The heroes all knew that he was trying to anger them, wanting to force Huang Rong to come out and battle; but his words were extremely infuriating, it really was difficult for anyone to endure them.
In the midst of these shouts and calls from the crowd, Lu Youjiao showed his bamboo stick and walked forward, standing between the tables. He said, “I am the newly appointed Beggar Clan Chief Lu Youjiao, I have only learnt less than ten percent of the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”, I actually shouldn’t use it. But if you insist on tasting the pain of the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”, I’ll beat you with a few stances.”
Lu Youjiao’s martial arts was already profound, though he hadn’t learned all of the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”, it had improved his martial arts a significant level. He saw that Huo Dou was around thirty years of age; he thought that even with a great teacher, his internal energy will not be profound. He saw that Huang Rong wasn’t well, whether he wins or loses, he couldn’t let her take the risk.
Huo Dou just wanted to ensure that he would not have to fight Guo Jing; he wasn’t afraid of anyone else and immediately held his hand and bowed, he said, “Chief Lu, nice to meet you. There’s no one better to exchange moves with than you.”
Huang Rong was secretly anxious, but she remembered that Lu Youjiao was the newly appointed chief; since he had made the challenge she couldn’t stop him. Otherwise she will question Lu Youjiao’s clout and show that her power is above the chief’s; she had to allow him to fight for a while and then decide what to do afterwards.
The managers of the Lu Manor instructed the servants to move the tables, creating seven or eight tables’ worth of space and added more red candles, lighting up the centre of the hall as if it were daytime.
Hou Dou called out, “Ready!” As he said this his fan swept across, a gust of wind threw itself towards Lu Youjiao, carrying a slight fragrance. Lu Youjiao was afraid that the wind carried poison and quickly darted out of the way of the wind. Huo Dou’s fan waved out, a ‘ca’ sound was heard; the fan folded and formed an eight-inch long pressure point sealing stick, and was thrust towards the enemy’s side. Lu Youjiao’s bamboo stick went forward, he ignored the threat of having his pressure point sealed and used the ‘coil’ formulae to trip and lift. The “Dog Beating Stick Technique” really was extremely ingenious, its direction is extremely difficult to predict; Huo Dou lightly leapt up to avoid this but he couldn’t have guessed that the stick would suddenly flip up fiercely and would hit his lower leg. He stumbled, leaped forward three steps and stopped himself from falling down.
The watching heroes all cheered and called out, “The dog’s been hit!” “This will teach you the power of the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”!”
Huo Dou’s face turned red immediately after this, he gracefully turned around and threw out a left palm. Lu Youjiao kicked out his left leg and swept with bamboo stick, the stick was in a flying dance, it kept on changing without stop.
Huo Dou was secretly alarmed, “The “Dog Beating Stick Technique” does live up to its name!” He concentrated and used all his strength with the fan in his right hand and palm with his left. Lu Youjiao has yet to complete the final stage of the stick technique, he had victory in his grasp many times but in the end it was a waste of his efforts.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong watched from the side and kept on saying to themselves, “What a pity!”
After another ten stances or so, the weaknesses in Lu Youjiao’s “Dog Beating Stick Technique” began to show themselves. Yang Guo saw every stance clearly and couldn’t stop himself from frowning. Luckily the “Dog Beating Stick Technique” name is famous, and as soon as it was used, Huo Dou was struck in the lower leg. Huo Dou was worried and didn’t dare get too close, otherwise Lu Youjiao would have lost long ago. Huang Rong saw that something was wrong and was about to call out and tell Lu Youjiao to come back when Lu Youjiao suddenly used a stance of “Hitting the Dog’s Back from the Side”, the bamboo stick flashed across and struck Huo Dou’s left cheek. But his stance was too heavy; the lightness of the skill was lost. Huo Dou suddenly stretched out his hand and held the bamboo stick in his hand, he had no more worries and suddenly threw out a palm that struck Lu Youjiao in the chest and then followed it by a sweep, a ‘ka la’ sound was heard as Lu Youjiao’s leg was broken. He spat out a pool of blood as he fell forwards. Two seven band members dashed forward to support him. When everyone saw how ruthless Huo Dou was, they were extremely angry and they all shouted and cursed.
