“My idea is this,” Huang Rong explained, “First, Father compete with Jing Gege. We will see how many stances Father will need to defeat him. Then Shifu will also compete with Jing Gege. If Father uses 99 moves to score victory but Shifu needs 100 moves, then Father wins. But if Shifu only need 98 moves, then Shifu wins.”
“Wonderful! Wonderful!” Hong Qigong exclaimed.
Huang Rong continued, “Jing Gege will compete with Father first; both are still fresh. Then when he competes with Shifu, both parties have each fought one time. Don’t you say it is a fair deal?”
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Huang Yaoshi nodded his head, “This is a good idea. Jing’er, come! Are you going to use weapon or not?”
“I am not going to,” Guo Jing said. He was about to step forward when Huang Rong said again,
“Hold on a second. There is one more thing I want to say: What if you two seniors cannot defeat Jing Gege in 300 moves?”
Hong Qigong burst out in laughter, “Old Heretic Huang, originally I envy you of having a smart daughter, who is always looking after her Father’s well-being. Ay! Who would have thought that a girl is always a girl; born to leave home. Actually she wanted this dumb kid to hold the title
‘Number One Martial Artist in the World’!”
Huang Yaoshi might be eccentric, but he loved his daughter with all his heart. He secretly thought,
“Let me help her achieve her wish.” So he said, “What Rong’er had said is true. If we two old men cannot defeat Jing’er in 300 moves, would we have any face to become the Number One?” But suddenly he had another thought, “I intended to hold back and let him to fight me for 300 stances, but what if the Old Beggar does not hold back and score victory in less than 300 moves? Then I won’t be holding back for Jing’er’s sake, but for the Old Beggar’s.” He hesitated on what to do.
Hong Qigong shoved Guo Jing forward, “Go, fight! What are you waiting for?” he said.
Guo Jing staggered and stepped forward to face Huang Yaoshi. “All right,” Huang Yaoshi thought,
“Let me try his skill first, then I’ll decide what to do later.” Raising his left palm he hacked diagonally toward Guo Jing’s neck. “First move!” he called out.
While Huang Yaoshi was not sure what to do, Guo Jing also had some doubt of his own, “There is no way I can win the world’s number one title; but shall I let Daozhu [Island Master] win, or shall I let Shifu win?” He was still thinking when Huang Yaoshi had made his move. Guo Jing lifted up his right hand to parry. His body shook and he almost fell down. “Stupid!” he scolded himself, “Why would I worry about whom I should let to win? Even if I fight will all my might I may not be able to keep up for 300 stances.”
In the mean time Huang Yaoshi had launched the second move, so he was forced to focus his attention. He made a decision right then and there, to compete with those two people with all his might. Who is swift and who is slow, let them use their skill to defeat him. He would not be one sided.
Several stances later Huang Yaoshi was astonished. “How did this dumb kid reach this level? If I held back, not only I might not be able to defeat him in 300 stances, I might even lose in his hands.”
In a battle between martial art experts one cannot let back even half a step. Because initially Huang Yaoshi was only using 70% of his strength, he fell under Guo Jing’s control. He started to feel alarmed, and busily launched the ‘luo ying shen jian zhang’ [falling flower divine sword palm technique], his body floating around at full strength. But Guo Jing now was not the same as Guo Jing then. Huang Yaoshi had used dozens different palm techniques, yet it was still difficult for him to gain an upper hand.
After about one hundred moves Huang Yaoshi suddenly launched a trick move. Guo Jing did not expect him to make such move; he was almost kicked down by Huang Yaoshi’s left leg. Frantically Eagle Shooting Hero
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Guo Jing retreated two steps and steadied himself. Because of this Huang Yaoshi managed to even up the battle situation.
Huang Yaoshi took that opportunity to take a deep breath. “Amazing!” he secretly praised.
Huang Yaoshi worked very hard to gain an upper hand, but unexpectedly Guo Jing’s position was very firm. Guo Jing had decided all along to put up a very tight defense line; he knew it was impossible for him to win, so he only hoped he would not lose.
Listening to his daughter on the side counting, “Two-hundred and three, two-hundred and four,”
Huang Yaoshi became impatient. “Old Beggar may use a heavy hand; if he defeats Jing’er in 100
moves, where would I put my face at?” he silently thought. He changed his attacks: now his palms floating around like a shadow; his hands were very swift.
Guo Jing started to feel the pressure; his chest tightened, like it was pressed under a huge mountain.
