CHAPTER 68

Cloud Dragon Hua meets a ghost; the iron-shop manager talks of escorts

AS Cloud Dragon Hua looked at the monk, he began to shake with a chilling fear. Then he realized as he looked around that he was still sitting in the grove, leaning against the tree and shivering in the night air. Like the famous man who dreamed that he had been made governor of the great city of Nanko, but woke to find that the city existed only in his dream, Cloud Hua had had a dream almost more real than actual life.

What had happened was that Ji Gong had projected his presence on to Cloud Dragon Hua. It was this presence that had caused the dream, to test whether Cloud Dragon would show any signs of reforming. Ji Gong might seem terrible because of his powers, but he was really a kindly being who wished to see whether Cloud Dragon could be saved from the evil side of his own nature. Although Cloud Dragon seemed to be an altogether heartless and cruel person, the fact that he feared Ji Gong so greatly showed that a battle between good and evil was still going on somewhere in Cloud Dragon Hua’s heart. This was why Ji Gong had not simply captured him long before. That would have been an easy matter. Keeping him from destroying himself and others, while trying to save his better nature, was much more difficult.

As yet, however, even in his dreams, the evil in Cloud Dragon’s heart seemed to remain unchanged. As he awoke from his dream, frightened and covered with sweat, he looked up and saw that the sky was filled with stars. It was now about the second watch. He stood up and walked onward. In front of him he saw a form that proved to be human. The outlaw drew his sword, and as they came nearer together, the other spoke, “Brother Hua!” Looking more closely, Cloud Dragon saw that it was no stranger, but the Black Wind Ghost, Jiang Ying.

“Dear Brother Jiang, where are you going?” asked Cloud Dragon.

Jiang Ying, the Black Wind Ghost, came closer and raised his clasped hands in greeting. “It has been a long time, Second Brother,” he said.

Now, since the time when Jiang Ying had left Yang Ming’s home, where he had been a guest for some time, he had wandered about with no fixed place to stay. Then he had gone to the ancient Veiled Mountain Abbey to see the sorcerer Hua Qingfeng, the uncle of Hua Yun Long. Sorcerer Hua knew that Jiang Ying and his nephew were sworn brothers and therefore let him stay at the shrine and treated him as a friend.

On the day that Golden Eye, also called Jiang Tianrui, had fled back to the Veiled Mountain Shrine from the Iron Buddha Temple, the sorcerer Hua had stared at Golden Eye in surprise. “You look terrible,” he said, “and what has happened to your beard?” he asked. In reply Golden Eye told the whole story, from start to finish, of how Ji Gong had come to exorcise the Iron Buddha Temple, and finally how Golden Eye’s beard had become tangled and matted with blood when he was slapping his own face.

Sorcerer Hua’s anger fairly blazed up as he listened. “That mad Ji Gong!” he exclaimed. “I will keep this in my mind until we are revenged. He has no consideration! I will have him!”

Golden Eye knelt and offered up his mystic treasure sword to the sorcerer, who stared at it for some time. After thinking it over, he decided to enlist the aid of all five of the outlaws nicknamed “the Ghosts of Four Rivers,” reasoning that the mystic number of five had greater powers than any of those possessed by the ragged monk. “Together,” the sorcerer said, “these five could certainly put an end to Ji Gong.” And so he sent Jiang Ying, the Black Wind Ghost, down from the mountain to assemble Cloud Dragon and the other three sworn brothers. Tonight Jiang Ying had just met Cloud Dragon Hua, who was one of the five.

“Where have you been these days, dear brother Jiang?” queried Cloud Dragon.

“For a while I stayed near Dragon Ridge and Phoenix Ridge,” Jiang replied, “but I was surprised that Yang Ming was not as friendly as before. After his fifteen-year-old daughter mysteriously disappeared, his manner was different and he said several things that were not very polite. You know my temperament, brother, and so I left his home and went up to the Veiled Mountain Shrine. Now your uncle has asked me to do an errand for him. Where are you going now, Second Brother?”

“Just now I have no particular place to go. The monk from the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat has been pursuing me,” Cloud Dragon answered.

“Second Brother,” said Jiang, “come up with me to the Veiled Mountain Shrine. Your uncle is called the Sorcerer of the Ninth Palace. He will welcome you and perhaps can intercede with Ji Gong, monk to monk, mystery to mystery, Dao to Dao. The three faiths of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism are really all one family. Your uncle and Ji Gong are both people who have left the world. They are not officials and not bound by the same rules as officials. Even though you have broken the emperor’s national laws, what is that to them? They are hermits. Come up with me and see your uncle and you will have a safe place to relax.”

“Yes, I suppose I could go with you,” said Cloud Dragon Hua, “but first I have to buy some darts. I have used up the last of mine. I depend upon poison darts for self-defense.”

“If you want to buy darts,” said Jiang, “there is a place at Rising Ground Village just ahead.” The two walked on slowly. When they arrived at the village and the sun was a little higher, Jiang Ying said, “I will wait here for you at the entrance to the village.”

