The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 14 – Part 6

Lu Chengfeng caught the sheets of paper and could just make out that they were covered in writing. Lu Guanying took a torch from one of the manor hands and held it close so that his father could read. At a glance Lu Chengfeng saw that both sheets set out the formulas and essentials of a training method, in Huang Yaoshi’s own hand. In the ten years and more since he had last seen it, his shifu’s calligraphy had grown stronger and more upright still. On the right of the first page was the title, six characters: Whirlwind Leaf-Sweeping Leg Method.¹

Lu Chengfeng knew that the Whirlwind Leaf-Sweeping Leg and the Peach Blossom Falling Petals Palm² were both arts his shifu had created in his early years and was proud of, and that none of his six disciples had been taught either. Had he been given it in the old days, how happy he would have been. He could no longer train in it himself, but he could pass it on to his son, and it was still a great kindness from his shifu. He put the sheets reverently away inside his robe and bowed his thanks.

Huang Yaoshi said, “This leg method is very different from the one I created in my early years. The moves are the same, but this one starts from neigong. Every day, sit and train your breath according to the formulas. If you make good progress, in five or six years you will be able to walk without a stick.”

Grief and joy and a hundred other feelings welled up in Lu Chengfeng together. Huang Yaoshi went on, “The damage to your legs can never be healed, and you will never train the arts of the lower stance again. But if you do as these formulas say, walking about like an ordinary man will not be hard. Ah…” He had long hated himself for the rashness and fury of those years, when he had punished four innocent disciples so harshly. In recent years he had devoted himself to working out the secret neigong of this “Whirlwind Leaf-Sweeping Leg”, meaning to pass it to the four of them so that, once they had trained the neigong of the lower body, they could walk again. But he had always been proud and determined to come out on top, and though he regretted it in his heart, he would not say so. So although this neigong was entirely new, he still gave it an old name that had nothing to do with it, and would not show the faintest sign of admitting a fault or making amends.

After a moment, he said, “Find your Qu shige and your two shidis, and pass these formulas on to them.”

“Yes,” Lu Chengfeng answered. Then he said, “I have never been able to find out where Qu shige and Feng shidi are. Wu shidi died many years ago.”

Huang Yaoshi felt a stab of pain, and his bright, piercing eyes turned full on Mei Chaofeng. She could not see it, which was just as well, but everyone else felt a tremor of unease.

Huang Yaoshi said coldly, “Chaofeng, you have done great evil and suffered great pain. From now on, you will live at Lu shidi’s manor. Let him care for you properly.”

Mei Chaofeng and Lu Chengfeng answered together, “Yes.”

Huang Yaoshi said, “Chaofeng, it’s a pity about your eyes. But as long as you do no more evil, I don’t suppose many people will dare make trouble for a disciple of Old Heretic Huang.”³

These words were a formal declaration, before them all, that Mei Chaofeng had been taken back into the shimen. Mei Chaofeng was overjoyed, and in her gratitude she wept. Lu Guanying said, “Mei shibo,⁴ please come into the manor. Wash your face and have something to eat, and I’ll ask my mother to look after you.” And he helped Mei Chaofeng into the manor.

Lu Chengfeng said, “Shifu, please, come into the manor and rest a while too!”

Huang Yaoshi said, “No hurry!” His eyes travelled from face to face, and paused for a moment on Guo Jing. “Your name is Guo Jing?”

Guo Jing hurried forward and knelt. “Guo Jing pays his respects to Senior Huang.”

Huang Yaoshi said, “You are the one who killed my disciple Chen Xuanfeng? You must be quite something!”

Guo Jing heard the ill will in his voice and felt a chill. “I was young and knew nothing then. Senior Chen had seized me, and in my panic I struck him without meaning to.”

Huang Yaoshi snorted and said coldly, “Chen Xuanfeng was a traitor to my school, but my own people would have killed him. Is a man of Peach Blossom Island to be killed by an outsider?”

Guo Jing had no answer.

Huang Rong said quickly, “Father, he was only six years old then. What could he have known?”

Huang Yaoshi went on as if he had not heard. “Old Beggar Hong has never been willing to take disciples, yet he taught you fifteen palms of his proudest art, the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing. You must have some rare gift. Or else you sweet-talked the old beggar into liking you. And you used the old beggar’s arts to beat a disciple of mine. Hmph, hmph. Next time the old beggar sees me, won’t he have something to crow about?”

Huang Rong laughed. “Father, there was sweet talk all right, but it was mine, not his. He’s an honest soul. Don’t bully him and frighten him out of his wits.”

