After killing his adulteress wife at Mount Cuiping, Yang Xiong decides to join the outlaws at Liangshan Marsh with his sworn brother Shi Xiu. The burglar and tomb raider Shi Qian, who happened upon the killing, asks to go with them. On the way, the three eat in an inn belonging to the Zhu Family Manor. They get into a fray with the innkeeper after Shi Qian, finding the inn's food not appetising, stole its only rooster and cooked it for meal. As they run away pursued by men fetched by the innkeeper, Shi Qian is captured in a trap. Yang and Shi stumble into the neighbouring Li Family Manor, where they run into Du Xing when he is at an inn buying wine. As Yang Xiong is his benefactor, Du Xing, now the butler of Li Ying, the head of Li Family Manor, asks his master to appeal to the Zhus to release Shi Qian.