The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Although her body was protected by the soft hedgehog armor, this fist had given her enough pain and sent her staggered a few steps back. Blood was dripping from Nan Xiren's fist, which was pricked by the thorns on the armor. Amidst the two people's shouts Guo Jing called out, "Si Shifu!"

Nan Xiren looked at Guo Jing as if he had just recognized him; he opened his mouth to speak, but no matter how much the muscle around his mouth twitched, he still could not say anything. His face showed a smile, but his eyes showed extreme despair.

"Si Shifu," Guo Jing said, "Please take a rest. Whatever it is you want to say, you can say it later."

Nan Xiren tried hard to say something, he lifted his neck to look up, but his lips were unable to form the words. After straining for a while his head dropped, looking down to the ground.

"Si Shifu!" Guo Jing repeatedly called out; he rushed forward to lift Nan Xiren up.

From the side Huang Rong could see clearly. "Your Shifu is writing," she said.

Guo Jing looked sideways and saw Nan Xiren's right index finger was slowly writing on the soft earth. Under the moonlight he saw Nan Xiren wrote character by character: "My … killer … is …"

Huang Rong noticed he wrote with great difficulty, her heart was thumping hard; suddenly she remembered something, "He is on the Peach Blossom Island, even an idiot will know that it is my Father who killed him. But he is on the verge of death and is still using his very last strength to write the killer's name, could it be that the murderer is someone else?" She was watching Nan Xiren's finger with a rapt attention; she noticed that the finger moved slower as if losing its strength, so she kept praying in her heart, "If he is going to write some other name, please, please let him write it down quickly."

Nan Xiren was writing the fifth character [Chinese character, that is], he started from the upper left hand corner and wrote a small 'ten' (十 ) character, then his finger trembled and stopped moving all together.

Guo Jing was kneeling on the ground, hugging his shifu. He felt Nan Xiren's body shook violently then he stopped breathing. He looked at the small 'ten' character and called out, "Si Shifu, I know you were going to write the Huang (黄 ) character, you were going to write the Huang character!" He threw himself on Nan Xiren's body and wept bitterly. In this one cry he had vented up the grief and indignation that had been welled up in his heart the whole day. He cried for quite a while, then his body fell on top of Nan Xiren's lifeless body; he had fainted.

Without knowing how much time had passed, he woke up under the bright morning sunlight. He stood up and swept his gaze around. Huang Rong was gone, and Nan Xiren's body was still lying down on the ground with his eyes open. Guo Jing remembered a saying, 'die without closing his eyes'; he was unable to restrain tears from flowing down his cheeks again. Stretching out his hand he gently closed Nan Xiren's eyes. Suddenly he recalled just before he died Nan Xiren's facial expression was very strange; he wonder what kind of injury was so fatal. Thereupon he untied Nan Xiren's clothes to examine his whole body. Strange to say, except for the pricked hand from hitting Huang Rong's soft hedgehog armor last night, from head to toe, Guo Jing could not find a single scar on Nan Xiren's body. Neither his chest nor his back showed any sign of injury by internal strength strike; the skin was neither black nor burnt, so there was no sign of poisoning either.

Guo Jing picked up Nan Xiren's body and carried it to be buried together with Zhu Cong and the others; but the pathways in the forest were so strange that after about dozens of steps he lost his bearing. He had no choice but turn back and dig a hole underneath a peach tree to bury Nan Xiren.

Guo Jing had not eaten for a whole day; his stomach hurt from hunger. He wanted to find a way to go back to the shore and find a boat to return to the mainland, but the farther he went, the more confused he became. He sat down to take a rest for a while, then he stood up with a renewed vigor and walked again. This time he had an idea, regardless of he found a pathway or not, he would keep his eyes toward the sun in the east.

After walking for a while ahead of him was a dense forest, seemingly impassable. Nothing strange about the forest, it was just that each tree was full of long and thorny rattan cane; it would be truly difficult for him to set his feet on. He made the decision, "I am not coming back today!" and then jumped up to the tree top.

He only walked one step on the tree when 'rip!' the corner of his trouser was tore by a thorn and his calf was bleeding from several cuts. He walked two more steps, and his left leg was entangled in some long canes. He took his dagger out and cut the canes. Lifting his head up he saw far ahead the rattan trees were very dense, seemingly without end. He called out, "Even if my legs are sheared, I have to leave this cursed island!"

He was about to jump ahead when suddenly Huang Rong called out from the ground, "Get down, I'll take you out." He looked down and saw Huang Rong standing underneath a rattan tree on his left.

Guo Jing did not reply, he jumped down and saw Huang Rong's face was deathly pale, as if her blood was drained completely out. He could not help but startle; he wanted to ask whether her injury recurred, but he forced himself to bite his lips. Huang Rong noticed he wanted to say something, but as soon as his lips started to move he turned his head around. She waited for a moment without seeing any response from Guo Jing; she sighed gently and said, "Let's go!" Two people walked along the winding path heading east.

Huang Rong's injury had not been completely healed, and she had to face this heavy misfortune; she was tossing and turning in her sleep the previous night. She knew she could not blame her Jing Gege, she could not blame her father, and she could not even blame the Six Freaks of Jiangnan. She only resented herself; why would she have to endure the Heaven's punishment like this? Did the Heaven hate people who lead a happy life?

She led Guo Jing toward the beach; knowing in her heart that this time he would never come back, it would be difficult for them to see each other anymore, so she felt that with every step a piece of her heart was also taken away.

Just beyond the rattan trees forest they could see the beach ahead. Huang Rong felt weary, she was unable to restrain her body from shaking; hastily she used the bamboo stick to brace herself, but unexpectedly there was no strength left on her arm, the bamboo stick skewed and she fell down to the ground.

Instinctively Guo Jing outstretched his right hand to hold her, but just as his finger was about to touch her arm, the injustice his shifus suffered flashed in his mind. His left hand moved and 'slap!' it struck his own right wrist. He was using Zhou Botong's Mutual Hands Combat Technique; as his right hand was stricken, he turned his palm over and leapt backward immediately.

Without receiving any help Huang Rong fell down to the ground. As Guo Jing saw her falling down, remorse, affection, grief, indignation and all kinds of emotions bubbled up inside his heart. Even if his heart was made of stone he could not restrain himself from stooping down and pick her up. He looked at all directions trying to find a comfortable place to lay her down, and it was then did he saw a green cloth flutter in the wind on the rock toward his northeast.