The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 22 – Part 4

They sailed before the wind for two days, and still it held steady. On the evening of the third day, Hong Qigong¹ and Huang Rong² were both asleep and Guo Jing³ was at the steering oar keeping watch, when out of the noise of wind and waves came two shouts: “Help, help!” The voice was like cracked cymbals clashing, and even through the howling of wind and sea it came quite clearly. Hong Qigong rolled over and sat up. “It’s Old Venom,”⁴ he said softly. The cry came again. Huang Rong clutched Hong Qigong’s arm. “It’s a ghost, it’s a ghost!” she said, her voice shaking.

There was no moon that night, only a scattering of stars shining on the pitch-black sea, and cries like these coming out of the depths of the night were enough to make anyone’s flesh creep. Hong Qigong called, “Is that Old Venom?” But he had lost his neili,⁵ and his voice did not carry far. Guo Jing drew his breath up from the dantian⁶ and shouted, “Is that House Uncle Ouyang?” From far away came Ouyang Feng’s⁷ voice. “It’s me, Ouyang Feng. Help!” Huang Rong was still frightened. “Man or ghost, never mind which, let’s turn the raft round and get away.”

Hong Qigong suddenly said, “Save him!”

Huang Rong cried, “No, no, I’m scared.”

“It’s not a ghost,” said Hong Qigong.

“Even if it’s a man, we shouldn’t save him.”

“Helping those in desperate need is a rule of our Beggars’ Guild,” said Hong Qigong. “You and I are Guild Chiefs of two generations, and we can’t break a rule handed down through all the generations before us.”

Huang Rong said, “Then this rule of the Beggars’ Guild is wrong. Ouyang Feng is plainly a great villain, and even as a ghost he’d be a great villainous ghost. Whether man or ghost, he doesn’t deserve saving.”

“That is the Guild’s rule, and it can’t be changed.”

Huang Rong fumed.

From far off they heard Ouyang Feng call, “Seventh Brother, will you really leave me to die?”

Huang Rong said, “I’ve got it. Jing gege, when we reach Ouyang Feng, you kill him first with one blow of your staff. You’re not in the Beggars’ Guild, so you don’t have to keep this senseless rule. Shifu, the Beggars’ Guild rule is to help those in desperate need, but there’s no rule about helping ghosts in desperate need. Once he’s turned into a ghost, we don’t have to help him.”

Hong Qigong said angrily, “Taking advantage of a man in peril, is that the way for those of us who follow the chivalrous path?”

Huang Rong still would not give in. “Then surely taking advantage of a ghost in peril is all right?”

Huang Rong watched helplessly, fuming, as Guo Jing steered the raft towards the sound. Through the heavy darkness they could just make out two heads bobbing up and down on the waves, with a big log floating beside them. No doubt when the raft broke up, uncle and nephew had grabbed one of its logs, and that was how they had held out so long.

Huang Rong said, “Make him swear an oath first, that he won’t harm anyone in the future. Then we’ll save him.”

Hong Qigong sighed. “You don’t know what Old Venom is like. He’d rather die than give in, and he’ll never swear such an oath. Jing-er, go on, save them!”

Guo Jing leaned out, seized Ouyang Ke by the back of the collar and hauled him onto the raft. In his eagerness to save them, Hong Qigong forgot that he had lost his martial arts and reached out a hand to help. Ouyang Feng grabbed it and used the pull to spring onto the raft, but the jerk of it sent Hong Qigong toppling into the sea with a splash.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong were horrified. They leapt into the sea together and pulled Hong Qigong out.

Huang Rong angrily scolded Ouyang Feng, “My shifu was trying to save you with good intentions. How could you pull him into the sea instead?”

Ouyang Feng knew now that Hong Qigong had no martial ability left in him, for how else could a pull like that have dragged a master of high martial arts off a raft? But he had been soaking in the sea for days and was utterly spent, so he did not dare to brazen it out. He lowered his head. “I… I really didn’t do it on purpose. Seventh Brother, your humble brother begs your pardon.”

Hong Qigong roared with laughter. “Don’t mention it, don’t mention it. But the old beggar’s secret is out now.”

Ouyang Feng said, “My good Miss, give us something to eat. We haven’t eaten for days.”

Huang Rong said, “This raft only has food and water for three. Sharing it with you is all very well, but then what do we eat?”

