The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 8 – Part 5

Zhang Cuishan recognised that clear, ringing voice at once and cried out in surprise, “Is that Yu Lianzhou, my Second Shixiong?” From the other ship a voice called back, “I am indeed Yu Lianzhou… Ah… ah… you… you…” Zhang Cuishan shouted, “Your shidi Zhang Cuishan!” His heart was in a tumult. The raft and the two ships were still several dozen feet apart, but he snatched a great log from the raft and hurled it into the sea with all his strength, then leapt after it. Borrowing a stride from the floating timber, he sprang onto the bow of the other ship.

Yu Lianzhou rushed forward. The two shixiong had been parted for ten years, not knowing whether the other lived or died. What joy was theirs at this meeting? Their four hands clasped tight. One cried, “Second Shixiong!” The other cried, “Fifth Shidi!” Their eyes brimmed with tears, and neither could speak another word.

The Tianying Order’s welcome for Yin Susu was of a different order entirely. Eight great sea-conches blew with a deep, mournful note. Incense Master Li stood at the fore, with Altar Masters Cheng and Feng ranked behind him, and more than a hundred Order members standing in formation beyond. A gangplank was laid between the great ship and the raft, and seven or eight sailors hooked the raft with long poles. Yin Susu took Wuji by the hand and walked across.

The Tianying Order’s Guild Chief,¹ the White-Browed Eagle King Yin Tianzheng,² commanded forces divided into the Inner Three Halls and the Outer Five Altars, each governing its own companies of adherents. The Inner Three Halls were Tianwei, Ziwei and Tianshi. The Outer Five Altars were Qinglong, Baihu, Xuanwu, Zhuque and Shenshe. The Tianwei Hall Master was Yin Tianzheng’s eldest son, Yin Yewang. The Ziwei Hall Master was Yin Susu herself. The Tianshi Hall Master was Yin Tianzheng’s shidi,³ Li Tianyuan.⁴

Li Tianyuan saw that Yin Susu’s clothes were ragged, that she was covered in fur and hide, and that she led a child by the hand. He started in surprise, but then his face broke into a broad smile. “Thank Heaven, you are home! These ten years have driven your father half mad with worry.”

Yin Susu bowed to him and said, “Shishu,⁵ I greet you.” Then to Wuji she said, “Quick, kowtow to your Grand Shishu.⁶” Wuji knelt and kowtowed, though his small eyes rolled this way and that, fixed upon Li Tianyuan. He had seen so many people upon a ship all at once that curiosity overcame every other feeling.

Yin Susu rose and said, “Shishu, this is my child. His name is Zhang Wuji.”

Li Tianyuan was taken aback, then laughed aloud. “Excellent, excellent! Your father will be beside himself with joy. Not only has his daughter come home, but she brings a grandson as handsome as this.”

Yin Susu could see that both ships’ decks were strewn with bodies, and that blood had been splashed across the planking. She asked in a low voice, “Who were the opponents, and why did you fight?” Li Tianyuan said, “Men of the Wudang Order and the Kunlun School.” Yin Susu had already heard her husband cry “Second Shixiong” and leap to the other ship, where he had embraced someone. She knew at once that Wudang men were among the company, and when Li Tianyuan spoke she said, “It would be best not to fight. If the matter can be resolved, let it be resolved.”

Li Tianyuan said, “Yes!” Though he was her shishu, within the Tianying Order the Tianshi Hall ranked below Ziwei as the last of the Inner Halls. By shimen ties Li Tianyuan was her senior, but in the handling of Order affairs, Yin Susu’s authority outranked her shishu.

Zhang Cuishan’s voice rang out from the other ship. “Susú, Wuji, come over here and meet my shixiong.” Yin Susu took Wuji’s hand and walked towards the deck of the opposite vessel. Li Tianyuan and Altar Master Cheng followed close behind, anxious lest she come to harm.

When they reached the other ship, seven or eight people stood upon the deck. A tall, lean man of forty-odd years held Zhang Cuishan’s hand in a manner most affectionate. Zhang Cuishan said, “Susú, this is the Second Shixiong I have so often spoken of. Second Shixiong, this is your sister-in-law and your nephew Wuji.”

Yu Lianzhou and Li Tianyuan were both astonished. The Tianying Order and the Wudang Order were locked in bitter, bloody combat, yet each side’s most important figure had married the other’s, and they had a child besides.

Yu Lianzhou knew that the tangle of this matter could not be explained in a moment. He first introduced Zhang Cuishan to everyone aboard.

