Xiao Longnu raised her head and her gaze met his; she saw his face was filled with boundless love along with thousands of pieces of pain and worry. Her heart was moved and thought, “I’ll leave with him now!” But she immediately had another thought, “I didn’t leave him on a whim. I have thought about all the good and bad points in detail. If I give in, I will bring him trouble in the future.” So she turned her head to the side and gave a long sigh before saying, “I don’t recognize you, I don’t understand what you are saying. Just leave!”
There was no force behind the words but it was filled with love and passion; apart from Ma Guangzou who was a slow person and had no perception, everyone in the hall could tell that she loved Yang Guo and these words were against her heart’s feelings.
Valley Master Gongsun was jealous, he thought, “Though you have agreed to marry me, you have never said half a word with such feeling.” He looked at Yang Guo and saw a handsome face, his valiant air exuding everywhere; he and Xiao Longnu did indeed make a perfect couple. He pondered, “It looks like these two must be lovers. Because they had an argument, sister Liu agreed to marry me out of anger, she still has feelings for this punk. ‘Gu Gu’, ‘Master’, these must be pet names that they use when they are flirting with each other. This punk is older than sister Liu, how can he really call her ‘Auntie’, ‘Master’.” As he thought about this, his eyes revealed anger and hatred.
Fan Yiweng was very loyal to his Master. He knew that his Master was lonely and was always thinking of a way that would be able to solve his Master’s loneliness. A few days ago, he saw his Master had rescued a beautiful young girl and the girl had agreed to marry him; he was almost happier than his Master. Now he saw Yang Guo had suddenly come to cause trouble and had made his Master’s new wife throw up blood; but his Master was still enduring this. So he came forward and shouted, “The punk named Yang, if you know what’s best for you you’ll leave! We don’t welcome rude guests such as the likes of you.”
Yang Guo heard but didn’t listen; he said softly to Xiao Longnu, “Gu Gu, have you really forgotten me?”
Fan Yiweng was furious; he stretched out his hand to grab his back, intending to throw him out of the hall.
Yang Guo was concentrating on speaking to Xiao Longnu; he had completely ignored everything that was going on around him. He only noticed something when he felt Fan Yiweng’s fingers on his back. He quickly moved out of the way and his opponent clutched thin air, but he heard a ‘chi’ sound, his opponent had made a hole in the back of his garment.
Yang Guo was becoming more and more anxious after his pleading once again was ignored by Xiao Longnu. If it were in the tomb where there’s no one else, he could slowly plead with her; but here in the hall there were many people. Now Fan Yiweng had come out with insults and threats; he felt his whole body was filled with pain and suffering, and he turned all his anger and emotions onto Fan Yiweng. He shouted back, “I’m talking to my Gu Gu, what has it got to do with you Shortie?”
Fan Yiweng shouted loudly, “My Master told you to leave and never come back; if you don’t listen then don’t blame me for being merciless.”
Yang Guo said angrily, “I choose not to leave; if my Gu Gu doesn’t leave then I’ll stay here for the rest of my life. Even if I die and my bones turn to ash, I’ll still follow her.” These words were meant for Xiao Longnu.
Valley Master Gongsun looked at Xiao Longnu and saw tears rolling from her eyes and eventually they splashed down on her blood stained dress. He felt sad and worried; he glanced over to Fan Yiweng and made a signal with his hands, telling him to kill Yang Guo and rid the longing that Xiao Longnu had once and for all.
Fan Yiweng was surprised with the signal that his Master had made, he had wanted to send him away from the valley and stop all this trouble and that was it. He didn’t think that his Master would actually give him the signal to kill. He said loudly, “Just because it’s my Master’s day of celebration you think I won’t kill you?” He then looked at his Master.
Valley Master Gongsun once again signaled with his hands, telling him to forget about what kind of day it was and just kill him. Fan Yiweng picked up his large staff and slammed it down on the floor, filling the room with vibrations. He shouted, “Little punk, are you really not afraid of losing your life?”
Yang Guo had just thrown up blood and the blood in his chest was rolling about, wanting to be thrown up. The internal energy of the Ancient Tomb sect is all about controlling your emotions, when Xiao Longnu’s Master imparted her the formulae, she repeatedly told her to purge her emotions. In the end, Xiao Longnu was not able to control them and as a result, she threw up blood on many occasions.
