EASTERN HERETIC, WESTERN POISON (Book 2 of Legend Of The Condor Heroes)

Great Waves And School Of Sharks Part 4

Of course Huang Rong did not know her father's plan. But she kept listening anyway. "The Old Urchin was able to recite the Nine Yin Manual completely; that surnamed Guo kid could also recite it from memory. So, if I sink these two people to the sea, it would be like I am burning down two manuals for you. If your spirit in heaven knows this, you can then rest in peace. My only regret was that the Old Beggar Hong will deliver his life in vain; it is rather unfair to him. Within one day I have killed three martial arts masters for your sake. When we meet again later, you can certainly say that your husband has fulfilled his promise to you. Ha ... ha ... !"

Listening to this last part the hair on Huang Rong's back stood up; her heart turned really cold. She did not completely understand what was going on, but knowing her father's ability very well, she was sure that there must be something terribly wrong with that boat. She was anxious for the safety of Guo Jing three people on board. Her heart was filled with shock and sorrow at the same time. She wanted to stand up and beg her father to save them, but she was not able to neither stand nor speak; her legs were weak and her throat dry from fear. She only heard her father's long and mournful laughter – sounded like a song or a cry, while he walked out of the tomb.

Huang Rong tried to calm herself down and thought out loud, "I must go to rescue Brother Jing. If I can't make it, I am going to die with him." She knew her father's strange temper well, he turned crazy because of his excessive love to his deceased wife; it would be useless to ask him for help. She dashed out of the tomb toward the seashore; jumped up the boat, woke up the deaf and mute servants in charge of the boat and immediately set sail.

Suddenly she heard hoof beats coming her way, and at the same time she could hear her father's jade flute in a distance. Huang Rong looked back; it was Guo Jing's red horse, galloping under the moonlight. It had wandered aimlessly on the island, and at that particular night it ran toward the shore. Huang Rong thought, "Where can I find Brother Jing on this boundless sea? The little red horse has divine ability on dry land, but on the water it is completely useless."

Hong Qigong, Zhou Botong and Guo Jing dashed out of the cabin only to find their feet were submerged in water almost to their knees. They were extremely shocked. Immediately they jumped up to the mast; Hong Qigong even remembered to snatch a couple of deaf and mute sailors along. They looked down and saw the turbulent water was coming up fast. It all happened so fast that they were at loss of what to do.

"Old Beggar," Zhou Botong called, "Old Heretic Huang is so amazing! How did he build this boat?"

"I don't know!" replied Hong Qigong, "Jing'er, hold the mast tight, don't let go ..."

Guo Jing was about to answer when suddenly a loud crack was heard; the boat was broken into two, and both halves slowly sank into the water. The two sailors were shocked that they lost their hold on the mast and fell down into the raging water below. Zhou Botong flexed his muscle and jumped into the water.

"Old Urchin!" Hong Qigong called, "Do you know how to swim?"

Zhou Botong's head coming out from the water, "I guess I'll have to try ..." he laughed. These exchanges happened in the midst of blowing wind and they could not hear each other clearly.

By this time the mast was leaning down far enough that very soon it will hit the water. Hong Qigong called out, "Jing'er, the mast is joined with the hull; let us break it free. Come on!" Two people gathered their strength and struck the mast near its center. The mast was made from solid wood, but how could it withstand the joined forces of Hong Qigong and Guo Jing? With several strikes, "Crack!" The mast gave up. Two people held on to it and together they fell into the sea below.

They were already miles away from the Peach Blossom Island; looking at four directions all around there were great big waves as high as a mountain and no land was in sight. Hong Qigong was secretly very anxious. Drifting on the sea like this, without food or fresh water, if nobody was going to rescue them, they would certainly die in less than ten days no matter how high their martial art skill were. Hong Qigong tried to look for Ouyang Feng's boat, but it was nowhere to be seen. He heard someone laughing hard toward the south of them, it was Zhou Botong.

