Return of Condor Heroes (20 page)

Guo Jing said, “There was no need for it.”

Qiu Chuji replied, “Yes! My teacher knew her feelings and had to let her win. Who would have thought the senior’s character was strange, she said, “If you let me win, then that means you have even less respect for me?” My teacher could do nothing else but to duel with her. The two then fought each other, a few thousand moves passed, my teacher did not use any powerful moves, and eventually it was hard to pick a winner. The woman said, “You are not using all your ability to fight, who do you think I am?” My teacher said, “It is hard to pick out a winner from dueling, how about we test our literature skills?? The woman said, “Fine. If I lose, I won’t ever see you again so you can be in peace.” My teacher then said, “What do you want if you win?? The woman’s face turned red, and she couldn’t reply; she eventually clenched her teeth and said, “You’ve got to give up your Living Dead Tomb for me to live in.” The woman had a hidden meaning behind her demand, if she won, she would live with my teacher and be together. My teacher felt awkward, he knew his martial arts skills were slightly higher than hers; he would be forced to beat her otherwise he wouldn’t have any more quiet days. So he asked her, “How are we going to compete.”

She said, “Today we are both tired, we’ll meet again tomorrow night.” When it was approaching dusk, the two met again. She said, “Before we compete, we need to set a rule.” My teacher said, “What rule do you want to set?” The woman said, “If you win, I’ll immediately kill myself; I won’t see you ever again. If I win you have to give the Tomb of the Living Dead to me, obey me forever and mustn’t question anything. If you don’t, you have to become a man of religion; I don’t care if you become a monk or a Taoist. Whether you become a Taoist or a monk, you will need to build a temple and accompany me for ten years.”

My teacher understood, “obey her forever” means that she wants me to marry her. If I don’t and become a monk or a Taoist, I won’t be able to marry another. But how can I win and watch you kill yourself? It is also hard for me to accompany you for ten years here.” My teacher hesitated on his decision. The senior excelled in terms of looks and martial arts; my teacher was touched by her love, but when it came to getting married, they just weren’t destined to. My teacher thought for a while, and eventually made his decision, and knew she would do what she had said. If she lost she would definitely kill herself, and decided no matter what they competed at he would let her win. He said, “Fine, as you said.”

The woman said, “If we just competed in literature it would be too easy. We’ll write some words on that stone using our fingers, whoever writes the best will be the winner.”

My teacher shook his head and said, “I’m not a god, how can I use my finger to write on that stone?”

The woman said, “If I can then, you’ll admit defeat?”

My teacher was forced to agree with no other option. He knew that no one on earth could do this and so exploited it and thought of a way that there will be no winner or loser, and the competition would end. He said, “If you’ve got the ability then I’ll admit defeat. If you can’t do it, there is no difference between us and we will not compete anymore.”

The woman gave a laugh and said, “Fine, get ready to be a Taoist.” As she said this, her left hand stroked the rock for a while, and after a while she said, “What should I write? Ah, the first hero who became a man of religion was Zhang Zhifang. He gave up his name and wealth, he’s your ancestor.” She then stretched out her right hand and extended her index finger, and wrote on the stone. My teacher saw her finger touch the rock, and dust flowed from the rock, she had carved a word, he had never been so startled in his life. She wrote the first part of the poem.

My teacher had lost and had nothing to say, he immediately moved out of the tomb and let her move in, and near the tomb he built a small Taoist temple; it was the predecessor of the Chongyang Palace.”

Guo Jing also couldn’t believe it, he extended his finger and traced the writing on the rock, the carvings were indeed written with a finger and said, “That senior’s finger kung fu would indeed frighten people when they hear about it.”

Qiu Chuji raised his head and laughed out to the sky, “Jing’er, this event could fool my teacher, me and now even you. But if your wife was here, she would not be fooled.”

Guo Jing opened his eyes wide and said, “Is there some kind of trick involved?”

Qiu Chuji said, “Could it be? Who on earth has the best finger kung fu?”

Guo Jing said, “Of course it’s Reverend Yideng and his “Solitary Yang Finger”.”

