The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 5 – Tomb of the living dead, Part 4

Chapter 5 – Tomb of the living dead, Part 4

Zhao Zhijing’s temper flared up, he flew over, his hands aiming to grab his shoulders.

Grandma Sun insulted, “Scoundrel, you want to die?” Her right arm came out, aiming for Zhao Zhijing’s wrist. Zhao Zhijing was Quanzhen’s third generation’s highest skilled fighter, when it came to martial arts he was above Zhen Zhibing; although he had a serious injury, he was still able to produce a fierce attack. The two clashed, and both took two steps back.

Grandma Sun gave a ‘humph’ sigh, and said, “Scoundrel, you’re not weak either.”

Zhao Zhijing’s first attack failed, and so launched a second. Grandma Sun didn’t dare to clash with him and stepped aside, her leg came out of nowhere from under her skirt. Zhao Zhijing heard the wind sound, and tried to dodge but his wounds from the Jade Bee stings started to itch, he called ‘ai’, held his head and crouched down. Before he finished his shout he was kicked by Grandma Sun in the side of his body. Zhao Zhijing flew into the air; whilst in the air he called out ‘ai’ again because of the itching pain.

Zhen Zhibing rushed forward two steps, stretched out his arms, caught Zhao Zhijing and passed him on to the other disciples. He saw that the ugly old woman’s skills were extremely strange, he was up against a strong opponent, he made a signal, and six disciples came up and circled them, and formed a “Big Dipper Formation”, with Grandma Sun and Yang Guo in the middle.

Zhen Zhibing called out, “Apologies!” As the ‘Tian Shu’ and ‘Yao Guang’ Taoists on either side of him attacked. Grandma Sun didn’t know the formation, after just a few stances she knew she was dealing with something powerful. She could only fight with one hand; the danger became evident after twelve or thirteen moves. Every attack she made was neutralized by Zhen Zhibing’s command of the formation, and the attack of the formation was relentless. Ten moves passed then Grandma Sun’s right palm was trapped by two Taoists; from her left another two Taoists attacked, she had to drop Yang Guo and fend them off with her left hand. A whistle came from within the formation; two Taoists burst forward and grabbed Yang Guo.

Grandma Sun was alarmed and thought, “Those rotten Taoists do have some skill, and this old woman here can’t handle it.” She kicked away two of them, and a low ‘weng’ moaning noise was produced from her mouth. That moaning noise was initially quiet, and the Taoists did not take any notice of it, but after this noise, she made an opposite sound, high and low, the sound became louder.

Zhen Zhibing raised his hands against Grandma Sun to guard himself. He knew the senior that used to live in the tomb had great skills and had competed with his sect’s founder to see whose were greater; he knew that her descendants must not be ordinary. When he heard the noise, he knew that this was a type of resonating sound skill, he quickly prepared himself in case the enemy tried anything; he listened for a while and her sounds were getting louder, he didn’t feel anything was wrong with himself and thought that this was strange. He suddenly thought of something and immediately became pale with fright. He was about to order the Taoists to leave, when he heard a ‘weng’ noise from far away, similar to the noise coming out of Grandma Sun’s mouth, and then immediately called out, “Run quickly!”

The other Taoists all stopped, and thought, “We have the upper hand here, we have captured the young and old in a short time, the old woman is just calling out madly, what is there to be afraid of?”

Suddenly a grey blur emerged from the forest, out came a swarm of Jade Bees, all aiming to land on the Taoists’ upper body. The Taoists had all seen the suffering of Zhao Zhijing, they all were frightened out of their wits, and immediately scattered and ran away. The swarm of bees chased after them.

When Grandma Sun saw that the Taoists could not escape, she laughed loudly. She suddenly saw an old Taoist dashing out of the forest, his hands holding two torches; thick smoke came out of the flames and he waved them at the swarm of bees. The black smoke smothered the bees, their formation became disorganized, and they couldn’t hold together and flew away.

Grandma Sun was alarmed, she looked at the old Taoist, and she saw that he had white hair and eyebrows, his face was long and he looked like one of the highly skilled fighters of the Quanzhen sect. She shouted, “Hey, who are you old Taoist? You scattered away my bees.”

The old Taoist laughed and said, “This old Taoist is Hao Datong, greetings Grandma.”

Grandma Sun did not associate with any people of the Wulin world. But because she lived a stone throw away from Chongyang Palace, she knew that Hao Datong was one of the seven disciples of Wang Chongyang. She thought how Zhen Zhibing, Zhao Zhijing and the other Taoists’ abilities were not below hers, but now that old Taoist came and it would be troublesome. She smelled the thick smoke from the torches, it stank and almost made her vomit, and she then realized it was made from herbs that are used to kill insects. She saw that there were no bees around so she had to leave while she could, she shouted, “You’ve harmed my Mistress’s bees, you’ll pay for the damage, I’ll resolve this with you later.” She picked up Yang Guo and entered the forest.

Yin Zhi Pin said, “Martial Uncle, shall we follow or not?”

Hao Datong shook his head and said, “Our founder had set a strict rule, no one can enter the forest, we’ll return to our palace and discuss what’s to be done there.”

Grandma Sun held Yang Guo’s hand and took him back inside the tomb. The two had just shared a difficult situation and had become closer. Yang Guo was worried that Xiao Longnu will not allow him to stay. Grandma Sun said, “Don’t worry; I’ll be able to convince her to let you stay.” She then ordered him to rest in a chamber, and then went to look for Xiao Longnu to inform her of the situation.

Yang Guo waited a long time, but still did not see her return, he became anxious and thought, “Long Gu Gu most probably decided not to accept me, even if Grandma Sun forced her to accept, there would be no point in me staying here.” He thought for a long while and eventually made up his mind, he quietly went outside.

As soon as he left the room, Grandma Sun came over and asked, “Where are you going?”

Yang Guo said, “Grandma, I’m going now, when I get a bit older, I’ll come and see you again.”

Grandma Sun said, “No, I’ll take you to a place, and tell people not to bully you.”

When Yang Guo heard those words, he knew Xiao Longnu had not allowed him to stay, he was disappointed and sad, he lowered his head and said, “There’s no use. I’m a mischievous child, where ever I go, no one will want me. There’s no need for Grandma to waste your energy.”

Grandma Sun had argued with Xiao Longnu for half a day, she saw that she will not be moved, she was troubled and didn’t know what to do. She felt sorry for Yang Guo, her blood rose and said, “Child, if no one wants you, Granny wants you. You follow me, where ever you go, Grandma will follow you.”

Yang Guo was delighted, he extended his hand and grabbed her’s, the two of them exited the tomb. Grandma Sun was still angry and did not turn back to collect some luggage, she scoured around in her pockets and touched a container, and remembered she had to give Zhao Zhijing the antidote for the bee stings. She thought that the Taoist was detestable but death was maybe a bit too extreme and she didn’t want to leave the trouble behind in case it caught up with them. So she took Yang Guo, and headed for Chongyang Palace.