Ouyang Feng said, “Then just give a little to my nephew. His leg wound is severe. He truly cannot hold on.”

Huang Rong said, “If that’s so, let’s make a deal. Your venomous snake injured my shifu, and he has not recovered to this day. Hand over the antidote.”

Ouyang Feng felt inside his robe, took out two small bottles and put them in her hand. “See for yourself, Miss. The water got into the bottles, and the antidote has all been washed out!”

Huang Rong took the bottles, shook them, and held them to her nose. Indeed, the bottles were full of seawater. She said, “Then tell us the formula for the antidote. We’ll have it prepared as soon as we reach land.”

Ouyang Feng said, “If I only wanted to cheat you out of food and water, I could make up any old prescription, and I doubt you’d know whether it was true or false. But is Ouyang Feng that kind of man? I’ll tell you the truth. My strange snakes are one of the wonders of the world, deadly beyond compare. A man they bite, however high his martial arts, may not die at once, but he is bound to be badly damaged in the end and lose his martial arts. There’s no harm in telling you the prescription for the antidote, but the ingredients are not only extremely hard to gather, they take three years of summers and winters to prepare, so it would be too late in the end. That is all I have to say. If you want me to pay for Seventh Brother’s life with mine, that’s up to you.”

Hearing this, Huang Rong and Guo Jing could not help admiring him. They thought, Vicious as he is, even between life and death he never forgets his standing as a grandmaster of the martial arts.

Hong Qigong said, “Rong-er, what he says is true. A person’s fate is decreed. The old beggar does not worry about it. Give him something to eat.”

Huang Rong grieved in secret, knowing that her shifu would never get well after all. She took out a roast leg of wild goat and tossed it to Ouyang Feng. He tore off a few pieces and fed them to his nephew first, and only then began to wolf it down himself. Remembering how they had tricked the two of them on the island into eating piss-soaked goat, Huang Rong could not stop herself snorting with laughter. “Too late!”

Ouyang Feng, not understanding her meaning, stared at her without speaking.

Huang Rong said, “Uncle Ouyang, now that you’ve injured my shifu, congratulations, you’ll be first among all the heroes at the second Huashan Sword Summit.”

Ouyang Feng said, “That is not necessarily so. There is still one person in the world who can cure Seventh Brother’s wound.”

Guo Jing and Huang Rong jumped up at the same moment, and the raft tipped to one side. “Really?” they asked together.

Ouyang Feng gnawed at the goat leg. “The trouble is, he’s hard to find. Your shifu knows, of course.”

The two looked at their shifu. Hong Qigong laughed. “If you know he’s hard to find, why mention it?”

Huang Rong tugged at his sleeve and pleaded, “Shifu, tell us. However hard it is, we’ll find a way to do it. I’ll go and beg my father. He’s sure to know a way.”

Ouyang Feng snorted softly.

Huang Rong said, “What are you snorting at?”

Ouyang Feng did not answer.

Hong Qigong said, “He’s laughing at you for thinking your father can do anything. But this man is no ordinary man, and even your father could do nothing with him. And quite apart from his martial arts being supremely high, even if he hadn’t the strength to truss a chicken, the old beggar would never do something that harms another for his own benefit.”

Huang Rong thought for a moment. “Supremely high martial arts? Ah, Father told me about him. It’s the Southern Emperor, Emperor Duan.⁸ Shifu, how would asking him to heal your injury be harming another for your own benefit?”

Hong Qigong said, “Go to sleep. Don’t ask. I forbid you to mention this matter again, do you understand?”

Huang Rong did not dare say any more. Afraid that Ouyang Feng would steal the food, she slept propped against the water barrel and the pile of provisions.

When she woke the next morning, the sight of uncle and nephew gave Huang Rong a start. Their faces were white and their whole bodies puffy and swollen, no doubt from soaking in the sea for days on end. She thought, Shifu is good in every way, except that he’s far too pedantic about benevolence and righteousness. Being benevolent to villains is being cruel to good people. I only hope Jing gege doesn’t learn that from him. When it comes to dealing with villains, he ought to learn from his “father-in-law”. At the thought of that “father-in-law”, she could not help smiling.

