From the series: The Eighty-One Cases of Journey to the West · The Great Tang Dunhuang Upheaval

“The hour of Xu — sundown—”

From the main street beyond the ward came the distant, faint sound of the time-keeper’s announcement. Lv Sheng, leading Pumi Di and two Star Generals, each holding torches, suddenly smashed open the ward gate of a warehouse — and found the spacious interior completely empty.

By now the sky had gone fully dark. Lv Sheng held up his torch, his expression somber as he walked through the warehouse. The floor was strewn with ragged scraps of paper, bamboo splits, and leather, with heaps of wood shavings, and overturned paint pots everywhere — a scene of utter chaos.

Obviously this was the last place where Xuanzang and his companions had hidden and assembled some large object — and they had successfully departed before Lv Sheng could track them here.

Lv Sheng combed through the floor bit by bit. Suddenly he found what appeared to be a trace on one piece of paper and held it up to look. On the paper was drawn a structural diagram of what appeared to be a building — like a city gate — with various measurements marked out in fine lines.

“Is this one of Guazhou’s city gates?” Lv Sheng turned the paper over and over in his hands.

Pumi Di said suddenly, “Alang, this is not a city gate — it is a drum tower. The western city’s drum tower.”

Lv Sheng was struck with sudden clarity. The western city was narrow from north to south, with Suoyang Avenue running through it from south to north, and this drum tower stood at the very center of Suoyang Avenue. The tower housed drums — at dawn each day a drum was beaten to open the gates, at dusk a drum beaten to close them, heard throughout the entire city. Two hours earlier, Xuanzang, Li Chunfeng, and Li Chan had surveyed the area between the drum tower and the eastern city gate.

“Move — to the drum tower immediately! I want to see what tricks they are pulling!”

Lv Sheng led everyone out of the warehouse.

The curfew had long since come into effect. Lv Sheng and Pumi Di and the others changed into the armor of Dunhuang soldiers, and rode to the ward gate on horseback. The night watchman called out in a loud challenge. Pumi Di produced a document. This had been prepared in advance by Li Zhi — the group’s identity was that of couriers between the Protectorate-General and the Dunhuang troops outside the city, bearing the great seal of the Dunhuang Prefect. Though the seal was a forgery, it was without flaw. The night watchman also knew that the current Guazhou City was a gathering of various forces with frequent military communications, suspected nothing, and at once opened the gate to let them pass.

Lv Sheng spurred his horse forward, and before long arrived at the drum tower. The drum tower had long since been locked and bolted, yet next to it stood a barracks still lit with lanterns, with a five-man soldier team stationed there to guard the tower.

Lv Sheng tossed his horse’s reins to Pumi Di and strolled to the barracks and knocked on the door. Immediately a soldier opened it. He looked at Lv Sheng in surprise and said, “You people… Dunhuang’s soldiers?”

Lv Sheng said nothing, walked straight into the room. The room was not large — left and right were the soldiers’ sleeping quarters. The remaining four soldiers had not yet gone to sleep and all looked at him in puzzlement.

“Who is the fire squad leader?” Lv Sheng asked.

The fire squad leader, with a dark scowl, rose and stood. “I am. Who are you?”

“Who is currently in the drum tower?” Lv Sheng asked.

The fire squad leader’s expression changed. He reached for the broadsword at his side — and in an instant found Lv Sheng somehow already standing before him, a hand gripping his throat, staring down at him. “Answer.”

“Enemies—!” The other four soldiers burst into an uproar and scrambled to grab their weapons. Pumi Di and the two Star Generals trained three crossbow bolts on them. The soldiers did not dare move.

“It’s… it’s the heir!” The fire squad leader’s face flushed red, gasping out his answer.

Lv Sheng stared at him without speaking. “Who else?”

“A monk in ordinary clothes, and another who looks like a scholar.” The fire squad leader struggled. “The heir wanted to borrow the drum tower — my commander came with them, I didn’t dare refuse.”

Lv Sheng’s hand tightened — crack — he snapped the fire squad leader’s neck. With a single order from Pumi Di, the crossbow bolts flew — thud thud thud thud — all four soldiers were shot dead on the spot in an instant.

