The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 7 – Part 6

Xiaolongnü felt that living so peacefully and steadily, nothing else in the world could compare. But she thought of his longing for the world of mortals and knew she could not keep him tethered forever in these desolate mountains. So she said, “Guoer, though our martial arts are now far beyond what they once were, compared with your Uncle Guo and Aunt Guo, how do we stand?” Yang Guo said, “Naturally we are still far behind. But you and they each probably have your own strengths.” Xiaolongnü said, “Your Uncle Guo has passed his skills on to his daughter and to the Wu brothers. When we meet them in the future, we will still suffer their bullying.”

At these words, Yang Guo leapt up. “If they bully me again, how could I ever let it pass?” he said angrily. Xiaolongnü said coolly, “But you cannot beat them. So it is still useless.” Yang Guo said, “Then you will help me.” Xiaolongnü said, “I cannot defeat your Aunt Guo. Still useless.” Yang Guo lowered his head and was silent, pondering a strategy. After thinking for a while, he said, “For Uncle Guo’s sake, I will simply not quarrel with them.” Xiaolongnü thought to herself, He has lived in the tomb for over two years and trained in the Ancient Tomb School’s inner arts. To think his fiery temper would diminish so greatly, that is quite rare. In truth, Yang Guo had simply grown older and understood more of the world’s ways. He recalled how Guo Jing¹ had treated him with genuine warmth, and his heart was filled with gratitude. He was willing to yield a step for Guo Jing’s sake. Besides, his grievances with Guo Fu² and the Wu brothers were no deep-seated enmity, merely childhood squabbles and fights over crickets. Looking back now, they had long since faded to indifference.

Xiaolongnü said, “It is best if you are willing not to compete with others. But from what you have told me, once we are outside, even if you are willing to yield to others, they will still come to bully you. If we do not master the skills left behind by Wang Chongyang, when we encounter someone of high martial ability, we will still be unable to withstand them in the end.” Yang Guo knew she was rather unwilling to leave this quiet, secluded place and could not bear to go against her wishes. He said, “Gugu, I will listen to you. Starting tomorrow, we shall begin training in the Nine Yin Manual.”

Because of this conversation, the two of them stayed in the valley for more than another year. Xiaolongnü and Yang Guo re-entered the tomb through the secret passage and spent several days reading and memorising Wang Chongyang’s legacy engravings until they were flawless, then came back out to train. Over the course of more than a year, both master and disciple advanced greatly in internal and external skills alike. But Wang Chongyang’s legacy engravings in the tomb were only the methods for countering the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra, merely a small portion of the Nine Yin Manual. They did not even know of the most important portion, the general principles written in Sanskrit transliteration. Thus what the two of them learned was, after all, still far inferior to what Guo Jing and Huang Rong³ had mastered. But this was something the two of them had no way of knowing.

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One day, after finishing their martial training, both felt they had made great progress. Yang Guo jumped up and down, thoroughly delighted. But Xiaolongnü was sombre and unhappy. Yang Guo kept telling jokes to cheer her up, but Xiaolongnü remained silent. Yang Guo knew that by now they had learned all the skills from Wang Chongyang’s legacy engravings. As for achieving complete integration and mastery, he had no idea how many months and years that would take, but the essential secrets and subtleties had all been understood. As long as they continued training in the future, the deeper their skill, the greater its power would be. He surmised that Xiaolongnü did not wish to descend the mountain but had no excuse to keep them there, and that this was the source of her distress. He said, “Gugu, if you do not wish to go down the mountain, then we shall stay here forever.” Xiaolongnü said joyfully, “That would be wonderful…” She spoke only three words, then stopped. She knew clearly that even if Yang Guo reluctantly stayed for her sake, he could never be truly happy in his heart. She said quietly, “We will speak of it tomorrow.” She did not eat dinner and returned to her little thatched hut to sleep.

Yang Guo sat on the grass, lost in thought for a long while, until the moon rose from behind the mountain. Only then did he return to his hut to sleep. He slept until midnight, when in his dreams he faintly heard the sound of rushing wind, urgent and fierce, unlike anything ordinary. He started awake and listened carefully. It was the sound of fist wind and palm force, someone was fighting. He hurriedly rushed out of his hut and ran to his master’s hut. In a low voice he said, “Gugu, did you hear that?”

By now the palm wind was roaring even louder. By all reason, Xiaolongnü must have heard it, but there was no answer from within the hut. Yang Guo called out twice more, then pushed open the wicker door. The sleeping platform was empty, his master had long since left. Even more alarmed, he quickly followed the sound toward the source of the palm strikes. He ran for well over ten zhang⁴ but still could not see the combatants. From the palm wind alone, he could tell that one of them was his master. The opponent’s palm wind was deep, fierce, and overpowering, their martial skill seemed to surpass even his master’s.

