by Jin Yong
To Laurel, Miss Cheng looked to be a delicate daughter of a nobleman, frail and tender, like a flower stalk that could be snapped in the wind. So, he blocked once more with the bench.
“Who are you, sir?”
Browbeater Hou ignored the young man’s question and instead jabbed three times with the fork. Laurel parried each thrust with the unwieldy bench, repeating the question as he did so.
Browbeater Hou was puzzled. The demon certainly knew some kung fu, and yet he was using a different style from the one he’d employed the night before. The reason must be his dung attack. “You’re asking for my name so you can put a curse on me—admit it, demon! I won’t fall for it!”
He had been about to say, “Master Hou won’t fall for it!” but stopped himself at the last moment. He intensified his onslaught, the clang of his fork echoing around the small inn.
Laurel’s skills were inferior to his opponent, and his only weapon was the large bench. He had a saber hanging from his belt, but found no opportunity to draw it. Each exchange pushed him farther back, until he had his back to the wall, covering the hole through which Lotus was watching.
Browbeater Hou lunged, Laurel Lu ducked sideways, and the metal prongs sunk into the wall, less than a foot from where Lotus was crouching on the other side. Before Browbeater Hou could pull it free, Laurel Lu made to bring the bench down on the old man’s head. Hou kicked at Laurel’s hand and followed up with a punch. The bench fell and Laurel ducked for cover.
Browbeater Hou yanked the fork from the wall.
The situation was critical. Emerald jumped forward, pulled the saber from Laurel’s belt and handed it to him.
“Why, thank you!” Her intervention was a welcome surprise.
Just then, the glint of the oncoming fork caught Laurel’s eye. He parried, inches from his chest. Sparks flew. The fork passed by his side, but he felt a pain in his chest. The madman was formidable, but Laurel felt more confident now that he had his saber.
The men continued to fight, their feet slipping in the manure, which by now covered the entire floor.
Browbeater Hou had entered the fight with one eye on the door, in case he needed to escape, but, the more blows they exchanged, the more he understood that the demon was not capable of defeating him. His trick with the dung had worked. He pressed on, putting more power behind his attacks. Laurel Lu was struggling to block them.
Emerald Cheng had retreated to a corner to watch, afraid of getting her clothes soiled. But now she feared the handsome young man was in grave danger. She hesitated, then drew a sword from her pack.
“Young gentleman! I … will help. Please excuse me!”
She was polite in the extreme—who apologized for helping?—though she did not wait for a reply before plunging her sword toward Browbeater Hou’s chest.
Having studied under Sage of Tranquility, Sun Bu’er, she used the Quanzhen Sect’s sword technique. But her excessive courtesy had given Browbeater Hou prior warning. Besides, he had been expecting the female incarnation of the demon to attack the whole time. Laurel Lu, however, was pleasantly surprised once more. She was quick—his heart throbbed with admiration. His own movements had become erratic and he was drenched in sweat, but her intervention gave him new strength.
Browbeater Hou had been dreading the female demon’s attack, but, while she was proficient with the sword, there was no real force behind the thrusts. Furthermore, she was noticeably nervous. She had probably not been a demon for long—she was unpracticed. Relieved, he intensified his moves. He knew he had the upper hand, now.
Lotus, meanwhile, was watching anxiously. Miss Cheng and Master Lu were bound to lose, but she could not leave Guo Jing’s side. Had she been able to help, she would have outsmarted the Three-Horned Dragon without much effort.
“Miss!” Laurel Lu cried. “Step back, don’t put yourself in danger!”
Miss Cheng was grateful for his concern, but she could see that he would not prevail alone. She shook her head and continued to fight.
Laurel Lu changed his tactics. “What kind of hero fights a defenseless young woman!” he cried at Browbeater Hou. “Let me fight you, man to man, and leave the young maiden out of it!”
By this stage, Browbeater Hou had begun to suspect these two might not be incarnations of the demon, after all. But the young miss was dazzling. Why would he let her go?
“But Miss Demon is the greater prize!” he cried, launching his fork at Miss Cheng. He did not put his full force behind the move, however, since he had no wish to injure her.
“Miss, you must leave!” Laurel Lu cried. “I, Master Lu, am most grateful for your assistance thus far, but it’s too dangerous.”
