The old woman scolded, “You lousy animals, you even fear a small cat eating you up?” The group charged forwards and entered the woods. They moved round ten feet when suddenly a person in front fiercely shouted, “Who are these brave people who dare to enter the Beastly Mountain Village at night without permission?”

The Xishan Ghosts stopped their horses, seeing only a person standing on the path, a brave tiger squatting next to him. The horses heard the tiger growling and were alarmed. The long-sleeved old man put his hands together to greet that person, immediately saying, “The Xishan Ghosts entered this place without informing you, pardon our rudeness.”

That person said, “Oh, the Xishan Ghosts? You must be the Long Sleeve Ghost?”

The old man said, “Precisely. We have an important matter at hand and we are rushing to the Horses’ Plains, when we return we will apologize for this.” He knew this character was not very affable but at this moment they needed all their strength to deal with the Eagle Hero, so he hoped not to complicate matters and spoke very politely.

That person said, “Gentlemen, please wait.” He raised his voice and called, “Eldest brother, it’s the Xishan Ghosts going to the Horses’ Plains; they said they will apologize when they return.” The ghosts heard this and were disgruntled, thinking, “We said we would return and apologize, but those are only polite words. Would the Xishan Ghosts really bow down to this person?” The Xishan Ghosts all had outstanding skills, before they became sworn brothers they had already gotten through many troubles, creating much havoc in Shanxi in recent years. The people of Wulin (martial arts world) all dreaded them. Now the ten people are assembled together and if they had no prior appointment with the Eagle Hero on that night, they would beat this person good and proper just based on his words alone.

They heard a screeching voice deep in the forest saying, “Apologizes are not needed, let them go around the forest.”

When they heard this they got angry immediately. The skinny person with the bamboo staff sneered, “The Xishan Ghosts never take detours!” He raised the horse’s reins and charged straight towards the person standing on the path.

That person raised his left hand and two tigers near him threw themselves forward immediately, causing the skinny man’s horse to be frightened and rear up. The skinny man’s riding skills were really good; he bent down on the saddle, both hands holding a short spear, fiercely thrusting at the two tigers. The tiger on his left leapt aside while the tiger on the right scratched the horse’s belly with its claws; but that tiger gave a roar because it was injured by the spear. The skinny man jumped onto the ground, shouting, “Watch my weapons!” He thrust the spears forth, one high one low, displaying the “Double Dragon Fu Yuan Skill”, but he did not advance forward.

The person coldly said, “You injured my family’s watch-cat, now whether you take the detour or not is not up to you. Wu Changgui (Uncommon Ghost), leave your spears behind!”

When Wu Changgui found that the person knew his nickname, he said, “Who are you, sir? The Beastly Mountain Village was supposed to be in Western Liang, why has it moved to Southern Jin? If you want me to leave my spears, that’s very easy to do.”

The person said, “If our Beastly Mountain Village wants to move, must we report to the Xishan Ghosts? We were tired of living in Western Liang so we moved to Southern Jin to play. My eldest brother, by telling you to take a detour, was being extremely polite. My third brother is sick and doesn’t like outsiders harassing us, do you understand?” When he said this, he suddenly stretched his left hand out and grabbed Wu Changgui’s right spear near the edge.

Wu Changgui never expected him to move so fast, so he thrust his left spear forward and increased his right hand’s strength.

The person extended his right hand and grabbed Wu Changgui’s left spear as well. The two people had great strength, and no one let go of the weapons. A “pa” sound was made and the two spears snapped.

The Xishan Ghosts shrugged and the long-sleeved old man said, “Sir are you the Eight-Handed Monkey Immortal Shi? Is the Golden Claw Lion King ill? At this moment we have a matter at hand, tomorrow at this time, we shall meet here again.”

The masters of the Beastly Mountain Village are five brothers, the eldest being White Forehead Mountain Lord Shi Bowei, the second Caring Eyesight Sage Shi Zhongmeng, the third Golden Claw Lion King Shi Shugang, the fourth Immortal Of Giant Strength Shi Jiqiang, the youngest Eight-Handed Monkey Immortal Shi Mengjie was the one present here. The five brothers inherited the animals from their ancestors. These five people all live unusually and they not only have superb taming skills, they also learned martial arts from the animals’ movements. The brothers had these beasts as companions since childhood, taking the beasts as their masters and learning martial skills. Shi Shugang entered the mountains when he was twenty years old and met an outstanding person, learning advanced internal strength techniques from him. He then went home and taught his brothers. The five people raised many wild animals and improved their wugong tremendously. The Beastly Mountain Village’s reputation gradually became known in Jianghu and the Wulin people called them “Tiger, Leopard, Lion, Elephant and Monkey”. When the Long Sleeve Ghost heard Shi Shugang was sick, he was relieved; he thought no matter how good the Shi brothers were, the Xishan Ghosts would not be afraid. Now that the central pillar of the “Tiger, Leopard, Lion, Elephant and Monkey” Lion King was sick, it would definitely not be a problem to handle them, so he proposed a duel the next evening.

Eight-Handed Monkey Immortal Shi Mengjie said, “Tomorrow night we shall wait outside the forest for you at 11 p.m.” Saying that he put his hands together to salute and shot the broken spear heads into a tree next to the Long Sleeve Ghost.

The Long Sleeve Ghost was startled, thinking, “Why does he not allow us to cut through the forest? What do the Shi brothers have in this forest?” He also put his hands together and saluted, “The Xishan Ghosts bid farewell!” He nudged the horse with his legs and moved forwards. Shi Mengjie said loudly, “Hold! My eldest brother told you to take a detour, didn’t you hear?”

The Long Sleeve Ghost pulled the reins and was about to reply when he heard people in the northeast and northwest of the woods laughing loudly at the same time, then a thick cloud of smoke appeared. A person called out, “What the heck are you doing in the woods? You can’t hide it from our group of ghosts.” Another person said, “You are just meeting your ancestors.” (Making puns with the Chinese words.) Actually the eighth and tenth ghost had sneaked behind Shi Mengjie and set a fire while he was talking to the Long Sleeve Ghost.

The flame leapt upwards, and then he heard the two ghosts’ voices call out in alarm as they wildly dashed back to the group, breathless, their facial expressions bearing great fear. The Long Sleeve Ghost shouted, “What?” One of them said, “Tigers, tigers! 100, 200 of them…”

When Shi Mengjie saw the fire in the forest he got really angry, shouting, “Eldest brother, second brother, this is important, let them go; we can easily find them later.”

Suddenly everyone saw a blurred figure; a dog-like creature squirmed through the woods and dashed away in the blink of an eye. It was pretty small, had four long legs, a snow white coat, had a black tail, looked like a dog yet looked like a cat. Shi Mengjie called loudly: “The “Nine-Tailed Fox has emerged!” and started pursuing it, his face looking anxious and panic-stricken.

A fierce voice was heard from the back of the woods, sounding like a lion’s or a tiger’s roar, yet sounding like someone shouting loudly. When Guo Xiang heard this shout a chill went down her spine. When this sound died down, a hundred beasts roared from all directions, including lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, elephants, monkeys and orangutans… For a while it was not very clear, and then with a thundering rumble the wild animals rushed out from the forest. Then someone said, “Eldest brother head towards the northeast, second brother go towards the northwest, fourth brother hurry to the southwest… “This voice and the howl were similar.