EASTERN HERETIC, WESTERN POISON (Book 2 of Legend Of The Condor Heroes)

Wandering On A Shark's Back Part 8

Venerable Lingzhi was just angered by Ouyang Feng and Zhou Botong, and now he saw another extremely arrogant and impolite person coming on board. He heard what Ouyang Feng had said, but he thought, "Could it be that there are so many highly skilled people in this world? Most likely these people knew some witchcraft and deceived others with their demonical ability. Let me try, perhaps I can deceive him as well." Hence seeing Huang Yaoshi was about to leave with a loud voice he said, "Are you looking for a fifteen, sixteen years old young lady?"

Huang Yaoshi paused and turned around with a happy expression on his face, "Yes Reverend, did you see her?"

Venerable Lingzhi coldly replied, "I did see a young lady, but the one I saw was dead one, not a live one."

Huang Yaoshi's heart turned cold, "What?" he quickly asked, his voice was trembling.

Venerable Lingzhi replied, "About three days ago I saw a body of a young girl floating on the surface of the sea. She was wearing white clothes with a gold ring on her hair; originally her face must be so pretty. Ay! What a pity, what a pity! What a pity her body was swollen by the seawater." What he described was exactly Huang Rong's clothes and adornments, every single one was accurate.

Huang Yaoshi's mind was greatly troubled, his body shook, his face turned pale; a moment later he asked, "Are you telling me the truth?"

Everybody else clearly saw Huang Rong boarded the small boat just a moment ago; now they heard how Venerable Lingzhi was deceiving this man, taking pleasure in other's misfortune; but even as they saw Huang Yaoshi's grieving face, nobody made any sound.

Venerable Lingzhi coldly continued, "Beside that young lady's body I saw three other corpses; one was of a young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, the other one was an old beggar with a scarlet wine gourd on his back, and the last one was a white haired old man." He was describing Guo Jing, Hong Qigong and Zhou Botong, three people.

Reaching this point Huang Yaoshi's doubt was completely gone; he squinted at Ouyang Feng, thinking, "You knew about my daughter so why you didn't tell me earlier?"

Ouyang Feng noticed his look and realized his grief has reached its peak so he started to have a murderous intent. Although he himself would not suffer a loss this oncoming force would not be easy to resist; hence he quickly said, "Brother had just come in on board this board today, and it was the first time I met all these people. When this Reverend saw some floating corpses, your daughter was not necessarily among them." Sighing, he continued, "Your beloved is such a good girl; it is very regrettable if she really died in such a young age. If my nephew found out, he would die of heartbreak." This speech had shifted the blame from his own shoulder, but clearly did not offend either side.

Listening to Ouyang Feng Huang Yaoshi was completely in shock; his heart sank in an instant. He was of the kind who loved to vent his anger to others; otherwise when the Twin Killers of the Dark Wind stole his manual, why did he break Lu Chengfeng and his other innocent disciple's legs and expelled them from his school?

This time he felt his chest was icy-cold, but his blood was boiling hot, just like when his beloved wife died some years ago. His hands were trembling, his face turned from snow white to crimson red alternatively.

Everybody was looking at him in silence; their hearts were filled with unspeakable fear. Even Ouyang Feng was anxious; he gathered his 'qi' in his 'dan tian', his whole body was alert, ready to take any attack. The entire deck was unusually quiet. Suddenly Huang Yaoshi let out a long laugh, it sounded like a never ending dragon roar.

This latest development has taken everybody by surprise; they were startled. They saw him facing upward and laughing wildly, getting louder and louder. His laughter had caused a chill in the air; those who listened to it felt more and more miserable. Gradually the laughter turned into weeping, a very sad one. The people could not bear it any longer, they felt like they shared his grief and were about to shed tears too.

Ouyang Feng was the only one who knew his temperament well, that he used to sing and cry without any specific reason; hence he did not feel too strange. But listening to him weeping so miserably he thought, "If he keeps crying like this, the Old Heretic Huang will inevitably injure himself. In the past Ruan Ji mourned the death of his mother and in doing so had vomited a lot of blood. The Old Heretic Huang could experience the same fate as that person from the past. It was a pity my iron zither was lost when my boat sank; otherwise I could have played it along and make his crying more interesting. This man has an unusual character once he unleashes his uncontrollable emotion he will most likely suffer a serious internal injury. When it's time for the second Sword Meet of Mount Hua I will surely miss a worthy and formidable opponent. Ay! What a great loss! What a pity, what a pity!"

