The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 16 – Part 7

Zhou Botong was sure he had worked out where the Twin Evils of Dark Wind¹ got their martial arts, and he sat preening himself for a good while before asking, “Where had we got to in our story just now?” Guo Jing said, “You’d got to all the heroes and men of valour under heaven trying to seize the Nine Yin Manual.”² Zhou Botong said, “Right. Then the affair grew bigger and bigger, until even great masters like the Order Leader of Quanzhen,³ Old Heretic Huang⁴ the Master of Peach Blossom Island,⁵ and Guild Chief Hong⁶ of the Beggars’ Guild had a hand in it. The five of them agreed to a Huashan Sword Summit,⁷ and whoever’s martial arts were first under heaven would have the manual.” Guo Jing said, “And in the end the manual fell into your shige’s⁸ hands.”

Zhou Botong’s face lit up. “That’s right. Wang shige and I were the best of friends. We were good friends already before he left his family to become a Daoist, and later he taught me martial arts. He said I’d grown so infatuated with martial arts that I clung to them too hard, which was not the Daoist way of stillness and non-action, and so, though I belonged to the Quanzhen Order, my shige told me I mustn’t become a Daoist. That was exactly what I wanted. Of my seven shizhi,⁹ Qiu Chuji is the most skilled, but my shige liked him least of all. He said Qiu Chuji was too wrapped up in studying martial arts and neglected the Daoist cultivation. Something about how a student of martial arts must press on and train hard, while a student of the Way must be content with little and follow his nature, and the two don’t sit well together. Ma Yu inherited my shige’s succession in the teaching, but in martial arts he is no match for Qiu Chuji or Wang Chuyi.”

Guo Jing said, “Then how is it that Wang the Perfected One¹⁰ himself, Order Leader of Quanzhen, was both a Perfected One of the Daoists and a great master of martial arts?” Zhou Botong said, “He was born remarkable. A great many of the principles of martial arts he understood quite naturally, without having to toil and train the way I do. Where had we got to in our story just now? How did you lead me off the subject again?”

Guo Jing laughed. “You’d got to your shige getting hold of the Nine Yin Manual.” Zhou Botong said, “Right. After he had the manual, he didn’t practise any of the arts in it. He put it in a stone casket and pressed it under the stone slab beneath the rush mat he sat on to meditate. I was very puzzled and asked him why, but he only smiled and said nothing. When I kept on at him, he told me to work it out for myself. So you have a guess. Why do you think it was?” Guo Jing said, “Was he afraid someone would come and steal it, or rob him of it?” Zhou Botong shook his head again and again. “No, no! Who’d dare to steal or rob anything from the Order Leader of Quanzhen? Would he be tired of living?”

Guo Jing thought for a long while. Suddenly he jumped up and cried, “Of course! It ought to be hidden away carefully. Really, it would be better still to burn it.”

Zhou Botong started, stared at Guo Jing, and said, “That’s just what my shige said back then, except that, he said, several times he’d meant to destroy it but could never bring himself to. Brother, you’re such a dunce. How on earth did you guess?”

Guo Jing went red in the face and answered, “I thought, since Wang the Perfected One’s martial arts were already first under heaven, if he trained to become stronger still, he would still only be first under heaven. And I thought too that he went to the Huashan Sword Summit not to win the name of first under heaven, but to get the Nine Yin Manual. And he didn’t want the manual so that he could practise its arts, but to save all the heroes and men of valour under heaven, so they wouldn’t hack each other to pieces and all come to a bad end.”

Zhou Botong lifted his head to the sky and sat lost in thought, saying nothing for a long time. Guo Jing grew anxious, afraid he had said the wrong thing and offended his eccentric sworn brother. Zhou Botong sighed and said, “How did you come to think of that?” Guo Jing scratched his head. “I don’t know either. I only thought that since this manual had killed so many people, however precious it was, it ought to be destroyed.”

