The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 28 – Part 2

Shaken and full of doubt, Elder Jian made up his mind to yield if he could not win. He stooped and picked up his steel staff, holding it head down and tail up, and bowed. “Miss, I beg you to show mercy with your staff.” To hold the staff head down was, in the wulin,¹ a mark of the deepest respect when crossing weapons with a senior. It meant that he dared not meet his opponent as an equal, and that the bout was a sincere request for instruction.

Huang Rong thrust out her bamboo rod with a move called “Parting the Dog to Face the Sky,”² and flicked the head of the steel staff flying upward. She laughed. “No need for such ceremony. I’m only afraid my skill is no match for yours.” Elder Jian had used this steel staff for decades, until it was part of his hand, yet at her light flick he could not hold it. The head flipped over and came down at his own temple, and he snapped his wrist hastily to check it, more alarmed than ever. As the rules required of a junior, he let her have three moves first. Then he struck with a move called “The King of Qin Whips the Stone,”³ swinging the staff over from behind with his shoulder as the fulcrum and bringing it crashing down. This was the Mad Devil Staff Technique⁴ passed down from Lu Zhishen, one of the brave men of Liangshan Marsh.⁵

Huang Rong saw the terrible power behind the blow. If the tail of the staff so much as caught her, even with the Hedgehog Armour⁶ to protect her she could hardly escape internal injury. Not daring to be careless, she brought out the Dog-Beating Staff Technique⁷ her shifu⁸ had taught her and pressed straight in through the flashing of the steel. The steel staff weighed over thirty jin,⁹ the bamboo rod little more than ten liang.¹⁰ But the staff technique handed down from Guild Chief¹¹ to Guild Chief of the Beggars’ Guild was every bit as subtle and profound as men said. For all the gulf between the two weapons in weight and size, after only a few moves the steel staff, thick as a child’s arm, was so hemmed in by one little bamboo rod that it could hardly move.

At first Elder Jian had been afraid of snapping the Guild’s treasured staff, handed down through the generations, and he had struck with great care, pulling back the instant his staff was about to meet the bamboo rod. But Huang Rong’s staff technique was ferocious beyond compare. Now it jabbed at an acupoint,¹² now it stabbed at a vital spot, and Elder Jian was forced to pull his staff back to parry. After a dozen or so passes the shadow of the rod was all around him. He could barely fend it off with all his strength. How could he spare a thought for keeping clear of it?

Guo Jing was lost in admiration, thinking, Shifu’s martial arts are truly beyond anyone’s fathoming. Then he thought, Where can the old man be at this moment? Are his wounds any better?

Suddenly Huang Rong’s staff technique changed. Holding the rod round the middle with three fingers, she twirled it in a circle as if she were playing.

Elder Jian was taken aback. He flicked up his steel staff and jabbed hard at her left shoulder. Huang Rong’s bamboo rod flipped over and settled on the steel staff a foot or so from its head, and drew it outward along its own course. Of the force in that move, ninety-nine parts in a hundred were borrowed from her opponent. Elder Jian felt the steel staff about to fly from his hands and put all his strength into pulling it back, but the staff seemed glued to the bamboo rod. As the steel staff drew back, the bamboo rod came forward with it. Badly alarmed, he changed through seven or eight staff techniques, but he could not shake off the rod’s clinging grip.

The Dog-Beating Staff Technique has eight secrets: trip, chop, entangle, jab, flick, lead, seal and turn. What Huang Rong was using now was the secret of “entangle.” The bamboo rod was like a slender, immensely tough vine wound round the trunk of a great tree. The tree might be scores of times thicker, but however it spread or grew it would never shake off that binding. A few more moves, and Elder Jian drove his strength into both arms and brought out the Great Vajra Staff Technique,¹³ making the steel staff whistle through the air. But when he swung east, the bamboo rod went east with him, and when he struck west, it followed him west. Huang Rong used no force at all. Her rod simply went where his staff went, and it looked as though Elder Jian was leading it wherever he pleased. In truth it clung to him like his shadow, borrowing his own strength to master him. It was like the time Guo Jing tamed the little red horse,¹⁴ sitting firm on its back however wildly it bucked and bolted.

He was halfway through the Great Vajra Staff Technique when Elder Jian’s last doubt left him. He was about to withdraw his staff and admit defeat when Elder Peng suddenly called out, “Use the Seizing Hand. Grab the head of her rod.”

