Havoc in the Jin palace.
Original translation by Foxs
Hong Qigong, Zhou Botong, Huang Rong, and Guo Jing took a small boat towards the west. Guo Jing sat rowing at the stern, while Huang Rong continuously pestered Zhou Botong with questions about riding sharks on the sea. Zhou Botong would think of ways to catch sharks in order to amuse Huang Rong. Guo Jing, seeing his master’s pale complexion, asked “Master, what are you thinking about?” Hong Qigong did not reply, he just panted hoarsely again and again. The strike he received from Ouyang Feng had penetrated to the bone; although the vital point had already been released, the internal injury had actually worsened. Huang Rong fed him nine of her nine ‘flower jade dew’ pills. Although the pain lessened somewhat, the asthma was still just as bad. Old Urchin, completely disregarding the suffering of others, continued to make a racket, shouting that they must catch the fish. Huang Rong knew his behavior was inappropriate, and tried to signal him with her eyes that he should be quite so as not to disturb Hong Qigong. Zhou Botong, not in the least understanding, simply continued to cause trouble. Huang Rong knit her brows and said: “You want to catch sharks, but you don’t have any bait to attract them with, so what are you going on about?”
The Old Urchin never acts like a respected senior. When juniors drink and swear in front of him, he’s never offended in the least. He suddenly said: “Got it! Brother Guo, I’ll hold your hands while you dip the lower half of your body into the sea.” Guo Jing respected his sworn brother; even though he did not know his intention, he immediately agreed. Huang Rong immediately called out: “Big brother Jing! Don’t listen to him! He wants to use you as bait in order to catch sharks.” Zhou Botong clapped his hands and shouted delightedly: “Exactly! When a shark comes, I’ll immediately beat it and pull it up! Otherwise, you hold my hands, and I’ll attract the shark.” Huang Rong replied: “You two deliberately cause so much trouble on this small boat; if it capsizes, we’ll only have you to blame!” Zhou Botong replied: “If this boat capsizes, that will be great! We can all play in the ocean!” Huang Rong replied: “Then what about our master? Do you want him to live or not?”
Zhou Botong held his head, at a loss for words. After a short time, he mentioned it was strange that Hong Qigong should be injured by Ouyang Feng’s attack. Huang Rong shouted: “If you talk nonsense again, we three will not speak with you for three days and three nights!” Zhou Botong stuck out his tongue and did not dare to say another word. He grabbed an oar to help Guo Jing with the rowing.
Although the land appeared to be close by, it was already dusk by the time they finally disembarked. That night the four of them slept on the sandy beach. The next morning, Hong Qigong’s illness had worsened considerably, and Guo Jing’s tears began to flow. Hong Qigong said with a smile: “Even if I were to live for another hundred years, I’d still have to die in the end. Good child, I only have one wish left. Using this old beggar’s last breath, I would ask that the three of you do something for me.” Huang Rong replied tearfully: “Master, please speak.” Zhou Botong interrupted: “That old poison I am always seeking is an eyesore. Now my senior is on the point of death; for the sake of old poison you have already played dead once before. For a person to die twice, wouldn’t you say that is delightful? Old Beggar, you go right ahead and die, don’t worry about anything, I will go and kill him in order to get revenge for you.” Hong Qigong replied with a smile: “Avenging a grievance still cannot be considered a final wish; what I want is to eat a bowl of minced five-treasure mandarin duck from the Imperial Palace kitchen.” Out of the three of them, who would have thought that his final wish was to eat a bowl of food? Huang Rong replied: “Master, that’s easy; here is not far from Lin An, I’ll steal several large pots from the Imperial Palace so that you can eat to your heart’s content.” Zhou Botong interrupted again: “I also want to eat.” Huang Rong gave him a displeased look and replied: “You also understand how to differentiate between good and bad food?” Hong Qigong said: “This minced five-treasure mandarin duck is hard to come by. Back in the day I hid in the Imperial Palace for three months, and only managed to try a tiny bit. Just recalling the flavour is enough to make one drool.” Zhou Botong said: “I have an idea, we’ll grab the old emperor’s chef, and make him prepare it.” Huang Rong replied: “Old Urchin, this idea is not bad.” Zhou Botong, hearing Huang Rong supporting him, was very pleased with himself.
Hong Qigong, shaking his head in disapproval, replied: “No way, to make this flavourful mince five-treasure mandarin duck, the kitchen implements, charcoal fire, and dishes all must form a complete set. If even one is missing, the taste will be off. We still need to go to the Imperial Palace.”
Seeing that the three still had some scruples, he said “It will be really excellent, if we go, you will all gain valuable experience.” Immediately Guo Jing carried Hong Qigong on his back and set off towards the north. Upon reaching a small town, Huang Rong exchanged some of her jewellery and purchased a small mule cart in order to let Hong Qigong relax and recover from his wound. Eventually they passed the Qiangtang river, and arrived at the outskirts of Lin An, seeing nothing but the vast misty sunset, and hearing the intermittent cawing of a crow. By nightfall they still had not reached the city, and were forced to seek lodgings for the night. Looking around, they saw only a small village of several households by the riverbank. Huang Rong called out: “This village is good, we can rest here.”
Zhou Botong replied sullenly: “What’s so good about it?” Huang Rong replied: “You look, doesn’t this scenery look sort of like a painting?” Zhou Botong replied: “How does it resemble a painting then?” Huang Rong stared blankly, having difficulty coming up with a response. Zhou Botong said: “This painting must be very ugly, what scenery would it have if similar to Old Urchin’s painting, I’m afraid it must be inferior.” Huang Rong said with a smile: “Want Heaven to create a landscape, just like Old Urchin’s random scribbling of a painting, Heaven also has this ability.” Zhou Botong, extremely pleased with himself, replied: “Are you certain? If you don’t believe, then I’ll make a painting right now, and you can call Heaven to look.”
Huang Rong replied: “Of course I believe it, you already said this place is not good, so don’t rest here, us three won’t leave.” Zhou Botong replied: “The three of you won’t go, why on earth would I want to go?”
In the midst of this chatter, they arrived at the village. The village center looked very desolate and dilapidated, with only a wine shop banner hanging off a pole at the eastern corner of the village, looking approximately like the village inn. The three people arrived in front of the inn, and saw two desks under the eaves, on top of which lay an extremely thick lair of dust. Zhou Botong yelled “Hey!” loudly several times, and a young girl of indeterminate age with dishevelled hair and clothing came out from the inner hall. She opened her eyes and gave the three a blank, lifeless stare. Huang Rong ordered wine and food, but the girl just shook her head continuously. Zhou Botong said: “Here you have neither wine nor food, what kind of shop are you running?” The girl shook her head and replied: “I don’t know.” Zhou Botong replied: “Ai, you really are a silly girl.” The girl grinned and laughed, saying: “That’s right, I’m called Silly Girl.” The three of them laughed and understood. Huang Rong went to take a look at the inner hall and the kitchen, finding it full of dust and cobwebs, with a few pots and other old stuff. On the bed was a torn mat. One couldn’t help but feel sympathy and sorrow. She returned outside and inquired: “Is it just you living here?”
Silly Girl smiled and nodded. Huang Rong asked again: “What about your mother?” Silly Girl replied: “Dead!” and wiped her hands across her eyes in imitation of somebody grieving. Huang Rong asked again: “What about your father?” Silly Girl shook her head, indicating she didn’t know. They saw her face and hands were filthy, with long fingernails filled up with black crud. Who knows how long it had been since she had washed her face and hands. Huang Rong said sadly: “Even if she were to cook, we wouldn’t be able to eat it.” She asked: “Do you have any rice?” Silly Girl smiled and nodded, producing half a jar of unpolished rice. Huang Rong immediately washed the rice and began preparing the meal. Guo Jing returned to the west side of the village and bought two fish and a chicken. By the time everything was prepared, it was already dark. Huang Rong brought out the food and placed it on one of the tables, and searched for an oil lamp, but Silly Girl again shook her head, indicating there was none.
Huang Rong took some firewood and lighted a fire in the furnace; then tried to find some bowls and chopsticks in the cupboard. She opened the cupboard’s door and a foul stench attacked her nostrils. She took a lighted wood and saw there were about seven, eight tattered bowls. Inside and around the bowls were dozens of died insects off all kinds. Guo Jing helped her fetch the bowls.
“Wash them thoroughly then get some tree branches to use as chopsticks,” Huang Rong said. Guo Jing mumbled his compliance and took the bowls outside.
Huang Rong stretched her hand to pick the last bowl, and immediately she felt a difference. This bowl was cold, colder than regular porcelain bowls; she tried to pick it up, but the bowl did not budge, liked it was nailed to the cupboard. Huang Rong was astonished. She was afraid she might break the bowl, so she did not dare to use too much strength. She tried it one more time, the bowl still refused to move. “Could it be that it has been too long that the dirt made the bowl stuck to the cupboard?” she wondered in her heart. She took a closer look and saw the bowl was covered with layers of rust; turned out it was an iron bowl.
Huang Rong let out a soft laugh, she thought, “I have seen rice bowl made of gold, silver and jade; but I have never even heard of rice bowl made of iron.” She exerted her strength and lifted the bowl up, but still the bowl did not move. She was more surprised, she thought that with her strength, even if the bowl was nailed down to the shelf, the shelf would be cracked. Then she had another thought, “Could it be that the shelf is also made of iron?” She stretched her middle finger to tap the shelf, she heard a metallic sound; the shelf was indeed made of iron.
Her curiosity was piqued and she tried lifting the bowl again but the bowl was still motionless. She tried turning the bowl to the left, still she did not perceive any movement; she tried turning it to the right, and felt some looseness. She tried turning it harder, the bowl moved. Suddenly she heard a cracking sound, the cupboard opened to both sides, revealing a dark hole behind it. An even fouler stench came out of the hole; making her almost threw up.
Huang Rong let out an “Ah!” and quickly leaped to the side. Guo Jing and Zhou Botong heard her cry and immediately came in to see the dark hole.
Huang Rong thought out loud, “Is it possible that this is a clandestine inn? That Shagu could be just pretending to be insane.” She handed over the lighted branch to Guo Jing, then walked to Shagu, trying to grab her hand. Shagu waved her hand trying to avoid her grab, and counterattacked by sending her palm toward Huang Rong’s shoulder. Even though Huang Rong had guessed she did not have a good intention, but she had never expected this incoming palm carried a powerful technique. She could not help but feeling slightly startled. Her left hand formed a hook and her right hand grabbed forward, she launched two strikes in succession.
Ever since she mastered the ‘yi jin duan gu bian’ [chapter on changing muscle forging bone] from the Nine Yin Manual, her speed and strength increased tremendously. With a loud slap Shagu cried out for her right arm was hit, but her attack did not slow down; she counterattacked with two stances one after another. After several more stances Huang Rong was secretly astonished; Shagu’s movements were actually the Peach Blossom Island’s basic skill of ‘bi bo zhang fa’ [jade-green waves palm technique]. Although it was somewhat shallow, but it was actually the foundation of all Peach Blossom Island’s martial arts; every disciple had to learn it. Huang Rong intensified her attacks in an attempt to identify Shagu’s martial art school. But Shagu came and went and was able to resist her for six, seven stances.
