ROCH Translation ..... 8 onwards

[Acidbeastonfire]

Originally posted by BluLotus
Ooo, what'll happen next!? Will the formation work or fail? Until next time, on ROCH!

Thanks, Noodles .

Blu....your are just compounding the torture of the suspense...just like what u did at athena's thread.
ahahhaahhahaha.....then again...these translations are worth the torture aren;t they?
hey...like your avatar...very cool...& very blue

[BluLotus]

Originally posted by Acidbeastonfire

Blu....your are just compounding the torture of the suspense...just like what u did at athena's thread.
ahahhaahhahaha.....then again...these translations are worth the torture aren;t they?
hey...like your avatar...very cool...& very blue

Yup, its worth the torture, hehe .

Hehe, very cool & blue, thanks ,

[Noodles]

Lu Wu Shuang trembled. She picked up her sword and stood up. Li Mo Chou stood there without moving, just listening with her ears.

When she heard the flute and song, she recalled the events of years ago when she was playing music along with Lu Zhan Yuan, one played a flute, the other a panpipe, this song ‘Liu Bo’ was the song that they used to play.
This was twenty years ago, now the music was of old yet for her there was ‘no secret exchange of the lover under the moon and wind’, when she heard the soft and tender tune of the flute and song, she felt pain and sorrow and eventually couldn’t stop herself from crying.

Lu Wu Shuang could not have predicted this cry of sorrow by her master, she has always known her master to be a ruthless killer, where did this gentle and tender side come from? She has come her to kill, how come she’s crying outside? But her cries were extremely sorrowful and sombre, she couldn’t stop her heart from suffering from sadness.

Yang Guo and Cheng Ying was startled when they heard the cries of Li Mo Chou and the song became disorganised.
Li Mo Chou had a thought and suddenly started to sing, her voice graceful and mournful, she sang:

O mortals, what is love? That binds beyond life on earth?
To all corners, in pair we fly... braving summer and winter, by and by...
Union is bliss, parting is woe, agony is boundless, for a lovelorn soul, sweetheart...
Give me word, trail of clouds drifting forward...
And mountains capped with snow, whither shall my lonesome shadow go?

The flute was originally joyous, but Li Mo Chou’s song was filled with sorrow, her tone mournful, it was completely different to the tune of ‘Liu Bo’, the voice became quieter, but the quieter it got, the higher the it got. Cheng Ying was slightly disturbed, she actually began to follow the song from ‘union is bliss’ and by ‘parting is woe’, she could no longer stop herself from following her. She was alarmed and quickly changed the tune, but the music from a flute is peaceful and serene and her internal energy was shallow, she could not produce a high tune to subdue the song of Li Mo Chou’s song.
She stumbled slightly and headed into the hut. She placed the jade flute down and sat by the side. She began to play the zither. Yang Guo also started to sing to help.
Li Mo Chou’s song was becoming more and more mournful, Cheng Ying’s strings was producing higher and higher notes, a ‘zheng’ sound was heard as the first ‘zheng’ string on the zither suddenly snapped.

Cheng Ying was startled and her fingers became slightly disorganized, the zither’s second ‘yu’ string was snapped. Li Mo Chou’s prolonged song was filled with tears, the third ‘gong’ string was also snapped.
Huang Yao Shi taught Cheng Ying the flute and zither, though she learnt from a great master she was still young, her abilities with them were not profound.
Li Mo Chou had originally wanted to take the chance when the opponent was disturbed and distracted with the broken strings to break straight through but she that although the earth formation outside the hut seemed to be in a mess, hidden within were the changes of the five elements. She didn’t understand this particular art and she has suffered many times in the ancient tomb before, there were some worries in her mind. She suddenly had an idea, she winded around to the right and crashed through the wall in the midst of the music and song.

Cheng Ying’s earth formation was placed to protect the front of the house, it slipped her mind that the sides of the house weren’t guarded. Li Mo Chou slipped around the house and with her two palms crashed through the earth walls, breaking through. Lu Wu Shuang was alarmed, she raised her sword and rushed into the house.

Yang Guo was injured and had no strength to stand up and fight, he could only lie there, not moving. Cheng Ying knew that if she fought Li Mo Chou she would lose her life in vain. She made a decision and forgot about life and death, she started to play the zither, a song of ‘tao yao’. It was a beautiful tune, flowing with joy. In her heart she was thinking, “I have hard a life of hardships, dieing here by brother Yang’s side means at least my life hasn’t been in vain.” She looked towards Yang Guo. Yang Guo gave a subtle smile towards her, Cheng Ying was filled with joy and bliss, she sang:

The beauty of the blossom burns brightly,
The zither flows the ocean spray,
The music carries the fragrance of flowers, the soothing spring breeze.

The bitterness on Li Mo Chou’s face gradually disappeared, she asked Lu Wu Shuang, “Where’s the book? Was it the Beggar Clan exactly who took it?”
Yang Guo took out the ‘Five Poison Codex’ and threw it over to her. He said, “The Beggar Clan’s chief Huang and chief Lu are righteous and virtuous people, what do they want with this evil book? They long passed down an order to Beggar Clan members to not to even open one page of this book.”
Li Mo Chou saw that this book was in its original condition; she knew the Beggar Clan was a righteous clan and had strict regulations; most probably they did not take a look at her book.

Yang Guo also took out the two half pieces of handkerchief from his pockets and placed it down on the end of the bed and said, “Take these handkerchief away!”
Li Mo Chou’s face changed completely, she waved her flywhisk and wrapped it around the handkerchiefs bringing it towards her. She held them startled, in her hand, her thoughts stirred, her state of mind unstable.
Lu Wu Shuang and Cheng Ying looked at each other and both were red, they didn’t predict that the other would give the handkerchief to Yang Guo, who took it out in the open.

As they one looked at the other, their hearts were filled with thoughts, their eyes glistened, the air of death that was in the hut had now changed into an air of love. Cheng Ying’s song ‘Tao Yao’ was played with even more happiness.

Suddenly, Li Mo Chou tore the handkerchief in four and said, “The past is the past, why is there a need to return there?” Her hands ripped urgently for a while and then flung the pieces into the air, the pieces of the torn handkerchief like descending petals.
Cheng Ying was startled and after a ‘zheng’ sound, another string of the zither snapped.

Li Mo Chou angrily shouted, “Break another string!”
In the midst of the mournful song, the fifth ‘gen’ string did indeed snap. Li Mo Chou chuckled and said, “Now I’m going to make you suffer, you won’t be able to beg for your life nor death, quickly wail for me.”
The zither had two strings remaining, Cheng Ying’s abilities with a zither were ordinary and it was difficult for her to form a tune.
Li Mo Chou said, “Quickly play a mournful notes! There is too much suffering in the world, what joy is there in living?”
Cheng Ying played two notes, although it didn’t form a tune, it was still following the music of the ‘Tao Yao’.
Li Mo Chou said, “Fine, I’ll first kill one of you, will you be mournful then?”
That severely toned shout caused another string of the zither to snap, she raised her flywhisk, about to strike down on Lu Wu Shuang’s head.

Yang Guo smiled and said, “The three of us dying together today is a much more happier experience than you will have living alone in the world. Sister Ying, sister Shuang, come over here.” Lu Wu Shuang and Cheng Ying went over to the bed. Yang Guo’s right hand held Lu Wu Shuang, his left held Cheng Ying, he smiled and said, “The three of us dying together will allow us to chat and joke on the Huang Guan path (road to underworld), isn’t that ten times better than being that evil woman?”
Lu Wu Shuang smiled and said, “Yes, good Sha Dan, you’re right.” Cheng Ying gave a warm smile. The two cousins were both enchanted as Yang Guo held onto their hands.
Yet Yang Guo was thinking, “It’s a pity that it isn’t Gu Gu who is by my side.” But he forced a joyful smile, he lightly pulled the two closer against his body.

Li Mo Chou thought, “He’s right, them three dying like this is better than living like me.” She pondered, “How can you have things that are to your advantage on this earth? I’ll make sure that you’re filled with sorrow and grief before you die.” So she lightly swung her flywhisk and with a face resembling bitter frost, she started to quietly sing, she was singing the ‘O mortals, what is love? That binds beyond life on earth?’ song, the song and tone was filled with sorrow and grief, like an abandoned woman crying, like a night ghost wailing.

The three of them held hands together as they listened, after a while, they couldn’t stop themselves from feeling hurt in their hearts. Yang Guo’s internal energy was relatively profound and wasn’t moved, his face still carried a subtle smile; Lu Wu Shuang was strong, she would not be easily moved; Cheng Ying however could endure no longer and tears flowed.
The longer Li Mo Chou sang, the quieter it became, eventually, it was as if it was there and as if it wasn’t.

As soon as the three cried, the Serpent Deity will wave out her flywhisk and kill them all. Just as soon as when the song was becoming extremely sad and depressing, someone from outside the hut suddenly laughed out loud and clapped as they made their way towards the hut.

It was a woman’s voice, it appeared that the voice was not young but what she was singing was a naïve and innocent song: “Sway, sway, sway, sway until to granny’s bridge, granny call’s me my precious, sweets in one bag, fruit in the other, once I’ve finished I’ll take another.”
The song was filled with joy and happiness, Li Mo Chou’s sadness and sorrow in her song was disturbed. The song was getting close and closer, after a while someone entered the hut from the front door, it was a middle-aged woman with dishevelled hair and clothes, her eyes round and wide opened, she laughed foolishly and her hand held a fire fork.
Li Mo Chou was startled, “How did she get pass them piles of earth and enter through the main door so easily? If she isn’t with them then she must be versed in art of formations and changes.” As she concentrated on this, the power of her song immediately decreased.

When Cheng Ying saw this woman she was delighted and called out, “Senior apprentice sister, that woman wants to hurt me, help me.”
That dishevelled hair woman was Sha Gu. She was actually a generation lower than Cheng Ying but she was a lot older, that’s the reason why Cheng Ying called her senior apprentice sister.

Sha Gu clapped her hands and laughed, she started to sing some songs at the top of her voice, she would sing songs like ‘Sparkling star in the sky, nothing on the ground my oh my’, ‘Precious Pagoda tip, surging up, the sky it rips’. Sometimes she would remember the wrong lyrics and replace them with whatever she thought of.
Li Mo Chou wanted to use the sorrowful and mournful song to subdue her but how would she know that it wouldn’t affect her. Love comes from the heart, but since her heart was full of confusion and disorder, even if the outside influence was stronger there will be no way to create and stir up these feelings; instead when Sha Gu’s muddled up songs disturbed Li Mo Chou’s sorrowful tone, it stopped her control over Yang Guo and the others.
Li Mo Chou was furious and thought, “I need to get rid of this person first.” Before the song finished, she waved her flywhisk and attacked her head.

Years ago, Huang Yao Shi punished his innocent disciples out of anger and as a result caused his disciple Qu Ling Feng to die under the hands of his enemies, he regretted this and so took in Qu Ling Feng’s daughter Sha Gu under his care and decided to teach everything he knew to her. However, when Sha Gu saw her father being harmed, she suffered a severe shock and it remained in her mind, no matter how many times Huang Yao Shi tried to make her better, man cannot turn back time, without mentioning trying to teach her all the arts and martial arts he knew, trying to get her to recognise a few words and learn a few coarse martial arts was something that he couldn’t do. But over the last ten years, under the instruction of a great master, Sha Gu has learnt a set of palm techniques and a fork technique. It’s called a set but really there were only three stances of palm and fork techniques.
Huang Yao Shi knew she would not remember any sort of variation or extraordinary stances so he thought deeply and came up with three palms stances and three fork stances. Those six stances were ordinary and didn’t have any variation behind them, the power of these techniques all comes from practise. When normal people practise martial arts, little practise will lead to only tens of stances being learnt, a lot will lead to variations surpassing a thousand. Sha Gu only practised six stances so as time goes by, naturally these stances will be refined and precise, though there are few stances, it was not anything ordinary.

As to how she went through the formation, this is because she has lived on Peach Blossom Island for a long time, the formation that Cheng Ying had set up were coarse and basic skills of Peach Blossom Island, Sha Gu didn’t even take a look and just naturally followed her steps forward to the hut.

Right now, she saw Li Mo Chou’s flywhisk coming towards her, she thrust out the fork towards her chest. Li Mo Chou heard that the sound of air being sliced through was urgent, she couldn’t stop herself from being alarmed, “Hard to predict that this woman possesses such profound internal strength.” She quickly stepped to the left and sent the flywhisk towards her head. Sha Gu didn’t care what the opponent’s stance was and just thrust her fork forward. Li Mo Chou’s flywhisk twisted and wrapped around the head of the fork. It was as if Sha Gu didn’t see what had happened, the fork kept on going forward. Li Mo Chou circulated her internal energy to fling the weapon away but the fire fork didn’t move an inch, in a flash it was now in between her chest. At least Li Mo Chou’s martial arts were high and managed to use [Steps of the Turning Seven Stars] in this danger, and leapt out of the hole in the wall, avoiding this lightning like attack but she broke out in a cold sweat due to fright.

She concentrated and leapt back into the hut and attacked with her flywhisk in midair. Sha Gu didn’t change her stance with the enemy’s and just thrust forwards again but because the enemy was in the air, the fork was now aiming for her opponent’s abdomen.
Li Mo Chou saw the incoming attack was fast and powerful, she turned her flywhisk around and used the handle to block the attack and used its force to dart away. She looked at her stunned, thinking, “Just know, my three attacks contained nine different variation and twelve different follow ups, a skilled fighter of wulin would not be able to see through them just like that. This woman just uses one fork and neutralised my sixty-three variations in these stances. This person’s martial arts are excellent, I better leave!”

She didn’t know that Sha Gu’s fork technique only had three stances, if Li Mo Chou fought for a little while longer she would be able to see through her martial arts and win easily.
Sha Gu had three fork stances, just by using one fork stance she scared away an extremely powerful enemy, the master of Peach Blossom Island should be really proud.

Li Mo Chou turned around and was about to leap out of the hut through the hole by the side of the wall when she saw someone sitting down by the hole, the person was in a blue green gown and had a long beard, it was the person who saved Cheng Ying from her clutches all those years ago Huang Yao Shi Island Master Huang. He was sitting down and had placed Cheng Ying’s zither on a stool.
When Li Mo Chou was in battle, her eyes and ears were extremely alert, but how Huang Yao Shi entered, how he took the zither and when he sat down on the floor, she failed to notice all those things, if he had ambushed her from behind, wouldn’t taking her life be as easy as turning his palm?

When Li Mo Chou was exchanging stances with Sha Gu, she was worried about Cheng Ying and the others joining in to help so she did not stop her song, keeping their state of mind unbalanced. As she saw Huang Yao Shi sitting there quietly strumming the zither, she trembled and her song stopped.

Huang Yao Shi played one note on the zither and sang, “O mortals, what is love? That binds beyond life on earth?” He sang Li Mo Chou’s song. The zither only had the ‘yu’ string remaining but he still managed to play the notes of the ‘gong’, ‘shang’, ‘jiao’, ‘zheng’ and ‘yu’. With the mournful tone of the zither, Huang Yao Shi overwhelmed Li Mo Chou’s song.

Li Mo Chou was extremely familiar with this song, as soon as Huang Yao Shi added the tune, she was affected ten times deeper than when Yang Guo and the others were affected. Huang Yao Shi had known long ago about her evil ways, today he wanted to take the opportunity to rid her.
Years ago he had used his jade flute to compete against Ou Yang Feng’s iron zither and Hong Qi Gong’s whistling and fought to a draw. This was many years ago, because of his age, his vigour wasn’t what it used to be but his internal energy became more and more profound as he practised, how can Li Mo Chou resist? In just a short while she felt her mind slipping out of her control.

Huang Yao Shi’s song and tune would suddenly turn joyous, then anger, suddenly resounding and overbearing, then suddenly lowly and humble, many changes in the wink of an eye, forcing Li Mo Chou to suddenly feel delight and then sorrow, suddenly anger then worry, when this song finishes, Li Mo Chou would have been forced to go mad.

Just at this time, Sha Gu turned her head around and suddenly saw Yang Guo, under the candlelight, he was an image of his father Yang Kang.
The thing that Sha Gu is most afraid of are ghosts, the images of what had happened when Yang Kang died due to poison were deeply etched into her mind, she will never forget it, when she saw Yang Guo sitting there, she knew that it was Yang Kang’s ghost coming back to haunt her, she quickly leapt up and pointed to him, saying, “Brother… brother Yang, don’t… don’t hurt me… it… it wasn’t me who killed you… go… go and find someone else.”

Huang Yao Shi wasn’t prepared for her disturbance and a ‘zheng’ sound was heard as the final string on the zither snapped.
Sha Gu hid behind him and called out, “Ghost… ghost… grandpa, it’s brother Yang’s ghost.”
With this pause, Li Mo Chou quickly used her flywhisk and extinguished all the candles in the room and leapt out through the hole in the wall.
Huang Yao Shi had yet to take her life and eventually she managed to escape, he had to uphold his status and so he could not go and chase after her.
Sha Gu was even more afraid in dark and called out even louder, “It’s an evil ghost, grandpa, beat that ghost, beat that ghost!”

Huang Yao Shi kept Sha Gu in check. Cheng Ying lit up the candles and then knelt on the floor and bowed to her master. She stood up and then told him simple background of Yang Guo and Lu Wu Shuang.

Huang Yao Shi laughed and said, “My martial grand daughter has always been stupid like this. She knows your father. You indeed do look a lot like your father.”
Yang Guo bent his waist and bowed to him on the bed and said, “Forgive junior, I have an injury and cannot bow properly.”
Huang Yao Shi’s face was very friendly and said, “You didn’t give a care about your life and saved my daughter and granddaughter, you really are a good child.”
Huang Yao Shi had seen Huang Rong and knew what had happened, he heard that Cheng Ying had rescued him so he took Sha Gu with him and searched for them.

Huang Yao Shi took out some effective recuperative medicine and gave it to your Yang Guo to take. He then circulated his internal energy and passed it into Yang Guo through his palm to help him recover. Yang Guo felt as if his arms were on fire, his body started to create a force to repel this. Huang Yao Shi felt him tremble and noticed that his veins and chi was circulating, there was a resisting internal energy that was being created so he increased the strength in his hands. After a while, Yang Guo felt his limbs and bones were at ease and soothed, and gradually he fell into a deep sleep.

