Return of Condor Heroes (104 page)

When he meets second rate fighters, the martial arts he uses are all flowery and fancy, causing confusion to opponents; but when he meets a first rate martial artist, he will eventually be proved inferior. He can’t even compare to Jinlun Fawang’s disciples Da’erba and Huo Dou. He lowered his head and pondered about it; these words by Jinlun Fawang were a real warning to him and showed up the weakness in the foundations of his martial arts.

He had another thought, “Since I’ve decided to stay with Gu Gu forever, how can I have relationships everywhere? Cheng Ying, Wifey and there’s also Wanyan Ping. I don’t have any real feelings for them, how can I treat them improperly like this? Being greedy is really not a good thing.” He continued thinking, “No matter if it’s Hong Qigong, Huang Yaoshi, Ouyang Feng or even the Quanzhen Seven Masters and Jinlun Fawang, every one of them is a famous Master. They just practiced the martial arts of their own school; they understand other sect’s and school’s martial arts but they don’t practice them. They just make themselves aware of them. In that case, what school of martial arts should I concentrate on?”

Based on his background, he should concentrate on the “Jade Heart Manual” of the Ancient Tomb sect; but then he thinks about the Mastery and ingenuity of Hong Qigong’s “Dog Beating Stick Technique”, the subtlety of Huang Yaoshi’s “Jade Flute Swordplay”; if he ignores all of them, isn’t that a pity? There’s godfather’s “Toad Stance” and “Reversal of the Veins”. There are the martial arts of the “Nine Yin Manual” as well. Any one of them is enough to make your name in the world. It was difficult to learn them, how can I just give them up like that?”

He left the hut and walked around the peak, thinking bitterly; it was extremely troubling. He thought for half a day when suddenly his mind lit up, “Why don’t I take the best of all these schools and form my own? The martial arts of the world were all formed by someone; if others can do this, could it be that I can’t?” His eyes lit up as he thought about it.

He thought from morning to midday, from midday to night and didn’t eat or drink. All the martial arts he had seen in his life were floating around in his mind, clashing with each other. He had seen Ouyang Feng and Hong Qigong compete martial arts verbally and he himself frightened away Li Mochou by using words from his mouth; but right now, the martial arts competing in his mind were even more rapid and spectacular than describing them verbally. Eventually he involuntarily started to wave out fists and kicks. At first, it could be distinguished that this stance was from Hong Qigong, the other was Ouyang Feng but eventually everything became muddled up, he couldn’t hold on any longer and fainted.

Da’erba watched from afar, he saw that he was acting crazy, pointing out his hand and sweeping his legs, he didn’t understand what it was all about. Suddenly he saw him falling onto the ground, he wanted to go over there and help him but Jinlun Fawang laughed and said; “Don’t disturb his thoughts. It’s a pity that your intelligence is mediocre and you can’t grasp the meanings within.”

Yang Guo slept for half a night and continued with his thoughts the next morning. In seven days, he fell unconscious five times. He thought he wanted to invent his own school of martial arts, but how easy is that? With his present abilities it would be almost impossible to succeed. This isn’t something that can be achieved in ten days or two weeks. But after studying for several days, he suddenly understood. Since he couldn’t combine all these martial arts together, there was no need to force the issue. He realized that all martial arts were at his fingertips; later on when he meets an enemy, he’ll use whichever is needed. There was no need to think about the source of the martial art and this wasn’t far off from his intentions of forming his own school. Once he understood this point, he was immediately filled with comfort.

In the past few days, Jinlun Fawang has been self-recuperating; his injury was now almost fully recovered and he can move as freely as usual. Today, he saw Yang Guo’s expression was now at ease and calm, and knew that he had advanced another level in his martial arts. He said, “Little brother Yang, I’ll take you to see someone. This person is a great hero, an extremely open minded person, once you see him you’ll definitely be in awe.”

Yang Guo said, “Who?”

Jinlun Fawang said, “The Mongolian Prince Khubilai. He is the grandson of Genghis Khan and the fourth son of Prince Tolui.”

After seeing the unrestrained violence of the Mongolian soldiers, Yang Guo hated Mongolians; he frowned and said, “I’m anxious to avenge my father, I don’t need to see that Mongolian prince.”

Jinlun Fawang laughed and said, “I agreed to help you, how can I break my word? But I was summoned here by Khubilai; I need to go and see him. His camp is not far from here; it’s within one day’s travel.”

