by Jin Yong
Guo Jing and Lotus approached Count Seven and paid their respects with a bow. After they had parted in Jiaxing, the Beggar had followed Apothecary Huang back to Peach Blossom Island to recuperate from the internal injuries he had suffered at Viper Ouyang’s hands. Thanks to the isolated location and the Heretic’s help, he was able to use the advanced neigong technique outlined in the final passage of the Nine Yin Manual to reconnect the flow of energy along his meridians, and, within half a year, he had fully recovered. It took just another six months for him to fully regain his martial ability. Apothecary Huang had returned to the mainland once Count Seven’s condition was stable, traveling north in search of Lotus, but the Beggar had only recently left the island. He had since met with Surefoot Lu, who told him all about Guo Jing and Lotus’s adventures.
After they had heard each other’s news, Guo Jing said, “Shifu, you should rest—it’s nearly dawn. The Contest will be starting soon, and it will be exhausting.”
“Believe it or not, I’ve grown more competitive with age,” Count Seven said with a chuckle. “My heart pounds with excitement at the thought of sparring with the Heretic of the East and the Venom of the West. Lotus, did you know that your papa has made great progress in recent years? Who do you think will emerge victorious from our duel?”
“You and Papa have always been evenly matched, but, now that you know the secret method from the Nine Yin Manual, Papa won’t be able to beat you. When we see him, I’ll tell him to withdraw, so we can go back to Peach Blossom Island sooner.”
Discerning her true meaning from her tone, Count Seven let out a belly laugh. “There’s no need to worry, lass. I won’t be using the techniques from the Manual. This Old Beggar has his principles. I won’t fight with anything that isn’t rightfully mine. I’ll only use my own kung fu when I face Old Heretic Huang.”
This was exactly what Lotus had hoped he would say. “Shifu, don’t be upset if you can’t beat Papa. I’ll make it up to you by cooking a hundred different dishes—including some new ones that I’ve just invented. Whether you win or lose, you’ll be just as happy.”
The gourmand’s mouth watered at the prospect, but he still feigned disapproval. “This girl has a black heart. First you provoke me, now you try to bribe me. You just want your papa to win!”
Grinning broadly, Lotus was about to argue back when Count Seven Hong shot to his feet, his eyes fixed on something behind her. “Old Venom, you’re early!”
Guo Jing and Lotus scrambled up to stand beside their shifu and saw Viper Ouyang’s towering form standing right where they had been sitting. They were shocked that they had not detected his arrival, so light and soundless was his approach.
CHAPTER TWELVE
CONTEST OF MOUNT HUA
1
“We early arrivals can start first,” Viper ouyang said. His voice betrayed no emotion. “Old Beggar, do we fight to win, or to the death?”
“Both. And there’s no need to rein yourself in.”
“Excellent!”
Viper had been standing with his left arm behind his back, and now, with a flourish, he brought out the Serpent Staff and slammed the butt down on the rocky ground. “Here, or somewhere more spacious?”
Lotus cut in before Count Seven Hong could reply. “Why Mount Hua? You should fight on a boat.”
“Huh?” The Beggar was baffled.
“So Master Ouyang can demonstrate yet again how he requites kindness with spite, and hit you with a sneaky blow from behind.”
Count Seven chuckled at Lotus’s barbed reference to the battle at sea that had seen him injured at Viper Ouyang’s hands. “I’ll fall for a trick once, but never again. Don’t expect me to go easy on you this time, Old Venom.”
Viper did not show the slightest reaction to their taunts. He bent slightly at the knees, switched the Serpent Staff to his right hand and summoned his internal strength to his left palm, ready to unleash his Exploding Toad kung fu.
Meanwhile, Lotus presented the Dog-Beating Cane to Count Seven. “Shifu, show him the might of Dog-Beating kung fu and the full power of the Nine Yin Manual. A scoundrel like him doesn’t deserve to be treated with respect.”
I mustn’t wear myself out wrangling with the Venom, Count Seven said to himself, as he accepted the emblem of the Beggar Clan Chief with a nod. Or I won’t be able to take on Old Heretic Huang when he arrives.
