The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 6 – The Yunü Heart Manual, Part 11

Yang Guo said, “Xian Gu, we can’t go ahead, there are ghosts in the forest.”

Hong Lingbo said, “How do you know this?”

Yang Guo said, “The forest has a large tomb, the tomb has evil spirits, no one dares to go near it.”

Hong Lingbo was delighted and thought, “True enough, the Tomb of the Living Dead is around here.”

In the past few years, she has been under the tutelage of Li Mochou, and her martial arts had made good progress. In Shanxi, she helped her master to defeat many people of the Wulin world, and pleased her master. She heard her master mention the matter of dueling with the Quanzhen Elders, and said if she’d mastered the “Jade Heart Manual”, she wouldn’t have feared the Quanzhen Taoists. She said that there was a pile of manuals and scriptures of their sect’s skills in the tomb. Hong Lingbo asked why she didn’t go to the tomb and study their sect’s skills. Li Mochou ambiguously replied, saying that she had conceded the place to her younger apprentice sister, there wasn’t much friendly feeling between the two, and were not in contact with each other. Li Mochou was extremely proud, the many times she tried to enter the tomb, being found out and being sent scurrying away were not mentioned to her disciple. Instead she said that her apprentice sister was young, her martial arts were ordinary, and being the elder apprentice sister it wasn’t right to bully the younger one. She then encouraged her master to enter the tomb and take the manuals. In reality, there wasn’t a day that Li Mochou didn’t think about this, but she wasn’t familiar with the booby traps in the tomb, and so did not dare to do anything. When she heard her disciple talking about this she just smiled and did not reply.

Hong Lingbo mentioned this many times, but when she saw that her master did not care one way or another, she secretly decided to be more attentive, and asked her about the way to Mount Zhongnan’s tomb. She managed to draw a map, but she didn’t know that Li Mochou had not revealed everything to her. At this time, Li Mochou had sent her on a mission to kill one of their enemies; after she finished, she went to Mount Zhongnan by herself, and by coincidence met Yang Guo; she now ordered Yang Guo to chop down the pine trees that were blocking the way to the tomb.

Yang Guo thought that even with a year and a half of pine chopping, they would not be anywhere near the tomb; but he pretended to be dumb and followed her orders. More than half an hour later, the sky became dark, they had not even traveled a few li, and they were still very far from the tomb. He was becoming more and more anxious about Xiao Longnu. He thought, why not lead her forward to the tomb and see what she has planned; so he raised his hatchet and hacked down a few times, and then hacked a rock, sparks flew and the edge of the hatchet rolled up.

He loudly shouted, “Ai ya, ai yo, there’s a rock here. The hatchet is ruined; father is going to beat me. I…I need to go back home.”

Hong Lingbo was extremely anxious, she looked for the way to the tomb, she must enter the tomb tonight, and shouted out, “Sha Dan, stay here!”

Yang Guo said, “Xian Gu, aren’t you scared of ghosts?”

Hong Lingbo said, “If ghosts try to scare me then I’ll chop them in half with my sword.”

Yang Guo was happy and said, “You aren’t lying to me?”

Hong Lingbo said, “Why should I lie to you?”

Yang Guo said, “Since ghosts are scared of you, I’ll take you to the large tomb. If ghosts come out, you must scare them away!”

Hong Lingbo delightedly said, “You know the way to the tomb? Quickly take me there.” Yang Guo was afraid that she was going to become suspicious and so made her promise three times that she must kill the evil ghosts. Hong Lingbo comforted him, and told him to relax, and promised him that even if ten ghosts come out she will kill them all.

Yang Guo said, “A few years ago, I was grazing my lambs near the tomb and fell asleep, when I woke up it was the middle of the night. I saw a female ghost dressed in white exiting the tomb, it scared me to death, and I tripped while I was trying to run away and cracked my head, look there’s a scar here.” He then walked up to her, wanting her to feel his forehead. She had carried him all along the way, and he felt that she had the scent of orchids around her, leaning against her was quite relaxing. He continued with his plan, and put his forehead in front of her face.

Hong Lingbo laughed and said, “Sha Dan!” and just felt his forehead, she didn’t feel any scars but didn’t really notice and said, “Take me there quickly.”

Yang Guo took her hand and lead her out of the forest, and took her to the secret path leading to the tomb. It was nearing the middle of the night; there was no light from the stars or moon. Yang Guo took her hand, and felt a warm and soft hand and wondered, “Gu Gu and her are girls, why is it Gu Gu’s hands are as cold as ice and hers are warm.” He took her hand and pulled it. If anyone from the Wulin world treated Hong Lingbo with any disrespect, she would have killed them, but she knew that Yang Guo was just a simple fool, and she wanted his help. She thought that he was handsome, she was secretly quite pleased and quietly said, “That Sha Dan is not completely stupid; he knows that I’m good looking.”

Very soon, Yang Guo had led Hong Lingbo to the tomb. When he’d left the tomb he was confused and flustered, he didn’t close the tomb’s door; now he saw the large stone slab that was used as the door was still to the side. His heart jumped around and he prayed, “I hope Gu Gu is not dead so I’ll be able to see her again.” He decided that he couldn’t mess around with Hong Lingbo, and said, “Xian Gu, I’ll lead you forward, if a ghost eats me up and I become a ghost, I’ll haunt you forever.” They then entered.

Hong Lingbo thought, “That Sha Dan is strangely brave.” She didn’t give it any more thought, and followed closely in the dark, she had heard from her master that the paths in the Tomb of the Living Dead were complicated, all you need to do is take one wrong step and you’ll be lost. She watched Yang Guo moving without delaying for the slightest second, turning to the east and then twisting to the west, opening a door there, and pushing a stone over here, like he knew the way.

Hong Lingbo thought, “What’s so hard about the paths in the tomb? Could it be that master lied to me, in case I entered alone?” In just a few moments, Yang Guo had led her deep into the tomb, outside Xiao Longnu’s room.

He opened the door lightly, and listened carefully, he couldn’t hear anything and wanted to call out “Gu Gu!” but remembered that Hong Lingbo was right behind him so he quietly said, “We’re here!”

Hong Lingbo was now deep within the tomb, although she was skilled in martial arts and daring, she felt uneasy. When she heard Yang Guo say this, she quickly entered and took out a match, and lit the candle on the table. She saw a girl in white lying on a bed. She knew she would meet her Martial Uncle in the tomb, but she didn’t know that she would find her lying down peacefully, not knowing whether she was sleeping or ignoring her. She held her sword across her chest and said, “Disciple Hong Lingbo greets Martial Uncle.”

Yang Guo opened his mouth, it felt as if his heart jumped out of it, he concentrated on the Xiao Longnu’s movements, but she didn’t move an inch. After a while, she gave out a quiet ‘en’ sound. From when Hong Lingbo first said something to Xiao Longnu up to Xiao long Nu’s reply, Yang Guo was extremely anxious and worried, he wanted to throw himself on Xiao Longnu to hold her and cry. When he heard her reply he was very relieved; he was also extremely delighted and wasn’t able to hold in his tears and cried loudly.