The day they crossed the provincial border into

Fujian, the hills were covered in flowers and dancing

butterflies. Chen thought of Princess Fragrance and

how she would have loved such a scene.

They were met at the Shaolin Monastery by Lord Zhou,

who had come south to Fujian with his wife and

servants to meet the Monastery's abbot, Heavenly

Rainbow. With Zhou's great name in the fighting

community, the Shaolin priests were happy to exchange

knowledge with him. Heavenly Rainbow insisted that he

stay in the temple, and by the time the Red Flower

Society heroes arrived, several months had slipped by.

The abbot led his assistants, Great Insanity, Heavenly

Mirror, Great Hardship and Great Idiocy into the great

hall to meet the visitors. After they had introduced

each other, the abbot led them to a quiet antechamber

when tea was served. He asked the reason for their

visit.

Chen knelt down before the abbot, tears glistening in

his eyes. Greatly surprised, Heavenly Rainbow moved

quickly to help him up.

"Great Helmsman," he said. "What need is there for

such formality? Please say whatever you wish."

"I have an embarrassing request to make that according

to the rules of the fighting community should not even

be uttered," Chen replied. "But, Venerable Sir, for

the sake of millions of souls, I boldly make this

appeal to you."

"Please speak freely," the abbot said.

"The former Great Helmsman of the Red Flower Society,

Master Yu Wanting was my foster father..." Heavenly

Rainbow's expression changed immediately as he heard

the name, and he raised his white eyebrows.

Chen told him in detail about his relationship with

the Emperor Qian Long and about the plan to restore

the Chinese throne and overthrow the Manchus. Then he

asked why his foster father had been expelled from the

Shaolin school and whether it had anything to do with

Qian Long's identity.

"Please, Venerable Sir," he concluded, his voice

almost choked with sobs. "Think of the common

people....."

Heavenly Rainbow sat in silence, his long eyebrows

trailing over his closed eyes. He was in deep

meditation and no-one dared disturb him.

After a while, his eyes sprang open, and he said: "For

several hundred years, it has been the practice of the

Shaolin school not to reveal to outsiders information

on members who offend against the school's

regulations. Great Helmsman Chen, you have come a

great distance to our monastery to enquire into the

behaviour of our expelled pupil, Yu Wanting. According

to the monastery's rules, this would ordinarily be out

of the question..." the faces of the heroes lit up

with delight. "...but as this affair involves the fate

of the common people, I will make an exception. Great

Helmsman Chen, please send someone to the Upholding

the Monastic Regulations Hall to collect the file."

Chen bowed to the abbot in thanks, and another monk

led the heroes to guest rooms to rest.

Chen was congratulating himself on his success when he

saw Lord Zhou looking worried. "What's wrong?" he

asked.

"The abbot asked you to send someone to the Hall to

collect the file. But to get there, it is necessary to

pass through five other halls, each guarded by a kung

fu master and each one stronger than the last. It will

be difficult to make it through all five," Zhou

replied.

"We could try and force our way through together," Wen

suggested.

Zhou shook his head. "No, the problem is that one

person has to win through all five halls alone. If

anyone helped him, the monks would come to the

assistance of the guardians of the halls and it would

turn into a brawl. That wouldn't do at all."

"This is an affair involving my family," Chen said

quietly. "Perhaps Buddha will be merciful and let me

through."

He took off his long gown, picked up a bag of his

'chess piece' projectiles, tucked the ancient dagger

into his belt, and let Zhou lead him to the first

hall.

As they reached the hall entrance, Zhou stopped.

"Master Chen," he whispered. "If you can't make it,

please come back and we'll think of some other way.

Whatever you do, don't try and force your way through

or you may get hurt." Chen nodded.

"Everything is arranged!" Zhou shouted, and then

stepped to one side.

Chen pushed open the door and walked inside. Under the

bright candle-light, he saw a monk seated on a mat,

and recognised him as one of the abbot's chief

assistants, Great Hardship.

The monk stood up and smiled. "So you have come

yourself, Great Helmsman Chen. That is excellent. I

would like to ask you to instruct me in a few martial

arts moves."

Chen saluted him with his fists. "Please," he replied.

