Xiao Longnu got up and called out, “Apprentice sister!” then coughed incessantly.
Li Mochou coldly pointed at Yang Guo and said, “Who is he? Ancestor Grandma’s rule, no man is allowed to take one step into the tomb, and you allow him here?” Xiao Longnu was coughing violently, and had no way to reply. Yang Guo stood in front of Xiao Longnu protecting her and clearly said, “She’s my Gu Gu, this is none of your business.”
Li Mochou chuckled and said, “Good Sha Dan, you’re very brave!” She waved her fly whisk three times, making three ‘fu’ sounds. Although the three moves were done one after the other, they arrived at the same time. It was one of the lethal stances of the Ancient Tomb sect; other sect’s fighters do not know the essence of the stance and would have their bones broken as soon as she used it. Yang Guo was familiar with all the skills of the Ancient Tomb sect, though his internal energy wasn’t as profound as Li Mochou’s he was still able to dodge the three moves in one “Three Swallows in the Forest”. Li Mochou’s fly whisk returned, she was secretly alarmed, she saw that his dodging techniques were from their sect, she sternly said, “Apprentice sister, who is this little scoundrel?”
Xiao Longnu was afraid that she was going to throw up blood again and didn’t dare raise her voice, and quietly said, “Guo’Er, greet your Martial Uncle.”
Yang Guo gave a ‘humph’ sound and said, “She counts as my Martial Uncle?”
Xiao Longnu said, “Bend your ear over, I’ve got something to say to you.”
Yang Guo knew that she wanted him to kowtow to Li Mochou, but he didn’t want to, so he still lowered his ear.
Xiao Longnu quietly said, “On the corner of the bed by my leg, there is a stone panel, turn it to the right and quickly leap up onto the bed.”
Li Mochou thought that she was ordering her disciple to apologize to her; in front of her was a seriously injured person, the other was a youngster, why would she care about them? She was thinking of a way to torture them and force her apprentice sister to hand over the “Jade Heart Manual”.
Yang Guo nodded his head, and clearly said, “Disciple greets Martial Uncle!” He slowly stretched out his hand towards the part of the bed near Xiao Longnu’s leg, indeed there was a stone panel, so he turned it with all his strength and quickly leaped onto the bed.
Li Mochou was shocked, and remembered there were booby traps everywhere in the tomb. Her master was biased; she concealed them from her and taught her apprentice sister where they were and how to use them; she immediately dashed over to grab Xiao Longnu.
Xiao Longnu had no strength to retaliate at present. The bed was heavy, Li Mochou had spotted this earlier, and she was extremely quick in her movements and was about to grab Xiao Longnu off the bed. Yang Guo was alarmed, and with all his strength pushed out a palm to repel her hand away. He suddenly saw darkness in front of him, two thudding sounds, and the bed had dropped into a lower level. The stone slab on the ceiling automatically pushed back up; Xiao Longnu and Yang Guo were separated from Li Mochou and her disciple.
Yang Guo could make out that there was a table and some chairs in the room, he made his way to the table and took out a match and lit a half burned candle.
Xiao Longnu sighed and said, “There isn’t enough blood in my body, I am unable to circulate my internal energy to heal myself. Even if I wasn’t hurt, the two of us would not be able to beat my apprentice sister”. When Yang Guo heard her say there wasn’t enough blood in her body, he raised his left arm, and singled out his vein on his wrist and bit down on it as hard as he could; blood came flowing out. He placed his wound by Xiao Longnu’s mouth, and his blood dripped in.
Xiao Longnu’s body was ice cold, when the warm blood entered her, her body started to warm up, she knew this wasn’t right and wanted to struggle, but Yang Guo knew what she was thinking and pressed down on a pressure point on her waist, stopping her from moving. After a while, the wound started to dry up, Yang Guo bit on it again, and then bit his right wrist. After donating blood several times, Yang Guo felt faint and dizzy, he sat up straight and unsealed her pressure point. Xiao Longnu looked at him for a while and didn’t say anything then started to heal herself. Yang Guo saw that the candle was about to burn out, and replaced it.
That night the two of them meditated together. Yang Guo was recovering from his lost of blood. After taking in Yang Guo’s blood, Xiao Longnu strengthened, and knew that her life was saved. She opened her eyes and smiled slightly towards Yang Guo. Her cheeks were normally white, but Yang Guo now saw that they were red, like rouge on white jade; he was delighted and said, “Gu Gu, you’ve recovered.” Xiao Longnu nodded her head. Yang Guo was happy but didn’t know what to say.
