The day they crossed the provincial border intoFujian, the hills were covered in flowers and dancingbutterflies. Chen thought of Princess Fragrance andhow she would have loved such a scene.

　　They were met at the Shaolin Monastery by Lord Zhou,who had come south to Fujian with his wife andservants to meet the Monastery's abbot, HeavenlyRainbow. With Zhou's great name in the fightingcommunity, the Shaolin priests were happy to exchangeknowledge with him. Heavenly Rainbow insisted that hestay in the temple, and by the time the Red FlowerSociety heroes arrived, several months had slipped by.

　　The abbot led his assistants, Great Insanity, HeavenlyMirror, Great Hardship and Great Idiocy into the greathall to meet the visitors. After they had introducedeach other, the abbot led them to a quiet antechamberwhen tea was served. He asked the reason for theirvisit.

　　Chen knelt down before the abbot, tears glistening inhis eyes. Greatly surprised, Heavenly Rainbow movedquickly to help him up.

　　"Great Helmsman," he said. "What need is there forsuch formality? Please say whatever you wish.""I have an embarrassing request to make that accordingto the rules of the fighting community should not evenbe uttered," Chen replied. "But, Venerable Sir, forthe sake of millions of souls, I boldly make thisappeal to you.""Please speak freely," the abbot said.

　　"The former Great Helmsman of the Red Flower Society,Master Yu Wanting was my foster father..." HeavenlyRainbow's expression changed immediately as he heardthe name, and he raised his white eyebrows.

　　Chen told him in detail about his relationship withthe Emperor Qian Long and about the plan to restorethe Chinese throne and overthrow the Manchus. Then heasked why his foster father had been expelled from theShaolin school and whether it had anything to do withQian Long's identity.

　　"Please, Venerable Sir," he concluded, his voicealmost choked with sobs. "Think of the commonpeople....."Heavenly Rainbow sat in silence, his long eyebrowstrailing over his closed eyes. He was in deepmeditation and no-one dared disturb him.

　　After a while, his eyes sprang open, and he said: "Forseveral hundred years, it has been the practice of theShaolin school not to reveal to outsiders informationon members who offend against the school'sregulations. Great Helmsman Chen, you have come agreat distance to our monastery to enquire into thebehaviour of our expelled pupil, Yu Wanting. Accordingto the monastery's rules, this would ordinarily be outof the question..." the faces of the heroes lit upwith delight. "...but as this affair involves the fateof the common people, I will make an exception. GreatHelmsman Chen, please send someone to the Upholdingthe Monastic Regulations Hall to collect the file."Chen bowed to the abbot in thanks, and another monkled the heroes to guest rooms to rest.

　　Chen was congratulating himself on his success when hesaw Lord Zhou looking worried. "What's wrong?" heasked.

　　"The abbot asked you to send someone to the Hall tocollect the file. But to get there, it is necessary topass through five other halls, each guarded by a kungfu master and each one stronger than the last. It willbe difficult to make it through all five," Zhoureplied.

　　"We could try and force our way through together," Wensuggested.

　　Zhou shook his head. "No, the problem is that oneperson has to win through all five halls alone. Ifanyone helped him, the monks would come to theassistance of the guardians of the halls and it wouldturn into a brawl. That wouldn't do at all.""This is an affair involving my family," Chen saidquietly. "Perhaps Buddha will be merciful and let methrough."He took off his long gown, picked up a bag of his'chess piece' projectiles, tucked the ancient daggerinto his belt, and let Zhou lead him to the firsthall.

　　As they reached the hall entrance, Zhou stopped.

　　"Master Chen," he whispered. "If you can't make it,please come back and we'll think of some other way.

　　Whatever you do, don't try and force your way throughor you may get hurt." Chen nodded.

　　"Everything is arranged!" Zhou shouted, and thenstepped to one side.

　　Chen pushed open the door and walked inside. Under thebright candle-light, he saw a monk seated on a mat,and recognised him as one of the abbot's chiefassistants, Great Hardship.

　　The monk stood up and smiled. "So you have comeyourself, Great Helmsman Chen. That is excellent. Iwould like to ask you to instruct me in a few martialarts moves."Chen saluted him with his fists. "Please," he replied.

