Return of Condor Heroes (34 page)

From the way he was going to land, it looked like he was going to land right in front of Xiao Longnu, Yang Guo was alarmed and had not time to think, he stood up, his left palm shot out from below his right palm, and pushed the back of Zhao Zhijing, a stance of “Bright Building Flinging the Ball” (cai lou pao qiu), he pushed out with strength, and hit him away about seven meters. Right now his internal energy wasn’t developed enough, he had used an enormous amount of strength in this attack, all concentrated in his left arm, his lower body was weak, he could not stand up properly and his left foot stepped on a branch. The branch quickly rebounded back to its original position, and touched Xiao Longnu in the face. It was only a slight touch, but Xiao Longnu was greatly disturbed, she broke out in a sweat, at that time she was in the middle of rapidly circulating her chi and holding it in her ‘dan tian’, it didn’t disperse and she fainted.

All of a sudden Zhen Zhibing saw Yang Guo jump out, and saw the woman he has been thinking about hiding in the thicket, he froze, and didn’t know whether this was real or an illusion. Zhao Zhijing had steadied himself by this time, and under the moonlight he was able to recognize Xiao Longnu’s face. He said, “Ah, so she’s here; and with a man!”

Yang Guo was alarmed and shouted out, “Don’t go anywhere you two rotten Taoists, I’ll come back and finish this.” He saw Xiao Longnu had fallen onto the ground and was not moving. He remembered that he was told that when they were practicing they must stay together to help each other, if there where any disturbances a disaster would happen. Now Xiao Longnu had experienced a shock, she would have serious injuries; he was extremely frightened and touched her forehead. It was cold as ice; he quickly grabbed her clothes and covered her up. He picked her up and said, “Gu Gu, are you alright?” Xiao Longnu moaned but didn’t say anything.

Yang Guo was slightly more relaxed and said, “Gu Gu, we’ll go back to the tomb first, then I’ll come back and kill the two Taoists.” Xiao Longnu had no strength and lay limp in his arms. Yang Guo advanced in large steps, and went past the two Taoists. Zhen Zhibing stood there like a statue.

Zhao Zhijing laughed and said, “Apprentice brother Zhen, your dream lover and that man over there have just done dirty things; you want to kill me, you should kill him!” Zhen Zhibing didn’t take any notice and didn’t reply.

Yang Guo heard the words ‘done dirty things’, although he didn’t know exactly what he meant, he knew it was an insult and he was furious. He lightly put Xiao Longnu down and rested her against a tree and took a branch in his hand, and pointed to Zhao Zhijing and shouted, “What rubbish are you talking about?”

Two years had passed, Yang Guo had changed from a small child to a tall young man, at first Zhao Zhijing didn’t know who he was, when he heard him a second time and saw his face under the moonlight, he recognized it was his disciple. He had been made to fall by him and was angry, he saw his body was exposed and shouted, “Yang Guo, so it’s you, you little bastard!”

Yang Guo said, “You can insult me, but why are you insulting my Gu Gu?”

Zhao Zhijing laughed and said, “Everyone knows the Ancient Tomb sect is a female sect, skills are only passed on to women and not men, all of them are pure and untouched virgins, but it’s a filthy sect, secretly hiding a man, doing these things in the open!”

Xiao Longnu had just wakened up and heard what he said, and was alarmed. Her chi had begun to flow normally but now it flowed the opposite way, her chi and air were both stimulated and she knew that she was suffering from internal injuries. She could only shout “You talk rubbish, we have not…” before she spat out blood violently from her mouth.

Zhen Zhibing and Yang Guo were worried when they saw this, and both of them rushed closer.

Zhen Zhibing said, “How are you?” and bent down to take a closer look at her injuries.

Yang Guo knew that he wanted to harm her and pushed him in the chest with his left hand. Zhen Zhibing moved his palm to block it. Yang Guo was familiar with every stance of Quanzhen’s kung fu, he turned his palm over and grabbed his wrist, he first pulled and then let go, and tossed him away.

At present, Yang Guo’s kung fu could not actually compare with that of Zhen Zhibing, and if Yang Guo fought with other sect’s fighters who were of the same ability as Zhen Zhibing he would definitely have lost. But years ago Lin Chaoying had invented techniques to counter Quanzhen’s, every stance matched every stance. Since she invented these techniques they had never been used in practice, so Quanzhen’s disciples do not know that there is a kung fu which is the ‘Black Star’ of theirs. Yang Guo now used it. Zhen Zhibing was not prepared and wasn’t concentrating, and didn’t have any way to respond; although he didn’t fall, he was flung over six meters and was standing next to Zhao Zhijing.

