yuanzhi sat for a long time with her hands on hercheeks, annoyed that lu would not teach her yuedaokung fu. after dinner, she went to see her mother, whonagged her for causing trouble on the road, and toldher she was not to wear boy's clothing any more.

"mother, you're always talking about how you have noson," she replied with a smile. "aren't you happy nowthat you have one?"madame li gave up and went to bed. yuanzhi also gotready for sleep, and was just about to take off herclothes when she heard a light tapping on the windowsill and someone saying: "come out, little boy! i wantto ask you something."yuanzhi picked up her sword and ran out to thecourtyard where she spotted a figure standing in theshadows.

"follow me if you dare!" the figure said and jumpedover the courtyard wall. like a young calf unafraid ofa tiger, yuanzhi followed without a thought for whatmight be waiting for her on the other side. as herfeet touched the ground, she found a sword thrustingtowards her.

yuanzhi raised her own sword and parried the stroke,shouting: "who is it?" the yellow-robed figureretreated two steps, and said: "i am the muslim girlhuo qingtong. what were you doing helping the agencymen to mess up our plans? why don't you mind your ownbusiness?""i'll do whatever i want to," yuanzhi replied. "ihappen to like meddling in other people's business.

let me give you another lesson in swordsmanship..."her sword flashed out, and huo qingtong raised her ownsword to parry it.

yuanzhi knew that she couldn't beat the girl on equalterms, so she retreated steadily as she fought,heading towards lu's room.

"teacher, teacher!" she called out suddenly. "someoneis trying to kill me!"a sneering laugh exploded from huo qingtong. "ha! youuseless object! you're not even worth killing!"she began to walk away, but yuanzhi attacked, forcingher to face her once more. yuanzhi heard someonebehind her and knew that her teacher had emerged;seeing huo qingtong's sword bearing down on her, shejumped behind lu's back.

lu fended off her strokes with his sword and huoqingtong soon realised that his sword technique, whilethe same as yuanzhi's, was far superior. she becameanxious and attacked fiercely, waiting for anopportunity to retreat. but his strokes followed eachother without pause, sticking to her closely.

yuanzhi put her sword in its scabbard and joined thefray using boundless occult hand kung fu. huo qingtongcouldn't even beat lu alone, so how could she manageagainst both of them? yuanzhi displayed great cunning:

a touch on one side, a hook with her leg on the other.

she was not aiming to hurt the muslim girl, but wasintentionally having fun at her expense to pay herback for the tuft of her horse's mane ripped out theday before.

lu, for his part, had been impressed earlier that dayby the muslim girl's swordsmanship and simply wantedto test her. his sword thrust at her and she raisedher own blade to ward it off. meanwhile, yuanzhi movedin towards her back, shouting: "watch out for myfist!" and struck out at her left shoulder with a'ferocious rooster snatching grain' blow. huoqingting's left hand twisted round and diverted theblow by grasping for yuanzhi's arm. with both themuslim girl's arms now occupied, yuanzhi seized theopportunity, and the flat of her hand struck at huoqingtong's chest. if the blow had been in earnest, itwould have caused serious injury, but there was nostrength behind it. she ran her hand heavily over thegirl's chest and then jumped back laughing. huoqingtong was consumed with fury, and ignoring lu'ssword, swung round and attacked yuanzhi using thetianshan school's 'mirage' style. lu could not standby. he raised his sword and accepted the brunt of theattack, while yuanzhi stepped back.

"all right," she laughed. "don't be angry. you marryme and we'll forget about it."huo qingtong had been deeply insulted, but she knewshe could not overcome lu, so with no other way forher to avenge herself, she threw her sword at yuanzhiwith all her strength aiming to take the girl to thegrave with her.

lu started in fright and threw his own sword at huoqingting's. the two swords collided in mid-air with aclang and fell to earth together. he then pushed huoqingtong back five or six steps with a light touch onher left shoulder. "please don't take offence, miss,"he said. "there's something i want to say.""well?" she replied angrily. "what are you waitingfor?"lu looked over at yuanzhi. "don't you think you oughtto apologise to the lady?"yuanzhi walked over and bowed low, a wide grin on herface. huo qingtong replied with a fist.

"oh, no! don't hit me!" yuanzhi laughed. she dodgedaway, and pulled off her cap, revealing her head ofbeautiful hair.

"now look," she smiled. "am i a boy or a girl?"seeing yuanzhi's real face under the moonlight, huoqingtong was struck dumb. her anger and shameevaporated, leaving only irritation.

"this is my pupil," said lu. "she is alwaysdisobedient and i am unable to control her. i am sorryfor what happened just now. please don't be offended."he brought his hands together in salute and bowed. huoqingtong turned slightly away, refusing to accept theapology.

"what is your relationship with the twin eagles oftianshan?" he asked her. huo qingtong's eyebrows shotup and her lips quivered, but she maintained hersilence. "i have always been on good terms with thetwin eagles, bald vulture and his wife madame guan,"lu continued, "so we should not be enemies.""madame guan is my teacher," huo qingtong said. "iwill go and tell her that you bullied me and told yourpupil to attack me, and even joined in yourself."she gave them both a look of intense hatred, thenturned to go.

lu waited until she had gone a few steps, and thensaid: "and when you go and tell your teacher, who areyou going to say bullied you?"huo qingtong stopped and turned. "well, who are you?"she demanded.

lu stroked his beard and laughed. "you've both got thetempers of children," he said. "all right, all right.

this is my pupil, li yuanzhi, and you can tell yourteacher and her husband that i am 'hidden needle' lu.

please convey my congratulations to them on havingsuch a good pupil.""a good pupil you say! i have lost face for both myteacher and her husband by allowing myself to bebullied in such a fashion.""miss, don't think that you have lost face by beingbeaten by me," lu replied seriously. "there are few inthe fighting community who could last for severaldozen moves with me as you did. i suspected you knewthe twin eagles when i saw you fighting earlier today,but your use of the 'mirage' sword style just nowdecided it. do they still argue all the time?" helaughed.

huo qingtong saw that lu knew all about her teacher,but she was still reluctant to relent.

