Literally this title means the delicate hand and the
calamity. It starts with disciples of the four martial arts masters, known by their
party's name Jhongyuan Sihjyunzih, who go up to a mountain to look for the masters. They
did not return home after their annual wugong meeting. The disciples saw their masters
seated properly, but all had died. Many martial arts masters and mistresses also came on
the scene; they had received invitations issued by the dead Jhongyuan Sihjyunzih. In
order to find out the reason for the loss of four lives, they borrowed a piece of
equipment, Shuijingjing and Yuwugong from the Family of Nangong, Nangong Shihjia to
examine the corpses. The result showed that the four masters had been poisoned. When they
returned the equipment back to Nangong Shihjia and departed, some of the masters went mad,
attacked Ye Siangci, daughter of one of the dead masters, and tried to sexually molest
her. Then tress of Nangong Shihjia appeared; she was the mastermind directing all the
events.
The Family of Nangong was once an influential family in the
martial arts circle. However the male members of this family were mysteriously either dead
or missing one after the other. So Mistress of Nangong Shihjia accused the martial arts
circle of being responsible for her family's ceaseless tragedies. So this time she
murdered the four masters first, then poisoned everyone who attended this death case
investigation. The poisoned could only choose to be bitten to death by ants or to loose
their memory and be controlled by Mistress of Nangong Shihjia. They all chose the latter.
Madam Tang, her son was one of the poisoned, came to
Nangong Shihjia, after receiving no messages from her son. Coincidentally she entered a
secret tunnel with many coffins. She found that there were many martial arts masters lying
in the coffins, including her son and masters who were reported to have retired. They all
lost consciousness, and were ready to be summoned by Mistress of Nangong Shihjia.
When this information was released the martial arts circle
united together to fight against Mistress of Nangong Shihjia. After a series of battles,
relatives and friends of Nangong Shihjia gradually unveiled the secret that Mistress of
Nangong Shihjia was the real person who directed the family tragedies. It was after her
husband Nangong Ming had an affair with Yinfu Sianzih of the Syueshan School and had a
baby boy, Nangong Wang, out-side-of-marriage, she went mad. She wiped out the Syueshan
School, and because of this her husband was driven mad and died soon afterwards. Tiansin
Shenlao, Mistress of Nangong Shihjia's teacher, heard about this tragedy and demanded
Mistress of Nangong Shihjia adopt the innocent baby boy, Nangong Wang. However when
Nangong Wang grew up and discovered the truth that his birth parents were killed by his
adopted mother he decided to avenge them. But Mistress of Nangong Shihjia killed him
first. The similar situation repeated itself and Mistress of Nangong Shihjia kept killing
the new male generation who had no blood tie with her but were born in this family. This
story ends with the death of Mistress of Nangong Shihjia. Ye Siangci stabbed in the back
and killed her.
A well-plotted novel although the ending was cliche. It is
not until the final stage that the reader realizes the unbelievable secret hidden in this
prominent family. |
