by Jin Yong
While thinking about all these changes he could not restrain from heaving a heavy sigh and saying in his heart, “Playing practical jokes like this is Rong’er and Big Brother Zhou’s greatest delight. It’s a pity that one is nowhere near and the other is already dead. Someday I will see Rong’er again, but I will never be able to tell this story to Big Brother Zhou.”
Early the morning on the next day Hong Qigong called Ouyang Ke and proudly told him, “The Old Beggar’s martial arts are already unique; I don’t need to know the kinds of ‘Nine Yin Manual’ arts. As a matter of fact, even if you hold the manual in front of my face I won’t even cast a glance at it. Only some bird brain whose martial arts are useless would be dying to steal all sorts of gold and silver [play of words here: shen jing - divine scripture, shen jin - pure gold, shen yin - pure silver]. Tell your dog-of-an-uncle that the manual will be written just for him. Tell him to shut himself up and train hard; when he’s done, to come to the Old Beggar to test his newfound skills. The Manual is naturally a good thing, but I don’t even want to give it a single glance. I want to see, if with the Manual’s help, he will be able to defeat the Old Beggar. I want to see, if after he has painstakingly practiced the martial arts from the manual, whether he’ll even be equal to [ban jin ba liang] the Old Beggar? I’d say he’s just taking off his pants to fart; it’s totally useless!”
Ouyang Feng was actually standing behind his cabin door, so he heard everything, but he was delighted instead of getting angry. “It’s a very good thing the Old Beggar is so proud that he doesn’t mind letting me have the manual,” he thought, “Otherwise, even if I fought him, threatened him with snakes or poison, or starved him to death, it would still be difficult to force him.”
“Uncle Hong, you are wrong!” Ouyang Ke said, “My Uncle’s martial arts have reached perfection. With Uncle Hong’s ability, you could not gain even half a move advantage; so why would Uncle want to learn the ‘Nine Yin Manual’? My Uncle once told little nephew that he is convinced the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ has enjoyed an undeserved reputation. Otherwise, when Wang Chongyang won the book, why didn’t he learn anything from it and demonstrate it in front of everybody? My Uncle wants to take a look at it to point out the errors and prove that the manual is actually a hoax. Wouldn’t you say that it will benefit the Wulin world tremendously?”
Hong Qigong burst out in laughter, “You are foolishly blowing your horn too hard!” he mocked. “Jing’er, go ahead and write the manual from your memory. If the Old Poison can point out any errors in the ‘Nine Yin Manual’, the Old Beggar will kowtow to him.”
Guo Jing agreed and went out. Ouyang Ke led him to the big cabin where there was a stack of paper, some ink sticks and a brush; he’d even prepared the ink himself and respectfully waited at one side.
Guo Jing’s had not had much schooling and his handwriting was shoddy; he often had to think about the characters he had to write so he worked very slowly. More than once he did not know how to write a certain character, so he had to ask Ouyang Ke to write it for him. Working until noon that day he’d barely finished the first half of the first volume.
Ouyang Feng did not show himself at all, but every time Guo Jing finished writing a page Ouyang Ke would take that page and give it to his uncle. Ouyang Feng looked at them carefully. Some sentences did not make any sense to him, but even though sloppy, the characters were clear. He thought those sentences must have very deep meanings behind them; when he returns to the west he will then slowly digest the manual. He believed that with his intelligence and ability he would eventually understand the manual thoroughly. After a dozen years or so he would master all of the martial arts in the manual. He could not help but feel elated. He knew Guo Jing was dumb, he also noticed Guo Jing’s handwriting was plain and simple, almost child-like. He believed that a person like him would not be able to fabricate a complex manual such as this one. Besides, his nephew had told him that for many characters Guo Jing knew the sounds, but did not know how to write them, so his nephew had to teach him or write the characters himself. This was the real manual without a doubt. How could he know that this dumb kid had conspired with his master to deliberately alter the manual to deceive him? As for the confusing sentences, he blamed that on Guo Jing’s inability to remember the text correctly.