Huang Rong said, “Good, come and grab it, then!” Her staff technique changed again, and she brought out the secret of “turn.” Where “entangle” goes east and west with the enemy, “turn” makes the enemy go with you. The bamboo rod became a blur of green, jabbing hard at the great vital points on Elder Jian’s back: Strong Interval, Wind Mansion, Great Vertebra, Spirit Tower and Hanging Pivot. All these points lie along the middle of the spine. If the rod’s end struck any of them, the result would be death or grave injury. Elder Jian recognised the danger. There was no time to bring his staff round to save himself, and he could only spring forward out of reach. Huang Rong’s jabs came on without a break. If one missed its point, she went for the next, and the tip of the rod kept flickering to and fro over the points on his back.

With no way out, Elder Jian could only keep bounding forward, but no sooner had he escaped one jab than the next was on him. He put more strength into his legs, hoping for a chance to turn round, but the faster he leapt, the faster the tip of the rod came after him. All the beggars below could see was Elder Jian running and leaping round Huang Rong in great circles. Huang Rong stood in the middle with her rod held never more than a hair from the middle of his back, passing it from her left hand to her right and from her right hand to her left. She did not even have to turn round, and she was entirely at her ease, as leisurely as could be. Elder Jian’s circles grew wider and wider, until Elder Lu and Elders Peng and Liang had to get down off the platform out of his way. After another seven or eight circuits Elder Jian cried out loudly, “Miss Huang, stay your hand, I submit to you!” But for all his shouting, his feet dared not stop for an instant.

Huang Rong asked with a smile, “What do you call me?”

Elder Jian said hastily, “Yes, yes! I deserve death. This lowly one pays his respects to the Guild Chief.” He was about to turn and bow when he saw the bamboo rod still jabbing at him without a pause, and he had no choice but to keep running, until his back was streaming with sweat and his beard was dripping. Huang Rong’s anger had gone by now, and she had no wish to push him too far. A smile spread over her cheeks. She drew the bamboo rod back and used the secret of “flick,” hooking the steel staff and flinging it upward, so that the force of Elder Jian’s headlong running passed into it and sent it shooting into the sky.

Like a man granted an amnesty, Elder Jian let go of the staff at once, turned and bowed deeply. Having seen her wondrous skill with the Dog-Beating Staff Technique, the beggars below had not a shred of doubt left. They cried as one, “We pay our respects to the Guild Chief!” and came forward to bow.

Elder Jian stepped forward and was about to spit a mouthful of saliva into Huang Rong’s face when he saw the coral flush showing through her white-jade cheeks, lovely as a spring flower, bright as the dawn clouds. How could he spit on that? He hesitated, and with a gulp he swallowed it back down his throat. Then he heard the wind whistle overhead as the steel staff came falling. Afraid Huang Rong would suspect him, he dared not put up a hand to catch it, and leapt aside.

A figure flashed, and someone leapt onto the platform and caught the steel staff. It was Elder Peng, third in rank of the four great elders. Of them all, this was the man Huang Rong was angriest with, for he had captured her with his Mind-Capturing Technique,¹⁵ and his coming up suited her perfectly. Without a word she jabbed her rod straight at the Purple Palace acupoint¹⁶ on his chest. She meant to use the secret of “turn” to jab at one great point on his chest after another, driving him backward without a pause and leaving him in a sorrier state even than Elder Jian.

But Elder Peng was cunning beyond the ordinary. He knew his martial arts fell short of Elder Jian’s, and if Elder Jian was no match for her, there was no need for him to try. When he saw her bamboo rod coming at him, he neither dodged nor ducked, but folded his hands and bowed.

Huang Rong rested the tip of the rod on his Purple Palace acupoint, her force held back, and demanded angrily, “What are you up to?”

Elder Peng said, “This lowly one pays his respects to the Guild Chief.”

Huang Rong glared at him with angry eyes. Their gazes met, and she could not help but feel a faint tremor in her heart. She hastily turned her head away. But strange to say, though she knew looking into his eyes would bring harm, she felt an irresistible urge to glance at him again. She turned back, and saw a piercing light blazing from his eyes that seized her very soul. This time it was too late to turn her head away, and she shut her eyes at once.

Elder Peng smiled. “Guild Chief, you’re tired. Rest a while!” His voice was soft and gentle, sweet to the ear.

