Huang Rong from The Return of the Condor Heroes: Brother Jing, let's get a divorce.

Cheng Ying stood to the side, her hands clasped together in front of her lower abdomen.

She watched Yang Guo feign madness and felt a chill in her heart.

She knew Yang Guo's background all too well.

Sixteen years of refined internal energy, the fifth rank of One Finger Zen, and the peak of the early stage of the Innate Realm.

If it really came down to a fight, these two arrogant brats wouldn't even be able to withstand a single finger of Yang Guo's.

But Yang Guo didn't just crush them directly; he insisted on using this method to make a fool of them.

The trace of yang energy that Yang Guo had just injected into her body was still causing trouble in her dantian.

The two internal forces collided back and forth in her meridians, and she could only barely stand by keeping her legs together.

This method of controlling people's hearts is more terrifying than simple military suppression.

She recalled the scene where Yang Guo forced her to comply in the firewood shed of the passenger ship.

That feeling of being at someone's mercy surged up again, and my legs felt weak and I could hardly move.

She secretly glanced at the defenses at the city gate.

The attention of the government troops and martial arts practitioners was completely drawn to Yang Guo and Wu Dunru, and no one paid any attention to her.

If we take advantage of this chaos to run into the city and find my senior sister's Beggars' Sect branch...

The moment the thought arose, the mark of the Qiankun Technique in the dantian suddenly jumped, causing three acupoints on the Ren meridian to ache simultaneously.

Her knees buckled, and she almost knelt on the ground.

No.

The farther away from Yang Guo, the more painful the mark became.

She tried it on the ship; even though it was only two cabins apart, the turbulence in her meridians made it difficult for her to even walk.

Cheng Ying gritted her teeth and stood up straight.

She turned her gaze away from the city gate and back to Yang Guo.

The man was running around a wheelbarrow, stumbling and yelling.

Anyone who saw it would think that he was being chased to the point of no return by Wu Dunru.

But Cheng Ying knew that every time he "tripped," his fingers precisely touched Wu Dunru's acupoints.

Jingqu, Tanzhong, Jiexi, Zhangmen.

Four meridians, four key nodes.

Although Cheng Ying did not know the One-Finger Divine Skill, her master Huang Yaoshi had explained the correspondence between acupoints and meridians in the human body when he was passing on his skills on Peach Blossom Island.

The method Yang Guo took was entirely aimed at crippling the circulation of Qi and blood in the right half of Wu Dunru's body.

But Wu Dunru was completely unaware.

He was still there, gritting his teeth and enduring the pain, forcing a smile because everyone around him was praising him.

This is the truly terrifying place.

Yang Guo not only beat people, but also packaged the act of being beaten as an achievement of the other party.

Wu Dunru was forced to swallow his bitterness, without even a chance to cry out in pain.

Cheng Ying silently memorized this technique.

It's not for learning, it's for prevention.

She studied Qimen Dunjia and mechanical arts with her master on Peach Blossom Island for ten years, and she understands the word "strategy" best.

The scheme Yang Guo set up was different from what she had learned.

The master's strategy used terrain, formations, and mechanisms, while Yang Guo's strategy used people's hearts.

He turned Wu Dunru's vanity into a rope and the cheers of the onlookers into chains.

The person who was tied up even smiled and thanked them.

This is exactly the same method he used on the ship to deal with her.

Yang Guo saw that the time was right and there was no point in continuing.

He stopped and stood up from the ground.

He dusted himself off and pushed his straw hat up to reveal a face with a slightly roguish air.

"Alright, alright, that's enough playing." Yang Guo waved his hand.

Wu Dunru was about to bite the bullet and go forward again when he heard this and froze on the spot.

He looked at the person in front of him, and the more he looked, the more familiar he seemed.

In his early twenties, he still retained some of the features of his younger self.

But his demeanor was completely different from that of the boy who was beaten up on Peach Blossom Island back then.

Yang Guo took off his bamboo hat and tucked it under his arm, then grinned at Wu Dunru.

"What's wrong, Brother Wu? You don't recognize me after all these years?"

"Yang Guo from Peach Blossom Island, the one you've been beating up for years."

Wu Dunru stared wide-eyed, took a step forward, examined it carefully, and then exclaimed in surprise.

"You are Yang Guo!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Xiuwen no longer cared about fighting with Lu Wushuang.

He pulled Yang Guo over with one hand on his waist and stared at him for a long time.

"Yang Guo? It really is you, you little bastard..."

He swallowed the last word back.

Because Lu Wushuang's knife tip was already pointing right below his nose.

Upon realizing that the two sides knew each other, the surrounding government troops and martial arts practitioners all put down their weapons and stepped aside.

Wu Dunru sheathed his sword, his left foot still throbbing, so he had to put all his weight on his right leg.

He looked Yang Guo up and down.

The gray cloth shirt was faded from washing, and he wore a pair of worn-out cloth shoes with frayed cuffs.

It had rolled around on the ground a few times, and was covered in dust; it didn't have a single valuable item on it.

They didn't look much more presentable than the migrants queuing to enter the city.

Wu Dunru's sense of superiority immediately surged.

Back on Peach Blossom Island, Yang Guo was a wild child with no one to care for him, and he was beaten by them every day.

Now it seems that after leaving Peach Blossom Island, this kid is worse off than a beggar.

"Who do we have here? It's Brother Yang Guo."

Wu Dunru puffed out his chest, put his hands on his hips, and raised his chin high, adopting the demeanor of a disciple from a major sect.

"It's been years since I last saw you. How did you end up like this? You can't even afford a decent set of clothes."

