At the Door of Justice Read online

I met up with Iron Abacus

  The next morning I sent a message to Iron Abacus to have him meet me at a quiet tavern near the inn I was staying; I did not want to visit his home as I did not want to implicate him in this investigation. This was a dangerous task; it would not be long before I would be under surveillance, I did not want to drag my friend and his family into this mess.

  When he stepped into the tavern the first thing he said was, “Yan Ching, do you treat me as a friend? I knew you did not come to my home was because you were worried about implicating me and my family in this affair. Let me tell you this, you had nothing to worry about, first of all we are friends who had been through much together, and we are duty-bounded as Wuxia to stand up against such evilness. Finally, my family had been drawn into this even before you had sent me the message about your teacher Hong Er’s murder.” I was surprised that he knew about my investigation, it must be something that he had discovered while checking on my teacher’s activities before he was murdered.

  He gulped down a glass of wine before he continued, “My uncle who was in the iron casting business was one of those who was invited by this Special Invitation. He ignored the Invitation and he was mysteriously killed in a fire in his iron casting factory, the factory was burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances.

  When you asked me to check on your teacher’s activities before his murder, I came across evidence that he was checking on the Special Invitation case too, therefore I knew right away that we had a common enemy.”

  I said, “I am sorry to hear about your uncle, but I have to warn you that we are up against a powerful and unscrupulous organization, they are capable of anything.”

  Iron Abacus replied, “I am prepared for any eventuality, as a precaution I had moved my entire family to the south to my wife’s maiden home. They will be safe there. Now let’s cut this nonsense and tell me what information you have got.”

  Iron Abacus was a man of few words, once he had decided on something it would not be easy to change his mind. I told him what Priest White Crane had told me, he thought for a while and told me what he had found out.

  He said, “Yes, what White Crane said was generally what the outsiders knew about the Special Invitation. I happened to have some additional personal knowledge as my uncle had gotten the invitation twice and he had turned it down. His reason for turning it down was because he had spoken to a close friend who had taken the trip, this friend of his quietly advised him not to go without giving any reasons.

  The last time he saw this friend was right before the friend committed suicide, at that time the friend was already in a delirious state. He seemed to be suffering from acute pain and his state of mind was totally gone. He mumbled something to my uncle about some magic powder and he said something about rather die than betray his friend.”

  Soon after that incident, the friend committed suicide and the second invitation for my uncle arrived. He was so angry that he publicly denounced the invitation and threw the invitation card into the furnace in his workshop. I guess that act had enraged the people behind the organization; they decided to have him killed.”

  Abacus continued, “I think my uncle’s friend death had something to do with him advising my uncle not to go on the trip, I believe he was tasked to entice my uncle to go on the trip, but he had refused to betray his friend. They had somehow forced him to commit suicide.”

  I said, “I believe we have to speak to the few people that my teacher had spoken to before he was murdered. I have the list from Priest White Crane. Among them are some prominent people in this region. I do not know what my teacher had gotten out of them; maybe we could start from there.”

  I read out the list to him, “First name was Zhao Li Tian of Green dragon Agency, Zhang Kai Ching of Five Flag Union. These two are protection agencies specializing in transporting precious cargo for merchants in the area. Next we have Ma Hao Min who is the biggest rice traders in the region. The other two would not be of any use as they had committed suicide.

  I suggest we pay them a visit.”

  Abacus agreed.

  As we got up from our table, I noticed a familiar face sitting across the tavern; it was a face that I had seen recently, just moments ago. I believe I was being followed.

  Before I could walk up to this person, he got up quickly and dashed out of the tavern, his movement was swift and powerful. He was clearly highly skilled in martial art, especially in the art of dodging.

  This special skill of swift movement at lightning speed had always been a highly specialized skill. This form of training enables a person to move fast and nimble, they were trained to twist and turn in tight situations. The training also builds up special muscles and stamina for long distance endeavors. Those who had attained the highest form of this skill could leap over high walls and jump over seemingly impossible distance. (One such example was the Old Man, Ouyang Hao from Chang Shan, he gliding over the poisonous centipedes and killed Black Bear; please refer to the Case of the Sunrise Inn)

  I dashed out of the tavern after him; by the time I reached the main street I saw only a glimpse of his green overcoat at the far end of the street. I grab the puzzled Iron Abacus and ran after him; every time we turn a corner we would be just in time to see him disappearing round another corner. It was like chasing a ghost.

  After chasing him for a long while, I had noticed something peculiar; he seemed to be purposely allowing us to catch up with him. I estimated that with his skill, he could have shaken us off easily, but he had deliberately slowed down to wait for us.

  I was wary of following him into an ambush, but I casted my worries aside as I was anxious to find out who he was. He might be the best lead we could have. The two of us should be able to handle anything that came our way. We dashed through the streets of Suzhou.

  Soon the chase led us to the outskirt of the city; we were going into open farmland and fish ponds, at the edge of a tea plantation we suddenly lost track of him. We back tracked and search the surrounding farms carefully but we found no trace him.

  By midday we finally gave up the search and tried to find our way back to the city, after walking a short distance we saw him sitting on a rock by the road. He was smiling and slowly fanning himself. I was furious at my own shortcoming, I knew we were no match for him, but I did not expect to be so out-classed.

  As I sheepishly walked up to him, I realized that not only have I seen him in Suzhou, I had knew him even before that, but I just could not recall where. He got up and said, “Do you two not recognize me?”

  Both Abacus and I was stunned, slowly it dawned on me that if the two of us should know him, he must be one of the old friends from our roving days. Slowly it came to me; his name was Peng Fei, nicknamed Dragonfly. He had joined us briefly, and suddenly without warning he disappeared, that was the reason why we did not recall him immediately. When he left us suddenly, we speculated that he was spying on us; we believe he was working for the Imperial authority. His background did not bother us as we were not outlaws; we were upright Wuxia’s.

  I said, “Yes, now I remember you, Dragonfly. Why did you follow me around, why did you lead us here?”

  Dragonfly replied, “I had been watching the Ching Long Monastery for a long time, I knew you would come because I was the one who sent you the message.”

  He smiled at me and continued, “There is no need to thank me, I did it for personal interest; I needed you to come to Suzhou to help me.”

  I was curious, “Help you? What can I help you with? I thought you work for the Imperial Court; you had every resource at your disposal, why would you need me? What makes you think that I would help the agent of this corrupted Imperial Court?”

  He was not upset by my remarks, he smiled and said, “I am aware that most Wuxia’s do not like to work with the Imperial authority, and I can understand why. I am conscious of the terrible reputation of our Imperial agencies. I have also heard of your experiences in Huang Long City. The Court had indeed let t
he people down; all the petty politics inside the Palace had caused a lot of problems for the people. To that I have no answers. Other than assuring you that I am on the good side of this struggle I have nothing to add.”

  I kept quiet; I knew he had more to tell me.

  Dragonfly finally said, “Let me explain a little about the politics that is being played out in the Palace now. There are several fractions; most of them are useless and stupid, they pose no threat to the Emperor or the Empire. The main threat to the Emperor is the fraction consisting of the third prince and the minister of war; they were the ones that had caused you much trouble Huang Long City, they had blocked several attempts by the Emperor to send troops to aid the region’s defense.”

  I said, “How could they have blocked the Emperor? Was the Emperor not the most powerful man in the Empire?”

  He laughed and said, “That is what everybody thinks, and that is what it should be. But unfortunately this present Emperor got a weak mandate from his father, the late Emperor entrusted a lot of the royal authorities to the court officials. The Army had been divided and handed to several Generals; morally speaking they had to take orders from the present Emperor, but in practice they had used all sorts of excuses to contravene the Emperor. Our Emperor is a weak scholarly person, he is not good at confrontation; therefore he had chosen to hide himself behind art and poetry while the Empire is falling apart.”

  He continued, “We are in a sad situation, as you would know our enemies had taken advantage of this internal rift to further their course. Provincial authorities are beginning to ignore the Courts edicts; Generals no longer have the determination to defend our borders.

  My dear friend, what do you suggest I should do? Abandon the Emperor and the Empire? Give up on the people of the land? Let the Kingdom of Liao and Xi Xia invade us? No, we could not do that, we can only hope that the Emperor will wake up and step up to the fight. Meanwhile, we have to preserve whatever authority and influence that he had remaining.

  I am working for the Second Prince, he is very loyal to his brother who is the Emperor; we are doing whatever we can to protect his interest. Dear Friend, you must believe me, preserving this Empire and the Emperor is the best and only option available for the people of the land. Any other alternative is unthinkable.”

  I was taken aback by his sincerity; he did not speak like a Court official, he spoke the truth. As he speaks, I could see the strain showing on his face, I began to feel sorry for this loyal subject of the weak and useless Emperor. And I agreed with him that the only viable option for the people was this useless Emperor, it was unfortunate but it was true, any other way would mean terrible wars and suffering across the land.

  Dragonfly explained his Purpose

  Dragonfly continued, “Dear Friend, I am sure you are very curious why I am here in Suzhou, and why I had led you here. Please give me a little time, I will explain everything.”

  He continued, “I had been working for the Second prince ever since I was a young man, I believe you would have suspected that when I joined you and your friends many years ago; my purpose then was to spy on you and report it back to the Prince.

  I gave a good report to the Prince regarding your activities, which was why the Imperial authorities had left you all alone.”

  He grinned and said, “There is no need to thank me. Through the years I had risen in rank, I am holding a senior position in the external department of the Imperial Guards. Our department was responsible for checking on suspicious activities outside the Imperial Palace, we do not wear uniform and we do not report to any local authority. We do not inform the local authorities of our presence. We report directly to the Second Prince who reports directly to the Emperor.”

  Dragonfly continued, “The Second Prince had heard of this plot involving the Special Invitation one year ago, he had sent me here to investigate. This plot is threatening the stability of the entire Jiangnan region; the Imperial Court was very concerned.

  We believe that this was part of a scheme to weaken the economy and to destabilize this region, but we had yet to confirm who was behind this. And we had no clue as to how the scheme works. We failed because my entire organization and I were too obvious; most people in the Wulin were able to tell that we were Imperial agents. They refused to help us in any way; they would not even talk to us. That was why I thought of enlisting the help of people from Wulin.

  In the course of my investigation, I came across Godly Fist Hong Er whom I remember to be your teacher. I noticed that he was also investigating the same plot as me; I had tried several times to enlist his help. But just like the other Wulin characters, he did not want to be involved with the authority.

  We crossed path many times during our enquiries, both of us were checking on the same people and we were breaking into the same houses. But we were not hostile to each other; we had an unspoken gentleman practice of not getting into each other’s way. There were a couple of times when I broke into a house and found him already inside, I quietly left and let him finish his job, he also did the same for me; we were on rather friendly terms.

  In fact the night that he was injured, I was in the vicinity, he was breaking into the Dragon Gate agency; he was discovered and he had a fight with the people guarding the agency. I reached there in time to create a diversion for him to escape. I knew that he will go to Ching Long monastery to recuperate, I believe he was safe there, but I was wrong. I am sorry; I had failed to protect him.

  I was very surprised that someone had managed to find out this isolated hiding place, and had been ruthless enough to enter this holy place to commit murder. But I believe he did manage to steal something from Dragon Gate agency that night, I hope you can check with Priest White Crane if he had left anything behind, it might help us with our investigation.”

  I did not want to interrupt him to tell him that I had my teacher’s belonging in my inn. I did not realize the importance of this few pieces of clothing and the few jars of medicine.

  Dragonfly continued, “I believe we can help each other if we work together, I have many resources at my disposal and you have your Wulin connection which would open doors for you easily. And if you promise to work with me, I will show you a way that you can talk to anybody that you want to. With my strategy, you would be welcome into any household in the city.” He flashed his knowing smile at me, and he challenged me.

  He said, “At this very moment, do you have a plan to get to talk to the people that you want? Do you have a plan to open the doors of Dragon Gate Agency?”

  I had to admit that I did not have any plans yet, I had no contacts with the Wulin people in this region before, and Abacus was rather low profile ever since he came back to Suzhou. Even my teacher who was a much more respected personality than me was denied entry. Other than bluffing my way in I could not think of anything else.

  I looked at Abacus and he nodded his head, after which he said to Dragonfly, “The last time we worked together you were spying on us, for this instance we are putting our trust in you again, I hope you will not betray us, if you do, I will seek revenge on you. I promise you that. This case concerns Yan Ching’s teacher and my uncle; we had committed our life to it. If you betray us, even your position as an Imperial agent will not protect you.”

  Dragonfly calmly replied with a smile, “I know that, I promise you it will not happen, this time we are working on the same side; we are seeking the same result. We all want to have the Special Invitation syndicate destroyed. We shall work well together.”

  Dragonfly continued, “Now that we had agreed to work together, I shall tell you a little of what I know about the enemies. After carefully studying the profile of the people being invited to the paradise island, I concluded that this organization wanted to control the key people in our economy, trade, and military…and weapon production. That was why Abacus, your uncle was a person they were very anxious to get on board. I had checked; your uncle had some contracts with the military to manufacture weapons for
them. Was that right?”

  Abacus was suddenly awakened to the reason why his uncle was so important to the plot; they wanted his expertise on weapon making, he was one of the best iron casting masters in region.

  And I immediately saw the wisdom of working with Dragonfly, he was knowledgeable and intelligent, without him we would have taken days to figure out the various links in the whole plot.

  I asked him, “Do you have any speculation as to who was the mastermind behind this plot?”

  Dragonfly looked at me for a while and said, “Yan Ching, you are a smart person, by now you should be able to guess who benefits the most from this plot.”

