Return of condor heroes, p.20
Return of Condor Heroes, page 20
After the morning meal, the Shining Jade elder’s students who included Zhao Zhijing and Cui Chifang and others assembled in the southeastern plain, where they dueled with each other. Wang Chuyi was not present, so his eldest student Zhao Zhijing was in charge of the proceedings. The fourth generation students demonstrated their punches and kicks, then with swords and spears, after that they performed with projectiles and finally showed off their internal energy, with Zhao Zhijing and the other third generation students in the group as the judges.
Yang Guo was the last one to enter the sect out of all of them; he sat aside and watched. He saw Taoists who were older than him, some who were about the same age as him and others who weren’t Taoists demonstrate impressive skills, but he wasn’t envious, instead he was full of hate. Zhao Zhijing saw that something was up with him, and wanted to make a fool out of him again, and so waited for two Taoists to finish competing with projectiles and then called out, “Come here Yang Guo!”
Yang Guo stopped for a second and thought, “You haven’t taught me an ounce of martial arts, why are you calling me out?” Zhao Zhijing called out again, “Yang Guo, come here now!”
Yang Guo had no choice but to walk to where they were sitting, and then made a bow and said, “Disciple Yang Guo hereby greets teacher.”
Quanzhen sect was made up mostly of Taoists, but there were some members who were like Yang Guo and not Taoists, and so he performed the greeting for these members.
Zhao Zhijing pointed out to the Taoist in the arena who had just won and said, “He’s only a few years older than you; you go and compete with him.”
Yang Guo said, “Disciple does not know any martial arts, how can I compete with apprentice brother?”
Zhao Zhijing scolded, “I’ve taught you for half a year, how can you say you don’t know any martial arts? What have you been doing for the last few months?”
Yang Guo had nothing to say and hung his head.
Zhao Zhijing said, “You are lazy and mischievous, you don’t practice, of course your punches and kicks will become rusty. I ask you “What use is there to study the scheme of life? The heart dies, and passion with it.” What are the next two lines?”
Yang Guo replied, “The pure air fills the tools of movement; The light of the soul shines brilliantly on the body.”
Zhao Zhijing said, “Correct, I ask you again, “The teacher passes on the secret and comprehended at first; eventually there is no me.” What are the next two lines?”
Yang Guo replied, “Every year the dust is ground to the end; One side of the soul dazzles to emptiness.”
Zhao Zhijing gave a wry smile, and said, “Very good, not one word wrong. Go and use those formulae, enter the arena and compete with your apprentice brother.”
Yang Guo was startled once again, and said. “I won’t.”
Zhao Zhijing was pleased with himself, his face was furious and he shouted, “You’ve learned the formulae but don’t practice and only make up excuses, go down to the arena now.”
Within those few lines are the most important ideas in cultivating internal energy, teaching that the heart must be calm, refining the chi, but each line needs a fist or kick to accompany it, only then will a set of Quanzhen sect’s fist be formed. The rest of the Taoists heard Yang Guo reciting the formulae with their own ears, and not one word out of place, and knew that he was scared of competing, and tried to encourage him by ridiculing and laughing mockingly. The students of the Quanzhen sect are all good people, but after their battle with Guo Jing where the Taoists were beaten to the ground, he had offended many people. Many of them shifted their anger onto Yang Guo, and wished misfortune on him, although they might not have really meant it, they just wanted a way to vent their anger.
Yang Guo saw many people were urging him on, some were saying harsh words to get at him, he couldn’t control his anger and made a decision and thought, “Today, I’m not going to care what happens to me.” He then jumped into the arena, and moved his arms, running straight into the young Taoist. The Taoist saw that he wasn’t showing respect for the opponent, and was not following the sect’s rules by politely requesting a duel; he was shocked. He saw that Yang Guo was running around and fighting like a madman, he was surprised and moved back a few steps. Yang Guo had already decided to disregard his own life and ferociously attacked, every step going forward. The young Taoist moved back a few steps and saw that Yang Guo’s lower body was unstable, he slanted his body and threw a kick, the stance “Sweeping Wind Descending Leaves” (feng sao luo ye), and swept his leg. Yang Guo didn’t know how to dodge, he couldn’t stay upright and fell down on the ground, hitting his nose and blood flowed.
