Chapter - 318 Recuperating In a Secret Chamber (6)

"Humph!" Huang Rong snorted. "All right, finally they come back," she murmured. She believed Lu's and Cheng's martial art skills were not too high, it would be difficult for them to fight Peng Lianhu and the others. If she and Guo Jing wanted to help, all they did would be delivering two more lives. The best way would be telling them to get out of the way quickly. But how could she let them know? She went over other possibilities, but after thinking back and forth she still could not produce any good idea. All they had was each other and their courage.

When Peng Lianhu and the others saw the double-headed ghost, they all thought it was the same expert, dressed as a ghost, who humiliated them the previous night. Therefore, they all ran away as far as possible from the village. Nobody dared to come back, with the exception of Hou Tonghai. He was a simple man, and actually believed it was a real ghost. He felt the blazing sun on his head, hurting his scalp. While everybody else had disappeared, he cursed, "Ghosts will meet their dooms under the sun. They did not know that, yet they dare to roam the Jianghu. I, Lao Hou [the Old Hou], am not afraid. I am going back to face the ghost. Let them respect me."

Thereupon he came back in big strides to the inn albeit with trepidation in his heart. When he stuck his head on the door, he saw Cheng Yaojia and Lu Guanying sat in the middle of the room. "Not good!" he said to himself, "The double-headed ghost has transformed itself into a man and a woman. Old Hou, oh, Old Hou, you have to be very careful."

Lu Guanying and Cheng Yaojia heard his challenge, but they did not understand the reason. They looked at each other and decided he was a mad man; hence they ignored him.

Hou Tonghai kept cursing, but the ghost did not come out to fight. He believed the ghost was afraid of the sun. But to barge in and capture the ghost inside, the Old Hou did not have any nerve. They were in a stalemate situation for half a day. He was waiting for the two ghosts to transform themselves to other forms, who would have thought that the ghosts did not show any activities at all. Suddenly he remembered an old saying that ghosts were afraid of filthy things. So he left at once to find some dung.

There were several outhouses in the village; there was one big one next to the inn. In his effort to capture the ghost he was not afraid of filth, so he took out his outer garment and scooped out a large bundle of dung, then he returned to the inn. He saw Lu and Cheng two people were still sitting in the inn. The secret weapon in his hands boosted his courage considerably. He called out loudly, "All right, daring ghost! Master Hou wants you to return to your original form." With a three-pronged fork in his left hand and the bundle of dung in his right hand, he boldly entered the room.

As Lu and Cheng two people saw this lunatic come back, they were slightly startled. But before the man arrived they had already caught the bad smell he was bringing. Hou Tonghai pondered, "I heard people say that men are more vicious than women, but female ghost is more dangerous than the male one." Therefore, he lifted the bundle and threw it toward Cheng Yaojia.

Cheng Yaojia called out in alarm; she moved sideways to evade. Lu Guanying had already lifted up a long bench to strike the bundle. It fell to the ground and broke, dung flew everywhere, bad smell attacked their nostrils making them want to throw up.

Hou Tonghai shouted loudly, "Double-headed ghost, quickly go back to your original form." Lifting his fork he attacked Cheng Yaojia ferociously. He was simple-minded, but his martial art skill was not bad. His fork attack was both rapid and fierce.

Lu and Cheng two people were alarmed; they both thought, "This man is obviously a Wulin expert; he is by no means a lunatic."

Lu Guanying saw Cheng Yaojia as a lady from a renowned family, she looked so frail and tender that a whiff of wind might blow her away. He was afraid this mad man might hurt her, so he lifted the long bench to parry the three-pronged steel fork. "Who are you, Sir?" he asked. Hou Tonghai ignored his question and stabbed him three times with his fork. Lu Guanying kept using the bench as his weapon and repeatedly asked his name.

Hou Tonghai noticed that although the ghost's martial art skill was not weak, but actually it was entirely different from the mysteriously appearing and disappearing ghost of last night. He concluded it was the result of his dung attack earlier. He was very smug and called out, "You, the enchanting ghost, want to know my name so that you can put a curse on me, don't you? Your master won't fall into your trick."

Initially he called himself 'Master Hou', but now that he got a sudden inspiration he omitted the word 'Hou' and only used the word 'Master' to avoid the ghost from throwing up a curse on him. The steel rings on his fork made a ding-dong noise as he intensified his attack.

Lu Guanying's martial art was inferior to his opponent to begin with; and now he was using a bench as a weapon. He wanted to draw the saber on his waist but did not have any chance to do so. He was forced to step back so that after a while his back was already against the wall, covering the small hole through which Huang Rong was looking out.

Hou Tonghai stabbed with his steel fork, Lu Guanying hastily moved sideways to evade. 'Bang!' the fork pricked the wall, less than a foot away from Huang Rong's hole. Before he pulled his fork back, the bench in Lu Guanying's hand struck vertically toward the top of his head. Hou Tonghai's foot flew to kick Lu Guanying's hand, while his left fist attacked Lu Guanying's face. The bench fell from Lu Guanying's hands, while he was forced to duck to avoid the blow. Meanwhile Hou Tonghai had withdrawn his steel fork from the wall.

Cheng Yaojia saw the critical situation; she jumped forward and pulled the saber from Lu Guanying's waist, then handed it over to him. "Many thanks!" Lu Guanying said. He had never imagined that in this critical moment this polite and charming girl would have the courage to enter such a fierce battle and draw the saber to help him.

He saw a bright flickering light from the steel fork coming into his chest; immediately his saber went up horizontally in front of his chest and 'clang!' sparks flew everywhere. The steel fork was forced sideways, but he felt a chest pain. It seemed like this lunatic's strength was not small; but with a saber in his hand he was greatly encouraged.

After exchanging several stances both men's feet had stepped over the dung and brought it everywhere they treaded. In the beginning Hou Tonghai was fighting with trepidation; he always thought about darting out the door to escape, he did not dare to use all his strength. But the longer they fought, he saw the ghost was unable to defeat him; obviously his enchantment was restrained by the dung. He became bolder and his attacks became fiercer. In the end Lu Guanying was having a hard time blocking his attacks.

At first Cheng Yaojia was afraid of the dung on the ground; she stood up in a corner watching the fight. But then she saw this handsome young man would lose his life under the lunatic's steel fork; she hesitated for a moment, finally she made up her mind and drew a sword from her bundle. She called out to Lu Guanying, "Xiang Gong, I … I am going to help you. Please pardon me." Her manner was truly thorough; she was apologizing before helping someone to fight. Her sword flashed toward Hou Tonghai's chest.