The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 36 – Part 1

The great army heads west

Huang Rong said softly and wistfully, “Uncle Ouyang, you praise me far too highly. Guo Jing has fallen into your trap, and now he and my father are sworn enemies. Tomorrow, once you have rescued my father, if your nephew were still alive, ah, could the marriage agreement of that day not have been taken up again? Ah, it truly breaks one’s heart!”

Ouyang Feng felt a cold jolt and thought, Why does she bring this up all of a sudden? What is she after?

Then he heard Huang Rong say, “Silly Girl,¹ this good brother of yours has been very kind to you, hasn’t he?”

Silly Girl replied, “Yes, he said he would take me home. I don’t want to play on that island. I want to go home.”

Huang Rong said, “What would you do at home? There are dead people in your house. There are ghosts.”

Silly Girl gave a cry of fright. “Ah, there are ghosts in my house, ghosts! I’m not going back.”

Huang Rong said, “Who killed that person?”

Silly Girl said, “I saw it. It was good brother…”

Two sharp clinks rang out, and two hidden weapons dropped to the ground. Huang Rong laughed. “Young Prince, just let her go on. Why go to the trouble of hurting her with hidden weapons?”

Yang Kang said angrily, “The fool talks nonsense. She’ll say anything.”

Huang Rong said, “Go on, Silly Girl, tell it. Grandpa here likes to listen.”

Silly Girl said, “No. Good brother told me not to talk, so I won’t talk.”

Yang Kang said, “That’s right. Lie down and go to sleep. If you say one more word, I’ll call a wicked ghost to come and eat you.”

Silly Girl was badly frightened and said over and over, “Oh, oh.” There was a rustle of clothing, and she had already pulled her clothes over her head and lain down to sleep.

Huang Rong said, “Silly Girl, if you won’t talk to me and keep me from getting bored, I’ll call Grandpa to come and take you away.”

Silly Girl cried, “I won’t go, I won’t go.”

Huang Rong said, “Then tell me. Good brother killed someone in your house. Who was it he killed?”

Everyone was puzzled to hear her suddenly ask about a killing by Yang Kang. Yang Kang’s heart was thumping wildly. He quietly gathered force in his right hand, thinking, If this fool really does blurt out what I did at Niu Family Village,² then even if it rouses Ouyang Feng’s suspicion, I will have to finish her on the spot with the Nine Yin White Bone Claw.³ He thought further, When I killed Ouyang Ke, only Mu Nianci, Cheng Yaojia, and Lu Guanying saw it. Can the secret have leaked out after all? Most likely this fool saw it too, and I simply didn’t notice her. Had I known, I would have killed her along with the others on Peach Blossom Island and left no seed of trouble behind.

The old temple was utterly silent now as everyone waited for Silly Girl to speak. Ke Zhen’e did not dare so much as draw breath. A long while passed and still Silly Girl said nothing. Then came the sound of snoring, growing steadily louder. She had actually fallen asleep.

Yang Kang let out his breath. His palms were slick with cold sweat. He thought, Leave this Silly Girl alive and she will be my undoing in the end. I must find some way to be rid of her. He glanced sidelong at Ouyang Feng. Ouyang Feng sat with his eyes closed, moonlight on one half of his face, his expression blank, as if he had paid no heed at all to what had just been said.

Everyone assumed Huang Rong had been talking at random and that, with Silly Girl asleep, there would be nothing more. Some lay down and some leaned back, and gradually they drifted off.

They were just dozing off when Silly Girl gave a great shout and leapt to her feet, crying, “Who’s pinching me? Ow, it hurts!”

Huang Rong shrieked, “Ghost, ghost! The ghost with the broken leg! Silly Girl, you killed the broken-legged Young Master, and he has come to make you pay with your life!”

In the stillness of the night those words made every listener’s hackles rise. Silly Girl screamed, “No, I didn’t kill him, it was good brother who killed…” Before she could finish, three sounds came in quick succession, a whoosh, a thud and a yelp. Yang Kang had sprung up without warning and clawed down at the crown of Silly Girl’s head, but Huang Rong had used the Dog-Beating Staff Technique⁴ to send him flying head over heels.

