The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 3 – Part 3

Huang Rong said to her husband, “Let’s set a rule: you cannot teach Guoer, and I cannot teach the other three. Moreover, these four children must not teach each other, or their training will become confused, which would do more harm than good.” Guo Jing said, “Of course.” Huang Rong said, “Guoer, come with me.” Yang Guo detested Guo Fu and the Wu brothers. Hearing Huang Rong say this meant he would not have to train alongside them, it suited him perfectly. He followed her into the inner hall.

Huang Rong led him into the study, took a book from the shelf, and said, “Your shifu has seven shifu, known as the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. The Great Master is Grandpa Ke, and the Second Master is called Zhu Cong, the Skilful Hand Scholar.¹ Now, I shall first teach you the skills of Zhu, my second grand shifu.” She opened the book and read aloud: “The Master said: To learn and constantly practise, is this not a pleasure? To have friends come from afar, is this not a joy?”² It was, in fact, a copy of the Analects.³ Yang Guo thought this strange but dared not ask questions. He could only follow her in reciting and learning the characters.

Day after day, Huang Rong taught him only to read, never once mentioning martial arts. One day, after finishing his lessons, Yang Guo wandered alone in the hills. Thinking of Ouyang Feng and wondering where he might be now, his longing grew intense. He turned himself upside down and began spinning, imitating Ouyang Feng’s movements. After spinning for a while, he followed the formulas Ouyang Feng had taught him, circulating his qi in reverse through his meridians. The more he spun, the smoother it felt. He flipped upright, let out a croaking cry, and thrust out both palms. Instantly, he felt thoroughly invigorated, indescribably wonderful, and broke out in a full-body sweat. He had no idea that just this one session of training had already advanced his neili.⁴ Ouyang Feng’s martial arts were uniquely innovative, a supremely formidable school of advanced skill. Yang Guo’s natural comprehension was extraordinarily high, and though he had learned only a little in that brief encounter, training in this way still yielded progress in his inner power.

From then on, he studied the classics with Huang Rong every day, and in the mornings and evenings when he had free time, he would go to a secluded spot in the hills to train. It was not that he was determined to learn martial arts and become a martial artist of astonishing skill, it was simply that every time he practised, his entire body felt indescribably comfortable. Before long, he could not go without it.

He trained in secret, and neither Guo Jing nor Huang Rong had the slightest inkling. Huang Rong taught him to read, and in less than three months, she had finished teaching him the entire Analects. Huang Rong had long grown weary of teaching, but she thought, “This boy’s intelligence seems no less than my own. If his character turns out like his father’s, and he learns martial arts, the harm he could do in the future would be immense. Better to have him study only literature, learn the teachings of the sages, which would benefit both himself and others.” So she patiently continued teaching. After the Analects, she moved on to the Mencius.⁵ Yang Guo memorised with astonishing speed, but he often disagreed with the meanings in the texts and constantly raised difficult questions. Huang Rong often thought, “This child’s way of thinking about the sages’ teachings is very similar to my father’s. If my father were teaching him, the two of them would surely have fascinating conversations.”

Months passed, and Huang Rong never once mentioned martial arts. Yang Guo never asked. Since the day of the fight with Guo Fu and the Wu brothers, he no longer played with the three of them. He grew more and more solitary, knowing that although Guo Jing had accepted him as a disciple, martial arts would never be taught to him. He was already no match for the Wu brothers. Once Guo Jing had taught them for a year or so, any further conflict would surely end with him dead at their hands. He made up his mind: at the first opportunity, he would steal a boat and find a way to escape Peach Blossom Island.

One afternoon, after reading several passages of the Mencius with Huang Rong, Yang Guo took his leave from the study and strolled along the seashore, watching the white-crested waves roll across the ocean. He wondered when he might ever escape this predicament. White gulls came and went over the sea, and he envied their freedom to come and go as they pleased. Lost in these thoughts, he suddenly heard the sound of rushing wind from beyond the peach grove. His curiosity piqued, he quietly circled around behind the trees to look. It was Guo Jing, teaching the Wu brothers boxing and kicking techniques in a clearing in the woods. The move he was teaching was a grappling technique called “Removing the Beam and Changing the Pillar.”⁶ Guo Jing gave verbal instructions while demonstrating the movements, ordering the Wu brothers to follow along. Yang Guo watched just once and immediately grasped the essence of the move, but the Wu brothers tried and tried without ever getting it right. Guo Jing, naturally slow-witted himself, understood this struggle deeply and showed not the slightest impatience, only teaching them over and over.

