As the three rode along, the land about them gradually

became more rocky and a crooked path appeared. It grew

dark, and the White Jade Peak began to tower over

them.

"According to the map, the Secret City was built

around the base of the mountain," said Huo Qingtong.

"It doesn't look as if it would be more than three or

four miles from here." The three dismounted and gave

their two horses some water.

Chen stroked the white horse's mane lovingly, knowing

that without it, he would never have been able to

rescue Princess Fragrance. He also knew he would not

have left without her.

They rested for a while until the horses had recovered

some of their strength and then continued on, the

cries of the wolves already vaguely discernible in the

distance. Chen rode the chestnut horse alone and the

two sisters rode together on the white horse.

The night was cool and the snow on the peak glistened

brilliant white under the moon, looking almost close

enough to touch. The path became rough and treacherous

and suddenly split a dozen or so ways, with no

indication of which was the correct one.

"With so many paths, it's not surprising people get

lost," said Chen. Huo Qingtong pulled out the map and

examined it under the moonlight.

"It says: `left three right two'," she said.

"What does that mean?"

"It doesn't explain." In the distance, they heard the

wolves howling in unison.

"It's about midnight," Huo Qingtong said. "They must

have stopped to howl at the moon. When they've

finished, they will be after us again. We must choose

the path and go quickly."

"There are five paths on the left here," said Chen

pointing. "The map says left three right two, so let's

take the third."

"If it's a dead end, we won't have time to come back

again," replied Huo Qingtong.

"In that case, the three of us will die together,"

said Chen.

As Chen spoke, Huo Qingtong felt a sudden warmth in

her breast and tears welled into her eyes. She raised

her horse whip and led them into the middle path.

The track narrowed into a stone-walled corridor which

had obviously been hacked out of the mountainside by

men. After a while, they came to another crossroads

from which three paths branched out to the right.

"We're saved! We're saved!" Huo Qingtong shouted with

joy, and they spurred their horses up the middle path

with renewed energy. But the track had not been

traversed for many years, and in some places, it was

completely overgrown by grasses taller than a man,

while in others, it was blocked by sand drifts. The

three had to dismount and lead the horses over the

obstacles. Chen also moved rocks onto the top of the

drifts to slow the wolves' pursuit.

Less than half a mile further on, they came upon three

more paths forking to the left. Suddenly, Princess

Fragrance screamed and pointed to a pile of white

bones at the mouth of one of the paths. Chen

dismounted to investigate and found they were the

remains of a man and a camel.

"He must have been unable to decide which path to take

and ended up dying here," he sighed.

They entered the third path and found it suddenly

steepened sharply. The cold and darkness became

oppressive. A short while later another skeleton

appeared by the side of the path with jewels

glistening amongst the bones.

"He was rich but he couldn't get out," Huo Qingtong

said.

"But it means we're on the right path," replied Chen.

"There must be even more skeletons on the wrong

paths."

"When we leave, none of us must take any jewels, all

right?" Princess Fragrance said.

"You're afraid the ghosts won't let us go," said Chen

with a smile.

"Promise me!"

He heard the pleading tone in her voice and hurriedly

replied: "I won't take anything, don't worry." All the

jewels in the world could not match having you two

sisters as companions, he thought, and suddenly felt

ashamed. Why did he include them both together?

They continued up the twisted path the whole night,

and by morning, they and the two horses were

exhausted.

"Let's rest a while," said Huo Qingtong.

"We must concentrate on finding shelter first and then

we can all sleep easily," Chen replied firmly.

** 10 **

A short way further on, the path opened out into a

wide, flat valley of extraordinary beauty. The sun was

just rising and the white mountain soared up into the

sky from the valley floor. Around its base was a city

that looked as if it had once been very prosperous.

But now, the thousands of houses that they could see,

although magnificent in scale and design, were in

various stages of ruin and collapse. Not a sound was

to be heard, not even the twittering of birds. The

three had never seen a place that was at once so

beautiful and so terrible. They stood for a moment,

over-awed by the crushing silence, hardly daring to

even breathe, then Chen urged his horse forward and

they entered the city.

The area was extremely dry, so dry that there was

virtually no vegetation on the ground. The contents of

the houses had stayed undisturbed for countless years

and most appeared to still be in good condition. They

entered the first house they came to and Princess

Fragrance noticed a pair of ladies' shoes on the

floor. Their colour was still fresh, but as soon as

she touched them, they disintegrated into dust, and

she jumped in shock.

"This city is in a basin surrounded by high mountains

which protect it from rain and wind," Chen said.

As they continued through the streets, they found

skeletons everywhere and swords and other weapons

thrown about at random.

"It doesn't look as if the city was buried in a sand

storm as the story says," Chen commented.

"No," Huo Qingtong agreed. "It looks more like there

was a big battle and all the people were killed."

"But there's so many paths outside the city," Princess

Fragrance objected. "How would the enemy find their

way in?"

"There must have been a traitor," Huo Qingtong

replied.