When Yang Guo woke up the next day, he opened his eyes and saw Huang Yao Shi sitting at the end of the bed. He quickly sat up and greeted him.
Huang Yao Shi said, “Do you know what title I go by in Jiang Hu?”
Yang Guo said, “Senior is Island Master Huang?”
Huang Yao Shi said, “And?”
Yang Guo felt that it was inappropriate to say the words ‘Eastern Heretic’ but he had a thought, since his nickname is ‘Eastern Heretic’, his character will be different to normal people so he boldly said, “You are ‘Eastern Heretic’!”
Huang Yao Shi laughed and said, “Correct. I’ve heard that your martial arts are not bad, your heart is good but you do things in heretical ways. I also heard that you want to marry your master, is that right?”
Yang Guo said, “Correct, senior, everyone doesn’t allow me to do this but even if I’ll die I’ll still want to marry her.”

Those words were like a nail striking metal, Huang Yao Shi stared at him for a while and then suddenly raised his head and laughed towards the sky, shaking the grass on the roof.
Yang Guo said angrily, “What’s so funny about that? I thought that because you are called ‘Eastern Heretic’, you would have some extraordinary opinion, but who would have thought that you are just like the others.”
Huang Yao Shi loudly said, “Great, great, great!” After he said this, he turned around and left.
Yang Guo sat on the bed startled, he thought, “My words really offended that senior. But how come he didn’t have any signs of anger on his face?”

He didn’t; know that as Huang Yao Shi roamed the world, the one thing he hated most was the present custom and traditions of the world, his actions and words did not confer to the normal and because of this he was give the name ‘Heretic’. He has met many people before but he did not have an understanding friend in his life, though he had a daughter and son in law as loved ones, they did not understand him. He didn’t know that in his later years he would come upon Yang Guo.
The events of the heroes meet had already spread to his ears and Huang Rong told him about how this young man’s actions and behaviour, after speaking to him a few times he found that Yang Guo matched his expectations even more.

That night, Huang Yao Shi returned to the room and said, “Yang Guo, I heard you expelled yourself from Quan Zhen sect and beat up your master, your are rather heretical. Why don’t you leave the Ancient Tomb sect, and then enter my tutelage.”
Yang Guo was startled and said, “Why?”
Huang Yao Shi laughed and said, “First you’ll acknowledge that Xiao Long Nuu is not your master and then marry her, won’t that be proper?”
Yang Guo said, “That’s a good idea. But who set the rule that you can’t marry your master? I want her to be my master and my wife.”

Huang Yao Shi clapped and laughed, he said, “Great! The way you think is a level higher than me.” He stretched out his hand to help him recuperate through his palms and said, “I originally wanted you to enter my tutelage so I could let the world know that after senior Heretic Huang, there’s a young Heretic Yang. You don’t want to be my disciple, I can’t do anything about that.”

Yang Guo said, “I don’t have to be your disciple to spread your ‘Heretic’ name. If you don’t mind me being of a young age and have poor martial arts, we could be friends or else we could become brothers.”
Huang Yao Shi angrily said, “You sure are bold for a little kid. I’m not the Old Urchin Zhou Bo Tong, how can there be no order between us?”
Yang Guo said, “Who’s the Old Urchin Zhou Bo Tong?”
Huang Yao Shi then told him a few things about Zhou Bo Tong’s character and how he became sworn brothers with Guo Jing.

The two of them chatted and hit it off perfectly, there’s a saying: ‘A thousand cups is too little for understanding friends who meets through wine, half a word it too much for those whose words don’t get along’.
Yang Guo was good with words and along with the closeness of his character to Huang Yao Shi’s, whenever he spoke, Huang Yao Shi would sigh as someone understands him, for him, it really was like meeting an old friend at first sight, a meeting that has come extremely late. Though he didn’t admit it through his words, I his heart he treated him as a friend of old, that night he told Cheng Ying to prepare another bed for him in the same room and the two continued their exchange.

Days passed and Yang Guo’s injury recovered. He and Huang Yao Shi were like glue, like paint, it was difficult to separate the two. Huang Yao Shi had originally wanted to take Sha Gu south but right now he didn’t mention one word about leaving. Cheng Ying and Lu Wu Shuang watched the old and young with amusement, in the day they will drink wine together and at night, they would talk under the candlelight without end. They felt that the old didn’t have the status as the senior and young was too unrestrained and had no fear.
When it came to discussions in knowledge, Yang Guo wasn’t anywhere as knowledgeable as Huang Yao Shi but whatever Huang Yao Shi said, Yang Guo would concentrate on understanding, when he made a comment he would just add a single word yet his comment had its fine points, Huang Yao Shi couldn’t stop himself from treating him as the closest friend in his life.

In these past few days, apart from spending time with Huang Yao Shi talking, he would always think about how Sha Gu mistakenly recognized him as his father and the words that she said, “It wasn’t me who killed you, go and find someone else!” He knew that Sha Gu must know who had killed his father, other people might not say, but Sha Gu is mad and crazy, maybe he could reveal the truth from her.

After midday, Yang Guo said, “Sha Gu, come, I have something to say to you.”
Sha Gu felt that he looked like Yang Kang too much and was still afraid, she shook her head and said, “I don’t want to play with you.”
Yang Guo said, “I know circus tricks, are you going to watch?”
Sha Gu shook her head and said, “You’re lying, I don’t want to watch.”
She closed her eyes after she said this. Yang Guo suddenly flipped upside down with his legs above his head and called out, “Quickly look!” He used the martial arts that Ou Yang Feng taught him of walking upside down and leapt forward. Sha Gu opened her eyes and was delighted as soon as she saw this, she clapped and cheered and followed behind him.

Yang Guo kept on leaping forward and arrived at a hidden and covered woods faraway from the hut, he turned upright and said, “Let’s play hide and seek, you want to? But the loser has to be punished.”
Sha Gu has been following Huang Yao Shi for the past few years, who played with her? When she heard Yang Guo said this, she was ecstatic and clapped her hands, most of the fear she had for him disappeared and she said, “Great, great. Good brother, what is the punishment?” She called his father brother, and she also called him brother.

Yang Guo took out a handkerchief and blindfolded her and said, “Come and catch me. If you catch me, then whatever question you ask I’ll have to answer it truthfully. If you can’t catch me then I get to ask you a question, you have to answer it truthfully as well.”
Sha Gu replied, “Great, great!”
Yang Guo called out, “I’m over here, come and catch me!”
Sha Gu opened her arms and followed the calls. Yang Guo possessed the lightness kung fu of the Ancient Tomb sect, even if Sha Gu wasn’t blindfolded she would not be able to catch him, after chasing for a while, she crashed into a tree with bruises on her forehead as a result and she started to cry out in pain.

Yang Guo was afraid that Sha Gu would not want to play anymore so he deliberately slowed down and made light noise. Sha Gu rushed forward and grabbed his back and called out, “I’ve caught you, I’ve caught you!” Her face was full of delight as she took off her blindfold.

Yang Guo said, “Fine, I’ve lost, ask me ask a question.”
She stared at him, startled, her mind was uncertain; she didn’t know what to ask. After a long while, she asked, “Good brother, have you eaten yet?”
She thought for so long but came up with such a simple question, Yang Guo almost laughed out. He didn’t make a noise and seriously replied, “I’ve eaten already.”
Sha Gu nodded and didn’t say anything else.
Yang Guo said, “What else do you want to ask?”
Sha Gu shook her head and said, “I don’t want to ask anymore, let’s play again.”
Yang Guo said, “Fine, come and catch me.”

Sha Gu touched the bruise on her forehead and said, “This time its your turn to catch me.” This time, she suddenly didn’t act crazy, Yang Guo didn’t predict this but this was what he wanted so he took the handkerchief and blindfolded himself.

Though Sha Gu was mad, her lightness kung fu was pretty good, Yang Guo couldn’t see, how could he catch her? He leapt forward a few times and then secretly he tore an opening on the blindfold and saw her hiding on the right behind a large tree. He deliberately faced the left, pretending to think, he said, “Where are you? Where are you?” He suddenly flipped over and caught her wrist. He quickly put the handkerchief in his pockets with his left hand in case she saw through the ripped handkerchief. He laughed and said, “This time its my turn to ask you a question.”

Sha Gu said, “I’ve eaten already.”
Yang Guo laughed and said, “I’m not asking about that. This is my question, you know my father, right?” His face was extremely serious as he said this.
Sha Gu said, “Who’s your father?”
Yang Guo said, “There’s a person who looks just like me, who is that?”
Sha Gu said, “Ah, that’s brother Yang.”
Yang Guo asked, “You saw that brother Yang being killed by someone, didn’t you?”
Sha Gu said, “Yeah, it was in the middle of the night in a temple, there were lots of crows calling out ‘wu ai’, ‘wu ai’, ‘wu ai’!” The forest was covered and hidden and was already dark, her calls made the forest seem even more eerie.

Yang Guo trembled and asked, “How did brother Yang die?”
Sha Gu said, “Auntie wanted me to say, brother Yang didn’t allow me to say, he struck auntie with a palm and laughed out loud, haha! Haha! Haha!” She used all her efforts in copying Yang Kang’s laugh before he died, her laugh even scared herself and her face was filled with fear.
Yang Guo listened puzzled, he asked, “Who’s auntie?”
Sha Gu said, “Auntie is auntie.”

Yang Guo knew that the puzzle to his father’s death was about to be solved, he was full of emotions and was about to ask another question when suddenly someone from behind said, “What are you two playing here?” It was Huang Yao Shi’s voice.
Sha Gu said, “Good brother is playing hide and seek with me. It was he who wanted me to play, not me wanting him to play. Don’t scold me.”
Huang Yao Shi smiled a little and then looked at Yang Guo, his looked as if he has seen through what Yang Guo was thinking about.

Yang Guo’s heart raced, he was about to say a few words to cover it up when suddenly, sounds of footsteps could be heard from outside the forest, Cheng Ying was holding Lu Wu Shuang as they hurried towards them and she said to Huang Yao Shi, “Master is right, she is still around.” She then pointed to the hill in the west.
Yang Guo asked, “Who?”
Cheng Ying said, “Li Mo Chou!”

Yang Guo was extremely shocked, he was thinking why on earth was she so bold, he looked at Huang Yao Shi, hoping that he will be able to explain.
Huang Yao Shi gave laugh and said, “Let’s go over there and take a look.”
Everyone had no fear with him around so they headed towards that hill in the west.

Cheng Ying knew that Yang Guo had questions in his heart and quietly said, “Master said that Li Mo Chou knows that he has the status of a great master. That night he wanted to take her life but he was unable to at the first attempt, a second attempt on her life would be shameful.”
Yang Guo understood. He said alarmed, “Because of this she could guard here confidently and wait for the chance to take our lives. If Island Master Huang didn’t see through this, we would have thought that she had long gone and let our guard down and eventually suffer under her hands.”
Cheng Ying smiled warmly and nodded. Lu Wu Shuang interrupted, “You think you are cleverer than most people, but compared with Island Master Huang, there’s a long way to go.”
Yang Guo laughed and said, “I’m Sha Dan, I’m dumber than most people, I’m Sha Gu’s good brother.”

The five of them soon arrived. There was a small hut besides a large tree, it was broken and dilapidated, there was a piece of paper nailed onto the door. There were four lines:

The master of Peach Blossom Island,
Disciples he has many,
Five against one,
It’s the laughing stock of Jiang Hu!

Huang Yao Shi laughed and casually picked up two pebbles and placed them in between his middle finger and thumb, after an ‘chi’ ‘chi’ sound, the pebbles shot forward urgently. A ‘pai’ sound was heard as the two small pebbles knocked the doors open from over ten paces away.
When Yang Guo was on Peach Blossom Island, he had from Guo Fu that her grandfather had a skill called the [Divine Flicking Fingers], today, he saw it with his own eyes and far exceeds the tales about it, he was in awe.

Once the doors opened, they saw Li Mo Chou sitting on a mat on the floor, her hands holding her flywhisk, her eyes closed, she looked collected and was meditating just like a Taoist. She was in the hut by herself, Hong Ling Bo was nowhere to be seen.
A thought went through Yang Guo’s mind and he understood, “She’s laughing at Island Master Huang for having many disciples and winning through numbers, that’s why she sent Hong Ling Bo away to make it even more apparent. She’s confident not because she can defend against Island Master Huang, it’s because since she’s by herself, with Island Master Huang’s status, it would not be appropriate to attack her.”

The memories of her parents death and the torment she had through the years stirred in Lu Wu Shuang, she suddenly drew out her sword and called out, “Cousin, Sha Dan, we don’t Island Master Huang to fight her, let’s all attack her.”
Sha Gu rubbed her knuckles and palms and said, “And me!”
Li Mo Chou opened her eyes and glanced across at the five, a look of contempt was on her face and she closed her eyes again, it was as if she was ignoring the enemies in front of her. Cheng Ying looked at her master, waiting for his orders.

Huang Yao Shi sighed and said, “Indeed, old Heretic Huang has many disciples, if any of my four senior disciples Chen, Mei, Qu, Lu were here, how would she be allowed to say a word?” He then waved his hand and said, “Let’s leave.”
The four of them did not understand what he was thinking and followed him back to the hut. They saw that he was unhappy, he went to bed and didn’t even eat supper.

Yang Guo slept on the bed next to his and recalled the things he said with Sha Gu, he then pondered about Li Mo Chou, he thought, “She’s laughing at us because its five against one, I’ve recovered from my injury now, with my strength alone I may not lose to her, why don’t I sneak away and fight a round with her, this way I can clean her insults about me and Gu Gu and help Island Master Huang vent his anger.”
He made his decision and dressed himself quietly. Though he was impulsive, he did things rather carefully, he knew Li Mo Chou really was a strong foe, if he made just one move he would die under her hands so he sat on his bed and circulated his chi and prepared himself, once he was at his peak, he will go and fight the duel to death.

He had sat there for around an hour when suddenly his eyes lit up, chi was everywhere in his body and he couldn’t stop himself from calling out. The call was like the roar of a dragon, like a tiger bellowing in a deep valley, the sound spreading far and wide.
Huang Yao Shi had noticed that he was awake when he had got up to dress himself, when he heard this extraordinary call, he was shocked and delighted, he didn’t predict that Yang Guo’s internal energy would make a break through right at this time.

When someone’s internal energy reaches a certain stage, they will unconsciously call out.
Later on in the Ming Dynasty, the Da Ru King Yang Ming was practising his qi in the middle in the night in his encampment when he suddenly made a prolonged call, shocking his entire camp.
Right now, Yang Guo’s chi was abundant and was hard for him to control it, the bellow spread throughout many miles.
Cheng Ying and Lu Wu Shuang was extremely startled, even Li Mo Chou was frightened when she heard it but she thought that it was Huang Yao Shi who was exercising his chi, there was no need to be afraid as he wasn’t going to do anything.
Yang Guo has had the help of the chilled jade bed and has practised the important aspects of the [Jade Heart Manual] and [Nine Yin Manual], his accumulated internal energy had become profound, a few days before Huang Yao Shi had helped him to recuperate but Island Master Huang’s internal energy was of a different nature to his and it was provoked by this extremely profound internal energy, now he couldn’t control himself and released a long bellow.

The bellow continued for a while before gradually it quietened and stilled.
Huang Yao Shi thought, “I have always thought that my talents were not of this earth yet I had to wait until I was thirty before reaching such a stage. This young man has reached this stage at least ten years before me, I wonder what events he has encountered?”
He waited for Yang Guo to finish and stand up before asking, “Tell me, what do you think is Li Mo Chou’s most powerful skill?”

When Yang Guo heard this, he knew that his intentions had been seen through and replied, “It is the [Divine Five Poison Palm] and her flywhisk techniques.”
Huang Yao Shi said, “Correct, since your internal energy has some foundation it wouldn’t be difficult to neutralise her most proficient skill.”
Yang Guo was delighted and bowed down to him. Yang Guo was very proud, though he recognised Huang Yao Shi was a senior and his abilities were superb, he didn’t lower his head to him, now that he heard that the martial arts that Li Mo Chou uses to roam the realm can be neutralised, how can he not be in awe?”

Huang Yao Shi then taught him the skill of the [Divine Flicking Fingers] to neutralise Li Mo Chou’s [Divine Five Poison Palm] and a sword technique derived from his jade flute to neutralise the flywhisk techniques.

Yang Guo listened to him point out the important aspects of these techniques and then asked him to explain some of the difficulties, he concentrated and committed them to memory but he felt that although that these two types of martial arts are profound and mastery, to make some progress, one will need to practise for at least a year, if he wanted to reach a stage where he will be able to beat her, it will take three years and no less. He said, “Island Master Huang, there is no way to beat her right now.”
Huang Yao Shi said, “Three years will pass in the blink of an eye. Then you’ll be twenty one, twenty two years of age, and will have learnt these two types of martial arts, isn’t that enough?”
Yang Guo said, “I’m… I’m not doing it for me…”
Huang Yao Shi patted his shoulder and said warmly, “When you kill her three years later for me, I will be extremely touched. Years ago I destroyed my disciples, shouldn’t I get some kind of payback today?” He gave a long sigh after he said this.

Yang Guo knelt down and kowtowed eight times to him and then called out, “Master!” He knew that Huang Yao Shi had passed on martial arts to him so that he will be able cleanse the four lines of Li Mo Chou’s insult, to do this, they will have to be recognised as master and disciple.

But Huang Yao Shi knew that his ties with the Ancient Tomb were extremely deep, he would be unwillingly to accept another master so he helped him up and said, “When you fight that witch, you are my disciple, at all other times, you are my friend. Little brother Yang, do you understand?”
Yang Guo laughed and said, “To be able to make a friend like you really is a glorious event.”
Huang Yao Shi said, “The two of us meeting is the luck of three generations.” The two of them laughed, their sounds moving the four walls.

Huang Yao Shi once again explained in detail the secrets and ideas of the [Divine Flicking Finger] and the [Jade Flute Swordplay] to him. Yang Guo heard that he was explaining them thoroughly and knew that he was about to leave.
He said gloomily, “We’ve just met and now we are about to part, when will we be able to meet again?”
Huang Yao Shi laughed and said, “The two of us are linked, even if we are at the ends of the world, we’ll still be like neighbours. If in the future I found out that someone is blocking your marriage, even if I’m ten thousand miles away I will rush back and help you.”
Yang Guo was comforted by this promise and laughed, “I’m afraid that the first person who will come out and stop this marriage will be your loved one.”

Huang Yao Shi said, “She marries her ideal man and forgets about the suffering and bitterness of others? My precious daughter only listens to her husband, haha, ‘obey the husband when married’, that really is something!” He laughed loudly after he said this and turned around and left the room, in a flash his laughter could be heard tens of feet away, he really moved like a divine dragon without trace.

