Return of Condor Heroes (208 page)

In a resonant voice he said, “Miss Gongsun is a naturally good person. There are really quite a few good girls, aren’t there? Miss Cheng Ying and Miss Lu Wushuang were also the kind of girls who love deeply. But your heart and mine are one, how can we let other people intervene? You think, if there was a man who could get rid of the poisons in your body and he wanted you to give up your body, would you or would you not agree to it?”

“I’m a female. That would be unthinkable,” replied Xiao Longnu.

With a chuckle Yang Guo said, “To others, men are superior to women. To Yang Guo, it’s the other way around...”

As he was saying this, he suddenly heard a sound coming from a dense thicket. Yang Guo asked, “Who is it?”

Lu’E thought she’d been spotted and was about to reply. Suddenly she heard a female voice, “Dumb egg, it’s me!”

Then she saw Lu Wushuang and Cheng Ying step out from behind a thicket. And so, she used this opportunity to move back quietly. Her mind was in turmoil.

She thought, “Aside from comparing myself to Miss Long, look at Miss Cheng and Miss Lu’s beauty, kungfu, and past friendship with Yang Guo, how can I ever match them?”

When she met Yang Guo, she couldn’t help falling in love with him. She’d known that he was serious about Xiao Longnu but, deep in her heart, she still hoped that he could take two wives. Now that she’d heard his words, she realized that all her hopes were in vain. She’d been sad since she was little but today she was completely disheartened. She made up her mind that she no longer wanted to live, and then she walked away westward.

Low-spirited, she walked aimlessly. She didn’t know where she was. There was only a voice in her head, “I don’t want to live anymore. I don’t want to live anymore.”

She didn’t know how long she’d been walking when, suddenly, she heard voices coming from behind some mountain rocks. She pulled herself together feeling slightly startled. She’d been wandering about aimlessly, and to her own surprise she’d arrived on the west side of the valley where very few people frequented. She looked up and saw a mountain peak rising towards the sky. This was the most dangerous zone of the Passionless Peak.

On this mountain ledge, she could see the three letters ‘Broken Heart Cliff’ that someone had carved on the cliff ages ago, and twenty or thirty feet in front of her was a slippery and barren ledge where not even a blade of grass was seen. The place was enveloped by a blanket of fog all year long, and the wind here was so violent that even a bird would find it difficult to perch on this cliff top. Beyond and below was an abyss of shadows that no one could see the bottom of. The area surrounding the ‘Broken Heart Cliff’ was quiet and beautiful because the terrain was so rugged and dangerous. Slippery rocks made it very easy to fall into the abyss below. The valley dwellers stayed clear of this area, and even those disciples in green with their kungfu wouldn’t dare to come here. This being the case, she didn’t know whose voices she was hearing.

Originally Gongsun Lu’E was resigned to die but at this moment she became curious. She hid herself behind a rock pile and listened. Her heart jumped as she learned that it was her father talking. Although her father had wronged her mother and had been ruthless with her, she was still his daughter. She’d been worried about him since her mother blinded one of his eyes with a date stone and banished him from the Passionless Valley. Hearing the familiar voice, she now knew that he hadn’t left the valley. Instead, he’d come to this remote place to hide. She was secretly happy.

Then she heard him talk, “You’ve been beaten black and blue, and I actually lost my eye. It’s all because of that small thief Yang Guo. Not only do we have a common enemy, we share the same problem.” After saying that he smiled, but the other person didn’t reply. Lu’E felt this was quite strange. Who was her father talking to? His tone was faintly frivolous, was that person a female?

Then Gongsun Zhi continued, “We ran into each other at this rarely-frequented place. We were thousands of li apart, yet we met as if by predestination. It must be fate.”

That female let out a ‘pei’ sound in contempt. She angrily said, “I’ve been thoroughly injured by the Passion Flowers. Yet, you made light of it and mock me with such laughable nonsense.”

Lu’E thought to herself, “Oh, it’s Li Mochou who just broke into the valley today.”

Then she heard Gongsun Zhi quickly say, “No, no. Why would I make light of it? Naturally I will do all I can. Your body is in pain, so is my heart.”

