Return of Condor Heroes (102 page)

Li Mochou was almost struck by the hammer and crutch a few times in her quest to land a palm on him, if it wasn’t for her speed, her palm would have been burned.

Suddenly Feng Mofeng called out, “I don’t want to fight; I don’t want to fight, look at you, what decency have you left?” His single leg leapt back five feet.

Li Mochou was stunned, a cool breeze blew and pieces of her clothing flew away, her arms, shoulders, chest and legs were revealed. She was a virgin, she wasn’t able to control her embarrassment; she wanted to turn around and run away when suddenly her back felt cool, a large piece of cloth flew away from her back.

Yang Guo saw that she was in a wretched state, he tore off his belt and took off his gown; he circulated his internal energy and shot it over to her. The gown was like a person hugging her. Li Mochou quickly put her arms in the sleeves of the gown and buttoned it up. She has seen countless battles in her life but right now she was frightened and embarrassed. Her face was red one moment, white the next, she didn’t know whether or not to keep on fighting. She thought, “If I fight him again, this gown will be burned off again, I can only swallow my anger and do something about it later.”

She nodded at Yang Guo, thanking him for giving her the gown. She then turned her head towards Feng Mofeng and said, “These crafty weapons are indeed the evil skills of old ‘Heretic’ Huang. To tell the truth, if it was a battle with proper martial arts alone, could you beat me? If old ‘Heretic’ Huang’s disciples fought fairly and squarely one on one with me, could they beat me?”

Feng Mofeng said with ease, “If you didn’t lose your weapon, after a while, you’d be able to beat me.”

Li Mochou said arrogantly, “It’s good that you know it. My words on that piece of paper about the disciples of Peach Blossom Island winning by numbers aren’t wrong.”

Feng Mofeng lowered his head and pondered, after a while he said, “That is not correct! If my apprentice brothers and sister Qu, Chen, Mei, and Lu were here, any one of them would be stronger than you. I don’t even need to mention my highly skilled apprentice brothers Qu and Chen; you wouldn’t be able to beat my apprentice sister Mei Chaofeng who’s also a woman like you.”

Li Mochou chuckled and said, “All those people are dead and can’t prove anything, why are you talking about them? Old ‘Heretic’ Huang’s martial arts aren’t all that good. I wanted to test out his daughter Mrs. Guo’s martial arts but I don’t think there’s a need to now.” She turned around and was about to leave.

Yang Guo had a thought in his mind and said, “Wait!”

Li Mochou’s brows raised and she said, “What?”

Yang Guo said, “You’re wrong about Island Master Huang’s martial arts being so-so. I heard of swordplay from him, called the “Jade Flute Swordplay”, it can neutralize your fly whisk techniques.” He picked up an iron rod and drew on the ground. He explained, “Your attacks from the front are indeed swift and powerful but if his sword cuts down from this direction, you will not be able to take back your attack. If you counterattack, the sword will attack quickly from this direction. If you sweep the fly whisk and attack the pressure points, then he’ll use a tiger claw form and grab your whisk’s tips, turn his sword around and use the handle to strike the ‘virtuous’ pressure point on your shoulder. Can you imagine that?”

That stance was indeed unimaginably strange but it was also ingenious. Brushing the pressure points in front of her were one of Li Mochou’s fly whisk technique’s lethal stances, the stance that Yang Guo described left her with no reply, in such a case she could only throw down her fly whisk and admit defeat.

Yang Guo made another comparison and said, “When it comes to your “Divine Five Poison Palm”, Island Master Huang will use his fingernail to neutralize your palm. When your palm arrives, he will use the “Divine Release of the Flicking Finger”, his fingernail flicking against your palm; how can your palm not be crippled as a result? All he needs to do is to immediately cut off his fingernail and the palm’s poison won’t spread to his body.” He continued and described over ten other different stances that could neutralize her martial arts.

These words turned Li Mochou’s face grey, every word of his was reasonable and logical, the stances that he described were ingenious; she wouldn’t be able to fend them off.

Yang Guo said, “Island Master Huang was angry at your words; he has the status of being a great Master and cannot fight you personally so he passed these techniques to me so I could take care of you. But I thought about how my Master and you are still apprentice sisters. Today I give you a warning about the power of Island Master Huang, next time you see his disciples, you better run as far away as possible.”

