by Jin Yong
Liang Ziwong said “Please enlighten us Honored Prince.”
Wanyan Honglie sighed “The year Yue Fei defeated us and had us in his grasp, there was no one who did not know it, but who would dare say it out loud? Our Jin Generals knew how to lead soldiers, but when they encountered Yue Fei they were always defeated. Even after Qin Gui ordered Yue Fei's execution, our soldiers were still demoralized by their earlier defeats so that they lacked the willpower to act further against the Southern Song. Although this humble prince has the ambition to act, he lacks the abilities to succeed. If my guests, with their god-like skills, were to help with this enterprise, then there is no way that we cannot succeed and earn great merit.”
The guests looked at each other without fully understanding exactly what he meant. Each thought: “Charging enemies and fighting valiantly, taking cities and seizing territory. these are not my strengths. Could it be that he wants us to assassinate some Southern Song generals?
Wanyan Honglie’s face showed self importance [de yi]. His voice trembled slightly, “A couple of months ago, this humble prince was looking through some old files in the palace when I stumbled across a letter left behind by the former emperor. It was actually a few lines written by Yue Fei, the phrasing of which was most peculiar. I puzzled over this for a few months until at long last I figured out its hidden meaning. It turns out that when Yue Fei was languishing in prison he realized that he had no hope of leaving with his life. His loyalty towards his country was so great that he wrote down his entire life's learning regarding battle tactics and other secret military arts in this letter in the hope that it could be passed on to other loyal countrymen who could use them in defending China against the Jin invaders. Luckily Qin Gui was very clever and feared that Yue Fei would try to communicate with people outside of the prison, so he was very careful to prepare against such an event. Every guard assigned to watch over Yue Fei was personally selected by Qin Gui and was known to be completely trustworthy and loyal to him (Qin Gui). If the soldiers formerly under Yue Fei were to get word from Yue Fei and rise up in rebellion against the court, who could stop them? At that time, the only reason that there was not such a rebellion was entirely due to Yue Fei not being willing to rebel against his emperor. Had he changed his mind and decided to do so he would have certainly succeeded. What Qin Gui did not know though was that Yue Fei didn't have any desire to save his own life, only to save the ‘rivers and mountains’ [jiang shan...literally the country] of the Song Empire. Fortunately this letter never left the palace even after his execution.” Everyone was listening intently to this story, so intently that they forgot to drink their wine. Huang Rong, hanging outside the window, was also listening mesmerized.
Wanyan Honglie continued: “Yue Fei had no alternative but to secrete his military manual in his clothing. Then he wrote four poems entitled ‘Buddhist Barbarian’ [Pu Sa Man], ‘Shameful Slave’ [chou nu er], ‘Congratulating the Imperial Court Sage’ [He Sheng Zhao], and ‘Level Heaven
Music’ [Qi Tian Yue]. Each piece of writing appeared to be nonsense. The style did not follow the proper rules and the tonal sequences were all wrong. The sentences were jumbled to the point of incoherence. Qin Gui, who was said to have wisdom and talent the size of the oceans, was not able to figure out what hidden meanings lay in these pieces, so he dispatched some men with these letters to the Jin. Many years later these four pieces of nonsense writing found their way into the secret files of the Jin palace. No one was able to comprehend the meaning of these letters. Everyone thought that Yue Fei, who was near execution at the time he wrote these letters, was venting to his anger and frustrations by writing such disjointed and senseless verse. Nobody guessed that the apparent nonsense verse was in fact a riddle hiding a very great secret!”
“This humble prince though continued to work on these letters until I finally discovered their secret. It turned out, that if you took every third word in a piece and put them together, and then reversed the order, a hidden message was revealed. In these four letters Yue Fei instructed his successors in the arts of military strategy and to continuously attack along the Yellow River and wipe out our Jin armies. In spite of his diligent work for his emperor, it turned out to be in vain. Ha...ha!” The guests gasped in surprise, then, one after another, began praising Wanyan Honglie's intelligence for cracking such a difficult code.