Zhou Botong said, “It’s as plain as can be, and yet I could never see it. My shige told me back then that I had a natural gift for martial arts and never tired of them, but that for one thing I was too infatuated, and for another I lacked the heart to save the world and help others, so however hard I trained my whole life long, I would never reach the very summit. I didn’t believe him at the time. Learning martial arts is learning martial arts, I thought, a matter of fists and feet and weapons, so what has it to do with a man’s spirit or his understanding? But these last ten years and more, I’ve had no choice but to believe it. Brother, you are honest and true, and your heart is generous. It’s a pity my shige has passed away. If he hadn’t, he would surely have liked you, and he’d have passed all his matchless martial arts on to you. If my shige hadn’t died, wouldn’t that have been good? Ah, however great my shige’s skill, there was no dodging that plague when his hour of calamity came.” Thinking of his shixiong, he suddenly flung himself down on the rock and wept bitterly.

Guo Jing did not really understand what he meant, but seeing him weep so forlornly, he could not help feeling sad himself.

When he had cried for a while, Zhou Botong suddenly looked up and said, “Ah, we haven’t finished the story. There’s time enough to cry when we have. Where had we got to? And why don’t you tell me not to cry?” Guo Jing laughed. “You’d got to Wang the Perfected One putting the Nine Yin Manual under the stone slab beneath his rush mat.” Zhou Botong slapped his thigh. “Right. He pressed the manual under the slab, and when I asked if he’d let me have a look at it, he put on a stern face and gave me a dressing-down, so after that I never dared bring it up again. And the wulin really was quiet for a while. Later my shige died, and as he lay dying there was a fresh storm.”

Hearing the sudden urgency in his voice, Guo Jing knew it must have been no small storm, and listened intently as Zhou Botong went on. “My shige knew his time had come. That plague nobody escapes had found him at last. When he had settled the important affairs of the Order, he told me to fetch the Nine Yin Manual and light the stove, meaning to burn it. But he stroked it for a long time, then gave a long sigh and said, ‘This is the heart’s blood of a whole lifetime, left by one who went before us. How can I destroy it with my own hands? Water can carry a boat, and it can overturn one too. It depends on how those who come after make use of this manual. But no one of my school is ever to practise the martial arts in it, lest people say I wanted the manual for selfish ends.’ When he had said this, he closed his eyes and died. That night his coffin lay in the temple, with the manual set out before his spirit tablet. Before the third watch¹¹ had come, there was trouble.”

Guo Jing let out an “Ah.” Zhou Botong said, “That night I kept vigil over the coffin with the seven senior disciples of the Quanzhen Order. In the middle of the night, enemies suddenly attacked, every one of them a master, and the Seven Zis split up at once to meet them. They were afraid the enemy might harm their shifu’s body, so they drew their opponents far off outside the temple to fight, and I alone stayed to guard my shige’s coffin. Suddenly someone outside shouted, ‘Hand over the Nine Yin Manual, quick, or we’ll put a torch to your Quanzhen temple.’ I peered out, and caught my breath. There was a man standing on the branch of a tree, rising and falling as it swayed. That was qinggong¹² of a truly remarkable kind, and I thought at once, I don’t know that sort of qinggong. If he’s willing to teach me, I might as well become his disciple. But then I thought again, No, no. This man has come to steal the Nine Yin Manual. Far from becoming his disciple, I’ll have to fight him. I knew I was no match for him, but I had no choice but to try. I leapt out and traded thirty or forty moves with him up in the treetops, and the longer we fought, the more frightened I grew. The man was about my own age, and his blows were vicious in the extreme. I met them head-on, but in the end he was a shade better than me. He caught me on the shoulder with a palm, and I fell out of the tree.” Guo Jing said in surprise, “Your martial arts are so high, and you still couldn’t beat him? Who was he?”

Zhou Botong asked him back, “Who do you think?” Guo Jing thought for a long while, then answered, “The Western Venom!” Zhou Botong said in surprise, “Eh! How on earth did you guess right this time?” Guo Jing said, “I thought that the only men alive whose martial arts could be higher than Big Brother’s were the five from the Huashan Sword Summit. Hong shifu is open and upright. The Southern Emperor¹³ is royalty, so he must think of his position. As for Island Master Huang, I don’t know him well, but he has such a grand air and such noble bearing that anyone who meets him admires him at once. He’s certainly no despicable villain who’d take advantage of a man in trouble!”