Xiao Longnu said, “We’ll go to Grandma Sun’s room, I have something to say to you.”
Yang Guo said, “Aren’t you tired?”
Xiao Longnu said, “I’m fine.”
She stretched out her hand and pulled on a bracket on the wall, a stone slab moved and revealed a path. Yang Guo had never seen this path before. Xiao Longnu led him in the darkness and eventually arrived at Grandma Sun’s room.
She lit a candle, and turned Yang Guo’s garment into a bag, and placed her gold silk gloves in it. Yang Guo stood there looking at her and asked, “Gu Gu, what are you doing?”
Xiao Longnu didn’t reply, and placed two jars of Jade Bee honey into the bag.
Yang Guo delightedly said, “Gu Gu, we are leaving, aren’t we? That will be great.”
Xiao Longnu said, “You go by yourself, I know you are a good boy, you treat me very well.”
Yang Guo was shocked and said, “What about you?”
Xiao Longnu said, “I made an oath to my master, I must stay in the tomb and never leave. Unless…unless…I won’t leave.” She shook her head as she said this.
He saw that her face was stern, her voice still, she wasn’t going to allow any back chat from him so he didn’t say anything. But this was an important matter; he eventually plucked up the courage and said, “Gu Gu, if you don’t go, I won’t go. I want to stay with you.”
Xiao Longnu said, “Right now, my apprentice sister is probably guarding the paths out of the tomb, she wants to force me to hand over the “Jade Heart Manual”. My kung fu is not near hers, and I’m hurt, I won’t be able to beat her, will I?”
Yang Guo said, “No.”
Xiao Longnu said, “The food we’ve got left will only last twenty days if we stretch it, if we also eat the Jade Bee honey, we’ll last a month. After the month passes, then what?”
Yang Guo stood there for a while and said, “We’ll rush out, although we won’t beat Martial Uncle, it may be possible to escape with our lives.”
Xiao Longnu shook her head and said, “You know your Martial Uncle’s martial arts and temper, and should know that we won’t be able to escape. Not only will she torture us, but our deaths will be unbearable.”
Yang Guo said, “If this is the case, it will be even harder for me to escape by myself.”
Xiao Longnu shook her head and said, “No! I’ll fight with her and lure her deep within the tomb; this will give you a chance to escape. When you get to the entrance, shift the large stone on the left, and pull on the brackets, two large stones weighing ten tonnes will drop down, sealing off the tomb forever.”
Yang Guo became even more startled as he heard this, and said, “Gu Gu, you’ll be able to open the stones, won’t you?”
Xiao Longnu shook her head and said, “No. Years ago when Wang Chongyang was rebelling against the Jin, he made a plan; this stone tomb was his storage place for money, supplies and weapons. It is heavily booby trapped, the layout a secret, and he set up two large ten tonne stone slabs at the entrance, called the “Dragon Snapping Stones” (duan long shi). In case they failed against the Jin and the Jin found out about this place and came to attack, it would be a few against many. In that case he would lower the stone, sealing off the tomb; the attackers of the tomb would not be able to leave with their lives. Once the stone drops, it will not open again. You know how narrow the path leading into the tomb is; it only allows for one person at a time to pass. Even if there were thousands of the enemy that entered the tomb, they could only form a long line; only one person could touch the large stone and that one person will not be able to lift the stone. With this plan, that old Taoist was saying that even in death he will not give in, and he wanted to perish with the enemy. After he failed against the Jin, he lived by himself in the tomb. The Jin emperor knew where he was, and sent tens of martial artists to kill him; in the end they were all captured or killed by Wang Chongyang. Not one returned. Later, that Jin emperor died suddenly, a new emperor was appointed, and left him alone, and so the two ‘Dragon Snapping Stones’ were never used. When Wang Chongyang left the tomb, he told Ancestor Grandma about all of the tomb’s booby traps.
The more Yang Guo listened the more startled he became, with tears in his eyes he said, “Gu Gu, I’ll follow you in life and death.”
Xiao Longnu said, “What use is there in following me? You said the outside world was a great place to play, just go and play. With your standard of martial arts, the Quanzhen Taoists will not be able to do much to you. You managed to trick Hong Lingbo, you are much cleverer than me; there is no need for me to look after you.”
Yang Guo rushed up to her and hugged her, crying, “Gu Gu, if I’m not able to leave with you, I won’t be able to enjoy my life.”
