The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre Chapter 5 Part 9

Guild Chief Mai Jing¹ of the Giant Whale Guild,² thus humiliated, sprang to his feet. But on second thought, he dared not give vent to his fury and sank back down.

Xie Xun³ said, “Guild Chief Mai, this past February, you waylaid a merchant vessel on the Min River. Is that not so?”

Mai Jing’s face was ashen. “It is.”

Xie Xun continued, “That you prey upon ships at sea—well, without plunder, how would you sustain your guild? I shall not fault you on that count. But you cast scores of innocent merchants into the sea and violated seven women unto death. Was that not going too far?”

Mai Jing stammered, “That… that… that was my men’s doing. I… I had no part in it.”

Xie Xun said, “Your subordinates commit such savagery and you do nothing to restrain them. How does that differ from doing it yourself? Which of them was responsible?”

Mai Jing, confronted with this reckoning, sought only to save his own life. He drew his waist sabre and said, “Cai Si, Hua Qingshan, Haima Hu Liu—the three of you took part that day, did you not?”

Three flashes of the blade, and three men at his side fell dead. Those strokes were swift and sure. Cai Si and the other two had no chance to resist and died on the spot.

Xie Xun said, “Good! Only it comes rather late, and not of your own volition. Had you slain these three at the time, I would not have come to duel with you today. Guild Chief Mai, what is your strongest art?”

Mai Jing considered. If we fight on land, I doubt I can last three exchanges against him. But upon the open sea, that is my domain. Even if I cannot win, I can at least escape. Surely his skill in the water cannot match mine.

He said, “This junior would like to test Senior Xie’s prowess in the water.”

Xie Xun replied, “To test prowess in the water, we would have to go out to sea. That is too much trouble, and moreover, the moment I leave, I fear everyone here will flee.”

Every heart gave a lurch at those words. He fears we will flee. Does he mean to kill every man here?

Mai Jing said hastily, “In truth, even if we went to sea, this junior would be no match for Senior Xie. I concede defeat.”

Xie Xun said, “Ah, that simplifies matters. Since you concede, take your sabre and cut your own throat.”

Mai Jing’s heart hammered. “But… but in any contest, victory and defeat are ordinary matters. Surely there is no need for the loser to take his own life…”

Xie Xun thundered, “Nonsense! You think yourself worthy of matching skills with me? Today I have come to collect debts and claim lives. We who study the martial arts—which of us has hands unstained by blood? But Xie Xun has only ever killed those who bear martial skill. What I despise above all else is the bullying of the weak, the murder of women, children, and innocents who have never practised a day of martial arts. Any who have done such things—none will be spared today.”

Zhang Cuishan,⁴ hearing this, could not help stealing a glance at Yin Susu.⁵ He thought of how she had slaughtered the entire Dragon Gate Armed Escort, young and old included—scores of lives among them, surely many who had never so much as lifted a fist in practice. If Xie Xun learned of that, he would reckon with her as well. He saw that her face had gone deathly pale, her lips trembling faintly. Zhang Cuishan thought further, If Xie Xun means to kill her, should I intervene? If I step in, I would only be throwing away my own life for nothing. And one might say she deserves her fate. But… but could I truly stand by with folded arms and watch a man cut her down?

Then Xie Xun spoke again, “However, lest any of you die without satisfaction, I shall let each of you display your greatest art. If you possess a single skill that surpasses mine, I shall spare your life.”

Having said this, he scooped up two handfuls of earth, poured some wine upon them, and kneaded the mud into two balls. He addressed Mai Jing, “Whether a man’s skill in the water be great or small rests upon how long he can endure beneath the surface. You and I shall each seal our mouths and noses with wet mud. Whichever of us cannot bear it first and reaches up to tear the mud away—that man must take his own life with the sabre.”

Without waiting for Mai Jing’s consent, he pressed the ball of mud in his left hand against his own face, sealing his mouth and nose. His right hand flicked outward, and with a wet slap the second ball struck Mai Jing’s face, sealing him likewise.

The onlookers found the spectacle almost comical, yet not a soul could bring himself to laugh.

Mai Jing had already drawn a deep breath. When the mud sealed his mouth and nose, he sat cross-legged upon the ground and held perfectly still. Since the age of seven or eight, he had been diving into the sea to catch fish and crabs; his ability to hold his breath was extraordinary. A full incense stick’s time without surfacing could not drown him. Confident that he could not lose this contest, his anxiety fell away, and with mind calm and spirit settled, he could endure longer still.

