The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Guo Jing saw that Huang Rong was able to control Shagu, he walked out from the inn and jumped on the roof. He looked around for any trace of people but found none. He went back down and walked around the building and noticed that this desolate inn was a standalone building; a few 'zhang's apart from other houses in the area, There were no other people hiding around, now at last he felt relieved.

When he walked inside the inn, he saw Huang Rong held a dagger in front of Shagu's eyes, threatening her, "Who taught you martial arts? Quickly tell me or else I will kill you". While saying that she made two stabbing moves with the dagger.

With the light from the candle, Shagu's smile can be seen. But looking at her expression, it was not like either she was brave or mad; it was more like a stupid smile, completely oblivious of the danger, like she was thinking Huang Rong and she were just playing around. Huang Rong asked her again, Shagu laughed and said, "You kill me, I also will kill you!"

Huang Rong raised her eyebrow and said "This stupid girl is not telling us anything, we should take a look inside the room, Big Brother Zhou, please take care of master and keep an eye on this girl, Brother Jing, let's go in."

Zhou Botong shook his hands and said, "No, I am going in with you."

Huang Rong told him, "I don't want you to come in with me."

Although Zhou Botong was a Senior with higher level of martial arts, for some reason he did not dare to defy Huang Rong's order, he could only beg, "Good Miss, next time I won't argue with you."

Huang Rong smiled slightly and nodded her head. Zhou Botong was very happy; he found two pine branches, lighted them up and fumigated the dark hole for a long time. The fumigated hole emitted a very foul odor. Huang Rong picked up a pinewood torch and threw it into the hole. There was a clatter as the torch hit the far side wall and fell to the ground. Turned out the hole was not deep at all.

With the light from the torch she looked inside. The room was quiet; there was no trace of people. At that moment, Zhou Botong became impatient and sneaked pass Huang Rong inside the room. Huang Rong followed Zhou Botong cautiously. The size of the room was not large. In fact, it was quite small. Zhou Botong cried out "We are fooled, we are fooled, this is no good!"

Huang Rong then let out an "ah!" sound as she spotted a skeleton of a dead person lying on the ground. The skeleton lied upward and the clothes had already decayed. Two rows of ribs of the skeleton were broken. There was another skeleton on the east corner of the room. This skeleton lied on top of an iron chest. There was a long blade penetrating the skeleton in between the ribs and pierced through the iron chest's lid.

Zhou Botong saw the room was small and dirty. He thought those two dead corpses were not that interesting. While Huang Rong carefully examined the two skeletons, Zhou Botong got really impatient and wanted to interrupt her inspection, only to fear that Huang Rong might get angry. He did not dare to say anything and behaved normally, while, inside, his mind was going crazy. He tried asking her, "Rong'er, Good Miss, I can go out now, can't I?"

Huang Rong said "Fine, you can go, get Brother Jing for me."

Zhou Botong happily ran out and said to Guo Jing, "Come in quickly, it's very interesting here," He was afraid Huang Rong might call him back to accompany him, so he found a 'scapegoat'. Guo Jing went in.

Huang Rong raised her torch to show Guo Jing the skeletons and asked, "How do you think these two people died?"

Guo Jing pointed to the skeleton on the iron chest; "Looks like this person died while trying to open the iron tank, died of sneak attack in one stab, while another person had two rows of ribs shattered, so he probably was attacked by a palm of great internal strength."

Huang Rong said, "I think so too, but there are some things I don't quite understand."

Guo Jing replied, "What things?"

"Shagu obviously used the peach blossoming island's technique 'jade-green wave' palm, although she only knew six, seven moves and was not proficient, her technique was good and correct," said Huang Rong, "The two dead people here, I wonder what is their relation to Shagu."

Guo Jing responded, "I will ask the girl". Oftentimes he was called 'stupid kid' by others so he was not willing to call that girl 'Shagu' [meaning stupid aunt].

"I think that girl is truly retarded, it would be difficult to get any information from her, perhaps we can investigate on our own with the small evidences we have here," Huang Rong suggested. She lifted her torch and slowly examined the skeleton and noticed a shiny object by the iron chest. She picked it up and looked carefully. It was a gold emblem. In the middle, there is a marking of a gate engraved into the gold. On the backside of the emblem, there are several engraved characters that read 'by royal decree bestowed to loyal martial art master responsible to defend the state, special guard Shi Yanming'.

Huang Rong said, "If this emblem is his, this government officer's rank was not low."

Guo Jing replied, "A high-ranking official died in here, this is strange."

Huang Rong checked the skeleton on the ground again and she noticed something sticking out around the rib area. She used the torch end to push on it. The object fell, dispersing the dust and revealing a sheet made of iron. She called out in a shocked low voice and picked up the object.

Guo Jing also saw the object in her hand, "Ah!" he also exclaimed.

"Do you recognize this?" Huang Rong asked.

"Certainly," Guo Jing replied, "This is the iron 'ba gua' [Eight Diagram] of Village Master Lu of the Cloud Village."

"It is an iron 'ba gua' alright, but it doesn't necessarily belong to Martial Brother Lu," Huang Rong said.

"That's right!" Guo Jing said, "Certainly not. These two men's clothes and flesh have been decomposed clean; they have been here for at least ten years."

Huang Rong was silent for half a day; suddenly a thought came into her heart. She pulled out the blade stuck on the iron chest's lid and brought it close to the fire; she saw a character 'Qu' was engraved on the blade. She could not help blurting, "The one lying on the ground was my martial brother, Qu Shige [older martial brother Qu]."

"Ah!" Guo Jing exclaimed in surprise.

"Martial Brother Lu said that Martial Brother Lu was still alive, who would have thought he had already died in this place … Brother Jing, look at his legs bones," Huang Rong said.

Guo Jing stooped down and looked, "Both of his legs were broken. Ah, it was your father who broke them," he said.

Huang Rong nodded her head. "He was indeed Qu Lingfeng. My father once said that among his disciples, Martial Brother Qu had the strongest martial art, he was also my father's favorite …" Speaking to this point she suddenly dashed out the room. Guo Jing followed.

Huang Rong quickly went over to Shagu and asked, "Your surname is Qu, isn't it?" Shagu giggled but did not answer.

Guo Jing gently asked, "Miss, what is your surname?"

"Surname? (Giggle) Surname!" Shagu said.

Two people wanted to ask further, but Zhou Botong had already called out, "I am starving! I am starving!"