The scholar replied, “Zhou Shishu liked to move around and did not like to stay still. Several days in the Dali palace he wandered to the east and strolled to the west, he played around everywhere; even the empress and the concubines’ palaces did not escape his visits. The court eunuchs were aware he was the emperor’s honorable guest, so they did not do anything to stop him.” Huang Rong and Guo Jing were smiling.
The scholar continued, “Just before Chongyang Zhenren left he said to our Shifu, ‘Lately my chronic illness has come back to me; I don’t think I am going to live much longer. Fortunately I have found an heir to my ‘xian tian gong’; it will strengthen the Emperor’s Solitary Yang Finger.
There will be somebody in this world who can control him. I won’t be afraid he would run amuck with unseemly behavior anymore.’ It was then that my Shifu understood that Chongyang Zhenren Eagle Shooting Hero
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had traveled thousands of ‘li’s to the Dali with the sole purpose of bequeathing the ‘xian tian gong’
to Shifu so that after his death there would be somebody who can control the Western Poison Ouyang Feng. But because the Eastern Heretic, the Western Poison, the Southern Emperor, the Northern Beggar and the Central Divinity shared the honor of the present age, if he said he came to impart a skill, it would be disrespectful to my Shifu; therefore, he first asked my Shifu to teach him the Solitary Yang Finger, then in exchange he taught the ‘xian tian gong’. As Shifu understood his intention he was very grateful and straightaway he diligently trained the ‘xian tian gong’.
Chongyang Zhenren did not live long after he learned the Solitary Yang Finger; he did not have time to study thoroughly, and I heard he had not bequeathed it to any of his disciples. Later on there were some unfortunate events in our Dali kingdom; my Shifu’s heart was broken. He shaved his head and became a monk.”
Huang Rong thought, “Emperor Duan did not want to be an emperor anymore, but became a monk; this must be because of an enormously grieving matter. Others did not tell, it would be inconvenient to ask.” Glancing sideways she saw Guo Jing was about to open his mouth to ask; hastily she signaled him with her eyes. “Oh!” Guo Jing muttered and closed his mouth.
The scholar’s face turned dark; he was reminiscing over past events. After a while he opened his mouth and continued, “Somehow the news that Shifu was training the ‘xian tian gong’ leaked out.
One day, my martial brother,” he pointed toward the farmer, “received an order to go gather some medicinal herbs. He went to the ‘ta xue shan’ [Big Snow Mountain] at the western border of Yunnan; where somebody injured him using the Toad Stance.”
“It must be the Old Poison,” Huang Rong said.
“Who else but him?” the farmer angrily said, “First a young man unreasonably picked a fight with me; he said this Big Snow Mountain belonged to his family. He wouldn’t let anybody trespass and gather herbs without authorization. The Big Snow Mountain spans thousands of ‘li’s; how could it belong to his family? Without a doubt this person was intentionally provoking me. I remembered Shifu’s teaching to endure patiently; I was yielding to him over and over. Who would have thought that this young man got an inch and wanted a foot! He said he wanted me to kowtow to him 300
times before he let me go down the mountain. Finally I couldn’t hold myself much longer and we fought. This young man’s martial art was not bad, we fought for half a day without anybody gaining an upper hand. Unexpectedly the Old Poison suddenly appeared from a valley and without saying anything struck out a palm and severely injured me. That young man then carried me on has back and brought me over to ‘tian long si’ [sky/heaven dragon temple] where Shifu stayed.”
“Somebody had already avenged you,” Huang Rong said, “This young master Ouyang was killed.”
The farmer was angry, “Ah, he’s dead. Who killed him?”
“Hey, somebody avenged you; why are you angry?” Huang Rong asked.
“I want to seek revenge myself, I want to kill him with my own hand,” the farmer replied.
Huang Rong sighed, “Too bad you can’t do that anymore.”
“Who killed him?” the farmer asked.
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“It was another bad person,” Huang Rong replied, “His martial art was below young master Ouyang; but he used craftiness to kill him.”
“Good riddance!” the scholar said, “Miss, do you know why Ouyang Feng injured my martial brother?”