Yang Guo stood there for a while stunned and then sat down and went over the two martial arts that he had just learnt. Not long after, the sky became bright. Suddenly he saw the door open, Cheng Ying had entered with blue green cloth and a blue green gown in her hands, she gave a little smile and said, “Try this on, see whether it fits you.”
Yang Guo was extremely touched, his hands trembled a little as he received it.

Their eyes met and he saw that Cheng Ying’s eyes were full of love and boundless tenderness. He went over to the side of the bed and tried the new gown. He felt that the gown fitted perfectly and said, “I’m… I’m… I’m really grateful.”
Cheng Ying showed another smile but immediately a depressed expression was on her face, she sighed and said, “Master has gone, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see him again.”
She was about to sit down and say something when she saw a yellow image at the door and then immediately disappeared, she knew it was her cousin outside and thought, “That girl has many thoughts, it’s not appropriate for me to stay in his room for too long.” She stood up and slowly walked out.

He carefully studied the gown and noticed that the stitching was careful and tight, he thought, “She and wifey treats me the same but my heart belongs to someone else, I can’t love others. If I don’t leave soon, I’ll be giving them two a lot of grief.”
He thought about this for half a day, but he was also afraid that when he leaves, Li Mo Chou would suddenly come and attack them. He went to her hut to take a look and saw that in its place was a pile of ash, Li Mo Chou had burnt the hut and left.

The enemy had left and so that night, he wrote a parting letter under the candlelight, he thought about the two girls’ love and felt depressed, he saw that his letter weren’t worded with great aptitude and his handwriting was poor, he was afraid that Cheng Ying would laugh and so ripped the letter up. That night he tossed and turned in his bed as he tried to sleep.

In his blurry state, he suddenly heard Lu Wu Shuang tapping his door and calling out, “Sha Dan, Sha Dan! Quickly come and take a look.” Her voice sounded rather anxious and afraid.
Yang Guo got up and clothed himself and opened the door, he felt a slightly chilly breeze, the sky wasn’t bright yet.
Lu Wu Shuang’s face was filled with fear and pointed at the outside door. Yang Guo followed her hand and was shocked; there were four red blood handprints on the door, Li Mo Chou must have come over to survey the group and found that Huang Yao Shi had left, the four prints were left to tell them that she was going to kill the four of them.

[eeyore]

Now this is the bit I miss from series adaptation and comic books.. YG friendship with HYS. man.. I almost cried

thanks Noodles

question: what is Divine Flicking Fingers in pin yin mandarin?

[Acidbeastonfire]

Thanks Noodles!!!
So glad to see one of my fav character (HYS) again!

[Zhen Yu Cao]

This is definitely one of my 'top moments in Wuxia'. HYS and YG really are great for each other. I loved how HYS said that HR married the one she loved and forgot about other's bitterness. Very touching indeed. As for the LMC part of this update...
ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER! NOODSSSSSSSSSSSSS .




^^;;

[Ren Wo Xing]

Noodles, I've been reading your translations for quite some time now, and they've been improving immeasurably as you've continued. Good job in conveying the feel of Jing Yong's work as well as the words.

Divine Flicking Finger:

Tan Zhi Shen Tong

Translates directly as "Flicking Fingers Divine Penetration" I'd say.

[eeyore]

Thanks RWX..

I just thought, the story above, really show HYS was much more intellegent than HR, I mean, teaching a mental disable girl a solid kungfu. Granted not many variation she can develop, but still, it's an accomplishment for HYS, I reckon.

[Yang Guo]

Well, I rank Huang Yao Shi as the most intelligent/brilliant Jin Yong character... a few may be smarter than him in martial arts and all, but this guy's well roundedly smart!

[BluLotus]

Four red handprints! LMC is about to strike, what'll YG and Co. do!? Until next time, on ROCH!

Thanks, Noodles .

[Noodles]

Cheng Ying came out after them and asked, “When did you see this?”
Lu Wu Shuang said, “Before the sky started to get bright.” Once she said this, her face went red. She was longing for Yang Guo and had paced back and forth below his window.
Cheng Ying pretended that she didn’t know and said, “Luckily you didn’t bump into her. The sun has began to rise, that witch won’t come again today. We’ve still got time to plan.” The three of them returned to Yang Guo’s room and discussed what to do about the situation.

Lu Wu Shuang said, “She had a taste of Sha Gu’s kung fu the other day, how come she’s not afraid of her?”
Cheng Ying said, “Apprentice sister’s fork technique only has a few stances. She went away and thought about it carefully and must have come up with a way to neutralize it.”
Lu Wu Shuang said, “However, Sha Dan has recovered from his injury, with the two Sha people together, won’t their power be great?”
Yang Guo laughed and said, “Sha Dan plus a Sha Gu, you’ve got dumb and dumber, what power?”

The three of them continued on their discussion for a while but couldn’t come up with any great plan, they thought about the four of them fighting together, they won’t be able to beat her but can protect themselves, they decided to on fighting her with all their efforts when she comes again the next day.
Yang Guo said, “The two Sha people will join up and fight her from the front, you two attack from the sides. Let’s go find Sha Gu and practise our plan.”

The three of them called for Sha Gu but there was no reply. They didn’t know where she was and the three of them began to worry. The three of them split up to search for her.
Cheng Ying searched for a little while and suddenly saw Sha Gu lying in a pile of rocks, her breathing was weak, Cheng Ying was alarmed and quickly took off her clothes to take a look; she saw that there was a red palm print on her back, she had fallen victim to Li Mo Chou’s [Divine Five Poison Palm]. Cheng Ying quickly called for Yang Guo and Lu Wu Shuang and then fed a ‘Nine Flower Reveal Jade’ pill to her.
Yang Guo remembered the method to cure this palm from the ‘Five Poison Codex’ and quickly circulated his internal energy and controlled her pressure points.

Sha Gu laughed foolishly and said, “Evil woman, behind, hit me. Sha Gu, hit back, hit her.” The counterattack that Sha Gu used was one of the three palms techniques that Huang Yao Shi taught her, though Li Mo Chou succeeded in her ambush, she was struck on the arm and almost had her arm broken, she was scared and in pain and left swiftly, not daring to continue her stances to take her life.

The three rescued Sha Gu back to the hut and sat anxiously, with one of the good fighters hurt, tomorrow’s battle will be even harder to defend against the enemy. Sha Gu had a serious injury, if they escaped with her in tow, they will definitely be caught by Li Mo Chou.
Yang Guo looked at Cheng Ying and then at Lu Wu Shuang, he then picked up a piece of string from the needle basket that was at hand and then grabbed a pair of scissors and started to cut.
Sha Gu was lying on the bed and suddenly called out, “Cut it, cut that evil woman’s broom! Cut that broom!” She didn’t know it was called a ‘flywhisk’ and called it a ‘broom’.

Yang Guo had an idea, “That witch’s flywhisk is a soft weapon and she uses it superbly, precious sabres and sharp swords can’t harm her, if there really was a large pair of scissors that could be used as a weapon and cut her flywhisk, that’ll be great.”
As he thought about this, the string in his left hand started to move like a flywhisk, the scissors in his right hand came forward and cut the string in two, he then pondered about the flywhisk’s movements and how to control the scissors to attack, drawing up a set of techniques.

Cheng Ying and Lu Wu Shuang watched for a while and then understood, delight was on their faces.
Cheng Ying said, “There’s a blacksmiths seven, eight miles north of here...”
Lu Wu Shuang interrupted and said, “Great, we’ll go and get that blacksmith to forge a large pair of scissors.”

Yang Guo thought, “It would be difficult to forge this weapon in such a rush but I have to adjust to the changes of battle, this is a lot easier than learning the [Jade Flute Swordplay], and anyway, we don’t have another plan so we’ve got to give it a try.”
If one of them goes and make the order for the blacksmith, it would be extremely dangerous if Li Mo Chou comes and suddenly ambushes that person, right now the four of them could not be separated. So Cheng Ying and Lu Wu Shuang set up some bedding on the horse and placed Sha Gu on the back of the horse. They made their way to the blacksmiths.

After the Mongols destroyed the Jins, they entered the boundaries of Song land, this place was the northern frontier of the Song’s borders, the Mongols ransacked cities and towns and the whole place was in ruins.

The blacksmith store was very simple, in the middle was a large anvil, on the floor were pieces of coal and fragments of metals, there were a few plows and sickles hung on the wall, there was no one in the store.

Yang Guo looked at the store and thought, “How can weapons be made here!” But since they’ve made their way here, he might as well ask so he called out loudly, “Is the blacksmith home?”
After a while, an old man entered from the side of the room, his beard and hair was grey, he was about fifty years old. The man had a hump most probably from bending down to forge metal over a long time, his eyes were red and small because of smoke from the fires, his left leg was crippled and he had a crutch under his arms.
He said, “How can I help you?”

Yang Guo was about to reply when suddenly noises of galloping horses could be heard, two horses rushed towards the store; on one of the horses was a Mongolian captain, the other was a Han, Yang Guo didn’t know whether he was a translator or a guide.
The Han loudly said, “Blacksmith Feng? Come over here and listen to the orders.”
The old man greeted them and said, “I am him.”
The Han said, “The captain has the following orders: all the blacksmiths of this town has three days to gather together at Xian city to aid the army. You have to be there tomorrow, you hear?”
Blacksmith Feng said, “I am old…”
The Mongolian captain raised his whip and said a few words.
The Han said, “If you’re not there tomorrow, watch your head get cut off.” After he said this, the two left.

Blacksmith Feng stood there and was lost in thought. Cheng Ying saw that he was old and pitiful, she took out some money and placed it on the table, she said, “Master Feng, you’re old and can’t move well, won’t working in the Mongolian camp lead to losing your life in vain? Take this money and run away!”
Blacksmith Feng sighed and said, “Thank you for miss’s kindness. Old Blacksmith here has lived for so long, living and dying isn’t much to me. But the thousands and thousands of lives of Jiang Nan will be in danger.”

The three of them were startled and asked, “Why?”
Blacksmith Feng said, “The Mongolian army is gathering blacksmiths to forge weapons. Once they have enough, the will definitely invade south into the land of the Song.”
The three of them heard that his words were unique and was very reasonable, they wanted to ask further when Blacksmith Feng said, “What do you three want to order?”

Yang Guo said, “Since master Feng has other matters to attend to, I shouldn’t disturb you but I need it urgently so I have to trouble you.” Yang Guo then described the form and size of the scissors to him, the scissors was a special object but who would have thought that as soon as blacksmith Feng heard it, there wasn’t any signs of surprise on his face. He nodded and pushed and pulled the air trunk and started the furnace up. He then placed two pieces of iron into the furnace.
Yang Guo said, “Will it be forged by tonight?”
Blacksmith Feng said, “I will do my best and go as fast as possible.”
He pulled and pushed the air trunk furiously, the coal turned into a blood red colour.

Sha Gu was on the table, half lying down and half sitting up. Yang Guo and the others homeland was Jiang Nan, though they left when they were young, when they heard their homeland was in danger, they were all worried. The three of them looked at the furnace and thought about the troubles and strife of the world, human lives weren’t regarded and there was worry, hardships and danger everywhere, though they were facing difficulties the next day, their fear in their hearts diminished a little.
After little over two hours, blacksmith Feng had melted the iron. He used forceps in his left hand and placed the molten metal on the anvil, with his right, he used an iron hammer to forge the metal. Though he was old, he was still strong, it was as if he didn’t use any effort in using the hammer. After a while, the two pieces of metal started to take the rough shape of a large pairs of scissors, forming gradually.
Lu Wu Shuang said happily, “Sha Dan, it’s going to be made in time.”

Suddenly a voice from behind said coldly, “Making a pair of scissors to cut my flywhisk?” The three of them were startled and turned their heads around, only for them to see Li Mo Chou standing at the entrance, lightly waving her flywhisk about.

The weapon had yet to be finished but the enemy had arrived. Cheng Ying and Lu Wu Shuang both drew their swords, Yang Guo looked at the iron rod by the furnace, as soon as the enemy makes her move, he will grab the rod and use it.

Li Mo Chou chuckled, “Forging a pair of large scissors to cut my flywhisk, only you kids can think of that. I’ll sit here and wait for you to finish, there’s still time.” She then sat on a bench, and looked upon the three as nothing.

Yang Guo said, “That’s great. I say that your flywhisk will definitely be cut up by the scissors.”
Li Mo Chou saw Sha Gu sitting up on the table and thought, “That woman took a palm of mine and is still able to sit up, she’s quite good.”
She asked coldly, “Where’s Huang Yao Shi?”
When blacksmith Feng heard the three words ‘Huang Yao Shi’ he trembled and looked up at her and then immediately lowered his head, continuing with the forging.
Cheng Ying said, “You know that my master is not here, why ask? If you knew he was still here, even if you’ve got the greatest gall of all, you wouldn’t dare to come.”

Li Mo Chou gave a ‘humph’ sound and took out a piece of paper from her pockets and said, “Huang Yao Shi got his fame by taking in many disciples and rely on numbers to win. Huh! Out of all his disciples, which one was really able?” She waved out her left hand and the paper flew away, her arm moved slightly and a silver needle shot out, pining the piece of paper on a pillar. She said, “I’ll leave this as evidence. When that old ‘Heretic’ Huang comes back, he’ll know who killed his two precious disciples.” She turned her head around to blacksmith Feng and said, “Work quicker, I’m getting impatient.”

Blacksmith Feng squinted his red eyes and looked at the piece of paper, he saw the words:

The master of Peach Blossom Island,
Disciples he has many,
Five against one,
It’s the laughing stock of Jiang Hu!

He looked up at the roof and was lost in thought.
Li Mo Chou said, “Why aren’t you working quickly?”
Blacksmith Feng lowered his head and said, “Yes, quicker, quicker.” His left hand stretched out the iron forceps and held the needle and paper, he placed it into the flaming fire of the furnace; in a flash the paper burned to ash.

Everyone was extremely surprised by this event. Li Mo Chou was furious; she raised her flywhisk and wanted to strike down on his head but thought, “This small town blacksmith is extremely bold, could it be that he is an extraordinary person?” She was now standing up so she slowly sat down asked, “Who are you?”
Blacksmith Feng said, “Can’t you see? I’m an old blacksmith.”
Li Mo Chou said, “Why did you burn my piece of paper?”
Blacksmith Feng said, “The words on the paper are wrong, its best not to hang it in this store.”
Li Mo Chou said sternly, “What’s wrong with the words?”

Blacksmith Feng said, “The master of Peach Blossom Island has the ability to move heaven and earth, all his disciples needs to do is to learn one art of his and they will be able to roam the realm. His first disciple is called Chen Xuan Feng, he has bronze muscles and iron bones, impenetrable by sabres and spears, have you heard about this?” When he was talking, he was still forging at the same time, the hammering sounds increased the force of his words.

Li Mo Chou was surprised when she heard him mention Chen Xuan Feng, Yang Guo and others were also surprised, they would never have thought that an old blacksmith in a place like this would know about people of Jiang Hu.
Li Mo Chou said, “Humph, I heard that a little kid stabbed him to death, what’s so powerful about him? What impenetrable by sabres and spears, it’s rubbish!”

Blacksmith Feng said, “The master of Peach Blossom Island’s second disciple is Mei Chao Feng, she moves like the wind, the swiftness of her attacks are unparalleled.”
Li Mo Chou laughed and said, “Yes, that woman attacks too fast, because of this the Seven Freaks of Jiang Nan blinded her and later on, Western Poison Ou Yang Feng shattered her lungs.”

Blacksmith Feng was stunned for a while and then said bleakly, “That happened? I don’t know about it. The master of Peach Blossom Island’s third disciple is Qu Ling Feng, his lightness kung fu is divine, the [Slashing Air Palm] extraordinarily powerful.”
Li Mo Chou said, “There’s a tale around Jiang Hu, someone sneaked into the king’s palace to steal treasures, they were beaten to death by the guards, that was the Qu Ling Feng with the extraordinarily powerful [Slashing Air Palm]. Every palm that comes out all meets thin air, that is the [Slashing Air Palm] of the master of Peach Blossom Island.”

Blacksmith Feng lowered his head, two ‘chi’ sounds were heard as two tear drops landed on the heated iron and turned into steam.
Lu Wu Shuang was sitting the closest to him and saw his tears clearly, she secretly wondered what it was about. She just saw him raised his hammer even higher, the striking sounds of the metal now even louder.

After a while, blacksmith Feng continued, “Peach Blossom Island has four senior disciples; Chen, Mei, Qu, Lu. The fourth disciple Lu Cheng Feng had not only great martial arts, he was also well versed in the arts of formations and changes, if you meet him, you’ll definitely won’t be able to escape.”
Li Mo Chou chuckled and said, “What use is the art of formations and changes? He built a Returning Echo Manor by lake Tai, the men of Jiang Hu said that is was extremely ingenious, but someone burnt it to the ground, from then onwards there was no news of him, most probably he got burnt to death along with his manor.”

Blacksmith Feng raised his head and said sternly, “You talk rubbish nun, all the disciples of the master of Peace Blossom Island are highly skilled in martial arts, how could they all fall under the hands of others? Are you trying to take advantage of this country bumpkin not knowing the matters of the world?
Li Mo Chou chuckled and said, “Ask them three kids and you’ll know.”

Blacksmith Feng turned his head towards Cheng Ying, his eyes inquiring.
Cheng Ying stood up and said gloomily, “My apprentice brothers and sisters have been unfortunate, they have all passed away. I haven’t been in the school for long, my martial arts are low and can’t help master fight, I really am ashamed. Do you have ties with my master?”
Blacksmith Feng didn’t reply and examined her, he looked suspicious and said, “The master of Peach Blossom Island took in another disciple in his later years?”

Cheng Ying saw that blacksmith Feng’s left leg was crippled, she suddenly had a thought and said, “Master was lonely in his later years, he ordered me to serve him by his side. With my age and study, I really wouldn’t dare to say that I’m a disciple of Peach Blossom Island, I haven’t even taken a single step onto Peach Blossom Island.” The way she phrased her words, she admitted that she was a disciple of Peach Blossom Island.

Blacksmith Feng nodded, his eyes were very gentle, a feeling of being close to someone, he lowered his head and continued to forge metal, it was as if he was in deep thought about something.

