The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 18 – Part 7

The onlookers were all taken aback. None of them had expected the plain, unremarkable blunt jian in her hand to be so keen. Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü were just as surprised. They had chosen this pair of blunt jians only because they were like the edgeless jians of the Ancient Tomb and were alike in form. They had never thought that by sheer chance they had picked a pair of treasured jians. Their spirits soared, and their twin jians pressed the attack move after move.

The Valley Master too wondered to himself, Sister Liu and this brat are both my inferiors in martial skill. Together they should not frighten me in the least. How could I know their twin jians joined would be so formidable? It seems that thieving baldpate’s words were true after all. If I lose to these two today… if I lose to these two today… At that thought, he suddenly attacked to the right with the dao in his left hand and struck to the left with the jian in his right, unleashing the supreme art of his life, the Yin-Yang Reversed Blades.¹ The black jian, by nature yin and supple, was suddenly hacking and chopping with brute force, turned into hard, yang bladework, while the huge, ponderous serrated golden dao thrust, flicked, sliced and swept, following wholly the light, nimble ways of a single jian. Dao became jian and jian became dao, bewildering and beyond all reckoning.

State Preceptor Jinlun, Xiaoxiangzi and Yin Kexi had all seen a great deal, but bladework and swordplay reversed and confounded like this they had never seen nor heard of. Ma Guangzuo started shouting. “Hey, you rotten old man, what kind of crazy muddle are you stirring up? You… you… you… the older you get, the more rotten you get, and the less fit to be seen!”

The Valley Master was only a little over forty and not really so old, and today, set as he was on marrying Xiaolongnü, to hear this oaf call him “rotten old man” this and “rotten old man” that, how could he not be enraged? But he had no time just now to settle with him. He threw his full strength into the art he had toiled at for more than twenty years, resolved to beat Yang and Long first and then deal savagely with Ma Guangzuo.

With their twin jians joined, Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü had been gradually gaining the upper hand. But now their opponent’s dao and jian were suddenly all confounded, his moves outlandish, and the two of them were thrown into confusion. In an instant they faced one deadly stroke after another. Yang Guo saw that the black jian was more dangerous than the golden dao, so he took all the bladework coming from the jian on himself and left Xiaolongnü to fend off the serrated golden dao. Her weapon gave her the advantage, he reasoned. The golden dao would not dare meet her Shunü Jian, so she should come to no great harm. But in doing so the two of them were each fighting alone. The Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay was broken in two, and at once its power fell away.

The Valley Master was delighted. He swung his jian, clang, clang, clang, three chops as if with a dao, while the dao in his left hand worked four jian moves at once: “Fixing the Yang Needle”, “Dividing Gold in Empty Form”, “Jing Ke Stabs the King of Qin” and “Nine-Grade Lotus Throne”.² The four jian moves flowed light and graceful, woven in among the three dao chops. Yang Guo could just about hold his own, but Xiaolongnü’s mind was in turmoil, and though she tried to swing her jian and shear off the edge of his dao, the golden dao flew like a phoenix and she could not cut it. Yang Guo knew things were going badly. Risking a wound himself, he used the Quanzhen Swordplay move “Horse Hooves Trample Fallen Flowers”,³ arm level, jian thrust out and point raised, and took both the opponent’s dao and jian on his own blade. At once Xiaolongnü swung her jian back to guard the crown of Yang Guo’s head. Parting and joining, the two were back in the Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay. The true secret of this swordplay lay in its two wielders being of one heart, as if they were one person, and in this move, where Yang Guo threw himself open to save her, lay the supreme heart method of the art. Seeing him leave his guard to rescue her, Xiaolongnü was afraid he would be hurt and quickly put out her jian to guard him in his stead. So neither guarded himself, and yet both were guarded, and the power of the twin jians suddenly surged.

A few moves later, beads of sweat stood on the Valley Master’s brow. His dao and jian were stretched to their limits left and right, and defeat was already showing. Xiaolongnü and Yang Guo, on the other hand, fought with growing ease. Yang Guo formed a jian seal with his left hand⁴ while the jian in his right thrust slantwise at the enemy’s left waist, and Xiaolongnü gripped her hilt in both hands and swept the blade upward. This move, “Lifting the Tray to the Brow”,⁵ was gentle and graceful in spirit, full of tender charm.

