'scholar' yu and yuanzhi understood why xu had sentthem out together to look for huo qingtong. yu wasgreatly moved by yuanzhi's obvious love for him, andby the fact that she had saved his life several times.

but the more infatuated she became, the more he shrankaway from her, for what reasons, he didn't himselfunderstand. as they travelled, she laughed andchattered with him, but he remained cool to heradvances.

one day towards noon, they spied a small donkeyhobbling towards them across the desert, its ridernodding from side to side as he snoozed. as they gotcloser, they saw it was a muslim with a large saucepanslung across his back and a donkey's tail in his righthand. the donkey, they noticed, was tail-less and waswearing an imperial guard officer's cap. the riderlooked about forty years of age and had a luxuriantbeard covering his face. when he saw them, he smiledwarmly.

yu knew huo qingtong's name was known across thelength and breadth of the desert. "excuse me," hesaid. "have you seen mistress huo qingtong?"the man laughed. "why are you looking for her?" heasked.

"there are several bad men after her and we want towarn her. if you see her, could you give her themessage?""all right. what sort of bad men?""two are big chinese, and the third is a mongol,"yuanzhi answered.

the man nodded. "yes, they are bad. they wanted to eatmy donkey, but i stole this hat from them." yu andyuanzhi glanced at each other.

"there was someone else with them?" yu asked.

"the man wearing this cap. but who are you?""we are friends of master muzhuolun," yu replied. wemust stop the men from finding mistress huo qingtong.

take us to where you met them and we will give yousome silver.""i don't need any silver. but i'll have to ask thedonkey if he's willing to go first," the muslimreplied. he leant over close to the donkey's ear andmumbled into it for a while, then placed his own earnear the donkey's mouth, and nodded repeatedly. yu andyuanzhi grinned at his clowning.

the man listened intently for a moment and thenfrowned. "this donkey has had a very high opinion ofhimself ever since he got the official cap," he said.

"he's rather contemptuous of your horses and doesn'twant to travel with them for fear of losing face."yuanzhi looked at the skinny, lame animal, it's bodycovered in dirt, and burst out laughing.

"you don't believe me?" the muslim exclaimed. "wellthen, my donkey shall compete with your horse."yu and yuanzhi were riding two of muzhuolun's besthorses, as superior to the donkey as clouds are frommud.

"all right," said yuanzhi. "when we've won, you mustlead us to find the three bad men.""it's four, not three. but what happens if you lose?""whatever you say.""if you lose, you have to wash the donkey clean sothat he can show off.""all right," yuanzhi agreed. "what sort of competitionwill we have?""you can decide."the muslim seemed absolutely certain of victory andyuanzhi began to feel suspicious. "what's that in yourhand?" she asked.

"it's the donkey's tail," he replied, waving it about.

"after he started wearing the official cap, he thoughtit didn't go well with his dirty tail, so he decidedhe didn't want it.""let me have a look," she said.

he threw the tail across and she caught it, thenpointed with it at a small sand dune some distanceaway. "we'll race from here to that sand dune," shesaid. "the winner will be the first to get there, yourdonkey or my horse." the man nodded. "you go overthere and be the judge," she added to yu. he slappedhis horse and galloped off across to the dune.

"go!" yuanzhi shouted, and with a lash of her whip,her horse leapt forward. after a few hundred feet, sheglanced back and saw the donkey, limping along farbehind. she laughed and spurred her horse on evenfaster. then all of a sudden a black shape shot pasther. she almost fell off her saddle in shock when shesaw the man had slung the donkey around his shouldersand was running with long strides, already a gooddistance ahead of her. she recovered and tried tocatch him up again, but he ran like the wind andstayed ahead all the way to the finish. just beforeshe reached the dune, yuanzhi threw the donkey's tailback the way they had come and shouted: "the horse isfirst!"the muslim and yu looked at each other in puzzlement.

