Chapter 1.6: Exploding Crane

Exploding Crane surveyed the wreckage of the inn critically. Something was not right about it. Yes, there it was! Yan Bo-tiao focused his chi, and the last window, standing broken in the last standing wall, splintered. That would teach the bandits. They'd think twice about trying to rob this place again! He nodded and smiled at his handiwork. "Another job well-done."

Innkeeper Lance threw the countertop at him. "What were you thinking? Who are you?" Exploding Crane dodged far enough to drag his fingers across the surface of the wood; it split into fifty rods and collapsed on the ground in bundles, forming a yarrow pattern of I Ching.

"Changing Yin indicates that a passive approach leads to success via forceful action! Good sir, you must be the innkeeper. I have merely done you the favor of securing safety from thieves and barbarians!"

"By destroying my inn!"

"The scholars of war say, 'If they are angry, perturb them; display deference to foster their arrogance; if they are rested, force them to exert themselves.' Now the bandits are perturbed by my prowess; your destitution will foster their arrogance and eat away their caution; without a signular target, they will exhaust themselves all over the countryside. It is but a small sacrifice."

"Just now you called it a favor!"

"It is the same thing."

Finally Lance understood. "Well, then, young warrior, do you tell me your name, and I shall keep it in a special place in my heart, that your efforts will not be forgotten."

"Gladly, honoured sir; I am Bo-tiao, the Exploding Crane of Yan, and you have just witnessed the secret art, Spear of Victorious Swallow's Wings, passed down from father to son for eleven times eleven generations."

The man carefully made a note of this, writing it in the dust with his toe. "It is interesting that you should say this, master Yan."

"Is that so?"

"The provincial governor has put a bounty on a barbarian raider by the name of Yan Bo-Tiao. You are obviously civilised, so it is clear that you are not he, but still I would take caution not to swing that name around in unsavory places."

"A barbarian?"

"It is said that he is six feet tall and has ten heads, stacked one upon the other like the roofs of a shrine! In each of his four arms is a Hell-Arranging Trident made from a man's skeletal arm!"

"If I meet this barbarian, I will be sure to pass on your warning. Thank you, innkeeper." Exploding Crane bowed, very deeply, and wandered into the woods.

The innkeeper sighed. "If only I had listened to my father and learned kung fu..." He watched several years' income stumble over a tree trunk, singing.