Book 2

On the 8th day, Guo Jing finally managed to reach the peak. Stretching out his hand, he hauled Huang Rong up and they jumped up and down in jubilation, delirious in their triumph. Then, hand-in-hand, they slid down the waterfall once more.

Suddenly, Wanyan Kang understood: She is telling me that we are not related by blood at all.

As the opposing sides came closer, there were sounds of yelling, scolding, clashing of weapons and the sounds of splashing as bodies dropped into the water. After a while, the officials' boats were on fire which lit up the dark sky and cast a fiery red shadow over the lake.

Even though the stances of the '18-dragon subduing palms' did not change and Guo Jing did not learn the whole set, but his attacks were not light. However, Mei Chaofeng always knew in advance where his attack would go and sometimes she would move ahead of Guo Jing that instead of in the defensive, she was actually on the offensive. Several moves later that strange man flicked three pebbles in succession. Mei Chaofeng was following the sound and launched three attacks one after another.

He saw in front of her were two clay figurines, one resembled a man, the other a woman. These figurines were made by the famous Wu Xi; they were round and fat, really cute. He came nearer and saw in front of the figurines there were tiny clay bowls filled with flower petals, leaves, and so on.

There was no zombie; it was a good-looking young girl, with a pair of big eyes looked up on them. She was none other than Mu Nianci. Yang Kang was pleasantly surprised, quickly he held out his hand to help her out.

Zhou Botong and Huang Yaoshi had a competition of marbles, with the 9 Yin Manual and the Soft Hedgehog Armour as bets. Huang's newly-wedded wife watched the proceedings from the sidelines. While a competition of marbles was child's play, this particular game had its own intricacies.

Huang Yaoshi kept blowing the flute; Guo Jing raised his hand and struck the bamboo stick right in between two beats of the music. Ouyang Ke stifled his laugh, thinking that this stupid kid always strike on the wrong beat. Guo Jing struck again, still in between the two music beats. He had struck his bamboo stick four times, all were on the wrong places.

Alone in that small underground room, seeing the painting of her deceased mother made by her father's own hand, Huang Rong's heart was filled with a roller coaster emotion; she thought, "I have never seen Mother. I wonder after I die, will I meet her? Was she really that young and beautiful as in the picture? Where is she right now? Is she at the sky above, or in the earth below, or still in this room?

Ouyang Feng fetched his snake staff and jumped over the burning mast. Hong Qigong immediately drew the bamboo stick from his waist and fended off the attack. They were fighting barehanded ferociously before, so imagine how fierce the battle had become now that both were wielding weapons.