Cheng Ying saw that when his hammer was in the air, it made half a circle, when it descended onto the anvil, it was tilted and dragged, the hand movements were extremely similar to her school’s [Divine Descending Sword Palm Technique], she understood further and said, “When master has spare time, he will talk to me, he talked about how years ago he sent his disciples away from the island, Chen and Mei were the ones who did wrong. Qu, Lu, Wu and Feng were innocent but because of them they were punished, what was especially tragic was apprentice brother Feng, Feng Mo Feng. He was young and had a harsh background, when master thinks about this, he would feel uncomfortable and extremely regretful.”
In reality, Huang Yao Shi’s character eccentric, though his heart had these thoughts, he would never say it. But Cheng Ying was warm, kind and understanding, when her master was lonely and chatted to her, he would reveal a little of his thoughts through his words, she herself guessed what he wanted to say, though what she said right now was not exactly from her master’s mouth, it wasn’t against his intentions.

From the way the two talked, she had guessed herself who he was, but when she saw blacksmith Feng sigh and his tears like rain, ‘chi’ ‘chi’ ‘chi’ as the tears struck the metal into steam, she couldn’t stop her heart from softening but after a thought, she became strong again, she thought, “Even if they got another fighter, that old blacksmith is crippled, how can he help?”
She chuckled and said, “Feng Mo Feng, congratulations on your reunion with your apprentice sister.”

That blacksmith was Huang Yao Shi’s junior disciple Feng Mo Feng. Years ago when Chen Xuan Feng and Mei Chao Feng stole the [Nine Yin Manual] and escaped from the island, Huang Yao Shi broke the legs of all the remaining disciples before expelling them from the island. Qu Ling Feng, Lu Cheng Feng and Wu Tian Feng had both their legs broken but when he came to Feng Mo Feng, he saw that he was young and his martial arts low, pity stirred in his mind and he just broke his left leg. Feng Mo Feng was extremely hurt inside, he eventually came to this place and made a living as a blacksmith. He didn’t keep any contact with the Jiang Hu world and lived here for thirty years straight silently, he couldn’t have predicted that today he would have news of his master and apprentices again. Huang Yao Shi saved his life from his enemies, Huang Yao Shi bought him up, his debts to him was great, no matter how Huang Yao Shi treated him, there was no hate in his heart, when he heard the words of Cheng Ying, his emotions were stirred, his grief and sorrow bought forwards.

End of Chapter 15

[BluLotus]

Ooo, Sha Gu is hurt, but another fighter will replace her! What's going to happen next!? Are we going to expect a big fight!? Until next time, on ROCH!

Thanks, Noodles .

[Goofy]

this is what I have always wondered.

HYS had 6 disciples total originally, but Li said five- which five she included (chen, mei, qu, lu, and wu or feng?) and wu didn't seem to come up in feng's conversation at all. How come?

any thought or explanation on that?

And I had thought that HR was pretty much her father's character in her youth. She shared his literacy intellect and more, so eventhough her focus of life had changed since the marriage, is it really true that she didn't share friendship with her father.

in the old series, it did portray otherwise, and I think it is logical.

however, from the above chapter, it is almost like the father-daughter were so far apart.

Could this be HYS' recent thought out of loneliness this last eighteen years without his loving daughter?

[shadow8899]

Originally posted by Goofy
this is what I have always wondered.

HYS had 6 disciples total originally, but Li said five- which five she included (chen, mei, qu, lu, and wu or feng?) and wu didn't seem to come up in feng's conversation at all. How come?

By five, she was talking about HYS, Yang Guo, Ching Ying, Lu Wu Shang and Sha Gu, fighting against her 1... not 5 of HYS's original 6 disciples....

[Noodles]

Originally posted by Goofy
this is what I have always wondered.


And I had thought that HR was pretty much her father's character in her youth. She shared his literacy intellect and more, so eventhough her focus of life had changed since the marriage, is it really true that she didn't share friendship with her father.

in the old series, it did portray otherwise, and I think it is logical.

however, from the above chapter, it is almost like the father-daughter were so far apart.

Could this be HYS' recent thought out of loneliness this last eighteen years without his loving daughter?

Huang Rong shared traits and understood what he was like, they were close but I don't think she truly understood him as a friend, just as a daughter. The only person that he would class as a 'zhi ji' before this would be his wife. What Huang Yao Shi was missing all these years was a 'zhi ji', a close, intimate and understanding friend. The father daughter relationship was close but for him, it can't match the friendship of a 'zhi ji'.

[Noodles]

Chapter 16

Avenging a Father’s Death

Yang Guo and Lu Wu Shuang were both shocked and pleased to hear that blacksmith Feng was actually Cheng Ying’s apprentice brother. Being Huang Yao Shi’s disciple, his martial arts can’t be that bad, unexpectedly they suddenly had another strong help in this danger.

Li Mo Chou chuckled, “You’ve been expelled by your master yet you still can’t let go, how isn’t that extremely stupid? Today I’m going to kill three kids and a mad woman, you better just stand by the side and take in the atmosphere.”
Feng Mo Feng said slowly, “Though I’ve learnt martial arts, I have never fought anyone before in my life, plus my left leg is crippled, I can’t really fight.”
Li Mo Chou said, “Yes, that’s the best thing for you, you can’t afford to throw your life in.”
Feng Mo Feng shook his head and said, “I cannot allow you to harm a single hair of my apprentice sister’s, since these people are friends of hers you better find somewhere else to do evil.”

Li Mo Chou murderous intent was stirred and laughed, “The four of you fighting me at once, that’s great.” She stood up.
Feng Mo Feng was unmoved and kept on striking the metal with his hammer, he was like an character from an opera following prompts from a gong, he struck the metal and then followed it by a few words. He said, “I have left my school over thirty years ago, my martial arts have gone rusty long ago, I need to take a good think about them.”

Li Mo Chou laughed and said, “Half my life I’ve roamed Jiang Hu but I’ve never seen a person like you who grabs the feet of Buddha and prepare for battle at the last minute. Today my eyes have been opened. Feng Mo Feng, have you really never fought anyone before in your life?”
Feng Mo Feng said, “I never offend others, when others beat me and insult me I don’t do anything, so of course my hands have never been raised.”
Li Mo Chou chuckled and said, “Haha, old ‘Heretic’ Huang actually picked a bunch of face losing crap to be his disciples.”
Feng Mo Feng said, “Please don’t speak ill of my merciful master like that.”
Li Mo Chou gave a wry laugh and said, “He abandoned you as a master long ago yet you still merciful master this, merciful that, you’re not afraid of making people laugh.”

Feng Mo Feng continued to strike down with his hammer and said, “I have no one in this world, the only loved one I have is my merciful master, if I don’t respect him, love him, who should I think about? Little apprentice sister, is master well?”
Cheng Ying said, “Master is very well.”
Feng Mo Feng’s face lit up with joy.

When Li Mo Chou saw his feelings, she thought, “Old ‘Heretic’ Huang is a great master, indeed there’s something great about him. He beat his disciple into this state yet this person still remains loyal to him.”

The metal that was being forged was now gradually getting colder, Feng Mo Feng again used his forceps to place the metal into the furnace but he was preoccupied and actually sent the hammer in his right hand into the furnace instead.
Li Mo Chou laughed and said, “Blacksmith Feng, just slowly think about your master’s martial arts, there’s no need to lose your mind.”
Feng Mo Feng didn’t reply and stared at the flaming furnace in deep thought, after a while, he sent the crutch under his left arm into the furnace.
Yang Guo and Lu Wu Shuang both said, “That’s your crutch!”
Cheng Ying also called out, “Apprentice brother!”
Feng Mo Feng still did not reply and gazed into the furnace. The crutch didn’t burn in the furnace, instead it gradually became red; the crutch was actually made of metal. After another while, the hammer also became red but his hands weren’t scalded as he held onto the handle of the hammer and crutch.

Li Mo Chou disdain turned into precaution, she knew that this rough looking man must have qualities that excel, she was afraid that he would suddenly attack and fall victim to him so she urgently waved her flywhisk about to protect her front’s fatal areas and leapt outside, calling out, “Blacksmith Feng, just get it over with!”

Feng Mo Feng responded and exited the shop, his movements were swift and light, it didn’t look like he was crippled. He placed his red crutch into the ground and said, “This angelic nun, please don’t insult my master and please stop troubling my apprentice sister, spare the bitter life of this old blacksmith!”
Li Mo Chou was again greatly surprised and thought, “Why is he begging just before he’s about to fight?” She said, “I will spare you only, if you are afraid then don’t intervene.”
Feng Mo Feng bit his teeth and said, “Fine, then kill me first!” As he said this, he trembled, he was afraid but was also emotional.

Li Mo Chou raised her flywhisk and struck down towards his head. Feng Mo Feng quickly leapt away, his dodging was very sharp but his arms trembled, he actually was afraid to counterattack. Li Mo Chou attacked three times in a row but each time, Feng Mo Feng avoided the attacks with great movements yet he still did not counterattack.

Yang Guo and the others were standing to the side watching, when the time comes they will go up and help. They saw that Li Mo Chou’s attacks were gradually intensifying and Feng Mo Feng really looked like someone who has never fought before and along with his peaceful nature, he didn’t make an attack with his red hammer.
Yang Guo thought that this wasn’t good, though this person martial arts are strong, he didn’t have any intent to fight, he must be stirred so he said loudly, “Li Mo Chou, why did you insult Island Master Huang by calling him heartless, unrighteous and wicked?”
Li Mo Chou thought, “When did I insult him?” She sped up her attacks and did not reply.
Yang Guo continued, “You said that Island Master Huang seduced other’s daughters and wives, capture other’s sons and brothers, did you see that with your own eyes? You said he lied to friends, betrayed his benefactors, did those things really happen? Why did you spread all these things over the world of Jiang Hu and tarnish Island Master Huang’s name?”

Cheng Ying was startled and didn’t understand, Feng Mo Feng’s fury erupted when he heard this, his valour stirred and attacked with his hammer and crutch at the same time. His left leg was on the ground, assuming the form [Golden Cockerel Standing Alone], it was like he was nailed to the floor, sturdy and still, the hammer and crutch produced a fierce gust of blazing air, heading straight towards Li Mo Chou.

Li Mo Chou saw that the incoming force was ferocious, she didn’t dare to meet it front on and leapt out of the way, finding a gap to attack.
Yang Guo carried on, “Li Mo Chou, you said that Island Master Huang is a liar and a shameless scoundrel, I say that you’re the shameless one!”
Feng Mo Feng was becoming angrier and angrier as he heard this, the hammer and crutch swept and lunged forward with unstoppable force, at first his stances looked rather rusty but as he fought on, it became more and more fluent.

The two’s internal energy weren’t that far apart but Li Mo Chou has roamed Jiang Hu for many years and has been in hundreds of battles, her experience was far greater than his. After about twenty, thirty stances, Li Mo Chou knew that Feng Mo Feng’s internal energy wasn’t weak but he lacked experience and had one leg only, after time, she knew that he would lose so she decided to wait until his anger disperses and then counterattack.
Indeed, after another ten or so moves, Feng Mo Feng’s anger gradually disappeared and his will fatigued and he began to slip away. Li Mo Chou was thrilled and attacked with her flywhisk towards his chest.

[Anonymous]

Hiya gys,
Got burned out and returning.
Thx Noodles for the updates I missed. I see YangGuo is shaping out nicely while I was gone; however, I'm still waiting for YangGuo to kick Li Mo arse!
-
More skills of YangGuo:
1. quote: He [YangGuo] opened the ‘Five Poison Codex’ and flipped through a few pages and remembered the antidote to the [Dive Five Poison Palm] and the ‘Soul Freezing Silver Needles’.
-
2. quote: Huang Yao Shi then taught him the skill of the [Divine Flicking Fingers] to neutralise Li Mo Chou’s [Divine Five Poison Palm] and a sword technique derived from his jade flute to neutralise the flywhisk techniques. [require 3 years to beat Li Mo Chou]
-
3. Can derive techniques now ...
--- quote: he [Yang Guo] then pondered about the flywhisk’s movements and how to control the scissors to attack, drawing up a set of techniques.
-
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Amazing martial arts displayed:
--- quote: Huang Yao Shi’s song and tune would suddenly turn joyous, then anger, suddenly resounding and overbearing, then suddenly lowly and humble, many changes in the wink of an eye, forcing Li Mo Chou to suddenly feel delight and then sorrow, suddenly anger then worry, when this song finishes, Li Mo Chou would have been forced to go mad.
-
-
Observations:
1. Wow! Serpent Deity crying ... brings more humanity to her...
--- quote: when she [Li Mo Chou] heard the soft and tender tune [her yesteryears tune] of the flute and song, she felt pain and sorrow and eventually couldn’t stop herself from crying.
-
2. Serpent Deity sorrow tune vs. Cheng Ying's love/joyful tune. Definitely not in ROCH83. Dang, ROCH83 should promote this [ie. more Faye Wong song and stuff. haha. ]
--- quote: Li Mo Chou [...] suddenly started to sing, her voice graceful and mournful, she sang: [...]
--- quote: The flute was originally joyous, but Li Mo Chou’s song was filled with sorrow, her tone mournful, it was completely different to the tune of ‘Liu Bo’, the voice became quieter, but the quieter it got, the higher the it got.
--- quote: Li Mo Chou’s song was becoming more and more mournful [...]
--- quote: Cheng Ying was filled with joy and bliss, she sang: [...]
-
3. A song to crash a party? Or another way to crash a wedding? haha.
--- quote: ‘O mortals, what is love? That binds beyond life on earth?’ song, the song and tone was filled with sorrow and grief, like an abandoned woman crying, like a night ghost wailing.
-
4. ROCH a musical serial wuxia? haha. [Remember the Xena musical ...]
--- quote: when the song was becoming extremely sad and depressing, someone from outside the hut suddenly laughed out loud and clapped as they made their way towards the hut.
--- quote: it appeared that the voice was not young but what she was singing was a naïve and innocent song [...] The song was filled with joy and happiness, Li Mo Chou’s sadness and sorrow in her song was disturbed.
-
5. Sha Gu is like Tom Bombadil in Lord of the Rings ...
--- quote: since her heart was full of confusion and disorder, even if the outside influence was stronger there will be no way to create and stir up these feelings; instead when Sha Gu’s muddled up songs disturbed Li Mo Chou’s sorrowful tone, it stopped her control over Yang Guo and the others.
-
6. More genius of Huang Yao Shi [East Wicked]:
--- quote: trying to get her [Sha Gu] to recognise a few words and learn a few coarse martial arts was something that he couldn’t do. But over the last ten years, under the instruction of a great master, Sha Gu has learnt a set of palm techniques and a fork technique.
-
7. More Dugu9Swords -- full offensive does work, examples. Actually, all of Sha Gu's moves versus Serpent Deity [Li Mo Chou]
--- quote: sent the flywhisk towards her head. Sha Gu didn’t care what the opponent’s stance was and just thrust her fork forward ...
--- quote: The counterattack that Sha Gu used was one of the three palms techniques that Huang Yao Shi taught her, though Li Mo Chou succeeded in her ambush, she {Li Mo Chou] was struck on the arm and almost had her arm broken,
--- Notice that Sha Gu's moves are REFINED, compared to LingHu Chongs ...
-
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Questions:
1. How Sha Gu had such profound internal strength? almost like the 6 fairies in Smiling Proud Wanderer ...
--- quote: Li Mo Chou heard that the sound of air being sliced through was urgent, she couldn’t stop herself from being alarmed, “Hard to predict that this woman possesses such profound internal strength.”
-
2. How old was Yang Ming when he roared?
--- quote: Later on in the Ming Dynasty, the Da Ru King Yang Ming was practising his qi in the middle in the night in his encampment when he suddenly made a prolonged call, shocking his entire camp.
-
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Interesting Lines:
1. Li Mo Chou tore the handkerchief in four and said, “The past is the past, why is there a need to return there?” Her hands ripped urgently for a while and then flung the pieces into the air ...
-
-
Upcoming Attractions:
1. Any sudden reversals by Feng Mo Feng, regarding Li Mo Chou's attack?

[darkcser]

Hoping you'll update soon Noodles... Are you busy with other concerns or have you lost your motivation?

[ProtoM]

Wanted: more translations. please? heheheh...just dying here at work. thanx for taking the time to translate for us. keep up the good work.

[Noodles]

Feng Mo Feng swept his hammer across to block. The flywhisk curved its way around and wrapped around the hammer’s head, this was the special stance that Li Mo Chou uses to take the opponent’s weapon, all she needed to do was trap the weapon and pull, the hammer would then leave Feng Mo Feng’s hand. But as she did this, ‘chi’ ‘chi’ ‘chi’ sounds were heard, smoke rose, everyone smelt an unpleasant smell; the hairs of the flywhisk was burnt off.

Instead of taking the opponent’s weapon, Li Mo Chou had lost her own, she remained calm and flung the handle of the flywhisk away and changed her attack to her [Divine Five Poison Palm]. Though this palm technique was powerful, one has to be very close to the opponent to use it, right now Feng Mo Feng has a hammer in his right hand and a crutch in his left, he was using it swiftly and forcefully with gusts of wind generated, he now able to do as he wished.
However in between the two images, smoke kept on rising up; Li Mo Chou’s gown was being burnt by the scalding hammer and crutch, piece by piece of her gown was getting burnt.
She was furious, she was definitely going to gain victory but the old blacksmith had an advantage in his weaponry, she could not take it at all and wanted to strike him with a palm to vent her anger.

This was the first time that Feng Mo Feng fought somebody, if he had been pegged back and on the receiving end of a beating, he would have retreated but now he had the upper hand, the stances of the hammer and crutch were coming out with extreme mastery.
Li Mo Chou were almost struck by the hammer and crutch a few times in her quest to land a palm on him, if it weren’t for her speed, her palm would have been burnt.

Suddenly Feng Mo Feng called out, “I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to fight, look at yourself, what decency is there!” His single leg leapt back five feet.
Li Mo Chou was stunned, a cool breeze blew and pieces of her clothes flew away, her arms, shoulders, chest and legs were revealed. She was a virgin, she wasn’t able to stop her embarrassment; she wanted to turn around and run away when suddenly her back felt cool, a large piece of cloth flew away from her back.

Yang Guo saw that she was in a wretched state, he tore off his belt and took off her gown, he circulated his internal energy and shot it over to her. The gown was like a person hugging her. Li Mo Chou quickly put her arms in the sleeve of the gown and buttoned it up. She has seen countless battles in her life but right now she was frightened and embarrassed, her face was red one moment, white the next, she didn’t know whether to keep on fighting. She thought, “If I fight him again, this gown will be burned off again, I can only swallow my anger and do something about it later.”
She nodded at Yang Guo, thanking him for giving her the gown. She then turned her head towards Feng Mo Feng and said, “These crafty weapons are indeed the evil skills of old ‘Heretic’ Huang. Tell the truth, if it was a battle with proper martial arts alone, can you beat me? If old ‘Heretic’ Huang’s disciples fought fairly and squarely one on one with me, could they beat me?”