The person Gongsun Zhi was talking to was of course Li Mochou. Her whole body was pricked by the Passion Flowers, and so the poison in her body was not small. Luckily she was filled with anger and hatred towards heaven and earth, not the sentiments between man and woman, and so her body wasn’t in that much pain. But she knew that the poison was deadly. While urgently searching for the antidote, she wandered about aimlessly on the crisscrossing paths inside the valley and unexpectedly arrived at this Broken Heart Cliff. Gongsun Zhi had actually been here for a long time, hiding from all the valley people and waiting for the right moment to kill Qiu Qianchi and reclaim his Valley Chief position.

The two of them had once fought so they both knew each other’s skills. After they met, they thought, “I’m having trouble in this valley, I could use some help.” By this short exchange of words, they were actually trying to strike a bargain.

Since the death of his beloved Rou’er years ago, Gongsun Zhi had been concentrating on his kungfu practice and ignoring beautiful females. But then he failed to marry Xiao Longnu. His long-suppressed lust gushed out like a broken dam, out of control. With his status, his attempt to abduct Wanyan Ping was considered extremely low in Jianghu. Now that he’d run into Li Mochou and saw her beauty, he thought, “After I kill that evil woman Qiu Qianchi, I’d better marry this woman. With her kungfu, she’s exactly my match.”

What he didn’t know was that Li Mochou was extremely vicious and without mercy and that the cause of her evil was none other than this ‘passion.’ At the moment, Gongsun Zhi’s words had become bolder and bolder, how could she not be enraged? But she wanted the antidote, so she had no choice but to feign interest, offering a perfunctory reply.

Gongsun Zhi said, “I’m the original chief of the valley. There’s no second person in the world who knows how to make the antidote to this flower poison. But the manufacturing process is time-consuming, and you won’t have enough time for that. Luckily, there’s one pill left in the valley, in that evil woman’s hand. Let us go get rid of her, then everything will be yours.”

His last sentence had a double meaning. It actually meant that not only would she get the antidote, she would also become the mistress of the Passionless Valley. That Gongsun Zhi was the only person in the world who knew how to make the antidote was not a lie. Passion Flowers had grown in this valley for a long time, and Gongsun Zhi’s ancestors had taken many lives, experimenting to get the right antidote. These passionless flowers stopped outsiders from entering the valley so of course they didn’t get rid of them. Anyhow, the antidote formula was only handed down from father to son so it wouldn’t fall into the hands of other people. Even Qiu Qianchi only knew that the pills they had were left by the previous generation and that the antidote formula had already been lost. But what Gongsun Zhi actually didn’t know was that Qiu Qianchi only had half a pill left.

Li Mochou hesitated and said, “Since it is so, aren’t you making an empty promise? Your wife has the antidote but you and she have become enemies. Even though killing her isn’t that hard, how will you actually get the antidote?”

Gongsun Zhi hesitated to reply. After a while he said, “Taoist Li, you and I have met by fate. Even if I die I have no regrets.”

Li Mochou blandly said, “You flatter me.”

Gongsun Zhi said, “I’ve got a plan. I can capture that evil person and force her to give up the pill. But I hope you can promise me one thing.”

Li Mochou said in agitation, “I’ve roamed Jianghu all my life. I come and go as I please and no one can ever force me to do anything. If you are willing to give me the antidote, do it. If not, just drop it. How can it be that I, Li Mochou, would ever beg for my life?”

Although Gongsun Zhi’s kungfu was strong, he’d been secluded in the valley his entire life. As a result, he didn’t know about Jianghu’s most ferocious characters. He only knew a little about decades-ago names that Qiu Qianchi had mentioned. Over the past ten years, the name Scarlet Serpent Deity Li Mochou had shaken Jianghu, and there was no one in the martial world who didn’t know that. Although Li Mochou did look like a peach, her heart was that of a serpent. Gongsun Zhi actually didn’t know any of this. As he heard her arrogant words, he was very pleased.

He quickly said, “You misunderstood my meaning. I only hoped you would do something for me. How could it be that I was forcing you? To snatch the antidote, we have to kill my daughter. If I said something inappropriate, please don’t be offended.”

Gongsun Lu’E was hiding behind a big rock. Hearing ‘we have to kill my daughter,’ she couldn’t help but tremble.

Li Mochou was also taken aback. “The antidote is in your daughter’s hands?”

“No,” replied Gongsun Zhi. “I’ll tell you the truth! That evil woman is excessively stubborn and violent. The antidote must be hidden in an extremely concealed place and we cannot possibly force her to hand it over. We can only resort to trickery, it’s the only way.”

