The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 2 – Part 2

Wu Santong watched her dart in and out, advancing and retreating several times in the blink of an eye, and was secretly astonished and impressed. He swung the trunk with all his might and kept her more than ten feet off. But the moment he left the slightest gap, Li Mochou was inside it like a flash of lightning. Had it not been for the power of his Yiyang Finger,¹ he would have been beaten long since. Even so, the trunk was heavy, and as he went on swinging it he began to tire, while Li Mochou pressed closer and closer. Suddenly there was a flicker of yellow, and she had leapt onto the very tip of the chestnut tree in Wu Santong’s hands, her whisk lashing down at him from the air. Wu Santong was badly alarmed. He swung the tip of the tree round and rammed it at the ground. Li Mochou gave a sweet, tinkling laugh and came running straight down the trunk at him. Wu Santong turned sideways, reached out his long arm and jabbed a finger at her. Her slender waist swayed, and she was back at the tip. For the next several dozen moves, however Wu Santong shook, rammed, swept and battered, she clung to the chestnut tree as if glued there, riding the shudder of the trunk and seeking her openings.

This made things harder still for Wu Santong. Light as she was, she still added several dozen jin² of weight to the trunk. Worse, standing on the tree she was beyond its reach while she could strike at him, and so she could not lose. Wu Santong saw himself sliding towards defeat. He knew that the slightest slip would be the end: his own death did not matter, but every soul in the kiln, young and old, would die at her hands. Summoning all his strength, he whirled the trunk faster and faster, hoping to fling her off it with the sheer force of its swing.

They fought on a little longer. Then he heard Ke Zhen’e shout behind him, “Fu’er,³ you’ve come too? Quick, tell the eagles to bite this wicked woman.” A girl’s voice followed, calling out command after command, and two white shapes plunged out of the sky. They were a pair of great eagles, and they split left and right to strike at Li Mochou from both sides. It was Guo Fu, come with the twin eagles.

Li Mochou saw how savagely the eagles came. She somersaulted off the chestnut tree, hooking her left foot round the trunk, and the eagles’ strike missed. They beat their wings and soared up. The girl’s voice whistled a few more commands, and the eagles dived a second time, all four steel-hooked iron claws raking at the underside of the tree. Li Mochou had heard that Guo Jing⁴ and Huang Rong⁵ of Peach Blossom Island⁶ kept a pair of great eagles, birds of uncommon intelligence. Now, seeing the eagles split and close in concert, she gave the birds themselves little thought. What she feared was that they belonged to Guo Jing and his wife, for if the couple were anywhere near, she would be in real trouble. She dodged several times, then her whisk cracked across the female eagle’s left wing. The bird screeched in pain, and several long white feathers drifted down out of the sky.

Seeing her eagle hurt, Guo Fu shouted, “Don’t be scared, eagle. Bite the wicked woman.” Li Mochou glanced at her and saw a girl with skin like snowy jade and features as lovely as a painting, and her heart stirred, They say Madam Guo is the great beauty among the heroes of our day. I wonder how she compares with me. Could this little thing be her daughter?

Her thoughts strayed, and her hand slowed a fraction. Wu Santong, seeing that even with the eagles’ help he still could not beat her, grew desperate. He drove strength into both arms and suddenly hurled her, tree and all, into the sky. Li Mochou had never imagined he would try so outlandish a move. Her feet left the trunk, and she was flung several dozen feet into the air. Seeing her fly up, the eagles beat their wings and closed in to peck at her.

On level ground Li Mochou would have had nothing to fear from the eagles. But now she was in midair, with nothing to push off from. How could she hold her own against birds on the wing? In desperation she swung her whisk to shield her head and face, and with a flick of her long sleeve sent three Soul-Freezing Silver Needles⁷ darting out one after another. Two flew at the eagles, the third straight at Wu Santong’s chest. The eagles beat their wings frantically to climb, but the silver needles were far too fast. They hissed through the air, and one grazed the male eagle’s foot, slitting the skin of its claw.

Wu Santong was looking up when he caught a flash of silver. He threw himself to the ground and rolled clear, but the needle still pierced his left calf. He rolled to his feet, but his left leg would no longer obey him, and his left knee buckled. He forced his neili into motion and tried to push himself up, but the numbness had already spread through the whole leg. He pitched forward on his face. His hands pushed against the ground a few times, and at last he lay there and did not move.

“Eagles, eagles, come here!” Guo Fu shouted. But the eagles had fled far off and did not turn back. Li Mochou laughed. “Little sister, is your surname Guo, by any chance?” Guo Fu saw how beautiful she was, and how gentle and kind she seemed, not at all like a “wicked woman”. “Yes,” she said, “my surname is Guo. What’s yours?” Li Mochou smiled. “Come, I’ll take you off to play.” She stepped slowly forward to take the girl’s hand. Ke Zhen’e thrust his iron staff against the ground, shot out of the kiln and planted himself in front of Guo Fu. “Fu’er, get back inside!” he shouted. Li Mochou laughed. “Afraid I’ll eat her?”

Just then a boy in ragged clothes came hopping and skipping along, a rooster dangling from his left hand, singing a rustic ditty. Seeing people in front of the kiln, he called out, “Hey, what are you lot doing at my house?” He walked up to Li Mochou and Guo Fu, cocked his head to look the two of them over, and grinned. “Tsk, tsk. The big beauty’s ever so lovely, and the little beauty’s very pretty too. Have you two young ladies come looking for me? The fellow named Yang hasn’t got any lady friends as pretty as you.” He wore a cheeky leer, and his talk was glib and oily.