"if you are my teacher's friend, why did you tell yourpupil to interfere, stopping us from taking back oursacred book? i don't believe you are a good man.""being beaten in a sword duel is not worth worryingabout," lu said. "but failing to recover your sacredbook is a different matter. if your people are bulliedand insulted, you must be prepared to risk even yourown life to get satisfaction."huo qingtong knew he was telling the truth, and bowedbefore him. "please tell me how the sacred book can berecovered," she said. "if you are willing to help, iand the rest of my tribe will be eternally grateful.""it was stupid of me to interfere," said yuanzhi. "myteacher has already given me a long lecture. pleasedon't worry, i will help you get your sacred bookback. it's in that red knapsack, isn't it?" huoqingtong nodded. "well, let's go," yuanzhi added.

"we will discuss the situation first," said lu. thethree talked in low tones for a while then, with lukeeping a look-out, the two girls crossed over thewall into the inn.

they ran crouching over to the room occupied by thelead escorts, and squatted under the window in theshadow of the wall. inside, they heard lead escorttong crying and groaning for a while and then stop.

"you are talented, master zhang," one of the leadescorts said, "being able to cure brother tong soquickly.""if we had known you were coming, we wouldn't have hadto apologise to that red flower society bastard," saidanother.

"i want you all to watch that pair," a powerful voicereplied. "tomorrow, when wu and the others arrivewe'll make our move.""once we've got him, i'm going to kick that bastard inthe head a few times, very hard," said tong.

yuanzhi slowly extended herself and found a tear inthe window paper through which to look. she saw fiveor six people seated around the room. in the middlewas an awe-inspiring man whom she decided must be theone they called master zhang. his eyes flashed likelightning and his temples were high and protruding,indicating profound internal strength.

"tong, give me the knapsack," lead escort yan said.

"those muslims won't give up so easily. i'm afraid wewill have more trouble on the road."tong began to untie the knapsack hesitantly, as ifunwilling to hand it over.

"now don't worry," yan said. "once we've got thisknapsack to beijing safe and sound, we'll all reap thebenefits."yuanzhi thought swiftly. yan was a powerful fighter,and once he had possession of the knapsack it would bedifficult to recover. she whispered a few words intohuo qingtong's ear, took off her hat and pulled herlong hair over her face. then she picked two bricks uplying nearby and hurled them through the window. asthey crashed into the room, the lamp was suddenlydoused. the door opened and several men rushed out.

"who is it?" one yelled.

huo qingtong whistled at them, then leapt over thewall, and the lead escorts and zhang chased after her.

as soon as they had gone, yuanzhi burst into the room.

tong was lying on the kang when he saw the thing comethrough the door, an unghostly ghost, and inhumanhuman, with its hair dishevelled and wild. the thinghopped towards him squealing loudly, and his body wentlimp with fright. it seized the red knapsack from hishands and ran from the room.

the lead escorts chased after huo qingtong for awhile, but zhang suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"damn," he said. "this is just a diversion to lure usaway. get back quickly!"they returned to the inn to find tong lying on thekang in a state of shock. it was a while before hemanaged to tell them how the ghost had stolen theknapsack.

"what ghost?" zhang said angrily. "we've beentricked."yuanzhi hid beside the wall, holding the knapsacktightly, and waited until all the lead escorts hadre-entered the room before jumping back out of thecourtyard. she whistled softly and lu and huo qingtongappeared from the shadow of the trees.

yuanzhi was feeling particularly smug. "i've got theknapsack," she laughed, "so you can't..."before she could finish, lu shouted: "watch outbehind!"as she turned, someone slapped her on the shoulder.

she quickly tried to grab the hand but failed and herheart jumped in fright as she realised how formidableher assailant was: he had followed her without herbeing at all aware of it. she quickly looked aroundand in the moonlight saw a tall, powerful man standingbeside her. she stepped backwards in fright, and threwthe knapsack at huo qingtong.

"catch!" she yelled, and brought her hands together toface the enemy.

he was extraordinarily fast. as the knapsack left herhand, he leapt after it and caught it in mid-air justas huo qingtong attacked him. with his left handholding the knapsack, the man swung his arms out usingthe long-arm style. there was great power behind theblow, and both girls were forced back several paces.

yuanzhi now recognised him as master zhang. thelong-arm style was one of the basic techniques of thewudang school's kung fu, and yuanzhi gaspedinvoluntarily at the sight of zhang using it. sheglanced around, but lu was nowhere to be seen.

yuanzhi advanced a step and attacked using the samelong-arm technique and as their fists clashed, shefelt a prickly numbness run through her arm followedby an unbearable ache. she stumbled, then jumped offto the left.

"tell me, child!" zhang said. "is your teachersurnamed ma or lu?""he's surnamed ma," she said to deceive him. "how didyou know?""well that makes me your martial uncle. don't youthink you ought to kowtow before me?" he laughed.

as soon as huo qingtong heard mention of a connectionbetween them, she abandoned yuanzhi. she could seethat the koran could not be recovered, and ran quicklyaway.

yuanzhi chased after her a short way, but suddenly, acloud bank covered the moon plunging her into pitchdarkness. she started in fright as several thunderclaps rolled across the sky and turned back to findthat zhang had disappeared too. by the time she leaptback over the wall into the inn, large droplets ofrain were falling, and as she entered her room thedownpour came.