The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 22 – Part 5

As he ran past Xiaolongnü on his way up the roof, Yang Guo had given her a look and a faint smile, strangely sly. Xiaolongnü knew he was up to another trick, though she could not guess what plan he had laid. Seeing how strong the enemy was, she could not rest easy, and was about to follow him and help when there came a “Wah, wah” from the house below: a baby crying. “Mama’s had a little brother!” Guo Fu cried happily, and leapt down. Every woman under heaven, hearing that someone has given birth, must ask whether it is a boy or a girl, and Xiaolongnü was no less curious than anyone else. Besides, she thought, Yang Guo had tricks without end, and that smile seemed to say he had the upper hand. She would go and see Huang Rong’s baby first, so she followed Guo Fu inside.

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State Preceptor Jinlun gathered his breath and gave furious chase, closing on Yang Guo all the while. Let’s see you slip out of my hand this time, he thought gleefully. The hat on the head of the man Yang Guo carried was the very one Guo Jing had worn the day before. It was Guo Jing, beyond a doubt.

The qinggong of the Ancient Tomb School that Yang Guo had learned might fairly be called the finest under heaven. Even with a man on his back, he thought only that every step he took was another step between Uncle Guo and danger, and he ran as if for his life, so that for the moment the State Preceptor could not catch him. After racing across the rooftops for a while, Yang Guo heard the footsteps behind him drawing closer, so he leapt down to the ground and dodged east and ducked west through the lanes, running in great circles, and was soon playing hide-and-seek with the State Preceptor.

Yang Guo’s qinggong was a shade better than the State Preceptor’s, but he had a man on his back, and on an open plain he would have been overtaken long since. As it was, he kept to the darkest and most winding back lanes, dodging and hiding, and the State Preceptor could never quite catch him. After the two of them had gone round a few times, Xiaoxiangzi, Nimoxing and Zhu Ziliu came up one after another.

“Old Brother Nimo,” the State Preceptor said to Nimoxing, “you guard the mouth of this lane, and I’ll go in and flush the little rabbit out.” Nimoxing rolled his strange eyes. “What monk says, monk listens to himself,” he snapped. “Old Brother Nimoxing not listen, very much not.” The State Preceptor thought there was no reasoning with this Indian dwarf. He leapt onto the top of a wall and looked all about, and saw Yang Guo with Guo Jing on his back, crouched in a corner of the wall, catching his breath. Delighted, he stole along the top of the wall and was about to spring down and seize him when Yang Guo suddenly gave a great shout, jumped up and plunged into the smoke, and was gone from sight.

The State Preceptor had started the fires to drive Guo Jing out, but now, with smoke and flame everywhere, it was harder than ever to find anyone. He was peering this way and that when he heard Da’erba shout, “Here he is!” He followed the voice and found Da’erba swinging his golden pestle, fighting Yang Guo. The State Preceptor sprang forward and cut off Yang Guo’s retreat. Yang Guo dashed ahead and darted to Da’erba’s side, and at that moment the State Preceptor let fly his silver wheel.

The silver wheel came like the wind, and Yang Guo had no time to dodge. With a hiss it skimmed past Guo Jing’s shoulder and laid open a deep gash down his back. “Got him!” cried the State Preceptor, overjoyed. But Yang Guo, never caring whether Guo Jing lived or died, ran on at full stretch.

As Yang Guo burst out of the lane he heard an eerie voice. “Boy, you’d better surrender!” It was Xiaoxiangzi, staff in hand, barring the mouth of the lane. Now Yang Guo had no way back, and pursuers behind. He looked up, and there on top of the wall was a black lump: Nimoxing, standing there. Yang Guo sprang up onto the wall, and Nimoxing’s strange serpent struck down at his head to force him back into the lane. Yang Guo thought he had played for time long enough and that Guo Jing and Huang Rong must be out of danger by now. He reached back, seized the soldier on his back and pushed him into Nimoxing’s hands. “Here’s Guo Jing for you!”

Nimoxing was startled and delighted at once. He supposed Yang Guo had turned his coat yet again and gone over to their side, putting a great prize into his hands, and at once he took the man in his arms. Yang Guo lashed out with a savage kick that caught him square on the backside and sent him toppling off the wall. “I catch Guo Jing,” Nimoxing whooped, “I am Mongol Empire’s foremost great warrior!” Xiaoxiangzi and Da’erba were not going to let him have the glory to himself, and they came to wrest the prize from him. The three of them seized the soldier by his hands and feet and pulled, and all three were so enormously strong that with that one wrench they tore him into three pieces. His hat fell off, and they saw that it was not Guo Jing at all. They stood rooted to the spot, without a word to say.

The State Preceptor had known there must be some trick in it the moment he saw Yang Guo abandon Guo Jing and run, so he had not joined the scramble. Seeing the three of them suddenly stand there dumbstruck, he gave a snort. “Dolts!” he spat, and went off after Yang Guo again, thinking, Even if I can’t take Guo Jing today, so long as I kill this treacherous turncoat of a boy, my journey to Xiangyang won’t have been wasted.

