by Jin Yong
“Ah!” the fisherman exclaimed, “Is that so? Are coming to see my Shifu on the Nine-fingered Divine Beggar’s instruction?”
Guo Jing hesitated before answering, Huang Rong quickly answered, “Certainly.”
The fisherman lowered his head in doubt, he thought, “The Nine-fingered Divine Beggar has an extraordinary friendship with my Shifu. How should I handle this matter?”
Huang Rong understood his hesitation, she wanted to take advantage of this opportunity; she said, “Our Shifu sent us here to seek an audience with Emperor Duan, other than to ask him to treat injury, also to respectfully inform him on a very important matter.”
The fisherman suddenly raised his head up, with eyes blazing like a thunderbolt he fixed his gaze on Huang Rong and sternly asked, “The Nine-fingered Divine Beggar told you to seek audience with Emperor Duan?”
“That’s right!” Huang Rong said.
“Did he really say ‘Emperor Duan’ and not some other name?” the fisherman pressed.
Huang Rong knew there must be something in the way he said that name, but she could not correct herself; she had no choice but nodded her head in affirmative.
The fisherman moved two steps forward and with a loud voice shouted, “Emperor Duan has been no longer in this world for a while now!”
Jing, Rong, two people were shocked; with a shaking voice they asked, “He died?”
The fisherman said, “When Emperor Duan was leaving this world, the Senior Nine-fingered Divine Beggar was by his side. How could he tell you to visit Emperor Duan? Who told you to come here? What kind of evil scheme are you playing? Quickly tell me.” While still speaking he took a big step, his left hand brushed away, his right hand stretched horizontally to grab Huang Rong’s shoulder.
Guo Jing had guarded from the start against the possibility that he would resort to violence. As soon as his right hand was within a foot from Huang Rong’s body, Guo Jing’s left palm made a circle, his right palm went straight forward, in the ‘jian long zai tian’ [Seeing Dragon in the Field] posture, blocking in front of Huang Rong’s body.
This move was a purely defensive in nature, like a strong invisible wall was suddenly appeared in between Huang Rong and the fisherman. The fisherman saw that although Guo Jing sent out his palm, but he was leaning to one side, hence he did not actually attack him; he was slightly surprised, but his hand continued to grab Huang Rong’s shoulder. When his hand was about half a foot apart from his target, Guo Jing’s palm met his, and he felt a shot of pain on his arm, flowing up to his chest, like his attacking force rebounded and attacked his own body. He was afraid Guo Jing would take advantage of this unfavorable situation and launched another attack; he hurriedly leaped back with arm horizontally situated in front of his chest. “I heard it when Hong Qigong discussed martial art with Shifu; this is precisely his ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’. Then these two youngsters are truly his disciples; they were not lying,” he thought.
He saw Guo Jing cupped his fists across his chest with modesty and respect; even though Guo Jing had gained the upper hand, yet his expression did not show the least bit of self-complacency, making a good impression on the heart of the fisherman. He said, “Although you two are really the Senior Nine-fingered Divine Beggar’s disciples, but he was not the one who sent you here, was he?”
Guo Jing did not know how he could guess correctly, but since their lie had been uncovered, he was unable to deny and was compelled to nod his head. The fisherman’s face was not as fierce and full of enmity as before. “Even if the injured were the Nine-fingered Divine Beggar himself, Xiao Ge [lit. little ‘elder brother’, he was referring to himself] still cannot take the Senior to go up the mountain and see my Shifu. I beg for your forgiveness.”
“Even if my Shifu is here you still cannot take him up?” Huang Rong asked.
Eagle Shooting Hero
In her heart Huang Rong was thinking over, “He clearly admitted that Emperor Duan is his Shifu; but he also said that Emperor Duan has already died, and that Benevolent Master Hong was by his side when he died. There are too many strange things here, but this man is really difficult to talk to.” She thought further, “His Shifu is on this mountain, for that I am certain; whether he is Emperor Duan or not, we have to go up and see him.” She lifted her eyes to see the mountain was so high that its peak disappeared into the cloud above; it was higher than the Iron Palm’s Middle Finger Peak, the mountain rocks looked slippery, not even a blade of grass grew. It looked like the waterfall was coming out of nowhere. There was no visible path going up the mountain. She thought, “Li Bai [a famous poet from the Tang Dynasty] said the water of Huang He [Yellow River] went up to the sky; this water truly comes from the sky.”
