n elderly scholar; wandering everywhere, free and unrestrained.

One particular day he saw someone at a bustling street in Dadou; he recognized that person as Madame Cult Leader’s martial brother Cheng Kun. He could not help to be secretly shocked. By that time there was a rumor in the Wulin world that many skilled pugilists were murdered, and there was always this message written on the adjacent wall: ‘The killer is Lightning Hands of the Originating Formation Cheng Kun’. He wanted to investigate this case, but also wanted to inquire the Yang Jiaozhu’s whereabouts to Cheng Kun; thereupon he followed Cheng Kun from a safe distance.

He saw Cheng Kun enter a restaurant, where two older men were waiting; they were the Xuanming Elders. Fan Yao knew Cheng Kun’s martial art level was high, so he sat on a rather far away table, drinking wine. He could only hear those three people talking indistinctly, but the words ‘must destroy the Brightness Peak’ were heard clearly. Hearing his cult was in danger Fan Yao could not ignore it; he followed those three secretly and saw them entering the Ruyang [a place in Henan] ‘wang fu’ [lit. king mansion – governmental palace]. Later he found out that those two Xuanming Elders were martial art experts under the employment of the Prince of Ruyang.

The Prince of Ruyang, Khakan Timur, was a very high ranking officer in charge of the military forces. He was brave and resourceful; in fact, he was the most capable person of the imperial household. He was the one who dispatched troops to suppress the rebellion of Jiang Huai [Jiangsu and Anhui]. It can be said that the victory and defeat of the imperial army was the sole responsibility of this prince Khakan Timur.

Zhang Wuji and the others had heard his name for quite some time, by now hearing that Lu Zhangke and the others were his subordinates, they more or less could guess, but in the end they were still surprised.

“Who, then, is this Miss Zhao?” Yang Xiao asked.

“Da Ge, there is no harm for you to take a guess,” Fan Yao answered.

“Is it possible that she is Khakan Timur’s daughter?” Yang Xiao said.

“Pretty good!” Fan Yao clapped his hands, “One guess and right on target. This Ruyang Wangye [Prince, lit. king master] has one son and one daughter. His son is Kuku Timur; his daughter is this girl. Her Mongolian name is Minmin Timur something. Kuku Timur is Ruyang Wangye’s crown prince; he will succeed his father as the future Prince Ruyang. The daughter’s title is Shao Min Jun Zhu [‘jun zhu’ means a ruler of some region, or a princess. Translator’s note: I don’t know how to translate this ‘Shao Min’ name; I guess we’ll leave it as is: a name.]. These two children are good in martial arts and they both have good level of skill. They love to dress as Han people and they speak Han language. They even adopted Han names; the boy chose Wang Baobao, while the girl chose Zhao Min. These two characters ‘Zhao Min’ came from her title, Shao Min Jun Zhu.”

Wei Yixiao smiled and said, “These brother and sister are very strange; one uses Wang as his surname, the other Zhao. From our Han people’s perspective, it is very funny.”

Fan Yao said, “Actually, their surname is Timur. Their given names are in the front; this is the custom of the barbarians. Ruyang Wangye Khakan Timur also has a Han’s surname; which is Li.” Speaking to this point the four of them burst out in laughter.

[Author’s note: In the New Yuan History, 220th chapter, on the biography of Khakan Timur: ‘Khakan Timur was the ancestor of Kuokuotai, Zunaimantai, Fualuwen. He made Henan his home and thus was known as Shenqiu people. Later he changed his surname to Li.’ Although officially Kuku Timur was his crown prince, in reality he was Khakan Timur’s sister’s son. This little detail is not distinguished clearly in the novel.]

[Translator’s note: I apologize for not able to find any reference on the above note; hence my translation might be inaccurate.]

Yang Xiao said, “This Miss Zhao’s appearance and lifestyle is just like Han people, but the way she handles affairs was so fierce and ruthless, revealing her true barbarian origin.”

Until that moment Zhang Wuji did not know Zhao Min’s origin. Although he guessed she must be from the royal household, he had never expected that she was actually the daughter of Prince Ruyang who was the commander of the Yuan Dynasty’s military forces. He had fought with her several times and each time he was somewhat overpowered. Although her martial art skill was not as good as his, when it comes to quick-thinking and resourcefulness, he was not her match.