The situation was almost like when Guo Jing fought Liang Ziweng with only one stance, namely The Proud Dragon Repents; but actually her strength was greatly inferior to Guo Jing; moreover, her palm technique was so straightforward and did not have the simplest variation. It was beyond everybody’s expectation that in this remote village there was a clandestine wine shop with a filthy and poor girl who could fight Huang Rong for more than ten stances.
Zhou Botong found all these things were very amusing; he saw the gust of wind from Huang Rong’s palm was swift and fierce, while Shagu repeatedly cried out, “Aiyo!” while resisting Huang Rong’s attack; Zhou Botong shouted, “Hey! Rong’er, don’t harm her life; let me fight her.” Ever since he heard Hong Qigong and Guo Jing were calling her ‘Rong’er’ along the way, while Rong’er herself did not seem to mind, he thought he did not need to be polite by calling her ‘Huang guniang’ or ‘Huang xiaojie’ [both mean Miss (or Lady) Huang].
Guo Jing was afraid Shagu had other companions waiting in the dark ready to ambush; he stayed closed to Hong Qigong and did not dare to leave.
Several moves later Shagu’s left shoulder was hit, which made her left arm limp; she was unable to move. If Huang Rong wanted to injure her, all she needed to do was continue her attack; but she showed mercy and called out, “Quickly kneel down, I’ll spare your life.”
“You kneel down too!” replied Shagu as she sent out two palms, the ‘jade-green wave’ palm technique, toward Huang Rong. However, only the first two stances were executed repeatedly and the technique was clumsy.
This incomplete ‘jade-green wave’ palm attack lacked sending power but is continuous like a wave flowing in water, truly the martial art style of the Peach Blossom Island. Huang Rong suspicion of Shagu’s martial art root became deeper. She called out “how did you learn the ‘jade-green wave’ palms? Who is your master?”
Shagu responded with a smile “You can’t hit me no more, ha … ha …”
Huang Rong raised her left hand, sent on her right hand to the side, feigned an attack with her left elbow, and slanted her right shoulder forward. These four moves were fake attacks. Huang Rong followed with the fifth move sending both hands curving inward. This fifth attack was still false; the next move, a kick, however, was real. Shagu was unable to stand still. She fell to the ground and called out, “You used a trick, that does not count, let’s fight again,” as she was crawling up.
Huang Rong would not allow her to stand up, she pounced and push her down, tearing her clothes down and bind her hands behind her back. “My palm technique is clearly better than yours,” she said.
Shagu turned around and shouted in dissent, “You tricked me, unacceptable, you tricked me, unacceptable!”
Guo Jing saw that Huang Rong was able to control Shagu, he walked out from the inn and jumped on the roof. He looked around for any trace of people but found none. He went back down and walked around the building and noticed that this desolate inn was a standalone building; a few ‘zhang’s apart from other houses in the area, There were no other people hiding around, now at last he felt relieved.
When he walked inside the inn, he saw Huang Rong held a dagger in front of Shagu’s eyes, threatening her, “Who taught you martial arts? Quickly tell me or else I will kill you”. While saying that she made two stabbing moves with the dagger.
With the light from the candle, Shagu’s smile can be seen. But looking at her expression, it was not like either she was brave or mad; it was more like a stupid smile, completely oblivious of the danger, like she was thinking Huang Rong and she were just playing around. Huang Rong asked her again, Shagu laughed and said, “You kill me, I also will kill you!”
Huang Rong raised her eyebrow and said “This stupid girl is not telling us anything, we should take a look inside the room, Big Brother Zhou, please take care of master and keep an eye on this girl, Brother Jing, let’s go in.”
Zhou Botong shook his hands and said, “No, I am going in with you.”
Huang Rong told him, “I don’t want you to come in with me.”
Although Zhou Botong was a Senior with higher level of martial arts, for some reason he did not dare to defy Huang Rong’s order, he could only beg, “Good Miss, next time I won’t argue with you.”
Huang Rong smiled slightly and nodded her head. Zhou Botong was very happy; he found two pine branches, lighted them up and fumigated the dark hole for a long time. The fumigated hole emitted a very foul odor. Huang Rong picked up a pinewood torch and threw it into the hole. There was a clatter as the torch hit the far side wall and fell to the ground. Turned out the hole was not deep at all.
With the light from the torch she looked inside. The room was quiet; there was no trace of people. At that moment, Zhou Botong became impatient and sneaked pass Huang Rong inside the room. Huang Rong followed Zhou Botong cautiously. The size of the room was not large. In fact, it was quite small. Zhou Botong cried out “We are fooled, we are fooled, this is no good!”
Huang Rong then let out an “ah!” sound as she spotted a skeleton of a dead person lying on the ground. The skeleton lied upward and the clothes had already decayed. Two rows of ribs of the skeleton were broken. There was another skeleton on the east corner of the room. This skeleton lied on top of an iron chest. There was a long blade penetrating the skeleton in between the ribs and pierced through the iron chest’s lid.
Zhou Botong saw the room was small and dirty. He thought those two dead corpses were not that interesting. While Huang Rong carefully examined the two skeletons, Zhou Botong got really impatient and wanted to interrupt her inspection, only to fear that Huang Rong might get angry. He did not dare to say anything and behaved normally, while, inside, his mind was going crazy. He tried asking her, “Rong’er, Good Miss, I can go out now, can’t I?”
Huang Rong said “Fine, you can go, get Brother Jing for me.”
Zhou Botong happily ran out and said to Guo Jing, “Come in quickly, it’s very interesting here,” He was afraid Huang Rong might call him back to accompany him, so he found a ‘scapegoat’. Guo Jing went in.
Huang Rong raised her torch to show Guo Jing the skeletons and asked, “How do you think these two people died?”
Guo Jing pointed to the skeleton on the iron chest; “Looks like this person died while trying to open the iron tank, died of sneak attack in one stab, while another person had two rows of ribs shattered, so he probably was attacked by a palm of great internal strength.”
Huang Rong said, “I think so too, but there are some things I don’t quite understand.”
Guo Jing replied, “What things?”
“Shagu obviously used the peach blossoming island’s technique ‘jade-green wave’ palm, although she only knew six, seven moves and was not proficient, her technique was good and correct,” said Huang Rong, “The two dead people here, I wonder what is their relation to Shagu.”
Guo Jing responded, “I will ask the girl”. Oftentimes he was called ‘stupid kid’ by others so he was not willing to call that girl ‘Shagu’ [meaning stupid aunt].
“I think that girl is truly retarded, it would be difficult to get any information from her, perhaps we can investigate on our own with the small evidences we have here,” Huang Rong suggested. She lifted her torch and slowly examined the skeleton and noticed a shiny object by the iron chest. She picked it up and looked carefully. It was a gold emblem. In the middle, there is a marking of a gate engraved into the gold. On the backside of the emblem, there are several engraved characters that read ‘by royal decree bestowed to loyal martial art master responsible to defend the state, special guard Shi Yanming’.
Huang Rong said, “If this emblem is his, this government officer’s rank was not low.”
Guo Jing replied, “A high-ranking official died in here, this is strange.”
Huang Rong checked the skeleton on the ground again and she noticed something sticking out around the rib area. She used the torch end to push on it. The object fell, dispersing the dust and revealing a sheet made of iron. She called out in a shocked low voice and picked up the object.
Guo Jing also saw the object in her hand, “Ah!” he also exclaimed.
“Do you recognize this?” Huang Rong asked.
“Certainly,” Guo Jing replied, “This is the iron ‘ba gua’ [Eight Diagram] of Village Master Lu of the Cloud Village.”
“It is an iron ‘ba gua’ alright, but it doesn’t necessarily belong to Martial Brother Lu,” Huang Rong said.
“That’s right!” Guo Jing said, “Certainly not. These two men’s clothes and flesh have been decomposed clean; they have been here for at least ten years.”
Huang Rong was silent for half a day; suddenly a thought came into her heart. She pulled out the blade stuck on the iron chest’s lid and brought it close to the fire; she saw a character ‘Qu’ was engraved on the blade. She could not help blurting, “The one lying on the ground was my martial brother, Qu Shige [older martial brother Qu].”
“Ah!” Guo Jing exclaimed in surprise.
“Martial Brother Lu said that Martial Brother Lu was still alive, who would have thought he had already died in this place … Brother Jing, look at his legs bones,” Huang Rong said.
Guo Jing stooped down and looked, “Both of his legs were broken. Ah, it was your father who broke them,” he said.
Huang Rong nodded her head. “He was indeed Qu Lingfeng. My father once said that among his disciples, Martial Brother Qu had the strongest martial art, he was also my father’s favorite …” Speaking to this point she suddenly dashed out the room. Guo Jing followed.
Huang Rong quickly went over to Shagu and asked, “Your surname is Qu, isn’t it?” Shagu giggled but did not answer.
Guo Jing gently asked, “Miss, what is your surname?”
“Surname? (Giggle) Surname!” Shagu said.
Two people wanted to ask further, but Zhou Botong had already called out, “I am starving! I am starving!”
“Right!” Huang Rong said, “We need to eat first.” She untied Shagu and invited her to eat together. Shagu was not bashful; she smiled, held out her hands to take the bowl and ate.
Huang Rong told Hong Qigong everything she found in the secret room. Hong Qigong also thought it was peculiar, “It seems like that government officer surnamed Shi had killed your Martial Brother Qu; who would have thought your Martial Brother Qu had not breathed his last, he threw the blade and killed him.”
“Most probably so,” Huang Rong concurred. She took the blade and the iron ‘ba gua’ and showed them to Shagu. “Whose are these?” she asked.
Shagu’s countenance suddenly changed, she leaned her head sideways to think; looked like she recalled something, but after a while her face turned indifferent. She shook her head and took the blade, not willing to let it go.
“Apparently she has seen this blade before,” Huang Rong said, “But it must be a long time ago and she can’t remember it anymore.”
After eating she took care of Hong Qigong and let him sleep; then Guo Jing and she went back to the room to take a further look. They thought they key to this mystery must be hidden inside the iron chest; therefore, they removed the skeleton crouching on top of the chest and opened the lid up. Turned out the lid could be easily opened since it was unlocked. Under the torch light their eyes were dazzled by the gleaming of a chest full of pearl, jade, and all kinds of treasures and antiques.
Guo Jing only felt surprised, but Huang Rong knew each article was a very rare and precious treasure. Her father’s collection was not as extensive as the content of this chest. She grabbed a handful of pearls and let her finger loosened; the pearl made nice clinking sounds as they fell back into the chest and hit the other pearls and jades. She sighed, “There must be history behind all these treasures; if father were here he would be tell us the origin of each.” She took them one by one and explained what it was to Guo Jing; this one was a jade bracelet, this one rhino skin case, that one was cornelian cup, that one was emerald dish, and so on.
Guo Jing grew up in the desert; not only he had never seen this kind of treasures, he had never even heard of them; he thought, “People spent so much effort to collect these gadgets, don’t know what they are going to do with them?”