Guo Jing did not stop writing even though the sky had turned dark and he’d finished more than half of the second volume. Ouyang Feng did not allow him to return to his cabin for fear that Hong Qigong would convince him to change his mind and make things difficult for him. Even though he already had most of the manual in his hands, he wanted the complete manual. Therefore he arranged for a sumptuous meal and wine to be brought to Guo Jing and let Guo Jing continue to write without interruption.
Hong Qigong waited until about the end of the eleventh hour or early twelfth hour [about 9 pm] but Guo Jing did not come back. He felt queasy and afraid that Ouyang Feng had discovered their scheme and his dumb disciple might suffer the worst. He snuck out of his cabin and quietly walked towards the main cabin. There were two snake herders standing guard in front of the main cabin. Hong Qigong sent his left palm forward creating a gust of wind making the sail ropes move. The two snake herders heard the noise and looked around while Hong Qigong moved to the right. His movement was so quick that the two did not see a thing; they thought it was a ghost or something. Very soon Hong Qigong was at the starboard side of the main cabin.
Hong Qigong could see a faint glow coming out of the main cabin’s window. He took a peek inside and saw Guo Jing still crouched at the desk, writing. Two white-clothed maidens stood beside him, keeping busy serving tea or lighting incense or replenishing the paper or preparing more ink. Guo Jing was well taken care of. Hong Qigong was relieved. Then his nostrils caught the scent of the wine. He fixed his gaze on it and saw in front of Guo Jing a cup of amber brown aged wine, almost rouge in color; the sweet fragrance assailed his nose mercilessly.
Hong Qigong cursed inside, “The Old Poison is very stingy; because my disciple writes for him he serves him the best wine, but to the Old Beggar he only serves a very average cheap wine.” He was the world’s number one glutton and wine connoisseur; seeing his disciple with this excellent wine, how could he restrain himself from wanting some of it? “The Old Poison must store the good wine in the boat’s hold; I am going to drink to his happiness, then replace the wine with my urine. Let him taste the Old Beggar’s own vintage urine wine. Compared to what the Old Beggar and his disciple went through with the sharks, the Old Poison drinking some urine in his wine won’t be too bad. At least he won’t die because of it.”
Having had this thought he could not help but smile; stealing wine and food was the skill he’s most proud of. He once spent three whole months inside the Imperial Palace in Lin’an; he hid on a beam in the Imperial kitchen and tasted practically every single dish or wine that was to be served to the emperor. The Imperial Palace was heavily guarded, yet he was able to come and go like there were no other people there. Stealing food and wine from a boat’s kitchen certainly would not give him any trouble.
He looked for the stairs that would lead him below and, after making sure nobody was watching, he carefully went down, relying on his nose to find where the food supply was. Even though the hold was pitch black, Hong Qigong’s nose was able to smell food from a mile away. He slowly walked along the wall, lit a torch and saw six or seven wooden barrels piled up in the corner. Hong Qigong was delighted; he extinguished the torch after picking up a broken bowl he found laying around and put it in his pocket. He groped around towards the barrels and tried to lift one. The barrel was very heavy; it could contain anything.
With his left hand he found the plug, while his right hand placed the bowl under it. He was about to pull the plug when his sensitive ears suddenly heard footsteps. It seemed like there were two people walking towards the hold. Their steps were very light, so Hong Qigong knew it was Ouyang Feng and his nephew since nobody else on board had that kind of ability. He
thought if those two came to the hold late at night, they must have some evil intentions, like poisoning the food to harm others. He shrank his body and hid curled up among the barrels. He heard the door open quietly, a flame flared, and two people walked in; they stopped right in front of the barrels. Hong Qigong’s heart skipped a beat, “Are they going to poison the wine?” he wondered inside; but what he heard next turned his heart cold.
“Have you placed oil, firewood and sulfur in each cabin?” he heard Ouyang Feng ask.
Ouyang Ke laughed, “Everything is ready; as soon as we start the fire this boat will turn into ashes and the stinky Beggar will be scorched to death instantly.”
“They are going to burn the boat?” Hong Qigong was shocked.
“We must wait a little bit longer,” Ouyang Feng said, “As soon as that kid named Guo falls asleep you go to the life boat; just be really careful not to wake the Old Beggar up. I’ll come here and light the fire.” “What are we going to do with the maidservants and the snake herders?” Ouyang Ke asked.
