47, 48: Young Little Dragon Girl Outsmarts the Villains

Seeing the crack in the log, Huang Rong's eyes lit up. She hurried over for a closer look and saw that the fissure was far thinner than one cut by an actual sword edge, as though it had been sliced open by a blade as thin and light as a cicada's wing.

Yet no matter how fine a crack sword radiance left, striking a vital point on a human body would still be enough to kill. Huang Rong gazed intently at Lu Chen and said excitedly:

"It can cut through wood, so it can cut through flesh. Your sword radiance has real, undeniable power."

Lu Chen nodded with a smile.

"The power of the sword radiance is about the same as a real sword. It's enough to wound or kill an enemy, but it's a bit short. And it can't be released or fired outward; it has to cling to the blade. It only gives the sword an extra inch of striking range."

Huang Rong said with a grin:

"Even if it's only an inch, if you catch someone off guard, it can be put to great use."

Lu Chen understood what she meant.

When facing an enemy, he could refrain from activating the sword radiance at first and use only ordinary sword techniques, making his opponent misjudge the reach of the sword in his hand. Then, at the crucial moment, he could suddenly unleash the sword radiance.

When masters clashed, the slightest difference could sometimes determine victory or defeat—even life and death. That extra inch of reach could be enough to instantly turn the tide at a critical moment.

Huang Rong folded her arms and pondered for a while. Then she snapped her fingers, her brows dancing as she said:

"You can only produce an inch of sword radiance now, but as your inner strength deepens, it will surely grow longer. By then, if your sword radiance can lengthen and shorten without warning, flickering in and out as it changes at any time, then even if your enemies know you have this trick, they'll still be beaten until they don't know which way is up."

Lu Chen smiled.

"Exactly. If sword radiance could suddenly lengthen or shorten, flickering in and out while its attack range changed constantly, it would be impossible to predict. Even I would have a headache facing a swordsman like that."

However, using sword radiance in that manner required extraordinarily precise control over one's true qi.

Without control fine enough to reach the smallest detail, without being able to alter it as one wished, it would be difficult to make sword radiance change at will from moment to moment.

But this was not much of a challenge for Lu Chen.

If he had not possessed meticulous control over his own true qi, he could not possibly have cultivated "sword radiance" so quickly.

The only issue was that activating sword radiance consumed a little too much true qi.

The true qi he expended to activate sword radiance and make a single sword attack was equivalent to channeling force through his sword and unleashing ten consecutive strikes in one breath under normal circumstances.

So he should not show off his sword radiance carelessly. He ought to make good use of it as Huang Rong had said—by catching his opponents off guard.

Now that sword radiance had taken shape, his cultivation during this period could be considered to have produced remarkable results.

Though this inch-long sword radiance was rather shabby, and was still nowhere near the Flaming Blade or Six Meridian Divine Sword of the Heavenly Dragon era, which could be casually released and shot more than a zhang away, it was at least another method that could be called miraculous.

Moreover, the attack range of sword radiance could continually increase as his inner strength advanced.

Such an achievement was naturally worth celebrating.

Huang Rong specially gathered some seasonal wild vegetables, then went to the stream to catch fish and shrimp. She prepared a lavish feast of wild fare, and she and Lu Chen enjoyed a hearty meal together.

After their celebratory meal, the two took a walk along the stream to aid their digestion.

With her hands behind her back, Huang Rong walked lightly ahead of him, skipping along as she spoke in a cheerful voice:

"You cultivated the Muscle and Bone Strengthening Chapter, your inner strength has advanced greatly, and now you have this sword radiance too. You can be said to have a unique skill of your own now. When your inner strength becomes even more refined, your sword radiance grows longer, and you can change it as you please, then even the most ordinary sword techniques will gain many unexpected variations, becoming strange moves impossible to fathom. By then, even the Five Greats may not be beyond your reach."

She turned around and walked backward as she looked at Lu Chen with a sweet smile.

"As for now, anyway, I think that beneath the Five Greats, Brother Lu Chen, you should have no equal."

Lu Chen did not get carried away. He merely looked at her bright, lovely smile and said with a smile:

"There are still quite a few experts beneath the Five Greats. Qiu Qianren, Iron Palm Water Strider of the Iron Palm Sect, is a great master qualified to take part in the Mount Hua Sword Conference. If I encountered him now, I would most likely still be unable to defeat him. And Old Urchin Zhou Botong is also a peerless master who does not even know how formidable he himself is."