"Jing'er," Hong Qigong said, "Let's try coming to him." With one hand holding the mast, the other hand rowed toward Zhou Botong. The waves were quite strong in that area, as they moved dozens of feet they were pushed back dozens of feet.

"Old Urchin, we are coming!" Hong Qigong laughed. Due to his strong internal energy, his voice was heard amidst the sound of rushing waves around them. They heard Zhou Botong called out, "The Old Urchin has become a dog in the water; this is an old dog in salty soup!"

Guo Jing was amused that in such a dangerous situation like this he still had a mood to goof around; truly he did not bear the title 'the Old Urchin' in vain.

The sea was raging wild around them. No matter how hard they tried, they were still dozens of feet apart from each other. Only after working hard for a long time did they finally managed to gather together on the broken mast. As soon as Hong Qigong and Guo Jing saw Zhou Botong, they were unable to stifle their laughter; Zhou Botong used the sail rope to tie a piece of board to his feet, displaying his excellent lightness kungfu to tread the waves. Unfortunately the waves were too strong. Even though his body was going up and down with the waves, as if free and unrestrained, but actually it was very difficult to move forward. Zhou Botong played on the water enthusiastically, seemingly oblivious of the danger they were facing.

Guo Jing looked around only to see their boat was totally gone; along with all the crews, they were buried under the sea. Suddenly he heard Zhou Botong cried in alarm, "Aiyo! This is serious! The Old Urchin might meet a cruel death."

Hong Qigong and Guo Jing heard his frightened voice, they asked, "What is it?"

Zhou Botong pointed his finger away and said, "Sharks! A school of sharks!"

Guo Jing grew up in the desert; he did not know how fierce a shark was. He turned around to see Hong Qigong's face looked strange. He wondered what kind of monster a shark was, that his master and big brother Zhou who were used to face danger with smiles on their face looked so nervous.

Hong Qigong sent his strength to his palm and broke the end of the mast; then he divided the broken pieces further into two halves. Suddenly he saw a shark head appeared among the white foam of the waves; its two rows of sharp white teeth glistening under the sunlight. It was only a moment, and then disappeared into the water. Hong Qigong threw the wooden stick to Guo Jing. "Aim for their heads!" he called out.

Guo Jing groped his pocket and produced a dagger. "Disciple has a dagger!" he called back and threw the wooden stick toward Zhou Botong.

By now there were four, five sharks circling around Zhou Botong; looked like they were just assessing the situation, so no shark had attacked yet. Zhou Botong bent his waist and struck; as a result a shark's head split open. As soon as the other sharks smelt blood they all attacked their dead comrade.

Guo Jing saw the water surface bubbled like boiling water; did not know how many thousands of sharks were there. He saw white teeth flashing and in a very short moment nothing was left of that dead shark. He was horrified. Suddenly he felt something bumped his feet. Nervously he kicked around, and a big shark jumped up the water toward him. With his left hand holding the mast he sent all his might to his right hand and with an unmatched accuracy his extremely sharp dagger made a hole on the shark's head. Again the water boiled from a flock of sharks feasting on their dead comrade. Thousands of sharks moved and bite randomly in the water.

Three men's martial arts were superb; surrounded by thousands of sharks they moved to the west and dodged to the east. Every time their hands struck a shark was either dead or heavily injured; while their own bodies were not even scratched. As soon as a shark bleeds, it became the others' food and in a flash it became a pile of bones sinking to the sea. These three people's martial arts were profound and they have great courage; yet seeing this they could not help feeling scared. The sharks were uncountable; seemed like they were killing endlessly. They did not have time to think of anything else; they needed all their energy and concentration to fight and fight and fight ...

After a few hours of fighting they have killed more than two hundreds sharks, but the fog started rising from the water, the sun slowly fell to the western horizon. Zhou Botong called out, "Old Beggar, Brother Guo, once the sky is dark all three of us will go to the sharks' tummy. Shall we make a bet? Who will be first to be eaten?"

"Is the first to be eaten the winner or the loser?" Hong Qigong asked.

"Certainly the winner," Zhou Botong replied.

"Aiyo, in that case I'd rather be the loser," Hong Qigong said. With the back of his hand he launched the 'divine dragon swings its tail' and hit a big shark on its side. That big shark weight approximately 200 jins; but by Hong Qigong's strength it flew to the air and rolled twice before it fell down to the water, creating a big splash everywhere. That shark went belly up, killed instantly.

"Excellent palm technique!" Zhou Botong praised, "I'll bow to you and take you as my master so you can teach me this '18-Dragon Subduing Palms'. Only it's too bad I won't have time to learn. Old Beggar, do you want to compete with me?"

"I am sorry I can't accompany you right now," Hong Qigong said.

Zhou Botong laughed heartily, "Brother, are you scared?" he asked Guo Jing.

In his heart Guo Jing was really scared, but seeing those two people were still able to chat and making jokes in life and death situation his spirit was lifted up. "I was scared, but not anymore," he replied. Suddenly he saw a monstrous shark came charging his way. He leaned sideways then lifted his left hand high in the air as a bait. That big shark turned around and leaped out of the water to bite his hand. The dagger in Guo Jing's right hand moved upward and stabbed underneath the shark's mouth, but because the shark was moving forward the dagger made a long cut along the shark's body. Blood came gushing out like a spring of water and the contents of its stomach spilled out.

By that time Zhou Botong and Hong Qigong each had killed another shark. Zhou Botong had not recovered from Huang Yaoshi's blow earlier; after fighting for a long time he started to feel a severe pain in his chest. He laughed out loud and said, "Old Beggar, Brother Guo, I am so sorry I can't accompany you much longer, I have to be the first going into a shark's belly. Ay! Too bad you two didn't want to bet. I should've won!"

Even though he was laughing, Guo Jing could hear the desperation in his voice. "All right!" he shouted, "I'll bet with you!"

"Now, at last I can die an interesting death!" Zhou Botong laughed. He turned around to avoid a converging attack of two sharks charging together; suddenly saw a high white sail far away. Under the dim light of dusk a big boat [translator's note: actually it was a yacht, but I wonder if the ancient Chinese has a specific word for yacht?] was cutting the waves, coming their way.

Hong Qigong also saw the boat; it was Ouyang Feng's. They were exuberant knowing help is on the way. Guo Jing immediately came toward Zhou Botong to help him fight the sharks. A moment later the boat arrived; it lowered two small sampans to rescue the three people. Zhou Botong vomited some more blood, but he did not stop talking and laughing; pointing his finger to the sharks and cursing incessantly.

Ouyang Feng and Ouyang Ke stood on the bow of the big boat to welcome them. As far as their eyes could see, the water was full with sharks' fins; they were secretly alarmed.

Zhou Botong was unwilling to admit inferiority, he said, "Old Poison, it was you who came and rescued us, I did not call you for help; so I don't owe you anything."

"Naturally you don't owe me anything," Ouyang Feng replied, "Today I came across the three of you on a shark killing spree; Little Brother was fascinated."

Zhou Botong laughed, "You came across us and hindered us from playing inside the sharks' belly; so I will call it even, we don't owe anybody anything."

Ouyang Ke and a snake shepherd put some big chunks of beef on an iron hook as baits and in a short period of time had fished seven, eight big sharks.

Hong Qigong pointed to the sharks and laughed, "Good, you can't eat us, looks like we are going to eat you."

Ouyang Ke laughed, "Little Nephew has a way to avenge Uncle Hong." Quickly he cut some short sticks, sharpening their both ends, then pried open the shark's mouth with a spear and stuck the wooden stick in the shark's mouth. Next, he kicked the shark back to the water.

Zhou Botong laughed, "This way the shark won't be able to eat anything forever; but I bet it will die within eight to ten days."

Guo Jing said in his heart, "Such an evil plan, he is the only one who can think of it. This gluttonous shark will be starved to death in the sea. That is so cruel."

Zhou Botong saw Guo Jing's face showed a disgusted look, he laughed, "Brother, such a malicious method is not pleasing to the eye, is it? Well, this is called 'a poisonous uncle results in a poisonous nephew'."