Fan Yao continued, “Subordinate continued listening secretly and found out that Prince Ruyang had made up his mind to exterminate Jianghu’s martial art exponents [‘men, pai, bang, hui’ – gate, sect, clan and society]. He had accepted Cheng Kun’s scheme, in which the first step was to eliminate our Cult. I considered it carefully; our Cult was involved in endless internal strife, while the enemy was so strong, our destruction was imminent. The only way to prevent this is by entering the palace, learning Prince Ruyang’s plot, and act accordingly. Other than that I could not think of anything else. What I found to be strange was that Cheng Kun is not only Madame Yang Jiaozhu’s martial brother, but he is also Xie Shi Wang’s [Lion King Xie] master; why did he hate our Cult so much? I thought about it but could not come up with a good answer. I thought he must be seeking riches and honor so that by exterminating our Cult he would render a meritorious service to the kingdom. There are not too many Cult brethrens who know Cheng Kun, but I have met him once, so he knew me. To prevent my plan from leaking out, I have to kill this man.”

“You should,” Wei Yixiao commented.

“But this man is so sly, also his martial art is strong,” Fan Yao continued, “I have tried to kill him secretly three times but to no avail. The third time I managed to stab him with a sword, but I was hacked by his palm. It was really not easy for me to escape. I did not reveal my identity, but I suffered a severe injury, which took me more than a year to recover. By this time the Ruyang Palace conspiracy has ripened. I thought if I disguise myself I might be able to conceal my identity for a while. In the past the number of Jianghu people who knew me and Yang Xiong [brother Yang] as the ‘Xiao Yao Two Immortals’ were truly not a few. Over longer period of time I will surely give myself away. Thereupon clenching my teeth I destroyed my own face and disguised myself as a Toutuo. I used some medicine to dye my hair, and went to the Watzu kingdom of the Western Region.”

“Watzu kingdom?” Wei Yixiao wondered, “It is tens of thousands ‘li’s away; why did you go there?”

Fan Yao smiled, but before he could answer Yang Xiao clapped his hands and said, “That’s a marvelous idea! Wei Xiong, Fan Xiongdi went to Watzu kingdom looking for a chance to show his skill, so that the Mongolian nobility would surely notice. Prince of Ruyang was looking for warriors from all over the world, so if the ruler of Watzu wanted to please the Prince, he would send him to the palace to offer his service. This way Fan Xiongdi became a warrior from the Watzu kingdom. His face was changed, also he did not open his mouth. Even if Cheng Kun had divine skill, there is no way he would have recognized him.”

Wei Yixiao heaved a deep sigh and said, “Yang Jiaozhu placed the Xiao Yao Er Xian above the four ‘Fa Wang’ [Protector King]; his vision was truly as bright as a torch. This kind of scheming, some Eagle King, Bat King, will never think about.”

“Wei Xiong, that’s enough of praising,” Fan Yao said, “Just like Yang Zuoshi said, in Watzu I killed some lions and slaughtered some tigers, making a name for myself; for their honor, the local king sent me to the Ruyang Palace. But that Cheng Kun was not in the palace; I didn’t know where he went.”

Immediately Yang Xiao narrated briefly the enmity between Cheng Kun and the Ming Cult; how he sneaked into the Brightness Peak to attack, and how Zhang Wuji thwarted his treacherous plan, and how in the end he fought with Yin Yewang and finally died.

As Fan Yao listened to this story he was silent for half a day; he did not realize that there were so many twist and turns in this affair. He stood up and bowed respectfully toward Zhang Wuji, “Jiaozhu,” he said, “Subordinate would like to ask for your forgiveness.”

“Fan Youshi, there is no need to be modest,” Zhang Wuji replied.

Fan Yao said, “When subordinate entered the Ruyang Palace, in order to win the King’s heart, during a disturbance in the market place subordinate has killed three of our own Cult’s ‘xiang zhu’ [a position within the Ming Cult; I am not sure how to translate this term properly], giving the impression that there was a deep enmity between myself and the Ming Cult.”

Zhang Wuji was silent, he thought, “Killing a Cult brother is one of our Cult’s five big prohibitions; that was the reason why although Yang Zuoshi, Four ‘Fa Wang’s, Five-Element Flags and the others fought fiercely over the Cult Leader position, they had never killed a fellow Cult brother. Fan Youshi’s transgression is really not light, but his primary motivation was to protect our Cult and not because of personal grudge, so I really cannot judge him guilty.” He said, “Fan Youshi has suffered so much in protecting our Cult, I can’t really blame you.”

Fan Yao bowed and said, “Thank you for Jiaozhu’s forgiveness.”

