by Jin Yong
Guo Jing knew that if he forced himself to exert more strength, not only would it still be difficult to accomplish his task, but he would suffer internal injuries as well. On this desolate island there was no saber or hatchet.how would he be able to chop down more trees? He noticed that out of the hundred logs needed he was still about eighty logs short and his legs were about ready to give out. He thought aloud, “His nephews legs are crushed. he must hate me to my guts. Even if I manage to give him a hundred logs tonight, tomorrow night he will require a thousand. When will it end? We can’t fight him and on this desolate island there’s nobody to help us.” Having thought about this he heaved a long sigh, “Here we are stuck on this island.. .who in the world would come to rescue us? Benevolent master Hong has lost his martial arts and whether he will live or die is difficult to tell. Rong’er’s father despises me. All of the Quanzhen Seven Masters and my six benevolent masters are not the Western Poison’s match. If only ... if only my sworn brother Zhou Botong was here ... but he killed himself by jumping into the sea earlier.” As soon as Zhou Botong came into his mind, he hated Ouyang Feng even more. He thought of that old sworn brother of his, who was skilled in the ‘Nine Yin Manual’, who had created the ‘Mutual Hands Combat technique’, and was forced to his death by Ouyang Feng.
“Ah.the ‘Nine Yin Manual!’.the ‘Mutual Hands Combat technique’!” These words flashed through his mind like seeing a bright star on the horizon on a dark and endless night. “My martial arts may not be enough to fight the Western Poison, but the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ contains the most wonderful secrets of the martial arts world and the ‘Mutual Hands Combat technique’ will double my skills. If Rong’er and I train hard day and night, then we can fight the Old Poison with everything we have. Regardless of which martial arts we use, we will still need to fight him for a whole day and night; how can that be good?”
He stood in the forest thinking deeply and suddenly thought, “Why don’t I ask Master? His martial arts might be gone, but his knowledge is not; he should be able to give me clear directions.” He went back to the tree right away and explained to Hong Qigong every single one of his thoughts.
“Recite the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ slowly for me to hear,” Hong Qigong suggested, “Let’s see if there is a marvelous martial art you can learn in a short period of time. Guo Jing immediately recited the manual sentence by sentence. When Hong Qigong heard Guo Jing reciting, ‘One knows that by sitting down and pondering deeply one can accomplish virtue; but to unknowingly attain excellence one requires flexibility, as well as clear and bright understanding. The body is cultivated two-fold; namely movement and stillness. When being attacked, stay still.’ He suddenly stood up, “Ah!” he exclaimed.
“What is it?” Guo Jing worriedly asked. Hong Qigong did not answer. He thought those sentences over for a while and then said, “Repeat the last part you were reciting a moment ago.”
Guo Jing was delighted and thought, “Master must have found some method to fight the Old Poison in the last part.” Right away he slowly recited those sentences.
Hong Qigong nodded his head and said, “That’s true. Carry on.” Guo Jing continued reciting the manual from memory. Towards the end he recited, “Mo han si ge er, pin te huo ji en, jin qie hu si, ge shan ni ke .”
Hong Qigong was baffled, “What are you saying?”
Guo Jing answered, “Big Brother Zhou told me to memorize those sentences.”
Hong Qigong frowned, “What do they mean?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Guo Jing replied, “Big Brother Zhou himself did not understand them.”
“Carry on, then,” Hong Qigong said.
Guo Jing continued, “Bie er fa si, ge luo wu li .” until he came to the end, reciting all kinds of these tongue-twisting sentences.
“Hmm,” Hong Qigong said, “It seems the manual also contains some incantations to catch ghosts.” He wanted to add, “Crafty priest, fooling people with cheap tricks,” but remembered that the manual contained an extensive profound mystery. This mumbo-jumbo must have a deep meaning and for the time being, he simply did not understand it. As the words were about to leave his lips, he swallowed them back. After a long while Hong Qigong shook his head, “Jing’er,” he said, “There are many marvelous martial arts in the manual, but none of them can be mastered in one day and night.”
