The Return of the Condor Heroes Chapter 9 – Part 7

Lu Wushuang had heard not the slightest sound. She glanced up at the ceiling. “Trying to fool me again?”

Yang Guo said, “Not here, two buildings over.” Lu Wushuang was even more sceptical. She laughed softly and muttered, “Fool,” assuming he was just playing dumb.

Yang Guo tugged her sleeve and whispered, “It might be your shifu come looking. Let’s hide first.” At the word “shifu,” a cold sweat immediately broke out across Lu Wushuang’s back. She followed him to the window. Yang Guo pointed west. Lu Wushuang looked up. Sure enough, on the rooftop two buildings away, a dark figure lay crouched in the blackness. It was a moonless night, without the light of stars or moon. Without concentrating intently, one could not have made it out at all. She marvelled inwardly: How did that fool notice? She knew her shifu had always been proud and would never change from her apricot-yellow or indigo Daoist robes, even for night operations. She whispered in Yang Guo’s ear, “It’s not my shifu.”

The words had barely left her lips when the black-clad figure suddenly sprang up and raced across the rooftops to the window of Yelü Chucai and his children. A kick shattered the window lattice, and the figure vaulted inside, blade in hand, crying, “Yelü Chucai! Today I will perish together with you!” The voice was a woman’s.

Yang Guo’s heart stirred. That woman moves fast, her martial arts seem superior to Yelü Zhu’s. The old man’s life may be in danger.

“Let’s go look!” Lu Wushuang cried. The two of them dashed over and crouched outside the window, peering in.

Inside, Yelü Zhu was wielding a wooden bench, thrusting and blocking as he fought the black-clad woman. The woman was quite young, but her blade work was vicious and merciless. The willow-leaf saber¹ in her hand was exceptionally sharp. After several strokes, she had hacked off all four legs of the bench. Yelü Zhu could hold out no longer. “Father! Get away, quickly!” he shouted, then yelled at the top of his lungs, “Guards!”

The young woman suddenly launched a flying kick. Yelü Zhu, caught off guard, took it squarely in the waist and toppled to the floor. The young woman pressed her advantage, raising her saber to cleave Yelü Chucai’s skull.

Not good! Yang Guo thought. Save the man first. I’ll figure out the rest later. He had a Jade Bee Needle ready between his fingers, about to shoot it at the young woman’s wrist, when Yelü Chucai’s daughter Yelü Yan cried, “Show some respect!” She struck with her right palm at the young woman’s face while her left hand employed the Empty Hand Seizes Blade² technique to snatch the weapon. These two moves were coordinated with considerable finesse. The young woman tilted her head to evade the palm strike, but her wrist was caught by Yelü Yan. In her desperation, she launched a flying kick, forcing Yelü Yan to retreat, only then was her saber not wrested away. Yang Guo saw that both young women moved with impressive speed and secretly admired them. In the blink of an eye, the two had exchanged seven or eight moves, slashing, blocking, striking, evading.

By now, more than ten guards had crowded through the doorway. Seeing the two women locked in combat, they all moved to intervene. Yelü Zhu said, “Hold! Third Miss doesn’t need your help.”

Yang Guo whispered to Lu Wushuang, “Wifey, these two girls’ martial arts are better than yours.” Lu Wushuang flared up and struck at him with a side palm. Yang Guo evaded with a smile. “Don’t make trouble, watch the fight.” Lu Wushuang said, “Then tell me truthfully, am I better, or are they?” Yang Guo lowered his voice. “One on one, neither of those girls is your match. But if you fought both at once, based purely on martial skill you’d lose. However, their fighting style is too straightforward, nowhere near as cunning and treacherous, as vicious and venomous as yours. So in the end, you’d still win.” Lu Wushuang was secretly pleased. “What do you mean, ‘cunning and treacherous, vicious and venomous’? How ugly that sounds! It’s ‘adaptable and versatile, nimble and ingenious.’ When it comes to cunning treachery, no one in the world can match our Fool, Silly Guo.” Yang Guo smiled. “Wouldn’t that make you Silly Madam?” Lu Wushuang spat lightly.

The two young women fought on. Yelü Yan, after all, had no weapon. Several times she tried to seize the opponent’s willow-leaf saber but failed, and instead was forced to dodge and weave, unable to counter-attack. Yelü Qi said, “Third Sister, let me try.” He sidled in at an angle, his right hand launching three successive palm strikes. Yelü Yan withdrew to the wall. “Fine,” she said. “Let’s see what you can do.”

Yang Guo had watched only three moves from Yelü Qi and was already secretly astonished. The man’s left hand remained tucked at his waist, never moving. His right hand extended and retracted, his feet never shifting position, as he casually dealt with the young woman’s saber. His techniques were exquisitely refined, but even more remarkable was the precision of his timing and positioning. This man is truly formidable, Yang Guo thought. His martial arts seem to be from the Quanzhen Order, yet they are quite different.

Lu Wushuang said, “Fool, his martial arts are far better than yours.” Yang Guo was watching so intently that he did not even hear her.

Footnotes

1. 柳叶刀 – Liǔyè Dāo. Literally willow leaf blade. Thin, curved single-edged saber named for its shape, widely favoured in the jianghu for its lightness and sharp cutting edge. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 空手夺白刃 – Kōngshǒu Duó Báirèn. “Empty Hand Seizes the White Blade,” a disarming technique where an unarmed fighter uses precise timing and positioning to seize a bladed weapon from an opponent’s grip ↩