Following the waterfall her gaze moved down; her mind was still churning a way to climb up the mountain, suddenly her eyes caught a golden light glittering under the water, something was moving in the water. Slowly she walked to the side of the waterfall to see more clearly. Turned out it was the pair of ‘jin wawa’ beneath a rock, their tails were swaying back and forth outside. Quickly she beckoned Guo Jing to come over and see.
“Ah!” Guo Jing exclaimed, “Let me go down to catch them,” he said.
“No! Don’t!” Huang Rong said, “The current is too strong, how can you set your feet down? Don’t be so foolish.”
But Guo Jing thought, “If I take the risk to catch these two strange fish for the fisherman, maybe his heart will be moved and he will take us to see his master. Otherwise, will I have to see Huang Rong suffer from her injury helplessly without anybody to heal her?” He knew Huang Rong would stop him, therefore, without saying anything, without even took out his shoes or socks, he jumped into the waterfall below.
“Jing Gege!” Huang Rong anxiously called. She stood up and tried to rush forward, but her legs were feeble, she was staggering.
The fisherman was also stunned, he extended his hand to hold Huang Rong; then immediately rushed toward the thatched hut. It looked like he was going to fetch something to rescue Guo Jing.
Huang Rong sat back on a rock to watch Guo Jing. She saw he was standing steadily in the water; the waterfall flushed on him crazily, attacked him fiercely, but surprisingly his body did not falter at all. Slowly bending his waist he grabbed the ‘jin wawa’. With each hand holding the ‘jin wawa’s tail, he gently pulled them out. He was afraid to injure the strange fish, hence he did not use too much strength; who would have thought that the ‘jin wawa’s body was really slippery. By wriggling their tails they managed to get loose from Guo Jing’s grab and sneaked back under the rock. Guo Jing quickly reached out, but he was still a little bit slow; in an instant the fish disappeared without any trace.
Huang Rong cried out in dismay, suddenly she heard somebody called out in alarm behind her back. She turned around and saw the fisherman stood behind her. There was a shiny black small boat on his left shoulder and two iron oars in his left hand; obviously he was ready to rescue Guo Jing.
Guo Jing sent his strength to his feet, with ‘qian jin zhui’ [thousand-catty fall] he stood firm on a rock, steady as a pillar. He held his breath and reached down to the rock under which the strange fish escaped, trying to lift it up. To his delight the rock slightly moved. Using the ‘dragon fly to the sky’ from the 18-Dragon Subduing Palms his hands jerked the rock up; with a loud splash that huge rock was unexpectedly lifted up.
Guo Jing moved wonderfully fast; with the ‘qian long wu yong’ [hidden dragon is useless(?)] he shoved the rock horizontally. The rock was hit both by his palm and the waterfall; it fell down next to his body, with a rumbling and gurgling noise it disappeared into the deep abyss below. The noise echoed throughout the valley for a long time. Guo Jing lifted high his arms with a ‘jin wawa’ in each hand; step by step he came out of the waterfall.
Day and night the water fell down, with the passage of time it had created a gully some two ‘zhang’s [1 zhang is approximately 10 feet or 3 meters] deep. The fisherman saw Guo Jing was stand
ing at the bottom of this gully; how could he jump up? Hence he held out his oar for Guo Jing to grab, then he would lift it up. But Guo Jing hands were full with a pair of strange fish, he was afraid if he loosened up his grip the fish would slip away. Gathering his strength his right foot pushed the bottom, followed by his left foot kicking the edge of the gully; he managed to borrow the strength to leap up ashore.
Even though they have been together for a while, Huang Rong did not expect his skill had improved this much. She was pleased and amazed at the same time to watch him standing firm under water, lifting up the rock, grabbing the fish, and leaping up from underneath the strong force of the waterfall like it was nothing.
Actually, in order to save Huang Rong Guo Jing did not think about how he recklessly braved the danger, but as he was ashore he turned his head to see the rushing water splashing everywhere, he could not help but feel dizzy and scared. He could not believe he had this kind of guts to go underwater.