He started to get disoriented, but he bravely stood his ground.
Huang Yaoshi’s hands moved faster and faster, his offensive power increased. In the meantime Huang Rong’s mouth was also counting faster and faster.
Guo Jing started to feel his lips and tongue dry up, his movements became sluggish; getting more and more difficult. The only thing kept him going was his strong will. In this critical moment suddenly he heard Huang Rong call out, “Three hundred!”
Huang Yaoshi’s countenance changed, he leaped back.
Guo Jing, on the other hand, still felt dizzy. His body did not stop spinning; he turned around more than a dozen times. He knew he was going to fall, hence he focused his energy to his left leg with
‘qian jin zhui’ [thousand-catty plummet], trying to anchor his body down. But Huang Yaoshi power was incredible; even after he pulled back his hands, the force did not vanish away. Guo Jing lost his balance and fell down; but he used his right hand to push himself back up again. Immediately he launched dozens of stances from the ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’ and thus cleared his mind up. He stayed silent for a moment, then turned his head toward Huang Yaoshi and said, “Huang Daozhu, several moves more and I will fall down to the ground.”
Seeing Guo Jing was unexpectedly able to withstand his more than ten years worth of ‘qi men wu zhuan’ [wonderful gate five revolutions] cultivation, Huang Yaoshi was not angry; on the contrary, he was happy. “Old Beggar,” he said, “I am useless, the title Number One in the World is yours.”
He cupped his fists and turned around to leave.
“Not too fast! Not too fast!” Hong Qigong said, “I won’t necessarily win. Could you lend your iron flute to Jing’er, please?”
Huang Yaoshi’s jade flute was already broken, so he wielded an iron flute on his waist instead. He pulled the flute and gave it to Guo Jing.
Hong Qigong turned to Guo Jing and said, “You use a weapon. I will fight you barehanded.”
Guo Jing was dumbstruck, “This …”
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Hong Qigong said, “Your bare hand techniques came from me. If you use your hands and feet, how can we call it competition? Come!” His left hand’s fingers forming a hook, showing off his grabbing skill, trying to snatch the iron flute in Guo Jing’s hand. Guo Jing did not understand his intention; he let the flute go without any resistance.
“Dumb kid!” Hong Qigong scolded, “We are competing martial arts skill!” With his left hand he gave the flute back to Guo Jing, while with his right hand he tried to snatch it one more time. This time Guo Jing moved his flute to evade the attack. Huang Rong started counting, “First move!”
In the battle between experts, using weapon or being barehanded did not make too much difference.
Hong Qigong used his ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’ attacking ferociously; the gust of wind could be felt a ‘zhang’ [10 feet/3 meters] away. Even with the iron flute in his hand, how could Guo Jing get close to him? Moreover, Guo Jing was not used to use weapon until in the western region he was forced to battle Ouyang Feng on the stone cliff. It was then that he started improving his sword technique. Even then he did not put too much emphasis on the offense; his swordsmanship was 80%
for defense, and only 20% for offense.
The weapon techniques he learned from the Six Freaks of Jiangnan were inadequate to battle an expert; it was after he learned the Nine Yin Manual that his weapon technique improved greatly.
Actually it was inside that stone building in the west he started learning many defensive techniques in using a sword to defend against Ouyang Feng’s snake staff. This time he was using an iron flute as a sword to ward off Hong Qigong’s fierce palm attacks; and he was able to defend himself quite well.
Hong Qigong could see his strong defense line and was delighted, he thought, “This kid made a tremendous advancement; I did not teach him in vain. But it won’t look good for the Old Heretic Huang if I defeat him in under 200 moves. I’d better wait until after 200 moves then I am going to increase my power.” And so Hong Qigong kept using his ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’, from the first variation to the ninth; with gusts of wind so strong surrounded Guo Jing completely.
This was where Hong Qigong made a mistake. Guo Jing’s weapon skill had not reached perfection yet; if he kept pressing Guo Jing with a heavy hand, Guo Jing would not be able to withstand, but he wanted to wait until after the 200th move. Initially Guo Jing’s strength was already profound; after completed the ‘yi jin duan gu pian’ [changing muscle forging bone chapter], his internal strength increased by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, Hong Qigong had advanced in age, plus he had suffered a heavy injury under Ouyang Feng’s snake staff. It was true that he had completely recovered, but his stamina could not compete with Guo Jing’s in an endurance race. To make matter worse for him, the ’18-Dragon Subduing Palms’ required a lot of energy; so after 9 rounds (or 162