The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 19

The Old Woman Beneath the Earth.

The instant Yang Guo¹’s foot touched the surface of the water, a surge of joy filled his heart. He knew his life was safe for now. Otherwise, plunging straight down from a height of several dozen zhang, neither of them could possibly survive.² The force of the fall was immense, driving them deep underwater. He felt himself sinking endlessly, as if there were no bottom to this abyss. Holding his breath, he waited for the downward momentum to ease, then used his left arm to cradle Gongsun Lü’e³ while his right hand paddled upward. The moment his head broke the surface and he drew a breath, a rank, fishy stench assailed his nostrils. At the same time, the water to his left churned violently, as though some enormous aquatic creature was bearing down upon them.

A thought flashed through his mind: That villainous Valley Master trapped us here. Did you think it would end well? His right hand shot out, sending a fierce palm strike crashing to his left. A thunderous boom rang out as it struck something hard. Waves surged around them. Riding the momentum of that strike, he swept Gongsun Lü’e clear to the right, pulling her away.

Yang Guo was no skilled swimmer. His ability to endure underwater came purely from holding his breath through neili⁴ cultivation.⁵ Now, in total darkness, he could hear the sound of furious splashing from his left and from behind. His right palm swept out and suddenly pressed against something vast, icy cold, and rough to the touch, like the scales and armour of some aquatic beast. He was badly startled. Can it be that venomous dragons truly exist in this world?⁶ He pushed off with force, propelling himself upward, while the creature was shoved down into the depths by his pressure. He drew a deep breath, preparing to dive underwater once more, but to his surprise, his right foot landed on solid ground. He had not anticipated this at all, the force in his leg was wrong, and the impact jarred him hard, sending a sharp pain through his right leg.

The joy of survival outweighed the pain in his leg. He reached out to feel his surroundings, it was the rocky edge beside the abyss. Fearing the creature might attack again, he hurriedly carried Lü’e and climbed to higher ground. Once seated securely, his panic gradually subsided. Gongsun Lü’e had swallowed a great deal of water and was already half unconscious. Yang Guo laid her across his lap, letting the water drain slowly from her mouth. He heard scrabbling sounds on the rocks, and the reek of decay grew stronger. Several creatures were crawling up from the pool.

Lü’e flipped herself upright, threw her arms around Yang Guo’s neck, and cried out in terror, “What is that?” Yang Guo said, “Don’t be afraid. Hide behind me.” Lü’e did not move, only clutching him tighter, her voice trembling. “Crocodiles! Crocodiles!”

During his days on Peach Blossom Island, Yang Guo had seen many crocodiles.⁷ He knew these creatures were ferocious and cruel, even more savage than the tigers and wolves of the land. Back then, whenever he and Guo Fu⁸ and the Wu brothers encountered them, they never dared provoke the beasts and always steered well clear. He had never imagined he would meet them here, in this subterranean abyss. He steadied himself and listened intently. From the sound of their footfalls, he judged there were three crocodiles, creeping closer step by step.

Lü’e whispered, “Brother Yang, I never thought you and I would die together.” There was a note of strange contentment in her voice. Yang Guo laughed. “If we must die, let us at least kill a few crocodiles first.”

By now, the foremost crocodile was less than a zhang from Yang Guo’s feet. Lü’e cried, “Strike! Quick!” Yang Guo said, “Wait a moment longer.” He stretched out his right foot, dangling it over the edge of the rock. The crocodile crept several more chi closer, then opened its great maw and snapped viciously at his foot. Yang Guo pulled his foot back and followed with a sweeping kick that caught the crocodile squarely under the jaw. The beast tumbled head over tail into the abyss. The splash set off a commotion among the other crocodiles in the pool, but two more were already creeping closer.

Though Yang Guo was afflicted with the Passion Flower’s deadly poison, his martial skill had not diminished in the slightest. That kick carried several hundred jin of force.⁹ Yet the crocodile’s hide was tough, his toes still tingled with pain from the impact, and the crocodile, after tumbling into the pool, swam about as freely as ever. He thought, Barehanded, I cannot handle this many fierce crocodiles. If this goes on, Miss Gongsun and I will sooner or later be devoured. I must find some way to kill every one of these beasts. He reached out, hoping to find a large rock to use as a weapon, but the rock surface was utterly bare, not even a grain of sand. Hearing two more crocodiles draw nearer, he asked urgently, “Do you have a sword on you?”

Gongsun Lü’e said, “On me?” She remembered how, in the Alchemy Chamber, she had stripped off her dress, leaving only her undergarments.¹⁰ Now, nestled against Yang Guo’s chest, she was overcome with shame. Her whole body flushed with heat, yet in her heart a sweetness blossomed that was joy beyond measure.

Yang Guo’s full attention was fixed on the approaching crocodiles. He did not notice her state. His ears told him that two crocodiles were now barely a zhang away, with two more behind him. He could strike them down into the pool with his palms, but they would only attack again moments later, it would do no good, and his neili would drain away steadily. So he held his power in reserve. When the two crocodiles crawled to within three chi of him, he suddenly struck out with both palms. Pak, pak, two blows landed simultaneously on the crocodiles’ heads. Crocodiles are slow to turn. When Yang Guo’s palms arrived, they did not know to evade. But their hide was thick and tough. They were merely stunned for a moment before sliding into the pool. At that very instant, the two crocodiles behind him had already crept close. Yang Guo kicked one off the rock with his left foot, but the kick was too forceful, his grip on Lü’e loosened, and she tilted sideways, sliding toward the edge.

