The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 14 – Part 3

Qiu Qianren stamped his feet against the bottom of the vat, trying to leap out, but she gave him a light jab on the shoulder with her steel stab and he fell back in. He poked his head out, dripping, and said with a pained face, “That vat was made of thin sheet iron, sealed over at the mouth, with four inches of water on top. As for the stream, I’d driven stakes into the bed beforehand, their tops seven or eight inches under the surface, so… so you couldn’t see them.” Huang Rong roared with laughter, went back into the hall and took her seat, and paid him no more attention. Qiu Qianren jumped out of the vat and hurried away, head down.

All that weeping and laughing had already taken much of the edge off Mei Chaofeng’s and Lu Chengfeng’s thirst for revenge and blood. Now they knew their shifu¹ was not dead, and they were glad. And with their little shimei² giggling and gesturing her way through the tale of Qiu Qianren, how could they keep up their grim faces and harden their hearts? Mei Chaofeng was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, “Lu Chengfeng, let my disciple go, and for Shifu’s sake we’ll let bygones be bygones. You drove my husband and me to Mongolia… ah, it was all fated.”

Lu Chengfeng heaved a long sigh and thought, Her husband is dead and her eyes are blind, and she is alone in the world. My legs are crippled, but I have a wife and a son, a home and an estate. I am a hundred times better off than she is. We are none of us young any more. Why rake up old grudges? So he said, “Take your disciple with you, then. Mei shijie,³ tomorrow I set out for Peach Blossom Island to visit Shifu. Will you come?”

Mei Chaofeng’s voice trembled. “You dare go?”

“Going to Peach Blossom Island without Shifu’s leave is a grave breach of the rules,” Lu Chengfeng replied. “But after all the lies old Qiu spouted just now, I can’t stop thinking about Shifu. I can’t set my mind at rest, and I’m sick with worry.”

Huang Rong said, “We’ll all go and see Father together, and I’ll plead for you.”

Mei Chaofeng stood dazed for a moment, and two lines of tears rolled down her cheeks. “How could I ever face him again? Shifu took pity on me, alone in the world, and taught me and raised me, and I, with a wolf’s heart, betrayed the shimen.⁴ I am lower than a beast… Every day I think of Shifu and pray that he is strong and well, and all I wish is that he would kill me with one blow of his palm…” Suddenly, smack, smack, she struck herself twice across the face, hard, and cried fiercely, “Once my husband is avenged, I’ll make an end of myself. Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan, any of you with the guts, step forward and fight this old woman to the death tonight. I have wronged Shifu.” Smack, smack, she struck herself twice more. Both cheeks were at once red and swollen. She had plainly not held back.

Ke Zhen’e strode out into the middle of the hall and brought his iron staff down on the floor tiles with a clang that rang on and on. In a hoarse voice he said, “Mei Chaofeng, you can’t see me, and I can’t see you. That night we fought on the barren hill, your husband died a violent death, but our Fifth Brother Zhang was killed by him too. Did you know that?”

Mei Chaofeng said, “So only six of you remain.”

“We promised Daoist Elder⁵ Ma Yu that we would seek no more vengeance and give you no more trouble,” Ke Zhen’e said. “But today it is you who have come to us. Very well. The world may be wide, but it seems we are fated to run into each other wherever we go. Heaven will not let the Six Eccentrics and you, Mei Chaofeng, live in the same world. Make your move.”

Mei Chaofeng gave a cold laugh. “All six of you, come at me together.”

Zhu Cong and the others had long since taken their places beside their Big Brother to guard him, in case Mei Chaofeng struck some sudden foul blow, and now they drew their weapons. Guo Jing said quickly, “Let me hold her off first again.”

Listening to the two sides throw down their challenges, Lu Chengfeng was sorely troubled. He wanted to settle the feud between them, but he lacked the authority to make them listen and the skill to overawe them. At Guo Jing’s words, an idea came to him. “Hold your hands a moment, all of you, and let me say a word. Mei shijie and the Six Xias have an old quarrel, but each side has already lost one of its own. In my humble view, today’s bout should decide victory and defeat and no more. Stop at the first touch, and let no one be hurt. The Six Xias have always fought six against one, but it seems unfair all the same. Mei shijie, why not show young Brother Guo a few moves instead?”

