Yin Susu said, “So your word counts for nothing after all. You said that if you lost the contest, you would submit to the other’s request. Are you going back on it now?”

Xie Xun said, “If I choose to go back on it, what can you do about it?” But after a moment’s reflection, he felt this was unreasonable and said, “Very well, I shall spare the two of you. The rest, however, I cannot.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “The two swordsmen of the Kunlun School are disciples of a renowned house. In all their lives they have committed no evil… “

Xie Xun cut him short. “Evil or virtuous, it is all the same to me. The two of you, tear strips from your clothing and stuff them tightly into your ears, then press your hands hard over them. If you value your lives, do not make the mistake of disobeying.”

These words he spoke in a voice so low it was barely audible, as though terrified that others might overhear.

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu exchanged a bewildered glance, unable to fathom his purpose. Yet the gravity of his tone told them some dire reason lay behind it, and so they did as he bade, tearing cloth from their hems, packing it into their ears, and clamping both hands over them. Then they saw Xie Xun throw out his chest and draw a mighty breath. His mouth yawned wide, and he appeared to unleash a tremendous howl. Though neither could hear a sound, both shuddered as one. Before their eyes, the men of the Tianying Order, the Jujing Guild, the Haisha School, and the Shenquan School gaped and stared, their faces stricken with bewilderment. Then came the agony, expressions twisting as though every man’s body were being subjected to the cruellest torment. Moments later, one after another, they toppled to the ground, writhing and convulsing without cease.

The two Kunlun swordsmen, Gao Zecheng⁴⁴ and Jiang Litao,⁴⁵ were stricken with alarm at the sound. They immediately sat cross-legged with eyes shut, channelling their neili to resist the force of the howl. Beads of sweat the size of soybeans rolled down their foreheads, and the muscles of their faces twitched and spasmed. Several times they tried to raise their hands to cover their ears, only to let them fall again when their fingers were still inches away. Then, without warning, both men sprang into the air at once, leaping a full zhang before crashing back to earth, stiff as boards. They did not move again.

Xie Xun closed his mouth and ceased the howl. He gestured for Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu to remove the cloth from their ears, then said, “One howl from me, and every last one of them has fallen senseless. Their lives are spared, but when they wake, their minds will be shattered. They will be madmen, unable to recall or speak of anything that has passed. Zhang the Fifth Xia, I have fulfilled your request. The lives of all those on Wang Panshan Island, I have spared them all.”

Zhang Cuishan stood in silence. You have spared their lives, he thought, but these people are as good as dead. This may be crueller still than killing them outright. In his heart he felt an inexpressible loathing for Xie Xun’s ruthless savagery. He looked upon Gao Zecheng, Jiang Litao, and the rest lying senseless upon the ground, their faces a ghastly sallow hue drained of all colour, and reflected that a single howl could wreak such devastating power, truly a thing to chill the blood and freeze the soul. Had he not stopped his own ears with cloth beforehand, what fate might have befallen him was beyond imagining.

Xie Xun’s expression betrayed nothing. “Let us go,” he said, his voice flat and colourless.

Zhang Cuishan said, “Go where?”

Xie Xun said, “Back, of course. The business on Wang Panshan is concluded. What reason is there to linger?”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu exchanged a glance, both thinking: We must endure another night aboard the same vessel as this fiend. Who knows what may yet happen in those few watches?

Xie Xun led them round behind a low hill on the island’s western shore. In the harbour lay a three-masted ship at anchor, plainly the vessel he had come to the island in. He walked to the gangway and bowed slightly, saying, “After you both.”

Yin Susu gave a cold laugh. “How courteous you are all of a sudden.”

Xie Xun said, “The two of you are honoured guests aboard my ship. How could I fail to extend every courtesy?”

The three of them boarded, and Xie Xun signalled for the crew to weigh anchor and set sail.

There were sixteen or seventeen sailors aboard, yet the helmsman gave his orders wholly in signs and gestures, never a sound out of him, as though every man aboard were mute. Yin Susu said, “What a clever trick, finding yourself an entire crew of deaf-mutes.”

Xie Xun smiled thinly. “Where is the difficulty in that? I need only find a crew of sailors who cannot read. Pierce their eardrums, dose them with a muting draught,⁴⁶ and there you have it.”

Zhang Cuishan could not suppress a shudder. Yin Susu clapped her hands and laughed. “How marvellous! Deaf, mute, and illiterate. No matter how great a secret you harbour, they could never betray it. A pity they must still be able to see to sail the ship, or you might have blinded them into the bargain.”

Zhang Cuishan shot her a reproachful look. “Miss Yin, you are a fine young lady. How can you be so callous? These are men’s lives, men’s suffering, and you find it amusing?”

Yin Susu poked out her tongue, a retort forming on her lips. But she caught the look on his face, and the words died unspoken.

Xie Xun said, his tone flat, “Once we reach the mainland, I shall of course put out their eyes as well.”

Zhang Cuishan gazed at the handful of sailors and felt a quiet ache of pity. By tomorrow, even your eyes will be gone.

The sails billowed and the bow swung slowly round. Zhang Cuishan said, “Senior Xie, what of the people on the island? You have destroyed every last boat. How will they get back?”

Xie Xun said, “Master Zhang,⁴⁷ you are not a bad sort of fellow on the whole, but you do fuss like an old grandmother. Let them live or die as fate decrees upon that island, clean and simple. Would that not be splendid?”

Zhang Cuishan knew the man was beyond all reason. He could only hold his tongue. As the ship drew steadily away from the island, he thought, Most of those stranded there are villains of the worst stripe, yet even so, their plight is pitiable. If no one comes to their rescue, not a single one will survive ten days. Then he thought, When the two Kunlun disciples perish on that island, their elders and teachers will surely come looking. It seems the jianghu of the Central Plains is about to be engulfed in a storm.

In recent years, the Seven Xia of Wudang⁴⁸ had roamed the jianghu with the wind at their backs, prevailing in every endeavour. Yet today they were bound hand and foot, their lives hanging in another man’s hands, powerless to resist. Zhang Cuishan seethed with frustration and anger. He bowed his head in silent brooding, paying no heed to either Xie Xun or Yin Susu.

After a time, he turned to gaze out through the cabin window at the sea. The setting sun was on the verge of sinking beneath the waves, casting ten thousand golden serpents across the face of the water, flickering and never still. Lost in contemplation, he was struck by a sudden jolt of alarm: Why is the sun setting behind the ship? He wheeled round to face Xie Xun. “The helmsman has lost his bearings. Our ship is sailing east.”

Xie Xun said, “East. That is correct.”

Yin Susu said, “East is nothing but open sea stretching to the horizon! Where do you mean to take us? Have the helmsman turn about at once!”

Xie Xun said, “Did I not make it perfectly clear before? Now that I have the Dragon-Slaying Dao, I must find some quiet place to think matters through. I need to understand why this dao is called the supreme of the wulin, and why it is said that he who holds it may command all under heaven with none daring to disobey. The Central Plains are a land of ceaseless strife. If word spreads that I have the dao, today one man comes to seize it, tomorrow another comes to steal it. Fending off those wretches alone would be trouble enough. How could I ever settle my mind? And if it were the likes of Zhang Sanfeng or the Tianying Order Leader who came calling, I could not be certain of victory. That is why I must find some desolate, uninhabited island in the midst of the open ocean and make my home there.”

Yin Susu said, “Then send us back first!”

Xie Xun laughed. “The moment you two return to the Central Plains, my whereabouts will be exposed. How would that serve?”

Zhang Cuishan sprang to his feet, his voice hard. “What do you intend?”

