Meanwhile, Yang Zhi comes to know Cao Zheng, a martial arts student of Lin Chong. Yang has dined in Cao's inn but leaves without paying as he is penniless. Cao catches up with him and the two fight. Cao, noticing that Yang's combat skill is of the warrior calibre, soon calls off the fight to inquire his identity. Upon learning Yang's misfortune, Cao advises him to go to Mount Twin Dragons (二龍山) to join the outlaw band led by Deng Long. At the foot of the Mount Twin Dragons, Yang runs into Lu Zhishen and the two clash suspecting hostility. As it is a matching fight, they eventually stop and introduce each other. Lu, who has also come to join Deng, is barred from going up the hill via its one access road by the chief, who finds the monk a threat. At Cao's inn, the inn owner suggests that he and Yang pretend to have drugged Lu and present him tied-up to Deng. Fooled, Deng lifts the barricade to let them in. They kill Deng and seize the stronghold. Yang Zhi becomes the second-in-command at Mount Twin Dragons under Lu Zhishen.