Return of Condor Heroes (107 page)

Xiaoxiang Zi said, “Although the martial arts among us aren’t anything spectacular, we could be classed as first rate fighters of Wulin. The six of us lifting a boat isn’t really a difficult task but…”

Nimoxing followed on, “The four green people’s martial arts are all over the place, could they lift the boat over the rocks?”

Out of the six, five of them were already secretly surprised. Ma Guangzuo was still thinking about what the words ‘their martial arts are all over the place’ meant.

Nimoxing said, “Their boat is smaller… their numbers are smaller also… The four of them being able to do this… their strength must be… must be incredible.”

Yin Kexi said, “There’s no need to talk about the three men, that girl was a fragile seventeen or eighteen year old teenager, there is no way she could have such skill, there must be something about those rocks. It’s just that we can’t see through just yet.”

Fawang gave a wry laugh and said, “People cannot be judged on appearances alone. Take a look at our brother Yang, he is of a young age but possesses great martial arts, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, who would have believed it?”

Yang Guo said modestly, “The skills I’ve learned aren’t much, what’s good about my martial arts? But the four people in green were able to catch Zhou Botong; they must have some aspect that they excel at.” His words were modest but he was now talking to these first rate fighters as brother this and brother that.

Everyone had seen with their own eyes Yang Guo catching a plate thrown by Zhou Botong with a single finger; they did not look lightly on him. They all felt his words were reasonable and all started to make their own guesses about this matter.

Out of the six, Yang Guo was the youngest, Jinlun Fawang, Ma Guangzuo and Nimoxing spent most of their lives in the west; Xiaoxiang Zi spent his time along in the mountains and didn’t make acquaintances with anyone. Yin Kexi was the only one who was familiar with the sects, personalities and affairs of the central plains yet he had no clue about who these four people in green were. As they talked, they eventually rowed to the end of the brook. The six of them went ashore and followed the path deep into the valley.

There was only one mountain path so there was no way to go wrong; however the path got steeper and steeper as it went on and became more and more treacherous. The sky darkened and there wasn’t a trace of the people in green.

Just as they were getting anxious, there was firelight from faraway; everyone was pleased and thought, “In a wild valley like this, firelight must mean people; apart from those people in green; no one would live in a place with such dangerous terrain as this.”

They then increased their speed. They all knew that they were in a dangerous place and each one heightened their defenses. Each one of them had roamed the world of Jianghu by themselves before and had experienced many dangers; now six great fighters were entering the mountain, who on earth could stop them? Though they were wary, they had no fear.

After a while, they reached a wide level open space at the peak of the mountain. They saw an extremely large flaming bonfire. They walked closer a few hundred feet and by the firelight, they saw a large stone building.

Nimoxing called out loudly, “Hey, hey, some guests have arrived! Come out quickly.”

The door of the stone house slowly opened and out came three men and a girl. It was the people in green who had captured Zhou Botong earlier on. The four of them bowed and the leading person asked, “What are our guests’ names?”

The one thing that Yin Kexi excels most at is speaking; he laughed and then told them who the other five were. He then said, “My name is Yin Kexi, I am a Hu merchant. Apart from eating, the only thing I know are treasures, I am not like the others who are all highly skilled with martial arts.”

The person in green said, “Our residence is in an extremely secluded place, we’ve never had visitors before, it is our luck that some guests have arrived. But what brought our guests here?”

Yin Kexi laughed, “We saw the four of you catch the Old Urchin Zhou Botong, we were curious so we came along to take a look. Your residence is an extremely elegant and beautiful place, it has opened our eyes; this really wasn’t a trip in vain.”

The first person in green said, “That old man who messed up our place is named Zhou? He certainly lives up to the name Old Urchin.”

The second person in green said, “Are you with him?”

Fawang replied, “We’ve just met him today, one cannot say that we are friends of his.”

The first person in green said, “That Old Urchin charged into our valley and ran riot.”

