The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 28 – Part 4

Huang Rong bent down, took the pearl hairpin from her head, and drew lines in the earth. After a long while she sighed and said, “I simply cannot work out what trick that old man is playing. Once we reach Iron Palm Mountain, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

Guo Jing said, “Why go to Iron Palm Mountain? Our business here is done. We must hurry and find Shifu. That rotten old man just loves making mischief. How can we take him seriously?”

Huang Rong said, “Jing gege, let me ask you. When the rain soaked through the painting Father gave you, what characters showed through?”

Guo Jing scratched his head. “The characters were all broken and incomplete. I couldn’t make anything out.”

Huang Rong laughed. “Well, can’t you work it out?”

Guo Jing knew perfectly well he could never work it out, and that even if he came up with something, it would be nothing like as clear as Huang Rong’s answer. He said hastily, “Rong-er, dear, you must have worked it out. Tell me, quick.”

With the hairpin Huang Rong scratched the four lines of characters on the ground. “The character missing from the first line must be wu, ‘martial.’ Put it with the rest and you have Wumu Yishu, Wumu’s Art of War.¹ I couldn’t guess the second line at first, but now the old man has told us, nothing could be easier. It must be either shan, ‘mountain,’ or feng, ‘peak.’”

Guo Jing read it through aloud, “Wumu’s Art of War, at Iron Palm Mountain.” He clapped his hands together and cried, “Wonderful, let’s go at once! The Iron Palm Keep is in league with the Jin. They’re sure to present this treasured book to Wanyan Honglie. What are the next two lines?”

Huang Rong laughed. “You won’t use your own head, but you’re always hurrying me. The old man said Iron Palm Mountain is shaped like five fingers, so I rather think the third line is ‘below the Middle Finger Peak.’”

Guo Jing clapped his hands and cried, “Right, right, Rong-er, you’re so clever. The fourth line, the fourth line!”

Huang Rong pondered. “That’s just the line I can’t work out. The second… joint. The second… joint.” She tilted her head, her lovely hair lifting a little, and said, “I can’t think of it. We’ll go there and see.”

The two of them rode west with the eagles following, past Changde, through Taoyuan and down to Yuanling, and before many days were out they had reached Luxi. But when they asked where Iron Palm Mountain was, everyone shook his head.

Bitterly disappointed, they could only find a small inn for the night. In the evening Huang Rong asked about the famous sights and historic places of the district. The serving boy rattled off a long list without pause, yet never once mentioned Iron Palm Mountain.

Huang Rong pursed her little mouth. “Those places are all very ordinary. Luxi is only a small place, after all. What fine mountains or rivers could it have?”

Stung by this, the serving boy was much put out. “Luxi may be a small place, but where else will you find scenery to match Monkey Claw Mountain?”²

Something stirred in Huang Rong’s mind, and she asked quickly, “Where is Monkey Claw Mountain?”

The serving boy would say no more. “Begging your pardon,” he said, and went out of the room.

Huang Rong chased to the door, caught him by the back of his tunic, and pulled him back in. She took out an ingot of silver and put it on the table. “Tell me clearly, and the silver is yours.”

The serving boy’s heart leapt. He reached out and gave the silver a gentle stroke, and said with a greedy grin, “A great big ingot like that?”

Huang Rong smiled and nodded.

The serving boy lowered his voice. “I’ll tell you, since you ask, but you must never, ever go there. A band of fiends lives up on Monkey Claw Mountain, and whoever comes within five li³ of it can say goodbye to his life.”

Guo Jing and Huang Rong exchanged a glance and nodded. Huang Rong said, “Monkey Claw Mountain has five peaks, shaped just like a monkey’s palm, yes?”

The serving boy was delighted. “Yes! So you already knew! That wasn’t from me, mind. But those five peaks are truly strange.”

Guo Jing asked quickly, “How so?”

The serving boy said, “Those five peaks are arranged exactly like five fingers. The middle one is tallest, and the others descend in order on either side. That’s strange enough, but the strangest part is that each peak is divided into three sections, just like the joints of a finger.”

Huang Rong jumped up and cried, “The second joint, the second joint.”

Guo Jing was overjoyed and cried too, “That’s it, that’s it.”

The serving boy had no idea what they were talking about and stared at them blankly.

Huang Rong asked him all about the way into the mountains and gave him the silver, and the serving boy went off clutching it tight in both hands, beside himself with joy.

Huang Rong stood. “Jing gege, let’s go.”

Guo Jing said, “It’s only sixty-odd li from here. The little red horse will have us there in no time. We had better go up by daylight and pay our respects at the mountain.”

Huang Rong laughed. “Pay respects? We’re going to steal a book.”

Guo Jing cried, “Of course! How stupid of me. I never thought of that.”

Not wanting to disturb anyone at the inn, they slipped out through the window, quietly led out the red horse and rode south-east by the way the serving boy had described. The mountain road was rough and the grass beside it grew waist-high, so that the going was very hard. When they had gone forty li or more, with the bright moon high in the sky, they saw far off five peaks rising sheer into the clouds.

