A Snake Lies Waiting

by Jin Yong

  Slowly, Guo Jing began to recite the entire section, since he could not tell, himself, which parts were relevant.

  “Enough!” Count Seven said, after listening for a few minutes. “It’s of no use to me!”

  “Why not?” Lotus asked.

  “The Manual speaks of internal injuries, such as rattled blood vessels, damage to the diaphragm, divergent breathing, all different kinds of disturbances to internal strength and how to cure them. While the path to recovery may be long, its methods will lead to considerable improvements. I, however, am suffering the opposite problem. I was bitten by a venomous snake. My injuries are caused by an external trauma. Indeed, more worrying than that, the Venom’s Exploding Toad kung fu disrupted the flow of blood around my body.”

  “Which the Manual is perfect for helping with!” Lotus cried in delight.

  Count Seven shook his head. “The Manual’s instructions state that one must find a secluded spot, untroubled by adversaries, idle passersby or wild animals. Then, someone well versed in the workings of qi places their palms against the palms of the injured party, who in turn should move their qi around their body. Should they be lacking in internal strength, the facilitator may transfer some of their own through their palms, thus repairing any damaged blood vessels. This should be done for seven days and seven nights continuously, transporting the qi around the body clockwise and anticlockwise a total of thirty-six times. It is vital, however, that the two do not lose contact via their palms during the process, as otherwise not only will there be no healing effect, on the contrary, they may suffer immediate injury or even death. No intruder or animal must be allowed to interrupt them, else they must accept any such attack without fighting back. This is the most difficult part, rather than the method itself. With Viper and his nephew around, we wouldn’t manage a day and a night, never mind seven. Any attempt at healing me and they would be sure to attack.”

  “So, for seven day and seven nights, how do the two of them empty their bowels?” Guo Jing asked.

  “Empty their bowels?” Lotus shook her head, then laughed. “This is an erudite text explaining profound theories of inner strength and qi.”

  Guo Jing grinned.

  “If we hurry back to the mainland, we can surely find a secluded spot—or even on Peach Blossom Island,” Lotus said. “Nobody would dare disturb you there. Guo Jing will sit with Shifu for seven days and seven nights, and I will stand outside with the Dog-Beating Cane and keep guard. No scoundrels, beasts, stray dogs, or poisonous insects will get in. Shifu, what about the second and third things that I was thinking about?”

  “The second problem Lotus identified is the matter of defending ourselves against the venomous hand of Viper Ouyang,” Count Seven continued. “His martial skills are quite extraordinary; the two of you together are no match for him. Which brings me to the third: how we are going to get back to the mainland. Isn’t that right, Lotus?”

  “Yes, these are our most pressing troubles—most of all, how to defeat Old Venom, or at least stop him from doing evil.”

  “Engage him in a battle of wits, in short. Old Venom may be cunning, but he is also conceited. He does not ponder things deeply, which means, therefore, it is not so difficult to fool him. But once he discovers deceit, he is quick to seek revenge with swift, savage reprisals.”

  Guo Jing and Lotus went quiet as they thought about this. Viper, Apothecary Huang, and Shifu were all once considered of equal standing in the wulin, but, even if her father came to the island, there was no guarantee he could defeat the Old Venom, Lotus realized. Then how could she possibly take him on? Their only hope would be to kill him in one stroke. Tricking him was never going to be enough.

  Suddenly, Count Seven felt a sharp pain in his chest and he started to cough violently.

  Just as Lotus was helping him to lie down, a shadow blocked the light at the mouth of the cave. Lotus looked up to see Viper Ouyang holding his nephew in his arms.

  “Get out! Leave the cave to me and my nephew,” he hissed.

  Infuriated, Guo Jing leaped to his feet. “My Master lives here!”

  “I don’t care if the Jade Emperor himself lives here. Everyone has to leave!”

  Guo Jing was about to answer him when Lotus pulled at his sleeve. Then she stooped down and helped Count Seven hobble out of the cave.

  As they passed Old Venom, Count Seven opened his eyes and smiled. “How terrible, how ferocious!”