"mistress!" the muslim protested. "we agreed thatwhichever got here first, the donkey or the horse, wasthe winner, isn't that right?"yuanzhi tidied her hair with her hand. "yes," shereplied. "but only part of the donkey got here first."the man pulled on his beard. "i don't understand. whatdo you mean, only part of the donkey?"yuanzhi pointed to the tail she had thrown far behindthem. "my horse arrived complete, but only a part ofyour donkey made it. his tail didn't."the man laughed heartily. "yes, you're right!" heexclaimed. "you win. i'll take you to find those fourbad men." he went over and picked the tail up andbrought it back. "you stupid donkey!" he said to theanimal. "don't think that just because you're wearingan official's cap that you don't need your dirtytail." he leapt onto its back.

yu had been greatly impressed by the muslim's immensestrength that allowed him to run faster than a horseeven with the donkey slung over his shoulders. he knewhe must be a martial arts master and bowed before him.

"if you just tell us which direction to go, we will goand find them ourselves," he said respectfully. "wedon't wish to trouble you, sir.""but i lost," the muslim replied, smiling. "how can iback out now?" he turned the donkey round and shouted:

"follow me!"they travelled on. yu asked the man for his name, buthe simply smiled and answered with more crazy jokes.

the lame donkey walked very slowly, and after half aday they had covered only ten miles. they saw ridersapproaching from behind, and 'mastermind' xu and zhouqi galloped up. yu introduced them saying: "thisgentleman is taking us to find the three devils." xudismounted and bowed.

the muslim simply smiled in response. "your wifeshould be resting more," he said to xu. "what's shedoing, racing about like this?"xu stared at him, not understanding. zhou qi, however,blushed red, and galloped on ahead.

the muslim was very familiar with the roads and pathsof the desert, and towards evening, he led them to asmall village. as they approached, they saw that amanchu military unit had also just descended on thevillage. the muslims were fleeing in all directionsdragging their children after them.

"most of the manchu forces have already beenexterminated, and the remnants have been surrounded,so where did these come from?" xu wondered aloud.

a group of about twenty muslims dashed towards themwith a dozen soldiers on their heels, shouting andbrandishing their swords. when the muslims caughtsight of the man on the donkey, they began to call outhis name ecstatically: "afanti! afanti! save us!""everyone flee!" afanti shouted. he raised his whipand galloped off into the desert with the muslims andmanchu troops following behind.

after a while, several of the muslim women fell behindand were captured by the soldiers. zhou qi could notbear to leave them, and she drew her sword and whirledher horse round. she charged the manchu troops andwith a swish of her blade, cut off half the head ofone of them. the other soldiers surrounded her, and xuand the others galloped up to rescue her. suddenly,zhou qi felt a wave of nausea and as one of thesoldiers leapt forward to grab her, she vomited allover his face. he frantically tried to wipe the messoff, and zhou qi killed him with her sword. her legsand arms became rubbery and she swayed unsteadily. xurushed over to support her.

"what's the matter?" he asked.

yu and yuanzhi had by now killed or chased away therest of the soldiers. xu caught one of the fleeingtroops and interrogated him about where the column hadcome from. the soldier threw himself down on theground and begged for mercy, gabbling incoherently.

finally they extracted from him the fact that he wasattached to a relief force coming from the east. xuchose two strong young men from amongst the group ofmuslims and sent them off immediately to informmuzhuolun, so he would be prepared. he gave thesoldier a kick on the behind and shouted "go to hell!"the soldier scampered away.

xu turned back to his wife. "are you all right?" heasked. "what's the matter?"zhou qi blushed and turned her head away.

"the cow is going to calve," afanti said.

"how do you know?" xu asked, surprised.

"it's strange. the bull didn't know the cow was goingto calve, but the donkey did."they all laughed, then countinued on their way. asevening approached, they stopped and set up tents forthe night.

