Return of Condor Heroes (72 page)

Yang Guo laughed and said, “I don’t think either of them is good.”

Guo Fu was startled and asked, “Why?”

Yang Guo laughed and said, “If those two are good then what chance have I, Yang Guo, got?” He had been used to joking around with Lu Wushuang on the road and he didn’t mean what he just said, he was just teasing her when he said it.

Guo Fu was stunned, she was a girl who was used to being pampered and treated well, no one has ever said half an offensive word to her. Right now she didn’t know whether or not to be angry; she put on serious face and said, “If you don’t want to say, fine, who wants to joke with you? Let’s go.” As she said this she utilized her lightness kung fu and hurried along the small path to the mountainside.

Yang Guo felt there was no point to this and thought, “Why am I mixing with these three? I’d rather be far away and be on my own!” He turned around and slowly walked away, thinking, “The Wu brothers think that girl is a goddess, they’re afraid that she won’t marry them. If they really marry her, and spend everyday with such a pretty yet bullying girl, they will definitely experience more pain than joy, huh; crazy people like them are very funny.”

Guo Fu hurried for a while and assumed that Yang Guo would go after her and apologize; but after stopping for a while there was no trace of Yang Guo. She had a thought and said, “That person does not know martial arts, of course he won’t be able to catch up. She turned around and returned to see that he had actually gone in the opposite direction. She thought this was strange and went over to Yang Guo. She asked, “Why aren’t you coming?”

Yang Guo said, “Miss Guo, please tell your parents that I’ve gone.”

Guo Fu was shocked and said, “You’re fine, so why are you leaving?”

Yang Guo gave a dull laugh and said, “There’s no reason, originally I came here for no real reason, and now that I’ve been here I feel I should go.”

Guo Fu has always like crowded atmospheres; although she didn’t think very highly of Yang Guo, listening to him joking felt fresher and newer than listening to the Wu brothers. She really didn’t want him to leave, she said, “Brother Yang, we haven’t seen each other a long time, I have many things to say to you. Anyway, tonight is the ‘Heroes Feast, all the heroes from all over the world will be gathering here, why don’t you want to experience this?”

Yang Guo said, “I’m not a hero, if I’m actually there, won’t I just become an object of ridicule in front of all the heroes?”

Guo Fu said, “That makes sense.” She pondered for a while and said, “There are many people in the Lu Manor who don’t know martial arts, just eat and drink with the servants.”

When Yang heard this he was very angry, he thought, “Little Bitch, you class me with nobodies.” His face didn’t show any signs of anger; he laughed and said, “That’s a pretty good idea.” He had wanted to leave but now had a change of heart, he decided he was going to do something that would embarrass and disgrace her. Guo Fu was used to being pampered and cared for. She wasn’t wise and didn’t understand worldly matters; she didn’t have any ill intent in her words and didn’t know that she had deeply offended someone.

She saw that Yang Guo had changed his mind, she laughed and said, “Let’s go, if we’re late and mother gets there first, we won’t be able to peek.” She hurried ahead with Yang Guo following behind, he appeared out of breath and his footsteps seemed heavy showing that he was extremely clumsy and inept. They easily arrived in time at the place where Huang Rong normally taught Lu Youjiao the stick techniques. They saw the Wu brothers in a tree looking out. Guo Fu leapt up on the branch and then reached out her hand to Yang Guo pulling him up. When Yang Guo held her soft and warm hand, he couldn’t stop his heart from stirring but immediately thought, “Even if you were ten times as beautiful, you can’t compare with my Gu Gu.”

Guo Fu quietly asked, “My mother hasn’t arrived yet?”

Wu Xiuwen pointed to the west and quietly replied, “Elder Lu is practicing over there, Master and Master’s wife went away to talk about something.”

The only person that Guo Fu is afraid of is her father, when she heard that he was here she felt slightly uneasy. But when she saw Lu Youjiao holding a bamboo stick pointing to the east and stirring to the west, she forgot her fear and quietly said, “That’s the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”?”

Wu Dunru said, “Most likely. Master’s wife was teaching him when Master came over and said he had something to discuss with her, he led her to the side while Elder Lu practiced by himself.”

