Return of Condor Heroes (42 page)

Yang Guo took a look around, and saw they were in a shaded area, flowers were everywhere, he was delighted and said, “Gu Gu, isn’t this nice?” Xiao Longnu nodded and smiled. The two remembered the events of the past few days; it really was the complete opposite. There wasn’t anyone around; the cave was at the foot of Mount Zhongnan in a rare piece of uncultivated land. That night, the two slept under the shelter of a tree on the grass.

They woke up in the morning, Yang Guo said they could now go out and play, but Xiao Longnu has never seen the outside world before, and didn’t know what it was like, she was frightened and said, “No, we’ll first recover and then we’ll finish learning the “Jade Heart Manual”.”

Yang Guo slapped his head and said, “I’m so dumb! I forgot about your injuries.” He thought again about how it would be inconvenient to take off their clothes here and practice, so he first helped Xiao Longnu to cure her injuries. Within two weeks, Xiao Longnu had recovered.

Under a large pine tree, they built two thatch huts for shelter. The roof was filled with purple rattan. Yang Guo liked the scent of flowers, so in front of his hut he planted roses, jasmine and the like. Xiao Longnu however liked simple decorations, and said the scent of the pine needles was better than a flower’s, and so there wasn’t anything in her hut, and surrounding it was just open space and grass.

The two of them slept in the day and practiced at night. In a few months, Xiao Longnu had completed learning the “Jade Heart Manual”. A month or so later, Yang Guo also finished. The two had completed everything and had nothing to do, and so Yang Guo mentioned going out into the world again.

Xiao Longnu felt the way of life now was great, nothing in the world could compare to it. But then she thought about how difficult it would be for Yang Guo’s character to stay here, and so said, “Guo’er, our kung fu is now much better than before, but how are they compared to your Auntie and Uncle Guo?”

Yang Guo said, “We are still no where near them.”

Xiao Longnu said, “Your Uncle Guo passes on his skills to his daughter, and the Wu brothers, if we meet them, then we’ll have to suffer them.”

When he heard this Yang Guo leaped up and angrily said, “If they bully me again, how will I be able to just let them?”

Xiao Longnu calmly said, “You can’t beat them, it’ll just be pointless.”

Yang Guo said, “You can help me.”

Xiao Longnu said, “If I can’t beat your Uncle Guo, then it’s no use.”

Yang Guo lowered his head and tried to think of a plan. After a while he said, “Out of respect for Uncle Guo, I won’t start trouble with them.”

Xiao Longnu thought, “He has lived in the tomb for two years and practiced the Ancient Tomb’s kung fu, his temper has mellowed.”

Actually, when Yang Guo became older, he understood a lot of things; he knew that the way Guo Jing treated him was out of love and caring, he was touched. Now he was willing to back down, and besides, he didn’t really have any serious feuds with Guo Fu and the Wu brothers. All they had was a little argument over crickets when they were younger, as time passed his feelings about this went away.

Xiao Longnu said, “It’s good that you won’t have fights and arguments with them. But according to you, even if you concede to others, others will still come and bully you; if we don’t learn the kung fu that Wang Chongyang left, when we meet skilled enemies, we won’t be able to fight them off.”

Yang Guo knew that she didn’t want leave this peaceful place, and he couldn’t bear to go against her wishes and said, “Gu Gu, I’ll listen to you, from tomorrow onwards, we’ll begin practicing the “Nine Yin Manual”.

As a result of this conversation, the two lived in the valley for another year. The two went back into the tomb via the secret passage, and learned the text of the “Nine Yin Manual”. When they were sure they remembered every single word, they left and practiced outside. Within the year, their internal and external skills improved in every aspect. But the markings that were left in the tomb by Wang Chongyang were only the parts which could defeat the “Jade Heart Manual” and consisted only a small part of the “Nine Yin Manual”, compared with what they know and what Guo Jing and Huang Rong knew, it was much inferior, but now, they weren’t the only two that knew it.

One day after finishing practicing their martial arts, both of them felt that they had made great improvements. Yang Guo jumped up and down in delight, while Xiao Longnu was worried and unhappy. Yang Guo kept on telling jokes to help break her boredom. Yang Guo knew that they now have learned all the kung fu that Wang Chongyang left in the tomb. If they wanted to learn it to its highest level, one didn’t know how many years it would take, but they grasped the essence and ideas behind the skills. All they needed to do now is to keep practicing and the skills will become more refined. He knew that Xiao Longnu did not want to leave the mountain, but there wasn’t anything to stop them now, he was troubled and said, “Gu Gu, if you don’t want to leave, then we’ll stay here forever.”

