Return of Condor Heroes, page 88
Yang Guo laughed, “He must have blamed you for ignoring him and that it was your fault, right?”
The girl in green said, “Correct. I was in the fungi room when I heard the clamor in the pill room. I knew something was wrong and was about to leave the room to take a look when the old man dashed in. As soon as he stretched out his hand, he snapped the four hundred year old spirit fungus in two.”
Yang Guo saw that the young girl was about seventeen or eighteen years of age, her skin was extremely white, very soft and delicate, her eyes bright and clear and there was a very small mole by her mouth. She said, “That Old Urchin is an extremely bothersome troublemaker; that spirit fungus had been grown for over four hundred years, it is an extremely valuable object.”
The girl sighed, “My father was going to share it on his wedding day with my step mother but who could have known that it would be ruined by the Old Urchin. My father will of course fly into a rage. After the Old Urchin broke the spirit fungus, he placed it in his pockets and said something about not giving it back to me and laughed. I haven’t done anything to offend him. Why on earth did he come here and cause trouble for me?” As she said this, her eyes became red, feeling that she has been wronged.
Yang Guo thought, “The Old Urchin had no reason to bully this girl, this is wrong.”
Yin Kexi said, “Please can I have your father’s name. We inadvertently came here without permission and don’t even know the owner’s name; our manners are lacking.”
The young girl delayed and didn’t reply.
One of the men in green said, “Without our Master’s permission, we can not reveal it, please forgive us.”
Yang Guo thought, “These people are very secretive; they live here in this secluded place and aren’t willing to reveal their identity to others.” He then asked, “What happened after the Old Urchin stole the spirit fungus?”
The third person in green said, “The one named Zhou wasn’t finished; after wrecking the pill and fungi room, he burst into the library, took a book and started to read. I was assigned to the library and so of course I had to stop him. But he said, ‘these are just lies that they tell to children, what’s so great about this?’ and ripped three books in one go. At that time, senior and second apprentice brother came along with apprentice sister. The four of us together were still unable to stop him.”
Fawang gave a wry laugh and said, “That Old Urchin has an eccentric character but his martial arts are really spectacular; of course it would not be easy to stop him.”
The second man in green said, “After causing trouble in the pill room, fungi room and library, he went for the sword room. He burst into the room and broke out in a temper, saying that there were… there were too many weapons. They’re all over the place and almost cut him. He then set the room alight and burnt all the paintings on the wall. While we urgently tried to put out the fire, he escaped. We all thought that this was a serious matter so we chased after him, caught him and bought him back so our Master can deal with him.”
Yang Guo said, “I don’t know what punishment the Master of this valley will have for him but I hope that he won’t kill him.”
The third man in green said, “My Master’s wedding is not far away, he won’t kill that easily. But if that Old Urchin says something to offend my Master, then it would be his fault if trouble comes to him.”
Yin Kexi laughed, “Why would the Old Urchin deliberately stir up trouble for your Master? He may be mischievous but he doesn’t seem to have a bad temper.”
The girl in green said, “He said that my father is old and he’s still marrying…” The senior apprentice brother suddenly cut her off and said, “That Old Urchin is mad, how believable are his words? Everyone has come from afar and must be hungry; I will serve some food to our guests.”
Ma Guangzuo said loudly, “Great, great!” His face lit up.
The four people in green entered the kitchen and brought out some rice and vegetables and then set up a table. There were four basins, one had plain green vegetables, another had white tofu, one of the others was filled with yellow bean sprouts and the last one was filled with black mushrooms. There wasn’t any meat.
Just three months after he was born, Ma Guangzuo would not eat anything without meat. He saw four trays of vegetables in front of him that didn’t even have a drop of oil on them, he was extremely disappointed.
The first person in green said, “We do not eat meat here in the valley, forgive us. Please eat.” He then bought out a jug and poured out a clear and clean liquid in the bowls in front of them.
Ma Guangzuo thought, “Since there’s no meat, I better drink a few bowls of wine.” He picked up the bowl and drank, he noticed that it had no taste and it was actually water, he roared, “This Master is damn stingy; there isn’t even a drop of wine for us.”
The first person in green said, “Our valley forbids alcohol; this is a rule passed down by our ancestors; please forgive us.”
The girl in green said, “We have seen the words ‘beautiful wine’ in books, but we’ve never experienced what this beautiful wine is. The books say that wine harms the mind, it appears that it isn’t anything good.”
Fawang, Yin Kexi and the others saw that these four people weren’t old but their actions and words were reserved and trite. Ever since they’ve spoken with these people, they haven’t showed a single smile; though their faces weren’t hateful, it wasn’t interesting to talk to them. In other words, they didn’t speak more than half a word to each other; they stopped talking and lowered their heads as they ate. The four people retreated and didn’t come forward again.
