The Return of the Condor Heroes

Chapter 5 – Tomb of the living dead, Part 5

Yang Guo saw that they were hurriedly heading for Chongyang Palace, he was frightened, he quietly said, “Grandma, why are you going there?”

Grandma Sun said, “I have to give your rotten master the antidote.” After a few paths, they had arrived. She leapt onto the roof, and was about to go for the courtyard, when suddenly the bell started to ring in the darkness, and she heard whistle sounds near and far. In a second noises came from everywhere, and knew that she was heavily surrounded; she became alarmed.

The Quanzhen sect is Wulin’s number one orthodox sect, they were normally well guarded, but things had happened recently and so they were more alert. There were lookouts everywhere and when they saw someone enter the palace, they sounded the alarm. The palace’s disciples all came to repel the foe. Another group of Taoists scattered around, one, so they surrounded the enemy, and secondly, so they can repel any reinforcements that the enemy might have brought along.

Grandma Sun quietly cursed, “This old woman here has not come to fight; who are you trying to scare?” She loudly called out, “Zhao Zhijing, quickly come out, I have something to say to you.”

Someone called out from the main hall, “Coming here in the middle of the night, what do you want?”

Grandma Sun said, “This is the antidote for the bee stings, take it!” She threw over the container.

A Taoist caught it, and believed her but then thought, “Does she have good intentions in coming back to give us the antidote.” He called out clearly, “What medicine is this?”

Grandma Sun said, “Don’t ask so many questions, just give it to him to drink, and you’ll see the results.”

The Taoist called out, “How do I know whether you’ve come with good or bad intentions, and how do I know if this is actually medicine not poison. Apprentice brother Zhao has been tortured enough by you, when did you gain the heart of Buddha?”

Grandma Sun heard his words, her good intentions had turned into some evil intent, she was furious and put Yang Guo down on the roof, then quickly jumped in front of the Taoist and snatched the bottle back. She opened the bottle, and said to Yang Guo, “Open your mouth!”

Yang Guo didn’t understand but did as he was told. She tipped the bottle and poured the bee honey into his mouth and said, “Fine, just in case you think its poison. Guo’Er lets go!” She held Yang Guo’s hand and ran to the edge of the roof and jumped down.

That Taoist was called Zhang Zhiguang, and was Hao Datong’s second disciple, he was cursing himself. He regretted his words when he realized that she had bought along the real antidote, Zhao Zhijing now had no antidote and it would be difficult for him to survive, he quickly followed and blocked them with his hands. He smiled and said, “Old Senior, why are you so furious? I was just joking, there’s no need to take it seriously. We are neighbors, and have seen each other a few times, ha-ha, please bestow the medicine to us.”

Grandma Sun did not like his smooth talk, she stopped, and chuckled, “There is only one bottle of medicine, if you want some more, there isn’t any. You can find your own way to cure Zhao Zhijing’s wounds!” As she said this she sent out her hand and said, “Since you don’t greet a senior, I’ll teach you a lesson.” The palm was extremely quick, Zhang Zhiguang couldn’t avoid it, a clashing sound was heard, he was struck on the cheek, and his face was stinging.

By the door the two Taoists’ faces changed and both of them said, “Even if you are a senior, how can we let you do what you want in Chongyang Palace?” One sent out his left palm, the other his right, the two of them attacking together from two sides. Grandma Sun had fought the “Big Dipper Formation” before and knew it was powerful; she knew it would be best to avoid it. If she went to attack them, how could she fight them all in their formation? She dodged past the two palms, and picked up Yang Guo and headed for the rooftops. She saw that there was no one on the roof; she wanted to escape via this route when suddenly someone jumped up on the roof and shouted, “Drop down!” sending two palms out. Grandma Sun was in midair, she had nothing to lean against, and could only fight with her right hand, one palm clashed with two, both of them were forced back, each of them on either side of the wall. Six or seven Taoists whistled, and crowded her into the corner.

These Taoists were the best fighters of Quanzhen’s third generation, and had come out to protect the main hall. In a flash, they moved back, and then rushed forward; the Taoists used a storming tactic and attacked many times. Grandma Sun was forced into the corner, and tried to break out with Yang Guo in her hand, but the Taoists formed a human wall and kept her back, she tried to break through many times but was forced back each time.

Ten moves passed. The one in charge of guarding the main hall Zhang Zhiguang knew that the enemy could not do anything and immediately lit a torch. Ten large candles were lit up all around the main hall, and shone on Grandma Sun’s pale face, an ugly face of a frightful person who hides in the forest.

Zhang Zhiguang called out, “Retreat.”

The seven Taoists who were attacking Grandma Sun took a step back, their hands across their chests, each holding their position. Grandma Sun caught her breath and then chuckled, “The Quanzhen sect is famous throughout the world, indeed they live up to their name. Over ten young and athletic men teamed up together to bully an old woman and a child. Ha-ha, so powerful, so powerful!”

Zhang Zhiguang’s faced turned a shade of red and said, “We are only trying to catch an intruder in the palace. We don’t care if it’s an old woman or a young man, if they were tall when they enter, they’ll be short when they leave.”

Grandma Sun chuckled and said, “What do you mean ‘short when they leave’? You want me to crawl out of here, is that it!”

Zhang Zhiguang had just been slapped painfully by Grandma Sun, he wasn’t going to let her off lightly, and said, “If you want me to let you go, its not hard, just agree to three things. One, you called your bees to hurt brother Zhao; you have to leave the antidote. Two, that child is a student of the Quanzhen sect, how can he expel himself from the school without the permission of our leader? You’ve got to leave him here. Three, you broke into Chongyang Palace, you have to kowtow in front of ancestor Chongyang to apologize.”

Grandma Sun laughed loudly and said, “I have long said to Mistress Long that none of the Taoists here have a good future, aren’t the old woman’s words true? Come, come I’ll go and kowtow.”

Grandma Sun lowered herself and began to kneel down. For Zhang Zhiguang this was unexpected, he was stunned, he saw Grandma Sun lowering her head, when suddenly he saw a flash, a projectile was thrown straight at him. Zhang Zhiguang cried out ‘ai ya’, he had tried to move out of the way quickly but the projectile was extremely quick and hit the corner of his left eye, his forehead was full of blood.

Grandma Sun had scoured her pocket and had grabbed the empty bee honey bottle, and calmly used her sect’s projectile throwing technique to send the projectile out. Her sect’s kung fu was designed for females, the techniques were all soft and of a ying nature, the changes mysterious, this stance “First Bow Greet After” (qian ju hou gong) was unexpected. Though it was just an empty bottle, but because of the short distance it was shot out from, Zhang Zhiguang did not expect it and could not avoid it.