While speaking Huang Rong continued to grope around in the box, and her hand touched a piece of hard board; she knew there must be another layer underneath. She moved the jewelry aside and saw rings around the board; she inserted her little fingers inside the rings and lifted the board up. Underneath were a bunch of greenish copper colored antiques. She had heard her father illustrated to her some antique copperwares, and she recognized some to be ‘long wen ding’ [imperial culture tripod], ‘shang yi’ [an article from the Shang Dynasty (16th to 11th century BC)], ‘zhou pan’ [plate from Zhou Dynasty (1027BC)], ‘zhou dun’ [an article from Zhou Dynasty], ‘zhou ju lei’ [tableware from Zhou Dynasty] and such. In the end she had to admit she did not know much about these articles. If the pearls and jades were considered treasures worth a fortune, then these bronze antiques were priceless.
The more Huang Rong looked at them, the more marveled she became. She lifted another board underneath the antiques and discovered rolls and rolls of paintings. She asked for Guo Jing’s help and together they opened up the paintings one by one. She was shocked! The first painting was Wu Daozi’s ‘song zi tian wang tu’ [send off a child heavenward]. The next painting was Han Ganhua’s ‘mu ma tu’ [herding horse]; the other was Southern Tang Dynasty’s Li Houzhu’s ‘lin quan du zhui ren wu’ [crossing the forest spring]. Altogether there were more than twenty scrolls and not even a single one of them did not originate from the pen of a famous artist. Several scrolls were calligraphy and paintings from Hui Zong; several others were from the penmanship of contemporary artists, but each one of them was of the most exquisite and highest quality art. Among them were the handiworks of imperial court’s artist Liang Kai’s unique two-rolls splashing ink characters, with a very vivid image; a part of it reminded her of Zhou Botong.
Huang Rong only looked at about half of them and did not feel like continuing; she returned everything into the chest, closed the lid and sat on top of the chest, hugging her knees. She thought, “Father had amassed all kinds of treasures all his life, but the value of his collection maybe only one tenth of the content of this chest; how did Martial Brother Qu have this kind of ability to obtain these many rare and priceless treasures?” No matter how hard she racked her brain she could not think of any good explanation.
Every time Huang Rong was thinking hard, Guo Jing had never dared to disturb her train of thoughts. He stayed quiet until he heard Zhou Botong called out from outside, “Hey! Get out of there quick; we need to visit the old emperor’s house for some ‘yuan yang wu zhen kuai’ [minced five-treasure mandarin duck]!”
“Tonight?” Guo Jing asked.
Hong Qigong replied, “The earlier the better. I am afraid I can’t hold on much longer.”
“Shifu, don’t listen to the Old Urchin speaking a whole bunch of nonsense,” Huang Rong said, “We can’t go tonight; we will enter the city gate early morning tomorrow. If the Old Urchin has anymore weird ideas, we won’t let him come to the palace with us.”
“Humph!” Zhou Botong snorted, “Once again I am to be blamed.” He sulked and refused to talk.
That night four people slept on the straw beds strewn on the ground. Early the next morning Huang Rong and Guo Jing prepared some breakfast; four people plus Shagu ate together. Huang Rong turned the iron bowl and closed the cabinet walls; and then put all chipped bowls and broken utensils back inside the cabinet. Shagu was indifferent to what was going on around her; she held the handle of the blade in her hand and played with it.
Huang Rong took a small ingot of silver from her pocket and gave it to her; Shagu took it and casually tossed in on the table. “If you are hungry you can take the money to buy rice and meat,” Huang Rong said. It was hard to say if Shagu understood, since she only giggled foolishly.
Huang Rong felt sadness creeping into her heart; knowing this girl must have had some relation with Qi Lingfeng, if not his family member then she must be his disciple. Her six, seven stances of ‘bi bo zhang fa’ [jade-green waves palm technique] definitely came from Qu Lingfeng, even though she learned it carelessly. What Huang Rong did not know was whether she was retarded since birth, or did she experience some horrifying experience which gave her a shock and damaged her brain. She wanted to find some information in the village, but Zhou Botong kept urging them to move forward. Thereupon four people and one cart went straight entering the city of Lin’an.
Lin’an was originally the world’s most bustling city. When the Song government moved south it was established as the new capital. All kinds of people converged into the city, and it became increasingly flourishing.
Four people entering the city via the east gate and went straight to the front of ‘li cheng men’ [beautiful portal gate] of the imperial palace. Hong Qigong stayed inside the cart, while Zhou Botong and the others looked around. They saw the golden nails on scarlet doors, painted beams and engraved railings, and copper tiles covering the roof; with sculptures of flying dragon and phoenix all in magnificent splendor, dazzling their eyes.
“Interesting!” Zhou Botong called out loudly; he took a step to enter in.
The palace guards stationed in front of the gate had noticed these three people, one old and two young, with a mule cart making noise in front of the imperial palace gate; four guards with axes in their hands had already stepped forward with a menacing look on their faces.
Zhou Botong loved to make disturbance very much; seeing the guards with their distinctive armor, tall and powerfully built, he was itchy to have an interesting fight.
“Quickly go!” Huang Rong called out.
Zhou Botong stared at her. “What are you afraid of? Do you think these babies can eat the Old Urchin?” he asked.
Huang Rong quickly said, “Brother Jing, let’s go and play someplace else. The Old Urchin is not obedient, we’ll just ignore him.” She lashed her whip and the cart sped along to the west. Guo Jing followed behind. Zhou Botong was afraid he would be left behind while they were going someplace more interesting; he ignored the guards and ran to catch up. The guards thought they were simple villagers looking around the city; they laughed out loud but did not pursue.
Huang Rong drove the cart to a desolate place. Seeing nobody chased them, they stopped at last.
“Why didn’t we break into the palace? Can those wine bags and rice sacks stop us?” Zhou Botong asked.
“Certainly breaking in is not difficult, but let me ask you: are we here to fight or to go to the kitchen and steal some food?” Huang Rong said, “If you break in, the palace will be chaotic; do you think the chef will nicely make some ‘yuan yang wu zhen kuai’ for Shifu to eat?”
“Fighting and capturing people is the guards’ business, it has nothing to do with the chef,” Zhou Botong reasoned. Actually what he said did make some sense so that Huang Rong momentarily was at a loss; but she did not want to yield to him, so she argued, “The imperial chef can both prepare food and capture people.”
Zhou Botong stared but did not know how to respond. Half a day later he conceded, “Fine, just consider I was wrong.”
“What do you mean ‘consider’? You were wrong from the start,” Huang Rong said.
“Fine, fine,” Zhou Botong said, “Don’t consider anything, don’t consider anything.” Turning his head to Guo Jing he said, “Brother, all women in the world are very ferocious; that’s why the Old Urchin said don’t take a wife.”
Huang Rong laughed, “Brother Jing is a good man, others won’t be ferocious toward him.”
“Are you saying I am not a good man?” Zhou Botong asked.
Huang Rong smiled, “Are you? You don’t want to take a wife, but other people don’t like the way you handle anything, only creating trouble and disturbance. Tell me, why don’t you want to take a wife?”
Zhou Botong leaned his head sideways to think, unable to answer. His face turned red, and then white; seemed like his mind was heavy with anxieties. Huang Rong very seldom saw him this serious; she was astonished.
“Let’s find an inn to stay; we’ll come back to the palace tonight,” Guo Jing said.
“That’s right!” Huang Rong agreed, “Shifu, as soon as we find an inn, I am going to prepare a couple of simple dish to be your appetizers; we will have a feast later on tonight.”
Hong Qigong was delighted, he cheered repeatedly.
Four people stayed at the Jin Hua hotel on the street west of the imperial palace. True to her words, Huang Rong prepared three dishes and a soup for Hong Qigong to eat. The aroma spread around the inn that the guests inquired with the innkeeper which famous chef cooked this kind of fine cuisine.
Zhou Botong was still mad at Huang Rong’s words that he could not find a wife; he sulked and did not want to eat. Three people knew his childish behavior; they only laughed and did not give him any attention.
After eating Hong Qigong laid down to rest. Guo Jing asked Zhou Botong to go out and play, but in his anger he ignored Guo Jing. Huang Rong chuckled, “Then you’d better look after my Shifu nicely; when I return, I will buy some fun things for you to play with.”
“You are not lying?” Zhou Botong delightfully asked.
Huang Rong smiled, “’yi yan ji chu, si ma nan zhui’ [lit. when a word already leaves, it is difficult for four horses to chase].”
During the spring when Huang Rong left home to go north, she visited Hangzhou for one day; but this city was too close to the Peach Blossom Island. She was afraid her father might find her here, hence she did not dare to stay too long, and so her visit was a quick one. This time the day was long and nothing burdened her mind. Hand in hand with Guo Jing they went to the West Lake (xi hu).
She noticed Guo Jing’s countenance was dark, she knew he worried about their master’s injury. “Shifu said there is one person in this world who can heal his injury,” Huang Rong said, “Only he did not allow me to ask. From the way he talked, it must be that Emperor Duan; but we don’t know where he is. We must find a way to ask him to treat and heal Shifu.”
“That’s great,” Guo Jing happily said, “Rong’er, do you think we can ask him?”
Huang Rong replied, “I am still thinking of how we can ask. During our meal today I tried to fish out some information from Shifu’s mouth. He was just about to say; too bad he realized it and stopped talking immediately. Eventually I must find this information from him.” Guo Jing knew her ability very well, he was greatly relieved.
While talking they arrived at the Broken Bridge by the lakeside. That ‘duan qiao can xue’ [the broken bridge where people can see the remnant of the snow] was one of the West Lake’s famous scenery; only it was summer so what they saw was the lotus under the bridge. Huang Rong saw a neat little wine shop by the lakeside. “Let’s drink a cup of wine while enjoying the lotus,” she said.
“Very good,” Guo Jing agreed. Two people went in and sat down. The shopkeeper delivered some wine and dishes of meat which tasted very good. Two people drank wine while enjoying the scenery; they were in a good mood.
Huang Rong saw a screen by the eastern window, covered with jade-green muslin. Obviously the shop owner regarded the screen as a very precious object. Her curiosity was piqued; she went over to take a closer look. Turned out underneath the muslin there was a poem inscribed on the screen; it was the ‘feng ru song’ [wind entering the pine], which read:
‘Spring time is always spent wasting money, drinking daily by the lakeside. Riding a buckskin horse along the road toward the West Lake, proudly passing in front of a tavern. Singing and dancing amidst the sweet fragrance of red apricots, swinging in the shadow of green willows. Warm wind embraced ten ‘li’s of beautiful women and sky, crushed flowers adorned the side of their temples. Picturesque boats carrying incense going back and forth are like smoke covering the water. Comeback tomorrow carrying the remnant of drunkenness, coming to seek the fancy golden inlaid on the pathway.’
Huang Rong said, “This poem is a good one”.
Guo Jing asked her to explain the meaning of the poem. The more he listened, the more upset he became, said, “This is the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, these government officials spend their days drinking wine and enjoying flowers, don’t they care nor even pay attention to the affair of the country?”
Huang Rong replied, “Exactly, these people talk shamelessly!”
Suddenly someone behind them said, “Humph! What do you two know enough to talk nonsense here?”
They turned around and saw a man dressed as a scholar, roughly 40 years of age, sneering at them. Guo Jing greeted the scholar by cupping his hand and said, “Junior does not understand and would like to ask Mister for advice.”