“That sounds correct,” said Li Mochou, nodding in agreement.

“That wretch is heartless to everyone and there are no limits to her viciousness. However she does care for her daughter and her alone. We can use this to our advantage. I’ll trick Lu’E so you can capture her and toss her into the flower thickets, then that evil woman will have no choice but to retrieve the Passionless Pill to save her daughter. We’ll seize this opportunity to snatch it – there’s no reason why we’ll fail. It’s a pity there’s only one Passionless Pill in the world, and since it’s going to you, my daughter’s life cannot be saved.”

“We don’t actually have to use real Passion Flowers to prick your daughter. We just need to put on an act and make her seem like she’s poisoned – this way, we get the pill and your daughter stays safe.”

Gongsun Zhi sighed. “That wretch is extremely shrewd. If my daughter was merely poisoned by something else, it will not go unnoticed.” His voice became constrained towards the end and he choked, as if he was really becoming emotional.

Li Mochou said, “How can I let your daughter be harmed in exchange for my life? It seems also that you are reluctant to part with her. Let’s drop this matter.”

Gongsun Zhi said hurriedly; “No…no! Although I hate to part with her, it would be worse to part with you.”

Li Mochou remained silent, admitting as much that there really was no other way.

“Let’s wait here,” said Gongsun Zhi. “I’ll call her out when it’s past midnight. Clever she might be, but she would never guess that her father has got something up his sleeve.”

Gongsun Lu’E heard every sentence that had just transpired between the two, and the more she dwelled on it the more she was afraid. When Gongsun Zhi dropped her and Yang Guo into the alligator pit that day, she knew her father cared naught of their father-daughter relationship. But that day’s events could be explained as a rash fit of anger. This day, he had actually plotted and schemed to end his daughter’s life in order to please a woman he had just met. His heartlessness and cruelty truly exceeded that of the most savage beasts.

Gongsun Lu’E had originally lost her will to live, but when she heard them plotting her murder, she instinctively wanted to try and escape. It was a good thing that the area had plenty of hills and dense forests, making hiding places aplenty. And so she lightly took one step back, and after a few moments, took another step back. In this manner, she retreated tens of feet before finally turning around to flee.

After an hour’s journey, she was far from Passionless Valley. Knowing her father would come for her soon, she didn’t even dare to return to her bedroom. She sat perched on a rock, desolate. The cold wind pierced her flesh and the pale moon shone mercilessly down. There was nothing left in this world that she longed for, and she mumbled to herself, “I didn’t want to go on living anyway. Why did you still devise this plot to kill me, father? If you want to kill me, come along and kill me. It’s very strange, why did I escape?”

Suddenly, a notion struck her like a bolt of lightning: Father is vicious, but his scheme is brilliant. Since I’m going to commit suicide anyway, I might as well use his scheme to trick the Pill from mother and save Brother Yang. Then you, husband and wife, will have me to thank for your reunion – me, the ill-fated girl who cared for him with all her heart. At this thought, her heart was filled with a mixture of gladness and sorrow, but nevertheless she found her energy once again. She glanced at her surroundings to ascertain her location. Then, she rose and walked towards her mother’s bedroom.

When she passed by the Passionless Flowers, she severed two flower stalks. Holding them in her hands, she walked to her mother’s bedroom door and called in a low voice, “Mother, are you asleep?”

Qiu Qianchi answered from her room, “E’er, what is it?”

Lu’E cried, “Mother, mother! I’ve been pricked by the Passion Flowers.” As she spoke, she embraced the flower stalks and pushed down forcefully onto her chest.

The hundreds and thousands of little thorns sank into her flesh all at once. Since her childhood she had been repeatedly warned against getting pricked by the flowers. Because she did not have the capacity for such risks then, she suffered no serious injury despite being pricked occasionally. But as she grew up, the warnings from people around her became sterner. After more than 10 years of cautiously avoiding this object – to think that now, she was actually pricking herself on purpose! The pain in her heart grew a level deeper and she grits her teeth, calling again and again, “Mother!”

Shocked to hear that something was wrong with her, Qiu Qianchi anxiously ordered the maidservants to open the door and help Lu’E inside. Lu’E exclaimed, “I have the Passion Flower thorns in my body, you can’t come near me.” The color drained from the two maidservants’ faces and they opened the room door wide, allowing Lu’E to walk in herself. How would they dare to touch her body?