Seeing his Disciple Brother in critical danger, Sha Tongtian leapt over to quickly try and break Mei Chaofeng’s grip. As soon as their hands met they were both felt their arms struck by a sudden ache. Meanwhile over to their left came the sound of darts whizzing through the air. Peng Lianhu was throwing his darts directly at Mei Chaofeng. She deftly shifted her arm and threw Hou Tonghai straight towards the stream of darts.

“Ai Yo!” yelled Hou Tonghai as the darts smacked into his body.

Huang Rong called out “Congratulations Three Horned Dragon! You have managed to catch so many darts!”

Sha Tongtian, seeing the amazing power of Mei Chaofeng’s throw and his disciple brother down on the ground seriously injured, leaped over towards Hou Tonghai and with a stretch of his hand pulled him upright. Hou Tonghai flew up like a paper sparrow but almost immediately looked as if he would collapse again. There was no strength left in his body.

(Not sure of the next line: I think some how Sha Tongtien managed to accidently hit Hou Tonghai when he reached out to grab him and ended up hitting on his three carbuncles???)

All these events happened within a blink of an eye. Whilst this was going on Ouyang Ke and Liang Ziwong were attacking Mei Chaofeng from the front and rear in concert with Sha Tongtian who was attacking from the right.

Mei Chaofeng was able to judge by the sound of the darts in the air where they were and sent them flying back in four directions towards Ouyang, Liang, Sha and Peng. She asked “What does (Gather the five bunches???)’ mean?”

Guo Jing replied “The eastern ghost’s wood, western soul’s metal, southern spirit’s fire, northern essences water, central will’s earth.”

Mei Chaofeng called out “Ai Yo! I might have guessed earlier! What does the ‘Perform the four harmonious signs’ mean?”

Guo Jing replied “Hide the eyes, Concentrate the hearing, Regulate the breath, Seal the tongue Qi.”

Mei Chaofeng sighed “Ah, so this is the original meaning. What about the ‘Five primary chambers’ (or courts of the palace???)?”

Again Guo Jing replied “Don’t use your eyes to see, rather locate your soul in the liver; Don’t use your ears to listen, rather locate your essence in the kidneys; Don’t use your mouth to chant, rather locate your spirit in the heart; Don’t use your nose to smell, rather locate your soul in your lungs; Don’t move with your four limbs, rather locate your mind/concentration in your spleen. These are ‘Five primary chambers’.”

The ‘four harmonious signs’ and ‘Five primary chambers’ were key techniques contained in the ‘Nine Yin Scripture’ practiced by monks. Not having anyone to explain the meanings of these key phrases to her, Mei Chaofeng had struggled without success for over ten years to understand them. Now with Guo Jing’s explainations she suddenly understood everything and was extreamly pleased.

Again she pressed for more information “Now, how do I perform the ‘Gathering Three Flower Top’s’. This technique was the crucial key to putting everything together. She had strived all those years for just this key point so she listened intently for Guo Jing’s answer.

Guo Jing replied “Essence is transformed into Qi, Qi is transformed into Spirit…..”

Mei Chaofeng, by concentrating on Guo Jing’s words, became less attentive to the fight and her four opponents. Just as Guo Jing was saying the two sentences she was struck on her left shoulder and right side by Ouyang Ke and Sha Tongtian’s fists. She felt a severe pain that was hard to bear.

Originally Huang Rong had planned to have Mei Chaofeng detain their enemies in a fight whilst she and Guo Jing took the opportunity to slip away. She never expected that Guo Jing would be dragged into the fighting as well becoming a steed carrying a mount into the battle, making it impossible for them to get away. Now she became both worried and angry.

Meanwhile Mei Chaofeng was becoming alarmed at suddenly being thrown on the defensive and called out “Hey! What did you do to annoy so many fierce opponents? ShiFu! Where are you?”

At this time Mei Chaofeng’s thoughts were in deep conflict. On the one hand she was hoping her old ShiFu would appear and see with his own eyes how she was helping to save his daughter from the savage onslaught of these four highly skilled martial artists and would leap in to help her dispatch them. On the other hand when she thought about how wild and strange his nature was she was struck with a terror of meeting him again.

Huang Rong called out “He’s coming soon, but why worry – these couple of guys are no match for you. Even if you just sit on the ground none of them would be able to harm a hair on your head.” She was hoping that with a bit of flattery Mei Chaofeng would feel emboldened enough to let Guo Jing go and fight it out alone. However Mei Chaofeng had already begun to feel that she was not able to manage the four opponents by herself. She was already showing signs of despondency and no amount of flattery was going to make her change her mind. Further more, she still had a few more questions to ask Guo Jing about the secrets of the sutra and was not about to let him go even if she could win the fight sitting alone on the ground.

After a few more strikes were exchanged Liang Ziwong suddenly leaped with a cry into the air. Mei Chaofeng felt someone executing a sneak attack and extended both arms to block and sweep in defense. She felt her hair being pulled upwards by Liang Ziwong. Huang Rong saw the situation was critical and struck outwards with her fist towards Liang Ziwong’s back. Liang Ziwong hooked his right hand backwards and grabbed Huang Rong’s wrist whilst maintaining his grip on Mei Chaofeng’s hair with his left hand. Mei Chaofeng however struck upwards and forced Liang Ziwong to release his grip in order to avoid being hit by her powerful attack.

Peng Lianhu had been fighting with Mei Chaofeng for a while before he became aware that she was actually one of the “Evil Pair of the Dark Winds” pair. Seeing Huang Rong aiding her he called out “You lying brat! You denied that you are a disciple of the Evil “Dark Winds” sect but it’s obvious that you are!”

Huang Rong laughed “She? My ShiFu? Even if she trained for another hundred years she still wouldn’t be good enough to become my ShiFu!”

Peng Lianhu clearly saw that Huang Rong’s Gongfu attacks were very similar to those of the Dark Wind’s school yet she not only continued to deny she was a disciple, but actually went so far as to insult Mei Chaofeng. He couldn’t think of why she would be doing this leaving him astonished.

Sha Tongtian yelled “To kill the man, first shoot his horse!” and shot out a kick towards Guo Jing with his right foot. This change of tactic took Mei Chaofeng off guard. She thought “This kid’s martial arts skills are very low. He can’t possibly defend himself against their attacks. If I don’t act fast I’ll be dispatched by them.” There was the sound of a low whistle as she bent low and shot out her hand as if to grab Sha Tongtian’s foot. Ou Yangke took advantage of this moment to launch an attack against her back. However Mei Chaofeng just gave a humph and shook her right hand causing something to flash in the moonlight. All of a sudden a silver whip appeared dancing and weaving all around her and Guo Jing forming an impenetrable barrier.