The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 28 – Part 3

Staff in hand, Huang Rong said in a clear voice, “Guild Chief Hong has not yet returned, so for now I shall see to the Guild Chief’s affairs in his place. Elders Jian and Liang, take the eight-bag disciples east to meet Guild Chief Hong. Elder Lu, stay here for now and let your wounds heal.” A thunder of cheers went up from the beggars.

Huang Rong went on, “This Elder Peng’s mind runs crooked. What do you say should be done with him?” Elder Jian bowed and said, “Brother Peng’s offence is grave and ought to be punished severely, but I beg the Guild Chief to consider his past meritorious service to our Guild and spare his life.” Huang Rong smiled. “I knew you would plead for him. Very well. He has laughed enough just now. Strip him of his rank as elder and make him a four-bag disciple.” The four elders, Jian, Lu, Peng and Liang, thanked her together, and Elder Peng at once took five of the nine cloth bags off his back and withdrew to the rear, crestfallen.

Huang Rong said, “It is not often all the brothers can gather like this, and you must have a great deal to talk over. Give Li Sheng and Yu Zhaoxing a proper burial. To my mind Elder Lu is the best man among you, so for now, in every important matter, do as he says. Elders Jian and Liang, help him with all your hearts. I must be on my way now. We shall meet again in Lin’an.” She took Guo Jing’s hand and went down the mountain.

The beggars saw them all the way down to the foot of the mountain, and only when her boat had vanished into the mist did they climb Mount Jun again to discuss the Guild’s great affairs.

By the time Guo Jing and Huang Rong were back at Yueyang Tower it was broad day, and the red horse and the two eagles were waiting safe and sound beside the tower.

Huang Rong raised her head and gazed into the distance. A red sun was just leaping up out of the sky-high waves of Dongting Lake, and light and water were glorious beyond words. She laughed. “Jing gege, Lord Fan Wenzheng put it so well in his essay: ‘It holds the distant hills in its mouth and swallows the Yangtze, vast and surging, boundless in its breadth. Bright at dawn, dim at dusk, it wears ten thousand aspects.’ How can we not stop and admire a view like this? Let’s go up and look a little longer.” Guo Jing agreed, and the two of them went up into the tower to watch the sun rise over the lake. Thinking of all the dangers of the night before, they looked at each other and smiled.

They were looking at the view and chatting idly when Huang Rong’s pretty face suddenly hardened, with a hint of anger between her brows. “Jing gege, you were bad to me!” Guo Jing was startled and asked quickly, “What do you mean?” Huang Rong said, “You know perfectly well. Why ask me?” Guo Jing scratched his head and thought hard, but he could not for the life of him think what it was, and could only beg, “Rong-er, dear, tell me.” Huang Rong said, “Very well, I’ll ask you. Last night, when the Beggars’ Guild’s formation had us hemmed in and it looked as though we would lose our lives, why did you push me away from you? Do you think I could live if you died? Do you still not understand my heart after all this time?” As she spoke, tears fell, dropping one by one onto the floorboards.

Seeing how deep and dear her love for him was, Guo Jing was startled and filled with tenderness. He reached out and took her right hand, but did not know what to say. After a long while, he said, “I was wrong. We ought to have died together.”

Huang Rong sighed softly and was about to speak when there came the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and someone poked his head up to look round. The two of them looked up, and as they came face to face, all three were startled. The newcomer was none other than Iron Palm Skims the Water,¹ Qiu Qianren.²

Guo Jing sprang up and placed himself in front of Huang Rong, afraid the old man would lash out with a killing blow. But Qiu Qianren only grinned, raised a hand in greeting and at once turned and went back down the stairs. There was something both slippery and flustered in that grin. Huang Rong said, “He’s afraid of us. He really is a strange one. I’ll go after him and see.” Without waiting for Guo Jing to answer, she was off down the stairs.

Guo Jing called, “Take great care!” He ran downstairs, but there was no sign of either Qiu Qianren or Huang Rong. Remembering how ferocious the old man’s martial arts and how ruthless his hand had been the night before, he was afraid Huang Rong would fall foul of his murderous hands. He cried out anxiously, “Rong-er, Rong-er, where are you?”