That man replied, “This is the most splendid work of Yu Guobao in the year of Chun Xi. That year Emperor Gao Zong Tai Shang came to drink wine, he saw the work and praised it greatly. That very same day the emperor granted Yu Guobao a government position. This is a scholar’s lifelong dream; and the two of you absurdly ridicule it!”
“So because the Emperor saw this screen that the innkeeper covers it with a jade-green muslin?” Huang Rong asked.
That man coldly laughed and said, “How can it be so? Look at the sentence ‘Comeback tomorrow carrying the remnant of drunkenness’ on the screen. Do you see that this one sentence has two corrected characters?”
Huang Rong and Guo Jing examined closer and found the character ‘fu’ [carrying up or supporting somebody up] was formerly ‘xie’ [bringing/carrying along], and the character ‘zui’ [drunkenness] was actually ‘jiu’ [wine].
The man then said, “Yu Gaobao originally intended to write ‘Comeback tomorrow bringing the remnant of the wine’. The Tai Shang Emperor smiled and said, ‘Although this phrase is good, it is rather simple-minded’. Hence he took a brush to correct these two characters. That was truly heaven sent wisdom and farsightedness, purifying iron into gold.” He swayed his head and sighed as if he was enjoying incessantly.
Guo Jing listened and became angry. He loudly yelled, “This emperor Gao Zong put Qin Gui in an important position, to harm and kill Master Yue [General Yue Fei]!” His leg flew and kicked the screen, smashing it. He grabbed backward to catch the scholar and push him forward. With a splashing sound the wine spilled everywhere; that man, head up feet down, sank into the wine vat.
Huang Rong loudly applauded and laughed, “I too will make correction on these two sentences; they are, ‘Today standing upright spoiling the wine, the gentleman sank into the vat drunk.”
The scholar emerged from the wine jar, as wine was dripping from his head, he said, “The oblique tone of ‘drunk’ does not rhyme well.”
Huang Rong replied, “‘Wind entering the pine’ does not rhyme well. My poem ‘Man entering the jar’ rhymes better!” She extended her hand and firmly pressed his head down inside the wine jar, then flipped the table over, causing a disorderly burst. Both the customers and the wine shop keeper scrambled out the shop. Guo Jing and Huang Rong rose up; they pounded and smashed all the wine vats, pots and cauldrons. Finally using the ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’ Guo Jing exerted all his strength to strike the main pillar of the inn, causing the roof to collapse. For a brief moment, a large restaurant transformed into a ruin made of wood, hardly resembling anything.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong laughed loudly. Holding each other’s hand, they walked to the north. Nobody knew where did these couple of mad young man and young woman come from; who dared to pursue?
Guo Jing laughed, “That was a good beating, all the bad air in my chest went away completely.”
Huang Rong happily replied, “Whenever we see anything unsightly, we will break it.”
Guo Jing replied, “Good!”
Since leaving the Peach Blossom Island, two people went through many unfavorable situations. Although they were reunited, their teacher suffered a serious and difficult to heal injury, making their hearts constantly heavy. This time unexpectedly they had a chance to break up a restaurant; it had helped to vent their frustration. The couple leisurely walked along the lakeshore and saw poems everywhere: on the rocks, on the trees, on the pavilions and on the walls. They were either leisure travelers bidding their farewell, or young men expressing their love.
Guo Jing did not understand the poems, but when he saw the words ‘wind’, ‘flower’, ‘snow’ and ‘moon’ he sighed and said, “Even if we have a thousand pairs of fists, we can’t break them all. Rong’er, you have learned literature and art, what are all these for?”
Huang Rong smiled, “There were some good ones among these poems,” she said.
Guo Jing shook his head, “I still think fists and kicks are more useful,” he said.
While walking and talking they reached the ‘fei lai feng’ [flew in peak]. There was a pavilion built on that peak. Above the gateway there were three characters ‘cui wei ting’ [jade-green small pavilion] in Han Shizong’s handwriting. Guo Jing knew Han Shizong’s reputation; seeing the handwriting of the general who resisted the Jin army he was delighted. He quickly walked into the pavilion. There was a stone monument inside the pavilion, with a poem engraved on it:
‘With the passing years dust has settled on the battle uniforms, especially seeking some fragrant jade-green wine, not enough to only see good mountain and good river, taking advantage of the bright moon light the return of horse hoofs.’
This seemed to be the handwriting of Han Shizhong as well.
“This is a good poem,” Guo Jing praised. Actually, he did not know a good poem from the bad, but he thought this poem was Han Shizhong’s, also it contained words like ‘zheng yi’ [battle uniforms] and ‘ma ti’ [horse hoofs]; so it must be good.
Huang Rong said, “That was Master Yue, Yue Fei’s work.”
Guo Jing was surprised; he asked, “How do you know?”
Huang Rong replied, “I listened to father’s story. In the winter of the eleventh year of Shaoxing, Master Yue died under the hand of Qin Gui. In the spring of the following year, remembering him Han Shizhong built this pavilion and engraved this poem as a memorial. Unfortunately, Qin Gui was highly influential during that period, so he could not openly commensurate Master Yue.”
Remembering the previous dynasty’s general Guo Jing stretched out his hand and ran his finger along the inscription on the stone. While he was lost in thought suddenly Huang Rong pulled his sleeve and jumped toward the bushes behind the pavilion, pressing his head down. As they were crouching, they heard footsteps of people entering the pavilion. A moment later they heard someone said, “Han Shizhong was naturally a hero. His lady, Liang Hongyu, although came from prostitution, had helped her husband achieve victory by beating drums during the battle. She could be considered a heroine.”
Guo Jing found this voice to be somewhat familiar but could not remember who it was. Again another man said, “Yue Fei and Han Shizhong were heroes, but the emperor wanted their deaths and stripped their military leadership. Both Han and Yue must follow the order; obviously the emperor held the power that even heroes like them cannot defy.”
Guo Jing listened to the accent and recognized this person as Yang Kang. Guo Jing was unconsciously startled; thinking what was Yang Kang doing here? While still surprised, another broken cymbal-like voice confounded him even more. It was the Western Poison Ouyang Feng. He heard Ouyang Feng said, “Correct, with muddle-headed ruler in reign just like the previous dynasty; it doesn’t matter how great a hero is, he is useless.”
The first person then said, “But if a wise ruler is on the throne, a great hero like Mr. Ouyang could greatly help him unfold his aspiration.”
Listening to these two speaking suddenly Guo Jing remembered that the other one was the enemy who killed his father, the Sixth Prince of the Great Jin, Wanyan Honglie. Even though he had seen Wanyan Honglie’s face before, but it was not often he heard his voice, therefore, he was unable to remember for a moment.
The three people talking and laughing, then they left the pavilion. Guo Jing waited until they were gone far then he asked no one in particular, “What do they do in Lin’an? How come Brother Kang is with them?”
“Humph,” Huang Rong snorted, “Early on I have seen this brother of yours is not a good thing. You still said that he is a descendant of a hero. You have been deceived. Now you understand his real intention. If he is really a good man, how could he fool around with those two scoundrels?”
Guo Jing was very much bewildered, “I don’t understand,” he said. Thereupon Huang Rong told him everything she heard at the Fragrant Snow Hall of the Zhao Palace. She said, “Wanyan Honglie gathered Peng Lianhu and the other fellows, his intention is to steal the Master Yue Wumu’s Legacy. They suddenly came over here so perhaps this Legacy is in Lin’an. If they succeed then our Great Song’s common people will suffer great calamity.”
Guo Jing shivered with fear, “We simply cannot let them succeed,” he said.
Huang Rong said, “The problem is that the Western Poison is traveling with them.”
“Are you scared?” Guo Jing asked.
“Aren’t you?” Huang Rong asked back.
Guo Jing replied, “Naturally I am scared of the Western Poison, but this is not a small matter; we … even if we are scared we simply cannot overlook it.”
Huang Rong smiled, “If you must take care of it, then naturally I will follow you.”
“Very well,” Guo Jing said, “Let’s go after them.”
Leaving the pavilion they did not see tracks of Wanyan Honglie’s three people group and were forced to look around the city randomly. Hangzhou was a big city, how could they find what they were looking for in a short period of time? After walking for half a day the sky was turning dark; two people arrived in front of the ‘wu lin yuan’ [martial art garden] at Zhong Wazi [lit. the middle of a tile, I think it is a place]. Huang Rong saw a shop that hung a lot of masks in the entrance, with their features drawn vividly. She was amused and remembered her promise to buy something fun for Zhou Botong; thereupon she spent five silver coins and bought ‘zhong kui’ [I think it’s the king of ghosts], ‘pan guan’ [the judge of hell], ‘zao jun’ [kitchen god], ‘tu di’ [earth god], ‘shen bing’ [soldier of heaven] and other ghosts/supernatural beings, more than a dozen masks.
While the shopkeeper was wrapping the masks with paper, there came the sweet smelling fragrance of food and wine from a restaurant next door. Two people had been walking for half a day and by that time they were already starving. “What restaurant is that?” Huang Rong asked.
The shopkeeper smiled and said, “Turned out you two are new to the capital, no wonder you don’t know. This ‘san yuan lou’ [three-primary tavern; ‘lou’ refers to the second floor of a building or a multi-story building] is very well-known in our Lin’an. The wine, the food and the utensils are number one under the heaven. You two cannot not go and try it.”
Huang Rong’s heart was moved by what he said; she took the masks and then pulled Guo Jing to the front of ‘san yuan lou’. They saw the building was decorated with colorful paints and a row of red and green fence. Underneath the second floor roof hung flower-patterned lanterns. The interior was inlaid with luxuriant wood; the pavilion looked elegant and unconventional. It was truly an exquisite tavern.
As two people walked in, they were welcomed by the waiter with a face full of smiles and were led through a corridor to a chamber already set with bowls and chopsticks. Huang Rong immediately placed her order and the waiter left to prepare the food.
Under the candlelight Guo Jing saw in the nearby porch more than a dozen of women [‘ji4 nu3’ – courtesan (courtesy of Ren Wo Xing), lit. ‘prostitute’ or ‘hooker’] with heavy makeup sitting in a row. He wondered who they were; he was about to ask when suddenly from the next door chamber he heard Wanyan Honglie’s voice called out, “That’s fine! Let’s have somebody sing to accompany us drinking the wine.”
Guo Jing and Huang Rong looked at each other, they thought, “Just like the saying goes, ‘wearing out the iron shoes to look around, finding the result without any effort’.”
A call was heard, and a woman gracefully stood up and walked toward the next door chamber with a pair of ivory planks in her hand. A short moment later the woman started to sing. Huang Rong inclined her ears to listen to her song:
“The southeast appears victorious, the rivers and lakes (Jianghu) convene, Qiantang River always flourishes from the ancient times. The bridge looks like a painting of smoking willow; the wind blow the wine shop sign and the jade-green curtain, amidst a hundred thousand people. Cloudy trees wind around the sandy dike, angry waves roll up like frosty snow, the sky and the moat around the city are boundless. Rows of pearls line up in the market, the homes compete with each other to show their extravagance. The clear water lake surrounded by three autumn cassia buds and ten ‘li’s of lotuses. Along the clear alleys the water chestnut songs floating through the night, enticing old gentlemen to the lotus-like dolls. A thousand riders gather around the ivory tower, intoxicated by the sound of flute and drum, enjoying the rosy-cloud smoke. A particular day to paint fine scenery, as the phoenix returns to the pond of praise.”
