Chapter - 450 Will the Encounter While Lion-slaying Cause a Calamity? (6)

After a long while, Zhao Min gained her consciousness first. Still in daze, she reached out to feel Zhang Wuji's breathing. She felt that the breathing was weak, but it was long and steady. Propping up herself she arose slowly. Because she was too weak to get him out of bed, she had no alternative but pulling him down, and then rested his head on one of the dead monk bodies. Just this little exertion forced her to sit among the dead bodies, gasping for breath.

After half a day, Zhang Wuji opened his eyes. "Min Mei," he called out, "You … where are you?"

Zhao Min gave him one of her captivating smiles. The bright and cold moonlight streamed in from the window. They both saw the other's face was full of blood, so they'll know their own faces must be frightening. But after going through a life and death situation together, they felt that the other's face was very handsome and beautiful. Without realizing it, they both reached out and embraced each other tightly.

In this dramatic battle, Zhang Wuji was able to kill the first seven monks without the least bit of strength on his part; he simply borrowed strength to fight strength, and contrary to his expectation, he did not suffer any harm. However, when throwing the Sheng Huo Ling to kill the eighth wicked monk, both Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min had exhausted the remainder of the strength they had after the injury. Right now, the two of them were incapable of moving; all they could do was leaning on dead people's bodies and quietly wait for their strength to return. Zhao Min wrapped her cut left-hand little finger, and then, still in daze, she went back to sleep.

Around noon the next day, they started to awake. Zhang Wuji sat up and circulated his 'chi', trying to harmonize the flow. After meditation for more than an hour, he felt his spirit return. He stood up by pushing himself against the floor, and suddenly heard his tummy was growling. He went to the kitchen by leaning on the wall. He saw a pot of rice, where half of the rice had already turned black, and the other half was also burned that it carried a strong burning smell. He filled a bowl full of burnt rice and returned to their room.

Zhao Min said with a laugh, "You and I are in such a distressed situation today. The Heaven knows, the Earth knows, you and I know, but nobody else knew about it."

They both laughed heartily, and then ate the rice with their bare hands. To them, the burnt rice tasted so good that it was better than any exotic delicacies they had ever had.

They had not finished this bowl of rice, when suddenly from the distant came the muffled noise of hooves against mountain rocks. 'Crash!' the bowl in their hands crashed down on the tiled floor. Zhao Min and Zhang Wuji looked at each other. Their hearts were beating rapidly. They heard two horses were coming their way, and stopped in the front of the temple's main gate. They heard the brass ring on the door was knocked four times, and then someone banged the door. The noise stopped for a moment then the knocker banged four more times.

"What should we do?" Zhang Wuji asked in low voice.

They heard someone outside the door calling out, "Shangguan San'ge [third (older) brother Shangguan], it is me, Qin Laowu [old fifth Qin]!"

"They are going to break in," Zhao Min said, "Let's pretend we are dead; we'll act according to the circumstance." The two of them lied down among the corpses, with their faces on the floor.

They had just lied down when with a loud crash the door was pushed open. From the noise generated by the broken door, it was obvious that the newcomers had quite a bit of strength. Zhao Min had an idea. "Go lie down near the door," she said, "Don't let these people escape."

Zhang Wuji nodded and crawled toward the entrance. Right at that moment, they heard two people cry out in fear, followed by 'swish, swish!' as the two people who entered the temple were pulling their weapons out. Obviously they had seen the two corpses in the courtyard.

"Careful!" one of them said in low voice, "Watch for the enemy's ambush."

The other man loudly shouted, "Friends, sneaking and hiding in the dark, what kind of heroes are you? Come out and fight Laozi [the Old Man – referring to self] to the death if you have the nerve." This man's voice was strong and heroic, a sign of his abundant internal energy. He must be the one who pushed the gate open.

He shouted several times, but did not hear the least bit of voice answering his call. "The thieves must have left far away," he said.

The other man said in a hoarse voice, "We must look up everywhere, make sure the enemy is not setting up an ambush."

"Shou Laodi [lit. 'old' (younger brother) Shou]," the one who called himself Qin Lauwu said, "You look to the east and I'll search to the west."

Apparently, the one surnamed Shou was a coward; he said, "I am afraid the enemies are numerous. We'd better go together." Qin Laowu did not say anything.

Suddenly the one surnamed Shou exclaimed in terror while pointing his finger toward the room on the east, "There … there are more dead people inside!"

The two of them went to the door and saw that in that small room there were about seven, eight corpses lying around on the floor.

Qin Laowu said, "This temple … this temple's eight brethrens have lost their lives at the same time. I wonder whose treacherous hands have done it!"

"Qin Wuge [fifth (older) brother Qin]," the surnamed Shou said, "We must return to the Temple immediately, to report … report … report this to Shifu."

Qin Laowu hesitantly said, "Shifu has urgently ordered us to deliver these invitations promptly, since the guests are expected by the fifth day of the fifth month [orig. 'duan1 wu3 jie2' – Dragon Boat (or Duanwu) Festival day] for the Lion-slaying Heroes' Assembly [orig, tu2 shi1 ying1 xiong2 hui4]. If we fail, I am afraid we will be punished."

As he heard the words 'Lion-slaying Heroes' Assembly', Zhang Wuji was slightly taken aback; and then he was shocked, delighted, ashamed and angry, as a hundred feelings filled up his heart. He mused, "His Shifu issued invitations for some 'Lion-slaying Heroes' Assembly', his intention must be to gather the heroes and warriors under the Heaven, and then to kill Yifu publicly. From what he said, it seems like before the Duanwu, Yifu's life will not be harmed. I cannot protect Yifu completely; I let him down by letting him fall into others' hands that he has to suffer this disgrace. I am unfilial and unworthy; there is nothing worse than this."

The more he thought, the angrier he got; he wished he had a weapon in his hand and kill these two villains, but he was afraid they might escape while he was powerless to pursue them. Therefore, all he could do was to wait for these two men to enter the room and then cut their way out. Just like before, he hoped the Jiu Yang Zhen Qi in his body would get rid of these two traitors. Unexpectedly, because these two saw the room was full of dead bodies, they did not dare to enter, but simply stood and talked in the courtyard

"This is most important," the one surnamed Shou said, "The sooner we report to Shifu the better."

"Let's do this then," Qin Laowu said, "We take our separate ways; I deliver the invitation, you go back to the Temple to report to Shifu."

The surnamed Shou was afraid he might run into the enemies on the road; thereupon he did not answer immediately. Qin Laowu was angry, "Take your pick, then. Would you rather deliver the invitations? It is up to you."