The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 19 – Part 7

Though the two worked quickly, it still took them more than two shichen, until the sky outside had darkened, to finish twisting an extremely long rope of tree bark.

Yang Guo gripped the rope and yanked hard several times. “It won’t break,” he said. Using the dagger, he cut a jujube branch about one zhang and five chi long. He tied one end of the rope around the middle of the branch, then climbed up once more. He scaled to the end of the rock wall, planted both feet firmly against the stone using the Thousand-Jin Anchor technique,¹ summoned his strength into both arms, and with a great shout of “Up!” hurled the branch out through the opening. The force of this throw was perfectly judged, the branch landed squarely across the mouth of the opening.

Yang Guo pulled on the rope, drawing the branch to the edge of the opening so that both ends rested on solid ground outside, with only a few chi of the middle suspended over empty space. He pulled the rope a few more times to test it and found the branch held quite firmly, it could certainly bear his weight. He called out, “I’m going up!” Gripping the rope with both hands, he climbed hand over hand. Looking down, he saw Qiu Qianchi and Lü’e, mother and daughter, reduced to two tiny dark shapes in the dim twilight. He put more strength into his arms and climbed even faster. In moments, he had grasped the branch spanning the opening. With a flex of his arms, a whoosh sounded, and he had already flown out through the opening and landed on the ground.

Yang Guo let out a long breath and straightened up. In the east, a bright moon was just rising behind the mountain. After spending the better part of a day shut in the dark, oppressive crocodile pool and cavern, to regain his freedom now, an indescribable ease filled his heart. He thought, When Gugu and I were together in the ancient tomb, why did I never feel the slightest sense of confinement? It seems the mind shapes one’s surroundings. If you want to leave but cannot, only then does your heart grow heavy. If you never wanted to leave in the first place, then leaving might not bring happiness after all. Thinking of Xiaolongnü, the wounds from the Passion Flower thorns began to ache again. He calmed his mind for a moment, then lowered the long rope.

The moment Qiu Qianchi saw Yang Guo emerge from the cave, she began cursing her daughter. “You fool! How could you let him go up alone? Once he’s out of the cave, do you think he’ll still remember us?” Lü’e said, “Mama, set your mind at ease. Brother Yang is not that kind of person.” Qiu Qianchi raged, “All the men under Heaven are the same. Could there possibly be a good one?” Suddenly, she turned her head and scrutinised her daughter from head to toe. “Little fool,” she said, “he’s taken advantage of you, hasn’t he?” Lü’e’s face flushed crimson. “Mama, what are you saying? I don’t understand.” Qiu Qianchi grew even angrier. “If you don’t understand, why are you blushing? Let me tell you, when dealing with men, you must not relax your grip for a single step, you must not let down your guard for a single instant. Haven’t you seen clearly enough what happened to your mother?” She was still rambling on when Lü’e leaped up and caught the long rope Yang Guo had lowered. She tied it securely around her mother’s waist and said with a smile, “See? Does Brother Yang care about us or not?” She tugged the rope a few times to signal that it was tied.

Qiu Qianchi snorted. “Let Mama tell you, once you’re up there, you must nail yourself to his side and never leave him for an inch. A husband. zhangfu, is only one zhang. Beyond one zhang, he is no longer your husband. Do you understand? Your grandfather named your mother Qianchi, a thousand chi, which is a hundred zhang. Heh heh, beyond a hundred zhang, what husband is there?” Lü’e felt both amused and sorrowful. She thought, Mama is simply deluding herself. He has never placed me in his heart in the slightest. Even in a hundred years, I will never have any claim on him. Her eyes reddened, and she turned her head away. Qiu Qianchi was about to speak again when she suddenly felt a tightening at her waist, and her body began to rise slowly.

Lü’e looked up at her mother. Though she knew Yang Guo would lower the rope again at once to rescue her, now, left alone in the subterranean cavern, she could not help but tremble with a terrible fear.

Yang Guo pulled Qiu Qianchi out of the opening, untied the long rope from her waist, and lowered it a second time into the cavern. Lü’e tied the bark rope around her waist and tugged the rope a few times. She felt the rope tighten, and her body rose into the air. She watched the jujube trees beneath her feet grow smaller and smaller, the stars overhead brighter and brighter. In just a few more zhang, she would be out of the cave. Suddenly, she heard someone above her give a great shout, and then the rope went slack, her body plunged downward at terrifying speed. Falling from a height of a hundred zhang, how could she not be smashed to pieces? Lü’e screamed in terror and nearly fainted. She felt herself hurtling down, utterly powerless. All she could think was, Is he trying to kill me by dropping me? No, he would never, never do that!

