The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 7 – Part 8

“Aunt, where are you going?” Yang Guo shouted. “I’ll come with you.” Xiaolongnü turned round, tears brimming in her eyes. “If you see me again,” she said slowly, “I’m afraid… afraid I… I won’t be able to stop myself, and I’ll hardly spare your life.” “Are you angry because I learned martial arts from my adoptive father?” said Yang Guo. “Is that it?” “Why would I be angry with you for learning martial arts from someone?” said Xiaolongnü sadly. She turned and walked quickly away.

Yang Guo stood stunned, not knowing what to do. He watched her white-clad back grow smaller and smaller until at last it vanished round a bend in the mountain path, and grief welled up in him. He threw himself on the ground and wept aloud. He turned it over and over in his mind, and could not for the life of him see how he had offended his shifu. Why had she been so strange, tender and clinging one moment, bitter and unyielding the next? Why had she said she would be his “wife”, and forbidden him to call her Aunt, and said he had “changed his heart after all”? After long thought he said to himself, This must have something to do with Father. He must have offended my shifu.

Yang Guo looked all around, utterly lost. The empty mountains lay silent, and only faintly could he hear the birds. Desperate and frightened, he shouted, “Aunt, Aunt! Father, Father!” A moment later the valleys all around echoed back, “Aunt, Aunt! Father, Father!” The cries were frantic, thick with weeping.

For several years he had never been a step away from Xiaolongnü. She had been like a mother to him, and like an elder sister too. Now, all of a sudden and for no reason he could see, she had torn herself away and gone. How could it not break his heart? In his grief he very nearly dashed his head against the rocks and ended it all. But there was still hope in his heart. Shifu went away suddenly, so perhaps she’ll come back just as suddenly. Father offended her, but before long she’s bound to see I did nothing wrong, and then she’ll come back to look for me.

How could he sleep in peace that night? Every time he heard the wind stir in the hills, or an insect chirp, or a bird take wing, he thought it was Xiaolongnü coming back. He would scramble up and shout “Aunt!” and run out to meet her, and every time he was bitterly disappointed. In the end he gave up trying to sleep at all. He ran to the top of the mountain and stared out in every direction, wide-eyed, until it was broad daylight. All he saw were clouds rising from the floor of the valley and mist veiling the peaks. Heaven and earth stretched vast and empty, and there was only Yang Guo, alone.

---

Yang Guo beat his breast and howled. Then suddenly he thought, If Shifu won’t come back, I’ll go and find her. As long as I can see her, however she beats me or scolds me, I’ll never leave her. If she wants to beat me to death, then let her beat me to death. With his mind made up, his spirits soared at once. He bundled up Xiaolongnü’s clothes and things and his own any old how, slung the pack on his back, and strode out of the mountains.

As soon as he came to where people lived he began asking whether anyone had seen a beautiful girl in white. In the greater part of a day he asked more than a dozen villagers, one after another, and they all shook their heads and said they had seen no such person. Yang Guo grew anxious, and when he asked again his words were none too polite. The hill folk saw a young fellow blundering about asking after some pretty girl, and they were annoyed from the start. One of them asked him back what the girl was to him. “That’s none of your business,” said Yang Guo. “I’m only asking whether you’ve seen her come this way.” The man was about to give him a sharp answer when an old man beside him tugged his sleeve, pointed to a small path to the east and said with a smile, “Last night I saw a beauty like a fairy going east. I took her for the Bodhisattva Guanyin¹ come down to earth, but it seems she’s your sweetheart, young brother…” Yang Guo did not wait for him to finish. He bowed his thanks and hurried off down the path the old man had pointed to. He heard a roar of laughter behind him, but paid it no attention. How was he to know that the old man, seeing how rude the youngster was, had made it all up to fool him?

He had run for about as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea when the path forked in front of him, and he did not know which way to go. He thought, Aunt doesn’t like noise and bustle. She’ll most likely have taken the lonelier road. So he set off along the rough little path on the left. But the path grew wider and wider the further he went, and after a few turns it brought him out onto a highway. He had not had a drop of water or a grain of rice for a whole day and night. Night was falling, his stomach was rumbling with hunger, and ahead of him houses stood in close-packed rows: a market town. He strode into an inn and called, “Bring me some food.”

