Return of Condor Heroes (125 page)

Now as Qiu Qianchi talked about this, his eyes stared, not knowing how to reply. Qiu Qianchi had been in the Passionless Valley for almost thirty years; she has not heard about the changes in the Wulin world. She just knew that the Iron Palm Clan had been famous for hundreds of years, so they must be flourishing even more at the present time. But now she heard that Yang Guo hadn’t even heard of the three words ‘Iron Palm Clan’ before; of course she would break out in a thunderous rage.

Yang Guo was being insulted and cursed at for no reason at all; at first he forced himself to take it; but as it went on, the insults were beginning to go too far. He was starting to get angry and was about to answer back when, just as he was going to open his mouth, he saw Lu E staring at him. Her eyes were filled with tenderness and her face was looking apologetic. Yang Guo’s heart softened and his face showed a helpless expression; he was beginning to feel contented as he thought, “The worse your mother treats me the better you treat me. The old bat’s words just brush past the ears, while the beauty’s warmth goes to my heart.” His brain became active as his heart relaxed; suddenly he thought, “Miss Wanyan Ping’s martial arts appeared to be of the same school as Gongsun Zhi; she also said that she practiced the “Iron Palm”; she must have some kind of connection with the Iron Palm Clan.”

He closed his eyes and recalled that when Wanyan Ping fought Yelu Qi, he could remember about seventy or eight percent of it. When he fought Gongsun Zhi just a few hours ago, his attacks and form were even clearer in his mind and he called out, “Ah, I remember.”

Qiu Qianchi said, “What?”

Yang Guo said, “Three years ago I saw an extraordinary Wulin Senior battle eighteen men from the world of Jianghu; he fought them all empty handed. In the end he seriously injured nine of them and killed the other nine. I heard this great person say that he was from the Iron Palm Clan.”

Qiu Qianchi asked quickly, “What did this person look like?”

Yang Guo made it up as he went along and said, “This person was bald and was around sixty years of age, his face glowed and he was tall, he wore a green gown and said he said his surname was Qiu…”

Qiu Qianchi suddenly shouted, “Bullshit! My two brothers are not bald, they are not tall and they have never worn green before. You saw that I’m tall and bald so you said they’re bald as well?”

Yang Guo thought, “Crap!” But his face remained unmoved and he laughed, “There’s no need to rush me; I didn’t say this person was your brother. Could it be that everyone who’s named Qiu is your brother?”

Qiu Qianchi could say nothing after this rebuttal and asked, “What were his martial arts like?”

Yang Guo stood up and performed a few fists of Wanyan Ping’s mixed up with the form and palms of Gongsun Zhi; eventually he became more and more fluid in his actions and the grotto was filled with elegant palms and powerful punches. Though his stances were slightly wrong, it was somewhat better than the original palm techniques of Wanyan Ping. His natural movements covered up all the places that were out of form with Wanyan Ping’s techniques. His hand and leg movements were tight and complete and whenever he sent out a palm, he would deliberately put extra effort in it to make it more vicious.

Qiu Qianchi watched with great joy, she called out, “E’er, E’er, that’s the martial arts of our Iron Clan Palm, watch carefully.”

Yang Guo performed these stances with Qiu Qianchi pointing out the stances and explaining the lethal aspects of them from the side.

Yang Guo was amused and thought, “If I carry on any longer she’ll see through me.” He then stopped and said, “At this point, the Wulin senior had won and there wasn’t a need to carry on.”

Qiu Qianchi was delighted and said, “You’ve remembered a lot of the stances wrongly, your hand movements are incorrect as well; but to perform it as you did is really something that is difficult to do. What was the name of this Wulin Senior? What did he say to you?”

Yang Guo said, “This extraordinary person’s movements were like a divine dragon. After he won he flew away. I just heard from the remaining nine injured men and they were blaming themselves saying, how could we give trouble to Master Qiu of the Iron Palm Clan? Weren’t we signing our own death warrants?”

Qiu Qianchi said with delight, “That’s right, the one named Qiu is most probably a disciple of my brother.” Qiu Qianchi loved martial arts; but for the last ten years she hadn’t been able to move her arms and legs freely. Now, as she saw Yang Guo perform her clan’s martial arts, she was thrilled and was itching to have a go. She then started to lecture the two about her clan’s palm techniques and lightness kung fu.

