Return of Condor Heroes (164 page)

Thus, Xiao Longnu’s frank speech instead caused Fawang to be even less daring, especially when only days ago in the cave in the hills, Yang Guo had tricked him. He did not want to suffer the same fate as Nimoxing and be crippled in both legs. He would rather wait twelve long hours than go through that.

One hour soon turned to two hours until finally the sky showed first light.

Zhou Botong sat in a kneeling position, trying to circulate his chi in order to get rid of the poison still in his body. But the venom of the Cai Xue spiders was very strong. As he tried to move his chi, his chest suddenly tightened and he felt nauseous. There was no spot where he did not experience some problem. He had tried circulating his chi through different paths, but each try had the same result.

Finally, he sighed dejectedly and said: “Ai, Lao Wan Tong! You’ve tried it so many times its no longer amusing!”

Fawang was peeping in from outside, but since he did not wait and stay in his place for long, he did not know of the problem.

He thought to himself: “This is not good. The old man is trying to practice nei gong!”

With this new development, he carefully took out a golden box from his bosom, removing the cover to reveal several crawling Cai Xue spiders inside. When exposed to the sun, the light made their variegated red and green colors brighter and even more eye-catching.

Next, Fawang took out a pair of rhinoceros horns and used them to catch the spiders between them and gently lifted them from the sticky web. Gently, he tossed the Cai Xue spiders towards the mouth of the cave where they stuck. He repeated his movements and threw the rest of the venomous spiders from the small box towards the cave.

Their sticky web soon covered the entire cave’s entrance. The spiders had been inside the small box for a very long time and they had not been fed so as soon as they were able to get out, they immediately set to work, climbing up, moving east, dropping low, and approaching west, hanging suspended, until they were able to create a network of webs in just a very short time.

Xiao Longnu and Zhou Botong watched with interest as the spiders spun the web, yet it never occurred to either one of them to stop their progress. Only when the web reached about ten feet in diameter, covering the entire mouth of the cave, and the red-green venomous spiders start to crawl around did they look troubled.

Xiao Longnu said softly: “What a pity I don’t have any more Yu Feng needles left. I could have used one to remove these nasty spiders.”

Zhou Botong picked up a dried branch, intending to use it to remove the spider web when suddenly a huge butterfly came flitting near the mouth of the cave and ended up caught in the spider web. The species originated from the Kunlun Mountains so when it struck the web, it had enough power in its body to attempt to struggle and escape. However, although the butterfly’s body was huge, one touch of the spider silk and it went straight into paralysis.

Xiao Longnu realized this and quickly said: “Don’t! The web is poisonous!”

Alarmed, Zhou Botong leapt away and hastily flung the stick to the ground.

Indeed, when Fawang released the venomous spiders, he not only intended to use it to seal the cave, but he also hoped that they would use their hands to destroy it. One touch would cause the poison to seep into the skin and enter the body.

Sitting cross-legged again, Zhou Botong watched as the spiders crowded around the butterfly and started to eat it. He thought: “My internal flow is still unstable. It will be some time before I recover.”

Xiao Longnu, on the other hand, was thinking: If he is going to remain inactive, how will Lao Wan Tong be able to move the poison up his body in order to remove it completely? So she asked: “How many days and nights will it take for you to recover your internal energy?”

Zhou Botong sighed and said: “I need one hundred days and one hundred evenings before I can manage it.”

Xiao Longnu was surprised to hear this so she asked: “How are we going to survive?”

Zhou Botong chuckled, saying: “Even if that bald thief gives us food to eat, being trapped in this cave for several years is not fun.”

Xiao Longnu replied: “He’ll never give us food.” She let out a sigh. “If it were Guo’Er with me in this cave, I wouldn’t mind spending a lifetime here.”

“What makes you place Yang Guo above me?” Zhou Botong said indignantly. “Is he also stronger than me? You don’t think I’m good company?”

Although his words made no sense, Xiao Longnu did not mind it. She only showed a cold smile and said: “Yang Guo knows the Quanzhen swordplay. Together, we can easily defeat this Buddhist priest and send him running away into the wilderness.”