By the hour of Shen,⁹ in the afternoon, the raft had come within sight of a dark line far ahead that looked faintly like land, and Guo Jing was the first to cry out. After sailing on for about as long as it takes to eat a meal, they could see it clearly. It was land. The wind had dropped and the sea was calm, but the sun was scorching and the heat was hard to bear.

Ouyang Feng suddenly stood up. His body flickered, and both his hands shot out, one for each of them, seizing Guo Jing and Huang Rong. At the same time a flick of his toe struck Hong Qigong’s acupoints.¹⁰ Caught unawares, with their wrists seized at the pulse-gate, Guo Jing and Huang Rong felt half their bodies go numb at once. “What are you doing?” they cried in alarm.

Ouyang Feng gave a sinister laugh but did not answer.

Hong Qigong sighed. “Old Venom is arrogant and conceited, and all his life he has refused to accept a favour from anyone. We saved his life, so how can his mind be at rest unless he kills the people who saved him? Ah, it’s my own fault. In the dark I was so eager to save a man that I forgot that, and now it has cost these two children their lives.”

Ouyang Feng said, “Good that you know it. Besides, now that the Nine Yin Manual¹¹ is in my hands, how can I leave another copy of it in this Guo brat’s head, to make endless trouble later on?”

When he heard him mention the Nine Yin Manual, an idea came to Hong Qigong. He cried out loudly, “Mohe boluo, jiedi guluo, nu’er qiliu, hagua’er, ningxue qika, pingdao’er…”

Ouyang Feng was taken aback. Half of it sounded like the strange passage in the manual Guo Jing had written out, which he had puzzled over endlessly without making sense of it. In fact Hong Qigong was reciting any old gibberish, but how was Ouyang Feng to know that? He assumed Hong Qigong understood its meaning. He thought, This long passage of strange words must be the key to the whole manual. If I kill these three, there may be no one left in the world who understands it, and then even with the manual in my hands, it would be no use to me. “What does that mean?” he asked.

Hong Qigong said, “Hunhua chacha, xuegen xubatu, mi’er mi’er…” Then he called, “Jing-er, you carry on reciting!” He had heard Guo Jing recite that strange passage from the Nine Yin Manual, but how could he have remembered it? He was simply making it up as he went, yet his face was perfectly solemn.

Guo Jing promptly began to recite, “Mohe boluo, jiedi guluo…”

Ouyang Feng concentrated, thinking deeply.

Hong Qigong roared, “Jing-er, now.”

Guo Jing pulled back with his left hand and struck out with his right palm, while his left foot flew up at the same time.

Ouyang Feng’s surprise attack had caught him by the pulse-gate, and he should have been powerless to resist. But Hong Qigong’s stream of wild nonsense had done its work. Ouyang Feng had fallen for it, and in his moment of distraction his grip slackened a little, and Guo Jing struck back at once. He had already trained the Tendon-Transmuting Bone-Tempering Chapter¹² of the manual as far as its second section. He had learnt no new moves or fist forms from it, but his existing neili had suddenly grown by a fifth, and though the pull, the palm and the kick were quite ordinary moves, there was extraordinary force behind them.

Ouyang Feng was startled. The raft was so narrow that there was nowhere to retreat, and he could only raise a hand to parry, still keeping his grip on Huang Rong.

Guo Jing attacked with fists and palms together in a storm of blows. He knew that if Ouyang Feng were given a breathing space on this raft to bring his Toad Skill¹³ to bear, the three of them would have no strength to resist and nowhere to dodge. This furious onslaught did at least force Ouyang Feng back half a step.

Huang Rong turned a little sideways and rammed her shoulder into him.

Ouyang Feng laughed to himself. He thought, The little wench is ramming me, and hasn’t stopped to think how much neili she has. I’ll be surprised if I don’t bounce her straight into the sea. The thought had barely formed when Huang Rong’s shoulder struck. Ouyang Feng neither dodged nor parried, paying her no attention at all, until suddenly he felt a sharp prick in his chest. Only then did he remember that she was wearing the Soft Hedgehog Armour,¹⁴ the treasure that guards Peach Blossom Island. He was standing at the very edge of the raft and could not retreat another half-step, and her armour bristled with spikes, leaving him nowhere to take hold. Hastily his left hand let go of her wrist, and he used the movement to fling her violently away.

