Chapter 6: 6

Grandmaster White Cloud took down a long case from the wall that had been cast from the finest iron and was very sturdy. She also took ten pills from a bottle gourd. Then she removed the lid from the box and inside was a centipede that was two spans and four digits long1, its body covered with scintillating red scales, and two eyes the size of teacups that shone with green light. Grandmaster White Cloud put the pills in the box, and the centipede suddenly wriggled. Grandmaster quickly put the lid on the box.

Bearded Daoist said, “A supernatural creature like this must have poison much stronger than a snake elemental. How did Grandmaster Dawneater acquire it?”

Grandmaster White Cloud said, “Grandmaster Dawneater was naughty as a young maiden. One day she caught a centipede that was no more than two or three digits long. She put it in a box and fed it some rice every day. It gradually grew. By the time she married, the centipede was already five or six spans long and she wanted to take it with her when she moved in with her husband. Her father was worried that people would be shocked to hear of this and refused to let her take it. She had no choice but to have someone take the centipede to the mountains and drop it off. Later on, her husband died, and Divine Nun Grandmaster Udumbara2 took her as a disciple and she cultivated to become a sword immortal and went to the mountain to retrieve the centipede to take as a mountain treasure. During these hundred years or so it has had talismans used on it by Grandmaster Dawneater and has ingested the elixir of immortality, so that it is not only has divine powers, it can enlarge or shrink itself, and is endowed with intelligence and will not harm people. Dawneater really loves it. This time I had to ask her three times and waste a lot of words to finally convince her to lend it to me. Senior Brother, don’t look down on it.”

The three of them chatted, asking Zhou Chun what skills he was proficient in, and before they knew it it was getting light out in the east.

Grandmaster White Cloud said, “It’s time.” She said to Zhou Chun, “This trip will be very dangerous. Brave sir, if you want to go, then just keep to the side and watch. Whatever you do, don’t get involved.” Then they all got up and headed for the mountain valley.

Now the red wheel of the sun has risen above the horizon, so the way was clearly illuminated. They reached a spot where the mountain turned perilous and there was not a digit of grass growing. Grandmaster White Cloud said to Bearded Daoist, “The snake’s lair is not far from here. I’ll go and lure it out. Once I start fighting it, Senior Brother you use Darkling Bloom to cut off its return route.” Then she headed off alone.

Bearded Daoist and Zhou Chun leapt up to the mountain peak and saw there was a big cave in the mountain valley that was so dark they couldn’t see the end. Grandmaster White Cloud got close to the cave and clucked and hooted several times. Suddenly a fierce wind kicked up and Grandmaster White Cloud turned and headed back.

Quicker than words can tell, a gust of black wind emerged from the cave and out rushed a large snake with golden scales and red eyes. It was about ten staves long and its body was as big around as an earthen jar and it moved swiftly. It gave chase for over half a mile when White Cloud suddenly turned and shouted, “That’s it, come on!” A beam of purple light shot from her hand. The snake saw the light and spat out a stave-long gout of flame that twisted around the beam of light.

They fight for a time and the snake knew it had met its match and turned and headed back the way it had come. Bearded Daoist brought his sword, Darkling Bloom, out and a beam of blue-green light flew toward the snake’s head. Seeing it couldn’t go that way, the snake coiled its body into a pile and spewed out raging flames mixed with toxic mist that fought with the two beams of sword light, but despite how formidable the transcendent swords were, they couldn’t harm it at all.3

Grandmaster White Cloud and Bearded Daoist each stood on a mountain peak and directed their sword light to fight the snake. They fought for half a day with no one the victor. Having no choice, White Cloud had to signal to Bearded Daoist for each to retract their sword light. The snake saw the sword lights suddenly retreat and thought the enemy was defeated and was ready to pounce on Grandmaster White Cloud. Suddenly a thing shot out of Grandmaster White Cloud’s hand, thing that dazzled with red light, illuminated the entire mountain valley. Grandmaster White Cloud had seen that the swords were not enough to secure a victory, so she released the centipede from its box.

The centipede emerged from the box and faced the wind and grew until it was over a stave long. The snake saw the centipede flying toward it and knew it was up against a formidable foe that should not be underestimated. It went all out, spewing flames and mist, battling with the centipede. They fought for a while, then the centipede bit down on the snake’s “seven digit”, the vital spot on its body where the heart was located4, and the snake bit down on the centipede’s tail, and neither would let go. The snake found it hard to bear the centipede’s bite and smacked its long tail over and over into the mountain rock, sending down showers of rocks like hailstones. It was a spectacular sight.

By now the three people were moving together. Bearded Daoist wanted to loose Darkling Bloom to help the centipede. Grandmaster White Cloud feared that could harm the centipede and stopped him. Just as they were discussing this, the ground suddenly rumbled and shook and the snake and the centipede were locked together motionless. Turns out the bite on the snake hurt so bad the snake slammed its tail over and over into the mountain rock, and an outcropping a stave or so hight broke off and landed right on its head, dashing its brains out. The centipede too was exhausted and perished.

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Grandmaster White Cloud and Bearded Daoist hurried down and used their swords to cut the snake into dozens of pieces. Seeing the centipede dead, White Cloud said, “I didn’t want to release it all for fear they would kill each other. Now what am I going to tell Grandmaster Dawneater?”

