The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 18 – Part 1

The three test questions

Guo Jing followed the hissing of the snakes. A few dozen paces on, he saw in the moonlight what he had expected: thousands of green snakes moving forward in a long, winding column. A dozen or more men in white were driving them with long poles, flicking every snake that strayed from the column back into line. Guo Jing was badly startled, and thought, What are these people driving so many snakes for? Can the Western Venom have come? Keeping behind the trees, he followed the column north. The snake-drivers seemed to know little of the martial arts, and none of them noticed him.

One of Huang Yaoshi’s mute servants walked at the head of the column, leading the way. They wound this way and that through the woods for several li¹ and rounded a hill, and a great expanse of grass opened out ahead, with a line of bamboo along its northern edge. When the snakes reached the grass, they coiled on the ground one after another at the sound of the drivers’ bamboo whistles, heads raised.

Guo Jing guessed that something was afoot in the bamboo and did not dare show himself on the open grass. He slipped into the woods to the east, turned north again and ran to the edge of the bamboo, where he stood sideways, listening hard. Within the grove all was silent. Only then did he step lightly in, edging between the green stems.

Inside the grove stood a pavilion built of bamboo poles. The plaque across its front was plain to read in the moonlight, three characters reading Jian-Testing Pavilion.² On either side hung a couplet, those very lines Where peach-blossom shadows fall, the divine jian flies. As the tide rises on the azure sea, the jade flute plays.³ The pavilion held a bamboo table and bamboo chairs, all of them old things worn smooth by years of use, glowing a pale yellow in the moonlight. Beside it two great pines rose side by side, several dozen feet tall, their boughs gnarled and twisting, trees that must have stood for centuries. With its hoary pines and green bamboo, the place was serene and secluded beyond compare.

Guo Jing looked out again. On the broad lawn a thousand snakes swayed their heads, forked tongues flickering. The drivers had split the column to east and west, leaving a path down the middle, and along it came several dozen women in white carrying red gauze palace lanterns, gliding gracefully forward. Several dozen feet behind them came two men, walking unhurriedly. The first wore a long white satin gown embroidered with gold thread and carried a folding fan. It was Ouyang Ke.⁴

He came up to the bamboo and called out in a ringing voice, “Mister Ouyang of the Western Regions pays his respects to Island Master Huang of Peach Blossom Island.”

Guo Jing thought, So it really is the Western Venom. No wonder there’s such pomp. He fixed his eyes on the man behind Ouyang Ke. He was tall and also dressed in white, but he stood with the light behind him, so his face could not be made out.

The two had barely come to a halt when two people stepped out of the bamboo grove, and Guo Jing very nearly cried aloud. It was Huang Yaoshi,⁵ holding Huang Rong⁶ by the hand, coming out to meet them.

Ouyang Feng⁷ hurried forward several paces and bowed to Huang Yaoshi with his hands raised, and Huang Yaoshi returned the bow. Ouyang Ke knelt on the ground, kowtowed four times and said, “Your humble son-in-law kowtows to his honoured father-in-law, and respectfully wishes his honoured father-in-law good health.”

Huang Yaoshi said, “That will do!” and reached out to help him up. Both men spoke in clear, ringing voices, and Guo Jing, hearing every word, felt more wretched than he could say.

Ouyang Ke had expected Huang Yaoshi to take the measure of his martial arts and had been on his guard as he kowtowed. When he felt Huang Yaoshi’s right hand lift at his left arm, he at once gathered his breath and steadied his body, hoping to rise without a flicker of strain. Yet for all that he lurched violently, and he had barely cried “Ouch!” before he was pitched head-first at the ground. Ouyang Feng swung his staff across and, setting it against his nephew’s back, gave a light flick. Ouyang Ke rode the momentum over and landed squarely on his feet.

Ouyang Feng laughed. “So, Brother Yao, you give your son-in-law a tumble by way of a welcome gift?” There was a clanging, metallic ring in his voice that grated harshly on Guo Jing’s ears.