Yang Guo had no choice but to agree; he alone was not a match for Guo Jing and Huang Rong whether it came to a battle of wits or strength. Without Jinlun Fawang’s help, it would be difficult for him to take revenge; he could only go along with him.

Jinlun Fawang was the First Protector of Mongolia and the Mongolian soldiers revered him. When they saw him, they immediately went and told the news to their prince. Mongolians have always lived in tents; though they’ve entered a city, they weren’t used to living in palaces. Because of this, Khubilai stayed in the tents of the encampment.

Fawang took him along to the royal tent. Yang Guo saw that this tent was twice as large as a normal Mongolian tent but the arrangement within was very simple and crude. A twenty-five or six year old man was sitting down reading. When this person saw the two enter, he quickly got up to meet them and laughed, “I haven’t seen the Protector for many days, I have been thinking about you.”

Jinlun Fawang said, “Your highness, I’ll introduce you to a young hero. Though this brother Yang is young, he is an extraordinary personality.”

Yang Guo knew that this Khubilai is Genghis Khan’s grandson; if he didn’t have a noble appearance then at least he should have a powerful air around him. How would he know that this person was just a Han speaking, modest and mild young man; he was rather surprised.

Khubilai studied Yang Guo. He pulled on Fawang with his left hand and then said to his servant, “Quickly bring some wine, I want to have a drink with this brother.”

The servant brought in three bowls of Mongolian milk wine. Khubilai took a bowl and drank it all in one go. Fawang did the same. Yang Guo rarely drank wine, but now that the host has shown his hospitality, it wouldn’t be appropriate to reject it; so he took the wine and drank it all in one go. He felt the wine was extremely harsh and rather sour.

Khubilai laughed, “Little brother, how beautiful is this wine?”

Yang Guo said, “This wine is harsh and sour, it’s like a knife going into your mouth; the taste isn’t great but this is something that a true man drinks.”

Khubilai was pleased and called for more wine; each of them drank three bowls. Yang Guo’s internal energy was profound enough; he maintained his composure as he drank.

Khubilai said with joy; “Protector, where did you find this talented young man? My Mongolia is really fortunate.”

Jinlun Fawang then revealed Yang Guo’s history to him; he played up Yang Guo with his words, describing him as if he was one of the eminent figures of the central plains. When Yang Guo heard how Jinlun Fawang described him, he couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

Khubilai was ordered to take the Song land and has stayed in the central plains for a while now. He liked Han culture, his companion was Confucius; he read books and studied scriptures. He employed skilled martial artists, made acquaintances with them, planning to go south and attack the Song.

If it were another person who saw such a young man like Yang Guo, it would be difficult for them to accept Fawang’s words. But Khubilai was a wise and supremely magnanimous and he also had believed Jinlun Fawang without question; he was delighted and ordered a feast.

In a short while a feast was set up, wine and food which included both Han and Mongolian dishes, the bowls overflowed.

Khubilai said to his servant, “Invite the heroes from the Virtuous Guesthouse.” The servant complied and exited the tent.

Khubilai said, “Some able people have been made guests here in the past few days; it really is my country’s luck to have these people. But the thing is, that they cannot compare with Fawang and gentleman Yang.”

In the middle of this, the servant returned with the guests; the tent door opened and in came four people.

The first one that came in was tall and skinny, his face was pale, and he looked like a corpse. Khubilai introduced him to Fawang and Yang Guo, he was Xiangxi’s Xiaoxiang Zi.

The second person was extremely short and dark; he was a skilled fighter from Tian Zhu (India), Nimoxing.

One of the last two was a strongly built eight foot tall person with a foolish laugh on his face and blank eyes. The other was high nosed deep eyed with crooked hair and a yellow beard; he was a Hu (from northern and western China) but he was wearing Han clothes. He wore pearls around his neck and jade bracelets on his wrists, a rich air surrounded him. Khubilai introduced them separately. The Han was from Huijiang; his name is Ma Guangzuo. The Hu was a merchant, his family traded treasures in Kaifeng, Cheung An Tai Yuan, his Chinese name was Yin Kexi.

When Nimoxing and Xiaoxiang Zi heard that Jinlun Fawang was the ‘First Protector of Mongolia’ they examined him coldly, their faces showed disrespect. When they saw the young Yang Guo, they thought that he was Fawang’s disciple or grand disciple and didn’t even give him another look.