  I said, “The Kingdom of Liao…”

  Yan Ching analyzes the Situation

  Now things are beginning to clear up, I began to see the purpose and framework of the Special invitation plot. It was not a surprise that the Liao Kingdom to our north was the mastermind behind these wicked schemes.

  The Kingdom of Liao lay to the northeast of our Song Empire; they had been trying to invade our northern territories for a long time. Our army had been putting up strong resistance to their aggression; the border war had been going on and off for decades without much significant results for both sides.

  Our Song Empire being the bigger and stronger of the two should have dominated the conflict, but due to our internal weaknesses and betrayal we had been unable to operate at our true potential. Meanwhile, the enemy had been actively encouraging and outright supporting rebellious elements in our administration; they had used their proxies in the Song regime to create disharmony.

  It was generally speculated that many of our Court officials had been bought by the Liao enemy. Plans to attack the Liao Kingdom were blocked by high officials claiming that we had no resources to fight the war, instead pacification strategies were implemented. Supplies sent to our border army were diverted to other areas causing discontent among the troops. The Kingdom of Liao seems to have their fingers into every aspect of our administration.

  This Special Invitation plot fitted right into their profile and purpose, controlling the key figures behind various crucial sectors in the economy would be very useful to them in future. With this these important sectors under their control, they could paralyze our entire economy whenever they choose to. But our question then was how did this scheme exert so much control over the people involved?

  Now my task is not only for revenge of my teacher’s murder, I am also fighting for the survival of the Song Empire, the wellbeing of the people is at stake. It reinforced my reasons to work with Dragonfly.

  We act

  I decided to share my information with Dragonfly, “I understand the urgency of this conspiracy, now I shall commit wholeheartedly to our cooperation. First, we will go back to my inn and check on my teacher’s belonging that Priest White crane had handed to me yesterday, I did not take a proper look at it.”

  We left for the inn.

  The heirloom of my teacher consisted of three pieces of clothing and two bottles of medicine powder. The clothing was nothing out of the ordinary; out of the two bottles of medicine I could easily identify one as a powder for knife wounds, the other contained some unknown white powder.

  The powder was odourless, but we dare not taste it in case it was poisonous, we decided to send it to a medical hall to have it tested. Abacus went on the task.

  I asked Dragonfly, “You told me that you had a plan that would get us into any door and talk to anyone. Can you tell me what your plan is?”

  Dragonfly gave me his usual smile and said, “Yan Ching, my plan was very simple, you would have thought of it eventually, but your mind had been so cluttered the past few days that it did not occur to you.

  Ever since your adventure in Huang Long City, you had become the celebrity of the entire Empire, everybody would be happy to be your friend. Everyone was waiting for your story; all you have to do is announce your name and you will be welcomed.”

  He laughed out loud while my face turned red; I was ashamed to have missed out this obvious fact. He was right; I had been too caught up with my teacher’s death that I was only focused on finding the murderer and revenge. I reminded myself that I have to calm down and gather my wits; I have a dangerous mission ahead of me. I will need every single ounce of wisdom and intelligence to solve this case.

  Soon Abacus came back from the medical hall and informed to us that the doctor at the medical hall had never seen this powder before, he had taken some of it for further study; it will take two days.

  We pay our first visit

  That evening we decided to pay a visit to the first name on the list that Priest White Crane had given me. Zhao Yi Tian of the Green Dragon Agency…

  Such Agencies were actually armed escorts for merchants carrying precious cargos, this business strived during period of turbulence. As the Central Government became weak, the economy suffers, more and more people were forced into banditry. The highways used for transporting goods and people were no longer safe and the weak authorities had no means fight this bandits, thus creating the demand for private protection.

  Such agencies were mainly operated by famous Wulin personalities, owners of protection agencies usually organized their own network or guild to look out for each other. Every region would have they own organization to either fight the bandits or negotiate a peaceful passage fee, both of these avenues would need some form of Wulin connection.

  The Green Dragon Agency was a medium size outfit in their third generation of operation; Zhao Yi Tian had been brought up in a family of Wulin insiders. He had followed his father and grandfather’s tradition of strict adherence to Wulin values and culture. He was much respected in the society and also trusted by both side of the law, he was a typical Wuxia.

  In accordance to Wulin practice, I sent a calling card to the Green Dragon Agency before I called on them. This practice was to save face for both parties so that nobody would be taken by surprise. The host would have the chance to prepare for the visitor and the visitor would get a chance to be turned down politely instead of being rejected at the door. I hope that my name would ring a bell for Zhao Yi Tian.

  We were delighted when Zhao Yi Tian immediately sent a reply to invite us to after dinner tea. We waited till night fall, and we set off for the Agency.

  The mansion was brightly lighted up to welcome us, Dragonfly had been right again, I was in popular demand.

  It was fortunate that I had sent the visit request just two gongs’ of time ago (Four hours), even with that short notice, Zhao Yi Tian had already informed a few of his friends to attend the meeting. If I had sent the request a few days ahead I am sure the entire Suzhou would turn up for the event.

  My relationship with my late teacher Hong Er was never well known in the Wulin community, after teaching me all his skills my teacher had advised me to keep our relationship a secret. This was because of the dangerous life we both led; he did not want to implicate me on any of his activities. For this same reason, even when he was badly injured he did not send for me to come to his aid, even his close friend Priest White Crane did not know of my existence. This arrangement had worked out well because if Zhao Yi Tian had known about my relationship with my teacher he would have become suspicious, I might not have been so well received.

  As we entered the main hall of the mansion, all the Wuxias’ came forward and greeted us; I introduced Abacus as my friend and Dragonfly was introduced as my servant. He had put on some mild disguise.

  Before I could sit down everyone was throwing questions to me about my adventures at the Sunrise Inn and Huang Long City. When I told my story, everybody was listening attentively and questions were asked, minute points were examined and debated over.

  Some of the Wuxias’ present had heard of the Two Old Man from Chang Shan, but none of them had ever met them.

  Just like any other competitive fraternity, every Wuxia in Wulin constantly dream of learning the ultimate, unbeatable fighting skills. Even if on
e could not acquire the skill, witnessing it would have been a privilege; even listening to it second-hand was also a pleasure.

  The martial art of the Chang Shan Old Man Ouyang Hao was definitely in a league that not many people had ever witnessed before. There had always been myths and speculations about the certain people in Wulin having attained a very high level of martial art or internal energy. The Chief Abbot of Shaolin or the leaders of Wudang were always surmised to be very highly skilled in their respective martial art skills, but nobody had actually seen them in action before.

  Lengthy discussions were debated over how would the Wulin leaders in the Central Plains compared to the Old Man, finer points were raised and argued over and over again. For numerous times I was politely requested to re-tell certain part of the account so that these martial art enthusiasts could settle an argument. I was requested repeatedly to describe the exact stroke or fighting pattern for them to dissect the wisdom.

  As the night wore on, I was getting impatient with this discussion; I did not come for this pointless debate, after pretending to stifle a few yawns the host Zhao Yi Tian got my message. He politely told his friends that it was getting late and it was time to leave.

  The group of Wuxias’ sheepishly bid farewell to the host and agreed to go to a tavern to continue their discussion, I was sure it would be a long night for them. And I have no doubt that my presence in Suzhou would be known throughout the city by dawn.

  When we did not leave along with the rest of the guest, Zhao Yi Tian was a little apprehensive, he must be quite happy to have me all to himself but at the same time he must be wondering what my intention was. But he was too polite to question my intention, instead he ordered the servant to bring a fresh pot of tea, but his guards were already up.

  Zhao Yi Tian must have wondered why I had chosen him to call upon first as he was definitely not the most prominent person in Suzhou. I did not have any relation with him and we did not have any common friends that he knew of.

  He would have thought about that when he first received my calling card, but my reputation was just too tempting for him to resist. To be called upon by the man who had ‘single handedly repelled the Xi Xia army’ was just too great an honour for him to turn down. He became even more suspicious when I stay behind when the rest of the guests left.

  After sipping our fresh tea, we were silent for a long while; he was looking at me expectantly while wearing his plastic smile. I could feel that he was getting extremely uncomfortable, and I was happy to let him stew in his own juice for a while longer before I shock him with what I had to say.

  Finally I said, “Mister Zhao, you must be wondering why I had called on you so suddenly, and why I had stayed behind while the rest of your guest left.”

  He politely mumbled something about me being welcomed in his home as long as I wanted; he was still wearing the plastic smile.

  I continued, “I thank you for your hospitality, but what I am about to tell you might change your mind about that.”

  His face began to show some signs of hostility, as he gripped his chair’s arms he asked, “Mister Yan, what do you want of me? If you are in need of money I can help you with a loan, just tell me.”

  I said, “No, I do not need money, I need information.”

  He face turned deadly pale.

  I continued, “I want information of the Special Invitation, I know you had receive the Invitation and you had gone on the trip. I want to know what this plot was all about.”

  He was close to panic, but as an experienced old timer of the Wulin he controlled his fear.

  He said, “Mister Yan, you must be mistaken, I did not receive any invitation and I had no knowledge of the trip. You must have gotten the wrong name.”

  I said, “But that was not what you told my teacher.” I was bluffing.

  He quickly asked, “Who is your teacher?”

  I replied, “My teacher was your friend Godly Fist Hong Er, he came to you before he was brutally murdered, I want to know why.”

  His lips were trembling; he got up and dismissed all the servants, as he walked shakily back to his chair his head was bowed in deep thoughts. He sat there and pondered for a long time, when he looked up; there were tears in his eyes.

  He said, “Young man, your teacher was a dear friend of mine, his death saddened me a lot. But there was nothing I could do for him, I warned him to stay away from this business, but he refused to listen to me.

  Young man, I can tell you were lying, your teacher did not tell you anything, because I did not tell him anything. It is for your own good, please stay away. As far as I am concerned, I did not get any invitation and I certainly did not go on any trip.”

  I said, “What are you hiding from? I had checked on you, you were an upright Wuxia; you had always been loyal to your country and its people. You had stood up for righteousness many times in your career, your grandfather and father had always been honourable people. This is not you, what is it that they had over you that had sealed your lips so tight? Did you betray my teacher? Were you the one that sneaked into the Monastery and murdered him?”

  I begged him, “I beg you to come to your senses; you are helping the enemy to bring destruction to our people. As an insider to the plot, it must be quite obvious to you what they were trying to do, why are you protecting them?”

  He was staring into space, but I believe he heard every word I said. He was not defending himself but at the same time he did not seemed to be giving in. We sat there in silence for a long time; I could see his emotions tearing him apart.

  Zhao Yi Tian was not an evil person, for him to stand on the side of the enemy against all that he loved was killing him. But he was resolute, he stood his ground and finally looked up and said, “I had been much honoured by your presence, it is getting late, it is time you leave.”

  He added, “My last advice to you, leave this alone, you do not have the ability to fight against them. And as a good friend of Hong Er I will not say anything about this conversation, but please do not approach anyone else, not everybody is as merciful as me.”

  I said, “Do you think I will let my teacher’s death go unquestioned? Mister Zhao, I will fight the enemy all the way to the end, even if it kills me.”

  Next he said something which I could not understand, he said, “Young Man, there is nothing to fight, if you get yourself tangled into this mess, the only person to fight with would be yourself…”

  I asked, “What do you mean?”

  He bowed and closed his door in my face.

  After meeting Zhao Yi Tian, I safely concluded that he was not evil; he was keeping quiet for his own reasons and he had no choice. I could not imagine how anybody could have forced a person like Zhao Yi Tian to do something against his will. Zhao Yi Tian was of the class of Wuxias’ who would readily give his life for the honour of living it. It was puzzling…

  I became the Celebrity of the Town

  By sunrise, the entire Suzhou was talking about my call on Green Dragon Agency. The people who were present at the gathering had become minor celebrities, many taverns and restaurants had breakfast banquets organized to invite them to tell the story. But the ultimate honour was to be able to invite the main source of the story to such gatherings; that would be me.

  My presence was dearly sought after, when I came out of my room, the innkeeper handed me a huge stack of invitation cards. Without looking through them I took them to along to meet up with Dragonfly and Abacus.

  As I walked by the restaurant on my way out, I noticed the entire restaurant was packed to capacity, patrons were sitting there staring at me as I walked pass. Fingers were discreetly pointed at me; polite chins were pointed in my direction. I learned later that tea servers were heavily tipped by rich patrons to have me pointed out to them, the innkeeper were heavily bribed by rich families to have their invitation card placed on the top of the pile.

  As I made my way to the quiet tavern to meet my friends I was discreetly followed b
y a small entourage of secret admirers. My friends and I had to book a private room for our morning breakfast.

  After breakfast, we divided the stack of invitation cards to check on the names of the people wanting our presence; I suspected that among this mountain of invitations would contain some of the names that we had gotten from White Crane.

  As I had expected, both the Five Flag Union Agency and the rich rice merchant Ma Hao Min had both invited us to their home. We were delighted, and we decided to pay a visit to the Five Flag Union Agency, the head of the Agency was Zhang Kai Ching.

  Abacus told us about Five Flag Union

  Abacus being a native of Suzhou was able to tell us something about the Five Flag Union Agency and the people behind it, he said, “The Union was made up of five small agencies, this practice was common among protection agencies. This was because of the nature of such businesses, they were usually family operated; fathers will pass the operation to the sons. Thus the expansions of such businesses were limited by the size of the household. Being a dangerous and violent business, sometimes the sons did not survive the father, and there were instances when the head of the household did not have a son to continue the business. Therefore intermarriages were arranged and business unions were formed.

