"You see, Kwai Chang, how it is light and delicate for grace and for speed, like a floating wind." "lt is as you described it, Huo." "And it is also strong. lt will not falter." "I congratulate you, weapon maker." "None other could have fulfilled the task so well." "And you, gracious apprentice to the Shaolin weapons master I compliment you on such precision in your design." "Tell me about the metal." "A fusion of many to make one with a strength that can never give way." "Unless...." "Unless?" "The man who wields it himself gives way?" "Are you speaking of me?" "Any man can be broken." "How?" "By a strength outside greater than himself or a weakness inside which he cannot understand." "I challenge you all to a fighting match!" "A purse of silver for anyone who can stand against me." "Over there, a lady, my sister see how she disapproves." "Where are the men among you?" "I accept you, all six of you at once." "Shaolins!" "I have been waiting for you." "I have a message for your master, Chen Ming Kan." "Tell him I will be at his temple gates within the week to challenge him to a ritual combat to the death." "Your tread must be light and sure as though your path were upon rice paper." "It is said a Shaolin priest can walk through walls." "Looked for, he cannot be seen." "Listened for, he cannot be heard." "Touched, he cannot be felt." "This rice paper is the test." "Fragile as the wings of the dragonfly, clinging as the cocoon of the silkworm." "When you can walk its length and leave no trace you will have learned." "Did you not think it strange, our meeting with the champion?" "I think he fought those who can easily be defeated." "He knew we were Shaolins." "As did the weapon maker and perhaps all of the village." "You do not fear for Master Kan?" "I wish I had his strength." "You feel you do not?" "Do you ever crave that which you may not have?" "I am a man. I have desires." "Many?" "Can you speak plainly?" "At the weapon maker's you said there is a weakness within a man which he cannot interpret." "When a man feels there is something inside of him that cannot easily be explained." "It does not need to be weakness." "In the hut, we spoke of weapons and men..." "...and giving way." "l know." "Perhaps we should talk about it at another time." "You have performed with great skill, Kwai Chang." "It is the skill of Huo that has made me so lucky in the contest." "Disciple Huo has designed a weapon that is unlike any I have seen." "It seems to win almost without need of one to wield it." "I knew Huo was your finest apprentice." "Yet, I did not know he possessed such special skills." "Tell me of your design." "With your permission, Master Kan." "It was Kwai Chang who first used it and proved its value." "The weapon maker told me it will not give way." "Because of the many metals in it, it has a oneness of power." "Yet, it is light, easy to wield as a bamboo staff because of its lightness in weight and the grace of its design." "lt will not give way." "Chen Ming Kan, I'm returned!" "You have promised me an answer!" "I must hear it." "I have a message for Chen Ming Kan!" "ls this the man you spoke of?" "Yes, master." "I do not know his voice." "He is a stranger to you." "Yet, you expected him." "Yes." "Why?" "Forgive me, master, I have no answer only a feeling." "Why do you keep me waiting?" "Come." "Let us speak with this loud voice." "Must I tear down this gate?" "Shaolin, do you hear me?" "Why do you treat this man as an animal?" "I have a message for Chen Ming Kan." "I am Chen Ming Kan." "Yes, I see that you are. I am Yi Lien." "I challenge you, venerable, to ritual combat to the death." "I cannot honor your challenge." "You must tell me why." "You are before the gates of a Shaolin temple." "And there are no reasons for which your ears are worthy." "I ask that you reconsider." "This land abounds with worthless flesh who suffer in waiting for the next world." "For each day you refuse to meet my challenge I will relieve one of them of their waiting." "I will return at the end of this day." "This thing that is less than a dog you, Chen Ming Kan will be the reason for its life or its death." "We have never acceded to threats before." "If we yield now to this outrageous demand we place ourselves at the whim of every passerby who wishes to test his strength at our expense." "This matter must surely be for civil authorities." "How can it be our responsibility to deal with such a madman?" "Who is this man?" "We know nothing more than his name." "Would it not demean us to send even our lowest disciple to stand against his challenge?" "May I be permitted?" "Please." "What I have heard here is truth of a kind." "The circumstances, the challenge, are abhorrent to our very natures." "We neither know this arrogant, cruel man who stands before our gate nor where he comes from, nor who has trained him." "But it does not matter. lt is of no concern who sends this challenger." "If he himself is not a demon, then he is controlled by one." "His actions, to take human lives to get what he desires is proof enough of that." "We have no choice here." "We must meet his challenge." "Each of you has communicated generously." "I am grateful for your counsel." "The challenge