Huang Rong smiled, “Silly boy, relax. Release that old man.” Guo Jing then walked over and released his accupoint. Qiu Qian Zhang’s itch stopped but his ‘Yin Du’ accupoint was still sealed, so he remained motionless apart from his pupils. Guo Jing found a 2-foot long club and lit it as a torch, saying, “Rong-er, I’ll go take a look inside, will you be OK here alone?” Huang Rong’s temperature rose and dropped rapidly and the pain was almost unbearable, but she forced a smile,
“With this old man, I’m not afraid, go ahead.”
Guo Jing raised up the torch and treaded carefully. After 2 turns, he came to a large natural cave which was 10 times larger than the cave outside. He scanned the room and observed many skeletons; some sitting, some lying, some scattered on the ground while some had missing bones.
Each skeleton had some sort of weapon or treasure at its side. Guo Jing dreamily thought, “These ex-leaders must have been the great men of their day, yet today they are reduced to bones. Still, at least they have each other for company. This is good; at least it beats being buried alone.” It was as though he did not notice the weapons and treasure in his anxiety for Huang Rong. Just as he was about to leave, he happened to lay his eyes on a wooden box next to a skeleton. He shone his torch on it and looked closely and saw the inscription, “Secrets to Overcoming the Jin,” He started,
“Maybe this is the manual by Grand Marshal Yue,” He tugged at the box when the skeleton suddenly ‘leapt’ toward him.
Guo Jing was shocked and hurriedly jumped back while the skeleton smashed on the ground. He grabbed the box and dashed out. He then supported Huang Rong up and opened the box in front of her. There were two books inside. Flipping through the first book, Guo Jing saw that its contents were Yue Fei’s essays and other literary works. As he glanced through the words and passages he was filled with a strong surge of loyalty and righteousness, and he sighed in admiration. Huang Rong said, “Read a passage to me.” He flipped through casually and recited the passage <The Five Hill Treaties>, “Since the strife in the Central Plains began, the Barbarians have invaded, anger flowed like the spring river; rising united, armies assembled, fighting hundreds of battles. Though we failed to advance far, we cleansed their lair, and swiftly ending the feud between states. Yet today the lone army marches on, for Yixing. The war of Jing Kang defeated and humiliated our lands, and our hatred will not rein our horses. The troops lay in wait for the enemy, raising the morale of the soldiers; battling through time, moving through the northern desert, shedding blood in the cities, exterminating the Barbarians, welcoming the return of the 2 sages, capturing their land; the Imperial Court had no worries, the Emperor slept in peace, and so Yue Fei wrote.” The passage summarized Yue Fei’s life ambitions. Though Guo Jing’s literacy was limited, he was filled with
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the desire to serve the people. While he read some of the words wrongly, he nevertheless felt the essay was extremely well written.
If they were back at Gui Yun manor, Qiu Qian Zhang would not have hesitated to mock and scorn Yue Fei, but now he feared his accupoint would be sealed again. Though he was not well informed about Yue Fei, he still nodded his head, saying, “Yes, it’s indeed well written, and a worthy hero is reading a hero’s essay, nothing could be better.”
Huang Rong sighed, “No wonder Father kept lamenting that he was born decades late; if not he would definitely meet such a great hero. Please recite his poems,” Guo Jing went through a few poems, and some like <The Crimson River> were familiar to her, while others like <Title of a soldier’s pavilion> were new to her.
The Iron Palm Sect members continued to shout and curse; Guo Jing let Huang Rong’s head rest on his thigh while he continued to recite Yue Fei’s works, “The title is <Title of the Sun Dragon’s Residence> : At the Wei Mountain Monastery, the mountain spring defeats the stillness. At the Buddha’s statue in Zijin, the snow covered the old monk’s head. The cold lake water welcomes a new month, and the pine tree welcomes the autumn wind. I leave the dragon’s words, hoping to aid the people in the storm.” The wind blew and the birds chirped as Huang Rong rested snugly in Guo Jing’s arms. Guo Jing said, “Grand Marshal Yue deeply remembered the suffering of the people; he is a true hero indeed.” Huang Rong nodded and smiled, “The young hero is reading the works of a great hero while and old ‘hero’ is listening in. How redundant.” She then asked, “What’s the contents of the other book?” Guo Jing read a few lines inside and excitedly exclaimed, “This… this is really Grand Marshal Yue’s hand written text on the war strategies! Wanyan Hong Lie would never have imagined that this it. Fortunately it’s not been taken by him.” On the first page was written, in 18 bold words: Repeatedly examine plans, Tough/rigorous training, Equal rewards/punishments, Clear uncompromising orders, Fair/just rules, Everyone sharing hardship.