Guo Jing was disappointed. Hong Qigong continued, “Quickly, go and build a raft with those twenty logs, then go away as far as you can. Rong’er and I will stay here and devise a plan to deal with the Old Poison.”
“No,” Guo Jing quickly said, “How can I leave you, Senior?”
Hong Qigong sighed, “The Western Poison is afraid of the Old Heretic Huang, he won’t harm Rong’er. In any case the Old Beggar is an invalid. Go quickly!”
Guo Jing was struck with grief and indignation; he raised his hand and struck the tree trunk with his palm.
This strike was extremely heavy and the sound echoed from the mountain and valley. Hong Qigong was startled and quickly asked, “Jing’er, the palm you launched.. .what technique did you use?” “Why?” Guo Jing was perplexed.
“You hit very hard, but the trunk did not even shake,” Hong Qigong said.
Guo Jing was very embarrassed, “I used up all my strength striking down trees and my hands are very sore; I don’t have any more strength left,” he said.
“No, no,” Hong Qigong shook his head, “Your palm technique was a little strange. Strike again!”
Raising his hand he struck the tree with his palm. The sound shook the forest, but the tree did not budge. Suddenly it dawned on him. “That was from the seventy-two stance ‘Vacant Fist’ Big Brother Zhou taught your disciple.”
“’Vacant Fist’.I have never heard of it,” Hong Qigong mused.
“That’s right,” Guo Jing said, “Big Brother Zhou was held prisoner on Peach Blossom Island. He had nothing to do, so he invented this technique. He taught me the sixteen-character secret of the technique: ‘empty and hazy like a loose cave, the wind blows carrying a dream, playing around with power or exhaustion, a child can use a worm as a weapon’ [kong meng dong song, feng tong rong meng, chong qiong zhong nong, tong yong gong chong]”
Hong Qigong laughed, “What kind of empty hole?” he asked. [Play on words here, Hong Qigong said ‘tong nong ku long’ which rhymes with whatever Guo Jing was saying. I can’t translate it properly.]
Guo Jing explained, “Each one of those sixteen characters has its own meaning. The word ‘song’ [loose] means the fist must be devoid of strength; ‘chong’ [worm] means the body must be flexible like a worm; ‘meng’ [hazy] means the fist movement must be obscure, must not be too clear. Disciple will play it out for you to watch, tell me what you think?”
“The night is so dark and I can’t see anything,” Hong Qigong said, “Why don’t you explain it to me? This is an excellent martial art; I don’t have to see it in order to understand it.”
Guo Jing explained from the first stance, ‘Empty Bowl Filled with Rice’ [kong wan cheng fan], to the second stance, ‘Empty House Occupied with People’ [kong wu zhu ren], and all variations therein, including how to send out the force, to Hong Qigong.
By nature Zhou Botong was mischievous, so he gave each and every stance a funny name. Hong Qigong had only heard up to the eighteenth stance and his heart was already filled with admiration. He cut Guo Jing off, “You don’t need to continue, I have found a way to fight the Western Poison.”
“With the ‘Vacant Fist’?” Guo Jing asked, “I am afraid the disciple’s skill is insufficient.”
“I know that,” Hong Qigong said, “But we are in a desperate situation; we have to take a risk. Do you still have the dagger Qiu Chuji gave to you?” A cold light flashed in the dark night as Guo Jing took out his dagger. Hong Qigong said, “With the ‘Vacant Fist technique’, use this dagger to cut down some trees.” Guo Jing held his dagger by the hilt, the thin blade was only about one foot long. He was doubtful but did not say anything
.
Hong Qigong said, “The ‘Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms’ I passed on to you is the pinnacle of the external types of martial arts; that ‘Vacant Fist’ is a very profound inner type of martial arts. Your dagger can cut through metal and carve jade; what would the problem be of cutting a tree trunk? The important thing is, your hand strength must follow the ‘Empty’ [kong] and ‘Loose’ [song] principles.”
Guo Jing pondered it for a long time. Hong Qigong also gave him some more directions. Finally he understood. He jumped down from the tree and went to find a medium size pine tree. With the ‘Vacant Fist’ method of exerting energy, using force without force, he lightly struck the trunk and, sure enough, the dagger went through the tree trunk. He exerted his strength and cut around the trunk and that tree fell down immediately. Guo Jing was ecstatic; using the same method he cut down dozens of trees one after another. It seemed before daybreak he would be able to cut down a hundred logs.