“Master Lu? Is that your name?” Emerald asked, almost in a whisper.
“Indeed! And what is the young miss called?” Laurel Lu asked, just about managing to keep Browbeater Hou’s pitchfork at bay. “To which school do you belong?”
“My shifu goes by the name of Sun Bu’er, the Sage of Tranquility,” Miss Cheng said. “My … my…” She could not bear the embarrassment of telling him her name.
“Miss, I’ll block him, you run! As long as I’m still alive, I will find you. Many thanks again for your help!”
Emerald blushed. “Sir…”
She turned to Browbeater Hou. “You, madman! You mustn’t hurt this young gentleman. Did you not hear me? My shifu is the Sage of Tranquility of the Quanzhen Sect. She is on her way!”
The Seven Masters of the Quanzhen were acclaimed throughout the wulin, and, indeed, Browbeater Hou had not forgotten the day the Iron Foot Immortal, Jade Sun Wang Chuyi, had intimidated him and his comrades at the Palace of Zhao. Miss Cheng’s words sent a shiver through him. “Even if all the Quanzhen Masters come to your aid, I will butcher each and every one of them!”
“Who is that, talking such nonsense?” A voice boomed from outside.
The three of them leaped back in shock. Laurel pulled Emerald into his arms and raised his saber in case Browbeater Hou launched a fresh attack.
He glanced up to see a young Taoist standing in the doorway, dressed in the characteristic robes and hat. His features were delicate and his eyes twinkled. In his hand, he carried a horsetail whisk.
“Who wants to butcher the Seven Masters of the Quanzhen Sect?”
“Me. What of it?” Browbeater Hou said, clutching the pitchfork and stuffing his other hand into his waistband.
“Very well. Let me see you try.” Swish. The whisk came straight for Hou’s face.
Guo Jing had just finished another round of breathing, and scrambled to his feet to join Lotus at the hole.
“Is he also one of the priests of the Quanzhen?” she asked.
Guo Jing recognized him at once: Harmony Yin. Disciple of Qiu Chuji. He had challenged Guo Jing to a secret fight in Mongolia, two years before, defeating Guo Jing with ease. Guo Jing conveyed the whole story to Lotus in a whisper.
After witnessing the first few exchanges between the young Taoist and Browbeater Hou, Lotus shook her head. “He won’t defeat the Three-Horned Dragon.”
Laurel Lu had reached the same conclusion, stepping forward to join the fight once more. Harmony Yin’s skills had developed somewhat since his encounter with Guo Jing, but the two young men could only just match Browbeater Hou when fighting together.
Laurel’s touch had left Emerald breathless and her heart was beating madly. Despite the intensity of the fight, only a few feet away, she was in a trance, caressing her hand where the young man had held it—until a loud clanking broke her reverie.
“Miss! Watch out!” Laurel Lu cried.
Browbeater’s fork was coming right at her. Laurel blocked it with his saber and Emerald blushed. This was no time for daydreaming.
Emerald had not studied much kung fu, but a third pair of hands made it difficult for Browbeater Hou to block their combined attacks. Harmony Yin’s whisk danced in front of his eyes, distracting him for the briefest of moments, long enough for Laurel Lu’s saber to
slice into his leg.
“Damn your ancestors for eighteen generations back!”
The wound slowed him. He tried to block with his fork, but Harmony Yin’s whisk wrapped itself around it. They both pulled back at the same time, but Browbeater Hou was the stronger and he pulled the whisk out of Harmony Yin’s hand.
Emerald lunged with her sword in a Shake the Milky Way, piercing his right shoulder. Browbeater Hou dropped his fork in agony. Harmony Yin swept his leg in a horizontal kick, knocking Hou to the ground. Laurel Lu then pounced on Browbeater Hou and, using his leather belt, tied his hands behind his back.
“You cannot even defeat one disciple of the Quanzhen Sect; how are you going to take on all seven Masters?” Harmony Yin sneered.
Browbeater Hou cursed. Three against one was no heroic victory! Harmony Yin tore a strip of cloth from Browbeater Hou’s clothing and stuffed it into the prisoner’s mouth. The Three-Horned Dragon’s cheeks burned with red-hot fury, but he could not say anything in reply.
