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, āHey you, why are you whipping the horse?ā
The rude man saw a kid in torn and old garments looking like a beggar blocking the road, he raised his whip and shouted, āMove out of the way now, donāt you want your life?ā As he said this he slapped his whip on the horseās back again.
Yang Guo was furious and called out, āIf you hit the horse again, Iāll kill you.ā
The man laughed and lashed out at Yang Guoās 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 manās 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 cartās collar and harness then patted the horse on the back. He pointed in the direction of the other horseās trail and said, āGo, no oneās going to harm you anymore.ā
The horse reared and neighed, and galloped forward. But the horseās body was weak; he wasnāt 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 couldnāt bear it, he ran over and picked up the horse by its stomach and shouted, āUpā, pulling the horse back onto its feet. The man saw Yang Guoās unbelievable strength and was frightened, so frightened that he didnāt want his cart of firewood. He picked himself up and ran. About half a mile away, he shouted, āThereās someone strong stealing horses and firewood!ā
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 couldnāt help but feel linked with it. He stroked the horseās neck and said, āHorse, horse, follow me from now on.ā 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 wasnāt 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 couldnāt 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 horseās 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 wasnāt 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 didnāt 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 werenāt 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 Guoās; 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 couldnāt stop laughing. He then remembered he didnāt know where Xiao LongnĆ¼ 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, āCould it be that the matter between Wifey and the beggars hasnāt 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.ā
He didnāt like the Beggar Clan much, but because he admired Hong Qigong, he couldnāt stop himself from feeling close to the Beggar Clan. He thought as long as the beggars donāt 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 wasnāt 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, āChief Huang is here, thereās probably going to be an assembly tonight.ā
Another beggar said, āWill Hero Guo come?ā
The first beggar replied, āThe two are never apart.ā 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. āEarlier 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 Iām relying on the world, who needs your support?ā He had another thought, āWhy donāt I pretend I have nowhere to go and have come to them for help and then see how they treat me.ā