Yang Guo was anxious to get out as quickly as possible so he could deliver the antidote to Xiao Longnu. Though what he heard was advanced and refined martial arts that would benefit him, when he thought about the suffering of Xiao Longnu, how could he keep a frame of mind for learning martial arts? He then signaled to Lu E with his eyes.

Lu E understood and said, “Mother, why did you teach father martial arts?”

Qiu Qianchi said angrily, “Call him Gongsun Zhi! Why father this and that?”

Lu E said, “Yes. Mother, please go on.”

Qiu Qianchi said, with hate in her voice; “Huh!” After a while she continued, “This happened twenty years ago. My two brothers got into an argument…”

Lu E interrupted, “I’ve got two uncles?”

Qiu Qianchi said, “Don’t you know?” Her tone became stern with a hint of scolding.

Lu E thought, “How would I know?” She replied, “No, no one’s ever told me before.”

Qiu Qianchi sighed and said, “You… you really don’t know anything. Pitiful… pitiful!” After a while she continued, “Your uncles are twins, your older uncle is called Qiu Qianzhang, your second uncle is Qiu Qianren. Their voices, figure and faces were the same, but the two’s characters and fate were very different. Second brother’s martial arts are extremely high but first brother’s martial arts were very ordinary. Second brother taught me martial arts but first brother and I were a lot closer to each other. Second brother was the chief of the Iron Palm Clan; he had many clan matters to deal with and was busy with his own martial arts, so we saw very little of each other. When he taught me martial arts, he was strict and didn’t say much to me. But first brother was very close to me; he would say, sister this and sister that. Later on when the two argued, I sided with first brother.”

Lu E said, “Mother, what did the two uncles argued about?”

Qiu Qianchi’s face suddenly showed a hint of a smile and said, “This matter is not serious but not too insignificant either; it’s just that my second brother was too obstinate. When second brother became the chief of the Iron Palm Clan, his name ‘Iron Palm Water Floater Qiu Qianren’ was famous throughout the world of the Wulin. Very few knew my elder brother’s name. Whenever my elder brother went out, he would sometimes borrow my second brother’s name for convenience. The two of them looked the same and were real brothers, so what’s so bad about borrowing his name? But second brother didn’t see it this way; he would argue about this all the time, saying elder brother was a swindler and trickster. My elder brother had a good temper; whenever second brother scolded him he would just laugh and apologize. One time, second brother went too far. I couldn’t do anything and so added a few words to help first brother. This brought trouble onto me and we argued. I left the Iron Palm Peak in anger and never returned.”

“I roamed Jianghu by myself. One time, I was pursuing a scoundrel and came to the Passionless Valley by accident. This was punishment for the bad deeds in my last life and I met Gongsun Zhi… this evil… this evil scoundrel. We eventually got married. I was older than him by a few years and my martial arts were a lot stronger than his. After we got married not only did I teach him martial arts, I looked after his everyday needs; he didn’t have to do anything in the valley. His family’s martial arts have its ingenious aspects but there were too many holes in them. It was me who thought about it carefully and helped him improve it. One time, a strong enemy attacked; if it wasn’t for me driving them away, this Passionless Valley would have been flattened long ago. Who could have predicted that this scoundrel would repay these deeds with ingratitude? After he grew his wings he forgot about where all his martial arts came from, and who saved him in his time of danger.” She then spurted out a load of insults and curses with the insults becoming eviler as it went on.

Lu E blushed when she heard this; she felt that insulting her husband like this in front of Yang Guo was a bit embarrassing. She kept on calling out, “Mother, mother!” But how could she stop her? Yang Guo loved it; he hated Gongsun Zhi too and enjoyed these insults immensely. He couldn’t stop himself from adding a few words to stir Qiu Qianchi’s mood further. If it wasn’t for Lu E, he too would have opened his mouth and insulted him as well.

Qiu Qianchi exhausted her insults until nothing new could be added; she had repeated everything she said and had to stop. She continued, “That year I was pregnant with you and it was unavoidable that my character would become a bit more anxious and worried. Who knew that while it seemed like he treated me the same on the outside, he was having an affair with a maid behind my back. After you were born, he still carried on with this maid. I didn’t know anything; I thought that after we had this beautiful daughter, he would treat me better. I was deceived by them for a few years. One day I accidentally stumbled across them and heard them discussing about leaving the valley together and never returning.”

