White Horse Neighing in the West Wind #18

Inside was a dark, forbidding passage. Su Pu lit a torch and held it in one hand; in the other, a long blade, and led the way. After they had passed the passage, three paths appeared in front of them. There were no footprints in the snow inside the labyrinth to lead the way, so they did not know which way their two quarries had gone. Everyone bent down. Looking carefully, they saw that there were faint footprints on the left and right paths.

Su Lu’ke suggested, “Four of us take the left path, three of us take the right one, let’s regroup here in a while.” Li Wenxiu said, “That’s not a good idea! Since this place is called a labyrinth, the paths will surely will be meandering; it’s better for us to stick together.” Su Lu’ke shook his head, “How big can this cave be? Hans are born timid, what to do?” Although his words were such, the seven of them still went in a group. Since the right path was slightly wider, they all chose it.

After walking slightly more than ten zhang, Su Lu’ke thought, “This Han’s words were not too far off the mark.” For the path diverged once more. The septet examined the ground carefully for footprints, and followed them. Sometimes, when both paths had footprints, they simply chose one to follow. After walking for more than half a day, they had passed many divergent paths. Every time they came to a fork in the path, A’man would leave a marking on the walls, to prevent them from getting lost when they returned. Suddenly, the area in front of them brightened, and a large piece of empty ground appeared. At the other end were once again two iron doors set in the mountain.

They walked across the empty ground and stood in front of the doors. Su Lu’ke turned the rings once again, but these doors were not really shut tight. With only a slight touch, they opened with a creak. They walked inside, and saw that they were now in a hall. Reverently arranged across the four walls were clay statues and wood carvings of Buddha figures. After this hall was a long series of rooms.

Most of the rooms contained statues of Buddha. By chance they spotted some Han writings on the walls: ‘The King of Gaochang’, ‘Wen Tai’, ‘Thirteenth Year of Zhen Guan of the Great Tang’, and so on. One hall was full of Han figures. In the middle was an old man, and the plaque said ‘Altar of the Great Saint Late Teacher Kongzi’[Confucius]. On the left and right were more than ten figures, labelled ‘Yan Hui’, ‘Zi Lu’, ‘Zi Gong’, ‘Zi Xia’, ‘Zi Zhang’ and so on. When Su Lu’ke saw so many Han figures, he furrowed his brow and left without a backward glance.

Li Wenxiu thought, “The people here all believe in Islam, why are there Buddha and Han figures in this labyrinth? And there are Han words written on the walls; this is extremely puzzling.” They passed a room and came to another, only to see that half of the labyrinth had been destroyed. Some of the halls were filled with yellow sand, and some had their openings blocked. The paths in the labyrinth were already complicated and winding, with the fallen walls and piles of sand obstructing, it only made one dizzy and confused. Sometimes some skeletons would appear on the path. The objects in the labyrinth were not those used in the Muslim Region. Li Wenxiu had a vague recollection that these were items of the Hans of the Central Plains. The sights left everyone dazzled, and everyone was commenting in amazement. But there was not even half a piece of the legendary gold and jewellery.

They followed a dark passage forward. All of a sudden, a forbidding voice ahead rang out, “I have been living peacefully here for a thousand years, and nobody has dared to disturb me. Whoever has the gall to come over will die immediately!” He spoke in Kazak, and his pitch was perfect. Although his voice was not very loud, everyone could hear him distinctly.

A’man gasped, “The demon! He…… he said he has been living here for a thousand years.” She held Su Pu’s hand and retreated a few steps. Luo Tuo cried, “It’s a man, not a demon!” He lifted his torch high and went forward. Sang Si’er did not want to appear weak, and rushed up, proceeding with him. They had just rounded a corner when they suddenly cried loudly, and flew out backwards. Everyone was taken aback. Su Lu’ke and Che Erku tossed their torches aside and rushed to help them up. A stream of weird laughter came from somewhere ahead. The voice continued, “I have been living here for a thousand years, for a thousand years. Those who enter will die one by one.” Without a second thought, Che Erku carried Luo Tuo and sped out; Su Lu’ke carried Sang Si’er and followed the rest out. The weird laughter filled the passage. When they reached a courtyard, they looked at Luo Tuo and Sang Si’er. Both of them had blood flowing from the corner of their mouths, and had already died. The remaining five people looked at each other, and were both saddened and frightened.

A’man said, “The evil demon doesn’t allow anyone to…… to disturb him, let’s go quickly then!” At this point, how could Su Lu’ke or Che Erku continue putting up a heroic front? They carried the two bodies, and following the markings made previously, found their way out.

