When the Divine Indian Monk was killed by Li Mochou, Yang Guo thought Xiao Longnu was beyond hope, so he desired to die; but now he was determined to live for at least sixteen years longer. He put the grass into his mouth and started to chew, then swallowed it. The 'Severed Intestine Grass' was very bitter, but he endured it. He thought of how miserable Xiao Longnu would be if, sixteen years from now, she came back and did not see him. He quickly sat down and exerted his internal energy to protect his heart, liver, and other sensitive organs.
After not too long, he started to feel his stomach growling, followed by excruciating pain like he had swallowed thousands of needles. The name 'Severed Intestine' was not an empty name. He endured the pain, gritting his teeth. After another moment or two, the pain surged through his entire body, to his hands and feet, but his heart felt quite comfortable. This demonstrated the excellence of the 'Solitary Yang Finger' of Reverend Yideng. An hour or so later, the pain was concentrated back in his stomach, and he threw up some blood. The blood glittered and looked redder than regular blood.
"Ah!" seeing him vomiting blood, Cheng Ying, Wushuang, and the others were shocked! Only Reverend Yideng looked delighted. "Shi di… [Younger Martial Brother]! Shi di!" he said softly, "even after your death you were still able to save your fellow man."
Yang Guo leaped up and declared with a voice full of emotion, "Today my life has been saved by the Divine Indian Monk, Reverend Yideng, and Auntie Guo."
"Is the poison completely eradicated from your body?" asked Wushuang gleefully.
"How could it be that quick?" he answered. "But now that we know the grass works, I will take a couple of strands every day until the poison is completely gone."
"But how would you know when your body is clean?" inquired Miss Lu further, "I mean, if the poison is completely neutralized and you continue taking the grass, wouldn't the grass poison you?"
"I can tell," he answered, "if the Passion Flower poison is still here and I … I … I think about love, my chest will hurt."
Guo Fu had been listening the whole time and suddenly quipped, "Yang Da Ge is thinking about Yang Da Sao, not you!" When she parried Gongsun Zhi's sword with her right arm earlier, she was heeding Lu Wushuang's advice. At first she thought Wushuang was being nice to her; but afterwards realized Lu Wushuang did not know about the soft-hedgehog armor. Lu Wushuang must have wanted her to lose her right arm just as she'd chopped off Yang Guo's right arm. She'd kept her anger pent up for a long time and now she could not restrain herself.
"Fu'er! Shut up!" her mother rebuked harshly.
Hearing her, Lu Wushuang's face was flushed with anger, but Guo Fu wasn't finished yet, she continued, "Sixteen years from now, Sister-in-law will come back. Don't you get any weird ideas."
Wushuang unsheathed her willow-leaf-saber. "Wicked woman!" she snapped, pointing her saber to Guo Fu, "If not for you, Yang Da Ge wouldn't have to be separated from Yang Da Sao for sixteen years. Do you have the slightest idea how badly you have hurt Yang Da Ge?"
Guo Fu was about to counter when Huang Rong rebuked her with anger in her voice; "Fu'er! If you can't behave, go to the Peach Blossom Island. I'll forbid you to comeback to Xiangyang."
Guo Fu did not dare to open her mouth, but she still looked at Wushuang menacingly.
Yang Guo heaved a sigh and sorrowfully said, "It was an accident. Miss Guo did not intentionally want to hurt Long'er. Sister Lu, I forbid you to raise this incident again."
Hearing Yang Guo used the term "Sister Lu" to address her, while he called Guo Fu "Miss Guo", thus differentiating a good friend from an acquaintance, Wushuang was very pleased and sheathed her saber.
"Yang Shao Xia [Young Hero Yang] has eaten the 'Severed Intestine Grass'; but he did not experienced any bad side effects. That proved the grass was indeed the antidote to the Passionless Flower's poison," Yideng said. "In my opinion, however, I think it will be better for Mr. Yang not to take the grass continually. Wait another seven days or so, and then you can have the second dose, even then, you should reduce the amount a little bit."
"Thank you for your priceless advice, Reverend." Yang Guo said, bowing.
The sun was already high in the sky. Huang Rong said, "We've been gone from Xiangyang for a while, and have not heard any news on the war situation. My mind keeps wandering back there, so I think we'd better go back today. Guo'er, I think you'd better come along, your Uncle Guo was really worried about you."
"Let me stay here and … and wait for Long'er," he answered.
"You want to wait here sixteen years?" Guo Fu asked in disbelief.
"I don't know. I just feel like there is nowhere better," he answered.
