The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 8 – Part 2

Shen Zhifan said, “Since you’ve come here alone, we can’t very well fight you. We’ll give you ten days. Ten days from now, bring four helpers and meet us here.” “I told you I already have a helper,” said the maiden. “To deal with a pack of wine-sacks and rice-bags like you, why would I need anyone else?” “You little chit,” Shen Zhifan said angrily, “your arrogance really is something…” He had been about to let fly a torrent of abuse, but in the end he choked his anger back and asked, “Are you of the Ancient Tomb School¹ or not?” “And if I am? And if I’m not?” said the maiden. “Ox-nosed old Daoist,² do you dare to fight me, or don’t you?” Shen Zhifan saw that she was alone and yet perfectly unafraid, and reckoned she must have skilled fighters lying in wait close by. And Li Mochou³ of the Ancient Tomb School was not a woman to cross. “Miss,” he said, “I must ask you this. You wounded disciples of our Order for no reason at all. What was your cause? If the wrong lies on our side, I shall come to your shifu’s door and apologise. But if you cannot give a reason, miss, then don’t blame us for any discourtesy.”

But cold light flashed, the maiden gave her arm a twist, and the curved dao came hacking down. The beggar Chen was aghast and let go at once. He was quick to read the danger and quick to change his move, yet even so the edge had laid open two of his fingers. He sprang back, drew his dao and roared, “You thieving slut, you really are tired of living.” The beggar Han took a pair of chain-hammers from his waist, and Shen Zhifan bared his long jian. Ji Qingxu and Pi Qingxuan grasped their hilts too and drew, and at once felt that the weight was wrong. “Eh?” they exclaimed together, thoroughly startled: each of them was holding half a broken jian.

Seeing the two Daoists so flustered and foolish, the maiden could not help snorting with laughter. Yang Guo had been sunk in grief, but at the sound of her laugh and the sight of the two Daoists’ odd plight, he too laughed through his tears. The maiden bent low and, with a swish, sent her dao slicing at Pi Qingxuan’s head. Pi Qingxuan ducked in a hurry, but the stroke had not spent its force: with a slight flick of her wrist it turned in mid-air and caught him across the right of his forehead, and blood spurted out. The move was strange beyond measure, landing where no one could have foreseen, a classic technique of the Ancient Tomb School. The other four, shocked and furious, closed in a ring around her black donkey. Ji and Pi hung back, each holding half a broken jian. They could not bring themselves to throw the pieces away, yet the pieces were no use to hold, and they had no idea what to do with them.

The maiden gave a clear, ringing cry and jerked the reins with her left hand, and the black donkey sprang forward several dozen feet. The two beggars, Han and Chen, were after her at once, dao and hammers raised as they attacked. Shen Zhifan surged in behind them with the Quanzhen swordplay,⁴ every thrust aimed at a vital point. Fierce as his swordplay was, Yang Guo could see it fell well short of Zhen Zhibing’s or Zhao Zhijing’s. He must be a third- or fourth-rate figure of the “Zhi” generation.

His mind a little steadier now, he took a proper look at the maiden’s face. It was oval, like a melon seed, and rather pretty, and she seemed a year or two younger than he was. No wonder the attendant had not believed this “beautiful maiden in white” was his elder sister. She was dressed all in white too, but her skin had a faint yellowish cast, nothing like Xiaolongnü’s, which was whiter than snow. Her dao work was light and flowing, but for the most part it followed the ways of the jian, with more thrusts and slices than hacks and chops. Yang Guo had watched only a few moves when he thought, That’s our School’s martial art, sure enough. Could she be another disciple of Li Mochou? Neither side was any good, he reckoned, and whoever won or lost, it was no concern of his. Then he thought, And you call yourself a “beautiful maiden in white”? White, yes, your clothes are white. Maiden, yes, you’re a maiden. But “beautiful” is a load of dog farts. You’re not fit to be my aunt’s maidservant. He crooked an arm under his head, lay back and watched the fight out of the corner of his eye.