“The stinky Beggar is a great master of this age; it’s worthy of his reputation to sacrifice some people to accompany him in death,” Ouyang Feng said coldly.
While they talked their hands were not idle; they unplugged a barrel and the smell of oil reached Hong Qigong’s nose. It turned out the barrels were full of vegetable oil. Ouyang Feng and his nephew also took some sulfur from a stack of wooden boxes, some firewood and sacks of wood shavings from the shelves, then scattered them on the floor.
Not too long afterwards they’d finished their job and turned around to go when Ouyang Ke laughed and said, “Uncle, in less than twelve hours that Guo kid will be buried at sea and the only person who knows the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ will be you.”
“No, there will be two. Won’t I pass it on to you?” Ouyang Feng replied. Ouyang Ke was delighted; he closed the door with the back of his hand.
Hong Qigong was furious and shocked at the same time, he thought, “If there was no ghost or spirit urging me to steal some wine how would I have found out about the two’s treacherous plan? When the boat suddenly caught fire, how would I’ve escaped the disaster?” When he could not hear the footsteps of those two anymore, he carefully snuck out and went back to his own cabin. Guo Jing had already come back and was sleeping soundly on the bed. He was about to wake him and discuss what they were going to do when there was a slight rustling noise outside the door. He knew it must be Ouyang Feng checking to see if they were sound asleep, so he pretended to talk in his sleep, “Good wine! Good wine! I want ten more pots!”
Ouyang Feng was startled, at first thinking the Old Beggar was still awake, drinking wine; but then Hong Qigong called out loudly again, “Old Poison, let us fight for another thousand stances . (giggling) ... Good boy! That was awesome!” Standing outside the door Ouyang Feng listened to him speaking nonsense. He was confused for a while, then realized that Hong Qigong was talking in his sleep. “The stinky Beggar’s death is imminent, yet he still drinks and fights in his dreams,” he thought.
As Hong Qigong’s mouth talked nonsense, his ears listened attentively. Ouyang Feng’s lightness kungfu was superb, but Hong Qigong was still able to hear him walking towards the port side of the boat. Hong Qigong put his mouth on Guo Jing’s ear and lightly shook his shoulder, “Jing’er!” he whispered.
“Mmm!” Guo Jing mumbled as he awoke.
“Just follow my lead and don’t ask any questions,” Hong Qigong said urgently, “Get out quietly and make sure nobody’s watching you.”
Guo Jing rolled over and crawled quietly towards the door. Hong Qigong silently opened the door and, tugging Guo Jing’s sleeve, they moved towards the starboard side. He was afraid they would be detected by Ouyang Feng, so instead of jumping he climbed over the rail. With his left hand holding onto the rail his right hand pulled Guo Jing along; both of them hung outside the boat. Guo Jing thought it was strange, but did not dare to make any sounds. Hong Qigong slowly released his hands from the rail and quietly crawled downwards keeping his eyes on Guo Jing fearing that the boat was too slippery for him. Should he fall, he would surely make noise.
The boat was smoothly painted, plus, it was wet and they were going downwards to where the boat sloped towards the water. The boat was moving in waves making the boat rock, so climbing down was not an easy matter. Luckily Guo Jing had been trained by Ma Yu to go up and down the cliff everyday on the Steppe; plus, his skills had been improved tremendously this past year or so. He would stick his fingers in between the wooden planks or grab the head of a nail or find a crack somewhere and slowly but steadily moved down.
Half of Hong Qigong’s body was already in the water. He moved towards the stern with Guo Jing following close behind. His target was the small life boat tied on a rope behind the boat. “Get on that boat!” he told Guo Jing. He loosened his grip and released his body from the big boat.
The big boat was traveling quite fast, so only a second later Hong Qigong grabbed the edge of the small boat. Swinging with his hands his body somersaulted and landed in the small boat without making a sound. After Guo Jing followed his example he quietly said, “Cut the rope.” Guo Jing took out his dagger and a moment later the small boat was floating free on the ocean waves. Hong Qigong pulled the oars to get them some distance from the big boat. A moment later the big boat disappeared into the darkness.
