by Jin Yong
"You are so stubborn,” Lu Zhangke said, "My master said keeping you alive is useless, I am ordered to send you to heaven.”
Miejue Shitai had determined to die anyway, so she said, "Very well. Only I do not need to bother Sire to do it; just lend me a knife and I will do it myself. I only request Sire to bring my disciple Zhou Zhiruo, I have something I need to talk to her.”
Lu Zhangke turned around and went out the room, ordering the guard to bring in Zhou Zhiruo; he thought, "The feeling between a mother and a daughter is really unusual; otherwise why didn’t she ask for her other main disciples, but ask for her instead?”
Not long afterwards Zhou Zhiruo entered her master’s room. "Mr. Lu,” Miejue Shitai said, "Please wait outside, I only need to speak a little bit with her.”
Zhou Zhiruo waited until Lu Zhangke left the room before she pushed backward to close the door, and then she threw herself at her master’s bosom and wept. For all her life Miejue Shitai had been strong and firm; this time she was going to die, she could not restrain to be emotionally touched; she stroked Zhou Zhiruo’s hair gently. Zhou Zhiruo knew her time to speak with her master was not long; immediately she narrated how Zhang Wuji came to rescue her the previous night. Miejue Shitai wrinkled her brows and was silent for half a day before she finally said, "Why did he only rescue you and did not rescue other people? That day on the Brightness Peak you stabbed him; why did he repay it by rescuing you?”
Zhou Zhiruo’s cheeks blushed and she softly said, "I don’t know.”
"Humph,” Miejue Shitai indignantly said, "That kid is so wicked. He is the leader of the Devil Cult; how can he have good intentions? I think he is setting a trap and he is luring you to enter in.”
"He . he is setting a trap?” Zhou Zhiruo wondered.
"We are the Devil Cult’s archenemy,” Miejue Shitai said, "I don’t know how many devil disciples died under my Yitian Sword. The Devil Cult hates Emei Pai to their bones; how could they come over to rescue us? This surnamed Zhang’s devil-head must have been looking at you and took a liking; he wanted you to fall into his snare. He ordered some people to capture us then he would
deliberately rescue you to curry your favor, so that from this time on you will always be grateful to him.”
"Shifu,” Zhou Zhiruo weakly said, "I think ... I think he was sincere.”
Miejue Shitai was very angry; in a loud voice she said, "You are just the same as that good-for-nothing Ji Xiaofu; captivated by Devil Cult’s disciples. If I had my internal energy, I’d strike you dead with my palm.”
Zhou Zhiruo was so scared that her whole body trembled. "Disciple does not dare,” she said.
In a stern voice Miejue Shitai said, "You really do not dare, or was that just sweet-talk to deceive your master?”
With tears in her eyes Zhou Zhiruo said, "Disciple simply does not dare to disobey ‘En shi’s [benevolent master] instruction.”
Miejue Shitai said, "Kneel on the floor. Make a heavy oath.”
Following her command, Zhou Zhiruo knelt down but she did not know what to say. Miejue Shitai said, "Say it like this: ‘Xiao Nuzi [lit. little/young woman - this is kind of hard to translate without losing the real meaning] Zhou Zhiruo make an oath against the Heaven: if in the future my heart adores Zhang Wuji, that evil Cult Leader of the Devil Cult, if I become husband and wife with him, let the bones of my departed parents bodies in the ground do not have peace; let my Shifu Miejue Shitai’s departing soul becomes restless spirit, haunting me night and day for the rest of my life; and if I give birth to sons and daughters with him, let my sons become slaves and my daughters prostitutes.”
Zhou Zhiruo was shocked; her natural disposition was meek and gentle. She had never thought of making such a sinister oath; not only cursing her dead parents and cursing her benevolent master, but cursing the children who had not even born yet. She saw her master’s eyes were staring fiercely at her face with a malicious gleam. Suddenly she felt dizzy; yet she did not have any choice but repeating what her master said, word for word.
As she listened to this heavy oath Miejue Shitai’s countenance softened. "All right, you can stand up,” she warmly said.
