However, he had forgotten one important detail; namely, his martial art was way below of those two people. He saw Ouyang Feng and Zhou Botong seemingly without any effort grabbing and throwing Venerable Lingzhi’s heavy body. Hence he leaped up to intercept Lingzhi, stretching his hand to grab his neck. Unexpectedly as he touched Venerable Lingzhi’s neck he felt a burning sensation following a strong force attacking his hand and wrist. He knew if he did not ward off this attack his wrist would be broken immediately. In this critical time he quickly withdrew his right hand, while his left fist launched the ‘po jia zhui’ [splitting armor awl].
What happened was when Venerable Lingzhi was thrown away back and forth between Ouyang Feng and Zhou Botong, his blood was flowing adversely, his head was dizzy while his heart was burning with anger. He heard Zhou Botong calling out someone else to take his body, all he knew was that person must be an enemy; hence when he was still airborne he had already exerted his strength in anger. As soon as Sha Tongtian’s hand bumped onto his neck his ‘da shou yin’ slapped out.
In term of strength these two were in par with each other; Sha Tongtian had the advantage of standing upright, but Venerable Lingzhi had prepared his attack beforehand, and thus caught him off guard. Two equal forces collided, Sha Tongtian was pushed back three steps, but Venerable Lingzhi was also shaken from the collision that he fell flat on the deck. Immediately he stood up and saw that the person who attacked him was Sha Tongtian; he thought, “Even you, a stinky thief, want to take advantage of me!” With a loud roar he pounced forward.
Peng Lianhu knew he misunderstood; hastily he blocked in between two people, calling out, “Reverend please don’t get angry, Brother Sha only has a good intention.”
In the meantime the small boat had been lowered down. Zhou Botong grabbed the stick inside the shark’s mouth; he lifted and hurled the huge shark to the sea, simultaneously exerting his strength and broke the stick into two parts. While diving into the sea, that shark suddenly felt the stick in its mouth was broken, it was very happy. It dove deep into the water to hunt for some fish.
Huang Rong smiled, “Brother Jing, later on the two of us and Big Brother Zhou can ride sharks together and then we can have a race.” Guo Jing did not answer, Zhou Botong clapped his hands and cheered, he said, “We can ask the Old Beggar to be our judge.”
After seeing Zhou Botong and the others went out on the small boat, Wanyan Honglie started to think that with this kind of martial art, Ouyang Feng would provide a valuable assistance to his plan of stealing the book. He pulled Venerable Lingzhi’s hand and walked toward Ouyang Feng. “Everybody here is good friend, I hope Sir would not be offended, I am sure Reverend was not serious. I wish both gentlemen would give Little Prince face and consider everything as a joke,” he said.
Ouyang Feng smiled and extended his hand. Venerable Lingzhi on the other hand, was still upset. He mused, “You only use the seizing technique [‘qin na’] and caught me off guard. I have trained painstakingly for dozens of years to develop my ‘da shou yin’ power; do you think I am inferior to you?” Hence he also stretched out his hand while sending his energy to his palm, with the intention of gripping hard Ouyang Feng’s palm. But he was just about to exert his strength when he suddenly jumped away. He felt like he was touching red-hot burning steel and his hand was so much in pain that he dropped it in a hurry. Ouyang Feng did not want to pursue, he simply smiled faintly. Venerable Lingzhi looked at his hand and did not see anything unusual, he thought, “Damn it, this old thief surely knows demonical tricks.”
Ouyang Feng saw Liang Ziweng was still lying down on the deck, unmoving. He came to examine him. Ouyang Feng knew that Liang Ziweng was pushed to the sea by Guo Jing and later on intercepted by Zhou Botong, who sealed his acupoint and threw him back to the boat. Thereupon he unsealed Liang Ziweng acupoints. Automatically Ouyang Feng became the leader of this group of warriors.
Wanyan Honglie immediately ordered a banquet to welcome Ouyang Feng uncle and nephew. While drinking wine Wanyan Honglie explained his plan to go to Lin’an and steal the ‘Wumu Legacy’ to Ouyang Feng; and at the same time asking Ouyang Feng’s willingness to help him. Actually Ouyang Feng had heard about this matter from his nephew; this time his heart was stirred, suddenly a thought came into his mind, “What kind of man do you think I, Ouyang Feng, am? How can I submit to you? But I heard not only Yue Fei’s military skill was divine, but his martial art skill was also superb. I heard the Yue Family’s martial art has been lost in the martial art world. Perhaps in his legacy there was a martial art manual besides the military strategy. I will agree to help him get the book then if I like what I see, can’t the Old Poison get what he wanted?”
It was precisely: You cheat, I am crafty; everybody for himself. Wanyan Honglie wholeheartedly wanted the book to help him defeat the Great Song, but while the praying mantis was hunting for cicada, the yellow canary caught it from behind; Ouyang Feng had a different idea on top of his. Therefore, one man heaped flattering words, the other’s mouth was full of compliance. In addition, Liang Ziweng made an utmost effort to be a good host; the banquet table was overflowing with wine. The guests and the hosts were having a good time. Only Ouyang Ke was still in pain from his injury; he did not drink any wine, he only ate some dishes and then asked the crew to help him going to the rear cabin to take a rest.
While they were eating and drinking in a lively manner, suddenly Ouyang Feng’s countenance changed. The cup stopped at his mouth, he did not drink. Everybody was startled; nobody knew what had offended him. Wanyan Hongli was about to ask when Ouyang Feng said, “Listen!”
Everybody inclined their heads to listen, but other than the wind and the wave of the sea, they did not hear anything. A moment later Ouyang Feng asked again, “Do you hear it this time? It’s a flute sound.” Everybody listened attentively with rapt attention, now they could hear amidst the sound of the waves, there was a faint sound of bamboo flute, sometimes broken, sometimes continued. Nobody could hear it if Ouyang Feng did not point it out.
Ouyang Feng walked to the bow; there he let out a long whistle, the sound traveled far away. By now everybody else had arrived at the bow. They saw on the distant a light boat with three green sails, cutting the waves and coming fast toward their boat. They were inwardly astonished, “Is the flute sound coming from that boat? It’s very far away, how can the sound travel here?”