EARTHLY DRAGON, SOARING PALM

by Derek Dorris

  Confident they would make the handover at dawn like always, she sat down in a ditch about a hundred meters away from the entrance to the path. As dawn broke, there was no sign of any movement so she decided to move closer to the house. However, just as she was about to jump out of the ditch, she heard the sound of horses coming from behind her. She crouched down in time to see an even larger party of Jade Tiger operatives ride by. Amazingly, in the middle of their party she saw four more monks dressed in the same kind of brightly coloured robes. Except these monks wore blue, black, green, and white and were riding their own horses, their hands bound in iron chains. She was now certain they all belonged to Earthly Dragon. Between them, there wasn't a look of shame on their faces. No self-respecting Jianghu warrior would sit so calmly on the back of a horse captured and chained. But the Earthly Dragon masters were renowned for their almost complete lack of pride. What the hell is happening?

  Though it seemed the Jade Tigers had subdued the entire Earthly Dragon Sect bar one, Tu Ling knew the tactics of the Jade Tigers too well. She had already guessed half the story. The first troop’s prisoners were unconscious. Certainly they were drugged somehow. From there, securing the peaceful surrender of the remaining monks was only a matter of threatening the lives of their grandmasters. What she was still unclear on was how the Jade Tigers got their hands on the type of poison that would catch the Earthly Three or their guardian monks off guard. The grandmasters may not have any experience in weaponised poisons but they were experts in the most powerful internal kung fu in the world. Any compound that could render them unconscious would be detected by them as soon as it hit their bloodstream. They would simply reverse its flow and push it out of their system.

  That the remaining guardians had now been dropped off at the safe house was actually encouraging for Tu Ling. The sedated state of the first six prisoners left her no way of getting them out of there on her own. Now there were guardian monks among the prisoners who were awake and alert, all she had to do was free one of them from his bonds and he could subdue the Jade Tigers singlehandedly. What's more, knowing the tactics the Jade Tigers employed down to their finest details, it looked now like they wouldn't be handed off until the dawn of the next day at the earliest.

  With a plan formed, she scouted the house to confirm where the guardian monks had been sequestered and how many were guarding them. Nothing was out of the ordinary so she headed back to the town with the intention of finding a blacksmith and acquiring the tools she would require.

  As she entered the town, she was stopped in her tracks by what she saw. A young man was standing anxiously among the crowd. The very man Tu Ling was about to betray her family's sect for. She couldn't afford to avoid him. Having him by her side would significantly increase her plan’s chance of success.

  Besides, she missed him.

  As Bai Feng stood staring at her, tears filled her eyes. She was grieved by the hatred she saw in him but also elated at his inability to kill her. “I know where they've taken your grandmasters,” she repeated, quivering inside and out. “Let me help you Feng'er. I'm sorry. I didn't know it was your parents’ home. I didn't know it was your family. It was all a horrible coincidence. I know you think I'm a terrible person but am I really that much of a monster?”

  Bai Feng couldn't bring himself to say a word to her. He just stared at her with a smouldering rage.

  “Please Feng'er,” she pleaded again, her voice rising almost to a shriek. “It's… it's the Jade Tigers who took your grandmasters. I followed them to their hideout and I've got a plan. I was going to try to free them on my own but with your help we can't fail.”

  Suddenly, Bai Feng convulsed and blood spurted from his mouth. His internal energy had been stirring up again since the panic of finding the Earthly Temple empty and now, learning it was the Jade Tigers who took them and Tu Ling was offering to help betray them, his insides were in uproar. Spitting the blood on the ground, he fell onto one knee, his body swaying, threatening to fall completely. Tu Ling raced towards him without thinking but he jerked his hand away.

  Touching her hand felt good. It was the last thing he could remember.

  * * *

  He woke in a soupy drowsiness, tired yet strangely comfortable. Noticing the shadows on the wall, he willed his mind to work. Late afternoon, he thought. I've been asleep for hours. Slowly, he lifted his head up to find Tu Ling sitting anxiously at the end of the bed.

  “You passed out. I've given you some medication to make you feel better but I don't know if it'll help in the long term. What's wrong with you?” She seemed genuinely alarmed.