Xie Xun said, “I can only impose upon the two of you to keep me company on that island for a time, a life of leisure and ease, free from all care.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “And if in eight or ten years you still cannot fathom the secret of the dao?”

Xie Xun smiled. “Then you shall keep me company for eight or ten years. If I cannot fathom it in a lifetime, you shall keep me company for a lifetime. The two of you, a man of talent and a woman of beauty, clearly drawn to one another. Wed upon the island, raise children together. Would that not be splendid?”

Zhang Cuishan slammed the table in fury. “Enough of your nonsense!”

He glanced sidelong at Yin Susu. She had lowered her head, a crimson blush spreading across both cheeks.

A tremor of alarm ran through him. He sensed dimly that if he remained in Yin Susu’s company much longer, he might lose all mastery of himself. Xie Xun was the enemy without. The restless turmoil of his own heart, that wayward ape, that unruly horse,⁴⁹ was the enemy within, and the more formidable of the two. Beset on all sides, the sooner he escaped this perilous ground, the better. Suppressing his anger with effort, he said, “Senior Xie, I am a man of my word. I will never reveal your whereabouts. I am prepared to swear a solemn oath this instant: to no one will I breathe a word of what I have seen and heard today.”

Xie Xun said, “Zhang the Fifth Xia is a man renowned throughout the jianghu for his honour, a promise worth a thousand liang of gold, a word as immovable as a mountain. All this I have long heard said of you. But I, Xie, swore a solemn oath of my own in my twenty-eighth year. Look at my hand.” He extended his left hand. Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu looked and saw that his little finger had been severed clean at the root, leaving only four.

Xie Xun spoke slowly. “In that year, the person I most revered, the person I most loved and admired in all the world, wronged me. Destroyed me. My family was annihilated: father, mother, wife, children, all of them gone in a single night. And so I severed this finger and swore an oath: so long as Xie lives and draws breath, he will never again place his trust in another human soul. This year I am forty-one. For thirteen years I have kept company with beasts alone. I have killed fewer beasts and more men.”

Zhang Cuishan shuddered. No wonder, he thought. No wonder he possesses such transcendent martial arts, yet the jianghu has scarcely heard his name. He must have lived as a recluse ever since that calamity in his twenty-eighth year, a tragedy so unspeakable that it turned him against the world and drove him into solitude, nursing a hatred for all mankind. He had loathed Xie Xun’s cruelty and brutality beyond all measure, yet hearing these words, he could not help but feel a stirring of pity. After a moment’s thought, he said, “Senior Xie, the great wrong done to you, surely you have avenged it by now?”

Xie Xun said, “No. The man who wronged me possesses martial arts of the highest order. I cannot defeat him.”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu both exclaimed in unison, “More formidable than you? Who is this person?”

Xie Xun said, “Why should I speak his name and bring humiliation upon myself? If not for this blood feud, why would I have seized the Dragon-Slaying Dao? Why would I torment myself trying to unlock its secret? Master Zhang, from the moment I laid eyes on you, I felt an affinity. Were it not so, given my usual temperament, I would never have allowed you to live this long. That I have let the two of you survive these extra days is already a great departure from my habits. I fear it may bode ill.”

Yin Susu said, “What do you mean, ‘extra days’?”

Xie Xun said, his voice flat and empty, “When at last I unravel the secret of the dao, I shall kill you both before I leave the island. One more day of ignorance on my part is one more day of life for you.”

Yin Susu said, “Hmph. This dao is nothing more than a dao, heavy and sharp, impervious to fire. What other secret could it possibly hold? All that talk of ‘commanding all under heaven, none dare disobey’, it simply means the dao reigns supreme among the weapons of the world.”

Xie Xun let out a long sigh. “If that is truly all there is to it, then the three of us shall grow old together on that island.” A look of utter desolation passed across his face, and his spirits sank, for he feared that what she had said might well be the truth of it, and if so, there would be no hope of vengeance so long as he lived.

Chapter 6: The Heavenly Jian Flies, Its Cold Edge Gleaming (Part 3)

Seeing the look on his face, Zhang Cuishan could not help but want to offer a few words of comfort. But before he could speak, Xie Xun puffed out the candle and said, “Sleep.”

Then came a long, drawn-out sigh, and within that sigh was a pain so vast it had no end, a despair so deep it had no shore. It scarcely sounded human at all. It was more like the dying howl of some wild beast, mortally wounded. The sound mingled with the crash of waves beyond the hull, and both Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu felt a chill creep through them.

Zhang Cuishan peered out through the cabin hatch. Under the moonlight, the sea’s surface shimmered with pale, shifting shapes: fish of every size, great and middling alike, leaping endlessly from the water. As far as the eye could reach there were thousands upon thousands of them, a wondrous sight. Zhang Cuishan had little experience of life upon the ocean, and had no notion of what it meant when ten thousand fish leapt at once.

The sea wind gusted in through the hatch, wave after wave. Yin Susu’s garments were thin, and before long she could no longer endure it. A faint tremor ran through her body. Zhang Cuishan whispered, “Miss Yin, are you cold?”

Yin Susu said, “I am well enough.”

Zhang Cuishan removed his outer robe. “Put this over your shoulders.”

Yin Susu was deeply grateful. “There is no need. You will be cold yourself.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “The cold does not trouble me.” He pressed the robe into her hands. Yin Susu took it and draped it about her shoulders. She could feel the warmth of his body still lingering in the cloth, and a sweet tenderness welled up in her heart. She could not help but smile softly in the darkness.

Zhang Cuishan, however, was consumed with thoughts of escape. He turned the matter over and over in his mind, yet every path led to the same conclusion: Unless I kill Xie Xun, there is no way out.

He listened intently. Beneath the surging roar of the waves, he could make out Xie Xun’s breathing, heavy and steady, unmistakably the rhythm of sleep. This man swore a solemn oath never to trust another soul, he thought, and yet here he lies in the same vessel as the two of us, sleeping without a care. Does he feel so utterly secure that he fears no attack? Be that as it may, I must hazard a strike. If I hesitate, my youth, all the years that lie ahead, will be buried alongside him on some godforsaken island in the boundless sea. He shifted quietly to Yin Susu’s side, meaning to whisper a word in her ear. But at that very instant, Yin Susu turned her face toward him. The two of them drew close at the same moment, and Zhang Cuishan’s lips brushed squarely against her right cheek.

He started in alarm. He wanted to explain that he had meant nothing improper by it, but had no idea how to begin. Yin Susu’s heart flooded with joy. She tilted her head and leaned it gently against his shoulder. In that instant her whole heart brimmed with tenderness and warmth. Then she felt his lips draw near her ear again, and he whispered, “Miss Yin, please do not take offence.”

By now her face blazed as though it were on fire. She whispered back, “You like me. That makes me so happy.”

She might be wilful in her ways and kill without flinching, but when it came to matters of the heart, she was no different from any young maiden tasting the sweetness of first love, her breast aflutter with elation and alarm, flustered and confused all at once. Had she not been wrapped in darkness, she would not have dared utter even those few words.

Zhang Cuishan was taken aback. He had meant only to apologise, yet had drawn from her an unguarded confession. Yin Susu was bewitching beyond compare, and from their very first meeting she had gazed upon him with a soft, lingering warmth. Now, in these eight brief syllables, she laid bare the fullness of her affection. Zhang Cuishan was young, his blood ran hot, and though he governed himself by propriety, he was not made of stone. He felt her body resting soft against his shoulder, a faint fragrance drifting to him breath by breath. He was about to murmur some gentle word in return when a thought stirred suddenly within him, Zhang Cuishan! A formidable enemy stands before you. How can you let yourself waver like this? Have you forgotten every lesson your shifu ever taught you? Even if the two of you share a mutual affection, even if she has done Yu the Third Xia a kindness, she was raised in a heterodox cult and her conduct is not upright. You must report the matter to your shifu and obtain his blessing, then proceed through a proper matchmaker and betrothal, as is fitting. How can you behave like a scoundrel in the dark of this cabin?

