The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 21 – Fierce fight in Xiangyang, Part 12

Fawang and the others looked at each other startled and all thought, “It wasn’t easy to catch him, how can we let the tiger escape back into the mountains?” When they saw Khubilai sending Guo Jing out politely, they all felt that it was inappropriate to make a move on him.

Guo Jing strode out of the tent and thought, “This Khubilai is no ordinary person; he is indeed a strong foe.” He signaled with his eyes towards Yang Guo, telling him to hurry towards their steeds.

Suddenly, eight Mongols dashed forward from the sides. The leading Mongol said, “You’re Guo Jing? You injured many of my brothers at Xiangyang and you’ve actually dared to come here to our camp to show off your might again. His highness has allowed you to go but we cannot allow it.” With a shout all eight men dashed forward towards Guo Jing. These eight men all used Mongolian wrestling techniques as sixteen hands went to grab Guo Jing.

Mongolians are unmatched in wrestling and these eight men were first-rate fighters in the Mongolian army. Khubilai had hid them nearby to capture Guo Jing. But Guo Jing grew up in Mongolia and was well versed in riding, archery and wrestling; when he saw the eight pair of arms coming towards him he stretched out his hands and swept his right leg. In a flash, he had flung four men over ten feet away and tripped the other four onto the ground. He used orthodox Mongolian wrestling techniques but because he had advanced martial arts as a base, the strength in his arms and legs was stronger than any normal men. How could the eight men defend against this?

Khubilai had stationed his personal Minghan unit outside the tent and each one of them was skilled in wrestling. They saw how fast and clean Guo Jing’s movements were in throwing down eight men to the ground in one go. They had never seen such a display and they all cheered.

Guo Jing held out his fist towards the crowd and took off his hat, spinning it in his hand. This was the routine that one did to the crowd after winning a wrestling match. The crowd cheered even louder when they saw him do this. The eight men picked themselves up from the ground and looked at Guo Jing in shock. They didn’t know whether to go again or just leave it at that.

Guo Jing said to Yang Guo, “Let’s go!”

Suddenly, a horn could be heard and Minghan regiments from everywhere galloped towards them. Khubilai had moved his troops and surrounded Guo Jing and Yang Guo.

Guo Jing was slightly shocked and thought, “Even if we had the greatest of skills, how could we break out of this? Who would have thought that Khubilai had gone to such lengths to get me captured?” He was afraid that Yang Guo would get worried so he kept a normal expression and said, “Our steeds are fast horses. Our main priority is to break out of this encirclement. We need to get two shields to protect ourselves from their archers.” He then whispered into his ear, “First gallop south and then go north.”

Yang Guo was shocked, “Xiangyang is south of here, why go north?” But he immediately understood, “Hmm, yes, Khubilai must have placed his men around Xiangyang in case he went south. The north will be free of soldiers. First go south and then go north unexpectedly; they will not be able to respond in time and we can escape. How should I stop him?”

Yang Guo was trying to make his mind up when he saw a few people dart out of the tent. These people had blocked their path. A ‘ming ming’ sound followed as a bronze and iron wheel flew towards the steeds; it was Fawang.

Guo Jing saw that the wheels were coming in with great force and did not dare to use his hands to catch them. He lowered his head and pressed down on the necks of the two horses with his hands; the horses lowered their front legs just in time for the iron and bronze wheel to brush over their heads. The two wheels turned in midair and flew back into Fawang’s hands. This slight delay allowed Nimoxing and Yin Kexi to arrive in front of Guo Jing and Yang Guo. Fawang and Xiaoxiang Zi arrived a little later and the four surrounded them.

Jinlun Fawang, Xiaoxiang Zi and the others were all first rate fighters and normally would not lower themselves to fight in numbers, but Guo Jing was too strong and they were all thinking about the title of ‘The Greatest Warrior of Mongolia’. White and golden light glimmered as all of them took out a weapon.

Fawang was holding a bronze and iron wheel. Yin Kexi was holding a golden jewel embedded whip. Xiaoxiang Zi was holding a short Ku Sang Rod. The person holding the strangest weapon was Nimoxing. In his hand was a short iron Snake whip that looked like a live snake as it was moved on his arm.

From their running movements and their hand movements in taking out their weapons, Guo Jing could see that the weakest out of the four appeared to be Yin Kexi. He immediately threw both his palms forwards towards Xiaoxiang Zi. Xiaoxiang Zi extended his rod forward, aiming for Guo Jing’s palm. Guo Jing looked at his weapon and saw white silk twirling around it and there was hemp at one end. Guo Jing saw that Xiaoxiang Zi’s martial arts were high and his weapon strange, he’ll definitely have some strong points about him, so he turned his right arm around and used a stance of “Divine Dragon Sweeping its Tail”, he immediately grabbed Yin Kexi’s golden whip. Yin Kexi wanted to use his whip to attack his opponent but it had already been grabbed. He followed the opponent’s pull and threw his body forward with a glittering dagger in his left hand. This stance was using an attack as a defense and it was the top skill of the “Eighteen Little Grabbing Hand Technique”.

