“His father gave his consent, that’s good. It’s none of our business,” Zhou Botong said.
“I can’t do that,” Guo Jing said, “Rong’er early on has promised to be with me. She must be insanely anxious right now.”
“If you take a wife, there are some martial arts you cannot practice. It will be too bad,” Zhou Botong said. “I … I feel deep remorse that I didn’t listen to a good advice. Good Brother, listen to my advice: you’d better not to take a wife.”
Guo Jing thought the more Zhou Botong spoke, the more unreasonable he became; that made Guo Jing more concerned than ever. Zhou Botong continued, “If I haven’t lost my virginity and could not practice my martial brother’s fiercest martial arts, how could Old Heretic Huang imprison me in this confounded hole? You see, your thought is focused on your wife, your heart is divided, I am sure today’s martial art practice will not get you anywhere. If you really marry Old Heretic Huang’s girl, ay! That will be too bad! If only I … ay! Never mind that. In short, if you let yourself get entangled in an affair with a woman, you won’t reach the pinnacle of perfection. Moreover, you will offend your friend and disobey your martial brother; yet it is very difficult for you to forget her. Wonder how she is … Anyway, don’t ever see her pretty face, don’t ever caress her beautiful body, and don’t teach her sealing acupoints technique, because then she would feel your body to find those acupoints. Those are great taboos … worse yet, don’t ever ask her to marry you … ”
To Guo Jing Zhou Botong was just mumbling illogically; it was troublesome. “Whether I marry her or not, we’ll sort that out later,” he said, “Big Brother, we have to help her now.”
Zhou Botong laughed, “Western Poison is very evil, his nephew must not be different. Old Heretic Huang’s daughter is pretty, but she must have the same character as Old Heretic Huang: perverted mind. Let Western Poison’s nephew take her to be his wife; let them both suffer, let their martial arts not going anywhere; that way we kill two birds with one stone. No, more precisely: lose two birds with one stone. Nothing good is found in either one of them. Don’t you think this is a good idea?”
Guo Jing sighed and walked to the woods, sat on the ground. His heart was jumbled, “Even if I have to die on the Peach Blossom Island’s pathways, I must find her,” he thought.
Once his mind was set he leaped up to start moving. At that moment he heard two loud calls from the sky, and two white shadows swooping down toward him. They were the white condors Tuolei brought from the desert. Guo Jing was delighted; he extended his arm to let the condors perch. Only then did he see a bamboo tube tied up on the male condor’s foot. Hastily he loosened it and found a letter inside. It was Huang Rong writing to him. She told him the latest development; how the Western Poison would arrive in a few days to arrange the betrothal; how her father had strictly guarded her, not letting her to get out of her quarter even for half a step, including preparing food for Guo Jing. In the end she said that if she could not get away from all these, she would commit suicide to show her love to him. She also told Guo Jing that the pathways on the island were dangerous: they were mysterious and full of booby traps, so she warned Guo Jing not to try to find her.
Guo Jing was dumbstruck. He pulled out his dagger and carved these six characters on the bamboo tube, ‘yi qi huo, yi qi si’ [live together, die together]; then he tied the tube back on the condor’s leg and raised his arm pointing north. The condors circled him several times then they flew north.
Once he made decision his heart was calm. He walked back to Zhou Botong, sat on the ground in front of him and listened to him imparted more lessons in martial arts.
The next ten days passed without any word from Huang Rong. Guo Jing had managed to memorize the first volume in its entirety. Zhou Botong was secretly delighted; he proceeded with reciting the second volume for Guo Jing to memorize. Again, he did not give any example or instruction on how to train them, for fear that Guo Jing would see through his scheme. Guo Jing diligently studied and committed each and every one of them in his memory. Several hundreds times of reciting later he had both the first and second volumes down pat in his mind; including all the gibberish words such as ‘ang li na de’ and ‘ha hu wen bo ying’ [translator’s note: these characters don’t make logical sentences, so I leave them as they are]. He did not miss a single word.
Listening to Guo Jing Zhou Botong’s heart was full of admiration. “This dumb kid can actually memorize the entire dumb martial arts manual. Old Urchin salutes him.”
That night the sky was clear, the sea was calm, reflecting the bright silver moon shining over the island. Zhou Botong just finished checking on Guo Jing’s progress. He found out that Guo Jing had made tremendous advancement in his martial art without even realizing it. He was very happy, thinking that the manual really did contain profound martial arts techniques. He thought that if he were to train with the book, he would eventually surpassed Huang Yaoshi and Hong Qigong.
Two people were sitting on the ground, idly chatting when suddenly they heard rustling noise coming from a distance. Zhou Botong jumped in alarm, “Snake!” he cried. He just closed his mouth when the hissing sound reached their ears. It sounded like there were a flock of snakes coming their way.
Zhou Botong’s face turned pale, he dashed into cave. He was a courageous man, his martial art might be superb, but not when facing snakes. Guo Jing immediately pushed some big rocks and covered the cave entrance.
“Big Brother,” he said, “I’ll go take a look. Don’t come out.”
“Be careful and return quickly,” Zhou Botong answered. “I’ll say you don’t need to take a look. What’s so attractive about vipers? How … how can there be so many snakes in this island? I have lived here for fifteen years and haven’t seen a single snake. Look how bad this island has become! Old Heretic Huang always boasts his vast knowledge and resourcefulness but look how dirty this Peach Blossom Island has become. Sea turtles, vipers, centipedes, and all kind of creepy-crawlies are coming over.”