The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 30 – Part 4

Guo Jing thought to himself, When fighting a skilled opponent, close combat is dangerous. If one uses this technique, one can both overcome the enemy and protect oneself. It is truly a supreme art. He watched intently as Great Master Yideng¹ advanced and withdrew, turned and shifted. The strikes themselves were marvellous, but harder still was the withdrawal the instant each one landed, darting away like a fish or a bolting hare, nimble beyond compare. Suddenly he thought, When that woman Yinggu traded moves with me, her footwork was as slippery as could be, and somewhat like the Great Master’s acupoint technique.² It is almost as if she learned it from him, though she is nowhere near his level.

Two more sticks of incense burned down, and Great Master Yideng finished the Yin Qiao and Yang Qiao vessels.³ When he came to the Jugu acupoint at the shoulder, something stirred in Guo Jing’s mind, and he thought, Ah, isn’t this in the Nine Yin Manual⁴ too? I was just too dense to understand it. He recited the text silently to himself as he watched, and Great Master Yideng’s strikes and withdrawals seemed to match it, more or less, though the manual set out only the essentials, while Great Master Yideng’s acupoint technique held countless variations. It was as if Great Master Yideng were teaching by example, his marvellous art laying bare the many hidden secrets of the Nine Yin Manual.

Guo Jing had not received permission and dared not presume to learn the One Yang Finger technique himself,⁵ yet from the manual’s wonderful principles he had already gained great insight. He began dimly to understand. When someone trained in neigong is injured, the jingmai⁶ throughout the body close up. The healing method in the Nine Yin Manual has another person use neili⁷ to help the injured party drive their breath round every acupoint of the body’s full circuit. But Huang Rong was too badly hurt to heal herself as Guo Jing had done after his injury in the secret chamber at Niu Family Village,⁸ circulating his breath to open the acupoints. So Great Master Yideng was using purely external force to help her qi permeate the acupoints throughout her body. The principle was similar, except one method stirred the body’s own power to heal itself, while the other relied entirely on external force for healing by another.

Last of all came the Dai Mai,⁹ and once it was open the great work would be done. The other seven extraordinary meridians all ran up and down the body, but the Dai Mai encircled the body in a loop, passing through the waist like a girdle, hence its name, the Girdle Vessel. This time Great Master Yideng turned his back to Huang Rong, walking backwards, reversing his hand to extend his finger and slowly pressing her Zhangmen acupoint.¹⁰ The Dai Mai contained eight acupoints in total. Great Master Yideng’s movements were exceedingly slow, as if each point cost him tremendous effort. He was panting hard, and his body swayed as if he could barely hold himself up.

Guo Jing’s heart trembled with alarm. Sweat was pouring down Yideng’s forehead and falling like rain from the tips of his long eyebrows. Guo Jing wanted to go and hold him up, yet feared he would spoil everything. He looked at Huang Rong. Her clothes were soaked through with sweat, her brows knitted, her lip caught between her teeth, plainly fighting with all her strength to bear the pain.

Suddenly, with a swish, the bamboo curtain behind him flew up, and someone shouted, “Shifu!” and rushed in. Before Guo Jing’s thoughts had fully formed, he deployed the Divine Dragon Sweeps Its Tail technique,¹¹ his right palm swinging backwards. With a sharp crack, he struck the intruder on the shoulder. He turned at once and saw a man swaying and staggering back two paces. It was the fisherman. His iron boat and iron oar had been seized, and unable to scale the peak from the mountain stream, he had been forced to go the long way round, an extra twenty li¹² and more, circling up the back of the mountain. By the time he arrived, he heard his shifu was already treating the young girl’s injuries. In his desperation he had burst in, intending to risk his life to stop it, only to be driven back by a single move from Guo Jing. He was about to charge again when the woodcutter, farmer and scholar all arrived at the doorway.

The scholar cried angrily, “It’s done. What is there left to stop?”

Guo Jing turned his head. Great Master Yideng had already seated himself cross-legged on the rush cushion, his face deathly pale, his monk’s robe soaked through. Huang Rong had fallen and lay motionless, whether alive or dead he could not tell. Guo Jing was horrified and rushed to lift her. First a foul, fishy stench reached his nose. Her face was white tinged with green, utterly bloodless, yet the faint dark shadow that had hung over it was gone. He felt for her breath and found it deep and steady, and most of his fear lifted.

The four disciples, fisherman, woodcutter, farmer and scholar, sat around their shifu without a word, their faces grave with anxiety.