But by now Yang Guo had fled who knew where, and where was he to look? The State Preceptor thought for a moment, and then he saw it. That little rabbit Yang Guo carried a false Guo Jing and ran himself ragged to send me on a wild chase. So Guo Jing must be somewhere near where I started the fires. He’s played me a trick, so I’ll turn his trick against him and draw him out. At once he made straight for where the fires burned fiercest.

Yang Guo was hiding under the eaves of a house, watching to see what would happen, when he saw the State Preceptor dash back toward Guo Jing’s quarters. Not knowing whether Guo Jing had got clear, he was anxious, and he followed quietly. He saw the State Preceptor reach the big house and leap down, shouting, “So, Guo Jing, here you are. Come along with the old monk, quick!” Yang Guo was horrified and was about to jump down after him when he heard a clatter and clash of weapons and the State Preceptor bellowing, “Guo Jing, surrender, quick!” Then the clanging of metal on metal went on and on. Yang Guo rolled his eyes and laughed to himself, You stinking bald villain, you nearly had me there. But you’ve overplayed your hand, faking all that clashing of weapons. Hurt as Uncle Guo is, how could he cross weapons with you? And how could he keep up such a clatter? You want to trick me into coming out. Well, I’ll stay right here and watch your little game.

Then he heard the State Preceptor shout, “Yang Guo, you’re dead this time for sure!” Yang Guo was puzzled. What does he mean, I’m dead this time? Then he understood. He can’t draw me out, so he wants to draw Uncle Guo out to save me. He heard the State Preceptor laugh. “Yang Guo, ah, Yang Guo, if you lose your little life at my hands today, it serves you right.”

He had barely finished speaking when a white shape flickered through the smoke and a girl darted out, her jian levelled, and flew at the State Preceptor. “Aunt, I’m here!” Yang Guo shouted. But the State Preceptor had already swung his wheels to cut Xiaolongnü off. His shouting and bawling had made it sound as if Yang Guo were in mortal danger, and Xiaolongnü, hearing it, had rushed out to fight in her anxiety for him. Yang Guo came forward, jian in hand, and the two of them smiled at each other and launched into the Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay,¹ wrapping the State Preceptor in flashing light. The State Preceptor groaned inwardly, Now I’ve brought it on myself. I’ve let the two of them join their jians. All around them the heat rose in waves, and flaming pillars and smoking beams came crashing down.

The State Preceptor swung his wheels with all his might to fend off their twin jians and fell back fast toward the north-west corner. “We won’t let him get away again today,” Yang Guo called. “We must put an end to this scourge.” His long jian quivered, and his body rose with the blade as he thrust at the State Preceptor’s back.

Since his defeat by the Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay last time, the State Preceptor had pondered it with all his mind and worked out a set of techniques to counter it. But when the two jians were joined, its mysteries were without limit, and the two fighters’ hearts became one, making a single master of the martial arts with four legs and four arms. Whether his method could really break it he was far from sure. Now, though, he was in desperate straits, and with no time to worry about the many gaps still left in his Five Wheels Great Rotation,² he had to try it. He reached into his robe, and with a ringing clatter three wheels flew up into the air, while he still held a wheel in each hand. The five wheels, of gold, silver, copper, iron and lead, differed in weight and size. He caught and threw them in turn, and they came out now straight, now slanting.

Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü were dazzled at once and secretly alarmed. Yang Guo thrust twice to the left, leaning his body to the right, and Xiaolongnü understood him at once. She thrust again and again to the right with the Shunü Jian³ and let her steps carry her in close at his side. The enemy’s moves were too strange for them to dare attack straight away. They would first guard every opening and watch how his moves ran, and then think about striking back.

The State Preceptor’s five wheels flew round and round, but the two jians crossed and recrossed, weaving a net of light, and for all their combined might the five wheels could not break into it. He sighed to himself, Even with all five wheels at once, I still can’t get the better of these two brats and their joined jians. His heart was sinking when there came a “Wah, wah” from inside Xiaolongnü’s robe: a baby crying. The State Preceptor was not the only one startled. Yang Guo was every bit as amazed, and in that moment of surprise all three of them slowed their moves.

Xiaolongnü patted the bundle in her robe with her left hand. “Don’t cry, little treasure. Watch me beat off the old monk.” But the baby only cried harder. “Auntie Guo’s?” Yang Guo asked in a low voice. Xiaolongnü nodded, and thrust at the State Preceptor.

The State Preceptor blocked with his golden wheel. He had not heard Yang Guo’s question clearly, and for the moment could not think why Xiaolongnü should be carrying a baby. But he reckoned that with that burden on her, her swordplay was bound to lose much of its power, so he drove his golden wheel hard at her.

Yang Guo thrust several times and drew the attack onto himself. “Are Uncle Guo and Auntie Guo all right?” he asked, turning his head. “Guild Chief Huang helped Elder Master Guo get out of the fire…” said Xiaolongnü. Clang: she parried the copper wheel in the State Preceptor’s left hand. “It was touch and go. The main beam was about to come down. I snatched this baby girl off the bed…” Yang Guo slashed across at the State Preceptor’s right leg and turned aside the lead wheel he was driving at Xiaolongnü. “It’s a girl?” Guo Jing already had one daughter, and Yang Guo had thought this one was sure to be a boy, so another daughter came as something of a surprise. Xiaolongnü nodded. “A girl. Quick, take her…” She reached into her robe with her left hand to take the baby out and give her to Yang Guo.