Harmony Yin turned to Miss Cheng and bowed. “Elder Martial Sister, you are the disciple of Elder Sun? I greet you with sincere respect.”
Emerald bowed in return. “Brother, may I ask which of my martial uncles is your Master?”
“I am the disciple of Eternal Spring,” he replied.
This being the first time Emerald had left her home, she had never met the other six Quanzhen Masters, but her shifu had of course explained who they were, and that, of all of them, Eternal Spring was the bravest and most honorable, not to mention the best fighter. “Then you are my elder,” she said quietly. “My family name is Cheng. You must address me as your younger sister.”
Her shy, girlish manner amused him. He then turned to Laurel Lu to introduce himself. Laurel repaid the courtesy without revealing who his father was.
“This madman can certainly fight. I wonder who he is. Whatever we do, we must not release him,” Harmony Yin said.
“Let me dispatch him,” Laurel said.
As the leader of the pirates of Lake Tai, he would have no qualms about killing their prisoner. For Emerald, however, the idea was unthinkable. “Oh, no, don’t kill him!”
Harmony Yin smiled. “No, we have no reason to kill him; that wouldn’t be right.” Then he turned to Miss Cheng. “Little sister, have you been here long?”
“No, I just arrived,” she said, blushing.
Harmony Yin regarded the two of them. He could sense that there was something between them. I should leave them be, he decided. “My shifu ordered me to go to Ox Village to find someone and give them a message. I must take my leave. But I am sure our paths will cross again!” He cupped his hands and turned to go.
The redness in Miss Cheng’s cheeks only intensified. “Brother Yin, who is it that you are looking for?”
Harmony Yin hesitated. Miss Cheng belongs to the Quanzhen Sect, and she travels with Master Lu. I suppose it will do no harm to tell them. “I am looking for a friend by the name of Guo,” he said at last.
Everyone, on both sides of the wall, was stunned.
“Is his given name Jing?” Laurel Lu asked.
“Indeed, it is. Does Brother Lu also know Guo Jing?”
“I am looking for the very same Uncle Guo.”
“Uncle Guo?” Both Harmony Yin and Miss Cheng were surprised by the term of address.
“My father is of the same martial generation, so I must call him Uncle.” Laurel’s father, Zephyr Lu, was a disciple of Lotus’s father, and Guo Jing was betrothed to the young lady, so technically the young couple were of the same generation as Laurel’s father.
Emerald was silent, but her heart was troubled.
“Have you seen him? Where is he?” Harmony Yin asked.
“I have only just arrived. I was about to make inquiries when this madman attacked us for no reason,” Laurel Lu replied.
“Excellent. Then we will look for him together.”
The three young people made for the door.
Lotus and Guo Jing exchanged puzzled glances.
“They’re leaving,” Guo Jing said. “Lotus, open the door and call to them.”
“What would be the point? It must be something urgent, and you cannot attend to anything until you have made your recovery. Your attention must not be diverted from this task.”
“You’re right. It must be important, though. Can’t you think of something? A way to resolve this?”
“I will not open the door, even if the sky should fall on our heads,” Lotus said firmly.
4
Before long, however, the three were back.
“Not one person in the whole village knows where he is. This can’t be good,” Laurel Lu said.
“I wonder what matter is of such importance to send you here to look for him,” Harmony Yin replied. “May we know?”
Laurel Lu was unwilling to say, but Miss Cheng’s expectant expression was somehow hard to resist. “It’s a long story. Let me first clean the floor of this manure, and then I will tell you.”
They could find neither broom nor dustpan in the inn, so they went to fetch some branches and, together, they cleaned up the mess. Then they sat down to talk.
Just as Laurel Lu was about to begin, Emerald suddenly interrupted. “Wait!” She approached Browbeater Hou and cut two more pieces of cloth from his clothes. “He mustn’t hear.”
“Miss Cheng is most attentive,” Laurel Lu said. “We don’t know who this madman is. He must not be allowed to hear our discussion.”
Lotus was amused. That there are two of us on this side of the wall is perhaps difficult to spot, but Gallant Ouyang has been listening from his corner this whole time. For all your attentiveness, have any of you noticed?
This was Emerald’s first time away from home, and Harmony Yin had a reckless streak, like his master, and was young and inexperienced with it. It did not occur to any of them that there might be further danger lurking in this small, isolated inn.