With that thought, he launched two consecutive moves with such rapidity that they formed a pincer attack—a Strike Grass, Startle Snake from the left, and a Flick Grass, Find Serpent from the right.
Count Seven Hong had never used the Dog Beater against Viper Ouyang, but the Venom was wary of it all the same, having experienced its speed and unpredictability in Lotus’s hands.
From the storm whipped up by the bamboo cane, Viper knew he had to tread carefully. He hefted the Serpent Staff, blocking one blow head-on while sidestepping the other, then speared the staff at Count Seven’s upper abdomen.
Viper Ouyang was now using a third incarnation of the Serpent Staff, having been deprived of the previous two. This one was crowned with a snarling face more chilling than before, but the adders it concealed were newly trained. They had not yet attained the agility or ferocity in combat of their distinguished forebears.
Count Seven Hong and Viper Ouyang had first faced one another at the original Contest of Mount Hua, when they had vied for martial supremacy and the chance to own the Nine Yin Manual. Their next encounter came on Peach Blossom Island, in a trial to determine whether Guo Jing or Gallant Ouyang would win Lotus’s hand. Both bouts, although fierce, were simply about winning—there was nothing more at stake. Their third battle, however, came at sea, on a blazing ship, with their lives hanging by a thread, yet even then Count Seven had restrained himself and refrained from launching deadly moves. He had even intervened to save the Venom from being scourged by a red-hot anchor chain, only for Viper to return the favor by setting his serpents on him and striking him in the back. Count Seven very nearly succumbed to the injuries he had sustained, and it had taken him two years to make a complete recovery. He had never suffered a more costly defeat or experienced a closer brush with mortality. How could he let such an affront go unpunished at their fourth confrontation? This time, both men resolved to unleash the full extent of their martial might, holding nothing back. The slightest misstep would mean instant death.
Time seemed to stand still as two hundred quick-fire moves were exchanged amid a rapid succession of leaps and somersaults. Suddenly, the moon disappeared, leaving the sky darker than ever. As their eyes adjusted to the gloom, the two Martial Greats circled each other warily, weapons held high to guard their torsos, keeping the urge to attack in check—for the moment.
The young couple began to edge closer to the fight, ready to rush to Count Seven’s aid, if need be. Guo Jing’s face was drawn with worry. Shifu has just spent two years recuperating, while the Venom was free to continue his training. The thought made his heart hammer in his chest. So Viper may be more powerful than Shifu now … What a fool I was to spare that villain’s life even once!
He wondered if he should step in, but Count Seven had made himself clear—he would fight the Venom one-on-one. Guo Jing’s first instinct was to obey his shifu, but doubts continued to gnaw at him. What if Viper injures Shifu again? Who else can stand against this monster? How many more good people will he hurt?
By now, Guo Jing felt he was coming to a more nuanced understanding of how one should keep faith and maintain integrity. It wasn’t enough just to live up to your words and beliefs in a literal sense—you also had to consider the context and the consequences. He now saw how stupid he had been—stubborn, inflexible and pig-headed.
Energized by this insight, he felt a rush of warmth filling his core. With the combatants now reconciled to the darkness, the duel was showing the first tentative signs of warming up again. Following its progress through the swishing sounds made by the Dog-Beating Cane and the Serpent Staff as they cut through t
he air, Guo Jing held one palm before the other, listening closely, poised to help his Master.
Lotus’s voice rang out in the dark: “Viper Ouyang! You made a pact with Guo Jing. You vowed not to use force on me, and, in return, Guo Jing agreed to spare your life three times. But you broke your word. Yesterday, in the cave. Any other hero of the wulin would be consumed by shame at the mere thought of it. Only you would be thick-skinned enough to show your face at a contest for the ultimate honor in the martial world the very next day.”
Viper had more unscrupulous deeds to his name than he could count, but he took great pride in his reputation as a man who honored his promises. If he had only had more time to learn the Manual’s secrets, he would not have overlooked his agreement with Guo Jing and tried to coerce Lotus into sharing her knowledge with him.
