The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 19 – Part 2

By now, chaos reigned in the crocodile pool. The pack was busy tearing apart and devouring the dead crocodile, and for the moment they did not attack the rock again. Yang Guo saw her staring blankly, lost in thought, and asked, “Could it be that you accidentally stumbled upon some dark secret of your father’s?” Lü’e shook her head. “No. Father’s conduct is upright and proper, and he handles affairs with fairness. Everyone in the valley, high and low, holds him in the deepest respect. Today, the way he treated you was truly wrong, but he has never before done anything so perverse and unreasonable.” Yang Guo knew nothing of the Passionless Valley¹’s past, so he could hardly help her guess.

The crocodile pool lay deep beneath the earth, cold as an ice cave. Both of them were soaked through, and the chill pierced to the bone. Yang Guo had trained his neili on the Cold Jade Bed and did not mind the cold in the slightest.² But Lü’e was shivering uncontrollably and pressed herself against Yang Guo’s chest for warmth. Yang Guo knew she was cold. He tightened his left arm slightly, drawing her into his embrace, and thought that this girl, whose life hung by a thread, must be both sorrowful and terrified. He wanted to say a few light-hearted words to cheer her up, but seeing the crocodiles in the pool tearing at their prey, those enormous mouths, those razor-sharp teeth, their forms utterly hideous and savage, he instead laughed and said, “Miss Gongsun, if you and I both die today, what would you like to be reborn as in your next life? As for creatures as ugly as these crocodiles, I would refuse, no matter what.”

Lü’e smiled faintly. “You should be reborn as a narcissus flower, so beautiful, so fragrant, beloved by all who see it.” Yang Guo laughed. “If anyone deserves to be a narcissus, it is someone like you. As for me, if I’m not a morning glory, I’ll be a cow-dung daisy.”³ Lü’e laughed. “If King Yama asked you to become a passion flower, would you do it?”⁴

Yang Guo fell silent, filled with regret. If Gugu and I had used the Pure-hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay together, that villainous Valley Master would never have been our match. He was already on the ground, beaten, begging for mercy. We should not have been so soft-hearted and spared his life. And then, thinking of returning to the ancient tomb, our hearts bloomed with such joy, and that was when the Passion Flower poison flared up. Ah, this too must be the will of Heaven. There is nothing more to be said. But I wonder how Gugu is right now. The moment his thoughts turned to Xiaolongnü, all the wounds on his body began to ache dully once more.

Lü’e, getting no reply, knew she should not have mentioned the passion flower. She hurriedly changed the subject and said, “Brother Yang, you can see the crocodiles, but before my eyes everything is pitch black. I can see nothing at all.” Yang Guo laughed. “The crocodiles’ faces are hideous enough. You’re better off not seeing them.” He patted her gently on the shoulder to comfort her. When she had been cold, he had held her close, wanting only to stop her shivering. His hand had touched her smooth, supple skin, but in the urgency of the moment, he had thought nothing of it. Now, with his mind somewhat settled, that pat on her shoulder, his hand meeting cold, soft flesh, made him suddenly realise that when she had disrobed in the Alchemy Chamber to show her father, she had been left in nothing but her innermost undergarments. Her shoulders and arms were entirely bare. Yang Guo gave a start of surprise and hastily withdrew his hand. Lü’e, realising that he could see in the dark and that he had surely taken in every detail of her half-naked state, could not help but cry, “Ah-yo!” Her body instinctively drew away from him a little.

Yang Guo shifted slightly farther away, removed his long gown, and draped it over her. As he undressed, his thoughts turned not only to Xiaolongnü but also to Cheng Ying⁵, who had sewn this very gown for him, and to Lu Wushuang⁶, who had been willing to die in his place. He reproached himself, in this life, he had received far too much kindness from beautiful women and had no way to repay them. He could not hold back a long sigh.

Lü’e adjusted the gown’s sleeves and tied the sash. Suddenly, she felt a small bundle in the pocket of Yang Guo’s gown. She reached in, took it out, and handed it to him. “What is this? Do you need it?” Yang Guo took it. It felt heavy in his hand. “What is it?” he asked. Lü’e laughed. “It’s from your own pocket. Why ask me?” Yang Guo peered closely at it. It was a small bundle wrapped in coarse cloth, something he had never seen before. He opened it at once, and a light suddenly gleamed before his eyes. Inside were four items. One of them was a small dagger, its hilt set with a pearl the size of a longan seed that emitted a soft, glowing light, illuminating Gongsun Lü’e’s lovely face.⁷ He thought, I have heard that there is a treasure in this world called a luminous pearl, which shines of its own accord in the darkness. This must be one.

