The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 1 – Part 6

Li Mochou flicked her whisk lightly and swept all three weapons aside at once. In a sweet, soft, cooing voice she said, “Second Master Lu, if your brother were still alive, and would only beg me with his own lips and put away that little slut He Yuanjun, I might yet spare your whole household, high and low. But now, ah, your luck is bad. Blame your brother for dying so young. You can hardly blame me.”

Lu Liding shouted, “Who wants your mercy?” and hacked at her with his dao. Madam Wu and Lady Lu closed in from either side.

Li Mochou could see that Lu Liding’s martial skill was ordinary, but the way he cut with the dao and kicked, turned and chopped with his palm, was the very image of Lu Zhanyuan, the man she had loved all those years ago. Her heart ached, and she wanted to watch him for as long as she could: if she killed him at a stroke, she would never again see the Jiangnan Lu Family Bladework¹ in this world. So she parried idly, letting her three opponents circle round her, her heart tangled in tender longing, and her moves had little bite.

Suddenly Li Mochou gave a soft whistle and leapt down from the roof, swooping on a lame old man with an iron crutch beside the stream. Her whisk flew up and coiled at his throat. In this move her feet had not yet touched the ground, yet her whisk was already at a vital point. She left herself open everywhere, but the stroke was so deadly that her opponent had no choice but to defend.

The old man heard the attack coming with perfect clarity. His iron crutch swept across, then darted out in a sudden thrust straight at her right wrist. An iron crutch is a heavy, clumsy weapon, made for sweeping, striking, smashing and ramming. Yet this old man was using the art of the thrust, wielding the crutch like a jian, his moves light, nimble and graceful.

Li Mochou gave her whisk a slight flick, the silver threads whipped back and wound round the head of the crutch, and she cried, “Let go!” She turned his own strength against him, and the myriad silver strands of her whisk drew in the whole force of the crutch. The old man’s arms jolted violently and he all but lost his hold. In this extremity he went with the pull and sprang into the air, shooting slantwise through it, and only so did he shed the subtle force of her whisk. He was secretly shaken, This demon woman truly lives up to her name.

Li Mochou’s move was Grand Duke Fishing,² built on the saying “the willing fish takes the hook”: it used an opponent’s own strength to tear the weapon from his hand, and not once in a hundred did it fail. That it had not wrested the crutch from him took her completely by surprise, and she thought, Who is this lame old man, to have such skill? She turned slightly and saw that his eyes showed only their whites. He was blind. At once she understood. “You are Ke Zhen’e!”³ she cried.

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

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Years ago, after Guo Jing and Huang Rong had taken part in the Huashan Sword Summit,⁶ Huang Yaoshi⁷ had presided over their wedding, and they had retired to Peach Blossom Island.⁸ Huang Yaoshi was an odd, contrary man who disliked company and bustle, and after a few months with his daughter and son-in-law he began to tire of it. He left a letter saying he was off to find some quieter place to live, and drifted away from the island alone. Huang Rong knew her father’s temper, and sorry as she was to lose him, there was nothing to be done. At first she supposed word would come from him within a few months, but a year went by without a whisper of news.

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.

In all these years there had been no word from either Huang Yaoshi or Hong Qigong. Guo Jing and Huang Rong knew the two of them had no equal in the world and could come to no harm, yet with no one to see to their food and clothing, they still worried. Guo Jing had also gone several times to fetch his eldest shifu, Ke Zhen’e, to spend his last years in comfort on Peach Blossom Island. But Ke Zhen’e liked the company of the market crowd, drinking and gambling for his amusement, and had no wish for the quiet of Peach Blossom Island, so he always declined to come.

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. “Eldest Shifu, you should know that 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 eagles 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, Guo Jing daxia. 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 hurt old Ke, but if I provoke Guo Jing and his wife into coming after me, that would be hard to handle. I’ll let him off today.

