Eagle Shooting Hero 2(71)
Guo Jing was shocked. “Your injury has not healed yet, how can you train?” he asked.
Hong Qigong answered, “The manual said, ‘The body is cultivated two-fold; namely movement and stillness. When attacked, stay still.’ Those sentences have opened my eyes. Let’s go down.”
Guo Jing did not understand the meaning of those sentences, but he did not dare to defy his master.
Therefore he lifted his master and gently jumped down from the tree.
Hong Qigong calmed himself…then opened his arms and launched a palm strike. In the darkness Guo Jing saw his master’s body stagger forward like he was falling down. Guo Jing rushed forward to help, but Hong Qigong had already steadied himself. His breathing was heavy, but he said, “I am alright.”
A moment later he launched a left palm strike. Guo Jing saw him stagger, his feet stumbled and he appeared to be extremely exhausted. Guo Jing fought the urge to rush forward and help his master.
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Who would have thought that the more Hong Qigong practiced, the stronger he became. Initially he had to catch his breath after every single stance he launched, but later he was able to launch several stances in succession. His steps were getting steadier as well. It was a tremendous improvement.
Hong Qigong launched the whole set of the ‘Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms’, followed by a set of the ‘Crouching Tiger Fist’ [fu hu quan].
Guo Jing waited until he finished, then he shouted happily, “You are healed!”
“Help me back up,” Hong Qigong said.
Guo Jing wrapped his arm around his master’s waist and jumped up to the platform. His delight was unspeakable, he mumbled repeatedly, “Very good…very good!”
Hong Qigong sighed and said, “Not so good, these martial arts are only good to watch, but they’re actually useless.” Guo Jing did not understand and Hong Qigong explained, “After suffering an injury, all I did was rest, trying to recuperate. It never occurred to me that my martial arts are of the external type; the more I move the better. It’s too bad I realized it way too late; now my life will be spared, but my martial arts will be very difficult to restore.”
Guo Jing wanted to offer some words of comfort, but he did not know what to say. After a while he simply said, “I’ll go down and chop some more trees.”
“Jing’er,” Hong Qigong suddenly said, “I think I have an idea to intimidate the Old Poison. Let’s see if you agree with me.” Then he explained his idea. Guo Jing was delighted, “Splendid!
Splendid!” he exclaimed; and immediately jumped down from the tree to make preparations.
Early in the morning of next day, Ouyang Feng came to the tree. He counted the logs Guo Jing chopped down and found only ninety of them. He coldly laughed and shouted, “Little bastard [za zhong]! Get down here quickly! Where are the other ten?”
Huang Rong had spent the entire night by Ouyang Ke’s side, tending his injuries. Listening to his pitiful groaning she felt sorry for him. That morning as Ouyang Feng left the cave, she followed behind. Hearing his loud shouts, she worried for Guo Jing.
Ouyang Feng waited for a moment, but nothing was heard from the tree above, except some gust of winds coming from a distant hill. It sounded like somebody was practicing martial arts. He hastily followed the source of the sounds. When he rounded the hillside, what he saw surprised him. Hong Qigong was sparring with Guo Jing; palms and kicks flew towards each other…they were engaged in a close fight.
Huang Rong saw that her master was not only able to walk unaided, but it seemed his skills were restored as well…she was pleasantly surprised. She heard him shout, “Jing’er, be careful of this next stance!” and he launched a palm.
Guo Jing raised his palm to parry, but before their palms met his body flew backwards and ‘bang!’
he hit a pine tree. That tree was not too big, about a rice bowl in diameter; ‘crack!’ and it was snapped by the strength of Hong Qigong’s push and fell to the ground.
This strike seemed ordinary, but it was enough to stun Ouyang Feng. Huang Rong praised, “Master, that was a great ‘Hacking Empty Air Palm technique’ [pi kong zhang]!”
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“Jing’er, protect your body well; don’t let my palm strength injure you!” Hong Qigong called out.
“Disciple understands,” Guo Jing replied. He was just closing his mouth as Hong Qigong’s palm arrived. ‘Crack!’ again Guo Jing was sent flying, again bumping into a tree. Palm after palm came one after another; in a short period of time Hong Qigong had used the ‘Hacking Empty Air Palm’ to send Guo Jing flying and knocking down ten big trees.