Zhang Wuji silently thought, “A man as cruel as Fan Youshi is truly rare. He is capable of mutilating his own face with seventeen, eighteen cuts; then he killed several of our own Cult’s innocent ‘xiang zhu’s, all without any guilty feeling. People calling the Ming Cult a heretical Devil Cult is not without reason. I wonder if, in the future, we can change this perverse and evil characteristic.”

Although with his mouth Zhang Wuji said, ‘I can’t really blame you,’ Fan Yao could see the unsatisfied look on his face. He held out his hand to draw Yang Xiao’s sword, and with a swing of his left hand he cut off two of his right hand fingers.

Zhang Wuji was shocked; he snatched the sword from Fan Yao’s hand and said, “Fan Youshi, you … you … why did you do this?”

Fan Yao replied, “Killing our own innocent Cult brothers is a grave offense. Fan Yao still has an unfinished important matter, so I can’t kill myself yet. I cut my two fingers first then later on I’ll cut my own head.”

Zhang Wuji said, “I have already forgiven Fan Youshi’s mistake, why bother doing this? We should be more concerned over the important matter. Fan Youshi, don’t raise this matter anymore.” He quickly took out some cut wound medicine and applied it to his wound; he also tore up his own clothes and wrapped Fan Youshi’s wound. He knew in his heart that this man was hard-hearted; although Zhang Wuji said he did not hold him accountable, he could see any sign in Fan Youshi’s face that he would take Zhang Wuji’s words by heart. He was capable of doing what he said, so there was a great possibility he would commit suicide in the future for his own crime. Zhang Wuji remembered how he had suffered this much for the sake of the Cult, his heart was moved. Suddenly he knelt down and said, “Fan Youshi, you have rendered a great service to the Cult; please accept my respect. If you harm yourself, that means you are saying to me that I am neither competent nor worthy to hold the Jiaozhu position. You stab yourself with a sword, I will stab myself twice. I am young and my knowledge is shallow; I don’t understand much of our affair, I can’t distinguish good from evil.”

As they saw their Jiaozhu kneel down, Fan Yao, Yang Xiao and Wei Yixiao quickly knelt down on the ground. With tears in his eyes Yang Xiao said, “Fan Xiongdi, please rest your case. Our Cult’s prosperity and decline are in the hands of our Jiaozhu only. Jiaozhu has given you an order, you surely must not disobey it.”

Fan Yao saluted and said, “Today subordinate has tested his sword and palm skill against Jiaozhu’s, and I fell on my knees in full admiration. Ku Toutuo’s personality is eccentric and unreasonable, I am asking for Jiaozhu’s forgiveness.”

Zhang Wuji held out his hands to stand him up. From that day forward a strong bond had formed between the two; no more misunderstandings happened.

Fan Yao continued his narration on what happened after he entered the Ruyang Palace. The Ruyang Prince, Khakan Timur, was very capable in commanding the military force. Unfortunately for him the royal government was dominated by corrupt ministers, plus the current emperor was a muddle-head, so chaos and confusion reigned everywhere in the kingdom; insurrections arose everywhere, forcing the Ruyang Prince to dispatch troop’s expeditions to east and to the west, crushing innumerable rebellions. These insurrections had kept the Ruyang Prince busy for years and his plan of annihilating the Jianghu’s sects, schools and clans was put on hold for the time being.

Several years passed; his children grew up. While his son Kuku Timur followed his steps commanding the troops, his daughter Minmin Timur gathered Mongolian warriors under her command, Western Region’s warriors and foreign monks, to carry out a large scale attack against the sects, schools and clans. Cheng Kun secretly helped her engineer the plan; taking advantage of the six major sects’ besiege of the Brightness Peak, Zhao Min sent a large quantities of her martial art masters in an attempt to extinguish the Ming Cult and the six major sects all at once.

The Green Willow Manor affairs and the subsequent events were part of this grand scheme. At that time Fan Yao’s assignment was to protect the Ruyang Prince, hence he did not participate in the attack to the western region and he did not learn about the attack until much later. Fan Yao said that although he did not raise any suspicion in the Ruyang Palace, Zhao Min would not allow him to participate in the attack to the western region since he came from the western region. Perhaps it was also part of Cheng Kun’s idea.

