The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 6 – The Yunü Heart Manual, Part 2

After that, the stone chambers became larger and larger, the number of sparrows also increased, eventually he moved to the main hall, with eighty-one sparrows.

The Ancient Tomb sect’s formulae for internal energy were wondrous, the Chilled Jade Bed’s ability to enhance internal energy cultivation was incredible, in just three months, Yang Guo could catch all eighty-one sparrows in one go. Xiao Longnu was pleased with his rapid progress, and said, “We will now go outside and catch sparrows.”

Yang Guo had lived in the tomb for three months, and was becoming slightly restless, when he heard that he was going outside to practice, his expression changed to one of delight.

Xiao Longnu said, “What is there to be pleased about? This kung fu is hard to master. There are eighty-one sparrows, you must not let one go.”

The two arrived outside. It was March, on the eve of spring. In front of them was a deep green forest, Yang Guo breathed in deeply, and the fragrance of flowers and grasses flowed into his lungs, it was extremely relaxing.

Xiao Longnu opened the bag, the sparrows flew out, then, her pair of delicate hands flew out, checking to the west, and tapping in the east, and forced the sparrows that had flew out to return. The flock of sparrows suddenly got their freedom back, how come they didn’t all scatter everywhere? It was strange but Xiao Longnu was checking and tapping, the eighty-one sparrows were all kept within a meter of her. Her arms were as if they were engaged in a flying dance, her palms formed a thousand hands and a thousand palms, no matter how hard the sparrows tried to fly away, they couldn’t escape from the boundary of her palms.

Yang Guo looked on with his mouth open. He was startled and pleasantly surprised; he pulled himself together and thought, “Gu Gu is teaching me a wondrous palm technique. Quickly concentrate.” He studied her hand movements, how she attacked and how she took her palms back. Her palm technique was extremely quick, but each and every palm was clear, forming the different stances. Yang Guo studied them for over half an hour, although he didn’t understand completely the essence of the palms, he understood a bit more than he did at the start.

Xiao Longnu demonstrated the palms again, then she separated her palms and placed them behind her back, the sparrows suddenly flew up towards the sky. Xiao Longnu waved her long sleeves, the two gust of wind from the sleeve pushed out, the sparrows were all pushed back, after much screeching, they beat their wings again to fly away.

Yang Guo was delighted; he tugged her sleeve and said, “Gu Gu, I don’t think even Uncle Guo could do that.”

Xiao Longnu said, “This set of palms is called the “Force of Nets Above and Snares Below” (tian luo di wang shi), it is one of the Ancient Tomb sect’s foundation skills. Work hard and learn it!” She then taught him the stances of the palms; Yang Guo remembered all of them. Within ten days, Yang Guo learned all eighty-one stances of the “Force of Nets Above and Snares Below”, and made more progress in his skills.

Xiao Longnu caught a sparrow, and told Yang Guo to prevent its’ escape with his palms. At first he could only repel the escape two or three times before the sparrow escaped through the spaces in his hands. Xiao Longnu was standing to the side, she stretched out her hand and sent the sparrow back. Yang Guo continued with his palms, but because his palms weren’t fast enough, in just two or three stances again the sparrow flew away. Xiao Longnu again forced the sparrow back so Yang Guo could practice again.

He continued practicing, spring turned to summer, and he advanced his skills a little further. Yang Guo was naturally gifted, and he worked tirelessly, his palm skills kept on improving, by mid autumn, he had mastered this set of “Force of Nets Above and Snares Below”. When he used the palm skills he was now able to keep the eight-one sparrows under his control. However, because his internal energy wasn’t refined enough, there were times where there were gaps in his stances and he allowed the birds to escape and so he wasn’t able to do it all in one go.

That day Xiao Longnu said, “Now that you’ve completed this set of palms, when you meet that fat Taoist you’ll be able to trip him up a few times without using any effort.”

Yang Guo said, “What if I fight with Zhao Zhijing?”

Xiao Longnu didn’t reply and thought, “When Zhao Zhijing fought Grandma Sun, if he wasn’t poisoned, Grandma Sun may not have won. At the moment, your skills can not compare with his.”

Yang Guo knew what she was thinking when she didn’t reply and said, “It doesn’t matter if I can’t beat him now, in a few years I’ll be able to beat him. Gu Gu, our Ancient Tomb sect’s skills are better that Quanzhen’s, aren’t they?”

Xiao Longnu looked up at the ceiling and said, “On this earth, only you and I believe that. When I fought with that Quanzhen Taoist named Qiu, I couldn’t beat him, but this isn’t because our Ancient Tomb’s skills cannot compete with Quanzhen’s, it’s because I have yet to complete our sect’s most refined kung fu.”

Yang Guo had believed all along that Xiao Longnu’s skills exceeded Qiu Chuji’s, when he heard about this he was curious and said, “Gu Gu, what is this skill? Is it hard to learn? Why don’t you practice it again?”

Xiao Longnu said, “I’ll tell you a story, then you’ll understand our sect’s origins. Before you kowtowed to me as your Master, you also kowtowed to our Ancestor. Her surname was Lin, her first names Chaoying, years ago; the two most skilled fighters were our Ancestor and Wang Chongyang. Originally, it was hard to decide who was better, later on Wang Chongyang was busy fighting the Jin, he was occupied night and day; our Ancestor concentrated on her martial arts and eventually became a level higher than him. But our Ancestor did not meddle in the affairs of Wulin, she didn’t like showing off, and so hardly anyone in the world of Jianghu knew who she was. Eventually, Wang Chongyang failed in his quest to repel the Jin and resided in the Tomb of the Living Dead; he had nothing to do and refined his martial arts. Our Ancestor wasn’t feeling well, and had two serious illnesses, so by the time Wang Chongyang left the tomb our Ancestor was below him again. Eventually the two dueled and made a bet, Wang Chongyang admitted defeat to our Ancestor, and gave the tomb to her. Come, I’ll show the things that the two left behind.”

Yang Guo clapped and said, “So this stone tomb was taken out of Wang Chongyang’s hands by our Ancestor Grandma. If I had known earlier, I would have been even more pleased with living in the tomb.”

Xiao Longnu smiled slightly, and took him to another chamber. Yang Guo saw that the room was extremely strange, it was narrow at the front and wide at the back, the east side was a semi circle, the west side was triangular, and he asked, “Gu Gu, why is this room so strange looking?”

Xiao Longnu said, “This is the room where Wang Chongyang refined his skills, at the front he practiced his palms, at the back he practiced his fists, at the east side he practiced with swords and the west side he practiced projectiles.”

Yang Guo looked around the room but didn’t find anything special about it.

Xiao Longnu stretched out her hand and pointed upwards and said, “The essence and core of Wang Chongyang’s skills is up here.”