The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 2 – Part 3

At that moment, the sound of something tearing through the air came again, a small pebble hurtling towards her back. Li Mochou heard the wind of its passage and knew how fierce it was. She quickly reversed her whisk, and the steel handle swung out, striking the pebble dead-on. A sharp pain shot through the web of her thumb. Her palm burned hot. Her entire body shook violently. The whisk nearly flew from her grasp. Not daring to linger, she scooped up Lu Wushuang and launched into her qinggong,¹ sweeping across the ground like a fierce wind. In the blink of an eye, she had vanished without a trace.

Cheng Ying saw her cousin taken and cried out, “Cousin! Cousin!” She ran after them. But Li Mochou’s footwork was far too swift, how could Cheng Ying possibly catch up? The Jiangnan² water country was crisscrossed with rivers and lakes everywhere. Cheng Ying ran for a while until a small river blocked her path and she could go no farther. She ran along the bank, shouting, when suddenly she saw a flash of yellow on a small bridge to her left, someone was crossing from the opposite bank. Cheng Ying had only a moment to register this before Li Mochou stood before her. But Li Mochou’s hands were empty, she no longer held Lu Wushuang.

Cheng Ying was terrified to see her return, but she gathered her courage and asked, “Where is my cousin?” Li Mochou looked at her fair skin and lovely features. Coldly she said, “With a face like yours, when you grow up, if you don’t make others heartsick, you’ll make your own heart sick. Better to die early and spare the world a good deal of trouble.” Her whisk rose, sweeping down to smash the girl’s head and chest to pulp.

But as her whisk swung behind her, poised to strike forward, her hand suddenly tightened, the tail of the whisk had been caught by something and would not swing out. Startled, she turned to look, and in that instant, her body was lifted irresistibly into the air, yanked upward by a tremendous force. The shock was beyond anything she had known. She followed the momentum, leaping backward a zhang or so into the air before landing. Her left palm guarded her chest. Neili surged through her whisk as she thrust it straight out, but there was nothing before her. Empty air. In all her life, through hundreds of battles great and small, she had never encountered anything so bizarre. A thought flashed through her mind like lightning: A demon? A ghost? She executed the move “Primal Chaos Form,”³ her whisk tracing a protective circle around her body to cover a five-foot radius, and only then did she turn around.

Beside Cheng Ying stood a tall, thin man in a dark green robe. His face was utterly expressionless, he seemed alive, yet also like a corpse. The moment she laid eyes on him, an indescribable revulsion surged through her heart. Li Mochou involuntarily retreated two steps. For a moment, she truly could not think of any formidable figure in the jianghu who looked like this. She was about to question him when she heard the man lower his head and say to Cheng Ying, “Child, this woman is vicious. Go hit her.” Cheng Ying dared not move. She looked up and said, “I don’t dare.” The man said, “What is there to fear? Just hit her.” Still Cheng Ying did not dare. The man seized Cheng Ying by the back of her collar and hurled her at Li Mochou.

In such an extraordinary situation, Li Mochou dared not respond with ordinary methods. She guessed that striking with her whisk would be a poor strategy, so she extended her left hand to catch the girl. But just as her hand was about to touch Cheng Ying’s waist, she heard a chi sound, her arm suddenly went limp and weak, and she could not lift it. Cheng Ying crashed headfirst into her chest, and then, following through with a swing of her hand, pa!, crisp and clear, she slapped Li Mochou across the face.

Li Mochou had never in her life suffered such humiliation. In her mad fury, she abandoned all restraint. Her whisk reversed and came slashing down towards the top of Cheng Ying’s head, but a violent jolt shot through the web of her thumb, and the whisk handle flew upward, nearly torn from her grasp. The man had flicked another small pebble, striking the handle of her whisk. Cheng Ying, meanwhile, was already standing steadily on the ground.