A short, stout Daoist priest wearing a yellow crown was Xihuazi⁷ of the Kunlun School. Beside him stood a middle-aged woman, Xihuazi’s shijie,⁸ Wei Siniang,⁹ known by the epithet Lightning Hand. In the jianghu¹⁰ men called her behind her back Lightning Lady. Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu had heard of them both. The others present were also Kunlun School men of ability, though none bore so loud a name as Xihuazi and Wei Siniang. Xihuazi was well advanced in years yet possessed not a shred of self-restraint. He opened his mouth and asked at once, “Zhang the Fifth Xia, where is that villain Xie Xun? You must know.”

Zhang Cuishan had not yet returned to the Central Plains. Still upon the boundless sea, he was met with two difficulties at once. The first: his own Order was already at blows with the Tianying Order. The second: the very first question asked of him was where Xie Xun might be. He did not know how to answer, and turned to Yu Lianzhou. “Second Shixiong, what has happened?”

Xihuazi, seeing that Zhang Cuishan would not answer him, grew impatient and cried loudly, “Did you not hear my words? Where is that villain Xie Xun?” He held high seniority within the Kunlun School and was powerful in martial arts, and had long been accustomed to giving orders with a high hand.

Altar Master Feng of the Tianying Order’s Shenshe Altar was a man of spiteful temper. In the fighting earlier, two of his disciples had been killed beneath Xihuazi’s jian, and he bore the Kunlun man no small anger. He said coldly, “Zhang the Fifth Xia is our Guild Chief’s son-in-law. Speak to him with more courtesy.” Xihuazi was enraged and shouted, “A fiendish woman of the demonic cult, how can she be wedded to a disciple of a renowned righteous faction? There must be some dark tangle at the heart of this marriage.” Altar Master Feng sneered. “Our Guild Chief already holds a grandson in his arms. What nonsense are you babbling?” Xihuazi cried, “That fiendish woman…”

Wei Siniang had long seen through Altar Master Feng’s purpose. She knew he meant to drive a wedge between the Kunlun School and the Wudang Order, and at the same time to curry favour with Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu. She foresaw that Xihuazi would say something yet more offensive, and hastened to say, “Shixiong,¹¹ there is no profit in idle quarrelling. Let us all hear what Yu the Second Xia has to say.”

Yu Lianzhou looked at Zhang Cuishan, looked at Yin Susu, and found his own mind no less full of puzzlement. He said, “Let us all retire to the cabin and speak at length. The wounded of both sides must be tended to first.”

At present the Tianying Order were the guests, and the highest-ranking person in the Order was the Ziwei Hall Master, Yin Susu. She took Wuji’s hand and entered the cabin first, Li Tianyuan following after.

As Altar Master Feng stepped across the threshold, he felt a faint breeze strike at his waist. His experience was vast, and he knew at once that Xihuazi was launching a covert attack. He did not raise a hand to block it, but instead threw himself forward with a cry of “Aiya! Someone is striking me!” The dodge avoided Xihuazi’s Three Yin Palm¹² entirely, but his outcry drew every eye in the company towards them.

Wei Siniang shot her shixiong a glance. Xihuazi’s purplish face flushed a deeper red. Everyone present understood that, upon this ship, Altar Master Feng and the others were guests, and that Xihuazi’s covert strike ill became a master of a renowned righteous faction.

They seated themselves in the cabin, guest and host divided. Yin Susu took the chief seat on the guest side, with Wuji standing at her side. On the host side Yu Lianzhou sat at the head. He pointed to a chair below Wei Siniang and said, “Fifth Shidi, sit here.” Zhang Cuishan answered, “Yes.” He took the seat as bidden. In this way the Zhang-Yin couple were divided into guest and host, and so into two opposed parties.

Throughout these ten years, Yu Daiyan had kept to his rooms since his injury, and Zhang Cuishan had vanished, his fate unknown. The remaining five xias of Wudang had grown yet more formidable in renown. Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou and the others, though only the second generation of the Wudang Order, now stood in the wulin¹³ as peers to the eminent monks of the Shaolin Order. Throughout the jianghu the Five Xias of Wudang were held in the highest regard, and so Xihuazi and Wei Siniang accorded Yu Lianzhou the seat of honour.

