Chapter 1: Yang Guo, the Young Man

It was the era of Emperor Lizong of the Southern Song, in Jiaxing by South Lake. Jiaxing then belonged to Xiuzhou in the Two Zhe Circuit. Mid-Autumn was approaching; the lotus leaves were already withering, while the lotus seeds had ripened to fullness.

At this time of year, it was precisely the day Li Mochou, the stunning Daoist nun, had chosen for revenge. After setting the Lu family estate ablaze, she had chased Wu Santong all the way to the run-down kiln cave where Yang Guo lived.

Just as Li Mochou was about to finish off Wu Santong and Wu Sanniang, the meddlesome old blind man Ke Zhen'e arrived with the beautiful young woman Guo Fu.

A brief fight broke out. As expected, the blind old man Ke was defeated, and the twin eagles that Guo Fu had called for help were injured by Li Mochou, that woman who looked like a celestial fairy but had a heart as venomous as a serpent.

Guo Fu cried out, "Eagles, eagles, come back!"

But the pair of eagles had flown too far away and did not look back.

Li Mochou smiled and said, "Little lady, are you surnamed Guo?"

Seeing that Li Mochou was beautiful and gentle, and did not seem to be some kind of evil woman at all, Guo Fu answered, "Yes, I'm surnamed Guo. What are you called?"

Li Mochou smiled. "Come with me. I'll take you out to play."

She stepped forward at an unhurried pace and reached out to take Guo Fu's hand.

Ke Zhen'e planted his iron staff and sprang out of the cave, blocking Guo Fu's way as he shouted, "Fu'er, get back inside!"

Li Mochou smiled. "What, are you afraid I'll eat her?"

The blind man and the young lady in front of her were both indeed weak in martial skill, but because they were people from Peach Blossom Island, and because of Guo Jing and Huang Rong, she could not simply move against them too easily.

Just then, Yang Guo bounced over, humming some unknown tune. At first glance, he did look rather like an impulsive boy with a childish heart.

Seeing people in front of the kiln cave, he called out, "Hey, what are you doing in my house?"

When he reached Li Mochou and Guo Fu, he turned his head and glanced at Guo Fu. The girl had skin white as snow and features like a painting; when she grew up, she would surely be a beauty. But Yang Guo had not the slightest liking for Guo Fu, so he deliberately looked away and fixed his eyes on Li Mochou instead.

Li Mochou was incomparably beautiful, not in the least like the Red Serpent Fairy who killed without mercy.

"Tsk, tsk! What a lovely fairy priestess. Could it be a celestial goddess from heaven? But what is a fairy goddess doing in my house?" Yang Guo put on a dazed, foolish look and stared at Li Mochou with wide-eyed wonder.

Li Mochou actually gave a soft laugh at that, and there was even a trace of innocent girlhood in the way she smiled.

Guo Fu, on the other hand, was furious that this beggar had no eye for beauty and would not even look her way. She muttered, "Ridiculous. To call that evil woman a fairy goddess is just blind!"

"Who are you calling blind?"

"You!" Guo Fu shot back at once. She really was an empty-headed girl.

"Ha! So it's an old blind man with a young blind tagalong!" Yang Guo's words offended Ke Zhen'e as well, but he simply did not like the old man anyway.

"You..." Guo Fu was so angry she could not speak. Ke Zhen'e on the side also frowned tightly.

"I'm looking for two people. Since this is the little brother's home, I ought to be able to go in, shouldn't I?" Li Mochou said, pointing into the broken kiln cave.

"Of course, of course!"

Yang Guo laughed it off, then moved to lead her inside. "Help me hold this."

With that, he casually shoved the rooster into Guo Fu's arms.

How could Guo Fu possibly want to hold that rooster? The instant it touched her, she recoiled, and the rooster naturally clucked and darted away.

Yang Guo stared in disbelief and shouted, "You actually let my lunch run off!"

"Who wants to help you carry that filthy thing?" Guo Fu said, disgusted, brushing away the feathers that had stuck to her.

"You..." Yang Guo pointed at her in fury.

Li Mochou thought to herself, "The longer this drags on, the worse it gets. I can't wait until Guo Jing and his wife arrive. That will do me no good."

With a slight smile, she strode straight into the kiln cave.

Wu Sanniang had just reached the cave mouth and swung her sword as she shouted, "Don't come in!"

Li Mochou smiled. "This is the little brother's home. Since when do you get to make the rules here?"