　　Great Hardship bunched his left hand into a fist andswung it round in a great arc while his right palmswept up. Chen recognised it as the 'Drunken Boxing'

　　style kung fu. He had once studied the style, butdecided not to reveal the fact by using it now. Heclapped his hands together and countered with the'Hundred Flowers' kung fu style. Great Hardship wastaken off guard and only avoided being struck bydropping to the floor. He rolled away and stood up,and the two continued to fight closely, each a masterof his own style.

　　Great Hardship aimed a blow at Chen's legs. Chen leaptup, and as he landed, hooked his right leg round,tripping the monk up neatly. As fast as lightning,Chen bent over and stopped him from falling. GreatHardship's face flushed red with embarrassment and hepointed behind him.

　　"Please proceed," he said.

　　Chen saluted once more and walked through into anotherhall, seated in the middle of which was the seniormonk, Great Insanity. As Chen entered, the monk roseand picked up a thick staff lying beside him. Hecasually tapped the floor with its tip, and the impactshook the very walls of the hall, bringing a shower ofdust down from the rafters. The monk lightly flippedthe staff from left hand to right, then attacked usingthe 'Crazy Demon' staff style of kung fu. Chen knew itwould be folly to underestimate the power of thisopponent, and he drew his dagger. Great Insanity sweptthe staff across and Chen ducked down to avoid it thencountered with a thrust from his dagger. The twofought round and round inside the hall, their weaponsapparently greatly mis-matched.

　　Rather than attack, Chen concentrated instead ontrying to tire the monk out. But Great Insanity'sInner Strength Kung Fu was profound, and as timepassed, Chen could discern no hesitation in the monk'sactions. On the contrary, the staff seemed to whirland dance with ever-increasing speed, forcing Chenback into a corner of the hall. Seeing Chen could notescape, Great Insanity grasped the staff in both handsand swung it down at his head with all his strength.

　　Chen stood stock-still until the staff was no morethan two inches from him, then grabbed its end andcarved a deep line across the middle with his dagger,snapping it in two.

　　Great Insanity was furious, and charged at Chen again.

　　But with the staff only half its former length, hewielded it with much less dexterity. A moment later,Chen snapped another piece off the end, then dodgedpassed the monk and ran towards the rear of the hall.

　　With a roar of anger, Great Insanity threw what wasleft of his staff to the floor and sparks flew in alldirections.

　　As he entered the third hall, Chen's eyes were struckby a bright glare, and he saw both sides of the hallwere full of burning candles, several hundred of themat least. In the centre, stood the monk Great Idiocy.

　　"Master Chen," he said, a welcoming smile on his face.

　　"Let us compete using projectiles."Chen bowed. "As your Reverence wishes," he replied.

　　"There are nine candles and eighty-one incense stickson each side of the hall. Whoever can extinguish allthe candles and incense sticks on his opponent's sideis the winner." The monk pointed to the altar table inthe centre of the hall. "You will find darts andprojectiles of all kinds over there. When you haveused up all the ones you have, you can go and getmore."Chen pulled a pile of chess pieces from his pocket andwished he had spent more time in the past learning thefiner points of dart kung fu from the Red FlowerSociety's dart expert, 'Buddha' Zhao. "After you," hesaid.

　　Great Idiocy smiled again. "Guests first," he replied.

　　Selecting five chess pieces, Chen threw themsimultaneously at the foot of the opposite wall andextinguished five incense sticks.

　　"Excellent kung fu," Great Idiocy praised him. He tooka string of prayer beads from around his neck, snappedthe chord and let five of the beads fall into hispalm. With one movement, he slung them away, snuffingout five incense sticks on Chen's side.

　　Chen quickly extinguished another five sticks ofincense. Great Idiocy replied by knocking out all ninecandles on Chen's side, and in the darkness, theburning tips of the incense sticks became much easiertargets for the monk.

　　"Of course, why didn't I think of that?" Chen thought.

　　He chose nine chess pieces and threw them three at atime at the candles on the monk's side of the hall.

　　But the flames were untouched. He had heard a seriesof clicks coming from the centre of the hall and herealised that Great Idiocy had knocked each of hisnine projectiles down with his prayer beads. As Chengaped in surprise at such skill, the monk extinguishedanother four incense sticks. Chen waited for the monkto throw another wave of prayer beads, and then aimedchess pieces to intercept them. But with the candleson the opposite side still burning he found itdifficult to spot the small beads clearly and onlymanaged to hit two of the five. The other three struckhome.

　　Great Idiocy, already nine candles and two incensesticks ahead, concentrated on protecting his owncandles, while extinguishing more of Chen's incensesticks whenever the o............