I collect old wuxia novels, and so I have a bunch on my shelves I haven’t gotten around to reading yet. Sometimes I like to just peruse the endings of ones I haven’t read, hoping to find one that doesn’t have the generic, happy, protagonist + female lead walking into the sunset and laughing ending. Cause that’s how a lot of wuxia novels end. Most of them are happy endings. I like endings with a bit more pathos myself, so it’s always nice to find one.

A couple months ago I was doing this, reading the endings of some Yun Zhongyue novels, and I stumbled upon one that was quite a bit different than the normal happy ending. That novel is Sword at Sky’s End《劍在天涯》(1989). This one has both a happy and a tragic (sort of) ending, but what’s notable about it is that the novel does not end with the protagonist.

Instead, after the hero’s story is wrapped up, there’s another denouement that follows a secondary character. I won’t call it an epilogue because it’s not, it’s just another scene at the end of the last chapter, chapter 40.

Anyway, I thought I’d translate the ending because it’s pretty satisfying. First some setup:

The protagonist is Yu Qiutian. With him at the end of the novel are two women, “Thousand Transformation Yaksha” Huo Honggu and Xia Bing. Xia Bing is the main girl, it seems (I have only read some of the beginning and the end that I translated here, so I don’t know all the details of the novel).

The secondary character we will be focusing on is “Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle” Fan Feiqiong. She starts out as an antagonist who eventually is redeemed somehow and is, if not friends with, is at least no longer an enemy of Yu Qiutian and company. She too has a lover in the novel, one “Rogue of the Far Beyond” Jiang Renjie. He’s another antagonist in the novel. At some point in the story, he apparently betrays Fan Feiqiong by handing her over to the main villain of the story as a sex slave (apparently) in order to save himself. Betrayed by someone she once loved, Fan Feiqiong now wants revenge.

Everything translated below occurs in the final chapter of the novel. The first scene is Fan Feiqiong in her room at an inn. Huo Honggu and Xia Bing come to visit her.

There were three knocks on her door and she muttered to herself as she walked over to it.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“Huo Honggu and Xia Bing.”

She shook her pretty head and pulled the door open. Outside stood two exquisitely beautiful girls, one in red, one in green,

“Come in,” she said politely, welcoming them in.

They had once been mortal enemies; Thousand Transformation Yaksha absolutely hated her. After the almost fatal shuttle strike she had received at Magnanimous Bridge, Thousand Transformation Yaksha swore she would pay her back with a Traceless Needle if it was the last thing she did.

Fan Feiqiong had already learned from the Underworld Sect chief the gist of the Unseen Palace of Purple Tenuity’s dismantling, and he told her that Yu Qiutian and company no longer took her for an enemy they wanted to kill.

She invited her guests to be seated, but she was fidgety herself, so ashamed she could barely raise her head. She dared not look straight at the two girls.

“Big Sister Huo, I… I’m really sorry,” she stammered, both hands restlessly fiddling with her sleeves. “I… I deserve to be punished.”

“Let’s not talk about that, okay?” Thousand Transformation Yaksha said, smiling without a trace of ill-will. “What’s past, forget about it! Honestly, I really envy forgetful people…”

“I’m not a forgetful person, Big Sister Huo.” She said icily, “I can’t forget. It’s etched into my bones and engraved in my heart. I thank you for your sympathy, but I don’t want it. Please thank Master Yu for me. I mean that sincerely.”

“I really don’t know what the right thing to say is.”

“How is Fortmaster Zhu and his son?” she said, changing the topic.

“The Underworld Sect chief made funeral preparations for us. We haven’t had time to take them back to Cypress Pavilion Village.” Thousand Transformation Yaksha relayed the news of the deaths of the fortmaster and his son to her. “Big Brother Yu settled an important matter, but…”

“Big Sister Huo, what do you want to say?”

“Sorry, I have to ask you.”

“Go ahead.”

“You and Rogue of the Far Beyond…”

“That’s between me and him,” she cut in woodenly.

“Er…”

“My little sister.” Thousand Transformation Yaksha patted Xia Bing’s shoulder. “She certainly wants Rogue of the Far Beyond to get what’s coming to him.”