Mei Chaofeng gave a cold laugh. “Am I to fight some nameless nobody?”

Guo Jing shouted, “I killed your husband with my own hands. It has nothing to do with my six shifus.”

Grief and fury burst out in Mei Chaofeng together. “Just so. Then I’ll kill you first, little thief.” Placing him by sound, she shot out her left hand and drove five fingers down at the crown of Guo Jing’s head. Guo Jing leapt clear and cried, “Senior Mei, this junior was only six years old then, a child who knew nothing, and I harmed Senior Chen by mistake. What one man does, one man answers for. Come after me alone. Kill me or cut me to pieces today, I won’t run. But if you go on hounding my six shifus afterwards, what then?” He expected that if he fought Mei Chaofeng today he would most likely die under her claws, but he would have lifted the danger from his shifus.

Mei Chaofeng said, “You truly have the nerve not to flee?”

“I will not flee.”

“Good! The Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan and I have both lost our own. My fate is bitter, and so is yours, and what can anyone do about it? Let this great feud be wiped out here and now. Brave lad, come with me!”

Huang Rong called out, “Mei shijie, he’s a brave man, but you’ll have the heroes of the jianghu⁶ laughing themselves silly.”

Mei Chaofeng snapped, “What do you mean?”

“He is the direct disciple of the Six Xias of Jiangnan,” Huang Rong said. “The Six Xias’ martial arts have come on enormously in recent years, and they could take your life as easily as turning over a hand. They’re sparing you today to save your face, and you don’t know what’s good for you and still talk big.”

Mei Chaofeng said angrily, “Pah! Do I need them to spare me? Six Eccentrics, your martial arts have come on, have they? Then shall we put it to the test?”

“Why should they bother fighting you themselves?” Huang Rong said. “You may not even beat their disciple on his own.”

Mei Chaofeng roared, “If I cannot kill him within three moves, I will dash my brains out right here.” She had fought Guo Jing in the Prince of Zhao’s mansion and knew exactly what he could do. What she did not know was that in the few months since, the Nine-Fingered Divine Beggar had taught him his supreme arts, and his martial arts had leapt ahead.

“Good,” Huang Rong said. “Everyone here is a witness. Three moves are too few. Make it ten.”

Guo Jing said, “Senior Mei, I ask you for fifteen moves.” He had learned only the Eighteen-Minus-Three Palms of Dragon Subduing, and he reckoned that if he used all fifteen palms one after another, he might hold her off for fifteen moves.

Huang Rong said, “We’ll ask Lu shige and the guest who came with you to count the moves and bear witness.”

Mei Chaofeng said, puzzled, “Who came with me? I broke into this manor alone. What would I want with company?”

“Who is that person behind you?”

Mei Chaofeng’s hand lashed out behind her, swift as lightning. No one saw how the man in the long green cloth robe dodged, but her grab caught nothing. He moved like a ghost, and made not the faintest sound.

Ever since she came to Jiangnan, Mei Chaofeng had felt for days on end that something was not right behind her, as if someone were following her. But however she probed with words, however she grabbed and struck, she never touched so much as a shadow, and she had put it down to her own unsettled mind breeding phantoms. Yet that night someone had played a flute to drive off the snakes and get her out of trouble, so there had plainly been a master close by lending a hand. She had bowed to the empty air in thanks, but no one had answered. She had waited under the pine for several shichen⁷ without hearing a sound, and never knew when the master had gone. Now, at Huang Rong’s question, she was badly frightened, and said in a shaking voice, “Who are you? Why have you been following me all this way?”

The man paid no heed, as if he had not heard. Mei Chaofeng lunged at him. He seemed not to move at all, yet her lunge met empty air. Everyone was astounded. His skill was extraordinary, beyond anything any of them had seen in their lives.

Lu Chengfeng said, “Sir, you have come a long way, and this insignificant one failed to receive you. Will you sit and drink a cup with us?”