Wanyan Honglie said “Yue Fei's military abilities were unparalleled; when he attacked there was no one more formidable or successful. Imagine if we were to have his book of secret military strategies, then the whole empire would be ours for the taking!"
Wanyan Honglie went on “This humble prince thinks that this great book must be with Yue Fei in his tomb.” At this point he paused. Everyone suddenly realized what was being asked: “Prince Zhao invited us here to do a bit of grave robbing!”
He continued, “Honored Guests, you are all brave heroes and by now you must be wondering how I could be asking you to rob a tomb? Although Yue Fei was the Jin's sworn enemy, his spirit and loyalty is something that is world renowned; we can't possibly disturb his resting place. This humble prince searched through the historical reports by spies of the Southern Song to look for further clues. It turned out that the day Yue Fei died he was buried beside the Zhongan Bridge. Later, Emperor Xiao Zong moved his body to Lin’an’s West Lake [Xi Hu] to a temple he had built for him. His clothing and other personal belongings were placed somewhere else and this must be where his book is. This other place is also in Lin’an.” As he spoke this last sentence he watched his guests intently. Everyone was waiting for him to reveal the exact location of the book.
However, Wanyan Honglie suddenly changed the topic: “This humble prince had another thought; since someone moved Yue Fei’s belongings, I feared that the book must have been taken by them as well. After some very detailed research I now know that this could not be possible. The people of Song venerate Yue Fei so much that they would not have dared interfere with his belongings. We are certain to find the book at this place. However, in the south there are many martial people of high abilities. If we are to succeed we cannot allow the slightest word of this to get out or else some of them may try to search for the book themselves. That would cause no end of trouble! This task concerns the fate of two nations and it is not something I would lightly undertake unless I had the help of the greatest heroes of the Wulin world.” Everyone nodded their heads.
Wanyan Honglie then said, “The location of this book is no small matter and is indeed difficult to speak of; but in the presence of people of such great ability it is easier to speak. The location of the book is...” At this point the door to the hall was suddenly pushed open and a man rushed in, his face swollen and pale. He rushed forward to Liang Ziwong and called out, “Master...” everyone recognized him as the dwarf dressed in green that Liang Ziwong had sent to fetch the medicines.
o0o
When Guo Jing went with the caretaker and dwarf to fetch the medicine, he used his left hand to support the caretaker and help him walk, but also to ensure the caretaker would not try to warn the dwarf in any way about Guo Jing. The three of them went through a long corridor and past some rooms before arriving at Liang Ziwong’s storeroom. The dwarf lit a candle, opened the door and entered.
Guo Jing stood close to the room where he smelled the pungent scent of various medicinal herbs. He also saw that a table, couch, floor and everywhere else was covered with all types of dried herbs. There were bottles, big and small, jars, bowls, vats and so forth. It seems that even though Liang Ziwong was a guest here, he still couldn't help but play around with different medicinal herbs trying to concoct different drugs. The dwarf seemed to be well versed in the nature of herbs as well and he quickly selected portions of four different herbs and wrapped them up in separate packets of white paper which he gave to the caretaker.
Guo Jing reached out and took the packets before turning and leaving the room. Now that he had the medicine in his hands, he didn't pay any more attention to t
he caretaker. Unfortunately for him, the caretaker was a slippery fellow. When Guo Jing and the dwarf left, he deliberately hung back, waiting until they were past the door. Then he suddenly slammed the door shut, grabbed the door bolt and locked the door, shouting “Robber, Thief!” Shocked, Guo Jing immediately turned to try and push open the door only to find that it wouldn't budge, the door stood firm. The dwarf, although he was small, was by no means slow witted. He immediately sized up the situation and took advantage of Guo Jing's distraction. He quickly snatched the four medicine packets out of his hand and threw them into the pond beside the room. Guo Jing tried to hit the dwarf with his fists, but the dwarf was too quick and managed to slip away.
