Now, Yu Hua went back to his camp in victory. The next day he came again to the Zhou camp to challenge them to battle. A scout brought the report to the command tent. Ziya asked, “Who will ride out?” Leizhenzi answered, “I will go.” He took up his staff and went out of camp, and saw that Yu Hua had a yellow face and a red beard and looked very fierce. He asked, “Are you Yu Hua?” Yu Hua cursed him loudly: “Traitor and rebel against the state! Don’t you know me?” Leizhenzi flew into a rage, beat his two wings, soared into the air and brought his golden staff down at Yu Hua’s head. Yu Hua met it face-on with the halberd in his hand. One plied his weapon in the air; the other showed his might on his beast. Leizhenzi’s golden staff swept down like Mount Tai. Yu Hua had a hard time parrying upward, and after only a few bouts he hurriedly raised the Blood-Melting Blade and gave Leizhenzi a cut on his wings of wind and thunder. Fortunately those wings had grown from two immortal apricots, so though the blade struck home, it did not cost him his life. He fell into the dust and fled back to the field camp, and came before Ziya. Ziya, seeing that Leizhenzi had been wounded too, was very unhappy. The next day a mounted messenger brought the report into the command tent: “Yu Hua is challenging us to battle.” Ziya said, “Two men wounded one after the other, and they lie there like idiots, without a sound, only shivering. Hang out the ‘No Battle1’ placard for now.” The adjutant hung up the “No Battle” placard. When Yu Hua saw it hanging at the Zhou camp, he went back to camp to the beat of drums. Then, the next day, the supply officer Yang Jian arrived at the camp gate and saw the words “No Battle” hanging there. Yang Jian said, “Since he was installed as commander on the fifteenth day of the third month, it is getting on for the tenth month, and here we still are, without having taken an inch of Cheng Tang’s land — and now the ‘No Battle’ placard goes up in a hurry …” He was very puzzled at heart. “… I had better see the Marshal first, and then decide.” A scout brought the report into the command tent: “Marshal, the supply officer Yang Jian awaits your orders.” Ziya said, “Bring him in.” Yang Jian came up into the tent and paid his respects. Then he reported, “Your disciple has been pressing the grain and meeting the army’s needs, and has not overrun the time limit. Your orders, sir?” Ziya said, “Of grain we have enough; it is fighting we are short of!” Yang Jian said, “Uncle2, take down the ‘No Battle’ placard. Tomorrow I will go out with the troops and see how matters really stand; I will know what to do.” Ziya was in the command tent discussing this with the others when an attendant reported, “A Daoist boy asks to see you.” Ziya said, “Invite him in.” In a moment the boy came before the tent, threw himself down and said, “Your disciple belongs to the Immortal Taiyi of the Golden Light Cave on Mount Qianyuan. My elder brother Nezha is in trouble, and I am ordered to carry him on my back up the mountain to be nursed.” Ziya at once handed Nezha over to the page boy Jinxia, who carried him off to Mount Qianyuan. But no more of that. Meanwhile, Yang Jian saw that Leizhenzi made no sound and only shivered, and that the blood in the cut was black as ink. He looked a long while. “This is a wound from something poisonous.” Yang Jian said to Ziya, “Take down the ‘No Battle’ placard.” Ziya gave the order: “Take down the ‘No Battle’ placard.” The next day the lookouts of Sishui Pass rode in with the report: “The Zhou camp has taken down its ‘No Battle’ placard.” When Yu Hua heard this, he mounted his golden-pupilled beast, rode out of the pass, came before the camp and challenged them to battle. A lookout brought the report to the command tent: “A general from the pass is calling for battle.” Truly: