"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."