Hou Dou displayed the gem green jade bamboo stick; he was proud of himself and said, “The Beggar Clan’s treasure is the Dog Beating Stick, so it’s nothing more than this.” He wanted to insult the central plain’s largest heroic clan. He held the Dog Beating Stick in his two hands and wanted to snap it in half.
Suddenly a green image flashed, an elegant and beautiful young woman stood in front of him, she said, “Wait!” It was Huang Rong.
Huo Dou saw that her movements were extremely fast and was in shock, all he could say was, “You… “ Her left hand swept across and her right hand scoured across his eyes. Huo Dou quickly stretched his arm out but by that time, Huang Rong had already snatched the Dog Beating Stick back.
This stance of snatching the stick back is called, “Snatching the Stick from the Dog’s Mouth” and is one of the extremely advanced stances of the “Dog Beating Stick Technique”. Years ago at the Mount Jun Beggar Clan gathering, Huang Rong used this technique to snatch the Dog Beating Stick away from Yang Kang three times. The changes of this stance are extremely mysterious; when snatching the stick in a hundred ways there would be one hundred successes, even a stronger opponent cannot avoid this.
All the heroes cheered. Huang Rong returned to her seat with the Dog Beating Stick by her side, leaving Huo Dou in the middle of the room in an embarrassing situation. Though his martial arts were profound, he couldn’t explain how Huang Rong snatched the stick away, he thought, “Could it be that this woman knows how to perform illusions?” He heard the onlookers ridiculing him; he glanced at his master and saw his face was not pleased. He thought that such a beautiful woman must have limited abilities so he called out, “Chief Huang, I have handed the Dog Beating Stick back to you, please come and exchange a few moves. You won’t dare turn this invitation down will you?” As soon as he said this, indeed there were people who thought that it wasn’t Huang Rong who had snatched back the Dog Beating Stick, but it was Huo Dou who handed it back to her so they can duel. Only people with high martial arts could see that it was Huang Rong who had used force to take the Dog Beating Stick back.
When Guo Fu heard these words she was extremely angry, in her life she had never seen anyone who dared treat her mother with such disrespect. A ‘shua’ sound was heard as she took out her precious sword.
Wu Xiuwen said, “Sister Fu, I’ll help you vent your anger.” Wu Dunru also had the same thought, the two of them leapt into the heart of the main hall at the same time.
One of them said, “My Master’s wife’s body is very precious.”
The other one said, “How can she fight with a ruffian like you.”
The other said, “First experience little Master’s kung fu first before doing anything else.”
Huo Dou saw that the two were young but their movements were steady, they have been taught by famous masters, he thought, “We have come here today to show off our martial arts and break the spirits of the Han martial artists, fighting a few more rounds will be great. But there are many of them and few of us, if we induce a brawl, things would be hard to handle.”
So he said, “All the world’s heroes listen, these two little punks want to duel with me, if I do fight then I’m afraid that people will say I’m bullying them. If I don’t I’m afraid that people will think that I’m afraid of them. Let’s do it this way, we will agree to compete for three rounds, whichever side wins two rounds, then the place of Chancellor goes to them. The fight between Elder Lu and me does not count, we will start again. Does everyone agree?” Those words were said with his status in mind, displaying his great generosity.
Guo Jing, Huang Rong and all the special guests discussed this quietly; they felt that it would be difficult to reject this suggestion. Today, apart from Huang Rong who cannot come out and fight, the strongest people here are Guo Jing, Hao Datong and Reverend Yideng’s fourth disciple Zhu Ziliu. Zhu Ziliu is a citizen of Dali but he still had ties to this matter. Dali and Song depended on each other, and in the recent years Dali has suffered the oppression of Mongols; it could be said that they shared the same enemy. Never mind the fact that he had a very good friendship with the Guo couple, he was duty bound to help. They decided that Zhu Ziliu would battle with Huo Dou in the first round, Hao Datong with Da’erba in the second, Guo Jing and Jinlun Fawang in the final round. Whether or not this plan would assure victory was uncertain; suppose Jinlun Fawang’s martial arts are so high that even Guo Jing can’t withstand him. It wouldn’t be inconceivable that they would lose all three rounds, and if that happens they would really have suffered a crushing defeat.
Before the decision was definite, Huang Rong suddenly said, “I have a way to guarantee victory.”
