The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 40 – Part 3

Hong Qigong had held back with that blow, not wanting to hurt him, and used only eight-tenths of his strength, sure that the boy would go down and the bout would be won. But Guo Jing had weathered years of hardship, and his body had grown immensely tough. The blow only rocked him a few times, and though a stab of pain shot through his shoulder, he did not fall. Hong Qigong was astonished to see him stand firm under it, and said, “Breathe in and out three times and even out your breathing, or you may take an internal injury.” Guo Jing did as he was told, and at once his chest eased. “I have lost,” he said. Hong Qigong said, “No. Just now you deliberately held off from my chest and let me go first. If you concede now, how will Old Heretic Huang ever accept it? Defend yourself!” And with that he struck out with another palm.

Guo Jing had no weapon now, and seeing how keen and fierce the blow was, he turned it aside with the Void Clarity Fist¹ Zhou Botong had taught him. The Void Clarity Fist was the softest fist art under heaven, and Zhou Botong had drawn it from the Classic of the Way and Its Virtue.² The Classic of the Way and Its Virtue says, “An army that is strong will be wiped out. A tree that is strong will snap. The hard and strong take the lower place, the soft and weak the higher.” It also says, “Nothing under heaven is softer or weaker than water, yet for attacking the hard and strong nothing can surpass it, for nothing can take its place. That the weak overcomes the strong and the soft overcomes the hard, everyone under heaven knows, yet no one can put it into practice.” The Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing,³ on the other hand, were the hardest and firmest of all the martial arts. The old saying has it that “the soft can overcome the hard”, but that depends on whether the softness has more power than the hardness. Such was Hong Qigong’s attainment that even Zhou Botong, using the softest arts against him, might not have won. But Guo Jing had learnt the Ambidextrous Self-Combat⁴ method. His right hand threw the Void Clarity Fist while his left threw the Dragon-Subduing blows, hard and soft complementing each other, yin and yang in support, and for all the unstoppable ferocity of Hong Qigong’s moves, he could do nothing to him.

Huang Rong stood by counting the moves. As the three hundred drew to a close with Guo Jing showing no sign of defeat, she was delighted, and counted on, one move at a time. When Hong Qigong heard her reach two hundred and ninety-nine, his will to win flared, and he suddenly launched Proud Dragon Repents,⁵ driving it straight at the boy like toppling mountains and overturning seas. The moment the move was loosed, he feared Guo Jing would be unable to withstand it and be badly hurt, and he shouted, “Look out!”

The shout reached Guo Jing just as the palm-wind came rushing at his face. He felt how violent the force behind it was, and knew the Void Clarity Fist could never dissolve it. In desperation his right arm swept a circle and, with a whoosh, he too struck out with Proud Dragon Repents. There was a loud bang as palm met palm, and both men shook from head to foot. Huang Yaoshi and Huang Rong cried out together and hurried closer to watch.

Palm pressed to palm, the two of them were locked fast. Guo Jing wanted to yield, but he knew how formidable his shifu’s palm force was. If he gave way now and the force followed through, he would certainly be badly hurt. So he decided first to brace himself with all his strength and hold for a while, then step aside and concede once the force had ebbed a little. Hong Qigong was both astonished and delighted to see Guo Jing withstand this blow, which held a lifetime’s strength. His love of talent swelled and his will to win vanished at once. He resolved to let the boy win this exchange and make his name, and so he held his force back and slowly drew it in.

Just as the two stood there, neither winning nor losing, each giving way to the other, a man behind the cliff gave three great shouts and came tumbling out in three somersaults. It was the Western Venom, Ouyang Feng.⁶

Hong Qigong and Guo Jing withdrew their palms together and leapt back. Ouyang Feng’s clothes were in rags, and his face was streaked and spattered with blood. He shouted, “I have mastered the divine arts of my Nine Yin Manual,⁷ and my martial arts are first under heaven!” His Snake Staff swept across at the four of them.

