Only Jinlun Fawang understood what was happening, he knew that his disciple, always straight and simple, had fallen into Yang Guo’s trap; so he loudly said, “Da’erba, he’s not your reincarnated apprentice brother, go and fight him.”
Da’erba leapt up in shock and said, “Master, I think he must be apprentice brother, otherwise, at such a young age, how could he have such a high level of martial arts?”
Jinlun Fawang said, “Your apprentice brother’s martial arts were much better than yours; that kid is not a match for you.”
Da’erba shook his head, not believing him. Jinlun Fawang knew that he was very simple, he wouldn’t understand straight away so he said, “If you don’t believe it, go and test him out.”
Da’erba has always treated his Master’s orders as orders from above; since he said that Yang Guo was not his apprentice brother reincarnated then most probably he was not. But he had such high martial arts at such a young age, and said that he was his apprentice brother; it was difficult for him to not believe, but he followed his Master’s orders to go and test out the kid’s kung fu. The truth would be revealed by whoever wins or loses so he raised his hand to Yang Guo and said, “I’m going to duel with you, victory will decide whether this is the truth or not.”
Yang Guo saw him stand up and say a few words, he looked very respectful. The words must be of a polite nature so he repeated what he said flawlessly, Da’erba heard, “I’m going to duel with you, victory will decide whether this is the truth or not.” When he heard those words he felt very frightened, “Master said senior apprentice brother’s martial arts were much better than mine, I definitely won’t be able to compete with him.”
Yang Guo saw that there were signs of fear on his face, he thought, “I’ll give him another scare and send him away.” So he said, “You have five disciples, they are called the ‘Five Clowns of the Tibetan Border’; a few days ago they were rude towards me on the top of Mount Hua, and I crippled their kung fu. Are those punks still alive?” He spoke in Chinese, of course Da’erba would not understand, so he got one of the Mongolian warriors to translate for him. When Da’erba heard this, he was even more frightened. After the ‘Five Clowns of the Tibetan Border’ had their bodies’ crippled by Ouyang Feng and Hong Qigong, when they returned to him, they weren’t even able to speak. When Da’erba examined their injuries, he thought that even his master Jinlun Fawang didn’t have such high internal energy to destroy the five’s veins yet still keep them alive. The thing that did this must have the ability to move heaven and earth; it could only be a god or a demon. How would he know that Ouyang Feng and Hong Qigong’s internal energy was not below his master’s; with the two combined, the internal energy would be twice as strong as Jinlun Fawang’s. When he heard this, his fear flourished even more, he turned around and looked at Jinlun Fawang. He saw that there was an angry expression on his face, he didn’t dare to not exchange blows with Yang Guo, he could only say, “Please hold back.”
Yang Guo copied his Tibetan and said, “Please hold back.”
Guo Fu saw the two of them speaking in Tibetan without pause, she went over to Huang Rong and said, “Mother, what are they saying?”
Huang Rong knew that Yang Guo was just copying what Da’erba had said, doing what children do to annoy other people, but she didn’t understand why Da’erba had bowed to him. When she heard her daughter ask about this, she just gave an ‘en’ sound and said “Brother Yang is joking with him!”
Just at this point, Da’erba suddenly swept his golden rod out towards Yang Guo; he thought that since he’s made it clear, the opponent would have been prepared. But Yang Guo had seen that he had a respectful expression on him, he didn’t predict that he would suddenly lash out; this attack almost hit him, he leapt back urgently to avoid it.
He quickly retreated and hurried forward, immediately unleashing three strokes with the sword. Fear was in Da’erba’s heart, he was afraid that his apprentice brother had learnt frightening martial arts from his master, and now that he’s reincarnated, he would have even greater abilities. He just defended with his golden rod, not daring to make a single mistake. Many moves passed and Yang Guo could see that he was just defending and not attacking. Though he didn’t understand what was meant by this, he launched himself forward; he floated and darted around, a thrust from the east, an attack from the west, the “Jade Maiden Sword Techniques” were used with a clear gallant air and a flourishing beauty.
Over a hundred stances were exchanged, Jinlun Fawang was becoming impatient with the events and shouted, “Da’erba, quickly counterattack, he’s not your senior apprentice brother!”
