the slopes of lion peak produce abundant quantities oftea, one of the most exquisite varieties of the leafunder heaven. the mountain itself is high andprecipitous, and few people go to the very top.

wang weiyang, his great sword slung across his back,clambered up the steep slope and emerged through thetea bushes onto an expanse of open ground on thesummit. he noticed walking towards him a tall, robustman wearing a short jacket. the man stared at him fora moment.

"are you wang weiyang?" he asked.

"yes. and you are the fire hand judge, zhangzhaozhong?""i am. do you wish to fight bare-handed or withweapons?" zhang was a very thorough man. he hadsearched about carefully during his climb up the peak,but had found no sign of anyone lying in ambush.

wang was startled to see zhang's mouth and nose wereswollen and with his right eye ringed in black,injuries caused by chen the night before. "we have nogreat grudges against each other," thought wang. "whyrisk killing him with a sword-stroke? the consequencesof killing an official of his rank are unthinkable. itwill be enough to humiliate him with my eight diagramkung fu. i'll show him i'm not egotistical.""i would be honoured to pit myself against your famouslimitless occult kung fu, master zhang," he said outloud.

"fine," zhang replied. he brought his fists togetherin salute and waited for the other to attack.

"if i may..." wang said, and as he spoke, his leftfist shot out and his right hand sliced across towardszhang's right shoulder. then in a flash, his left fistflipped over and aimed for the right shoulder whilethe right hand went for the chest. zhang retreatedthree paces and fended off the blows. the two circledaround, surprised at the extent of the other'sability.

"his moves are fast and powerful," zhang thought.

"he's a strong adversary.""he avoided those blows of mine with ease," wangthought. "fire hand judge is no misnomer."suddenly, zhang stepped forward and swept his left legacross at wang, who jumped clear off the ground toavoid it and countered with a fist aimed at zhang'sface.

they were evenly matched and fought close and fast.

the sun was riding high and their two shadows dancedon the ground, merging and separating in a flash. wangknew that at his age, a long battle would finish him.

so he quickly changed his style, and with one handprotecting his body and the other facing outwards, heraced round zhang, his feet following the pattern ofthe eight diagrams.

the style dictated that he keep moving, circling roundzhang to the left and right, waiting for anopportunity to strike. it would make even a kung fumaster dizzy after a few circuits.

zhang knew how ferocious this style was, and lunged athis opponent. but wang had already circled round theother way. suddenly he struck at zhang with bothfists, one of which slammed into his shoulder. zhangcaught hold of wang's wrist and struck out at hiselbow in retaliation. with his free hand, wang swungat zhang's other shoulder and the two leapt apart.

zhang had had the worst of the encounter. "your kungfu is excellent," he shouted. "let us duel withswords."he drew his frozen emerald sword, wang also drew hissword and the two stood facing each other.

zhang's mind was bent on recovering face, and hestruck out with a series of attacking sword strokes,fast and vicious. wang could tell from the way thelight glinted on the frozen emerald sword that it wasa superb weapon, and knew that if the two swordsclashed, his own blade would come off the worst. so hedid not dare to directly parry the strokes.

they fought round and round. wang began to sweat andhe secretly worked a number of darts into his palm andthen swapped his sword over to his left hand. heslashed out with a left-handed stoke, andsimultaneously flung the darts at zhang. zhang managedto dodge both dangers, but he was becoming flusteredby the onslaught. he swept his sword across at wang'swaist, and as the two swords clashed, wang's bladesnapped cleanly in two.

wang roared and hurled the remaining half at zhang,and followed it with his remaining three darts. with acry, zhang fell over backwards and the frozen emeraldsword dropped to the ground.

"master zhang, forgive me!" wang cried out anxiously.

"i have some golden scar ointment here."zhang was silent. wang feared he was dead, and killinga court official was no laughing matter so he rushedacross and bent down to examine zhang.

as he did so, he saw flashes of gold before his eyes.

cursing himself, he leant over backwards as fast as hecould, but too late. he felt stabs of pain in his leftchest and shoulder as the needles plunged home. hegave another angry roar and jumped up ready to fightzhang to the death. but as he swung his sword, thepain in his chest and shoulder was so extreme that hefell back to the ground with a groan. zhang laughedout loud. he pulled one of wang's darts from hiswrist, ripped a strip of cloth off his jacket, boundthe wound then stood up.

"how could you attack me when i was coming to see ifyou were injured?" wang demanded angrily. "what sortof man are you to do such a despicable thing? we'llsee if you have the effrontery to face the rest of thefighting community after today.""there's only the two of us here. who else knows aboutit?" asked zhang with a smile. "having lived to such aripe old age, it's about time you went to meet yourforefathers."he picked up half of wang's snapped sword and dug ahole in the ground, then heaved wang to the edge ofit.