Huang Yaoshi said, “He once joined with others to bully my blind disciple, and later he laid out a snake formation to bully my daughter. I’d like to see just how far his attainments go.”

Ouyang Feng gave a great laugh. “The children were only playing about. Pray don’t take it to heart, Brother Yao. And this boy of mine, is he good enough for your precious daughter?” He tilted his head and studied Huang Rong closely for a few moments, clicking his tongue in admiration. “Old Brother Huang, you really are something. Trust you to father a girl as lovely as this.” He reached into his robe and drew out a brocade box. He opened the lid. On the brocade inside lay a yellow ball the size of a pigeon’s egg, dull and dark in colour and nothing much to look at. He smiled at Huang Rong. “This Tongxi Dilong Pill⁸ came from the body of a strange beast of the Western Regions, and I compounded it myself with other medicines. Worn upon the person, it renders the wearer immune to all poisons. There is but this single one in all the world. Once you are my nephew’s wife, you need have no fear of all your uncle-by-marriage’s venomous snakes and insects. The Dilong Pill is of no small use, though it hardly counts as a rare treasure. Your father has ranged the world unchallenged, so what treasure has he not seen? My poor bumpkin’s gift will only make him laugh.” With that he held it out to her.

Ouyang Feng was a master of poisons, yet his gift to Huang Rong was a treasure that warded them off. It showed how earnest his suit was, and that from the very outset he meant to give Huang Yaoshi no cause for suspicion.

By now Guo Jing could see Ouyang Feng clearly. He had a high nose and deep-set eyes, and the whiskers on his face were a tawny brown. He did not look like a man of the Central Plains. His features were somewhat like Ouyang Ke’s, with a striking heroic vigour about them. Above all his eyes flashed like lightning, and his gaze was as keen as any dao or jian.

Guo Jing watched and thought, Rong-er truly loves me and will never change her heart. She’ll never accept any gift of yours. Then, to his surprise, he heard Huang Rong laugh, “Thank you so much!” and saw her reach out to take it.

Ouyang Ke had lost his wits the moment he set eyes on Huang Rong’s snowy skin and flower-like face, and now, with her every word and smile, he felt he was walking on clouds. He thought, Her father has promised her to me, and sure enough her manner towards me is quite different now. He was still savouring his triumph when gold flashed before his eyes. He cried, “No!” and dropped straight backwards in an Iron Board Bridge.⁹

Huang Yaoshi shouted, “What are you doing?” His left sleeve swept out and brushed aside the handful of gilded steel needles Huang Rong had flung, while his right hand swung back-handed at her shoulder.

With a loud wail Huang Rong burst into tears. “Father, you’d do best to beat me to death,” she cried. “I’d rather die anyway than ever marry this wretch.”

Ouyang Feng pressed the Tongxi Dilong Pill into Huang Rong’s hand and in the same movement fended off the palm Huang Yaoshi was bringing down. He laughed. “Your daughter was only trying out my nephew’s skill. Why take it so seriously, you old fellow?” Striking his own daughter, Huang Yaoshi had naturally put no neili¹⁰ into the blow, and Ouyang Feng had only to parry it lightly.

Ouyang Ke straightened up. There was a faint ache in the left of his chest, and he knew one or two of the golden needles had struck home. But he was proud and hated to lose, so he kept his face as though nothing were wrong, though there was already a good deal of awkwardness in his look. Inwardly he was more dejected still. He thought, She won’t marry me after all.

Ouyang Feng laughed. “Brother Yao, it has been many years since we two parted on Mount Hua. You do me the honour of consenting to my nephew’s marriage. From now on, whatever you would have me do, this brother of yours will never dare say no.”

Huang Yaoshi said, “Who would dare provoke you, Old Venom? You have been in the Western Regions all these years. What formidable skills have you practised? Show us a few, won’t you?”

Huang Rong, hearing her father say he wished to see Ouyang Feng display his skill, became keenly interested. She stopped crying at once, leaned against her father, and fixed her eyes upon Ouyang Feng. In his hand he held a thick, crooked black staff that looked to be made of iron or steel. Its head was cast as a human head with a gaping grin, sharp white teeth showing in its mouth, a ferocious and uncanny sight.