will be accepted." "You cannot mean you'd fight him yourself?" "No." "Ho Feng, whom do you judge among your students to be most proficient in all skills?" "l will make a decision quickly." "Please." "You have something more to say, my friend." "It is you who should speak." "is it I who brings this challenger to our gate?" "Reach into the past." "My mind, my heart, are open." "I see nothing to link me to this man." "What do you feel?" "Help me, old friend." "The one at the gate you call a man he is less than a man and more than a man." "Fingers of power, like evil tentacles, reach behind him and before him." "Those before him reach out for you." "If it is written then it will be so." "The path that will free me of the evil is unclear." "Master I have seen something which I can no longer hold back." "Tell me." "There is a palace as lavish as the estate of the Mandarin." "There is a man in a red silk robe." "Disciple Huo and I, when we were in the village I felt the challenger expected us." "There was no natural way he could know we would come." "It was then, after the defeat of the six men in the street that I first saw." "We will speak of this again." "Meanwhile, a disciple must be chosen to meet this challenger who has these powers." "Do you not wonder who it will be?" "I will know when it is time." "Do you fear that you might be chosen." "No." "Someone else?" "Disciple Huo." "He is troubled and suffers greatly." "Huo is the weapon master's apprentice, as able as any." "I believe he may be unable to harm another and feels that a weakness." "Then perhaps it is time for him to learn the truth." "Master, look, the challenger." "Hear me." "I am returned." "Chen Ming Kan!" "You have promised me an answer." "Chen Ming Kan, the day is nearly over, and I must have an answer." "I here restate my challenge." "Ritual combat with you, venerable, to the death." "We ask that you reconsider..." "...that this contest not be to the death." "l reconsider nothing." "Under the circumstances you have set up..." "...we must accept the challenge." "lt is well." "You cannot expect to meet with a master until you have first faced a student." "I want the master." "Then you will first face the student." "Bring him to me." "Disciple Huo, step forward." "You bring me the child I first saw in the village." "It is like a morsel before the main meal." "I thank you." "When do we begin?" "Tomorrow is the day." "Why not today?" "There are no fights to the death here." "Since you have insisted and threatened us with the death of many we have been forced to arrange for it." "It will take a new day to prepare." "I do not wish to die, my brother." "I now believe it is this fear of death which is the weakness within me." "None of us wish to die, Huo." "Honor at the risk of death is not a part of the Shaolin tradition." "This weakness you fear is not real." "Trust in the masters." "They have reason for choosing you." "Trust them." "They are wise." "Who are you?" "Please, I have come for help." "How can I help you?" "This challenger, Yi Lien he is my brother." "Are you warmed?" "Yes, ancient father." "Disciple Caine tells me you are related to the man at the gates." "I am Lady Mei Wu, his sister." "He is the son, and I am the daughter of Duke Ch'ao." "I have been following him for weeks so that I might convince him to come home." "And he will not?" "No." "How may we help you?" "I beg that you spare his life." "Yi was the one who issued the challenge." "It is he who insists on combat to the death." "I know that this cannot be my brother's true wish." "He is gentle." "He has always placed great value on life." "It seems he values it no more." "He has been changed by an evil one." "Who is this evil one?" "l do not know his name." "I have only seen him once through the gates of his palace when I followed my brother there." "Tell me of this palace." "It is very grand, isolated, hidden away with flags flying from its turrets, like the banner that my brother carries." "Where is this palace?" "It is not far from here, perhaps half a day's ride." "Master, I know this place from my vision." "I can take you there, in the light." "Start now." "But it is dark now." "In a matter of hours, it will be light." "Do you wish your brother's life to be spared." "It has been my only thought." "Start now." "Master, how much time is there?" "No one can say for certain." "Perhaps time has already run out." "ls everything ready?" "Yes." "Has the right choice been made?" "Disciple Huo is skilled beyond any in the use of the lance." "And with his newly designed weapon, he will be even stronger." "But will it be enough?" "Enough of this preparation." "We are, all of us, tired of this waiting." "Where is everyone?" "Where are the priests?" "They are about their tasks." "Then you do me no honor here." "There will be no audience." "This is not a village street." "Here, two will fight for mastery, not acclaim." "It is past the appointed hour." "I am ready." "Let the contest begin." "If you wish to stop, I will go on alone." "No." "You will not be able to find the palace and I will not rest until I know that my brother is safe." "You will think me foolish." "Why?" "I envy your brother for having such a sister." "And