And Huang Rong did feel weary all through. She thought, I’ve been worn out most of the night. I really should rest. The moment the thought stirred, her eyes ached and her mouth went dry, and she was drained in body and spirit.

By now, Elder Jian had acknowledged Huang Rong as Guild Chief and was determined to protect her with all his heart and strength. Knowing Elder Peng was about to use his Mind-Capturing Technique again, he stepped forward and barked, “Elder Peng, what do you dare to do to the Guild Chief?”

Elder Peng smiled and said softly, “The Guild Chief wants to rest. She really is tired. Don’t disturb her.”

Huang Rong knew the situation was critical, but her whole body felt weak and limp, her eyes desperate to close and sink into sleep. Even if the sky fell, she would have to sleep first and worry about it afterwards. Just then, with her mind half clouded and half still clear, she suddenly remembered something Guo Jing had said, and at once it was as though she had started awake from a dream. She cried, “Jing gege, what was that ‘Greater Soul Transfer Technique’¹⁷ you said was in the Manual?”

Guo Jing had long seen something was wrong. He thought, If that Elder Peng uses his black arts again, I’ll go straight up and kill him with one blow of my palm. Hearing what Huang Rong said, he leapt forward and recited the passage from the Manual into her ear.

Huang Rong listened as Guo Jing recited the passage, which told her to follow the Stillness and Contemplation method,¹⁸ proceeding from “Stopping by Restraining the Mind” to “Stopping by Realising the Truth.”¹⁹ Her neigong²⁰ already had a foundation, and she was quick-witted. She grasped it at once. She closed her eyes and recited it silently, mind and breath bound together, fine and unbroken, and before long she had sunk into perfect stillness. When she opened her eyes again, her mind hovered between intention and no intention. She had reached the state of forgetting the self.

Seeing her keep her eyes closed so long, Elder Peng took it that his words had bewitched her and she had sunk into a heavy sleep. He was delighted, and about to try another trick, when suddenly she opened her eyes and smiled at him. He smiled back. But her smile only grew merrier, and somehow his whole body felt light as air and wonderfully happy, and before he knew it he was roaring with laughter.

Huang Rong thought, The arts recorded in the Nine Yin Manual²¹ are indeed peerlessly powerful. In the space of a single laugh, I have already overcome him. At once she gave a soft little giggle.

Elder Peng knew something was wrong and fought hard to master his mind. But the more he struggled in alarm and confusion, the harder it was to collect his thoughts. Seeing Huang Rong’s dimples appear as she smiled, how could he still control himself? He stood up, clutching his belly and laughing like a madman. “Ha ha, hee hee, aha, aiyo,” he went, shouting and laughing ever louder, until the sound carried far across the lake.

The beggars stared at one another, not knowing what he was laughing at. Elder Jian kept calling, “Elder Peng, what are you doing? How dare you be so disrespectful to the Guild Chief?” Elder Peng pointed at Elder Jian’s nose and laughed until he was bent double. Elder Jian thought there must be something odd on his face and wiped at it several times with his sleeve. Elder Peng laughed harder than ever, turned a backward somersault off the platform and rolled about on the ground, roaring with laughter.

Only then did the beggars realise something was amiss. Two of Elder Peng’s trusted disciples rushed to help him up, but he waved them off and went on laughing without a pause. In less time than it takes to drink a cup of tea, he had laughed until he could barely breathe, his face purple and swollen. The Mind-Capturing Technique and the Greater Soul Transfer Technique both control another’s mind by the power of a single, concentrated will. There is nothing uncanny in it. Later ages have called it “hypnotism” or “psychotherapy” and the like. It was only that in those days men knew that it worked and not why, and so it could not fail to astound the world. An ordinary man caught by the Greater Soul Transfer Technique would only have grown drowsy, and come to no great harm. But Elder Peng had been bending all his concentration on his Mind-Capturing Technique against Huang Rong, and when she suddenly struck back, the harm recoiled on himself, ten times worse than anything an ordinary man would have suffered.

Elder Jian thought that if he laughed a while longer, he would surely suffocate. Bowing to Huang Rong, he said, “I respectfully report to the Guild Chief that Elder Peng has been insolent to the Guild Chief and by rights deserves heavy punishment. But I beg the Guild Chief, in her magnanimity, to pardon him.” Lu Youjiao and Elder Liang bowed and pleaded too, and through their pleading came Elder Peng’s laughter, hoarse and spent.

