by Jin Yong
“You are the nephew of Ouyang Feng, aren’t you?” Hong Qigong said.
Ouyang Ke didn’t respond, but the three snake herders shouted in anger, “Old man, how dare you use the given name of our master!”
“I say what others do not,” Hong Qigong said with a smile.
The three snake herders continued to yell at Hong Qigong, when the beggar, who was on the ground with the dog-beating stick, suddenly appeared in sky like a large bird. He struck down three times so quickly that the three men had no time to react. Before their bodies hit the ground, Hong Qigong had already jumped into the air again.*
“Good move!” Huang Rong said. “Why haven’t you taught it to me yet, Master Qigong?”
When the three men arose they could not make a sound because Hong Qigong had hit them on the tiny muscle near the chin that connects to the jaw.
Startled, Ouyang Ke said to Hong Qigong, “Senior knows my uncle?”
“Ah, so you are Ouyang Feng’s nephew,” Hong Qigong said. “It’s been over twenty years since I’ve seen the ‘Old Poison’. Is he still not dead?”
Ouyang Ke grew angry, but he knew the level of Hong Qigong’s kung fu was very high. And because he knew his uncle, he must also be a senior of enormous ability. “Uncle has often said that he would never die before any of his friends,” Ouyang Ke said. “So he dares not go to heaven before you.”
Hong Qigong looked skyward and laughed. “Good! You turn my words around and insult me!” he said. “Now, why did you bring all these treasures?” he said, indicating the snakes.
“I have spent all my life in the West,” Ouyang Ke said. “This is the first time I have ventured to the Central Plains [zhong yuan]. The journey is lonely and solitary, so I thought I’d bring these snakes along for some fun.”
“That’s a lie,” Huang Rong said. “How can your journey be lonely and solitary with so many of your wives and concubines to accompany you?”
Ouyang Ke snapped open his fan and looked over it at Huang Rong. Laughing, he recited, “My distant heart held no one within, but today I have met its princess.”
Huang Rong made a funny face at Ouyang Ke and laughed. “I don’t need your compliments, just as much as I don’t need you to miss me,” she said.
Ouyang Ke was speechless: He was enthralled by the goddess-like Huang Rong and her pleasant expression.
“Your uncle rules the western region tyrannically, so obviously no one has disciplined you,” Hong Qigong shouted. “So you’ve come into the Central Plains with the idea of doing as you please. Well, today, I will give your uncle face and leave you alone. Get out of my sight right now.”
Ouyang Ke stopped himself from spitting out hateful words. Knowing himself to be no match for Hong Qigong, he began to retreat obediently, though his heart was full of distaste. “Junior bids you farewell. If senior makes it through the next few years without suffering any serious illness, please come to the White Camel Mountain for a visit.”
Hong Qigong laughed. “Little punk, you dare challenge me to a duel? If I do come, it will have nothing to do with an agreement. Your uncle isn’t afraid of me and I’m not afraid of your uncle. Twenty years before yesterday, in the early morning, a group of us fought one another and found ourselves to be evenly matched. We need not ever fight again.”
His face abruptly changed. “You are still here in front of me instead of being far away!” Hong Qigong shouted.
Ouyang Ke was startled again. “I’ve only learned thirty percent of uncle’s kung fu,” he thought. “This man doesn’t seem to be lying. I’ll accept this loss of face for now and get back at him later.” Ouyang Ke didn’t respond, and the three men, with their chins still aching, made no sound. Casting a glance at Huang Rong, Ouyang Ke turned and walked back into the forest.
The three men then made strange noises to direct the snakes, but because of the injury to their jaws, their voices at their loudest only came out as a weak rasp. Like a wave, the snakes moved back into the forest, leaving a trail of gleaming slime across the ground.
“Master Qigong, do you know where these snakes come from?” Huang Rong said. “Were they raised?”
Hong Qigong gave no response. He took a swig from his gourd, used his sleeve to wipe off the sweat from his brow and let out a sigh of relief. “So dangerous; so very dangerous!” he said.
“How so?” both Guo Jing and Huang Rong asked.
