SWORDS FIGHTS ON MOUNT HUA (Book 3 of Legend Of The Condor Heroes)

In Front Of The Xuan Yuan Platform Part 4

Lu Youjiao imposingly said, "Even if a thousand sabers chop my body to pieces, I will not dare to rebel against Bangzhu. But Lu Youjiao does not dare to abandon the wishes of our forefathers even more! The Jin kingdom is our Great Song's archenemy. What would Hong Lao Bangzhu say to us?"

Jian and Liang two Elders hung their heads without saying anything; they started to regret their indecisiveness.

Qiu Qianren saw the situation was not good; he was afraid it would be difficult to attain success if he does not deal with Lu Youjiao. He coldly laughed and said to Yang Kang, "Yang Bangzhu, is this Lu Zhanglao always this bossy?" As his words come out, his palms ferociously struck out to grab Lu Youjiao's shoulder.

As soon as Qiu Qianren sneered, Lu Youjiao was ready to protect himself; he knew Qiu Qianren was fierce, he did not dare to parry. He bent his waist and slipped through under Qiu Qianren's crotch. Without straightening up his body, 'whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!' he already sent three kicks toward Qiu Qianren's buttocks. He was called Lu Youjiao [Lu with a foot/kick], it was because his leg skill was really good; the kicks were very swift and fierce.

Qiu Qianren thought this man's way of evading his attack by slipping underneath his crotch was very strange; and then he felt the gust of wind from behind, quickly his palm slapped backwards. If Lu Youjiao's third kick hit its target, it would certainly cause some damage; but if the kick was hit by the opponent's Iron Palm, his own shin could break. Hence Lu Youjiao pulled it back abruptly when it was still midway; he rolled sideways and suddenly spat thick phlegm toward Qiu Qianren's face. Qiu Qianren leaned his head sideways to evade; he was startled by the opponent's strange move.

"Lu Zhanglao, don't be rude to the honored guest!" Yang Kang shouted.

Lu Youjiao immediately went back two steps as soon as he heard his Clan Leader's order. But Qiu Qianren actually showed no mercy whatsoever; his hands went straight toward Lu Youjiao's throat like a pair of pliers. Lu Youjiao was startled; he turned around to evade, but heard the enemy shout 'hey' and both of his hands were grabbed.

Lu Youjiao had fought hundreds of battles; he stayed calm in face of defeat. With all his might he raised his hands but failed to lift the enemy, he immediately struck the enemy's stomach using his head. Since he was little, Lu Youjiao had trained his head in 'tong chui tie tou' [copper hammer iron head]; with his head he was able to make a hole in the wall. Many times he made a bet with his fellow beggars to strike his head against a bullock's. Each time the two heads collided, his head was not injured, but the bullock actually passed out.

This time he understood that he might not be able to injure the enemy, but he hoped he could get his hands freed up from the enemy's grasp. Who would have thought that as the top of his head touched the enemy's stomach he felt he was hitting a soft object; as if he was entering a soft cotton pillow. He knew it was not a good sign; so he hastily withdrew his head, but to his surprise the enemy's stomach also followed his head. Lu Youjiao struggled with all his strength, yet Qiu Qianren's stomach had a very strong suction, holding Lu Youjiao's head firmly. Lu Youjiao was frightened since he felt his head was gradually burning hot; at the same time he felt as if his hands were also entering a hot furnace. The pain was unbearable.

"Do you surrender?" Qiu Qianren shouted.

"Stinky old thief," Lu Youjiao cursed, "Why would I surrender to you?"

Qiu Qianren exerted more strength to his left hand. 'Crack! Crack!' he broke Lu Youjiao's right hand fingers. "Do you surrender?" Qiu Qianren asked again.

"Stinky old thief," Lu Youjiao cursed, "Why would I surrender to you?"

'Crack! Crack!' Lu Youjiao's left hand fingers were broken. He was in so much pain that his mind was in a daze, but his mouth kept shouting curses.

Qiu Qianren said, "If I add more strength to my stomach, your head will be crushed. I want to see if you can keep cursing."

He had not finished speaking when suddenly someone leaped out from among the crowd of beggars; he was tall and broad-shouldered, it was none other than Guo Jing. He was walking in big strides toward Lu Youjiao's back. He lifted his right palm high, 'slap, slap, slap!' he slapped Lu Youjiao's buttocks three times so hard that the sound was heard loud and clear.

