The Legend of the Condor Heroes – Chapter 15

Li Sheng was outraged to see this. He loudly shouted, “What is your honorable name? Whose disciple are you?”

Ouyang Ke still maintained his carefree attitude. “My surname is Ouyang. What is it that you want, my friend?” he nonchalantly answered.

“I want to play with you!” Li Sheng roared.

“I want nothing better!” Ouyang Ke replied. “Please start!”

“Good!” Li Sheng shouted and moved his right hand. But just before he strike a white shadow flashed with a gust of wind. He was very shocked and leaped up immediately, but his neck was scratched nonetheless. Luckily he was swift, if not; his neck would have a hole in it.

Li Sheng was an eight-bag disciple of his clan; a highly respected position. His martial art was strong; and the beggars in Liang Zhe area came to him for advice. In short, he was one of the Beggar Clan’s elite fighters; who would have thought that he was almost injured in just one stance. His face flushed with anger and embarrassment. Without turning his body he launched his hand backward.

“He knows the ’18-dragon subduing palms’,” whispered Huang Rong to Guo Jing. Guo Jing nodded.

Ouyang Ke could see this move was fierce and did not dare to meet it frontally, he jumped sideways. By this time Li Sheng had turned his body around and stepped forward. He lifted both hands in front of his chest and with a loud cry pushed them forward.

This time it was Guo Jing who whispered into Huang Rong’s ear, “Is that move from the ‘xiao yao you quan fa’ [wandering strides fists technique]?” Huang Rong nodded; but she noticed that Li Sheng’s movement was heavy, not elegant like the ‘wandering strides’ should be executed.

Ouyang Ke saw Li Sheng’s step was steady and his hands were profound in launching wonderful moves; he did not dare to act casual and underestimated his opponent any longer. He slipped his folding fan into his waist and quick as a flash launched a counterattack toward Li Sheng’s shoulder.

Li Sheng parried with the ‘fan lai shen shou’ [begging for rice], still from the ‘wandering strides’ fists technique. Ouyang Ke parried with his left hand, which forced Li Sheng to lift his right arm; then swiftly Ouyang Ke moved toward Li Sheng’s back and stretched both hands with all fingers forming two claws attacking Li Sheng’s vital ‘bei xin’ [sleeveless garment] acupoints.

Huang Rong and Guo Jing were startled, “This move is difficult to fend off.”

By that time the rest of the Beggar Clan people had entered the hall. They saw Li Sheng was in grave danger and were rushing to help.

Li Sheng could hear the wind behind his back and felt the claws almost touching his clothes. Again he launched his hand backward using the ‘shen long bai wei’ [divine dragon swings its tail] from the ’18 Dragon-subduing Palms’. The stance came from the trigram, ‘to thread on’ which is part of the Yi Jing. The master who created the 18 subduing dragon palms actually named the stance “threading on the tiger’s tail”. It was a more powerful description as compared to “attacking the tiger from behind” because if one steps on the tiger’s tail, it will no doubt turn around and attack furiously. However, the later generation felt that this description in the Yi Jing was too soft and not pleasing to the tongue. Thus, they changed it to “the divine dragon swings its tail”.

Ouyang Ke did not dare to meet this attack head on, so he flexed his body and jumped back.

“A very close call!” Li Sheng said in his heart. He turned his body around to face his opponent again. His martial art was inferior to Ouyang Ke’s exquisite moves. They have fought thirty, forty moves and already his life was dangerously threatened five, six times. Fortunately he could always use the [divine dragon swings its tail] to get out of trouble.

“Looks like Hong Qigong only passed on this single move to him,” Huang Rong whispered to Guo Jing. Guo Jing nodded. He recalled the time when Hong Qigong passed the ‘Proud Dragon Show Remorse’ and he fought Liang Ziweng over and over using this single move. Then later on Hong Qigong taught him a total of fifteen moves; while this important figure in the Beggar Clan only knew one move. His heart swelled with gratitude toward Hong Qigong.

In the meantime Ouyang Ke had increased the intensity of his attacks, and step-by-step he forced Li Sheng toward a corner. Earlier Ouyang Ke sent his fierce attacks without any particular target, but now his moves were intended to prevent Li Sheng from turning around and launching his backward palm. Li Sheng understood his intention very well, so he worked hard to step back into the middle of the room.

Suddenly Ouyang Ke let out a long laugh; he whirled the fist straight up from below hitting Li Sheng’s chin. Li Sheng stammered in pain, he cried in alarm. He tried to stretch his hand to counterattack, but he was a split second too late. Ouyang Ke’s fist had struck its target. Li Sheng was hit five, six times on the head and chest. He felt dizzy, his body weakened, he wobbled and fell to the ground.

The Beggar Clan people rushed to help, but Ouyang Ke turned around, grabbed two of the front most attackers and threw them to the wall. They fainted immediately. The rest of the beggars did not dare to continue.

“What do you think I am to think that a bunch of stinky beggars would deceive me so easily?” Ouyang Ke sneered. He clapped his hands and two female disciples came out dragging a young woman along. Her hands were tied behind her back, her face weary, tears flowed down her cheeks; she was none other than Miss Cheng.

Everybody, including Huang Rong and Guo Jing, was shocked and baffled.

Ouyang Ke waved his hand and his disciples took Miss Cheng back inside. With a smug expression he said, “When the old beggar went into the sack, I worked downstairs inviting Miss Cheng and went back here immediately to wait for the rest of you.”

The beggars looked at each other in blank dismay, they thought this time they lost big time.

Ouyang Ke casually waved his fan and mocked, “The Beggar Clan’s name is well-known throughout the world. Today I have seen it with my own eyes, a fame that will make people laugh until their teeth fall out of their mouths! Your special skills of stealing chicken, stroking dogs, begging for food, catching snakes, I have seen them all. Now, do you still dare to mingle in your Young Master’s business? I am willing to spare this old beggar’s life, but I must take his two lights as a souvenir.” After saying that, he stretched out two fingers toward Li Sheng’s eyes.

“Hold it!” suddenly a voice called out. A man leaped into the hall and immediately sent an attack toward Ouyang Ke.

Ouyang Ke sensed the swiftness and fierceness of the attack; he moved sideways to evade, but still could not get out of the wind. His body shook and he was forced to draw back two steps. He could not help but secretly startled. “Ever since I left the western region I had fought many skilled masters; who is this man who has an unexpectedly high martial art skill?” He turned his eyes toward the newcomer and once again he was startled; since he had fought Guo Jing before at the Zhao Palace. His martial art was only average; how did his palm carry a profound strength just now?

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