“Those poisonous snakes were only temporarily blocked by my efforts,” Hong Qigong said. “They would have soon been able to cross over. With so many snakes, they would have been like a flood. How would we be able to stop them? Luckily, those people were inexperienced and didn’t realize my ruse since I frightened them so much. If the ‘Old Poison’ had come, you two kids would have been in a terrible position,” he added.
“We wouldn’t stay — we’d run away,” Huang Rong said.
“This senior wouldn’t be afraid, but you two kids would run away,” Hong Qigong laughed. “But how would you flee if the ‘Old Poison’ sent out one of his palms?” “Is that man’s uncle really that powerful?” Huang Rong said.
Hong Qigong laughed. “Powerful? ‘Eastern Heretic,’ ‘Western Poison,’ ‘Northern Beggar,’ ‘Southern Emperor’ and ‘Central Divinity’: Your father is the Eastern Heretic, and Ouyang Feng is the Western Poison. The number one martial artist, Wang Zhenren [Wang Chongyang], passed away. The remaining four of us, who fought against one another in eight pairs, were found to be equal. Is your father not fierce?” he added. “Is my own ability negligible?” [Note: Zhenren is a title for respected for Taoist priests.]
Huang Rong had secretly pondered these points before and was not able to put the pieces together. “My father is a good person, so why is he called ‘heretical’ and ‘evil?’ I don’t like his nickname.”
“Privately, your father probably likes his nickname,” Hong Qigong said with a laugh. “That man possesses a strange spirit. He follows his own unorthodox way — is that not perverse? I am convinced that the proper ancestry of all orthodox kung fu is through Quanzhen’s teachings.”
“You’ve learned Quanzhen’s neigong haven’t you?” he said to Guo Jing.
“Ma Yu taught me at length for over two years,” Guo Jing said.
“Indeed, indeed — you didn’t learn that in any short span of time,” Hong Qigong said. “Had you not, how would you be able to learn my ‘Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms’ if you didn’t possess a good neigong basis?”
“Who is Southern Emperor?” Huang Rong said.
“Southern Emperor is indeed an emperor [huang di],” Hong Qigong said. Guo Jing and Huang Rong were surprised.
“Do you mean the emperor of the Song?” Huang Rong said.
Hong Qigong erupted in laughter. “That kid emperor is only strong enough to eat from a golden rice bowl. If there are two, he wouldn’t be able to pick it up! Southern Emperor is not the Song emperor. No, this Southern Emperor possesses very powerful kung fu. Between the three of us, your father and I were slightly inferior. But the ‘southern fire overcoming the western gold’? Indeed, the ‘Old Poison’, Ouyang Feng, was unable to overcome his star.”
Guo Jing and Huang Rong wanted Hong Qigong to finish his story but the beggar was lost in thought and fell into silence. They didn’t press him. Hong Qigong looked skyward. His eyebrows creased as if he were pondering some sort of difficult problem. He walked back into the inn alone.
Suddenly, Huang Rong and Guo Jing heard the sound of tearing. As Hong Qigong passed through the gate into the inn, a nail got caught on his sleeve and tore a large hole into it. Huang Rong gasped in surprise. But Hong Qigong didn’t notice. He kept walking as if he were in a daze.
“I’ll mend it for you,” Huang Rong said. Huang Rong went to the proprietress of the inn and borrowed a needle and thread. Then she fixed the hole in Hong Qigong’s sleeve.
Hong Qigong shook himself from his reverie when he saw Huang Rong with the needle in her hand. He abruptly snatched the needle and ran out
side the inn’s gate. Curious, Guo Jing and Huang Rong followed, only to see Hong Qigong throw the gleaming needle out. Huang Rong watched the needle arch and pierce a grasshopper. She shouted in delight.
“This will do,” Hong Qigong said, looking satisfied. “This style will do nicely.”
Guo Jing and Huang Rong waited for Hong Qigong to continue.
“Ouyang Feng, the ‘Old Poison’, loves to raise poisonous snakes and poisonous insects,” Hong Qigong said. “Coming up with a way to deal with all those blue snakes is not an easy thing.” He paused before continuing. “When I saw that young Ouyang and found him to be no good, and knowing his uncle who opposes everyone, I realized that you two needed some way to disperse the snakes since I might not always be around to save you.”
Huang Rong clapped her hands. “You would use the needles to pin the snakes to the ground.”
