Return of Condor Heroes (223 page)

Song Wu shook his head saying, “The Eagle Hero wanders around the country, not having any definite destination. If he has any matters requiring our assistance, he would just pass the word down. If we try to look for him, even a lifetime may not be enough.”

Guo Xiang was very disappointed. She’d listened to the various people talking about how Yang Guo saved Wang Weizhong’s only child, executed Chen Dafang, interrogated Ding Daquan, redeemed Song Wu, killed the father to save the mother and all sorts of chivalrous and magnanimous acts and could not help but daydream. Listening to her elder sister say he carried her when she was young, her heart was on fire and she wished she would be able to see him once. But then she heard he would most probably not participate in the “Heroes Congress” and could not help but sigh, saying, “At the “Heroes” meeting not everyone would necessarily be a hero, but a genuine hero who is so outstanding actually may not go.”

Suddenly a “Po” sound was heard and a person from the corner somersaulted and stood up. It was actually the person who was rolled into a ball and sleeping soundly. The people heard the rumbling sound, caused by that person speaking. He said, “If the lady wants to meet the Eagle Hero it’s not difficult; tonight I shall take you to see him.” When the people heard him they were startled, and then when they saw his appearance, they were even more surprised. His height was less than four feet, his body was really skinny, but his head was huge. His arms were long, hands and feet were big, larger than the ordinary person’s. In fact, even if they were on an ordinary person they wouldn’t fit. All this on his small body, it was very weird.

Guo Xiang was filled with great happiness and said, “Excellent, but I am unknown to the Eagle Hero, rashly seeking an audience may trespass on his patience; I don’t know if he will see me.”

The dwarf loudly said, “If you do not see him today, I fear you may never see him in future.”

Guo Xiang curiously asked, “Why?”

Guo Fu stood up, saying to the dwarf, “What is your great name?”

The dwarf laughed coldly, “I am such an ugly person; how can there be another on this Earth? Since you don’t know, go home and ask your father and mother.”

At this time, a distant voice slowly and softly said, “In Xishan are a group of ghosts; he is the ninth out of ten and his is called Big Head Ghost! (Da Tou Gui) If you don’t find out now, then when will you?” This voice was rather incoherent, worn out and had a ghostly tone, but everybody heard every word clearly.

That big headed dwarf was shocked, made a loud noise and a “Peng” sound was heard, the flames became dark and the dwarf disappeared without a trace. The people were startled, and saw the front door had a large hole, made by the dwarf when he exited. Breaking down a door was not unheard of, but this person dashing through a door was really uncommon.

Guo Polu said, “Big sister, this dwarf has such good skills!” Guo Fu had followed her parents for a long time, and saw much of the pugilistic world, but their parents never mentioned this dwarf before, so she was struck dumb for quite a while.

But Guo Xiang said, “Among Father’s teachers, the Jiangnan Seven Freaks, there was a short guy named Grandpa Ma Wangshen. Third brother, you called him a dwarf, if Father knew he might not be too happy. You should call him Senior.” Guo Jing never forgot the Jiangnan Seven Freaks’ kindness, and was very respectful towards them and treated any blind person or dwarf kindly, teaching the children to do that too.

Before Guo Polu could reply, a “Hu” sound was suddenly heard and the big headed dwarf stood in front of him, with wind and snow blowing in through the broken door, causing sparks from the fire to fly about. Guo Fu feared that the dwarf would injure her brother and sister so she rushed forward and blocked him from Guo Xiang and Guo Polu.

The dwarf poked his big head towards the side of Guo Fu’s waist and said to Guo Xiang, “Young lady, if you want to see the Eagle Hero, follow me.”

Guo Xiang said, “Alright! Elder sister, Younger brother, let’s go together.”

Guo Fu said, “What’s so good to see about the Eagle Hero? Don’t go. We don’t even know this person well.”

Guo Xiang said, “I’ll just go for a while and return, you guys wait here for me.”

Song Wu suddenly stood up and said, “Lady, do not go. This person is... ... is one of the… … Ghosts of Xishan...If you go... ... something unfortunate might happen to you.”

The dwarf grinned cunningly, saying, “You know the Xishan Ghosts? You know we are bad people?” His left palm suddenly struck out, hitting Song Wu on his shoulder. A “peng” sound was heard, Song Wu flew backwards and hit the wall and immediately fainted.

Guo Fu got angry and loudly said, “Sir, please leave! My younger sister is naive, how could she go along with you and create trouble in the middle of the night?” She turned her head and fiercely shouted at her younger sister, “Stop this foolishness. You are not going!”