Xiao Longnu delightedly said, “Good” but as she said this she stopped, she knew that Yang Guo didn’t want to stay, she wouldn’t live happily, she quietly said, “We’ll talk about this tomorrow.” She didn’t eat supper, and returned to her hut and slept.

Yang Guo sat down on the grass and stared, up until there were stars in the sky, and then retired to his hut. He slept until the middle of the night, when he heard wind sounds, the sounds were urgent, something was wrong. He woke up alarmed, and listened; it was the sound of fists and palms. He quickly darted out of his hut, and went outside of his master’s hut and quietly said, “Gu Gu, can you hear?”

Right then, the sounds of the winds were louder, Xiao Longnu would definitely hear it but there was no reply from the hut. Yang Guo called out twice, and then entered, the room was empty; his master was not here. He became even more alarmed, and searched for the origins of the wind sounds. He ran for about a hundred feet, he didn’t see anyone but from the wind sounds, he knew one of them was his master, but the opponent’s wind from their palms were heavy and severe, their kung fu level would be above his master’s.

Yang Guo dashed over, in the moonlight he saw Xiao Longnu and a strongly built person hovering around, fighting frantically. Although Xiao Longnu was swift and quick, the opponent’s skills were powerful and strong; under the force of those palms, Xiao Longnu had to use all her strength to avoid them.

Yang Guo was startled and said, “Master, I’m here!”

The two of them came down, and Yang Guo was at their sides and faced that person, he was happily surprised, the person had a beard, his limbs like lances, his long face like a thorn, it was his Godfather Ouyang Feng.

But he saw him standing there like a mountain, throwing out palms at Xiao Longnu, she could only dodge them, she didn’t dare to meet their power.

Yang Guo called out, “We all know each other, there’s no need to fight.”

Xiao Longnu was startled and thought how could this madman be a friend of theirs, while she was thinking she slowed down. Ouyang Feng threw out a palm, a strong force threw itself at her, it was extremely powerful. Yang Guo was startled and quickly leapt in front of them only to see Xiao Longnu’s left palm meeting Ouyang Feng’s right, he knew that his Master’s internal energy couldn’t compare with his Godfather, she will suffer a serious internal energy in a short while, so he stretched out his five fingers and stroked Ouyang Feng’s elbow lightly, it was the newly learnt skill from the “Nine Yin Manual” “Hand Waves Five Strings” (shou hui wu xian). Though he wasn’t too familiar with this skill, he knew the aspects of this attack, Ouyang Feng’s arm became numb, his body’s strength dispersed.

Xiao Longnu saw a chance to gain victory, she felt the enemy had become weak and immediately attacked, in a flash Ouyang Feng had become completely defenseless, just a light attack would have seriously hurt him.

Yang Guo intercepted his Master’s palm, and sandwiched himself between the two, he smiled and said, “Watch it you two, we’re friends.” Ouyang Feng had not recognized him, he just saw that this young man was extremely skilled and angrily said, “Who are you? What friends?”

Yang Guo knew he was mad and disturbed and was afraid he would forget who Yang Guo was so he loudly called out, “Father…it’s me, I’m your son.” His words were filled with emotion. Ouyang Feng stood still, he took his head and studied his face under the moonlight, it was the son he has been searching for the past few years, but because he had grown tall, and his martial arts were high, it was hard for him to recognize him. He held Yang Guo and called out, “Son, I’ve endured many hardships searching for you!” The two held each other tightly, both of them producing tears.

Xiao Longnu has always been cold and detached, she knew that the only person in the world whose emotions towards her were as hot as fire was Yang Guo, but right now, when he saw Ouyang Feng, he was also like this. She feared leaving the mountain and sat aside pondering.

