The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 7, Part 6: Who Sends the Ice Boat to the Fairy Land

Part 6

Wuji did not understand what “forcibly violated” meant, but Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu both cried out in shock. A master violating his disciple’s wife, such a thing had never been heard of in the wulin.¹ It was a crime that all heaven and earth would abhor.

Xie Xun continued, “My wife screamed for help. My father heard and burst into the room. My master, seeing his crime exposed, struck my father dead with a single punch, then killed my mother as well. My three-year-old son, Xie Wuji…”

Wuji, hearing his own name, asked in puzzlement, “Xie Wuji?”

Zhang Cuishan scolded, “Don’t interrupt! Listen to your adopted father.” Xie Xun said, “Yes. My own son had the same name as you, also Xie Wuji. My master seized him and dashed him to the ground until he was a shapeless mass of flesh and blood.”

Wuji could not help but ask again, “Adopted Father, did… did he survive?” Xie Xun shook his head, his voice desolate. “He did not live. He did not live.” Yin Susu waved a hand at her son, signalling him not to ask more.

Xie Xun sat lost for a long while before continuing. “When I saw that scene, I was paralysed with horror, my mind a blank. I did not know how to face this master I had most loved and honoured in all my life. Suddenly he struck me in the chest. I did not think to defend myself, and simply blacked out. When I came to, my master was long gone. All around me lay the dead: my parents, my wife, my son, my younger siblings, the servants, the entire family, thirteen souls, all killed by his fists. I suppose he thought one punch had finished me, and did not bother with more.”

“After a long and terrible illness, I trained in martial arts with bitter intensity. Three years later I went to seek my master for revenge. But the gap between our skills was simply too vast. What I called revenge was nothing but inviting further humiliation. Yet how could I let the blood debt of thirteen lives go unavenged? So I searched far and wide for great teachers, neglecting sleep and food in my training. Those efforts bore fruit. Within five years, I felt my skills had greatly improved, and I went to find my master again. But though I had grown stronger, he was still far stronger than I. My second attempt at revenge ended in another severe beating.”

“Soon after I recovered, I obtained a manual of the Seven Injuries Fist.² The power of that fist technique was truly extraordinary. I devoted myself to cultivating its inner force, and after two years my skill was complete. I judged myself fit to stand alongside the finest masters in the world. Unless my master had chanced upon some further miracle, he could no longer be my match. But when I went to his door a third time, he was gone, nowhere to be found. I searched the entire jianghu³, asking everywhere, but could never trace him. I imagine he had gone into hiding in some remote village to escape pursuit. The world is vast. Where was I to look? In my rage and bitterness I went to work up and down the land, killing and burning, and there was nothing I would not do. At each scene, I left my master’s name written on the wall.”

Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu both cried, “Ah!” Xie Xun said, “Now you know who my master is?” Yin Susu nodded. “Yes. You are the disciple of Cheng Kun, the ‘Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand’.”

For some years past, a great disturbance had rocked the wulin. From Liaodong in the northeast to Lingnan in the south, over the course of half a year, thirty-odd major cases had occurred in which renowned heroes were killed in dark and mysterious circumstances, and at each scene, the killer had left behind the name “Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand Cheng Kun.” The victims were zhangmen, or else old heroes with friends in every quarter, and each case drew in a great many people. A single such case would have set the wulin buzzing, let alone thirty-odd in succession.

At that time, the Wudang Seven Xia had been ordered by their master to investigate, but could find not the slightest clue. Everyone knew someone was deliberately framing Cheng Kun. The “Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand” Cheng Kun was a martial artist of considerable skill, and had always kept his reputation clean. Several of the victims had been his close friends. These murders could not possibly be his doing. But to discover the true culprit, one would have to start with Cheng Kun, and yet he had vanished without a trace, leaving no news whatsoever. After much commotion, the thirty-odd cases could only be left unresolved. Hundreds and thousands wished to avenge their dead, but not knowing the real killer, all they could do was rail in vain. Had Xie Xun not revealed the truth himself that day, how could Zhang Cuishan have guessed the circumstances?

Xie Xun said, “I committed crimes in Cheng Kun’s name to force him into the open. Even if he continued to hide, a thousand people searching the wulin would surely accomplish more than I alone.” Yin Susu said, “The plan was clever enough, but so many innocent people died at your hands. In the underworld, they are muddled ghosts. That is pitiable.”

