scholar' yu, under orders to investigate thewhereabouts of wen tailai, made discreet enquiriesalong the road as he went. but he discovered no clues,and in less than a day arrived at liangzhou, aprosperous busy city and one of the largest in gansuprovince. he found a room in an inn, then went to atavern and drank alone, bemoaning his fate. he thoughtof luo bing's voice and smile, and a tide of longingrose within him. he knew it was hopeless, and the morehe drank, the more melancholy he became. he was justabout to leave when two men came in. yu knew he hadseen one of them before and quickly turned his headaway. he thought frantically and placed him as one ofthe yamen officers he had fought at iron gall manor.

luckily, the man and his companion paid no attentionto him.

they chose a table near the window which happened tobe just next to yu's and sat down. yu sat with hishead on the table, pretending to be drunk.

the two men chatted for a while, then one said:

"brother rui, it's remarkable how you captured thatfellow. i wonder what sort of reward the emperor willgive you?""i'm not concerned about the reward," rui replied. "ifwe can get him to hangzhou nice and safely, i'll behappy. when we left beijing, there were eight of usbodyguards, and now i'm the only one left. it was thatfight in suzhou. i'm not selling myself short, but istill get the shivers just thinking about it.""you're with master zhang now," the other said. "i'msure nothing more will be wrong.""that's true," rui replied. "but it means that theimperial guardsmen get all the credit. what do weimperial bodyguards get out of it? but tell me, oldzhu. what are they doing sending him to hangzhouinstead of to beijing?""my younger sister is from the family of great scholarshi, as you know," zhu replied, lowering his voice.

"she told me quietly that the emperor plans to go downsouth. perhaps he wants to question him himself."rui grunted and drank a mouthful of wine. "so the sixof you rushed out from beijing to see that theimperial command was complied with?""and to give the rest of you some help. the red flowersociety is very powerful in the south. we have to beespecially careful."as he listened, yu groaned inwardly at the sheer luckof it all. if he had not happened to be there and hearthem, the red flower society heroes would have beenracing to beijing to save wen when he was really beingtaken to hangzhou.

"brother rui," zhu said. "exactly what crime has thisfellow committed that the emperor wants to questionhim personally?""how would we know?" rui replied. "we were just toldthat if we didn't catch him, we would all be removedfrom our posts. i just hope i can keep my head on myshoulders."the two laughed and drank, and their conversationturned to the subject of women. finally, they paid thebill and stood up to leave. rui looked over at yuprostrate on the table.

"scholars," he said and laughed harshly. "three cupsof wine and they can't even walk."yu waited until they had gone, then hastily threw fivesilver coins onto the table and dashed out of thetavern. he spotted the men entering the city yamen. hewaited for a long time but didn't see them re-appear,and decided they must be lodging there.

he returned to his room and as soon as it was dark, hechanged into a set of dark clothes, stuck his goldenflute into his belt then ran over to the yamen. makinghis way round to the back, he clambered over the wall.

all was pitch black in the courtyard except for ashaft of light coming from a window in the easternhall, and as he crept closer, he heard voices comingfrom inside. he wet the tip of his finger with a dropof saliva, then lightly moistened the window paper andmade a small hole. looking through, he started infright.

the hall was full of people. zhang zhaozhong wasseated in the middle with the bodyguards and yamenofficers on either side of him. a man standing withhis back to yu cursed angrily, and he knew from hisvoice that it was wen tailai.

"you can curse to your heart's content," a voice offto the side said darkly. "i may not be as proficientin the martial arts as you, but you will still get ataste of my hand."yu was distressed. "they are going to humiliate fourthbrother," he thought. "he is the person fourth sisterrespects and loves most. how can i allow him to beinsulted by these villains?"he saw a tall, thin middleaged man wearing a blue gownadvancing on wen with his hand raised. just as the manwas about to strike wen, yu inserted his flute throughthe hole in the window paper, and with a puff, shot asmall arrow into the man's left eye.

the man fell to the ground in agony and there was amoment of confusion in the hall. yu shot another arrowinto the right cheek of one of the bodyguards, thenkicked open the main door of the hall and ran straightin.

