The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 20 – The greater xia, Part 2

Chapter 20 – The greater xia, Part 2

Yang Guo was afraid that he would meet danger again and replied coarsely, “If you want me to die then continue talking to me!” As soon as his anger stirred the pain immediately stopped and he received the stances of Gongsun Zhi’s black sword.

Xiao Longnü was extremely sorry and said, “Don’t be angry, I won’t say anything more.” Her mind suddenly lit up, “My poison has been cured but his hasn’t! He got the antidote but he didn’t take it and returned here to give it to me.” She was extremely touched and the love in her was boundless; as soon as this feeling grew, the power of the “Pure Heart of Jade Maiden Swordplay” enhanced greatly. The stances that she unleashed protected all of Yang Guo’s vital points. Since she was protecting Yang Guo, Yang Guo should protect her, but he didn’t dare to glance over at her; and so she was completely unprotected and exposed to the enemy’s attack.

Gongsun Zhi’s eyes were very sharp; he discovered the weakness in just a few stances but he didn’t want to harm a single hair of Xiao Longnü’s head. He directed all his vicious sword and saber stances towards Yang Guo. He was attacking like a crashing wave but Yang Guo was defending like an unmovable cliff. With Xiao Longnü using all her efforts to protect him, all of Gongsun Zhi’s attacks were actually rendered useless.

By this time, Lu E had wakened up and stood next to her mother watching the battle. She watched as Xiao Longnü concentrated only on guarding Yang Guo, ignoring all dangers to herself; she couldn’t help but ask herself, “If that was you, could you disregard all the dangers to yourself to protect him?” She sighed lightly and said, “I would definitely be able to act like Miss Long, but he would not act the same way towards me.”

Just at this time, Qiu Qianchi hissed, “The false saber is not a saber; the false sword is not a sword!”

Both Yang Guo and Xiao Longnü were startled when they heard this, they didn’t know what she meant by these two sentences.”

Qiu Qianchi called out, “The saber is a saber, the sword is a sword!”

Yang Guo had fought Gongsun Zhi twice; all along he has been pondering about where the essence of the “Yin Yang Wild Blades” lies but the light, airy black sword chopped solidly while the heavy gold saber was swift and flighty, following the way of the sword. The stances he was using were the complete opposite to the orthodox martial arts theories. It would be fine if the saber was using sword techniques only and the sword was using saber techniques only; but the reality was, that in the midst of the sword techniques there were saber stances; buried within the saber stances were the lethalness of sword strokes. The variation was mysterious and difficult to grasp; when he heard those words of Qiu Qianchi he thought, “Could it be that the sword techniques of the saber and the saber techniques of the sword are all illusions?” He saw the black sword chopping across his shoulders; this was definitely a saber stance. He then treated it as a sword and extended his ‘Gentleman’ sword forward; the swords collided and they both took a step back. Only then did he know that the black sword was still just a sword, and the saber stances that he was using were merely trying to confuse his opponent. But if the opponent’s martial arts were slightly poor, the saber techniques would still able to cause harm.

With this immediate success, Yang Guo was delighted and continued to search for weaknesses in the opponent’s sword and saber. He was thinking that although the jumbled stances were masterly, the ways of these blades would not be refined. A few more stances passed when he heard Qiu Qianchi say, “Attack his right leg; attack his right leg.”

Yang Guo saw that Gongsun Zhi’s saber was like a blur; there was no open space to attack on his lower body at all. But he thought that, although Qiu Qianchi was not able to perform martial arts anymore, her knowledge was still there. She was the one who taught Gongsun Zhi martial arts; she would definitely know what was real and what was false; so he listened to her and attacked his right leg. Gongsun Zhi swept his saber across and there was no way to hit his right leg; but as he did this, his left shoulder and left side were left unprotected. Yang Guo did not wait for Qiu Qianchi to prompt him and flashed his sword towards him, cutting through his gown underneath his armpit.

Gongsun Zhi cursed and leapt back; he stared angrily at Qiu Qianchi and shouted, “Old witch; do you think I’m going to let you go?” He then continued to attack Yang Guo with the saber and sword.

Yang Guo raised his sword to block the attack. Qiu Qianchi continued, “Kick his back!”

