by Jin Yong
others all stood up and bowed their bodies to accept the orders. Initially Zhang Sanfeng had doubted that such a young man as Zhang Wuji being could unite and command the hero group, but seeing Zhang Wuji giving orders which great heroes in wulin such as Yin Tianzheng obeyed without any hesitation, he felt overjoyed and thought to himself: "He can learn my Taiji fist, Taiji swordsmanship, that’s only because he has a good internal energy background and a strong perceptivity, although it’s hard to do so, that is still not really valuable. But as for he being able to control the great devils of the Ming cult, the Heavenly Hawk sect, lead them into the upright path, that’s really a big matter. Cuishan has a heir, Cuishan has a fine heir already. [Note: spoken with pride that Zhang Cui Shan had a fine heir ]” Thinking as far as here, he couldn’t help stroking his beard and smiling. Zhang Wuji, Yang Xiao, Wei Yixiao and Shuo Bude the four people hastily finished their meal and then immediately said good-bye to Zhang Sanfeng and went down the mountain to search for Zhao Min’s track.
Yin Tianzheng and others send the four people off to the front of the mountain before returning. Yang Buhui was attached to his father and didn’t want to part from him so she accompanied them for another mile. Yang Xiao said: "Buhui, you go back and look after Yin sixth uncle carefully.”
Yang Buhui responded: "Yes.” Her eyes darted towards Wuji, suddenly she blushed and said in a tiny voice: "Elder brother Wuji, I have a few words to say with you.” Yang Xiao, Wei Yixiao and Shuo Bude the 3 people chuckled: "You two have been friends since childhood, certainly there’re some personal affairs to speak to each other.” They then sped up their footsteps and ran away for a far distance. Yang Buhui said: "Elder brother Wuji, come here.” She pulled his arm to come to and sit down a big rock next to the mountain side. Zhang Wuji was secretly confused: "She and I have been acquainted since childhood, the friendship between us is not ordinary, this time we met again after a long separation, yet since then she have treated me coolly and stand-offishly. What does she have to talk to me now?” He only saw that although Yang Buhui had not begun to speak her face had reddened already, she bowed her head in silence, only after quite a long time did she say: "Elder brother Wuji, when my Mom was at the brink of death, she asked you to look after me, didn’t she?” Zhang Wuji said: "Yes.” Yang Buhui said: "You crossed tens of thousands of miles, accompanying me from the bank of the Huaihe river to the Western region and delivered me to my Dad’s hands. On the way, you had to risk you life many times and suffer so many hardships. This great graciousness cannot be repaid by merely saying thanks, that kindness of you I’ve only put it deeply in my heart and from before up to now I’ve not raised anything about it at all.” Zhang Wuji said: "Never mind. What good does that have to be raised? If I had not accompanied you to the Western region, I myself wouldn’t have had those lucky encounters and if that’s the case I’m afraid that at this moment I would have been dead due to the dispersion of the Xuan Ming poison already.” Yang Buhui said: "No, no! You’re humane, heroic and generous so every adverse thing that you met can change into good luck. Elder brother Wuji, I’ve been motherless since childhood, although my Dad love me there’re some matters which I don’t dare to talk to him about. You’re the head of our cult, but in my heart, I still only consider you as my older full brother. That day at the Brightness Peak, when I suddenly see you return, I was so happy that I was speechlessness. I felt embarrassed to say it out in front of you, are you angry with me?” Zhang Wuji replied: "No! Certainly no.”