Yang Guo was taught by Xiao Longnu; his internal energy was of the same nature as hers and now his arms and legs were as cold as ice. He thought, “I’ll throw up blood violently right here and now and die here in front of her; will she still ignore me?” But then he had another thought, “Gu Gu normally loves me very much, there must a reason behind all this; most probably she’s being blackmailed by that Valley Master. She has no alternative and that’s why she’s ignoring me. If I cripple myself, it would be difficult for me to oppose him.”
He made up his mind; his heart was stirred and he decided to fight his way out of this problem and rescue Xiao Longnu from this place. He steadied himself and submerged his chi into his dan tian, forcing the blood in his chest to flow back down. He gave a wry laugh and pointed to Fan Yiweng, saying, “This valley feels like it’s filled with an air of death. When I want to come, you can’t stop me, when I want to leave, don’t dream of trying to make me stay.”
Everyone saw the emotional state that he was in. He was like a madman but all of a sudden, he had steadied himself; they were all surprised to see this.
When Fan Yiweng saw Yang Guo throwing up blood just now; he felt sorry for him and had no desire to threaten his life. He swept his staff and a fierce gust of wind brushed over Yang Guo’s clothes. He shouted, “Are you going to leave?”
Valley Master Gongsun frowned and said, “Yiweng, why are you still going on about leaving?” Fan Yiweng had just received a strict order from his Master; he had no choice but to sweep out his staff towards Yang Guo’s shins.
Gongsun Lu’E knew her senior apprentice brother had great martial arts; though he wasn’t tall, he possessed great strength and he had learned about seventy to eighty percent of her father’s skills. His steel staff had killed countless wild beasts. She thought that with Yang Guo being of a young age, he would definitely not be able to beat her apprentice brother’s eighty one stances of the “Spilling Water Staff”. If she waited for them to fight it would be difficult for her to save him. Though she saw her father’s face was harsh as frost and filled with anger, she plucked up her courage and stood towards Yang Guo, saying, “Master Yang, staying here will do you no good, why do you want to give your life away for no reason?” Her tone was gentle, filled with compassion.
Fawang and the others looked at her, secretly surprised, thinking, “Yang Guo came to the valley with us; when did he become friends with this girl?”
Yang Guo nodded and laughed, he said, “Thank you for Miss’ kindness. Do you want a beard to play with?”
Gongsun Lu’E was startled and asked, “What?”
Yang Guo said, “I’ll rid him of his beard and give it to you to mess around with, how about it?”
Gongsun Lu’E lost her color in shock. She thought that he must be bored with his life; actually daring to make a joke like this. The rules of the Passionless Valley were very strict; these few words of advice to Yang Guo would result in a heavy punishment. How could she know that he would reply jokingly? Her face went red; she didn’t dare to say anything else and stepped back into the line of disciples.
Fan Yiweng was a short man and was immensely proud of his beard; when he heard these mocking words from Yang Guo, he threw away his staff and rushed forward, shouting, “Little punk, I’ll let you experience pain from my beard first.” In the middle of his cry, his long beard swept forward.
Yang Guo laughed, “The Old Urchin didn’t cut off your beard; let me have a try.” He took out his scissors from his bag and cut forward towards the beard. Fan Yiweng’s beard was flung forward towards his neck; it had great force behind it. Yang Guo had already moved out of the way; the opened blades of the scissors came forward, a ‘ka’ sound was heard as they closed.
Fan Yiweng was shocked and he quickly did a somersault to get out of the way; just one slight delay and his beard would have been cut off. This wasn’t an ordinary kind of shock. The people who were watching called out quietly.
The reason Yang Guo had asked Blacksmith Feng to make this pair of scissors was so that he could use it against Li Mochou’s fly whisk. Li Mochou uses her “Divine Five Poison Palm” and her fly whisk to sweep through Jianghu; her fly whisk techniques were superb. Before Yang Guo could use the scissors to neutralize her fly whisk techniques, he had to first think carefully about how to use it; how he’d need to thrust forward when the fly whisk swayed around; how he’d cut when the fly whisk came forward to attack him. How could he know that before he had the chance to use it against Li Mochou, he would actually came across a person in the Passionless Valley who uses his beard as a weapon? Yang Guo thought, “No matter how good your beard is; it can’t be better than Li Mochou’s fly whisk.” He had no fear and pressed forward with the scissors.