Hearing others cursing him as evil did not bother Western Poison Ouyang Feng at all; on the contrary, he was pleased. Listening Zhou Botong he showed a faint smile, and said, "Old Urchin, this small trick is nothing compared to what the Western Poison can do. You three people were already out of breath fighting this bunch of baby sharks. Even though they are many, to me they are nothing." After saying that he stretched his right hand; facing the sea he moved his hand in a sweeping motion from left to right and said, "Even if there were ten times more sharks than these, I can annihilate them all without breaking a sweat."

"Ah!" Zhou Botong exclaimed, "The Western Poison blew his horn really loud! If you can prove your great prowess and really kill the sharks, the Old Urchin will kowtow to you and will call you 'Grandfather' three hundred times."

"I do not dare to accept that," Ouyang Feng said, "If you don't believe me, why don't we make a bet?"

"All right!" Zhou Botong almost shouted, "I'll bet you my head!"

Hong Qigong, on the other hand, was suspicious, "Even if his skill is as high as the sky, yet it is impossible to kill millions of sharks at once," he thought, "I am afraid he has another evil scheme up in his sleeve."

"I don't need your head," Ouyang Feng said with a smile, "If I win, I want you to do something for me, and you must obey it. If I lose, I can't decline whatever difficult matter you want me to do. What do you think?"

"I don't care, whatever you say!" Zhou Botong shouted.

Ouyang Feng turned to Hong Qigong, "I am asking Qi Xiong to be our witness," he said.

Hong Qigong nodded, "Very well," he said, "But what if after the winner assigns the loser something to do and he is not able to do it?"

"Then the loser must jump to the sea to be eaten by the sharks," Zhou Botong said.

Again Ouyang Feng showed a faint smile, he did not say anything. He signaled a servant to bring in a small wine cup. Two of his right fingers pinched the neck of his strange looking snake on his staff, forced it to open its mouth and the venom from its teeth gushed out. Ouyang Feng held out the wine cup that the venom went into it, black and thick like China ink, filling almost half of the cup. As soon as this one snake ran out of venom he took the other one and did the same; filling the whole cup with snake's venom. When he was done those two snakes wrapped around the staff quietly, no longer slithering up and down, liked they were dead-tired.

Ouyang Feng's servant fished another big shark and placed it on the deck. With his left hand Ouyang Feng gripped the shark's upper jaw, while his right foot stepped on the lower jaw; prying the jaws open. That shark was about two zhang's long [approximately 20 feet or 7 meters], but it could not resist its mouth being opened; revealing two rows of dagger-sharp teeth. Then he poured the cup of venom in his hand into the shark's mouth, right at the gaping wound caused by the iron hook. With an abrupt movement his left hand lifted the shark on its belly and without much trouble swung it up. The 200 catties [about 100 kg.] shark flew to the air and with a loud splash fell into the sea.

Zhou Botong laughed, "Aha! I understand now," he said, "This is the old monk's method of killing bedbugs [lice]."

"Big Brother," Guo Jing asked, "How did the old monk kill the bugs?"

"There was once an old monk who hawked on a Bianliang [a city in Henan province] street market selling concoction to get rid of the bedbugs," Zhou Botong told him, "He claimed his concoction to be very effective; once the bugs ate his product they would surely die; if not, he was going to reimburse the customer's money tenfold. Of course with this kind of guarantee his business was brisk. One of his customers went back home and scattered the concoction on his bed. Heh, heh ... that night the bedbugs still came up by the thousands, biting him half-dead. That customer was upset, early the next morning he went back to the market to find that old monk, wanted him to refund his money. That old monk said, 'My concoction is really effective, if it did not kill your bugs, perhaps you did not use it correctly.' The customer asked, 'How do you use it?'"

Speaking to this point he shook his head with a mischievous smile on his face; but did not continue. "Then how did he use it?" Guo Jing asked.

