The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 17 – Part 8
Translation by Jenxi Seow
Gongsun, the Valley Master, seeing his daughter repeatedly defend an outsider, felt his anger swell. He glared at her and saw her face filled with concern and anxiety. Then he looked at Xiaolongnü and saw her expression calm and indifferent, as though Yang Guo’s safety weighed not at all on her mind. At once, his anger turned to joy. He thought to himself, “So she has no feelings for this boy after all. Otherwise, seeing him in mortal danger, how could she not care?” What he did not know was that Xiaolongnü had always understood Yang Guo’s resourcefulness and knew his martial skill surpassed Fan Yiweng’s. In a fight between the two, Yang Guo could not lose. Thus she felt not the slightest worry.
Yang Guo tossed the twisted, ruined scissors to the ground and said, “Old Fan, you are no match for me. Throw down that steel staff and surrender quickly.” Fan Yiweng raged, “If you can defeat my steel staff, I will dash my head against the wall and die!” Yang Guo said, “A pity. A pity.” Fan Yiweng roared, “Watch this!” He brought the staff down in “Mount Tai Bears Down on the Peak,”1 crashing toward Yang Guo’s head. Yang Guo sidestepped and planted his left foot on the staff tip. Fan Yiweng shook the staff violently with both hands, trying to throw him off. Yang Guo rose with the staff, carried into the air, yet his left foot remained planted steadily upon it. Fan Yiweng shook again and again but could not dislodge him. He tried to invert the staff, but Yang Guo stepped forward with his right foot and actually walked along the shaft.
These strange moves were, in the eyes of Fan Yiweng and the onlookers, utterly unimaginable. In truth, they were the standard methods of the Ancient Tomb School, using supreme qinggong to defeat long, heavy weapons. Years ago, when Li Mochou had fought Wu Santong outside the abandoned kiln in Jiaxing, she had stood on the chestnut trunk he used as a weapon, and Wu Santong could never shake her off, that was this very technique. While Fan Yiweng stood frozen in shock, Yang Guo took another step forward with his left foot and kicked with his right at Fan Yiweng’s nose. Fan Yiweng was in a wretched position. The enemy was attached to his steel staff. If he leaped backward to evade, he would inevitably bring the enemy with him, and this kick could not be dodged. With both hands gripping the staff, he had no way to block. And with his beard cut, he had lost a defensive weapon. In desperation, he had no choice but to throw down the steel staff and leap back to avoid the kick. With a clang, one end of the staff struck the ground. Before the other end could fall, Yang Guo had already snatched it up.
Ma Guangzuo, Nimoxing, Xiaoxiangzi, and the others roared in approval. Yang Guo stamped the steel staff on the ground and laughed. “Well?” Fan Yiweng’s face swelled crimson. “I was careless for a moment and fell for your trick,” he said. “I do not accept this.” Yang Guo said, “Let us go again.” He tossed the steel staff lightly toward him. Fan Yiweng reached out to catch it. But when the staff was still two chi from his hands, it suddenly leaped upward. Fan Yiweng grasped empty air. Yang Guo flew forward with extended arm and seized it again. Ma Guangzuo and the others cheered even louder. Fan Yiweng’s face turned the colour of purple soy paste.
Jinlun Guoshi and Yin Kexi exchanged a smile, inwardly praising Yang Guo’s cleverness. The day before, Zhou Botong had hurled a broken spear at someone, sending out force and instantly withdrawing it, so that the spearhead changed direction in mid-flight. Now Yang Guo had learned this technique. But a spearhead had four sides while a steel staff had only one. The staff was heavy, making the transfer of force less difficult. Yang Guo’s feat was far easier than Zhou Botong’s. But Gongsun, the Valley Master, and his disciples did not know the reason and could not help being greatly astonished.
Yang Guo laughed. “Well? Shall we try once more?” Fan Yiweng had lost his beard and lost his staff, both times through the opponent’s use of clever strategy. To admit defeat, how could he accept it? He said loudly, “If you defeat me through genuine ability, I will naturally submit.” Yang Guo smiled faintly. “In the study of martial arts, cleverness comes first. Your master’s mind is unclear, naturally, the disciples he produces are inferior. I advise you, you would do better to switch to a wise teacher.” These words were clearly aimed at Gongsun, the Valley Master, cursing him to his face.
Fan Yiweng thought, “My learning is shallow. I have shamed my shifu. If I truly cannot win, today I have no choice but to cut my own throat to apologise to Master.” Gritting his teeth, he lunged forward. Yang Guo held the steel staff horizontally and placed it in his hands, saying, “This time, be more careful. If I take it from you again, you can blame no one else.” Fan Yiweng said nothing. His right hand gripped the staff end tightly. He thought, “If he takes this staff again, he will have to cut off this arm of mine first.” Yang Guo shouted, “Careful!” He threw himself forward. His left hand clamped onto the staff tip. The index and middle fingers of his right hand shot toward Fan Yiweng’s eyes. At the same moment, his left foot flipped up and pressed down on the staff shaft. This was the ultimate technique of the Dog-Beating Staff Technique
The first two times Yang Guo had taken the staff, the onlookers had found his technique strange but had seen it clearly. This time, even Fan Yiweng did not understand the mystery. In the blink of an eye, the staff was once again in the enemy’s grasp.
Ma Guangzuo shouted, “Beardless Long Beard! Do you submit now?” Fan Yiweng cried, “He uses sorcery, not genuine martial skill! How can I submit?” Yang Guo laughed. “What would it take for you to submit?” Fan Yiweng said, “Unless you defeat me through real ability, this old man will not concede.” Yang Guo returned the steel staff to him once more. “Very well. Let us try a few more moves.”
Fan Yiweng deeply dreaded his wondrous art of empty-handed staff seizure. He thought, “No matter how much of an advantage I gain, the moment I cannot hold him off, he will simply use sorcery to seize the staff again. I can never defeat him.” So he said, “I use such a long, heavy weapon while you are empty-handed. Even if you win, you would not accept it.” Yang Guo laughed. “You are afraid of my empty-hand-against-blade technique. Very well, I shall use a weapon.” His gaze swept the great hall. The four walls were utterly bare of furnishings. There was not a single usable weapon to be found. But in the courtyard grew two great willow trees, their branches trailing gracefully, draped in green and dangling in emerald. He glanced at Xiaolongnü and said, “You wish to be surnamed Liu. I shall use a willow branch as my weapon.”2 He leaped into the courtyard and broke off a willow branch roughly an inch in diameter and about four chi in length, similar in length and thickness to a Beggars’ Guild dog-beating staff. He left the willow leaves on, adding a touch of elegance.
Xiaolongnü’s heart was a tangled chaos. She had no idea what the future held. The longer Yang Guo remained before her eyes, the harder it was to sever the bond. When she had pondered alone, though parting from Yang Guo was unbearably painful, she had thought that this act of sacrificing herself for her beloved was entirely for Yang Guo’s sake. Once it was done, it was done. If she could not bear it, she would simply die. But now, with this person alive and present before her eyes, she felt that his every word and action, every smile and every flash of anger, all of it stirred her heart and moved her spirit beyond control. She wanted to go inside, to neither hear nor see. Yet how could she bear to leave? She lowered her head in silence, but inside, it was as though a thousand steel blades were twisting and gouging.