Hong Qigong picked up the Dog-Beating Staff⁸ and darted forward to knock the Snake Staff aside. A few moves in, all four of them were aghast. Ouyang Feng’s moves had always been strange, but now they were bizarre beyond compare. One moment he would suddenly claw at his own face, the next he would kick back and land a vicious kick on his own backside. Every blow of his staff changed direction halfway, so there was no telling where it would land. Hong Qigong, utterly astonished, could only use the Dog-Beating Staff Technique to guard himself closely. How could he dare risk an attack?

As the fight deepened, Ouyang Feng suddenly slapped himself across the face three times with the back of his hand, smack, smack, smack, and gave a great yell. Each hand drew a round stone from his robe, and pressing them to the ground he stood on his hands and came springing forward upside down. Hong Qigong was both alarmed and amused, and thought, My staff technique is best of all at beating dogs. If you suddenly take the shape of a dog, aren’t you walking straight into the net? He thrust out the bamboo staff and flicked it up at Ouyang Feng’s waist. But Ouyang Feng abruptly flipped over and rolled, trapping half the staff beneath him, and rolled on with the momentum. Hong Qigong could not keep his hold, and the staff was torn from his hand. Then Ouyang Feng sprang into the air and lashed out with a flurry of kicks. Hong Qigong, badly startled, retreated in haste.

By now Huang Rong had long since picked up the iron flute and given it back to her father. Huang Yaoshi lunged with it in a slanting thrust. Ouyang Feng shouted, “Emperor Duan, I’m not afraid of your One Yang Finger!”⁹ and threw himself forward. From the way he behaved, Huang Yaoshi knew at once that his mind was deranged, and yet, mad though his mind was, he fought more formidably than he ever had when sane. For all his surpassing intelligence, Huang Yaoshi could not for the moment work out why. How could he know that Ouyang Feng had pored over the false manual Guo Jing had written out until his head was spinning, that Huang Rong had then led him down wrong path after wrong path into blind and reckless practice, and that the blow from Hong Qigong’s staff to the crown of his head had muddled him further still? Yet his martial arts had always been strong, and though he had taken a wrong road, the wrong road had its own rewards. His moves were so outlandish and absurd that even two grandmasters like Hong Qigong and Huang Yaoshi were left bewildered.

After a few dozen moves, Huang Yaoshi too was beaten back. Guo Jing darted in to meet the enemy. Ouyang Feng suddenly wept, “My son, what a terrible death you died!” He flung his Snake Staff away, spread his arms and lunged to hug him. Guo Jing knew he had taken him for his nephew Ouyang Ke, and hearing the anguish in his cry, he struck out a palm to push him off. Ouyang Feng’s left wrist flicked over and caught Guo Jing’s arm, and his right arm clamped tight around him. Guo Jing felt a pang of dismay and hurriedly strained to break free, but Ouyang Feng’s strength was boundless, and he held him so tightly that he could not move at all.

Hong Qigong, Huang Yaoshi and Huang Rong were horrified, and all three rushed to the rescue. Hong Qigong jabbed a finger at the Phoenix Tail acupoint in the middle of Ouyang Feng’s back to force him to let go. But by now every meridian in his body was reversed and his acupoints had all shifted, so when Hong Qigong’s finger drove home, he felt nothing and paid it no heed whatever. Huang Rong turned, picked up a rock and brought it down at the top of his head. Ouyang Feng’s right fist swung up from below to meet it, Huang Rong lost her grip, and the rock flew out of her hand and down into the valley. With Ouyang Feng’s right hand loosened, Guo Jing wrenched himself free with all his strength and leapt back. When he had collected himself, he saw that Ouyang Feng and Huang Yaoshi were locked in a furious fight. Huang Yaoshi had thrust the flute into his belt and was fighting bare-handed.

Ouyang Feng’s moves were now stranger and more outlandish still, weird beyond compare. One moment he stood on his head, the next upright, and at times he even propped himself on one hand, his body stretched out level, and traded palm blows with the other alone. Huang Yaoshi, all his attention on meeting the attack, did not find it so very alarming, but Hong Qigong, Guo Jing and Huang Rong watched with their hearts pounding and their minds reeling. Seeing her father run into one perilous move after another, Huang Rong cried, “Shifu, there’s no need to follow the rules of the wulin with this madman. Let’s all go at him together!”