“You two stay here and hold this position. I will go up alone.”

Lv Sheng released his grip and dropped the fire squad leader’s body. He came out of the barracks and walked directly up the drum tower.

The drum tower rose three stories high, even with the city gatehouse. The interior of the stairway was pitch dark. Lv Sheng stepped on the floorboards — long years of disrepair had left them groaning “creak creak” underfoot. He walked straight to the top floor. The top story was a gabled, tiled roof covering the space below, where four great drums were neatly arranged. Near the open southern side, a sundial had been installed.

Lv Sheng stood at the edge of the drum tower, leaning against the parapet wall, and looked out. The stars were thick and dense above, studded across the sky like splinters of crystal. A half-moon hung in the east, carving light and shadow in geometric patterns across the drum tower’s top. Looking far into the distance, the ancient city of Guazhou had not yet gone to sleep — here and there throughout the wards the faint lights of lanterns still burned, and the vast sweep of the ancient city unrolled across his field of vision.

Further still, the ancient Qilian Mountains crouched like a giant dragon at rest, and on the mountain peaks the moonlight cast its glow — through the dark, still visible were points of shining white: the eternal snow on the summits.

“Lv Brother has finally arrived.” A voice suddenly spoke behind him.

Lv Sheng turned slowly. From the shadows emerged Xuanzang, Li Chan, and Li Chunfeng. Xuanzang was bald and bare-headed, yet dressed in ordinary clothes — his two palms loosely pressed together, smiling at him.

“You knew I was coming?” Lv Sheng said gravely. “Were those clues left deliberately for me?”

“Of course,” Xuanzang smiled. “Tonight’s invitation to Lv Brother to be here was precisely to watch a piece of street theatre.”

“What street theatre?” Lv Sheng asked.

“Prince Linjiang had one of his bodyguards impersonate the heir and left Ayuwang Temple with Yu Zao’s bridal carriage. In just a short while it will arrive at the drum tower.” Xuanzang said. “You once promised her that you would take her flying through the sky. Since you are unwilling, this humble monk invites the heir to fulfill it.”

Lv Sheng was instantly rooted to the spot.

Xuanzang waved a hand at Li Chan and Li Chunfeng. Both of them set to work together, turning two winches. Two winches had been mounted on the drum tower’s parapet wall, three zhang apart — exactly the width of Suoyang Avenue. As the winches turned, two lengths of lacquer-black rope were slowly drawn taut. The ropes seemed to have some elasticity and were dyed a dark grayish-black throughout. On the drum tower they were wound tight on the winches, while their other end extended out into the air, stretching to some unseen connection point in the darkness of the night.

“Are those the fine deer-sinew cords you had made at the tannery?” Lv Sheng murmured — yet was still perplexed.

“Correct.” Xuanzang said. “Lv Brother, look — on the two sides of Suoyang Avenue, close to the ward walls on either side, we have erected two tall flagpoles, five zhang in height.”

Lv Sheng looked. Sure enough, inside the ward wall he could see a tall flagpole rising up — two zhang higher even than the drum tower. Xuanzang was still talking as the three of them busied themselves. They hauled the two deer-sinew cords taut, with hooks at the front ends, drew the two ropes over and hooked them onto Li Chan’s body — and Li Chan instantly lurched forward, quickly grabbing the parapet wall to steady himself.

Li Chunfeng took thick wooden planks from a nearby box and began binding them onto Li Chan’s body.

“You are going to—” Lv Sheng’s expression shifted with sudden alarm.

“This is to reenact that night in Dunhuang, on Ganquan Avenue — the bridal abduction!” Xuanzang fixed his gaze on him and said word by word.

“Absurd!” Lv Sheng let out a great laugh. “You actually think Kui Mu Lang’s power is all man-made?”

“That’s right,” Xuanzang said calmly. “This humble monk has had this suspicion all along. The only trouble was that many of the pivotal details were difficult to reason through. But tonight this humble monk has decided to try. The result may not be perfect — may not fully reproduce the scene of that day. But it should not deviate too greatly.”