Li Mochou knew she could gain no advantage today. If she did not escape quickly, her very life would be in danger. She gave a light laugh, turned, and fled. After running a few steps, she swept both sleeves backward, a shower of silver light, as more than ten Bingpo Silver Needles shot towards the strange man in the green robe. She launched these projectiles without turning around, without looking back, yet every needle was aimed at a vital point. The man was caught off guard, he had not expected her hidden-weapon skill to be so insidious and lethal. He threw himself backward in a desperate leap. The silver needles came fast, but his backward leap was faster. A series of light ding-ding-zheng-zheng sounds rang out as the needles all fell to the ground. Li Mochou had known she could not hit him, those dozen-odd needles were merely meant to force him back. The moment she heard the wind of his backward leap, she flicked her sleeve again, and one more silver needle shot straight at Cheng Ying. She knew this one could not miss. Fearing the green-robed man might come after her, she did not even turn to look. She poured speed into her feet, raced across the bridge, and vanished into the mulberry grove.

The green-robed man cried, “Oh no!” He rushed forward and picked up Cheng Ying. A long silver needle was embedded in her shoulder. His face changed colour. After a moment’s hesitation, he lifted her in his arms and strode swiftly westward.

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Ke Zhen’e and the others, seeing that Li Mochou had finally made off with Lu Wushuang, were all filled with dread. The ragged boy said, “I’ll go take a look.” Guo Fu said, “What’s there to look at? That wicked woman will kick you dead with one foot.” The boy laughed. “You kick me dead? I doubt it.” With that, he set off at a run in the direction Li Mochou had fled. Guo Fu said, “Idiot! I didn’t say I was going to kick you.” She did not understand that the boy had twisted her words to call her the “wicked woman.”

The boy ran for a while, then suddenly heard Cheng Ying’s voice in the distance, calling, “Cousin! Cousin!” He followed the sound. After running several dozen zhang, he judged by the direction of the voice that he should have reached the place where Cheng Ying had called out, but there was no sign of either girl anywhere.

He turned his head and saw, scattered on the ground, more than a dozen gleaming silver needles. Their shafts were engraved with decorative patterns, exquisitely crafted. He bent down and picked them up one by one, gathering them in his left palm. Then he noticed, beside the silver needles, a large centipede lying belly-up, dead on the ground. He found this interesting. Bending closer, he saw that many ants had also died there. A few paces away, more ants were still crawling about. He took one of the silver needles and prodded a few of them. The ants circled a few times, then flipped over and died, stiff. He tried it on several more small insects, the same result.

The boy was overjoyed. These silver needles would be perfect for catching mosquitoes and flies! he thought. But then his left hand suddenly felt numb, as if it were not quite obeying him. He was jolted to awareness. The needles are poisonous! Holding them in my hand, isn’t that dangerous? He hurriedly opened his palm and dropped the needles. Both his palms had already turned black, the left one especially dark, like ink. Fear gripped him. He rubbed his hands vigorously against his thighs, but he felt the numbness in his left arm gradually climbing upward. In moments, it had reached his elbow. As a young child, he had once been bitten by a venomous snake and nearly died, the area around the bite had gone numb just like this. He knew the danger, and he could not help it, wa!, he burst into tears.

Suddenly he heard a voice behind him: “Little brat, you know you’re in trouble now, eh?” The voice was harsh and grating, as if it had crawled up from underground. The boy spun around and could not help but be startled. There stood a person, holding a wooden block in each hand, propped against the ground, upside down, head towards the earth, feet together and pointing at the sky. The boy backed away several steps. “You… who are you?” he cried.

The person pushed off the ground with both hands, and his body suddenly shot upward, leaping three feet into the air, landing before the boy. “Who… who am I?” he said. “If I knew who I was, that would be just fine.” The boy was even more terrified now. He broke into a run. Behind him he heard du, du, du, a rhythmic thumping. He looked back and nearly fainted from fright. The person was using his hands as feet, slapping the wooden blocks against the ground, walking upside down, and moving with incredible speed, now no more than a few feet behind him.