The Taoists saw how he fell, and some laughed. Yang Guo flipped around and picked himself up, he didn’t wipe the blood away; he dropped his head and jumped at the Taoist. The Taoist saw Yang Guo jumping at him and dodged to the side. Yang Guo did not use any orthodox kung fu, he reached with his two arms, and grabbed the opponent’s left leg. The young Taoist’s right palm came down, the stance “Wiping the Dust” (kai mo chen gou), it was a way to rid obstructions on your lower body. Yang Guo had not learned any martial arts when he was on Peach Blossom Island, and had not received any useful skills while at Chongyang palace, and didn’t have a clue as to what stance the opponent would use. He only heard a thudding noise, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder; he had been struck fiercely by a punch. The more he suffered, the more ferocious he became, he head butted the opponent’s right leg; the Taoist’s leg became unsteady and he was forced onto the ground by him. Yang Guo whirled his fist, and ferociously struck out at his head.
The young Taoist gained victory from the jaws of defeat, his elbow struck Yang Guo’s chest fiercely, causing him severe pain, and used the chance to escape. He pushed and swung his hand, and caused Yang Guo to drop again; he had used the stance “No Debts No Dues” (wu qian wu yu). The young Taoist checked and said, “Apprentice brother Yang, thank you!”
Originally when dueling amongst each other from the same sect, once there was a clear winner the duel would stop, but he didn’t know Yang Guo was not finished. He came rushing forwards again. After two or three moves, Yang Guo was once again on the ground, but he became bolder as he went on, his punches and kicks coming out faster and faster.
Zhao Zhijing shouted, “Yang Guo, you’ve already lost, why are you still carrying on?”
Yang Guo ignored him, and kicked out; he had no plans to back down. The rest of the Taoists first thought it was funny but then thought, “When did our sect have such a reckless and rough kung fu?” After, they saw that he was fighting for his life and were afraid that something might happen. Many people called out, “Forget it…forget it. Its only sparring amongst apprentice brothers, there is no need to be so serious.”
They fought for another while; the young Taoist became frightened; all he did now was dodge and block, not daring to come close to him. There’s a saying: One man fighting for his life cannot be stopped by ten thousand men. Yang Guo had suffered for half a year on Mount Zhongnan, and he let it all out. The young Taoist’s skills were higher than Yang Guo’s, but how could he cope? He saw that he couldn’t block anymore, he could only hurry around the arena avoiding him.
Yang Guo chased after him, and shouted, “Rotten Taoist, you’ve had fun hitting me, now you want to run?”
The ten people who were watching from the side at that time, eight or nine of them were Taoists, when they heard him say rotten Taoist, scoundrel Taoist and other insults, they were angry but also thought it was funny. They all said, “That kid needs a good lesson.”
The young Taoist was chased and harried, he was scared and shouted, “Master, master!” and hoped the Zhao Zhijing would come out and stop Yang Guo. Zhao Zhijing shouted, but Yang Guo did not take any notice.
When Yang Guo didn’t stop, a shout came out from the crowd, and out came a large Taoist, he stepped in and grabbed Yang Guo’s neck, picked him up, and struck three times across the face, the slaps were fierce, half of Yang Guo’s face immediately swelled up. Yang Guo was dazed by the three slaps, when he looked up, it was the Taoist whom he had a run in with, Lu Qingdu. When Yang Guo first came to Mount Zhongnan, he was almost burned to death by Yang Guo, after that, his apprentice brothers ridiculed him saying he got outsmarted by a little kid. He had always kept this in his mind, now he saw Yang Guo was being rebellious; he couldn’t resist and reacted.
When Yang Guo saw that it was Lu Qingdu, he knew that he was out of luck, and since he was being held up, he couldn’t fight. Lu Qingdu smiled wryly, and struck him across the face three more times, and shouted, “You don’t listen to master’s orders, you are our sect’s traitor, and anyone can hit you.” He raised his hand again, wanting to hit out once more.