Hong Qigong said, “At any other time, we could certainly join forces to take him. But at today’s Huashan Sword Summit, every hero under heaven knows it has to be one against one. If we gang up on him, the brave men of the jianghu will laugh at us.” Ouyang Feng’s madness was growing wilder. Foaming at the mouth, he butted forward with his head, and Huang Yaoshi, unable to hold him off, was driven steadily back.

Suddenly Ouyang Feng bent low and attacked furiously, leaving his upper body wide open. Huang Yaoshi was delighted, and thought, The madman has lost his wits after all. He summoned his Divine Finger Flick¹⁰ and flicked swiftly at the Welcome Fragrance acupoint beside Ouyang Feng’s nose. The finger shot out at tremendous speed, but the instant it touched his skin, Ouyang Feng turned his head a fraction and bit down on the index finger. Huang Yaoshi, appalled, struck at the Sun acupoint on his temple with his left hand to make him let go. Ouyang Feng’s right hand swept out and turned the blow aside, while his teeth bit down harder still.

Seeing Huang Yaoshi in danger, Guo Jing did not stop to think. He hurled himself bodily at Ouyang Feng and hooked his right arm round his neck in a Mongol wrestling hold. Sure enough, Ouyang Feng was wary of it and twisted his head away, letting go of Huang Yaoshi’s finger. Huang Yaoshi and Huang Rong saw that Guo Jing had thrown himself in with no thought for his own safety, bent only on saving his father-in-law, and they thought it did him great credit. Huang Yaoshi smiled faintly, and Huang Rong cried, “Jing gege, that’s just how a son-in-law should behave. Well done indeed!” Seeing Ouyang Feng turn a furious attack on Guo Jing, she rushed in to help.

Ouyang Feng clawed all ten fingers at Huang Rong’s face. In the full glare of the sun his face was hideous and smeared with blood, and Huang Rong, frightened, cried out and fled. Guo Jing hurriedly struck out a palm to save her. Ouyang Feng turned to meet it, and only then did Huang Rong get clear.

In little more than ten bouts, Guo Jing was hit on the shoulder and then the leg. Hong Qigong said, “Jing-er, stand back. Let me try again.” He darted in bare-handed, and this fight was fiercer and more savage than the last. While Ouyang Feng had been trading palms with Huang Yaoshi and Guo Jing, Hong Qigong had been watching closely from the side. He had seen that strange as Ouyang Feng’s moves were, there was a pattern to be found in them. Mainly he was turning his usual palm techniques back to front, high for low and left for right. It was not true of every move, but it held for seven or eight in ten. With a rough grasp of it, Hong Qigong was still on the back foot, but he could now attack as well as defend, answering one move in every three.

Huang Rong took out her handkerchief and bound up the wound on her father’s finger. Huang Yaoshi was picking out more and more of the patterns, and called out one after another, “Seventh Brother, kick his Ring-Jump acupoint.” “Strike up at the Great Threshold!” “Backhand, chop down on the Heaven’s Pillar.” The onlooker sees most clearly, and as Hong Qigong did as he said, in moments the fight was level again. Both men felt a private shame, and thought, This is the Eastern Heretic and the Northern Beggar together, against the Western Venom alone. Just as victory was within reach, Ouyang Feng suddenly opened his mouth and spat a gob of spittle at Hong Qigong’s face.

Hong Qigong swayed aside to dodge, but Ouyang Feng had read his move in advance and struck at the very spot he was dodging to, spitting a thick gob of phlegm at the same time. Hong Qigong was in a tight corner. He thought of not dodging at all, but the phlegm came with a sharp wind behind it, and if it struck his eye it would hurt badly even if it did no real harm, and his enemy would surely seize the moment for a fierce attack that would be hard to withstand. In the scramble he shot out his right hand, caught the phlegm in his palm and answered with his left. Before many more exchanges, Ouyang Feng spat again, quick and hard. He was actually using spittle and phlegm as weapons, mixing them in among his fist moves, so that the eye was dazzled and the mind thrown into a fret.

