The Legend of the Condor Heroes

The hall was brightly lighted with a huge banquet table in the middle. Guo Jing looked at the people sitting around the table and his heart beat furiously. He saw the same people in the same room as earlier, such as the junior chief of white camel mountain, Ouyang Ke, the dragon king of the demonic group, Sha Tongtian, his martial brother, the three headed dragon, Hou Tonghai, ginseng immortal, Liang Ziwong, the slaughterer of a thousand hands, Peng Lianhu and the head of the banquet was the Jin sixth prince, Wanyan Honglie. At a corner of the table was a thickly padded grand chair, which sat superior virtue Lingzhi, who had a golden complexion and looked seriously injured.

Guo Jing laughed in glee, "You ambushed Taoist Wang, so it serves you right, have a taste of your own medicine."

The caretaker entered the room and bowed towards Liang Ziwong before handing him the note written by Wanyan Kang.

Liang Ziwong read the note, glanced at the caretaker and handed the note to Wanyan Honglie, "Prince, is this written by little prince?"

Wanyan Honglie looked through the note and said, "Yes, please follow what it says Mister Liang."

Liang Ziwong turned behind and instructed a dwarf dressed in green, "Go and take out five grams each of the medicine which little prince delivered today and give it to the caretaker."

The dwarf nodded and followed the caretaker out.

Guo Jing whispered to Huang Rong, "Let's go, these people here are too formidable."

Huang Rong smiled and shook her head. A strand of Huang Rong's soft hair brushed pass Guo Jing's face and he felt a tickling sensation not only on his face but also in his heart. He didn't argue with her and jumped down. Huang Rong hurriedly grab his wrist, flung her body forward, locked her legs on the high wooden pole and gently released Guo Jing onto the ground.

Guo Jing was relieved, "What a close shave, if I just jumped that like that, won't it alert the top fighters inside?" Guo Jing was not a veteran Jiang Hu traveler and tended to be careless at times.

The caretaker and the dwarf came out and Guo Jing followed behind them. He walked ten steps before turning around and saw that Huang Rong had done a somersault and was peering into the hall with her legs hooked on top and her head below. There was a light breeze, causing her white robe to float gently, the image looked like a blooming white lily amongst the darkness. Huang Rong glanced into the hall and saw that no one had notice her presence, she turned around and watched till Guo Jing's figure disappeared into the darkness before turning her attention back to what was going on in the hall.

Suddenly, Peng Lianhu turned around, and with eyes quick as lightning; he did a check on the windows. Huang Rong didn't dare look anymore, and only crouched near the window to hear what was going on. She heard a rasp voice say, "Do you people think that Wang Chuyi turned up coincidentally or was it for a reason?"

A high pitched voice replied, "No matter whether he has ill intentions or not, having being injured by superior virtue Lingzi would leave him dead, or at least crippled."

Huang Rong glanced into the hall and saw that the person talking was Peng Lianhu, who was petite and had eyes that looked like lightning. She heard a clear voice laugh, "We would hear of the seven sons of Quanzhen even when we are in Tibet. They really live up to their name, if it were not for superior virtue Lingzi's attack, we would have been defeated by him."

A deep and rough voice answered, "Mister Ouyang, you don't have to flatter me, both me and that Taoist priest are injured, there is no winner."

Ouyang Ke said, "Anyway you just have to recuperate quietly for some time whereas even if he doesn't die, he would end up a handicapped!"

After this comment no one spoke. The host could then be heard toasting all the assembled guests. Guest by guest he said, "Sir has come from a great distance to visit, I am deeply honored! It reflects greatly on the Jin nation to have such honored guests as yourself!"

Huang Rong thought to herself that the person speaking must be Prince Zhao Wanyan Honglie. The assembled guests then all answered with modest protestations as decorum required.

Wanyan Honglie then continued, "Lingzhi is Tibet's foremost monk, Liang is a master of great learning and integrity, Chief Ouyang is an legendary leader of military virtue, Master Peng's prestige is widely feared on the central plains, Formidable Sha rules over Yellow River! If any one hero among the five of you lent a hand, the Jin Nation's challenges could be overcome, imagine what could be achieved with all five of you united together! Ha Ha! That would be akin to having a lion using all it's strength to catch a rabbit!" At this he sounded very arrogant indeed.

Liang Ziwong smiled and said, "If Your Lordship has a task for us to carry out, you need only say it and we will gladly carry it out. Only this old man's (referring to himself) GongFu is very shabby and weak. I fear that if I was to be entrusted with such a task by you Lordship I would fail and not be able to show my worthless face again, ha ha!" Peng Lianhu also added a few self depreciating remarks in the same vein.

These men have always been the center of attention and power in their own areas and were not used to having to make humble and polite comments in the presence of a noble such as Wanyan Honglie.

Wanyan Honglie again toasted each guest in turn with a cup of wine, "Humble Prince is deeply moved by your presence here tonight. I talk of a great matter with you all. This matter cannot be mentioned to any other person outside of this room. If it were to escape it would cause great trouble for my Jin nation. This humble prince places his great confidence in your hands."

These words, although humbly spoken, implied a great importance and caused everyone to present to take note that this must be a very serious matter that required the utmost secrecy. Everyone therefore replied, "Your Lordship need not fear, no words that are spoken here tonight will leave this room!"

The five invited guests all knew that the reason for their invitation must be a matter of great importance. Something that would require no small measure of effort to carry out. Although having spared no expense in sending them presents of gold, silver and other valuables, Wanyan Honglie had still not made any mention of what task he would be asking them to perform. Now that he was about to reveal such a deeply held secret, there was not one person present who didn't feel highly interested and excited.

Wanyan Honglie spoke again boasting about the weakness of the last two emperors Hui Zong and his son Qin Zong and how the mighty Jin Army secured a crushing victory over the Northern Song Empire. All the guests cheered at this speech.

Huang Rong thought to herself angrily, "How Shameless! Everyone aside from that Tibetan Monk are Chinese. The Jin Prince is boasting about how his country had invaded our country and held our two emperors captive and you are all actually cheering him on!"

She heard Wanyan Honglie again speak, "At that time our Great Jin soldiers were vigorous, their numbers were vast, but now after almost 100 years the Zhao officials serve our emperor at Huangzhou. Esteemed guests, can you guess why they serve there?"

Liang Ziwong said, "Please enlighten us your Lordship."

Wanyan Honglie sighed, "This year Yue Fei had defeated us and he had us in his hands and although there was no one who did not know it who dared to say it out loud? Our Jin Generals knew how to lead troops but when they encountered Yue Fei they were always defeated. Even after Qin Gui ordered Yue Fei's execution our soldiers were still demoralized by their earlier defeats that they lacked the willpower to act against the Southern Song. However this although the humble prince has the ambition to act, he lacks the abilities to succeed. If my guests with their god like abilities were to help with this enterprise, then there is no way that we could not succeed and earn great merit."