Guo Fu watched a few stances and felt that it was sluggish and didn’t see anything special about it, she said, “Elder Lu hasn’t learned it yet, and it isn’t nice to watch, let’s go.”

Yang Guo saw that the stances that Elder Lu was using were identical to the ones that Hong Qigong taught him on top of Mount Hua, he chuckled in his heart, “That girl doesn’t know anything.”

The Wu brothers always followed Guo Fu’s orders, they were about to jump down when they heard footsteps below; the Guo couple were walking over.

They heard Guo Jing say, “Of course a decision about Fu’er’s future can’t be decided so lightly and suddenly. But Guo’er is young; it is unavoidable that young people will get into trouble. That business with the Quanzhen sect doesn’t seem to be all his fault.”

Huang Rong said, “I don’t care about him causing trouble at Quanzhen. You are respecting the long friendship between the families of Yang and Guo, as you should. But Yang Guo is very crafty, the more I look at him the more he looks like his father, how can I relax and allow Fu’er to get married to him?”

When Yang Guo, Guo Fu and the Wu brothers heard this, they all were shocked. The four of them knew that the Guo and Yang families had some ties but they didn’t know that the previous generations had such deep ties. They could never have guessed that Guo Jing wanted to betroth his daughter to Yang Guo. That sentence affects all four of them, they all listened carefully, their hearts all racing.

Guo Jing said, “Brother Yang Kang was unfortunate that he ended up in the Jin palace and fell in with the wrong crowd. That’s how he ended up like he did, in the end he died without a full corpse. (a soul?) Had he been in the care of Uncle Yang Tiexin, he would never have ended up like that.”

Huang Rong sighed as she remembered the frightening events of that night at Jiaxing’s Iron Spear Temple, her heart froze and she quietly said, “You could say that.”

Yang Guo does not fully understand his background, he knew that his father died earlier by someone’s hand but his own mother never revealed how he died or who killed him. Now he heard Guo Jing talking about his father and mentioned ‘ended up in the Jin palace and fell in with the wrong crowd’ and ‘died without a full corpse’, his body quivered as if he was struck by lighting, his face turned grey. Guo Fu glanced at him and saw that he was looking like he was in a trance; she was frightened and worried that he would suddenly fall and drop to his death.

Guo Jing and Huang Rong sat down on a rock with their backs to the tree. Guo Jing lightly stroked Huang Rong’s arm and warmly said, “Since you’ve been carrying our second child, your body has not been feeling well; quickly pass on all the responsibilities of the Beggar Clan to Lu Youjiao so you can rest properly.”

Guo Fu was delighted, “So mother’s having a baby, it’ll be great to have a little brother. How come mother never told me about this?”

Huang Rong said, “I don’t worry about the matters of the Beggar Clan that much. What I’m worried about is Fu’er’s future.”

Guo Jing said, “Since the Quanzhen won’t take in Guo’er, I’ll teach him myself. He’s a very clever boy, once he’s learned all my skills in the future, the brotherly vow between his father and I won’t have been in vain.”

Yang Guo now knew that Guo Jing was his father’s sworn brother, the words ‘Uncle Guo’ had a real meaning behind it, when he heard Guo Jing treating him with love in his words he was touched, tears almost rolled from of his eyes.

Huang Rong said, “That’s what I’m afraid of, in case he’s too clever for his own good. That’s why I taught him to study and didn’t teach him any martial arts. I hoped that he would become a deep, understanding and righteous man, even if he didn’t know any martial arts. I would have happily betrothed Fu’er to him in that case.”

Guo Jing said, “You have always planned everything to the last detail. This idea would have been good but with Fu’er’s temper and martial arts, wouldn’t having her to marry a weak scholar be a bit harsh for her? Tell me, how could she respect him? In my opinion such a couple would not get on well with each other.”

Huang Rong laughed and said, “You’re shameless! So the reason why we are such a good couple is because you have better martial arts than me. Hero Guo, come, come, come, let’s have a duel.”

Guo Jing laughed and said, “Fine, Chief Huang, give me your best.” A light sound was heard as Huang Rong lightly patted on Guo Jing’s shoulder.

After a while Huang Rong sighed and said, “Ah… this matter is complicated, even with Guo’er to one side, how can you separate the two Wu brothers? In your opinion, who is better?”