His ears burned with shame. He did not enjoy being called out in this way, and, for a brief moment, his focus wavered. The Serpent Staff stalled in the air, and he nearly took a hit from the Dog Beater.
But Lotus wasn’t finished with him yet. “Surely it’s a serious loss of face for a Martial Great to be shown mercy by a junior? Not just once, but three times! And, to make matters worse, you reneged on the oath you made to that very same young man. Are you really trying to make the jaw of every jianghu hero ache from laughter? Well, well, Old Venom. There’s one title you do deserve—the Thickest Skin Under the Heavens!”
Viper seethed with rage. He realized she was trying to rile him and disrupt his control of his internal energy flow. The smallest mistake could spell defeat. He tried to block out her taunts, but it became increasingly difficult as her claims grew more and more scandalous. She went on to attribute a string of notorious deeds to his name, even though he had had nothing to do with any of them. The list of offenses swelled until he was being painted as the source of all evil, personally responsible for every abomination under the heavens.
Well aware that Viper lacked any kind of moral compass, Lotus feared that he would not be sufficiently ruffled by being linked with even the most nefarious acts. She decided to whittle away at his indomitable reputation instead, with stories that cast the conceited martial Master as subservient to those he considered beneath him. There was the time she had seen him begging Lama Supreme Wisdom to spare his life, the time she had heard him calling Hector Sha “Dearest Uncle,” and the time he had hailed Tiger Peng as “Father,” groveling at his feet for the formula behind the poison that gave his secret weapon its potency.
At first, Viper Ouyang ignored her slanders, but they were soon so outrageous that he could not help being drawn into a battle of words. Sensing that her provocations were hitting the mark, Lotus redoubled her efforts. She recalled how she had happened across him recommending his services to Wanyan Honglie. How he had implored the Jin Prince for the chance to lead his personal guard, and stood sentry outside his chamber every night to convince him. The three confrontations with Guo Jing in the Western Regions scarcely needed embellishing, but she could not resist adding a little spice. She recounted with relish how Guo Jing had spared Viper from being buried alive by sand, frozen to death in an ice block, and drowned in a cesspool. She gleefully detailed how the Martial Great had stripped naked and jumped off the snow-capped peak overlooking Samarkand, watched by hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and how he had been stung on the buttocks by three arrows mid-flight. She urged him to remove his trousers at the very summit of Mount Hua and reveal these battle scars for all to see.
The martial Master had never been so abused in his life, and nor had he been so tested by a fight—both physically and mentally. If he were to prevail, he would have to use the kung fu from the Nine Yin Manual, even though he was yet to master the reversal of every energy flow.
Suddenly, the Serpent Staff came alive in his hands, keening as it sliced through the air, and Count Seven found himself confronted with a fighting style unlike any he had ever known. Alarmed, the Beggar stilled his mind and reined in the Dog Beater to focus on defending himself as he studied the Venom’s unorthodox moves.
“Yosiya babashiji shiramanbi.”
Viper’s head jerked imperceptibly at the sound of Lotus’s voice. But he could not recall a single line from the Manual that matched the nonsensical words she had just chanted.
“What does that mean?” he demanded.
How was he to know that it was her own fabrication, as she rolled her tongue to imitate the Sanskrit-inspired phrases? She followed it with a series of random, meaningless sounds, her tone twisting and turning—snapping in anger, then pleading with sincere conviction; sighing in amazement, then singing with joy. She rounded off her performance by crying out several times with increasing urgency, inflecting her voice with a questioning tone.
Viper Ouyang tried desperately to ignore her, but in the end he gave in. “What are you asking me?”
Lotus answered in the same made-up language.
Puzzled, the Venom attempted to respond with a few snatches of the jumble of characters Guo Jing had written down for him. Instantly, a muddle of voices, shapes, kung fu moves and martial mnemonics surged and swelled in urgent waves around his brain. The heavens swirled and the earth swiveled, and all of a sudden he had no idea where he was or what he was doing.
