After leaving the palace that night, Huang Rong ran without looking where she was heading. She randomly chose her way and only slowed down after realizing that nobody was pursuing them. She entered a small alley and stretched her finger to feel for Guo Jing’s breath. She was relieved to find Guo Jing was still breathing, but since her flint had been lost in the palace, in the darkness she could not examine him to determine where the injury was. She knew if she waited for dawn, it would be more difficult to find shelter inside the city walls, especially with her having a blood-covered person with her, so she decided to leave the city that very same night and headed towards Sha Gu’s wine shop.
Huang Rong’s martial arts skills were high, but after running fast for half the night and carrying Guo Jing on her back, it was with a nervous heart that she shoved open the door of Sha Gu’s shop.
She was out of breath and her body felt weak. She sat down to calm herself. After catching her breath she found a piece of firewood and lit it so she could look at Guo Jing’s face and examine his wound. She was even more shocked than when they were at the palace.
Guo Jing’s eyes were tightly closed, his face was as white as a sheet, and he looked more dead than alive. Huang Rong had seen him injured several times before, but had never seen him in this kind of critical condition. She felt as though her own heart was about to jump out of her throat. As she stood lost in thought with the torch in her hand a hand suddenly reached out from the side and touched the torch. Huang Rong slowly turned her head and saw that it was Sha Gu. Huang Rong sucked in a deep breath. Now that there was someone beside her, she felt somewhat better. She remembered that she was going to examine Guo Jing’s injury. Under the bright light of the torch she could see a blackish object protruding from Guo Jing’s side. It looked like the ebony hilt of a dagger. She lowered her head for a closer look and saw that it was indeed a dagger with the blade stuck in Guo Jing’s left side.
By this time Huang Rong’s panic had reached its limits and her mind became calm. She gently tore the clothes from around his waist, exposing bare skin and muscle. She saw that the blood had coagulated around the blade, which had penetrated the muscle several ‘cun’ deep [1 cun is approximately 1 inch]. She was afraid if she pulled the dagger out, Guo Jing would die immediately, but if she waited too long it would be even more difficult to save his life. Biting her lips, she reached out to grab the dagger’s hilt, but doubt suddenly came creeping into her heart and she withdrew her hand. This happened several times. She just could not make up her mind.
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Sha Gu became impatient. The fourth time Huang Rong withdrew her hand, she suddenly stretched out hers, grabbed the hilt and abruptly pulled the dagger out. Both Guo Jing and Huang Rong shouted in shock, but Sha Gu thought it was fun and laughed happily.
Huang Rong saw blood gushing like a spring from Guo Jing’s wound, while Sha Gu was still laughed foolishly. Huang Rong went from shock to anger. Her palm struck backwards sending Sha Gu rolling on the floor. Then she immediately stooped down to press the wound with a handkerchief.
When Sha Gu fell, she took the torch with her. The flame was extinguished and the room became pitch-black. Sha Gu was angry. She jumped up and kicked Huang Rong’s leg. Huang Rong did not avoid the kick. Sha Gu was afraid Huang Rong would retaliate, so she jumped back immediately after kicking. After a while, she heard Huang Rong sobbing softly. She was surprised. Hastily she re-lit the torch and came asking, “Did I hurt you bad?”
When the dagger was pulled out, the pain was so severe it woke Guo Jing up. In the torch light he saw Huang Rong kneeling beside him. “Master Yue’s book … was it … was it stolen?” he quickly asked.
Huang Rong was delighted to hear him speak. Knowing he was very concerned about this matter she felt it was not the right time to add to his anxiety. “Don’t worry,” she said, “Those traitors were not able to get their hands on the book …” She wanted to ask how he was feeling but her hands were still warm from his blood.
“Why are you crying?” Guo Jing asked in a low voice.
Huang Rong forced a smile and said, “I am not crying.”
Sha Gu suddenly opened her mouth, “She is too, isn’t she? Look, there are still tears on her face.”
“Rong’er, don’t worry.” Guo Jing said. “There is a section about treating injuries in the ‘Nine Yin Manual’. I won’t die.”
