The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 19 – The underground old lady, Part 9

Lu E saw that her mother’s face had reddened with anger; she interrupted and tried to persuade her, “Mother, brother Yang is not even twenty yet; he has studied with his Master deep in the mountains ever since he was young; of course there are things about the Wulin that he doesn’t know.”

Qiu Qianchi ignored her and kept on grumbling.

Twenty years ago, the Iron Palm Clan was indeed very famous; but at the second Mount Hua competition, the Iron Palm Chief Iron Palm Water Floater Qiu Qianren entered religion and the tutelage of the Reverend Yideng. The Iron Palm Clan dispersed immediately after that. When the Iron Palm Clan was dispersing, Yang Guo had just been born and no one had ever mentioned the clan to him before, so naturally he wouldn’t know anything about it. His mother Mu Nianci had actually lost her virtue to his father Yang Kang on Iron Palm Peak; his mother became pregnant and Yang Guo was conceived.

Now as Qiu Qianchi talked about this, his eyes stared, not knowing how to reply. Qiu Qianchi had been in the Passionless Valley for almost thirty years; she has not heard about the changes in the Wulin world. She just knew that the Iron Palm Clan had been famous for hundreds of years, so they must be flourishing even more at the present time. But now she heard that Yang Guo hadn’t even heard of the three words ‘Iron Palm Clan’ before; of course she would break out in a thunderous rage.

Yang Guo was being insulted and cursed at for no reason at all; at first he forced himself to take it; but as it went on, the insults were beginning to go too far. He was starting to get angry and was about to answer back when, just as he was going to open his mouth, he saw Lu E staring at him. Her eyes were filled with tenderness and her face was looking apologetic. Yang Guo’s heart softened and his face showed a helpless expression; he was beginning to feel contented as he thought, “The worse your mother treats me the better you treat me. The old bat’s words just brush past the ears, while the beauty’s warmth goes to my heart.” His brain became active as his heart relaxed; suddenly he thought, “Miss Wanyan Ping’s martial arts appeared to be of the same school as Gongsun Zhi; she also said that she practiced the “Iron Palm”; she must have some kind of connection with the Iron Palm Clan.”

He closed his eyes and recalled that when Wanyan Ping fought Yelu Qi, he could remember about seventy or eight percent of it. When he fought Gongsun Zhi just a few hours ago, his attacks and form were even clearer in his mind and he called out, “Ah, I remember.”

Qiu Qianchi said, “What?”

Yang Guo said, “Three years ago I saw an extraordinary Wulin Senior battle eighteen men from the world of Jianghu; he fought them all empty handed. In the end he seriously injured nine of them and killed the other nine. I heard this great person say that he was from the Iron Palm Clan.”

Qiu Qianchi asked quickly, “What did this person look like?”

Yang Guo made it up as he went along and said, “This person was bald and was around sixty years of age, his face glowed and he was tall, he wore a green gown and said he said his surname was Qiu…”

Qiu Qianchi suddenly shouted, “Bullshit! My two brothers are not bald, they are not tall and they have never worn green before. You saw that I’m tall and bald so you said they’re bald as well?”

Yang Guo thought, “Crap!” But his face remained unmoved and he laughed, “There’s no need to rush me; I didn’t say this person was your brother. Could it be that everyone who’s named Qiu is your brother?”

Qiu Qianchi could say nothing after this rebuttal and asked, “What were his martial arts like?”

Yang Guo stood up and performed a few fists of Wanyan Ping’s mixed up with the form and palms of Gongsun Zhi; eventually he became more and more fluid in his actions and the grotto was filled with elegant palms and powerful punches. Though his stances were slightly wrong, it was somewhat better than the original palm techniques of Wanyan Ping. His natural movements covered up all the places that were out of form with Wanyan Ping’s techniques. His hand and leg movements were tight and complete and whenever he sent out a palm, he would deliberately put extra effort in it to make it more vicious.

Qiu Qianchi watched with great joy, she called out, “E’er, E’er, that’s the martial arts of our Iron Clan Palm, watch carefully.”

Yang Guo performed these stances with Qiu Qianchi pointing out the stances and explaining the lethal aspects of them from the side.

Yang Guo was amused and thought, “If I carry on any longer she’ll see through me.” He then stopped and said, “At this point, the Wulin senior had won and there wasn’t a need to carry on.”

Qiu Qianchi was delighted and said, “You’ve remembered a lot of the stances wrongly, your hand movements are incorrect as well; but to perform it as you did is really something that is difficult to do. What was the name of this Wulin Senior? What did he say to you?”

Yang Guo said, “This extraordinary person’s movements were like a divine dragon. After he won he flew away. I just heard from the remaining nine injured men and they were blaming themselves saying, how could we give trouble to Master Qiu of the Iron Palm Clan? Weren’t we signing our own death warrants?”

Qiu Qianchi said with delight, “That’s right, the one named Qiu is most probably a disciple of my brother.” Qiu Qianchi loved martial arts; but for the last ten years she hadn’t been able to move her arms and legs freely. Now, as she saw Yang Guo perform her clan’s martial arts, she was thrilled and was itching to have a go. She then started to lecture the two about her clan’s palm techniques and lightness kung fu.

Yang Guo was anxious to get out as quickly as possible so he could deliver the antidote to Xiao Longnu. Though what he heard was advanced and refined martial arts that would benefit him, when he thought about the suffering of Xiao Longnu, how could he keep a frame of mind for learning martial arts? He then signaled to Lu E with his eyes.

Lu E understood and said, “Mother, why did you teach father martial arts?”

Qiu Qianchi said angrily, “Call him Gongsun Zhi! Why father this and that?”

Lu E said, “Yes. Mother, please go on.”