Return of Condor Heroes (39 page)

Xiao Longnu calmly said, “When the ‘Dragon Snapping Stones’ are set, there is no other way out of the tomb, don’t you know this?”

Li Mochou clutched Xiao Longnu’s dress and said, “You lie!”

Xiao Longnu didn’t move and said, “The “Jade Heart Manual” that master left is over there, if you want to take a look, go ahead. Guo’er and I are here; if you want to kill us, go ahead. But if you want to leave the tomb alive, then I’m afraid it won’t be possible!”

Li Mochou’s hand gradually loosened, and she stood still. She saw that Xiao Longnu had a carefree air, and knew that she wasn’t lying and said, “Fine, I’ll kill you two first!” She threw out a palm at Xiao Longnu. Yang Guo quickly moved in front of Xiao Longnu’s body, shielding her and called out, “Kill me first!”

Li Mochou’s palm became heavy, when the palm reached Xiao Longnu she wasn’t able to exert its power, she looked at Yang Guo with hate and said, “The way you are protecting her, you are willing to die for her, aren’t you?”

Yang Guo calmly said, “That’s correct!”

Li Mochou’s left hand darted out and took the sword from his waist, and pointed it at his throat and said, “I am only going to kill one person. Tell me, is it going to be you or her?”

Yang Guo didn’t reply, he only looked at Xiao Longnu and smiled. The two of them had already forgotten about life and death; they didn’t care who Li Mochou was going to kill.

Li Mochou sighed and said, “Apprentice sister, your oath has been released, and you can leave the mountain now.”

Years ago, the ancient Tomb’s founder Lin Chaoying recollected her feelings for Wang Chongyang, and was unable to forget him in the end. A broken hearted Lin Chaoying made a rule, those who wanted to be her heir will first have to swear an oath that they will live in the tomb forever, never to leave Mount Zhongnan; but if there was a man who was willing to die for them, then the oath will be released. But the man must not know this oath. Lin Chaoying was positive that there wasn’t a man on earth who treated love above all else. The hero Wang Chongyang had become a Taoist, for her there wouldn’t be a man who would die willingly for their loved one. If there was such a man, her descendants will not leave the mountain in vain. Li Mochou entered the sect before Xiao Longnu, but because she didn’t take the oath, Xiao Longnu became the heir.

Li Mochou saw that Yang Guo was sincere towards Xiao Longnu, and couldn’t help becoming envious. She became angry again as she remembered how Lu Zhanyuan rejected her, she frowned as she called out, “Apprentice sister, you are very lucky.” She thrust the sword towards Yang Guo’s throat. Xiao Longnu saw that she was really going to kill him, now that the time had come, she wasn’t able to stop herself from saving him. She waved her left hand; more than ten “Jade Bee Needles” were thrown out.

Li Mochou quickly leapt back to avoid the poisonous needles. Xiao Longnu took Yang Guo’s hand and darted to the door, she turned around and said, “Apprentice sister, it doesn’t matter whether my oath has been released or not, our four lives will perish in the tomb. I don’t want to see your faces, just go and die on your own.” She extended her hand to a switch and activated it, the stone door descended, separating the four again.

Xiao Longnu was emotional; it was hard for her to walk. Yang Guo took her to Grandma Sun’s room to rest, and took out two jars of Jade Bee honey; he fed her a bottle and drank one himself.

Xiao Longnu quietly sighed and said, “Guo’er, why were you willing to die for me?”

Yang Guo said, “On this earth, only you treat me well, why should I be afraid to die for you?”

Xiao Longnu didn’t say anything. Half an hour later she said, “If I’d known earlier, then there was no need for us to return to the tomb and die with them. But if we didn’t return, I wouldn’t have known that you were willingly to die for me; my oath would not have been released.”

Yang Guo said, “Why don’t we try to find a way to get out of here?”

Xiao Longnu said, “You know about the tomb, so you should know that that there is no way out for us.”

Yang Guo sighed.

Xiao Longnu said, “You regret it, don’t you?”

Yang Guo said, “No, now I’m with you, outside, there’s no one that loves me.”

Xiao Longnu had not allowed him to say ‘you care about me’ in the past, and Yang Guo never mentioned it again; but now she’s had a change of heart, when she heard this she couldn’t help but feel touched, and asked, “So why did you sigh?”

Yang Guo said, “I was thinking that if we left the mountain, there are countless fun things to do, and with you by my side, life would be immensely enjoyable.”

