The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 10 – Part 6

Yang Guo’s fury erupted beyond control. “Li, are you human or not?” he shouted. “Does a human mouth speak human words?” He thrust and stabbed with the scabbard in a frenzy of attacks. Li Mochou said coolly, “If you don’t want people to know, don’t do it. Our Ancient Tomb School has produced two such degenerates as you, our face is utterly lost.” While her hands parried, her mouth never stopped its taunts. Her methods were cruel, but her speech and bearing had always been refined and courteous. To speak such words was profoundly against her nature, she did so only because she feared Xiaolongnü was lurking nearby. If Xiaolongnü suddenly sprang out to attack, she would be hard-pressed to defend herself. So she poured forth a stream of filth and insults, hoping to shame Xiaolongnü into staying hidden.

The more Yang Guo heard, the more unbearable it became. If she had only cursed him, he would not have cared in the slightest. But to slander Xiaolongnü like this, his rage shook him so violently that his hands and feet trembled. His head suddenly swam, and everything went black before his eyes. Unable to keep his footing, he cried out and toppled from the table. Li Mochou brought her whisk sweeping down toward the crown of his head.

Seeing the crisis, Yelü Qi snatched up two wine cups from the table and hurled them at Li Mochou’s back. Li Mochou heard the projectiles coming. From the corner of her eye, she saw they were only wine cups. She drew a breath and sealed the acupoints on her back, determined to kill Yang Guo first. What harm can two little wine cups do? But before the cups arrived, the wine reached her first. She felt a faint numbness at her Zhiyang¹ and Zhongshu² acupoints where the wine splashed. Not good! she thought. Shimei is here! If the wine alone is like this, what of the cups? She hastily reversed her whisk and swept the two cups aside just in time, feeling the impact jar her arm. Her anxiety deepened. How has that little girl trained her strength to such a level?

When she turned around, she saw that the thrower was not Xiaolongnü but that tall young man in Mongol attire. She was astonished. So many fine fighters among the younger generation? He had drawn his longsword and was saying in a clear voice, “Immortal Maiden, your methods are far too cruel. This humble one requests a few pointers.” Li Mochou watched him approach with measured, weighty steps. He could not be more than twenty, yet the power with which he had thrown those cups, and the posture with which he now drew his sword and advanced, seemed to carry more than twenty years of cultivated skill. She fixed her gaze on him and smiled. “Who are you, sir? Who is your honoured master?”

Yelü Qi bowed. “This humble one is Yelü Qi, a disciple of the Quanzhen Order.”³

Yang Guo, who had already retreated to the side, heard Yelü Qi say he was of the Quanzhen Order and thought, So he really is Quanzhen. Could he be a disciple of Liu Chuxuan?⁴ I doubt Hao Datong⁵ could have produced such a fine fighter.

Li Mochou asked, “Is your honoured master Ma Yu,⁶ or is it Qiu Chuji?”⁷

Yelü Qi said, “Neither.”

Li Mochou said, “Then one of Liu, Wang, or Hao?”

Yelü Qi said, “None of them.”

Li Mochou gave a silvery laugh and pointed at Yang Guo. “He claims to be a disciple of Wang Chongyang. That would make the two of you fellow disciples.”

Yelü Qi was astonished. “That cannot be. The Chongyang Zhenren⁸ departed this world long ago. How could this brother be his disciple?”

Li Mochou frowned. “Heh heh. The Quanzhen Order is full of little wretches who lie without blinking. They should change their name from ‘Quanzhen’ to ‘Quanjia’, the ‘School of Complete Falsehood.’⁹ Watch this!” Her whisk swept up and came crashing down.

Yelü Qi formed a sword sigil with his left hand, stepped out with his left foot, and thrust upward at an angle with the move “Fixing the Yang Needle”¹⁰, pure, orthodox Quanzhen swordplay. This move was perfect in spirit and substance: power, technique, form, and force, all flawlessly balanced. It appeared plain and unremarkable, yet to execute it with such absolute flawlessness, a person of even slightly inferior natural talent could labour an entire lifetime without achieving it. Yang Guo had studied Quanzhen swordplay in the ancient tomb and naturally recognised its subtleties, but his martial studies had grown too eclectic, this move “Fixing the Yang Needle” was something he could never execute with such solemn, weighty precision, no matter what.

Li Mochou knew the moment she saw this move that she faced a worthy opponent. She sidestepped at an angle and swept her whisk behind her. Yelü Qi saw the grey shadow flash, the whisk filaments closing in from left and right, from all directions. His experience in real combat was limited, and now facing a powerful adversary for the first time, he summoned every ounce of his spirit and responded with all his might. In the space of a few breaths, the two had exchanged over forty moves. Li Mochou pressed her attack ever closer, and Yelü Qi shrank his sword circle, concentrating purely on defence. The signs of defeat were already visible, but for Li Mochou to finish him immediately was still impossible. She silently praised him, This boy’s Quanzhen martial arts are indeed exquisitely pure. Though he cannot yet match Qiu, Wang, or Liu, he is not inferior to Sun Bu’er.¹¹ Truly, the Quanzhen Order produces talent in every generation.