At this thought, he straightened himself at once and whispered, “We must find a way to subdue this man. Only then can we escape.”

Yin Susu had been drifting in a haze of bliss. His words left her stunned. “What?”

Zhang Cuishan whispered, “We are in the gravest peril. If I were to attack him in his sleep, it would be a cowardly, underhanded act, beneath the dignity of any true man. I shall wake him first and challenge him to a contest of palm strength. You strike at once with your silver needles. Two against one is an ignoble advantage, but the gap between our skill and his is too great. We have no choice but to press it.”

He spoke in a voice no louder than a mosquito’s whine, his lips pressed tight against Yin Susu’s ear. Yet before she could answer, Xie Xun burst out laughing from the stern cabin. “If you had struck without warning, this Xie would still not have fallen for it, though you would at least have had a slender chance. Instead, you insist on being forthright and honourable, upholding the chivalrous code of your distinguished orthodox school. You are making things needlessly hard for yourself.”

The final syllable had scarcely left his lips when his body blurred forward and he was on Zhang Cuishan, palm lashing out at his chest.

Zhang Cuishan had already gathered his zhenqi and marshalled his strength the moment Xie Xun began to speak. When the palm struck, he met it with his right palm, countering with the Cotton Palm,⁵⁰ a technique passed down heart-to-heart within the Wudang Order. The two palms collided with a soft hiss, and at once the opposing force came crashing in like a mountain toppling, like the sea overturning. Zhang Cuishan knew full well that his opponent’s neili far exceeded his own, and had resolved from the outset to defend without attacking, to endure one moment more and then one moment more beyond that. Thus, when the two forces met, his palm was driven back eight inches. Those eight inches, however, gave him a greater advantage in defence: no matter how Xie Xun pressed, he could not break through the wall of Zhang Cuishan’s resisting palm.

Xie Xun drove his palm force forward three times in succession. Each time he found that while his opponent’s strength was far inferior to his own, it was faint yet never fading, weak yet never spent. The harder he pressed, the more stubbornly Zhang Cuishan held fast. Xie Xun was quietly impressed. His left palm rose and slammed down toward the crown of Zhang Cuishan’s head. Zhang Cuishan bent his left arm slightly and caught the blow with Crossbeam of Gold.⁵¹ The martial arts of the Wudang Order were renowned for their supple tenacity. Among all the schools and sects, none could match their staying power. Though the two men’s skills were worlds apart, Zhang Cuishan drew upon every secret of his shifu’s teachings, and for the moment Xie Xun could not overwhelm him.

The two of them held their ground for a time. Sweat poured from Zhang Cuishan like rain, soaking him through. A desperate anxiety gnawed at him, Why has Miss Yin not acted? At this moment Xie Xun is devoting his full strength to attacking me. If she strikes his acupoints with her silver needles, even if she fails to find her mark, he will be forced to withdraw and defend. The instant his energy wavers, he will fall to my palm force and be injured.

Xie Xun, too, had foreseen this. He had expected that under the combined assault of both palms, Zhang Cuishan would be critically injured in an instant. To his surprise, this young man’s neigong⁵² was remarkably accomplished: he had held out for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea and still showed no sign of yielding. The two of them locked in their contest of palm strength, each watching Yin Susu’s every movement. Zhang Cuishan dared not exhale or utter a sound, every scrap of his qi sealed tight within his chest. Xie Xun, however, showed no such concern. “Little miss,” he called out, “you had best keep your hands to yourself. Otherwise I shall change this palm to a fist and drive it down with all my might. Every meridian in your sweetheart’s body will be shattered.”

Yin Susu said, “Please, Senior, we will go with you willingly. Withdraw your palms.”

Xie Xun said, “Master Zhang, what say you?”

Zhang Cuishan was frantic, his mind screaming, The silver needles! Fire the silver needles! This chance will not come again. Why will she not seize it?

Yin Susu cried, “Senior Xie, withdraw your palms at once! Push me too far and I will fight you to the death.”

In truth, Xie Xun was wary of a sudden needle attack. The cabin was cramped, the needles would be exceedingly fine, and in the pitch darkness they would come without shadow or sound, genuinely difficult to ward off. Yet he had no wish to loose the full fury of his fist and kill Zhang Cuishan on the spot. The girl is cowed by my strength and dares not act rashly, he thought. Otherwise, in circumstances such as these, we would all three come to grief. And so he said, “If the two of you harbour no treacherous designs, I can spare your lives.”

Yin Susu said, “I have no treacherous designs.”

Xie Xun said, “Then swear an oath on his behalf.”

Yin Susu paused briefly, then said, “Fifth Brother Zhang,⁵³ we are no match for Senior Xie. We may as well keep him company on his island for a year or so. With his brilliance, unlocking the secret of the Dragon-Slaying Dao should be no great difficulty. Let me swear the oath for you.”

Zhang Cuishan’s thoughts raged, What oath? Fire the silver needles! Fire the needles! But the words could not pass his lips. In the darkness he could not signal her with a gesture, and in any case both his hands were locked against the enemy’s palms. There was no gesture to be made.

Zhang Cuishan stayed silent throughout, and so she said, “I, Yin Susu, together with Zhang Cuishan, hereby pledge to accompany Senior Xie upon his island, until the day the secret of the Dragon-Slaying Dao is found. Should either of us harbour treacherous designs, may we die beneath dao and jian.”

Xie Xun laughed. “We who practise martial arts, what is so remarkable about dying beneath dao and jian?”

Yin Susu gritted her teeth. “Very well. Then may I not live to see my twentieth year.”

Xie Xun laughed heartily and withdrew his palms.

Zhang Cuishan’s strength gave out entirely. He collapsed upon the deck, utterly spent. Yin Susu snatched up a tinder stick, struck a flame, and lit the oil lamp. His face was the colour of gold leaf, his breathing thin and shallow. Alarm seized her heart, and she fumbled a handkerchief from her lapel to wipe the great beads of sweat that drenched his face and brow.

Xie Xun laughed. “Disciples of Wudang, their reputation is well deserved indeed. Truly formidable.”

Zhang Cuishan had blamed Yin Susu all along for squandering the perfect opportunity, for failing to loose her silver needles at the enemy. Yet now, seeing the glimmer of tears in her eyes and the anguish written across her face, so plainly born of deepest feeling, he could not help but be moved. He let out a long sigh and was about to speak some comforting word when the world went black before his eyes. Through the dimming haze he heard Yin Susu cry, “Xie! You have worn Fifth Brother Zhang to death! I will fight you to the last!” Xie Xun only laughed.

Then, without warning, Zhang Cuishan’s body lurched sideways and he rolled over several times. He heard Xie Xun and Yin Susu cry out together, their shouts mingling with the shriek of wind and the thunderous crash of waves, as though hundreds upon hundreds of monstrous breakers had struck the ship at once.

In an instant Zhang Cuishan felt cold engulf him from head to foot. His mouth and nostrils filled with salt water. He had been drifting in and out of consciousness, but the shock of icy seawater jolted him awake. His first thought was, Has the ship gone down?