"Very well then," decided Huang Rong, "It's all right if you want to wait here ten days to half a month. But if Sister Long does not come back, you'd better come to Xiangyang."
Yang Guo cast his glance toward the cliff but did not say anything.
Everybody bade Yang Guo farewell. Only Lu Wushuang seemed reluctant to leave. Of course Guo Fu saw that, and she could not help making a comment, "Hey, Lu Wushuang, do you want to stay here to accompany Brother Yang?"
Miss Lu blushed. "None of your business!" she snapped.
Suddenly Cheng Ying said, "Brother Yang has not fully recovered yet. Let Cousin and I stay here to accompany him for a few days."
Huang Rong knew, as sweet and gentle as she looked, in reality her younger martial sister had a very strong character. If her own daughter messed things up, she would not keep her peace. She looked sternly at Guo Fu, signaling her not to say another word. "Guo'er, I think it is a great idea to have Martial Sister and Miss Lu taking care of you," she said, "However, as soon as you are cured, I do hope you will come to Xiangyang, where my husband and I will wait for the three of you."
Yang Guo, Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang stood on the hill side, watching Yideng, Huang Rong and the others slowly fading away from their sight; disappearing among the trees. In the mean time, the fire that had been raging all night long had slowly died away.
"Sisters," said Yang Guo suddenly, "I would like to suggest something. I do hope you won't get offended."
"Who has ever been offended by you?" Wushuang asked.
Yang Guo smiled sadly, his voice trembling, "We have known each other for some time now; we love each other and we have even faced danger together. When I was a young boy I lived alone, with neither brothers nor sisters. My heart's desire is that we become sworn brother and sisters. What do you think?"
Cheng Ying was touched. She was sensitive and knew exactly what Yang Guo was thinking. She knew Yang Guo loved Xiao Longnu with all his heart. He had made that suggestion because he had to wait sixteen years, and because they would have to live together for several days. He wanted to avoid anything that could cause embarrassment or would make them uncomfortable. Lu Wushuang put her head down, tears flowing from her eyes. "I would have never dreamed of being your sworn sister," she said softly. "We will be proud and honored to have a big brother like you."
After saying that, she walked toward a Passionless Flower nearby and picked three strands of the 'Severed Intestine Grass'. "Others become sworn brothers and sisters with incense sticks, here we use grass instead." She tried to make a joke and sound cheerful, but toward the end, her voice was hoarse. Before Yang Guo could respond, she immediately kneeled down on the ground. Yang Guo and Cheng Ying quickly knelt at either side of Miss Lu, and, just like the regular ceremony of becoming sworn brothers and sisters; they kowtowed eight times, and then bowed to each other in respect.
"Second Sister, Third Sister, what I hate most in this world is the Passionless Flower," Yang Guo said. "If that flower ever spreads outside this valley, it would be a real disaster for mankind. Therefore, let us make an oath to completely wipe out the Passionless Flower from the face of the earth. What do you think?"
"Your desire Big Brother is a very noble one," said Cheng Ying. "I am sure the Goddess of Mercy will bless you so that you will meet Sister-in-law much earlier."
Hearing his sister's words, Yang Guo's spirits rose. Immediately they went to the building complex ruins, trying to find some tools like machete or axe to cut down the poisonous flowers. They had to work very slowly. Not only there were lots of shrubs to cut, but if not careful, they would get pricked by the thorns. They finished cutting the shrubs after toiling for six whole days. Then they walked around the whole valley, making sure not a single shrub was spared. It was because of their hard work that the world was free of the Passionless Flowers.
Early morning the next day, Wushuang took some more 'Severed Intestine Grass', went to her sworn brother and said, "Big Brother, it's time for you to take another dose of the grass."
After his first experience seven days ago, Yang Guo was not hesitant. Although the 'Severed Intestine Grass' was poisonous, it was effective against the poison in his body. He immediately sat down on the ground, exerted his internal energy to protect his heart and liver, and quickly ate the grass. This time the pain was not so severe. After about an hour or so he threw up some blood and the pain lessened almost immediately.
He stood up, stretched his arms and legs, and saw Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang's joyful countenance. "I am so lucky to have two very loving sworn sisters." he said to himself. "One is more than enough, now I have two. How can I repay their kindness?" He looked down, thinking hard. Then he thought, "Second Sister has had an excellent Master, and I am sure someday she will be an excellent martial artist. Not so with Third Sister."
Having had that thought, he said to Wushuang, "Third Sister, your master and mine were martial sisters. That makes us people of the same sect. The highest level of the Ancient Tomb Sect's martial arts was written in the 'Jade Maiden Manual'. Li Mochou's lifelong desire was to get hold of this manual, fortunately she did not get her wish right up to the day she died. While we have the opportunity, I'd like to teach you one or two arts from our sect. What do you say?"