Yang Guo said, “Gu Gu, ignore them, I’ll take you back to the tomb first.”

Xiao Longnu struggled for air as she said, “No; kill those two so they can’t...can’t talk about me outside.”

Yang Guo said, “Fine.” He leapt out at them, his branch pointing at Zhao Zhijing’s chest. Zhao Zhijing didn’t care about Yang Guo and waved his sword, cutting down at his branch. He didn’t know that Yang Guo was using the ‘Black Star’ of Quanzhen’s sword skills; the branch swiveled past and struck the pressure point on Zhao Zhijing’s wrist. Zhao Zhijing’s wrist went numb, and he secretly cursed. Yang Guo’s left hand chopped across, aiming for his left cheek, this was an extremely strange move, and it was the most unexpected. If Zhao Zhijing wanted to keep his sword, he would have to straighten his head and suffer the chop, if he wanted to avoid the chop, the sword will definitely be lost.

Zhao Zhijing was skilled, although he was in a precarious situation he kept calm, he let go of his sword and ducked his head, if he followed it with a left palm, he will be able to get his sword back in the blink of an eye. He could not have guessed that years ago Lin Chaoying had thought of how the enemy would react, and developed techniques to counter any changes, no matter how good, clever or lethal, any of highly skilled Quanzhen fighters were. Zhao Zhijing felt that he made the best decision possible, and would allow him to definitely gain victory from the jaws of defeat. But he didn’t know that Xiao Longnu and Yang Guo had learned all the techniques that would counter their changes.

Yang Guo removed the enemy’s weapon and saw his left palm move, and knew what he was going to do; he pushed the sword forward, aiming to pierce the opponent’s wrist. Zhao Zhijing was alarmed and quickly moved his arm back. Yang Guo pointed the sword tip at his chest and shouted, “Get down!” as his left leg hooked out. Zhao Zhijing was afraid of being pierced and had to move, he was hooked and fell backwards. Yang Guo raised the sword, wanting to thrust at his stomach.

Suddenly, a wind came from behind him, a sword was approaching and someone shouted out, “You dare to kill your master?” That stance was to attack first and then allow him to rescue Zhao Zhijing, Yang Guo was in the middle of an angry attack but could still see what was happening, and he immediately parried it with his sword, the two swords clashed. Zhen Zhibing saw that the sword was extremely fast and couldn’t help from secretly praising it, and suddenly felt his sword going out of his control, sticking to the opponent’s sword. Alarmed, he quickly circulated his chi to get it back. His internal energy was profound, the two competed, and Yang Guo’s sword was lead along. He didn’t know that Yang Guo lured him into doing this, he held the sword for a split second before letting go, his arms straightened and he attacked the enemy’s chest. At that point the sword handle rebounded up, two palms and a sword, the three of them with the same intent, even if Zhen Zhibing’s skills were higher, he would not be able to block this extremely strange attack.

At this time, Zhen Zhibing could only throw away his sword and send out his own palms, he quickly put his hands across his chest to block this move, but because his arms were too bent, he could not put any strength in them. Yang Guo’s internal energy wasn’t high enough and wasn’t able to break his arms with this move, but was still able to strike his chest painfully. Zhen Zhibing’s arms became numb; he moved back three steps and circulated his chi to protect the important pressure points in his chest. Zhao Zhijing got up. The two swords were in Yang Guo’s hand, and he attacked both of them.

In just a few moves, the two of them were made to hurry around and scamper by a teenager; they were both afraid and angry and didn’t dare be careless. The two of them stood up, and used their palms skills; they only defended and didn’t attack. They wanted to find out more about their opponent’s techniques before doing anything. Although Yang Guo had weapons to fight against his empty handed opponents, the two defended tightly, and weren’t being beaten as badly as they were at the start. The “Jade Heart Manual’s” sword techniques did not have any stances that countered Quanzhen’s fists and kicks. Lin Chaoying wanted to defeat Wang Chongyang’s techniques completely, she felt that using weapons to defeat his hand to hand combat techniques was unfair and below her so she did not give it any thought. That, plus the fact that the Taoists internal energy was well above Yang Guo’s, and since all they cared about was to remain undefeated, Yang Guo’s swipes and chops did not have much effect, and eventually he began to lose.

Zhao Zhijing’s internal energy was profound; he kept incessantly producing palm winds that aimed at Yang Guo’s sword.

