The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 15 – Part 5

Yang Guo and the two women clasped hands in a four-hand grip. Listening for a while, they could not help feeling sorrow creep into their hearts. Yang Guo’s neili was deeper. He focused his concentration and remained still, a faint smile still on his face. Lu Wushuang was hard-hearted by nature and not easily stirred. But Cheng Ying could no longer hold back her tears. Li Mochou’s singing grew softer and softer, until at last her voice was like a wisp of gossamer, now there, now gone.

The Scarlet Serpent Immortal was waiting only for all three to shed tears. Then, with one sweep of her whisk, she would strike them all dead at once. Just as her singing reached its most mournful, most heart-rending pitch, a loud laugh suddenly burst from outside the cottage, someone was clapping hands and singing, approaching step by step.

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The singing voice was a woman’s, and from its sound she was no longer young, yet the song she sang was a naive, innocent nursery rhyme:

“Rock, rock, rock, rock to Grandma’s bridge. Grandma calls me her dear little darling, A packet of sweets, a packet of treats. Eat them all up and ask for more to eat.”¹

The song brimmed with joy. At once, Li Mochou’s bitter lament was disrupted. The singer drew nearer and nearer, circling this way and that, until she walked right in through the front door. It was a middle-aged woman with disheveled hair and a foolish grin, her eyes round and wide, giggling vacantly. In her hand she carried a fire-poker from a stove. Li Mochou was startled. How did she so easily bypass the earthen mounds and come in through the front door? Either she’s in league with the three of them, or she’s deeply versed in the arts of qimen dunjia. With her mind now divided, the power of Li Mochou’s singing to move the heart diminished at once.

Seeing the woman, Cheng Ying cried out with great joy, “Shijie! This person wants to harm me. Help me, quickly!” This disheveled woman was none other than Qu Shagu². In truth, she was a generation below Cheng Ying, but she was much older, so Cheng Ying called her shijie.³

Shagu clapped her hands and laughed, singing her nursery rhymes, one about “a star in the sky, a bone on the ground,” another about “the pagoda spire piercing the heavens.” She sang one song after another, sometimes mixing up the lyrics and stringing nonsense together. Li Mochou had sought to overwhelm them with sorrowful sound, but how could she know that Shagu was muddled and oblivious, having never known sorrow or worry in her life? One must understand that emotion arises from the heart. With a heart in utter chaos, no external stimulus, however strong, can create something from nothing, can stir what does not exist. What was more, Li Mochou’s mournful song, mixed with Shagu’s nonsensical nursery rhymes, could no longer even hold Yang Guo and the others in its grip. Li Mochou was furious. I must finish off this person first, she thought. Without ceasing her song, she struck at Shagu’s head with her whisk.

Years ago, Huang Yaoshi had regretted acting in a fit of temper and venting his anger on the innocent, which had led to his disciple Qu Lingfeng⁴ dying at the hands of an enemy. He had therefore taken in Qu Lingfeng’s daughter, Shagu, and vowed to teach her everything he knew. But Shagu had been simple-minded since childhood, and she never improved as she grew older. No matter how much effort Huang Yaoshi poured into patiently guiding her, human effort could not overcome Heaven’s design. To expect her to learn even a fraction of his literary or martial arts was utterly impossible, let alone teaching her to recognise more characters or master a few crude fighting techniques. Still, over more than ten years under this brilliant shifu’s tutelage, Shagu had managed to learn one set of palm techniques and one set of fire-poker techniques. By “set,” I mean only three moves each. Huang Yaoshi knew she could never remember complex variations or clever moves, so he exhausted his wisdom to create three palm moves and three poker moves. These six moves were stiff and simple, without variations or follow-ups, their power lay entirely in force and momentum. Ordinary martial artists practice dozens, even hundreds or thousands of variations. Shagu practiced only six. Over time, they naturally became refined and pure. Few though the moves were, they were remarkably formidable.

As for how she bypassed the earthen mounds in front of the cottage, she had lived on Peach Blossom Island so long that Cheng Ying’s arrangements, being the most basic of Peach Blossom techniques, required no knowledge of qimen dunjia for Shagu to navigate. Without even looking, she simply walked in as naturally as breathing.

