The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 38 – Part 1

A secret order in a brocade pouch¹

Guo Jing kept Qiu Chuji company while he and his eighteen disciples, Li Zhichang, Yin Zhiping, Xia Zhicheng, Yu Zhike, Zhang Zhisu, Wang Zhiming, Song Defang and the rest, took their rest, and then they went on together to Genghis Khan’s banquet. Qiu Chuji answered the Khan’s questions at length, setting out the way to keep the body strong and lengthen one’s years, to protect the people and to do good. By the time he took his leave and stepped beyond the palace gates, dawn was breaking. There he found Huang Rong waiting with Elders Lu, Jian and Liang of the Beggars’ Guild and more than a thousand members of the Guild, all on horseback outside the palace.

When Huang Rong saw Guo Jing ride out, she spurred her horse forward to meet him and asked with a smile, “No trouble, I hope?”

Guo Jing smiled. “Luck was on my side. Daoist Elder Qiu² happened to arrive, and the Khan was in a good mood.”

Huang Rong greeted Qiu Chuji with due ceremony, then said to Guo Jing, “I was afraid the Khan would fly into a rage and have you killed, so I brought men to rescue you. What did he say? Did he accept your refusal of the marriage?”

Guo Jing hesitated for a long moment before he said, “I did not refuse.”

Huang Rong started. “Why not?”

“Rong-er, you mustn’t be angry, whatever you do. It’s because…”

Before he could finish, Princess Huazheng came bursting out of the palace, calling loudly, “Guo Jing gege.”

The moment Huang Rong saw who it was, her face changed. She dismounted at once and stepped aside. Guo Jing was about to explain himself to her, but Huazheng had already caught hold of his hand and was saying, “You never expected me to come, did you? Are you glad to see me?”

Guo Jing nodded and turned to look for Huang Rong, but she was already nowhere to be seen.

Huazheng had eyes only for Guo Jing and had not even noticed Huang Rong. She held his hand and chattered on about the longing she had endured since they parted. Guo Jing groaned to himself, Rong-er is bound to think it was seeing Huazheng meizi³ again that stopped me asking the Khan to call off the marriage. Of all that Huazheng said, not a single word reached his ears.

After a while she noticed him staring blankly into space and said crossly, “What’s wrong with you? I’ve come all this way to see you, and you pay me no attention at all?”

Guo Jing said, “Little sister, something urgent is on my mind. I have to see to it first. I’ll talk to you later.”

He ran straight back to his quarters to find Huang Rong. His guard told him, “Miss Huang came back, took a painting and rode out the east gate.”

Guo Jing asked in alarm, “What painting?”

“The one the Prince Consort always used to look at.”

Guo Jing was more alarmed still. He thought, If she has taken that painting, she has plainly broken with me for good. Nothing else matters now. I’ll follow her south, and that’s that.

He left a hasty note for Qiu Chuji, vaulted onto the little red horse and galloped out of the city in pursuit.

The little red horse was swift indeed, but Guo Jing was so afraid of losing Huang Rong that he urged her on without cease, and in the blink of an eye they had covered several dozen li. On the outskirts of the city men and horses milled in confusion and corpses lay strewn every which way, but once he was several dozen li out there was nothing to be seen but a vast white waste of snow, and across it a single line of hoofprints ran straight as an arrow to the east.

Guo Jing was overjoyed, thinking, The little red horse has no equal for speed under heaven. In a little while I’m sure to catch up with Rong-er. We’ll fetch Mother and go south together. The Khan and Huazheng meizi will surely be angry with me, but I can’t worry about that now.

Ten li or more further on, the hoofprints turned north, and beside them there suddenly appeared the footprints of someone on foot. They were most peculiar. From one foot to the next was a span of nearly four feet, so huge was the stride, and yet each print had landed lightly, sinking only a few inches into the snow.

Guo Jing was startled, thinking, This man’s qinggong⁴ is formidable. Then it struck him, No one near here has such skill except Ouyang Feng. Could he be chasing Rong-er?

The thought sent sweat breaking out across his body despite the cold wind. The little red horse had a keen intelligence and knew that her master was following the tracks. Without waiting for Guo Jing to guide her with the reins, she kept to the trail and galloped on. The footprints stayed beside the hoofprints all the while, but after several li the two trails began to veer now west, now south, twisting and winding, without a single stretch that ran straight.

Guo Jing thought, Rong-er must have seen that Ouyang Feng was after her, and she is taking a roundabout way on purpose. But hoofprints show plainly in the snow and are easy to follow, so Old Venom is still hard on her heels.

Another dozen li, and the hoofprints and footprints suddenly overlapped and crossed a second set of tracks. Guo Jing dismounted to examine them and saw that one set was earlier, the other later. He gazed at the two trails stretching far away across the snow, and suddenly he realised, Rong-er has used her father’s Strange Gates arts⁵ to double back east and west and confuse Ouyang Feng. She has sent him round in a loop and then come back onto her old trail.

He sprang back onto the horse, torn between joy and worry. Joy, because Ouyang Feng would most likely never catch up with Huang Rong now. Worry, because the tracks were now hopelessly tangled, and he himself had lost the means to find her. He stood in the snow for a while, then thought, Rong-er went round in circles, but she must still be heading east. I need only keep chasing east.

