who has become a highway robber to obtain money for his journey home. The two team up to defeat and kill a monk and a priest who enslave the monks of a monastery and keep a woman as sex slave. Meeting Lin Chong At the Great Minister's Temple in Dongjing, Lu Zhishen is assigned to tend to a vegetable plot. There he subdues a group of vegetable stealers. The group is so awed by his physical might and fighting skill that they willingly serve him. They adore him even more when he pulls up a deep-rooted willow tree with sheer brute strength. One day Lin Chong, instructor of the imperial guard, comes across Lu working out with his hefty staff and is amazed by his martial skill. They become sworn brothers. When Lin Chong is exiled to Cangzhou after being framed by Grand Marshal Gao Qiu, whose god son covets the instructor's wife, Lu secretly tails him and his two escorts. He rescues Lin when the two constables, bribed by Gao, are about to murder him in Wild Boar Forest. He is prevented from killing the two men by Lin, who says they are but small fries carrying out an order. Lu accompanies Lin all the way to Cangzhou. Before leaving Lin, he smashes down a tree with a single strike to warn the escorts not to do anything mischievous. He then returns to Dongjing. Becoming an outlaw Lu Zhishen has to flee Dongjing when found out to be the monk who ruined Gao Qiu's plan to kill Lin Chong. He comes by an inn at Cross Slope, where he is drugged and nearly butchered by the inn owner Sun Erniang, who makes buns with human flesh. He is saved in time by Sun's husband Zhang Qing. Zhang suggests he join the outlaw Deng Long on Mount Twin Dragons in Qingzhou. But Deng considers him a threat and barricades the only way up the hill. Lu runs into Yang Zhi, who has also come to join Mount Twin Dragons. Yang takes Lu to Cao Zheng, a butcher who has learnt martial arts from Lin Chong. Cao and Yang pretend that Lu has been drugged and take him up Mount Twin Dragons to be presented to Deng Long. Not suspecting anything, Deng lets them in. Lu hacks Deng to death upon seeing him and is elected the chief of the stronghold.