The ‘dai mai’ consisted of eight acupoints. Yideng stretched out his hand slowly, as if with great difficulty; his mouth gasping for breath, his body swaying, like he could not even support his own weight.
Guo Jing was shocked; he saw beads of perspirations trickling down Yideng’s forehead, sweat dripping down like rain from the tip of his long eyebrows. Guo Jing wanted to step forward and help, but he was afraid he might mess things up. He turned to look at Huang Rong’s condition and saw her clothes were soaked with sweat. She was knitting her brows and biting her lips; like she was trying to resist unbearable pain with all her might.
Suddenly Guo Jing heard a ‘shua’ sound, the bamboo curtain behind him was opened and somebody shouted loudly, “Shifu!” and somebody barged in through the door.
Almost without thinking Guo Jing launched the ‘divine dragon swings its tail’; his right palm swung backward and with a slapping sound it hit that person’s shoulder. Guo Jing turned around to see somebody was staggering two steps backward; it was the fisherman.
Because his iron boat and iron oars were stolen he was unable to go upstream the creek to the mountain peak; he had to take a long walk more than 20 ‘li’s around the back of the mountain. Upon arriving he heard his Shifu has already started treating that young miss’ injury; he was very anxious and rushed toward the room with the intention of imploring his master not to do that. Unexpectedly he was pushed back by Guo Jing’s attack. He stood back up to try again. In the meantime the woodcutter, the farmer, and the scholar three people had also arrived outside the door.
“It’s over; what else can we stop?” the scholar angrily said.
Guo Jing turned around to see Reverend Yideng sit cross-legged on the meditation mat, his face deathly pale, his monk robe completely soaked in sweats. Huang Rong was lying down on the floor, unmoving; it was not clear whether she was dead or alive. Guo Jing was very shocked; he rushed forward to prop her up. First thing he noticed was a fishy stench coming out of her nose. He looked at her face and found it was bloodless bluish pale, but the faint black shadow on her face had actually gone. He held out his hand to feel her breathing and was greatly relieved to find a steady albeit weak breathing.
The fisherman, the woodcutter, the farmer and the scholar were sitting around their master in silence, with apprehensive looks on their faces. Guo Jing kept his eyes on Huang Rong. He saw her face gradually turn pink, he was ecstatic; who would have thought that the pink turned to red and very soon her cheeks were fiery hot. A short moment later beads of perspiration started to form on her forehead while her countenance was gradually turning back to white. This cycle happened three times, every time she was sweating profusely.
“Mmm,” Huang Rong moaned softly then she opened her eyes. “Jing Gege, where is the stove, uh, the ice?” she asked.
Hearing her voice Guo Jing’s delight was unspeakable, with a trembling voice he said, “What stove? What ice?”
Huang Rong looked around, shook her head and smiled, “Ah, I was having a nightmare,” she said, “I saw Ouyang Feng, Ouyang Ke and Qiu Qianren. They put me inside the stove to be roasted; and when I was hot, they put ice to cool me down. Once I cool down they put me back into the stove. (Sigh), it was really scary. Uh, how is Uncle?”
Yideng slowly opened up his eyes and smiled, “Your injury is healed, all you need is a day or two of total rest – you can’t move unnecessarily; and you will be all right.”
“I don’t have any strength left in my entire body,” Huang Rong said, “I can’t even lift up a finger.” The farmer was looking at her angrily. Huang Rong ignored him, she turned to Yideng and said, “Uncle, you have spent so much energy to treat me, you must be very tired. I have some Nine Flowered Jade Dew Pills, made according to my father’s recipe. How about you take some?”
Yideng happily said, “Good, I did not think you would bring these energy-booster miracle pills. That year when we had the Sword Meet of Mount Hua each one of us was dead tired after the competition; your father gave us some of these pills and the effectiveness was marvelous.”
Guo Jing quickly took the small bag of pills from Huang Rong’s backpack and handed it over to Yideng. The woodcutter went to the kitchen to fetch a bowl of clear water, while the scholar poured the pills on his palm and presented them to his master.
Yideng laughed, “Why so many? These pills are not easy to make, we’ll just take half.”
The scholar anxiously replied, “Shifu, all the miracle pills in the world won’t be enough.”
Yideng conceded since he felt extremely exhausted; he took several dozens of Nine Flowered Jade Dew Pills from his disciple’s hand and swallowed them all, washed by a bowl of clear water. He turned to Guo Jing and said, “Take your Shimei [Martial (younger) Sister] to have a couple of days’ rest and then you can go down the mountain. You don’t need to see me again. Hmm, I have something I want you to promise me.”
Guo Jing bowed to the ground and ‘bonk, bonk, bonk, bonk’, knocked his head to the floor. Huang Rong ordinarily loved to joke around and be casual with everybody. Even in the presence of her father and her master she still did not follow proper junior-senior relationship; yet this time she actually bowed down reverently and said with a low voice, “Uncle has saved my life, I will not dare to forget even for a moment.”
Yideng smiled and said, “It’s better if you forget about it; don’t let it hang in your mind.” Turning his head to Guo Jing he said, “Don’t tell anybody that you have come up this mountain; don’t ever tell it, even to your Shifu.”
Guo Jing was just thinking about taking Hong Qigong up the mountain to ask Yideng to treat his injury; hearing this he could not help but was taken aback and did not know what to say.
Yideng smiled and continued, “Later on don’t even bother to come back here, since very soon we are going to move away.”
“Where are you moving to?” Guo Jing hastily asked. Yideng smiled without say anything.
Huang Rong said in her heart, “Silly Brother, because their whereabouts has been discovered by us they will have to move away; how can he tell you?” She thought about how Yideng, master and disciples, had spent a lot of effort laboriously developing this place and now because of her they would have to abandon everything; she felt sorry and thought it would be difficult for her to pay back this kindness. No wonder the fisherman, the woodcutter, the farmer and the scholar did everything they could to prevent them from going up the mountain. Thinking of this she turned her gaze toward the four disciples, wanted to say something to express her apology and gratefulness but she could not find any appropriate words.