en I was young you said you were going to teach me martial arts, today you are teaching me.”

Huang Rong gave a subtle smile and said, “You’ve always bitterly kept this in your heart, haven’t you?”

Yang Guo said, “How would I dare?”

Huang Rong then quietly imparted all the aspects of the “Dog Beating Stick Technique” to him.

From outside the rock formation, Jinlun Fawang saw Yang Guo kowtowing to Huang Rong, the two of them laughed as they talked, he didn’t know what on earth they were trying now. It appeared that they were confident about the situation, and it looked like they weren’t even giving him a second thought. Though he was angry, he had always been careful and meticulous; though he knew that their martial arts could not compare with his, the two of them are extremely crafty. Why should he be careless and fall into their traps? He wanted to see through what they had in mind and then make his decision.

Luckily, he slowed his attacks; without the distraction of the enemy, Huang Rong passed on everything to Yang Guo in under an hour’s time.

Yang Guo’s intelligence and perception was a hundred times better than Lu Youjiao; if you asked him one thing he knew ten, if you ask him to raise one point he raised three. He had spent a great deal of effort in learning this technique and had pondered hundreds of times on the things he didn’t understand. Because of this fact, when Huang Rong advised and pointed him in the right direction, he immediately understood and grasped everything about the technique.

From afar, Jinlun Fawang saw that Huang Rong looked at ease, her lips moving slightly yet Yang Guo was scratching his ear and touching his cheeks; he didn’t know what the two were conjuring up, most probably it wasn’t to his best interests, he should break up their conversation.

After listening to the important aspects, Yang Guo asked ten or so difficult questions. Huang Rong explained it all to him. She said, “Good, since you can ask these questions then that means you understand a great deal. The second stage is to trap the monk in the formation.”

Yang Guo was startled and said, “Capture him?”

Huang Rong said, “What’s so hard about that? With you and I teamed up, we’ve got more intelligence and strength than needed. Right now, I’m going to explain the key points of this rock formation to you. You most probable won’t be able to understand it in such a short time but luckily you have a great memory, all you’ve got to do is remember thirty six different types of changes.” She then started to list them: how the green dragon appears as the white tiger, how the black forces transforms into the vermillion sparrow.

The rock formation was derived from Zhuge Liang’s ‘Central Map of the Eight Formations’. Years ago, Zhuge Liang had set up a formation on the shores of the Changjiang River using stone slabs. After Dong Wu’s general Lu Xun entered the formation, it was difficult for him to escape.

Now, Huang Rong had set up one of Zhuge’s methods, but because time was pressing, Huang Rong did not set up the formation completely, however only a few things were missing. Even so, the formation disturbed Jinlun Fawang, he stared at the five of them but he didn’t dare make a move.

The thirty-six variations of this formation were very complicated, even with Yang Guo’s intelligence he could only remember ten or so changes.

It was now evening, Jinlun Fawang slowly waited to make his move.

Huang Rong said, “With these ten or so changes; it’s enough to trap him. Go out and lure him into the formation, I’ll then change it and trap him in there.

Yang Guo was delighted and said, “Auntie Guo, if I visit Peach Blossom Island again, would you be willing to teach me this type of skill?

Huang Rong gave a smile, and said, “If you are willing to visit the island, why wouldn’t I be willing to teach you this? You risked your life and saved Fu’er and I twice now, could I still treat you the same way as before?”

When Yang Guo heard this, he was filled with an extremely relaxed and comfortable feeling throughout his chest; what does it matter whether Huang Rong teaches him or not? He felt that even if he had a hundred deaths he would not have any regrets. He raised his bamboo stick and exited the formation calling out, “Rusty old Jinlun Fawang if you’ve got guts then come over and go through three hundred stances with me!”

Jinlun Fawang was worried that they had planned something in the formation to ambush him; he couldn’t have asked for more when he saw Yang Guo coming out of the formation. The iron wheel rang ‘qiang lang lang’ as he chopped out. He was afraid that Yang Guo would escape back into the formation if he started to lose; after the first two stances, he had already blocked his path back, forcing him as far away from the formation as possible.

How could he know that after Yang Guo learned the important aspects of the “Dog Beating Stick Technique” his technique was superb? When he used the eight key formulae of ‘trip’, ‘chop’, ‘coil’, ‘poke’, ‘stir’, ‘seal’, ‘lead’ and ‘turn’, the variations and changes were indeed subtle and ingenious. When he made a careless attack, Yang Guo poked him in the leg, though he managed to shut his pressure point to the danger and stop injury, the pain lasted a long time.

