Chapter 7: Deliberately Causing Trouble

The boat ride passed without incident. By the time they reached Peach Blossom Island, after Yang Guo took the antidote Huang Rong had prepared, the poison from the Ice Soul Silver Needle had been completely driven out.

In truth, the remaining toxin could have been cleared much earlier, but Guo Jing had made it clear that Yang Guo was not to practice the Toad Skill anymore.

Ah!

He had clearly felt over the past few days that the Toad Skill was on the verge of breaking through to the next level, and now he had been forced to stop. It was maddening.

He did not even know whether, later on, Huang Rong, that stunning married woman, would be like she was in the original story and teach him only to read and write, never martial arts.

If he had no martial arts, he would definitely be bullied later.

Then!

For now, he could only pin his hopes on the Toad Skill.

It might look bizarre, but the Toad Skill was an exceptionally profound martial art. Compared with the entry-level techniques of the Quanzhen School, it was far stronger, and only Wang Chongyang's Innate Skill was somewhat superior to it.

So long as he could use it to build his foundation, learning this top-tier martial art would be of great benefit to his future progress.

Over these past few days of practice, Yang Guo also felt that his strength had increased considerably. If he were to face the Wu brothers now, who knew whether he could beat them so badly they'd be looking for their teeth all over the ground.

In the original book, Ouyang Feng taught Yang Guo for one night, and Yang Guo only learned the barest surface of the Toad Skill. But now Yang Guo had already caused Ouyang Feng to avoid the clash with Guo Jing, and after that Ouyang Feng came to teach him the Toad Skill night after night.

Yang Guo had a sharp memory, and he had memorized the entire Toad Skill formula in his mind.

On top of that, Guo Jing and Huang Rong knew he was using it to force out the poison, so they did not stop him. He only had to hide it from old Ke, which meant he had far more time to practice than the Yang Guo of the original story.

If there was anything he did not understand, he could ask Guo Jing, and Guo Jing would instruct him without reservation.

So Yang Guo's martial arts were much stronger than the Yang Guo in the original story.

******

He passed Finger-Snap Pavilion, went by Two-Forgetfulness Peak, and skirted Clear Howl Pavilion.

Although Peach Blossom Island was huge, the roads and trees were arranged according to the transformations of the Five Elements, and Yang Guo had never studied formations, so he did not dare enter rashly.

Soon he heard bursts of laughter from behind the mountain. Yang Guo knew the three of them were catching crickets for fun.

Thinking it over, he headed in that direction.

By now, Yang Guo and Guo Fu were on very good terms. Sometimes he needed to act like a child, so he would play with them for a while. He was much more distant with the two Wu brothers, who, just as in the original story, knew only how to curry favor with Guo Fu.

Yang Guo had already changed his original plan. Huang Rong watched him very closely, and he also felt he had been too impatient. He did not yet have the ability to claim that enchanting mother-and-daughter pair.

So Yang Guo changed tactics, keeping Guo Fu at arm's length, close enough to seem friendly but distant enough to make Huang Rong think he had no ulterior motives at all.

At first, Guo Fu had indeed been somewhat taken with him, but after all she was a spirited woman raised on Peach Blossom Island. Since Yang Guo no longer went out of his way to please her, and compared with the two Wu brothers, she naturally no longer spent so much attention on him.

Of course, Guo Fu still liked Yang Guo more.

'There's one! Hurry, catch it!' Guo Fu said, carrying a clay basin and laughing as she followed behind the Wu brothers. Catching sight of Yang Guo out of the corner of her eye, she called, 'Brother Yang! Come play too!'

Seeing this, Yang Guo suddenly had an idea, and with an impish grin he said, 'All right! I'll catch one and fight yours with it.'

After searching through the grass and stones for a while, he found a cricket with a square head, sturdy legs, a massive jaw, and a thick waist. It looked exceptionally fierce and strong.

'Ha! My invincible Great General is here! Find your crickets and challenge me. I'll take on all three of you by myself.'