“Good,” said Cloud Dragon Hua. He entered the village, and when he came to the crossroad, turned east. He saw on the south side of the road a large iron shop with the name “No Mother-in-Law Iron Shop” above the door. The shop was freestanding, with no neighbors sharing a wall, and had a wide front. To the west, in an open lot, a hawker had set up shop beside the road. To the east, a fortune-teller had built a little hearth.

Cloud Dragon Hua looked up at the shop gate and saw a tall old man standing there. He was wearing a short blue outer garment and a square blue kerchief tied over the hair knot on his head. His face was a long oval, like a large date with two large eyes and snow-white hair and beard. “This must be the manager,” thought Hua and so he stepped up and asked, “Manager, do you sell darts?”

The old man looked Cloud Dragon up and down, eyeing his white crane’s-feather jacket of the kind fashionable with brave fellows. “We do,” he replied. “What kind of darts are you looking for, sir?”

“I want the kind that will ride on the wind,” answered Cloud Dragon Hua. “Do you have them?”

“We have some, but not the kind that will ride on the wind. Will you come inside and sit down? You may look at them and see whether they satisfy you or not. I can ask a craftsman to forge some for you.”

Cloud Dragon nodded his head, went inside the office, and sat down. “How many would you like to buy?” the old man asked.

“Oh, eight of one and six of the other. No, twelve altogether,” replied Cloud Dragon Hua. “I’ll take twelve altogether, and they should weigh about three ounces each.”

“Yes,” said the old man. “I have some ready-made, but perhaps they are a little heavy. If you could use them, that would come to six ounces of silver. If you want them to ride on the wind, the workman could make them, especially if you would add a couple of ounces of silver for his trouble—to buy him a drink, you know.”

“A few ounces of silver are nothing,” Cloud Dragon Hua thought to himself, and he said, “The price is up to you. I can wait.”

“Very well,” said the old man, but he brought a dart to show Hua.

Hua looked at it and remarked, “It is heavy.”

“Wait a bit, sir, and they will have some ready,” said the old man. He called one of the servants to make a pot of tea and said to him, “We don’t have any water here in the shop. Go and draw some.” Meanwhile, he whispered some words into the little servant’s ear. The servant nodded and went out.

The old man went on talking with Cloud Dragon Hua. “Ordinarily what do you do, sir?”

“Travelers’ escort,” replied Cloud Dragon Hua.

“Since you are an escort,” the old man said, “let me mention a few names of people whom you may know.”

“I know a good many—there are not many I don’t know,” said Cloud Dragon Hua.

“Well, there is Huang Yun, nicknamed ‘the Swallow from South Road.’ Do you know him?”

“I know the name,” said Cloud Dragon Hua.

“And the escort leader Chen Xiao with the beautiful whiskers from the North Road, and his somewhat sickly, pale friend, Yang Meng? Do you know them?”

“Oh, they are like my brothers,” said Cloud Dragon.

“Then there is iron-faced Chen Shengyuan, who hasn’t an enemy in the world, and Zhou Shen, the escort head in West Road. You must know them.”

“I do,” said Cloud Dragon.

“Now there is another talented and worthy escort, Yang Ming. You probably know him, too,” said the old man.

“He is no stranger to me,” said Cloud Dragon.

“Well, that’s about it,” said the old man. “Here is the servant with the tea.” The little servant gave Hua a cup of tea, and a bit later came to say that the darts had been forged. The old man brought them in and gave them to Cloud Dragon to look at.

“The points are still a little heavy,” said Cloud Dragon Hua. “I’m afraid that when they are thrown, they will go wide of the mark.”

“Why don’t you try them out, sir?” asked the old man. “We have a place in the back courtyard. If they are not right, we can ask the workman to adjust the weight.”

“Good!” exclaimed Cloud Dragon.

Carrying the darts with one hand, the old man led the way for Cloud Dragon and opened the door to the back courtyard. Cloud Dragon was surprised to see that it was so extensive. On the west and south sides were high walls, each fifty or sixty feet long. At one end of the south wall was a closed gate. There were no adjoining neighbors. The courtyard was floored with earth. It was an ideal place to try out weapons.

Cloud Dragon Hua looked around and heard a noise at the gate. It opened and two men carrying iron staves entered. The man in the lead was tall and dark with a hawklike face, and looked like a powerful opponent with an air of authority. He was named Lo Biao, and was known as “the Hawk-faced Man.” The other man was somewhat similar in appearance. He was named Zhou Rui and called Evening Mound, the name given to him by a soothsayer. “Evening” was the character for his zodiac sign, and it was also associated with the word “mistake.” Someone said to him jokingly, “If you find the mound, don’t make a mistake.” Zhou Rui never understood why the soothsayer had included the word “mound” in his name.

Both Lo Biao and Zhou Rui were beardless. Behind them came a crowd of less imposing men. The two headmen called out with one voice, “Where do you think you are going, Cloud Dragon Hua? You dare to commit murder and arson here! Don’t think you can escape us!”

Now Cloud Dragon Hua had never committed any offenses in this area. However, there was a new district magistrate in Chengshan, and there had been a case of robbery and arson at a pawnshop, as well as the murder of a carter. The magistrate called his two extremely able headmen to his chambers. He gave them ten days to solve the cases, with a promise of reward if they succeeded and demotion if they failed.