Zhang Wuji saw her back vanish behind a mountain side. His mind was puzzled, he didn’t know how to deal with this matter. After standing in trance there for a while, he ran after the trio including Wei Yixiao. Wei Yixiao and Shuo Bude found that there seemed to be traces of tears in the corners of his eyes, they couldn’t help glancing at Yang Xiao and smiling faintly, meaning:
"Congratulations! Left Herald Yang will soon become the father-in-law of Cult Leader.” After the four people had descended the Wudang mountain, Yang Xiao said: "This Miss Zhao doesn’t travel alone, there are many henchmen around her so it’ll not be hard to find her whereabouts. Let us separate to give chases in the four directions East, West, South and North. At tomorrow’s midday we will be gathering together in Gu Cheng town. What about your venerable opinion, Cult Leader?” Zhang Wuji said: "Very good, let’s do just so. I’ll go westward.” Gu Cheng town was to the East of
the Wudang mountain, going westward to search meant he’d have to go farther than the others would for a stretch of road. He went on: "The martial arts of the Xuan Ming Two Elders are extremely fierce, seeing them, you three should evade them if it ’s possible and should not single-handedly engage in any fight with them.” The trio accepted the commands. They immediately bowed and made their farewells to Zhang Wuji then left toward three different directions East,
South and North to investigate. In the West, there were only mountain roads, Zhang Wuji applied his qing-gong (lightness skill) and ran fast. In more than two hours, he arrived in Shi Yan town. He stopped at a restaurant in the town to order a bowl of noodles. He asked the waiter whether there had been any golden-brocade-covered palankeen going past here. The waiter replied: "Yes, there was! There were also three seriously injured people. They lied on three hammocks which were carried along with the palankeen. They have just gone toward Huang Long town in the West for less than an hour.” Zhang Wuji was very pleased, he thought that the pace of these people was not fast, so in order to avoid revealing his own track, waiting until the evening to pursue them would not be late. He then found a quiet place to take a sleep and waited till the first watch of the night (1 a.m.) before going to Huang Long town.
Zhang Wuji reached the town when it was still earlier than the second watch (2 a.m.) of the night. He hid behind a corner of a wall and saw that the street was very quiet without any sound of anyone. But in a big hotel, there was still a dazzling brightness of lamps and torches. He jumped onto a nearby roof, after several leaps he arrived at the roof of a small house next to the hotel. Looking around, he saw a big cloth tent on a riverside ground. There were many people coming and going at the front and the back of the tent. Obviously it was guarded with strict security precautions. Zhang Wuji thought: "Is it possible that Miss Zhao is in that cloth tent? Her facial expression and her way of speaking are not different from those of the Han Chinese, but the way she acts is overbearing and extravagant to a certain extent.” At that time, the Yuan dynasty had been dominating the Central Plain for a long time, Han tyrannical gentries also tried to immitate the prevailing customs of the Mongolian for honour so this was not strange. While he was pondering on how to approach the tent, unexpectedly, he heard some groans spreading from window of the hotel. He then changed his mind, jumped off the roof, tiptoed to a place under the window and looked inside the room. He only saw that there were three people lying on three beds, among them, there were two whose faces he couldn’t see. The man lying near the window was exactly A’San, he was moaning softly, his injuries was clearly in extreme agony, his two arms and two legs all were bound up with white plain cloth. Suddenly an idea flashed upon him, he thought: "His four limbs were all broken, he must have used the efficacious medicine of his own school, the Black Jade Break Connecting Paste, to treat the injuries. If I don’t snatch it right now, so when?” He broke open the window and jumped into the room. A man standing in the room called out in alarm and sent out a fist. Zhang Wuji used his left hand to grab that man’s fist, his right hand extended and hit on the man’s numb acupoint. He turned around and saw that the two people who were lying there were precisely A’Er and Eight-Armed Swordsman Fang Dongbai. The man whose acupoint had just been sealed wore a black gown, he was still holding two gold needles in his hands. Perhaps he had been acupuncturing the three injuried to cut off the pain for them. On the table, was putting a black bottle, there were several pieces of mugwort next to the bottle. Zhang Wuji took up the bottle, pulled out its lid to smell, he only felt a rush of a hot and pungent odour
to his nose. A’San called out: "Help! There's a medicine robber...” (NOTE: in the Chinese text: ???,??... -sorry, I don’t how to translate it well ) Zhang Wuji moved his finger fast as wind to successively seal the mute acupoints of the 3 men. He ripped open the bandage on A’San’s arm. Expectedly, he saw the arm was covered by a thin black layer of medicinal ointment. For fear that Zhao Min was devilish cunning and had intentionally put fake medicine in the bottle to entice him to come here by himself, he began to scrape the ointment of the sores of A’San and the bald A’Er onto the bandage. He thought that even if in the bottle was fake medicine, the paste taken from their sores couldn’t be false. Hearing the sounds, the outside guards kicked the door open wide and fled into. Zhang Wuji didn’t need to look at them, he gave each one a kick sending them out. In a short moment, the people in the hotel had begun to scream noisily and gotten into a chaotic crowd. He had kicked six people out one after another but he had only scraped more than a half of the ointment on A’San's and the bald A’Er’s sores. Thinking that it would possibly not be very wonderful if he tarried here more so that the Xuan Ming Two Elders would enter, he put the bottle and the bandage in his bosom then lifted the physician and threw him out of the window.