They went into another house, and she spread the map

out on a table and leaned over to examine it. But the

table was completely rotten despite its apparent

sturdiness, and it collapsed under the weight of her

arms. She picked up the map and studied it for a

moment. "I'm afraid these houses wouldn't withstand an

attack by the wolves for very long," she said. She

pointed at a place on the map. "This is the centre of

the city, right at the foot of the mountain. There are

a lot of markings around it, which probably means it

is a place of importance. If it's a palace or

fortress, it is bound to be very sturdily built, so

let's go there."

"Right!" said Chen. The three continued on their way,

following the path indicated on the map. The roads in

the centre of the city were like a maze, twisting and

turning until their head's swam. If they had not had

the map, they would surely have lost their way.

After an hour or so, they came to the place marked on

the map as the city centre, but were disappointed to

find no sign of any palace or fortress. From close up,

the White Jade Peak looked even more beautiful than

from a distance. It was completely white, pure and

shining. A jade carver who found even a small piece of

white jade would never go hungry for the rest of his

life, but here was a whole mountain of the precious

stone. They looked up at the towering peak and felt a

sense of spiritual upliftment. Their cares and worries

dispersed and they reflected on the wonderful mystery

of creation.

Then, amidst the silence, they heard far off the howls

of wolves drifting towards them.

"They're coming!" cried Princess Fragrance. "Could it

be the wolves have a map as well?"

"Their nose is their map," Chen replied. "We have left

our scent wherever we have gone and by following it,

they will never make a mistake."

Huo Qingtong pointed at the map. "Look," she said.

"There is the mountain, but there are many roads

marked inside."

"They must be tunnels," he said.

"Yes. Now how do we find them?" She looked at the

explanation on the map and slowly deciphered it. "To

enter the palace, climb the tall tree and call out

"Ailongabasheng" three times towards the sacred

mountain."

"What is Ailongabasheng?" Princess Fragrance asked.

"It must be the password," Huo Qingtong replied. "But

where is the tall tree? And could this really be a

magic spell?"

"Of course it could," said Princess Fragrance, who had

always believed in spirits and fairies.

"In the old days, there would have been people in the

mountain who would have pushed a switch when they

heard the password, opening a cave entrance," said

Chen. But after so many years, everyone in there is

certainly dead."

The howls of the wolves sounded closer. "Let's go and

hide in one of the houses," Huo Qingtong suggested.

The three turned and ran towards the closest of the

buildings. As they ran, Chen tripped on a bulge on the

ground and saw it was the stump of a huge tree. "The

tree's here!" he called.

Princess Fragrance examined the sheer face of the

mountain above and pointed. "That must be the cave

mouth there. Look, aren't those footholds?" Chen and

Huo Qingtong looked up and saw with delight that there

were indeed notches in the rock face.

"I'll go up and have a look," said Chen. With the

dagger in his right hand, he bounded up the cliff. He

made it up about a dozen feet then used his Inner

Strength Kung Fu to lodge the dagger in the rock face

for an instant and race up further. Finally, he

reached the point where the footholds began. The two

girls cheered from below, and Chen waved to them

before turning his attention to the cliff above. Over

the years, the cave mouth had become blocked by sand.

Chen grabbed an outcrop of jade rock with one hand and

started to shift some of the sand with the dagger. He

pulled broken slabs of rock out one after another, and

let them drop to the ground, and in a short while had

made a hole large enough to wriggle through. He

crawled in and sat down. Then, pulling his Pearl

Strings from his pocket, he undid them all, tied them

together end to end and dangled the resulting rope

down the cliff face to the girls waiting below.

Huo Qingtong tied the rope round her sister's waist

and Chen slowly pulled her up. Just as she reached the

cave mouth, she screamed, and Chen quickly helped her

inside, saying: "Don't worry, you've made it."

Her face was deathly pale. "Wolves!" she cried.

Chen looked down and saw seven or eight wolves had

already arrived at the base of the cliff. Huo Qingtong

was valiantly fighting them off with her sword. The

white horse shook its mane and neighed loudly then

galloped off through the streets of the ancient city.

Chen hastily grabbed some large rocks from around the

cave mouth and threw them down, forcing some of the

wolves to back away, then dropped the rope down again.

Huo Qingtong was afraid that in her weak condition,

she would be unable to hold on long enough, so she

transferred the sword to her left hand, and tied the

rope round her waist as she continued to fight off the

wolves.

"Right!" she yelled. Chen yanked on the rope and she

flew into the air just as two wolves threw themselves

at her. One of them bit deeply into her boot and

refused to let go. As Princess Fragrance screamed in

fright, Huo Qingtong bent over in mid-air and chopped

it in half across its belly. The top half of its body

accompanied her up to the cave mouth.

Chen helped her inside and tried unsuccessfully to

pull the half-wolf off her boot.

"Did it bite into you?" he asked quickly.

"I'm all right," she replied. She took the dagger from

his hand and cut open the wolf's mouth, revealing the

serried ranks of teeth sunk deep into her boot. A

small trickle of blood oozed out of one of the holes

in the leather.
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