Since his wife’s death, Huang Yaoshi and his daughter had had only each other, and he had doted on her beyond all measure and spoilt her into a wilful girl who cared nothing for rules. When her father scolded her a little that day, she had simply run away from home. Huang Yaoshi had expected that his beloved daughter, adrift in the jianghu,⁵ would be worn and miserable, yet when he saw her she was lovelier than ever. And seeing how close she was to Guo Jing, how she sprang to his defence at every turn and had grown distant from her old father instead, he felt more than a little jealous and all the angrier with Guo Jing. Ignoring his daughter, he said to Guo Jing,

“The old beggar taught you his arts and sent you to beat Mei Chaofeng. He’s plainly laughing at me, saying I have no one worth the name among my disciples, that every one of them is a disgrace…”

Huang Rong said hastily, “Father, who says Peach Blossom Island has no one worth the name? He took advantage of Mei shijie’s⁶ eyes and had a lucky edge with his palms, that’s all. What’s so special about that? Father, that day in Yanjing, Mei shijie caught him and rode him like a horse, east when she wanted east and west when she wanted west. Now that was a sorry sight. It’s a pity you didn’t see it. And the old beggar couldn’t do a thing about it.”

At that time Guo Jing had not yet learnt from Hong Qigong, so the old beggar could hardly be dragged into it, but Huang Rong wanted only to soothe her father’s anger and was playing the spoilt child and talking nonsense. “Why don’t you blindfold him and let him have a bout with Mei shijie? Your daughter will settle the score for you.” She sprang out and called, “Come on, come on. I’ll use the most ordinary arts Father taught me against your Hong Qigong’s proudest palms.”

She knew Guo Jing’s skill was about the same as her own. If they traded a few dozen moves and came out even, her father’s anger would pass.

Guo Jing understood what she meant to do, and seeing that Huang Yaoshi did not stop them, he said, “I’ve never been able to beat you, so I’ll let you thump me a few more times.” He went and stood in front of Huang Rong.

Huang Rong cried, “Watch out!” Her slender hand chopped sideways with a whistle of wind. It was “Driving Rain, Raging Wind” from the Peach Blossom Falling Petals Palm. Guo Jing met her with the moves of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing, but he cared for Huang Rong far too much to use his full strength. The Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing win by sheer force and power, and for intricate, dazzling moves they are no match for the Peach Blossom Falling Petals Palm. After only a few moves, he had taken several palms in a row.

Wanting to take the edge off her father’s anger, Huang Rong hit him really hard, knowing his strong frame could stand a few such blows. “Do you give in yet?” she cried, but even as she said it her hands kept going.

Huang Yaoshi’s face went livid. He gave a cold laugh. “What’s there to see in this sort of game?”

No one saw him move, yet suddenly he was right beside them. He seized each of them by the collar and flung them apart, left and right. The throws looked the same, but the force behind them was very different. His left hand only tossed his daughter aside, but his right put tremendous strength into Guo Jing, meaning to give him a heavy fall.

In mid-air Guo Jing could find no purchase, and felt himself toppling helplessly backwards. But the moment his heels touched the ground they held fast, and he did not fall.

Had he gone sprawling and lain there with a bruised and swollen face, unable to get up, that might have been the end of it. As it was, though Huang Yaoshi secretly approved of the boy’s sound stance, his anger only blazed the hotter. “I have no disciples,” he roared, “so I shall have to take a few palms from you myself.”

Guo Jing bowed hastily. “If I had the courage of Heaven itself, I still wouldn’t dare cross hands with you, Senior.”

Huang Yaoshi gave a cold laugh. “Hmph. Cross hands with me? Are you fit to? I’ll stand here without moving, and you can land your Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing on me one after another. If you can make me dodge even a little, or raise a hand to block, I’ll count myself beaten. How’s that?”

Guo Jing said, “I wouldn’t dare.”

Huang Yaoshi said, “Dare or not, you will.”

Guo Jing thought, Now that it’s come to this, I can’t possibly refuse. I’ll just have to hit him a few times. All he wants is to turn my own force back on me and throw me off. What does it matter if I take a few falls?

Huang Yaoshi saw that he was still hesitating, though his face already showed he was itching to try. “Hurry up and strike. If you don’t, I’ll hit you.”

Guo Jing said, “Since you command it, Senior, I dare not disobey.” He set himself, crouched, crooked his arm, swept a circle and struck out with a palm. It was again the move he had practised most, “Proud Dragon Repents”.⁷ He was afraid of really hurting Huang Yaoshi, and also afraid that if he used his full strength the force that came back at him would be tremendous, so he put in only four tenths of his strength and kept six tenths in reserve.

The palm reached Huang Yaoshi’s chest, and suddenly his body seemed too slippery to grip, as if it were smeared all over with oil. Guo Jing’s palm slid and glanced away.

Huang Yaoshi said, “What’s this? Do you look down on me? Afraid I can’t take your wondrous, mighty Dragon-Subduing Palms, is that it?”

Guo Jing said, “I wouldn’t dare.”

With his second palm, “Leaping Dragon in the Abyss”,⁸ he dared not hold back so much. He drew a breath, and with a whoosh his left palm reached forward and his right shot out from beneath it, straight at Huang Yaoshi’s belly.

Huang Yaoshi said, “That’s more like it.”