At this moment, that distant voice was heard again, saying, “The ninth of the ten Xishan Ghosts, Big Head Ghost, our spirits are restless, we have been waiting for a long time!” This voice sounded a li away, yet seemed very close, causing much confusion and everybody to be terrified.

Guo Xiang made up her mind resolutely, “Tonight, even if I meet evil spirits and ghosts, I must still meet the Eagle Hero.” She said, “Senior, please lead me there!” Upon saying that, her legs made a leap and she dashed through the broken door.

Guo Fu anxiously called, “What are you doing?” She put out her hand to grab her younger sister’s arm but missed, so she leaped quickly, and pursued her through the door.

Who knew that when her body was about to pass through the door, the hole swiftly disappeared; Guo Fu immediately stopped her body in midair. Her dash was blocked and she had to land her feet onto the floor, her toes less than one foot from the door. She looked carefully, nearly calling out in alarm. Actually, the dwarf was using his body to block the door, the distance between them was only several inches and the tip of his nose nearly bumped into her chest; how would she not be startled? She hurriedly leapt back when a gust of cold wind blew at her body and the big headed dwarf was gone. Guo Fu called loudly, “Younger sister, come back!” She leapt out, only hearing a distant rumbling laughter, but Guo Xiang’s shadow was nowhere to be seen.

The dwarf made Guo Fu retreat in fear, he’d turned around and leapt into the snow saying: “Good! The lady is very courageous.” Holding Guo Xiang’s hand, he jumped forward. He utilized a rather uncommon qing gong (lightness skill), like a big frog, jumping forward continuously, and although he was short, each leap covered a great distance.

Guo Xiang’s wrist was being pulled by him and she felt like a metal circlet was round her wrist and it felt rather painful. Her heart was thumping madly and she did not know where this dwarf would take her. Since childhood Guo Jing and Huang Rong taught her martial arts personally, so her wugong (martial arts) had quite a strong foundation, but she found it difficult to keep pace with the dwarf’s leaps. Later on she was actually being dragged by him, forcing them to jump and land together.

After jumping like this for a little while, someone behind a mountain suddenly said, “Big Head Ghost, why are you so late? Ha-ha, you even brought a beautiful girl along!” The dwarf said, “She is Guo Jing and Huang Rong’s daughter, she wanted to meet the Eagle Hero, so I then led her here.” That person gawked, saying, “Guo Jing and Huang Rong’s daughter?” Another person behind the mountain eerily said, “Hurry up, let’s get going!” The voice became distorted, and dozens of horses appeared from behind the mountain ridge.

The heavy snow still did not stop, and the white snow created a shiny reflection. Guo Xiang saw nine strange people mounted on the horses, but most of the horses had no riders. The dwarf pulled two horses forwards and gave the reins of one to Guo Xiang with himself mounting another horse, shouting, “Let’s move!” He whistled, and the horses neighed and galloped towards the northwest.

When Guo Xiang looked at the nine people, she saw two females, one of whom was a senile appearing old woman while the other was dressed in scarlet from head to toe. She looked like she was on fire and appeared to be even more glaring in the snow’s reflection. The other seven people’s appearances could not be seen clearly. Guo Xiang thought carefully, “From what I heard, the Xishan Ghosts consist of ten people. At present there are exactly ten people, so this group of people must be the Xishan Ghosts. Uncle Song Wu only warned me about getting into trouble with them and that person knocked him out with one palm; this really looks ominous. They said they will take me to meet the Eagle Hero, so they shouldn’t be deceiving me. They must already be acquainted with the Eagle Hero, so they can’t be that evil.”

In a short while they’d already covered ten li, then the first person made a “de er” sound and the horses stopped at once. He led the horse up a small hill and then turned around. Guo Xiang saw his appearance and found it startling yet funny - this person was also a dwarf, his upper body was less than two feet, but his beard was actually three feet long, hanging over the horse. His face had wrinkles, his double eyebrows tightly knit and his face was filled with worry.

She heard him say, “From here to Mapingyi is less than 3 li. The Jianghu (pugilistic world) people say that the Eagle Hero’s martial arts are superb, we must discuss this in advance and not spoil the Xishan Ghosts’ reputation.”

The old woman said, “Then we request Eldest brother to issue an order.”

The long bearded man said, “Should we fight with him on chariots or surround him?”

Guo Xiang was shocked and thought, “From his tone, they must be enemies of the Eagle Hero.”

The old man said, “What are the Eagle Hero’s abilities like? Seventh brother, please explain clearly.”

