Chapter 43

Translator: wuxiasociety

Guo Jing didn’t say anything and thought, “My father in law’s intelligence is not below that of that senior, but where is he now?” He missed him a lot.

Qiu Chuji didn’t know what he was thinking and carried on, “When my teacher first became a Taoist, he was still vehement, but as he read more Taoist books, he knew it was meant to be, he became enlightened and decided to spread our sect’s name. When you think about it, if it weren’t for that senior’s plan, the Quanzhen sect would not exist; I would not be here today, and we wouldn’t know where you, Guo Jing, would be.”

Guo Jing nodded, and asked, “So what is that senior’s name, and is she still alive?”

Qiu Chuji sighed and replied, “When that senior was in the world of Wulin, she was always discreet, very few people actually saw her. Apart from my teacher, I don’t think anyone else knows her name, and my teacher never actually mentioned her name. That senior had passed away before the time of the first Mount Hua tournament, otherwise with her martial arts and character, how can it be that she did not appear?”

Guo Jing nodded his head and said, “It must be. Does she have any descendants?”

Qiu Chuji sighed and said, “All of today’s trouble comes from this point. That senior didn’t take in a disciple during her life; she only had a maid with her. That maid did not enter the world of Jianghu, so no one knew about her, but she took in two disciples. The eldest disciple is called Li, you must know about this, in Jianghu they call her the “Scarlet Serpent Deity” Li Mochou.”

Guo Jing gave an “ah” sound and said, “That Li Mochou is vindictive and ruthless, so those are her origins.”

Qiu Chuji said, “You’ve seen her?”

Guo Jing replied, “A few months ago, I came across her in Jiang Nan. Her kung fu is at a very high level.”

Qiu Chuji said, “You hurt her?”

Guo Jing shook his head, “No, we didn’t actually meet each other, I only saw how she killed countless women, her ruthlessness has no comparisons, like Mei Chaofeng was when she was alive.”

Qiu Chuji said, “It was fortunate you didn’t hurt her, otherwise there’d be trouble. Her apprentice sister is named “Long”.”

Guo Jing shivered and said, “She is the girl called Long?”

Qiu Chuji’s face changed colour slightly, and said, “What? You’ve seen her? How did this happen?”

Guo Jing said, “Disciple has not seen her before. When I was coming up the mountain, the Taoist brothers insulted me and called me a perverted scoundrel, and said I came for the one called Long, this made me confused.”

Qiu Chuji laughed out loud, and sighed at the same time, “Chongyang Palace took the matter into its own hands. If we hadn’t made this error, and created the misunderstanding, not only would the large “Big Dipper Formation” have repelled the attackers, you would have arrived here earlier, and apprentice brother Hao would not have been hurt.”

He saw that Guo Jing’s face was fascinated and continued, “Today is the one named Long’s eighteenth birthday.”

Guo Jing opened his mouth and said, “Ah, it’s her eighteenth birthday!” However he did not understand how a girl’s eighteenth birthday could cause so much trouble.

Qiu Chuji said, “Outsiders do not know her first name so all of those troublemakers call her Xiao Longnu, we’ll call her that as well. One night eighteen years ago, there was the cry of a little baby girl outside Chongyang Palace, a palace disciple came out to take a look, and saw the little baby girl wrapped in a bundle on the ground. It was inconvenient for the palace to take in a baby girl, but Taoists are supposed to be merciful so we couldn’t leave her there. At the time my apprentice brother who was the master of the sect, and I were not on the mountain, and before any of the disciples of the palace could do anything, a middle aged woman suddenly came out from behind the mountain and said, “The little baby is unfortunate and pitiful, I’ll take her in!” The disciples couldn’t have asked for more, and so gave the baby girl to her. Later, apprentice brother Ma and I returned to the palace, when they told us about this event, from the description of the woman, we knew she was the maid from the Tomb of the Living Dead. She had met the seven of us a few times before, but we had never spoken. Although we are neighbors and because of our seniors’ relationship, it is difficult for us to talk to her about it. When I heard that the matter was resolved, I didn’t keep it in my mind. Later, her disciple the “Scarlet Serpent Deity” Li Mochou, left the mountain. She was ruthless and vindictive, her martial arts were very high, and caused trouble around the world of Jianghu. Our Quanzhen sect requested to talk to the maid about this many times, to get her to do something about it. Eventually, we didn’t act out of respect for her. We wrote a letter and sent it to the tomb. It was extremely respectful and polite. After we sent the letter, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, she still did not reply, and she tolerated Li Mochou’s actions, and didn’t govern her.

One day, after a few years, outside the tomb we saw a white banner hung on a pine thorn thicket and we knew that the woman had passed away, so the six of us went to the tomb to pay our respects. As we were going through the ceremony, a thirteen or fourteen year old girl emerged from the pine thorn thickets, greeted us and thanked us for the ceremony, and said, “Master has left the world, and has ordered me to tell all you elders that if that person still causes trouble, my master has a plan to punish her, please don’t worry.” When she finished, she turned around and went back inside. We wanted to ask her some questions about this but she had already gone back into the tomb. Our master had made a rule; everyone under the order of the Quanzhen sect must not take one step into the tomb. When she left, we pondered and wondered, our Taoist friend is dead, so how could she punish her student? We felt sorry for the little girl and so we sent her food and supplies, but each time she did not touch them, and ordered a servant to return them. She was strange. She was just like her teacher, and her ancestor. But she had a servant to look after her, so we didn’t worry about her. Eventually we all had business to attend to, and were rarely present in the palace. We didn’t hear anything from the girl. For some reason, news of Li Mochou disappeared and she didn’t cause any more trouble. We knew that our Taoist friend had come up with an ingenious plan, and we all were in awe.

Spring came, me and apprentice brother Wang had to go away to Shanxi for some business. We were at a hero’s home in Guangzhou when we heard startling news. We heard that one year later, all types of crooks, scoundrels and evildoers would descend on Mount Zhongnan and cause havoc. Mount Zhongnan is the root of our sect and the reason they’ve come to Mount Zhongnan is to fight our sect, how could we not take precautions? Apprentice brother Wang and I were afraid that the news was unreliable, so we sent out people to investigate; true enough, the news was real. But it wasn’t because they wanted to duel with our sect, but it was to do with Xiao Longnu of the Tomb of the Living Dead.