The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 25 – Part 7

As Mei Chaofeng¹ listened to the seven voices chanting, every one of them full of breath and deep with neili,² she was secretly alarmed. She thought, Have the Seven Zis of Quanzhen³ gathered here again? No. Apart from Ma Yu,⁴ the voices are quite wrong.

On top of a sheer cliff in the Mongolian desert she had once heard Ma Yu and the Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan⁵ speaking as the Seven Zis of Quanzhen. Blind as she was, her ears were extremely keen and her memory good, and a voice once heard she never forgot. She did not know that Ma Yu had laid a false trail that day. She called out in a ringing voice, “Daoist Elder⁶ Ma, I trust you have been well since we parted!”

Ma Yu had treated her with some consideration that day, and vicious as Mei Chaofeng was with her hands, she still knew a kindness when she met one.

Tan Chuduan⁷ had failed to catch up with Zhou Botong,⁸ and on his way back he had run into Mei Chaofeng. He had a chivalrous heart and had long known how much evil the Twin Evils of Dark Wind⁹ had done. Not knowing that Chen Xuanfeng¹⁰ was dead, or that since being taken back into her shifu’s school Mei Chaofeng had thoroughly mended her ways, he attacked at once to rid the world of a scourge, but he was no match for her. Fortunately Mei Chaofeng recognised him as a Daoist of the Quanzhen Order, and out of regard for Ma Yu she only wounded him and made no killing move. Then she had chased him all the way here.

Ma Yu said, “Very well, thanks to you, very well! Peach Blossom Island and the Quanzhen Order have no quarrel. Your honoured shifu will be here soon, I take it?”

Mei Chaofeng started. “What do you want with my shifu?”

Qiu Chuji¹¹ shouted, “Vile witch, go and tell your shifu to come and see what the Seven Zis of Quanzhen can do.”

Mei Chaofeng was furious. She shouted, “Who are you?”

Qiu Chuji said, “Qiu Chuji! Have you heard of me, witch?”

Mei Chaofeng gave a great, weird screech and leapt into the air. Fixing on the place Qiu Chuji’s voice had come from, she shielded herself with her left palm and swooped down on him with her right hand clawing at his head.

Guo Jing knew how savage and deadly that swoop was. High as Qiu Chuji’s skill was, he could not meet it head-on. Yet, to his astonishment, Qiu Chuji stayed sitting cross-legged on the floor, neither blocking nor dodging.

Guo Jing thought in dismay, This is bad! How can Daoist Elder Qiu be so rash?

Mei Chaofeng’s claw was about to close on the crown of Qiu Chuji’s head when two blasts of palm force came at her from left and right. Liu Chuxuan¹² and Wang Chuyi¹³ had struck at the same moment. Mei Chaofeng’s right claw drove on, and she swept her left palm across to fend off their force. But the two men’s palm force flowed as one, one yin and one yang, each completing the other, and its power was astonishing, far beyond anything their two neili added together could have given.

Buffeted in mid-air by that tremendous force, Mei Chaofeng was flung upwards. Hastily she turned her right claw into a palm, and with a mighty swing she somersaulted backwards and landed on the threshold. She was deeply shaken, and thought, Men with skill as profound as this cannot be any of the Seven Zis of Quanzhen. She called out, “Are Hong Qigong¹⁴ and Emperor Duan¹⁵ here?”

Qiu Chuji laughed. “We are only the Seven Zis of Quanzhen. What Hong Qigong, what Emperor Duan?”

Mei Chaofeng was utterly bewildered. She thought, Old Daoist Tan was no match for me. How can there be such masters among his fellow disciples? Can brothers of the same school really differ so widely in strength?

Watching from the next room, Guo Jing was just as astonished. However great Liu Chuxuan’s and Wang Chuyi’s neili, he thought, they could at most be a match for Mei Chaofeng, and even joining their strength they could never have bounced her away with a single push. Such power would be no wonder coming from Zhou Botong, Hong Qigong, Huang Yaoshi or Ouyang Feng, but how could the Seven Zis of Quanzhen have it?