  The Zhang family was the dominant partner of the union; Zhang Kai Ching was running a very successful agency of his own when the union was formed, so naturally he became the head of the newly minted agency. Zhang Kai Ching was well known for his generous personality, he was a true blue Wuxia in every aspect.

  Zhang Kai Ching was also known for his fighting skills; just like most people in the protection escort business his weapon of choice was the ordinary spear. However, his spear was especially heavy; it was about three times the weight of the ordinary spear.

  The reason why the spear was a weapon of choice was because armed escorts very often fought and move in military formation. And the long stabbing spear was the most effective weapon to defend in number; they were usually deployed similar to soldiers in the battle field.

  Zhang Kai Ching was said to have fought off a small army of bandits single handedly, his heavy spear crushed so many enemy’s skull that the bandits gave up and let him pass. This brave act was not the story that had made him famous and respect; it was what he did after defeating the bandits that had shot his name to prominence.

  After he defeated the bandits, he helped and treated some of the bandits who were injured by him; these injured fighters were abandoned and left to die by their comrades. Eventually he took these ex-bandits into his service and now they are among his most loyal retainers. Zhang Kai Ching’s name was famous in the region, even though Five Flag Union was not the biggest Agency in the region but he was certainly one of the most respected figures in the trade.

  And I would like to point out to you that this invitation was not sent by Zhang Kai Ching, it was sent by his son Zhang Zhen Dong. I do not know what that means, but it is strange that the head of the household did not extend the invitation instead it was the son’s name that was used.”

  After Abacus’s narrative of the Five Flag Union, we decided to arrange the meeting this evening; meanwhile, we will call on the medical hall and see if there was any outcome on the white powder.

  We got the tavern owner to send the message for us to the Five Flag Union and we set off for the medical hall.

  The White Powder

  Xin Yang Hall was the biggest medical establishment in Suzhou, the chief physician there knew Abacus well. Partly out of professionally curiosity and partly out of friendship he had put in much effort to investigate the nature of the powder.

  When we met him, he looked tired and worn out, he had probably worked through the night to check on the powder. After some polite introduction, he brought us to his study.

  He closed the doors and windows and instructed his servants that he was not to be disturbed. He looked at us warily and said, “Dear Yi Bao (Abacus’s name), I had known you a long time, I trust that you are an upright person. I do not know how you got hold of this white powder but I am almost certain that it will bring you trouble.

  After checking and analyzing this powder the whole night, I had eliminated all other possibilities; I believe it could only be Dragon Mist powder!! Have you ever heard of it?”

  All of us shook our heads.

  He continued, “Dragon Mist powder was introduced to our land more than a hundred years ago by silk merchants. I believe it originated from a Kingdom to the west of our Great Song Empire. I heard the plant that was used to manufacture this substance was also being grown in some part of the extreme south of our Empire.

  When it was introduced a hundred years ago, it was sold as a medicine; it was supposed to cure all sorts of sickness and it could revitalize the body, it could improve the health of anyone. Even those on the verge of death could be temporarily be revived by it. I was a miracle powder.

  But very soon, many doctors realize that it was not as good as it seemed to be, it was very addictive; anyone who had consumed it would be forever dependent on it. They could never leave its evil grasp. The doctors’ guild immediately reported this to the Imperial Authority who quickly banned the import, sales and possession of this substance.

  The Imperial Chief Physician was a very wise man; he acted very quickly and strongly, if not for his decisive action I could not imagine what would have became of us.

  Even after just a long time, the ban on this substance is still in place; possession of this powder is a capital offense. I do not know where you had gotten hold of this powder, but I strongly advise you not to consume it and immediately dispose of it before you get into very serious trouble.

  My Dear Yi Bao, as a Physician, it is my duty to report this to the Imperial Authority; I will try my best not to implicate you. I am sorry. It is my duty to the people of the land. I cannot allow this substance to exist in our society.”

  I consoled the honest doctor, “Dear Doctor, I am stirred by your honesty and your dedication. But you do not need to report this to the Imperial Authority because they will be informed by us, this person here is Peng Fei (Dragonfly’s name), and he is an Imperial Special Constable, we are investigating this white powder. You can help us further by telling us more about this powder and the effect it has on the person who consumes it.”

  The Doctor was delighted when Dragonfly came forward and showed the doctor his Imperial badge. The relieved Physician told us to follow him to the backyard. He explained, “The final test I could do to confirm that this powder is Dragon Mist is to feed it to a dog, the react would be conclusive.

  As this substance was last seen in our land a hundred years ago, no Physicians in the present had ever seen its functions and how the human body response to it. However the wise Chief Imperial Physician of that time had cleverly documented everything about this powder for future generations’ reference. He even conducted a test on a dog and recorded the response in detail. Now we shall do the same and compare our results to the ancient texts.”

  A dog was brought to us and a mixture of the white powder and meat fed to the poor animal. The response was almost instantaneous; the dog became very lively, its strength was extraordinary, and it was running round in circles in the backyard. We observed it for a long time, it seems to have unlimited energy, it kept running and running….

  We left the dog to its misery and went back to the study; the three of us sat there quietly while the doctor was lost in his medical journals. After a long pause, he looked up and said, “I can now confirm absolutely that this powder is in fact the Dragon Mist. Now I shall tell you a little more about this powder.

  According to the record written by the Chief Imperial Physician one hundred years ago, Dragon Mist when consumed in the appropriate quantity would give the person a great powerful feeling. The white powder had the ability to double the energy level of anybody; the effective duration of the powder was about two gong of time (Four hours). For a martial art fighter,
he would find that his reflexes, strength and internal strength improved tremendously, but it’s only for that duration. That was the reason why it was so well received initially as a medicine, but slowly the side effects started emerging.

  According to the records, people who had used the Dragon Mist for more than five consecutive days would have developed an addiction. If the dosage was withdrawn after five days, the victim would experience extreme pain in the abdomen and migraine. This feeling would increase in intensity over time; it would not go away, victims usually die after three days of withdrawal suffering.”

  After this brief introduction to Dragon Mist by the doctor, the three of us looked at each other and silently concluded that we had discovered the root of the Special Invitation scheme. We thank the doctor and cautioned the doctor to keep this to himself for his own safety.

  We joined the pieces together

  We returned to my inn to discuss what we had learned so far. All of us were deep in thoughts as we walked back, the discovery of this Dragon Mist powder had throw much light on to the mystery.

  It had answered the question of how the participants of the Special Invitation had suddenly improved tremendously on their martial arts and strength. It also explained why everyone of the victim was reluctant to talk about what happened on the trip to Paradise island, and it explained the strangle hold this sinister organization had on its victim; they were all addicted to this Dragon mist powder!!!

  After closing the door to my room, Dragonfly was the first to speak, “I believe we are much closer to solving the mystery, what we need now is the confirmation from one of the victim and we have to convince him to tell us how the powder was administered to them and who is behind this plot.”

  I said, “I will bring this powder to the Five Flag Union Agency tonight, and we will find an opportunity to challenge Zhang Kai Ching with it. Perhaps we can corner him into telling us the truth, even if he does not reveal the truth, it would be interesting to watch his reaction.”

  Dragonfly said, “To eradicate this organization, we must find the source of this powder; find out where is it coming from. The moment we stop the supply, the whole plot will collapse. I believe eventually, we would have to pay this Paradise Island a visit.”

  I agreed, “Yes, for that we need to find out how to get there, when the next shipload of ignorant Wuxias’ are leaving for the Island. We need an insider.”

  Abacus said, “Leave that to me, I will check around with my contacts in Suzhou and see who had recently received the Special Invitation.”

  Dragonfly said, “Good, in that case we will split up and make our respective preparations and we meet again tonight for our visit to Five Flag Union. I have to prepare something for tonight, I had a strong feeling that something will happen tonight.”

  They left on their mission as I stayed back in the inn to rest for the long night we have ahead of us.

  Five Flag Union Agency

  The Five Flag Union Agency was a bigger outfit than Green Dragon Agency that we had visited last night, and the crowd that was waiting for us was infinitely bigger. The entire main hall of the mansion was packed; there were no more sitting places left, the lesser guests were left standing almost to the entrance. The richer and more prominent members of the society were seated tightly in order to accommodate extra chairs.

  We were welcomed at the main door by the host Zhang Zhen Dong, after introducing ourselves we were escorted to the main hall where everybody was gathered. Zhang Zhen Dong apologized on his father’s behalf for his absence as he was down with a slight fever… I was getting suspicious.

  From the main entrance to the hall, I could hear a hundred excited voices speaking at the same time, it was noisiest of gathering I had ever been to. As we entered the hall everybody fell silent and all turned to stare at the three of us.

  In accordance with Wulin’s rules for such a gathering, Zhang Zhen Dong had to introduce us to his guests one by one, after the tenth person, I had already lost track of the names. As there were just too many people present, I was only introduced to those who had a chair to sit on, the ‘standers’ were ignored.

  After the introduction, as a host Zhang Zhen Dong was expected to give a short speech of welcome while everybody impatiently waited for the storytelling to start.

  Zhang Zhen Dong was very polite in his behavior. Being the eldest son of Zhang Kai Ching he was in line to inherit the Five Flag Union Agency from his father, therefore naturally he was much respected by the society.

  Zhang Zhen Dong was a young man of thirty with charismatic personality and a natural leadership bearing. Having been brought up in a Wulin environment he moved comfortably among his peers and commanded much respect. Beside him stood his younger brother Zhang Zhen Nan, this moody young man was very different from his elder brother. When introduced to us, he had not made any effort to hide his hostility; I did not understand his unhappiness towards us, but I reminded myself to be wary of this young man.

  Before long, I was requested to narrate my account of my adventure of Sunrise inn…

  The hall was silent while I spoke, even though it was very monotonous for me to repeat the story after last night, I tried my best to keep the story exciting. But I did not have to put too much effort to get things going, the mere mention of the Two Old man from Chang Shan was enough to make every pair of eye glinting with excitement. I tried my best to speak up for those standing near the entrance but I could see many of them straining and leaning forward to catch every single word from my account. It was very amusing.

  After my account, just like the previous night the whole place exploded into a barrage of questions and excited discussion. I spent a long time entertaining the various request of clarifications and demonstrations. Before long the gathering broke up into many smaller discussion groups, some groups even went out to the courtyard to try and re-enact the fights. Numerous chopsticks were being thrown all over the place to imitate to Old Man from Changshan.

  Zhang Zhen Dong took this opportunity to pull me aside and said, “Dear Mister Yan, my father had a small request, he hope that you could honour him with your presence in his room.” I was delighted; I told him that I would be honoured. Finally I got to meet the person I came to see.

  I was brought to the bedroom of the patriarch of the family; the big bedroom had all its windows shuttled and the air was stale; it had the smell of death. I was seated at a marble table slightly beyond the sleeping area, from where I sat; I was separated from the bed by a thin curtain.

  Zhang Zhen Dong spoken to the curtain and said, “Father, Mister Yan is here.”

  A voice spoke from behind the curtain, “Dear Mister Yan, I apologize for not seeing you in person, and I apologize for bringing you in to my sick chamber. I have my reasons, I will explain later.”

  I replied, “Dear Mister Zhang, it is my honour to be in your presence, there is no need to apologize. I wish you a speedy recovery from your sickness.”

  I added, “Please excuse my rudeness, may I know what sickness you are suffering from?”

  Zhang Kai Ching replied, “Ha Ha Ha…you are indeed a wise young man, you should know by now what sickness I am suffering from.”

  I did not reply.

  He continued, “Your intentions had been very obvious to me, you were the most talked about Wuxia in Suzhou this past few months, everyone wanted to have you in their home. When my son told me that you had first called on Zhao Yi Tian last night, I asked myself, why of all people you had chosen to called on Zhao Yi Tian who was definitely not the most prominent person in Suzhou. Then I asked myself; did they have a friendship? But I had known Yi Tian for a long time; he had never mentioned your name to me.

  Therefore to confirm my suspicion, I told my son to send an invitation to you, and as I had expected, you accepted our invitation. You had chosen the small humble Five Flag Union over all the other bigger, stronger and richer patrons. Let me guess Mister Yan, will you be calling on the rice merchant Ma Hao Min tomor
row night? Ha Ha Ha…”

  This old master was indeed clear-sighted and intelligent, he had seen through my purpose from the confine of his sick bed. But I decided to play dumb for a while longer.

  I said, “Dear Sir, what do you think my intention was?”

  He replied without hesitation, “I believe you are in some ways related to Godly Fist Hong Er, you are checking on his death.”

  I had no choice but to come clean, I said, “I am truly impressed by your experience and insight, I confess that I did not expect to be discovered so soon. I knew you were a friend of my teacher. Are you now a friend or an enemy?”

  There was a long pause from beyond the curtain.

  Finally he spoke up, “I had always been a friend, but I was weak, I could not pull myself together, I regretted it ever since.”

  After another pause, “When your teacher came to me, I was already very much in the grasp of this organization, I was too weak to tear away. Hong Er begged me to join him, but I had too many considerations.

  Firstly I was physically incapable to break myself away…the pain was just too much to bear….secondly I had to consider for my entire household and the Five Flag Union, I had close to three hundred men, women and children dependent on me for a livelihood. How can I let them down? I was willing to die, to kill myself; I knew many of the victims did, but with me dead what good does it do for my people?

  Mister Yan, I am sorry that I did not assist your teacher in any way, I was too afraid.”

  I said, “Mister Zhang, please do not blame yourself, I can see your predicament, but it is not too late to make up for your past doings. You can help us revenge my teacher’s death and destroy this organization. The Imperial Authorities are looking into this plot and I am working with them. I hope you can tell me what you know about the plot.”

