Chapter 34 – Mediating disputes, Part 6
Guo Xiang said, “So are you taking me to the Black Dragon Marsh?”
Yang Guo laughed, “Since you called me a great hero, how can a great hero disappoint the young lady? Let’s go.”
Guo Xiang was overjoyed and stretched out her hand and held his left hand. She was friendly with the heroes in Xiangyang since young and they treated her like their goddaughter, hence she did not pay attention to the proper behavior between males and females. In her excitement, she did not treat Yang Guo as a stranger.
Yang Guo, feeling his hand being held by her, felt that it was soft and smooth. He was at a loss as to what to do because if he withdrew his hand, it might have seemed rude. He glanced at her and saw her hopping and skipping with joy written all over her face and without any other thoughts, so he smiled and pointed north, saying, “The Black Dragon Marsh is over there; it’s not very far from here.” As he pointed, he managed to take his hand away from Guo Xiang’s hold discreetly. Yang Guo was a great flirt when young but after separating from Xiao Longnü, he restrained himself. He paid great attention to the proper behavior between males and females for the past 10 years while roaming Jianghu. Although he saw that Guo Xiang was sweet and innocent, he was still careful with his behavior and did not even dare to touch her hand.
Guo Xiang did not bother about that but walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him. After walking a few steps, she saw that although the Divine Eagle was ugly, it looked proud and majestic, so she stretched out her hand to pat its wings. She’d played with a pair of white eagles since young and patting the eagles’ wings as a game. However the Divine Eagle spread its wings and pushed her aside with an “Aak”. Guo Xiang was shocked and exclaimed, “Ah!”
Yang Guo laughed, “Brother Eagle, relax! Why treat this young lady so coldly?” Guo Xiang stuck out her tongue at it and walked to Yang Guo’s right, not daring to go near the eagle. She did not know that while her eagles were pets Yang Guo’s eagle was sort of his master as well as his friend. Considering its age, it was an elder, so its status was different.
So the two people and the eagle headed towards the Black Dragon Marsh. They found it quite easily as there was no plants or trees for 7 or 8 li. The Black Dragon Marsh was originally a large lake, but the water source dried eventually and it was clogged with slit year after year. As a result, the place became a desolate marsh. With only a bit of effort, Yang Guo and Guo Xiang made it to the marsh. They looked around and saw a heavy cloud of mist with only dried bushes scattered around the vast marsh. The “Nine-Tailed Fox”, should be hiding somewhere around here.
Yang Guo took a twig and threw it into the marsh. At first the twig settled on the snow, but then it sank slowly and steadily without stopping. Soon there was not a trace of the twig. Guo Xiang exclaimed, “The twig is so light and yet it sank, so how can we walk on it?” She stared at Yang Guo and wondered what clever tricks he was thinking of.
Yang Guo broke off two yew branches which were a few feet long and tied them to his feet. He said, “Let me try it and see if this works.” He bent forward and jumped onto the snow, skiing quickly on the surface. He skied left and right without pausing and turned several times on the frozen marsh before returning to his original location.
Guo Xiang laughed, “Great skills!”
Yang Guo saw the glint of admiration in her eyes and knew she was really eager to trap the fox, but she did not have great lightness skills so he laughed, “I promised to take you to the Black Dragon Marsh to catch that “Nine-Tailed Fox”, are you afraid?”
Guo Xiang sighed gently and said, “I don’t have skills such as yours; even if I were very brave it’d be useless.”
Yang Guo smiled without a word and broke off another two branches. He then gave them to Guo Xiang and said, “Tie them to your feet.”
Guo Xiang was surprised and delighted and immediately tied the branches as instructed. Yang Guo said, “Bend forward and remember not to exert any strength with your feet.” He grabbed her arm and shouted, “Fear not!” Guo Xiang was dragged by him and she found herself skiing on the snow. She panicked at first, but after a few meters she felt herself floating like the wind and she repeatedly shouted, “This is so much fun!”
After skiing for some time, Yang Guo suddenly shouted, “Oh!” Guo Xiang asked, “What?” She lost her concentration and her left foot sank into the snow. The mud splashed onto her leg and she exclaimed in surprise. Yang Guo lifted her out and said, “Remember, always move continuously and you must not stop suddenly.”
Guo Xiang said, “OK. What do you see? Is it the ‘Nine-Tailed Fox’?”
Yang Guo said, “No! It seems like someone is living in the middle of the marsh.”
Guo Xiang curiously asked, “How can someone live here?”
Yang Guo said, “I don’t know that either. But the plants and trees here are arranged into some sort of formation; definitely man-made.”
They were getting closer to the formation and Guo Xiang looked carefully, saying, “Correct, Wood at the east, Fire in the south, Earth at the centre but it’s not Water at the North but Metal.”
She had heard her mother talk of the ‘Changes of the Five Elements’ since young so she managed to pick up some of it. Her character was quite different to her sister Guo Fu – she was frank but not uncouth and she was much more intelligent than her sister. Huang Rong always said, “If your grandfather ever saw you, he would really like you a lot.” Huang Yaoshi was very well-versed in medicine, astrology, the arts and warfare. Guo Xiang was very much like her grandfather but she was distracted easily, so her martial arts improvement was slow. She was always day-dreaming, did as she pleased and her conduct was usually extraordinary, causing Guo Jing and Huang Rong a lot of headaches. Hence her nickname at home was “Little Eastern Heretic”. For example on this occasion she followed the Big Head Ghost whom she did not know to look for the Eagle Hero, and now she followed another stranger, the Eagle Hero, to catch the fox. She boldly did as she wanted and was different from the Huang Rong and Guo Fu of years ago.
When Yang Guo heard that she knew how the formation was arranged, he was quite surprised and asked, “How did you know? Who taught you?”
Guo Xiang laughed, “I saw that in some books, I don’t even know if it’s correct. But from what I see there’s nothing extraordinary about this formation, so it can’t be some expert living in there.”
Yang Guo nodded, “That a person can survive in such an inhospitable place is strange.” So he said loudly, “My friend in the Black Dragon Marsh, you have guests.” After waiting a while, there was still no response. Yang Guo repeated his words but still received no response. Yang Guo said: “Looks as though someone made this formation, but the person doesn’t live here. Let’s go over and take a look.” He skied several meters ahead and went right up to the formation.
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