The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 33 – Part 2

A murderous look suddenly came over Ke Zhen’e’s¹ face. He raised his iron staff and brought it down hard at the back of Huang Rong’s² head. The blow was fast and vicious, nothing less than a deadly move from the Demon-Taming Staff Technique,³ which he had drilled long and hard in the Mongolian desert to use against the blinded Mei Chaofeng,⁴ so that she would hear the rush of air off the staff and still be too late to escape it.

At the sudden sight of Hong Qigong,⁵ Huang Rong was caught between surprise and delight, and she never thought to guard against an attack from behind. By the time she sensed it, the rushing wind of the iron staff had already closed over her whole body.

Guo Jing⁶ saw that the blow would split her head and shatter her skull. In desperation his left hand swept out and knocked the staff aside, and his right shot out and seized its head. But in his panic he put far too much force into it, never thinking how greatly his neili⁷ had grown. Where once he had struck with ten parts of strength and held twenty in reserve, now that his neili had increased so much, a strike of thirty parts left a reserve that rose of itself to seventy. That is what is meant by “strength to spare” and “lifting the heavy as if it were light”.

The sweep of his left palm was a movement from the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing.⁸ Ke Zhen’e felt a tremendous force bear suddenly down on him, too strong to withstand. The staff flew from his grip, he lost his footing, and he pitched headlong to the ground.

Guo Jing was aghast. He stooped at once to help him up, crying over and over, “Eldest Shifu!” Ke Zhen’e’s nose was bruised and swollen, and two of his front teeth had been knocked out.

Ke Zhen’e spat the two teeth and a mouthful of blood into his palm. “Here, take them!” he said coldly.

Guo Jing stood dumbfounded. Then he dropped to his knees. “This disciple deserves death,” he said. “I beg you, Shifu, punish me severely.”

Ke Zhen’e still held out his palm. “Here, take them!”

“Eldest Shifu…” Guo Jing sobbed, his voice choking. He did not know what to do.

Zhou Botong⁹ laughed. “Since time began it’s been the shifu who beats the disciple, but today I’ve seen the disciple beat the shifu. What a show, what a show!”

Hearing this, Ke Zhen’e burned all the more furiously. “Very well,” he said. “As the saying goes, when your teeth are knocked out, swallow them with the blood. Why should I give them to you?” He tossed the two teeth into his mouth, threw back his head and swallowed them down.

Zhou Botong clapped his hands, roared with laughter and shouted his approval.

Huang Rong saw that something extraordinary was afoot. Ke Zhen’e’s face was full of grief and grim resolve, and she had no idea why he should want to kill her. Alarmed and uneasy, she edged slowly to Hong Qigong’s side and took hold of his hand.

Guo Jing kowtowed. “This disciple would not dare offend Eldest Shifu, not though he died ten thousand deaths,” he said. “It was a moment’s muddle, a slip of the hand. I beg only that you punish me.”

Ke Zhen’e said, “Shifu this, shifu that. Who is your shifu? You have the Master of Peach Blossom Island¹⁰ for a father-in-law, so what do you want with a shifu? With the paltry skill of us Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan,¹¹ how could we be fit to be shifu to Elder Master Guo?”

Hearing how harshly he spoke, Guo Jing could only go on kowtowing.

Hong Qigong, looking on, could bear it no longer. He let the chicken leg drop from his mouth, caught it quickly in his right hand and said, “Ke daxia,¹² when shifu and disciple cross hands, a slip is nothing out of the ordinary. The move Jing-er swept you with just now was one I taught him, so the fault is this old beggar’s, and here I make you my apology.” With that he bowed, his hands clasped.

Hearing Hong Qigong say this, Zhou Botong thought, Why don’t I say a few words too? “Ke daxia,” he said, “when shifu and disciple cross hands, a slip is nothing out of the ordinary. The neili Brother Guo Jing used to seize your iron staff just now was something I taught him, so the fault is Old Wild Child’s, and here I make you my apology.” With that he too bowed, his hands clasped.

He had parroted Hong Qigong only to join in the fun, but Ke Zhen’e was in the grip of an uncontrollable fury, and to his ears it sounded like deliberate mockery. He took even Hong Qigong’s kindly meaning for malice. “You Eastern Heretic, Western Venom, Southern Emperor and Northern Beggar,” he shouted, “do you think that because your martial arts are peerless you can run riot across the world? Hmph. I say that whoever does too much evil will bring about his own destruction.”

“Eh?” said Zhou Botong in surprise. “And what has the Southern Emperor done to you, that you curse him along with the rest?”

