The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 19 – The underground old lady, Part 8

Lu E was even more shocked by this and quivered, “Mother, who did this to you? We must take revenge against that person.”

Qiu Qianchi chuckled, “Revenge? Will you be able to do it? The person who destroyed my tendons is Gongsun Zhi.”

Ever since Lu E found out that she was her mother, she had a feeling that something like this had happened; but when she heard this with her own ears, she trembled all over and asked, “Why… why?”

Qiu Qianchi glanced coldly at Yang Guo and said, “It’s because I killed someone, a young beautiful girl; huh, it’s because I killed Gongsun Zhi’s beloved.” When she reached this point, her teeth chattered as she bit down. Lu E was frightened and moved back a little away from her mother while getting closer to Yang Guo. The grotto became silent.

Qiu Qianchi said suddenly, “Are you hungry? There are only dates for food in this grotto.” After she said this, she got on all fours and crawled forward like a wild beast; her movements were very swift. Lu E and Yang Guo both felt awful when they saw this sight. But Qiu Qianchi had been crawling like this for years and didn’t think anything of it. Lu E was about to dash forward to help her when she saw that she had already reached the base of a large date tree.

Years ago, a date seed must have been blown down into the grotto by the wind and sprouted down here, growing and blossoming and slowly flourishing; and from that one seed, fifty or sixty trees eventually grew. If a date seed had not been blown down here or if it had fallen onto infertile ground, Yang Guo and Lu E would have come across upon a pile of bones. Who could think that this pile of bones would be an eminent member of Wulin? And Lu E would never know that this was actually her mother.

Qiu Qianchi gathered a date stone from the floor and placed it into her mouth; she raised her head and spat out, the date stone shot upwards for tens of feet and struck a branch; the branch swayed and tens of dates rained downwards from the branch.

Yang Guo nodded and thought, “So after her tendons were ruined she managed to learn this great date stone spitting skill. The saying ‘heaven never seals off all its exits’ isn’t a lie.” His spirits were roused as he thought about this.

Lu E picked up the dates from the floor and divided them up for her mother and Yang Guo to eat; she ate a few her self as well. In the middle of this underground grotto, she was serving her mother and acting just like a little hostess.

Qiu Qianchi has endured one of the most tragic experience in anyone’s life; hate had been gathered up in her heart over the last ten years. Even if she wasn’t a hot tempered person and was a peaceful, kind natured woman, she would still have changed into this unreasonable person. But a mother’s love is a natural instinct; when she saw the daughter she had been thinking about night and day had grown into such a beautiful girl, her temper was calmed. The warmth of her love towards her daughter was gradually stirred and she asked, “What has Gongsun Zhi been saying about me?”

Lu E said, “Father has never talked about mother. When I was little I asked if I looked like my mother. What illness did mother die of? Father would suddenly break out in a temper and scold me for a while, telling me not to bring this up ever again. A few years later I asked him again and once again, he shouted at me.”

Qiu Qianchi said, “What were you thinking?”

Tears formed in Lu E’s eyes and she said, “I thought that my mother must have been a beautiful, gentle woman and father loved you deeply. Whenever other people mentioned you he would be extremely upset and sad; from then on I didn’t dare to ask him about you again.”

Qiu Qianchi chuckled and said, “You must be extremely disappointed; your mother isn’t a beautiful and gentle woman but a vicious, cruel and ugly old hag. If you knew about this, I think you would rather not see me.”

Lu E stretched out her arms to hug her around the neck and said tenderly, “Mother, you’re how I imagined you would be.” She turned to Yang Guo and asked, “Brother Yang, my mother is beautiful, isn’t she? She treats me well and she treats you well, right?” Her words were filled with sincerity; in her heart, she looked upon her mother as the greatest woman in the world.

Yang Guo thought, “She might have been beautiful when she was younger but how can you say that she’s beautiful now? You’re right when you said that she treats you well but she might not have any good intentions in her heart towards me.” But since Lu E asked like this, he could only reply, “Yes, you’re right.”

His tone was not anywhere near as sincere as Lu E’s; Qiu Qianchi knew it straight away when she heard it, she thought, “Heaven has pitied me and has given me the chance to see my daughter again; though she is filled with respect and love for me now, it would be difficult to ensure that it will be like this forever. I need to tell her about all the bitterness and wrong that I’ve suffered.” So she said, “E’er, you asked, how did I get here? Why Gongsun Zhi said that I’d died? Sit down, I’ll tell you all about it.”

Qiu Qianchi said slowly, “Gongsun Zhi’s ancestors were officials in the Tang court. Later on, because they wanted to avoid the troubles of the court, they decided to reside here in this secluded valley. His ancestors worked as military officials and his family’s martial arts can be classed as a respectable skill; but his real advanced martial arts were taught to him by me.”

Yang Guo and Lu E both felt rather surprised by this.

Qiu Qianchi said proudly, “You two are still young, of course you wouldn’t understand the principles within them. The Iron Palm Clan Chief, the ‘Iron Palm Water Floater’ Qiu Qianren is my brother. Yang Guo, tell Lu E about the Iron Palm Clan.”

Yang Guo was startled and asked, “The Iron Palm Clan? I’m not very knowledgeable; I really don’t know what the Iron Palm Clan is.”

Qiu Qianchi scolded him, “Little punk, you dare tell lies in front of me! The Iron Palm Clan is famous throughout the world. Along with the Beggar Clan, we’re classed as the world’s two greatest clans; how can you not know?”

Yang Guo said, “Junior has heard of the Beggar Clan before but the Iron Palm Clan…”

Qiu Qianchi was exasperated and scolded, “Ha-ha, you’ve practiced martial arts and you don’t even know anything about the Iron Palm Clan…”