The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 6 – Part 11

Xiaolongnü drew back her left ribbon and sent out the right, pressing in with several moves in quick succession, her two silk ribbons soaring and coiling in the air. Li Mochou was as startled as she was angry, and thought, Shifu really did play favourites. When did she ever teach me this? But she judged she could hold her off well enough, and there was no need to strike to kill just yet. For one thing, she still did not have the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra, and if she killed her, it would be very hard to find it in this enormous stone tomb. For another, she wanted to see just what formidable skills their shifu had handed down to her.

Hong Lingbo had always thought herself sharp and capable, and she had never dreamt she would be bested by a mere boy, made a fool of for half a day while he played the idiot, without her catching the least slip. She had been seething ever since. “Silly Egg,” she spat, “you stinking brat, you’re rotten to the core.” Her two jians stabbed left and struck right, hiss, hiss, hiss, several moves in quick succession. Yang Guo could only raise his jian and parry. At any other time he would have had a gibe ready and gone on teasing her, but now, thinking that he was about to part from Xiaolongnü, his eyes were brimming with hot tears and everything was a blur. He simply parried as the blows came, with no thought of hitting back. Hong Lingbo thrust at him several times. She could not wound him, but seeing how feebly he fought, she took him for a fighter of no account and cursed herself all the more for the carelessness that had let him strike her acupoints without her even being on her guard.

Li Mochou and her shimei had traded a dozen or more moves when her whisk flicked over and wrapped itself round Xiaolongnü’s left ribbon. “Shimei,” she laughed, “see what your big sister can do.” The force of her hand ran into it, and the ribbon snapped in two. In ordinary armed combat, to snap an opponent’s blade with one’s own was rare enough. But a horsetail whisk and a silk ribbon are both things of the utmost softness, and to snap a silk ribbon with hard force was ten times harder than snapping a blade. Having shown what she could do, Li Mochou looked very pleased with herself.

Xiaolongnü’s face did not change. “So your skill is good. What of it?” She flung out the broken half of her ribbon and wound it round the hairs of Li Mochou’s whisk, and her right ribbon flew out and wrapped itself round the wooden handle. One pulled left and the other pulled right, and with a crack the whisk broke in two. In sheer power this was far less than Li Mochou’s feat of snapping the ribbon a moment before, but it was so fast and so cleverly done that it caught Li Mochou unprepared all the same. A little startled, she threw away the whisk handle and came in bare-handed to snatch at the ribbons, driving Xiaolongnü back and back.

A dozen more moves, and Xiaolongnü had been driven back against the east wall. Seeing there was nowhere left to go, she suddenly swept her hand back across the stone wall behind her. “Guoer, go, quick!” she cried. There was a loud crack, and an opening appeared in the north-west corner. Li Mochou was taken completely by surprise and spun round to cut Yang Guo off. Xiaolongnü threw down her ribbons and flung herself on her, both palms striking to kill again and again, and Li Mochou had to turn back to defend herself. “Guoer,” Xiaolongnü shouted, “why don’t you go?”

Yang Guo looked at Xiaolongnü and knew there was no turning back. “Aunt, I’m going!” he cried. Swish, swish, swish, he thrust three times in a sudden rush, the point driving straight at Hong Lingbo’s face. Hong Lingbo had seen nothing but feeble jian moves from him all along. How could she have known his attack would suddenly turn so fierce? In her danger she could only spring back out of the way. Yang Guo ducked through the stone doorway and turned his head for one last look at Xiaolongnü.

Xiaolongnü and her shijie were fighting palm to palm with bare hands. Badly hurt as she was, since learning the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra her moves were so changeable that she could have held her own for several dozen moves. But then she saw Yang Guo’s back flicker in the doorway, and at the thought that she would never see him again, her chest went suddenly hot and her eyes stung as if the tears were about to come. She had never been moved by true feeling, yet today she had twice been close to weeping, and it frightened her badly. When masters fight palm to palm, there is no room for the slightest lapse. And besides, the little strength she had gained from Yang Guo’s blood was almost spent. Li Mochou saw her falter and at once struck into the gap. She seized the Huizong¹ acupoint on Xiaolongnü’s left wrist and hooked out with her foot, and Xiaolongnü lost her footing and fell to the floor.

