The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 18 – Part 2

Yang Guo had been fully confident of succeeding in a single strike. He had never imagined the nets would have so many ingenious uses. In the midst of his haste, he shot a glare at Gongsun Valley Master, knowing that launching any more projectiles would be useless. He thrust his right hand into his robe and returned the needles, preparing to think of another way to break the formation, but the net to the east had already closed in beside him. The net commander gave a whistle, and a net slanted down over his right shoulder. Yang Guo crouched sharply, about to slip out to the northwest, but the nets to the north and northwest converged at the same moment.

Yang Guo abruptly deployed the “Heavenly Net, Earthly Snare” body technique,¹ slipping through the gap between two nets with indescribable speed. This was precisely the qinggong Xiaolongnü had taught him soon after he entered the ancient tomb, when eighty-one sparrows flew up to escape, he could leap swiftly and block them with his palms. The disciples of the Passionless Valley, casting nets to ensnare a person, could never match such swiftness. The onlookers gasped as they saw Yang Guo already standing beside Xiaolongnü with a smile on his face.

Xiaolongnü, seeing him escape danger using the qinggong she had taught him, could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Delighted, a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, though she immediately straightened her face again. Yang Guo, catching that fleeting, barely-there smile, was overjoyed. “Gugu²,” he said, “was that move of Guoer’s not bad?” She meant to ignore him, but in the end she could not help herself and nodded slightly.

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Since Yang Guo was now standing right beside Xiaolongnü, if the fishing net formation pressed in again, Xiaolongnü would be caught in the net as well. The sixteen green-robed disciples looked to the Valley Master, waiting for his signal. Gongsun Valley Master struck his palms together. The sound rang metallic, as though he were beating upon iron and steel. Darkly, he said, “Whelp, come and take my Iron Palm. If you dare not, then leave the valley at once. I will not trouble you further.”

Yang Guo cast a sidelong glance at Xiaolongnü. The memory of the smile she had just given him surged hot blood through his chest. He declared in a ringing voice, “So long as my Gugu does not leave, I will not leave even if I die ten times. If you have the skill, then strike me dead!” He sprang forward abruptly, and in a flash had reached the Valley Master’s back. Crooking his right hand, with a sharp pak he struck the knuckle of his finger against the Dazhui acupoint at the back of the Valley Master’s neck.³ This strike resembled a sneak attack, yet his body movement was so impossibly fast, he leaped facing the Valley Master, spun in midair, and reached his opponent’s back, that the Valley Master had only just begun to turn when the vital point at his nape was already struck.

Yang Guo’s move, swift as a ghost, as uncanny as a phantom, was something that even the Imperial Preceptor, Xiaoxiangzi, and the others, for all their vast experience, had never witnessed, a technique as instantaneous as lightning. It was a technique from the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra,⁴ the wondrous skill that Li Mochou⁵ had sought so desperately but never obtained. Since mastering it together, neither Xiaolongnü nor Yang Guo had ever used it even once. This set of fist and palm techniques had no move names. When Lin Chaoying created this martial art,⁶ her only pursuit was speed, like a fierce gale and driving thunder, dozens of moves unleashed in an instant, the second move arriving before the first was complete. The person executing the moves had no time to think of move names. The moment one thought of a name or sequence, the hands and feet slowed. In essence, it was like a raging tempest, moves pouring forth in an unbroken torrent.

Amid the acclamations of the onlookers, the Valley Master’s back was struck repeatedly. beng beng beng beng, pak pak pak pak, the sounds rang out without pause. Yang Guo seemed half-mad, fists and palms raining upon the Valley Master’s back. “Had enough?” he shouted, leaping back several steps and clapping his hands together. He looked at the Valley Master, who stood motionless, then stepped forward once, stepped back at an angle once, and said, “Whelp, my thanks for massaging my back!”

Xiaolongnü had watched Yang Guo execute this Jade Maiden fist technique with fluid speed, deeply capturing the intent of the founding matriarch.⁷ Inwardly she admired him, and her face could not help but bloom like a flower. But then she saw that the Valley Master had taken strikes to several vital points and seemed entirely unaffected. She could not help but turn pale with shock. Yang Guo was equally alarmed. He had clearly struck several vital acupoints on his opponent’s back, yet the man acted as if nothing had happened.

Yang Guo had heard Hong Qigong⁸, Ouyang Feng⁹, Huang Yaoshi¹⁰, and other great masters discuss martial theory. He knew that when a person’s neili¹¹ cultivation reached the true upper tier, they could temporarily seal their own acupoints at the moment an enemy’s strike arrived. But this could only be done once, for an extremely brief interval, and certainly could not be sustained continuously over a long period. Alternatively, there was Ouyang Feng, who practised unorthodox martial arts and had trained his meridians to flow in reverse, shifting all the major acupoints of his body, but in that case, he had been upside down, immediately recognisable. Yet here was this Valley Master, showing absolutely no response to Yang Guo’s punches and finger strikes. Unless he were a reanimated corpse, or his body simply bore no acupoints, or he had mastered some bizarre “Golden Bell Cover” or “Iron Cloth Shirt” technique, perhaps this person was not even human, or possessed some sorcery or dark art. Fear crept into Yang Guo’s heart.

