The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre Chapter 7 Part 6

Chapter 7: Who sends the ice vessel to the immortal land? (6)

Wuji did not understand what “forced himself upon” meant, but Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu both gasped aloud. For a shifu to violate his own disciple’s wife—such a thing was unheard of in the wulin. It was an abomination that offended both heaven and man.

Xie Xun went on. “My wife screamed for help. My father burst into the room. My shifu, seeing that his crime was laid bare, struck my father dead with a single blow, then killed my mother. And my son—my boy, Xie Wuji, only three years old—”

Wuji heard his own name and broke in, bewildered: “Xie Wuji?”

Zhang Cuishan rebuked him sharply. “Hold your tongue! Listen to your godfather.” Xie Xun said, “Yes. My own son bore the same name as you—Xie Wuji. My shifu seized him and dashed him against the ground until he was nothing but a shapeless mass of blood and flesh.”

Wuji could not help himself. “Godfather, could he… could he still live?” Xie Xun shook his head, his voice desolate. “No. He could not live.” Yin Susu gestured to the boy to ask no more.

Xie Xun stared into nothing for a long while before continuing. “When I saw what had been done, I was struck dumb. My mind went blank. I could not think how to face this man—this shifu I had revered above all others. Then he drove his fist into my chest. I was too stunned to think of defending myself. I fell unconscious. When I woke, he was long gone. The house was full of the dead. My father, my mother, my wife, my son, my brothers and sisters, the servants—thirteen souls in all, every one slain by his hand. He must have thought that single blow had killed me, and so he did not strike again.

“I fell gravely ill. When I recovered, I trained with a fury I had never known. Three years later I went to find my shifu and take my vengeance. But the gulf between our skills was too vast. My so-called vengeance brought me nothing but humiliation. Yet how could I let the blood of thirteen innocent lives go unavenged? I sought out renowned fighters everywhere, training without rest or sleep, and at last my efforts bore fruit. After five years I felt my skills had grown immensely, and I went after my shifu a second time. But though I had grown stronger, he remained far stronger still. The second attempt ended as the first—with grievous wounds and defeat.

“Not long after I recovered from those injuries, I came into possession of a manual for the Seven Wounds Fist.¹ The power of this technique was truly extraordinary. I threw myself into mastering its internal force, and after two years the art was complete. I judged myself the equal of any first-rate fighter in the realm. Unless my shifu had encountered some miraculous fortune in the interim, he could no longer be a match for me. But when I went to find him a third time, he had vanished without a trace. I searched every corner of the jianghu, but I could discover nothing. He had gone into hiding, it seemed, in some remote and desolate backwater. The world is vast—where was I to look?

“In my rage, I began committing atrocities. Murder, arson—there was nothing I would not do. And after each crime, I carved my shifu’s name upon the wall.”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu both drew sharp breaths. Xie Xun said, “You know who my shifu is, then?” Yin Susu nodded. “You are a disciple of Cheng Kun² the Unified Innate Thunderclap Hand.”

Several years before, a storm of violence had erupted across the wulin. From Liaodong in the far northeast to Lingnan in the deep south, more than thirty major atrocities were committed within the space of half a year. Scores of celebrated heroes were struck down without explanation, and at every scene the killer left the same name: Cheng Kun the Unified Innate Thunderclap Hand.³ Each victim was either the zhangmen of a school, or an elder of wide renown with connections stretching across the jianghu. A single one of these cases would have set the martial world ablaze; over thirty in succession had thrown it into pandemonium.

At the time, the Seven Heroes of Wudang had descended the mountain on their shifu’s orders to investigate, yet they had uncovered not the slightest lead. Everyone knew that the crimes were the work of someone framing Cheng Kun. The true Cheng Kun was a man of formidable martial arts who had always conducted himself with propriety, enjoying a sterling reputation. Several of the victims had been his close friends, which alone proved his innocence. Yet to find the real killer, they would need Cheng Kun himself—and he had vanished without a trace, as though swallowed by the earth. After months of turmoil, the thirty-odd cases went unsolved. Hundreds and thousands burned for vengeance, but with the culprit unknown, they could only wring their hands in impotent fury. Had Xie Xun not revealed the truth tonight, Zhang Cuishan would never have guessed the man behind it all.

Xie Xun said, “I committed these crimes under Cheng Kun’s name to force him out of hiding. Even if he continued to cower in his hole, a thousand fighters scouring the jianghu for him would surely accomplish more than I could alone.” Yin Susu said, “The plan was shrewd enough. But all those people who perished innocently at your hands—they went to the underworld as bewildered ghosts, never knowing why they died. Is that not pitiable?”

Xie Xun said, “And my parents, my wife, my child—were they not innocent when Cheng Kun slaughtered them? Were they not pitiable? You used to be a woman of spirit and decision. Nine years married to Fifth Brother, and you have turned into a clucking mother hen.” Yin Susu glanced at her husband and smiled faintly. “Elder Brother, these cases erupted like a storm and then ceased just as suddenly. Did you find Cheng Kun in the end?” Xie Xun said, “No. I never found him. But in Luoyang⁴ I chanced upon Song Yuanqiao.”⁵

Zhang Cuishan started violently. “My eldest shixiong, Song Yuanqiao?”