Xiao Longnu had grown up in the tomb, her heart has always been as cold as ice, her master and Grandma Sun never mentioned the matters of the outside world, so of course she never thought about it. Now Yang Guo mentioned it, she felt her emotions soar, but felt blood rising up into her chest, and tried to circulate her chi to counter it, however she wasn’t able to make herself calm, and was frightened. She has never experienced this in her life, and knew that after recovering from her injury, she will not be able to recover her internal energy. She didn’t know that this method of suppressing her emotions was against the natural flow of things, being loveless doesn’t mean you will be able to do this, only by applying chi strictly can one succeed. She was now past twenty, in her time of danger, a young man was willing to die for her, and she didn’t want to reveal her true feelings and wanted to guard against injuring herself further. She tried to suppress her thoughts.

She sat on the bed and meditated for a while, but became impatient, and got off the bed and walked around, she was becoming bored. Her steps became quicker and she was dashing around the room. Yang Guo saw that her cheeks were red, and she seemed emotional, he had never seen her like this before, and he was startled. After walking around for a while she sat down heavily on the bed, and looked at Yang Guo, and saw a concerned expression on his face and thought, “Right now I am about to die, so is he. Why should we distinguish ourselves as master and disciple, auntie and nephew? If he comes and hugs me, I won’t push him away, and will allow him to hold me tightly.”

Yang Guo saw that she had tears in her eyes, she was gasping for breath and assumed that she was having a reaction to her injury again and quickly said, “Gu Gu, are you okay?”

Xiao Longnu softly said, “Guo’er, come here.”

Yang Guo went over to the bedside and Xiao Longnu grasped his hand and lightly brushed her face with it and quietly said, “Guo’er, do you love me?”

Yang Guo felt her face was as hot as a fire; he was frightened and quivered, “Does your chest hurt?”

Xiao Longnu smiled and said, “No, my heart feels extremely comfortable. Guo’er, I’m going to die soon, tell me, do you love me very much?”

Yang Guo said, “Of course, on this earth, you are my only loved one.”

Xiao Longnu said, “If another girl treats you the way I treat you, would you treat them like you treat me?”

Yang Guo said, “Whoever treats me well, I’ll treat them well back.” When he said this he felt the hand that Xiao Longnu held him with quivered, and immediately turned cold as ice, he raised his head and saw that her red face had now turned pale and white, as she was normally.

Yang Guo was alarmed and said, “What did I say wrong?”

Xiao Longnu said, “If you are going to love other girls then its better that you don’t love me.”

Yang Guo smiled and said, “We’ll die in a few days, when will I be able to love other girls? Could it be that I’m going to treat Li Mochou and her disciple well?”

Xiao Longnu smiled captivatingly and said, “I’m really stupid. But I want to hear you swear an oath with you own mouth.”

Yang Guo said, “Swear what?”

Xiao Longnu said, “I want you to say, from now on you will only have me in your heart, if there is another girl, I will be allowed to kill you.”

Yang Guo smiled and said, “It goes without saying, I will never do this, if I actually did something wrong and don’t listen to you, then I deserve to die.” He then swore, “Disciple Yang Guo, I will only have Gu Gu in my heart in my lifetime, if my heart changes, there will be no need for Gu Gu to kill me, when I see her face I will kill myself.”

Xiao Longnu was delighted and said, “Very good, I can relax now.” She held his hand tightly, not letting go. Yang Guo felt warmth returning to her hands.

Xiao Longnu said, “Guo’er, I haven’t been kind.”

Yang Guo quickly said, “No, you have always been kind.”

Xiao Longnu shook her head and said, “I treated you terribly before, at first I kicked you out of the tomb, it was lucky that Grandma Sun made me promise to take care of you. If I didn’t turn you away, Grandma Sun would not have died!” When she said this, she couldn’t stop tears flowing from her eyes. She had begun to practice martial arts at the age of five, and had never cried since; now she cried heavily, she was in a disturbed state of mind, her bones and joints made cracking noises, and she felt her internal energy draining away from her.

Yang Guo was alarmed and said, “Gu Gu, what’s happening? How are you feeling?”

Just as he said this, two ‘zha’ ‘zha’ noises were heard from behind and the stone door opened, Li Mochou and Hong Lingbo entered. Once the ‘Dragon Snapping Stone’ had been set, Li Mochou thought they were going to die anyway so there wasn’t any need to be wary of the tomb’s booby traps, and boldly dashed throughout the tomb. She managed to go through some rooms before finally arriving at Grandma Sun’s room. She knew she must have had extraordinary luck, she managed to avoid the booby traps but she didn’t know that the tomb’s booby traps were actually designed to repel Jin soldiers, once the large heavy stones had been set, someone must activate the traps to ambush the enemy. Xiao Longnu didn’t do this, and so the tomb’s booby traps were not armed.