The boy quickened his pace, running for his life. Suddenly, hu!, the person vaulted over his head and landed in front of him. “Mama!” the boy screamed, and turned to flee. But no matter which direction he ran, the strange person always, hu!, leapt up and landed before him. He had two good legs, yet he could not outrun a man who walked on his hands. He changed direction several times, but the strange person pressed closer and closer. He reached out to push him away, but his arm was numb and would no longer obey him. Drenched in sweat, not knowing what to do, his legs gave way and he sat down hard on the ground.

The strange person said, “The more you run around, the faster the poison spreads through your body.” A flash of inspiration struck the boy. He dropped to his knees and cried, “Grandpa, save my life!” The strange person shook his head. “Hard to save, hard to save!” The boy said, “Your skills are so great, you can surely save me.” This flattering remark pleased the strange person immensely. He gave a slight smile. “How do you know my skills are great?” The boy heard the softening in his tone and sensed an opening. “You walk upside down and still run so fast,” he said quickly. “There’s not another person in the world who can match you.” He had tossed out this compliment casually, but the words “not another person in the world who can match you” struck the strange person right in the heart. He threw back his head and laughed, his voice shaking the treetops. “Turn upside down,” he said, “and let me have a look at you.”

The boy thought this made sense, he was standing upright while the man was upside down, so indeed they could not see each other clearly. Since the man was unwilling to stand right-side up, the only option was to turn himself upside down. He inverted himself, planting his head on the ground, bracing himself with his right hand, which still had some sensation. The strange person studied him closely for a moment, frowning and muttering to himself.

Now that the boy was upside down, he too could see the strange person’s features clearly. He had a high nose and deep-set eyes, and his face was covered with a short, grizzled beard, like silver and iron. The boy also heard him muttering strange, incomprehensible sounds, a grating, unpleasant language. Afraid the man would refuse to help him, the boy pleaded, “Good Grandpa, please save me.” The strange person saw that the boy had fine, handsome features and felt a measure of fondness for him. “Fine,” he said. “Saving you is not difficult, but you must agree to one thing.” The boy said, “Whatever you say, I’ll obey. Grandpa, what do you want me to agree to?” The strange person bared his teeth in a grin. “That’s exactly what I want you to agree to. Whatever I say, you must obey.” The boy hesitated. Obey everything he says? Even if he tells me to act like a dog eating dung?

The strange person saw his hesitation and grew angry. “Fine! Die, then!” He pulled in his hands and thrust them out again, and his body flew through the air, landing several feet away. The boy, afraid he would leave, hurried to chase after him and plead further. But he could not walk on his hands the way the man did. He flipped upright, ran a few steps, and called out, “Grandpa, I agree! Whatever you say, I’ll obey.” The strange person turned around. “Good,” he said. “Swear a heavy oath.” By now, the numbness in the boy’s left arm had spread to his shoulder, and his fear was growing by the moment. He had no choice but to swear: “If Grandpa saves my life and removes the poison from my body, I will certainly obey his words. If I disobey, may the poison return to my body.” He thought to himself, From now on, I’ll never touch those silver needles again, how could the poison return to my body? But I wonder if this strange person will accept such an oath?

He glanced sideways at the man and saw a look of satisfaction on his face. The boy secretly rejoiced. The old fellow believes me! The strange person nodded. Suddenly he flipped over, grasped the boy’s arm, and massaged it a few times. “Good, good,” he said. “You’re a good kid.” The boy felt the numbness in his arm immediately lessen under the man’s kneading. “Grandpa, do it again!” he cried. The strange person frowned. “Don’t call me Grandpa. Call me Papa!” The boy said, “My papa died long ago. I don’t have a papa.” The strange person barked, “The very first thing I say, and you won’t obey! What use is a son like you?”

Footnotes

1. 轻功 – qīnggōng. Literally lightness skill. Martial art of body lightness; practitioners leap great heights and move with extraordinary speed. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 江南 – Jiāngnán. Prosperous region south of Yangtze River, continued from LOCH era. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 混元式 – Hùnyuán Shì. Primal Chaos Form, a defensive martial arts technique that creates a protective circle around the practitioner, drawing on the concept of primordial chaos as an undifferentiated, all-encompassing state. ↩