The inn boy brought him a plain, homely meal. Yang Guo shovelled in a few mouthfuls, but his heart was so heavy and his throat so tight that he could not swallow. He thought, It’s dark, but I still have to go and look for Aunt. If I miss her tonight, I may never see her again. He pushed the food away. “Boy, I want to ask you something.” The inn boy came over smiling. “What can I do for you, young sir? Is the food not to your liking? I’ll have them make you something else. What would you like, young sir?”

Yang Guo waved his hands. “It isn’t the food. I’m asking you, have you seen a beautiful girl in a white robe come through here?” The inn boy pondered. “Dressed in white, eh? Was the young lady in mourning? Someone died in the family, was it?” Yang Guo could hardly contain himself. “Did you see her or not?” “There was a young lady,” said the boy, “and she was wearing a white robe, right enough…” “Which way did she go?” Yang Guo said eagerly. “That was the best part of a day ago!” said the boy. “Young sir, that one’s not a woman to tangle with…” Then he suddenly dropped his voice. “Take my advice! You’d better not go looking for her.” Yang Guo was startled and delighted at once, knowing he had found his aunt’s trail. “She… what’s happened?” he asked quickly. By the time the question was out, his voice was shaking.

“First let me ask you something,” said the inn boy. “Do you know that young lady knows martial arts?” Yang Guo thought, Of course I know. “I know,” he said quickly. “She knows martial arts.” “Then why go looking for her?” said the boy. “It’s dangerous, mighty dangerous.” “What on earth happened?” said Yang Guo. “First you tell me,” said the boy, “what’s that beauty in white to you?” Yang Guo had no choice. It looked as if the fellow would never tell him where Xiaolongnü had gone unless he gave him some news first. “She’s my… my elder sister,” he said. “I have to find her.” At that the boy’s face filled with respect, but then he shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it, doesn’t look like it.” Yang Guo lost his temper and seized him by the front of his coat. “Are you going to talk or not?” The boy stuck out his tongue. “Yes, yes, now that looks like it!”

“What’s all this ‘doesn’t look like it’ and ‘looks like it’?” Yang Guo barked. “Young sir, let go first,” said the boy. “You’ve got my windpipe squeezed shut. Heh heh, I can’t get a word out. Mind you, I could force them out if I had to, but…” Yang Guo saw that the fellow was simply made that way, and using force on him would get nowhere, so he let go. The inn boy coughed a few times. “Young sir, I said it didn’t look like it because that wom… that gir… heh heh, your elder sister, she looks younger and prettier than you, more like a little sister than a big one. And I said it looked like it because you’ve both got a fiery streak, the same hot temper that’s quick with fists and cudgels.” Yang Guo was overjoyed, and his face broke into a grin. “My… my elder sister got into a fight?”

“Didn’t she just?” said the boy. “Not only fought, she hurt people too. Look here, look.” He pointed to several gashes hacked into the table by blades, and said proudly, “Now that was a close thing. Your elder sister’s a terror. One slash, and off came the ears of two Daoist gentlemen.” Yang Guo laughed. “What Daoist gentlemen?” He thought, It must be those ox-nosed² Daoists of the Quanzhen Order³ getting a lesson from my aunt. “It was those…” the boy began. At that his face changed completely. He ducked his head, turned and went.

Yang Guo guessed something was afoot. He did not go after him, but picked up his rice bowl and raised his chopsticks and shovelled rice into his mouth, looking out over the bowl. Two Adepts were coming in side by side through the inn door. Both were twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, and both had their cheeks bound up in bandages. They came over and sat down at the table next to Yang Guo’s. One of them, an Adept with thick, bushy eyebrows, kept calling for wine and food to be brought quickly. The inn boy came over smiling, and when no one was looking he winked at Yang Guo and twisted his mouth. Yang Guo pretended not to see and kept his head down, eating hard. Now that he had news of Xiaolongnü he was in high spirits, and he ate one bowl and then had another. He was wearing the coarse cloth clothes Xiaolongnü had sewn for him. They had been plain to begin with, and after a day and a night of hard travelling he was covered in dust, no different from any country boy. The two Daoists never even glanced at him, and talked between themselves in low voices.