Although these three slaps hit Lu Youjiao's buttocks, Qiu Qianren felt strong bursts of energy flowing from Lu Youjiao's head toward his stomach. 'Bang! Bang! Bang!' the energy melted the suction force of his own stomach.

Lu Youjiao felt his head was free, he hastily withdrew, trying to stand up; but his hands were still firmly gripped by the enemy. Guo Jing called out, "You are not Qiu Lao Qianbei's [old senior Qiu] match; get out of the way!" His left leg swept away, kicking Lu Youjiao's left shoulder.

This kick of his looked ordinary, yet although it landed on Lu Youjiao's body, the force was actually transmitted to Qiu Qianren's arms. Qiu Qianren felt his palms were shaken and involuntarily loosened his grip. Lu Youjiao took advantage of this good opportunity; he borrowed the strength from Guo Jing's kick and threw himself aside. Only his head was captured for quite a long time and he felt dizzy; he was not able to stand steadily and tumbled down on the ground.

Qiu Qianren was startled to see Guo Jing's three slaps and one kick; he thought this man was young, but unexpectedly possessed this kind of transferring force skill. He did not think that there was somebody like this among the Beggar Clan. He immediately put his guard up and did not dare to attack rashly.

The crowd of beggars was not clear on what was going on; they still believed Guo Jing was an accomplice of the enemies who killed their Clan Leader, and then they saw Guo Jing kick Lu Youjiao. They shouted angrily and pressed forward to surround him.

Earlier Guo Jing was bound tightly by the braided steel wire and cowhide rope; he could not move even the slightest bit. His eyes kept looking up to the Big Dipper constellation. He recalled the Quanzhen Seven Masters' movements he saw at the Ox Village and compared it to the Nine Yin Manual he memorized so well, which was difficult to understand. He pondered it in his heart, and one by one those passages became clear to him.

The Nine Yin Manual was the result of a highly-skilled senior's comprehension of the Taoist Canon; it was closely interlinked with the Quanzhen Sect's internal energy cultivation technique Ma Yu had passed on to him and with the Quanzhen Seven Masters' Big Dipper Formation. It was just that the technique was profoundly deep and Guo Jing's comprehension was rather shallow so even after several months he still had not understood the correlation. This time, looking at the Big Dipper constellation he vaguely saw the link between what he memorized and what he saw.

When Qiu Qianren talked with Yang Kang, Jian Zhanglao, Lu Youjiao and the others, Guo Jing was deeply engrossed in deciphering the 'shou jin suo gu fa' [collecting muscles shrinking the bones]. It was the most advanced technique in the Manual; similar to the ability of a mouse to go through small holes. When it was trained to perfection the practitioner would be able to shrink his whole body to minimum, just like a hedgehog would curl up when facing an enemy.

On the Mingxia [bright red clouds] Island Guo Jing followed Hong Qigong's instruction to train the 'yi jin duan gu pian' [changing muscle forging bones technique]. By this time he had mastered a little bit of this technique, and it served as an excellent foundation for him. So it happened that when he started practicing according to the Manual the ropes that bound his hands and his feet were loosened. His skill was so good that it was ten times better than his brain power; although the ropes were loosened he still did not know how it happened.

Peng Zhanglao on guard by Guo Jing's side; when he suddenly saw Guo Jing escape, he was very shocked. He tried to grab him, but failed; he looked down and saw the empty ropes lying on the ground. The ropes were still tied in knots, but the man inside had already slipped out just like a slippery loach. He was about to pursue when he saw Guo Jing was helping Lu Youjiao. Peng Zhanglao thought that even if he boldly step forward, he may not necessarily be able to subdue Guo Jing. Thereupon his mouth shouted loudly, "Capture this little thief!" yet his feet did not move.

Guo Jing had been bound for a long time, he was really angry. Moreover, he thought about Huang Rong's feelings; she was still somewhat childish, so she must be very angry. He knew that this crowd of beggars was swindled by Yang Kang and did not really have any enmity with Huang Rong and him, but right now seeing the crowd of beggars shouting and rushing forward to attack, he thought, "If I can't beat you well today, Rong'er's anger won't disappear easily!"

He wanted to use the Big Dipper Formation he had just thought through; his arms lifted up, his feet stepped on to the 'tian quan' [sky authority/power] position. But seeing that about six, seven beggars were pouncing him from behind, Guo Jing stood upright with a mountain strong stance, his left hand in horizontal position in front of his chest.

