The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 28 – Part 5

Guo Jing paid no heed to whether ambushes or dangers lurked within the cave. He charged straight in, set Huang Rong gently down, and pressed his right palm against the Lingtai acupoint¹ on her back, slowly channelling neili² into her to help her qi flow and her breathing steady.

Down the mountainside the members of the Iron Palm Keep³ gathered in ever greater numbers. Their shouts swelled to a roar, but Guo Jing was deaf to them. Had a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses come charging up at that moment, he would still have brought Huang Rong round first and dealt with the rest afterwards.

After about as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea, Huang Rong gave a faint little moan and slowly came round. “My chest hurts so,” she whispered.

Guo Jing was overjoyed and comforted her. “Don’t be afraid, Rong-er. Rest here a while.” He went to the mouth of the cave and stood with his palm held across his chest, resolved to hold off the enemy to the death. But when he looked down, he was utterly astonished.

Halfway down the mountain the torches made a wall of fire in one neat, unbroken line, about half a li⁴ from the cave, and he could just make out the men’s faces. At their head, in a grass-cloth robe, stood none other than Qiu Qianren.⁵ Yet every man stood as though his feet were nailed to the ground, and for all their shouting and cursing, not one of them took a single step forward.

He watched for a while, unable to guess what game they were playing, and went back into the cave and bent over Huang Rong. Suddenly he heard two scraping sounds behind him, like footsteps. Badly startled, Guo Jing swung his palm back to guard his back and spun round. The cave was pitch black, its end lost in darkness, and he could not tell whether man or monster lurked inside.

“Who’s there?” he shouted. “Come out at once.”

First the echo of his own shout came back from inside the cave. Then all was still for a long moment, until suddenly there came a few coughs and a great laugh, and the voice sounded, of all things, like Qiu Qianren’s.

Guo Jing blew his huozhezi⁶ alight, and a man came striding out from inside the cave in a grass-cloth robe, a palm-leaf fan in his hand, his hair and beard grizzled. It was Iron Palm Skims the Water,⁷ Qiu Qianren.

Guo Jing’s heart lurched. He had seen Qiu Qianren plain as day down the mountainside, leading the mob in curses. How could the man have appeared inside the cave in the blink of an eye? A chill ran down his back, and he broke out in a cold sweat from head to foot.

Qiu Qianren laughed loudly. “So you two brats really aren’t afraid to die, coming here looking for your granddad. Very good! Plenty of nerve, and real backbone too. Very good!” All at once his face hardened, and his brows and eyes seemed to be glazed with frost. “This is the forbidden ground of the Iron Palm Keep. Whoever enters it dies. Are you two brats tired of living?”

Guo Jing was puzzling over the man’s words when Huang Rong whispered, “If it’s forbidden ground, why did you come in yourself?”

At once Qiu Qianren looked very awkward. “Your granddad has important business on hand, and no time to waste chattering with you brats.” And he darted for the mouth of the cave.

As he darted past, Guo Jing was afraid he would lash out with a deadly blow and hurt Huang Rong, and he thought, Strike first and win, strike second and suffer. Both his hands shot out and struck hard at the man’s shoulders. He reckoned the man would be sure to bring his palms round to parry, and then he would drive an elbow into his chest. The move had been taught him by the Swift-Handed Scholar, Zhu Cong.⁸ The first blow at the shoulders was the feint, the elbow that followed the real thing, and its beauty was that the second move stayed hidden, so that an enemy could hardly see it coming.

He struck the first blow, and sure enough Qiu Qianren brought his palms round to parry. Guo Jing straightened his arms and was about to drive the elbow home when he suddenly felt how weak and feeble the palms meeting his were, nothing like the superb skill of their earlier clash, when the force had arrived ahead of the palm. Guo Jing’s hands changed course faster than thought. Before his mind had settled on what to do, both palms had already seized the man’s wrists in an iron grip.