Feng Mo Feng said with ease, “If you didn’t lose your weapon, after a while, you’ll be able to beat me.”
Li Mo Chou said arrogantly, “It’s good that you know it. My words on that piece of paper about the disciples of Peach Blossom Island winning by numbers aren’t wrong.”

Feng Mo Feng lowered his head and pondered, after a while he said, “That is not correct! If my apprentice brothers and sister Chen, Mei, Qu and Lu were here, any one of them would be stronger than you. I don’t even need to mention my highly skilled apprentice brothers Chen and Qu, you won’t be able to beat my apprentice sister Mei Chao Feng who’s also a girl like you.”

Li Mo Chou chuckled and said, “All those people are dead and can’t prove anything, why are you talking about them for? Old ‘Heretic’ Huang’s martial arts aren’t all that. I wanted to test out his daughter Mrs Guo martial arts but I don’t think there’s a need to now.” She turned around and was about to leave.

Yang Guo had a thought in his mind and said, “Wait!”
Li Mo Chou’s brows raised and said, “What?”
Yang Guo said, “You’re wrong about Island Master Huang’s martial arts being so and so. I heard a swordplay from him, called the [Jade Flute Swordplay], it can neutralise your flywhisk techniques.” He picked up the iron rod and drew on the ground. He explained, “Your attacks from the front are indeed swift and powerful but if his sword cuts down from this direction, you will not be able to take back your attack. If you counterattack, the sword will attack quickly from this direction. If you sweep the brush and attack the pressure points, then he’ll use a tiger claw form and grab your brush tips, turn his sword around and use the handle to strike the ‘virtuous’ pressure point on your shoulder. Can you imagine that?”
That stance was indeed unimaginable strange but it was also ingenious, brushing the pressure points in front of her were one of Li Mo Chou’s flywhisk technique’s lethal stances, the stance that Yang Guo described left her with no reply, she could only throw down her flywhisk and admit defeat.

Yang Guo made another comparison and said, “When it comes to your [Divine Five Poison Palm], Island Master Huang will use his fingernail to neutralise your palm. When your palm arrives, he will use the [Divine Release of the Flicking Finger], his fingernail flicking against your palm, how can your palm not be crippled as a result? All he needs to do is to immediately cut off his fingernail and the palm’s poison won’t spread to his body.” He continued and described over ten other different stances that could neutralise her martial arts.

These words turned Li Mo Chou grey, every word of his were reasonable and logical, the stances that he described were ingenious, she wouldn’t be able to fend off these stances.

Yang Guo said, “Island Master Huang was angry at your words, he has the status of being a great master and cannot fight you personally so he passed these techniques to me so I can take care of you. But I thought about how my master and you are still apprentice sisters, today I give you a warning about the power of Island Master Huang, next time you see his disciples, you better just ran as faraway as possible.”

Li Mo Chou was silent for a while and then said, “I give up, I give up!” She turned around and ran away, in a flash her image disappeared behind the hills, her speed was really something rarely seen in the world of Jiang Hu.

In reality, although Huang Yao Shi did pass these techniques to Yang Guo, to be able to reach a state when he could use it to neutralise and defeat the enemy requires years of practise.
Yang Guo description of these techniques was enough to intimidate and overawe her, from now on, she would never dare to say one derisive word towards Huang Yao Shi.

In the vicinity of Li Mo Chou, Lu Wu Shuang’s heart would jump at the sound of her voice, when she saw Li Mo Chou had gone faraway, it was like a heavy load was relieved off her, she clapped and laughed, saying, “Sha Dan! You’re pretty good with words, you could even scare away my master.”

Cheng Ying had seen Yang Guo throw away the gown she had personally made to Li Mo Chou, it was a pressing situation then and that was that, but she saw that underneath the new gown, he was still wearing the torn and ragged old one. She knew that Xiao Long Nuu must have made it, he distinguished between familiarities and would never forgot about things of old. Her heart ached a little but she pretended she didn’t care. Then, the four of them returned to the shop to take a look at Sha Gu.

Just as they entered, suddenly the clamour of men and neighing of horses could be heard from behind the hills, the four of them turned around.

Yang Guo said, “I’ll go take a look.” He leapt on the horse and galloped around the hill and arrived at the main road. He saw dust and dirt flying up everywhere; it was a division of Mongolian soldiers heading south, they had iron bows and long sabres, their force like a crashing wave.
Yang Guo has never seen an army marching before, he watched with a thumping heart, stunned.

Two soldiers raised their long sabres and shouted, “Barbarian, what are you looking at?” They rushed over.
Yang Guo turned his horse around and galloped away, the two Mongolian soldiers mounted their bows and shot out an arrow towards his back. Yang Guo turned his head back and caught it but felt that the arrows carried a great force behind them, if he didn’t know martial arts, these arrows would have pierced his chest long ago. The two soldiers were frightened when they saw his abilities and reined in their horses, not daring to continue pursuing him.

Yang Guo returned to the blacksmiths and told them what he saw.
Feng Mo Feng sighed, “The Mongolian army are indeed heading south. The Chinese citizens are going to suffer!”
Yang Guo said, “The Song army would not be able to defend against the archery techniques of the Mongolian army, this is going to be a great disaster.”
Feng Mo Feng said, “This is just the time for a brave and heroic young man like master Yang, why don’t you return south and join the army and help fight off the invaders?”
Yang Guo was taken aback, he said, “No, I have to return north to find my Gu Gu. The Mongolian army’s power is vast, I’m just one person, what use is that?”

Feng Mo Feng shook his head and said, “Though the force of one person is small, the force of many are strong. If everyone thinks like you, who’ll come out and defend the country against invasions?”

Yang Guo felt that his words were right but right now, there was nothing more important to him than finding his Gu Gu. He has wandered around Jiang Hu ever since he was little, he has suffered the under the abuse of officials, he saw that the Mongolians were indeed violent and ruthless but the Song king may not be a good person himself, there was no need for him to help the king. He just gave a wry smile and didn’t reply.

Feng Mo Feng gathered his hammer, forceps and air trunk and hung them across his back, he turned to Cheng Ying and said, “Apprentice sister, when you see master please tell him that disciple Feng Mo Feng will never forget his teachings. Today I’m going to join the Mongolian army, I’m going to kill one or two of these generals who are invading my land. Apprentice sister, take care. I’m extremely delighted about seeing a disciple of master’s.” He supported himself on his crutch and left, not even turning his head around again, he didn’t take another look at Yang Guo.

Yang Guo looked at Cheng Ying and Lu Wu Shuang, he said, “It was unexpected that we would meet such a person like him here.”
Lu Wu Shuang favoured Yang Guo in her heard and said, “Cousin, apart from you, the people under the tutelage of your master are either mad or crazy.”
Cheng Ying smiled and said mildly, “Everyone has their own will, you can’t force them. You said he was mad and crazy, he in turn might be calling us heartless. Anyway, don’t I possess a touch of madness and craziness myself?”
Yang Guo’s heart jumped when he heard this, she looked different and he couldn’t tell whether her words were meant to be ambiguous.

Suddenly a ‘peng’ sound was heard as Sha Gu fell from her bench. The three of them were alarmed and quickly put her up on the bed, her face was red and her eyes stared forward, the poison from the [Divine Five Poison Palm] was flaring up again.
Cheng Ying fed her some medicine while Yang Guo helped her sooth her pressure points. Sha Gu looked at him startled, her face was full of fear as she called out, “Brother Yang, don’t look for me for revenge, it wasn’t me who killed you.”
Cheng Ying said softly, “Sister, don’t be scared, he isn’t…”

Yang Guo suddenly thought, “She’s not fully conscious at the moment, I can force her to reveal the truth.” He turned his hands and grabbed onto her wrists and said with a severe tone, “Who killed me? If you don’t tell me then I’ll take my revenge on you.”
Sha Gu begged, “Brother Yang, it’s not me.”
Yang Guo said angrily, “You’re not telling me! Fine, I’ll strangle you to death!” He stretched his hands around her throat. Sha Gu gave out a piercing scream.

How would Cheng Ying and Lu Wu Shuang know what Yang Guo was doing, they both called out to stop him, one called out, “Brother Yang”, the other called out, “Sha Dan!” One said, “Don’t frighten her further”, the other said, “Why are you mucking around at a time like this?”

Yang Guo didn’t take any notice, his held his hands slightly tighter, the expression of an evil spirit was on his face, he bit down on his teeth and said, “I’m brother Yang’s evil ghost. I died a horrible death, do you know that?”
Sha Gu said, “I know, after you died, crows ate your flesh.”

Yang Guo’s heart felt as a knife was plunged into his heart, he knew that his father had died under someone else’s hands but he didn’t know that after he died, his body was actually eaten by crows and couldn’t be buried, he called out, “Who killed me? Tell me, tell me.”
Sha Gu strained out, “It was you who hit auntie, auntie had poison needles on her body, you died.”
Yang Guo yelled loudly, “Who is this auntie?”
Sha Gu couldn’t breath with Yang Guo’s hold over her and wanted to faint, she said quietly, “Auntie is auntie.”
Yang Guo said, “What’s auntie’s surname? What’s her name?”
Sha Gu said, “I… I… don’t know, let me go!”

Lu Wu Shuang saw that the situation was becoming urgent, she went over to pull away Yang Guo’s hands. Right now, Yang Guo was like a madman, he waved out with all his strength, how could Lu Wu Shuang defend herself? She was thrown away and crashed into a wall painfully.
Cheng Ying saw that the usually peaceful, warm and graceful Yang Guo was now like a mad tiger, she so frightened that her limbs went soft.

Yang Guo thought, “If today I can’t get the name of the person who killed my father, I’ll immediately throw up blood and die.”
He asked, “Is auntie’s surname Qu? Is auntie’s name Mei?” He thought that since Sha Gu’s surname was Qu, her auntie’s surname would most probably be Qu, or perhaps it could have been Mei Chao Feng.

Sha Gu struggled with all her strength, though she has practised martial arts for a longer time that Yang Guo, her martial arts couldn’t compare to his, along with fact that the pressure points on her wrist were being held, she couldn’t break free, she could only say urgently, “Go and find auntie for revenge, don’t… don’t look for me
Yang Guo said, “Where’s your auntie?”
Sha Gu said, “Me and grandpa left! She’s with a man on the island.”

Yang Guo’s spine chilled when he heard these words, he quivered, “What does your auntie call your grandpa?”
Sha Gu said, “Father, what else?”
Yang Guo’s face went grey but he was afraid he was wrong and asked, “Your auntie’s man is called Guo Jing, isn’t it?”
Sha Gu said, “I don’t know. Auntie just calls him ‘brother Jing, brother Jing!” She copied the way Huang Rong called Guo Jing, suddenly her legs flailed about and squealed, “Help, help! Ghost… ghost…”

What doubts had Yang Guo have now? All the suffering and bitterness of the past rushed to the surface, he thought, “If father wasn’t killed, my mother wouldn’t have been in pain all the time and die so early like that, and I wouldn’t have endured all the pain and suffering I’ve been through.” He continued, “When I was on Peach Blossom Island, the Guo couple were not at ease with me, they were a bit too polite, they seemed to be covering up something and didn’t treat me like the Wu brothers, telling them as it is, shouting at them when needed to, then I felt something but how would I know that it was because they carried the guilt of killing my father. It’s because of this that they didn’t want to teach me martial arts and sent me to Quan Zhen sect to suffer.”

His anger and fear stirred throughout him, his limbs became soft. Sha Gu called out loudly and leapt up from the bed.

Cheng Ying went over to Yang Guo and said softly, “Sister Sha has always been a bit crazy, you know about this. She’s even worse after suffering this injury, don’t believe her whatever you do.” But in her heart she believed that the words of Sha Gu were true, and she knew that consoling him like this would be no use but her heart couldn’t endure seeing his face full of anger, despair, bitterness and sorrow.

Yang Guo did not take any of these words in, he stood there stunned for a while before calling out loud and got on his horse, he kicked in with his legs and the horse galloped forward, in a flash it had gone over a hundred feet. Faint calls of ‘Sha Dan!’ ‘Brother Yang!’ was heard behind him but he ignored the calls, the only thought in his mind was, “I need to take revenge, I need to take revenge!”

He galloped in a single breath for two hours and had gone over tens of miles. Suddenly he felt a pain on his lips, he stretched out his hand and felt his lips, his hand was covered in blood; in his anger and pain, he had bitten down on his lips and actually pierced his lower lip. He thought, “Auntie Guo has always treated me badly, recently she suddenly began to treat me well but it was all fake. I don’t care about this but uncle Guo… uncle Guo…” He has always revered Guo Jing, he felt that his actions and martial arts were one of its kind, and he has always treated him exceedingly well, now he knew that this was one big lie, he felt that this person was even more cunning than Huang Rong, anger and resentful filled him, almost bursting out of his chest.

When he thought about the pain he was in, he got off the horse, covered his head and began to cry. This release of sorrow was extremely distressing, it was like all the world’s pains and troubles had all amassed into him.
He has never seen his father before and has never heard anyone talk about him, not even his own mother but ever since he was little, he had the image of the perfect father in his mind, there wasn’t another who was as kind as him. Yet this hero was killed by the devious trick of Guo Jing and Huang Rong.

He cried for a while before suddenly hearing the sounds of horses, four horses galloped from the north, the riders all Mongolian warriors. The first rider was holding a long spear, on the spear was a child that was two, three years of age, laughing as he galloped forward.
The baby was still alive, it was giving out a weak cry. The four warriors were a little surprised when they saw Yang Guo in the middle of the road but a ragged clothed young Han like him could be found everywhere so they didn’t take any notice.
One of them called out, “Move out of the way, move out of the way.” As he said this, he pierced his spear forward.

Yang Guo was in the middle of his troubles right now, he pulled the spearhead forward and dragged the warrior down, he turned his hand and swept the spear, the warrior went flying over ten feet away, his skull was cracked and died. When the remaining three warriors saw his valour, they all called out, turned around and galloped away. A ‘pai’ sound was heard as the baby fell onto the floor.

Yang Guo ran up to it and saw that it was a Han child, it was healthy and chubby, very cute, the pierce to its stomach wouldn’t kill it right away but it would be difficult for it to recover and live. It was calling out ‘a’ ‘a’ ‘a’, as if it was calling out for its mother. Yang Gou was overwhelmed with sorrow and grief, sympathy stirred in his heart. He picked up the barely alive baby and tears flowed again, he saw that its pain was unbearable so he lightly gave a palm and stopped its pain. He used the Mongolian warrior’s spear to dig a hole so he could bury the baby.

He dug ten or so times before he suddenly heard the thunderous noise of horses and horns, a group of Mongolian soldiers were rushing towards him. Yang Guo’s left hand held the dead baby, his right extended the spear as he got on the horse. The skinny horse was actually a experienced battle horse, when it saw it was about to go into battle, its spirits soared, it neighed and charged towards the Mongolian soldiers.
Yang Guo’s hand raised, the spear descended, he turned over three, four soldiers in one go but he saw that countless soldiers were coming forward, he turned the horse around, went onto the wild lands and ran away. Arrows rained down behind him like locusts, his swung the spear and deflected the arrows away. The skinny horse was extremely fast, in a short while it had left the Mongolian soldiers behind but it didn’t stop, it continued galloping away like the wind into the wild lands.

After another while, Yang Guo saw that the sky was beginning to get dark, he looked around and saw that long grass and strange rocks were everywhere, dusk was covering the area, it was quiet without any sounds of people, there weren’t even a crow or sparrow about.

He got off the horse with the baby still held in his hands, The face still looked alive, covered in extreme suffering, pain filled his heart, he thought, “The parents of this child must have loved it very much, now that’s he’s dead, his parents must be feeling great pain. I don’t know how many people have died under the hands of these vicious and violent Mongolian soldiers as they head south.”
The more he thought about it, the more difficult he found it to endure, he dug a hole by a large tree and buried the child. He then thought about the words of Sha Gu again, “When this child died, it had me to bury it but my father’s body was eaten by crows. You killed him, what harm is there in burying him? You really are evil! If I don’t take revenge, Yang Guo isn’t a human!”

That night he slept in a tree. The next morning he rode the horse and let the horse went as it pleased, sometimes he thought about going back to the tomb and see Xiao Long Nuu, at others he would think about how he must kill Guo Jing and Huang Rong first no matter what to avenge his father. When he felt hungry, he would pluck wild fruits to eat.

On the fourth day, he suddenly saw someone faraway, leaping up to a tree to pick some wild fruits, Yang Guo rode closer and saw that it was the disciple of Jin Lun Fa Wang, Da Er Ba. Every time he jumped, he could only pick one fruit, eventually he became impatient and attacked the tree a few times, the tree gave a ‘ka la’ as it broke, he then plucked the wild fruits from the tree and placed them in his pockets.

Yang Guo thought, “Could it be that Jin Lun Fa Wang is nearby?”
He and Jin Lun Fa Wang originally didn’t have any ties, right now he had recognised Guo Jing and Huang Rong as his father’s killers and he now regretted helping Guo Jing and Huang Rong to oppose Fa Wang, he quietly followed Da Er Ba to see where he was going. He saw him moving like he was flying, straight towards the mountain. Yang Guo got off the horse and followed faraway from behind. Da Er Ba headed into a forest, the further he went, the higher he got. Yang Guo followed him up to the peak of this mountain.

At the top of a mountain was a small exposed hut. Jin Lun Fa Wang was sitting in the middle of the hut, meditating with his eyes closed and brow hanging down. Da Er Ba put the wild fruits down on the floor and turned around, his face changed as he suddenly saw Yang Guo approaching, he called out, “Senior apprentice brother, you’ve come to cause further harm to master?” He dashed forward to Yang Guo and stretched out his arm to twist the front of his garment. His martial arts are better than Yang Guo’s, but he was affected by the perilous situation that his master was in and in his fear he lost control of his state of mind, this stance was a mess and broke one of the rules of martial arts, Yang Guo grabbed his arm in return and threw him away.