Zhao Min used the poison ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’ [ten-fragrance muscle softener powder], offered by the foreign western region monk, to drug the masters of the six major sects who were just returning from the Brightness Peak, by poisoning their food. This poison had no color and no smell, so once it was mixed in the dishes, who could detect it? Once the drug worked, the muscles and bones in one’s whole body would be weakened for a few days. Although they were able to move around as usual, they could not exert the least bit of internal energy; for that reason all the six major sects’ masters who were involved in the Brightness Peak expedition were captured one by one within just one short month. It was when they tried to drug the third group Shaolin monks under Kong Xing’s command that they were detected. A fierce battle followed, Kong Xing died under Ah San’s hand; about a dozen or so others died under the hands of Xuanming Elders, Shen Jian Ba Xiong [Eight Divine Archers], as well as Ah Da, Ah Er, Ah San and the others. The rest were captured.

The next step was to raid the six major sects’ bases; the first being the Shaolin Sect. The Shaolin Temple was heavily guarded, so it was not easy to mix the poison into their food. It was completely different from drugging the monks when they were spending the night in the inn while traveling. Therefore, they had to resort to different method. “’Jun zhu’ [princess] was afraid their strength was not sufficient to fight the Shaolin Temple head-on, so they called for reinforcement from Dadou, which happened to be under my command. We arrived right on time to help capturing the Shaolin monks. Shaolin Sect is always rude to our Cult; so I was glad they undergo a little bit of suffering. Even if I have to kill several stinky monks, Ku Toutuo won’t crease my brows. Jiaozhu, I believe you’ll agree with me, ha … ha …!”

“Xiong di [brother],” Yang Xiao interrupted, “Were you the one who turned those Luohan statues around?”

Fan Yao said with a smile, “I saw ‘Jun zhu’ ordered her people to carve those sixteen characters on the back of the Luo Han statues; her intention was to shift the blame to our Cult. Later on I came back quietly and turned those statues back. Dage [big brother], you are very observant, you managed to find out about this matter. At that time did you guess it was ‘Xiong di’?”

Yang Xiao said, “At that time we only know that there was a master helping our Cult in secret; how would I know that it was my old partner, good brother?” Four people broke up in laughter. Immediately Yang Xiao told Fan Yao briefly that the Ming Cult had ceased all enmity with the six major sects and joined hands to fight the Mongols together; for that reason they must rescue all the masters.

Fan Yao said, “The enemy is numerous, we are only four people; it will be difficult for us to accomplish this. The best way would be to get the antidote for ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’ and feed it to those stinky monks, stinky nuns and all those ox-noses; after their internal strength is recovered then we can make a surprised attack to those Tartars and then we can escape Dadou together.”

The Ming Cult had never had any good relationship with Shaolin, Wudang and other orthodox sects, so in his speech Fan Yao did not have the slightest respect toward these six major sects. Yang Xiao tried to cast him some meaningful glances, but Fan Yao was oblivious to him. But actually Zhang Wuji did not mind at all; he clapped his hands and said, “That’s great, Fan Youshi; but then how are we going to get the antidote for the ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’?”

Fan Yao said, “Although ‘Jun zhu’ pays me a lot of respect, she has never discussed any important matter with me because I’ve never opened my mouth. When she talked and the other person did not utter a single word, how could she not be disappointed? Moreover, I came from a small country in the western region, so she could not treat me as a trusted friend. Hence I don’t know where the antidote for the ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’ is. But I do know that this matter is very important to her, so she would guard this secret carefully. If my guess is correct, the poison and the antidote are in the hands of the Xuanming Elders; one has the poison, the other has the antidote, and they swap those poison and antidote periodically.”

Yang Xiao sighed and said, “This princess is so cunning that even a man might not necessarily be better than her. Doesn’t she trust the Xuanming Elders?”

Fan Yao replied, “First, distrust is right; second, it is also safer this way. Take us, for example, we want to steal the antidote; but we don’t know whether it is in Lu Zhangke’s hand, or is it in He Biweng’s hand? Moreover, I heard that between the poison and the antidote there is no distinct color or odor differences, so unless we are really familiar with it, we might end up stealing the poison when we want to steal the antidote. This ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’ also has another fierce characteristic; when one took the poison, one’s muscles and bones would be weakened, but one’s life would not be threatened in any way. However, if that same person took the poison for the second time, even only for a little bit, immediately his blood flow will reverse and there is no cure for it.”

Wei Yixiao stuck out his tongue and said, “If that’s so, then we must not steal the wrong antidote.”

“That’s true,” Fan Yao said, “But I have an idea: we steal both the poison and the antidote from the Xuanming Elders then we give it to some low level master from Huashan or Kongtong Sect. If he dies, then that one is the poison. Don’t you think it is a good idea?”

Zhang Wuji realized he still had some heretical nature and did not put too much thought about other people’s life. He laughed, “That’s not good,” he said, “What if after we painstakingly steal them, they are both poison?”

