Cheung Mo Gei's pre-9 Yeung Jen Ging martial arts level?

[Ken Cheng]

Cheung Mo Gei's martial arts abilities get plenty of discussion at these forums, but generally, only after he had attained Greats-level martial arts by mastering the complete 9 Yeung Jen Ging, the Keen Kwun Dai Loi Yee, Tai Chi Fists and Sword, and Persian Ming Cult martial arts. Despite having these multiple advanced skills, Cheung Mo Gei is known as a choker who constantly underperforms in fights.

That's all old territory for us, but what we haven't really discussed much is Cheung Mo Gei's martial arts abilities pre-9 Yeung Jen Ging. At that point, Cheung Mo Gei didn't have many martial arts skills - just some basic Mo Dong Sect martial arts he had learned from his father and his martial uncles, plus the theory of the Hung Dung Sect's 7 Seung Fists (which he couldn't actually use) from Tse Tsun. He was only in a few brief fights pre-9 Yeung, and was predictably badly defeated in all of them.

Some questions:

1. Just how bad were Cheung Mo Gei's fighting skills pre-9 Yeung? With his basic Mo Dong martial arts training, he probably wasn't completely helpless, but how did he compare in martial arts to, say, the young Gwok Jing immediately after completing his basic martial arts training with the Gong Nam 7 Freaks in Mongolia...or to the young Yeung Gor immediately after completing his original three-year program of training with Little Dragon Girl at the Ancient Tomb (before they went on to train in the Jade Maiden Manual)? Were the young Cheung Mo Gei's martial arts inferior to those of the young, relatively weak Gwok Jing and Yeung Gor in their early days in wulin?

2. We all know about Cheung Mo Gei underperforming after he had attained Greats-level martial arts, but in those pre-9 Yeung days, did he manage to actually do better than expected in fights considering his low level?

[tape]

Those disciples of the old Zhu guy beat him up pretty badly, and I'd imagine they are pretty terrible. Guo Jing and Yang Guo at those respective points would be miles ahead of him.

[Ken Cheng]

Those disciples of the old Zhu guy beat him up pretty badly, and I'd imagine they are pretty terrible. Guo Jing and Yang Guo at those respective points would be miles ahead of him.

How about compared to Gwok Fu and the Mo Brothers, then?