Yang Guo sighed inwardly and thought, “If Uncle Guo were willing to teach me, could I possibly be as stupid as they are?” Dejected, he returned to his room and slept. After dinner, he read for a while, but boredom set in. He went back to the beach and practised the moves Guo Jing had been teaching, but after repeating the same move a few times, he grew tired of it. Suddenly, he thought, “If I secretly learn martial arts, I’ll surely be far better than the Wu brothers, and then I won’t have to fear them beating me to death.” After this moment of satisfaction, his pride swelled: “Since Uncle Guo won’t teach me, why should I steal his learning? Hmph, even if he came begging me to learn now, I wouldn’t do it. At worst, I’ll be beaten to death, what’s so special about that?” At this thought, his pride surged, but so did his misery. He leaned against a rock and sat quietly, drifting into a dazed sleep to the sound of the waves.

The next morning, Yang Guo skipped breakfast and did not go to the study to read. He gathered some large oysters from the sea, roasted them over a fire, and ate them, thinking, “I don’t need to eat your Guo family’s food, I won’t starve.” He eyed the large boat and the small skiff by the shore and pondered, “I can’t sail the big boat, and the skiff won’t take me far. How am I going to escape?” He fretted for half the day without finding a solution, then went behind a great boulder, turned himself upside down, and began practising the neigong Ouyang Feng had taught him.

He was just at the point where his blood was circulating faster and his whole body felt wonderfully comfortable when suddenly someone shouted loudly behind him. Startled, Yang Guo toppled over, his limbs going numb, unable to climb back up. It turned out that Guo Fu and the Wu brothers had happened to come by at that moment. The area behind the great boulder was usually extremely secluded and rarely visited, but the paths, trees, and rocks of Peach Blossom Island were all arranged according to the principles of the Five Elements’ mutual generation and overcoming,⁷ so Guo Fu and the Wu brothers dared not wander freely and only played in familiar areas. By chance, they had stumbled upon him training. Fortunately, Yang Guo’s skill was still very shallow at this point. Had it been deeper, their combined shouting could have caused his meridians to go into chaos, paralysing him on the spot.

Guo Fu clapped and laughed. “What mischief are you up to here?” Yang Guo braced himself against the rock and slowly struggled to his feet. He shot her a cold look and turned to walk away. Wu Xiuwen called out, “Hey, Sister Guo is asking you a question. How dare you be so rude and ignore her?” Yang Guo said coldly, “What business is it of yours?” Wu Dunru flew into a rage. “Let’s go play by ourselves. No need to provoke a mad dog.” Yang Guo said, “That’s right, mad dogs bite whoever they see. I was minding my own business here, and three mad dogs came barking and yapping.” Wu Dunru said angrily, “You say three mad dogs? You’re cursing us?” Yang Guo laughed. “I was only cursing dogs, not people.”

Wu Dunru could not contain his fury. He lunged forward and threw a punch, but Yang Guo dodged aside. Wu Xiuwen, remembering their shifu’s warning that fellow disciples must not fight and fearing that if this escalated they would be scolded, quickly grabbed his older brother’s arm. Smiling, he said to Yang Guo, “Brother Yang, you’re learning martial arts from Shimu, and the three of us are learning from Shifu. After all these months, who knows who’s progressed faster? Let’s have a sparring match and see. Do you dare?”

Yang Guo felt bitter inside and wanted to say, “I don’t have your luck, Shimu hasn’t taught me any martial arts at all.” But the moment he heard the words “Do you dare?”, filled with utter contempt, he swallowed his words of defeat. He merely snorted and looked at Wu Xiuwen askance. Wu Xiuwen said, “We’re fellow disciples testing our martial arts. Win or lose, no one goes telling Shifu or Shimu. Even if we crack our heads open, we’ll say we fell. Whoever runs to the adults after losing is a son of a bitch, a turtle’s egg. Brother Yang, do you dare?”

The words “do you dare” had barely left his mouth a second time when everything went black before his eyes, Yang Guo’s fist had landed heavily on his left eye. Wu Xiuwen staggered, nearly falling. Wu Dunru raged, “Hitting with a sucker punch, how shameless!” He used the boxing techniques Guo Jing had taught and struck at Yang Guo’s waist. Yang Guo, not knowing how to dodge, took the hit. Seeing Wu Dunru follow up with a flying kick, a flash of inspiration struck him, he recalled the move Guo Jing had been teaching the Wu brothers the day before. He crouched slightly on his right leg and used his left hand to lift Wu Dunru’s right calf from below. This was precisely the grappling technique “Removing the Beam and Changing the Pillar,” one of the skills of Quan Jinfa,⁸ the “Marketplace Hero.”⁹ Though not an especially profound martial art, it was quite practical in combat. Guo Jing had made the brothers practise it repeatedly the day before, and they had indeed learned it, but when it came to actually using it, they were far less nimble and skilful than Yang Guo, who had only watched in secret for a moment. With this forceful lift, Wu Dunru was sent flying far away.