“That’s none of my concern.”

“If Big Sister Fan doesn’t mind,” Xia Bing said seriously, “I would ask Big Sister Fan not to go near that person.”

“I can’t promise you two anything.” She was exceptionally calm. “In a word, I won’t ask about or interfere with your affairs, nor do I have the right to do so. One must know one’s own limitations. Leaving aside the grace you have shown me, there’s not much difference between our martial arts ability. Neither can force the other to do something they don’t want to do; being nosy or interfering would be of no use at all. Leave me alone, okay?”

“Rogue of the Far Beyond…”

“Sorry, I don’t want to talk about that person.”

“Alright! We don’t have anything else to say.” Thousand Transformation Yaksha pulled Xia Bing to her feet. “We’ve disturbed you. Take care.”

“You two take care,” she said calmly as she saw them out.

Later, Xia Bing is in Yu Qiutian’s room at the inn and they are talking about Fan Feiqiong and the failed visit Xia Bing and Huo Honggu had with her. “That woman” at the beginning of the following excerpt, refers to Fan Feiqiong.

“As if that woman were pitiful!” The girl told him about going to reason with her. Finally, she said, “I could tell that she hasn’t let go of her feelings for that heartless man who sold her out. I bet you she will go find him.”

“Yes, she will.” He nodded. “And what’s more, she will for sure find him. Not only does she have a lot of experience in the jianghu, the main thing is she’s roamed hand-in-hand with that man all over the place; she knows how to use her skills to find him.”

“Why, though? That man’s so fickle, treated her so despicably, yet she’s still emotionally attached to him…”

“She’s not going to find him in the hope of reconciling,” he said, cutting the girl off. “As for what the outcome will be, I have no idea, unless I go talk to her and observe her, feel her out, find out her inner feelings.”

“Forget it, Bro. She’s kind of ashamed to see us. Why add to her worries and make her uneasy? I really do feel sorry for her and sympathize with her. I don’t feel the least bit of hate for her, even though she did hit you with her shuttle. Bro, you don’t blame me do you?”

The girl held his big hand and rubbed his palm, a sad look on her face.

“I like that you have a pure and honest, sympathetic and forgiving heart, Little Bing.” He patted her tender, lovely face. “Don’t meddle in Rogue of the Far Beyond’s business. I don’t want you to be stained by the blood of an unscrupulous, shameless person like that.”

“Okay! Bro, let’s not bother with him. How about you take me home?”

“We’ll go straight there! What do you say?”

At this point, the novel should be over. Yu Qiutian’s story is finished and everything has winded down. He and Xia Bing ought to be walking off into the sunset, laughing, at this point. But we’re not done yet. Author Yun Zhongyue still has one matter left to resolve: Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle Fan Feiqiong’s revenge.

With a heavy heart, Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle rode west, alone.

Yu Qiutian’s guess was spot on: she knew how to find Rogue of the Far Beyond.

Yu Qiutian was also right that it was absolutely not in the hope of reconciling that she was going to find that man.

As for the outcome, Yu Qiutian didn’t know.

She knew.

Yu Qiutian had never been intimate with a woman. To put it crudely, he had never gotten in bed with a woman and so was not yet a real man. He didn’t know what psychological changes a woman you’ve went to bed with underwent. Furthermore, he wasn’t a woman.

She wasn’t overwhelmed with grief over her good name. Men and women of the jianghu were not as concerned with reputation and moral integrity. If she had cared so much about her good name, why would she get in bed with Rogue of the Far Beyond? It was improper for men and women to come in contact with each other. If every woman who’s hand was touched by a man had to jump in the river, hang herself, or ingest poison, then would there still be any women in the jianghu? Probably in a few years every woman in the world would be dead.

In any case, she had ten thousand reasons to go find that heartless man, and her good name was not one of them.

* * *

On this day she arrived in Chenzhou.

Travelers loved to lodge outside the north gate, especially poets and men of letters. Members of the influential gentry who wanted to curry favor with the powerful always stayed in lodgings outside the north gate whenever they came to Chenzhou.

