The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 9 – Part 6

Huang Rong was about to dash out when suddenly she saw Sha Tongtian thrust out two fingers of his right hand, aimed squarely at her eyes, waiting for her to run onto them of her own accord. Fortunately she could stop as easily as she started, and though she was moving fast, she pulled up short halfway and at once fell back. Left and right, back and forth, she shifted and feinted, and three times she tried to break through, but every time Sha Tongtian barred her way. The last time, his shiny, gleaming bald head dipped a foot or so, aimed straight at the tip of her nose, and if she had not checked herself in time, her nosebleed would have stained his scalp. The fright made Huang Rong shriek aloud.

Liang Ziweng laughed. “Dragon King Sha is a past master. Don’t try any more. Just admit you’re beaten.” With that he quickened his pace and hurried to his room. The moment he stepped through the door, the smell of blood hit him. With a cry of dismay he lit his tinder tube¹ and saw the great vermilion snake lying dead on the floor, its body shrivelled and its blood almost entirely sucked out, and the medicine pots and bottles all over the room in total disorder. Liang Ziweng went cold all over. More than ten years’ work had been destroyed in a single night. He clasped the snake’s body in his arms and could not help weeping aloud.

The Ginseng Old Eccentric had started out as a ginseng hunter in the Changbai Mountains.² Taking advantage of a remarkable senior’s plight, he had murdered the man as he lay gravely wounded, and from his pack he had taken a secret manual of martial arts and a dozen or so prescriptions. He trained and studied by them, and from then on his martial arts were formidable, and he was an expert in medicine besides. Among the prescriptions was the secret of rearing a snake on medicines in order to transform one’s sinews and strengthen one’s body. He gathered the medicines it called for, and after untold hardships caught a huge python of uncommon venom in the depths of the mountain forests, which he fed on all manner of rare small animals and medicines. The snake had been greyish black, but after long feeding on sables, cinnabar, ginseng, young antler and other such things it had gradually turned red, and its venom had slowly been purged away. After more than ten years of rearing, in the last few days it had turned red all over. That was why, though he had come from Liaodong to Zhongdu at Prince Zhao’s invitation, he had brought the cumbersome great snake with him. The work was all but complete. Given only a few days’ leisure, he would drink its blood, sit in meditation to cultivate his art, and then his looks would be preserved, his years lengthened and his neili³ greatly increased. And now, suddenly, someone had sucked out the snake’s blood. How could he not be stricken with grief?

He collected himself and saw that the blood at the snake’s neck had not yet congealed, which told him the culprit could not have gone far. He dashed out of the room, leapt into a tall tree, and gazed in every direction. In the garden two figures were locked in a fierce, tumbling combat. His rage blazed up at once. In an instant he was beside Guo Jing and Wanyan Kang, and the moment he drew close he smelt the reek of snake-blood on Guo Jing’s clothes.

Guo Jing’s skill had never been a match for Wanyan Kang’s, and at the start of this bout he had taken several blows. Before they had traded a dozen moves, he felt a fierce heat in his belly, as if a ball of fire were blazing there, and inside him it was as though water were boiling. The heat was unbearable, his thirst was terrible, his whole body felt ready to burst, and he itched unbearably all over. He thought, This time I really am going to die. The snake’s poison is taking effect. In his fright he let Wanyan Kang land two more punches on his back, but the torment inside him was so great that by comparison he hardly felt the blows.

Liang Ziweng roared, “Little thief, who set you on to steal my treasured snake?” He reasoned that the ancient prescription for the treasured snake was a closely guarded secret, and a mere boy like Guo Jing could never have learned of it. There must be some expert behind him, and nine times out of ten that expert was Wang Chuyi. Guo Jing was furious in his turn. “So it was you who kept that poisonous snake in your room to harm people. You wretch, I’ve already been poisoned by the venom. I’ll fight you to the death!” He charged forward, fists raised, and struck at Liang Ziweng.