While he was still cutting down trees, he heard Hong Qigong suddenly call out, “Jing’er, come up here.”
Guo Jing leaped up to the platform. “It really worked,” he said, “I did not even use very much energy.”
“Certainly we can’t waste our energy, can we?” Hong Qigong said.
“That’s right! That’s right!” Guo Jing exclaimed, “Now I understand the ‘kong meng dong song’ principle. Big Brother Zhou explained it to me, but I did not understand it.”
“This martial art is more than enough to cut down trees,” Hong Qigong said, “But it is still far from adequate for fighting the Western Poison. You must train with the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ again, only then will you have a chance to defeat him. Let us think of some way to buy time.” Speaking about plans and strategies, Guo Jing could only stay silent, letting his master do the thinking.
After a long time, Hong Qigong shook his head and said, “I can’t think of anything good. Let’s wait until tomorrow, perhaps Rong’er can come up with some clever ideas. Jing’er, listening to you reciting the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ I had a thought and I believe I am not wrong. Help me get down from this tree.. .I am going to practice my martial arts.”
Guo Jing was shocked. “Your injury has not healed yet, how can you train?” he asked.
Hong Qigong answered, “The manual said, ‘The body is cultivated two-fold; namely movement and stillness. When attacked, stay still.’ Those sentences have opened my eyes. Let’s go down.”
Guo Jing did not understand the meaning of those sentences, but he did not dare to defy his master. Therefore he lifted his master and gently jumped down from the tree.
Hong Qigong calmed himself.. .then opened his arms and launched a palm strike. In the darkness Guo Jing saw his master’s body stagger forward like he was falling down. Guo Jing rushed forward to help, but Hong Qigong had already steadied himself. His breathing was heavy, but he said, “I am alright.”
A moment later he launched a left palm strike. Guo Jing saw him stagger, his feet stumbled and he appeared to be extremely exhausted. Guo Jing fought the urge to rush forward and help his master.
Who would have thought that the more Hong Qigong practiced, the stronger he became. Initially he had to catch his breath after every single stance he launched, but later he was able to launch several stances in succession. His steps were getting steadier as well. It was a tremendous improvement. Hong Qigong launched the whole set of the ‘Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms’, followed by a set of the ‘Crouching Tiger Fist’ [fu hu quan].
Guo Jing waited until he finished, then he shouted happily, “You are healed!”
“Help me back up,” Hong Qigong said.
Guo Jing wrapped his arm around his master’s waist and jumped up to the platform. His delight was unspeakable, he mumbled repeatedly, “Very good.. .very good!”
Hong Qigong sighed and said, “Not so good, these martial arts are only good to watch, but they’re actually useless.” Guo Jing did not understand and Hong Qigong explained, “After suffering an injury, all I did was rest, trying to recuperate. It never occurred to me that my martial arts are of the external type; the more I move the better. It’s too bad I realized it way too late; now my life will be spared, but my martial arts will be very difficult to restore.”
Guo Jing wanted to offer some words of comfort, but he did not know what to say. After a while he simply said, “I’ll go down and chop some more trees.”
“Jing’er,” Hong Qigong suddenly said, “I think I have an idea to intimidate the Old Poison. Let’s see if you agree with me.” Then he explained his idea. Guo Jing was delighted, “Splendid! Splendid!” he exclaimed; and immediately jumped down from the tree to make preparations.
Early in the morning of next day, Ouyang Feng came to the tree. He counted the logs Guo Jing chopped down and found only ninety of them. He coldly laughed and shouted, “Little bastard [za zhong]! Get down here quickly! Where are the other ten?”
Huang Rong had spent the entire night by Ouyang Ke’s side, tending his injuries. Listening to his pitiful groaning she felt sorry for him. That morning as Ouyang Feng left the cave, she followed behind. Hearing his loud shouts, she worried for Guo Jing.
