As the tigress slunk out of the tent to see what the fuss was about, she released a loud roar that was not directed toward the sky, but sounded more like an alert.
Hudan followed her sister’s line of sight to see Xian approaching.
‘Your omen, Fa!’ Xian pointed to the sky, excited. ‘I didn’t believe —’ He choked on the tears threatening to form in his eyes, and dropped to one knee before the Xibo. ‘But I understand why you refrained from war until now, and I see that your Wu have guided you wisely. Clearly, heaven’s mandate lies with the West, my lord, and I am honoured to ride into battle with the one true Tianzi this day.’
If the prediction had cemented Ji Fa’s claim in Xian’s mind, there was not another officer or warlord in Zhou who would now doubt him, as Xian had been profoundly sceptical.
‘That means a great deal to me, Xian,’ Fa said, and urged him to rise. ‘Today we shall avenge our father and Bo Yi Kao as brothers, and we shall see them both proud.’
Xian nodded to agree, but jaw clenched, was too emotional to speak.
‘Time to address the troops.’ Fa embraced Xian, and after a mutual slap on the shoulder, they headed through the din toward the music.
Huxin and Hudan followed to hear Fa’s address.
Dawn of the day, jiazi, the new king came to address his army. In his left hand he carried a battleaxe, yellow with gold in laid designs, and in his right he held a white standard featuring a black imprint of his tigress, which he brandished, saying: ‘Far have you come, men of the western regions! Hereditary rulers, ministers of my friendly states; ministers of instruction, of war, and of public works; the first and second officers and secretaries; and you, men of Yong, Shu, Qiang, Mao, Wei, Lu, Peng and Bo; lift up your lances, join your shields, raise your spears, and make an oath with me.’
Under the red streak of dawn, the men clattered their weapons in response to Ji Fa’s call to arms.
‘The ancients have said,’ the king raised his voice and the crowd hushed, ‘“The hen does not announce the morning. The crowing of a hen in the morning indicates the subversion of the family.” Now Shou, the King of Shang, follows only the words of his wife. He has blindly thrown away the sacrifices, and makes no response for the favours that he has received; he has maliciously cast aside his paternal and maternal relatives, not treating them properly. It is only the vagabonds of the empire, loaded with crimes, whom Shou honours and exalts, whom he employs and trusts, making them great officers and nobles so that they can tyrannise the people, exercising their villainies in the cities of Shang. Now I, Fa, am simply executing respectfully the punishment appointed by heaven. The virtue of my deceased father was like the shining of the sun and moon. His brightness extended over the four quarters of the land, and shone signally in the western region. Hence it is that Zhou has received the allegiance of many states. If I subdue Zi Shou, it will not be from my prowess, but from the faultless virtue of my deceased father. If Shou subdues me, it will not be from any fault of my father, but because I, the little child, am not good.’
‘Victory to Tianzi!’ yelled an officer, and the sentiment was echo by many. But Fa raised his hands to hush them.
‘In today’s business, do not rush or kill those who fly to us in submission, but receive them to serve our Western Land. My brave men, be energetic. Do not advance more than six or seven steps, and then stop and adjust your ranks; my brave men, be energetic! Do not exceed six or seven blows before you stop and adjust your ranks; my brave men, be energetic. Display a martial bearing. Be like the tigers here in the border of Shang. For if you be not energetic in all these matters, you will bring destruction on yourselves.’
As Fa’s words raised a riot in the stillness of the early hour, the war drums of the Shang could be heard in the distance.
An hour past dawn the Shang army could now be seen. Their forces were spread across the horizon like an endless forest of shadow on the sunlit plain. Spearheading the seven hundred thousand-strong army was a sole rider, clad entirely in red.
‘Su Daji.’ Hudan, dressed entirely in white, had Taiji in hand, and could hardly wait to meet her opponent face to face.
Apart from the red and black ensign of the dragon, the Shang army was also brandishing several black and white banners, which, it became apparent as the army got closer, were the stretched pelts of several white tigers.
When Hudan saw these pelts, taunting her and Huxin, she felt sick to her stomach. ‘Has Shi returned?’ Hudan asked Fa who was standing in front of their forces on her right, while Dan stood to her left. Everyone else, bar Huxin, was to their backs.