Lü’e suddenly cried out, “Yi!” She reached into the bundle and drew out a small jadeite bottle. “This is the Passion Severing Pill!” she exclaimed.⁸ Yang Guo was both startled and overjoyed. “Is this the pill that can cure the Passion Flower’s poison?”

Lü’e shook the bottle and felt something inside. Delighted, she said, “Yes! I searched the Alchemy Chamber for so long and couldn’t find it. How did you end up with it? How did you get it? Why haven’t you taken it? You didn’t know it was the Passion Severing Pill, did you?” In her joy, her questions tumbled out one after another, giving Yang Guo no chance to answer. Yang Guo scratched his head. “I had no idea at all. This… this bottle of pills, how did it end up in my pocket? This is truly bizarre.”

By the soft glow of the luminous pearl on the dagger’s hilt, Lü’e could now see the things around her clearly. Besides the dagger and the jadeite bottle containing the Passion Severing Pill, the bundle also held a piece of sheepskin about seven or eight cun square and half a stalk of lingzhi fungus.⁹ A thought stirred in her mind. “This half stalk of lingzhi, that was snapped off by Old Urchin.” Yang Guo said, “Old Urchin?” Lü’e said, “Yes. This lingzhi was originally growing in a white jade pot in the Fungus Chamber. Old Urchin rampaged through the four chambers, the Library, the Sword Chamber, the Alchemy Chamber, and the Fungus Chamber, destroying books, stealing swords, kicking over furnaces, and breaking the lingzhi. He did all of it.”¹⁰ Yang Guo suddenly understood and cried out, “That’s it! That’s it!” Lü’e asked quickly, “What is it?”

Yang Guo said, “This bundle was placed on me by Elder Zhou.” By now he knew that Zhou Botong¹¹ had been secretly helping him, so he had changed his form of address from “Old Urchin” to “Elder Zhou.” Lü’e had also mostly figured it out. She said, “So he was the one who gave it to you.” Yang Guo said, “No. This senior of the jianghu¹² roams the human realm like an immortal playing his games. His methods are ghostly and unfathomable. When he took my human-skin mask and my great shears, I had no idea. And when he placed this bundle in my pocket, I felt nothing at all. Ah, compared to his abilities, I cannot even measure up to half.”¹³ Lü’e nodded. “That’s right. Father said he had stolen vital items from the valley and had to be stopped at all costs. Yet he… he stripped off all his clothes in front of everyone, and there was nothing hidden on his body.” Yang Guo laughed. “He stripped himself stark naked and fooled even the Valley Master. So the bundle had already been placed in my pocket all along.”

Lü’e pulled out the jade stopper from the jadeite bottle, cupped her left palm, and gently tipped the bottle, pouring the pill inside into her palm. Out rolled a pill perfectly square, like a die, deep black in colour, giving off a pungent, fishy odour. Most pills were round for ease of swallowing. If they were medicinal lozenges, they might be rectangular and flat. But a square pill like this. Yang Guo had never seen one before. He took it from Lü’e’s palm and examined it carefully. Lü’e shook the bottle a few more times, then turned it upside down and tapped it against her palm. “That’s all,” she said. “Just this one. Take it quickly. Don’t drop it into the pool, that would be disastrous.”

Yang Guo was about to put the pill in his mouth when he heard her say “just this one” and froze. “Only one? Does your father have any more?” he asked. Lü’e said, “It’s precisely because there’s only one that it’s so precious. Otherwise, why would Father be so furious?” Yang Guo was greatly alarmed. His voice trembled. “In that case, my Gugu’s entire body is also poisoned by the Passion Flower. What means does your father have to save her?”

Lü’e sighed. “I once heard eldest shixiong¹⁴ say that the valley originally had many Passion Severing Pills. Later, for some reason, only one remained. And this pill is exceedingly difficult to compound, the various rare medicinal ingredients simply cannot all be gathered. That is why eldest shixiong repeatedly warned everyone to guard carefully against the Passion Flower’s deadly poison. A small prick from a thorn will heal on its own after a few days, that is nothing to worry about. But once the poison runs deep, it places the Valley Master in a difficult position, because one pill can only save one person.” Yang Guo cried “Ah-yo!” repeatedly and said, “Why hasn’t your father come to rescue you yet?”

Lü’e understood his meaning at once. She watched him return the pill to the bottle and gave a soft sigh. “Brother Yang, your devotion to Miss Long is so deep, how could my father not feel ashamed before you? You are only hoping that I will carry the Passion Severing Pill back up with me, so that it can save Miss Long’s life.”