He could not swim. Panic flooded him and he struggled to his feet. The deck beneath him pitched violently to port. Seawater that had surged into the hold now came rushing back out, and all around him was howling wind and churning spray. Before he could make sense of what was happening, Xie Xun’s voice split the storm like a thunderclap, “Zhang Cuishan! Get to the stern and take the tiller!”

Even amid the fury of wind and waves, that shout carried an authority beyond words. Zhang Cuishan obeyed without thought, vaulting toward the stern. Through the darkness he saw a shadow lurch and flail, a sailor, swept overboard by a monstrous wave, hurled several zhang through the air before vanishing into the roiling sea.

Chapter 6: The Heavenly Jian Flies, Its Cold Edge Gleaming (Part 4)

Before Zhang Cuishan could reach the tiller, another enormous wave reared up and crashed down upon them, a solid wall of water that struck the ship with a tremendous boom, sending shattered timbers flying in all directions. In that instant Zhang Cuishan’s lifetime of diligent training showed its worth. His feet clamped to the deck as though nailed there with iron spikes, and he did not budge. The moment the wave subsided, he sprang to the tiller in a single bound and seized the handle with a steady grip.

Then came a series of splintering cracks. Xie Xun had swung his wolf-fang mace and snapped the mainmast and the foremast clean through. Both masts toppled into the sea, trailing their white sails behind them. Yet the wind was simply too fierce. Even with only the mizzenmast’s sail catching the gale, the ship heeled and lurched, dancing and leaping wildly upon the face of the sea. Xie Xun struggled with all his might to take in the mizzen sail, but for all his prodigious skill, against the raw fury of wind and wave he was helpless. The mizzenmast leaned further and further until the edge of its sail touched the water. Xie Xun cursed aloud, “Heaven, you thieving wretch, damn this foul wind!” Seeing the ship on the verge of capsizing, he had no choice but to raise his mace and smash the mizzenmast as well.

With all three masts gone, the ship was a masterless ghost adrift upon the monstrous sea, at the mercy of wind and current.

Zhang Cuishan cried out, “Miss Yin! Where are you?” He called again and again, but no answer came. As he called, his voice began to crack with the sound of weeping. Then a hand grasped his knee, and in the next instant a great wave crashed over his head. Beneath the churning water, someone wrapped their arms tightly about his waist. When the wave rolled past the deck, the figure in his arms reached up and clasped her hands behind his neck. A soft voice said, “Fifth Brother Zhang, do you truly worry over me so?”

It was Yin Susu.

Joy flooded through him. His right hand held fast to the tiller while his left arm pulled her close, and he said, “Thank heaven and earth!”

Here, on the knife’s edge between life and death, where any moment could be their last beneath the waves, he found of a sudden that his care for Yin Susu outweighed all thought for his own safety.

Yin Susu said, “Fifth Brother, let us die together.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “Yes. Susu, in life and death, we stay together.”

Under ordinary circumstances, the two of them trod utterly different paths, one of the orthodox schools, one of the heterodox cults, and the weight of such considerations, compounded by a hundred misgivings, would never have allowed their hearts to join so swiftly. But now they clung to one another in the howling dark, the hull groaning and cracking beneath them, the ship liable to break apart at any moment, and in their hearts was a sweetness and a joy beyond all telling. The contest of palm strength against Xie Xun had left Zhang Cuishan utterly spent, yet the sudden tide of Yin Susu’s tenderness revived him in an instant. No matter how the mountainous waves battered them from left and right, he held the tiller steady as a rock, never once letting it waver.

Every last one of the deaf-mute sailors had been swept into the sea. The storm had come without warning. In truth an earthquake beneath the ocean floor had raised a tsunami and set the air churning, and out of that came this monstrous tempest. Had Xie Xun and Zhang Cuishan not both possessed extraordinary martial arts, they could never have endured it. By good fortune, the ship had been built with uncommon sturdiness. Though the hatches, the decking, and the upper works were smashed beyond repair, the hull itself held.

Black clouds smothered the sky. Rain hammered down in sheets. On every side the waves stood up like mountains. In such chaos, who could tell east from west, north from south? And even had they known the way, with every mast in splinters, the ship could no longer be sailed.

Xie Xun made his way to the stern. “Brother Zhang, you have done magnificently. Let me take the tiller. The two of you, go below and rest.”

Zhang Cuishan rose and handed over the tiller. He took Yin Susu’s hand and was about to step away when, without the slightest warning, a monstrous wave hurled them both clear over the gunwale. It struck so suddenly that neither had any chance to brace. By the time Zhang Cuishan came to his senses, his body was already in mid-air, with nothing beneath his feet but the fathomless abyss of the roiling sea. In the midst of his panic, his left hand shot out and seized Yin Susu’s wrist. In that moment, a single thought burned through him: Die with her in the depths of the ocean. Never let go. His left hand had barely closed around her wrist when a rope lashed tight about his right arm. His body was wrenched backward, crashing through spray and surging water, dragged back aboard. Xie Xun had spotted the danger in time, snatched up a halyard from the deck, and lassoed them both back to safety. They slammed onto the planking with a double thud. For Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu, this escape from the jaws of death was beyond anything they could have hoped for. Even Xie Xun breathed a silent thanks to his good fortune. Had that rope not happened to lie at his feet, ten times his skill could not have saved them.

Zhang Cuishan helped Yin Susu into the cabin. The ship still pitched wildly, one moment climbing a mountain of water, the next plunging into a chasm, but after what they had just survived, neither gave it a second thought. Yin Susu nestled against Zhang Cuishan’s chest and murmured in his ear, “Fifth Brother, if we live through this, I want to be by your side forever.”

Zhang Cuishan’s heart surged. “I was about to say the very same thing. In heaven above or on earth below, in the world of the living or the depths of the sea, we stay together.”

Yin Susu repeated the words, her voice trembling with joy, “In heaven above or on earth below, in the world of the living or the depths of the sea, we stay together.” The two of them leaned against one another, and in their hearts they were grateful for the storm.

Xie Xun, meanwhile, did nothing but silently curse his fate. No matter how formidable his martial arts, against the fury of wind and wave he was utterly powerless. There was nothing for it but to resign himself to heaven’s will and let the tempest do as it pleased.

The great tsunami raged for more than two shichen⁵⁴ before it began, at last, to subside. Slowly, the black clouds parted, and the light of moon and stars shone through.

Zhang Cuishan walked to the stern. “Senior Xie, I owe you our lives.”

Xie Xun said coldly, “Do not speak too soon. Nine chances in ten, all three of our lives are still in that thieving heaven’s hands.”

In all his life, Zhang Cuishan had never heard anyone prefix the word “heaven” with “thieving.”⁵⁵ He reflected that this man’s bitterness toward the world had reached the point of utter recklessness. Yet upon further thought, here they drifted in a lone vessel upon a boundless sea, with little prospect of survival. He had just pledged his heart to Yin Susu, and his attachment to the living world was keener than ever, as though he had barely tasted a single drop of fine wine from a jade cup before it was snatched away. The phrase “fate toys with mortals” now struck him with a depth of meaning he had never felt before, driven home by Xie Xun’s three bitter syllables.

He sighed and took the tiller from Xie Xun’s hands. Xie Xun, exhausted after most of the night, retired to the cabin to rest. Yin Susu sat beside Zhang Cuishan. She tilted her head to gaze at the stars above, traced the line of the Great Bear’s ladle, and found the Pole Star. The ship was drifting due north with the current. “Fifth Brother,” she said, “the ship is moving steadily northward.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “So it is. If only we could turn west, then we might hope to find our way home.” He threw his weight against the tiller, straining to bring the bow around to the west, but without a scrap of canvas the ship would not answer. It simply followed wind and current, drifting ever northward.