Xie Xun, however, did not sit still as Mai Jing did. He strode with heavy steps toward the table of the Divine Fist School⁶ and glared sidelong at the school’s master, Guo Sanquan.⁷ Guo Sanquan squirmed under that gaze. He rose and clasped his fists. “Senior Xie, this junior is Guo Sanquan.”

Xie Xun’s mouth was sealed and he could not speak. He extended the index finger of his right hand, dipped it in a cup of wine, and wrote three characters upon the table. Guo Sanquan’s face turned the colour of ash, his expression one of such horror that he might have seen a soul-reaping demon itself. The disciples seated beside him peered at the table and saw that Xie Xun had written the name ‘Cui Feiyan.’⁸ The disciple was baffled, thinking this appeared to be a woman’s name—what could possibly cause his shifu such terror?

Guo Sanquan, of course, knew full well that Cui Feiyan was his own brother’s wife. He had forced himself upon her and, when she resisted, killed her. He thought, He will not spare me regardless. Better to strike now while the mud seals his nose and mouth. If he channels his qi to throw a punch, he will lose the contest to Mai Jing.

He declared aloud, “This junior is the zhangmen⁹ of the Divine Fist School. What I have studied all my life is the fist. I beg to exchange a few blows with Senior.”

Without waiting for Xie Xun’s assent, he drove his fist at Xie Xun’s lower abdomen. One punch launched, and the second followed hard upon it. Guo Sanquan’s name had its origin thus: his fist-strength was prodigious enough to fell an ox with a single blow, and ordinary fighters could never withstand three of his strikes. The name had spread so widely through the jianghu¹⁰ that his true name was all but forgotten. He knew the advantage lay in speed—if Mai Jing broke first and tore away the mud, then Xie Xun could follow suit. But at this very moment, Guo Sanquan held the upper hand. His opponent could neither breathe nor channel his strength, and his martial prowess would be greatly diminished.

Two punches struck, and Xie Xun deflected them with casual sweeps of his hands. Guo Sanquan felt the force of the return astonishingly feeble—nothing like the divine might that had killed Chang Jinpeng and felled Bai Guishou. He bellowed, “Here comes the third!”

This third punch bore a grandiose name: “Sweeping a Thousand Armies, Crushing Ten Thousand Steeds.” It was the most devastating technique he had ever mastered, and many a famous warrior of the jianghu had fallen to it.

By now Mai Jing’s face had gone crimson, his forehead streaming with sweat. He could endure no longer. Young Guild Chief Mai,¹¹ seeing his father’s desperate state while Xie Xun was locked in combat with Guo Sanquan, seized upon a flash of inspiration. He reached to the neighbouring seat and plucked a silver hairpin from the head of one of his guild’s female helmsmen, snapped off an inch of the pin’s shaft, and with a flick of his fingers sent the broken half-pin hurtling toward Mai Jing’s mouth. Though the shard would wound his father’s throat and teeth, it would pierce a small hole in the wet mud, admitting a sliver of air—and that would be enough to ensure he could not lose.

The broken hairpin was still a zhang¹² away from Mai Jing when Xie Xun caught it from the corner of his eye. He kicked a pebble from the earth. The small stone shot upward and struck the half-pin squarely. With a hiss, the broken hairpin reversed course at terrifying speed. Young Guild Chief Mai screamed, clutching his right eye as blood poured between his fingers. The shard had blinded him.

Mai Jing reached up to wipe the mud from his face. Xie Xun kicked two more stones. They struck Mai Jing’s shoulders with two sharp cracks, shattering the bones of both arms. His hands fell limp. He could no longer move them.

At that very instant, Guo Sanquan’s third punch landed squarely on Xie Xun’s lower abdomen. The blow came with the fury of wind and thunder. Before the fist even arrived, the sheer gust of its force was fearsome. Guo Sanquan fully expected his opponent to dodge. Whether it was to left or right, leaping high or shrinking back, he had deadly follow-up attacks prepared for every possibility. But Xie Xun’s body did not move an inch. Guo Sanquan was elated. The punch struck true, flush upon the abdomen. The human belly is soft and vulnerable, yet when this blow landed it was as though it had struck iron or stone. Before Guo Sanquan could register what was wrong, blood burst from his mouth and he fell dead.

Xie Xun turned back. Mai Jing’s eyes had rolled white. He was already dead. Xie Xun first peeled the mud from Mai Jing’s mouth and nose, felt for breath, and only then wiped the mud from his own face. He threw back his head with a long, ringing laugh. “These two spent their lives in wickedness. That retribution found them today was long overdue.”