Now she saw Li Mochou’s whisk sweeping toward her. At once, she thrust her fire-poker straight out at chest level. Li Mochou heard the fierce whistle of the poker cutting through the air and was greatly alarmed. I never imagined this woman’s power was so profound. She quickly sidestepped to the left and swung her whisk at Shagu’s neck. Shagu paid no attention to the enemy’s move and simply thrust her poker straight forward. Li Mochou reversed her whisk and wrapped it around the poker’s head. Shagu acted as though she had not noticed. The poker continued thrusting forward. Li Mochou wrenched with all her strength, but the poker did not budge. In the blink of an eye, it was already at her chest. It was only Li Mochou’s superior martial skill that saved her, in desperation she executed a “Reverse Seven Stars Step”⁵ and sprang backward through the hole in the wall, barely avoiding this thunderbolt strike. She was drenched in cold sweat.

She steadied herself briefly, then leaped back into the cottage. She soared upward and brought her whisk down from midair. Shagu responded to endless variations with unvarying simplicity: she thrust her poker straight out once more. Since her opponent had leaped high, this thrust aimed for the lower abdomen. Li Mochou saw the force was fierce and heavy. She reversed her whisk handle and parried against the poker shaft, borrowing the momentum to vault aside. She stared at Shagu, thinking, Each of the three attacks I just launched concealed nine variations and twelve follow-up moves. No martial arts adept in the world could have treated them lightly. Yet this woman simply thrust her poker straight at my chest each time, and all sixty-three of my variations were dissolved into nothing. This woman’s martial arts are unfathomably deep. I must flee at once!

How could she know that Shagu’s poker technique consisted of only three moves, coming and going? Had the exchange lasted a little longer, Li Mochou would have recognised the pattern and easily prevailed. As the saying goes, “Cheng Yaojin had only three axe-strokes.”⁶ Shagu had only three poker thrusts. That she had driven away this supremely dangerous enemy with a single poker technique was indeed something the Master of Peach Blossom Island could take pride in.

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Li Mochou turned around, meaning to leap out through the breach in the wall, but saw someone already sitting beside the opening, a man in a green robe with a long beard. It was none other than the Master of Peach Blossom Island, Huang Yaoshi, the very man who had rescued Cheng Ying from Li Mochou’s clutches years ago. Li Mochou had suffered a crushing defeat at his hands back then. Seeing him now, terror gripped her heart. Her only thought was to find a way to escape. But he was seated at a low table, and on the table lay the qin that Cheng Ying had been playing moments before. Li Mochou, even in the heat of battle, had always kept watch in all directions, alert to every sound. Yet Huang Yaoshi had entered the cottage, taken the qin, and seated himself, and she had not noticed any of it. If he had struck her from behind, taking her life would have been as easy as turning over his palm.

While Li Mochou had been fighting Shagu, she had kept up her mournful singing, fearing that Cheng Ying and the others would join the fight and disturb her concentration. Now, seeing Huang Yaoshi sitting there in silence, stroking the qin, her heart jolted. Her singing stopped at once.

Huang Yaoshi plucked a note on the qin and sang in a resonant voice: “Ask the world: what is love, that it binds lives together in life and death?”, and what he sang was precisely Li Mochou’s own song. Only one string remained on the qin, the yu string, yet on this single string he produced all five tones. gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu, and the qin’s voice was far more sorrowful than her singing had been.

Li Mochou knew this song by heart. With Huang Yaoshi’s variations, the resonance it stirred in her heart was ten times stronger than what Yang Guo and the others felt. Huang Yaoshi had long known of her countless crimes. Today he meant to use this opportunity to eliminate her. Years ago, he had matched his jade flute against Ouyang Feng’s iron zither and Hong Qigong⁷’s whistling, fighting them to a draw. Now, after all these years, though his physical strength had waned with age, his neili had grown ever deeper with practice. How could Li Mochou possibly withstand him? Within moments, she felt her heart and spirit wavering beyond control.

Huang Yaoshi’s qin and song intertwined, now joyful, now wrathful, now soaring and fierce, now low and lingering. In the space of a breath, it shifted through countless moods, drawing her along, now delighted, now grieving, now enraged, now desolate. It was clear that when this song ended, Li Mochou would inevitably go mad, beyond all restraint.

But just at this moment, Shagu turned her head and suddenly saw Yang Guo. In the candlelight, he looked exactly like his father, Yang Kang⁸. What Shagu feared most in the world were ghosts, and the image of Yang Kang dying of poison that day was seared deep into her memory, never to be forgotten. Seeing Yang Guo sitting there motionless, she thought it was Yang Kang’s ghost haunting her. She leaped up in terror, pointing at him, and shrieked, “Yang… Brother Yang… don’t… don’t hurt me… you… you weren’t killed by me… go… find someone else…”

Huang Yaoshi had not anticipated this sudden, sideways disruption. Zheng! The last string of the qin snapped. Shagu fled behind her grand shifu⁹, shouting, “Ghost… ghost… Grandfather, it’s Brother Yang’s ghost!” Seizing this moment of reprieve, Li Mochou urgently swept her whisk to extinguish the candle and slipped out through the hole in the wall. Huang Yaoshi had failed to deliver the death blow. In the end, she had escaped. His status forbade him from leaving the cottage to pursue her. In the darkness, Shagu grew even more terrified, shrieking louder: “It’s an evil ghost! Grandfather, strike the ghost, strike the ghost!”