The first three beggars arrived, they held out their hands to grab his arm. Guo Jing stayed motionless; in a short moment several more beggars arrived. Guo Jing dropped his arm and with a floating motion he made a circle, attacking these several beggars' backs with his hands and feet. Some were hit on their backs, some on their waists, and some others were hit on their buttocks. A succession of cries were heard, "Aiyo!" "Aiyo!" "Thief male servant bird!" six, seven people fell on the ground.

Guo Jing was pleased, "This technique really works," he thought. He turned around, wanting to grab Yang Kang to settle the debt with him; but then under the moonlight he saw that two beggars were about to attack Huang Rong. He was afraid they might injure her, while he was too far to help and he did not carry any secret projectiles with him. In desperation he stooped down to take his cloth shoes off and threw them toward the attackers. He was not a quick thinker that he would invent this trick all by himself; he had heard stories from his masters, the Six Freaks of Jiangnan, how during the fight at the Fahua Temple his Second Master Zhu Cong took off his shoe and threw it toward Qiu Chuji. Therefore, he simply copied the trick.

Those two beggars were afraid that Huang Rong possessed the same ability as Guo Jing; able to free herself from the ropes. They approached her with caution, unsheathed the sabers in their hands, intending to kill her to avenge their Lao Bangzhu. Unexpectedly just when they arrived in front of Huang Rong, before they even lifted their weapons, they heard a strong gust of wind on their backs; something was flying toward them, apparently an enemy was attacking them. The one with higher martial art quickly turned around and Guo Jing's shoe hit him on the chest. The other one was slower, the shoe hit his back.

Although the cloth shoes were soft and light, because of Guo Jing's internal strength the force carried by those shoes was not a small matter; the two beggars were unable to stand, one fell backward face up to the sky, the other dove face down to the ground. Peng Zhanglao was standing nearby; he was scared to see how with a pair of cloth shoes Guo Jing was able to hit people swiftly and fiercely. He hastily withdrew several steps back.

Guo Jing swept his hand to push back three beggars; he anxiously went to Huang Rong. He stooped down to untie the ropes, but he only managed to untie one rope before he was surrounded by the crowd of beggars again. Guo Jing simply sat on the ground, copying how Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi and the others battled the enemy using the Big Dipper Formation. His right palm blocked the enemies, he put Huang Rong on his knees and using his left hand he slowly untied the knots. He had mastered Zhou Botong's skill of 'shuang shou hu bo' [Mutual Hands Combat]; one heart two techniques. This time he used his left hand to untie the knots, his right hand to fend off the enemies' attacks; he did it so casually, without the slightest degree of rush.

In less than the time needed to drink tea, Jing and Rong two people were thickly surrounded by hundreds of beggars. Without looking back Guo Jing simply blocked the attacks from his back. All along Guo Jing took a defensive stand and had never launched any deathly attacks. It was only after he untied all ropes from Huang Rong's hands and feet did Guo Jing took the cloth from her mouth and said, "Rong'er, are you injured?"

Huang Rong leaned on his knees; without standing up she replied, "No injuries, just numb all over my body."

"Good," Guo Jing said, "Just lie down to rest for a while; let me vent your anger for you."

Two people, one sat on the ground one of them laid down, were talking amiably as if they were not disturbed by the clamoring noise of the weapons and commotion of the beggars around them. Huang Rong laughed and said, "You may fight them, just don't injure my disciples and grand disciples."

"I'll remember that," Guo Jing said. His left palm lightly stroke her beautiful hair, his right palm suddenly shot out; 'Bang! Bang! Bang!' three beggars flew out above the crowd's heads.

The crowd of beggars was thrown into confusion. Four more beggars were flung away by Guo Jing's palm strength. Then from among the crowd someone was calling out, "Brothers, step back! Let the eight-bag disciples deal with these two little thieves." It was Jian Zhanglao's voice.

As the crowd heard his command they dispersed immediately until only three people left nearby Guo Jing and Huang Rong, and then five more people came from behind; this brought the total to eight people surrounding them all around. There were eight sacks on each of these people's back; their rank in the Beggar Clan was only second to the four elders. Each one of them was in command of a group of beggars. Two fat and skinny beggars who met and escorted Yang Kang earlier were also among them. There were originally nine eight-bag disciples, but Li Sheng killed himself so only eight were left.