For the first ten-odd moves the girl, surprisingly, held her own. Up on the donkey she had the height on them, and wherever her curved dao swept, the five had to jump and dodge. Ten-odd moves more, and Ji Qingxu, seeing that the broken jian in his hand was really no use at all, had an idea. “Pi shidi,⁵ follow me,” he called. He ran to a thicket nearby, picked out a slim young tree, cut it off at the root with his broken jian and trimmed away the branches and leaves, and there he had something very like a staff. Pi Qingxuan cut one the same way. The two Daoists came at her from left and right, jabbing their staves at the black donkey.

The girl cried out, “Shameless!” and swept her dao round to knock both staves aside. That one moment of distraction was enough: the beggar Han’s chain-hammer and Shen Zhifan’s long jian came at her together, one in front and one behind. She threw herself into a desperate move, ducking her head and twisting sideways, and the iron hammer whipped past her face on a gust of wind. Her curved dao met the long jian with a clang. At that very moment the black donkey let out a long bray of pain and reared: Ji Qingxu had caught it with a thrust of his staff. The beggar Chen rolled along the ground in the Ground Tumbling Dao⁶ and brought the back of his dao down hard on the donkey’s leg, and the black donkey dropped to its knees. Now the girl could no longer fight from its back. Seeing jian and hammer coming at her together, she sprang into the air, caught Pi Qingxuan’s staff in her left hand and wrenched it, snapping it in two. She landed on both feet and swung her dao round to parry a cut from the beggar Chen. Yang Guo started. What? Is she already wounded?

The girl was slightly lame in her left foot and none too steady when she leapt. No doubt that was why she had refused to get off her donkey. Yang Guo’s chivalrous blood was up at once, and he was about to step in and help when he thought again, Aunt and I were living together happily in the ancient tomb, and it was only when that wicked woman Li Mochou came that everything came to this. And now this girl goes about passing herself off as my aunt, wanting people to call her “beautiful maiden in white”. She played a cruel trick on me. Shameless! He turned his head away and would not look at her.

But the ring and clash of weapons went on and on in his ears, and at last his curiosity got the better of him and he turned back to look. The fight had changed. The girl was dodging this way and that, parrying far more than she struck back. Suddenly the beggar Han flung his iron hammer. She tilted her head out of its way, just as Shen Zhifan’s long jian came slicing in, and with a faint clink it cut through one of the silver rings that bound her hair, so that half her hair came tumbling loose. Her fine brows lifted slightly, her lips moved, and at once her face turned cold, as if a hard frost had settled on it. She struck back with a backhand cut.

Seeing the anger in her raised brows and moving lips, Yang Guo felt a violent jolt in his heart. That’s just how Aunt looks when she’s cross with me. That one flash of temper was enough, and he made up his mind on the spot to help her. He picked up seven or eight pebbles and tucked them into his shirt. She was hard pressed on every side by now and in a sorry state. Shen Zhifan shouted, “What exactly are you to Li Mochou, the Scarlet Serpent Immortal? Tell the truth now, or don’t blame us for showing no mercy!” The girl swept her curved dao back across and suddenly hooked it round at the back of his head. Shen Zhifan had never expected so sudden an attack and could not parry in time. “Look out!” cried the beggar Chen. Ji Qingxu brought his staff down with all his strength on the back of the curved dao, and only that saved Shen Zhifan’s life.

Seeing how vicious her moves were, the five pressed their attack harder, and in a moment the girl was in danger after danger. Shen Zhifan reckoned she must have some tie to Li Mochou, and that wounding her would bring endless trouble. But then Quanzhen had already come to blows with Li Mochou in Shanxi, so he need not fear any blame from his shibos.⁷ And since she plainly had no one to back her, this was the moment to kill her and shut her mouth for good. So every move he made was aimed at a vital point.

Seeing that she was a moment from death, Yang Guo could wait no longer. He hauled the bull’s head round to face the six of them, swung himself up onto its back and at once slid down under its belly, hooking both feet over its back, then reached out and jabbed a finger into its rump. The bull put down its four hooves and charged straight at the six.

The six were deep in their savage fight when they suddenly saw a mad bull charging at them, and they scattered in alarm, leaping aside in every direction.

From under the bull’s belly Yang Guo marked the acupoints⁸ on the five men’s backs and flung his pebbles one after another, some striking the “Hunmen” point,⁹ some the “Shentang”.¹⁰ There came a clatter, a crack and cries of “Aiyo”, and the five men’s arms went numb, and their weapons fell from their hands. By then Yang Guo had already driven the bull back up the hillside. He rolled out from under its belly to the ground, yelling and hollering, “Aah, the big bull’s gone mad, this is terrible!”