Fan Yiweng had spent over ten years in training his beard technique; because he had his hands for protection, his beard was more lethal than the conventional whip or fly whisk. His head swung around and bought his beard forward; at the same time he threw out two palms towards Yang Guo.
A while go, Zhou Botong had tried to use the scissors to cut off his beard; but instead of cutting it off, the beard wrapped around the scissors, and he could only admit defeat. Everyone had seen the martial arts of Zhou Botong; everyone knew that Yang Guo could not compare to him. Who knew that in the hands of Yang Guo, the scissors swept, cut and threatened; going to and fro like it was in a dance? It was actually better than the way Zhou Botong had handled the scissors and everyone marveled. In the proficiency of martial arts and internal energy level, of course Yang Guo was miles behind Zhou Botong; but he had carefully studied the stances of Li Mochou’s fly whisk and had devised scissors stances to counter them. Because the way the beard was used was similar to that of the fly whisk, the scissors were indeed effective against the beard and Yang Guo got the upper hand. Of course this was different to the unplanned and unstructured scissor techniques of Zhou Botong. But Fawang and the others did not know the reason behind it; they saw with their own eyes Zhou Botong thrusting the scissors towards him. In accordance with his character, this would be something that he would devise to cause trouble. Yang Guo was most proficient with a sword and Fawang knew this.
On many occasions, Fan Yiweng was almost injured by the scissors and as a result, he stopped looking down on Yang Guo. He changed his stance and swung his beard wildly around, striking out in all directions, attacking forward and sweeping across. This actually formed another set of stances. Yang Guo cut downwards many times but each time he caught thin air, he also felt the wind from his opponent’s palms was fierce. Sometimes the beard was a decoy while the palm was real, at other times the palms lured the opponent and the beard attacked; this was a set of ingenious martial arts that the world of Wulin had never seen before.
In a short while, tens of moves were exchanged. Yang Guo thought, “The Valley Master is vicious and cruel; his martial arts would definitely be much better than this shortie; if I can’t beat the disciple, how can I beat the Master?” He became slightly impatient. But Fan Yiweng’s beard was thicker and longer than Li Mochou’s fly whisk; as the beard spread out, there really were no weaknesses.
After a few more stances, Yang Guo concentrated on his opponent. He saw his opponent’s head swinging around; he had a ludicrous appearance and his beard was getting faster and faster. His head was swinging around especially fast and suddenly he had a thought; he had found a way to break this martial art of his. Yang Guo leapt back five feet and called out, “Hold off!”
Fan Yiweng stopped his attack and said, “Since you’ve admitted defeat little brother, just leave!”
Yang Guo shook his head as he laughed and said, “After your beard’s been cut, how long will it take to grow back?”
Fan Yiweng said, “What’s it got to do with you? I’ve never cut my beard before.”
Yang Guo shook his head and said, “Pity, pity!”
Fan Yiweng said, “Pity what?”
Yang Guo said, “In three stances I’m going to cut off your beard.”
Fan Yiweng thought, “You and I have already fought for tens of stances and we’re at a draw; you must be dreaming if you think you can win in just three more stances.” Fan Yiweng shouted, “Watch this stance!” His right palm came chopping out.
Yang Guo slanted his left palm and smashed down with the scissors in his right hand, attacking the opponent’s forehead on the left side. He was tall, when the scissors attacked his opponent’s head it cut downwards. Fan Yiweng slanted his head to avoid the attack but then, Yang Guo’s left palm came downwards across his forehead on the right side. There was a vicious force behind the chop; Fan Yiweng quickly moved his head to the left. The opponent’s attack was fast, his reaction was also very swift and his beard followed him and swung upwards. Yang Guo’s scissors had been opened and was guarding the right; a ‘ka’ sound was heard as the scissors cut down. He cut off over two feet of the beard.
Everyone called out and all felt shocked; they saw that he did indeed succeed in cutting off Fan Yiweng’s beard in three stances.
After fighting for a long time, Yang Guo eventually found out that when Fan Yiweng’s beard was flung to the left, his head would first move right; when the beard was swung upwards, his head would first hang down; he cursed himself for being so stupid, “His beard is on his head, if the beard moves, he will of course first move his head. I didn’t attack the source and tangled with his beard, what an idiot.” He planned his three attacks and then told him that he would cut off Fan Yiweng’s beard in three stances.