The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Hong Qigong secretly cursed, "The Old Poison is very stingy, just because my disciple writes for him he serves the best wine to entertain him, while for the Old Beggar he only serves insipid cheap wine." He was the world's number one glutton and drunkard; seeing his disciple with this kind of excellent wine, how could he restrain himself from wanting some of that wine? "The Old Poison must have stored the good wine in the boat's hold downstairs; I am going to drink for his happiness, then replace the wine with my urine, let him taste the Old Beggar's own brewed urine wine. Compared to what the Old Beggar and his disciple went through with the sharks, his drinking of some urine in his wine won't be too bad, at least he won't die because of it."

Having this thought he could not help but smile; stealing wine and food was the skill he most proud of. Once he spent three whole months inside the imperial palace in Lin An; he hid on a beam in the imperial kitchen, he had tasted practically every single food and wine that was supposed to be served to the emperor. The imperial palace was heavily guarded, yet he was able to come and go like there were no other people there. Stealing food and wine from a boat's kitchen certainly would not give him any trouble.

Immediately he looked for the steps that would lead him downstairs, and after making sure nobody was watching he carefully went downstairs, relying on his nose to find where the food supply was. The hold was pitch black, but Hong Qigong's nose was able to smell food from a mile away. Slowly he walked along the wall, lighted his torch just to see six, seven wooden barrels piled up in the corner. Hong Qigong was delighted; he extinguished the fire after picking up a broken bowl he found laying around and put it back in his pocket. He walked groping around toward the barrel and tried to lift one up. The barrel was very heavy, it could contain anything.

His left hand he found the plug, while his right hand placed the bowl under it. He was about to pull the plug when suddenly his sensitive ears heard some footsteps. It looked like there were two people walking toward the hold. Their steps were nimble, so Hong Qigong knew they were Ouyang Feng uncle and nephew since nobody on board had that kind of ability. He thought those two came to the boat hold late at night, they must have some evil intentions, like poisoning the food to harm others; so he shrunk his body and hid curled up among the barrels.

He heard the door opened quietly, a flame flashed, and two people walked in; they stopped right in front of the barrels. Hong Qigong's heart skipped a beat, "Are they going to poison the wine?" he wondered in his heart; but what he heard next turned his heart cold.

"Have you placed oil, firewood and sulfur in each cabin?" he heard Ouyang Feng asked.

Ouyang Ke laughed, "Everything is ready, as soon as we start the fire this boat will turn into ashes and the stinky Beggar will be scorched to death instantly."

"They are going to burn the boat?" Hong Qigong was shocked.

"We must wait a little bit longer," Ouyang Feng said, "As soon as that kid surnamed Guo falls asleep you go first to the life boat; just be really careful not to wake the Old Beggar up. I'll come over here and light up the fire."

"What are we going to do with those maidservants and the snake shepherds?" Ouyang Ke asked.

"The stinky Beggar is a great master of this age; it's worthy of his reputation to sacrifice some people to accompany him in his death," Ouyang Feng coldly said.

While still talking their hands did not stay idle, they unplug the barrel and the smell of oil attacked Hong Qigong's nose. Turned out the barrels were full of vegetable oils. Ouyang Feng uncle and nephew also took some sulfur from a stack of wooden boxes, some firewood and sacks of wood shavings from the shelves, and scattered them on the floor.

Not too long afterward they have finished their job and turned around to go out when Ouyang Ke laughed and said, "Uncle, in less than 12 hours that kid surnamed Guo will be buried in the sea; the only person who knows the Nine Yin Manual will be just you, Senior."

"No, there will be two. Won't I pass it on to you?" Ouyang Feng replied. Ouyang Ke was delighted; he pushed the door closed with the back of his hand.

Hong Qigong was furious and shocked at the same time, he thought if there was no ghost or spirit telling him to steal some wine how would he found out these two people's treacherous plan? If the boat was suddenly on fire, how would he escape the disaster? After could not hear the footsteps of those two anymore, he carefully sneaked out and went back to his own cabin. Guo Jing had already gone back and was sleeping soundly on the bed. He was about to wake him up and discuss what they were going to do when suddenly there was a slight rustling noise outside the door. He knew it must be Ouyang Feng trying to see if they were sound asleep, so he pretended to talk in his sleep, "Good wine! Good wine! I want ten more pots!"

Ouyang Feng was startled, at first he thought the Old Beggar was still awake, drinking wine, but then Hong Qigong cried out loud again, "Old Poison, let us fight for another thousand stances … (giggling) … Good boy! That was awesome!"

Standing outside the door Ouyang Feng listened to him speaking nonsense, he was confused, but then realized that Hong Qigong was talking in his sleep. "This stinky Beggar's death is imminent, yet he still drinks and fights in his dream," he thought.

With his mouth Hong Qigong talked nonsense, but with his ears he listened attentively. Ouyang Feng's lightness kungfu was superb, but Hong Qigong was still able to hear him walking toward the port side of the boat. Hong Qigong put his mouth on Guo Jing's ear and lightly shook his shoulder, "Jing'er!" he whispered.

"Mmm!" Guo Jing awoke.

"Just follow my lead, don't ask any question," Hong Qigong said urgently, "Get out quietly, make sure nobody's watching you."

Guo Jing rolled over and crawled quietly toward the door. Hong Qigong silently opened the door and tugging Guo Jing's sleeve they moved toward the starboard. He was afraid they would be detected by Ouyang Feng; so instead of jumping out he climbed over the edge. With his left hand hanging on the edge his right hand pulled Guo Jing along; both of them hanging outside the boat's side. Guo Jing felt strange, but did not dare to make any noise. Hong Qigong slowly released his hands from the edge and quietly crawled downward; keeping his eyes on Guo Jing for fear that the boat was too slippery for him, that if he should fall, he would surely make noise.

The boat was smoothly painted, plus, it was wet. Secondly, they were going downward, where the boat was sloping toward the water; thirdly, the boat was moving above the waves that made the boat rocked; so climbing downward was truly not an easy matter. Luckily Guo Jing was trained by Ma Yu going up and down the cliff everyday in the desert; besides, his skill had been improved tremendously this past year or so. He would stick his fingers in between the wood plank, or grab the head of a nail, or find a crack somewhere; slowly but steadily going down.

Half of Hong Qigong's body was already under water. He moved toward the stern, with Guo Jing following close behind. His target was the small life boat tied on a rope behind the boat. "Get on that boat!" he told Guo Jing. He loosened up his grip and separated his body from the big boat.