She flicked her whisk, and the silver strands, charged with force, went stiff and straight, thrusting like a tasselled spear at Ke Zhen’e’s chest. Whisk threads are soft things, but with a subtle force behind them, aimed at a vital acupoint, the thrust was dangerous indeed.

Ke Zhen’e struck his crutch against the ground and used the rebound to spring backwards. Li Mochou stepped forward as though to follow up, then suddenly bent backwards, fast. Her waist was supple beyond belief, and as she arched back her shoulder came within two feet of Madam Wu. Startled, Madam Wu swung her left palm at her forehead. Li Mochou’s waist swayed, like a narcissus quivering in the wind, and she was already clear. There was a smack, and Lady Lu took a palm full in the lower belly.

Lady Lu stumbled forward three steps and fell on her face. Seeing his wife hurt, Lu Liding swung his right arm and hurled his dao at Li Mochou, then flung his arms wide and threw himself at her, meaning to grapple her and die with her.

Li Mochou, still a virgin and disappointed in love, had come to loathe everything between men and women with an unnatural hatred. Seeing Lu Liding fling himself at her, she was consumed with fury. She turned the handle of her whisk to knock the dao aside, then let the whisk fly with the same motion, and with a swish it struck him full on the crown of the head.

Li Mochou had struck down husband and wife in the space of an instant, and by the time Ke Zhen’e and Madam Wu came to the rescue it was far too late. “Where are the two little girls?” she asked, smiling. Before Madam Wu could answer there was a flicker of yellow, and she had darted into the manor. She searched it from front to back but found no trace of Cheng Ying or Lu Wushuang. She took fire from the kitchen stove, set the woodshed alight, and leapt out of the manor again.

“I have no quarrel with Peach Blossom Island or Great Master Yideng,” she said with a smile. “You two may go.”

Ke Zhen’e and Madam Wu, seeing her so savage and so wanton, were so enraged their eyes seemed fit to burst. Iron crutch and steel jian struck at her together. Li Mochou sidestepped the crutch and lashed out with her whisk, and the silver threads wound round Madam Wu’s long jian. Two currents of force ran out through the whisk, one drawing in, one thrusting out, and with a crack the long jian snapped in two. The point flew at Madam Wu, and the hilt shot at Ke Zhen’e’s face.

Madam Wu was already shaken that her jian had been taken from her. Still less had she imagined that Li Mochou could snap a long jian with a whisk and then use the broken pieces to strike at two people at once. The point came at her terribly fast. She ducked, felt a chill on the crown of her head as it skimmed over, and a great hank of her hair was sheared away.

Ke Zhen’e heard steel whistling through the air and flicked up the head of his crutch to knock the hilt aside. But then he heard Madam Wu cry out in alarm, and at once he whirled his crutch till the wind roared, pressing the attack with every move. He had three poison caltrops¹³ ready in his left hand, but he thought, I have always heard that the Scarlet Serpent Immortal’s Soul-Freezing Silver Needles¹⁴ are wickedly venomous. I cannot see, and I must not draw out her deadly hidden weapons, or I’ll be even harder put to defend myself. So, desperate as things were, he never dared throw the 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 swept the iron crutch aside with her left hand, and her palm was already resting lightly on Ke Zhen’e’s chest. “Old Mister Ke,” she said, smiling, “the Scarlet Serpent Divine Palm¹⁵ is on your chest!”

Ke Zhen’e knew he could do nothing to stop it. “Thieving slut,” he snarled, “strike and be done with it. What’s 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 good while Madam Wu struggled to her feet. Black smoke was billowing into the sky, Lu Family Manor was wrapped in flames, and the fire was spreading towards them with a scorching heat. She and Ke Zhen’e each raised one of the Lu couple, and felt that both were barely breathing and could not hold on much longer. If we move them, she thought, they may die all the sooner. But we can’t leave them here either. What are we 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. 飞天蝙蝠 – Fēitiān Biānfú. Literally flying-heaven bat. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 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. ↩

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 hidden 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. ↩