Lu Wushuang was delighted, "Thank you Big Brother," she said. "Next time Guo Fu and I meet, she will not dare to pick a fight with me."
Yang Guo smiled faintly and immediately taught the theory of 'Jade Maiden Manual' to his sister, beginning from the elementary to the advanced. "You have to memorize the theory first, and later on ask Second Sister's help when it comes to training," explained the big brother. "This quiet Passionless Valley is a very suitable place to learn martial arts."
For a few days Wushuang used all her waking moments to memorize the theory. Since her background was also from the Ancient Tomb Sect, she did not have any difficulty understanding the elementary lessons. Very soon however, she arrived at the more difficult part of the lesson and started to have some trouble understanding the theory. Yang Guo advised her to just memorize the theory blindly; she would eventually understand the whole lesson. So Wushuang spent almost the whole month memorizing the entire 'Jade Maiden Manual'. In the mean time Yang Guo ate the 'Severed Intestine Grass' every seven days and his pain gradually lessened.
One morning, as usual Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang prepared their breakfast, and then waited for Yang Guo to come. After waiting for quite a while, Yang Guo did not come. They went to their big brother's cave, only to find some characters written on the ground at the cave's entrance. It said, "To part for a while, to be together forever. Brotherly love shines like the sun and the moon."
Both girls were shocked. "He … finally he left us," Lu Wushuang said, running toward a hill and looked around. Cheng Ying followed not too far behind. All they could see were clouds on the mountain peaks. Miss Lu's heart was broken. She asked, with an uneven voice, "Second Sister … where … where did he go? Can we … can we see him again?"
"Third Sister," her older sister replied, "Do you see those clouds? They gathered together, then were blown away by the wind, to be gathered again somewhere else. We are just like those clouds. Now we gather, then we part. Why is your heart troubled?" Even though her mouth said those words, her heart was also full of sorrow.
Yang Guo had remained on the Broken Heart Cliff for about over a month and imparted the 'Jade Maiden Manual' to Lu Wushuang. During all this time, he did not find any more clues or news about the whereabouts of Xiao Longnu and knew that it would be no use to wait any longer. He gathered a bunch of the 'Severed Intestine Grass' and then left a parting a message in the sand before leaving the cliff. However, he had still not given up hope of seeing Xiao Longnu again, so he returned to mount Zhongnan and went back into the Ancient Tomb. But after seeing that the wedding garments were left untouched and were lying on the bed and floor, his heart was broken once again.
He left the mountain and roamed Jianghu for a few months. One day, he found himself near the city of Xiangyang. The burned wastelands that the Mongols had left was showing signs of human activity and it appeared that in the past months the Mongols were once again heading south.
He missed Guo Jing, but he did not want to see Guo Fu and thought to himself, "It's been a long time since I parted with Brother Eagle, why don't I go visit him?" He then made his way to the wild valley.
As he neared the home of Sword Demon Dugu Qiubai [Dugu Seeking-A-Loss], he gave a long whistle. He walked and whistled at the same time and not long after, he heard chirrup calls from the base of the mountain. He raised his head and saw the Divine Eagle below a large tree with a wolf in its claws. When the Divine Eagle saw Yang Guo, it released the wolf and made its way to him. After managing to keep its life after facing the jaws of death, the wolf darted straight into the bushes without turning back.
Yang Guo hugged the eagle; both man and beast were extremely happy. They made their way back to the cave. In just a few months, Yang Guo had found himself slipping from life to death and from death back to life again, grief and joy both came and went, the trials and tribulations he had gone through, countless. It was a pity that the eagle could not speak; otherwise Yang Guo could tell it all the things that have been on his mind.
He stayed in the valley with the eagle as his companion for months. One day out of boredom, he made his way to the cliff where Dugu Qiubai buried his swords. He made his way to the top of the cliff and looked at the words underneath the decayed wooden sword:
"After the age of forty, I no longer relied on weaponry. Even bushes, trees, bamboo sticks or rocks can all be my sword. From then on, I achieved great progress and slowly reached the realm of overcoming the sword without a sword."
Yang Guo thought to himself, "With the heavy iron sword, it can be said that I had no match under heaven's skies; but from senior Dugu's words, it appears that the wooden sword can defeat the heavy iron sword, and finally, no sword can defeat the wooden sword. Since Long'er said that we will only be able to see each other again in sixteen years time, with all these years to come, I might as well study the ways to defeat the heavy iron sword with the wooden sword and how to overcome a sword without a sword."
