Chapter - 7 Shocking Events In the Blizzard (7)

Although Yang Tiexin is not as great as his forefathers, he does almost fully understand the spear skill inside out. So there he is, parrying, thrusting, swinging, flicking, blocking, fending, and obstructing. The point of the spear flashes silver, the tassel emits red. What a spear skill!

Yang Tiexin pulled out all the stops, the moves were swift and agile, changing and faking as if they were an illusion. But the Taoist's body followed the spear around, easily dodging forward and back, making him almost impossible to hit. After using all 7two moves of the Yang Family Spear, Yang Tiexin couldn't help but get anxious and upset. He turned around and walked away carrying the spear backwards. As expected, the Taoist started to chase very close behind. Yang Tiexin let out a big shout, grabbed the spear with both hands, suddenly twisted his waist and extended his arms, and thrusted the spear back right at the Taoist's face. This move was ferocious, for it is the move in Yang Family Spear that is used to break enemy formation and kill enemy generals, called "Return Horse Spear". Back before Yang Zaixin surrendered over to the Sung army while he battled Yue Fei, he used this exact move to kill Yue Fei's younger brother Yue Fan.

The Taoist sees that the spear has already arrived in front of him in an instant, couldn't help but praise, "Excellent move!" Smacking his hands together, he was able to clamp on to the spear point. Yang Tiexin gave one mighty push, but spear did not move at all. Shocked, he tried with all his might to pull the spear back. But it seemed as if the spear is caught underneath a mountain, no chance at all of pulling it out. His face had turned red as he tried three times more, but the spear still would not leave the Taoist's hands. The Taoist let out a hearty laugh, suddenly his right palm came up and with the speed of a lightning, struck the handle of the spear. Yang Tiexin felt the part between the base of his thumb and index finger go numb and immediately released the spear, letting it drop onto the snow covered ground.

The Taoist smiled and said, "You are really using Yang Family Spear. Sorry for any offense. Please honor me with knowing your surname." Yang Tiexin still haven't recovered from the shock of all this, so he replied without much thought, "My surname is Yang, given name is TieXin." The Taoist asked, "Are you related to General Yang, Yang Zaixin." Yang Tiexin answered, "He's my great great grandfather." (I think it is great great grandfather, not sure though.)

The Taoist cupped his fist and saluted, "I mistook the two of you for scoundrels, turns out that you are descendants of patriots, please forgive me. May I be so bold as to ask this gentleman's surname?" Guo Xiaotian answered, "Surname is Guo, given name is XiaoTian." Yang Tiexin added, "He's my martial brother, he is the descendent of Guo Sheng, one of the Heroes of the Water Margins of Mount Liang." The Taoist replied, "Your humble Taoist acted rashly and rudely, please forgive me." Then he saluted again.

Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin both cupped their fist and saluted back, "No problem, no problem at all. Would Father please come in for three more drinks?" Yang Tiexin conveniently picked up his spear as well. The Taoist smiled and said, "Of course! I just got the urge to drink it up with you two."

Bao Xiruo was worried that her husband might get hurt, so she stood in the doorway anxiously observing. Seeing the three of them stopped fighting and became friends, she felt greatly relieved and started to set the table back.

After the three of them all sat down, Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin asked the Taoist for his Taoist name. The Taoist replied, "My name is Qiu Chuji…." Yang Tiexin jumped up and shouted, "Ah Ya!" Guo Xiaotian was shocked as well, "Man of Eternal Spring (Chang Chun Zi)?" Qiu Chuji smiled and replied, "That's the name that my Taoist friends gave me, I do not dare to claim such a name." Guo Xiaotian replied, "The hero Man of Eternal Spring of the All True Sect (Quan Zhen Pai), I am honored to meet your acquaintance!" The two of them threw themselves onto the floored and saluted.

Qiu Chuji hurriedly helped them up and said while smiling, "I personally killed a traitor today. The government was chasing me very closely, and you two gentlemen suddenly invited me in for a drink. This is the capital and neither of you are normal farmers, so I became suspicious." Guo Xiaotian replied, "This martial brother of mine always had a temper. When we entered he tried a hand at Father, that probably furthered Father's suspicion." Qiu Chuji agreed, "How could a normal farmer be that strong? I thought that you two gentlemen were dogs of the government who were waiting here undercover for me. So that's why I was so rude, too rash and rude." Yang Tiexin smiled and replied, "Can't blame those who don't know." The three of them laughed heartily. After several rounds of drinks, Qiu Chuji pointed at the head that is now in pieces on the floor, "This man's name is Wang DaoKun, a traitor! Last year when the emperor sent him to pay respects to the Jin emperor on his birthday, this man actually started to collude with the Jins in their effort to invade the South. I chased him for 10 days before finally getting him." The other two men had long heard around the martial world that Man of Eternal Spring Qiu Chuji's amazing kungfu and heroic character. Seeing his patriotism at this moment, killing a traitor for the country, they admired him even more. The two of them seized the opportunity to ask him some questions about kungfu, Qiu Chuji was only too happy to help.

Even though Yang Family Spear never met an enemy on the battlefield, but when going up against a kungfu master, it becomes rather lacking. Although Qiu Chuji's inner and outer kungfu cannot be considered at the highest of levels, they are nevertheless at a very high level, how could Yang Tiexin last up to more than 10 moves against him? Turns out that Qiu Chuji was surprised to see his skills, so he purposely yielded in order to make him use up all 7two moves of Yang Family Spear to make sure that it is authentic. If they were really going at it, Yang Tiexin's spear would have been knocked out of his hand in a few moves. At this point, Qiu Chuji observed that Yang Family Spear was intended to be used on horseback, if used on foot, then one has to be more creative and imaginative and not just use it in a rigid fashion. The two men could not stop nodding upon hearing this. Yang Family Spear has always been a skill of the Yang males, so although Qiu Chuji is very knowledgeable, he still does not fully understand the inner workings of the skill. So he asked a few questions about it to Yang Tiexin as well.

The three of them had their ear turn warm from the wine and were really hitting it off. Yang Tiexin suggested, " We two brothers are really fortunate to be able to meet Father today. Father, why don't you stay a couple of days?"

Qiu Chuji was just going to answer before his face suddenly froze, "Someone is here for me. No matter what happens, you two stay inside and don't come out, understand?" The two men nodded. Qiu Chuji picked up the human head, walked out of the door, jumped up on a tree, and hid among its leaves.

Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin didn't really understand his strange actions, there were no noise whatsoever other than the howling of the wind. After a while, there came faint hoof beats from the west. Yang Tiexin thought, "Father's ear is incredible." Then immediately his thoughts followed, "This Father's kungfu is amazing, but if compared with Qu San, who would come out on top?" After another while, the hoof beats got closer and closer. Finally, about two0 riders, all dressed in black, appeared out of the snow flying in the air. Galloping, they arrived in front of the door.