Eagle Shooting Hero 2(115)

Huang Rong was shocked and quickly pulled him back. Guo Jing shivered in fear and immediately sat down. He pressed his eye against the hole and watched the fight again. This time he more or less understood the essence of the Big Dipper Formation. Although he did not know how to use it, each move and every style the Seven Masters used was like showing him the trick of the trade mentioned in the Nine Yin Manual.

The Nine Yin Manual was the result of a martial art expert Senior’s comprehension over ancient Taoist canon. Wang Chongyang developed this formation before he saw the Manual; however, the martial art study within Taoism came from the same root. The basic essence originally did not differ much; therefore, the variations within the formation were not far from the Manual’s basic content.

The other time on the Peach Blossom Island Guo Jing had watched Hong Qigong fight Ouyang Feng and he had gained tremendous advantage. However, he was slow, plus the Northern Beggar’s and the Western Poison’s martial arts were not based on the Manual; therefore, his comprehension was somewhat limited. This time the Seven Masters’ martial art and the position they assumed were Eagle Shooting Hero

775

based on the same Taoism essence with the Manual; everything seemed to fit perfectly and this time he truly gained great benefit.

He saw Mei Chaofeng was in a difficult situation, but the Seven Masters’ palm strength was also gradually weakened. Suddenly he heard someone on the doorstep speak, “Yao Xiong, are you going to act first, or do you want Brother to try first?”

Guo Jing was startled, it was Ouyang Feng’s voice; he did not know when he came in. The Seven Masters were also surprised to hear his voice; they turned their heads toward the door and saw two men standing side by side on the threshold, one was wearing dark green long robe, the other was dressed in white. They were the two people who chased Zhou Botong the other night.

The Quanzhen Seven Masters made a low whistling noise, stopped fighting, and stood up. Huang Yaoshi said, “What a fine sight! Seven mixed-up hairs [derogatory term for Taoist priests] join forces against my lone disciple. Feng Xiong, if I teach them some lessons, will you say I am bullying some juniors?”

Ouyang Feng said with a smile, “They were being rude to you first; if you do not show your skill, these juniors will not understand the Master of Peach Blossom Island’s ability.”

Wang Chuyi had seen the Eastern Heretic and the Western Poison at Mount Hua; he was going to step forward to pay his respect to them when suddenly Huang Yaoshi’s shadow flashed and struck with the back of his palm. Wang Chuyi stepped back to evade, but he was too slow. ‘Slap!’ his cheek was squarely hit; he staggered and tumbled down.

Qiu Chuji was shocked, “Quickly return to position!” he called out; but ‘Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!’

Tan, Liu, Hao and Sun four people were slapped by a palm. Qiu Chuji only saw a dark green shadow flashing by; a palm hacked down right in front of him, the palm shadow suddenly fluttered.

Qiu Chuji did not know where the attack would come from; desperately he raised his sleeve, striking toward Huang Yaoshi’s chest.

Qiu Chuji’s martial art was the chief among the Quanzhen Seven Masters; this strike was not a small matter. Huang Yaoshi had underestimated him a bit too much; unexpectedly he was struck by Qiu Chuji’s sleeve and he felt pain on his chest. Hastily he retracted his hand to protect his chest; his left hand went up and grabbed the sleeve, his right hand moved fast toward Qiu Chuji’s eyes.

Qiu Chuji struggled with all his might and ripped his sleeve. At the same time Ma Yu’s and Wang Chuyi’s palms came to rescue him. Huang Yaoshi moved very fast; as soon as his strike to Qiu Chuji failed he leaped behind Hao Datong’s back and raised his left leg. ‘Bang!’ he kicked Hao Datong, sending him rolling down on the ground.

This time Guo Jing let Huang Rong look through the small hole. She saw her father greatly demonstrate his invincible might, she was very happy. If she did not remember that Guo Jing still needed two to four hours to recover, she would have already jumped up and cheered.

Ouyang Feng loudly laughed and called out, “Wang Chongyang had accepted this group of rice buckets as his disciples!”

Ever since Qiu Chuji started learning martial art, he never suffered such a defeat. “Return to positions!” he repeatedly shouted. But Huang Yaoshi flashed to the east and swayed to the west, and in a short moment launched seven, eight deathly strikes. Everybody was having a hard time to

776



Eagle Shooting Hero

parry, how could they return to their formation? A couple of ‘crack! crack!’ sounds was heard; Huang Yaoshi snapped Ma Yu’s and Tan Chuduan’s swords, he broke and tossed them to the ground.