Hong Qigong smiled at Huang Rong. “This girl is so clever,” he said. “You say one sentence, and she already knows the next one.”
“You don’t want to use the yellow herb anymore?” Huang Rong said. “You just spit it out with the wine and the poisonous snakes will refuse to cross it.”
“That will only work for so long,” Hong Qigong said. “I have to practice this stance ‘Blossoms Rain from the Sky’, which uses needles. The snakes will approach in the future, and I will throw out these needles, hitting each snake, one by one. After I get enough needles, I will go and kill all those snakes in about a fortnight.” Both Guo Jing and Huang Rong laughed.
“I’ll go get you your needles,” Huang Rong said, before immediately heading off in the direction of the town market.
Hong Qigong sighed in admiration. “Jing’er, why don’t you have her split her intelligence and cleverness in half and give one half to you?”
“Split in half her intelligence and cleverness?” Guo Jing said. “You can’t split those apart.”
Huang Rong returned from the market around the next meal time. She removed from a food basket two packages of sewing needles, and, smiling, said, “I bought every single needle in town. Tomorrow, all the men are going to get an earful from their women.”
“Why?” Guo Jing said.
“Yelling at them would be useless!” Huang Rong said. “There’s not a single needle left to buy in the town.”
Hong Qigong burst into laughter. “Didn’t you two kids want me to teach you projectile kung fu? Let’s see how hard you can work You two kids won’t get another opportunity to learn from this old man. It turns out this old beggar was smart after all! By not marrying, I’m spared the torment of dealing with women” Laughing, Huang Rong followed him out.
“I don’t want to learn Master Qigong,” Guo Jing said.
“Why?” Hong Qigong said.
“Senior has already taught me so much kung fu that I haven’t practiced enough,” Guo Jing said.
Hong Qigong understood: Guo Jing refused to be greedy. The beggar had said he would no longer teach anymore kung fu to Guo Jing, but the recent emergency situation made teaching more techniques imperative. Nevertheless, if Guo Jing allowed Hong Qigong to teach him again, it would appear to be opportunistic. Nodding, Hong Qigong pulled Huang Rong by the hand and said, “We practice.”
Once alone, Guo Jing went out and practiced the first fifteen palms of the ‘Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms’ and thereby increased his understanding.
Huang Rong studied ‘Blossoms Rain from the Sky’ for ten days. She learned how to throw ten needles and simultaneously hit a person’s vital areas, but could not master hitting the vital points of multiple targets at once.
One day, Hong Qigong and Huang Rong were out practicing with the needles. The beggar threw them all at once. The needles fell to the ground in two groups — each ten feet across. Satisfied, he looked skyward and fell into contemplation. But his thinking was muddled, so he said aloud, “Old Poison, why did you train all those snakes?”
“With his kung fu already at such a powerful state, he can handle almost anyone near him,” Huang Rong said. “So what would the snakes be for?”
Hong Qigong slapped his head. “Of course!” he said. “It’s to deal with the Eastern Heretic and the Southern Emperor. Both the beggars and Quanzhen are numerous in manpower and the Southern Emperor is an actual emperor with many bodyguards and soldiers protecting him. Your father is a cultivated intellectual possessing many strange and powerful skills, which can help him face multiple enemies alone. When the ‘Old Poison’ fights alone, no one in his generation can completely face him. But if his enemy brings a companion and so on, then the ‘Old Poison’ facing them alone is in a terrible position.”
“Therefore, the ‘Old Poison’ raised the snakes to help him,” Huang Rong said.
Hong Qigong sighed. “Us beggars often catch snakes and raise them for food,” he said. “We’ve been able to do this with about seventeen or eighteen snakes. We sometimes even release them into fields at night to catch frogs. But the process isn’t easy at all. Now, the ‘Old Poison’ has actually had the time to catch innumerable numbers of snakes. Rong’er, the ‘Old Poison’ has spent a great deal of time on this, which means he must be planning something.”
“He is certainly planning something,” Huang Rong said. “But luckily for us, his nephew revealed the snakes.”