“We have ten trees already!” Huang Rong called out.
Guo Jing gasped for breath. “Disciple is exhausted,” he said.
Hong Qigong held his palm and laughed, “This ‘Nine Yin Manual’ is really wonderful. My injury was heavy and I couldn’t even exert any strength, yet I achieved success with just one morning’s exercise.”
Ouyang Feng was suspicious; he stooped down to examine the broken tree trunks and what he saw stunned him. Apart from the heart of the trunk, the outer rings were exceptionally smooth, even smoother than if the trunk was sawn. He thought, “Could it be that the martial arts in the manual is this marvelous? It looks like the Old Beggar’s martial arts have been completely restored. How can I fight them if the three gang up on me? I’ve been lucky so far, I’d better start training myself in the martial arts from that manual.” He cast a glance towards the three and then flew back to the cave in a hurry. He immediately fetched the book Guo Jing wrote, unwrapped layer upon layer of oil papers from the bundle and straightaway buried his head in the book, diligently studying the manual.
Hong Qigong and Guo Jing waited until they could not see Ouyang Feng anymore before both of them burst out laughing. Huang Rong was delighted, “Master, this manual is truly wonderful,” she said.
Hong Qigong laughed without giving her a response. Guo Jing rushed to her and said, “Rong’er, we were only pretending.” Then he told her everything they had thought of and done. It turned out that Guo Jing had used his knife to cut around the trunks, leaving the center intact. Hong Qigong’s palm actually did not carry any strength at all and every time Guo Jing got hit, he used his own strength to fly backwards and bump into a tree, breaking it. Ouyang Feng did not know that with the ‘Vacant Fist’ energy, the dagger was capable of cutting deep into the tree trunk; naturally he did not suspect that the cut was made by the knife.
Huang Rong was laughing hard, but after hearing Guo Jing’s story, she was silent for quite a while with a deep frown on her face. Hong Qigong smiled and said, “The Old Beggar is once again capable of walking on my own feet; it is truly a blessing from Heaven. I don’t care if it was true martial arts or fake. Rong’er, you are afraid the Western Poison will see through this deception, aren’t you?” Huang Rong nodded. “The Old Poison has good eyesight,” Hong Qigong continued,
“How could we fool him that easily? But life is full of uncertainties, right now it is useless to worry over nothing. Hear me out: Jing’er recited the contents of the manual to me. There is a section which was called ‘Changing Muscle Forging Bones’ [yi jin duan gu pian] or something; I thought it was very interesting. Since we don’t have anything else to do, why don’t we practice it?”
These words were said with offhanded gentleness, but Huang Rong was aware of the urgency of the situation. What their master had said was very reasonable, therefore she said, “Very well, Master, please teach us.”
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Hong Qigong asked Guo Jing to recite the ‘Changing Muscle Forging Bones’ twice, then, based on that, he taught the two how to practice it. He went out hunting and fishing himself as well as lighting the fire and cooking their meals. Several times Guo Jing and Huang Rong offered to help, but he shooed them away every time.
Seven days quickly passed and Guo Jing and Huang Rong made some progress in terms of their energy cultivation. Inside his cave Ouyang Feng was also painstakingly studying his manual and putting all his efforts into doing so. Towards the evening of the eighth day Hong Qigong smiled and said, “Rong’er…how was your Master’s roasted wild goat?”
Huang Rong smiled but did not say anything, she simply shook her head. Hong Qigong laughed, “I can’t eat it myself either. You two have finished the first part of your lesson; today you must rest your muscles and bones, otherwise your ‘qi’ will be obstructed and you will suffer an injury. Ok Rong’er, you prepare our meal tonight; Jing’er and I will go and build a raft.”
Guo Jing and Huang Rong were astonished, “Build a raft?”
“That’s right,” Hong Qigong said, “Do you want to stay with the Old Poison on this deserted island forever?”
Guo Jing and Huang Rong were delighted; they both voiced their agreement and started to work immediately.
The hundred logs Guo Jing cut down were piled neatly at one side. They cut the tree’s bark, wove it into ropes and tied the logs together to make the raft. When Guo Jing used his strength to pull the rope, it broke. He thought the rope was not made strong enough. He tried pulling another rope, but as soon as he exerted a little strength, it also broke easily. Guo Jing was baffled; he stared blankly at the rope and did not know what to do.