Yang Guo dashed forward urgently. In the moonlight he saw Xiaolongnü circling back and forth with a tall, powerfully built man. The fight was intense. Though Xiaolongnü’s body movements were light and agile, her opponent’s martial arts were terrifyingly strong. Under the enveloping force of his palms, Xiaolongnü was barely holding on. Yang Guo was horrified. He shouted, “Master, I am coming!” In two bounds he had reached their side. The moment he saw the man’s face, shock and joy mingled together. The man’s cheeks and chin were covered in a bristling beard, each hair stiff as a halberd, his face like a hedgehog. It was none other than his long-parted adopted father, Ouyang Feng.

He saw Ouyang Feng standing as immovable as a mountain, slowly cleaving out palm strike after palm strike. Xiaolongnü could only dodge, not daring to meet his palm force head-on. Yang Guo shouted, “We are all on the same side! Stop fighting!” Xiaolongnü was startled. How could this crazy, bearded man be one of our own? The moment her concentration wavered, her body movement slowed slightly. Ouyang Feng’s slanting palm shot out from beneath his elbow, a gust of fierce energy rushing straight toward her face with terrifying power. Yang Guo was horrified. He lunged forward desperately. He saw Xiaolongnü’s left palm already pressed against Ouyang Feng’s right palm and knew that his master’s internal power was far inferior to his adopted father’s. If this continued for any length of time, she would surely suffer internal injury. He immediately extended five fingers and lightly brushed Ouyang Feng’s right elbow. This was precisely the superior skill “Strumming the Five Strings”⁵ from the Nine Yin Manual that he had just learned. Though he had not yet trained it to proficiency, his point of contact was perfectly placed. Ouyang Feng’s arm went slightly numb, and the force drained from his entire body.

Xiaolongnü’s reactions were lightning fast. The moment she sensed her opponent’s power weaken, she immediately pressed her attack. In that instant, Ouyang Feng’s entire body was defenceless. Even the lightest touch of a finger would have inflicted severe injury. Yang Guo flipped his hand and seized his master’s palm, placing himself between the two of them. He laughed. “Both of you, stop. We are on the same side.” Ouyang Feng had not yet recognised him. He only felt that this youth’s martial arts were strangely high and not to be underestimated. “Who are you?” he said angrily. “What ‘same side’?”

Yang Guo knew that his adopted father had always been half-mad. He feared Ouyang Feng had already forgotten him. He shouted, “Father, it is me! It is your son!” These words were filled with deep emotion. Ouyang Feng froze. He seized Yang Guo’s hand and turned his face toward the moonlight to look. It was indeed the adopted son he had searched for everywhere over these past several years. It was only that Yang Guo had grown taller, and his martial arts were so formidable, that Ouyang Feng had not been able to recognise him at first. He immediately embraced Yang Guo and shouted wildly, “My son! I have searched for you so bitterly!” The two of them held each other tight, tears streaming down both their faces.

Xiaolongnü had always been cold and indifferent. She had thought that in this world, only Yang Guo possessed such burning passion. Now, seeing Ouyang Feng was the same, her fear of descending the mountain grew even more solemn and profound. She sat quietly to one side, dark thoughts secretly rising.

That day at the Iron Spear Temple in Jiaxing,⁶ Ouyang Feng had parted from Yang Guo. He had hidden beneath the great bell, leaving Ke Zhen’e⁷ unable to do anything about him. He had secretly circulated his divine skill to heal his internal injuries. After seven days and seven nights, his internal power had been restored. But the external injuries from Ke Zhen’e’s iron staff strikes were truly not light and were slow to heal. He pushed aside the great bell and went to an inn to recover for another twenty-some days. Only then were his internal and external injuries fully healed. He then set out to find Yang Guo. But a full month had passed. The world was vast and boundless, where could he possibly find the boy’s trail? He pondered: Nine times out of ten, the child has gone to Peach Blossom Island.⁸ He immediately procured a small boat and sailed to Peach Blossom Island. He dared not approach the island by day. Only when night fell did he land on the rear mountain. He knew he was no match for Guo Jing and Huang Rong together, and he did not know that Huang Yaoshi⁹ was not on the island. Even if his own abilities were twice what they were, he could not defeat those three. So by day he hid in the most remote, deserted caves, and every night he quietly roamed and searched. The island’s layout was ingenious, and he dared not wander carelessly.

Thus more than a year passed. It was only through his extreme caution, never daring to leave his cave by day, that his presence remained undiscovered. Then one night he overheard the Wu brothers, Wu Dunru and Wu Xiuwen, talking and learned that Guo Jing had sent Yang Guo to the Quanzhen Order to study martial arts. Ouyang Feng was overjoyed. He immediately stole a boat and left the island, hurrying to the Chongyang Palace.¹⁰ But who could have known that by then Yang Guo had already fallen out with the Quanzhen Order and entered the Tomb of the Living Dead? To the Quanzhen Order, this matter was a supreme disgrace. Everyone in the sect, high and low, absolutely refused to speak of it. Ouyang Feng could not find a single trace of information. During this time, he had scoured the lands within several hundred li¹¹ around Mount Zhongnan. But how could he have known that Yang Guo was hidden deep underground? Naturally he could not find him.