The man turned and glided out of the hall.

After a moment, Mei Chaofeng asked again, “Was it you, sir, the great Senior who played the flute that night? I, Mei Chaofeng, am deeply grateful.” Everyone was aghast. Mei Chaofeng used her ears for eyes, yet with hearing as sharp as hers she had not heard the man go.

Huang Rong said, “Mei shijie, he has already gone.”

Mei Chaofeng gasped. “He left? How… how did I hear nothing?”

“Hurry and find him, then,” Huang Rong said. “Stop throwing your weight about here.”

Mei Chaofeng stood dazed for a long while. Then the fierce, wild look came back into her face. “Boy surnamed Guo, take this!” She raised both hands, and her ten pointed fingertips gave off an eerie green gleam in the candlelight, but she did not strike.

“I am here,” Guo Jing said.

The moment she heard him say “I”, Mei Chaofeng’s right palm flickered and the five fingers of her left hand were already clawing at his face. Seeing how fast she came, Guo Jing turned a little aside and struck back with his left palm. Mei Chaofeng heard it and tried to dodge, but too late. Every move of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing⁸ is subtle beyond compare, and with a thump the palm landed square on her shoulder.

The blow drove Mei Chaofeng back three steps. But her martial arts were uncanny in the extreme. She had been driven back, yet somehow, in the blink of an eye, she was back where she had stood, her claws darting at him with astonishing speed.

Before Guo Jing could recover from his shock, she had seized the Neiguan, Waiguan and Huizong acupoints of his left wrist all at once.

Guo Jing had often heard Eldest Shifu, Second Shifu and the others say that Mei Chaofeng’s Nine Yin White Bone Claw⁹ struck out at the very moment an opponent was sure she could not attack, and was all but impossible to dodge or block, and he had come into this fight on his guard against just that. But her moves changed beyond all reckoning, and even after taking his palm she had turned her hand at once and clamped his pulse-gate.

Guo Jing cried inwardly, This is bad! His whole body was already aching and numb, but luckily he had kept strength in reserve. In desperation he crooked the index and middle fingers of his right hand and struck at her chest, half fist, half palm. It was half of “Hidden Dragon, Do Not Act”. The left hand should have hooked inwards at the same time, pushing with the right and hooking with the left so that an opponent could scarcely escape, but with his left wrist caught he could manage only half the move. The Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing are immensely powerful, though, and even half a move was no small matter.

Mei Chaofeng heard a strange rush of air, neither the wind of a palm nor that of a fist, and turned quickly aside to shed half its force. Even so it caught her on the shoulder, and she felt a huge force hurl her backwards. Her right hand flew out and sent Guo Jing flying back as well. Both had put all their strength into it, and with a tremendous crash their backs slammed into a pillar of the hall at the same instant. Tiles, bricks and plaster came pouring down from the roof, and the manor hands fled the hall, yelling.

The Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan stared at one another, astonished and delighted, each thinking, Where did Jing-er learn martial arts as fine as this? Han Baoju glanced at Huang Rong and guessed she must have taught him. Secretly impressed, he thought, Peach Blossom Island’s martial arts really are formidable.

Now Guo Jing and Mei Chaofeng each brought out all they had and fought with everything in them, his palms subtle and his force deep and heavy, her grabs and blows vicious and her changes bewildering, and the great hall filled with the whoosh of wind. Mei Chaofeng leapt in and sprang back, attacking from every side. Guo Jing knew her moves were too strange for him to answer each one as it came, for that way he was bound to lose. He remembered the trick Hong Qigong had taught him against Huang Rong’s Peach Blossom Falling Petals Palm,¹⁰ and no matter how many tricks she played or how endlessly she changed, he simply used the fifteen palms of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing in a chain, over and over again.

The trick worked. After forty or fifty moves, Mei Chaofeng had not been able to come half a step closer. Huang Rong was all smiles, the Six Eccentrics were struck dumb, and Lu Chengfeng and his son watched dazzled.

