Chapter 18 – Master Gongsun of the Valley, Part 9
Xiao Longnu’s dimples from her smile were like a flower, she said, “You know that whenever I’m angry or upset I throw up blood. Now that I’m extremely happy, this little internal injury isn’t anything to me. You threw up blood too, is it serious?”
Yang Guo said, “I’m fine as long as I can see you.”
Xiao Longnu said tenderly, “That’s how I feel too.” She paused and then continued, “You’ve made much progress in your martial arts recently; and we were able to beat Fawang back then.”
When Yang Guo heard these words, he too felt great confidence about this battle. He held her hand and said, “I want you to promise me something, will you?”
Xiao Longnu said tenderly, “Why is there a need to ask me? I haven’t been your Master since long ago; I’m your wife. I’ll listen to whatever you say.”
Yang Guo said, “That’s… that’s great, I… didn’t know.”
Xiao Longnu said, “How can I still be your master after what happened that night on Mount Zhongnan, when you and I were that intimate. Though you didn’t want to marry me, in my heart I was already your wife.”
Yang Guo did not know exactly what happened that night. Maybe the reason for suddenly bringing this up again is because she’s emotional, he thought, “My father Ouyang Feng was teaching me martial arts that day; he sealed your pressure point, but I wasn’t intimate with you.” But when he heard the tenderness and love in her words, he was completely enchanted and couldn’t say anything.
Xiao Longnu rested against his chest and asked, “What do you want me to promise you?”
Yang Guo stroked her hair and said, “Once we beat that Valley Master we’ll immediately go back to the tomb; no matter what happens you cannot leave my side.”
Xiao Longnu lifted her head and looked into his eyes, she said, “Do think that I have thoughts of leaving you? Do you think that the pain and suffering I’ll experience if I part from you won’t be as great as yours? Of course I’ll promise you; I’ll never leave you even if the sky falls down.”
Yang Guo was delighted; he was about to say something when the disciple in green who was watching them said loudly, “Have you picked your weapons?”
Xiao Longnu smiled and said, “Let’s just get it over with.” She turned her head to look for a pair of swords when the western wall caught her eye. She was startled; the wall had signs of being set alight and the chairs and tables near it were also burned.
Yang Guo laughed, “The Old Urchin had broken into here previously and set this place alight; that’s his handiwork.” He then saw two sheaths behind a painting in the corner. He thought, “Those two swords were hidden originally by that painting; it’s only because of the Old Urchin’s fire burning that painting that enables me to see them now. Those two swords must be extremely precious to have been hidden away like that.” He went over to the wall and took the swords down; he gave one to Xiao Longnu and unsheathed the sword that was in his hand.
Xiao Longnu unsheathed her sword too. Both of them felt a chill as soon as the blades were drawn out; they saw that his sword was black and didn’t have any shine to it, like a piece of black wood. Her sword was the exact same as Yang Guo’s. When the two swords lined up, the room was filled with a cold air. The swords had no sharp points; the tips of the swords were round and blunt and they looked like a thin wooden whip. Yang Guo turned the sword over and saw the word ‘Gentleman’ carved on it; he looked over at Xiao Longnu’s sword and saw the word ‘Lady’. Originally Yang Guo did not like the form of this sword, but he loved the matching names; he looked at Xiao Longnu to see what she thought.
Xiao Longnu said happily, “This sword has no sharp points; this is just right for dueling with the Valley Master. He saved my life before; I don’t want to hurt him.”
Yang Guo laughed, “The names of the swords are ‘Gentleman’ and ‘Lady’. I’m not worthy of the name. If ‘Gentleman’ was changed to ‘Vagrant’, it’d be much better for me to use.” He then tested out the sword with two thrusts into the air and felt that the weight was perfect and the sword extremely agile; he said, “Fine, we’ll use these two swords.”
Xiao Longnu returned her sword into its sheath and was about to leave the room when she saw some extremely beautiful flowers in a vase on the table; but it wasn’t arranged properly so she decided to fix it up.
Yang Guo called out, “No, you can’t touch them.” But it was too late; Xiao Longnu’s finger had been pierced by the thorns of the flowers. She turned her head back startled, asking, “Why?”
Yang Guo said, “Those are Passion Flowers; you’ve been living here in the valley for a few days now, don’t you recognize them?”
Xiao Longnu sucked her finger and shook her head. She said, “I don’t recognize them. Passion Flower; what kind of flower is it?”
Yang Guo was about to explain but the crowd of disciples kept on hurrying them so they left the room and returned to the hall. Valley Master Gongsun had been waiting impatiently, he stared angrily at his disciples, blaming them for being useless and allowing the two of them to waste time. All of the disciples were terrified and changed color.
Valley Master Gongsun waited for the two to come near before saying, “Miss Liu, you’ve picked your weapon?”
Xiao Longnu took out the ‘Lady’ sword and nodded her head, saying, “We’ll use this pair of blunt swords to fight you; we don’t dare to fight a life and death duel with the Valley Master, but just until a clear victor can be seen, how about that?”
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l