As they were reading, the shouting below abruptly ceased and not a single voice was heard.
Suddenly, they were left in the unnatural silence. Guo Jing and Huang Rong listened carefully and heard the crackling of burning grass in the distance as Qiu Qian Zhang groaned loudly, “Today you 2 dolls have caused my destruction.” In his panic, he called them “dolls” again. Guo Jing rushed out and saw a whole wall of fire swiftly burning towards them. As the mountain was filled with tall grass, the flames rapidly spread to form a sea of fire.
Guo Jing gasped, “They don’t dare step into this forbidden territory, so they’re attacking by fire.
The cave doesn’t have any flammable objects, but we’d surely be fried.” He immediately grabbed Huang Rong when he heard Qiu Qian Zhang screaming on the ground, so he kicked him lightly to unseal his accupoint to let him make his own escape. He then snatched the wooden box and ran up the mountain. They were still a few hundred metres from the summit. Guo Jing gathered his concentration and sprinted upwards with Qiu Qian Zhang following behind. Guo Jing looked down and saw the fire spreading in the distance and knew that thought they temporarily safe, it would not be for long, so he gave a long sigh. Huang Rong suddenly said, “Grand Marshal Yue’s given name is ‘Fei’ (fly), styled ‘Crane’. Let’s try ‘Condor’, how about that?” Guo Jing asked, “What condor?”
Huang Rong said, “Call the condors up to fetch us down.” Guo Jing jumped up and exclaimed,
“That would be fun. I’ll summon them. But I’m not sure they can take our weight.” Huang Rong sighed, “After all we’re heading for doom, so we might as well take the risk.” Guo Jing sat properly and gathered his Qi in his Dan Tian and made a loud, shrill whistle which propagated in all directions. This was the result of his internal energy training under Ma Yu, and with the [Nine Yin Eagle Shooting Hero
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Manual], his internal energy improved by leaps and bounds. Though it was quite a great distance between the base and the summit, it was not long before the condors flew up and stopped in front of them. Guo Jing helped Huang Rong remove the Soft Armour and placed her on a condor’s back. He was worried that she might not be able to hold on tightly to it with her injury, so he strapped her down with a cloth belt. Mounting the other condor, he whistled and the condors flapped their wings.
They trembled greatly as they took off, but once in flight, the condors stabilized. At first, Guo Jing feared that he might be too heavy, but once it spread it s wings, it flew effortlessly. Huang Rong, being a child at heart, felt this was an interesting sight, so she guided the condor towards Qiu Qian Zhang and it glided gracefully past him. Qiu Qian Zhang was shocked and shouted, “Miss, take me along. The fire will consume me soon!” Huang Rong laughed, “It can’t take the weight of 2 people.
Why don’t you try begging your brother? Since his shorter by 3000 chi, wouldn’t he listen to you?”
She tapped the bird and flew away; Qiu Qian Zhang became more and nervous and called out,
“Miss, don’t you think this is interesting?” Her curiosity was aroused and she turned around to what he was up to. Suddenly, he launched himself forward, throwing his body off the mountain to grab her. He knew that either way he would die, so he took such a desperate gamble. With the sudden increase in weight, the condor plunged swiftly. It flapped its wings frantically but still could not produce enough lift. Qiu Qian Zhang grabbed Huang Rong’s back and tried to yank her off and toss her down, but she was strapped to the condor which prevented her from falling off. They were about to plunge to their death, and the Iron Palm Sect members who witnessed them were too shocked to speak. At this critical moment, Guo Jing’s condor flew straight at them and pecked at Qiu Qian Zhang’s head. He felt a sharp pain shoot through his head and he stretched out his hands to shield his head. But he lost his grip and flipped downwards, screaming madly as he fell into the valley below. The decrease in weight allowed the condor to regain its thrust and it gained altitude. The two condors then flew north.