Lu Chengfeng thought, Mei shijie’s skill has come on so far that if she had fought me this time, I would not have lived through ten moves. How can young Brother Guo, so young, have martial arts this profound? I truly misjudged him. It’s lucky I treated him with every courtesy and never slighted him. In the flickering candlelight he saw that Mei Chaofeng’s face was as pretty as ever. Her skin had once been rather dark, but in recent years, hiding by day and going abroad by night, mostly in wild hills and lonely ridges, it had grown pale, and she had rubbed a little petal juice on her cheeks so that she seemed to be wearing rouge. In the old days on Peach Blossom Island, Mei Chaofeng had been beautiful and gentle. Lu Chengfeng, younger then, had felt no love for his shijie, yet had quietly admired her. She had been kind to him, like an elder sister. Later, when their shifu broke his legs and drove him out, he came to hate the Twin Evils of Dark Wind¹¹ bitterly. Meeting her again tonight, seeing that his shijie had kept her looks and that her movements were as elusive as ever, he could not help remembering the days when they had learnt their arts together on the island. But his shijie’s heart was full of grievance and hatred, there was a new savagery in her face, and her strikes were fierce and vicious, with moves their shimen had never taught. It made him shudder, and he only hoped the two of them would stop fighting soon.

Wanyan Kang watched, jealous and angry, thinking, This brat was never a match for me. How can I ever take him on again after this?

Huang Rong called out loudly, “Mei shijie, that’s over eighty moves. Won’t you admit defeat?” In truth it had been only sixty or so, and she had thrown in another twenty-odd.

Mei Chaofeng was beside herself with rage, thinking, I have trained for decades, and I can’t deal with this boy? She chopped with her palms and stabbed with her claws, faster and faster. Her martial arts were many times greater than Guo Jing’s. But for one thing, she was blind, and that was bound to tell against her. For another, her burning need to avenge her husband made her rash, which breaks one of the great taboos of martial arts, and on top of that her opponent’s skill had leapt far beyond anything she had expected. And for a third, Guo Jing was young and strong and quick on his feet, and had learnt superb moves from a great teacher. So the fight could not be decided.

By the time they were nearing a hundred moves, Mei Chaofeng had worked out the general run of his fifteen palms. She knew they were too powerful for her to attack at close quarters, so she darted and dashed about more than ten feet away from him, meaning to wear him out. The Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing take more out of a man than any other art, and sure enough, as time went on, Guo Jing’s palm-force no longer reached as far as before. Mei Chaofeng seized her chance and closed in fast, both arms driving straight up and straight down, and among the moves of the Nine Yin White Bone Claw she now mixed in the Heart-Crushing Palm.¹²

Huang Rong knew that if the fight went on, Guo Jing was bound to come off worse. “Mei shijie,” she kept calling, “that’s over a hundred moves, nearly two hundred. Won’t you admit defeat?”

Mei Chaofeng turned a deaf ear and fought faster and faster.

Footnotes

1. 师父 — shīfù. Teacher responsible for technical instruction and moral guidance. Shī means teacher. Fù means father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 师妹 — shīmèi. Female junior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Mèi means younger sister. ↩

3. 师姐 — shījiě. Female senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Jiě means older sister. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 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. ↩

5. 道长 — dàozhǎng. Literally Daoist elder. A respectful form of address for a Daoist priest. ↩

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

7. 时辰 — shíchén. Traditional Chinese unit of time equal to two hours; the day was divided into twelve shichen. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 降龙十八掌 — Xiánglóng Shíbā Zhǎng. Literally eighteen dragon-subduing palms. Hong Qigong’s palm technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 九阴白骨爪 — Jiǔyīn Báigǔ Zhǎo. Literally nine yin white bone claw. A claw technique. ↩

10. 桃华落英掌 — Táohuā Luòyīng Zhǎng. Palm technique with palm shadows like scattering peach blossoms. Originally called 落英神剑掌 (Falling Petals Divine Sword Palm) in earlier editions. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

12. 摧心掌 — Cuīxīn Zhǎng. A palm from the Nine Yin Manual that injures the internal organs, practised by the Twin Evils of Dark Wind. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