After they ate, Ma Guangzuo said that they should leave in the night. But the other five saw that there was something about this place, they were curious and wanted to understand it more clearly.
Yin Kexi said, “Brother Ma, since we’re here, we need to meet the Master of this valley tomorrow; how could we just leave?”
Ma Guangzuo roared, “There’s no meat or wine, isn’t he trying to torture us? I can’t live half a day like this.”
Xiaoxiang Zi said, “The majority of us are staying; why are you trying to start something?”
Ma Guangzuo has been secretly afraid of his zombie appearance; when he heard him say this, he didn’t dare to speak another word.
That night the six of them slept in the stone building on some straw mats on the floor. They felt that this valley was passionless; even stupidly stricter and more prudish than a Buddhist temple. Though the monks of Buddhist temples are vegetarians, they wouldn’t treat people so coldly; these people didn’t even show half a smile. Yang Guo was used to living in the Ancient Tomb and used to living with the icy cold Xiao Longnu. He was the only one who didn’t think anything of this.
Nimoxing said enraged, “The Old Urchin wrecked and set the building alight, that is something!” When he said this, Ma Guangzuo felt the same way and called out loudly in response.
Nimoxing said, “Brother Jinlun, you’re our brains, what kind of person do you think the Master of this valley is? Is he a bad guy or a good guy? Are we going to be polite to him or are we going to beat the… beat the crap out of him.”
Fawang said, “I’m like all you people here when it comes to trying to fathom what type of person this Valley Master is, it is difficult for us to guess. Tomorrow, we’ll just act accordingly.”
Yin Kexi said quietly, “The martial arts of the four green disciples of this valley aren’t weak, so naturally there will be even better martial artists in this valley. Everyone needs to be careful, just one little slip up and the six of us might die here, that wouldn’t be so good.”
Ma Guangzuo was still complaining about the food and didn’t listen to what Yin Kexi was saying.
Yang Guo said, “If you’re not careful tomorrow, you’ll be caught and trapped here for the rest of your life; you’ll be fed water and rice, vegetables and tofu everyday. When that happens, I’m afraid that even the tapeworm in your stomach would want to die.”
Ma Guangzuo was frightened and quickly said, “Good brother, I’ll listen…I’ll listen.”
That night they didn’t sleep too peacefully as they thought about the danger they were in; only Ma Guangzuo slept well, snoring thunderously and calling out in his dreams, “Come, come! Cheers! This slab of beef is massive!”
Chapter 17 - The Secluded Passionless Valley
Fan Yi Weng quickly moved his head to the left. The opponent’s attack was fast, his reaction was also very swift and his beard followed him and flung upwards. Yang Guo’s scissors had been opened and was guarding the right; a ‘ka’ sound was heard as the scissors cut down. He cut off over two feet of the beard.
After Yang Guo woke up the next morning, he left the stone house and went outside. Last night it was dark and he couldn’t see the surroundings clearly but now he could; he was surrounded by emerald green grass, the flowers like a brocade, the scenery of this place was already magnificent but the beauty of this place was even more rarely seen.
He followed where his feet took him and along the path he saw cranes, herds of white deer, squirrels and rabbits but none of them were alarmed by his presence.
He passed two bends and saw the girl in green plucking flowers off to one side. She saw him approaching and greeted, “You wake up really early, have some breakfast.” She plucked two flowers from the tree and offered them to him.
Yang Guo accepted them and thought, “Is it possible that flowers can be eaten?” But then he saw the girl tearing the flower petal by petal and placing them in her mouth, he did the same. When he placed the petals in his mouth, he noticed a sweet fragrance, a fragrance like that of honey and there was a subtle air of wine, he felt a feeling of comfort but after a few chews the taste became bitter and sour. He wanted to spit it out but felt that he couldn’t give it up; he wanted to swallow but had a little difficulty in getting it go down his throat.
He carefully looked at the plant and saw that the branches were covered in thorns but the flowers were extremely beautiful, and even more fragrant than lotuses, he asked, “What is this flower? I’ve never seen it before.”
The girl said, “This is the Passion Flower, I’ve heard that it is a very rare plant. Tell me, what do you think of the taste?”
Yang Guo said, “At first, it is extremely sweet but afterwards it is extremely bitter. This is called the Passion Flower? There’s a meaning behind this name.” He stretched out his hand to pluck a flower.
The girl said, “Careful! There’s thorns on the plant, don’t touch it!”
Yang Guo avoided the thorns and was very careful but he didn’t notice that behind the flower was hidden another and it pricked his hand.
The girl said, “This valley is called the ‘Passionless Valley’ yet there are so many Passion Flowers growing here.”
Yang Guo said, “Why is it called the Passionless Valley? This name really is… really is special.”
The girl shook her head and said, “I don’t know why. This is the name our ancestors gave it, maybe my father knows.”