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Yang Guo had been pulling in the rope hand over hand, drawing Lü’e upward. Success was in sight when he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps rushing up behind him, someone was attacking. He was so startled he could barely think. There was no time to turn and face the enemy. His hands flew like wind, reeling in the rope. But he heard a loud shout: “What sneaky business are you up to here?” A fierce gust of wind, a long, heavy weapon was sweeping toward his back.

From the sound of the weapon’s wind, Yang Guo knew it was the dwarf Fan Yiweng² attacking. In this desperate moment, he could only swing his left hand back and press his palm against the steel staff, deflecting it to the side and neutralising the force of the blow. In the darkness, Fan Yiweng had not seen Yang Guo’s face, but he already knew his opponent’s martial skill was formidable. He pulled back the steel staff and swept it across with all his might. Yang Guo’s right hand was supporting Lü’e’s full weight, and the hundred-zhang rope itself was no light burden, after holding it for some time, he was already straining. Sensing the staff’s arrival, he hurriedly extended his left palm again to neutralise it. Fan Yiweng’s customary steel staff had been destroyed, and the one he now wielded was even thicker and heavier. This sweep came with tremendous force. The instant Yang Guo’s left palm met the staff, a violent jolt ran through his entire body. His right hand lost its grip, and the rope slipped free. Lü’e plummeted downward.

From the cavern, Lü’e screamed. And above the opening, Qiu Qianchi and Yang Guo cried out together. Yang Guo had no time to block the steel staff. His left hand shot out in a flash as he bent forward and seized the rope. But Lü’e’s falling momentum was immense, the weight of over a hundred jin plus the force of her plummet created a pull of nearly a thousand jin. Yang Guo caught the rope and managed to check it for a single instant, but then the pull yanked him forward, and he found himself plunging headfirst into the opening, utterly beyond his control. For all his martial skill, he now had absolutely no room to manoeuvre.

Qiu Qianchi’s hand and foot tendons were severed and her martial arts were completely gone. Watching from the side, she could only burn with helpless anxiety. She saw the hundred-zhang rope coiled at the edge of the opening growing shorter and shorter as it was pulled through. Once the rope ran out, Yang Guo and Lü’e would meet with a calamitous fate. The long rope was nearly gone when suddenly the weight of the two bodies yanked it so violently that it flew up, lashing toward Qiu Qianchi. A thought flashed through her mind: You villain, you harm others, now I’ll drag you down to die with them! She watched the rope’s trajectory and gave it the lightest of nudges with her hand. The nudge carried hardly any force, but the angle was perfect. The rope swung across and wrapped itself several times around Fan Yiweng’s waist, instantly binding him tight.

Fan Yiweng felt a sudden tightening at his waist and hurriedly deployed the Thousand-Jin Anchor technique to root himself in place. But the combined weight of Yang Guo and Lü’e, plus the momentum of their fall, still dragged him step by step toward the edge of the opening. Fan Yiweng saw that one more step forward and he would tumble headfirst into the abyss. In great alarm, he seized the rope with his left hand and braced his right hand against the rock at the opening’s edge. With this leverage, he gave a great shout and actually pulled the rope to a dead stop.

By now, Lü’e was no more than a dozen zhang from the ground. Seeing Yang Guo fall with her, her heart was filled with consolation.

The most fearsome thing at that moment was the momentum of the fall. Even a tiny pebble, dropped from such a height, would strike with immense force. Once Fan Yiweng, with his heroic strength, had arrested the momentum, the weight in his hands was only the body weight of Yang Guo and Lü’e, no more than two hundred jin, which was nothing to him. Holding the rope with his right hand, he was about to reach down with his left to untie the rope from his waist and send his enemies plunging down once more, when he suddenly felt a slight prick of pain in his back. Something sharp was pressed precisely against the Lingtai acupoint below his sixth vertebra.³ A woman’s voice barked, “Pull them up, quickly! If the Lingtai is damaged, all one hundred meridians will be crippled!”

Fan Yiweng was badly startled. The words “If the Lingtai is damaged, all one hundred meridians will be crippled” were exactly what his shifu had solemnly warned him when teaching the art of acupoint striking. He dared not disobey and could only pull hand over hand with all his strength, hauling Yang Guo and Lü’e upward. But he had previously exerted himself violently to resist the force of the fall and had overstrained. Now he felt his chest tight and congested, and a sweet taste rose in his throat, as though he were about to vomit blood. He knew his internal organs had already suffered injury and that he truly should not exert himself further. Yet with his vital point controlled by an enemy, he could only fight with his life. With great difficulty, he pulled Yang Guo up. The moment his heart relaxed, his four limbs went weak and sore. Wah, he vomited a great spray of fresh blood and collapsed, limp, on the ground.