The Wu brothers naturally refused to accept that. They came over with their clay basins, and Yang Guo placed the invincible Great General into one of them.

Wu Dunru took out several bamboo tubes of crickets from his chest, picked the fiercest one, and set it against Yang Guo's.

After a few exchanges, the big cricket opened its huge jaws, bit down, and clamped Wu Dunru's cricket around the waist, flipping it out of the basin. Then it spread its wings and chirped proudly.

'Ha ha! I won!'

Yang Guo clapped and shouted with delight. His movements and expression were no different from those of a child.

Wu Dunru said, 'Don't rush. There's still more.'

But even after he sent out three more crickets in a row, all of them lost. The third was even bitten cleanly in two by the big cricket.

'Brother Yang, you're amazing!' Guo Fu cried, wrapping an arm around Yang Guo's as she cheered. She was already biased toward him, so when she saw him win, her face lit up with delight.

However, with Guo Fu only clinging to his arm, Yang Guo felt nothing at all. He could not help thinking that if it were Huang Rong's full, tender breasts wrapped around him like this, that would have been bliss beyond compare.

He felt a little annoyed with himself for being too impatient. The first time he had fallen into Huang Rong's arms, he should not have rushed to grope her round, springy, elastic buttocks.

That had aroused Huang Rong's suspicion, and now he had no chance at all of throwing himself into her arms and enjoying the sweet, delicate scent of her body.

Seeing Guo Fu clinging to Yang Guo, laughing and jumping, the two Wu brothers were furious with jealousy. 'Don't get too happy too soon. We'll keep looking. We'll definitely win it back,' they said, turning around and rooting through the grass and stones again.

'Fu'er! This cricket is for you,' Yang Guo said.

'Really? Great!' Guo Fu cried happily.

From behind them, three chirps suddenly came from the grass, clearly cricket calls, though the sound was rather strange.

Wu Dunru said, 'Another one.'

He pushed aside the grass and suddenly sprang backward in alarm. 'A snake! A snake!'

Yang Guo turned and indeed saw a brightly patterned poisonous snake coiled in the grass, head raised and tongue flicking.

He picked up a stone and threw it squarely at the snake's head. The snake twisted a few times and died on the spot.

Beside where the snake had been coiled lay a small, black cricket. It looked extremely ugly, but it spread its wings and let out a chirping sound.

Guo Fu laughed. 'Brother Wu, catch that little black one.'

'All right, I'll catch it!'

The two Wu brothers had originally wanted to catch a stronger cricket to beat Yang Guo, but Yang Guo had given the big cricket to Guo Fu.

They did not want to beat Guo Fu, and this ugly little black cricket was perfect.

They put the little cricket into Guo Fu's basin. Strangely enough, the big cricket became afraid the moment it saw the black one and kept backing away.

They knew this little cricket was a snake cricket, and normal crickets would not dare fight it. Still, Yang Guo joined Guo Fu in loudly shouting and urging the big cricket on.

The little black cricket raised its head and sprang forward, but the big cricket did not dare meet it and tried to leap out of the basin.

The black cricket jumped high too, bit the big cricket's tail in midair, and the two crickets fell together. The big cricket trembled a few times, rolled over, and died belly-up.

It turned out that among crickets there was a kind that liked to live alongside venomous creatures. Those that lived with centipedes were called 'centipede crickets,' while those that lived with poisonous snakes were called 'snake crickets.' Because they carried the scent of venomous creatures on their bodies, ordinary crickets could not match them.

The black cricket that the Wu brothers had caught was exactly a snake cricket.

'Ah! We lost!' Guo Fu froze, and so did the Wu brothers.

Yang Guo, however, sprang up and shouted, 'You killed Fu'er's big cricket!' As he finished speaking, he lifted the basin, dumped the black cricket onto the ground, and stomped it flat with his right foot.

That felt wonderful!

