The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 19 – Part 7

Quick as they were with their hands, it still took them more than two shichen,¹ until the sky had grown dark, to twist a very long rope of bark.

Yang Guo took hold of the rope and gave it several hard tugs. “It won’t break.” Then with the dagger he cut a jujube branch some fifteen feet long, tied one end of the rope round its middle, and climbed up again. At the top of the rock face he planted both feet hard on the stone with the Thousand-Jin Drop,² put all the strength of his arms into it, and with a shout of “Up!” flung the branch out through the hole. The throw was judged to a nicety. When the branch came down, it lay right across the mouth of the hole.

Yang Guo pulled on the rope to draw the branch up to the edge of the hole, so that both ends lay well across solid ground outside and only a few feet of the middle hung over empty air. He tested it with a couple more pulls and found the branch held firm, quite strong enough to bear his weight. “I’m going up!” he called. Gripping the rope with both hands, he climbed hand over hand. Looking down, he saw Qiu Qianchi and Lü’e, mother and daughter, already two little dark shapes in the dim dusk. He put more strength into his arms and climbed faster still, and in moments had hold of the branch across the mouth. A crook of the arms, a whoosh, and he was flying out of the hole and landing on the ground.

Yang Guo let out a long breath and stood up straight. In the east a bright moon was just rising from behind the mountains. After the better part of a day shut in the dark, airless crocodile pool and cavern, he was free again, and he felt a lightness of heart beyond words. He thought, When Aunt and I were together in the ancient tomb, why did I never feel the least bit stifled? It seems what we see around us follows the heart. It’s only when you want to get out and can’t that the heart grows heavy. If you never wanted to get out, getting out would only make you unhappy. At the thought of Xiaolongnü, the places where the Passion Flower³ thorns had pricked him began to hurt. He calmed himself for a moment, then let the long rope down.

The moment she saw Yang Guo get out, Qiu Qianchi began cursing her daughter. “You fool, why did you let him go up on his own? Once he’s out of the cave, do you think he’ll still give us a thought?” “Mama, don’t worry,” said Lü’e. “Big Brother Yang isn’t that sort of man.” “Every man under heaven is the same,” said Qiu Qianchi angrily. “Could any of them be any good?” Suddenly she turned and looked her daughter carefully up and down. “Little fool, he’s taken liberties with you, hasn’t he?” Lü’e went scarlet. “Mama, what are you saying? I don’t understand.” Qiu Qianchi grew angrier still. “If you don’t understand, why are you blushing? I tell you, when it comes to men you mustn’t give an inch, you mustn’t let your guard down for a moment. Haven’t you seen yet what became of your mother?” While she was still nagging away, Lü’e leapt up and caught the long rope Yang Guo had let down, tied it firmly round her mother’s waist and said with a smile, “There, see? Does Big Brother Yang care about us or doesn’t he?” She gave the rope a few tugs to show it was tied.

Qiu Qianchi gave a snort. “Listen to your mother. Once you’re up there, stick to him like a nail and never leave his side. A husband, a zhangfu, is only good within one zhang, ten feet. Beyond ten feet he’s no husband at all, understand? Your grandfather named your mother Qianchi, a thousand chi, and a thousand chi is a hundred zhang. Heh heh, a hundred zhang away, what husband is left?” Lü’e was amused and saddened at once. She thought, Mama is fooling herself. He hasn’t a scrap of room for me in his heart. In a hundred years I still couldn’t hold on to him. Her eyes reddened and she turned her head away. Qiu Qianchi was about to say more when she felt a sudden tightening at her waist, and her body slowly began to rise.

Lü’e looked up after her mother. Though she knew Yang Guo would let the rope down again at once to fetch her, left all alone in the cavern under the earth she could not help trembling, terribly afraid.

Yang Guo hauled Qiu Qianchi out of the hole, untied the long rope from her waist and let it down into the cavern a second time. Lü’e tied the bark rope round her waist and gave it a few shakes, felt it pull taut, and was lifted into the air. She watched the jujube trees beneath her feet grow smaller and smaller and the stars overhead brighter and brighter. A few dozen feet more and she would be out of the cave, when suddenly someone above her gave a loud shout, the rope went slack, and she was falling fast. To fall from a thousand feet, how could she not be dashed to pieces? Lü’e screamed and almost fainted. She felt herself plunging straight down, utterly helpless, and could only think, Does he mean to dash me to death? No, never, he would never!

