Return of Condor Heroes (24 page)

The young Taoist gained victory from the jaws of defeat, his elbow struck Yang Guo’s chest fiercely, causing him severe pain, and used the chance to escape. He pushed and swung his hand, and caused Yang Guo to drop again; he had used the stance “No Debts No Dues” (wu qian wu yu). The young Taoist checked and said, “Apprentice brother Yang, thank you!”

Originally when dueling amongst each other from the same sect, once there was a clear winner the duel would stop, but he didn’t know Yang Guo was not finished. He came rushing forwards again. After two or three moves, Yang Guo was once again on the ground, but he became bolder as he went on, his punches and kicks coming out faster and faster.

Zhao Zhijing shouted, “Yang Guo, you’ve already lost, why are you still carrying on?”

Yang Guo ignored him, and kicked out; he had no plans to back down. The rest of the Taoists first thought it was funny but then thought, “When did our sect have such a reckless and rough kung fu?” After, they saw that he was fighting for his life and were afraid that something might happen. Many people called out, “Forget it…forget it. Its only sparring amongst apprentice brothers, there is no need to be so serious.”

They fought for another while; the young Taoist became frightened; all he did now was dodge and block, not daring to come close to him. There’s a saying: One man fighting for his life cannot be stopped by ten thousand men. Yang Guo had suffered for half a year on Mount Zhongnan, and he let it all out. The young Taoist’s skills were higher than Yang Guo’s, but how could he cope? He saw that he couldn’t block anymore, he could only hurry around the arena avoiding him.

Yang Guo chased after him, and shouted, “Rotten Taoist, you’ve had fun hitting me, now you want to run?”

The ten people who were watching from the side at that time, eight or nine of them were Taoists, when they heard him say rotten Taoist, scoundrel Taoist and other insults, they were angry but also thought it was funny. They all said, “That kid needs a good lesson.”

The young Taoist was chased and harried, he was scared and shouted, “Master, master!” and hoped the Zhao Zhijing would come out and stop Yang Guo. Zhao Zhijing shouted, but Yang Guo did not take any notice.

When Yang Guo didn’t stop, a shout came out from the crowd, and out came a large Taoist, he stepped in and grabbed Yang Guo’s neck, picked him up, and struck three times across the face, the slaps were fierce, half of Yang Guo’s face immediately swelled up. Yang Guo was dazed by the three slaps, when he looked up, it was the Taoist whom he had a run in with, Lu Qingdu. When Yang Guo first came to Mount Zhongnan, he was almost burned to death by Yang Guo, after that, his apprentice brothers ridiculed him saying he got outsmarted by a little kid. He had always kept this in his mind, now he saw Yang Guo was being rebellious; he couldn’t resist and reacted.

When Yang Guo saw that it was Lu Qingdu, he knew that he was out of luck, and since he was being held up, he couldn’t fight. Lu Qingdu smiled wryly, and struck him across the face three more times, and shouted, “You don’t listen to master’s orders, you are our sect’s traitor, and anyone can hit you.” He raised his hand again, wanting to hit out once more.

Zhao Zhijing’s apprentice brother Cui Zhifang had seen Yang Guo fight and he had not used any of their sect’s kung fu. He knew what kind of character Zhao Zhijing was, so he was afraid that there was another reason for all of this; he feared someone was going to get hurt so he called out, “Qingdu, stop!”

Lu Qingdu heard his Martial Uncle’s shout, although he didn’t want to, he had to put Yang Guo down and said, “Martial Uncle don’t you know, that child is extremely mischievous and crafty, if we don’t punish him heavily, how can there be order within our sect?”

Cui Zhifang ignored him, and went over to Yang Guo, he saw that both sides of Yang Guo’s face were heavily swollen, there were blue and purple marks, his noise and mouth were bloody; he looked a very sorry sight. He softly said, “Yang Guo, your master taught you martial arts, why didn’t you work hard and practice, and instead causing fights among your apprentice brothers?”

Yang Guo angrily said, “What master? He hasn’t taught me anything.”

Cui Zhifang said, “I heard with my own ears you reciting the formulae, not one word was wrong.”

Yang Guo remembered how on Peach Blossom Island Huang Rong had made him read books and recite manuscripts, and knew that Zhao Zhijing had taught him something that was not related to practicing martial arts. He said, “I don’t know how to incorporate them, what use is being able to recite a few words?”

