The Legend of the Condor Heroes – Chapter 27

Guo Jing thought, “If the eight of them fight together, they will be difficult to block; I must overthrow some of them first.” Recognizing the two beggars, fat and skinny, who met Yang Kang at the Ox Village his left hand snatched the rope he untied from Huang Rong’s body; then with a ‘duan jing pan ta’ [breaking shins coiling strike] the rope swept like a whip. It was from the ‘jin long bian fa’ [golden dragon whip technique] he learned from Ma Wang Shen [horse god, lit. divine horse king] Han Baoju. The move was the same, but his internal energy had advanced tremendously, so the power carried by the whip was also increased.

The fat and skinny beggars saw the steel rope come sweeping, they quickly leaped away to evade. Guo Jing turned the steel rope into a wall, blocking their front, left and rear sides, leaving the right side open. The fat and skinny beggars were actually on this right side, while the other six beggars were blocked by the rope wall, so they could not attack. The two beggars saw the opportunity and pounced forward immediately, only to hear Jian Zhanglao anxiously call out, “Don’t attack!” But it was too late; Guo Jing’s palm moved like the wind, ‘Slap! Slap!’ he struck the two beggars’ shoulders. The two beggars flew out toward the group of black-dressed Iron Palm Clan’s men.

Although these two beggars were struck by the same force, since one was fat and the other skinny, the effect was not the same; the fat one fell near, while the skinny one flew out further. ‘Bang! Bang!’ they knocked down two men in black.

Originally Qiu Qianren only stood on the side watching the fight, he also thought little of the two beggars flying away; but as he heard the sound of the collision he was startled. “If they didn’t die, our men must be injured.” He rushed forward but saw the fat and skinny beggars leap to stand up, without suffering any injuries. The Iron Palm Clan men on the other hand, suffered broken bones; they crawled on the ground. Qiu Qianren was angry; he was about to turn around when suddenly he heard a strong wind on his back, two other eight-bag Beggar Clan disciples were flung by Guo Jing’s palm strength.

Qiu Qianren knew that Guo Jing transmitted his energy in such a way that it was heavy in a distant and light nearby; the Beggar Clan disciples only suffer light force, while the ones they bumped actually bear the brunt of the energy. Immediately he pushed and redirected one beggar to an empty space, and then with a grunt both of his palms struck toward the other beggar’s back. This time he was using his life-long cultivated Iron Palm energy. If his strength exceeded Guo Jing’s, then not only he could counteract the incoming force, but he could also inflict heavy injury to the beggar; otherwise, even if he would not suffer injury, he would certainly be knocked down backwards.

The Beggar Clan’s Four Elders and Huang Rong knew that in this pair of palms Qiu Qianren was staking it all to compete head-to-head against Guo Jing; the stake between victory and defeat was not small. They were watching with rapt attention. But as the palms thrust out, the eight-bag disciple flew another ‘zhang’, and then lightly landed on the ground. He was at a loss for a moment before turning around and went back to face Guo Jing. Surprisingly he did not suffer any injury at all.

In one hand the Four Elders of the Beggar Clan found out that Guo Jing’s martial art was about the same level with Qiu Qianren’s; perhaps Guo Jing was somewhat inferior, but the difference was not too much. They were astonished and scared. On the other hand Huang Rong was even more surprised, she thought, “This Old Swindler’s martial art is just ordinary, how can he block Jing Gege’s palm strength? He was obviously using real power, not some crafty trick. He is really difficult to predict.”

With this one move Qiu Qianren had tested Guo Jing’s true skill. In term of internal energy cultivation he was still superior to Guo Jing by half a notch; but it was difficult to say whether this kid was a friend or a foe of the Beggar Clan. Qiu Qianren was in a dangerous place. It was not worthwhile to continue fighting; hence he waved his right hand and took the Iron Palm Clan people to leave that place.

The martial art of the eight-bag disciples of the Beggar Clan was more or less at the same level with Yin Zhiping, Yang Kang and their peers. Guo Jing had knocked down four people. Although one came back to join the fight, how could these five beggars resist to the power of Guo Jing’s Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms combined with mysterious variations of the Big Dipper Formation? If not due to the fact that Guo Jing looked up to his Shifu’s face, these five beggars would have been already dead or heavily injured.

A dozen moves later he struck down two more beggars with his palm strength. The other three beggars did not dare to attack; they turned away to run. Guo Jing wielded the steel rope in his left hand and swept two beggars’ ankles, pulling them near him.

“Tie them down!” Huang Rong said. Guo Jing took the steel rope and tied the hands and feet of these two beggars behind their backs.

Seeing him reaping a big victory Huang Rong was astonished and delighted. She wanted to capture that smiling face beggar, Peng Zhanglao, who held them prisoner earlier. She recalled her Shifu had once said that in Jianghu there was a method of influencing the mind, capable to make someone suddenly fall asleep so that that person could be manipulated, incapable of resisting. She believed this Peng Zhanglao had actually used this kind of hypnotics to them. “Jing Gege,” she asked, “is there any ‘she xin fa’ [method to influence other people’s mind, lit. intimidating heart/mind technique] in the Nine Yin Manual?”

“No …” Guo Jing replied.

Huang Rong was quite disappointed, she whispered, “Guard against that smiling face beggar, don’t look into his eyes.”

Guo Jing nodded, “I want to beat this fellow to vent my anger!” he said, then he propped Huang Rong’s body up and they stood up together. Guo Jing stared at Yang Kang and walked toward him in big strides.

Yang Kang had seen Guo Jing’s impressive power when he fought the crowd of beggars, he was anxious and restless. He was hoping that the crowd of beggars would win by sheer numbers, but unexpectedly they retreated in defeat, now Guo Jing was coming towards him. How could he keep his life if Guo Jing got hold of him? In his fright he called out, “Four Elders, we have so many heroes and warriors over here, how can we let this mad little thief do as he will?” His mouth was shouting anxiously, his legs were not slow either; he quickly hid behind Jian Zhanglao.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13