Yang Guo deliberately slurped and chomped his food noisily, but all his attention was on what the two Adepts were saying.

“Pi shidi,”⁴ the thick-browed Adept was saying, “do you think the two gentlemen, Han and Chen, are sure to get here tonight?” The other Adept had a very large mouth and a hoarse, rasping voice. “Those two are men of iron in the Beggars’ Guild,⁵” he growled, “and they owe Shen shishu⁶ their lives, and he owes them his. With Shen shishu asking them himself, there’s no way they won’t come.” Yang Guo stole a sidelong glance at their faces. He did not know them. He thought, There are thousands of ox-noses in the Chongyang Palace. I don’t know them, but every one of them knows me, the boy who rebelled against the Quanzhen Order. I mustn’t let them get a good look at me. Hmph, they couldn’t beat my aunt, so now they’re calling in a couple of beggars from the Beggars’ Guild to help them. “Maybe they’ve too far to come and won’t make it tonight…” the thick-browed Adept was saying. “Hmph, Ji shixiong,”⁷ said the Adept surnamed Pi, “it’s gone this far, and there’s no use worrying any more. She’s only a woman. How much can she really do…” “Drink up,” the Adept surnamed Ji said quickly. “Let’s not talk about that.” He called the inn boy and told him to get a good room ready. The two of them would spend the night at the inn.

From the few sentences that had passed between them, Yang Guo reckoned that as long as he kept close to these two Adepts he would find his aunt. At the thought his heart filled with boundless joy. He waited until the two had gone into their room, then had the inn boy make up a small room for him next door.

The inn boy lit the lamp and whispered in Yang Guo’s ear, “Young sir, you mind yourself. Your elder sister cut off those two Daoist gentlemen’s ears. They’ll be out for revenge, sure as anything.” “My elder sister has the sweetest temper in the world,” Yang Guo whispered back. “Why would she cut off anybody’s ears?” The boy gave a sly, knowing smile and lowered his voice. “She’s sweet to you, of course. To other folk, not so sweet. Your elder sister was eating here in the inn… heh heh, is she really your elder sister? I can’t quite believe it. Well, say she is. That Daoist gentleman sat down beside her and just took a few too many looks at her legs, and your elder sister flared up, drew her jian and went for him…” He was rattling on and would have kept going, but Yang Guo heard the lamp go out next door. He waved hastily to tell him to hold his tongue, and fumed inwardly, Those two stinking Daoists must have seen how beautiful Aunt is and kept staring at her and made her angry. Hmph, is there a single good man in the Quanzhen Order? He also thought, Aunt once went to the Chongyang Palace to fight, so those two Daoists must have recognised her. The faces they made then can’t have been a pretty sight.

When the inn boy had gone he blew out the lamp and lay down on the kang. He was determined not to sleep that night. Silently he recited the secret formulae of the two great divine skills Ouyang Feng had taught him, but they were extremely profound to begin with, and Ouyang Feng had told them all back to front and in such a muddle that at most he could remember two or three parts in ten. He dared not think too deeply about them now, for fear of growing so absorbed that he missed what was happening next door.

He kept his silent watch until the middle of the night. Suddenly there came two soft thuds in the courtyard: someone had leapt in over the wall. Then the window of the next room creaked open. “Is it the two gentlemen, Han and Chen?” asked the Adept surnamed Ji. “It is,” said a voice in the courtyard. “Please come in!” said Adept Ji. He opened the door softly and lit the oil lamp. Yang Guo listened with all his attention as the four of them talked.

“We, Ji Qingxu and Pi Qingxuan, pay our respects to the two heroes, Han and Chen,” Ji was saying. Yang Guo thought, The Quanzhen Order names its generations by the four characters Chu, Zhi, Qing and Jing. These two ox-noses are fourth-generation Quanzhen disciples. I wonder which old ox they come from, Hao Datong’s line or Liu Chuxuan’s.⁸ A man with a shrill voice said, “We got your Shen shishu’s letter and rode here without stopping. Is that little hussy really so formidable?” “To our shame,” said Ji Qingxu, “the two of us fought her once and were no match for her.”