Thinking back to the original story, it had been Yang Guo who used the black cricket to beat Guo Fu's big cricket, after which Guo Fu had crushed the black cricket underfoot and Yang Guo had then fought with the three of them.

Now the tables had turned, and Yang Guo was the one humiliating the Wu brothers.

So why had the Wu brothers gone so quiet?

Good.

I'll put some more fire under this.

Yang Guo walked up to the Wu brothers and shoved each of them with one hand.

'Pay for that big cricket.' What? Still no reaction? Then Yang Guo punched Wu Xiuwen in the shoulder.

'You hit me!' Wu Xiuwen finally reacted.

Guo Fu was truly stunned for a moment, not understanding how things had ended up like this. Since she already liked Yang Guo, she naturally helped him shout, 'Brother Yang! Good hit!'

Although it was a little low to gang up on someone, teaming up with Miss Guo to pick on people was genuinely satisfying; no wonder the Wu brothers in the original story had been so willing to do it.

After all, the Wu brothers were men, and their minds were in sync. At the same time, they actually rushed at Yang Guo and started wrestling with him.

Their fists landed on him with almost no force at all, and there was even some hesitation in them.

But Yang Guo, thinking of the Wu brothers' conduct in the future, did not hold back at all. He aimed his punches at the places that hurt most and left the least trace.

Bang. One punch hit Wu Xiuwen squarely on the bridge of his nose, and blood instantly gushed out.

Guo Fu could not make sense of what was going on from the side and instead called out, 'The two of you are ganging up on one! How shameless. Brother Yang, run!'

'You...' Wu Xiuwen's face was covered in blood. At last the fight ignited fully, and the two of them grew heavier and heavier in their attacks.

Yang Guo did not want to take it too seriously.

At once he feinted and turned to run toward the foot of Trial Sword Peak, climbing straight up the mountain.

'Ha ha, come after me if you can!'

The Wu brothers did not relax in the slightest, but Guo Fu stopped halfway up the slope and looked on.

After running for a while, Yang Guo saw a cliff ahead and no way forward.

And when he glanced to the side, he saw a huge rock nearby, half resting on several smaller stones, apparently set there very insecurely.

He called to the Wu brothers halfway up the slope. 'Don't come any closer! If you do, I'll push this rock down and crush you to death!'

The Wu brothers looked at the boulder and became afraid, so they did not dare advance further. But they still refused to back down. 'We'll go back and tell Uncle Guo, and let him deal with you!'

'Don't!'

Yang Guo put on a frightened expression.

So the Wu brothers turned around and left.

Guo Fu looked at Yang Guo on the mountain, then at the two Wu brothers heading back, not knowing what to do.

After standing there blankly for a moment, she still worried that the Wu brothers would go back and twist the story, so she hurried after them.

'Mother! Mother!'

Guo Fu had actually caught up to the Wu brothers before they did. As soon as she reached the front of Huang Rong's house, she started calling out.

Huang Rong stepped outside and asked, 'What is it?'

Just then Guo Jing also heard the voices and came over.

The three of them were all there, but Yang Guo was nowhere in sight. When they saw the blood around Wu Xiuwen's nose, it was very strange.

Before the Wu brothers could even speak, Guo Fu blurted out, 'Father! Mother! Brother Yang was chased off by the two Wu brothers!'

As soon as Guo Jing heard that, he asked anxiously, 'What happened to Guo'er?'

The Wu brothers were about to speak when Guo Fu cut them off again. 'Here's how it was! We were fighting crickets, Brother Wu killed my cricket, Brother Yang argued with them, and then they started fighting. The two of them ganged up on him, so of course Brother Yang couldn't beat them and ran up the mountain!'

'That is not what happened!'

Wu Dunru's face flushed red as he hurried to argue, but Guo Fu shot him a glare. 'Isn't that exactly what happened?'

If Yang Guo had been here, he would have sighed deeply.

Who said Guo Fu was stupid? When she was twisting facts around, she was smarter than anyone.