Then, without warning, his eyes blazed like lightning and swept toward the two swordsmen of the Kunlun School.¹³ His gaze travelled from Gao Zecheng¹⁴ to Jiang Litao,¹⁵ and from Jiang Litao back to Gao Zecheng. For a long while he said nothing.

The two men’s faces were pale, yet they held their swords high and met his stare with defiance.

Zhang Cuishan, having watched Xie Xun dispatch the leaders of four great factions in the blink of an eye and now turn his murderous intent upon Gao and Jiang, rose to his feet. “Senior Xie, by your own account, every man you slew just now was guilty of crimes deserving death. But if you kill without distinction, slaughtering indiscriminately, how do you differ from them?”

Xie Xun gave a cold laugh. “How do I differ? My martial skill is high, theirs is low. The strong prevail and the weak perish—therein lies the difference.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “What separates man from beast is precisely the ability to distinguish right from wrong. If one relies solely upon brute strength to bully the weak, how does one differ from a beast?”

Xie Xun threw back his head and laughed. “Is there truly such a thing as distinguishing right from wrong in this world? The Mongol emperor sits upon the throne today, and he kills as many Han as he pleases. Does he discuss right and wrong with you? The Mongols covet our sons and daughters, our jade and silk. They take what they want, and if any Han dares object, the sabre falls. Do they discuss right and wrong with you?”

Zhang Cuishan was silent for a long while, then said, “The Mongols are brutal and savage, no better than beasts. Every man of conviction gnashes his teeth in hatred and yearns day and night to drive out the barbarians and restore our homeland.”

Xie Xun replied, “In former days, when Han ruled as emperor, were right and wrong upheld any better? Yue Fei¹⁶ was a great and loyal minister. Why did Emperor Gaozong of Song have him killed? Qin Hui was the vilest of traitors. Why did he hold high office and enjoy every luxury and glory?”

Zhang Cuishan said, “The emperors of the Southern Song appointed treacherous ministers, murdered the loyal, and dismissed worthy generals. In the end their great empire fell into foreign hands. They sowed evil and reaped an evil harvest—that itself is the reckoning of right and wrong.”

Xie Xun said, “It was the foolish and dissolute emperors of the Southern Song who committed those sins. Yet it was the common people of the realm whom the Jin and the Mongols slaughtered and tormented. Tell me, Zhang the Fifth Xia. What evil had those common folk committed, that they should suffer such endless calamity?”

Zhang Cuishan was silent.

Yin Susu spoke up, “The common people have neither martial skill nor courage. Naturally they are carved up like meat upon the block. As the saying goes: ‘Others are the blade and the chopping board; we are the fish and the flesh.’ That is simply the way of the world.”

Zhang Cuishan said, “We toil and sweat to learn the martial arts precisely so that we may right injustice, aid the oppressed, curb the strong, and protect the weak. Senior Xie, with your peerless martial prowess, if you were to use such supreme skill to champion the righteous cause beneath heaven, all living souls would bask in your beneficence.”

Xie Xun said, “What good does championing the righteous cause do? Why should one champion any righteous cause at all?”

Zhang Cuishan was taken aback. From childhood, his shifu¹⁷ had taught him that to champion the righteous cause was a sacred duty to be upheld without faltering for the whole of one’s life. The very purpose of learning martial arts was to serve justice: justice was the root, and martial skill merely the branch. In his heart, he had never once entertained the question ‘What good does championing the righteous cause do? Why should one champion any righteous cause at all?’ It had seemed self-evident, a truth so plain it required no contemplation. Hearing Xie Xun raise the question now, he collected himself and said, “To champion the righteous cause is to uphold justice, to ensure that the virtuous are rewarded for their virtue and the wicked punished for their wickedness.”

Xie Xun gave a bleak, piercing laugh. “The virtuous rewarded for their virtue, the wicked punished for their wickedness! Hah! Utter nonsense! Tell me—within the world of martial arts, do you truly believe that the virtuous are rewarded and the wicked punished?”

Zhang Cuishan said, “Just now, the leaders of the Sea Sand Sect, the Giant Whale Guild, and the Divine Fist School—each had committed countless atrocities, murdering innocents or giving free rein to their subordinates to do the same. Senior Xie dealt with each of them according to justice. What befell those men—was that not the wicked receiving their due punishment?”

Out of regard for Yin Susu’s dignity, he made no mention of the Heavenly Eagle Order.¹⁸ Xie Xun’s voice dropped low, “And what of the virtuous receiving their due reward?”

