Heaven-relying Sword And Dragon-slaying Sabre

Wiping the tears in her eyes away with a handkerchief, she went on: "Since a misunderstanding with one of my elder sisters-at-arms two years ago, I have not dared to see my teacher or go home … "

"Hmmph! That 'Evil Wuyan Ding Minjun' is horrible!" Zhang Wuji said at once. "Auntie, you do not have to be afraid of her."

Ji Xiaofu gasped in surprise. "Eh, how did you know about this?" she asked.

After the boy told her how he and Chang Yuchun had seen her rescuing Monk Peng in the woods, she sighed quietly and said, "I should never have done anything that I do not want others to know about! How could my actions have escaped the ears and the eyes of men?"

"Sixth Uncle Yin is a very good man," said Zhang Wuji. "But if you do not like him, what is wrong with not marrying him? When I see Uncle Yin, I will ask him not to insist on it any longer."

Ji Xiaofu could not help but smile miserably at the boy's naive and simple view. "Child, I did not intentionally set out to do your Sixth Uncle Yin wrong," she said gently. "I had no alternatives then, but … but now, I have no regrets about it either … " Then, she thought: This child's heart is like a blank piece of paper, so I had better not tell him about the intimate affairs between men and women. Besides, they do not seem to be related to the issue on hand.

Thus, she continued: "After falling out with Sister Ding, I did not return to E-mei again. Instead, I took Bu-er and went to Mount Shungeng, about three hundred li (150 km) west of Butterfly Valley, where we led carefree and peaceful lives among woodcutters and farmers for more than two years. Half a month ago, Bu- er and I went to town to buy cloth for some new clothes. There, I came upon a fresh chalk drawing of a small sword surrounded by rays of light in the corner of a wall. It was a coded call for disciples of the E-mei School. I became very frightened after seeing it, but I soon realised that it was not my fault for falling out with Sister Ding. I have also not done anything to deceive my teacher or betray my school. Therefore, I decided to answer the call, just in case it was left by a schoolmate in trouble. So, with Bu- er in hand, I followed the trail of drawings to Fengyang.

"Within Fengyang City itself, another drawing led us to the Linhuai Pavilion-Restaurant. There were already seven or eight members of the martial arts circle there, including Kongdong's Jian Jie as well as Mount Hua's Xue Gongyuan and his two brothers, but there were no E-mei disciples.

"I had met Jian Jie and Xue Gongyuan before, so I quickly found out from them that they too had followed the coded drawings of their respective clans all the way to Fengyang. But no one knew what the call was really about.

"After waiting for a day, no other E-mei disciples arrived. Instead, a few more pugilists from other organisations appeared, including those from the Clan of the Exquisite Fists (Shen2 Quan2 Men2) and the Beggars' Gang (Gai4 Bang1). They too said that they had come to the Linhuai Pavilion- Restaurant after seeing the coded drawings of their respective organisations. Several more people turned up on the second day for the same reason, but the sender of these calls did not appear. Doubts crept into our hearts: Have we all been tricked by the enemy?

"By then, fifteen people from nine different clans had responded to this strange gathering in the Linhuai Pavilion-Restaurant. The coded drawings differed fron one organisation to another, of course, and each guarded its own closely. No one, except for the members of the clans themselves, knew what these marks meant. If this gathering was really a work of treachery, how could the enemy have known the secret symbols of nine different clans? Unwilling to put Bu- er at risk or see any of my schoolmates, I decided to go home. After all, it was clear that this was not a call for help.

"Just as I was about to leave the restaurant, loud tapping sounds were heard on the stairs, as if someone was coming up with the help of a pole or crutch. A series of coughs followed, and a silver-haired old woman with a hunched back came into view. She coughed painfully as she walked, supported by a young girl about twelve or thirteen years old. I moved aside at once, allowing the ill and elderly woman to come up the stairs first. Her young helper had a refined air and a pretty face. On the other hand, the old woman, with her bleached walking stick and plain clothes, looked like a poor peasant. Yet, she had a shiny rosary in her left hand. When I took a closer look, I realised that the beads of her rosary were actually plum blossoms made from yellow gold … "

"So this old woman is the 'owner of the golden flower'?" asked Zhang Wuji in surprise.

"That is right!" answered Ji Xiaofu with a nod. "But who would have thought of such a thing at that moment?" Reaching into her pocket, she brought out a small plum blossom made of gold. It looked exactly like the one that Zhang Wuji had shown Hu Qingniu barely a week earlier.

The boy was amazed, for he had expected the 'owner of the golden flower' to be a horribly vicious and terribly formidable man. Yet, according to Ji Xiaofu's description, the enemy had turned out to be a sickly old woman.

Ji Xiaofu went on: "After the old woman reached the top of the stairs, she began to cough. The young girl said, 'Grandmother, perhaps you should take some medicine.' As the old woman nodded in agreement, the girl opened a small porcelain bottle and poured a medicinal pellet out. The old woman swallowed the pellet with much difficulty before saying a series of 'Amitabha!'. Then, with her eyes half-closed, she mumbled, 'Only fifteen … mmm, ask them: Has anyone from the schools of Wudang and Kunlun arrived?'

"No one had paid her much attention when she first came up the stairs, so everyone was taken aback by her sudden remarks. A few of the men turned around at once, but they quickly dismissed what they had heard at the sight of this old and senile-looking peasant woman. The young girl raised her voice and said, 'Hey, my grandmother asks you: Has anyone from the schools of Wudang and Kunlun arrived?' Shocked, no one answered her. After a while, Kongdong's Jian Jie said, 'Young lady, what did you just say?' The girl answered with a question of her own: 'My grandmother asks: Why are the disciples of Wudang and Kunlun not here?' 'Who are you?' asked Jian Jie again. Just then, the old woman bent over and began another series of coughs.

"Suddenly, a strong gust of wind came towards my chest. I did not know where it had come from, but it was incomparably fast. I quickly raised my palm to deflect it, only to have my chest block up with nausea. I sank to the floor and threw up several mouthfuls of blood. As I struggled to get a grip on things, I saw the old woman floating across the room, sending a palm to the right and a fist to the left amidst a series of coughs. Within moments, the other fourteen men were all struck down. These sudden, swift and strong movements left us with no opportunity to fight back, for we either had our acupoints blocked or our internal organs injured. Then, the old woman's left hand swept out and sent a gold blossom each into our arms. After that, she reached for the young girl, said 'Amitabha!' and hobbled down the stairs. It took quite a while before the tapping sounds of her walking stick and her coughs faded away."