  Viper’s cheeks flushed red. He could have killed Count Seven with one thrust of his palm, but somehow the Old Beggar’s righteous air cast a bolt of shame through him. He turned away so as not to see the old man’s face. “And bring us some food. Don’t try any tricks, or I’ll kill all three of you.”

  The three walked far away from the cave, Guo Jing cursing all the way, while Lotus remained silent, lost in thought.

  “Shifu,” Guo Jing said, “rest here and I will go and find us somewhere suitable to seek shelter.”

  Lotus helped Count Seven to settle under a large pine tree. Only a few feet from where she was standing, two squirrels scuttled up and down a tree trunk, their big round eyes staring at the two humans as they did so. Amused, Lotus bent down, picked up a pinecone and held it out to them. One of the little creatures approached and sniffed it, before slowly reaching out a paw and grabbing it from her hand. The other squirrel, meanwhile, began to climb along Count Seven’s sleeve.

  “This island has never seen humans before,” Lotus said. “They’re not at all scared of us.”

  At that, the two squirrels ran up the tree. Lotus looked up into the dense tangle of needles and vines. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

  “Guo Jing! Come back! We can climb this tree.”

  Guo Jing stopped and looked back at the tree. It was perfect. They snapped some branches from its nearby neighbors and wedged them between the pine’s branches to fashion a platform. Then, standing either side of Count Seven, they put their hands under his armpits and—with a loud “Hup!”—they jumped up, depositing him safely in their tree house.

  “We’re just like birds, living in the treetops,” Lotus said in delight. “Let them be beasts, down in that cave.”

  “Lotus,” Guo Jing began, “are we going to take them food?”

  “Unless we come up with some ingenious plan, we have no choice,” she replied.

  Guo Jing looked put out.

  Together, they went to the far side of mountain, where they managed to catch a mountain sheep. They then made a fire and roasted it, before pulling the steaming carcass in half. Lotus took once piece and threw it on the ground.

  “Pee on it!”

  Guo Jing laughed. “They’ll be able to tell.”

  “Don’t worry about that, just do it!”

  “I can’t,” Guo Jing said, his cheeks burning.

  “Why not?”

  “Not with you beside me.”

  Lotus nearly fell over with laughter.

  “Throw me some meat!” Count Seven called from up in the tree. “I’ll pee on it.”

  Laughing, Guo Jing took the meat and jumped up onto the platform. Count Seven drenched the mutton before Guo Jing left to take it to the cave.

  “No, wait! Take this one,” Lotus called out.

  “But that’s the clean one,” Guo Jing said, scratching his head.

  “I know. I want them to eat the clean one.”

  Guo Jing was confused, but, as usual, he obeyed Lotus without questioning her. In the meantime, Lotus placed the urine-soaked meat beside the fire to smoke, and went to pick some wild fruit.

  Count Seven was just as confused. He had been looking forward to eating the succulent roast mutton, but now he had urinated all over their portion.

  The meat gave off a mouth-watering aroma, which had wafted all the way inside the cave. Viper Ouyang did not wait for Guo Jing to enter, but stepped outside and grabbed the meat. “Wait—where is the rest of it?” he said suddenly.

  Guo Jing gestured behind him with his thumb.

/>   Viper strode over to the old pine tree, snatched the meat from beside the fire and threw the clean piece on the ground. Then he laughed coldly, turned and left.

  Guo Jing knew that he must not give anything away, but it was not in his nature to hide what he was thinking. He turned away, so that Viper would not see his face, and waited for him to leave before running to find Lotus.

  “How did you know he would come back and swap the meat?” he asked, grinning, as they returned together to their fire.

  “My pa used to tell me, ‘In artifice there is substance, in substance there is artifice.’ Old Venom knew we would play a trick on him, but, in trying to outsmart us, he fell right for it.”

  Guo Jing listened in awe as he cut the meat into smaller pieces. Then, together, they climbed up into the tree and shared their meal.

  “Lotus,” Guo Jing said suddenly, as they were still eating. “That really was a wonderful trick you came up with. But it was a risky one.”

  “Why?”

  “What if he hadn’t come? Would we have had to eat meat soaked in pee?”

