“Qigong, don’t believe his lie,” Huang Rong quipped. “He scolds you in his heart all right, and he scolds you really bad. He said although your martial art is not bad but it only benefits yourself; you don’t have the ability to teach. Even if you teach your stealing chicken and stroking dogs skills to your heart’s content, nobody would be able to learn it to perfection.”
Hong Qigong just stared at her. He snorted and mumbled, “This little girl knows how to provoke me.” He turned his head and said, “Good, huh? This kid dares to scold me?” Suddenly he stretched one hand; quick as lighting he snatched the folding fan in Ouyang Ke’s hand. He unfolded the fan and saw some peonies painting, with two characters ‘Xu Xi’. He did not know that Xu Xi was a poet from Northern Song Dynasty. Although the peonies were beautifully painted, he still said, “Not good!” There was several lines of characters written on the fan, and at the end was a signature, ‘bai tuo shan shao zhu’ [Young Master of the White Camel Mountain]. It was Ouyang Ke’s handwriting.
“What do you think of these characters?” Hong Qigong asked Huang Rong.
Huang Rong raised her eyebrows and said, “Very crude. But what do you expect? A spoiled rich kid like him wouldn’t know how to write. I bet he hired a pawnshop clerk to write those characters.”
Ouyang Ke pride himself as both martial art and literature expert, which was actually not too far from reality. Hearing Huang Rong he was really angry. He shot an angry look toward her, only to see under the candlelight the corner of her eyes bore a very faint smile. She looked so sweet and innocent that his anger vanished into thin air.
Hong Qigong spread the fan in his hand; lifting it up he wiped his mouth with it. He just ate a chicken, so his mouth was greasy. As soon as he did that, the painting and calligraphy were completely destroyed. Then he casually crumpled the fan, made it a paper ball and tossed it to the ground.
Other people would think nothing of it, but not so to Ouyang Ke; his fan’s spines were made of steel. The fan was his weapon. It was a demonstration of a profound internal energy. He was terrified.
“If I personally fight you, you will die unsatisfied. So I am going to take a disciple and let him fight with you,” Hong Qigong said.
Ouyang Ke pointed to Guo Jing. “This fellow had fought with me for dozens of stances. If Uncle Hong did not come out, I would gain the upper hand. Brother Guo, don’t you agree?” he said.
Guo Jing nodded his head, “I might lose.” Ouyang Ke smiled with satisfaction.
Hong Qigong looked up and laughed. “Jing’er, are you my disciple?” he asked.
Guo Jing recalled he kowtowed to Hong Qigong, but Hong Qigong returned those kowtows. “Junior is unfortunate not to be your disciple,” he quickly replied.
“Did you hear?” Hong Qigong asked Ouyang Ke.
Ouyang Ke was dissatisfied. “You can’t fool me; where did this kid’s exquisite palms come from?” he asked.
Hong Qigong turned toward Guo Jing. “If I don’t make you my disciple, that little brat girl will not let me die peacefully. She would pester me with hundreds of evil schemes forever. I guess the old beggar has to admit defeat. All right, bow to me, I’ll take you as my disciple,” he said.
Guo Jing was ecstatic. Quickly he bent his knees and busily kowtowed several times while calling out, “Master!” That day at the Cloud Village he had recounted to his six masters how Hong Qigong had taught him the ’18 Dragon-Subduing Palms’. The Six Freaks of Jiangnan were very happy, they all said it was a pity this highly skilled extraordinary character of the Wulin world was not willing to take Guo Jing as his disciple. They told him that if Hong Qigong happened to reveal his willingness to take him, Guo Jing should accept without reservation.
Huang Rong was even happier. She smiled broadly and said, “Qigong, I have helped you find a very fine disciple. My contribution is not small. Starting today you will have somebody you can call your successor. How will you thank me?”
Hong Qigong made a face to her, “Kiss my ass!” Then he turned to Guo Jing and said, “Imbecile, let me teach you three stances first.” Immediately he taught Guo Jing the last three stances of the ’18 Dragon-Subduing Palms’ right in front of everybody else. Of course, compared to Guo Jing’s own three desperately-brewed stances, these moves were like a world apart.
Ouyang Ke said to himself, “This old beggar’s martial art is outstanding, but he is not too smart. He is concentrating on teaching his disciple, totally forgetting that I am standing here, watching.” With rapt attention he watched Guo Jing’s every move. But he did not see anything extraordinary. Sometimes Gong Qigong whispered something into Guo Jing’s ears. He guessed it must be the theory behind these three moves. Sometimes Guo Jing would nod his head, but most other time he just stood there, staring blankly or shook his head. Hong Qigong would repeat what he just said until Guo Jing reluctantly nodded his head; obviously he did not fully comprehend the theory. “This guy is really stupid,” he thought, “This short period of time is not enough for him to learn the three stances. I might as well seize the opportunity to study them.”
In the meantime Hong Qigong had Guo Jing practice six, seven times. “Good, smart disciple,” he said. “You have mastered about 50% of these three stances. Now go and beat this lecherous thief for me.”
“Yes,” Guo Jing answered and moved forward two steps and launched a palm toward Ouyang Ke. Ouyang Ke slanted his body and counterattacked with a fist. Thus two people engaged in a fight again.
The secret of ’18 Dragon-Subduing Palms’ lies in the exact timing of energy exertion. The moves themselves were quite simple. That was the reason that although Liang Ziweng, Mei Chaofeng and Ouyang Ke’s martial arts were higher than that of Guo Jing’s; yet Guo Jing was able to fight them without losing a ground. Just a moment ago Ouyang Ke was watching Hong Qigong passed on the three stances to Guo Jing, and he knew Guo Jing had not fully comprehend the moves while he himself had memorized the stances; yet now that he was fighting Guo Jing, he found it difficult to overcome those three stances.
Guo Jing on the other hand, had now mastered the complete set of ’18 Dragon-Subduing Palms’. He was able to use it from head to tail and back to head again. The fierceness of the original 15 moves he had already mastered was greatly increased.
Ouyang Ke had used four different kinds of martial arts, yet he could only match Guo Jing without being able to gain an upper hand. Dozens of moves later he started to get anxious. “If I don’t use my family’s unique skill I might lose,” he thought. “I was trained by my uncle since my childhood. How come I cannot defeat the old beggar’s disciple who received instructions just a moment ago? I am afraid the old beggar will look down on my uncle.”