Zhen Zhibing stopped, and secretly thought that here they were, two seniors attacking a young boy, how ridiculous did they look? He saw that victory was in sight but worried about the safety of Xiao Longnu so he shouted, “Yang Guo, quickly take your Gu Gu away, what are you doing tangling with the two of us?”

Yang Guo said, “Gu Gu hates you for talking rubbish, and told me that I must kill you.”

Zhen Zhibing sent out a palm that shook Yang Guo’s sword in his left hand and then jumped left three steps and said, “Leave!”

Yang Guo said, “You want to escape?”

Zhen Zhibing said, “Yang Guo, you want to kill us but that will not be possible; but your Gu Gu can relax, if the one named Zhen reveals a single word about what happened today, I will immediately kill myself to apologize. If I don’t do this” as he said this, he suddenly leapt towards Yang Guo and took the sword in his left hand and said, “then I’ll be like these fingers!” He spread his left hand and cut down with his right, and cut the last two fingers off his hand.

Those few moves happened extremely quickly and Yang Guo wasn’t prepared. He stopped and knew that he was sincere and thought, “It is indeed difficult to kill them both; why don’t I first kill the one named Zhao and then come back and kill him.”

He then shouted, “The one called Zhen, what use is cutting off your fingers? If you cut off your head, then I’ll believe you.”

Zhen Zhibing smiled and said, “If you want my life, all I need is a word from your Gu Gu, then why not?”

Yang Guo said, “Go!” He leapt forward two steps and suddenly thrust out behind him, straight at Zhao Zhijing’s chest.

The move “Orchid Shoots Back” (mu lan hui she) was extremely ruthless, Zhao Zhijing was listening to what they were saying and never thought that he would suddenly ambush him, he was frightened. The tip of the sword pierced his stomach. Zhao Zhijing felt a slight pain, and immediately circulated his chi throughout his ‘dan tian’, and his stomach pulled back half an inch, he raised his right leg and kicked Yang Guo’s sword out of his hand. Yang Guo didn’t wait for his leg to come and down, and extended his finger and pointed at the pressure point on his knee. Although Zhao Zhijing had escaped with his life, he couldn’t stand up, his right knee kneeling down in front of Yang Guo.

Yang Guo caught the descending sword and pointed at Zhao Zhijing and said, “I once kowtowed eight times to you as you were my master, now you are not my master anymore, give the eight kowtows back.”

Zhao Zhijing had completed circulating his chi, his face became purple, almost becoming black. Yang Guo pressed the sword tip into his throat.

Zhao Zhijing shouted, “If you want to kill me, kill me, why are you talking so much?”

Yang Guo was about to thrust the sword forward when suddenly he heard Xiao Longnu say, “Guo’Er, killing your master is not auspicious, tell him to swear that he won’t reveal today’s events and let him go!” Yang Guo regarded Xiao Longnu’s commands above all else, and after hearing what she said, he said, “Swear it.”

Zhao Zhijing was angry, but his life was more important and said, “I won’t say anything, what need is there to swear it?”

Yang Guo said, “That won’t do. You must swear a venomous oath.”

Zhao Zhijing said, “Fine, today’s events will be kept between the four of us, if I reveal it to a fifth person, then let my name be in ruins, be expelled from my sect, everyone in Wulin will be against me, and I’ll have a terrible death.”

Xiao Longnu and Yang Guo did not know much about the world’s matters and thought that he was really swearing a venomous oath.”

Zhen Zhibing heard that there was a hidden meaning in his oath and wanted to warn Yang Guo but felt that it wasn’t right to help outsiders; he watched Yang Guo carrying Xiao Longnu, his steps extremely quick, and they disappeared around a bend in the mountain. His fingers hadn’t stopped bleeding; he stood up bemused without stopping it.

Yang Guo carried Xiao Longnu back to the tomb and placed her on the Chilled Jade Bed.

Xiao Longnu sighed and said, “I’m seriously injured, how can I oppose the Chilled Jade Bed?”

Yang Guo said ‘ah’ and was alarmed, he secretly thought, “So Gu Gu’s injury is very serious.” He then carried her to her room. When she first let Yang Guo sleep on the Chilled Jade Bed, she slept in the same room as him; after about a year she moved into the next room. As soon as she arrived in her room, she spat out another pool of blood, and covered Yang Guo’s exposed body. Yang Guo was so frightened that he couldn’t move his arms and legs, and started to cry.