The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 1 – Part 6

Li Mochou flicked her whisk lightly, sweeping aside all three weapons at once. In a soft, coquettish voice, she said, “Lord Lu the Second, if your brother were still alive, and if he were to beg my forgiveness and cast aside that wretched little slut He Yuanjun, I might not be unwilling to spare the lives of your entire household, high and low. But now, ah, your luck is poor. You can only blame your brother for dying too young. You cannot blame me.”

Lu Liding shouted, “Who wants your mercy?” He hacked at her with his saber. Madam Wu and Lady Lu joined the attack from the flanks.

Li Mochou observed that Lu Liding’s martial arts were mediocre, but the way he swung his saber, kicked out his legs, spun around, and struck with his palms, the framework of his movements, was exactly the image of her beloved Lu Zhanyuan from years past. A pang of sorrow rose in her heart, and she wished she could watch just a moment longer, for if she killed him with a single stroke, she would never again see the Lu Family Saber Technique of Jiangnan¹ in this world. So she parried casually, letting the three opponents circle around her, her heart tangled in tender memories, her moves accordingly lacking in lethal force.

Suddenly, Li Mochou gave a soft whistle and leapt down from the roof, darting towards a lame old man leaning on an iron crutch by the small riverbank. Her whisk swept out, coiling towards his throat. In this move, her feet had not yet touched the ground, yet her whisk was already attacking a vital point. She had left herself completely exposed, but her killing stroke was so deadly that it forced the opponent to defend, leaving him no choice.

The old man heard the incoming attack with perfect clarity. He swept his iron crutch across, then abruptly thrust it forward, stabbing at her right wrist. An iron crutch is an extremely heavy, cumbersome weapon, traditionally used for sweeping, striking, smashing, and ramming. Yet this old man employed the “thrust” technique, wielding the iron crutch like a sword, his move light, agile, and graceful.

Li Mochou flicked her whisk slightly, and the silver threads reversed, coiling around the head of the iron crutch. “Let go!” she cried, borrowing the opponent’s force to redirect it. The ten thousand silver strands of the whisk absorbed the full power of the iron crutch. The old man’s arms shuddered violently, and he nearly lost his grip. In this critical moment, he used the momentum to leap up, his body slicing diagonally through the air, and only then did he manage to dissipate the subtle force of her whisk. Inwardly, he was shocked. This demon woman truly lives up to her reputation.

Li Mochou’s move, Grand Duke Fishing,² was based on the principle of “the willing take the hook”, using the opponent’s own strength to disarm them. It had never failed her before. That she had failed to wrest away his iron crutch came as a great surprise to her as well. Who is this lame old man, she wondered, to possess such skill? She shifted her stance slightly and saw that his eyes were rolled back. He was blind. In a flash of recognition, she cried, “You are Ke Zhen’e!”³

This blind, lame old man was none other than Ke Zhen’e, leader of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan,⁴ known as “Flying Bat.”⁵

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Years ago, after Guo Jing and Huang Rong had participated in the Huashan Sword Summit,⁶ Huang Yaoshi⁷ had presided over their wedding, and the couple had retired to Peach Blossom Island⁸ to live in seclusion. Huang Yaoshi was eccentric by nature and disliked bustle and commotion. After spending a few months with his daughter and son-in-law, he grew restless. Leaving behind a letter saying he would seek out some quieter place to dwell, he drifted away from the island on his own. Huang Rong understood her father’s temperament. Though she could not bear to see him go, there was nothing she could do. At first, she assumed that within a few months, word from her father would surely come. But a year passed with no news at all.

Huang Rong missed her father and her shifu, Hong Qigong,⁹ so she and Guo Jing set out to search for them. The couple wandered the jianghu for several months, but eventually had no choice but to return to Peach Blossom Island, for Huang Rong had become pregnant.

She had always been crafty, mischievous, and incapable of staying still for even a moment. Pregnancy brought endless inconveniences, and she grew deeply frustrated. Tracing the root cause of her troubles, she naturally concluded that it was all Guo Jing’s fault. Pregnant women are prone to irritability, and though her love for Guo Jing was deep and true, she now found petty reasons to quarrel with him constantly. Guo Jing understood his beloved wife’s temperament. Whenever she made unreasonable demands, he would simply smile and ignore them. If Huang Rong grew truly angry, he would comfort her with gentle words and coax her until she broke into a smile.

