The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 4 – Under Quanzhen Sect, Part 10

Zhao Zhijing heard Martial Uncle Qiu’s voice was becoming sterner, and became even more scared.

Yang Guo said, “I wasn’t in a fight, disciple tripped and fell down a ditch.”

Qiu Chuji didn’t believe him, and said, “You are lying; how could you trip for no reason? The wounds on your face aren’t from falling over.”

Yang Guo said, “Earlier, Grand Master told me to learn martial arts diligently.”

Qiu Chuji said, “Yes, what about it?”

Yang Guo said, “After Grand Master left, the disciple thought that what you said was right, the disciple must work harder than ever before, and must not disappoint the hopes that Grand Master has for me.” His pleasant words pleased and calmed down Qiu Chuji and he gave out a grunt. Yang Guo continued, “A mad dog came suddenly out of nowhere, and for no reason leapt at me trying to bite, the disciple tried to kick him away but he became more and more fierce. The disciple tried to turn around and run, but I was careless and fell down in a ditch. It was lucky that my teacher arrived, and rescued me.”

Qiu Chuji listened, and then looked at Zhao Zhijing, signaling to him, asking if it was the truth. Zhao Zhijing was startled and thought, “How dare he, how dare the little bastard call me a mad dog.” But in this situation he had no choice but to help him lie, he nodded his head and said, “It was I who saved him.”

Qiu Chuji believed him, and said, “After I’ve left, teach him our sect’s kung fu well, every ten days, your Martial Uncle, our leader will test him.” Zhao Zhijing did not want to do this at all, but he couldn’t refuse an order from his Martial Uncle, and could only agree. Right now, Yang Guo was busy being pleased with himself for making Zhao Zhijing call himself a mad dog, and didn’t really digest what his Grand Master was saying. After Qiu Chuji had walked away about twenty paces, Zhao Zhijing’s blood rose to the surface, he couldn’t resist and raised his hand; he wanted to hit Yang Guo across the face again.

Yang Guo shouted out, “Grand Master Qiu!”

Qiu Chuji was startled and turned around, asking, “What’s the matter?”

Zhao Zhijing’s hand was in midair, he did not dare to hit out, he was caught in an embarrassing situation and he reluctantly pulled his arm back and scratched the hair by his temples.

Yang Guo ran towards Qiu Chuji, and said, “Grand Master, after you’ve left, there will be no one to look after me, there are many Martial Uncles who want to hit me.”

Qiu Chuji’s faced changed and shouted, “Rubbish! Is there such a thing?” On the outside he appeared strict, but he was worried inside, he thought about how hard it is for an child to be on his own and clearly said, “Zhijing, you take good care of him, if anything happens, I’ll be asking after you.” Zhao Zhijing could only accept.

After supper, Yang Guo slowly walked towards the room where his master was residing, and shouted out, “Master!”

It was the time of day when they were refining the kung fu; Zhao Zhijing had already sat on his couch for half a day thinking, “That child is very mischievous, if I don’t tame him quickly, when his martial arts are high, who else could restrain him? But Martial Uncle Qiu and Master ordered me to teach him kung fu; if I don’t teach him then I am not following orders.” He kept searching in his mind but couldn’t think of anything, he saw Yang Guo entering the room slowly, his eyes lit up, he gave a laugh in an ostentatious manner as he thought of a plan, “I’ve got it, he doesn’t know anything about our sect’s martial arts, I’ll just teach him the formula to our sect’s skills, but I won’t teach how to practice it. Even if he remembers the few hundred sentences of the formulae what use is it to him? If Master or the Martial Uncles ask about this, I’ll push the blame away and say it was his fault for not working hard enough.” Now his mind was made up, with a kind and pleasant expression he said to Yang Guo, “Guo’er, come here.”

Yang Guo said, “Are you going to hit me?”

Zhao Zhijing said, “I’m going to teach you kung fu, why should I hit you?”

Yang Guo saw that he was lively, and had come out with a surprise, he slowly entered, but he was on his guard, afraid that he has some evil scheme. Zhao Zhijing pretended nothing was going on and said, “Our Quanzhen sect’s kung fu is learned from within to the outside, it is very different to other types of kung fu. I am now going to pass on to you the formula of our sect’s internal energy, you must remember it clearly.” He then passed on the formulae to the sect’s internal energy theories, and recited a segment.

Yang Guo just listened to it once, and had already memorized it, and thought, “That old goat hates me, why would he teach me real kung fu? He’s probably trying to make a fool out of me and teach me some useless fake formulae.”

After a while, he pretended to forget, and asked Zhao Zhijing to repeat it again. Zhao Zhijing repeated it again.

The next day, Yang Guo asked his teacher again, and heard that it was exactly the same as it was the day before, he then believed they were real, if the formulae were made up, then it would be impossible that every single word was the same when repeated three times.

Ten days passed this way, Zhao Zhijing only taught him the formulae, and did not say one word on how to practice them. On the tenth day, Zhao Zhijing took him to Ma Yu, and said that he has taught him their sect’s formulae for practicing internal energy, and told Yang Guo to recite it to Grand Master. Yang Guo recited the whole thing; he didn’t say one word wrong. Ma Yu was pleased, and praised him for being so clever. He was a kind and generous Taoist, a gentleman; he would never have thought that Zhao Zhijing had such a scheme.

Summer went and autumn arrived, autumn passed and winter came, a few months passed in the wink of an eye. Yang Guo had memorized a stack of formulae, but he had not learned an ounce of kung fu, he had not improved his martial arts or his internal energy since he had been on the mountain. A few days after he first began to remember and recite the formulae, he knew that his teacher was making a fool out of him, but he didn’t dare to complain. But he had no other ideas; the headmaster of the sect was peaceful and soft hearted, if he told him, he would only reproach Zhao Zhijing with a few words. He was scared that the old goat would conjure up some other plan to torture him; he could only wait for his Grand Master to come back before he could do anything. But after many months, Qiu Chuji still had not returned. It was fortunate that Yang Guo did not respect the martial arts of the Quanzhen sect, he didn’t care if he learned them or not, but because Zhao Zhijing had used such a plan, he hated him even more. Yang Guo didn’t want to suffer for no reason so he pretended to be even more respectful to him.

Zhao Zhijing felt pleased with himself and thought, “You caused offence to your master, in the end who suffers?”

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