The moment fighting broke out, the hall erupted into chaos. Sha Tongtian and the rest closed in around Huang Rong.

Huang Rong behaved as if she had not seen them. She stretched out her left hand, pointed at the temple gate and cried, “Broken-Legged Young Master, come, Silly Girl is over here!”

Silly Girl looked towards the gate. All was dark and she could see nothing, but she had feared ghosts since childhood. She clutched at Huang Rong’s sleeve in panic and cried, “Don’t come claiming your life from me, it was good brother who killed you with an iron spear-head. I was hiding behind the kitchen door and saw him… Ghost with the broken leg, don’t, don’t come after me!”

Ouyang Feng had never dreamt that his beloved son had been killed by Yang Kang. Yet others might lie, he reasoned, but what Silly Girl said must be true. Grief and fury drove him not to rage but to a great peal of laughter. He glared sidelong at Yang Kang and said, “Young Prince, my nephew truly deserved to die. Well killed, well killed!”

His laughter was chilling and his voice harrowing. Everyone’s ears rang and buzzed, as though countless fine needles were boring into them all at once, and they could not stop their bodies shaking or their teeth chattering. Then came a wild cawing, caw upon raucous caw, mixed with the beating of wings that filled the sky. Hundreds upon hundreds of crows on top of the pagoda had been woken by Ouyang Feng’s laughter and had all taken flight.

Yang Kang thought, This is the end of me. He cast his eyes sideways, searching for an escape.

Wanyan Honglie was also inwardly alarmed. When the cawing subsided somewhat, he said, “This girl is raving. How can you believe what she says, Mister Ouyang? Your esteemed nephew came east at the Young Prince’s courteous invitation, and my son and I rely on him greatly. How could he harm him for no reason?”

Ouyang Feng pushed lightly with his feet. Without even standing up, he sprang abruptly into the air and came down softly beside Silly Girl, his legs still crossed. His left hand seized her arm and he barked, “Why did he kill my nephew? Speak, quickly!”

Silly Girl got a terrible fright and cried, “I didn’t kill him. Don’t grab me, don’t grab me.” She struggled with all her might, but Ouyang Feng’s hand held her like steel pincers and there was no breaking free. Shocked and terrified, she burst into tears and wailed, “Papa!”

Ouyang Feng repeated his question several times until Silly Girl was too frightened even to weep. She could only stare, dazed and wide-eyed.

Huang Rong said gently, “Don’t be afraid, Silly Girl. Grandpa here wants to give you a cake.”

The words reminded Ouyang Feng that the more he frightened her, the less she would say. From inside his robe he took a cold steamed bun he carried as travelling rations and pressed it into her hand, then let go of her arm and said with a smile, “That’s right! Have a cake!”

Silly Girl clutched the bun, still frightened, and said, “Grandpa, you grabbed me so hard it hurt. Don’t grab me.”

Ouyang Feng said gently, “Good Silly Girl. Silly Girl does as she’s told. Grandpa won’t grab you any more.”

Huang Rong said, “That day, the young master with the broken leg was holding a girl. Do you think she was pretty?”

Silly Girl said, “Very pretty. Where has she gone?”

Huang Rong said, “Do you know who she was? You don’t, do you?”

Very pleased with herself, Silly Girl clapped her hands and laughed. “I know, I know, she’s good brother’s wife!”

At these words Ouyang Feng’s last shred of doubt was gone. He had always known his illegitimate son to be a philanderer by nature, and the trouble must have come from his making free with Mu Nianci. But Ouyang Ke’s martial arts were formidable. Even with both his legs injured, Yang Kang was still no match for him. How could he have done it? Ouyang Feng turned to Yang Kang and said, “My nephew did not know what was good for him. He offended the Young Prince’s consort, and he truly deserved to die ten thousand times over.”

