wild animals and had already been eaten, she would kill herself. Actually, even if Linghu Chong’s body were fine, she would rather not live anyway.

Suddenly, deep in her heart, another thought popped up. That was a thought she had never dared to think about. The thought had come to her several times through the day, but each time she immediately pushed it back and only thought, “How could I be so disturbed? How could I be thinking such nonsense? This is just absurd! No, it’s not like that!” But now, she could not hide it any longer, and it appeared clearly in her mind: “When I carried Big Brother Linghu’s body, I felt very calm and peaceful. I was actually feeling a bit happy, just like when I was chanting exercises of the Buddhist Scriptures with an empty mind. I seemed to have hoped to just hold his body and walk casually on a never-ending road that nobody else was on. I would pay any price to find his body. Why? Am I not able to bear the thought that wild animals ate his body? No! Not that at all! I just want to carry his body and walk around aimlessly, or just sit by the lotus pond quietly. Why did I faint? Oh, no, I am terrible! I should not think like this. The Master wouldn’t allow it, and the Buddha wouldn’t tolerate it either. These are evil thoughts. I shouldn’t be trapped by evil thoughts. But where is big brother Linghu’s body?” Her mind was in such chaos. She could almost see the smile on Linghu Chong’s lips once again. It was such a carefree smile. Then it changed into the disdainful look on his face when he swore, “You are bad luck, little nun!” She felt a pain from her chest like a knife was cutting into her flesh….

Yu Canghai’s voice rose again. “Lao Denuo, this little girl is from your Huashan Sword School, isn’t she?”

“No. This is the first time I have seen this little sister. She is not from our sword school,” Lao Denuo denied in a hurry.

“Sure. If you don’t want to admit it, fine!” Yu Canghai did not believe him at all.

Suddenly Yu Canghai waved his hand. With a flash, an awl-shaped missile shot toward Yilin. “Little Sister, see what this is?” he yelled.

Yilin was still deep in her thoughts, and had never expected a projectile from Yu Canghai. She actually felt some kind of joy: “It is a relief that he is killing me. I don’t feel like living, anyway!” Seeing the missile flying closer, and hearing several people shouting, “Look out for the projectile!” she had no intention of dodging it. For some unknown reason, she felt unspeakable peace and joy, feeling that there was only sadness and endless loneliness in the living world. She would be very happy if the missile killed her.

Dingyi gently pushed the little girl aside and dashed in front of Yilin to block the missile. Although she had the look of an old Granny, the dash was extremely fast. The missile wasn’t traveling that fast, but it was still a shooting projectile. Dingyi started later yet arrived earlier, and was able to get ready to catch the projectile. It seemed that Sister Dingyi could catch the projectile without too much effort now, but when the missile reached about two feet from her, it suddenly dropped to the floor. Since Dingyi had already extended her arm to catch it, yet missed, it was like losing a round in front of everyone. Her face turned slightly red.

Yu Canghai immediately waved his hand again and threw the paper ball toward the little girl’s face. The paper ball was made out of the paper with the turtle picture.

“So the bull-nose shot the missile just to lure me away. He wasn’t really trying to hurt Yilin,” Dingyi thought to herself.

The small paper ball went much faster, and carried much more strength than the awl-shaped missile. Yu Canghai had used his inner energy when he threw the paper ball. If it hit the little girl’s face, she would definitely get hurt.

Dingyi was standing next to Yilin. When she realized what had happened, it was already too late to help. All she could do was to yell, “You…!”

The little girl swiftly sat down on the floor and cried, “Mom, Mom, he is going to kill me.” She moved in a very swift manner, and dodged the paper ball in perfect time. Anyone could tell that she knew martial arts, but she just acted like a spoiled child. Everyone thought it was quite funny. Yu Canghai also felt that it wouldn’t be appropriate to push her more. He had a belly full of suspicions, but none of his questions could be answered.

Seeing the embarrassed expression on Yu Canghai’s face, Sister Dingyi couldn’t help laughing inwardly. Since the Qingcheng Sword School had lost face so badly, she didn’t want to mess with him anymore, so she said to Yilin, “Yilin, I don’t know where the little sister’s parents went. Why don’t you go with her to look for them, so she won’t be bullied because nobody is looking out for her?”

“Yes, Master!” Yilin answered. She walked up to the little girl and took her hand. The girl smiled at her, and they walked out of the hall together.

Yu Canghai sneered and stopped paying any more attention to the girl. He turned around and stared at Mu Gaofeng.

__________

[1] It was a unique phenomenon for eunuchs to exist in Ancient Chinese. Chinese Emperors always had thousands of wives in the palace. Men were needed in the palace for many tasks, but the Emperor was afraid that these men would have affairs with his wives, so all men who wanted to work in the palace had to be castrated to ensure that no affairs would happen. It isn’t known when exactly this started, but one can trace it back to at least 2,000 years ago.

[2] In Chinese, the character of Lin (meaning “Woods”) is made up of two of the Mu character (meaning “Tree, wood”).