The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 20 – Part 4

The fire on the great ship lit the sea crimson. Hong Qigong and Guo Jing could see everything clearly. Hong Qigong said angrily, “He’s using her to force our hand, so he can get into our boat. Hmph! I’ll go and get Rong-er back.”

Guo Jing saw that the big ship was ablaze and said, “I’ll come too.”

Hong Qigong said, “No. You stay and guard the boat, and don’t let Old Venom take it from you.”

Guo Jing answered, “Yes!” He pulled hard on the oars. The great ship had already stopped dead, and before long the little boat was close. Hong Qigong kicked off hard from the bow and flew forward. His left hand shot out and punched five finger-holes into the side of the great ship, and using the purchase he swung himself up and over onto the deck.

Ouyang Feng had Huang Rong by both wrists. He gave a savage grin. “Stinking beggar, what are you going to do about it?”

Hong Qigong cursed, “Come on then, let’s go another thousand moves.” Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, three palm strikes came chopping at Ouyang Feng.

Ouyang Feng swung Huang Rong round to parry with her body, and Hong Qigong had to pull back his blows. Wary of the Soft Hedgehog Armour¹ Huang Rong might be wearing, Ouyang Feng picked out an acupoint² at the back of her neck and jabbed it with a finger. Her body went limp at once. She could not move a muscle.

Hong Qigong shouted, “Old Venom, you shameless wretch, put her down in the boat, quick, and you and I will settle this here.”

But how could Ouyang Feng let his hostage go so easily? Seeing his nephew driven back again and again by the flames, he lifted Huang Rong and threw her to him, shouting, “You two get down into the boat first!”

Ouyang Ke caught Huang Rong. He saw Guo Jing waiting below in the little boat and thought that the boat was really too small, and if he jumped down into it with someone in his arms it was bound to overturn. So he pulled out a thick rope and tied it to the mast, and with Huang Rong in his left arm and the rope in his right hand, he slid down into the boat.

Guo Jing saw Huang Rong arrive in the boat and was greatly relieved, not knowing that her acupoints had been sealed. In the firelight he saw his shifu³ locked in fierce combat with Ouyang Feng. Anxious for his shifu’s safety, he did not even stop to speak to Huang Rong but raised his head and watched the fight intently.

Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng both brought their finest martial arts into play, dodging the spars and ropes that came crashing down around them in the blaze even as they met each other’s moves. Here Hong Qigong had the better of it. He had been in the sea and swum to the little boat, and he was soaked to the skin, so his clothes and hair did not catch fire as easily as Ouyang Feng’s. The two men’s martial arts were so evenly matched that there was nothing to choose between them, and once one of them had an advantage, he had the upper hand at once. Before long Ouyang Feng’s beard and hair were singed and the skirts of his robe had caught fire, and he was forced back step by step towards the cabin, where the flames leapt high. He wanted to leap into the sea, but Hong Qigong pressed him move after move and gave him no room to spare a hand or a foot. If he forced his way into the sea he was sure to be hit, and with fists and palms as formidable as Hong Qigong’s, a single blow would do him serious harm. He fought hard to hold him off while he searched for a way out.

Victory was in Hong Qigong’s grasp, and the longer he fought, the more pleased with himself he grew. Then suddenly he thought, If I knock him into the fire and finish him off, where’s the fun in that? He’s got Jing-er’s false Nine Yin Manual,⁴ and he’d never die content without training from it a while. How can I not let him be taken in so badly? He gave a laugh and said, “Old Venom, I’ll spare you today. Get in the boat.”

Ouyang Feng rolled up his strange eyes and leapt into the sea. Hong Qigong was about to jump down after him when he heard Ouyang Feng shout, “Wait. I’m wet now too, so the two of us can settle it fair and square.” He caught hold of an iron chain hanging from the ship’s rail, used the momentum to vault back up, and landed on the deck again.

Hong Qigong said, “Splendid, splendid! What a joy of a fight this is today.” Fist flew and palm answered, and the two of them fought more and more savagely.