Before they knew it, ten months had passed, and Huang Rong gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Guo Fu. During her pregnancy, Huang Rong had been unhappy, but once the baby was born, she doted on her daughter with extraordinary devotion, indulging her every whim. Before the girl was even one year old, she was already unbearably naughty. Sometimes Guo Jing could not stand to watch and would try to discipline her, but Huang Rong would always rush to shield her daughter. Every time Guo Jing tried to correct her, the result was that the girl only grew more unruly.

By the time Guo Fu was five, Huang Rong began teaching her martial arts. From that point on, the insects, birds, and animals of Peach Blossom Island suffered calamity. Either their feathers were plucked bare or their tails were snipped short. The once tranquil retreat where a recluse had cultivated his nature became a playground of chaos, with chickens scattering and dogs fleeing under the rampages of a mischievous child. Guo Jing, for one thing, deferred to his beloved wife, and for another, truly adored this naughty daughter. Whenever she committed some misdeed and he was about to punish her, she would make a funny face, wrap her arms around his neck, and plead in her soft voice, and he could only heave a long sigh as his raised hand slowly fell back down.

Over these years, neither Huang Yaoshi nor Hong Qigong had sent any word at all. Though Guo Jing and Huang Rong knew that the two of them were peerless in the world and unlikely to come to any harm, they still worried, knowing there was no one to attend to their daily needs. Guo Jing also made several trips to bring his First Master, Ke Zhen’e, to Peach Blossom Island to enjoy his remaining years in comfort. But Ke Zhen’e loved the company of common folk, drinking, gambling, and making merry, and had no desire for the quiet, lonely life on Peach Blossom Island. He always declined.

Then one day, without waiting for Guo Jing to come fetch him, Ke Zhen’e arrived on the island of his own accord. It turned out that his luck at gambling had been poor lately. He had lost again and again and was deep in debt. With no other recourse, he had come to his disciple’s home to hide from his creditors. Guo Jing and Huang Rong were overjoyed to see their shifu and insisted he stay on the island permanently, refusing to let him leave no matter what. Huang Rong gradually coaxed the truth out of him and secretly sent someone to pay off his gambling debts. Ke Zhen’e, unaware of this, dared not return to Jiaxing. With nothing else to do, he became Guo Fu’s playmate.

The years slipped by, and Guo Fu turned nine. Huang Rong, still worried about her father, decided to leave the island with Guo Jing to search for him. Ke Zhen’e insisted on coming along no matter what, and Guo Fu naturally pestered them until they agreed to bring her too. After the four of them left the island and began discussing their itinerary, Ke Zhen’e said, “Anywhere is fine, just not Jiaxing.”

Huang Rong laughed. “First Master, you should know, I paid off all those creditors for you long ago.”

Ke Zhen’e was overjoyed, and his first choice of destination was now Jiaxing.

Arriving in Jiaxing, the four took rooms at an inn. Ke Zhen’e made inquiries among old acquaintances, and someone mentioned having seen a green-robed old man drinking alone in the Mist and Rain Pavilion¹⁰ a few days earlier. From the description of his appearance, it seemed to match Huang Yaoshi. Guo Jing and Huang Rong were delighted and began searching everywhere in the city and countryside of Jiaxing.

That morning, Ke Zhen’e had taken Guo Fu and the twin condors into the woods to play, and by chance, they had encountered Wu Xiuwen.

Ke Zhen’e had exchanged only a few moves with Li Mochou before realising he was no match for her. This demon woman’s martial arts, he thought, are scarcely inferior to Mei Chaofeng’s¹¹ back in the day. He immediately deployed his Demon-taming Staff Technique,¹² tightly guarding his position.

Li Mochou silently praised him, I once heard that heartless boy, my Lu Lang, say that among the senior figures of Jiaxing were the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, whose martial arts were not weak, and that they had taken a disciple who became tremendously famous, the great hero Guo Jing. This old man is the leader of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, and he truly lives up to his reputation. Blind, lame, old, and frail, yet he has still managed to withstand more than ten of my moves.

