Soaring Swallows Startle Dragons

Night Chat on a Skiff

Part 1 (26)

By the time it was light out they had gone over a hundred miles. Master One Yang crested a summit and used his incredible vision to look ahead. On the left he could faintly make out the outline of a town, approximately a seventy to eighty mile journey. If they rested, then continued on, they could reach it by around noon. He was delighted and quickly leapt down and said to Snakeman Qiu Yuan, “There’s a town just visible on the left, about seventy to eighty miles away. If we can make it there by noon, will we be able to purchase the medicines needed to treat the venom?”

Qiu Yuan glanced at Master Wise Perfected, who was sitting quietly on the grass and regulating her breathing. “What’s the rush? Her condition won’t get worse for two days. My Jade Dew Detoxifying pills are not reanimating golden elixirs, but but they are a wonder at removing poisons. There’s no other detoxifying medicines like it in the world.”

Master One Yang could only give a faint smile at this slight snag of a rebuff. Master Wise Perfected’s life was in Qiu Yuan’s hands, threatening this renowned figure of the martial world would do no good. He turned to the side and controlled his resentment.

Shen Xialin had been overworked all night, but luckily she had a firm internal skill foundation, so after a round of regulating her breathing her energy was back to normal. She went up to Yang Menghuan and sat close to him. “Big Brother Huan, is there really no way to cure my sectfather’s condition?”

Menghuan frowned. “That I don’t know. Maybe there will be a way to cure her.”

Xialin smiled sadly. “I know there’s no way to cure her.” Heartbroken, she shed two streams of tears.

Menghuan saw her slightly in a daze and said, “Look how much dust is on your face. Come on, let’s wash our faces.”

Xialin slowly stood and went with Menghuan over to a mountain spring. They washed their faces and sat down on a block of limestone by the spring. The sun was just rising, sunlight streaming through the mouth of a gorge and shining on Xialin’s face a dazzling pink, redoubling her tender beauty. Menghuan fix the stray hairs at her temple, and with immeasurable tenderness said, “How come you’re always crying?”

Xialin said, “When I feel sad, tears come out and I cry!”

Menghuan wanted to laugh but feared she would be oversensitive and held back, but he heard a snicker from off to the side. He whipped his head around, but there was just sunlight filling the gorge, the jade-green leaves spotted with dew. There was no one else around.

Xialin heard the snicker and scanned the area and searched for a while. She pulled Yang Menghuan over and asked, “Did that laugh just now come from a person?”

Menghuan nodded. “It was a person! But it was a highly skilled person, so we can’t see him.”

Xialin’s eyes widened. “Shouldn’t we go tell Senior Sectuncle?”

Menghuan shook his head. “No.”

Xialin said, “Why not?”

Menghuan said, “They don’t seem to mean us any harm. If you tell Shifu, it might bring trouble…”

Xialin nodded doubtfully, and smiling, pulled Menghuan back to their original spot.

Master One Yang saw that Xialin and Tong Shuzhen had recovered from their fatigue, so they set off again at once.

They crossed over several ridges and reached Ningxi County Town. Master One Yang found a large inn and checked into a large courtyard apartment. He got Master Wise Perfected settled in, then he went with Qiu Yuan to buy medicine. Tong Shuzhen and Xialin waited on Shifu, while Greatmaster Clear Karma arranged the necessary tools and utensils. Yang Menghuan had nothing to do, so he strolled aimlessly out of the courtyard and slipped around to the front to wait on Shifu. This large inn was called Blessings Ascend. It wasn’t a grand, magnificent compound with huge buildings that reached the sky or anything, but it was the best big inn in Ningxi County Town. At the front was a tavern, and the back functioned as an inn.

It was midday and the dozen or so “Eight Transcendents” tables in the spacious downstairs hall were packed, and the din of shouting from playing finger-guessing games filled the hall. Against the right wall was a lone little table at which sat a handsome, refined looking scholar in a scholar’s cap and a blue-green shirtrobe. Yang Menghuan glanced over at him and immediately felt that this scholar was a bit different from others, sitting at a side table all by himself, naturally giving off an air of haughtiness, as if he were a crane amongst a flock of chickens among the various hodge-podge of guests. Without realizing it, Menghuan stood there staring blankly at him.

Suddenly, the blue-clad man looked over and wittingly or unwittingly smiled at Menghuan, an odd gleam in his big eyes that were as limpid as water, that gleam like lightning harboring a frosty blade, so imposing one didn’t dare look at him again. Yang Menghuan felt a jolt in his heart and turned away involuntarily before he got a good look at the person’s face.

Just then, Master One Yang and Qiu Yuan returned with the medicines they’d purchased. Yang Menghuan took the bundles of medicine Shifu gave him, but he was still thinking about about that blue-clad scholar and couldn’t help but steal another glance over at him. He was seated facing the wall, cup raised, drinking by himself, looking leisurely and comfortable, yet also giving off a sumptuous air that made one not able to watch him intently. Yang Menghuan felt it odd, but he couldn’t figure out how this blue-clad scholar differed from others.

He thought about this as he followed Shifu into the rear courtyard. Master One Yang was eager to get on with treating Junior Sister’s snake venom. He rested briefly, then urged Qiu Yuan to get started.