He mounted, fixed the direction in his mind and rode hard eastward. He had galloped a long time when, sure enough, the footprints reappeared, and then, far ahead where the blue sky met the snow, he saw a figure.

Guo Jing spurred the horse on. From a distance he made out that the figure was Ouyang Feng. Ouyang Feng had also recognised him and was calling, “Come quickly, Miss Huang has sunk into the sand.”

Guo Jing was shocked. He pressed his legs against the horse’s flanks and the little red horse shot forward like an arrow. When they were still several hundred feet from Ouyang Feng, he felt the hooves suddenly sink. They were no longer treading on firm ground, and beneath the snow there seemed to lie a bog. The little red horse sensed the danger and angled away at once, circling round in a wide curve to come close. Drawing near, he saw Ouyang Feng running in tight circles around a small tree, never pausing.

Guo Jing was baffled, thinking, What trickery is he up to? He reined in, meaning to stop and ask, but the little red horse would not halt. She shot past and then wheeled back again.

Then Guo Jing understood, The ground here is marsh and soft mud. The moment you stop, you sink. A moment later he was aghast, thinking, Could Rong-er have blundered in here? He shouted to Ouyang Feng, “Where is Miss Huang?”

Ouyang Feng kept running as he called back, “I followed her hoofprints and footprints all the way here. They vanished at this spot. Look!” He pointed at the small tree.

Guo Jing galloped over. Hanging from a branch was a bright golden ring. The little red horse brushed past the tree, and Guo Jing reached out and plucked it from the branch. It was Huang Rong’s golden hair ring. His heart nearly leapt from his chest. He wheeled the horse eastward and charged on. After a li or so, something glittered in the snow. He leaned from the saddle, stretched down and picked it up: a gold-mounted pearl flower, the one Huang Rong always wore pinned at her breast.

His anxiety deepened. He cried out, “Rong-er, Rong-er, where are you?” He gazed as far as his eyes could reach, but there was only white without end, and not one moving dark speck upon it. He rode on several li more. To his left, on the snow, lay a black sable coat, the very one he had given her that day at Zhangjiakou.

He made the little red horse gallop in urgent circles around the coat, shouting, “Rong-er!” His voice carried far across the snow. There were no peaks nearby, and not even an echo came back.

Guo Jing was desperate. He broke into sobs, crying out her name in a hoarse, broken voice.

Before long Ouyang Feng arrived as well and called, “Let me mount your horse for a rest, then we can search for Miss Huang together.”

Guo Jing was furious. “If you hadn’t been chasing her, why would she have run into this marsh?” He pressed his legs against the horse and the little red horse darted away.

Ouyang Feng was enraged. Three times he rose and fell, and he was already behind the little red horse, reaching out to seize her tail. Guo Jing had not expected him to come so fast. With a Divine Dragon Sweeps Its Tail he struck back with his right palm, and it met Ouyang Feng’s. Both men put their full strength into it. The force of Ouyang Feng’s palm actually lifted Guo Jing out of the saddle, but luckily the red horse was galloping straight on. He stretched out his left hand, pressed down on the horse’s rump and used the momentum to swing back aboard.

Ouyang Feng, however, was driven back two steps. Guo Jing’s palm-strike had forced him to land heavy, and his left leg sank deep into the mud, swallowing it up to the knee. Ouyang Feng was alarmed. He knew that in this quicksand marsh, if he tried to wrench his left leg free by force, his right leg was bound to sink in its place. The deeper he sank, the deeper he would go, and however great his skill, he would hardly escape.

In desperation he threw himself flat on his side and rolled along the ground, at the same time kicking his right foot hard into the air with a move of the Linked Mandarin Duck Kicks. Riding the upward swing of the right foot, his left foot followed it up, and with mud and sand spraying everywhere he was out of the hole.

He scrambled to his feet and heard Guo Jing shouting, “Rong-er, Rong-er!” Man and horse were already more than a li away. Even from afar the little red horse could be seen running steady and sure, and it looked as if she was already out of the marsh. Ouyang Feng followed the hoofprints at full speed, and the further he ran the softer the ground grew underfoot. It seemed that at first he had been only at the edge of the marsh, and now he had stepped into its heart.

Three times running he had fallen for Guo Jing’s tricks, and the last time he had stood stark naked before several hundred thousand men, in utter disgrace. Others might admire his great martial prowess, but to himself it was the greatest shame of his life. Now that he had met Guo Jing alone, he would have his revenge somehow, and whatever the danger he would never let such a chance slip. Besides, Huang Rong was still missing, alive or dead, and he could not give up on that either. He summoned his qinggong, drew in his breath and gave chase.

Footnotes

1. 锦囊密令 — Jǐnnáng mì lìng. Chapter title. A 锦囊 is a brocade pouch holding sealed instructions, to be opened at the appointed time. ↩

2. 道长 — dàozhǎng. Literally Daoist elder. A respectful form of address for a Daoist priest. ↩

3. 妹子 — mèizi. The colloquial form of 妹妹, little sister; after a name it marks affection, not kinship. ↩

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

5. 奇门 — qímén. Literally strange gates. A branch of Chinese cosmology and divination concerned with the arrangement of space and time, applied to strategy and battle formations. ↩