Yang Guo immediately darted across, and blocked Xiao Longnu.

Li Mochou said, “Move out of the way, I have something to say to your master.”

Yang Guo was afraid that she was going to harm his master and didn’t dare to move and said, “Just say it there.”

Li Mochou stared at him for a while and sighed, and said, “There are very few men like you left in this world.”

Xiao Longnu got up and asked, “Apprentice sister, is it good or bad that you have described him this way?”

Li Mochou said, “Apprentice sister, you have never left the mountain, you don’t know how evil people’s hearts can be. Someone who views love and passion as deeply as him, it would be difficult to find another under heaven’s skies.” She has been hurt by love, her anger and fury was great, and she killed many men in the world who were loving and passionate.

Xiao Longnu was extremely pleased and quietly said, “If that is true, then having him die with me won’t make my life be without purpose.”

Li Mochou said, “Apprentice sister, who exactly is that person to you? You want to marry him?”

Xiao Longnu said, “No, he is my disciple. He said I treat him extremely well. But whether I have been kind or not, I don’t know.”

Li Mochou was puzzled, she shook her head and said, “Apprentice sister; let me see your arm.” She stretched out her left hand and grasped Xiao Longnu’s arm, she lifted her right arm’s sleeve and saw on her white skin a red dot, it was the ‘shou gong sha’ (virginity dot) left by her master.

Li Mochou was secretly respectful, “The two of them having a relationship like this in the tomb yet they’ve kept respect, she is still a pure and untouched virgin.” She then rolled up her sleeve, a ‘shou gong sha’ was on her arm, the sight of two white arms next two each other was captivating. She had no alternative but to be chaste; however her apprentice sister has a lover who was willing to die for her, fortunate and unfortunate. The two women were very different, she couldn’t stop herself from sighing, and let go of Xiao Longnu’s hand.

Xiao Longnu said, “What have you got to say to me?”

Li Mochou had originally wanted to insult her, saying that she seduced men and had brought the sect to shame, and thereby anger her into revealing the way out of the tomb. But right now she had nothing to say. After a while, she had another idea, and said, “Apprentice sister, I have come to apologize to you.”

Xiao Longnu was shocked by this, she knew that her apprentice sister was a very proud woman, never has she lowered her head to anyone, she didn’t know what she wanted. So she calmly replied, “You live your life, and I live mine, we go our own ways, there is no need to apologize for anything.”

Li Mochou said, “Apprentice sister listen to me, in my entire life, the happiest time was when I had a lover. There’s an old saying ‘It’s easy to get money and treasures, but it’s difficult to find a lover’. There is no need to talk about sister’s bitter life. That young man treats you well, you do not lack anything.”

Xiao Longnu smiled and said, “Yes, I am very happy. I know that he will never forget about me.”

Li Mochou’s heart ached and said, “You should leave the mountain and enjoy life. It’s a beautiful world; the two of you together will have boundless pleasures.”

Xiao Longnu raised her head and quietly said, “Yes, it’s just a pity that it is too late now.”

Li Mochou said, “Why?”

Xiao Longnu said, “The ‘Dragon Snapping Stones’ has been set, even if our Master was resurrected, will we not be able to get out of here.”

Li Mochou quietly breathed out, blowing through her lips and thought, “you had hoped to take advantage of Xiao Longnu’s will to live, and rely on her familiarity with the tomb to find a way out; but in the end it was useless”, she became angry and her urge to kill suddenly emerged, her hand twisted slightly and she raised a palm towards Xiao Longnu’s head.

Yang Guo was at the side listening to the two of them talking when he suddenly saw Li Mochou attack, alarmed, he automatically lowered his body and threw out two palms, called out, and unleashed the “Toad Stance” that Ouyang Feng had taught him. This was the kung fu he learned when he was younger, but since he lived in the tomb he did not practice it. But it was etched in his mind, at the most dangerous times he would use it without thinking. Li Mochou’s palm had yet to be unleashed, when she suddenly felt an extremely powerful wind pushing her from the side, she quickly sent the palm out to block the attack. Yang Guo had practiced martial arts in the tomb for two years, his internal energy had improved, though it was different to the internal energy of the “Toad Stance”, the power behind the push was still great, a thudding sound was made as he sent Li Mochou across the room, and she crashed into the wall causing pain in her back.