After crying for a while Huang Yaoshi lifted his jade flute up and struck the edge of the boat while singing, "Why did God make someone's life so short? Or someone die when all the hair in his head had turned white, while the other die because of disaster or child-birth. The previous calamity had not passed, the new one has come along. Morning had just blossomed, the evening had already come, the dew came with the dawn and evaporated immediately. The departed cannot be pursued, the emotion suddenly fails. The high heaven does not have stairs, to whom shall I pour my complain out?"

'Crack!' the jade flute was broken into two. Without turning his head Huang Yaoshi walked to the bow. Venerable Lingzhi dashed forward to block him off and coldly said, "You wept and you laughed like a madman, what do you think you are doing?"

"Reverend, don't ..." Wanyan Honglie called out, but before he finished, Huang Yaoshi's right hand stretched out and grabbed Venerable Lingzhi's neck. Turning him midair until his feet were facing upward Huang Yaoshi threw him down until his fat bald head penetrated the deck straight to his shoulders.

It turns out that in the martial art Venerable Lingzhi practiced, his neck was his weakest point. As soon as he made his move, highly skilled martial artists like Ouyang Feng, Zhou Botong and Huang Yaoshi could immediately see through this flaw and attack his weakest spot.

Huang Yaoshi continued singing, "The sky eternal, the earth unchanging, how long will a man live? The past, the future, everything passed unawares; there is a time for everything." A dark green shadow flashed, he had already moved to his own boat, turned the rudder and sailed away.

The people on board was about to rescue Venerable Lingzhi who stayed motionless, they did not know if he was alive or dead, suddenly they heard a grunt and the deck floor opened, out came a young man. He was handsome, with red lips and white teeth, and a face like a crown jade; he was Wanyan Honglie's son, Yang Kang, whose former name was Wanyan Kang.

After having a disagreement with Mu Nianci he kept remembering Wanyan Honglie's words, 'unlimited riches and honor'; thereafter he contacted a Jin government office in the north to get information. Not long after he found his father king and thus accompanied him to the south. When Guo Jing and Huang Rong embarked, he caught a glimpse of them and immediately went hiding inside the cabin, did not dare to come out, only took a peek through a crack on the cabin's door; hence he saw everything that happened on the deck clearly. When the people were eating and drinking he was still afraid Ouyang Feng was Guo Jing's accomplice. He hid in the boat's hold and eavesdropped at the conversation on the banquet table, trying to find out Ouyang Feng's real intention. Only after Huang Yaoshi left he finally decided that he had nothing to worry about, so he opened the deck's plank and came out.

The fall of Venerable Lingzhi was truly heavy; fortunately due to his hard training his head was strong. He made a hole on the deck, but his head was not injured, it was only a little bit dizzy. He calmed himself down and pushed both hands on the deck to lift his own body up; then he leaped and stood up.

The people saw the round hole on the deck; they could not be refrained from looking at each other in amazement. They felt funny, but felt it was inappropriate to laugh, so they kept their faces straight, but they looked very awkward.

Wanyan Honglie broke the silence by saying, "Son, meet Mr Ouyang."

Yang Kang immediately knelt in front of Ouyang Feng and kowtowed to him four times. It was a very big honor, caused everybody to be surprised. Actually at the Zhao Palace Yang Kang had had a great admiration toward Venerable Lingzhi; but today he had seen Ouyang Feng, Zhou Botong and Huang Yaoshi, three people, one after another grabbed his neck and tossed him back and forth like he was just a baby. Only then did he realize there was a sky above the sky and there was another man above a man. He recalled the disgrace when he was held captive at the Cloud Village on Lake Tai, when he was scared of and lost his nerve to fight Guo Jing and Huang Rong at the Liu ancestral hall in Baoying; all because his skill was inferior to others. Presently there was a man with a very high skill in front of him, so he wanted to take him as his master. After paying Ouyang Feng a big respect he turned to Wanyan Honglie and said, "Father, your son wants to take this gentleman as my master."

Wanyan Honglie was delighted, quickly he stepped forward and bowed his respect to Ouyang Feng, saying, "My young child likes to learn martial arts, only he has not met a suitable master. If Sir do not relinquish this request and willing to bestow instructions, Little King father and son will be forever grateful."

Other people thought that being the young prince's master was the wish of everybody; who would have thought that Ouyang Feng simply returned the greeting and said, "There is always a rule in the Old Man's martial art school that our knowledge will be bestowed only to one disciple, and not to someone else. The Old Man has already taken my own nephew as my disciple, I can't take another one. For this I beseech the Prince's forgiveness."