But with the baby crying, the State Preceptor’s attack grew fiercer. Three wheels whirled humming above their heads, waiting their chance to strike down, while the two in his hands came on more savagely than ever. It took everything Yang Guo had just to hold them off. How could he spare a hand to take the baby? “Quick, take the child,” Xiaolongnü cried, “and ride the Sweat-Blood Horse to…” Clang, clang: the State Preceptor’s twin wheels put them both in deadly danger one after the other, and she could not finish. By now their thoughts had gone separate ways, and the Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay had lost its power.

Yang Guo thought that only if he took the baby himself could Xiaolongnü keep her mind on the fight and not slip, and he edged in toward her. Xiaolongnü, for her part, was about to hand him the baby. In that instant their two minds were one, the power of their joined jians leapt up, and the State Preceptor was forced back two steps. Xiaolongnü held the baby out with her left hand, and Yang Guo was reaching to take her when a black shape flashed: the iron wheel came flying in on a slant, straight at the baby. Afraid the child would be hurt, Xiaolongnü let go of her, turned up her left palm and grabbed at the iron wheel. It came with tremendous force, its rim keener than a dao’s edge, but Xiaolongnü was wearing her gold-thread gloves.⁴ The moment her palm met the wheel she went with it and pushed outward, then spent its spin with a slanting force, lifted it a little and plucked it out of the air: the marvellous art of four liang deflecting a thousand jin.⁵

At that very moment Yang Guo caught the baby. Seeing Xiaolongnü catch the iron wheel, he cried, “Well done!” Had the State Preceptor hurled the wheel straight at Xiaolongnü she could hardly have caught it. Only because it was aimed at the baby could she take it from the side. Xiaolongnü was delighted to have the wheel. With a little laugh she copied the State Preceptor’s own move, raised the iron wheel and threw it at him, to pay him back in his own coin. The State Preceptor was shocked and ashamed. With one of his five wheels lost, his Five Wheels Great Rotation was broken at a stroke. So he simply called back two wheels and kept only the gold and the silver in his hands, and as he hacked across and struck straight down, his power grew greater than before.

Yang Guo held the baby in his left arm. “Let’s kill this bald villain first,” he said. “The rest can wait.” “Good!” said Xiaolongnü. She held the iron wheel before her chest in her left hand and attacked together with Yang Guo, jian beside jian. With a formidable new weapon in her hand and the baby no longer hampering her, her power should have doubled. Yet after a few moves she found her swordplay utterly at odds with his, and they could not join their jians at all. The longer she fought, the more alarmed she grew, not knowing why. What she did not know was that the whole secret of the Pure-Hearted Jade Maiden Swordplay lay in the joy of two hearts in love, with not a speck of anything else in them. Now, with an iron wheel thrust between the two jians, it was as if a third person had come between a pair of lovers, and trouble sprang up at every turn. How could their thoughts still flow as one? How could his heart become hers? For the moment neither of them saw this. They fought a few more bouts, and it went even more haltingly than if each had fought alone. Xiaolongnü was frantic. “We can’t beat him today. Quick, take the baby to Passionless Valley…”

A thought stirred in Yang Guo’s mind, and he saw what she meant. If he rode the Sweat-Blood Horse out of the city now, he could certainly reach Passionless Valley within seven days. He could not take Guo Jing’s and Huang Rong’s heads with him, but he would be taking their daughter. He could tell Qiu Qianchi that Guo Jing and his wife, having lost their beloved daughter, were sure to come looking for her in Passionless Valley, and then she could find a way to take her revenge. In such a case Qiu Qianchi would hand over the half pill willingly enough. Once the deadly poison in his body was cured, he could do his utmost to rescue the little girl from danger. He reckoned Qiu Qianchi would have to accept such a delaying move. Two days earlier Yang Guo would not have hesitated for a moment. But now he admired Guo Jing’s wholehearted devotion to his country more than he could say, and he could not bear to put the man’s daughter in danger for his own sake. To snatch his baby girl now and carry her off to Passionless Valley would be taking advantage of a man in distress, however one looked at it, and no true man would do such a thing. So after only a moment’s thought he said, “Aunt, that won’t do!”

Footnotes

1. 玉女素心剑法 – Yùnǚ Sùxīn Jiànfǎ. Paired sword technique of the Ancient Tomb School. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 五轮大转 – Wǔlún Dàzhuàn. Literally five wheels, great rotation; State Preceptor Jinlun’s method of keeping five wheels in play at once. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 淑女剑 – Shūnǚ Jiàn. Counterpart to the Junzi Jian. Shunü means a virtuous, refined lady, the feminine counterpart to the junzi ideal. ↩

4. 金丝手套 – Jīnsī Shǒutào. Protective gloves woven from fine gold thread, impervious to blades; equipment of the Ancient Tomb School. ↩

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