His acupoints sealed and his weapon knocked from his grasp, without even having seen his enemy make a move, Shen Zhifan concluded that this was the work of the girl’s helper, and anyone with martial skill that high was not someone he dared go on fighting. Luckily his legs could still carry him, and he took to his heels. He had some loyalty in him, at least, for he called out, “Big Brother Chen, Brother Han, let’s go!” The others had no time to think and fled after him. Pi Qingxuan, in a blind panic and not knowing east from west, ran straight towards the girl instead. “Pi shidi, over here!” Ji Qingxu yelled.

Pi Qingxuan was about to turn when the girl stepped in and brought her curved dao chopping down. He was terrified. With no weapon in his hand, he twisted hastily aside, but the stroke seemed to go east and went west, seemed to come high and came low, and in a flash of cold light the curved dao was already at his face. In desperation Pi Qingxuan threw up a hand to block, and with a snick the curved dao sliced off three of his fingers. He had not even felt the pain yet as he turned and ran for his life.

The beggar Han had run a dozen paces or so when he saw that Lu Wushuang was not chasing him any more. The girl’s lame, he thought. How could she catch me? At the thought of her lameness he could not help glancing at her left leg before he turned and ran on. But that glance touched the very thing she could not bear. Her fury burst out past all holding, and she shouted, “Thieving beggar, you think I can’t catch you?” She whirled her curved dao round a few times and, with a whoosh, flung it. The curved dao flashed silver in mid-air and, with a thud, buried itself in the beggar Han’s left shoulder. He staggered and ran on wildly with the curved dao still sticking out of his shoulder. In moments all five had vanished into the woods.

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The girl gave a few cold laughs, her mind full of doubt. Could someone be hiding close by? And why would he help me? She was rather sorry to lose the Silver Arc Blade she was so used to, which the beggar Han had carried off. She picked up the dao the beggar Chen had dropped and, holding it ready, hurried off to search the woods round about. All was quiet. There was not a soul to be seen. She came back to the valley, to find Yang Guo sitting on the ground with a long face, wailing to heaven and earth about his bad luck.

Footnotes

1. 古墓派 – Gǔmù Pài. The Ancient Tomb 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. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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. 李莫愁 – Lǐ Mòchóu. Her name meaning “do not sorrow”. See Wuxia Wiki. The maiden gave a cold smile. “Because those two ox-noses of yours were insolent, naturally, so I taught them a lesson. Otherwise, with all the scruffy-haired Daoists under heaven, why go out of my way to slice off those two’s ears?” The more airily she carried herself, the more uneasy and suspicious Shen Zhifan grew. The beggar surnamed Chen was old, but his temper was anything but mild. He stepped forward and barked, “Little girl, you’re talking to your elders. Aren’t you going to get down off that donkey?” As he spoke he flickered forward and was already at the black donkey’s side, reaching to seize her right arm. It was blindingly fast, and the maiden had no time to dodge: he had her at once. Her dao was in her right hand, and with her right arm caught she could put no force behind a parry. ↩

4. 全真剑法 – Quánzhēn Jiànfǎ. Seven swords with seven forms, totalling forty-nine variations emphasising defence. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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

6. 地堂刀法 – dìtáng dāofǎ. Ground Tumbling Dao. A dao style of rolling and sweeping along the ground. ↩

7. 师伯 – shībó. Senior lineage uncle. Shixiong or shijie of one’s shifu. Shī means teacher. Bó means father’s elder brother. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 穴位 – xuéwèi. Acupoints in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. Striking or sealing specific acupoints can numb limbs, immobilise opponents, or cause internal injury. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 魂门穴 – Húnmén Xué. Literally gate of the ethereal soul. Acupoint on the back below the shoulder blade on the bladder meridian; striking it can numb the arm. See Wikipedia. ↩

10. 神堂穴 – Shéntáng Xué. Literally hall of the spirit. Acupoint on the back alongside the spine on the bladder meridian; striking it can numb the arm. See Wikipedia. ↩