Huang Yaoshi silenced Shagu with a command. Cheng Ying struck a light to relight the candle, then knelt to pay her respects to her shifu. Rising, she briefly recounted the backgrounds of Yang Guo and Lu Wushuang.

Huang Yaoshi turned to Yang Guo and laughed. “This grand-disciple and disciple of mine is foolish beyond measure. She knew your father. You do indeed resemble him greatly.” Yang Guo bent at the waist from his bed and kowtowed, saying, “Forgive me, my injuries prevent me from kneeling to pay proper respects.” Huang Yaoshi’s expression was gentle. “Twice now you have risked your own life to save my daughter and granddaughter. You are a fine child.” It turned out he had already met with Huang Rong and learned the full story. Hearing that Cheng Ying had rescued Yang Guo, he had brought Shagu along to find them.

Huang Yaoshi brought out a wondrous healing medicine and gave it to Yang Guo, then circulated his neili to perform tuina massage on him. Everywhere Huang Yaoshi’s hands touched, Yang Guo felt as though scorched by fire, and involuntarily his body generated resistance. Huang Yaoshi suddenly felt the flesh and muscle beneath his hands shudder, and then sensed the circulation through Yang Guo’s meridians, his neili cultivation was truly extraordinary. Huang Yaoshi increased the pressure. After about the time it takes to eat a meal, Yang Guo felt every joint and limb, every bone and vessel, completely at ease. Drowsily, he sank into deep sleep.

When he woke the next day, Yang Guo opened his eyes to find Huang Yaoshi sitting at his bedside. He hurriedly sat up and saluted. Huang Yaoshi said, “Do you know what name the jianghu calls me?” Yang Guo replied, “You are the Master of Peach Blossom Island?” Huang Yaoshi said, “And what else?” Yang Guo felt that the words “Eastern Heretic”¹⁰ would be improper to speak aloud. But then he thought, Since his nickname contains the word ‘heretic,’ his temperament must be quite unlike ordinary people’s. So he boldly said, “You are the Eastern Heretic!” Huang Yaoshi burst into loud laughter. “That is correct,” he said. “I have heard that your martial skills are not bad, that your heart is warm, but that your conduct is also heretical enough. I have also heard that you wish to marry your shifu as your wife. Is that true?” Yang Guo said, “It is. Venerable Elder, everyone forbids me, but I would rather die a thousand deaths than give her up.”

Footnotes

1. 摇摇摇，摇到外婆桥 – Nursery rhyme. Well-known Chinese nursery rhyme about being rocked to Grandma’s bridge and receiving treats. Its childish innocence, sung by a middle-aged woman, creates a jarring, unsettling contrast with Li Mochou’s mournful song, breaking the emotional hold of the latter. ↩

2. 曲傻姑 – Qū Shǎgū. Daughter of Qu Lingfeng; mentally impaired but possesses formidable martial arts taught by Huang Yaoshi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 师姊 – Shijie. “Elder shijie.” In martial arts schools, seniority is determined by order of entry into the school, not by age. Cheng Ying calls her “shijie” out of politeness and affection. ↩

4. 曲灵风 – Qū Língfēng. Huang Yaoshi’s eldest disciple, the Wave-Striding Master. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 倒转七星步 – Dàozhuǎn Qīxīng Bù. Evasive footwork patterned on the Big Dipper. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 程咬金三斧头 – “Cheng Yaojin had only three axe-strokes”. Chinese idiom. Cheng Yaojin was a famous general of the early Tang dynasty, known in folklore for having only three powerful axe techniques. Once those three moves were seen through, he was easily defeated. Idiom describes someone whose repertoire, though initially impressive, is very limited. ↩

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

8. 杨康 – Yáng Kāng. His name meaning “health” or “peace”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 师祖 – shīzǔ. Grand Shifu — the shifu of one’s shifu, two rungs up. Not a rank: 宗师 is the grandmaster. See §IV.11e. ↩

10. 东邪 – Eastern Heretic. Huang Yaoshi’s jianghu nickname. His “heretical” nature refers to his utter contempt for Confucian social conventions and ritual propriety. ↩