"don't move!" he shouted. "the red flower society hascome to the rescue!"he raised his flute and struck the yamen officersbeside wen, then pulled a dagger from his legwrappingsand cut the ropes binding wen's hands and feet.

zhang zhaozhong thought a largescale attack was inprogress and immediately drew his sword and went tothe hall door to prevent wen and yu from escaping andthose outside from getting in.

as soon as wen's hands were free of the bonds, hisspirits surged. an imperial bodyguard lunged towardshim and wen struck him hard with his fist, sending himreeling away. the others were so afraid of wen's powerthat for a while they did not dare to get too close tohim.

"fourth brother, let's get out!" yu said.

"are the others here?""no," yu replied quietly. "there's only me."wen nodded once. the wounds on his right arm and thighhad not yet healed, but he ran for the door with hisright arm resting on yu's shoulder.

zhang strode foward a step. "stop!" he shouted, andjabbed at wen's stomach with his long sword. wen wasslow on his feet, so using attack as his defence, hestruck out at his opponent's eyes with the index andmiddle fingers of his left hand, and zhang was forcedto retract his sword.

"good!" he exclaimed. the two men were incrediblyfast, but wen only had the use of his left arm andafter a few more moves, zhang hit his right shoulder.

unable to keep his balance, wen sat down heavily onthe floor.

"i shouldn't have done this," yu thought as he foughtoff the imperial bodyguards. "i will save fourthbrother and then let the eagle's claws kill me so thatfourth sister will know that i, yu yutong, am not anunchivalrous oaf."he saw wen fall to the ground and flipped round tostrike out desperately at zhang.

"fourth brother, get out quick!" yu shouted. wenrested a moment and then with difficulty clambered tohis feet. the golden flute flew and danced, completelyneglecting to defend or parry. yu was completelyunconcerned about his own safety. even with his superbswordsmanship, zhang was forced to move back severalpaces in the face of his suicidal attack. wen saw anopening and shot out of the door, with the mob of thebodyguards and officers howling after him.

yu blocked them at the door, ignoring his own safety.

"don't you want to live?" zhang shouted. "who taughtyou that kung fu style?" yu was using the traditionalstyle of the wudang school, the school to which zhangbelonged, and zhang had so far spared him because ofit.

"it would be best if you killed me," yu said, smilingsadly. after a few more moves, zhang's sword struckhim once more, this time on the right shoulder, so yushifted the golden flute to his left hand andcontinued the fight without retreating a step.

the mass of the bodyguards charged forward again andyu's flute danced, hooting strangely as the windwhipped through it. a bodyguard chopped at him withhis sword, and gashed yu's shoulder. his body was nowcovered in blood, but he continued the fierce battle,and there was a sudden crack as the jawbone of anotherbodyguard was shattered. the bodyguards pressedforward, knives, swords, whips and clubs all thrustingtowards yu simultaneously. yu's thigh was hit by aclub and he fell to the ground. his golden flute keptup its dance for a few moments, then he fainted away.

there was a sudden shout from the door: "stop!"the bodyguards turned and saw wen walking slowly backinto the hall. he ignored them and went straight overto yu. seeing his bloodied body, he couldn't stop histears. he bent down and was relieved to find yu wastill breathing.

"treat his wounds quickly," he ordered.

the bodyguards were so fearful of his power, that theydid as he said. wen watched them bind yu's wounds andcarry him through to the inner hall, then placed bothof his hands behind his back.

"tie me up," he said. one of the bodyguards lookedover at zhang, then walked slowly over.

"what are you afraid of?" wen asked. "if i was goingto hurt you, i would have done so long ago."the bodyguard bound his hands and took him back to thedungeons. two bodyguards were left to guard him.

early the next morning, zhang went to see yu and foundhim in a deep sleep. he was told by a guard that thedoctor had visited yu and prescribed some medicine.

zhang visited him again in the afternoon and yuappeared to be more alert.

"is your teacher surnamed lu or ma?" zhang asked him.

"my teacher is surnamed ma, his given name is zhen.""so that's it. i am your martial uncle, zhangzhaozhong."yu nodded slightly.

"are you a member of the red flower society?"yu nodded again.

"such a nice young man," zhang sighed. "what a pitythat you have fallen to such a state. what relation iswen tailai to you? what were you doing risking yourlife to save him?"yu closed his eyes and was silent. a moment passed.

"in the end i did save him, so i can die in peace," hefinally said.

"huh! do you really think you could snatch him awayfrom me?"yu was startled. "didn't he escape?" he asked.

"how could he? stop day-dreaming!"zhang tried to interrogate him, but yu took no notice,and after a while he began to sneeze.

zhang smiled slightly. "you stubborn boy," he said,and left.

he ordered the imperial bodyguards to organise anambush with wen as bait. after dinner, wen was broughtout of the dungeon and interrogated once more, in thesame manner as the night before when yu hadunexpectedly burst in and disrupted the proceedings.

this time, however, heavily-armed troops were hiddenall around the yamen, waiting to catch any red flowersociety rescuers. but they waited in vain.

the next morning, zhang received a report that thewaters of the yellow river were rising rapidly, andthat the current at the point where they intended tocross was very strong and ordered an immediatedeparture. he had wen and yu placed in separatecarriages and was just about to start out when officerwu and the zhen yuan agency lead escorts raced intothe yamen. zhang hastily questioned them, and officerwu breathlessly told him how they had been attackedand captured by the muslims and the red flowersociety, and how lead escort yan had been killed by ayoung muslim girl.

"brother yan was a very tough fighter," zhang said.

"extraordinary." he raised his hand. "we will meetagain in beijing."zhang immediately went and told the liangzhou militarycommander that he wanted four hundred crack troopstransferred to his command to help escort criminalswanted by the emperor. the commander did not darerefuse and also dispatched colonel cao neng andchief-of-staff ping wangxian to lead the escortingsoldiers until they reached lanzhou, the provincialcapital, where provincial troops would take over.

zhang's column surged out of the town, stealing andpilfering from the common people in the usual way asthey went.

they travelled without incident for two days. then,about ten miles from a village named twin wells, theycame upon two bare-breasted men sitting beneath a treeby the side of the road with a pair of fine horsesstanding nearby. two of the soldiers went over.

"hey!" one shouted. "these two horses look likeofficial horses. where did you steal them from?""we are peaceful citizens," said one of the men. "wewouldn't dare to steal horses.""we are tired of walking. lend them to us," the secondsoldier replied.

the two men stood up, walked over to their horses anduntied the reins.

the soldiers walked haughtily over and were just aboutto take hold of the reins when the two men kickedtheir behinds, leapt onto the horses and galloped overto one of the carriages.

"is fourth brother in there?" one shouted.

"ah, twelfth brother!" wen answered.

"fourth brother, we're leaving," the man replied. "butdon't worry, we'll be back to rescue you soon."the two men galloped away before the carriage's guardscould attack.

the column lodged that night at a town called clearwater shop. early the following morning, while most ofthe soldiers were still asleep, a scream was heard,and there was a moment of confusion. the two troopcommanders, cao and ping went to investigate and foundthe bodies of more than a dozen soldiers lying wherethey had slept, each with a gaping gash in the chest.

there was no indication of who had killed them.

the next evening, they rested at hengshi. this was alarge town, and the column filled three inns and manyprivate houses besides. during the night, one of theinns caught fire. zhang ordered the bodyguards toguard wen and to heed nothing else in order to avoidbeing tricked. the flames rose higher and higher.

"bandits!" cao neng cried as he ran into zhang's room.

"they're attacking!""please go and direct operations yourself, generalcao," zhang replied. "i am unable to leave thisplace."cao nodded and left.

from outside the inn came the sound of screams andshrieks, galloping horses, the crackle of the flamesand the smash of roof tiles as they hit the ground.

zhang ordered two bodyguards onto the roof to keepwatch, but told them not to get involved unless theenemy attacked the inn. the fire did not get out ofcontrol, and before long it was extinguished. theagitated clamour continued for a while, then graduallydied down to the point where the sound of hooves couldbe heard as horses galloped off eastwards.

cao, his face covered in soot, grease and blood, ranin to see zhang again.

"the bandits have retreated," he reported.

"how many of our men have been killed and wounded?"zhang asked.

"i don't know yet. several...several dozen.""how many bandits were captured?"cao's mouth fell open. after a moment, he said:

"none."zhang grunted.

"their faces were covered with cloth, and their kungfu was horrendous," cao added. "but it's very strange,they didn't steal anything. all they did was kill ourbrothers. just before they left, they threw down twohundred taels of silver for the innkeeper saying itwas compensation for starting the fire.""so you think they were bandits, do you?" zhang said.

