Chapter - 139 Exhausted From Travels (6)

Yang Guo turned around and saw a yellow haired skinny horse pulling a cart of firewood slowly along the main road. He thought that the horse must have seen the other horses galloping freely in the wild lands. It was toiling with hard work and it hissed out as it lamented for itself. The horse was so skinny that its breast bone was sticking out, its four legs had no muscle and they were as thin as branches. Its fur was patchy, its skin was covered in scabies, and there were numerous traces of blood from wounds caused by whipping. A rude man was sitting on the cart, he disliked that the horse was going slow and whipped it incessantly. Yang Guo has suffered by others many times before; when he saw the horse suffering such punishment, it felt like he himself was suffering the whippings. His chest ached and tears almost escaped from his eyes. He stood in the road and angrily shouted, "Hey you, why are you whipping the horse?"

The rude man saw a kid in torn and old garments looking like a beggar blocking the road, he raised his whip and shouted, "Move out of the way now, don't you want your life?" As he said this he slapped his whip on the horse's back again.

Yang Guo was furious and called out, "If you hit the horse again, I'll kill you."

The man laughed and lashed out at Yang Guo's head. Yang Guo stretched out his hand to take the whip and turned it around. He swung the whip and it made a tangling loop around the man's neck and pulled him down, beating him on the head and face. Although the skinny horse was ugly, it was very lively, when it saw the man getting beaten; it neighed with delight and stretched out its head rubbing Yang Guo on the leg, displaying signs of affection. Yang Guo pulled apart the cart's collar and harness then patted the horse on the back. He pointed in the direction of the other horse's trail and said, "Go, no one's going to harm you anymore."

The horse reared and neighed, and galloped forward. But the horse's body was weak; he wasn't able to continue this sudden burst. It galloped for around a hundred feet then its front legs weakened and it fell onto the ground. Yang Guo couldn't bear it, he ran over and picked up the horse by its stomach and shouted, "Up", pulling the horse back onto its feet. The man saw Yang Guo's unbelievable strength and was frightened, so frightened that he didn't want his cart of firewood. He picked himself up and ran. About half a mile away, he shouted, "There's someone strong stealing horses and firewood!"

Yang Guo thought this was funny. He pulled up some green grass for the horse. He saw that the horse had such an unfortunate life and couldn't help but feel linked with it. He stroked the horse's neck and said, "Horse, horse, follow me from now on." He held its rope and walked slowly to a town. He bought some barley for the horse to eat. On the second day the horse seemed to regain its spirit and so he rode it slowly. At first the horse struggled along and limped, when wasn't losing its footing it would stumble, but the further it walked the better it got. After seven or eight days of having enough to eat, it regained its strength; its steps as light as if it were flying. Yang Guo couldn't speak his delight and took even more care of it.

One day Yang Guo was in an outdoor restaurant awaiting an order when the horse walked over to a table and kept neighing at a bowl of wine on the table, as if he wanted to drink the wine. Yang Guo was curious and ordered a large bowl of wine and placed it on the table, and then stroked the horse's head. The horse drank it all in one go; its tail raised its legs stepped, it was feeling very pleased. Yang Guo felt that this was interesting and called some more wine; the horse drank over ten bowls one after the other, and wasn't finished. Yang Guo wanted to call for more wine but the waiter saw he was dressed in ragged garments and afraid that he had no money to pay so said that they didn't have any more wine. Afterwards he got on the horse. The horse was under the influence of the wine and took large steps, galloping like crazy; the trees by the side of the road receded, it was extremely fast. When a normal spirited horse galloped, it would gallop steadily. Though this horse was fast, its body would be high and then low, jolting about very uncoordinated, if it weren't for the fact that Yang Guo possessed excellent lightness kung fu, he would not have been able to ride it. The horse also had another strange characteristic, whenever there was another animal on the road, it would speed up and overtake it, no matter if it was a cow, horse, pony or donkey, it would gallop past them before slowing. This proud and competitive air seems to have come about because of the suffering it has had in its life.

Yang Guo thought that this thousand-mile colt has been trapped in the hands of the villager, wasting half its life; now that its spirit is free, it wants to gallop and fly over the lands. This behavior was similar to Yang Guo's; the man and horse were like good friends. He was bored sometimes and would play with the horse, in a few days he was happy again. He has been heading south and had arrived at the banks of Han Shui. As he rode the horse he thought about how he teased Lu Wushuang and tricked the Li Mochou Master and disciple team, he couldn't stop laughing. He then remembered he didn't know where Xiao Longnü was or when they were going to meet again, he became sad and despondent.

That day he traveled until noon and on the road he kept on seeing beggars. From their appearances, most of them knew kung fu, he thought, "Could it be that the matter between Wifey and the beggars hasn't finished yet? Or could it be that the Beggar Clan has summoned all these people to fight with Li Mochou? I must take a look."

He didn't like the Beggar Clan much, but because he admired Hong Qigong, he couldn't stop himself from feeling close to the Beggar Clan. He thought as long as the beggars don't trouble Lu Wushuang he will give them the news that Hong Qigong had passed away. He carried on for a while and saw the road was filling up with more and more beggars. When the beggars saw Yang Guo they were surprised, there was no difference in the way they were dressed but if there wasn't an urgent matter, members of the clan would not travel by horseback. Yang Guo ignored them and slowly carried on.

He continued until afternoon when suddenly he heard the cries of eagles in the air; two white eagles flew past, and descended ahead of him.

He heard a beggar say, "Chief Huang is here, there's probably going to be an assembly tonight."

Another beggar said, "Will Hero Guo come?"

The first beggar replied, "The two are never apart." he saw Yang Guo reign in his horse listening to their words; he gave him a glance and closed his mouth.

When Yang Guo heard the names Guo Jing and Huang Rong he was slightly alarmed, and then in his heart laughed coldly. "Earlier I lived in your home, ate your food and you made a fool out of me; then I was young and useless and I suffered a lot. Right now I'm relying on the world, who needs your support?" He had another thought, "Why don't I pretend I have nowhere to go and have come to them for help and then see how they treat me."