Guo Fu pouted. “Little beggar,” she said angrily, “who’s looking for you?” The boy laughed. “If you’re not looking for me, why come to my house?” He pointed at the kiln as he spoke. So this ruined kiln was his home. “Hmph,” said Guo Fu. “Who’d want to come to a filthy place like this?”

Seeing her husband lying on the ground, not knowing if he was dead or alive, Madam Wu was frantic with worry. She rushed out of the kiln and bent over him. “Third Brother, what’s wrong?” Wu Santong grunted. His back heaved a few times, but he could not rise. Guo Fu gazed far into the distance, but there was no sign of the eagles. “Eagles, eagles, come back!” she shouted.

Li Mochou thought, The longer the night, the more the dreams. I’d better not wait for Guo Jing and his wife to come, or I’ll get the worst of it. With a faint smile she made straight for the kiln. Madam Wu sprang back to block her, brandishing her jian. “Don’t come in!” she cried. Li Mochou laughed. “This is that Young Brother’s residence. Since when is it yours to say who comes in?” She pressed her left palm straight at the edge of the jian. Just as it was about to touch the steel, she turned her hand a little, and three fingers pushed against the flat of the jian. The edge swung back at Madam Wu’s forehead and, with a rasp, sliced it open. “Pardon me!” said Li Mochou with a smile. She tucked her whisk into her collar, ducked into the kiln and seized Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang, one in each hand. Without even turning round, she tapped her left foot lightly and sprang backwards out of the kiln, and in all that rush she still found time to kick the iron staff out of Ke Zhen’e’s hands.

The ragged boy saw her wound Madam Wu and carry off the two girls, and he was outraged at the injustice of it. Hearing Lu Wushuang and Cheng Ying scream, he leapt up and threw his arms round Li Mochou. “Hey, big beauty,” he shouted, “you come to my residence, hurting people and grabbing people, without so much as a word to the master of the house. That’s no way to behave. Put them down, quick.”

Li Mochou had a girl in each hand and had never expected the boy to throw his arms round her. All at once there was a pair of arms about her ribs, a chill went through her, and for some reason her whole body went weak. At once she sent force into her palms and gave a light flick, flinging the two girls several feet away, then grabbed the boy by the back. She was not yet thirty and still a virgin. Through all the years of her obsessive, tormented love for Lu Zhanyuan, she had always kept to proper conduct. Over the past ten years many men in the jianghu had been stirred by her beauty, but the moment any of them let the slightest hint of lust show in his face, he would usually drop dead on the spot beneath her Scarlet Serpent Divine Palm.⁸ Who would have thought that today she would be caught in this boy’s arms? As she grabbed him she had meant to loose her palm force and shatter his heart and lungs on the spot. But he had just praised her beauty, and he had meant it, and in her heart she had been rather pleased. From a grown man such words would only have disgusted her, but from the mouth of a boy of twelve or thirteen they showed only his innocence. For a moment her heart softened, and she could not bring herself to strike.

Suddenly the shrill cries of eagles filled the sky. The twin eagles had flown back from afar and were diving to attack again. Li Mochou flicked her left sleeve, and two Soul-Freezing Silver Needles shot upwards. The eagles had already been hurt by these vicious hidden weapons and beat their wings to climb away, but the needles came hard and fast. Quick as the eagles flew, the needles flew quicker, and the birds shrieked in terror. Li Mochou saw that the wretched birds could not escape this time and was just rejoicing when she heard a sharp whirring. Two small missiles came tearing through the air at astonishing speed. She had barely caught the sound before they had streaked across the sky and knocked both silver needles out of it.

Their very sound proclaimed their power, and there was no withstanding it. Li Mochou was badly shaken. She let the boy drop and leapt over to look. They were nothing but two ordinary pebbles, and she thought, Whoever threw these stones has martial skill beyond fathoming. I’m no match for him. Better to keep out of his way for now. Her body turned as her mind did, and her right palm struck out at Cheng Ying’s back. She meant to wound the two girls first and then see what came next.

Her palm was about to touch Cheng Ying’s back when she caught sight of the brocade handkerchief tied round the girl’s neck, white satin embroidered with red flowers and green leaves. It was the very token she had embroidered with such care all those years ago and given to the man she loved. She froze and drew back her palm force at once, and the tender feelings of days gone by turned over and over in her heart. She thought, He never forgot me after all. He kept this handkerchief safe all these years. He is begging me to spare his kin. Should I spare them or not? For a moment she wavered, unable to decide, and resolved to kill the other girl first. Her whisk flicked out, its silver strands striking at Lu Wushuang’s back. In the glare of the sun she saw that this girl too wore just such a handkerchief round her neck. “Oh?” said Li Mochou, and thought, How can there be two handkerchiefs? One of them must be a fake. She turned her whisk from a strike to a coil, wrapped it round Lu Wushuang’s neck and hauled the girl back towards her.

Footnotes

1. 一阳指 – Yīyáng Zhǐ. Literally One Yang Finger. Dali Duan family’s signature finger technique. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

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

4. 郭靖 – Guō Jìng. His name meaning “tranquillity” or “pacification”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 黄蓉 – Huáng Róng. Her name meaning “lotus” or “hibiscus”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

7. 冰魄银针 – Bīngpò Yínzhēn. Li Mochou’s signature hidden weapons, silver needles coated with a deadly poison. Name Soul-Freezing reflects both their cold appearance and their lethal effect. ↩

8. 赤练神掌 – Chìliàn Shénzhǎng. Li Mochou’s palm technique, infused with poison. Name links her palm strikes to her serpentine nickname, suggesting that her very touch is as deadly as a venomous snake’s bite. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