Guo Jing watched Huang Rong intently. Her face gradually flushed red, and his joy grew. Then the redness deepened still further, till both cheeks burned as if aflame. After a while longer, sweat beaded on her forehead, and the colour faded slowly from red back to white. Three times this cycle turned, three times she broke out in a great sweat. Then Huang Rong gave a soft moan, opened her eyes and said, “Jing gege, where’s the brazier? Eh? Where’s the ice?”

Guo Jing heard her speak and was filled with joy beyond measure. His voice trembled as he said, “What brazier? Ice?”

Huang Rong turned her head and looked around, then shook her head and laughed. “Ah, I was having a nightmare. I dreamt of Ouyang Feng, Ouyang Ke, Qiu Qianren. They put me in a brazier to roast, then froze me with ice. When I was cold through, they put me back to roast. Ugh, it was horrible. Eh, what’s the matter with Uncle?”

Great Master Yideng slowly opened his eyes and smiled. “Your injuries are healed. Rest for a day or two, don’t run about or strain yourself, and you’ll be fine.”

Huang Rong said, “I haven’t a shred of strength in my whole body. I can’t even be bothered to wiggle my fingers.”

The farmer glared at her, brow furrowed in anger.

Huang Rong ignored him and said to Great Master Yideng, “Uncle, you went to such lengths to heal me. You must be utterly exhausted. I have Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills¹³ compounded from my father’s secret formula. Take a few, won’t you?”

Great Master Yideng said with pleasure, “Ah, good. I never thought you would carry such a marvellous medicine for restoring spirit and strengthening the body. That year at the Huashan Sword Summit,¹⁴ when we had all fought till we were spent, your father distributed them for us all to take, and their efficacy was truly miraculous.”

Guo Jing hastily took the small bottle of pills from Huang Rong’s pouch and presented it to Great Master Yideng. The woodcutter hurried to the kitchen and fetched a bowl of water. The scholar poured all the pills from the bottle into his palm and handed it to his shifu.

Great Master Yideng smiled. “Why so many? These pills are not easily compounded. Let us take half.”

The scholar cried urgently, “Shifu, even if you brought all the miraculous elixirs in the world, it would not be enough.”

Great Master Yideng could not talk him round, and he could feel that his own neili was spent. He took the several dozen Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills from the scholar’s hand, swallowed them all and drank a few mouthfuls of water. Then he said to Guo Jing, “Take your shimei to rest for a couple of days. When you go down the mountain there is no need to come and see me. Hmm, there is one thing you must promise me.”

Guo Jing prostrated himself on the ground and kowtowed four times with resounding thuds.

Huang Rong, who normally treated everyone with flippancy and showed no deference even before her father or her shifu, now bowed gracefully to Great Master Yideng and said in a low voice, “Uncle, you saved my life. I shall never forget it, not for a single moment.”

Great Master Yideng smiled. “Better to forget at once. Then you won’t carry the burden in your heart.” He turned to Guo Jing. “Do not speak of what you saw coming up the mountain to anyone else. Not even to your own shifu.”

Guo Jing had been calculating how to bring Hong Qigong up the mountain to beg him for healing. Hearing these words, he was stunned speechless.

Great Master Yideng smiled. “And do not come back again in future. We shall be moving house within days.”

Guo Jing blurted, “Moving? Where to?”

Great Master Yideng smiled and did not answer.

Huang Rong thought to herself, Silly gege, they are moving precisely because we have discovered their hiding place. How could they tell you? She thought of how hard Great Master Yideng and his disciples had worked to make this place, and now on her account they must abandon it all. Her remorse knew no bounds. She thought she might never repay such kindness in all her life. No wonder the four of them, fisherman, woodcutter, farmer and scholar, had done their utmost to prevent her climbing the mountain. Thinking this, she glanced at the four disciples, meaning to say a few words of apology.

Great Master Yideng’s face changed suddenly. His body swayed several times, then he collapsed to the ground.

The four disciples, Guo Jing and Huang Rong were all seized with alarm and rushed forward to raise him. His facial muscles twitched as if he were enduring extreme pain. The six of them stood with hands at their sides, fearful and silent. After the time needed for a cup of tea, a faint smile returned to Great Master Yideng’s face. He said to Huang Rong, “Child, were these Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills compounded by your father’s own hand?”

Huang Rong said, “No. My shige Lu Chengfeng¹⁵ made them, following Daddy’s secret formula.”

Great Master Yideng asked, “Has your father ever told you that taking too many of these pills can be harmful?”

Huang Rong was startled. She thought, Could there be something wrong with the Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills? She said hastily, “Daddy said the more one takes, the better. Only, because they are difficult to compound, even he could not bear to take many himself.”