The fisherman admired him endlessly; he knew that if Guo Jing’s internal energy, lightness kungfu and external strength were less than excellent not only he would not be able to catch the fish, but he would certainly drowned into the deep abyss underneath the fall.
The two ‘jin wawa’s struggled in Guo Jing’s hands with their ‘wah wah’ calls, just like a baby’s cry. Guo Jing laughed, “No wonder they are called ‘wawa’ fish, they sounded just like a baby crying.” He held out his hands to give the fish to the fisherman.
The fisherman’s face bore a delightful expression, he dropped his oars and held out his hand to receive the fish when suddenly he remembered something. He withdrew his hand and said, “Just throw them back into the water, I can’t take them.”
“Why?” Guo Jing wondered.
“Even if I receive your ‘jin wawa’ I still can’t take you up to see my Shifu,” the fisherman said, “Receiving a favor and did not pay it back; won’t I be the laughingstock of the world’s heroes?”
Guo Jing was startled, with a solemn face he said, “Uncle cannot take us up, you must have your own difficulty, how could Junior force our will? But this pair of fish is such a trivial matter, who
said anything about favor? Uncle does not need to think about it, please take them.” While saying it he shoved the fish into the fisherman’s hand.
The fisherman finally took the fish, his face looked awkward. Guo Jing turned to Huang Rong and said, “Rong’er, as the saying goes, life and death is in the fate’s hand, a long life is difficult to predict; even if your injury is incurable, on the cloudy road of life you will always have your Jing Gege to keep you company. Let us go!”
Listening to Guo Jing revealing his true feeling Huang Rong’s eyes turned red; but she still had something in her heart. She turned to the fisherman and said, “Uncle, you are not willing to lead us up, that’s all right. But there is something I don’t understand. If you don’t tell me, then I will die unsatisfied.”
“What is that?” the fisherman asked.
“This mountain peak is smooth as a mirror,” Huang Rong said, “There is no pathway to the top. Even if you are willing to take us up, how would you do that?”
The fisherman thought, “If I don’t take them up, there is no way they can go up the mountain by themselves. I guess it won’t do any harm to tell them.” Thereupon he said, “If you think it’s difficult, then it is, but if you say it’s easy, it really is very easy. Just around that horn-shaped hill on the right there is no waterfall, the current is not as strong. I can sit on this iron boat and paddle against the flow. One time up I can take somebody with me, the second time up I can take two people.”
“Ah!” Huang Rong exclaimed, “That’s how it is. Farewell now!” She stood up and leaning on Guo Jing for support she turned around and left. Guo Jing cupped his fists across his chest but did not say anything.
The fisherman saw they were walking down the mountain, he was afraid the ‘jin wawa’ would escape, he dashed toward the thatched hut to put them away for safekeeping.
“Quick! Grab the iron boat and the oars and go to that horn-shaped peak,” Huang Rong said,
Guo Jing was stunned. “This ... isn’t this inappropriate?” he stammered.
“Fine! You want to be a gentleman, then be a gentleman!” Huang Rong said.
“Which is more important? Saving Rong’er’s life or be a gentleman?” This thought flashed through Guo Jing’s mind several times; it was hard for him to decide. But then he saw Huang Rong had started walking quickly to the peak; he did not have time to contemplate much longer. He heaved the iron boat up and hastily went to the peak. With a loud shout, “Up!” he tossed the boat onto upstream of the waterfall. Once the boat was out of his hands he grabbed the iron oars and held them underneath his left armpit, while with his right hand he embraced Huang Rong.
By that time the iron boat had been floating downstream, carried by the current. Suddenly he heard a sound of secret projectile behind his head; immediately he ducked and let the secret projectile flew over his head. He leaped forward and in an instant both of them landed inside the boat. A secret projectile hit Huang Rong’s back, fortunately it hit the soft hedgehog armor inside the sack on her back. Amidst the rumbling noise of the water they heard the fisherman’s loud roar, but they could not hear clearly what he was saying.
Very soon the boat was on the verge of the waterfall. If they fell over the edge in this fast flowing waterfall their bodies would certainly shattered to dust. Guo Jing’s left hand grabbed the iron oar and hastily rowed with all his might; the boat moved upstream a few feet. His right hand released Huang Rong and grabbed the other oar and pulled; again the boat moved a few feet forward.