Ouyang Feng laughed. “My skills were never a match for yours even back then, and after all these years of neglect I lag further behind you than ever. Now that we are one family, I should like to stay a few more days on Peach Blossom Island and exchange pointers with you.”

When Ouyang Feng had first sent men to propose marriage for his nephew, Huang Yaoshi had reflected that among the martial artists of the present age, only a handful could stand comparison with himself, and Ouyang Feng was one of them. Seeing the letter’s humble and sincere tone, he had been pleased. He also reflected that his daughter was wilful and wayward and thoroughly incorrigible, and that married to anyone else she would surely lord her skills over her husband. As for the Guo boy she had chosen for herself, he was stupid and detestable, and he had killed Chen Xuanfeng,¹¹ one of Huang Yaoshi’s own disciples. Huang Yaoshi had hated Chen Xuanfeng for stealing the manual, but on learning that he had been killed, his hatred had given way to pity and then to tender regret, so that the mere thought of Guo Jing made him angry.

He prided himself on a brilliance and talent the world rarely saw, and his daughter was every bit as quick and clever. Any son-in-law of his must be cleverer than other men, or else “the Master of Peach Blossom Island has taken a dullard for a son-in-law” would become the great joke of the wulin.¹² Free-spirited and unconventional as he was, he set too much store by this one word, “name”, and it was something of a failing in him. He considered that Ouyang Ke had received his uncle’s personal transmission, so his martial arts must be considerable. Among the younger generation of the present age, he feared none could equal him. Moreover, Ouyang Feng’s letter had greatly praised his nephew’s intelligence. Even if this were not entirely true, the young man should not be too far behind. And so he had agreed to the match there and then, to Ouyang Feng’s envoy.

Now, hearing Ouyang Feng speak with such modesty, he could not help but grow suspicious. He had long known the man for one with honey on his lips and a jian in his belly, cunning in the extreme, and in martial arts never willing to concede to anyone. Could it be that after Wang Chongyang¹³ had damaged his Toad Skill with the One Yang Finger, he had been unable to recover it?

He drew a jade flute from his sleeve and said, “An honoured guest has come from afar. Allow me to play a tune for the pleasure of an old friend. Pray be seated and listen at your leisure.”

Ouyang Feng knew he meant to probe his neili with the Azure Sea Surging Melody.¹⁴ He smiled faintly and waved his left hand lightly. The thirty-two white-clad women carrying gauze lanterns glided gracefully forward and prostrated themselves.

Ouyang Feng laughed. “I sent men all over to buy these thirty-two maidens, and I offer them to my old friend as a small gift. They have been trained by skilled teachers in song, dance, and music, and are passably accomplished. But the rustic girls of the Western Regions are far inferior in beauty to the fair maidens of Jiangnan.”

Huang Yaoshi said, “I have never cared for such things, and since my wife’s death, I regard all the beauties of the world as so much dung. I dare not accept Brother Feng’s generous gift.”

Ouyang Feng laughed. “Just something to please the eye and ear and while away the long days. What harm can there be in that?”

The women were fair-skinned, and most were tall. Some had golden hair and green eyes, others brown hair and grey eyes, quite different from women of the Central Plains. But their faces were lovely and their gestures seductive, undeniably attractive. Ouyang Feng clapped his palms three times. Eight women took out instruments and began to play. The other twenty-four began to dance, light and graceful. The eight instruments were neither zithers nor lutes, and the music’s rhythm was quite unusual. Those in front sank down as those behind rose up, wheeling to the left and turning to the right, their bodies supple beyond belief. Each pressed close to the one before and behind her, like a single long serpent. Each stretched out her arms, and from the tips of her left fingers to the tips of her right, twisted and wound, like a serpent gliding and weaving.