After the Hongwu Emperor ascended the throne in Nanjing, his imperial carriage made an imperial inspection tour to Kaifeng, and when it passed through, the emperor made a stopover here. Later, local officials erected Stopover Pavilion to commemorate the emperor lodging here. Consequently, a market was built outside one end of the city and inns were particularly abundant.

If you stay here, aside from giving thanks for the emperor’s favor at Stopover Pavilion, if you go a littler further, three miles to the northwest you can visit the ancient mausoleum of Taihao and the Taihao Temple. It’s worth seeing; that Chinese pyramid is no joke.

What a coincidence, she lodged at the same inn that Rogue of the Far Beyond had just stayed in.

* * *

Near suppertime, she appeared in the store room.

The clerk had one foot in the jianghu way of life; his eyes were sharp and his ears were long. He was somewhat wary and afraid of those strong women who wore a sword and roamed all over the place. Whether he respected them or despised them, he wouldn’t dare slight them.

“Excuse me, traveler.” The clerk was all smiles, not daring to add the word “lady”. “How may I help you?”

“I want to see the running-account book for the last three days, if it’s not too much trouble,” she said politely.

“You’re looking for…”

“I’m looking for a man who goes by the name of Jiang Wei or Jiang Renjie. He has several attendants with him and they are on horseback.”

“You’ve come to the right place. What a coincidence, they stayed at our small inn, eight of them, three days ago.” The clerk’s memory was good. “I heard he’s called Rogue of the Far Beyond, and he cuts a really striking figure. It’s just that…”

“It’s just what?”

“Nothing, traveler.”

“Did you hear where he was headed?”

Chenzhou was a vital traffic hub extending in all directions. To the north was Kaifeng, to the south Hu-Guang.

“Xuzhou. Yes, it was Xuzhou.”

“Thank you.”

“Traveler, are you with his group?”

“No, he owes me something.”

“Oh, traveler forget it. He has a lot of people with him and he’s particularly bad tempered.”

“You said he cut a striking figure, it’s just that… It’s just that what?”

“He’s a bandit.”

“Huh, a bandit?”

“Yes, a bandit. On the morning of his second day here he went to Safe & Sound Mule Cart Livery and started a fight, he was up to no good. This morning, word came from Xihua County that his band had robbed Li Family Village and killed many people.”

“Oh! Did he get away?”

Squire Chang of Reach the Clouds Palisade in Xihua took a group of men and chased down and killed four bandits. The other four fled to Thinking Calf Ridge twenty miles to the north and are hiding out there. No horses, probably no food either.” The clerk showed that he was well informed and described it vividly. “Such an outstanding young man, who would have thought he would be a bandit! Evildoer!”

“To the world they present themselves as faithful and sincere, but inside they are scheming and duplicitous. There are many who have a human face but a beastly heart! Thanks for the information.”

She wasn’t surprised in the least. Rogue of the Far Beyond had always been strapped for cash, and at Grand Clarity Temple he had been further pressed by the leader of the Underworld Sect till he was nearly broke. Clearly his scuffle at the mule cart livery was due to a slip up in trying to hit them up for a loan.

When all means of raising money were exhausted and his moneybag was empty and getting a loan didn’t work, is it really so strange that he would turn bandit?

Before Rogue of the Far Beyond sold her out, she had a premonition that he would become a bandit or a thief. If he didn’t steal he would rob, and sure enough, her premonition had come true.

* * *

The next morning, she galloped her horse westward.

Poverty cuts short ambition; an emaciated horse’s coat looks long. Take a man like Rogue of the Far Beyond: the Soaring Hawk Society was an organization that engaged in unlawful business dealings, so to be so poor to need to take out a loan meant its reputation had already plummeted to the valley floor. To fail to acquire a loan led to a bellyful of anger, and then finally the dead end of pilfering and robbing was a certainty.

Thinking Serenity Ridge, due to a scribal error by the locals, was erroneously known as Thinking Calf Ridge. Change one word and the allusion is lost. It was just a part of a mountain chain, heavily forested with abundant vegetation. It was said that a group of people descended from the Nüwa clan was living in hiding here, so it was only kind of well-known because of that.

Her horse approached the ridge from the south and seven men suddenly emerged from the woods.

“Miss, go across the fields, you’re in a forbidden area,” one of the men said. “Turn around and go back, you can’t go through here.”

