The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 7, Part 4: Who Sends the Ice Boat to the Fairy Land

Part 4

The next morning, Zhang Cuishan began digging a deep pit in the outer cave. Without an iron shovel or hoe, he could only use branches of suitable shape as makeshift tools, a labour of twice the effort for half the result. But his neili was deep and powerful, and after seven days of toil, the pit was three zhang¹ deep. Xie Xun’s manner grew more alarming by the day, and time and again he was to be seen swinging and whirling the Dragon-Slaying Dao in a frenzy. Zhang Cuishan dug faster, planning that when the pit reached five zhang, he would line the bottom with sharpened stakes. The pit was narrow at the base and wide at the mouth. If Xie Xun did not enter, all was well, but the moment he stepped into the bear cave, he would surely fall in. Zhang Cuishan piled great stones at the pit’s edge, ready to hurl them down once Xie Xun tumbled in.

That afternoon, Xie Xun wandered back and forth several zhang outside the cave, neither leaving nor entering. Zhang Cuishan dared not work, lest the sounds arouse suspicion, nor dared he go hunting. He simply stood guard near the cave, watching Xie Xun’s every move. Xie Xun cursed ceaselessly, beginning with heaven itself, then cursing the Buddha of the West, the Guanyin of the Eastern Sea, the Jade Emperor above, the King of Hell below, then the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Yao and Shun, Yu and Tang, the First Emperor of Qin, Emperor Taizong of Tang, in letters Confucius and Mencius, in arms Guan Yu and Yue Fei. Not one great sage or hero escaped his tongue. Xie Xun was a man of considerable learning, and his torrent of invective was, to Zhang Cuishan, rather entertaining to hear.

Suddenly, Xie Xun turned to cursing the figures of the wulin. Beginning with Hua Tuo’s invention of the Five Animals Frolics,² he cursed Bodhidharma,³ founder of the Shaolin Order, Yue Fei’s Divine Fist Scattered Hand,⁴ dismissing them all as worthless. Yet he was not merely railing. He had a true eye for where the weakness of each school and faction lay, and when he tore into them he went straight to the vein. He cursed from the Tang through the Song, arriving at the end of the Southern Song, the Eastern Heretic, the Western Venom, the Southern Emperor, the Northern Beggar, the Central Divine Power,⁵ cursing Guo Jing, Huang Rong, Yang Guo, Xiaolongnü, and then suddenly he reached the founder of the Wudang Order, Zhang Sanfeng.⁶

To curse others was one thing, but to revile Zhang Sanfeng, how could Zhang Cuishan not be furious? He was about to retort when Xie Xun suddenly roared, “Zhang Sanfeng is no good! And his disciple Zhang Cuishan is even less good! His wife blinded my eyes. Let me strangle his wife first!” With that, he leapt into the air, swept past Zhang Cuishan, and charged into the bear cave.

Zhang Cuishan rushed in after him. He heard a sharp crack. Xie Xun had already fallen into the pit. But the pit’s bottom had not yet been fitted with stakes, so though he fell, he was not hurt, merely startled. Zhang Cuishan grabbed the branch he had been using as a digging tool and, seeing Xie Xun spring up from the pit, brought it crashing down on his head. Xie Xun heard the wind of the strike, reversed his left hand, and caught the branch, wrenching it inward. Zhang Cuishan could not keep hold of it, and the branch was torn out of his hands. Xie Xun’s wrench carried such force that Zhang Cuishan’s tiger’s mouth split and his palm was scraped raw by the bark. Xie Xun, riding the momentum of the wrench, fell back into the pit.

At this time, Yin Susu was on the verge of delivery and had been in labour for half a day. Earlier, when Xie Xun lingered at the cave’s mouth, she had not dared tell her husband, lest Xie Xun overhear and, with one fewer scruple, strike sooner. Now, seeing the crisis, she disregarded her agonising pain, seized the longsword from beside their pillow, and hurled it toward Zhang Cuishan.

Zhang Cuishan caught the hilt and thought: “His martial arts are far above mine. When he leaps up again and I thrust the jian at him, he will simply wrench it away as he did the branch.” In his desperation, a thought struck him: “He is blind. The only reason he can seize my weapons is by hearing the sound of the blade cutting air to divine my technique’s direction.” Seeing Xie Xun leap up again, Zhang Cuishan aimed the jian point at his forehead and held the blade perfectly still.