After a time lost in thought, Yin Susu said, “What if this ship drifted endlessly to the east? Where would we end up?”

Zhang Cuishan said, “To the east there is nothing but the open ocean, stretching on without end. If we drifted for seven or eight days without fresh water to drink…”

Yin Susu, intoxicated with the first flush of love, dreamlike and giddy, had no wish to dwell on such dispiriting matters. “I have heard it told,” she said, “that far out in the Eastern Sea lie the mountains of the immortals, where ageless beings dwell. Perhaps our ship will carry us to one of those enchanted isles, and we shall meet beautiful immortals, men and women both…” She raised her eyes to the Silver River⁵⁶ that arched across the heavens. “Or perhaps this ship will drift on and on until it reaches the Silver River itself. Then we shall see the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid meeting upon the Bridge of Magpies.”⁵⁷

Zhang Cuishan laughed. “We shall give this ship to the Cowherd as a gift. Then whenever he wishes to see the Weaving Maid, he can simply sail across the river instead of waiting for the seventh day of the seventh month.”

Yin Susu said, “If we give the ship to the Cowherd, what shall we ride when you and I wish to meet?”

Zhang Cuishan smiled softly. “In heaven above or on earth below, in the world of the living or the depths of the sea, we stay together. Since we are always together, what need have we to cross any Silver River? No ship required.”

Yin Susu’s face blossomed into a radiant smile, like a flower unfurling, and she took Zhang Cuishan’s hand and stroked it gently.

The two of them brimmed with tenderness, their hearts so full that there seemed a thousand things to say and yet no need to say a single one. A long, long time passed before Zhang Cuishan lowered his gaze and saw the glimmer of tears in Yin Susu’s eyes, her face touched with sorrow. “What are you thinking of?” he asked, surprised.

Yin Susu said softly, “In the world of the living, in the depths of the sea, perhaps I can be with you. But one day, when the two of us die, you will ascend to heaven… and I… I shall be cast down to hell.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “Nonsense.”

Yin Susu sighed. “I know it well enough. In this life of mine, I have done too many wicked things. I have killed more people than I can count, and for no good reason.”

Zhang Cuishan started. Dimly he felt that she was cruel of heart and merciless of hand, and no fit match for him after all. Yet his feelings had already run too deep, and here, adrift in this vast ocean where death might claim them at any moment, how could he trouble himself with what the future might hold? He comforted her, “From now on, mend your ways and do good. As the old saying goes: to know one’s faults and correct them, there is no greater virtue.”

Yin Susu fell silent. After a while, she began to sing, softly and low. It was a shanpuyang,⁵⁸ a song set to an old tune:

He and I, I and he, how we fret over one another. If only, my darling, we could be wed, I would gladly die at the gates of King Yama’s⁵⁹ court. Let them pound me with their pestles, saw me asunder, grind me between their stones, toss me into the cauldron of boiling oil. Ah, let them! The living suffer, but who ever saw a ghost clapped in chains? Ah, let them! When the fire singes your brows, worry about what’s before your eyes. When the fire singes your brows, worry about what’s before your eyes.

From inside the cabin, Xie Xun bellowed his approval, “A fine song! A fine song! Miss Yin, you suit my temperament far better than that fusspot Master Zhang of yours.”

Yin Susu said, “You and I are both wicked people. Neither of us will come to a good end.”

Zhang Cuishan whispered, “If your end is ill, I shall share it. If you must truly go down to hell, I will go with you. Let them toss us both into the cauldron of boiling oil!”

Yin Susu was overcome with mingled joy and wonder. She managed only a single cry, “Fifth Brother!”, before she flung her arms around his neck.

At the first light of dawn, Xie Xun struck a great fish alongside the hull with his wolf-fang mace, a beast of ten jin⁶⁰ or more. The barbs and hooks on the mace made it a handy thing for fishing. The three of them had not eaten in a day, and though the raw fish reeked, they devoured it with relish. There was no fresh water aboard, but by squeezing the juice from the flesh, they could just manage to slake their thirst.

The current bore them steadily northward, day and night without cease. By night the Pole Star glittered always before the bow. The sun rose always over the starboard rail and set beyond the port. For more than ten days the wind and current held, and the ship’s course never wavered. Xie Xun and Zhang Cuishan strained at the tiller with all their strength, but they could not alter the ship’s heading by so much as a hair.

The weather grew colder by the day. Xie Xun and Zhang Cuishan, whose neigong⁵² ran deep, could endure it well enough. Yin Susu, however, grew more haggard with each passing day. Both men had already given her their outer garments, yet still it was not enough. Zhang Cuishan watched her force a brave smile and fight the biting wind, and the ache in his heart was beyond expression. If the ship continued northward even a few more days, she would freeze to death.

But heaven leaves no path utterly sealed. One day the ship drifted into the midst of a vast colony of seals.⁶¹ Xie Xun bludgeoned several to death with his wolf-fang mace, and the three of them stripped the pelts and wrapped themselves in them, as fine as the choicest fur cloaks. There was seal meat to eat besides, and all three were greatly heartened.

Chapter 6: The Heavenly Jian Flies, Its Cold Edge Gleaming (Part 5)

That evening, the three of them gathered at the stern to talk. Yin Susu asked with a laugh, “What is the finest beast in all the world?” All three answered in unison, “The seal!” And at that very moment came a few chimes, ting-dong, ting-dong, crisp and clear.

The three of them froze. The colour drained from Xie Xun’s face. “Drift ice,” he said. He thrust his wolf-fang mace into the water and stirred it about. Sure enough, it struck several pieces of hard, floating ice. At once the mood of all three turned as cold as the ice itself, for they knew full well what it meant: the ship had drifted northward without cease, into ever colder waters. Today the ice came in small fragments. Before long the whole sea would be frozen solid. When the ship became locked in ice and could move no further, that would be the end of them.

Zhang Cuishan said, “In the ‘Carefree Wandering’ chapter of the Zhuangzi,⁶² there is a line: ‘Beyond the barren reaches of the uttermost north lies the Dark Sea, the Celestial Pool.’ We must have drifted into the Celestial Pool itself.”

Xie Xun said, “This is no Celestial Pool. It is the Dark Sea. Dark Sea, the sea of the dead.”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu exchanged a rueful smile. But where there was floating ice, there was fresh water, and that at least answered one pressing need.

That night the three of them lay awake, listening to the ting-dong, ting-dong of ice fragments striking one another, and none of them slept.

By the following morning, the ice on the sea had grown to the size of rice bowls, clattering against the hull. Xie Xun gave a bitter laugh. “I was fool enough to dream of uncovering the secret hidden in the Dragon-Slaying Dao. Instead I have sailed into an ice sea to become an ice man, and in so doing, made myself a true ice man⁶³ for the two of you.”

Yin Susu’s cheeks flushed, and she reached out to clasp Zhang Cuishan’s hand. Over these many days of shared peril, the three of them had formed a bond of fellowship that arose of itself. They were no longer the mortal adversaries of those first hours.

Xie Xun raised the Dragon-Slaying Dao. “Go back to the Dragon Palace,” he snarled, “and slaughter your damned dragons there!” He swung his arm to hurl the dao into the sea. But at the very instant he was about to release it, he let out a long sigh and laid the weapon back in the hold.

Four more days they drifted northward. The floating ice grew until some pieces were as broad as tabletops and others as large as small cottages. All three knew there was no hoping for survival now, and so they left off thinking about life and death at all. That night, at the stroke of midnight, a tremendous crash shook the ship from stem to stern.

