The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 37 – Grudges over three generations, Part 2

Guo Xiang said, “He knows someone in the crowd will recognize his weapon techniques, so he doesn’t want to reveal it.”

Zhu Ziliu praised, “Ah ha, Miss Guo is indeed clever.”

Guo Fu heard him praise her sister and was not happy so she said, “What about not revealing the truth? Isn’t he standing on the stage? Everyone can see that.”

Guo Xiang thought about what her mother just said and replied, “Ah, his ugly face is actually a disguise made of flour. This face is really repulsive, after glancing once I don’t want to see it anymore.”

Huang Rong said, “The more repulsive he disguises himself, the more he can conceal his identity because no one wants to stare at an ugly face for long. If there are any changes to his disguise no one would notice them. Ah, it’s really not easy keeping up such a disguise for so many years.”

Zhu Ziliu said, “His face may be false, but his decades worth of martial arts can’t be faked.”

Guo Fu said, “If this He Shiwo is fake, then who’s he? Sister, since you’re so clever, tell us who he is.”

Guo Xiang said, “I’m not that clever, so I don’t know.”

Zhu Ziliu smiled, “Elder Miss Guo has seen him before, and at that time the younger Miss Guo wasn’t even born yet. Seventeen years ago, at the Da Sheng ‘Heroes’ Meet, someone exchanged a few hundred moves with me, who was that?”

Guo Fu said, “Hou Du? No, it can’t be him. He uses a fan. Although this weapon looks like it, this weapon only has the skeleton but not the surface.”

Zhu Ziliu said, “I fought such an intense battle with him before, it was the only time in my life I experienced such great danger, how could I possibly forget his stances? If he isn’t Hou Du then I must be blind.”

Guo Fu looked at He Shiwo again and saw that he was agile and his strokes lethal. It really appeared to be like the Hou Du at the ‘Heroes’ Meet years ago, but she still had many doubts. She asked, “If he’s really Hou Du, then this monk is his martial brother, can it be he doesn’t recognize him so that’s why they’re fighting?”

Huang Rong said, “It’s precisely because he recognizes him that they’re fighting. That year at Chongyang Palace, Yang Guo used his sword to pin down Da’erba and Hou Du. Hou Du didn’t want to risk his life so he deserted Da’erba. His master had run away. This incident was witnessed by the whole the Quanzhen Sect, you must have heard of that too.”

Guo Fu said, “Hmmm, no wonder Da’erba hates him so much.”

When Guo Xiang heard “Yang Guo used his sword to pin down Da’erba and Hou Du” she thought of how great he was and was awe-struck.

Guo Fu asked, “Why did he become a beggar? How did the “Dog Beating Stick” end up with him?”

Huang Rong said, “Isn’t that easy? Hou Du betrayed his master, so he’s afraid his master and martial brother will find him, hence he disguised his face and joined the Beggar Clan. Without revealing who he is, he slowly rose to be a 5th grade member over the past 10-over years. Since no one in the Beggar Clan was suspicious of him, Fawang wasn’t able to find him. But this scoundrel wouldn’t be content with hiding here all his life so he was waiting for an opportunity to do something big. When Leader Lu was patrolling outside the city, he waited there and ambushed him, revealing his identity and a message for the beggars to bring back, which was to tell everyone Leader Lu was killed by Hou Du. After he snatched the “Dog Beating Stick”, he hid it inside his hollow metal staff. When the Beggar Clan elected a leader, he could raise the matter of finding the “Dog Beating Stick”. Since the Stick is a very significant icon of the Beggar Clan, who can oppose him? Ah, this scoundrel Hou Du is a really brilliant schemer to think of this plan.”

Zhu Ziliu laughed, “But with you around Madam Guo, he can’t hide anything from us.”

Huang Rong didn’t laugh and said, “Hou Du hid himself in the Beggar Clan without revealing his identity and was able to fool me. But by trying to vie for the Beggar Clan Leader’s position, he’s really looking down on me.”

Zhu Ziliu said, “Yang Guo is really wonderful; he actually was able to discover Hou Du’s scheme, recover the “Dog Beating Stick”, reveal his identity and give the younger Miss Guo this present. He’s very capable.”

Guo Fu said, “Humph, he happened to find out, there’s nothing great about that.”

Guo Xiang thought, “That day Big Brother was outside the Yang Tai Fu Temple and saw me mourning Uncle Lu. He knew I was great pals with Uncle Lu so he put in a lot of effort to help me avenge him; this present is no small thing, his efforts…” Then she suddenly thought of something and said, “Although Hou Du became an ugly beggar in the Beggar Clan, he still uses his true identity to cause trouble outside. Third Uncle Shi of the Shi brothers was injured by him before and must have wanted to settle this matter with him and so tracked him down.”

Huang Rong said, “Correct. Hou Du leaves a trail behind in Jianghu time and again, but no one would expect the Beggar Clan’s He Shiwo and Hou Du to be the same person. ‘He Shiwo’, look at his fake name – he regards himself as his own master. When someone thinks too highly of himself, he will inevitably fail one day.”

Guo Fu said, “Mother, then why does this He Shiwo say he wants to kill Hou Du? Isn’t that silly?”