Xie Xun’s leap was ferocious in its force: he was, in effect, hurling his own head at the jian point. The jian did not move and made not the slightest sound. However superb his martial arts, how was he to know? A sharp scrape. Xie Xun let out a great cry as the longsword pierced his forehead, sinking half an inch deep. His reflexes were extraordinarily swift. The instant the blade touched his crown, he threw his head back and simultaneously unleashed the “Thousand-Jin Anchor”⁷ technique, landing at the pit’s bottom. Had he delayed his reaction by even a moment, the blade would have pierced his brain and killed him outright. Even so, his head was gravely wounded. Blood streamed down his face, and the jian quivered where it stood embedded in his forehead.

Xie Xun pulled the jian free, tore a strip of cloth to bind the wound, and felt a wave of dizziness. He knew the injury was severe. His madness had fully erupted. He drew the Dragon-Slaying Dao from his belt and whirled it in rapid defence around his crown, then leapt up for the third time. Zhang Cuishan hurled great stones at him without pause, but each was smashed aside by the Dragon-Slaying Dao. The blade’s flowers bloomed like snow, cold light flashing. Xie Xun burst from the pit and bore straight down on him. Zhang Cuishan retreated step by step, his heart aching at the thought that he and Yin Susu would die together this day, never seeing the face of their unborn child.

Xie Xun feared they might slip past him and out of the cave, for beyond it he could not give chase. He took the Dragon-Slaying Dao in his right hand and the longsword in his left, and his strokes swept wide and open, sealing off a full two zhang in every direction. He reckoned that Zhang and Yin could no longer escape.

Suddenly, “Waa!” from the inner cave came the cry of a newborn baby.

Xie Xun was startled and stopped dead. He tilted his head, listening to the infant’s cries.

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu, knowing great disaster was at hand, did not even glance at Xie Xun. Both pairs of eyes were fixed upon the newborn, a boy, his tiny limbs thrashing, crying loudly. Zhang and Yin knew that if Xie Xun’s blade fell, husband, wife, and child would all perish together. They pressed their lips shut, their gaze never wavering from the infant, silently thanking heaven that at least in this life they had been allowed to see their child. In that moment, husband and wife were content. They no longer thought of their own fate. If the child could be spared, that would be best, but knowing that to be impossible, they dared not even let themselves hope.

The baby cried on without pause. Then, of a sudden, Xie Xun’s conscience woke in him, the madness went out of him, and his head cleared. He thought of his own family destroyed, his own son not yet three years old, lively and beloved, yet crushed by his enemy’s hand into an unrecognisable mass of flesh and blood. Those infant cries recalled to him countless memories: the tenderness between husband and wife, the clinging love of a child for his father, the ferocity of his enemies, the innocent baby dashed into a shapeless pulp, and his own painstaking, exhausting efforts, still unable to avenge his family. Though he had gained the Dragon-Slaying Dao, its secret remained unsolved… He stood staring at nothing, now warm and smiling, now grinding his teeth.

In the instant before, all three had been at the brink of life and death. But from the first cry of the infant onward, all three were suddenly consumed by a single concern: the child.

Xie Xun suddenly asked, “Boy or girl?” Zhang Cuishan said, “A boy.” Xie Xun said, “Good. Have you cut the cord?” Zhang Cuishan said, “Cut the cord? Ah, yes, yes. I quite forgot.”

Xie Xun reversed the longsword and offered him the hilt. Zhang Cuishan took it and cut the baby’s umbilical cord. Only then did he realise that Xie Xun had come close enough to strike, yet had not moved against him. Puzzled, he glanced back at Xie Xun and saw his face filled with concern, as though he wanted to help.

Yin Susu’s voice was faint. “Let me hold him.” Zhang Cuishan carried the baby to her arms. Xie Xun asked, “Have you prepared hot water to bathe the child?” Zhang Cuishan laughed involuntarily. “I am so muddled. I have prepared nothing at all. This father is utterly useless.” He was about to rush out to heat water, but took only one step before Xie Xun’s tower-like figure stood between him and the baby, and his heart gave a start. Xie Xun, however, said, “You stay with your wife and child. I will heat the water.” He tucked the Dragon-Slaying Dao into his belt and ran out of the cave, leaping lightly over the deep pit as he passed.

After a while, Xie Xun indeed returned carrying a pottery basin of hot water. Zhang Cuishan bathed the child. Xie Xun, hearing the baby’s lusty cries, asked, “Does the child look like his mother or his father?” Zhang Cuishan smiled. “More like his mother, I think. Not very plump, a melon-seed face.” Xie Xun sighed and said softly, “May he grow up with good fortune and long life, and suffer little hardship.” Yin Susu said, “Senior Xie, do you think the child’s appearance is not good?” Xie Xun said, “No. But if the child looks like you, he will be too handsome, and a face too fine may not carry thick fortune. When he enters the world as a man, he may face many disasters.”