Yang Xiao slapped his thigh, “Jiaozhu is right,” he said, “Last night we made such a commotion that perhaps ‘Jun zhu’ is scared and keep the antidote herself. I think we’d better investigate carefully who has the antidote then we’ll talk about how to get it from him.” He paused for a moment and then said, “Xiong di, what do those two Xuanming Elders like most?”

Fan Yao smiled and said, “Lu loves pretty face, He loves wine; what else do they like?”

“Jiaozhu,” Yang Xiao asked Zhang Wuji, “Is there any drug that can make someone physically weak like the effect of the ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’?”

Zhang Wuji thought for a moment and smiled, “To make someone weak and drowsy is certainly not difficult; only if you give it to a martial art expert, he would recover in less than an hour. To make something as fierce as the ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’, that I cannot do.”

Yang Xiao smiled, “About an hour is enough,” he said, “Subordinate has an idea, but I don’t know whether it will work. I am asking Jiaozhu to give me your opinion. Although I said it is an idea, it might be just a worthless thought. Fan Xiongdi, you invite He Biweng to drink some wine; put the poison Jiaozhu make into it. Then Fan Xiongdi make up some trouble, pretend that he is being poisoned by He Biweng with the ‘shi xiang ruan jin san’; at that time we will find out who has the antidote. Then we can steal it and use it to rescue the others.”

Zhang Wuji said, “This idea is feasible; only it depends on He Biweng’s temperament. Fan Youshi, what do you think?”

Fan Yao contemplated this idea back and forth and thought that although this idea was simple, it was flawless; so he said, “I think Yang Dage’s idea is feasible. That He Biweng is temperamental, but he is not as smart as Lu Zhangke. If the antidote is in his hand, I think I can still deal with him even though my martial art skill is inferior to him.”

“What if the antidote is in Lu Zhangke’s hand?” Yang Xiao asked.

Fan Yao knitted his brows and said, “Then it is a lot more complicated.” He stood up and paced back and forth on that little hill. After a long time he clapped his hands and said, “I have a way; that Lu Zhangke is smarter than average men, if we try to trick him, he might see through our deception. We must get hold of his weakness and then blackmail him; of course he will consider the pros and the cons, but he will never realize our scheme. I know that this idea is risky; we might fail, but other than this I can’t think of anything else.”

“What kind of weakness does this old man have?” Yang Xiao asked, “He is an old man with a young heart; what weakness of his fall into Xiongdi’s hand?”

“In the spring this year Ruyang Wangye took a concubine and he invited some of us to an informal dinner in his residence,” Fan Yao said, “Wangye proudly talked about his beautiful concubine; he even ordered the new bride to come out and serve us wine. I saw Lu Zhangke’s lecherous eyes almost popped out of their sockets, while he swallowed his saliva; his heart was indeed burning with desire.”

“Then what happened?” Wei Yixiao asked.

“Nothing,” Fan Yao replied, “She is Wangye’s beloved concubine; although he has guts as high as the sky he would not dare to indulge his wicked thought.”

“Lecherous eyes can’t be called some secret you can blackmail him with,” Wei Yixiao said.

“I can’t blackmail him over that matter,” Fan Yao said, “But I am going to bother Wei Xiong [brother Wei]; with your ‘qing gong’ [lightness skill] you can go and steal Ruyang Wangye’s beloved concubine and place her on Lu Zhangke’s bed. I am 70, 80% sure that this old lecher won’t be able to hold his desire forever. Even if he really is able to rein his horse before falling off the cliff, I will rush in. Although he has a hundred mouths he won’t be able to wash himself clean, so he will be forced to hand the antidote over to me nicely.”

Yang Xiao and Wei Yixiao laughed and clapped their hands, “This is a very nice ploy. Although he is as smart as the Devil, he will be framed for sure.”

Zhang Wuji was annoyed and amused at the same time, thinking that he was the leader of this heretical and unorthodox bunch. But although their conduct was sly and no different than Zhao Min and her people; they were doing it for a good cause, not an evil one. So in a way it was completely different from Zhao Min. It could be said that they were using poison to combat poison. Having this thought he relaxed a little bit; smiling he said, “It’s a pity Ruyang Wangye’s concubine’s honor will be ruined.”

Fan Yao replied with a smile, “I will rush into the room as soon as possible, so Lu Zhangke won’t have a chance to molest her.”