Guo Jing did not understand the yada, yada, yada of her singing, but he did enjoy the gentle tapping of her ivory planks and the melodious flute sound.
As the song finished, both Wanyan Honglie and Yang Kang exclaimed their praise, “You sing very well!”
The woman repeatedly expressed her gratitude, and jubilantly went out with the musicians, wishing Wanyan Honglie many enjoyments.
Wanyan Honglie said, “Son, do you know that this Liu Yong [eternal willow – I think it is a person’s name] poem ‘wang hai chao’ [gazing the ocean tide] has a close relationship with our Great Jin?”
“Your child does not know,” Yang Kang replied, “Would Father please explain?”
Listening to him calling Wanyan Honglie ‘father’ [tie tie – daddy/papa] in an affectionate tone Guo Jing and Huang Rong looked at each other. Guo Jing was angry and broken hearted; he wished he could go over and clutch him, asking for explanation.
He heard Wanyan Honglie replied, “During the prosperous years of our Great Jin, the Jin’s Lord Liang saw this poem by Liu Yong, which praised the beauty of the West Lake’s scenery. Thereupon he sent an emissary to go down south and at the same time dispatching a famous painter to paint the scenery around the City of Lin’an. The painter inserted the Jin Lord image in the painting, sitting on a horseback standing on the peak of Wu Shan [Hill Wu]. The Jin Lord wrote this poem on the painting, ‘Ten thousands of ‘li’s riding on a chariot, how can there be another border to the Jiangnan? Dispatching soldiers by the million to the West Lake, on a horseback standing on Wu Shan’s first peak!’”
“What a grand and heroic spirit!” Yang Kang praised.
Guo Jing was so angry hearing him that he clenched his fist so hard that his knuckles made cracking sounds.
Wanyan Honglie sighed, “Jin’s Lord Liang’s desire to dispatch soldiers to the south and on a horseback standing on Wu Shan did not come true, but his heroic spirit to cross the river is actually inherited by us, his descendants. Once he inscribed this poem on a folding fan: ‘With a great fan in the hand, bringing cool breeze all over the world.’ That’s the kind of ambition he had!”
Yang Kang repeated that poem, “With a great fan in the hand, bringing cool breeze all over the world.” He sounded like he was really impressed by it.
Ouyang Feng let out some laughter and said, “Someday Prince’s dream of having a great authority and standing on Wu Shan will come true.”
[Translator’s note: the words ‘great fan’ in the poem, the original text was ‘da bing’; ‘bing’ can be translated ‘handle’ or ‘hilt’ – referring to the handle of the fan, but can also translated to ‘authority’. Ouyang Feng was referring to the other meaning of the word.]
Wanyan Honglie quietly said, “Do hope Sir’s words will come true. There are too many ears and eyes around here, let us just drink some wine.” And so three people changed the topic of their conversation immediately; they talked about the sceneries, what they saw and heard, about local conditions and social customs.
Huang Rong whispered into Guo Jing’s ear, “They are having a good time drinking wine, I don’t want them to have a good time.” Two people slipped away from their chamber and went to the backyard. Huang Rong took out her flint and ignited the firewood in the shed and spread the fire around.
In a short moment the flame arose and the people shouted in confusions, “Fire!” Then they heard copper gongs were struck noisily.
“Quick, we must go to the front, otherwise we’ll lose track of them again,” Huang Rong said.
Guo Jing was full of hatred, “Tonight I must kill that traitor Wanyan Honglie!” he said.
Huang Rong said, “First we must take Shifu to the palace to eat, afterwards we entreat the Old Urchin to face the Western Poison; only then can we deal with the other two traitors.”
“That’s right,” Guo Jing said.
Amidst the commotion two people walked to the front of the restaurant, just as Wanyan Honglie, Ouyang Feng and Yang Kang three people emerged from the building. Guo Jing and Huang Rong followed them from a distance, along the streets and alleys towards the west market; entering Hotel Guan Gai. Two people waited outside the hotel for a long time without seeing Wanyan Honglie and the others coming back outside, so they concluded that they must be staying in this hotel.
“Let’s return to our place; we fetch the Old Urchin and come back here to deal with them,” Huang Rong said. They went back to Hotel Jin Hua immediately.
Approaching the hotel they heard Zhou Botong’s voice shouting in loud clamor. Guo Jing was scared, he thought his Shifu’s injury was getting worse; he rushed forward anxiously only to see Zhou Botong was squatting on the ground, squabbling with about six, seven boys. Turned out he was betting against these kids in front of the hotel’s gate and he lost; he argued with the kids, but the kids argued back, hence it was so noisy.
Seeing Huang Rong was back, he was afraid she would scold him; he turned around and went back into the hotel. Huang Rong smiled, she took the masks out. Zhou Botong was delighted, squealing again and again; he put on the mask and become the judge of hell, and then turned into a little demon.
Huang Rong expressed their desire to take him to help them fight the Western Poison. Zhou Botong readily agreed. “Don’t worry,” he said, “My two hands can use two different fist techniques to fight him.”
Huang Rong remembered the other day on the Peach Blossom Island Zhou Botong was afraid he might involuntarily use the martial art from the Nine Yin Manual; he tied his own hands and as a result was injured by her father. “The Western Poison is very bad,” she said, “You can’t be considered disobeying your martial brother’s death wish if you injure him with the martial art from the Manual.”
Zhou Botong stared hard at her. “No, I can’t do it” he said, “I have trained hard, I don’t need to use the technique from the Manual.”
By that time Hong Qigong’s heart was already inside the imperial palace’s kitchen. With a great difficulty he waited until the second hour that night; Guo Jing carried Hong Qigong on his back, four people walked on roofs toward the imperial palace. The palace was taller than everybody else’s houses, the roof glittered with gold inlaid, very easy to identify; so before long quietly, without making any noise four people had leaped over the palace’s wall.
The security inside the palace was tight, with guards patrolling everywhere; but with the kind of lightness kungfu Zhou, Guo and Huang possess, how could they let themselves to be caught by the guards? Hong Qigong knew where the kitchen was; with a low voice he showed the way. In a short moment they had arrived at the imperial kitchen, located behind the ‘liu bu shan’ [six ministry hill]. The kitchen was to the east of ‘jia ming dian’ [fine bright hall], where the imperial meals were being prepared. These places were adjacent to the imperial sleeping chamber and the imperial personal office; all around were tightly guarded with alarms everywhere. But by then the emperor had already gone to bed, the imperial kitchen staff had been adjourned. Four people arrived at the well-lit kitchen, with several young court eunuchs slumbered inside.
Guo Jing helped Hong Qigong sitting on the beam while Huang Rong and Zhou Botong looked for cooked meals in the kitchen cabinets; very soon four people started chewing.
Zhou Botong shook his head, “Old Beggar, how can the food here be compared to Rong’er’s culinary skill? I don’t understand why you earnestly desired to come here.”
Hong Qigong replied, “I wanted to eat the ‘yuan yang wu zhen kuai’ [mandarin duck five treasured mince meat]. I don’t know where the chef is. Tomorrow we shall catch him and tell him to prepare something to your taste.”
“I don’t believe his culinary skill is superior to Rong’er,” Zhou Botong said.
Huang Rong smiled, she knew he wanted to thank her for the masks, that was why he praised her repeatedly.
“I want to stay here and wait for the chef,” Hong Qigong said, “Since you are bored, why don’t you and Jing’er go out the palace and let Rong’er stay here to accompany me. Tomorrow night you can come back here again.”
Zhou Botong put on the city god mask and laughed, “No,” he said, “I want to accompany you in here. Tomorrow I am going to wear this mask to scare the old emperor. Brother Guo, Rong’er, you keep your eyes on the Old Poison, don’t let him steal the Yue Fei’s legacy.”
“What the Old Urchin said was very reasonable,” Hong Qigong said, “Go quickly, just be careful.” Two people gave their promise.
“Don’t fight the Old Poison tonight, look for me tomorrow,” Zhou Botong said.
“We can’t beat him, naturally we won’t fight,” Huang Rong said. Along with Guo Jing she slipped away from the imperial kitchen, with the intention of going back to Hotel Guan Gai to watch Wanyan Honglie and the others’ activity.
They tiptoed in the dark through two halls. Suddenly they felt a cool breeze and faintly heard the sound of water. In the stillness of the night they could also smell a faint delicate fragrance, deep from the palace courtyard. Unexpectedly they saw a wooded hill place inside the palace.
Huang Rong sniffed at this fragrance; she knew there must be a flower garden nearby. She thought in the imperial palace garden there must be many wonderful flowers and excellent plants. While she was there, certainly she could not pass this rare opportunity to take a look. Therefore, she pulled Guo Jing’s hand; following the flower fragrance they looked for the garden.
Gradually the sound of water intensified. Two people walked around flower-strewn path and saw pine and bamboo trees covering the deep blue sky above; with beautiful hills quietly stood on the background. Huang Rong was secretly impressed of this place. Even though the arrangement was inferior to the Peach Blossom Island, the flowers and trees were exquisitely beautiful.
They walked several ‘zhang’s further and saw a sheet of water like a silver waterfall coming out from the side of a hill; the water came down to a pond, and in turn, a stream of water coming out of the pond so that it would not overflow. There were countless red lotuses strewn across the surface of the pond. Right in front of the pond there was a hall dense with flowers; just above the entrance was written ‘cui han tang’ [jade-green cold hall] three characters.
Huang Rong walked to the front of the hall. She saw under the porch were some the steps going up surrounded with all kinds of flowers: ‘mo li’ [jasmine], ‘su xin’ [fragrant vegetable], ‘she xiang teng’ [musk deer fragrant rattan], ‘shu jin’ [vermillion hibiscus], ‘yu gui’ [jade cassia], ‘hong jiao’ [red banana]; all kinds of fragrant plants that bloom in summer. Towards the back of the hall orchids and other scented plants were hung. The sweet smelling incense was burning, filling the hall and attacking their nostrils.
On the table inside the hall there were several bowls of lotus root, sweet melon, loquat, and all kinds of wild fruits from the forest. Several round fans were strewn on the chairs. Looked like this hall was where the emperor enjoyed the cool evening breeze before going to bed.
Guo Jing sighed, “This emperor really knows how to enjoy life,” he said.
Huang Rong laughed, “You can be one now,” she said, pulling Guo Jing to sit on a couch. She offered the bowl of fruits and knelt down. “Long live master, please enjoy some fresh fruits,” she said.
Guo Jing smiled and picked up a loquat, “Please rise,” he said.
Huang Rong laughed, “Emperor never says ‘please’, that is too polite,” she said.
While two people were talking and laughing in low voice suddenly they heard someone shout out from a distant, “Who’s there?” They were startled and leaped out, hiding behind a fake hill. They heard some heavy footsteps; two men came loudly shouting to see. Guo Jing and Huang Rong listened to these people and knew their martial art skills were low and there was nothing to worry about. The guards brandished their sabers, rushing toward the front of the hall. They looked around but did not see anything out of ordinary.
“You saw a ghost,” one guard said, laughing.