By now the Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay the two were wielding was seamless. Everything Lin Chaoying had meant when she created it long ago showed in their moves, at its utmost height, without the slightest flaw. Valley Master Gongsun saw their twin jians move as if wielded by one person. The black jian in his right hand was turned aside by Yang Guo’s Junzi Jian, and the golden dao in his left was flicked away by the Shunü Jian that Xiaolongnü raised.

Valley Master Gongsun stepped back, gathered every ounce of strength into his right arm and chopped down hard. Just as it was about to meet the long jian in Xiaolongnü’s hand, he suddenly turned the dao on its side and smashed its back against the flat of the Shunü Jian. It was a light, deft, subtle move, swordplay of the highest order that no bladework could ever produce, the crowning feat of his Yin-Yang Reversed Blades. The golden dao was used as a jian, its back crashing on the Shunü Jian, yet the force behind it was as hard and fierce as any dao stroke. Xiaolongnü’s whole body shook violently, and her long jian almost flew from her hand. She gripped the hilt with all her strength and would not let it go, but a great surge of force drove into her chest, making her ribs creak and her heart and lungs ache, and she could not keep her feet but toppled to the right. Afraid that if she strained to keep her balance the jolt to her heart would make her bring up blood, she simply let herself go with it and lay down on her right side, to shed the force of the golden dao’s fierce blow.

When Yang Guo saw Xiaolongnü fall, he was terrified the enemy would follow up, and in his fright he threw himself over her to shield her. That lunge happened to be exactly the first half of “Canopy Like a Pavilion” from the seventh chapter of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.⁶ In the days when Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü had worked through the seventh chapter of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra, they had come to this move, “Canopy Like a Pavilion”, and because the posture was so alluring, Yang Guo had not been able to help wanting to kiss his shifu. Xiaolongnü had reined in at the cliff’s edge and told him they must never practise it again. Now, with a deadly enemy striking savagely and Xiaolongnü on the ground, Yang Guo had thrown his life away to save her, using his own body to shield his shifu from the enemy’s keen blade. He had never given a thought to “Canopy Like a Pavilion”, a move he had never mastered and hardly knew, yet now, without thinking, he had used it.

As he threw himself over her, reverence for his shifu rose in him of its own accord. What lay between them had long since changed completely, yet still he dared not touch his shifu’s body. He propped himself on his hands, his feet planted and his body arched, his chest and belly about half a foot from Xiaolongnü’s side. Valley Master Gongsun was overjoyed. He rushed in two steps and swung his dao down at the crown of Yang Guo’s head. Horrified, Xiaolongnü thrust the Shunü Jian up through the space between Yang Guo’s braced legs. Yang Guo’s body blocked Valley Master Gongsun’s view, and he saw nothing of it. He bent at the waist to swing the dao, and before the blade reached Yang Guo’s head, a sudden searing pain tore through his belly. With a great cry of “Ah!” he toppled backwards, and blood spurted up from his belly. Xiaolongnü had wanted only to save Yang Guo, not to kill or wound the Valley Master, and the moment she felt the point touch the enemy she drew her hand back. So though her jian had pierced his belly, because she drew back at once the point had not gone deep, and the thrust was neither fatal nor even a grave wound.

Yang Guo sprang up at once and pulled Xiaolongnü to her feet by her left hand, and the two of them rushed to Valley Master Gongsun’s side. Both jians shot out together, one at the Valley Master’s left eye and one at his right. Another half a foot, and Valley Master Gongsun would not only lose both eyes but die on the spot. The Valley Master lay on his back on the floor, his weapons cast aside, pressing his hands to the wound in his belly, a hoarse croak in his throat.

The last few moves had come as fast as a hare breaking cover and a falcon stooping, changing beyond all foretelling. The Valley Master had used the weird moves of his reversed dao and jian to shake Xiaolongnü to the ground, Yang Guo had flung himself forward to shield her with his life, the Valley Master had rushed in to finish them, and Xiaolongnü had suddenly thrust her jian out from between Yang Guo’s legs and wounded him. This “Canopy Like a Pavilion” had reached the very peak of the unimaginable. The onlookers’ hearts had all but stopped, and not one of them had let out so much as an “Eh?” or an “Ah!” Only when the Valley Master fell and the twin jians were pointed at his eyes did they all let out a great breath. Many had palms wet with cold sweat. All of them thought the contest was over, no one had died, and the matter would end in peace.

