by Jin Yong
"Aiyo!” suddenly Xie Xun exclaimed, "Why is the Ling She Island on fire? Did they burn Mrs. Han?” ‘Thud’ suddenly Xiao Zhao fell down on the boat.
Zhang Wuji was shocked; he leaped to help her up, but her eyes were tightly closed, looked like she passed out. He busily massaged her acupoint to wake her up. "Xiao Zhao,” he called out,
"What happened to you?”
With tears on her eyes Xiao Zhao said, "I heard somebody is being burned alive, I ... I ... I’m very scared.”
"That was just Xie Laoye’s guess,” Zhang Wuji consoled her, "It might not be true. Besides, even if Mrs. Han has fallen into their hands, if we rush, we might still be able to catch up and save her.”
Xiao Zhao grabbed his hand and earnestly said, "Gongzi, please, you have to save Mrs. Han’s life.”
"All of us will do our best,” Zhang Wuji replied. He went back to the stern, picked up the oar, and exerting his strength, he rowed even faster.
Xiao Zhao also picked up an oar, and although her hands were trembling, she also furiously paddled the boat.
"Zhang Gongzi,” suddenly Zhao Min said, "There are two things that I don’t understand; I’ve been giving it a thought for a long time, but still cannot figure it out. I wonder if you could enlighten me.”
Hearing her suddenly being polite to him, Zhang Wuji felt strange. "What is it?” he asked.
Zhao Min said, "That day outside the Green Willow Manor, I dispatched people to attack your grandfather, Yang Xiao, and the others; but this Miss Xiao Zhao had actually defended against the troops. I know that under a capable general there are no weak soldiers, but still, under the Ming Cult’s Jiaozhu there is actually a little servant girl with this kind of ability, I found it really strange ...
"What Ming Cult’s Jiaozhu?” Xie Xun interrupted.
"Laoye Zi,” Zhao Min laughed, "Let me tell you now: the young master, your foster child, is the Cult Leader of the Ming Cult. You are actually his subordinate.”
Xie Xun was half believing and half doubting; he was at a loss of words. Thereupon Zhao Min told him briefly how Zhang Wuji had taken over the Cult Leader position; but she did not know too much about the details. Xie Xun then asked Zhang Wuji directly, and he did not have any choice but telling him the truth, about his involvement when the Six Major Sects besieged the Brightness Peak, and how he found the ‘Qian Kun Da Nuo Yi’ manual inside the secret passage.
In his utmost delight Xie Xun stood up, then knelt down on the small boat’s deck; "Subordinate Jin Mao Shi Wang Xie Xun pays his respect to Jiaozhu,” he said.
Zhang Wuji hastily also knelt down to return his respect. "Yifu,” he said, "Please don’t be overly courteous. Yang Jiaozhu had left an order for Yifu to take the interim Jiaozhu position. It is very hard for your child to bear this heavy responsibility. With the Heaven’s blessing Yifu has returned, safe and sound; it is truly our Cult’s good fortune. As soon as we reached the Central Earth, I am going to ask Yifu to take over the Jiaozhu position.”
Xie Xun sadly said, "Your Yifu has returned, but his eyes are blind. So you cannot actually say ‘safe and sound’. How can a blind man take the leadership of the Ming Cult? Miss Zhao, didn’t you say you have two things you do not understand?”
"I want to ask Miss Xiao Zhao,” Zhao Min said, "Who taught you the ‘qi men ba gua’ [strange/wonderful gate, eight trigrams] and ‘yin yang wu xing’ [yin and yang, five elements] techniques? You are very young, how did you know all those extraordinary skills?”
Xiao Zhao replied, "They are my family heritage. It is not worth Junzhu Niang-niang’s [Princess] attention.”
"Who is your honorable father?” Zhao Min asked further, "The daughter is this good, your father and mother must be world famous masters.”
"My father has buried his name and lives in seclusion,” Xiao Zhao replied, "Why did Junzhu bother to ask? Could it be that you are going to cut my fingers to force me to show you my martial art?” She was young, but surprisingly did not show the slightest degree of submission toward Zhao Min. By bringing up the finger cutting affair, it was obvious that she was trying to incite Zhou Zhiruo’s anger; pulling her to her side to face a common enemy.
Zhao Min simply smiled; she turned her head toward Zhang Wuji and said, "Zhang Gongzi, that night we met at the small inn in Dadou for the second time, Ku Toutuo Fan Yao came to take his leave from me. When he saw Miss Xiao Zhao, he said two sentences; what were those?”