Yang Guo looked back just as Xiaolongnü was tripped by her shijie, and he saw Li Mochou throw herself on her to do her harm. The blood rushed hot into his chest. “Don’t you hurt my aunt!” he shouted. He shot back in through the stone doorway, threw himself on Li Mochou from behind and locked his arms round her waist. That hug was in no school’s repertoire. It was a wild, untutored grab, made in desperation. Li Mochou’s whole mind was on seizing her shimei, and she had never expected him to come back. With his arms wrapped tight round her, for a moment she could not break free.

Savage as she was in a fight, and a law unto herself who cared nothing for convention, she had kept herself as pure as jade. For all her years roaming the jianghu she was still a virgin, and now, suddenly locked in Yang Guo’s arms, she could not help being stirred. Long ago, when Yang Guo was still a child, he had once flung his arms round her and even then it had set her heart fluttering. Now that he was older, Li Mochou felt a man’s warmth pass from her back into her heart, so that her very soul was shaken. Her whole body went weak and limp, her face flushed scarlet, and all at once the strength went out of her arms. Xiaolongnü took her chance and turned the hold round, gripping the pulse at Li Mochou’s wrist. But the point of Hong Lingbo’s jian was already at Yang Guo’s back.

Lying on her back on the floor, Xiaolongnü saw the jian coming and at once rolled to the left, dragging Yang Guo and Li Mochou along with her, so that Hong Lingbo’s thrust found nothing but air. Xiaolongnü sprang to her feet. “Guoer, get out, quick!”

Yang Guo kept his arms locked round Li Mochou’s waist. “Aunt, you get out, quick!” he cried. “I’ve got hold of her. She can’t go anywhere.” In that instant a dozen thoughts had flashed through Li Mochou’s mind. She knew how desperate things were, that life and death hung by a hair, and yet, held in his arms, she was so drunk with a sweetness beyond words that she had no wish to struggle at all. Xiaolongnü was very puzzled, With martial arts like my shijie’s, how can Guoer hold her so she can’t move? Has he got her by an acupoint? She saw Hong Lingbo thrust at Yang Guo again with the jian in her left hand, and at once put out two fingers and pushed at the flat of the jian in her right. It leapt up and struck the jian in her left hand with a clang. The webs of both Hong Lingbo’s hands went numb, and both long jians fell to the floor together. She sprang back in fright.

The two jians struck a few sparks as they met, and in that one flicker of sparks Li Mochou saw a strange look in her shimei’s eyes as she looked at her. She was deeply ashamed. “Stinking brat,” she snarled, “do you want to die?” She put her strength into her arms, wrenched herself out of Yang Guo’s embrace, sprang to her feet and struck at Xiaolongnü with her palm.

Xiaolongnü had been watching Yang Guo, and when she suddenly felt Li Mochou’s palm coming, there was no time to turn it aside with a move. She could only meet it palm to palm. Her shijie’s palm was deep and heavy, and the shock left a dull ache in her chest. Then she saw Yang Guo pick himself up and come to her help again. “Guoer,” she shouted, “you really won’t do as I say, will you?” “I’ll do whatever you say except this one thing,” said Yang Guo. “Dear Aunt, live or die, I’m staying with you. If you die, I’ll die with you! The two of us will look after each other all our lives!” Hearing the sincerity in his voice, Xiaolongnü was moved again by true feeling. She saw Li Mochou swing her palm at her once more and knew that with her strength so badly spent she could never take the blow. She ducked her head and darted aside, grabbed Yang Guo and ran out through the stone doorway.

Li Mochou followed like her shadow and clutched at her back. “Don’t go!” she cried. Xiaolongnü flung her hand back and a dozen or more Jade Bee Needles flew. Suddenly Li Mochou smelled the sweet scent of honey and knew what it meant. In terror she threw herself backwards and crashed straight into Hong Lingbo, and the two of them went down together.

There came a few faint tinkles, ding, ding, ding, as the Jade Bee Needles struck the stone wall, and then two grinding rumbles. Xiaolongnü had got out of the stone chamber with Yang Guo, worked the mechanism, and sealed the chamber door again.

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Author’s Note

In the original edition of this novel, the young Quanzhen Daoist infatuated with Xiaolongnü was named Yin Zhiping. But Yin Zhiping was a real person, a disciple of Qiu Chuji whose Daoist title was Qinghe the Perfected One, and who later served as Head of the Quanzhen Order. To show him as a man of unworthy conduct would tarnish the memory of a worthy of the past, so in the third edition the name has been changed to “Zhen Zhibing”, which sounds similar but belongs to no real person and is pure invention.

Footnotes

1. 会宗穴 – Huìzōng xué. The Huizong acupoint, located on the outer forearm. Huì means to meet, zōng means ancestor or origin. ↩