After three rounds of wine, Nimoxing could endure it no longer and said, “Your highness, the lands of Mongolia are vast, this monk is the ‘First Protector of Mongolia’, his martial arts must be extremely good. I want to experience his skills.”

Khubilai gave a subtle smile and didn’t reply.

Xiaoxiang Zi followed on, “Brother Nimoxing is from India, Tibetan martial arts originates from India, could there such a thing as getting green from blue in this world? I don’t really believe it.”

Jinlun Fawang saw Nimoxing’s eyes light up; Xiaoxiang Zi’s face was exuding a green air; Fawang knew that these two people’s internal energy was profound. Yin Kexi was laughing, using all his strength to produce an extremely uncultured and plain air; the more this person tries to show that he is unable, the greater the ability this person is likely to have. Fawang could not take him lightly; but he had no worries about the Han, Ma Guangzuo. He gave a wry laugh and said, “I was given the position of Protector because of the kindness of the Khan and the Fourth Prince. Originally I did not dare to accept this position.”

Xiaoxiang Zi said, “Then you should give it up for a person more worthy.” He glanced over at Nimoxing as he chuckled wryly.

Jinlun Fawang stretched out his chopsticks and picked up a piece of beef, he laughed, “This is the fattest piece of beef on the plate. I originally didn’t want to eat it but I just happened to stretch out my chopsticks and happened to pick this piece; I just accept it as fate. If you are interested, you can pick it yourself.” He hung the piece of beef over the plate, waiting for each one of them to come and take it.

Ma Guangzuo did not understand the meaning behind Jinlun Fawang’s words; he was talking about a piece of beef, but in reality he was referring to the position of the ‘First Protector of Mongolia’. When Ma Guangzuo saw him offering the piece of beef, he stretched out his chopsticks to catch it. His chopsticks were about to touch the beef when Fawang suddenly swept out one of his chopsticks and lightly touched his chopsticks. Ma Guangzuo felt his arm tremble with great intensity; he couldn’t hold on to them and the pair of chopsticks fell onto the table. Fawang’s chopstick returned in time to keep hold of the piece of beef. The others looked at each other startled.

Ma Guangzuo still did not understand, he picked up the chopsticks and held onto them tightly with his five fingers, he thought, “This time you won’t be able to knock it away...” He stretched his chopsticks towards the piece of beef.

Fawang did the same thing again, sweeping out one chopstick. This time, Ma Guangzuo was holding them tightly, indeed Fawang could not knock them out of his hands but a ‘ka la’ sound was heard, the chopsticks broke into four pieces as if a knife had sliced through them and two pieces of chopsticks dropped onto the table.

Ma Guangzuo was furious; he called out and threw himself forward to battle Fawang.

Khubilai laughed, “There’s no need to get angry warrior Ma, if you want to duel, there’s time to do this after we’ve eaten.”

Ma Guangzuo was afraid of his highness; he returned to his seat and pointed to Fawang, shouting, “What witchcraft did you use to break my chopsticks?”

Jinlun Fawang laughed, still holding out the piece of beef in front of him.

At first, Nimoxing did not have any respect for Jinlun Fawang, but after seeing how profound his internal energy was, he did not dare to continue looking down on him. He was an Indian; when he ate he did not use chopsticks, he just stretched out his hand and said, “I want to eat this piece of beef that the big Han couldn’t take.” His five fingers came out suddenly like a metal claw towards the beef. Fawang swept out his right chopstick, it moved like lightning as he attacked the pressure points on his palm, arm, wrist and the tip of his middle finger.

Nimoxing’s palm quickly turned and chopped down at Fawang’s wrist. Fawang’s arm didn’t move, he turned his chopstick around and struck out swiftly again, Nimoxing felt the chopstick striking him on the hand and quickly took his arm back. Fawang’s chopstick twisted back into its original position, still holding onto the piece of beef.

His attack of the pressure points were extremely swift; he made many attacks and returned the chopstick into position before the piece of beef slipped away. Yang Guo and the others could see what had happened. The two had exchange many stances in just a short period of time. Fawang’s attacks with the chopstick were indeed fast but Nimoxing’s martial arts were also excellent, he was able to take back his hand in an extremely critical situation.