The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 1 – Love is ruthless, Part 5

Lu thought, “The girls are naughty, getting someone else to do their errands.”

The boy on the wall managed to pick a flower. Wushuang shouted, “Give it to me-give it to me!” The boy smiled, and threw it to Cheng Ying. Cheng Ying caught it and gave it to her cousin. Lu Wushuang was angry, and threw the flower onto the ground. She took a few steps, and angrily shouted, “Who cares? I don’t want it anymore.”

Lu and his wife saw how the kids were playing and arguing, and sighed. They withdrew to their room.

Cheng Ying saw Wushuang crush the flower and asked, “Cousin, why are you angry?”

“I don’t want his. I’ll pick one myself.”

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As she said this, she moved her right foot a little, and leapt. She hung onto a purple cane hanging from the tree. She used her strength and managed to leap up higher a few times, and landed on a silver branch of the Cinnamonum cassia tree (one of the group of aromatic trees like camphor and cinnamon) The boy on the wall clapped. “So you are joining me!”

Wushuang swung on the branch a few times and released her grip, throwing herself towards the wall. Although she has learned a little lightness kung fu, this leap was very dangerous. But since she was angry with the boy giving the flower to Ying and not her, she wanted to keep her pride in front of the boy. She wasn’t used to jumping such a distance. The boy gulped and said, “Stretch your hand out” as he reached out. If the boy hadn’t reached out, Wushuang would have made it, but when she saw his hand in midair she shouted, “Move!” and leaned to the side to avoid his hands. The ability to twist in the air is part of a higher level of kung fu; she had seen her dad perform this once before, but without the supervision of her parents how could she try it? As she turned, her hand wasn’t able to reach the top of the wall. She shouted, “Oh no!” before falling to the ground. Another boy near the foot of the wall reached out to catch her. The wall was about ten feet tall. Though Wushuang was light, the force of her hitting the ground would still be high. The boy managed to grab her waist, the both of them falling onto the ground. Only to hear two “ka ka” noises, as the bone in Lu Wushuang’s left leg snapped. The boy changed colour to that of the flowers on the stone altar, as blood spouted out. Cheng Ying wanted to help the boy who tried stopping the disaster up. The boy got up, and pressed hard on the heavy wound. Wushuang had already fainted. Cheng Ying picked up her cousin and shouted, “Uncle, aunt, hurry!”

The couple rushed out of their rooms to see to injured children, as well as a middle-aged woman who also rushed out from her room. It was the woman who had come to ask for shelter for the night. They saw her pick up the injured children and rush into the hall. Ignoring her own child’s injuries, she tended to Lu Wushuang’s leg, intending to put the snapped bone back in place. Mistress Lu fetched a piece of cloth and tied it around the boy’s head before going to see her daughter. The woman then pressed down on the “bai hai” (white sea) pressure point and the “wei zhong” (middle gathering) pressure point on Lu Wushuang’s leg to ease the pain, as she place one hand each on the broken pieces of bone, then put the bone into place. Lu Liding saw her movements were swift, her pressure point “dim yue” kung fu was at a respectable level, and his curiosity was raised. “Who are you? Why did you come here?” The woman was busy tending to Wushuang’s leg and didn’t reply to the questions.

At the same time, a laugh was heard on the roof.

“I’m here to take the nine lives of the Lu family, come out.”

The woman heard the chilling laugh from the rooftop, swallowed, and continued to tend to Wushuang’s injuries. As she twisted her hands, Wushuang let out a scream in sheer pain and she fainted again.

Everyone went outside, only to see a young priestess standing by the overhang of the roof, the moonlight lit up her face. She was about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and a long sword with a blood red sash hung on her back, the sash moving in the wind.

Lu Liding said calmly, “I’m Lu Liding. Are you under the command of priestess Li?”

The priestess’s lips were skewed when she replied, “Its good that you know. Go collect your wife and daughter, kill them and then kill yourself to spare me the trouble.”

The words were said with coldness, at a speed neither too slow nor fast, and with disregard for the audience. When Lu Liding heard these words, his body quivered. “You…you” He wanted to jump on to the roof and fight the girl, but she was young and was just a girl, how could he fight her? As he hesitated, suddenly something swept passed his body; it was the woman who had come to ask for shelter, in her hand was a long sword, ready to fight that young priestess.

The woman wore a grey traditional dress, the priestess an apricot yellow robe. Under the moonlight, the images of grey and yellow resembled some sort of flying dance; three flashes of light were produced as three sword-clashing sounds were made. Lu Liding’s skills were taught by his brother, and though he has never fought an enemy before, his eyes weren’t poor, and saw every stance of the two fighters. He saw the sword held in the priestess’s hand turned from defense into attack, attack into defense, her sword stances were without mercy. The woman’s sword matched hers. The sounds of clashing blades were heard, both swords turned over, suddenly the little priestess’s sword flew into midair. The little priestess chased after her sword, her face losing its calmness and she shouted out, “I’m under the orders of my master to take the lives of the Lu family. Who are you, and why are you meddling in these affairs?”

The woman gave out a cold laugh and said, “It seems like your master has great ability, she went out to find Lu Zhanyuan to settle her debts, but she knew that he was dead, so she’s taking out her anger on his loved ones, isn’t that correct?”

The little priestess wielded three small silver needles with her right hand and threw them ferociously, two at the woman, one at Lu Liding who was standing in the middle of the courtyard. It was such an unexpected movement. As the woman fended off two needles with her sword, Lu Liding managed to catch the other needle with two fingers. The little priestess laughed out coldly and jumped down from the building, and quickly flew away hearing the chasing footsteps.

The woman jumped down to the courtyard, and saw Lu Liding was still holding the silver needles. She shouted, “Drop it!” Lu Liding hesitated before doing so. She cut off a piece of her belt and wrapped it firmly around the wound on his right hand.

Lu Liding jumped. “The needles have poison on them?”

The woman replied, “Nothing can compare to this poison.” She gave him a granule of medicine to take. Lu Liding felt his arms swelling and numbing. The woman used her sword tip to cut deeply into the two infected fingers of Lu, and saw drops of black blood seeping out.

Lu Liding jumped and thought to himself, “My finger wasn’t cut, I only touched the silver needles and the effects are so severe. If the needles actually cut me then my life would surely have been gone.” He then looked in the direction of the woman and said, “I have eyes but I fail to see TiaShan Mountain*, please, can madam tell me her name?” (*This phrase basically means he didn’t see his benefactors even though they were in front of him.)

The woman replied, “My husband is named Wu, Wu Santong.” Lu got up in awe and said, “So it is Madam Wu. I’ve heard the Wu’s are under the order of Reverend Yideng in the south in Dali, is that right?”

“You are right. Reverend Yideng is indeed my husband’s teacher. I have learned a little in terms of martial arts from my husband, who is nothing more than a farmer. I hope master Lu won’t laugh.”

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