Lü’e cried out in alarm. She pressed her right hand against the rock and propelled herself back up with a surge of strength. Yang Guo placed his palm against her back and pushed her to safety. But that delay had cost him, the last crocodile was already upon him, its enormous jaws gaping wide as it lunged for his shoulder. There was no time now for fist strikes or kicks. He could leap aside to dodge, but if those jaws snapped shut, they might well close on Lü’e instead. In this desperate moment, he shot both hands out, one seized the upper jaw, the other the lower. Summoning his neili, he gave a great shout. Crrr-ack! The crocodile’s jaws split apart at the middle, and it died on the spot.

Though Yang Guo had wrenched the fierce crocodile to death, cold sweat soaked his back from the terror of it. Lü’e asked, “Are you hurt?” Hearing the tenderness and concern in her voice, Yang Guo felt his heart stir slightly. “No,” he said. Only the strain had been too great, his arms ached a little. Lü’e noticed that the dead crocodile’s body lay motionless on the rock and was filled with admiration. “How did you kill it with your bare hands? And how can you see so clearly in the dark?” Yang Guo said, “I lived with my Gugu¹¹ in the ancient tomb for many years. So long as there is the faintest glimmer of light, I can see.”¹² At the mention of Gugu and the ancient tomb, he could not help but heave a long sigh. Suddenly, a violent pain seized his entire body, agony beyond all endurance. He could not hold back a terrible howl, and at the same time he kicked the dead crocodile flying into the pool.

Two crocodiles were just climbing onto the rock. Hearing his agonised cry, they were so startled that they leaped back into the water.

Gongsun Lü’e hurriedly grasped his arm. With her other hand, she gently stroked his forehead, hoping to ease his pain a little. Yang Guo knew he was afflicted with a lethal poison. Even without this mortal peril, he had only days left to live. He had heard Gongsun Valley Master say that he would suffer thirty-six days of agony before death. But the pain was so unbearable, after a few more bouts like this, he would lose the will to endure and take his own life. Yet once he was dead, Lü’e would have no one to protect her. Would that not be a terrible fate? He thought, The reason she is in such danger is all because of me. No matter how great the pain, I must hold on. I can only hope the Valley Master still harbours some fatherly affection and will eventually relent and rescue her. His mind churning with these thoughts, he did not think of Xiaolongnü¹³ for a time, and the pain eased. He said, “Miss Gongsun, don’t be afraid. I think your father will come to rescue you soon. He only hates me. He has always doted on you. By now, he must already be filled with regret.”

Gongsun Lü’e’s tears fell. “When my mother was still alive, Father truly loved me dearly. After she died, he grew colder toward me day by day. But he… he… in his heart, I know he does not hate me.” She paused for a moment, and suddenly many strange, puzzling things came to mind. She said, “Brother Yang, I’ve just realised. Father has always been afraid of me.” Yang Guo said, puzzled, “Afraid of you? That is strange indeed.” Lü’e said, “Yes. I always felt that when Father saw me, his expression was deeply unnatural, as though he were hiding some vital secret and was terrified I might discover it. All these years, he has done everything he could to avoid me, to keep from seeing my face.”

She had always sensed something strange in her father’s manner, but whenever she thought about it, she had told herself it was only grief over her mother’s death that had altered his temperament. But this time, falling into the crocodile pool had clearly been a trap laid by her father. He had shifted the three alchemy furnaces in the Alchemy Chamber, that was surely what triggered the trapdoor mechanism. If her father hated Yang Guo and wanted him dead, Yang Guo was already poisoned by the Passion Flower. Simply withholding treatment would have been enough to kill him. Besides, at the moment Yang Guo was falling toward the crocodile pool, escape already seemed utterly impossible. So why had her father pushed her into the pool as well? That shove, where was the fatherly affection in that? This was certainly no slip of the hand in a fit of rage. There had to be some sinister plot, some malicious intent hidden within. The more she thought about it, the more it pained her, but the clearer it became. So many of her father’s peculiar words and deeds, which she had once found baffling and had explained away as mere “eccentricity,” now seemed to stem entirely from this single word: fear. But why would he fear his own flesh and blood, his own daughter? That was something she could never fathom.

Footnotes

1. 杨过 – Yáng Guò. His name meaning “fault or transgression”; his courtesy name Gaizhi means “to correct it”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 丈 – zhàng. Traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.33 metres or 10.9 feet. ↩

3. 公孙绿萼 – Gōngsūn Lǜ’è. Her name meaning “green calyx”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 内力 – nèilì. Literally internal force. Kinetic manifestation of cultivated qi; generates tangible effects such as deflecting weapons or scaling walls. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 内功 – nèigōng. Literally internal skill. Practice of developing neili through breathing, meditation and qi cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 毒龙 – Venomous Dragon. In Chinese mythology, dragons (long) are associated with water and can be either benevolent or malevolent. “venomous dragon” here is Yang Guo’s fearful imagining — the creature he encounters is in fact a crocodile, but in the darkness of the abyss, anything seems possible. ↩

7. 桃花岛 – Táohuā Dǎo. Huang Yaoshi’s island stronghold, continued from LOCH era. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 郭芙 – Guō Fú. Her name meaning “lotus”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

10. 丹房 – Alchemy Chamber. One of the four specialised chambers in Passionless Valley. Gongsun Lü’e had stripped to her undergarments there to show her father that she bore no hidden Passion Severing Pill — a desperate act that also revealed her cinnabar birthmark to Yang Guo in the darkness of the crocodile pool. ↩

11. Gugu (姑姑) — Literally “paternal aunt,” but used here as a term of respectful address for a young woman of the older generation. Yang Guo uses this to address Xiaolongnü, his shifu. ↩

12. 古墓 – Gǔmù. Underground tomb complex beneath Zhongnan Mountain, home of the Ancient Tomb School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 小龙女 – Xiǎolóngnǚ. Literally little dragon maiden. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