The Legend of the Condor Heroes

While he was cutting trees, suddenly he heard Hong Qigong called out, "Jing'er, come up here."

Guo Jing leaped up to the platform. "It really worked," he said, "I did not even use too much energy."

"Certainly we can't waste our energy, can we?" Hong Qigong said.

"That's right! That's right!" Guo Jing exclaimed, "Now I understand the 'kong meng dong song' principle. Big Brother Zhou had explained it to me, but I did not understand it."

"This martial art is more than enough to cut down trees," Hong Qigong said, "But it is still far from adequate to fight the Western Poison. You must train in the Nine Yin Manual again, only then will you have a chance to defeat him. Let us think of some way to buy some time." Speaking about plan and strategy, Guo Jing could only stay silent, letting his master to think.

After a long time, Hong Qigong shook his head and said, "I can't think of anything good. Let us wait till tomorrow, perhaps Rong'er can come up with some clever ideas. Jing'er, listening to you reciting the Nine Yin Manual I had a thought; I believe I am not wrong. Help me get down this tree, I am going to practice my martial art."

Guo Jing was shocked. "Your injury is not healed yet, how can you train?" he asked.

Hong Qigong answered, "The Manual said, 'The body is cultivated two-folds; namely movement and stillness. Being attacked but stay still.' These sentences had opened my eyes. Let us go down."

Guo Jing did not understand the meaning of these sentences, but he did not dare to defy his master; hence he propped his master's body and gently jumped down the tree.

Hong Qigong calmed himself down, then opened up his arms and launched a palm strike. In the darkness Guo Jing saw his master's body was staggering forward like he was falling down. Guo Jing rushed forward to help, but Hong Qigong had already steadied himself. His breathing was heavy, but he said, "I am alright."

A moment later he launched a left palm strike. Guo Jing saw him staggering along, his feet stumbled; he appeared to be extremely exhausted. Guo Jing fought hard the urge to rush forward and help his master; who would have thought that the more Hong Qigong practiced, the stronger he became. Initially he had to catch his breath for every single stance he launched, but afterwards he was able to launch several stances in succession; his footsteps were getting steadier as well. It was a tremendous improvement. Hong Qigong launched the whole set of '18-dragon subduing fist', followed by a set of 'fu hu quan' [crouching tiger fist].

Guo Jing waited until he finished, then he shouted happily, "You are healed!"

"Help me back up," Hong Qigong said.

Guo Jing wrapped his arm around his master's waist and jumped up to the platform. His delight was unspeakable, he mumbled repeatedly, "Very good! Very good!"

Hong Qigong sighed and said, "Not so good, this martial art is only good to behold, it's actually useless." Guo Jing did not understand, Hong Qigong explained, "After suffering an injury, all I did was resting, trying to recuperate. It never occurred to me that my martial art is of the external type; the more I move the better. It's too bad I realized it way too late; now although my life will be spared, but my martial art will be very difficult to be restored."

Guo Jing wanted to utter some words of comfort, but he did not know what to say; so after a while he simply said, "I'll go down and chop some more trees."

"Jing'er," Hong Qigong suddenly said, "I think I have an idea to intimidate the Old Poison. See if you agree with me." And then he explained his idea. Guo Jing was delighted, "Splendid! Splendid!" he exclaimed; and immediately jumped down the tree to make preparations.

Early in the morning the next day, Ouyang Feng came under the tree. He counted the lumber Guo Jing chopped down and found only ninety of them. He coldly laughed and shouted, "Little bastard [the same 'za zhong' as in Ode to Gallantry]! Quickly roll down here! Where are the other ten?"

Huang Rong had spent the entire night by Ouyang Ke's side, tending his injury. Listening to his pitiful groaning she felt sorry for him. That morning Ouyang Feng left the cave, she followed behind. Hearing his loud shouts she was worried for Guo Jing.

Ouyang Feng waited for a moment, but nothing was heard from the tree above, except some gust of winds coming out from the distant hill. It sounded like somebody was practicing martial art. Hastily he followed the source of the sound. When he turned on the hillside, what he saw surprised him. Hong Qigong was sparring with Guo Jing; palms and kicks flew toward each other, they were engaged in a tight fight.

Huang Rong saw her master not only was able to walk unaided, but it looked like his skill was restored as well; she was pleasantly surprised. She heard him shouted, "Jing'er, careful with this next stance!" and he launched a palm strike.

Guo Jing raised his palm to parry, but before their palms met his body flew backward and 'bang!' he hit a pine tree. That tree was not too big, but it was about the mouth of a bowl in diameter; 'crack!' it snapped by the strength of Hong Qigong's push and fell to the ground.

This strike was nothing but ordinary, but it was enough to stun Ouyang Feng. Huang Rong praised, "Shifu, that was a great 'pi kong zhang' [hacking empty air palm technique]!"

"Jing'er, guard your body well, don't let my palm strength injure you!" Hong Qigong called out.

"Disciple understands," Guo Jing replied. He was just closing his mouth when Hong Qigong's palm arrived. 'Crack!' again Guo Jing was sent flying and bumping into a tree. Strike after strike came one after another; in a short period of time Hong Qigong had used the 'pi kong zhang' to send Guo Jing flying and snapping ten big trees down.

"We have ten trees already!" Huang Rong called out.

Guo Jing was gasping for breath. "Disciple is exhausted," he said.

Hong Qigong held his palm and laughed, "This Nine Yin Manual is really wonderful. My injury was that heavy; I couldn't even exert any strength, yet I achieve success just by one morning exercise."

Ouyang Feng was suspicious; he stooped down to examine the broken tree trunks, but what he saw stunned him even more. Apart from the core of the trunk, the outer ring was exceptionally smooth, even smoother than it would be if the trunk was sawed. He thought, "Could it be that the martial art in the Manual is this marvelous? It looks like the Old Beggar's martial art has been completely restored. How can I fight them if the three of them gang up against me? It's been this far, I'd better start training myself on the martial art from that manual." He cast a glance toward those three and flew back to the cave in a hurry. Immediately he fetch the book Guo Jing wrote, unwrapped layer upon layer of oil paper bundle and straightaway buried his head in the book, diligently studying the Manual.

Hong Qigong and Guo Jing waited until they could not see Ouyang Feng's shadow anymore before both of them burst out in laughter. Huang Rong was delighted, "Shifu, this Manual is truly wonderful," she said.

Hong Qigong laughed without giving her any response. Guo Jing rushed to her and said, "Rong'er, we were only pretending."

Then he told her everything they had thought and done. It turned out that Guo Jing had used his dagger to cut around the trunks, leaving the center part intact. Actually Hong Qigong's palm did not carry any strength at all; every time Guo Jing got hit, he used his own strength to fly backwards and bump into a tree, breaking it down. Ouyang Feng did not know that with the Vacant Fist energy, the dagger was capable of cutting deep into the bough; naturally he did not suspect that the cut was made by the dagger.