When the horse neared, the seven men were surprised. Dressed in exquisite, curvy pale blue close-fitting robes with a pale blue cloak flapping in the wind, a sword in the pommel bag, it turned out the rider was a tigress.

“Miss, you… you… can’t go in there,” one of the men said, steeling himself.

“Why?” Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle said flatly.

“Are you one of Rogue of the Far Beyond’s band?”

“No.”

“Those four are hiding out in there, it’s dangerous to go in. Their concealed projectiles are really deadly. It’s too densely forested, we don’t dare go in there and throw our lives away. We’ll wait till they come out, then capture them alive.”

“You all won’t be able to capture him alive.”

“Er…”

“I’m gonna kill him, whether you’re okay with it or not.”

“Miss…” The man was taken aback.

“I’m serious. Don’t get in my way, or else…”

“I have orders…”

“I don’t care who you have orders from, I just want his life. If you all try to stop me, I’ll have yours as well.”

“You’re…?” The man fell back in alarm.

“I, Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle, Fan Feiqiong.”

A flick of the reins and her horse stepped on the grass and entered.

The seven men looked at each other, none of them about to try to stop her, watching dumbfounded as she rode away and disappeared deep into the woods.

* * *

In a forest at the northern edge of the ridge, four men sat under a tree eating half of their remaining provisions, and their waterskin was nearly empty.

“We have to leave tonight,” Rogue of the Far Beyond said indignantly. “I don’t believe that old dog Flying Leopard Chang, he really is clairvoyant. Wherever we go he’s there to stop us. This time there’s no help for it, we’ll have to fight it out.”

“Deputy Director, can we fight?” one of his men wailed, a pained look on his face. “They don’t challenge us, they don’t set up a formation, they just hide in the weeds, each man with a crossbow. They know the area. With them waiting there, as soon as we stick our heads out we’ll have crossbow bolts swarming us like locusts. How can we fight?”

“Fuckin’ bastard!” Rogue of the Far Beyond stamped his feet, cursing. “Never should have robbed them. Just so happened to rob Flying Leopard’s neighboring village. If I had known, wouldn’t I have just robbed people along the road instead? Only because I didn’t want to lose face did I go the long way around and rob an influential family in a remote village and ended up robbing Flying Leopard’s relatives. Am I cursed or what! Fuckin’ bastard!”

“With thistles and thorns at every step, when can we reach Guanzhong?” one of the men cried out. He let out a long sigh. “Half our men gone. We tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice used to lure it. Goddammit, what son of a bitch invented that damn repeating crossbow? It’s the bane of us men of the jianghu.”

“I heard it was fuckin’ Zhuge Liang, so it’s called a Zhuge crossbow,” another man said. “There’s three-shooters, five-shooters, and seven-shooters. Flying Leopard, those sons of bitches, have five-shooters; they can shoot five bolts, so we’re in deep shit. Half our brothers are dead, Heaven’s not watching over us.”

“Enough nonsense, let’s get ready to go,” Rogue of the Far Beyond said peevishly.

“Deputy Director…”

“Deputy Director my ass, you still spewing that bullshit? Eh! What’s that scent? Smells familiar…”

Before he finished his sentence he sprang up like a cat that had had its tail stepped on.

“It ought to be familiar.” A dozen steps behind him on his right, Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle stepped out from behind a big tree, smiling sweetly and looking unbelievably alluring. “So many days without you by my side, not making your bed for you, not nestling in your arms listening to you whisper sweet nothings to me. I missed you. Did you miss me?”

“How… How did you get here?” Rogue of the Far Beyond said.

“I walked here! I left my mount two miles back that way.”

“Feiqiong, did the Underworld Sect chief let you go?”

“No, he’s finished. Yu Qiutian tore down his foundation.”

“Eh! How… How can that be?”

“Nothing’s impossible in this world.” Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle stood a stave away, her enchanting smile even more enchanting. “I would have thought that letting you strip off my gossamer skirt would be impossible; I’m not a loose-skirtstrings kind of woman. My love for you was so deep, so devoted that I even helped you take off the gossamer skirts of other women just to win your favor. Yet you gave me away to the Underworld Sect chief for him to violate. How could that happen? You’re not really that devoid of conscience! However, everything can become possible, though I still can’t believe it!”