Guo Jing said, “Rong-er, look how vicious the Western Venom is.” Her acupoints had been sealed, and Huang Rong could not make a sound. Guo Jing went on, “Shall I go and ask Shifu to come down? That ship will sink any moment now.” Still Huang Rong did not answer. Guo Jing turned his head and saw Ouyang Ke holding her by the wrist. Furious, he shouted, “Let go!”

It had cost Ouyang Ke a great deal to get his hand on Huang Rong’s wrist at last, and he was not going to let go. He smiled. “Make one move and I’ll smash her head in with my palm.”

Without stopping to think, Guo Jing swept the oar sideways at him, and Ouyang Ke ducked his head to avoid it. Guo Jing struck with both palms together, two whooshing blows chopping at his face. Ouyang Ke had to let go of Huang Rong and jerk his head aside to escape. Guo Jing’s fists drove straight up and straight down, raining blows on him anyhow. Ouyang Ke found he could not use his hands and feet properly in the little boat, and his enemy did nothing but attack furiously, so he stood up at once and swept his arm across in a move of Spirit Serpent Fist.⁵ Guo Jing raised his left arm to block. Ouyang Ke’s arm bent suddenly, and his fist cracked into Guo Jing’s cheek.

The blow was heavy. Stars burst before Guo Jing’s eyes. He thought, Every moment is dangerous now. I must strike to kill. He saw the second punch coming and raised his left arm to block again. Ouyang Ke repeated the trick, his arm bending to strike. Guo Jing threw his head back and drove his right arm forward in a sudden push. Ordinarily a man who is drawing back cannot attack at the same moment, but Zhou Botong had taught Guo Jing to fight with each hand separately, and his left could parry while his right pushed, both at once. Ouyang Ke’s right arm was caught squarely between Guo Jing’s two arms. The left arm drew back, the right pushed out, and under the sudden wrench there was a crack as the bone of his arm snapped.

Ouyang Ke’s martial arts were no worse than those of Ma Yu, Wang Chuyi, Sha Tongtian and their like, and in both neili⁶ and technique he was far above Guo Jing. But fighting with two hands separately was a skill never before seen in all the martial arts, and so both times they had come to blows, he had been hurt by this strange art. The pain in his arm shot straight to his heart, and he fell in a heap. Guo Jing did not care whether he lived or died. He hurried to raise Huang Rong, and finding her limp and unable to move, he at once unsealed the acupoint that had been struck. Luckily, at the moment Ouyang Feng struck it, Hong Qigong had been attacking him, and Ouyang Feng had been guarding against him with all his might. Wary as well of the Soft Hedgehog Armour Huang Rong might be wearing, he had had to pick out an acupoint on her neck where the armour did not reach, and there had been no time to summon neili into his finger. Otherwise, with the Western Venom’s unique acupoint-striking technique, Guo Jing would never have been able to undo it.

Huang Rong cried, “Quick, go and help Shifu!”

Guo Jing looked up at the great ship. His shifu and Ouyang Feng were flying to and fro amid the flames, fighting at close quarters, and with the crackle of burning timber mingled with the rush of their fists and palms, it was an awesome sight and sound. Suddenly there was a tremendous rending crash. The ship’s keel had burned through, and the ship broke in two. The waves battered the stern a few times, and it slowly sank into the sea, churning up a great whirlpool. The other half of the ship was clearly about to go down as well. Guo Jing seized his oar and rowed the little boat close, meaning to climb aboard and help.

Hong Qigong had been in the water earlier, and his clothes had mostly been dried by the fire, whereas Ouyang Feng was still dripping wet, so now it was the Western Venom who had the upper hand of the Northern Beggar. Hong Qigong fought back with all his strength and gave not an inch. All at once a burning mast came crashing down from above, and both men leapt back. The mast lay between them, blazing fiercely.

Ouyang Feng swung his Snake Staff⁷ and thrust it across the mast, and Hong Qigong drew the bamboo staff from his belt and answered with a move of his own. At first the two had fought bare-handed. Now, armed, their exchanges grew all the more ferocious.

Guo Jing pulled hard on the oars, anxious for his shifu’s safety, yet when he saw the wonderful skill the two of them showed with their weapons, he was spellbound in spite of himself and could not stop marvelling.