Yu Lianzhou reflected within himself, “Fifth Shidi has been missing ten years, and has married the daughter of the Tianying Order’s Guild Chief. To question him before all these people would put him in an impossible position.” He said in a clear voice, “Our five factions, the Shaolin, Kunlun, Emei, Kongtong and Wudang Orders, together with the Shenquan School, the Wufeng Dao School and nine other schools, and the Haisha School, the Jujing Guild and seven further armed escorts and guilds, twenty-one factions in all, have been searching for the Golden Haired Lion King Xie Xun, for the Tianying Order’s Miss Yin, and for our own shidi Zhang Cuishan. On this account we fell into misunderstanding with the Tianying Order, and alas there has been death and injury on both sides. For ten years the wulin has known no peace.” He paused, then went on, “Heaven has been gracious in bringing Miss Yin and Zhang shidi suddenly before us. Many matters long obscure may now be laid bare. Ten years of events are tangled beyond the telling of a single sitting. In my view, we should return to the mainland. Miss Yin may report to her father, the Guild Chief, and my shidi may return to Wudang and report to our revered master. Afterwards both sides may choose a place to meet and weigh right against wrong. If enmity can be turned to friendship, that would be best of all.”

Xihuazi broke in suddenly. “Where is that villain Xie Xun? It is Xie Xun that villain we seek.”

Zhang Cuishan heard that, in the search for himself and three others, twenty-two factions of the Central Plains had taken up arms and fought for ten years. The dead and wounded must number many. His conscience troubled him sorely, and as Xihuazi pressed without cease for Xie Xun’s whereabouts, he was put to an impossible pass. If he spoke the truth, how many masters of the wulin would sail for Ice Fire Island to take their revenge? Yet if he said nothing, how could he conceal it? He hesitated, and Yin Susu spoke suddenly. “Xie Xun, that villain who left no evil undone and killed men as though they were grass, died nine years ago.”

Yu Lianzhou, Xihuazi, Wei Siniang and the rest all cried out in surprise, “Xie Xun is dead?”

Yin Susu said, “On the very day I gave birth to this child, that villain Xie Xun fell into one of his frenzies. He was about to kill Fifth Shixiong and me, when suddenly he heard the child cry. His heart turned, and from that moment the villain Xie Xun, who had done such wrong, was dead.”

By then Zhang Cuishan understood. Yin Susu’s repeated words, “That villain Xie Xun is dead,” could also be called no lie. From the moment Xie Xun had heard Wuji’s first cry, his conscience had been roused, and from that moment he had restrained his frenzy and turned from evil towards good. That he had pressed the three of them to leave the island was an act of self-sacrifice for the sake of others, of the greatest virtue and righteousness. It was altogether fair to say that “the villain Xie Xun, who left no evil undone and killed men as though they were grass” had died nine years ago, and that “the good man Xie Xun” had been born in that same hour.

Xihuazi snorted through his nose. He was certain that Yin Susu was a heretic of the demonic cult,¹⁴ and that nothing she said could be trusted. He said sharply, “Zhang the Fifth Xia, is that villain Xie Xun truly dead?”

Zhang Cuishan said plainly, “Indeed. That villain Xie Xun, who did such wrong, died nine years ago.”

Footnotes

1. 帮主 – bāngzhǔ. Guild Chief. The head of a martial guild. ↩

2. 殷天正 – Yīn Tiānzhèng. The White-Browed Eagle King, Guild Chief of the Tianying Order and Yin Susu’s father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 师弟 – shīdì. Male junior fellow disciple of the same shifu. Here Yin Tianzheng’s shidi, making Li Tianyuan Yin Susu’s shishu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 李天垣 – Lǐ Tiānyuán. Yin Tianzheng’s shidi and the Tianshi Hall Master of the Tianying Order. Yin Susu’s shishu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 师叔 – shīshū. Junior lineage uncle. The shidi or shimei of one’s shifu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 师叔祖 – shīshūzǔ. Grand lineage uncle. Two rungs above shishu in the martial generations. ↩

7. 西华子 – Xīhuá Zǐ. A senior Daoist of the Kunlun School, high in martial arts and high-handed in manner. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 师姐 – shījiě. Female senior fellow disciple of the same shifu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 卫四娘 – Wèi Sìniáng. A Kunlun School disciple, wife of Xihuazi. Known by the epithet Lightning Hand, and called Lightning Lady behind her back. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior fellow disciple of the same shifu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 三阴手 – Sān Yīn Shǒu. Literally Three Yin Palm. A Kunlun School palm technique. ↩

13. 武林 – wǔlín. Literally martial forest. The community of martial artists and their factions, distinct from yet overlapping with the jianghu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 妖女 – yāonǚ. A slur used by orthodox factions against women of the Ming Order and its affiliates. The 妖 carries the charge of deviance from orthodox teaching. ↩