IRON BLOODED HEART (Book 1 of Legend Of The Condor Heroes)

Boundless Desert Part 2

"That's just the luck of the draw," Qiu Chuji replied. "The heavens wanted me to win, what more could be said?"

"Alright!" Han Baoju pitched in with his opinion. "Rescuing widows and orphans was the right thing to do to begin with. Even if we weren't competing against you we would do it."

Qiu Chuji gave him a thumbs-up and declared: "Third Brother Han is exactly right. If the Seven Heroes are willing to care for the Guo child to adulthood, then I would like to thank everyone for my late Brother Guo." He bowed to each of them again.

"This idea of yours is rather cunning," Zhu Cong observed. "With those several sentences of yours, we brothers and sisters would have to give up eighteen years of our lives?"

Qiu Chuji's face changed color a little and he suddenly let out a loud laugh.

"What's so funny?" Han Xiaoying demanded.

"I have long heard and admired the name of the Seven Freaks of the South," Qiu Chuji replied. "Everyone says that the Seven Heroes are truly righteous heroes who are always there when you need them. But today, I see that the rumors were greatly exaggerated."

This made all of the Freaks furious. Han Baoju slammed his fist down onto the bench that he was sitting on and was about to say something when Qiu Chuji cut him off: "Since ancient times, for real heroes and men, making a friend was for life in every way and giving one's life for a friend would be no big thing if loyalty and friendship called for it. Nobody has ever heard of Jing Ke and Nie Zheng haggling about some small thing. The Yang and Guo family are in need of help right now, how could anyone start haggling about it?"

[In popular Chinese lore and most versions of Chinese history, Jing Ke and Nie Zheng were two great friends that had helped the Lord of Qi during the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period. Their friendship was legendary and, in the view of most Chinese, including Confucius, the epitome of what friendship should be.]

After that little speech, Zhu Cong's face was flushed with embarrassment. He flicked his fan and replied, "The Reverend is right, I realize my mistake now. The seven of us will take on this matter!"

Qiu Chuji stood up and said: "Today is the twenty-fourth of the third month, eighteen years from today at noon, we'll meet again upstairs in the Pavilion of the Drunken Immortal. There, in front of all of the martial world, we will find out who's the real hero!" With a flick of his sleeve, he walked out of the door.

Han Baoju shouted: "I'm off to look for that Duan Tiande now, if he's crawled into a tortoise hole and disappeared, we are going to have to waste a lot of energy."

He was the only one among the Seven Freaks that wasn't injured, so he charged out of the door, mounted 'Wind Chaser', his yellow horse, and began to go chase after Duan Tiande and Li Ping.

"Third Brother...third Brother!" Zhu Cong shouted. "You don't know what they look like!" But Han Baoju wasn't the patient type and with 'Wind Chaser' well deserving of his name, he was long gone.

Once he was out of the temple, Duan Tiande ran as fast as his legs would carry him, all the while dragging Li Ping. Only after he was sure that nobody was chasing after him did he finally stop and take a breath. Then he ran to the bank of the nearest river and jumped on the first boat that he saw. Taking out his saber and putting it up against the neck of the fisherman, he ordered the man to start moving the boat. The rivers and canals south of the Yangtze were as dense as a spider web and boats were the everyday mode of transportation; as common as horses and carriages were up North. Hence the saying: "Northerners ride horses, Southerners ride boats." With Duan Tiande looking as vicious as he did, as well as being dressed like an official, how could the fisherman dare disobey? He immediately undocked and guided the boat out of the city.