Martial artists have a saying, “A hundred days to train the dao, a thousand days to train the spear, ten thousand days to train the jian.” Swordplay is the hardest of all to master. When martial artists reach the peak of their attainment, they often devote themselves to swordsmanship, and by then each has his own matchless moves, so that it is hard to say who is the better. Years ago, at the Huashan Sword Summit,⁸ Hong Qigong, Ouyang Feng and the others were all masters of consummate skill, and each had a weapon that suited his hand. (The “sword” of the Sword Summit is only a figure of speech, in which swordsmanship, the most refined of the arts, stands for martial arts of every kind. In the same way the ancients called the canonical works of the Confucian school “classics”, as in the Five Classics, the Six Classics and the Thirteen Classics, but later the writings of the Hundred Schools came to be called classics too, such as the Mo Jing, the Dao De Jing and the Nan Hua Jing. Religious books were called classics as well, such as the Lotus Sutra, the Ksitigarbha Sutra and the Guanyin Sutra, and important modern works have sometimes taken the word too, as when people speak of “the classic works of Marxism-Leninism”.) Hong Qigong usually fought with the bamboo staff he always carried, which had been handed down from one Guild Chief⁹ of the Beggars’ Guild to the next. It was supple and tough, and a foot longer than a single jian. He was a master of external techniques,¹⁰ and his martial arts had always taken the path of pure, hard force, but once he had devoted himself to the staff, his staff technique came to hold softness within its hardness, and in his hands it was all the more formidable. Ouyang Feng’s Snake Staff drew on the methods of the rod, the cudgel and the staff, and its moves were intricate beyond words. On its tip was carved a human head with a grinning mouth and a hideous face, with two rows of sharp teeth tipped with deadly poison, and when he whirled it, it was like a ghoul ready to bite whoever it met. A press on a hidden catch in the staff, and vicious hidden weapons would shoot out of the head. Lift the iron cap on its tip, and two little venomous snakes would wriggle out of the hole beneath and coil round and round the staff, darting out and drawing back, adding strange moves to the staff technique that changed without end.

Snake Staff met bamboo staff as each man brought out his deadliest moves. Ouyang Feng had the better of it in weapons, but Hong Qigong was the chief of all the beggars under heaven, and a past master at beating snakes, of course. As his bamboo staff flew, he attacked his enemy and in between seized every opening to strike at the vital spots of the snakes on the staff. Ouyang Feng whirled the Snake Staff faster, so that he could get no clear aim. He judged that against a man of Hong Qigong’s skill the hidden weapons in the head of his staff would be useless, and that he had better not loose them and make himself a laughing stock. Hong Qigong had another art besides, the Dog-Beating Staff Technique,¹¹ which the Beggars’ Guild called the treasure that guarded the guild, with changes of marvellous subtlety. But as he was not yet losing, he thought, there was no need to bring out this secret of his house. If Ouyang Feng caught a glimpse of its essentials, then at the second Huashan Sword Summit Hong Qigong would no longer have the advantage of surprise.

Guo Jing stood at the bow of the little boat. Again and again he wanted to leap aboard and help his shifu, but the two were fighting harder and harder, and his own neili fell so far short of theirs that he could not get near them. He could only fret, with nothing he could do.

Footnotes

1. 软猬甲 — Ruǎnwèijiǎ. A vest set with tiny barbs, proof against blades and fists, treasured on Peach Blossom Island. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 穴道 — xuédào. Acupoints, the nodes along the body’s meridians through which qi flows. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

4. 九阴假经 — Jiǔyīn Jiǎjīng. Literally false Nine Yin Manual. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 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. ↩

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

7. 蛇杖 — Shézhàng. Ouyang Feng’s staff, with live venomous snakes coiled in its head. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 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. ↩

9. 帮主 — bāngzhǔ. Literally guild master. The head of a guild. ↩

10. 外家 — wàijiā. Literally outer school. Martial arts built on strength, speed and hard force, as opposed to neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 打狗棒 — Dǎgǒu Bàng. The jade-green bamboo staff carried by the Guild Chief of the Beggars’ Guild as the token of his office. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