Return of Condor Heroes (194 page)

Then he heard a light ‘ta’ sound again, indicating that that person had just come one step closer. Yang Guo’s mind was frantic but he didn’t know what to do. Suddenly he felt his palm shaking and the heat energy was forced back to him because Xiao Longnu was also frightened. He quickly drew a breath and then pushed his internal energy out to Xiao Longnu’s palm. In a low voice he said, “The terrors within can’t be smelt, nor can they be seen. It is really the truth.” When one practiced martial arts to a certain limit, there would often emerge illusions, like hearing thundering cries or feeling itchy pains. One just had to know these were illusions and pay no attention to them whatsoever to avoid fire deviation. By this time, Yang Guo heard the footsteps very clearly and knew that it wasn’t just his own imagination. But Xiao Longnu was at a life or death critical moment so he had lied to her, saying that it was her mind tricking her and that no matter how fiercely evil it was, she had to ignore it and it would just disappear. As Xiao Longnu heard these words, she immediately calmed herself down.

At this time, while the sun outside was glowing red, it was actually dark like late night inside Gu Mu. Yang Guo heard every single footstep, every time several feet nearer. He thought about how in this world, except for themselves husband and wife, there were only Li Mochou and Hong Lingbo who knew about the secret path under water. So it had to be them, master and disciple, coming in. Based on Yang Guo’s martial skills, there was nothing to fear. It was only that he had to wait, not knowing for certain when the attack was coming. With this slow encroaching, he couldn’t help but feel uncertain and anxious, not knowing how to defend himself. The more the enemy came closer, the more he felt like his heart was on fire. Great dangers were approaching step by step. His hands were tied, waiting for death. Beads of sweat slowly seeped out on his forehead. He thought, “On that day Guo Fu cut my arm off, despite the pain, at least the sword strike was swift. Being forced to endure a slow blow like this was actually much worse.”

After another while, Xiao Longnu also heard the sound quite clearly and knew in her heart that it was not just an illusion. As danger was nearing, she wanted to increase the tempo of her inner air, pushing to clear her “Middle Altar” point. But her mind was slightly disturbed, causing her energy flow to go forwards and backwards and almost back up from her chest. And during this time, she heard light footsteps. Then suddenly from the door came ‘sou…sou’ whishing sounds of four Soul Freezing Needles being shot her way.

At this moment Yang Guo and Xiao Longnu were no different than average people with no martial skills whatsoever. Luckily, the two of them were prepared. Hearing the poisoned needles shot their way, they dropped backwards at the same time, without separating their palms. The four needles swiftly passed the sides of their faces. Li Mochou still hadn’t figured out that they were circulating energy to heal an injury so she was afraid that they would counter-attack. So she immediately leapt backwards after sending out the poisoned needles. If she hadn’t been afraid and followed up with another four needles, it would have been difficult for the two people to avoid getting hit.

Li Mochou only vaguely saw the two people sitting side by side on the Chilled Jade Bed. Missing her first strike, she herself was now quite worried. Seeing that Yang Guo and Xiao Longnu didn’t get up to fight back, she still didn’t understand but instead stepped back to the nearby stone door. With a fly whisk in her hand, she coldly said, “The two of you have been well since we last met!”

Yang Guo asked, “What do you want?” Li Mochou retorted, “How is it you don’t know what I want?” Yang Guo continued, “You want the Jade Heart Manual, is that it? We’ve secluded ourselves inside Gu Mu, staying away from the outside world. Just go and take it.” Li Mochou didn’t know if she should believe him or not so she said, “Bring it!”

This Jade Heart Manual was engraved on the wall in another stone chamber. Yang Guo thought, “I’ll just tell her the truth. The manual was obscure. Let her learn it by slowly pondering over it. We only need some more time for Gu Gu to clear her “Middle Altar” point. At that point, how would killing her be difficult?” But right now Xiao Longnu’s pulses were wildly fluctuating and so she was leaning on Yang Guo, not saying anything.

Li Mochou widened her eyes to observe the two people carefully. In a dark blur, she saw Xiao Longnu stretching her palms out against Yang Guo’s. Her thoughts moved and then she immediately understood, “Yang Guo’s arm injury was heavy. And this little person was helping him healing the wound with her internal energy. I’ve arrived at the crucial moment during the energy transfer. If I don’t kill them both today, how would I have such a good opportunity like this afterwards?” Even though her deduction was only half right, the fear in her heart immediately disappeared. She jumped up and, with the fly whisk, bore down on top of Xiao Longnu.

