THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Gaining Blood Part 2

Blue Phoenix swung her arm conveniently, and the four venomous pests vanished all of a sudden. She must have put them away with the swing, but no one could tell where on her body did she store them. She paid no more attention to the Peach Valley's Six Fairies and walked further into the cabin. Having been frightened completely out of their wits, the Peach Valley's Six Fairies dared not speak another word.

Linghu Chong and the bunch of male apprentices of the Huashan School occupied the middle cabin. By then, Madam Yue and the many female apprentices had returned to the back cabin, and the clapboard between the middle cabin and the back cabin had been closed. After casting a casual glance at the many apprentices in the cabin, Blue Phoenix walked next to Linghu Chong's bed and called out gently.

"Young Mister Linghu! Young Mister Linghu!"

The gentleness and the affection carried in her voice seemed to have reached the extreme. As the sweet sound echoed in everyone's ears, each felt a soul-stirring sensation surging through his entire body, and almost couldn't help but answer, as if she had been calling him, not Linghu Chong. After these two calls, over half of the male apprentices found themselves red in the face and their bodies quivering slightly.

"Who...who are you?" Linghu Chong opened his eyes slowly and asked in a barely audible voice.

"I am a friend of your good friend, so I am your friend, too," Blue Phoenix answered tenderly.

Linghu Chong acknowledged with a slight groan and then closed his eyes.

"Young Mister Linghu, I know you've lost a great amount of blood. But don't worry, you won't die," Blue Phoenix said. But in his daze, Linghu Chong didn't reply.

Reaching under Linghu Chong's quilt, Blue Phoenix pulled his hand out and started checking his pulse, but soon her eyebrows knitted into a straight line. Suddenly, she stuck her head out of the window, gave a whistle, and then jabbered out many words, which neither one inside the cabin could comprehend.

A short while later, four Miao girls entered the cabin. All of them were about eighteen years of age, and all dressed in blue skirts in white flower patterns, with an embroidered waistband around each waist. Each of them held in her hand an eight-inch long square box made of bamboo strips.

Yue Buqun frowned slightly, thinking that whatever the things in the Five-Sylph Sect members' hands were, they could not have been anything good. Just Blue Phoenix, by herself, already had many centipedes and spiders hidden on her. Now, when these four Miao girls carried these boxes into the cabin openly, all hell would probably break loose. But since they showed no sign of enmity, it would be inappropriate of him to stop them.

Walking over by Blue Phoenix's side, the four Miao girls whispered something to her, and after getting a nod back, they opened the boxes. People in the cabin found their curiosity growing rapidly, all were eager to find out what kind of queer things might be stored in the boxes, except Yue Buqun, who was the only one who had seen the hairy venomous insects in Peach Valley's Four Fairies' palms, and only wished that he would never have to get a glimpse of the things inside the boxes. But suddenly, the strangest thing happened.

The four Miao girls rolled their sleeves high, exposing the snow-white arms, and then they also rolled their trouser legs high, until they were above their knees.[4] The many male apprentices of the Huashan School were stupefied as they gaped at the unusual sight, their hearts pounding madly.

"Oh, no!" Yue Buqun thought aloud. "These girls from this heretical sect want to perform some kind of evil enchantment and use lust to tempt my apprentices. Just the voice of that Blue Phoenix, alone, was already utterly lascivious, if she performed any kind of black art on top of that, having not enough self-control, the many apprentices would undoubtedly fall for it." He couldn't help clutching the handle of his sword, determined to put a stop to it if these members of the Five-Sylph Sect were to undress themselves and perform any witchcraft.