"Xiangyang City is not a place where you can run wild."

Wu Xiuwen also chimed in from the side.

He straightened his torn clothes, his other hand secretly pressing on the belt buckle, his tone full of sarcasm.

"That's right, Yang Guo, why aren't you staying in the Quanzhen Sect and being a proper little Taoist priest? What are you doing in Xiangyang?"

"Judging from your attire, you must have gotten into trouble outside and can't make it here, so you've come to my master asking for shelter, right?"

As he said this, his gaze kept drifting towards Lu Wushuang and Cheng Ying.

Cheng Ying noticed Wu Xiuwen's gaze.

She had seen too many of those looks directed at women these past few days, and Yang Guo's gaze towards her carried a similar meaning.

However, there is a fundamental difference between the two.

Yang Guo's gaze was like a hunter eyeing his prey that had already fallen into a trap—calm and precise.

Wu Xiuwen's gaze was that of a greedy child looking at candied hawthorns across the stall, straightforward and frivolous.

"Brother, look at him with two women by his side. They're dressed decently. He's probably being supported by women."

Wu Xiuwen lowered his voice, but deliberately not low enough so that Yang Guo could hear him.

"The Quanzhen Sect was dirt poor; it's not impossible that he couldn't stay there and ran away to freeload."

Cheng Ying lowered her eyes.

A very contradictory thought suddenly arose in her mind.

She hated Yang Guo for treating her like a plaything.

But she looked down even more on Wu Xiuwen, a fool who had nothing but thought himself superior.

Lu Wushuang's temper had long since reached its limit.

Yang Guo held her around the waist, her body went slightly weak, but the anger in her heart did not subside at all.

She couldn't stand it when others looked down on Yang Guo.

Since following Yang Guo, she has personally witnessed him fight three consecutive battles at the Tongtian Arena, seen him use his One-Finger Divine Skill to pierce through granite from a distance, and seen Wang Jian, the garrison commander of Tongguan, lead a hundred elite cavalry to chase after him and bow down to apologize.

These two good-for-nothings, who can't even beat her, what gives them the right to spout nonsense here?

"You two blind bastards!"

Lu Wushuang's eyebrows shot up as she pointed at Wu Dunru's nose and cursed.

"What nonsense are you asking? Standing before you is the third-generation leader of the Quanzhen Sect!"

"Who do you think you are, daring to talk to him like that! Do you even deserve it?"

There was a moment of silence at the city gate after these words were spoken.

Then, Wu Dunru and Wu Xiuwen burst into laughter at the same time.

The surrounding martial arts practitioners also started laughing, some even slapping their weapons and laughing so hard they almost fell over.

"The leader of the Quanzhen Sect? Him?"

Wu Xiuwen laughed so hard he bent over, one hand on his belt and the other pointing at Yang Guo's tattered cloth shoes.

"Yang Guo, have you lost your mind?"

"The Quanzhen Sect is the orthodox sect of Taoism in the world, with tens of thousands of disciples. You, a good-for-nothing who doesn't even know the Quanzhen Sword Technique, dare to impersonate the leader of the Quanzhen Sect?"

"If you were the leader of the Quanzhen Sect, I'd be the Jade Emperor!"

After Wu Dunru finished laughing, he put on the airs of an older brother.

"Yang Guo, Yang Guo, we were at least fellow disciples on Peach Blossom Island."

"After you left Peach Blossom Island, it was one thing that you didn't learn to be good, but now you're actually learning to cheat and swindle."

Yang Guo did not respond.

He lowered his head, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

We were fellow disciples on Peach Blossom Island.

That's easy for you to say.

Who kicked his ribs on Peach Blossom Island back then?

Who hit him on the back of the head with a rock?

Who pushed him off the tree and broke his wrist?

The pain in the original owner's memory has long since turned into yellowed old accounts.

After Yang Guo transmigrated, he flipped through these account books. He didn't intend to settle accounts now, but he also didn't intend to forget them.

"Hey Yang Guo, you're not getting any younger."

Wu Xiuwen put on a serious expression and reached out to pat Yang Guo on the shoulder.

That posture was like an older brother lecturing his younger brother.

"It's one thing to fool the country folk, but don't do anything reckless when you get to Xiangyang."

"This is Master Guo's territory. If he finds out that you're using the Quanzhen Sect's name to swindle and deceive people, you'll be in deep trouble."

Cheng Ying stood three steps away, watching Wu Xiuwen put his hand on Yang Guo's shoulder.

Her heart suddenly skipped three beats.

It wasn't nervousness, it was a premonition.

Having spent these past few days with Yang Guo, she has already figured out some patterns in his behavior.

No matter how carefree and playful this man may seem, he always has an unseen bottom line.

His reaction changes completely when someone else touches that line.

At the inn, Leng Feng only glanced at Lu Wushuang once, but Yang Guo showed no mercy when he attacked.

At the ferry crossing, Scarface Liu held a knife to Cheng Ying's neck, but Yang Guo pierced his forehead with a single finger.

Wu Xiuwen placed his hand on Yang Guo's shoulder.

I even pinched it with my fingers.

That was their usual opening move before beating up Yang Guo on Peach Blossom Island.

First, pat someone on the shoulder to show "closeness," then pinch them to show "you're my little brother," and then a fist comes flying.

Wu Xiuwen has been practicing this process for several years, and he still has the feel for it.

He wasn't even aware of what he had done; his muscle memory made the choice for him.

But the person standing in front of him was no longer the boy who used to swallow his anger and endure hardship.

As soon as Wu Xiuwen's hand touched it, it was slapped away from the side by another hand.