Mei Chaofeng was fierce and headstrong. Apart from her shifu, she knew of no one in the world to fear, and the more she was thwarted, the more recklessly she pressed on. That day on the Mongolian cliff Ma Yu had spoken modestly and treated her with courtesy, and she had known when she was beaten and withdrawn. But today Qiu Chuji, believing Qiu Qianren’s lie that Zhou Botong really had been killed by Huang Yaoshi, and with the death of Guo Jing to avenge as well, hated the whole Peach Blossom Island school to the marrow, and kept calling her “witch”. Mei Chaofeng knew she could not win, yet she would not leave it at that. After a moment’s thought she reached to her waist and unfastened the White Python Whip.¹⁶

She cried, “Daoist Elder Ma, today I must give offence.”

Ma Yu said, “As you wish!”

Mei Chaofeng said, “I’m going to use a weapon. You bring out your daos and jians too!”

Wang Chuyi said, “There are seven of us and only one of you, and your eyes trouble you besides. However unworthy the Seven Zis of Quanzhen may be, we cannot fight you with weapons. We shall sit still. Make your move!”

Mei Chaofeng said coldly, “You think you can stop my silver whip sitting still?”

Qiu Chuji swore at her. “Vile witch, tonight is the night you die. What more is there to say?”

Mei Chaofeng grunted. Her right hand swung, and the long whip, covered all over with barbed hooks, came gliding slowly forward like a great python, its tip pointing straight at Sun Buer.¹⁷

Listening to the two sides trade words in the next room, Huang Rong thought, Mei shijie’s White Python Whip is a deadly thing, and the Seven Zis of Quanzhen dare to sit still and fend it off bare-handed. I must see what kind of trick they’re using. She tugged at Guo Jing to make him give her the little hole.

When she saw where the Seven Zis of Quanzhen were sitting in the hall, she started. She thought, That’s the shape of the Dipper! Yes, of course. Daoist Elder Qiu said just now to form the Big Dipper.¹⁸

Huang Yaoshi was deeply versed in astronomy and calendrical reckoning. On summer nights when Huang Rong was small and they sat out in the cool, her father would often take her on his knee and point out the stars and constellations, so she could recognise the seven Daoists’ formation.

Of the Seven Zis of Quanzhen, Ma Yu held the place of Tianshu. Tan Chuduan held Tianxuan. Liu Chuxuan held Tianji. Qiu Chuji held Tianquan. These four made up the bowl of the Dipper. Wang Chuyi held Yuheng. Hao Datong¹⁹ held Kaiyang. Sun Buer held Yaoguang. These three made up the handle. Of the seven stars of the Dipper, Tianquan is the faintest, yet it sits where bowl and handle meet, the most vital point of all, so it was taken by Qiu Chuji, the strongest fighter of the seven. In the handle, Yuheng is the chief star, and it was taken by Wang Chuyi, the next strongest.

Mei Chaofeng’s White Python Whip lashed at Sun Buer’s chest. It came slowly, but with savage force behind it, and still the Daoist nun sat motionless. Following the tip of the whip with her eye, Huang Rong saw a skull painted on Sun Buer’s Daoist robe, and she was puzzled. She thought, The Quanzhen Order calls itself the true orthodox school of the Daoist gate. Why does she dress like Mei shijie? She did not know that long ago, when Wang Chongyang had led Sun Buer to enlightenment, he had painted a picture of a skull and given it to her, meaning that human life is brief and gone in a breath, that every man becomes a skull, and so one must cultivate the true and aspire to the great Dao. In memory of her late shifu, Sun Buer had embroidered the picture on her Daoist robe.

Slow as the silver whip came, it hissed through the air. A few more inches and its tip would touch the skull on her robe, when suddenly the silver whip shot back, like a python struck across the head with a dao, and flew straight back at Mei Chaofeng like an arrow. It came back so fast that Mei Chaofeng felt only a faint tremor in her hand before a blast of air hit her face. She ducked her head hastily, and the silver whip skimmed past her hair. She thought, That was close!

