The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 13 – Part 7

Lu Guanying had known from the start that the skull’s arrival was no ordinary matter, but he was skilled and bold, and as the master of the heroes of Lake Tai¹ he did not think such a trifle worth his concern. To see his father so terrified, his face gone white with fear, took him wholly by surprise. He said hurriedly, “It was delivered just now, left in a box. The manor hands took it for an ordinary gift. They gave the messenger his tip and never asked further. When they took it to the accounts room and opened the box, this was inside. By the time they went to find the man who delivered it, he was gone. Father, what do you make of it?”

The Manor Master did not answer. He reached into the five holes atop the skull and tested them. His five fingers fitted each hole precisely.

Lu Guanying cried in alarm, “Could these five holes have been made by fingers alone? Such finger strength?”

The Manor Master nodded. After a long moment of thought, he said, “Have the servants pack our valuables. Escort your mother at once to the Northern Manor in Wuxi. Send word to every stockade chief: confine all men to their posts. For three days, no one is to leave his stockade. Whatever they see happen to Returning Clouds Manor,² whether it burns or is surrounded, none are to come to its aid.”

Lu Guanying was astonished. “Father, what is all this for?”

The Manor Master gave a bleak smile and turned to Guo Jing and Huang Rong. “We met by chance, like duckweed on the water, and we took to each other at once. I had hoped to keep you a good many days more. But years ago I made two deadly enemies, and they are about to come for their revenge. It is not that this humble one is unwilling to keep you longer. Returning Clouds Manor faces a great… a great calamity. If by good fortune I escape with my life, we shall meet again some day. But… but that hope is slim indeed.” He shook his head with a bitter smile. He turned to his page boy. “Bring fifty liang³ of gold.” The boy went to fetch it. Lu Guanying did not dare press further questions and went to carry out his father’s orders.

Before long, the page boy returned with the gold. Manor Master Lu presented it to Guo Jing with both hands. “The young lady with you is as gifted as she is beautiful. You two are a match made in Heaven, Brother Guo. Please accept this small gift as a wedding present for the day you two marry.”

Colour rushed to Huang Rong’s face. She thought, This man’s eyes are sharp indeed. He saw long ago that I am a girl. But how does he know that Jing gege and I are not yet married? Guo Jing, being no hand at polite refusals, could only give thanks and take the gold.

The Manor Master picked up a porcelain vial from beside the table and tipped out several dozen vermilion pills onto a sheet of cotton paper for the two to see. “I have no other accomplishment. Years ago, my shifu taught me something of medicine and pharmacy. These pills cost me some labour to compound, and they will lengthen one’s years. Since we have come to know each other, please take them as a small token of my regard.”

When the pills spilled out, a clear fragrance filled the air. Huang Rong caught the scent and knew at once that they were Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills.⁴ She had once helped her father gather the morning dew from the petals of nine different flowers, and she knew that compounding these pills required the confluence of season and weather, vast labour, and ingredients many of them rare and precious. Several dozen pills of this kind represented a debt of gratitude beyond measure. She said, “The Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill is not easily made. We would be most grateful to accept two each, no more.”

The Manor Master started slightly. “How does the young lady know the name of these pills?”

“When I was small, I was sickly,” Huang Rong replied. “An eminent monk gave me three pills, which proved most efficacious. That is how I came to know of them.”

Manor Master Lu placed the pills back in the vial, screwed the lid tight, and wrapped the outside in two sheets of foil, handling them with the utmost care. He gave a bleak smile. “There is no need to decline. Keeping them would be no use to me anyway.” Huang Rong saw that he was already resolved to die. She said no more and accepted them with repeated thanks.

The Manor Master said, “A boat is ready. I beg you cross the lake at once. Whatever strange sounds or sights you meet on the way, pay them no heed!” His tone was grave.

Guo Jing was about to protest that he would stay and help, but Huang Rong was signalling at him from the corner of her eye. He could only nod his assent.

Huang Rong said, “I must be so bold as to ask one thing.”

“Please, go on,” said the Manor Master.

“If you know that a dangerous enemy is coming to seek revenge, and you cannot match him, why not avoid him? As the saying goes, a junzi does not walk into a loss staring him in the face.”