Qiu Qianren struggled hard, but how could he break that grip? Had he not struggled, well and good, but the struggle only showed how shallow his martial arts were. Guo Jing had no more doubt. He let go and then pulled, and as Qiu Qianren came stumbling forward with the pull, he sealed the Yindu acupoint⁹ on his chest in the same movement.

Qiu Qianren slumped to the ground and could not move. “My young master,” he said, “this is a matter of life and death. Why are you still playing games with me?”

The shouting from the mountainside grew louder still. More men were gathering. Guo Jing said, “Take us safely down the mountain.”

Qiu Qianren frowned and shook his head. “I can barely save my own skin. How can I take you down?”

“Tell your disciples and grand-disciples to let us through. Once we’re at the foot, I’ll unseal your acupoints.”

Qiu Qianren pulled a long, miserable face. “My young master, why do you keep pestering me? Go and have a look at the cave entrance yourself. Then you’ll understand.”

Guo Jing went to the mouth of the cave and looked down. He was rooted to the spot. Below, Qiu Qianren was waving his palm-leaf fan, standing before the ranks, stomping his foot and shouting curses at the cave mouth.

Guo Jing whirled round, and there was Qiu Qianren still lying on the ground, safe and sound. He said in wonder, “You… you… how can there be two of you?”

Huang Rong whispered, “Silly gege, don’t you see? There are two Qiu Qianrens. One has formidable martial arts, and the other is nothing but a braggart. They look identical. This one’s nothing but a big mouth.”

Guo Jing stood dumbfounded for another long moment before the truth finally dawned. He turned to Qiu Qianren. “Is that so?”

Qiu Qianren pulled a sour face. “If Miss says it is, then I suppose it is. We’re twin brothers, and I’m the elder. At first I was the better fighter, but later on my brother’s martial arts became pretty remarkable too.”

“Then which one of you is really Qiu Qianren?”

“What difference does a name make? Whether he’s called Qianren or I’m called Qianren, isn’t it all the same? We brothers have always been close. We’ve shared a name since we were little.”

“Tell me quickly, which one of you is Qiu Qianren?”

Huang Rong said, “Need you ask? He’s the one passing himself off under the other’s name, of course.”

Guo Jing snorted. “Hmph, you old rogue. Then what’s your name?”

Qiu Qianren could hold out no longer. “As I remember, my late father did give me another name, something like ‘Qianzhang.’ I never liked the sound of it, so I hardly ever used it.”

Guo Jing laughed. “Ha, then you’re Qiu Qianzhang.¹⁰ No use wriggling out of it.”

Qiu Qianzhang did not so much as blush, but said, as cool as you please, “People can call me whatever they like. What business is it of yours? Ten feet make a zhang and seven feet a ren, so Qianzhang still stands three thousand feet taller than Qianren.”

Huang Rong said, “I think you’d be better off changing your name to Qianfen or Qianli.”¹¹

Guo Jing said, “Why do they just shout down there and never come up?”

“Without my order, who dares?” said Qiu Qianzhang.

Guo Jing was dubious. But Huang Rong said, “Jing gege, unless we give this sly old villain a taste of something, he’ll never tell the truth. Seal his Tiantu acupoint!”¹²

Guo Jing did as she said and reached out a finger to seal it.

The Tiantu acupoint lies on the Yin Wei Meridian¹³ of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians,¹⁴ below the throat and one inch above the Xuanji acupoint,¹⁵ at the junction of the Yin Wei and Ren Meridians.¹⁶ The moment it was sealed, Qiu Qianzhang felt as if thousands upon thousands of insects and ants were crawling and biting all over him under the skin, and the itching was more than he could bear.

“Aiyo, aiyo,” he kept crying. “You… you mean to be the death of me, don’t you? Playing such a low, sneaky trick.”

“Answer my questions quickly and I’ll unseal it,” said Guo Jing.