  “Nothing you need to worry about.”

  “Look, I'm deeply sorry for everything that's happened but you better get used to the fact that I'm going to help you get your masters back, whether you like it or not.”

  “How can I trust you not to betray me?”

  “You've been unconscious for two hours. If I wanted to harm you or sedate you, don't you think I'd have done so already?”

  Bai Feng thought for a moment and couldn't think of a reason for her to deceive him in this manner. She was right. If she had ill intentions towards him, she'd have incapacitated him as soon as he passed out. He couldn't help thinking how fortuitous it was he passed out. If he had tried, he couldn't have devised a better test of her loyalty. The truth was he wanted to believe her.

  He sat silently for some time and slept a little more before waking with crystal clarity in his eyes.

  Tu Ling hadn't moved from his bedside and noted the sudden calming of his demeanour. Could he be about to forgive me? she wondered breathlessly.

  “Tu Ling,” Bai Feng finally said with a peculiar coldness. “I think you know I have feelings for you; feelings that stopped me from utterly hating you. But it remains the truth that you had a hand in the slaughter of my family.”

  Tu Ling blanched at these words while Bai Feng continued in that same strange stony tone.

  “I will let you help me on this one occasion but you are to never mention my family to me again. You will not disgrace their good name by speaking of them with your vile tongue. If you do, I cannot say what will happen to you.”

  Tu Ling was dumbstruck at this point. How could she know it was about to get worse?

  “And know this,” Bai Feng continued, only in a manner more deadly than she had ever known him. “Before I die, I will slaughter your entire family and sect in the very manner they did my family. I will butcher them so completely and so ruthlessly that word of my deed will ring through the Jianghu for a thousand years. I will only spare you. Regardless of that, after you help me free my masters, I will never see you again.”

  The finality in his words crushed Tu Ling to the core. She had convinced herself she could make amends and win Bai Feng's heart back but not only did it seem pointless, he was now determined to kill her father. He was one of the most powerful warriors in the world and he had just vowed to butcher her entire family.

  Tears flooded from her eyes but she didn't move. She merely nodded her assent. Bai Feng felt an immediate pang of guilt. He wanted to sadden her, to frighten her yet, he wasn't prepared for her to just sit silently and take it. After all, this was a proud and violent woman. Perhaps she really did regret her actions. At this point, Sitting Lotus’ advice rang in his ears. Am I really going to slaughter her entire family? Why did I forbid her to mentions my family's name?

  These weren't questions he was prepared to answer now. For the time being, it felt very good to say what he said. And it felt very good saying it to her. Even if she did react the way she did.

  From then on, their conversation was entirely tactical with no small talk. He asked her to elaborate on her plan and they agreed to set off for the safe house after dark.

  Carnage at the Safe-House

  “Are they behaving?” Zhu Ye asked, sitting his bulky frame down.

  “Best behaved prisoners I've ever seen,” Wang Yuan replied. “You won't believe it; we barely need to lock the do
or. All four of ’em sitting there placid as dead dogs.”

  “That's all that ‘Earthly’ nonsense they go on about. ‘No ego, no shame, no pride’. Damn cursed cowards.”

  “Don't know about that. If we didn't have a knife to their leaders’ throats, I reckon they'd be fierce trouble.”

  “Piss on all that! What kind of man surrenders without a fight? They're a cursed embarrassment to the martial world!”

  “A hundred years of reputation doesn't come from nowhere. Use your head.”

  “Reputation!” Zhu Ye spat as he scratched vigorously at his greasy beard. “How many cursed weaklings have we slain who had monstrous reputations?”

  “Listen,” said Wang Yuan wearily, his spirit for arguing doused by lack of sleep. “We were hired by that Divine Alchemist to capture ’em. But under explicit orders to, first, lace their food with that compound of his and, second, wait fourteen days to be sure it took effect. The Old Alchemist even concocted that ruse with the dagger so he could separate ’em and reduce their numbers up on the peak. If they're such pushovers why didn't he, one of the most powerful masters in the world, just stroll in a subdue ’em all in one go?”