“Feiqiong, I… I’m sorry, rea… really sorry…”

“Enough, enough. If you apologize any more my heart will soften and I won’t be able to kill you.” Her seductive smile suddenly turned ghastly and horrible as she deftly drew her blue-steel sword from its scabbard.

“Miss Fan, please…” one of the men cut in, hoping to dissuade her from striking.

She abruptly shot her hand out, and using her superb heart-piercing finger technique, pierced the man right dead center through the heart, the force from her finger piercing all the way through and out his back before dispersing. The man crashed to the ground.

“This is none of my business…” another man said and took off running.

The other stole into the weeds, crawling away on all fours like a dog.

“Feiqiong, please listen to me. I had no choice…” Rogue of the Far Beyond was now left all by himself. “I said before that it’s better for both of us to live than for both of us to die. If I didn’t give you to him we would have both died. By giving you to him, we both lived. I was definitely…”

“On the first night I was already half-dead,” Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle said. “Stripped naked, passed around a group of men and women, being made to do this and do that, even rubbing my breasts all over every inch of a man’s body. Do you know what that’s like?”

“You knew how to do that! I taught you before…”

A lightning flash of light shot out as Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle brandished her sword.

An intense clang of metal on metal clashing and the two of them were in the thick of things.

Rogue of the Far Beyond’s Eighteen Tempest Sword was highly esteemed, but under Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle’s frenzied attack he was not able to bring much of its power into play.

He was crazed as well, his desire to live rousing in him a desperate will to fight. Despite his opponent’s continuous onslaught, he was still able to find opportunities to counterattack. The determination of one fighting for his life is dauntless.

Finally, he got a chance to use the move Laughing at the South and knocked the blue-steel sword eight digits to the side, then seized the gap and twisted inside, his sword loosing Split the Stars, Sever the Dipper, wildly counter-thrusting at Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle’s inner right side, seeking to cut her belly open at the ribs to make her innards spill out. This wasn’t one of the Eighteen Tempest Sword moves, it was an extremely sinister close-range ruthless attack.

An explosive “ting” and the cloudhead pommel of the blue-steel sword hit his blade and sent it downward, dissipating the force of its former trajectory.

A radiant light flowed down and he felt a coldness on his right shoulder as the blade sliced off a piece of his deltoid muscle. His right arm went numb and his sword suddenly felt three times heavier.

He promptly shot a stave to the left and his sword dropped to the ground with a clang.

Blood poured out, his outer shoulder cut away to the bone. The joint and large ligament at his joint capsule were injured as well, rendering his whole right arm useless!

“Feiqiong…” He pressed his left hand on his exposed-bone wound which was bigger than his palm. Shocked, he said, “You… You you wounded me.”

“I’m still gonna kill you!” Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle didn’t press the attack but instead sheathed her sword, and her expression changed to a stunningly enchanting smile.

“No… no…”

“Yes. If I don’t kill you, I’ll have nightmares the rest of my life.”

“We still have a future, we still have tomorrow…”

“You don’t have tomorrow.”

“Hurry… Hurry and help me treat my wound. I… I can’t hold out much… much longer… I’m begging you…”

“I, too, once begged you.”

“Heavens! Don’t keep thinking of the past, we used to share a bed together…”

“If I keep thinking of it I’ll cry. You have to die.”

Rogue of the Far Beyond wasn’t a fool and was not willing to die. Not wanting to die, he turned and strove hard to endure the bone-piercing pain and staggered off into a mad dash, hoping to quickly flee deep into the woods. Maybe then he could manage to use his left hand to throw his concealed projectiles and save himself.

He ran a hundred or so steps before coming to a shaky halt, a chill running through his mind as his legs went soft. He wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

“Feiqiong, cut me… some… slack…” he cried sharply.

Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle stood a stave away, her face stil bursting with a radiant smile. In each hand was a lightning shuttle.

“Look at me one more time, aren’t I beautiful?” Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle’s smile was as resplendent as before, but two lines of tears suddenly flowed out from the corners of her eyes.

