The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 17 – The hidden Loveless Valley, Part 14

When Fan Yiweng saw Yang Guo throwing up blood just now; he felt sorry for him and had no desire to threaten his life. He swept his staff and a fierce gust of wind brushed over Yang Guo’s clothes. He shouted, “Are you going to leave?”

Valley Master Gongsun frowned and said, “Yiweng, why are you still going on about leaving?” Fan Yiweng had just received a strict order from his Master; he had no choice but to sweep out his staff towards Yang Guo’s shins.

Gongsun Lu’E knew her senior apprentice brother had great martial arts; though he wasn’t tall, he possessed great strength and he had learned about seventy to eighty percent of her father’s skills. His steel staff had killed countless wild beasts. She thought that with Yang Guo being of a young age, he would definitely not be able to beat her apprentice brother’s eighty one stances of the “Spilling Water Staff”. If she waited for them to fight it would be difficult for her to save him. Though she saw her father’s face was harsh as frost and filled with anger, she plucked up her courage and stood towards Yang Guo, saying, “Master Yang, staying here will do you no good, why do you want to give your life away for no reason?” Her tone was gentle, filled with compassion.

Fawang and the others looked at her, secretly surprised, thinking, “Yang Guo came to the valley with us; when did he become friends with this girl?”

Yang Guo nodded and laughed, he said, “Thank you for Miss’ kindness. Do you want a beard to play with?”

Gongsun Lu’E was startled and asked, “What?”

Yang Guo said, “I’ll rid him of his beard and give it to you to mess around with, how about it?”

Gongsun Lu’E lost her color in shock. She thought that he must be bored with his life; actually daring to make a joke like this. The rules of the Passionless Valley were very strict; these few words of advice to Yang Guo would result in a heavy punishment. How could she know that he would reply jokingly? Her face went red; she didn’t dare to say anything else and stepped back into the line of disciples.

Fan Yiweng was a short man and was immensely proud of his beard; when he heard these mocking words from Yang Guo, he threw away his staff and rushed forward, shouting, “Little punk, I’ll let you experience pain from my beard first.” In the middle of his cry, his long beard swept forward.

Yang Guo laughed, “The Old Urchin didn’t cut off your beard; let me have a try.” He took out his scissors from his bag and cut forward towards the beard. Fan Yiweng’s beard was flung forward towards his neck; it had great force behind it. Yang Guo had already moved out of the way; the opened blades of the scissors came forward, a ‘ka’ sound was heard as they closed.

Fan Yiweng was shocked and he quickly did a somersault to get out of the way; just one slight delay and his beard would have been cut off. This wasn’t an ordinary kind of shock. The people who were watching called out quietly.

The reason Yang Guo had asked Blacksmith Feng to make this pair of scissors was so that he could use it against Li Mochou’s fly whisk. Li Mochou uses her “Divine Five Poison Palm” and her fly whisk to sweep through Jianghu; her fly whisk techniques were superb. Before Yang Guo could use the scissors to neutralize her fly whisk techniques, he had to first think carefully about how to use it; how he’d need to thrust forward when the fly whisk swayed around; how he’d cut when the fly whisk came forward to attack him. How could he know that before he had the chance to use it against Li Mochou, he would actually came across a person in the Passionless Valley who uses his beard as a weapon? Yang Guo thought, “No matter how good your beard is; it can’t be better than Li Mochou’s fly whisk.” He had no fear and pressed forward with the scissors.

Fan Yiweng had spent over ten years in training his beard technique; because he had his hands for protection, his beard was more lethal than the conventional whip or fly whisk. His head swung around and bought his beard forward; at the same time he threw out two palms towards Yang Guo.

A while go, Zhou Botong had tried to use the scissors to cut off his beard; but instead of cutting it off, the beard wrapped around the scissors, and he could only admit defeat. Everyone had seen the martial arts of Zhou Botong; everyone knew that Yang Guo could not compare to him. Who knew that in the hands of Yang Guo, the scissors swept, cut and threatened; going to and fro like it was in a dance? It was actually better than the way Zhou Botong had handled the scissors and everyone marveled. In the proficiency of martial arts and internal energy level, of course Yang Guo was miles behind Zhou Botong; but he had carefully studied the stances of Li Mochou’s fly whisk and had devised scissors stances to counter them. Because the way the beard was used was similar to that of the fly whisk, the scissors were indeed effective against the beard and Yang Guo got the upper hand. Of course this was different to the unplanned and unstructured scissor techniques of Zhou Botong. But Fawang and the others did not know the reason behind it; they saw with their own eyes Zhou Botong thrusting the scissors towards him. In accordance with his character, this would be something that he would devise to cause trouble. Yang Guo was most proficient with a sword and Fawang knew this.

On many occasions, Fan Yiweng was almost injured by the scissors and as a result, he stopped looking down on Yang Guo. He changed his stance and swung his beard wildly around, striking out in all directions, attacking forward and sweeping across. This actually formed another set of stances. Yang Guo cut downwards many times but each time he caught thin air, he also felt the wind from his opponent’s palms was fierce. Sometimes the beard was a decoy while the palm was real, at other times the palms lured the opponent and the beard attacked; this was a set of ingenious martial arts that the world of Wulin had never seen before.

In a short while, tens of moves were exchanged. Yang Guo thought, “The Valley Master is vicious and cruel; his martial arts would definitely be much better than this shortie; if I can’t beat the disciple, how can I beat the Master?” He became slightly impatient. But Fan Yiweng’s beard was thicker and longer than Li Mochou’s fly whisk; as the beard spread out, there really were no weaknesses.

After a few more stances, Yang Guo concentrated on his opponent. He saw his opponent’s head swinging around; he had a ludicrous appearance and his beard was getting faster and faster. His head was swinging around especially fast and suddenly he had a thought; he had found a way to break this martial art of his. Yang Guo leapt back five feet and called out, “Hold off!”

Fan Yiweng stopped his attack and said, “Since you’ve admitted defeat little brother, just leave!”

Yang Guo shook his head as he laughed and said, “After your beard’s been cut, how long will it take to grow back?”

Fan Yiweng said, “What’s it got to do with you? I’ve never cut my beard before.”

Yang Guo shook his head and said, “Pity, pity!”

Fan Yiweng said, “Pity what?”

Yang Guo said, “In three stances I’m going to cut off your beard.”

Fan Yiweng thought, “You and I have already fought for tens of stances and we’re at a draw; you must be dreaming if you think you can win in just three more stances.” Fan Yiweng shouted, “Watch this stance!” His right palm came chopping out.