Eagle Shooting Hero 2(34)

Huang Yaoshi listened attentively and his heart was stirred. He looked at Huang Rong, who was gazing lovingly at Guo Jing. Then he looked at Guo Jing. He hated this dumb kid to the core…Guo Jing’s intelligence was questionable; he knew nothing of literature or martial arts or music, chess, calligraphy and painting. He would not be a talented scholar or a gallant knight. Both he and his wife were intelligent people and he knew their only daughter’s brainpower was not far below theirs.

If he let this scatterbrain marry his daughter, it would be like throwing a fresh flower into cow dung.

Right now he saw Guo Jing standing alongside Ouyang Ke; he could not help but compare those two. Ouyang Ke’s intelligence and smart appearance was a hundred times better than Guo Jing’s.

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His mind was set to take this young man as his son-in-law. But Hong Qigong’s face showed he would not easily give up; so he cooked up a scheme and said, “Brother Feng [Feng Xiong], your nephew is injured. You’d better take care of that first; we will discuss this matter further later.”

Ouyang Feng had been worried about his nephew’s condition for a while and was hoping Huang Yaoshi would give them a chance to take care of his injuries. He immediately beckoned his nephew and the two walked back into the bamboo groove. Huang Yaoshi then engaged Hong Qigong in some pleasantries.

In about the time needed to cook some rice later, the uncle and nephew returned to the pavilion.

Ouyang Feng had extracted the steel needles from his nephew’s body and mended the broken rib as well.

“My daughter’s posture is as weak as a willow tree; she is stubborn, disobedient and hardly worthy to be a gentleman’s wife. But Brother Qi and Brother Feng have both unexpectedly given me the highest honor by asking her hand in marriage. My daughter was already betrothed to Mr. Ouyang, but Brother Qi’s request is also difficult not to accept. I have an idea and I wonder if you two brothers would tell me if this idea will work or not?” Huang Yaoshi said.

“Say it quickly … say it quickly!” Hong Qigong interrupted. “The Old Beggar doesn’t like listening to your twisting and flowery words.”

Huang Yaoshi smiled faintly. “Brothers, even though this daughter of mine is unworthy, I still hope she will find a good husband,” he continued. “Mr. Ouyang is Brother Feng’s honorable nephew, while Mr. Guo is Brother Qi’s outstanding disciple. Both are very fine gentlemen and it is very difficult to choose one of them. I have no alternative but to come up with a three-subject test and I will betroth my daughter to whoever passes this test. I will not favor either one of them. Will both old friends tell me if this idea is good?”

Ouyang Feng clapped his hands. “Clever! Wonderful!” he called out. “The only thing is, my nephew is injured; if the test involves martial arts then we have to wait until he is fully recovered.”

He had seen the fierceness of Guo Jing’s attack that injured his nephew; he knew that if they contended in martial arts his nephew would no doubt lose. So he used his nephew’s injury to their best advantage.

“Certainly,” Huang Yaoshi said. “A martial arts contest would harm the good relationships between two families anyway.”

Hong Qigong thought in his heart, “This is so typical of Old Heretic Huang. We all are Wulin people; if the test involves literary and not martial arts skill, do you expect an ‘academic scholar’

[zhuang yuan] to become your son-in-law? If you come up with music or poetry, even if he was reincarnated, my stupid disciple will not be able to take the test. Your mouth says no favorites, but obviously you totally favor the other side. My stupid disciple will lose for sure. This is confounding! I will fight Old Poison first and talk later.” He looked upwards and laughed hard; then, staring at Ouyang Feng he said, “We are all martial arts practitioners; instead of a contest of martial arts, would you prefer to have an eating contest or defecating race? Your nephew is injured, but you are not. Come … come … come! We will fight in their stead.”

Without waiting for an answer he sent his palm towards Ouyang Feng’s shoulder. Ouyang Feng stepped back several feet. Hong Qigong put his bamboo staff down on a small bamboo table.

Eagle Shooting Hero

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“Watch out for this!” he shouted. While his words were still hanging in the air both his palms had already moved seven times in rapid succession.