"Old Urchin?" Huang Rong laughed. "He's a good friend of mine. The reason I ran away from home was because Father wouldn't let me go play with him, so I got angry and had a huge fight with Father... I couldn't tell how powerful Old Urchin's Martial Arts were, but when it comes to flicking marbles, he really is a peerless master. Even I can't beat him."

Lu Chen smiled as well. Old Urchin truly was quite a character, to be able to get along so well with little Huang Rong.

It was just that his mind was too wildly off-kilter, and he spoke without any restraint. Sometimes he was unbearable—

The reason Huang Yaoshi had broken his legs and imprisoned him for fifteen years was that, when he went to Peach Blossom Island to question Huang Yaoshi about the Nine Yin Manual, he heard that Huang Yaoshi's wife had died. He sincerely congratulated Huang Yaoshi, saying that a wife dying was a wonderful thing, since he could now concentrate fully on practicing Martial Arts.

That was what enraged Huang Yaoshi and brought the calamity of broken legs and imprisonment upon him.

"Brother Lu Chen, we've been practicing the Muscle and Bone Strengthening Chapter for quite a while now, and you've even cultivated sword radiance. Isn't it time for us to enter the Ancient Tomb again? I only memorized the Muscle and Bone Strengthening Chapter from the Nine Yin Manual in that secret chamber. There are still many techniques I haven't committed to memory."

"Mm. We'll enter the Ancient Tomb again tomorrow. While we're there, we can look for Mochou and reveal the Nine Yin Manual to her, letting her render a service to her sect. That can count as compensation for the offense of our trespassing into the Ancient Tomb."

"Okay! When Sister Mochou sees us pop up from beneath the Ancient Tomb, she might be frightened out of her wits..."

Seeing Huang Rong's giggling expression as though she were plotting some mischief, Lu Chen could not help shaking his head with a smile.

"Rong'er, don't deliberately frighten people. There's a child in the Ancient Tomb too."

Huang Rong nodded repeatedly.

"Mm-hm, I know. Sister Mochou's junior sister, Little Dragon Girl. I won't scare a child."

When they had escorted Li Mochou back to the Ancient Tomb, she had told Lu Chen and Huang Rong roughly about the Ancient Tomb Sect's circumstances. Thus, Huang Rong already knew that Li Mochou had a tiny junior sister who was only a little over five years old.

"Sister Mochou said her junior sister is very cute. Tomorrow, I'll have to see just how cute that little thing really is..."

Early the next morning, Lu Chen and Huang Rong once again entered the Ancient Tomb through the secret passage of the underground river.

Having learned the Breath-Holding Secret Art, Lu Chen's ability to travel underwater had become even stronger. He no longer needed the weight of the Profound Iron Heavy Sword to stabilize his body, so this time he brought only an Azure Adamantine Sword.

Arriving at the secret chamber where part of the Nine Yin Manual was carved, the two took out the clothes wrapped in oilpaper and changed separately, then began studying the inscriptions on the walls.

Last time, Huang Rong had only memorized the "Muscle and Bone Strengthening Chapter" and learned the "Breath-Holding Secret Art" on the spot together with Lu Chen. This time, she committed every technique to memory, including the "Acupoint Unsealing Secret Art," "Soul Shifting Great Method," and "Great Demon Subduing Fist."

After thoroughly memorizing all the Martial Arts carved on the walls, the two began searching for the secret passage leading to the upper levels of the Ancient Tomb.

Huang Rong was highly skilled in mechanisms. Before long, she found a mechanism in the secret chamber. Once it was activated, an upward flight of stone steps appeared. Following the stairs upward, they arrived inside a stone coffin.

Lu Chen lifted the heavy coffin lid in one motion. Outside lay an empty stone hall, with five stone coffins arranged within it.

He turned back and took Rong'er's little hand, leading her out of the coffin. They did not linger in this burial chamber, where the dead were truly interred. Facing the one among the five coffins that had clearly been sealed shut—the one that evidently contained the Ancient Tomb's founding master, Lin Chaoying—they bowed twice before quickly leaving.

The Ancient Tomb was packed with mechanisms, and neither of them dared barge about carelessly. Huang Rong led the way, carefully inspecting their surroundings to avoid traps while memorizing the route. Soon, they arrived before a closed stone door. Just as she found the mechanism and opened it, a childish girl's voice suddenly drifted over from ahead.

"Who's there?"

Along with the voice, a point of lamplight shone toward them.