Huang Rong remembered the Spirit Serpent Fist¹⁵ Ouyang Ke had used and glanced at him. She saw his eyes fixed intently upon her and thought how hateful the man was. Her father had brushed aside the golden needles she had just thrown, so she must find some other scheme to take his life. Then, even if her father wanted to force her to marry him, there would be no one left to marry. This was what they called “pulling the firewood from under the cauldron”. At the thought, she could not help but smile. Ouyang Ke, imagining she had suddenly taken a fancy to him, was overjoyed and forgot even the pain in his chest.

The women danced faster still, their seductive gestures multiplying, their transformations endless. They caressed their breasts and hips with empty hands, miming the loosening of robes, the offering of embraces. Huang Yaoshi merely smiled. After watching a while, he raised the jade flute to his lips and played several notes.

Suddenly the women trembled all over. Their dance-steps faltered and broke. A few more notes from the flute, and the women were dancing to its music.

Ouyang Feng saw that things were going against him and clapped his hands, and a serving-girl came forward carrying an iron zither.¹⁶ By now Ouyang Ke was beginning to feel his heart sway. The rhythm of the eight women’s instruments had fallen in with Huang Yaoshi’s flute, and the snake-drivers were already leaping up and down among the snakes and dashing back and forth. Ouyang Feng plucked a few ringing notes on the strings, sounding the grim, deathly clash of iron spears and armoured horses, and at once some of the soft seduction went out of the flute’s song.

Huang Yaoshi laughed. “Come, come. Let us play a duet.” The moment his jade flute left his lips, the frenzy of the crowd eased.

Ouyang Feng called out, “Everyone stop up your ears. Island Master Huang and I are going to play.” His followers knew this was no ordinary performance, and fear showed on their faces. They tore strips from their garments and stuffed their ears tight, then wrapped their heads in layer upon layer of cloth, lest a single note slip in. Even Ouyang Ke hurriedly plugged his ears with cotton.

Huang Rong said, “My father plays the flute for you, which does you a great honour, and you stop up your ears? That is very rude. You come as a guest to Peach Blossom Island and dare to insult your host!”

Huang Yaoshi said, “That is not rude. He dare not hear my flute-song because he knows his own limitations. He has heard it once before, hah hah. Your uncle-by-marriage’s skill on the iron zither is unrivalled under heaven. What skill have you, that you would dare to listen? It is not something to be tried lightly.” He took a silk handkerchief from inside his robe, tore it in two and covered her ears with the halves.

Guo Jing’s curiosity was roused. He wanted to hear just how formidable Ouyang Feng’s iron zither might be, and instead of retreating he edged a few steps closer.

Footnotes

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

2. 试剑亭 — Shì Jiàn Tíng. Literally jian-testing pavilion. A pavilion within the bamboo grove of Peach Blossom Island. ↩

3. 桃花影落飞神剑，碧海潮生按玉箫 — Táohuā yǐng luò fēi shén jiàn, bìhǎi cháo shēng àn yù xiāo. Literally where peach-blossom shadows fall the divine jian flies; as the tide rises on the azure sea the jade flute plays. ↩

4. 欧阳克 — Ōuyáng Kè. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 黄药师 — Huáng Yàoshī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 黄蓉 — Huáng Róng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 欧阳锋 — Ōuyáng Fēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 通犀地龙丸 — Tōngxī Dìlóng Wán. Ouyang Feng’s antidote to all poisons. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 铁板桥 — Tiě Bǎn Qiáo. Literally iron plate bridge. An evasive move in which the body is thrown backwards from the waist until nearly horizontal, held up by the legs. ↩

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

11. 陈玄风 — Chén Xuánfēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 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. ↩

13. 王重阳 — Wáng Chóngyáng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 碧海潮生曲 — Bìhǎi Cháoshēng Qǔ. Musical technique that can disturb opponents’ minds through qi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 灵蛇拳 — Língshé Quán. Ouyang Ke’s fist art, the arm bending in mid-strike like a snake; Ouyang Feng told him to use it only in mortal danger. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 筝 — zhēng. A Chinese zither with movable bridges, played by plucking the strings. ↩