THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

No Treaty Part 2

That granny raised her palm and slapped him heavily. Linghu Chong cried out as he didn't dodge the hit.

"Why didn't you dodge?" that granny angrily asked.

"I can't dodge it," Linghu Chong replied. "How do I do that?"

That granny spat. She knew in her heart he was considering Yilin so he let her hit him. Her left palm was already raised but she didn't hit him.

Yingying pulled on Yilin's hand and said, "Little martial sister, lucky you came here to rescue us. How did you come here?"

"I was with the other martial sister," Yilin narrated. "We were all (she pointed at Yue Buqun's corpse) .... captured by his people. Me and three other martial sisters were being locked up in a cave. Just then, dad and mom rescued me. Dad, mom and I, also Cannot Have No Commandment and three martial sisters, we all separately went around rescuing the other martial sisters. I was walking below the cliff when I heard people talking on top. The voice sounded like Big brother Linghu's so I quickly went up to have a look."

"He and I went around everywhere but we didn't find anyone," Yingying said. "So you were actually being held inside a cave."

"Just then that old bastard wearing the yellow gown is a bad person," Linghu Chong said. "You let him go but I can't accept that." He picked up a long sword from the ground and said, "Let's chase after him."

The party of five went down the Cliff of Repentance. They had not walked for too long when they saw Tian Boguang with seven Heng-Shan disciples climbing out of a valley. Yiqing was one of them. They were really happy to meet each other.

Linghu Chong thought, "There's no one in this world who knows the surroundings in Huashan better than me. I didn't know there was another cave below that valley, but Tian Boguang is an outsider and he knows of it. How strange?" He pulled on Tian Boguang's sleeve and the two of them walked behind the party.

"Brother Tian," Linghu Chong said. "There's another cave below that valley. I didn't know about it before but you knew about it. I really admire you."

Tian Boguang smiled. "There's nothing strange about it."

"Ah, that's right," Linghu Chong said. "You must've captured a Huashan disciple and interrogated him."

"I didn't," Tian Boguang replied.

"Then how did you find out? Can you tell me?" Linghu Chong asked.

Tian Boguang blushed and smiled. "This matter is not comfortable to talk about. It's better not to speak of it."

Linghu Chong was even more curious and he just had to ask about it. "You and I are loafers in Jianghu, what's there that's so uncomfortable to talk about?" Linghu Chong said. "Quickly say it."

"After I say it," Tian Boguang pleaded. "Headmaster Linghu, please don't blame me."

"You've rescued many martial sisters from Heng-Shan School and I haven't thanked you for this yet," Linghu Chong replied. "So how can I blame you?"

Tian Boguang lowered his voice and said, "I'll tell you. Before I had a really bad temperament and you already know about this. Ever since Grand martial master shaved my head and made me take the Buddhist name 'Cannot Have No Commandment', I cannot do that again..."

Linghu Chong thought the way Monk No Commandment reprimanded him was really weird and his mouth showed a slight smile. Tian Boguang knew what he was thinking of and his face turned red. He continued, "But I've never forgotten the skills I've learned from earlier. No matter how far I'm separated by, as long as there are women there, I... I can feel them."

Linghu Chong was perplexed, he asked, "How do you do that?"

"I also don't know," Tian Boguang replied. "I think I can smell women, they're different than men's smell."

Linghu Chong laughed aloud. "It's said that some reverend monks can have divine eyes or divine ears. Brother Tian unexpectedly has this 'divine nose'."

"I'm ashamed, ashamed!"

"Brother Tian's skill was originally used to do bad things," Linghu Chong said. "After undergoing some experience, I never thought that today you'd use this skill to save my Heng-Shan School's disciples."

Yingying turned her head around to ask what was so funny. But looking at Tian Boguang's face, she guessed it was something inappropriate and she quickly shut her mouth.

Tian Boguang suddenly stopped. "There seems to be some Heng-Shan School's disciples on the left." He sniffed around a few times then went towards the underbrush below the hill. Lowering his head, he searched around for a while. He exclaimed happily and pointed to the ground. "Here!" he cried out. There was a pile of more than ten big rocks on the place that he had pointed out. Each of these rocks were around two to three hundred catties. He immediately removed a rock away.

No Commandment and Linghu Chong went over to help. After a while they had removed more than ten big rocks, and there was a green slab underneath. The three of them worked together to lift the slab up. It revealed a cave underneath and there were a few nuns lying underneath. They were all disciples of Heng-Shan School. Yiqing and Yimin quickly jumped down the cave and helped their martial sisters to go up. After helping a few to go up, there were still more inside, each one was gasping for air. They quickly pulled the imprisoned Heng-Shan disciple up. Yihe, Zheng E, and Qin Juan were among them. There were more than thirty people inside this cave. If they weren't rescued in the next one or two days, they would have all died.

Linghu Chong thought how his master was so violent, he couldn't help being disappointed with him.

"Brother Tian, this skill of yours isn't a small thing," Linghu Chong praised him. "These martial sisters were deeply buried underneath but you can still smell them out. Really admirable."

"There's nothing strange about it," Tian Boguan replied. "Luckily, there are many martial uncles from the secular world in there..."

"Martial uncles? Ah, that's right, you're Yilin's disciple."

"If the ones imprisoned here were all Buddhist martial uncles, then I wouldn't have been able to find them," Tian Boguang continued.

"There's a difference between secular and Buddhist people?"

"Of course. Secular female would have this powder fragrance on them," Tian Boguang explained. Linghu Chong was enlightened.

They quickly tried to rescue them. Yiqing and Yilin were using their caps to scoop water in them to give them drink. Luckily, there was a crack in that cave that allowed air to go in and Heng-Shan School's disciples all had learned inner energy. Even though they were extremely distressed, they still had their lives. Yihe had the deepest inner energy so after drinking some water, she was the first one to recover.

"We've only rescued less than a third," Linghu Chong said. "Brother Tian, I have to ask you to use your divine power to help us search for them."

That granny stared at Tian Boguang, her face looked really suspicious. "How did you know they were imprisoned here?" she asked. "You were probably here when they were being imprisoned, am I right?"

"No, no!" Tian Boguang quickly replied. "I've been following grand martial master. I've never left his side."

That granny's face sunk as she shouted, "You've always been with him?"

Tian Boguang mumbled indistinctly. He knew they just had a reunion after a long break up. Along the way they had been crying, laughing, fighting, being romantic, and he had heard all of these. This grand master-wife of his could turn angry from shyness and if that happened, it would be very troublesome. He quickly said, "For the last half a year, I've been following grand martial master. About ten days ago, we parted ways. We just met again today at Huashan."

That granny was half believing and half doubting him. She asked, "Then how did you know these nuns were being locked up inside this cave?"

"This... this..." Tian Boguang mumbled. He didn't know how to phrase it nicely and was feeling very embarrassed. After some time, they suddenly heard the sound of more than ten horns coming from the mountainside, followed by the sound of drums. It sounded like an army of ten thousand soldiers and a thousand horses had come.

They were all startled. Yingying whispered on Linghu Chong's ear, "It's my dad!"