The fisherman stood by the bank, pointing his two fingers, angrily cursing and scolding. Amidst the wind and the water noises they could hear some ‘stinky girl’ and ‘lowly scoundrel’ words. Huang Rong giggled and said, “He still thinks you are the good man. He is only cursing me.”
All Guo Jing’s attention was focused on rowing the boat; he did not hear what she said. His arms frantically paddled the boat against the flow; the iron boat’s keel was slowly cutting the wave. The current on that place was not as strong as the waterfall, but it was strong and rapid enough to make Guo Jing’s face turned red from exerting his strength. Several times he was almost pushed back downstream.
A moment later they arrived at the part where the current was slightly slower; by that time Guo Jing had started to understand how to handle the oars. Using the mutual hands combat technique he launched the ‘divine dragon swings its tail’ successively. Each paddling movement was supported by the 18-Dragon Subduing Palms’ strength; his palm strength was transmitted to the end of the oar. The left hand paddled with ‘divine dragon swings its tail’, followed by the right hand with ‘divine dragon swings its tail’, the iron boat slowly moving upstream through a winding river ways.
“Even with that fisherman paddling, the boat would not necessarily move faster than this,” Huang Rong complimented.
A short moment later there was sandy beach on either side of the river; and after turning a bend, the scenery was picturesque: the clear brook softly murmured, the river flowed very smoothly, on some parts it even looked like a still water. The river was only about a ‘zhang’ wide, with weeping willow trees on either side, their leaves brushing the water. Just behind the green willow trees they could see countless peach trees. It must be very beautiful in the spring time when the peach trees were in full bloom. Currently there was not a single peach blossom in sight, but the river banks were full of clusters of white florets, the air was thick with their fragrance.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong both were very relaxed; they had never expected that in this high mountain peak there was a whole different world. The water was deep green like a jade, so deep that they could not see the bottom. Guo Jing lowered the iron oar, trying to gauge the river’s depth; but he was startled since the oar was almost slipped from his grip. Turned out while on the surface the water
was smooth like a mirror, there was a strong current flowing deep below the surface.
The iron boat slowly moved forward; birds were flying and chirping among the green willow leaves. Huang Rong sighed, “If my injury is incurable, I’d like to be buried here; I don’t want to go back down again,” she said.
Guo Jing was about to say some encouraging words when the iron boat suddenly entered a tunnel. Inside the tunnel the fragrance was very thick while the water flowed faster; they heard some loud noise ahead. “What’s that?” Guo Jing asked.
Very soon they saw a light, the iron boat had come out of the tunnel; two people could not help to gasp, “Beautiful!”
Outside the tunnel they saw an enormous fountain, perhaps its height reached two ‘zhang’s. The white bubbles and jade-green streams formed a giant water column spurting straight up to the sky from the middle of a rock. The noise they heard came from this fountain. The creek stopped here; turned out this fountain was the spring from which the river and the waterfall originated.
Guo Jing helped Huang Rong came ashore. He pulled the iron boat up a rock and turned his head around. He saw the sun light shone through the water column, created a dazzlingly beautiful rainbow. The scenery was out-of-this-world; even if they had hundreds praises, they would not be able to find one that is suitable to describe what they saw. All they could do was holding each other’s hand and sat side by side on a rock; their heart was bright and clean, with nothing to worry.
After enjoying this scenery for half a day, they suddenly heard a sound of singing coming from behind the rainbow. The tune was ‘shan po yang’ [hillside sheep]:
“Cities and towns turned bad, where are the heroes? Can the dragon in the cloud explain? Thinking about prosperity and decline, constricting the chest. Tang Dynasty arose Sui Dynasty declined, the way of the world is like an ever changing cloud. Quick, is the heaven and earth’s fault; slow, also is the heaven and earth’s fault!”
The ‘hillside sheep’ was a popular song from the end of the Song Dynasty, everybody everywhere could sing the song. The tune was only one, but the lyrics could be changed as the singer wished, so unavoidably there are hundreds of thousands variations out there, only most of them were rustic and vulgar.