"so you're the north china earth-shaker," he said.

"i'll give you some earth to shake." he kicked wanginto the hole and began to bury him alive.

as he worked, he heard a long, cold laugh fromsomewhere behind. he whirled round in fright and foundlead escort han standing there with an iron pipa inhis hand.

"so that's it!" zhang shouted angrily. "the zhen yuanbodyguard agency arranges a one-to-one duel andsecretly sets up an ambush. do you have no shame?""it is you that is shameless," han replied pointing towang.

"all right, you can demonstrate your iron pipa kung fufor me," zhang said. he flew at han using lightnesskung fu and thrust his sword at him. han retreated twosteps and a sword struck out at zhang from amongst thebushes. zhang parried the stroke, and saw theswordsman was the other lead escort who hadaccompanied han to see him earlier.

"come on, fight me together. it is of no consequenceto the fire hand judge," he shouted.

just as he was about to strike, he heard a noisebehind and turned to see eight or nine men walkingtowards him led by the red flower society's greathelmsman, chen jialuo. a shiver of panic passedthrough him, and he glanced about, looking for someavenue of escape.

"brother han, go and look after master wang," saidchen. han ran over to the hole and helped wang out.

"master wang said he wished to have a private duelwith no observers or seconds," zhang shouted.

"my brothers and i came to admire the scenery andhappened to come across the two of you," chen replied.

"it was a very artistic display, but you did not winvery honourably, master zhang.""we were matching our strength and our wits. what iswrong with such a victory?""you are wise indeed, master zhang." chen walkedslowly forward. "we want to rescue master wen.""well?""his manacles are made of the finest steel which nofile could get through. i therefore have noalternative but to ask you to lend us your excellentsword. as a member of the fighting community, i amsure you will be happy to oblige."zhang looked at the number of his adversaries and knewit would be difficult to get away.

"if you wish to borrow my sword, you will have to takeit by force," he said. he turned and sprinted towardsthe southern path down the mountain slope. suddenly,he saw in front of him the one-armed taoist priest,and slung two golden needles at him. he knew there wasno chance of hitting the priest, but he hoped that theneedles would occupy him long enough to get past.

priest wu chen, however, deftly dodged out of the waythen crouched down and thrust his sword at zhang'sright leg. zhang brought his own blade down to parrythe stroke and the two fought fiercely. zhang foundhis strength beginning to wane. the priest gave ashout and the frozen emerald sword was jolted out ofzhang's hand. for a split second, zhang stared at itin surprise, and the priest aimed a flying kick at hisgroin, knocking him to the ground. zhang jin and twoof the other fighters then jumped on him while luobing pulled out some rope and bound his hands.

remembering zhang had led the capture of her husbandat iron gall manor, she punched him smartly on thenose.

chen walked over.

"you have only won because of numerical superiority,"zhang shouted angrily. "if you bandits are going tokill me then get it over with.""he ought to be buried in the hole that he dug,"suggested 'melancholy ghost' shi. the others shoutedtheir agreement, and zhang broke into a cold sweat.

"what do you say?" asked chen. "if you admit defeatand swear never again to go against the red flowersociety, we will spare you for the sake of yourmartial brother, master lu.""stop wasting words!" zhang shouted stubbornly. "afterall your crafty tricks, how can you expect anyone toconcede defeat to you?""all right," said chen. "i will kill you to relieveyou of the horror of being buried alive." he pulledout his dagger and walked over to zhang. "are you notafraid of death?" he asked.

"do your worst," zhang replied, and laughed bitterly.

he closed his eyes and waited for death.

suddenly they heard shouts from the mountainsidebelow, and turned to see two men running towards them,moving as fast as the wind with superb lightness kungku.

as they approached, the heroes saw that one was lufeiqing, and the other a kindly-looking old taoistpriest.

just as lu was about to introduce the old man, zhangwent up to him and bowed.

"brother, we have not seen each other for many years,"he said. "how are you?"the heroes realized that it must be ma zhen, 'scholar'

yu's teacher. they all bowed before him.

"we came as fast as we could when we heard about theduel," lu said. he looked round and saw with reliefthat no-one had been injured.

ma zhen had long heard of zhang's unsavoury record,but seeing his blood-stained clothes and swollen face,he now found himself feeling almost sorry for him.

"brother zhang, how did you get into such a mess?" heasked.

