Condor Hero's History
Yang Guo is the protagonist of The Return of The Condor Heroes, a sequel of the previous novel The Legend of The Condor Heroes. His mother, Mu Nianci, was Yang Kang's lover. She left Yang Kang after seeing how unrepentant and incorrigible he was, but was already pregnant with Yang Guo at the time. Yang Guo's birth is briefly mentioned at the end of the first novel.
Guo Jing, who was Yang Kang's sworn brother, hoped that Yang Kang's child will not follow in his father's footsteps. He named the baby boy "Guo", which means "sin" or "fault", and gave him the courtesy name "Gaizhi" (改之), which means "to correct." Guo Jing hoped that Yang Guo would redeem the Yang family's honor, which has been tarnished by Yang Kang's villainy. He also swore to teach Yang Guo all of his martial arts in the future.
Early life
Yang Guo became an orphan at the age of eight after the death of his mother. At the time, he only had a rudimentary understanding of fighting, taught by his mother. He roamed the world as a homeless tramp, meeting Guo Jing and Huang Rong three years later by coincidence. They recognize him as the son of Yang Kang and Mu Nianci and take him under their care. Huang Rong is initially suspicious of Yang Guo due to his father's past sins and worries that he will turn out to be like his father. She strongly opposes her husband's decision to instruct Yang Guo in martial arts, and only teaches him literary arts such as poetry and Confucian classics. Guo Jing brings Yang Guo to the Quanzhen Sect on Mount Zhongnan for better guidance and tutelage in orthodox martial arts and moral ethics. In an earlier misunderstanding, Guo Jing had fought and defeated several Quanzhen students, who had mistaken him for an enemy. This caused the Quanzhen students to vent their frustrations on Yang Guo, picking on him and bullying him all the time. Yang Guo's martial arts teacher, Zhao Zhijing, is similarly prejudiced against him and does not teach him any practical martial arts. Yang Guo is unable to stand the ill treatment so he flees after injuring one of the bullies.
Yang Guo ventures into the nearby Tomb of the Living Dead and meets Xiaolongnü, the Dragon Maiden, and her attendant, Granny Sun. Xiaolongnü refuses to let him stay in the tomb and asks Granny Sun to send him back to Quanzhen. Granny Sun dotes on the boy and defends him from the bullies. The scuffle gradually escalates into a fight between Granny Sun and the Quanzhen Sect, in which Granny Sun is accidentally killed by Hao Datong, one of the Seven Immortals of Quanzhen. At this critical moment, Xiaolongnü shows up and rescues Yang Guo.
Love relationship with Xiaolongnü
Yang Guo officially joined the Ancient Tomb Sect as Xiaolongnü's apprentice, and they lived together in the Ancient Tomb for many years, isolated from the rest of the world. During this time, they developed a romantic relationship, rendering their master-apprentice relationship merely superficial. When Yang Guo reunited with Guo Jing and Huang Rong, they immediately opposed his decision to marry Xiaolongnü. A romantic relationship between master and apprentice is regarded as highly taboo according to the prevailing norms of the martial arts community, and Yang Guo's impulsive personality, lack of respect for other senior martial artists, and rebellious streak made the situation worse. Yang Guo became an outcast of the world, despised by fellow martial artists. However, he saved Guo Jing's family from danger on different occasions as he still respects the Guo couple as his surrogate uncle and aunt. He is briefly separated from Xiaolongnü numerous times throughout the novel, usually over misunderstandings caused by the Guo family.
Growth into the Condor Hero
In one such misunderstanding, he is attempting to break up a conflict between two brothers who are preparing to fight to the death for the hand of Guo Fu, Guo Jing's oldest daughter, in marriage. Yang Guo breaks up this conflict by asserting that Guo Fu had already been betrothed to himself. This explanation infuriated both the eavesdropping Xiaolongnü and Guo Fu, leading to the former's disappearance and the latter's confrontation with Yang Guo. Yang Guo was weakened by poison at the time, and the confrontation escalates until Guo Fu takes his arm off, after which Yang Guo flees. He later meets a Divine Condor, the pet of the late Dugu Qiubai, an unrivaled swordsman from long ago, and adopts his training tactics to grow even stronger than before.
Yang Guo initially suspects that Guo Jing and Huang Rong are responsible for his father's death. He meets Jinlun Guoshi and agrees to help the Mongols kill Guo Jing. However, he later becomes so impressed with Guo Jing's loyalty and chivalry that he joins Guo Jing instead. He eventually gives up his desire to avenge his father after hearing about his father's villainy and misdeeds, though he maintains respect for his father. He replaces the original tombstone, inscribed by Yang Kang's master Qiu Chuji, with a new one bearing the words: "Yang Kang, my late father. Erected by his unworthy son, Yang Guo." He takes Guo Jing's side and participates in defending the city of Xiangyang from Mongol invaders.
Throughout the novel, Yang Guo encountered several elite martial artists, including Huang Yaoshi, Ouyang Feng and Hong Qigong, who each taught him some of their unique fighting forms. He employs these skills throughout his adventures and eventually creates a new palm technique called the "Melancholic Palms", a hybrid style incorporating elements of all the skills he had learned over the course of his life and fueled by the grief of being separated from Xiaolongnü for sixteen years after her suicide attempt upon the two each contracting nigh-uncurable poisons.
Sixteen years later, alongside the Divine Condor, their numerous heroic accomplishments together and Yang Guo's feat of killing the Mongolian Khan from afar by a single stone-throw at the Battle of Xiangyang, which finally ended the decades-long Mongolian-Song war, earned him the moniker "Condor Hero" for generations to come. At last, Yang Guo more than succeeded in atoning for all of his father's crimes. By the third Hua Shan Tournament, he was acknowledged as one of the Five Greats of the era and bestowed the title "Western Eccentric," succeeding the previous "Western Venom," Ouyang Feng, who he had accepted as an adopted father during his years on the streets. At the end of the novel, he is reunited with Xiaolongnü, temporarily halts the Mongol invasion by slaying Möngke Khan, and becomes a legendary hero.