"how many months gone are you?" xu quietly asked hiswife. "how is it that i didn't know?""how would my stupid bull know?" zhou qi replied,smiling. after a moment she added: "if we have a boy,then he will be surnamed zhou. father and mother willdie of happiness! just so long as he's not as craftyas you.""you must be careful from now on," said xu. "no moresword-fighting." she nodded.

the next morning, afanti said to xu: "your wife canstay at my home while we go and look for those men.

it's another ten miles further on. i have a verybeautiful wife there ...""really?" yuanzhi interrupted. "i must meet her. whywould she like a bearded fellow like you?""aha, that's a secret," afanti laughed.

they arrived in a village and afanti led them to hishouse. raising his saucepan, he began to bang itloudly, and a woman in her thirties came out to greethim. her features were indeed beautiful and her skinwhite and delicate. they could tell she was overjoyedto see afanti, but from her mouth issued a stream ofcurses: "where the hell have you been, whiskers? doyou still remember who i am after all this time?""enough of your noise," afanti replied with a smile.

"haven't i come back? bring something out for me toeat. your whiskers is starving to death.""aren't you satisfied just looking at my lovely face?"the wife countered, also smiling.

"that's very true, your beautiful face is a greatdelicacy, but if i had some bread or something to gowith it, it would be even better."she reached over and gave his ear a sharp twist. "iwon't allow you to go out again," she said. she wentback inside, and re-appeared soon after with piles ofbread, water-melon, honey and lamb. yuanzhi didn'tunderstand a word afanti and his wife said to eachother, but she could see from their teasing that theyloved each other dearly, and felt desolate.

while they ate lunch, two people walked into thehouse, one a young boy and the other a labourer.

"master hu says that you should return the saucepanthat you borrowed from him," the boy said.

afanti glanced at zhou qi and smiled. "you tell masterhu that the saucepan is pregnant and will soon givebirth to a baby saucepan, and cannot be moved at themoment."the boy looked puzzled, but he turned and left.

"what are you here for?" afanti asked the labourer.

"last year, i went to an inn in the village and ate achicken. before i left i asked the innkeeper for thebill, but he said: 'we'll settle it next time, there'sno rush.' i thought at the time that he was being niceso i thanked him and left. two months later, i wentback to pay, and he started counting his fingers andmumbling away as if he was trying to calculate a verycomplicated account. i said: 'how much was thatchicken? all you have to do is tell me!' the innkeeperwaved his hand and told me to be quiet.""a chicken, even if it was the biggest fat chicken,would not be more than a hundred copper pieces," saidafanti's wife.

"that's what i thought too," said the labourer. "butafter he had been figuring for a long time, he saidtwelve taels of silver!""ai-ya!" exclaimed afanti's wife. "how could a chickenbe so expensive? you could buy several hundredchickens with twelve taels of silver.""yes, that's what i said. but the innkeeper said:

'there's no mistake. if you had not eaten my chicken,how many eggs would that chicken have laid? and howmany of those eggs would have become little chicks?

and when those little chicks grew, how many eggs wouldthey have laid...?" the longer he calculated, thehigher the price became and finally he said: "twelvetaels of silver is actually very cheap!" naturally, irefused to give him the money so he dragged me over tosee master hu for him to settle the dispute. master hulistened to the innkeeper and told me to pay up. hesaid that if i didn't settle the account quickly, theeggs would become even more chickens and i wouldn'thave a hope. afanti, tell me who is right."just then, the boy returned.