  He said, “Yes…yes…it is not too late. Good, there is still time to change things.” He was mumbling to himself.

  Zhang Kai Ching’s Story

  “It was about a year ago that the Special Invitation came to me, this was the third or fourth batch of Wuxias’ that was invited. The previous few groups that came back had leaked out stories that it was an amazing experience, the food, the wine, the women…but what enticed us the most was the amazing ways to improve our martial art skills to some incredible level.

  We got our invitations at the same time, Zhao Yi Tian, Ma Hao Min and I. We were very curious; we decided to visit another good friend of ours Li Tong who had sailed on the previous trip. We found that Li Tong’s martial art, reflexes and strength were way beyond the level he was before the trip. We were very surprised and we were envious of his achievements, we also wanted to improve our fighting skills.

  And Li Tong was so pleased with the trip that he kept urging us to go. Now on retrospect, I can see that he was too eager to sell the idea to us; we should have been suspicious…anyway, by the time we came back from the trip, Li Tong had already killed himself; I guess he regretted his betrayal. He had sold us to the devil…

  We went on the trip, we were brought to a place outside the city, and then we were transferred river boat, and finally transferred to a bigger ship and sailed to the sea. This ship was enclosed on all side; it was only ventilated by many twisted air ducts, these ducts were twisted so that nobody could see outside the ship; not even the sky.

  But as soon as we boarded the ship, nobody was interested in the outside world anymore. As soon as the first banquet was consumed, we turned into a different person; we spent the whole day drinking and eating and frolicking with the women on board. The three of us were normally very conservative, but they had turned us into shameless animals…do you know why?”

  I replied, “I believe it had something to do with this?”

  I handed the jar of Dragon Mist to the Zhang Zhen Dong and he took it to beyond the curtain to hand it to the father.

  After a while, the voice from beyond the curtain said, “Mister Yan, I am impressed with your ability, you had found the root of this organization. I believe this was fed to us on our first cup of tea, ever since then we were no longer ourselves. As we sailed on the ship we were constantly fed with this poison, I do not know how many days we were on the ship. We were in a constant state of intoxication; we were drifting between pure ecstasy and deep peaceful slumber for the next few days.

  The day we reached Paradise Island, we were in for a shock, it was a barren island with a small fishermen’s village. We were allocated some huts to stay in, but in our dazed and confused state we submitted to them. We were told some silly reasons why we had ended up on a remote island, but none of us were in any condition to think or argue with them.

  We went to our huts and slept…we slept for a long time. I believe it was after a day of sleeping when we were woken one by one; the thing that woke us was the extreme pain in our stomach and the side of our head. It was like all our internal organs were being pulled together, some of us even threw up bile water.

  As we screamed for help, the people who had served us like kings for the past few days just stood there and laughed. We knew we had been tricked, we knew we were finished.

  After one day of pain, one man came forward and told us if we wanted something to relieve the pain, we all were on our knees begging him for it. He gave us each a small packet of this white powder and told us to swallow it. The pain immediately went away; it was replaced with the wonderful feeling of strength and ecstasy again.

  We were put through pain and ecstasy for the next five days to wear us down, soon everybody submitted to them. After all the ecstasy and pain, submitting was very easy; it seemed like the logical thing to do. Out of the thirty people there none put up a fight.”

  He paused, as we waited, I could hear quiet sobbing from behind the curtain. I could imagine this group of proud Wuxias’ being slowly turned into a few broken beggars. The constant state of high had twisted the mind of the victims. Under ordinary circumstances; these people would have rather fight to their death than submit.

  A Wuxia placed a lot of pride on his choice of existence; this was because ones existence was his ultimate identity. Every person that carried a sword had the right to be respected; this was regardless of the individual’s capability. A Wuxia could be defeated in a fight, he could even be killed in a fight, but he would never become a slave. That was the rule of the game. Winning or losing a fight was part of life of a Wuxia, but he would never be en-slaved by anyone.

  When one puts on a sword, he carried with him the duty of a Wuxia; which was to defend the weak and fight the evil. When confronted with such challenges, one must never step back, even if the odds were not in your favour. (Our stand against the numerous Xi Xia soldiers was a good example---In the Surprise at Sunrise Inn) When a Wuxia stood up against evil, even if he was defeated, or even killed; he would not be looked upon as a loser, he would be honoured as someone who had done his Wulin duty against all odds. He would be a hero.

  Zhang Kai Ching continued, “After we submitted we were told the rules of this organization; they told us we would be sent back to our homes and will be given our daily dose of the powder…as long as we obey all the instructions sent to us. When a job needed to be done, a message would be sent to us, if we carry out the instruction obediently we would be rewarded with more of this evil powder. If we fail, we would be punished and the supply would be cut.

  Both Yi Tian and I were tasked to ready our entire household for a revolt when the time comes; I believe we were chosen for this task was because as armed escort agencies we had many experienced fighters in our employment. And these fighters are absolutely loyal to us; they will do whatever we tell them to do.

  Mister Yan, in Suzhou alone there were ten thousand fighters working in various armed escort agencies. If we all were to rise up at the same time the Imperial garrison stationed outside the city would be overwhelmed. This uprising would be coordinated with rice merchants like Ma Hao Min who would be ordered by the organization to stop his rice supply t
o the city and the army…there will be chaos. This organization controlled many people in various part of the society, when they launch all these ‘hidden agents’ the whole city would fall apart.”

  I had some ideas about the plot, but having someone telling me the entire scheme seemed more real and more frightening. Now I could see the hands of the mastermind in all aspects of the society. As more and more shiploads of prominent personalities got caught in the trap, the extent of their control became more solid.

  Zhang Kai Ching continued his narrative, “When your teacher came to me, I was already severely addicted; I was totally beholden to the organization. But I told my secret to your teacher, I begged him to leave it alone, I was weak and frightened; I did not know what I was doing. When your teacher left me, I began to think about what I had done; my own conscience was tormenting me.

  After many sleepless nights, I decided to do the right thing and I knew I had to start by ridding myself off this addiction, if I die in the process at least I would have died honourably. I began to reduce the amount of the white powder I consume every day, as I reduced the amount, I began to suffer more and more pain every day. I had been taking the reduced dosage for the past two months, the pain did not diminish; in fact it had increased. Now I am on only one third of the normal dose, I could not reduce it any further, I believe I would not be long in this world.

  I deserved this fate, I was greedy and weak, and I had succumbed to the temptation of a shortcut to success, but I do not want my family to be tarnished with the name of a traitor to the Empire. I want to break away from this evil organization. My son will take over Five Flag Union when I die; he had been given instruction to fight this evil in every way.

  I wanted to rebel against the organization, I wanted to…but there was nobody to turn to, almost everyone in the Wulin was in their grasp. I am glad that you had come along. Mister Yan, I advise you not to trust anyone, everybody is working for them in one way or the other. Few people would dare to go against them; the last one was your teacher.”

  I felt very sorry for the old master, he was caught in the trap; he could not rid himself off the addiction but at the same time he could not bear to live the life of a slave. For him, this existence was worse than death itself. He could have killed himself, but I believe the old master had a plan of his own.

  Zhang Kai Ching continued, “I had been waiting for someone to come along and take this burden from me, now that I had told you everything I knew I can leave in peace.

  Mister Yan, I do not know your capability and I do not know what you represent, but from the stories about your adventure in Huang Long City, I believe you are a righteous hero. I leave it to you to deal with this organization; I am no longer useful to anybody.”

  I asked him, “Dear Elderly Master, do you have any idea how the organization works? I believe this plot had something to do with the Kingdom of Liao, but they must have a local group of agents working for them, they could not have operated this entire scheme from across the border. The next thing I need to know is the source of this powder, who is the one supplying it to all the victims.”

  The Old Master answered, “Yes, the network had a local agent, every five days someone from this agent will deliver the supply of the powder to us. And I had done some checking on that agent, but we had not been successful as the delivery person was very skilled in his swift-dodging skill, he moved at lightning speed, we had tried to tail him several times but failed. Tomorrow is the fifteenth, perhaps we can try again.”

  I replied, “Old Master, the person I am working with is one of the most skilled swift-dodger I had ever seen, I will have him tail this person for you. All you have to do is arrange to have him pointed out to us.”

  Zhang Zhen Dong nodded and said, “That will be arranged, the servant will be escorting him out of the main door, he will signal to your friend.”

  I asked, “Old Master, how about the source of this powder, how do they bring it into the city?”

  Zhang Kai Ching replied, “The supply needed is very small, this powder is not bulky, I believe a small shipment will last them a long time. I would not be surprise at all if one of the protection agencies was doing the transportation for them, it is impossible to check. I am certain if you can follow the delivery person back to the source, you could probably find the supply. Just cut the supply, the plot will collapse.”

  By now the voice behind the curtain was getting weaker; I could not bear to see the brave old man suffering further, I bid my farewell and asked to be excused.

  The voice spoke up, “Mister Yan, one last thing I request of you.”

  I said, “Please name it, it will be done.”

  He said, “Zhen Dong (his son), pull the curtain back, I want Mister Yan to see what this poison had done to me.”

  Zhang Zhen Dong protested, “But Father, you do not have to do that, you are not well. I am sure Mister Yan has no wish to disturb you…”

  With a sharp voice Zhang Kai Ching reprimanded his son, “Just do it, I want the world to know that I had tried my best to fight this evil, I had fought it in my own way.”

  The son reluctantly pulled the curtain back, what I was about to see shocked me to the core. What was left of the Old Master was little more than skin wrapped tightly around and skeleton. His eyes were bloodshot and protruding out of the socket, all his hair had all fallen off, the skin had turned yellow. As he opened his mouth to speak, I realized all his teeth had fallen off and his gums and tongue were blood red and bleeding.

  With tears flowing down his wrinkled cheek he said, “Dear Mister Yan, this is the consequences of fighting this evil powder. This fate awaits all the victims of the Special Invitation. I beg you to revenge our suffering, I had ordered my son to support you in every way he could. My entire household had arranged for all the women and children to be sent off to the south tonight for safety, all the men will be ready to fight for you.

  I had forced myself to survive all this while despite the suffering was because I was waiting for someone to come and lead us to fight this evil. I want you to be the one, with your reputation you are the only one who stood a chance to win this fight.”

  Zhang Zhen Dong dashed forward with tears in his eyes and said, “Yes Father, I will follow your instructions.”

  I humbly bowed to the Old Master and left the brave man with his son. I did not want to look at the broken man any further; I did not want to humiliate him further with my gawking stare which I could not help. When I walked out of the room, I quietly told myself that I had witnessed a brave man who had stood up to evil against all odds; his action was braver than any Wuxia I had ever seen. I shall avenge him…

  The Unexpected attack

  I went back to the main hall and looked for my friends; they were left sitting alone. As soon as the excited Wuxias’ realised that they were not present in my adventure at Sunrise Inn no one paid any attention to them. These people were too engrossed in their discussion to notice my presence; I quietly signal to my friends to slip out of the mansion before I was caught by one of the excited Wuxias’. I was really not in the mood to entertain any more silly questions about the Old man from Chang Shan.

  I was quiet as we walked down the dark streets towards my inn; I told Dragonfly and Abacus that I will tell them what happened tomorrow, they could see that I was much traumatized. They held back their questions.

  As we turned a dark corner, suddenly dark figures emerged from the darkness blocking our way. They were all masked in black hoods and were all dressed in black outfit, and all of them were armed to the teeth…most of them were carrying iron tipped spears…protection agency fighters!!!

  We were grossly out-numbered; fortunately, Dragonfly had a bad feeling about tonight, he had therefore insisted that we carry our weapons. I was carrying my saber; Abacus carried his sword and Dragonfly was armed with his military issued heavy saber.

  Military issued saber were heavier and broader than the normal saber that I use. This heavy sabe
r was widely used in the military as it was more effective against long weapons like spears and pikes, and for close quarter fights the heavy blade was more effective against light armour, whereas my light saber was practically useless against even the lightest of armour. (Refer the my fight against the Xi Xia soldiers in Surprise at Sunrise Inn)

  The assailants encircled us very quickly forcing the three of us to turn our backs to each other and face to enemies outwards. The speed that the dark figures had locked us in was clear indication that they were not ordinary street hoodlums, they were well trained fighters. And there were no demands for our belongings; they did not come to rob us, they had come to kill us.

  I knew we would not last long if we continue to be surrounded; especially so when the enemies were armed with long weapons. We must find a way to punch through the weakest part of the encirclement and drive the enemies to one side. Only then would we stand a chance. I told my friends to follow my lead and with a sudden explosive charge we punched through the circle injuring two of the assailants.

  With this move we had pushed the enemies to one side, now we had to prevent them from circling behind us; but that was easier said than done. We were out-numbered six to one. But to the frustration of the enemies, we were able to hold our ground and we managed to injure another two of them. We were beginning to gain some confidence.

  At the signal of a sharp whistle, the assailants fell back and at a clap of a hand those carrying the long weapons were formed into a unit. They slowly mowed towards us in a tight formation while swiping and thrusting their spears. Those carrying the shorter weapons were positioned to the side thus boxing us in. Slowly we were pushed to the wall and there was nowhere to run.

  At this critical moment, a group of armed men appeared from the opposite alley and charged into our attackers, at a flash of an eye the entire group was either killed or injured by this group.

  I was too stunned for words when Dragonfly shouted to the new arrivals, “Where have you been…leave me a few live ones.”