As Emerald bent down to stuff the cloth into Browbeater Hou’s ears, she noticed for the first time that they had been cut off. She was startled at first, but proceeded to push the material into the inner canal, then turned and smiled at Laurel Lu. “You may talk now.”
“Aiya,” he sighed. “Where do I start? I, too, am seeking Uncle Guo. By rights, I shouldn’t be. In fact, I should really be doing the opposite. And yet, I must find him.”
“How odd,” Harmony Yin said.
“Indeed, it is,” Laurel Lu conceded. “But it’s not so much Uncle Guo I’m looking for, but rather his six shifus.”
“The Six Freaks of the South!” Harmony Yin exclaimed, thumping the table.
“The very same.”
“In that case, I think you have come over the same matter as me, concerning the same person. Why don’t we each write down the name and let Sister Cheng determine if we’re here on the same errand?”
Emerald smiled. “Good idea! Turn your backs to each other and write.”
Harmony Yin and Laurel Lu each took up a twig and scratched a name in the dirt floor.
“Sister Cheng, did we write the same name?” Harmony Yin asked.
Emerald glanced at what each young man had written, before answering, “Brother Yin, you are wrong. You each wrote something different.”
“Is that so?” he said, getting to his feet.
“You wrote Apothecary Huang,” Emerald said, “and he drew a picture of a peach blossom.”
They are both looking for Guo Jing because of my father, Lotus said to herself, in shock.
“Brother Yin wrote down the name of the Grandmaster of my school of kung fu,” Laurel Lu said. “I did not dare write his name.”
“Your Grandmaster?” Harmony Yin was surprised by this. “Apothecary Huang is the Lord of Peach Blossom Island, isn’t he?”
“Ah, I see,” Miss Cheng said.
“If Brother Lu is a disciple of Peach Blossom Island, then you cannot be looking for the Six Freaks for any favorable reason.”
“That is not true,” Laurel Lu replied.
Harmony Yin noticed the reticence in his voice, now. “If Brother Lu does not consider me a friend, then you needn’t say any more,” he said coldly. “I shall take my leave.”
“Brother Yin, wait! I am in trouble and I need your help.”
Harmony Yin liked nothing more than being needed. “Fine. Then tell me what is wrong.”
“Brother Yin, you are a student of the Quanzhen Sect. You know that, if someone is in danger, it’s a man’s moral duty, according to the code of xia, that he must warn that person. But what if your own Master was out to harm an innocent party? Would you still owe it to them to warn them? Even if it meant going against your Master?”
“Indeed!” Harmony Yin cried and slapped his thigh. “You are a disciple of Peach Blossom Island, so this matter puts you in a rather difficult position. Tell me more.”
“If I do nothing, I am being dishonorable. If I intervene, I am betraying my Master. There is something I would like to ask of Brother Yin, but I dare not.”
Harmony Yin had worked out what it was Laurel Lu wanted him to do, but if the young man would not open his mouth to ask him, there was nothing he could do to help. He scratched his head, an awkward expression on his face.
Just then, Emerald had an idea. There was a habit among young women, whereby, if one among them was too shy to say what she was thinking, her mother or sister, for example, would ask her questions, to which she could reply by nodding or shaking her head. It was not the most direct method, but it did usually allow for the young girl to say what was on her mind. The mother might ask, for example, “Are you in love with Third Brother Zhang?” To which the girl would shake her head. “Is it Fourth Brother Li?” Again, the same response. “Cousin Wang?” Then she would hang her head and make no reply, which would mean yes.
“Brother Yin,” Miss Cheng said, “you must ask Brother Lu questions. If the answer is yes, he will nod his head. If the answer is no, he will shake it. That way, no one can accuse him of betraying his Master.”
“An excellent idea!” Harmony Yin exclaimed. “Brother Lu, let me first explain why I am here. My shifu, Eternal Spring, happened to hear that the Lord of Peach Blossom Island has taken against the Six Freaks and has vowed to kill them and their families. My shifu set out at once to Jiaxing to deliver the warning, but the Freaks were not to be found. He then went to visit each of their families in turn, but could not find a single one of them. This made him furious, so he set off north. Since then, I have had no news. Are you familiar with these matters?”