“All right. Your granddad can’t hold out against you two brats.” And bearing the itch as best he could, Qiu Qianzhang told them the truth.

Qiu Qianzhang and Qiu Qianren were twin brothers. As children their looks and temperaments were indistinguishable. At thirteen, Qiu Qianren happened to save the life of Chief Shangguan¹⁷ of the Iron Palm Keep. In gratitude, Chief Shangguan taught him everything he knew, holding nothing back. Qiu Qianren trained with tireless devotion. By twenty-four his skill had begun to surpass his teacher’s. The following year Chief Shangguan died, and on his deathbed he passed the leadership of the Iron Palm Keep to him.

Chief Shangguan had been a man of loyal heart and righteous purpose, bent on the recovery of the northern lands. Qiu Qianren, however, devoted himself wholly to martial cultivation. His skill grew ever higher. He roamed the jianghu,¹⁸ and the name Iron Palm Skims the Water struck awe throughout the wulin.¹⁹ Years before, when the Huashan Sword Summit was held, Wang Chongyang²⁰ and the others had invited him to take part. Qiu Qianren felt his Iron Palm skill was not yet complete and knew himself no match for Wang Chongyang. He declined the invitation. For more than ten years he had lived in seclusion below Iron Palm Peak, training behind closed doors, determined to seize the title of “First Under Heaven in Martial Arts” at the second Sword Summit.

Though the twins had looked alike as children, and their temperaments too had been nearly identical, their years of separate training drove them apart. One advanced daily in skill. The other, shamed by his inferiority, gave up martial arts altogether and took instead to boasting and deception. One lived in seclusion in the deep mountains, and the other seized the chance to swagger abroad under his brother’s name. Guo Jing and Huang Rong had encountered Qiu Qianzhang at Returning Clouds Manor, in Lin’an and elsewhere.²¹ But it was Qiu Qianren they had met at the Beggars’ Guild assembly on Mount Jun and here on Iron Palm Mountain. Because the two looked and dressed exactly alike, Huang Rong had not been able to tell them apart, and Qiu Qianren’s iron palm had struck her down.

The Middle Finger Peak of Iron Palm Mountain was the burial ground of the Iron Palm Keep’s Chiefs across the generations. When a Chief felt death approaching, he would climb the peak alone to await his end. The Keep observed a rule of the utmost severity: whoever came within the bounds of the second joint of the Middle Finger Peak would never come down from it alive. If a Chief died away from home, one of the Keep’s disciples had to carry his bones up the peak and then cut his own throat to be buried with him, and the disciples of the Keep held this the highest of honours. Guo Jing, carrying Huang Rong on his back, had fled in panic and chosen no path, stumbling blindly into the Iron Palm Keep’s sacred ground. That was why the members shouted in fury but dared not violate the taboo and pursue them up the peak. Even Chief Qiu Qianren himself, for all his martial prowess, could do no more than shout curses from below.

Why, then, had Qiu Qianzhang dared to come into the stone chamber? Every Chief of the Iron Palm Keep, when death drew near, took his treasured daos and jians, his rare objects and antiques, up the peak with him. Generation upon generation, the stone chamber had accumulated no small store of treasures. Qiu Qianzhang, having suffered repeated humiliation over the past months and knowing his martial arts were no match, reasoned that a few blades sharp enough to cut iron would greatly enhance his power in combat. With Guo Jing and Huang Rong likely to arrive on the mountain any day, he would be hard-pressed to resist them. So he had risked sneaking into the stone chamber to steal weapons, calculating that no member of the Iron Palm Keep would dare enter the forbidden ground of the Middle Finger Peak and expose him. He had never expected to run into Guo Jing and Huang Rong instead.

When he had finished, Guo Jing said nothing for a while, thinking, Since this is forbidden ground, the enemy will hardly dare come close. But the peak pierces the clouds, and there’s no way down on any side. How are we to get out of this?

Huang Rong said suddenly, “Jing gege, go and explore deeper inside.”