Lu Chen and Huang Rong looked into the light and saw a little girl of five or six, dressed in a small white skirt with her hair tied into twin buns. Delicate as a doll carved from pink jade, she resembled a little snow child. Holding an oil lamp in one hand and lifting her skirt with the other, she came pattering toward them in a little run.

At the sight of Lu Chen and Huang Rong, the little girl was not afraid at all. Instead, she widened her round, dark eyes and looked at them curiously, asking in a voice still carrying a soft milky lilt, "Who are you?"

Without a doubt, this little girl was the renowned Little Dragon Girl.

But for now, she was only a "little dragon girl." She had not yet cultivated the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra and turned icy as frost. She was still a lively-looking little thing, filled with curiosity toward anything new.

Looking at Little Dragon Girl, Huang Rong said with a grin, "This little one really is adorable. Your name is Little Dragon Girl, right?"

"Huh? How do you know my name?"

Little Dragon Girl's tiny mouth fell open, her plump pink cheeks full of astonishment. "Are you ghosts?"

Huang Rong made a face at her. "We are ghosts! Are you scared?"

Little Dragon Girl took a shocked step back, but quickly raised the oil lamp high to shine it on the two of them. Then she lowered her gaze to the ground. At once, she puffed out her little cheeks, pointed at Huang Rong, and said angrily, "Big sister, you're lying. You're not ghosts. You have shadows on the ground."

"This little one is really clever, and quite brave too. Just like I was when I was little."

Huang Rong walked up to Little Dragon Girl with a grin, squatted down, and gently pinched her soft pink cheek. "Big sister's name is Huang Rong, and this is Brother Lu Chen. We're friends of your senior sister Li Mochou, and we have something to discuss with her. Can you help us call her over?"

"Hmm..."

Little Dragon Girl looked at Huang Rong, then at Lu Chen. After thinking for a while with her little brows furrowed, she nodded. "All right. Wait here. I'll go call Senior Sister for you."

Without waiting for Huang Rong's reply, she picked up her oil lamp, lifted her skirt, and pattered back the way she had come.

After turning a corner, Little Dragon Girl looked back. Only when Huang Rong and Lu Chen were no longer in sight did she pat her chest and let out a breath of relief. Then she wound through the maze-like tomb passages, turning this way and that, until she reached a candlelit burial chamber. Entering, she said, "Master, Master, there are bad people!"

The burial chamber was empty, save for a straw mat laid on the ground. A woman in her forties sat cross-legged upon it in meditation.

Hearing Little Dragon Girl's warning, she opened her eyes and calmly looked at her. "Where are the bad people?"

This woman was none other than Li Mochou and Little Dragon Girl's master: Lin Chaoying's personal maid and the current Ancient Tomb Sect Leader.

"Over there!"

Little Dragon Girl pointed in the direction where the "bad people" were, her face utterly serious. "They're really scary. That big sister even made a ghost face to scare me, then lied and said they were Senior Sister's friends. They wanted me to trick Senior Sister over to them. Good thing Long'er was clever and didn't fall for it. I pretended to agree with them, then hurried back to find Master!"

"Someone actually broke into the Ancient Tomb?"

The Ancient Tomb Sect Leader's brows drew together slightly, but her expression remained calm, with little anger visible. She merely murmured, "They came looking for Mochou? Could they be enemies she provoked outside?"

As she spoke, she rose and went to the wall, taking down a longsword from the sword rack. Then she took Little Dragon Girl's small hand. "Take me to them."

"All right." Little Dragon Girl nodded obediently, then asked, "Master, should we call Senior Sister too?"

"She is still being punished. She must remain confined for a full month before she can be released."

The Ancient Tomb Sect Leader said coolly, "Let your master deal with these intruders first. Then I will find her and ask what exactly happened."

"Oh." Little Dragon Girl answered obediently and led her master toward where the two "bad people" were.

After another stretch of twists and turns, Little Dragon Girl spotted the distant glow of night pearls and pointed in that direction, saying:

"Master, the bad guys are over there."

"Long'er, wait here. If I am no match for them, activate the mechanisms, then go find Granny Sun and your senior sister."

After giving this instruction, the Ancient Tomb Sect Leader released Little Dragon Girl's small hand, drew her sword, and walked toward the glow of the luminous pearl. As she drew closer, she saw a tall man dressed in black and a petite girl in green with a red sash.

When the Ancient Tomb Sect Leader saw Lu Chen and Huang Rong, the two naturally saw her as well.

Seeing that the newcomer was not Li Mochou, while the tiny Little Dragon Girl stood at the corner of a distant passageway holding an oil lamp and peeking this way, Huang Rong could not help puffing out her rosy cheeks.

