Chapter 25: The most classical way of fighting (1/2)

Chapter 25: The most classical way of fighting

“Sure enough, this is the way of fighting. Not hitting is the incorrect way, and hitting is the correct way.” Wang Chao’s Returning Body Palm had been executed perfectly, so he felt content.

When he had been shaking Li Wanji’s hand, he was fast enough to listen to the Jin after coming into contact with her hand. This had allowed him to know that a kick was on the way. But when he fought against Li Feng, he had been able to cross arms with him and so he had used his pores to listen to the Jin in his opponent’s body and the center of gravity being changed. Then, with this information, he had easily reversed the situation back onto Li Feng.

“This feeling is great, could this be what the Jin of Taichi feels like?” Wang Chao thought back to what Tang Zichen had spoken to him, “Taichi has no style. Those stances of “Fair Lady Works the Shuttles” are merely things that Yang Luchan had used to sway the officials. Taichi has only one move, and that is to listen to the Jin of others as well as their potential movements.”

“Although there is only this one move, one can freely manipulate and break the person’s center of gravity in thousands of different ways.” Wang Chao thought back to these words, finding them to be faultless.

Truth be told, when Li Feng had gotten up close to him and grapple onto him, Wang Chao had nearly fell to the ground. If it weren’t for his last moment “Snake Coiling around the Tree” motion and relied on his opponent’s body for the center of gravity, then he would have fallen to the ground and potentially lost.

But the main reason that Wang Chao hadn’t fallen was due to the exquisite leg strength he had. After Bagua and Xingyi, his leg strength was superb and thus led to him rotating his body when he fell thanks to the additional practice he had with the water vats.

Xingyi had focused on the leg strength on the moment between life and death. That was because when the human body rotates, there would be two different movements of the leg. One leg would detach from the ground while the other would borrow strength from the ground with the natural rotation from the spin while keeping a dangerous amount of power.

But for Taekwondo where the leg would superfluously flounder about, Wang Chao had disapproved of that.

Yet after some thought, he realized this was for show and not for fighting, thus the power to kill was not there.

“This Jin of Taichi is quite practical. With all the pores being so sensitive, my entire body becomes my eyes and ears.” Wang Chao thought back to when he and Li Feng had crossed hands. This experience had caused him to have another deeper insight to all three styles of Chinese boxing.

“This variation of the Returning Body that was able to be combined with the wrestling techniques. Ah, that’s right, Cheng Tinghua was first a wrestler before learning Bagua Zhang with Dong Haichuan. In the end, he made his own school which combined the palm techniques along with the wrestling techniques. It looks like if one wants to fight with a single style, they must be familiar with the surrounding styles as well in order to be great. If one doesn’t, then he will lose constantly. It seems that in the future, I must learn from everyone else while I fight.”

As Wang Chao thought about this, a fierce desire to fight had suddenly burned brightly within him.

“Who’s next?” Wang Chao looked towards the other black belt instructors.

Li Feng had already been carried away from the ring by another black belt instructor prior to this.

“Just you wait, I’ll find and beat you in the future!” As Li Feng was about to exit the ring, he stopped his tears for a moment to utter those words and give Wang Chao a poisonous glare that promised revenge.

“Crap, this guy is a petty and arrogant person. He must have never lost before, but when I made him cry today, his reputation must have taken a hit. I can bet that he’ll make trouble for me later. If I had known earlier, I would have nipped this problem in the bud. A snake doesn’t stop trying to kill a man after biting it.”

Wang Chao turned to look at Li Feng with a thought of regret about not being able to finish him off to beat away any arrogant thoughts from him.

Wang Chao wasn’t some sort of softie. It was only because he had lacked the strength before. Now that he had learned martial arts and matured a bit, he could understand the ways of the world with even more clarity.

“Sixth degree black belt, Liu Wenjun. Please advise me well!”

Next, a calm looking middle aged man walked forward. No matter if it was his stance, air, or even demeanor, he looked stronger than Li Feng many times over.

Li Feng had been 21 years old when he became a fourth degree black belt, but this man was 30 years old by the time he made the sixth degree. While there was a considerable amount of an age gap between these two, the difference between the levels of temperance and skill was as wide as the heavens and earth still.

“This Liu Wenjun is most likely the strongest of the black belts here. Okay then, let me test my strength!” Wang Chao felt the desire for battle enter his heart as he prepared to test himself against an even stronger opponent.