The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 10 – Part 2

Listening outside the window, Yang Guo stood frozen, as if bewitched. The sigh stirred the grief in his own heart, and before he knew it, he too let out a long sigh. Wanyan Ping, hearing someone sigh outside her window, was badly startled. She hastily blew out the lamp and retreated against the wall, demanding in a low voice, “Who is it?”

Yang Guo said, “The same as you, another wounded heart.”

Wanyan Ping was even more taken aback, but his tone did not seem hostile. She asked again, “Who are you, exactly?”

Yang Guo said, “As the saying goes: a gentleman’s revenge, ten years is not too late.¹ You failed a few assassination attempts and immediately wanted to die. Is that not treating your own life too lightly? And treating this blood debt of yours even more lightly?”

With a ya sound, the two door panels swung open. Wanyan Ping lit the candle and said, “Please come in, sir.” Yang Guo clasped his hands in salute outside the door and entered the room. Wanyan Ping saw that he wore the uniform of a Mongol officer and was very young, and felt a mild surprise. “Your guidance is correct, sir. May I ask your honoured name?”

Yang Guo did not answer. He tucked both hands into his sleeves and said, “Yelü Qi boasts too much, thinking that using only his right hand counts as real skill. The truth is, to disarm a person or seal their acupoints, what is so difficult about using no hands at all?” Wanyan Ping was unconvinced, but not knowing the full measure of this stranger, she did not argue. Yang Guo said, “I will teach you three moves, and with them you can force Yelü Qi to use both hands. First, let me test something with you. I will use neither hands nor feet, how about we exchange a few moves?” Wanyan Ping was astonished. Does he possess some sorcery, she thought, that he can blow me over with a single breath? Seeing her hesitation, Yang Guo said, “Just use your blade and strike at me. If I cannot evade it, it is my own lack of skill. I will die without complaint.”

Wanyan Ping said, “Very well. I will not use my blade either, only fists and palms.”

Yang Guo shook his head. “No. I must disarm you without using hands or feet, only then will you believe me.”

Wanyan Ping saw the half-smiling, half-mocking look on his face and felt a flicker of irritation. “Such ability as yours, sir, truly unheard of.” She drew her blade and hacked at his shoulder. Seeing Yang Guo with both hands still tucked in his sleeves, utterly unconcerned, she feared wounding him and aimed her strike slightly off-target. Yang Guo saw this clearly and did not move a muscle. “No need to hold back,” he said. “Strike true!” The willow-leaf blade swept down past his shoulder, missing his body by barely an inch. Wanyan Ping, seeing him pay it no mind at all, could not help admiring his nerve, though she also wondered, Is this man a simpleton? She angled the blade and swept it across horizontally, this time without mercy. Yang Guo suddenly ducked low, and the blade’s edge passed over his head, still missing by barely an inch.

Wanyan Ping gathered her focus and hacked straight down. Yang Guo flowed with the blade’s momentum to evade. “You can mix palm strikes in with your blade work,” he said. Wanyan Ping said, “Good!” She slashed horizontally with the blade while her left palm struck out simultaneously. Yang Guo sidestepped. “Faster is fine.” Wanyan Ping launched into her full repertoire, palm strikes threaded through blade cuts, faster and faster. Yang Guo said, “Your palm technique is fierce, superior to your blade work. Yelü Qi said this is Iron Palm skill. Is that so?” Wanyan Ping nodded and pressed her attack even more ruthlessly. Yang Guo kept both hands in his sleeves the entire time, drifting and dancing through the storm of palm shadows and blade edges. Her blade and Iron Palm alike could not so much as graze his clothing.

When she had performed more than half her repertoire, Yang Guo said, “Careful now. Within three moves, I will take your blade.” By this point Wanyan Ping had come to deeply respect him, but the claim that he could disarm her in three moves was still hard to believe. She tightened her grip on the hilt involuntarily. “Take it, then!” she said, and launched a horizontal slash called “Clouds Spanning the Qin Ridges”² at his neck. Yang Guo ducked his head and slipped beneath the blade, then turned his head sideways so that his forehead struck precisely against the Quchi³ acupoint in the crook of her right elbow. Wanyan Ping’s arm went numb, her fingers powerless. Yang Guo tilted his head up, opened his mouth, and bit down on the spine of the blade, effortlessly seizing the weapon. He then turned his head, driving the hilt into her side and sealing an acupoint in the same motion.