Xie Xun cried, “Splendid! Marvellous! We have struck an iceberg!”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu exchanged another helpless smile. Then they opened their arms and held each other close. Icy seawater was already creeping up their shins. The hull had been breached. From outside came Xie Xun’s voice, “Jump onto the iceberg! Every extra day, every extra hour we live is a victory. Thieving heaven wants me dead? I will spite it to the last.”

The two of them sprang to the bow. Before their eyes, a great mass of silver light shimmered in the moonlight. The iceberg gave off a strange, cold radiance of blue and violet, at once unearthly in its beauty and terrible to behold. Xie Xun already stood upon a jutting ledge at its flank, his wolf-fang mace extended toward them. Yin Susu caught hold of the mace, and she and Zhang Cuishan leapt onto the iceberg together.

The hole torn in the hull was enormous. In no more time than it takes to eat a meal, the ship had sunk without a trace.

Xie Xun laid two seal pelts upon the ice and the three of them sat side by side. The iceberg was the size of a small hillock on dry land. At a glance, it stretched some twenty zhang across and eight or nine in length, far more spacious than the ship had been. Xie Xun tilted his head back and let out a long, clear whistle. “That ship was suffocating,” he declared. “This is just the place to stretch one’s limbs.” He rose and walked to and fro across the iceberg, perfectly at his ease. Though the surface was treacherously slick, his steps were as sure and steady as if he walked on level ground.

The iceberg followed wind and current, still drifting steadily north. Xie Xun laughed. “Thieving heaven has sent us a grand vessel to carry the three of us to an audience with the Old Immortal of the North Pole.”⁶⁴

Yin Susu seemed content so long as her beloved was beside her, and would not have cared if the sky itself collapsed. Of the three of them, only Zhang Cuishan furrowed his brow, agonising over the doom that lay before them.

The iceberg drifted northward for seven or eight more days. By daylight the ice reflected the sun with a blinding glare that scorched their skin and left their eyes red and swollen with pain. And so the three of them took to covering their heads with seal pelts and sleeping through the day, rising only at nightfall to catch fish, hunt seals, and chip ice for drinking water. Strangely, the further north they drifted, the longer the days became, until at last there were nearly ten shichen of daylight and the nights passed in a flash.

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu grew haggard with exhaustion, but Xie Xun grew stranger with every passing day. An odd light shot from his eyes. He took to gesticulating wildly and railing at the heavens, the venom in his breast seemingly beyond all containment.

One night, Zhang Cuishan lay wrapped in seal pelts against the ice, dozing fitfully, when Yin Susu’s piercing scream tore him from sleep, “Let go of me! Let go!”

He leapt to his feet. By the shimmering glow of the iceberg, he saw Xie Xun clutching Yin Susu by the shoulders, his mouth working in a guttural snarl that sounded less like a man than a beast. Zhang Cuishan had seen the strangeness in Xie Xun’s face these past days and had been quietly worried, but he had never imagined it would come to this. Shock and fury surged through him. He hurled himself forward and bellowed, “Release her!”

Xie Xun’s voice came low and dark, “You filthy traitor. You murdered my wife. Very well, today I strangle yours!” His left hand closed around Yin Susu’s throat. She cried out in alarm.

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

Xie Xun started, then roared, “Who is this woman? Is she your wife?” Zhang Cuishan saw him gripping Yin Susu tight, and panic seized him. “She is Miss Yin! Senior Xie, she is not your enemy’s wife!”

Xie Xun screamed, “What does it matter who she is? My wife was murdered! My mother was murdered! I will kill every woman in the world!” His left hand tightened. Yin Susu’s breath was crushed from her body and she could not utter a sound.

Zhang Cuishan saw that Xie Xun had gone suddenly mad and was beyond all reason. He gathered his qi into his right arm and drove his palm with all his might at the centre of Xie Xun’s back. Xie Xun’s left palm swept round and returned the blow. Zhang Cuishan reeled. The ice was far too slick, his feet went from under him, and he came down hard. Xie Xun’s right foot flew up in a kick at his waist. Zhang Cuishan changed technique as quickly, braced a hand against the ice, sprang up, and stabbed his fingers at the acupoint on the inside of Xie Xun’s knee. Xie Xun did not let the kick run its course but drew the foot back halfway, and his right palm came down at the crown of Zhang Cuishan’s head.

Yin Susu twisted her body aside, her left hand flashed out, and she chopped down at the top of Xie Xun’s skull. Xie Xun paid her no heed at all, putting the whole of his palm force into the blow at Zhang Cuishan’s brow. Zhang Cuishan turned both palms up and caught it, and in that instant his chest closed tight and stifled. Yin Susu’s chop landed on the back of Xie Xun’s neck. It felt tough and hard, and her hand sprang off it, the edge of her palm aching with a dull pain instead. She saw that Xie Xun’s eyes were red with blood, as though flame were about to burst from them, and that one great hand was reaching again for her throat. She could not help screaming aloud.

At that very moment the darkness before them blazed. Across the northern sky spread a radiance so strange that no name could be put to it, countless colours of surpassing beauty stretching and shrinking in the dark, great swathes of orange-gold threaded with fine strands of pale violet. Then the violet deepened and lengthened, and out of the violet burst shafts of gold light, blue light, green light, red light. Xie Xun started. He gave a low sound of surprise and let go of Yin Susu. Zhang Cuishan felt the pressure on his palms fall away just as suddenly.

Xie Xun clasped his hands behind his back, walked to the northern face of the iceberg, and stood gazing at the shifting colours. Drifting as they were upon the current, the three of them had by now come near the North Pole, and this radiance was that marvel of the polar sky, the aurora borealis.⁶⁵ In China of that age, not one soul had ever set eyes upon it.

Zhang Cuishan took Yin Susu by the arm, and the hearts of both were still hammering wildly.

That whole night Xie Xun stood staring at the strange polar lights and stirred no further. By the next morning the colours had faded, and Xie Xun had come back to himself. Whether he had forgotten his madness of the night before there was no telling, but his speech and his bearing were altogether gentle.

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu both thought, His parents and his wife were all murdered. Small wonder he grieves so. But who is this enemy of his? For fear of setting off his madness a second time, neither dared breathe a word of it.

So several days passed, and the iceberg drove on northward without cease. Xie Xun’s cursing of heaven grew wilder by degrees, and now and then a beast’s light flickered in his eyes. Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu never spoke of it to one another, yet both kept a quiet guard, dreading the moment his madness should break loose again.

That day the blood-red sun hung above the western sea and stayed there, long and long, and would not sink beneath the water. Xie Xun sprang suddenly to his feet, levelled a finger at it and bellowed, “Even you, sun, come to torment me! Thieving sun! Devil sun! Had I a stiff bow and a long arrow, I would shoot you clean through!” He struck the iceberg with the flat of his hand, broke off a block of ice the size of a fist, and hurled it at the sun with all his strength. The ice flew some twenty zhang and fell into the sea. Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu were appalled, and both thought, What brute strength the man has. I doubt I could throw it half so far.

Xie Xun threw one block, and then another, and went on until he had thrown more than seventy, his force never once flagging. Throw as he might, the sun stood as far off as ever. He flew into a towering rage and kicked wildly at the iceberg until chips of ice flew in all directions.

Yin Susu urged him, “Senior Xie, rest a while. Pay no heed to that devil sun.”

Xie Xun turned his head. His eyes were a mass of blood, and he stared at her blankly. Yin Susu’s heart lurched within her, and she forced a faint smile. Xie Xun gave a sudden great shout, sprang at her and caught her up in his arms, roaring, “I will crush you! I will crush you! Why did you kill my mother? Why did you kill my child?” It was as though an iron hoop had been clamped about Yin Susu’s body, and the hoop was tightening still.