Zhou Botong snorted: “Humph, the Quanzhen swordplay is not that difficult to understand. Even I can use it. Will Yang Guo be able to beat me?”

“When we combine our swords together in a technique called *Yunu Suxin 
[2]
 swordplay [‘Pure Heart of the Jade Maiden’], it is important that his heart is filled with love for me and my heart is filled with love for him so we become united and are able to subdue the enemy.”

When Zhou Botong heard her speak about the love between a man and a woman, he was filled with apprehension. He immediately waved his hand and said again and again: “Stop, stop - I don’t love you! You also can’t possibly love me. But I’m telling you it’s much better that there’s two of us in this cave. Years ago I was trapped in a cave in Tao Hua Island 
[3]
 and had no one to accompany me. I was forced to fight with myself the whole time. But this time, it’s entirely different because I have you. It’s going to be fun!”

With such happy thought, he could imagine being in that cave for a long time.

Xiao Longnu asked dubiously: “Fight with oneself? Is there such a method?”

Pleased, Zhou Botong immediately launched into a discussion of the “Fen Xin Er Yong Zuo You Hu” 
[4]
 [Mutual Hands Combat] method.

Xiao Longnu thought to herself: “If I could learn this method, then I could use the Quanzhen sword play with my left hand and the Yunu sword play with my right. With the two combined, I will be able to complete the Yunu Suxin sword play. But I’m afraid that I won’t be able to learn this kung fu in just one evening.

“This kung fu is difficult to learn,” she told him.

Zhou Botong replied: “If you say it’s difficult, then it will really be difficult. If you say it’s easy, then it will be easy. There are people who spend their entire lifetime learning yet never understand a thing; while there are people who only need a few days to understand it. You’ve heard about those two kids, Guo Jing and Huang Rong, right?”

Xiao Longnu nodded.

Zhou Botong continued: “Who do you think is more intelligent?”

Xiao Longnu answered: “Madame Guo is a thousand times cleverer. Guo’er told me once that there is no one in this generation who could surpass her intelligence and wisdom. Great Hero Guo is virtuous, but his level is actually ordinary.”

Zhou Botong laughed. “What do you mean “ordinary? Are you saying he’s stupid? Tell me; am I intelligent, or stupid?”

Xiao Longnu smiled and said: “I look at you and although you’re not young, you act silly. Sometimes, you say weird things and you act a little mad.”

Zhou Botong clapped his hands, saying: “Ah, you’re right. I once taught this Zuo You Hu method to Brother Guo Jing and it only took him a few days to learn it. Afterwards, he tried to teach the same lesson to his wife. You said that this child, Huang Rong is sharp and clever with a mind higher than that of a seventy-eight year old man, but she could not understand this kung fu. I thought that the little idiot Guo Jing probably did not teach her properly, so Lao Wan Tong decided to come and teach her himself. I repeated the left hand and right strokes with her, but she still didn’t understand how to combine the two together. It was then that I realized that some men may learn a method that other men would spend a lifetime learning, yet never understand. You see, intelligence is not the only measure of success.”

Xiao Longnu said: “Don’t tell me that when stupid people learn this kung fu, they can surpass even the smart ones. I can’t believe it.”

Zhou Botong grinned and said: “I look at you and see that your intelligence is more or less equal to that of young Huang Rong. Your wugong is not that far from hers either. Since you don’t believe, why not try to draw a square on the ground with your left index finger and a circle with your right at the same time?”

Xiao Longnu followed his instructions and extended both her index fingers to the ground, making downward strokes to create the figures. However, it turned out that the square looked like a circle and the circle looked like a square.

Zhou Botong laughingly said: “See? I told you it’s not easy.”

Smiling faintly, Xiao Longnu emptied her mind before extending her index fingers again. This time, she was able to draw a perfect square and a perfect circle.

In his astonishment, Zhou Botong could only stammer: “You...you...you...” A moment passed before he could speak: “You studied this before?”

“Ah, I haven’t,” Xiao Longnu replied. “Besides, didn’t you say this is difficult?”

Zhou Botong scratched the white hairs on his head and asked: “Then how did you know how to draw?”

Xiao Longnu said: “I don’t know. I didn’t think. I just held out my fingers and drew the figures.”