Gongsun Valley Master flipped his palms upward. A faint black vapour seemed to gather in his palms. Yang Guo dared not meet them head on, relying solely on qinggong to evade. But he saw that the Valley Master’s palm technique was not especially unusual, it bore some resemblance to Wanyan Ping¹²’s “Iron Palm” skill.¹³ He focused his mind, parrying and countering, and his fear gradually subsided. The Jade Maiden Heart Sutra techniques flowed from him with growing fluency. He reflected that he did not know whether this opponent was a man or a zombie, so he dared not use the Soul-Shifting Art¹⁴ that had defeated Da’erba¹⁵, nor the Beauty Fist Technique.¹⁶ He relied solely on the orthodox palm techniques of the Ancient Tomb School that Xiaolongnü had taught him. As the fight intensified, Yang Guo darted to the Valley Master’s left side and sent a flying kick toward his leg.

The Valley Master neither dodged nor evaded, letting the kick land on his Qimen acupoint. His left hand swept back and seized Yang Guo’s left calf. Yang Guo braced his right foot and pulled free of the grip. A thought stirred in his mind. He recalled that when practising moves with Xiaolongnü outside the ancient tomb, she too had once seized his left foot and thrown him. At the time, he had only just entered the tomb and his martial skill was still low. Grabbed and flung by his shifu, his forehead had struck a stone. Half playing the spoiled child, half playing the rogue, he had sprawled on the ground and wailed loudly in fake tears. Xiaolongnü had smacked him heavily on the backside with her palm and barked, “Get up! No crying!” He had leaped to his feet, not a single tear in his eyes, and made a funny face at her. Xiaolongnü, who was ordinarily so sparing in both joy and anger, had at that moment been unable to suppress a smile. “Shame, shame, shame!” she had said. “Crying and laughing at the same time!” Yang Guo had grinned roguishly and said, “Gugu, if I don’t cry, can you smile?”

Now, the circumstances were roughly similar. He wanted to make Xiaolongnü recall the warmth of their days together in the ancient tomb. Deliberately riding the momentum, he lunged forward and sprawled on the ground before Xiaolongnü, lay there motionless, opened his throat, and let out a long wail of fake weeping. This move was extremely dangerous, he was presenting his back to Gongsun Valley Master. If the Valley Master stepped forward with a palm strike or a kick to a vital point, he could take Yang Guo’s life on the spot. But at this moment, in his fight with the Valley Master, Yang Guo had long since ceased to care for his own life. His purpose lay not in victory but in emotion, not to defeat the Valley Master, but to stir the feelings in Xiaolongnü’s heart.

Xiaolongnü, seeing this scene so suddenly, felt the memories of those teaching days rush back to her heart all at once. Unable to stop herself, she stretched out her palm and gave Yang Guo a heavy smack on the backside. Laughing, she said, “Get up! No crying!” The timing of her smack was perfectly judged. Gongsun Valley Master had stepped forward and was just about to drive his fist down on Yang Guo’s back. Xiaolongnü’s slap placed her squarely between them. Yang Guo leaped to his feet with a great laugh, seized Xiaolongnü’s hands, and cried joyfully, “Gugu, you’ve acknowledged me! Then I won’t cry!”

Gongsun Valley Master shot Yang Guo a glare of pure hatred and clapped his hands four times. The sixteen disciples abruptly retreated at speed into the inner hall. Yang Guo stared, puzzled. Can it be you admit defeat? As he wondered, he turned and saw Gongsun Lü’e’s expression filled with alarm, her eyes urgently signalling him to flee the valley at once. From the look of it, some great calamity was about to descend upon him. But Yang Guo, having just been smacked by Xiaolongnü, was bursting with joy. He pulled over a chair and sat down. Suddenly, from the inner hall came a series of light clinking sounds. ding ding dang dang, and the sixteen disciples reemerged, still holding the fishing nets.

The moment the onlookers saw the nets, every face changed colour. The four fishing nets had been replaced. All over them now bristled barbs and daggers, their cold light glittering, clearly razor-sharp. Whoever was caught in these nets would be stabbed all over the body, there could be no hope of survival. Ma Guangzuo bellowed, “Hey, old Valley Master, using such vicious implements against your guests, have you no shame?”

The Valley Master pointed at Yang Guo. “It is not that I wish to harm you. I have urged you time and again to leave, yet you insist on causing trouble here. One last word of good counsel, leave the valley now, quickly.”

Ma Guangzuo, seeing these four fishing nets, felt his very flesh tremble despite his rough and fearless nature. The clashing of blades and barbs against the nets, producing that ding-dang ringing, shook his heart and soul even more. He rose, seized Yang Guo’s hand, and said, “Brother Yang, with vicious contraptions like these, to hell with it, why tangle with him over spite?”