“What’s so difficult to guess?” Huang Rong said, “Based on Ouyang Feng’s martial art, he could kill your martial brother with only one strike; but he only injured him severely and sent him to your Shifu’s door. Undoubtedly he wanted the Reverend to waste his energy by treating his disciple’s injury. You told me that this type of treatment would require a lot of internal strength; he would need five years to recover his energy. Then on the next Sword Meet of Mount Hua the Reverend would definitely not able to compete.”
“Miss is really smart,” the scholar sighed, “But your guess is only half-correct. That Ouyang Feng’s evil heart was difficult to fathom. After Shifu treated my martial brother’s injury, before Shifu recovered, he launched a secret attack with the intention of killing Shifu …”
Guo Jing interrupted, “Reverend Yideng is so compassionate and kind, how could he have any enmity with Ouyang Feng?”
“Xiao Ge [little elder brother],” the scholar replied, “What you said is not right. First, merciful and compassionate good people do not coexist with sinister and ruthless evil people. Second, whenever Ouyang Feng wants to harm anybody, it really doesn’t matter whether that person has any enmity with him or not. Just because he knew that the ‘xian tian gong’ is the black star of his Toad Stance he must kill my Shifu with all possible means.”
Guo Jing nodded his head repeatedly; “Did the Reverend receive any harm from him?” he asked again.
The scholar replied, “Shifu saw through Ouyang Feng’s evil scheme as soon as he saw my martial brother’s injury; that very night we moved away and the Western Poison lost our track. We know he has failed once, he would not give up that easily. He has looked for us everywhere until finally he found this secret place of ours. After Shifu recovered his strength we martial brothers proposed to go to the White Camel Mountain and settled this account with the Western Poison, but Shifu prohibits us to take any revenge; we must not allow ourselves to create any trouble. With great difficulty we managed to live peacefully all these years, who would have thought that with your craftiness you managed to go up the mountain. We only know you are the Nine-fingered Divine Beggar’s disciples; we did not know you meant to do our Shifu harm, hence we did not stop you with all of our strengths. Otherwise we would put our four lives at stake and in no way would allow you to enter the temple. Who would have thought that the man did not have any intention to harm the tiger, but the tiger is harming the man. Ay! In the end my Shifu still fall under your evil hands.”
Speaking thus his face turned fierce, with a tiger like power he slowly stood up. With a ‘shua’
sound the sword on his waist went out its sheath, glimmering cold, dazzling the eye.
The fisherman, the woodcutter and the farmer also stood up unsheathing their weapons, surrounding them from four directions. Huang Rong said, “I came to ask the Reverend to treat my injury, not knowing it would require all of the Reverend’s strength that he would lose his internal energy for five years. There is poison in those pills; I was framed by somebody else. The Reverend has shown me this kind of mercy; even if I don’t have a heart, I still will not repay kindness with evil.”
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With a stern voice the fisherman said, “Then why do you take advantage while Shifu’s strength is gone and he is poisoned you lead the enemy going up the mountain?”
Jing and Rong two people were stunned, “We did not!” they said with a confused voice.
“You still deny it?” the fisherman said, “As soon as my Shifu is poisoned, the enemy delivered a jade bracelet on the foot of the mountain. If you did not scheme it ahead, how can there be such coincidence?”
“What jade bracelet?” Huang Rong asked.
The fisherman was angry, “You still act stupid!” The iron oars in his hands moved; the left oar swept horizontally, the right oar went down vertically, attacking both Guo Jing and Huang Rong.
Guo Jing was sitting side by side with Huang Rong on meditation mats on the floor. As he saw the oars arrive he leaped up with his right hand forming a hook brushing away the horizontally sweeping oar, while his left hand caught the flat of the oar and jerked it hard. This jerking action carried a very strong force; the fisherman felt pain and tingling sensation which forced him to let the oar go. Guo Jing pushed the oar forward. ‘Bang!’ it hit the farmer’s iron rake; sparks flew everywhere. Immediately Guo Jing shoved the iron oar back into the fisherman’s hand. The fisherman was surprised; he took the oar back. Exerting his strength to his right arm he struck down together with the woodcutter’s axe.