She heard the Lu couple shouting as they and Madam Wu attacked from behind. Her mind was made up, It would not be difficult to kill old Ke, but if I provoke Guo Jing and his wife into coming after me, that would be hard to handle. I’ll spare him today.

She flicked her whisk, and the silver strands stiffened with neili, straightening like a spear as she thrust at Ke Zhen’e’s chest. Though the whisk strands were soft, with the aid of subtle force and aimed at a vital acupoint, this thrust was quite formidable.

Ke Zhen’e stamped his iron crutch against the ground and used the recoil to leap backward. Li Mochou stepped forward as if pressing the attack. But then she suddenly arched backward with tremendous speed. Her waist was extraordinarily supple. She flipped backward, and her shoulder came within less than two feet of Madam Wu. Startled, Madam Wu swung her left palm at Li Mochou’s forehead. Li Mochou swayed her waist gently, like a narcissus trembling slightly in the breeze, and evaded the blow with ease. Pap! Her palm struck Lady Lu in the lower abdomen.

Lady Lu stumbled forward three steps and collapsed to the ground. Seeing his wife injured, Lu Liding hurled his saber at Li Mochou with all his strength, then spread his arms and lunged forward, intending to grapple her and drag her down to perish together.

Li Mochou, a virgin who had been spurned in love, had developed an abnormal loathing for all matters between men and women. Seeing Lu Liding throw himself at her, her hatred surged to the extreme. She spun the handle of her whisk to knock aside the saber, then swept the whisk forward in the same motion, shua!, striking him squarely on the crown of his head.

Li Mochou had wounded the Lu couple in the span of a single instant. By the time Ke Zhen’e and Madam Wu rushed forward to help, it was already too late. Smiling, she asked, “Where are the two little girls?” Without waiting for Madam Wu to answer, a yellow blur flickered, and she had already darted into Lu Manor. She searched everywhere but found no trace of Cheng Ying or Lu Wushuang. She took kindling from the kitchen, set a fire in the woodshed, then leapt out of Lu Manor.

“I have no quarrel with Peach Blossom Island or the Venerable Yideng,” she said with a smile. “You two may leave.”

Ke Zhen’e and Madam Wu, seeing her vicious rampage, were so enraged that their eyes seemed about to split. Iron crutch and steel sword struck at her together. Li Mochou sidestepped the iron crutch and lashed out her whisk. The silver threads coiled around Madam Wu’s long sword. Two streams of force transmitted through the whisk, one pulling, one releasing. With a sharp crack, the long sword snapped in two. The tip shot towards Madam Wu, while the hilt flew at Ke Zhen’e’s face.

Madam Wu was already shocked that her sword had been seized. She had never imagined that Li Mochou could use her whisk to tear the blade apart, then employ the broken pieces to attack two opponents simultaneously. The sword tip came too fast. She ducked her head to evade, and felt a chill across her scalp as the tip grazed past, slicing off a great swathe of her hair.

Ke Zhen’e heard the whistle of steel cutting through the air. He raised the head of his crutch and knocked the sword hilt aside. But then he heard Madam Wu cry out in alarm. He immediately whirled his crutch like a windstorm, pressing the attack with every move. Though he held three poison caltrops¹³ in his left hand, he thought, I have heard that the Scarlet Serpent Immortal’s Soul-Freezing Silver Needles¹⁴ are insidiously lethal. With my eyes unable to see, I must not provoke her into using those deadly hidden weapons, for that would be even harder to defend against. So although the situation was desperate, he did not dare launch the poison caltrops.

Li Mochou had been holding back against him the entire time. If I don’t show this blind old man what I’m truly capable of, she thought, he probably still won’t realise I’ve been sparing him on purpose. She swayed her waist gracefully, and the silver strands of her whisk coiled around the head of his crutch. Ke Zhen’e felt a tremendous force trying to wrench the iron crutch from his grasp. He hurriedly channelled his strength to pull it back. But the moment his force reached the tip of the crutch, the opposing force suddenly vanished without a trace. In that instant, he felt as though his entire body, from his four limbs to his hundred bones, was utterly empty, with nothing to push against.