Cui Zhifang pretended to be angry, and wanted to test that he really did not know any of their sect’s kung fu; he then put on a face, and said, “You are talking to a senior, how can you have no manners?” He stretched out his arm and pushed his shoulder. Cui Zhifang is one of most skilled students of the third generation, although he can’t be compared with Zhao Zhijing and Yin Zhiping, he was skilled, his internal energy high. His push was gentle yet it’s strength was judged just right, but he felt Yang Guo’s shoulder lean to the side, his internal energy emerged, and had already dispersed with just under half the force in his push. Although he stumbled back a few steps, he did not fall down.

Cui Zhifang was startled, he became suspicious and thought, “He is young, and has only entered our sect for just over half a year, how can he have such strong internal energy? He has good internal energy, just now when he was dueling; he was fighting madly, could there be something wrong here?” He didn’t know that Yang Guo had practiced Ou Yangfeng’s formulae for internal energy cultivation; unwittingly his internal energy has gone up another level. The White Camel Mountain’s sect’s internal energy is easy to learn, progress can be made very quickly, but it cannot compare with the Quanzhen sect’s kung fu foundations. Within the first ten years of practicing, the students of White Camel Mountain’s internal energy will have increased very quickly until ten years pass, then the students of Quanzhen sect will have slowly caught up and start to overtake it. The two sect’s internal energies are very different, but because Cui Zhifang had just given a push without any real intent, it was hard for him to tell the difference.

Yang Guo had been pushed by him, and was winded, and knew that he wanted to fight him. Right now, he feared neither heaven nor earth, even if Qiu Chuji was here in person, he would still fight him, why would he care about Cui Zhifang? He then lowered his head and rushed forward, aiming for his lower abdomen. How could Cui Zhifang mess around with a child, he smiled and stepped aside, he wanted to see his real kung fu, so he said, “Qingdu, come and duel with apprentice brother Yang, watch yourself and don’t be too severe!”

Lu Qingdu could not believe those words, he immediately jumped in front of Yang Guo, his left palm came down, Yang Guo escaped to the right, Lu Qingdu hit out his right palm, this palm was the “Tiger’s Way Hand”, the strength behind it was not weak, a thudding sound, as Yang Guo was struck in the chest.

If Yang Guo had not been practicing the White Camel Mountain’s internal energy, he would have definitely thrown up a pool of blood. He felt a severe pain in his chest; his face was as white as a sheet of paper. Lu Qingdu saw that he had not felled Yang Guo with this palm, and secretly felt that he was careless, his right fist now came down at Yang Guo. Yang Guo stretched out his arms to attack; he didn’t understand the finer points of fist skills; so he didn’t know the best way to repel this incoming attack. Lu Qingdu moved his right fist and came out with his left fist, another thudding sound as he hit Yang Guo in the stomach. Yang Guo bent down with pain. Lu Qingdu didn’t hold back, a right palm came crashing down on Yang Guo’s neck. He wanted to hurt him, wanting him to fall over now, wanting to avenge what he did to him. His life was on the line now but he still did not fall down, but now Yang Guo was dazed and didn’t have the strength to retaliate.

Cui Zhijing knew then that he didn’t know any martial arts skills and said, “Qingdu, hold!”

Lu Qingdu said to Yang Guo, “Do you respect me now?”

Yang Guo shouted, “You damn Taoist, I’m going to kill you one day!”

Lu Qingdu was furious, and punched him twice in the nose.

Yang Guo was beaten badly, he was wobbling and was about to fall down. He didn’t know where he was when suddenly a flow of warm chi surged through his “dan tian”, and he saw that Lu Qingdu was about to throw a third punch at him. There was no way to dodge, no where to escape, he spontaneously bent both legs and gave out a loud shout, his palm pushed out, hitting Lu Qingdu in the stomach. He saw a large body fly through the air, a thudding sound as dust flew everywhere in the arena, falling about ten feet away. The body was lying on the ground, and didn’t move.

The crowd of Taoists at the side watched Lu Qingdu taking advantage of his size and bullying someone smaller than him, and hitting Yang Guo venomously. It wasn’t right, the older generation apart from Zhao Zhijing came over to stop him, but they didn’t know there had been a sudden reversal of fortune. Lu Qingdu had been sent flying by Yang Guo’s palm, his body lying there like a corpse not moving, everyone was astounded and rushed over to take a closer look.

Normally Yang Guo would not have been able to use the “Toad Stance”, but in a life threatening situation, it could be used automatically. The first time this happened was on Peach Blossom Island where he knocked out Wu Xiuwen. After many months, his internal energy had increased; that, plus the fact that he hated Lu Qingdu, and it was comparable to the hate he felt for the Wu brothers, with this in mind, he was able to knock him flying across the arena. He heard the other Taoists say, “Oh no, it’s terrible, he’s dead! He’s not breathing; his internal organs have been hurt! Quickly go and tell the leader and bring him here.”