The other one was also laughing, “I am seeing things these past few days,” he said. They walked away talking and laughing.
Huang Rong was amused inwardly, she pulled Guo Jing’s hand to go out, but suddenly heard those two guards grunts, ‘hey, hey’. Although the noise was deep and muffled, they knew it was the sound of one’s exhaling because their acupoints were sealed. Guo Jing and Huang Rong both thought, “Is it Big Brother Zhou who got bored and came out to play?”
They heard someone speak in a low voice, “According to the imperial palace map, the building next to the waterfall is the ‘cui han tang’; we are going there.” This voice belonged to Wanyan Honglie.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong were very shocked; they grabbed each other’s hand and hid even deeper behind the fake hill, did not dare to make any noise. Under the glimmering sparse starlight they saw shadows moving in front of the hall; they vaguely recognized that other than Wanyan Honglie there were Ouyang Feng, Peng Lianhu, Sha Tongtian, Venerable Lingzhi, Liang Ziweng and Hou Tonghai.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong were puzzled, “What are these people doing in the imperial palace?” they thought, “Could it be they also want to steal some food from the imperial kitchen?”
They heard Wanyan Honglie spoke again, still in low voice, “Little Prince had carefully examined the secret letter Yue Fei left behind; also examined the documents from two dynasties’ emperors Gao Zong and Xiao Zong. I concluded that the Wumu Legacy is hidden fifteen steps east of the ‘cui han tang’.”
Everybody’s eyes automatically followed the direction of his hand; fifteen steps east of the hall was the waterfall, nothing else. Wanyan Honglie said, “How the book could be hidden in the waterfall, Little Prince found it hard to guess, but according to the documents, this is the correct place.”
Sha Tongtian was known as the ‘gui men long wang’ [dragon king of Gui Men (demon sect/devil’s gate)]; his water skill was excellent. “I’ll go to take a look at the waterfall,” he said. Without waiting further he stepped forward and jumped into the water. Not long afterward he reemerged from the water. Everybody rushed forward to welcome him, only to listen to him saying, “The Prince can really see clearly; behind the waterfall there is a cave with closed iron door.”
Wanyan Honglie was ecstatic, “The Wumu Legacy must be inside the cave,” he said, “I am afraid I’ll have to inconvenience gentlemen to open that iron gate.”
Everybody unsheathed their precious sabers and sharp blades, complying with his request, everybody wanted to render meritorious service; they raced to the waterfall. Ouyang Feng only laughed coldly, he merely stood by Wanyan Honglie’s side; he felt his reputation was different, he was not willing to fetch the book together with the others.
Sha Tongtian was the first to duck under the water stream; suddenly a gust of wind assaulting his face. He just came in to take a look and saw nothing; how could he guess an enemy would suddenly attack him? Hurriedly he avoided the attack, but his left wrist was suddenly grabbed by the enemy and he was pushed hard. Against its master’s wish his body flew out and hit Liang Ziweng hard. Luckily both men’s martial art skills were quite high and they were not injured.
Everybody was taken by surprise. In the meantime Sha Tongtian had entered the waterfall again; this time he was ready, he lifted both palms in front of his face, and sure enough, from behind the waterfall a fist came flying out. He used his left hand to parry while launched a counterattack with his right. All this time he has not seen clearly who the enemy was.
Liang Ziweng had also jumped into the waterfall. Suddenly a stick came sweeping close to the ground. Liang Ziweng tried to evade, but he was too late; the lower part of his leg were squarely hit, he could not maintain his stand and fell backward. His chest was hit by the waterfall, while his leg was again hit by the stick; against its master’s wish his body fell outside the waterfall.
By this time Sha Tongtian was also pushed outside the waterfall by a swift and fierce palm. Three-headed dragon Hou Tonghai did not think about what kind of martial art skill his martial brother had, and what kind of skill he had; if his martial brother was easily defeated, how could he hope to achieve success? Relying on his superb water skill, his ability to open his eyes and see underwater, he charged into the waterfall.
Looking at the adverse situation Peng Lianhu rushed forward to join the battle, but suddenly a dark and rather shiny shadow flew above his head. ‘Bang!’ that shadow fell to the ground; and then he heard Hou Tonghai cried out loudly out of pain. Quickly Peng Lianhu came over and said in a low voice, “Hou Xiong [brother Hou], be quiet! What happened?”
“His granny!” Hou Tonghai cursed, “My butts are broken into four pieces from the fall.”
Peng Lianhu was confounded and amused at the same time, “Is there such a thing?” he whispered. He stretched his hand to trace Hou Tonghai’s buttocks, seemingly to see if they were still two pieces; but he saw nothing was injured. He knew something was amiss, so he did not want to rashly face the danger. “Who’s inside?” he asked.
From pain Hou Tonghai became angry, “How would I know?” he snapped, “As soon as I went in I was thrown back outside. That bastard scoundrel!”
Under the star light they saw Venerable Lingzhi’s red robe fluttered; he entered the waterfall in big strides. Amidst the gurgling water they could hear his loud shouts in Tibetan; looked like he was fighting an intense battle with the man inside.
Everybody looked at each other in surprise. Sha Tongtian and Liang Ziweng were thrown outside; but in the darkness they vaguely saw behind the curtain of water there were one man and one woman. The man was barehanded, and the woman had a stick in her hand. By this time they heard Venerable Lingzhi’s loud roar; it looked like he had suffered hardship as well.
Wanyan Honglie knitted his brows, “Why is this Venerable so reckless? He called out earth shatteringly loud; if the palace guards hear and come over, how can we get the book?” he said.
He had just finished speaking when they saw Venerable Lingzhi’s red kasaya fly out from the waterfall and float on the red lotus pond, followed by two clanking noise; two copper cymbals that he used as weapons also flew out of the waterfall. Peng Lianhu was afraid the cymbals would make loud noise if they fell to the ground, thus alerting the palace guards; so he stretched out his hands and caught the cymbals. They heard from the waterfall loud shouts, which nobody could understand, of Tibetan curse words; followed by a huge body flying out of the water.
Luckily Venerable Lingzhi’s martial art was different from Hou Tonghai’s; he fell backward, but was able to land steadily, his buttocks were not injured at all. He cursed aloud, “It’s the boy and the girl we met at the boat.”
When Guo Jing and Huang Rong were hiding behind the fake hill, they heard Wanyan Honglie’s order to the people to come into the cave and steal the book. They thought if the Wumu Legacy were obtained by him, the Jin army could follow Yue Wumu’s military strategy to invade the south; then it would be disastrous. They realized that Ouyang Feng was around and that they were not his match, but if they did not bravely step forward, how could they bear it if the common people of the world suffer a disaster?
At first Huang Rong wanted to find a way to scare these people away, but Guo Jing saw the situation was critical; they did not have time to hesitate. Immediately he pulled Huang Rong’s hand and slipped behind the waterfall. They were hoping for an opportunity to set up an ambush and attack Ouyang Feng by surprise. Luckily the waterfall’s rumbling noise was so loud that nobody noticed their movements.
Two people did all they can to repel Sha Tongtian and the others. They were pleasantly surprised with the result; did not expect the Manual’s ‘changing muscles forging bones’ to be that marvelous. Huang Rong’s ‘dog-beating stick’ had infinite variations, almost fantastical, that even men of Sha Tongtian and Venerable Lingzhi’s caliber were thrown into confusion and helplessness. Guo Jing would take advantage of the situation to send out his palm, as a result they managed to throw everybody out of the waterfall.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong knew that as Sha Tongtian and the others were defeated, Ouyang Feng would go into action; and that they absolutely could not fight against him. “Let us get out of here quick!” Huang Rong said, “We have to raise the alarm, let the palace guards come over and prevent these people to act further.”
“That’s right!” Guo Jing said, “You go out and raise the alarm. I am staying here to guard.”
“You must not fight the Old Poison,” Huang Rong said.
“Yes. Now go! Go!” Guo Jing said.
Huang Rong just about to go out through the hole behind the waterfall when suddenly they heard a loud grunt; a great burst of energy came through the waterfall from the outside. Two people did not dare to block, they leaped sideways to evade. With a loud sound the Ouyang Feng’s Toad Stance energy penetrated the waterfall and hit the iron gate. The water splashed everywhere, the momentum was astonishing.
Although Huang Rong managed to leap sideways, but her back was still hit by the Toad Stance’s lateral force; she felt her blood was rushing and her vision blurred. She tried to focus her attention and then dashing outside and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Seize the assassin! Seize the assassin!” She ran away while repeatedly shouting.
As she shouted, the palace guards all around ‘cui han tang’ were startled awake; immediately there came shouting everywhere, raising the alarm. Huang Rong jumped up the roof, picked up the roof tiles and ‘Bing! Bing! Bang! Bang!” threw the tiles randomly.
“Kill this little girl first, then we’ll talk,” Peng Lianhu cursed. Launching his lightness kungfu he gave a chase. Liang Ziweng jumped to the left, trying to surround her.
Wanyan Honglie was still calm, he said to Yang Kang, “Kang’er, go with Mr. Ouyang to get the book.”
By that time Ouyang Feng had already squatted on the ground in front of the waterfall. With another grunt he sent another burst of energy and the double iron gate on the cave mouth flew in. He was about to enter the cave when suddenly from the side a shadow came attacking. Before the person even arrived, his palm had already come; launching the dangerous stance of ‘fei long zai tian’ [dragon flies to the sky]. Although in that dark cave he could not clearly see that person’s appearance, as soon as he saw the stance he knew it must be Guo Jing. He was delighted, “That Nine Yin Manual is exceptionally difficult to understand, I only understand two out of ten sentences. If I can capture this kid today, I can force him to explain it.” He leaned sideways to evade the attack then swiftly stretched out his hand trying to snatch Guo Jing’s back.
Guo Jing determined that no matter what he had to do guard the entrance, he could not let the enemy enter. As long as he could hold for a moment, the palace guards would come over; although this group of traitors’ martial arts was high, eventually they have to run away. He was slightly puzzled to see Ouyang Feng did not try to kill him but just want to capture him. His left hand swept the attacking hand away and his right hand counterattacked with the Vacant Fist technique. Even though in term of strength this technique was inferior to the 18-Dragon Subduing Palms, using Vacant Fist his palms were floating with tricky movements.
“Good!” Ouyang Feng exclaimed. He dropped his shoulder and withdrew his hand; trying to catch Guo Jing’s right arm. His hand did not carry the gust of wind that came with his swift and ferocious force.
When he was on the desolate island Ouyang Feng studied the Manual Guo Jing wrote, the more he practiced it the more he felt something was wrong. It never crossed his mind that the Manual in his hand was scrambled to the point of intelligible; he thought that the Manual carried a very deep and profound meaning, which could not be deciphered in a short period of time. Later on he heard Hong Qigong mumbling some gibberish on the raft; he thought that was the key to understanding the Manual. Every time he met Guo Jing he noticed that his martial art was always progressing, he was startled yet delighted at the same time: startled that if this kid’s skill made this kind of advancement, then the power contained in the Manual was truly something to be feared; delighted because the Manual was in his hand; by strengthening his own background, his advancement in the future would be limitless.