Guo Fu and the Wu brother’s hearts naturally jumped. This wasn’t related to Yang Guo but he wanted to hear Guo Jing’s opinion of the two.

He heard Guo Jing go ‘hmm’ and didn’t say anything for a while, in the end he said, “I can’t give my opinions on them on small matters. Only when a person is faced with an important matter will they show their real character.” His voice became soft and said, “Fu’er is still young, we can still wait a few years. It could be that by then everything will have sorted itself out and we won’t have to worry about it. There’s no need to exert your self too much when teaching Lu Youjiao the stick techniques. In the last few days I’ve noticed that you don’t seem to look well, I’m worried. I’ll go and find Guo’er and talk to him.” After he said this he got up and walked to the road.

Huang Rong sat on the rock and evened her breathing for a while before she instructed Lu Youjiao to come over and perform the techniques. Lu Youjiao displayed all thirty-six strokes of the technique, but Lu Youjiao had yet to understand the formulae. Huang Rong kept her patience and explained everything more clearly to him.

The stances of the “Dog Beating Stick Techniques” are of course ingenious and masterly, and the formulae behind it extremely clever and ingenious, otherwise how could a little bamboo stick become the treasure of the Beggar Clan? Even with Ouyang Feng’s great skills he had to think deep and hard for a long while; how could the opponent overcome a stance or half a move?

Huang Rong had used a month’s time to teach Lu Youjiao the stances. Now she recited the formulae and the principles behind the changes a few times, and told him to remember this. When it comes to understanding and being able to use the skill, it depends on the person’s ability and intelligence. The Master cannot teach the disciple this.

Guo Fu and the Wu brothers did not understand the stick techniques, they didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. What the ‘seal’ point was like, how the ‘coil’ aim was meant to be, how the eighteenth change transforms into the nineteenth change and how the nineteenth change can be altered into the twentieth change. The three of them wanted to leap down from the tree but were afraid that Huang Rong would discover them; they hoped that she would go through it quickly and then leave with Lu Youjiao. But who could have guessed that Huang Rong had decided to hand over the position of Chief to Lu Youjiao today before the ‘Heroes Feast’. She decided she would impart all the formulae to him now, if he didn’t understand it she would slowly go over it with him later on. According to the rules of the clan, when he takes over the position he must have learned the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”; this is why that she spoke almost non-stop for around two hours. However, Lu Youjiao wasn’t the most gifted and he was now old, his memory is fading, how could he remember all this in just a short time? Huang Rong kept on going, passage after passage; it was hard for him to remember everything. Huang Rong had met Guo Jing when she was fifteen and was used to being around someone who was slow and not the most gifted. She was angry about Lu Youjiao’s poor memory. The rules of the clan states that the formulae to the technique must be passed on down orally and must not be written down. Otherwise writing it down and letting him slowly memorize it would have saved a lot of effort and energy.

That day on the peak of Mount Hua after both Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng had suffered internal injuries in their duel, Hong Qigong had taught Yang Guo every stance and every change so that he could perform it for Ouyang Feng. But he didn’t teach him a single word of the formulae that are needed when fighting an enemy. Hong Qigong thought that without the formulae, the techniques would be useless to him. This doesn’t really go against the rules of the clan and at the time he wasn’t fighting Ouyang Feng for real, so there was no need to pass on the formulae to the technique. Who could have guessed that Yang Guo would now hear the whole thing in its entirety? He was over a hundred times more gifted than Lu Youjiao; after just three recitations he was able to remember the whole thing without forgetting a word, but Lu Youjiao still wasn’t able to remember as he recited it ambiguously.

When Huang Rong became pregnant for the second time, she became careless one day while meditating and disturbed the chi of the fetus; because of this she has become very weak. Today she had taught for over half a day and had become very tired, she sat on the rock and rested, she closed her eyes for a while and then called out, “Fu’er, Ru’er, Wen’er, Guo’er, come down at once!”

The four of them were shocked and thought, “So she knew we were here long ago!”

Guo Fu said, “Mother, you really are great, nothing can be kept from you.” As she said this she used a stance of “The Forest Sends a Sparrow” and lightly leapt down in front of her. The Wu brothers followed while Yang Guo climbed down slowly.