Zhang Wuji had already forgotten this matter; now that she brought it up, he had to think for a moment before answering, "Ku Dashi [Reverend Ku] seemed to say that Xiao Zhao’s appearance looks very much like someone he knew.”
"Correct!” Zhao Min said, "Can you guess to whom did Ku Dashi think Miss Xiao Zhao look like?” "How can I guess?” Zhang Wuji said.
Throughout this discussion, the small boat was approaching the Ling She Island. They that saw a row of ships were moored on the west of the Island; there was a large red blazing fire painted on each one of their main sails, there was also a black ribbon hanging from each sail. Zhang Wuji wrinkled his eyebrows and said, "The Persian Central Cult dispatches their armada; the number of people coming in must be a lot.”
Zhao Min said, "Let us take this boat to the back of the island and land on a secluded place. Don’t let them see us yet.”
"Yes!” Zhang Wuji nodded his head.
He was only rowing for three, four ‘zhang’s when suddenly from one of the ships came a bugle sound, ‘whoo, whoo .’ followed by ‘bang, bang’ two explosions, as two cannonballs were fired away. One fell to the left of the small boat, the other to its right side, creating two water columns. The small boat was shaken and nearly turned over.
Someone called out from the ship, "Quickly row the boat over here; if you don’t obey, we are going to fire again.”
Zhang Wuji silently groaned, knowing that with these two salvos the enemy deliberately demonstrated their ability to shoot accurately; if they could hit two sides of the boat, then with the distance so close, they would easily hit the boat. Once the boat capsized, none of the six people onboard would survive. He had no choice but slowly row the boat toward the ship while the three cannons from the big ship slowly turned, following them around.
When the small boat reached the ship, a rope ladder was let down. Zhang Wuji said, "Let us go up and try to seize the ship.”
Xie Xun groped around for the ladder and he was the first to go up. Without saying anything Zhou Zhiruo stooped down to pick Yin Li up, and then climbed to the ship, followed Xiao Zhao. Carrying Zhao Min in his arm, Zhang Wuji was the last to go aboard the ship.
They saw the people on the ship were all blonde haired with blue eyes, their statures tall, they were Persian foreigners; but Liuyun Shi and the other two were actually not among them. One of them, who spoke Chinese, asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Zhao Min replied, "We are shipwrecked; and are looking for help.”
That Persian was half believing and half doubting; he turned his head around and spoke several sentences in Persian toward someone sitting on a chair on the deck, who seemed to be their leader. That leader mumbled some instructions. Suddenly Xiao Zhao jumped and sent out a palm strike toward that leader. The leader was startled; he dodged sideways, grabbed the chair, and smashed it toward Xiao Zhao.
Zhang Wuji was taken by surprise; not anticipating Xiao Zhao to make her move this soon. He moved three feet sideways and stretched out his fingers to strike the leader’s acupoint. The several dozen Persian sailors aboard were immediately thrown into confusion; they unsheathed their weapons and surrounded them. Although these people knew martial art, their skills were far below those of the Cloud and Wind emissaries.
Supporting Yin Li with his right hand, Zhang Wuji’s left hand struck to the east and slapped to the west. Xie Xun unsheathed his Tulong Saber; Zhou Zhiruo brandished her sword; together with Xiao Zhao whose movements were quick, in a short period of time they struck down dozens of Persians. More than
ten people fell down on the deck, either died or seriously injured by the blades; about seven, eight people fell down to the sea below, while the rest of them were immobilized because their acupoints were sealed.
Instantly the sea was full with people shouting and bugle sounding, as the other Persian ships moved to surround them, with the people on board ready to attack. Zhang Wuji picked up the leader and jumped to the ship’s side. "Don’t you dare come over, or I’ll hack this man to his death,” he shouted loud and clear.
The people on the other ships shouted and yelled. Zhang Wuji did not understand what they were saying, but seeing that nobody jumped to their ship, he believed the man he captured must be someone in a high position, so that the enemy hesitated and did not dare to attack rashly. Zhang Wuji jumped back down to the deck.
He barely laid that leader down when he suddenly heard a swishing noise from behind, as a weapon was coming down on his back. Quickly he evaded sideways and kicked back; only to feel that his foot had struck a Sheng Huo Ling, while from the left another Sheng Huo Ling swept horizontally. Zhang Wuji groaned inwardly, resenting the fact that the Wind, Cloud, and Moon Emissaries have arrived this quickly. "Everybody, retreat back to the cabin,” he shouted, while lifting up the leader in his hands to parry the Sheng Huo Ling.