"master hu says how could a saucepan be pregnant? hedoesn't believe you and says you must return thesaucepan to him immediately."afanti went into the kitchen and brought out a smallsaucepan which he gave to the boy. "this is clearlythe son of a saucepan," he said. "you give it tomaster hu."uncertain whether to believe him or not, the boy tookthe small saucepan and left.

afanti turned to the labourer and said: "you tellmaster hu you want to hold a meeting to settle thematter.""but if i lose, i'll have to give him twenty-fourtaels of silver, won't i?""don't worry," said afanti, "you can't lose."after an hour or so, the labourer returned and said:

"uncle afanti, master hu had already called themeeting, and the deliberation has begun. please come.""i'm busy at the moment," afanti replied. "come backin a little while." he sat laughing and chatting withhis wife and the others. the labourer was extremelyanxious and pleaded with him and finally afanti got upand accompanied him to the meeting.

xu and the others went along too to see the fun, andthey found seven or eight hundred people gathered inthe centre of the village. a fat man wearing anembroidered fur-lined gown sat in the middle, and theydecided he must be master hu. the crowd had becomevery restless waiting for afanti.

"afanti," called master hu. "this labourer says you'regoing to speak for him. why are you so late?"afanti bowed before him. "i'm sorry, but i had someimportant business to attend to," he said.

"how could it be more important than settling thisdispute?" master hu replied.

"it was much more important," said afanti. "tomorrow,i am going to plant some wheat, but i had not yetfried the seeds or eaten them. i fried them threetimes and it took me a long time to finish them up.""nonsense!" roared master hu. "how can you plant seedsthat you have eaten?"the crowd laughed heartily, but afanti just strokedhis large beard and smiled. after a while, the hubbubdied down, and he said: "you say that wheat seeds thathave been eaten cannot be planted. well, how can thechicken that the labourer ate lay any eggs?"the crowd thought for a second, and then cried out:

"yes, that's right, how can a chicken that's beeneaten lay eggs?" everyone began shouting and laughingand lifted afanti up onto their shoulders.

seeing the crowd's reaction, master hu had noalternative but to announce: "the labourer should payone hundred copper pieces to the innkeeper in returnfor the chicken he ate."the labourer happily handed over the string of coppercoins to the innkeeper. "i wouldn't dare to eat on ofyour chickens again," he said.

the innkeeper took the money and walked silently away.

the crowd of muslims laughed at him and some smallchildren threw stones at his back.

master hu walked up to afanti. "the saucepan i lent toyou gave birth to a son. that's very good. when willit be giving birth again?"an expression of deep sadness appeared on afanti'sface. "master hu," he said. "your saucepan is dead.""how can a saucepan die?" master hu replied angrily.

"if a saucepan can give birth to a son, of course itcan die.""you charlatan," cried master hu. "you just don't wantto return my saucepan.""all right," afanti shouted back. "we'll let everyonedecide."but master hu remembered how he had accepted the smallsaucepan, and decided he had lost enough face. hewaved his hand to indicate he had had enough andwalked off through the crowd.

afanti was extremely pleased with himself for havingmanaged to cheat master hu, himself a master atcheating the poor, and he threw back his head androared with laughter. suddenly, a voice behind himsaid: "well whiskers, what ridiculousness are you upto now?"afanti turned and saw it was the strange knight of theheavenly pool, master yuan. he jumped up happily andgrabbed yuan's arm.

"aha! so you're here. come and see my wife," he said.

"what's so special about your wife that you keepshowing her off like a monkey would a jewel ..."before yuan could finish, xu and yu came forward andkowtowed before him.

"enough, enough, there's no need to kowtow. i'm notyour teacher," yuan protested. "where is your masterchen?""the great helmsman came on ahead of us..." xu began.

suddenly, he noticed the twin eagles of tianshan, baldvulture and madame guan, behind yuan and bowed tothem. he was surprised to see madame guan was ridingchen's white horse.

"where did you find that horse?" he asked.

"we found him running free in the desert. it took thethree of us quite a while to catch him," she said.

xu was shocked. "could the great helmsman be indanger? we had better go and find him," he said.

they finished lunch quickly and bade farewell to zhouqi. afanti's wife, was furious that he was leavingagain after only a few hours at home, and grabbed hisbeard, wailing and screaming as she did so. afantilaughed and tried to comfort her.

