Tomb of the living dead.
Xiao Longnu took out a container from her pocket and placed it in your Yang Guo’s hand and loudly said, “This is the antidote to the Jade Bee stings, give it to Zhao Zhijing.”
When Yang Guo saw Zhao Zhijing, he ground his teeth in fury, but he didn’t want to disobey Xiao Longnu so he quickly walked up to Zhao Zhijing and placed the bottle down heavily in front of him. When the Taoists heard that Xiao Longnu had returned to the palace, they thought that she had come back to avenge Grandma Sun, they put up their guard and quickly told Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji and the other elders the news, but they didn’t guess that she had come back to bring the antidote, they were startled and could not think of anything to say.
After Yang Guo put down the bottle, he looked at Zhao Zhijing, a vicious expression was on his face; he turned around and walked away.
When Lu Qingdu saw Yang Guo, his blood began to boil, and shouted out, “Little punk, you’ve been kicked out of our sect, why have you come back?”
The day the “Toad Stance” struck him, he lost his breath, but because Yang Guo’s internal energy was shallow, he wasn’t seriously hurt. After a few restoring palms by Qiu Chuji and a few days rest, he recovered. Now, he immediately dashed out, wanting to avenge that day’s push.
Xiao Longnu said, “Guo’Er, if you want, fight back.”
Yang Guo heard footsteps behind him, and heard the wind of a palm, someone was aiming for his neck. In the Tomb of the Living Dead he had slept on the Chilled Jade bed for eight days, and practiced eight days of sparrow catching techniques. Although Xiao Longnu only taught him how to catch sparrows, the Ancient Tomb’s lightness kung fu is outstanding, his skills today and that day in the arena were completely different. He didn’t move backwards or forwards, and waited for Lu Qingdu’s hand to arrive; he crouched down and darted out of the way, and tugged on the sleeve of that hand. Lu Qingdu could not believe that in just a few days, his lightness kung fu had increased dramatically. Influenced by anger he had acted without thinking about the enemy. He had quickly dashed out, his body inclined, his legs unsteady and after being tugged by Yang Guo, he fell down heavily onto the ground.
By the time he picked himself back up, Yang Guo had already hurried to Xiao Longnu’s side. Lu Qingdu shouted and cursed, and wanted to go after him. Suddenly a Taoist hurried out from the crowd, grabbed his arm, and pulled him back. When Lu Qingdu was grabbed, he froze, he looked up to see Martial Uncle Zhen Zhibing; he cursed under his breath and retreated.
Zhen Zhibing called out clearly; “Thank you Miss Long for the antidote.” He bowed down and greeted her.
Xiao Longnu didn’t take any notice and held Yang Guo’s hand and said, “Let’s go.”
Zhen Zhibing said, “Miss Long, Yang Guo is a disciple of the Quanzhen and you insist on taking him away. How can we resolve this?”
Xiao Longnu was startled and said, “I don’t want to hear annoying words.” She held Yang Guo’s arm and went back into the forest. Zhen Zhibing, Zhao Zhijing and the other Taoist stood there startled.
The two went back into the tomb. Xiao Longnu said, “Guo’Er, your kung fu has improved, but you tripping the fat Taoist was wrong.”
Yang Guo said, “That fat Taoist beat me up badly last time, it’s a pity that I wasn’t able to get some punches in. Gu Gu, why shouldn’t I trip him?”
Xiao Longnu said, “It’s not that you shouldn’t trip him, it’s the way you did it that was wrong. You shouldn’t have pulled him to the ground, you shouldn’t have raised your hands to make him fall, but let him fall by himself.”
Yang Guo was pleased, and said, “That’s a fun method, Gu Gu, teach me.”
Xiao Longnu said, “I’ll be Guo’Er, you’ll be the fat Taoist, come and catch me.” She then walked forward slowly.
Yang Guo laughed as he went to catch her. It was as if Xiao Longnu had eyes in the back of her head, when Yang Guo ran fast, her steps were fast, when he slowed down, she slowed down, the distance between she and Yang Guo stayed at around a meter.
Yang Guo said, “I’m going to catch you now!” He threw himself forward, Xiao Longnu didn’t move. Yang Guo saw that his hands were going to grab her shoulders, but his hands grasped thin air as Xiao Longnu darted backwards, escaping his clutches. Yang Guo quickly turned around to try to catch her, but this move was rushed, he used a force opposite to his momentum, his legs became unsteady, he looked at the ceiling as he fell to the floor and his back ached.
Xiao Longnu took him by the right hand and pulled him up. Yang Guo said, “How come you are so fast?”
Xiao Longnu said, “If you catch sparrows for a year, then you can do this as well.”
Yang Guo said, “I’ve caught them already.”
Xiao Longnu chuckled and said, “That counts as catching sparrows? How can our sect’s kung fu be learned so easily? Follow me.” She then led him to another room. This room was larger than the room where Yang Guo first practiced catching sparrows, at least twice the size. There were six sparrows in this room. This room was larger than before; catching the sparrows will be more difficult. Xiao Longnu pa.s.sed on some more lightness kung fu and catching techniques to him, eight or nine days later Yang Guo was able to catch the six sparrows in one go.
After that, the stone chambers became larger and larger, the number of sparrows also increased, eventually he moved to the main hall, with eighty-one sparrows.
The Ancient Tomb sect’s formulae for internal energy were wondrous, the Chilled Jade Bed’s ability to enhance internal energy cultivation was incredible, in just three months, Yang Guo could catch all eighty-one sparrows in one go. Xiao Longnu was pleased with his rapid progress, and said, “We will now go outside and catch sparrows.”
Yang Guo had lived in the tomb for three months, and was becoming slightly restless, when he heard that he was going outside to practice, his expression changed to one of delight.
Xiao Longnu said, “What is there to be pleased about? This kung fu is hard to master. There are eighty-one sparrows, you must not let one go.”
The two arrived outside. It was March, on the eve of spring. In front of them was a deep green forest, Yang Guo breathed in deeply, and the fragrance of flowers and gra.s.ses flowed into his lungs, it was extremely relaxing.
Xiao Longnu opened the bag, the sparrows flew out, then, her pair of delicate hands flew out, checking to the west, and tapping in the east, and forced the sparrows that had flew out to return. The flock of sparrows suddenly got their freedom back, how come they didn’t all scatter everywhere? It was strange but Xiao Longnu was checking and tapping, the eighty-one sparrows were all kept within a meter of her. Her arms were as if they were engaged in a flying dance, her palms formed a thousand hands and a thousand palms, no matter how hard the sparrows tried to fly away, they couldn’t escape from the boundary of her palms.
Yang Guo looked on with his mouth open. He was startled and pleasantly surprised; he pulled himself together and thought, “Gu Gu is teaching me a wondrous palm technique. Quickly concentrate.” He studied her hand movements, how she attacked and how she took her palms back. Her palm technique was extremely quick, but each and every palm was clear, forming the different stances. Yang Guo studied them for over half an hour, although he didn’t understand completely the essence of the palms, he understood a bit more than he did at the start.