The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 5 – Part 5

Yang Guo knew what she wanted. He bent and put his ear close to her lips. “Granny, do you have something to tell me?” he whispered. “You… bend down lower,” said Granny Sun. Yang Guo bent lower still, until his ear touched her lips. “Your Aunt Long has no one to lean on,” Granny Sun whispered. “You… you… must also… look after her… all her life…” At that her breath would come no more. Blood suddenly burst from her mouth, spattering half of Yang Guo’s face and the front of his clothes with spots of red, and with that she closed her eyes and died. “Granny, Granny!” Yang Guo cried. His grief was more than he could bear, and he threw himself on her body and howled.

The Daoists standing by were all moved to pity, and Hao Datong was more remorseful than any of them. He stepped forward and bowed to Granny Sun’s body. “Granny, I hurt you by mischance. It was never my intention. The sin of it has fallen on my head, but it was also your fate to meet this calamity. Go in peace!” Xiaolongnü stood by without a word. When he had finished, the two of them stood face to face.

After a long while Xiaolongnü frowned. “Well? You’re not going to cut your own throat to make amends? Must I do it for you?” Hao Datong was taken aback. “What?” “A life for a life,” said Xiaolongnü. “Cut your own throat and have done with it, and I’ll spare the lives of every Daoist in your temple.” Before Hao Datong could answer, the Daoists around him broke into an uproar. By now thirty or forty of them had gathered in the Great Hall, and they all berated her. “Little girl, go away now, and we won’t make trouble for you.” “What drivel! He cuts his throat and has done, and she spares the lives of every Daoist in the temple?” “A slip of a girl who doesn’t know her own limits.” Hearing the clamour, Hao Datong hastily waved them to silence.

Xiaolongnü seemed not to hear a word the Daoists said. Slowly she drew from her robe a bundle of something like icy gauze. She parted her hands and with her right drew a piece of white gauze over her left. It was a glove. Then she put a glove on her right hand too. “Old Daoist,” she said softly, “since you’re so greedy for life and afraid of death that you won’t cut your own throat, take out your weapon and fight!”

Hao Datong gave a wretched smile. “I hurt Granny Sun by mischance, and I’ve no wish to quarrel with you as well. Take Yang Guo and leave the temple.” Xiaolongnü might be famous throughout the world for driving off Prince Huodu, he thought, but in the end she owed it to nothing more than a swarm of jade bees. Young as she was, even if her martial arts held some secret of their own, she could hardly be stronger than Granny Sun. To let her take Yang Guo away would honour the friendship between the past generations of their two schools and keep the peace. And having killed Granny Sun by mischance, he was truly uneasy at heart, and could only give way to her as far as he could.

Xiaolongnü, however, still seemed not to hear him at all. Her left hand flicked lightly, and a white silk ribbon suddenly lashed out straight at Hao Datong’s face. It came without a sound and without the least warning, and in the candlelight he saw a golden ball tied to the end of it. Her attack was swift and her weapon very strange, and Hao Datong, old and steady in his ways, was unwilling to meet it rashly, confident though he was that his martial skill was far above hers. He dodged away to the left.

But Xiaolongnü’s ribbon could turn in mid-air. As Hao Datong leapt to the left, the ribbon swung left after him. Three tinkling chimes rang out in quick succession as the golden ball quivered three times, striking at three acupoints¹ on his face, Yingxiang,² Chengqi³ and Renzhong.⁴ The speed of those three strikes and the precision of their aim were martial skill of the first rank in the wulin. And the golden ball gave out a tinkling sound, not loud, but very strange, that set heart and soul shaking as it entered the ear. Hao Datong had never expected it. In great alarm he threw himself into an Iron Board Bridge,⁵ bending his body backwards, and the ribbon flashed past a few inches from his face. Fearing that the golden ball would come down on him next, and so pure and supple was his skill, even as he bent back he suddenly shifted his whole body three feet to one side. This too took Xiaolongnü by surprise, and with a clang the golden ball struck the ground. Her golden ball came at the acupoints one strike after another without a break, yet in his moment of peril Hao Datong had slipped them with a clever move. The ribbon and golden ball in Xiaolongnü’s left hand swept slowly through the air. Had she seized the chance to strike again, Hao Datong could never have avoided it, but she did not follow up. Plainly she was holding her hand.