  Zhu Ye grunted in dismissal and simply stared out the window.

  “Right, and I'll tell you another thing. Those five warrior monks were never supposed to come back from Mount Song; but four of ’em did. So obviously the Old Alchemist couldn't neutralise ’em on his own.” His point made, Wang Yuan sat back. “Weaklings my ass! They're just peculiar. Truth be told, that frightens me more.”

  In the next room, the four guardian monks were sitting in the pitch dark chained to the walls, their mouths gagged. Only the Artless Monk was absent from the party that left Mount Song. Their heads were clear but their nerves were stretched. They had no idea where their grandmasters and three guardian brothers were. Individually, they had racked their brains for a solution to this mess. They had no idea why the Jade Tigers wanted them alive. Obviously, it had something to do with the siege on Mount Song but none of them could figure it out.

  From the beginning, only the Artless Monk had expressed grave misgivings about their mission. And whilst riding back to Earthly Mountain, he repeatedly warned against ambush. In such matters, the Artless Monk was by far the cleverest of the Eight Guardians. He had been a general in the Liu army before he joined the Earthly Dragon Sect. The Nameless Monk was the most senior but, in matters of tactics, he often deferred to his brother's wisdom. He ordered the Artless Monk to fall back and prepare a quick retreat if one were so needed. When they surrendered, they had counted on their fourth brother’s martial and tactical abilities to rescue them as the Jade Tigers worked their way back through the winding ravines under the encumbrance of hostages. Yet nothing had happened. There was no sign of him.

  This was an additional worry for the guardian monks to bear because there could only be two reasons why their brother did not attempt a rescue—either he had been captured himself… or worse. And if he had been captured, then why didn't the Jade Tigers throw him in with them. These and similar thoughts disturbed their minds as they sat silently in the dark. And of course, it's in silence and darkness where one's strength is tested the most. Feelings they had spent a lifetime trying to purge began to creep into their minds.

  Shame.

  Guilt.

  They each thought of Bai Feng and how he would react in this situation. His strength of character was something they all looked to as an example. He was supposed to learn from them and although, he certainly did, it was not nearly as much as they learned from him. He had become a talisman to their life's pursuit. Their eyes were desperate for stimulation and in its absence, the blackness of the room combined with their anxieties ensured that at some point they had all imagined Bai Feng standing amongst them; looking at them with those bright eyes of his. Understandably, therefore, when the door burst off its hinges sometime in the middle of the night, none of them really believed what they were seeing.

  Sometime during the previous hour, Bai Feng and Tu Ling had crept up on the Jade Tiger safe house. Tu Ling was experiencing the first serious waves of conflict since she had forged her plan while, beside her, Bai Feng was bristling, the urge to do violence galloping through his body. Inside were people she had grown up with. Men who helped raise her—in their own way. There were some she didn't care about like the sisters but Wang Yuan was as close to a good man as the Jade Tigers had. However, she was committed to spending the rest of her life making amends to Bai Feng; no matter what she had to do.

  She leaned in and whispered, “I only count a dozen horses. It looks like the first team moved on immediately. I should have guessed that. If they're using your grandmasters’ safety as a threat against the other four, then they wouldn't want to keep them all together for too long. The second team had custody of your four martial uncles, so it's reasonable to assume they're still in there.”

  Bai Feng said nothing. He just stared at the house

  In the absence of an acknowledgment, Tu Ling continued. “The left front room is where your masters will be. It's blacked out so there'll be no light in there whatsoever and there'll be two guards on the door. The chains your masters will be bound with will be folded steel, we'll need these tools.”

  Bai Feng threw a disdainful eye over the chisel and hammer she brought with her and scoffed. “Where are the remaining Jade Tiger scum?”

  Tu Ling swallowed her urge to bite back. “In the back room. There's one door in and the room runs the width of the house.”

  “Fine.” Bai Feng stood up abruptly and stalked towards the safehouse.

  Tu Ling gasped and sped ahead of him so she got there first. “Wang Yuan!” she shouted while pretending to pant.

