The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 15 – Disciples of the Eastern Heretic, Part 17

Yang Guo said, “The two Sha people will join up and fight her from the front, you two attack from the sides. Let’s go find Sha Gu and practice our plan.”

The three of them called for Sha Gu but there was no reply. They didn’t know where she was and the three of them began to worry. The three of them split up to search for her.

Cheng Ying searched for a little while and suddenly saw Sha Gu lying on a pile of rocks, her breathing was weak. Cheng Ying was alarmed and quickly took off her clothes to take a look; she saw that there was a red palm print on her back; she had fallen victim to Li Mochou’s “Divine Five Poison Palm”. Cheng Ying quickly called for Yang Guo and Lu Wushuang and then fed a ‘Nine Flower Jade Dew’ pill to her.

Yang Guo remembered the method to cure this palm from the ‘Five Poison Codex’ and quickly circulated his internal energy and controlled her pressure points.

Sha Gu laughed foolishly and said, “Evil woman, behind, hit me. Sha Gu, hit back, hit her.” The counterattack that Sha Gu used was one of the three palms techniques that Huang Yaoshi taught her. Though Li Mochou succeeded in her ambush, she was struck on the arm and her arm was almost broken; she was frightened and in pain so she left swiftly, not daring to continue her stances and take Sha Gu’s life.

The three took Sha Gu back to the hut and sat anxiously; with one of the good fighters hurt, in tomorrow’s battle it would be even harder to defend against her. Sha Gu had a serious injury; if they escaped with her in tow, they would definitely be caught by Li Mochou.

Yang Guo looked at Cheng Ying and then at Lu Wushuang. Then he then picked up a piece of string from the needle basket that was at hand and then grabbed a pair of scissors and started to cut.

Sha Gu was lying on the bed and suddenly called out “Cut it; cut that evil woman’s broom! Cut that broom!” She didn’t know it was called a ‘fly whisk’ and called it a ‘broom’.

Yang Guo had an idea, “That witch’s fly whisk is a soft weapon and she uses it superbly; precious sabers and sharp swords can’t harm her. If there really was a large pair of scissors that could be used as a weapon and cut her fly whisk, that would be great.” As he thought about this, the string in his left hand started to move like a fly whisk, the scissors in his right hand came forward and cut the string in two. He then pondered about the fly whisk’s movements and how to control the scissors to attack; dreaming up a set of techniques.

Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang watched for a while and then understood, delight was on their faces.

Cheng Ying said, “There’s a blacksmith seven or eight li north of here…”

Lu Wushuang interrupted and said, “Good, we’ll go and get that blacksmith to forge a large pair of scissors.”

Yang Guo thought, “It would be difficult to forge this weapon in such a rush and I’ll have to adjust to the change of battle. This is a lot easier than learning the “Jade Flute Swordplay”, and anyway, we don’t have another plan so we’ve got to give it a try.”

If one of them leaves and takes the order to the blacksmith, it will be extremely dangerous if Li Mochou were to suddenly ambush that person. Right now the four of them could not be separated. So Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang set up some bedding on the horse and placed Sha Gu on the back of the horse. They made their way to the blacksmith.

After the Mongols conquered the Jin, they entered the boundaries of the Song land. This place was the northern frontier of the Song borders, the Mongols had ransacked cities and towns and the whole place was in ruins.

The blacksmith shop was very simple; in the middle was a large anvil, on the floor were pieces of coal and fragments of metals and there were a few plows and sickles hung on the wall. There was no one in the shop.

Yang Guo looked at the shop and thought, “How can weapons be made here!” But since they’ve made their way here, he might as well ask so he called out loudly, “Is the blacksmith home?”

After a while, an old man entered from a side room; his beard and hair was grey, he was about fifty years old. The man had a hump, most probably from bending down to forge metal over a long time; his eyes were red and small because of smoke from the fires. His left leg was crippled and he had a crutch under his arm. He said, “How can I help you?”

Yang Guo was about to reply when suddenly the noise of galloping horses could be heard; two horses rushed towards the shop. On one of the horses was a Mongolian captain, on the other was a Han, Yang Guo didn’t know whether he was a translator or a guide.

The Han loudly said, “Blacksmith Feng? Come over here and listen to the orders.”

The old man greeted them and said, “I am he.”

The Han said, “The captain has the following orders: all the blacksmiths of this town have three days to gather together at Xian city to aid the army. You have to be there tomorrow, you hear?”

Blacksmith Feng said, “I am old…”

The Mongolian captain raised his whip and said a few words.