"with one against so many, how could i look anydifferent?" zhang replied indignantly.

the heroes were furious at his insinuation. "so you'reblameless are you?" shouted zhou qi. she brandishedher sword and made as to charge at zhang, but herfather held her back.

"his two martial brothers are here now," lord zhousaid. "let us see what they have to say." his wordsput the onus of dealing with zhang squarely on mazhen.

ma zhen looked at lu, and then at zhang. suddenly, hisknees folded and he knelt down before the heroes.

greatly surprised, chen helped him up again.

"my brothers," he said, his voice choked with sobs.

"this useless martial brother of mine has committedtruly heinous crimes. to the shame of our school, wehave failed to discipline him and have lost facebefore all our brothers in the fightingcommunity...i...i..." he was overcome with emotion.

"brother lu," he added. "tell them what i mean.""brother ma is very angry about zhang's behaviour. butin memory of our late teacher, he wishes to ask you tospare him."the heroes looked at chen and lord zhou, waiting fortheir decision.

"master zhou will be the arbiter," said chen. "we willdo whatever he says.""considering he had iron gall manor burnt to theground, i should not rest until revenge has beengained," zhou said, then paused. "but having heardyour words, master ma, i will hand him over to youwith all past scores forgotten.""father!" zhou qi cried, horrified.

zhou stroked her hair. "forget about it, child," hesaid softly.

"out of respect for your wishes, master ma, the redflower society will also let bygones be bygones,"added chen.

ma and lu bowed to the heroes. "we will be eternallygrateful," said ma.

"brother ma, what do you intend to do if he does evilagain?" priest wu chen asked sternly.

"i will insist that he turn over a new leaf," mareplied. "but if he does revert to his old ways, theni will be the first to strike, unless he kills mefirst! i will now take him back to wudang mountain sothat he can reflect on his misdeeds in solitude.

brother lu, once master wen is out of danger, pleasewrite and inform me so that my mind can rest easy. bythe way, where is my pupil, yu yutong?""he was separated from us at the yellow river," chenreplied. "we later heard that he had been rescued by agirl, but we have no further information. as soon aswe have rescued brother wen, we will go andinvestigate. please don't worry, sir.""that pupil of mine is very clever but he is notsteady enough. please give him whatever direction isnecessary, master chen.""we treat our brothers as blood relations," chenreplied. "brother yu is a capable man. we place greatfaith in him.""i am very grateful for what you have done today,"said ma. "my brothers! next time any of you are inhubei province, please come to stay at wudangmountain." the heroes all thanked him.

"all right, let's go!" ma told zhang curtly. zhangnoticed that luo bing had slung his frozen emeraldsword across her back, and he knew that to try toretrieve it would only result in more punishment. sohe bit his lip and followed after ma zhen, his headbowed.

when they had gone, the others asked lu what hadhappened to him since they had parted. he told themthat for a time he had searched unsuccessfully foryuanzhi. then, realising that zhang was the key to theaffair, he went south and asked ma zhen to help him.

they hurried to beijing only to discover that zhanghad gone to hangzhou, so they travelled south oncemore.

the heroes walked slowly down from the peak, talkingas they went. chen turned to wang and han.

"you are both free to go," he said.

"master chen, i will never forget how you saved mylife," wang replied.

chen laughed. "i must ask your forgiveness, masterwang," he said and related how they had stolen thejade vases and provoked the duel between himself andzhang. having just escaped from the jaws of death,wang did not seem to blame him for the deception.

"you are certainly a born leader," he said to chen,and laughed. "so young and already a hero. i may beold, but i still have a thing or two to learn.""when our affairs have been successfully concluded, wewill drink a few cups of wine together," chen replied.

they arrived at the lake and returned to lonelymountain by boat. lu feiqing extracted the goldenneedles from wang's wounds with the use of a magnet,and then treated them with golden scar ointment.

by this time, evening was approaching.

"most of the work on the tunnel has been completed,"master ma, the hangzhou helmsman, reported. "we shouldbe finished in another six hours."chen nodded. "good, thank you brother ma. thirteenthbrother, please go and supervise the work."'crocodile' jiang bowed and left.

chen turned once more to wang and han.

"we have been looking after a few members of yourhonourable bodyguard agency," he said. "why don't youtake them to the lake for some recreation?"wang watched the red flower society fighters hurryingto and fro and guessed they were preparing to rescuewen tailai. he decided that if he were to go out byhimself now and the plan should go wrong, they couldeasily suspect that he had informed the authorities.

"i am getting old, and what with these golden needlewounds, i am not feeling at all well," he replied. "iwould like to rest here for a day.""as you wish," said chen.