Zhang Cuishan’s thoughts flew at once to Yu Daiyan.¹⁹ His third shixiong²⁰ had spent his whole life accumulating good deeds beyond counting, yet had suffered this inexplicable and terrible calamity. These words “the virtuous rewarded for their virtue”—even he could no longer hold them in his heart with unwavering faith. He let out a bitter sigh. “The ways of heaven are hard to fathom, the affairs of men harder still to know. We can only strive for peace of conscience, doing what duty demands. As for whether fortune or disaster follows, that is beyond our power to reckon.”

Xie Xun regarded him with a sidelong stare and said, “I have long heard that your esteemed shifu, Zhang Sanfeng,²¹ possesses martial skill unrivalled in the age. What a pity that we have never met. You are his personal disciple, yet your insight is so utterly commonplace. One can only suppose that Zhang Sanfeng is nothing extraordinary either. Best that we never cross paths at all.”

Zhang Cuishan, hearing the blatant contempt for his beloved shifu in those words, could not contain his fury. “My shifu’s learning and insight encompass heaven and earth. How could a common man begin to fathom them? Senior Xie, your martial skill is formidable beyond anything this junior can match, but in my shifu’s eyes, you may be no more than a man of brute courage.”

Yin Susu tugged urgently at his sleeve, signalling him to endure the provocation and not invite disaster. Zhang Cuishan thought, A true man dies before he bends. I will never suffer him to insult my shifu.

But Xie Xun did not fly into a rage. He said mildly, “Zhang Sanfeng established his own school, so his martial attainments must be exceptional indeed. The Way of martial arts is vast and without end. If I fall short of your esteemed shifu, that is nothing to wonder at. One day I shall ascend Mount Wudang to seek instruction. Zhang the Fifth Xia, what is your strongest art? Xie Xun would like to see it.”

Footnotes

1. 麦鲸 – Mài Jīng. His name meaning “Wheat Whale.” Guild Chief of the Giant Whale Guild. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 巨鲸帮 – Jùjīng Bāng. The Giant Whale Guild, a seafaring faction. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 谢逊 – Xiè Xùn. His name meaning “Modest” or “Yielding.” His courtesy name Tuisi (退思) meaning “Retreat and Reflect.” One of the Four Dharma Kings of the Ming Order, bearing the epithet the Golden-Haired Lion King. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 张翠山 – Zhāng Cuìshān. His name meaning “Verdant Mountain.” Fifth disciple of Zhang Sanfeng and member of the Seven Heroes of Wudang. His epithet is the Silver Hook Iron Brush. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 殷素素 – Yīn Sùsù. Her name meaning “Plain and Unadorned.” See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 神拳门 – Shénquán Mén. The Divine Fist School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 过三拳 – Guò Sānquán. His name literally meaning “Three Fists,” derived from his reputation for killing any opponent within three punches. Master of the Divine Fist School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 崔飞烟 – Cuī Fēiyān. Her name meaning “Flying Smoke.” ↩

9. 掌门 – zhǎng mén. The head of a martial arts school or sect. ↩

10. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The world of martial arts. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 麦少帮主 – Mài Shàobāngzhǔ. Young Guild Chief Mai of the Giant Whale Guild. ↩

12. 丈 – zhàng. A traditional unit of length. One zhang is approximately 3.3 metres. ↩

13. 昆仑派 – Kūnlún Pài. The Kunlun School, one of the prominent orthodox martial arts sects. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 高则成 – Gāo Zéchéng. His name meaning “High and Accomplished.” A disciple of the Kunlun School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 蒋立涛 – Jiǎng Lìtāo. His name meaning “Standing Waves.” A disciple of the Kunlun School. ↩

16. 岳飞 – Yuè Fēi. A celebrated general of the Southern Song dynasty, renowned as a paragon of loyalty and patriotism. He was unjustly executed on fabricated charges by the treacherous Chancellor Qin Hui. ↩

17. 师父 – shīfu. A respectful form of address for one’s master or teacher. ↩

18. 天鹰教 – Tiānyīng Jiào. The Heavenly Eagle Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 俞岱岩 – Yú Dàiyán. His name meaning “Lofty Cliff of Mount Dai.” Third disciple of Zhang Sanfeng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 师兄 – shīxiōng. A senior male fellow disciple under the same master. ↩

21. 张三丰 – Zhāng Sānfēng. His name meaning “Three Peaks”. Legendary founder of the Wudang Order and creator of taijiquan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