Huiyue Shi hastily pulled her attack back, but because of this abrupt movement, her lower body was exposed; Zhang Wuji swept with his leg and almost hit her calf. Liuyun Shi and Miaofeng Shi attacked together from the sides, forcing Zhang Wuji to withdraw his kick.
Toward the ninth stance, the Sheng Huo Ling in Miaofeng Shi’s left hand slamming down diagonally in a very weird move; looked like he was aiming Zhang Wuji’s lower abdomen. Zhang Wuji lowered the Persian leader’s body. Although Miaofeng Shi’s stance was very strange, Zhang Wuji’s reaction was extremely ingenious. ‘Slap!’ the Sheng Huo Ling squarely hit that Persian on his left cheek.
The Three Emissaries cried out in alarm simultaneously; their countenance changed and they leaped back at the same time. After talking in Persian among themselves, suddenly they bowed toward the Persian in Zhang Wuji’s hand, with a very respectful expression; and then they retreated.
Suddenly the bugle sounded again as one big ship slowly came near. On the bow of this ship were twelve embroidered golden banners, while underneath the banners twelve chairs were set covered in tiger skins. One of the chairs was empty, while the other eleven were occupied. That big ship stopped some distance away and dropped its anchor.
Zhao Min noticed that the empty chair was the sixth one; a thought came to her mind. "The man we captured is dressed similar to those eleven people on that ship; looks like among their twelve leaders, he ranks number six.”
"Twelve big leaders?” Xie Xun asked, "Hmm, the Central Cult’s twelve ‘bao shu wang’ [lit. kings of treasured/precious tree] have come to the Central Earth. This is no small matter.”
"What are the twelve ‘bao shu wang’?” Zhao Min asked.
"Under the Jiaozhu of the Persian Central Cult,” replied Xie Xun, "are the twelve grandmasters of the Scripture; they are called the Twelve Precious Tree Kings. Their position is similar to the Four Protector Kings of the Central Earth’s Ming Cult. These twelve kings are: the first Dasheng [great holiness], the second ‘zhi hui’ [wisdom or knowledge], the third Changsheng’ [eternal victory], the fourth Zhanghuo’ [palm of fire], the fifth Qinxiu [diligent cultivation], the sixth Pingdeng [equality], the seventh Xinxin’ [faith], the eighth Zhen’e [suppressing evil], the ninth Zhengzhi [integrity], the tenth Gongde’ [virtue], the eleventh Qixin [single mindedness], the twelfth Juming [entire brightness]. However, these twelve Precious Tree Kings are only experts in Scriptures and doctrines, great teachers of religious law; I heard they are not experts in martial art. This man is the
sixth; so he must be the Pingdeng Bao Shu Wang.”
Zhang Wuji sat down by the main mast, laying down the Pingdeng Wang on his knees. This man held a high position within the Persian Central Cult; hence, Zhang Wuji was thinking of using him a hostage to escape later on, therefore, he must take a good care of him. Looking down, Zhang Wuji saw that man’s left cheek was swollen very badly; fortunately it was not life-threatening. Thinking about the fierceness of Miaofeng Shi’s strike, he felt strange; hastily he exerted his strength and felt some reaction from this man’s internal energy.
Meanwhile Zhou Zhiruo and Xiao Zhao were cleaning up the deck; they moved the corpses to the rear cabin and laid down those who were still alive neatly in rows on the deck.
They saw that they were surrounded by more than ten Persian ships, with each ship’s cannon aimed at their ship, while the deck next to the fender was full of Persian people; their blades flickered under the bright torchlights. The ships were jam-packed with these people, it was difficult even to estimate how many people were there. Zhang Wuji was secretly anxious; without even considering the fact that the cannons on each ship were capable of bombarding their ship, if these thousands of people attacked together, he would be hard-pressed to defend himself even if he had three heads and six arms. He might be able to escape relying on his own martial art skill; but how about his companions? Moreover, Yin Li and Zhao Min were injured, making their situation more dangerous.
He heard a Persian speak in Chinese with a loud voice, "Jin Mao Shi Wang, listen! Our Twelve Precious Tree Kings of the Central Cult are here. You have committed a crime against the Central Cult, the Precious Tree Kings are being lenient and willing to pardon you. Quickly release the Cult member on your ship, we will allow you to sail away safely.”