He broke a branch and formed a sword with it and pondered, "The heavy iron sword is around seventy jin in weight, there are only two possibilities on how to overcome it with such a light and fragile wooden sword. One is through ingenuity of the sword strokes, using speed to overcome the slow; the other is through overbearing internal energy, using strength to subdue the weak."
From that day on, he trained his internal energy hard night and day and studied the art of the sword. Every timed it rained; he went to the mountain torrents to fight the water in order to increase the power in his sword strokes.
Summer ended and autumn arrived, autumn went and winter came. Though Yang Guo trained with dedication, he made little progress with his internal energy and sword arts. However, he knew that his level of martial arts was already very high; to gain any sort of improvement from such a state was, in reality, a hard task to accomplish, so he wasn't troubled by it.
One day, it started to snow. The Divine Eagle called out with joy and leapt into the open. It spread its wings and created a strong gust of wind, blowing the snow away. Yang Guo had a thought, "There are no mountain torrents in the winter; practicing in the snow is a great alternative."
He watched on as the gusts of wind created by the eagle became stronger and stronger; though the snow was heavy, not a flake landed on its body.
Yang Guo's interests were stirred. He picked up the wooden sword and he too went out into the snow. He used his sword with his left hand and swung his right sleeve at the same time. Whenever flakes of snow got close, either the wind from the wooden sword or the force from his right sleeve would repel it. He continued for a half a day and felt that the power in both his sword and sleeve seemed to have made some improvements.
It snowed for three days and Yang Guo practiced in the snow each day. On the afternoon of the third day, the snow became even heavier. Yang Guo was in the middle of concentrating on attacking the snow when suddenly, the Divine Eagle swept its wings at him. Yang Guo was not prepared for this and was almost tripped by this attack. He leaped up urgently to avoid this attack but as soon as he did this, he felt coolness on his forehead, two flakes of snow had landed on it. He immediately understood, "That day on top of the cliff, Brother Eagle used its wings to fight me and helped me to make great improvements in my sword arts; today he is helping me to train my sword skills once again." He then extended his sword and thrust forward, a 'crack' sound was heard as the sword met the eagle's wings; the sword broke. The Divine Eagle did not continue its attack and instead it straightened up and chirruped with an impression of blame.
Yang Guo thought, "The only way to fight against your frightening strength with a wooden sword is to dodge, evade and wait for a chance to attack from afar." He made another wooden sword and once again, fought with the Divine Eagle in the snow. This time, he managed ten stances before the sword broke.
Training as hard as this without stop, Yang Guo felt that the Divine Eagle was like a strict teacher and showed no signs of letting up; he was touched by this but he was also ashamed of himself, "If I don't manage to learn the wooden sword, won't I have let down Brother Eagle's good intentions? Anyway, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, how can I let it slip away?"
From then on, he thought about how to increase his internal energy, about how to evade and how to strike out with the sword even in his dreams. He trained rigorously and as a result, his thoughts of Xiao Longnu did not engulf his mind as it had in the previous months. The poison from the Passion Flower had now been cleansed from his body, his internal energy had improved, he was in prime shape and he no longer had the haggard and distressed look of old.
It was now the anniversary of his parting with Xiao Longnu. Yang Guo said, "Brother Eagle, I want to visit the Passionless Valley; I'm going to have to leave you for a while." He then picked up his wooden sword and made his way out of the valley. The Divine Eagle followed. When they reached the fork in the road, Yang Guo bowed to the Divine Eagle and made his way on the road to the north. But to his surprise, the Divine Eagle tugged at his clothes and pulled him towards the south.
Yang Guo said, "Brother Eagle, I have something to do in the north, let us part now." But the eagle kept on pulling him south. Yang Guo was curious, "Brother Eagle has been very understanding; why is he being so stubborn now?" He could not get through to it with words and could only follow the Divine Eagle south. When the Divine Eagle saw that Yang Guo was following, it let go of Yang Guo's clothes: but as soon as Yang Guo turned around and tried to go north, it got hold of his clothes once again.
Yang Guo thought, "Brother Eagle is a divine creature, it must have a reason for wanting me to go to the south with him, I might as well go." He dropped his thoughts of returning to Passionless Valley and followed the eagle to the southeast.
After traveling over ten li, Yang Guo suddenly had a thought, "Could it be that Brother Eagle is leading me to the South Sea to allow me to see Long'er?" As soon as this thought finished, he was filled with excitement and started to take greater strides as he followed the Divine Eagle. Within a month, they had reached the coast of the South Sea.