  The leader of the group came forward and bowed to Dragonfly, he humbly said, “I apologize for being late Sire, we were at the other and of the street.”

  Dragonfly gave him a severe glare, brushed him aside and turned to me and Abacus, “This was the bunch of fools I had arranged to protect us; I had this bad feeling about tonight. These incompetent fools almost had us killed.”

  I finally realized that our rescuers were undercover Imperial agents arranged to protect us, Dragonfly’s intuition had saved our lives.

  We turned to the captured attackers, most of them were injured; one by one we pulled off the black cloth concealing their faces but we could not recognize any of them.

  I asked them, “Who do you work for? Why do you want us dead?”

  All of them lowered their heads and kept quiet, looked like they would rather die than to betray their master. I was quite sure they were fighters from a protection agency, this people do not fear death, in their job they faced death every day. The experienced fighters in a protection agency would have fought in numerous battles in their life, this people do not fear death. Death was part of the job.

  After taking a closer look at the unmasked assailant, I realized that among them was the younger son of the Zhang Kai Ching. He was badly injured on his left arm and was grabbing his wound in an effort to stifle the bleeding. I was shocked to discover that the Five Flag union had sent their fighters to ambush us. I asked the young man, “Who sent you to attack us? Why are you doing this?”

  He bit his lips and turned away.

  I was expecting something sinister from this young man, ever since I laid eyes on him; I had detected some form of hostility coming from him. But I was still unable to figure out the motive of this attack.

  Dragonfly said, “He would not last long in this condition, my men will bring all the prisoners back to our base. We will use our interrogation methods and I am certain we will get something out of them.”

  As they dragged the poor man to his feet, a familiar voice spoke up from the far end of the street, “Please do not hurt my brother.”

  It was Zhang Zhen Dong, the young master of Five Flag Union.

  He came forward quickly and squatted down beside the injured men, he looked at us with tears streaming down his cheek. He dressed up his brother’s wound carefully and turned to us, he looked me in the eye and said, “Please let them go, I will explain everything. In a way I am responsible for this silly event.”

  Zhang Zhen Dong humbly begged us to let him treat the rest of the injured fighters; we helped him carry the casualties to a nearby medical facility.

  The other side of the Coin

  The physicians at the medical hall was used to treating fighters from various Protection Agencies, they did not ask any questions. When all necessary treatment had been administered, the doctor left the room.

  By now, the younger brother Zhang Zhen Nan had recovered considerably and he was sitting up starring moodily at us. The elder brother on the other hand was sitting beside him with his head bowed low. I went to them and asked, “Why did you ambush us?” The elder brother looked up but did not reply, instead the younger brother did.

  He proudly replied, “I wanted to protect my family, I did not agree with my father’s decision that we should assist you to fight this organization. This had nothing to do with us; I wish my father would just let it be. I am proud that at least I had done the right thing; unfortunately it did not work out. If you want to kill me, it is fine. It was I who decide to ambush you; it had nothing to do with my brother.”

  He continued, “First your teacher came, that meeting had humiliated my father so much that he decided to kill himself by not taking the powder. It was I who had leaked the where about of your teacher to Dragon Gate Agency, I believe they carried out the assassination. I thought that was the end of it…then you came, as you started to poke you nose around, you instigated my father to join you in your madcap scheme to challenge the organization.

  I hate you, why did you come to us? You and your silly Wuxia duties and noble values…do you not realize that some people just want to lead a normal life? I do not want to fight any evil; I want to see my children grow up, I want to see my brothers and sisters and their children grow up and have a good life. Is that too much to ask? Why did you and your teacher come along and disturb the harmony in my home?”

  Zhang Zhen Nan was no coward; he was just different; his family’s wellbeing was above anything else. And as an orphan, I had no way of judging; if I had a family would I risk my entire family for the sake of justice? I had no answer…

  He was protecting his family, was that not the predominant duty of a man? He loved his father, but the old man was in a demented state of mind, he had in his death bed decided the fate of the entire family…again I had no answers.

  My teacher and later I had came along and sowed the ideas of duty and righteousness to a broken addict whose mind was so twisted by Dragon Mist. Was that right? …no answers.

  I had never been confronted with an argument against fighting for injustice; from a very young age I had been brought up with the notion that the noble ideal of upholding justice was the only thing that matters in the world. As an orphan, I had grown up without the concern for the safety of a family as I had none; I had always decided my own fate.

  Now I am facing a man who had decided not to oppose evil for the sake of his family, was that so wrong? He wanted to protect the family by eliminating the people whom he viewed as bringing destruction to the family. His action might be drastic, but his motive was pure, how was I to fault such a person?

  I had no answer.

  After this outburst, the elder brother raised his head and looked at us; he was torn between brotherly love and his duty to his father and the duty as a Wuxia, he said, “Mister Yan, I hope you will understand my young brother’s intention, he is not evil, he loved the family and he loved and respect my father very much. He is too young to understand the values
of Wulin; he did not understand the duty of a Wuxia. I hope you would forgive him.”

  He continued, “All of us in the family had been told of my father’s addiction, and his account of the Special Invitation had been made known to all of us. We were very worried about confronting this powerful organization, many of us including my mother wanted to just move away from Suzhou to avoid them.

  But my father was determined that we be part of the resistance to fight this evil, he was just waiting for someone brave enough to come along and take up the challenge. Before you came along, the rest of the family had decided that as soon as my father dies, we will quietly leave the city and start our lives somewhere else.”

  Then he looked down and mumbled, “But you came along, this had changed everything, my father had ordered us to join you. As the heir to the household, I had no choice but to obey his orders, but I am worry about the family, the three hundred men, women and children depending on us.”

  I was deeply touched by these brothers; they were truly in a dilemma.

  This turn of event had put me on the defensive; initially I thought I was the one who would be screaming accusations at Zhang Zhen Nan for his treacherous ambush. But now it seems like I was the one who had to put up some explanations. All of us were speechless.

  Dragonfly, Abacus and I looked at each other for a long while, finally, Dragonfly said, “Yan Ching, you had met the Old master Zhang Kai Ching, you are in a better position to decide on this issue. I trust you to do the right thing.” Abacus nodded in agreement.

  My decision was very simple; we would not force anybody to join us against their will. I proposed to Zhang Zhen Dong, “I do not intend to force you to join us against you will, but I will need one last favour from you. I need you to point out the person delivering the white powder tomorrow; my friend Dragonfly here will follow him. In return for this favour, Peng Fei will send his Imperial Agents to escort you out of the city tomorrow night or whatever date you choose.

  And I will forget about this ambush and the betrayal of my teacher. Are you willing to assist us on this?”

  After a brief discussion the two brothers agreed to the deal.

  It was as good a settlement as I could think of; it was pointless to enlist the help of someone who ideals were not in line with ours. From this experience, I had learned one important truth, not everybody had the same objective in life. No matter how noble or righteous your ideal was, it did not mean it was the universal truth.

  The Zhang brothers had every right to be concern about the wellbeing of their family, but did it mean that they had the right to abandon the people of the Empire? Did it mean that they could just walk away and let chaos take over the city? Where is the line between responsibility to the Empire and the family?

  Perhaps this apathy was due to the sorry state of the Empire, the weak Emperor plus the corrupted administration had made the people of the land more concerned with themselves rather than the Empire.

  I was becoming rather disillusioned when I suddenly remembered the Ding family of Huang Long City; they did not abandon the people even at the darkest times. They had spent their entire family fortune to finance the militias to protect the city, with this thought I was optimistic again; I knew I was on the right path.

  We Tailed the Delivery Man (Yan Ching’s Account)

  We arrived at the street outside the Five Flag Union early; we had a good view of the main door from our table inside a restaurant. By mid morning we saw a man knocking at the door, after he was admitted into the house, a servant came out and hanged up red lantern. That was the signal; that was the man delivering the powder for Zhang Kai Ching.

  From the brief look at him, I could tell that this man was an expert in swift dodging martial art; his skill might even be higher than that of Dragonfly. The lightness of his step belied an exceptional swiftness of the feet, the extraordinary ability to move faster than the eye could see.

  But the biggest challenge for Dragonfly was not only to catch up with him; it was to follow him without being detected. To accomplish this, Dragonfly was dressed in the commonest of outfit.

  I knew my speed was nowhere near this person; there was no point in me tailing him, therefore I decided to take a gamble because I believed I knew where he was going to…Dragon Gate Protection Agency, the biggest agency in Suzhou.

  All the evidence pointed to this agency being the local agent for the Liao’s Special Invitation plot. I decided to go to the agency’s mansion and wait for him there instead of tailing him; I will leave the tailing attempt to Dragonfly, if he fails, I might still succeed. I brought Abacus along so that we could watch the front and the back entrance. And for further precaution, Dragonfly had several of his Imperial agents doing the same at other locations in the city.

  The moment we had a good glimpse of this person, we went to our various addresses to see which one he returns to. We could not cover the whole city, we could only bet on the calculated guesses we made. We all left Dragonfly to his mission of tailing.

  Dragonfly on the tail (Dragonfly’s account)

  The moment he stepped out of the front door, I was already positioned as an innocent passerby in the busy street. He was a suspicious and cautious person; he stood at the front door observing a while before he made a move.

  I was on his trail instantly, dressed as a servant I was able to merge into the busy street. He was walking casually and slowly, but I knew he was constantly checking his back; he glanced in my direction several times. Fortunately I was prepared; I had worn several layers of different clothing, after several corners, I would discard something from my outfit so that when he turned to look, I seemed like a different person.

  At times I was holding a big white handkerchief to my face, at other times I was wearing a hat. He was totally unaware of me following him; therefore he did not exercise his swift skills…yet.

  After a while, we were approaching the city center where the crowd was denser, I became less conspicuous. He was still moving at a leisurely pace as though he was taking a stroll in the garden. But I did not slacken in my vigilant; I knew I was up against an experienced and skillful adversary.

  It did not take long before my skills were tested to the limit as he suddenly dashed into a back alley; I quickly followed only to see him leaping over a six foot wall. I had no doubt that I had been discovered; I had no choice but to follow. I kept tight on his trail as he went from back alleys to main streets and then back to alleys.

  We cruised through crowded streets leaving passersby blinking in astonishment at the blinding speed we were moving at. It was indeed a pleasure to be up against such a formidable opponent, but I was slowly being out class by his superior ability. The distance between us was widening and I was in real danger of losing him.

  Our chase brought us to the west side of the city; by now I was barely in view of his fast diminishing trail. After another corner, I had lost sight of him altogether; it was no wonder that the people from Five Flag union had never been able to tail him. But I was not disheartened; this part of town was where Dragon Gate Agency was located, I believe Yan Ching’s gamble had paid off. I believe he had gone into Dragon Gate Agency, I just hope that Yan Ching or Abacus could confirm that for me.

  After circling the area for a while, I saw Yan Ching and Abacus and they gave me the good news that they had indeed saw the delivery man going into the Dragon Gate Agency. Now we know who the local agent of the Special Invitation’s plot was. With some luck we might even be able to find they stash the evil powder Dragon Mist, as long as we destroy it, the whole plot will fall apart.

  We were delighted to have identified the local conspirator to the plot; our next step would be to break into the Agency and find out more before we confront them. We decided to return to Yan Ching’s inn to discuss our next course of action.

  We had to act Fast (Yan Ching’s account)

  We found Zhang Zhen Dong waiting for us at my inn, he was dressed in all-white; I feared the worst. White w
as the colour for mourning…

  He told us that his father had passed away last night, he looked worn out and depressed, “Mister Yan, I am very grateful to you for giving my father some form of closure, he should had been dead days ago, but he just could not go in peace. You had given him the assurance that the wrongs and evil of this Special Invitation plot will be dealt with, he had always held himself responsible in a way. He was also very remorseful about failing your teacher Hong Er, the understanding and respect you had accorded him had given him the courage to move on. For that I thank you Sir.” Before I could say anything he kneeled down before me.

  I quickly helped him back to his feet and said, “Mister Zhang, you are too kind, I was just doing what I believed to be right. Your father was an honourable man; I have every respect for him. Please accept my condolences for your loss.”

  Zhang Zhen Dong said, “On his death bed, he again insisted that we support your resistance after his death, but my mother and brother had strongly resisted that. I am sorry Mister Yan; I would not be able to help.”

  I consoled him, “I do not fault you or your family for not wanting to join us; it is indeed a very dangerous task. I respect the decision that you and your brother had made, every man is entitled to have a different choice in life. There is no need to apologize for it. After the encounter with your brother, I had came to realize that my values were not necessary the absolute truth.”

  Zhang Zhen Dong thanked me for my understanding; he thought for a while and said, “I was hesitating if I should reveal this to you, but I know you to be a righteous man, I will risk this. Perhaps this is the last thing I could do for you….we had just received an invitation to Dragon Gate Agency tomorrow night. I had heard that all the Protection Agencies in the region had been invited; I believe they are going to launch the rebellion soon.”

  He continued, “My family would be leaving tonight, we want no part of this.” He bowed his head low in embarrassment.

  I had been expecting this to happen eventually, Abacus had been checking around for people who had been invited by the Special Invitation for the trip to Paradise Island, but he had found none. We had suspected that the organization had enough ‘agents’ working for them, they were ready for the next move. But we did not expect it to be so soon.

  This new development had thrown new urgency into our course of action; we no longer had time on our side. As soon as they launch to rebellion, regardless of the outcome, many innocent people will be killed first. We must not allow that to happen.

  I thanked Zhang Zhen Dong for the information and he bid us farewell.

  Three of us sat down and discussed our situation.