Xuanzang walked to the parapet wall edge, pointed down at Suoyang Avenue below, and said, “In another short while, Yu Zao’s bridal carriage will pass below. The heir will use the ropes to swing down and crash through the layers of the wedding procession. This humble monk does not wish to injure anyone, so his body has been bound with hard wood made from desert poplar. Anyone who tries to block him will be knocked flying.”

Li Chan patted the planks on his body, and smiled faintly at Lv Sheng. Li Chunfeng then took out a wolf-hide from the box and slipped it over Li Chan’s body. Lv Sheng watched, dumbstruck — this wolf hide had been tailored and cut so that it fit tightly against Li Chan’s body and limbs, with a fluffy wolf tail at the back.

Li Chunfeng took out a wolf-head mask. This wolf-head mask had also been cut from a real wolf’s head; though a wolf’s skull is smaller than a human’s, after re-splicing and reassembling, it fitted precisely over Li Chan’s entire head. In an instant Li Chan was transformed into an enormous wolf!

Li Chan moved about, climbed onto the parapet wall, and crouched in a battlement — waiting in stillness. Just as a grey wolf crouched beneath the bright moon, about to howl at the sky.

Lv Sheng found his vision beginning to blur, and seemed to recall some distant, deep memory. A look of inexpressible pain crossed his face.

“This humble monk has calculated the distance,” Xuanzang continued saying. “The ropes can just support the heir crashing into the bridal carriage. After entering the carriage, the heir must do several things. First, he crushes a drug pill and releases a smoke — stunning Yu Zao into unconsciousness.”

Li Chunfeng, smiling, took out a yellow drug pill and tossed it in his hand.

“Then, the heir removes the hooks from his body — the ropes have elasticity, and I have hung counterweights from the flagpoles, so the ropes will spring back on their own. Then the heir takes a gray-black cloth bag and wraps Yu Zao from head to foot, tying her tightly to his own body. After that, he must brave a moment of danger — igniting a length of fuse hidden in the cloth canopy above the carriage roof. Li Doctor has already prepared the subduing fire, stored in a bamboo tube.”

Li Chunfeng took out another bamboo tube and tossed it in his hand.

“When the subduing fire ignites, the sound it makes is low, but it produces a flash and smoke. At that moment the night is dark, and everyone’s eyes will be dazzled by the burst of light, causing a brief moment of blindness. In this instant, the heir must hold Yu Zao tight, pressing flat against the carriage floor.”

Xuanzang looked at Lv Sheng and said quietly, “Every city’s ward and market layout is the same — the main streets on either side all have deep drainage channels. The channel edges are planted with trees. Dunhuang is the same.”

“I see.” Li Chunfeng now fully grasped Xuanzang’s true plan. He felt deeply that this man harbored a wisdom deep as the ocean, having calculated each side’s reactions to the very limits of possibility. He had used Li Chan’s lovesick devotion to set off a sky-wolf bridal abduction, successfully sending Li Chan and Yu Zao out of danger’s way. And this sky-wolf abduction, its ripples still spreading, had directly dismantled the tight-as-iron-barrel defenses of the Protectorate-General, drawing Li Yan onto this entirely unprepared new battlefield and giving Niu Jinda a sliver of hope.

Most importantly — Xuanzang had let Lv Sheng witness this scene of how a false Kui Mu Lang could be fabricated, thoroughly demolishing the hidden technique behind his impersonation of Kui Mu Lang.

This monk, with a gentle push, had sent all four factions spinning in dizzy circles, utterly at a loss.

“So you invited me here tonight not only to expose my scheme — but also to make me stand down.” Lv Sheng said with a strained laugh. “And let the bridal carriage pass with me watching on.”

“This humble monk does not wish to expose you and destroy you,” Xuanzang looked at Lv Sheng with compassionate eyes, “but to help you find your true self. Tonight’s scene — it is for the salvation of Li Chan and Yu Zao, and also for your salvation.”

“You would save me? How do you propose to save me?” Lv Sheng’s eyes held something bordering on frenzy. He raised his palm — the black blood still on it. “Do you think this palm proves I fabricated Kui Mu Lang?”