Huang Rong heard Guo Jing calling but did not answer. She was stealing along behind Qiu Qianren, meaning to get to the bottom of things, and the least sound would of course give her away. The two of them, one in front and one behind, were now passing beside a large mansion. Huang Rong hid behind the corner of the north wall, meaning to let Qiu Qianren get further ahead before she followed again. But Qiu Qianren had heard Guo Jing’s shouts and guessed that Huang Rong was on his trail, and the moment he turned the corner he hid too. They waited a long while, listening hard, and when they heard nothing, both peeped out at the same moment. One was a jade face like a lotus on the banks of the Xiang, the other an old face like the peel of a Dongting orange. The two faces were less than half a foot apart, and both changed colour at once.

Each gave a little cry and turned away. Huang Rong feared the power of his palm, but she would not give up. She ran round the outer wall of the mansion, the better part of the way round, and afraid he would get too far ahead, she put on her qinggong³ and ran as fast as she could, meaning to reach the corner of the east wall before him and spy on him from there. But the very thought that had come to her had come to Qiu Qianren too. Old man and girl went right round the house, and all at once ran into each other again, this time behind the screen wall facing south.

Huang Rong thought, If I turn to retreat, he will surely strike my back with a palm. This old villain’s iron palm is deadly. I doubt I could get out of its way. She gave a little smile and said, “Old Qiu, what a small world it is. Here we are again.” All the while she was working out how to get away, thinking, I’ll keep him busy till Jing gege comes, and then I needn’t be afraid of him. Qiu Qianren smiled. “Who would have thought, after we parted in Lin’an that day, that we should meet again here? I trust you have been well since, Miss.” Huang Rong thought, We saw you plain as day on Mount Jun last night, you old villain, and today you’re talking whatever comes into your head again. Fine, go on talking in your sleep with your eyes open. My Dog-Beating Staff Technique is formidable. I’ll take him by surprise and catch him off his guard. Suddenly she raised her voice and cried, “Jing gege, hit him in the back.” Qiu Qianren started and turned to look, and Huang Rong’s bamboo rod swung out and swept low along the ground with the secret of “trip”.

Qiu Qianren turned, saw no one there and knew he had been tricked. He felt a faint gust of force sweeping at his legs and sprang up hastily, and so escaped that move. But the secret of “trip” in the Dog-Beating Staff Technique is like the Yangtze or any great river, rolling on and on without end. If one trip misses, a second follows, hooking and circling in an unbroken chain, and though it is only the one word “trip,” within it lie ten thousand changes. Qiu Qianren leapt faster and faster, while on the ground beneath him a green glow of whirling bamboo spun and danced. By the seventeenth or eighteenth trip he was a fraction slow in jumping. The bamboo rod flicked his left shin and hooked his right ankle, and down he went on his face, bawling, “Hold your hand. I have something to say.”

Huang Rong drew back her rod with a smile, waited for him to spring up, and before he had landed, flicked and struck again. Qiu Qianren could not keep his feet and went over backwards. In a few moments Huang Rong had tripped him five times. When he fell for the sixth time, Qiu Qianren knew that getting up again would only mean another fall, and he lay face down on the ground and did not stir. Huang Rong laughed. “Playing dead, are you?” Qiu Qianren sprang up at once. With a snap he broke his trouser cord with both hands and, holding up the waist of his trousers, shouted, “Are you going or not? I’m going to let go!” Huang Rong was dumbfounded. She had never dreamt that the chief of one of the great guilds of the jianghu⁴ would stoop to anything so low. Terrified he really would let go and drop his trousers, she spat and turned away. Behind her she heard the old man roaring with laughter, mightily pleased with himself, and then came the sound of footsteps. Huang Rong turned her head and saw him holding up his waistband with both hands, chasing after her at full speed.

Huang Rong did not know whether to be furious or to laugh. For all her endless cunning, she could think of nothing for the moment but to run for it. They had gone a hundred feet and more, and Qiu Qianren was about to quit while he was ahead, when Guo Jing came round the corner of a house and darted in front of Huang Rong. His right palm guarded his chest, and his left rose slowly from his hip, traced a half-circle and reached out towards his chest. Qiu Qianren had seen a great deal in his time, and he knew that the moment the young man’s palms came together as if cupping a ball, a terrible move would come. At once he gave three loud laughs, stopped and cried, “Aiyo, this is bad. Oh dear, oh dear.”