Guo Jing said, “Let me look at your wounds first.” He struck a light and lit a stick of dry wood, and undid the clothes and the hedgehog armour²² at her shoulders. On each of her snow-white shoulders was a black mark left by five fingers. She was badly hurt indeed. Without the hedgehog armour to protect her, those two palms would have taken her life.

Guo Jing thought, Ouyang Feng and Qiu Qianren are much of a match in neili. That day Shifu took the Western Venom’s Toad Skill²³ head-on, and his wounds were so grave they would not heal. Rong-er was lucky to have that treasure of an armour between them, and I was beside her striking from the flank, which took off a good deal of the force of Qiu Qianren’s palms. But Shifu’s power to withstand a blow is a very different thing from Rong-er’s. It looks as though her wound is not far short of the one Shifu suffered, and worse than the blow the Western Venom dealt me in the palace. I wonder whether the method of healing by circulating the breath in the Nine Yin Manual will be any use. How can she be cured? He stood holding the stick of wood, lost in thought.

Qiu Qianzhang bawled, “Is a brat’s word just so much wind? Hurry up and unseal your granddad’s acupoint, won’t you? Numb and itching like this, who could bear it? Try sealing this point on yourself and see.”

Guo Jing, absorbed in thoughts of Huang Rong’s injury, did not hear him.

Huang Rong gave a faint smile. “Silly gege, what are you fretting about? Unseal the old man’s acupoint.”

Only then did Guo Jing come to himself, and he went over and unsealed the Tiantu acupoint. The itching and numbness gradually subsided, but the Yindu acupoint remained sealed. Qiu Qianzhang could do nothing but lie on the ground, puffing out his beard and bulging his eyes.

Guo Jing found a piece of pine wood about two feet long, lit it and held it up. “Rong-er, I’ll go in and have a look. Will you be afraid here on your own?”

Cold and hot waves washed over Huang Rong in turn. The pain was hard to bear. But fearing Guo Jing would worry, she forced a smile. “With the old man to keep me company, I’m not afraid. Go ahead.”

Footnotes

1. 灵台穴 — Língtái Xué. Literally spirit tower point. An acupoint on the spine, below the sixth thoracic vertebra. ↩

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

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

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

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

6. 火折子 — huǒzhézi. A tinder tube: rolled paper or fibre treated with saltpetre, kept smouldering in a tube and revived with a puff of breath. ↩

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

8. 朱聪 — Zhū Cōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 阴都穴 — Yīndū Xué. Literally yin capital acupoint. An acupoint on the Kidney meridian. ↩

10. 裘千丈 — Qiú Qiānzhàng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 千分、千厘 — Qiānfēn, Qiānlí. Literally a thousand fen, a thousand li. Fen and li (厘, not the li of distance) are tiny units of length, a tenth and a hundredth of a cun, set against the ren and zhang that measure height. ↩

12. 天突穴 — Tiāntū Xué. Literally heavenly prominence. An acupoint on the Ren Meridian, in the hollow at the base of the throat. ↩

13. 阴维脉 — Yīnwéi Mài. Literally yin linking channel. One of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. ↩

14. 奇经八脉 — Qíjīng Bāmài. The eight meridians that stand apart from the twelve principal meridians and serve as reservoirs of qi and blood. ↩

15. 璇玑穴 — Xuánjī Xué. An acupoint on the Ren vessel, on the breastbone. ↩

16. 任脉 — Rèn Mài. The Ren Meridian, or Conception Vessel, one of the eight extraordinary meridians, running along the front midline of the body. ↩

17. 上官帮主 — Shàngguān Bāngzhǔ. Literally Chief Shangguan. ↩

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

19. 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. ↩

20. 王重阳 — Wáng Chóngyáng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 临安 — Lín’ān. Capital of Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1276) known for its cultural refinement and West Lake scenery. Modern day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. See Wikipedia. ↩

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

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