Zhou Zhiruo’s tears fell like rain; she stood up with a heavy and hurting heart. Miejue Shitai’s face turned serious when she said, "Zhiruo, I did not deliberately force you; I am doing this for your own good. You are a young and naive girl. Later on your Shifu wouldn’t be able to look after you anymore. If you repeat your Ji Shijie’s [martial (older) sister] mistake by treading on the road to disaster, your Shifu in the next world will not rest in peace. Moreover your Shifu is relying on you to carry the heavy responsibility of our Sect; you must not be careless.” While saying that she took out the iron ring on her left index finger, stood up, and said, "Emei Pai’s disciple Zhou Zhiruo, kneel down to receive my order.”
Zhou Zhiruo was startled; she knelt down immediately.
Miejue Shitai lifted the iron ring high above her head and said, "The Third Generation Sect Leader of Emei Pai, ‘Nu ni’ [lit. female (Buddhist) nun] Miejue, hereby passes the Sect Leader position to the Fourth Generation ‘nu di zi’ [female disciple] Zhou Zhiruo.”
After she was compelled by her master to make that heavy oath, Zhou Zhiruo’s mind was still confused; now that suddenly hearing the Sect Leader position was being passed on to her, she was so shocked that she did not know what to think.
Slowly, word by word, Miejue Shitai said, "Zhou Zhiruo, receive this iron ring of our Sect; held out your left hand.”
Still stupefied, Zhou Zhiruo held out her left hand, Miejue Shitai put the iron ring on her index finger. With a trembling voice Zhou Zhiruo said, "Shifu [Master], disciple is young, I joined the sect not too long ago, how can I bear this heavy responsibility? You, Senior, must not be desperate; please don’t say such thing. Disciple really cannot ...” Speaking to this point, she hugged her master’s legs and cried.
Waiting outside, Lu Zhangke was already impatient for a while; hearing the weeping noise he banged the door and called out, "Hey! Are you done talking? Your talking days in the future are still long!”
Miejue Shitai shot back, "What kind of nonsense are you talking about?” To Zhou Zhiruo she said, "Do you dare to disobey your Shifu’s command?” Immediately she proceeded by telling Zhou Zhiruo the Sect Leader’s rules and regulations, wanting her to commit them in her memory.
Zhou Zhiruo could see through her master’s words; it was like she was leaving her death wish; Zhou Zhiruo was alarmed and scared. "Disciple cannot do this, disciple is not able .”
In a stern voice Miejue Shitai said, "If you don’t do what I said, you are disobeying your Sect’s ancestors.” Noticing Zhou Zhiruo pitiful face and remembering about her impending departure from this world, she thought about how she was placing this heavy responsibility on this mild-mannered, soft and weak female disciple’s shoulder; Miejue Shitai was afraid her disciple would actually not able to withstand this heavy load. But among the Emei disciples she was the one with the highest comprehension and the one most likely to reach the pinnacle of their martial arts and brighten their reputation. Other than her there was no other disciple worthy of this position. Miejue Shitai also realized that in the days to come this young disciple would inevitably experience innumerable difficulties and dangers; she could not help but feel heartbroken.
Miejue Shitai raised Zhou Zhiruo up and embraced her in her bosom; in a soft voice she said, "Zhiruo, I picked you to be the next Sect Leader instead of your numerous Shijies [martial (older) sisters], not because I am biased toward you. It was because the Emei Pai has always dominated by women; the Sect Leader’s martial art must be outstanding. Only then will we be able to stand among the heroes of the Wulin world.”
"How can disciple’s martial art exceed those of numerous Shijies?” Zhou Zhiruo asked.
Miejue Shitai smiled and said, "Their accomplishment is limited; once they reach certain level, it would be very difficult for them to make a good progress. This is the
Heaven-given natural ability and no power on earth can change it. Right now you are inferior to your Shijies, but in the future your progress will be unlimited. Hmm, unlimited, truly unlimited. That’s exactly what you will be.”
Zhou Zhiruo was confused; she looked at her master with eyes full of questions. Miejue Shitai put her lips close to Zhou Zhiruo’s ear and in a very low voice said, "Since you are now our Sect Leader, I am going to tell you our Sect’s greatest secret. The founder of our Sect was Guo Nuxia [Heroine Guo]; she was the youngest daughter of Daxia [great hero] Guo Jing. In those days Guo Daxia’s name shook the world; all his life he was known to possess two kinds of special skills: the first one was military strategy, the second was martial art. Guo Daxia’s wife was Huang Rong, Huang Nuxia; she was known as the most intelligent and quick-witted person. She had realized early on that the Yuan army’s power was unstoppable; that in the end Xiangyang could not be defended. They, husband and wife, had made up their minds to sacrifice their lives for their country as a token of their patriotism and loyalty. But would they bring Guo Daxia’s special skills down to the grave? Moreover, she had predicted correctly that although the Mongolians would occupy China for a moment, in the end the Han people would not be willing to live in slavery under the Tartars’ rule; that there would be bloody battles on the Central Plains [‘zhong yuan’] in the future.