Da Er Ba had always thought that Yang Guo was the reincarnation of his senior apprentice brother and now he was thrown on the floor by him, he rolled over a few times, picked himself up and then leapt in front of Yang Guo.
Yang Guo thought that he was going to raise his hands again so he took a step backwards, he didn’t know that Da Er Ba would suddenly fall down to his knees and kowtowed, “Senior apprentice brother, please remember your relationship with master in your previous life. Master has a serious injury and is now trying to recuperate, if you disturb him, then… then…” His voice croaked as he reached this point and tears flowed.

Though Yang Guo did not understand his Tibetan, from his emotional state and Jin Lun Fa Wang’s distressed look, he more or less understood, he quickly helped him up and said, “Relax, I’m not going to harm your master.”
Da Er Ba saw that his face was gentle and peaceful, he was pleased, though he didn’t understand his words, his wariness started to go away.

Right at this time, Jin Lun Fa Wang opened his eyes, he was shocked when he saw Yang Guo, just now he was concentrating on circulating his chi and didn’t hear the words of Da Er Ba and Yang Guo, suddenly he saw the enemy in front of him, he gave a sigh and said slowly, “I have practised martial arts for many years but I still have yet to find a way to break through the echelon barrier, I didn’t know that today I would die in the central plains.” When he had suffered that blow from the rock, he had suffered serious internal injuries, in the past few days he had built a hut on the top of the mountain so he could recuperate, it was unexpected that Yang Guo would actually find his way here. He wasn’t able to use even one ounce of strength now, he immediately ordered Da Er Ba to force Yang Guo away but in the middle of battle his state of mind would be disturbed and it would be difficult to recover from this serious injury.

How would he know that Yang Guo would bow and curtsy, he said, “I have not come here to do any harm reverend, please don’t be wary.”
Jin Lun Fa Wang shook his head and was about to say something when he felt a severe pain in his chest, he quickly closed his eyes and circulated his chi. Yang Guo went inside the hut and stretched out his right hand, placing in on the ‘To Yang’ pressure point. This pressure point is just below the seventh vertebrae and is one of the major pressure point that regulates the veins and arteries.
Da Er Ba was shocked when he saw this, he sent out a fist towards Yang Guo. Yang Guo shook his left hand and made a signal with his eyes.
Da Er Ba saw that nothing was wrong with his master, a slight smile was forming on his face and he took back his fist.

Yang Guo’s internal energy was not deep and he didn’t know anything about Tibetan internal energy, when he felt a Fa Wang’s internal chi stirring, he circulated his internal energy and sent a chi to him to help him clear upwards the ‘Spirit Stage’, ‘Divine Route’, ‘Body Pillar’ and ‘Chest Route’, clearing the downwards ‘Withdrawing Muscle’, ‘Central Hinge’, ‘Central Spine’ and the ‘Suspending Hinge’ pressure points were up to Fa Wang, he could only help him protect his veins and arteries.
Though Da Er Ba’s martial arts were strong, all he learnt were external martial arts and couldn’t help his master to recuperate, in the past few days he could only worry anxiously.
Since Jin Lun Fa Wang now had no worries, his chi ran through his body and he used all his strength to heal the injuries in his chest and lower abdomen, after two hours the pain had lessened and his face was red, he opened his eyes and nodded to thank Yang Guo, he joined his palms and said, “Master Yang, why are you suddenly helping me?”

Yang Guo did not hide anything from him, he told him how he recently found out that Guo Jing and Huang Rong killed his father, how he decided to go and take revenge, and how he accidentally bumped into Da Er Ba and followed him here.

Jin Lun Fa Wang knew that this young man was crafty, in ten words it was difficult for him to believe one of them but today killing him would have been easy as turning his palm and instead of killing him, Yang Guo actually helped him to recuperate, he really did not have any ill intent towards him and he said, “So master Yang has such heavy matters on him. But the Guo couple’s martial arts are extremely high, I’m afraid that it would be difficult for master Yang to take revenge.”
Yang Guo was silent, after a while he said, “Fine, then both father and son will die under their hands!”
Fa Wang said, “At first, I thought I was invincible and just by my power alone, I could hold down the heroes of the central plains and take the position of the Chancellor of wulin. But the warriors of the central plains do not follow the rules of fighting one on one, they all come at once, I can only make another plan. When I’ve recovered, I’m going to need to invite many skilled fighters to assist me. Once my forces are large, the central plains martial artists can’t use numbers to overcome me, everyone can compete fairly. Have you got intentions to joining my side?”

Yang Guo was about to agree but he thought about the killings of the Mongolian soldiers and said, “I cannot help Mongolia.”
Fa Wang shook his head and said, “If you want to kill the Guo couple just by yourself, that would be almost impossible.”

Yang Guo thought for a while and said, “Fine, I’ll help you get the position of the Chancellor of wulin, you help me to take my revenge.”
Jin Lun Fa Wang stretched out his palm and said, “That’s settled, we’ll exchange palms to seal this deal.”
The two of them exchanged three palms to set this deal.
Yang Guo said, “I’m just going to help you to take the position of the Chancellor of wulin, I cannot help you in your quest to help the Mongols to attack Jiang Nan and kill its citizens”

Jin Lun Fa Wang laughed and said, “Everyone has their will, one cannot force them. Brother Yang, your martial arts have many styles, don’t mind me commenting, learning martial arts from many schools is of course good, but it would be unavoidable that your martial arts won’t be refined. What is your most proficient skill? What martial arts are you planning to use against the Guo couple?”

Those words froze Yang Guo’s tongue, it was hard for him to reply. Yang Guo has had extraordinary encounters in his life, his character was also covetous; Quan Zhen, Ou Yang Feng, Ancient Tomb, the Nine Yin, Hong Qi Gong and Huang Yao Shi, he has learnt numerous martial arts from these schools. All the martial arts of these schools are ingenious and mastery, but they all need a lifetime of difficult work to reach the echelons of these skills, he took a bit here and a bit there, none of his martial arts had actually reached a great level.
When he meets second rate fighters, the martial arts he uses are all flowery and fancy, causing confusion to opponents but when he meets a first rate martial artist, he will eventually be proved inferior. He can’t even compare to Jin Lun Fa Wang’s disciples Da Er Ba and Huo Dou.
He lowered his head and pondered about it, these words by Jin Lun Fa Wang were a real warning to him and showed up the weakness in the foundation of his martial arts.

He had another thought, “Since I’ve decided to stay with Gu Gu forever, how can I leave relationships about everywhere? Cheng Ying, wifey and there’s also Wan Yan Ping. I don’t have any real feelings for them, how can I treat them improperly like this? Being greedy is really not a good thing.” He continued thinking, “No matter if it’s Hong Qi Gong, Huang Yao Shi, Ou Yang Feng or even the Quan Zhen Seven Masters and Jin Lun Fa Wang, every one of them is a famous master. They just practised the martial arts of their own school, they understand other sect’s and school’s martial arts but they don’t practise it, they just make themselves aware of the them, in that case then, what school of martial arts should I concentrate on?”
Based on his background, he should concentrate on the [Jade Heart Manual] of the Ancient Tomb sect, but then he thinks about the mastery and ingenuity of Hong Qi Gong’s [Dog Beating Stick Technique], the subtlety of Huang Yao Shi’s [Jade Flute Swordplay], if he ignores all of them, isn’t a pity? There’s godfather’s [Toad Stance] and [Reversal of the Veins], the martial arts of the [Nine Yin Manual], any one of them is enough to make your name in the world, it was difficult to learn these, how can I just lose them like that?”

He left the hut and walked around the peak, thinking bitterly, it was extremely troubling, he thought for half a day when suddenly his mind lit up, “Why don’t I take the best of all these schools and form my own? The martial arts of the world are all formed by someone, others can do these, could it be that I can’t?” His eyes lit up as he thought about this.

He thought from morning to midday, from midday to night and didn’t eat or drink. All the martial arts he has seen in his life was floating around in his mind, clashing with each other. He had seen Ou Yang Feng and Hong Qi Gong compete martial arts verbally and he himself frightened away Li Mo Chou by using words from his mouth but right now, the martial arts competing in his mind was even more rapid and spectacular than describing them verbally. Eventually he involuntarily started to wave out fists and kicks. At first, it could be distinguished that this stance was from Hong Qi Gong, the other was Ou Yang Feng but eventually everything became muddled up, he couldn’t hold on any longer and fainted.

Da Er Ba watched from afar, he saw that he was acting crazy, pointing out his hand and sweeping his legs, he didn’t understand what it was all about. Suddenly he saw him falling onto the floor, he wanted to go over there and help him but Jin Lun Fa Wang laughed and said, “Don’t disturb his thoughts. It’s a pity that your intelligence is mediocre and can’t grasp the meanings within.”

Yang Guo slept for half a night and continued with his thoughts the next morning. In seven days, he fell unconscious five times. He said he wanted to invent his own school of martial arts, how easy is that? With his present abilities it would be almost impossible to succeed, and this isn’t something that can be achieved in ten days, two weeks. But after studying for several days, suddenly he understood. Since he couldn’t combine all these martial arts together, there was no need to force the issue. He realised that all martial arts were at his fingertips, later on when he meets an enemy, he’ll use whatever is needed, there was no need to think about the source of the martial art, this wasn’t far off from his intentions of forming his own school. Once he understood this point, he was immediately filled with comfort.

In the past few days, Jin Lun Fa Wang has been self-recuperating; his injury was now almost fully recovered and can move freely as usual. Today, he saw Yang Guo’s expression was now at ease and calm, and knew that he has advanced another level in his martial arts, he said, “Little brother Yang, I’ll take you to see someone. This person is a great hero, an extremely open minded person, once you see him you’ll definitely be in awe.”
Yang Guo said, “Who?”
Jin Lun Fa Wang said, “The Mongolian prince Hu Bi Lie. He is the grandson of Genghis Khan and the fourth son of prince Huo Dou.”

After seeing the unrestrained violence of the Mongolian soldiers, Yang Guo hated Mongolians, he creased his brows and said, “I’m anxious to avenge my father, I don’t need to see that Mongolian prince.”
Jin Lun Fa Wang laughed and said, “I agreed to help you, how can I break my word? But I was summoned here by Hu Bi Lie, I need to go and tell him. His camp is not far from here, it’s within one day’s travel.”
Yang Guo had no choice but to agree, he alone was a not a match for Guo Jing and Huang Rong whether it comes to a battle with wits or strength, without Jin Lun Fa Wang’s help, it would be difficult for him to take revenge, he could only go along with him.

Jin Lun Fa Wang was the First Protector of Mongolia, the Mongolian soldiers revered him, when they saw him, they immediately went and told the news to their prince. Mongolians have always lived in tents, though they’ve entered the city, they weren’t used to living in palaces, because of this, Hu Bi Lie stayed in the tents of the encampment.

Fa Wang took him along to the royal tent. Yang Guo saw that this tent was twice as large as a normal Mongolian tent but the arrangement within was very simple and crude. A twenty-five, six year old man was sitting down reading.
When this person saw the two enter, he quickly got up to meet them and laughed, “I haven’t seen Protector many days, I have been thinking about you.”
Jin Lun Fa Wang said, “Your highness, I’ll introduce you to a young hero. Though this brother Yang is young, he is an extraordinary personality.”

Yang Guo knew that this Hu Bi Lie is Genghis Khan’s grandson, if he didn’t have a noble appearance then he should have a powerful air around him, how would he know that this person was just a Han speaking, modest and mild young man, he was rather surprised.

Hu Bi Lie studied Yang Guo. He pulled on Fa Wang with his left hand and then said to his servant, “Quickly bring some wine, I want to have a drink with this brother.”
The servant bought in three bowls of Mongolian milk wine. Hu Bi Lie took a bowl and drank it all in one go. Fa Wang did the same. Yang Guo rarely drinks wine but now the host had shown his hospitality, it wouldn’t be appropriate to reject it so he took the wine and drank it all in one go. He felt the wine was extremely harsh and rather sour.

Hu Bi Lie laughed, “Little brother, how beautiful is this wine?”
Yang Guo said, “This wine is harsh and sour, it’s like a knife going into your mouth, the taste isn’t great but this is something that a true man drinks.”

Hu Bi Lie was pleased and called for more wine, each of them drank three bowls. Yang Guo’s internal energy was profound, he maintained his composure as he drank.
Hu Bi Lie said with joy, “Protector, where did you find this talented young man? My Mongolia is really fortunate.”
Jin Lun Fa wang then revealed Yang Guo’s history to him, he put Yang Guo up with his words, describing him as if he was one the eminent figures of the central plains. When Yang Guo heard how Jin Lun Fa Wang described him, he couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

Hu Bi Lie was ordered to take the Song’s land and has stayed in the central plains for a while now. He liked Han culture, his companion was Confucius, he read books and studied scriptures. He employed skilled martial artists, made acquaintances with them, planning to go south and attack the Song’s.
If it was another person who saw such a young man like Yang Guo, it would be difficult for them to accept Fa Wang’s words but Hu Bi Lie was a wise and supremely magnanimous, he also had believed Jin Lun Fa Wang without question, he was delighted and ordered a feast.

In a short while a feast was set up, wine and food, which included both Han and Mongolian dishes, overflowed.
Hu Bi Lie said to his servant, “Invite the heroes from the virtuous guesthouse.” The servant complied and exited the tent.
Hu Bi Lie said, “Some able people have been made guests here in the past few days, it really is my country’s luck to have these people but the only thing is that they cannot compare with Fa Wang and gentlemen Yang.”

In the middle of this, the servant returned with the guests, the tent door opened and in came four people.
The first one that came in was tall and skinny, his face was pale, he looked like a corpse. Hu Bi Lie introduced him to Fa Wang and Yang Guo, he was Xiang Xi’s Xiao Xiang Zi.
The second person was extremely short and dark, he was a skilled fighter from Tian Zhu (India), Ni Mo Xing.
One of the last two was a built eight foot tall person with a foolish laugh on his face and blank eyes. The other was high nosed deep eyed with crooked hair and a yellow beard, he was a Hu (from northern and western China) but he wearing Han clothes, he wore pearls around his neck and jade bracelets on his wrists, a rich air surrounded him. Hu Bi Lie introduced them separately. The Han was from Hui Jiang, his name is Ma Guang Zuo. The Hu was a merchant, his family traded treasures in Kaifeng, Cheung An and Tai Yuan, his Chinese name was Yin Ke Xi.

When Ni Mo Xing and Xiao Xiang Zi heard that Jin Lun Fa Wang was the ‘First Protector of Mongolia’ they examined him coldly, their face showed disrespect. When they saw the young Yang Guo, they thought that he was Fa Wang’s disciple or grand disciple and didn’t even give him another look.
After three rounds of wine, Ni Mo Xing could endure it no longer and said, “Your highness, the lands of Mongolia is vast, this monk is the ‘First Protector of Mongolia’, his martial arts must be extremely good. I want to experience his skills.”
Hu Bi Lie gave a subtle smile and didn’t reply.
Xiao Xiang Zi followed on, “Brother Ni Mo Xing is from India, Tibetan martial arts originates from India, could there such a thing as getting green from blue in this world? I don’t really believe this.”

Jin Lun Fa Wang saw Ni Mo Xing’s eyes light up; Xiao Xiang Zi face was exuding a green air, Fa Wang knew that these two people’s internal energy was profound. Yin Ke Xi was laughing, using all his strength to produce an extremely uncultured and plain air, the more this person tries to show that he is unable, the greater ability this person is more likely to have, Fa Wang could not take him lightly but he had no worries about the Han, Ma Guang Zuo. He gave a wry laugh and said, “I was given the position of Protector because of the kindness of the Khan and fourth prince, originally I did not dare to accept this position.”

Xiao Xiang Zi said, “Then you should give it up for a person more worthy.” He glanced over at Ni Mo Xing as he chuckled wryly.

Jin Lun Fa Wang stretched out his chopsticks and picked up a piece of beef, he laughed, “This is the fattest piece of beef on the plate, I originally didn’t want to eat it but I just happened to stretched my chopsticks and just happened to pick this piece, I just accept it as fate. If you are interested, you can pick it yourself.” He hung the piece of beef over the plate, waiting for each one of them to come and take it.

Ma Guang Zuo did not understand the meaning behind Jin Lun Fa Wang words, he was talking about a piece of beef but in reality he was referring the position of the ‘First Protector of Mongolia’, when Ma Guang Zuo saw him offering the piece of beef, he stretched out his chopsticks to catch it. His chopsticks was about to touch the beef when Fa Wang suddenly swept out one of his chopsticks and lightly touch his chopsticks, Ma Guang Zuo just felt his arm tremble with great intensity, he couldn’t hold on to them and the pair of chopsticks fell onto the table. Fa Wang’s chopstick returned in time and kept hold of the piece of beef. The others looked at each other startled.
Ma Guang Zuo still did not understand, he picked up the chopsticks and held onto them tightly with his five fingers, he thought, “This time you won’t be able to knock it away.” He stretched his chopsticks towards the piece of beef.
Fa Wand did the same thing again, sweeping out one chopstick. This time, Ma Guang Zuo was holding them tightly, indeed Fa Wang could not knock it out of his hands but a ‘ka la’ sound was heard, the chopsticks broke into four pieces like if a knife had sliced through it, two pieces of chopsticks dropped onto the table.

Ma Guang Zuo was furious, he called out and threw himself forward to battle Fa Wang.
Hu Bi Lie laughed, “There’s no need to get angry warrior Ma, if you want to duel, there’s time to do this after we’ve eaten.”
Ma Guang Zuo was afraid of his highness, he returned to his seat and pointed to Fa Wang, shouting, “What witchcraft did you use to break my chopsticks?”
Jin Lun Fa Wang laughed, still holding out the piece of beef in front of him.

At first, Ni Mo Xing did give any respect to Jin Lun Fa Wang but after seeing how profound his internal energy was, he did not dare to continue looking down on him. He was an Indian, when he ate he did not use chopsticks, he just stretched out his hand and said, “I want to eat this piece of beef that the big Han couldn’t take.” His five fingers came out suddenly like a metal claw towards the beef. Fa Wang swept out his right chopstick, it moved like lightning as he attacked the pressure points on his palm, arm, wrist and the tip of his middle finger.
Ni Mo Xing’s palm quickly turned and chopped down at Fa Wang’s wrist. Fa Wang’s arm didn’t move, he turned his chopstick around and struck out swiftly again, Ni Mo Xing felt the chopstick striking him on the hand and quickly took his arm back. Fa Wang’s chopstick twisted back into its original position, still holding onto the piece of beef.
His attack of the pressure points were extremely swift, he made many attacks and returned the chopstick into position before the piece of beef slipped away. Yang Guo and the others could see what had happened, the two had exchange many stances in just a short period of time, Fa Wang’s attacks with the chopstick were indeed fast but Ni Mo Xing’s martial arts were also excellent, he was able to take back his hand in an extremely critical situation.
Xiao Xiang Zi called out, “Good skill!”
Hu Bi Lie knew that the two were using advanced martial arts to test each other but he couldn’t see what type of martial arts they were using. Ma Guang Zuo eyes were wide opened, he looked at them, puzzled.