Feeling a whiff of strong wind coming down on her and stirring up her neat hair, Xiao Longnu closed her eyes for the coming death. But Yang Guo opened his mouth and blew a gust of energy towards Li Mochou’s face. At this time his whole body strength was channeled to help Xiao Longnu’s clearing her pressure point so the force of air sent out from his mouth was not very strong. But seeing Xiao Longnu in a dangerous situation, he had to blow out air to disturb the enemy.

Li Mochou knew perfectly well that Yang Guo was full of tricks. But as she felt the heat licking her face, she was startled and leapt backwards a foot. After being defeated by Huang Rong’s wisdom, she’d always been extra careful everywhere, not being rash in trying to hurt the enemy but protecting her own body first. But after leaping back, her face felt nothing unusual. She then shouted, “You want to die?”

With a laugh Yang Guo said, “The other day I loaned you a robe, have you come today to return it?” Li Mochou thought about the time she fiercely fought with the blacksmith Feng Mofeng and the clothes on her body were burned by the red-hot huge iron hammer. If not for Yang Guo’s robe covering her body, she would have been shamefully distressed. Reasonably speaking, today she couldn’t take the two people’s lives. But after another consideration, she changed her mind. A moment of soft feelings like this would cause her to forever worry about them afterwards. She straightened up her body and slapped out her left palm.

Even in the face of this calamity, Yang Guo still fought for wisdom. He thought about how earlier he and Xiao Longnu were joking. He once said if both his arms had been cut off, she would have had to hold the soles of his feet instead. Then he heard the sound of wind made by a palm as Li Mochou’s “Five Poisons Divine Palm” arrived. He had no time to think it over so he immediately lowered his head and lifted his feet up. At the same time he kicked out both feet to get rid of the shoes. He shouted, “Long’er, grab my feet!” and then wielded his left palm. With a ‘Pa’ sound, his palm made contact with Li Mochou’s. Originally he’d passed his whole body strength through Xiao Longnu and right now the energy level was suddenly dropping. He forced out the energy again while matching Li Mochou’s palm. All this while, Xiao Longnu was holding his right foot.

As Li Mochou suddenly saw Yang Guo’s strange posture, she couldn’t help being startled. But then she remembered the other day Yang Guo was fighting her own “Three Without Three Without Hands” strikes and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t beat them. So she immediately increased the palm strength, trying to finish off Yang Guo. Years ago, when she’d used this “Five Poisoned Divine Palm” to slaughter the entire Lu Family, the palm was already incredibly fierce. Now that she had cultivated strength over the years, it became most violent and evil. As Yang Guo sensed the heat passing through his palm, he didn’t resist. Instead he added his own strength and passed the energy on to Xiao Longnu’s body.

As it turned out, Li Mochou and Yang Guo’s combined strength was helping Xiao Longnu clear her pressure point. Li Mochou’s strategic moves were quite inferior to the Yang-Long couple but speaking of cultivated energy, hers was far deeper than theirs. Suddenly receiving such strong energy, Xiao Longnu felt the energy push vigorously through her “Middle Altar” point and that heat filled up her abdomen. Her spirits lifted and she called out, “Wonderful, many thanks to Shi Zi [Apprentice Elder Sister]!” She let go of Yang Guo’s right foot and leapt down from the Chilled Jade Bed.

Li Mochou was surprised. She thought Xiao Longnu was helping Yang Guo heal his injury. So she lashed out her palm strength, thinking to use this opportunity to shock Yang Guo’s energy flow. She hadn’t expected that she would be helping the enemy instead. Delighted, Yang Guo turned his body around and stood there barefoot. With a laugh he said, “If not for you rushing in to help, your Shi Mei [Apprentice Younger Sister] wouldn’t have been able to clear her “Middle Altar” point this easily.” Li Mochou hesitated and didn’t answer. Suddenly Xiao Longnu let out an ‘Ah’ sound. Holding her chest, she dropped down on the Chilled Jade Bed. With a start Yang Guo asked, “What is it?” Xiao Longnu panted, “Her, her, her palm was poisonous.”

By now Yang Guo also felt dizzy in his head and realized that when Li Mochou used her “Five Poisons Divine Palm,” she sent out the poisons from her palm. By matching palms with her, not only had the poisons entered his body, they also passed on to Xiao Longnu’s.