At that time the military strategy and the martial art would play a very significant role. For that reason she hired a very skilled craftsman to melt the black steel sword Yang Guo, Yang Daxia gave to our founder Guo Zushi [martial art ancestor], mixed it with refined gold from the western area, and forged it into the Tulong [slaughtering dragon] Saber and the Yitian [relying on Heaven] Sword.”
Zhou Zhiruo had long ago heard about the names of Tulong Saber and the Yitian Sword; but it was only now did she find out that this pair of Saber and Sword was forged by the mother of her own Sect’s Founder, Guo Nuxia.
Miejue Shitai continued, "While these weapons were forged, Huang Nuxia and Guo Daxia two people toiled for a whole month writing the military strategy and the martial art manuals and hid them inside the weapons. The Tulong Saber held the military strategy manual. It was called ‘tu long’ with the wish that someday someone would obtain the military strategy book, then drives out the Tartars and kills the Tartar Emperor. Among the martial art secrets concealed in the Yitian Sword, the most precious are the Nine Yin Manual and the Eighteen Dragon-subduing Palm Techniques, hoping that the later generation who study the martial arts from the Sword would enforce justice on behalf of Heaven and rid the people of evil.”
Zhou Zhiruo listened with eyes wide open; the more she listened, the more marveled she became. Meanwhile her master continued the story, "After Guo Daxia and his wife finished forging the Sword and the Saber, they gave the precious Saber to their son, Guo Gong Polu [Translator’s note: the word ‘gong’ here denotes respect or honor; there is no English equivalent to this way of addressing other people]; while the precious Sword was passed on to our Sect’s Guo Zushi. It goes without saying that Guo Zushi was taught martial arts by her parents, as Guo Gong Polu was also instructed in military strategy. But when the Xiang Yang’s city wall was broken, Guo Daxia husband and wife, as well as Guo Gong Polu died together as patriots. Guo Zushi’s character did not go very well with her father’s martial art style; for this reason our Sect’s martial art style differs from that of Guo Daxia of the past.”
After a short pause Miejue Shitai continued, "Over the last one hundred years the Wulin world was shaken repeatedly; these Saber and Sword have changed hands several times. The later generation only knows that the Tulong Saber is the Wulin world’s most venerable, and only the Yitian Sword is worthy to be its match; but why is it most venerable, nobody knows. Guo Gong Polu died for his country in his youth; he had no descendant not disciple, so only our Sect’s Guo Zushi alone knew the Saber and the Sword’s secret. Before her death, the Senior had spent considerable amount of effort to find the precious Tulong Saber, but she had not succeeded. On her death bed she passed on this secret to my ‘en shi’ [benevolent master], Feng Ling Shitai. Upon receiving Zushi’s commandment, my ‘en shi’ also looked for the Tulong Saber, but to no avail. In turn when she died she passed on this Sword and Guo Zushi’s commandment to me.
It was not too long after I took over the Sect Leader position of our school when your Shibo [martial (older) uncle] Gu Hongzi made an appointment for a martial arts match with a young master from the Devil Cult. They agreed to fight one-on-one, not allowing anybody to receive help from anybody else. Your Shibo knew that although his opponent was young, his martial art skill was actually very profound. Thereupon he came to me to borrow the Yitian Sword.”
As Zhou Zhiruo heard the phrase ‘a young master from the Devil Cult’ she could not help her heart thump madly, and her face involuntarily blushed; but she immediately remembered, "It was not him, I am afraid at that time he was not even born yet.”
Meanwhile Miejue Shitai continued, "At that time I wanted to go along and help him, but your Shibo insisted that he wanted to keep the good faith; saying he stated clearly with that devil-head that no third-party participation was allowed; therefore, he was firm in not letting me go along. In that martial art match your Shibo’s skill was certainly not below his opponent; but because the devil-head employed a dirty trick, in the end he managed to land a palm on your Shibo’s chest and snatched away the Yitian Sword before it even came out of its sheathe.”