Zhao Zhijing’s apprentice brother Cui Zhifang had seen Yang Guo fight and he had not used any of their sect’s kung fu. He knew what kind of character Zhao Zhijing was, so he was afraid that there was another reason for all of this; he feared someone was going to get hurt so he called out, “Qingdu, stop!”
Lu Qingdu heard his Martial Uncle’s shout, although he didn’t want to, he had to put Yang Guo down and said, “Martial Uncle don’t you know, that child is extremely mischievous and crafty, if we don’t punish him heavily, how can there be order within our sect?”
Cui Zhifang ignored him, and went over to Yang Guo, he saw that both sides of Yang Guo’s face were heavily swollen, there were blue and purple marks, his noise and mouth were bloody; he looked a very sorry sight. He softly said, “Yang Guo, your master taught you martial arts, why didn’t you work hard and practice, and instead causing fights among your apprentice brothers?”
Yang Guo angrily said, “What master? He hasn’t taught me anything.”
Cui Zhifang said, “I heard with my own ears you reciting the formulae, not one word was wrong.”
Yang Guo remembered how on Peach Blossom Island Huang Rong had made him read books and recite manuscripts, and knew that Zhao Zhijing had taught him something that was not related to practicing martial arts. He said, “I don’t know how to incorporate them, what use is being able to recite a few words?”
Cui Zhifang pretended to be angry, and wanted to test that he really did not know any of their sect’s kung fu; he then put on a face, and said, “You are talking to a senior, how can you have no manners?” He stretched out his arm and pushed his shoulder. Cui Zhifang is one of most skilled students of the third generation, although he can’t be compared with Zhao Zhijing and Yin Zhiping, he was skilled, his internal energy high. His push was gentle yet it’s strength was judged just right, but he felt Yang Guo’s shoulder lean to the side, his internal energy emerged, and had already dispersed with just under half the force in his push. Although he stumbled back a few steps, he did not fall down.
Cui Zhifang was startled, he became suspicious and thought, “He is young, and has only entered our sect for just over half a year, how can he have such strong internal energy? He has good internal energy, just now when he was dueling; he was fighting madly, could there be something wrong here?” He didn’t know that Yang Guo had practiced Ou Yangfeng’s formulae for internal energy cultivation; unwittingly his internal energy has gone up another level. The White Camel Mountain’s sect’s internal energy is easy to learn, progress can be made very quickly, but it cannot compare with the Quanzhen sect’s kung fu foundations. Within the first ten years of practicing, the students of White Camel Mountain’s internal energy will have increased very quickly until ten years pass, then the students of Quanzhen sect will have slowly caught up and start to overtake it. The two sect’s internal energies are very different, but because Cui Zhifang had just given a push without any real intent, it was hard for him to tell the difference.
Yang Guo had been pushed by him, and was winded, and knew that he wanted to fight him. Right now, he feared neither heaven nor earth, even if Qiu Chuji was here in person, he would still fight him, why would he care about Cui Zhifang? He then lowered his head and rushed forward, aiming for his lower abdomen. How could Cui Zhifang mess around with a child, he smiled and stepped aside, he wanted to see his real kung fu, so he said, “Qingdu, come and duel with apprentice brother Yang, watch yourself and don’t be too severe!”
Lu Qingdu could not believe those words, he immediately jumped in front of Yang Guo, his left palm came down, Yang Guo escaped to the right, Lu Qingdu hit out his right palm, this palm was the “Tiger’s Way Hand”, the strength behind it was not weak, a thudding sound, as Yang Guo was struck in the chest.
If Yang Guo had not been practicing the White Camel Mountain’s internal energy, he would have definitely thrown up a pool of blood. He felt a severe pain in his chest; his face was as white as a sheet of paper. Lu Qingdu saw that he had not felled Yang Guo with this palm, and secretly felt that he was careless, his right fist now came down at Yang Guo. Yang Guo stretched out his arms to attack; he didn’t understand the finer points of fist skills; so he didn’t know the best way to repel this incoming attack. Lu Qingdu moved his right fist and came out with his left fist, another thudding sound as he hit Yang Guo in the stomach. Yang Guo bent down with pain. Lu Qingdu didn’t hold back, a right palm came crashing down on Yang Guo’s neck. He wanted to hurt him, wanting him to fall over now, wanting to avenge what he did to him. His life was on the line now but he still did not fall down, but now Yang Guo was dazed and didn’t have the strength to retaliate.