  Lotus guffawed, bent over and promptly fell from her perch on the branch. Instantly, she jumped back up, unharmed. “Risky, indeed.”

  “Silly boy,” Count Seven sighed. “Would you really have said no?”

  The thought startled him, then he began to shake with laughter until he too tumbled out of the tree.

  Viper and his nephew guzzled the mutton. It had a strange smell, to be sure, but they did not suspect a thing. Indeed, they even praised the young girl’s cooking skills. She had brought out a slight saltiness in the meat.

  2

  Before long, the skies began to darken. Gallant Ouyang was in pain and he let out a groan.

  “Little girl!” Viper said, approaching the pine tree. “Come down!”

  Lotus was startled. She had not expected Viper to launch his attack so soon. “What is it?”

  “My nephew needs water for his tea. Go and serve him!”

  The three sitting in the tree listened in rage.

  “Come on, hurry up! What are you waiting for?”

  “Let’s fight him,” Guo Jing whispered.

  “You two run beyond the mountain,” Count Seven whispered in reply. “Don’t worry about me.”

  Lotus had already thought through their options. Their Master was sure to perish, no matter if they chose to stay and fight or if they fled. Their only option was to try to seek a compromise to protect Count Seven.

  “Fine,” she said, leaping down from the tree. “I’ll go and attend to his wounds.”

  “Guo, boy,” Viper sneered. “You come with me.”

  Guo Jing swallowed his anger and jumped down.

  “Bring me one hundred large tree trunks. Tonight. And if there is but one missing, I will break your leg. Two, and I will break both.”

  “What do you want all that wood for?” Lotus said. “And how are we going to find it in the dark?”

  “You talk too much,” Viper hissed. “What does it have to do with you? Go and see to my nephew. If anything happens to him, you will all suffer the bitter consequences.”

  With a nod, Lotus signaled to Guo Jing to do the best he could and not to do anything rash.

  Guo Jing watched as Lotus disappeared with Viper Ouyang into the darkness. Then he dropped to the ground, cupped his head, and hot, angry tears poured from his eyes.

  “When I was young,” Count Seven said from above, “my grandpa, my pa and I were all enslaved by the Jin. Now that was real hardship.”

  This startled Guo Jing back to his senses. Shifu spent his childhood as a slave and yet he became a master of the martial arts. Surely I must be able to endure this one day of ill-treatment. Guo Jing lit a pine branch, hurried to the far side of the mountain and once again began felling trunks using Dragon-Subduing Palm. Lotus would escape unharmed, he was sure of that, just as she had when they were surrounded in the Zhao Palace. She always managed to get out of any situation, no matter how difficult. He would do his best to complete the task the Viper had given him.

  Before long, however, the exertion had exhausted him. His limbs were aching. In an hour, he had managed to fell twenty-one pines. He performed a Dragon in the Field. The tree shook, but nothing more. His chest felt numb. The energy had not flowed out through his palms, but instead traveled back. This was exactly what his Master had warned him about. The eighteen moves that made up Dragon-Subduing Palm required great strength, but it was important that he hold something back in reserve to prevent self-induced injury.

  Shocked, he sat down and tried to regulate his breathing. It took an hour before he had the strength to get up and try again, and, even then, his limbs were too weak and fatigued.

  Guo Jing knew that forcing himself would cause him yet more harm. But, with no axe to be found on this deserted island, how was he to fell enough trees? He still had at least seventy more to collect, and his legs were about to give way beneath him. Viper’s nephew was crushed under that rock, Guo Jing thought. He must hate me to the core. If he wants a hundred trees from me tonight, surely he will just ask me for a thousand tomorrow. How will I ever appease him? We can’t beat him in a fight and there is no one on this island to help us.

  He sighed. Even if the island weren’t deserted, who on this earth could help me? Master Hong is already too weak to fight; we don’t even know if he will survive. Lotus’s father hates me, and neither the Seven Masters of the Quanzhen Sect nor my six shifus, the Heroes of the South, could hope to defeat the Venom of the West, even if they fought together. If only … If only my sworn brother Zhou Botong were here … But he died jumping into the sea.