Zhang Cuishan laughed. “Senior, you think too far ahead. The four of us live on this remote island in the far north. This child will grow old here. What talk is there of entering the world?” Yin Susu said urgently, “No, no! We can do without returning, but must the child spend his whole life alone on this island? Decades from now, the three of us will be dead. Who will keep him company? When he grows up, how will he find a wife and have children?” From childhood she had been shaped by her father’s nature. In the Tianying Order, all she had seen and heard was cruelty and viciousness. Her own actions had been ruthless, and violence came naturally to her. But since marrying Zhang Cuishan, she had gradually turned toward goodness. Now, the day she became a mother, a flood of tenderness arose within her, and she found herself thinking of nothing but the child’s welfare.

Zhang Cuishan looked at her with sorrow in his eyes. He reached out and touched her hair, thinking: “This island is ten thousand li⁸ from the Central Plains. How can we return?” But he could not bear to wound his wife’s heart, and so he did not speak the words.

Xie Xun suddenly said, “Lady Zhang speaks well. Our own lives are finished, but how can we let this child grow old and die on this deserted island, never knowing a moment of the world’s joy? Lady Zhang, the three of us must exhaust our wisdom and strength to bring this child back to the Central Plains.”

Yin Susu was overjoyed. She rose tremblingly to her feet. Zhang Cuishan hurried to support her. “Susu, what are you doing? Lie down at once!” Yin Susu said, “No, Fifth Brother, let us kowtow to Senior Xie and thank him for this great kindness.”

Xie Xun waved his hands. “No need, no need. Have you given the child a name?” Zhang Cuishan said, “Not yet. Senior, your learning is vast. Please give him a name.” Xie Xun mused, “Hmm, it must be a good name. Let me think carefully.” Yin Susu suddenly thought: “It is rare that this strange man loves the child so much. If he treats the boy as his own son, the child need never fear harm on this island. Even if his madness returns, he will not strike at once.” She said, “Senior Xie, I have one request. Please do not refuse.” Xie Xun asked, “What is it?”

Yin Susu said, “Take this child as your adopted son! Let him honour you as his own father when he grows up. Under your care, he will never suffer at others’ hands. Fifth Brother, is that not wonderful?” Zhang Cuishan understood his wife’s desperate intent and said, “Excellent, excellent! Senior Xie, please do not refuse our plea.”

Xie Xun said, his voice bleak, “My own son was dashed to death by a single blow, a shapeless mass of flesh and blood. Did you see it?” Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu exchanged a glance, sensing a return of madness in his words. But remembering his cruel fate, their hearts filled with sorrow. Xie Xun continued, “If my child had lived, I would have taught him all my martial arts, and he would not necessarily have fallen short of those Wudang Seven Xia of yours.” These words, bleak yet laced with wild pride, carried within their self-assurance an infinite loneliness and grief. Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu could not help but feel a surge of regret: “If only we had not blinded him on the iceberg, the four of us could have lived in peace on this island, free from care. Would that not have been well?”

Footnotes

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

2. 五禽戏 – wǔqínxì. Literally five animals frolics. System of health exercises created by the physician Hua Tuo (华佗 – Huà Tuó), imitating the movements of tiger, deer, bear, ape and bird. ↩

3. 达摩祖师 – Dámó Zǔshī. Bodhidharma, the legendary Buddhist monk who brought Chan Buddhism to China and is credited with founding the Shaolin martial arts tradition. See Wikipedia. ↩

4. 岳武穆神拳散手 – Yuè Wǔmù Shénquán Sànshǒu. Literally Yue Wumu’s divine fist scattered hand. Martial arts attributed to the Song dynasty general Yue Fei (岳飞 – Yuè Fēi), whose posthumous title was Wumu. ↩

5. 东邪西毒南帝北丐中神通 – Dōng Xié, Xī Dú, Nán Dì, Běi Gài, Zhōng Shéntōng. Literally eastern heretic, western venom, southern emperor, northern beggar, central divine power. Epithets of the five greatest martial artists of the generation of Guo Jing and Huang Rong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 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. ↩

7. 千斤坠 – Qiānjīn Zhuì. Literally thousand-jin drop. Internal technique that makes the body as heavy as a thousand jin, used to anchor oneself against throws and falls. ↩

8. 里 – lǐ. Traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 metres or a third of a mile. ↩