Did the original readers of ROCH know that the ending was setting up HSDS?

[Ken Cheng]

When ROCH was first published, its original readers had no idea that Jin Yong would later publish another novel (HSDS) that would continue the narrative that started in LOCH. Were these readers confused by the appearance of Gok Yeun the Monk, Cheung Gwun Bo, and the allusion to the 9 Yeung Jen Ging inner power manual? HSDS wasn't published until a few years after ROCH wrapped up, so the readers must have been somewhat perplexed.

Additionally, did any of those readers realize that the youth named Cheung Gwun Bo would later grow up to become Cheung 3 Fung, the legendary founder of the Mo Dong Sect?

[tape]

Hrm, don't think there was much to be perplexed about. HSDS starts off with the young Guo Xiang story. Even without ROCH, I don't think it's a particularly confusing storyline.

[Ken Cheng]

Hrm, don't think there was much to be perplexed about. HSDS starts off with the young Guo Xiang story. Even without ROCH, I don't think it's a particularly confusing storyline.

What I mean, though, is at the end of ROCH, did the original readers expect another novel in the CONDOR HEROES saga? It must have seemed weird that at the very end of ROCH, Jin Yong introduced these two new characters and a new martial art (whose name was suspiciously similar to that of another, well-established martial art in LOCH and ROCH).

[tape]

Ah okay. The last chapter does seem to be a setup for something else.

[Ken Cheng]

Ah okay. The last chapter does seem to be a setup for something else.

Yep, but it would be several years after ROCH had wrapped up before Jin Yong would get around to writing/publishing HSDS; in the interim, many of the readers must have been left scratching their heads.

I also wonder if any of them realized that Cheung Gwun Bo would turn out to later be the famous Cheung 3 Fung of Taoist legend.

[Mandred Skavenslayer]

Not really. HSDS stands pretty well as a story in its own right.

It does help if you had some knowledge of LOCH and ROCH especially with characters like GX and Yellow Robe Girl.

Was the young Z3F in the original ending of ROCH? If he was then readers would have been prepared for HSDS.

9 Yang was explained by the Shaolin monk competition with Central Divinity, but personally I would have preferred it if JY used Tendon Changing Sutra as this was exclusively a Shaolin Art and I want to see it in the hand's of someone who could use it to the Max.

[Ken Cheng]

Not really. HSDS stands pretty well as a story in its own right.

Not disputing that, but what I'm wondering about is if the original ROCH readers knew what Jin Yong was setting up in that very last chapter of ROCH. If not, many readers must have been confused about the reason that ROCH ended that way.

It's not so much a question of whether HSDS readers would be confused (they definitely wouldn't), but whether ROCH readers were confused because HSDS did not yet even exist (Jin Yong hadn't written it yet).