Wang Chong looked slightly taken aback, then smiled. "This needn't count as a reward. I'll teach you a martial art right now."
Huang Xiao gritted his teeth and said in what he considered his boldest tone, "I don't want to learn ordinary martial arts. I want to learn a first-rate art."
Wang Chong was even beginning to admire the young man. He smiled and said, "What do you think of the Western Regions Qingshan Sect's Vajra Prajna Palm? If that still isn't good enough, I also have the Withered Meditation Method of the western Borobudur Great Buddha Temple."
Huang Xiao's eyes brimmed with eagerness. "Might this humble servant choose both?"
Wang Chong nodded slightly. "Certainly."
He said to Sun Mingke, "Come listen too, little brother Sun. Though you come from the Taiyi Sect and have no shortage of divine arts and wondrous skills, just consider it entertainment."
Sun Mingke answered, "All right. I'll keep you company this once, Brother Wang Chong."
Wang Chong found a quiet room at random and explained the two martial arts. Huang Xiao was overjoyed to hear the secrets of the Vajra Prajna Palm, but when he heard the Withered Meditation Method, his face went blank. Halfway through, he said, "I have no affinity with this divine Buddhist art. Your Highness needn't explain any further."
Wang Chong smiled. "Western Buddhism doesn't forbid others from practicing its methods, but the Green Mountain Sect treasures its own supreme art like a worn broom it cannot bear to part with. I killed someone and seized this manual; it didn't come through proper channels. Once you learn this palm art, you must be very careful around Green Mountain Sect disciples."
Huang Xiao knelt and kowtowed to Wang Chong eight times. "This humble servant will defend White Ox Pass for the