Seeing Ouyang Feng did not grant his request Wanyan Honglie did not press. He ordered his men to prepare some more food and wine. Yang Kang on the other hand, was quite disappointed.

Ouyang Feng smiled and said, "I don't deserve to be the young prince's master, but it's not difficult for the Old Man to give you directions on martial arts. We will talk about it later."

Yang Kang had seen Ouyang Ke's many concubines; they had received instructions in martial arts from him but because they were not his disciples their skills were nothing but ordinary. Listening to Ouyang Feng said it that way his heart was not in the least enthusiastic, but his mouth was obliged to utter some grateful words. He had never realized that Ouyang Feng's skill was not to be compared with his nephew; receiving one or two instructions on martial arts from an expert of Ouyang Feng's caliber would give him sufficient skill to boast his power and prestige among the heroes of the Wulin world.

Ouyang Feng noticed his expression and realized his intention to give instructions was not very well received; so he never raised this matter anymore.

During the banquet they were talking about Huang Yaoshi's arrogance and rudeness; they praised Venerable Lingzhi for fooling him well. Hou Tonghai said, "This man's martial art's skill was truly high; turned out that stinky girl is his daughter, no wonder her way was somewhat crafty." While saying that he turned his attention toward Venerable Lingzhi's bald head. After staring for a while he turned his gaze toward Lingzhi's fat neck, and then he bent his own right arm to grab his own neck. "Hey, hey," he mocked and asked, "Shige [Older Martial Brother], those three were using a grabbing skill, what kind of technique was that?"

"Don't talk nonsense!" Sha Tongtian rebuked him.

Venerable Lingzhi could not hold his patience anymore and he stretched out his left hand to grab the three horns on Hou Tonghai's forehead. Hou Tonghai quickly shrank his body and slid under the table. Everybody was laughing and cheering.

Hou Tonghai reappeared on his chair and said to Ouyang Feng, "Master Ouyang, your martial art skill is very high indeed! How about you teach me the skill to grab someone's fat neck?" Ouyang Feng smiled but did not answer. Venerable Lingzhi looked at Hou Tonghai with glaring eyes.

Hou Tonghai turned his head and asked again, "Shige, that Huang Yaoshi was crying and singing, what did he say?"

Sha Tongtian glowered at him, did not know how to answer; "Who cares about the jabbering of a madman?" he said.

Yang Kang explained, "What he sang was a poem written by Cao Zijian of the Three Kingdoms period. That Cao Zijian composed two stanzas of lamentation because of his daughter's death. In the poem he said how some people live until the hair on their heads had turned completely white, while some children died prematurely. He questioned why God was so unfair? He hated the fact the Heaven was so high without stairs that he could not ascend to His throne to cry out his complain. He finally said that his grieve was so deep that the day he would follow her to the grave would not be far away."

The warriors immediately heaped him with praise, they said, "The Young Prince is truly a scholar, highly educated. We are rough men, how would we know?"

Huang Yaoshi's heart was filled with grieve and indignation. He pointed his finger to the sky and scolding the earth, cursing ghosts and blaming divine beings for treating him unjustly, for all his sorrows and unfair fate. He commanded his boat toward the mainland. Once he was ashore his anger flamed again. He looked up to the sky and shouted, "Who killed my Rong'er? Who killed my Rong'er?"

Suddenly a thought came into his mind, "It's that boy surnamed Guo. That's right, it was him. If not for him, how could Rong'er come aboard that boat? But this boy died alongside Rong'er; whom should I lash my anger on?"

As soon as he had this thought, he remembered Guo Jing's masters, the Six Freaks of Jiangnan. "These six are most guilty of killing my Rong'er! If they didn't teach that surnamed Guo kid, how could he meet Rong'er? I won't be appeased before I cut their arms and legs one by one."

As his anger increased, his sorrow decreased somewhat. He arrived at a small town and stopped for some food; still thinking deeply about how he would pursue the Six Freaks of Jiangnan. "The Six Freaks' martial art skills are not high, but their reputations are not low. Perhaps they have something that set them above everybody else; perhaps they only use deceit. If I pay a visit to their residence and inquire, chances are I am not going to find them. I must go in the middle of the night breaking into their houses; and then I will wipe them and their whole families clean, young and old alike." Hence he took big strides walking north toward Jiaxing.