Huang Rong said to Guo Jing, “Jing gege, is that enough?”

Guo Jing said, “Enough. Spare him.”

Huang Rong said, “Three Elders, you wish me to spare him. Very well. But none of you may spit on me.”

Elder Jian saw that Elder Peng’s life hung by a thread and hastened to say, “Guild rules are made by the Guild Chief and may be rescinded by the Guild Chief. We disciples abide by your command.”

Huang Rong, delighted to escape the fate of being spat upon, laughed, “Good. Go and seal his acupoints.”

Elder Jian leapt down from the platform and sealed two of Elder Peng’s acupoints. Elder Peng’s laughter stopped. His eyes rolled white as he gasped for breath, utterly spent.

Huang Rong laughed, “Now I truly need to rest! Eh, where is Yang Kang?”

Guo Jing said, “He’s gone!”

Huang Rong leapt up, crying, “How could you let him escape? Where did he go?”

Guo Jing pointed towards the lake and said, “He left with that old man Qiu.”

Huang Rong gazed at the sails on the lake. They were already far away, beyond any pursuit, and she was bitterly vexed. She knew that Guo Jing, mindful of the sworn brotherhood of two generations, had watched him escape and done nothing to stop him.

What had happened was this. When Yang Kang saw Huang Rong take the upper hand the moment she and Elder Jian came to blows, he knew that unless he made off at once his life would be forfeit. While everyone’s attention was fixed on the fight, he slipped quietly in among the men of the Iron Palm Keep²² and begged them to save him. Qiu Qianren could see how things stood. Huang Rong was as good as Guild Chief already, and nothing could undo it. Guo Jing and Huang Rong were formidable fighters, and the Beggars’ Guild was too strong to take on. So without a flicker of expression he led his men, with Yang Kang among them, down to the boats and away from the island. Some of the Beggars’ Guild disciples had seen them go, but with Elder Jian and Huang Rong locked in fierce combat and no one to direct affairs, they could only let them go without interference.

Footnotes

1. 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. ↩

2. 拨狗朝天 — bō gǒu cháo tiān. Literally flick the dog to face the sky. A move of the Dog-Beating Staff Technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 秦王鞭石 — Qín Wáng biān shí. Literally the King of Qin whips the stones, after the legend of the First Emperor driving stones into the sea with a whip. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 疯魔杖法 — fēngmó zhàngfǎ. Literally mad devil staff method. A staff technique attributed to Lu Zhishen, one of the outlaws of Liangshan Marsh. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 梁山泊 — Liángshān Bó. Liangshan Marsh, the marshland stronghold of the 108 outlaws of the late Northern Song celebrated in the classic novel Water Margin. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 猬甲 — wèijiǎ. Short for the Soft Hedgehog Armour (软猬甲). See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 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. ↩

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

9. 斤 — jīn. A unit of weight, about 590 grams in the Song dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 两 — liǎng. A traditional unit of weight, one-sixteenth of a jin, and the unit in which silver was reckoned. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

13. 大力金刚杖法 — dàlì jīngāng zhàngfǎ. Literally great-strength vajra staff method. ↩

14. 小红马 — xiǎo hóng mǎ. The red horse Guo Jing tames on the steppe, a sweat-blood steed. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 慑心术 — Shèxīn Shù. Literally mind-awing art. An art of seizing another’s mind by force of will. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 紫宫穴 — Zǐgōng Xué. Literally purple palace. An acupoint on the chest. ↩

17. 移魂大法 — Yíhún Dàfǎ. A Nine Yin Manual art of seizing another’s mind, akin to the Mind-Capturing Technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 止观法门 — zhǐguān fǎmén. Literally the gateway of stopping and seeing. The Buddhist meditation method of stilling the mind and contemplating, śamatha and vipaśyanā. ↩

19. 制心止、体真止 — zhìxīn zhǐ, tǐzhēn zhǐ. Literally stopping by restraining the mind and stopping by realising the truth. Two stages of Buddhist calming meditation. ↩

20. 内功 — nèigōng. Literally internal cultivation. The practice of developing neili through breathing and meditation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

22. 铁掌帮 — Tiězhǎng Bāng. Literally iron palm guild. Qiu Qianren’s sect, renowned for its palm techniques. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