The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 10 – Part 1

Bygone days like smoke

Wanyan Kang¹ caught sight of Yang Tiexin² so suddenly that he started, and in that shock he knew him at once. “Ah, it’s you!” he shouted. He raised the iron spear, Striding Step Mounting the Tiger, Incense Stick Pointing to the Sky, and the glittering spear-tip drove straight at Yang Tiexin’s throat.³

Bao Xiruo⁴ cried, “He is your own flesh-and-blood father. Do you… do you still not believe it?” She flung her head hard against the wall. There was a thud, and she fell to the floor.

Wanyan Kang was greatly alarmed. He turned and stepped back, lowering his spear to look at his mother. Her forehead was covered in blood and her breathing was faint. Whether she would live or die, no one could tell. The world had turned over beneath him in an instant, and for a moment he did not know what to do with his hands and feet. Yang Tiexin bent, gathered his wife up in his arms and made to burst out of the room.

Wanyan Kang shouted, “Put her down!” He stepped forward with Lone Goose Breaking Rank, his spear driving like the wind towards Yang Tiexin’s back.

Yang Tiexin heard the rush of wind behind him. His left hand swept back in a circle and caught the shaft half a foot behind the spearhead. The Yang Family Spear Technique⁵ was unbeatable on the battlefield, and the Horse-Returning Spear in particular was a peerless art passed down through generations. What Yang Tiexin did now, seizing the shaft with his left hand, was half a move, the third variation of the Horse-Returning Spear. Done in full, he would never wait for the enemy to wrench the weapon back. His right hand would already be driving a spear into the man’s face. But now his right arm was cradling Bao Xiruo. He turned and roared, “This spear-move the Yang family passes to sons, not to daughters. I daresay your shifu never taught it to you.”

Qiu Chuji’s⁶ martial arts were formidable, yet he had never made a deep study of the spear. In the Song dynasty the Yang Family Spear Technique was widespread in the jianghu,⁷ but nine times out of ten it was not the true lineage. What Qiu Chuji knew of the orthodox Yang Family Spear Technique was roughly what he had seen years ago when he tested spears with Yang Tiexin in the snow at Niu Family Village.⁸ The secret moves the Yang family had handed down from generation to generation were, after all, beyond his knowledge.

Sure enough, Wanyan Kang did not know the move. He froze for an instant, and both men heaved at once. The iron spear was old, its shaft long since rotten, and with a crack it snapped clean through at the middle.

Guo Jing⁹ leapt forward and shouted, “You’ve seen your own father. Aren’t you going to kowtow?” Wanyan Kang stood irresolute. Yang Tiexin had already burst out of the house with his wife in his arms. Mu Nianci¹⁰ was waiting outside the wall of the prince’s estate, and as soon as father and daughter had found each other they fled far away.

Guo Jing dared not linger. He ran out of the house and was about to vault the wall after them when a fierce gust of wind came out of the darkness at the crown of his head. He ducked. The palm-wind grazed the tip of his nose, and his face stung as though a knife had scraped it. The force in that palm was fearsome, and it had come without the faintest sound. He had had no warning of it at all. He was aghast. Then he heard the man roar, “You stupid brat, I’ve been waiting here for ages! Stick your neck out and let me suck your blood!” It was none other than the Ginseng Old Eccentric, Liang Ziweng.¹¹

---

Huang Rong¹² heard Peng Lianhu¹³ say she was a disciple of the Twin Evils of Dark Wind¹⁴ and laughed, “You’ve lost!” She turned and walked towards the hall door.

Peng Lianhu darted across the doorway to block it. “Since you’re from the Twin Evils of Dark Wind, I won’t make things hard for you. But you’ll have to tell me straight. What did your shifu send you here for?”

Huang Rong smiled. “You said if you couldn’t identify my school in ten moves, you’d let me go. A great grown man like you, how can you go back on your word like this?”

Peng Lianhu was furious. “That last move of yours, Spirit Ao Steps, wasn’t that from the Twin Evils of Dark Wind?”

Huang Rong laughed. “I’ve never laid eyes on the Twin Evils of Dark Wind. Besides, their paltry little skills, how could they be worthy to be my shifu?”

Peng Lianhu said, “Denying it won’t help you.”

Huang Rong said, “I have heard of the Twin Evils of Dark Wind, I must admit. All I know is that the pair of them outrage Heaven and reason, stop at no wickedness, betrayed their shifu and their lineage, and prey on decent folk. They are the shameless scum of the wulin.¹⁵ Stronghold Chief Peng, how can you lump me in with two vile wretches like that?”