‘Hudan?’ Dan was surprised at her, motioning to the approaching multitude. ‘We have greater concerns at present.’
Fa turned and noted Shi was not with the rest of their brothers. ‘Shi hasn’t the killer instinct for war … he’s better off wherever he is.’
Hudan looked at the tiger carcasses, struggling to contain her tears of panic, praying silently to Tian that Shi was not one of them.
The tigress was in a fury, seeing red, body armour rattling as she paced in front of them, growling with resentment.
‘Huxin!’ Hudan called for her sister to halt her frenzied movement, and when she did not, Hudan moved to hug her sister around the neck and whisper in her ear. ‘Calm yourself, dear sister, for I promise you that I have something for Su Daji that will cut her much more deeply.’
A call from their general halted the Shang force beyond firing range and Su Daji continued to advance alone.
Fa turned to Hudan and took hold of both her hands to pray: ‘And now ye spirits, grant me your aid, so that I may relieve the millions, and nothing turn out to your shame.’
‘Have no doubt that Tian is with you this day, dear brother,’ she said with confidence, ahead of turning to Dan and serving him a cheeky grin. ‘I should like that kiss now, brother Dan, if it pleases you.’
Clearly Dan was overwhelmed, and wondering if she was joking. ‘Now? In front of everyone?’ Such intimacies were usually kept behind closed doors, as they were most sacred.
She nodded to confirm.
Dan eyed their approaching enemy, realising the truth of her prophecy now. ‘So our kiss is simply to make Su Daji jealous.’ He obviously felt cheated and put on the spot.
‘To make Daji insanely jealous,’ she emphasised, as she sidled seductively up to him. ‘For the glory of Tian and Zhou, do you think you’re up for the challenge?’
Dan hesitated, indignant, but resolved to shed his inhibitions, and taking Hudan in hand, he gently planted his lips upon hers to the cheers of the entire Zhou army.
The moment was electric and, infused by Dan’s passion, Su Daji’s rage and the expectations of her countrymen, Hudan felt an exuberance she’d never experienced before. At last and all too soon, their lips parted.
‘Good enough?’ queried Dan, eyebrows raised in question.
Hudan looked to see Su Daji leap off her horse and start flying at them, still screeching in protest. ‘It would appear so.’ Hudan took a running leap to launch herself into the air, and flew into the confrontation.
As they raced toward one another, the heads of their staffs aimed at the other, Hudan sang the note that activated the sphere in her staff and Taiji lit up bright red — the colour of Su Daji’s magic — which was the base vibration of the spectrum and aligned to the lowest part of human consciousness. As the seat of fear, grounding, willpower and action, at its best red chi energy was assertive, courageous, strong and pioneering; at its worst it bred insecurity, self-pity, aggression and terror.
‘You dare defy your empress!’ Su Daji wielded her staff as she flew, shooting forth a sphere of force toward Hudan, which Hudan blocked with her own staff and dispersed to the four winds. After blocking the strike, Hudan awaited Su Daji’s presence, and when she was just about upon her, Hudan vanished, leaving Su Daji spinning in circles to seek her. ‘Show yourself, coward!’ she shrieked, enraged. ‘Or I shall rip out the hearts of every Ji t
raitor on this field, starting with Dan!’
Hudan was not far afield, focussing her chi to cloak her in invisibility. ‘Ang-wei, Lord of the Elements, I summon you to my aid. Join with me, know my intention and assist me to fulfil my will.’
‘Holy mackerel, that’s a big army! I hope they’re ours.’
Hudan looked up to see the young, fair lord eyeing the Shang army. ‘No, they are the enemy, and thus I have no time for idle banter. Please, we must hurry.’
‘My minions are yours to command.’ Avery came and collapsed to a seated position and offered her both his hands, which Hudan gripped to manifest her vision.
A mass of coloured cloud erupted above the Shang army, and as it took the form of a beautiful woman — Hudan — most of the men were at first enchanted. But when the massive billowing apparition spoke in a loud booming voice, the men cowered. ‘Good men of Shang, I am Shanyu Jiang Hudan and I bring you a message from the King of Zhou.’
‘No!’ Su Daji directed blasts of energy from her staff toward the apparition in the sky, to no effect.