Xiao Longnu was cold and loveless, her words were cold and harsh, but right now for some reason she felt a rush of warm blood to her chest, her eyes ached, she wanted to cry. She was startled and remembered what her master had told her before she died, “The kung fu you are practicing is an emotionless type of advanced martial arts, if, later on, you cry and reveal your true feelings, not will only your martial arts suffer, your life will be in danger. Remember this.” Then she pushed Yang Guo away and coldly said, “Whatever I say, you have to listen.”
Yang Guo saw that she was still strict and stern, and didn’t dare to say another word. Xiao Longnu put the bag on his back and took a long sword off the wall, and gave it to him and then sternly said, “When I tell you to go, you must immediately go, once you are outside, immediately lower the stone to close off the tomb. Your Martial Uncle is extremely ruthless, the chance will be gone very quick, are you going to obey me?”
Yang Guo choked, “Yes.”
Xiao Longnu said, “If you don’t do as I have told you, when I’m dead in hell, I’ll hate you forever. Go!” She took hold of his hand, opened the door and left. Whenever Yang Guo touched her hand, it always felt like ice, but now in her grasp, he felt her palm was sometimes cold, sometimes warm, and completely different from normal. But right now he was too emotional; he had no time to think about such trivial things, and followed her out. After traveling for a while, Xiao Longnu touched a stone slab and quietly said, “They are just in front. I’ll lure my apprentice sister away, and you’ll leave by rushing to the exit in the northwest corner. If Hong Lingbo chases you, attack her with ‘Jade Bee Needles’.” Yang Guo’s heart was fluttering all over the place, and just nodded.
The “Jade Bee Needles” are a skill of the Ancient Tomb sect; years ago Lin Chaoying had two lethal projectiles, one was the “Soul Freezing Needles”, the other was the “Jade Bee Needles”. The “Jade Bee Needle” was a gold needle that was as thin as a hair, sixty percent was made of gold, the other forty percent consists of steel, and had a drop of poison from the Jade Bees on it. Although it was small, the gold was heavy and allowed it to be thrown over a long distance. This projectile was too venomous, Lin Chaoying rarely used it; after her middle age, her kung fu had reached the acme of perfection, and so there wasn’t a need to use them at all. Because Li Mochou had not agreed to swear an oath that she would remain in the tomb forever, when her master passed on the skill of the “Soul Freezing Needles” she did not teach her the “Jade Bee Needles”.
Xiao Longnu waited, and then rotated the brackets on the wall, two ‘zha’ ‘zha’ sounds were made as the wall slowly opened to the left. Her pair of silk belts immediately flew out, the left heading for Li Mochou, the right heading for Hong Lingbo, her body flying extremely swiftly forwards. Li Mochou had long ago unblocked Hong Lingbo’s pressure points and she had shouted at her for a little while. They were in the room trying to figure out where they were and looking for a way out when suddenly they saw Xiao Longnu attacking, the both of them were startled.
Li Mochou’s fly whisk flew out to block Xiao Longnu’s belt. The fly whisk and the silk belt were soft objects, soft against soft, but Li Mochou’s internal energy was superior to that of Xiao Longnu’s, the two weapons clashed, and Xiao Longnu’s weapon was sent back. The belt in her left hand returned, the right was sent out, in just a short while many stances were exchanged, the two silk belts were gentle and swift. Li Mochou was startled and angry, thinking, “So master was biased, she did not teach me these skills!” But she was able to defend against it, but didn’t want to try to kill her, firstly the “Jade Heart Manual” wasn’t yet in her hands, if she killed her it would be difficult to find the manual in this large stone tomb, and secondly, she wanted to see what other great skills that her master had bestowed on Xiao Longnu.
Hong Lingbo had always regarded herself as intelligent, but today she was tricked by a boy, she was fooled into thinking he was dumb for over half a day and wasn’t able to see through it. She was furious with him, she saw that her master and Xiao Longnu were fighting heatedly, and said, “Sha Dan, your little scoundrel’s trickery isn’t bad.” She took out her swords, and took half a step and called out, “See if I can cut your nose off.” Her swords chopped and slashed, ‘chi’ ‘chi’ ‘chi’ as several stances were unleashed. Yang Guo saw that she was advancing fiercely and could only raise his sword to block. In normal circumstances, Yang Guo would make some sarcastic comments and joke around with her, but now he was thinking about having to part with Xiao Longnu, warm tears were in his eyes, everything was blurry in front of him, he made a few stances, but there wasn’t any intention of attacking.