Suddenly flames were seen on the big boat’s stern coming from the torch in Ouyang Feng’s hand. Ouyang Feng could be heard shouting in alarm because the small life boat was nowhere to be seen. He sounded shocked, angry and afraid at the same time. Hong Qigong concentrated his ‘qi’ in the ‘dan tian’ region and let out a long laugh.
Out of nowhere another boat appeared, heading rapidly towards the starboard side of the big boat. Hong Qigong wondered, “Uh, whose boat is that?” Before he finished speaking a pair of white eagles came down from the sky, circling the big boat’s main sail. Someone dressed in white could be seen leaving the incoming boat and leaping towards the big boat. In the bright starlight one could see the glimmer of a golden hair band on her head. “Rong’er!” Guo Jing gasped.
The person leaping onto the big boat was indeed Huang Rong. Just before leaving Peach Blossom Island she saw the little red horse galloping from the forest, she thought, “This little red horse is useless on the sea, but those two eagles would actually be able to help me find Jing ge ge.” So she whistled loudly to call the white eagles to her.
Eagles’ eyes are sharp and they can fly extremely fast. On this boundless sea they unexpectedly found Guo Jing on the big boat. Huang Rong was alarmed, but also pleasantly surprised to find the ‘in danger’ message Guo Jing had tied on the eagles’ leg; she immediately let the eagles soar in the sky and steered the boat to follow them. Eventually her boat caught up with the big boat, but she was a little bit too late, Hong Qigong and Guo Jing had already left the big boat.
Huang Rong had not forgotten the ‘in danger’ message she got earlier and she was afraid she might be too late; as soon as the eagles circled above this boat, she ordered her crew to sail alongside. As soon as the distance was manageable she leaped onto the big boat with a butterfly steel projectile in her hand, only to see Ouyang Ke pacing around nervously, like an ant on a hot pot.
“Where is Guo Jing?” Huang Rong shouted, “What did you do to him?”
Ouyang Feng had lit the fire in the hold and was planning to escape using the small life boat when he suddenly saw the boat was gone. Perspiration ran down his forehead like beads or pearls when he heard Hong Qigong’s loud and long laugh. He silently cursed his own stupidity because instead of
Eagle Shooting Hero 605 harming others he was harming himself; of course he was very anxious. Then Huang Rong suddenly arrived on a boat and he rushed to grab this opportunity, “Quickly seize that boat!” he shouted.
The crew of Huang Rong’s boat was deaf mute servants from the island. As long as Huang Rong was on board, they followed her commands out of fea
r; as soon as Huang Rong left the boat, they immediately turned the boat around, hoisted the sail and escaped as fast as they could.
Not long after Hong Qigong and Guo Jing saw Huang Rong jump onto the big boat, the fire in the hold was starting to reach the deck. Guo Jing, unaware of what had happened, called out in alarm, “Fire.fire!”
“That’s right,” Hong Qigong said, “The Old Poison set the boat on fire to burn the two of us to death.”
Guo Jing had a blank expression on his face as he excitedly said, “We must save Rong’er!”
“Let’s go back to the boat!” Hong Qigong said. With all his might Guo Jing pulled the oars. The big boat had also changed its direction to approach the small life boat. The deck was full of male snake herders and female maidservants running around frantically, shouting for help. Hong Qigong had to raise his voice to be heard, “Rong’er! Jing’er and I are here! Swim over quickly!”
On the sea the mighty waves rolled, the night was dark, so it was a very dangerous time to swim. But Hong Qigong knew Huang Rong’s water skills were excellent and it was also a critical moment, so he was compelled to take this risk.
When Huang Rong heard her master’s voice, she was delighted. No longer paying attention to Ouyang Feng and his nephew she rushed to the boat’s side and jumped into the water below. Suddenly she felt something was holding her back. Huang Rong turned her head in great surprise to see her right wrist in Ouyang Feng’s hand. “Let me go!” she shouted, sending her left fist toward Ouyang Feng’s face; the result was, both of her wrists were in Ouyang Feng’s hands.
