Huang Yaoshi was inwardly amazed. Once again he changed the flute’s sound: now winter had passed and summer came around. Guo Jing struggled hard to resist, but his clapping tempo began to follow the flute’s rhythm. Huang Yaoshi said in his heart, “If this kid keeps on resisting like this –
even though he is still young, he won’t be able to withstand hot and cold successively and he will suffer a severe illness in the future.” The flute sound became graceful, dispersing into the forest then stopped.
Guo Jing exhaled a long breath, stood up, staggered and nearly fell again to the ground. Only after taking several deep breaths did he manage to steady himself. He knew Huang Yaoshi was showing mercy; so he stepped forward, bowed and thanked him. “Thank you very much for showing mercy, Island Master Huang,” he said, “Disciple is very grateful.”
Huang Rong noticed Guo Jing’s left hand was still holding his shoe and could not stifled a laugh,
“Jing ge ge, put your shoe back on,” she said.
“Yes,” Guo Jing replied, and put the shoe back on his left foot.
A thought suddenly came into Huang Yaoshi’s mind, “This kid is so young, yet his martial arts are actually quite profound. Could it be that he is just pretending to be a fool, but is in reality a very intelligent person? If that’s the case, what would hinder me if I wanted to give my daughter to him?” A faint smile appeared on his face and he said, “You are very good, why do you still call me Island Master Huang?” What he was saying was, that since Guo Jing had won two out of three tests then Guo Jing should call him ‘Father-in-law’.
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Who would have thought that Guo Jing really did not have a clue as to what he was talking about, so he only stammered, “I … I …” his eyes looked at Huang Rong; asking for help. Huang Rong was in seventh heaven; she bent her right thumb, signaling Guo Jing he should kowtow. Guo Jing understood this signal, so he bent his knees and kowtowed four times to Huang Yaoshi, but he still did not open his mouth to speak.
Huang Yaoshi smiled and asked, “What do you kowtow to me for?”
“Rong’er told me to,” Guo Jing answered honestly.
Huang Yaoshi sighed silently, “A dumb kid is a dumb kid,” he thought. Extending his hand he took the silk handkerchiefs from Ouyang Ke’s ears, and gave his decision. “Regarding internal energy, Nephew Guo is stronger; but my test subject was music knowledge, in which Nephew Ouyang is much better … Let’s just say that the second test was a draw. I am going to present the third subject and let the two Nephews decide victory or defeat.”
Ouyang Feng knew his nephew had lost, but he did not expect Huang Yaoshi would do him a favor, so he quickly replied, “True, true! Let them compete one more time.”
Hong Qigong was upset but didn’t say anything, he thought, “The girl is your daughter and others can’t meddle. You want to give her to that rotten playboy. I’ve always wanted to fight you, but right now it is difficult for my two fists to fight your four hands. Wait until I ask Emperor Duan to help me. Then we’ll see …”
Huang Yaoshi produced a thin book with a red silk cover from his bosom and said, “My wife and I only had this one daughter. Unfortunately she died prematurely. Today Brother Feng and Brother Qi are both here to ask her hand in marriage. If my wife were here, I am sure she would be very delighted …” Listening to her father speak, Huang Rong’s eyes turned red. Huang Yaoshi continued, “This book was written by my wife the same year she passed away. It was the fruit of her hard work. I am going to let both Nephews read it and then recite it from memory. Whoever manages to recite the most will be betrothed to my daughter.” He caught sight of Hong Qigong with a slight cold smile on his face, but he continued on, “Actually, Nephew Guo has won by one subject, but this book has impacted my life tremendously since my wife died because of it. Now I silently wish her soul in heaven will personally choose our son-in-law and that she will bless the Nephew that wins.”
Hong Qigong could no longer maintain his patience. He shouted loudly and clearly, “Old Heretic Huang! Who wants to listen to your sentimental ghost story? You know perfectly well that my disciple is a dummy and does not know books or poetry, yet you insist on testing him on that very subject. Then you frighten him with talk of your dead young wife. You are shameless!” He brushed his long sleeve and turned his body to walk away.
Huang Yaoshi sneered, “Brother Qi, if you came to Peach Blossom Island to flaunt your power, you still need to practice for several more years,” he said coldly.