yet" "And yet?" "If I were your brother I could not" "Could not?" "Forgive me, I may not say it." "Yet I might like to hear it." "Perhaps in a different time at a different place." "Your name?" "l am Kwai Chang Caine." "Disciple of the Shaolin Order." "We have looked toward each other before." "You know who I am?" "Not your name not who you are but I know you are the force behind Yi Lien." "I am the force." "Know, too, that I am the force which will be behind the death of your Master Kan and the destruction of your Shaolin temple." "You convene the Circle of Seven without any knowledge or permission of Master Kan." "lt is necessary." "Why?" "Because the temple itself is in grave danger." "From the challenger who fights outside?" "He is the instrument of that danger." "Even if he defeats disciple Huo which I admit, at this moment, to be likely surely, any of us could end the danger." "You see the flower but not the root." "Where is this root I cannot see?" "In another place, from another time." "It is a root that dips deeply into a poisoned well and even now, the poison threatens not only ourselves but everything that we hold sacred." "Why cannot Master Kan be told?" "Because he himself is so deeply enmeshed within that root he will be the first to feel the poison." "Let yourself feel the evil aura that reaches out for us." "In the courtyard below, two champions contest." "But the real battle is taking place even now at a place which may be protected even beyond our reach." "It will take all our strengths, and perhaps that will not avail." "I send my champion to Chen Ming Kan." "He sends me his." "Where is the Lady Mei?" "The Lady Mei?" "She is here." "Then find her." "It is enough that I have found you." "You found me?" "Through the black horse." "Which brought you to me." "After first trying to destroy me." "You think I could not destroy you where you stand?" "Then why do you not?" "You are an ant that crosses my path." "Where does your path lead?" "To one bigger than you." "Master Kan." "He." "Why do you seek to destroy him?" "Years before your birth I fought in combat with a monk like you." "My master." "My enemy." "Why?" "He interfered in an affair that was not his own." "He does not speak of it." "He will not speak of it." "Perhaps because, to him, it is of no consequence." "You dare" "To speak the truth?" "Yes." "What do you seek to gain, young monk, by this conversation?" "My name is Kwai Chang Caine." "What does it matter?" "You have remembered the name "Chen Ming Kan."" "Now you will remember mine." "Effrontery from a child." "Listen, child, and I will tell you what will happen." "I control the champion who is even now on the verge of defeating your friend." "I give him more-than-human strength and power." "Yi Lien!" "Do you live by no code?" "I will adhere to your rules." "But it will only prolong the time before the disciple is finished and the time of your death." "This more-than-human strength will destroy his human body." "Then he will die." "But not before he defeats your champion." "And when it appears your champion is about to die another will die in his place." "Your noble Master Kan." "Master, I cannot win this match." "In saying so have you not already lost?" "This man seems to be driven by a force I do not know." "He has a strength I have never seen." "There is more to this combat than physical strength." "It has been said that the lance can never give way but that a man can be broken." "How?" "By a strength outside which is greater than himself by a weakness inside him which he cannot interpret." "Do you forget that your spirit is stronger than the flesh?" "It can defeat the power of another, no matter how great." "There is no failure, no defeat no weakness within you only that which you allow to settle in your own mind." "Draw upon the strength of your spirit." "With the death of its master, your temple will deteriorate." "Master will turn against master disciple against disciple." "And at the end there will be nothing but ruins." "I can stop it." "How?" "With this." "Use it." "But which one is me?" "Try again, young monk, but be careful for you may hit the wrong target." "Even as you hesitate my champion does his work in your temple courtyard." "Poor little monk." "You must choose quickly for in another few moments, it will all be over." "Forgive me, master for bringing violence to so holy a place." "It is over." "How can this be?" "His power is broken." "Things are seen as they are." "I will be forever grateful for what you have taught me." "It was a truth, disciple Huo one among many." "What you believed to be inner weakness existed in your mind alone and in no other place." "You performed with great skill when it had to be done working with others to prevent destruction here." "Masters I do not understand all that has happened." "No one knows all." "We were challenged by a festering anger." "The challenge was accepted." "And in the end the seeds of hatred destroyed themselves as they always do as they always will." "Battles are waged on the earth and in the heavens within the mind and within the soul." "This battle has been won." "See?" "It did not give way." "And the man who wields it he did not give way."