Yang Guo raised his head, released his teeth, and flung the blade upward. He had thrown the blade aside so he could speak clearly. “Well?” he said. “Convinced?” He had spoken six words, and as the blade came falling back down, he opened his mouth and caught it again, then looked at her with a grin. Wanyan Ping, startled and delighted in equal measure, nodded.

Yang Guo saw the liquid autumn light swimming in her eyes, so alluring and lovely, and an impulse to embrace her, to kiss her, rose up unbidden. But the act was far too bold and outrageous. He bit down on the blade’s spine, his face flushing bright red. Wanyan Ping had no idea what was passing through his mind, but seeing his strange expression, she felt a flicker of curiosity. She was aware of a numbness throughout her body, and her legs had gone so weak that she seemed about to collapse. Yang Guo stepped forward, now less than a foot from her. He was just about to toss the blade aside and press his lips to her eyelids in a kiss when a thought struck him with sudden force: She is so deeply grateful that Yelü Qi treated her with courtesy. Am I beneath him? Heng. I will surpass him in every way. He lowered his head, swung his chin to tap her waist with the hilt, released her sealed acupoints, and offered the blade back to her.

Wanyan Ping did not take the blade. She dropped to her knees and said, “I beg you, Master, to instruct me. If this humble woman can avenge her parents’ blood debt, I will be eternally grateful.” Yang Guo was utterly flustered. He hurriedly helped her up, reached into his mouth and removed the blade, and said, “How could I be your master? But I can teach you a method to kill Yelü Qi.” Wanyan Ping was overjoyed. “If I can kill Yelü Qi, I will not fear his brother or sister. Then I can kill his father…” She paused, and a shadow crossed her face. “Ah, but by the time I have learned enough skill to kill him, how can that old man Yelü still be alive? My parents’ blood debt, in the end, it can never be repaid.”

Yang Guo laughed. “That old man Yelü still has some days left in him.”

“What do you mean?”

Yang Guo said, “What is so difficult about killing Yelü Qi? Right now, I will teach you three moves. Tonight, you can kill him.”

Wanyan Ping had attempted to assassinate Yelü Chucai three times and had been defeated with casual ease by Yelü Qi each time. She knew his skill was ten times her own. This young Mongol officer’s martial arts are strong, she thought, but not necessarily stronger than Yelü Qi’s. And even if they were, teaching me just three moves could never be enough to kill him, and tonight at that, absolutely impossible. Fearing she might anger Yang Guo, she did not voice her objections. She merely shook her head slightly, while those eyes of hers, the eyes that could drive a man to madness, rolled restlessly back and forth.

Yang Guo understood her thoughts. “True,” he said, “my martial arts may not surpass his. In a real fight, I might well lose more than I win. But to teach you three moves that will let you kill him tonight, that is by no means difficult. The only worry is that he has spared you three times, and you may not have the heart to follow through.”

Wanyan Ping’s heart stirred, but she hardened herself. “He has shown me kindness, but the blood debt of my parents must be repaid.”

Yang Guo said, “Good. I will teach you these three moves. But if you are able to kill him and cannot bring yourself to do it, what then?”

Wanyan Ping said, “Then you may do with me as you please. With such high skill as yours, if you want to beat me or kill me, could I possibly escape?”

Yang Guo thought, How could I bear to beat you or kill you? Whether you kill him or not, what does it have to do with me? He smiled faintly and said, “In truth, these three moves are nothing remarkable. Watch closely.”

He raised the blade and slowly cut from left to right. “The first move is ‘Clouds Spanning the Qin Ridges.’” Wanyan Ping thought, I already know this move. Why do I need you to teach it? She sidestepped to evade the horizontal blade. Yang Guo suddenly extended his left hand and seized her right hand. “The second move is ‘Withered Vine Coiling the Tree,’⁴ which you used twice earlier.” Wanyan Ping nodded. “Yes. That is a move from my Iron Palm grappling technique.” Yang Guo held her soft, smooth hand and felt his heart flutter. He laughed. “You should be learning the Lambent Jade Palm Skill⁵, why study Iron Palm grappling instead?”