Xie Xun laughed. "The Old Xie is not a three-year old child; do you think we don’t know that your cannons will fire on us as soon as we released the hostages?” he said.
That Persian was indignant. "If you don’t release our people, do you think we cannot shoot you?”
Xie Xun hesitated for a moment before answering, "I have three conditions; if you agree, we will then respectfully send these Cult people ashore.”
"What condition?” that man asked.
"First,” Xie Xun replied, "From now on, the Central Cult and the Central Earth Ming Cult are to respect each other, no more interfering with each other’s affairs.”
"Hmm, and the second?” that man said.
"Release Taj-kis,” Xie Xun said, "Send her over to our boat. Pardon her for losing her chastity, and do not look for her again, ever.”
"Not on your life,” that man angrily said, "Taj-kis has violated a major law of the Central Cult; she must be burned alive as a punishment. What does that have to do with your Central Earth Ming Cult, anyway? What is the third condition?”
"You have not agreed to the second one, why talk about the third one?” Xie Xun said.
"All right!” that man replied, "Let’s just say we agree to the second condition; then there is no problem in hearing the third one, isn’t there?”
"The third condition?” Xie Xun said, "That’s the easiest one. Send a small boat to follow us. After we sail for fifty ‘li’s, and we are sure that you are not pursuing us, then we’ll release the hostages to the small boat. You are free to pick them up.”
That man angrily shouted, "Hu shou jiu dao! Hu shou jiu dao!”
Xie Xun and the others were puzzled, not understanding what he said. Zhao Min laughed and said, "This man learned how to speak Chinese, but he learned it sloppily. He must have thought one degree higher than ‘nonsense’ must be ‘absurd’.” [Translator’s note: ‘hu shuo ba dao’ (????) means ‘rubbish, nonsense’, where the single character ? - ‘ba’ means ‘eight’. The man increased the number eight to number nine, ? - ‘jiu’.]
Xie Xun and Zhang Wuji thought they could not blame his logic; they could not help bursting into laughter even though they were currently under a dire circumstance.
As that man increased the ‘degree of rubbishness’ and Xie Xun and the others were laughing, the Precious Three King who was sitting at the end of the row, called Juming Bao Shu Wang, was angry. L
etting out a loud whistle, he jumped toward the enemy’s ship. The eleventh king, Qixin Bao Shu Wang, followed behind him.
Zhang Wuji stepped forward, his left palm struck toward Qixin Bao Shu Wang’s chest. To his surprise, Qixin Wang did not parry, but stretching out his left hand to grab the top of Zhang Wuji’s head. Zhang Wuji thought that surely his palm would reach the enemy’s body first; who would have thought that from the side Ju Ming Wang’s both palms came charging in, blocking his palm, while at the same time Qixin Wang’s fingers almost touched his skull. Zhang Wuji evaded by moving one step forward. He realized now that these two people’s collaboration was as tight as one person with four arms and four legs.
The three people had exchanged seven, eight stances in a flash. Zhang Wuji was inwardly worried; the collaborations of these two were somewhat inferior compared to the Wind and Cloud, three emissaries, but their martial art was very strange nonetheless. The essence of their martial art was clearly similar to the ‘Qian Kun Da Nuo Yi’, but as their attack arrived, it carried an unpredictable variation within, making it very difficult for Zhang Wuji to fight with confidence. Speaking about swiftness and fierceness, however, their stances were actually not as good as the Qian Kun Da Nuo Yi by a long shot. These two men were fighting as they were mad; occasionally they would launch what seemed to be a stance from the Qian Kun Da Nuo Yi, but before striking the target, they would suddenly act as if they were losing their minds and kicked and hit randomly, but surprisingly their attack was very difficult to block. Their collaboration was very tight, it wasn’t any different from the Wind and Cloud Three Emissaries.
Zhang Wuji resisted with a lot of effort and only managed to fight them evenly; it was not until twenty, thirty stances later that he slowly started to gain an upper hand. It was at this moment that the Wind and Cloud, Three Emissaries, howled in one voice and jumped to their ship, toward the Pingdeng Wang, with the intention of snatching him back to redeem their guilt of striking him earlier.
Xie Xun heaved the Ping Deng Wang and brandished him around, making a large circle around him. This time, how could the Wind and Cloud, Three Emissaries, dare to act rashly? They hastened to the left and dodged to the right, while trying to find a hole to launch their attack.