The two then started to walk down the path, shoulder to shoulder. The scent of flowers filled Yang Guo’s nose, by the side of the path were rabbits and young deer were darting about, it was very adorable sight. He had a feeling of being carefree and joyous, and naturally he started to think about Xiao Longnu, “If the person walking with me was Gu Gu, I really would love to live in this place forever with her and not ever leave.” Just as he thought about this, the wound on his finger suddenly became painful, the wound was very small yet the pain was so great, it was like someone smashing a hammer across his chest, he couldn’t hold it in and gave an ‘ai’ call, placed the finger in his mouth and sucked it.
The girl blandly said, “You’re thinking about your lover, is that it?”
Yang Guo’s thoughts were guessed; his face went red and asked, “How do you know?”
The girl said, “If you’ve been pricked by the thorns of the Passion Flower, you cannot think about love for the next twenty four hours otherwise the suffering will be unbearable.”
Yang Guo was surprised and said, “There’s actually such a strange thing as this in the world?”
The girl said, “My father said: love is like this, when it enters the mouth it is sweet but afterwards it becomes bitter and sour, furthermore, it is covered by thorns, even if you are extremely careful, pain from it would be unavoidable. The flower was given its name most probably because it has this special characteristic.”
Yang Guo asked, “How come that within twenty four hours, one cannot… cannot… think about love?”
The girl said, “Father said: there’s poison on the thorns of the plant. When people think about love, not only does their blood flow quicker, some unknown thing is created in the blood. The poison of the thorns of the Passion Flower is not harmful normally, but once it meets this something in the blood, it will create unbearable pain in the person.”
When Yang Guo heard this, he felt that it was fairly reasonable and believed her with few doubts.
The two slowly walked to the unsheltered mountainside. The light of the sun lighted up this place, the ground and air were gentle and warm; the Passion Flowers have bloomed early here and there were fruits on the plant.
Yang Guo saw that the fruits were either red or green, but some were red and green and there were hair on the fruits, like a caterpillar.
Yang Guo said, “The Passion Flower is so beautiful yet its fruits are so ugly.”
The girl said, “The fruits of the flower can’t be eaten, some are sour, some are hot and some stink so much that it makes people want to vomit.”
Yang Guo gave a laugh and said, “Is it possible that there aren’t any that are sweet as honey?”
The girl glanced at him and said, “Sometimes there are but you cannot tell by its appearance. Some that are extremely ugly are sweet but an ugly fruit doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a sweet one. Only by tasting it directly will you know for sure. Out of ten fruits, nine are bitter; because of this we never eat them.”
Yang Guo thought, “Though she is talking about the Passion Flower, it is like an analogy for love. Could it be that although the love between lovers is at first sweet, it will eventually turn sour? Can it be that a pair of lovers who are deeply in love with each other will eventually experience more bitterness than sweetness? Could it be that the yearning love I have for Gu Gu will eventually…”
As soon as he thought about Xiao Longnu, his finger suddenly broke out with a piercing pain again and he swung his arm around a few times. He now knew that the words of the girl were indeed true.
When the girl saw him like this, her lip moved a little, as if she wanted to laugh but was refraining from doing so. Sunlight lit up her face and showed a pair of elegant eyes and brows, her skin was white with redness floating on top of it, she looked very beautiful.
Yang Guo laughed, “I once heard a story; there was once an emperor, he set up a fire display and burned all things, throwing away most of his kingdom as a result, and the only reason for this was that he was trying to get a legendary beauty to smile. To be able to see a smile is a fortunate thing, so, the same applies whether it’s in the past or in the present.”
After being teased by Yang Guo, the girl could no longer hold it in and eventually gave a giggle.
Yang Guo noticed that she had been cold as ice throughout this time and there were some feelings of anxiety in his heart, but after this smile, most of the divide between the two went away. Yang Guo continued, “Everyone knows that a beauty’s smile is rare to come by, they say something like a smile can overturn a city, another can overturn a country, actually there’s something of a beauty’s that is even rarer than a smile.”
The girl’s eyes opened wide and asked, “What?”
Yang Guo said, “A beautiful girl’s name. To have the opportunity to come across a beautiful woman is an extremely lucky event, to be able to see the smile of a beautiful girl would be because of the good deeds of their ancestors and one must go through three lifetimes…” Before he finished the girl giggled again.
Yang Guo continued looking serious and said, “To be able to hear a beautiful girl reveal her name that really requires eighteen generations of great deeds.”
The girl said, “I’m not some beautiful girl; no one in the valley has ever called me beautiful, why must you joke?”
Yang Guo sighed and said, “No wonder this place is called the Passionless Valley. But in my opinion, the name should be changed to something else.”
The girl said, “Change to what?”
Yang Guo said, “It should be called Blind Man’s Valley.”