Hong Qigong slapped his head. “Of course, the Ouyang kid revealed the secret through his frivolousness,” he said. “But what does the ‘Old Poison’ know about what others have? These thousands of snakes could not have come from the western region. They must have been collected from the mountains in the East. Although that Ouyang kid betrayed a part of the plan, he might not have completely revealed the whole scheme in which he plays a part.” “That’s not a good thing,” Huang Rong said. “Luckily, this ‘Blossoms Rain from the Sky’ style prepares us in advance to take care of those snakes when we meet them, as opposed to having to deal with them while fighting with the ‘Old Poison’ himself.”
Hong Qigong hesitated. “But suppose he wraps me up and prevents me from throwing the needles,” he said. “How would I deal with those thousands of snakes?”
Huang Rong thought for a while, “Just run away,” she said.
“Bah!” Hong Qigong said with a smile. “What kind of method is turning around and running
away?”
Suddenly, Huang Rong exclaimed, “I’ve got it! I just thought of a good plan.”
Joyful, Hong Qigong said, “What kind of plan is it?”
“Just keep the two of us by your side,” she said. “Should we meet the ‘Old Poison’, you will fight him and Jing ge ge will deal with his nephew. I will simply use the sewing needles to kill all the snakes. The problem is Jing ge ge doesn’t know three of the strikes from the ‘Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms’ and might not be able to deal with those devious ones.” Hong Qigong stared.
“You are the devious one,” he said. “You just want to trick me into teaching your ‘Jing ge ge’ the last three palms. With regard to Guo Jing’s moral conduct, I would teach him all eighteen palms without any hesitation. But when did this boy become my disciple? He is so dull that if I took him as a disciple, I would be giving people the right to laugh at me!” Huang Rong laughed.
“I’m going to buy some groceries,” she said, knowing that food would make it harder for Hong Qigong to leave.
She went to the market and purchased many different kinds of vegetables and meats while making sure she bought ingredients with sufficiently unique tastes. With the groceries held in her left hand and her right practicing the “Blossoms Rain from the Sky” technique, she leisurely strolled back to the inn. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a bell approaching. In the distance, she saw a lone, female rider dressed in white nearing the inn very quickly. Huang Rong saw it was Yang Tiexin’s daughter, Mu Nianci, whom Guo Jing’s teachers wanted him to marry. Huang Rong’s heart turned sour and, as Mu Nianci got closer, she refused to make a sound. “What’s so good about this girl?” she thought. “Jing ge g
e’s six masters and that ox-nosed priest of the Quanzhen Sect all want him to marry her.” After more thinking, Huang Rong grew angry. “Let me go fight her and relieve some of my frustration,” she thought. But when Huang Rong went to place the groceries in the inn, she found Mu Nianci already sitting at a table.
An anxious-looking innkeeper asked Mu Nianci what she wanted to eat and drink. “Bring me a bowl of noodles and some beef,” Mu Nianci said. The innkeeper quickly left to fill the order.
“How is simple beef any good to eat?” Huang Rong said.
Mu Nianci looked at Huang Rong. At first she couldn’t recognize her, but then she remembered it was the girl who had so suddenly left with Guo Jing. She exhaled. “Little sister is here too?” she said. “Please sit with me.” “Did that smelly scholar, the fat dwarf, or the other ones come too?” Huang Rong said.
“No,” Mu Nianci said. “I came alone. They are all off somewhere together.”
At first Huang Rong feared running into Qiu Chuji, but she felt joy after learning Mu Nianci was there by herself. Blinded at first by the possibility of the Taoist’s presence, Huang Rong now examined Mu Nianci closely and noticed her small boots, dress and her hair entwined with a white flower, signifying that she was in mourning. And though she had lost weight and wore a sad expression, Mu Nianci remained elegantly beautiful as opposed to pitiable. Huang Rong then noticed a dagger worn at Mu Nianci’s waist.
“That is the dagger exchanged by Jing ge ge’s parents with her parents to mark their marriage,” Huang Rong thought. Unable to bear the thought, Huang Rong shouted, “Little sister, may I take a look at that dagger?”
The dagger was indeed the one Bao Xiruo gave away just before dying. It had been recovered after she and Yang Tiexin killed themselves and now served as a keepsake of the two adoptive parents.
Mu Nianci looked at Huang Rong and noticed her strange expression, but before she could do anything, Huang Rong had already reached out, taken hold of the dagger and casually removed it.