“Master,” Li Chunfeng said, “hurry up and say what you have to say! There is no time left!”

Xuanzang fixed his gaze on Lv Sheng. “Then let this monk speak of your encounter with the four great ritual masters at the Mogao Caves, where you competed in the arts of dharma. That was a genuine display of the art. The ritual masters study the alchemical cauldron, and from time to time refine strange and curious things to use in their talismans — some highly flammable, some deadly poisonous, some highly explosive. But the pigment used in Suo Yi’s talisman-writing greatly surprised you. You said, ‘can the Spells-Prohibition Department actually produce such a thing — and transport it over such distances?’ This shows you are intimately familiar with the Spells-Prohibition Department, knowing they have long been refining this kind of white phosphorus flame. Why do you know they are working on it? This truth this humble monk has also already uncovered.

“As for the wolf-form image you ordinarily present — this is the simplest of the techniques: an application of craft-mechanism magic and conjuring-relocation magic. The wolf head is made by mechanism that can be folded and concealed on your person, and donned in a brief instant. Beneath your outer robe you have pre-worn the wolf skin, with wolf claws fitted into the arms and ankles — when needed, the outer robe is shed, the wolf head donned, and you are instantly transformed into Kui Mu Lang.

“This humble monk wishes to speak of the battle at Qingdun Garrison in particular. That night, you appeared on the beacon tower of Qingdun Garrison, hung up a lantern, conjured ghost-shadows and apparitions in the desert, and with a single gesture of your hand, seized the souls of two garrison soldiers, reenacting the scene you had experienced at Qingdun Garrison in the ninth year of Wude. These various techniques are all quite easy to debunk — the method for conjuring ghost-shadows and apparitions in the desert is the most common: once sand is thrown into the air, the particles form a semi-transparent wall suspended in the air. You need only shine lamplight onto a person and a horse, and their shadows are projected onto the sand-dust wall. The principle is the same as folk shadow puppetry.

“As for your ‘seizing of souls’ from the two garrison soldiers — in truth, those two men were your own believers planted within Qingdun Garrison beforehand. To gather evidence to clear your own name after being falsely accused at Qingdun Garrison, you had placed many followers inside the garrison. The so-called Thirty-Six Transformations of the Heavenly Tiangang — the manifestation of a body outside the body — was in truth your believers pretending to be possessed, hacking at their own comrades. In the dead of night, in a crowded place, terror spreads like a plague. Everyone feared that the man beside them might be possessed and slash them, so they slashed at the other man first — thus triggering a horrific mutual slaughter.

“After the West Caves incident, I had one persistent question: why were you so much weaker at the arched bridge battle than you had been at Qingdun Garrison? Here is the answer: at Qingdun Garrison you had plotted for years, with helpers cooperating — but the West Caves incident erupted suddenly, without preparation, with no followers among the soldiers and no one to assist you.

“In the West Caves incident, I also had a question. Why did you and Li Chunfeng Doctor compete in a performance of dharma arts — a most spectacular display? Both sides attacking and countering, gods appearing and vanishing, it was all most wondrous. And yet — what was ‘earth-diving’, what was ‘becoming invisible’? All of it was fake. Because you and Li Doctor put on a joint performance!”

At these words, not only did Lv Sheng’s expression change — even Li Chunfeng was thunderstruck and cried out, “Master, you have dragged me in again! I… when did I perform a joint act with him? How have I become complicit? I have walked through fire and water with you, do not my labors merit some credit?”

“Forgive me, Li Doctor,” Xuanzang bowed in apology. “Without involving you, my logic cannot hold together. Because you are too pivotal.”

“How am I… how am I so pivotal?” Li Chunfeng was utterly at a loss.

“Because you and Lv Sheng are fellow disciples — you came to Dunhuang precisely in order to cooperate with him.” Xuanzang smiled as he looked at him.

Lv Sheng’s expression changed color. He looked at Li Chunfeng. Li Chunfeng was left gaping, not knowing how to respond.

Just then, a jumble of footsteps ascended the drum tower. Dugu Da’s voice could be heard shouting, “Others search the second floor carefully. You — one team with me to the top floor. Search thoroughly!”