it was a hot summer's day in june, l754, theeighteenth year of the reign of emperor qian long. inthe inner courtyard of the military commander's yamenin fufeng in shaanxi province, a fourteen-year-oldgirl skipped towards her teacher's study, eager for ahistory lesson. all was peaceful: not even a thread ofcool wind stirred. the girl hesitated, afraid that herteacher had not yet woken from his afternoon nap.

quietly, she circled round to the window, pierced ahole in its paper covering with one of her golden hairclips, and peeped inside.

she saw her teacher sitting cross-legged on a chair,smiling. his right hand waved slightly in the air, andthere was a faint clicking sound. glancing over towhere the sound came from, she noticed several dozenflies on a wooden partition opposite, all as still ascould be. puzzled, she looked more closely and noticeda golden needle as slender as a hair protruding fromthe back of each fly. the needles were so small thatshe was only able to see them because they reflectedthe rays of the late afternoon sun slanting in throughthe windows.

flies were still buzzing to and fro around the room.

the teacher waved his hand again, there was a smallnoise, and another fly was pinned to the partition.

absolutely fascinated, she ran to the door and burstin, shouting: "teacher! show me how to do that."the girl was li yuanzhi, the only child of the localmilitary commander, li keshou. her fresh, beautifulface was flushed with excitement.

"hmm," said her teacher, a scholar in his mid-fiftiesnamed lu. "why aren't you playing with your friends?

you want to hear some more stories, do you?"moving a chair over to the partition, she jumped up tolook, then pulled the needles out of the flies one byone, wiped them clean on a piece of paper and handedthem back to him. "that was a brilliant piece of kungfu, teacher," she said. "you have to show me how to doit."lu smiled. "if you want to learn kung fu, there'sno-one better at it within a hundred miles of herethan your own father," he said.

"my father knows how to shoot an eagle with an arrow,but he can't kill a fly with a needle. if you don'tbelieve me, i'll go and ask him."lu thought for a moment, and then nodded. "all right,come tomorrow morning and i'll teach you. now go offand play. and you're not allowed to tell anyone aboutme killing the flies. if anyone finds out, i won'tteach you."yuanzhi was overjoyed. she knelt before him andkowtowed eight times. lu accepted the gesture with asmile. "you pick things up very quickly. it is fittingthat i should teach you this kind of kung fu. however..." he stopped, deep in thought.

"teacher," said yuanzhi hurriedly. "i will do anythingyou say.""to be honest, i don't agree with much of what yourfather does," he said. "when you're older, i hope youwill be able to distinguish between right and wrong,good and evil. if you accept me as your teacher, youmust also accept the strict rules of the wudangmartial arts order to which i belong. do you think youcan?""i would not dare defy your orders," she said.

"if you ever use the skills i teach you to do evil, iwill take your life as easily as turning my handover."his face and voice became stern and hard, and for amoment yuanzhi was frightened. but then she smiled.

"i'll be good," she said. "anyway, how could you bearto kill me?"** 2 **the wudang kung fu sect to which lu belonged, one ofthe most famous, stressed the use of internal forcekung fu. in his prime, lu had roamed china fightingfor justice, and had become a famous member of thedragon slayer's society, a secret anti-manchuorganisation whose power and influence had beenwidespread during the reign of yong zheng, the formeremperor. but the society had been rigorouslysuppressed, and by the seventh or eighth year ofemperor qian long's reign, it had disintegrated. lufled to the border areas of china. the manchu courtdispatched men to look for him, but he wasquick-witted and a good fighter and managed to avoidcapture. working on the principle that 'small crookshide in the wilderness, middling crooks in the cityand big crooks in officialdom', lu eventually made hisway to commander li's household and set himself up asa teacher.

from that day, lu began teaching yuanzhi the basictechniques of the wudang school's kung fu style, knownas limitless occult kung fu. he taught her control ofher emotions and thoughts, the ten tapestries and thethirty-two long-arm blows. he trained her to use hereyes and ears, and showed her the use of hand dartsand other hidden projectiles.