The little red horse was a matchless steed, and before long it had brought them to the foot of the mountain.

Close to, the five peaks reared up steep and jagged, for all the world like five fingers standing upright in the sky, the middle one tallest and straightest of all. Guo Jing said happily, “This peak is exactly like the one in the painting. Look, aren’t those all pine trees on the top?”

Huang Rong laughed. “All it lacks is the general dancing with his jian. Jing gege, go up and do a jian dance for a while.”

Guo Jing smiled. “It’s a pity I’m no general.”

Huang Rong said, “Is it so hard to become a general? One day, when Genghis Khan…” There she stopped short.

Guo Jing understood what she had been about to say. He turned his head away, not daring to look at her face.

They left the red horse and the two eagles at the foot of the mountain, circled behind the main peak, and when they saw no one about, they used their qinggong⁴ to leap up the mountain. After several li of climbing, the path turned a sharp bend and slanted westward. They followed it as it wound east and west, spiralling back and forth in the strangest fashion. After the time it takes to eat a meal, they came upon a dense thicket of pine trees.

They stopped to discuss whether to go straight up the peak or investigate the forest. They had barely begun speaking when they saw a faint light flickering ahead among the trees. They exchanged a signal, lightened their footsteps, and crept towards the light.

They had gone only a few steps when suddenly, with a rush of wind, two black-clad men leapt out from behind a large tree. Each held a weapon, and without a word they blocked the path.

Huang Rong thought, If we fight them and raise the alarm, stealing the book will be far harder. A sudden idea struck her. She took Qiu Qianren’s Iron Palm Token⁵ from her robe, held it out on her palm and stepped forward, she too without a word.

The two men looked at the iron palm, and astonishment showed on both their faces. They bowed and stepped aside out of the way.

Huang Rong’s hand moved like lightning. Her bamboo rod shot out and quivered lightly twice, and both men’s acupoints⁶ were sealed. She kicked them into the long grass, and the two of them made straight for the light.

When they drew near, they saw a three-bay stone house. Light spilled from the east and west wings. They crept to the west wing and peered inside. A great furnace burned in the room, filled with glowing charcoal, and a large cauldron steamed atop it. Beside the cauldron stood two black-clad boys. One pumped the bellows with all his might, while the other stirred the contents with an iron shovel. From the hissing sound, whatever they were frying appeared to be iron sand.⁷

An old man with grizzled hair and beard sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, slowly exhaling and inhaling the steam rising from the cauldron. He wore a short tunic of yellow grass-cloth. It was Qiu Qianren.

He breathed for a while, and steam began to rise from his head. He raised both hands high, and faint wisps of steam curled upward from his ten fingers as well. Then he suddenly stood and plunged both hands into the cauldron.

The boy working the bellows was already drenched in sweat. Now he pulled with even greater force. Qiu Qianren seemed to be enduring the heat, letting his palms temper themselves in the iron sand. After a good long while he drew them out and swung round to strike, with a loud smack, at a small cloth bag hanging in mid-air.

The blow rang out loudly, and yet the bag did not stir by a hair or sway in the least.

Guo Jing was secretly astonished, thinking, By the look of it, there’s no more than a pint of iron sand in that bag, and it’s hanging in mid-air on a thin cord, and yet a blow of his palm didn’t make it move at all. This man’s martial arts are formidable. There’s nothing ordinary about him.

Huang Rong, however, was convinced he was putting on a show and deceiving them with more tricks. If they had not been intent on stealing the book first, she would have mocked him aloud long ago.

They watched him slap the bag for a while, then temper his hands in the cauldron, then temper them again and slap some more, with no other variation. Huang Rong tried to work out how Qiu Qianren produced the steam rising from the cauldron and curling from his fingers, but after watching for a long time she still could not see where the trick lay. She thought, If Second Shifu were here, he would see through this old fraud’s game the moment he lifted a hand. I’d gladly own myself beaten by him.

They crept to the east wing and peered through the window.

In the room sat a man and a woman, Yang Kang and Mu Nianci.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong were both amazed. How did Sister Mu come to be here?

They heard Yang Kang sweet-talking her, trying to coax her into marrying him soon. Mu Nianci insisted he must first kill Wanyan Honglie and avenge his parents before they could speak of love.

Yang Kang said, “Dear little sister, how can you be so blind to the greater picture?”

Mu Nianci was puzzled. “Blind to the greater picture?”

Yang Kang said, “Yes! Think about it. Wanyan Honglie has himself guarded with the utmost care. How could I strike at him easily on my own? Once you are my wife, I shall make a show of taking you to pay your respects to your father-in-law. Then I’ll be close enough to strike, and with the two of us working together, the deed will surely succeed.”

Mu Nianci found his reasoning sound. She lowered her head and considered, her cheeks flushing red in the lamplight.

Yang Kang saw her willingness and took her right hand in his, stroking it gently. His left hand reached across and encircled her slender waist.

Huang Rong could bear it no longer. She was about to speak up and expose his scheme when an aged voice barked suddenly behind them, “Who dares come up my mountain unbidden?”