"tell everyone to get some rest, general cao. we willstart out early tomorrow."cao retired and went to see the innkeeper, whom heaccused of being in collusion with the bandits andresponsible for the murder of the soldiers. theinnkeeper kowtowed and begged for mercy and finallygave cao the two hundred taels of silver.

the next day, the soldiers were busy until noon beforefinally making a start. they passed through beautifulcountry of blue hills and green water, surrounded bydense vegetation on all sides. after travelling forabout four hours, the road began to grow graduallysteeper and high peaks rose on either side.

a horse came galloping down the road towards them andhalted about ten paces in front of the column.

"listen to me, all of you," the rider called out. "youhave offended the demons. turn back quickly and youwill be spared. if you continue eastwards, each one ofyou turtles will surely die."the soldiers shuddered as they looked at the man. hewas wearing clothes made of rough hemp bound at thewaist with grass rope. his face was pale yellow andhis eyebrows slanted upwards, just like the images oflife-stealing spirits in the temples. the man spurredhis horse forward and galloped down the mountain,passing beside of the column, and was gone. suddenly,one of the soldiers in the rear-guard gave a cry, andfell to the ground, dead. the rest started in frightand gathered round to look, but there was no woundvisible on his body. terrified, they all began talkingat once.

cao neng assigned two soldiers to stay behind and burythe dead man and the column continued up the mountain.

before they had gone very far, another horseapproached them from in front, its rider the same manthey had seen earlier.

"listen to me, all of you," he called out. "you haveoffended the demons. turn back quickly and you will bespared. if you continue eastwards, each one of youturtles will surely die."the soldiers wondered fearfully how the man could havemade his way round in front of them again. they hadclearly seen him go down the mountain and one glanceconfirmed that there were no short cuts back up theslope. the man spurred his horse forward and thesoldiers shrunk from him as if he was a real demon.

one of the imperial bodyguards, named zhu, stuck outhis sword to obstruct the man. "slow down, friend," hesaid.

the man struck zhu's shoulder with his right hand, andthe sword clattered to the ground. then he sped offdown the mountain. as he passed the end of the column,the last soldier gave a shriek and fell to the ground,dead. the other soldiers stood staring foolishly,scared out of their wits.

zhang went down to the end of the column toinvestigate.

"what is this fellow, a man or a ghost?" zhu said. hepressed his wounded right shoulder, his face deathlypale. zhang told him to undo his clothes and examinedthe large black swelling on his right shoulder. heordered the troops to strip the dead soldier bare andexamine him for wounds. when they turned him over,they found a similar black swelling on his back fromwhich the shape of a hand could be vaguely discerned.

the soldiers broke into an uproar as a shout of "thedemon's mark!" the demon's mark!" went up. zhangordered that two soldiers be left behind to bury thedead man. two were chosen from the ranks, but evenwhen threatened with death, they refused to carry outthe order. zhang had no alternative but to order ahalt and wait until the body was buried beforecontinuing.

"master zhang, this fellow is very strange," saidbodyguard rui. "how could he pass us by and then makehis way back in front of us again?"zhang stood deep in thought for a while. "brother zhuand the two soldiers were obviously victims of blacksand palm kung fu," he said. "there are very fewmasters of black sand palm kung fu in the underworld.""if it's black palm kung fu, then the best isnaturally the taoist priest hui lu, but he's been deadfor many years," rui said. "could it be that hisspirit has re-appeared?"zhang slapped his thigh. "that's it! that's it!" hecried. "they're hui lu's pupils. the twin knights thatpeople call black death and white death. i was tryingto think of one person, so i couldn't work it out. allright, so we're up against them as well."he had no way of knowing that the chang brothers werealso members of the red flower society.

that night, the column stayed at black pine village.

cao posted guards all around the village to keepcareful watch, but next morning, not one of thesoldiers on guard duty returned to report, and adetail sent to investigate found them all dead with astring of paper money tied round each of their necks.

the rest of the soldiers were terrified, and more thana dozen immediately deserted, slipping stealthilyaway.

they had to cross black scabbard mountain, one of themost precipitous spots on the liangzhou road. the airbecame colder and colder as the road grew steeper, anddespite the fact that it was only september, snowflakes floated down around them. the road deterioratedto the point where there was a steep mountain face onone side and a sheer cliff on the other falling into adeep ravine. the soldiers moved slowly hand-in-hand,terrified of slipping on the snow. several of thebodyguards dismounted and helped to support wen'scarriage.

just as they were gingerly making their way forward,they heard a chirping sound coming from in front. amoment later, the sound turned into an unearthly howl,tragic and harsh, which echoed through the ravinecausing everyone's hair to stand on end. the soldiersall stopped in their tracks.

then came a shout: "those who continue will meet theking of hell -- those who turn back will survive."how could the soldiers dare to continue?

a man appeared around a curve in the road ahead.