Huang Rong had been listening from the side. She knew that the longer this went on the worse the deadlock would become, and that with Old Wild Child here muddling everything, there would be no calming Ke Zhen’e’s rage. “Old Wild Child,” she cut in, “‘The mandarin ducks woven, about to take double flight’¹³ has come looking for you. Why don’t you hurry off and see her?”

Zhou Botong was aghast. He leapt three feet into the air. “What?” he cried.

“She wants to be with you ‘in the deep of the morning cold, face to face, bathing in red robes’,”¹⁴ said Huang Rong.

Zhou Botong was more alarmed still. “Where? Where?” he bellowed.

Huang Rong pointed south. “Over there. Hurry and find her.”

“I’ll never see her,” said Zhou Botong. “Good girl, from now on I’ll do whatever you tell me, only whatever you do, don’t tell her you saw me…” Before he had finished he was already running north as fast as his legs would carry him.

“Mind you keep your word,” Huang Rong called after him.

Zhou Botong’s voice came back from far away. “Once Old Wild Child’s word is spoken, eight horses couldn’t catch it!” By the time “couldn’t catch it” left his mouth he had streaked off like a puff of smoke and was nowhere to be seen.

Huang Rong had meant to trick him into going to find Yinggu,¹⁵ never dreaming that he dreaded Yinggu like a snake or a scorpion and could not get away from her fast enough. That was quite beyond anything she had expected, but either way, she had tricked him into leaving.

All this while Guo Jing was still kneeling before Ke Zhen’e. “My seven shifus went all the way to the far desert for my sake,” he said through his tears. “Even if this disciple were ground to dust, he could never repay their great kindness. This hand has offended Eldest Shifu, and I will not keep it either!” He drew the golden dao¹⁶ from his belt and hacked at his own left wrist.

Ke Zhen’e swept his iron staff across and turned the cut aside. The dao was light and the staff heavy, yet sparks flew as the two weapons met, and the web of Ke Zhen’e’s thumb went faintly numb. He knew that Guo Jing had put his full strength into that cut and truly meant it. “Very well,” he said. “If that is how it is, you must do one thing for me.”

Guo Jing was overjoyed. “Whatever Eldest Shifu commands, how would I dare disobey?”

“If you will not do it,” said Ke Zhen’e, “never show your face to me again. The bond between shifu and disciple ends here, cut through at a single stroke.”

“I will do all I can,” said Guo Jing, “and if I cannot accomplish it, I will not stop till I die.”

Ke Zhen’e brought the butt of his staff down hard on the ground. “Go and cut off the heads of Old Heretic Huang and his daughter,” he barked, “and bring them to me.”

This was no small shock to Guo Jing. “Eldest… Shi… Shifu…” he stammered.

“Well?” said Ke Zhen’e.

“How has Island Master Huang¹⁷ offended you, Shifu?” asked Guo Jing.

Ke Zhen’e sighed. “Ah, ah!” Then, grinding his teeth, he said, “How I wish Heaven would grant me one moment of sight, just so I could see the face of an ungrateful little beast like you!” He raised his iron staff and brought it down at the crown of Guo Jing’s head.

The moment he demanded that Guo Jing do one thing for him, Huang Rong had half guessed what it would be. Now, seeing him suddenly raise the staff for a savage blow while Guo Jing made no move to avoid it, she thrust her bamboo staff in from the side with the move Evil Dog Bars the Way,¹⁸ setting it between the iron staff and the crown of Guo Jing’s head. As the iron staff came down, the bamboo staff quivered sideways, wound round it and flicked it outwards at a slant. So exquisite was the Dog-Beating Staff Technique¹⁹ that, weak as her strength was, she went with the force, borrowed it and swept the iron staff aside.

Ke Zhen’e stumbled. Before he had found his feet he pounded his own chest twice with his fist, then sped off northwards.

Guo Jing ran after him, calling, “Eldest Shifu, wait.”

Ke Zhen’e stopped and turned his head. “Does Elder Master Guo mean to have my old life here and now?” he snarled, his face hideous with rage.

Guo Jing stood dumbfounded and dared not bar his way. He hung his head and listened to the tap of the iron staff on the ground grow fainter and fainter, until at last it died away altogether. Thinking of all his shifu had done for him, he threw himself on the ground and wept aloud.

Hong Qigong came to his side, leading Huang Rong by the hand. “Ke daxia and Old Heretic Huang are both as cantankerous as they come,” he said. “There must be some very deep feud between the two of them. Nothing else for it. It’ll have to fall to this old beggar to patch things up between them.”