Great Hardship bunched his left hand into a fist and

swung it round in a great arc while his right palm

swept up. Chen recognised it as the 'Drunken Boxing'

style kung fu. He had once studied the style, but

decided not to reveal the fact by using it now. He

clapped his hands together and countered with the

'Hundred Flowers' kung fu style. Great Hardship was

taken off guard and only avoided being struck by

dropping to the floor. He rolled away and stood up,

and the two continued to fight closely, each a master

of his own style.

Great Hardship aimed a blow at Chen's legs. Chen leapt

up, and as he landed, hooked his right leg round,

tripping the monk up neatly. As fast as lightning,

Chen bent over and stopped him from falling. Great

Hardship's face flushed red with embarrassment and he

pointed behind him.

"Please proceed," he said.

Chen saluted once more and walked through into another

hall, seated in the middle of which was the senior

monk, Great Insanity. As Chen entered, the monk rose

and picked up a thick staff lying beside him. He

casually tapped the floor with its tip, and the impact

shook the very walls of the hall, bringing a shower of

dust down from the rafters. The monk lightly flipped

the staff from left hand to right, then attacked using

the 'Crazy Demon' staff style of kung fu. Chen knew it

would be folly to underestimate the power of this

opponent, and he drew his dagger. Great Insanity swept

the staff across and Chen ducked down to avoid it then

countered with a thrust from his dagger. The two

fought round and round inside the hall, their weapons

apparently greatly mis-matched.

Rather than attack, Chen concentrated instead on

trying to tire the monk out. But Great Insanity's

Inner Strength Kung Fu was profound, and as time

passed, Chen could discern no hesitation in the monk's

actions. On the contrary, the staff seemed to whirl

and dance with ever-increasing speed, forcing Chen

back into a corner of the hall. Seeing Chen could not

escape, Great Insanity grasped the staff in both hands

and swung it down at his head with all his strength.

Chen stood stock-still until the staff was no more

than two inches from him, then grabbed its end and

carved a deep line across the middle with his dagger,

snapping it in two.

Great Insanity was furious, and charged at Chen again.

But with the staff only half its former length, he

wielded it with much less dexterity. A moment later,

Chen snapped another piece off the end, then dodged

passed the monk and ran towards the rear of the hall.

With a roar of anger, Great Insanity threw what was

left of his staff to the floor and sparks flew in all

directions.

As he entered the third hall, Chen's eyes were struck

by a bright glare, and he saw both sides of the hall

were full of burning candles, several hundred of them

at least. In the centre, stood the monk Great Idiocy.

"Master Chen," he said, a welcoming smile on his face.

"Let us compete using projectiles."

Chen bowed. "As your Reverence wishes," he replied.

"There are nine candles and eighty-one incense sticks

on each side of the hall. Whoever can extinguish all

the candles and incense sticks on his opponent's side

is the winner." The monk pointed to the altar table in

the centre of the hall. "You will find darts and

projectiles of all kinds over there. When you have

used up all the ones you have, you can go and get

more."

Chen pulled a pile of chess pieces from his pocket and

wished he had spent more time in the past learning the

finer points of dart kung fu from the Red Flower

Society's dart expert, 'Buddha' Zhao. "After you," he

said.

Great Idiocy smiled again. "Guests first," he replied.

Selecting five chess pieces, Chen threw them

simultaneously at the foot of the opposite wall and

extinguished five incense sticks.



"Excellent kung fu," Great Idiocy praised him. He took

a string of prayer beads from around his neck, snapped

the chord and let five of the beads fall into his

palm. With one movement, he slung them away, snuffing

out five incense sticks on Chen's side.

Chen quickly extinguished another five sticks of

incense. Great Idiocy replied by knocking out all nine

candles on Chen's side, and in the darkness, the

burning tips of the incense sticks became much easier

targets for the monk.

"Of course, why didn't I think of that?" Chen thought.

He chose nine chess pieces and threw them three at a

time at the candles on the monk's side of the hall.

But the flames were untouched. He had heard a series

of clicks coming from the centre of the hall and he

realised that Great Idiocy had knocked each of his

nine projectiles down with his prayer beads. As Chen

gaped in surprise at such skill, the monk extinguished

another four incense sticks. Chen waited for the monk

to throw another wave of prayer beads, and then aimed

chess pieces to intercept them. But with the candles

on the opposite side still burning he found it

difficult to spot the small beads clearly and only

managed to hit two of the five. The other three struck

home.

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