Previously on the raft he fought a life and death battle against two enemies; this time he felt that he had gained an upper hand, he wanted to fight leisurely. He thought he would be able to tear apart the manual by watching Guo Jing’s every single move. He did not care whether the Wumu Legacy could be stolen or not; in his heart the only important matter right now was the martial art in the Manual.
By now the light from the lanterns all around had made the ‘cui han tang’ bright as daylight as more and more palace guards arrived. Wanyan Honglie saw Ouyang Feng and Yang Kang had entered the water curtain for a very long time without coming back out, while the palace guards had gathered around them. He was getting increasingly anxious; fortunately the guards’ attention was absorbed by Peng Lianhu and Liang Ziweng on the roof chasing after Huang Rong, oblivious that there was a bigger fight going on inside the waterfall. He realized, however, that sooner or later the guards’ would detect their presence there. He stomped his feet and waved his hands incessantly, while urgently called out, “Quick! Quick!”
“Don’t worry Prince, little monk will go in again,” Venerable Lingzhi said. Shaking his left palm in front of his body he entered the waterfall again. By now the light outside had penetrated the water curtain. He was able to see Ouyang Feng exchanged stances against Guo Jing in front of the cave entrance; while Yang Kang on the side was trying to get into the cave. But how could he pass through these two people’s ferocious gust of winds from their palms?
Venerable Lingzhi watched for several stances and he could not endure it anymore; he thought presently the situation was very urgent, but this Ouyang Feng was leisurely sparring martial art in here with this kid; truly he was a bastard. “Mr. Ouyang, let me help you!” he shouted.
“Don’t go near me!” Ouyang Feng replied.
Venerable Lingzhi thought, “In a situation like this you still flaunt yourself as a hero; displaying your reputation as a grandmaster of a martial art school?” He bent his knees and attacked Guo Jing’s left side; his ‘da shou yin’ [big hand stamp/imprint] slapped Guo Jing’s ‘tai yang’ [sun] acupoint.
Ouyang Feng was angry; his right hand stretched out to grab the back of Lingzhi’s neck and flung him out. As his neck was grabbed, Venerable Lingzhi was very angry, he shouted a series of most obscene cuss words he could think of; unfortunately he was using Tibetan, so naturally Ouyang Feng did not understand a word he was saying. All he heard was “Ba ni mi hong …” half a sentence because water started to get into his mouth that his curse was drown. What happened was: he fell backward with his face facing the sky, so when he fell into the pond water started filling up his mouth.
Wanyan Honglie saw Venerable Lingzhi came out and fell like he was mounting the clouds and riding the mist, and then he heard a loud clamoring noise as the big flower pot in front of the ‘cui han tang’ was crushed; he groaned inwardly. He also saw the palace guards came in succession, busily he tucked his robe and went inside the waterfall.
Although he had learned martial arts, his skill was only so-so; as soon as he was inside the waterfall he stepped on slippery floor and fell down. Yang Kang rushed forward to hold him up. It took a while for Wanyan Honglie to scan the cave, looking at what was going on. “Mr. Ouyang, can you expel this youngster?” he called out. He knew that no matter how he begged or entreated, Ouyang Feng might not necessarily pay any attention to him; hence he resorted to subtlety by asking if Ouyang Feng was capable of expelling Guo Jing. It was called ‘dispatching a general is not as good as inciting a general’.
Sure enough, as soon as Ouyang Feng heard that, he replied, “Why not?” He squatted and produced a loud grunt, sending his Toad Stance energy forward through his palms. This one push was backed by his lifelong cultivation of energy, even if Hong Qigong or Huang Yaoshi were here, they would not be able to resist this attack head on, how could Guo Jing block?
Ouyang Feng had just exchanged some stances with Guo Jing, compelling him to use the Vacant Fist technique. He noticed that Guo Jing’s movement was subtle with marvelous variations, in his heart he was secretly pleased, thinking this must be the Nine Yin Manual’s martial art. He wanted to watch Guo Jing to use up this technique so that he could steal as much as he could. Unfortunately Wanyan Honglie barged in and questioned his ability. He still thought that Guo Jing would be useful, and he knew the ferociousness of his own strength, therefore, voluntarily he withdrew his push.
Unexpectedly Guo Jing had determined to guard the Wumu Legacy with his life, he knew that if he evade to the side, the cave entrance would be defenseless and the Wumu Legacy would fall into the enemy’s hand. Although there were numerous palace guards outside, how could they defend against Ouyang Feng and the others? He knew this incoming force was ferocious, he could not block, and he could not evade; so his feet kicked and he jumped about four feet upward to escape the attack and then landed back in front of the entrance. He heard a loud noise behind his back, sand and rocks fell down since Ouyang Feng’s force hit the cave wall.
“Good!” Ouyang Feng called out, and with an exceptional speed sent out the second attack. The previous force had not diminished when the next force had arrived.
Guo Jing felt a sudden gust of wind blowing to his upper body, he groaned inwardly; and launched both of his palms forward using the ‘zhen jing bai li’ [shocking a hundred ‘li’s] immediately. It was one of the most powerful moves of the 18-Dragon Subduing Palms. This time he blocked hard with hard. In an instant both of them stayed motionless. Guo Jing realized his strength was not a match of the enemy’s, he knew he would suffer defeat, but there was no other way.
Wanyan Honglie saw these two men were fighting, leaping and eluding, one rose up the other fell down; and suddenly they were stiff like corpses, not even a finger was stirred, they did not even seem to breathe; he was greatly astonished. A short moment later sweats started to drip from Guo Jing’s body. Ouyang Feng knew that if this fight continued his opponent would suffer serious injury; he had a mind of yielding for half a stance, but as soon as he let down his power his chest tightened because the opponent’s power come pressing in. If not of his profound strength he would certainly be injured.
Ouyang Feng was startled; he had never expected that in such a young age Guo Jing’s strength could be so fierce. He took a deep breath and counterattacked immediately, pushing the incoming force back out. If only he added a little bit strength to his push, he would be able to overthrow Guo Jing easily. But this time both parties palm strength was equal; if he wanted to score victory he would have to inflict heavy injury to his opponent. It would not be difficult if he really wanted to kill Guo Jing, but this kid was the key to understanding the Manual; how could he destroy his own resource? Therefore, he wanted to wait for Guo Jing’s strength to be depleted and then he would capture him.
Not too long afterwards it became obvious that as one’s strength declined, the other’s increased; but Wanyan Honglie and Yang Kang who watched from the side did not know how much longer this condition would last; they became very anxious. Actually two people were in this deadlock for only a short time, but because the light from the outside was getting brighter and the noise getting louder, in Wanyan Honglie and Yang Kang’s mind they have been motionless for a very long time.
Suddenly a loud noise was heard, two palace guards came barging into the waterfall. Yang Kang swiftly pounced forward. With ‘ta, ta’ sound both of his hands penetrated the guards body. It was the deathly ‘jiu yin bai zhua gong’ [nine yin white claw power]. A whiff of reeking blood smell attacked everybody’s nostrils; those guards died instantly. Yang Kang then drew a dagger from his boot and jumped to stab Guo Jing’s waist.
Guo Jing was resisting Ouyang Feng’s palm with all his strength; how could he avoid this incoming stab? He knew if he moved even a little bit he would die violently under the Western Poison’s Toad Stance; therefore, even when he knew the dagger would penetrate his body soon, he was forced to ignore it. Suddenly he felt a severe pain on his waist; his breath was immediately shut. Instinctively he swung his fist and hit Yang Kang’s hand.
By this time the martial art levels between these two was very far apart; Guo Jing’s fist struck Yang Kang’s bone like it was about to crack. Hastily Yang Kang withdrew his hand that the dagger only went halfway into Guo Jing’s waist.
Right at that moment the Toad Stance’s force came surging into Guo Jing’s chest. He made a noiseless grunt, bent his body and tumbled down.
Realizing that in the end he still inflicted injury, Ouyang Feng waved his hand and shook his head. “What a pity! What a pity!” he called out. He was dejected but knew that this kid could not be revived, so there was no reason why he should linger around; he had to get the Wumu Legacy. He stared at Yang Kang angrily, he thought, “This kid has spoiled my big business.” He turned around and entered the cave in big strides. Wanyan Honglie and Yang Kang followed behind.
By that time there were a lot of palace guards gathered around the place. Without turning his body Ouyang Feng grabbed backward and one by one he flung the guards away, until finally no guard was able to enter the cave anymore.
Yang Kang lighted up his torch to see the cave situation; he saw thick dust everywhere, a sign that nobody had ever entered in for a very long time. There was a stone table in the middle of the cave, and a stone box on top of it, measuring about two feet square. The box was sealed closed. Other that this, no other object could be seen inside the cave. Yang Kang brought his torch closer to take a look. The writing on the seal looked very old, the characters were not recognizable.
“The book must be inside this box,” Wanyan Honglie called out.
Yang Kang was delighted, he held out his hand to take the box. Ouyang Feng’s left arm gently pushed his shoulder away. Yang Kang staggered back several steps before he fell down. He was startled, but saw Ouyang Feng took the box.
“Great work accomplished, everybody draws back!” Wanyan Honglie called out.
With Ouyang Feng on the front leading the way, three people went out the cave. Yang Kang saw Guo Jing with his body full of blood was lying motionless among several guards on the cave entrance; he felt a slight remorse and muttered under his breath, “You don’t know good from bad, always meddle in other people’s business. You can’t blame me in spite of our sworn brotherhood.” Remembering his dagger was still in Guo Jing’s body he stooped down to pick it up, but then suddenly a shadow appeared from outside. “Brother Jing, where are you?” the shadow called out.
Yang Kang recognized Huang Rong’s voice; he was startled and without taking his dagger out he jumped over Guo Jing’s body and ran outside the water curtain to follow Ouyang Feng and the others.
Previously Huang Rong was rushing to the east and running to the west with Peng Lianhu and Liang Ziweng chasing after her on the rooftop. Not long afterwards the palace guards started to gather around the area. Peng and Liang were scared, they did not dare to chase Huang Rong much longer and so they went back to join Sha Tongtian and the others waiting for Wanyan Honglie by the waterfall side. They killed several other guards outside the cave until Ouyang Feng went out.
Huang Rong was concerned about Guo Jing, she went back inside the cave and called out several times without answer. She started to get nervous, so she lighted up her flint only to see Guo Jing with his body soaked in blood was lying next to her own foot. Huang Rong was scared to death, her hands trembled, her flint fell down and the fire went out.
Outside the cave the guards were still shouting loudly, calling each other to capture the assassin. More than a dozen guards were grabbed and tossed away by Ouyang Feng with broken necks; nobody dare to even go near them anymore. But palace guards carried a heavy responsibility; presently there was an assassin in the palace, if they did not shout loudly and appear bold by not running away, how could they show their loyalties?
Huang Rong stooped down to hold Guo Jing, she felt his hand was still warm, she felt relieved. She called out several times without getting any answer; she decided to carry him on her back and quietly slipped away from the waterfall toward the back of the fake hill.
By that time the area around the ‘cui han tang’ was bright as daylight from the lanterns. Guards from other parts of the palace had heard the news and came over in abundance. Even though Huang Rong’s movement was quick it was impossible to avoid being seen by several guards. They shouted loudly and came to chase her. Huang Rong silently cursed, “You are a bunch of scumbags, you don’t pursue after the bad people but chase after the good people.”