Count Seven spotted a gap in the offensive patterns of Viper’s staff and—“Ha!”—he thwacked the Dog Beater down on the crown of his head.
The strike was imbued with all the Beggar’s mighty internal strength, and the heavy blow further scrambled the Venom’s wits. So confused was the Martial Great that he would have mixed up something as simple as the seven meats and eight vegetables if he were asked—or was it the other way round? With a howl of rage and confusion, he scampered off, holding his staff upside down.
“Where are you going?” Guo Jing asked, making a lunge for the fleeing man.
Viper sprang clear, turned three somersaults in a row, then half rolled and half crawled behind a towering rock, disappearing from view in the blink of an eye.
2
“I wouldn’t have beaten the Venom without your help,” Count Seven said to Lotus, his tone somewhat subdued. “However, master and disciple working together like that against a lone opponent isn’t particularly honorable.”
“But you taught me that kung fu!”
“What you’ve just demonstrated can’t be taught—you have to be born with it. And there’s only one rascal of a man who could sire a little imp like you.”
A booming voice answered Count Seven. “Old Beggar, have you taken to calling people names behind their back?”
“Papa!” Lotus ran toward the man who was striding up the rocky mountain path. The light of dawn cast a soft glow on his green robe and plain scholar’s headscarf.
Apothecary Huang, Heretic of the East and Lord of Peach Blossom Island.
Lotus threw herself into her father’s arms and hugged him tightly. It had been a year since they had last seen each other. Apothecary Huang could see that his little girl had blossomed into a graceful young woman. The resemblance to her late mother was so strong that he sensed an undercurrent of grief surging to the surface, in spite of his joy at their reunion.
“Heretic Huang, remember what I told you on Peach Blossom Island?” Count Seven said, after hailing the new arrival. “Your lovely daughter is quick-witted and armed with a bellyful of plots. You’ll never have to worry about her, because she’ll always come out on top. No one can hope to outwit her. Tell me, was this Beggar right?”
Smiling, Apothecary Huang extricated himself from his daughter’s embrace, took her by the hand and approached Count Seven Hong. “My sincere congratulations on defeating the Venom. It lifts a heavy weight off your heart and mine.”
The Beggar bowed low. “Now it’s our turn. Come, come, let’s get started. The moment I set eyes on your daughter, I think of her cooking and the worms in my belly squirm with excitement. I don’t care which of us is named the Greatest. The sooner we’re done, the sooner I get to taste her food
and my mouth can stop watering.”
Lotus giggled. “Shifu, I said I’d only cook for you if you lose.”
“Pah! Shameless little wench. Are you trying to threaten me?” Count Seven hissed in mock reproof.
“Old Beggar, your injury has cost you two years of training. I fear we may no longer be evenly matched.” Apothecary Huang tried to keep his tone matter of fact. “And, Lotus, you must treat your shifu to the greatest dishes under the heavens, regardless of the result.”
“Such words befit the status of a grandmaster! I knew the Lord of Peach Blossom Island couldn’t be as petty as the young lass, here.” Count Seven hefted the Dog-Beating Cane. “Come! Let’s begin!”
Apothecary Huang shook his head. “You have just had a long battle with the Venom. I refuse to take advantage of your weakened state. We shall wait until noon, so you have time to restore your energy.”
Count Seven understood his logic, but was raring to go nonetheless. Apothecary Huang sat on a rock, paying him no heed.
“Papa, Shifu, I have a suggestion—you can fight now and it will still be fair.”
The two Martial Greats eyed the young woman expectantly.
“It is the Contest of Mount Hua today, and a winner must be determined. But, if you were to duel directly, whatever the outcome, it might cause a rift in your friendship. I propose, instead of fighting each other, you both take on Guo Jing. Papa will go first, then Shifu when he has recovered his strength. Whoever requires the least moves to beat Guo Jing will be named the victor.”
The Beggar laughed. “Very clever!”
“Papa and Guo Jing are both fresh, and when Guo Jing challenges you, Shifu, you’ll have both completed one fight. Now, that’s fair, isn’t it?”