"i`ve found a young lady to keep you company," hesaid. "in fact, there's a baby inside her, which meanstwo people to keep you company, much better than me bymyself." but his wife wailed even louder.

yuanzhi rode the white horse and let it lead the wayto back to chen. afanti again rode his donkey, but theanimal was much too slow. by nightfall, they had goneonly ten miles, and everyone was getting anxious.

"we will go on ahead," xu finally said to afanti. "weare afraid that our great helmsman may be in trouble.""all right, all rightm" afanti replied. "when we getto the next village, i'll buy a better donkey. thisstupid donkey thinks he's something special, butreally he's useless." he urged the animal on andcaught up with yuanzhi.

"mistress, why are you so unhappy all the time?" heasked.

despite his apparent silliness, yuanzhi knew that thisstrange muslim was very wise, and she decided to askhis advice.

"uncle afanti," she replied. "how would you deal withsomeone who was unreasonable?""i would cover his head with my saucepan and skewerhim with a sword."yuanzhi shook her head. "that won't do. for instance,what if he was someone very ... dear to you. the niceryou are towards him, the more stubborn he becomes,like your donkey."afanti pulled at his beard, fully understanding hermeaning. "i ride this donkey every day and i'velearned a few tricks about how to deal with his badtemper," he replied with a smile.

they entered a village. as they approached the squareat its centre, the white horse suddenly gave a longneigh and galloped forward. yuanzhi pulleddesperatelyon the reins, but could not control him andthe villagers scattered in front of the apparentlycrazed animal as it raced up to a group of people andstopped. yuanzhi dismounted in front of luo bing, wen,'leopard' wei, zhang jin, xin yan and white-bearded lufeiqing.

yu ran over to lu and knelt down before him. "uncle,"he cried, and began to sob.

lu helped him up, tears also glistening in his eyes.

"i started out as soon as i heard the shocking newsabout your teacher, master ma zhen," he said. "i metmaster wen and the others on the road. they are alsoafter that traitor, zhang. don't worry. we will avengethe death of your teacher."the heroes found somewhere to rest briefly whileafanti went off to buy a donkey, yuanzhi quietlyfollowing him. he found and purchased a strong animal,twice as tall as his tail-less donkey which he sold tothe donkey merchant for a small sum.

"the official's cap was the undoing of this stupiddonkey," he said, and laughed. he threw the cap on theground, and trampled it into the dust. yuanzhi led thenew donkey for him as they walked back.

"i once raised a donkey that was appallinglystubborn," afanti said. "if i wanted him to move, hewould stand still. if i wanted him to stand still, hewould walk round in circles. one day, i wanted him topull a cart to a mill a few hundred feet away, but nomatter what i said, he wouldn't budge. the more ipushed him, the more determined he was to stay put. ishouted, i hit him, it made no difference. so you canguess what i did?""i'm sure you thought of something.""the mill was to the east, so i pulled the donkeyround to face west and then urged him to movedforward. he retreated one step after another all theway to the mill!""you wanted to go east, so it insisted on going west,"yuanzhi said thoughtfully. "so you pushed himwestwards."afanti stuck up his thumb. "that's right. that's theway." yuanzhi smiled. "thank you for your advice," shesaid.

she decided he was right. the more she was nice to yu,the more he avoided her, so she decided that she wouldignore him instead. luo bing and xu were surprised byher sudden change in attitude, but afanti just strokedhis beard and smiled.

with afanti riding his new donkey, they made muchfaster progress. the white horse led them to the whitejade peak, but it was still fearful of the wolves andstopped outside the maze of paths leading to thesecret city, refusing to go any further.