  We decided to risk it all

  Dragonfly was always the more forward thinking and resourceful among us, therefore both Abacus and I looked to him for direction. After some careful consideration he said, “The meeting at Dragon Gate Agency is tomorrow night, we have only tonight to check out the place if we can get in. As soon as they launch the rebellion, it would be very difficult to reverse the damages.

  I suggest we use the quickest and surest method to try and identify the location of the powder storage. Fire!!

  We will set a small fire to the mansion, and we observe how the security arrangements of Dragon Gate Agency react to the event. Logically, in the event of a fire, the security personnel would be rushed to the most important and most precious part of the household. From their action perhaps we would be able to find where the evil cargo is being hidden. This organization is supplying the evil powder to hundreds of people in the city; I believe the quantity in store would not be small. Therefore it would be stored in a proper facility.

  I will go into the mansion and hide myself and observe the reaction while you two set fire to the place. Hopefully the enemy will reveal their secret to us.

  Tomorrow night we will go in and disrupt the meeting and hopefully by then we would have located the storage, and destroyed it. Without Dragon Mist, this syndicate will have no control over the victims; we might stand a chance to convince some of the unwilling accomplices to come over to our side.

  I have to point out to both of you that the situation is overwhelmingly against us, the gathering tomorrow will consist of hundreds of highly skilled fighters from various protection agencies. There are only three of us; I could raise another hundred Imperial agents who had been hidden in the city, but that is all. I had asked the Second Prince for more help, but I do not know if they will arrive in time.

  As to the Imperial garrison stationed outside the city, they would be quite useless to us as I believe they had been compromised by this evil plot as well, we cannot rely on them. The General in charge of the garrison was also invited to the Special invitation. Therefore in the event of a fight, we would be fighting one against ten. I felt that you should know what you are up against.”

  I was aware of the odds against us, but Dragonfly had put it into clearer prospective. But another thing that was very clear to me was that I was standing up to the evil forces that was about to consume my people. There was nothing else to turn to, we were the only thin line of defend against this wicked plot. I owe it to the people, to my teacher and to heroes like Zhang Kai Ching who had stood up in their own respective ways against this plot.

  In a way I was also inspired by Dragonfly who had pledged himself to this fight, he had committed himself and his hundred Imperial agents against the hundreds of highly skilled fighters. He did not consider the option of a retreat; he was loyal to the Emperor and the Second Prince, which were all the reasons he needed.

  I see Dragonfly in Clearer Light

  It was normal to brand all Imperial officials as corrupted, greedy and cowardly, but this Imperial agent sitting before me was different. Despite knowing that the Emperor and the Court that he was serving was weak and corrupted, Dragonfly did not spend his time complaining; instead he had quietly carried out his duties. He had doggedly carried out the thankless tasks that were expected of him.

  And serving as an Imperial Agent had ostracized him from the Wulin, even old friends like me had looked upon him with suspicion. Dragonfly’s post was a lonely one, the moment he started serving the Emperor, he had lost all his friends, and his life was constantly in danger. The worse was that he was repeatedly misunderstood as ‘one of those corrupted officials’.

  Dragonfly had probably read what was on my mind; he smiled and calmly said, “Yan Ching I know what you are thinking. While you are committed to your Wuxia duties, you must be wondering what is in for me. Why am I committed to this weak and corrupted dynasty, let me explain; our objectives are quite similar, we love the people of the land.

  I am fighting for stability for the Empire; I am serving this Emperor while I hope that his heir will come along and do a better job than him. Our Emperor is already old, he would not be around for long, the son that might that will take over the throne would be a better and more capable person. Therefore and the Second Prince and I were committed to preserving the integrity of the Empire for the next Emperor, that is the only way. If we all give up and abandon the Empire, the whole system will fall apart, ultimately the people will suffer.

  Yan Ching, we can only hope for a better tomorrow.”

  He continued, “Just like you, I am fully committed to fight this conspiracy, I am clear about the danger me and my men will be facing, but I could not bring myself to step away from it. I just want you and Abacus to have the chance to make an informed decision.”

  Abacus and I looked at each other for a brief moment; that was all the time we needed to arrive at the decision. We fight….

  The Dragon Gate Agency

  Dragonfly had done some checks on the Dragon Gate Agency; he shared his knowledge with us, he said, “The Dragon Gate Agency was the biggest protection agency in the city, compared to the Green Dragon Agency which had only three hundred fighters in their household; Dragon Gate had around four thousand.

  The agency was headed by two brothers, Shen Pi
ao and Shen Hung; they were the fifth generation in this business. Due to the turbulent times the agency had expanded their business tremendously during the past few decades. Their main business was escorting precious cargos from the Jiangnan region to various parts of the Empire including to the northern kingdom of Liao. They also had extensive ties with various big agencies in other cities, thus making them the agency of choice for many big merchants.

  The Dragon Gate Agency was the only agency in the city that could boast about the capability of a southern route, deep into the Yue region in the south where the Imperial Authorities had little influence. The southern Yue region was semi-autonomous and semi barbaric, even the Imperial army was reluctant to go there.

  No one outside the agency knew what ties the Shen brothers had in the south as the Yue region was made up of mainly tribes of many denominations. But the south had many products that were dear to the Central Plains’ inhabitants; therefore with this strangle hold on trade the Shen brothers had prospered.

  Both the brothers were renowned for their fighting skills, both of them had military background, they had fought the Liao’s and the Xi Xia’s when they were serving in the Song Imperial army. This tradition was passed down from their forefathers who had always sent their sons into the military to be trained in their fighting skills. By the time they return home, the sons would have turned into an experienced and skillful fighter. This training prepared them for eventually taking over the helm of the business. But such on-the-job training came at a heavy price; serving the military in such turbulent times was rife with danger. The Shen family had sent five sons to the military…only two came back.

  Just like most military men, both the Shen brothers’ preferred heavy weapons, Shen Piao uses the Crescent Blade while the younger brother Shen Hung uses the heavy spear with a jagged tip. Both the brothers were extraordinarily strong, their weapons were also specially tailored for their strength.

  However, the strength of this two brothers were also their weakness, their fighting skills being of military origin were usually very rigid and structured. This had made them predictable in their patterns and strokes, but so far they had made up for this shortcoming with their great strength and aggressiveness, they had never been defeated for the past ten years. Now with the help of the Dragon Mist, their power would be close to super-human level.”

  We took them on

  We were committed, our plan was very simple; we would try and locate the powder storage tonight and hopefully destroy the stash. If we could not accomplish that we would still disrupt the gathering and try to swing to sentiments of the unwilling accomplices. It was clear to all of us that this course of action was full of danger, but with the imminent rebellion at hand, there was no other alternative.

  We rested for the day to prepare for the long night ahead; Dragonfly spent the day with his group of undercover Imperial agent finalizing their plans. This group of agents had been planted in the city months before; they were hidden in various parts of the city disguised as normal residents. They were organized into cells and they could be activated at a short notice by their leader…Dragonfly. The group that had rescued us when we were ambushed by Zhang Zhen Nan was one of these cells.

  All these agents were recruited from the Imperial Guards brigade, these were highly trained fighters; some of them were ex-military while some were martial art experts recruited from the Wulin. The one common trait among them was that they were selected because they were totally committed to the Dynasty.

  This group that had been selected to infiltrate into Suzhou was selected for another criteria, none of them was a native of this region. This was important as we would be fighting a group of people who were born and bred in this City. We were not fighting external invaders; we might be fighting the man living next door.

  We waited till after midnight before Dragonfly sneaked into the mansion of Dragon Gate Agency, he was most suited for the job as his swift movement made him undetectable. Abacus and I waited for a while before we started the fire at the back entrance to the compound. We started a big fire to attract the attention of the guards and then we moved back to a safe distance to wait for the reaction.

  As we had suspected the Dragon Gate Agency was very well guarded, as soon as the fire alarm was raised, the entire compound was alive with hundreds of people. The fire was put out with well coordinated efficiency, and was followed by a thorough and well organized search of the area. This group of fighters guarding the mansion was no ordinary guards; they were well trained and disciplined. I suspect that besides being the Dragon Mist distributor for the organization, Dragon Gate Agency had more to hide than meets the eye.

  There was nothing much else to do except to wait for Dragonfly to emerge from the compound, hopefully he had not been discovered and captured. His observation of the security arrangement in the mansion should provide a good indication of the whereabouts of the evil stash.

  Dragonfly’s Observation (Dragonfly’s account)

  I climbed over a side wall into the vast compound of the Dragon Gate Agency; I was dressed as one of the Agency’s fighters. I managed to sneak my way into back garden.

  I looked for a high vantage point where I could observe the entire compound from. I settled for a tall tree in the middle of the vast compound, I had little problem scaling the tree. After reaching the top, I settled comfortably to wait for Yan Ching to start the fire. The fire would surely trigger their security contingencies; the focus of such arrangement would indicate the importance of various sectors.

  The fire was soon started and was quickly detected; the fire alarm was raised by a man beating repeatedly on a gong. I was shocked by the response, the number of people within the compound was many more than I had anticipated. Huge number of fighters was rushing out from every room, the response was almost instantaneous, the orderly and discipline manner that they had responded clearly indicate some form of military training. They were not ordinary protection agency fighters…they were trained soldiers.

  The responders were organized in units; they knew exactly what they were doing, in a blink of an eye they had been deployed to various part of the compound. Fortunately I had some military training before; therefore I was able to identify the significance of these deployments. Some of the points they were guarding were choke points, their purpose was to guard against intruders. Some of the locations being guarded were strategic places, like some of the bedrooms that were occupied by important people.

  I saw Shen Piao and Shen Hong (The brothers who were the head of the Agency) being escorted from their bedroom, as they moved to the main hall of the mansion they were heavily guarded all the way.

  But I also noticed that they were not the only one who was heavily guarded, there was another young man who had emerged from another bedroom and he was also heavily guarded. When the three of them reached the main hall, the Shen brothers were bowing to this young man…

  This important person must be the mastermind behind the plot. Who can it be?

  The next thing I observed was the concentration of guard around the other end of the compound, unfortunately from my position I was not able to locate which building they were guarding. I was blocked by the main building in the middle. Therefore I was only able to identify the general location but not the specific structure that was focused on.

  These two discoveries had made my mission a success, now we are better prepared for the confrontation tomorrow night.

  While I sat on the tree top, I started formulating my plans for tomorrow. I decided that the confrontation was inevitable, that was our only chance to try and stop the rebellion. We will surprise the Shen brothers by calling on them unannounced, and insist on participating in the gathering. We might even sneak into the meeting unannounced and surprise them. One way or another we will force our way into the main meeting hall, this disruption would be the diversion needed for the attack on the powder storage area.

  The destruction of the stash had to be spectacular; i
t must come with the intended impact, the shock would help us to swing their half-hearted supporters to our side. As we would be vastly outnumbered by the enemy, we must use some shock tactic to gain some advantage. I knew right away how to create this shock…fire medicine!!! (This was the Chinese name for gunpowder)

  The entire Dragon Gate Agency was on high alert for over one gong of time (two hours); I quietly slipped down the tree and blended into the crowd. It was not too difficult as I was dressed in one of their outfit. When some units were ordered to go outside the mansion for a search of the surrounding area, I simply followed them and slipped off into the night.

  Dragonfly told us his plan (Yan Ching’s account)

  We were delighted when Dragonfly came back to us unharmed, he updated us on his findings, he said, “As I could not confirm the specific building that the Dragon Mist was stored, we will destroy all the three building in that area.”

  Both Abacus and I was stunned as we had no idea how to destroy a building. Dragonfly went on to explain, “I had in my arsenal a new invention by our Imperial Physicians; this substance was known as the Fire Medicine. It was invented a few decades ago but it had been kept a secret. The military had been issued with it but they had yet to use it, therefore nobody in this world except for a few knew its awesome power.

  I had brought along some of it as I thought I needed to sink a ship, but now I can use it to destroy the evil stash.”

  I asked, “What is this Fire Medicine?”

  He replied, “Fire Medicine is a powder made from a secret formula, it was first tested and used in medicine, but soon the Imperial Physician saw the military use of such a substance. He promoted it to the military.

  This Fire Medicine when ignited in a compact structure creates an immensely powerful explosion, it roars like thunder and the explosive force could tear down buildings. I had brought three of this Fire Medicine device with me.

  My plan is to split up our group, Yan Ching and I will call on the Dragon Gate Agency unannounced and challenge the meeting, we will create as much trouble as possible. Meanwhile, Abacus with another team of my Imperial agents would attack the compound from the side entrance and this team would be in charge of destroying the buildings with the suspected Dragon Mist stash.”

  He continued, “As we had no way to confirm if we were right about the storage facility, everything we do would be pure gamble. There is no time to prepare, but I can assure you that the impact of the explosion would be very shocking. We might be able to use it to our advantage. We might get people to believe us just by the loudness of our explosion. That is our best bet.”

  The Confrontation (Yan Ching’s account)

  The evening came very quickly just like most dreaded events usually do. There was no time to be worry, no time to consider the consequences. There was only time to die…

  Abacus and his assault team went to hide in a nearby alley outside the mansion while Dragonfly and I along with thirty Imperial agents approach the main entrance to the Agency.

  We walked into the mansion as though we were invited guests to the gathering. As there were many other groups of fighter from other agencies that were also going in at the same time, the guards at the entrance just waved everyone in. Quietly we followed the rest of the crowd into the main hall.

  There were hundreds of people already gathered, and there were many more streaming in. The Shen brothers and his entourage were sitting at the far end of the room facing the entrance; the setting was very grand, both the brothers were dressed in a black and gold outfit. They each had an attendant carrying their heavy weapon standing by their side. Behind them stood many other heads of protection agencies, all of them were carrying their respective weapons. This arrangement was clearly to display their support for the Shen brothers.