Xie Xun said, “Were my parents, wife, and child killed by Cheng Kun not innocent? Were they not pitiable? When I first knew you I thought you a plain, open sort, but nine years married to Fifth Brother have turned you soft and fussy.” Yin Susu glanced at her husband and smiled faintly. “Big Brother, these cases began suddenly and ended suddenly. In the end, did you find Cheng Kun?” Xie Xun said, “No, no! Later, I saw Song Yuanqiao in Luoyang.”

Zhang Cuishan was greatly startled. “My eldest shixiong⁴ Song Yuanqiao?”

Xie Xun said, “Yes, the chief of the Wudang Seven Xia, Song Yuanqiao. After the great cases I had committed, the jianghu was turned upside down, but my master, the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand Cheng Kun…” Wuji said, “Adopted Father, he is so wicked. Why do you still call him master?” Xie Xun smiled bitterly. “I have called him that since I was a child. Besides, more than half my martial arts were taught by him. Though he is a great villain, I am no saint either. Perhaps all my evil deeds were taught by him too. Good he taught, evil he taught. I still call him master.” Zhang Cuishan thought: “Big Brother’s life has been one long tragedy. In his bitterness, he has never distinguished right from wrong. If Wuji takes these words to heart, it will greatly harm his conduct in the world. In a few days I must explain things to him clearly.”

Xie Xun continued, “Seeing my master so patient, still refusing to show himself, I thought no ordinary crime would suffice to provoke him. In the wulin of that time, the Shaolin and Wudang schools were supreme. I would need to kill a first-rate figure from one of those two schools to force him out. One day, in the peony garden outside the Qingxu Temple in Luoyang, I saw Song Yuanqiao punish an evildoer with a display of superb martial arts. I resolved to kill him that very night.”

Zhang Cuishan, hearing this, could not help but shudder. He knew his eldest shixiong had not been harmed by Xie Xun, but the danger of that moment still filled him with dread. Xie Xun’s martial arts far surpassed Song Yuanqiao’s, and one was in the open, the other in the dark. Had Xie Xun truly struck, his shixiong would surely have died. Yin Susu, knowing Song Yuanqiao had survived, said, “Big Brother, perhaps you could not bear to harm an innocent after all. If you had truly killed Song Daxia, our Zhang Wuxia would have fought you to the death, and you would never have become sworn brothers.”

Xie Xun grunted. “What ‘could not bear’? If it were today, I would not trouble the Wudang Order out of respect for Fifth Brother. But at that time I did not know Fifth Brother. Let alone Song Yuanqiao. Had it been Fifth Brother himself, once I set eyes on him I would have killed him first and thought about it after.”

Wuji asked, puzzled, “Adopted Father, why did you want to kill my father?” Xie Xun smiled. “It was a figure of speech. I did not truly mean to kill your father. Your father is my sworn brother, my best friend in this world. If someone tried to kill your father, I would give my life to protect him!” Wuji said, “Oh, I see!” Only then was he reassured.

Xie Xun stroked the boy’s hair. “Thieving heaven, for all his faults, at least did not let me kill Song Yuanqiao. Song Yuanqiao is your father’s eldest shixiong. Had I killed him, I would have been shamed before your father, and could never have become his sworn brother.” He paused, then continued, “That night, I sat in meditation at the inn, cultivating my spirit. I thought: Song Yuanqiao is chief of the Wudang Seven Xia. His martial arts must have qualities beyond the ordinary. If my strike missed and he escaped, or if I only wounded him without killing him, then my whereabouts would be exposed, and my plan to lure out my master would fail completely. Moreover the heroes of the world would rise against me together, and though Xie Xun had three heads and six arms, he could not have fought them all. My own death would be nothing, but the blood injustice of my family would from then on go unavenged.”

Zhang Cuishan asked, “How did that encounter with my shixiong end? He never mentioned it to us, which is strange.” Xie Xun said, “Song Yuanqiao never knew. I suspect he has never even heard the six characters ‘Xie Xun the Golden-Haired Lion King,’ because I did not go to find him afterwards.” Zhang Cuishan sighed. “Thank heaven.” Yin Susu laughed. “What is there to thank thieving heaven and thieving earth for? It is this Brother Xie right here you should be thanking.” Zhang Cuishan and Wuji both laughed.

Footnotes

1. 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. ↩

2. 七伤拳 – Qīshāng Quán. Seven Injury Fist. Devastating fist technique of the Kongtong School that channels seven different types of force in a single strike, each damaging a different internal organ. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 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. ↩

4. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