She brought the whip back into a sideways sweep. This time its coils lashed at Ma Yu and Qiu Chuji. The two of them still sat motionless, but Tan Chuduan and Wang Chuyi struck out with their palms and knocked the whip aside.

After a few more moves Huang Rong could see clearly that when the Seven Zis of Quanzhen met the enemy, each struck with only one palm, while the other rested on the shoulder of the person beside them. She thought it over a little and saw the secret of it. She thought, So it’s the same principle as my helping Jing gege to heal. The strength of all seven of them is joined into one. How can Mei shijie hold out against that?

The Big Dipper Formation was the highest Daoist art of the Quanzhen Order, and Wang Chongyang had poured endless pains into it. On a small scale it served for fighting side by side. Enlarged, it could be used on the battlefield. When an enemy attacked, the one who bore the brunt of it head-on did not need to spend his strength parrying, for his companions beside him struck back from the flanks. It was as if one man had the martial arts of several, and its might was truly irresistible.

A few more moves, and Mei Chaofeng grew more and more alarmed. She could feel that the enemy were no longer knocking her whip back or aside. Instead they went with its force and drew it on, leading the silver whip into their formation. She could still swing the whip, but the circles it made grew smaller and smaller. A little longer, and half of the silver whip, many tens of feet long, was wrapped up in the formation and could not be pulled back. Even then, if she let go of the whip and leapt back, she could still get away. But she had put endless toil into this long whip. To have it taken from her by men sitting at their ease on the floor with bare hands, how could she accept that?

Her hesitation lasted only an instant, but the chance was gone in that instant. Once the Big Dipper Formation was set in motion, unless the one in the Tianquan place called it off, every move of the seven came faster than the last. By the time Mei Chaofeng knew that to fight on meant certain death, and in despair gritted her teeth and let go of the handle, it was already too late.

Liu Chuxuan’s palm force carried the whip on. With a tremendous crack, the long whip flew and struck the wall, and the whole roof shook. The tiles rattled against one another, and dust came pattering down from above.

Mei Chaofeng swayed on her feet. The pull of that force had unbalanced her, and she took a step forward.

That step was no more than two feet, yet everything turned on it. Had she let go of the whip a moment sooner, she could have stepped backwards instead of forwards and turned straight out of the door. The seven would most likely not have chased her, and if they had, they might well not have caught her. But now she had taken a step forward, and she knew it was bad. She swung both palms out to left and right, just in time to meet the palm force of Sun Buer and Wang Chuyi. She had barely held them off when the palm force of Ma Yu and Hao Datong struck at her from behind.

She knew that going further forward was more dangerous still, but she was hemmed in, and had no choice but to take another half step with her left foot. With a great shout her right foot flew up, and in a flash it kicked first at Ma Yu’s wrist and then at Hao Datong’s.

Qiu Chuji and Liu Chuxuan cried together, “Fine skill!” and they too struck out, one after the other, to the rescue.

Before Mei Chaofeng’s right foot was down her left foot rose, and she slipped Qiu Chuji’s and Liu Chuxuan’s palm force. But when her right foot came down, it had taken another step forward.

Now she was deep inside the Big Dipper Formation, and unless she could bring down one of the seven, there was no way out.

Huang Rong watched in secret alarm. In the dim yellow moonlight she saw Mei Chaofeng’s long hair flying as she leapt to and fro, striking with her palms and kicking with her feet, every move of hand and foot carrying a faint rush of wind, like a tiger leaping or a leopard twisting. The Seven Zis of Quanzhen met her movement with stillness, sitting cross-legged. Strike the head, and the tail answered. Strike the tail, and the head answered. Strike the waist, and head and tail answered together. They held her fast in the formation.

Again and again Mei Chaofeng used the Nine Yin White Bone Claw²⁰ and the Heart-Crushing Palm,²¹ trying to break out of the ring, but each time the palm force of the seven drove her back, until she was howling with rage. By now the seven could have taken her life with a lift of a hand, but they never dealt a killing blow.

