Chapter - 147 Meeting the Zhongshan Wolf While Blocking the Way (5)

As these people spoke they became more and more furious and began insulting the Tartars for inflicting suffering on them. Zhu Yuanzhang said, "We're randomly insulting these people here, but these insults aren't even going to hurt a hair on these Tartars. If we're really heroic, we should go to kill these Tartars!" Tang He, Deng Yu, Hua Yun, and the Wu brothers all yelled together, "Let's go!"

Xuda said, "Big Brother Zhu, you don't need to be this hard-working monk anymore. You're the oldest, we'll all listen to your words." Zhu Yuanzhang also didn't decline and said, "After today, we will live and die together, whether we have fortune or problems we will share it together." Everyone raised their bowl of wine together and drank it down, slamming their knives into the table with a heroic air. Yang Buhui looked at everyone, not understanding what they were saying and was inwardly scared.

Zhang Wuji thought, Zhang Sanfeng Tai Shifu warned me repeatedly not make friends with these people in the Mo Jiao. But Chang Yucun and Brother Xu are all within the Mo Jiao. They're far better than Jian Jie, Xue Gongyuan, these disciples in the righteous branch by tens of thousands of times. He always admired Zhang Sanfeng to the highest degree, but from his experience, he thought Zhang Sanfeng had some prejudice towards them in his heart. However, he also thought that he shouldn't go against his Tai Shifu's wishes. Zhu Yuangzhang said, "Good Han people will do what they say, this time when we eat full is just the right time to do things. The Zhang household invited the Tartar officers and soldiers to dinner today, let's go capture and kill them. Hua Yun said, "Wonderful! " and grabbed his knife and stood up.

Xuda exclaimed, "Hold on a minute!" He went to the kitchen to get a basket and filled it with fourteen or fifteen pounds of beef to give to Zhang Wuji. He said, "Brother Zhang, your age is still small, you can't follow us to this shady business of rebelling and killing government officials. Us small group of people are so poor, without money on our bodies, so we must give this meat to you. If we luckily don't burn to death, we will see each other in the future and eat some beef together.

Zhang Wuji took the basket and replied, "I hope that you will perform a great service and wipe out these Tartars in order to let these common people under the sky have some food to eat." Zhu Yuanzhang, Xuda, Tanghe, Deng Yu all heard what he said and clapped and praised what he said, saying: "Brother Zhang, what you said is really correct, we hope that we will have some time together in the future."

As they said this they exited the temple, each carrying their weapons. Zhang Wuji thought in his heart, "They are going to go kill the Tartars, if I wasn't accompanying this little sister, I would also go with them. They only have seven people and are not the enemy's match. Zhang Yuan's house have Tartars who may follow them here to kill them so I can't really stay in this temple anymore. So he took his basket of beef and took Yang Buhui outside the temple. After traveling in the dark for four or five miles, suddenly they saw that to the north there was a red light rising to the sky and knew that Zhu Yuanzhang and Xuda were successful and had burnt down Zhang Yuan's manor, making them very happy. At night the two of them slept on a mountain plain, and in the morning they proceeded westward. The two children endured wind, frost, hunger, and cold while walking along the road, making them exhausted. Fortunately Yang Buhui's parents were martial artists, so her own physique was healthy and strong so a small girl traveling for such a long distance was able to avoid sickness. On the way, she did have some colds, so Zhang Wuji picked some herbal medicine and was able to cure it. Every day they did have to rest, so they could only cover 20 or 30 miles in a day. After about fifteen or sixteen days, they reached Henan province.

There wasn't much difference between Henan and Anhui province – everywhere they went, there was famine and people were dying of starvation. Zhang Wuji made a bow and arrow and managed to shoot some birds and animals – one day they would be full, and another they would be hungry, slowly making their way east. Fortunately, they did not run into the Mongolian military, and they also did not run into any Jiang Hu people. As for those ordinary criminals with evil thoughts, how would they match up with Zhang Wuji? One day they ran into an old man and told him they wanted to go to the summit of Mt. Kunlun. This old man was startled and raised his eyebrows, saying, "Little brother, Kunlun Mountain is still about 180000 gong li ( a gong li =0.5 km) away, I heard that a Tang monk only went there to fetch some scriptures. You little kids aren't crazy are you? Where do you live? Quickly go back home!" When Zhang Wuji heard this, he couldn't help but feel disappointed, thinking, "Kunlun Mt. is so far, it's really impossible to go there, so the best thing to do is to go to Wudang to see Grandmaster first." But then he thought: "Someone trusted in me, even though the road is far, how can one stop in the middle? My own life is not long, if I can't send Sister Buhui before I die, I really can't be forgiven by Aunt Ji. So without saying anything else to the old man, he pulled up Yang Buhui and continued their journey.

Later, after walking for more than twenty days, the two children's clothing were tattered, their appearances were wan and sallow. The thing that vexed Zhang Wuji most was that Yang Buhui constantly asked for her Mama. She would frequently cry for half a day because Mama did not fly back down from the sky. Zhang Wuji tried his best to distract her by telling her stories, by saying that their journey to the west this time was also to look for her Mama, by making faces and all kinds of things that would turn her tears into laughter.

One particular day they arrived at Zhumadian [a city in Henan]. It was the end of autumn, early winter. The new moon wind was blowing hard. Since the two children only had the clothes on their backs, they were shivering incessantly. Zhang Wuji took out his tattered outer garment and put it on Yang Buhui.

"Wuji Gege," Yang Buhui asked, "Aren't you cold?"

"I am not cold," Zhang Wuji replied, "I feel unbearably hot," while doing some jumping jacks to keep himself warm.

"You are so good to me!" Yang Buhui said, "I know you are cold, but you give your clothes to me." The little girl spoke like an adult, Zhang Wuji could not help but feel astonished.

Right that moment, they heard the sound of clashing weapons coming from the other side of the hill, followed by footsteps coming closer. A female voice called out, "Evil thief, you have been hit by my 'wei du sang men' nail [lit. feed the poison, mourning gate, loose translation: as soon as you are hit, you are at the death door]. The faster you run, the quicker the poison will flare-up!"

Zhang Wuji quickly pulled Yang Buhui to hide under the bush by the roadside. They saw a sturdy-looking man, about thirty some years of age, flying their way. Several 'zhang's behind him, a woman ran after him with a pair of sabers in her hand. The man staggered, his legs turned weak and he stumbled down on the ground.

The woman soon arrived by his side. "Finally, you will be dead under the Miss' hands!" she called out.

The man suddenly sprang up and struck her with his right palm. 'Bang!' the palm hit the woman's chest. The force behind the strike was very strong. The woman fell backwards the pair of sabers in her hands was flung far away.