Li Mochou was silent for a while and then said, “I give up…I give up!” She turned around and ran away; in a flash her image disappeared behind the hills, her speed was really something rarely seen in the world of Jianghu.

In reality, although Huang Yaoshi did pass these techniques to Yang Guo, to be able to reach a state where he could use it to neutralize and defeat an enemy requires years of practice. Yang Guo’s description of these techniques was enough to intimidate and overawe her and from now on she would never dare to say one derisive word about Huang Yaoshi.

In the vicinity of Li Mochou, Lu Wushuang’s heart would jump at the sound of her voice; when she saw that Li Mochou had gone, it was like a heavy load had been removed from her. She clapped and laughed, saying, “Sha Dan! You’re pretty good with words; you could even scare away my Master.”

Cheng Ying had seen Yang Guo throw away the gown she had personally made to Li Mochou. It was a pressing situation then and that was that; but she saw that underneath the new gown, he was still wearing the torn and ragged old one. She knew that Xiao Longnu must have made it; he was attached to familiar things and would never forget about things of old. Her heart ached a little but she pretended she didn’t care. Then, the four of them returned to the shop to take a look at Sha Gu.

Just as they entered the sudden clamor of men and neighing of horses could be heard from beyond the hills; the four of them turned around.

Yang Guo said, “I’ll go take a look.” He leapt on his horse and galloped around the hill and arrived at the main road. He saw dust and dirt flying up everywhere; it was a division of Mongolian soldiers heading south, they had iron bows and long sabers, their force like a crashing wave.

Yang Guo has never seen an army marching before, he watched with a thumping heart, stunned.

Two soldiers raised their long sabers and shouted, “Barbarian, what are you looking at?” They rushed over.

Yang Guo turned his horse around and galloped away, the two Mongolian soldiers raised their bows and shot an arrow towards his back. Yang Guo turned his head back and caught them but felt the great force behind the arrows. If he didn’t know martial arts, these arrows would have pierced his chest. The two soldiers were frightened when they saw his abilities and reined in their horses, not daring to continue pursuing him.

Yang Guo returned to the blacksmiths and told them what he saw.

Feng Mofeng sighed, “The Mongolian army are indeed heading south. The Chinese citizens are going to suffer!”

Yang Guo said, “The Song army will not be able to defend against the archery techniques of the Mongolian army; this is going to be a great disaster.”

Feng Mofeng said, “This is just the time for a brave and heroic young man like Master Yang; why don’t you return south and join the army and help fight off the invaders?”

Yang Guo was taken aback, he said, “No, I have to go north to find my Gu Gu. The Mongolian army’s power is vast; I’m just one person, what use would I be?”

Feng Mofeng shook his head and said, “Though the force of one person is small, the force of many is strong. If everyone thought like you, who’d come out to defend the country against invaders?”

Yang Guo knew that his words were right, but now, there was nothing more important to him than finding his Gu Gu. He had wandered around Jianghu ever since he was small; he had suffered the abuse of officials. He saw that the Mongolians were indeed violent and ruthless, but the Song Emperor may not be a good person himself. There was no need for him to help the emperor. He just gave a wry smile and didn’t reply.

Feng Mofeng gathered his hammer, tongs and air bellows and hung them across his back; he turned to Cheng Ying and said, “Apprentice Sister, when you see Master please tell him that disciple Feng Mofeng will never forget his teachings. Today I’m going to join the Mongolian army and I’m going to kill one or two of these generals who are invading my land. Apprentice sister, take care. I’m extremely delighted at seeing a disciple of Master’s.” He supported himself on his crutch and left, not even turning his head again; he didn’t take another look at Yang Guo.

Yang Guo looked at Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang, he said, “It was unexpected that we would meet such a person like him here.”

Lu Wushuang favored Yang Guo in her heart and said, “Cousin, apart from you, the people under the tutelage of your Master are either mad or crazy.”

Cheng Ying smiled and said mildly, “Everyone has their own will, you can’t force them. You said he was mad and crazy; he in turn might be calling us heartless. Anyway, don’t I possess a touch of madness and craziness myself?”

Yang Guo’s heart jumped when he heard this, she looked different and he couldn’t tell whether her words were meant to be ambiguous.

Suddenly a thumping sound was heard as Sha Gu fell from her bench. The three of them were alarmed and quickly put her up on a bed; her face was red and her eyes stared ahead blankly, the poison from the “Divine Five Poison Palm” was flaring up again.