The instant he released his grip, the rope began to slide downward again. Qiu Qianchi cried, “Save her, quickly!” Yang Guo hardly needed her to tell him. He seized the rope and at last pulled Lü’e up. Lü’e, having been raised and dropped several times, had already fainted from sheer terror. Yang Guo turned and first sealed Fan Yiweng’s Futu and Jugu acupoints, rendering his hands and feet immobile.⁴ Only then did he press Lü’e’s renzhong acupoint to revive her.⁵

Lü’e slowly came to. Opening her eyes, she had no idea where she was. By the moonlight, she saw Yang Guo looking down at her with a smile and could not help but throw herself into his arms. “Brother Yang,” she cried, “are we both dead? Thank you for being willing to die with me. You are truly a man of feeling and honour. Where is Mama?” Yang Guo laughed. “Yes, we are both dead. But we’ve come back to life again.”

Hearing the teasing note in his voice, Lü’e pulled back to see his face clearly, only to find her mother looking at her with an expression that was not quite a smile. Overcome with embarrassment, she cried, “Mama!” She stood up.

Yang Guo saw that although Qiu Qianchi had no martial skill, she had still managed to subdue Fan Yiweng and save his life. Filled with admiration, he asked, “What method did you use, Elder, to make this dwarf obey?” Qiu Qianchi smiled faintly and raised her hand. In it, she held a sharp-edged pebble. The fact was that Gongsun Zhi’s acupoint-sealing techniques had been taught by her, and Fan Yiweng had learned them from Gongsun Zhi, the three of them shared a single lineage, and the oral formulae were identical. When she pressed the point of the stone against Fan Yiweng’s Lingtai acupoint and spoke those eight heart-stopping words. “If the Lingtai is damaged, all one hundred meridians will be crippled”, how could Fan Yiweng not have panicked? In truth, given the strength in Qiu Qianchi’s hands at that moment, how could a tiny pebble like that possibly “cripple all one hundred meridians”?

By now, the only thing occupying Yang Guo’s heart was Xiaolongnü’s safety. Seeing that Lü’e and Qiu Qianchi were out of danger and Fan Yiweng had been subdued, he said, “You two wait here for a moment. I must deliver the Passion Severing Pill to save someone, it is urgent.” Qiu Qianchi said, puzzled, “What Passion Severing Pill? You have a Passion Severing Pill too?” Yang Guo said, “Yes. Please take a look and see if this is the genuine pill.” He took the small bottle from his bosom and poured out the square pill. Qiu Qianchi took it, smelled it, and said, “That’s right. How did this pill fall into your hands? And since you are poisoned by the Passion Flower, why haven’t you taken it yourself?” Yang Guo said, “It is a long story. After I deliver this pill, I will explain everything to you in detail, Elder.” He took back the pill and made to leave.

Lü’e, filled with both sorrow and concern, said quietly, “Brother Yang, you must avoid my father at all costs. Don’t let him see you.” Qiu Qianchi barked, “Again with ‘Father’! If you call him ‘Father’ one more time, don’t bother calling me ‘Mama’ anymore.”

Yang Guo said, “I am going to deliver the pill to cure my Gugu’s poison. Gongsun Valley Master will certainly not obstruct me.” Lü’e said, “And what if he devises another vicious scheme against you?” Yang Guo smiled faintly. “Then I can only resign myself to the will of Heaven.”

Qiu Qianchi asked, “You are going to see Gongsun Zhi, is that right?” Yang Guo said, “Yes.” Qiu Qianchi said, “Good. I will go with you. Perhaps I can lend you a hand.”

Footnotes

1. 千斤坠 (Qiānjīn Zhuì). “Thousand-Jin Anchor.” An neili technique that roots the practitioner to the ground with immense weight. ↩

2. 樊一翁 – Fán Yīwēng. His name meaning “Fan, the one old man”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 灵台穴 – Lingtai Acupoint. Located on the spine below the sixth thoracic vertebra. In acupoint lore, the Lingtai (“Spirit Platform”) governs the flow of energy through the Governing Vessel meridian.” ↩

4. 巨骨穴 – Jùgǔ Xué. Literally great bone. Acupoint in the hollow of the shoulder on the large intestine meridian; striking it can numb the limb. See Wikipedia. ↩

5. 人中穴 – Renzhong Acupoint. Philtrum acupoint, located in the groove between the nose and upper lip. It is the primary emergency revival point in traditional Chinese medicine, used to restore consciousness. ↩