Ouyang Feng dodged to the left and evaded to the right and all seven attacks flew past. His right hand shoved the snake staff into the bricks in front of the pavilion, and in a flash his left hand had also sent seven counterattacks.

Huang Yaoshi cheered, but did not prevent them from fighting. He wanted to watch these two world-class martial arts masters, who were his peers, and see what kind of improvements had they made twenty years after their last meeting.

Both Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng were the experts of their respective martial arts schools. They had reached the pinnacle of their martial arts twenty years ago. After the Sword Meet of Mount Hua both had trained hard and improved their skills tremendously. Their skills were incomparable to when they had their meet on Mount Hua and now they meet again on Peach Blossom Island. Each launched swift attacks and counterattacks, but they were actually still probing their opponent’s skills. Both combatants exchanged fast and forceful palms and fists so that the gusts of wind created swayed the bamboo leaves around them. Although they were only testing each other, their moves carried profound martial arts techniques.

On the sideline Guo Jing was watching with full attention; whether it was an attack or a defense, every single move was a wonderful one and beyond his wildest imagination. The ‘Nine Yin Manual’ contained the deepest martial arts theory in the world whether it be internal or external energy cultivation, bare hands or swordplay, and other kinds of the most profound martial arts imaginable. After Guo Jing memorized the content by heart and even though he did not understand every single one of them, those theories were actually ingrained in his brain. Now as he watched those two combatants exchanging exquisite moves, those theories came flooding back into his mind, forming a fuzzy shadow in his brain.

Earlier he’d listened to Huang Yaoshi and Ouyang Feng’s flute versus zither battle. That was an invisible internal energy battle and it was extremely difficult to clearly see their relationship to the theory in the manual. This time the battle was fists and kicks and much easier to perceive. In his delight, his heart was itching to try what he had seen.

Very quickly Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng had exchanged more than three hundred stances. Both were surprised at their opponent’s skill and could not help but praise each other in their hearts. On the side-lines Huang Yaoshi looked on with a sigh and thought, “I have trained myself painstakingly on Peach Blossom Island and I thought, after Wang Chongyang passed away, my martial arts would be number one in the world. Who would have thought that the Old Beggar and Old Poison have both taken their own paths and reached these frightfully respectable levels of martial arts?”

Both Ouyang Ke and Huang Rong were deep in their own thoughts and each hoped that their side would gain a quick victory. But they actually could not comprehend the exquisiteness of the martial arts being displayed in front of their eyes. From the corner of her eye Huang Rong saw a black shadow dancing erratically with flailing hands and feet moving constantly. She turned her head and discovered that the shadow was Guo Jing. Guo Jing’s expression was strange and it looked like he was in ecstasy. Her heart skipped a beat. “Jing ge ge!” she called with a low voice.

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Guo Jing did not hear her; he was too busy moving his hands and feet. Huang Rong felt anxious, so she watched attentively and discovered that Guo Jing was actually imitating Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng’s movements.

By now those two had changed the way they were fighting; every fist and every kick was sent out slowly. Sometimes they would stand still for a moment, and then send out a fist. After they exchanged one stance, they would sit down on the ground to take a rest; then stand up and exchange another move. In fact, the way they were fighting was slower than two disciples practicing martial arts. But looking at their faces, one could see the seriousness of their expressions, almost to the point of being very tense.

Huang Rong glanced towards her father and saw him looking intently at those two and his face was also unusually tense. Ouyang Ke was the only person around who’d maintained his calmness. He looked at her flirtatiously while lightly waving his folding fan.

Guo Jing saw an unconventional move and he could not restrain from cheering loudly. Ouyang Ke was irritated, “Your dirty kid does not understand anything, what is he shouting about?”

“Just because you don’t understand, how would you know whether or not other people understand?”

Huang Rong shot back.

Ouyang Ke laughed, “He’s just flailing his hands and feet foolishly. Given his young age, how would he know the wonder of my uncle’s divine martial arts?”

“You are not him; how would you know what he knows?” Huang Rong replied.

While the two were bickering on the side, Huang Yaoshi and Guo Jing turned a deaf ear on them; they were watching the fight with rapt attention.