  I noticed that behind the Shen brothers sat a young man; his seat was more prestigious than that of the brothers as it was slightly raised. But he was blocked from my view by the brothers’ entourage.

  The Shen brothers were every inch a military man, they were both tall and heavily built. Their faces were tanned glossy black by the northern sun and their eyes were glinting with fierce fiery focus. Their heavy statue and silent glare combined with the grandeur setting had set the tone for this gathering…challengers were not welcomed.

  It was very unconventional for the host of a meeting to be opening carrying their weapons; it was a clear sign of intimidation. Had it been under normal circumstances, such an insult would have brought on much protest. Such behavior would not be tolerated even by the smallest of the Wuxias’ present. But the people attending this gathering were obviously not in a position to protest.

  The Shen brothers were sitting on a slightly raised platform, differentiating them from the rest of the crowd. In accordance to the rules of Wulin, the Shen brothers should have been at the door welcoming the guests. Basic courtesy would at least require them to greet the guests when they walk into the hall, but the brothers were totally indifferent. They did not even acknowledge those that went forward to greet them, they were just scrutinizing at the crowd with their icy stare.

  The crowd below them was on the other end of the spectrum of human dignity; the few hundred Wuxias’ were either quietly starring into space or conversing in hush subdued tones. I had never seen a more miserable bunch of Wuxias’; these people had their dignity totally stripped off. What was left of them standing beside me was an empty shell, the soul was long gone. But these empty shells were once a proud and righteous person, a person who would stand up to injustice even at the risk of death.

  My only chance to survive tonight was to restore these empty shells; I had to give them the reason to fight for justice one more time. It saddens me to know that all these shells would eventually end up like Zhang Kai Ching in his dying bed, a bag of bones…but Zhang Kai Ching had his soul with him, these people might not.

  Soon all the guests had arrived, one of Shen brothers’ attendant stepped forward and said, “Quiet!!” The tone was harsh and arrogant. The crowd was silent.

  Shen Piao got off his seat and addressed the crowd, “I have ordered you all here tonight because we have decided to make our next move. But I have to deal with an important matter before we announce our plans…we have an intruder among us.”

  I knew our game was up, they had spotted us, and I was not really surprised, after all I was a famous person due to my adventure at Sunrise Inn.

  Shen Piao slowly turned his icy stare to me and said, “I believe we had been honoured with the presence of the famous Yan Ching, the hero of Huang Long city. If this was another day, I would have welcomed you to my humble home, but this is not any other day. Mister Yan, why have you sneaked into my home uninvited? Are you a friend or a foe?”

  Dragonfly and I calmly stepped forward, “Shen Piao, do not use the word sneak, this word is for describing thieves and bandits. I had walked in and nobody had challenged me. I am neither the thief nor the bandits in the room, I believe you are.”

  Shen Piao smiled and said, “I assume your intention tonight was not to congratulate me on my success. What do you want?”

  I replied, “I am here to stop your rebellion, I am here to stand up against you, to break your strangle hold on these miserable people. I am here to avenge my teacher Hong Er. I am here to punish you for selling the Song dynasty to the enemy.”

  I continued, “Every son of the dynasty has the right to eliminate you, every Wuxia who holds dear his values has the duty to stand up against you.”

  He laughed till his body was shaking, he said, “And how do you intend to stop me? Just the two of you? And the few useless fools you brought along?” He slowly walked down the platform towards us, the crowd parted for him.

  His walk was full of arrogance and confidence; he knew we were badly outnumbered, and even if it was a fair fight, the combination of me and Dragonfly might not stand a chance against just Shen Piao alone. But I knew I had to keep up the rhetoric to distract him, I wanted to give Aba
cus and his assault team some diversion. As this exchange of words was going on, I noticed that more and more guards were rushed into the main hall. They were expecting trouble from me; this was exactly what I wanted.

  I decided to play into his ego, I said, “Perhaps before you kill us you can explain to us your plot, maybe you can allow me to die in peace. How did you do it?”

  Shen Piao was clearly an arrogant and egoistic person; such a person usually loves to talk about their accomplishments. He was delighted when I gave him the opportunity to show off.

  He said, “Yes, perhaps I should tell you everything, at least when I break your neck you would know why. I do not want you to be a ‘lost ghost’ not knowing why you died.”

  He continued, “It was a simple plot, with the lure of fine wine and women plus the chance of learning super-human fighting skills all these fools were begging to be allowed on the ship. Everybody was hoping that they would be the next to be invited.” He casually referred to his victims as fools, it was truly insulting but the bunch of broken Wuxias’ standing before him just lowered their heads in shame, nobody dare say a word.

  He glared at the ‘fools’ around him and smirked, he continued, “With my connection in the south, I had purchased a huge supply of the Magic Powder (Dragon Mist). I had no problem getting these fools addicted to it. I know the addictive power of this substance, because I had been using it for years.

  The peculiar thing about this powder was that as long as you had a dose of it every day, it was really a miracle medicine. Look at me, am I weak? Am I suffering? I can kill the two of you right now….but if you stop using the powder, the suffering was unimaginable.

  With this bunch of fools under my control, I contacted the Liao Kingdom; I offered them a deal that they could not refuse. I told them I would stage a uprising in Jiangnan, while they launch their invasion from the north. The entire Song Empire would be crushed.

  In return I will be made King of the Jiangnan region; I will be given land and title. They were so impressed with my plot that they had sent the third Prince of the Liao Kingdom to me, the presence of the Prince was to guaranty their part of the bargain.” He bowed to the young man sitting up on the platform.

  He continued, “You talk about my rebellion, what rebellion? I am just conducting justice to this world. Why should I be loyal to this weak and useless Emperor? The court is so corrupted that I had bought all the Generals and their armies in Jiangnan, now they had all became slave to my Magic Powder. They would not raise a finger to stop my uprising, if I needed them to fight on my side all I had to do was to give the order.”

  He started laughing again, the laugh of a winner; he had everything under his control…even the army. Now I begin to understand the full extent of the plot, with the help of Dragon Mist, the Shen brothers had enslaved even the army of the entire region. His rebellion would have absolutely no resistance.

  He continued happily, “Nobody can accuse me of failing the Dynasty, the Dynasty had failed me!!! The Shen family had sent five of its sons to serve the in Imperial army. We fought very hard to defend our Empire, but what did we get in the end? My three brothers were killed in battle, and the two of us were accused by the Commander of cowardice and were sentenced for execution. My late father had to spend a lot of money to buy our freedom.”

  He paused for a while, he was savoring the moment, and he said, “Cowardice? Me? Our commander was running away and we were left to die, my three elder brothers sacrificed their life so that my younger brothers and I could escape. When we went back and accused the Commander of deserting us, he twisted everything around with a bunch of lies.” His eyes were glinting with anger at the mention of the Dynasty.

  Slowly he walked back to the platform, as he walked up the few steps he turned and said, “I am not the usurper of the Dynasty, the Emperor had failed the people, I am just making use of these greedy fools to fulfill the people’s wish.”

  Suddenly a feeble old voice spoke up, “I am an old fool to have fallen into your evil grasp, I had failed the people, and I had failed my ancestors.”

  The whole room was absolutely silent; nobody dared to look for the person who said this. All the heads were lowered…silence. For a long while everybody kept still, slowly humbly lowered head began to turn to look at the source of this outburst. It was an old man of about eighty years of age; he was so old that his back was bent and he was only standing with the assistance of a young man beside him.

  As Shen Piao glared at the old man, the old man made his best attempt at straightening his posture to counter the glare. The whole room was deadly silent.

  With the help of the young man, the old master walked forward, finally he said, “I am Tao Yang, the head of Tao Jia Protection Agency. I have suffered enough under you tyranny, I am ashamed that I did not stand up to you sooner, but tonight you had called me a fool one time too many.

  Even though my Agency is only a small outfit, but I had always conducted my life and my business with dignity. I had led the life of a proud Wuxia for eighty years; I am from a Wulin family. My late father was Tao Shang famous for his double-butterfly sword, my late grandfather was Tao Zheng, and he was famous for Green Dragon Crescent Blade, the same weapon that the famous warrior Guan Yu used. We were proud people, even though we were never rich but we were well respected in the society.”

  It was touching to see the old man recounting his family history with pride; it was plain to everyone that he did not intend to walk out of here alive.

  Tao Yang had broken free from the yoke, he no longer feared the suffering of withdrawal; he no longer feared death. He wanted to regain the dignity that his ancestors had bestowed upon him and he wants his descendents to be able to hold their heads high.

  He continued, “Shen Piao, I am defying you now, I declare that I am no longer your ‘fool’. You can come and kill me right now and put me out of my misery.”

  Tao Yang turned to the young man and said, “Hand me my sword.”

  With teary eyes the young man unsheathed an old worn out sword and handed it to him. The long rusty blade was almost too heavy for the feeble old fingers to grasp; he held it with both hands.

  As the old man slowly walked forward to meet his death, I could see that the crowd was slowly aroused. Lowered heads were slowly being raised, and subdued humbled spines were slowly straightened. This old master of the Tao family had inspired the bullied crowd into some resemblance of their former self. The crowd was getting restless; I knew it was time for me to do something to stir the sentiment further.

  I walked forward beside the old man with Dragonfly beside me, I said, “Old Master Tao let me walk with you.”

  The old man turned his head and looked at me for a moment, “I have heard of you Mister Yan, I thank you for inspiring me to do this. If not for your presence, I might still be bowing my foolish head to this monster. I am walking my last few steps, I am ready to die, but I am happy to know that Wulin will have people like you to carry on our proud tradition.”

  He continued in a whisper, into my ears, “Mister Yan, please let me walk this walk alone, you need not die unnecessarily. I know what you are doing; you want to wake up this bunch of miserable ‘fools’. What better way to wake them up than having this monster kills a defenseless old man right before their eyes? Let me do my last bit for Wulin, I am finished anyway, please do not let my death go to waste.”

  I understand what he was doing; he was trying very hard to corner Shen Piao into killing him. Such an act of cruelty might be able to tip the crowd into a full-scale rebellion…

  The old man stood a short distance from Shen Piao who was still standing midway up the platform. Shen Piao was clearly apprehensive on his next move; this situation was never in his plan at all. He knew he was trapped by Tao Yang’s move, on one hand he could not let such defiance go unpunished, but to kill a defenseless old man would surely turn the crowd against him.

  Shen Piao hesitated, but his brother Shen Hung did not. Shen Hung
who was all this while sitting on the top of the platform suddenly grabbed the spear that his attendant was holding for him. In one swift move he stood up, took one step forward and thrust his spear toward Tao Yang. His spear was seven feet long, with his arm extended and with his body leaning forward he did not have to take another step to kill the Old Master. From his elevated position on the platform, his spear’s jagged tip pierced into the Old man’s forehead.

  The crowd recoiled in shock; even though Wulin had always been associated with violence, but the Wulin conflicts had always been governed by a strict set of rules, such savagery was never part of it.

  What followed next upset the crowd even more. Shen Hung’s spear was stuck firmly onto the skull of the Old Man; he was unable to shake it loose as it was locked onto the bone. Shen Hung drew his spear back dragging the old frail body along and he stepped on the head and pulled his spear back. The lifeless body was left lying on the steps of the platform. It was a horrifying act even for the battle hardened fighters in the hall.

  The two brothers looked up and smirked at the crowd, Shen Piao said, “Who else want to defy me, I welcome it.”

  He did not have to wait long, five middle age men step forward, the leader among them said, “We are from the Five Tigers protection agency, I am Lou Wei, this are my sworn brothers Gao Han, Tang Ching, Song De Cheng and Guo Hung Li. We declare that we defy you; we are no longer your slave. We challenge the two of you to a fight.

  Just like Master Tao Yang we were honourable Wuxias’ until we fell into your trap. We had shamed our family, but today we will right the wrong. I know we will not walk out of here alive; I want all of you to witness this, the Five Tiger Agency had stood up to evil, we die as Wuxia.”

  The five of them dashed forward at the same time, but they were no match for the combined power of the Shen brothers. They were dispatched in a blink of an eye.

  The Shen brothers went back up the platform and looked down to the crowd, their glare challenging anybody who dares to follow the Five Tigers. The crowd seems to have been subdued again; I knew I must not allow that to happen. I went forward; the entire room was looking at me, but before I could voice my challenge a loud explosion rocked the whole room.

  Abacus and his team had struck!!!

  None of us had ever witness the power of Fire Medicine before, even though I had be warned by Dragonfly about its stunting effect, I was not prepared for it. The explosion was about thirty yards away from the main hall, but the impact was still strong enough to throw most of us to the ground. Dragonfly and I were the first to recover; we looked up and saw the Shen brothers were slowly getting to their feet.

  Before they could fully recovered from the shock, I shouted, “Shen Piao, my team had destroyed the building that you stored your Magic Powder (Dragon Mist) in. You have no more Magic Powder! You are finished.”

  This was the first time I saw fear creeping into Shen Piao’s eyes, with the destruction of the Powder, he had not only lost control over the victims; he would also lost his own supply of the Powder. He knew very well what the consequences would be.

  The crowd having heard what I said was in a state of panic, they too knew what that meant. No more powder meant slow death by extreme suffering but at the same time it also meant they no longer have to listen to Shen brothers. The crowd did not take to figure that out, one after another the Wuxias’ dashed forward to attack the Shen brothers. These desperate Wuxias’ had no more reasons to hold back, without the powder, they were as good as dead; they rather die quickly and honourably.

