The Legend of the Condor Heroes

After taking a good rest he took a tree branch to dig a hole in which he intended to bury both volumes together. He was digging and sighing at the same time. But suddenly an idea came to his mind, he exploded in laughter and cheers, "That's right! That's right! This way I can have both ways!" He was so ecstatic that Guo Jing was startled, "Big Brother, what both ways?" But Zhou Botong merely laughed without saying anything. It looked like he came out with a really great idea.

"Brother Guo is not my Quan Zhen Sect's disciple. I will teach him and let him train, then I will see the result," he thought. "This way I can satisfy my curiosity and following martial brother's dying wish at the same time." He was going to tell this idea to Guo Jing when suddenly he had another thought, "From the way he speaks I gathered he detests the Nine Yin Manual. He thinks it was an evil martial art; but that was because the Twin Killers of the Dark Wind only looked at the second volume; they did not train the first volume, which would tell them how to cultivate the inner energy and build a foundation for the subsequent techniques. They only took the fiercest martial arts they could find, which resulted in monstrosity of their martial arts. I'd better not tell him anything; I'll let him practice and let him know afterwards. That time he will have mastered the martial arts; even if he wants to get rid of it he won't be able to do anything. Won't that be interesting?"

By nature he was mischievous; others scold him or get mad at him, he did not care; others love him or show favor to him, he did not give it any thought. As long as he could play or make practical jokes and have fun, he would be happy. Now that he had thought this idea he maintained his composure and with a straight face he told Guo Jing, "Xian Die [worthy brother], during my fifteen years inside this cave I have created not only the Vacant Fist and the Mutual Hands Combat techniques, but also some other techniques. Now that we don't have anything to do, what do you say I teach you some more to pass the time away?"

"There is nothing better," Guo Jing said, "But Rong'er said she is thinking of a way to get us out of here …"

"Has she found a way out for us?" Zhou Botong asked.

"Not yet," Guo Jing replied.

"Then what's wrong with learning new things while waiting for her?" Zhou Botong suggested.

Guo Jing happily complied, "That will work. Big Brother's martial arts must be marvelous."

Zhou Botong secretly laughed, "Don't you be happy yet," he thought, "You have fallen into my scheme!" So he immediately passed on the essence of the Nine Yin Manual; a little part at a time from his memory. Naturally Guo Jing did not understand it immediately, but Zhou Botong was very patient. He would repeat the lesson as many times as needed. As for the lessons from the second volume on the leather wrap, he would memorize it first when Guo Jing was not looking, and then he would passed it on when he had memorized it.

The Nine Yin Manual contained various martial art techniques which were different from each other. Zhou Botong taught the theory but did not give any example on how to do it. He let Guo Jing to ponder and find out on his own. Afterward he would test the newly learned technique against his Quan Zhen Sect's martial art.

After several days he started to see the marvelous martial arts of the Nine Yin Manual which Guo Jing gradually mastered; however, Guo Jing was still completely unaware that he had learned the Nine Yin Manual. Zhou Botong was very happy; he would often smile in his sleep.

In the meantime Huang Rong kept preparing food for Guo Jing although she did not show up personally. So Guo Jing's heart became content and he managed to achieve quicker advancement.

One day Zhou Botong was teaching the 'jiu yin shen zhua' [nine yin divine claw]; he instructed Guo Jing to use his ten fingers to practice against the stonewall. Guo Jing had practiced several times when suddenly he realized something. "Big Brother," he said, "I think Mei Chaofeng also trained this kind of martial art, only she practiced against human. She would insert her five fingers inside somebody's skull. It was very cruel."

Zhou Botong was startled, "That's true," he thought, "Mei Chaofeng did not know the first volume, so she followed the instruction literally. The second volume only mentioned 'concentrate the energy on the five fingers, firmly attack the enemy's head.' She did not know that 'the enemy's head' means the enemy's vital point; not literally insert five fingers on the enemy's skull. No wonder she thought she had to train using real skulls. This Nine Yin Manual contains lessons of spiritual purity, to chase evil spirits away, how could it teach anybody to practice this cruel and ferocious martial art? That old hag had strayed too far from the truth. Brother Guo Jing is already suspicious so I'd better not teach him that kind of martial art." Thereupon he smiled and said, "Mei Chaofeng practiced demonical type of martial art; how can she be compared with our true orthodox school of martial arts? All right, we won't train this 'divine claw' martial art for the time being, I will teach you some more of our heritage martial art."

Speaking thus he hatched another good idea, "I will teach him the first volume until he really comprehended everything. Then I will continue with the second volume. He will see the logical connection between the first and the second, so he won't raise any suspicions anymore." So he started to recite the theory from the first volume and told Guo Jing to memorize it.

The lessons in the manual were very deep and profound, how could Guo Jing comprehend everything? Zhou Botong realized Guo Jing was slow, so he told him to recite it aloud. After dozens of time Guo Jing was able to memorize almost everything. Some of it he did not understand the meaning, but he memorize it anyway. Several days passed, Zhou Botong had passed most of the book so he told Guo Jing to start practicing his internal energy cultivation.

Guo Jing thought the internal energy cultivation method was similar to the one he learned from Ma Yu, only this one was deeper and more difficult; but he credited that to the fact that Zhou Botong was Ma Yu's martial uncle, so naturally his way of cultivating internal energy would be more profound than Ma Yu's. He also recalled when Mei Chaofeng sat on his shoulder battling the enemies in the Zhao palace she asked him some questions about internal energy cultivation which he was able to answer, so he did not suspect anything at all. Although he frequently noticed Zhou Botong's funny expression, like he was amused by something funny, he thought it was Zhou Botong's natural disposition that loved to play jokes. Maybe he was thinking of some other amusing things.

The manual contained more than one thousand gibberish characters without any clear meaning. These past several years Zhou Botong had repeatedly pondered about those words in the cave, but he still did not have any clue on what they mean. Nevertheless he passed them on to Guo Jing anyway. And when Guo Jing asked what they mean, Zhou Botong simply said, "This secret can't be divulged right now, you will understand it when the time comes."

Memorizing these thousand or so words without understanding what they say was a hundred times more difficult than memorizing a regular book. It may not be too difficult for a sharp person; but although Guo Jing was slow, he had a strong determination. After more than a thousand times reciting he eventually was able to memorize everything.