Snakeman carefully examined the tools and utensils laid out to treat the venom, and seeing that everything was in order, he instructed the stove to be lit and for three jars of black vinegar to be poured into a large iron pot, add the medicine, and put the pot on the stove. Though the flames inside the stove were intense, there was more than a hundred catties of black vinegar, so it would take a double-hour before the black vinegar would start to boil.

When Qiu Yuan saw that the vinegar was boiling, he said to Master One Yang, “Please have your junior sectsister remove her Daoist robe and allow the boiling vinegar to fumigate the snake venom in her body to force it back to the site of the wound, then I will begin to remove the venom.”

Master One Yang was stumped. “Is there any other way?”

Qiu Yuan said coldly, “The gold thread snake is one of the most venomous snakes in the world. This is a matter of life and death for her. I don’t know any other brilliant methods to treat her aside from this.”

Master One Yang had no alternative but to go over to Master Wise Perfected. He looked at her but couldn’t say anything. Her starry eyes opened slightly and asked in a low voice, “Do you want to say something?”

Master One Yang said, “To treat the snake venom, we must first drive the venom back to the site of the wound. Have Shuzhen and Xialin help you with that, then I will ask Qiu Yuan to remove the venom for you.”

Master Wise Perfected sighed. “You want me to be at the mercy of others’ orders in everything?”

Master One Yang, immeasurably grief-stricken, said, “I want to first extend your life ten years. In those ten years I will go to sky’s end searching all over for a miracle drug or wonder elixir that can restore your internal power.”

Master Wise Perfected smiled indifferently. “And if you can’t find a miracle drug or a wonder elixir?”

Master One Yang said softly, “Kill Qiu Yuan, spill his blood with a slash of the sword to avenge you…”

Two teardrops rolled down Master Wise Perfected’s cheeks. “If Second Brother is by himself it will be hard to support the school. The Kunlun School will suffer a major setback in the jianghu. Why bother? I don’t want to become the ruiner of the Kunlun School.”

Master One Yang smiled bitterly. “Huan’er is unusually gifted. Ten years from now he will have surpassed me.”

Master Wise Perfected glanced over at Xialin beside her. “Who can say what will happen after ten years? Go on, I’ll do what you say.”

~*~

Qiu Yuan told Tong Shuzhen and Xialin the method of using the boiling vinegar to force out the venom, and he and Master One Yang withdrew from the room.

Tong Shuzhen helped Shifu out of her robe, leaving only her undergarment, and helped her lie down on a bamboo couch-bed and placed the pot of boiling vinegar under the couch-bed. The flames in the stove blazed and steam from the boiling vinegar soared out. Master Wise Perfected felt like she was trapped in a mass of fog and her whole body was drenched in sweat. She clenched her teeth and bore it, but she could still not stifle a miserable moan.

Shen Xialin, tears streaming down her face, with her eyes wide, watched Shifu enduring the steam from the boiling vinegar, and would from time to time use a silk handkerchief to wipe the sweat off Master Wise Perfected’s body.

Tong Shuzhen, even though she too looked sad and like she wanted to cry, she knew that this was a huge matter of life and death for Shifu. She gritted her teeth and kept concerned herself with maintaining the stove fire. After a full double-hour or so, Master Wise Perfected’s sweat was raining down and dropping in among the boiling vinegar. Only now did Tong Shuzhen stop and Xialin helped Shifu into the bedroom. She covered her with a quilt and closely examined the bite wound on Shifu’s right wrist. As expected, it had consolidated into a mass of deep purple. She called Qiu Yuan in to treat Shifu’s venom.

Snakeman took out a small little silver knife and made an incision at the site of the wound, then with both hands he slowly squeezed out a lot of black liquid. Once the venom was all out and blood started to flow, he took a small vial of white powder from his robe and applied it to the wound, then bandaged it up. He said to Master One Yang, “Your junior sectsister is fine now. Apply the medicine for her in twelve double-hours and have her take four Jade Dew Detoxifying pills. For the next ten years the snake venom that has seeped into her bone marrow will not flare up again. You can have the rest of the Jade Dew Detoxifying pills and that vial of Eight Treasures Detoxifying Powder. Consider it a gift of thanks for helping me set my broken bone. I have an appointment to keep with Eight Armed Divine Codger on Mount Hua. If I don’t die, you Three Masters of Kunlun can come find me anytime to settle the score.”

Master One Yang smiled indifferently. “Like I said before, for the next ten years, the Kunlun School will not seek revenge against you.”

Qiu Yuan said, “Even if you don’t come looking for me, I might very well run into something else. That I wouldn’t appreciate.”

Master One Yang said, “Enemies often cross paths. If that happens, that’s another matter.”

Qiu Yuan took up his snakehead staff, cupped a hand over his fist in salute, and left. Master One Yang put his palms together and saw Snakeman off, then he turned back to go see Junior Sister. Her eyes were close like she was sleeping. Seeing her deathly pale face and her disheveled hair by the pillow, he felt pity for her. In a low voice he instructed Menghuan and the others, “You all go take a rest.”

Tong Shuzhen and Xialin had been helping Master Wise Perfected along half a day and a night, and they had been busy administering to her snake venom ever since they had checked into the inn, so they really were fatigued. They complied with the instructions and retired to their rooms to rest.