Che Erku had lost two of his beloved disciples. Extremely upset, he could not stop wiping away his tears. Su Lu’ke did not ridicule him any more. Instead he comforted him, “Thos two Han bandits vanished after entering the labyrinth; they must have been killed by the demon inside. That’s great, these two bandits deserve their just deserts.” A’man said, “Let us return by the route we came by, and never…… never come back here ever again.” Che Erku declared, “Our tribesmen are coming over in large groups soon, we must inform them and prevent them from entering the labyrinth, or they’ll all die horrible deaths. Su Lu’ke answered, “Right! As long as they stay outside the labyrinth, then it’s all right.” But no one could really know if it was really all right. So for safety’s sake, the five of them retreated six or seven li until they reached a large piece of open ground. Su Lu’ke said, “Evil demons are afraid of the sun, if they want to cross this place, they’d be exposed to sunlight.” A’man asked, “What about at night?” Su Lu’ke scratched his head, unable to answer.

Fortunately, the first batch of people and horses arrived before nightfall. Su Lu’ke and the others quickly narrated how they had found the labyrinth and how the demon inside had killed people.

Although the people were many and brave, nobody suggested going forth to explore. After four hours, the second and third batches arrived one after the other. A few hundred people camped on this open ground. There was a large fire built every ten people. They thought: no matter how vicious the demons were, they could not be unafraid of so many bonfires.

Li Wenxiu leant on a rock and thought, “Father and Mama travelled thousands of li from the Central Plains to the Muslim Region, just to find the Gao Chang Labyrinth. They lost their lives even before they found it. Even if they did, they’d more than likely be killed by the demons inside the labyrinth, unless they retreated immediately after hearing the demons’ voices. But Father and Mama are well-skilled in martial arts and would surely not listen to the demons. Ai, no matter how skilled people are, how would they be able to defeat demons?”

She heard soft footsteps behind her, and someone walked over, and called in a low voice, “A’xiu.” Li Wenxiu was overjoyed. Jumping up, she answered, “Grandfather Ji, you’re here as well!” Old man Ji said, “I was worried about you, so I followed the others to come and find you.” Li Wenxiu’s heart filled with gratitude. Holding his hands, she said, “The journey here was difficult; you’re so old; it must’ve been extremely tiring, sit down quickly and take a rest.” Old man Ji had only settled by her side when ear-piercing cries of owls came from the west. Everyone turned to look at the direction of the cries, only to see a shaky white object in the darkness race towards them at top speed. When the object was about four zhang away from everyone, it suddenly stopped and stood still. It was shaped vaguely like a human. Under the illumination of the fires, they could see that this ghoulish figure was wearing a white robe; its face was full of blood, and its white robe was also spattered with it. It was extremely tall, and was taller than a normal human by five chi. It looked extremely terrifying in the silence of the night. Suddenly, it stretched its arms out. Its ten nails were even longer than its fingers, and its hands were also full of blood.

Everyone held their breaths and watched him in silence.

The demon laughed weirdly, and sharply said, “I have been living peacefully in the labyrinth for a thousand years, and do not allow anybody to disturb me, whoever asked you to be so daring?” It spoke in Kazak, and it was the voice they had heard in the labyrinth in the day. It turned slowly, and pointed at a horse three zhang away, calling out, “Die!” It suddenly whipped back, sped off, and vanished in a twinkling.

This demon came and went in a flash, scaring people out of their wits. Only after it had left for quite some time that the people dare to gasp in fear. The horse it had pointed at had crashed onto its knees, fell over and died. When everyone crowded over to take a look, they saw that while the horse had not a single wound on its body, nor bled from its nose or mouth, it had somehow gotten hit by a magic curse and died.

Everyone said, “It’s the demon, the demon!” Someone said, “I told you there were demons in the great Gobi.” Another added, “I heard that demons have no legs, let’s see if that demon left any footprints.” So everyone held torches and went towards the path the demon had taken. Imprinted in the sand every five chi was a small round hole. Human footprints could not be little holes like these; and the distance between two holes could not be that great.

With this, everyone was completely convinced that the demon from the labyrinth was creating havoc. Everyone said, “It doesn’t matter what the labyrinth contains; we can’t want it anymore. We should leave quickly at once tomorrow morning.” Everyone spent the night skittish and terrified. But the next day, when the sun rose, everyone was suddenly not as afraid as before. Some youths discussed exploring the labyrinth; Su Lu’ke and Che Erku reprimanded them harshly, saying that if they wanted to do so, they needed to come up with a good plan first.

But after discussing nearly an entire day, nobody could come up with a good plan. The result was everyone agreeing to stay here another night, and discuss the matter again the next day.

Close to 9 pm, which was the time the demon appeared the night before, there were once again three sharp owl cries from the west. Everyone’s hair stood on ends. The white-robed, long-legged, blood-spattered demon came again like lightning and stopped a few zhang away. In a sharp voice it said, “Why have you all not gone back? Hmph, if you stay around here for another night, each and every one of you will die a terrible death. I have been living peacefully in the labyrinth for a thousand years, and do not allow anybody to enter it, whoever asked you to be so daring?” At this point, it turned slowly, pointing its two hands at a youth some distance away, calling out, “Die!” Then it turned back violently and sped off. Under the illumination of moonlight, they saw that he went further and further away, before finally disappearing.