After watching for a long while, Huang Rong understood. She thought, Ah, I see. They are using Mei shijie to practise their formation. An opponent as strong as she is doesn’t come along every day. They won’t stop until they’ve worn her out and she drops dead.

But her guess was only half right. They were indeed using Mei Chaofeng to practise, but Daoists do not lightly take life, and they had no thought of killing her. Huang Rong had no liking for Mei Chaofeng, but they were of the same school after all, and she resented seeing the seven humiliate her like this. After a while she did not want to watch any more, and gave the little hole back to Guo Jing.

In the next room they could hear the palm wind, now furious, now slack, as the fight went hotly on.

At first Guo Jing was quite at a loss. He saw the seven sitting in a ragged scatter on the floor while they fought Mei Chaofeng, and could make no sense of it.

Huang Rong whispered in his ear, “They’re sitting in the positions of the stars of the Dipper, and the neili of all seven is joined together. Do you see?”

At that reminder, line after line of the second half of the Nine Yin Manual²² ran through his mind. Words whose meaning he had never grasped became clear in a flash as he watched how the seven struck and moved in their formation, as if they needed no explaining.

The more he watched, the happier he grew, until without knowing it he stood up, and his palm almost came away from Huang Rong’s.

In alarm Huang Rong quickly caught hold of him. Guo Jing started, sat down at once and put his eye to the little hole again. By now he understood the essentials of the Big Dipper Formation in the main, though he did not yet know how to use it. But every move the seven made was as good as a lesson in the knack of joining the substance of the Nine Yin Manual to its use.

The Nine Yin Manual had been written by a great master of an earlier day, Huang Shang,²³ who came to his understanding after reading the whole Daoist canon of the ages. When Wang Chongyang created the formation he had never seen the manual, but Daoist martial arts all spring from one source and do not differ in their root principles, so the play of the formation’s countering and changing could not escape what the manual encompassed. That day on Peach Blossom Island, watching Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng fight had certainly done Guo Jing a great deal of good. But his wits were slow, and the arts of the Northern Beggar and the Western Venom were not of the manual’s kind, so what he gained had been limited. Now, watching the seven work their formation, he saw Daoist martial arts confirm the Daoist martial learning of the manual, every part matching like the halves of a tally, and this was a truly great advance.

Seeing that Mei Chaofeng could hardly hold out, the seven were gradually easing their palm force when someone at the door said,

“Brother Yao, will you strike first, or shall I have a try?”

Footnotes

1. 梅超风 — Méi Chāofēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

3. 全真七子 — Quánzhēn Qīzǐ. Literally the seven zi of Quanzhen, zi being an honorific for a master. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 马钰 — Mǎ Yù. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 江南六怪 — Jiāngnán Liù Guài. Literally six eccentrics of Jiangnan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 道长 — dàozhǎng. Literally Daoist elder. A respectful form of address for a Daoist priest. ↩

7. 谭处端 — Tán Chǔduān. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 周伯通 — Zhōu Bótōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

11. 丘处机 — Qiū Chǔjī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 刘处玄 — Liú Chǔxuán. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 王处一 — Wáng Chǔyī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

16. 白蟒鞭 — Báimǎng Biān. Literally white python whip. Mei Chaofeng’s extremely long whip. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 孙不二 — Sūn Bù’èr. Her name meaning “not two”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 天罡北斗阵 — Tiāngāng Běidǒu Zhèn. Literally Big Dipper formation of the Heavenly Ladle. A Quanzhen formation of seven, laid out on the stars of the Big Dipper. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 郝大通 — Hǎo Dàtōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 九阴白骨爪 — Jiǔyīn Báigǔ Zhǎo. Literally nine yin white bone claw. A claw technique. ↩

21. 摧心掌 — Cuīxīn Zhǎng. A palm from the Nine Yin Manual that injures the internal organs, practised by the Twin Evils of Dark Wind. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

23. 黄裳 — Huáng Shang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