When Hong Qigong had taught Guo Jing to practise his palms on the pine tree, he had told him to release his force the instant his palm touched the trunk, for only then could it shatter what was hard. Now, by the method he had practised and tested countless times, he released his force the instant his fingertips brushed the edge of Huang Yaoshi’s robe. But in that split moment, with the force already loosed and not yet landing, the belly before him suddenly sank inwards, there was a crack, and his wrist was out of joint.

Had his palm simply struck empty air, no harm would have come of it beyond wasted effort. But he had loosed his force in a rush, sure he had struck something solid, and the place where it should have landed had suddenly vanished without trace. It was far too late to pull the force back. He felt a searing pain in his hand and leapt several feet away, unable to raise the arm, and only then did it come to him. He thought, Qigong taught me never to use all my force. I didn’t listen this time, and now I’ve made a terrible mess of it!

The Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan saw that Huang Yaoshi had indeed neither dodged nor struck back. Without moving his body, he had put Guo Jing’s wrist out of joint in a single move, and they were filled with admiration and with dread.

Then they heard Huang Yaoshi shout, “Now you take one of my palms, and find out whether the old beggar’s Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing are more formidable, or the palm arts of my Peach Blossom Island.”

The words were barely out when they heard the wind of his palm. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Guo Jing leapt up to dodge aside. But before the palm arrived, Huang Yaoshi’s leg had shot out, and with one flick and one hook Guo Jing went sprawling on his face.

Huang Rong screamed, “Father, don’t hit him!” She darted in from the side and threw herself over Guo Jing.

Huang Yaoshi turned his palm into a grab, seized his daughter by the back and lifted her away, and his left palm came chopping straight down.

The Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan knew that if this palm landed, Guo Jing would be killed or gravely injured, and they all rushed in together. Quan Jinfa, who was nearest, swung the iron weight on his steelyard straight at Huang Yaoshi’s left wrist.

Huang Yaoshi set his daughter down beside him, and with a careless sweep of both hands he wrenched away Quan Jinfa’s steelyard and the long jian⁹ in Han Xiaoying’s hand. He struck the steelyard with the flat of the jian, and with a clang both shattered, four pieces in all.

Lu Chengfeng cried, “Shifu!…” He wanted to plead with him, but cowed by his shifu’s long-held authority, he dared not go on.

Huang Rong wept. “Father, if you kill him, I’ll never see you again.” She ran to Lake Tai and leapt into it with a splash.

Huang Yaoshi knew that his daughter swam like a fish. Ever since she was small she had played with the fish and turtles among the waves of the Eastern Sea, and a whole day without coming ashore was nothing to her. But Lake Tai was vast, and he could not help worrying. He flew to the edge of the lake and saw a trail through the water running straight out towards the middle.

He stood there dazed for a long while. When he turned round, he saw that Zhu Cong had already set Guo Jing’s dislocated wrist, and at once he turned his anger on him.

“The seven of you had better kill yourselves now,” he said coldly, “and spare yourselves the worse pain when I do it.”

Ke Zhen’e levelled his iron staff. “A real man doesn’t fear death. Why should he fear pain?”

Zhu Cong said, “The Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan have come home. If our bones are buried by the Five Lakes¹⁰ today, what is there to regret?”

The six of them, some with weapons in hand and some barehanded and on guard, took up their positions against the enemy.

Guo Jing thought, My six shifus are no match for him. They would only throw their lives away. How can I let my shifus die on my account? He sprang forward quickly. “It was I who killed Chen Xuanfeng. It has nothing to do with my shifus. I alone will pay for him with my life.”

Then another thought came to him, Eldest Shifu, Third Shifu and Seventh Shifu all have tempers like fire. If they see me killed, they’ll never let it rest, and there’ll be another fight. I must settle this on my own.

He drew himself up and said boldly to Huang Yaoshi, “Only, this junior’s father is not yet avenged. Senior, will you grant me a month’s grace? Thirty days from now I will come to Peach Blossom Island myself to die.”

By now Huang Yaoshi’s anger was fading, and he was anxious about his daughter and had no mind to bother with Guo Jing any further. He waved his hand, turned and walked away.

Everyone was dumbfounded. How could a single sentence from Guo Jing send him off so easily? They feared he had some still more terrible and vicious trick in store, but in the darkness his figure flickered, and he was gone.

Footnotes

1. 旋风扫叶腿 — Xuànfēng Sǎo Yè Tuǐ. A Peach Blossom Island kicking art, paired with the Peach Blossom Falling Petals Palm. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 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. ↩

3. 黄老邪 — Huáng Lǎoxié. Literally old heretic Huang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 师伯 — shībó. Senior lineage uncle. The shixiong or shijie of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Bó means father’s elder brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

7. 亢龙有悔 — Kàng Lóng Yǒu Huǐ. Literally the proud dragon has cause to repent. A move of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing, named from a line of the Book of Changes. ↩

8. 或跃在渊 — Huò Yuè Zài Yuān. Literally now leaping, now in the abyss, from the Qian hexagram of the Book of Changes. A move of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 剑 — jiàn. A straight, double-edged blade. ↩

10. 五湖 — Wǔ Hú. Literally five lakes. An ancient name for Lake Tai. ↩