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Yang Guo had been drawing in the rope hand over hand, hauling Lü’e up, and success was in sight when he suddenly heard footsteps behind him: someone was running at him to attack. It gave him a great shock, but there was no time to turn and meet the enemy, and his hands flew as he hauled in the rope. Then a man shouted loudly, “Skulking about here, what are you up to?” There was a fierce rush of air, and a long, heavy weapon came sweeping at his back.

From the wind of the weapon Yang Guo knew it was the dwarf Fan Yiweng.⁴ In that desperate moment all he could do was swing his left hand back, lay his palm on the steel staff and push it aside, turning the force of the blow. In the dark Fan Yiweng had not seen Yang Guo’s face, but he knew already that his opponent’s martial skill was formidable. He drew back the staff and swept it across with all his might. Yang Guo’s right hand was bearing Lü’e’s weight, and the rope, more than a thousand feet of it, was no light thing either. He had held it a good while and was already straining. Feeling the staff coming, he hurriedly put out his left palm again to turn it. Fan Yiweng’s usual steel staff had been destroyed, and the one he used now was thicker still. This blow came with tremendous force. The moment Yang Guo’s left palm touched the staff a great shock ran through his whole body, his right hand lost its hold, the rope slipped from his grasp, and Lü’e went plunging down.

Down in the cavern Lü’e screamed, and up at the mouth Qiu Qianchi and Yang Guo cried out together. Yang Guo had no thought for parrying the staff. His left hand darted out and he bent and caught the rope. But Lü’e was falling hard. Her weight of a hundred-odd jin, with the force of the fall behind it, made a pull of nearly a thousand jin.⁵ Yang Guo caught the rope and checked it for an instant, then the pull dragged him over, and before he could help himself he was falling headfirst into the cavern. For all his martial skill, he had not the least room left to twist or turn.

With the sinews of her hands and feet cut and all her martial skill gone, Qiu Qianchi could only look on in helpless anguish. She saw the coil of rope at the edge of the hole, more than a thousand feet of it, growing shorter and shorter as it ran out, and once it was gone, Yang Guo and Lü’e would come to a terrible end. The rope was almost out when the weight of the two bodies jerked it so hard that it whipped up into the air and swung past beside her. A thought flashed through her mind, You villain, you harm others, so you can go down with them. She judged the rope’s path and gave it a light flick of her hand. There was little force in the flick, but the angle was exactly right. The rope swung across and wound itself several times round Fan Yiweng’s waist, binding him tight in an instant.

Feeling the sudden tightening at his waist, Fan Yiweng quickly used the Thousand-Jin Drop to fix himself where he stood. But the weight of Yang Guo and Lü’e together, with the force of their fall, still dragged him step by step towards the edge of the hole. He saw that one more step would send him pitching headfirst over, and in his alarm he seized the rope with his left hand and braced his right against the rock at the mouth of the hole. With that purchase he gave a great shout, and the rope stopped dead.

By now Lü’e was no more than a hundred-odd feet from the ground. Seeing Yang Guo falling with her, she was deeply comforted.

The deadliest thing at that moment was the force of the fall. Even a tiny pebble dropped from such a height strikes with tremendous force. Once Fan Yiweng had summoned his prodigious strength and stopped it, the weight in his hands was only the bodies of Yang Guo and Lü’e, no more than two hundred-odd jin, which was nothing to him. Holding the rope with his right hand, he was about to reach down with his left to untie it from his waist and send his enemies falling again when he felt a slight prick of pain in his back. Something sharp was pressed exactly on the Lingtai point below the sixth vertebra,⁶ and a woman’s voice barked, “Pull them up, quick! Harm the Lingtai, and all hundred meridians are ruined!”