"the wolf pack went in here," said master yuan. "weshould be able to find our way easily by following thetrail of wolf droppings." their anxiety about chen'ssafety increased.

the path twisted back and forth for a long time.

suddenly, they heard footsteps ahead and four menappeared round a corner, the first of whom was zhang.

his face turned pale at the sight of the heroes, andparticularly his martial brother lu feiqing. yugripped hold of his golden flute and was about tocharge forward when master yuan lightly touched hisshoulder, stopping him dead in his tracks.

master yuan pointed at zhang accusingly. "when we metseveral days ago, i called you a master of the wudangschool. i did not know then that you were capable ofeven killing your own martial brother. why not end itcleanly and quickly yourself?"zhang calculated that at least five of his opponentswere his equal at kung fu or better and that he wouldgain nothing from a head-on confrontation.

with one swift, smooth movement, he drew his sword,and flung a large handful of golden needles at theheroes. as they ducked, he grabbed hahetai andsqueezed a key yuedao point on his right wrist. "run!"he shouted.

hahetai was no longer master of his own movements. heran with zhang back along the path towards the secretcity, with tang and gu following along behind. by thetime the heroes had picked themselves up, the four haddisappeared around the bend. master yuan and afantiwere furious, and shot after them at high speed.

master yuan was particularly fast, and in a moment hehad caught up with tang. he grasped him by the neckand lifted his fat body up off the ground. unable tosee his attacker, tang kicked out backwards with hisfoot, but a huge force propelled him through the air,smashing his head into the rock face, killing himinstantly.

master yuan ran on and, rounding the next corner,found himself confronted by three paths leading offthe main track.

xu looked carefully at the ground. "someone trod inthis pile of wolf droppings," he said, pointing. "theymust have followed the trail of droppings back.""very good. let's go," master yuan replied. theyfollowed the droppings all the way to the base of thewhite jade peak without seeing any sign of zhang andthe other two. but they noticed the cave mouth abovethem, and master yuan and some of the others jumped upthe cliff while the rest were hauled one by one by luand wen.

master yuan pushed open the massive stone door, andran on ahead of the others down the tunnel. when theyentered the great hall, their weapons were snatchedaway by the magnetic force, giving them all a badshock. but they had urgent business, and picked uptheir swords and others weapons without bothering towork out what had happened and ran on to the jaderoom, where they saw the tunnel mouth beside the bed.

the further they went into the bowels of the mountain,the more astounded they became. suddenly, they emergedonce more into bright daylight, and saw six peoplestanding around the jade pool, three on one side andthree on the other. on the far side were chen, huoqingtong and princess fragrance, while on the nearside were zhang, gu and hahetai.

"master, master!" xin yan called excitedly. "we'rehere!""child! are you all right?" madame guan shouted to huoqingtong.

"fine!" she called back. she pointed at gu and added:

"please kill that villain quickly." bald vulture drewhis sword and sprung at him, while madame guan beganto fight with hahetai. the other heroes quietlysurrounded zhang.

gu and hehetai fought for their lives, but could nothope to win against the "three-part" sword style ofthe twin eagles. in the midst of the clash of swords,bald vulture gave a roar and blood appeared on gu'schest. he followed with a swift kick, and gu fellbackwards into the pool, sending fountains of waterspraying out in all directions. a trail of blood roseto the surface.

a moment later, there was another splash as gusurfaced, and began swimming slowly towards the bank.

hahetai threw down his sword and helped him out of thewater. gu was badly wounded and had taken in a largequantity of water, and after laying him down on thebank, hahetai massaged his chest.

zhang watched helplessly as gu and hahetai wereovercome. then 'scholar' yu lunged at him. zhang swepthis left hand across, and as yu dodged to avoid theblow, zhang grabbed him with his right hand and threwhim at a nearby stone wall with a roar. horrified,yuanzhi jumped forward to grab yu, but zhang'sstrength was too great and the two slammed into thewall. a sharp 'crack' sounded as yuanzhi's left armsnapped.

the heroes's anger flared once more. master yuan wentover to yuanzhi and placed a medicine pill in hermouth to ease her intense pain while the otherssurrounded zhang.

"the 'fire hand judge' will die as a hero!" he shouteddefiantly. "well, are you coming altogether or one ata time?""i'll fight you first!" bald vulture shouted back.