Yang Kang said, “No… no… I didn’t kill him.”

Ouyang Feng’s voice turned sharp. “Then who killed him?”

Yang Kang’s limbs went numb with terror. Cold sweat covered his forehead. The quick wit and presence of mind he usually commanded deserted him utterly, and he could not manage a single word.

Ouyang Feng said, “The complete map of Peach Blossom Island was on my nephew to begin with. Later it came into your hands. When I asked you why, you said you and my nephew were good friends and you had borrowed it to study the permutations of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams. I did not quite believe you at the time. It turns out that after you killed him, you kept it for yourself. Is that so?”

Yang Kang trembled and did not dare answer.

Huang Rong sighed. “Uncle Ouyang, you need not blame the Young Prince for his cruelty, and you need not blame your nephew for his roving eye. Blame only yourself, for being far too skilled.”

Ouyang Feng asked in surprise, “Why?”

Huang Rong said, “I don’t know why either. But when I was at Niu Family Village, I heard a man and a woman talking in the next room, and I could not make head or tail of it.”

These words, coming from nowhere, left Ouyang Feng utterly lost, as if he had fallen into a thick fog. He asked repeatedly, “What did they say?”

Huang Rong said, “I will repeat it to you word for word, and I will not add or leave out a single word. Please help me understand it. I never saw their faces. I don’t know who the man was, and I don’t know who the woman was. I heard the man say, ‘If it ever gets out that I killed Ouyang Ke, that will be the end of me.’ The woman said, ‘A true man does what he does and faces the consequences. If you are afraid, you should not have killed him yesterday. His uncle is formidable, true, but if we go far away, he may not find us, and besides, he has no idea it was you who did it.’”

Huang Rong paused, and Ouyang Feng said, “The woman spoke well enough. What did the man say next?”

The two of them carried on this question-and-answer, and Yang Kang listened in mounting dread. The moonlight slanted through the temple gate and fell before the idols. Yang Kang sidled out of its reach, moving quietly to stand behind Huang Rong.

He heard her say, “The man said, ‘Little sister, I have something else in mind. His uncle’s martial arts are unmatched in the world. I want to take him as my shifu. I have long wished it, but his school has always had a rule: one disciple per generation, a single line of succession. With that man dead, his uncle can take me on now!’”

Huang Rong had not said who the speaker was, but she caught Yang Kang’s voice and intonation to the life. Yang Kang had grown up in Daxing Prefecture in the Central Capital, but his mother, Bao Xiruo, came from Lin’an Prefecture, so his speech was a blend of north and south. Mimicked by Huang Rong, it left no one in any doubt that the speaker was Yang Kang.

Ouyang Feng gave a cold, sinister laugh and turned his head. Yang Kang was nowhere to be seen. Then came a sharp crack and a startled cry of pain. Yang Kang stood in the moonlight, his right hand dripping blood, his face ashen.

Yang Kang had been unable to bear it any longer once Huang Rong laid bare his secret. He had leapt up and clawed swiftly down at the crown of her head. But Huang Rong, while mimicking his voice, had foreseen the attack and was already on guard. Her martial arts were far superior to his. At the rush of air she swayed to the right, and his claw came down on her left shoulder. Yang Kang had put all his strength into that Nine Yin White Bone Claw, and all five fingers drove deep into the spikes of the Soft Hedgehog Armour.⁵ The fingers are bound to the heart, as the saying goes, and the pain all but knocked him senseless on the spot.

The others, in the dark, did not see clearly what had happened. They assumed he had been struck by some hidden trick but could not tell whether it was Huang Rong or Ouyang Feng who had done it. Everyone stood in dread of Ouyang Feng’s power and no one dared speak.

Footnotes

1. 傻姑 — Shǎgū. Literally silly girl. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

3. 九阴白骨爪 — Jiǔyīn Báigǔ Zhǎo. Literally nine yin white bone claw. A claw technique. ↩

4. 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. ↩

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