This night, by coincidence, he was passing by the valley when he suddenly saw a young woman in white, sitting with her arms around her knees beneath the moon, sighing deeply. In his half-crazed way, Ouyang Feng asked, “Hey, where is my son? Have you seen him?” Xiaolongnü shot him a sideways glance and ignored him. Ouyang Feng lunged forward and reached out to seize her arm. “Where is my son?” he shouted. Xiaolongnü saw that his strike was fierce, his martial arts higher than any she had ever seen in her life, even the masters of the Quanzhen Order were far inferior. Greatly alarmed, she hurriedly used the Small Grappling Hand technique to shake him off. Ouyang Feng had expected this grab to be certain. He had never imagined that the opponent would so lightly and skilfully break free. Without asking who she was, his left hand followed up immediately. And so the two of them began fighting without any reason at all.

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Adopted father and adopted son each recounted what had happened since their parting. Ouyang Feng’s mind was half-lucid, half-confused. He could no longer clearly recount past events, and he understood only vaguely what Yang Guo told him. He knew only that all these years Yang Guo had been training in martial arts with Xiaolongnü. He said loudly, “This little girl’s martial arts are not even as good as mine. Why train with her? Let me teach you.” Xiaolongnü, for her part, could not be bothered to argue with him. She smiled faintly at his words and walked off to one side.

Yang Guo, however, felt embarrassed. He said, “Father, my master treats me very well.” Ouyang Feng grew jealous and shouted, “She treats you well, do I not treat you well?” Yang Guo laughed. “You treat me well too. In this world, only the two of you treat me well.” Though Ouyang Feng’s words came out muddled, Yang Guo understood that over these years he had searched everywhere for him and had indeed endured untold hardship.

Ouyang Feng seized his hand and giggled foolishly. After a while, he said, “Your martial arts are not bad, but it is a pity you do not know the two greatest divine skills under heaven.” Yang Guo said, “What are they?” Ouyang Feng’s thick brows shot up. “And you call yourself a practitioner of martial arts, yet you do not know the two great divine skills of the world! What use is it taking her as your master?” Yang Guo saw how he veered between joy and rage and could not help but worry secretly. Father’s illness has deepened. Who knows when he will recover? Ouyang Feng laughed heartily. “Hey, let Father teach you. The first great divine skill is the Toad Stance, and the second is the Nine Yin Manual. Let me first teach you the introductory techniques of the Toad Stance.” He began reciting the oral formulae. Yang Guo smiled faintly. “You taught me before. Have you forgotten?” Ouyang Feng scratched his head. “So you have already learned it. Nothing could be better. Show me.”

Since entering the ancient tomb, Yang Guo had never once practised the strange skills Ouyang Feng had taught him in the past. Now, hearing him say this, he gladly complied. He had already trained in these on Peach Blossom Island. Now, applying superior neili, he immediately made them blossom with splendour. Ouyang Feng laughed. “Beautiful! Beautiful! But it is not right, looks impressive but is useless. Let me pass on all the essential secrets to you!” Thereupon he gestured wildly and talked endlessly, not caring whether Yang Guo could remember it all. He just kept talking, a passage on the Toad Stance, then a passage on the scrambled and disordered Nine Yin Manual. Yang Guo listened for a long while and felt that every sentence seemed to contain boundless subtle meaning, yet it was at once complex and strange. How could he possibly absorb so much all at once?

Footnotes

1. 郭靖 – Guō Jìng. His name meaning “tranquillity” or “pacification”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 郭芙 – Guō Fú. Her name meaning “lotus”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 黄蓉 – Huáng Róng. Her name meaning “lotus” or “hibiscus”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 丈 – zhàng. Traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.33 metres or 10.9 feet. ↩

5. 手挥五弦 – shǒu huī wǔ xián. Technique from the Nine Yin Manual, named after the gesture of strumming a five-stringed instrument. It neutralises an opponent’s force through a light, precisely placed touch. ↩

6. 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. ↩

7. 柯镇恶 – Kē Zhèn’è. His name meaning “subduing evil”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. Peach Blossom Island (桃花岛). Táohuā Dǎo. Huang Yaoshi’s island fortress, filled with ingenious mechanisms and traps. Its name comes from the peach trees that cover the island. Guo Jing and Huang Rong made it their home after their marriage. ↩

9. 黄药师 – Huáng Yàoshī. His name meaning “medicine master”. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. Chongyang Palace (重阳宫). Main temple of the Quanzhen Order on Mount Zhongnan, named after the sect’s founder Wang Chongyang. Vast complex of halls and courtyards housing hundreds of Daoist priests. ↩

11. 里 – lǐ. Traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 metres or a third of a mile. ↩