He didn’t dare be careless after he suffered that attack, he spun his wheel and concentrated on the battle; though his opponent was just a young man in his teens, he treated him as formidable enemy. He attacked with respect and defended tightly, looking upon him as a great Master.

When he did this, Yang Guo immediately felt he couldn’t hold on; though the “Dog Beating Stick” was ingenious, it is difficult to perform straight after learning it. Yang Guo used the ‘seal’ formulae to block the attack of the iron wheel and then shifted his legs, suddenly going east and then surging west.

Jinlun Fawang followed the changes of his bamboo stick, he felt that it was about time to act. When he saw Yang Guo surging and attacking away from the formation Fawang kept on moving backwards to lure him as faraway from the formation as possible. He didn’t predicted that after moving back over ten or so steps, his right leg suddenly tripped over a large rock; he had unwittingly been lured into the formation.

He knew something was wrong. He then heard Huang Rong call out, “The Vermillion Sparrow Displaces the Green Dragon, the ‘Xun’ position changes to the ‘Li’, wood into water.”

Guo Fu and the Wu brothers shifted the rocks and changed the formation.

Jinlun Fawang’s face lost it’s colour from shock, he stopped his wheel to inspect the surroundings, while Yang Guo’s bamboo stick coiled its way around towards him. Though Yang Guo’s “Dog Beating Stick Technique” wasn’t good enough to meet him head on, it was more than enough to confuse and distract him. Fawang’s legs were tripped up a few times and he almost couldn’t stand up. He knew that this formation was powerful, the longer he was in it the more confusing it became. In this danger he shouted and leaped up on top of a pile of rocks. Normally, being on top of the rocks keeps one from being trapped and confused by the formation and allows them to regain their sense of direction. He thought that if he went forward in a straight line he will be able to get out of the formation. But he didn’t know that he just went from east to west, north to south, and had circled around a couple of times over an area of a hundred feet. Eventually his vigor was depleted and he stopped on the rocks. As soon as he landed on top of the pile of rocks, Yang Guo waved out the bamboo stick to his leg. Fawang’s weapon was short and couldn’t be used to protect all of his body; he could only drop down back to the ground and sweep out his wheel to counterattack.

After another ten or so moves, the sky had darkened, he was surrounded by rocks everywhere; the formation seemed to give off an eerie air. Even someone as bold as he couldn’t stop himself from being slightly frightened, suddenly his mind lit up; he had a plan.

His left leg lifted up, a twenty plus kilo (44lb) stone was lifted in the air and sent flying. His right leg came out and another large stone went flying. He darted around, his legs kept on kicking out, the rocks collided with each other and sparks flew. In a flash, the formation had been broken. Huang Rong, Yang Guo and the others were extremely shocked by this and they had to keep on moving to avoid the rocks falling from the sky.

If Jinlun Fawang just wanted to leave the formation it couldn’t be easier, but he turned defense into attack and his left palm came searching out to capture Huang Rong. Yang Guo sent the tip of the stick towards his back, Fawang swerved his iron wheel and repelled it; however, his left palm had hung onto Huang Rong’s shoulder. If she leapt back she could have avoided this but she heard a urgent gust of wind coming down, a large rock was smashing down behind her at that time, she could only use the “Great Trapping Hand” to reverse his grab and hooked onto his left wrist.

Jinlun Fawang said, “Good!” He let her hook his left wrist and waited for her to use force to fling him away; he suddenly circulated his strength and pulled her towards him.

If it was any other time, Huang Rong could have circulated her internal energy and escaped from this pull, but right now she didn’t have sufficient internal energy, she called out, “Ai ya!” and fell.

Yang Guo was extremely alarmed; he threw away any care for his life and threw himself forward, grabbing Jinlun Fawang’s legs. The two of them started to fall.

Jinlun Fawang’s martial arts were much higher than his, before they hit the ground, his right palm had come waving out towards Yang Guo’s chest. Yang Guo quickly stretched out his left arm to block it; a ‘pai’ sound was heard as their palms struck. Yang Guo felt blood surging upwards from his chest; his body flew away like a rock.

Just at this time, the last remaining rock fell down fiercely from the sky; a ‘peng’ sound was heard as it struck Jinlun Fawang on the back.

It was an extremely heavy collision, even if Jinlun Fawang’s internal energy were higher, he would not be able to take it, though he circulated his internal energy to divert the rock away, his body wobbled a few times and he eventually fell forward onto the ground.

In a short period of time, the formation had been broken and stones had rained down. Huang Rong, Jinlun Fawang and Yang Guo were all on the ground injured.