  The thought of Zhou Botong only made him despise Viper Ouyang even more. His sworn brother, a master of the Nine Yin Manual and the inventor of Competing Hands kung fu, forced to meet his end. The Nine Yin Manual! Competing Hands! The words lit up in his mind like stars twinkling on the horizon in a dark night’s sky.

  My kung fu may not be accomplished enough to take on the Venom of the West, but the Nine Yin Manual contains many secrets of the martial world. Add to that Zhou Botong’s Competing Hands, and my skills will appear to be double what they really are. I will train with Lotus tonight and then we will give the Venom a real scare.

  Even so, Guo Jing knew it would be a mighty task, no matter what type of kung fu they used. He stood among the trees, deep in thought. What if I were to ask Shifu? He may not be able to fight himself, but he still has all that knowledge; he will be able to point me in the right direction.

  He went back to the old pine and explained his thoughts to Count Seven Hong.

  “Recite the Nine Yin Manual for me,” Count Seven began, “and we will see what of its mighty kung fu you may be able to learn quickly.”

  Guo Jing began chanting the manual, line by line.

  “… Most only know that sitting in quiet contemplation will lead to virtue, but they do not realize the virtuous are also flexible in mind, and cultivate the body twofold, that is, in movement they find stillness, in attack they know peace.” As soon as Count Seven heard this, he leaped to his feet.

  Guo Jing stopped. “What is it?”

  But Count Seven did not answer. Instead, he pondered the lines, before eventually saying, “Can you repeat that last section again?”

  Master has found something we can use against Viper! Guo Jing recited the lines again slowly.

  Count Seven was nodding. “Indeed. Yes, yes. Carry on.”

  Guo Jing continued. As he approached the end, he came to the following passage: “Mahaparas gatekras mahansighra pindaheya jinahuras ghosana…”

  The words were nonsense, but he knew that he was reciting them correctly. Count Seven had not understood them then, and he did not understand them now.

  “Lad,” Count Seven said, shaking his head, “the Nine Yin Manual contains many forms of devastating kung fu, but they cannot be learned in a day and a night.”

  Guo Jing looked disappointed.

  “G
o and build a raft from the trunks you have already felled and then get as far away from here as you can. Lotus and I will stay and deal with Old Venom.”

  “No,” Guo Jing said quickly. “How could I leave Shifu here?”

  Count Seven sighed. “The Venom of the West is scared of Apothecary Huang; he won’t do anything to harm Lotus. As for me, I’m just a useless old beggar, now. So, off with you!”

  Grieved and indignant, Guo Jing ran with his palm raised straight at a tree.

  The sound echoed around the mountain. Count Seven watched in amazement. “What kind of kung fu was that?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “You hit it with such force, but the tree didn’t even quiver.”

  Guo Jing felt embarrassed. “All my strength has been used up. My hands are sore. I don’t have any power left. I didn’t follow Shifu’s instructions to leave some strength in reserve,” he said, after a pause.

  “No, no, it was just a little strange, that’s all. Do it again. Let me see.”

  Guo Jing raised his palm and struck the tree again. As before, the sound was deafening but the tree did not move. Suddenly, he realized. “Oh, Brother Zhou taught me. It’s one of the seventy-two moves of Luminous Hollow Fist.”

  “Luminous Hollow Fist? I’ve never heard of it.”

  “Brother Zhou was bored and had nothing to do while being held captive on Peach Blossom Island, so he invented it. He taught me the secret in sixteen characters: kong meng dong song, feng tong rong meng, chong qiong zhong nong, tong yong gong chong.”

  Count Seven looked amused. It sounded like yet more nonsense.

  “Let me explain. Each character has its own significance. The fourth character, ‘loose’, means that the fist must be hollow—that is, lacking strength. The last character, ‘worm’, refers to the body, which must be soft and supple. The second, ‘haze’, tells you that the punches must be confused—foolish, even—to render your opponent unsure of their shape. The eighth, ‘dream’, I think means that you should fight as if in a dream. Why don’t I give you a demonstration?”

  “I won’t be able to see in the dark. But it does sound like there’s a logic to it. There’s no need to show me, just keep explaining.”