more than two years passed. yuanzhi, hard-working andclever, made fast progress. her father, commander li,was transferred togansu province as military commanderat anxi, one of the major towns in the northwestborder regions, bordering on the great desert ofcentral asia. his family, including lu, went with him.

another two years passed as lu taught yuanzhi the softcloud sword technique and the secret of the goldenneedles. she did as her teacher had ordered, and didnot tell a soul that she was learning kung fu. everyday she practised by herself in the rear flowergarden. when the young mistress was practising herkung fu, the maids did not understand what they saw,and the menservants did not dare to watch too closely.

commander li was a capable man, and he advancedsteadily through the ranks of officialdom. in 1759,the twenty-third year of the emperor qian long'sreign, he distinguished himself in the battle of ili,in which the largest of the tribes in the muslim areaswas defeated, and received an imperial decreepromoting him to the post of commander-in-chief ofzhejiang province in the southeast.

yuanzhi had been born and raised in the border areasof the northwest, and the prospect of travelling tonew and beautiful lands filled her with excitement.

she pressed her teacher to come as well, and lu, whohad been away from the central areas for a long time,agreed with pleasure.

li keshou went ahead with a small escort to take uphis post and left his chief-of-staff and 20 soldiersin charge of his family who were to follow him. theofficer's name was deng, a vigorous and energetic manin his forties who sported a small moustache.

the entourage consisted of more than a dozen mules anda few horses. madame li sat in a mule-drawn carriage,but yuanzhi couldn't bear to be cooped up and insistedon riding. since itwould have been improper for thedaughter of a high official to be seen riding inpublic, she changed into boy's clothes which made herlook so extraordinarily handsome that she refused tochange back into her normal attire no matter whatanyone said. all madame li could do was sigh and lether daughter do as she pleased.

it was a deep autumn day. lu rode far behind the grouplooking at the passing scenery as the colours of lateafternoon merged into evening. but there was little tosee around the ancient road except yellow sand,withered grasses and the occasional crow flyinghomewards. a breeze sprang up from the west and lubegan to recite:

"his body and name scarred by a hundred battlesthe general approaches a bridge across a riverand turns to look back 10,000 milesat the dead men left behind.

cold are the waters of the river yiand the whistling west wind,full of cloaks and crowns like snow.

the hero's song of lament has not yet ended.....""the poet xin jiaxuan could have been writing of myown feelings," he thought. "he was much like me whenhe wrote it, watching china fall to the barbariantribes, with no way of knowing when the old days wouldreturn. no wonder he sang such a sad song."the entourage crossed the summit of a hill. looking atthe darkening sky, the mulemen said that another threemiles would bring them to twin pagodas, a large town,where they planned to spend the night.

just then, lu heard the sound of galloping hooves andsaw far in front two magnificent chestnut horsesracing towards them through a cloud of dust. the tworiders flashed by, one on either side of the line ofmules, and were gone. lu slapped his horseand caughtup with yuanzhi.

"did you get a good look at those two?" he asked in alow voice.

"were they bandits?" she replied excitedly. she wouldhave liked nothing better than for them to be outlawsbent on robbery, giving her a chance to display theskills she had worked so hard to attain over the pastfive years.

"it's hard to say," said lu. "but judging by theirability in the martial arts, they wouldn't be ordinaryhighwaymen.""are they kung fu masters?""from the way they ride their horses, i'd say it'sunlikely they are novices."as the entourage neared the town, two more horsemengalloped past.

"mm, this is very strange," mused lu. the country wasdesolate and the evening mist was thickening. hewondered why anyone would set out on a journey at thistime of day.

not long after, the muletrain entered the town.

officer deng led them to a large inn and yuanzhi andher mother were shown to one of the best rooms. lu wasgiven a smaller room, and after he had eaten dinner, aservant lit the lantern. all was quiet, and he wasabout to go to sleep when a dog barked. from far awayhe heard the faint sound of galloping horsesapproaching and he thought again about the four ridersthey had passed on the road.

the clip-clop of horses' hooves came closer andstopped right in front of the inn. there was a knockon the front door and lu heard a servant open it andsay: "you've been riding hard. there's food and drinkprepared for you.""go and feed the horses quickly," said a rough voice.