Hong Qigong stopped dead in his tracks, “What?” he raised his eyebrows, “You want to fight me?”
he asked.
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“You don’t understand the ‘Five Elements Strange Gates’ [wu xing chi men… referring to the maze-like pathways on the island] techniques,” Huang Yaoshi replied, “Don’t even think of leaving this island alive without my permission.”
Hong Qigong was angry, “I am going to burn down your smelly trees and flower bushes!”
“If you have the ability, go ahead and try!” Huang Yaoshi coldly challenged.
Guo Jing knew those two were about to fight and he also knew that Peach Blossom Island was not to be trifled with; he was afraid his master would fall into a trap on the island. He quickly stepped forward and said, “Island Master Huang, Shifu, let this disciple and big brother Ouyang compete in this book memorization contest. Disciple is really stupid; if I lose, I lose.” But in his heart he was thinking, “I’ll wait until Shifu is safe, then Rong’er and I will jump into the sea and swim as far as our strength will take us. Then we will die together in the sea.”
“Great!” Hong Qigong said mockingly, “You just can’t wait to lose face, can you? Be my guest, then! Be my guest.” His thought was, ‘if you are going to lose anyway, why compete?’ He intended to take his disciples along and walk away to the seashore, snatch a boat and sail away from the island. Who would have thought that this stupid disciple of his would not act according to the circumstance? He had no alternatives but to concede.
“Be a good girl and sit quietly. Don’t get any weird ideas,” Huang Yaoshi told his daughter.
Huang Rong did not say anything, but she expected Guo Jing would fail this next test. Her father said that he would let her deceased mother pick their son-in-law; that meant the previous two tests Guo Jing had won did not count at all. Of the three tests, Guo Jing had obviously won the second one, so the decision that it was a draw was hard to accept. In short, she believed that the reason her father insisted on administering the third test was so that Ouyang Ke would win. She started to cook up an escape plan as to how she would get Guo Jing off the island.
Huang Yaoshi told Ouyang Ke and Guo Jing to sit side by side on a big rock; then he presented the book in front of them. Ouyang Ke saw the cover was written in seal characters [the ones found on official documents] with the six characters, ‘Nine Yin Manual’ [jiu yin zhen jing]; he was ecstatic.
“The ‘Nine Yin Manual’ is the world’s most profound martial arts manual; Father-in-law must be very fond of me to let me read this wonderful book.” Guo Jing, on the other hand, also saw the six characters but had no idea what they were; he thought, “He intentionally wants to make things difficult for me. How would I know those kinds of curving-tadpole characters? In any case I am going to admit defeat.”
Huang Yaoshi opened the cover and the book was actually written in normal characters. The handwriting was graceful and obviously written by a female hand. Guo Jing started to read and his heart skipped a beat. The first line read, “The way of Heaven: A simple fix is not enough to repair damage; it truly is an empty victory, insufficient for a real one.” It was exactly like a sentence Zhou Botong told him to memorize. He looked further down and to his surprise, the sentences were the ones he already knew by heart.
Huang Yaoshi waited a moment, and when he thought the two had finished, he flipped the page. On the second page the words and phrases were slightly out of order, and further into the book, the sentences were becoming more confusing and the characters looked soft and weak.
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Guo Jing’s heart was shaken again as he recalled Zhou Botong’s story of how Madame Huang had re-written the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ from memory and how it drained her emotionally and physically so that she died while giving birth to her child. This book was obviously the one she wrote before she died. “Could it be that what Big Brother Zhou taught me was the ‘Nine Yin Manual’?” he wondered in his heart. “No. It can’t be. The second volume of the ‘Nine Yin Manual’ was lost by Mei Chaofeng; where did he get it from?”
Huang Yaoshi saw him staring blankly, lost in thought and even looking dazed. He did not pay any further attention and slowly turned the pages one by one. At first Ouyang Ke was able to memorize what was written, but later on when it got to the training methods the sentences were garbled and there was no clear relationship between the previous and the next ones. Further into the book, even the characters were unclear. His heart sank and he could not help sighing inwardly, “It seems he is still unwilling to show me the real full-text Manual.” But then he had another thought, “Even though I can’t see the full Manual, compared to this dumb kid I am sure I have memorized more of the text. With this test my victory has been decided.” Having had this thought he felt smug and could not help but cast a glance towards Huang Rong.