Liang Ziweng smelt the medicine on him, and a wicked idea came to him. He thought, He’s drunk my python’s precious blood. If I kill him at once and drink his blood dry, the medicine’s power will still be in it, and perhaps even stronger, who knows? The thought delighted him. His palms flew, and in a few moves he had caught Guo Jing by the arm and hooked his foot from under him, and Guo Jing went down. Liang Ziweng seized the pulse point of Guo Jing’s left wrist, pinned him to the ground and opened his mouth to bite his throat and suck back the precious blood.

Again and again Huang Rong tried to break through, and however fast she was, Sha Tongtian blocked her with the greatest of ease. Sha Tongtian could have caught her whenever he liked, but seeing Prince Zhao, Wanyan Honglie, watching, he took the chance to show off some qinggong⁴ of the highest order.

Huang Rong was growing desperate. Suddenly she stopped. “If I can just get out of this door, you won’t make any more trouble for me. Agreed?”

“If you can get out,” said Sha Tongtian, “I’ll admit I’m beaten.”

Huang Rong sighed. “Oh dear, it’s a pity my father only taught me how to get in through a door, and never how to get out.”

“In, out, what are you talking about?” said Sha Tongtian, puzzled.

“Your Shifting Forms Changing Positions⁵ isn’t bad at all,” said Huang Rong, “but it’s nowhere near my father’s. It falls a hundred and eight thousand li⁶ short.”

“Rubbish, you little wench,” Sha Tongtian said angrily. “Who is your father?”

“If I told you my father’s name, I’m afraid it would frighten you to death, so I’d better not,” said Huang Rong. “When he taught me how to force a door, he would guard the doorway while I came at it from outside, and try as I might, I could never get in. But with feeble skill like yours, though I can’t get out from in here, I could get in from outside without the least effort.”

Sha Tongtian gave a cold laugh. “Getting in from outside or getting out from inside, isn’t it all the same? All right! Come and try to get in, then.” He stood aside, curious to see what special skill she had for getting in from outside.

Huang Rong slipped out of the door and laughed aloud. “You fell for it. You said yourself that as soon as I was outside the door, you’d admit you were beaten. And here I am outside the door, aren’t I? Dragon King Sha is a great master of our age, and his word stands as firm as a mountain. So we’ll say goodbye now.”

Sha Tongtian raised his left hand and scratched his bare scalp three times. The little girl had played a sly trick, but he had indeed given his word first. How could a man of his standing go back on what he’d said to a mere junior? His face flushed red, and for the moment he could think of no way out.

Peng Lianhu, however, had no intention of letting her get away so easily. If this girl escaped, he thought, the great matter Prince Zhao had spoken of might well leak out. His hands flicked again and again, and two copper coins shot out and flew over Huang Rong’s head. Seeing both coin darts pass over her head, Huang Rong was just wondering why the man’s aim with hidden weapons should be so poor, when suddenly there was a clink and a rush of air behind her, and the two coin darts came at her from left and right, straight for the back of her head. Peng Lianhu had judged their angle and force exactly, so that they struck the marble pillar in the corridor and flew back at the back of Huang Rong’s head. The coins were aimed at a vital spot, and since Huang Rong could not block them, she had no choice but to leap forward. No sooner had she landed than more coins were upon her from behind. Peng Lianhu was loosing them in a string, a dozen or more one after another striking the stone pillar and bouncing back. Huang Rong could not dodge them in time, still less catch them, and every coin was aimed at the back of her head, so all she could do was leap forward to escape them, and after a few leaps she was back in the hall.

Peng Lianhu had loosed the coins only to drive her back into the hall, not to hurt her, so he had not put much force into them. Amid the cheers of the company, he planted himself in the doorway and grinned. “Well? Back again, are you?”

Huang Rong pursed her lips. “Your hidden weapons are good, but what’s so wonderful about using them to bully a girl?”

Peng Lianhu said, “Who’s bullying you? I haven’t hurt you, have I?”

“Then let me go,” said Huang Rong.

“First you have to tell me who taught you your martial arts,” said Peng Lianhu.

Huang Rong laughed. “I taught myself, in my mother’s belly.”

Peng Lianhu said, “So you won’t tell me. Do you think I can’t see for myself?” He swung the back of his hand at her shoulder. Huang Rong neither dodged nor parried. Knowing she could not beat him, she simply played the brat with him.