Li Mochou used her left hand to push the iron crutch aside, then lightly pressed her palm against Ke Zhen’e’s chest. “Old Master Ke,” she said with a smile, “the Scarlet Serpent Divine Palm¹⁵ has reached your chest.”

Ke Zhen’e knew he could not possibly defend against it. “Wretched demon woman,” he snarled, “just strike and be done with it. Why all this chatter?”

Madam Wu, seeing this, rushed forward in alarm to save him. Li Mochou leapt up, springing sideways off the iron crutch. While still in midair, she suddenly reached out and stroked Madam Wu’s face. “You dared to drive away my disciple,” she said with a smile. “You’ve got some nerve.” With a silvery, tinkling laugh, she bounded away and was gone in a few leaps.

Madam Wu felt only the soft, warm smoothness of Li Mochou’s palm. That single caress left her face suffused with an indescribable comfort and pleasure. She watched Li Mochou’s figure flicker once among the willow trees, then vanish. Though she had exchanged only a few moves with her, every single move had been a brush with death, and she had already exerted every ounce of her strength. Now she collapsed limply to the ground, unable to move for quite some time.

Ke Zhen’e’s chest had also felt as though a great boulder were pressing down upon it, a suffocating, oppressive sensation. He gasped several rapid breaths before slowly regulating his breathing.

After a long while, Madam Wu struggled to her feet. Black smoke billowed into the sky. Lu Manor was engulfed in flames. The heat of the fire pressed closer, unbearably scorching. Together with Ke Zhen’e, she helped the Lu couple up. She could feel that both of them were barely breathing and would not last more than a quarter of an hour. If I move them, she thought, they might die even faster. But I can’t leave them here. What am I to do?

Just as she was at a loss, a voice cried out from the distance, “My dear wife, are you all right?” It was Wu Santong’s voice.

Footnotes

1. 江南陆家刀法 – Jiāngnán Lùjiā Dāofǎ. Signature martial art of the Lu family of Jiaxing. Lu Zhanyuan was famous for this technique, and his younger brother Lu Liding learned it from him. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 太公钓鱼 – Tàigōng Diàoyú. Named after Jiang Taigong, the legendary strategist who fished with a straight, hookless line, saying that the fish which wishes to be caught will be caught. Technique uses the opponent’s own force against them. ↩

3. 柯镇恶 – Kē Zhèn’è. His name meaning “subduing evil”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 江南七怪 – Jiāngnán Qī Guài. Group of seven martial artists from Jiaxing who followed their own code of honour. They took a bet to find and train Guo Jing and spent years in the Mongolian steppes fulfilling the vow; their integrity and loyalty were legendary. ↩

5. 飞天蝙蝠 – Fēitiān Biānfú. Literally flying-heaven bat. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 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. ↩

7. 黄药师 – Huáng Yàoshī. His name meaning “medicine master”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 桃花岛 – Táohuā Dǎo. Huang Yaoshi’s island stronghold, continued from LOCH era. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 洪七公 – Hóng Qīgōng. Literally Hong the Seventh Lord; the numeral seven marks seniority among sworn brothers. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 烟雨楼 – Yānyǔ Lóu. Famous pavilion on South Lake in Jiaxing. In The Legend of the Condor Heroes it was the site of a crucial confrontation involving the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. ↩

11. 梅超风 – Méi Chāofēng. Her name meaning “surpassing the wind”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 伏魔杖法 – Fúmó Zhàngfǎ. Ke Zhen’e’s signature staff technique, wielded through his iron crutch with devastating effectiveness despite his blindness and lameness. ↩

13. 毒蒺藜 – Dú Jílí. Small, multi-pointed throwing weapons coated in poison. Caltrops are shaped so that one sharp point always faces upward however they land. Ke Zhen’e is known for his skill with them. ↩

14. 冰魄银针 – Bīngpò Yínzhēn. Li Mochou’s signature concealed weapon. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 赤练神掌 – Chìliàn Shénzhǎng. Li Mochou’s palm technique, infused with poison. Name links her palm strikes to her serpentine nickname, suggesting that her very touch is as deadly as a venomous snake’s bite. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