Fawang asked, “What did he do? Did he really rip up your books and set the place on fire?”

The person in green replied, “Only that? I was ordered by my Master to guard the pill furnace; I don’t know how the Old Urchin broke into the pill room. He started to talk rubbish with me, saying he was going to tell a story and then telling me to follow him in doing somersaults; he was mad and crazy. The furnace was burning at a critical stage; I couldn’t leave and kick him out so I pretended that I didn’t hear him. He suddenly kicked out and knocked the furnace and the herbs in it over. I don’t know how long it will take to collect all these herbs and medicines again.” He looked angry as he said this.

Yang Guo laughed, “He must have blamed you for ignoring him and that it was your fault, right?”

The girl in green said, “Correct. I was in the fungi room when I heard the clamor in the pill room. I knew something was wrong and was about to leave the room to take a look when the old man dashed in. As soon as he stretched out his hand, he snapped the four hundred year old spirit fungus in two.”

Yang Guo saw that the young girl was about seventeen or eighteen years of age, her skin was extremely white, very soft and delicate, her eyes bright and clear and there was a very small mole by her mouth. She said, “That Old Urchin is an extremely bothersome troublemaker; that spirit fungus had been grown for over four hundred years, it is an extremely valuable object.”

The girl sighed, “My father was going to share it on his wedding day with my step mother but who could have known that it would be ruined by the Old Urchin. My father will of course fly into a rage. After the Old Urchin broke the spirit fungus, he placed it in his pockets and said something about not giving it back to me and laughed. I haven’t done anything to offend him. Why on earth did he come here and cause trouble for me?” As she said this, her eyes became red, feeling that she has been wronged.

Yang Guo thought, “The Old Urchin had no reason to bully this girl, this is wrong.”

Yin Kexi said, “Please can I have your father’s name. We inadvertently came here without permission and don’t even know the owner’s name; our manners are lacking.”

The young girl delayed and didn’t reply.

One of the men in green said, “Without our Master’s permission, we can not reveal it, please forgive us.”

Yang Guo thought, “These people are very secretive; they live here in this secluded place and aren’t willing to reveal their identity to others.” He then asked, “What happened after the Old Urchin stole the spirit fungus?”

The third person in green said, “The one named Zhou wasn’t finished; after wrecking the pill and fungi room, he burst into the library, took a book and started to read. I was assigned to the library and so of course I had to stop him. But he said, ‘these are just lies that they tell to children, what’s so great about this?’ and ripped three books in one go. At that time, senior and second apprentice brother came along with apprentice sister. The four of us together were still unable to stop him.”

Fawang gave a wry laugh and said, “That Old Urchin has an eccentric character but his martial arts are really spectacular; of course it would not be easy to stop him.”

The second man in green said, “After causing trouble in the pill room, fungi room and library, he went for the sword room. He burst into the room and broke out in a temper, saying that there were… there were too many weapons. They’re all over the place and almost cut him. He then set the room alight and burnt all the paintings on the wall. While we urgently tried to put out the fire, he escaped. We all thought that this was a serious matter so we chased after him, caught him and bought him back so our Master can deal with him.”

Yang Guo said, “I don’t know what punishment the Master of this valley will have for him but I hope that he won’t kill him.”

The third man in green said, “My Master’s wedding is not far away, he won’t kill that easily. But if that Old Urchin says something to offend my Master, then it would be his fault if trouble comes to him.”

Yin Kexi laughed, “Why would the Old Urchin deliberately stir up trouble for your Master? He may be mischievous but he doesn’t seem to have a bad temper.”

The girl in green said, “He said that my father is old and he’s still marrying…” The senior apprentice brother suddenly cut her off and said, “That Old Urchin is mad, how believable are his words? Everyone has come from afar and must be hungry; I will serve some food to our guests.”

Ma Guangzuo said loudly, “Great, great!” His face lit up.

