The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Guo Jing inspired deeply to concentrate its internal energy, while the other loosened its pressure making Guo Jing fall forward. He tried to re-establish his balance when he felt a stroke coming from his back. He hastened to avoid it but, not having a strong basis, he stumbled. While falling, he took support on his elbow and rebounded, while spinning in the air he threw a stroke of his left foot.

Watching this fast and spectacular recovery, the crowd applauds.

The young aristocrat moved away and attacked with two palms, one was a feint to disturb the adversary, while the other was the real stroke. Guo Jing used then the technique "To dissociate the tendons and to dislocate the bones": his hands fluttered in all senses, aiming the tendons and the joints on the whole body. Seeing the virulence of this attack, the aristocrat changed suddenly of tactic: he also started to use the same technique!

Only, the one learned by Guo Jing had been invented by Zhu Cong, the "Literate to the quick hands", and diverged from the orthodox technique transmitted by the masters of the central Plains considerably. The two looked alike in their principles, but had some differences in the execution. One threatened with the index and the thumb the point "Food of the old man" behind the wrist, the other tried to pick the joints of the fingers. But the two felt mutual apprehensions and didn't dare to go all the way, hardly sketching a movement before passing to another. Thus, after forty or so exchanges, they still couldn't see who had the upper hand.

Snow continued to fall, and a fine white layer covered the head and the shoulders of the spectators that surrounded them.

Suddenly, the young aristocrat seemed to have an opening on his chest.

Guo Jing saw it immediately and tried to benefit from it by pointing his index on the point "Tail of turtledove" of his adversary. But he had some scruples when passing to the action:

"There is no hate between us," he said to himself, "I can't use such a deadly stroke on him!" He then deviated his finger and touched another point, what had no effect on his adversary. This one had the whole leisure to catch his wrist and pull him, while making a hook-foot. Guo Jing lost the balance and fell once again.

Mu Yi, whose hands had just been bandaged by his daughter, also watched the two. He saw Guo Jing fall for the third time and understood that he was not of size to face the insolent youngster and he hastened to raise him from the ground:

"Little brother," he said, "let it go. There's no point to stay any longer among scoundrels of this kind!"

Guo Jing, that had seen the stars and was hurt already, felt the rage mount on his head.

He moved away from Mu Yi and rushed on his adversary, while increasing in strokes.

The young aristocrat, surprised to see him to insist on it of the sort, in spite of the beating that he had just received, moved back three steps, "Don't you recognize your defeat?"

Guo Jing didn't answer and continued to attack.

"If you don't stop," threatened the young aristocrat, "I am going to be obliged to kill you!"

"If you don't return the handkerchief," retorted Guo Jing, "I will never finish with you!"

"But this girl is not even your sister, why do you persist to want to be my brother-in-law?"

"To be the brother-in-law of someone" constituted an injury on the capital, the scoundrels exploded to laugh while hearing it, but Guo Jing didn't understand a drop of it.

"I don't even know her," he said, "she isn't my sister!"

The young aristocrat didn't know anymore if he had to laugh or to be angry:

"Then in guard," he end up saying. "Stupid!"

The two young people restarted to fight. This time, Guo Jing appeared more prudent, and didn't fall anymore in the repeated traps that the adversary prepared him. In fact, from a strictly technical viewpoint, the gongfu of the young aristocrat was superior, but Guo Jing never gave up and fought like a barbarian: he had good receive some strokes, he always restarted to the attack with persistence, without renouncing. He had already fought like this when he was small, during the fights with the kids of the Dushi's gang. Now, he had acquired more agility while learning the martial arts, but his way of fighting didn't fundamentally change since it was in his nature to fight with savagery, not taking note of the recommendation of his Fourth Shifu: "Unbeatable enemy, flee!" In his mind, the more important formula had always been "Unbeatable enemy, insist!", except that he didn't realize it!

The spectacle attracted more and more world, the place was completely cluttered. Wind and snow increased in intensity, but no one left.

Mu Yi, because of his big experience of the Streams and Lakes, knew well that, if the fight continued, the crowds were going to attract the attention of the authorities and maybe provoke their intervention. He knew that it was better to not eternalize themselves there! Only, this young man had come generously to help them, he could not leave him alone here. But he felt very anxious. He raised the eyes and vaguely browsed the assembly, when he noticed, in the crowd, several individuals who seemed to belong to the world of the martial arts. He had been so concentrated on the fight that he had not even realized their arrival.

He moved then slowly, approaching of the servants of the young aristocrat who were held in a corner. Watching them of the corner of his eye, he saw, among them, three characters to the martial look: the first wore a big scarlet bonze dress and a golden cap, it was a very tall Tibetan llama. The second, medium-sized, had silvery white hair but a rubicund and beaming face, to the smooth skin as the one of a baby, without only one wrinkle. He was clothed of a long dress, one didn't know if it was a Taoist or a bonze. The third was very small, but his blood injected eyes had a piercing look, and he carried a proud small mustache.

The presence of these original faces astonished Mu Yi. He then heard one of the servants to say, "Supreme Virtuous, have the goodness to rid us of this stupid, please! If that continues and that it arrives whatever to the Young Prince's, us other servants would be good for the gallows!"

Mu Yi shaked hearing it: "Thus," he thought, "this scoundrel is a young prince! Effectively, if the fight continues, it could happen a misfortune to him. Apparently, all these people are experts belonging to the royal house, that the servants summoned here to lend assistance to the prince."

The Tibetan llama smiles without saying a word. The old man shouted while laughing, "The Supreme Virtuous Lingzhi is an eminent member of the esoteric school of Tibet, he cannot fall as low as to come to the hands with a rookie of this kind, it would be to disrespectful … And then, if it was to arrive something, the Prince would at most break your legs, he wouldn't go as far as wiping you out, wouldn't he?"

"Anyway," did intervene the small man of the eyes injected of blood, "the Young Prince is stronger than this kid, what do you have to fear?"

He was small, but had a piercing voice. The spectators around them jumped while hearing it and turned around to look at him but, nervous by his menacing look, all lowered the eyes immediately.

"Our Young Prince had such a hard work to learn all this gongfu," said the silvery old man, "if he can't even make the a demonstration publicly of it, he would be really frustrated if all these years of efforts were just wasted! If someone takes the liberty to go help him, he will be surely very vexed…"