"we must start out again as soon as we've finishedeating."lu considered the situation. groups of men hurryingnorthwest, and judging by the way they rode, all ofthem experts in the martial arts. in all his years inthe border areas, he had never seen the like of it. heslipped quietly out of his room, crossed the courtyardand went round to the back of the inn.

"all right, you say the young helmsman is very young,"he heard the rough-voiced man say. "do you think hewill be able to control all the brothers?"lu followed the voice and stationed himself underneaththe window.

"he'll have to," he heard the other say. "it was theold master's wish whether the young helmsman likes itor not."the man had a deep, sonorous voice, and lu could tellhis internal strength was profound. not daring to makea hole in the window paper to peep through, hecontinued to listen from where he was, breathing aslightly as he could.

"of course," the rough-throated one replied. "but wedon't know if the young helmsman will be willing to doit.""you don't have to worry about that," said the other.

"he'll follow the old master's wishes."he said the word 'follow' with a peculiar southernchinese accent, and lu's heart jumped. "where have iheard that voice before?" he thought. he siftedthrough his mind, and finally remembered that itbelonged to his old friend zhao banshan, whom he hadknown 20 years before in the dragon slayers' society.

zhao was about 10 years younger than he, but the twohad often trained together, and had a great respectfor each other. lu had heard no news of him since thedragon slayers' society had broken up and he wasdelighted at chancing upon an old friend in such anunlikely place. as he was about to call out to zhao,the light in the room was suddenly doused and a dartshot out of the window.

but it was not aimed at lu. a figure shifted in theshadows nearby and caught the dart, then stood up,about to challenge the dart thrower. lu leapt over andwhispered fiercely: "don't make a sound! come withme." it was yuanzhi.

no one chased them. lu pulled yuanzhi into his room,and under the light saw an expression of sucheagerness on her face that he was both angry andamused.

"yuanzhi, do you know what sort of men they are? whatwere you doing trying to pick a fight with them?" heasked sternly.

"what were they doing shooting a dart at me?" shereplied defiantly.

"if they aren't outlaws, then they are secret societymen," he said. "one of them i know, and his kung fuwould not be weaker than mine. travelling through thenight as they are, they must be on very urgentbusiness. that dart was not meant to injure you, itwas just telling you not to be nosy. if he had reallywanted to hit you, i doubt if you would have been ableto catch it. now go and sleep."they heard a door open and the sound of horses' hoovesas the two men galloped away.

the next morning, the muletrain started out again, andtravelled ten miles in just over two hours.

"look, teacher," said yuanzhi. "there's someonecoming."two chestnut horses galloped towards them, and becauseof theprevious night's incident, they paid particularattention to the riders. the horses, fine andspirited, were identical. even stranger, the tworiders were also identical. both were aged about 40,tall and thin with faces as yellow as wax, sunken eyesand long slanting eyebrows: the effect wasfrightening.

as they passed by, the two men glanced at yuanzhi withtheir strange eyes. she reined in her horse and staredback belligerently, but they took no notice and racedon westwards.

"where did that pair of ghosts come from, i wonder,"she said.

lu glanced back at the receding figures. "aha, it mustbe them," he cried.

"you recognise them?" she asked excitedly.

"they must be the twin knights of sichuan. theirsurname is chang, but everyone calls them black deathand white death."yuanzhi laughed. "they've got good nicknames. theylook like a couple of skeletons.""little girls shouldn't make jokes about otherpeople," said lu. "they may be ugly but they areskilled fighters. i've never met them, but from whati've heard, they travel the country fighting evil anddoing justice. they are widely known as outlaws, butthey steal only from the rich and help the poor. theyhave made a great name for themselves.""but if they are identical, why are they called blackand white?""from what i've been told, the only difference betweenthem is that one has a black mole in the corner of hiseye, and the other doesn't. there's probably no onebetter at black sand palm kung fu than those two."