'I...' The Wu brothers wanted to argue, but they were afraid of making Guo Fu angry. After a moment, they said, 'But Yang Guo tried to push a rock down to crush us!'

Guo Fu said, 'Well, he didn't manage to push it down, did he? Brother Yang was only scaring you!'

In truth, once the Wu brothers had said that much, it already meant Guo Fu's earlier words carried the argument.

Guo Jing looked at the Wu brothers. He wanted to get angry, but then he thought of how their mother had only just died, and after all it was only a bit of rough horseplay.

Seeing how battered and disheveled the two of them looked, he became even more worried about Yang Guo.

Huang Rong calmly watched the three of them and felt that something still did not quite add up, but if the Wu brothers would not explain clearly, how could she know the truth?

In the end Guo Jing could not hold himself back and headed for Trial Sword Peak.

He searched the peak from top to bottom, but there was no sign of Yang Guo anywhere.

He raised his voice and shouted, 'Guo'er! Guo'er!'

The shouting echoed for miles, but Yang Guo never came out, and no answer could be heard.

After waiting for a while, Guo Jing grew even more worried. He came down from the peak, took a small boat, and circled the island searching for him, but by nightfall Yang Guo was still nowhere to be found.

Yang Guo had done all this today for no other reason than to practice the Toad Skill and lay a solid foundation for the future.

His Toad Skill had reached a bottleneck. To break through to the next level would take a long time and required seclusion.

Naturally, he could not explain that to Guo Jing and the others. He could only use the chance to make trouble for the Wu brothers and hide away for a day.

Once he had found a suitable place, he closed his eyes and sank into deep thought, occasionally moving his hands and feet.

The Toad Skill was truly vast and profound. Before long, Yang Guo had entered the state where self and world were one and all distractions fell away.

So he did not hear Guo Jing calling for him.

If he had heard it, he might have been too ashamed to resist coming out.

Only when evening came and the stars began to glitter in the sky did he awaken from meditation, letting out a long breath. His whole body felt incredibly comfortable.

He casually loosened his limbs and heard his bones crackle and pop.

On top of that, a faint stream of energy flowed through his meridians. Each time it completed a circuit, it seemed to grow a little stronger.

After half a day of training, Yang Guo had actually advanced from the entry stage of the Toad Skill to the first level.

The Toad Skill as taught by Ouyang Feng had six levels, but even Ouyang Feng had only trained to the fifth; the sixth was something he had speculated into existence himself.

At Yang Guo's current first level, he was probably a little stronger than an ordinary fourth-generation disciple of the Quanzhen School.

That was something to admire about Yang Guo's talent for martial arts. In less than half a month, he had achieved such results.

At that moment a light wind blew, and the night air was cool as water.

Yang Guo was thinking of continuing his practice and returning only tomorrow morning.

After a while, though, he vaguely heard someone calling out, and it seemed to be Guo Fu's voice.

Yang Guo found that strange and followed the voice.

It turned out that Guo Fu had come alone along the path down the peak, calling 'Brother Yang' every few steps.

Even though there was moonlight and starlight in the sky, the mountain path was still difficult to walk. Guo Fu would take a few steps, then look back over her shoulder. Her face still held a trace of fear, clearly because she had thought of the ghost stories about the road.

'Hey, Fu'er, why are you here?' Yang Guo could not help asking. As he spoke, he quickly walked up to Guo Fu and took her soft, fair hand.

In fact, Guo Jing had not been able to find Yang Guo and was both angry and worried, so much so that he had not even been able to eat dinner.

Seeing that Guo Jing was not eating, Huang Rong kept him company and did not eat either.

When the Wu brothers saw Guo Jing's dark expression, they grew frightened that they would be scolded. They hurried through a few bites of rice and then left the table.

Even Guo Fu had lost her appetite.

In the end the dinner ended badly, with no one feeling pleased.

Afterward, Huang Rong stopped Guo Fu.