"this traitor has wronged me too deeply," weninterrupted him. "let me go first.""he killed my teacher," yu shouted. "i may not be asgood a fighter as him, but i want to be first. brotherwen, you can take over when i can't take any more.""let us draw lots," chen suggested.

"master chen," zhang broke in on them. "we agreed inhangzhou to meet at a later date for a duel. does thatstill hold?""yes," chen replied. "as i remember, we postponed themeeting because your hand was injured. now is anexcellent time to settle the affair.""then you and i will compete first and the others willwait their turns, agreed?" zhang had fought with chenon several occasions and knew he could beat him. hereckoned that if he could capture him, he might beable to find some way to escape. and if he could notcapture him, he would at least have the satisfactionof killing the red flower society's leader.

"if you think you are going to escape with your lifetoday, you are deluding yourself," said chen. "wespared your life in that dungeon in hangzhou, and onlion peak. only a few days ago, i saved you once againfrom the wolves. but the red flower society has runout of benevolence towards you.""well, come on then," zhang replied impatiently. chenleapt at him, his two fists aimed straight at zhang'sface. zhang ducked and then jumped up out of the way,and chen followed with a sweeping kick, timing it tostrike zhang as he fell back to earth. surprised,zhang had to thrust his sword at chen's chest toextricate himself. chen moved back and as fast aslightning, zhang struck out again.

lu feiqing was shocked by zhang's speed, even fasterthan their teacher in his prime. he drew his sword andwatched the battle carefully, ready to help chen ifnecessary.

to one side, yu and luo bing were looking afteryuanzhi who had fainted from the shock and pain of herbroken arm. yuanzhi opened her eyes and pointed to theeast with a gasp of surprise. yu looked round butcould see nothing but the afternoon sun shimmering onthe hills about them.

"what's that?" yuanzhi asked. "are we back inhangzhou?""it's just the sun," yu said softly. "close your eyesand rest.""no, that's the thunder peak pagoda in hangzhou," shereplied. "i've been there with my father. where is myfather? i want to see him."yu lightly patted the back of her hand. "we'll gothere together after this, and i'll see your fatherwith you."a smile appeared on her face. "who are you?" sheasked. yu saw her staring at him, her face completelydevoid of colour and fear struck him.

"i'm your martial brother yu. i promise i will lookafter you from now on.""but in your heart, you don't like me, i know," shecried, tears beginning to course down her cheeks.

"take me back to see my father. i want to die."on a sudden impulse, yu embraced her. "i truly loveyou," he whispered. "you won't die." she sighed. "tellme you won't die," he repeated. another wave of painfrom her arm struck her and she fainted away.

meanwhile, zhang and chen continued to fight round andround. at first, chen was able to contain his enemywith the 'hundred flowers' kung fu style. but as zhanggradually came to grips with it, he became more daringand forced chen onto the defensive. he swept his swordacross at chen forcing chen to jump away, and with aquick double movement of his sword, struck out at'leopard' wei and zhang jin, wounding them both. wenroared with anger and was about to leap forward whenchen slipped past him and struck out at zhang's facewith his open hands. there appeared to be no forcebehind the blow, but they struck zhang's ears with twosharp claps. surprised and angry, zhang retreated.

the heroes were perplexed by the effortless way inwhich chen had managed to box zhang's ears.