Guo Jing and Huang Rong turned round together and saw him clearly in the moonlight. Who should it be but Qiu Qianren? Every other time they had met him, puffed up and posturing as he was, he had never quite been able to hide the glib slyness in his eyes. But now his look was stern, and there was a majesty about him that no one would dare affront.

Huang Rong could not help a start. She thought, Now he’s on his own mountain, the old man is putting on even grander airs. Of course. He must have known all along that we had come up the mountain. That game with the iron cauldron, wasn’t it a show put on for us?

She laughed. “Old Qiu, I’ve come to pay my respects. We’ve kept to our seven days, haven’t we?”

Qiu Qianren said angrily, “What seven days? Nonsense!”

Huang Rong laughed. “Eh? How can you have forgotten already? Is the trouble with your belly cured at the root? If it isn’t, you’d better go and have a physician cure it before you fight me, or else… hee hee!”

Qiu Qianren did not answer. With a long whistle, he struck fiercely at Huang Rong’s left and right shoulders with both palms.

Huang Rong only smiled and paid it no heed. She did not dodge or duck. She meant to let the spikes of her Soft Hedgehog Armour⁸ pierce a dozen holes in his palms.

Suddenly she heard Guo Jing cry out in alarm, “Rong-er, get out of the way.”

A rush of force swept past her ear, and she knew Guo Jing was striking at the enemy from the side. Two tremendous forces slammed into her shoulders at once. She tried to get out of the way, but it was too late, and she was flung helplessly backward. Before she touched the ground, her breath had stopped.

The moment Qiu Qianren’s palms met the spikes of her hedgehog armour, he too was badly hurt, and both his palms ran with blood. Shocked and furious, he saw Guo Jing’s palm coming and hastily swung his own across to meet it.

Their palms met with a bang, bang, and each fell back three paces. Qiu Qianren stood firm, but Guo Jing swayed twice. That night on Mount Jun, when they had pitted their strength against each other through the bodies of the Beggars’ Guild disciples, the two had seemed evenly matched. But that had been because Guo Jing’s hands carried the subtle force of the Big Dipper Formation.⁹ Now, in a straight trial of strength, he was after all a notch below.

Worried for Huang Rong, Guo Jing dared not stay and fight. He stooped quickly and lifted her in his arms. Behind him came a swish of wind. The enemy was on him again.

Guo Jing held Huang Rong in his left arm and did not even turn. His right hand swept backward with the move Divine Dragon Sweeps Its Tail,¹⁰ the life-saving move of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing, and used in such desperate need, it struck with twice its usual power.

Qiu Qianren met it palm to palm and swayed a little. The places where his palms had been pierced hurt badly, and fearing there might be poison on the spikes Huang Rong wore, he hastily raised his hands to examine them in the moonlight. The blood was bright red, and he felt somewhat reassured.

Guo Jing seized the moment of his hesitation. Cradling Huang Rong, he raced towards the peak. After dozens of paces, a great clamour rose behind him. He glanced back and saw countless black-clad men rushing up with torches.

With no way back, Guo Jing could only climb on towards the summit. In all the confusion he felt for Huang Rong’s breath, and she was not breathing at all. “Rong-er, Rong-er!” he cried in desperation, but no answer came.

With this slight delay, Qiu Qianren and more than a dozen of the Keep’s foremost fighters had closed the distance considerably.

Guo Jing thought, If I were alone, forcing my way down would not be difficult. But Rong-er is gravely wounded. I cannot risk it.

He quickened his pace, abandoning the winding path and climbing straight upward. He had trained his qinggong on the sheer cliffs of the desert, and taking the direct route, he soon left his pursuers far behind.

Without stopping, he pressed his face against Huang Rong’s cheek and felt it still warm, which eased his mind somewhat. He called several times, but Huang Rong did not answer.

Looking up, he saw the peak was close. The peak was not broad round its base, and by now the enemy must have it surrounded on every side. He would find a place to rest and revive Huang Rong first.

He looked above and below, left and right, and some two hundred feet and more up to his left he saw a black patch that looked like the mouth of a cave. At once he drew a breath and darted up to it, and when he came near, it was indeed a cave. Its mouth seemed to have been faced with jade, and it was very neatly built.

Footnotes

1. 武穆遗书 — Wǔmù Yíshū. The military treatise left by Yue Fei (1103—1142), the Song general posthumously titled Wumu. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 猴爪山 — Hóuzhuǎ Shān. Literally monkey claw mountain. A mountain near Luxi. ↩

3. 里 — lǐ. A traditional unit of distance, about 500 metres or one-third of a mile. ↩

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

5. 铁掌 — tiězhǎng. Literally iron palm. A palm cast in iron, Qiu Qianren’s token of authority. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

7. 铁沙 — tiěshā. Literally iron sand. Iron grit heated and struck in palm training to harden the hands. ↩

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

9. 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. ↩

10. 神龙摆尾 — Shénlóng Bǎi Wěi. Literally divine dragon swings its tail. A move of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing. ↩