Yang Guo looked toward Xiaolongnü, waiting to see what she would say.

Xiaolongnü had watched the Valley Master bring out the blade-studded fishing nets. In her heart, she had already settled on one word: death. The moment Yang Guo was caught in the net, she would throw herself upon it and die locked in his embrace. Having reached this thought, her heart grew calm instead. She felt that all the sorrow and suffering of the human world would thus be ended, once and for all. A faint smile lingered at the corner of her lips.

Yang Guo had been reminiscing about the training days in the ancient tomb. Now, seeing the blade-studded nets, a thought flashed through his mind. He rose, walked to Xiaolongnü’s side, and said, “Gugu, please lend me your Golden Bell Chain and palm gloves.”¹⁷

Xiaolongnü had been thinking only of the joy of dying together with him. No other thought occupied her mind. Hearing his request, she at once took a white silk band from her bosom and handed it to him, then produced a pair of white gloves and fitted them onto his hands, one by one. As she drew the gloves on, clasping his hands, she could not help but gaze at him with deep, tender affection, unable to let go.

Yang Guo gazed into her face. “Do you acknowledge me now?” he asked.

Xiaolongnü held his hand, her tenderness boundless, and smiled. “In my heart, I acknowledged you long ago!”

Yang Guo’s spirits soared. In a trembling voice, he asked, “Then you have decided to come away with me, and not marry this Valley Master, is that right?”

Xiaolongnü smiled and nodded. “I have decided to come away with you. Naturally, I can marry no one else. Guoer, from this day forward, I am your wife.”

In her words, the phrase “come away with you” meant dying together with him. Even Yang Guo did not fully grasp this, and the others naturally understood it even less. But the seven words “I am your wife” could not have been spoken more clearly. Gongsun Valley Master’s face turned deathly pale. He clapped his hands together fiercely four times, urging the green-robed disciples into action. The sixteen disciples shook out the nets and crossed in their advance.

Hearing Xiaolongnü’s words, Yang Guo felt as though he had returned to life from death itself. Instantly, his courage swelled a hundredfold. Even if before him now stood a mountain of blades or a cauldron of boiling oil, he would not have given them a second glance. His right hand flicked the silk band, and with a chiming ring the band shot forth like a white serpent. At the band’s tip was a small golden bell that rang as it moved. With one extension and one retraction, the golden bell struck the Yingu acupoint of a disciple to the south,¹⁸ then on the return stroke struck the Quze acupoint of a disciple to the east. The Yingu acupoint was located precisely at the inner side of the knee crease, the disciple could not keep his footing and buckled to his knees. The Quze acupoint lay at the bend of the arm, the struck disciple’s arm went numb and weak, and the fishing net slipped from his grasp.

Footnotes

1. 天罗地网势 – Tiānluó Dìwǎng Shì. Ancient Tomb School qinggong for intercepting and capturing. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. Gugu (姑姑) — Literally “paternal aunt,” but used here as a term of respectful address for a young woman of the older generation. Yang Guo uses this to address Xiaolongnü, his shifu. ↩

3. 大椎穴 – Dàzhuī Xué. GV-14 acupoint on the Governing Vessel meridian, located below the seventh cervical vertebra at the base of the neck. Major acupoint governing the flow of qi between the upper body and head. ↩

4. 玉女心经 – Yùnǚ Xīnjīng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 李莫愁 – Lǐ Mòchóu. Her name meaning “do not sorrow”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 林朝英 – Lín Cháoyīng. Her name meaning “facing the hero” or “morning hero”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 祖师婆婆 – zǔshī pópo. Rendered founding matriarch. Foundress of a school, the female counterpart of 祖师 — here Lin Chaoying, who founded the Ancient Tomb School. ↩

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

9. 欧阳锋 – Ōuyáng Fēng. His name meaning “blade” or “cutting edge”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 黄药师 – Huáng Yàoshī. His name meaning “medicine master”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 内力 – nèilì. Literally internal force. Kinetic manifestation of cultivated qi; generates tangible effects such as deflecting weapons or scaling walls. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 完颜萍 – Wányán Píng. Her name meaning “duckweed”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 铁掌功 – Tiězhǎng Gōng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 移魂大法 – yíhún dàfǎ. Technique from the Nine Yin Manual that allows the practitioner’s spirit to depart from the body, achieving a state of dissociation. ↩

15. 达尔巴 – Dá’ěrbā. Golden Wheel National Preceptor’s second disciple. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 美女拳法 – Měinǚ Quánfǎ. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 银索金铃索法 – Yínsǔo Jīnlíng Suǒfǎ. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

18. 阴谷穴 – Yīngǔ Xué. KI-10 acupoint on the Kidney meridian, located at the inner side of the popliteal fossa (back of the knee). Striking it causes the leg to buckle. ↩