After several more exchanges, Li Mochou deliberately left an opening. Yelü Qi, not recognising the trap, thrust his sword straight in. Li Mochou suddenly kicked out with her left foot, striking his wrist. Pain flared, and Yelü Qi’s longsword flew from his grip. But even in defeat, his composure did not break. He slashed diagonally with his left palm while his right hand used grappling techniques to seize her whisk. Li Mochou laughed. “Fine skill!” she praised. Within a few moves, she sensed that Yelü Qi’s grappling method contained a subtle, lingering soft power, something neither Liu Chuxuan nor Sun Bu’er possessed, and her surprise deepened.

Yang Guo roared curses: “Vile witch! In this life and for all lives to come, I will never acknowledge you as Shi Bo!” He raised the scabbard and charged in to attack from the flank. Li Mochou saw Yelü Qi’s longsword falling. Her whisk coiled around it and flung it at Yang Guo’s face. “Your master is your man,” she laughed, “so you might as well call me Shi Jie.” Yang Guo gauged the sword’s trajectory and raised the scabbard to meet it. Lu Wushuang, Wanyan Ping, and the others cried out in alarm, but with a shua, the longsword slid perfectly into the scabbard.

This feat of sheathing a flying sword, the timing could not have been tighter. Had the scabbard been off by a hair, with the force of Li Mochou’s throw, the blade would have passed straight through his body. But Yang Guo had trained relentlessly with hidden weapons in the ancient tomb. His mastery of timing, force, aim, and precision had reached a level where not the slightest error was possible, he could strike unerringly with Jade Bee Needles¹² as fine as human hair. Catching this longsword was nothing to him. He now used the scabbard as his weapon and joined Yelü Qi in a two-on-one assault. His training with Xiaolongnü had been conducted with blunt swords lacking sharp tips or cutting edges, weapons designed primarily for striking acupoints. Using this scabbard was much like wielding a blunt “edgeless sword,” and it suited him quite well.

By now the tavern was a shambles, stools overturned, tables askew, bowls shattered, plates broken. The other patrons had long since fled. Hong Lingbo, since she had followed her master into the jianghu, had never once seen her master at a disadvantage in battle. The setback in the ancient tomb against Xiaolongnü was only because she could not swim, though Yang Guo had seized her whisk, she had reclaimed it in the blink of an eye and still driven Yang Guo to flee in defeat. So even watching two opponents attack her master together, Hong Lingbo felt not the slightest concern. She merely stood to one side and observed.

The three fought to a fever pitch. Li Mochou’s techniques shifted again, and from her whisk surged a forceful wind that made it impossible for the two men to keep their footing. In moments, Yelü Qi and Yang Guo were beset by danger after danger.

Yelü Yan and Wanyan Ping cried, “Not good!” They rushed forward together to help. After barely three exchanges, Yelü Yan’s left leg was swept by the whisk, and she stumbled backward, crashing against the edge of a table, which was all that kept her from falling. Seeing his sister injured, Yelü Qi’s concentration wavered. Under Li Mochou’s fierce assault, he was forced into a continuous retreat.

Seeing the crisis deepen, the green-robed young woman darted forward to help Yelü Yan up and draw her back. Even in the heat of battle, Li Mochou observed everything in every direction. She saw the young woman’s graceful, lightweight movement as she sprang forward, clearly a disciple of a distinguished school. She swept her whisk toward the young woman’s face. “May I ask the young lady’s name? And who is your honoured master?”

They were over a zhang¹³ apart, yet the whisk arrived as soon as it was mentioned. In the blink of an eye, the filaments were brushing the young woman’s face. The green-robed girl was badly startled. Her right hand shot up, and from her sleeve emerged a weapon that blocked the whisk. Li Mochou saw that the weapon was exceedingly strange, translucent and gleaming, about three feet long, resembling a flute of ivory or jade. What school, what sect, she wondered, uses such a weapon? She launched a flurry of attacks, determined to force the girl to reveal her full capabilities. The young woman could not hold her off. Yang Guo and Yelü Qi hurried to her rescue, but against Li Mochou’s battle style, striking east, slashing west, drifting and darting with ghostly unpredictability, they could barely cope. In moments, danger loomed on every side.

Yang Guo thought, If we slip up even slightly, every one of us here will lose our lives. He opened his mouth and yelled, “Good little wife! My good little sister! Good Elder Sister in green! Good Junior Sister Yelü! Little Sister Hong Lingbo! Everyone, go downstairs and take a stroll! This little girl Li Mochou is too fierce, your old brother can’t handle her!” The women, hearing his wild shouting, every one of them getting a “good” attached to their name, could not help frowning. But the situation was indeed desperate. Lu Wushuang was the first to go downstairs, and the green-robed young woman helped Yelü Yan down as well.

The two beggars, seeing these young heroes fighting heaven and earth for their sake against Li Mochou, desperately wanted to join the battle, but their broken arms made it impossible. They were men of strong loyalty, and though Li Mochou had no time to attend to them, they stood their ground and refused to flee before Yang Guo and the others.

