The Sword of Longevity
aka: Chang Sheng Jian [长生剑], Cheung Saang Gim [長生劍], Pedang Panjang Umur.
Part of the "Seven Weapons" series, this novel was written in 1974.
A city of white jade in the sky,
Has five towers and twelve castles,
Where a divine being touched the top of my head,
Making the hair grow long and my life with it.
- Li Bai, renowned Tang Dynasty poet.
* * *
Dusk.
Nine strange people suddenly appeared on the cobble-stoned street. They wore yellow hemp tunics, battered hemp shoes and bowl-sized gold rings on their left ears. The hair on their heads was an untidy mass of red, falling to their shoulders like the flames of a fire. The nine had the tall and the short among them, as well as the old and the young. Although their faces were different, they all had the same expressionless look of the dead. When they walked, their shoulders did not move and their knees did not bend, as if they were zombies.
They walked slowly down the long street, silencing everything in their path. Even children stopped crying suddenly because they were too frightened.
At the end of the street, four giant lanterns hung from the top of a ten-metre-tall flagpole.
Vermillion-red lanterns with black-lacquered words!
The Wind & Cloud Inn.
The nine strange red-haired yellow-clothed people walked up to the door of the inn and stopped. The first one took off the gold ring on his ear and waved his hand. THUMP! The ring struck the wall beside the black-lacquered door.
Sparks flew as the ring entered the stone.
A second man picked up some of the red hair on his shoulder with his left hand and sliced lightly through it with his right, as if the hand was the blade of a knife.
After tying the red hair to the gold ring, the nine resumed their journey.
As the red hair fluttered in the wind like the flames of a fire, the nine disappeared into the deepening night.
Just then, eight sturdy horses appeared out of the darkness, their hoofs beating on the cobble-stoned street like rain in a window, and drums in battle.
The riders on the horses were dressed in a uniform green, with green turbans around their heads, pointed shoes on their feet and wrappings on their lower legs. Each of them looked bold, nimble and highly skilled.
As the eight horses galloped past the Wind & Cloud Inn, all eight of them waved their hands!
Sabres flashed like lightning. THUMP! Eight shiny steel sabres were now embedded in the flagpole that was as thick as the diameter of a huge bowl.
The handles of the sabres trembled, while the pieces of red satin attached to them fluttered and rolled.
By then, the eight horses had already disappeared.
The darkness deepened. Suddenly, the sound of hoofbeats was heard again on the street. They seemed more urgent that those of the eight horses that had come earlier.
But only one horse appeared.
A white horse, without a single blemish from head to tail. Arriving at the door of the inn, it neighed and stood up on its hind legs.
It was then that the rider could be clearly seen. He was a burly shirtless man with curly sideburns. The dark skin on his body looked as if it was made of iron.
The man pulled at the reins of the horse as he noticed the gold ring and red hair by the door, as well as the eight sabres on the flagpole. Suddenly, he laughed coldly and leapt off the horse. Then, taking one of the horse's legs in each hand, he let out a thundering howl and lifted the horse high up in the air. Finally, he set the horse down on the eaves above the door.
The white horse neighed. Its mane danced in the wind, but its four legs seemed nailed onto the eaves. It could not move at all.
The man with the curly sideburns threw his head back, laughed and strode away. In a twinkle, he too was gone, leaving the white horse standing all alone in the evening wind. It was a sight that was indescribably strange.