Hao Datong straightened up, his face already a different colour. The Daoists around him were all either his disciples or his shizhi,⁶ and they had always held his martial skill in the highest regard. To see him, unhurt though he was, dodge that move so clumsily left them all aghast. Four Daoists levelled their long jians and thrust at Xiaolongnü. “That’s right,” said Xiaolongnü. “You should have used weapons from the start!” She swung both hands together, and two white silk ribbons wriggled out like water snakes. There were two tinkling chimes, then two more, and the golden balls had struck the Lingdao⁷ acupoints on the four Daoists’ wrists. Clang, clang, and four long jians lay on the ground. With that first stroke she had broken their nerve. Every Daoist’s face changed colour, and none dared make another move.

Hao Datong had at first assumed that Xiaolongnü’s martial skill was probably nothing special. Instead, the moment they crossed hands she had all but beaten him, and his fighting spirit rose in spite of himself. He took a long jian from one of his disciples. “Miss Long, your skill is formidable, and I was remiss in my respect. Come, come, come, let me learn from your fine moves.” Xiaolongnü nodded. With a tinkling chime, the white silk ribbon swept across from left to right.

By seniority Hao Datong stood a generation above her, and when it came to blows Xiaolongnü ought to have shown respect for her elder and given him the first three moves. But she had gone for the kill from the start, without a thought for any rule of the wulin. Hao Datong thought, This girl’s martial skill is not weak, but she seems to know nothing at all. Plainly she’s hardly ever faced a real opponent. However strong she is, she can’t be all that strong. With his left hand pinched into the jian seal and his right swinging his long jian, he set about trading moves with her pair of white silk ribbons.

The Daoists ringed them round, watching intently. In the wavering candlelight they saw a girl in white and an old Daoist in a grey robe, ribbons flying like rainbows, jian flashing like lightning, a fair young face against white hair, and the fight grew fiercer and fiercer.

Hao Datong had put decades of winters and summers into the jian in his hand, and in swordsmanship alone he could be counted third or fourth in the Quanzhen Order. Yet after dozens of rolling, tumbling exchanges with this little girl, he had not gained the slightest advantage. Xiaolongnü’s twin ribbons writhed like living serpents, wheeling wherever she willed, and the two golden balls kept up their tinkling, unsettling the mind and spirit. Hao Datong fought on and on without overcoming her. He was not losing, but he was a master of long and great renown in the wulin, he thought, and if he were still fighting this slip of a girl past a hundred moves, there would be no glory in it even if he won. He grew impatient. Suddenly his swordplay changed, from fast to slow. His moves came several times slower than before, but the force in his jian was several times greater too. At first his blade had had to keep clear of the ribbons, so as not to be wrapped and pulled. Now, with the power increased, it went after the ribbons to cut them.

A few moves later there was a clang as the golden ball struck the edge of the jian. Hao Datong’s neili was deep, and it flung the golden ball back towards Xiaolongnü’s face. At once he pressed his advantage. Amid the Daoists’ cheers, his blade ran in along the ribbon towards Xiaolongnü’s wrist. He was sure she would have to let go of the ribbon, or the jian would catch her wrist. But Xiaolongnü’s right hand flicked over and caught hold of the blade, and with a crack the long jian broke in two.

The Daoists cried out together in alarm. Hao Datong leapt back and stood dumbfounded, half a broken jian in his hand. How could he have guessed that her gloves were woven of platinum thread, extremely fine and extremely tough, a treasure handed down from her Grand Shifu?⁸ Light, soft and thin as they were, no blade or spear could pierce them, and even the keenest treasured blade could hardly harm them. She had seized the blade without warning, and then snapped it with a deft twist of strength.

Hao Datong was deathly pale. In the shock of so crushing a defeat, it never occurred to him that her gloves might hold so clever a secret. He took it that she had truly mastered some supreme art that made her proof against blade and spear. “Very well, very well, very well,” he said, his voice shaking. “I admit defeat. Miss Long, take the boy and go.” “You killed Granny Sun,” said Xiaolongnü, “and you think saying ‘I admit defeat’ settles it?” Hao Datong threw back his head and gave a hollow laugh. “I truly have grown old and foolish!” he said wretchedly, and raised the broken jian to draw it across his own throat.

Suddenly there was a clang and a violent jolt ran through his hand. A copper coin had flown in from beyond the wall and knocked the broken jian to the ground. With neili as deep as Hao Datong’s, to knock a jian out of his hand was no easy thing. He gave a start. From the skill of this coin dart that struck the jian, he knew that his shixiong Qiu Chuji had come. He raised his head and called out, “Qiu shixiong,⁹ I am useless, and I have shamed our Order. Do as you see fit.” Outside the wall someone gave a long, ringing laugh. “Winning and losing are everyday matters. If a man had to cut his throat every time he lost a fight, your shixiong could have had eighteen heads and they would all be gone by now.” The voice was still in the air when Qiu Chuji, long jian in hand, leapt in over the wall.