"We were actually fooled by that little thing! We really underestimated her!"

Lu Chen smiled.

"It's a good thing for children to be clever. Otherwise, wouldn't bad people be able to coax them away whenever they pleased?"

After saying that, he looked toward the Ancient Tomb Sect Leader and was just about to speak when, to his surprise, she directly drew her sword. Her figure flashed as she attacked—

The Ancient Tomb Sect Leader had lived in seclusion within the Tomb of the Living Dead for many years and was already unaccustomed to interacting with outsiders. On top of that, because of Wang Chongyang, she believed there was not a single good man in the world. Now that she saw Lu Chen, a man, daring to trespass into the Tomb of the Living Dead, she naturally had no intention of wasting words on him. She intended to subdue him first, then sort things out afterward.

Her Movement Technique and swordplay were several levels above Li Mochou's. The instant she moved, she swept over more than ten paces and closed in before Lu Chen. As her Sword Light unfurled, specks of icy radiance enveloped every vital acupoint on half his body.

Though the Ancient Tomb Sect Leader's fame was not known throughout the world, her Martial Arts had inherited Lin Chaoying's true teachings. Though her inner power was far inferior to Lin Chaoying's, she was still a great expert who could exploit the Tomb's dark environment, mechanisms, traps, and other home-ground advantages to strike the acupoints of the crazed Ouyang Feng and drive him from the Ancient Tomb.

Though the price of that battle with Ouyang Feng had been grievous injuries that soon claimed her life, it was enough to prove her strength.

Facing an expert of this caliber, Lu Chen had no time to speak. He could only draw the Azure Adamantine Sword and first defend against the Ancient Tomb Sect Leader's assault.

Clang clang clang clang...

The dense sounds of metal striking metal rang out like rain. Sparks scattered with every clash of blades.

The Ancient Tomb Sect Leader's figure drifted and flickered like a startled swan or phantom shadow—seen before one's eyes one moment, suddenly behind one's back the next. She sped around Lu Chen, her blazing Sword Light like snowflakes filling the sky, or cold stars plummeting in swift descent, dazzling the eye.

Lu Chen's swordsmanship, meanwhile, was sometimes broad and sweeping, like a fierce general waging war upon a battlefield; sometimes like a sudden gale scattering fallen blossoms across the heavens; and sometimes his Sword Light shot forth at tremendous speed, swift as lightning, sharp and lethal.

After cultivating the Muscle and Bone Strengthening Chapter, his inner power had surged greatly and was no longer inferior to the Ancient Tomb Sect Leader's.

Moreover, after more than ten days of sparring with Hong Qigong under the immense pressure of a Five Greats Grandmaster repeatedly deploying all manner of Martial Arts, he had developed a wealth of experience in dealing with experts.

Added to that were dozens of sparring matches with Li Mochou. He was already extremely familiar with Ancient Tomb Sect Swordplay and had even deduced much of its inner cultivation method. Thus, although his Movement Technique was inferior to the Ancient Tomb Sect Leader's, by fighting steadily and surely, he could still keep pace with her, countering every move with another and trading blows evenly.

Before they knew it, the two had already exchanged over a hundred moves.

The Ancient Tomb Sect Leader grew more alarmed the longer they fought. By now, she had clearly seen Lu Chen's face and knew that he was merely a youth under twenty, perhaps only slightly older than Mochou. Yet at such a young age, he possessed such astonishing skill...

Which family had raised such a prodigious young genius?

How had Mochou provoked such a formidable enemy?

Elsewhere.

When Little Dragon Girl saw that the bad guy with the strange name "Brother Lu Chen" was actually fighting the master she considered omnipotent to a standstill, she widened her eyes in shock, her little mouth opening into a half-circle.

After staring blankly for a while, she looked at Huang Rong, who stood nearby watching the battle, and swiftly worked out a simple arithmetic problem in her heart.

Master fighting Brother Lu Chen one-on-one to a draw meant one equaled one.

But that bad young lady named Huang Rong was also standing nearby, eyeing them like a tiger eyeing its prey. Once she joined the battle, one plus one equaled two, which was greater than Master's one. Therefore, Master would lose!

Thinking this, Little Dragon Girl did not hesitate. Lifting her little skirt, she pattered away at once to find help.

Well, Granny Sun and Senior Sister were still in the Ancient Tomb. Master plus Granny Sun plus Senior Sister meant one plus one plus one equaled three, which was greater than the two bad people. Then they could win!

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