Guo Jing, even more frantic and angry, placed both his palms against the door and used his internal energy to break it open. There was a loud crack as the door bolt snapped and the door flew open. Guo Jing rushed in and silenced the caretaker immediately by smashing the caretaker’s jaw with one swing of his fist. Luckily for Guo Jing, Liang Ziwong did not like to be disturbed, so his room was located in an out of the way place in the palace compound. Being far from other buildings, the caretaker’s screams had not alerted anyone. He rushed back out of the room and saw that the dwarf was already a long way off. Guo Jing sprinted after him and in no time at all caught up with the dwarf and grabbed him by the neck. The dwarf, when he heard Guo Jing behind him, tried to use his leg to sweep Guo Jing off his feet. The dwarf was no stranger to fighting, having encountered many rough types in his travels with Liang Ziwong, so his skills were not weak. Guo Jing knew that he was in danger of not only failing to get the medicine for Wang Chuyi, but also, if the alarm was raised, Huang Rong would be in mortal danger if she was caught. Since there was no time to lose he made use of his most vicious moves such as the ‘Disconnect the Muscles and Separate the Bones’ move taught him by one of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan.
Guo Jing soon had the dwarf unconscious and he hastily hid him in some bushes beside the path. He then hurried back to the medicine store room and lit a candle which revealed the caretaker still lying unconscious on the floor.
Guo Jing cursed himself silently for being so careless. “Which four jars did the dwarf select the medicine from? I wasn't paying attention and now I have no idea of which herbs he used.” All the jars were marked with strange signs but no words. He thought hard: “I remember he was standing here so maybe I should just grab a little from each jar around here and bring them all back to Wang Chuyi to select from.” He hurriedly snatched a pile of paper and began grabbing a handful of each type of herb/medicines which he then wrapped up into several packets all the while worried that someone had heard the caretaker’s shouts earlier.
As soon as he had packed up all the medicines he felt much relieved. As he turned to leave, his elbow accidentally knocked over a large bamboo basket which fell onto its side. As soon as the lid came off there was a sudden hiss and a huge blood red snake shot out of the basket straight towards his face.
Guo Jing was startled and jumped back. He saw the snake was still partly coiled in the basket so he wasn't sure how long it was. Its head waved back and forth as its forked tongue flickered at him. Mongolia has a cold climate and all the snakes that he had seen there were small. This blood red snake certainly didn't look like any snake he’d seen before. He felt terrified as he slowly stepped back until he bumped into the table knocking the candle over. In an instant the candle went out and the room was plunged into total darkness.
With the medicine in hand he quickly rushed towards the door. Just as he reached it he felt something loop around his leg as if someone was wrapping a thick rope around it very tightly. Without time to think he tried to jump up. However the thing wouldn't let go and then he felt a cold sensation on his right arm and found that he could no longer move it.
Guo Jing knew that the snake had wrapped around him so he used his left arm to feel around his waste for the knife that Temujin had given him long ago. The sudden stench of a pungent medicine like smell assailed his nostrils and he felt something cold on his face. It was the snake's tongue flicking on his cheek. By then there was no time to find his knife so he grabbed the snake firmly by its neck. The snake was incredibly powerful and began to squeeze tighter and its head moved closer to his face...
Guo Jing tried to hold the snake back but his arm was becoming numb and it became difficult to breathe as the snake tightened its grip around his chest. When he tried to use his internal energy to loosen the snake’s grip it did give him slight relief, before the snake resumed its crushing grip. Guo Jing's left arm was beginning to lose strength. The stench of the snake’s breath was unbearable and made him feel nauseous. He knew that he would not be able to hold off the snake for much longer. Eventually he might lose consciousness, loosen his grip, and then the snake would finish him.
o0o
When the dwarf, knocked unconscious by Guo Jing, eventually came around his first thought was, “Where is that guy?” He looked over to his masters store room but saw it was dark and silent. He assumed Guo Jing had already fled. He rushed back towards the ‘Fragrant Snow Hall’ to report to his master Liang Ziwong.
Huang Rong was shocked when she heard the dwarf’s report. She executed the move ‘Goose Lands on Flat Sand’ to quietly drop to the ground. When the guests in the hall were listening to Wanyan Honglie's story no one paid any attention to what was going outside. However, as soon as they were interrupted by the dwarf's news this was no longer the case. In a room full of people with high martial arts abilities who were no longer distracted, would any of them fail to notice Huang Rong's almost silent move outside? Liang Ziwong was the first to move. In a flash he was outside and standing in front of Huang Rong, blocking her path. “Who are you?” he demanded.