Immediately four people sat down to discuss their plan in detail; after acquiring the antidote, Fan Yao was to rush to the pagoda and distribute it to masters of Shaolin, Wudang, and the other sects. Zhang Wuji and Wei Yixiao would wait outside the temple. As soon as Fan Yao set off fire in the Wan An Temple, they would set the common people’s homes around the temple on fire, so that the group of warriors could take advantage of this confusion to escape. Yang Xiao would buy some horses and prepare some carriages and wait outside the western city gate; the warriors would then use these horses and carriages to separately escape from the city, and to finally rendezvous at Changping.

Zhang Wuji objected to the idea of burning common people’s homes; he would rather not to implicate the innocents. But Yang Xiao said, “Jiaozhu, the affair of this world is oftentimes difficult to predict. We are saving the warriors of the six major sects so that someday we will drive the Tartars away; that would certainly benefit millions of common people. Today we are forced to harm hundreds of homes, this is because we don’t have any other alternative.”

Once the plan was decided four people went back to the city separately to attend to their individual business. Yang Xiao went to buy some horses and hired some carriages. Zhang Wuji bought the ingredients and concocted some drugs. To conceal the taste, he added three types of spices so when it was mixed with the wine, it would produce a sweet smelling fragrance. Wei Yixiao went to the market and bought a big cloth sack. When the sky turned dark he went to the Ruyang Palace and kidnapped the Prince’s concubine.

Fan Yao and Xuanming Elders, along with other martial art experts, lived nearby the Wan An Temple complex to guard the major sects warriors. Zhao Min still lived at the palace; only on the evenings she wanted to learn martial art did she ride a carriage to go to the temple. Fan Yao took the drug back to the temple with a happy and grateful heart. He remembered how over the last twenty years or so the Ming Cult was in disunity, but today a new hope emerged; his many sufferings over the years were not in vain. Zhang Wuji was not only a martial art expert, but his heart was righteous as well, so others can easily put their trust in him. The only problem was that Zhang Wuji was not cruel and merciless enough; he was somewhat weak and fussy, otherwise he would be a perfect leader.

Fan Yao lived in the west building, while the Xuanming Elders stayed at the ‘bao xiang jing she’ [the most refined precious fragrance hall] of the rear courtyard. Normally he did not hang around those two elders too much for fear that they might be able to look through his disguise; that was the reason he chose a room far away from them. Now he had to invite He Biweng to drink wine, he did not have any idea how to do it. Casting his glance to the rear courtyard he saw the sun was setting in the sky; already the sun could not reach the lower half of the 13-level pagoda, while the light reflected from the glazed tiles on top of the pagoda were also gradually turning pale. He still did not know what to do. Slowly pacing back and forth along the rear courtyard with his hands behind his back, he suddenly caught a sweet fragrance of meat from the small building opposite the ‘bao xiang jing she’; it was the building where Sun Sanhui and Li Sicui of the Eight Divine Archers lived.

Fan Yao’s heart was stirred; he walked toward that building, shoved the door open, and the strong meat smell greeted his nostrils. He saw Li Sicui was squatting on the floor, busily fanning the fire in a small brick stove, on which was a big earthenware pot. The fire was blazing hot; the strong smell of meat came out of that pot. Sun Sanhui was setting the bowls and chopsticks on the table. Obviously these two were about to have their dinner.

They were slightly startled as they saw Ku Toutuo push the door and come in; upon seeing his stern face they groaned inwardly. They had just killed a big yellow dog on the street; cut its limbs and quietly cooked the dog inside their room. Wan An Temple was a Buddhist temple, so cooking meat in the temple was a great trespass. If it was other people they might still get away from it, but Ku Toutuo was a Buddhist monk. If he was angered he might beat them up. Ku Toutuo’s martial art skill was very high, these two people certainly were not his match; moreover, they were the ones who committed the crime, so if they were beaten, they got what they deserved. Thinking of this they were scared; but then they saw him walking to the stove, opened the lid, took a look and drew a deep breath, seemingly to say, ‘Smells good, smells good!’ Suddenly they saw him putting his hand into the pot, seemingly oblivious to the boiling soup, to fish out a slice of dog meat. Opening his mouth wide he put the meat entirely in his mouth; chewing it for a while and swallowed it. Then he licked his lips as if he was tremendously enjoying the meat.

Sun and Li two people were delighted, they busily said, “Ku Dashi [Reverend Ku], please sit down, please sit down! We didn’t know you like to eat dog meat.”

But Ku Toutuo did not want to take a seat; he squatted in front of the stove and picked another piece of dog meat and chewed it