‘By heaven’s appointment, Ji Fa prepares to administer a great correction to Shang. The true Tianzi, Ji Fa, along with his great father, Ji Chang, has brought peace and prosperity to the north, south and west, who now equally follow and consent with him in this undertaking. Shou, King of Shang is without principle. He is cruel and destructive to the creatures of heaven, and injurious to the people of the earth. In accordance with the will of heaven, Ji Fa pursues his punitive work to the East to give tranquillity to its men and women. The virtuous men opposing you presume reverently to comply with heaven’s will and make an end of Shou’s disorderly ways.’
When it became apparent that the cloud was an apparition and her attack ineffective, Daji calmed herself, turned about and, setting her sights on Ji Dan, she flew in his direction to carry out her previous threat.
She came to a stop a good distance from where he stood, to admire and gloat over him. ‘So much like Bo Yi Kao. Such a shame he would not play, as you would not … not even to save your father.’
‘You have no power over us, Daji, nor did you ever,’ Dan replied with a good serve of resentment. ‘My father died of natural causes and well you know it!’
His certainty surprised her and betrayed the truth of the matter, and that made her angry. ‘But you will not!’ She reached out the hand of her shadow body to grip his heart, as she had with Bi Gan, but her spirit-fist hit an invisible barrier, and the force of the unexpected impact rebounded back on her and pained her hand as if she had punched into steel.
The Lord of the Elements had a quiet chuckle at this, for he did not need to be in the vicinity to see what was unfolding, and his perception fed Hudan’s. She breathed a sigh of relief that the ethereal barrier they had raised in front of the Zhou force had held firm.
Huxin took advantage of Su Daji’s pain and leapt higher than any regular tiger could to grip Daji’s staff in her mighty jaws and rip it from her possession. When the tigress landed, she transformed into human form to grasp the staff and turn it back upon Su Daji. Huxin’s scaled body armour hung to her thighs like a sleeveless ill-fitting dress. ‘Now you die, tiger slayer!’ Huxin directed the force of her chi through the weapon, but Su Daji vanished and the force hit the hard dry ground, resulting in an enormous puff of dust. ‘Damn it!’ Huxin vanished after her.
Seeing the path to the Shang free of unearthly impediments, Fa took this as his cue. He mounted his chariot, as did Dan, and then turned and raised his voice to address his forces. ‘Let all of us, with one heart and one purpose, be determined to conquer our enemy, so that the people of the world shall live in peace hereafter!’
To a roar of confirmation, and the thundering of tens of thousands of swords banging against shields, Ji Fa led three hundred chariots of war, three thousand tiger-helmeted warriors on horseback and forty thousand troops onto the battlefield in the wilderness of Mu.
Hudan continued to address the Shang army as the Zhou horde bore down on them. ‘If you would see justice done this day, fight for Ji Fa and win your freedom, for you shall be rewarded and embraced as a kinsman. If you are weary of fighting, then face your sword tip to the ground and heaven’s justice will bypass you, and shall not persecute you hereafter. Your destiny and the fate of the entire land are in your hands. Do you choose to fight for heaven or for Su Daji? The time to decide is now!’ Her voice boomed and the apparition promptly dissipated in a large cloud that began spreading out in all directions, crashing thunder and flashing with electrical fury, leaving the Shang forces stunned.
The Zhou force was near upon them, and in a wave of mass consciousness, the two hundred thousand foot soldiers of Shang — prisoners and slaves granted their freedom to defend the emperor — turned on the official Shang army, and the shock of the huge turnaround caused many others in the army to join the turncoats, or drop their spears to save their skins. The small percentage of remaining loyalists turned and fled for their lives and rain finally fell in Shang and there was much rejoicing.
So it was that the great battle of Mu was no battle at all, only a liberation of the East. Hudan could breathe easier knowing that the river of blood she had foreseen had been avoided by clever tactics and righteous action. ‘I thank you, lord, but must leave you now.’ Hudan let go of his hands and bowed her head in thanks.
‘Any time,’ Avery told her, waving off the favour.
‘May I call on you again, when it comes time to deal with Dragonface?’
‘To aid you in disposing of that monster would be an honour,’ and the lord had never appeared so deadly serious.