Huang Rong could see by the way Liang Ziwong moved that his ability exceeded hers. Considering that there was a room full of highly skilled martial artists this was no time to start a fight, so she simply smiled and said sweetly, “This plum tree has such beautiful blossoms, could you please break a twig off for me?”
Liang Ziwong didn't expect to see such a beautiful young woman standing outside dressed in splendid clothing. When he heard her delicate laugh, ‘like pearls tinkling on jade’, he couldn't help being surprised. He thought that she must be a palace lady, possibly the lady Qian Jin, so he immediately broke off a twig of plum blossoms to give to her.
Huang Rong smiled and received the blossoms saying “Thank you kind sir.”
By this time, the rest of the guests were standing by the door watching the proceedings. Peng Lianhu turned to Wanyan Honglie and asked, “Sire, is this lady from the palace?” Wanyan Honglie shook his head and said, “No.”
Peng Lianhu went over and stood in front of Huang Rong blocking her way, saying, “Please wait for a moment lady. Let me also break off some blossoms for you.” His right hand moved to execute a holding lock, grabbing her wrist, extending his five fingers towards her side, then suddenly flipping his hand into a claw and striking at her throat!
Huang Rong initially intended to pretend to be a simple lady with no martial abilities and not that bright so as to play for time and find a way to escape. She didn't expect that Peng Lianhu not only had great martial abilities but that he was very sharp and saw right through her deception. His blow was so strong that she had no alternative but to dodge, raise her right hand in a sweep, thumb touching index finger, the remaining fingers outstretched, like an orchid shooting out. Her execution of this move was not only of the highest skill but also exquisitely beautiful.
Peng Lianhu knew that if she landed her strike on his ‘Corner Pool’ accupoint then his whole arm would become numb and useless, so he was suddenly forced to change his strike to avoid her counter strike. He was shocked that not only did this very young lady have outstanding skills and speed, but she also knew accupoint kung fu. Although he had seen many types of kung fu in his time, he had never seen this ‘Orchid Touch’ accupoint style before.
The �
��Orchid’ style relies upon speed, accuracy, surprise and purity. Of these, purity was the most important. It requires graceful execution and an easy, relaxed manner to execute properly, as if the person using it had not a care in the world. If it was executed with too much urgency or viciousness then it would lose its advantage in a fight.
As Huang Rong executed the ‘Orchid’ style everyone else watched in astonishment. Peng Lianhu laughed, “Little girl, what is your good name please? Who is your honorable master?”
Huang Rong smiled and replied, “This sprig of plum blossoms is quite pretty is it not? I must go and put it into a vase!” She didn't answer Peng Lianhu at all. Everyone else looked at her suspiciously wondering where on earth she came from.
252 Eagle Shooting Hero
Hou Tonghai said sternly, “Elder Peng asked your name. What's the matter, didn't you hear?”
Huang Rong asked innocently, “He asked something?”
Peng Lianhu had actually seen Huang Rong earlier in the day, in disguise, making fun of Hou Tonghai; seeing her here now, acting so impertinently, he suddenly thought, “That filthy beggar boy was actually you in disguise!” Suppressing a laugh he said, “Old Hou, don't you recognize who that girl is?”
Hou Tonghai was shocked. He looked Huang Rong over a couple of times while Peng Lianhu said, “You were chasing someone around in circles all day today, how could you forget?”
Hou Tonghai looked blankly at Huang Rong until at last he recognized her, “Yeah, that filthy boy!” When he was chasing Huang Rong, he never stopped cursing her as ‘Filthy boy’. Even though ‘he’ had now become a ‘she’ he couldn’t help but curse her as before. He raised both fists and charged at her only to grab air as Huang Rong deftly dodged aside.
The ‘Dragon King of the Demonic Group’ Sha Tongtian's body became a blur as he moved forward and clasped Huang Rong’s right wrist calling out “Where are you running to?”