Guo Jing was delighted and was just about to ask her when suddenly wind sounds created by weapons could be heard, everyone turned their heads and saw the Wu brothers using their long swords fighting with Huo Dou and his fan. The Guo couple and the disciples of Reverend Yideng Diancang Yuyin and Zhu Ziliu were worried about their safety so all of them concentrated on the battle.
The Wu brothers heard Huo Dou was rude towards them in his words, calling them little punks, these words were heard by everyone, how could they live this down? Never mind the fact that they just saw their Master’s wife snatch the bamboo stick back from him. They thought that although he beat Lu Youjiao, it was because Lu Youjiao’s kung fu wasn’t up to scratch, not because that this person is terrific. They also thought that since they both had been taught great martial arts by Guo Jing, if one of them can’t beat him the two of them will definitely be able to overcome him. They didn’t care about competing over three or four rounds, they really were like newborn calves that were not afraid of tigers, the brothers signaled with their eyes and thrust out their swords together.
However, though Guo Jing’s martial arts were high, he had yet to pass on most of his skills to his disciples. He himself understood the theories of advanced martial arts but when he was passing it on, he wasn’t able to express clearly its meanings. The Wu brother’s natural endowments were just average to normal, how much could they learn in just a few years? In just a few moves, their long swords were controlled by Hou Dou; they were unable to use them fully. Hou Dou wanted to show off in front of these people, he saw Wu Xiuwen’s sword coming in and threw up his left index finger holding up the sword on the flat side, the fan waved across and the base struck the top of the blade, a ‘zheng’ sound was heard as the sword snapped in two. The Wu brothers were shocked, Wu Xiuwen quickly leapt out of the way, Wu Dunru was afraid that his brother would be hurt so he extended his sword towards Huo Dou’s back forcing him to stop his attack. Huo Dou had predicted this move, he didn’t turn back and folded his fan sending it backwards. The two weapons met, the fan hitting against the flat side of the sword, Huo Dou twisted his fingers around twice. Only his fingers moved but the Wu Dunru’s sword followed the fan in turning around, his joints would definitely twist out of place if he didn’t let go. He could only loosen his hand and let go of the sword. He leapt back and saw the sword flying upwards, the sword glimmered in the candlelight before it fell down to the floor.
The Wu brothers were shocked and angry, although they were empty handed they were not afraid. Wu Dunru’s left hand hung horizontally in the air, holding the position of a stance of “Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms”. Wu Xiuwen’s right hand hung down, his left index finger slightly crooked; as soon as the enemy attacks he would use the “Solitary Yang Finger”.
Hou Dou saw that these stances looked serious, he was wary and didn’t dare to look lightly upon them, he thought, “Winning up to this point is enough, there is no need to refuse something good, asking for more is not in my interests.”
The “Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms” and “Solitary Yang Finger” are first class skills in the world of martial arts, though the Wu brothers’ internal energy was weak, the stances they put out were perfect. When normal people saw it they didn’t think much of it, but in the trained eyes of Huo Dou, he knew that it wasn’t that simple, he laughed and then bowed with his hands, he said, “Please sit down, we are just trying to find a winner, not fighting to the death.” His tone sounded a lot more polite.
The Wu brothers’ faces showed signs of embarrassment; they knew that fighting empty handed with him will most probably result in an even more embarrassing defeat. The two of them hung their heads with a gloomy expression and retreated to the side, but not going back to where Guo Fu was.
Guo Fu dashed forward and called out, “Wu Brothers, the three of us will go up and fight him again.” The crowd looked on. Guo Fu’s right hand held her sword and her left hand waved out, she said, “We three, apprentice brother and sister, will go up together.”
Guo Jing shouted, “Fu’er, stop making trouble!” Guo Jing was the person that Guo Fu most feared; she could only retreat a few steps and stare angrily at Huo Dou.
Huo Dou saw that she was beautiful and desirable, he laughed as he nodded his head. Guo Fu gave him a glance and turned her head away, ignoring him.
The Wu brothers were really frightened that Guo Fu would ridicule them, now they saw her shielding them, showing care for them, they felt great comfort in their hearts.
Huo Dou opened his fan and fluttered it a few times and then said, “Of course that last battle does not count. Hero Guo, the three people from our side will be my master, my apprentice brother and I. My kung fu is the weakest; I’ll be in the first round. Who have you elected to fight? Whoever wins or loses, it is now not a game.”