She set her left palm against the sword edge and pressed straight in. Just before the blade could touch her hand, she angled her palm slightly, thrust three fingers onto the flat of the blade, and forced the sword tip to turn back toward Wu Sanniang's forehead. With a sharp scrape, it cut her across the brow.

The force of that move drove Wu Sanniang back several steps.

Li Mochou smiled. "My apologies."

She tucked the whisk into her collar, lowered her head, and entered the kiln cave. With both hands she lifted Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang, and without even turning around, she lightly tapped off the ground with her left foot and sprang backward out of the cave. In her haste, she even kicked Ke Zhen'e's iron staff flying out of his hand.

Yang Guo was stunned by the sight and no longer bothered arguing with Guo Fu.

Instead he wondered whether he should help. Just then Li Mochou was leaping out of the cave, and when he heard Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang cry out in alarm, he could not think of anything else and threw his arms around Li Mochou.

Out loud he cried, "Fairy goddess, you're being terribly rude. You not only won't stay in my home a little longer, you even stole my guests away."

Li Mochou was holding one girl in each hand and had not expected the boy to lunge in and wrap his arms around her. Suddenly she felt a pair of arms under her ribs, and her heart jolted. For some reason her whole body abruptly went weak. She immediately sent force through her palm and flicked the two girls several feet away, then seized the boy by the back.

Since the age of ten, she had never touched a man skin-to-skin; at thirty, she was still a virgin.

Back then, when she had been hopelessly entangled with Lu Zhanyuan, she had always restrained herself with propriety.

There were many men in the martial world who could not help falling for her beauty, but as soon as they showed the slightest hint of wicked desire, they often died under her Scarlet Serpent Divine Palm.

Who would have thought that today this boy would actually hug her? Just as she seized Yang Guo, she had intended to drive power into her palm and shatter his heart and lungs on the spot. But after hearing him praise her beauty so sincerely, she could not help liking it. If those words had come from a grown man, they would only have disgusted her, but from the mouth of a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy, it was different. For a moment her heart softened, and she could not bring herself to strike.

Suddenly she heard the sharp cry of eagles overhead. The twin eagles had flown back from afar and now swooped down to attack.

Li Mochou swept her left sleeve, and two Ice Soul Silver Needles shot upward.

The pair of eagles had already suffered before under those vicious hidden weapons, and hurriedly beat their wings higher. But the silver needles flew with extraordinary force; however fast the eagles moved, the needles were even faster. Frightened out of their wits, the pair cried shrilly.

Li Mochou was just enjoying the sight of those two vicious birds being unable to escape when she suddenly heard a rushing sound. Two tiny objects flew in at astonishing speed. Before the sound of their approach had even fully reached her ears, the objects had already streaked across the sky and knocked both silver needles down.

The hidden weapons had struck first and with overwhelming force. Li Mochou was greatly shocked. She released Yang Guo at once and leaped over to take a look. They turned out to be only two ordinary pebbles. She thought, "Whoever sent those stones has unfathomable martial skill. I am no match for them. I should avoid them for now."

With a shift of intention, her body moved with it. She swung out a palm toward Cheng Ying's back.

She meant to injure Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang first before making any further move.

Just as her palm was about to touch Cheng Ying's back, she caught sight of the brocade handkerchief tied around Cheng Ying's neck. On the plain satin cloth were embroidered red flowers and green leaves. It was exactly the thing she had painstakingly stitched long ago and given to the man she had once loved. She could not help freezing in place and abruptly withdrew her palm power. Long-forgotten tenderness and secret longing surged through her heart in a rush. She thought, "Although he married that bitch surnamed He, he never truly forgot me. He kept this handkerchief well all this time. He begged me to spare his descendants, but should I spare them or not?"

For a moment she could not make up her mind, and decided to kill Lu Wushuang first.

As the whisk shook, the silver threads struck toward Lu Wushuang's back. In the glaring sunlight, however, she saw that Lu Wushuang also had a brocade handkerchief tied around her neck. Li Mochou gave a soft "eh" and thought, "How can there be two handkerchiefs? One of them must be fake."

The whisk changed from a strike to a sweep, wrapping around Lu Wushuang's neck and yanking her backward to face her.

Right then, another whistling sound cut through the air. A small pebble flew straight toward her back.

Li Mochou snapped her whisk around and swung the steel handle, striking the stone dead-on. A sharp pain shot through the web of her hand, warmth surged into her palm, and her whole body shook violently despite herself.

For such a tiny stone to carry so much force, one could imagine how formidable the person throwing it must be.