Fan Yiweng was badly startled. “Harm the Lingtai, and all hundred meridians are ruined” were the very words his shifu had impressed on him when teaching him the art of striking acupoints, and he dared not disobey. He could only pull hand over hand with all his strength, hauling Yang Guo and Lü’e up. But he had strained himself too violently in holding back the fall, and now his chest felt choked and tight and a sweetness rose in his throat as if he would cough up blood. He knew his organs had taken an internal injury and he ought not to use force, but with a vital point in an enemy’s hands he could only strain with everything he had. At last, with great effort, he hauled Yang Guo up. The moment he relaxed, his limbs went weak and aching, and with a retch he spewed out a great mouthful of blood and slumped to the ground.

The moment he let go, the rope began to slip down again. “Save her, quick!” cried Qiu Qianchi. Yang Guo hardly needed telling. He snatched the rope and at last drew Lü’e up. Raised and dropped so many times, she had fainted from sheer fright. Yang Guo turned and first sealed Fan Yiweng’s Futu and Jugu points so that he could not move hand or foot,⁷ and only then pressed Lü’e’s Renzhong point to bring her round.⁸

Lü’e slowly came to and opened her eyes, with no idea where she was. In the moonlight she saw Yang Guo smiling down at her, and before she knew it she had thrown herself into his arms. “Big Brother Yang, are we both dead? Thank you for being willing to die with me. You truly are a man of feeling and honour. Where’s Mama?” Yang Guo laughed. “Yes, we’re both dead. But we’ve come back to life again.”

Lü’e caught something teasing in his tone and leaned back to see his face clearly, only to find her mother watching her with a look that was half a smile. Overcome with shyness, she cried, “Mama!” and stood up.

Yang Guo saw that though Qiu Qianchi had no martial skill left, she had still mastered Fan Yiweng and saved his life, and he was full of admiration. “Elder, how did you make the dwarf do as he was told?” Qiu Qianchi smiled faintly and raised her hand. In it was a sharp-cornered stone. The fact was that Gongsun Zhi’s art of striking acupoints had been taught him by her, and Fan Yiweng had learned it from Gongsun Zhi. The three were of one line, and the oral formulas were the same. With the point of the stone set on Fan Yiweng’s Lingtai, and that heart-stopping formula cried out, “Harm the Lingtai, and all hundred meridians are ruined,” how could Fan Yiweng not panic? In truth, with the strength left in Qiu Qianchi’s hands, how could so small a stone have “ruined all hundred meridians”?

All that was in Yang Guo’s mind now was Xiaolongnü’s safety. Seeing Lü’e and Qiu Qianchi out of danger and Fan Yiweng mastered, he said, “Wait here a little, both of you. I must take the Passion-Cutting Pill to save someone. It’s urgent.” “What Passion-Cutting Pill?” said Qiu Qianchi in surprise. “You have a Passion-Cutting Pill too?” “Yes,” said Yang Guo. “Please look and tell me whether this is the true pill.” He took the little bottle from his bosom and tipped out the square pill. Qiu Qianchi took it and sniffed it. “That’s it. How did this pill come into your hands? And if you’re poisoned by the Passion Flower yourself, why haven’t you taken it?” “It’s a long story,” said Yang Guo. “When I’ve delivered the pill I’ll tell you all about it, Elder.” He took the pill back and started off.

Lü’e, sad and anxious at once, said softly, “Big Brother Yang, you must keep out of my father’s way. Don’t let him see you.” “Father again!” barked Qiu Qianchi. “Call him Father once more and you needn’t call me Mama any longer.”

Yang Guo said, “I’m taking the pill to cure the poison in my aunt. Valley Master Gongsun will surely not stand in my way.” “And if he thinks up some other wicked scheme against you?” said Lü’e. Yang Guo smiled faintly. “Then I’ll just have to leave it to Heaven.”

Qiu Qianchi asked, “You’re going to see Gongsun Zhi, aren’t you?” “Yes,” said Yang Guo. “Good,” said Qiu Qianchi. “I’ll go with you. I may be able to lend you a hand.”

Footnotes

1. 时辰 – shíchen. Traditional Chinese double hour; one twelfth of a day, equal to two modern hours. ↩

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

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

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

5. 斤 – jīn. Traditional Chinese unit of weight, approximately 500 grams or 1.1 pounds. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 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. ↩

7. 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. ↩

8. 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. ↩