"Ah!” Zhou Zhiruo exclaimed, remembering how Zhang Wuji snatched away the Sword from Miejue’s hand on the Brightness Peak.
Her Shifu continued, "That devil-head laughed coldly several times and said ‘What a big reputation Yitian Sword has! In my eyes it is no different that scrap copper and rusty iron!’ Casually he threw the Sword to the ground and swaggered away. Your Shibo picked the Sword up and went back to the mountain to return it to me. Who would have thought that because of his proud character, the more he thought about the lost, the more he was grieved. He only managed to take a three-day journey when he caught an illness along the way and was not able to get up again. The Yitian Sword fell into the hands of the local authorities who in turn presented it to the royal government. Do you know who was this evil disciple of the Devil Cult who angered your Shibo Gu Hongzi to his death?”
"No ...” Zhou Zhiruo replied, "I wonder who that was?”
"It was he who later on harmed your Shijie Ji Xiaofu; that devil-head Yang Xiao!” Miejue Shitai replied.
Right at that moment Lu Zhangke banged the door and shouted, "Are you done talking? I can’t wait much longer!”
"Don’t be impatient,” Miejue Shitai said, "We will be done very soon.” Quietly to Zhou Zhiruo she said, "We don’t have much time; we can’t talk too much. This Yitian Sword was later on granted by the Tartar Emperor to the Ruyang Prince so I went to the Ruyang Palace to steal it back. It is so unfortunate that by an evil plot the Sword has fallen into the hand of the Devil Cult.”
"No, it was that Miss Zhao who stole it,” Zhou Zhiruo said.
Miejue Shitai stared at her and said, "This surnamed Zhao girl is obviously in cohort with that Cult Leader of the Devil Cult. Don’t tell me that up to this point you still don’t believe your Shifu?”
In all honesty it was hard for Zhou Zhiruo to believe her; but she did not want to argue with her master. Miejue Shitai continued, "I have a strong reason why I want you to take over the Sect Leader position. This time I fall into the crafty villains’ hands, my reputation is falling down the drain; I do not want to get out of this Pagoda alive. That lecherous man surnamed Zhang has dirty thoughts toward you, but I believe he won’t harm your life. You may pretend to get close to him, and then seize the opportunity to take back the Yitian Sword. The Tulong Saber is in the hand of his foster father, that wicked bandit Xie Xun. This kid will not reveal Xie Xun’s whereabouts no matter what; but I know there is one person in this world who will be able to get this Saber.”
&nbs
p; Zhou Zhiruo knew her Shifu was talking about her; she was startled and shy, and happy but scared at the same time.
Mie Jue Shitai said, "That person is you. I want you to use your beauty to obtain the treasured sword. I know this is not a very chivalrous thing to do, but for an important matter I don’t want to worry about little things. Just think about it: presently the Yitian Sword is in that surnamed Zhao girl, while the Tulong Saber is in that wicked bandit Xie Xun’s hand. Both have close relationship with him. If by any chance he acquires both the Sword and the Saber, and if by chance he obtains Guo Daxia’s military strategy and martial arts manual; then it will be catastrophic for the common people. I don’t know how many innocent people in the world will lost their lives, families will be broken, not to mention the great undertaking of driving out the Tartars will be more difficult to accomplish. Zhiruo, I know perfectly well that this matter is too difficult, in all honesty I don’t want you to bear it; but what is the purpose of us training martial arts all our lives? Zhiruo, I beseech you for the sake of the common people in the world.” Speaking thus, she suddenly stood up, and then bent her knees and bowed in front of Zhou Zhiruo.
To say that Zhou Zhiruo was mildly shocked is certainly an understatement; she hastily knelt down and called out, "Shifu! Shifu! You ...”
"Quiet!” Miejue Shitai said, "Don’t let the wicked bandit outside hear. Do you agree? If you don’t, I won’t get up.”
Zhou Zhiruo was utterly confused; in just a short moment her Shifu had just asked of her three very difficult matters. The first was to make the heavy oath that she would not to fall in live with Zhang Wuji, the second was for her to take over the Sect Leader position; afterwards she wanted her to utilize her beauty to entice Zhang Wuji to obtain the Tulong Saber and the Yitian Sword. Each one of these three might take her ten years to decide. Based on her gentle and warm character, chances are she would not agree to any of them, much less she was given just a short time to accept. Her head was spinning and she passed out, losing her consciousness completely.