The two of them were facing each other, there was no way he could kick his back; but Yang Guo was confident in Qiu Qianchi. He knew that there was a deeper meaning behind her words; he didn’t care what would happen and dashed towards the back of his opponent. Gongsun Zhi used his saber to cut backwards.

Qiu Qianchi called out, “Pierce his forehead.”

Yang Guo thought, “I’ve just turned towards his back and now you’re telling me to pierce his forehead?” It was an urgent situation and he didn’t give it much thought, he turned back towards the enemy’s front and he was just about to pierce his enemy’s forehead when Qiu Qianchi called out, “Cut his arse!”

Lu E watched with sweaty palms; she knitted her eyebrows and thought, “By calling madly like this, isn’t mother helping father instead?” She kept her thoughts to herself but Ma Guangzuo couldn’t contain himself and he shouted out, “Brother Yang, don’t fall into the trap of that old woman; she wants to kill you.”

Yang Guo had twisted and turned many times and had an inkling as to what her meaning was; when she called out go forward he turned forward and when she shouted go backward he immediately dashed behind him. Indeed, after a few twists and turns, Gongsun Zhi’s right side was uncovered. Yang Guo sent his sword towards Gongsun Zhi’s right side and a ‘chi’ sound was heard as it the sword cut through his gown, piercing about an inch into Gongsun Zhi’s side; blood immediately flowed down his side.

The crowd gave an ‘ah’ call and stood up. Fawang and the others now understood. Qiu Qianchi was not instructing Yang Guo on how to gain victory; she was instructing him on how to gain an opportunity to win in a situation where it was impossible to gain victory. She was not pointing out the weakness of Gongsun Zhi, but was trying to make Yang Guo force a flaw in the opponent from his flawless stances. After being prompted by Qiu Qianchi a few times, Yang Guo immediately understood this advanced martial art notion; he was in awe of her and thought, “If the opponent is a skilled fighter, what flaws will they show in their stances? This piece of advice from this senior is more than enough for a lifetime’s use.”

But to force a flaw in Gongsun Zhi required not only for one’s martial arts to be higher than his, but one must also be familiar with his stances. A person must be clear on all his variations and reactions over ten stances beforehand, before luring him step by step into making an error. Only Qiu Qianchi was able to do this. Yang Guo understood but he was not able to realize it. He heard her prompt and the sword suddenly flashed out, attacking Gongsun Zhi’s back, front and sides urgently. Over twenty stances later, Gongsun Zhi’s leg was cut.

Though this cut wasn’t deep, it was long, at least five or six inches long.

Gongsun Zhi thought, “The two of them are guarding each other, I can’t hurt the one named Yang; if this continues, with the old hag giving advice, I’ll die by this bastard’s sword.” Years ago, in order to save his own life he killed his lover; in this desperate situation he couldn’t care about Xiao Longnü anymore. He moved his black sword and swiped his saber, slashing towards Xiao Longnü’s shoulders.

Yang Guo was alarmed, he stretched his sword forward to protect her from this attack when he heard Qiu Qianchi call out, “Stab his waist.” Yang Guo was startled and thought, “Gu Gu is being attacked right now, how can I not save her? But each time Senior Qiu Lao has given me advice, it has a deeper meaning behind it. It looks like this is a ‘surrounding Wei to rescue Zhao’ plan.” He changed his mind and the sword arrived at Gongsun Zhi’s waist. Suddenly Xiao Longnü called out, her right arm was cut and the ‘Lady’ sword fell onto the floor. Gongsun Zhi’s black sword slanted across and blocked Yang Guo’s sword.

Yang Guo was extremely shocked and quickly called out, “Move back, I’ll take him by myself.” His love and care for her was stirred and his chest broke out in an aching pain again. Xiao Longnü’s injury was not slight; she moved backwards and tore off a piece of her sleeve, wrapping it around her wound. Yang Guo fought with his life; he was furious with Qiu Qianchi and glanced at her with rage.

Qiu Qianchi chuckled, “Why are you blaming me? I’m just helping you defeat your enemy; who’s trying to help you to rescue someone? Ha-ha, what’s her life got to do with me? It’s better if she dies!”