Yin Ke Xi laughed and said, “Everyone’s too polite! You’re all offering it to the other, he doesn’t want to it eat, nor does he, everything will be cold by the time you’ve finished.” He then slowly stretched out his chopsticks, the emerald and jade bracelets collided with each other noisily. Before his chopsticks touched the beef, Fa Wang’s chopsticks were forced to tremble slightly by his internal energy; he was getting in the first attack, keeping Fa Wang’s chopsticks in check. Fa Wang moved his chopsticks forward and allowed him to take the piece of beef, when his internal energy reaches his chopstick, he attacked his arm.
Yin Ke Xing urgently circulated his internal energy and counterattack. How would he know that Fa Wang’s internal energy suddenly withdrew, the beef was initially held by him but his internal energy moved it forward and Fa Wang once again got hold of the piece of beef.
Fa Wang laughed, “Brother Yin is too polite by offering it to me.” This time he used cleverness to win. Yin Ke Xing fell into the trap and at the same time found out that the opponent’s internal energy far exceeded his own, luckily he hadn’t embarrassed himself yet, he gave a wry laugh and picked up a small piece of beef from the plate, he said, “The only thing I love in live are treasures and precious objects, I don’t really like fatty meat, I better just eat a small piece.” He placed the small piece of beef in his mouth and then slowly chewed.

Jin Lun Fa Wang thought, “This Hu merchant is broad-minded.” He turned to Xiao Xiang Zi and said, “Since you offered it to me so modestly, I will accept.” He slowly took the chopsticks back half a foot. He guessed that Xiao Xiang Zi’s internal energy wasn’t weak and so didn’t dare to be careless, by taking it back half an inch, if he needed to circulate his internal energy it ill be half a foot closer and half a foot further away from his enemy.
Xiao Xiang Zi chuckled and slowly raised his chopsticks, suddenly he sent it forward and caught the piece of beef, he used the force to take it back and he managed to pull it back half a foot.

Jin Lun Fa Wang did not predict that the opponent’s movements would be so quick, he quickly circulated his internal energy and pulled back, the piece of beef moved back towards him inch by inch.
Xiao Xiang Zi stood up and placed his left hand on the table. The table made ‘ka la’ noises under this force but he still could not stop the force the Fa Wang produced in taking back the piece of beef.
Fa Wang looked at ease whereas drops of sweat poured from the forehead of Xiao Xiang Zi, the result was clear.

Suddenly a loud call by someone faraway could be heard, “Guo Jing, brother Guo, where are you? Quickly come out Guo Jing, the punk named Guo!”
At first the call came from the east but then it came from the west. There was a distance of a couple of miles between the calls from the east and west and it appeared as if there were two people calling out from the east and west but the voice was the same and there was no pause between the calls from the east and west, this person’s movements were extremely fast and the internal energy behind the calls was profound, something that was little seen in the world.

Everyone looked at each other startled. Xiao Xiang Zi loosened his chopsticks and sat back down in his seat.
Jin Lun Fa Wang laughed and said, “Thank you, thank you!” He was about to place the piece of beef in his mouth when suddenly the tent opened, someone flashed across and stretched out their hand, they snatched Fa Wang’s beef and then took a large bite out of it.

This shocked everyone, they all stood up and looked at who this person was. It was an old man with white hair and a white beard with a smiling red face.
He sat down on the rug and started chewing the beef noisily. Jin Lun Fa wang thought back on the movements of this man when he took his piece of beef, the more he thought about, the more shocked he was.

The guards outside the tent who failed to stop this man all called out, “Stop the assassin!” Four spears were thrust towards the man’s chest. The old man stretched out his left hand and grabbed all the spearheads in one go, he turned to Yang Guo and said, “Little brother, I’m really hungry, pass over some more beef to me.”
The four Mongolian soldiers pushed forward with all their strength but they couldn’t move an inch, the four then tried to pull back but again it was to no avail as they strained with red faces, the spearheads were as if they were trapped under a iron mountain, they were not even able to pull it back half an inch.
Yang Guo thought this guy was entertaining and picked up the plate of beef, he threw it steadily to him and said, “Help yourself!”

The old man caught it with his right hand and placed it against his chest, suddenly a piece of meat from the plate jumped up and flew into his mouth as if it were alive. This entertained Hu Bi Lie, he thought the old man was performing magic and gave out a cheer. But Jin Lun Fa Wang and the others knew that the old man had circulated internal energy through his palm into the plate, forcing the piece of meat upwards.
An ordinary person can force a piece of meat to jump if they use force to tap the plate but they would definitely knock everything up at once sending the juices everywhere, it would be impossible for them to knock it up piece by piece, the palm power of the this old man has reached an stage where he can do as he pleased, everyone else at the feast knew that they would not be able to do it themselves, fear and respect sprang up in their hearts.

The old man chewed and swallowed, as soon as one piece went down another piece jumped up, in a short while the plate was completely cleared by him. His right hand waved out and sent the pate flying out in an arc towards Yang Guo and Yin Ke Xi. The two of them had already seen how good these man’s martial arts were, they were afraid that he had used some kind of strange move in throwing the plate and didn’t dare to stretch out their hand to catch it. The two quickly moved out of the way. The plate flew steadily through the air and landed onto the table, knocking into a plate of roast lamb. The plate of roast lamb flew towards the old man while the empty plate stopped dead after a couple of turns.
He had used a stream of [Tai Chi Energy], according to the continuous intent of Tai Chi, uninterrupted, if it were shot outwards towards an open space, the plate would circle around. It is not difficult to use this force, there were a fair amount of people who were skilled in using the variation of this force but what was difficult was using the right amount of energy to get the most benefit and skilfully sending the plate onto the table, stopping the empty plate dead and sending a plateful of food to his hand.

The old man laughed out loud extremely proud of himself, he circulated internal into his hands and a piece of roast lamb jumped from the plate into his mouth and finished the plate shortly. The four soldiers that were still in his hands were looking pitiful, they could not take back their spears but they didn’t dare to let go. The rules of the Mongolian army was strict, abandoning a weapon in battle was an offence that led to execution, never mind the fact that were responsible for the safety of Hu Bi Lie, they could only use all the strength and try to struggle free.
The old man saw that they were at a loss and was becoming more and more pleased, he suddenly shouted out, “Change, change, change, two of you kowtow, two of you face the sky! One, two, three!” On three, their arms shook and the spear snapped. The forces from his fingers were directed in two directions, on two of the spears he circulated energy to push away, on the other two he circulated energy to pull. An ‘ai yo’ sound was heard as two soldiers fell and kowtowed and the other two fell backwards facing the sky.
The old man clapped and sang, “Little precious, the harder you fall, the taller you grow!” This was a song that adults sing to console children after they’ve fallen.

Yin Ke Zing suddenly got up and asked, “Senior is named Zhou?”
The old man laughed, “Yep, haha, do you know me?”
Yin Ke Xing folded his fists and said, “So its Old Urchin Zhou Bo Tong senior Zhou Lao.”
Xiao Xiang Zi had heard of him before but Jin Lun Fa Wang and Ni Mo Xing has not heard of Zhou Bo Tong before, but they saw his martial arts were profound but his actions were rather mischievous and childish, indeed, the title ‘Old Urchin’ is not in vain. Everyone wariness disappeared slightly as their faces showed a smile.

Jin Lun Fa Wang said, “Forgive me for not knowing this senior of wulin. How about a seat? Our highness is eager to meet great people, he will be extremely happy with seeing such an eminent person today.”
Hu Bi Lie saluted with his hands and said, “That is correct, please have a seat Mr Zhou.”
Zhou Bo Tong shook his head and said, “I’m full, I don’t need to eat anymore. Where’s Guo Jing, is he around?”
Huang Yao Shi had told Yang Guo about how Zhou Bo Tong and Guo Jing became sworn brothers, immediately he replied coldly, “Why are you looking for him?”

Zhou Bo Tong has always been childlike and loved making acquaintances with young people, he was pleased when he saw that Yang Guo was young and he was even more pleased when he heard him say ‘you’ and not something like’ Mr Zhou’, ‘old Senior’. He said, “Guo Jing is my sworn brother, do you know him? He loved being around Mongols ever since he was young, because of this, when I saw this camp I came over to see whether he’s here or not.”
Yang Guo creased his brows and said, “Why are you looking for Guo Jing?”
Zhou Bo Tong had no worries, how would he know to conceal his thoughts, he just casually replied, “He sent a letter to me, telling me to attend the heroes’ feast. I had a few games on the road as I rushed from faraway, when I got there I was a couple of days late, the feast had finished, I was damn disappointed.”
Yang Guo said, “Didn’t he leave a letter for you?”

Zhou Bo Tong eyes rolled over and said, “Why are you asking all the questions? Do you know Guo Jing or not?”
Yang Guo said, “How wouldn’t I know them? Mrs Guo is called Huang Rong, isn’t it? Their daughter is called Guo Fu, isn’t that right?”

Zhou Bo Tong clapped his hands and said, “Wrong, wrong! That Huang Rong is a little girl herself, what daughter?”

Yang Guo was startled but then immediately understood, he asked, “When was the last time you saw them?”
Zhou Bo Tong counted with his fingers, each finger was counted twice, he said, “At least twenty years.”
Yang Guo laughed, “Is she still a little girl after twenty years? Won’t she have a child in these twenty years?”

Zhou Bo Tong laughed, his beard fluttering about, he said, “You’re right! You’re right! Is their daughter pretty?”
Yang Guo said, “Their daughter looks a lot like Mrs Guo, a little like Guo Jing, what do you think?”
Zhou Bo Tong laughed, “That’s great, if a girl has dense brows and big eyes with a dark oval face like my brother Guo, of course that girl won’t be pretty.”

Yang Guo knew that he wasn’t wary anymore and continued, “Huang Rong’s father is Island Master Huang brother Yao Shi, he and I are great friends, do you know him?”
Zhou Bo Tong was shocked and said, “You little kid, how can you call old ‘Heretic’ Huang as brother? Who’s your master?”
Yang Guo said, “My master’s abilities are extraordinary, I’m afraid if I tell you that I’ll scare you silly.”
Zhou Bo Tong laughed, “I can’t be scared silly any more.” He waved out his right hand and sent the empty plate flying towards him with a tremendous force.

Yang Guo knew that Zhou Bo Tong was the martial uncle of Ma Yu and Qiu Chu Ji and the others, and saw that his arm didn’t bend as he threw the plate, he was using his fingers along, this was the technique of Quan Zhen’s. He had no fear of Quan Zhen martial arts; he stretched out his left index finger and pushed against the bottom of the plate, the plate spun around on his finger.

This delighted Zhou Bo Tong whereas Xiao Xiang Zi, Yin Ke Xing, Ni Mo Xing and the others looked at each other startled.
When Xiao Xiang Zi first saw the young Yang Guo in his ragged clothes, he didn’t give him another look but right now he was thinking, “With the force that plate was coming in with, I wouldn’t dare to stretch out my hand to catch it never mind just relying on a single finger. If the force used to catch it were just slightly out of place, the plate would snap a wrist. Who exactly is this young man?”

Zhou Bo Tong called out, “Great!” He could see that he was using a Quan Zhen technique and asked, “Do you know Ma Yu and Qiu Chu Ji?”
Yang Guo said, “How wouldn’t I know them two old goats?”
Zhou Bo Tong was delighted. Though he didn’t have any grudges with Qiu Chu Ji and the others, he felt that their rules were annoying, they were too prudent, there were some feelings of looking down on them.
The person he respects most in his life apart from his apprentice brother Wong Chong Yang is the carefree nine fingered wondrous beggar Hong Qi Gong, he didn’t think too much of Huang Yao Shi’s heretical nature and Huang Rong’s cleverness. When he heard Yang Guo calling Ma Yu and Qiu Chu Ji ‘old goats’, it was music to his ears, he asked, “How are Hao Da Tong and the others?”

Yang Guo’s anger erupted as soon as he heard the name ‘Hao Da Tong’, he insulted, “That old goat is an damn fool, one day I’ll make him suffer.”
Zhou Bo Tong was getting more and more happy as he listened, he asked, “How are you going to make him suffer?”
Yang Guo said, “I’ll catch him, tie him up and them let him lie in a cesspit for half a day.”
Zhou Bo Tong was delighted and quietly said, “Once you’ve caught him, don’t throw him in the cesspit straight away, first let me know and allow me to take a peek by the side.”
He had no ill intent towards Hao Da Tong, it was just that he loved evil shows, when others are causing trouble and being mischievous, of course he had to join in.
Yang Guo laughed, “Fine, I’ll remember to tell you. But why peek? You’re afraid of the Quan Zhen goats?”
Zhou Bo Tong sighed and said, “I’m Hao Da Tong’s martial uncle! If he sees me, he’ll naturally call to me for help. It’ll be a bit embarrassing if I don’t save him but if I do, I won’t be able to watch a good show.”

Yang Guo thought to himself, “This person’s martial arts are excellent and his character is pretty interesting but he’s still from Quan Zhen and he is the sworn brother of Guo Jing. A man must be ruthless, I need to think of a way to get rid of him.”

How would Zhou Bo Tong know that Yang Guo was starting to have ill thoughts about him? He asked, “When are you going to catch Hao Da Tong?”
Yang Guo said, “I’m about to go. If you want to take in the atmosphere then come along.”
Zhou Bo Tong was delighted, he clapped his hands and stood up but suddenly he became depressed and said, “I can’t, I need to go to Xiang Yang.”
Yang Guo said, “What’s so fun in Xiang Yang? Just don’t go.”
Zhou Bo Tong said, “Brother Guo left a letter for me at the Lu manor, it said that the Mongolian army are invading south and will definitely attack Xiang Yang. He’s leading the heroes of the central plains to Xiang Yang to help, he told me to give a hand as well. I haven’t seen him on my travels so I better go to Xiang Yang.”

Hu Bi Lie and Jin Lun Fa Wang looked at each other and both thought, “So the warriors of the central plains has rushed to Xiang Yang to protect the city.”

Just at this point, the tent opened and in came a monk. He was about forty years old and looked elegant, his expression looked like that of a scholar. He went to Hu Bi Lie and the two exchanged whispers. The monk was a Han, his given name Zi Cong, and was a counsel of Hu Bi Lie’s. His original name was Liu Kang and he was an official in Xian Ya and became a monk later on. He was very knowledgeable and did things very thoroughly, Hu Bi Lie had a great deal of trust in him. He had received some news from a guard that an important person has arrived in the camp and needs to be received immediately.

Zhou Bo Tong stroked his stomach and said, “Hey monk, move over a little, I’m talking to that little brother. Hey, little brother, what’s your name?”
Yang Guo said, “My surname is Yang, first name Guo.”
Zhou Bo Tong said, “Who’s your master?”
Yang Guo said, “My master is a girl, her beauty is unparalleled and her martial arts are excellent, she doesn’t allow others to mention her name.”

Zhou Bo Tong shivered and remembered her old lover Ying Gu, he didn’t dare to ask anymore and stood up. He waved his sleeves around to rid the dust on his body; the tent was filled with dust and dirt as a result.
Zi Cong could hold on no longer and sneezed twice. Zhou Bo Tong was joyous and waved out with even more strength, suddenly he laughed out loud and said, “I’m going now!” His left hand waved out and the four broken spearheads shot towards Xiao Xiang Zi, Ni Mo Xing, Yin Ke Xi and Ma Guang Zuo. As the spearhead flew through the air, ‘wu’ ‘wu’ sounds were made, it was moving extremely quickly and the target was close, in a flash the spearheads were right before the very eyes of the four.

Xiao Xiang Zi and the others were shocked, they could not dodge out of the way in time and could only circulate their internal energy to catch it, However, when they stretched out their hands to catch it, they caught thin air, a ‘pu’ sound was heard as the four spearheads landed into the ground.
The spearheads were shot out extremely ingeniously, immediate dispatch and withdrawal, as soon as the spearheads were in front of their eyes, it suddenly twisted around and shot into the ground.
Ma Guang Zuo was a simple minded person and just felt that this was amusing, he laughed out loud and said, “You really have got lots of tricks old man.”
But Xiao Xiang Zi and the other two were extremely startled, their face had changed colour. They all thought about how they missed the spearhead, if the spearhead didn’t change direction, it would have shot into their stomachs. With the amount of force behind the spearheads, what chance would they have of surviving?”

Zhou Bo Tong was extremely proud of himself for making the four of them looking like a fool, he turned around and was about to leave.
Zi Cong said, “Mr Zhou, you amazing abilities are rarely seen in this world, I give you a toast on behalf of his highness,” He handed a cup of wine to him. Zhou Bo Tong drank it in one go. Zi Cong sent another cup to him and said, “This one is from me!” Again, Zhou Bo Tong drank it down.
Zi Cong was about to give another cup to him when suddenly Zhou Bo Tong called out, “Oh no, my stomach hurts, I need to crap.” Zhou Bo Tong squatted down and undid his slacks, about to crap in the tent.
Fa Wang and the others were amused and all called out to stop him.
Zhou Bo Tong was startled, he called out, “Something’s wrong with this stomach ache, I don’t need to crap!”

Yang Guo glanced over at Zi Cong and understood, there was poison in the wine. Though he started to have some ill intent towards Zhou Bo Tong to avoid Guo Jing from having a strong aide, the ill intent he had disappeared immediately, he had not debts and dues with the Old Urchin, he saw that he was childlike and uncomplicated, he had a good sentiment towards him, he couldn’t endure it when he saw him fall into the dirty trick and was about to point out to him to hold Hu Bi Lie as a hostage and force Zi Cong to hand over the antidote when suddenly he heard Zhou Bo Tong call out, “Strange, strange, so its because I drank too little poisonous wine, that’s why my stomach ached. Monk, quickly pour me another three cups, the more poisonous the better!”
Everyone looked at each other startled. Zi Cong was afraid that he would lash out before he died, he didn’t dare to go over to him.

Zhou Bo Tong took a large step forward towards the table. Jin Lun Fa Wang stepped in front of Hu Bi Lie to protect him but all he saw was Zhou Bo Tong pulling up his slacks with his left and reach for the jug of poison wine with his right hand, he then tipped his head backwards and poured all the wine down his throat.