Qiu Chuji’s and Wang Chuyi’s pair of swords continued to move upward with the Quanzhen Sect’s subtle variations sword technique. As the pair of swords attacked together, their power increased exponentially. Huang Yaoshi did not dare to be negligent; with concentrated attention he launched several counterattacks. In the meantime Ma Yu took this opportunity to return into his ‘tian shu’

position while launching a palm attack at the same time, giving Tan, Liu and the others the opportunity to return to their respective positions.

As soon as this Big Dipper Formation was assembled, the battle situation changed. ‘Tian quan’ and

‘yu heng’ faced the enemy from the front; ‘tian ji’ and ‘kai yang’ sent out palm attacks from both sides, ‘yao guang’ and ‘tian xuan’ from the back circled to the front.

With four whooshing noise Huang Yaoshi sent out four palm attacks toward four people. “Feng Xiong,” he laughed and said, “I did not know Wang Chongyang left behind this kind of skill!” His voice sounded effortless as his hands parried each opponent’s palm attack, each one substantially different from the other. Each one of these seven people’s attack carried an enormous power; it was incomparable to when they were fighting individually. Immediately Huang Yaoshi used his ‘luo ying shen jian zhang fa’ [falling (leaves) divine sword palm technique]; his body moved swiftly as if he was skating around randomly while his palms flew as if they were everywhere.

Huang Rong thought, “When Father taught me this ‘luo ying shen jian zhang fa’, I only know five voids one solid, or seven voids one solid; with the voids to distract the enemy. But I didn’t know that these five voids and seven voids can be changed into solids.” This amazing fight was certainly not the same as when the Seven Masters were fighting Mei Chaofeng earlier. Not only did Huang Rong watch the fight with baited breath, Ouyang Feng with his level or martial art skill was also startled.

Mei Chaofeng was standing on the side, listening to the wind generated by the battle. She was both joyful and frightened on the inside. Suddenly she heard an ‘Ah!’ followed by a ‘bang!’; turned out Yin Zhiping was watching eight people fight, he became dizzy as if the world was spinning around him; he saw many Huang Yaoshis moving around in front of him, his vision blurred and he fell backward, passed out.

The Quanzhen Seven Masters firmly held their positions, doing all they can to resist the enemy; they knew only one slight mistake was needed, and the seven of them would not live to see the day.

Along with their demise, the Quanzhen Sect would see its fall. Huang Yaoshi was also groaning inwardly. If only he launched deathly attack a moment ago, he would be able to kill one or two enemies then the Big Dipper Formation would be broken. But because he had shown leniency he knew victory would not be achieved easily, while he simply must not lose. Both sides were like riding on a tiger’s back; they could not back off easily. All they could do was fight with all their strengths.

Within less than two hours Huang Yaoshi had used thirteen different martial arts just to be even with the opponents. Eight people were inseparable until the dawn arrived, the roosters crowed and the sun started to cast its light into the room. By now Guo Jing had finished his seven days and seven nights training. Although the fight in the other room shook the sky and turned over the earth, Eagle Shooting Hero

777

his mind was very peaceful; his eyes closed, his internal energy was warming up his entire body, starting from his ‘wei lu’ [tail gate] going to his ‘shen guan’ [kidney pass], from his spine through both passes it ascended to ‘tian zhu’ [sky pillar] and ‘yu zhen’ [jade pillow]; finally to ‘ni wan gong’ [restrained pill palace], at the top of his brain, paused for a moment and then pushed his tongue against his jaw. His inner breathing went down from his face, ‘shen ting’ [divine courtyard], to ‘que qiao’ [magpie bridge], and back again until it arrived at ‘huang ting’ [yellow courtyard], ‘qi xue’ [air pocket] and slowly down to his ‘dan tian’ [pubic region].

Huang Rong saw his face was ruddy and resplendent in divine brightness; her heart was overjoyed.

She pressed her eyes against the small hole again to look outside and she was shocked. She saw her father’s steps were sluggish; he moved according to the ‘ba gua’ [eight diagram]; while slowly launching palm attack by palm attack. She knew her father would not easily use this highest footwork technique. She knew that victory or defeat will soon be decided; it was a defining moment of life and death.