“What school does the woman’s martial arts come from?” the man asked. “Shen shishu suspects she’s an heir of the Ancient Tomb School,”⁹ said Ji Qingxu. “That’s why, young as she is, she’s so very skilled.” When Yang Guo heard the words “Ancient Tomb School” he could not help giving a soft snort.

“But when Shen shishu mentioned the Ancient Tomb School,” Ji Qingxu went on, “the little minx spoke of the Scarlet Serpent Immortal, Li Mochou, with contempt, so then it seems she isn’t.” “In that case,” said the man, “I don’t suppose she’s anyone much. Where do we meet tomorrow? How many have they got?” “Shen shishu and the woman agreed to meet tomorrow at noon in Jackal Wolf Valley, forty li¹⁰ south-west of here,” said Ji Qingxu, “and settle it by a martial contest. How many they have we don’t know yet. But with you two heroes of the Beggars’ Guild, Han and Chen, to hold the line and lend us your fists, we needn’t fear their numbers.” “Good,” said another man, with an old, weathered voice. “The two of us will be there at noon tomorrow. Brother Han, let’s go.”

Ji Qingxu saw them to the door and said, lowering his voice, “This place isn’t far from the Chongyang Palace. Our Grand Shifus¹¹ Ma, Liu, Qiu and Wang in the Palace mustn’t get wind of this contest, or we’ll be severely punished.” The man surnamed Han gave a hearty laugh. “Your Shen shishu said as much in his letter. Otherwise, with the Chongyang Palace full of masters, why would he call on two outsiders like us for help?” “Don’t worry,” said the one surnamed Chen. “We’ll not breathe a word of it. And never mind the six Perfected Ones, Ma, Liu, Qiu, Wang, Hao and Sun,¹² I’d say it won’t do for your other shibos and shishus to find out either.” The two Daoists agreed as one. Yang Guo thought, They’re ganging up to bully my aunt, and yet they’re afraid the rest of their Order will find out. Hmph, skulking about like thieves with guilty consciences.

The four of them talked over a few more things in low voices, then Han and Chen went over the wall, and Ji Qingxu and Pi Qingxuan saw them out over it.

Footnotes

1. Guanyin (观音). Bodhisattva of Compassion, known in Sanskrit as Avalokiteshvara. In Chinese folk belief, Guanyin is often depicted as a beautiful woman in white robes. ↩

2. 牛鼻子 – niú bízi. Literally ox-nose, a derogatory term for Daoist priests, alluding to the topknot that resembles an ox’s nose. ↩

3. Quanzhen Order (全真教). Major Daoist school founded by Wang Chongyang. In Jin Yong’s wuxia universe, it is one of the most powerful martial schools, based at the Chongyang Palace on Mount Zhongnan. Its seven senior disciples are known as the Seven Masters of Quanzhen. ↩

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

5. Beggars’ Guild (丐帮). Gài Bāng. Largest and most widespread martial arts faction in the jianghu, whose members are beggars. Despite their humble appearance, the guild is a formidable force with strict codes of honour. Huang Rong served as its chief. ↩

6. 师叔 – shīshū. Junior lineage uncle. Shidi or shimei of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Shū means father’s younger brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

8. Hao Datong (郝大通) and Liu Chuxuan (刘处玄). Two of the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, disciples of Wang Chongyang. Hao Datong was the one who accidentally killed Granny Sun. ↩

9. Ancient Tomb School (古墓派). Gǔmù Pài. Martial arts School founded by Lin Chaoying within the Tomb of the Living Dead. Its martial arts emphasise lightness, speed, and unpredictability, designed to counter the Quanzhen Order’s techniques. ↩

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

11. 师祖 – shīzǔ. Grand Shifu. Literally teacher-ancestor. The shifu of one’s own shifu, two rungs up the lineage. ↩

12. Six Masters (马刘丘王郝孙). Referring to the six surviving disciples of Wang Chongyang: Ma Yu (马钰), Liu Chuxuan (刘处玄), Qiu Chuji (丘处机), Wang Chuyi (王处一), Hao Datong (郝大通), and Sun Buer (孙不二). Together with the late Tan Chuduan (谭处端), they were known as the Seven Masters of Quanzhen. ↩