The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Hearing that, Temujin laughed loudly. Tolui then told why he started fighting with Dukhsh. When Temujin heard how Dukhsh kept mentioning embarrassing events from his past, anger boiled deep in his heart. He said nothing about it, only saying, "In the future, don't bother with him." Temujin then turned to Quan Jinfa and asked, "How much gold do you want to stay in my camp to teach my son kung fu?"

Quan Jinfa thought, "We were thinking of finding a place to teach Guo Jing kung fu. If we can teach him here, there would no better place." He replied, "The Great Khan's willingness to accept the six of us is something we could not have asked for. You can pay us whatever you decide is suitable, we wouldn't dare to discuss or argue about the amount." Temujin was pleased and he told Boroqul to look after them; after that, he left to see off the Wanyan brothers.

The Six Freaks of the South rode slowly behind the others while they discussed the matter.

Han Baoju said, "The skin on the chest of Chen Xuanfeng's corpse was removed by someone; it must have been an enemy of his."

Quan Jinfa replied, "The 'Twin Killers of the Dark Winds' are cruel and ruthless; having many enemies isn't something to be surprised at. But I don't understand why his enemy didn't simply chop up his body, or slash him all over. Why only slice off a large piece of skin from his chest?"

"I have been thinking of that all this time, but I still cannot figure out the reasoning behind it," Ke Zhen'E replied. "The most pressing task at hand is to find out where 'Iron Corpse' is."

"Precisely! If that person is not killed, she will bring much danger to us in the future. I'm afraid that she will not die from the poison," Zhu Cong agreed.

With tears in her eyes, Han Xiaoying spoke up, "Fifth brother's dead, how could we not avenge him?"

So Han Baoju, Han Xiaoying and Quan Jinfa, rode their fast horses to try to find 'Iron Corpse'. But after numerous days of searching, they were not able to find a trace of her. Han Baoju considered, "The woman's eyes were hit by elder brother's poison projectiles. The poison must have worked on her by now; she probably died in some mountain valley." The rest of them agreed. Ke Zhen'E knew in his heart that the 'Twin Killers of the Dark Winds' were very smart and devious. Unless he could touch her corpse with his own hands, it would always remain a heavy weight on his heart. He did not want to bother his younger brothers and sister with his worries and did not tell them of his concerns.

From then on, the Six Freaks of the South remained on the steppe, teaching Guo Jing and Tolui kung fu. Temujin knew that kung fu is for protecting oneself in close contact with an opponent. He wanted Tolui and Guo Jing to learn these techniques briefly, and to spend most of their time learning riding, shooting with their bows and arrows, and learning other important skills of the battlefield. The 'Six Freaks of the South' were not familiar with these Mongol skills so Guo Jing and Tolui learned these from Jebe and Boroqul.

In the evenings, the 'Six Freaks of the South' taught Guo Jing alone, teaching him fists, sword, hidden weapons, and lightness kung fu. Although Guo Jing was slow by nature, he knew that he had to avenge his father in the future using kung fu, so he did not complain and worked as hard as he could.

Zhu Cong, Quan Jinfa and Han Xiaoying's kung fu was a bit too hard for him to comprehend. With Han Baoju and Nan Xiren's basic kung fu, he just followed their directions exactly and slowly but steadily learned it. This basic kung fu strengthened bodies but was not designed to overcome an enemy and win a fight.

Han Baoju often said, "Training you is like training a camel. Strong is strong, but can a camel be victorious over a leopard?"

Whenever he heard that, Guo Jing only showed a silly smile. When the Six Freaks taught Guo Jing, they only supervised his learning, instead of explaining it to him. Of the ten moves they tried to teach him, he couldn't learn a single one; they could not help feeling discouraged. Whenever they talked about it, they would only sigh and shake their heads. Although they knew that their chances of being victorious over Qiu Chuji's disciple were almost non-existent, an agreement had been made so they couldn't give up. As a business man, Quan Jinfa's talents lay in the field of intricate calculations. He often said, "For Qiu Chuji to find the Yang family widow, I figure he has about an eighty percent chance of success. That improves our chances by twenty percent. Whether the Yang family widow gave birth to a boy or girl, who knows? The chance that she gave birth to a boy is only half, with that, we potentially gain another forty percent. If it's a son, maybe he won't survive to adulthood, we then gain another ten percent. Even if he manages to grow up, maybe he'll be as stupid as Jing'er. Therefore, I'd say that we still have an eighty percent chance of winning."

The other five 'Freaks' thought that what he said wasn't wrong, however, saying that the Yang family's son's aptitude for learning martial arts might be the same as Guo Jing's, they had to know that Quan Jinfa was trying to console them. Luckily, Guo Jing had a good heart and he is exceedingly obedient, so the 'Six Freaks' really liked his character a lot.

On the prairies of Outer Mongolia, the coming of green summer grass and the brilliant white of winter snows, ten years quickly went by. Guo Jing had become a sturdy youth of sixteen. There were only two years left until the martial arts competition, so the 'Six Freaks' stepped up their supervision. They ordered him to stop practicing riding and shooting temporarily, and from dusk to dawn, concentrate on practicing fists and the sword. During these ten years, Temujin had many battles and had swallowed up numerous other tribes into his own. He commanded his subordinates strictly, and all his soldiers were courageous and excelled in fighting. He was both courageous and resourceful and knew when to attack using force or attack using strategy. In all of Mongolia, no one could be compared to him. As the livestock bred and numbers grew, the population also increased, so that the differences between Temujin and Ong Khan's tribes became smaller.

The violent winds gradually stopped and the heavy snows began to decrease, but the outer prairies of Mongolia still remained bitterly cold. A certain day arrived; it was the Pure Brightness Festival. (Note: Qing Ming Festival. A day for paying respects to the dead. The Chinese pay their respects at their ancestor's / family's graves, and may clean up the grave and pull out the weeds etc.) The 'Six Freaks of the South' arose early and Guo Jing with them; they took cows and sheep as sacrificial items to Zhang Ahsheng's grave and swept it. Since the Mongolians are nomads, they move around more or less continuously. They have no fixed place to stay. At this point in time, the Mongolian camp was quite far away from Zhang Ahsheng's grave. Even riding fast horses, it took them more than half of a day to get there. The seven of them climbed the barren hill and swept away the piled up snow from the grave. They then lit candles, burned incense, and knelt in front of the grave praying.

Han Xiaoying secretly prayed, "Fifth brother, for the past ten years we've given all of our energy and our hearts to teaching this child. His gift for learning isn't good and he can't learn our martial arts properly. I hope that fifth brother's spirit in the heavens will watch over him now and at the Jiaxing martial arts competition in two years time. Do not let this child spoil the prestige and name of the 'Seven Freaks of the South'!"