She no longer dared linger. She casually seized Lu Wushuang, then unleashed her light-footed movement technique and sped away like a gale skimming the ground, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

Seeing her cousin taken captive, Cheng Ying cried out, "Cousin! Cousin!"

Then she chased after them.

Ke Zhen'e and the others were all shocked when they saw that Li Mochou had finally abducted Lu Wushuang and fled.

Yang Guo froze for a moment, not knowing whether he should go after them or not.

After thinking it over, he said casually to the others nearby, "I'll go take a look!"

Guo Fu said, "What's there to look at? Be careful that evil woman doesn't kick you to death!"

Seeing Cheng Ying had already run some distance ahead, Yang Guo hurried after her, only managing to throw back, "Don't sneak off then. You still owe me a chicken."

Guo Fu snapped, "Idiot. Just go die already!"

In the water country of Jiangnan, rivers and lakes crisscrossed everywhere. After running for a while, Cheng Ying came upon a small river blocking the way and could go no farther.

She ran along the bank, calling out, and suddenly saw a yellow blur flashing on a small bridge to her left. Someone was running across from the opposite bank.

Cheng Ying only hesitated for a moment before she saw Li Mochou standing right in front of her, with Lu Wushuang gone from under her arm.

Seeing Li Mochou turn back, Cheng Ying was terribly frightened. Yet summoning up her courage, she asked, "Where is my cousin?"

Seeing how fair and delicate Cheng Ying's skin was, and how lovely her face looked, Li Mochou said coldly, "With a face like yours, once you grow up, you'll either be the one making others heartbroken or the one who gets heartbroken yourself. You'd be better off dead early, so the world has a few less troubles."

She raised the whisk and was about to strike.

"Stop!" Yang Guo had arrived just in time. He hurried to call out and then shielded Cheng Ying behind him. His eyes swept all around, but he could not find Huang Yaoshi anywhere, and his heart could not help tightening with anxiety.

Seeing that it was Yang Guo, Li Mochou somehow actually stopped her hand.

"Little brother, what have you come here for now? At your age, are you already thinking of saving a beauty?"

"I heard the fairy say that when this girl grows up, she'll either make others heartbroken or end up heartbroken herself, and I really don't understand it," Yang Guo said, wearing the expression of someone seeking knowledge. "Living should be happy. How can there be heartbreak?"

"Men like you are heartless and fickle, so of course you're happy. The ones who suffer are us women!"

Yang Guo's words had actually stirred up old memories in Li Mochou. Looking again at his handsome face, she vaguely saw traces of the man who had once betrayed her. Her grip on the whisk tightened, and she unexpectedly developed a killing intent toward the boy.

Yang Guo shivered. He was not unaware of the murderous aura radiating from Li Mochou, but since he assumed Huang Yaoshi was nearby, he felt much more at ease.

"If the fairy wants to kill her, then there must be the fairy's reasons. But other people don't understand them. If I could make her pain known to the world, and if she willingly let the fairy kill her, wouldn't that be an especially lovely thing?"

Li Mochou was stunned. Who could understand the pain she carried?

The man who had betrayed her had abandoned her and taken a new love. Could those people understand that?

Was that what this boy meant?

To let someone else taste that same kind of pain?

Li Mochou could not help glancing at Cheng Ying. This girl would surely grow up into a beauty, and by then she would certainly have an excellent lover. If that lover abandoned her, she would definitely suffer just as I have.

At that thought, Li Mochou suddenly felt a strange rush of pleasure. The bitterness she had carried for so many years seemed to have finally found a way to ease.

The moment Yang Guo saw Li Mochou's expression, he already knew what she was thinking. Cheng Ying and the others seemed to be safe for the time being. The person he sympathized with most was Lu Wushuang. Since childhood she had borne a blood feud between her parents, had to flatter and fawn over her enemy just to survive, and after finally escaping, she suffered endless mockery for her pair of lame legs. Added to that was her doomed, unfulfilled fate with Yang Guo. No matter how one looked at it, she was the most pitiful person in The Return of the Condor Heroes.

And since I've ended up here, at the very least I should do my best to make that girl live a little better.

Having thought that, he went on, "It's a pity, though. That little girl's legs were injured before. If they were accidentally made lame, she would be very hard to like. Ah!"

That long sigh was put on quite convincingly.

"Hmph! Little brother, if you still won't move aside, don't blame me for being rude," Li Mochou said at last. She was no longer willing to keep dragging this out. The whisk swayed lightly in her hand, and if this boy still would not step aside, then she would simply kill him.