If your father could not find Guo'er, then Guo'er must be deliberately avoiding him.

Even if I went looking for him, I'd get the same result.

The Wu brothers go without saying.

Only Fu'er had gotten along very well with Guo'er over the past few days, and this time she had clearly sided with Guo'er in her words.

So if Fu'er went to look for Guo'er, he probably would not keep hiding.

Huang Rong shook her head. If she had not seen how worried Guo Jing truly was, she would not have felt at ease letting Guo Fu run out so late to look for someone. After that she carefully gave Guo Fu a long list of instructions before letting her leave.

Because it was dark and Guo Fu knew Peach Blossom Island well, she was still frightened. But when she saw Yang Guo, the fear in her heart vanished at once. In a surge of excitement she could not help throwing herself into Yang Guo's arms and saying softly, 'Brother Yang, I finally found you.'

Holding the soft, fragrant woman in his arms, Yang Guo smiled and said, 'Thank you for caring so much about me, Fu'er.' As he spoke, he lowered his head and kissed the fair cheek of Guo Fu.

Guo Fu was immediately flushed red by another stolen kiss from Yang Guo. Her heart hammered wildly, and with a touch of coquettishness she said, 'Brother Yang, you're awful.'

'Fu'er, how am I awful?' Yang Guo asked with a laugh.

How could Guo Fu possibly outmaneuver Yang Guo? Her face went even redder, and she huffed coquettishly, 'Brother Yang, I am not talking to you anymore.'

As she spoke, she turned her pretty face away, but she still did not rise from Yang Guo's arms. It was the first time she had realized that being held in Yang Guo's embrace felt so warm, even happier than being held by her mother.

After a while, Yang Guo pushed the woman in his arms away and said with a smile, 'All right, Fu'er, let's head back. Otherwise your father and mother will worry.'

Only then did Guo Fu remember what Huang Rong had told her to do. She reluctantly slipped out of Yang Guo's arms and said softly, 'Brother Yang, then let's hurry back.'

Holding her fair hand as they walked along the moonlit path dotted with pale light, Guo Fu felt as though she had suddenly awakened. Her heart was sweet and full of joy, and an emotion she could not yet understand began to take root inside her.

As they neared the house, Guo Fu suddenly felt reluctant to let go, as if she wanted to keep walking hand in hand with Yang Guo forever.

Afraid that Huang Rong would notice how close he and Guo Fu were becoming, Yang Guo casually let go of Guo Fu's fair hand and said, 'Fu'er, let's see who gets there first.'

Guo Fu was, after all, competitive, and just moments before she had felt a little disappointed that Yang Guo had let go of her hand. Hearing him say that, she immediately laughed and said, 'All right.'

With that, she darted forward at once. She had studied martial arts with Huang Rong for years, so her light-footed movement was naturally better than Yang Guo's.

So Guo Fu reached the house first and called happily, 'Brother Yang, you lost.'

When they got close to the dwelling, they saw Guo Jing and his wife waiting outside.

Guo Fu immediately threw herself into Huang Rong's arms and said happily, 'Mother, I brought Brother Yang back.'

Huang Rong looked at Guo Fu with a mixture of annoyance and amusement.

She knew that if Guo Fu were standing there, the Wu brothers would never be able to tell the truth.

So after Guo Fu had left, she asked the Wu brothers once more about what had happened from the beginning.

The Wu brothers did not dare deceive Huang Rong, and told the whole story exactly as it had happened.

When Guo Fu saw Huang Rong's expression, she knew that her mother had already learned the details. She stuck out her tongue and muttered to herself, 'Those two Wu brothers!'

Yang Guo knew he could not say anything flattering. The more mischievous he looked, the more at ease Huang Rong would be about him, so he simply ignored Huang Rong and Guo Jing and stood there.

Guo Jing walked up to Yang Guo, patted his shoulder, and said, 'Go rest first. We'll talk about it tomorrow.'