Ouyang Feng waited for a moment, but nothing was heard from the tree above, except some gust of winds coming from a distant hill. It sounded like somebody was practicing martial arts. He hastily followed the source of the sounds. When he rounded the hillside, what he saw surprised him. Hong Qigong was sparring with Guo Jing; palms and kicks flew towards each other.they were engaged in a close fight.
Huang Rong saw that her master was not only able to walk unaided, but it seemed his skills were restored as well.she was pleasantly surprised. She heard him shout, “Jing’er, be careful of this next stance!” and he launched a palm.
Guo Jing raised his palm to parry, but before their palms met his body flew backwards and ‘bang!’ he hit a pine tree. That tree was not too big, about a rice bowl in diameter; ‘crack!’ and it was snapped by the strength of Hong Qigong’s push and fell to the ground.
This strike seemed ordinary, but it was enough to stun Ouyang Feng. Huang Rong praised, “Master, that was a great ‘Hacking Empty Air Palm technique’ [pi kong zhang]!” “Jing’er, protect your body well; don’t let my palm strength injure you!” Hong Qigong called out.
“Disciple understands,” Guo Jing replied. He was just closing his mouth as Hong Qigong’s palm arrived. ‘Crack!’ again Guo Jing was sent flying, again bumping into a tree. Palm after palm came one after another; in a short period of time Hong Qigong had used the ‘Hacking Empty Air Palm’ to send Guo Jing flying and knocking down ten big trees.
“We have ten trees already!” Huang Rong called out.
Guo Jing gasped for breath. “Disciple is exhausted,” he said.
Hong Qigong held his palm and laughed, “This ‘Nine Yin Manual’ is really wonderful. My injury was heavy and I couldn’t even exert any strength, yet I achieved success with just one morning’s exercise.”
Ouyang Feng was suspicious; he stooped down to examine the broken tree trunks and what he saw stunned him. Apart from the heart of the trunk, the outer rings were exceptionally smooth, even smoother than if the trunk was sawn. He thought, “Could it be that the martial arts in the manual is this marvelous? It looks like the Old Beggar’s martial arts have been completely restored. How can I fight them if the three gang up on me? I’ve been lucky so far, I’d better start training myself in the martial arts from that manual.” He cast a glance towards the three and then flew back to the cave in a hurry. He immediately fetched the book Guo Jing wrote, unwrapped layer upon layer of oil papers from the bundle and straightaway buried his head in the book, diligently studying the manual.
Hong Qigong and Guo Jing waited until they could not see Ouyang Feng anymore before both of them burst out laughing. Huang Rong was delighted, “Master, this manual is truly wonderful,” she said.
Hong Qigong laughed without giving her a response. Guo Jing rushed to her and said, “Rong’er, w
e were only pretending.” Then he told her everything they had thought of and done. It turned out that Guo Jing had used his knife to cut around the trunks, leaving the center intact. Hong Qigong’s palm actually did not carry any strength at all and every time Guo Jing got hit, he used his own strength to fly backwards and bump into a tree, breaking it. Ouyang Feng did not know that with the ‘Vacant Fist’ energy, the dagger was capable of cutting deep into the tree trunk; naturally he did not suspect that the cut was made by the knife.
Huang Rong was laughing hard, but after hearing Guo Jing’s story, she was silent for quite a while with a deep frown on her face. Hong Qigong smiled and said, “The Old Beggar is once again capable of walking on my own feet; it is truly a blessing from Heaven. I don’t care if it was true martial arts or fake. Rong’er, you are afraid the Western Poison will see through this deception, aren’t you?” Huang Rong nodded. “The Old Poison has good eyesight,” Hong Qigong continued, “How could we fool him that easily? But life is full of uncertainties, right now it is useless to worry over nothing. Hear me out: Jing’er recited the contents of the manual to me. There is a section which was called ‘Changing Muscle Forging Bones’ [yi jin duan gu pian] or something; I thought it was very interesting. Since we don’t have anything else to do, why don’t we practice it?”
These words were said with offhanded gentleness, but Huang Rong was aware of the urgency of the situation. What their master had said was very reasonable, therefore she said, “Very well, Master, please teach us.”