Bearded Daoist said, “This elemental has been plaguing this whole area, tormenting the people. Today, Grandmaster Dawneater’s centipede has rid this area of a huge scourge. This is a great deed, I’m sure she won’t blame you.”

As they were talking, a black-clad girl suddenly flew down from the top of the mountain, a bottle gourd tied to her waist. She went up to them and said, “Disciple Zhou Qingyun, on Grandmaster Dawneater’s orders, requests that Grandmaster White Cloud not to worry. The centipede’s death is a matter of fate. She ordered me to send you Grandmaster’s greetings and to take its body back.” She went over to the centipede and took out a pill and put it in its mouth. The centipede shrank down to seven or eight digits, then she placed it in the bottle gourd at her waist. She said to Grandmaster White Cloud, “Master said that my father, Zhou Chun, was here. May I see him?”

Grandmaster White Cloud then knew that she was Zhou Chun’s daughter and she was delighted for her and called Zhou Chun over. Father and daughter reunited was naturally a happy occasion. Zhou Chun had wanted to seek Grandmaster Dawneater’s help, but since he had been with Grandmaster White Cloud helping to exorcise this elemental spirit, he hadn’t had a chance to mention it. Now that his daughter was here, he instructed her to ask on his behalf. He told Qingyun about the enmity between he and Many-Armed Bear Mao Tai and how he had gone to Chengdu to look for him, and he told Qingyun to ask Grandmaster Dawneater to come down from the mountain.

Qingyun said, “Why bother Master with such a trifling matter as this. Your daughter can handle it this time. Your daughter has cultivated and become a sword transcendent since going with Master into the mountains. Because Daddy’s sword training was not complete, I asked Grandmaster over and over again to teach you, but Grandmaster said her and Father had no predestined affinity between them. Grandmaster has never taken a male disciple; she said Daddy’s opportunity would come and he would certainly meet a great teacher. She said for Daddy to just head to Chengdu and someone will come forward to lead the way. After your daughter reports back to the mountain, I will go to Chengdu and help Daddy kill that Mao Tai.” Zhou Chun felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Qingyun bade farewell to the three of them and headed back to report on her mission, but no more of this.

Zhou Chun thought that Grandmaster White Cloud and Bearded Daoist were both famous sword transcendents and so asked them to teach him.

Grandmaster White Cloud said, “Though you are over forty, your foundation and character are excellent. You will be one of us sooner or later, why so anxious? Now there are many sword schools and they often quarrel with each other. Aside from Kunlun and Emei, there’s now the newly established Mount Huang and Wutai schools, and they were as incompatible as fire and water because good and evil cannot coexist. Mao Tai seeking revenge now is only the beginning. Later there will be many more incidents.” With that, she collected a bunch of twigs and branches and cremated the snake.

Bearded Daoist said he was on orders from his master, Patriarch Tranquil Void, and had to hurry back and help a predestined transcendent to cross over, lest he be enlisted by the Wutai School. Then he let out a long whistle and a large immortal crane descended from the clouds. Bearded Daoist mounted it, said “See you later”, and soared off into the clouds.

Only then did Zhou Chun realize that the crane that had killed that snake that day in the mountains had been Bearded Daoist’s mount. Despite what his daughter, Qingyun, had told him, he still felt anxious. He asked Grandmaster White Cloud for help. She said, “You need but go on ahead, there will be no hindrances. When trouble arrives, I will come and help you. There’s no need right now.”

Zhou Chun was doubtful, but he had no choice but to bid farewell and set out on the road alone. He traveled several days and reached Chengdu. He inquired about Mao Tai everywhere, but no one had seen a monk that matched his description. Zhou Chun could only wait there until Qingyun arrived, but after three months without her showing up, he was very puzzled. This was the last ten-days of the first month. There were many convents and abbeys in and outside Chengdu and many historic sites. One day, bored with sitting in his inn room, he took a stroll to the Marquis of Wu Ancestral Temple5 outside the southern gate to look around.

 

NOTES

Again, “spans” is a translation of 尺, the width of a hand spread apart. Often translated as inches, but since Chinese has its own unique measurement system, I want to translate them according to their original meanings as best I can. “Digits” then, is a translation of 寸, usually translated inches. It’s the width of a finger (or thumb, depending on how you interpret ancient texts). Digit seems appropriate and just vague enough to satisfy whatever interpretation one might have here. English does have a similar measurement, such as measuring the amount of alcohol in a shot glass. “Give me three fingers…” In Buddhist literature, the udumbara tree is supposed to produce fruit without flowers and flowers once every 3,000 years. So it is a symbol of the rare appearance of a Buddha. The udumbara is the Ficus racemosa (aka Ficus glomerata). In case it isn’t clear for some people what’s happening, the physical swords these people use have transformed into beams of sword light and are fighting. In a previous chapter, when a blue-green light shot through the sanctuary Zhou Chun was waiting in, that was Bearded Daoist, whose body had merged with his sword into the sword light as a means of travel. We will see many more examples of sword light in later chapters. I added this explanation of “seven digit” for clarity. The original text just has seven digit 七寸. Ancestral temple dedicated to Zhuge Liang, who was also called the Marquis of Wu.

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