Qiu Chuji replied, “Yes! But even with Reverend Yideng’s finger kung fu, it would be hard for him to accomplish this feat on a piece of wood, how would he be able to do it on a piece of rock? And could someone else achieve this? My teacher became a Taoist and still could not figure out what happened. Later, your father in law Island Master Huang came and visited my teacher. He knew that he was a very intelligent man and so told him the events, and asked him to help. Island master Huang thought for a while and then gave a chuckle, “I understand. I have yet to complete this type of kung fu; I’ll come back in one month’s time.” He laughed as he left the mountain.

After a month, Island Master Huang came back and went with my teacher to look at the rock again. When that senior wrote her poem, she ended it with “Raising people and raising books, the price is heavy?” Her meaning was that she wanted my teacher to have the same fate as Zhang Liang, leave the world and enter religion. Island Master Huang stroked the rock slab with his left hand for a while, his right hand stretched out and extended his finger and wrote a few words, he wrote everything from “Chongyang raised Quanzhen” to “Forever on Mount Zhongnan, a mist will linger”; he wrote to praise my teacher.

My teacher saw that the words were deep, and were exactly the same as what happened last time, and was even more startled and thought, “Huang Yaoshi’s kung fu is definitely below me, how on earth did he managed to obtain such a powerful finger skill?” He was suspicious and extended his finger on to the rock and he managed to make a hole in it.

He then led Guo Jing’s hand to where his teacher had made the hole. Guo Jing felt the mark, and put his finger in it, true enough, it was as if someone had made it with their finger. He thought, “Could it be that the rock is especially soft, and not like any other rock?” He generated chi in his finger and pressed into the rock, but he felt his fingertip start to ache, the rock did not move.

Qiu Chuji laughed, “Even the foolish little boy can’t figure it out. Before the woman wrote on the stone slab, her left hand had stroked the rock for a while. She was actually holding a piece of small rock, and made the rock surface soft, within the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the stone slab would remain soft. Island Master Huang saw through the trick, and went away to find a suitable stone to do this and then came back to demonstrate this.”

Guo Jing didn’t say anything and thought, “My father in law’s intelligence is not below that of that senior, but where is he now?” He missed him a lot.

Qiu Chuji didn’t know what he was thinking and carried on, “When my teacher first became a Taoist, he was still vehement, but as he read more Taoist books, he knew it was meant to be, he became enlightened and decided to spread our sect’s name. When you think about it, if it weren’t for that senior’s plan, the Quanzhen sect would not exist; I would not be here today, and we wouldn’t know where you, Guo Jing, would be.”

Guo Jing nodded, and asked, “So what is that senior’s name, and is she still alive?”

Qiu Chuji sighed and replied, “When that senior was in the world of Wulin, she was always discreet, very few people actually saw her. Apart from my teacher, I don’t think anyone else knows her name, and my teacher never actually mentioned her name. That senior had passed away before the time of the first Mount Hua tournament, otherwise with her martial arts and character, how can it be that she did not appear?”

Guo Jing nodded his head and said, “It must be. Does she have any descendants?”

Qiu Chuji sighed and said, “All of today’s trouble comes from this point. That senior didn’t take in a disciple during her life; she only had a maid with her. That maid did not enter the world of Jianghu, so no one knew about her, but she took in two disciples. The eldest disciple is called Li, you must know about this, in Jianghu they call her the “Scarlet Serpent Deity” Li Mochou.”

Guo Jing gave an “ah” sound and said, “That Li Mochou is vindictive and ruthless, so those are her origins.”

Qiu Chuji said, “You’ve seen her?”

Guo Jing replied, “A few months ago, I came across her in Jiang Nan. Her kung fu is at a very high level.”

Qiu Chuji said, “You hurt her?”

Guo Jing shook his head, “No, we didn’t actually meet each other, I only saw how she killed countless women, her ruthlessness has no comparisons, like Mei Chaofeng was when she was alive.”

Qiu Chuji said, “It was fortunate you didn’t hurt her, otherwise there’d be trouble. Her apprentice sister is named “Long”.”

Guo Jing shivered and said, “She is the girl called Long?”

Qiu Chuji’s face changed colour slightly, and said, “What? You’ve seen her? How did this happen?”

Guo Jing said, “Disciple has not seen her before. When I was coming up the mountain, the Taoist brothers insulted me and called me a perverted scoundrel, and said I came for the one called Long, this made me confused.”