  Dragonfly and I joined in the attack on the brothers; a few of their Agency’s fighters came to help them. But the Shen brothers did not need any help; they were fighting ten to one each, their strength and stamina seems unlimited. The more they fought the stronger they became.

  Shen Piao’s Crescent Blade was utilized to the fullest, at time he held it close to the body and at time he swung it in a wide arc just holding the end of the shaft with his arms extended. This expanding and contracting of his striking arc had caught many of his attackers off guard. Being caught off guard by this heavy blade meant instant death.

  Shen Hung on the other hand was deploying his relatively lighter weapon with lightning precision; his spear had a sharp point on both ends of the shaft. He seems to be able to fight on both ends at the same time. Before long the two brothers had killed or injured more than ten of the attackers. The angry crowd could not gain any advantage despite their numbers.

  Both Dragonfly and I had sustained some injuries in the fight; we had survived better than the rest of the attackers not because we were more skillful. It was because we were more cautious, the rest of the Wuxias’ involved in the attack had given up on their life; they fought like they had wanted to die…perhaps they did.

  I tried several times to get close to Shen Piao as I was not able to effectively engage him with my saber from a distance, but my attempts had almost caused me my life. He was just too strong and nimble, the one time that I was able to step into his arm-length perimeter I was quickly ejected by an explosive thrust of his palm. He was well-versed in both his extended fight (engaging the opponent at weapon length) and his restrictive fight (engaging opponent at close quarters).

  The crowd was beginning to lose appetite on the attack; some of the wounded Wuxias’ were leaving the hall. Some were just standing there, starring in to space, lost in their own world; they were totally thrown off by the twist and turn of the night’s event. After all the suffering they had gone through, they were finally release from their mental prison. But this relieve came at a heavy price, they would soon die of a very painful death.

  Someone shouted, “Let’s get the Prince of Liao.”

  One group of them charged up the platform straight into the group of fighters protecting the young Prince. The Prince’s personal guards were all Liao soldiers in disguise, they fought bravely. Dragonfly ordered his Imperial agents to join in the assault on the Prince’s entourage; a bloody battle was fought on the platform.

  By now Abacus and his assault team had fought their way to us; he immediately threw himself into the battle.

  As the battle in the meeting hall was raging, I saw three men walked in from the main entrance. They were in their fifties and were dressed in simple peasant outfit, wearing straw hat and straw sandals. None of them were carrying any weapon. They stood at the entrance to the hall and scan the battle scene as though they were looking for someone. Finally their eyes rested on Dragonfly who was busy fighting Shen Piao, the leader of the group quickly walked over to Dragonfly.

  Dragonfly was at that time was tightly locked up by Shen Piao’s aggressive attack. With one swipe of his Crescent Blade Shen Piao had struck down Dragonfly’s saber, with a follow up stroke he had forced Dragonfly to the ground. The next swipe of the Blade would surely hack Dragonfly into two. The middle age man quickened his steps and in a blink of an eye he was standing between Dragonfly and Shen Piao.

  When Shen Piao’s Crescent Blade came down, the man was right in the path of the murderous Blade. He took a small step forward and grabbed the weapon right below the sharp blade and effortlessly he push the heavy shaft back in Shen Piao’s direction.

  Shen Piao’s super-human strength seems to be no match for his unceremonious push. Throughout the entire evening, I had not seen Shen Piao retreating once, but one tiny push from this man had sent Shen Piao stumbling back several steps. Everybody was shocked; the most shocked among them was Shen Piao himself, he said, “Who are you?”

  The man did not reply, he turned to Dragonfly and said, “I apologize for the delay, we had set off immediately upon the orders from the Second Prince. We await your instructions.”

  The shaken Dragonfly nodded and said, “Take the Shen brothers…and the Prince from the Liao Kingdom….I needs them alive.” Dragonfly breathlessly pointed his fingers at the targets.

  The man said, “It will be done.”

  I helped Dragonfly to the side; in between
breaths he explained to me, “These three men were the head of the inner brigade of the Emperor’s guards; they were the top martial art experts in the Imperial Palace. These inner guards were the elite forces that provide close quarter protection for the Emperor. The Second Prince had borrowed them from the Emperor for this mission. Fortunately they made it in time, if not we would be dead.”

  The Head of the Imperial elite guards turned to Shen Piao; it was the first time that I noticed Shen Piao’s tension, he licked his lips several times as he cautiously circled his opponent. Without taking his eyes off the man, he shouted to his brother, “Lao Wu, come over, we have someone worthy of our skills.” ‘Lao Wu’ meant fifth brother.

  For the Shen brothers, this Imperial Guard presented a professional curiosity, as he had said it was a worthy opponent. The killing of tens of the mediocre fighters was a good workout but it did not present any challenge at all. This was different…

  All the other surviving Wuxias’ who were fighting the Shen brothers had suddenly turned into excited onlookers, they had temporarily forgotten their hatred and their imminent painful death; they had once again turned into a bunch of martial art enthusiast. They were just like the bunch that I had met at Green Dragon Agency and Five Flag union. They just want to witness the display of extreme martial art. For now, nothing else matters.

  That was the extent that martial art matters to a true Wuxias’ life, to a Wuxia; martial art was more than life and death.

  I asked Dragonfly, “Who is he? Can he take on the two brothers at once, should we help?”

  Dragonfly gave me a sideway glance and said, “His official name was Ma Cheng Tian, I do not know his history, but I know that his martial art was based on internal strength. He was recruited by the Second Prince personally. He alone can take on five Shen brothers. There are only about a handful of such talent in the world, he is as powerful as your friends in Chang Shan.”

  He continued, “Such a person like him could have easily establish a reputation in Wulin, but he was little known outside the Imperial Palace. These people are all very weird in their behaviors, just like your friends from Chang Shan. But instead of hiding away, he chose to serve the Empire…but quietly. He had save the Emperor from assassination many times, but he had repeatedly refused rewards and promotions. Head of the inner guards was a post grossly unworthy of his talent. Weird character.”

  Ma Cheng Tian stood before the two brothers; he slowly untied the bundle he carried round his shoulders and drop it to the floor. This bundle was probably the only belonging he had carried for the trip here. He rolled down his sleeves as the Shen brothers nervously circled him.

  At this moment, the Shen brothers had lost all hope for any positive outcome for their venture; the rebellion was a non-starter, the powder storage had been destroyed which meant that they would suffer a painful death soon. Now with this ‘worthy’ opponent, they might suffer the first defeat they had in the past ten years…

  But being a martial art enthusiast, they were more focus on the fight than all the setbacks they were facing, they were fascinated. For them, to be killed by such a worthy expert was much better than be killed by a bunch of mediocre Wuxias’. And the opportunity to witness first hand such martial art skill would have made everything worthwhile.

  Meanwhile, the other two men who were with Ma Cheng Tian had easily captured the Prince of Liao. All the Wuxia who had been fighting the Prince’s bodyguards had abandoned the task and had joined the spectacles on the lower platform. The battle that was a moment ago ragging in the room had been won by us, all the enemies had submitted to the inevitable. All except for the Shen brothers…

  At this moment, fighters on both sides of the conflict had laid down their weapons and had instantaneously transformed themselves into spectators of this main event, even the captured Prince of Liao was leaning forward to try and get a better view below. The situation was infectious and comical.

  I have to admit I was also carried away by the tension in the air.

  The Main Event

  The brothers had wisely split up their attacks; Ma Cheng Tian countered this with swift movements. Even though both the brothers were very quick and nimble on their feet they were still out classed by the super-human speed of Ma Cheng Tian, his body seems to flow like water.

  Ma Cheng Tian used his bare hands to block and redirect the two heavy weapons; he was incredibly precise in circumventing the cutting edge of the Crescent Blade and the spear. His strokes and strikes patterns were swift, sharp and extremely powerful.

  Every powerful slash from the power Crescent Blade was dismissively brush aside by his rolled down sleeve, it was as though inside his sleeve he was carrying a weapon. But I knew it to be not so, he was redirecting the heavy weapon with his internal energy, the movement of the hands were just the medium to conduct the force. After my encounter with the Old Man from Chang Shan I had come to realize the power of such martial art.

  Ma Cheng Tian had time and again pushed the two brothers to one side and forced them to be on the defensive, but after a while, he would slow down his strikes to allow the brothers some breathing space. I realized that he was trying to tire the Shen brothers, in order to capture them alive…those were the order from Dragonfly.

  After toying with the brothers for a long while, he stepped up his tempo, up till now he had only used a fraction of his capability. He purposely left himself wide open to his opponent by standing with his back to them. The Shen brothers went for the kill.

  Ma Cheng Tian slowly turned and held his palms outwards about four feet apart. As the deadly blades came closer with the tips within inches of his body they stopped. The two heavy weapons were held in place by an invisible force, the Shen brothers could not thrust them forward neither could they withdraw the weapons.

  The whole room exclaimed in surprise, nobody had ever seen such a display of extreme power. While everybody started talking at the same time, nobody took their eyes off the fight. The Shen brothers were shocked beyond words; they struggled desperately to retrieve their weapon using their body weight.

  Ma Cheng Tian took this momentum to release the weapons and redirect the force to propel the two weapons into the brothers’ body. Both the spear and the Crescent Blade were thrust end-wise into the shoulders of the brothers. They stumbled several steps back before falling to the ground; they were both crippled by their own weapons.

  By now the roar in the room was deafening, all these Wuxias’ had for one moment forgotten about their impending doom, they were cheering like a bunch of little children. Perhaps, having witnessed this amazing display of martial art would have made their final days more palatable.

  I too was stunted beyond words; I was trying hard to close my wide opened mouth when Ma Cheng Tian walked over to us. He respectfully bowed to Dragonfly and said, “Sire, I hope this is to your satisfaction. Would there be anything else that you need done? If not, I would like to go back to my Master’s side.” He was referring to the Emperor.

  Dragonfly replied, “You have done well, you saved our life. I thank you for that. The southern army would be arriving soon, when they are here, you can leave.”

  Dragonfly had explained to me later that the Second Prince had ordered the army from the South to come in to help us. The Jiangnan army had been totally compromised by the Shen brothers; it would be a long process to repair the damages done.

  Before excusing himself Ma Cheng Tian turned to me and said, “You must be Mister Yan Ching, I have heard of your exploits in Huang Long city, I would like to meet the Old Men from Chang Shan, if you could arrange that I would be very grateful.” He turned and walked away, he was clearly a man of few words.

  The Imperial agents we brought along began clearing up the remnants of the resistance from the Dragon gate Agency, none of them really had much will to resist. Abacus and I left the place leaving Dragonfly and his agents to tie up the loose ends.

  By the next morning, the Southern army had arrived; they took co
ntrol of the city, when I met Dragonfly I asked him, “What do you intend to do with the Shen brothers and the Prince of Liao?”

  He said, “What do you suggest?”

  I replied, “I would like to see all three executed. For the misery they had caused, they deserve to die a hundred times.”

  He thought for a moment and said, “Things might not be as simple as you think, to kill a Liao Prince in Song territory could be more costly than you imagine.”

  I said, “Are we just going to release him? How are we to answer to the people who had been harmed by him? If you are afraid to touch him, let me do it, I am bounded by my duties to revenge my teacher.”

  I was upset.

  Dragonfly replied, “Let me think about it.”

  Dragonfly Flew off again

  By night fall, Dragonfly had disappeared, he left me a letter.

  It said, “Yan Ching and Abacus, I am sorry that I had slipped off again just like the last time. I have to escort the Liao Prince to the Imperial Palace; he will be treated as our honoured guest in the Capital.

  I knew you would be furious at this development, you would feel that I had betrayed you once again.

  Let me explain, we cannot execute the Prince, because our entire army from Jiangnan to the northern frontiers had been compromised by this evil Dragon Mist. Seven out of the ten Generals in the region had been a victim of the Special Invitation.

  Some of the troops that are presently facing the enemy had become addicts; they could not be trusted at all. In a few days time when their supply of Dragon Mist runs out, the whole northern army will collapse. The only thing standing in the way of an all out invasion from the Liao Kingdom was the Prince that we are holding.

  Yan Ching, now you understand why we are treating the Prince so well. I had told you before; I am working for the people of the Empire, but I do not have the luxury that you do, often times my hands are bounded by many issues. I envy your carefree life style where you could do as you please or as your Wulin duties dictate, I do not have that leeway.

  Farewell my friends

  Dragonfly”

  I was disappointed, but I was not angry, I began to understand Dragonfly better. I knew if he had an option, he would not have taken the Prince away from us.

  But unfortunately, we were the only two people who knew the truth and we could not tell this to anyone else as it was a military secret. Therefore Dragonfly would forever be looked upon as the traitor who had taken the Prince of Liao away from the people of Suzhou, away from his rightful punishment. He had risked his life to fulfill his mission, but in the end all he got was a reputation of a traitor…

  The Addicts paid the ultimate price

  For the next few months, everyday there were a few funerals that I was invited to, the victims of the Special Invitation were dying, they were paying the ultimate price. In a way I was the one that had killed them as I was the one who spearheaded the destruction of the Dragon Mist plot.

  But none of the families blamed me; instead I was an honoured guest at all the funerals. Such was the mindset of a Wuxia; an honourable death was always preferred over a shameful existence, many of the sons and daughters of the deceased thanked me for giving honour back to the family.

  As usual, the fight between Ma Cheng Tian and the Shen brothers was the talk of the city for many months to come; I was glad that by now my Huang Long City adventure was slowly being forgotten….

  END