At first the onlookers had assumed she was refusing to tell the truth. But when they heard her revile the Twin Evils of Dark Wind so thoroughly, they looked at one another, and only then believed she could not be of the Twin Evils’ school. They all knew that a person might dare to tell the most outrageous lie under heaven, but no one would ever dare to revile his own teachers in public.

Peng Lianhu stepped aside. “Little girl, you win. Old Peng is impressed. May I ask your name?”

Huang Rong gave a radiant smile. “You flatter me. My name is Rong-er.”

“And your surname?”

“That I can’t tell you. I’m surnamed neither Peng nor Sha.”

---

By this time everyone in the pavilion, apart from Venerable Lingzhi¹⁶ and Ouyang Ke,¹⁷ had lost to her. Lingzhi was gravely wounded and could not move. Only if Ouyang Ke took a hand could she be stopped, and every eye turned to him.

Ouyang Ke stepped forward slowly and smiled. “Unworthy as I am, I should like to ask the young lady for a few moves.”

Huang Rong took in his all-white attire and asked, “Those pretty girls on the camels, do they all belong to your household?”

Ouyang Ke laughed. “You’ve seen them, then? All of them put together wouldn’t come up to half your beauty.”

Huang Rong blushed faintly. It pleased her to hear her looks praised, and she said, “At least you’re not as unreasonable as all those old men.”

Ouyang Ke’s martial arts were outstanding. Backed by his uncle’s patronage, he had roamed the Western Regions unchecked for years.¹⁸ He was lecherous by nature and had spent years sending men to gather beauties from every quarter as concubines. Quite a few of these were Han women from the interior. During idle hours he taught them martial arts, so that these concubines also counted as his female disciples. This time, invited by the Prince of Zhao to Yanjing, he had brought twenty-four concubines with him, each dressed as a man in white and riding a camel. Because they were numerous and all skilled in martial arts, they travelled in batches. Eight of them had encountered the Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan and Guo Jing on the road. Hearing Zhu Cong speak of the blood-sweating steed’s origin, they had plotted to seize it as a gift for Ouyang Ke, but failed. Two of the group had been killed on the way.

Ouyang Ke considered his harem of concubines the finest beauties under heaven. Not even the harems of the Jin and Song emperors could match them, he was sure. Yet here in the Prince of Zhao’s estate he had met Huang Rong. Her eyes glanced and sparkled like autumn water, her soft cheeks seemed ready to flush, and though she was still very young, she was the loveliest girl he had ever seen in his life. Beside her his own women were so much dung. While she had been fighting the others his soul had already drifted out of him, and now, hearing her sweet voice and gentle words, his heart itched and his bones went soft, and he could not say a word.

Huang Rong said, “I’m leaving now. If they try to stop me again, will you help me?”

Ouyang Ke smiled. “I’ll help you, gladly, but you must take me as your shifu and stay with me forever.”

“Even if I took you as my shifu, I wouldn’t have to stay with you forever!”

“My disciples aren’t like other people’s. They’re all women, and they stay by my side forever. One call from me and they all come.”

Huang Rong tilted her head and smiled. “I don’t believe it.”

Ouyang Ke gave a whistle. In moments, white shapes flickered and more than twenty women in white entered through the door, tall, short, plump, thin, but all identically dressed, each of them lithe and graceful, with a seductive smile. They lined up behind Ouyang Ke. The concubines had been waiting outside the hall. Peng Lianhu and the others gazed until their eyes swam, heartily envying him his talent for pleasure.

Huang Rong had provoked him into summoning his women, hoping to slip away in the confusion. But Ouyang Ke saw through her intention. Once the concubines had entered, he immediately blocked the door. Waving his folding fan gently, he eyed Huang Rong sidelong in the red candlelight, debonair and thoroughly pleased with himself. The twenty-two concubines had fallen back behind him, and every one of them was staring at Huang Rong. Some were abashed by their own inferiority. Others burned with jealousy. They knew that a girl this lovely, once she had caught the Young Master Shifu’s eye, would surely become one of his “female disciples”, and that they themselves would never again enjoy his favour. With the twenty-two of them standing behind him like a pair of folding screens, it was all the harder for Huang Rong to break out through the door.

Huang Rong saw her plan had failed. “If your skill is truly remarkable, I’d be very happy to take you as shifu, so that no one else can bully me.”

Ouyang Ke said, “Do you want to test me, then?”

“That’s right.”

“Very well. Come at me. Don’t be afraid. I won’t strike back.”

“What? You can beat me without striking back?”

Ouyang Ke laughed. “If you hit me I’ll be only too delighted. How could I bear to hit back?”

Everyone laughed inwardly at his flippancy, yet they were puzzled too, and thought, This girl’s martial arts are no weak thing. Even if you’re ten times better than she is, how can you beat her without lifting a hand? Do you know sorcery?

