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Chapter 64




Chapter 64: Tomb of the Living Dead (12)
Translator: wuxiasociety
The two of them ate breakfast, and then Yang Guo took the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen and washed them, before returning to the main hall.
Xiao Longnu said, “There is one thing you must understand. If you really want me to be your master, you must obey me for eternity. If you don’t want me to be your master, I will still teach you martial arts. If in the future you become better than me, then you can leave the tomb because of your skills.”
Yang Guo replied without considering, “I am willing to take you as my master. Even if you don’t teach me a drop of martial arts, I will still do as you say.”
Xiao Longnu asked, “Why?”
Yang Guo said, “Gu Gu, don’t you think I know that you care for me?”
Xiao Longnu made a face and said, “Whether I treat you well or not, don’t talk about it. Since you’ve decided to enter my sect, then follow me and you will undergo the ritual.”
Yang Guo followed her into the back hall, only to see it was sparse and empty, apart from two paintings on the eastern and western wall. On the western wall was a picture of two girls. One of them was around twenty five or six years of age, facing a mirror combing and adorning her hair. The other was a fourteen or fifteen years of age maiden, her hand holding a bucket, standing to the side. The tall girl looking in the mirror was extremely beautiful, her eyebrows tidy, yet in her eyes there was an air of death. Yang Guo took a few glances at the painting, and felt fear and respect towards the girl.
Xiao Longnu pointed to the tall girl in the painting and said, “That is our Ancestor, kowtow to her.”
Yang Guo strangely asked, “That’s our Ancestor, why is she so young?”
Xiao Longnu said, “She was young in the picture, later she wasn’t as young anymore.” Yang Guo focused on the two sentences, ‘She was young in the picture, later she wasn’t as young anymore’, he felt sorrow and regret in his heart and tears came to his eyes.
Xiao Longnu didn’t notice that he was thinking and pointed to the young girl and said, “That is my Master, quickly kowtow.” Yang Guo looked at the painting, and saw the young girl, who could believe that she would become Xiao Longnu’s Master; he didn’t hesitate and immediately kowtowed.
Xiao Longnu waited for him to stand up and then pointed to the painting hung on the eastern wall and said, “Spit on that Taoist.” Yang Guo took a look at the painting and saw the Taoist was quite tall, a long sword by his side, the index finger on his right hand pointing to the north eastern corner, his back facing out, his face could not be seen.
He was curious and asked, “Who’s that? Why should I spit on him?”
Xiao Longnu said, “That is the Quanzhen sect’s founder Wang Chongyang, our sect has a rule, after kowtowing to our Ancestor we need to spit on him.”
Yang Guo was pleased, he hated the Quanzhen sect, he felt this rule of the sect was a suiting finish; he spat out at the painting, and felt that this was not enough and spat out twice. He was about to do it again when Xiao Longnu said, “Enough!”
Yang Guo asked, “Did our Ancestor really hate Wang Chongyang?”
Xiao Longnu said, “Yes.”
Yang Guo said, “I hate him as well. How come the painting is hung on the wall but not destroyed?”
Xiao Longnu said, “I don’t know, I only heard from Grandma Sun and my Master that there isn’t one good man on earth.”
Her voice suddenly became strict and she said, “When you become older and do bad things, shall I spare you or not?”
Yang Guo said, “Of course you’ll spare me.”
Xiao Longnu originally meant this as a warning, she didn’t know he would answer, she was startled and didn’t know what to do with him and said, “Quickly greet your Master.”
Yang Guo said, “Of course, I must kowtow to my Master. But first you have to got to promise me one thing otherwise I won’t kowtow.”
Xiao Longnu thought, “According to Grandma Sun, before accepting a disciple, only the Master can request things from the disciple, how can it be turned around and the disciple requests something from the Master?”
She was an emotionless person and didn’t get angry, she said, “What is it? Let me hear what you’ve got to say.”
Yang Guo said, “I regard you as my Master, I respect you and obey you, but I don’t want to call you Master, I want to call you Gu Gu.”
Xiao Longnu was bemused again and asked, “Why?”
Yang Guo said, “I had taken that rotten Taoist from the Quanzhen sect as my Master, he didn’t treat me well at all, in my dreams I curse my Master. That’s why I want to call you Gu Gu, in case I mistakenly insult you when I insult my Master.”
Xiao Longnu smiled slightly and felt that the way in which this child thinks was amusing, and said, “Fine, I agree to this.”
Yang Guo then knelt down grandly, and kowtowed loudly eight times in front of Xiao Longnu and said, “Disciple Yang Guo hereby pays respect and acknowledges Xiao Longnu Gu Gu as my Master. Yang Guo will obey her words forever, if Gu Gu is in any sort of danger, I will give up my life to protect her, if someone insults Gu Gu, then I will kill them.” In reality Xiao Longnu’s skills were better than his by ten fold, but he saw that she was a beautiful, gentle and fragile girl, a feeling of duty to protect weak girls stirred, and he came out with those words.
Xiao Longnu heard his sincere words, although he spoke with a childish tone, she was touched nonetheless.
Yang Guo finished kowtowing and picked himself up, his face full of glee.
Xiao Longnu said, “Why are you so pleased? My skills can’t compare with Quanzhen’s Qiu Chuji or your Uncle Guo.”
Yang Guo said, “I don’t care if they were even more skilled, you are really going to teach me kung fu.”
Xiao Longnu said, “Actually there isn’t much use in learning kung fu. It’s just that there isn’t much to do in the tomb, that’s why I’m teaching you.”
Yang Guo said, “Gu Gu, what’s our sect called?”
Xiao Longnu said, “When our Ancestor came and lived in the tomb, she didn’t have any contact with the Wulin world, our sect didn’t have a name. Later my apprentice sister Li Mochou left and wandered around the world of Jianghu, others said she was a disciple from ‘Gu Mu Pai’ (Ancient Tomb sect), so let’s call our sect the Ancient Tomb sect!”
Yang Guo shook his head, and said, “Ancient Tomb sect isn’t a good name.”
He had just entered the sect and found fault with the name, but Xiao Longnu wasn’t too concerned and said, “Does it matter if the name is good or not? Wait here for me; I’m going outside for a while.”
Yang Guo remembered that he would be on his own in the tomb and became scared and said, “Gu Gu, I’ll go with you.”
Xiao Longnu looked at him and said, “You said you’ll obey for eternity, my first order and you don’t listen?”
Yang Guo said, “I’m scared.”
Xiao Longnu said, “You are a man, what is there to be afraid of? You said you were going to help me get rid of bad people.”