The Manor Master sighed. “These two have made me suffer cruelly! This half-paralysis of mine was their gift. For years I have been unable to walk, let alone seek them out and settle the account. Now they come to my door of their own accord. Whatever the cost, I will fight them to the death. Moreover, they were faithless and ungrateful to my shifu. My own grudge ranks second. The great debt of the shimen⁵ cannot go unpaid. I do not expect to defeat them. I only mean to fight until we perish together. That, at least, would repay something of my shifu’s kindness to me.”

Huang Rong thought, Why does he speak of two? Ah, of course. He thinks the Copper Corpse, Chen Xuanfeng,⁶ is still alive. I wonder how he came to be enemies with those two? But that is his misfortune, and not for me to pry into.

Lu Guanying entered the room and said in a low voice, “The orders have been sent. But the four stockade chiefs Zhang, Gu, Wang and Tan refuse to go, whatever we say. They say they would stay at Returning Clouds Manor even if their heads were cut off.”

The Manor Master sighed. “How rare, to find such loyalty! Take our honoured guests away at once.”

Huang Rong and Guo Jing took their leave of Manor Master Lu with formal courtesy. Lu Guanying escorted them from the manor. The manor hands had already led the little red horse and a second mount aboard the boat. Guo Jing whispered in Huang Rong’s ear, “Shall we board?”

Huang Rong whispered back, “We will go a way, then come back.”

They were about to step aboard when Huang Rong caught sight, at the far end of the lakeshore, of a figure striding swiftly towards them. Atop his head he balanced a great vat. The sight was deeply strange.

The man walked without pause. Guo Jing and Lu Guanying saw him too. As he drew near, they made out an old man with a grizzled beard, wearing a short yellow kudzu shirt, waving a great palm-leaf fan in his right hand, walking briskly and lightly. The vat was plainly cast from pig iron and looked to weigh several hundred jin.⁷ He passed Lu Guanying as if the party did not exist, giving them no notice at all. A few steps on, his body swayed slightly, and water sloshed over the rim of the vat. It was full of clear water. That added another hundred or two hundred jin of weight. He bore such a vat upon his head as though it were nothing. His martial arts were truly beyond the ordinary.

Lu Guanying’s heart lurched, and he thought, Could this man be my father’s enemy? Heedless of the danger, he ran after him.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong exchanged a glance and followed behind. Guo Jing had heard his six shifus tell of the contest at the Drunken Immortal Wineshop in Jiaxing, when Qiu Chuji had balanced a bronze vat on his palm. By the gestures his shifus had used to describe it, that bronze vat had plainly been smaller than this iron one. Could the man before them surpass even Changchunzi⁸ Qiu Chuji in martial arts?

The old man walked a li⁹ or more and came to the bank of a small river. The ground around was a scatter of random graves. Lu Guanying thought, There is no bridge here. Let’s see whether he goes east along the river or west. The thought had barely formed when Lu Guanying was struck dumb with astonishment. The old man walked across the surface of the river without breaking stride. His body was steady, the water reaching only to his calves. On the far bank he set the great iron vat down among the tall grass by the hillside, leapt back onto the water, and walked back step by step.

Both Huang Rong and Guo Jing had heard their elders speak of the martial arts of the various schools. Never had they heard of anyone walking on water with an iron vat on his head. Even to walk on duckweed without any burden was surely just a tall tale. How could such martial arts truly exist in this world? To see it now filled them with boundless admiration.

The old man stroked his white beard and laughed aloud. “You must be Young Manor Master Lu, chief of the heroes of Lake Tai?”

Lu Guanying bowed. “I am unworthy of the honour. May I ask your honoured name, Uncle?” He judged the man to be a little older than his father, and so called him Uncle.

The old man pointed at Guo Jing and Huang Rong. “And you two young men, come over here as well.”

Lu Guanying turned and saw Guo Jing and Huang Rong behind him, mildly surprised. The two had used their fine qinggong to follow in silence, and Lu Guanying, wholly focused on the old man, had not noticed them.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong knelt and said together, “We pay our respects to you, Uncle.”

The old man chuckled. “None of that, none of that.” He turned to Lu Guanying. “This is no place for conversation. Let us find somewhere to sit.”

Lu Guanying wondered, Is this man my father’s enemy or not? He went straight to the point. “Do you know my father, Uncle?”

“Manor Master Lu? I have never had the pleasure.”