Su Daji … Hudan visualised her foe as she had seen her on the battlefield just now, and willed her body to wherever the enchantress was hiding. Hudan was dismayed to remain exactly where she was. ‘Have I drained my chi?’ Hudan queried the lord, confused, as she felt rather empowered and not drained in the least.
‘She’s a bit of a fox that one,’ Avery commented.
Was he referring to Su Daji? ‘Sorry, lord …’
‘Try your sister in human form,’ Avery suggested, ‘as she is carrying a staff.’
Without further query, she followed the lord’s instruction. Hudan visualised being with Huxin, and felt every fibre of her being infused by the intense light of transcendental teleportation as she was reduced to chi essence and swept away by her will.
‘Thank heaven!’ Hudan heard Huxin says emphatically, as she appeared next to Huxin in a dry glen. Their location appeared to be nowhere near Mu as this was hilly, craggy country, parched and barren.
‘Here, hold this will you.’ Huxin gave her sister Su Daji’s staff. ‘The witch is a damn were-fox, quick as lightning.’ Huxin wriggled out of her armour.
‘Ah, that’s what he meant.’ Hudan understood Avery’s quip.
‘But I’m faster!’ Huxin cast her heavy armour to the ground, shifted into tiger form and took off through the wilting woods in the direction the fox had gone. Hudan flew after her.
In the neighbouring grotto, Huxin was set upon by several foxes that had no hope of defeating her but, like Hudan, she was confused as to which fox she was supposed to be chasing. Then Hudan spied one single fox fleeing the craggy vale via a cleft in the ridge at the far end. ‘Huxin!’ Hudan directed her sister to the escaping animal and the tigress bowled over her opposition and made after her prey. Hudan bade the decoy foxes to disperse, and it was so.
Beyond the cleft was a cliff edge where the tigress soon had the fox cornered, and Su Daji assumed her human form. ‘You think this is a victory, but you will never be so wrong,’ she said as she tottered, naked, on the verge of the deep abyss.
‘I know about Dragonface,’ said Hudan sympathetically, ‘and I believe you have been wrongly accused of many an ill deed because your hand was forced.’
For a moment, there was a glimmer of hope in Su Daji’s eyes, which her resentment quickly squashed. ‘You know nothing,’ she hissed. ‘I was stolen from my father
by a man I did not love! What was I to do when offered the power to bring him down! And now I have succeeded. Shou will be remembered for all time as the tyrant he was. Your brave king and his pretty brothers will be as lambs to the slaughter.’ She gave a malicious laugh before her indifference turned her face to stone. ‘So take the throne … you have my condolences … for you are all damned.’ And Daji allowed herself to drop from the cliff ledge. Racing to the edge, Hudan reached out with her chi to save her, but Su Daji deflected the supernatural aid and fell to her death on the rocks below.
The tigress alongside Hudan resumed her human form. ‘What a sore loser! But … Su Daji is dead!’ she cheered in excitement, then noted Hudan’s lacklustre mood. ‘Too easy.’
‘Yes, it was.’ Hudan backed away from the edge, and found herself considering that the door to the throne had just been left wide open for them. ‘Against the two of us, she didn’t stand a chance.’
‘Who is Dragonface?’ Huxin summoned her armour back to herself to cover her nakedness.
‘The real enemy,’ Hudan commented, her thoughts turning to Ji Fa. ‘We should join our forces.’
‘You have some explaining to do,’ Huxin said, and wriggled into her heavy armour.
‘I know,’ Hudan agreed, before envisioning Ji Fa and teleporting herself to his vicinity.
When Hudan and Huxin joined the Zhou army the force had slowed to a stop to regroup, just beyond the walls of Yin city. The downpour had ceased and the storm cloud had broken up and scattered across the sky. Those still loyal to Shang had been rounded up and barricaded in a stockade which the emperor had been using to keep prisoners of war. These captives had been freed to make room for the Shang — Ji Shi among them.
When Hudan recognised him, she was most relieved to see him alive and neared to converse with him. ‘I thought …’ Tears rimmed her eyes, and she was prevented from hugging him by the two staffs she held, one in each hand.
‘I saw the skins,’ Shi said, jaw clenched, then forced a smile. ‘But I am well.’