Wu Xiuwen, already furious from the punch to his eye, grew even angrier seeing his brother thrown. He lunged forward, feinting with his left fist. Yang Guo dodged to the left, not knowing this was a rather basic boxing technique, feint first, strike second. Wu Xiuwen followed with a real right punch, and with a thud, it landed heavily on Yang Guo’s right cheekbone. Wu Dunru scrambled up and joined the attack. The two brothers already had a foundation in martial arts, and Yang Guo had been no match for them before. Add to that several months of Guo Jing’s instruction, how could he possibly hold his own now? After fighting for a while, he had taken seven or eight blows to his head, face, waist, and back. Yang Guo steeled his heart: “Even if you beat me to death, I won’t run.” He threw wild punches, straight up and down, with no form or technique whatsoever.

Wu Xiuwen, seeing Yang Guo gnashing his teeth and fighting with desperate abandon, began to feel afraid. Since they already had the upper hand, he had no desire to continue. He called out, “You’ve already lost. We’ll spare you, no need to fight anymore.” Yang Guo shouted, “Who wants your mercy?” He charged forward, striking wildly at his face. Wu Xiuwen blocked with his left arm and grabbed the front of Yang Guo’s shirt with his right, pulling him forward. At that moment, Wu Dunru drove both fists into Yang Guo’s lower back. Yang Guo lost his footing and fell forward. Wu Dunru pressed both hands against his head and demanded, “Do you submit?” Yang Guo raged, “Who submits to a mad dog like you?” Wu Dunru, enraged, pushed Yang Guo’s face straight down into the sand, shouting, “If you won’t submit, I’ll suffocate you!”

Yang Guo’s eyes, nose, and mouth filled with sand. He could not breathe, and after another moment, his whole body felt as though it would burst. Wu Dunru pressed down on his head with both hands, and Wu Xiuwen sat astride his neck. Yang Guo struggled but could not break free. Just as the suffocation became unbearable, the neili he had been cultivating from Ouyang Feng’s teachings suddenly surged. He felt a burst of hot qi rise from his dantian,¹⁰ and without knowing how, his entire body was suddenly filled with energy. He burst upward, and before he could even open his eyes, he thrust out both palms.

The strike landed squarely on Wu Xiuwen’s abdomen. With a great cry, Wu Xiuwen was sent flying, landing on his back, and immediately lost consciousness. This palm force was Ouyang Feng’s ultimate technique, the Toad Stance Skill. Though its power was not even half a tenth of Ouyang Feng’s divine skill, and Yang Guo did not know how to properly wield it, the fact that it erupted spontaneously in a moment of crisis was still more than Wu Xiuwen could withstand.

Wu Dunru rushed over and saw his brother lying motionless, eyes rolled back. Thinking Yang Guo had killed him, he was terrified. He screamed, “Shifu! Shifu! My brother is dead! My brother is dead!” Wailing and crying, he ran back to report to Guo Jing. Guo Fu, frightened, hurried after him.

Yang Guo spat the sand from his mouth and wiped the grit from his eyes. He felt utterly drained of strength, even moving a single step was impossibly difficult. He saw Wu Xiuwen lying still and heard Wu Dunru screaming, “My brother is dead!” His mind went blank. He did not know what had really happened, but he knew that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. Yet he had no strength to flee.

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Footnotes

1. 妙手书生 – Miàoshǒu Shūshēng. Skilful Hand Scholar, the nickname of Zhu Cong, the second of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. ↩

2. 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎 – Yǒu péng zì yuǎnfāng lái, bù yì lè hū. Famous line from the Analects of Confucius, expressing joy at a friend’s arrival from afar. ↩

3. 论语 – Lúnyǔ. Analects, one of the Four Books of Confucianism, recording the teachings and conversations of Confucius. It has been the foundational text of Chinese education for over two millennia. ↩

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. 孟子 – Mèngzǐ. Mencius, another of the Four Books, recording the teachings of the Confucian philosopher Mencius. Huang Rong’s choice to teach these texts reflects her hope that classical moral education might shape Yang Guo’s character. ↩

6. 托梁换柱 – Tuō Liáng Huàn Zhù. Literally removing the beam and changing the pillar, a grappling technique of Quan Jinfa of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. Name evokes the idiom of secretly substituting one thing for another. ↩

7. 五行 (Wǔxíng). “Five Elements” or “Five Phases”: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. They interact through cycles of mutual generation and mutual overcoming, forming the basis of Chinese cosmology, medicine, and strategic thought. ↩

8. 全金发 – Quán Jīnfā. One of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, known as the Marketplace Hero. Trader by profession, his fighting style incorporated practical, street-smart techniques. ↩

9. 闹市侠隐 – Nàoshì Xiáyǐn. Marketplace Hero, the nickname of Quan Jinfa, reflecting his background as a trader who concealed his martial arts skill in plain sight. ↩

10. 丹田 – dāntián. Literally cinnabar field. Primary energy centre below the navel, where qi is stored and cultivated. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