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

In Front Of The Xuan Yuan Platform Part 5

A dozen moves later he struck down two more beggars with his palm strength. The other three beggars did not dare to attack; they turned away to run. Guo Jing wielded the steel rope in his left hand and swept two beggars' ankles, pulling them near him.

"Tie them down!" Huang Rong said. Guo Jing took the steel rope and tied the hands and feet of these two beggars behind their backs.

Seeing him reaping a big victory Huang Rong was astonished and delighted. She wanted to capture that smiling face beggar, Peng Zhanglao, who held them prisoner earlier. She recalled her Shifu had once said that in Jianghu there was a method of influencing the mind, capable to make someone suddenly fall asleep so that that person could be manipulated, incapable of resisting. She believed this Peng Zhanglao had actually used this kind of hypnotics to them. "Jing Gege," she asked, "is there any 'she xin fa' [method to influence other people's mind, lit. intimidating heart/mind technique] in the Nine Yin Manual?"

"No ..." Guo Jing replied.

Huang Rong was quite disappointed, she whispered, "Guard against that smiling face beggar, don't look into his eyes."

Guo Jing nodded, "I want to beat this fellow to vent my anger!" he said, then he propped Huang Rong's body up and they stood up together. Guo Jing stared at Yang Kang and walked toward him in big strides.

Yang Kang had seen Guo Jing's impressive power when he fought the crowd of beggars, he was anxious and restless. He was hoping that the crowd of beggars would win by sheer numbers, but unexpectedly they retreated in defeat, now Guo Jing was coming towards him. How could he keep his life if Guo Jing got hold of him? In his fright he called out, "Four Elders, we have so many heroes and warriors over here, how can we let this mad little thief do as he will?" His mouth was shouting anxiously, his legs were not slow either; he quickly hid behind Jian Zhanglao.

Jian Zhanglao turned around and in a low voice said, "Bangzhu, don't worry; even if this thief's martial art is higher, he won't overcome our number. We will use 'che lun zhan kun' [chariot wheels fighting as a bunch] to kill him." Raising his voice he called out, "Eight-bag disciples, spread out and form 'jian bi zhen' [strong wall formation]!"

One eight-bag disciple shouted their compliance and immediately led more than a dozen beggars to line up in two rows, their arms linked one to the other. Sixteen, seventeen people formed one strong wall. They shouted together and then lowering their heads they charged toward Guo Jing and Huang Rong.

"Aiyo!" Huang Rong yelled; lightning fast she leaped to the left. Guo Jing turned around to the right. But from the east and west two more rows of beggars came forward. Guo Jing saw the crowd of beggars' battle strategy was strange. He waited until these walls came near, but then he could not withdraw anymore; both of his palms struck forward to push the wall in front of him. Although his palms were strong, this wall consisted of more than a dozen men, plus their momentum in moving forward together was quite strong; how could Guo Jing push the wall away? As the center of the wall bore the brunt of the push, its two wings outflanked to the center. Guo Jing staggered, he almost fell down by the strong push of this wall. Hastily his left foot kicked the ground and he flew over the human wall. But before he landed he cried out in distress, for ahead of him another human wall came closing in. Quickly he regulated his breath, his right foot kicked and again he flew over the beggars' heads. Who would have thought that there are more walls ahead, seemingly inexhaustible. As Guo Jing just passed the front wall immediately the rear wall took its place; like a rolling wave, or a big wheel turning over. Even if Guo Jing's martial art were stronger he would eventually be overwhelmed by sheer numbers; in the end he felt like his movements were restricted.

Huang Rong was agile, her lightness kungfu was also better than Guo Jing's; but after a while more and more moving walls came closing in. She ran around to escape and gradually felt her heart throb and her breathing shorten. After flashing to the east and dodging to the west for a moment to her surprise she came close to Guo Jing, slowly they were pushed into a corner of the mountain peak.

Suddenly Huang Rong got an idea, "Jing Gege," she called out, "Retreat to the edge of the cliff."

Guo Jing heard her, he did not know her intention, but he pushed toward the edge of the cliff nonetheless. They were still about five, six feet away from the edge of the cliff, and unexpectedly the Beggar Clan walls stopped and did not charge forward. And then Guo Jing understood, "Ah, this is a deep canyon; unless they stop their steps, it would be strange if they won't fall down and die." He looked towards Huang Rong to praise her intelligence, but saw that her face showed anxiety. He turned his head and saw row after row of thick and wide human walls slowly step forward. They did not charge forward ferociously, but obviously they were going to push these two people slowly into the canyon below. There were hundreds of them in dozens of rows; it was simply impossible to jump over them.

When he was still at Mongolia, Guo Jing had been trained by Ma Yu to climb a steep cliff every night. The cliff of Mount Jun here was not as dangerous as the one in the Mongolian desert. Guo Jing assessed their situation by looking at the cliff wall and called out, "Rong'er, let me carry you on my back; we are going down."

"We can't," Huang Rong sighed, "They may throw rocks at us. This is a dead end."

Guo Jing was indecisive. Somehow, in the verge of life and death situation he suddenly remembered a section in the Nine Yin Manual; he said, "Rong'er, there is a section in the Manual about 'yi hun da fa' [altering soul great method], I believe it is similar with that 'she xin fa' you just mentioned ... All right, let's stake it all and fight; let us go down the canyon together."

Huang Rong sighed, "These are all Shifu's subordinates, they are his brothers; what good is it to kill so many people?"

Guo Jing suddenly stretched out his arms to lift her up, he said with a low voice, "Quickly run away!" He kissed her lightly on her cheeks, then exerting all his might he hurled her toward the Xuanyuan Platform.

