Eagle Shooting Hero 2(28)

After several days he started to see the marvelous martial arts of the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ which Guo Jing was gradually mastering; however, Guo Jing was still completely unaware that he was learning 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. Guo Jing’s heart became contented and his skills advanced more quickly.

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One day Zhou Botong was teaching the ‘Nine Yin Divine Claw’ [jiu yin shen zhua]; he instructed Guo Jing to use all of his fingers to practice against the cave’s wall. Guo Jing had practiced this several times when he suddenly realized something. “Big Brother,” he said, “I think Mei Chaofeng also learned this kind of martial arts, only she practiced against humans. She could insert her five fingers inside someone’s skull. It was very cruel.”

Zhou Botong was startled, “That’s true,” he thought, “Mei Chaofeng did not know the first volume’s contents so she followed the instructions literally. The second volume only stated

‘concentrate the energy in the five fingers and firmly attack the enemy’s head.’ She did not know that ‘the enemy’s head’ means the enemy’s vital points and not literally to insert five fingers into the enemy’s skull. It’s no wonder she thought she had to train using real skulls. The ‘Nine Yin Manual’ contains lessons for spiritual purity to chase evil spirits away; how could it teach anyone to practice her type of cruel and ferocious martial arts? That old hag strayed too far from the truth.

Brother Guo is already suspicious so I’d better not teach him that kind of martial arts.” Thereupon he smiled and said, “Mei Chaofeng practices a demonic type of martial arts; 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; instead, I will teach you more of our Quanzhen heritage martial arts.”

While speaking he hatched another good idea, “I will teach him the first volume until he really comprehends everything. Then I will continue with the second volume. He will see the logical connection between the first and the second and he won’t be suspicious any longer.” 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 repeating them dozens of times Guo Jing was able to memorize almost everything. He did not understand the meaning of some of it, but he memorized it anyway. Several days passed and Zhou Botong had passed on most of the book, so he told Guo Jing to start practicing his internal energy cultivation.

Guo Jing felt that the internal energy cultivation method was similar to the one he’d learned from Ma Yu, only this one was deeper and more difficult. 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 profounder than Ma Yu’s. He also recalled that when Mei Chaofeng sat on his shoulder battling enemies in the Zhao palace she’d asked him some questions about internal energy cultivation which he was able to answer. He did not suspect anything at all. Although he frequently noticed Zhou Botong’s funny expression, as though he was amused by something, he thought it was Zhou Botong’s natural disposition to play jokes. Maybe he was thinking of other amusing things.

The manual contained more than one thousand gibberish characters without any clear meaning. For the past several years Zhou Botong had repeatedly pondered over those words in the cave, but he still did not have a clue as to what they meant. Nevertheless he passed them on to Guo Jing anyway.

When Guo Jing asked what they meant, Zhou Botong simply said, “This secret can’t be divulged right now, you will understand it when the time comes.”

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

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Guo Jing woke up early one morning and immediately started practicing his martial arts. When breakfast came he noticed another unusual steamed bun. Without waiting to finish his meal he took the bun into the forest and immediately crushed the wax pill inside to get the letter. Once he had taken a glance he could not help but feel very anxious. The letter said, ‘Jing ge ge, Western Poison has proposed to Father to give my hand in marriage to his nephew, and Father answered …” The letter was not finished, indicating that she was writing it in a hurry. It looked like the word after

‘answered’ was ‘yes’.

Guo Jing’s mind was frantic; he waited impatiently for the old servant to clean up then he hastily showed the letter to Zhou Botong.

“Her father gave his consent, that’s good. It’s none of our business,” Zhou Botong said.

“I can’t go along with that,” Guo Jing said, “Rong’er has promised to be with me. She must be frantic right now.”

“If you take a wife, there are some martial arts you cannot practice. That will be too bad,” Zhou Botong said. “I … I feel deep remorse that I didn’t listen to good advice. Good Brother, listen to my advice: you’d better not to take a wife.”

Guo Jing felt the more Zhou Botong spoke, the more unreasonable he became; that made Guo Jing more concerned than ever. Zhou Botong continued, “If I hadn’t lost my virginity and therefore could not practice my martial brother’s fiercest martial arts, how could Old Heretic Huang have imprisoned me in this confounded hole? You see, if your thoughts are focused on your wife, your heart is divided. I am sure today’s martial arts practice will not get you anywhere. If you really marry Old Heretic Huang’s girl… ay! That will be too bad! If only I … ay! Never mind that. In short, if you let yourself get entangled in an affair with a woman, you won’t reach the pinnacle of perfection. Moreover, you will offend your friend and disobey your martial brother. It is very difficult for you to forget her. I wonder how she is … Anyway, don’t ever look at her pretty face, don’t ever caress her beautiful body and don’t teach her acupoints sealing techniques, because she will feel your body to find those acupoints. Those are great taboos … worse yet, don’t ever ask her to marry you ... ”

To Guo Jing Zhou Botong was just mumbling illogically, but it was troublesome. “Whether I marry her or not, we’ll sort that out later,” he said, “Big Brother, we have to help her now.”

Zhou Botong laughed, “Western Poison is very evil; his nephew cannot be different. Old Heretic Huang’s daughter is pretty, but she must have the same character as Old Heretic Huang: a perverted mind. Let Western Poison’s nephew take her as his wife; let them both suffer and let their martial arts not go anywhere. That way we kill two birds with one stone. No, more precisely…lose two birds with one stone. There’s nothing good in either one of them. Don’t you think this is a good idea?”

Guo Jing sighed, walked into the woods, and sat on the ground. His mind was jumbled, “Even if I have to die on Peach Blossom Island’s pathways, I must find her,” he thought. Once his mind was set he leaped up and started moving. At that moment he heard two loud calls from the sky and two white forms swooped down towards him. They were the white eagles Tolui brought him from the steppes. Guo Jing was delighted and extended his arm to let the eagles perch. Only then did he see a bamboo tube tied to the male eagle’s leg. Hastily he loosened it and found a letter inside. It was Eagle Shooting Hero

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from Huang Rong. She told him the latest developments - how Western Poison would arrive in a few days to arrange the betrothal; how her father was closely guarding her and not letting her out of her quarter’s even half a step. That included preparing food for Guo Jing. In the end she said that if she could not get away from all of this, she would commit suicide to show her love for him. She also told Guo Jing that the pathways on the island were dangerous and mysterious and full of booby traps, so she warned Guo Jing not to try to find her.

Guo Jing was dumbstruck. He pulled out his dagger and carved these six characters on the bamboo tube, ‘live together, die together’ [yi qi huo, yi qi si]; then he tied the tube back on the eagle’s leg and raised his arm and pointed north. The eagles circled him several times, and then they flew north. Once he’d made this decision his heart was calm. He walked back to Zhou Botong, sat on the ground in front of him and listened to him imparted more lessons on martial arts.

The next ten days passed without any word from Huang Rong. Guo Jing had managed to memorize the first volume in its entirety. Zhou Botong was inwardly delighted; he proceeded to recite the second volume for Guo Jing to memorize. Again, he did not give any examples or instruction on how to practice them for fear that Guo Jing would see through his scheme. Guo Jing diligently studied and committed each and every word to his memory. Several hundred times worth of reciting later he had both the first and second volumes down pat in his mind, including all the gibberish words such as ‘ang li na de’ and ‘ha hu wen bo ying’ [translator’s note: these characters don’t make logical sentences, so I leave them as they are]. He did not miss a single word.