Yang Guo lifted his black iron sword and shouted, “Quickly take out the antidote!” and chopped down his sword. Li Mochou lifted her fly whisk to protect herself. And with a clang, the fly whisk forged from fine steel broke into two pieces. With its supple strength, this fly whisk had defeated who-knows-how-many great heroes in the world. But now that it was chopped and broken like it’d never been before, she was frightened to the core and hurriedly leapt out of the stone chamber. Yang Guo lifted his sword to pursue and wielded out his left arm. He saw that Li Mochou couldn’t hold herself against this sword. But all of a sudden the poisons in his body acted up and he saw stars before his eyes. His arm went limp and painful, with no strength left, with a ‘Dang’ sound, the black iron sword dropped down on the floor.

Li Mochou didn’t dare to stop. She fled ten feet ahead and then eventually turned her head back, only to see Yang Guo was shaking violently with his hand against the wall. She thought, “This boy’s martial skills are extremely strange. I’ll wait for a bit for the poisons to bring him down. Then I’ll approach.”

Yang Guo’s throat was dry and painful. His head felt swollen and aching. He immediately passed strength to his left arm and waited for Li Mochou to come forward. Just one strike would kill her and his palm was holding firm the handle of the black iron sword. Li Mochou became frightened again and didn’t dare to approach recklessly. By her calculation, she’d stay where she couldn’t be defeated. And she stood there, carefully observing any change.

Yang Guo thought that if it dragged on like this, the poisons in his and Xiao Longnu’s body would become stronger. With this delay, the enemy would have the upper hand. So he took a deep breath and circulated his internal flow. When the dizziness stopped, he grasped the handle of the black iron sword and stood up. He extended his arm to hold Xiao Longnu’s waist and bellowed, “Make way!” and went out in big strides. Seeing his confident air, Li Mochou didn’t dare to stop him.

Yang Guo only wanted to get into another stone chamber and close the door so Li Mochou couldn’t follow in. Xiao Longnu had already cleared her pressure points and, in another while, the two of them could force out the poisons in their bodies. This matter was actually a hundred times easier than clearing the pressure points. When Yang Guo was young and was poisoned by Li Mochou’s needles, Ouyang Feng taught him how to expel the poisons. At present the two of them had internal energy like this so getting rid of the poisons was really not difficult.

Li Mochou also knew his intention. How could she allow the two people to begin driving out the poisons? She didn’t dare to attack and only kept following them from a safe distance, always five feet away from Yang Guo. When Yang Guo stood there and waited for her to come. She also merely stood there motionless.

In his chest, the more Yang Guo’s heart beat, the fiercer the poisons became. He felt as if his heart would spill out of his mouth and couldn’t really support himself again. He unsteadily dashed into a stone chamber and put Xiao Longnu down on a tabletop. He propped himself against the table and loudly gasped for breath. He knew perfectly well that Li Mochou would follow shortly after but didn’t pay attention. After a little while, he then realized that they’d arrived at the coffin chamber. And the table, that he was propping himself against and that he was just placed Xiao Longnu’s body on, was really a stone coffin.

At the time Li Mochou was a disciple of the sect, she’d lived here at Gu Mu for quite a long time. And even though her knowledge of Gu Mu secret matters was inferior to the Yang-Long couple’s, she could see clearly that there were five stone coffins in the chamber. At the bottom of one of the coffins was a door to the secret path, from where she came in. She thought, “Are you thinking about escaping from here? This time it may not be so easy.”

Of the three people, one was sitting; one was standing; and the other was leaning against another. At this time, only the sounds of Yang Guo’s heavy breathings could be heard. Yang Guo’s body swayed several times. And with a clanking sound, the black iron sword dropped to the floor. Then he tumbled down Xiao Longnu’s body. His hand threw out something. A ‘Pa’ sound was heard as that thing flew into an empty coffin. He called out, “Li Mochou, I can’t let this Jade Heart Manual fall into your hands. Aiyo…” With a long miserable cry, he became motionless.”

There were five stone coffins in this chamber. Three of them contained the bodies of Lin Chaoying, her disciple, and Sun Po Po [Grandma Sun]. The other two were actually empty. Of these two, one was a door to the secret passage and its lid was left two feet open so people could come in and go out. The other coffin’s lid was left open just a little. As Li Mochou saw Yang Guo throw the “Jade Heart Manual” in this empty coffin, she was pleasantly surprised. But she was still afraid that it would be a trick. Another while passed and he was still motionless. So she bent down to feel his cheek. It was icy cold, meaning he was already dead. With a loud ‘Ha-Ha’ she said, “Little rascal, even with all your wickedness you also have failed today!” Then she stretched out her hand into the coffin to get the manual.