Xie Xun said, “The very same—the foremost of the Seven Heroes of Wudang. By then I had committed so many atrocities that the jianghu was in an uproar. Yet my shifu, the Unified Innate Thunderclap Hand Cheng Kun—” Wuji interrupted: “Godfather, he is so wicked. Why do you still call him shifu?” Xie Xun gave a bitter smile. “I have called him that since I was a boy. And besides, more than half my martial arts came from his teaching. He may be a monster, but I am no saint either. It may well be that my own villainy is something he taught me too. The good came from him, and the evil came from him. I still call him shifu.” Zhang Cuishan thought to himself: Elder Brother’s life has been one of unspeakable cruelty, and the fury it bred in him has driven him to act without regard for right or wrong. If Wuji takes these words to heart, they will poison his character. In a few days I must sit the boy down and set things straight.

Xie Xun continued. “Seeing that my shifu could endure anything and still refused to show himself, I decided that only a crime of truly earth-shaking proportions would flush him out. In all the wulin, the Shaolin and Wudang Schools stand supreme. I would have to kill a first-rate figure from one of them to produce the desired effect. That day, in the peony gardens outside the Qingxu Temple⁶ in Luoyang, I watched Song Yuanqiao chastise a scoundrel. His martial arts were impressive. I resolved to kill him that very night.”

Zhang Cuishan’s blood ran cold. He knew perfectly well that his eldest shixiong had not been killed by Xie Xun, yet the mere thought of how close it had come still set his heart racing. Xie Xun’s martial arts far exceeded Song Yuanqiao’s, and with one man in the open and the other in the shadows, if the blow had fallen, his shixiong would have had no chance at all. Yin Susu also knew that Song Yuanqiao yet lived, and she said, “Elder Brother, I suppose your conscience would not let you harm an innocent man. Had you truly killed Hero Song, this Zhang Cuishan of ours would have fought you to the death, and the three of us would never have become sworn siblings.”

Xie Xun snorted. “Conscience had nothing to do with it. Were it today, I would refrain out of regard for Fifth Brother. But at that time I did not know him. Song Yuanqiao, Fifth Brother himself—whoever crossed my path, I would have killed them first and thought about it afterwards.”

Wuji said in alarm, “Godfather, why would you want to kill my father?” Xie Xun smiled gently. “I was speaking in the abstract, child. I would never truly harm your father. He is my sworn brother—the dearest friend I have in this world. If anyone tried to kill your father, I would lay down my life to protect him.” Wuji said, “Oh, I see!” and was reassured.

Xie Xun stroked the boy’s hair. “That thieving heaven has done me countless wrongs, but at least it kept me from killing Song Yuanqiao. He is your father’s eldest shixiong. Had I been so unfortunate as to slay him, I could never have faced your father, and we could never have become brothers.” He paused, then went on. “That night I sat in meditation at the inn, marshalling my strength. Song Yuanqiao was the foremost of the Seven Heroes of Wudang, and his martial arts would have their own distinctive strengths. If I struck and failed to kill him, and he escaped—or if I left him wounded but alive—my identity would be exposed, and the entire stratagem to draw out my shifu would collapse. Every hero under heaven would turn against me, and even with three heads and six arms I could not have withstood them all. My death would matter little, but this blood feud of mine would go unavenged forever.”

Zhang Cuishan asked, “How did this encounter with my shixiong end? It is strange that he never mentioned it to us.” Xie Xun said, “Song Yuanqiao never knew a thing. I doubt the name ‘Xie Xun the Golden-Maned Lion King’ ever reached his ears, because in the end, I never went.” Zhang Cuishan breathed a long sigh. “Thank heaven for that.” Yin Susu laughed. “Why thank that thieving heaven and thieving earth? You should thank the Elder Brother Xie sitting right here.” Zhang Cuishan and Wuji both laughed.

Footnotes

1. 七伤拳 – qīshāng quán. Literally seven wounds fist. A fearsome boxing technique that simultaneously damages the practitioner’s own internal organs whilst delivering devastating power. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 成昆 – Chéng Kūn. His name meaning “Becoming Greatness” or “Achieving the Kunlun.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 混元霹雳手 – Húnyuán Pīlì Shǒu. Literally unified innate thunderclap hand. Cheng Kun’s epithet. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 洛阳 – Luòyáng. Ancient imperial capital in Henan Province, known as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. See Wikipedia. ↩

5. 宋远桥 – Sòng Yuǎnqiáo. His name meaning “Distant Bridge.” Eldest of the Seven Heroes of Wudang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 清虚观 – Qīngxū Guān. Literally clear emptiness temple. A Daoist temple in Luoyang. ↩