Guo Jing called out; “Good!” He used his grabbing hand technique on him again. His right hand still held onto the whip as he went for his dagger. Guo Jing’s arms were crossed over as his right hand held onto the whip in Yin Kexi’s right hand and his left hand held onto Yin Kexi’s left hand. Yin Kexi was sure that by thrusting his dagger forward, his opponent would have no choice but to let go of his whip and avoid the dagger. Who would have thought that his dagger would also be held?

At this time, Fawang’s wheels and Xiaoxiang Zi’s short rod attacked. Guo Jing did not manage to snatch away the golden dragon whip with his first pull and he shouted out; a surge of great chi went through the whip into Yin Kexi. Yin Kexi felt as if a metal hammer had struck his chest heavily, his eyes saw stars and he threw up a mouthful of blood. Guo Jing let go of the whip and blocked the attacks. Yin Kexi knew that he had suffered a severe injury and he pulled back slowly. He sat down on the ground and circulated his chi through his ‘dan tian’ and held back the urge to vomit more blood.

Fawang, Xiaoxiang Zi and Nimoxing were both delighted and afraid when they saw Guo Jing injure Yin Kexi with his first attack. They were delighted because there was now one less competitor for the title of the ‘Greatest Warrior of Mongolia’, but they were also afraid because they saw how powerful Guo Jing was. They themselves might suffer the same fate if they weren’t careful. The three of them did not dare make any rash moves and defended themselves.

Guo Jing responded to every stance that came to him and studied the strange weapons of Nimoxing and Xiaoxiang Zi carefully. The Ku Sang rod was made out of pure iron and apart from being heavy and sturdy; he couldn’t see anything special about it. Nimoxing’s snake shaped weapon was very strange, the head of the weapon was like the head of a poisonous snake and the body of the weapon was soft and crooked. Both the head and tail of the snake shaped weapon were sharp but the most powerful aspect of the weapon was that it was hard to predict the weapon’s movements. One couldn’t tell when the body of the snake would bend over, the head and tail of the weapon had no certain direction; the iron snake whip would suddenly leap up and whirl around in Nimoxing’s arms and then suddenly curl up and slither around, the weapon had hundreds of variations.

In his younger years, Guo Jing had seen the stances of Ouyang Feng’s snake staff; the staff was like a real snake and it had venomous poison with it. Even if Nimoxing’s weapon was extremely powerful, it was still a dead object. When he attacks and when he takes the snake back, there will be certain principles behind it that can be seen through. Because of this, the only person that Guo Jing was worried about was Jinlun Fawang.

The four of them had exchanged several moves when suddenly someone shouted and stepped forward, a man mountain appeared; it was Ma Guangzuo. He was holding a thick and long bronze rod in his hand and smashed it down towards Guo Jing’s head from behind Nimoxing. The four of them were in a heated battle and all of them defended tightly, there was not an ounce of spare space in between any of them. The exchange from Guo Jing’s palms, Jinlun Fawang’s wheels, Xiaoxiang Zi’s short rod and Nimoxing’s iron snake had formed a net of force around them. By smashing the rod down, Ma Guangzuo was running up against the force created by the four. Ma Guangzuo’s rod suddenly bounced back up as it met this invisible force. He noticed something was wrong and shouted out as he gathered strength into his arms to keep control of the rod. Even though he managed to do this, the joints in his hands bled. He called out loudly, “Evil, evil!” He increased the strength in his arms and smashed down once more.

Fawang was standing in front of him and he saw what was happening, the greater the force he smashes down with, the more he’ll suffer and Fawang just chuckled.

Yang Guo watched from the side and knew what would happen; though Ma Guangzuo was strong, his martial arts could no way compare with that of Guo Jing. If he makes a fierce attack blindly and meets up with the world’s most yang and unyielding “Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palm” of Guo Jing head on, what chance would he have of living? Even if he doesn’t die under the palm of Guo Jing, he would be seriously injured by the weapons of Fawang, Nimoxing and Xiaoxiang Zi. He liked this dim-witted person for his simple and straightforward character and for standing up for him on many occasions. If Ma Guangzuo strikes down he would definitely meet great danger so Yang Guo called out, “Ma Guangzuo, watch out for my sword!”

The gentlemen sword went for his back.