Upon hearing this, Huang Rong was like someone in the dark suddenly seeing a beacon of light.
Her eyes shone brightly and her delight was unspeakable as though nothing could dampen her spirits. She wanted to ask for the details but was afraid she would make him weary. She turned around to hold Sha Gu’s hand. “Sister, did I hurt you just now?” she asked, with smile on her face.
Sha Gu’s mind was still set on seeing her cry so she ignored her question and asked, “You were crying…won’t you admit it?”
Huang Rong smiled, “Fine, I was crying but you weren’t. You are a good girl.” Sha Gu was delighted to hear her praise.
Guo Jing slowly circulated his ‘qi’ because the pain was unbearable. By this time Huang Rong had cleared her mind. She took out a steel needle and pierced the acupoints around his left side, both to slow down the flow of blood and to reduce the pain. Then she washed his wound, applied some medicine and re-wrapped the wound with clean cloth. She also gave him a ‘Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill’ to help stop the pain.
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Guo Jing said, “Although the dagger went in pretty deep, but … luckily it did not hit any vital organs, so it … it won’t be life-threatening. I suffered more dangerous injuries from the Old Poison’s ‘Toad Stance’. Fortunately it seems like he did not use all of his strength, so it looks like I can be healed. Only I will have to make you suffer for seven days and seven nights.”
Huang Rong sighed. “You know that even if I had to suffer seventy years for you, I would still be willing,” she said.
Guo Jing felt a sweetness creep into his heart and at the same time felt dizzy. After waiting for a moment his mind cleared up a little bit and he said, “It was a pity that when Master was injured I missed several days’ opportunity to treat him. Had it been otherwise, even though the snake venom was fierce, it wouldn’t have been too hard for him to fully recover. He wouldn’t be … he wouldn’t be disabled like he is today.”
Huang Rong replied, “When we were on that island, even if we could have healed Master’s injury, would the Old Poison and his nephew let us? Please don’t think that way. Just tell me your method and set my mind at ease.”
“First we must find a peaceful and quiet place,” Guo Jing said. “Then, following the Manual’s instructions, we circulate our ‘qi’ together. Each will hold the other’s palm. By using your internal energy you are helping me heal my injury.” At this point he closed his eyes to catch his breath before continuing. “The only difficulty is that for seven whole days and nights our palms cannot be separated even for a second. Your breathing will be closely linked to mine. We can talk to each other, but we definitely can’t have a third person interrupting us by even a half sentence. Also, we must not walk even half a step. If someone else disturbs us, we may …”
Huang Rong realized this kind of treatment was similar to the meditation for cultivating someone’s martial arts. Before reaching a satisfactory result, one cannot experience any external interruptions.
Otherwise, the mind would be disturbed with bad thoughts or would go out of control. Unavoidably the result would be a fire deviation and not only would the whole energy cultivation be wasted, but at the very least the person could suffer an injury or even die. That is the reason warriors who cultivate internal energy will find a secluded and uninhabited mountain or field, or at least close their doors and not leave, and have a skilled and powerful master or friend protecting them from the sidelines to prevent their training going astray.
She thought, “With this short notice it’s difficult to find a peaceful and quiet place and I am the only one who can help him treat his injury. It’s impossible to rely on Sha Gu to guard against external disturbances. She could even come and create endless disturbances herself. If only Big Brother Zhou would come back. But even then I don’t think he will be able to focus his mind on guarding us for seven days and seven nights. Success won’t be guaranteed and more than likely, things will go wrong. What should I do?” She mused over this matter for a long time. Then she glanced over at the iron bowl in the cabinet. An idea came into her mind, “I’ve got it. We can hide inside the secret room. In the past Mei Chaofeng practiced martial arts without anybody protecting her. Didn’t she hide herself in a cave?”
It was now dawn. Sha Gu went to the kitchen and cooked some rice porridge for the two to eat.
“Jing ge ge,” Huang Rong said. “Wait here for a moment. I am going to buy some food and then we can start your treatment immediately.”
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