The Legend of the Condor Heroes

"Rong'er, play with the condors, I am going to kill some Jin soldiers!" Guo Jing said. He jumped to strike an arrow flying toward him, stretched his left palm and with a cracking sound broke a nearby Jin soldier's arm.

"Where did the dog that creates trouble in here come from?" suddenly a voice called out in the dark. Surprisingly, he was speaking Chinese. Guo Jing was startled, "This voice sounds familiar," he thought. At that time a couple of metal came flashing down his way; two short hatchets came chopping down on him, one slashing his chest, the other slashing toward his lower abdomen.

Guo Jing saw the incoming force was fierce; he knew the attacker was not an ordinary officer. Immediately he shot his palm using the 'divine dragon swings its tail'. His palm hit that man on the shoulder, broke the shoulder blade into pieces and sent the man flying backward a few feet. The man cried out pitifully. Suddenly Guo Jing remembered, "This is one of the 'huang he si gui' [four demons of the Yellow River], the 'sang men fu' [deadly gate hatchet] Qian Qingjian."

Guo Jing knew that his martial art skill had improved tremendously these past several months; of course he was in entirely different league compared to when he fought the Four Demons of the Yellow River in Mongolia a while back; but to be able to strike the enemy more than ten feet away with only one palm? He was blown away. While he was still amazed by it, a couple more metal objects came down flashing toward him. This time it was a saber and a spear.

Guo Jing guessed they must be 'duan hu dao' [severing soul blade] Shen Qinggang and 'zhui ming qiang' [pursuing life spear] Wu Qinglie. His right hand forming a hook and caught the spear near its head and pulled it hard. Wu Qinglie tried to resist, but he was pulled along and fell face down in front of Guo Jing. Right at that moment Guo Jing was stepping back to elude the chopping saber; that Shen Qinggang's blade was hacking toward his martial brother's skull.

Guo Jing's leg flew up, kicked Shen Qinggang's right wrist. A streak of blue light flashed in the dark night, his saber flew up from his hand; Wu Qinglie's life was saved. Guo Jing then picked up Wu Qinglie from his back and whirled him against his martial brother. With a 'bang' sound two brothers collided and passed out immediately.

Among the Four Demons of the Yellow River, only three left, since 'duo po bian' [soul snatching whip] Ma Qingxiong was killed by Lu Guanying when he was trying to penetrate the robber gang of Lake Tai. These three people were the elite fighters of the Jin soldiers who pursued Toulei and his company. The rest of the Jin soldiers were not aware that their leaders had fallen due to the dark. They were still engaging Toulei, Jebeh and Bourchu in shooting battle.

"You are not running away, do all of you want to die here?" Guo Jing roared. He rushed toward the enemy soldiers, hit here and grabbed there, throwing bodies everywhere. Very soon the soldiers panicked and scattered in all directions. Shen Qinggang and Wu Qinglie slowly came out to their senses, each with a splitting headache. They were seeing things, but realizing that their company scattered they also ran away without hesitation. Accidentally they stumbled upon Qian Qingjian and woke him up. He mumbled indistinctly, but seeing the rest of the soldiers scattered away, he ignored his pain and ran different direction.

Jebeh and Bourchu were skilled archers; they kept shooting their arrows and managed to kill three more Jin soldiers. Toulei looked down and saw his sworn brothers had scattered the enemy; he was delighted and called out, "Anda [Mongolian term for sworn brother]! How are you?" Holding the flagpole he slid down to the ground.

Guo Jing and Toulei held each other's hand; they were very happy that they were speechless for a while. A moment later Jebeh and Bourchu joined them. "Those three Han people holding shields to block our arrows, prevented us from shooting them," Jebeh said. "If Jing'er did not come and rescue us, we won't be able to drink Onon River's clear water anymore."

Guo Jing pulled Huang Rong's hand and have her meet Toulei and company. "This is my sworn sister," he introduced her.

Guo Jing ignored Huang Rong's request. "Anda, why did you bring the condors here?" he asked.

"Father sent me to see the Song Emperor; to make a bilateral agreement between the north and south, so that we can dispatch troops together and attack the Jins from both directions," Toulei explained. "My sister thought I might meet you here, so she sent these condors to you. She guessed right, didn't I meet you here?"

Guo Jing heard him mentioning Huazheng, his heart was saddened. He had fallen in love with Huang Rong; but occasionally Huazheng came into his mind. Not that he had any romantic feeling toward her, but actually he did not know how to sort this thing out. Sometimes he chased that thought away; but now hearing Toulei he was at a loss. His only thought was, "Within a month I am going to the Peach Blossom Island where Rong'er's father might kill me. How could I attend to her?" Therefore, he turned toward Huang Rong and told her, "These two birds are mine. You can have them to play with."

Huang Rong was delighted; she found more dried meat to feed the condors.

Toulei proceeded by telling how his father, Genghis Khan had gained victory over the Jins on several fronts; but the Jin army was strong in numbers. They consolidated themselves and for many years strengthen their forts that for a while they have managed to defend their borders. Thereupon Genghis Khan had sent Toulei to make contact with the south to form an alliance with the Songs to attack the Jins. Unfortunately they ran into a brigade of the Jin army and could not prevent a battle. Their company perished and only three of them managed to escape and ran away there.

Guo Jing remembered that day at the Cloud Village he heard Yang Kang asking Mu Nianci to go to Lin An and see the Prime Minister Shi Miyuan, to ask him to kill the Mongolian messengers. At that time he did not know anything, but now he knew that the Jins had found out the conspiracy and had sent Yang Kang to prevent the Songs and the Mongols to form an alliance.

Toulei continued, "Looked like the Jins have determined to kill me to avoid Mongolia and the Song Dynasty formed the alliance successfully; that the Sixth Prince himself personally led the troop to capture me."

"Wanyan Honglie?" Guo Jing asked in surprise.

"That's right!" Toulei answered. "He was wearing a golden helmet, I saw him clearly and even shot three arrows to him, too bad they were blocked by his bodyguards' shields."

Guo Jing was ecstatic, "Rong'er, Brother Kang! Wanyan Honglie is here, let us quickly find him." Huang Rong quickly came, but Yang Kang was nowhere to be seen. Guo Jing was impatient, he shouted, "Rong'er, you go to the east, I will search to the west." Two people launched their lightness kungfu and ran very fast opposite directions.

After several li's Guo Jing managed to catch up with several ran away Jin soldiers. He captured one of them and found out that indeed it was the Sixth Prince Wanyang Honglie who personally led the pursuers, but that soldier did not know his whereabouts.