Bold and open-hearted to the core, Qiu Chuji thrust his long jian straight at Xiaolongnü’s arm. “Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen school asks his honoured neighbour for instruction.” “You’re a straightforward one, old Daoist,” said Xiaolongnü. Her left hand shot out and caught hold of Qiu Chuji’s long jian too. “Shixiong, look out!” cried Hao Datong in alarm. But it was already too late. Xiaolongnü put her strength into her hand and Qiu Chuji drove his power through the blade, strength against strength, and with a crack the long jian broke again. But the shock left Xiaolongnü’s arm numb and aching, and a dull pain throbbed in her chest. In that single move she knew that Qiu Chuji’s martial skill was far above Hao Datong’s, and that, not having mastered the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra,¹⁰ the secret art of her School, she could not beat him. She flung the broken jian to the ground, tucked Granny Sun’s body under her left arm, caught up Yang Guo in her right, pushed off with both feet and rose into the air, floating lightly out over the wall.

Qiu Chuji, Hao Datong and the others, seeing her suddenly show such qinggong,¹¹ could only stare at one another aghast. Qiu and Hao had both crossed hands with her and knew that, refined as her martial skill was, it still fell short of their own, but qinggong of that order they had truly never seen. Hao Datong heaved a long sigh. “Enough, enough!” “Hao shidi,¹²” said Qiu Chuji, “have all your years of cultivating the Dao been for nothing, that you can’t see past one little setback? Didn’t a few of us brothers of the school end up with dust on our faces in Shanxi this time too?” “What?” said Hao Datong in alarm. “Wasn’t anyone hurt?” “It’s a long story,” said Qiu Chuji. “Let’s go and see Ma shixiong.”

Li Mochou had wounded Lu Liding¹³ and several others at Jiaxing,¹⁴ in Jiangnan,¹⁵ and then gone far off to Shanxi, where she wounded several more men of valour in the north of the province. At last public outrage was roused. The leader of the local wulin sent out heroes’ invitations far and wide, calling on his fellows to rise against her together, and the Quanzhen Order received an invitation too. Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji and the others talked it over at the time, and all agreed that, for all the evil Li Mochou had done, her Grand Shifu had had deep ties with their late shifu Chongyang, and it would be best to mediate and leave her a road to mend her ways. So Liu Chuxuan¹⁶ and Sun Buer¹⁷ set out north together. But Li Mochou moved in secret, now here, now gone, and Liu and Sun could do nothing with her. Instead she wounded several more brave men of southern and northern Shanxi.

Footnotes

1. 穴位 – xuéwèi. Acupoints: specific points on the body where qi can be manipulated. Striking or sealing acupoints can cause paralysis or unconsciousness; the art is called dianxue. See Wikipedia. ↩

2. 迎香穴 – Yíngxiāng Xué. Literally welcoming fragrance. An acupoint beside the wing of the nose on the large intestine meridian. See Wikipedia. ↩

3. 承泣穴 – Chéngqì Xué. Literally receiving tears. An acupoint directly below the eye on the stomach meridian. See Wikipedia. ↩

4. 人中穴 – Rénzhōng Xué. Literally human centre. An acupoint in the groove between the nose and the upper lip, on the governing vessel. See Wikipedia. ↩

5. 铁板桥 – Tiěbǎn Qiáo. Literally iron-plank bridge. Defensive technique in which the practitioner bends backward from the waist until the body is nearly parallel to the ground, like a bridge, to evade an attack. ↩

6. 师侄 – shīzhí. Lineage nephew or niece. Disciple of one’s shixiong, shijie, shidi, or shimei. Shī means teacher. Zhí means nephew or niece. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 灵道穴 – Língdào Xué. Literally spirit path. An acupoint on the inner wrist on the heart meridian. See Wikipedia. ↩

8. 师祖 – shīzǔ. Literally master’s ancestor. The shifu of one’s own shifu, two rungs up the lineage. ↩

9. 师兄 – shīxiōng. Male senior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Xiōng means older brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 玉女心经 – Yùnǚ Xīnjīng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

12. 师弟 – shīdì. Male junior. Both apprenticed to the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Dì means younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 陆立鼎 – Lù Lìdǐng. His name meaning “establishing the tripod”, a metaphor for laying a stable foundation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 嘉兴 – Jiāxīng. City in northern Zhejiang Province, known for its South Lake and its role as a key location in Jin Yong’s novels. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

16. 刘处玄 – Liú Chǔxuán. One of the Seven Zis of Quanzhen, a disciple of Wang Chongyang. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 孙不二 – Sūn Bù’èr. Her name meaning “not two”, signifying non-duality. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