The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 18 – Part 9

He waited a long time, but still Gongsun Lü’e did not appear. The longer Yang Guo waited, the more worried he grew. At first, he reasoned that there must be someone in the pill room and that stealing the medicine was temporarily impossible. But as time stretched on, he thought that even if she could not obtain the medicine, she would surely have come to tell him. It seemed the matter had already turned from good to ill. She had risked such great danger for him, how could he not try to rescue her? He pushed the chamber door open a crack and peered outside. The corridor beyond was silent, not a soul in sight. He slipped out at once, but had no idea where Gongsun Lü’e might be.

Just as he was hesitating in uncertainty, he suddenly heard footsteps around a corner. He hastily shrank back behind the turn. Two green-robed disciples walked past side by side, each carrying a thorned rod, clearly instruments of punishment. Yang Guo was enraged. Gugu would rather die than submit, and this shameless Valley Master means to torture her into submission! Softening his footsteps, he followed behind the two disciples. They noticed nothing and wound their way through several corridors until they reached a stone chamber. In a clear voice, they announced, “Reporting to the Valley Master: the thorned rods have been fetched.” They pushed the door open and entered.

Yang Guo’s heart pounded. He saw that the stone chamber had a window on its eastern side. He crept beneath the window and peered inside. To his surprise, Xiaolongnü was not within. It was Gongsun Lü’e who stood with head bowed before her father. The Valley Master sat in the centre. Two green-robed disciples stood to either side of Lü’e, long swords in hand.

The Valley Master took the thorned rod and said coldly, “Lü’er, you are my own flesh and blood. Why, in the end, have you betrayed me?” Lü’e lowered her head and said nothing. The Valley Master said, “You have taken a fancy to that young man surnamed Yang. Do you think I do not know? I originally said I would release him. Why were you so impatient? Tomorrow, I will speak with him and betroth you to him. What do you say?” Yang Guo knew perfectly well that Gongsun Lü’e harboured strong feelings for him, but hearing it spoken aloud now still set his heart pounding.

Gongsun Lü’e kept her head lowered in silence. After a moment, she suddenly raised her head and said clearly, “Father, at this moment your entire mind is set on your own marriage. Do you still have any regard for your daughter?” The Valley Master gave a cold snort and did not reply. Lü’e continued, “It is true, your daughter admires Young Master Yang for his upright character, his sense of affection and duty. But your daughter knows that in his heart there is only Miss Long. The reason your daughter rescued him was precisely… precisely because she could not bear to watch her father’s conduct, nothing more.” Yang Guo’s heart stirred with emotion. This thieving Valley Master is perverse and reckless, yet the daughter he has begotten is so righteous.

The Valley Master’s face remained wooden, showing no trace of anger. Lightly, he said, “According to what you say, then I am not upright in character. I am without affection or duty?” Lü’e said, “How would your daughter dare speak of her father in such terms? It is only… it is only…” The Valley Master said, “Only what?” Lü’e said, “Young Master Yang suffers the thousand needles and ten thousand thorns of the passion flower. How can he endure such agony? Father, show great mercy and great virtue, release him.” The Valley Master laughed coldly. “Tomorrow, I will naturally save him and release him. What need is there for you to meddle?”

Lü’e tilted her head, pondering, as though weighing whether certain words should be spoken. At last, a look of resolve appeared on her face. “Father,” she said, “your daughter has received the great kindness of your begetting, nurturing, and raising. Young Master Yang is an outsider I have only just met. How could your daughter turn against you to help him? If you truly intended to heal his wounds and release him tomorrow, why would your daughter have taken the risk of entering the pill room?” The Valley Master said harshly, “Then why did you come?” Gongsun Lü’e said, “Your daughter knew that you harboured no good intentions toward him. After forcing Miss Long to marry you, you planned to use a venomous scheme to kill Young Master Yang, to cut off Miss Long’s hopes once and for all. After you were struck by the poisoned needles, when you asked for the antidote, you said you would let them leave the valley without hindrance, those words you did not keep. Just now, in the sword contest, it was clearly they who spared you, everyone present saw it…”

The Valley Master’s two long brows immediately shot upright. Coldly, he said, “Hmph. Truly, raising a tiger invites disaster. I raised you to such an age, never imagining that today you would turn around and bite me. Hand it over!” He extended his hand. Lü’e said, “What does Father want?” The Valley Master said, “Still pretending? The Passion-Cutting Pill, the antidote for the passion flower poison.”¹ Lü’e said, “Your daughter did not take it.” The Valley Master rose to his feet. “Then where is it?”