Zhang Cuishan caught hold of Xie Xun’s arms and strove to prise them apart, but he could not shift them a hair’s breadth. He saw Yin Susu’s tongue protruding from her mouth, saw that the breath was about to leave her, and there was nothing else for it. He drove his fist whistling into the Shendao acupoint⁶⁶ at the very centre of Xie Xun’s back. The blow landed as though he had struck iron and stone. Xie Xun snarled like a wild animal, and his arms only tightened further. Zhang Cuishan shouted, “If you will not let go, I will use a weapon!” But Xie Xun paid him no heed. Zhang Cuishan drew his judge’s pen and drove it hard into the Xiaohai acupoint⁶⁷ at the crook of Xie Xun’s elbow. Xie Xun’s right hand whipped back, snatched the judge’s pen from his grasp, and hurled it far out into the sea.

Yet his iron grip had loosened for an instant. Yin Susu ducked and twisted free of his embrace. Xie Xun’s left palm slashed at Zhang Cuishan’s neck, his right hand clawing at Yin Susu’s shoulder. With a sharp rip, his five fingers tore a strip of seal pelt clean off her. Zhang Cuishan knew that if he dodged, Yin Susu would be seized again. He countered with Petals Adrift,⁶⁸ a Cotton Palm move, meaning to shed the force of the blow. But the instant his palm so much as grazed Xie Xun’s, a vast clinging force took hold of him, and he could not draw back. He summoned his neili³⁴ to resist.

With Zhang Cuishan locked in his grip, Xie Xun dragged him bodily toward Yin Susu. She leapt clear, but before her feet could touch down, Xie Xun kicked the ice beneath him and sent seven or eight sharp fragments hurtling into her right leg. She cried out and fell sideways.

Xie Xun released a sudden burst of palm force and sent Zhang Cuishan flying several zhang. The force was staggering, and when Zhang Cuishan came down he was at the very edge of the iceberg. The surface was treacherously slick. His right foot touched down, skidded, and with a splash, he plunged into the sea.

Footnotes

1. 浮槎北溟海茫茫 – fúchá běimíng hǎi mángmáng. Literally a raft floating on the vast northern sea. Allusion to the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi’s parable of the great Northern Sea (北溟 – běimíng), symbolising a journey into the unknown. See Wikipedia. ↩

2. 殷素素 – Yīn Sùsù. Her name meaning “Plain and Simple.” Daughter of Yin Tianzheng and mother of Zhang Wuji; she took her own life two years before. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 谢逊 – Xiè Xùn. His name meaning “Modest” or “Yielding.” His courtesy name Tuisi (退思) meaning “Retreat and Reflect.” One of the Four Dharma Kings of the Ming Order, bearing the epithet the Golden-Haired Lion King. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

5. 白龟寿 – Bái Guīshòu. His name meaning “White Tortoise Longevity.” Altar Master of the Xuanwu Altar of the Tianying Order, who died shielding Monk Peng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 常金鹏 – Cháng Jīnpéng. His name meaning “Golden Roc.” Altar Master of the Vermilion Bird Altar of the Tianying Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 元广波 – Yuán Guǎngbō. His name meaning “Broad Waves.” Grand Helmsman of the Haisha School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 麦鲸 – Mài Jīng. His name meaning “Wheat Whale.” Guild Chief of the Jujing Guild. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 过三拳 – Guò Sānquán. His name literally meaning “Three Fists,” derived from his reputation for killing any opponent within three punches. Master of the Shenquan School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 屠龙刀 – Túlóng Dāo. Dragon-Slaying Dao; the name’s literal sense is “dragon-slaying”. Legendary blade and the supreme weapon of the jianghu, forged with the Heavenly Jian from meteoric iron. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally martial forest. Those who actually practise, teach or study martial arts. Wulin sits inside the jianghu and is narrower than it: every member of the wulin belongs to the jianghu, but a pedlar or physician of the jianghu who never trained is no part of the wulin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 少林派 – Shàolín Pài. Shaolin Order, the martial arts tradition originating from Shaolin Monastery. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 掌门 – zhǎngmén. Literally the one who holds the gate. Head of a martial arts school or order, holding its authority and its transmission. Zhǎng means to take charge of or preside over. Mén means gate, and by extension the school itself. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 空闻 – Kōngwén. His name meaning “Empty Hearing.” Abbot of Shaolin Temple. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 空智 – Kōngzhì. His name meaning “Empty Wisdom,” a Buddhist dharma name. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 空性 – Kōngxìng. His name meaning “Empty Nature,” a Buddhist dharma name referring to the Buddhist concept of śūnyatā. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 武当山 – Wǔdāng Shān. Sacred Daoist mountain in Hubei Province, headquarters of the Wudang Order. See Wikipedia. ↩

18. 张三丰 – Zhāng Sānfēng. His name meaning “Three Peaks.” Legendary founder of the Wudang Order and creator of taijiquan; Zhang Wuji’s grandshifu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 峨嵋 – Éméi. One of China’s Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains, home to the Emei Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 昆仑派 – Kūnlún Pài. Kunlun School, a major martial arts school based in the Kunlun Mountains of the northwest. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 青海派 – Qīnghǎi Pài. Literally blue sea school. Martial arts school based in the remote western province of Qinghai. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. Ming Order (明教) – Also known as Manichaeism, a dualistic religion of Persian origin that became the backbone of several rebel movements in Chinese history. In the wuxia tradition, it serves as the organising force against the Mongol Yuan dynasty. ↩

23. 天鹰教 – Tiānyīng Jiào. Tianying Order, founded by Yin Tianzheng the White-Browed Eagle King. 教 here is the order’s own neutral name for itself; “Cult” is the orthodox schools’ derogatory register and is not the sect’s name. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

24. 白眉鹰王 – Báiméi Yīngwáng. Literally white-browed eagle king. Epithet of Yin Tianzheng, one of the Ming Order’s Four Dharma Kings. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 王盘山 – Wángpán Shān. Wangpan Island, the sea island where the Tianying Order raised the Dragon-Slaying Dao to overawe the wulin some years before. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

26. 海沙派 – Hǎishā Pài. Haisha School, meaning “Sea Sand School.” A Jiangnan faction. ↩

27. 巨鲸帮 – Jùjīng Bāng. Jujing Guild, meaning “Giant Whale Guild,” a seafaring faction. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

28. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. Used here by Wang Nangu as an affectionate address to her husband. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

29. 俞岱岩 – Yú Dàiyán. His name meaning “Lofty Cliff of Mount Dai.” Third of the Seven Xia of Wudang, crippled years before. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

30. 殷天正 – Yīn Tiānzhèng. White-Browed Eagle King, founding Order Leader of the Tianying Order and Wuji’s maternal grandfather. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

31. 神拳门 – Shénquán Mén. Shenquan School, meaning “Divine Fist School.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

32. 秦桧 – Qín Huì. Infamous Southern Song chancellor who orchestrated the execution of the patriotic general Yue Fei in 1142. His name became synonymous with treachery. See Wikipedia. ↩

33. 岳飞 – Yuè Fēi. Celebrated general of the Southern Song dynasty, renowned as a paragon of loyalty and patriotism. He was unjustly executed on fabricated charges by the treacherous Chancellor Qin Hui. ↩

34. 内力 – nèilì. Literally internal force. Kinetic manifestation of cultivated qi; generates tangible effects such as deflecting weapons or scaling walls. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩ ↩²

35. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Literally qinggong. Ability to move with superhuman agility, and weightlessness through qi redistribution to leap over trees and roofs, and skip over water. See Wikipedia. ↩

36. 判官笔 – pànguān bǐ. Literally Judge’s Brush. Short, cylindrical weapon resembling a large brush handle, named after the underworld judge. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

37. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. Itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

38. 银钩铁划 – Yíngōu Tiěhuà. Literally silver hook, iron stroke. Zhang Cuishan’s epithet, referring to his mastery of both the silver hook and the iron judge’s pen, and evoking the bold strokes of classical calligraphy. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

39. 狼牙棒 – lángyá bàng. Literally wolf-fang club. Heavy mace-like weapon covered in protruding metal spikes, wielded by Xie Xun. Its enormous size and weight make it usable only by someone of extraordinary physical strength. ↩

40. 丈 – zhàng. Traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.33 metres or 10.9 feet. ↩

41. 梯云纵 – Tīyún Zòng. Literally ladder to the clouds. Signature qinggong technique of the Wudang Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

42. 李白 – Lǐ Bái. Tang Dynasty poet (701–762 CE), widely regarded as the greatest romantic poet in Chinese history. This passage quotes his poem on the cursive calligraphy of the monk Huaisu. See Wikipedia. ↩

43. The full verse carved by Zhang Cuishan reads: 武林至尊，宝刀屠龙。号令天下，莫敢不从。倚天不出，谁与争锋 – Wǔlín zhìzūn, bǎodāo túlóng. Hàolìng tiānxià, mò gǎn bù cóng. Yǐtiān bù chū, shuí yǔ zhēngfēng. Literally: “Supreme in the wulin, the treasured Dragon-Slaying Dao. Command all under heaven, none dare disobey. While the Heavenly Jian remains hidden, who dares contest the edge?” This ancient verse speaks of the two legendary weapons, the Dragon-Slaying Dao and the Heavenly Jian (倚天剑 – Yǐtiān Jiàn), whose possession is said to grant dominion over the entire jianghu. ↩

44. 高则成 – Gāo Zéchéng. His name meaning “High and Accomplished.” A disciple of the Kunlun School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

45. 蒋立涛 – Jiǎng Lìtāo. His name meaning “Standing Waves.” A disciple of the Kunlun School. ↩

46. 哑药 – yǎ yào. Literally muting medicine. Drug that renders the victim unable to speak, used in the jianghu to prevent captives or servants from revealing secrets. ↩

47. 相公 – xiānggōng. Literally minister or lord. Polite form of address for a young scholar or gentleman, commonly used in the Song and Yuan dynasties. Less formal than “Fifth Xia” (五侠 – wǔxiá) but still respectful. ↩

48. 武当七侠 – Wǔdāng Qī Xiá. Seven foremost disciples of Zhang Sanfeng, of whom Zhang Cuishan is the fifth. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

49. 心猿意马 – xīnyuán yìmǎ. Literally heart like a monkey, thoughts like a horse. Buddhist and Daoist idiom describing a restless, undisciplined mind beset by desire and distraction. See Wikipedia. ↩

50. 绵掌 – miánzhǎng. Literally cotton palm. Core Wudang palm technique emphasising yielding, continuous force—soft yet unbreakable, like cotton that absorbs and redistributes impact. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

51. 横架金梁 – héng jià jīn liáng. Literally laying a crossbeam of gold. Defensive technique using the forearm to block overhead strikes, channelling the force downward and away. ↩

52. 内功 – nèigōng. Literally internal skill. Practice of developing neili through breathing, meditation and qi cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩ ↩²

53. 张五哥 – Zhāng Wǔ Gē. Literally Zhang Fifth Brother. Intimate, affectionate form of address from Yin Susu, using his birth-order rank among the Seven Xia of Wudang. Marked shift from the formal “Zhang the Fifth Xia” (张五侠 – Zhāng Wǔxiá) used by others. ↩

54. 时辰 – shíchén. Traditional Chinese unit of time equal to two hours; the day was divided into twelve shichen. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

55. 贼老天 – zéi lǎotiān. Literally thieving old heaven. Extraordinarily impious oath in traditional Chinese culture, where heaven (天 – tiān) is the supreme moral authority. To call heaven a “thief” is to accuse the cosmos itself of robbery and injustice, an expression of such radical blasphemy that Zhang Cuishan has never encountered it before. It encapsulates Xie Xun’s philosophical stance: a man so grievously wronged that he holds the universe itself in contempt. ↩

56. 银河 – yínhé. Literally silver river. Chinese name for the Milky Way, imagined as a celestial river separating the two star-crossed lovers of Chinese legend. ↩

57. 牛郎织女 – Niúláng Zhīnǚ. Literally cowherd and weaving maid. One of China’s most beloved legends: two celestial lovers separated by the Silver River and permitted to meet only once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when magpies form a bridge across the sky. See Wikipedia. ↩

58. 山坡羊 – Shānpōyáng. Literally sheep on the hillside. Classical Chinese song form (qǔpái) originating from the Yuan Dynasty, used for lyric poetry set to music. Often employed for melancholy or philosophical themes. See Wikipedia. ↩

59. 阎王 – Yánwáng. King Yama, ruler of the underworld (地狱 – dìyù) in Chinese Buddhist mythology, who judges the souls of the dead. See Wikipedia. ↩

60. 斤 – jīn. Traditional Chinese unit of weight, approximately 500 grams or 1.1 pounds. Four hundred jin would be roughly 440 pounds or 200 kilograms. ↩

61. 海豹 – hǎibào. Literally sea leopard. Seals, marine mammals found in colder northern waters. Their appearance in increasingly frigid seas confirms that the ship has drifted far to the north, likely into sub-Arctic waters. ↩

62. 庄子·逍遥游 – Zhuāngzǐ · Xiāoyáoyóu. Literally Zhuangzi: Carefree Wandering. Opening chapter of the Zhuangzi, a foundational text of Daoist philosophy attributed to the 4th-century BCE sage Zhuang Zhou. Passage Zhang Cuishan quotes describes a vast, mysterious northern ocean at the edge of the world, an image that resonates powerfully with their predicament. See Wikipedia. ↩

63. 冰人 – bīngrén. Literally ice man. Pun. In Chinese, “ice man” is a colloquial term for a matchmaker, originating from the Jin Dynasty story of Linghu Ce, who dreamed of standing on ice and speaking to a man beneath it, interpreted as an omen of acting as a go-between. Xie Xun jokes bitterly that by bringing Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu together on this frozen sea, he has inadvertently become their matchmaker. ↩

64. 北极仙翁 – Běijí Xiānwēng. Old Immortal of the North Pole, a Daoist deity of longevity. Xie Xun’s joke is characteristically defiant, invoking the god of long life at the very moment they face death. ↩

65. 北极光 – běijí guāng. Literally north pole light. Aurora borealis, the curtains of shifting coloured light seen in the skies of the far north, produced when particles from the sun strike the upper air. It is visible only at high latitudes, far north of any part of China. ↩

66. 神道穴 – shéndào xué. Literally spirit path acupoint. Acupoint on the midline of the upper back, between the fifth and sixth thoracic vertebrae. Powerful strike here can disrupt the flow of qi through the governing vessel. ↩

67. 小海穴 – xiǎohǎi xué. Literally small sea acupoint. Acupoint in the groove behind the inner elbow, on the small intestine meridian. Striking it can cause numbness and temporary loss of arm function. ↩

68. 自在飞花 – zìzài fēihuā. Literally petals adrift. Cotton Palm technique that uses a light, glancing touch to deflect and redirect incoming force, turning the opponent’s power against him. ↩