Wanyan Ping did not realise he was teasing her. “There is a Lambent Jade Palm Skill?” she said. “The name is quite beautiful.” She felt him squeezing her hand, tightening and loosening his grip with the lightest of touches, and thought this technique was nowhere near as formidable as her own Iron Palm grappling. Your first and second moves are both techniques I already know, she thought. Can the third move alone really be enough to kill Yelü Qi?

Yang Guo stared into her eyes. “Watch closely!” he called. Suddenly his wrist flipped, and he swept the blade horizontally toward his own throat.

Wanyan Ping was horrified. “What are you doing?” she cried. Her right hand was held fast by Yang Guo, so she shot out her left hand to seize the blade. Even in such a desperate moment, her Iron Palm grappling was exquisitely precise, she caught Yang Guo’s wrist and wrenched it outward, preventing the blade from reaching his throat. Yang Guo released his grip and stepped back two paces. “Have you learned it?” he said with a smile.

Wanyan Ping’s heart was still hammering wildly. She had no idea what he meant. Yang Guo laughed. “First you use ‘Clouds Spanning the Qin Ridges’ to cut horizontally. Then you use ‘Withered Vine Coiling the Tree’ to seize his right hand. For the third move, you raise the blade to slit your own throat, and he will have no choice but to use his left hand to save you. He swore an oath to you: if you ever force him to use his left hand, he will let you kill him without complaint. There, is it not done?”

Wanyan Ping saw the logic. She stared at him, dumbfounded. Yang Guo said, “These three moves cannot fail. If they do not work, I will kowtow to you.” Wanyan Ping shook her head slightly. “He said he would never use his left hand, and he meant it. What if he simply does not?”

Yang Guo said, “Then what? You will never avenge yourself. Wouldn’t you be better off dead?”

Wanyan Ping nodded sorrowfully. “You are right. Thank you for pointing the way. But who, exactly, are you?”

Before Yang Guo could answer, a woman’s voice called from outside the window: “His name is Fool. Don’t believe his nonsense.” Yang Guo recognised Lu Wushuang’s voice. He merely smiled and paid it no mind. Wanyan Ping dashed to the window and saw a black shadow vault over the courtyard wall.

Wanyan Ping was about to give chase, but Yang Guo caught her hand. “No need to follow,” he said, laughing. “That is my companion. She loves to make trouble for me.” Wanyan Ping gazed at him for a long moment, then said, “Since you will not tell me your name, so be it. I trust that your intentions toward me are good.” Yang Guo saw the autumn light turn in her eyes and the gentle, plaintive look upon her face, and a surge of tender pity welled up within him. Taking her by the hand, he sat down beside her on the edge of the bed. “My surname is Yang,” he said softly, “and my given name is Guo. I am of Han blood, not Mongol. My father and mother are both dead, my story is the same as yours…”

Footnotes

1. Gentleman’s revenge, ten years is not too late (君子报仇，十年未晚). Well-known Chinese proverb meaning that a patient person will wait as long as necessary to achieve just revenge. It emphasises the virtue of patience and long-term planning over rash action. ↩

2. Clouds Spanning the Qin Ridges (云横秦岭). Poetic blade technique name. Qin Ridges (Qinling Mountains) are a major mountain range dividing northern and southern China. Image evokes clouds stretching across a mountain horizon, mirroring the horizontal sweeping motion of the blade. ↩

3. 曲池穴 – Qūchí Xué. Literally pool at the bend. Acupoint at the lateral end of the elbow crease on the large intestine meridian; striking it can numb the arm. See Wikipedia. ↩

4. Withered Vine Coiling the Tree (枯藤缠树). Grappling technique from the Iron Palm school. Name evokes the image of a dried vine wrapping tightly around a tree trunk, suggesting an inescapable grip. ↩

5. Lambent Jade Palm Skill (羊脂玉掌功). Playful, invented name Yang Guo uses to tease Wanyan Ping. “Lambent jade” (yangzhi yu) refers to the finest white jade, smooth and lustrous — a flirtatious contrast to the hard, brutal Iron Palm she actually practises. ↩