Only a big noise of crushing resounded, that physician was hit by a hard palm and felt on the ground. This was what Zhang Wuji expected, there were definitely elite fighters ambushing outside the window. Zhang Wuji took advantage of that moment to rush out. White light flashed in the dark when two sharp weapons thrusted toward him. To the Great Universal Shifting Technique this was just a minor matter to deal with, applying the technique, he used his left hand to pull and his right hand to direct (NOTE: this sentence is ??????????? in the Chinese text, but I don’t know how to translate it into English literally and smoothly, I’m so sorry ), the sword on the left then stabbeb at the man on the right and the spear on the right hit the man on the left. In chaotic sounds he had already run away. On the way back, Zhang Wuji felt very joyful thinking that even though this time he had not found out Zhao Min’s origin yet, he had obtained the Black Jade Break Connecting Paste, which was even much better. At this moment it was too late to go to Gu Cheng to meet the group of Yang Xiao, he returned to the Wudang mountain and ordered the Red Water Flag to send members to call them back. Hearing the news that Zhang Wuji had gotten the Black Jade Break Connecting Paste, Zhang Sanfeng and the others all were very glad. Zhang Wuji examined the medicine he had scraped from the sores on A’San's body carefully, he also took out a bit of the ointment in the bottle to make a more detailed compare and confirmed that they were the same. The black bottle was carved out of a big piece of jade. It was as black as lacquer, caused a feeling of warmness when touching and looked very antique. Even the bottle alone was an extremely precious treasure. No longer having a doubt, he ordered his subordinates to carry Yin Liting to Yu Daiyan’s room, placing the two beds in parallel. Yang Buhui followed into the room. She didn’t dare to look directly at Zhang Wuji’s eyes, but her face showed a radiance and there was an extreme appreciation in her heart. Obviously, Zhang Wuji accompanying her to the Western region and drinking the cup of poisoned wine at He Taichong’s residence on behalf of her, such much of kindness still couldn’t compare to him urgently curing Yin Liting’s injury.
Zhang Wuji said: "Third uncle, your former injury healed up, to treat you now, nephew will have to break off the bones of your arms and your legs then connect them back. I hope you’ll try to bear this temporary pain.” Yu Daiyan did not believe that he himself having been disabled for more than twenty years could be fully restored, but he thought even if the treatment failed, the worst of it would not be worse than the present condition, for the past twenty years he had not been caring for anything already anyway. He only thought: "Wuji has exerted himself to the utmost wholeheartedly wanting to make up for the faults of his parents, otherwise he’ll never be able to put his mind at rest. There’s nothing whatsoever considerable about my transitory pain.” He then did not ask about anything, only smiled faintly, said: "No problem, you can do anything at your convenience.” Zhang Wuji asked Yang Buhui to go out, took off all the clothes of Yu Daiyan, localted all the breaks in his bones carefully, afterwards he sealed his comatose acupoint. He transfered his energy to his ten fingers, ‘crack crack crack’, the snaps resounded continously, all the breaks which healed up in Yu Daiyan’s bones were broken again. Although Yu Daiyan’s acupoint had been sealed, the pain was still so great that it awoke him up. Zhang Wuji’s technique was fast as wind, irrespective of whether the bones were big or small, he broke them all, Then he immediately rejoined all the breaks accurately, applied the Black Jade Break Connecting Paste to the sores, bound them up, put them in wooden splints before giving acupuncture to relieve the pain.
To treat Yin Liting was much easier than to treat Yu Daiyan since when they had been in the Western region, Zhang Wuji had set all the broken bones of Yin Liting in place so at this time he only needed to apply the Black Jade Break Connecting Paste. After treating Yin Liting, he sent the very General Vice Heralds of the Five Element Flags to guard by turns in case the enemy would come to harass. In the afternoon of the same day, after finishing his lunch, Zhang Wuji took a quick
nap in the cloud room to regain his strength after a weary night of scurrying. When he was in a dream, suddenly he heard light foot-steps approaching the entrance and woke up immediately.