With a straight face Zhou Botong said, "That old monk said, 'You catch the bug, pry open its mouth and feed just a little bit of this concoction to its mouth. If it didn't die, then you can come to the old monk again.' The customer was mad, he said, 'If I can catch the bug, I can pinch it dead with my fingers, why would I need your effective concoction?' To which the old monk replied, 'Of course, I have never said you can't pinch it dead, have I?'"

Guo Jing, Hong Qigong, Ouyang Feng uncle and nephew, along with everybody who listened to Zhou Botong were all burst in laugher. "My concoction is somewhat different than those of the old monk," Ouyang Feng said with a smile.

"I don't see much difference," Zhou Botong said.

Ouyang Feng pointed his finger to the sea and said, "Well, just take a look."

The shark which was fed with the venom went belly up, of course; and seven, eight other sharks were having a feeding frenzy over it, that in a short time it became another pile of bones; sank to the bottom of the ocean. The strange thing was that the seven, eight sharks which ate their comrade's flesh were also gone belly up not too long afterwards. Each dead shark was immediately eaten by another flock of sharks, which, in turn, also went belly up in the water. One shark killed ten others, ten sharks killed a hundred, a hundred killed a thousand; not too long the sea was full with dead sharks floating around. The remainder of the sharks were not too many, but they were still feeding on their dead comrades, so a while later the sea became calm, no more sharks left alive.

Hong Qigong, Zhou Botong and Guo Jing saw this chilling scene their faces paled. Hong Qigong sighed and said, "Old poison, Old poison, your evil plan is truly evil; only a small amount of poison from your two snakes is extremely deathly."

Ouyang Feng chuckled and looked at Zhou Botong with a smug expression. Zhou Botong rubbed his hands and stomped his foot, pulling his beard and hair randomly. As far as everybody could see, the sea surface was full of dead sharks with their white belly upward, floating and fluctuating on the waves.

"Looking at these many white bellies makes my tummy sick; thinking that these many sharks were killed by the Old Poison's venom, also makes my tummy sick," Zhou Botong said, "Old Poison, you need to watch out, once the 'hai long wang' [dragon king of the sea] found out, he is going to send his shrimp army and crab generals to deal with you." Ouyang Feng simply smiled without saying anything.

"Feng Xiong, little brother is unclear about something, I beg you to explain it to me," Hong Qigong said.

"I don't dare," Ouyang Feng replied.

"It was only a small cup of venom, even if the poison was extremely deathly, how could it kill thousands of sharks?" Hong Qigong asked.

Ouyang Feng laughed, "This type of venom is very special," he explained, "As soon as it entered the blood, the blood became poisonous. If this blood enters another shark's system, that second shark's entire blood would also be poisonous. Just imagine the amount of venom increased a hundredfold. Each dead shark would multiply that amount another hundredfold; very soon you'll have an infinite amount of venom to kill forever."

"That is called perpetual killing," Hong Qigong commented.

"Exactly," Ouyang Feng replied. "Little brother's title is 'Western Poison'; if my skill in using poison is somewhat lacking, then I'm afraid I'm not worthy to hold that title."

While they were still talking the rest of the sharks were already dead. Other smaller fish were also gone; if not being eaten by the sharks, then they had already run away; so the sea was eerily calm.

"Quickly sail away! Quickly sail away! The air here is too thick with poison," Hong Qigong urged.

Ouyang Feng gave his signal and the boat moved full speed forward; the triangle shaped sails were all raised up. With the wind coming from the south they were heading northwest.

"The Old Poison really sells effective concoction to get rid of bedbugs," Zhou Botong said. "What do you want me to do?"

"I'd like to welcome the three of you in my cabin first," Ouyang Feng said, "You need to change into dry clothes, eat something, and then take a rest. About the bet, it won't be too late to talk about later."

Zhou Botong was really impatient, "That won't do, that won't do!" he called out, "Just say it! You won't gain anything by waiting. If the Old Urchin dies of suffocation, then it will be your loss for not telling me what you want."

Ouyang Feng smiled, "In that case, Botong Xiong, please come with me."