Great Master Yideng lowered his brows in thought for a long while, then shook his head. “Your father’s ingenious designs are beyond anyone’s fathoming. How could I hope to guess them? Could it be that he wished to punish your Lu shixiong and gave him a false formula? Or could your Lu shixiong bear some grudge against you, and mixed a few poison pills among the rest?”

At the word “poison”, all present cried out in alarm.

The scholar said, “Shifu, you have been poisoned?”

Great Master Yideng smiled. “Luckily your shishu is here. With him by, even the deadliest poison cannot kill anyone.”

The four disciples were outraged. They turned on Huang Rong and cursed, “Our shifu acted in good faith to save you, and you dare use poison to harm him?” The four of them formed a tight circle around Guo Jing and Huang Rong, ready to strike at any moment.

The change had come so suddenly that Guo Jing was at a loss what to do. But Huang Rong, hearing Great Master Yideng’s very first question, had already realised something was wrong with the Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills. In an instant she ran through the whole chain of events, from the day she received the pills at Returning Clouds Manor¹⁶ onward. Then she remembered how, in the thatched hut at the Black Marsh, Yinggu had taken the bottle of pills into a side room to examine them closely, remaining away a long while before emerging. In an instant everything was crystal clear.

She cried, “Uncle, I know. It was Yinggu.”

Great Master Yideng said, “Yinggu again?”

Huang Rong described what had happened in the thatched hut at the Black Marsh, adding, “She urged me on no account to take any more of these pills. That must be because she had mixed in poison pills of identical appearance.”

The farmer said fiercely, “Hmph. How good she was to you, so afraid you might be poisoned to death.”

Huang Rong, thinking that Great Master Yideng had already swallowed poison pills, was gripped with misery and had no heart for retort. She said only in a low voice, “It was not that she feared the poison would kill me. She feared that if I took the poison pills myself, she would not be able to harm Uncle.”

Great Master Yideng sighed. “Karma, karma.” His expression softened to one of compassion. He said to Guo Jing and Huang Rong, “This is a tribulation destined for me in this life. It has nothing to do with either of you. Even Yinggu is only settling an old account of cause and effect. Go and rest for a few days, then descend the mountain in peace. Though I have been poisoned, my shidi is a master at curing poisons. Do not worry.” With that he closed his eyes and sat in silence, saying no more.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong bowed deeply. Seeing Great Master Yideng’s face wreathed in a gentle smile, his hand waving them away, they dared not linger. Slowly they turned and left.

The young novice was waiting outside the door, and he led them to a small room in the rear courtyard. The room was entirely bare of furnishings, containing only two bamboo couches and a bamboo table.

Before long, two old monks brought in a vegetarian meal, saying, “Please eat.”

Huang Rong, still anxious about Great Master Yideng, asked, “Is the Great Master any better?”

One of the old monks replied in a high, thin voice, “I do not know.” He bowed and withdrew.

Guo Jing said, “From the way those two spoke, I would have taken them for women.”

Huang Rong said, “They are eunuchs. They must have served Emperor Duan¹⁷ in the old days, like that old man Yang who sang in the rice shop.”

Guo Jing uttered a soft “Ah.” Both were heavy with care, and neither could eat.

Footnotes

1. 一灯大师 — Yīdēng Dàshī. Literally Great Master One Lamp. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 点穴 — diǎnxué. Literally touching the acupoints. The art of striking acupoints to seal or release the flow of qi through the meridians. ↩

3. 阴跷脉/阳跷脉 — Yīn Qiāo Mài / Yáng Qiāo Mài. Two of the eight extraordinary vessels, governing movement of the legs and the opening and closing of the eyes. ↩

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

5. 一阳指 — Yīyáng Zhǐ. The finger art of the Duan family of Dali. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 经脉 — jīngmài. Literally meridians. Energy channels through which qi flows. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

8. 牛家村 — Niújiā Cūn. Literally Niu Family Village. A village outside Lin’an. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 带脉 — Dài Mài. The Girdle Vessel, one of the eight extraordinary meridians, which encircles the waist like a belt. ↩

10. 章门穴 — Zhāngmén Xué. An acupoint on the side of the lower ribs. ↩

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

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

13. 九花玉露丸 — Jiǔhuā Yùlù Wán. Huang Yaoshi’s elixir, compounded with the dew of nine kinds of flower and hard to make. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 华山论剑 — Huàshān Lùnjiàn. Literally sword discussion at Huashan. Use of discussion is key as the participants were engaged in a martial arts exchange and a philosophical debate on mastery, rather than just a physical contest. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 陆乘风 — Lù Chéngfēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 归云庄 — Guīyún Zhuāng. Literally returning clouds manor. The Lu family manor on Lake Tai. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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