She gritted her teeth and flew away. Several guards with higher martial arts managed to get close to her, forcing her to launch several steel needles. “Aiyo!” she heard several guards cry out and fell down. The rest of the guards did not dare to pursue and could only helplessly look at her leaping over the palace wall and disappear without a trace.
These people were so noisy that the whole palace was frightened; in the dark of the night nobody knew if it was a coup, somebody was trying to usurp the emperor’s throne, or some government officers incited a rebellion. The palace guards, the imperial army, all armed force personnel were alarmed; but not a single high-ranking military officer knew what was going on for sure. They were confused for the rest of the night. Came daybreak the cavalry was dispatched; the city was turned upside down in search of ‘the rebels’ or ‘the assassin’. Quite a number of people were arrested. Unfortunately later investigation proved that these people were nothing but petty thieves and local ruffians. The officials were forced to fabricate oral confession and randomly executed some people in order to appease the throne and to assure their own safety and position.
After leaving the palace that night, Huang Rong ran without looking where she was heading. She randomly picked her way and only slowed down after seeing nobody was pursuing them. She entered a small alley and stretched her finger to feel Guo Jing’s breath. She was relieved to find Guo Jing was still breathing, only her flint was lost in the palace so that in the darkness she could not examine where the injury was. She knew if she waited for the dawn, it would be more difficult to find a shelter inside the city wall with this kind of bloody person with her; hence she decided to leave the city that very same night, heading toward Shagu’s wine shop.
Huang Rong’s martial art skill was high, but after running fast for half the night, carrying Guo Jing on her back with a nervous heart, as she shoved open the door of Shagu’s shop, she was out of breath; her body felt weak. She sat down to calm herself down, catching her breath; then found a piece of firewood and lighted it to look at Guo Jing’s face and examine his wound. She was shocked even more than when they were still at the palace.
Guo Jing’s eyes were tightly shut, his face was white as a sheet; he looked more dead than alive. Huang Rong had seen him injured several times before, but never seen him in this kind of critical condition. She felt like her own heart was about to jump out of her throat. She stood lost in thought with a torch in her hand; suddenly a hand stretched out from the side and touched the torch. Huang Rong slowly turned her head and saw that it was Shagu. Huang Rong sucked a deep breath; now that there was someone beside her, she felt somewhat better. She remembered she was going to examine Guo Jing’s injury. Under the bright light of the torch she could see a blackish object protruding from Guo Jing’s waist; it looked like an ebony hilt of a dagger. She lowered her head to look closer and found out that it was indeed a dagger with the blade stuck inside Guo Jing’s left waist.
At this time Huang Rong’s panic had reached its limit, her mind turned calm instead. She gently tore the clothes around his waist, exposing bare skin and muscle; only to see blood coagulated around the blade, which penetrated the muscle several ‘cun’ deep [1 cun is approximately 1 inch]. She was afraid if she pulled the dagger Guo Jing would die immediately, but if she waited too long it would be also more difficult to save his life. Biting her lips she stretched out her hand to grab the dagger’s hilt, but then suddenly doubt came creeping into her heart; she withdrew her hand. This happened several times; she just could not make up her mind.
Shagu became impatient; the fourth time Huang Rong withdrew her hand she suddenly stretched out her hand, grabbed the hilt and pulled the dagger out abruptly. Guo Jing and Huang Rong both shouted in shock; but Shagu thought it was really fun, she happily laughed out loud.
Huang Rong saw blood gushing out from Guo Jing’s wound like a spring, while Shagu was still laughing foolishly; from shock she became angry, her palm struck backward, sending Shagu rolling down on the floor. And immediately she stooped down to press the wound with a handkerchief.
When Shagu fell down, she brought the torch with her; the fire was extinguished and the room became pitch-black. Shagu was angry, she jumped out and kicked Huang Rong on her leg. Huang Rong did not evade the kick. Shagu was afraid Huang Rong would retaliate; she jumped back immediately after kicking. But after a while she heard Huang Rong was sobbing softly. She was surprised. Busily she re-lighted the torch and came asking, “Did I hurt you bad?”
Actually when the dagger was pulled out, the pain was so severe that it woke Guo Jing up. Under the torch light he saw Huang Rong was kneeling beside him. “Master Yue’s book … was it … was it stolen?” he quickly asked.
Huang Rong was delighted to hear him speak. Knowing he was very concerned about this matter she felt like it was not the right time to add to his anxiety. “Don’t worry,” she said, “Those traitors were not able to get their hands on the book …” She wanted to ask how he was feeling but her hands were actually warm from his blood.
“Why are you crying?” Guo Jing asked with a low voice.
Huang Rong forced a smile and said, “I am not crying.”
Shagu suddenly opened her mouth, “She is too, isn’t she? Look, there are still tears on her face.”
“Rong’er, don’t worry,” Guo Jing said, “There is a section about injury treatment in the Nine Yin Manual. I won’t die.”
Hearing this Huang Rong was like someone in the dark suddenly saw a beacon of light; her eyes shone brightly, her delight was unspeakable, nothing could dampen her spirit. She wanted to ask the details but was afraid she would make him weary. She turned around to hold Shagu’s hand. “Sister, did I hurt you just now?” she asked, with smile on her face.
Shagu’s mind was still set on seeing her cry, she ignored her question and asked, “You are crying, don’t you admit it?”
Huang Rong smiled, “Fine, I was crying. But you were not, you are a good girl.” Shagu was delighted to hear her praise.
Guo Jing slowly circulated his ‘qi’; the pain was unbearable. By this time Huang Rong had cleared her mind. She took out a steel needle and punctured the acupoints around his left waist, both to slow down the flow of blood, also to reduce the pain. Then she washed up his wound clean, applied some medicine and re-wrapped the wound with clean cloth. She also gave him a ‘nine flowered jade dew pill’ to help stop the pain.
Guo Jing said, “Although this dagger went in pretty deep, but … but luckily it did not hit any vital organs, it … it won’t be life-threatening. I suffer more dangerous injury from the Old Poison’s Toad Stance; fortunately it seemed like he did not use all his strength, so looks like I may be healed; only I will have to make you suffer for seven days and seven nights.”
Huang Rong sighed. “You know that even if I have to suffer seventy years for you, I will still be willing,” she said.
Guo Jing felt sweetness creep into his heart, at the same time he also felt dizzy. After waiting for a moment his mind cleared up a little bit; he said, “It was a pity when Shifu was injured I missed several days of opportunity to treat him. Otherwise even though the snake venom was fierce, it won’t be too hard for him to fully recover. He won’t be … he won’t be disabled like he is today.”
Huang replied, “When we were on that island, even if we could heal Shifu’s injury, would the Old Poison uncle and nephew let us? Please don’t think that way. Just tell me your method and set my mind at ease.”
“First we must find a peace and quiet place,” Guo Jing said, “Then following the Manual’s instruction we circulate our ‘qi’ together. Each of us will hold the other’s palm. Using your internal energy you are helping me healing my injury.” Speaking to this point he closed his eyes to catch his breath before continuing, “The only difficulty is that for seven whole days and nights our palms cannot be separated even for a second. Your breathing will be closely linked to mine. We can talk to each other, but definitely we can’t have a third person interrupting us even for a half sentence. Also, we must not walk away even for half a step. If there is someone else disturbing us, we may …”
Huang Rong realized this kind of treatment was similar with meditation to cultivate someone’s martial art. Before reaching satisfactory result one could not experience any external intervention. Otherwise, the mind would be either disturbed with bad thoughts or would be out of control. Unavoidably the result would be fire deviation; not only the whole energy cultivation would be wasted, in the least the person would suffered injury, at the most, dead. That was the reason warriors who cultivate internal energy would always find a secluded and inhabited mountain or field; or closing their doors without coming out; or have a skilled and powerful master or friend protecting on the sideline to avoid their training going astray.
She thought, “In this short moment it’s difficult to find a peace and quiet place; while I am the only one who can help him treating his injury. It’s impossible to rely on this Shagu to guard against external disturbance; she could come and create and endless disturbance herself. If only Big Brother Zhou came back. But then I don’t think he will be able to set his mind to guard us for seven days and seven nights; success won’t be guaranteed, messed up things will be more likely. So what should I do?”
She mused over this matter for a long time; then she glanced over to the bowl in the cabinet. An idea came into her mind, “I got it. We can hide inside this secret room. In the past Mei Chaofeng practiced martial art without anybody protecting her. Didn’t she hide herself up in a cave?”
It was now dawn; Shagu went to the kitchen and cooked some rice porridge for these two people to eat. “Brother Jing,” Huang Rong said, “Wait here for a moment, I am going to buy some food, and then we can start your treatment immediately.”
She thought presently the weather was blisteringly hot, if she cooked some rice and dishes, they would definitely rot if left in the room for seven days and nights; thereupon she went to the village market to buy a picul [approximately 50 kg or 100 lbs] of watermelon.
The farmer who sold the watermelon brought everything back to Shagu’s inn and heaped them on the ground. After receiving the money, on the way out he said, “Our Ox Village’s watermelon is sweet and crispy; once Miss taste it you will agree with me.”
Hearing the three characters ‘niu jia cun’ [ox village], Huang Rong’s heart skipped a beat. “Turned out this is the Ox Village,” she said in her heart, “This is Brother Jing’s hometown.” She was afraid if Guo Jing found out his mind would be disturbed; therefore, she replied perfunctorily.
She waited until that villager went out to go into the inner chamber to take a look. Guo Jing was asleep; blood no longer seeped out through the cotton cloth wrapped around his waist. Huang Rong opened up the cabinet and turned the iron bowl to open the secret chamber door; and then she brought the watermelons one by one inside. At last the only thing remained outside was Shagu. Huang Rong repeatedly warned Shagu not to tell anybody they would be staying inside the chamber; that no matter what kind of earth shattering things happened, she was not supposed to call out from outside.
Shagu did not understand her intention, but seeing Huang Rong’s serious expression, she said she understood; repeatedly nodded her head to give her promise. “You want to eat watermelon inside; you don’t want anybody to know. After you finish eating watermelon, you will come back out again. Shagu will not tell.”
Huang Rong was happy, “Shagu won’t tell, Shagu is a good girl,” she said, “If Shagu tell, Shagu is a bad girl.”
“Shagu won’t tell, Shagu is a good girl,” Shagu repeatedly said.
Huang Rong fed Guo Jing another big bowl of rice porridge, she also ate one bowl; and then she helped him entering the secret chamber. When she was closing the door from inside, she saw Shagu’s simple expression showing a smile. Shagu said, “Shagu won’t tell.”
Suddenly Huang Rong’s heart was moved, “This girl is so dumb; what if every time she meet someone she say, ‘Those two eat watermelon inside the cabinet, Shagu won’t tell.’? The only way to ensure our safety is to kill her.”
She grew up under her father’s way of life; benevolence and justice, differences between good and evil don’t matter to them. Although she knew this Shagu had a very close relationship with Qu Lingfeng, right at that moment she presented a danger to Guo Jing’s life. Even if there were a dozen more Shagus, she would kill them all.
She took the dagger that was in Guo Jing’s waist and walked out to leave the room.