Yang Guo surveyed the chamber. The tables and cabinets were lined with medicine bottles. Bundles of dried medicinal herbs hung in clusters from the walls. Three pill furnaces stood side by side against the western side. This stone chamber was naturally the so-called pill room. Judging by the Valley Master’s expression, Lü’e was certain to suffer severe punishment today. He heard her say, “Father, your daughter did enter the pill room in secret, and did intend to take the Passion-Cutting Pill to save Young Master Yang. But I never found it. Otherwise, how would you have discovered me?”

The Valley Master said harshly, “This medicine storage of mine is extremely secret. Those outsiders have been in the hall the entire time, never leaving for a single step. Yet the Passion-Cutting Pill has suddenly vanished. Did it grow legs of its own?” Lü’e knelt on the ground and wept. “Father, spare Young Master Yang’s life. Order him to leave the valley and never return. That will do.” The Valley Master laughed coldly. “If my own life were hanging by a thread, I doubt you would kneel and weep to beg for me.” Lü’e did not answer. She merely wrapped her arms around his knees.

The Valley Master said, “You took the Passion-Cutting Pill. How am I supposed to save him now? Fine. If you will not confess, so be it. You will stay here for one day. Though you stole my pill, you could not deliver it into that whelp’s mouth. It is all in vain. After twelve shichen, I will release you.” He walked toward the chamber door. Gongsun Lü’e clenched her teeth and cried, “Father!”

The Valley Master said, “What more do you have to say?” Lü’e pointed at the four disciples. “Send them out first.” The Valley Master said, “In my valley, all hearts are as one. There is nothing that cannot be spoken before others.” Lü’e’s face flushed deep crimson, then turned deathly pale. “Fine,” she said. “If you do not believe your daughter’s words, then see for yourself whether I have the pill on my body.” So saying, she began to unbutton her upper garment, then moved to unfasten her skirt. Gongsun Valley Master hastily waved his hand, ordering the four disciples outside, and closed the chamber door. In moments, Lü’e had removed her outer garment and skirt, leaving only her innermost underclothes. Indeed, there was nothing on her body.

Outside the window, Yang Guo saw her entire form, crystalline white and flawless. His heart gave a sudden leap. He was a young man, and Lü’e’s figure was full and shapely, her face lovely. At a single glance, his blood surged and desire arose, and instantly, agony erupted throughout his entire body. Then he remembered: She risked her life to save me. For that, she did not hesitate to bare her body. Yang Guo, oh Yang Guo, if you look one more time, you are worse than a beast. He shut his eyes in haste. But in his agitation, his forehead lightly bumped against the window lattice.

Though the sound was barely a whisper, Gongsun Valley Master had already detected it. He walked to the three pill furnaces, pushed the middle one aside, moved the eastern one to the middle, shifted the western one to the east, and finally moved the one originally in the middle to the west. “Since that is the case,” he said, “I shall grant your wish and spare that whelp’s life.” Lü’e was overjoyed. She prostrated herself on the ground and said in a trembling voice, “Many thanks, Father!”

The Valley Master walked to a chair against the wall and sat down. “You know the rules of my valley. What is the penalty for entering the pill room without authorisation?” Lü’e lowered her head. “The penalty is death.” The Valley Master sighed. “Though you are my own daughter, I cannot break the valley’s rules. Go in peace.” He drew the black sword and raised it halfway into the air. Gently, he said, “Ah, Lü’er. If from this moment on, you never plead for that whelp again, I will spare you. I can only spare one, you, or him?” Gongsun Lü’e said in a low voice, “Spare him.” The Valley Master said, “Good. My daughter is truly of great benevolence and great righteousness, surpassing her father by far.” He swung the sword down toward the crown of her head.

Yang Guo was horrified. “Hold!” he cried, and leaped through the window into the chamber. “It is I who should die!” he shouted. His right foot touched down, and he was about to reach out and seize Gongsun Valley Master’s wrist to stop the black sword’s downward sweep, when suddenly the sole of his foot gave way beneath him, as though he had stepped into empty air. Yang Guo urgently lifted his true qi. The two fingers of his left hand curled against the ground, and his body shot upward. The Valley Master thrust both palms against his daughter’s shoulders. Lü’e was propelled helplessly backward, hurtling toward Yang Guo.

Yang Guo had vaulted upward and was now falling back down. Gongsun Lü’e collided with him, and the two of them plummeted straight down together. They felt nothing but emptiness beneath their feet. It was as though they had fallen dozens of zhang and still not reached the bottom. Though Yang Guo was alarmed, his thoughts still turned to protecting Lü’e’s life. In his desperation, he lifted her body with both hands. Before his eyes was utter darkness. He had no idea where they would land, upon a mountain of blades, a forest of swords, or jagged rocks and boulders? Before the thought could settle, with a great putong, the two of them crashed into water and sank rapidly. It turned out that beneath the pill room lay a deep abyss.

Footnotes

1. 绝情丹 – Juéqíng Dān. Antidote for passion-flower poison from the Passionless Valley. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