Da’erba’s martial arts were well above Yang Guo’s but because there was fear in his heart, he only used half of his abilities, whereas Yang Guo took the chance and fought with everything he had. One of them wanted to take the upper hand, the other kept on retreating and allowing the opponent to attack. Though Yang Guo had the advantage, he was unable to harm him; this convinced Da’erba further and he thought that his apprentice brother was holding back.
Jinlun Fawang was furious and loudly shouted, “Counterattack now!” This line was said with a surprising ferociousness, it caused ringing in the ears of the people watching. Da’erba didn’t dare to defy his Master’s orders; he straightened his golden rod and immediately attacked ferociously.
This ferocious attack forced Yang Guo to go on the defensive; he kept on dodging and darted around, the weaknesses in his stances were gradually beginning to show up. Da’erba saw that his sword stances were slightly loose and flung his rod towards it, Yang Guo couldn’t pull back in time and the two collided. In a duel, weapons clashing were a regular event, but the rod was too heavy, Yang Guo’s sword had kept its distance, not daring to collide with the golden rod. Now when the weapons collided, he felt a sudden surge of a great force, shaking and causing him pain, a ‘pai’ sound was heard and the iron sword was snapped in two.
Da’erba called out, “I’m the victor!” He pulled back his rod and placed it on the ground vertically, his arms folded and bowed to him. Though he won, he didn’t dare to lose his manners in front of his senior apprentice brother.
Yang Guo also used Tibetan to say, “I’m the victor!” He shot the broken sword towards him.
Da’erba moved his body to avoid it, he was alarmed, “How did senior apprentice brother win? Could it be that stance was a decoy, a trap?
He saw Yang Guo dashing forward empty handed moving his hands; Da’erba didn’t dare to hesitate and quickly used his golden rod to protect his body.
In the ancient tomb, Yang Guo learned palm techniques from Xiao Longnu; he reached a state where his two palms could keep eighty one sparrows within his control, not letting one fly away. This “Force of Nets Above and Snares Below” is a secret skill of Lin Chaoying’s; it had never left Mount Zhongnan one-step. Now as it was used, indeed it was extremely soft, continuous and unyielding, though he was empty handed, the power of it was not inferior to the power he had when he was equipped with a sword. Da’erba’s golden rod created gusts of winds as he used it, but Yang Guo used extremely high lightness kung fu to move around within the spaces of the rod. Though danger was always within a hair’s breadth, the golden rod was not able to touch him at all. He clawed, hacked, slashed and chopped, within his little trapping hand stances as he used the “Force of Nets Above and Snares Below” for attack after attack.
After another while, Da’erba’s strength increased, Yang Guo too got quicker and nimbler. During his time in the ancient tomb, he had refined his internal energy on the chilled jade bed, now in the middle of battle, the internal energy he spent years refining surged forward and showed itself.
Xiao Longnu sat on the stone rock next to the pillar with a slight smile on her face as she watched the two fight. She saw that Yang Guo had fought for a long time without losing, from her pockets, she took out a pair of snow white gloves and called out, “Guo Er, catch them!” Her right hand waved out and shot the gloves towards Yang Guo.
The pair of white gloves was made from very fine and very strong white gold silk, though it was thin, no type of precious blades or sharp swords could harm it.
When Hao Datong saw the white gloves in the air, his face changed slightly. Years ago at Chongyang Palace, Xiao Longnu wore these gloves to break his sword, forcing him to almost commit suicide. When he saw them again, he couldn’t stop himself from being disturbed.
Yang Guo caught the gloves, retreated a step, and he quickly put them on. He used the Ancient Tomb’s sect most ingenious and exquisite kung fu the “Beautiful Maiden Fist”. He had used a few stances from this fist technique before to help Lu Wushuang against her enemies; forcing the Beggar Clan members to retreat. Every stance of this technique is meant to take the aura and impression of a famous beautiful women of the past. Originally, when a male uses it, the stances do not look elegant at all. But when Yang Guo was studying this technique he had changed some of the appearance of the stances; the names and fist techniques were the same, but in the interval between palms and kicks, he changed its delicate and enchanting air into something graceful and stylish.
The heroes who were watching became even more perplexed; they saw him suddenly move and then suddenly stop; his expression and aura changing, it was extremely mystifying.
A woman’s state of mind goes through many things, many changes. Along with the different extraordinary characters of each of the famous historic woman, came laughter, as brows were knitted, joy with worry; it was even more difficult to understand and surmise. Incorporating the hundreds and thousand year old feelings of these beautiful woman into martial arts, and then adding stances that reflect the beauty of goddesses, the mystery surrounding angels; how could ordinary people understand it?
Yang Guo used a stance of “Hong Yu Beats the Drum” his two arms attacking one after the other; Da’erba raised his rod and attacked. Yang Guo changed into “Hong Fu Hurries in the Night”, unexpectedly he charged forward. Da’erba pushed his rod down vertically to block it. Yang Guo suddenly used “Luu Zhu’s Falling Building”; he threw himself onto the ground and attacked his lower body.
Da’erba was shocked and thought, “How come senior apprentice brother’s stances are so hard to comprehend?” He quickly leapt up and avoided his left palm’s hack. Yang Guo’s palms kept on attacking downwards without stop; it was the stance of “Wen Ji Returns to Her Man”, in total there were eighteen palms.
Every stance of his had a background to it; Da’erba is a Tibetan monk, so how could he know about these histories of the central plains? In a flash he was forced to suddenly go high and then low, east and then west, his arms and legs were all over the place. With the Golden Silk Gloves, whenever Yang Guo had the chance he would use the stances “Hong Xian Steals the Box”, “Mu Lan Curved Bow”, “Ban Ji’s Poem” and “Chang E Steals Medicine” to snatch away Da’erba’s golden rod, forcing him to roar incessantly, looking embarrassed. The heroes were delighted and called out and cheered to support him.
Jinlun Fawang saw that his disciple’s martial arts were definitely better than this young man’s, but because he was afraid, he kept on allowing the opponent to attack and was forced back embarrassingly. He shouted with a stern tone, “Quickly use the “Supreme Strength Rod Technique”!”
Da’erba replied, “Yes!” He held the rod’s handle with one hand and started to move it around. Using one hand to move the rod was already frightening, now he used the strength in his two hands and the strength in his waist at the same time; the gusts of winds created by the rod were even louder.
The “Supreme Strength Rod Technique” does not have many variations; there are only eight sweeping stances, and eight thrusting stances, sixteen stances in total, but when the sixteen stances were used repeatedly, sweeping and thrusting, it forced Yang Guo farther away as he avoided it. He didn’t dare to meet the gusts of wind created by the rod let alone meeting the rod itself.
After Diancang Yuyin’s oar broke, he had refused to accept his defeat, but when he saw the power of the “Supreme Strength Rod Technique”, he pondered on the fact that his oar stances did not contain anything as fierce and wild as this, he couldn’t help but give his respect to him.
After another period of fighting, several candles in the main hall were extinguished by the wind created by Da’erba’s rod. Yang Guo just used his lightness kung fu to leap and jump around all over the place, just dodging and evading, but now that he was concentrating on avoiding the rod attacks, how could he attack? All of the heroes of the central plains were afraid and didn’t make a sound, the Mongolian warriors all cheered thunderously.
Yang Guo was faced with no other choice but to keep on retreating, in a short time he was forced into the corner of the hall. He wanted to change his stances but there was no way for him to do so.
This “Supreme Strength Rod Technique” causes one to carry some degree of blind fury, once this became evident in Da’erba, he forgot that he was fighting his reincarnated senior apprentice brother. He saw that Yang Guo had nowhere else to retreat, and then shouted out, “Die!” The golden rod swept across, a ferocious explosion noise was heard, smoke and dust filled the air, and a large hole was made in the wall of hall.
In this extremely perilous situation, Yang Guo managed to leap over his head and even in this extreme situation he did not forget to repeat what he said in Tibetan, “Die!” That leap was a technique from the “Nine Yin Manual”. He and Xiao Longnu had studied the markings of the manual left by Wang Chongyang on the ceiling of the stone chamber in the ancient tomb. They had learned some of the fist, kick and sword techniques but there was no one to advise them on practicing the internal aspect. They practiced it but they did not know if they practiced properly, right now he was facing a formidable enemy, how could he dare use it? He would never have thought that in the face of such a danger, he would use it naturally, saving his life in the process.