Hong Qigong could see he was being deliberately insulted, and his fury blazed. Besides, his right hand still held that thick gob of phlegm, slimy and horrible, and he did not want to wipe it on himself. At the critical moment he suddenly opened his right palm, shouted, “Take this!” and swiped it at Ouyang Feng’s face. On the face of it, the move was meant to smear the phlegm over him, but hidden within it lay a deadly killing stroke. Deranged though Ouyang Feng was, his eyes, ears and limbs were only sharper than ever. As Hong Qigong’s palm swept at him, he turned his face slightly aside. Hong Qigong’s palm flipped over and drove straight in, and Ouyang Feng snapped his mouth open to bite.

This was the very trick he had just used to beat Huang Yaoshi. It looked ridiculous, but he opened his mouth so fast that it was almost impossible to avoid, and even Huang Yaoshi, whose martial arts stood at the very summit, had fallen for it. Huang Yaoshi, Huang Rong and Guo Jing saw it all clearly. Hong Qigong’s palm had reached Ouyang Feng’s mouth, less than an inch away, when the jaws suddenly gaped, a set of white teeth flashed in the sun and snapped down at his hand, and they could not help crying out, “Careful!” “Oh no!”

But all three of them, and Ouyang Feng too, had forgotten one thing. Hong Qigong was known as the Nine-Fingered Divine Beggar. Years before, through greed for his food, he had lost track of the time and come too late to save the life of a brave man of the jianghu, and in his bitter remorse he had savagely cut off his own index finger. Ouyang Feng’s bite was fast and sure, and anyone else would certainly have had his index finger caught. But Hong Qigong had no index finger. There was a click as Ouyang Feng’s two rows of teeth clashed together on empty air. Ouyang Feng had always known perfectly well that Hong Qigong lacked that finger, but fighting and lunging wildly now like a mad tiger, how could he think of such small details?

In a contest between masters whose martial arts have both reached the peak of perfection, they may fight all day and still not be separated, and the only chance of victory lies in the other side making some small slip. Now Ouyang Feng’s bite had found nothing. How could Hong Qigong let it pass? At once he struck with Laughter and Merry Talk, and his middle finger drove into the Earth Granary acupoint at the corner of Ouyang Feng’s mouth.

Seeing Hong Qigong strike home, the three onlookers opened their mouths to cheer, but before the first word was out, Hong Qigong went flying backwards in a somersault. Ouyang Feng staggered back a few steps as though drunk, but at last he steadied himself and threw back his head in a great laugh. His meridians were reversed, and so, although Hong Qigong’s finger had struck a major point on his Foot Yang Brightness Stomach Meridian, he had felt no more than a faint numbness all over before he was himself again, and he had seized the moment to land a palm on Hong Qigong’s shoulder. Fortunately he had been hit first, so the blow had lost much of its sting, and by somersaulting backwards with it Hong Qigong shed most of its force. Even in that scramble he answered with Dragon Appears in the Field, which sent Ouyang Feng staggering back a few steps too. Thanks to shedding the blow so quickly, Hong Qigong was not badly hurt, but half his body was numb and for the moment he could not go on. For a grandmaster of his standing to refuse to concede would have been little better than a scoundrel’s behaviour, and besides, he genuinely admired his opponent’s skill. He cupped his fists and said, “Brother Ouyang, this old beggar bows to you. You are first under heaven in martial arts!”

Footnotes

1. 空明拳 — Kōngmíng Quán. The softest fist art in the world, which Zhou Botong drew from the Daodejing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 道德经 — Dàodéjīng. The Classic of the Way and Its Virtue, attributed to Laozi, the foundational text of Daoism. ↩

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

4. 左右互搏 — Zuǒyòu Hùbó. Literally left and right contend with each other. A method of fighting with each hand working independently of the other. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 亢龙有悔 — Kàng Lóng Yǒu Huǐ. Literally the proud dragon has cause to repent. A move of the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing, named from a line of the Book of Changes. ↩

6. 欧阳锋 — Ōuyáng Fēng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

8. 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. ↩

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

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