The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 16 – Deep hatred for father’s killer, Part 9

Ma Guangzuo was furious; he called out and threw himself forward to battle Fawang.

Khubilai laughed, “There’s no need to get angry warrior Ma, if you want to duel, there’s time to do this after we’ve eaten.”

Ma Guangzuo was afraid of his highness; he returned to his seat and pointed to Fawang, shouting, “What witchcraft did you use to break my chopsticks?”

Jinlun Fawang laughed, still holding out the piece of beef in front of him.

At first, Nimoxing did not have any respect for Jinlun Fawang, but after seeing how profound his internal energy was, he did not dare to continue looking down on him. He was an Indian; when he ate he did not use chopsticks, he just stretched out his hand and said, “I want to eat this piece of beef that the big Han couldn’t take.” His five fingers came out suddenly like a metal claw towards the beef. Fawang swept out his right chopstick, it moved like lightning as he attacked the pressure points on his palm, arm, wrist and the tip of his middle finger.

Nimoxing’s palm quickly turned and chopped down at Fawang’s wrist. Fawang’s arm didn’t move, he turned his chopstick around and struck out swiftly again, Nimoxing felt the chopstick striking him on the hand and quickly took his arm back. Fawang’s chopstick twisted back into its original position, still holding onto the piece of beef.

His attack of the pressure points were extremely swift; he made many attacks and returned the chopstick into position before the piece of beef slipped away. Yang Guo and the others could see what had happened. The two had exchange many stances in just a short period of time. Fawang’s attacks with the chopstick were indeed fast but Nimoxing’s martial arts were also excellent, he was able to take back his hand in an extremely critical situation.

Xiaoxiang Zi called out, “Good skill!”

Khubilai knew that the two were using advanced martial arts to test each other but he couldn’t see what type of martial arts they were using. Ma Guangzuo’s eyes were wide open; he looked at them, puzzled.

Yin Kexi laughed and said, “Everyone’s too polite! You’re offering it to the others, but don’t want to eat it yourself, nor do you want anybody else to. Everything will be cold by the time you’ve finished.” He then slowly stretched out his chopsticks, the emerald and jade bracelets collided with each other noisily. Before his chopsticks touched the beef, Fawang’s chopsticks were forced to tremble slightly by his internal energy; he was getting in the first attack, keeping Fawang’s chopsticks in check. Fawang moved his chopsticks forward and allowed him to take the piece of beef. When his internal energy reaches his chopstick, he attacked his arm.

Yin Kexi urgently circulated his internal energy and counterattacked. How would he know that Fawang’s internal energy would suddenly withdraw? The beef was initially held by him but his internal energy moved it forward and Fawang once again got hold of the piece of beef.

Fawang laughed, “Brother Yin is too polite by offering it to me.” This time he used cleverness to win. Yin Kexi fell into the trap and at the same time found out that the opponent’s internal energy far exceeded his own. Luckily he hadn’t embarrassed himself yet; he gave a wry laugh and picked up a small piece of beef from the plate. He said, “The only things I love in life are treasures and precious objects, I don’t really like fatty meat; I better just eat a small piece.” He placed the small piece of beef in his mouth and then slowly chewed.

Jinlun Fawang thought, “This Hu merchant is broad-minded.” He turned to Xiaoxiang Zi and said, “Since you offered it to me so modestly, I will accept.” He slowly took the chopsticks back half a foot. He guessed that Xiaoxiang Zi’s internal energy wasn’t weak and so didn’t dare to be careless, by taking it back half a foot, if he needed to circulate his internal energy it will be half a foot closer and half a foot further away from his enemy.

Xiaoxiang Zi chuckled and slowly raised his chopsticks; suddenly he sent them forward and caught the piece of beef. He used the force to take it back and he managed to pull it back half a foot.

Jinlun Fawang did not predict that the opponent’s movements would be so quick; he quickly circulated his internal energy and pulled back. The piece of beef moved back towards him inch by inch.

Xiaoxiang Zi stood up and placed his left hand on the table. The table made ‘ka la’ noises under this force but he still could not stop the force that Fawang produced in taking back the piece of beef.

Fawang looked at ease whereas drops of sweat poured from the forehead of Xiaoxiang Zi, the result was clear.

Suddenly a loud call by someone faraway could be heard, “Guo Jing, brother Guo, where are you? Quickly come out Guo Jing, the punk named Guo!”

At first the call came from the east but then it came from the west. There was a distance of a couple of li between the calls from the east and west and it appeared as if there were two people calling out from the east and west. But the voice was the same and there was no pause between the calls from the east and west. This person’s movements were extremely fast and the internal energy behind the calls was profound; this was something that was little seen in the world.

Everyone looked at each other startled. Xiaoxiang Zi loosened his chopsticks and sat back down in his seat.

Jinlun Fawang laughed and said, “Thank you, thank you!” He was about to place the piece of beef in his mouth when suddenly the tent door opened, someone flashed across and stretched out their hand and snatched Fawang’s beef and then took a large bite out of it.

This shocked everyone; they all stood up and looked to see who this person was. It was an old man with white hair, a white beard and a smiling red face. He sat down on the rug and started chewing the beef noisily. Jinlun Fawang thought back on the movements of this man when he took his piece of beef; the more he thought about, the more shocked he was.

The guards outside the tent who failed to stop this man all called out, “Stop the assassin!” Four spears were thrust towards the man’s chest. The old man stretched out his left hand and grabbed all the spearheads at once; he turned to Yang Guo and said, “Little brother, I’m really hungry, pass over some more beef to me.”

The four Mongolian soldiers pushed forward with all their strength but they couldn’t move an inch; the four then tried to pull back but again it was to no avail. As they strained with red faces, the spearheads seemed as if they were trapped under an iron mountain, they were not even able to pull them back half an inch.