After Ouyang Feng and Yang Guo separated at the Iron Spear Temple, he hid under the large bell; Ke Zhen E couldn’t get at him. He meditated with his divine skills to cure his internal injuries, after seven days and nights his internal energy had recovered. But the external injuries that he received from Ke Zhen E were not minor; he wasn’t able to recover from them in such a short time. When he left the large bell, he went to an inn and rested his wounds for twenty days. When his wounds were healed, he went and looked for Yang Guo. But a month had passed, the world is a large place, how could he find him? He thought, “The child is most probably on Peach Blossom Island.” He got a small boat and sailed to the island. He didn’t dare to approach during the day, so at night he anchored in a bay behind a mountain. He knew he wasn’t a match for Guo Jing and Huang Rong, plus he didn’t know that Huang Yaoshi wasn’t on the island. Even if his skills were twice as good, he wouldn’t be able to fight all three of them. During the day he hid in a cave on a wild piece of land, and patrolled at night. The layout of the island was ingenious; he didn’t dare run around where ever he pleased. Over the year, he was extremely cautious, in the light of day he didn’t dare to take one step out of the cave, no one discovered him. One night, after his one meeting with Yang Guo, he heard the Wu brothers chatting and then he knew that Guo Jing had sent Yang Guo to the Quanzhen sect to learn martial arts. Ouyang Feng was pleased, he stole a boat and left the island, and rushed to Chongyang Palace. But he didn’t know about the incident between Yang Guo and the Quanzhen sect, or that he was now in the Tomb of the Living Dead. Quanzhen was ashamed of what happened, no one talked about this matter, Ouyang Feng couldn’t get any news from them. He searched for miles and miles around Mount Zhongnan, but he didn’t know that Yang Guo was below ground so of course he couldn’t find him.

Tonight by chance, he was walking by the valley when he saw a girl dressed in white with folded arms, sighing and looking at the moon.

Ouyang Feng asked madly, “Hey, where’s my son? Have you seen him?”

Xiao Longnu glanced at him, then ignored him. Ouyang Feng went over to her and grabbed her arm, and shouted, “Where’s my son?”

Xiao Longnu felt that his hands were extremely powerful, she had never met someone with such high skills, even the skilled fighters of Quanzhen could not compare. She was startled and used her a little capturing hand kung fu to escape. Ouyang Feng’s grab was a certainty but he could not have guessed the opponent could just lightly brush him off; he didn’t ask who she was and attacked. That’s how the two started their fight.

The two of them told each other what had happened to them. Ouyang Feng was half clear and half confused, he wasn’t able to explain clearly what had happened in the past, and didn’t understand much of what Yang Guo said. But when he mentioned that in the past few years he has been learning martial arts from Xiao Longnu, Ouyang Feng loudly said, “Her kung fu is not as good as mine. Why are you learning from her? Let me teach you.” Xiao Longnu didn’t want to argue with him, she smiled calmly and went off to the side by herself.

Yang Guo felt this wasn’t polite and said, “Father, Master has treated me extremely well.”

Ouyang Feng was jealous and said, “So she’s good and I’m not?”

Yang Guo smiled and said, “You are good as well. On this earth, only you two treat me well.”

Ouyang Feng’s words didn’t make sense, but Yang Guo knew that he had suffered many hardships in the past few years searching for him.

Ouyang Feng held his hand, he laughed foolishly and after a while he said, “Your kung fu is not bad, it’s a pity that you don’t know the world’s two most powerful martial arts.”

Yang Guo said, “What are they?”

Ouyang Feng’s eyebrows rose and he shouted, “You are a martial artist yet you don’t know the world’s two most powerful skills. What’s the point of having her for a master?”

Yang Guo saw that he was pleased and angry; he was concerned about him and thought, “Father’s illness is serious, when will he able to recover from it?”

Ouyang Feng laughed loudly and said, “Hmm, let father teach you. The two most powerful skills are, one, the “Toad Stance”, two, “Nine Yin Manual”. I’ll first teach you the foundation of the “Toad Stance”. He then recited the formulae for it.”

Yang Guo smiled and said, “You’ve taught me before, don’t you remember?”

Ouyang Feng scratched his head and said, “So you’ve already learned it, that’s great. Show it to me.”

Since Yang Guo entered the Ancient Tomb sect, he hasn’t practiced the strange skill that Ouyang Feng taught him; when he heard what he said, he immediately did as he was told. He had practiced it when he was on Peach Blossom Island, now with the advanced internal energy he has developed; he was able to demonstrate it spectacularly.

Ouyang Feng laughed and said, “Good! Good! Even though the stances don’t match, it’s better than nothing. I’ll teach you the rest of it now.” He waved his hands and bent his legs, and started reciting non stop, he didn’t care if Yang Guo remembered it or not, he taught a section of “Toad Stance”, and then taught him a section of the “Contrary Nine Yin Manual” (the deliberately flawed version of the Nine Yin Manual). Yang Guo listened for half an hour, and felt that the formulae’s ingenuity was boundless, but it was complicated and strange, how would he able to understand in just a short while of time?