The old man spoke with a slight out-of-town accent, and since his words came so suddenly and quickly, Zhou Chun was momentarily caught off guard. After he left, the shopkeeper, fearing Zhou Chun might actually burn down the place, kept trying to calm him with kind words. By the time Zhou Chun came to his senses, the old man had already gone. Since Zhou Chun hadn't denied being the old man's apprentice earlier and, despite the joke about burning down the house, he felt embarrassed not to pay for the food and drink the old man had consumed. Fortunately, Zhou Chun was well-mannered, so he left behind a silver ingot weighing over two taels and parted the crowd, chasing after the old man in the direction he had left. After running through two alleys without catching up, he wandered aimlessly through the streets, making a few circles before arriving at the entrance to Wangjiang Tower. Feeling a bit hungry, he decided to go in for a bite to eat. He was already familiar with the place, and as soon as he went upstairs, the waiter, Liu Da, greeted him, saying, "Ah, Mr. Zhou, you're here! Please, sit here." Zhou Chun, led to the table by Liu Da, looked around and saw a full table of dishes and two sets of cups and chopsticks. Half of the dishes had already been eaten, leaving a mess on the plates, while the other half remained untouched. Thinking Liu Da had made a mistake, Zhou Chun asked, "Someone hasn't finished eating here yet, could you find me another table?" Liu Da replied, "No, this was left for you." Surprised, Zhou Chun quickly asked, "Who left it for me?" Liu Da responded, "Your teacher." Zhou Chun, recalling the earlier events, felt his anger rising and said, "Who is my teacher?" Liu Da said, "Your teacher, that poor old man. Please don't get upset, otherwise, we wouldn't have dared to handle things this way."
Liu Da continued, "Earlier, I overheard people saying that an old man in the backstreet tried to extort a meal from a small restaurant. By chance, we had already opened for business here, so I snuck out to watch the commotion and saw you settling the bill for your teacher. After watching for a while and returning here, your teacher had already ordered a lot of food and drink. He said his breakfast hadn't been satisfying, so he was waiting for you to join him. He ate half of the dishes very quickly, with a big appetite, and left the other half for you, saying, 'I can't let my beloved apprentice eat leftovers.' He also said that he ordered the dishes you usually like, which made me even more convinced that he was your longtime teacher. After finishing his meal, you still hadn't arrived. He said he had other matters to attend to and couldn't wait for you, so he left, telling us to inform you to find him at Ciyun Temple, not to leave until you meet him. Because I personally saw you treat him with such respect earlier, I let him leave. This all sounds right, doesn't it?" Zhou Chun listened, feeling both furious and amused, unable to explain himself. With no other choice, he asked Liu Da to heat up the dishes. He casually ate a little, had two cups of wine, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. "I've roamed the world for decades, and today, out of nowhere, I've been conned into paying for someone else's food and drink, and they even claim to be my teacher!"
At this moment, there was a sudden rumbling on the stairs, shaking the floorboards as a burly man with a purple face, yellow beard, a leopard's head, and tiger-like eyes, dressed in blue clothes, stormed upstairs. The waiter was just about to offer him a seat when the man spotted Zhou Chun and marched straight over, shouting, "Are you the Crane Zhou Lao San?" Seeing the man approaching aggressively and unsure of his intentions, Zhou Chun was startled. He placed his wine cup down, barely rising from his seat when he flew towards the window and said, "Yes, I am Zhou. But we've never met—why are you looking for me?" The man laughed heartily upon hearing this, "No wonder the old man said you could fly, and indeed you can. I'm not here to fight you. Come down quickly, I have something to say." Zhou Chun, now observing the man closely, noticed that despite his rough appearance, he carried an air of integrity. Realizing he meant no harm, Zhou Chun flew back down and returned to his seat. The man then asked if Zhou Chun had finished his meal. Zhou Chun, suspecting the man wanted to drink, replied, "I'm already full, but if you'd like, I can ask the waiter to bring more." Just as he was about to inquire about the man's name, the man suddenly stood up, took a silver ingot from his waist, tossed it on the table, and settled the bill. Before Zhou Chun could politely decline, the man slowly approached him, and in a swift move, while Zhou Chun was off-guard, he grabbed Zhou's hand, hoisted him onto his back, and dashed downstairs with astonishing speed. Despite Zhou Chun being a skilled martial artist, he couldn't manage to free himself as the man had immobilized his wrists, making him completely helpless. Zhou had no choice but to let the man carry him away.
