The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Huang Rong was angry; she raised her bamboo stick toward Ke Zhen'e's face. Ke Zhen'e returned the attack with his iron staff; who would have thought that the Dog Beating Stick Technique was extremely marvelous beyond his imagination. Only several moves later his iron staff was completely under Huang Rong's control, using the 'lead' letter of the technique; as the stick went east the staff went east, when the stick went west the staff followed, it totally did not have the mind of its own.

Ke Zhen'e was occupying the 'tian xuan' position of the Formation. As soon as his movement was restrained, the entire formation's movement was somewhat restricted. Qiu Chuji's flickering sword stabbing Huang Rong's back, his intention was to help Ke Zhen'e; but Huang Rong relied on the armor she was wearing, to his surprise she ignored the stab, changing her stick movement she sent out three stances in succession. Qiu Chuji's sword was about to touch her clothes when he suddenly thought, "What kind of person is the Old Qiu, how can I harm this little girl?" The tip of his sword touched Huang Rong's back, but he did not push further.

Taking advantage of this slight hesitation Huang Rong's bamboo stick pulled Ke Zhen'e's iron staff. Borrowing his 'fu mo zhang fa' [demon subduing staff technique] energy Huang Rong push the staff down and then jerked it up to the left. Ke Zhen'e was not able to control his strength; the staff left his grasp and flew to the air, 'splash!' it fell into the Nan Hu [South Lake].

Wang Chuyi was afraid Huang Rong might use this opportunity to harm Ke Zhen'e; he rushed in front of Ke Zhen'e with his sword blocking in front of his chest. Although his experience was vast, he had never seen the Dog Beating Technique before, so he was caught in surprise.

Seeing his master suffer a setback, Guo Jing called out, "Da Shifu, go and take a rest, I'll fight for you." Leaving the north polar star position he jumped into the 'tian xuan' position. By this time his martial art skill had already exceeded those of the Quanzhen Masters, plus he was familiar with the Big Dipper method; so as soon as he made his move the Formation's power increased substantially.

Actually the Big Dipper Formation revolved around the 'tian quan' position, but as soon as he entered, the key position moved to 'tian xuan' position, and the Formation's movement was altered. This modification was actually inferior to the original movement, but in this short moment Huang Yaoshi was not able to find a way to penetrate the formation's airtight defense; although he had his daughter to help, they were defending themselves with difficulty. Luckily for the most part the Quanzhen Masters took a defensive position; Guo Jing was the only one who fought with his life, forcing Huang Yaoshi to reluctantly face him.

Guo Jing kept pressing forward, forcing Huang Yaoshi to fight a tight battle. With the Quanzhen Masters backing Guo Jing up, Huang Yaoshi was not able to inflict any injury to him, and was forced to use his 'qing gong' [lightness kungfu] to evade Guo Jing's series of a mad-tiger-like attacks.

Huang Rong saw that Guo Jing's normally genial and kind face was now enveloped by a layer of murderous look; his expression was so frighteningly ferocious that he looked like a different person, completely different from the Guo Jing she used to know. She was startled and frightened at the same time; she stepped in front of her father and said, "Kill me first!"

Guo Jing glowered at her and barked, "Get out of my way!"

Huang Rong was taken aback, "How can you speak to me like that?" she thought.

Guo Jing charged forward and shoved her aside then he pounced towards Huang Yaoshi. Suddenly he heard someone laughed loudly and called out behind him, "Don't worry Yao Xiong [Brother Yao], I have come to help you!" His voice was like ear-piercing grating metals.

Nobody dared to turn their bodies right away; the entire Big Dipper Formation turned around Huang Yaoshi's back before they finally saw five, six tall and short people standing on the lakeside, led by someone with long arms and long legs, which was none other than the Western Poison Ouyang Feng.

The Quanzhen Six Masters cried out in anger. Qiu Chuji said, "Jing'er, let us settle the debt with the Western Poison first!" His long sword raised, the Quanzhen Six Masters surrounded Ouyang Feng. Who would have thought that Guo Jing's gaze was fixed on Huang Yaoshi; it seemed like he did not hear Qiu Chuji at all. As soon as the Quanzhen Six Masters left, he pounced toward Huang Yaoshi again and in a short moment two people had quickly exchanged five, six moves.

Both sides did not hit their target, so both leaped backward, looking over their shoulders, staring at each other. Guo Jing gave out a loud shout then attacked forward. Several times they exchanged several stances and then separated again.

This time the Quanzhen Six Masters had rearranged their battle formation. They looked at Ke Zhen'e and saw him barehanded, standing behind Huang Yaoshi, his head inclined, listening attentively; his arms were open wide, revealing his intention to sacrifice himself, throwing himself to grab Huang Yaoshi firmly, giving Guo Jing the opportunity to strike Huang Yaoshi's vital point. Because of this Qiu Chuji beckoned to Yin Zhiping, telling him to occupy the 'tian xuan' position.

Ma Yu loudly recited, "Holding hands the departed soul forcing itself to leave like a bead of pearls. Heart opens to hear the sound of nature, unlike the blowing flute!" It was the poem Tan Chuduan recited just before he closed his eyes. As the Quanzhen Masters heard it, their anger rose; with flickering swords and floating palms they attacked Ouyang Feng together.

The snake staff in Ouyang Feng's hand pushed and pulled abruptly, forcing the seven Quanzhen people to back off. Ouyang Feng had seen the Big Dipper Formation's fierceness at the Ox Village; he was quite intimidated by that, so he decided to keep a tight defense and wait for the enemy to reveal its own flaw. Once the Big Dipper Formation unfolded, it struck to the front and hit to the back, like a continuous wave of attacks. Ouyang Feng carefully met stance with stance, while opening his eyes wide to see any potential to break the formation. A moment later he noticed Yin Zhiping's 'tian xuan' was the Formation's weak link. He thought if he could destroy this link, he did not have anything else to fear; therefore, he brandished the snake staff in his hand trying to inflict some harm, while his eyes scanning around, assessing the situation around him.

Guo Jing and Huang Yaoshi were still engaged in a tight combat. Huang Rong moved her bamboo stick to keep Ke Zhen'e more than a 'zhang' away from these two people. She kept shouting, "Please stop fighting; please listen to me!" But Guo Jing turned a deaf ear to her; palm by palm he struck ferociously, in total disregard of his own life.

At first Huang Rong saw her father holding back, but Guo Jing kept provoking him so that gradually she saw his anger rise, his hands were getting heavier and heavier. She knew the situation was critical; either one of them would certainly suffer a heavy injury if he made a slight mistake. She lifted his head and saw Hong Qigong was leaning against the railing of the Misty Rain Tavern, watching the battle. "Shifu, Shifu," she hastily called, "Come down and help me explain everything."

Hong Qigong has seen early on that the situation was far from good, he regretted losing his martial art skill and was powerless to settle this dispute, and hence he was really anxious. Hearing Huang Rong cry out he had an idea, "If only the Old Heretic Huang still has some respect to me left, I think I can still do something." His hands pressed on the railing and he floated in the air coming down. "Everybody hold your hand!" he called out, "The Old Beggar has something to say." The Nine-fingered Divine Beggar had such a prestige in the Jianghu that when they saw his sudden appearance everybody's heart shivered and they could not help but to stop fighting.