He stood on a rock and gazed into the sea. He watched the waves of the sea as all manners of emotions filled his mind. After a while, he heard the thunderous sounds of the tides that went on without stop. After spending part of his childhood on the Peach Blossom Island, he knew that the tides of the sea always kept its cycle; it would come at the first and seventh hour of the day. The sun was in the sky and it appeared that it was the time for the turn of the tide. The tide was getting louder and louder, sounding like the hoofs of ten thousand horses. The tide made a white line as it surged towards the coast; the force shown by the tide was greater than the hue and cries of thunder and lightning. Yang Guo could not believe that there existed such a force and after seeing this display, he couldn't stop his face from changing expression.
In the blink of an eye, the waves had reached him and were about to engulf him. Yang Guo leaped backwards, but suddenly he felt a great force pushing him from behind. It was the Divine Eagle using its wings to hit him. He was in midair and had no control over where he was going. With a splash he landed in the foamy waves. He felt a salty taste in his mouth as he swallowed two mouthfuls of seawater.
It was an extremely dangerous situation but luckily for him, he had spent a long time training in the mountain torrents and he immediately used the 'Thousand Pound Plummet', steadying himself on the rocks below the sea's surface. The bottom of the sea was a lot calmer than the turbulent waves on top. He gathered his thoughts and immediately knew what was happening, "Brother Eagle has led me here because he wants me to train my sword arts in the waves of the sea." He lifted his legs and leapt up to the surface of the sea and into the fierce winds, meeting the first of the waves head on. He pushed against the water with his left arm and leapt above the waves before quickly drawing a deep breath and returning to the bottom of the sea.
He repeated this until the tide calmed; by then he was so exhausted that his face had turned white. When the tide came again that night, he took the wooden sword with him and leapt into the waves to again train his sword skills. However, unlike the mountain torrents where all he had to contend with was the force of the water heading in one direction, the forces of the waves came from everywhere; whenever he could not take it any longer, he would dive down to the sea bed to avoid the waves.
From then on, he trained twice a day and within a month, he felt his internal energy had made great improvements. When he used the wooden sword on dry land, he was able to produce a faint sound that sounded like sound of the tide. Whenever the Divine Eagle sparred with him, it started to avoid the sword and did not dare to meet it with its wings.
One day, Yang Guo was getting deeply engrossed in the sparring sessions and slashed the wooden sword with all his might. The Divine Eagle called out and leapt to the side. Yang Guo could not withdraw the force of his sword in time and it struck a tree. The wooden sword broke but the tree was cut in two.
Yang Guo held the broken sword's handle and thought, "This wooden sword is light and fragile, but it was still able to cut a tree; this is because of the internal energy in my hand. If in the future the tree breaks and the sword doesn't then I won't be too far off the divine skill of Senior Dugu."
Spring went and autumn came, the months flowed by. He trained his sword arts in the sea's waves night and day, whatever the weather. The sound produced by the wooden sword was getting louder and louder to the point where it was able to produce great volume of noise. After a few months, the sound from the wooden sword got quieter and quieter until no more noise came from it. Another few months passed and the sword produced sound again. This process of going from soft to loud and loud to soft repeated itself seven times. Eventually, he was able to produce whatever sound he desired, loud or soft. By the time he reached this stage, he counted on his fingers and realized he had been by the sea for six years.
By this time, when Yang Guo trained in the sea's waves with the wooden sword in his hand, the wind generated by his sword could repel the waves and the Divine Eagle, with its frightening strength, could last not more than three stances of the wooden sword. At this point, he realized what the Sword Demon Dugu Qiubai must have felt all those years ago, "With a sword art such as this, who, on this earth, can stand up to it? No wonder Senior Dugu felt lonely and buried his sword away in the deep valley." He then thought, "If Brother Eagle hadn't witnessed how Senior Dugu trained his sword skills, how would I have been able to obtain such a divine skill? I call him Brother Eagle but in reality he is my kind master. When it comes to age, I don't know how old he is, I'm afraid that I could even call it Grandfather Eagle or Grandmaster Eagle."
During his training by the sea, Yang Guo would often ask the passengers on passing boats about a 'Divine Nun of the South Sea' [Nan Hai Shen Ni]. He has asked thousands of sailors and passengers but there was nothing. He knew that seeing Xiao Longnu before the sixteen years was up was going to be a near impossible task.
One dark, windy and rainy day, something stirred in Yang Guo's heart, he placed the wooden sword at his waist and covered himself with his tattered gown. The man and eagle made their way west and from then on, made their way back into Central Plains and roamed the southern region [Jiangnan].