Huang Rong felt like she was mounting the cloud and riding the mist, flying over the heads of several hundreds of people. She knew Guo Jing wanted to fight the crowd of beggars alone to give her a chance to escape. She bent her knees slightly and gently landed on the platform with a bitter sweet feeling in her heart. She saw that Yang Kang was standing on a corner of the platform; looking so complacent, flailing his hands and feet, shouting his commands over the combat. She did not want to miss this good opportunity, before she even stood firmly she pounced forward, her left hand grabbed the head of the green bamboo stick.

As he was watching the battle, Yang Kang was startled to suddenly see Huang Rong descend from the sky; hastily he lifted up the stick to strike her. Two of Huang Rong's right fingers swiftly moved toward his eyes, while at the same time her left foot turned around, and she snatched the bamboo stick away.

Yang Kang's martial art was inferior to Huang Rong's to begin with; and now Huang Rong was using the 'ao kou duo zhang' [snatching stick from a mastiff (dog)'s mouth] from the Dog Beating Stick Technique Hong Qigong had passed on to her. It was specifically created to take back the stick if it ever fell into an enemy with high martial art skill. Apparently this stance was several folds better than Yang Kang's skill, so he had no chance in keeping the stick in his hand.

Huang Rong's snatching the stick was real, while attacking the eyes was fake; but since her movement was so swift, her fingers unexpectedly poked Yang Kang's eyeballs. Yang Kang was in a lot of pain and he momentarily went blind. Yang Kang tried to guard his eyes and did not have any choice but let the stick go and then leap down the platform.

With both of her hands Huang Rong held the bamboo stick high over her head, with a clear and loud voice she called out, "Brothers of the Beggar Clan, please stop! Hong Bangzhu has not returned to heaven yet. Everything was made up by this traitor disciple."

As soon as the crowd of beggars heard her, they were completely taken aback; it was such an abrupt turn of eventa that it was hard to believe, but they were happy to hear the good news and mad to hear the bad news, a natural response to this kind of news. Everybody turned their heads and looked at the tall platform.

Huang Rong called out further, "Brothers, come over here, I want to tell you news about Hong Bangzhu."

Yang Kang's eyes were sore, but his ears could hear everything clearly; he also called out from below the platform, "I am the Bangzhu! Brothers, listen to my command: Quickly push the male thief over the cliff, and then come back here to capture the nonsense-talking female thief."

The Beggar Clan members always regarded their Clan Leader as a deity; even if there was a very important matter, they would not dare to disobey his command. Hearing Yang Kang's command, they shouted and charged forward.

Huang Rong called out, "Everybody look clearly! Bangzhu's Dog Beating Stick is in my hand; I am the Beggar Clan's Bangzhu!"

The crowd of beggars was startled; they had never heard of the Bangzhu's Dog Beating Stick being taken away by someone else. They hesitated and stopped their steps.

Huang Rong called out, "Our worldwide Beggar Clan is being bullied today, Li Sheng and Yu Zhaoxing two brothers are killed by others, Lu Zhanglao is seriously injured; all of that for what reason?"

The crowd of beggars was angered; more than half of them turned their heads to listen to her. Huang Rong continued, "It was because of this traitor surnamed Yang is conspiring with the Iron Palm Clan. They fabricated a rumor saying that Hong Lao Bangzhu is dead. Do you know who this man surnamed Yang really is?"

The crowd of beggars called out one after another, "Who is he? Tell us, quick! Tell us!" But some actually said, "Don't listen to this female thief; she is creating a confusion." Everybody talked at once, nobody knew which one was right, which one was wrong.

Huang Rong called out, "This man's surname is not Yang, it is Wanyan. He is the son of Zhao Wangye of the Great Jin. He deliberately comes to destroy our Great Song."

The crowd of beggars was startled, nobody believed what they heard. Huang Rong considered, "It is difficult to convince everybody at once; I'll have to use poison to fight poison. I'll place the blame on him." She put her hand into her pocket and groped around the contents one by one; finally she took out the iron palm Zhu Cong took from Qiu Qianren the other day. She lifted it up high above her head and called out, "I have just taken this thing from this surnamed Wanyan traitor's hand. Everybody please take a good look, what is this?"

The crowd of beggars was some distant away from the Xuanyuan Platform; they could not see clearly under the moonlight. Their curiosity was aroused and they approached the platform. Someone called out, "That is the Iron Palm Clan's Iron Palm token of authority; how could it be in his hand?"

Huang Rong loudly said, "That's right, he is the spy sent by the Iron Palm Clan, so naturally he carried this token. The Beggar Clan has upheld chivalry and justice in the north for several hundred years; how can this fellow surnamed Yang easily comply to move to Jiangnan?"

Underneath the platform Yang Kang listened with an ash grey complexion; his right hand raised, he shot two steel awls straight toward Huang Rong's chest. The distance was near and his hand was quick, so the two silver lights violently flew to their target. Huang Rong did not pay the slightest attention. Among the crowd of beggars there were about a dozen people shouted loudly, "Watch out the secret projectile! Be careful!" "Aiyo! Not good!" But the two steel awls struck the soft hedgehog armor and 'clank, clank' they fell to the platform.

Huang Rong called out, "Wanyan Kang, if you don't have any guilty conscience, why did you use secret projectiles to harm me?"

The crowd of beggars unexpectedly did not harm her, they were astonished to the extreme; they talked to one another, "Who is right and who is wrong?" "So Hong Bangzhu has not died yet?" Everyone's face showed a frightened and confused look. They turned their eyes toward the Four Elders, expecting them to make a decision. The row after row of strong wall formations had been dispersed early on. From among the crowd Guo Jing walked towards the platform and nobody tried to stop him.