“I… was wrong…”

“Don’t give me any of that remorse talk, Renjie. I know I’m a contemptible wretch, so I want you to forever remember my beautiful fair face and regret no more.”

“Give me a chance to atone for my crime… argh!”

A lightning shuttle arced through the air and he was already too weak to avoid it. It burst open his chest with a bang.

He jolted, swayed, saw Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle’s tears pouring out like a spring and saw another lightning arc of light before his eyes.

Another jolt, an eruption as the second lightning shuttle burst open his belly. He was knocked back to the ground face up, his chest and stomach burst open, his body too horrible to look at.

“I’ll bury you, you heartless man.” Rainbow Sword Lightning Shuttle’s tears fell like rain as she dragged his mangled corpse deep into the weeds.

It’s unusual for a wuxia novel to end with a character other than a protagonist. It would have been nice if the author had let the scene play out a little more at the end instead of cutting it off abruptly though. Abrupt endings, unfortunately, are quite common in wuxia. Let things settle down, authors! The reader needs a moment to come down from that cathartic high. Describe some scenery, let us in on the character’s thoughts or emotions, say something poignant that sums things up or puts fine point on it, then end the novel.

I do like, though, the part where the author describes Fan Feiqiong’s indifference to her “good name”. It’s refreshing to see human beings actually act like human beings when it comes to sex and romance in wuxia novels. Most of them are too conservative, the characters a bunch of goody-two-shoes. I get it that it’s Confucian society and there really was separation of the sexes as the excerpt above says, but this is the jianghu, damn it! It’s supposed to be away from polite society. In the real world, people get together, they have affairs, they do things they aren’t “supposed to” when no one’s looking and no one’s the wiser.

Ａnyway, I thought this ending was neat, letting the novel conclude with a side character rather than the protagonist. Even though the end was still abrupt, at least it’s better than the same old walking into sunset, laughing.

There’s a lot more that could be said about this novel, even just the parts I’ve read. I did take some notes while reading. Another time. Though one tidbit: In the novel, it talks about how women are weaker and shorter than men, so most women martial artists pratice a concealed projectile weapon and try to avoid fighting close quarters with big men. There’s a lot of little details like this in Yun Zhongyue’s novels, explaining what weapons are, how they are used, why certain jianghu trends are the way they are, or like here, explaining why women tend to use throwing weapons. Though actually a lot of Yun Zhongyue’s men use throwing weapons too, including his protagonists. And one of the throwing weapons a woman uses in this novel is said to be expensive and single-use only, so she doesn’t use them often. That’s a good example of the little bits of realism in Yun Zhongyue’s novels. There’s also a conversation between minor characters in which one of them complains that reporting crimes to the authorities is a waste of time, and that you will live longer if you forget notions of humaneness and justice.

One more example before I go. On pg.101 of volume 1, the narrator explains the difference between xiaojie 小姐 and guniang 姑娘. In English translation, both of these are often translated the same as “miss”, especially as a title in place of ones name: “Excuse me miss…” or “Miss So-and-So”… So in translating this next excerpt, I need to translate them differently or else it won’t make sense. Xiaojie literally means “little elder sister”, though it does not refer to actual sisters, and guniang means an unmarried girl. I will translate xiaojie as “miss” and guniang as “maiden” for the purposes of this excerpt:

In those days, “Madame” (furen 夫人, aka Lady) and “miss” (xiaojie 小姐) were respectful forms of address. Unmarried daughters of ordinary family under the age of fifteen were commonly called “big maiden” or “little maiden”. In the Jiangnan region, calling the “miss” of a wealthy and influential family “maiden” was asking for trouble, because the powdered faces¹ of the pleasure quarters were called “maiden”.

Historical details and facts such as this abound in Yun Zhongyue’s novels. It’s one of the reasons he’s my favorite wuxia author. Anyway, that’s all for now!

1. i.e. courtesans/geisha—not prostitutes. Though they did have sex with clients sometimes, they were trained in singing, poetry, dance, and music, and their company and entertainment was what clients paid for. If sex was involved, that was a matter between them and the client, but they saw themselves more as lovers than as bodies for hire. Indeed, real relationships did often form between courtesans and their clients.