Huang Rong said, “Jing gege, strike him. Ignore his nonsense.” On the summit of Mount Jun the night before, Guo Jing had seen Qiu Qianren’s Iron Palm skill, and it had been keen, ruthless and wonderfully subtle, no whit inferior to that of Zhou Botong, Huang Yaoshi or Ouyang Feng, and well beyond his own. Meeting him now on a narrow road, how could he dare take him lightly in the least? He gathered his qi in his dantian,⁵ let not a limb or bone of him go slack, and waited for his enemy with all his attention.

Holding up his trousers with both hands, Qiu Qianren said, “You two brats, listen to your granddad. These last two days your granddad has been greedy with his food and drink and upset his stomach, and now he needs the privy again.” Huang Rong only cried, “Jing gege, hit him.” She herself dared not go forward, and even backed away a few steps. Qiu Qianren said, “I know what you two brats are thinking. Until your granddad shows you a bit of what he can do and teaches you a good lesson, you’ll never be satisfied. But as luck would have it, your granddad’s bowels have been playing up lately, and whenever it comes to the crucial moment, what’s in his belly always comes out to make trouble. Very well, listen, you two brats. Within seven days your granddad will be waiting for you at the foot of Iron Palm Mountain. Have you the guts to come?”

While he rambled on, granddad this and brats that, Huang Rong had quietly palmed a fistful of steel needles. She meant to wait until he was in full flow and then, with her Sky-Blanketing Blossom Rain technique,⁶ stud him all over with a few dozen of them, and see whether he still dared wag his tongue so freely. Her only fear was that a needle in the hand would make him let go of his trousers. She was still working it out when she heard the words “the foot of Iron Palm Mountain,” and at once she thought of the four lines of secret characters in the painting Qu Lingfeng had left. She gave a start and answered, “Very well. Be it a dragon’s pool or a tiger’s den, we’ll come and storm it. Where is Iron Palm Mountain? How do we get there?”

Qiu Qianren said, “From here, go west by way of Changde and Chenzhou and up the Yuan River. Between Luxi and Chenxi stands a high mountain shaped like five fingers pointing to the sky. That is Iron Palm Mountain. The lie of the land is dangerous, and your granddad’s martial arts are matchless. If you two brats are scared, you’d better apologise to your granddad while there’s time, and not come at all.” When Huang Rong heard the words “shaped like five fingers pointing to the sky,” she was more pleased still. “Very well, it’s a promise. Within seven days we shall come and pay our respects at your mountain.” Qiu Qianren nodded, then all at once pulled a long, miserable face and cried, “Aiyo, aiyo!” and hurried off westward holding up his trousers.

Guo Jing said, “Rong-er, there is something I really cannot work out. Explain it to me.” Huang Rong said, “What is it?” Guo Jing said, “The Senior’s martial arts are tremendously powerful, and we are certainly no match for him. So why is he always playing tricks to fool people, and sometimes pretending his skill is poor? That day at Returning Clouds Manor he struck me on the chest with his palm. If he had used his real neili,⁷ would I be alive today? What does he mean by all this playing the fool?” Huang Rong bit lightly on her finger and thought for a long while. “I really don’t understand it either. Just now I tripped him over and over with the Dog-Beating Staff Technique, and the old man could not strike back at all. All he could do was play the rogue. Perhaps last night, when he hurled his steel staff, that was some trick too!” Guo Jing shook his head. “He crushed Lu Youjiao’s hands and met my force with the strength of his palm. Those were real skills. He could never have faked them.”

Footnotes

1. 铁掌水上飘 — Tiězhǎng Shuǐshàng Piāo. Literally iron palm floating on water. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 裘千仞 — Qiú Qiānrèn. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 轻功 — qīnggōng. The martial art of body lightness. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 江湖 — jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The world of martial artists, outside mainstream society. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

6. 满天花雨掷金针 — Mǎntiān Huāyǔ Zhì Jīnzhēn. Literally the whole sky a rain of blossoms, casting golden needles. A needle-throwing art Hong Qigong teaches Huang Rong, a dozen needles loosed at once. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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