The four people in green entered the kitchen and brought out some rice and vegetables and then set up a table. There were four basins, one had plain green vegetables, another had white tofu, one of the others was filled with yellow bean sprouts and the last one was filled with black mushrooms. There wasn’t any meat.

Just three months after he was born, Ma Guangzuo would not eat anything without meat. He saw four trays of vegetables in front of him that didn’t even have a drop of oil on them, he was extremely disappointed.

The first person in green said, “We do not eat meat here in the valley, forgive us. Please eat.” He then bought out a jug and poured out a clear and clean liquid in the bowls in front of them.

Ma Guangzuo thought, “Since there’s no meat, I better drink a few bowls of wine.” He picked up the bowl and drank, he noticed that it had no taste and it was actually water, he roared, “This Master is damn stingy; there isn’t even a drop of wine for us.”

The first person in green said, “Our valley forbids alcohol; this is a rule passed down by our ancestors; please forgive us.”

The girl in green said, “We have seen the words ‘beautiful wine’ in books, but we’ve never experienced what this beautiful wine is. The books say that wine harms the mind, it appears that it isn’t anything good.”

Fawang, Yin Kexi and the others saw that these four people weren’t old but their actions and words were reserved and trite. Ever since they’ve spoken with these people, they haven’t showed a single smile; though their faces weren’t hateful, it wasn’t interesting to talk to them. In other words, they didn’t speak more than half a word to each other; they stopped talking and lowered their heads as they ate. The four people retreated and didn’t come forward again.

After they ate, Ma Guangzuo said that they should leave in the night. But the other five saw that there was something about this place, they were curious and wanted to understand it more clearly.

Yin Kexi said, “Brother Ma, since we’re here, we need to meet the Master of this valley tomorrow; how could we just leave?”

Ma Guangzuo roared, “There’s no meat or wine, isn’t he trying to torture us? I can’t live half a day like this.”

Xiaoxiang Zi said, “The majority of us are staying; why are you trying to start something?”

Ma Guangzuo has been secretly afraid of his zombie appearance; when he heard him say this, he didn’t dare to speak another word.

That night the six of them slept in the stone building on some straw mats on the floor. They felt that this valley was passionless; even stupidly stricter and more prudish than a Buddhist temple. Though the monks of Buddhist temples are vegetarians, they wouldn’t treat people so coldly; these people didn’t even show half a smile. Yang Guo was used to living in the Ancient Tomb and used to living with the icy cold Xiao Longnu. He was the only one who didn’t think anything of this.

Nimoxing said enraged, “The Old Urchin wrecked and set the building alight, that is something!” When he said this, Ma Guangzuo felt the same way and called out loudly in response.

Nimoxing said, “Brother Jinlun, you’re our brains, what kind of person do you think the Master of this valley is? Is he a bad guy or a good guy? Are we going to be polite to him or are we going to beat the… beat the crap out of him.”

Fawang said, “I’m like all you people here when it comes to trying to fathom what type of person this Valley Master is, it is difficult for us to guess. Tomorrow, we’ll just act accordingly.”

Yin Kexi said quietly, “The martial arts of the four green disciples of this valley aren’t weak, so naturally there will be even better martial artists in this valley. Everyone needs to be careful, just one little slip up and the six of us might die here, that wouldn’t be so good.”

Ma Guangzuo was still complaining about the food and didn’t listen to what Yin Kexi was saying.

Yang Guo said, “If you’re not careful tomorrow, you’ll be caught and trapped here for the rest of your life; you’ll be fed water and rice, vegetables and tofu everyday. When that happens, I’m afraid that even the tapeworm in your stomach would want to die.”

Ma Guangzuo was frightened and quickly said, “Good brother, I’ll listen…I’ll listen.”

That night they didn’t sleep too peacefully as they thought about the danger they were in; only Ma Guangzuo slept well, snoring thunderously and calling out in his dreams, “Come, come! Cheers! This slab of beef is massive!”