Guo Jing dried his tears and got to his feet. “Shifu, do you know… do you know what it’s about?”

“I’ve been hungry a good long while,” said Hong Qigong. “Your shifu must eat his fill before he can talk about anything else.” So the three of them went back to the inn, and Huang Rong found dishes, wine and meat in the kitchen and set out a meal for them all. Only when they had eaten did Hong Qigong tell them what had happened since they parted.

Hong Qigong spoke slowly. “Old Wild Child was taken in and made a bet with them about keeping still. Those treacherous scum were set on doing away with me, but your Eldest Shifu came upon us outside Niu Family Village²⁰ and shielded me while we took refuge in this cave. Thanks to his deadly poisoned caltrops the scum dared not force their way in, and that is how we held out so long. Ah, your Eldest Shifu is a man of the utmost loyalty. When he stayed with me in that cave to hold off the enemy, he had plainly made up his mind to throw his own life away.”

At this point he took two great gulps of wine, stuffed a whole chicken leg into his mouth, chewed it in a few bites and swallowed it, then wiped the grease from his lips with his sleeve. “The fighting was savage just now,” he went on, “and with my martial arts gone I couldn’t lend a hand. I’ve met your Eldest Shifu, but I haven’t had a moment to talk to him yet. Angry as he is, it can’t possibly be because you slipped and threw him. He’s a chivalrous hero. How could he be so small-minded? Luckily the Mid-Autumn Festival is only a few days off. After the contest at Misty Rain Pavilion,²¹ this old beggar will talk things through for you.”

Choking back his sobs, Guo Jing thanked him again and again.

Hong Qigong laughed. “Your martial arts have come on a long way, you two youngsters. Ke daxia counts as a name to reckon with in the wulin,²² yet the moment you two youngsters raised a hand you left him no way to save face. How did that come about?”

For a moment Guo Jing could find nothing to say. Huang Rong chattered away and gave him the gist of all that had happened since they parted. When Hong Qigong heard that Yang Kang²³ had killed Ouyang Ke,²⁴ he shouted his approval. When he heard that the Beggars’ Guild Elders had been duped by Yang Kang, he cursed again and again. “Little bastard! Four old fools! Lu Youjiao²⁵ has feet but no brains! Next time I see that Elder Peng²⁶ I’ll kill him!”

When he heard how Great Master Yideng²⁷ had healed Huang Rong, how Yinggu had come seeking revenge at midnight and the rest of it, he sat lost in thought. When he heard that Yinggu had suddenly gone mad on the Azure Dragon Shallows,²⁸ an “Oh?” escaped him.

“Shifu, what is it?” said Huang Rong. “Do you know Yinggu too?” She thought, Shifu has never married in all his life. Could he have been smitten with Yinggu as well? Hmph, and what’s so wonderful about Yinggu? Moody and odd and half crazy, and yet she’s bewitched all these masters of the wulin? When she was young she was beautiful and sweet and dainty, but she wasn’t as clever as me. I wonder whether she could cook a good dish. How would she compare with me?

Luckily, she then heard Hong Qigong go on. “It’s nothing. I don’t know Yinggu, but when Emperor Duan²⁹ shaved his head and became a monk, I was there at his side. One day he sent a letter north asking me to come south. I knew he would never trouble this old beggar unless the matter were urgent, and I thought of the delicious Yunnan ham, Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodles³⁰ and erkuai,³¹ so I set off at once. When we met I saw that he was downcast and grief-stricken, nothing like the man so full of life at the Huashan Sword Summit,³² and I thought it very strange. A few days after I arrived, he made comparing our martial arts his pretext for wanting to pass on the Innate Skill³³ and the One Yang Finger³⁴ to me.

“This old beggar thought to himself that in those days his One Yang Finger had fought my Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing, Old Venom’s Toad Skill,³⁵ and Old Heretic Huang’s Sky-Splitting Palm³⁶ and Divine Finger Flick³⁷ to a draw, and that now he had been taught the Innate Skill by Wang Chongyang³⁸ as well. At the second Huashan Sword Summit the title of the greatest martial artist under Heaven could belong to no one else. So why should he hand these two peerless skills to this old beggar for nothing? And if it was a matter of comparing martial arts, why wouldn’t he learn my Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing in return? There was something fishy in it. Later this old beggar puzzled it over carefully and talked it through with his four great disciples behind his back, and at last I saw what was afoot. Once he had passed these two skills on to me, he meant to take his own life. As for why he was so heartbroken, even his disciples did not know.”

