Chapter - 18 Child of an Old Friend (8)

Yang Guo was very emotional right now; the strange man was even more happy and emotional inside. When they first met, Yang Guo was forced to call him father to save his life, and didn't want him as a father, now both of them had the same feelings, they were like a real father and son, but he felt that the man had something on his mind. His feelings were so strong that he was willing to die for him if need be. The strange man was laughing and crying at the same time and said, "Good son, good son, obedient son. Call me father again." Yang Guo called him twice, and then leaned on his body.

The man smiled and said, "Good son, come here, I will teach you all the martial arts I know." As he said this he dropped down and made three strange noises and then pushed his hands out. The sound of an explosion was produced, the earth in front of him rose up like a violent grey mudflow and then the dirt scattered. Yang Guo looked on with his mouth open, his tongue out, shocked and asked, "What is that skill called, can I learn it?"

The strange man replied, "Its called "Ge Ma" stance (Toad Stance), if you work hard, you will be able to learn it."

Yang Guo said, "If I learn it then no one can bully me again?"

The man's eyebrows raised and said, "If anyone bullies my son then I'll rip their skin and tear their muscles."

The strange man was the "Western Poison" Ouyang Feng.

Ever since Huang Rong had made him go mad at the second Mount Hua tournament, he has traveled, for these last ten years, to the edge of the world and always asked one question, "Who am I?" Whenever he is near a lush land, he would always linger on trying to find the answer to his question; these past months he has been staying in Jiaxing. These few years he has been practicing the "Contrary Nine Yin Manual". His internal energy has been increasing to new levels, his mind had become clearer, but he was still mad. His memories were slowly coming back but he still could not remember who he was.

Right now, Ouyang Feng was passing on the formula to practice "Toad Stance" to Yang Guo. The "Toad Stance" is one of the top skills in the martial arts world, the changes refined, mysterious and clever, and its internal energy aspect hard to beat; but if it is practiced wrong, not only will the body be harmed, but the practitioner will expel blood and die. Because of this, he didn't even pass it on to his son when he was alive. At this moment in time, he was touched and added to the fact he wasn't mentally clear, he couldn't differentiate between important and dangerous things. He didn't take this into consideration and taught the skill to his stepson.

Yang Guo does not have a good martial arts foundation, though he learnt the formula to the skill and memorized it, would he be able to understand the meanings behind the words?

Though he was extremely clever, there were phrases which he didn't understand. Ouyang Feng had taught him for half a day now, and when he listened to Yang Guo's explanation and it wasn't making sense, he had another mental attack and wanted to hit him. But when he saw his handsome and cute face in the moonlight, it reminded him of his own son when he was younger, and so he lowered his hand.

"You're struggling. Go and rest, I'll carry on tomorrow."

After Guo Fu had ridiculed him because of his hand, he had a dislike for her family and said, "I want to follow you, I don't want to return."

Ouyang Feng didn't understand his own problems but he was aware of the world's problems and said, "I have some trouble with my mind, I'm afraid I can't take care of you if you follow me. You return first and when I've solved one problem I will come and collect you, we won't part, okay?"

After the death of his mother he has never talked to someone as if they were family and grabbed his hand and said, "Collect me soon."

Ouyang Feng nodded and said, "I will secretly follow you, wherever you go I'll be there. If someone bullies you, I'll break their ribs into seventy or eighty pieces." He then picked up Yang Guo and returned him to the inn.

Ke Zhen E had gone to check on Yang Guo and found he wasn't there. He searched the entire inn but still couldn't find him; he became extremely concerned. He checked on Yang Guo's room again; Yang Guo had returned. He was about to ask where Yang Guo had been when he heard the wind generated by someone passing along the rooftop. He knew two people had passed along on the roof, their skills extremely high, he picked up Guo Fu and then placed her by his side. He went over to the window with his iron walking staff, afraid that the two people were enemies; he listened carefully and heard that the wind created by the two people was coming closer and eventually had arrived on the roof above them.

"Did you see who he was?"

"Strange, strange, was it him?" replied the other person.

It was Guo Jing and Huang Rong.

Ke Zhen E was relieved and opened the door to let them in. Huang Rong said, "Senior master, did anything happen?"

"Nothing," replied Ke Zhen E.

Huang Rong turned to Guo Jing and said, "Did we recognize the wrong person?"

Guo Jing replied shaking his head, "No, I'm ninety percent certain it was him."

"Who was it?" asked Ke Zhen E.

Huang Rong tugged on Guo Jing, trying to tell him not to say. But Guo Jing didn't dare to lie to his master and said, "Ouyang Feng."

Ke Zhen E despised this man, as soon as he heard his name his complexion changed and quietly said, "Ouyang Feng? Isn't he dead?"

Guo Jing said, "When we came back from picking the medicine, we saw someone on the roof, the person's movements were quick and strange, when we went to take a look, the person had already gone. It looked like Ouyang Feng."

From the description, Ke Zhen E knew it must be Ouyang Feng and no one else. Guo Jing was concerned about Yang Guo so grabbed a candle and went over to the bed. He saw that Yang Guo's face was red, his breathing relaxed and sleeping peacefully. He was pleasantly surprised and called out, "Rong'er, he's better!" Yang Guo was really awake and he was just pretending to be asleep, he had secretly listened in and now knew his stepfather was called Ouyang Feng. The three of them were extremely concerned about him, and now they were all relieved and pleased.

Huang Rong took a closer look, and was surprised, before his arm's poison had returned but now after just a few hours, the black colour of the poison had faded; the poison seems to have disappeared. She was greatly surprised by this. She and Guo Jing had searched for medicine all day, but could not gather everything they wanted, so they decided to return with what they had and give it to him for the time being.

The next day, Guo Jing, Huang Rong and Ke Zhen E with the two small ones headed west from Jiaxing, intending to return to Peach Blossom Island, and firstly cure Yang Guo's poison before deciding to do anything else. That night they were in another inn, Ke Zhen E and Yang Guo were in one room, the Guo family in another. The Guo couple slept into the middle of the night when suddenly they heard a noise on the rooftop. They heard Ke Zhen E call out through the wall, and jumped out of the window. The couple quickly jumped out of the window only to see on the rooftop Ke Zhen E was fighting barehanded with someone, the enemy was tall and had long hands, it was Ouyang Feng. Guo Jing swallowed, frightened that Ouyang Feng would take his master's life in one move and he jumped up onto the roof to help. Only to hear Ke Zhen E shout and fall off the roof. Guo Jing flew over to him, and before Ke Zhen E head had met the ground, he lightly caught him from behind and gently placed him gently down on the ground.