Guo Jing was aware that although the number of the enemies has decreased, each one of them was a highly skilled pugilist. He was about to stand up when with a low voice Huang Rong said, "Keep sitting down; you can fight them. Just don't look them in the eye."

Guo Jing thought, "If the eight of them fight together, they will be difficult to block; I must overthrow some of them first." Recognizing the two beggars, fat and skinny, who met Yang Kang at the Ox Village his left hand snatched the rope he untied from Huang Rong's body; then with a 'duan jing pan ta' [breaking shins coiling strike] the rope swept like a whip. It was from the 'jin long bian fa' [golden dragon whip technique] he learned from Ma Wang Shen [horse god, lit. divine horse king] Han Baoju. The move was the same, but his internal energy had advanced tremendously, so the power carried by the whip was also increased.

The fat and skinny beggars saw the steel rope come sweeping, they quickly leaped away to evade. Guo Jing turned the steel rope into a wall, blocking their front, left and rear sides, leaving the right side open. The fat and skinny beggars were actually on this right side, while the other six beggars were blocked by the rope wall, so they could not attack. The two beggars saw the opportunity and pounced forward immediately, only to hear Jian Zhanglao anxiously call out, "Don't attack!" But it was too late; Guo Jing's palm moved like the wind, 'Slap! Slap!' he struck the two beggars' shoulders. The two beggars flew out toward the group of black-dressed Iron Palm Clan's men.

Although these two beggars were struck by the same force, since one was fat and the other skinny, the effect was not the same; the fat one fell near, while the skinny one flew out further. 'Bang! Bang!' they knocked down two men in black.

Originally Qiu Qianren only stood on the side watching the fight, he also thought little of the two beggars flying away; but as he heard the sound of the collision he was startled. "If they didn't die, our men must be injured." He rushed forward but saw the fat and skinny beggars leap to stand up, without suffering any injuries. The Iron Palm Clan men on the other hand, suffered broken bones; they crawled on the ground. Qiu Qianren was angry; he was about to turn around when suddenly he heard a strong wind on his back, two other eight-bag Beggar Clan disciples were flung by Guo Jing's palm strength.

Qiu Qianren knew that Guo Jing transmitted his energy in such a way that it was heavy in a distant and light nearby; the Beggar Clan disciples only suffer light force, while the ones they bumped actually bear the brunt of the energy. Immediately he pushed and redirected one beggar to an empty space, and then with a grunt both of his palms struck toward the other beggar's back. This time he was using his life-long cultivated Iron Palm energy. If his strength exceeded Guo Jing's, then not only he could counteract the incoming force, but he could also inflict heavy injury to the beggar; otherwise, even if he would not suffer injury, he would certainly be knocked down backwards.

The Beggar Clan's Four Elders and Huang Rong knew that in this pair of palms Qiu Qianren was staking it all to compete head-to-head against Guo Jing; the stake between victory and defeat was not small. They were watching with rapt attention. But as the palms thrust out, the eight-bag disciple flew another 'zhang', and then lightly landed on the ground. He was at a loss for a moment before turning around and went back to face Guo Jing. Surprisingly he did not suffer any injury at all.

In one hand the Four Elders of the Beggar Clan found out that Guo Jing's martial art was about the same level with Qiu Qianren's; perhaps Guo Jing was somewhat inferior, but the difference was not too much. They were astonished and scared. On the other hand Huang Rong was even more surprised, she thought, "This Old Swindler's martial art is just ordinary, how can he block Jing Gege's palm strength? He was obviously using real power, not some crafty trick. He is really difficult to predict."

With this one move Qiu Qianren had tested Guo Jing's true skill. In term of internal energy cultivation he was still superior to Guo Jing by half a notch; but it was difficult to say whether this kid was a friend or a foe of the Beggar Clan. Qiu Qianren was in a dangerous place. It was not worthwhile to continue fighting; hence he waved his right hand and took the Iron Palm Clan people to leave that place.

The martial art of the eight-bag disciples of the Beggar Clan was more or less at the same level with Yin Zhiping, Yang Kang and their peers. Guo Jing had knocked down four people. Although one came back to join the fight, how could these five beggars resist to the power of Guo Jing's Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms combined with mysterious variations of the Big Dipper Formation? If not due to the fact that Guo Jing looked up to his Shifu's face, these five beggars would have been already dead or heavily injured.