A burly man with a body like an iron tower said, “Although I have seen him, I never fought with him, I saw... I saw... that he has some sort of demonic aura.”

The red clothed woman said, “Seventh brother, how did you become enemies with the Eagle Hero? Now is the time to explain clearly so that before everybody starts fighting, we would know what’s going on. You always stammer and stutter and you usually fail to reveal the whole truth.”

The man got angry, saying, “We Xishan Ghosts will live and die together; since this person dares to come forward to find us, do we cower away?”

A tall and skinny person with a gloomy voice said, “Who said anything about cowering away? But even if Ninth sister didn’t ask, I would ask. We have not offended him. Why did he want to expel the Xishan Ghost from Xishan?”

The man got angry and said, “Everybody, look, he cut off my ears. If you won’t help me get back at him, what kind of good brothers and sisters are you?” As he said this he took off his felt hat. Under the bright reflection of the snow, everyone plainly saw his head missing both ears. The Xishan Ghosts got angry and started cursing and swearing with thunderous rage, all wanting to fight the Eagle Hero to the death.

The red clothed woman said, “Seventh brother, why did he cut off your ears? What offense did you commit? You were harassing decent women again, is it not so?”

A person with a laughing face got angry and said, “Even if Seventh brother harasses decent women; other people have no right to interfere.” This person was born with a really unusual face; although he was angry, the smile on his face did not disappear. Guo Xiang looked carefully and saw that the corners of his mouth curled upwards with both eyes squinting, so even if he was sobbing sadly, it would seem like he was smiling from ear to ear.

The man said, “No, no! On that day my wife and four concubines were quarrelling over some small matter and things were about to turn violent. This, so called, Eagle Hero passed by and saw this; he was such a busybody and unexpectedly persuaded my wives to stop. My third wife had no shame and smiled at him...”

The red clothed woman said, “Ah ha, I know, Seventh brother got jealous and forbade her to smile.”

The man said, “Get jealous? I don’t need other people to poke their noses into my affairs. I punched my concubine’s three front teeth and told the broken-armed scum to scram.”

When Guo Xiang heard this she could not bear it and said, “He gave you well-intentioned advice, why did you speak so impolitely? You were wrong there.” The ten people turned their heads to look at her and could not believe this young girl dared to act so boldly.

The man got really angry and shouted, “Little twit, how do you dare to tell me what to do! Fifth brother, is this cutie your girl?”

The big headed dwarf said, “She wants to see the Eagle Hero so I brought her along to take a look, I don’t care about other matters.”

The man said, “Good, then I shall teach her a lesson.” He raised his horse whip and lashed down towards Guo Xiang’s head with a “pa” sound.

Guo Xiang lifted her whip and blocked, the two whips struck each other and interlocked together. The man used his arm to seize the whip and Guo Xiang felt a great force vigorously tugging her whip. She could not hold on any longer and released her whip, causing her palms to be scratched with searing pain. The guy took back his whip, raised it and wanted to lash down again, but the old man shouted, “Seventh brother, it’s getting late, let’s hurry, why do you lower yourself and fight with a child?” The man’s whip was in midair, but he did not strike.

That long-sleeved old man sneered, “The Xishan Ghosts are not afraid of the sky and the earth, even Guo Jing and Huang Rong’s reputation does not scare us. Little girl, if you talk again, I will butcher you immediately.” He leaned forward, saying, “Seventh brother, a true man will get up again if he falls, my long beard was cut off by my enemy several years ago. How were your ears sheared off?”

The man then said, “I told the Eagle Hero to get lost, so he smiled, turned around and walked away. It’s all my third concubine’s fault, she cried out, saying she was forced to marry me and at that time she was not willing. Now she was bullied by my first wife. She added that after I married her, I also married a fourth concubine and did not have a conscience. That Eagle Hero turned around; his expression changed greatly and asked, ‘Is this woman speaking the truth?’ I said, ‘So what if it is? So what if it’s not? My nickname is Fairy Ghost and I kill without blinking, do you know that?’ He said calmly, ‘If you like her, why did you marry someone else after you married her? If you do not like her, why did you marry her at all?’ I laughed loudly and said, ‘At first I liked her, now I’m tired of her. It’s common for a man to have three wives and four concubines. I even want to marry another four.’ He said, ‘You heartless creatures are far too many, how can the world’s females live in peace?’ Suddenly he stepped forward, drew out a dagger from my waist and sliced off my ears. Then he pointed the dagger at my chest, shouting, ‘I’ll dig your heart and liver out to take a look, what colour are they?’”