From beyond the flowering trees someone suddenly shouted, “The little beast has some judgement after all!”

Guo Jing sprang to his feet and dashed to the spot the voice had come from, but the man was very fast and had long since vanished. Only a few flowering trees were still swaying, their petals falling thick and fast.

Zhou Botong called, “Come back, Brother. That was Old Heretic Huang. He’s long gone.”

When Guo Jing came back to the mouth of the cave, Zhou Botong said, “Old Heretic Huang is a master of the arts of Qimen and the Five Elements, and all these flowering trees of his are planted after the method Zhuge Liang left behind in his Eight Formations Diagram.”¹⁴ Guo Jing said, aghast, “Zhuge Liang’s method?” Zhou Botong sighed. “Yes. Old Heretic Huang is clever beyond words. Music, chess, calligraphy and painting, medicine, divination, astrology and physiognomy, farming and irrigation, economy and warfare, there’s nothing he doesn’t know and nothing he isn’t expert in. Only it’s a shame he insists on making life hard for the Old Wild Child, and I just can’t beat him. He darts about among these flowering trees, this way and that, and no one else can ever find him. You were right. Old Heretic Huang may be strange-tempered, but he’s certainly no despicable villain!”

Guo Jing said nothing for a long while, thinking of all Huang Yaoshi’s accomplishments, and could not help being lost in admiration. After a time he said, “Big Brother, after the Western Venom knocked you out of the tree, what happened?”

Zhou Botong slapped his thigh. “Right, this time you didn’t forget to remind me of the story. Ouyang Feng’s palm hurt me to the heart and lungs, and for a while I couldn’t move. But when I saw him run into the spirit hall, I forgot about my own injury and went after him for dear life. He was already at my shige’s coffin, reaching for the manual set out on the table. I groaned inwardly. I was no match for him, and none of my shizhi had come back from fighting the enemy. Just at that desperate moment, there was a tremendous crash, splinters flew from the coffin lid, and a great hole burst through it.”

Guo Jing said in alarm, “Ouyang Feng shattered Wang the Perfected One’s coffin with his palm force?”

Zhou Botong said, “No, no! My shige himself shattered the coffin with his palm force.”

Hearing so preposterous a tale, Guo Jing could only stare, his eyes wide and round, unable to say a word.

Footnotes

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

2. 九阴真经 — Jiǔyīn Zhēnjīng. Literally true scripture of the nine yin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 全真教教主 — Quánzhēn Jiào Jiàozhǔ. Literally head of the Quanzhen Order. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

5. 桃花岛主 — Táohuā Dǎo Zhǔ. Literally master of Peach Blossom Island. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 丐帮的洪帮主 — Gàibāng de Hóng Bāngzhǔ. Literally Chief Hong of the Beggars’ Guild. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 华山论剑 — Huàshān Lùnjiàn. Literally sword discussion at Huashan. Use of discussion is key as the participants were engaged in a martial arts exchange and a philosophical debate on mastery, rather than just a physical contest. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 师哥 — shīgē. Male senior, the colloquial form of shixiong. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Gē means older brother. ↩

9. 师侄 — shīzhí. Lineage nephew. The disciple of one’s shixiong, shidi, shijie or shimei. Shī means teacher. Zhí means nephew. ↩

10. 真人 — zhēnrén. Literally true person. An honorific title for a Daoist master who has attained a high level of cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 三更 — sān gēng. The third of the five night watches, approximately 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Night watchmen would strike a gong or wooden clapper to mark each watch. ↩

12. 轻功 — qīnggōng. The martial art of body lightness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 南帝 — Nán Dì. Literally southern emperor. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 八阵图 — Bāzhèntú. Literally diagram of eight formations. A legendary battle array attributed to Zhuge Liang, strategist of the Three Kingdoms. ↩