"those who continue will meet the king of hell, thosewho turn back will survive," he intoned in a deepvoice.

the soldiers recognised him as the demon that hadappeared twice the day before and had killed with justa wave of his hand, and they turned and fled withsqueals of fear. cao neng shouted to them to halt, buthe had to raise his sword and slay one of the soldiersbefore some of them steadied. but sixty or seventy haddisappeared.

"guard the carriage," zhang said to rui. "i'll go andtalk to these two." he leapt passed the soldiers.

"could that be the twin knights up ahead?" he asked ina loud, clear voice. "i, zhang zhaozhong, greet you.

there is no enmity between us. why are you playingthis game?"the man in front laughed coldly. "ha! so, the twindemons meet the fire hand judge," he said. he strodeover and struck out at zhang with such power that hishand made a whistling sound as it cut through the air.

the road at that point was extremely narrow and zhangwas unable to dodge to either left or right, so hecountered the blow with his left hand, putting all ofhis inner strength behind it, while also attackingwith his right palm. his opponent parried with hisleft hand. their four hands met, and they stood almostmotionless for a while as they tested each other.

suddenly, zhang swept his left leg cross-wise in the'level clouds slicing the peak' style. withinsufficient time to evade the blow, the man broughthis hands together and drove them viciously at zhang'stemples. zhang leant to one side and hastily withdrewhis leg, then moved forward, and with the precipice attheir side, the two passed each other by. they hadexchanged positions.

zhang suddenly became aware of someone attacking himfrom behind. he dodged out of the way and saw hisassailant was another pale, skeleton-like figure, hisface exactly the same as the first.

zhang had more than two hundred soldiers andbodyguards with him, but they were powerless to assistbecause of the narrowness of the mountain path besidethe ravine.

the three fought more and more fiercely. in the midstof the battle, one of the twin knights hit therock-face by mistake and a small avalanche of gravelrattled down off the precipice followed by a slab ofrock which plunged into the ravine. a long time passedbefore they finally heard the distant crash as it hitthe ground.

the battle continued for a long time. suddenly, one ofthe twins struck out with his fist, forcing zhang tomove to one side to avoid it. the other twin thenleapt over and occupied zhang's former position besidethe stone-face and both attacked him at the samemoment, attempting to force him into the ravine.

zhang saw one of his attacker's legs sweeping forwardand stepped back a pace, so that half of his foot wasover the edge of the precipice. a cry of fright wentup from the troops. then, zhang felt a gust of wind asthe other twin's fist swung towards his face. zhangwas unable to retreat, and knowing that there would begreat strength behind the blow, was also unable tocounter it. if he did, his opponent would simply bethrown back against the stone-face by the force of thecollision while he himself would certainly fall to hisdeath. so, with wisdom born of fear, he seized hold ofhis attacker's wrist, and with a great shout threw himinto the ravine.

his body in mid-air, 'black death' stayed calm. hedrew in his legs and performed a somersault in orderto slow down the force of his fall. half way throughthe circle, he pulled a flying claw grapple from hisbelt and threw it straight up. his brother 'whitedeath' had also taken out his flying claw and the twograpples locked tightly, almost as if they wereshaking hands. 'white death' jerked at the rope beforethe full force of his brother's fall returned, andswung him up and over bringing him back to earth morethan a hundred feet along the mountain path.

'white death' saluted zhang with his fists. "your kungfu is very powerful. we are impressed," he said. then,without even bending down to concentrate his strength,he sprang into the air, and landed several dozen feetfurther away. he grabbed hold of his brother's handand the two disappeared round the bend.

the soldiers clustered round, some praising zhang'skung fu, others lamenting that 'black death' had notfallen to his death. zhang said not a word, but leanedagainst the rock face and slowly sat down. he lookedat his wrist and saw the jet-black impression of fivefingers on his flesh as if he had been branded, andwas struck by a wave of terror.