As she said this, she wrote the three characters “lao wan tong” with her left hand and the three characters “xiao long nu” with her right. The two hand strokes were so neatly written they looked like the ones found in books and the handwriting was also very elegant.

Delighted, Zhou Botong declared: “This shows that you learned this method even when you were still in your mother’s womb! This is so much better!”

Thereupon, he taught her how to attack with her left and defend with her right, strike with her right and block with her left. It was in Tao Hua Island that he first learned this strange kung fu that was unmatched under the heavens so when the old man spoke, she listened.

In truth, the essence of the Zuo You Hu technique was the four characters “Fin Xin Er Yong.” Often, people with high intelligence have complicated thoughts and they always rushed from one thought to another. *During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhi wrote the Qi Bu Shi, which depicted the turbulence of Wu Dynasty 
[5]
. The poem could be likened to that of a person trying to learn the Zuo You Hu kung fu technique, only to have the turbulence that makes it impossible to learn occur inside the person’s mind.

Xiao Longnu’s kung fu was based on suppressing all emotions and desires. Even when she was only eight or nine years old she mastered her feelings, stopping them like one would water. After she fell madly in love with Yang Guo, however, the constant pain in her heart from thinking of him caused her kung fu to gradually decline. But now, this weird technique was introduced, unexpectedly helping her to recover.

After she resumed practicing the Gumu Pai nei gong, she was actually at the same level as Lin Chaoying when she was pining over her lost love. Their mind sets were the same for the most part so they had more or less the same capacity for understanding. As soon as Zhou Botong moved his finger, she understood his meaning quickly. But it was only because Zhou Botong, Guo Jing, and Xiao Longnu shared the same personality, innocence of heart, and that was why people like Huang Rong, Yang Guo, and Zhu Ziliu could not learn it.

Zhou Botong had yet to remove the poison from his body, but he continued to speak and draw with enthusiasm. Xiao Longnu, on the other hand, kept on nodding her head, but in her mind she was secretly trying to figure out how to use the Yunu sword play with her right hand and the Quanzhen sword play with her left. And so after several hours of playing this Chinese finger game with him, she finally grasped the idea.

“I understand completely,” she spoke.

To test it out, she moved her hands, making circular and thrusting motions with it.

Zhou Botong’s jaw dropped. He could only shout: “Strange! Strange!”

Guarding the cave outside, Fawang and Zhao Zhijing heard the two of them muttering and laughing with each other so they pressed closer but they could only hear snatches of their conversation, not enough to make the meaning clear.

Xiao Longnu raised her head at that moment and saw them eavesdropping. She straightened and said, “We’re getting out of here!”

Zhou Botong looked at her blankly, asking: “How exactly?”

“If we go out and catch that bald thief, we can force him to give you the antidote,” Xiao Longnu replied.

Zhou Botong stroked his beard, saying, “You think you can beat him?”

As they spoke, they suddenly heard a buzzing sound. A honeybee got stuck to the spider web and tried to struggle. Earlier when the big butterfly touched the spider’s silk, it immediately went into paralysis. This honeybee was small in size, but it seemed unaffected by the poison of the Cai Xue Spiders and even succeeded in splitting the web open.

The venomous spiders zealously eyed it from the side, but dared not go forward and tangle it within their silk. After a long while, the honeybee would weaken and only then would the venomous spiders attack it.

In the Ancient Tomb, Xiao Longnu kept swarms of Jade Bees as pets; being together with honeybees all year long there was no doubt her technique of controlling bees was very good. Moreover, she regarded all bees as friends. When this honeybee was in trouble, she could not stand it.

Suddenly changing her mind, she said: “Although these venomous spiders are evil-looking, my bees won’t necessarily be afraid of them.”

She then took out the jade bottle from her bosom, opened the lid, and used her right hand to fan the air around it, allowing the fragrant aroma to spread and penetrate through the thick spider web.

Surprised, Zhou Botong asked: “What are you doing?”

“Do you want to see an amusing trick?” Xiao Longnu asked.

Zhou Botong was delighted, saying: “Wonderful!” Then, asked: “What trick is that?”

Xiao Longnu only smiled, not responding as she continued moving her palm.