Yang Guo, having his thoughts read, smiled faintly. “I do hope that a kind-hearted girl like you can escape this peril safely. And I also hope to save my Gugu’s life. Even if I were cured of the Passion Flower poison, trapped in this crocodile pool I would die anyway. Naturally, saving my Gugu is what matters most.” He thought, Gugu is beautiful beyond compare. That Gongsun Valley Master wanting to take her as his wife could, in a sense, be called only human. But when she refused to marry him, he lured her to the Sword Chamber to take her life, his intentions were already vicious to the extreme. And knowing that the only Passion Severing Pill had been stolen, knowing that the Passion Flower poison in Gugu’s body cannot be cured and that she has only thirty-six days to live, he still insists on forcing her to yield to him. I fear the crocodiles in this pool have better consciences than he does.

Lü’e knew that no matter how earnestly she urged him to take the medicine, it would be useless. She deeply regretted having told him there was only one pill. She said, “This lingzhi, though it cannot neutralise the poison, has great power to strengthen the body and fortify the constitution. Take it quickly.” Yang Guo said, “Very well.” He split the half-stalk of lingzhi into two pieces, ate one himself, and brought the other to Lü’e’s lips. “Who knows when your father will come to release you,” he said. “Eat this to ward off the cold.” Lü’e, seeing his sincere attentiveness, could not bear to refuse, and opened her mouth to take it.

This lingzhi had already grown for several hundred years. After the two swallowed it, it was not long before they felt a warmth spreading through their limbs and bones, wonderfully comfortable. Their spirits lifted, and their minds grew sharper as well. Lü’e suddenly said, “Old Urchin stole the Passion Severing Pill. Father certainly knew that long ago. When he said he would cure your injury, he was deceiving Miss Long. And even when he forced me to hand over the pill, that too was nothing but pretence.”

Yang Guo had long since thought of this, but he had not wanted to add to her grief and had kept silent. Now, hearing her arrive at the same conclusion, he said, “After your father brings you back up, you must be extremely careful in the future. It would be best if you could find a way to leave the valley and see something of the outside world.” Lü’e sighed. “Ah, you do not know my father’s character. Since he pushed me into the crocodile pool, he will never change his mind and release me. He already feared me to begin with. After what has happened, how could he possibly allow me to live? Brother Yang, won’t you let me stay and die with you?”

Footnotes

1. 绝情谷 – Juéqíng Gǔ. Hidden valley ruled by Gongsun Zhi, known for its deadly Passion Flowers and the Passionless Divine Palm technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 寒玉床 – Hán Yù Chuáng. Bed carved from rare deep-cold jade found by Lin Chaoying. Training on it greatly accelerates neili cultivation by forcing the practitioner to circulate qi constantly to resist the cold. ↩

3. 喇叭花 / 牛屎菊 – Morning Glory / Cow-dung Daisy. Yang Guo is making a self-deprecating joke. Morning glory is a common, unremarkable flower; “cow-dung daisy” is his own humorous invention, suggesting a flower that grows from cow dung — humble to the point of absurdity. ↩

4. King Yama (阎罗王). Judge and ruler of the underworld in Chinese Buddhist and folk mythology. Five Ugly Men invoke him here as the equivalent of Death itself. ↩

5. 程英 – Chéng Yīng. Her name meaning “heroine” or “outstanding”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 陆无双 – Lù Wúshuāng. Her name meaning “peerless” or “without equal”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 龙眼 – Longan. Literally “dragon eye,” a small tropical fruit native to southern China and Southeast Asia. Seed is round, smooth, and dark, about the size of a marble — a fitting comparison for the size of a luminous pearl. ↩

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

9. 灵芝 – língzhī. Rare fungus prized in traditional Chinese medicine; specimens of a thousand years or more were believed to greatly increase neili. ↩

10. 老顽童 – lǎo wán tóng. Zhou Botong’s nickname, reflecting his playful, childlike nature. ↩

11. 周伯通 – Zhōu Bótōng. His name meaning “elder who understands all”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. Itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach, holding not only martial artists but the trades that travel with them, including pedlars, physicians, fortune-tellers, entertainers, boatmen, beggars, outlaws and the like. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 人皮面具 – Human-skin mask. Rénpí miànjù. Disguise mask crafted to look like real human skin, capable of transforming the wearer’s appearance completely. Huang Yaoshi is known for crafting these. Yang Guo received his from Cheng Ying. ↩

14. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