  Wang Yuan was shocked but elated to see his master’s daughter burst through the door. She had been missing for weeks and his master was frantic. However, as she ran into his arms, he felt a sudden pressure applied to the “coral sky” acupoint on his neck and he fell to the floor unconscious.

  This of course was intended. If Tu Ling incapacitated him before Bai Feng arrived, then hopefully he would ignore his unconscious body and let him live. As Wang Yuan hit the floor, Zhu Ye was on his feet about to shout a warning when a blur of light flew through the door. It seemed to travel straight through him, leaving in its wake a crooked and bent thing that only vaguely resembled a man.

  As Tu Ling's brain processed the strange looking object that was once Zhu Ye, she recognised his head dangling towards the floor. From within the greasy beard, its mouth still tried to move, a look a sheer horror stamped across the rest of its face. He was still alive! Barely and not for much longer but he was conscious enough to feel most of it.

  Bai Feng ignored the room where his masters were being held and went straight for the back room sending the door flying inwards as he pushed through. Ten operatives, well versed in combat, reached for their weapons. Tu Ling watched with horror as the room transformed into a pit of wretched screams and arterial spray. The sisters who always operated as a team charged first. Bai Feng caught the eldest by her neck and simply squeezed his fingers towards the palm of his hand. The neck in between was crushed like egg shell. As he withdrew that same arm into a rear attacking elbow he didn't even let go of her crushed neck. The force from the withdrawal took her head clean off while the elbow collapsed the chest of her sister, excruciatingly and fatally. The remaining eight operatives were nothing compared to these fighters. They perished in a fit of bone-crushing, flesh-eviscerating rage.

  When he emerged from the back room, Bai Feng was matted in blood. Ignoring her completely, he blew right past her for the room on the left. Tu Ling was used to the most violent of carnage but even she was left nauseous by the stench of blood left in his wake. When he got to the room where they were keeping his masters, he pushed in the door with one hand and found the four guardian monks Tu Ling just as described. He raced forward and pulled on their chains with his hands. Bai Feng was now immensely strong so he assu
med he could break them with his mere hands. However, nothing happened. He kept struggling not wanting to ask Tu Ling for the chisel and hammer.

  The guardian monks were looking at him with confusion. What had happened to the Bai Feng they knew only a few months ago? He looked sick, strained, entirely unspooled.

  Tu Ling stepped forward. “Let me try, Feng'er.”

  Bai Feng didn't even look at her; he just stepped back and tried to get a hold of himself. There was only one reason why he didn't want admit he needed her help. Pride, he thought.

  Pride.

  Sure, it was so wrapped up in his rage that it was hard to tell one from the other but it was now unmistakable. The guardian monks had noticed it too.

  He turned around and stormed out of the room.

  Shame.

  Suddenly, all the training of the previous ten years unravelled as thoughts of domination swung the doors of his mind wide open to ego and all its petty distractions. Worse still, he had used so much internal strength in the last few minutes; his heart was now pumping unnaturally fast. Clouded by ego, he had no chance of calming his own mind. And so he became violently ill once again. Blood spurted from his mouth and everything went black.

  Ambush at the Meeting-Point

  Waking up nauseous and disorientated was beginning to feel familiar to Bai Feng. It was early in the morning. Only hours before, he had massacred an entire troop of Jade Tigers and rescued four of his masters. He was too weak to sit up or even call someone for help. With no other option, he simply lay there and stared at the ceiling. His hands and arms felt sticky and the nausea swelled within him as he realised it was the dried blood of his victims, re-moistened by his own body's sweat.

  Redirecting his thoughts, he listened to the town as it woke outside his window. He noticed he was back at the same inn that Tu Ling had brought him to the previous day. He remembered how he felt just before he passed out, the gamut of self-defeating emotions he experienced. The Earthly Dragon walked a constant tightrope with their ascetic subjugation of ego. Ego—his three grandmasters told him—was a cultural manifestation of primal urges. Practicing the Five Yin Elementals and Five Yang Modulations taught him to perceive the social world differently—to rationally unpick the tapestry of social conventions such as pride, shame, and insecurity. However, these conventions were pervasive and for most Earthly Dragon disciples, decades of meditation were required in order to unlearn a lifetime of cultural conditioning.