Lu Guanying judged that he was not lying. “My father received a strange gift today. Do you know anything of it, Uncle?”

“What strange gift?”

“The skull of a dead man, with five holes in the top.”

The old man said, “That is strange indeed. Could someone be playing a joke on your honourable father?”

Lu Guanying thought, This man’s martial arts are beyond fathoming. If he meant my father harm, he would come openly to the door. Why lie? If he truly does not know, why not invite him to the manor? If he is willing to lend his hand, no enemy is too fierce to face. His face brightened. “If you would not think it beneath you, Uncle, please come to our humble manor for tea.”

The old man considered briefly. “Very well.”

Lu Guanying was delighted and respectfully invited the old man to lead the way.

The old man pointed at Guo Jing. “These two young men are from your manor as well?”

“They are my father’s friends,” said Lu Guanying.

The old man said no more and strode on proudly, with Guo Jing and Huang Rong following behind. They reached Returning Clouds Manor, where Lu Guanying seated the old man in the front hall and ran within to inform his father.

Before long, Manor Master Lu was carried out on his bamboo couch by two household men. He offered a bow to the old man. “I did not know an eminent guest had graced my door. Forgive my failure to welcome you properly.”

The old man inclined his head slightly and did not return the courtesy. “Manor Master Lu need not stand on ceremony.”

“May I ask your honoured name, Uncle?”

“This old man is surnamed Qiu, and his given name is Qianren.”

Manor Master Lu exclaimed, “Could you be Esteemed Senior Qiu, whom the jianghu¹⁰ calls Iron Palm Skims the Water?”¹¹

Qiu Qianren smiled faintly. “You have a good memory, to remember that old nickname. I have not walked the jianghu for many a year. I dare say everyone else has long since forgotten it!”

The name “Iron Palm Skims the Water” had once carried great weight in the jianghu. Manor Master Lu knew this man to be the Chief of Iron Palm Keep¹² in Hunan, who had once lorded it over Sichuan and Hunan. Then, for some reason no one knew, he had suddenly sheathed his jian and withdrawn from the world. The years had passed, and the younger generation of the jianghu knew nothing of him. That he should appear now, unheralded, filled him with both alarm and suspicion.

“Esteemed Senior Qiu, what brings you to our humble corner? If there is anything this junior can do for you, I am at your service.”

Qiu Qianren stroked his beard and laughed. “Nothing of great moment. It is simply that this old man has a soft heart and worldly ties not yet severed… Well, I should like to borrow a quiet place to practise my art for a while. We can talk at leisure this evening.”

The Manor Master saw no malice in his manner but could not set his mind at ease. “Esteemed Senior, did you meet the Twin Evils of Dark Wind¹³ on the road?”

“The Twin Evils of Dark Wind? Those wicked ghosts aren’t dead yet?”

The Manor Master heard these two sentences and felt his heart lift greatly. “Ying-er, show Esteemed Senior Qiu to my study to rest.”

Qiu Qianren nodded to each of them and followed Lu Guanying towards the rear.

Footnotes

1. 太湖 — Tàihú. Literally great lake. Lake Tai, on the border of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. See Wikipedia. ↩

2. 归云庄 — Guīyún Zhuāng. Literally returning clouds manor. The Lu family manor on Lake Tai. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 两 — liǎng. A traditional unit of weight, one-sixteenth of a jin, and the unit in which silver was reckoned. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 九花玉露丸 — Jiǔhuā Yùlù Wán. Huang Yaoshi’s elixir, compounded with the dew of nine kinds of flower and hard to make. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 师门 — shīmén. Literally the teacher’s gate. The house of one’s shifu: the master, the fellow disciples, and the rules and obligations binding them. ↩

6. 铜尸 — Tóngshī. Literally copper corpse. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 斤 — jīn. A unit of weight, about 590 grams in the Song dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 长春子 — Chángchūnzǐ. Literally master of eternal spring. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 里 — lǐ. A traditional unit of distance, about 500 metres or one-third of a mile. ↩

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

11. 铁掌水上飘 — Tiězhǎng Shuǐshàng Piāo. Literally iron palm floating on water. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 铁掌帮 — Tiězhǎng Bāng. Literally iron palm guild. Qiu Qianren’s sect, renowned for its palm techniques. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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