Xiao Zhao, who was guarding outside, asked in a low voice: "What’s the matter? Cult Leader is resting.” Yan Yuan, the General Flag Herald of the Thick Earth Flag, said under his breath: "Sixth Hero Yin has been in such pain that he has fainted three times, does Cult Leader.” Zhang Wuji did not wait till Yan Yuan finished the sentence, he stood up like a spring, rushed out of the room and accelerated his pace to Yu Daiyan’s room. When he arrived, he only saw Yin Liting’s 2 eyes have rolled upward, leaving only the whites, he had lost his unconsciousness already, Yang Buhui was so scared that her eyes filled with tears, she did not know what to do. Lying next to Yin Liting was Yu Daiyan, he was clenching his teeth with screeching noises. Obviously he was trying to endure the pain, only because his temper was unyielding that he did not let out any groan. Seeing that scene, Zhang Wuji was greatly surprised, he massaged several times on the acupoints Cheng Qi, Tai Yang, Tan Zhong... of Yin Liting, resuscitating him, then asked Yu Daiyan: "Third uncle, the breaks in your bones are very painful, aren’t they?” Yu Daiyan replied: "The breaks are painful, that’s just plain, but even the six internal organs and the five innards are itchy unbearably. as if, as if there’re tens of thousands of insects eating and digging higgledy-piggledy. Zhang Wuji could not be more worried, on hearing what Yu Daiyan had just sid, he knew clearly that this was a condition of being poisoned seriously. He hastily asked Yin Liting: "How do you feel, sixth younger uncle?” Yin Liting raved: "Red, purple, blue, green, yellow, white, azure,. How beautiful, so many little balls hovering and moving back and forth. Really attractive. You see, you see.”
Zhang Wuji uttered a loud cry: "Ayo” and nearly passed out on the spot. He instantly thought of a passage in the Book of Poisons written by Wang Nangu that said: "The Seven Insect Seven Flower Paste, made by mixing up seven kinds of poisonous flower and seven kinds of poisonous insect. The victim of this poison first feels itchy in the internal organs as if he is being gnawed internally by seven kinds of insect, then he sees seven colors appearing in front of him which looks wonderful and fanciful as if there are seven kinds of flower flying flickeringly. The Seven Insect Seven Flower Paste is composed of seven kinds of insect and seven kinds of flower so its components vary with individuals and regions. It has a maximum of forty nine different ways of combination each of which has sixty three variants. Only the person who makes up the poison can know how to detoxify.”
Cold sweat streamed down from Zhang Wuji’s forehead, he knew that he himself had fallen into Zhao Min’s devilish trap. Not only had she intentionally put the Seven Insect Seven Flower Paste in the black jade
bottle but she had also applied this violent poison on the bodies of A’San and the bald A’Er regardless these two elite fighters’ lives essentially aiming to lure him into her trap. Such a fiendish mind was really unimaginable. He utterly repented and hastily untied all the splints and bandages on the bodies of Yu Daiyan and Yin Liting then used white liquor to clean the poisonous paste from their limbs. Yang Buhui saw his serious expression, she knew this important business had not been successful so she was no longer shy of anything and helped Zhang Wuji to clean Yin Liting’s four limbs with liquor. However, the black had soaked through the skin, it could not be washed off no matter how hard they tried. Just like the case of lacquerers whose hands were dyed with colors, cleaning the black was not an overnight affair.
Zhang Wuji did not dare to use medicine rashly, he only picked out several kinds of pain-killer and tranquillizer for them to take. He walked to the outside room, feeling both alarmed and ashamed. His fortitude was exhausted and his knees could not help becoming weak. Suddenly he dropped down, bent on the floor of the palace and burst out crying. Yang Buhui was frightened, she could only call out: "Wuji ge-ge, Wuji ge-ge!” Zhang Wuji sobbed: "I myself killed third uncle and sixth younger uncle already.” He only thought in his mind: "This Seven Insect Seven Flower Paste has at least one hundred ways of combination, who knows what seven kinds of insect and flower that she used are? To detoxicate this fierce poison is merely to use the principle of neutralizing poison by poison, so even if only one kind of poisonous insect or flower is guessed wrong and I use that remedy carelessly, third uncle and six younger uncle will die forthwith.” At that moment, all of a sudden, he fully understood his father’s thoughts when he had ended his life, that was once a
serious mistake was unable to be saved, there would really be no way except commiting suicide. Zhang Wuji sluggishly stood up. Yang Buhui asked: "Is there really no cure for this poison? Even reluctantly trying one time is also impossible?” Zhang Wuji shook his head. Yang Buhui said: "Alright.” She looked calm and no longer showed any sign of panic.