Seeing the look on his face, Xiaolongnü remembered how he had come to her aid, and her heart softened at once. She looked round at Yang Guo. “Shall we spare him? Let’s go home.” When she said “go home”, she meant going back together to the Ancient Tomb. Yang Guo was overjoyed. “Yes,” he laughed, “let’s go home!” The two of them drew back their long jians and gave the pair back to Gongsun Lü’e, who was standing beside them.

Yang Guo put his right arm round Xiaolongnü’s slender waist. Xiaolongnü looked round at him with a smile of boundless charm, and Yang Guo could not help leaning in to kiss her lightly on the cheek. Xiaolongnü’s heart was full of joy and brimming with tender feeling, when suddenly it was as though a great iron hammer had struck her chest, and a fierce pain shot through the fingers of her right hand, as if someone were cutting them off. Yang Guo knew it was the passion flower⁷ poison at work. A little thorn of the passion flower had pricked her finger in the jian chamber just now, and now that her heart was stirred, the finger was in agony. He had suffered this pain himself, and he felt deep pity for her. “Does it hurt badly?” he asked gently. He lifted Xiaolongnü’s hand in both of his and put her aching finger in his mouth to suck it, hoping to ease her pain a little. Who could have known that this stirring of tenderness would bring the same agony shooting through his own hand?

The Valley Master saw his chance. Without even getting up, he seized the black jian and thrust it out to rest on Yang Guo’s chest. With no weapon in his hands, Yang Guo could not parry. With his left hand the Valley Master snatched up the golden dao. Xiaolongnü rushed in alarm to save Yang Guo, but the Valley Master’s golden dao barred her way, and with no jian in her hand she could not get near. “Take this brat,” the Valley Master shouted. Four green-clad disciples answered and came forward, cast their net and swept it round to catch Yang Guo, winding it round him several times until he was bound fast.

Gongsun Lü’e was horrified. “Father!” she cried, and the twin jians fell from her hands to the floor. With a sharp clink the Junzi Jian and the Shunü Jian sprang towards each other and locked together, clinging fast and never parting, for both blades were strongly magnetic. Xiaolongnü said serenely, “If even jians can be like this, can people be any less? Kill the two of us together, then.”

Valley Master Gongsun grunted. “You, come with me.” He raised his hands to State Preceptor Jinlun and the others in salute. “If you will excuse me!” He went into the inner hall. Four disciples dragged the net with Yang Guo caught in it and followed him in, and Xiaolongnü went too.

Ma Guangzuo said, “That yellow-faced, rotten old man is a vile, shameless wretch. They’d plainly spared your life, and you go and attack them by stealth. You’re lower than a pig or a dog.” State Preceptor Jinlun, Xiaoxiangzi and the rest all thought Valley Master Gongsun a base, low creature, quite out of keeping with the airs and dignity he put on.

Footnotes

1. 阴阳倒乱刃法 – Yīnyáng Dàoluàn Rènfǎ. Gongsun Zhi’s signature technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. Four sword stances. “Fixing the Yang Needle” (定阳针, Dìng Yáng Zhēn), “Dividing Gold in Empty Form” (虚式分金, Xū Shì Fēn Jīn), “Jing Ke Stabs the Qin King” (荆轲刺秦, Jīng Kē Cì Qín, referencing the famous failed assassination attempt on the Qin king by the assassin Jing Ke), and “Nine-Ranked Lotus Throne” (九品莲台, Jiǔ Pǐn Lián Tái, a Buddhist reference to the nine grades of the Lotus Throne in the Pure Land). ↩

3. “Horse Hooves Trample Fallen Flowers.” 马蹴落花 – Mǎ Cù Luò Huā. Quanzhen Swordplay stance evoking the image of a horse’s hooves trampling fallen blossoms — graceful destruction. ↩

4. 剑诀 – Jiàn Jué. Hand gesture formed with the left hand while the right wields the sword, used to focus qi and direct energy in Chinese swordsmanship. ↩

5. “Lifting the Tray to the Brow.” 举案齐眉 – Jǔ Àn Qí Méi. Combined stance of the Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay, named after the classical idiom describing the ideal married couple: the wife lifts the food tray to the level of her eyebrows when serving her husband, signifying mutual respect and devotion. ↩

6. “Canopy Like a Pavilion.” 亭亭如盖 – Tíngtíng Rú Gài. Technique from the seventh chapter of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra, named after the image of a pavilion’s canopy. Its suggestive posture led Xiaolongnü to forbid further practice. ↩

7. 情花 – Qínghuā. Flower of the Passionless Valley whose thorns poison those who entertain thoughts of love. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