Yang Guo knew he had caused a major incident, no one was thinking in the midst of this chaos, he picked himself up and ran away. The Taoists were too busy with Lu Qingdu’s life and didn’t notice that Yang Guo had slipped away. Zhao Zhijing saw that Lu Qingdu’s eyes were rolled back, and didn’t know whether he was dead or alive. He was startled and angry, and shouted out, “Yang Guo, Yang Guo, where did you learn this witchcraft?” His skills were high, but he had remained at Chongyang Palace for most of the time, he didn’t know much, of course he would not recognize the techniques of the “Toad Stance”.

The Taoists turned around, but didn’t see Yang Guo. Zhao Zhijing then gave out an order, and told them to go and capture Yang Guo; they thought how far could a small child like him get to in a short space of time?

Yang Guo didn’t know the roads, and just ran, he eventually chose to dive into a forest. After a while, he heard shouts behind him, everyone was calling out from all directions, “Yang Guo, Yang Guo, come out quickly!” He was nervous, and ran away again; he felt someone was in front of him, a Taoist had seen him, and came after him. Yang Guo quickly turned around; in the west was another Taoist, who called out, “Here! Over here.” Yang Guo crouched down and crawled underneath a bush. The Taoists were too big to crawl through; they had to go around it to find him. Yang Guo managed to escape but didn’t know where to go. After Yang Guo went through the bush, he headed straight and after running for a while, he heard the voices become quieter but he still didn’t dare stop. He avoided the paths, and ran through the long grass and rocks; he became bruised and cut up all over. When he couldn’t move any more he sat down on a rock to catch his breath. He sat for a little while, but then he thought; “Escape quickly, escape quickly.” But his legs felt like they weighed a ton, he almost couldn’t stand up straight. He heard someone laugh coldly from behind, Yang Guo was startled and turned around, his heart jumped out of his mouth, as he saw a man with deep brows and flared eyes, a beard hanging to his chest, it was Zhao Zhijing.

The two stared at each other for several minutes; during this time they did not move an inch. Yang Guo suddenly shouted and turned around to run away. Zhao Zhijing went forward and stretched out his arm and grabbed his chest. Yang Guo jumped forward and it was lucky he gained a few inches and managed to escape his clutches. He then picked up a rock, and flung it backwards with all his strength. Zhao Zhijing swerved to the side, he increased his speed and the distance between the two closed. Yang Guo ran madly for about twenty steps, and saw a deep ditch in front of him but he had run out places to run to; he didn’t know whether below was a deep valley or a mountain gorge but he didn’t give it a thought and threw his body forward.

Zhao Zhijing ran to the steep ditch and looked on, he saw Yang Guo rolling through the grass down the slope, and eventually into a cluster of trees. From where he was standing to the bottom was about sixty or seventy feet, he didn’t dare jump down; he quickly ran down the grassy slope. He saw the trail of flattened grass left heading into the forest, but he didn’t see a trace of Yang Guo. As he went deeper it became tighter, eventually so dense that light was shut out. He went forward for about one hundred feet, and then suddenly stopped; he was now on the land of the Tomb of the Living Dead where the sect’s ancestor had spent his younger years. Their sect had a strict rule: no one is allowed to take one step into the place. “Had Yang Guo escaped into here?” He wasn’t pleased, he shouted, “Yang Guo, Yang Guo come out quickly!”

He shouted a few times, the forest became silent, he became bold and took a few steps forward and saw a large stone slab. He took a closer look. Some words were engraved on it, “Outsiders stop now”. Zhao Zhijing paced back and forth for an hour, he then loudly called out, “Yang Guo you little scoundrel, if you don’t come out I’ll catch you and beat you to death.” After he said this, he suddenly heard a sound coming from the forest, he saw a grey mist moving, and a swarm of white bees came out from the leaves and flew towards him.

Zhao Zhijing was startled, he waved his sleeve trying to push away the bees, his internal strength was deep, there was considerable power in his sweeps, but after waving many times, the swarm of bees became two, one coming from the front, the other coming from behind. Zhao Zhijing became even more frightened; he didn’t dare to be slow and waved his arms frantically, protecting his body. The swarms dispersed, but then came back to attack from all directions from top to bottom, east to west, north and south. Zhao Zhijing didn’t dare to defend anymore, he protected his face and turned around and ran out of the forest.