Cui Zhijing knew then that he didn’t know any martial arts skills and said, “Qingdu, hold!”
Lu Qingdu said to Yang Guo, “Do you respect me now?”
Yang Guo shouted, “You damn Taoist, I’m going to kill you one day!”
Lu Qingdu was furious, and punched him twice in the nose.
Yang Guo was beaten badly, he was wobbling and was about to fall down. He didn’t know where he was when suddenly a flow of warm chi surged through his “dan tian”, and he saw that Lu Qingdu was about to throw a third punch at him. There was no way to dodge, no where to escape, he spontaneously bent both legs and gave out a loud shout, his palm pushed out, hitting Lu Qingdu in the stomach. He saw a large body fly through the air, a thudding sound as dust flew everywhere in the arena, falling about ten feet away. The body was lying on the ground, and didn’t move.
The crowd of Taoists at the side watched Lu Qingdu taking advantage of his size and bullying someone smaller than him, and hitting Yang Guo venomously. It wasn’t right, the older generation apart from Zhao Zhijing came over to stop him, but they didn’t know there had been a sudden reversal of fortune. Lu Qingdu had been sent flying by Yang Guo’s palm, his body lying there like a corpse not moving, everyone was astounded and rushed over to take a closer look.
Normally Yang Guo would not have been able to use the “Toad Stance”, but in a life threatening situation, it could be used automatically. The first time this happened was on Peach Blossom Island where he knocked out Wu Xiuwen. After many months, his internal energy had increased; that, plus the fact that he hated Lu Qingdu, and it was comparable to the hate he felt for the Wu brothers, with this in mind, he was able to knock him flying across the arena. He heard the other Taoists say, “Oh no, it’s terrible, he’s dead! He’s not breathing; his internal organs have been hurt! Quickly go and tell the leader and bring him here.”
Yang Guo knew he had caused a major incident, no one was thinking in the midst of this chaos, he picked himself up and ran away. The Taoists were too busy with Lu Qingdu’s life and didn’t notice that Yang Guo had slipped away. Zhao Zhijing saw that Lu Qingdu’s eyes were rolled back, and didn’t know whether he was dead or alive. He was startled and angry, and shouted out, “Yang Guo, Yang Guo, where did you learn this witchcraft?” His skills were high, but he had remained at Chongyang Palace for most of the time, he didn’t know much, of course he would not recognize the techniques of the “Toad Stance”.
The Taoists turned around, but didn’t see Yang Guo. Zhao Zhijing then gave out an order, and told them to go and capture Yang Guo; they thought how far could a small child like him get to in a short space of time?
Yang Guo didn’t know the roads, and just ran, he eventually chose to dive into a forest. After a while, he heard shouts behind him, everyone was calling out from all directions, “Yang Guo, Yang Guo, come out quickly!” He was nervous, and ran away again; he felt someone was in front of him, a Taoist had seen him, and came after him. Yang Guo quickly turned around; in the west was another Taoist, who called out, “Here! Over here.” Yang Guo crouched down and crawled underneath a bush. The Taoists were too big to crawl through; they had to go around it to find him. Yang Guo managed to escape but didn’t know where to go. After Yang Guo went through the bush, he headed straight and after running for a while, he heard the voices become quieter but he still didn’t dare stop. He avoided the paths, and ran through the long grass and rocks; he became bruised and cut up all over. When he couldn’t move any more he sat down on a rock to catch his breath. He sat for a little while, but then he thought; “Escape quickly, escape quickly.” But his legs felt like they weighed a ton, he almost couldn’t stand up straight. He heard someone laugh coldly from behind, Yang Guo was startled and turned around, his heart jumped out of his mouth, as he saw a man with deep brows and flared eyes, a beard hanging to his chest, it was Zhao Zhijing.