Everyone lost their colour.
But Zhou Bo Tong laughed and said, “That’s better. Now my stomach has got too much poison, won’t the Old Urchin turn into the old poisonous animal? I need to fight poison with poison.” Suddenly he opened his mouth and shot out a stream of wine fluid towards Zi Cong. Jin Lun Fa Wang saw that it was a dangerous situation and quickly picked up a table to block it, an arrow of wine splashed across the table.

Zhou Bo Tong laughed non-stop, he ran to the exit of the tent and suddenly his mischievousness stirred, he grabbed the tent’s pillar and shook a few times, a ‘ka la’ sound was heard at the pillar snapped. The tent fell down and covered Hu Bi Lie, Jin Lun Fa Wang, Yang Guo and the others inside. Zhou Bo Tong was delighted and got on top of the tent, running back and forth, stepping on everyone inside the tent. Jin Lun Fa Wang sent out a palm and struck the sole of his foot. Zhou Bo Tong felt a great surge of internal energy through his foot and couldn’t suppress it, he did a somersault and landed back down, calling out loudly, “Interesting, interesting!” He then left.

Soon, Jin Lun Fa Wang and the others climbed out with Hu Bi Lie, all the guards clamoured around to fix the pillar and erect the tent back up again. Zhou Bo Tong had long gone. Fa Wang, Xiao Xiang Zi and the others apologised to Hu Bi Lie for not protecting him properly and letting him experience shock. Hu Bi Lie didn’t punish them one bit and instead praised the abilities of Zhou Bo Tong, saying that it is a great pity that he couldn’t make him stay. Fa Wang and the others had an ashamed expression on their faces.

All the cups and plates were set up once again. Hu Bi Lie said, “The Mongolian army have attacked Xiang Yang many times before but with no success. This time, the heroes of the central plains have gone there to protect the city, that Zhou Bo Tong has also gone there to help, this an extremely troublesome situation. I wonder what great plans do you have?”
Yin Ke Xi said, “Zhou Bo Tong may have great martial arts but we may not be weaker than him. When your highness attacks the city, it will be soldier against soldier, general against general, the central plains have their heroes but so do the west.”
Hu Bi Lie said, “Though your words aren’t wrong, there’s a saying, ‘before a battle, one must plan for victory in the temple; greater planning will lead to victory whereas little planning will not.’ Before I attack, I must have a plan to gain victory.”
Zi Cong said, “Your highness’s foresight is magnificent…”

Before his finished, a shout could suddenly be heard from outside, someone was calling out, “I said that I don’t want to go and I mean it, there’s no use if you beg me or anger me.” It was the calls of Zhou Bo Tong.
What was he doing back here and who was he talking to? Everyone’s curiosity was roused and wanted to go out to take a look.
Hu Bi Lie laughed and said, “Everyone, let’s take a look, I wonder who the Old Urchin is arguing with.”

Everyone took a step outside the tent and saw four people in an arc faraway surrounding Zhou Bo Tong. The four people were standing south, west, northwest and north of him, surrounding him but leaving a way out to the east. Zhou Bo Tong stretched out his arm and threw a fist, he called out, “I’m not going, I’m not going.”

Yang Guo was surprised, “If he doesn’t want to go, who can force him? Why is there a need for arguing?”
He saw that the four people were all wearing a green gown, the colours and clothing looked ancient and wasn’t the clothing of the present time, there were three middle aged men wearing a tall hat, standing in the north western position was a girl, her green belt could be seen fluttering in the wind.

The man standing in the northern position said, “We didn’t have any intentions in troubling you but you kicked over our pill furnace, ripped our spirit fungus, tore our books, burned our sword room, you must come back with us and explain everything to our master, otherwise when our master blames someone, none of us disciples can take the punishment.”
Zhou Bo Tong put on a smile and said, “Just tell your master that an old man passed by and accidentally caused all this trouble, won’t that be the end of it?”
The man said, “You insist on refusing to come with us?”
Zhou Bo Tong nodded his head. The man pointed to the east and said, “Great, he’s here.”

Zhou Bo Tong turned around to take a look but didn’t see anyone. The man made a sign with his hands and four of them suddenly pulled opened a large net, covering Zhou Bo Tong from his head downwards. The four’s hand movements were extremely drilled, and extremely strange, even with Zhou Bo Tong’s great abilities he was trapped by the net and had no reply, he just clamoured and hollered. The four people swerved around him and tied him up tightly. One of the men put him over his shoulders, the other three held onto their swords, protecting him as they flew to the east.

Yang Guo was worried about Zhou Bo Tong’s safety and thought, “I must save him.” He then followed after them, calling out, “Hey, hey! Where are you taking him?”

How could Jin Lun Fa Wang and the others not want to know what exactly this strange event is all about? They told Hu Bi Lie and followed. After a few miles, they arrived at a stream. The four people lifted Zhou Bo Tong onto a boat and two of them started to row. The rest of them followed by the shore, after a while they saw a boat in the stream and all immediately leapt in. Ma Guang Zuo had great strength and he rowed the boat, soon they were just a few tens of feet behind. But the stream was windy and after a few turns, the boat disappeared. Ni Mo Xing leapt from the boat onto a cliff side and climbed up over a hundred feet in a flash like an ape. He saw the boat in the west rowing along an extremely narrow brook. A thicket of trees covered the entrance to this brook, if one didn’t look on from high, they would not know that the deep valley would have such an passageway. He leapt back onto the boat and pointed out the directions to them. They quickly turned the boat around and rowed towards the thicket of trees. The entrance was a cave, the ceiling of the cave was only three feet away from the water, everyone had to lie down before they could row on. After a while, the mountains on either side soared, the sky now looked like a string.
The mountains were green, the water blue, the scenery extremely serene but it was silent everywhere, exuding a feeling of danger. After another three, four miles, the brook suddenly had nine large slabs of stone arising from it, like a shield, blocking the way of the boat.

Ma Guang Zuo was the first one to call out, “Damn, there’s no way to row past.”
Xiao Xiang Zi said in a creepy way, “You’ve got the strength of a bull, just throw the boat over.”
Ma Guang Zuo angrily said, “I don’t have that kind of strength unless you zombie perform some kind of witchcraft.”

Before the two started arguing, Jin Lun Fa Wang was thinking about the situation, “How did the small boat pass this stone shield?” When he heard the words of the two, he said, “No one can pick up the boat on their own but the six of us together can. Brother Yang, brother Yin and me will be on one side, brother Ni, brother Xiao Xiang and brother Ma will be on the other side, the six of us working together, how about it?”

Everyone agreed and followed his instructions, the six of them stood on two sides and each one found a steady place to stand on the rocks. Luckily the brook was extremely narrow, the boat’s side was at arm’s length.
Fa Wang called out, “Lift!” Everyone lifted. Yang Guo’s and Yin Ke Xi’s strength were the weakest out of the six but the other four had the strength of many, especially Ma Guang Zuo who had divine strength. The boat left the water and passed over the rocks.

Everyone leapt back into the boat, they wiped their palms and laughed. The six of them originally were wary of each other but after working together, naturally they became a bit friendlier.

Xiao Xiang Zi said, “Although our martial arts among us aren’t anything spectacular, we could be classed as first rate fighters of wulin. The six of us lifting a boat isn’t really a difficult task but…”
Ni Mo Xing followed on, “The four green people’s martial arts are all over the place, could they lift the boat over the rocks?”
Out of the six, five of them were already secretly surprised. Ma Guang Zuo was still thinking about what the words ‘their martial arts all over the place’ meant.
Ni Mo Xing said, “Their boat is smaller… their numbers are smaller also… The four of them being able to do this… their strength must be… must be something.”
Yin Ke Xi said, “There’s no need to talk about the three men, that girl was a fragile seventeen, eighteen year old teenager, there is no way she could have such skill, there must be something to them rocks. It’s just that we can’t see through it just yet.”

Fa Wang gave a wry laugh and said, “People cannot be judged on appearances alone. Take a look at our brother Yang, he is of a young age but possesses great martial arts, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, who would have believed it?”
Yang Guo said modestly, “The skills I’ve learnt aren’t much, what’s good about my martial arts? But the four people in green were able to catch Zhou Bo Tong, they must have some aspect that the excel at.” His words were modest but he was now talking to these first rate fighters as brother this and that.
Everyone had seen with their own eyes Yang Guo catching a plate throw by Zhou Bo Tong with a single finger, they did not look down lightly on him. They all felt his words were reasonable and all started to make their own guesses about this matter.

Out of the six, Yang Guo was the youngest, Jin Lun Fa Wang, Ma Guang Zuo and Ni Mo Xing spent most of their lives in the west, Xiao Xiang Zi spent his time along in the mountains and didn’t make acquaintances with anyone, Yin Ke Xi was the only one who was familiar with the sects, personalities and affairs of the central plains but he had no clue about who these four people in green were. As they talked, they eventually rowed to the end of the brook. The six of them went ashore and followed the path deep into the valley.

There was only one mountain path so there was no way to go wrong, however the path got steeper and stepper as it went on and became more and more treacherous. The sky darkened and there wasn’t a trace of the people in green.
Just as they were getting anxious, there was a firelight from faraway, everyone was pleased and thought, “In a wild valley like this, firelight must mean people, apart from those people in green, no one would live in a place with such dangerous terrain as this.”
They then increased their speed. They all knew that they were in a dangerous place and each one of them heightened their defences. But each one of them has roamed the world of Jiang Hu by themselves before and has experienced many dangers, right now six great fighters were entering the mountain, who on earth can stop them? Though they were wary, they had no fear.

After a while, they reached a wide level open space at the peak of the mountain. They saw an extremely large flaming bonfire. They walked closer a few hundred feet and under the firelight, they saw a large stone building.

Ni Mo Xing called out loudly, “Hey, hey, some guests have arrived! Quickly come out.”
The door of the stone house slowly opened and out came three men and a girl. It was the people in green who had captured Zhou Bo Tong earlier on. The four of them bowed and leading person asked, “What are our guests name?”
The one thing that Yin Ke Xi excels most at is speaking, he laughed and then told them who the other five were. He then said, “My name is Yin Ke Xi, I am an Hu merchant. Apart from eating, the only thing I know are treasures, I am not like the others who are all highly skilled with martial arts.”

The person in green said, “Our residence is in a extremely secluded place, we’ve never had visitors before, it is our luck that some guests have arrived. But what bought our guests here?”
Yin Ke Xi laughed, “We saw the four of you catch the Old Urchin Zhou Bo Tong, we were curious so we came along to take a look. Your residence is an extremely elegant and beautiful place, it has opened our eyes, this really wasn’t a trip in vain.”

The first person in green said, “That old man who messed up our place is named Zhou? He certainly lives up to the name Old Urchin.”
The second person in green said, “Are you with him?”
Fa Wang replied, “We’ve just met him today, one cannot say that we are friends with him.”

The first person in green said, “That Old Urchin charged into our valley and ran riot.”
Fa Wang asked, “What did he do? Did he really rip up your books and set the place on fire?”
The person in green replied, “Only that? I was ordered by my master to guard the pill furnace, I don’t know how the Old Urchin broke into the pill room and he started to talk rubbish with me, saying he was going to tell a story and then telling me to follow him in doing somersaults, he was mad and crazy. The furnace was burning at a critical stage, I couldn’t leave and kick him out so I pretended that I didn’t hear him, but he suddenly kicked out and knocked the furnace and the herbs in it over. I don’t know how long it will take to collect all these herbs and medicine again.” He looked angry as he said this.

Yang Guo laughed, “He must have blamed you for ignoring him and that it was your fault, right?”
The girl in green said, “Correct. I was in the fungi room when I heard the clamour in the pill room, I knew something was wrong and was about to leave the room to take a look when the old man dashed forward into the room. As soon as he stretched out his hand, he snapped the four hundred year old spirit fungus in two.”
Yang Guo saw that the young girl was about seventeen, eighteen years of age, her skin was extremely white, extremely soft and delicate, her eyes bright and clear and there was a very small mole by her mouth. He said, “That Old Urchin is an extremely bothersome troublemaker, that spirit fungus had been grown for over four hundred years, it is an extremely valuable object.”
The girl sighed, “My father originally was going to share it on his wedding day with my step mother but who could have known that it would have been ruined by the Old Urchin. My father will of course fly into a rage. But after the Old Urchin broke the spirit fungus, he placed it in his pockets and said something about no giving it back to me and laughed. I haven’t done anything to offend him. Why on earth did he come here and cause trouble for me?” As she said this, her eyes became red, feeling that she has been wronged.
Yang Guo thought, “The Old Urchin had no reason to bully this girl, this is wrong.”

Yin Ke Xi said, “Please can I have your father’s name. We inadvertently came here without permission and don’t even know the owner’s name, our manners are lacking.”
The young girl delayed and didn’t reply.
One of the men in green said, “Without our master’s permission, we can not reveal it, please forgive us.”

Yang Guo thought, “These people are very secretive, they live here in this secluded place and aren’t willing to reveal their identity to others.” He then asked, “What happened after the Old Urchin stole the spirit fungus?”

The third person in green said, “The one named Zhou wasn’t finished after wrecking the pill and fungi room, he burst into the library, took a book and started to read. I was assigned to the library and so of course I had to stop him. But he said, ‘these are just lies that they tell to children, what’s so great about this?’ and ripped three books in one go. At that time, senior and second apprentice brother came along with apprentice sister. The four of us together were still unable to stop him.”
Fa Wang gave a wry laugh and said, “That Old Urchin has an eccentric character but his martial arts are really something, of course it would not be easy to stop him.”

The second man in green said, “After causing trouble in the pill room, fungi room and library, he went for the sword room. He burst into the room and broke out in a temper, saying that there were… there were too much weapons, they’re all over the place and almost cut him, he then sit the room alight and burnt all the paintings on the wall. While we urgently tried to put out the fire, he escaped. We all thought that this was a serious matter so we chased after him, caught him and bought him back so our master can deal with him.”

Yang Guo said, “I don’t know what punishment the master of valley will have for him but I hope that he won’t kill him.”
The third man in green said, “My master’s wedding is not far away, he won’t kill that easily. But if that Old Urchin say something to offend my master, then it would be his fault if trouble comes to him.”

Yin Ke Xi laughed, “Why would the Old Urchin deliberately stir trouble for your master? He may be mischievous but he doesn’t seem to have a bad temper.”
The girl in green said, “He said that my father is old and he’s still marrying…” The senior apprentice brother suddenly cut her off and said, “That Old Urchin is mad, how believable are his words? Everyone has come from afar and must be hungry, I will serve some food to our guests.”
Ma Guang Zuo said loudly, “Great, great!” His face lit up.

The four people in green entered the kitchen and bought out some rice and vegetables and then set up a table. There were four basins, one had plain green vegetables, another had white tofu, one of the others was filled with yellow bean sprouts and the last one was filled with black mushrooms. There wasn’t any meat.

Just after three months he was born, Ma Guang Zuo would not eat anything without meat. He saw four trays of vegetables in front of him that didn’t even have a drop of oil on them, he was extremely disappointed.
The first person in green said, “We do not eat meat here in the valley, please forgive us. Please eat.” He then bought out a jug and poured out a clear and clean liquid in the bowls in front of them.
Ma Guang Zuo thought, “Since there’s no meat, I better drink a few bowls of wine.” He picked up the bowl and drank, he felt that it had no taste and it was actually water, he roared, “This master is damn stingy, there isn’t even a drop of wine for us.”

The first person in green said, “Our valley forbids alcohol, this is a rule passed down by our ancestors, please forgive us.”
The girl in green said, “We have seen the words ‘beautiful wine’ in books, but we’ve never experienced what this beautiful wine is. The books say that wine harms the mind, it appears that it isn’t anything good.”

Fa Wang, Yin Ke Xi and the others saw that these four people weren’t old but their actions and words were reserved and trite and ever since they spoke to these people, they haven’t showed a single smile, though their faces weren’t hateful, it wasn’t interesting to talk to them. In other words, they didn’t speak more than half a word to each other, they stopped talking and lowered their heads as they ate. The four people retreated and didn’t come forward again.

After they ate, Ma Guang Zuo said that they should leave in the night. But the other five saw that there was something about this place, they was curious and wanted to understand this place more clearly.
Yin Ke Xi said, “Brother Ma, since we’re here, we need to meet the master of this valley tomorrow, how can we just leave like this?”
Ma Guang Zuo roared, “There’s no meat or wine, isn’t he trying to torture us? I can’t live half a day like this.”
Xiao Xiang Zi said, “The majority of us are staying, why are you trying to start something up by yourself?”
Ma Guang Zuo has been secretly afraid of his zombie appearance, when he heard him say this, he didn’t dare to speak another word.

That night the six of them slept in that stone building on some straw mats on the floor. They felt that this valley was passionless, even stupidly stricter and prudish than a Buddhist temple, though the monks of Buddhist temples are vegetarians, they wouldn’t treat people so coldly, these people didn’t even show half a smile. Yang Guo was used to living in the Ancient Tomb and used to living with the icy cold Xiao Long Nuu, and he was the only one who didn’t think anything of this.

Ni Mo Xing said enraged, “The Old Urchin wrecked and set the building alight, that is something!” When he said this, Ma Guang Zuo felt the same way and called out loudly in response.
Ni Mo Xing said, “Brother Jin Lun, you’re our brains, what kind of person do you think the master of valley is? Is he a bad guy or a good guy? Are we going to be polite to him or are we going to beat the… beat the something out of him.”
Fa Wang said, “I’m like all you people here when it comes to trying to fathom what type of person this valley master is, it is difficult for us to guess. Tomorrow, we’ll just act accordingly.”
Yin Ke Xi said quietly, “The martial arts of the four green disciples of this valley aren’t weak, naturally there will be even better martial artists in this valley, everyone needs to be careful, just one little slip up and the six of us might die here, that wouldn’t be so great.”

Ma Guang Zuo was still complaining about the food and didn’t listen to what Yin Ke Xi was saying.
Yang Guo said, “If you’re not careful tomorrow, you’ll be caught and trapped here for the rest of your life, you’ll be fed water and rice, vegetables and tofu everyday, when that happens, I’m afraid that even the tapeworm in your stomach would want to die.”
Ma Guang Zuo was scared and quickly said, “Good brother, I’ll listen, I’ll listen.”

That night they didn’t sleep to peacefully as they thought about the danger they were in, only Ma Guang Zuo slept well, snoring thunderously and calling out in his dreams, “Come, come! Cheers! This slab of beef is massive!”

End of Chapter 16