“You have obviously burned the book. Did Madame Huang swap the books, and gave you the fake one?” Guo Jing asked.
“I have guarded against that possibility early on,” Zhou Botong said. “When Madame Huang looked at the book, I did not dare to leave even half a step from her side. She did not know martial art. Even if her hands and feet were swift she could not get away from us who practice secret projectiles. No, she did not make the swap; she merely recorded it I her mind!”
Guo Jing did not understand. “How did she record it?” he asked.
Zhou Botong answered his question with another, “Brother, when you are reading a book, how many times do you have to read until you committed what you read into your memory?”
“If it is easy then maybe thirty, forty times. If it is difficult or long, probably seventy, eighty times, even a hundred times. Even after I read it for more than 100 times, I still cannot guarantee its accuracy,” Guo Jing replied.
“Speaking of brain power, I am afraid you cannot be considered smart,” Zhou Botong said.
“Your Brother is dumb by nature,” Guo Jing admitted. “Doesn’t matter whether I am studying literature or martial art, I am always very slow.”
Zhou Botong sighed. “Let’s not talk about studying literature,” he said. “Just talk about practicing martial arts. When you learned a fist or palm technique, didn’t your masters have to teach you dozens of time before you could understand it?”
Guo Jing’s face was red from shame. “That’s true,” he said. “Sometimes I knew it, but couldn’t remember; sometimes I remembered it, but could not apply.”
“But there are people in the world who by simply watching other people do a stance will be able to remember it forever,” Zhou Botong said.
“Totally correct!” Guo Jing exclaimed. “Island Master Huang’s daughter is just like that. When Benevolent Master Hong taught her martial art, at most he would teach her twice, very seldom he had to repeat the lesson three times.”
“This girl is so smart,” Zhou Botong slowly said, “Let’s just hope she won’t share her mother’s short life! That day when Madame Huang borrowed my book she only read twice, yet she did not miss a single word. After we bade farewell she wrote down everything for her husband to see.”
Guo Jing could not restrain his amazement, he was silent for a while only to say, “Madame Huang did not understand what she was reading; yet she was able to memorize the whole thing. How can there be such an intelligent person on the earth?”
“I am afraid your little friend that Huang girl is also capable of doing that,” Zhou Botong said. “Anyway, after listening to Qiu Chuji I was ashamed. Immediately I summoned the Quan Zhen Sect’s seven first generation disciples to discuss this matter over. Everybody agreed we should deal with the Twin Killers of The Dark Wind to get the book back from them. Qiu Chuji said, ‘Those Twin Killers of The Dark Wind’s martial art skills may be high, but they won’t necessarily be victorious over Quan Zhen Sect’s disciples. They are your junior, Martial Uncle does not need to go into action personally; otherwise the heroes of Jianghu would say that the older generation bullied the younger one.’ I thought he was right, so I assigned one or two of them to find the Twin Killers of The Dark Wind; while the rest shadowed from the side to guard against the twin killers escaping.”
Guo Jing nodded his head in agreement, “If all the Quan Zhen Seven Masters went into action the Twin Killers of The Dark Wind wouldn’t have any chance.” His mind wandered to the time Priest Ma Yu along with his six masters masquerading as the Quan Zhen Seven Masters atop the Mongolian barren hill.
“They pursued the twin killers as far as Henan, when unexpectedly those two disappeared,” Zhou Botong continued. “The Quan Zhen Seven tried to find information, turned out another disciple of Old Heretic Huang, Lu Chengfeng had gathered dozens of heroes and valiant people of the Central Plains to fight those two with the intention of capturing them and send them back to the Peach Blossom Island and hand them over to the Old Heretic Huang. Nevertheless, they were still able to escape and vanished without a trace.”
“No wonder Village Master Lu hated his martial brother and martial sister so much; he was expelled innocently from his school,” Guo Jing said.
“Since I couldn’t find the Twin Killers of The Dark Wind, naturally I looked for Old Heretic Huang. I carried along the first volume of the Nine Yin Manual, because I was afraid I might lose this one as well. Upon arrival at the Peach Blossom Island I scolded the Old Heretic Huang, but he said, ‘Botong, Huang Yaoshi always meant what he says. I had said I wouldn’t cast a glance at your book; when did I look at your book? The Nine Yin Manual that I saw was the one recorded by my wife, certainly not your book.’ His words sounded reasonable, but I was furious, so I spoke harsh words to him and asked to talk to his wife. He smiled bitterly, and led me to the main hall. As soon as we were there I was shocked. Turned out Madame Huang had passed away. There in the main hall was her memorial tablet.
I was going to pay my respect to her spirit, but Old Heretic Huang sneered and said, ‘Old Urchin! You don’t have to be pretentious on my face. If not because of your damned ‘gou pi zhen jing’ [dog fart manual] my wife wouldn’t have left me.’ I was startled, ‘What?!?’ I asked. He didn’t answer, only looking at me with angry eyes; but then tears started rolling down his cheeks. After a long while, he started to tell me what really happened.
Initially Madame Huang recorded the book for the first time for her husband’s sake. Huang Yaoshi then found out that the book in his hands was the second volume; which was harmful to train without knowing the first volume. So he decided to set the book aside while he was trying to get hold of the first volume. Who would have thought that the book would be stolen by Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng? Madame Huang wanted to comfort her husband, so she quietly determined to rewrite the whole book.
First of all, she did not understand the meaning of what she wrote; she merely memorized the words. Secondly, it had been several years since she wrote it for the first time; how could she remember everything? At that time she was entering the eighth month of her pregnancy. After painstakingly thinking hard she was able to re-write about seven, eight thousand words, but not every word was accurate. Her heart and mind were exhausted; and because of that she gave birth to a baby girl prematurely. The baby was healthy, but her condition was like a lantern ran out of oil. Even though Huang Yaoshi’s skill was peerless, in the end, he was not able to save his beloved wife’s life.