The patrons upstairs, having earlier been astonished when the burly man arrived and Zhou Chun flew to the window, were now even more bewildered as they saw him being carried off. They began to speculate wildly, guessing that Zhou Chun was a notorious thief and the burly man was an official capturing him to claim a reward. Amidst this commotion, not far from Zhou Chun's seat, a scholarly gentleman snickered, quickly settled his bill, and hurriedly left the restaurant.
Meanwhile, Zhou Chun, being carried on the man's back, was both angry and ashamed. Having roamed the world for decades, he had never suffered such a loss. Now, without reason, he had been so easily captured by an unknown man and paraded through the streets. His heart was filled with sorrow. Helplessly immobilized by the man's pressure points, all Zhou Chun could do was watch where he was being taken, knowing that as soon as he regained his freedom, he would fight the man. As Zhou Chun was lost in thought, the burly man ran swiftly out of the city. Zhou saw that they were headed toward the road leading to Ciyun Temple and thought, "This isn't good." By the time they reached the woods in front of the temple, the man finally set him down, laughing without saying a word. Furious, Zhou Chun wanted to question him, but after having his pressure points held for so long, his body was numb. He took a few steps to regain his mobility while keeping an eye on the burly man, who showed no malicious intent. Just as he was about to confront him about the joke, a bright flash caught his eye, and standing before him was a young scholar, about 18 or 19 years old, dressed in white silk. When Zhou Chun glanced back at the burly man, he was frozen in place, sweat pouring down his face, clearly having been paralyzed by the young man's point-striking technique. Zhou Chun was about to ask the young man a question when he heard the scholar say, "You fool! You can't even walk up a staircase properly—you shook the entire place, spilling dirt into my wine cup. And you dare to sneak up on someone and use bone-dislocating techniques to carry them off? How shameless! Now, show me what you can do, or I'll humiliate you further." The burly man, hearing these words, looked at Zhou Chun with pleading eyes, as if asking for help. Seeing the man's sweat pouring down like soybeans, Zhou Chun realized that the young man's technique was unique and that, if left too long, it could cause internal injuries. Despite the burly man's earlier roughness, Zhou Chun suspected there was more to the story. Seeing him in such pain, Zhou Chun couldn't help but feel pity. He said to the young man, "Though this man is crude, we don't yet know whether he's good or bad. There's no need to hold a grudge against him, heroic sir." He tried to reason with the scholar, but the young man stood there silently, not saying a word. Thinking the young man was being arrogant, Zhou Chun felt displeased. Just as he was about to continue persuading him, he noticed that the young man, too, was standing motionless, clearly having been struck by a hidden point. Upon closer inspection, Zhou Chun realized that the young man's eyes were even less mobile than the burly man's, and it became clear that he couldn't save him either.
Zhou Chun, highly skilled in both internal and external martial arts, had been caught off guard earlier by the burly man. Normally, unsealing pressure points was an easy task for him. He approached the burly man and struck his side with force, reviving him. The man, now awake, bowed to Zhou Chun in gratitude. Then, glancing at the young man frozen in place, his anger surged, and he rushed over to deliver a powerful kick. Zhou Chun tried to stop him but was too late. The burly man's external strength was formidable, and this kick carried hundreds of pounds of force. If it landed, it could easily break bones. The young man, immobilized by the pressure points, couldn't dodge at all.