“Shifu,” said Huang Rong, “Emperor Duan was afraid that once he was dead, no one would be left who could hold Ouyang Feng in check.”

“Just so,” said Hong Qigong. “I saw that much, and I refused to learn them, whatever he said. In the end he told me the truth. His four disciples, he said, were loyal and hard-working, but their minds were taken up with affairs of state and they could not give themselves wholly to martial arts, and besides, their gifts and understanding were not great enough for them ever to amount to much. Nor, it seemed, could the martial arts of the Seven Zis of Quanzhen³⁹ reach the very summit. If I would not learn the One Yang Finger, well and good, but if the Innate Skill were lost, he would have no face to meet Chongyang the Perfected One⁴⁰ beneath the earth. I could see that he had thought it through long and hard, and that talking would be no use. Only by refusing stubbornly to learn could I keep him alive. Emperor Duan was at his wits’ end, and he had to fall back a step, giving up his throne and becoming a monk. The day he shaved his head, I was there beside him. That must be more than ten years ago now. Ah, for that feud to be settled this way was well enough.”

“Shifu,” said Huang Rong, “we’ve finished our story. Now we want to hear yours.”

Footnotes

1. 柯镇恶 — Kē Zhèn’è. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 黄蓉 — Huáng Róng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 伏魔杖法 — Fúmó Zhàngfǎ. Ke Zhen’e’s staff art, practised in the Mongol desert. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 梅超风 — Méi Chāofēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 洪七公 — Hóng Qīgōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 郭靖 — Guō Jìng. His name meaning “to pacify”; paired with Yang Kang’s 康 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

8. 降龙十八掌 — Xiánglóng Shíbā Zhǎng. Literally eighteen dragon-subduing palms. Hong Qigong’s palm technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 周伯通 — Zhōu Bótōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 桃花岛 — Táohuā Dǎo. Huang Yaoshi’s island in the East China Sea. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 江南七怪 — Jiāngnán Qī Guài. Literally seven eccentrics of Jiangnan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 柯大侠 — Kē Dàxiá. Literally great xia Ke. ↩

13. 鸳鸯织就欲双飞 — Yuānyāng zhī jiù yù shuāng fēi. Literally the mandarin ducks are woven, about to fly as a pair. A line from the anonymous Song lyric sequence 九张机 (Nine Turns of the Loom), where the paired ducks stand for lovers. ↩

14. 晓寒深处，相对浴红衣 — xiǎo hán shēn chù, xiāng duì yù hóng yī. Literally in the deep of the morning cold, face to face, bathing in red robes. A line of a Song dynasty ci lyric. ↩

15. 瑛姑 — Yīnggū. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 金刀 — jīndāo. The golden dao Genghis Khan bestows on Guo Jing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 黄岛主 — Huáng Dǎozhǔ. Literally Island Master Huang. ↩

18. 恶狗拦路 — È Gǒu Lán Lù. Literally vicious dog bars the road. A move of the Dog-Beating Staff Technique. ↩

19. 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. ↩

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

21. 烟雨楼 — Yānyǔ Lóu. Misty Rain Pavilion, on South Lake in Jiaxing. ↩

22. 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. ↩

23. 杨康 — Yáng Kāng. His name meaning “well-being”; paired with Guo Jing’s 靖 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

24. 欧阳克 — Ōuyáng Kè. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 鲁有脚 — Lǔ Yǒujiǎo. His name meaning “has feet”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

26. 彭长老 — Péng Zhǎnglǎo. Literally Elder Peng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

28. 青龙滩 — Qīnglóng Tān. Literally Green Dragon shoal. Rapids on the river route to Hunan. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

30. 过桥米线 — Guò Qiáo Mǐxiàn. Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles, a famous Yunnan dish. ↩

31. 饵块 — ěrkuài. A Yunnan cake of pounded rice. ↩

32. 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. ↩

33. 先天功 — Xiāntiān Gōng. Literally skill of the primordial. A neigong method. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

36. 劈空掌 — Pīkōng Zhǎng. Literally air-splitting palm. A palm strike that reaches its target without contact. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

37. 弹指神通 — Tánzhǐ Shéntōng. Huang Yaoshi’s finger-flicking art, which strikes acupoints or sends small objects flying. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

39. 全真七子 — Quánzhēn Qīzǐ. Literally the seven zi of Quanzhen, zi being an honorific for a master. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

40. 重阳真人 — Chóngyáng Zhēnrén. Literally Chongyang the Perfected One. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