Yang Guo and Yelü Qi fought side by side, struggling against Li Mochou’s increasingly ferocious techniques. Then Wanyan Ping also retreated downstairs. Yang Guo said, “Brother Yelü, there is no room to manoeuvre here. Let us take the fight downstairs.” He was thinking that once they reached a crowded area, they could seize the chance to slip away. Yelü Qi said, “Good!” The two retreated down the stairs shoulder to shoulder. Li Mochou pressed her attack every step of the way. Though she was winning, fury seethed within her. All my life, I have killed whomever I wished to kill. Yet today, two brats have held me off. If that wretch Lu Wushuang escapes because of this, where will the Scarlet Serpent Immortal’s reputation be? Determined to recapture Lu Wushuang, she pursued them down.

Everyone fought with everything they had, from the tavern out into the wilderness. Yang Guo kept shouting, “Dearest little wife! Good little sister Wanyan, run faster! Junior Sister Yelü, Miss Green Robe, you run too! A young, pretty girl like Li Mochou is a rare sight among the Mongols. I want to capture her and make her my wife!” Yelü Qi, by contrast, said not a word. He was only a few years older than Yang Guo, but his bearing was solemn and dignified, steady and profound, completely unlike Yang Guo’s darting, restless, impetuous nature. The two formed the rearguard, holding off the enemy. Yelü Qi met her deadly moves head-on, while Yang Guo darted forward and back, disrupting her focus.

Seeing that Xiaolongnü still had not appeared, Li Mochou grew bolder and unleashed her full power. Yang Guo and Yelü Qi were, after all, far beneath her in skill. By this point, both men’s faces were flushed, their hearts pounding, their breath coming in ragged gasps. Li Mochou was delighted. In less than half a shichen,¹⁴ she thought, I will have taken the lives of every one of these whelps.

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In the midst of the fierce battle, piercing cries suddenly rang out from the sky. Two great eagles swooped down at Li Mochou’s head, their four wings beating up clouds of sand and dust in a terrifying display. Yang Guo recognised these twin eagles, they were raised by Guo Jing¹⁵ and his wife. He had played with them as a child on Peach Blossom Island.¹⁶ If the twin eagles are here, he thought, Guo Jing and his wife must be nearby. But I rebelled against the Chongyang Palace. I do not wish to see them again. He hastily leapt back several paces and put on his human-skin mask.

The twin eagles darted left and right, swooping and climbing, harrying Li Mochou relentlessly with wings and beaks. The eagles had long memories, they had suffered from her Soul-freezing Silver Needles¹⁷ years ago and had nursed a grudge ever since. Spotting her from high above, they had immediately flown down to attack. Yet they still feared the power of her silver needles and would soar upward the moment they saw her raise her hand.

Yelü Qi watched this strange spectacle. Seeing that the eagles could not prevail alone, he called out, “Brother Yang, let us attack again, surround her on all sides! Let us see how she handles it!” He was just about to spring forward when he heard hoofbeats from the southeast. A single horse came galloping toward them.

Footnotes

1. 至阳穴 – Zhìyáng Xué. Literally reaching yang. Acupoint on the back along the spine on the governing vessel meridian. See Wikipedia. ↩

2. 中枢穴 – Zhōngshū Xué. Literally central pivot. Acupoint on the lower back along the spine on the governing vessel meridian. See Wikipedia. ↩

3. Quanzhen Order (全真教). Major Daoist school founded by Wang Chongyang. In Jin Yong’s wuxia universe, it is one of the most powerful martial arts sects, based at the Chongyang Palace on Mount Zhongnan. Its seven senior disciples are known as the Seven Masters of Quanzhen. ↩

4. Liu Chuxuan (刘处玄). One of the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, a disciple of Wang Chongyang. ↩

5. 郝大通 – Hǎo Dàtōng. His name meaning “great penetration”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 马钰 – Mǎ Yù. His name meaning “precious jade”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 丘处机 – Qiū Chǔjī. His name meaning “dwelling in opportunity”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. Chongyang Zhenren (重阳真人). “Chongyang the Realised One,” the Daoist honorific title of Wang Chongyang. Zhenren is a title for an enlightened Daoist master. ↩

9. School of Complete Falsehood (全假派). Pun by Li Mochou. Quanzhen (全真) means “Complete Truth,” while Quanjia (全假) means “Complete Falsehood.” She is mocking the Quanzhen Order by suggesting they should be renamed. ↩

10. Fixing the Yang Needle (定阳针). Foundational move in Quanzhen swordplay. Name suggests steadying and fixing the yang energy, reflecting the Quanzhen Order’s emphasis on internal cultivation alongside external technique. ↩

11. 孙不二 – Sūn Bùèr. Her name meaning “not two”, signifying non-duality. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 玉蜂针 – Yùfēng Zhēn. Fine needles coated with Jade Bee poison, a signature concealed weapon of the Ancient Tomb School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 丈 – zhàng. Traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.33 metres or 10.9 feet. ↩

14. 时辰 – shíchen. Traditional Chinese double hour; one twelfth of a day, equal to two modern hours. ↩

15. 郭靖 – Guō Jìng. His name meaning “tranquillity” or “pacification”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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