“I was hiding behind a tree and heard that scoundrel say that he was worried about how high my martial arts were and the further they went the better; how I was too controlling and didn’t give him any freedom. He said he only felt alive when he was with that bitch maid. I had always thought his feelings for me were real, but when I heard this I was so angry that I almost fainted. I wanted to dash forward and kill the two right there and then. Although he was heartless, I still looked back fondly upon the many years of us being a husband and wife. He was originally a good person, this must be the fault of that seducing bitch using her charms on him. I held my anger and stood behind the tree, listening carefully.”

“I heard them say that two days later I’ll be meditating for seven days and nights without leaving the room. They would take this chance to leave the valley, and by the time I’ve found out seven days later, they’ll be long gone. I shivered when I heard this; heaven must have pitied me to give me this chance to see through their plans. Otherwise, where on earth would I be able to find them seven days later?” By this point, her teeth were chattering with fury.

Lu E asked, “What was the young maid called? Was she beautiful?”

Qiu Qianchi said, “Crap! Beautiful my arse! This maid seduced him through her words; whatever the bastard said she agreed with and she would sweet talk him saying that he was the greatest man on this earth, that he was a great hero. Huh, that bitch was called Rou’er. That Gongsun Zhi with his sinful ancestors, what stance or form of his that I don’t know? He’s a great hero? He’s not even worthy to be a follower of my big brother; if he tried to pour wine for my second brother he would be kicked out on his butt.”

By this point, Yang Guo was beginning to feel a little sympathy for Gongsun Zhi, he thought, “It must be because you were too controlling and that your looking down on him was what forced him to finally fight back.”

Lu E was afraid that her mother would break out in another bout of non stop cursing, so she asked quickly, “Mother, what happened then?”

Qiu Qianchi said, “The two animals had decided that in the morning on the third day, they’ll meet there again and leave together. They said that in the two upcoming days they’ll need to be extremely careful and not leave any clues as to what they were doing in case I found out. The two then continued on with talking rubbish. The bitch looked at the bastard captivated, as if she were looking at someone more important than the Emperor; revering him more than gods and goddesses. That bastard felt proud of himself; he kept on praising himself and then hugged and touched that slut. Their shameless actions almost angered me to death right there and then. Early on the third day, I pretended to meditate in the meditation chamber while Gongsun Zhi came over and peeked in a few times through the window. I waited for him to leave and then utilized my lightness kung fu and rushed to their meeting place. That bitch had arrived there before him. Without saying a word I grabbed her and tossed her into a Passion Flower thicket....” Yang Guo and Lu E both gasped.

Qiu Qianchi glanced at them and continued, “After a while Gongsun Zhi arrived; there is no need to describe the panicky state he was in when he saw Rou’er rolling about and crying out in pain in the Passion Flowers. I leaped out from behind the tree and held him with my two hands then threw him down into the thicket as well. The valley has an antidote to the Passion Flower poison that had been passed down from generation to generation; it is called the Passionless Pill. Gongsun Zhi struggled and picked himself up; he then helped that slut off the ground and rushed to the pill room, wanting to get the Passionless Pill to cure their poison. Ha-ha, guess what they saw?”

Lu E said, “Mother, what did they see?”

Yang Guo thought, “You must have destroyed all the Passionless Pills; what else could it be?”

Qiu Qianchi did indeed say, “Ha-ha, when he got to the room, he saw a bowl filled with frosty arsenic water and hundreds of Passionless Pills soaking in the bowl. If he wanted to take the Passionless Pill he would have to take in the poison of the frosty arsenic water; if he didn’t take it, he would still die. The method of producing the Passionless Pill is a family secret. It is extremely difficult to get all the precious herbs and medicines to produce them. To make a batch of Passionless Pills requires the spring dew and autumn frost; it will take three years to make. He then rushed to the meditation chamber and begged on his knees for their lives. He knew that I would muse over on our marriage and wouldn’t destroy all the pills, keeping some just in case. He struck himself across the face many times; he cried and swore that if I spared the two them he would send Rou’er away and never see her again. And he said he would never dare to do such a thing again.”