"fourteenth brother," chen said to yu. "play me a tuneon your flute.""what do you want me to play?" he asked, putting theflute to his lips.

chen hesitated for a moment. "the tune 'ambush fromall sides'," he replied.

yu did not understand what he was getting at, buthaving received an order from the great helmsman, hecomplied immediately and began to play with all theskill he could muster. the tune was a martial piecewritten originally for the bamboo flute. played on thegolden flute, it sounded even more stentorian, raisingthe image of armoured troops on the march.

chen set himself in a pose facing zhang. "come on," heinvited, then turned and kicked out into the thin airas if dancing. seeing his back undefended, zhangthrust his sword at him, and the heroes gasped infright. but chen suddenly turned again, grabbedzhang's queue with his left hand and pulled it overthe edge of the sword, slicing it in two. with hisright hand, he gave zhang's shoulder a sharp blow.

zhang had now been struck three times, and although hehad not yet been badly hurt, he was obviously baffledby chen's kung fu style and had had to suffer theshame of having his queue cut off. but he was a masterof self-control and he carefully retreated severalsteps, staring fixedly at his enemy.

chen moved forward slowly, his feet following therhythm of the tune yu was playing.

"look!" huo qingtong said to her sister excitedly.

"it's the kung fu style he learned in the cave."the two whirled round each other. zhang kept his swordstrictly on the defensive, striking out only when chengot too close.

"master yuan, i have never had so much respect for youas i do today," bald vulture said. "your pupil isdoing you proud."master yuan was greatly perplexed: he was probably thebest martial arts fighter in the land and yet he hadnever seen anything remotely like the kung fu stylechen was using. "i didn't teach him this," he replied.

"i wouldn't know how to."yu played his flute even more furiously. at first,chen had felt unfamiliar with the new kung fu style,but by now he was using it smoothly, advancing andretreating with great precision until zhang's clotheswere covered in the sweat of fear. the melody hit ahigh note, then fell like a shooting star exploding,and zhang gave a cry as chen touched the yuedao pointon his right wrist, forcing him to drop the sword.

chen followed quickly with two blows to zhang's back,then jumped away, laughing. zhang stumbled forward afew steps, as if drunk, and collapsed on the ground.

jubilant, the heroes rushed forward to tied him up.

zhang, his face deathly white, made no attempt toresist.

"master yuan, master lu," chen said. "what should wedo with this traitor?""feed him to the wolves," yu interjected. "first hekilled my teacher and now he, now he ..." he lookeddown at yuanzhi's broken arm.

"good idea! we'll take him to feed the wolves," saidyuan. "we have to go and see how the pack is doinganyway."lu carefully set yuanzhi's broken arm and bound ittightly with cloth. master yuan slipped a snow ginsengpill into her mouth and felt her pulse.

"don't worry," he said to yu. "she won't die.""put your arms round her, and she'll get better muchquicker," luo bing whispered to him with a smile.

huo qingtong, meanwhile, was examining her map again,looking for a path from the jade pool out to thesecret city, when she heard shouts and turned to seegu running crazily towards her screaming: "kill me!

kill me!" shocked and angry, she raised her sword andran it through his chest. as she pulled the blade outagain, a stream of blood spattered her yellow robe andgu collapsed on the ground. hahetai knelt over him andtried to stop the blood flow, but it was impossible.

gu gasped in pain.

"do you have any affairs that need settling, brother?"hahetai asked him.

"i just want to touch her hand, then i can die happy,"gu whispered, looking up at huo qingtong.

"mistress!" hahetai pleaded. "he's about to die. takepity...." huo qingtong turned without a word, andwalked away, her face deathly pale. gu gave a longsigh, and his head fell to one side, dead.

holding back his tears, hahetai jumped up and pointedhis finger accusingly at huo qingtong.

"you're merciless!" he shouted. "i don't blame you forkilling him, but you could at least have given himyour hand to touch, so that he could die peacefully.

what difference would it have made to you?""nonsense! shut your mouth!" zhang jin said angrily.

hahetai made no reply. he picked up gu's body andstrode away. yu led over a horse for him.

"brother hahetai," he said. "i respect you for beingan upright man. please take this horse."hahetai nodded and slung gu's body over the horse'sback. yu filled a bowl with water and drank half ofit, then presented it to the mongol.

"this water can take the place of wine," he said.

hahetai threw back his head and drained the bowl atone draught, then rode away without looking back.