If Yang Guo had not been practicing the White Camel Mountainâs internal energy, he would have definitely thrown up a pool of blood. He felt a severe pain in his chest; his face was as white as a sheet of paper. Lu Qingdu saw that he had not felled Yang Guo with this palm, and secretly felt that he was careless, his right fist now came down at Yang Guo. Yang Guo stretched out his arms to attack; he didnât understand the finer points of fist skills; so he didnât know the best way to repel this incoming attack. Lu Qingdu moved his right fist and came out with his left fist, another thudding sound as he hit Yang Guo in the stomach. Yang Guo bent down with pain. Lu Qingdu didnât hold back, a right palm came crashing down on Yang Guoâs neck. He wanted to hurt him, wanting him to fall over now, wanting to avenge what he did to him. His life was on the line now but he still did not fall down, but now Yang Guo was dazed and didnât have the strength to retaliate.
Cui Zhijing knew then that he didnât know any martial arts skills and said, âQingdu, hold!â
Lu Qingdu said to Yang Guo, âDo you respect me now?â
Yang Guo shouted, âYou damn Taoist, Iâm going to kill you one day!â
Lu Qingdu was furious, and punched him twice in the nose.
Yang Guo was beaten badly, he was wobbling and was about to fall down. He didnât know where he was when suddenly a flow of warm chi surged through his âdan tianâ, and he saw that Lu Qingdu was about to throw a third punch at him. There was no way to dodge, no where to escape, he spontaneously bent both legs and gave out a loud shout, his palm pushed out, hitting Lu Qingdu in the stomach. He saw a large body fly through the air, a thudding sound as dust flew everywhere in the arena, falling about ten feet away. The body was lying on the ground, and didnât move.
The crowd of Taoists at the side watched Lu Qingdu taking advantage of his size and bullying someone smaller than him, and hitting Yang Guo venomously. It wasnât right, the older generation apart from Zhao Zhijing came over to stop him, but they didnât know there had been a sudden reversal of fortune. Lu Qingdu had been sent flying by Yang Guoâs palm, his body lying there like a corpse not moving, everyone was astounded and rushed over to take a closer look.
Normally Yang Guo would not have been able to use the âToad Stanceâ, but in a life threatening situation, it could be used automatically. The first time this happened was on Peach Blossom Island where he knocked out Wu Xiuwen. After many months, his internal energy had increased; that, plus the fact that he hated Lu Qingdu, and it was comparable to the hate he felt for the Wu brothers, with this in mind, he was able to knock him flying across the arena. He heard the other Taoists say, âOh no, itâs terrible, heâs dead! Heâs not breathing; his internal organs have been hurt! Quickly go and tell the leader and bring him here.â
Yang Guo knew he had caused a major incident, no one was thinking in the midst of this chaos, he picked himself up and ran away. The Taoists were too busy with Lu Qingduâs life and didnât notice that Yang Guo had slipped away. Zhao Zhijing saw that Lu Qingduâs eyes were rolled back, and didnât know whether he was dead or alive. He was startled and angry, and shouted out, âYang Guo, Yang Guo, where did you learn this witchcraft?â His skills were high, but he had remained at Chongyang Palace for most of the time, he didnât know much, of course he would not recognize the techniques of the âToad Stanceâ.
The Taoists turned around, but didnât see Yang Guo. Zhao Zhijing then gave out an order, and told them to go and capture Yang Guo; they thought how far could a small child like him get to in a short space of time?
Yang Guo didnât know the roads, and just ran, he eventually chose to dive into a forest. After a while, he heard shouts behind him, everyone was calling out from all directions, âYang Guo, Yang Guo, come out quickly!â He was nervous, and ran away again; he felt someone was in front of him, a Taoist had seen him, and came after him. Yang Guo quickly turned around; in the west was another Taoist, who called out, âHere! Over here.â Yang Guo crouched down and crawled underneath a bush. The Taoists were too big to crawl through; they had to go around it to find him. Yang Guo managed to escape but didnât know where to go. After Yang Guo went through the bush, he headed straight and after running for a while, he heard the voices become quieter but he still didnât dare stop. He avoided the paths, and ran through the long grass and rocks; he became bruised and cut up all over. When he couldnât move any more he sat down on a rock to catch his breath. He sat for a little while, but then he thought; âEscape quickly, escape quickly.â But his legs felt like they weighed a ton, he almost couldnât stand up straight. He heard someone laugh coldly from behind, Yang Guo was startled and turned around, his heart jumped out of his mouth, as he saw a man with deep brows and flared eyes, a beard hanging to his chest, it was Zhao Zhijing.
The two stared at each other for several minutes; during this time they did not move an inch. Yang Guo suddenly shouted and turned around to run away. Zhao Zhijing went forward and stretched out his arm and grabbed his chest. Yang Guo jumped forward and it was lucky he gained a few inches and managed to escape his clutches. He then picked up a rock, and flung it backwards with all his strength. Zhao Zhijing swerved to the side, he increased his speed and the distance between the two closed. Yang Guo ran madly for about twenty steps, and saw a deep ditch in front of him but he had run out places to run to; he didnât know whether below was a deep valley or a mountain gorge but he didnât give it a thought and threw his body forward.
Zhao Zhijing ran to the steep ditch and looked on, he saw Yang Guo rolling through the grass down the slope, and eventually into a cluster of trees. From where he was standing to the bottom was about sixty or seventy feet, he didnât dare jump down; he quickly ran down the grassy slope. He saw the trail of flattened grass left heading into the forest, but he didnât see a trace of Yang Guo. As he went deeper it became tighter, eventually so dense that light was shut out. He went forward for about one hundred feet, and then suddenly stopped; he was now on the land of the Tomb of the Living Dead where the sectâs ancestor had spent his younger years. Their sect had a strict rule: no one is allowed to take one step into the place. âHad Yang Guo escaped into here?â He wasnât pleased, he shouted, âYang Guo, Yang Guo come out quickly!â
He shouted a few times, the forest became silent, he became bold and took a few steps forward and saw a large stone slab. He took a closer look. Some words were engraved on it, âOutsiders stop nowâ. Zhao Zhijing paced back and forth for an hour, he then loudly called out, âYang Guo you little scoundrel, if you donât come out Iâll catch you and beat you to death.â After he said this, he suddenly heard a sound coming from the forest, he saw a grey mist moving, and a swarm of white bees came out from the leaves and flew towards him.