In Quanzhen, Yang Guo is often picked on and bullied by his fellow students, and discriminated against by his master, Zhao Zhijing. The couple Guo Jing and Huang Rong take care of Yang Guo for a short period of time before sending him to the Quanzhen Sect on Mount Zhongnan for better guidance in moral values and "orthodox" martial arts. The protagonist, Yang Guo, is the orphaned son of Yang Kang, the antagonist in the previous novel. The Chinese title of the novel approximately translates to The Heroic Couple of the Godly Condor. Most of the revisions are either clarifications or minor alterations of character motivations or names. Each chapter has a title composed of four Chinese characters. There are 40 chapters in the second and third revisions. Jin Yong revised the novel in 1970 and again in 2004. The story revolves around the protagonist, Yang Guo, and his lover and martial arts master, Xiaolongnü, in their adventures in the jianghu (also called the wulin, the community of martial artists), where love between master and apprentice is seen as taboo. It was first serialised between and 5 July 1961 in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao.
It is the second part of the Condor Trilogy and was preceded by The Legend of the Condor Heroes and followed by The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.
The Return of the Condor Heroes, also called The Giant Eagle and Its Companion, is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha).