Peng Zhanglao on guard by Guo Jing’s side; when he suddenly saw Guo Jing escape, he was very shocked. He tried to grab him, but failed; he looked down and saw the empty ropes lying on the ground. The ropes were still tied in knots, but the man inside had already slipped out just like a slippery loach. He was about to pursue when he saw Guo Jing was helping Lu Youjiao. Peng Zhanglao thought that even if he boldly step forward, he may not necessarily be able to subdue Guo Jing. Thereupon his mouth shouted loudly, “Capture this little thief!” yet his feet did not move.
Guo Jing had been bound for a long time, he was really angry. Moreover, he thought about Huang Rong’s feelings; she was still somewhat childish, so she must be very angry. He knew that this crowd of beggars was swindled by Yang Kang and did not really have any enmity with Huang Rong and him, but right now seeing the crowd of beggars shouting and rushing forward to attack, he thought, “If I can’t beat you well today, Rong’er’s anger won’t disappear easily!”
He wanted to use the Big Dipper Formation he had just thought through; his arms lifted up, his feet stepped on to the ‘tian quan’ [sky authority/power] position. But seeing that about six, seven beggars were pouncing him from behind, Guo Jing stood upright with a mountain strong stance, his left hand in horizontal position in front of his chest.
The first three beggars arrived, they held out their hands to grab his arm. Guo Jing stayed motionless; in a short moment several more beggars arrived. Guo Jing dropped his arm and with a floating motion he made a circle, attacking these several beggars’ backs with his hands and feet. Some were hit on their backs, some on their waists, and some others were hit on their buttocks. A succession of cries were heard, “Aiyo!” “Aiyo!” “Thief male servant bird!” six, seven people fell on the ground.
Guo Jing was pleased, “This technique really works,” he thought. He turned around, wanting to grab Yang Kang to settle the debt with him; but then under the moonlight he saw that two beggars were about to attack Huang Rong. He was afraid they might injure her, while he was too far to help and he did not carry any secret projectiles with him. In desperation he stooped down to take his cloth shoes off and threw them toward the attackers. He was not a quick thinker that he would invent this trick all by himself; he had heard stories from his masters, the Six Freaks of Jiangnan, how during the fight at the Fahua Temple his Second Master Zhu Cong took off his shoe and threw it toward Qiu Chuji. Therefore, he simply copied the trick.
Those two beggars were afraid that Huang Rong possessed the same ability as Guo Jing; able to free herself from the ropes. They approached her with caution, unsheathed the sabers in their hands, intending to kill her to avenge their Lao Bangzhu. Unexpectedly just when they arrived in front of Huang Rong, before they even lifted their weapons, they heard a strong gust of wind on their backs; something was flying toward them, apparently an enemy was attacking them. The one with higher martial art quickly turned around and Guo Jing’s shoe hit him on the chest. The other one was slower, the shoe hit his back.
Although the cloth shoes were soft and light, because of Guo Jing’s internal strength the force carried by those shoes was not a small matter; the two beggars were unable to stand, one fell backward face up to the sky, the other dove face down to the ground. Peng Zhanglao was standing nearby; he was scared to see how with a pair of cloth shoes Guo Jing was able to hit people swiftly and fiercely. He hastily withdrew several steps back.
Guo Jing swept his hand to push back three beggars; he anxiously went to Huang Rong. He stooped down to untie the ropes, but he only managed to untie one rope before he was surrounded by the crowd of beggars again. Guo Jing simply sat on the ground, copying how Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi and the others battled the enemy using the Big Dipper Formation. His right palm blocked the enemies, he put Huang Rong on his knees and using his left hand he slowly untied the knots. He had mastered Zhou Botong’s skill of ‘shuang shou hu bo’ [Mutual Hands Combat]; one heart two techniques. This time he used his left hand to untie the knots, his right hand to fend off the enemies’ attacks; he did it so casually, without the slightest degree of rush.
In less than the time needed to drink tea, Jing and Rong two people were thickly surrounded by hundreds of beggars. Without looking back Guo Jing simply blocked the attacks from his back. All along Guo Jing took a defensive stand and had never launched any deathly attacks. It was only after he untied all ropes from Huang Rong’s hands and feet did Guo Jing took the cloth from her mouth and said, “Rong’er, are you injured?”
Huang Rong leaned on his knees; without standing up she replied, “No injuries, just numb all over my body.”
“Good,” Guo Jing said, “Just lie down to rest for a while; let me vent your anger for you.”
Two people, one sat on the ground one of them laid down, were talking amiably as if they were not disturbed by the clamoring noise of the weapons and commotion of the beggars around them. Huang Rong laughed and said, “You may fight them, just don’t injure my disciples and grand disciples.”
“I’ll remember that,” Guo Jing said. His left palm lightly stroke her beautiful hair, his right palm suddenly shot out; ‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ three beggars flew out above the crowd’s heads.
The crowd of beggars was thrown into confusion. Four more beggars were flung away by Guo Jing’s palm strength. Then from among the crowd someone was calling out, “Brothers, step back! Let the eight-bag disciples deal with these two little thieves.” It was Jian Zhanglao’s voice.
As the crowd heard his command they dispersed immediately until only three people left nearby Guo Jing and Huang Rong, and then five more people came from behind; this brought the total to eight people surrounding them all around. There were eight sacks on each of these people’s back; their rank in the Beggar Clan was only second to the four elders. Each one of them was in command of a group of beggars. Two fat and skinny beggars who met and escorted Yang Kang earlier were also among them. There were originally nine eight-bag disciples, but Li Sheng killed himself so only eight were left.
Guo Jing was aware that although the number of the enemies has decreased, each one of them was a highly skilled pugilist. He was about to stand up when with a low voice Huang Rong said, “Keep sitting down; you can fight them. Just don’t look them in the eye.”