Qiu Chuji laughed out loud, and sighed at the same time, “Chongyang Palace took the matter into its own hands. If we hadn’t made this error, and created the misunderstanding, not only would the large “Big Dipper Formation” have repelled the attackers, you would have arrived here earlier, and apprentice brother Hao would not have been hurt.”

He saw that Guo Jing’s face was fascinated and continued, “Today is the one named Long’s eighteenth birthday.”

Guo Jing opened his mouth and said, “Ah, it’s her eighteenth birthday!” However he did not understand how a girl’s eighteenth birthday could cause so much trouble.

Qiu Chuji said, “Outsiders do not know her first name so all of those troublemakers call her Xiao Longnu, we’ll call her that as well. One night eighteen years ago, there was the cry of a little baby girl outside Chongyang Palace, a palace disciple came out to take a look, and saw the little baby girl wrapped in a bundle on the ground. It was inconvenient for the palace to take in a baby girl, but Taoists are supposed to be merciful so we couldn’t leave her there. At the time my apprentice brother who was the master of the sect, and I were not on the mountain, and before any of the disciples of the palace could do anything, a middle aged woman suddenly came out from behind the mountain and said, “The little baby is unfortunate and pitiful, I’ll take her in!” The disciples couldn’t have asked for more, and so gave the baby girl to her. Later, apprentice brother Ma and I returned to the palace, when they told us about this event, from the description of the woman, we knew she was the maid from the Tomb of the Living Dead. She had met the seven of us a few times before, but we had never spoken. Although we are neighbors and because of our seniors’ relationship, it is difficult for us to talk to her about it. When I heard that the matter was resolved, I didn’t keep it in my mind. Later, her disciple the “Scarlet Serpent Deity” Li Mochou, left the mountain. She was ruthless and vindictive, her martial arts were very high, and caused trouble around the world of Jianghu. Our Quanzhen sect requested to talk to the maid about this many times, to get her to do something about it. Eventually, we didn’t act out of respect for her. We wrote a letter and sent it to the tomb. It was extremely respectful and polite. After we sent the letter, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, she still did not reply, and she tolerated Li Mochou’s actions, and didn’t govern her.

One day, after a few years, outside the tomb we saw a white banner hung on a pine thorn thicket and we knew that the woman had passed away, so the six of us went to the tomb to pay our respects. As we were going through the ceremony, a thirteen or fourteen year old girl emerged from the pine thorn thickets, greeted us and thanked us for the ceremony, and said, “Master has left the world, and has ordered me to tell all you elders that if that person still causes trouble, my master has a plan to punish her, please don’t worry.” When she finished, she turned around and went back inside. We wanted to ask her some questions about this but she had already gone back into the tomb. Our master had made a rule; everyone under the order of the Quanzhen sect must not take one step into the tomb. When she left, we pondered and wondered, our Taoist friend is dead, so how could she punish her student? We felt sorry for the little girl and so we sent her food and supplies, but each time she did not touch them, and ordered a servant to return them. She was strange. She was just like her teacher, and her ancestor. But she had a servant to look after her, so we didn’t worry about her. Eventually we all had business to attend to, and were rarely present in the palace. We didn’t hear anything from the girl. For some reason, news of Li Mochou disappeared and she didn’t cause any more trouble. We knew that our Taoist friend had come up with an ingenious plan, and we all were in awe.

Spring came, me and apprentice brother Wang had to go away to Shanxi for some business. We were at a hero’s home in Guangzhou when we heard startling news. We heard that one year later, all types of crooks, scoundrels and evildoers would descend on Mount Zhongnan and cause havoc. Mount Zhongnan is the root of our sect and the reason they’ve come to Mount Zhongnan is to fight our sect, how could we not take precautions? Apprentice brother Wang and I were afraid that the news was unreliable, so we sent out people to investigate; true enough, the news was real. But it wasn’t because they wanted to duel with our sect, but it was to do with Xiao Longnu of the Tomb of the Living Dead.

Guo Jing asked, “She is just a young girl, and has never left the tomb, how did she make enemies with all those people?”

Qiu Chuji replied, “The reasons for all this wasn’t related to us and originally we didn’t care. One day when the evildoers started to descend on Mount Zhongnan, we decided we couldn’t just stand by, so we listened for more news, and discovered that Xiao Longnu’s apprentice sister Li Mochou started all this business.”