Peng Lianhu’s hand was about to strike her shoulder, but seeing her stand still, he did indeed pull it back. “Defend yourself!” he barked. “Within ten moves I’ll find out where you come from, little wench.” In his time he had seen the martial arts of every school and faction. Huang Rong’s movements were so strange that he could not tell at once where she came from, but he was sure that once they came to blows, he would know her school within ten moves.

“And if you can’t tell within ten moves?” said Huang Rong.

“Then I’ll let you go,” said Peng Lianhu. “Watch out!” His left palm chopped down slantwise, his right fist drove straight at her, and at the same time his right leg kicked out. This move, Three Thrusts Linked, was a single move but held three strikes. Huang Rong spun away from it, pressed her right thumb on her little finger and thrust out her index, middle and ring fingers like a three-pronged trident, in the trident move Night Yaksha Searching the Sea.

Hou Tonghai bellowed, “Night Yaksha Searching the Sea! Eldest Shige,⁷ that stinking brat’s using… using our own school’s martial arts.”

Sha Tongtian snapped, “Nonsense!” He knew Huang Rong had been teasing his precious shidi for some time and had long since picked up a few of his trident moves.

Peng Lianhu could not help laughing too. He swung a punch straight at her. Huang Rong slid to the left, and without bending her knees or taking a step, she was already off to one side. Hou Tonghai cried, “Shifting Forms Changing Positions! Eldest Shige, did you teach her that?”

Sha Tongtian snapped, “Can’t you say less? You’re always making a fool of yourself.” Yet he could not help admiring the girl’s cleverness. Her Shifting Forms Changing Positions was completely wrong in force and method, but in outward form it looked a good deal like his own art, and that single dart of hers had actually carried her clear of Peng Lianhu’s lightning punch, which was no easy thing.

In the next two moves Huang Rong chopped sideways with her right palm in Shen Qinggang’s⁸ Soul-Severing Bladework⁹ and struck out straight with both arms in Ma Qingxiong’s¹⁰ Soul-Devouring Whip Technique.¹¹ Hou Tonghai, watching, kept crying, “Eh? Eh? Eh?” and said, “Eldest Shige, that move was Plunging into the Sea to Slay the Flood-Dragon. That… that stinking brat really is one of our own…”

Peng Lianhu’s temper began to rise. He thought, I’ve been holding back, and the little wench is far too cunning. If I don’t fight in earnest, she’ll never use her own school’s fistwork to defend herself. Among martial artists, it was common enough to study one’s own school’s art and then branch out to learn the techniques of other factions. But when it came to a life-and-death moment, one naturally fell back on the fistwork one knew best.

Peng Lianhu’s first four moves had only been testing her. With the fifth he showed no mercy. With a whoosh, both palms came chopping at her face in a gust of wind.

The onlookers, seeing him fight in earnest, could not help but worry for Huang Rong. None of them knew her origin, and none bore her any ill will. Seeing her young and pretty, her words and ways pert and charming, none wished to see her killed under Peng Lianhu’s deadly strokes. Only Hou Tonghai wished nothing more than for the “stinking brat” to die as quickly as possible.

Footnotes

1. 火折子 — huǒzhézi. A tinder tube: rolled paper or fibre treated with saltpetre, kept smouldering in a tube and revived with a puff of breath. ↩

2. 长白山 — Chángbái Shān. Literally ever-white mountains. A range on the border between China and Korea, famous for wild ginseng. See Wikipedia. ↩

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

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

5. 移形换位 — Yíxíng Huànwèi. An art of shifting position without bending the knees or taking a step, as Sha Tongtian does. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

7. 师哥 — shīgē. Male senior, the colloquial form of shixiong. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Gē means older brother. ↩

8. 沈青刚 — Shěn Qīnggāng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 断魂刀法 — Duànhún Dāofǎ. Literally soul-severing dao method. ↩

10. 马青雄 — Mǎ Qīngxióng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 夺魄鞭法 — Duópò Biānfǎ. Literally soul-snatching whip method. ↩