The Legend of the Condor Heroes

The flute sound was getting clearer. Guo Jing walked faster. Rounding a bend, he arrived at an area of white flowering shrubs. Layer upon layer of flowers glistened under the bright moonlight, they looked like a small white lake. In the middle of these white flowers he saw something big and tall, looked massive. Here the sound of the flute suddenly changed. Sometimes high, sometimes low; sometimes the sound came from his front, sometimes it moved to his back. He thought the sound was coming from the east, but when he rushed to the east, the sound moved to the west; when he chased to the north, the sound swiftly moved to the south. It sounded like more than ten people were playing flutes around him. This flute sound really drove him crazy.

After running around like that for a while Guo Jing's head was also spinning around, so he decided to quit running and walked directly toward that massive thing in the middle of white flowers lake. Turned out it was a grave. There was a tombstone in front of the grave with this inscription: 'tao hua dao nu zhu feng shi mai xiang zhi zhong' [the fragrant burial ground of Mistress surnamed Feng of the Peach Blossom Island], eleven large characters.

"This must be Rong'er's mother's grave," Guo Jing thought. "Rong'er lost her when she was very small, it was really sad." He knelt down in front of the grave and kowtowed four times to pay his respect.

The flute sound suddenly stopped when Guo Jing was kneeling down. Everywhere around him was very quiet; but as soon as he stood up, the flute sound resumed in front of him. "I don't care if it will bring luck or misfortune, I will follow the sound," Guo Jing thought.

Again he walked among the vegetation following the flute. And again sound of the flute changed its personality. First it sounded like laughter, but suddenly changed into anger; it affected his feelings to no end. Guo Jing's pulse quickened, "How come this tune is so pleasant to my ears?" he was fascinated.

The tune increased its tempo, urging him to get up and dance. Guo Jing felt the urge, his face blushed, and he felt his blood was blowing even faster trough his hundreds of arteries. Immediately he sat on the ground and meditated as Ma Yu had taught him: circulating his internal energy around.

At first his heart was shaken, several times he felt the urge to stood up and dance to the tune. After breathing in and out several times, his heart calmed down, his mind became clear. No matter how the flute was changing, he heard it like the sound of the waves of the sea, or like a breeze of wind on the tree tops. He felt his 'dan tian' was bursting with energy; his whole body felt comfortable. No longer he felt hunger or thirst. He knew that as he reached this state, external elements would not be able to affect him anymore; so he slowly opened his eyes only to see in the darkness, about two 'zhang's ahead a pair of bright eyes was looking straight at him.

He was startled, "What kind of beast is that?" he thought while leaping several steps back. But suddenly those eyes disappeared. "This Peach Blossom Island is really strange," he thought, "even a quick leopard or a swift fox won't be able to move that fast." He hesitated for a moment and then heard a fast breathing sound; it was a human's breathing. So he realized, "It is a human being! Those sparkling eyes were his. I didn't see them anymore because he shut his eyes, but actually he is still here."

Having this thought he laughed at his own foolishness; but it was unclear to him whether that person was a friend or a foe, so he did not dare to make a sound and just open his own eyes wide to observe quietly.

At that time the flute floating carrying a passionate, seducing feeling; resembled a woman sighing and groaning: sometimes murmuring softly but at other times raging wild with desire.

Guo Jing was still young, but he had trained martial arts since his childhood, hence did not know much about sexual relationship. He felt the flute was affecting his emotion; the melody was enchanting to the soul, but he did not give too much thought of it. But not so with the other man; he was gasping for breath, groaning softly. It sounded like he was struggling with all his strength just to resist the enticement that came from the flute.

Guo Jing's heart was moved with compassion toward this man; slowly he came to him. The trees on that place were dense; the moon was bright, but the moonlight could not penetrate the thick branches and leaves. Guo Jing walked closer and only then he could vaguely see the man's appearance. He was sitting cross-legged; his hair was long, almost touching the ground. His eyebrows, moustache and beard were long, covering his mouth and nose. His left hand was on his chest, his right hand on his back.

Guo Jing knew that was one of the positions to train/cultivate internal energy the 'dan yang zi' [Son of Cinnabar] Ma Yu had taught him atop that barren hill in the Mongolian desert. It was the technique to closed one's heart and mind. Whenever someone has master it to perfection, even if thunder rumbles and the lighting flashes; or water gushes and creates landslides, it would not bother him a bit. This man looked like he knew this advanced skill of internal energy cultivation; but why couldn't he control himself and was afraid of the flute sound?

The flute sound quickened; that man's body swaying and twitching. Several times he jumped a few feet off the ground; finally after struggling with all his might he was able to sit down. Guo Jing saw this cycle happened several times: he would be calmed for a moment then agitated before calming down himself again; but the cycle was getting shorter and shorter. Guo Jing knew that man was fighting a losing battle, so he started to worry for him.

The flute played two intricate melodies softly. Suddenly that man shouted, "All right! All right!" he was about to jumped up. Guo Jing realized the time was critical; without thinking he rushed forward and stretched his hands pushing down on that man's shoulder; his right hand tapped the 'da zhui xue' [big spine acupoint] on his neck. He remembered when he was training on that Mongolian cliff; whenever his mind was troubled and could not achieve tranquility, Ma Yu would gently stroke him on his 'da zhui' acupoint and that helped him to be calm. His internal strength was not as strong as Ma Yu's, he could not help this man to overcome the flute sound; but because he struck the right spot that long-haired old man was able to calm himself. That man closed his eyes and seemed like he was under control.

Guo Jing was secretly happy, but then someone scolded him, "Little beast! You ruined my big effort!" The flute suddenly stopped. Guo Jing turned his head but did not see anybody. That voice sounded like Huang Yaoshi. He became anxious and regretted his action. "I don't know if this long-haired old man is good or bad? I carelessly helped him, surely increased Rong'er's father's anger. If this old man were a monster or evil witch, didn't I just commit a big mistake?"

He heard the old man's breathing was slowing down to an even breathing. Guo Jing refrained himself from asking that old man question. He simply sat quietly opposite him; closed his eyes and used that time to meditate. Soon he was able to calm himself and achieve the state of emptiness. He lost track of time and opened his eyes when the morning star began to dim by the dawn sunlight.

The morning light shone through the trees and flowers above, illuminating the old man' face. Guo Jing could see clearly now; his hair and beard were not entirely white but God knows how many years a shaving knife had not touched his head. He looked like a cave man.