Cheng Ying fed her some medicine while Yang Guo helped her sooth her pressure points. Sha Gu looked at him startled, her face was full of fear as she called out, “Brother Yang, don’t look for me for revenge, it wasn’t me who killed you.”

Cheng Ying said softly, “Sister, don’t be scared, he isn’t…”

Yang Guo suddenly thought, “She’s not fully conscious at the moment, I can force her to reveal the truth.” He turned his hands and grabbed onto her wrists and said with a severe tone, “Who killed me? If you don’t tell me then I’ll take my revenge on you.”

Sha Gu begged, “Brother Yang, it’s not me.”

Yang Guo said angrily, “You’re not telling me! Fine, I’ll strangle you to death!” He stretched his hands around her throat. Sha Gu gave out a piercing scream.

How would Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang know what Yang Guo was doing, they both called out to stop him, one called out, “Brother Yang”, the other called out, “Sha Dan!” One said, “Don’t frighten her further”, the other said, “Why are you mucking around at a time like this?”

Yang Guo didn’t take any notice; he closed his hands slightly tighter, the expression of an evil spirit was on his face; he clenched his teeth and said, “I’m brother Yang’s evil ghost. I died a horrible death, do you know that?”

Sha Gu said, “I know, after you died, crows ate your flesh.”

Yang Guo’s heart felt as if a knife was plunged into his heart, he knew that his father had died under someone else’s hands but he didn’t know that after he died, his body was actually eaten by crows and wasn’t buried, he called out, “Who killed me? Tell me, tell me.”

Sha Gu strained out, “It was you who hit Auntie, Auntie had poison needles on her body, you died.”

Yang Guo yelled loudly, “Who is this Auntie?”

Sha Gu couldn’t breathe with Yang Guo holding her throat and wanted to faint, she said quietly, “Auntie is auntie.”

Yang Guo said, “What’s Auntie’s surname? What’s her name?”

Sha Gu said, “I… I… don’t know, let me go!”

Lu Wushuang saw that the situation was becoming urgent; she went over to pull away Yang Guo’s hands. Right now, Yang Guo was like a madman, he waved out with all his strength, how could Lu Wushuang defend herself? She was thrown away and crashed into a wall painfully.

Cheng Ying saw that the usually peaceful, warm and graceful Yang Guo was now like a mad tiger, she was so frightened that her limbs went limp.

Yang Guo thought, “If today I can’t get the name of the person who killed my father, I’ll immediately throw up blood and die.” He asked, “Is Auntie’s surname Qu? Is Auntie’s name Mei?” He thought that since Sha Gu’s surname was Qu, her auntie’s surname would most probably be Qu, or perhaps it could have been Mei Chaofeng.

Sha Gu struggled with all her strength, though she has practiced martial arts for a longer time than Yang Guo, her martial arts couldn’t compare to his. The pressure points on her wrist were being held and she couldn’t break free, she could only say urgently, “Go and find Auntie for revenge, don’t… don’t look for me!”

Yang Guo said, “Where’s your Auntie?”

Sha Gu said, “Me and Grandpa left! She’s with a man on the island.”

Yang Guo’s spine chilled when he heard these words, he quivered, “What does your Auntie call your Grandpa?”

Sha Gu said, “Father, what else?”

Yang Guo’s face went grey but he was afraid he was wrong and asked, “Your Auntie’s man is called Guo Jing, isn’t he?”

Sha Gu said, “I don’t know. Auntie just calls him ‘brother Jing, brother Jing (Jing ge ge)!” She copied the way Huang Rong called Guo Jing; suddenly her legs flailed about and squealed, “Help, help! Ghost… ghost…”

What doubts did Yang Guo have now? All the suffering and bitterness of the past rushed to the surface and he thought, “If father wasn’t killed, my mother wouldn’t have been in pain all the time and die so early like that. I wouldn’t have endured all the pain and suffering I’ve been through.” He continued, “When I was on Peach Blossom Island, the Guo couple were not at ease with me, they were a bit too polite, they seemed to be covering up something and didn’t treat me like the Wu brothers. Telling them how things are, shouting at them when needed. I felt something then but how would I know that it was because they carried the guilt of killing my father. It’s because of this that they didn’t want to teach me martial arts and sent me to the Quanzhen sect to suffer.”