“I don’t believe you’ll really keep your hands off,” Huang Rong said. “I’m going to tie both your hands.”

Ouyang Ke undid his sash and handed it to her. He folded his hands behind his back and walked up to her. Huang Rong saw that he was utterly confident and did not take her seriously at all. Her face still wore a smile, but inside she grew more and more alarmed. She was at a loss for a plan and thought, I’ll just have to take it one step at a time. She took the sash and wrenched it outward with both hands to snap it. It seemed to be woven of gold thread, and even with her neili¹⁹ behind the pull she could not break it. So she bound his hands tightly behind him and said, with a smile, “How does one lose? How does one win?”

Ouyang Ke stretched out his right foot and set its toe to the floor. Pivoting on his left foot, with his feet three feet apart, he turned once on the spot, and his right toe scored a shallow circle on the brick floor, six feet across, its line the same width all the way round, neat and true, about half an inch deep. To draw such a circle at all was no easy thing, and the force he could put through his feet was such that even Sha Tongtian and Peng Lianhu were impressed.

Ouyang Ke stepped into the circle. “Whoever is pushed out of the circle loses.”

Huang Rong said, “What if we both end up outside the circle?”

“Then call it my loss.”

“And if you lose, you won’t chase me or block me again?”

“Naturally. But if I push you out of the circle, you’ll have to come with me like a good girl. All these seniors here are witnesses.”

“Very well!” Huang Rong stepped into the circle. Her left palm launched Returning Wind Brushing the Willows, her right palm Galaxy in the Sky, the left light and the right heavy, hard and soft woven together, both palms flying out at once.

Ouyang Ke leaned a little to one side, but he did not escape the blows. Both palms struck his shoulder and back. The instant Huang Rong’s palm-force met his body, she knew something was wrong. Ouyang Ke’s neigong was profound. When he said he would not strike back, he truly did not. But he borrowed her force and turned it. The moment her palm-force reached him, an equal measure of force rebounded. Huang Rong could barely keep her footing and nearly tumbled out of the circle. She dared not risk a second strike. She took a few steps about the circle and announced in a clear voice, “I’m leaving now, but you didn’t push me out of the circle. You can’t leave the circle to chase me. You said so just now. If we both leave the circle, you lose.”

Ouyang Ke was taken aback. Huang Rong had already walked slowly out of the circle. Fearing he might change his mind, she quickened her pace. The gold ring in her hair flashed, her white tunic fluttered, and she was already at the door.

Ouyang Ke cried inwardly, I’ve been tricked! But bound by his own words, he could not give chase. Sha Tongtian, Peng Lianhu and the rest, seeing Huang Rong tie up Ouyang Ke with yet another trick, clutched their bellies with laughter.

Huang Rong was about to step through the door when suddenly she heard a rush of wind overhead. Something huge was dropping out of the air in front of her. She dodged aside, afraid of being crushed beneath it, and saw that what had come down was the tall monk, still sitting in his armchair. He wore a red robe, and even seated he stood half a head taller than she did. He had leapt across chair and all, as though the chair were glued to him.

Footnotes

1. 完颜康 — Wányán Kāng. See Wuxia Wiki (spoiler). ↩

2. 杨铁心 — Yáng Tiěxīn. His name meaning “iron heart”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 铁枪 — tiě qiāng. Yang Tiexin’s iron spear, the Yang family’s hereditary weapon. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 包惜弱 — Bāo Xīruò. Her name meaning “cherishing the weak”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 杨家枪法 — Yángjiā Qiāngfǎ. Literally Yang family spear method. The hereditary spear art of the Yang family of generals. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 丘处机 — Qiū Chǔjī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 江湖 — jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The world of martial artists, outside mainstream society. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 牛家村 — Niújiā Cūn. Literally Niu Family Village. A village outside Lin’an. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 郭靖 — Guō Jìng. His name meaning “to pacify”; paired with Yang Kang’s 康 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 穆念慈 — Mù Niàncí. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 梁子翁 — Liáng Zǐwēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 黄蓉 — Huáng Róng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 彭连虎 — Péng Liánhǔ. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 黑风双煞 — Hēifēng Shuāngshà. Literally twin evils of the dark wind. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 武林 — wǔlín. Literally martial forest. Those who actually practise, teach or study martial arts. The wulin sits inside the jianghu and is narrower than it: every member of the wulin belongs to the jianghu, but a pedlar or physician of the jianghu who never trained is no part of the wulin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 灵智上人 — Língzhì Shàngrén. Literally the venerable of spiritual wisdom. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 欧阳克 — Ōuyáng Kè. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 叔父 — shūfù. Paternal uncle, a father’s younger brother. ↩

19. 内力 — nèilì. Literally internal force. The kinetic manifestation of cultivated qi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