Huang Rong could not keep her footing and was about to fall into the sea when Guo Jing caught her with his right hand, his left hand still attacking. Huang Rong drew her short jian and darted in.

Ouyang Feng stood firm at the edge of the raft as if he were nailed there, the spray splashing again and again over the backs of his knees, and however Guo Jing and Huang Rong attacked, they could not drive him into the sea.

In the ordinary way Ouyang Feng’s martial arts were far superior to Guo Jing’s and Huang Rong’s put together, but after soaking in the sea for days he was already half dead. Huang Rong’s martial arts were not high, but she wore the Soft Hedgehog Armour and wielded an exceptionally sharp short jian, and these two weapons of attack and defence made him very wary of her. Add to that Guo Jing’s Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing,¹⁵ the Seventy-Two Paths of the Void Clarity Fist,¹⁶ Ambidextrous Self-Combat¹⁷ and the Tendon-Transmuting Bone-Tempering Chapter of the Nine Yin Manual he had lately trained in, and their combined power was truly formidable. The three of them fought on the raft, locked together with neither side able to get the upper hand.

As time passed, Ouyang Feng’s palm techniques grew fiercer, and Guo Jing and Huang Rong gradually felt they could not match him. Hong Qigong could only watch in secret anxiety.

In the whirl of flying palms, Ouyang Feng lashed out with his left foot in a kick of savage force. Huang Rong did not dare try to parry it, and turned a somersault into the sea.

Guo Jing, fighting alone against a powerful enemy, found it even harder.

Huang Rong entered the water on the left side, immediately dived under the raft, and rose on the right, her short jian stabbing towards Ouyang Feng’s back.

Ouyang Feng had been gaining the advantage, but now attacked from both front and rear, and the fight became even again.

Even as she fought, Huang Rong was working out what to do. She thought, If we go on fighting like this, we’ll lose in the end. Unless it’s in the sea, we’ll never beat him. An idea came to her. She swung her short jian and cut through the sail rope, and the little sail came down at once, so that the raft only bobbed and rocked on the waves without moving forward. She climbed back onto the raft, wound the sail rope several times round Hong Qigong and several times more round one of the raft’s main logs, and tied it fast with two knots.

Once she withdrew, Guo Jing felt himself weakening again. He barely blocked three more moves, but on the fourth could hold back no longer and was forced to retreat a step.

Ouyang Feng pressed his advantage relentlessly, his palms rising in continuous assault.

Guo Jing gave ground again and again. He met one of the enemy’s palms with Or Leap in the Abyss, but could not hold off the next and had to step back once more, and with his left foot he was about to tread on empty air. In this moment of danger he kept his head. Kicking out with alternate feet, he guarded his line of retreat so that the enemy could not follow up, and then, with a splash, he leapt into the sea.

The raft lurched twice, and Huang Rong used the movement to spring up and jump into the sea as well.

The two of them took hold of the raft, one pushing down and the other heaving up, and it was on the point of turning over. If it capsized, Ouyang Ke would be sure to drown at once, and in the water Ouyang Feng would naturally be no match for the two of them. Hong Qigong, on the other hand, was tied to the raft, so they could finish off the Western Venom first and then rescue their shifu.

Ouyang Feng saw what they meant to do. He raised his foot over Hong Qigong’s head. “Listen, you two brats,” he shouted. “Rock it once more, and he gets a kick like this!”

Footnotes

1. 洪七公 — Hóng Qīgōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 黄蓉 — Huáng Róng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 郭靖 — Guō Jìng. His name meaning “to pacify”; paired with Yang Kang’s 康 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 老毒物 — lǎo dúwù. Literally old venomous thing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

6. 丹田 — dāntián. Literally cinnabar field. The primary energy centre below the navel in internal cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

8. 段皇爷 — Duàn Huángyé. Literally Imperial Lord Duan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

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

12. 易筋锻骨章 — Yìjīn Duàngǔ Zhāng. Internal cultivation method from the Nine Yin Manual. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 蛤蟆功 — Háma Gōng. Ouyang Feng’s hereditary art, practised crouching like a toad. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

16. 空明拳 — Kōngmíng Quán. The softest fist art in the world, which Zhou Botong drew from the Daodejing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 左右互搏 — Zuǒyòu Hùbó. Literally left and right contend with each other. A method of fighting with each hand working independently of the other. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